Twilight Sparkle emerged from her Simulated slumber and opened her eyes, glancing around the grey room quietly as she slowly got off of the lying table. Doing so did remind her of the pain in her chest, but she grit her teeth and shook her head. She would endure it.
The Boss appeared to still be in the Simulation, but there were two others also using the machines that she didn't recognize. The first appeared to be a male with dark brown skin akin to Pierce's color, with very short black hair covering a portion of his head. He wore the same grey jumpsuit, as per usual, but nothing else along with it (from what she could see, at least.)
The other was also a darkly skinned male in the same jumpsuit. This one had no hair on his head, but he did wear a greyish scarf loosely around his neck, glasses, and a pair of diamond earrings.
They must be more of the Boss' friends, she deduced as she walked towards a door, though as she did, she noticed one more human connected to the Simulation. This one was also a male, with much lighter skin than the other two strangers. His jumpsuit was opened in the front a little, revealing some of his upper torso and two golden chains of some sort. His hair was black and on his face sat a pair of neat little sunglasses the likes of which Twilight had never seen before...
Or had she? She stared at this human for a few seconds until her brain processed the image and came to a conclusion. This was the human that had stopped her from killing the Boss. This was the one that had hit her with something, tackled her to the ground, and beaten her until the President had stopped him.
It was an odd mix of both fear and gratitude that the unicorn now felt as she eyed this man, her breathing quickening a little as the wounds he had inflicted hurt just a little more in turn. Who was he, she pondered as she watched him, though she soon recalled her first conversation with the Boss post-freakout. This human must be "Johnny," she then concluded.
A moment later, she got herself to stop as she took a deep breath through her mouth, feeling how dry her tongue felt/tasted. "... I suppose it's time for lunch..." she muttered to herself as she turned away from the Boss' own savior, leaving the room through one of the doors.
Instead of the set of three doors from earlier, though, she saw that there was a railed walkway that continued straight on for a few yards to another door, as well as two sets of curving steps going down closer to her door. She couldn't see any other humans from where she stood, but she could faintly hear music from directly beneath and behind her. There were also dull but easily audible thuds and thumps coming from below and to the right.
Twilight began walking across the walkway, her hoofsteps loudly announcing her presence to those nearby as she headed towards the door in front of her. As she did, though, the impact sounds stopped, prompting the unicorn to look towards their former source.
Another human stood near what appeared to be a punching bag, staring back up at her with what was probably confusion (human eyes being so small, it was difficult to tell from that distance). This one appeared female (Twilight's deduction that "chest lumps equal female" seemed more and more accurate), jumpsuit clad with the top few inches unzipped and a black turtleneck underneath. Her black hair hung more on the left side of her head, a bang or two perpetually hanging in her face.
Twilight could feel the stranger's gaze, as if she was being sized up, evaluated. It made her nervous, to say the least, and as her heartbeat sped up with her breathing, she grimaced at the following pain and discomfort. She turned her gaze back towards the door, then the watching human... and then she hesitantly continued towards the door.
Once she was out of the woman's sight, the thudding resumed. Passing the stairs, the door was flanked by two tiny hallways that led only to a wall with a tiny, triangular window with a view that the equine didn't even consider investigating. All she could see was black at first glance, so she shook her head and approached the door.
When the door "whooshed" open, Twilight's jaw dropped at what she saw. The room was, of course, grey and lousy with those weird, glowing screens and buttons. A few chairs stood near these screens, none of them occupied. But those little details didn't matter much to the Bearer of Magic, as two sights captured her attention.
The first was the very front of the room. Through very large windows, Twilight Sparkle had a spectacular view of space that only got more beautiful and awe inspiring as she slowly stepped into the room. "Wooooow..." she emitted quietly as she stopped in the center of the new room, her voice catching the attention of the other sight.
Said other sight was another human female that looked at her over her shoulder, allowing the unicorn a more detailed view of the woman. Aside from the standard issue grey garb, it was unzipped down to where those chest lumps seemed to end, providing a view that held the pony's gaze for a second longer than Twilight intended. Around her neck was a choker/necklace of some kind, golden and segmented into tiny rectangles and connected by a thin string. She wore a pair of diamond earrings not unlike those of the second stranger she had seen previously. Her brown hair was tied up in a style that Twilight could only equate to a braided bun, yet was simultaneously messy with two long bangs hanging in front of her face.
