In the nights that she spent, begging on the floor to be good. Falling asleep on the tile floor because she would not deserve her bed. One that she had given herself the luxury of when she believed she deserved ownership of two worlds.

Now she didn’t deserve a smile. One day she’d get up off that floor, tuck herself in, and get a good nights sleep.

But that was a luxury reserved for the good

people. Not her.

“Twilight? What are you doing?” Sunset rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, trying to adjust her vision to the bright kitchen light.

The seven of them had been spending the night at Rarity’s place. They’d planned to stay up all night, but inevitably fallen asleep after getting comfortable in their sleeping bags.

That’s what Sunset thought until she saw Twilight sitting on the tile floor of Rarity’s kitchen.

“Sorry, Sunset. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” She looked away, cheeks a dark purple from embarrassment.

Sunset tilted her head in confusion, but couldn’t judge. She’s done stranger things. So she sat down on the kitchen floor next to her friend.

“Why are you down here, Twilight?”

“I’m just…not used to it, I guess.” She replied, sounding defeated. She was clearly too tired to keep her walls up. The bags under her eyes, now evident after taking her makeup off, showed how little sleep she had been getting.

Her answer, while vague, was clear as a blue sky to Sunset. She wasn’t used to sleeping somewhere comfortable. It’s funny how much of a luxury sleep seems to be when you don’t think you deserve anything.

She wasn’t used to having friends around, she’d never had that support from outside her family.

“I get it, it took me a while too.” Sunset sighed, looking down.

Twilight looked surprised, finally looking up at her.

“You have friends, Twilight. They care about you a lot.” She looked up, surprising Twilight with her eye contact, “I care about you a lot. Because you’re good. Not because I know the you that’s a princess. But because I know that you, Twilight Sparkle, are a good person.“

Twilight stared at her, eyes wide open. Sunset was smiling at her, hoping she could see the bright sun she was.

“I hope you know you’re good too. You’re a good person, Sunset. You give what you never had.” She smiled and leaned her head on her shoulder. Practically passing out from exhaustion. She was comfortable there. Not because it was a cold tile floor, but because it was Sunset’s shoulder.

Sunset didn’t fall asleep. As used to the floor as she was. Twilight’s words didn’t leave her mind, someone thought she was good.

She realized she had gotten off of the floor. She’d never accepted that after everything, yet someone she’d screamed at a month ago had.

Maybe she could get out of that crater outside her school now. Maybe she could get up off the floor…

…In the morning, with Twilight.

Author's Note

another one I wrote a few months ago