Resurrected Story! Blog Exclusive

Hello again! Wanted to post something positive on a day where we could use something good.

A few months ago, very early in my writing career here, I published a SciSet fic that was inspired by a scene in the movie La La Land - specifically, the scene where Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have a floating dance in a planetarium. I thought it was a cute idea for Valentine's Day, so I wrote it fairly quickly and published it. For whatever reason, however, it got absolutely shredded in the ratings, attracting more downvotes than upvotes. I wasn't expecting that, and it ended up distracting me to the point where I lashed out and deleted it. As I explained in an earlier blog, that was a mistake, I'm ashamed of doing so and I will never, ever do that again. You have my word.

But now it's pride month, and because I still like it, I've decided to give this story a second chance. So if you're willing to take a chance on a story that apparently upset some people (Maybe I botched the depiction of Twi's powers somewhat? Maybe people just really don't like La La Land?), I leave it here for you. I hope you like it.

Sunset & Twilight's Planetarium Date

Twilight was just about send Sunset a text asking where she was before she noticed a familiar head of yellow-striped red hair waving to her right by the Starswirl statue. "Sunset!"

Twilight dashed over, a big grin on her face. Sunset, having been playing on her phone while waiting, looked up and took a moment to spot the purple blur headed her way. "Hey, Twi!" she said in the short few seconds she had before getting tackled into a hug. "Woah!"

"Hi! I hope I'm not late or anything. I wasn't really sure what activities you were planning, and I got all caught up thinking about whether or not I should dress nice, and I was gonna ask you whether you were dressing nice but then I got worried that that was something I should already know, so then I-"

"Twi, it's fine!" Sunset giggled. "I didn't really put much thought into that. I guess you could say I'm wearing some of the clothes I was wearing the day we first met," she noted, motioning to her familiar blue dress, "but that wasn't really my intent or anything. It's not like I was expecting you to wear your old Crystal Prep uniform."

Twilight laughed awkwardly. "I guess not. I just ended up wearing the semiformal outfit I had on when we met Rose Nebula here."

"Sorry, maybe I should have made it clearer how casual or not this would be. Well, now we can be adorably mismatched." Sunset smiled and patted Twilight on the shoulder as the other girl blushed.

"So what did you want to do here?" Twilight asked. "I was a little surprised when you asked me. It's not as though we've never been here together before, I've probably dragged you up and down every room in the building. I mean there's always new stuff to do here, but I never really wanted to ask you since you know I've taken other dates here before."

"Oh, that's perfectly fine, Twilight," Sunset assured her as they start to wander towards the dome of the planetarium. "Besides, I wasn't really thinking of the usual things we do here when I asked."

Twilight tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." Sunset paused before they could enter the dome. "They finished the last planetarium show a little while ago, but they haven't disassembled the solar system model yet..."

"I still don't get why they do that."

"Me neither. But I was thinking we could do something fun inside."

"Like what?"

Sunset tried to figure out the right way to pitch the idea. "Remember the movie Trot Trot Land?"

"The one that almost won the Oscolt before they realized they'd named the wrong film?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Of course, you love that movie!"

"Remember the scene where the main couple are in the planetarium, and they suddenly start floating and get to dance around in space?"

The lightbulb in Twilight's head lit up. "Oh no. You don't mean..."

"You're wearing your necklace, right?" Sunset asked expectantly.

"Yes," Twilight said reluctantly. Sunset could read her like a book even without using any powers; there was no sense pretending she'd left it at home, as much as she suddenly wished she had.

"Great! We can go inside, everything will be all set for us, and you can levitate us and we can dance around together, just like in the movie! It's the most romantic thing I could think of for Hearts and Ho- Valentine's, I mean."

Twilight was visibly cringing at the thought, and even through the blinders of her excitement, Sunset eventually noticed. "Twilight? Is... something wrong?"

"Sunset... I mean that's a really nice idea, it sounds really romantic, but... I just don't think I'm that skilled with my powers! There's a reason I never try to levitate myself... I'm great at moving small objects around, but big things can get a bit unsteady, especially if I have to hold them a while! And people, well, maybe if I'm just trying to pull someone a little bit in one direction it's fine, but what you're asking could go really badly! Imagine if I lost control! We could fall!"

"I mean I'm not asking you to put us on the ceiling or anything; we can just hover a bit over the chairs so it's not a risky drop!" She sighed. "But, I mean, if you don't want to, I'm not gonna make you. It's fine, I just... really thought it'd be something amazing."

