Sunset rolled her eyes and snorted. “Naturally, once I showed my work in front of the class and demonstrated that yes, I can do all of the equations from memory, that little twerp shut up and sat down. At least the professor was on my side and gave me extra marks on the day’s assignment for the trouble.”
“You’ve had problems with Blueblood before, you mentioned?” Twilight asked. Sunset nodded.
The two were seated on beds in an illusory dorm room the dreamscape had conjured for them. The room was nondescript and undecorated, so Twilight had no clues to identify whose room it might be. Instead she had spent the majority of the dream letting Sunset do most of the talking.
“That little turd has always wanted to stick it to me ever since first year. I got paired with him for a project and he insisted I should do the work because I’m a commoner. He’s a noble, he doesn’t need to learn this stuff to be a success.” Sunset rolled her eyes and huffed. “Drives me nuts that those kinds of pampered jerks can get by in life on just their family name and their money that they didn’t do anything to earn.”
“I know.” Twilight nodded. I don’t know any nobles named Blueblood, but I’ve never kept up with the nobility and celebrity scene. One of my friends may know the name. “Which subject was it?”
“Alchemy.” Sunset shrugged. “And sure, alchemy is right up my alley so I did do it all by myself, after I kept poking him to help out and offered easy ways he could. Since he didn’t do any of the work, I made sure the teacher knew it, and he got a big fat zero. He accused me of trying to sink his grades because I was jealous of his wealth and looks.” She tossed her mane and put her nose in the air. “As if. He’ll probably end up marrying some gold-digging wench who won’t even have half the looks and brains I have.”
“Probably,” Twilight agreed.
Sunset lowered her head. “Er, that was a joke.”
“Oh.” Twilight shook her head and smiled. “Ha ha. Sorry, didn’t catch that.”
“You okay?” Sunset tilted her head. “You’ve been quiet tonight.”
No. Caught. Bad! Twilight tried to keep any panic or hesitation from showing on her face. “I’m fine. Just, in a quiet mood.”
“Okay.” Sunset nodded. “I’m just not used to this sort of thing being one-sided. I mentioned it to a friend who studies psychology and she said that talking to you can be healthy for me, if handled properly.”
“I see.” Trying to manipulate and prod me into agreeing and talking more? Or just making a causal comment? Twilight’s brow creased. “That goes both ways, right? We can be open with each other, about anything.”
“Sure, I guess.” Sunset frowned. “There is something, isn’t there?”
Stupid! You talked yourself into a corner! She knows something is up and you just gave yourself an invitation to tell her! Quick, think of a good lie! “Well…” Twilight fidgeted and looked away, trying to use hesitation to mask her hasty improvisation. “I really messed up an assignment in class this week.”
“Ah.” Sunset nodded sagely. “Yup, that’ll do it. What happened?”
“The equipment apparently didn’t have the proper magic insulation spells applied, so some magic contaminated it and it…” Twilight let out a breath. “It was going to blow up, I think, but a friend stabilized it and it was just a bit of a mess to scrape off the ceiling.”
“Good.” Sunset smiled. “You’ll just have to be more careful next time. Insulation spells can be tricky; you have to filter out all outside magical interference, even just from telekinesis. And it’s not always easy to detect your magical aura on something since we get so used to our own magic.” She held up a hoof. “Maybe next time, ask somepony to help you with it?”
“I will.” Twilight looked at Sunset’s face, trying to scan it for some emotion or thought she could decipher. I didn’t even mention I had a partner. If this was Luster, wouldn’t she have mentioned or asked about my partner? Surely she’d slip up. At the least she wouldn’t have said that, would she? She would have spoken under the presumption I was working with somepony else already. But she didn’t.
“Enjoying the view?”
Twilight jerked out of her thoughts and realized Sunset was giving her a cocked eyebrow and a small smirk.
“What?”
“You were just staring at me.”
Twilight felt her cheeks grow hot. “S-sorry!”
“No, it’s fine.” Sunset put a hoof to her chest. “I may not have the ego of some ponies, but I enjoy being the center of attention now and then.” She winced. “Er, I didn’t mean you have an ego. I meant Blueblood does, he was still on my mind. You don't have an ego at all, you’re smart but you're chill about it.”
