Sunset Shimmer could not remember how long it took her to actually get used to three things when she came to the human world.
One of those things was walking. Sure, walking was fine enough in Equestria, but humans had only two legs to stand on and move. How do they keep their balance, she would curse under her breath as she would trip and wobble. Truly, an embarassing display from her part. Still, she eventually learned to walk as the magicless ones do, but stopping curling her hands in the shape of hooves took a little bit longer than that. Old habits die hard, after all.
Second thing to get used to was the use of technology to perform absolutely anyting. No magic, no telekinesis, no teleporting, no instant growth! Humans had to be so overbearingly patient with anything they had to do because of it, it nearly drove her insane. Still, she eventually grew fond of the marvels of such technologies. She couldn't listen to a backlog of music wherever she went in Equestria, or simply turn on a TV and pig out on foods while watching the programs they had in there. Sure, it wasn't magic, but it was entertaining and a viable means to just turn yourself off of reality and waste time on simple entertainment.
But nothing compared to the third thing: the digits. OH, the DIGITS! Finger, toes! The ring finger, the pinky, the index and thumb! Why did these things have to be so strange and alien-looking, producing nails off of them like rejected talons from a horror story you'd tell to foals around campfire stories at night? They had their uses when it came to precision when precision was necessary, but she could hold things with her hooves just fine! These weird, noodle-like digits the humans fondly referred to as fingers were the bane of her reality when she stepped throug that mirror, and although she had mastered control over these ugly things for the most part, they still gave her trouble. Her little diversion with Flash Sentry gave her enough practice on his electric guitar, which, honestly, did help her gain control of her hands a little more, and thanks to that she could actually even play instruments now, but that was hardly what being called a master at wielding these sausages was. They drive her insane, and she still hated whenever she had to use them at a constant, precise base point. Such as wielding small objects like pencils. Or inserting USB cable X into socket Y.
Or playing at the arcades.
"UUUUHHMMMMMM."
"S-Sunset, I think you should stop...?"
"NO. I won't surrender to this... T-This DEVIL MACHINE! Cheating hunk of junk designed in Tartarus! You think you can mock me!? You think I'll give in to your taunts!? I'll show you!"
She felt her temples burn with fury as she shoved her hand inside her pocket and drew another quarter. She was ready for this. She was prepared. She knew of this day and of the implications it had. Today she would win. This was her moment. These were her quarters. She had a couple dozen more, most vile of creations! She would not stop until she had finally conquered your evil!
Her eyes were focused. Her left hand was curled into a fist in reflex, but she paid it no mind. As the devil machine rang its accursed jingle in her ears, she started her move. As her concentration reached once again, unpararelled levels of zen, her mind could only process equations and mathematical possibilities of which would make most sages blush. The back of her neck was sweating, her chest was moving along the rythmic drawing of breath she provided. The stick moved with the precise movements of her hand, and she found her mark once again. With unprecedented, minute calculations, she waited for the hook to stop swinging. It was on the perfect angle, the pixel-perfect accuracy for it to finally do what it was supposed to do all along. She was ready.
Sunset punched the button, and the world seemed to have stopped. The claw made its way down, mocking in its intent and design. But its mocking nature would end that day. Its evil was to be vanquished, and Sunset Shimmer would have been the one to slay the creature! Her eyes bulged and squinted as the claw finally reached down, snapped itself around the objective...
...And flimsily let it go as it went up, making a disappointing clicking noise as it reached the top of the machine yet again. Sunset's vision was filled with hatred.
"UUUURRRGGGHHH!!! WHO DESIGNED THIS MONEY-SUCKING DISASTER? WHO DID IT!?" She cried as she hit her head against the panel of the claw machine, her fury reaching levels of unhealthy proportions.
"Well, this IS the arcade. It's not made for you to get things that easily," Rainbow Dash chuckled as Sunset Shimmer shivered in frustration, her head hurting from the implausible low chances of which this machine could have failed, and did.
"That Claw! That claw is so unreliably flimsy! Who would design such an atrocious thing? Did you SEE that thing? It didn't even try to grab the toy!"
"Like I said, the arcades."
"Who on this accursed world would take pride in designing this!? It doesn't work! It fails at its most basic of functions - grabbing the toys it snaps around!"
"...But hey, if failing is its design, wouldn't that make this machine a success?" Another third voice belonging to a man interrupted her as Sunset's grunts of frustration finally stopped in its tracks, dying in her throat like a burp that went wrong.
Sunset Shimmer finally found it within herself to take her eyes off her arch-nemesis and gaze to her side, a dumbfounded look of astonishment and boiling fury combining into a single glance sideways, looking at the man who just spoke to her. In a reflexive gasp of non-surprise, she felt her headache actually getting a little bit worse. She considered throwing the machine at him to be a very good idea.
"Unless of course, you expect a machine designed to steal your money to not in fact, do that? Because then that would mean the machine failed, right?"
"Um. Kinda?" Rainbow Dash interjected, giving the man a crooked look, full of strange suspicion. "That makes sense, I guess?"
The man before them bore a very simple look. Some basic, blue jeans and sporting a brown shirt with very little detail on it, this pale-looking individual with shoulder-length maroon hair was smiling from ear to ear as he casually approached the two, clapping his hands together in an appreciative way, clearly entertained by the fact someone replied.
"I know, right? There's your designer's pride, right there! Chalk another one up for the wonders of capitalism! Or is it bureocracy? I can never remember," he shook his head around like he completely gave up on the idea of continuing his sentence. "Anyway, no one's here to listen to me praise the douche that designed this crap. Hey, Shimmer! I had no idea you were into arcades."
I never knew my temples could burn this badly from a headache.
"I didn't know you were into showing up without considering other people, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Sunset interjected, making the man take a step backwards, slightly shocked. "At all."
Rainbow Dash blinked, surprised. She didn't know what to say exactly, but that wouldn't stop her from doing it anyway.
"So... You two know each other?"
"How far can you stretch the definition of the word 'know'? Because that would be stretching it pretty far," Sunset sighed, her guard risen so high up that the slightlest twitch from the man before them would be enough to have her draw what could easily be considered her designated weapon of choice for the night, resting casually inside one of her jacket's inner pockets. "This man is called Pierce Claw."
"This man is called~" he lightly joked as he made a fake pained expression, clearly demonstrating his failed dramatic attempts at being dramatic. "Man, saying like that feels so cold, don't you think, miss...?"
"Rainbow Dash," she introduced herself without really adding much flavor to her introduction, much to Sunset's surprise.