The woman's green eyes regarded the little unicorn with surprise first, then with caution, possibly hostility. They finally settled on an expression that Twilight guessed was either curiosity or well contained amusement. "So you're the little unicorn, huh..." she finally uttered in a voice that seemed naturally irate and vaguely familiar. A brief reflection connected this voice to one that she had heard during their escape from Zinyak's ship. "I thought you'd be taller."
That comment got the bookish unicorn to raise an eyebrow. The angry undertone of the human's voice halted a snarky comeback that Twilight's subconscious was cooking up, however. Giving the thought a fleeting "where'd that come from," she offered a slight smile and a nervous expression. "I am... Um... you're..." she replied, trailing off as she tried to remember this human's name. "... Shanty, right?"
The woman cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms, her face initially disapproving before she sputtered into a short, quiet chuckle. "Shanty?" she repeated, now smiling. "Woooow. That's bad. No, it's Shaundi." A brief pause, during which the human held her hands loosely behind her back and resumed staring out the windows in the front. "And you're the unicorn that tried to kill the Boss."
Twilight visibly cringed as her enraged error came up again, adopting an apologetic expression as her ears and head lowered. "I know... I-I know... Sorry..." she offered, unsuccessfully trying not to remember the incident. A few seconds of silence from Shaundi didn't make it any better, allowing the bookworm to both regret her mistake and predict more worst case scenarios.
"... Ehhhh... don't worry about it too much."
"... Wait, what...?" came Twilight's response, looking back up at Shaundi with a degree of shock.
The woman continued without looking away from the starry void before them. "Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed off. But I'm not gonna act like I haven't wanted to punch the stupid out of her before." Shaundi's expression softened just slightly, her arms crossing again as she glanced down to the unicorn. "So many of the Boss' "plans" from the past were just... mind-numbingly idiotic."
Twilight sensed an opportunity. "... Like what?"
Shaundi let out a soft, emotion-free sigh before she began. "Well, our first few minutes in Steelport spring to mind. The Boss wanted to pick a fight with the fucking military..."
Twilight sat on her haunches and listened as Shaundi began telling stories and ranting, forgetting about her thirst as she repeatedly questioned how the President was still alive.
---
As the Boss, Benjamin "Motherfucking" King, Vice President Keith David, and Johnny Gat sped down the highway, they were unusually silent. Normally, there would be music playing, maybe a bit of singing, and some idle chatter between them, but nobody had said a word for the last several minutes.
"... So, she seriously shot herself?" came Johnny's welcome attempt to break the silence.
The Boss sighed and nodded, her purple Infeugo's kneecappers slicing the tires off yet another unfortunate vehicle. "She had it for ten fucking seconds and decided "Hey, I'm gonna look down this big hole even though I know what these do." It was just... holy fuck," came the Boss' reply, with an attempted impression of the purple pony that got Johnny to snicker and her running mate to chuckle.
"What, she never seen a gun before?" a smirking Gat let out, not disguising his amusement. The Boss could practically feel Ben King correcting her friend's grammar.
"I thought the same thing before, and I think she hasn't. Either that, or we beat her to stupidity."
"Speaking of which," the VP cut in. "What happened? Why'd... fuck, whatsername... Twilight go Vader on you?"
It took the President of the United States a moment to remember. When Twilight was choking her out, the Boss hadn't been listening "She wanted to be taken home. I said no. And then she went crazy."
King spoke up this time. "You know you could've-"
"-Said "yet." I know, I know," the black clad woman replied with a shake of her head. She let her gaze wander downwards a little, eying the speedometer disinterestedly as she reflected on her choices of words, never mind what she had done to the unicorn.
The Boss rarely felt regret for anything, and when she did, she made damn sure not to show it. This was no exception, and she quickly picked her eyes back up to watch the road. But the leader of the Saints kept thinking about her. For once in her life, the puckish rogue thought about why Twilight might have reacted the way she did.
