Mirror Redemption

We dumped Sunset's body on the bed while Shining and I cuddled. He lay sprawled against the wall and I coiled myself around him, softly kissing his neck and cheek. He held me close, making my heart flutter, while his had long since returned to a slow, steady rhythm. "Thank you," he whispered to me when silence had fully descended.

I craned my neck and kissed his lips, just lightly. "How do you feel?" I whispered back.

"I feel..." He leaned back further and contemplated. "Good," he decided. "I feel good. I needed this. We needed this." His hand stroked along my side. "It's just..."

I reveled in his touch. "Just what?"

"I just can't believe it was you."

We both looked at Sunset. She was facing away from us, completely motionless, like a used-up toy that we'd discarded once we were done with her. "You're sure she's not a changeling?" Shining hissed at me.

"Dead sure. All natural, not one part synthetic. I wouldn't have brought you here if I had any doubts." I tugged on his chin, pulling his face back toward mine. "But she's not me, okay?" I said forcefully. "She's a different me. She went one way, and I went another. We are nothing alike."

If I'd had my way, it would have ended there. The story was over, the score settled; all he had to do was take me at my word. But his eyes kept staring into mine, a little differently than they'd ever looked at me before, and it knocked a tiny something loose inside me. I pressed my palm against his cheek and felt myself soften. "You know that I would never hurt you, right?"

Still he kept staring - just a little bit too long, probing just a little bit too deeply, seeing something in me that he'd never allowed himself to see before. But then he broke, and buried his face in my neck. "I know," he whispered to me. "I love you, Shimmer. I'll always love you."

I smiled. "I know."

We stayed there just a little while longer. "Come on," I eventually said, starting to stand up. "Rarity's shift will be over soon. We don't want to be here when Pinkie Pie shows up."

"She's that bad?"

"Remember Queen Saline? Like that, but more high-pitched."

"Whoa. Yeah, we should go."

We regretfully parted. Shining Armour started picking up my clothes for me, but my gaze turned back to Sunset. "You go on ahead," I told him, waving him off. "Leave out the window. Make sure no one sees you and head back to the hotel. I'll meet you there in a few hours."

He hesitated, casting a worried look from me to the bed. "Shimmer..."

I smiled at him. "I promise I'll be there," I said. "With no more trouble. Sunny and I just need to have a few words."

That was enough. He kissed my cheek and left. As I sat down on the edge of the bed, I could hear him getting dressed in the other room.

Sunset was in rough shape. She looked and smelled like rough sex, hair tangled, covered in bruises and bite marks, still sticky with sweat and fluids. The cuffs had left hard purple lines across her wrists, and her knees had been rubbed red by the carpet. The remnants of a large, red handprint still lingered across her sweet ass. She didn't acknowledge me in any way when I sat down, not even when I started stroking her hair. "How do you feel?" I asked.

There was a long pause before she weakly answered. "Am I supposed to be feeling better?"

"Fuck no. You should feel like shit right now." I stretched around so I could see her front. Her face wasn't so bad, except for a cut lip and a black eye. Nothing some tactical makeup couldn't fix. "I mean, we destroyed you," I said, watching for any flicker from her eyes. "I thought I'd seen Shining get angry before, but wow. You must have deserved every second of what he did to you. I'm surprised you could even walk at the end. You're one tough bitch, you know that?"

Sunset kept still, staring into nothing. "It's good that he hates me."

"See? You do get it." I leaned closer. "But you can forget about that now. Believe me, if he was still mad at you, he would still be fucking you. Shining and I, we're used to getting revenge in one big, satisfying crunch. What you did to Twilight is over and done. You've paid. You've made things right. And now you can let it go."

She breathed in sharply, just once. She was way worse than me at hiding when she was on the verge of tears. "Does it ever get better?" she asked.

"No. It'll always hurt. This'll always hurt, too. Just because it's in the past doesn't mean it's gone. But after a couple of weeks, today and that day will start to blur together for you. The pain cancels itself out and you start thinking about it less. By this time next year, you'll wonder why you ever thought it was so important. It was just some fucked-up stuff that happened. Oh, but one more thing." I snapped my hand out and twisted her ear, forcing her to look up at me. "That's my body you're wearing," I hissed at her. "You stole it when you came to this world. And if I ever hear that you've been messing with it again without my permission, I will hunt you down and make sure that you live to regret it." I twisted harder, grinning at her wince. "Got it?"

