//------------------------------// // 7 - The New Normal // Story: Retrograde // by RQK //------------------------------// Principal Celestia examined the scene before her. Her heart had slowed, at least, but the tremors through her body hadn’t subsided just yet. Sunset Shimmer remained on the floor, cradling Princess Twilight in her arms. Starlight Glimmer knelt next to them, monitoring them all the while. Wallflower Blush had returned, with some prior help, to her seat from before, where she now sat practically catatonic. Celestia hovered over her, both to make sure that Wallflower didn’t decide to simply run away again, but also to closely monitor Wallflower’s mental state. Surely, Wallflower had been scarred for life, perhaps several lives. This nightmare would never disappear. The lounge door opened again and Vice Principal Luna along with the woman in the business suit from before entered the room. The woman, apparently another Equestrian, strode over to Twilight and Sunset and Starlight and practically towered over them with a crossing of her arms and the hardened scowl on her face. Luna, meanwhile, approached Celestia. “They’ll be alright,” she said. “We got them to the infirmary okay. They’ll be unconscious for a few, but they should come around soon enough.” The knot in Celestia’s chest loosened up and she breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I’m glad to hear that.” Twilight, who had stopped crying by this point, glanced up. She met her eyes and some bit of her tear-soaked frown loosened up. “Yes,” said the woman in the business suit. “That is very fortunate.” Her glare on Twilight intensified. “For you.” Twilight shuddered. “Crystal Faire?” she croaked. “What were you thinking!?” Crystal Faire barked. “I can only wonder what might have happened if Starlight had not come to get me and we had not arrived when we did!” Starlight frowned, nodded solemnly, and placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Do you even comprehend what the consequences would have been had you actually tried to drag this one,” Crystal said, jabbing a finger at Wallflower, “to Tartarus? Can you imagine the scandal you would have brought upon everyone, both sides of the mirror? Could you even begin to fathom how everything would have unravelled around you because of your foolhardy moment of weakness?” For a moment, Twilight locked up. All eyes turned to her, waiting to see how she might respond. Eventually, she frowned. “B-but… Wallflower… she…” “I don’t care what Wallflower Blush did. I am talking about you, and what you tried to do.” Crystal bent down so that she was just above Twilight’s height. “In what timeline does any of this make what you just tried to do okay?” Starlight shuddered. Tentatively, she looked at Twilight. “Gosh, Twilight. She might have a point…” Twilight’s expression hardened. “S-Starlight! Don’t you… understand what she did?” “Well, yeah!” Starlight exclaimed. “But I don’t think I could go and do that! Buck’s sake, Twilight, you taught me once how bad an idea that is. Don’t get me wrong…” She looked at Wallflower and narrowed her eyes. “I’d really like it if she ended up rotting in Tartarus for all eternity for what she did.” Wallflower’s pale face paled even more as she met Starlight’s piercing glare. “Starlight!” Crystal barked. As all eyes fell on her now, Starlight threw her hands into the air. “What? I’m just saying I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it if she did end up getting locked up down there, not that I’d actually do it myself.” “We are better than this. Why, Starlight, you should not forget the crimes you yourself committed… But you are still here. Think of the changelings. Think of Discord.” Starlight deflated. “W-well…” “So you think that Wallflower’s punishment should be greater than the slap on the wrist for invasion, mass enslavement, wonton reality warping, or malevolently charged alterings of timestreams?” “Wallflower destroyed Sunset Shimmer,” Twilight coldly croaked. After a moment’s pause, Crystal nodded. “And?” “And so she deserves to get—” Twilight scowled. “What do you mean ‘And?’” “And. Think for a second. Tirek and Sombra and Chrysalis, Twilight. Discord… Starlight, Sunset.” Crystal motioned to Wallflower. “Common thug compared to supervillain. Wallflower is nothing. She is hardly worthy of note.” Wallflower made a squeaking sound. Celestia couldn’t help but take a few steps forward, unconsciously placing herself as close to being between Wallflower and Crystal as she could get. “That is an objective fact,” Crystal concluded. “What Wallflower Blush did is inconsequential and insignificant.” Twilight sprang up, thrusting herself into Crystal’s face. “Not to me, it isn’t!” The force with which Twilight spoke caused Crystal to recoil. Hushed gasps escaped Starlight and Celestia. Luna straightened up, now glaring at Twilight. And Wallflower shifted in her seat with widened eyes. Twilight glared holes through Crystal, her red, wettened face accenting her bloodshot eyes, but it was