I Don't Need Magic

by Undome Tinwe

Chapter 22: A Time to Rend, A Time to Sew

Sunset wasn't sure how long she stood in that dusty storeroom. Her anger had cooled as the last of the ire in her heart burned out, leaving only a dull ache in its absence. Distantly, she heard the sound of footsteps drowned out slightly by the sound of her own heart beating, blood rumbling in her ears.

"You okay there, Sunset?" Applejack's voice, strong and stable. Sunset latched onto it and used it as an anchor to bring herself back to reality.

"I screwed up," Sunset said, "again." She sighed. "Me and Twilight were never going to work out, were we?"

"I wouldn't say that, but y'all sure did have a bigger hill to climb, what with what happened when we were younger." Applejack placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "So what happened, sugarcube? Dash and I came to check on y'all and we saw Twilight crying her eyes out in that quiet way she used to do. Dash is with her now."

Sunset took some comfort in the fact that Twilight wasn't alone. Despite her… confused emotions regarding her, it hurt to think of her hurting, "History's repeating itself is what happened," Sunset replied, a bitter smile playing on her lips. "Turns out we aren't that different from when we were teenagers." Sunset briefly gave Applejack a summary of her perfidy and the conversation she just had with Twilight, too tired to properly filter out what she might not want her friend to know.

"And then she walked out on me. Again." Sunset gazed warily at Applejack as she finished her story, waiting for the other woman's judgement.

"Woo-whee." Applejack gave out a low whistle. "Ain't never a dull moment around you and Twi, huh? I'd forgotten what it's like when you two get together."

"You aren't mad with me?" Sunset's blinked a few times in response to Applejack's words.

The mirth faded from her expression, though something light still danced in her eyes. "Oh, I'm plum disappointed in you for lying to your girlfriend, but I can't say I'm surprised. You always were the type to do whatever you thought was right, and damn what everyone else thought. It worked out for you most of the time, until it didn't."

Her voice softened. "I can see you're hurting now from Twilight walking out on you, so I ain't gonna pour salt on your wounds. Might be you'll learn something from this, might be you won't – either way, there ain't much I can do about it. It's all up to you now if you wanna fight for your gal."

"You're right." Resolve built up in Sunset's heart, the embers of loss flaring up into determination to win back her love. "I have to go find Twilight and apologize." She tried to run after her beloved, but Applejack's strong grip kept her in place.

"Now hold your horses there, partner." Sunset found herself pulled back and forced to meet Applejack's intense stare. "I didn't say that you should go fight for her. I know you think you love her, but you've only been together what, three days? That ain't even a drop in the bucket compared to your whole lives. Ain't too late to duck out now before it's too late.

"This is just your first fight, and it ain't gonna be the last or even the worst. Just because you two love each other don't mean that y'all gonna be able to weather all the storms that come. You're both stubborn as mules, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. You gotta decide if your love is really worth fighting for, now and for the rest of your lives."

"When'd you get so wise, Applejack?" Sunset asked as she processed the other woman's words. She was right, of course; Sunset and Twilight had promised to fight for their love, and not twenty-four hours later, they'd already proven they didn't have a damn clue about what that really meant. This wasn't a problem that would go away anytime soon, and Sunset had been an idiot in thinking she could change Twilight's mind in just a few weeks.

"Aww shucks," Applejack said with a smile. "Ain't nothing to it 'sides not being in the thick of things. Too easy to lose sight of the forest when you've got your head stuck in a tree."

"Either way, thanks. I needed to hear that." Sunset found a small smile tugging at her own lips. "You're a better friend than I deserve."

"Friends aren't things you deserve, sugarcube." Applejack gave Sunset a light pat on the back. "So, what're you gonna do now?"

"Well, considering the President of my company just resigned, I should probably go back up to the party and make sure Equinox still has a presence there." Sunset tried to push thoughts of Twilight out of her mind, and managed to at least succeed in being able to think about something else, even if the pain of losing her lover still stung like an open wound. "After that, I guess I'll have to take a good, long look at my life and see what I want to do."