I let her drop. Pain had finally brought those last few tears to her eyes, and for a split second I saw her glaring at me, lips curled to argue. But she covered it up and looked back at the sheets. "Yes, Shimmer," she whispered.

This was good.

From the next room, I heard Shining Armour climb out the window. I moved past Sunset and flicked open the edge of her curtain, letting a beam of falling sunlight flash across us both. Through the glass I could see glimpses of Shining stealthily descending, dropping into the alleyway behind the building. He picked up his cane from where he'd hidden it behind a trash can and limped away, glancing back up at us. I didn't hide the fact that I was watching him, and our eyes met for a few seconds before he turned and walked out of sight.

Even after he was gone, I kept watching that corner for a little longer, waiting until I was certain that he wasn't coming back. When it came to certain matters, our absolute trust in each other wasn't always absolute. Behind me, I could hear Sunset's breathing regulating, softly in and out. I recognized the pattern. Even now, she was still trying to numb things down. Still trying to forget.

I took a deep breath. "Dawn's death wasn't your fault."

Finally, I heard a rustle from Sunset. "What?"

"I mean, you know that." I closed the curtain and looked away. "You've always known. You were just a little kid when it happened. I guess you'd be a foal or a filly or something, right?" No answer. "There was nothing you could have done. Even if you'd run to Mom and Dad, it was already too late. It's a miracle that even one of you survived. What happened to him was never your fault. And I know you know that."

Still nothing. Slowly, I looked down at my lap. "But..." I took a breath. "But I always wanted someone to tell me that it wasn't my fault," I said. "So I'd know that they knew. So I'd know that no one would care if I didn't punish myself for letting it happen. And I thought that you'd probably want that too."

Silence. I felt her eyes burning into my back, but she said nothing. "That's all," I told her. "We're done here now."

The faintest of movements. "Why did you..." I could hear the clever little wheels turning inside her head. "Shining doesn't know."

"No. And he's not going to know." I turned back and glared at her. "That story is mine. I was never weak, I never failed, and I never had a brother. Understand?"

She gulped and looked down at the bedsheets. "If no one knows, no one can forgive you."

"I don't need forgiving."

I stood up and started moving around the room. Sunset rolled over to watch me. I stuffed my clothes into my bag and got some fresh ones from her closet. We were a close fit, except for her bras, which I went without. "He's gorgeous," she said to me as I dressed. "I'm glad the car didn't hurt him too badly. If he'd died, I..."

"His leg's fucked. It's more obvious over long distances."

"Oh." She looked down at herself again. Hopefully some of the marks he'd put on her were starting to take on new meaning. "How did you and him...?"

"He works at a police station. I keep getting put in police stations. You do the math." I slid on a fiery skirt and admired myself in a mirror at the closet's back. "It helps that he's the only one who believed my story about changelings. Plus, he said that something about the way I talk calls to him. Any guesses why that might be?" I smirked at her reflection. "He'll be the only one I take with me when I go after Chrysalis again."

Sunset shot bolt upright on the bed. "Chrysalis is in this world?" she gasped.

"In it? She'd probably be ruling it if it wasn't for me." I spun around dramatically and slowly approached her. "Chrysalis isn't the strongest queen, but she's the most ambitious by far. She doesn't just replace people, she raises armies and enslaves entire towns at a time. Three times she's dropped her cover and tried to take over a major city, and all three times I've stopped her. But she's always learning to build better and stronger bodies, and I've never gotten close enough to kill her permanently. Someday, if she isn't stopped, it might even be your little town that drops off the map next." I grabbed her chin and smirked into her startled face. "But do you seriously not know that?"

Sunset shook. "Tw... Twilight told me that she fought her in her world," she said. "Her Chrysalis tried to replace Princess Cadance at Shining Armour's wedding. She managed to take over the capital for about two minutes before she got banished. The whole kingdom knew about it. Since no one here had ever heard of her, I just assumed... I thought..." Her face twisted in fury. "She's still out there?"

