For the thousandth time that morning, Sunrise wondered what in the world she was thinking when she agreed to this. She was standing in front of the door to Fluttershy's consoler, the girl standing next to her. Reading the name on the plate didn't do anything to help calm her nerves, not that she had ever heard of the name before. Sheila Goh, a person who had tried helping Fluttershy over the pain of what happened to her...and most likely over the pain Sunrise herself had caused the last few years.
"Thanks for coming with me." Fluttershy said softly, taking Sunrise's hand in her own, interlocking their fingers. The gesture robbed all thoughts of turning and walking away as Sunrise found her blushing a little at the contact. It felt good to hold the girl's hand, to be shown that bit of kindness and affection even if she wasn't sure she deserved it.
"Yeah, well...to be honest I almost backed out." Sunrise sighed, admitting it to the girl who only smiled in response. A knowing look in her eyes as she giggled a little.
"Oh believe me, I know how you feel. The fact that you are still here though...it says a lot." Fluttershy said softly, moving closer to Sunrise. "The woman can be a little scary, but she's very kind."
"Scary?" Sunrise choked out just as the door opened revealing a green tones woman with long black hair. She wore a green blouse and black skirt that somehow looked right on her for some reason. The woman's eyes narrowing on her made Sunrise swallow nervously.
"Good morning, Fluttershy. Who’s your friend?" The woman asked, smiling to the pink haired girl while Sunrise could tell by the woman's body language that she really wasn't wanted there.
"This is my friend Sunrise, I was hoping she could sit in with us today...and maybe start seeing you to." Fluttershy said, seeming to shrink back into her hair nervously. "If that's okay with you?"
"Sunrise, huh? Any relation to Sunset?" The woman asked, eyes seeming to glow green making Sunrise want to run. This woman didn't seem scary, she screamed dangerous.
"I am Sunset, I've been adopted...though it cost me my name." Sunrise sighed, looking away as the woman's gaze softened a little though they were still full of anger.
"Come in, but I expect you to behave young lady. I will not tolerate you doing any bullying." The woman said, stepping back letting the two in. As Sunrise walked through the door, the woman grabbed Fluttershy's shoulder causing the girl to drop her hand away from Sunrise's own. "Actually, go ahead and have a seat, I'd like a word with Fluttershy first before we begin."
"Oh...okay." Sunrise said, a little worried about what was going on. She couldn't help wondering what the woman wanted, but if she was right, it was about Sunset and how she treated Fluttershy. It was something that Sunrise realized she was doing, associating all the bad that she had done with her old name which was making the transition to her new name a little easier at least. She was taking her new name as a new chance at life, a clean slate and intended to do her best with it.
"I know you have a crush on her, but don't let that cloud your judgment of her." The woman's voice drifted through the door. The sound was a little muffled and a regular human would never have heard it, but Sunrise had never been normal. She may have lost her magic, but her senses were still strong. Maybe not as strong as when she was a pony, but still better than a normal human.
"I'm not Sheila, Sunrise...she's had a hard life and she's finally got someone to love her. She has a new mother and she has me, people who will be there to help her...show her how to be a better person. I know it won't be easy for her...I know she will mess up from time to time...but I have faith in her that she wants to be a better person. And I want to help her. I don't care if it's as friends...or more...but I want to do my best to help her like you helped me." Fluttershy said, conviction filling her voice making grow louder by the end.
"Well then, I guess I'll put my faith in her too. Us bad girls have to stick together after all." The woman chuckled, "Let's not keep her waiting any longer."
Sunrise whipped her head around to look over the room as the two came back in, Shelia making a tsking sound drawing both teens attention. "You know it isn't really a nice thing to eavesdrop."
"It's not eavesdropping when you are talking loud enough for me to hear all the way in here." Sunrise threw back at the woman earning a smirk.
"Touché young lady." The woman said making Fluttershy blush upon realizing the implications. "Well, let’s all have a seat and get to know each other."
"You heard all of that?" Fluttershy asked, her face glowing red as the two teens sat on the couch while the woman sat in a very comfortable looking chair across from them.
"Y-Yeah...thank you for sticking up for me. I promise I will do my best not to give you a reason to regret it." Sunrise whispered to her.
"I know you won't." Fluttershy squeaked out, finding it hard to look up in Sunrise's eyes.
"We can talk about the other thing later Shy...maybe over lunch?" Sunrise said.
"I...I'd like that." Fluttershy squeaked out, blushing deeper while having a huge smile on her lips.
"Well if you two lovebirds are done whispering among yourselves." The woman teased good naturedly, "Let's say we introduce ourselves. My name is Sheila Goh, but you both may call me Sheila as Fluttershy already knows since I am friends with her family."
