//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Taking a Stand // Story: All That Shimmers // by Justice3442 //------------------------------// All That Shimmers Chapter 7: Taking a Stand -ooooooo- As the smell hits me, my eyes shoot open and I’m staring into what is becoming a very familiar, very dull scene. I turn and there I… not am… Huh… that’s new. “Uh… hello?” I call out tentatively into the empty wastes. I guess demon me is out at the moment? Possibly attempting to flay the skin off some hapless individual’s back, or even bury someone in a pit of burning hot coals? Not that I've even heard anyone else being out here. I start walking through the vast expanse of nothing and look around. Not exactly a very scenic place. Aside from the odd, somewhat interesting rock formation and the scattered glowing pit, it’s just flat, sometimes sun-cracked earth. Which is a little strange as there doesn’t seem to be a sun here, or at least, I’ve yet to see anything like one through all the gloomy clouds. I grumble irritably to myself as I stare out into the barren landscape broken up by the odd jagged rock or fiery pit. Alright, it’s official, she’s messing with me. She figured I already got used to a little banter before being julienned or charbroiled so now she’s figured out the most boring way to get under my skin… uh… figuratively. Note to self: Don’t say that last sentence out loud when I see her again. I do an about face and stared out at more barren landscape, rocks, and fiery pits. Uhg… Why does Hell have to be so unnervingly quiet?! I would have expected some tortured yelling of the damned, or evil cackling from a horde of demons, or maybe— A bizarre, indecipherable sound suddenly invades the silence. I look up into grey skies and still see nothing. Soon the sound disappears entirely leaving me just as alone as I was, but slightly more confused. … Okay… just… what? I shake my head from side to side in an attempt to clear it. Dear Sunset Shimmer, Please stop mentally wishing for things you will later regret. Sincerely, Yourself P.S. Seriously, what the heck was that? Whatever it was, it did sound vaguely familiar… Well, no sense dwelling on every little weird thing that happens in this bizarre place. I have a demon to find so it can make fun of me because I can’t seem to go ten minutes without breaking down into a heap of tears. Then it can brutally murder me for a third time. …Man oh man has my life hit a low point. “HELLO?!” I call out. Part of me can’t believe I’m walking around trying to hasten my death or pseudo death or whatever. Another part of me wishes I could somehow mentally project a Joyboy to pass the time. My choices are basically to sit and do nothing or track down the only other being I’ve seen in this place.  It’s not like I can get a run in or anything like that… I mean, I don’t know much about this place, but given the circumstances in how I keep ending up here, I doubt the environment is conducive to burning calories or building muscle tone. One of the fiery pits catches my eyes and I approach it. The heat from the fiery lava below warms me to the point of being uncomfortably hot. The smell of sulfur is much worse standing next to it as well. You know, I sort of wonder if I can skip the whole part where I’m shamed for getting all sentimental with Snips and Snails and just fling myself to an early dream death. On the other hand, I know next to nothing about this place… A suicidal act in a place like this might somehow result in actual death. Well… At least I know at least two people who would probably show up at my funeral… Fixer Christ is this depressing place making me go all morbid. I really hope demon me shows up— “Well, if it’s her sad and moist crybaby self.” I jump slightly as my somewhat deeper, lightly echoing voice calls out from behind me.   Dear Sunset Shimmer, You apparently have a memory roughly analogous to that of a goldfish when it comes to letters from yourself. Stop being so stupid. Sincerely, Yourself Demon me chuckles at the jump and suddenly I just don’t care anymore. “Oh, did I scare little miss can’t keep a handle on her emotions? I’m—” “Was that as good for you as it was for me?” I ask with an unamused expression as I turn to face my demonic self. She’s sitting on a rock large rock, but she still towers several feet above me. Still, her face goes from sadistic enjoyment to perplexity pretty quick. “What? What do you mean?” she asks. I glance up at the sky briefly and raise my palms in the air. “The whole boring game of hide-and-seek. Was getting a slight jump out of me worth waiting