Super Awkward

Chapters

1 - Before
2 - During
3 - After

1 - Before

"Stupid mayor! Stupid city!" As much as Sunset didn't want the words to come out, they'd been running around in her head so much, she couldn't keep them from escaping. "Stupid saving the whole stupid world!" She smacked an open hand against the chair's armrest.

"Sunset..." Doc's gaze didn't stray from his book, but what Sunset saw through the window beside him tightened her stomach enough all on its own: slightly scruffy suburban backyards under the afternoon sun, the train slowing now that they were on the outskirts of Canterlot City.

"Well?" Sunset decided she liked the sound of smacking the armrest, so she did it again. "It's been five years! Why does the mayor want to give us the key to the city now?"

Without a sigh, Doc folded his book closed and looked over at her, his blue eyes as calm and gentle as the whole expanse of the sky. "Because the seven of you saved the world from that vile Grogar character," he said in the lilting accent that always made Sunset's heart do a little dance. "And some of us believe that to be a feat worth remembering."

Swallowing, she reached over and touched his face, her heart dancing even more when her powers didn't so much as twitch. Four-and-a-half years of marriage, after all: she knew every inch of him inside and out by now. "Y'know," she said, the last of her sour mood evaporating, "I'm starting to think I might be in love you."

"What a coincidence," he murmured, his hand coming up to slowly stroke the back of hers. "I've been thinking similar thoughts about you lately."

So the last twenty minutes of their three-and-a-half-hour ride, she had to admit, went pretty well, just letting herself lean against him and rest. As soon as the train pulled into the station, though, the scrum of obvious reporters, photographers, and camerapeople crowding the platform made her feel like she'd swallowed at least one bowling ball.

"I can't do it, Doc." Hating the whimper in her voice, she still didn't do anything to disguise it. "Not right off the train. Later, sure, with the mayor at an official press conference or whatever, but right now..." She turned toward him and let her eyes waver.

Doc's mouth went sideways. "Just this once," he said.

She grabbed his hand, kissed it, and let her powers flow out in ways she'd agreed she only ever would if he gave his permission. They'd increased, her powers had, in the years since she'd first laid hands on her geode, that little chunk of her former homeland. The stone itself had melted into Sunset's skin five years ago during the climactic battle as she'd struggled to wrap Grogar in nightmare visions of his past while the others, having absorbed their own shattered stones, took advantage of the distraction to—

Shaking her head to dispel the memories, she spread her power away from her like a mist till she could feel each individual mind on the train, on the platform, in the station, on the street surrounding the station. And gently, gently, ever so gently, she flipped several switches in every one of those minds except Doc's. Whoever looked at him now would see an older, heavyset gentleman with a goatee and glasses, and whoever looked at her would see nothing at all.

It took some effort to smile, but she did. He didn't exactly smile back, but he wasn't frowning, either, something she decided to take as a good sign. Standing, she reached his bag down from the rack above the seats, handed it to him, got her own, and gestured for him to precede her. He would have to go in front since people could actually register his presence.

He nodded—it wasn't like this was the first time they'd done this—squeezed past her, and started down the center aisle of the train carriage, Sunset falling in behind. None of their fellow passengers noticed anything odd as far as she could tell, nor did the conductors who smiled and thanked Doc for riding. Treading carefully down the steps, she located crews from all six of the city's TV stations, and it seemed just about everyone had a cell phone out and pointed at one of the train's exits.

Cell phones were easy, though, as easy as regular cameras and the human brain. Too easy, in fact: the slightest little massage tricked all the eyes and lenses currently turned toward her into seeing exactly what she wanted them to see. Which was why she and Doc lived out in the Alleghaynees. Someone like him who could fix anything mechanical could make a good living in a rural community. And the fewer people around to tempt her, the better Sunset liked it.

Doc pushed through the crowds into the station, and the folks wearing the dark suits and forced smiles of an official welcoming committee made Sunset's stomach clench like another bowling ball had slid down her throat. Touching his shoulder, she sent her words directly to his auditory nerves: Let's get a cab to city hall. I really don't wanna uncloak here.

Another nod was his only reply, and the crush thinned substantially with each step, the multitudes still waiting for her to exit the train. Down a ramp, out a door, and they were stepping onto the streets of Canterlot City. Despite everything churning inside her, Sunset puffed a little sigh, started to follow Doc toward the taxi stand—

"Good afternoon, Dr. Turner!" The voice, as clear and sharp as an icicle, stabbed straight through Sunset's ears and rammed into place behind her forehead like she'd chugged down multiple milkshakes. "How lovely to see you again!"

Not wanting to turn, Sunset still did, Rarity standing on the sidewalk like a sculpture of some ancient goddess. Five years had seen her grow taller, sleeker, her dress knee-length, white and form-fitting, the glasses perched on her pert little nose shining with the power of her shields. "And you as well, I suppose, Sunset," she said.

Sunset swallowed. She could feel every single mind within a two-block radius—even Doc's though she wasn't manipulating his at all. But the figure in front of her didn't cause the slightest blip.

Apparently Rarity's powers had increased over the past half-decade as well...

If she'd been there alone, Sunset was sure she would've just kept returning the glare of her former friend and teammate, but fortunately, she wasn't alone.

"Ms. Rarity." Again, all Doc had to do was speak, and the knots in Sunset's middle started loosening. "From what I've read, you've done exceedingly well for yourself and the city over the years."

Something that might have been a smile twitched Rarity's lips, and Sunset had to stop herself from taking a step forward to get a better look. It was as if everything about Rarity had become as hard and angular as the force shields she projected: was her porcelain skin now literally porcelain? "You are, as always, too kind, Doctor," Rarity was saying, and when she waved a hand down the road in the opposite direction from the taxi stand, Sunset was almost certain she could hear those fingers click. "But as we're all going to the same place..."

The town car Rarity led them to practically sprawled across the road, Sunset sure she could fit five or six copies of her motorcycle inside the thing. Still, she found herself huddling close to Doc in the back seat, Rarity somehow maneuvering the behemoth through the always-nightmarish traffic of downtown while continuing to be invisible to Sunset's mental senses. Disconcerting, sure—she could see Rarity, but she couldn't see her—but it was also kind of soothing. Sunset was so used to the mental effort of leaning into the buffeting breezes of other people's thoughts, a little spot of calm made for an oddly welcome change.

Doc and Rarity were exchanging pleasantries about the train ride and the local weather, but Sunset wasn't really paying attention, concentrating her senses and probing around for any trace of Rarity's mind. A sudden little poke in the middle of her forehead, though, made her start back, Rarity clearing her throat loudly at exactly that moment. "Really, darling," Rarity said, her voice even colder and drier than before, "it's quite the challenge navigating these roads without you figuratively licking me up and down that way."

Unable to stop a gasp, Sunset leaned forward. "You can feel me? 'Cause I can't feel you at all!" And she had to know. "Can you block anyone else this way? Maybe develop it as an area effect! Or could you stand next to me and keep me from reaching anyone? Maybe make me a pair of glasses like you have in order to inhibit my—"

"What?" Rarity craned herself halfway around in the driver's seat. "Are you serious? After everything—!"

"Truck!" Doc called with as much urgency as Sunset thought she'd ever heard from him.

