Twilight and Sunset had settled into a normal routine. Wake, breakfast together, off to lessons, again together, lunch with the princess, then self study, again almost always in each other's company, then writing their reports and dinner. Though these were more and more rarely with the princess, but always together, then either more study, or resting then more late night hijinx, followed by whatever rest they could get.
The common element to all of the above being that the two of them were thick as thieves through all of them. So when the call came for Sunset to take another covert assignment, it was a shock to both their systems.
“Can’t I come with you, please?” begged Twilight. “I promise I would get in the way! I could even help! Come on, Sunset. Don’t leave me!” she cried.
“Twilight, I’m sorry, but you don’t have the training for it. You’re not ready. I would love to have you with me, honest!” She lied. She really hoped that Twight would never have to do the horrible things she did on assignment, but there was no way she was going to tell her just about little sister that. “Sorry Twilight. But I will tell you about it when I get back, okay? I just don’t want you to get hurt. Keep training, someday you’ll be big and strong enough, and you can be a mage too!”
“That’s what they all say,” Twilight pouted. “I’m never going to be big enough, no one wants me to do anything,” she whined.
“Twilight, that’s not true and you know it,” Sunset told her. “I love doing things with you. We hang out together all the time.”
“Yeah, and now you’re leaving me,” she pouted.
“But I will come back, and then we can hang out again,” promised Sunset.
Twilight huffed and turned away. Sunset spotted Princess Celestia trotting down an adjoining hall to her next meeting, so she telekinetically shook the armor next to her causing her to look over and notice the two of them. “Help!” Sunset mouthed silently.
“Twilight, do you want to spend the evening with me? We can read a story together, and have some snacks,” suggested Celestia, trotting over to Sunset’s rescue.
“Can we have cake?” asked Twilight hopefully.
Celestia smiled. “Yes, Twilight. I will share my cake with you,” she agreed.
Twilight turned to Sunset and stuck out her tongue. “Too bad you’ll miss it, miss meany pants. I’ll be sure to tell you all about it when you get back,” she harrumphed.
Sunset smiled and tousled her mane. “I’m sure you will,” she grinned. “Thank you!” she mouthed to Celestia, turning to go.
Back in her apartment, Sunset opened her orders and read tonight’s assignment. She was being sent to the YakYakistan border to try to bring an unruly group of Yaks under hoof, as they were causing mischief among the border settlements. At least this time there were no kill orders, she thought thankfully.
Packing up her kit and donning her robe, she headed out to meet her transport team for the evening. As she got out to the courtyard, she was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face.
“Major Tailwind, what a pleasant surprise,” smiled Sunset as she stepped up into the chariot. “Was not expecting to see you so soon again!”
”Yeah, it’s not set in stone or anything, but command does try to keep winning teams together. So here we are! Ready to rock and roll?” she asked.
“Ready as ever,” nodded Sunset. “Off to the YakYakistan border! I can’t wait to see what happens next,” she snarked.
“With those folks, you never know, “ agreed Major Tailwind. “Okay, We’ll set up camp when we drop you off. Hopefully you can resolve it fairly quickly and we can all get back soon.”
“From your lips to the maker’s ears,” nodded Sunset.
They took off, heading for the north and the YakYakistan border.
Along the way, Sunset thought over everything she knew about the Yaks, which basically boiled down to they like to break things, and they don’t respect weakness. “This ought to be fun,” she smirked, rolling her eyes.
About an hour and change later, the Major brought the team in for a landing. The ground was cold, covered with a bit of frost.
“I can see why they have such thick coats,” noted Sunset, shivering a bit.
The Major and her sergeant laughed. “You unicorns just need to toughen up a bit,” she teased.
Sunset smirked. “Well sorry if not all of us are gifted with such hot blood,” she laughed back. “Okay. I’ll check back in as soon as possible. Hopefully I can make this quick. How hard can it be to get a bunch of overgrown rugs to behave?”
