//------------------------------//
// An Awkward meeting 
// Story: An Awkward Meeting 
// by mokaevans 
//------------------------------//

The party was in full swing. The lights were dim save the swirl of colors and holographic effects emanating from Vinyl Scratch's DJ table. People danced in close proximity, the mesh of bodies moving in tandem with the music. The walls thrummed from the high volume.

There was a table laden with every dessert immangeable. Tarts, cakes, doughnuts pies, and ice creams among many others took up half its surface. An assortment of junk food took up nearly a fourth while the rest was covered by a variety of drinks, alcoholic beverages included. In short the party was nothing less than spectacular, and Twilight didn't want to be here.

She would much rather be in her dorm room reading. Whether for study or leisure did not matter. In fact up until a few hours ago that had been her plan.

Twilight was an overachiever, she got nothing less than straight A's and sought out as much extra credit as possible. So it was of no surprise that after high school she had been accepted into Equest-tec. The best collage in the country.

That morning she had arrived, checked into her dorm, and found her room. Unfortunately her worst fears were realized. She had entered to find the dorm room already trashed, clothing, sports equipment, and toiletries were scattered about the place. Turns out her new roommate was a girl name Rainbow Dash. She had gotten in on a full scholarship for sports.

After tensely, but politely, asking her to keep the mess on her side of the room, she unpacked  her things. She tried to ignore Rainbow asking why everything needed to be perfectly organized right away. Then she left to explore campus.

Everything was just as amazing as Twilight had thought it would be. They had large class rooms, state of the art security, and top of the line lab equipment. While wandering she ran into a pleasant surprise. Her best friend Moondancer. Twilight had known she'd be here, but she hadn't expected to run into her on the first day.

The two went to lunch where they told each other about their day. Twilight winced when Moondancer told her about her roommate. She was a girl named Trixie and she sounded even worse than Rainbow. At least Rainbow had been friendly, Trixie was loud, egocentric, messy, and arrogant.

Then came the moment that had led to her this. Moondancer told her a girl named Pinkie was going to throw a huge college party. She had invited everyone in the dorm. Moondancer wanted to go. This was surprising to Twilight as she didn't put herself out there much. Moondancer told her it would be good networking.

The thing was Moondancer didn't want to go without a friend. The idea of going to the party by herself was so terrifying her voice shook just talking about it. So she asked Twilight if she would be willing to go with her. Twilight didn't want to go, but she didn't want to let her friend down so she had agreed.

Which brings us back to the current situation. Twilight was leaning against the wall, a wine spritzer in her hand. She didn't drink often but she needed alcohol to get through this party. She had been asked many questions she didn't want to answer. She had several people ask her to dance, all of which she had declined. She'd been hit on at least five times. Needless to say tonight sucked.

Then the night went from bad to worse. "Hello Twilight." A voice said to her. A familiar voice, simultaneously cold and firey. She froze, it couldn't be. There was no way she was here right? She wouldn't come to a party like this right? Slowly Twilight turned, setting her eyes on someone she didn't want to see. 

Sunset Shimmer, her ex girlfriend, her only girlfriend really. They had first met in their high school chemistry class. Both their lab partners were absent that day, so the teacher paired them together. Twilight had been nervous but she wanted an A so she agreed.

They debated back and forth over how the tests should be done, what method they should use to record their findings, and most importantly which parts meant something and which were arbitrary. By the end of the hour Twilight had found she enjoyed herself.

Sunset was the first person, other than Moondancer, who could compete with her intelligence. She gave her brain a workout and Twilight found going back to her old lab partner unsatisfactory. Now that she'd had a taste of Sunset's capabilities, she found she could not get the other girl out of her mind.

As it turned out Sunset had been having a similar experience. The firey girl had approached her after class one day. they had made arrangements to hang out at lunch the next day. The two had discussed their assignment with each other. It was something they both found enjoyable so they decided to make it a daily thing.

It was during one of their more heated debates that it happened. One moment they were arguing over which chemical reaction was harder to produce, the next Sunset had pulled her into a kiss. It had been fiery and passionate. There was a sense of deep loneliness in the kiss. When the two pulled away. Twilight took a moment to catch her breath. "What was that?"