Snapping her attention away from Rarity, Sunset stared out the movie-theater-screen-sized windshield to see that the mishmash of cars had parted somehow, the stainless steel grill of a gigantic moving van barreling through the gap directly toward them.

Air horns roared, the hair on the back of Sunset's neck standing up, and the whole car shifted sideways without Rarity actually turning the wheel as far as Sunset could tell. Of course everything was a blaring, blasted blur, her stomach stretching as the world spun around her, but two things blossomed as clear as the tone of a crystal bell in her head: first, that she wasn't hearing the crashing, tearing crush of metal she would've expected had the truck run into them; and second, that a presence had just popped over her mental senses, a presence she hadn't felt in—

"Dag nabbit, Rarity!" a familiar voice thundered through the honking and the shouting and the tires squealing. The windows showed nothing but brick walls—were they in an alley?—then the car stopped so suddenly, Sunset sloshed sideways into Doc, still in place because, as always, he was wearing his seat belt. Her midsection stretched again to the sensation of the car dropping, settling with a jolt, and becoming still.

A large shadowy figure rose up beside the car, squatted down, and became Applejack scowling in through the front driver's side window. "I got better things to do with my life than hauling you outta traffic jams all the live-long day!"

Sunset stared. Applejack's face and hat seemed to fill the whole window, and the shoulders below that face spread out and out and out under her brown duster coat before becoming upper arms that couldn't have been thicker than Sunset's waist no matter what her first impressions were insisting.

Everything about Rarity had suddenly become a good deal warmer. "And yet? Here you are as always right when I need you." Her smile still focused on Applejack, Rarity flicked a finger at the front passenger door, a tiny shard of silver and white flashing out to flip the door lock upward. "Perhaps we can give you a lift?"

"You?" Applejack's nose wrinkled. "I oughtta just pick this whole darn vehicle up again and walk it over to the citations department at city hall!"

Rarity giggled. "And you used to complain about my public displays of affection when we were dating."

Applejack went redder than her older brother.

The lightness in her chest made Sunset smile, and she couldn't stop a giggle of her own. "It's okay, Applejack. Your secret's safe with us."

Both Applejack and Rarity stiffened, Applejack's head swiveling to point her scowl toward the back seat. "Secret's safe, huh? Well, reckon there's a first time for everything..."

Heat flooded Sunset's face.

"Still," Applejack went on, breaking the jagged silence, "Sunset, Doc. Been awhile, ain't it?" She straightened, and Sunset couldn't help gaping at the sheer size of the woman, tall and broad and making Rarity's land yacht look like a compact as she stumped around the front, pulled the side door open, and squeezed herself inside. "Last time I saw the two of you, don't recollect if I was quite this, uhh...."

"Voluminous, perhaps?" Rarity shifted the car into reverse. That the engine was still running surprised Sunset, and it surprised her even more when Rarity barely glanced over her shoulder before gunning that engine and shooting the car backward out of the alleyway and into another spatter of car horns.

Sunset still had a grip on Doc's seat belt, and she watched Applejack clamp one massive hand around the closest part of the dashboard, her other hand digging into the door's arm rest. "Consarn it, Rarity! Ain't you ever gonna learn to drive?"

Flicking the shift lever, Rarity stomped the accelerator and spun the wheel. "We're superheroes, are we not? We're expected to display a certain amount of thrill-seekery when we're together!"

"Reckon that's why we ain't together no more?"

"Ha!" Rarity looked over to jab a finger into Applejack's upper arm, and all Sunset could think of was a pin poking a cannon ball. "Just because some of you decided you couldn't handle the—!"

"Red light!" Doc shouted, the first words he'd said, Sunset was sure, since the last time he'd alerted them to onrushing doom.

Rarity made a loud and fairly rude noise with her lips, everything flashed silver and white, and the front end of the car rose up as if they were ascending a bridge. "Do you forget—" Tendons stood out like geode shards under her skin, drops of sweat audibly crackling as they rolled down her face. "—with whom—" Out the window past Doc, frozen beside her, Sunset could look down on traffic speeding back and forth below the shimmering shield they were driving across. "—you're dealing?"

Her ears popping, Sunset swallowed and tightened her grip on Doc, the car tipping forward, sliding down, and jouncing back onto a flat surface with an impact that shook Sunset's teeth.

"I am not," Rarity was continuing, her jaw clenched and her hands like claws clutching the steering wheel, "some dilettante unable to function in both the stress-filled worlds of high fashion and high adventure! I am the leader of the Canterlot City Sentinels! I own and operate six very exclusive and extremely successful boutiques! And I—!" A shudder rattled her whole body, and without another sound, she slumped sideways onto the floor between the driver's seat and the front passenger seat.

"What the hay!" Applejack shouted.

But Sunset was already scrambling forward. "You take Rarity! I'll take the wheel!" A three-dimensional tapestry spun into her head, the strands made up of what everyone around her was seeing right now. Sliding into the driver's seat, she plucked those strands like guitar strings, nudged a few slightly to the left, a few slightly to the right, made a few associated feet tap their accelerators and a few tap their brakes, and a sudden path opened to their right.

A wrench of the wheel brought Rarity's car smartly up the ramp of the city hall parking lot, and a stomp on the brake pedal squealed them to a halt in front of the guard shack, the car's front bumper, Sunset estimated, almost exactly a hair's breadth from the wooden arm blocking the way.

The guard was blinking over the top of her sunglasses. Without even having to think about it, Sunset flicked the button to slide the driver's side window down, flashed her biggest smile, and said, "Hi! I understand there's a reception here for us today?"

That got another blink. Then the guard reached sideways to poke a button, and the gate slowly swung up.

Sunset touched a salute to the side of her head, eased the car forward, and asked, "I don't suppose the leader of the city's superhero team has her own parking space or anything?"

"Take a left," Applejack rumbled. Chancing a glance, Sunset almost blushed again to see Rarity cradled against Applejack's chest, those big arms curled protectively around her, Rarity's eyes closed and her smile beatific. "If I'm remembering right," Applejack was going on, not looking up from Rarity's face, "they hadta take two spaces and repaint 'em to fit this boat."

"Well?" Rarity asked, cuddling closer to Applejack. "I needed a vehicle capable of carrying my most valued operative, didn't I?" Her eyes came open, and when she reached up to touch Applejack's face, Sunset focused her attention strictly front and center, finding the double-wide space ahead where two walls of the parking garage met.

The conversation went on in low tones beside her, though, whether she wanted to hear it or not.

"I don't work for you no more, Rares."

"That could easily be fixed."

"No, it couldn't, and you know it."

"I know nothing of the sort."

"This city just ain't big enough for me."

"But you're still the same wonderful, glorious size you were when you left three-and-a-half years ago!"

"Three years, seven months, and thirteen days."

"It's been three years, seven months, and fourteen days, I'll have you know, since I last touched you, darling. But what's important is that our changes have stabilized! Surely we could work out some way for you to—"

"Okay!" Sunset let the car settle into the space and made a show of shifting into 'park' before shutting down the engine. "We're now free to move about the cabin." She turned with her phoniest grin and held the keys out to the two people filling the seat beside her. "Unless we've got more embarrassing revelations we want to get out of the way before we head in to city hall?"

