A whistle resonated through air, the train’s loud, high pitch sound filled the air around it. It came barreling down the railroad until a screech of its brakes echoed as the new noise from the locomotive. The train slowed while it pulled up to a train station. Steam shot out from the wheels as it finally came to a stop. The ponies out on the station waited for a moment until the doors opened.

Twilight rushed out one of the doors at a quick trot, frowning as she quickly scanned the platform. ‘No, no, no, no. She’s not here.’ She gulped and wiped her brow with a hoof. But her frown did not perish with an added sigh. ‘Then where could she be?’ The only other place Twilight could think of was her boutique, although if she wasn’t there then this would have been all for nothing. ‘I have to fix this… I need to make things right.’

She trotted off the platform and into the town, the small village known as Ponyville. Twilight looked around the area and scanned each building. This place was rather comforting for being so small, she thought. As she would know, being raised in a city as large as Canterlot had helped her get used to being around in large crowds. But in such a dispersed place as this, she felt a little relief that there wouldn’t be crowds upon crowds of ponies she had to go through.

But Twilight’s frown only deepened; second by second, her panic grew. Even with this added bonus of only a few ponies, she could only speculate where Rarity might be in this town. She had only come here a few times, and even then it wasn’t enough to get acquainted with the local area. While she trotted, Twilight breathed in and out. ‘Everything is going to be alright. Just breathe and don’t panic.’ Yet the thought of losing her chance to save what Rarity had desired would be almost impossible to get over if she wasn’t able to locate her friend.

Moments went by, and Twilight quickly brought her gaze from one side of the town to the other, looking down some of the alleyways and even down the streets right next to many of the buildings here. She walked around a corner of a street until a faint smile broke that wall of a frown. There stood Rarity’s boutique, where her friend was hiding. She went to trot forward but stopped immediately and lurched forward until she stood up straight.

‘Hold on there, Twilight. We need to come up with a plan.’ This could not be rushed, for an apology like this needed a very thought-out plan. ‘I can’t just give her a straightforward apology… not after what happened between us the last time.’ The frown returned and marked over her smile, and she cursed herself quietly for what she had done. It was not going to be just a simple few words and their relationship would be fine. If anything, this was in need of dire thought so she could figure out what the right words would need to be.

But the thought of approaching Rarity after what she had done had Twilight gulp down a small bit of bile in the back of her throat. Twilight breathed in and then out once more. “Well… here I go.” She took one step at a time and slowly walked over to the boutique’s front entrance. Another sigh escaped her lips. Twilight closed her eyes and stood still. ‘Please… please, goddess, let me make this right.’ She reopened her eyes, brought a hoof up to the door bell, and pushed against the button.

She returned her hoof to the ground and waited. She gulped again; fearful thoughts floated in the back of her mind while her subconscious sifted through scenario after scenario. Each one deepened Twilight’s frown as each scene only depicted the worst happening to her or to Rarity. ‘Just calm down. Everything will be… or may be fine.’

The door opened up, and Twilight was brought back to reality. However, she expected to be eye to eye with the mare she had come here for. She looked down and instead was met with a small filly. She forced a smile and said, “Hello there, Sweetie Belle.” She only received a stare from the younger pony in front of her. A chuckle then followed before Twilight continued. “Is Rarity home?”

“Yeah… she’s home.” Sweetie murmured and tilted her head. “Although she’s been in her room for two days now and barely comes out unless she needs to eat or do other things.”

“Two days, huh…” It was worse than Twilight thought. ‘Rarity… oh, this is just horrible.’ The stomach churning regret she had already felt increased to guilt. “Does anypony else know about this?”

Sweetie shook her head. “Nope. She told me to not tell anypony else about this.” She raised an eyebrow afterwards. “And… for some odd reason, she told me to make sure that nopony came in… and especially you, even though she didn’t explain why.”

“Oh… I see.” Twilight looked away and closed her eyes. ‘She won’t let me in? I’ve really screwed up… but she needs help.’ She opened her eyes and returned her attention to Sweetie Belle. “Is it alright if I can come in? I need to speak to her… and help her if I can.”

The filly looked away from Twilight. “I… I don’t know. She really sounded like she didn’t want to see you.”

“Please? This is important. I need to fix something between us. I have to… before it’s too late.” The frown on her lips quivered a little as she pleaded to the filly in front of her.

