Cracks In Our Reflections

by Onyx Archer


Chapter 2: The Night Time Is Our Time

Chapter 2: The Night Time Is Our Time

It was a little bit after one thirty in the morning when Sunset began to stir. As her eyes cracked open, she began to attempt to sit up, but found she was already more or less upright. Confused, she surveyed her surroundings, only for her to find that she had fallen asleep watching TV. She was used to doing this, though that was usually after a weekend Netflix marathon. Her right hand began combing the surface of the couch in search of the remote, so she could turn off the dimly glowing box. She tried to do the same thing with her left arm, but found that it was somewhat numb, and elevated slightly.

Attempting to move her head to investigate, she let out a quiet, pained hiss. Her neck had a small crick in it, and while it wasn’t the worst feeling pain, it was still enough to limit her head’s movement. Opening her mouth to groan, she was immediately met with an alien texture. Stopping her search for the remote, she brought her hand to her mouth to remove whatever it was.

Moments later, her still tired brain had been able to figure out that hair had fallen into her mouth, which was not at all uncommon for a person with long hair. Pulling the hair out of her mouth with zero regard as to how hard she had pulled it, she was met with a quiet sound of discomfort. And it wasn’t coming from her mouth.

Whatever fatigue was still in her system feld, her brain now alerted to the fact that she was not alone on the couch. This was made especially apparent when she had finally taken notice to the odd weight that was on her left side. Her body jerked away from the weight slightly, only for the source of the weight to groan. Ignoring the dull pain in her neck, Sunset looked at said source of the foreign weight, only to see the slowly awakening form of Twilight Sparkle.

Memories of a few hours prior made themselves known as she quickly recalled the Princess of Friendship having asked to snuggle. Her face began to slowly burn with newfound embarrassment, realizing that she had fallen asleep on Twilight when they were cuddled up together. She had made a royal pony princess into a human pillow. Although... it was probably the most relaxed Sunset had felt in years, which was nice... even if she felt a little guilty for falling asleep on her.

Never thought I’d ever be that close to Princess Twilight...” she thought to herself as she watched the now awake Twilight rub her eyes free of sleep. The way she moved her arms was, quite frankly, incredibly cute, and Sunset couldn’t help but smile a little. Her embarrassment had all but evaporated by the time Twilight’s tired eyes met here. “God... why is she so damn adorable with that tired look on her face?

“Mmm... what time is it?” Twilight asked with a small yawn.

“Almost a quarter after one in the morning. We fell asleep watching TV,” Sunset replied, as she stretched her arms, waking up her numb left arm. Sadly, this was met with her arm feeling like the static on a signal-less channel. “Aagh... stupid pins and needles feeling.”

“What?” Twilight asked, confused as she did a quick stretch herself. “Pins and needles?”

“You know, the feeling you get when your nerves wake up and your arm feels like it’s covered in little pin pricks?”

“Oh, yeah, that.” Twilight said, nodding to show she understood. “That feeling is the worst when you’re just waking u-wait it’s one in the morning!?”

“A little slow on the uptake when you’re waking up, huh princess?” Sunset laughed, earning herself an annoyed look from her best friend. She had found the way that Twilight’s nose scrunched up when she was bothered by something to be, much like her tired expression, incredibly adorable. She began to wonder if Twilight was just made that way. “Yeah, we fell asleep at like... eight-o-clock? It’s probably a good thing we did, since sleeping the way we were isn’t exactly good for you.”

“I guess... but now I’m awake...” Twilight groaned, which was followed by another groan. This time, however, the source of the groan was her stomach. Her face instantly flushed as she smiled awkwardly. “And I guess I’m hungry too...”

“You and me both,” Sunset laughed. “I’d say we could order something, but I’m pretty sure all of the take-out places are closed because of the time... not to mention the weather.”

Rolling her eyes, Twilight looked out the window. Surprisingly enough, it seemed the weather had finally decided to let up a little, though it was still pretty rough looking. Perhaps it would clear up more by dawn? Either way, that was the least of her concerns at the moment, as she had grumbling stomach to attend to. She stood up, turning to face Sunset.

“You want to think of what we’ll eat while I take a quick trip to the little princesses room?”

“Alright,” Sunset nodded, watching her friend leave the room to relieve herself. Rising from the couch herself, she walked around the little island that separated the living room and the kitchen, and opened the fridge. She was reminded of the time she had something of a midnight snack at Pinkies. She had never eaten that much whipped cream on it’s own in her life, and she wasn’t in a hurry to do so again. Thankfully, her refrigerator was filled with more than just canned cream.