"I'm working on it. And you know the really interesting part?" I let go of her and walked away. "Chrysalis has been trying to get a foothold in Manehattan for years. And by now, her spies have probably told her that her greatest nemesis has left the city undefended to go on a vacation with her boyfriend. Sounds like the perfect time to set a trap, right?" I looked back and winked. "After all I've done to her, she might even want to finish me off with her own two hands."

Sunset gaped at me. "It won't be easy, though," I added. I grabbed my bag and slipped my boots on. "Even I don't know what kind of traps she'll set. Plus I'll have to keep up with school, and socializing, and my regular patrols. When things get bad, there've been times when I've had to go close to a week without sleep just to keep up appearances. You don't know how many times I've thought about how much easier and safer things would be if I could just be in two places at once."

I stepped out and returned Mark Antony to its place on my shoulder. "Anyway, I have to go. Go take a bath before someone sees you like that. I'll be back at around eleven. And for fuck's sake, put your crest back on. You look ridiculous."

"You're..." She scrambled up and nearly fell off the bed. "You're coming back?"

"Of course." I turned away one last time. "Today was just to make up for what you did to the human Twilight. Paying for what you did to Princess will take longer."

Rarity and Coco hadn't made it back to Sunset's door. I wasn't sure they'd even made it as far as the bathroom. When I passed them by they were sitting on the landing halfway between floors, Coco loudly sobbing into Rarity's shoulder. Rarity clung to her protectively as I got close, shielding her from me. "You beast," she snarled at me through clenched teeth. "You fiend!"

I stopped in front of them. "She's in good hands now, right?"

Rarity's glare flickered. "What?"

"She likes puppies." I crouched down so we were at eye level. "She listens to pop music on her own and classical when she's working. She became vegetarian after she started working for Suri but she stares at me like a vulture whenever I'm eating wings, so you'll probably want to get some protein in her. She'll tell you that her favorite movie is The Handbook but it's actually Atlantic Rim, in case you want to have a movie night. She doesn't model and she doesn't like being on stages. For stress relief she likes to make simple shirts and skirts with floral patterns, so make sure you have lots of basic fabrics on hand for her. She's never had a boyfriend, but if the pictures on her phone are any indication, she likes athletes. She likes micromanaging and she'll plan your schedule for you even if you don't ask. Don't tell her to stop. She thinks it's fun and it lets her pretend she's in charge. Get it through her head that ice cream isn't gonna make her fat, because fuck knows she never listens to a word I say, and whatever you do, don't ask her to make any lingerie for you until you've had a chance to book her for some therapy. I didn't even see the results and even I'm turned off crotchless panties now."

Coco didn't stop sobbing the entire time. Rarity just stared at me, rage and confusion beautifully clashing on her face. "I'm counting on you," I told her, putting my hand on her shoulder. "Look after her. She's been through a lot of awful things to get here."

Rarity kept up her distrustful scowl, but she did wrap her arms around Coco a little more tightly. I stood up and walked off, whistling. To no one's surprise, neither of them called me back.

The lobby was still empty. I walked across it slowly, letting my whistling die. Now that I had a moment to myself, between intimate rooms and the public eye, I stopped and released a deep breath. I cleared my mind like a dog cleans itself fresh out of the rain, mentally flinging emotions in every direction. All this sticky, depressing friendship drama couldn't be good for me. Feelings were for normal people; they could let themselves get distracted and lonely and suicidal all they wanted. All I really needed to live in this world was myself. And sometimes Shining Armour. And sometimes Shining Armour's cock. But mostly myself. And with nothing in the world but myself, alone, I could concentrate on what was truly important.

So, Chrysalis is into weddings, huh? Interesting. I wonder if I have any allies I could rope into getting married soon...

My face cleared, and my smile returned. I took the last few steps toward the door, and my hand was almost touching it when a furious voice behind me rang out. "Shimmer!"

I stopped. Slowly, gracefully, I turned around. Twilight Sparkle stood at the far end of the lobby. My eyes flicked over her quickly: good posture, faded clothes, pony bracelet, hair striped on her left side. Princess. "Hello, Twilight," I sang back, putting on a syrupy sweet smile for her. "How wonderful to see you."

