It was another day of school—well, no it wasn't, not just another day, but that was a thought for another time—and as Rarity approached CHS, she wondered why so many people were just standing in front of the building.

Then she got closer, and she didn't have to wonder.

The whole front of the building had been graffitied. Rarity might have said it had been defaced, but that wasn't it at all—it was art, and it was beautiful, all three stories of it. A million abstract shapes competed for the viewer's attention, but as Rarity scrutinized it, she saw recurring themes start to emerge. A certain consistent color palette. Seven gems, located all around the periphery of the piece.

And then the whole of the piece struck her, and she took a step back. The whole thing was three giant words, and they formed one giant message.

THANK YOU CHS

Rarity found herself shivering. And then a hand interlaced with hers, and she looked to her left to see Twilight. “Wow, right?” Twilight said.

Rarity nodded. “Wow.” She glanced back at the art, and a memory slid past her consciousness: Sunset Shimmer, looking at this same school's front, drawing in a notebook. A wry smile found its way onto Rarity's lips. “Now I wonder who would do something like this?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I guess it's just the anonymous Flanksy, striking again.”

“Of course.” Some movement caught Rarity's eye, and she saw a familiar red-and-gold mane of hair as its owner walked through the doors, seemingly indifferent to the crowd or the art. “Well,” Rarity said, “I suppose we'll never know.” She laughed, just once.

“Right.” Twilight chuckled.

And then neither one was laughing, or chuckling, or even smiling.

“It's our last day of high school,” Rarity said. “Ever.”

Twilight shivered, and Rarity could feel it in the hand she was still holding. “Yeah, I... it just hit me too.”

It was a strange feeling. Certainly not a good feeling, but not precisely a bad one either... maybe it wasn't a feeling at all. Maybe it was just a cold, solid fact.

Rarity breathed out. “All right,” she said, “let's get to work.” And she and Twilight walked through the doors.

They were both in Luna's office. It wasn't the first time that the two of them had done this together, but how strange it was to think it would be the last.

At least Luna finally had a second guest chair.

“So,” Vice-Principal Luna said, and she reached under her desk for a few moments. When she sat back up, she held two pieces of paper in her hand. “You two have made a lot of progress, now that you’re not having regular nightmares anymore… but I've done all I can for you. And frankly, I'm not exactly a mental health professional myself, at least not in any official way.”

She placed the papers on the desk, then slid them toward her two students. “So I've taken the liberty of compiling a list of professionals whom you can talk to, within a reasonable distance of your chosen colleges.” The paper in front of Rarity listed the ones near Roan Island School of Design, and Twilight's options were within a bus ride from Messarachusetts Institute of Technology. “They'll be able to talk to you about this, and if it comes to it, they can diagnose you and prescribe treatment.”

Both of them looked down at their papers, and then back up at Luna, who still gazed steadily at them. “I want you both to promise me—moreover, promise yourselves—that you'll get in contact with at least one of them before the summer's over. Can you do that?”

Rarity nodded smartly, took her paper, and folded it up to put in her bag. Then she looked over at Twilight, who had her hand hovering over the paper like it was too hot to touch. “Twilight?” Rarity said.

Twilight kept looking down at the paper. After a few seconds, she finally spoke. “I still hate this.”

Luna sighed. “It feels like admitting it, doesn't it? Admitting you have a problem, like you have to go to the place that 'crazy people' go to.” She raised her index fingers to supply the air quotes.

“No, that's not it.” Twilight shook herself. “I mean, it's kind of it, it's not fun, but I know I need help. I admitted it months ago. It's....” She let her hand fall to the desk, still not touching the list of names and addresses. “I'm scared. I'm still scared.”

Rarity reached an arm around her girlfriend and pulled her a little closer.

“I mean....” Twilight's shoulders slumped, and she leaned into Rarity's half hug. “What if it turns out that it's not just something that I can just fix, just get over? What if I've really got an anxiety disorder, or bipolar or multiple personality disorder or who knows what?”

“Dissociative identity disorder,” Luna murmured.