The Major rolled her eyes and laughed at that. “Way to go, rookie. Nice Jinx! Now go have fun dealing with it. Rube!” She chuckled and she tossed off her lead and pulled out the camp tent.
“Now who’s jinxing it?” laughed Sunset. “Setting up the tent? Really? That’s how much faith you have in me getting this done quickly?”
“Prove me wrong, nube, and I’ll treat you to a round of cider. But if I’m right, you buy for the whole wing,” challenged the Major with a grin.
“Phfft! Sucker bet. You’re on!” agreed Sunset, clopping hooves with her. “Be back in a few to help you eat those words,” she grinned, trotting off towards the settlements in the distance.
The Major just laughed and shook her head, then went back to setting up the camp.
As Sunset drew closer to the settlements, she began to see the nature of just what was wrong. Random sections of the settlement were smashed to splinters, trompled into the ground.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she groaned. “Really? Smashing houses? What’s wrong with these creatures?”
As she got closer she spied ponies poking their heads out of the doors to peak at who was coming. A beige coated earth pony shot from one of the doors, running over to her.
“Oh sweet Celestia! Are you here to help us? Please tell me you are the mage they said they were sending,” panted the pony, coming to a stop before her.
“Mage Sunset Shimmer, as promised,” agreed Sunset, facing the mare who had run out to meet her. “Not that I am blind or anything but, what seems to be the problem. And also, who am I speaking with?”
“I’m Mayor Mayonnaise, I also run the local delicatessen. And the problem is Yaks! Yaks are the problem!” vented the mayor.
“Okay. Backing up a bit here. Yeah, I can see clearly that there has been some Yak smashing going on here. My question is more, what happened before that?”
“Nothing happened! We were just minding our own business, and they came in yelling Yak Smash! And started breaking all sorts of stuff. Then one of them said, and I quote Yaks send message to ponies. Not nice to not be nice. Then they ran off,” she related.
“And are you ever not nice to them?” asked Sunset.
“Sweet harmony, no!” exclaimed the mayor. “We avoid them like the plague! If they come into town, we just smile and nod and stay the heck out of their way. It’s worked fine for us for the last few years. And then, this!” She pointed to the destroyed houses.
“Okay. Got it,” Sunset nodded. “I need you all to stay inside while I look around, then I am going to have a nice chat with the Yaks. Which way did they run off to?” she asked.
The mayor pointed off to the hills on the outskirts of the settlement.
“Alright. Tell everyone to stay inside, and I’ll go take care of this,” Sunset assured her, then trotted over to look at the smashed house nearby. Sorting through the debris, she saw no sign that anypony was hurt in the rampage, just lots of splintered furniture, walls, and anything else that may have suggested this was once a pony home.
She trotted over to the other smashed houses and determined they were in the same state. So apparently the Yaks were not looking to harm anypony, just shatter their homes. And not all of them, just a handful.
“Wow, that sounds like remarkable restraint for Yaks, at least from what I’ve been told,” she mused to herself. She trotted out of the settlement, heading in the direction pointed out by the mayor.
Trotting through the hills, Sunset could see signs of a Yak settlement nearby. As she neared the settlement, the Yaks noticed her and several ran out towards her, shouting and yelling.
“Pony not welcome here! Pony leave now!” they were shouting. “Pony go home! Leave now!”
Puzzled, Sunset stopped, waiting for them. As they neared, one of the larger yaks tried to ram her. Surprised, she lifted him in her magic, leaving him sputtering and kicking in the air, outraged. “Put Yak down now, Pony! Pony leave now!” yelled the outraged yak.
Sunset turned to the others as they ran up, stopping short at the sight of their friend suspended in Sunset’s magic.
“Pony go home! No pony allowed! Pony leave!” they were all shouting.
“Nope. Don’t think so,” said Sunset. “How about we start over. Why are you trying so hard to smash me, and what is going on here?” asked Sunset.
“Ponies not friends!” shouted one of the yaks. “Ponies bad! Ponies hurt yaks!”