One of Applejack's eyebrows arched. "Revelations, y'say?" She reached out a hand that probably could've engulfed Sunset's whole head and snatched the keys. "You're our expert in them, all right."

"Hey!" Sunset poked Applejack's arm; it was like jabbing a marble pillar, and she made a mental note not to do it again. "There was no way we could've kept our identities secret after what—" All these years later, she still had to swallow and force herself to say the name out loud. "—what Grogar did to us! And what you were just saying about having to get out of this city?" She crooked a thumb at herself. "That was me when everything in my head blew up and I stopped being able to tell who was me and who was somebody else! If I hadn't declared who we were and who I was, I would've gotten lost in the mental slurry slopping between us! And if Doc hadn't gotten me out of town when he did—"

Saying his name stung her as sharply as a snapped rubber band; she cranked around in the seat, her heart racing, and couldn't stop a little squeak of joy at seeing him still in the back seat with his safety belt fastened, his hands folded in his lap. "I'm beginning to see," he said, the slightest smile pulling at his lips, "what attracted you to the heroic lifestyle."

"No," Sunset said. "No, no, and no." Fumbling for the door latch, she managed to pull it, flung the door open, practically leaped out of the car, scrambled across the concrete, and pressed her back against the cool, rough wall of the parking garage a couple yards away. "Okay, yes, we had some good times: I'll never deny that."

"Oh, yeah," someone rasped into her right ear. "You can say that again," the same voice said into her left ear.

Startled, she looked left, right, left, and saw no one there.

The snicker told her for sure who it was, but she still asked, "Dash?"

"Who else?" Figures flickered into existence on each side of her, and—

They were both Dash, both dressed in the skin-tight, dark-blue Sentinel suit that covered her from head to toe except for her face, and both sporting more lean, streamlined muscle and coiled-spring sinew than when Sunset had last seen her.

The one on the left leaned against the wall, yawned, and stretched while the one on the right folded her arms and smirked at Sunset. "When you're quick enough," the one on the right said, "turns out you can be nowhere and in two places at once."

A snort from Rarity's car, and Applejack rose from within, pretty much her whole torso visible above the roof, Rarity still draped decoratively across her forearms. "Still showing off, huh, RD?"

Both versions of Dash gaped, then they flowed together into one standing between Sunset and the car. "Whoa, AJ! And they say I work fast!"

The soft expression on Rarity's face became much harder when she turned from Applejack to Dash. "May I remind you, Rainbow, who signs your paycheck every week?"

Dash folded her arms again, and even though Sunset was behind her, her grin rang clearly in every word she said. "I'm gonna guess it'll be 'Mrs. Applejack' from now on."

"Applejack's here?" came a squeaky shout from outside the garage. An explosion went off, then a storm of confetti swarmed in through every available opening. Gathering into a whirling tornado, the tiny particles congealed into a bouncing Pinkie Pie, her skintight suit matching Dash's except for the color, an unsurprising pink. "And Sunset, too! Oh, this is gonna be just like old times!"

"Exactly." Dash started counting off on her gloved fingers, her grinning attention still focused on Rarity and Applejack. "Something old, something new, something borrowed—"

Pinkie's squeal made Sunset miss the folding ears of her former equine body. "And something blue!" She grabbed Dash's arm. "That's you, Dashie! You'll hafta be maid of honor!"

Applejack cleared her throat. "She's made of something, all right, something I'm like to step in if I don't watch where I'm going out in the cow pasture." With the wavering way she looked down at Rarity, Sunset didn't need a single one of her powers to know exactly what was going on in the big woman's mind. "You gonna be okay to stand now, Rares?"

A similar mix of fear and desire radiated from Rarity. "As long as I know you're close by to catch me."

With a strangled sort of growl, Applejack leaned forward and set Rarity's fashionable shoes onto the garage floor. "Reckon it'd be too much to ask that something go easy for once?"

The raspberry Dash blew echoed, a blue flash whisking her to Applejack's other side. "Easy? Some of us don't know the meaning of the word!"

"Yes," Rarity said, her eyes half-closed. "The Canterlot Unified School District has much to answer for."

A chuckle beside her, and Sunset had to blink at Doc standing there. "Wait..." She looked from him to the car and back again. "How did you—"?

"Timey!" If Pinkie had stopped bouncing since reintegrating herself, Sunset hadn't noticed that, either. "Where'd you come from?" Her eyes went wide, and she put her hands on her hips. "I always thought you said you didn't have any superpowers?"

Doc held up one hand. "And I shall say it again. After all..." He swept the hand out to indicate the whole group. "When one is in such beautiful and vivacious company, one can surely be excused if one tends to be slightly overlooked."

"Hmmm." Pinkie tapped her chin. "One, maybe. But 'two' rhymes with 'you,' and you, I'm gonna keep on keeping an eye on." She made a circle with her thumb and forefinger and squinted through it before she began bouncing again. "Mostly 'cause you're just so gosh-darn cute!"

Sunset took his arm and pressed her shoulder to his. "This one's spoken for, Pinkie."

"I know." She seemed to deflate for a fraction of an instant, then she was back to her usual bouncing self. "But as long as I've got Dashie to keep me warm, I'm never gonna complain about a single thing." Her eyes shining, she nudged Sunset with an elbow. "Get it? Not a single thing 'cause we're a couple!"

That got Applejack perking, and she looked down at Dash. "You and Pinkie?"

"Oh, yeah." Dash moved from Applejack's side to dipping Pinkie backwards into a kiss and back to Applejack in less than a blink. "Who else is gonna be able to keep up with me?"

"Then..." Applejack turned about a quarter of a smile toward Rarity. "You don't got some policy against employee fraternization?"

Everything about Rarity pretty much began to glow. "Darling?" She reached up to rest several fingers on the biceps bulging to fill the sleeve of Applejack's duster. "In certain cases, I positively encourage it."

Dash had popped over to Pinkie's side again, and with Doc's arm around her shoulders, Sunset for just an instant couldn't remember why she'd been so adamant against coming to this celebration.

Then a throat cleared from the walkway leading toward city hall. Glancing over, Sunset saw Twilight standing there, her hands thrust into the pockets of her white lab coat, her mouth a tight, thin line.

And all Sunset's reasons for wanting to stay away flooded back.

2 - During

"Not that I mind!" Twilight was saying for the fourth or fifth time, the bun on the back of her head as tight as a clenched fist. "Reunions are about the people, after all, not the places they happen." She looked over her shoulder, and something close to a smile squirmed across her face. "It's just, you know, a parking garage has noxious fumes, frustrated commuters, and the squeal of automobile tires. While the reception room has a buffet, multiple high-ranking government officials, and a string quartet."

Even with the other four walking down the wide hallway in front of her, Sunset wanted to pull Doc back and put some more space between herself and Twilight. Not that she was afraid of the woman, still the shortest and slightest of their whole group. But the memories—

Doc patted her hand where it rested on his arm, and Sunset realized she was digging her fingers into him with such force, her knuckles were white.

Shuddering, she pushed out a breath, relaxed her shoulders with a snap she could almost hear, and told herself she wasn't going to dwell on the parts of the past she didn't want to dwell on. These girls had saved her life both literally and figuratively more times than she cared to count, and just because things had ended kind of badly—

She wasn't dwelling on it, wasn't dwelling on it, wasn't dwelling on it. And she especially wasn't dwelling on the way that Twilight registered every bit as blank to her mental senses as Rarity did.