We approached each other slowly, like feral cats. I kept up my smile and carefree movements; she stomped forward with her fists clenched and distrust in her eyes. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"What do you mean? I live here." I struck a pose, hand on my hip. "Don't you recognize your friend?"

"I know my friend better than you ever could," she answered. "And I don't see any of her in you."

We started to circle each other, watching one another's eyes warily. "That's it?" I said. "You're not even going to try to be my friend? Some princess."

She twitched, but kept her voice steady. "What have you done with Sunset?"

"Nothing she didn't ask me to." I stretched, looking disinterestedly at my fingernails. "She's still alive, if that's what you mean. Oh, and by the way, I'm taking her back to Manehattan with me."

"No you're not."

"Aren't I?" I smirked. "And who's gonna stop me?"

Our gazes met. Princess glared at me with an otherworldly intensity, which I met with narrowed eyes and a wicked smile. If bolts of lightning had flashed between us at that moment I wouldn't have even blinked. "Not so tough without your friends, are you?" I said when she didn't immediately answer me. "You've failed, ponygirl, plain and simple. Now it's time to let someone else have a turn. Hand Sunset over without a fight and I'll bring her back to you better than she's ever been."

She all but growled at me. "Sunset will never choose you," she said. "She needs her friends."

"Oh, please." I dismissed her words with a wave. "You think it matters what Sunset chooses? You don't even trust her enough to leave her on her own for a few hours without her killing herself."

"We're watching out for her because we love her!" Princess burst out. "You don't know what that's like. You've never loved anyone except yourself."

"And who's Sunset if not me?" I stopped and faced her with my shoulders square. "I know her, inside and out. I know exactly how to look after myself. And that means I know exactly why your magic of friendship is never going to help. Do you want to know why?" I sashayed forward and leaned into her face. "Because you're a freak. Your whole friendship act's a sham, and you know it. Take away your sparkly magic and Sunset would still be alive and unharmed, and far, far away from you."

She took it pretty well, even if I could detect hairline cracks running through her temper. "I've heard speeches like that before," she said. "And every single time, they've been proven wrong. The love I have for my friends is real. Sunset and I are the only Equestrians in the entire world. That's a bond that no one else in this whole universe can share. That means that if you can know exactly what's going on in her head, then I know exactly what's going on in yours." She grinned triumphantly. "And that means that I know exactly how to defeat you."

"Oh, really?" I let my smirk twitch. "With what? Another brainwashing?"

"No. Ever since I met you, I've been doing what I do best. Research." She started to circle around me, speaking in a low voice. "Hollow Shades News, January Edition. 'Four children abducted, only witness evades police.' Fillydelphia Spotlight, Election Special. 'Mayor a changeling! Riots amidst political upheaval after vigilante decapitates impostor!' Manehattan Tribute, second week of March. 'Terror in the glass factory: Mechanical behemoths spill into the streets! Police seek vigilante for questioning!' Hollow Shades, again! 'Infant abductions on the rise! Could wandering bounty hunters be the cause?'" She circled faster, her voice rising into a shout. "'Underground grafting ring exposed, shootout leaves three dead! Red-headed woman seen fleeing the nursery!' 'Death of Queen Thorax sparks changeling arms race! Could your city be next?' 'Entire town of Horsmouth disappears into the ocean! Sole survivor refuses to comment!' 'Changelings slaughter six students, attempt to frame local vigilante!' Noticing any patterns?"

She'd done her homework. I stood strong as my failures battered me from all sides. "All I'm noticing is that you haven't learned not to believe everything you hear on the news," I said in a bored voice.

"Every time you try to help someone, the only person to come out of it unscathed is you." She stopped in front of me, glaring fiercely. "You don't care about saving anyone's life. You just care about finding monsters to destroy. If I let Sunset go with you, you'll just use her as bait in some half-baked trap and she'll end up dead, or worse."

"That's funny." I wrinkled my nose at her. "Because it seems to me that if I leave her in your care, she'll just go back to the same old patterns and wind up dead as soon as your back's turned."