out of sight for so long?” I smirk and point to the pit behind me with a thumb. “Don’t tell me you hid in one of these foul smelling pits writhing your hands together just waiting me for me to come by.” Demon me scowls. “Now wait a damn minute—” “Hah!” I exclaim derisively. “That’s a ‘yes’. I’ll give you some props for mixing things up a little bit, but one of us spent a while inhaling sulfur fumes, so who’s the joke on?” The demon raises her a palm up and a black orb crackles green before turning a flickering orange. I grin and spread my arms out wide. It’ll be nice to get this over with. The demon flicks her wrist and the fireball heads for me. I feel its heat moments before it hits the ground beside me. The blast knocks me off my feet and the hot smoke that wafts up from the impact makes me sputter and cough. Guess I’m not as lucky tonight as I hoped. I look up and demon me is up on her feet, towering above me and glowering down. It seems doubtful that I’m going to enjoy the next few minutes very much. She bends down to pick me up and I can’t help but wince as her claws cut into my arms. I guess demons don’t need a delicate touch for much of anything, having what seem to be knives for digits doesn’t seem terribly convenient for day-to-day living. On a side note, geez I have a lot of blood… or had, I guess… She spreads her wings and begins flapping them and soon we’re airborne. Suddenly the mystery of how I’m likely go to go out this time around is becoming clearer and clearer as the ground gets further and further away. “So,” Demon me begins as she stares me right in the face, “Snips and Snails hand you a couple lame art projects and suddenly you lose your stuff at your favorite restaurant.” I manage to choke out a response in between grunts of pain. “That…eugh… seems to be the… huff… size of it…” “It doesn’t have to be this way…” she says darkly. “No… but…” I pause and try to focus through the pain. “… maybe … ergh… maybe I’m… puff… okay with that.” Demon me scoffs. “Seriously? Hanging out with a couple of losers? With a handful of girls that drive you up the wall when they get together? Breaking down in a heap if anyone so much as shows you any kind of affection?” “Ya…yeah…” I stammer out. “I think… huff… I think I’m really onto… eeck… something here…” Despite the pain I manage a chuckle, which makes the shooting pain in my arms that much worse, but it still feels good to laugh about it. Demon me shakes her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know what we can do. We have 30 moons to conquer this entire planet!” She focuses her green eyes that are set in a sea of black on me. “We have power, real power! Given enough time we could march an endless army across that mirror and claim both this planet and Equestria for ourselves! Don’t tell me you think this friendship garbage is worth that!” “I tried… puff… tried it your way…” Maybe it’s all the blood I’m losing that’s making me feel light headed, or maybe I find a bit of strength inside me… either way, suddenly my arms don’t hurt quite as much as they did a few seconds ago. “And… I didn’t like what I became… Didn’t like how I felt.” I look demon me straight in the eyes. “Little by little, between Twilight’s bizarre collection of friends and those two”—I roll my eyes—“‘losers’, I’m starting to not feel so lonely anymore… And I think… I think that’s all I really want…” Demon me scowls, closes her eyes, and shakes her head. “We both know that’s not for you, that you won’t be able to make it work.” She opens her eyes again. “You’ll find the kind of power I have to offer is the only thing you can really rely on.” “Maybe…” I narrow my eyes and smirk. “But you and I both know we’re probably the last pony we should listen to for advice.” Demon me knits her brow. “Oh? And how do you figure that?” “Because we only care about what’s good for ourselves… and you wouldn’t be trying to convince me to give up on this if it didn’t benefit you.” For the first time in in the last few days I feel like me again, and it feels good. Mentally and emotionally that is… it’s actually a little excruciating, physically speaking. “So, sorry to disappoint you but… I’m not sorry.” I grin wide as demon me’s face pulls into an angry grimace. “I think I’m just going to go ahead and do what I think is best for me. I’m afraid you don’t fit into that equation.” Demon me grits her razor-sharp teeth before she continues, “Guess you’ll just have to find out the hard way you don’t have a lot of choice in the matter…” “Excuse me if I don’t take your word for that…” I look down to see we’re hovering over