Pinkie Pie didn't find it funny, and, quite frankly, she wasn't sure how anyone could. Okay, sure, up until recently Sunset Shimmer had been the school bully. Okay, sure, she'd been pretty mean. But did that mean she deserved everything her schoolmates were throwing at her? No, not at all. She could excuse the mean looks in the hallway, the scattered insults and occasional locker shove, simply because that was what Sunset had done. It wasn't right, but she could excuse it.

The fact that it constantly went further is what concerned her, but what concerned her more was the fact the students found it funny. She could see how it tore at Sunset, and, for fucks sake, the girl had said she deserved it. No one who was taking something like this well said they deserved it. She'd broken down in the cafeteria and ran out, and they laughed. They laughed. Couldn't they see what they were doing to her? What concerned Pinkie the most was simply her tone of voice. She finally sounded defeated. Dead, done, finished, finale'd, over, defeated. It was a tone of voice that Pinkie couldn't bare to hear from anyone, and even if she hadn't dealt with it personally, she knew people who had.

One thing always stayed the same, the tone of defeat.

But Pinkie was determined not to let it happen here, and that was why, despite her friends telling her not to, to let Sunset cool down, Pinkie was trying her best to track the girl through the currently almost empty school hallways. Because Pinkie suspected, at least, that if they left her to cool down, it would be her cooling body that was found. It wasn't a risk she wanted to take. Pinkie pushed her way past a small group of students, ignoring their attempted greetings. She just didn't know how anyone could find a student potentially suffering from suicidal thoughts or tendencies funny. Sunset may have done a lot of things, but Pinkie had noticed how she never stayed on one target long enough for it to go that far. But now they were doing it to her.

Why? Because it was funny.

This isn't comedy, she scoffed, comedy is the state of global politics as a result of the United States of America of the readers world.

But no one else would know that. But they should still know that this? This wasn't comedy. This wasn't how you got people to laugh. So it was that when she eventually spied Sunset headed for the entrance, she ran after. Grabbed her wrist, and held, despite the flinch.

"Let me go, Pinkie."

The defeat.

"No."

"Just let me g-"

"NO! Because, quite frankly, Sunset Shimmer, what they have been putting you through is wrong. And-"

"But it's not, Pinkie. I deserve it, all of I-"

"You don't, Sunset, because you never stooped as low as they have, you never drove someone to the point of skipping school to commit suicide, Sunset!"

Sunset froze, and Pinkie was mildly aware of the small crowd behind her who had frozen as well, muttering starting.

"How did you-"

"Because I recognised the tone of voice, Sunset. I've seen people with that voice only for them to be gone the next week. I've seen people where you are, and I've never seen them again, Sunset. I can't, I won't let it happen to you too."

Sunset snatched her wrist away.

"It doesn't matter, Pinkie. No one cares. Everyone's better off without me-"

"I wouldn't be."

"What?"

"I said I wouldn't be better off without you. And if they took even a fucking second to think about it, they'd find they wouldn't be either."

"You're just saying that-"

"No, Sunset, I'm not, because who was it that got Lyra and Bon-Bon together? Who was it that gave Flash the confidence to start his own band? Who was it who gave me friends a reason to start talking again? Who was it, Sunset? Who was it that, after the formal, started pushing people to be better? Even when they wouldn't let her be better?"

Sunset took a step back, and Pinkie took a step forward as the muttering strengthened behind her.

"Because I know it was you, Sunset. Even when you weren't trying to, you made things better for people. Even when you knocked them down, you gave them the capacity, the ability, the connections to get back up again, better. You got them laughing, Sunset, even when you didn't want them to. Because when they were with the friends they formed, they were happy, and the fact that they can't see that you're trying is just criminal, Sunset."

The girl with fire in her hair just stared at Pinkie, clutching at her wrist, before her head snapped back to the door, and Pinkie's eyes widened as she looked at her own hand to find specks of dried blood.

"You didn't-"

"It doesn't matter, Pinkie! No one cares! They never will!"

Pinkie felt her heart drop as the girl's voice cracked.

"I couldn't even kill myself properly! So what if I leave and never come back? No one will even notice!"

Sunset tried to back out the door, and Pinkie reached forward again, grabbing her upper arm.

"I'll notice, Sunset, and I'll hate every single day that you don't walk through that door because I couldn't stop you from staying, because I couldn't just tell you."

"Tell me what?"

Her voice was rhetorical, but Pinkie answered anyway.

"That I care, Sunset, I fucking care because I want everyone to smile, I want everyone to laugh, but I want you to the most. Because I- I fucking love you, Sunset. And I couldn't bare the thought that their inability to see what you've done for us, before and after the formal, would cause you to end it."

Silence.

"Is- is this some kind of joke?"

Pinkie shook her head.

"Jokes are funny, Sunset. What they've done, some sort of cruel prank like that? That's not funny, Sunset, that's not a joke. And we all know I'm not a cruel person, so are you going to believe me?"

Pinkie looked up again as her hands slid down to hold Sunset's wrists once more, finally getting a complete view of Sunset's face rather than just the back of her head. Her cyan eyes shimmered behind tears that spilled over her cheeks, self-loathing mixed with hope in a delicate cocktail of wild emotion, each threatening to throw off the fragile balance that held Sunset in place.

"I want you to be happy, Sunset. I want you to laugh because you found something funny, not because you found another reason to hate yourself. I want to give you those reasons to laugh, Sunset. I want to be there for you when you have a bad day, but I need you to be here Sunset, because if you weren't, I couldn't laugh again, because I would have failed you."

"I-"

"You don't have to give me an answer. Not today, not ever, but I need you to kn-"

Pinkie tasted strawberry on her lips, felt the cool amber that was the wrists she held, felt the grip of someone gaining strength on her waist. Watched herself sink into the moment as her eyes fluttered shut, as her hands felt their way to hers, as their bodies pressed together. They pulled apart, and the silence had frozen over for a moment before the muttering returned, both girls blushing furiously as they watched each other.

"Okay."

Author's Note

So yeahhh, two fics with suicidal leanings in two days. Sorry? I just really enjoy writing broken up Sunset for some reason. I might need to speak to a therapist lmfao. Anyway, im hoping day three will get to be more cheery. Oh also! these are going to be based off of the ones I get during the week only, so no daily ticket on the weekend simply because I dont have to look at my ticket. In other news, I might go back on my word and put Dying Rays on hiatus to work on at least a few of it's prequels, most notable 'I Can Make It All Alright', its partner, 'But Will You Forgive Me?' and also the rewrite for the anon a miss work whose name i cant remember wait no, 'Number On A Tally', thats it. Mostly just to put them all in line and keep them together with my ideas (WHICH I ACTUALLY WROTE DOWN, CELEBRATION WOOOOOOOOO)
Anyway, hope you all have a great rest of your day I Love You All GOODBYE <3