"At least we can keep her safe," Princess snarled. "You just bring disaster everywhere you go. It's you who's the failure, Sunset Shimmer."

I twitched. I swung my hammer down from my shoulder and smacked it into my palm behind her head, locking her close to me. "Listen, little girl," I hissed into her face, "I don't bring disaster, I sniff it out. I rip it open under the noses of people who like to stick their heads in the sand and pretend it isn't happening. People like you."

"I have never claimed that what's happening with Sunset is okay," she countered. "But violence is never the answer. It just inspires more violence in those around you."

"Oh, yeah?" I sneered. "And I bet this town was just teeming with monsters and escaped demons long before you showed up, right?"

This stunned her into silence. "Don't give me any of your holier-than-thou crap," I said. "We both want the same thing. We want to make Sunset better. But unlike you, I'm willing to compromise my principles to make it happen. I was even thinking about bringing her back, once I'd deprogrammed your friendship-fixes-everything bullshit from her. But now? I might just brand my crest on both her ass cheeks and tell her Twilight Sparkle gave me permission to use her however I want."

Her armour was starting to crack. I could taste the anger radiating off of her in waves. "You. Wouldn't. Dare."

"And why not?" Our faces were almost touching. "As long as I'm keeping her alive, why shouldn't I have my fun with her as well? It's no different from what you've been doing." It took a concentrated effort for her not to snap at me. "Aw, what's wrong? Is this not going like you planned it? How did you think this would end?" I cracked Mark Antony's handle hard against her shoulders and dropped her to her knees. "Me on the floor, begging for forgiveness?"

She struggled to rise. I lifted my arms and kicked her in the chest, sending her tumbling over the linoleum. "Give it up, Princess," I laughed as she weakly cried out. She glared up at me as I approached, tears of pain and anger clouding her vision. "You can't stop this," I said, crouching down beside her. "Even if you were in the right, you can't. Sunset's mine. She was mine ever since she arrived in this world. I'm going to take her. I'm going to return her to the way she's supposed to be. And there isn't a force in this whole world that can stop me."

Her fingers curled against the tiles. I let her have her moment to get her breath back. "Fine then," she said, determination calming her words. "And what if I used a force from outside this world?"

My smile grew. "Is that a threat?"

"I don't want it to be." Princess raised herself up to a kneeling position, meeting my eyes again. "When Sunset fully realized the consequences of her actions, she stopped immediately. The moment she truly knew what it meant to hurt another person, she gave up on that path and never looked back. I'd hoped that you would be the same."

"Sounds like you could stand to learn some things from her."

"But you haven't learned that lesson yet," she went on forcefully. "And when you do, it will be hard. I've seen it before. It was Sunset's anger that led her to destroy the mirror portal, and that was what changed her life. What happened inside her was nothing to do with me. It took her losing everything for her to see that her dark path was destroying her. And wicked as you are, I don't want you to make the same mistake." She glared again, and something sparked in that glare. "If you carry on this path of vengeance and destruction, someday you will break something that matters to you. I won't let that thing be my friend. I know that there's good in you, and I wish I could have gotten to see it, but I won't let that come at the cost of letting someone we both love die."

I paused. Just a tiny, simple, completely inconsequential pause. Then I scoffed. "So, what?" I said. "You think I should just give up my quest to avenge my parents? I should just let Chrysalis have Manehattan?"

She kept her gaze steady. "All I'm saying," she said, "is that if I see you around Sunset ever again, I'll use the Element of Magic on you."

We let that sit between us. "Interesting." I shifted. "And what would that do, exactly?"

She tried to keep my gaze, but couldn't. "You don't know?" I laughed as she looked away.

"I know what it would do in my world," she said. "But here, I've... I've only used it on another human once."

"And you just said yourself that it did nothing. The damage to her was already done."

"It doesn't damage anything. It fixes them." She looked back at me again, fiercely. "Even if fixing them means sealing them away for a thousand years."

"And you'd do that to me, would you?"

The pain on her face alone made this whole conversation worth it. "Well then." I stood up gracefully. "Your Sunset must mean a lot to you if you're willing to become a monster to defend her." With a new type of smile, I held out my hand to the girl on the ground.