Not that she was trying to probe her ex-girlfriend's thoughts. But Twilight's jagged hole in the mindscape stood out starkly when compared to the smooth emptiness that marked Rarity's shielding. And besides, experimentation that made Sunset blush a little to recall had demonstrated years ago that Twi's telekinesis was a completely physical phenomenon, not affecting Sunset's powers in any—

Rarity's crystalline laugh shattered Sunset's thoughts. "Your planning has always been impeccable, Twilight. I've sorely missed those skills since you moved over to the city's science commission."

"What?" Again, Sunset hadn't meant to say anything, but after so many years of quiet country living, being back in the city seemed to be stirring up the leap-in-with-both-feet traits that had marked her tenure in high school. And since she'd already leaped... "You quit the Sentinels, Twilight?"

Twilight gave another over-the-shoulder almost smile. "You're not the only one who can move on, Sunset."

"Huh." Applejack cocked her head down at Rarity, Dash, and Pinkie walking beside her. Well, Rarity was walking: Sunset couldn't help grinning at Pinkie doing some sort of swaying skip that shot her upward in a seemingly random direction with each step, Dash flashing around her, jumping up to bump shoulders with her no matter which way she happened to hop. "So it's just been you three superheroing the last year or three?" Applejack asked.

Dash blew another raspberry. "Like we need anybody else!"

And even though Rarity's glare was aimed squarely at Dash, Sunset could still feel the sharp, cold edge of it.

"I mean," Dash said quickly, "it'd be great if you came back, AJ! Really great! And the rest of you, too!" She snapped her fingers. "Hey! Is Fluttershy here yet?" The air around her wavered; Sunset heard a door slam somewhere up ahead, then Dash was solid again, her shoulders slumping. "There's no one in there but a whole buncha stuffed shirts, some waiters, and a string quartet." A flicker, and Dash was walking backwards in front of Twilight. "You invited Shy, right? And she said she was coming?"

Pulling some sort of device from her pocket, Twilight sighed. "I invited her, yes." She tapped the device, squinted at it through her glasses, and shook her head. "I never heard back from her, though. I haven't actually gotten a single report of her setting foot off that animal sanctuary of hers since she left Canterlot City five years ago."

"Yeah." Pinkie was puffing little cascades of confetti from the ends of her fingers, then snatching them as they fell. "I send her pictures I've drawn sometimes, and she sends me little letters talking about how busy and happy she is being her animal friends' husband." She shrugged. "Which seems a little weird, but as long as she's having a good time."

Sunset had to laugh. "Animal husbandry doesn't mean what you think it means, Pinkie."

"I dunno." Pinkie shook her head. "She always liked animals an awful lot..."

"Okay!" Twilight spun, the familiar exasperation in her voice twinging Sunset in a few places that hadn't twinged in a long time. She pressed herself closer to Doc, his soothing touch both against her side and against her mental senses more than enough to keep those twinges nice and quiet.

Twilight waved the hand not holding her cell phone—or whatever it was—at the big door filling the end of the hallway behind her. "We've got the mayor, the city council, two state senators, and the lieutenant governor in there along with a maybe a hundred local civic and business leaders and members of the press. We all just be our usual smiling selves, and everything should go perfectly." She narrowed her eyes at Pinkie. "As long as no one says anything about animal husbands, I mean."

Pinkie shrugged again. Twilight took a deep breath, turned, flared her fingers, and the purple glow of her telekinesis pushed the doors open.

"And so," the mayor's amplified voice was saying as if on cue—which it probably was, knowing Twilight; she'd doubtless worked out every instant of this presentation down to the millisecond, "let me present, together again for the first time in five years, the past and present members of the Canterlot City Sentinels!"

The pressure of ninety-seven individual minds crashed against Sunset, and while that was the merest fraction of the minds she could feel bubbling away in the city surrounding her, having even this small a batch all essentially turn and start regarding her, well, only Doc gently stroking her hand kept her from bolting back down the hall toward the parking garage.

Applause burst through the doorway, and following the others in, Sunset had to strain to see the actual physical people rather than the shapes of their mental energy. Whether there were in fact ninety-seven of them standing there amid the little round tables that dotted the floor and the longer tables lining the walls, she couldn't be sure—both Rarity and Twilight were blocking her senses, after all, so she found herself hoping that others had somehow developed the ability, too—but the force of their attention battered away at her as unrelenting as a storm surge.

As promised, the mayor was introducing them all by name, the applause seeming to get louder and louder. Sunset mostly concentrated on trying not to trip over her boots as she moved with the girls and Doc to the slightly raised platform at the front of the room. Rarity, Dash, and Pinkie were all waving in their various ways—Rarity with one hand barely moving, Dash with one arm high and wide, Pinkie flailing both arms in every direction—and Applejack even began touching her hat brim and nodding. Twilight had her eyes fixed on the mayor and her microphone, and nowhere in the room or the building or the whole complex did Sunset detect that gentle little quiver she remembered coming from Fluttershy.

The combination of lights and people wanted to blister the inside of Sunset's eyes, but she forced herself to smile, even managed a wave or two. Still, the resolution grew with each step that she was never again going to set foot into any place more crowded than the general store back home. Never.

The floor shook at that exact moment and the walls as well. Gasps darted up from the crowd, the applause stumbling to a halt, mutters buzzing to take its place. And when a roar went off like something out of a late-night giant monster movie, the only other sound Sunset could hear for a long moment was the kettledrumming of her heart against her ribs.

"Rainbow?" Rarity said into the sudden silence. "If you'd be so kind?"

"On it!" Dash shouted. She blurred, then resolidified, a huge grin on her face. "Guys! You've gotta see! It's, like, a thirty-story-tall mutant T-Rex out there!"

Rarity's grin was just as big as Dash's, but it had something much more predatory in it. "Of course it is." Her hand flashed, and a skin-tight layer of white, flexible crystal encased her in the same way that Dash and Pinkie's suits encased them. Taking the microphone from the gaping mayor, Rarity said, "Honored guests, I shall be wrapping this room in an unbreakable shield as we leave, a shield that will keep you safe until we return. It will, however, dissolve on it own if I'm not back within thirty minutes, and then, well, then I suppose we'll all have larger problems with which we'll have to deal."

She returned the microphone to the mayor, turned with her hands on her hips, and said, "Sentinels? Shall we?"

Dash and Pinkie literally exploded for the door, Applejack not far behind with Twilight running along in her wake.

Rarity raised an eyebrow at Sunset.

Sunset looked up at Doc. "Stay here," she said.

He nodded. "Anything you need to do, Sunset."

Whirling for the door, she felt something sweep her up, a hard, glittering surface that slipped under her boot heels and propelled her out into the hall. "A moment," Rarity's voice murmured in her ear, and Sunset looked back to see that Rarity had one hand pointed downward generating the strip of magic they were standing on, the other hand pointing back at the door to pour forth an iridescent substance that spread like ice over, up, and even somehow through the wall.

"There." Rarity snapped her fingers with a tinkling sound. "Doc will be fine. That's the safest place in the city right now."

"Thanks." Facing forward, Sunset bent her knees. "So let's go check out the unsafest place."

