It was a normal Monday afternoon for most. For Pound Farthing, it was just another non-stop wall of mental anguish, it was wave after wave of reliving the worst he had done from his victims' perspectives, the fear, the terror, the pain. They had rushed him to the emergency room the previous Friday. The doctors and nurses were stumped at what happened. Early that Saturday morning he had slipped out of the restraints and in an attempt to make the pain and experiences stop, had tried to hang himself by tying the straps to the gurney's frame. Fortunately...or unfortunately, depending on whom one were to ask, an orderly caught him in the act and with help from two other orderlies and a syringe of Thorazine administered by a nurse, managed to stop him. It wasn't long after that, he was transferred to a state hospital, where they were better equipped to deal with patients in such a state.

Which is where Pound Farthing now found himself, arms held in restraints in an observation room under suicide watch. Two orderlies sat outside his room at all times, checking in periodically to make sure he wasn't trying to actively harm himself. Between screams of pain and abject horror, he would whimper, begging his victims for forgiveness.

Doctor Pavlovian Response sat at his desk across from a representative from the State Department and the British consulate. "I understand, gentlemen, that he is wanted in multiple countries on several suspected charges. I've seen the FBI and Federal Marshals' teletypes myself for the crimes he's wanted here in the states. I, however, in good faith, cannot clear him for travel until he is in more stable condition." 'It makes no sense. I've looked over his CAT scans and brain MRIs myself a half dozen times. His whole brain is lit up as if he's experiencing active trauma, but there's no reason for it. If things keep up like this, he could very well give himself a heart attack or a stroke.'

The two representatives looked at each other, exchanging a wordless conversation. "What is the minimum amount of time before you can remand him over for extradition, Doctor Response?", the representative from the State Department asked.

"Standard procedure is to hold him for a minimum of two weeks for observation and trying different medications to see what will work."

The two representatives exchanged a glance again in another wordless conversation. "Very well.", the representative from the British Consulate replied, "I will tell my superiors that they can wait a minimum of two weeks. I believe I can placate them for that long, I cannot speak for anything after that. I bid you good day good doctor." The two representatives stood up and left.

After the two had left, Pavlovian Response placed his face in his hands and blew out a sigh. Why did this hospital get all the loony cases? Last year, it had been a girl, barely seventeen, who had been strung out for weeks on anything that could get her high, obviously mentally ill, ranting that she 'couldn't eat misery any more', now it was an international criminal who for some reason, was experiencing the active traumas of the people he'd tortured, raped and murdered. I could use a drink. No! Don't throw away ten years of sobriety. He paused in his thoughts. How long has it been since Abacus Cinch called me? I'm her sponsor. How long has it been since she called? I hope she's doing well and hasn't slipped back into bad habits. If I don't hear from her in a day or two, I'll call and make sure she's doing okay.

********************************************************************************************************

It was a normal Monday afternoon, the final bell at CHS rang letting the students know the school day was out. Flash Sentry watched as Sunset Shimmer walked though the halls, several of her friends following close behind, beside her, or ahead of her. It made his heart hurt to see the girl visibly flinch at the sound of some guys shouting across the hall to each other, or visibly steer away from groups of guys, propping against a wall and clenching her eyes shut as they walked past. Though he had accepted that he and Sunset were over in the romantic department, he still considered her a friend and wanted to walk over to her and tell her that he was there for her any time she needed someone to talk to. The memory of the day she had a bad freak out and fled through the school panicking made him stop. Part of him wanted to charge in like Galahad and physically rip her away from the feelings that were obviously causing her distress. Those thoughts made it feel like an invisible knife was being twisted in his chest, making him feel impotent.

Flash opened his locker and stuffed his books and other possessions into his backpack. Closing and locking the locker, he turned around and froze. Sunset was slowly walking towards him, Fluttershy at her side. The trembles in the bacon-haired girl's muscles muscles and posture spoke that it was taking every bit of courage for her to do so.

Each step Sunset took towards Flash made her feet feel like they were encased in lead, made her legs like they were made of rubber. Her stomach felt like it was churning with a combination of the most savage butterflies, the kinds of butterflies that would say 'crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of the women' in a Central European accent and the worst hurricane in all of existence, which for some reason, would be called 'Big Bertha'. The combinations of the two images would have, in any other occasion made her laugh hysterically, but now, it was taking every bit of strength and courage just not to run away. Cadance had told her earlier that day that she needed to talk her other friends and explain the problems she was struggling with, that she needed to expand her circle of support.