"Right! I should have guessed half of it, but you never know," he chuckled. Clearly, Sunset wished the sun was still out by this point. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Rainbow Dash threw a curious glance to Sunset, who simply shrugged, indifferent. She still offered him her hand, which he promptly shook with no strange movements whatsoever. Sunset didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, but seeing him act this mellow and friendly was still not easy for her to proccess.
"Anyway, I wonder why I'm not surprised to see you here, Pierce," Sunset Shimmer calmly spoke, still trying to get a grasp what this creature wanted. "Are you trying to find new ways to be hip with the kids, as you yourself say?"
"Oh, I'm already the hypest there is, don't you know?" he grinned so wide that almost all of his teeth could be seen. "Actually, I was out here looking for you. I'm glad my hunch was right."
Sunset Shimmer blinked, surprised. Pierce Claw was looking for her? Just as the situation was strange, she wasn't very acquainted with the Werewolf. She had met him a couple times before, but all of those encounters usually ended in about the same minute they started. She crossed her arms, raising one of her eyebrows in a strange sensation of wonder.
"...Oh really? Try explaining, I might listen."
He didn't respond immediately. She wasn't sure if she sounded forceful or not, but Pierce Claw hesitated for a moment, unsure on how to reply to her, properly. Rainbow Dash was simply looking at what seemed like a distance - clearly more entertained than she probably should be.
"I'm getting kind of desperate. I wish it was easy to talk about this, but..." he stopped once again, crossing his arms in a strangely serious manner. "Quay can't help me, and everyone else I know is out of my reach right now. It's not easy for me to ask, but I need your help, Sunny."
Sunset Shimmer felt the back of her hair stand as he namedropped someone she hadn't heard about in at least a couple days. She stealthily glanced to her side towards Rainbow Dash, but she didn't even flinch from the words she herself had heard.
"My... My help? Specifically, mine?" The Equestrian mumbled, having the man before her simply nod. He wasn't dancing around the issue anymore. "W-Why me? I mean..."
"Like I said, I have no one else around The Town to turn to. I tried to appeal to Nimue, but no one let me reach her."
The Convocation of the Lost...! So this is what it's all about!
"Hey, look. I would love to sit down and listen, but I'm hanging out with my friend today? Can't this wait?" Sunset Shimmer motioned towards Rainbow Dash, her eyes unsure on where exactly she should be looking at. Her friend however, simply patted Sunset on her shoulder, a small smile showing on her face that made the Equestrian open her eyes, surprised.
"Don't you think you should at least listen to what he wants to say or something? It doesn't hurt to do that, does it?" Rainbow Dash nodded as she let go of Sunset's shoulder, a friendly smile showing on her face as she faced Pierce Claw. "Besides, he said he was desperate. You don't have anyone else to turn to, right?"
"...I don't. I tried contacting everyone I know, but no one answered me back."
"Well then! I think I'll go backstage for a while," Dash remarked as she patted her friend on the back, walking deeper inside the arcades. "You two talk! Don't hold yourselves back or anything."
Sunset couldn't wholly believe it as Rainbow Dash grinned and walked behind the rows of arcades, leaving them both alone. Pierce Claw chuckled heartily as he pated his own forehead, leaning against the wall with a very tired expression.
"You have good friends, Sunny." The Equestrian threw a sideways, slightly annoyed glance at Pierce as he called that yet again.
"Don't give me nicknames, please," the Unicorn sighed as she scratched her own temple with her index finger, feeling slightly immature in comparison to her friend's disposition. "...And yeah. I get myself thinking my friends are too good for me sometimes."
It didn't even take too long before Sunset resumed speaking with Pierce Claw. Turning herself around to face him directly, she crossed her arms and rose her face to meet his.
"So, you tried talking to everyone? Including Quay?"
"Quay's not even giving me the time of day. I said I tried to appeal to Nimue, too. Those Light guardians didn't let me inside the Terrace, even if I said I had something to file about. I have a problem that need solving, damn it! So much for the Convocation helping those of the community, right?"
Nimue, the leader of the Convocation of the Lost, had told Sunset Shimmer about that before. The reach of the Convocation being shorter than it used to be.
A community of monsters that live in the human world, mostly hiding from sight so that the group is not compromised. Those that can walk around in human form are also part of the community, of course, but apparently, stuff like this could happen, too. Sunset Shimmer sighed loudly, patting her arm as it was still crossed.
"...So you reached me instead?" she inquired with curiosity. "Why me, exactly?"
"Well, you kind of traded words with Nimue before, right? It's nothing official as I heard, but you're part of all of this, aren't you?" he honestly scratched the back of his head, feeling like he wasn't sure on what to say. "A-Anyways, I need help, and you already did work for the Convocation. I just figured... you'd accept my request for help. Or in any case, listen to what I have to say."
She blinked and nodded at him. Much to her surprise, he seemed glad for that.
"What is this about, then?" Hearing Sunset ask him the question made Pierce Claw's face contort in a mix of pain and joy. He slid his hand through his hair for a while, obviously picking the right words to use in the sentences to come. Sunset waited patiently: she knew too well of the feeling of carefully gathering thoughts, and much to her surprise, he didn't take long.
"...This is about a friend of mine. An idiot friend of mine that couldn't help but get himself in a bad situation." He took a deep breath. Clearly, this was going to be quite something. "He was gone for three years. Just disappeared of the face of the world, and then suddenly, he shows up. And not only he shows up, but starts a cult, of all things. I can't believe he's being this stupid."
"A... A Cult?" Sunset asked, her head turning very slightly as she felt her eyebrows furrow. "What's this about?"
"You see, unlike what you may think, I actually do have friends," Pierce chuckled, crossing his arms as he kept leaned against the wall. "And this was one of them. ...Unlike what you may think of him, though, he was human, and one with quite a good head on his shoulders. He had a wife, too. I don't really get in touch with her that often anymore, she thinks I was responsible for him disappearing."
The Equestrian nodded, sinking in the information she received without too much difficulty.
"And why would she think that?"
"I was the last person he was seen with before he disappeared. Of course, the Convocation got right into that case, questioning me like I was some kind of high-class criminal or something. I'm still not even sure how this case got into the hands of the Convocation, but long story short, that's how I got acquainted with Quay's heel weight, and my friend was gone. Vanished off of existence."
"That is, until recently, right?"
"Yeah. He showed up, as the leader of this 'cult', completely out of nowhere. The shocking part of all of this though, is that as for what I've seen, heard and noticed... he's an Alchemist now. A real, genuine one."
An Alchemist? Is this guy for real?
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing, myself. I still don't know what to make of that. He was just a regular joe before, you know? How did he even do that?"
