Mirror Finale

For one terrible, heart-stopping moment, nothing happened.

Then reality twisted. There was a sickening crack and the world tore open, a painfully blinding lack of light filling the Portal. I covered my eyes and shrieked, feeling something unnatural burning into my retinas. All around, cries of pain and surprise rose up, and then the Portal itself shrieked, a noise like breaking metal echoing up to the sky...

And then, nothing. Nothing but a soft blue glow.

One by one, we uncovered our eyes and looked. The interior of the Portal glowed an opaque blue, softly swirling within the spiked metal confines. There was no sign of the Element of Magic. Princess stared at it, slack-jawed. From the look in her eyes, I guessed that this was exactly what she’d been hoping for.

Shimmer recovered first, picking up her phone and scrolling through it. “Alright,” she announced. “We have a connection. No way to tell what’s on the other side. It’s... shit.” She tapped a few times. “It’s decaying much faster than we anticipated. You wanna say your goodbyes, you only have about a minute to do it.”

Princess stepped forward like she was being pulled. From the desire on her face as she stared into the swirling blue, I half-thought that she was about to charge straight through it, but she hesitated on the brink and turned back. Spike rushed up to her ankles and stood there jumping from paw to paw, glancing at the Portal anxiously. “Everyone...” Princess began, biting her lip.

“Forty seconds,” Shimmer hissed.

Princess gulped. “Everyone,” she began again. “I want to say thank you-”

“We know, Twi,” Applejack interrupted. She tossed Princess her duffel bag. “Now don’t miss your ride.” The rest quickly nodded.

Princess nodded in kind. “Everyone? I’ll miss you. Flash? I love you. Twilight?” She fixed her gaze on mine. “You’ll be okay. I promise.”

She picked up Spike. “Goodbye, Twilight!” Lyra yelled from the back.

“Goodbye!”

“Goodbye, Twilight!”

“Goodbye!”

“Goodbye!”

“BYE TWILIGHT!!!” Pinkie Pie shrieked, jumping and waving.

With a last glance back, Princess stepped forward. She passed soundlessly into the glowing blue light.

“Bye-bye...” Shimmer said, a smirk on her face.

Lightning crackled across the Portal. Princess’ shadow within it swirled and faded, then vanished within the storm.

“...sucker.”

The light went out. Princess was gone.

Night’s darkness fell. There was a long, slow whirring as the Portal powered down. Then came silence as all eyes slowly turned to Shimmer.

“What?” Rainbow Dash said. A dozen threats lay buried in the one word.

Shimmer ignored her, tapping away at her phone. “You can stop staring,” she said. “I kept my side of the deal. Twilight’s in Equestria now. I mean, probably.”

“What do you mean, probably?” Applejack asked, stomping forward.

“I mean she definitely went somewhere. Probably some version of Equestria. How should I know? But we’ve got no way to test it, and honestly, I really don’t give aaa...” Her eyes widened. “Everyone get back, now!”

Terror lurched in my stomach and I finally found my feet again. The dozen of us turned and scattered in all directions, punctuated by a couple of screams - but I halted when I couldn’t feel Shining Armour’s heavy, lopsided footsteps running with us. Turning back, I saw him and Shimmer standing expectantly before the Portal, arms raised. There was a final spark of light as the twisted machine powered down for good, and something sparkling fell into Shimmer’s waiting hand.

It was the Element of Magic.

Something gripped me. I hadn’t been the first to stop, but seeing that crown - my crown - in that traitor’s hands made me the first to go stomping back. “You said it would be destroyed.”

“Yeah, I said that, didn’t I?” She acknowledged me only idly, examining the crown as though for the first time. “Weird stuff, this Equestrian magic. Doesn’t always turn out like you’d expect.”

I folded my arms. “Give it to me,” I demanded. Where was this bravery coming from all of a sudden? “It doesn’t belong to you.”

“Yeah, about that. Funny story.” Her eyes met mine. A chill went through me. “You didn’t really think I did all this for free, did you?”