Taking another step forward, Sunset froze in her tracks. Primal fear started welling up in her, the kind of fear that only one who was a magical descendant of non-magical herbivorous prey animals can experience. Ponies back in Equestria would have called such instinctual fear 'prey sense', but here on this side of the mirror, humans, whom were the descendants of omnivorous, predatory apes, didn't really have the same 'prey sense'. "F-F-F-Fluttershy, I-I-I c-can't m-move." Her eyes quavered in their sockets as she gasped for breath...at this moment she felt like running away screaming or fainting would be easier.

Sunset felt a gentle, but firm pressure on her upper arm as Fluttershy took a gentle hold on her. The yellow-skinned, pink-haired girl with near-crippling social anxiety and enough phobias to make any psychologist's career spake softly, "Don't move any farther than you think you can. Close your eyes, take a few breaths and think of something happy."

Closing her eyes, Sunset took a few deeps breaths. The bacon-haired girl's thoughts drifted to holding a particular girl closer to her, said girl had green skin, dark green messy hair, brown eyes that seemed to glisten like deep dark pools and a bright smile that would have made Princess Celestia hang her head in shame as it made her sun looked diminished by comparison, dark green freckles that speckled the girl's cheeks, that made her even cuter completed the image. A small smile graced the corners of Sunset's mouth as a wave of calm helped to dispel just enough of the fear to make her fell more confident.

Flash stood still, like a statue. He didn't want to make this girl, whom had once been his romantic interest, to run away in fear. It had taken her nearly all the courage she could muster to walk halfway across the hallway. As Sunset slowly opened her eyes, Flash's breath instinctively froze in his lungs.

Sunset couldn't look directly at her ex-boyfriend, so she instead opted to look in the general direction of his head. "F-Flash, firstly I want to...to...", she swallowed what felt like Holder's Boulder in her throat and half-expected Limestone to come storming through the doors of the hallway, eyes full of fury, "...I want to say I'm sorry if I've made you feel...feel feel feel...f-f-f-feel..."

Sunset started to hyperventilate. She couldn't do this. Black thoughts started to bubble up in her mind, thoughts that accused her being the a traitor, a thief, a she-demon. She wondered why the air felt like the was getting thin as she struggled to shove those thoughts back where they belonged. Another black thought bubbled to the front, one darker and more poisonous than the previous ones, it uttered one word that threatened to steal what little precious oxygen was left from her lungs...whore!

Another gentle squeeze on her upper arm from Fluttershy gave Sunset the anchor she needed to dispel the black thoughts, especially the most poisonous one.

Sunset forced her breathing to a more normal pace and swallowed hard before continuing. "I'm sorry if I made you f-feel shitty. You were just trying to be a good friend. I'm a bajillion kinds of messed right now and-and I don't know if I'm ever going to be okay again. Everyday is a struggle for me to to make another step forward. Some days, especially when the nightmares get nasty, I feel like I'm trying to run up a muddy hill."

Flash stood there stock-still, listening to Sunset apologizing to him. On an intellectual level he understood what she was apologizing for. The less intelligent part of his mind, which to be honest, often took over more times than he liked to admit, especially when he was aroused or angry, and right that part was very, very angry at Long Pass and his cronies, was wondering why she was apologizing. Could he reach down into Hell, drag their ghosts out and kill them all over again? Why were his lungs burning? On instinct his body released the breath he had forgotten he was holding and took a fresh one. "Sunset, you don't need--"

Sunset held up a hand to interrupt her ex-boyfriend. "I-I-I kn-kn-kn...", she gave an exasperated huff and attempted to continue, "...kn-kn-kn-n
kn...", she couldn't finish her words.

Fluttershy, sensing seeing her friend's struggle, took a quarter-step forward, placing the back of her shoulder against Sunset's to give her friend a more sense of security. "Flash, I know your trying to be the gallant guy, but Sunset feels she needs to say what she has to say." The yellow-skinned girl immediately retreated her face behind her pink locks. "If that's okay with you."

Flash's words were cut off by Sunset's gesture and the boldness of the normally meek pink-haired girl. Though Fluttershy was normally riddled with severe social anxiety and a whole host of phobias, would, when her friends were in trouble, become a warrior, more savage than the red-haired barbarian woman who wore the practically-not-there chainmail bikini in his dad's old comics, that, he liked to read, for the stories...and because, if he was honest with himself, barbarian women in skimpy chainmail bikinis were sexy.

Sunset, feeling the last of her courage waning, quickly finished. "Right now I'm terrified of guys, but I don't want to be. Would you mind if I t-te...te...tex..." Just like that the last of her courage went out like candle in a wind storm and her voice devolved into unintelligible squeaks. Her eyes, wide with fear, trembled in their sockets and her breath quavered. She quickly went to backpedal, but Fluttershy quickly locked down on her arm and the other five of her friends quickly surrounded Sunset and escorted her down the hall, with Sci-Twi lingering at the back.