"...And what's his objective, exactly? You did say he started a cult, right?" Sunset elaborated, uncrossing her arms as she did it. "I'm rolling with the punches right now, so humor me a bit. What's with that?"
"Urgh. It's a phony cult dedicated to the worship of the science," Pierce Claw mumbled through serrated teeth. "I don't buy a word of that crap, but I don't have hard evidence to prove it isn't."
"You just called it phony, though. If that's the case, what is your friend's agenda?"
Pierce Claw shrugged uncomfortably. That was very helpful, thank you!
The Unicorn felt her eyebrows twitch again. It was hard to choose what to think about, exactly, but she decided to work from the top.
First of all, an Alchemist. A real one, according to Pierce Claw, that was possibly made to be in a three year time period. Sunset Shimmer never thought this could possibly be a thing, considering that Alchemy is difficult to do, but it certainly wasn't impossible during that time. If that is true, then how did he even do what he did? How did he gain all of these abilities...?
It technically doesn't matter. How he did it isn't as important of a question to ask as where he did it. Alchemy isn't easy to do, meaning the Alchemist needs to learn the art, and where you learn it seals the deal whever you have a successful study pattern or not. If Pierce's friend was a regular, boring human before the three year skip, he must have been taken to an exceptional set of circumstances that allowed him to learn the art very, very quickly. He also would have needed a teacher in order to learn that fast, but let's work with one thing at a time.
Second, a cult devoted to the study of the sciences? Why a cult of all things, and why start it as soon as people realize you exist again? Pierce Claw clerly noticed it straight away and he went to the Convocation for help, but was shot down by them!
An Alchemist with a cult? Devoted to the Sciences? That is probably a cult devoted to the study of alchemy, but Pierce called it a phony cult, which means that whatever is it that they are doing, it's a facade. He doesn't seem to know exactly what its purpose is, but the goal of Alchemy is generally to model and recreate. Of course that is an extremely junky and undetailed view on the practice, but the nutshell is still there on that particular idea. If that's the case, what is this Alchemist trying to do with the cult? He didn't start it out of a whimsical idea he had, he has an agenda and he wants to use the cult to do it.
Whoever is involved with that cult are the Alchemists's hostages...? Would it be safe to assume that?
"...OK, then. Let me ask you this question now, Pierce," Sunset said as she rose her head so they made eye contact. "What do you want me to do? What are you asking my help for?"
"I want to make him stop. He's involving a lot of people with whatever is it that he's doing, and I'm not having any of that. He was a regular, fine guy before! I don't know what the hell even happened, but..."
Stopping your friend from doing something stupid is what a friend would do... is that it?
Sunset sighed. She had already made up her mind, even though she had no real idea on what to do, exactly.
"What's your friend's name?"
"...! S-So, you'll help me, Sunny?" Pierce Claw opened his eyes, surprised. Sunset chuckled a little, resting a hand on her hip as she saw the man's surprised reaction.
"You didn't tell me his name until now because you feared I'd take this matter somewhere else, right? Don't worry, I'll help you out," she confirmed with a nod, making the Werewolf's frown turn upside-down. "As much as I can. Which is, I'm not sure how much."
"Cruise Ward! His name is Cruise Ward, and thank you, thank you for this, Sunny!" he exclaimed with a burst of joy, holding her hands and shaking them with gusto. "I swear I'll make up to you one day, I swear it!"
Oh, boy. What did I get myself into...?
I better go talk to Rainbow Dash, though. Something about my overbearingly random schedule, probably.
Much to her surprise, Rainbow Dash was surprisingly understanding when Sunset approached her about leaving for the evening. Apparently, saying you're going to help a friend in need is a much stronger line than the Equestrian initially thought.
She took a shine to giving long sighs as she scratched her head when dealing with many things about friendship that she wasn't fully familiar with. She figured that starting from somewhere was as good of an idea as any, and persevered through the streets of the city as Pierce Claw was close by at all times, her following him towards their destination.
"He's used some kind of magic I don't understand to keep people away from the place unless he invites them in," he added, his steps finally stopping as they approached an overpass, a bunch of buildings located right past them. Sunset felt like they were crooked somehow - was it just her imagination? "So he can personally select those he wants to involve in his schemes."
"...If that's the case, then how come you can casually walk in there?" she added without taking her eyes off of the buildings across the highway, the overpass looming over it like a particularly dangerous arm of some kind. "You just said he needs to let you in."
"...You're right."
She gave him a sideways look into his eyes. This man was furrowing his brow hard enough, he looked way more focused than he had any right to. It didn't take long before she nodded, an understanding spark hitting her right on the head.
That explains that, all right.
It was an obvious building, when Sunset stopped to actually pay attention to it. It was a large one - about twenty storeys tall. Inconspicuous in its design, looking just like any other building in the city that reached as far up as this one did. The one thing that attracted attention to it was the fact that it did try, in fact, to avert your eyes from it somehow. Looking at it directly was difficult, and when done, it would look warped and twisted like she was looking at it through extremely thick correctional glasses. She tried squinting her eyes to bring it into focus, but nothing happened, so it wasn't her eyesight that was doing this. The building was warded somehow, and its purpose was for people not to be able to successfully pay attention to it even if they tried. The Unicorn knew exactly what was causing this, now that Pierce had explained. If she wasn't told that was the building they were looking for, she would never have found it. Unless she was invited by the Alchemist that owned the place.
"I don't want him spreading stupid ideas and crooked morals like a veritable disease," Pierce Claw added, his mouth contorting into a pained grimace as he turned around to face Sunset. "So I'm having him stop that idiocy. Though I don't understand Alchemy and Magic at all, you know? That's why I need your help, Sunny."
"That's fine," she confirmed with a slight glint of understanding in her eyes. "You're trying to help your friend make the right decision. I respect that."
Sunset pumped her right fist, decisively. She stepped forward, gathering her courage as she started to climb the overpass, a slight feeling of dread crawling up her spine as the buildings across the highway looked more crooked than they did before. Was she seeing things? This was way too much for her to keep believing that at all...
...Sunset stopped walking when she realized no one was behind her. She turned around and saw Pierce Claw on the overpass's first step, furiously shuffling through... an I-Phone?
"What are you doing?"
"Sh! Hold on, just gimme a sec," he spoke through his teeth as Sunset rolled her eyes, approaching him and looking into the screen of the phone. His fingers casually browsed through... a dictionary?
"I'm going to ask you again, what are you doing?" she wondered aloud as he poked the screen one more time, a single word coming up from it, making him pump his fist in irrational triumph.
