//------------------------------//
// 4: Reunions 
// Story: Shining Together 
// by Bookish Delight 
//------------------------------//

Sunset sighed. 

How long had she been contextualizing life as just moving from one worry to the next, anyway? Was this all the concepts of Friendship and Having A Conscience held in store for her? Would things simply always be like this? 

As she continued to dwell on these questions, she felt her brain sinking into a familiar, mushy fog—one she'd by now trained herself to deal with. Sunset took out her phone, opened her notes, and skipped to the entry labeled "Life Reminders". In case of mental or emotional emergencies, this entry was the breakable glass. 

And the extinguisher she needed was, fortunately, a few lines down:

"Just take things as they come, and trust things will work themselves out in the end. If you spend too much time worrying about the bad things that might happen, you'll miss out on all the good things that are happening."

There it was.

Sunset lowered her phone, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths. Good things were happening, right now. A good friend was coming over whom she didn't get to see often, and that friend had thought of Sunset above anyone else, which flattered Sunset quite a bit.

It was also the same friend who had given her the advice she'd just read, on the first day they'd met. Sunset hoped Starlight was okay. But if anything bad did come up, she decided that they would face it together.

The moment her mind and heart expressed that sentiment, she heard the shimmering sound of otherworldly magic, brushing against her ears like someone playing the world's most faraway instrument. She positioned herself in front of the statue, just in time to see one side of its base turn from solid rock into rippling waves. Sunset braced herself.

A lavender girl emerged from the statue-portal with a hapless yelp, and with a speed which used to surprise Sunset, once upon a time, but was now routine. The girl stumbled into Sunset's waiting hands, shoulders first. Sunset gripped them tightly, stabilizing the newcomer. 

Starlight Glimmer slowed to a stop, exhaled, and looked up. When she realized who was holding her, she smiled. "Oh. Wow. I totally forgot to warn you in the journal that I might need a soft landing, but here you are. Neat."

Sunset smiled in kind, then stepped back to allow Starlight to wipe off her torn jeans, straighten her vest and felt beanie, and do some two-legged balance checks. "Yeah, the portal doesn't really care who enjoys the ride. This happens to pretty much everybody, so the Twilights and I developed a system: no cross-world pitching without a catcher at the other end." Sunset looked at her phone again. "Nice job getting here in exactly one hour, by the way. Fitting for a student of a certain someone I know." Her smile turned sly as she cast a teasing leer at Starlight.

Starlight sighed mock-dramatically, and rolled her eyes. "Some of Twilight's neurotic quirks got drilled into me despite my best efforts—as if I didn't have enough of my own already. Punctuality's one of the more useful ones, I suppose."

"I guess," Sunset said with an over-dramatic snort. "If you're small time. I was here ten minutes early, though."

"Wha—" Starlight did a double-take. "Are you seriously... you live here!" she sputtered with outstretched arms.

"And you live in the same castle as the thing that brought you here. Sunset crossed her arms in reply, and nodded towards the portal. "I get in trouble with this world's governments if they find out I use this thing."

"Whoa, no kidding?" Starlight met Sunset's playfully smug grin with a wide-eyed, incredulous expression. "So do I."

A staring contest ensued in the silence. Onlooking students passed by in their peripheral vision. They stood like that, gazes locked, for an eternity that lasted a minute. 

Then their faces crumpled as they both burst out laughing. They leaned side-by-side against the statue, riding out their mirth, and drawing more onlookers—not that Sunset cared. 

Eventually their laughter died down, and the students stopped paying attention to them. "Hey," she just barely heard Starlight say. "Are... hugs okay?"

Hearing Starlight actually ask lit up a tiny bulb of worry in the back of her mind, but she suppressed it. Later. When it was relevant. Without hesitation, Sunset stepped forward, and wrapped her arms around Starlight in a warm, gentle cradle.

"Hugs are always okay," Sunset whispered in Starlight's ear.

It wasn't long before Sunset felt Starlight embrace her as well—cradling her just as close, and resting her head on Sunset's shoulder. 

"Thanks," Starlight whispered back.

In the quiet of the afternoon, Sunset decided that this was yet another good thing.