Realization struck me cold. Some of the others, coming up behind me, weren’t as quick on the uptake. “What are you talking about?” Flash said.

Shimmer snapped her fingers. “Shining, dearest?”

Shining Armour grimaced. Still, even he couldn’t keep from a slightly theatrical flourish as he drew and unfolded a long page from his pocket. “Classic contract, doubly signed by both parties,” he said as though at knifepoint, avoiding everyone’s eyes. “In the event that the Element of Magic survives the process of forming the Portal to Equestria, it becomes the property of this world’s-”

“Let me see that,” Colgate and Applejack demanded at the same time, stomping forward. They both snatched the page and read it over. “Seems legit,” Colgate said.

“Can’t be,” Applejack argued. “Twilight would never-”

“Your Twilight did exactly what she needed to,” Shimmer purred smugly. She slowly cast her gaze around the semicircle, her smirk boring into each of us in turn. “I made an offer. This was my price. A way home in exchange for the Element of Magic. Poor Princess Twilight was so desperate to get away from you all that she didn’t think twice. Contract or no, that’s the decision your precious leader made. You’re just going to have to live with it.”

I fixed my brother with a hard gaze. You knew? I asked with my eyes. He only stared at the ground.

“Oh yeah?” Pinkie Pie puffed up, folding her arms. “You think you can get away with this? There’s fourteen of us and two of you!”

My heart ached as Shining Armour was included in that proclamation - but then, he was standing ashamedly by Shimmer’s side. “Twilight was wrong,” Flash Sentry spoke up abruptly. I could hear in his voice how much it hurt to say it, but he tightened his fists and continued. “That crown wasn’t hers to give away. It belongs to the Twilight of this universe now.”

Both groups looked to me. Without thinking, I stepped forward. “He’s right,” I said, surprising even myself. Some inner calmness, some certainty, still lingered after removing the crown. The heartbeats of everyone assembled still beat in me, all their hopes, all their thoughts focused on my own. I was the only Twilight Sparkle in this world now. It was time I acted like one. Marching one step further, I extended my hand. “Give the Element to me,” I demanded. “It doesn’t belong to you.”

Shimmer strode up to me, looking me up and down. “What are you gonna do?” she said softly, donning the crown. “Fight me for it?”

A shockwave of golden light knocked us all back. I flailed my arms, struggling to stay standing, and squinted ahead. It was like staring into the sun. Shimmer floated in a ball of fire, her flesh warping, her hair ablaze. Voices were screaming - my friends? Her? Me? She rose into the air and the Portal broke apart behind her, flying up to surround her like a metal cocoon. Just for a moment, the light went out...

In a blaze of light, Shimmer broke free. She slowly drifted down to the ground, arms spread, head raised. Her skin was scaled with shining gold. Her hair was a miasma of white. Wings of metal and glass unfurled behind her, flapping delicately as she touched down. When she opened her eyes she saw the world through slits, and her next words were spoken through curled fangs. “Ahh. I could get used to this.”

Under any other circumstances, I would have called her strangely beautiful.

Sunset recovered first, but all she did was drop to her knees. “Shimmer,” she said in a small voice. “Look at yourself.”

“Oh, I am.” Shimmer did a slow twirl, looking down at herself. “This feels like something I’ve been holding in for far too long. Shining, your thoughts?” Shining Armour stayed quiet. He only dropped to one knee beside the statue, keeping his gaze low.

From the back of the crowd, Lyra spoke up. “She looks like a changeling.”

Shimmer twitched. She shook the ground with a stomp and strode forward, turning the blackened grass to cinders where she walked. Bon Bon pushed herself defensively in front of Lyra while the latter protested. “What? She does!”

“She’s right,” Sunset said. “Shimmer, you’re-”

Shimmer whirled on her, heat and smoke wafting off her wings so intensely that I had to take another step back. “I don’t give a fuck what I look like,” she growled. “Or what I am. There are things in this world much, much worse than me, and I aim to put a stop to them. And there’s nothing you can say or do that’s going to hold me back.”

