“Out of my way, witch!”
Sunset Shimmer winced as one of her fellow students at Canterlot High shoved her aside into the wall before going back to ignoring her and going on her way further down the school hallway, lockers lining most of the walls between doors. Like she did so often now, her memory flashed back and she remembered what she’d done to another student. For that girl, it was a stolen diary. Secrets and blackmailing her into doing whatever Sunset demanded. Revealing one private experience and getting her laughed at for weeks…
Her eyes closed as she grit her teeth and pushed back the emotions of another long day of paying for her countless horrible mistakes. Sunset didn’t try to hide from her guilt anymore and resigned to the results of the seeds she had sown for herself. She knew she deserved everything given to her since going full she-demon and getting defeated by Twilight Sparkle and her friends.
Despite finally understanding how wrong she was and trying to slowly make up for all she had done to so many in the school, change was very, very hard to endure. And that was with the five girls that had helped Twilight defeat her now gradually working on being her friend. They were still distant, but they were Sunset’s only reprieve from the way all the other students in at CHS treated her. The only small solace from the hell she had made for herself.
Waiting until the hallway was less occupied, she pushed herself away from the wall and did what she had to at her locker before turning to head for the main door.
Her breath caught when she saw him again.
His gray features were still in the same perpetual scowl. His steel gray eyes boring into her with a kind of fury that made him appear like he was about to smash something nearby. Not once could Sunset remember any other expression on Mill Stone’s face but that same angry scowl. A look she knew she deserved by digging up hidden details of his life for ways to blackmail him into doing what she wanted. He was one of the few that never even responded to her attempts at control.
What she had done to him for ignoring her attempts to make him do what she demanded was one of the vilest moves she’d made before she realized her mistakes. She wanted him to just yell at her or something, if only just to stop the watching from a distance like he had been for the past few days. The fact he never did more than stare at her with those eyes of his every day now scared her far more than any more emotional display he might have made.
Like usual, he was several paces away down the hall, just leaning against the lockers with his arms folded, placed between her and the door as he stared straight into her eyes. He had never said a word to her when he watched her. Never even moved other than the turn of his head until she escaped out the door.
Every time that Sunset had to walk past him to get to the door was more unnerving than the day before. It motivated her to make sure to leave before the halls were empty. As she walked swiftly to the door and out of the school. More than anyone else, she regretted what she’d done to him so much more than most.
Sunset didn’t know the specifics, but she had made sure the whole school knew his parents had died violently in their own kitchen.
All because he ignored her.
***
Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Sunset tried to deal with the hallway being more crowded than she would’ve liked. One passing student even slapped the door of her locker against her arm as they went past, making her wince from the impact. Two weeks had passed since Mill Stone began his daily stares.
Even then, she still felt safer than when the halls were more thinned out. She couldn’t let herself wait any longer after what she desperately hoped was just bad luck over the weekend.
She’d spotted him, staring at her out on the street when she’d been getting some lunch before picking up some groceries. He was still there, waiting after she’d left the store.
Staring at her with that same stony scowl.
Her hands trembled as she shut her locker and headed for the door. Try as she might, she couldn’t take her eyes off him for even a second. She had to keep him at least in the corner of her eye at all times until she passed him.
“Move it, bacon bitch!”
Sunset’s heart stopped for a second as she was shoved out of the way by a student she didn’t even bother to look at or identify. Her focus was on Mill Stone, the same guy many students called The Stone Wall. The shove sent her stumbling against the same row of lockers that he was leaning against. Even if she was on the far end , it was far too close to those eyes.
For a moment, all she could think of was what he was planning to do to her after what she had done to him. He had no known friends, other than occasional sightings where he’d been walking beside Pinkie Pie with the same ever present scowl and a transfer student from the other side of the country at the start of last year. There was little known about him beyond posting some of the fastest track times in gym, and doing some kind of martial arts stuff off by himself during lunch period, reportedly allowed by Principal Celestia as some kind of anger therapy. The few times he ever spoke to anyone was said to always sound like an emotionless growl.
Mustering her shaky courage, she glanced around briefly to make sure she had the room to move, then shoved herself away from the lockers and made a wide arc around him towards the door, hurrying to escape his eyes.
Somehow, every moment his eyes were on her, she felt less safe, and that all her sins were crawling across her back, growing heavier by the day.
Part of her felt like he was some kind of spirit of vengeance or something.
And she was next for punishment.
***
Sunset’s hands shook as she was torn between trying to be silent and trying to finish with her locker to flee as fast as possible. She never regretted the loss of her unicorn magic so much as she did today. She had messed up and stayed far later in the day than intended.
The halls were empty.
Sure, there were still a few of the faculty in the building, but they were far away in offices or classrooms. Nobody near enough to witness if a certain someone came after her. How could she let herself be so careless after three weeks of constant stares and fear? Was some demented part of her hoping he’d come and do something terrifying? If only so the stares would stop?
“Sunset Shimmer.”
The growling tone behind her made her shriek just as she shut her locker as quickly and silently as possible. Spinning around and slamming her back against the metal of the lockers, Sunset began to shake as she met the eyes of Mill Stone standing just a few feet from her. He had arrived so quietly she didn’t even know he was there until he spoke.
“I’ve been waiting to catch you alone…”
Her heart raced, trying to press herself further into the lockers somehow. She knew running wouldn’t work, he was faster. And knowing he’d once beat up four of the biggest guys on the football team outside a diner some months ago, a fight they started for some foolish reason, Sunset also knew she had no hope of fighting him off. If Mill Stone wanted to hurt her right now, she would be well and truly helpless to stop him.
“I’ll make one thing clear first. I. Don’t. Like. You.”