“What do you need to fix?” Sweetie Belle asked, tilting her head again.

Twilight reared back a little. ‘Right… Rarity possibly didn’t tell her.’ After all, Sweetie Belle was still so young and innocent in this minor crisis. “Well… you know that feeling when you might have said something to hurt another pony’s feelings?”

“Um… sort’ve. Why is that though?”

“Well… I might have said something to Rarity that I never meant. In fact, I should have been happy she asked… but I was scared and nervous about this transition. So I came here to apologize and hopefully mend our friendship… even if it means something more.” Twilight muttered the last bit of the sentence, her eyes slightly closing.

“Something more?” Sweetie asked, a frown now visible on her muzzle.

Twilight snapped out of her haze and forced a giggle. “Don’t worry about it. It’s something a little… personal. So can you please let me in?”

Sweetie glanced back to the stairway before she returned her attention to Twilight. “Well… okay, I guess.”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “Thank you so much, Sweetie Belle. You have no idea how much this means to me.” She walked past her and approached the stairway. Twilight took one step up, but stopped as she glanced back to Sweetie Belle. Given the circumstances of what mood Rarity could be in, she figured that her friend could possibly get a little loud. “Sweetie Belle? I need to ask you a favor.”

“Alright. What is it?”

“Well… whatever you might hear, please promise me that you won’t come up to your sister’s room. It might get a little… vocal.” Twilight admitted, frowning. ‘If I’m guessing how Rarity feels about me… it may get more than a little vocal.’

“Uh… why is that?” Sweetie gave a faint frown.

“It’s as I said before… we need to mend something together. So please… just stay down here, and whatever happens… just let the adults handle this situation.” Twilight returned her gaze to the stairs and slowly walked up the staircase before she reached the second floor. It was only a moment until she reached the hallway to Rarity’s room, the place where her friend would have been hiding. This was it, the moment that Twilight dreaded herself.

As she stared, the hallway suddenly became longer and longer; the door stretched farther away from where she stood. ‘Focus Twilight. Just remain calm…’ But it barely helped the fact that she was now just moments away from either repairing the lost friendship or worsening the divide between it. She glanced down the stairway and thought for a moment. ‘I… have the moment to turn back now. But that won’t help anything at all. I’ve come so far… I can’t run away when I’m this close.’

But was it worth the pain? The heartache that might come from this conversation? Truly this situation was slowly becoming, and may have already been, a double-edged sword. ‘If I don’t succeed… then this ruins our friendship entirely…’ The thought of that happening only hurt her heart even more. It would have been terrible if she had come so far with this type of relationship, only for it to fall flat at the loss of a single friend. ‘Yet if I do come through… and Rarity and I can repair this wound, then we’ll be friends again… yet maybe more in the end of this as well.’ The prospect of a relationship still terrified her, but Twilight knew that this would have to be the outcome, if she could assure that this friendship would survive.

Twilight slowly breathed in and out. The trick wasn’t doing her much help, but she would take all she could get for now. “Well… here goes nothing.” Twilight stepped forward and slowly approached the door that separated her from Rarity. Her thoughts spun through her head, each one jumbled and unreadable with each step to the point where she could barely focus on what was around her. The door was the only thing she saw as the surrounding area blurred in her sight.

One final step brought her a foot away from the door. The distance between both Twilight and Rarity’s entrance was gone. She brought a shaky hoof to the door, and gently tapped on it twice. An uneasy silence then replaced the knocking on wood, Twilight shivered slightly in place, she gazed at the door and darted her attention all over the white wooden door. ‘J-just calm down. J-just calm down…’ She repeated to herself over and over, but even with the slight reassurance, the thought of seeing Rarity frightened her to the core.

She froze as the sound of hoofsteps slowly made their way to the door. Ears splayed back, she bit her lip and forced herself to stand her ground. The knob jiggled slightly, rotating as the pony on the other side turned the metallic knob to the right. The door opened a little ways. A muzzle appeared first, and then two eyes unveiled from the darkness, two bright blue eyes. They met her own strong purple eyes, and the two ponies stayed like that for what Twilight felt was the longest time.

Twilight blinked once and breathed out. “H-hey Rarity…” Her friend just stared, her eyes never moving away from her own. She forced a quiet chuckle and continued, “C-can we… you know, talk?”

