A Sparkling New Year's Eve
“Bored” thought Sunset as she yawned, while sitting at her desk.
“I am so bored!” When the girl looked upon the clock hanging on the wall of her room, it seemed to her like it was ticking slower than usual.
“This can't be good” Sunset kept repeating to herself, as she twiddled her thumbs in loneliness. Sighing, the girl stood up from her chair, headed to bed on which she threw herself heavily. Desperately trying to find something to do, Sunset grabbed her phone that she had earlier left on the bookshelf next to her bed and unlocked the screen, scrolling her index finger. As expected, her gallery was full of photos of her friends, spending quality time with their families.
“Everybody seems to be enjoying the remainder of their vacation.” The girl said to herself, as if she was trying to free herself from a heavy burden.
“Everybody but me, that is.” As their tradition demanded, Sunset and the rest of her gang had enjoyed spending Christmas Eve together, so New Year's Eve was the last occasion the girls had to enjoyed their loved ones' company without the usual school pressure. While scrolling her finger on the screen of her phone, observing one photo after another, the red-haired girl sighed heavily. Surely she was happy to see her friends having fun, yet the sight of their innocent smiles also saddened her deeply.
“If only I could take part in their fun, too.” Giving up at the thought of having to spend another night before her TV, the usual joyful girl slowly walked to her living room, where she sat on the sofa, after turning on her gaming console. Although she still had not completed her newest game, which she considered fun enough, Sunset had already spent the major part of her day playing and her head was about to burst from pain, so she decided it would be best for her to find something else to do. Besides she did not feel like spending the rest of her vacation, doing something as lazy and cliché as playing video games.
“Perhaps a book will cheer me up.” The girl thought, heading back to her room. Sunset's bookcase was filled with lots of volumes of all sorts, surely the girl could find something fun to read. “I've read this one already” Sunset thought to herself, as she searched her bookcase, hoping to find something that she had forgotten to read.
“This one, too and this one, too. “After a couple of minutes it became clear to the girl that she would not find anything new amongst her books.
“Of course!” She thought, as something came to her mind.
“The books I ordered online have yet to be delivered!” After realising that, Sunset got back to bed, having lost all hope to find a fun way to spend her afternoon. Finally she laid on her soft mattress,
regretting not joining Pinkie Pie, who had kindly invited her to her annual reunion with her sisters, fearing to be a burden to her and the rest of the Pie family. At that point the only thing left for her to do was closing her eyes, hoping that she would remain asleep until the first day of school.
It was six o'clock, when a buzzing sound woke Sunset up from her peaceful slumber. That noise bothered her much; as a matter of fact she could not stand alarm clocks disturbing her sleep and that was precisely the reason why she had decided not to set hers, before going to bed. Something had decided to wake her up though, something that could not obviously be her alarm clock.
“My...journal?” The girl said to herself, almost shocked at the surprise. It had been ages since the last time Princess Twilight and her had a good chat and she certainly did not expect the Princess of Friendship to contact her in a time like that. After rubbing her still sleepy eyes, Sunset hurried up grabbing her journal from the bookshelf and opened it. Immediately Twilight's unique horn writing appeared before her sight.
“Hey, there Sunset!” the young woman quickly read. “How's things?” The red-haired girl got out of bed and picked up a pen from the table.
“Hi, Twilight!” Sunset wrote back. “I am so happy to hear from you! It's been quite a while. But I do understand that your duties to Equestria come first.”
“Oh, no,no,no!” The Princess of Friendship replied without even giving her friend the time to finish her sentence. “No duties would keep me from making sure that you are okay. It's just been a very stressing week. You know? Hearth's Warming Eve and all.”
“Oh, I know.” Sunset answered, while putting a smirk on her face. “And I also bet that you probably got stressed over all your plans and preparations like last year or the year before.”
“I did not...Well not entirely. You see, this year my friends and I decided to come up with something new: a solution that was supposed to avoid us getting stressed as we usually do. You're familiar with Hearth's Warming Helpers?”
“Yeah and let me guess. Applejack came up with this idea.”
“It sounds like her, doesn't it?”
“Yup”
“Alright, you win, it was Applejack's idea. Yet things did not go as smoothly as we had expected in the first place.”
“You got stressed anyway, didn't you?”
“You win again, but this time I got stressed over pudding.”
“Pudding?”
“Chancellor Pudding Head's recipe.”
“Now that's a story I'd like to hear.”
After Twilight had finished telling her story Sunset had long forgotten about the boredom that had previously taken over her. “I can't believe something so innocent as a Hearth's Warming helper turned out into so many troubles in the end.” The red-haired girl wrote to her friend.
