The only chapter
Sunset Shimmer sighed deeply as she walked through the dimly lit streets of the town, hands tucked into the pockets of her jacket and eyes directed at the sidewalk before her. The sun sat low on the horizon, and her mind sat firmly in the concern that she had very little time before it got dark.
The girl was walking back from the local homeless shelter, where she’d recently been turned away, as they were completely full for the night. This wasn’t the first time this had happened, of course. They lived in a big city, and despite what the mayor would like them to believe, the homelessness and unemployment rates were not the best. She knew how this city worked by now, and usually she would plan around it and make sure to get there early on cold nights. That plan had not worked out for her today.
Ever since the fiasco that was the Fall Formal, Sunset had been serving detention after school every single weekday. The tasks she was assigned as punishment varied from day to day, and the task for this particular Friday afternoon had been assisting vice principal Luna with reorganizing her filing cabinets. It was an especially suitable task for her situation, as Luna was usually in charge of disciplinary action for the students, which meant that her filing cabinets were full of records on the student body’s various misdeeds. Sunset was dismayed, if not surprised, to find that there was nearly a third of a drawer dedicated solely to her own actions during her time at the school. She’d had to spend the afternoon sitting in Luna’s office looking through page after page of excruciating detail on all the terrible things she’d ever done in this world. It was discomforting, to say the least.
As if the act of it alone wasn’t bad enough though, it turned out the task ran longer than either of them had expected. By the time Luna had finally released her from the school, Sunset had been almost certain she wouldn’t be getting a bed for the night. Not that she could tell the vice principal this, of course. If any authority figure were to find out about her living situation, they would undoubtedly get child services involved. Then she’d likely be placed into foster care, and who knew if she’d even get to stay in the same city in that situation. No, better to let the teachers just assume she had a safe place to stay for the night.
It wasn’t technically untrue, after all. She did have a backup plan in this situation. There was on old window on one side of the school building that had a faulty latch. So long as she remembered to lightly nudge it into an unstable position on her way out of class, she could slide the window open from the outside and stay in the library for the night. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was better than sleeping in the cold.
So here she was, walking dejectedly back towards the school again, the reminders of what a terrible person she had been still fresh in her mind, and the promise of having to sleep on old books for the night ahead of her. Today was not a good day.
As the school grounds came into view, she weaved her way across the lawn towards her usual entry point. With practiced ease she hauled herself up onto the window ledge, and tugged the pane of glass gently upwards.
Only it didn’t move upwards.
She tugged again, harder this time, but the window stayed shut.
Her heart dropped into her stomach like an icy brick. This couldn’t be happening. She was sure she’d checked the latch before she left class today. Her mind raced, and she realized, upon taking note of the pristine state of the classroom on the other side of the glass, that the janitor must have noticed the window while he was cleaning and locked it properly into place.
Dropping down from the sill, the once-unicorn slid dully down into the grass below. She stared ahead with a blank expression on her face as the reality of the situation sunk in. She had nowhere to go. It was the tail end of fall, she had nothing but a leather jacket to keep her warm, and she was most likely going to have to sleep outside tonight.
She dropped her head onto her knees and tried not to throw up from the knot of dread building in her stomach.
“Sunset Shimmer?”
She’d only been stewing in her dismay for a few minutes when the voice interrupted her. Lifting her face, she found a concerned pair of teal eyes staring at her from behind a curtain of pale-pink hair a few feet away.
“Fluttershy?” she wondered in confusion. “What are you doing here?”
The usually timid girl approached her with a soft smile. “There’s a mother raccoon and her pups living near the dumpster behind the school,” she explained. “I’ve been bringing them a clean box and fresh blankets every few days so she and her babies can stay warm and healthy in this weather.”
Sunset couldn’t help but crack a small smile. “That is unbelievably sweet.”
The pink haired girl blushed lightly at the comment. “I’m just happy to help,” she mumbled quietly. She switched gears rather quickly though, as she looked back to her friend confused. “But, what are you doing here so late, Sunset? I thought your detention would have gotten out a long while ago.”
“It did,” she responded hesitantly, glancing to the side as she avoided the question.
“Then what are you still doing here? Shouldn’t you be going home?”
It seemed like such a simple question, yet it hit Sunset in a way she hadn’t expected it to. “Yeah,” she said, in a quiet, almost broken tone. “Maybe I should be.” Her thousand yard stare indicated her mind was somewhere very far away just then, and Fluttershy followed her gaze towards the statue in front of the school.
