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// Ch. 2 - A Most Peculiar Destination 
// Story: Teenset Shimmer Is Dazed And Confused With Twilight On Her Arm 
// by Violently Irrelevant 
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The house looks well-kept and just as quaint as the other cloned suburban homes around it. The garden is simple, yet elegant. What stands in stark contrast to the idyllic home is the beat-up garage next to it. Trash litters the driveway, a crooked, ripped-up sofa stands just outside the mangled garage gate. Loud, partially muffled music seeps out from cracks in the face of the beat side-building. Twilight looks a bit put off by the strange place they ended up in front of. Although seemingly apprehensive, she does not complain or try to avoid it as Sunset brings them closer. The music is some kind of noisy rock, close enough to the stuff Rainbow plays sometimes, only faster and angrier. Sunset simply strolls up to the garage and lazily bangs her fist against the metal door. Nothing inside indicates movement or response. Sunset does not seem swayed or delayed by this and steps over to the middle of the door and pulls at the broken handle. The metal obstacle gives off a whining, grinding noise but opens after a bit of effort. As the gate lifts, the music from inside leaks out like a viscous liquid from a broken bottle. Twilight stands behind Sunset and peers over her shoulder into the dark room inside. There is a bunch of broken furniture, pretty much in the same state as the sofa outside. The floor is littered with trash, bottles, cans and a few items of clothing. The walls are haphazardly painted black and covered irregularly by posters, flags and a seemingly random arrangement of terrible graffiti. The whole place smells like cigarettes and some other strange scent Twilight cannot really place. Sunset strides in, Twilight hesitates until her eyes fall on the lone resident of this dark place.
 
In a leather armchair which is long past its glory days sits a lone girl with her legs slung up over one of the torn armrests. Her hair is a wild mess of a bright red mohawk. Its spikes are uneven and some of them are broken or sagging, furthering her unkempt appearance. Her green skin is in sharp contrast to pretty much everything around her and her clothing is an intricate chaos to rival that of the walls. Different colours, patterns and detail are blotched all over her. She is silently observing the newcomers with a burning cigarette hanging slack from her slightly parted lips.
 
"Hey Riot."
 
Sunset sounds cheery enough as she speaks the short greeting. Twilight approaches and grasps for Sunset's arm. The fire-maned girl lets her take it and stay a bit behind. Riot sure isn't scary but the change of scenery must seem strange to Twilight, no matter if the walk sobered her up a little. Riot huffs, takes a long drag of her smoke and pulls her legs around so that her heavy boots slap against the floor. She remains quiet, stands up in a lax motion that makes her look a bit like a ragdoll and then takes one long step. Her destination seems to be the stereo. She fiddles with it a bit, twisting a big knob, supposedly to turn down the volume. The blaring of the music only changes slightly but no one says or does anything else about it. Riot then approaches the two, she even walks around them, apparently inspecting them both. Just when Twilight had begun feeling uncomfortable for real, the girl in the mohawk cracks a big smile. She is missing at least one tooth.
 
"Twilight Sparkle hanging on to Sunset Shimmer for dear life. Never expected to see this."
 
She tilts her head to the side as she stands right in front of them, blows smoke and then offers a hand. Twilight purses her lips in thought. She knows their names. She must go to Canterlot High. She is not exactly the most inconspicuous person, yet Twilight has not seen her before.
 
"Good to see you, Sunset, its been... What, like, forever?"
 
It is Sunsets time to huff. She adds on a shrug and takes Riot's hand. After shaking, Riot offers her hand to Twilight as well. Twilight hesitates and hates herself for doing so. Then, as she finally manages to shake the punk girl's hand, no moods seem to have lessened. Riot turns and motions the others over to an arrangement of trashed sofas. As they follow her, another song comes on. Twilight shines up, she knows this one. 
 
"Diesel Boy! Rainbow plays this..."
 
Sunset looks pretty much dumbfounded as she looks at Twilight. Riot has already taken a seat in one of the sofas, crossed her legs and spread her arms over the backrest. She observes Twilight closely and then gives a wide, sunny, missing-tooth grin.
 
"Oh, I like her, Sunset."
 
Riot gives Shimmer a predatory glance while speaking. She then puts out her cigarette in an ashy old beer can. She licks her lips slowly and seems contemplative for a moment, then talks more.
 
"Come now, weary travelers, sit, have a drink. Cooler's over there."
 