“Show me,” insisted Sunset.
The yaks turned around and ran back into the settlement, Sunset following, her smash prone captive still held in her magic, trailing behind her.
Entering the settlement, Sunset saw the yaks had gathered around a young yak family, sitting before their home, or what was left of it. It had clearly burned down to the ground, nothing left of it but smoking embers and scraps of what clearly used to be their belonging.
“What happened here?” asked Sunset.
The larger of the yaks squatting before the smoldering ruins looked up at her, clearly upset. “Ponies happened, bad ponies not our friends. Ponies burn home, laugh and run away,” he said.
“Did you see the ponies that did this?” she asked. He nodded.
“Come with me,” said Sunset, turning around. The yak followed her, along with several of his friends, as well as the yak still in her magic.
Trotting back though the hills, she returned to the settlement, stopping in the middle with her yak followers as the ponies all gathered around the yaks and Sunset.
Turning to the yak who had seen the ponies that started the fire, she asked. “Do you see the ponies that burned your home?”
He nodded, pointing.. “Ponies there!”
She looked at where he was pointing, seeing two colts hiding behind their mother. “Those two?” she asked, incredulous.
“Those bad ponies! Tried hurt my family, burned our home!” he insisted.
“That’s a lie!” insisted the mare. “My precious foals would never do something like that! You can’t trust anything a yak says anyway! They just smash and destroy whatever they want and lie about everything!”
“Who are you then?” asked Sunset of the indignant mare.
‘I’m Karen Cauliflower, and these precious colts are my babies! And they would never do anything so evil! Why are we even listening to these cretinous creatures? Aren’t you supposed to be a mage or something? Blast them! Telling lies about my children, they should be punished for such lies!”
Sunset hung her head. “I swear there’s one in every crowd,” she muttered. “Ma’am, trying to incite a riot really isn’t helping much right now. Can you just answer the questions and dial the outrage back a bit? Thanks!” she snarked. Turning to the yak, she asked.. “You're sure these two colts were the ones that started the fire?” she confirmed. The yak nodded firmly, staring straight at the two young colts. Their mom stepped in front of them, staring the yak back down.
Peeking around their mom’s legs, they stuck their tongues out at the yaks and made faces at them.
“Real mature, colts,” groaned Sunset, watching them goad the yaks. “I swear they want to be smashed into paste,” she grumbled under her breath. “No sense of self preservation at all.”
“You two,” she called out to the colts. “You need to come with me so we can clear this up.”
“No they do not!” declared their mother. “You are not sacrificing my colts to these heathen yaks! Not while I have a breath in my body!” She stepped between Sunset and the colts.
Sunset cocked an eyebrow. “Really?” she asked.
“Look what she’s doing!” Karen shouted out to the rest of the ponies. “She’s sacrificing our foals to the yaks to appease their bloodlust! Is this how the princess treats her subjects! We should report this so-called mage for abandoning her beloved ponies and sacrificing our children to the heathen yak blood lust!”
Sunset face-hooved. “No one is sacrificing anypony!” she called out over the clamoring of the ponies of the settlement all talking worriedly among themselves and Karen shouting at them, egging them on. The entire time the two colts were peeking around her legs making faces at the yaks.
“Enough!” Sunset called out in her best Canterlot voice. “Silence!”
In shock, everyone went quiet, staring at her. Sunset glared daggers at Karen. “That’s quite enough from you. Nopony is sacrificing anypony. But we are going to get to the bottom of this. Someponies here,” and at this point she glared at the two gloating colts, who immediately hid back behind their mom, “have single hoofedly unraveled years worth of work Princess Celestia has done to bring peace between the Yaks and Ponies. And those someponies will be held responsible.”
“You can’t touch my babies! I forbid it!” Karen screamed at her, her colts clutching her legs.
“That’s it, you’re all coming with me,” declared Sunset, picking up Karen and the colts in her magic as well. Karen went to the right of the still struggling yak, and the colts off to the left.