Twilight seemed like... well, a scared little girl at first. The unicorn probably wasn't as used to violence as she was. Despite likely being murdered over and over again for over a year, she seemed reluctant to acknowledge her violent side. The unicorn obviously had one, if the Mad Professor's game was any indication, yet Twilight had apologized both before she lost consciousness and after she entered virtual Steelport for the first time. She claimed to have "lost control."
"... Well, shit..." she muttered, coming out of her autopilot reflection just in time to see a garbage truck getting closer as they zoomed towards it. Her passengers had already wisely bailed out of the car. The Boss just sighed as she hit the truck, went flying through the windshield, and bonked her head on the trash truck's backside. "... Well... shit!" she groaned as she got up, rubbing her temples as the truck they had hit sped off at its top speed. She let out an irate sigh and watched as the three men that were riding with her dashed up to her with varying levels of irritation.
"How the hell did you get your license?" King quipped, frowning and adjusting his own network sunglasses.
"The fuck, Boss?" Gat protested.
The black clad woman just groaned and shook her head. "I'm bailing. I'm fucking tired," she lied, walking towards and then past her Vice President, Chief of Staff, and best friend. "Get uh... Get Pierce or Shaundi in here instead." With her excuse made, she super sprinted off, leaping into the air and gliding away.
The three just stood there for a second before Gat chuckled. "She didn't."
---
The Boss sighed as she stepped out of her Simulation link, taking a quick glance at the three men still in the Simulation before walking out towards the bridge. She could hear Asha beating on her punching bag pretty fiercely as she headed towards the stairs, but she could also hear chatter coming from the bridge, along with the occasional giggle.
"I guess Twilight's met Shaundi..." the leader of the Saints muttered, heading down the staircase on her right and entering the rec room. Upon doing so, and seeing her Communications Director snoozing on the couch, near the door, she snatched his trilby and dropped it on his face. When Pierce became aware, she pointed over her shoulder with a thumb. "Tag. You're it."
"Auughh... Alright, alright... Shit..." he replied, getting up from the couch before replacing his hat and leaving the room, leaving the Boss alone. Rather than passing out on the now vacant sofa, however, the woman began to wander the ship, searching for something...
---
"You're being serious... Wow..." Twilight chuckled as Shaundi finished the tale of the demise of Phillipe Loren, the two having since moved to sit in the corner of the room.
"Yep! Really flattened the bastard!" Shaundi replied, grinning a big grin as she finished. "Oooof... You know, you're not half bad for a purple unicorn," she then commented, smiling a little more.
"Heyyyyy, what's that supposed to mean?" the mare retorted, laughing right back and doing pretty well in ignoring the subsequent pain. As she calmed down, she got up off her haunches and stretched a little, groaning softly and swallowing. She remembered her thirst and offered the woman an apologetic smile before she started walking towards the door. "I need something to eat. Thank you, Shaundi," she offered politely as she moved to leave the helm.
"Eh. Don't worry about it. It's kinda refreshing to talk to someone who isn't really... well, one of us yet."
Twilight stopped at the door, and backed up to give Shaundi a quizzical look. "What... do you mean?" she asked with a slight tilt of her head, messy mane getting in her face before she cleared it with her magic.
Shaundi blinked once and turned back to the unicorn, 'err'ing a little as she seemingly chose her words. "You're... You're not... ughhh... You're the only one of us that isn't really... Ughhh... Never mind..."
Twilight nodded slowly in acknowledgement, turning away and leaving the bridge. She headed towards the cargo bay and then went through the door near the couch to find food.
---
A short meal of a cheese sandwich and water later, Twilight was curled up on the rec room couch, levitating four billiard balls above her as she idly played with them. It had been a long time since the unicorn had been bored. A very long time.
Twilight Sparkle missed books. She hadn't even thought about books since her initial abduction, but now that she was alone without direction, it was killing her. Figuratively, she clarified to herself. The "swanky" looping music on the speakers had already been turned off and the room was now silent, only broken by the ambient noises of the ship itself and the occasional bit of unintelligible speech from a distant Kinzie.