quite a large fiery pit. I look back up with a wry grin. “Now if you would be so kind as to drop me off here, I think this is my stop.” I feel the knife-like claws loosen. “So it would seem…” the demon says. Suddenly I’m in free fall. Yet, I’m still the one smiling up at demon me who is glaring back. Huh, I wonder if I’ll even feel the— I shriek as I must have hit something solid. I think I hit the side the pit which involves lots of bones breaking, or more likely shattering and then there's a split second where I see the molten rock I’m heading for. I feel the heat on my face, which isn’t nearly as bad as the pain everywhere else and then suddenly I’m back on my couch in a pair of sweat soaked PJs wrapped in sweat soaked blankets. My heart is pounding in my chest and I’m struggling to breath. Little by little, I manage to focus both heart and breath to something resembling normality. Victory hurts. It hurts a lot, or rather, it did. Though, something like that was probably going to happen anyway. At least I feel somewhat good about what happened before grisly demise number three. Bleary eyed and exhausted I walk into the bedroom and stare at the digital clock on my nightstand. It’s a bit early, I could always get a run in and watch some news before heading to school… …Yeah, nuts to that. I’m somewhere in between dead on my feet and wanting to deck the first overly cheerful person I see… which will probably be Pinkie in this case. I quickly change into a non-soaking pair of PJs and crawl into my bed. I don’t care if it smells of my sweat at this point. If demon me wants to meet up with me so soon after I gave her a verbal smack down, then more power to her. Anyhow, I kind of doubt she does. I sure the heck wouldn’t. I close my eyes and for a refreshing return to normalcy I feel myself drift back to sleep. For what turns out to be a somewhat less refreshing return to normalcy, my alarm wakes me. I groggily reach over and turn it off then sit up in bed, my bare feet dangling over the edge. I still feel tired, but at least it’s a tired I can work with. It seems my attempting to sleep doesn’t mean an automatic trip to the gloomy land down under. Which I guess means that my demon self has some control over when I show up, or she can only do it once in a 24 hour period. I suppose I could also engage in some rousing nap experiments, but I’d also like to figure out a more permanent way to deal with her. Anyhow, I don’t have a lot of free time to dwell on this at the moment. No, I’ve got to go and attend classes I couldn’t care less about at the school full of people who probably despise me. I sigh to myself and shake my head as I stand up. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m giving this friendship thing a shot and told Twilight’s friends I’d meet them for lunch, I’d probably not show up today… and maybe all the subsequent days after that. Still, Saturday was fun, if a little grating at times. Additionally, at the very least this friendship stuff seems to actually irritate the demon inside me. I trudge into the bathroom and glance at my baggy eyed, disheveled reflection. On the plus side: I have two idiot friends and five more smarter, but still almost as obnoxious maybe friends… on the negative side: I attend a school where everyone likely despises me with good reason, and I’m also possessed by a demon that’s painfully killed me in my sleep the last three nights in a row. I hate to sound like a cynic, but it still seems to me my life is at a cruddy point at the moment. …Oh who am I kidding, I love sounding like a cynic. Anyhow, giving up is not going to get me anywhere. If this demon who’s using my body as a condo thinks I’m just going to roll over and let her wreck my cruddy life, she’s in for a surprise. I may not know anything about friendship, but I sure know a lot about picking a target and taking them down using any means necessary. Determined against my better judgment to make an appearance at school, I set about getting ready for the day. -ooooooo- One daily routine plus a bus trip later and I’m walking up the path to Canterlot High. Yawning and getting glared at as I go. Yippy-skip. “Hey, best frienemy!” “Hey, Pinkie,” I say casually as Pink Girl enthusiastically bounds up to me, a pink backpack slung around her shoulder. “So are you excited about today?! Are you, are you?! Oh, I’m excited. I’ve never been so excited! Except for the all the times I saw a new student and I was like” –Pinkie cupped her hands under her chin “‘AAAAAH!’ and they were all like” –Pinkie placed her hands on her cheeks—“‘EEEEK!’” I sigh before I continue, “Pinkie, it’s a little early for me to muster excitement. Maybe, at lunch, huh?” “Oh… okay!” Pinkie says cheerfully. She grinned wide. “I know you’re just going to love the surprise we have for you!” I look down at my new leather jacket. “I thought I was wearing it.” Pinkie shakes her head vigorously. “No, Silly-Billy! We have another surprise for you!” Pinkie’s grin widens to what seems to be the limits of what her face will allow and she sows me a mouth full of pearly whites.  “So are you excited now?!” “Uh…” I stare at Pinkie’s massive grin for a moment. “Sure… and maybe a little terrified…” Mostly terrified. Pinkie giggles. “Oh don’t worry so much! We’re not going to ambush you, silly!” “Well…” I look around at the other kids that pass us and continue to shot me dirty looks. “I guess it’s not you girls I’m worried about.” Pinkie frowns. “What do you mean?” I motion out to the people around us. “Not sure if you noticed, but everyone is looking at me as if they’d like nothing more to crack my head open. I should know, it’s a look I’ve perfected, myself.” Pinkie looks around and catches a few of the looks I’m being shot. Though the other students quickly look away as Pinkie glances at them. “Oh, don’t worry about them! They just don’t know you like I do!” “I’m sure they know me plenty…” Pinkie puffs her lower lip out in a pout before her expression explodes in a smile once more. “Here! I know what will cheer you up!” “Start singing and I will punch you,” I growl out. I probably wouldn’t, but this should defuse any early morning revelries Pinkie was thinking up. Pinkie paused. “… I know something else that will cheer you up!” she declares as she leans down and pulls her backpack off her shoulder. “I was saving this for lunch, buuuut…” She digs through it and is quickly up again with a cupcake holder with what appears to be an expertly crafted cupcake complete with multi-colored rainbow frosting. She stands and holds out the holder.  I reach for it and stare for a second. Pinkie smiles. “Go ahead!” Well, a ton of sugar might help me get through the early periods, at least. I open the holder, peel off the wrapper to the cupcake, and begin scarfing it down. It’s delicious. Pinkie giggles. “See! I bet you feel better already!” I swallow the bit of cupcake in my mouth. “Yeah, actually.” I can get used to this friendship thing if it means more free food out of nowhere. Pinkie’s not-stop giggle-fest continued. “Hehehe… Frosting face.” I reach up to my lips and feel something moist. I look at my fingers and it seems I’ve made a little mess of myself. Guess my heads not quite all together yet. “Great,” I huff out. At least people are looking at me and snickering instead of looking like they want to murder me. “Here!” Pinkie says cheerfully as she reaches into her hair and pulls out a napkin. “Uh… That’s okay.” I say as I hold up my hands.  Why does this girl carry around hair napkins? “I’ll just quickly wash off in the bathroom before first period.” Pinkie smiles. “Okie-dokie-lokie!” She waves. “See you at lunch!” I wave back as I walk briskly away. “Yeah, see you.” As I approach the school I see that the front entrance is now closed off with yellow caution tape. Well, it does look like something crushed the entrance with magic and not a lot of headway was made repairing it… I grumble to myself as I walk around towards a side entrance. I can practically feel everyone’s eyes on me with a mixture of hate and amusement as I quickly make my way down the hallway and into the nearest bathroom. I stare at my reflection in the mirror. I kind of look like a clown that tried to paint its lips in a drunken stupor. Oh well, hopefully I was fast enough that no one got a photo for blackmail purposes. I grab a paper towel, turn on the sink and began washing my face. I hear the door open, and I smell the faint scent of cigarettes as a girl with white, spikey hair with purple highlights shows up in the mirror in front of me. She’s wearing a brown, bomber jacket over a plain white shirt, and surprise, surprise, she’s glaring at me. Gilda. Just my luck one of the resident bad girls would walk in. Guessing I shouldn’t expect a ‘Good morn— Before I know it, something hard and fast smashes into my left eye and I head straight for the floor. I fling my hands out to catch myself before I slam into the ground. Sloppy, I should have known someone like Gilda wouldn’t be afraid to work out her anger on me if she got the chance. I quickly turn and see Gilda is looking down at me with a wicked smile and I know it’s going to be one of those days.