All That Shimmers

by Justice3442

Chapter 17: Intervention

“I conjure thee, O fire, by him who made thee and all other creatures for good in the world…”

I’m sitting at my desk, starting at an open book, and dangling a crucifix over the book as I read out loud from it. This is my life now. Since Gaaabooo has shown up, this is pretty much all it’s been. Reading and rituals and microwave dinners… Granted… that last part is pretty par for the course, but I at least went out every once and again.

“… that thou torment, burn, and consume this Spirit N, for everlasting!”

We’ve tried any number of rituals, chants… anything! Most do nothing and the ones that do something leave me in agony for a good bit. It’s been a pretty rough…

…

… week? I’ve been keeping the blinds closed and I haven’t gone outside in a while. I’m really not sure how long I’ve been at this…

“I condemn thee, thou Spirit N, because thou art disobedient and obe— What the hell is even that word?!”

“Lady?” Gaaabooo’s nasally voice calls out.  

“Obeeyeast?”

“Lady!”

“O-b-e-y-e-s-t… What… Just what…?”

“HEY, LADY!”

“Gaaabooo, shut up for a second. I’m trying to figure out what—”

‘THWACK!’

Something whacks me on the back of the head and suddenly I face plant into my book. The small cross with the equally small figure of my would-be lord and savior if only I can get this demon out of me is now pressing against my forehead as I let out a pained groan.

Getting hit by Gaaabooo has also been a common occurrence. He tends to respond to me snapping or being sarcastic with violence. I think I kept myself in check for the first few days, but as we keep at this, I’ve felt myself slipping back into snippy habits. As it turns out, Gaaabooo has the patience of a rabbit that’s swimming in a vat of Red Bull.

I slowly raise my head up, the cross seemingly imprinted and hanging onto my forehead before falling back to the book in front of me. I turn my chair and look down to face Gaaabooo as I rub what’s sure to be a lump on the back of my head. “… Ugh… What?”

“You’re not supposed to say ‘Spirit N’, you idiot! You’re supposed to name the spirit you’re trying to banish.”

“Oh…” In hindsight, that was pretty obvious. But… “I don’t know her name!”

Gaaabooo rolls his eyes. “Yes you do.”

“… I’m… I’m supposed to say my own name?!”

“Well, the demon is you. So yes… that would be the idea.”

“So… if I banish her… Do I go, too?”

Gaaabooo pulls out a golden medallion with a fire emblem on it out of a pouch on his waist and gives me that demonic grin that lets me know he’s planning something that means grievous injury or death. “Well, you probably need to be on fire for that ritual anyway, so it’s likely neither here nor there.”

Greeeeeeeaaaaaaaat….

“Gaaabooo, I’m not—”

‘Knock, knock, knock…’

I turn towards the door. Just what I need, more distractions.

“I’ll get it!” Gaaabooo says cheerfully as his medallion swings from side to side.

“Oh no you don’t!” I shout as I make my way to the door in front of Gaaabooo. “The last thing I need to do is spend all day dismembering and dissolving the body of the clumsy girl who delivers the mail!” I gingerly step over open books, book stacks, and random medallions and other trinkets on the floor. Basically, my apartment looks like a new age shop threw up all over it. Soon I’m in front of my front door.

“Sunset Shimmer?” A voice calls out.

“Crap, it’s Rarity!” I exclaim in a hushed tone.

“Rarity, eh?” Gaaabooo says. “She sounds very flammable!” he says in an upbeat tone.

“Shhhhh…! Maybe she’ll go—”

‘KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!’

“Yo, Sunset!”

Rainbow Dash this time.

“Open up! We just want to talk!”

“Yeah, Sunny!” Pinkie Pie chimes in. “We want to know what your spirit animal is! Or… Wait… If you’re already a unicorn, is that kind of weird?”

Oh no, how many people…

“Come on, Sunset Shimmer! We just want to say ‘hi’!’”

