Mirror the Shimmer

It was close to midnight when I finally staggered back into the hotel suite, scratched, bruised, and covered in mud. I carefully laid Mark Antony against the corner and shook out my hair, splattering the walls and carpet with dirt. Across the room, Shining Armour was sitting on the white sofa with his feet up, reading a detective novel. "I see you've met my sister," he said, barely looking up.

"Yeah, and made a complete ass of myself!" I yelled back. I stripped off my jacket and threw it at him. "You could have told me her name, or what she looked like, or something. 'Total perv' is not an adequate description!"

He calmly removed my jacket from his face and put it to the side. "I didn't want you to meet her," he said, sighing. "I told you, I'm done with that part of my life. Someone I loved turned out to be a creep. I'm over it. I don't need you digging up the past again."

Would I tell him? No, not yet. Timing is everything. Besides, with no evidence on me, I didn't want him thinking I'd been taken in by changelings. "Well, forgive me for wanting to know what makes my boyfriend tick," I replied sarcastically, pulling off my tattered shirt as well. This, too, landed squarely on Shining Armour's face. "You didn't have to come with me, you know."

The shirt joined the jacket. "And leave you on your own with Suri for a week?" he said. "You know, you didn't have to come out this way either. You're too nice for your own good." He smirked at me, but paused as he finally got a good look at me. "Aw, don't tell me Twilight did all that to you."

Looking at him now, I was starting to get envious that my fake had found a way to get to him first. A spinal injury and gummed-up knee had slowed him down, but hadn't stopped him from bulking up magnificently in the years after. His mouthwatering muscles were clearly visible through his shirt, and he'd worked his busted legs twice as hard to match. A silver horse-headed cane rested against the arm of the sofa, but I'd exaggerated to Twilight how much he needed it; like my size, it helped to hide his potential, and he could smash heads with it almost as well as I could. His hair had grown out and he'd started wearing leather jackets around the same time I stopped, although he'd turned down my suggestion of getting a tattoo to complete the look. But although these were details I liked to linger on, what caught my attention in that moment was his face, hard and serious with just a glint of kindness in it, like a sense of humour trying to get out. I wondered if this side of him had been more visible before his falling out with Twilight. The next time I saw Sunset, I'd have to ask her if she'd kept any of the pictures of him from when he was younger. For that and other reasons.

After a few moments of hungry contemplation, I finally turned my attention away from his body and back to mine. I hadn't taken too good a look at myself yet, but I was pretty sure that I wasn't bleeding. "Oh, no," I said, answering his question. "She went down easily. Some of her friends can pack one heck of a punch, though." I grimaced at the memory. It hadn't actually been much of a fight, since half of us had just been trying to keep the other half from clawing my face off, but after a few minutes things sort of escalated. And then rapidly de-escalated. Granted, I don't think that anyone had actually meant to knock me down that embankment, but the kicks to the shin had definitely been intentional after I'd dragged three of them down after me. And then there were the briars. You didn't get briars like that back in the city.

He rolled his eyes. "How many?"

"Six."

"Six? What did you do, run over her dog?" His voice became reproachful. "Please tell me you didn't do that."

In place of an answer, my ripped skirt landed on his face. "Thanks for caring about me, asshole," I spat at him.

He removed my skirt. "It's your own fault for picking fights," he said, very deliberately not looking at me in my underwear. "Bitch," he added as an afterthought.

I knew he was trying to rile me up, but I wasn't in the mood. I was tired, I was sore, I was filthy, my favorite skirt was ruined, my whole view of life and the universe had been fundamentally altered, and somehow, through means I still didn't fully understand, I was down twenty dollars on the Swear Jar. And, wouldn't you know it, I'd somehow found the only boyfriend in Manehattan who would throw a fit if I got high in the hotel room. Maybe that was for the best. After this evening, it would take something way stiffer than a drink to save this night. "I'm going for a shower," I announced, marching off. "And stop worrying. I didn't do anything. Your sister's just as much of a pussy as you are."

I heard the pages of his book crinkle beneath his fingers. "I would have thought you two would get on great," he muttered. "After all, you're as much of a whore as she is."

I paused in the bathroom doorway, hiding a smirk. "Yeah, and you'd know, wouldn't you?"

His book crashed into the wall next to my head; I was only half-sure that he'd missed on purpose. "Shut up, you sadist!" he yelled at me.

I turned and shouted back. "Make me, pervert!"

"Twisted bitch!"

"Pansy asshole!"