Riot points with an entire hand to a very stolen-looking ice chest. Sunset saunters over to it while Twilight steps over to the sofa. She sits down and glances around, attempting to think of something to say. It is difficult, the situation is so strange. Or is it really? Sunset obviously knows this person and she seems friendly enough. Twilight is reeling a bit from all the new information, her mind is spinning out of control. Not as bad as Sunset's has been for hours now but a stalemate of thoughts indeed. A break in the far-too difficult process of thinking comes in the form of Sunset offering her a bottle of cider. She accepts it with a smile and does not take long to examine the bottle. She opens it and drinks. The crisp, golden liquid tastes even better when cold and it washes away some of the dry taste in her mouth. She drinks deep and apparently attracts the attention of Riot. Finishing nearly the entire bottle in one go, Twilight lets out a long, satisfied exhale.
 
Both Twilight and Sunset watch Riot get up again, just as slow and limp-like as before. Before anyone reacts much of anything to the movement, she has bound over to the ice chest and grabbed a few bottles. She slowly saunters around the trash-filled table, gives Twilight a wicked glance and sets a bottle down in front of her. She then twists the cap off her own.
 
"Tell me the latest news. Tell me about this trainwreck of a Saturday, what are you two crazy kids up to?" 
 
Riot asks the questions before spinning around, taking a swig from her bottle and simply dropping down back into the same sofa she was seated in before. Sunset shuffles in her own seat, inching closer to Twilight while the purple girl has her attention focused on the girl in the mohawk. Twilight is already a good bit more comfortable, the dirty garage does not seem so oppressive anymore. She finds herself enjoying the music more than she thought she could. The songs are short, intense bursts of energy and emotion. Not just angry noise as it initially seemed.
 
Sunset drinks slowly and seems lost in thought for a moment. She does not snap back into any kind of attention until Twilight also shifts in the sofa and not-so accidentally leans against her. She blinks and looks at Riot's expecting face. Oh right, have to communicate.
 
"Oh, not much... Called Twi over for a new album and a few drinks."
 
Riot drinks in silence while her eyes flit back and forth from Sunset to Twilight. She may seem blunt when she expresses herself but she sure does a lot of silent contemplation. Twilight looks at Sunset too, the fact that the fire-maned girl would call her "Twi" bites her in all the right ways. She leans a bit closer to Sunset but freezes as Riot speaks again.
 
"Sounds like a cozy little date."
 
There is awkward silence for a moment, both the yellow and purple girls are stunned. Riot takes the opportunity to continue. She doesn't seem to want to rip anything open, she simply dances on the edge.
 
"I'm happy you found each other, mainly-"
 
Riot is about to say something more but Sunset interrupts her. A bit of held-back panic in her voice. She was ready to deal with Riot poking fun at her. She was ready for this peculiar place and the inevitable question of buying some alcohol and perhaps drugs. What she was not prepared for was the punk girl assuming there was romance in the air.
 
"We didn't... Well, we did but it's not like that!"
 
Twilight leans back and looks at Sunset with a quizzical look on her face. She is unsure why Shimmer is so flustered. Friends find each other and go on dates, do they not? Riot looks amused, remains silent and drinks. Twilight reaches for the new bottle placed in front of her and quickly opens it to follow Riot's lead. Soon they are all drinking in silence. Sunset is practically steaming, some uncomfortable emotion clinging to her like a dark aura. It is not anger, it is more like some kind of desperation.
 
"Anyway, I'm happy you and sweet little 'Twi' came over, I was seriously dying of boredom."
 
Riot shakes off the situation by simply adding more conversation to the mix. Twilight has a hard time distinguishing if the mohawked one has some kind of strange people-skills or if she simply wings it by saying what she wants, when she wants. Sunset's only response is to lift her bottle to the darkened ceiling and empty the contents into her gullet. A soundless exhale later and she finally seems ready to speak again.
 
"Riot... You're always dying of boredom. Its Saturday, shouldn't you be the one that tells us what's going on?"
 
Sunset is back in the game. At least for now. Riot flashes another brief grin and finishes her bottle with voracity.
 
"You got me there, baconhead. I was going to a show with Melody but she's nowhere to be found. Perhaps you two would like to take a walk on the wild side, I mean, you're already well on your way..."
 