She sighed and dropped the balls back on their table, laying on all fours as she idly scanned the room with those big violet orbs. Her mind began to drift and eventually she settled on... one possibility... She could do that... But surely that wouldn't be right... She didn't need to do that... She didn't particularly want to do that...
And yet there she was, staring at a comic book lying on a chair on the other side of the room. Comics are Spike's thing, though, she thought, looking away and instead finding herself missing the little guy even more. She now wished for a way to send a letter. She would have to remember to find some paper and a quill.
Her eyes fell on the comic book again... "'Nyteblade'..." she uttered softly, thinking on it for a moment before beginning to levitate the thin pages over to the couch.
Only to drop them on the floor when a familiar face suddenly peeked around a wall and scared the poor unicorn half to death. "AHHHH!" she yelled, scampering off the couch and falling to the floor as the pain in her chest returned. "B-Boss! Please! Stop doing that!" she then begged as the leader of the Saints utterly failed to stifle her laughter.
"Nope!" she laughed, doing so harder as she said so. "It'll never not be funny!"
The unicorn grumbled as she climbed back onto the couch, lying down on all fours again as the Boss approached, standing over the violet mare with an expression that seemed... nervous?
"Sooooo... Twilight..." the Boss began, clenching her left fist while tucking hair behind her ears with her right hand. "I've been meaning to ask you about something... And I'm not going to lie... I never thought I'd be asking a pony this..."
Twilight stared up at the Boss with curiosity and confusion, the pain in her chest now reduced to a dull ache. The mare had to wonder where she was going with this, but quickly came to a conclusion.
Twilight's literary travels had led her to a romance novel or two, she wouldn't lie. And one came to mind as she watched the human's behavior. Now that she was closer and not wearing those sunglasses, she could see those red eyes of hers constantly switching between an unsteady stare and a frantic avoidance of her own gaze. ... Up close, they were actually a pretty color...
Coupled with the flushing of her pale cheeks, however, and Twilight found herself blushing rather quickly. She isn't...
"I think I've done a good job of keeping it to myself, but... well, there's something I've always wanted to do... And since you're here...
Oh sweet Celestia, she is, Twilight inwardly panicked, trying desperately to think of a way to reject the Boss' advance. She wasn't interested! She really wasn't! And yet fear started nagging her that she had better not refuse, lest she invoke the Boss' wrath.
Perhaps Twilight could fight her off? But then the rest of the Saints would try to kill her! ... But she could kill them! She had magic - so much magic - and they didn't! But then she could never get home... Why on Equus was she even considering doing something like that?!
"So... Twilight... Uhhhh... Well..." the Boss awkwardly emitted, rubbing the back of her neck with her right hand in an odd manner.
The mare lost her train of thought and braced herself for the conclusion, gritting her teeth and watching the Boss' expression like a hawk.
"Can I..." she started, Twilight now quickly finding the bling-adorned shark to her right very intriguing. "... brush your mane?"
Twilight froze, then glanced back at the human. She was holding a brush that looked like it had been made from random bits and pieces of metal and some sort of thick cord. As if the Boss had made it herself.
"I'm... not being weird, am I?" the President asked uneasily, anxiously smiling. It was another expression the Boss never thought she'd see.
The spellcaster quickly shook her head, her messy mane going everywhere accordingly. "No! Nonono!" she frantically denied, cursing herself for believing such asinine things. "I'd actually... really like that.. It's just you were... I thought... Uh..."
"Thought what?" the Boss replied, sitting next to Twilight and running the makeshift bristles across her palm. No bleeding.
"It's... I thought you wanted to..."
The Boss caught on immediately, despite the trailing off. Twilight Sparkle never thought she'd see the Boss looking horrified either. "What!? No! A-Are you fucking kidding me?! I'm not some weird fucking... horsefucker! No! Gross!" she rather flusteredly stated, her cheeks now bright red. "Seriously, what the fuck, Twilight?"
"I... I..." She was at a loss for words. Before she could come up with any, though, the Boss began to brush. It felt great. The Boss worked the homemade brush and her left hand's fingers through the unicorn's purple mane, and Twilight just relaxed and let her. Sure, the improvised bristles weren't particularly nice when the Boss put too much pressure into it, but she was able to enjoy it nonetheless. "Thank you... but... why did you have to make a brush?" she quipped, wincing as the woman began working out as many tangles as she could.