We stayed there for a second, glaring daggers at each other. I cocked my head to the side, gesturing to the shower. "Coming?" I said. Then I disappeared through the door.

The bathroom wasn't your average cramped hotel affair; it was spacious and well-lit, with a shower and a bath. My boots left tracks on the fluffy white mats as I kicked them off. Bra, thong and socks hit the floor. I turned on the water and stepped in without waiting for it to warm up, shivering in the frigid cold stream. I wanted to be as awake as possible for the next hour.

The shower was a modern, fancy one, with a broad head that sprayed water directly down like a waterfall. As the water started to warm, I lowered myself and started to scrub myself from the feet up, getting the less sexy parts of me out of the way first. I finally did start bleeding when I pulled some thorns out of my legs, but the water washed it away. I barely felt it. Even though I hadn't played a sport since the ninth grade, my body was built like an athlete's: tall, toned, and tough as nails. My clothes had been specifically chosen to make me look like the average frail college girl, but my arms and legs were like iron bars.

I felt a smug satisfaction as I looked myself over. Given my fake's apparent lifestyle, I seriously doubted Sunset's body could hold a candle to mine. I was a fiery goddess, battle-hardened to perfection and comparable to a summer's day (that is, hot as fuck), while she probably was the weak little waif that we both looked like. The further I pushed myself from her, the happier I was at her existence. I'd missed having family I could push around. It was almost like Dawn was alive again.

By the time I'd scrubbed the day's exertions from my pits, I was starting to wonder if Shining Armour was coming after all. I was considering slowing down and actually enjoying myself when the door creaked open. I slowly twirled in place, facing the wall. Shining moved with all the grace and subtlety he was capable of, which is more than you'd think, but not enough to fool me. His slow gait, subtly uneven without his cane, stopped outside the door. His shirt hit the floor. I ignored him and lathered up my front, pretending to wash, and resisted the temptation to watch him undress through the frosted glass. I didn't even look when the shower door opened and he stepped inside with me.

Without a word, my Shining came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. A year ago I would have tingled at his touch, pulled him closer, rubbed my cheek against his fingers, even moaned at him, impatient for him to touch me more. Now, I reigned myself in and simply relaxed my shoulders, letting him do the work. He started to massage me, clumsily but effectively, then reached up and rubbed one finger in a small circle over the back of my neck. In response, I rolled my left shoulder and leaned back against his chest. If I failed to do this, it meant I was a changeling. We had lots of little codes like this. It hadn't been a conscious decision that most of them worked best when our clothes were off, but neither of us were complaining.

His powerful arms started to close around me, drawing us closer together under the water. "Wash my back," I ordered, brushing him off. He took my soapy washcloth and obliged without question. It's a simple thing, but if you've never had anyone do this for you, you don't know what you're missing. His hand moved up and down, scrubbing away the dirt of the day, while the other found a steady grip on my hip. Then he drew closer again as he moved over my sides, my arms, and circling around my front, lingering over my boobs just a little longer than was necessary. I made a mental note to get back at him for that.

A spurt of coolness fell across my head as Shining Armour started shampooing my hair. I hadn't even asked him to do that. The water around our ankles browned, then cleared, and my head felt worlds lighter. His tough fingers covered my head in bubbles. Taking advantage of his distraction, I lifted a hand and teased one finger around a nipple, edging myself closer.

When my hair was done to his satisfaction, Shining reached down and spun me around, pressing me against his chest. I squirmed against him as I feigned catching my balance, loving the feel of my boobs being squished against his rock-hard muscles, then blinked up at him innocently. His face inches from mine, he brushed a few clinging strands of hair away from my cheek, then reached for the washcloth again.

Up close, it was clear that Shining hadn't given a thought to washing himself. This was fine; I liked the way he smelled. With a look of concentration, he pressed the washcloth against my cheek. He cleaned me like I was a toy that had gotten dirty, carefully and slowly, like he was afraid he was going to break me. I kept my eyes open and let him cradle me, staring up at him like a doll. In his grip, I felt like one.

Not that it lasted. As soon as he was done, I let a faint smirk appear on my face. I put one hand on his chest and moved it down. He tried not to give anything away, but I felt his heart rate rising as I slid down his body, adoring the magazine-worthy muscles that I passed over on my way to my knees. Before I was even halfway there, I felt him stiffening against my stomach. I let his cock trail between my boobs before coming head-to-head with it: gloriously huge, flawlessly cut, trimmed just to my specifications. I found a comfortable position and narrowed my eyes up at him, wordlessly berating him for daring to let himself become aroused in my presence. Not that that meant anything. There was no telling what punishment I might have had to inflict if that display hadn't turned him on.