Suddenly very concerned, she moved to kneel down next to her friend in the grass. She placed a hesitant hand on her shoulder and spoke gently, “Sunset, is everything okay?”
The by now exhausted girl swallowed thickly before answering. “Not really. It’s been a long day.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She shrugged, unsure if she really did want to explain the circumstances leading up to her current situation. This left a long silence between them. At some point, Fluttershy had sat down properly and wrapped an arm around Sunset in an attempt to comfort her. Leaning her head against her friend’s shoulder for a few minutes, the distressed girl eventually found the words to speak up. “Detention ran long, and the shelter is out of room for the night. I was going stay in the school library instead, but the stupid janitor closed the window latch.”
There was a short silence as the meaning of her words sank in. She could feel the tension in Fluttershy’s body next to her as the girl realized her implication. “Are you saying you have nowhere to stay tonight?”
She nodded and immediately felt her friend’s grip on her shoulder tighten. Abruptly, Fluttershy stood up and extended a hand towards her. “Let's go, you’re staying at my house tonight.”
“What?” The hand gesture, which was clearly meant to be encouraging, had the opposite of it’s intended effect, causing Sunset to shrink further back against the wall of the building behind her.
Her friend gave her a warm smile of reassurance. “Come on. My brother’s staying at a friend’s house for the weekend, so we would have ended up with leftovers at dinner anyway.”
Gaping at her for only a moment, the fiery-haired girl shook her head vehemently. “No. No, I can’t ask that of you. That’s too much too soon.”
“Really, it’s fine.”
“No it’s not!” She’d shrunk so far in on herself now that it was questionable if she’d ever be able to unfold herself from the wall at all. “I was horrible to you, Fluttershy. Probably to you more than anyone. And now you’re just going to invite me into your house?”
“Hey now, you may have made some mistakes, but”
“I cornered you against a locker two weeks ago and told you you were pathetic,” she interjected sharply before shaking her head again. “It’s too soon for me to be taking advantage of your kindness like this. Just because we’re friends now doesn’t mean you have to pretend like none of that ever happened and offer to take me in for the night.”
“Sunset Shimmer.” Fluttershy said her name in a tone that she’d never heard from the timid girl before. She couldn’t help but look up at her, as something commanding in the tone had reminded her unmistakably of Princess Celestia. The expression she found on her friend’s face was so hard and serious, that she never would have thought the girl capable of it had she not seen it with her own eyes. The tone that came with it most certainly matched. “I’d be saying the same thing right now even if we weren’t friends. Even if you’d cornered me against the locker today. Now, let’s go.”
Her hand, which she’d clenched into a loose fist to match her stare, extended out toward her friend once more. This time, after only a moment’s hesitation, Sunset took it.
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Later that night, Sunset sat on a bed in the guest room at Fluttershy’s house being briefed on the locations of any amenities she may need in the night. There was a white cat sleeping at the foot of the bed and a fluffy grey one had climbed up to rest its head in her lap as soon as she sat down.
“And there are extra blankets in the hall closet if you get cold.” The pink haired girl concluded her lecture with a smile. “Is there anything else I can get you?”
“No, you’ve done more than enough. Thank you.”
“Happy to help.”
Her friend’s normally reassuring smile served only to make Sunset feel worse about the situation tonight. “You really didn’t have to do this, you know,” she said quietly.
The smile faltered, and turned into something a little more sad. “Just because you don’t have to do something, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”
Sunset offered a half-hearted smile at the simple statement, before casting her gaze to the floor. Her hands clutched the edges of the mattress below her nervously as she searched for the words to express what she wanted to say. So many of the files she’d had to go through today made reference to things she’d done to these girls in particular; truly terrible things she’d done to drive apart the people who now called her a friend. She’d never felt less deserving of their help and friendship than she did today.
“I didn’t know.”
The sentence was spoken so quietly, even for Fluttershy. Barely a whisper, Sunset wasn't even sure she'd been meant to hear it, as she never would have if she hadn’t been sitting just a few feet away from her. She looked up to find the girl’s teal eyes cast to the side, refusing to meet her own, and filled with sadness and guilt.
“What?” she asked, not understanding what could possibly have her feeling guilty.
“I didn’t know that… that you were homeless.”