"Because there weren't any on the ship. Dismantled a Zin rifle and cut up that whip CID keeps in his room and... well, here it is. I think I did pretty okay, considering what I had," the Boss replied as she cursed a particularly tough knot of the purple mane she was working with.
A silence fell over the two as the Boss worked again, with the pony shifting to sit on her haunches on the couch so that the human could reach her mane more easily.
A few minutes later, though, the Boss spoke up again. "... Damn... some of these knots... I just wanna fucking cut them," she complained. Twilight glanced back at the human and sighed.
"Eh... Go ahead, I guess..." Twilight permitted. "I can always ask Rarity to fix my mane when I get home."
---
The Boss inwardly cringed at the use of that last word. Home. Damn, if she didn't want to go home so badly. The Boss wanted nothing more than a nice hot shower, a hot Chicago style deep dish pizza with a Coke, and to sleep in a fucking bed again.
But her own desires aside, it reminded her of what she had originally wanted to do when she planned this little occurence. And yet... "I'll be right back..." she uttered, stepping out of the rec room and to the crates nearby where Johnny usually perched. She took the man's knife off of one of the crates, and in spotting his pistol, she elected to hide it from obvious view before Twilight could possibly shoot herself again.
Sighing, she returned to the mare and reseated herself, opening her mouth to say what she meant to. "So... Who's Rarity?" Failure to do so aside, she ignored the slight surprise on Twilight's face at the knife's size as she began working with the brush again, occasionally picking up the knife to cut through the really stubborn knots and tangles.
"Oh... She's one of my friends back in Ponyville... She's a dressmaker. A very good one, too. Very much a fashionista." Twilight paused for a sad chuckle, her ears lowering a little. It worked for her, though; the Boss didn't want to slice one off. "... If she saw me looking like this, I think she'd foalnap me and not let me leave her boutique until I was the most elegant unicorn in Ponyville!" Twilight's voice changed a little towards the end in what she assumed was an impression of her friend.
"Seems... nice," the Boss said, not having much else to say on the matter.
Again, silence. As the Boss continued, though, she noted that she was making some progress with Twilight Sparkle's mane. She was no stylist, and was instead working on straightening the mare's messy mop of a mane. That pink streak was starting to become a streak again.
Again, she wanted to say it. She was still building up the courage to say it... and it didn't help that Twilight telekinetically pulled a Nyteblade comic off of the floor. She examined the cover with vague interest. "... What is Nyteblade?"
The Boss smirked a bit and managed a chuckle. "Not you too," she joked, though Twilight didn't seem to get it. "Ahhh... he's a vampire that hunts vampires. If you really want to know about him, just ask Matt about him... As long as you're fine with him going all fanboy on you."
"Okay," Twilight quietly noted, cracking the comic open and beginning to read. The Boss just sighed and braced herself and her image.
"I'm sorry."
---
Twilight blinked once. Twice. Thrice. She set down the comic and looked back at the Boss, her violet eyes wide and disbelieving. "W-What did y-"
"I said I'm sorry," the Boss repeated, ceasing her work on the mare's mane as she looked down at the floor. "I was an asshole to you before and you didn't deserve it, so... I'm sorry," she uttered quickly like a foal being made to apologize to a playmate. Immediately after finishing her sentence, the human let out a very deep breath and smiled. "Alright... Glad I got that off my chest," she emitted, returning to her work.
"Um... th-... thank you, Boss..." the unicorn stammered, shocked over what she had just heard. The Boss she knew just a few seconds ago was capable of emotion, but was also unapologetic and tactless. That... Even for the short time Twilight had known the President, she had trouble comprehending it.
For better or worse, she didn't get long to think on it. "So, been meaning to ask you... What's with the tattoo on your ass?"
Aaaaaaaand she's back, Twilight thought with a giggle.
---
These "cutie marks" were... definitely something. The concept both made her chuckle and think. Not about the nature of the equine butt marks, but rather of what her own cutie mark would be if she had one... Would it be a fleur de lis? A gun? A fist? Money? She wasn't sure.