Reaching out, I wrapped my thumb and forefinger around the middle of his length. Even such a small thing made him breathe in sharply. I felt blood rushing between my fingers. Grinning, I tightened the circle and slid my hand up and down him, slick with steaming water, getting rougher as he grew. While this one part of him grew harder, the rest of him turned to jelly; he backed up against the shower wall, hands flat against the glass, eyes straining closed as I jacked him off. It made me laugh inside. All this strength, all this bravery, all this hatred, yet all it took was the slightest, gentlest touch-

I leaned forward and lightly kissed his cock, just barely grazing the tip with my lips-

"Oh, Shimmer," he moaned, leaning his head back-

-and I had him eating out of my hand. Or, if I was in the mood, out of somewhere else.

Now fully grinning, I leaned in again and took the head of his cock fully into my mouth. He moaned again, squirming against the wall. In an instant he went from fully erect to diamond-hard. He tasted like water and sweat and meat and a few things unique to him, which only grew stronger as I started to suck. My tongue moved in circles over him, caressing every bump, every vein, tasting every part of him as I slid myself further onto him. My hands found their way to his hips, and my eyes pointed upwards. The pained look on his face was unbelievably arousing; knowing that this beast of a man was so completely, painfully in love with what I was doing lit me up inside. It was hard to smirk with a mouth so abundantly full, but I did my best.

Increasingly aroused, I started moving my head back and forth, sucking all the while. His laboured breathing became louder. I moved one hand to the base of his cock and started to jack him off there, while my tongue stuck out from between my lips, tasting him just that little bit further. Sometimes I grazed his skin with my teeth, just in case he needed reminding who was in charge. He didn't. I could feel his pulse pounding inside my mouth, and the taste of milky precum hit the back of my throat. I withdrew and licked all the way up his shaft in one long stroke, fluttering inside at how long it took to get from one end to the other. He was perfect. In a frenzy that wasn't completely controlled, I took him back into my mouth and sucked on him harder, driving him deeper into my throat, squeezing and kneading him, needing more of his hotness inside me. His massive, sexy cock was mine, and I had to have it.

My efforts went appropriately rewarded. Shining's hips started to move, slowly fucking my face as I sucked him off, and his hands balled up into fists. I could feel something building in him, and I could hear his breaths getting deeper and deeper. He was close, so close, and he opened his mouth as if to say something-

I pinched down, hard, at the base of his cock, and drew my mouth off of him in one swift motion. Without a word, I stood up, brushed back my hair, and didn't even look at his dumbfounded face before walking out. I snatched two towels off the counter, one for my body, one for my hair, and slammed the door behind me.

He hated when I did this. I was really going to get it now.

When Shining emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, I was reclined seductively on the bed, both towels wrapped around me. Judging by the look of him, Shining had used the opportunity to do some actual cleaning up himself, though his raging erection hadn't subsided in the least. He hadn't bothered with a towel; he just stood there, naked, wet and dripping, glaring at me. I ran a hand over my luscious hips. "What's wrong, sweetie?" I chimed, innocent as could be. "Something bothering you?"

I barely even saw him fly across the room at me. Despite his leg, he could move fast when he wanted to. His weight pinned me on my back, his strong hands reaching. I fought back playfully, and then fought back hard, but he was stronger than me. I lashed out and he caught my wrists, one after the other, leaving me trapped and squirming underneath him. "Aw, what's the matter?" I cooed, even as my face spat venom. "Is the little boy sad because I stopped before he was finished?"

"I'm fucking older than you!" he shouted back. He tried to rip my towel away, but had to hold on tighter as I bucked and kicked beneath him. I felt his weight pushing him into me and burned inside. Even on the cool sheets, it felt hotter than it had been in the shower. He knew, and I knew, that there was nothing but this sheet of fabric separating his aching cock from my dripping cunt.

"Does the big boy want to fuck me?" I mocked, thrusting my chest out. "Is that it? Does the big boy want to put his tiny little cock in me?"

"Fuck you!" He painfully ripped the towel from my head. My blazing hair spread out across the sheets.

"That's right, that's what I said, dumbass," I said. "What, are you slow today? Or are you just retarded like your little sister?"