her firm frown that bordered on a defiant snarl that solidified it. Crystal shook her head with disbelief. “What…?” she hissed. “Crystal,” Starlight tried, looking up. Crystal blinked for a few moments, chancing a glance at Starlight for a moment before she met Twilight’s gaze again. Eventually, she stood up and put her hands on her hips. “I hate to barge in,” Luna said, “but I would very much appreciate it if you didn’t use such… uh, disparaging language.” Celestia nodded in agreement. “Yes.” Crystal frowned and eventually sighed. “I am sure that you would, yes.” Celestia narrowed her eyes. Her hands balled into loose fists. “The fact of the matter is, Twilight…” Crystal continued, “this is not becoming of you. What you just tried cannot be condoned. And I hope you realize that had you gotten further than you had… it would have been my job to fix it.” Twilight shuddered. Starlight frowned. “I don’t know,” Sunset began. “This sounds like something that would be up to Princess Celestia.” “Trust me, Sunset. These scenarios are precisely within my purview.” Sunset paused. “You’re a clerk at Ponyville City Hall.” “At the moment, yes.” Crystal turned. “Perhaps you will recall me speaking of experience with other realities. I typically embark on grander escapades and solve problems all over. Clerking it at City Hall is merely... what I do in my downtime. It may do you well to think of me as a Daring Do type.” “Daring Do?” Luna asked. “You mean, the adventurer from the movies?” Crystal opened her mouth to say something but then paused. “Ah… yes. That. Of course. The lore over here is different.” She shook her head. “If that is how you would like to think of it, then by all means.” Silence fell over the room. While Starlight returned her attention to Twilight, and Twilight spent a few moments trying to compose herself, all other eyes stared Crystal down. Celestia pondered Crystal’s presence for a moment and then looked down. “Princess Twilight…” she began. Twilight swallowed. “I… Sunset, can you help me up?” Sunset nodded and (along with Starlight who lay a guiding hand on Twilight’s shoulder) lifted Twilight to her feet. Twilight stood there for a moment, only moving to wipe her wet face one more time. And Starlight, now on her feet and able to see across the table again, glared at Wallflower. “Apologies, but you aren’t going to blow up again, yes?” Luna asked. Twilight shook her head and sighed. “No. No. I’m fine.” “Are you sure?” Twilight paused. “Yes.” Celestia carefully watched Twilight’s face for any hint of insincerity, but she found nothing behind the exhausted frown. Sunset similarly watched and arrived at the same conclusion. She then looked around and spotted Wallflower again. Her expression didn’t change for a moment. “So… anyway, what’s going to happen to Wallflower now?” Celestia exchanged glances with Luna and hummed thoughtfully. “We still need to decide that, don’t we?” “Hmmm. Yes,” Luna replied. “We do. That’s where we were trying to get to before…” “I see.” Crystal pulled out a few chairs and motioned for Sunset, Starlight, and Twilight to take seats. “Why don’t you all sit down, then? Let’s discuss. How far along in that conversation did you make it?” As Starlight took a seat and Sunset helped Twilight into a seat before sitting herself, Luna rounded the opposite side of the table to rejoin her sister. There, she too found a seat. Celestia remained standing but nonetheless steadied herself on the back of her own chair. “If you’re asking, we more or less determined that there is no legal precedent for any of this. So… it’s up to us to choose.” “Excellent.” Crystal adjusted her tie. “If that is the case, I have a solution to suggest to you which I think you will find... highly appropriate. Perfect, perhaps.” Celestia tightened her grip on the back of the chair and leaned forward expectantly. “And what might that be?” Crystal smirked. She then turned her gaze. “Wallflower Blush,” she said. “It is… understood that you have spent a great deal of time keeping yourself out of everyone else’s eyes. You have taken great strides to remain invisible; ironic, given your desire to be noticed. You have harbored a fear of what your peers would think of you if they knew of your existence. To that end, you used the Memory Stone to continually wipe memories… and thus fly under the radar.” Wallflower shrunk in her seat, plastering her eyes to the table’s edge directly in front of her. Crystal paced around the outside of the table. “Well, safe to say, everyone knows about your existence now. And I must imagine that they have all formed the very opinions about you that you have feared all this time. I can only speculate as to if there is anyone else here that has… anything positive to say about you.” She arrived beside Wallflower’s chair and stood right behind her. After a thoughtful pause, she chuckled. “It is most certainly true that we could find some sort of dark and devious punishment for you. But it is as you have just heard; there have been entities whose