Snips, so that means…

“Yeah! Hi, Sunset Shimmer!”

… Snails.

Is the entire school out there, or something?!

I stare through the door's peep hole… Crap. All five girls, Snips & Snails, Principal Celestia, and Flash freakin’ Sentry. Not the entire school, but it might as well be.

Okay… don’t panic… maybe they didn’t—

“Sunset Shimmer!” Rarity says with more force. “You might as well come out, we just heard you talking to someone!”

Craaaaaaaaap.

I look at Gaaabooo who already has buried his face in a book. “Gaaabooo, I better take care of this.”

Without lowering his book, Gaaabooo waves a grimy hand at me. “Whatever, just keep it quiet.”

With a heavy sigh as I rub my head once more, I unlock the door, open it, and slip out. I quickly close the door behind me. “Hi, pretty much literally everyone I know on this planet. What can I do—?”

A chorus of concerned gasps meets me.

Crap! I am wearing clothes right?!

I look down… Jacket, shirt, skirt… Phew… Okay, but why…

“Oh my gosh, Sunset Shimmer, darling!” Rarity cries. “What happen to your face?!”

“Huh… What?” I ask.

Celestia gives me a look that’s clearly been marinating in concern. “Your face is covered in bruises.”

Oh right… Gaaabooo.

Applejack clenches her fists and Rainbow Dash punches into an open palm as if the two are already ready to rumble with someone.

With a heated look on her face, Applejack says, “Did yer deadbeat boyfriend do this to you?”

What?!

I look at Flash. “What?!”

Flash holds up his hands defensively. “Don’t look at me! I haven’t seen you in a week! Also… We aren’t dating anymore.”

“I know,” I reply. “But… what gave you all the idea—”

Rarity cuts me off. “Don’t play innocent with us, missy! I’ve been keeping an eye on you and your apartment! You barely leave and sometimes I can hear you talking or yelling with some… boy!”

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh… All this on top of the fact my head is killing me.

“That’s not… Wait! You’ve been spying on me?!”

“Don’t get high and mighty with me!” Rarity snapped. “You told Pinkie and Rainbow Dash you were going on a journey of self-discovery! Not shack up at home with some stranger!”

“I… Okay, first of all… EW! That’s not what’s going on at all! Second of all, rather than confront me about my behavior, you shadowed me knowing that if I called you out on this, you could just say I lied in the first place leaving me without a foot to stand on?!”

Rarity nods. “That’s about the size of it, yes.”

“That’s underhanded and manipulative!” I give Rarity a sly grin. “I like it.”

Rarity nods again. “Yes, I thought you’d approve.”

I looked over the mass of people that had been gathered to my front door. “Well, maybe that part, but why the heck did you bring everyone I know here?!”

Applejack spoke up. “Uh… Maybe because we’re worried about you?”

Flash joined in. “Yeah, you kind of dropped off the face of the planet.”

Fluttershy nodded her head in agreement. “We all love you, Sunset Shimmer!”

The group paused and collectively stared at Fluttershy.

“Er… Um… Is that… Is that not true?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “It’s not so much that as what you said just sorta came out of left field…”

A pink blur suddenly steps to the front of the group, and before I know it, Pinkie is in front of me and practically screeching at me. “Never mind that! There aren’t any waterfalls in your apartment!”

Applejack turned towards Pinkie, “Speakin’ of left field…”

“I… just… what?” I reply to Pinkie.

“Your shower doesn’t count, Sunset!” Pinkie continued in her shrill tone. “You won’t be able to discover yourself just sitting at home all day!” Pinkie thought for a second and frowned. “And mirrors don’t count either!”

I thought for a moment. “Oh, that…” I sighed and shook my head. “Look, I’m sorry I lied to you—”

“And me!” Rainbow Dash cried.

