"Knock, knock," Sunset's voice was muffled by the study's door.
"Hi," Twilight replied. Her horn glowed softly, and the door opened.
"So," Sunset said, "how are you doing?" Today she was magically disguised as a pink unicorn with a paler pink mane, as if most of Ponyville didn't already know what was going on with the pair's frequent back and forth visits between the podunk town and Canterlot.
"Oh...fine, considering. What day it is and all."
Sunset nodded. "Yes. What day it is. I had always thought she would last forever, but...I guess you have to do what you can. I know she would be very proud of you."
"You too," Twilight insisted. She snorted, and half-grimaced impishly. "Especially since you used to be such a buck-up, running away to the human world and all...but then you turned your life around."
"Yes. It's been kind of weird. I couldn't really be a good Princess-In-Chief AND exactly like my old self, so a lot of the time I've been trying to be a princess-in-chief like Celestia. What would Celestia do? I'd spent a lot of time with her, even at some official events, so I had a lot of experience to go by. But in the end, you have to be yourself, you know? Even years later, I'm still learning how to do that."
"You're doing really well," Twilight said. "She would be proud of you."
"I guess she'd be proud of both of us," Sunset agreed. "But I think I'd give almost anything to have her back, and not have had to prove the hard way how proud she could be of us."
"I understand," Twilight said. "It's weird to think about, trying to guess how our lives might have been. Who we might be right now."
"If Equestria hadn't suddenly needed me so much...would I have become a hardcore teenage delinquent? Become the leader of my own crappy little human street gang?"
"I'm sure it would have been the BEST street gang. Maybe you could borrow a dragon from Equestria to intimidate people."
"Hmm," Sunset said. "I don't know. I wonder if I'll ever have enough spare time now, to even visit the human world again. Speaking of freeing up some more of my time, how's the alicorn ascension spell research going this week? I mean, a spell to uplift and supercharge ponies who are morally worthy, good hearted ponies, and not just the rare jerk with the most powerful horn who happens to be strong enough to make the uplifting spell we have now work. Overpowered, one in a million jerks like me."
Twilight shook her head. "You're not really a jerk. And in my alicorn ascension research...I'm still just finding new blind alleys, and new ways to be stuck."
"That's my mare!" Sunset smiled. "When you finally run out of ways to be stuck, you'll have the problem licked!"
"But I'm not sure it's the right answer," Twilight remarked. "Legends say, many thousands of years ago, before Celestia, the sun was raised and lowered by unicorns, working as a team."
"Yeah, and legends ALSO say the unicorns burned out their horns doing it."
"I don't think it has to be that way. I think there must be a way to do it safely, if we can get enough ponies working together for the common good. Because what we understood after Celestia died is right: relying on a single alicorn to raise and lower the sun is insane. It's just too risky. But teamwork could be the answer."
"Well...maybe. So do you have any plans for the day?"
"Sure," Twilight said. "Spend them with one of my best friends."
"What a coincidence! Me too."