Sci-Twi stopped and turned to face Flash. As she opened her mouth to speak, Flash interjected, "You don't have to explain anything to me, Twilight. I know Sunset's going through a lot and it took a lot out of her just to say what she did just now. Tell her that if she ever wants to text me just to say hi, or that she needs someone to talk to, or whatever, my phone is always where I can reach it."

Sci-Twi opened her mouth to respond, when Rainbow shouted from down the hallway, "Hay egghead, catch up! We're going to Sugarcube Corner!"

Sci-Twi gave a nod of affirmation to Flash, then ran down the hall to catch up to her friends, the heels on her shoes clicking loudly on the linoleum. Flash watched Sci-Twi run down the hallway, the perverted part of his brain conjured up an image of the two of them in his room, naked. He shook his head, this Twilight wasn't his Twilight...not that the other Twilight belonged to him, she was a princess in a magical land of ponies...she probably had tons of governmental responsibilities. The perverted part of his brain conjured up a new image, both Twilights were in his room, both were naked. Flash blew out an aggravated sigh, he couldn't win for losing, his ex-girlfriend and friend was dealing with some heavy stuff...and all he could think of was two lavender-skinned girls in his room, naked.

Wallflower sat in Cadance's office.

"How have you been, Wallflower?", Cadance asked.

"Fine.", the green-skinned girl half-mumbled.

"That's good. Have the thoughts of hurting yourself come back?"

Wallflower shuffled her feet and rubbed her arms uncomfortably. She looked down at the scars on her forearms, her mind went to the matching scars on her thighs. She wanted to answer, but every time she opened her mouth, nothing would come out.

Cadance watched as the girl tried to answer. A blind man could have seen she was struggling with thoughts of self-harm. "This is a safe space. Anything you say here stays between us, I won't tell your mom, unless you want me to. Let me ask a different question. Have you done anything recently to hurt yourself?"

"No.", Wallflower answered after a moment of hesitation, she wasn't lying, she hadn't done anything to hurt herself. "It-it's hard sometimes. Most of the time everything feels completely out of control. It hurts, like all the time."

Cadance was familiar why people sometimes harmed themselves, when things felt like things were completely out of control or they were mentally hurting, doing things to harm themselves gave them something they felt could control. But that lead them further down a spiral of self-destruction. "Where does it hurt?" She knew where Wallflower was hurting, but the girl needed to say it out loud.

Wallflower tapped a finger to her head, then to her heart.

Cadance said nothing for a few moments. "Do you want to keep hurting yourself?"

Wallflower visibly flinched at the question. Her mind wandered to to the look of fear in her mother's face every time she found a new cut on her. She dragged a thumb across the few scars with the stitch marks where. She remembered her mother bawling her eyes out next to the hospital bed when she tried to kill herself. Tears started welling up in her eyes. She remembered the look of absolute terror in Sunset's eye through the gap in the stall door, the sound of desperation in her voice when she begged her not to shove the the handful of pills in her mouth. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she started sniffling. "Yes." She hung her head in shame, she was disgusted with herself. "But*hsnf* but seeing the*hsnf* look on the faces of the people I-I-I*hsnf* love hurts worse."

Wallflower buried her face in her hands and wept. "I'm a terrible person!", she shouted between sobs.

Cadance hurried around her desk and wrapped Wallflower in a hug, pressing the girl's face into her shoulder. "Shh! Shh! You're not a terrible person. Knowing that what you're doing is hurting the people you love and that you don't want to do something that would hurt them is the mark of a good person."

Cadance rubbed Wallflower's back and head as she let the girl cry herself out.

Once Wallflower had cried herself out, Cadance disengaged from the hug, stood up, grabbed a box of tissues from her desk and handed them to the girl. "I think you need to tell your mom, Sunset and your friends about you struggling with thoughts of hurting yourself."

Wallflower nodded as she tossed the balled-up tissues in trashcan.

"I have something I want you to do. Every morning after you get out of the shower and every night before you go to bed, stand in front of a mirror naked, look yourself in the eyes and say out loud 'I am beautiful. I am strong. I matter. I am worthy to be loved by others. I am worthy to love myself.'"

"D-do I have to be naked?"

"Yes. Nothing to cover yourself up. It's your body and you should love yourself, warts and all. You can do it in front of the bathroom mirror or in front of a mirror in your room. Somewhere where it's just you and your reflection." Cadance interlaced her fingers as she laid her palms on her desk. It was a simple exercise to teach young women how to reclaim their sexuality in a healthy way when they felt it had been stolen.