“Right, I’m sorry I lied to you and Dash, but there’s a very good reason for that…”

Celestia folded her arms in front of her chest. “We’re listening…”

I inched back slightly with a sheepish look on my face. “Err…. I can’t actually say…”

“Come on, partner,” Applejack said. “We’ve already seen you turn into a demon twice, what could possibly be worse?”

“Erm… Abusive boyfriend?” Fluttershy suggested.

“SO NOT WHAT IS GOING ON!” I cry.

“Well, what is it then?” Snips asks.

“Yeah, what is it!” Snails chimes in.

Images of Gaaabooo maniacally laughing as he stands over the burning bodies of everyone here flash through my mind. “It’s really best if you don’t find that out.”

“Come on, Sunset Shimmer!” Snips pleads.

“Yeah, come one Sunset Shimmer!” Snails parrots.

Snips continues, “It’s not the same without you! We’ve been hanging out with Trixie! All she ever wants is for us to pamper and adore her!”

“Yeah,” Snails agreed, “we’ve barely bullied anyone or tried to ruin anyone’s life at all since you’ve been cooped up her!”

The corners of Celestia’s lips tighten. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

I sigh and shake my head. “Look, I’m all really flattered that you all care about me, really. But that’s why I need to keep doing what I’m doing! To keep everyone around me safe!”

“Maybe you just need a little help,” Flash suggests.

The others all nod and speak words of agreement.

… Yeah, I’m not sure anyone here is cut out for demonology research, ritualistic chanting, and drawing control circles.

The pounding in my head intensifies. I grip my forehead as I turn to stare at Rarity. “Did you have to bring so many people?!”

“It’s an intervention, dearie!” Rarity exclaims. “This is how you’re supposed to do it.”

“I don’t need an intervention!” I exclaim. “I need time to figure out how I can fix what’s wrong with me so I don’t go on the warpath on this planet! Do you or anyone you brought today have any ideas of how to stop that?!”

Rarity shifts uncomfortably on her feet. “Er… Well, I don’t really know any priests so…”

“Yeah!” I shout. “That’s what I thought!”

Fluttershy lets out a small noise of distress and tries hiding behind Rainbow Dash. The girls are starting to give me a few glares.

“You tell ‘em, Sunset!” Snips cries.

“Yeah, you tell ‘em!” Snails chimes in.

“Shut up, you two.”

Snips and Snails look up with me with pouts on their faces then go quiet. Good. The more I get on people’s bad-sides here, the more likely they are to leave me the hell alone.

I continue, “Look, as… rough… as the-uh- man in there might be, I need him…”

Flash rubs the back of his head. “Uh… That sounds exactly like what someone who was in an abusive relationship would say.”

Most everyone present nods their heads in agreement.

“Oh. MY. GOD! THAT’S NOT WHAT’S GOING ON HERE!”

 “Sunset,” Celestia begins in a gentle tone, “your friends and I just want to help.”

“We just went over this!” I cry. “They can’t help me. You can’t help me! So just go already!”

Celestia continues undaunted by my outburst. “Sunset, look at yourself. Whatever is going on clearly isn’t good for you.”

Rarity takes this as her cue to pull out a compact mirror and hold it in front of my face.

Welp, in addition to the impressive bruise collection I have going, my hair's a tangled mess and there’s dark bags under my eyes. Hygiene and sleep haven’t exactly been priorities.

I shake my head from side to side. “This isn’t some after school special where I finally realize the marijuana I’ve been injecting is also hurting my friends and family! I transform into a real live demon that controls people and tries to commit murder!”

Everyone takes a step away from me. Good. Let’s bring this home.

“Do any of you have experience with this!? No?! Didn’t think so! I’m not some wayward teen! I’m a magical unicorn from another world who can transform into a demon! You’re not going to solve this by getting me to sing kumbaya and start attending classes like a good girl! I’M A GODDAMN MASSACRE WAITING TO HAPPEN! NOW IF YOU’LL ALL KINDLY GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME. MAYBE, JUST MAYBE I CAN GET BACK TO FIGURING OUT—”

‘THUD!’