“I know it sounds incredible. But I gotta admit that my pudding was delicious.”
“I wish I could have tasted it, too.” Sunset added, remembering her present condition.
“Oh, don't be silly. I bet you and the other girls had a lot of fun, too.”
“Oh we did, but we are not having any at the moment.”
“What do you mean? Why? Has something happened? Is your friendship at risk? I've got a to do list ready just in case.”
“Hey, one question at a time Twilight” Sunset interrupted Twilight, before she could fill up the pages of her diary with all the points, contained in her checklist.
“Sorry, sorry! You were saying?” “Nothing's at risk. My friends are jut spending New Year's Eve with their families, while I'm home all alone. Well at least I was alone until you wrote to me. Thanks, Twilight. You rescued me from myself once again.” After Sunset had written down these things, it took a few seconds longer for Twilight to reply.
“You know? I do have some pudding left that you could taste and I am also spending New Year's Eve alone, since my friends are spending time with their families, too. Plus all of my students have returned home for the holidays.”
“Isn't Starlight with you?” Sunset questioned curiously.
“She decided to spend some quality time in Sire's Hallow, since Sunburst and she have made amends with their parents.”
“What about Spike? Surely he is keeping you company.”
“Not really. Rarity asked me to borrow his assistance for the evening and you know what he could have done to me if I had said no.”
“I can imagine.”
“So, what do you say? Willing to spend time with me?” The moment Sunset read those words, she felt filled with energy and excitement: finally she had a chance to do something interesting.
“Are you serious?! Of course, I'd be glad to be with you this evening!”
“Then hurry up and come over! I'll be waiting for you on the other side of the mirror-portal.”
Without wasting anytime, the red-haired girl opened her wardrobe to pick her warmest cloths and got dressed. As she was going downstairs, Sunset could not still believe that she would have something good to remember by about that New Year's Eve, in addition she would get to spend time with her oldest friend and could not be happier about that. After locking the door from outside, a blow of chilly wind passed through her veins, making the girl shiver.
“It sure is cold this winter, isn't it?” Sunset thought to herself at that moment. “Hopefully Twilight's castle will be warmer.”
It took the girl a good fifteen minutes to reach CHS, which got her a little bit worried. Sunset had in fact left her magic journal at home, figuring out that she would not need it, since she would be spending the evening with Twilight. Her delay would surely upset Twilight, who must had been waiting for quite a while on her side of the portal, so Sunset regretted not bringing her journal along to reassure her friend that everything was alright.
“I'm already here, anyway.” The girl thought, as she found herself before the mirror-portal.
“Here we go”. After making sure that she was unseen, Sunset entered the the mysterious, magical gate that connected her new home to Equestria.
After zooming through a rainbow of colours, the red-haired girl ended up bumping into a pile of pillows which Twilight had carefully placed near the mirror-portal, not wanting her friend to hurt herself like the time when she had first met Starlight.
“Sunset!” Twilight's voice exclaimed, as soon as the alicorn recognized the red-maned pony.
“I am here.” Sunset replied after getting up from the pile of pillows.
“How was your landing?” Twilight questioned giggling.
“Surprisingly soft! Nice idea by the way.”
“I know, right? After Starlight told me about the time of your meeting, I thought I could provide you with a nice surface to land on.” While still smiling, the Princess of Friendship pulled Sunset into a tight hug. “It's so nice to have you here. I mean the last time you visited, your friends had lost their memories of you and we had to go to Canterlot, where you got your chance to reunite with Princess Celestia after ...How long? Three? Two years?”
“Actually a little longer, but I would like to avoid this topic...It's not one of my favourites, you know?”
“Of course, of course!” Twilight replied, blushing. “I did not mean to bring that up.”
“Not to worry. Anyway, I remember quite well the reason of my last visit and yes, I, too, am happy to finally spend some time with my best friend without having to save anybody...I mean anypony.”
“I'll be just you and me, doing the stuff we like and...” Suddenly the Princess of Friendship stopped talking.
“Twilight? Is everything alright?!” Asked the red-maned pony, being worried about her friend.
“I've just figured out that I have no idea what you like doing, cause we've never hang out before! This isn't good! I should have made plans! I am a terrible friend!” After saying these things, the Princess of Friendship began trotting nervously around the room, looking more nervous than ever.
“Twilight” Sunset intervened, approaching her friend and placing a hoof around Twilight's shoulder. “You're an amazing friend. It's not your fault if every time we meet, something goes wrong on the other side of the mirror-portal. But now it's just you and me, so take a deep breath and relax for a second.” After following her friend's advice, Twilight was visibly calmer.
“Thanks, Sunset, I needed it.”