"YES! Veritable is a real word, and I used it correctly!" he sounded extremely pleased with himself as he blushed furiously with pride, shoving the I-Phone back into his pocket and patting Sunset's shoulder. "Did you see that, Sunny? That was awesome! Take that, nerds!"
"Um, excuse me?" Sunset's eyes could not get any wider as the Werewolf started to climb up the overpass himself, now. "That was-- w-what was that for?"
"...I needed a segway. This will do," he casually bumbled as Sunset jumped the stairs up, following him with a disgruntled look of disbelief. "Sunny, I'll be honest with you. I'm pretty sure things might get hairy in there, if you catch my drift. I don't know what he'll do when someone he didn't invite, as in you, waltz into the building alongside me. So promise me you'll stay close, OK?"
If you were expecting to get into a possible brawl in there, why didn't you-- ...Nevermind. Quay wouldn't hear you.
Sunset felt her lungs fill with air again. Suddenly, the non-presence of the Convocation's Golem Enforcer was a bigger issue than she had hoped.
"And what am I supposed to do, again?"
"I don't know anything about Magic, or Alchemy, or any of that voodoo junk! I-I don't know what to do or expect if I go in alone, so stay close to me, 'kay?"
So I'm to be your eyes and ears in there? ...Fair enough.
Without really trading any extra words, Sunset's feet pulled her towards their objective. She didn't even really need to ask him to know exactly where they were supposed to go. The crooked building before her eyes was trying to push her vision from it with so much verve that it was actually doing the very opposite from its intended purpose. Sunset knew what the building was like - trying to divert her gaze from it was a dead giveaway to its objective.
The trek to reach it however, felt like a whole hour. her feet felt heavy and dragged as she forced her body to obey her commands, Pierce Claw looking ever more distant as he kept going - not really looking like he was under the same stress she was in. She felt her forehead sweat a little as she started stomping the ground with each step, to help her body obey her and do what it was being told. It actually worked.
It took tremendous effort for Sunset to actually bring the building into focus. Despite all her best efforts, everything seemed to blend together in a particularly gross, badly-made painting, making it hard for her to spot even the entrance to the warped structure before her very eyes. Pierce Claw pointed the one they needed to go in, and with a dry gulp and with the moonlight above them shining their way in alongside the street lamps, the glass double-doors slid open with a singular push from his hands, and they were inside the building then.
The Equestrian blinked. Suddenly, everything seemed to fall into place, as if she suddenly stopped wearing those glasses she didn't need. The walls became clear, the ground seemed easier to walk on, and even the air became noticeably tasty to breathe, as in she finally realized how good it actually was to do that. She even looked at her own hands, trying to figure out if everything was fine, and sure enough, everything was back to how it always was.
This building was, for lack of a better name, normal. The lobby looked like there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, there were even people inside! They hardly seemed to take notice to Pierce and Sunset, most of them being adolescents and young adults...
Or so would the untrained, less paranoid eye of a normal person would think.
Pierce Claw was right, this place was a phony cult. This was 100% the lair of a magician preparing him or herself for something, although she couldn't put her mind into what it was. Everything seemed out of order in some way: the position of the vases by the corners of the lobby were in a very specific pattern, there were exactly seven different posters and paintings hanging by the walls and she could swear that the air smelled tasty: the obvious addition of a ventilation of herbs and incenses deliberately spread through the entire building.
She felt the corners of her mouth distort into a sadistic grin. Turns out there may be trouble, after all.
"So, what do you think?" Pierce asked as they both walked deeper into the main lobby, looking in all directions with attentive eyes. "...I think I should try to get Cruise's attention somehow. Any ideas?"
"Don't do anything here," Sunset interrupted, making Pierce shift in place and look at her directly. "This is a blast zone. You were right on the money, Pierce. This man is up to no good."
"W-What?" he somehow seemed surprised and not, at the same time. "How can you tell?"
"I admit I am basing everything through paranoia alone. You told me your friend is an Alchemist, right? If that's the case, this room is shaped exactly like a magic transmutation circle, with the props in here being the key points making it like what it is," she spoke very calmly, trying not to let anyone hear her and not being suspicious at the same time. "Even the height of the objects are accurate. I'd rather not annoy our host while in a place like this."
The Werewolf felt cold sweat slide down his neck as he nodded, understanding. Sunset shoved both her hands inside her jacket's pockets, adopting a more relaxed posture, walking casually inwards.
"W-Where are you going?" Pierce asked while immediately following her. She just looked at him with a smile on her face, as if she expected him to ask.
"We're already in, right? Let's take a look around."
"Isn't it dangerous?" he understandably asked yet again, having Sunset feel like chuckling. "I-I mean..."
"It is, but there's no point in not doing anything. Like I said, we're already in, right? We might as well case the building."
Now it was his time to feel his temple burn a little. Didn't he just say for her not to leave his side at all times!?
Regardless, he jumped next to her, and soon enough, they were already climbing the flight of stairs to the second level. Much to Sunset's surprise, no one ever attempted to stop them. Something started to nag on the back of her mind as to why that was the case, but she ignored the thought. Focus on one thing at a time, Sunset Shimmer. You're in hostile territory, don't let the enemy blindside you.
She felt like she was walking through some very carefully constructed veins of magical power. It was very subtle, but she could feel the ground vibrating under her feet. The scent that lingered in the air and the strange use of lighting all came together in this eerie weight of looming power in every corner of this place, making her clench her fists inside her jacket's pockets. The people that were inside the building were having seminars of logistics, much to her surprise, but nothing out of the actual ordinary. Pierce Claw seemed to be on edge just as much as she was. She nodded gratefully at that: at least he was understanding enough to realize when something was wrong.
As they walked around the third storey of the building, they also took a look around the rooms. Opening doors, looking at notice boards and listening to conversations. Most of the people inside were talking about their everyday lives - what they did that morning, what they ate, what person X did to person's Y's Z. She shook her head dismissively and procceeded to shift paintings in the walls instead, leaving them all at an angle as she walked by. She somehow found this to be very therapeutic to do.
It didn't take too long before they reached another door on the fourth floor, this time. Pierce was unusually twitchy, his obvious worry rubbing off a little on Sunset, and she couldn't really put him at fault for that. They were not being bothered by anyone yet! Nothing was getting in their way! If there was a reason to worry and panic, she never thought that a smooth sailing would be the main cause of it, but she found herself speeding up her steps more and more with each passing minute.
"I don't like this. It's too quiet."
"Tell me about it," Pierce agreed, stopping his stride forward completely as he opened yet another door, this one leading to a cafeteria. "I don't get it? What's going on?"