Quick as lightning, his hand wrapped around my throat. "Don't talk about my sister!" he shouted, lifting up my head and chokeslamming me back onto the bed. While I was struggling to breathe, he lifted himself up slightly, threw my other towel off of me, forced my leg to the side, and plunged his thick cock straight into me. In that moment, my mind went white.

And to think, when I first met him, he used to be such a nice boy.

It was a few frenzied thrusts before his hand loosened enough that I could speak, or even breathe. I didn't waste the opportunity. "Oh, fucking... fuck," I moaned, clinging to his shoulders. Not exactly eloquent, but it got the message across. He was fucking huge, filling me and stretching me, massaging the aching I'd had for him since the moment we'd started this stupid holiday. I spread my legs and bucked my hips beneath him, not that it made a difference under his weight. He wasn't even looking at me, just grunting in my ear, devoting all his focus to slamming into me as hard and as fast as he could. The only thing that could make this any more perfect would be seeing corny little Twilight Sparkle's face, watching her beloved brother fuck me like an animal. Thinking about her expression at the school almost got me off right then. Sure, Shining would never go for it, but she was just so fucking cute...

Like all things too good to be true, this didn't last. Shining had been so close in the bathroom that he barely lasted a minute now, blowing his load inside of me with a loud groan and collapsing heavily on top of me. I drummed my fingers on his back while I caught my breath. "Is that all you've got, asshole?" I panted.

"Shut up," he groaned. Already some life was returning to his voice; lucky for me, Shining Armour never was the type to simply roll over and go to sleep. He lifted himself up, his fury momentarily dimmed but not subsided. He'd taken to it so well. The first time I saw him he'd been so mopey, so polite, so reluctant to touch others. I'd fucked that out of him.

I used to date bad boys. Boy, was that ever a fucking mistake. All I'd been looking for was someone who could keep up with me, both physically and mentally, but none of those pricks had it in them. Their priorities were all wrong, always thinking about themselves, never me. That, and once you stripped away the top layer, anyone who went out of their way to show off how cool they were always turned out to be an insecure creep with mommy issues who wasn't nearly as good in bed as they thought they were. Shining Armour never had that problem - especially that last part.

The man of my wet dreams slid off the bed and stood up, his cock still dripping cum. Before I could get up after him he grabbed me and flipped me onto my front, putting a hand over my ass to hold me down. I heard him fumbling at something under the bed, the "special" bag that we always brought with us on these occasions. I didn't fight, just slithered my rump so he could cup it better beneath his palm. My pussy twitched impatiently. This was how it always was; during round one, like all boys, all he wanted was to dump his load quickly and get it over with. Round two was where the real fun happened.

When he moved over me again I flexed quickly, like I was trying to get away. In a well-practiced, fluid motion, he snapped a set of handcuffs around my left wrist and attached me to the fancy headboard. Not lame fuzzy handcuffs, either, but real ones, ones that hurt when you pulled on them. He twisted my other arm behind my back and forced my head down, pressing me into the sheets. "Asshole," I grunted at him.

"Say please first," he mocked. He twisted my arm further and ran two fingers across my enflamed cunt, still slick and twitching from our last round of fucking. Involuntarily, my hips twitched upwards. "Yeah, you like that, don't you?" he said, pressing deep into me and spreading me with his hand. My ass trembled as his fingers drove it higher into the air, presenting myself.

"Fuck y-you," I crackled out, which was the closest thing to a fuck yes! that he was going to get. My shaking legs could barely hold me up. I thrashed under his grip, shaking the bars of the headboard, but couldn't get loose to throw myself backwards onto him. In response, his meaty hand smacked down onto my ass, leaving a stinging mark and almost knocking me to the side. I don't know if he saw, but this sent a clear trickle down my leg. "Ah," I whimpered, biting at the sheets.

"And you call me a pervert," Shining laughed. He positioned his stiffened cock right under my pussy, rubbing me, mocking me. "Say you want it," he whispered, leaning over me. "Tell me what you want me to do."

I didn't break that easily. "F-fuck," I croaked out, taking all my willpower not to hump madly at his cock right then and there.

"Fuck you?" he offered, teasing. "You want me to fuck you?"

"Fuck... me..." I turned it around at the last second. "Stop pussying out and just fuck me, you retard!"

He smacked the back of my head, driving me into the sheets again, and twisted my wrist so hard that it brought tears to my eyes. But I got what I wanted. His cock slipped back inside me and started pounding me, like a good toy should.

