"So...they're living here?" Flash asked, his voice showing sheer disbelief.

"Yyyyyyyyyep," Sunset replied, sounding rather tired about the point.

"The Dazzlings?" Flash asked again.

"Yep."

"As in the magical Sirens from your world that nearly tore our school apart?"

"Yep."

"And they're not, like, redeemed or friendly now, they just happen to be around and still hate your guts?"

"Yep."

"Sunset, may I speak freely?"

"By all means."

"...This sounds like a really bad situation."

A long sigh from his Equestrian friend. "Preaching to the choir on that one, Flash." The girl looked utterly exhausted, an not only because of the aforementioned scenario she and her friends had found themselves in. She and Flash were in the middle of some hard work right now, trying as well as they could to get a new big chair up the stairs in Sunset's apartment, right up to her upper floor. And given how big the stairs were, it wasn't going to be easy. She was holding one side of the chair, and Flash the other, but while they did their best to carry the heavy furniture, her mind kept dwelling on the matter her colleague had shown such understandable concern for. "Look, it just...it just seemed right, you know? Because of our fight, they'd lost their van. I may not see them as friends, but I'm not willing to leave them homeless because of that. It's kind of our responsibility."

Flash frowned, trying well to make sure he kept a good grip on the chair. "I understand. I suppose I wouldn't have done any differently."

A small smirk came to Sunset. "Oh, no question there, Flash. You're Canterlot's white knight after all."

Flash rolled his eyes. "Well, we all try, don't we? And speaking of trying, how's your end of this thing?"

Sunset grumbled. "I may love this house to bits, but boy did whoever made it not think of how much stuff its owners would want upstairs." The two shared a laugh, but when it ended they grunted together, having temporarily lost the grip they had on the chair. Thankfully they regained it before it fell, but it was still a clear sign that they needed to cut the chit-chat. A silent nod passed between them, and they instead focused on getting the furniture where it needed to be. There were many twists and turns while trying to do this, but they eventually managed to get it up, much to their delight. Sunset, looking around, found a suitable spot not far from where her bed was, and gestured to it as best she could with her head. Getting the message, Flash and her moved in unison towards the spot, and after reaching it they set it down, leading to the expected sigh of relief from the pair of them. "Oooof! I love chairs like this, but they aren't exactly the most mobile things around."

Flash, wiping some stray sweat from his brow, chuckled briefly. "I hear ya. But, it's up here now, and that's what matters." Then, his eyes drifted down to the ground floor, to a chiller box he'd brought with him, and he smiled. "So...soda?"

Despite feeling pretty tired, Sunset still managed to put on a smile. "Oh Flash, you know just what to say to a girl." The two laughed as they descended down the stairs together, and within only a minute both of them had their hands full of their preferred cold beverage. They opened their cans with the usual quick hissing sound, after which they plonked themselves down on the nearby sofa. Taking a simultaneous swig of their drinks, they both let out sighs of contentment. "Oh yeah, nothing beats a cold one after some work." She smiled over to Flash. "Thanks for the help. I'd have never got that thing up there by myself."

Flash shrugged. "Hey, it's no problem." He raised an eyebrow. "But I'm surprised the other girls weren't available."

Sunset sighed again, looking ahead to stare out of her window. "Yeah, well, you know how it is. They've all got things to do right now. Twilight was asked to head up that new 'extra help' class for those younger students, and the others all have their own stuff going on. Not the least of which is Rarity helping Adagio and the other two get set up in town."

At the mention of the Sirens, Flash resumed his earlier look of concern. "Sunset...I know you're pretty big on giving people second chances...but those three aren't like Wallflower or Vignette. These are the Sirens we're talking about."

Raising a hand, Sunset rubbed the side of her temple. "I know. In the grand scheme of things they're probably the biggest enemies we've ever had." She cast a glance to the boy beside her, seeing him continue to look worried, which resulted in her slumping her shoulders somewhat. "I realise that expecting them to take the same road I did is asking a lot. They've spent a long time stewing in their dislike of me and the others. And now, on top of everything, we left them without the thing they've been living in since then. There's probably nobody in the world they hate more than us." She grimaced. "But I was given a second chance, and so have so many others. I have to believe that there's at least a chance."

Flash looked to her with curiosity. "A chance? Of what? Them becoming better people?"

A deep exhale from Sunset. "If not that then at least some sort of peace between us. I can't just ask them to like us, and I can't forget everything they tried to do. All the fun they took in seeing people go at each others' throats. There was maliciousness to them that I've never seen in anyone else." A pained look came to her. "Well...except me."

Flash frowned. "You weren't malicious, Sunset, you were...well...just misguided."

Sunset smiled to him, but she also looked kind of amused by his words. "I know you're trying to be nice, but face it, I was terrible back then."

A small smile from her companion. "Well...you were occasionally terrible, I suppose."