"I don't know, but this is definitely strange," she pointed, standing a little behind him as she glossed over the people inside, eating and drinking with no anormality whatsoever. "I hate when I can't figure..."
And then it finally hit her. Like a ton of bricks suddenly collapsing on top of her head, she came to the realization of the issue.
It is NIGHT. 22:37, in fact! What are all these people doing, eating and staying in here as if it was around daytime!?
Just as she came to realize this, she felt a bolt of danger coursing through her mind. She turned around just in time, as standing right behind her was a man, wielding a kitchen knife in his right hand and bringing it down, aimed straight at her neck...!
She let go a shriek of surprise and ducked so quickly she felt her hips snap in complaint. The weapon missed her, swinging wildly over her head, making her escort look behind him and immediately take action. Pierce's whole body fulminated with his transformation out of his human form, taking a bestial shape of fur and fangs, roundhousing the attacker with so much power Sunset heard bones snap. The man crashed against the far wall, the knife he held collapsed far deep into the darkness of the hallways, lost.
Sunset hadn't seen Pierce Claw's full transformation yet, and the sight was undeniably a formidable one. Looking just like a humanoid, bipedal dire wolf, his face became longer and with so many fangs they looked more like jagged knives. His arms became longer and more muscular, and so did his legs. He was impossible to recognize from his previous form, and was so beast-like in its poise that the Equestrian fully understood his need to stay in human form to not be hunted by madmen with torches and pitchforks. His eyes flared with a dark red color in this form, and they turned to face Sunset's. She saw bewilderment in his gaze.
"W-What the actual hell was that?" he exclaimed in a voice much deeper than his own, but still recognizeable. "Where did he come from?"
"There's more! We were found out!"
The Werewolf looked inside the cafeteria and realized she was correct. Every single person inside was now wielding some manner of kitchen appliance in his or her hand. Knives, forks, some idiot was even wielding a spoon with both hands. He tried to look them in their eyes, but they were not seen, which sent a spike of horror all over his fur. These people were under a spell of some kind? He couldn't tell, but he knew one thing: he needed to take Sunny out of danger's way.
As she dashed away from his effective range, he quickly found himself jumping away from the wild, uncontrollable swings from the attackers with such speed he was a blur in Sunset's eyes. One by one, the attackers were beat down with the savagely long arms and legs of the Werewolf, his limbs allowing him to safely smack them without the fear of possibly being slashed by an appliance. Who knows? Maybe one of them was made of silver.
Sunset Shimmer did not stand around, lifeless, watching Pierce Claw beat the everliving zombie out of these people. She herself knew she was in danger, regardless of the circumstances of her positioning, so she brought herself to, once again, think. This was her strongest weapon, her ace in her sleeve. She had to put her powerful brain to work, and all senses in her body were reacting accordingly.
This whole place seemed strange to me from the very start! With it being night-time as it is, why was all of this happening the way it actually is? I can only guess it's because of the actions performed within these walls, but I have no proof of this. The incense, lighting and position of every single prop within this building may be directed to circumstancial evidence and nothing more, but I'd rather take my chances. This whole place is a singular, gigantic magical construct, and I have to think about it like what it is!
Magical constructs are mainly consisted of that what was initially used to make the construct be. Golems are as such - usually built from boulder and stone. I am certain that this building isn't made of rocks but of building materials such as clay, sand, wood and metal. That would inherently make it more complex, but the idea generally used to form it is the same. The main difference however, is that this building is never going to walk and speak, and that's because this isn't a magical construct in the sense of it gaining sentience, but it being a solitary, singular proxy of energy. It's the electrical current that makes the lamp produce light! If I somehow manage to cut off this source of energy...!
This is easier said than done but it can be done!
The Werewolf was lightning quick on his feet, and before Sunset's bravado could get her too far from him, he caught up. Her leaving a tight, unmaneuverable space was the smart thing to do, and he immediately took to her side. She felt like his legs were ridiculous compared to hers - the speed of which he could move was insane!
Regardless, they sped up down the hallway, dodging people that were now actively trying to get in their way. It was like everyone that was downstairs suddenly found their way upstairs, and it was driving Sunset crazy. This needed to stop right now, and if she had to play hardball to have it happen, so be it! She took a dive to the ground when a group of people were walking in their direction, blocking the hallway and throwing things at them, and dodged them masterfully. Pierce ran over them like a speeding struck, and she found herself running down a flight of stairs, her hand clutching the object inside her jacket that she was holding onto from the very beginning.
As she ran down the flight of stairs, leaving Pierce a few meters above her fighting those people, she came across even more of them walking like zombies in her direction, so she took drastic measures. Pulling herself up from the guardrail of the stais, she jumped down a whole set of them, landing even further down and grimacing at the pain that surfaced her from the power of gravity. She pulled herself up, there was no time to sit down and complain about pain! She ran further down the closest hallway, her eyes looking in every possible direction, desperate, looking for some manner of Air Vent! There it was!
She found one just as Pierce Claw barreled through even more people, dashing towards her with a dumbfounded look of perplexity in his eyes. She could tell he wanted to yell and complain, but she didn't have time for this. She instead pulled the object from her hand - a tiny vial filled with a strangely-colored liquid, and threw it at the air vent, cracking the bottle and spilling its contents within.
Everything seemed to stop. The blurred, crooked look of the building returned full force for a couple moments, flashing before their eyes like a pulsating, grotesque wound as the walls audibly groaned at what she's done. Pierce Claw held himself back as he looked horrified at what she just did, a victorious look of satisfaction slashed all over her face.
"W-Was that... QUICKSILVER!?"
"Yes!"
The Werewolf stepped backwards, horrified. He looked in all directions as people left and right collapsed to the ground, striking it like lifeless dolls. Their pursuit completely denied, their efforts lost due to Sunset's attack.
"Please remember me to never piss you off?" he mumbled in between his teeth, the stench of the weapon she used being enough for him to feel threatened. "You're clearly insane and horribly dangerous, so would you kindly?"
"H-Hey! I just worked something out, OK?"
"How did you even do that?" Pierce was breathing hard, as he gave some distance to the ventilation system of the building. "I-I mean..."
"I know what you mean, and I'll explain," Sunset said as she was also breathing hard, feeling like the joints of her legs were complaining and screaming at the effort she just put herself through. "Think of this building like it's alive. A magical construct of some kind. Of course, it needs to spread its magic all over the place in order for it to be what it is, like we need blood to pump through our veins so we stay alive. Usually, it's some form of thing that connects everything together - either a certain object that's present in every room... or a ventilation system that wasn't fully blocked off by the owner of the place. I think I found the latter. Didn't you notice that there were absolutely no air vents whatsoever in this building?"
