//------------------------------//
// Changing Love 
// Story: The Love and Times of Sunset and Twilight 
// by RainbowSparkle3 
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I paced back and forth, trying not to bump into anyone and lose my concentration. What could I do to fix this situation? That was the biggest fight we'd ever had, and really the only big one in general.

I ran my hand through my hair, wracking my brain, and eventually I let out a huge, frustrated breath. There was no easy way out of this. I'd have to just talk to her.

Biting my lip and gulping, I made a mad dash for the front door. I really hoped I could get there before Twilight left. If she hadn't already?

I shook that thought away as I concentrated on weaving between people and corridors to get to the entrance. My chase was cut short, however, when I saw Twilight, with her head low, walking sideways from my perspective. Disoriented from the sudden sight, I crashed into her, sending us both flying towards the floor. "Ah!" We yelled.

I was left lying on the floor face down, while Twilight was sitting in a cross legged position, rubbing her arm with her eyes closed in pain. I scrambled up before she did, and extended my hand. "Sorry," I apologized, immediately making Twilight's eyes fly open.

"S-Sunset," she said, her eyes wide. Neither of us said anything. She merely looked up at me for a few seconds before slowly taking my hand. I helped raise her up, while Twilight picked up her glasses, which had been knocked off during the fall.

We stared at each other for a long while. The air was thick with tension. I saw Twilight shuffle her feet and I myself felt uncertain. A little bit of sweat even began forming on my face, despite the hallways of Canterlot High being relatively cool. 

I just sighed eventually and broke the loud silence. "I'm so, so sorry, Twilight. I didn't mean anything I said. I've just been so stressed out and frustrated lately. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I know it's not your fault."

Twilight looked like she was about to respond, her mouth open. But she hesitated, and in that moment, I continued speaking, beginning to break down. "It's never your fault. You've always been great. You've always been so nice and supportive, and just wanted to help me all this time. And I took you for granted." I closed my eyes to suppress tears that threatened to spill. "I promise not to do that again. Just please, please forgive me." I lowered my head to face the floor. My willpower broke as tears began flooding down my face.

I was distracted from my own sobbing when I felt arms being wrapped around me, and I looked up to see Twilight hugging me. I smiled, feeling as if the world had been lifted off my back, and returned the hug, crying happy tears on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, too," Twilight said softly.

"Sorry? Sorry for what?” I asked between sniffs. “You haven't done anything wrong. It's all been on me."

Twilight shook her head. "No. What you said wasn't entirely false. I knew almost immediately why you seemed stressed, but I didn't want to bring it up because I wanted you to continue. It was my negligence that made you all stressed out for the entire past week. And I could've at least been there for you. A little extra studying is not more important to me than you and your well being. I really haven't been spending enough time with you. I'm sorry."

I wanted to argue that I was more at fault, but I was just relieved that Twilight wasn't mad. I hugged her tightly, tears freely flowing down my face, and we held each other for a long time.

Over the next several weeks, we tried to maintain our relationship and still study hard, and we decided to have study sessions together as a sort of solution.

It was a warm, starry night, and I was at Twilight's big house, with my arm wrapped around her as we looked at our notes together. It had been 2 weeks since the big fight, and we were blazing through the notes on the Science class we shared. I smiled cockily once we finished the things we were studying that day. "We're gonna ace these exams!"

Twilight clicked her tongue in reply. "The content may seem easy to you, but you're still gonna have to work hard if you want a really good mark."

I sat back in my chair and said, "I guess. It's only bearable because I'm studying with you." I moved my head forward and pecked Twilight's cheek. My eyebrows narrowed in confusion. Why had that kiss felt...drier than usual?

After that study session when it had started, I attempted to figure out why that kiss had felt so different than how it usually did. And pretty quickly (after just a few more study sessions in fact), I came to an unfortunate and frankly annoying conclusion.

"And then I told her, "Let's work on our chemistry!"” We both laughed up a storm at my horrible joke. We were hanging out at my place. Exams had finally ended, and now our relationship could proceed as normal.

...The only slight problem was that I just didn't feel a spark anymore. I still had a lot of fun talking to her, like now, but nothing seemed to reignite the passion from months prior. Nothing had really caused it. I literally cannot think of any specific event that caused this shift. It just sort of...happened. I still cared deeply for her, just not in the same way. I was really trying to cause the flames of passion to flicker again, but beyond brief glimpses, it seemed to be gone.

After I stopped laughing, I really thought hard about this one last time. I had been feeling this way for a few weeks now, but I wanted to be 100% sure before taking action. I'd waited long enough.

I took a deep breath, and started speaking in a serious tone. "Twi." My tone immediately grabbed her attention. Seeing her curious violet eyes momentarily weakened my resolve. But I continued, knowing that it was best to do this earlier than later. "I want to break up." I had considered leading up to it, but I felt like bluntness was probably the best course of action in this case.

Twilight's expression immediately turned stunned. "Wh-what?" She asked, a mixture of confusion and uncertainty in her voice.

I repeated, "I want to break up," and Twilight stared at my face for a long time, no emotion showing on her own.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she said, "Oh. Well...I was...wondering when you were gonna do it."

What!?" I asked incredulously. "You were expecting this?"

"Yeah..." she admitted. "I didn't want to bring it up, but I think your thoughts for the last little while have been the same as mine."

"Well," I said. I tried to think of something, but I was just really surprised. I had expected tears, anguish, and I thought I'd have to comfort her. What I didn't expect was for things to go completely smoothly. 

Since I didn't have any plan for this situation, I just said the first words that came to my mind. "We should...stay friends?"

Twilight gave me a baffled look, before it turned warm, and just like weeks earlier, she hugged me and said, "Of course, Sunset. Always."

I smiled and wrapped my arms around her one last time before our relationship was over. "Thank you for everything," I whispered into her ear.