Grabbing a bottle of orange juice (from concentrate), Sunset shut the fridge. Applejack had given her such a dirty look when she, along with the others, had visited Sunset’s apartment. Being a part of the Apple family, it was to be expected that she’d want her friend to drink from her family’s farm, but Sunset was always more of an orange juice kind of person. Taking a pair of glasses from the nearby cupboard, she swiftly poured herself and Twilight a glass. She took a quick sip of her glass before she went into her other cupboards, looking for the pair’s late night snack.

Settling on some chips, she pulled out two large bags of Sunchips, ironically enough. Pinkie Pie had been the one to introduce her to Sunchips, mostly as a joke, but Sunset ended up loving the taste of them. Ripping open a bag, she began eating her snack as Twilight returned from the restroom.

“Sunchips?” Twilight asked, giggling a little. “I wonder what Princess Celestia would say if she found out you like the taste of the sun.”

“Haha, she’d probably offer to send me to the sun, so I could get a fresh taste,” Sunset laughed. Thinking back, her mentor certainly did have a ‘trollish’ sense of humor. Every time she saw the pranks played by internet trolls, she couldn’t help but wonder if one of them was the Princess of the Sun. “Or she would banish me there for defiling the name of her sun.”

“You could just say that you have the word sun in your name as your defence,” Twilight joked.

“Yeah, but seeing as I’m likely a disappointment in her eyes, I doubt that’d mean much.”

“She’s already forgiven you, Sunset. You know that,” Twilight said, offering her friend a small smile. Sunset smiled back, though it was clear that she didn’t really believe it. “She wants you to come visit sometime soon. She says she misses you.”

“I know, I’ll think about it.”

There was an awkward silence between the two of them, before Twilight decided to say something.

“You know, I have to wonder if Sunny Flare drinks ‘Sunny D.’”

“She probably does. That or one of her friends has some on hand to joke about having ‘Sunny’s D’ or something,” Sunset chuckled. “The people here have a weird sense of humor sometimes.”

“Yeah, you don’t really see those kinds of jokes back in Equestria. I wonder why?” Twilight asked, despite knowing that neither of them had an answer to that question. She knew that it was likely due to the differences in the social side of their two world’s cultures. “Maybe we should look into that? It could be fun.”

“Maybe...” Sunset replied, taking a sip from her glass. “It’s not the most conventional topic, though I’m sure it’d be interesting.”

“Yeah...” Twilight said, biting into a chip. The conversation petered out once again from there, though it wasn’t long before Sunset had a new topic, resulting in her face lighting up.

“So uh... did you like... um... cuddling with me earlier?” she asked, before quickly trying to hide her embarrassment with a small handful of chips. Having unintentionally avoided the topic until now, Sunset felt incredibly stupid for getting flustered. Still, it was better late than never. “I mean... uh... I obviously liked it... So I wanted to know if... you know...?”

Twilight’s expression shifted to one of slight embarrassment as she recalled the events from earlier in the evening. She looked into Sunset’s eyes, seeing something of a hopeful shine in them. She thought it was obvious how she felt about the whole situation, though she figured that Sunset thought it was worth clarifying.

“Yeah... I mean, I enjoyed it,” Twilight began. She felt herself begin to fidget a little as Sunset watched her. “I said as much earlier... didn’t I?”

“Oh yeah... I must’ve been more tired than I first thought, haha,” she commented, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. She couldn’t help but think she was too relaxed earlier, forgetting a simple thing like that wasn’t like her. “You want to do it again? With a movie?”

Sunset’s heart was pounding against her chest. She had basically just asked her best friend out on a date; the best friend that had no idea how she felt about the idea of going out with a girl. Her mind was quickly trying to find a way to justify the question. Twilight was, after all, a creature of logic. A very pretty creature of logic.

“Like a...” Twilight started, before an audible, nervous gulp could be heard coming from her direction. Sunset could only imagine how dry Twilight’s throat felt at the question, as she was currently trying hydrate her own. As if taking a cue from her, Twilight gulped down the remainder of the orange juice in her glass before getting continuing. “L-Like... a d-date!?”

Silently cursing the way her voice climbed in volume as she finished speaking. She averted her attention to the surface of the kitchen island.

