Prom night
“Twilight, I don’t-... I don’t think he’s coming.”
The six other girls stood behind the scientist, alternating between playing with their hands, flattening out dresses, or toying with the clasps of purses. Twilight Sparkle’s eyes were trained, focused solely on the stretch of road that separated Canterlot High from the rows of houses across the street. She’d arrived early with the girls, escorted via limo at the request- nay, demand- of Rarity, who did her best to touch up their makeup as best she could on the drive over. As it stood now, the fashionista reserved herself to cling to Applejack’s arm, squeezing the other girl with anxious fingers.
Even Pinkie Pie had left the rest of the Prom committee to take care of escorting their senior class to the busses that would take them to the hall Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna had reserved for the evening. No party in the world was more important than being there to support her friends, even if it was the biggest night of their lives. That just made it all the more important.
“No, no. He’s probably just late.” Twilight nodded to herself, playing with the fabric of her gown, “Camp Everfree is a long drive away. He’s probably just stuck in traffic or something.”
The other teens looked amongst themselves, chewing on lips and sharing sympathetic glances. And of course, when situations like these would arise, they looked to their leader for some sort of guidance.
Sunset Shimmer curled a hand over her chest and let out a steadying breath, as if summoning the strength to take those few steps over to where Twilight had planted herself for the last 40 minutes. Her frown quirked into a half-smile as she rubbed the smaller girl’s arm, brows twitching upward in sympathy. “Yeah. Maybe he knew he’d be late and he’s already waiting for you at the venue. It is on the way, after all. Let’s just… let’s head to the busses, okay?”
Twilight’s eyes sparkled, wetted with desperate hope. She nodded and whispered out a small “Yeah,” before stepping back towards the school, hugging herself all the while.
Sunset kept pace with her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she rubbed at Twilight’s forearm with her other hand. She shared a look with Applejack, who dipped her hat in understanding and motioned for the rest of the group to follow after them. They stayed silent, no one daring to say a word— lest they finally push Twilight over the edge, ruining the absolutely astonishing job that Rarity had done with her eye makeup. That would have been a tragedy all its own.
“I’m sure he just wanted to be fashionably late,” Sunset attempted at a joke, allowing herself to smile once she felt Twilight’s tense frame relax under her arm. She gave her a gentle shake, “Or maybe his hand finally got stuck to his hair, with all the hairspray he uses.”
Twilight allowed herself to let out a small giggle, and rested her hand atop the one Sunset had on her shoulder. She gave a squeeze and spared the taller girl a flash of a smile. It was a wordless way of saying thank you, when the scientist couldn’t find it within herself to speak, something Sunset had become accustomed to over the years.
As they all filed onto the busses, splitting off into whatever groups had been designated via the school register, Twilight kept a tight grip on Sunset’s hand; even when the redhead had dropped her arm from Twilight’s shoulder. Sunset had never been so grateful to have a surname so close to the other girl’s. She could only imagine Twilight trying to hold herself together, alone, listening to the excited chatter of her peers, and trying so desperately not to focus on the blatant truth: that Timber Spruce had stood her up.
Sunset’s stomach churned at the thought.
Once they’d arrived, Sunset helped Twilight down onto the gravel path and over to the grass to regroup with the girls. The grounds were absolutely gorgeous, and it was evident that Principal Celestia had saved no expense for this year’s venue. It was startling, to say the least, once Sunset had learned that this world had a Canterlot castle, too. However, rather than housing royal equine princesses of the sun and moon— or being populated by countless guards that roamed the halls, and residing upon a valiant cliff face, this world’s Canterlot castle operated as a venue for weddings and, in this evening’s case, their high school senior prom. Sunset had almost eaten her leather jacket when that had been announced.