"Just remember that you always have your friends by your side," Applejack said as she finally released Sunset. "You don't have to face any of this alone."

"I know." Sunset walked out of the storeroom and headed back towards the stairwell, schooling her features into casual neutrality. Twilight or not, she was still the CEO of Equinox Labs, and she had a duty to her people to do her best at running the company.

As the weight of responsibility pressed down on her harder than she'd ever felt it press before, Sunset prepared herself for a long night of recreation and reflection.

---

"Twilight! Wait up!"

Twilight finally turned around, unable to ignore the presence she'd heard running behind her for the past few seconds. "If you'll excuse me, Rainbow Dash," she said, still not looking at Dash so that the other woman wouldn't see her tears, "I'd rather be alone right now." Her voice cracked a little at the end as she choked back another sob.

"Last time you said that, we didn't see you again for fifteen years," Dash said flatly. "So, are you gonna talk to me, or are you going to run away again?"

The words stopped Twilight in her tracks, echoing within her mind in sync with the same words Sunset had spoken. "What do you want?" She barked out, nearly snarling at Dash.

"I wanna know what happened between you and Sunset," Dash replied. "AJ said that you went to check up on her and Starlight, and the next thing she knows Starlight's storming through the kitchen looking like she's gonna murder someone. And then you run past looking like Sunset just broke your heart. Can't exactly blame a girl for being curious after seeing all that. So, what happened between you three? Was it some kinda love triangle thing?"

Twilight snorted. "No, of course not." It would have been so much easier if that had been the case. "It turns out that Sunset and I haven't really changed as much as we thought since we were teenagers."

"What did you two do this time?" Dash sounded more exasperated than concerned.

Twilight gave a detached summary of her fight with Sunset, trying to shield herself from the pain of the memories by stating the details with as few comments as possible. It didn't stop the tears from flowing or the sobs from cutting off the story on occasion.

"She did what?" Dash shouted as Twilight reached the revelation of Sunset's deception. "I can't believe she did it again!" A strong grip dragged Twilight back towards the hotel. "C'mon, let's go back there and give her a piece of your mind."

"Why bother?" Twilight dug her heels in, tipping over as she underestimated Dash's strength. "I already got one apology from Sunset, and it turns out that doesn't mean much. Even if I get another one, we've proven that nothing's going to change. We're just going to get into another fight again because we can't trust each other."

"So?" Dash released Twilight in order to help steady her. "Does that mean that you're just going to give up?"

"This is just going to keep happening again and again," Twilight said. "I feel like we're just going to be repeating this pattern forever or until something breaks."

"You two are pretty smart," Dash said, "you'll learn eventually."

"I don't know if I can keep doing that," Twilight admitted.

"But you love her, right?" Dash asked. "You want to spend the rest of your life with her doing mushy stuff and science stuff?"

"I... yeah, I do. But I don't know if that's in the cards for me."

Dash snorted. "Well, if you're just going to give up this easy, then it definitely won't be. I don't know much about love, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have to work hard for it, just like with everything else worthwhile in life. I didn't become a Wonderbolt by giving up as soon as the going got tough, and I don't think you ended up becoming some bigshot scientist by giving up either. Sunset definitely didn't give up easy.

"Love is like, the biggest promise you can make, and if you make it, you gotta stick to it. You just gotta ask yourself if it's worth it, and if it is, you gotta stay by each other no matter what."

"That's... surprisingly good advice," Twilight said slowly. "I can certainly say that I didn't expect the conversation to go in this direction."

Dash shrugged. "I contain multiples and stuff."

"I think you meant 'I contain multitudes.'"

"Yeah, that." Dash's casual expression hardened. "Look, your thing with Sunset is gonna play out however you decide you want it to. But whatever happens, if the two of you leave us behind again, I'm not gonna forgive you this time."

Twilight nodded solemnly. "I understand. This time is going to be different in that way, if nothing else."

"Great. Now then, I gotta get back to the hobnobbing. Contractual obligations and stuff. You coming?"