“Go on, then,” Applejack said. She stepped in and the circle tightened. “You’re so confident, get us out of your way.”

With a smirk, Shimmer rose up. A fireball blazed in her hand, then winked out. “I’m not stupid,” she cackled. “The last person who tried to abuse this thing turned into that.” She gestured at Sunset. “No way am I taking that risk. Only good quests for me from now on. And I already know that you freaks won’t try to fight me unless I hit first. It’s not your way. Which puts us at an impasse, don’t you think?” She settled down onto the ground. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Shining, Sunny and I are going to leave now. We’re going to take the Element with us. And there’s no morally defensible action you can take to stop us.” She stretched and folded her wings and, with infuriating calmness, started to pack her things into a bag.

Someone tugged at my sleeve. “Twilight?” Bon Bon whispered to me. “I know we said we’d stand with you, but... I don’t think we can fight some sort of fire goddess. I don’t think we should get involved.”

I could feel my grasp of the situations slipping away from me. “You can’t leave,” I blurted out. “Shining’s staying for another week. You can’t just take him.”

“Y-yeah,” Shining Armour said, finding his voice. He gulped, watching Shimmer with a look that could have been fear or awe. “I thought we agreed...”

“Sorry, sweetie. But we’ve got a train to catch. Maybe next year.” Without looking, Shimmer put out a hand and gestured with two fingers. “Come on, Sunny. Time to say goodbye to your shitty friends.”

Sunset stayed where she was, kneeling on the ground and shaking. Pinkie Pie bounded up and wrapped her arms around her defensively; Flash Sentry put a hand on her shoulder. “Sunset’s not going anywhere,” he said. “And if you try to take her, we’ll-”

He stopped. Sunset shook her head rapidly. She whispered something to Pinkie Pie, who confusedly let her go, then spoke to Flash in a small voice that I could barely hear. “Please, just do what she says. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me.”

“Sunset.” He kept his hold on her as she stood up. “I’m not letting you-”

She swatted his hand away and stepped forward. “I go with you, and everyone walks away without fighting?” she asked.

“That’s the plan,” Shimmer answered. She slid her hammer through a loop in her bag and threw it over her shoulder, shifting to let it slide down between her wings.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash advanced. “If you think we’re just going to let you walk away from here with-”

“Ah-ah. No fighting.” A wall of yellow flame erupted in front of her, cutting us off from Sunset. It spread to completely encircle us. “The Element is mine by contract. Sunset is mine by her own free will,” Shimmer counted off. “And I don’t need this crown to crush all of you beneath my feet. You are going to let me walk away from here. There’s nothing more to discuss. Shining, Sunny, let’s go.”

She turned and began to walk away. A lash of fire stretched out from her hand and materialized into a chain around Sunset’s wrist; Sunset was dragged away without looking back. Only Shining hesitated. “Goodbye, Twilight,” he said, not quite looking at me through the flames. “I’ll see you in a few months. I hope.”

“Shining,” I responded. Was it acknowledgement, a threat, a plea? I couldn’t tell. “Shining!”

But he walked away.

We all stood numbly within the circle. Rainbow Dash charged the wall, only to flinch back from the heat. “This isn’t happening,” Pinkie Pie whimpered. She put her hands over her eyes and started to count down from one hundred, slowly.

I whirled on Applejack. “So that’s it?” I said, disbelieving. “After all she did, we’re just going to let her walk away?”

“I don’t like it either.” Applejack’s fists were clenched, her jaw twitching. “But she’s got us pinned and she knows it. Nothin’ we can do but hope Sunset breaks free.”

“But you’re supposed to be the protectors of this place!” I spat at her. “Isn’t there anything you can do?”

“Before now...” She looked to the place where the Portal had been. “We had Twilight.”

I glared in the direction of Shimmer’s retreating back. Despite the intensity of the golden light, all I could see was red. “You do have a Twilight,” I growled. Before I knew what I was doing, I charged at the wall of fire.

