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// Chapter 4: Of dates and deceptions 
// Story: A Sunlit Dance 
// by Reily 
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All the students dressed in their dresses and tuxes made their way towards the brightly lit auditorium entrance. The paper snowflakes and yellow tinsel created a winter wonderland. And both Sunset and Twilight approached Flash who was hanging out near the punch bowl. The loud music blaring in the background as students awkwardly danced and an oddly dressed janitor was tidying up the stage. 

“Flash! I’m ready for our date.” Sunset said confidently, grabbing onto his arm. 

Twilight walked a little closer to Flash, her mind purely focused on following Candace's advice from the other day. 

“Wha? Surely…you mean our date Flash.” 

After a few awkward seconds, Twilight cleaned her glasses in an effort to make sure she was actually talking to the right person. Twilight nervously stood there like a deer in headlights, her heart beating a mile a minute. 

Sunset! She’s actually here. But the practice date thing? Cadance’s advice? Oh no! Help…, Twilight thought to herself. 


Flash Sentry shook Sunset off and preemptively put his arms between the two of them, in case things got messy. 

"Girls. Girls! First you asked me and I was ecstatic considering how you looked so similar to the princess." , pointing at Twilight then pointing at Sunset, "Then you asked me at a really bad time and I couldn’t say no without looking like a huge jerk. But both of you can be my date if you want?" 


“That’s it!”, Sunset huffed before angrily grabbed a cup full of punch then dunked it over his head. 

Flash proceeded to scratch his head. Was it something I said?, he thought to himself. 

"C'mon Twilight we're leaving!" 

The surrounding students gave a collective gasp and proceeded to whisper to themselves about what just happened. 

"Oh Sunset darling?" , Rarity quietly called out. Sunset simply turned the away. 

With some minor guilt and embarrassment, Sunset proceeded to grab Twilight's arm and dragged her out of the auditorium. She kept looking back at Twilight, and she saw the poor girl with her head down; Sunset’s chest ached. 

There went my no drama policy for this dance. Peace mission failed. Another item to add to the list of failures by Sunset Shimmer. And worst of all Twilight got dragged into it, Sunset chided to herself. 

Sunset pinched her nose, frustrated at this mess and the probable resulting fallout. 

"Can you believe the nerve of that guy? He sees one movie where things go well for two-timers and suddenly he thinks he's mister smooth. Can't believe he ruined our night. Still friends though?" 

"Y-yeah. Friends." Twilight said, rubbing her arm.  

Sunset gave Twilight a comforting hug, and couldn’t find herself able to let go. Twilight felt as though she was practically melting in Sunset’s arms.

So close yet so far, Twilight thought to herself.  

From just around the corner the janitor in his mismatched tuxedo dragging his mop and bucket around approached the pair, then stroked his goatee. Then carefully tucked an envelope back into his tuxedo pocket. He gave them a knowing smile, and began to tell them how to redeem the night.

"You know the night's not over yet you too. And I heard about your plight. You want revenge on that jerk? Here's what you do."