crimes far outclass yours, and they got off with a slap on the wrist. So, then, perhaps, we should follow precedent and, indeed… let you off with a slap on the wrist.” Everyone in the room perked up at that. The color drained from Twilight’s face and she stared holes at Crystal. Luna frowned. “How is that…?” Crystal held up a hand, snapping her fingers before holding up her index in a ‘wait’ gesture. “That means… that you will return to your life here at this school… where, without a doubt, you will not be so invisible anymore. You will be... subject to the scrutiny and judgment of your classmates,” she said as she finally placed both her hands on Wallflower’s shoulders, prompting Wallflower to yelp and jump in her seat. There, Crystal leaned down so that she hovered right next to Wallflower’s ear. “You will finally face the music you have endeavored for so long to avoid. I can only imagine how they will treat you, now and forever. Some may… perhaps… go out of their way to show you how they feel.” Celestia walked around the side of the table so that she could somewhat face Wallflower and Crystal and gauge their reactions. Crystal’s face, bar the scar, appeared almost featureless save for the faintest hint of a smug smile. Wallflower, meanwhile, sat so completely straight and so completely still. Her eyes looked so far forward that Celestia knew she was looking at nothing at all but the possibilities lay bare before her. “Yes, Wallflower Blush,” Crystal said. “You shall be perfectly visible now. And there will be nothing you can do to erase it.” Twilight narrowed her eyes and balled her fists. She glared at Wallflower, only looking up to scan everyone else’s faces and offer a nod. Wallflower outright shuddered in her seat and her eyes fell again. Her face had grown wet, and some idle tears had formed in her eyes which had yet to fall. Luna cleared her throat and stumbled forward. “I can see the logic in your suggestion, Miss Faire. But I must ask… what about in the meantime? What is she to do when she is not at school?” At that, Crystal paused. Her eyes flicked for a moment as she thought before she eventually released Wallflower and stood up. “What is her living situation?” she asked without the slightest attempt to make eye contact. “She lives alone,” Luna tremulously replied. “She lives in a house about a couple of miles from the school.” “Is that so?” Crystal looked back down. “Wallflower?” After a moment’s pause, Wallflower meekly nodded. A larger grin flashed across Crystal’s face. She closed her eyes and thought. “I suppose, then, you may resume your normal life outside of school.” She chuckled. “Well, whatever that may have consisted of. I see no reason to put you on a leash outside of school time. In fact… in the interest of the ongoing secrecy around here… it would be best to not bring any sort of leash into being. So, in a sense, the essence of the punishment is very little. All you have to do, Wallflower, is attend school each day. Everything else is discretionary.” Crystal lay a hand on the back of Wallflower’s chair. She then gave it a kick while pushing on it, turning Wallflower and her chair away from the table. Wallflower screamed and recoiled into the table that was now to her side which kept her from falling out of her chair. Crystal’s other hand landed on the table, effectively blocking Wallflower off. “But remember this. If you do not do as instructed… if you fail to show up… you run away,” she said with a certain sharpness in her voice, “know that I have dealt with the likes of you many a time and that I am an extraordinarily resourceful mare. Thus, you should maintain absolute confidence that I will find you.” Celestia’s heart thumped in her chest and she couldn’t but shudder. Crystal’s tone of voice was approaching the venomous tones Princess Twilight had spoken in right before the explosion. She could feel Crystal’s razor-sharp glare from where she stood, saying nothing of the girl in the chair getting the full blast. “And when that happens… I will then make it my mission to make sure Twilight can do as she desires with you without consequence. And I think you already have an idea of what she would like to do with you. I could personally do much worse to you, if need be, but I’m sure you’d find that hard to believe after she is finished.” Crystal leaned forward. “Do you understand?” Wallflower sniffled and kept her eyes forward. She did not respond. Crystal pursed her lips and cupped Wallflower’s chin with her hands. “Look at me,” she hissed, drawing so near to Wallflower that she was just short of nose to nose. “Are we clear?” Tears streaked from each of Wallflower’s eyes as she met Crystal’s gaze. And, finally, she sobbed and nodded. “C-Crystal…” An ugly silence hung throughout the room. All eyes fell onto Wallflower. At that, Crystal smiled again and said, with an otherworldly tremor, “Good.” * * * Twilight “Sci-Twi” Sparkle—she was sure that was who she was—woke up in a daze. She shook that out of her and sat up, trying to adjust