Luster definitely wouldn’t talk like that. At all. Twilight nodded. “No offense taken. And, really, sorry. Just, yes, there are things on my mind.”
“Like what?” Sunset turned serious again. “You can tell me. Like you said, let’s be open.”
Darn. “I can’t on this. This is something I have to keep to myself. I wish I could talk about it, I really do. But I can’t.”
“Suit yourself.” Sunset lifted her hooves in a shrug. “I mean, not like you can tell anypony else, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just a joke.” Sunset rocked her head and smirked. “I mean, I talk to myself a lot, but if you start talking to me about me behind my back, I might have to get some professional help, you know?”
“...Right…”
Twilight chewed the spoonful of cereal in her mouth and swallowed. She flipped the page in her journal and raised a pen to make notes. “Every single thing I can recall that Sunset mentioned last night lines up perfectly with prior things she’s said. Not everything is something she’s directly said before, but there are no outright contradictions.”
“So is that a good thing, or a bad thing?” Twinkleshine sipped her glass of milk.
“It’s a… a thing.” Twilight reached her pen up to scratch her ear as she looked over her journal. “If her stories are consistent across multiple dreams, then that would suggest she’s either an extremely skilled liar, or she’s a real pony talking openly about herself.”
Twinkleshine shook her head. “It’s the latter. Given how frequently you’ve talked to Sunset and how many notes you have on her, it’d be very difficult to come up with a consistent set of lies across more than a month. They’d have to keep even more copious notes than you are and review them regularly to know what to say if you ask them something.”
Twilight considered the point and nodded. “Very true. Then, if she’s a real pony, she must be here studying at the SGU.”
“Then why haven’t you seen her face-to-face yet?”
“Whatever magic is connecting us in our dreams must distort her appearance.” Twilight’s brow lifted. “Which also means that she probably doesn’t even see me as looking like I do, thereby further explaining why she wouldn’t approach me in the real world. For that matter, we may not even sound the same. If we don’t know what the other really looks like, we could pass right by each other in the halls and not know it.”
“Right.” Twinkleshine took a bite out of her half-eaten carrot muffin and set it back on her plate. “So what now?” she asked through a mouth full of food.
“Use the clues I have to track her down. Working on that hypothesis, somepony out there on the campus every day is Sunset Shimmer. But even then, I’m assuming that’s her real name, and no one I’ve mentioned the name to recognizes her, so maybe not. So that makes things quite a bit harder, but still not impossible.” Twilight flipped back through her journal to the first page. “She’s talked about classes a lot. If I can peg a specific time and place she might be, I can go there when she ought to be there and see if she’s there. Even if she doesn’t look like she does in my dreams or have the right, I may still recognize her somehow, or notice something identifiable about her.” She tapped the end of her pen on the paper. Did she ever mention any of her teachers? Hmm...
“Why not just invite her someplace?”
Twilight’s pen stilled. “What?’
Twinkleshine shrugged. “Ask her to come to a specific place at a specific time some day. See if she shows up. You can wear something distinctive like a hair ribbon or a bag or something, so she’ll know it’s you even if you don’t look to her the same as you do for real.”
Twilight blinked. “That… is a very good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“You were overthinking it.” Twinkleshine took another sip of her milk. “I’ve told you, sometimes you need to just be direct and honest and stop worrying. Openness is the best policy.”
“Right.” Twilight smiled and turned back to her cereal, lifting a spoon to her mouth.
“You keep things bottled up, try and spare somepony’s feelings, and you’re just setting things up to explode when the truth comes out. And then nopony is happy.”
Twilight paused at the tone in Twinkleshine’s voice and lifted her eyes to see her friend looking off into spare, her eyes narrowed.
Twilight swallowed her cereal. “Something bothering you?”
Twinkleshine rolled her eyes and turned back to the table. “Lemon Hearts.”
“Oh?” She had said something the other day, didn’t she? “What happened?”
Twinkleshine grit her teeth. “She thinks my crystal projector is a waste of time.”
“What?” Twilight sat upright. “That doesn’t sound like her.”
“Fine, she didn’t say it exactly like that, but it’s what she meant.” Twinkleshine huffed and angrily bit off a large piece of muffin.