"...No! Who the heck even pays attention to stuff like this!?"
"Do you know what living organisms like a well-working mechanism absolutely hate? When you throw powerful alchemichals inside its guts, especially if it's poisonous or corrosive!" Sunset interrupted with a proud chuckle, making the Werewolf wince in response. "This won't last forever, but I think I just--"
She stopped talking. Her eyes weren't deceiving her, yet again - a man was standing right behind Pierce with eyes so fiercely glaring towards hers that she could swear he could see through her skull. The Werewolf saw the look on her face and immediately swung himself to face behind him, but he was, surprisingly enough, too slow.
A loud bang, impossible for Sunset to describe, ringed in her ears like someone ripped her ability to understand sounds in half. Pierce Claw's bestial form was gone, his human shape standing before her with a limp, something red flowing from his right shoulder that she easily recognized as...!
"That was very informative. Thank you for keeping me up to speed, little girl," the man enunciated very clearly, sending shivers down Sunset's spine as she opened her mouth to scream, but she felt something strike her stomach with such force that she found the only sounds she could make as she genuflected were breathless wheezes of pain. "But this is a clear affront to my person, and I cannot accept such barbarism in these halls. Also, uninvited as you are! Truly shameful of you."
Sunset Shimmer was shivering in pain as she blinked in pure confusion. The man didn't move. He was still standing far away from her, how was this possible? He hit her with such force...!
She rose her head enough so she could try and get a good look at him. He was fully dressed in a black, formal suit - his golden hair was short and well-kept, clearly combed with gel of some kind. He wasn't looking very impressed with the two invaders, carefully walking towards Sunset Shimmer as Pierce groggily reached out, his left hand failing to grab a hold of his shoulder as he crouched, holding Sunset by the jaw and looking at her directly in the eyes.
"...You have beautiful eyes, young lady," he claimed as she tried her hardest to get a hold of herself, the pain coming from her stomach nearly driving her insane. "Such fire! So potent in the impetus of their gaze! You truly have something special about you, little one. So clever, and yet... so human."
"Ward!" Pierce's voice weakly mumbled from his voice, a visible gash on his right shoulder keeping his entire right arm hanging uselessly at his side. "The hell are you doing? Just showing up after the cat's out of the bag and shooting your friends like it ain't a big deal!?"
Cruise Ward stood up, the Equestrian held firmly in his hand by her jaw, much to her disgusting discomfort. She felt very little strength on her legs as he forced her to stand. His green eyes flared towards Pierce, who was so visibly furious he was almost unrecognizeable. Ward sighed, shrugging slightly at the man standing against him.
"I'm the one who wants to ask what were you thinking, bringing his outsider to my home without my consent! Didn't you see what the wench did? I am glad I reached you two when I did, or something horrible might have happened!"
"Horrible...?" The wounded magical beast coughed, his legs still trying to keep him from falling down as best as they could. "What's so horrible here? That we were attacked by those people? That she's tried to fix the damage you caused?"
"You're still calling it that, Claw? You are, quite frankly, annoying me," Cruise Ward growled menacingly, dragging Sunset with him as she walked towards Pierce with a very smug saunter. "I honestly can't understand you. I have already told you, haven't I? What I am doing is a service to those that need it! I am giving these people something to live for!"
...What... what are those two talking about...?
"I have no qualms about you thinking what you do, but when you interrupt my work... That's when things get messy. These people need to believe in that what I tell them. The human mind, albeit being fragile and susceptible to change, is also very stubborn and limitless. It takes time to reform their way of thinking! When you interrupt that process, you ruin the experiment. Thankfully, the damage your little friend caused wasn't very strong. I was hoping she'd simply get herself slain, but turns out that I still make mistakes. This is easy to fix, though."
Sunset felt his grip on her jaw tighen. She finally found strength in her to push the man away with a single, powerful shove, but stumbled awkwardly as he laughed, heartily amused.
"Oh! Seems you've got more pep than I thought you had."
"...You. What are you doing? What is this place?"
"Didn't he tell you?" Ward asked, confused. Pierce Claw wheezed deeply as he tried his hardest to scratch the wound from his shoulder, but the slightest touch in there would cause him to horribly flinch from the pain. "Surprising. I thought someone with your intellect would have already figured it out, but... I suppose not?"
Sunset Shimmer felt the entire world around her warp like it was some sort of terrible dream. She stumbled on her feet as she saw the walls change, the ceiling changed. In the span of just a couple seconds, they were not in the hallways anymore. They were inside an office, instead. A very elegant, posh-looking office that might as well belong to the owner of the building in question.
She did not manage to ask how come they were now inside such a place, her voice didn't come out. She was too busy trying to believe that suddenly, she was teleported to this place alongside Pierce and Ward, all three of them standing over this carpeted, massive square room, all at a reasonable distance from one another. The room was beautifully stylized, with a brown carpet adorning all of the floor, reaching all the way to the door and the far side of the room, which instead of a wall, it ended in a massive mirror view of the city, the night sky's moon shining gloriously to them through it. Ward casually strolled around, resting himself at the mahogany desk, crossing his arms as he rose his face yet again, looking down on the Unicorn and the Werewolf.
"This is the means to an end, I suppose. A way to fix a problem with humanity that quite frankly, will inevitably take time and effort to do."
"What do you mean by that?" Sunset coughed through her teeth, her strength finally coming back to her as she had enough time to breathe. "What problem would possibly need to be fixed?"
"The exact same problem you encountered as you waltzed into this building!" he exclaimed with a formidable lack of patience. Sunset Shimmer didn't understand. "...*Sigh*. Humans are easy to fool. Tell them something is true for long enough, and they start to believe in it. Their minds is a superb tool that sets humanity apart, and yet it is their greatest weakness! A fundamental flaw in its design that should not exist! By definition of the tool, it should not be a part of any of us!"
"...That explains why you suddenly think you have the right to change anything," Pierce coughed. The Alchemist threw a sideways, icy glance at the man, who stood firm in his feet as he slowly returned to his beast form, his right arm still worthlessly limp and wounded. "You just freakin' disappeared! For three years! You wanted to become Chief of Police, didn't you!? What kind of person that wishes to do good to people goes around brainwashing them, because he thinks they are too stupid to think for themselves?"
"Someone willing to make a difference! I thought you were the same, Claw." The Alchemist retorted coldly, his feet carrying him away from his desk and towards Sunset Shimmer, who stepped backwards in response. "What about you, little lady? Do you think the same as he does? That humanity is clever enough to understand its limitations, and should be left to its own devices? With no guidance, no strength of mind of their own?"