Rarity blinked her eyes once. The door quickly closed shut; Twilight flinched at the noise. She frowned when she heard her friend’s voice, weak and dejected. “Go away, Twilight!”

“B-but, Rarity… I--”

“You do not belong here! Nopony else except my sister belongs in my establishment!” Rarity yelled from behind the door.

Twilight took a step back. She frowned and glanced down the hallway. ‘She’s given me a chance to leave… but do I really want to leave her in such a depressed state?’ She shook her head and returned her gaze to the door. ‘No. I’m going to fight for this.’ Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated on the area behind the door. She disappeared in a flash of magenta light and reappeared on the other side.

Her friend let out a yelp of surprise and backed up to the windows. Rarity glanced behind her and looked out the glass frames until she returned her gaze to Twilight. It seemed, as Twilight noticed, that she looked prepared to jump out of her own house. But her friend stayed where she was, except her frightened gaze lowered and was replaced with a glare. She turned around and faced her back to Twilight. “I told you to leave me be, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Rarity, just please let me--”

“No! I’ve already had my heart ripped out!” Rarity twirled around and faced Twilight with that same glare from before. “I do not plan to have you drive that final stake into it!”

“Please just listen to me.” Her eyes glimmered as she held the hidden tears back. “I’m sorry… I-I never meant what I said last time. I really didn’t…”

“Oh really?” Rarity’s harsh gaze lessened, but that hostility remained in her tone. “As I recall, you came to the Prancing Pony and declared that you did not share the same feelings. Not only did you bash any inkling I had for you, but to add to that, you decided to throw salt into my already-wounded heart, by declaring that you never wanted to see me ever again!”

“I know! I and I’m sorry. I never meant to say it in that kind of context. Please, I know it’s hard for you to see me at the moment, but--”

“Hard to see you?” Rarity let out a small chuckle. “Hard to see you? Really? I wonder what the possible reason behind that is! Oh wait, it’s because you shattered my heart, Twilight Sparkle! You literally took all those feelings I had and hammered them into the ground. It’s like you didn’t even care if the glass that was my heart shattered against me to create even more wounds! How dare you try and act like it never happened! How da--”

“Please, enough!” Twilight yelled back. She lowered her head, her mane hiding away her eyes. “Please… no more yelling…” Tears finally trickled down her muzzle, and she whimpered quietly. She slowly raised her head back up to meet Rarity’s gaze and witnessed the hostility slowly but surely fade away from her friend. “I know… I know… I really screwed up. But I never meant to… I didn’t want to hurt you…”

“But you did. You didn’t ca--”

“Rarity, I do care. Just listen.” Twilight blinked her eyes as fresh tears poured down her muzzle. “A-after what happened… a-after what I did… I couldn’t take it. I realized what I did was wrong. I-I never meant to break your heart. But I was so scared… s-so scared that even if I did accept your feelings, that it would never work. That you and I… w-would never be able to coexist in a relationship further than friendship.”

“B-but why didn’t you trust me? I thought that after all we have been through, that you wouldn’t be so afraid of furthering our relationship.” Rarity asked. Her eyes slightly lowered as some of the hostility returned.

“Because I panicked. I assumed the worst and was frightened, so I thought pushing you away was the best. B-but I was wrong.” Twilight’s frowned. “I was terrified that I would somehow break your heart during our relationship. But now… I-I realize that my paranoia got the better of me… I was just so scared. Scared of the commitment because this was my first chance at a relationship with a mare, so I just didn’t want to screw it up. But when I found out that it was you… I just became so worried that we’d never return to being friends if we broke apart…”

“So this… was all out of fear?” The tone Twilight heard was no longer filled with anger. Only a questioning voice that desired an answer.

“Y-yes… I’m sorry… I truly am.” Twilight turned her attention to the ground again. She thought for a moment and tried to speak, but the voice she heard was weak and cracked with emotion. “I-I know h-how much it hurt… b-because I hurt myself after I r-rejected your feelings. I-it hurt… to t-turn away the one pony I could have had a chance with. I felt alone… s-so alone… and Spike--”

“What about Spike?” Rarity’s eyes widened slightly at the name of her favorite dragon. “What’s wrong?”

“I yelled at him.” Twilight confessed. “I yelled at him when he accused me of stealing your heart. He heard what you told me… when you revealed your love for me. I said something so horrible to him… I-I thought I’d never be able to forgive myself.”