Rarity giggled behind her, the shield stretching and undulating again; it propelled them forward even though Sunset found it quite easy to balance on. "I like this new trick of yours!" she called, keeping her attention on the hall rushing past them.

"Thank you!" Rarity called back. They shot across the city hall lobby, then, through the big front doors, and sailed out into the afternoon just above the plaza in front of the civic center complex, traffic at a complete standstill along Main Street...probably, Sunset thought, because of all the drivers abandoning their cars and running west.

A quick look east and upward showed Sunset why, the creature giving another roar. Towering over the buildings of downtown, green and scaly, ridges standing out along its head and back, it was very much a thirty-story-tall mutant T-Rex. At least the thing wasn't spewing atomic fire like they always did in the monster movies.

As Sunset watched, though, an all-too-familiar burst of purple telekinetic energy sparkled from somewhere on the next block, and a golden-brown missile went streaking upward: Applejack with her fists clenched in front of her and her "Yee-haw!" echoing from every nearby surface.

Behind Sunset, Rarity sighed. "As much as I'd enjoy standing here admiring the view, I suppose we'd best assist. Can you tell me if the creature's sapient?"

Sweeping her powers over the area, Sunset felt Applejack and Pinkie and Dash hammering away at the giant dinosaur in their own ways, but the jagged hole where the monster stood... "That's weird," Sunset said. "It's blank, but not the way an animal would be, and not the way you are, either. More the way Twilight is."

"Twilight?" The flowing shield stream beneath Sunset gave a little jolt and settled to the flagstones, Rarity stepping around to face her with a wrinkled brow. "Since when are Twilight's powers effective against yours?"

Sunset shrugged. "We've all changed the past five years."

Rarity shook her head. "We all changed in the year or so after we had to absorb our geodes to defeat Grogar, but Twilight told me after you left the Sentinels and just before she herself did that she hadn't developed any resistance to you." She shrugged. "Of course, she could have been speaking metaphorically; I don't believe she's dated at all since you left."

The monster gave another roar, but the activity Sunset could sense in that direction from Dash, Pinkie, and Applejack reassured her that they were on top of things. "Well," she said, swallowing a little wave of guilt, "however it's happening, there's only three things in this town I can't bamboozle right now: you, Twilight, and that monster."

"Ummm," the warmest, softest, sultriest voice Sunset could even begin to imagine said off to her left, and the feeling that rolled over her had nothing to do with the mind at all, her body stirring as if Doc was standing there wearing nothing but a smile and a bow tie.

Fortunately, one of the first things she'd done after leaving Canterlot City was to formulate defenses that would spring up automatically whenever hormones tried to short-circuit her brain. Energy rushed through her, lowering her body temperature, filtering her blood, screening particles and pheromones from the air that entered her lungs, and her rush of arousal flicked off as suddenly as it had appeared. Rarity had already wheeled toward the voice, but as Sunset moved to do the same, she couldn't help but notice that Rarity's jaw had dropped, her eyes bugging out almost as if she were channeling Pinkie Pie.

Completing her turn, Sunset found her jaw and eyes doing the same. Because Fluttershy was standing there.

Granted, Fluttershy had always been the girliest girl in their group—Sunset was sure even Rarity would've agreed with that statement. But now, the vision that appeared before Sunset on the stones of the civic center plaza made her want to reevaluate everything she'd ever thought about femininity: a face heart-stoppingly gorgeous but also conveying a best friend's sweetness; a bosom that blossomed like the most intoxicating of hothouse flowers; a waist perfect and waspish; hips curving out from there in delicate but mouth-watering ways; the hem of her long green skirt showing ankles and bare feet so shapely, Sunset suddenly found that several fetishes made complete sense to her.

The sheer force of attraction hammered at the outside of Sunset's defenses, and it took a fair amount of effort not to let those defenses puff away so she could lose herself in contemplation of Fluttershy's extraordinary beauty. Which was odd. When Sunset had been dating Twilight, she hadn't actually felt much physical attraction to her. It had been a mental thing between them, a compatibility thing, a mutual understanding and a desire for someone to cling to in the storms that flooded over them those last years in high school. She hadn't known real, body-wobbling lust till that first night out in the wilderness alone with Doc.

Right now, though—

"Okay," a voice growled, and with a blink, Sunset saw for the first time the giant, black, shaggy-furred wolf creature standing beside Fluttershy. "You two are gonna maintain, right?" Its lips pulled back to reveal incisors about as big as Sunset's thumbs, but the way its yellow eyes seemed to twinkle, Sunset became convinced that it was smiling. "I mean, Rarity with your shields and Sunset with your brain mojo or whatever, you oughtta be able to hold it together."

Things clicked in Sunset's head—the creature's underlying mental profile; the level of snark behind its words; the fur that wasn't black but a really really dark purple—and she opened her mouth just as Rarity gasped, "Spike? Is...is that you?"

His tongue lolled out. "Turns out spending a few years in Equestria as a dragon can change a guy a little." He settled back to sit, and Sunset had to stare, his head coming up to Fluttershy's shoulder. "But I guess we all know a little about changes, don't we?"

That got a giggle out of Fluttershy, and Sunset couldn't decide what was more breathtaking: the sound itself, the happy expression that shone like the sun at dawn from Fluttershy's face, or the luscious way her body moved during the giggling process.

Another roar sounded to the west, and Fluttershy became nothing but serious, those incredible lips opening, the most angelic possible voice saying, "I suppose I'd better take care of this whole monster situation before anything else."

"You?" The word got out before Sunset could stop it, and she slapped her hands over her mouth when Fluttershy bathed her in the full force of her attention. Shoving every bit of her power to her mental shields kept her from falling to her knees and begging Fluttershy to forgive her, but it was a near thing.

"It's all right, Sunset." And as much as hearing her name spoken in that voice almost turned Sunset's legs to jelly, Fluttershy's smile buoyed her, held her up, seemed to give her strength. "Like Spike said, we've all changed a little." The embrace of Fluttershy's gaze slid away, and Sunset had to take a staggering step to keep herself from falling over.

Fluttershy was gliding now between Sunset and Rarity, Spike loping alongside, Rarity turning to follow, her whole head encased in something as clear and bulbous as a diving helmet. Her gaping stare, however, told Sunset that her attempts to screen out Fluttershy's new power was working just about as well as Sunset's own...

Stopping a few paces away, Fluttershy looked up, and Sunset could feel the flow of that warm, sweet attention wafting like a spring zephyr toward the area a block or so away where the giant dinosaur monster was still roaring and batting at the clouds of confetti, the multiple blue streaks, and the solid golden-brown spot hammering away at its neck. "Excuse me," Fluttershy said, her voice no louder than before but somehow absolutely and immediately the most riveting thing Sunset had ever heard. "Might I have a word with you, please, monster?"

Everything froze, the monster's red eyes going wide, each individual speck of confetti suspended against the sky, the streaks all snapping together into a single blue figure now standing on the monster's shoulder beside the golden-brown one. The monster's big head looked left, looked right, then focused forward staring down at Fluttershy as one gigantic hand came up to point a single claw back at itself.

"Yes, you." Fluttershy's giggle this time wanted to both stop Sunset's heart and make it race. "Hello. My name's Fluttershy. May I know your name, please?"