She found her own head looping around itself with no real objective as she tried to piece together what she's been told. This man was mad! Did he truly expect her to answer such a question with no real context given to her? ...Or had the context already been given to her? Which was it?
Regardless, she couldn't bring herself to agree with someone that wounds people because he thinks he knows better. Pierce Claw was right. What kind of person brainwashes people and says it's for their own good? That's not what living your life as an individual was...!
"I think you're clinically insane."
Ward opened a smile. The Werewolf took a step forward, his beast form becoming more and more complete by the second.
"Ward. Leave the girl alone, she's got nothing to do with you or your problems."
"...You actually care? Very well," the Alchemist said, turning his back on Sunset Shimmer and walking towards the Werewolf, who did not back away from his advance in the slightest. "I though you and I were similar, Claw. I think not."
And with that, Sunset heard a sound. A disgusting, battered sound slashing right next to her, followed by a sensation that she found impossible to describe.
She was paralyzed. Her body wouldn't move properly, her mind wouldn't work properly. Sunset felt a horrible sensation coming from her right side, and she felt her mind shuffle in confusion. Pierce Claw looked horrified, he screamed something but she couldn't listen. He looked terrified, then furious. He took a swing at Ward, but the Alchemist said something and the Werewolf was pushed to the wall.
Why couldn't she hear anything? Sunset felt her head pump painfully as she felt her body was out of balance somehow. She tried to scratch her forehead, but she felt like something was wrong. Wondering why that was, Sunset finally managed to turn her head a little, and she saw her right arm. On the floor.
It took her a good moment for her to understand what had happened, but she couldn't bring herself to think precisely. Her eyes would notice the gashing wound on the stump connected to her shoulder, and then notice her arm on the floor. As she slowly came to full understanding of the situation, her body registered the pain. As she tried to move, her breath would turn into a violent wheeze. She was stuttering in her movement as she fet her knees give in. She fell to the ground, her voice escaping her throat with such verve it was deafening. She could not listen to the sound of her own voice. She could feel the pain ringing in her mind as she couldn't bring herself to stand.
"SUNNY!" Pierce Claw coughed violently as he tried to push himself forward, but was constantly being pushed back by a force he didn't understand. "What the hell did you do to her? WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"
"...I am merely acting on accordance to my own verdict. You see, Claw - you actively attemptd to sabotage my design. I did tell you, didn't I? That this project was exceedingly difficult to perform? That I needed help? And yet you asked for help yourself to do the exact opposite! You brought this witch in here, for no other reason but to sabotage a plan to fix this dirty reality! Therefore, you leave me with the idea that I might just show you why doing that was a bad idea."
Sunset felt her chest tighten as she coughed what she assumed to be blood. Her eyes were hazy and unfocused. She couldn't stop looking at that limp limb that used to be attached to the rest of her, resting so close to her face it was surreal.
"...A really bad idea."
Pierce Claw let out a brutal howl as he lunged towards Cruise Ward, but for some unexplicable reason, the lightning-fast speed of his beast shape only succeeded in striking monumental quantities of oxygen. He did not waste a single moment as he would scan the room with any sense he would have, locate the Alchemist and launch yet another attack at him, but fail miserably yet again. It was truly a sight to behold - no matter how fast, how brutal and how furiously the Werewolf attacked, he seemed to do absolutely nothing noteworthy. It was useless.
It all seemed like this would go on forever until the Werewolf suddenly, for no explanation whatsoever, found himself sitting on the desk's chair. He blinked with just as much confusion as he could have, and then with just about as much warning, he was launched alongside the chair towards the wall, of which he striked quite fiercely. Then he was launched towards the ceiling. And the floor. He was struck against the mahogany desk. He was not in his beast shape anymore.
"Oh, Pierce Claw. You truly, truly wonderful creature. Coming all the way within my lair... My domain, my reality... and expect to change it. I will make sure you remember this day, my friend. Maybe that will make you susceptible to suggestions, as well? That will truly be a wonderful subject of studies, don't you think?"
"...You've become a monster, Ward."
"Really? Hearing that from a Werewolf... I think I should be worried."
The Werewolf did not find it within himself to retort. He suddenly felt himself being crushed, beaten. Slashed and burnt. The Alchemist stood in front of him, his hands in his pockets, an echoing laughter booming through Sunset's ears like a fog...
...How is he doing this...?
An Alchemist has to obey the laws of nature to do what he does. Some would call it the law of equivalent exchange - for you to acquire something, you must sacrifice something else of equal value. Also, no form of mass is created out of nowhere, and no form of mass also disappears completely. Everything is transformed into something else. That is the nature of the universe in which we live.
So for this man to do what he does... In this magical construct castle of his... he needs to be doing something else for him to do all that he's been doing. He has to.
...He...
Sunset's eyes were unfocused. Unclear. She could not listen to Pierce Claw's screams of agony, neither the Alchemist's insane laughter. She could, however, notice that her mind was still working. Her heart was beating. Her pulse existed. She felt her chest moving up and down following the movement of her breath. Her eyes danced in their orbits, taking in the scenery of everything around her. She thought, and thought. She saw the faces of her friends, she saw Princess Celestia. Sunset then opened her eyes, and suddenly, everything made sense.
She felt her body being pulled up as the pain from her wound was unbearable. She then noticed that she actually managed to stand up. She took a deep breath as her eyes were glassy and sharper than they have ever been. Her body started moving automatically, towards none other than the two men, who were a couple meters away from her, and Cruise Ward took notice to that. He stopped doing what he was doing, and chuckled to himself, Pierce Claw looking absolutely horrified at what he came to see.
"S-Sunny...! N-No!" he weakly muttered, his mouth barely moving at all. "Y-You'll die!"
"Oh, but she is truly a feisty one, Claw," Ward laughed as he stepped forward, throwing a slashing look at the girl who was not impressed in the slightest. "Since you're still standing, how about we fix that problem?"
"...Why don't you just try that?"
Sunset felt her mouth taunt him, and he gritted his teeth at it. Taking it to heart, he promptly launched an attack directed at her leg, this time. And it tore the limb clean off.
"SUNNY!"
Sunset Shimmer felt an unbelievable pain rush through her whole body, but she didn't stop. She knew what was going on, now. She knew how to stop it. As she felt the hit, she bit her lip and closed her eyes, in almost a trance-like state. Opening her eyes yet again, Sunset Shimmer took a legless step forward... and she advanced.