"I'm Fluttershy." Fluttershy said, her voice still quiet, though she didn't really seem too nervous around the woman as Sunrise would have thought. It was actually kind of nice seeing Fluttershy act a bit less scared around somebody else like this. When at school Sunrise always noticed the girl seemed nervous, even among the girls before Sparkle and during the couple days they were reunited before the Fall Formal.
"I'm Sunrise Shimmer, previously Sunset Shimmer." Sunrise sighed, hating to admit she was the same girl who caused so many problems.
"I know a lot about Sunset Shimmer, and while I think I would probably have been friends with her when I was younger...I have to admit that she is very lucky I never met her. I really wanted to come teach her a lesson, but my Princess and little Fluttershy here convinced me not to." The woman said, cracking her knuckles. Sunrise couldn't help noticing her black painted nails had a bit of a point on them...almost as if they were claws. "I know what it's like to do a lot of bad things, to have regrets over them and be saved by having your butt handed to you by a cute girl. Well...not that Fluttershy here kicked your butt or anything."
"You have no idea..." Sunrise snarked before catching herself making Sheila arch an eyebrow questioningly.
"You can tell her anything Sunrise...of all people, Sheila will most likely believe you without any proof." Fluttershy said, making Sunrise smirk a little. A small part of her thought it would be funny to tell the truth to this woman just to see her reaction. Open minded or not, no one sane would believe such a story. "Plus she won't tell anyone, I promise. Whatever you tell her will be safe and not go out of this room."
"Okay...I come from another world through a portal that stays open three days every thirty moons. The world I come from is based more around magic than science, but I royally messed up my life there when I thought my mother figure was abandoning me for a new student. Jealous I researched dark magic until I found a spell that would let me contact somebody who I thought would help me...but only ended up filling me with a darkness that had controlled me for several years making me do things I don't think I would have ever done on my own." Sunrise said, studying the woman's impassive features until the woman rolled her hand in a gesture to continue. "Okay...I found I was still able to see things happening back in my home world through the sealed off portal and plotted my revenge until the portal reopened. I went back and stole a magical artifact so I could raise an army here and return home and take what I believed was owed to me. The person who this artifact belonged to came to get it back, and along with Fluttershy and her friends they all channeled magic through the artifact and hit me with a rainbow colored beam of pure white magic which hurt like hay. It cleansed me of my darkness and made me come to my senses which led me to be here now."
"So no death rays or anything?" Sheila asked, leaning back in her chair with a smirk.
"I turned into a demon." Sunrise replied, cocking her head a bit as she tried to figure out if the woman was making fun of her or actually believed it.
"Okay, the demon thing is new, but I've dealt with a lot of the other stuff. Heck I was the one stealing stuff when I was younger, so I'm not about to judge you for it. Especially now that I can see that you regret it." Sheila said, draping her arms over the back of the chair she was sitting in. "Okay kid, you have my respect...and sympathy. That couldn't have been easy on you."
"It wasn't...it isn't." Sunrise admitted, hanging her head so her bangs covered her eyes.
"You've thought about ending it, haven't you?" Sheila asked sadly, recognizing the look on the girl's face.
"A lot this week...I've hit rock bottom...almost did things I never wanted to do...but didn't feel like I had a choice." Sunrise admitted, thankful when Fluttershy took her hand, once again interlocking their fingers.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Sheila asked softly, smiling at the interaction between the two girls. It was easy to see how much Sunrise needed the affection, and how much Fluttershy was happy to give it. Sunrise seemed to return it also, if a bit nervously. Sunrise may not have completely realized it, but she really cared for the pink haired girl. It showed in the girl’s body language and actions to the girl.
"You believe me about the other stuff?" Sunrise asked, shock clear in her voice.
"You know I will keep your secrets, but can you keep mine?" Sheila asked softly, a little unsure about revealing this to another person. Not many actually remembered who she used to be, and she would rather keep it that way. Fluttershy already knew though, after all it was actually Sheila and her wife that had rescued Fluttershy all those years ago.
"Yeah...I'm not telling anyone." Sunrise said, unsure why the woman would be hiding anything. She wasn't sure what the woman could even be hiding that would let her believe the story Sunrise just told. When the green light encased the woman's hand, almost like an ethereal fire, Sunrise could help gasping, "Magic!"
"No...not magic. When I was a kid...younger than you...a comet crashed in my backyard changing my brothers and me on a cellular level. It mutated us giving us powers...and while at first we played super hero...I couldn't stand the way my oldest brother took up old fashioned ideas. And when I say old fashioned...he started treating me as if I didn't have any rights or say in anything. At first it wasn't so bad, but as time went on he started refusing to let me go out. Told me I should know a woman's place is at home cooking and cleaning." Sheila sighed, "I broke his nose and left. I kind of became a villain for several years until I met my then arch nemesis...now my wife. She saved me from that path and I use my college degree to have a normal life with her. We're both doctors, she doctors the head and I doctor the mind."