herself and register her surroundings. She found herself on a rolled-out cot on the floor. The nurse’s office had sterile walls and simple decorations, and only a couple of beds. She poked her head up to see Pinkie Pie sitting up in an equal daze on one of them and Fluttershy still passed out on the other. Rarity sat messaging her temples on a cot across from her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash sat on the edge of Pinkie Pie’s bed. Sunset sat on a chair in the one spot of the room still unoccupied. She glanced up to see Sci-Twi and then gave a relieved sigh. “Sunset?” Sci-Twi wheezed. “I’m here. You’re okay.” Sunset paused. “Right?” Sci-Twi felt at herself. Her head spun, and her neck felt tender and singed, but everything else gave no complaint. “I… think…? Is everyone else okay?” Applejack motioned over to Fluttershy. “She ain’t woken up yet, but we all came to around the same time. She probably ain’t much longer.” “But we’re okay?” “Well, I feel like I’ve been hit by the broad side of the barn, but… I’m okay. I reckon we’re all okay.” “Our geodes certainly aren’t, though,” Rarity added. Twilight gasped and felt at her neck. There was no geode there. And then she remembered it shattering. “Oh. Oh my gosh! You’re right! That… happened!” She clutched her head. “So that wasn’t my imagination…” “I’m sorry. I had no idea that was going to happen,” Sunset said. “Goodness,” Rarity said, holding her head in her hands. “I don’t think any of us did.” “Yeah. That was pretty wild!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “I hated it.” A few others nodded in agreement. “Damn that Wallflower,” Applejack hissed. But then she shook her head and sighed. “But yeah, I dunno if I like what happened there either.” At that, Fluttershy groaned and rolled over in her bed. The six of them turned and watched Fluttershy groggily sit up and clutched her head. “Oh… What… happened?” Applejack rubbed Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Hey now. How are you feelin’?” Fluttershy wiped her face and still wore a grimace afterward. “Awful.” “Yeah. Join the club,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I probably should have been more careful with Twilight,” Sunset said. She crossed her arms. “She wasn’t in a good way ever since this all started. She was probably holding that in for… who knows how long?” “Well,” Sci-Twi said, “if she is anything like me, and she is, she would have been feeling pretty stressed by all of this. She… probably didn’t get much sleep. Actually, she probably refused to sleep.” Sunset pointed. “Got that in one.” Sci-Twi giggled. “I thought so. That said…” She momentarily took her glasses off and wiped them on her shirt. As her frown deepened, her glasses came to rest in the creases. “I don’t think I would have done that.” Rainbow Dash rested her hands on her head and nodded. “Yeah. I really didn’t know she had that in her.” “Yeah. Who’da thunk, right?” Applejack agreed. “Well…” Rarity tremulously began as she folded her hands together, thinking for several moments, “I must confess… I am shocked… and flabbergasted, like the rest of you. But surprised? I am not.” At that, everyone in the room blinked and looked up at Rarity. Sunset half-expected someone else to question what Rarity was saying, but then she saw how comprehensive frowns appeared on their faces. They understood what Rarity had said. “Uh,” Sunset hazarded, “why are you not surprised?” And now they all looked at her. Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak but then glanced at Rarity for guidance. Rarity donned a sad smile and shook her head. “I suppose it’s old news now. Nothing you need to concern yourself with, darling.” The others nodded in agreement. Sunset sat there, gauging their responses, unsure if she believed them. * * * Sunset silently listened as the group of boys sitting at the table with her—although, in reality, she was sitting at their table—spoke to her. Every face she passed over was focused on her, watching for her reactions. The one currently speaking, Valhallen, had long, orange hair that covered his eyes; Sunset wondered how he even could see. In short order, however, he finished speaking. And Sunset scratched her head. “And this Fall Formal is a thing that happens every year?” “Yeah,” Valhallen replied. “You won that for three straight years.” “And then Twilight,” Flash Sentry began before pausing, “uh, the other Twilight, she came and stole the crown.” Sunset frowned. “I… I heard that I stole her crown or something. And that she came here to take it back and won it through the Fall Formal. Does that sound right?” “Eh, probably,” Flash Sentry replied with a shrug. “And then you stole it again, and turned into a she-demon. Twilight and the others defeated you…” Another of the boys, Thunderbass, who had blue skin and blue hair, leaned forward. “After that, you turned out pretty okay.” At that point, Sunset folded her hands together and nodded. “Okay, okay,” she vacantly said. She took a few moments to consider what