Wallflower's cell phone rang and she pulled it out of the pocket to answer it. Cadance turned her attention to the paperwork on her desk

"Hello? Yeah. I'm here in Dr. Cadance's office. Yeah, sure."

Wallflower tapped the red icon on her screen to hang up the phone. "That was mom. She's pulling into the parking lot now."

Cadance closed flipped the paperwork over and stood up. "I'll walk you to the parking lot."

Cadance and Wallflower met Rosewater, who was walking towards the school front.

The acting vice-principal waved as the two walked away. "Remember what we talked about, Wallflower!"

Rosewater opened the passenger side door for her daughter then walked around to the driver's side and got in herself.

"Mom." Tear welled up in Wallflower's eyes as her lip trembled. "I've been having thoughts of cutting again. I-I don't want to, but it's hard." Tears slid down her cheeks.

Rosewater wrapped her daughter immediately in a hug.

That night Rosewater was walking past the bathroom door when she heard her daughter talking to herself.

"Come on, you can do this. Don't be a baby." Wallflower took a breath and closed her eyes. Opening her eyes, she forced herself to lift her eyes past the scars on her thighs, past the scars on her forearms, past her nudity and look her reflection in the eyes. Letting out a sigh, she started,"Okay, here goes nothing. I am beautiful. I am strong. I matter. I am worthy to be loved by others. I am worthy to love myself." Those were the hardest words she had to say and, if truth be told, she didn't exactly know if she believed them. Quickly grabbing the shorts and t-shirt she wore for bed and pulled them on.

Rosewater jammed a knuckle between her teeth in an attempt to stave off crying. It was good to hear Wallflower saying positive things about herself. Tears stung for eyes.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

Rosewater wrapped her arms around her daughter. "I am now baby, I am now." A few sniffles escaped her as she cried for joy.

***

Celestia laid on the cot in the jail cell. One of the things that the movies, TV shows or books had ever prepared her for being locked up was the boredom and long hours of nothing. She was counting the stains on the wall and the chips in the ceiling's paint for the umpteenth time when the sound of footsteps brought her out of her counting.

The jail guard walked up to Celestia's cell and said, "Hey, you got a visitor."

Rising to her feet, Celestia made sure as many wrinkles were out of her jumpsuit as she could possibly get and her hair was at least semi-presentable. As she walked to the cell door, the guard pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "Are those necessary? It's not like I'm going to go anywhere."

"Your visitor requested that you be properly restrained. Said something about having bad issues with his aunt."

"Blueblood!", Celestia snarled. She blew an aggravated sigh and held out her hands. "Fine. Let's what that pompous ass has to say." The guard closed the handcuffs around her wrists and lead her through the hallways. Instead of taking her to the big communal visitation room, she was lead to a private room usually meant for inmates and their lawyers.

"What's all this?", Celestia asked.

"He requested a private room. Said he'd be more comfortable if you were fully restrained.", the guard replied, "You can refuse to see him and I'll take you back to your cell, if you want."

"No, I'll hear what this pompous ass has to say. He probably wants to gloat over me or brag about some sort of acquisition or conquest he recently did. I don't think he's stupid enough to try anything here in county lockup."

The guard led the former principal onto the room, in the center was a stainless steel table bolted to the floor, one one side of the table was a loop for securing the chain on the handcuffs. She was guided to the table, sat down and the loop was opened with the turn of a key, then the handcuffs were secured in it before the loop was locked back in place.

Celestia only had to wait for a few minutes after the guard had left. With an electronic buzz, the door was unlocked, it opened with a metallic click. There standing in the doorway was the son of her younger brother. She wished, not for the first time, that that the same car wreck that had taken the life of Polaris had killed Blueblood too, it would have been more humane of a fate than what laid befallen him. Her nephew had the same cruel stare of his stepfather, Sombra, a man who was as every bit as vicious as he was wealthy, and the old man was very wealthy, though all the money in the world couldn't save that bastard from the brain aneurysm that took his life, if it had only happened sooner before he had passed off onto her nephew his 'life lessons'.

"You look well Celestia.", Blueblood said in a tone that would have made penguins shiver, "I trust you're eating well."

"Let's pass up on the whole faux sensibilities, nephew. You didn't come here for a friendly social visit."

"Dear auntie, why so uncouth?", Blueblood said in faux offence, "I guess you forgot your manners, what choosing to babysit a bunch of teenagers. How many of those little whores wound up pregnant this year?"