But Twilight Sparkle had earned hers, apparently, by magically turning a room full of ponies into plants and such and nearly causing a magical catastrophe. Only her idol, Princess Celestia, had stopped her, and that was how she earned her cutie mark in a nutshell, more or less.
"That's... definitely a thing," the Boss commented a few seconds after Twilight's story ended, nearing the end of Twilight's mane.
"... So... you humans don't have magic, then?" Twilight queried shortly after. The Boss could have sworn that she had heard that bit before, but answered anyway.
"Nope. Only 'magic' we had was either just parlor tricks or religious shit," she briefly summarized, clapping once as she finished with the mare's mane. "Alright, want me to do your tail?"
The unicorn looked up at her now clean mane, shook her head a little to make the streaked hair flop around, and then nodded. The human smirked and collected the messy tail until she could hold it all in her fist at the base. She got to work.
---
Several more minutes passed as the President of the United States and the Bearer of Magic sat on the rec room couch, making idle conversation every now and then while Twilight's purple tail was brushed out.
Twilight found herself coming back to one particular thought as they sat there, however. Not a thought of home, or a thought of revenge, or even a thought of her friends. It was about the Boss. About her supposed former home, Earth. She remembered a sign that she had seen back in the Simulation: "7 billion paid for your pride."
She looked back at the Boss. She was caught up in straightening her tail, focused and determined to use that knife as little as possible, it seemed. She looked content... Twilight almost didn't want to ask and possibly ruin things.
What if she reacts violently, her pessimism nagged. The thought of such a thing made her chest hurt slightly. On the other hoof, the question was bugging her very hard... She was dying to know.
She agonized over the question for a long while; long enough for the Boss to nearly finish.
Twilight took a deep breath and began piecing together what she would say in the least offensive way possible...
---
"Alright, done." The Boss' words startled Twilight a little, but she looked back nonetheless. Her tail looked normal again.
"Thank you, Boss," Twilight replied absently, managing a smile as the Boss began picking the brush clean without a word. The unicorn took another deep breath and turned around to face the human, sitting on her haunches.
Now or never.
"I've... been meaning to ask you, Boss..." Twilight began, earning the Boss' gaze and meeting it gingerly. Her ears lowered and she offered a forced smile. Her voice locked up and refused to work, making the human raise an eyebrow.
"You've been meaning to ask meeeee..." she stated, moving her free hand in a circle in a "get on with it" sort of gesture.
"Ughh... Sorry... I'm just... Something's been bugging me..." Twilight grimaced and cursed herself for straying off her internal script. "... When we were driving before, I saw some kind of sign on a wall..." She paused, trying to calm herself and convince herself to continue. "... It said... '7 billion paid for your pride'..." The human's expression didn't change much, but the unicorn noticed how it did. Her small red eyes narrowed slightly, and her jaw shifted a little as the President grit her teeth. "I need to know... What does that mean?"
The President stared at Twilight for several long, awkward seconds in total silence. The unicorn now greatly regretted her decision, but her curiosity kept her there long enough for the human to let out a deep, frustrated sigh. "... When Zinyak abducted me, he put me in a Simulation of a 50's sitcom," she began, looking down at the brush and starting to pick Twilight's tail fur out of the makeshift bristles. Twilight watched the woman carefully, trying to catch the Boss' more subtle body language. "Kinzie found me after I figured out that it wasn't real, and long story short, I began to try and escape.
"Zinyak showed up as a sherrif with a shotgun... I killed him, but then he showed up to take me out of that Simulation and put me in the new one. When he did, he told me that if I tried to run again, he'd destroy the Earth." The hand holding the brush tightened its hold on the handle and Twilight could faintly hear her grinding her teeth. The unicorn had already put two and two together at this point, but she allowed the Boss to continue. "... I escaped, and Kinzie and Keith got me off Zinyak's ship."