Struggling to keep her shaking under some semblance of control, Sunset’s eyes widened just a little more. Countless horrible scenarios danced across her mind’s eye of how this was going to end painfully for her. A moment’s consideration and she decided if this was what she earned for being so evil before, at least she could keep her eyes open to see it start.
“But even you don’t deserve to bear atonement alone.”
Sunset’s mind ground to a halt as she tried to process the scowling, stoic angry stare directed at her in relation to what her ears just heard. “W-w-what…?”
Mill Stone’s eyes glanced to one side for a moment before he turned his stony stare back to her, the faintest of sighs escaping him. “You heard me. I’m patient enough, so I didn’t feel like trying to rush and waited for a moment like this. I’ve been watching you since the all that crazy stuff went down at the school dance. I still don’t even know why I attended that day. I spent a lot of time thinking after that first week and my conclusion remained the same. So I am here to offer two things to you.”
Feeling parts of her skin tingle, almost like they’d gone numb and feeling a chill in her body, Sunset could do little more than struggle with her rapid shallow breaths. She was unable to make sense of what he was telling her, only able to process he had two things to say. “W-which are…?”
While Sunset wasn’t sure her ears were hearing him right, his voice seemed the slightest bit less angry.
“The first one is…” he paused before forcing the words out in his ever present growl, “I decided to forgive you. It was a nasty move, telling the school about my parents getting killed, but words won’t kill me and the hard fact they’re dead doesn’t change. Nobody’s gonna try crap with me anyway. Second, if you’re willing, I’ll start escorting you around the school. You can deal with the words yourself, but I’ll make sure nobody puts a hand on you anymore. And while I’m not much for conversation, I’ll listen if you need an ear. Just don’t expect me to say much back.”
She blinked at him, not pressing herself against the lockers quite so much as she ran what he’d said through her mind. Not only did he say he forgave her, but offered to protect her from the more aggressive students? All she could do was look at him and quietly ask one question. “Why…? Why would you even consider doing that for me after what I did to you?”
Then she saw the last thing she expected from Mill Stone. His shoulders sagged briefly, and while his face hardly moved, his eyes suddenly looked so weary, like someone that hadn’t had any rest in years. “Perspective. Despite everything you did, as disgusting as you ever acted, the people you hurt still get to move on with their lives. In time, it’ll just be a bad memory in a much longer life. A lot of the people you hurt are lashing out without thinking. Between that and knowing how it feels to have the world fall apart on you, I figured helping you through the worst part will help you carry the burden you brought on yourself.”
By this point, while she remained tense, Sunset was more confused than frightened. He was still scaring her a little, but there was a growing sense that he really didn’t have any intention of doing her harm. Lifting away from the lockers to stand up straight, she still wanted to understand more. “That still doesn’t explain why you would offer to help me like that.”
Mill Stone’s voice still had a lot of the same dark growl, yet Sunset was sure there was a sadness to it now. “Because I’m selfish. I figure trying to help you heal might end up helping me find a way to do the same. I’m pretty damned sure you won’t repeat a word I’m saying about it, but you know little of how my parents actually died when I was ten. My dad was a good man, but he also had severe schizophrenia. Accidentally went off his meds one night and lost it. At least, that’s what the investigators thought happened. I’ll spare you the full story, but it ended when he killed my mother with a kitchen knife just after I came back with the shotgun. I hesitated in stopping him and he sliced her throat. Pulled the trigger and his head blew apart as he came at me screaming something I don’t remember. All I know after that is a blur of calling 911 and cops showing up.”
Sunset heard his knuckles pop as his hands balled into tight fists. He took a shuddering breath and she saw him square his shoulders again. “Training to fight and frequent sparring is the only thing that ever keeps the rage under control. After my grandmother passed last year, I had to move here to live with my great aunt. It was that or some foster home crap, and moving far away sounded like a good plan to me. So yeah, that’s why the shit you pulled doesn’t really matter in the end. Put in perspective, you didn’t even do all that much, regardless of what you were trying to do before all the magic bullshit and you were stopped. Everyone involved gets to walk away with only some bad memories to show for it. I want to know if helping you get through this will somehow help me. I don’t give a damn if we never become friends, but I will do what I can to give you a hand up until you get back on your feet.”
Sunset had a hand over her gaping mouth, a part of her feeling so much worse for what she’d done to him, what she might have done if she’d known the whole story about his parents. Without really thinking about it, she sniffled as she put her other hand on the solid wall of his chest as she stepped closer, looking up into his eyes that were somewhere between sorrow and anger she suspected really didn’t go away for him. His experience gave perspective to her own actions, making her feel like her wrongs were somehow a little less than she thought; that maybe she really could deal with it all because it could’ve been worse.
Before she knew what she was doing, she had wrapped her arms around him and rested her head against his shoulder, feeling one of his arms against her back with a gentleness she wasn’t expecting. Strange as the moment was, she felt a weird sort of comfort and safety against him, alongside a long denied desire for someone to just hold her for a while with no expectations, or the brief duration of social norms cutting it short.
Some of her emotions finally overwhelmed her, causing Sunset to weep quietly as she gave him her answer. “Mill Stone, I’ll… I’ll accept your help, so long as you try to accept mine. D-deal?”
His voice still held only small amounts of emotion as he spoke, holding her just a little closer as his other arm wrapped around Sunset’s back. “No promises, but I won’t deny you trying.”
Author's Note
And I've never even watched Equestria Girls. 
Got inspired all of a sudden while reading another 'Sunset Shimmer dealing with her past' fic that was recently up on the Feature Box: My Best Friend by Holy.
It was a nice read. Hope this one was too.