Princess looked at me suspiciously. I watched her wrestle with herself for a second and then let me help her up. Once she was standing she tried to pull her hand away, but I didn't let it go. "Has she ever told you how much you mean to her, though?"

Princess tugged desperately with both arms, trying to break out of my iron grip. "What are you talking about?" she said, trembling as I drew close.

"The way she looks at you. The way she thinks of you. What she does whenever you're not around." My voice slipped into its well-practiced sultry tone. Mark Antony pressed hard into her back, pulling her near to me. "Don't tell me you don't know," I whispered.

Our chests brushed, sending a faint thrill through me. By the look on her face, it sent something quite different through her. "You're lying," she said. "Sunset's not like that."

"But Twilight, we're friends. Why would I lie to you?" My arm locked around her. I let go of her hand and held her by the back of her neck, feeling her perfect purple skin crawl. Her hands pushed against me, her delicious, perky little breasts pressed against mine, I could feel her heartbeat under the pad of my thumb. "Feel me," I said, letting my breath graze her lips. "Feel what your body does to me. Don't you think your Sunset feels the same?"

She squirmed in my grip, trying to get away. "Stop this," she ordered.

"Don't you want to know?" I licked my lips, pulling her face closer and closer to mine. "Don't you want to give your friend what she's always... always wanted?"

"Let... go of me!" With a furious shriek, Princess managed to force both her hands between us and shoved with all her might.

Instead of standing strong, I crumpled like paper under her touch and tumbled to the floor. Mark Antony fell from my grip and clattered away across the tiles. I made no effort to move or catch myself; I just lay there while she stood over me, taking this in. "Shimmer?" she said.

"Twilight?" This time, my voice was shaky. I lifted myself up on trembling arms and gave her a look that made her take a step back. Fear, pain, loss, betrayal; all of it was written onto my face. "Why?"

"...Sunset?" Eyes widening, she slowly put her hands over her mouth. "Oh my gosh. Sunset?"

"Twilight, I..." I fell away from her again. "I just wanted..." Then I burst out laughing. "Oh, for fuck's sake. You really are pathetic."

I sprung to my feet and brushed myself off, throwing a smirk to Princess' stunned face. I kicked Mark Antony into the air and caught it. "Just as I thought," I said. "You need her a fuckload more than she needs you. You think I can say the same?"

Anger came back to her in slow bursts. "Shimmer, that is not okay."

"Like I care. At least I don't need coercion to show my true colours. What you see is what you get." I turned to leave. "That's another thing I'll have to get Sunset to remember. It's retarded, how you girls have to make a big song and dance of stuff just to show each other your real feelings. My way's much better."

"You're wrong." Princess balled her hands into fists. "Sunset knows how to control her feelings. She would never use them to hurt me like you just did."

"You're sure? No matter what I do to her?" I looked back, grinning. "Then what are you so afraid of?"

This silenced her again. "Let's make a deal. Meet me at midnight in front of Canterlot High. There's something I want you to see. Take your stupid crown thingy if you really want to. I can guarantee you won't be using it." I started back to the door. "Oh, and bring your fuck buddy, too."

Princess reddened. "His name is Flash Sentry, and he's my boyf-"

"Not him, stupid. The other one."

All that toughness dissolved right away into stammers. "H...how do you..."

"I'm pretty sure the whole building knows. I don't think Sunset's figured it out, but it's only a matter of time." I gave her one last smirk and a wink. "Might want to keep your voices down before all your friends find out that their leader gets off on fucking her own clone."

I wished again that I could make a photo album of all the glorious faces I'd seen that day. "See you soon, Princess Twilight," I called, seeing myself out.

The doorman had disappeared. The outside air tasted delicious. I stretched and breathed, basking in the Sun's radiance while a cool breeze soothed me. This little town, bland as it might have been, was starting to grow on me. I'd have to start planning vacations here more often.

If you carry on this path of vengeance and destruction, someday you will break something that-

Ridiculous.

I felt a pressing need to find Shining Armour again. I adjusted my bag and hammer and started to hurry down the street, remembering too late that only Coco and Shining had tokens for the bus, and already knowing that I wouldn't make it back to the hotel until after the light had faded.