Way to sound like a nervous wreck. Twilight!” her brain all but screamed. She quickly peaked at Sunset. Her eyes were looking at her glass of juice, nervously darting to meet her own gaze for a fraction of a second. Noticing that Twilight was looking at her, she quickly turned her head. “Looks like we were both frazzled by her question... that’s good... I think.

“Yeah, why not try? I mean, you asked me to cuddle to see what that would be like... so why not try and see what it’s like to go on a date with a girl?” Sunset answered nervously. She could feel Twilight’s gazing daggers into her ear as she spoke, between the throbbing sounds of her heart pounding against her eardrums.

“That... makes... sense.... S-Sure, okay!” Twilight spoke, her mind satisfied by Sunset’s logic. It was the next logical course of action after all. A date, to see if Twilight could get into the idea of dating a fellow girl. She’d enjoyed cuddling, and while it was a huge step, it was still worth looking into... right? “Do you... you know, have a d-day in mind?”

“Wait... seriously? Y-You’re okay with this?” Sunset said, stammering slightly, her jaw nearly touching the floor. “I mean, it’s a huge step up from snuggling...”

“I know... but it’s the next logical course of action, r-right?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know? I’ve never really... been in this position, I guess?”

“Neither have I, Sunset!” she yelped. Sunset visibly jumped a bit in place, leading her to feel bad for basically yelling at her friend. With a sigh, she continued speaking, careful to keep her voice low. “I’ve never really... you know...”

“I haven’t really either honestly,” Sunset confessed, earning an odd look from Twilight. “What? I may like girls, but that doesn’t mean that I’m constantly thinking of them. Besides, I’ve been busy trying to explain how magic works to a person who up until recently thought that was all illogical ‘hocus pocus.’”

“What does Hocus Pocus have to with anything exactly? Isn’t he one of pioneering scientists of Equestrian magic?”

“It’s a turn of phrase here. Apparently he was a huge fraud of a magician here a long time ago,” Sunset replied with a shrug. When she had first found out that the great unicorn Hocus Pocus was nothing but a laughing stock in this world, she didn’t know whether to be sad or laugh her flank off.

“So... a-anyway...” With the momentary distraction having run it’s course, the Twilight decided to bring it back to awkwardsville.

“Maybe we should try something else before a date?” Sunset suggested.

“Like what?” Twilight asked. What could they do that wasn’t as big a step as a date? She had next to no idea how this kind of thing worked, so she just looked at Sunset with a confused expression.

“We could... I don’t know...” Sunset stuttered, swallowing what little saliva was left in her dry mouth. Her heart was still slamming itself against her ribcage, and she silently hoped it’d break through the bones in her chest to spare her the embarrassment. “... kiss... I don’t know?”

Twilight clearly wasn’t expecting to hear that from her. Hell, Sunset can barely expected to say it herself. After saying it though, she felt a bit better. It was like the words had been stuck in her throat for a good while. Like she had kept herself from saying them, almost as if she was saving them for this very moment.

No, thinking things like that would line her up for disappointment. Experience had taught her that.

“Y-You can’t be serious!” Twilight yelled. She had expected the purple pony-turned human to have this kind of reaction the moment the words left her lips. Still, her ears couldn’t help but hate her for setting up this scenario. “Isn’t that s-something couples do d-during or a-after a date? That s-seems like an even b-bigger step than a date!”

“Yeah, you’re right... sorry, I don’t even know where that suggestion came from,” Sunset apologized, rubbing her arm awkwardly. “Maybe I’m just desperate or something... Or I’ve had feelings for Twilight this whole time...

That’s when it hit her, and it hit her hard. She liked Twilight. A lot.

Looking back, I should have been obvious to her. She’s had her eyes on Twilight since her little encounter with her back when she was a power hungry villain. She had this sort of... charm, and it had caught her eye. She hadn’t noticed at all though, since at the time, she was keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn’t get in her way. She did, obviously, otherwise, they wouldn’t be where they are right now.

Or was it when they had that heart to heart in Pinkie Pie’s kitchen? When they had both felt pressured by the situation with the Dazzlings in their own ways, and they felt like they were going to let everyone down. She certainly felt like that would have been as good a time as any to start feeling something for the Princess.