Heat seared me. I could feel Shimmer’s eyes on me, her laughter echoing in my ears. But I emerged on the other side in a plume of smoke and kept running. “SHIMMER!” I yelled at the retreating trio, racing forward.

Maybe the Element’s powers couldn’t hurt me, the true bearer. Maybe it did hurt and I failed to notice. Or maybe I just knew that I’d survived being burned by Sunset before.

Shimmer had already stopped. She turned slowly, drawing Shining and Sunset behind her. She was wearing that same smile - that same fucking smile - as she sized me up, hands on her hips, her light scarring the night air. Something wordlessly profane bubbled out of me, and...

The next thing I knew, she’d caught my fist inches from her face, her clawed hand wrapped around my own... and squeezing. Tears sprung to my eyes as she twisted my wrist, forcing me down onto one knee. “Bold,” she said, arrogantly calm. “Stupid, but bold. I underestimated you, little Twilight.”

She knelt down to match me. “You really love him, don’t you?” she said quietly. “Maybe even more than I do.”

“Fuck you,” I hissed back, unafraid. “You won’t get away with this.”

“Maybe not.” Sunset chewed her lip, considering me. “I like you, Twilight,” she said, smirking as I glared at her. “And I don’t want us to part ways as enemies. So I’ll tell you what. Of all the things I’ve taken from you tonight, I’ll give one back. I’ll even let you choose. Will it be Sunset...” She folded one wing, revealing Sunset shivering on her left. “...your brother...” She folded the other wing, revealing Shining watching me with concern. “...or your crown?”

My brother or the crown? There was a part of me that knew it was no choice at all. The Element of Magic was what protected Canterlot High. It was the symbol of the power of friendship - it was the power of friendship. My awakened destiny, my crest. Shimmer couldn’t be allowed to have it. There was no telling what terrible things she could do with its power.

But at the same time... I could have a brother again. I could bring him home where he belonged and save him from this awful, evil woman who was controlling his life. There was still so much unsaid between us, so many years of missed opportunities to make up for, and I knew that if I let him go now, there was a good chance that I would never see him again. My brother, or the Element? Which one would I be able to live with if I let it go?

Sunset whimpered. I briefly turned my glare to her. She had no say in this.

“Interesting choice,” Shimmer mumbled.

Wait, what? Words caught in my throat. No, that wasn’t-

Shimmer yanked on the chain, dragging Sunset close, then dispelled it in a burst of fire. “It’s just as well,” she said, no longer looking at me or my panicked expression. “She would only have slowed us down. Still, the fun we could have had...” She leaned in and kissed her double’s cheek. “Ah, well. A deal’s a deal. ‘Til next time, Sunny.” Then she grabbed Sunset by the throat and hurled her at me.

We tumbled together across the grass, suddenly in each other’s arms. There were tears in her eyes when we rolled to a stop, and she clung to my shoulders tightly. “Thank you,” she whispered deliriously, burying her face in my neck. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you...”

I shoved her away and stood. Shimmer was gone.

Running footsteps broke into my consciousness. People surrounded me. Someone hugged me. Someone else was thanking me. It all barely registered. I just kept staring at the circle of char where Shimmer had been, hearing her laughter echoing on the night air.

The lights were off when Colgate pulled up to my house. “Y’know,” she said, breaking the silence that had enveloped us, “you don’t have to go home right away if you don’t want.”

It had been a long ride home. We’d broken up into smaller groups and gone our separate ways, Princess’ friends disappearing like they’d rehearsed it and Twinkleshine and Pinkie Pie rocketing off somewhere together. When everyone else was gone, Colgate offered to drive me home almost as an afterthought.

At first, the others had peppered me with questions - who was Princess, what was up with Shimmer, so is magic real or what - but my silence eventually infected all of them. My mind was stuck on those few crucial seconds, that stupid mistake I’d made. I hated Sunset for making noise. I hated myself for looking. I hated Shimmer for showing me a glimpse of another world - a world in which I was loved, where my brother was back, where I was a princess - and then ripping it out from under my feet. Now I had no crown. No brother. Just an old enemy, out there somewhere haunting me. Right back to where I’d started.