Face-down, I couldn't breathe. I lost all sense of time and space. I bucked my hips like a horny slut, letting wetness drip down my legs. Shining fucked me hard, holding on to me tight, driving me deeper. He let out an animalistic snarl. I smiled, hidden from him. Let him think he'd won. Let him think he was dominating me. I knew the truth. He belonged to me.

Before he'd met me, Shining Armour was a wet towel. He was a pushover, riding on three broken hearts at once and letting his fucked leg hold him back. But I'd turned him around. I'd taught him to hold on to his hate. I'd taught him vengeance was the best motivator. I'd given him fury, fire, a reason to keep on living, and even though no one in his family was dead, he'd taken to the concept even better than I had. With little effort he'd bulked up into a bone-crushing fighter, but his physical perfection was only half the reason he got me so hot now. What really turned me on was the knowledge that all this strength, and all this animal passion, was directed purely at me. This wasn't some bad boy with a heart of gold; I'd taken the sweetest, purest, most innocent guy in all the world and transformed him into my own personal fuck beast.

Except now, I knew that it went deeper than that. Before I ever knew he existed, Sunset had got there first. If Twilight was right, then without her Shining would probably be married to Cadence or whoever, living some nauseating life of sugar and magic and a hundred other boring things. But she'd broken his heart three times in one fell swoop, ripping his life out from under him and setting the stage for me to fill the void - not to mention getting the world's best masturbation fodder out of it in the process. The thought made me chuckle as I pictured Shining slamming into her, just as he was slamming into me. Me and Sunset, tag-teaming him across time and dimensions, rewriting history just so I could get the fuck I wanted from the world's most perfect dick. I really was amazing.

Shining Armour got tired of holding me. He threw my arm away and leaned over me again. There was a click; my other wrist was cuffed to the bed. I knew he was only supposed to have one of those; was he breaking regulations just for me? Oh, now that was naughty. I tried to swing my head at him, but had to hold on tight or risk being crushed against the headboard by the force of his thrusting. All I could do was shake my ass, earning another smack when this threw his angle off. I gasped in ecstasy, disguising it as fury. The best things in life really are worth waiting for.

Again, my thoughts turned to his sister. I was more than a little disappointed in my fake that she hadn't spent her year of deception trying to fuck her as well; then again, if she had, I don't know how I would have handled the envy. My tongue slipped out as I thought about eating out her cunt while her brother fucked me, feeling her squirming in pleasure and agony beneath me. An impossible dream? Maybe. But I'd always liked to dream big. And while I couldn't actually prove that while her brother was on top of me he was secretly hate-fucking her, I relished any possible opportunity to find out for sure.

"Fuck me!" I screamed, rattling the bed with my arms, pretending to give in to the pleasure. "Fucking ride me, Shining! Ride me like a fucking unicorn!"

Both his fists smashed into the middle of my back. I dropped hard, the breath knocked out of me. "Shut the fuck up!" he yelled, gripping me hard enough to leave marks. "Shut the fuck up, you whore!" But I felt the truth. His cock got even harder inside me, and the strength behind each thrust increased. I grinned wickedly. Was he really just turned on by fury? Or after a year of jerking it to her pictures, was my sweet little Shining Armour actually hot for his sister?

As I contemplated, his thrusts slowed. "I almost forgot," he growled. "You asked for it in your asshole, didn't you?"

He pulled out. "What the fuck-" I started, straining to look back, but got my answer when something else ran between my pussy lips, getting slick with my juices. I hadn't even noticed he'd got that out of the bag. A glob of spit landed on my backside. With no other lubrication but saliva and cunt juice, a thin string of anal beads started to work their way up my asshole. I squirmed, barking furiously, but not outright objecting. I was definitely glad that I'd remembered to wash thoroughly around there while I was showering.

The string was thin enough that it went in easily, but more than thick enough that I felt it. The pressure was like a second, smaller, heavily ridged cock rammed somewhere it shouldn't be. The feeling of being filled up didn't quite make up for the discomfort, but I didn't really feel the change until Shining stuck his real cock back in my cunt where it belonged. "Oh, yeah," I moaned, now really giving in to it. By a trick of the muscles, having something up my ass made everything else feel more intense as I gripped and clenched around it. I could feel the beads pressing against his cock through my inner wall, squeezing me even tighter, and I know he felt it even more. My tightness drove him on as we both made louder and louder noises of pleasure, losing ourselves to his perfection. All he had to do was keep going like this...