The monster swallowed so hard, Sunset could see its neck bulge, but it managed to make a little squeaking sound.

"Georgina?" Fluttershy nodded. "I'm pleased to meet you. Now, if you'll look to your left, you'll see a large eagle."

Sunset craned her head at the same time the monster did, something brown and white swooping back and forth above the buildings there.

"That's Aaron." The whole city seemed to have fallen silent around Fluttershy. "If you'll very carefully follow him—and by that, I mean knocking over as few things as you can and only stepping in places where there aren't any people or cars—he'll lead you to my animal sanctuary outside of the city. And if you'll wait there for me there"—Fluttershy shifted her hips ever so slightly, and every drop of moisture evaporated from Sunset's throat—"you and I will do some very, very pleasant things together when I get back. All right?"

It took Sunset a second to realize that the redness spreading over the monster's face meant that it was blushing. The monster—Georgina, a part of Sunset's brain chimed in—Georgina gave a quick nod, turned, and began tiptoeing away through the high-rises, the eagle staying just ahead of her.

"Next," Fluttershy said, slowly pivoting and making Sunset catch her breath again at the caress of her attention, "Spike seems to think, Rarity and Sunset, that if you each cover me with your strongest physical and mental shields, it should keep me contained enough that we can all talk more or less like normal. I'll ask you, though, please to wrap me up right away before—"

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie's shout echoed through the buildings like a steam whistle. "Do me! Do me! Do me!"

Sunset's gasp mirrored Rarity's, and she brought her flaring hands up just as Rarity did. White beams of energy washed over Fluttershy, but Rarity's beam resolved into something that looked like a glass bell; it crashed down around Fluttershy and drove another mental ice pick into Sunset's forehead. "Rarity!" she got out through clenched teeth. "Your shields! I can't—! They're too—!"

"Let me adjust the...piezoelectric frequency!" From the tightness of the words, Sunset guessed that Rarity was clenching her teeth as well. "There! Can you work with that?"

The bell surrounding Fluttershy still looked as solid as before, but spreading her mental energy over it, Sunset found its consistency now to be more like a fine mesh screen. She pushed through just as a funnel cloud of confetti whirled into the civic center plaza and coalesced into Pinkie Pie running full tilt toward them, her grin wider, Sunset was sure, than the human face should've allowed.

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie squealed, then her eyes expanded like balloons, her legs went rigid, and the heels of her boots gouged parallel tracks into the flagstones as she skidded to a halt just in front of the shield. Reaching out a gloved finger, she tapped the surface, gave a puff through her nose, and turned away, her arms folded and her face pouting. "Well, that sure spoils the mood!"

Three more shouts tangled in Sunset's ears: "Dag nabbit!" "Whoa!" "Will you guys just chill?" And Dash came running up the sidewalk and into the plaza so slowly, she wasn't even blurred. A shopping cart rattled along in front of her, Applejack sitting in it, one hand on her hat and the other wrapped around Twilight, Dash going on: "Gimme a break! I hardly hit thirty miles per hour the whole way! If you'd let me really open up, we woulda been here by now!"

"We are here, you idjit!" Applejack leaped from the cart with both arms cradling Twilight and slammed into the stonework with a crash that embedded her boots in rubble and shook the whole area. "And why do I always end up carrying ev'rybody ev'rywhere?"

"Hey!" Dash stopped short, the cart clattering on without her. "I was carrying you! Just like I've done since grade school!"

Setting Twilight down gently, Applejack wrenched herself from the ankle-deep holes, took a step toward Dash, and loomed over her. "You maybe wanna think before you say anything else, sugar cube?"

"Ha!" Dash put her fists on her hips and glared up at Applejack. "Why would I wanna start doing that?"

Sunset leaped forward, her hands already raised because of the power she was casting over Fluttershy. "Hey, hey, hey! C'mon, guys!" She gestured with her chin toward the departing monster. "We've literally got bigger things to worry about right now!"

"You bet we do!" someone yelled, the voice tight and angry and making Sunset's whole body wince: Twilight, her tone as hurt and cutting as Sunset remembered from the last time they'd been together. "Like the way you've all once again managed to mess everything up!"

Applejack and Dash looked over, their faces completely blank, while Pinkie blinked from where she'd been scratching Spike between the ears. "We what now?" Pinkie asked.

Bracing herself, Sunset turned toward Twilight, fury darkening the shorter woman to a much deeper purple than usual. "Two-and-a-half years!" Twilight shouted. "That's how long I've been planning my revenge! And in less than ten minutes, you ruin it!"

Spike raised a paw. "Technically, as my friend Mud Briar would say, it was Fluttershy who ruined your plan. She detected the build-up of rage and jealousy from you over a year ago and asked me to come over from Equestria so I could help her stop whatever you were trying to do."

Twilight had paled to a sort of mauve. "Spike?" Then she was rushing forward, wrapping her arms around his thick neck, nothing but joy in her face. "Spike! It's so wonderful to see you!" Gasping, she pulled back. "But no! You can't! We decided! In Equestria, you'll live for thousands of years as a dragon, but here as a dog, you'll barely have another decade!"

"Twi..." Spike put his paws on her shoulders and gave her nose a lick. "It's not gonna hurt me to come back for a visit every once in a while. And besides!" He pushed away from her and struck a pose on all fours, his head held high and his chest puffed out. "Look at this physique! I mean, it's great being a dragon, but I was born a dog, and I—"

"Umm, hello?" Sunset almost felt bad about interrupting their touching reunion, but... "Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering about this revenge thing Twilight mentioned?"

"Yes." Rarity had come around the side of Fluttershy's bell and was standing next to Spike with her arms folded and her half-lidded gaze fixed on Twilight. "I find myself rather interested in it, especially if it had anything to do with a certain large, mutant dinosaur named"—Rarity cocked her head at Fluttershy—"Georgeanne, was it?"

"Georgina," Fluttershy said.

Rarity flashed her a smile. "Thank you, darling." The smile vanished, though, when she turned back to Twilight. "Well?" she asked.

Twilight's guilty look was something Sunset remembered very well. "I...didn't know her name was Georgina..."

Somehow, Rarity grew even frostier. "You mean you enrolled her in some nefarious scheme without even securing a proper introduction?"

For an instant, Twilight's face wrinkling, her eyes narrowing, and her lips tightening, Sunset was sure she was about to start shouting again. But Spike nudged her shoulder with his nose, and everything about her drooped. "I raised her from a zygote I put together," Twilight muttered, her glasses pointed at the ground. "I...it never even occurred to me that she might have a name..."

Fluttershy sighed, and while the hair on the back of Sunset's neck prickled, she found that she could look at the other woman without wanting to throw herself at her feet. "Oh, Twilight. No wonder the whole natural world was so upset by what you were doing."

Dash waved an arm. "And for what? 'Cause Sunset dumped you?"

With Twilight still staring at the ground, only six glares smacked into Dash, but Sunset was glad—and a little surprised—to see that that seemed to be enough. "Sorry," Dash said, rubbing the spot where her uniform covered the back of her neck. "I dunno if you've noticed, but I sometimes talk before I think..."

"Reckon?" Applejack more growled than said.