"No offense, but your brother sounds like a jerk." Sunrise said, making the woman laugh.
"He is, the next oldest is an ego maniac while the twins are the most normal out of all of us. Despite our problems, they are family and I love them more than words can say." Sheila said wistfully, her mood changing as she looked back to Sunrise. "So...would you like to talk about it?"
"After I fell from grace at the school...I lost more than my pride. I didn't have much, but I had enough to survive...somewhat. It was starting to get tight, but I thought I at least had a little saved and a roof under my head. My landlord was throwing me out and I'm sure he stole the money I had stashed under my mattress. I couldn't prove it though and...I guess sit could have been whoever found out where I lived. My apartment had demon and...other things spray painted on the door." Sunrise said, shuddering a little. Giving Fluttershy a grateful smile as the pink haired teen put her arm around her in a sort of half hug offering comfort. "They gave me a couple minutes to grab what I could carry and I ran. I slept in the park that night...all week actually. The bag I had my stuff packed into was stolen when I tried washing my face in the restroom there. Didn't really expect the soap to hurt my eyes so much."
"Did your landlord give you an eviction notice?" Sheila asked, her eyes narrowing a little.
"No...but my mom took care of it. And got a lot of my stuff I had to leave behind." Sunrise said thankfully, rubbing at her eyes. Sheila got up and walked to the desk to get a box of tissues, bringing them back to the teen before retaking her seat.
"That's good, creeps like that need to pay for what they do." Shelia said, nodding to herself in satisfaction of somebody taking care of it. Personally she would probably take other hands on methods of dealing with them, but her wife would not be pleased. And angry redheads were not a good thing in Sheila's experience.
"What did you do about your bag?" Fluttershy asked, squeezing Sunrise who used a tissue to wipe away some of her tears.
"Nothing I could do...but I met a woman named Maria. She tried to teach me how to survive on the streets since I couldn't get a job because of my...reputation. It had been several days since I really had anything to eat, I kind of relied on the free lunches at school and since I was suspended...didn't really have any other way of getting food after losing everything. She was showing me where to get decent food, but the smell of the dumpster made me sick. I made her mad, but I just couldn't take the smell."
"You should never had to been in the position to even have to try. No kid should." Sheila said, a haunted look in her eyes for a moment before she buried it.
"Even if you did eat from it, it wouldn't have made you a bad person. Rainbow has a lot to answer for." Fluttershy said, a little anger seeping into her voice at the mention of the rainbow haired girl.
"I...know that. It's a little embarrassing...but...you sometimes have to do what you have to in order to survive. Sometimes...stuff you don't want to do." Sunrise said taking a shuddering breath. "I...found a knife and came so close to slitting my wrist...but managed not to. I took the knife and threw it off the bridge. I kind of went back the next day intending to join the knife..."
"No...please don't ever...please don't ever try to hurt yourself again." Fluttershy sobbed out, throwing herself at Sunrise hugging the girl tightly in a full on embrace.
"I won't...I promise." Sunrise sniffed as she hugged Fluttershy back, both of them crying a few minutes as Sheila watched on, wiping a few tears from her own eyes. "This guy saved me...I am thankful for him for doing it, but I kind of hate him to. He gave me a business card and offered me a job even if he knew I was underage."
"What kind of job?" Sheila hissed out angrily, calming down at seeing the scared look on the two girls faces. Taking several deep breaths to calm herself, she finally continued, "I'm sorry...but I think I know what kind of job and if I'm right, the guy is going to be in a lot of trouble."
"He said I could either be a full time dancer or a waitress, but I'd still have to...dance a little. Said all waitress staff had to." Sunrise said, swallowing nervously.
"Dancing doesn't sound so bad." Fluttershy said, a little confusion in her voice.
"All waitresses were required to be topless and the dancing was...stripping...wasn't it?" Sheila asked, a strangled sob from Sunrise answering her question and made Fluttershy gasp in shock.
"No...please tell me you didn't. Please..." Fluttershy choked out, sending pain through Sunrise. It appeared the girl didn't want to really accept Sunrise and all of her past mistakes, and knowing that hurt her more than she thought it ever could.
"So...what if I did? Are you disgusted by me? Do you hate me?" Sunrise croaked out, able to hold back the tears fighting for freedom.
"NO! I don't hate you! Oh Sunrise! I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry they hurt you...did they..." Fluttershy said, shaking as rage flashed in her eyes as tears fell from them. She wasn't looking at Sunrise in disgust, but worry. She was worried for her and what they may have done to her.
