Night Class

They’d told her that it had been four days since she had been brought in. They had also told her all kinds of medical terms about her condition, mostly concerning her foot, but also the burns on her arm. Sunset didn’t care. All she wanted to know was how Trixie was doing.

When, on that fourth day, the door opened and Trixie shuffled into her room, pale and hunched over, her arm in a sling, and pushing an IV drip, Sunset almost forgot all the orders to keep her foot still and nearly jumped out of her bed to greet her.

“Trixie,” she finally managed to say. She realized she was crying, which was pathetic, but also perfectly fine.

“Yes, I’m still Great and Powerful, thanks to you,” Trixie said nonchalantly as she sat down on Sunset’s bed. “Then again, I’m not that easily defeated.”

“How bad are you?” Sunset asked, still crying.

“I got lucky,” Trixie said. “My shoulder is smashed, but the bullet missed my heart by almost half an inch.” Abruptly she burst into tears as well. She buried her head on her knees, and for a few minutes both girls cried together.

“It’s over,” Sunset finally sobbed, stroking Trixie’s back. “We’re okay. We’re safe.”

“I know,” Trixie sniffled. “I just keep having those nightmares. Back on that roof, when she started choking you—“

“Shush. It’s over!”

Trixie sat up again and blew her nose. “Obviously,” she said with a meek smile. “So, how bad are you?”

“Mostly the foot. They say it will be a while before I can walk normally again.” She forced herself to smile. “It’s so great to see you again. They wouldn’t let me go see you when I came to.”

“They wouldn’t let me either. But I obviously needed to come and see you. And no pesky injury is going to stop the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“I saw the news,” Sunset said, grinning at Trixie’s returning swagger. “They uncovered a part of the story. Of course they didn’t say anything about magic, but they traced it all back to Luna.” According to the news Green Pepper, the cannibalistic killer who had made a spectacular escape from a prison transport twenty years ago and who subsequently died in prison, had donated his body to science. Through some as of yet unclear channels his skeleton had been procured by a Canterlot High School teacher who had been his lover before he had been caught—Vice Principal Luna. According to the news Luna had lost her mind, supposedly over her grief, and had tried to bring her lover’s memory back to life by committing a number of gruesome murders in a style similar to his.

“She tried to bring him back to life, didn’t she?” Trixie asked when Sunset had finished her account. “And she needed you for that.”

“Yep. But we stopped her.”

“Yeah.” For once, Trixie wasn’t boasting about what they had done. For a few moments the girls remained silent, each lost in her own thoughts. Finally Trixie asked, “Can I stay here? I just kinda feel much safer with you around. And I’m obviously the most charming and entertaining company imaginable.”

Sunset chuckled. “Sure. As long as you like.” More earnestly she added, “I feel safer with you around too.”

***

The door to Sunset’s room opened, and five girls quietly entered. But when they saw the scene on the bed, they stopped, grinning at each other.

Trixie and Sunset were lying on the bed, snuggled up against each other on the narrow mattress, fast asleep.

“Let’s come back some other time,” Rarity whispered. “It seems like these two need their rest.”

The others agreed, and the five girls quietly left the room again.