//------------------------------//
// Penance Stare, by FoME 
// Story: Group Precipitation 
// by FanOfMostEverything 
//------------------------------//


And yea, I led her between the buildings
Into a gap where two men could not walk abreast
And she turned to me in fear
And I met her gaze in kind
With fear and hatred
Loathing and revulsion
As I gazed deep into her eyes
I fell into them, down an endless well
Until deep within, I beheld it
A circle that was seven circles
And within, an icon that was seven icons
And the butterflies rested on a gem and a cloud and a Sun
And as one they said:
"To hurt others is to hurt yourself."
And then I knew naught
Until the Sun came to pull me from the darkness
And set my feet on a new path


—Excerpt from the Book of Kindness





"You know, I've never been very religious, but I'm pretty sure holy texts don't normally involve highlighters and ring binders."

Ruby Rose shrugged. "It's a work in progress, o Wellspring of Sanity."

"You keep calling me that, and then you do things like this." Sunset rubbed her temples, which struck her as either incredibly appropriate or highly ironic. "You realize that this was just a matter of Fluttershy nearly getting mugged, right?"

Ruby nodded, her usual wide grin not slipping an inch. "And then a miracle occurred."

Sunset gave a grudging nod. "Okay, yeah, getting a cockatrice aspect to somehow petrify herself was impressive."

"I'm just glad you got her in touch with Pinkie's parents," said Fluttershy, still wrapped in a blanket and Rainbow Dash's arms after the ordeal. Their other friends were still en route to the church, which had conveniently been roughly equidistant to all of them.

"Any quarry would be happy to have her. There's always a better option." After a moment, Sunset said, "Ruby wrote down that last sentence as soon as I said it, didn't she?"

"Yes."

"Yup."

"Sure did!"