"No." Twilight shook her head. "As enlightening as this talk has been, I don't think I'm quite up to pretending that everything is okay with Sunset. And you've given me a lot to think about. I'll see you around, Rainbow." She held Rainbow's gaze for a few seconds so that the other woman could see the sincerity in her eyes.

"I'll keep you to that." With that, Rainbow turned around and headed back into the Exhibition, leaving Twilight to return to her hotel room and contemplate what she wanted her future to be.

---

Sunset wasn't entirely sure why she was in her lab instead of her much more comfortable penthouse suite a couple dozen floors up.

On the one hand, this place, with its eclectic collection of scientific equipment, had come to be inextricably intertwined with Twilight Sparkle in her mind, and the last thing she wanted to do was to feel the emptiness of the room pulse in sync with the emptiness of her heart, amplifying the dull ache in her soul.

On the other hand, seeing examples of all the memories of her time with Twilight gave her a small measure of comfort as she took solace in their shared past.

The rest of the night had gone about as well as she could've hoped. She'd made some excuse about business-related issues requiring Twilight and Starlight to leave early, and everyone seemed to have bought it well enough. Only the former magic users knew what had actually happened, resulting in a tense evening with her friends.

Rainbow Dash had obviously avoided her the entire time, only acknowledging her existence to shoot a disappointed glare in her direction every so often. Her other friends were a combination of pity and polite disappointment, though none of them spoke of her sins directly.

Fortunately, because the event had started early, it had also ended early, and Sunset had been free to escape into her sanctum and stare at the remnants of her joint work with Twilight.

All around her were sheets of paper strewn about, covered in readouts or equations tracing back the long hours they'd spent working out the details of their theories. A small pile of journal papers and textbooks sat in a corner, the pages crinkled from when they'd read through them side-by-side, huddled together to get a better look at the ideas presented.

On the wall, the faded outline of a heart still survived on the whiteboard, the eraser having been insufficient to clear it after Twilight had drawn it playfully during a discussion on optimal spellform symbols. Working together with Twilight had been the most wonderful experience of Sunset's life, and she wanted nothing more than to have the strong, smart scientist by her side again, calibrating the spectrum analyzer that sat idle on the table.

As her heart burned to call Twilight up and apologize, her gaze fell on the pink princess pony plush sitting atop the safe. No matter how hard she'd tried to make a life here, there was no denying that she was a unicorn at heart. And it was becoming clear that Twilight might never be able to truly understand that, no matter how hard she tried. Even if they made up this time, there would be another fight when the time came to decide what to do with Adagio's spell, and Sunset didn't know if they could survive that one too.

Mind tormented by arguments on all sides, Sunset threw up her hands in frustration before walking over towards the computer terminal and logging in. Maybe work would help take her mind off things so that she could look at the problem with fresh eyes later.

Sunset entered her credentials into the system, and a moment later, a familiar welcome screen greeted her. She dutifully sifted through her messages, taking care of small matters that just needed her final approval and leaving the bigger decisions for later.

She would need to draft up a plan to try and win Starlight back, or to ease her transition out of the company if that failed. They'd all been a bit emotional at the time, and Sunset was certain she could at least get Starlight to stay for a little longer to help transfer her responsibilities.

Clearing the last of her notifications, Sunset brought up the security monitoring program for the lab, making sure she remembered the protocol for removing someone's credentials in case things went south. As she scrolled through the tabs to find the options, however, her eyes landed on the day's security logs for the lab door, and her blood chilled in her veins.

9:38 – Shimmer, Sunset
13:22 – Shimmer, Sunset
20:41 – Glimmer, Starlight
22:43 – Shimmer, Sunset

Sunset quickly looked around her. Nothing seemed out-of-place from earlier in the evening. And yet, Starlight had been here less than an hour after their fight. There had to be a reason.

Her eyes narrowed on the safe. Hurriedly, she walked over to the large metal box and undid the lock, pulling the door open to reveal the familiar collection of artifacts, with one exception: the bottom shelf of the safe was empty.

Starlight had stolen Twilight's magic detector.