"Endorphins." Sunset had smirked back. The next few weeks had been tense. They still enjoyed talking to each other, but their relationship had changed. Neither of them could deny that, yet they weren't sure how to address it. Eventually Sunset pulled her into another kiss and asked if she wanted to date.

Twilight had said yes. At first things were great. They liked each other's company. They had many common interests and being together felt natural. The problems began to show when Twilight chose to hang out with Moondancer over dating her.

Sunset was possessive and needy. It didn't make her a bad person, and she certainly was controlling or abusive. The problem was more that she would become incredibly passive aggressive to anyone she deemed a threat. Twilight hadn't picked up on it right away. She was socially clueless, and so she had thought Sunset was just being nice to Moondancer. She didn't notice the underlying aggression.

It wasn't until Moondancer pointed it out to her that she noticed. Her friend didn't blame her as Moondancer herself probably wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't happening to her. So Twilight had confronted Sunset.

It didn't go well as Sunset took it the wrong way. She believed Twilight was choosing Moondancer over her. Twilight tried to explain that she wasn't trying to choose anyone. She just wanted Sunset to be nicer to her best friend. Sunset hadn't believed her, so they broke up. Twilight had felt terrible as she heard the girl sob through the door.

The feeling didn't last long. Soon Sunset began to turn as many people against Twilight as possible. The school treated her like she was some horrible person. Turns out Sunset had quite a bit of influence on the school population. The girl herself had become incredibly passive aggressive towards her.

Twilight had hoped now that she was in college that she wouldn't have to see Sunset anymore. Apparently not as it seemed she had also gotten into Equest-tec. Not that she should be surprised given Sunset's intelligence. "H-hey Sunset." She managed to stammer out. She immediately began drinking her wine. If her mouth was full, she wouldn't have to talk.

"I wouldn't have expected to see you here." Sunset told her. The underlying message was clear. 'I didn't think you'd have the confidence to show up.'

"Y-yeah well. I only c-came for my friend." Twilight muttered. She knew it was a mistake.

"Well it's nice to see you're still friends with Moondancer." She said. Once again the underlying message was clear. 'You always were joined at the hip.'  Twilight took another swing of wine to avoid answering. "Do you want to dance?"

Twilight nearly choked. Dance with Sunset? She couldn't say no, that would only cement the hard feelings between them, but she couldn't say yes. It would hurt too much. In a combination of panic, and alcohol induced stupidity, she did the first thing that came to her mind.

"Well I'd love to but I can't because I'm here with my girlfriend!" Twilight wanted to slap herself.

"I thought you were just here for Moondancer." Sunset said an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, but you see. I came for Moondancer and then I decided as long as I was going I might as well invite my new girlfriend." She replied with a nervous grin.

"I see." Sunset replied skeptically. She smirked. "You mind introducing me?" She challenged.

"Um, no of course not! Let me just go get her!"  In a panic Twilight approached the nearest girl. She had straw blonde hair in a low ponytail draped over her left shoulder. She wore a cowboy hat. Twilight tapped on her shoulder. The girl turned revealing a set of deep green eyes. "I know this is a weird request but can you pretend to be my girlfriend?"

"Now hold on sugarcube. What's this about?" She asked with a thick southern accent.

Twilight sighed. She supposed the girl deserved an explanation. "My ex approached me and asked if I wanted to dance, but I don't want to, so I told her I had a girlfriend to get her off my back, and she asked to meet her, you were the nearest person. " She said in one breath.

"Why in the hay would ya do a thing like that?" The girl asked.

"I was desperate and a bit tipsy. Can you please just play along? I show you to her, she gets off my back, and you can go back to your night."

The blonde sighed. "Fine, but I warn ya I ain't any good at lyin'. " She smirked. "Name's Applejack by the way, if we're gonna be pretend girlfriend you oughta know it."

"Good catch." She said blushing with embarrassment. The two began to approach Sunset. Twilight felt Applejack grab her hand. At first she was confused then she realized this would make it more convincing. She swallowed as she reached Sunset. "Here she is."

"And you are?" Sunset asked with a skeptical look.

"Applejack Smith, please to make yer aquaintance Miss-'' She paused holding out her hand.