But then why didn’t she feel anything for the human Twilight other than something of a kinship? She had spent over all more time with the girl she had come to know as “Sci-Twi” than she has with the pony princess. Heck, there wasn’t even the lingering stigma that she was Celestia’s replacement for her, as this Twilight hadn’t met Celestia until the Friendship Games. So why wasn’t she drawn to the doppleganger of the bearer of the Element of Magic?

It was a dumb question, as she already knew the answer: She wasn’t the same Twilight.

Deciding to think more on this later, Sunset looked at the princess, and felt her heart begin to race again. She needed to tell her... at least, she felt she should.

“T-Twilight?” Sunset called out to her friend. Twilight’s eyes met hers, a small blush outlining the bottom of them. Sunset, for the upteenth time that evening, felt her own face match heat that Twilight likely felt in her own tears.

“Y-Yeah?”

“I don’t want to make you... uncomfortable by saying this... but...” Sunset spoke, before trailing off, the words not wanting to leave her vocal cords at any audible level. Twilight merely looked at her, waiting for her friend to finish her thought with cheeks tinted red by a blush. She was adorable. She was cute. Faust, she was just so... “... but I’ve... k-kinda... you know... liked you... for... uh... for a w-while...”

Twilight’s face lit up brighter than she had ever seen it go. The redness on her face, if viewed out of context, likely would have looked similar to that of a mild fever. However, Sunset knew exactly why her face was beet red. It was kind of hard to process, Sunset was sure. It was still hard for even her to process. She had no idea where the confession came from, but looking at her best friend’s tomato of a face, she couldn’t help but not care.

“H-How long have y-you-”

“-Felt that way? I don’t know.” Sunset spoke, with a new found confidence. “I honestly don’t know when I started wanting to. All I know is that it just... I don’t know... hit me? I can’t say when it hit me for sure... but since it did... I couldn’t not tell you... y’know?”

“Oh...”

“I-Is that bad?”

“N-No... it’s just...”

“Surprising?”

“Y-Yeah...” Twilight said, looking down, likely unsure of herself. Sunset reached across the small counter top, placing her hand on top of Twilight’s. She knew what she just did could have countless repercussions on their friendship, but it’s too late to stop that from happening if it was going to. “Hey, S-Sunset?”

“Yeah?” she spoke, acknowledging the nervous girl.

“I... I don’t know if I can... return those feelings... at least right now,” Twilight said, looking up at the her. Her eyes were soft, and they shimmered with warm intention. “I’m not sure I even like fillies... girls... you know what I mean.”

“Mhmm, I know.”

“But that being said...” Twilight paused, taking a deep breath. “I’m willing to try and see if I can.”

“You are?” Sunset all but gasped. “You don’t have to. I mean, it’s not like you should feel obligated to give me a chance, especially when you are unsure of yourself. And-”

“Sunset.”

Sunset stopped her rambling, her eyes once again focused on the girl in front of her.

“I’m willing to try because I won’t be able figure anything out by not trying,” Twilight concluded, smiling brightly at the girl. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to do anything like kiss. Not yet anyway.”

“Y-Yeah, I kinda figured t-that’d be the case. Sorry for suggesting it earlier...” Sunset said, offering her own sad smile. She felt incredibly stupid for dropping the “k” word the way she did earlier. Hindsight is kind of a bitch in that regard.

“Don’t be,” the dark haired girl said, shaking her head. “You’ve probably been wanting to for a long time, so it was bound to come out eventually. Besides...”

She paused, adjusting her hand under Sunset’s to a position where it could hold it instead.

“You saying you want to kiss me is basically like telling me that you want to try giving ‘us’ a chance... and like I said earlier, I wanna try too.”

Sunset’s eyes widened.

“Us?” she asked, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well... uh... earlier, before our little nap... I...” Twilight stammered. Clearing her throat nervously, she continued. “I thought about asking you to come back to Equestria with me for a few days... maybe introduce you to my friends over there... and spend a bit of time together in my castle’s library...”

Sunset couldn’t help but giggle at how Twilight fidgeted in place, the fingers of her hands drumming nervously on Sunset’s hand. Tightening her grip on Twilight’s hand, she smiled.

“I’d like that. It sounds like it could be fun.”

Twilight returned her smile, with Sunset noticing her friend’s grip grow stronger to match her own.

“We should probably get some more sleep before anything else,” Sunset chuckled. “Can’t do any of that stuff when we’re sleep deprived, right?”

“Yeah... assuming the weather clears up.”

“I have a feeling it will.”