It all happens for a reason.
Sunset Shimmer wasn’t much one for conversation in the years after her incident at the fall formal and the recurring incidents that followed, sure she had fun and talked with her friends, but aside from that she was quiet and reserved. Many times she found herself wandering around town with a notebook under one arm and a bag of pencils in the other. She’d find a nice little spot under a tree or in a park, flip to an empty page, and while away the hours with sketches, poems, and other items of fancy that popped into her head. It was on a peaceful and tranquil night that the crimson and gold haired young maiden had decided to take a stroll around her neighborhood.
It was relatively upscale and new, with plenty of brownstones to stand in contrast against shining and sleek new shops that sold everything from foreign food to ballpoint pens. However, seeing as it was so late at night, these sleek shops were closed and only the street lights illuminated the area around her. Her sneakers made small echoing scuffing noises as they roved over the concrete, and she was forced to pull her jacket tighter as a breeze blew through her hair. Up ahead of her she could see one of her familiar spots, an old bus stop that never seemed to be in service.
Sunset smiled and silently approached the stop, then stopped as she noticed there was a young man sitting on the bench beside the sign. He looked vaguely familiar, but it was hard for Sunset to see with the hood of his black hooded sweatshirt pulled up. She could smell him from where she stood, an overpowering scent of different meats, as if the young man worked in a butcher shop or a deli. His skin was pale, Sunset could tell by the hand that idly held a low burning cigarette.
The young woman wasn’t one to let a different look bother her, and so she steadied her nerves and took a seat beside the man. His blue jeans were faded and patched, splotched with oily stains. He briefly glanced over at the newcomer, Sunset could see his eyes were a greenish blue, but the whites of them were bloodshot and sunken while short black hair sat unkempt atop his head. Sunset gasped as she recognized just who he was, but the man didn’t seem to notice as he went back to looking out towards the road.
The man had once been a student at Canterlot High, in fact he’d been on the fast track to becoming an honor student and a history major in college. That had been until Sunset had planted some unsavory items in his locker after he had warned her not to bother him, the school’s zero tolerance policy had been draconian and brutal, and the once golden boy had been run out on a rail with the full backing of the PTA. Sunset had almost forgotten about him, almost, until she saw him beside her.
“Bus doesn’t come through here until later…” The man said quietly as he took a drag on his cigarette, Sunset looked at the ground and noticed there seemed to be ten or twenty crushed cigarette butts and at least one discarded, half empty whiskey bottle. “You should just move along on foot.”
“I’m not waiting for a bus…” Sunset replied as she stared at him, the man just shrugged and exhaled a puff of smoke with a cough. She remained awkwardly silent, setting her book and pencils down on the bench beside her. “You’re… You’re Hindsight, right?” The man took a drag on his dwindling cigarette before speaking.
“Yup.” Smoke flooded out of his nostrils and floated off in the wind, he dropped his cigarette and crushed it under a work boot that seemed to have been taped together with duct tape. Before Sunset could say a word the man had reached into his jacket and withdrawn another cigarette, the man lit it with a disposable lighter and sighed. “And you’re Sunset Shimmer.”
“Yeah…” Sunset said, feeling somewhat shocked that he was so calm considering what she had done. A couple cars drove past, and she noticed that Hindsight seemed to watch them longingly before going back to staring at the street. “I… I never got to apologize for what I did… Guess it’s fate I saw you here.”
“I don’t believe in fate.” Hindsight said as he leaned back on the bench. “Besides, no point in apologizing, it won’t undo whatever damage was done.” Sunset watched the man reach into his pocket, seconds later he withdrew a couple of coins, then dropped them to the ground with a clatter. “Everything happens for a reason, see? Those coins fell because I dropped them, and me apologizing won’t un-drop them…”
“I… Suppose not.” Sunset said, staring at the coins for a moment, then back at Hindsight. “I’m surprised to see you here, most of the times I come around here it’s a ghost town.” The man shrugged once again as he puffed on his cigarette once more.
“I don’t usually come here this early, I’m normally still at work.” Hindsight said grimly, Sunset raised an eyebrow at him and the man wordlessly reached into his jacket once more, this time withdrawing a pink piece of paper. “My services were no longer required. Again.” The man crumpled up the slip and tossed it out into the street, then sighed quietly. Sunset blinked as she watched the breeze blow the ball of paper down the street, Hindsight reached up and pushed back his hood. “Not where I saw myself five years ago.”