Sunset's heart dropped into her stomach as she processed the sight before her. She couldn't be completely sure of what Starlight wanted to do, but she doubted that this was just a simple case of industrial espionage. The detector could be used to do a lot of things, especially given its secondary function has a magic absorber and storage unit, and given Starlight's emotional state, Sunset was very worried about what she would do.

On a hunch, Sunset pulled up the access records for the research she and Twilight had been working on. Sure enough, it also showed that Starlight had tried to access a portion of the data they'd collected. Poking into the details, it looked like Starlight had reactivated the sonic resonance system and had been looking at the live feed of the satellite above Canterlot that was tracking magical activity.

Despite the upcoming alignment creating a minor resonance with Adagio's medallion and amplifying any magical signatures, the tracker had still returned over a half-dozen possible locations across the city. Sunset stared at the map for a few minutes, looking for any more clues Starlight might have found. By now, it was clear that she intended to track down Adagio, and given her current emotional state, Sunset wasn't exactly sure what she would do after that.

She had to find her before Starlight did something stupid, and she had to do it quickly. With luck, Starlight was still searching the false positives, which would give Sunset time to intercept her if she figured out which of these six points Adagio was hiding in.

It was a daunting task, but Sunset had something that Starlight didn't right now: friendship. Pulling out her phone, she flipped through her contacts until she found the name she was looking for and made a call.

A few seconds later, someone picked up on the other end. "Sunset?"

"Hey, Sonata." Sunset returned to the computer terminal as she spoke. "Listen, something just came up, and I need to find Adagio right now before something really bad happens."

"How can I help?" There was no hesitation on Sonata's part.

"I've narrowed down Adagio's location to one of six areas. I'm sending the map to you now." A few keystrokes later, and a copy of the heat map was e-mailed out. "Do you recognize any of the locations?"

"Lemme get Aria to look at this. She's better at remembering this kinda stuff." There was some muffled shouting, followed by more muffled sounds. Sunset could make out what sounded like a conversation. A minute later, Sonata spoke again. "Aria says that Adagio used to have a little house on Meadowbrook Avenue, so she might still be hiding out there. I'll text you the address."

"Thanks."

"No problem." A short, static-filled silence. "Good luck Sunset," Sonata said, uncharacteristically solemn. "Be careful out there, okay? Adagio's dangerous."

"I will. Thanks again. I'll see you around." Sunset ended the call and immediately pulled up another number.

"What do you want, Sunset?" Open hostility greeted her on her second call as Rainbow Dash answered her phone.

"Starlight Glimmer just stole Twilight's magic detector and I think she's going after Adagio. I need your help to make sure everyone stays safe."

"You have a location?" Rainbow's tone lost all its hostility, taking on a veneer of professionalism that Sunset wouldn't have thought possible from the hotheaded pilot.

Sunset rattled off the address Sonata had given her and answered a few more questions from Dash, who had entered full military mode. The call ended shortly afterwards with a promise to meet Sunset at Adagio's house.

Sunset stared at the third and final number on her list. It was Twilight's, of course. Her knowledge could be invaluable against Adagio or Starlight, and in the past few weeks, Sunset had grown very used to having her by her side when they went out to face potential magical threats.

And yet, Sunset still hadn't decided what she wanted to do about her relationship with Twilight. As it stood, they were on opposite sides of their ideological fight, and while Sunset didn't want to count her as an enemy, it was clear that their end goals were vastly different and diametrically opposed to one another. Even if they managed to stop Starlight, Twilight having control over the journal and the medallion was a scary thought.

Twilight's earlier words echoed in Sunset's head. It was all about trust, wasn't it? They didn't trust each other, and that had led to their breakups both times. This was the perfect chance for Sunset to offer an olive branch to Twilight, to give her a chance to bridge the gap between them. All she had to do was trust Twilight. Did she?

The clock was ticking. She didn't have much time before she had to leave and meet up with Dash at Adagio's house. She didn't have the luxury of thinking things through and evaluating her options in great detail.

Trusting her gut, Sunset made her decision.

Comments

[Condray]

Don't worry, I'm sure whatever Starlight is going to do is going to be reasoned, planned out, and work to contain the current problem with no backlash

But for all Starlight's denials of having feelings for Sunset (even assuming it's completely true), she certainly seems posessive!