I was so wrapped up in reflection that I didn’t realize we’d stopped for a while, let alone register Colgate’s offer. “You’ve been through a lot today,” she went on. “And I know explaining everything to us from square one probably isn’t what you want right now. But if you need some time to process, to think things over... you don’t have to spend that time alone.”

I mulled on this, staring at my own front door. “Thanks,” I said quietly. What would Princess say at a time like this? I shook the thought off. “But there’s something I need to do on my own, first.”

“Okay. Promise we’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Promise,” I said, and meant it. I climbed out of the van and watched as it drove away.

The front of the house was dark as I walked in, but a light was on in the kitchen. My mother stood up as I walked in, putting down her coffee and looking me over with tired, worried eyes. “Twilight?”

Wordlessly, I walked over and embraced her. She hugged me back, as tightly as if she was worried I might run at any second. She wasn’t entirely wrong. Some part of me still recoiled at her touch, drawing back and hissing inside my mind. But externally, all I could feel was warmth and relief and...

And love. I hadn’t let myself see that until now.

We had a long way to go still, her and I. But if she was willing to give me a second chance... it was only fair that I did the same to her.

We were still in the midst of our silent embrace when something slammed against the front door. I jumped back and crouched slightly, open fear on my face. “What was that?” my mom asked.

I gulped. “I’ll... I’ll get it, I said.” She stood back while I walked back down the hall and opened the door. No one was there. Nothing but a crumpled box sitting on the porch, a small note attached.

Warily, I knelt down and read the note:

To: The Princess of Canterlot High

You need this more than I do.

Lots of love,

The Princess of Manehattan

Uncertain, not daring to hope, I opened the box. Inside was a crown. Cheap- and flimsy-looking. Gold and glittering. Decorated with a six-pointed star.

I picked it up. With shaking hands, I put it on.

And for the first time in a long time, I finally felt like myself.

---Three Months Later---

“Twilight?” Flash Sentry said.

We were at Princess’ apartment - which was technically my apartment now, since it was my name on the lease. I’d been spending a lot of time there lately, either with friends or in solitude. It had become a sort of second home to me, a practice run for when I moved out. That day was closer now than ever before. Come the end of the month I’d be heading out to Everfree University, which, people wouldn’t stop reminding me, was way out in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t mind. Maybe I’d grown to accept my current situation, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t jump at another chance to start again. Maybe this time, a chance to make new friends.

I’d been spending a lot more time with my study group over the past three months. As school ended our weekly study sessions expanded into group outings and movie nights at my new place. Of the five of them, only Twinkleshine was planning to stay local; Lyra and Bon Bon were off to school in the city, Colgate was coming with me to Everfree, and Lemon Hearts was going backpacking across the country to “find herself.” We’d promised to keep in touch, but there was an overarching sense that things would never be the same. That didn’t get me as down as it did the others. I was tired of things being the same.

Princess’ old friends I’d seen less of, but ran into occasionally at parties co-hosted by Twinkleshine and Pinkie Pie. Without Princess Twilight around, I gathered that things had gotten quiet at Canterlot High. They were slow to move on, but were doing so in their own ways. Running into Sunset at these gathering was inevitable; I’d gathered early on that there was something she wanted to say to me, but I’d done a fine job of avoiding her. After years of learning to steer clear of her, I wasn’t stopping anytime soon - and I still hadn’t forgiven her for what happened at Shimmer’s grand exit.

As for Shimmer herself - along with Shining Armour - no one had heard anything. I tuned into the news occasionally for any stories of changelings, magic or redheads coming out of Manehattan, but this had waned when weeks of worry produced no results. Whatever Shimmer was up to over there, she was keeping it under wraps. It was only occasional letters from my brother that let me know he was even still alive, and even these monthly offerings were perfunctory, sections of them blatantly erased and rewritten much more briefly. Evidence of Shimmer keeping her thumb on him, I suspected.