“What did she say? What were her exact words?”
Twinkleshine took a long moment to chew and swallow. “I asked her to help me with my project. I was trying to test out a way to engrave the crystals I’m going to have to use eventually. Since the engravings have to be very small, and very precise, I just needed somepony to hold the carving needle steady on one end while I actually moved the other end to carve.”
“Okay.”
“She kept moving it. She insisted she was holding it perfectly still, but I know she wasn’t.” Twinkleshine’s voice grew louder as she spoke. “I snapped at her that if she couldn’t hold it still, she could go and I’d get somepony else to help. And then she muttered, ‘waste somepony else’s time, you mean’.”
Twilight let out a breath. “She didn’t mean it like that.”
“Of course she did!” Twinkleshine snorted. “If she didn’t mean it, she wouldn’t have said it.”
“If you were getting angry with her, she was probably angry back,” Twilight said, putting more force into her voice. “Ponies say things they don’t mean when they’re upset.”
“I don’t buy that.” Twinkleshine shook her head. “In my experience, when somepony says something while they’re upset, they’re just telling you what they really think.”
“That’s not true. Maybe sometimes, but not always.” Twilight sat back and shuffled in her seat. “Have you spoken to her since?”
Twinkleshine’s brow lifted and she gave a small shrug. “We still have classes together, and we’re both there at lunches.”
“That didn’t answer my question.” Twilight took a spoon of cereal into her mouth.
This time Twinkleshine’s response was a roll of the eyes and a short huff. “No.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
Twilight sighed. “You’re as stubborn as a mule.”
“I know. It’s a gift.”
“Sometimes.” Twilight slowly shook her head. “You know Lemon Hearts likes to be helpful. If you’re upset because she said she was wasting her time helping you, imagine how she felt hearing that you didn’t want her help and she wasn’t doing a good enough job.”
Twinkleshine paused in her seat, staring back at Twilight. She raised her muffin to her mouth and mumbled “I hate when you’re right,” before taking a bite.
“It’s a gift.” Twilight let the remark sit a moment before continuing. “You’re both upset at each other, but I know neither of you would want a friendship to end over something like this. The best thing to do would be to swallow your pride, be the bigger mare, and apologize. You know she’ll do the same when you do.”
The two each took a few moments to tend to their breakfasts. Twinkleshine opened her mouth, paused, and then closed it. Nonetheless, Twilight noticed. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“No, what?”
Twinkleshine shook her head. “It was going to be a snarky comeback that would just annoy you. Nevermind.”
Twilight leaned forward. “Now that you’ve warned me I promise not to be annoyed. Come on.”
Twinkleshine looked back at her. “Was just gonna quip that that’s kind of hypocritical given what’s going on with you and Luster. No offense.”
Twilight frowned and sat back. She took a moment to think it over before nodding. “No, that’s fair. You’re right. I’ve actually been thinking about approaching her, but it’s not just the argument in class I’m worried about.”
“Yeah, the whole ‘hey, are you spying on my dreams’ thing is a bit above an apology either way.” Twinkleshine held up her hooves. “And on that, really, disregard my advice. That sort of thing, especially if it isn’t true, is a good way to end a friendship.”
“I know.” Twilight looked down at her cereal and poked her spoon at the flakes. “That’s why I’m still trying to figure out a way to approach her.”
“You could always hold out hope she’ll decide to be the bigger pony and approach you first,” Twinkleshine said, her voice lighter.
Twilight smiled. “Here’s hoping.”
“The north-east to south-east ley lines along the coastline have proven particularly susceptible to variances in power depending on the time of year.” At the front of the lecture hall, a pale green unicorn mare with white hair in a bun looked up at the class. “Can anypony guess why that is?”
Twilight raised her hoof and waited for Professor Glyph to look at her, when the bell rang to dismiss class.
Glyph turned her head to the clock and frowned. “My, time does fly.” The students began packing their bags and trotting up the stairs out of the hall. “Don’t forget, there is a reading to complete this weekend!” Glyph called after them. “Chapters 8 and 9 in Geoglyphs of Equestria. I’ll be expecting all of you to have read them for next week!”