“Twilight… I-I--”

“But I was able to save our relationship.” Twilight murmured. She smiled. “I went home and talked with him… and repaired the bond between us. And when I did that… I came looking for you to do the same.” Twilight forced her gaze to meet Rarity’s. “And maybe… even try what you wanted between us: a relationship other than friendship.” Rarity’s mouth opened slightly, and her eyes flickered at the words that Twilight said.

Yet Twilight could not bring her gaze back to Rarity. She closed her eyes and murmured, “I… I-I know you will need some time to forgive me… and I don’t blame you for that… for what I did. I-I just want to repair what I did, the mistake that I made. I was wrong… and you were right. So please… plea--” Twilight felt something push against her, lurching back a little at the sudden pressure against her chest. She opened her eyes, her mouth slightly hung agape. Rarity had her forelegs wrapped around her neck, her body pressed against Twilight’s as she hugged her.

It was so sudden, yet Twilight hiccuped before she quietly cried and embraced Rarity as well. She could hear Rarity doing the same as both mares shed their tears. She pressed her muzzle into Rarity’s shoulder, resting the left side of her head as she let her own emotions out in her soft sobs. “Yes…” Rarity whispered. She pulled away but held onto Twilight’s shoulders. “Yes… I want this, Twilight. I want to be with you…”

‘Could this really be happening?’ Twilight thought. She faintly smiled and sniffled. “T-thank you, Rarity… and I’m sorry… for what happened.” She brought a hoof to her eyes wiped the tears away.

“Don’t thank me, Twilight. If it wasn’t for you… I would have been stuck in that depressed state… s-so I should be thanking you instead.” Rarity did the same and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “And I should have realized that trying to introduce this idea so soon could have led to… well, this.”

“B-but I--”

Rarity hushed Twilight and brought a hoof to her muzzle, wiping some of the tears that trickled down her muzzle. “No more accusations towards yourself. Okay? We’re both to blame for this… so don’t hurt yourself even more.”

“O-okay… okay…” Twilight let a gentle smile replace her frown, the same happened for Rarity. ‘This is wonderful… absolutely wonderful.’ Yet Twilight felt that the apology wasn’t finished. She had to do something, although the ideas she thought of were scrambled at the moment. But there was one thing she had in mind, a thought of repairing the damage from two days ago. “So… do you think we could try this again? Y-you know… try the date that didn’t happen on Tuesday?”

Rarity gently nodded. “Of course… but I’ll have to see if there’s a table open at the Prancing Pony. We ca--”

“Wait.” Twilight halted Rarity before she continued. “It shouldn’t be someplace fancy. I think there’s a restaurant somewhere close by. It may not be as fancy as you’d like, but it has a good reputation for being one of best places in Canterlot.”

“Oh… but Twilight I--”

“I want to make this right, Rarity. And you’ve already had to deal with enough stress. Let me pick where we go, please?” Twilight asked, pulling away from Rarity and placing her forelegs back on the ground.

Rarity turned her attention to the ground, biting her lip for a moment until she nodded. “Alright, Twilight. I’ll let you choose where we go.”

Twilight’s smile brightened even more, and she hugged Rarity once more. “Thanks… thank you so much for forgiving me…”

“Well… forgiven is slightly there, Twilight.” Rarity admitted with a faint frown, but her smile returned before she continued, “But for the most part… yes, I have.” She pulled away from Twilight and murmured. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need prepare myself for tonight. After all, you promised me a second date.”

“Alright. I’ll meet you in Canterlot then.” Twilight quickly trotted out her friend’s door and passed by Sweetie Belle, who raised an eyebrow as she passed by.

“I can take it that it went well?” Sweetie Belle asked, walking over to the top of the stairway that Twilight was heading down.

She turned around and smiled. “Yes. Yes it did.” Twilight hastily began her trot once more and exited Rarity’s boutique. As she trotted out the building, Twilight slowly began to hop. Her voice began at a murmur before growing in noise. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” And she continued to chant this as she hopped along, signifying a night that she felt would be one of the best in her life.

Author's Note

Thank you everyone for sticking with this story. Now as always, if there are any grammatical or punctual errors, just let me know in the comments. But other than that, I hope you enjoy this chapter.