Life at home was... tolerable. Shining’s absence from the table bothered me as much as ever. My relationship with my parents varied day by day; sometimes my mother and I would screech at each other, only to swan together the next day as though nothing had happened. We were trying to patch things up, at least, and she was willing to bear the brunt of a lot of my finally-excavated emotions. Even in the worst of times, I appreciated her for that.

And that just left...

“Twilight?” Flash said again, this time with more of a delicious moan in his voice. “I think we should take this to the bedroom.”

“Mmm.” I nodded faintly to let him know I’d heard, slowly rolled myself around on the sofa, and then, with great reluctance, took my mouth off of his penis.

Flash and I were, well, complicated. We’d spent the first month after Princess left avoiding each other, until finally we simultaneously cracked and had sex in the basement at a party. And then again, at his house the next day. And then an entire weekend in bed when we came to my place to talk it over. After that, we finally agreed: no sex. There was too much history between us for us to ever work as a couple. Too much anger, too much regret. We were both pining over someone that we missed very much, and however much Princess may have wanted it, it wasn’t right to fill her void in so physical a way. There was no sense getting so attached to each other, not when we’d be parting ways come September anyway.

And yet, week by week, we always found ourselves back at my apartment, watching a movie that we never finished, slowly devolving into... this.

Flash picked me up, stepped clean out of his pants, and carried him to the bedroom. I clung to him and kissed his neck - not his lips, friends didn’t kiss each other on the lips - and had to be pried off of him when he put me down. While he lay on his back on the bed I shimmied out of my skirt and underwear and then strategically positioned myself above him, my butt over his face, and got back to the all-important task of sucking on his penis.

We’d grown good at this, him and I, to the point that we were almost too efficient. We both moved without needing to direct each other, him licking me from below while his hands roamed over me, hitting just the spot every time; I dutifully licked and sucked, one hand wrapped around the base of his shaft, the other cradling his hanging testicles. We locked ourselves together like this, heads between each other’s legs, measuring our success with faint moans and twitches as we sucked on each other’s most intimate parts.

This didn’t count as sex. We weren’t dating. This was just... friends helping each other out.

After a blissful minute, I removed one hand from its testicle-fondling duty. Taking a moment away from the blow job to cover two fingers in spit, I trailed my hand down my body and, right before Flash’s eyes, started to massage my anus. I wiggled back and forth, rubbing the meager lubricant in, then slowly slipped my middle finger inside.

Truth be told, I still wasn’t entirely sure about the wisdom of this. Although I’d read glowing reviews of it online, the benefits of anal stimulation didn’t seem to outweigh the difficulty and health risks. Still, if there was one person I could count on to be clean and methodical, it was myself, and... even if we’d agreed on no sex, there was at least one thing more Flash and I hadn’t agreed to abstain from. Before we parted ways, before everything ended, I would give that thing to him.

The tightness, the pressure - it was foreign, alien, and not entirely pleasant. But the way it made my muscles tense up brought everything Flash was doing into sharp relief, eliciting a squeal from me as I continued to dutifully suck. I thrummed my finger in and out of myself, flushing as I felt Flash watching me do it, and-

Together, like a house collapsing. The feeling of my oral attention, combined with watching me fingering my butt for his benefit; I felt his muscles tense up and my mouth begin to fill. The feeling of his oral attention, combined with the pressure in my butt and his hands on my back, the psychological thrill of this beautiful boy erupting in my mouth, I-

My eyes rolled back, and I-

came.

“This is the last time,” Flash said, as always.

“Mm-hm,” I replied. We sat on the side of the bed, naked from the waist down, while I brushed my hair.

“We can’t keep doing this. It isn’t healthy. It isn’t right.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, knowing that we’d be back again next week. Knowing that I would be riding him anally before the month was out. Knowing that even the distance of university might not be enough to keep us apart.

So I still had it in me to be heartless after all.

Once my top half was presentable to my satisfaction I stood. “Want some water?” I asked.

“I’m good.”

I walked back to the kitchen on still slightly wobbly legs. As I went, I passed a letter on the counter and paused. Shining’s latest letter. Normally I opened these as soon as I got them, but this time I’d hesitated. Unlike each letter previous, which had come in a plain white envelope, this one was marked by a lipsticked kiss that could only have come from Shimmer.