she had heard. She sat there in silence, nodding all the while. There were parts that she wanted to know more about. There were the parts of the narrative that had evidently never gone away. “So, I was wondering… could you tell me about who I was, you know, before the Fall Formal?” At that, the boys at the table frowned and exchanged glances. Some unspoken conversation passed between them as evidenced by the occasional stealing of glances toward her. Sunset sighed and waved for their attention. “Okay, listen. I know about me being a real bitch back then. I know that everyone hated me. Actually,” she said as she pointed at Flash, “I’m still not convinced on why you’d date me.” Flash Sentry chuckled. “That’s complicated.” Sunset nodded. “Anyway, I guess, I just want to get a sense of what made me so bad.” She sat up straight. “I want to really understand why Wallflower felt like she had to do what she did to me.” At that, their expressions hardened, and they shared a round of glares. “Wallflower,” Valhallen hissed. Sunset’s expression twitched as she considered the shift in tone. She pocketed the thought for later. “I heard that I was pretty bad. What was I like?” The boys looked between each other and shared shrugs. “Uh, well, you had ways of ruining people that disobeyed you. You pretty much ran this school with an iron fist,” Valhallen said. “Pretty sure you had Snips and Snails doing most of the dirty work?” Thunderbass said. “Yeah,” Valhallen agreed. “Who?” Sunset asked. Thunderbass frowned. “Snips and Snails. They’re lowerclassmen. Uh, I think a few of us called them ‘The Dumb Cronies.’” A few others at the table chuckled. Sunset shrugged. “Well, we all know they couldn’t really do anything on their own. You were the brains running the show, you know,” Flash Sentry said. Sunset leaned forward. “And I ruined people?” Flash nodded. “Yeah. Pretty much the whole school fragmented because of you. I think a couple girls transferred out just because of you.” “I also remember what happened to Rarity at the Spring Fling,” Valhallen added. Sunset shuddered. “I see.” Thunderbass placed a hand on his knee as he leaned forward. “Anyone else remember what happened with Gardenia Glow? She graduated recently?” Flash’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah…” He turned back to Sunset. “Uh… you did kinda out her from the closet.” Sunset cringed. “Wow… really?” Flash nodded. “Yeah. That was a big one. But… yeah, you were pretty bad.” “You always managed to keep it real with the teachers, though,” Valhallen said. “Everyone had a hard time pegging you for the things you did. Honestly, sometimes, we just weren’t sure.” “But you kind of still knew it was me.” Valhallen shrugged. “Gut feelings, and whatever.” At that, Flash scooted closer to her and even laid a hand on her shoulder. “But… after everything you happened, you really changed. You became a better person. Much better.” He shrugged. “Probably even the best of us.” Sunset chuckled. “Because Princess Twilight gave me a second chance, huh?” “Yeah… more or less. Honestly… Pretty sure no one else was on board with all of that. I think it was a pretty good while before anyone warmed up to you.” “Battle of the Bands definitely helped with that,” Thunderbass added. Valhallen did a flipping motion with his hands. “There were a couple of rough spots here and there after that. But you pulled through.” Thunderbass shook his head. “Real talk, I… personally didn’t think you deserved a second chance. I kind of know a little better now, though.” “Yeah,” Valhallen agreed. “You sure as hell made that second chance count.” Flash nodded and turned to them. “Kind of makes me wonder… maybe second chances aren’t so bad.” At that, Valhallen and Thunderbass nodded and hummed in agreement. Sunset placed a hand on her chin and scratched it. Second chances… huh? I… wonder... * * * Sunset opened the fridge, reached inside, and grabbed a red delicious apple. She would have to thank Applejack for that later. She shut the fridge, gave the apple a quick wash in the sink, and then wiped it with a paper towel. Having to rip one off the roll still felt really weird, but that was how this world worked, after all. She threw that away and then took a bite. She could taste the sweet juices within which mixed well with the wet skin. Sunset moaned with delight. She made her way back into the living room with an apple in hand and sat on the couch. She sat there for a moment as she continued chewing and then took another bite and chewed that as well. She watched the ceiling for nothing in particular and turned her brain off, even just for a moment. It felt nice, at least. Ray crawled onto her lap and curled up there. Sunset smiled and stroked him with her free hand; he arched into her, smiling with delight. Finally, she set the apple onto the coffee table and picked up the diary. She picked her legs up and rested her feet on the edge of the table; her legs now made a good spot for the diary to sit without crushing Ray underneath. She flipped