Rarity was shaking her head, but she took a breath, stepped closer to Twilight, and touched her shoulder. "Really, darling, if you were having such a hard time, why didn't you say something?"

"To whom?" When Twilight's head came up, her shimmering eyes made Sunset want to look away. "Spike and Fluttershy were already gone, and the four of you were pairing up! So when Sunset broke my heart, I didn't...couldn't—"

"I broke your heart?" All the things Sunset had wanted to say to this woman for five years bubbled up inside her. "Whaddaya think happened to me when I found out my supposed girlfriend didn't actually love me?"

"What?" all seven of them said at once, and Twilight went on. "How can you say that? How can you say—?"

"Because I saw it!" Sunset jabbed a finger against the side of her head and almost wished it would shatter her skull. "After we absorbed our geodes, our powers got stronger and went crazy, remember? I didn't try to spy on you, Twi, but I couldn't control it! And when I saw what you really thought of me—"

"I loved you!" Twilight lurched toward her, her face as crumpled as an empty lunch bag. "I still love you! You're beautiful and brilliant and everything I ever—"

"Everything you ever wanted to study!" The words tore at Sunset's throat, the nights she'd wept them into Doc's chest not nearly preparing her for actually hurling them, raw and bloody, at Twilight Sparkle herself. "I wasn't a person to you! I was a possession, a subject, the only magical unicorn in a world of science and technology! I was a plush toy you cuddled with at night and an exotic object you played with during the day!"

Twilight had frozen in place. "That," she whispered, "that's not...not true..."

When Sunset jabbed the finger to her temple this time, it made her think of a gun barrel. "I saw it, Twilight. I felt it. I knew it as surely at that moment as you knew it and still know it now." She swallowed. "I opened myself up to you, and you examined my insides with a microscope while taking notes." Turning away, she forced herself to keep speaking. "I ran away that night, ran out into a city filled with people thinking phony things about me: heroine, alien, savior, fetish. I could only detect one spot of calm in the whole awful mix."

Again, thinking of him loosened her various clenches. "Doc had graduated from Canterlot High just before I first showed up, had gotten his engineering degree right here in town, had opened his fix-it shop barely noticing everything we were getting up to: demon me and the Sirens and the interdimensional rifts and Grogar. So all he saw when I stumbled into his shop was a person who needed help, and all I saw was the person who could give me the help I needed."

She took a breath, let the air mix with the peace that always came with thoughts of Doc, and blew it all back out. "So I'm sorry I hurt you, Twilight. And I'm sorry my haywire powers let me burst into your head like that." She turned to look at the others in turn. "And I'm sorry the only way I could come up with to keep my own identity intact was to publicly declare who I was and who you all were. But I was drowning in our collective thoughts and memories, so I grabbed hold of the first rock I flailed up against."

The city's weird silence—the monster gone but the cars still abandoned—surrounded them, and Sunset looked at these people, so similar and so changed from the friends she'd known. She wanted to tell them how much they'd meant to her, how much they still meant to her, how much she wished some things had turned out differently, but... "I'm sorry," she said again. It was really the most important thing anyway.

Another moment of silence, then Pinkie gave a loud sigh. "Fine." She slid sideways from her spot in front of Fluttershy's enclosure. "Fluttershy can do you first, I guess."

3 - After

"Umm," Fluttershy said. "Well..."

They'd stopped off in the reception hall to unwrap the dignitaries, collect Doc, and postpone the ceremony for a few hours. "We need to," Rarity had said, her smile dazzling, "compile our after-action reports, then we'll be more than happy to pose for any and all photos." Departing to more applause, they'd quickly moved to the largest elevator and Sentinel HQ on the top floor of the civic center.

"I've become something of a nature spirit," Fluttershy was going on, Rarity and Sunset beside her on the large sofa in a very tasteful, very plush, white-and-silver office overlooking downtown Canterlot City, the two of them casting the double shields that kept Fluttershy's animal magnetism to manageable levels. "And that involves a great deal more than simply sexual activity."

Sunset pressed close to Doc on her other side, Applejack just as close to Rarity down at the other end of the couch. Spike sat up next to the chair Twilight had taken facing them, her hand stroking his neck, while Pinkie and Dash shifted around in a love seat to Twilight's left. "But," Pinkie said, her teeth shining like freshly whipped meringue, "you did say you were gonna do Georgina, right?"

"Oh, yes." Fluttershy's smile seemed to heat up the air. "In addition to my aura, my magic now enables me to form whatever physical part—or parts—my clients may need to emerge from our sessions very well satisfied."

Pinkie leaped to her pink-booted feet, waved a finger back and forth between Sunset and Fluttershy, and shouted, "See? Animal husband! Didn't I say?"

Dash covered her eyes. "Not a picture I need in my head right now, Pinkie!"

"Indeed," Rarity said, though Sunset couldn't help but notice her cuddling up when Applejack rested one big arm around her shoulders. Of course, Sunset also couldn't help but make quick use of the lockbox she'd built in her mind to seal off certain thoughts and images of her own...

Fluttershy's sigh seemed to come up from her feet. "I love the work, of course, but I sometimes wish I could, I don't know, turn it off for a while." She reached up to touch the inside of the shield, and Sunset had to swallow against the sweet, gentle pressure caressing her mind. "I used to think the best possible life would be just me and my animal friends. But..." Her eyes wavered. "I miss all of you so terribly much."

A thought clicked into Sunset's head more surely than any she'd felt in years. "Hey." She pointed at Twilight. "Whatever you built that blocks my powers from affecting you. Could you modify it to block Fluttershy's powers from affecting everyone else? It would utilize the same basic anti-geode technology I assume you've developed; you'd just have to tune it to Fluttershy's piezoelectric frequency instead of mine, then cause it to absorb that frequency instead of deflecting it."

Twilight's hand paused in the fur along Spike's back. "That...that would be...would be... Hmmm..." She scrunched sideways and pulled the handheld device she'd been using earlier from the pocket of her lab coat.

"Twilight?" Fluttershy leaned forward, Sunset focusing her attention on Doc so she wouldn't be tempted to stare at the neckline of Fluttershy's loose blouse draping down to reveal the upper curves of her luscious—

Doc's smiling eyes met hers, and Sunset happily lost herself in them. "You have such interesting friends," he murmured.

She stretched over to give him a quick kiss. "I do, don't I?"

"Huh." Twilight had been tapping away at her device and was now squinting at its screen. "That might work." She raised her gaze to Fluttershy. "I'd have to spend some time with you to fine tune the frequency, but in theory, I should be able to adapt this quite well."

Fluttershy nodded. "You can perform whatever tests you need when you come out to the sanctuary for your sessions with me."

The room would've gone as silent as the city had earlier, Sunset was sure, if Pinkie hadn't leaped up once more from where she'd been patting the arm of a still-blushing Rainbow Dash. "What?" Pinkie shouted. "You're gonna do Twilight?"

"Now, Pinkie." Something about Fluttershy's voice made Sunset think of Princess Celestia. "What happened today showed very clearly that Twilight has a number of psychosexual issues that she needs very much to address. You, on the other hand, are in quite a loving and healthy relationship with Rainbow Dash, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah!" Pinkie spun back into place beside Dash on the love seat. "Dashie's the best! The best!"