To heck with it. I’d just gotten off; I was never going to get any braver. I opened it.

After washing my hands. And getting a glass of water. Hydration is important.

Despite my preparation, my hands shook as I opened the letter. I sat down and steadied myself as I started to read. It was, as usual, depressingly to the point:

Hi Twiley.

Things have gotten wild since my last letter. The changeling princess Shimmer and I were tracking finally made her move. I can’t name names, but she turned out to be someone high on the food chain in the manufacturing business. Maybe you caught her disappearance on the news, if it hasn’t been covered up. We’re so close to Chrysalis now, I can feel it.

Shimmer is the same as ever. Maybe more energetic than usual. We took a celebratory trip out of town this week, just her and me. We saw the Crimson Wake together and for the first time in a while we had a chance to relax. She’s a completely different person when she’s not on edge; I hope you have a chance to see that side of her someday.

Twiley, don’t freak out, but when this is all over, I’m seriously thinking about asking her to

I slapped the page down on the table, white-knuckled. Flash eyed me as I stormed back into my room and started picking up my clothes. “You okay?” he asked.

“I’m getting some air,” I answered between clenched teeth, dressing myself.

“Anything I can do?” he asked, but I was already out the door.

The evening air diffused some of my anger, but I had an unlimited supply. Just thinking about Shimmer burned me up inside, in much the same way thinking of Sunset used to. Her cruel laughter echoed endlessly in my ears.

Maybe it was a code. She was clearly reading Shining’s mail. Maybe this was his way of saying that he was breaking up with her. Maybe he’d finally had enough and this was his only way of telling me, by suggesting something that we both knew could never really happen. Or maybe, just maybe, by this time next year I would have a new evil sister-in-law. I clenched my fists and kept walking.

Maybe it was destiny that in my angered state, my feet led me back to where it all began.

The grass in front of Canterlot High had never fully recovered from what Shimmer had done. The places where she’d walked in her fiery form had been re-seeded and were beginning to bloom with new life, but the poisoned ground near where the Portal had been would probably remain barren until the end of time. As I rounded the statue I was at once startled yet unsurprised to see Sunset curled up against the cracked stone, her head in her arms. “Hey,” I said, almost on automatic.

Her head snapped up and she flinched. “Hey,” she said softly.

We froze there for a moment. I broke the stalemate by sitting down beside her. “Did you hear?” she asked, a tremor in her voice.

I took a stab. “Shining and Shimmer?”

She nodded miserably. “Shimmer texted me. It’s all my fault...” Her head sunk back down into her arms. “If I hadn’t... they’d never be together. Shining Armour would be with Cadance and Shimmer would be alone. Because of me, he’s... I never meant for this.”

“Of course not,” I said coldly. “You only meant to ruin my life.”

She winced. “But... well, look on the bright side?” she offered. “At a wedding, Shimmer would have to be nice to people in public. She’d have to meet your family. There’d be no better time for Shining to see that she’s... well...”

“Sunset?”

“Yes?”

“Shut up.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I seethed. “Twilight?” Sunset eventually asked.

“What?”

“Are we... You and I, are we... okay?”

There was no sense in lying. We’d be gone from each other’s lives soon anyway. “I hate you,” I answered without hesitation.

She winced. I sighed. “But yeah,” I added. “We’re okay.”

Sunset nodded. Hesitantly, no doubt terrified that I would push her away, she closed her eyes and snuggled up against my side. All I did was sigh again and put an arm around her.

Maybe this wasn’t the outcome we’d hoped for. Maybe we’d all made too many mistakes for there to ever be a good outcome. Yet here I was, sitting side by side with my worst enemy, grieving those mistakes together. Maybe friendship couldn’t fix everything. But it helped. And there and then, having someone by my side, even Sunset Shimmer, made it possible to believe Princess Twilight’s promise that despite everything we’d been through, everything was going to be okay.