through a few pages to the one she had left off on. By her calculations and based on testimony, she was now within a couple of months of the present. The diary entries were something on the order of once a week; that was fine, at any rate. When especially harrowing things happened, however, the entries had been denser in time—the Battle of the Bands and the sections about Camp Everfree took up a bit of space. Most everything else described rather mundane things and had been briefer. But there had been an odd pattern. Sunset thought back to some of the lines she had read. “What would Princess Twilight do if she were here?” “I thought about writing to Princess Twilight about it. But then I thought about it, and she’s already got so much on her plate. I don’t know how I’d feel about her dropping everything to come over here—because I know she would.” “Ha. I bet if Princess Twilight was here, she would have said the same thing I did!” Sunset frowned. Why did I bring her up in my diary entries so much? She wasn’t involved in any of those things. That’s kind of weird. She shook her head and began reading. Dear Diary, Twilight is thinking about building a selfie drone. We talked about it over lunch. She knows how she could do it; she says she can feed it a bunch of pictures she thinks are good to help it learn what the optimal camera angle should be. It would be straight up building an AI from there. If she puts that into a drone, I think it could work. I know it would work. Twilight’s smart like that. Well, she’s pretty booksmart. She’s more booksmart than I am, anyway. She did beat me in a one versus one during the academic decathlon, anyways. Gosh, how did I get that angle wrong? It’s strange. I can’t help but wonder if Princess Twilight could also succeed at building a selfie drone. She doesn’t know too much about this world’s technology. But if the Twilights are alike, I have no doubt she could do it. Yours, Sunset Shimmer Sunset frowned. Huh. I guess that was a thing that happened, huh? They told me something about that drone, didn’t they? She got it working… The fingers holding the book drummed against the edges. But here I mention Princess Twilight again. I mean, sure, I guess I was making a comparison between counterparts. But… why? Why would I feel the need to include her in on this? She flipped over to another page. Dear Diary, Yearbook superlative voting is next week. We have the obvious ones like most likely to succeed, best smile, cutest couple… Pinkie Pie would be a shoo-in for class clown. I put in most likely to invent cold fusion in there for Twilight, too. But I’m really hoping we all win best friends together. If we win that, those categories will have to go to other people, since we want to spread the superlatives around. Gosh, I know Princess Twilight would be thrilled to hear if we won that one. She was the one that set me on this path to friendship after all. I got that second chance because of her. She gave me to them, and them to me. It would be pretty vindicating to win that one. And she’d be proud. Even now, I can’t help but remember how I got here. I can’t help but remember all the ups and downs, and the journey that I’ve been on. With this yearbook, we’ll be able to see it all. Yours, Sunset Shimmer Sunset sat further into the couch and let her eyes drift upward again. There it is again. I guess the old me had some sort of fixation on her. I can’t… put my hoof on it. She sighed. She seems to care about me quite a bit. I mean, everyone else I’ve met cared about me and who I was. I was probably important to all of them in my past life. She paused. But Princess Twilight has been really… especially caring. She put her entire life on hold to try and… get my memories back. Sunset thought back to the first night when Twilight had stayed over. She thought about how she had climbed the stairs and gone to bed, while Twilight had stayed downstairs to sleep on the couch. She broke from her thoughts to chuckle. A princess sleeping on a couch. That was a thought. Princess Celestia would surely never be caught doing something like that. She wondered if Princess Celestia had ever even considered that possibility. Princess Twilight had slept on that couch, but not before she had read through Sunset’s diary. Anything to help understand that past, Sunset reasoned. But Twilight had shed tears. She had shed tears over this diary. Gosh, I let her read through all of this. Sunset frowned. Did she figure something out about me? She looked down at the pages. She seems really smart. She’d probably pick up on me mentioning her so much. She would probably connect some dots. I’m not entirely sure what this all means yet. Sunset snorted and turned to the next page. Dear Diary, I’m losing my mind here! I can write a song. I’ve written songs. But I can’t seem to write this one for some reason, and I am really frustrated. My drawer is practically overflowing with notes now. I probably should throw some of that stuff out. I don’t know. Maybe I wrote something down that