Sunset gave him a playful punch in the arm. "Honestly, how you put up with me for as long as you did, I'll never know."

Flash looked ahead, out of the window, much like Sunset herself had done not so long ago. "Well, guess I figured that, whatever caused you to be so angry to people, it...it was just some personal problem, you know? Something you didn't want to talk about? Guess I kinda felt it was something to give you space over. Something not to hold against you."

Hearing that, Sunset took on a look of guilt, reclining further into her side of the sofa. "Well, you're not wrong about the personal problems...but they were my own fault, just like so much else back then."

Flash turned to her, seeing her take another sip of her drink, and smiled to her. He reached out, gently placing his hand upon her shoulder, and when she looked back to him he spoke softly. "You're not that girl anymore, Sunset. You're better, kinder. Someone I'm proud to call a friend."

Though she initially looked like she was still struggling with the memory of who she was, Sunset nevertheless offered a grateful smile to the words. "Thanks." Then she chortled a little. "Hard to imagine, isn't it? That things have changed so much. You look back to me when we broke up, and you look at me now...it's like seeing two completely different people."

Flash's smile widened. "Like I said, you've become better."

Sunset looked to him mischievously. "And you haven't changed in the slightest. You're still the same boy-scout you've always been."

In response, Flash folded his arms, looking almost indignant at the remark. "Hey, I can do bad stuff too."

Sunset's smirk grew. "Oh yeah? like what?"

Flash paused here, his eyes darting left and right as his mind desperately tried to come up with a proper answer. "Well...um...oh! I put an empty soda can into the regular trash instead of the recycling bin the other day. How about that?"

Sunset practically blew out her soda through her nose after hearing that. "Oh wow. Watch out, ladies, we've got a real bad boy here."

Flash's own shoulders slumped. "Okay, so maybe doing 'the right thing' is just something I like doing. What can I say? It's just something that feels good to do."

Sunset smiled warmly to him. "I hear ya. I can honestly say I've never been happier than I have been since I started doing things for others instead of myself. Selfishness might have taken me far back in the day, but trying to be better to help? Or to be a good friend? Oh yeah, there's no question that it's the better path."

Flash looked to her, looking like he was deep in thought, and then, for some reason, he started to look sad. "I'm...sorry."

Understandably, Sunset glanced back to him with clear confusion. "Sorry? For what?"

A brief shrug from her friend. "That it took as long as it did for someone to come and help you out of that bad time in your life."

To say that Sunset was taken aback by the words would have been an understatement, as she looked downright stunned by his declaration. But it also left her with a lot to think about, and she soon found herself staring down at her now-empty soda can. Flash too was quiet, but he recognised that his ex was getting her thoughts in order, and so gave her as much time as she needed for that. After a while, Sunset took a deep breath before looking him in the eye. "Thank you. But what I did wasn't just a case of me having nobody good in my life, Flash. I had Princess Celestia, I had my classmates back at Canterlot...and I had you." She saw him start to look surprised himself, then continued. "There were plenty of decent people who wanted the best for me, and I just shut out all of them for one reason or another. The things I did, the mistakes I made...those were my mistakes, not anybody else's. You all did what you could...and I just wasn't hearing it."

Flash didn't seem upset by this, and reached out, taking her hand into his own. When Sunset looked back to him, he simply smiled. "Maybe...but that's all in the past now. You have friends, you have a happy life, and you're not going back to that bad time again."

Sunset looked to him inquisitively. "Oh yeah? What makes you so sure?"

Flash paused, but only briefly. "Because I know you now, Sunset. Truly know you. You're not just putting on a facade of who you are like you used to."

Another moment of quiet fell between the teens, after which Sunset smirked again, shaking her head slightly. "Oh wow...I was pretty stupid letting you get away all that time ago." Sadness returned to her, and she held on tighter to Flash's hand, which was still on hers. "I should've done more...to keep what we had."

As before, Flash glanced out of the window. "Maybe...but let's be honest, Sunset...neither of us were really good together back then. It's like...what we had wasn't something either of us was ready for."

Slowly, Sunset looked to him. "And...and now?"

Flash considered the question, his eyes turning to meet hers. "What would you say?"

Sunset looked down, to their still-held hands, and smiled. "It might be worth it..." But then she let go, looking to him and keeping her smile all the same. "...One day."

Flash too smiled to her. "Well then...that'll be a fine day."

Sunset chuckled. "That it will be, Flashy-boy."

The musician groaned. "Ugh! I thought I'd heard the last of that nickname when we broke up!"

Sunset stifled a snicker on her part, giving him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Not on your life, friend."

Looking to her, Flash too started to look amused by the whole thing. "Well, guess 'bad' Sunset doesn't completely disappear."

Author's Note

While it might indeed be interesting to just keep going and going, like I did with my other EqG fic, I think I'll be satisfied just to conclude things in a plain-old nice chapter like this