"I'm so sorry...I...I went there, but didn't make it in the door. Mom...Celestia caught me just as I made it there and...you have to ask her exactly what happened. I passed out from malnutrition over the last week just as she got to me." Sunrise sniffed, relived that Fluttershy didn't seem upset at her, but rather at the people at the club.
"Oh thank heavens, I was so afraid that they...they...that they took advantage of you even worse than that!" Fluttershy said, clearly upset over it so Sunrise hugged her tightly.
"I'm glad that Principal Celestia reached you in time." Fluttershy whispered.
"I'm glad to, but I am a little worried about you wanting to kill yourself. Something like that has lasting effects on someone...especially someone your age. I want you to start coming here with Fluttershy, I can see you together or separately, but I won't charge you." Sheila said, leaning forward and putting her hand on Sunrise's knee. "Will you do that? Let me help you?"
"Y-Yeah...I...I would like that." Sunrise said as Sheila reached into her blazer pocket as she pulled back. She handed Sunrise a card with her name and number on it.
"That's my personal number, if you need anything or just need someone to talk to or listen, call me anytime. I know a lot of what you are going through. I've been through a lot of it myself when I left my brothers at first." Sheila said, swallowing nervously. "About that club though...where exactly is it?"
~~~
It had been a long and tiring morning, but Kim had been able to leave the hospital early since the surgery promised to be a huge success. They usually were since the only person who was close to matching her record for successful surgeries was her mother who was now retired. Kim was looking forward to spending the afternoon with her wife, but was shocked to see the woman in her old catsuit. She had to admit the woman still looked great in the skintight outfit, but it had been years since she had last wore it. She had stopped wearing it when she retired from crime.
"Shego, honey, what's going on?" Kim asked, a little angry at her wife for putting the suit on again as it represented a past they both left behind.
"Fluttershy brought a...friend in today. A girl who has been through a lot of crap including that perv that owns that club that Monique has been trying to get closed down. I think it's time someone goes to have a talk with him since apparently he's trying to recruit minors." Sheila growled out, pulling her gloves on.
"Give me ten minutes and I'll be ready to go with you." Kim said, her eyes narrowing angrily.
A few days later there would be a big article on how the club mysteriously burned to the ground and the owner had fled in fear of something that he wouldn't admit to. The girls working there had somehow gotten grants from a very high profile technology company to cover their entire college fees as well as living expenses while attending. The few minors there were taken in by a high profile lawyer named Monique.
~~~
"Are you sure that you are okay?" Fluttershy asked again as the two walked away from the office hand in hand. Neither one of them was too sure about their relationship, though both of them wanted to be friends at the very least. Sunrise just wasn't too sure what to think beyond that since it had been so long since she had a true friend, much less more. Flash, sadly, didn't really mean much to her as a boyfriend since at the time he was just a tool. He was a stepping stone to help cement her position in the school's social ladder. Just another regret on her rapidly growing list.
Fluttershy...the girl was a lot more important to Sunrise than anybody has ever been since coming to this world. Even when she still was under the influence of the darkness that had possessed her, she still managed to protect the beautiful shy girl. Still, even if she wanted to be more, and she wanted to try, one question remained. Did she truly deserve being with Fluttershy?
"I'm...okay, I guess. Just...did you really have a crush on me?" Sunrise asked, Fluttershy's hand tightening a little on Sunrise's own.
"I still do...you...you are so beautiful and smart...and I see such a kind soul buried under all of that pain. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow...but I know one thing for sure. I will reach that kind soul and...and I intend to make it mine!" Fluttershy said, her confidence building a little until she finished. Her face heated up as she realized just what she said, but she was saved by the ringtone belonging to her parents. Pulling out her phone she was about to answer when the music went quiet. Not a moment later a text popped up telling her that they needed her home as soon as possible.
"Is...Is everything okay?" Sunrise asked, noticing the worried look on Fluttershy's face.
"Yeah, my parents just called and need me to come home. I'm so sorry, I have to go." Fluttershy sighed, obviously wanting to stay.
"It's okay, maybe I'll see you tomorrow at school then?" Sunrise said with a smile.
"Sure, I'll see you then." Fluttershy said, running a few steps before stopping. Sunrise was shocked when Fluttershy rushed back to kiss her cheek before running off down the road with a bright red face that matched Sunrise's own.
Smiling wistfully, Sunrise stuffed her hands into her jacket's pockets and started to make her own way home. She kicked a pebble before looking back over her shoulder to where Fluttershy ran off. "I think maybe...you already have my soul...and my heart, you silly filly."