Sunset has gathered herself enough to deal with Riot's words. She glances to Twilight, the purple girl is already looking at her. There is a certain spark in her eyes and her expression is that if someone hopeful. How in all creation did they go from her introverted isolation to getting shanghaied away to some punk rock show? Perhaps this is an opportunity. A chance for all kinds of things to happen. Just as Twilight seems hopeful and excited, a little something starts growing inside of Sunset as well.
 
"Should we go?" 
 
Sunset whispers to Twilight, pretty much mouthing out the words. A whisper just cannot be heard through the music. Twilight seems to understand well enough. She nods and then looks to Riot before looking back to Sunset.
 
"I'd love to check it out at least... But, uh, we came here to bring something home, right?"
 
Twilight speaks loud enough for them both to hear. Sunset nods once and chews on her lower lip briefly, going over something in her head. Riot on the other hand seems invigorated and excited by the announcement. Wordlessly, she gets up from her seat, only to climb over the backrest of the sofa and step away into the darker corners of the garage. She rummages about for a bit while the two others look at her, curious with drinks in hand.
 
Twilight reflects on the situation in her head. All this new stuff has her very interested. This side of life she has never experienced before. With Sunset as her anchor of safety, how could she not enjoy going to some shady punk show?
 
Sunset gives Twilight a mild smile, there is a certain look in her eye that Twilight has a hard time placing. Some kind of delicate mix between pleasure, happiness and desperation. Riot barges back into everyone's attention by lifting a small metal box to the table. 
 
"I've got a few rounds here for you, Sunset. You haven't been around much lately, so I made sure to save some. What are friends for, eh?"
 
Sunset leans forth to look at the familiar box. Twilight remains quiet and still. Probably not the most typical of drug deals but her first encounter with one anyway. Riot opens the container and holds up a small plastic bag for Sunset to examine. What intrigues the purple girl even more than this outlandish situation is the sudden change in gears Sunset seems to be putting on. As soon as the weed comes into view, she seems to have slipped into some focused, expert's mindset. The fire-maned girl takes the little bag in her hand and examines it thoroughly as Riot picks out a few more bags to place on the table. Are those all different things? They look incredibly alike. Twilight observes Sunset's every move with wide eyes as she picks up another bag. She opens it and Twilight lets out a little noise in surprise. So that is what produces that strange smell she could not place before. The thick, earthy scent blends with cigarette smoke as Riot lights another cancer-stick for herself. No, that is no mere cigarette. It is something else entirely. The punk girl takes a mighty lungful of the burning roll and lets the thick smoke billow out over the table. For a second, it looks like she is about to fill the entire room with a fine, white mist. Twilight blinks slowly as she sits in the middle of the giant cloud that is lazily dispersing and rising to the ragged darkness above. The scent is overpowering, like from the bags but times ten. Or more than ten. Riot takes another, smaller lungful and lets the smoke seep out through her nostrils. She looks a bit dragonesque with her spined hairdo and all.
 
Sunset looks up from examining the bags of green stuff only to be presented with Riot's burny-stick. She accepts it thoughtfully and throws a glance to Twilight. This was the intention all along, why does she feel so apprehensive about how the purple girl would react to it all? Seeing the look on Twilight's face calms her, she seems to be having a good time. Well acclimated into the dark punk-den with a drink in her hand and a clever little smile on her face. Sunset keeps her attention on Twilight as she takes the joint from Riot. Seeing her eyes follow her every movement is magic in itself. Setting the well-prepared spicy cigarette to her lips, she breathes out through her nose, looking focused, like a diver before the plunge. Her lips go taught and her inhale is slow. There is a certain intensity and conviction in her eyes. Twilight smiles for her and she raises both eyebrows and gives a smile back while lowering the smoking stick. 
 
Sunset holds the smoke in while passing the joint back to Riot. Twilight's eyes pretty much sparkle as she keeps them on her anchor of safety. Sunset begins leaking smoke, a thin streak finding its way out between her lips. As she notices this, she decides to let it all out. A cloud at least as impressive as Riot's, Sunset throws her head back to let the swirling, white thickness billow up into the already slightly hazy ceiling. The effects are already creeping in the back of her mind. A million little booted feet stomping a march across the length of her brain and down her spine. She is glad she is sitting down for this. A legendary huff and puff after all those drinks is definitely going to knock her down. The boots on her brain increase in number and pace with every semi-coherent thought that buzzes through her head. Her eyes meet Twilight's. There is a different sheen on the purple girl's beautiful face. A faint fire-glow and a few wisps of cloud. No, not cloud. Smoke. Sunset watches in quiet amazement as Twilight keeps a brave face after removing the joint from her mouth. The facade does not last long as tears form in the sides of her eyes. Her brave face is replaced by panic, then a painful smile and a whole lot of coughing as smoke seems to come from here, there and everywhere. Sunset looks to Riot who is smiling dumbly at them both. The fire-maned girl has a difficult time figuring out if she did indeed pass the smoke back to Riot or if she was the one that gave it to Twilight. That would have seemed like encouragement, especially to a drunk person.
 