“Outrage! This is an outrage!” screamed Karen. “You can’t do this! I will see you pay for this! Ponies have rights! You can’t sacrifice us to these heathens!” A teal glow surrounded Karens head, and the shouting stopped though her muzzle was still going a mile a minute.
“Much better,” sighed Sunset. “Come with me,” she directed the yaks and villagers. “We are going to hold a tribunal and get to the bottom of this.” She headed off back to her camp. The ponies from the settlement followed, trailing behind the collection of creatures dragged along in Sunset’s magic. One of the yaks ran off, headed back to the yak settlement to tell them what was happening.
As Sunset approached the camp, Major Tailwind noticed her approach with her menagerie of floating guests and the entire pony settlement behind her. In the distance, she saw the yaks streaming out of the settlement, trying to catch up. She busted up laughing, almost falling over from laughing so hard.
“You had to jinx us, didn’t you?” she gasped out.
“Shuddup you,” growled Sunset. “You jinxed us too, don’t blame this all on me.” She smirked.
Arriving before the tent, she turned and waited for the trailing yaks to arrive. When everycreature was present and gathered around, Sunset turned to face them.
“Okay, the provincial court is now in session!” she called out. She let the yak down, and he quickly scampered over to the rest of his kin, looking back at Sunset in fright.
“Sorry about that,” Sunset smirked. She continued. “This is in informal inquiry into the events that led to the destruction of several homes in your settlement, and the destruction of a yak family’s home in their settlement. I will remind you all that the penalty for lying to the court could be as severe as a trip to Tartarus!”
The ponies all blanched at that, especially the colts and Karen.
Sunset turned to the yak. “So, to clarify, you did see the ponies that burned down your home?” The yak nodded. She continued. “And they are here with us now?” The yak nodded again. “Can you point them out?” she asked.
The yak pointed to the two colts still suspended in her magical aura. The colts looked sick. Karen was still thrashing and screaming at her, but not a word of it was audible.
“Okay, thank you,” Sunset nodded to the yak. He nodded back and sat down. She turned to the colts.
“Anything you two feel like adding or changing to your story?” she challenged. Karen was kicking and thrashing violently now. “Don’t worry, dear,” Sunset smirked at her. “You’ll have your chance to speak too. Eventually.”
The colts looked at each other. “They started it!” blurted out the younger one. “They broke our fort first! They started everything!”
“Okay, tell me what happened,” asked Sunset.
The older one looked at his brother, then spoke. “We built a fort in the fields between our settlements. We were just playing when they attacked us and nearly trampled us to death! We couldn’t let them get away with almost killing us!” he added.
“So the yaks saw you and your brother playing in your fort, and just decided to attack you?” clarified Sunset.
“Yeah! Well, sorta. Maybe they didn’t exactly see us,” he amended.
“How’s that?” asked Sunset.
“We built the fort in the grass, and made it low so they wouldn’t see us. We were pretending to be pony spies, doing a covert operation against the heathen yaks,” he clarified.
Sunset face-hoved, again. “Okay, just going to say this now. Wherever you got the idea that yaks were heathens, whatever the heck you mean by that, it’s wrong. Stop saying that. Now.” Taking a deep breath, she continued. “So, they didn’t see you, but they did run over your fort and nearly trampled you.”
The colts nodded emphatically. “And did they scream at you or anything while they were doing it?” she asked.
Both colts shook their head. “No, they just laughed and yelled the whole time. It was like they didn’t even know we were there!”
Sunset cocked an eyebrow. “Almost like you were covert?” she clarified.
The two colts looked at each other. “Ohhh…” they both went at the same time. The older one added. “I guess that makes more sense. I wondered why they were yelling Tag, you’re it! At us.”
Half the ponies gathered around face-hooved at the same time. Sunset just laughed and shook her head. “So from that, you decided to light their house on fire?”
“Well, not at first,” answered the older colt.
