Twilight and I sat across the table from each other. Two sheets of paper lay between us, both bearing the letterhead of Canterlot High School. They were our preliminary schedules for our final semester as seniors at the school that had been home for the last six years.

“I can't believe this!” Twilight said. “How can I take Chem three when it’s the same time as Applied Sciences?” She ran her hand through her bangs as she looked at the sheet in front of her.

“You could choose between them,” I said, scanning my schedule. As it was the last semester I’d take at CHS, I had tried for a balance between classes I needed and classes I wanted. I had been interested in the creative writing class they had that also gave college credit. I always thought that if you could get ahead, you should. “It’s not like you’d have no chance to take a similar one your freshman year at the university.”

“But I want to have both,” she said. “There are some interesting theories I could test having both of those classes, and I don’t exactly own some of tools I’ll need to do it.”

I eyed her carefully. “You’re not trying to build another device to analyze magic are you?”

She shifted uncomfortably. “No,” she said, unconvincingly.

“Twilight,” I said. “We’ve talked about this before. More than once.”

“I know!” she said, throwing her hands up as she got out of her chair and paced my living room. “I know, and every time we do we tend to wind up upset at each other and I don’t want to do that tonight.” She crossed her arms and turned away, a look of annoyance on her face.

“Maybe if you’d listen to me about it instead of just getting miffed, we could get some sort of compromise,” I said, irritated at her flippant way of trying to ignore the subject. “Instead of going off half-cocked with a device that you’re not sure functions properly behind my back.”

“I don't do anything half-cocked,” she fumed, spinning back to me, a hurt look on her features. “I consider every variable and factor it into my hypothesis. Why would you say such a thing?”

I stood up myself. “I suppose everything that happened at the Friendship Games was factored into your ‘hypothesis’, then? Stealing magic, opening random rifts between worlds, almost hurting your friends,” I narrowed my eyes. “Turning into a power drunk demon?”

She winced, and I instantly regretting the barb, but I didn’t back down. I thought she needed to admit that she didn’t always think things through, and that was the biggest flaw in the girl I loved.

“Don't like admitting that, do you?” I continued. “That something completely beyond your understanding could exist, something you can’t quantify, examine, or file.” I advanced on her. “Something that doesn’t fit into the narrow little boxes you wanted everything to fit into when you were just a closeted bookworm.”

She whirled, face red. “You have room to talk,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “You managed to terrorize the entire school during practically your entire time here. What was it they called you again? Sunset the Bitch Queen?”

“I’m a different person now, and you know that,” I said, feeling the flush of anger on my face. “I try to not make the same mistakes I made in the past, but you seem determined to repeat some of yours.” I locked eyes with her. “Do I need to recite the entire litany to you again, Twilight? Or do you think that bookish brain of yours is working fine enough for you to recall them yourself?”

I never saw her hand as she swung and connected with my cheek. I held my hand there in shock as she grabbed her purse and coat, storming out, tears in her eyes.

I stood there, looking at the door as it slammed shut behind her.

And immediately I realized that I had slipped back into the bully mindset I had two years ago, and I had used my familiarity with Twilight to push her buttons. I hated that it was still a part of me, that ability to reading people in order to humiliate them. I felt tears on my face.

I wiped them away angrily. I had every reason to be upset with her doing something so short sighted. The last time it had happened she had nearly destroyed the barrier between worlds. It was better this way. Surely she would come to understand that this would be better.

Surely…

Still, though, I was suprised at the slap. It wasn’t like we’d never fought before, but it's never risen to the point of being struck.

“What have I done?”

I had a hard time sleeping that night, that little voice in my head taunting me the moment I shut off the light. I gave up on sleep and stared at the ceiling, trying to fight the urge to call Twilight again to apologize. They all went straight to voicemail anyway. All day long the next day the memories of what had been said had played in my head. My anger had cooled and I realized that I had been overly harsh, and more than once I had found rebellious tears leak from my eyes. I was about to pull the blankets over my head and hide from the world when there was a knocking on the door.

I got up and padded over, opening it to find Pinkie standing there, a very annoyed look on her face.

“What did you do?” she asked, poking me in the chest, barreling into my apartment.

“What do you mean?” I was thrown off by her angry posture.

“Twilight came by Sugarcube Corner earlier today and I could tell she had been crying, and when I tried to talk to her, she was a grouchy touchy Twily. Apparently, some meanie pants had yelled at her.”

“I wasn’t trying to be mean,” I said, looking down. “But she’s wanting to do something that she shouldn’t do and she knows it. Last time she messed with things she tried to rip her way into Equestria,”

“And that's how she became one of our friends!” she shouted back at me. “So what if she made a mistake? She’s only human!”