She gathers herself well enough to stop contemplating things that does not matter. She uses her momentary focus to rub the purple girl's back and offer her a drink to soothe her throat. Twilight just looks at her with eyes awater and a big, dumb happy grin between fits of coughing. Drunk and silly or the same adventurous spark she had back at Sunset's place? Both, perhaps. Now is not the time for deep thought. As well as the perfect time for deep thought. Twilight very obviously chokes back a giggle as she grasps her cider-bottle with both hands. She then closes her eyes and lets out a long sigh. Sunset sits as if frozen for a moment, then slowly lets one trembling hand rise to the height of Twilight's head. The rest of the world has disappeared for the moment. As she carefully rests her open hand on Twilight's soft hair, the purple girl opens her eyes slightly to peer at Sunset through her eyelashes.
 
"Celestia's mane, I feel like a marshmallow... Sunset... Sunset!"
 
Sounding cheery enough, even if her words are a bit muddled, Twilight opens her eyes wider. There is a certain intensity burning in her gaze as she leans closer. Sunset swallows hard and cannot breathe as Twilight lays her head against first her shoulder and then lets it slip down so that her face rests pretty much right above her modest breasts. The purple girl smiles sweetly as she listens to Sunset's heart rabbit away. The position is not very comfortable for either of the girls but they stay that way anyhow. A disorganized little pile of affection. Riot watches them in silence, no comments from her right now, mocking or otherwise. She watches behind the thin, shifting veil of smoke the joint provides.
 
Sitting still and silent for a good few minutes, Twilight and Sunset alike are put back into a similar headspace of that before they left Sunset's place. Silently enjoying each other's company along with letting the harmonious noise of the music carry their thoughts away. Smattering drums, low guitar and grinding bass. Not entirely different from earlier when this long, long evening was a long, long afternoon. 
 
Twilight lets her arms creep in around Sunset as she stretches a bit. Her head still pretty much glued to the other girl's chest. Sunset tenses up, shivers and lets out the abruptly interrupted start of a snicker. She runs her fingers through Twilight's hair and lets her hand continue down her neck and back. The courage to touch her, the divine softness of her, this moment...
 
The raw sound of a lone guitar from the speakers is joined by the sound of a tiny ignition. Twilight's eyes creep open by the small sound. Sunset stops her subtle advance as Twilight shifts. They look up and both their eyes fall on Riot, the source of the short, sharp sound that caught their attention. A lighter, that was it. The punk girl is smoking again, observing them both with a sly grin. Both Sunset and Twilight starts righting themselves, awkwardly to say the least. Riot says nothing until they both sit up fully and Twilight has begun nursing her cider again. Then the mohawked one speaks.
 
"I hate to interrupt your little moment but if we're going, we gotta gear up pretty soon."
 
Both other girls just glare at her for a moment, their brains desperately attempting to grasp the situation. Why was their moment interrupted? Where are they going? What do they need to bring? The gum in the locks of their minds slowly melt as it dawns on them that they have another exciting stop in this evenings journey. A show. Some unknown monstrosity of more than likely local bands they have never heard. A mystery, a surprise. Invigorated by the moment they just shared, entranced by the cottony feeling in their heads. They look at each other, nod once and relax a little. 
 
"A few ciders for the road?"
 
It is Riot that speaks again. Twilight lets out a dry but spontaneous laugh while nodding some more. Sunset sits back and observes the scene one last time. She has managed rather well, from oblivion, from her personal void to this. It just has to turn out good. One way or the other. While the fire-maned girl celebrates a small victory in her head, The punk girl stands up and steps over to the stereo. The volume is soon back to the level it was when they arrived. Another intense song about love, life and society to send them on their way. Back out into the last amber rays of sun that bathes the entire world.