Something smacks right into my back and I topple forward. Almost face planting, but the people I was just screaming at moments before all reach out to prevent that from happening.

“LADY, WHAT PART OF ‘KEEP IT QUIET’ WAS HARD FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND?!”

Oh no… Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no…

I turn and scramble to my feet and there in his three and a half foot glory is Gaaabooo. On the downside, he does look like he’s about to commit some sort of fiery crime on someone’s personage. On the upside, that person is me.

There’s a beat of silence while everyone just stares at one another for a second.

Rainbow Dash breaks the silence, “What. The hell. Is that?”

Gaaabooo smirks. “Couldn’t have put it better myself.”

Rainbow Dash turns to me and gives me a disbelieving look. “You’re shacking up with that?!”

“I’M NOT SHACKING UP WITH ANYBODY!” I scream. “Especially not Gaaabooo!”

Gaaabooo’s forehead tightens. “What does ‘shacking up’ mean?”

“NEVERMIND!” I cry. “IT’S NOT IMPORTANT BECAUSE WE’RE NOT DOING IT!”

Flash raises a finger and points. “What… is he like your… familia—”

I dive and cover Flash’s mouth with my hand. “Do not say the ‘f’ word!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie chimes in. “Or we’ll have to wash out your mouth with soap!”

Rainbow Dash leans past Pinkie to glare at me. “What are you, his mom?”

“Not that ‘f’ word!”

Gaaabooo lets out a heavy sigh. “Are you all done being embarrassments to your race at this particular spot? Because if you all don’t pack it up and take it somewhere else soon—” Gaaabooo flashes a mouth full of razor sharp teeth “—I’mma going to shut you all up myself.”

Applejack glares down at Gaaabooo. “We’re not leaving until we’ve sorted things out with Sunset Shimmer!”

“Yeah!” Snips and Snail say, as they thrust fist out from behind Fluttershy who’s hiding behind Rainbow Dash still.

Gaaabooo reaches for a pouch on his side. “Your funeral…”

I quickly step over to Gaaabooo and lower myself to his level, putting an arm around his shoulder as I place my other on his chest. “Gaaabooo, you can’t kill them.”

“Oh, I think you’ll find that I can.”

“You can’t kill them because they’re my friends!”

“Your reasoning is stupid and you are stupid,” Gaaabooo answers. “You have 30 seconds to come up with a better reason before I start throwing a big ol’ corpse party.”

Rarity takes a step forward. “Now see here, you ruffian—”

“15 seconds,” Gaaabooo says as he narrows his eyes.

“Rarity, shut up!” I snap. Gotta think. Gotta think… “You can’t kill them because it’s morally reprehensible…” …Well that was stupid.

“Well that was stupid,” Gaaabooo says. “10 seconds.”

“If you kill them, I’ll be an emotional wreck!” 

“Your tears are delicious to me,” Gaaabooo replied. “5 seconds.”

GHA! Uh…. Uh… I snap my fingers. “The last time something tried to kill my friends I transformed into a demon and killed that thing back.”

Gaaabooo scowls long and hard at me. “Touché, Sunset Shimmer. Touché.”

That statement must have resonated with Gaaabooo somehow, I don’t think he’s ever called me by my name before.

“Uh, Sunset?” Rarity chimes in. “Do you mind telling us all what we’re looking at.”

Gaaabooo glares at Rarity. “The last living thing you’ll see before your eyeballs boil.”

I sigh. “Everyone, this is Gaaabooo. Gaaabooo, this is—”

“I don’t care! Make them go away.”

I roll my eyes. “He’s helping me with my demon situation.”

Rainbow Dash furrows her brow. “Pretty sure he’s part of your demon situation.”

“Well… yeah…” I admit. “But he’s helping me figure out more about my transformation. Hopefully together we can make that not a thing that happens anymore.”