comes a little close to what I want to have. I think I know what the problem is. I want to get the songs I’ve written right, yes, but this one has to be perfect. I have to get this even more right than anything else I’ve written so far. And sure, I’ve been wrong before. I’ve written a couple songs that weren’t the best. No big deal. This one… I can’t afford to get this one wrong. I need to be able to tell Princess Twilight how I feel about her with this. I can’t blow this. Yours, Sunset Shimmer Sunset blinked. She blinked again. She read the last line over again. She read the paragraph preceding it again. She considered them together and what they said. Oh no. A shiver ran up her spine as she considered what it really said. It was not said outright, but the implication was there. She knew none of the words in the song. Any notion of that had vanished days ago. But, nonetheless, she knew who it was about, and what, and why. Twilight had cried. Twilight had cried over what was written in this diary. Twilight, who had been the most caring, most concerned, most desperate to help her, had probably cried over this page. Oh no. Sunset flipped to the next page and found it empty. This, then, was the last entry. She closed the diary, set it to the side, and stood up, careful to scoop up Ray in the process. She then ambled over to the alcove beneath her bed where her desk and bookshelves were. She set Ray onto the desk itself—he scampered off her hand and then looked up at her quizzically. After a moment idly standing there, Sunset found the desk drawers. Those had to be it, after all. She pulled it open. Dozens of crumpled balls of paper filled the desk drawer, with some even popping out and falling onto the floor. Sunset duly noted those and then grabbed a few, uncrumpling them as best as she could. She read one of them. You have that certain sparkle that always has my eye. I can’t look away from you no matter what I try. You’re what I’ve wanted to be along with so much more. That’s why I feel this way now like I have not before. Another line started but vanished a few words in. The rest of the small piece of paper lay barren. Sunset thought about the words and how deliberately chosen they seemed. It more than hinted at something, for certain. Sunset opened another piece and read it over. This one contained several lines, although most of them had been crossed out. The only legible line lay at the bottom. Everything I am today, I owe to you. You have given me a heart, now I am true. You taught me about friendship, now it’s my core. But I say to you, of you, I feel much more. Sunset swallowed. This came so close to outright saying it. Everything feels like it’s just too much. But you have to let it in, even if it’s tough. Know it gets better, know it gets better. We push through the weather, together. Sunset tilted her head. This one had to be another song entirely, surely. She chuckled and let that fall to the floor as well before uncrumpling another one. This one contained the first one she had read only with slight variation, and she chucked that one as well. She uncrumpled another. You have a very special place in that lonely little heart of mine that you saved. You are she who could be my better half and I hope I could somehow be yours too. I want to keep you and the thought of you and never want to forget about you. If I did then I would do everything to meet you for the first time once again. Sunset froze. Her facilities went practically blank. All she could do was stare at the words. This was it. It was there. It was so obviously, painfully plain. It somehow landed close to home, even. This was how she had felt once. This had been the idea her past self had been chasing and grasping for and struggling to write a song for and find fruition in. A heaviness appeared in her eyes and her hands trembled as she read the paper once more. She eventually let it fall to the ground and simply sat there. The entirety of her interactions with Twilight Sparkle over the past few days finally snapped into place in this new focus. Every little compliment, every little bit of encouragement that everything would be okay, every little way Twilight turned to her. And, with that, the way Twilight fiercely and almost violently stood for her, the way Twilight had worked herself to the bone, putting her own life on hold just to help her, and the way Twilight had despaired throughout it all and as a result of it all. This was what she had lost. I… loved her once… and she loved me too... Sunset swallowed as another thought occurred to her. She had indeed forgotten. And they had indeed met each other for the first time once again. There had been no butterflies. There had been no enchantment. She had not been enraptured by beauty. She had not been drawn to virtue. They had met each other for the first time once again—as strangers, as separates. Finally, the last bits clicked into place. This was the Memory Stone’s last taunt. Twilight loves me… she still does… But I… I don’t... Not anymore.