Spare Parts

by Crack-Fic Casey

I Would Give You the Stars

Sunset lay on Twilight’s couch, utterly defeated. Every one of the gifts she’d tried to get Twilight had backfired. The Super Library was... unavailable, creating life from nothing was so energy- and time-intensive to be practically impossible, so she couldn’t build Twilight her own planet, Twilight could already build herself a lair or robot army if she really wanted one…

She groaned. Forgetting her anniversary wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t literally been turned into a national holiday without her noticing. Hey Twi, I’m sorry I’m the only person out of several billion with nothing to show for today, but you love me anyway, right?

The worst thing was that Twilight wouldn’t get upset. If it weren’t for Ruby then Twilight wouldn’t even remember. Twilight wasn’t going to raise her voice or even get mad. She was going to be disappointed.

There was a click as the door opened, and Twilight stepped. “Sunset? Are you in here?”

“Yeah,” Sunset said without getting up. “Sorry I just let myself in, it’s been a long day.”

“It’s fine,” Twilight called as she went into the kitchen. “I love having you over. There’s a documentary about magitech racecars on in a minute, you want to pop popcorn and watch that?”

“That could be fun,” Sunset said. “I’m sorry about today.”

“What’s there to… be…” As Twilight’s voice trailed off Sunset sat up. She didn’t any magical threats in the kitchen, and her mundane-by-comparison senses only registered Twilight alone. “Sunset,” Twilight asked. “What’s this?”

Sunset peered around the corner and looked in with her normal eyes. Oh no. “That’s just a painting I did of you, it’s not—”

‘It’s beautiful,” Twilight whispered.

“What?” Sunset looked at the painting again. It wasn’t anything special by anyone’s standards. She hadn’t even used her powers or increased intelligence to make it. The proportions were funny, the shading was completelywrong and the background wasn’t going to stop driving her crazy. “But it doesn’t look like you at all!”

“Okay, but— look at my hair! And my eyes, and the stars!” Twilight reached out and brushed the canvas with her hand. Sunset reached out to stop her, but magical runes were already forming over the painting.

Twilight squinted at them. “What’s all this?”

Sunset formed a second avatar far away in a desolate wasteland for the express purpose of screaming in panic. It helped. “That’s just… some notes I took… Of you.”

“While Twilight loves studying and laboratories, she also enjoys things that make her feel alive. Good examples of this are dancing and friendship adventures. She does not enjoy anything messy. Give her as much control as possible, as she likes helping people and views her intelligence as her greatest strength over her compassion, tenacity, and creativity.” Twilight sat the painting down and looked at Sunset with teary eyes. “Did you think of all the things you love about me and then, instead of wasting time with some lyrical poem thing, put them into an organized checklist?”

Sunset glared sternly at the members of the Make Twilight Happy Committee. “I must stress that we cannot let Twilight know I wrote this list. I don’t know how she’ll react, and I don’t want to take any chances. Okay?”

“Yep,” Sunset said, trying to recover from the emotional backlash. “That was my plan all along.”

“This is the most romantic thing I could imagine anyone doing for me!” Twilight squealed and pulled Sunset into a hug. She felt Twilight’s heart beating against her chest, and smelled chalk dust and lavender in her hair. “I love you!”

Sunset squeezed her back. “I love you too, Twi. I just wish I had more to give you.”

Sunset felt Twilight pull back but didn’t open her eyes. She leaned her forehead against Twilight's and relaxed. “Sunset,” Twilight said, “I know you love me.”

“I know, I know—”

“Sunset, look at me.”

Sunset opened her eyes and was struck dumb by Twilight’s eyes. The younger girl reached up and tucked Sunset’s hair behind her ears. “I know how much you love me. You are an amazing person and that is alwaysenough. Okay?”

“Okay,” a helpless Sunset said. She shivered as she watched Twilight smile and lean in.

They’d shared hundreds of kisses in the past, and would share more over the course of their lives. Some were under more romantic circumstances, some under more passionate ones, and at least one was incredibly bittersweet. But whenever Sunset thought about Twilight from that point on, this was the kiss she thought of. Because this moment wasn’t about a situation, or even a feeling. It was the moment where two people truly understood one another, and stayed anyway.

Eventually, they needed to breathe. Sunset was annoyed by this limitation and elected work on it later. “Wow,” she said. “So. Uh, you want to watch that documentary.”

“Or we could make out.”

“Let’s do that one.”

And until Shining Armor and Cadance came back from their date, it was the best night ever.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

You know, you could definitely put these shorts together into a story in its own right. Possibly throw in a few more of Sunset's attempts at the perfect gift.