Inside Celestia's anger burned bright as a sun, but on the outside she kept her face as smooth and still as a porcelain mask, something her mother had drilled into her from a young age, being the heiress to the Sugarman fortune. "I wouldn't resort to calling young women whores. Especially with your mother's history. Tell me again dearest nephew, how much did it take for her to spread for Sombra, then Tirek, then Grogar? Oh, I remember. The promise of financial security, an eight ball of coke and being the principal of Crystal Prep, in that exact order.", she hated speaking those men's names, each one was worse and more perverted than the last, but she didn't let her porcelain mask slip, "Tell me, did you ever find out who gave her that eight ball laced with drain cleaner? Or was it you that gave her that poison?" Blueblood's facade slipping was all the confirmation she needed that she hit the right buttons before he slipped it back in place. She allowed herself to bask in her small victory.

"Mother struggled with addiction most of her life. I tried to get her in rehab multiple times, but she was tragically taken from this world by some scummy dealer.", Blueblood said in a voice as smooth as silk and as toxic as sewage, "But you're right, I didn't come here for a friendly social visit. I've come here to make a deal. Admit in court you killed my son in cold blood, that he was a good boy who would never harm a fly and throw yourself on the mercy of the court. Do that and I can get you off on time served at the best and at worst, a few month in lockup and community service. Just do that one little thing for me and I can make this all go away."

"And if I refuse"

"This is a dangerous town. Last I heard, the Griff street Lions and the Diamond avenue Dogs were having a little spat. It'd be a shame if that red head you've taken on as your little pet project got caught in the crossfire between those two gangs. Or that cute girl she's seeing. You know the one I'm talking about, the policewoman's daughter, incredibly shy and socially awkward? Or one of her friends. People always end up dead or disappearing, especially if they're on the wrong side of the tracks."

"You're pathetic. Threatening some girls that have nothing to do with you."

"Oh, I made no threats. I simply offered a way for you to leave all this unpleasantness behaind and get your life back on track."

"You're not the only one with money, you know. As the eldest daughter of Thor Thunderhead Sol and Aphrodite Sugarman-Sol, I have access to a fortune as well. Luna and I simply decided not to waste our lives on greed and perversion, and devote ourselves to molding young minds."

Blueblood scowled at Celestia. "So I take thay your answer is--"

"We're done here. Go back to your pathetic, lonely life filled with yes men an sycophants. Guard!"

Blueblood sneered at his aunt, stood up, spat on the table and walked to the door.

"One of these days, dearest nephew, if you don't change your ways, you're going to get yourself into the type of trouble that there isn't enough money in this world to get you out of. Bring yourself to the straight and narrow. I hear that Mt. Aris School of Performing Arts has an opening for a custodian."

Blueblood turned to face Celestia and narrowed his eyes at her. "You are deluded, dearest aunt. There's no such thing as a problem so big that money can't get me out of it. Oh, and take care of yourself, I recently heard that the prosecutor has put in a motion to have your trail moved up and the judge approved it. Until next time, ta-ta! And do think about my offer before it's too late." With that he opened the door and left.

After Blueblood had left, Celestia shook her head. "You damned deluded fool!"

As Blueblood walked through the parking lot towards his limo when his phone rang. Pulling out the phone, he saw it was from his accountant. Tapping the green icon, he placed it up to his ear. "This had better be good."

"Bluey, Bluey, Bluey. As predictable as ever. You disappoint me."

"Scratch?! Why are you at my account's office?"

"I'm not at your accountant's office or anywhere you can touch me. What happened with your little hitpon-hitman was a message for you."

"What did you do to Farthing?! Inject him with mind-altering drugs?"

"Nothing so mundane, mon capitane. With just a little chaos, I brought his conscience forward and with a little change of view, I personally showed him what he hurt. My message is change your ways or Kay-kay and Moony will come deal with you personally, then you and I shall have all the time to get to know each other really well. Except for when I have tea parties with a very dear friend."

"Who is Kay-kay and Moony?! What do they have on me?! Or are you trying to blackmail me?!", Blueblood roared into his phone. He waited getting no answer. "You still there, fucker?!" Again he received no answer. Taking the phone from his face, it was still locked. Unlocking it, he opened recent calls and saw there was no recent calls from his accountant's office.

Author's Note

So for the upcoming chapters I'm planning on Sunset and Wallflower having the house to themselves and also having Rosewater and Biscuit go to a bar for a few drinks. I'm planing on having a budding romance between Biscuit and Rosewater. Would you like to see sexy times between either or both couples? Not an X-rating, more of a hard R-rating.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you all enjoy.

Like the story? Hate the story? Have a question? Want to see sexy times in the next chapter? Don't want to see sexy times in the next chapter? Spot any typos or misspellings? Wanna throw shade or pure bane? Leave it in the comments.