Twilight slid into the mass of students leaving with Moondancer beside her. “It’s the tides, right?” She looked at her friend.
Moondancer nodded. “More or less. The tidal pull of the moon on the ocean changes the water level in subtle ways which has a minor effect on the leylines.”
“I’m good with that.” Twilight smiled. “I double-read the chapter and did the test quiz just in case. Magical Geography has never been one of my strong suits.”
“You got accepted into third-year classes, at least.”
The two exited the lecture hall. With second period classes over, the students of SGU gravitated towards the building exits and Twilight and Moondancer stayed with the herd.
As they entered the stairwell, Moondancer raised her voice to be heard above the bustle of the crowd. “I can come by after classes today to help prepare the thaumometer. I procured a sapphire of appropriate quality for a fairly low price yesterday.”
“Great.” Twilight nodded. “How much was it?’
“Ten bits.”
Twilight’s eyes widened slightly. “Where did you find a sapphire of spellcharging quality at that price?”
“Crystal Memories. I go there from time to time, the owner is a friend of a relative.”
“Isn’t that a jewelry store?”
“It is, but they sell some of their gemstones to magic shops for various reasons. I dropped by and asked if they had any such product reserved for sales. I usually just have to offer to match what they charge their buyers and they accept. Since I’m essentially buying the same product one step back in the supply chain, it ends up being cheaper than going to magic shops.”
“Smart.” Twilight nodded in approval.
By the time they got outside and started down the path to the recreations commons, the crowd had dispersed from ponies going off elsewhere, but there was still a considerable crowd heading to the cafeteria.
Twilight shivered slightly at a chilly breeze. She looked over the grounds and noticed fewer ponies than usual sitting at the picnic tables and under the trees. “Feels like it may be time to start bringing autumn coats.” Moondancer nodded and murmured in agreement.
As they neared the doors, Twilight’s eyes shifted to the side and she stopped.
Next to the doors, pacing in a circle, eyes downcast, was Luster Dawn.
A stallion pushed past Twilight grumbling, but she didn’t pay any mind. Moondancer gently nudged her aside out of the way of the crowd, and Twilight saw Luster notice them and stop her pacing.
Twilight took a breath. “Um, I’ll be along shortly.”
“Yes, of course.” Moondancer patted her on the back. “Good luck.” She merged back with the ponies heading inside.
Twilight discretely swallowed a lump in her throat and trotted across the grass. The murmuring of the crowd suddenly seemed distant and low. I can’t just tell her I suspect her, no matter what I think. But what am I supposed to say? Just, sorry?
She only had a few seconds to ponder the question before she reached Luster and stopped a hoof away from her.
Luster had turned her eyes away and was standing still, one hoof brushing the other. Twilight inhaled to say something, but when she tried to, nothing came out of her mouth. She closed her mouth and tried to think.
Luster turned her head every way to look around, avoiding eye contact. She bit her lip and hung her head.
Twilight clenched her eyes. One way or the other, just end this.
“Luster…”
“No, let me, please.” Luster closed her eyes and licked her lips. “I’m not good at this, but, bear with me, please.” She opened her eyes to look at Twilight and lifted her head.
“I’m sorry for what happened.”
Twilight blinked. “Pardon?”
“I overreacted about my thesis, and I’ve spent an entire week avoiding you and most of the others until yesterday.” Luster shook her head. “It was silly and childish and I can’t even imagine how you’re feeling with me making it out like it was your fault. So, don’t. Feel bad, I mean. It wasn’t your fault, you were right; you girls are my friends and are just trying to help. I just like my privacy sometimes and I didn’t take it well.”
She finally looked up at Twilight and her lips curled into a small smile. “I know I’ve hurt our friendship. I can’t take back what I said or how I acted, but I want you to know I’m really sorry about it, and if you can forgive me, I’d like to go back to being friends, please.” She fell silent and turned her eyes down again.
I know Twinkleshine suggested she might, but wasn’t expecting it to that degree. Twilight shook to clear her head and extended a hoof to Luster’s shoulder, prompting her to raise her head again. “Luster, you have nothing to apologize for. I’m sorry, I was prying and pushing you when you clearly didn’t want to talk about something. I should have known to back off and let it be.”