Gaaabooo lets out an annoyed huff. “I can’t help but notice that none of you have killed yourselves or left. Please do one of those two things… Preferably both.”

Rarity takes another step forward and looks down at Gaaabooo. “So er… Gaaabooo… What is that erm… outfit you’re wearing?”

Without looking down Gaaabooo glares up at Rarity. “It’s my armor, obviously,” he answers as he motions towards the full suit of scale male he’s wearing.

“And you… wear that all the time?” Rarity continues.

Gaaabooo turns to me. “Did… did you meet your friends by attending some sort of ‘stupid question’ convention?” He turns back to Rarity. “Of course I wear it all the time!”

“Don’t you think that’s a tad… impractical?”

“Look whitey, I’ll stab you in the chest as hard as I can than you can stab me in the chest as hard as you can and we’ll see which one of us is wearing something impractical!”

Rarity sniffs the air.

Uh-oh…

“Gaaabooo, when’s the last time you er… cleaned yourself?”

“Why, I cleansed myself with the burning ashes of my enemies just the other week!” Gaaabooo answered in a chipper tone. “Does this inane prattle have a point, or are you just seeing how far you can push me before I figure out where you live and how stabable your loved ones are?!”

“Gaaabooo,” Rarity says, “don’t take this personally, but you can really use a good bath.”

Nope, nope, nope! I take a few steps away from both Rarity and Gaaabooo. I don’t want a part in anything that’s about to go down. Neither does anyone else, it seems. Everyone just quietly watches the scene in front of us unfold.

Gaaabooo narrows his eyes. “If you lay a hand on me, your limbs are forfeit.” He reaches into his pouch. “In fact…” Gaaabooo frowns and reaches into another pouch. “Wait… Where—?!”

I smile and hold up Gaaabooo’s fire medallion.

Gaaabooo grits his sharp teeth against each other hard. “Lady. If you don’t give that back—”

“APPLEJACK! PINKIE!” Rarity cries. “NOW!”

Before Gaaabooo can react, Pinkie is on top of him, grabbing an arm. Applejack is right behind her and soon Gaaabooo is lifted off the ground and being carried into my apartment. “CURSE YOU HUMANS! I’LL MAKE PELTS OF YOUR PETS AND EAT YOUR PARENTS!”

“Jokes on you!” Applejack says. “My parents are dead!”  She frowns heavily as Pinkie and her take the struggling Gaaabooo into my bathroom. “Ah jus’ made myself sad…”

“Awww, there, there…” Pinkie says as Rarity follows the trio behind.

“Alright girls, we need to strip… whatever Gaaabooo is! I’ll get hot water and some bath salts going…”

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Gaaabooo cries. “I swear, you’re all going to die!”

Rarity quickly close the doors as the sounds of water shooting into my bathtub and Gaaabooo’s yells of protest can be clearly heard through the wooden door.

“Well… that happened…” I mutter.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and follow it up to Celestia’s concerned face. “Well, now that your… associate is occupied. Maybe you can help the rest of us better understand your situation?”

I turn and look over the remaining faces. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Snips, Snails, and Flash. All of them looking at me expectantly. I really don’t have time for this but—

“I WILL BREAK INTO YOUR HOMES AND EAT EVERYTHING IN YOUR ICE BOXES!”

— Gaaabooo is clearly indisposed and seems to be running out of steam if that’s the sort of threat he’s been reduced to. Besides, three of the girls have already made their way inside and I do not want to go in there with Gaaabooo thrashing and yelling like that.

With a defeated sigh, I walk over to the door and hold it open, ushering everyone to come in. “Don’t step on any books or anything that looks like a ritual in progress… In fact, just don’t touch anything but the furniture,” I say as everyone files in.

Celestia smiles at me as she brings up the rear. “You’ve made the right choice.”

“Yeah, yeah…” I utter in response.

It’s going to be quite the day.