The Boss paused again, and she stole a quick glance back at the violet pony before looking at the brush again. It was very fast, but Twilight didn't miss the shimmering in the Boss' eyes. "We flew back to Earth and tried to call Oleg..." Ignoring the unknown name, Twilight instead picked up on the contained, but building rage in her tone. "... And he blew it up. That stupid alien motherfucker blew it up right in front of us!" The brush was placed on the couch and the biped stood up, beginning to pace around the room. Twilight shrank into the couch just a little for fear of becoming an outlet for the human's rage. "'Well, I'd say this was a productive day,' he said," she kept on, imitating Zinyak's vaguely remembered voice. "'I told you this would happen,' he said-MOTHERFUCKER!"
Twilight gasped sharply and made herself as small as possible in response to the Boss' furious outburst, watching as the human grabbed a pool cue from the table and smashed it against one of the oddly shaped chairs on the other side of the room. Each loud "CRACK" made her cringe and shiver, though the cue only lasted four strikes before snapping in half in her hands. "ARGHHHHH!" she yelled, tossing the broken stick at the wall before harshly kicking the same chair with a scream. Despite it being bolted to the floor, the metal and plastic dented heavily. Another kick, and it budged slightly. One last strike knocked the chair onto its side with a loud "CLANG."
The Boss did not strike again, however, limping slightly as she returned to the couch. Every inch of her body was shaking with rage, her teeth bared and clenched and her eyes narrowed. Twilight, on the other hoof, was shaking out of fear, her breathing quickening as the angry biped approached.
However, she was not stricken, nor was she yelled at. Instead, the Boss sat next to the mare and growled lowly, shutting her eyes tightly. She put one fist in the other and pushed, a series of oddly satisfying crunches issuing forth from her hands. She did so with the other hand, then let out a long, angry sigh. Her red eyes opened, shimmering. Twilight slowly uncurled from her frightened ball and shifted closer to the Boss. She was very clearly fighting tears, and succeeding.
"... I called his bluff, and I called wrong," the President finally said, shaking her head slightly. "I thought I could maybe kill him before he could do it... And I was wrong." She paused, and the mare drew closer until she was barely an inch from the biped's form. "Seven billion people, my home, my country, my world... all gone because of me..."
"... You... did what you needed to do..." Twilight uttered half-absently, her tone uneven and even unsure of itself. "It's not your fault." The woman slowly glanced up at the mare, still fighting tears as she met Twilight's eyes. "You couldn't have known if he was serious."
The Boss sniffled and managed a soft chuckle, a tear or two escaping as she put a hand on the unicorn's head to lightly scritch at her ears. Twilight couldn't ignore how nice it felt, but she still maintained her gaze on the Boss' eyes. "... It's... fine Twilight. I know what I did wrong..." she replied, her efforts to fight her sorrow crumbling and seeping into her voice. "... All that's left now... is Zinyak... I'm going to kill him... I'm going to rip his fucking head off and stuff it in that shark's mouth." A long pause came after those words, the Boss trying to collect herself and hide her tears.
Twilight had a thought. "... I'm with you, Boss," she began, putting a hoof on the woman's knee and capturing her gaze once more. "To the end." Those three words were filled with utter certainty. Twilight meant it. Zinyak would meet his end, and Twilight wouldn't rest until the Boss had her revenge.
Then the Boss surprised her again. She found herself pulled into a tight embrace, the leader of the Saints resisting for about a minute before allowing herself to quietly weep. Slowly, the mare returned the favor, just allowing the human to cry before eventually beginning to break down and joining her.
---
A good twenty minutes passed before the two calmed themselves and separated, with the Boss leaning back on the couch while Twilight laid on her side next to her. As she stroked Twilight's ear, she allowed herself a soft smile, sighing softly before she spoke. "... Thank you, Twilight... But... uh... none of this happened, alright?"
The pony softly nodded and the woman smiled a little more.
"Good..."
"Boss!" the sound of Kinzie's voice rang out, followed by the footsteps of three of her crew approaching. Kinzie, Matt, and Keith David soon stood in the door of the rec room. "Problem!"
The Boss took a moment to compose herself before answering. "What happened?"
"Celestia's in Steelport!"
The Boss and Twilight's eyes widened as they looked at each other, simultaneously uttering a heartfelt "Shit!"