“Don't mention. Now why don't you show me around your school. Gotta say I've been looking forward to seeing it since the time you said you were planning on becoming a teacher.”
“Headmare to be precise” The Princess of Friendship corrected, smiling.
“Alright, headmare Twilight. Can you show me around your school, please?”
“Of course, just follow me this way.”
“And this is my office where I get to spend my days, mostly taking care of the paperwork.”
“Guess the role of headmare, was not so fun as you were expecting it to be?” Sunset asked, seeing her friend frowning.
“It has its privileges, but almost lots of responsibilities to handle. So, what do you think of the school?”
“It's incredible!” Sunset exclaimed, clearly amazed by what she had seen. “I can't believe you manage to run a place like this on your own. Plus how in Equestria did you find the way to have this thing built in such a short time!”
“You know me.” Twilight added proudly. “I have my ways, plus I would not say I rely entirely on myself to run this school. Luckily my friends are always there to help me out, when I need them. Just like yours help you, whenever you need them.”
“Yeah! Speaking of which I have the impression that the Fluttershy from this world must be quite popular amongst your students.” The red-maned pony went on saying, as she laid her eyes on the many pictures of Fluttershy, hanging on the wall.
“Oh, you mean that!” Twilight replied, noticing her friend staring at the wall. “Yeah, the students love her so much that she's always elected teacher of the month.”
“I understand...Say, Twilight” Sunset asked at that point.
“Yes?”
“Do you think I'd make a good teacher?”
“Why, yes of course!” The Princess of Friendship happily replied. “Why are you asking me that? Wait, don't tell me that...”
“Slow down, Twi.” Sunset interrupted her friend, before she could even complete her sentence.
“Oh, I am so sorry, I just thought that, now that you and Princess Celestia are friends again...”
“As much as I love hanging out with you, I am not sure I am quite ready to come back permanently, plus I can't leave my friends. They're my family now. They mean to me just as much as your friends do to you.”
“I understand...” Sighing, Twilight lowered her head, while Sunset kept quite. After a while a tear lined her purple cheek, yet the Princess of Friendship did her best to remain calm and collected.
“So, what do you wanna do next?”
“I have an idea that you may like as well” Sunset answered, noticing a tremble in her friend's voice: clearly her words had hurt Twilight's feelings.
“Oh, do tell...” Twilight said, having been cheered up a bit by the excitement in her friend's voice.
“It's a little something I used to do with Princess Celestia, while I was her student. It's sort of a book club, but without any actual club. Just two ponies talking about books before a warm fire.”
“You were right, I do like the idea.”
“And so what happened in the next chapter?!” Sunset questioned excitedly, her mind totally focused of Twilight's narration.
“Then Daring Do started swinging on the jungle vines and managed t escape Ahuizotl's fearsome beasts and return the treasure to a museum.” “I must admit that A.K must be quite the writer, if you're such a huge fan. Back when I used to live I Equestria, they did not publish Daring Do books, yet. The Rainbow Dash from my world likes her novels, yet I usually prefer reading other things”
“Say, Sunset. What are your favourite books? I mean the ones you read in your world?” Twilight questioned, curiously.
“Oh, I don’t have one. Next time I'll bring you a bunch of them.”
“Is it a promise?”
“A Pinkie promise!”
“Good.” The Princess of Friendship added, smirking. “Why don't we read the next Daring Do book together? It's a new release so I haven't got the chance to touch it, yet”
“Sure!”. After agreeing, Sunset sat just next to her friend who had already picked up the book she had mentioned from her enormous bookcase. Together they began to read the novel, occasionally giggling or gasping, if the narration conveyed them particularly strong emotions.
Suddenly, Sunset felt something wrapping around her flank and pushing her closer to Twilight. Immediately, the red-maned pony turned to her friend only to notice that the distance between the two of them had practically disappeared. As a matter of fact, Twilight had wrapped her wing around Sunset's back and flanks, then pulled her closer to her.
“Twilight...” Sunset said, being not sure if Twilight had even done such a thing intentionally, since her friend was so focused on reading. “You're hugging me with your wing.” As the red-maned pony said these things, not only did the Princess of Friendship ignore her, but she also embraced her more tightly.
At that moment Sunset blushed: clearly her friend was doing this intentionally, yet that did not bother her at all. Twilight's purple fur was in fact very soft and its contact helped Sunset filled warmer in the cold room. If on one hoof her heartbeat caused her to feel a weird, new sensation, on the other one that very feeling was also very nice.
“You know something, Twilight?” Sunset intervened, her cheeks being stilled red. “We should arrange these book club meeting of ours more often.”
“Yes, I think we definitely should...”