Twilight grunted. “You know what I mean. What if I'm stuck with this forever, dealing with this forever?” Her head slumped forward. “What if this keeps me from doing what I want to do with my life?”

There was a silence, and Rarity squeezed Twilight tighter. She opened her mouth to try to say something, give some kind of reassurance—but what was she supposed to say, when the same exact worries were bouncing around her own head too?

Then she noticed something a little odd: Luna was looking down and to the side, not straight at them like normal. Her jaw worked for a few seconds, although her lips did not open. At length, she resumed eye contact and spoke. “Well, I seem to have done all right.”

Twilight tensed. Then she looked up at Luna and leaned forward. “What?”

Princess Luna sighed. “One second.” Then she leaned down again, and opened up a drawer, and lifted a pill bottle up and placed it onto the desk. She unscrewed it, shook out a pair of capsules, and swallowed them dry. Then she put the bottle back and closed the drawer.

Rarity didn't stop watching for one moment, and she was sure that Twilight didn't stop either.

Luna exhaled, the kind of exhale a person would make after drinking a bottle of water while parched. “I usually do that between meetings, but it seemed appropriate to do it now.”

Twilight was leaning even further forward. “So... you....”

“Schizophrenia.” Luna shrugged. “I won't go into the details, but several years ago I was... let us say that I was in a bad place. It hurt me, it hurt my loved ones... my sister.” She took a deep breath, held it with her eyes closed, and let it out. “When you're deep in the trench, sometimes it's hard to see the way out.”

And then Luna smiled, just a little bit. “But. Right now, I'm the vice-principal of a wonderful high school, and I've had the chance to work with some of the brightest young minds I've seen in my entire life. It's exactly what I wanted to do.”

She nodded at both of them, but Twilight most particularly. “So trust me when I say: you're going to be okay.”

Twilight nodded back, and grabbed the paper.

And finally, the last day ended, and gave way to night.

“Are you sure you don't me to come over?” Rarity was saying over the phone, as she paced aimlessly around her room. “It's no trouble.”

Twilight's snort was the first response, followed by, “I thought you said your parents were taking you out to dinner?”

“Well, yes, but this is young love, darling! What's the point of young love if I can't blow off my overly restrictive, non-understanding parents in favor of a fling with my very cute girlfriend?”

“That... doesn't sound like your parents at all. I’m pretty sure they’ve been great.”

“Oh, absolutely, they've been fully supportive and I wouldn't trade them for the world.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “But you have to appreciate the genre conventions.”

Twilight laughed at that.

“Rarity!” That was Sweetie Belle's shrill voice, probably from around the front door. “Dad says we're gonna leave without you if you're not down in five minutes!”

Rarity groaned, and Twilight laughed a little more. “Look, aside from anything else, my parents are taking me out to dinner too. Shining Armor's gonna be there, gonna be bringing this new girlfriend I don't really know about yet, I'm kinda looking forward to it.”

“Oh, all right.” Rarity sighed and flumped herself onto her bed.

“Besides,” Twilight said, and here it sounded hopeful, “it means we can test the new systems! To make sure we can still get together while we're at, you know... college.” Some of the hope had wilted by the end of that sentence.

“Oh, Twilight, it's only going to be an hour's drive between us. Maybe an hour and a half with traffic.”

“The Mark IIIs will let us be even closer than that.”

“Quite.”

“Rarity!” Sweetie shouted again.“Let's go!”

“Oops, that's my cue!” Rarity laughed, and pulled out a hand mirror to do one final check. She looked spectacular. “See you tonight, darling?”

“In your dreams. Love you.” Rarity imagined a wink, just before the call ended.

That night, Rarity and Twilight both wore Helms as they slept.

And that night, across an endless sky, they danced.

Author's Note

No alternate chapter title for this one, but as you read the very end, I invite you to put yourself in mind of the opening bars of Daft Punk's Digital Love.

Thank you all for reading this story! It was a blast to write, especially in such a short timeframe, and I'm glad to have been part of the RariTwi bomb!

And another big thanks to Undome Tinwe for being such a consistent help with the prereading. Love you, dude!