“Yeah, we were just shocked and super scared!” added his brother.
“So we followed them back into their settlement and watched where they went. They all went into the house that we burned. We started thinking about it, and how angry we were that they almost smashed us to death, so we decided we needed to show them how that felt,” continued the older colt. His brother nodded.
“So you snuck into the settlement and lit their home on fire.,” clarified Sunset.
“Yeah, we saw the watchfire at the edge of the settlement, so we stole a brand from it, then snuck over to the house. We threw the brand on the roof, then started kicking the doors and windows yelling at them ‘How do you like it when someone breaks your stuff!’ They came running out and we ran off, and back to our settlement. They were all running out of the house screaming and yelling,” said the older brother.
“Yeah it was super scary!” added the little brother. “We ran so fast, it was crazy!”
“Thank Celestia for small mercies,” sighed Sunset. Turning to the yak, she asked. “Does this sound about right?” He nodded. “And where are your children?” she asked. He pointed back into the crowd of yaks, where several small yaks were gathered around the yak he had been sitting in front of the burned home with. Sunset nodded.
“So then, you saw these two colts running back to their settlement, and decided to get some revenge?” she asked.
The yak shook his head. “Yak mad at ponies, but too sad to fight and smash. Home gone, food gone, wife and children almost hurt. Yak needed to mourn.”
Sunset turned to the yaks gathered. “So who followed the ponies into the settlement and smashed things?”
Several of the younger yaks shuffled forward, including the yak that tried to smash her when she first arrived. They looked completely dejected.
“Yaks sorry. Yaks thought ponies trying to hurt yaks, being mean. Did not know ponies almost hurt and scared,” he shuffled in apology.
“So you all went into the pony settlement and smashed the pony houses. Why did you smash so many?” asked Sunset.
“Yaks not see where little ponies went. So angry so just smashed some then left, make ponies know not okay to hurt yaks,” admitted the yak.
“Well that clears that up,” Sunset sighed. Turning to her last guest, she lowered Karen down to the ground and released the spell on her muzzle.
Karen looked up at her, finally quiet. “What are you going to do?” she asked in a small voice.
“It’s not what I am going to do,” stated Sunset. “It’s what all of you are going to do, together.”
She turned to the gathered ponies and yaks. “Okay, enough bad blood here. No blood has been spilled. Time to fix this. All of you are going to work together and repair the damage that’s been done. And we are going to start where the heartache started. We are going to rebuild this yak families home and gather them food so they can survive. And then, we are going to repair each of the damaged pony homes, and do the same thing for those families. Are you with me?” she called out.
“Yes!” called out the ponies and yaks together. Sunset led a much more subdued and friendlier group of creatures back into the settlement, where the ponies all stopped to gather their tools and supplies, then followed her out to the yak settlement.
It was a long evening, but productive. It amazed her how quickly they were able to rebuild everything when everycreature pitched in a helping hoof and worked together. The homes were rebuilt, the suffering families' larders restocked from the others largess, and even the colts fort was rebuilt for them, but this time in the trees outside there settlement, away from places happy playing yaks might blunder. No more covert operations for those two.
As the yaks and ponies celebrated together with a bonfire and banquet, Sunset smiled.
“Not bad for a botched second assignment,” grinned Sunset to the Major.
“Not botched, just jinxed,” grinned the Major. “And well done. You managed to pull it off in the end, and that’s all that matters.”
“And glad for that!” agreed Sunset, sipping some of the cider the ponies had shared. “I’m just glad nocreature was hurt.”
“Agreed,” nodded the Major. “So when do you want to head out?”
“What do you think? It’s pretty late, been a long day, and it’s a long flight back to Canterlot. Would you rather rest for the night, then head back? I don’t want to cause you two any more inconvenience than I already have,” noted Sunset.
The Major looked at her with an appreciative nod. “I like how you think, Mage. Yes, I think that would be best. I know I wasn’t looking forward to that late night flight after the day we had and the flight out. Thank you!”
