The gentle summer breeze that found its way through the forest sent a shiver down my spine. The woodlands near Canterlot High had been a safe haven for me for as long as I could remember, but today it was anything but safe. My phone rested in my sweaty palm, as it had for the past several minutes. Twilight’s contact was displayed on the screen, and the green call button beckoned me like a carrot before a horse. Despite the days of planning and execution, there was still something in my heart that was afraid, and I could not understand why. The small interactions we had over the past few weeks had all but confirmed my suspicions, but then… she would say something that would raise a small doubt in my mind.
Part of me didn’t want to risk what we had in an attempt to gain something more. It pulled at my thumb, trying with all its might to keep me from potentially destroying everything. However, another force pushed, one of hope and optimism. It drove me to dream of what could be, of what we might become. This wasn’t a novel fight by any means, I had wrestled with these emotions for days with no clear victor. One moment, I would be dead set on one option, and another, I would be adamantly against it. However, as my thumb hovered over the button, I had grown weary of the struggle. So, I did as all rational adults would do when faced with such a situation: I closed my eyes and tapped the screen, letting chance decide my fate.
I didn’t want to look once my finger rose from the screen. I wanted to keep myself in the bliss of ignorance for as long as I could, however, Twilight’s voice startled my eyes open.
“Sunset?”
“Oh, hi Twilight!” I said much too loudly as my mind scrambled to remember my reasoning for the call.
“Is everything alright?”
“What? Oh yeah, I’m fine!” I dismissed even louder than before. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to remain silent so I could get a grip on my tone. The adrenaline that had surged into my body was doing me no favors. I took another breath, this one deeper than the last, and my chaotic thoughts began to subside.
“So…” Twilight prodded through the earpiece.
“So you know about the forest near Canterlot High, right?” I forced a smile even though the only creature that could see was the squirrel that had raced up the tree in my outburst.
“There are lots of forests near Canterlot High.”
I rolled my eyes and stifled a snicker. “The one that comes right up to the fence.”
“Are you talking about the southern fence?”
“There isn’t a forest on any of the other fences…” I said, immediately doubting my own mental picture of our campus.
“Just clarifying.”
“Right… Anyway, I found something here that you’ve got to see,” I said as I looked to the overwhelmingly typical forest around me.
“Oh?”
“Yeah… I think some of the plants out here have traces of magic in them.” My voice was uneasy, but the spotty connection did a decent job masking my tone.
“Interesting,” she said as a flurry of activity overtook her voice. “Can you bring me a sample?”
“No! I mean, I don’t think that’d be a good idea. I’m not very good at getting samples…” Twilight was doing something on the other end of the line, but she said nothing in response. With every passing second the tension grew. I desperately needed to get a hold of myself. “You remember the last time…”
“I do, and you cost us our grade on the midterm.”
The less than amiable grade had slipped my mind, and my face flushed red.
“Maybe you can come out here and I can show you where it is,” I offered weakly.
The noise on her end silenced as she pondered the idea. I knew she wasn’t a fan of dirt, or anything that dealt with nature beyond biology, but I had given her an offer that she couldn’t refuse. Magic was the elusive key to her attention, and I had it.
“Alright,” she finally said. A wave of relief washed over me as I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “But I’ve got to eat dinner first. My mom made spaghetti.”
“Ok great. I’ll see you soon!” I slammed my thumb onto the end call button before my common sense could stop me. Immediately a flurry of questions filled my mind. Where will we meet? What time should I expect her to arrive? What should I show her when she gets here? Doubt began to grow once more as each question only pointed to others.
“Come on,” I whispered to myself as I let my head rest onto the tree behind me. “Get a hold of yourself.” It was easier said than done, that much was obvious, but the words had a calming effect on me. As I stared up at the gently swaying treetops, I felt the warmth of hope return once more as the calm embrace of the forest surrounded me. This was why I came here. It was free of uncertainty and doubt; it was a place where I wouldn’t have to worry about my past, or the future. All I had to do was worry about the present.