Cruise Ward's eyes bulged in disbelief. He gasped, stunned at the sight before his eyes. This woman... She was walking? With only one leg!?
"...Was that it? Is this the extent of your powers, Cruise Ward?" Sunset tiredly wheezed, her feet still carrying her forward despite lacking 50% of its parts. "I figured something was off about you, but I figured it would take me a while longer to understand... Turns out that was a bad guess."
The Alchemist once again launched another attack at her, this time yelling out the top of his lungs as a bolt of power rushed right through her midriff, but all it did was crack the walls behind her. She breathed in deeply as she kept making progress forward, a killer smile growing on her face with each and every step she took.
"What's the matter? Are you afraid of me?" she taunted with a voice that was hardly her own. This time, the Alchemist backed slightly, Pierce Claw's eyes not believing at all in what he was seeing. "Come on, then! Go for my neck! Cut my head off! Aren't you the master of this reality? What are you waiting for, an invitation? Then I am giving you one!"
Ward complied. Using much more power than he was used to, he blasted a hole in the ceiling so wide that he was certain he fired a magical shot powerful enough to be a tank's shell. However, he missed Sunset once again, whose smile was even wider than before.
"You can't do it, can you? Tell me, if you can simply make things happen at will, why don't you dominate my mind right now? Why not Pierce's? Oh, you don't need to asnwer that, by the way."
"SHUT UP! Y-YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! Who do you think you are to--"
"This is a fake reality created by the construct we are in. Just like how one will never find this building if one's not invited or told explicitly where to go, this power of yours is a phony joke that will not work on those that are aware that you are using hallucinations and light shows! This is all a giant stage! Smoke and mirrors through alchemical means, nothing more! You're not changing reality, you simply change our perception of reality! You are a failed attempt at telling a bad joke!"
Cruise Ward couldn't think of anything to say, his voice wouldn't come out. What was this he was feeling? This little teenage girl had the presence of a giant about her, every single step she took forward renewed her visage, as if she was regenerating right before their eyes. Why was this happening? Why were his powers faling him!? This girl was immune to his powers! He needed to escape this creature, but his feet wouldn't obey him.
"Today's been an awful, annoying day, you know. It's been a while since I last felt this irritated. I was already in a bad mood today - you just gave me a gateway to vent!" Sunset felt her right fist clenching. She pulled her arm back, and picked up the Alchemist by his collar with her left hand. He was pale, sweating horribly and whimpering like a child. Through gritted teeth, Sunset exclaimed with an unusual spark of anger that was relatively nostalgic: "I think I should thank you!"
And with that, the last thoughts that coursed through his mind as Sunset Shimmer's fist crashed against his jaw that night were of pure, uncheckered horror.
"...*Sigh*."
"Hmm? What's the problem? I thought you would be happy."
"Ah? Oh, no. I'm happy, or at least... I'm glad that it's all solved, now. It's just..." the Werewolf took a few seconds to collect his words, his left hand fiddling with the letter he had read almost like a bad habit. "I was hoping he wouldn't have gone so far into the deep end, you know? You didn't really meet him before, but he..."
"He wasn't so bad before? I'm sure that was the case, one day."
"Yeah."
A few days had passed since their adventure inside that building, and Sunset could still not truly come to grips with what she saw in that place. She understood it. She destroyed it. But still, when your life goes back to normal as if nothing had happened, it always felt a bit surreal. Not bad... just strange. Like what had just happened was just one of those awkward dreams you have sometimes.
When the Alchemist was beaten by a punch, no less, it turned out the entire building was an illusion cast through his powers. It was an abandoned building, dirty and rotten, with many doors, walls and pieces of the floor missing completely. When Sunset destroyed that magic, the place slowly warped back to its original state, allowing Pierce and herself to call for an ambulance, rescuing every single person that was located inside of that place. Turns out many of them had gone missing for months, some even years. They were slowly being brainwashed by that man during all that time, but when the illusion was broken, no one remembered a single thing. Where they were before or after the spell cast on them was gone.
The wounds Sunset and Pierce had sustained were also just illusions, for the most part. One thing actually was true, though, and that was that one silver bullet shot through Pierce Claw's right shoulder. He was fine, it would probably take him a few days more to heal, but seeing him carrying his right arm on a sling was slightly shocking to her. She was sure all wounds caused inside that building were false. Turns out she got more lucky than she thought.
"So, what now? What does the Convocation say about all this?" she asked as she took a sip of the soda she was drinking for a while, now. Pierce laughed lightly with his nose, raising the letter a little and smiling.
"They are indebted to us for solving an issue long overdue. I wish they would stop being complete bent tools, but that would be quite a miracle."
"Well, they did muffle the situation with the building after we were done," the Unicorn nodded to herself, taking another sip of the drink. "Sometimes you have to work with the tools given to you."
"Except their tools are blunt and broken," the Werewolf grunted. "I know I should be grateful to them for at least doing the clean-up duty, but..."
But maybe things wouldn't get so bad if they were doing their job from the very start... is that it?
Sunset could understand. Not all feelings of gratitude came untainted, no matter how hard you tried. Not all acts of good came without some form of consequence. But still, does that make it so those acts are pointless in the first place?
"Do you think that pushing them away when they are trying to do what they can is a good idea, though?"
The Werewolf mumbled something under his breath as Sunset leaned a bit more on her chair, resting her elbows on the table they were sitting on.
"I was told the Convocation is having a ton of problems, but they are still trying their best to do what they can to help. Considering they are trying to do what's right despite not being able to do that completely... isn't that worthy of mention?"
"Hah! Well, they kind of hired you, so they are doing something right," Pierce laughed, making the Equestrian grin a little, embarassed. After a few seconds of silence, he stood up, crumpling the letter in his fist and burying it deep in his pocket."...But you're right. I should be grateful they are doing something, at least. I can't fault them for that. But honestly, most of that is directed to you, you know?" And after yet another brief pause, he continued: "...Thank you, Sunset Shimmer. You have done by me more than you think you have done."
It took her a few hours to fully absorb the gratitude of which he had showered her with. It always seemed like a strange, alien sensation to her: doing good by others. Ever since she became friends with the girls at CHS and Princess Twilight, the feeling that someone is directing gratitude towards her was something she wasn't used to yet. It was a powerful feeling, one so strong and fulfilling that she came to the point of believing that maybe, just maybe, she didn't deserve any of it.
...But those were thoughts for another day, another night. This time, she was basking in the feeling of gratitude, directed to her by someone she pretty much helped on a whim.
Little by little, I hope I can make you proud of me again.
Little by little.