Despite the floor lights that illuminated the path up to the castle, or the rows of well-tended hedges, shaped into grand displays of flowers and figures, or even the eloquent architecture of the castle itself, it still had nothing on the one back in Equestria. Sunset could only offer up an amused smile at the human world’s attempt at grandeur. Not that she was one to pass judgment on landscaping though! She just thought there was irony in the fact a world full of creatures without hands had managed to carve the land into such a dramatisation. She supposed there was a kind of theatrics that came with magic. What other explanation was there?
“It’s really pretty.” Twilight finally spoke in a quiet voice.
Sunset hummed, “Yeah.” Taking one last look at the building, she lowered her head to meet Twilight’s eyes. “It’s got nothing on the one in Equestria though.”
Twilight hid her chuckle behind her hand, her smile finally meeting her eyes as she arched a brow. “I was talking about your dress.”
“O-oh!” Sunset felt her cheeks pink and she rubbed the back of her head with her free hand, careful not to mess up her hair. Rarity would have killed her. “T-thanks.” She dropped her eyes to inspect Twilight’s dress: lavender, with a plethora of blues and purples shimmering over the fabric, depending on whichever light the other girl stood in. It wasn’t that Sunset hadn’t seen her in it before, she just needed a refresher on how good the other girl looked in it. “You look really nice too.”
Twilight raised her hand to toy with the strands of hair beside her face and averted her eyes a bit, her own sheepish smile warming her cheeks as she gave Sunset’s hand another squeeze. They stayed like that for a while; neither of them saying anything; just hand in hand, and content with the way their palms felt against each other. When the other girls finally found them, none of them seemed to notice. Or if they did, no one mentioned it, simply happy enough with the way Twilight’s eyes began to gleam.
They’d followed after their class as they were escorted towards the castle, through the foyer, and finally to stand on the back staircase that would lead up into the large hedge maze that took up the majority of the castle’s rear grounds. On either side of the large, slabbed stairway, stood two grand fountains, and Rarity simply swooned— mumbling nonsensically about how absolutely wonderful their class photo was going to be in this year’s yearbook, and how Sunset absolutely must allow her to assist with this year’s layout.
Sunset stumbled as Rainbow Dash threw her arms around both hers and Applejack’s shoulders, the farm girl chuckling and joining in with the roughhousing, as she ruffled Rainbow Dash’s hair. Not enough to send Rarity into another one of her prom-induced tirades, but to still make it obvious that her hair wasn’t sitting the way it should be.
Sunset slipped out of Rainbow Dash’s grip with a chuckle as the other girl took her position on the stairs near the front— Photo Finish insisted on having the tallest members of their class towards the back. Sunset flashed Twilight a smile and led her up the stairs to take their own position beside Rarity. Once more that evening, Sunset was humbled by the way the universe seemed to work in her favor. Maybe she should take Rarity aside and thank her personally for ensuring she was just ever-so-slightly taller than Twilight in her heels. Maybe.
Sunset smoothed out her dress as best she could with one hand. She spared a glance at Twilight for a moment who, she only now noticed, had been staring at her. The scientist snapped her eyes away once Sunset’s met her gaze, a tightness twisting in her chest at the way Twilight’s face darkened in hue. Sunset smiled and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before she slipped her own from Twilight’s grip to tuck a stray lock of hair behind the other girl’s ear.
“There we go. Don’t want that ruining the picture.”
Twilight gave a shy smile and reached up to adjust the necklace around Sunset’s neck, so that the golden sun pendant sat dead center across her chest. “You too.”
They both shared a small giggle, beaming warmly at each other before they slipped their fingers together once again.
“Everyone say: Wondercolts!”
With an absolutely deplorable drone from the crowd of teens and one final “Whoop!” from Rainbow Dash, Photo Finish snapped their picture. It was one instant, forever captured in a frame, that their senior class would share. One final show of comradery— to prove that despite everything, they were here, together. Despite the pain; the hard work; the tears— they’d made it.
And however true that this moment would be shared with each other, for years to come, through misty eyes filled with nostalgia. There was a smaller moment— a secret in the holding of hidden hands that the camera couldn’t see— that Sunset wouldn’t ever forget.