[DivinePanzer]

She went on alone, leaving Twilight Sparkle behind forever.

After all, kinda hard to have a relationship with someone who can't accept the fact you're asexual/bi-sexual/have AIDS/a FUCKING UNICORN!

[Shadow_Wolf]

As cliche as this is going to sound if it actually happens... I just had this horrible thought run through my head that Starlight has either 1) Gone off the deep end because of the conflict with Sunset, 2) Been using Sunset for her own ends since the beginning or 3) was a plant by Adagio and has been working with/for her the whole time.

I'm really... really hoping for option 1 but somehow, I don't think that's the case

[Boltstrike58]

As her heart burned to call Twilight up and apologize, her gaze fell on the pink princess pony plush sitting atop the safe. No matter how hard she'd tried to make a life here, there was no denying that she was a unicorn at heart. And it was becoming clear that Twilight might never be able to truly understand that, no matter how hard she tried.

As much as I try to see Twilight's point of view, this is where I have my problems. Sunset comes from a universe full of magic. It's natural that she'd try to at least keep some of it when she made her home in this world, and she'd want to think about what she could do with it to help humans. But Twilight basically says "Too bad, I don't care about your homesickness." (I admit, that's an oversimplification, but still) It's like somebody in a relationship telling their lover that they have to burn everything their previous lover gave them. Granted, magic has a much larger impact on people than something as simple as that, but still.

[BoredAuthor817]

8997788
I'm hoping for option 1 as well. It's a lot of fun trying to fighters Starlight out and for her to be with Adagio or in it for her own personal gain would just make it seem cheap and cliche.

I like that this Starlight has some issues. Almost seems as if in prison, she was looking for a new purpose in life and found it in Sunset. Here was a poor soul who was so low and Starlight took it upon herself to bring her back up and make sure it never happened again. The result is she's very possessive and protective. Not bad qualities, but not all that good either.

I wonder, though, it it will ever be touched on what effect, if any, the fading magic has in Sunset and the sirens. I know it's a bit of an overused trope, but I also doubt Sunset is trying to bring magic back into the world just to bring it back.

Ah well, we'll see...

[TheYear2525]

I know you think you love her, but you've only been together what, three days? That ain't even a drop in the bucket compared to your whole lives.

That doesn't sound right to me. Let's check it.
Let's say life=80a and bucket=10L and drop=0.05mL and relationship=3d then:

80a=29200d
3d/29200d=0.01%

10L=10000mL=200000drops
1drop/200000drops=0.0005%

So Applejack LIED .
(They are 20 times longer a couple than a drop is part of a full bucket of water. Good that she isn't talking to Twilight here, she would have nerded that out xD )

[TwinAttorney864]

8998441

8997707
Eh, it depends on your POV.

I've already commented about this, what, twice, three times? But I love listening to myself speak so I'm going to do this again.

To you, you're seeing it as Sunset being forced to give up her magic for the simple sake of Twilight being scared of it, whilst I see it as Twilight having to take the magic away because it's for the greater good. While yes, I see the idea behind Sunset coming from a land of magic and thus it's would be extraordinarily hard for her to give up magic, the acts of Sunset in the first EQG movie, the Sirens, Twilight in Friendship Games, Gloriosa, and something in this universe related to Trixie and Sombra, I would certainly also want to lock away magic for the greater good of people.

But, then again I'm hypocritical and falling into the same motions as Twilight. Neither of us understands growing up with magic, then having it ripped away from you. We don't have that same emotional connection with the stuff and just find it more dangerous than it is worth. We can't weigh the benefits of the stuff against the cons because we have yet to see magic used in everyday life, to grow up alongside and use it. So, I'm being hypocritical I understand.

But, even if, I will still stand by my claim that I'd take away Sunset's magic, lest we have a repeat of Midnight Sparkle or Demon Shimmer. God help us if a mob boss or a rival government or some religious nutjob get their hands on the crap

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

I had a gut feeling starlight wanted to do something not good/some revenge