With my mind relatively clear, I surveyed the forest around me. The small creek that ran alongside the path bubbled as it splashed haphazardly over the rocks in its course. It was magic to me, but Twilight wouldn’t see much in it, or I assumed she wouldn’t. She was interested in the details, the things that made things the way they were, so I turned my attention to the ferns and mosses that littered the forest floor. Their dark green form breathed life into the forest to me, but she would only see it as a way to harvest energy from the sun.
“You’re not making this easy,” I muttered as I started down the path. Everything in this forest felt so familiar to me, which made finding something remarkably interesting difficult to say the least. There were downed trees, patches of plants, and even a few tufts of thick grass that thrived alongside the creek. However, nothing seemed remarkably special. The more I searched, the more everything began to blend together. The forest was one entity to me, something that meant so much more than logic could ever uncover.
“Sunset?”
Twilight’s familiar voice made me jump ever so slightly as my heart skipped a beat or two. So soon? My had instinctively reached for my phone to check the time, but as I spun on my heels I noticed the forest had grown just a bit darker.
“Did you skip dinner?” I asked as I forced myself to return her gaze.
“No, why?”
“Well, you got here so fast… I—“
“We were on the phone an hour ago,” she said as she brushed a strand of hair from her view. I glanced to my phone. Sure enough an hour had slipped by since my last call. “So where’s the plant?”
“It’s right over here,” I said as I tried to find something of interest in the increasingly dull forest. Come on, give me something. My gaze darted ever faster as I cautiously stepped down the path. I was concentrating so hard on my task that I barely heard Twilight speak once more.
“You do know where it is, right?”
“Well… sorta,” I muttered as I leaned around a tree. “It looks like…” I drew out that last syllable as I searched for something, but nothing lent itself to my aid. I was floundering, and I was sure twilight was aware. In my searching, my gaze had drifted behind me to where she stood. Our eyes met, and a wave of regret washed over me. She was excited, in her usual reserved way, and I was lying to her. She didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. “Twilight,” I started as my gaze drifted to the ground, “I—“
I caught myself as my gaze drifted to her shadow. There, in the shade, stood an ethereal green glow. “There it is!” I said, dismissing the previous apology and leaning down to the plant. “I’ve never a plant glow like that before!”
“Fascinating,” Twilight said as she squatted to the ground and removed her backpack. “Bioluminescence this obvious at this time of day is definitely abnormal.” She withdrew a small purple disk and brought it toward the plant.
“What’s that?”
“I made it a while back, it’s for detecting traces of magic in our world. However…” Her voice trailed off as she tapped the device. “It doesn’t seem to be detecting anything.”
“Is it too small to notice?”
“I don’t think so. I made this to detect even the smallest traces of magic but if I turn up the gain…”
Immediately the device went erratic, flashing and beeping.
“See!” I exclaimed.
“Hmm…” Twilight rubbed her chin as she stood. “Nope, no magic here.”
“But it’s flashing…”
“It’s picking up background noise,” she looked at me with a frown. “False positive.”
“Oh… I’m sorry… I just thought it would ”
“Well, this is a fascinating plant,” she offered as she leaned closer. “I still don’t understand how it’s so bright. It shouldn’t be visible for at least another hour.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“There’s a plant that’s indigenous to our forests that’s known to glow…” she withdrew her phone and tapped away at its screen. “I remember reading about it back in elementary school…”
You can remember that stuff?
“Ah, here it is!” she said as she held the phone a bit too close to my face. “It’s called Foxfire. Apparently it grows in decaying wood.”
I gently pushed the phone from my face. “That’s… interesting.”
“Indeed it is, I wonder how bright it is at night.” She looked at her phone once more. “You can never tell with these pictures.”
Alright Sunset, you can do this. “Umm, Twilight? Can I ask you a question?” I asked as I leaned against a tree and folded my arms.
“Mhm,” she said as she scanned the article on her phone.
“You always seem to, well… You’re not the most social person I’ve met.”
Twilight’s back straightened. “No, I’m not,” she responded rather frankly. “I prefer to spend my time on more meaningful things, like research.”