Sunset guiltily watched as the man stuffed his hands into his pockets as the ash on his cigarette grew longer and longer. He tiredly closed his eyes and leaned his head back, after a few seconds the woman could see drops of moisture forming.
“You really should just go.” Hindsight said tiredly, Sunset quietly stared for a few more seconds before standing up and gathering her things. As she was standing up she could hear a couple more cars coming down the road, the woman began walking away, then stopped and turned to look at the man.
“Hey… Do you want to come to my place and wait for the bus? Maybe I can give you a ride?” She asked, Hindsight opened his eyes and looked at her with a slightly sad smile. He shook his head, a couple tears running down his cheeks.
“Nah… I’m alright…” The man said, Sunset watched him wipe a couple tears away. “It was nice to see a friendly face, but I don’t think I’ll be waiting much longer.” Sunset stared for a moment, then nodded and gave a slight smile. Hindsight paused, then fished around in his jacket for something else. “Actually, take this with you, don’t open it until you get home.” Sunset raised an eyebrow as she caught sight of an envelope, she reached out and took hold of it, it was simply addressed ‘To whom it may concern’. “See you on the other side, Sunset.”
Sunset slipped the envelope into her pencil bag and nodded, then turned and began walking home. She passed by a couple blocks, her mind racing about the encounter she had just had. The man she saw was a far cry from the once confident student, he almost looked like he’d given up on just about everything aside from eating and sleeping. His words rattled around her head like stones in a washing machine, and as they did a very dark picture was starting to form.
It was a portrait of a broken man, a man that Sunset had broken over something as stupid as a few unkind words. Hindsight was a solemn reminder that even though she had changed, her actions still had consequences, and some of them were far more heavy than others. Sunset stopped in her tracks, her mind running over what she’d heard when she first sat down. The bus didn’t come for a couple hours, and yet he said he wouldn’t be waiting long. A pit formed in Sunset’s stomach as she reached to the envelope and opened it.
“I'd first like to say everything happens for a reason, if you read on you'll find mine are relatively clear..." Sunset began to read aloud. "If you’re reading this I’m probably already being carted off to the morgue…” Sunset blinked a couple times and turned around to look towards the bus stop. “Oh no…” The woman dropped her belongings and broke into a dead sprint the rest of the unread letter fluttering off with the ever present breeze. Faster than she had ever run before she was approaching the bus stop, the wind blew past her ears and she could feel her leg muscles burning. In nearly two minutes she’d nearly covered the distance, she could see the bench and the man seated on it.
To her horror he stood up just as a car turned the corner behind her, it sped past her at nearly forty miles an hour. Hindsight straightened his jacket and ran a hand over his head, then slowly extended his foot over the curb. Sunset was so close now, she reached out in preparation to grab him. She could practically smell him, she just needed to go a little faster. Hindsight either didn’t hear her or he didn’t care, his foot came down on the road and he began walking out. Sunset grabbed a hold of his jacket’s hood, there was a loud honk from the car, and then the jacket was jerked from Sunset’s grasp with a force that nearly toppled her to the ground.
“No…” She whispered as she looked at her hand, then to the street, then to her hand once again. She could still feel the fabric, even though she no longer had it in her grasp, she’d been so close to him. “No… No no no!” Tears formed in her eyes and she ran around the front of the now stopped car, staring in horror at the twisted and mangled remains of a once brilliant mind. Everything that happened after that became a blur, the sound of sirens in the distance, the frantic yells of the driver, all of them were drowned out in a fog. She’d never be able to forget what she’d seen, and she’d never be able to forgive herself for the part she had played in it.
The days that followed were similar in their fogginess, Sunset didn’t know what to say to her friends, even as many of them had tried to comfort her.
“You couldn’t have known.” Applejack had told her.
“You did all you could.” One of the police officers had said.
“It’s not your fault.” They had all said that, every last one of them. Sunset didn’t believe a word of it, she wholeheartedly believed that if she had been a better person sooner, if she had seen the signs quicker, she could’ve saved a life.
She supposed the man had been right, everything happened for a reason, she just wished she knew what that reason had been.
Author's Note
Anyway, I hope you folks enjoyed this, or at least didn't hate it. Leave your ratings and reasons for such in the comments below, and try to have a pleasant day.