Luster sighed. “Maybe, but I shouldn’t have snapped like I did. Not to mention giving you the cold shoulder for practically the rest of the week.”
“Hey, don’t be like that.” Twilight frowned. “Friendship is a two-way street, right? That means we can both screw up and act like idiots and be wrong. And we did, at least you think you did. You didn’t, but… nevermind. Like you said, I’m sorry, too.”
“Okay.” Luster nodded. “Good... “ she shuffled her hooves again and rubbed the back of her neck. A breeze rustled her mane and she shivered slightly.
Twilight withdrew her hoof. “What is it?”
“Is it… really that easy? Making up?” Luster let out a small groan and looked back at Twilight. “I’m not used to arguing with friends, or making up with them. This is new to me. I just know we’re not talking to each other and I’d like to not not talk to you, if we can go back to that. You know, normal? At least what used to be normal before Monday.”
Twilight’s expression softened. “We had a little argument and didn’t talk for a couple of days, Luster. This isn’t something worth ending a friendship over. At least it isn’t to me, and obviously it isn’t to you. Right?”
“Right.” Luster nodded. She took a breath. “So, we agree we want to keep being friends. We’re fine, then?”
“Yes.” Twilight rocked her head. “Rather, we will be. ‘Normal’ comes around when things go back to actually being normal, not standing around apologizing to each other.”
Luster let out a short laugh. “That makes sense.” She smiled. “I suppose then to get back to ‘normal’, this would be the part where we go inside, eat with our friends, and spend lunch chatting?”
“Exactly.” Twilight swept a hoof towards the doors. “After you.”
Luster bowed her head and stepped up the small stairs to the cafeteria doors, and held one open for Twilight.
I can’t believe I was so suspicious of her. Twilight smiled as she passed and headed to the food lines, Luster beside her. She’s been spending all week self-conscious she made ME feel bad? There’s no way she’d be using Sunset to spy on me. Not to mention I can rule her out just by virtue of Sunset’s consistency in her stories.
Poisonous paranoia crept back into Twilight’s mind as she and Luster joined the crowded line to the food stalls. She glanced at Luster – she wasn’t even looking at Twilight, she was going through a small change purse of bits.
Although, Luster is the kind of detail-orientated pony who might put time into creating that kind of depth to a fake persona… she winced. This isn’t right. I can’t make up with her and then keep being suspicious. It’s not her, I know it isn’t…
No matter how hard the logical and emotional parts of her mind concurred on that point, a small part of her kept objecting. Had she gotten conclusive evidence to rule out Luster? Had she actually approached her about it?
Do it now. A little white lie and then forget the possibility even entered your mind. She licked her lips. Just ask and put it to rest.
“If we are going back to normal.” Twilight paused to let Luster turn her way. “I do want to ask one thing. If you can’t tell me what your thesis is about, can you tell me something it isn’t about?”
Luster gave her a quizzical look. “I suppose?”
“Is it something to do with dream magic?”
“What?” Luster shook her head. “No, nothing to do with dreams. Really.”
“Oh. Okay.” Twilight nodded. “Thanks.”
“Er, why do you ask?”
Twilight shrugged. “I think I’ve mentioned this mare I know a couple times, Sunset Shimmer?” Luster nodded. “I’ve never really met her, I just see her in my dreams. And they’re unusually vivid ones and they’re becoming more frequent. I’m trying to figure out what they mean, and since you were researching mental magic, I thought maybe you could have ideas as to why.”
“Oh.” Luster raised her eyebrows as she thought. “That does sound strange. But, no, I don’t know the first thing about dream magic. I don’t think I could be much help. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. I just thought it couldn’t hurt to ask.” Twilight resumed facing forward, and she waited until she saw Luster turn her attention back to her money that she let out a breath and felt her last lingering suspicions and anxiety go with it.
She’s telling the truth, I’m sure of it. Good. I’d rather go back to being clueless than have to seriously wonder if Luster was doing something to me. Her brow creased. Although, on the other hoof, that still means I’m back to being clueless. Somepony, somehow, is using dream magic to communicate with me through Sunset. Who, how, and why? I don’t even know enough to begin speculating on possible answers to any of those questions.
Sunset… who are you?