“Right… well I just wondered cause you’re pretty fun to hang out with. I’d bet I’m not the only one who would think that.”
“Y-” she hesitated before taking a breath and turning to me. “You probably are… That’s okay though,” she said as she rose to her feet. “Spike keeps me company.”
I frowned. I knew she wasn’t the most popular girl in school, but she had to have some social circle. “So, you just keep to yourself?”
“For the most part. I’m not particularly interested in making friends, it’s just not something I do.”
“But why?”
Twilight paused for a moment as she thought over her answer. “It makes me uncomfortable.”
“If you do it more, you’ll warm up to it.”
She frowned. “Why does it matter so much to you?”
I bit my tongue. I didn’t mean to push her so hard, I just spoke what came to mind. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t fully understand her. I was interested, that much was blatantly obvious, but I didn’t know where to start. If there was anything I had it was my friends, seeing her without them, well, I didn’t know where to start.
“I’m not sure,” I said as let my head rest back onto the tree. “I just…”
“You just what?”
I looked back to her. I saw it first in her eyes, that concern. She cared, if only a small amount, about me. I’m not sure how much of that deduction was a projection of my own feelings, but I felt it all the same. “I’m… lonely. I guess.”
“Really?” she asked. “You’re the one with all the friends.”
“It’s hard to explain, but I can’t talk to most of them. They’re just… I can’t be personal with them. One day they’re your friend, the next… they’re not. Ever since the incident I guess… I guess I’ve found how shallow my friends really were.”
I hadn’t expected to say something like this, it wasn’t easy to admit, but she seemed inviting in a way no one else had ever been. The relative silence that filled the air slowly grew overbearing. Her and my gaze had long since drifted apart, but I knew she was pondering what I had said. I felt a raindrop drop strike my forearm. Sure enough, as I ran my fingers across the spot, I felt the water. The sky had grown rather dark, and the foxfire glowed softly against its wooden backdrop.
“You know,” she started abruptly. “I honestly wouldn’t know how you feel. I’ve never had anyone to go to aside from my brother, but I haven’t seen him since he left for college. I keep meaning to reach out, but well…”
“Well?”
“People don’t typically enjoy my…”
“Nerdiness?”
She blushed. “Yeah. Is it that obvious?”
I nodded. “But that’s not a bad thing.”
“How is it not?” she muttered. “People like you have all the help you could ever want; I don’t have anyone anymore.”
“Well, you have me…”
She paused and looked to me once more. Her eyes asked the question that she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
I smiled back. “I think your nerdiness is cute.”
“Well, if you would tell that to the other gi—” she abruptly ended her sentence. Her face drained of its color before she tore her gaze from me.
“What?!” I asked as I turned to look behind me. That’s when it hit me. She’d slipped. “Tell who?”
“Nevermind,” she said coldly.
I’d had a hunch her door swung the other way, but she’d hid it well. “Twilight, are you…”
“Never… mind”
“Twilight,” I started as I stepped away from the tree and joined her at her side, “you can tell me anything.” I could tell she was flustered with herself, but the shock was beginning to wear off. “Do you trust me?”
“Alright, but first, can this stay between us?”
I nodded.
“I’m not interested…” she took a deep breath, “I’m not interested in guys.”
I nodded thoughtfully as I chewed on my lower lip. “Well you told me a secret, so let me tell you one.” I turned to face her. “I’m not either. I’m much more interested in… nerdy girls.”
Her eyes grew wide as she drew in a breath. She had another question, and I think it was one that I had tried to ask her for several weeks. It had taken a monumental effort to get to this opportunity, and I wasn’t about to let it slip.
Words couldn’t convey how we felt, but our eyes did all the talking. She leaned in and the world grew dark as my eyes drifted shut. A moment later and our lips connected. All the doubt and fear melted away as her hand drifted to the back of my head, pulling us ever closer in our budding love. As we pulled away we both bore infectious smiles. A moment later, and she had pulled me into an embrace, stronger than I had ever felt before.
As I felt her heartbeat racing as quickly as my own, I whispered, “This can be our little secret.”