That stung, in more ways than one. That fact seemed to register to Pinkie only a moment later, for her eyes flew wide when she saw me wince and remembered I wasn’t originally human.

“Oh no! Now I’m being a meanie,” she said, dropping onto my couch.

I sat on my bed, sighing. “It’s not easy to control your mind or your mouth when you’re upset.” I sighed. “I really made a mess of things, didn’t I?”

Pinkie smiled, back to her old self in an instant. I envied the way nothing ever bothered her for long.

“Just apologize, silly,” she said. “Your knowing Twily is what upset her, so use it to apologize.”

“Good idea, Pinkie,” I said. “I just wish I could figure out how.”

She grinned.

“I have an idea,” she said with a chuckle.

I found Twilight sitting on the bench closest to the Wondercolt statue, it’s repaired stallion portion noticeably brighter than the pedestal that housed the portal to Equestria. The bench that was closest to where we had first met, to where I had extended my hand to her, to where she had first put her foot down in opposition to me.

The place where most of our biggest relationship moments had began.

I went and sat beside her, ignoring the upset look she gave me as I held out a small bowl from one of the local shops.

“Ice cream?” I said sheepishly. “I hear it helps.”

“What do you want?” she said bitterly, not looking at my offering, turning to face away again.

“Happiness, forgiveness, a solid return on my investments, and to not have this chocolate black cherry double scoop melt without being enjoyed,” I said. “And to try to apologize.”

“Chocolate black cherry?” she asked, her tone becoming more uncertain.

“With sprinkles,” I added.

Taking the small bowl from me, she gave me a small smile. “I can give you five minutes, I suppose,” she said with a teasing voice.

“About the other night,” I said. “ I wanted to apologize. I said some things that I probably shouldn't have. I know how important your curiosity is to you and I love that you constantly want to enrich yourself, but I also think that some things are better off not messed with.” I glanced down at my hands. “But maybe I shouldn’t have been so short when I said as much.”

She gave me a flat look.

“What I mean is,” I continued hurriedly. “Look at what happened the last time. You almost destroyed two worlds in your quest for knowledge.”

I looked into her eyes, letting the true worries inside show through both on my face and through our bond. “What if this time, I couldn’t bring you back? Or if there was nothing to bring back at all?” I fought back the tears I felt. “I don’t think I could bear it if I were to lose you.”

She looked at me, her expression softening. “I know that,” she said, reaching out and cupping my face. “But you can’t stop me from wanting to figure it out. After all, didn’t you mention talking to the Princess next time we visited about some of the differences in magic?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want you working on it without help,” I put my hand on her knee. “But since I can’t stop you, I want you to promise that if anything unexpected happens, you stop until we can figure out what it is. Deal?”

“Deal,” she said, taking another bite of the ice cream. “One thing I don’t know thought,” she murmured.

“Yeah?”

She hefted the ice cream bowl. “How did you know this was my favorite flavor?”

“I’ve been to your house, Twi,” I said. “I’ve seen your freezer.”

“There’s also chocolate and butter pecan in there,” she said.

“I guessed,” I admitted.

She held out a spoonful of ice cream to me, a smile on her face. I took the proffered reward and enjoyed the smooth taste.

“I’m still a little annoyed at you, you know,” she said. “But I think I’ll survive.”

I sat back, looking at the statue. “It’s been a wild ride, hasn't it?”

“Hmm?”

“Our relationship,” I said. “It seems like it’s been either been spent fighting someone twisted slightly by exposure to Equestrian magic or our crazy families.”

“Or friends,” she said.

“Pretty much the same thing, it seems,” I said. “They’ve become just like family.”

She put an arm through mine. “It will be an interesting story to tell if we have kids one day,” she said.

“Yeah, it will be,” I agreed.

“Maybe we should write it all down, so we can remember it,” she said. “To tell them all about the wooing of Sunset Shimmer."

“I thought I was wooing you,” I said with a smile.

“Well, then, if you write it down, you can call it whatever you want to,” she said sticking her tongue out at me.

I laughed and kissed her. “Come on,” I said. “If I recall correctly, aren’t we supposed to sit down with Cadence and help her pick out bridesmaid designs today?”

She nodded, taking the last bite of the ice cream and tossing the bowl into the trash bin. We got up and left to go help a good friend make some choices.

Author's Note

I decided to end the story here, as the upcoming tales should be told on their own, not as a part of a larger story, limited to a chapter or two. So Cadence's wedding, the summer break, and Dew's wedding will get short multi-chapter stories for them directly.