And then he ruined it. He fucking ruined it. Right as I was throwing myself against him, screaming for his cock, he leaned over me, grabbed my boob, gently kissed my cheek, and breathed into my ear. "I love you, Shimmer," he whispered.

I screamed in outrage, ramming myself backwards. I thrashed and shook like a wild animal, so hard that he had to hold on to me. All I'd wanted from him was to be an absolute beast in the sack, but no, apparently that was too difficult a concept for him. No matter how much I teased him, or how much I belittled him, or how much I told him right to his face that I wanted him to fuck me until I was bleeding, there was always some secret, hidden part of him that I couldn't get to, some inner purity that I couldn't scratch. He was literally fucking incorruptible. Just my luck that out of all the guys who could have fit the bill, of all the monsters and animals that I could have created and tamed, the one who I ended up falling in love with was the only person in all the world who I knew for certain would never hurt me.

...You didn't hear me use that word.

I swear, if you tell anyone I said that, I will break your kneecaps.

His pace didn't change; Shining was still riding me hard and fast, pumping my pussy for all it was worth, but it was different, and I knew it was different. And, to my eternal embarrassment, it was still fucking hot. We shook the bed as we slammed against each other, banging against the wall. He slapped my ass again, but gently this time, to show that he didn't really mean it, and jiggled it for good measure. Sure, what he called a "light" slap was still enough to leave most girls sobbing, but still.

And yet there was something else there, something soft; like his words had done what a thousand fucks couldn't do and cracked a hole in the stone around my heart, letting something else bleed through. Something warm, something bright, something that I could actually feel without having to hide it behind a hundred layers of rough, angry armour. For the first time in what felt like forever, I relaxed my shoulders. I let his pleasure fill me, building me up to something more than just an animal - my cries became more high-pitched - and I was so close, I was so fucking close...

There was a knock at the door.

Shining slowed, reluctantly. He kept going for a few thrusts, unwilling to pull out of me right away, but when the knocks became more insistent he withdrew. I held in a scream of frustration as he exited me. "I'll see who it is," he said, rubbing my hair. "It might be important."

I let out a long groan, eyeballing his equally disappointed erection. "What could be more important than me?" I asked, pleading.

A stupid grin came to his face. "Well, it might be that pizza I ordered."

If I wasn't chained down, I would have smacked him. "You ordered pizza?"

"Of course. Weren't you complaining all the way here that you were hungry for wings?"

Fuck, he was right. And with Suri being vegetarian, he knew that I'd rather have gone without while we were out than put up with her passive-aggressive whining. Fuck him for being so thoughtful. "Fine," I groaned. I shuffled, not abandoning my position even as he pulled my beads out with a pop. "How did I end up with such a goofball?" I muttered, but with a faint smile.

"I don't know. How did I end up with such a bitch?" He grinned and smacked my ass again, playfully, then leaned down and kissed my lips.

"Mm." I kissed him back, and fuck you, I meant it.

All the while, the idiot at the door was still knocking. Shining wrapped a towel around himself and threw one over me, but as soon as his back was turned I bucked it off and stayed where I was, luscious ass in the air, so that the moron at the door would know exactly what he was depriving my Shining of by wasting his time.

I couldn't see anything from my position, but I recognized the voice as the door opened. Some loser from the front desk. No one important. "Mister, um..." He immediately stammered to a halt. Yeah, that's right, asshole, enjoy the view. This was what my Shining Armour got to enjoy. Have fun jacking yourself to sleep tonight, jackass. "Mister Shining Armour?" he finally forced out.

"Yeah?" Shining said. I heard him lean powerfully against the doorframe. He sounded annoyed, either that the guy in the hall was staring at my ass, or keeping him from my ass, or maybe he was just upset that it wasn't his pizza.

"And... and there's a miss... Sunset Shimmer staying here as well? Your... girlfriend?"

"Yeah. What's she done?"

No cause for alarm. I wasn't totally happy about my Shining jumping to conclusions, which weren't entirely unfounded, but unless the police themselves were hammering down my door I knew they didn't have anything on me. I was a ghost in the fucking night.

The poor asshole was wringing his hands. "Well... she's..." He coughed. "Look, I'm sorry we took so long to reach you. For some reason there were a lot of conflicting reports, and some confusion about who we were supposed to contact, and some kind of mix-up about something out of a movie, and-"

"Just spit it out, already. What. Did she. Do?"

He gulped, loudly. "She's... she's in the hospital. She poisoned herself."