I was waiting for Princess Celestia to come back through the portal. I knew she was spending what last few precious moments she could with her daughter before she came through. I heard the portal behind me suddenly flare up, and I turned to see Princess Celestia trotting through the portal mirror.
“Did everything go okay over there?” I asked my old mentor as she walked up to me.
“Why yes, Twilight. It ascended all my expectations.” she said with a joking voice.
“Uh, what?” I asked in confusion. She just laughed at me.
“I need to speak to my sister about Sunset. Just find out when Sunset is coming through the portal again. We have a ceremony to plan.” she said and took off for Canterlot. I didn’t question it and did as I was asked. I grabbed the journal from a nearby lectern and a quill and started writing.
Dear Sunset Shimmer,
Princess Celestia asked me to ask you when you are coming through again. I have no idea what she has planned, but I know it’ll be a surprise.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Dash was holding her phone out, the picture she took of me earlier displayed on the screen. I just stood there, utterly dumbfounded.
“Welp. That happened.” Dash said in an attempt to break the silence
“Yep.” I replied, shaking my head to get rid of the daze. “No use dwelling on it now. Let’s get back to my place.”
“As you wish, Princess.” Dash said teasingly.
“Seriously?” I deadpanned.
“You bet. I’m not gonna pass up on the opportunity to tease my girlfriend.” Dash replied, giving me a quick peck on the cheek. I just shook my head and walked to my car. I fished the keys out of my pocket and hit the unlock button on my key fob. I climbed in, Dash following suit, and turned the key. The V8 roared to life again and we took off, jamming to Rise Against playing through Dash’s phone on the car’s infotainment system.
A few minutes later, we arrived at my apartment. We climbed out of the car after I pulled into my allocated spot in the parking garage and killed the engine. We were walking side by side when I suddenly felt Dash hold my hand, staring straight ahead with a slight blush on her cheeks. I just smiled at the nonchalant way she did it. She might have noticed it, because, pretty soon, she was smiling too. We got to my apartment door and I unlocked it. Dash walked through first, not letting go of my hand for a second. I closed the door and slid the deadbolt home. I then turned to Dash.
“Soo, Dashie. What do you wanna do now?” I asked her in a teasing voice.
“Well. I don’t know about you, but I wanna just relax and watch a movie with my girlfriend.” she said, blushing slightly at the nickname.
“Alright then. You choose a movie and I’ll get started on some popcorn.” I said, letting go of her hand and walking toward the kitchen. That’s when I noticed the journal begin to glow and vibrate. I opened it up and words started forming on the first clean page.
Dear Sunset Shimmer,
Princess Celestia asked me to ask you when you are coming through again. I have no idea what she has planned, but I know it’ll be a surprise.
I didn’t know how to respond. I knew what it was about, but I was unsure of how long I was going to be gone.
“Hey, Dash. Twilight wants to know when I will be going through the portal again.” I called out to her from the kitchen. I heard footsteps approaching from the living room. She came through the archway and read the message from Twilight. Her eyes shot open with surprise, and I could see a trace of longing in her eyes. “You wanna see my home world, don’t you?” I asked, to which she nodded. I got a sudden idea. I grabbed a pen and started writing, glad that I no longer had thick bandages on my hands to hinder my writing.
Dear Princess Twilight,
I have someone from this side who would like to come with me. However, I fear it may cause a bit of a panic as she looks exactly like a certain famous cyan pegasus. Would it be possible to do a test run day after tomorrow, once Christmas and Hearth’s Warming are over?”
A couple seconds later, the reply came through.
Of course she can come. I know that my Dash was unhappy when she couldn’t go with me the times I went over. She is more than welcome to. Just so we can see if we can cover up the similarities.
Rainbow air fist pumped at that, digressing to a bit of a freestyle dance. I laughed at it, grabbed her hands and pulled her in for an embrace. I then wrote a reply to Twilight.
Awesome. Dash is pumped. Maybe we should have your Dash over as well, because some flying lessons are in order. We also have much to discuss, one of which will be a bit of a shock to you.
I started making the popcorn, Dash standing behind me. I could tell that she was admiring “the view.” I just chuckled and shook my head. Once the popcorn was done, we both went back to the living room. I was surprised to see that she picked a rom com instead of something along the lines of a fast paced action movie. We sat down on the threadbare sofa and Dash hit play on the remote.
Before the movie started, Dash turned to me.
“Hey, Sunset. How would you like to spend Christmas over at my place? I’m sure my parents would love to have you over again, and we can maybe tell them about us.” She asked, a hopeful tone in her voice.
“Sure, I’d love to.” I replied. “Especially since my mother already knows.”
“W-what, h-how?” she asked, bewildered.
“She kinda figured it out. Remember, she’s got over a thousand years worth of wisdom at her disposal. She would have figured it out eventually.” I replied.
“Fair enough. I’ll quickly let my parents know you’re coming.” She said, pulling out her phone. A couple of seconds later, we were watching the movie.
About half way through the movie, I felt her hand in mine on my lap. Before I knew it, she was kissing me. But it wasn’t one of the chaste ones that had become a regular occurrence for us. It was full of love and passion. I tensed up at first, but soon I melted into the kiss. I found my tongue probing her mouth, asking permission to enter. She obliged by parting her lips. After almost a full minute, we both reluctantly pulled away for air, our foreheads touching.
“I love you, Sunset Shimmer.” Dash said once she had caught her breath.
“I love you too, Rainbow Dash.” I replied, turning to face the T.V. again, my head resting on her shoulder. A couple minutes later, I dozed off, a smile of content on my face. I truly felt like I belonged, for the first time in months.