"Shimmer, Sunset Shimmer." She replied ignoring the outstretched hand. "So you're Twilight's new girlfriend?"

"Um Yeah, I guess?" The blonde said. Twilight resisted the urge to facepalm. Applejack was looking away from Sunset, scratching the back of her neck, with an uncanny smile on her face. When she had told Twilight she was bad at lying Twilight didn't think it was this bad.

"I see." Sunset remarked, giving Applejack a once over. "You don't look like her type." 

Twilight felt Applejack pull her closer as if to protect her. "Ya don't exactly look like her type either, what with the black leather jacket." There was a terse tone to the blonde's voice.

Sunset smirked. "Looks can be deceiving. I assure you I have far more in common with her than you'd think. "

Twilight felt Applejack's arms wrap around her defensively. "Well I guess that wasn't enough, considerin' ya broke up."
A look of barely suppressed rage lit Sunset's face.  Twilight was nervous. Applejack was pressing all of her ex's buttons. Twilight knew what she was like when mad.  Just as quickly as it had appeared it vanished, replaced her usual cool smirk. 

"How long have you been dating?" She asked. 

" About a month." The blonde lied, still unable to look her in the eye.

"Three weeks." Twilight replied at the same time. She was grateful Applejack had chosen a similar length of time.

"Twilight and I dated for about half a year. I know her better than you." Sunset smirked triumphantly.

"So what?" Applejack said, gritting her teeth. "Remind me who's the one holdin' her right now?"

Sunset looked taken aback. Then as though to save her, a slow song began. Sunset's smirk widened. "It's a slow song. Why don't you two dance?"

Twilight looked nervous and awkward. She didn't know what to do. Luckily for her Applejack was working on instinct at this point. "Well maybe we will!" With that the blonde dragged Twilight onto the dance floor. As they began to dance Twilight took the opportunity to ask. "Where'd that come from?"

Applejack sighed, "Sorry I lost my temper. I just couldn't stand the way she was talkin' to ya. Like she was the greatest thing ya ever had and yer never gonna get any better. If that's how she'd act if ya had an actual girlfriend I'm glad ya broke it off with her."

"She's not so bad, it's just she's little-" Twilight tried to figure out how to put it.

"Rude? Yeah I gathered that much." Applejack scoffed.

"No, insecure." Twilight said, nodding as she realized this was what she wanted to say. "She's an insecure person and I think our break up was hard on her. She's too prideful to admit it, so she's hiding it behind a wall of anger."

"Insecure or not she's got no right to treat ya like that. Or anyone fer that matter." They danced in silence a moment before the blonde spoke up again. "Ya know if I was yer girlfriend I'd wouldn't treat ya like that. We'd go on long walks through my orchard durin' the summer an' during the winter we'd cuddle under a blanket.  I'd make a one of my homemade apple pie ta warm us up."

Twilight smiled. "That sounds nice."  Shortly after the song ended. The two of them walked back towards Sunset. The girl's face was shadowed as she looked at her feet. Twilight became concerned. "Sunset?" There was no response. "Sunset are you alright?"

"Twilight." A choked voice said. "I'm sorry."  She looked at her revealing eyes full of tears. "I came to this party for fun, and when I saw you, I thought maybe we could be friends. Now that we're out of high school and the memories aren't so fresh." Sunset began to raise her voice. "And what do I do? I slip back into my old ways. I pressure you and make you feel terrible. Hell I can't even accept the fact that you've moved on. How pathetic is that?"

As Sunset began to cry Twilight saw Applejack give her a small nod. She turned and cupped Sunset's hands in her own. "You're not pathetic. You're human, and you've realized your mistakes." She brushed aside the other girl's tears. "I'd be willing to start over. As friends?"

Sunset hugged Twilight. "Yes, I want nothing more." For a minute or so She just held her. Eventually Sunset pulled away. "Well I'd better not take up any more of your time." She turned to Applejack. "It was nice to meet you." With that Sunset walked away.

"Well I'm surprised, but I guess ya worked things out." Applejack smiled. Twilight drew close. "What are ya-" She touched the blonde’s lips with the barest kiss. "What was that for?"

"Playing along." Twilight said,