Sunset and Starlight walked back into the main room of the Castle of Friendship. The papers originally sitting atop the Cutie Map table were cleared now, tucked into several neat filing folders in a far corner. The stack of folders stood as high as the table itself.
Twilight Sparkle, however, was still there, sitting in her chair in waiting. The moment she noticed Sunset and Starlight, she gasped, and jumped out of her seat.
With a squeal, Twilight ran towards Sunset. Sunset did the same towards Twilight, and the two embraced. Starlight looked on, watching the two exchange high-pitched, babbling greetings and small talk.
Sunset had more than once told Starlight of the relationship she and Twilight shared, but this was the first time Starlight had gotten to see it up close. Starlight wondered if it was possible to die from cuteness overdose. If so, there were worse ways to go, she concluded.
Eventually, Sunset and Twilight calmed down, turning their attentions back to the full room proper. "Oh, yeah, hey, girlfriend," Sunset said, winking, and gesturing a hoof towards Starlight. "I brought your girlfriend."
"Thanks so much, girlfriend!" Twilight said, winking back. "How's your girlfriend doing?"
"Locked in her lab, alone, in the middle of some crazy science," Sunset said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "I know better these days than to interrupt her experiments unless she asks me to be around. Electrocutions have happened more than once."
"I know how that goes," Twilight said. "Well, magicutions over here. Do electrocutions hurt any less?"
"Nah, they just hurt different body parts," Sunset replied. Anyway, I'll tell her you said hi. For now, though..." The two parted and turned to Starlight, who had let her mind wander during the proceedings.
The moment she noticed them looking at her, Starlight tensed, her mind scrambling. She managed an awkward wave and went with the first pieces of words that came to mind. "Hey, there! I'm, um, sorry I've been acting weird tonight, you guys. Also, uh, sorry for using the mirror to go back and forth like it's a jog next door to borrow milk and sugar?" She put her hoof behind her head with a sheepish grin. "Though you know, it's pretty cool that we can do that. Just saying."
Twilight and Sunset stayed silent.
"R-right." Starlight cleared her throat, shifting back and forth on her hooves. "Well, I'm sure you're all totally wondering why I called this meeting. Twilight asked me a question, and I've made a decision."
Starlight took a deep breath. "Sunset clued me into something while she and I were talking. That being: guidance counselors help students with their problems. Social, life, scholastic—and those are all problems I've had in abundance ever since I turned over a new leaf and became Twilight's student.
"I was broken and needed to be fixed. Which Twilight and her girlfriends did. Which, in turn, also means that pretty much any problem someone can come to me with, I've already probably experienced an even worse version of. Which, also in turn, makes me perfect to be a guidance counselor."
Starlight looked away, kicking an imaginary rock on the floor. "Because I can guide and counsel people towards not living the life I did. Towards not making the bad choices I made. Towards... well, not being me." She looked back to Sunset and Twilight. "So, yes. I'll do it. If you still want me to."
Twilight and Sunset stayed silent for several moments... then smiled.
"Of course, we do," Twilight said, walking towards Starlight. "Though, nothing you just said was, in any way, what we were thinking when we considered you for the position."
Starlight recoiled. "It wasn't?"
Twilight shook her head.
"Then—" Starlight was going to inquire further, but Twilight's words had also jogged her memory, reminding her to finally ask a question that had been at the back of her mind all night. "Hold on a second: you've been saying 'we' this whole time. Who is this 'we'? Who else was with you on this?"
Twilight's smile widened. "Oh, you finally noticed." She used her magic to materialize a pink envelope in midair between herself and Starlight.
Starlight took the envelope with her own magic and turned it around in the air. "This envelope bears the royal seal of Canterlot!" she said.
"Sure does!" Twilight said. "Seeing how unsure you were about your qualifications tonight, I figured calling in a reminder or three might come in handy."
Starlight opened the envelope, unfolded the letter, and read what she recognized as Princess Celestia's hoofwriting.
"'Dearest Starlight Glimmer, it has taken us some time to figure out exactly how to word this, and for that we apologize. But, far more importantly, I must thank you for helping me and my sister, Princess Luna, with our friendship problem some months back. Getting us to walk a mile in our cutie marks was a stroke of genius as well as masterful magic, and in doing so, you taught us so much about each other, and brought us closer than words can ever say...'"
A quick skim of the letter revealed only more words of gratitude. Starlight got the gist, and appreciated it, but another fact came to mind more readily to her. She turned to face Twilight and Sunset.
"Would you believe I actually forgot about this too?" Starlight said. "I mean, I didn't forget forget, Daybreaker still pops into my head every now and then just to make me shiver out of my horseshoes, but... there hasn't been a lot of reason for me to think about it again."
"For you, maybe," Sunset singsonged. "But nooooooot them."
"Because for them, it was a life-changing event," Twilight said.
"And for me, it was the world's biggest dice roll which I don't like thinking about!" Starlight exclaimed. "You think I walked into Canterlot Castle knowing what to do? Or with any kind of patience? I switched their cutie marks because even after listening to their stories and offering what advice I could, nothing worked! I just wanted them to stop bickering at each other!"
Starlight sighed. "I get what the Princesses mean to say, I appreciate their gratitude, and I still accept this offer. But I don't know if I'll ever not be shaky about it, every day I'm on this job." She looked to Twilight. "So, this was all their idea, huh?"
"Oh, no," Twilight said. "They just agreed when we brought it up."
"Seriously!" On instinctual frustration, Starlight stamped a hoof. "Who is this 'we'?"
"Who do you think?" a triumphant voice crowed, echoing across the room, with laughter following afterwards.
It was a voice—and a laugh—that Starlight recognized immediately and was technically always happy to hear. Even if on some days—only some days—she could only take so much of it. Today was not one of those days, given that she hadn't at all expected this turn of events.
Her eyes and mouth instead widened in disbelief, and her ears flattened back in the same sentiment... as she watched the room rapidly fill with blue smoke.
"You have got to be kidding me," Starlight said—in the driest, flattest voice she could manage.