Twilight could see the disappointment spreading across Sunset's face. She cringed as she felt her resolve crumbling. "...Fine. We'll give it a shot. But not too high. And I'll need to test myself before I can bring you up, so that way I don't drop you while I'm trying to lift myself up. You're sure no one else will come in?"

"Positive," Sunset replied, giddy joy banishing the disappointment away. "Most people don't know you can still access the dome after the shows finish. Thanks, Twi. You're the best." And she leaned forward and gave Twilight a quick peck on the cheek, which immediately turned crimson.

"Only for you, Sunset." She opened the door and they went inside. The lights were on; it wasn't going to be the true effect of the movie, since they couldn't operate the projector for the stars above. But between the astronomical mural on the circular wall surrounding them and the model solar system in the center of the room, it worked well enough.

"Here goes nothing," Twilight said. She steadied herself, breathing calmly, then reached out and magically seized herself by her waist. She hoisted herself into the air gradually, hovering stably over the chairs as Sunset gawked.

"How does it feel?" Sunset asked.

"It's a lot different from when we float under our own power in our super modes. Or when we pony up. This feels more like I'm like being held up by a crane or something. But I'm also the one controlling the crane, separately. It's very weird. I wish it was easier for us to just be able to pony up."

"Me too. I was trying to figure out how to do it at will more easily earlier today, but I just couldn't get it."

"That's too bad, because now comes the hard part. Keeping both of us in the air." And so, while trying to keep a steady grip on herself, Twilight reached out and magically grasped Sunset, lifting her up. But while she'd managed to keep herself under control while moving into the air, she was having a lot more difficulty doing so with her partner while also trying not to lose her grip on herself. As a result, Sunset got pulled up quite quickly and found herself being flung around a bit.

"Twi!"

"Sorry, sorry, I'm trying! I told you this would be the hard part!" After a moment's tough concentration, she managed to get Sunset steady in the air, gradually pulling her towards herself as if she was attached to a rope Twilight was pulling. Soon they were right in front of each other.

"Well, I got us this far," Twilight said. "I'm not sure how good of an idea dancing is, though. Floating in the air is one thing, but coordinated movements like that..."

"No, I get it, Twi. That's fine. This... this is already really amazing. Thank you so much for doing this."

Twilight blushed again. "You're welcome, Sunset." And she leaned forward to give the redhead a kiss.

And completely lost her grip on herself in the process.

Sunset caught her as she fell, but now Twilight was starting to lose her grip on both of them as she panicked. "Twi!" Sunset shouted. "Focus! Don't worry about anything else, just reach out and grab yourself!" Clearing her mind, Twilight obliged, separating herself from the other girl and stabilizing herself in the air.

"Woah... uh..." Twilight calmed her breathing down a bit. "I don't know how to do this."

"Maybe there's another way," Sunset thought aloud. "Right now, you have two separate grips, one for each of us, right? Well... what if you don't need to do that? If you pull me back over to you, can you make a larger grip to hold both of us?"

"We'd have to be really close. Hugging, really."

Sunset smirked. "I think I can handle that."

Twilight again levitated Sunset over to herself. "Okay, now, I need you to hug me tight. I'll release you, and you'll have to cling on to me for just a split second before I extend my grip over to you. Then we can just kind of... float around together."

"Got it," Sunset replied as Twilight pulled her the rest of the way. Sunset wrapped her arms and legs around Twilight before feeling the power keeping her aloft dissipate suddenly, and for a second she was terrified she was going to drag Twilight to the ground -- but then she felt it return, now binding her tightly to Twilight. She couldn't pull away if she wanted to.

"I've got you," Twilight whispered, returning the kiss Sunset had given her on the cheek earlier. They started to orbit the planetarium together, admiring the sight and basking in the feeling of floating.

They spent a good five minutes like that, simply staying aloft and taking comfort in being in each other's arms, whispering the occasional sweet nothing into each other's ears. Gradually, Twilight brought them back down to earth when she felt her control starting to wane, and they sat down in the chairs in front of the solar system model.

"Sorry you had to do all the work, Twilight." Sunset said warmly. "But that was amazing. You really are the best."

Twilight beamed. "It all worked out. And I think it really helped with my confidence with these powers. Thanks for suggesting this, Sunset."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Twilight."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Sunset."

As they leaned in and kissed each other, they felt themselves levitating again, but this time Twilight wasn't doing anything. And as they watched each other, they realized they'd ponied up.

"Really?!" Twilight shouted irately as she sprouted wings. "Now it finally happens? Now?!" And she groaned into her palm as Sunset started cackling.

Comments

[Mockingbirb]

Nice ending.