"And, umm..." For the first time all day, Fluttershy did some blushing. "I doubt that Rainbow would be open to the idea of the three of us—"

"Nope!" Dash flashed halfway across the room, Pinkie blinking and falling sideways into the sudden empty space beside her. "Nope, nope, nope!"

"But Dashie!" Pinkie flailed a hand toward Fluttershy. "She said she can form the physical parts! The physical parts! Can you imagine—?"

"Nope, nope, nope!" A gust of wind struck Sunset from Dash's rapidly waving arms. "I mean, I look at Shy, and I remember us walking into the first day of kindergarten together! She's always been gorgeous, even before all of this happened, but I—!" She froze, her hands clasped below her chin, her wide eyes fixed on Fluttershy. "I couldn't! I wouldn't! I'd never—"

"I understand." Fluttershy gave a little sigh and turned back to Twilight, sitting just as frozen and wide-eyed in her chair beside Spike. "Speaking of threesomes, however, Twilight, would you be more comfortable if Spike attended our sessions as well?"

Twilight made a choking noise, and Spike's ears pulled so far back, they almost disappeared.

"Hmmm." Fluttershy rubbed her chin. "Of course, it might be that the two of you won't need me at all once everyone's true feelings start getting shared, but I guess we'll find out Monday at 2PM. I should be finished with Georgina by then, and I think she'll make a lovely addition to my staff, don't you?"

Her hand still buried in Spike's fur, Twilight had turned nearly the same dark purple as him. But Sunset couldn't help noticing that they weren't pulling away from each other even the slightest.

Fluttershy was regarding Rarity and Applejack. "I don't suppose I need to tell you two that you're fine now."

"Reckon." Applejack blew out a big breath. "Granny and Mac and Bloom can manage the ol' home place without me crashing around. And long as I got me a window box I can tend—" She reached down and stroked a finger through the hair curling at Rarity's forehead. "I won't miss a thing."

Looking up at Applejack from the crook of her arm, Rarity seemed less like porcelain and more like sweet, flowing cream. "Darling," she whispered, and Sunset didn't think she'd ever heard the word said with more feeling.

Then Fluttershy was turning around, her face radiant and smiling. "And you two. All the unhappy badgers and blue jays and butterflies who come to me, I should just send them to you so they can watch how coupling's supposed to work."

Doc tensed slightly. "You're speaking hypothetically, I hope?"

Sunset giggled at the same time as Fluttershy, then Fluttershy clapped her hands quietly. "Well, then! If you're ready, Spike, I'll ride you back to the sanctuary, and—"

"Wait!" Panic on her face, Twilight jumped to her feet. "I...I just—" She closed her eyes and took a breath. "I know I put this all together originally to get back at Sunset—" Her eyes sprang open, and the fear there almost struck Sunset like a physical blow. "And I'm sorry, Sunset! So, so sorry about... I mean, I want to deny everything you said earlier about us and...and how we were when we were together. But—" The breath she took this time went in loud and shaky. "I don't think I can."

Her head bowed, and she pressed the thumb and index finger of her left hand to her forehead so her palm covered her glasses. "For the past five years, I've been telling myself over and over again how you'd left me, how you'd wronged me, how I was nothing but an innocent victim, and I put this together"—she held up her little device in her right hand—"so you wouldn't be able to get into my head and make me doubt how right I was."

She lowered her hands, and the tears in her eyes tightened Sunset's throat. Twilight sniffed, and her words came out rough but quiet. "But there's more truth in what you said than...than I'd like there to be, and I...I'm sorry."

Without even thinking, Sunset was on her feet, crossing the carpet, and hugging Twilight, something she'd been sure for the past five years that she would never want to do again.

However long the moment lasted, Sunset didn't know, but it was Twilight who stepped away with another sniffle. "And I'm sorry to you, Rarity, for manipulating you into thinking you had something to prove to Sunset and Time Turner so you would go pick them up at the station. And I'm sorry to you, Applejack, for manipulating you into thinking you had something to prove to Rarity so you'd come walking all the way into town and be right there on Main Street exactly when Rarity would need to dodge that moving van." She swallowed. "And I'll need to apologize to the van driver for manipulating him to be exactly there exactly then, too, won't I?"

Sunset couldn't stop a laugh. "Sounds like you've been keeping busy."

Twilight covered her face with a breathy laugh of her own, and Spike leaned against her so heavily, she lost her balance and fell back into the chair.

Rarity got to her feet then, her head now that she was standing just about level with Applejack's, still seated on the sofa. "Well!" Rarity put her hands of her hips. "Meeting adjourned, then?"

A little gasp from Twilight, and she jumped back up. "But the mayor and the city council and everybody's still kind of downstairs wanting to recognize us for, y'know, saving the world and the city and..." She waved a hand, then pulled her glasses off and cleaned them with the tail of her lab coat. "Maybe you could announce, Rarity, that Applejack's rejoining the Sentinels, and I...I can announce that I'm taking some time off before maybe rejoining, too?"

"Yes!" Pinkie and Dash both shouted, Pinkie exploding into multicolored confetti that rained down over them, Dash whooshing around the whole group in a blue streak of a circle.

The confetti all swooped back together into Pinkie right at Sunset's elbow, her usual massive grin forming first of all. "And?" Pinkie asked, drawing the word out and pitching it all the way up her impressive vocal range.

Sunset looked back at Doc, standing now beside Rarity, Applejack, and the still-enclosed Fluttershy. He wore the slightest of smiles, and he gestured with one hand toward her.

"We'll think about it," Sunset said, turning to where Pinkie, Twilight, Spike, and Dash were watching her. "We'll definitely think about it."

"And me, too," Spike said. "Not thinking about it, though. I'm coming back for good."

"What?" Twilight stared at him. "But without Equestrian magic, you'll only live—"

"Twi..." He sat back and spread his forepaws. "As a giant talking wolf monster, I'd say I'm pretty much full of Equestrian magic right now. And as great as Equestria is, I'd much rather be here with you." He cleared his throat and looked around the room. "With, uhh, with all of you, I mean."

Twilight's eyes started shimmering again. "You...you'd do that? Really?"

He nudged the side of his head against her shoulder. "I never should've left."

Which got Pinkie exploding and Dash whooshing and Twilight wiping her glasses again. Then Twilight was tapping her device, calling the mayor, and telling her that the Canterlot City Sentinels were on their way down for the big ceremony. Rarity reformed the shield around Fluttershy into something with handles, and Applejack hefted it from the floor, Fluttershy giggling some more as they followed Dash, Pinkie, Twilight and Spike out to the big elevator.

Someone stroked Sunset's arm, and she looked over to see that Doc had snuck up on her again. "You've already made up your mind, I assume?" he asked, linking his elbow around hers.

She swallowed. "You wouldn't mind too much, would you?"

He tapped his chin. "Let's see: should I remain with the woman I love beyond distraction and help her once more become the hero she's meant to be?" He heaved a completely phony sigh. "How can I ever decide?"

Plans already flashed through her head: get Twilight to build her a dampener like the one she was going to build for Fluttershy; see about getting Doc's fix-it shop back up and running—or would it maybe be too awkward to see if he'd want to work with Twilight putting together whatever machines the Sentinels might need?

Stretching, she reached up to kiss him. "Life's just so difficult," she said, and she pulled him out of the room after the others.