The delicious dinner Fluttershy's mother had served them only a few hours ago suddenly tried to crawl it’s way back up Sunset's throat. Her grip on the mattress tightened until her knuckles turned white, and her eyes shifted around the room trying to focus on anything but her friend. “That’s because I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want anyone to know. I hadn’t even planned on telling any of you.”
“You can trust us.”
“I know. It’s not about trust.”
There was a drawn out silence, but Sunset had a feeling she understood what she meant.
“If a situation like this ever comes up again, you don’t even have to ask.”
She nodded, unable to vocalize a response at first around the lump in her throat. She swallowed thickly before trying to speak. “It shouldn't be a problem for much longer. I'm working on finding a place, I promise. It's just hard because I'm basically an illegal alien. I'm having to go through some less than reputable channels to get certain paperwork falsified.”
“You don't exist as far as the government is concerned.” Fluttershy seemed to realize all at once what it truly meant that her friend wasn't from this world.
“Exactly. So I need a birth certificate, social security number, documents indicating I was emancipated so that I don't end up in the foster system, and after all that there's the problem of finding a place I can actually afford on my sushi salary.”
“How are you even enrolled at the school?”
“More falsified paperwork that Principal Celestia thankfully didn't look into too heavily.” Sunset gave a wry chuckle and placed her hand on the head of the cat resting in her lap. “It wasn't a problem before because I wasn't actually planning on staying here. I was just biding my time until I could get back to Equestria. It's taking a lot of time and money now that I'm trying to make a home here.”
Fluttershy nodded solemnly. “Well, in the meantime, my home is your home. Okay?”
“I appreciate it more than words can say.” A comfortable silence passed between them for a moment before Sunset spoke again in a quiet voice. “Hey, Fluttershy?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you mean what you said back at the school?”
“Which thing?”
Sunset finally looked up and met her friend's eyes for the first time since the conversation started. “When you said you would have let me stay, even if I was still the way I was before.”
The serious look from before returned to Fluttershy’s face, and with absolute conviction in her voice she simply said, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Are you asking me why I would help someone in need?”
“I’m asking why you would have done something like this for someone who was as bad as I was.”
A thoughtful frown passed over Fluttershy’s face, and she came to sit next to her on the bed. “I know a lot of people think that if someone is mean to you, you should treat them the same way they treat you. If they’re not going to be nice, why should you? And, to an extent, that’s true. If you’d ever asked me before to help you with something small, like homework or cleaning something up, not only would I not have helped you, but I probably would have run away in case you got mad when I said no. But in a situation like this, it’s different. No one deserves to be left out alone in the cold, no matter what they’ve done.” The previously serious girl turned to her with a smile on her face as she continued talking. “Besides, sometimes a small act of kindness can make a huge difference. You said yourself that the only reason you did what you did is because you didn’t realize there was another way to get what you thought you wanted. I think a lot of people are like that, and if you can just show them that there is another option, they might not be so bad anymore.”
“A month ago, I would have told you that you were stupid for thinking that way. Now I guess I’m living proof, huh?”
“You really are,” Fluttershy said with a giggle. “The world isn’t as black and white as people think it is. A bad person can become good very easily, and a good person can become bad just as easy. All it takes is one good push in the right or wrong direction. I like to push people in the right direction and hope for the best.”
“No offense, but you don’t seem much like the pushing type,” Sunset joked.
Fluttershy immediately turned red and mumbled bashfully, “Well, maybe it’s more of a gentle nudge the way I do it.”
“A poke in the right direction, perhaps?”
“Even poking might be too aggressive for me.”
They both burst into a fit of giggles for several minutes.
Eventually, Fluttershy stood up with a yawn. “We should probably try to get some sleep, it’s late.”
“Yeah, I’m exhausted.”
“I bet. Sorry you had such a bad day.”
“Hey, at least it ended well.”
The pink-haired girl smiled brightly before heading toward the door. Before she left, she turned back to her friend with a look of sincerity on her face. “And, Sunset? Your secret is safe with me. You don’t have to tell the other girls until you’re ready.”
“Thank you, Fluttershy. For everything.” There were no words to express exactly what this all meant to Sunset, so she hoped her eyes at least conveyed it properly.
With one last comforting smile and a quiet, “Goodnight,” Fluttershy shut off the light switch and left the room.
Sunset Shimmer slept better that night than she had in several years.