“Thank you!” nodded Sunset. “We’re a team. And teammates look out for each other.”
“That they do, Sunset,” nodded the Major, finishing off her cider. “And in that case, I’m calling it a night. See you in the morning!” She nodded, then entered the tent.
Sunset sat, watching the ponies and yaks celebrate for a while longer, then she too joined the Major and the Sergeant, resting for the night.
The next day, they had a hearty field breakfast, then struck camp and flew back to Canterlot. Arriving back midday, Sunset thanked her team, and trotted into the castle to get cleaned up and join the Princess and her little probably worried friend for their self study and dinner.
She entered her apartment and was body tackled by a little purple flash. “Sunset!” yelled Twilight happily, “You’re back!”
Sunset hugged her little friend back tightly. “I told you I would be,” she grinned happily. “And now you smell as bad as I do!” she smirked, hugging Twilight.
“Don’t care!” called out Twilight, still holding her tightly.
“So what did I miss?” asked Sunset playfully, trotting into the bathroom to draw her bath, Twilight having jumped up onto her back still hugging her tightly.
“Only the bestest awesomest tea party ever!” bragged Twilight excitedly. “I even got two giant pieces of Princess Celestia’s cake! Two. Giant. Pieces! And she shared!”
Sunset laughed. “She shared a whole cake with us before,” she reminded Twilight.
“Yeah, but this time she wanted to do it!” chirped Twilight happily. “She totally gave it to me!”
“Wow!” smiled Sunset. “Not many ponies can say that. She must really really like you!” she grinned.
“Best day ever!” agreed Twilight. “Only sad part was you weren’t there with me,” she added.
“Well I’m here now, runt,” teased Sunset, levitating Twilight off her back and booping her snout. “Okay, time for this mare to scrub up and relax. Want to join me?” she asked.
Twilight answered by scampering up to the edge of the tub and diving in, swimming over to the raised seat. Sunset smiled. “Guess that answers that,” she grinned, hopping in herself. She levitated over the brushes, soap, and mane oil and went to work, Twilight helping her where she could.
When she was completely soaped up then rinsed off, she turned to her little filly friend and cleaned her up as well. Twilight laughed as she scrubbed her claiming it tickled. Both scrubbed and rinsed, they soaked for a bit in the warm bath, Sunset letting the heat work the kinks out of her tired muscles, uncramping from the flight back. And Twilight just enjoyed the time with her surrogate big sister. Sunset listened to Twilight go on about the lessons she learned for the day, the new stuff she had read while waiting for Sunset to return, and more about the totally awesome tea party she had enjoyed with the Princess.
When they had finally had enough of soaking, they got out. Sunset dried them both off and combed the mane oil into Twilight’s coat, then did the same for herself. Clean, dried and groomed, they both returned to her room.
“Looks like it’s almost time for dinner. Did mom say anything to you about dinner?” asked Sunset.
“Yeah, she said we were to eat with her in her dining room tonight,” confirmed Twilight. “Can I ask you something?” she added.
“Sure Twilight, what do you want to know?” answered Sunset.
‘You keep calling Princess Celestia mom, but you say it in that type of voice that makes it sound like you are just kidding. Is Princess Celestia really your mom?”
Sunset smiled, but a little bit of a tear formed in her eyes as she thought about her answer. “No, she’s not really my mom. I’m an orphan, remember?” answered Sunset. Twilight nodded.
“But, she is the closest pony to a mom that I have ever had. So I tease her about it, and call her mom like that. I wish she was my mom, but any time I’ve even started to ask her seriously about it, she gets all flustered and pulls away. So I just tease her about it.” She shut her eyes for a minute, then continued.
“So no, she’s not my mom. But, if I could have my wish, she would be. And you’d be my little sister,” added Sunset.
“Really!” squeaked Twilight happily. “I would love that! I already have a big brother! I would love to have a big sister too!” she gushed, hugging Sunset.
