I sat down and pulled the enchanted journal over, chewing on the end of a pen. Twilight and I had just come back from running some scans on the Wondercolt statue, and the readings were not encouraging. Even with the statue repaired, trace amounts of magic was still leaking out, and probably had been since the Games. They already indicated from cursory glances that they had increased from the scan from a week ago.
I sighed, opening the book.
Dear Princess Twilight,
This comes on the heels of a recent discovery that Sunshine and I made. The statue that contains the portal is leaking Equestrian magic into the world slowly. It probably led to the creation of the geodes that we found over the summer and why there was still magic when we fought the Sirens. While I doubt the amounts are anything to be concerned about, I’ll be keeping an eye on them for the foreseeable future. I'm looking forward to talking it over with you when you do come by later.
While I’ve got you here, I have an announcement to make that I’ve tried to find the right way to let you know about it. I’m still getting used to it myself and meant to let you all know sooner but life kind of happened.
Sunshine and I are engaged!
We’ve had the discussions with everyone about the age issues, and by both local law and Equestrian law we are both legal adults, and we plan on having a long engagement. Our counterparts of Cadence and Shining Armor are planning a wedding themselves, and we don’t want to sit on their special day. We’ve talked it out and we tentatively decided that having it on the anniversary of the Friendship games would be best, two years from now.
We’d love to have you all come. On that front, is there any headway on a glamor spell that could pass the portal? We'd love for all of you to be able to come out for our graduation.
Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer.
I shut the book and hopped up, scrubbing my hands along my scalp and looked over at Twilight, who was sitting in a lotus position on the bed, eyes closed and a handful of small knick-knacks hovering around her, moving in slow orbits.
“Having fun?” I asked.
“I’m trying to replicate the orbits of the planets of our solar system,” she said without opening her eyes. “Moving multiple objects in non-sequential orbits in different speed ratios is harder than it seems. I can’t quite get Neptune to move correctly.”
I walked over and plucked the ‘planets’ out of orbit in turn, slowly moving in towards the petite girl.
“Hey,” she protested when I took Mercury away.
“You are my star,” I breathed. “And I don’t want to share you right now.” I leaned in and kissed the flushing girl. After a few moments, I smiled at her. “Besides, we have data to interpret. I know how you like that.”
Her eyes took on the hungry gleam I recognized anytime she thought about research or science. She hopped up from the bed and grabbed my hands, pulling me along.
“What are we waiting for?”
Three hours later, we both were frustrated. We could find no baseline, nothing to compare it to, and no way to keep track of the emissions. Twilight shut her laptop and shoved it away from her.
“We’ve been hip deep in magic since coming back from camp and we are no closer to understanding it than we were before,” she grumbled.
“I’ve been in it longer than that,” I said. “Equestrian magic can be tricky at times, but this is unknown to me. Twilight is still going to pop over before school starts to give us another brain to wrap around the problem.”
“You were so happy to realize you were getting magic at the camp,” she said, resting her head on her hand and looking at me. “Is there any reason?”
“I had been raised with magic, and when I saw that I was getting magic again it was like having my horn back.” I rubbed the center of my forehead absentmindedly.
“Do you ever miss Equestria? Being a Unicorn?”
“I won't lie, every time we’ve visited it’s been like slipping on a comfortable pair of clothes. Walking on four hooves, feeling the surge of magic in my horn, and even the different way food tastes. It’s nice,” I ran my hand through my hair. “But I don’t know if I would say it is any less enjoyable than being here, enjoying time with you and the girls.”
“It sounds like you miss it a little,” she said, tilting her head forward, glasses sliding forward slightly, making her look over the rims. I melted a bit. Something about the way she looked at that moment was just so enticing.
“I did, at times,” I admitted. “But I wouldn’t want to go back if it means I could never see you, share a life with you.” I took her hand and kissed her wrist gently, something I had picked up from her.
“If it came to a life with magic or a life with you, I’d pick you every time.” I pushed a lock of hair back behind my ear. “But right now, I’ve got both.”
She flushed, a grin coming over her face. “Even though I’m not magical?”
“You are magical to me,” I said. “And with your telekinesis, you can almost recreate a planet system's orbital paths. Not to mention that by the time we left Equestria last time, you were just a few steps away from learning unique spells beyond levitation and telekinesis.”
“Could we learn spells here?” She seemed excited at the prospect.
“Something else to ask Twilight when she comes down next week.” I looked around. “I can’t believe winter break is almost over.”
“I can’t wait! Vice Principal Luna agreed to let me do a study hall for Chemistry and Applied Sciences as long as I didn't do any construction. And that frees up my fourth period to take choir with Rarity.”
“You would look forward to school starting up again,” I chuckled.
“Did you hear back from the university yet?”
I shook my head. “Not yet, and it's kind of hard waiting,” I sighed. “Maybe the submission wasn’t all that great to begin with.”
“Mom loved it, and I found it interesting,” she protested. "It was an interesting story for only three thousand words."
“You two are a little biased,” I grinned. “But I do plan on sitting down with Azure during Dew’s wedding and getting a few of her tales to put to paper.”
“She doesn’t mind you using her travels?”
“She seemed rather honored, actually.” I glanced at the clock. “But enough about that, for now.” I stood and headed into the kitchen. “I’m thinking some vegetable stir fry is in the cards for tonight. You staying the night again?”
“You bet,” she said. “Though I wish your landlord allowed pets. I do miss having Spike around when I’m here.”
I smiled to myself. “You might get that wish soon,” I said. “My current lease is up in April, and I’ve been looking at some more lenient spaces.”
“Can you afford that, though?”
I cut her a flat look.
“Right, right, stupid question.”
I turned back to the stove, setting the pan on one of the burners and pulling some carrots from the refrigerator.
“First we eat,” I said. “Then we’ll talk housing and magic studies.”
“Deal,” she said.
When I went to bed that night, Twilight was tucked into my side, and the thought of having a place of our own made me smile until sleep took me.