Sunset hugged her back. “And I would love to have you as a little sister,” she agreed playfully. “That would be awesome,” she scruffed Twilight’s mane, as Twilight looked up at her beaming.
“So, it's almost dinner time. What say we head out and join the Princess,” smiled Sunset, picking up Twilight in her magic and placing her on her back, where she happily snuggled into her mane, holding on tightly.
Together, the mares trotted out of her apartment and down the stairs, heading to Celestia’s personal dining hall.
They headed into her dining room, noticing that the place setting had been put out, but they were the first to arrive.
They had just sat down when Rose entered with a cart full of beverages. “Hi fillies! Glad you could make it! Want anything to drink?” she asked them.
“Soda for me,” answered Sunset with a grin.
“I can have a soda?” asked Twilight.
“Uh yeah, why wouldn’t you?” asked Sunset.
“Mom never let me drink soda at home,” answered Twilight.
Sunset thought for a moment about the episode with the coffee, then smirked. “Yeah, I guess I could understand that. But as long as you only had one, I don’t think it would harm anything,” she noted.
Twilight grinned ear to ear. “One soda for me too please!” she answered happily.
“Sure honey, what kind?” asked Rose, smiling.
“Grape!” answered Twilight proudly. Sunset snickered.
“One Grape soda coming right up!” answered Rose, pouring out a grape soda and placing it by Twilight. She went to put the bottle next to her, then thought better of it. “I think I’ll have your friend help you with the rest of this,” noted Rose, setting the soda down next to Sunset.
Sunset smirked. “Will do,” she nodded, sipping on her cola.
As they were joking around, Princess Celestia entered the room. Her two students went to rise, but she shot them both a look and they sat right back down.
“Better,” she nodded, smiling. “They can be taught.”
Rose grinned and laughed. “Anything for you, my dear Princess?” she asked, pushing the cart over to the princess.
“My usual, thanks,” smiled the Princess. Rose prepared her tea, then poured a cup for her, placing the pot, cream and sugar on the table. Pushing the cart from the room she called out, “I’ll be back with the soups and salads in a moment.”
Celestia turned to Sunset, “So how did your operation go?”
“Mom, not in front of the foals,” snarked Sunset.
“Who are you calling a foal?” complained Twilight. “I can handle hearing about your stuff!”
“I was just teasing, squirt,” grinned Sunset playfully. Turning back to the princess, she answered. “It went well, considering the start we got. It turned out to be a big misunderstanding.” She then related the adventure to Celestia and Twilight, her little friend hanging on every word. While she was sharing Rose returned with the soup and salads - leak soup and pasta salad today. Twilight waded happily through her salad and soup as she listened to Sunset’s adventure.
“So then we celebrated together with a bonfire and feast, and cider. They had some really good cider,” finished Sunset. “And I leared a valuable lesson.”
“And what lesson was that?” asked Celestia, finishing up with her first course.
“Don’t tweak fate! She’s merciless and has a wicked sense of humor,” grinned Sunset.
Celestia coughed, her involuntary laugh causing her to send her tea down the wrong pipe. “True that!” she coughed, laughing and patting her muzzle with a napkin.
Dinner arrived, pasta primavera with eggplant, and more breadsticks to Twilight’s delight. They enjoyed the repast, topped off with, surprise, cake for dessert, then said their goodnight’s to the princess and headed back to Sunset’s apartment.
“I’m tuckered out for the evening, Twilight. I hope you don’t mind if I just head for bed,” yawned Sunset.
“Nope! I’ll go with you!” agreed Twilight happily.
“Sure thing, little sister!” Sunset smiled, scruffing her mane. Twilight beamed, following her into the bathroom where the fillies got ready for bed.
Teeth brushed, faces washed, and ablutions performed, they two climbed up into the bed. Sunset snuggled her little friend close as she smiled happily.
“I’m so glad I met you,” Sunset smiled sleepily.
“Me too!” grinned Twilight sleepily.
Together, the mares drifted off to sleep.