Chapter 26. Tempting Offer

When Sunset saw herself in the mirror that afternoon, she thought that, for the first time, she liked how she looked.

That wasn’t to say she didn’t know she was quite the looker. After all, she had retained her fiery hair which she took great effort into keeping in good condition, and she still had her turquoise eyes which she knew demanded attention. However, that was the extension of what she could confidently appreciate about herself. The weird facial features, the furless skin, and the oddly shaped body were things that she just couldn’t relate to beauty.

Until that moment, that is.

Celestia had carefully tied her hair into a high ponytail that jutted out from the left side of her head with a beautiful green bow and, to her surprise, a pin in the shape of her Cutie Mark. The dress Celestia had gotten for her was a pretty dark green sundress with thin straps over the shoulders and a long layered skirt that reached a bit past her knees. And her feet were hugged by pretty sandals of the same shade of green as the dress, reaching with laces just above her ankles. And of course, the best friend necklace she shared with Twilight sat primly upon her collarbone.

She twirled to her right, then to her left, and finally leaned over to get a better look at her face, which Celestia had enhanced with a hydrating cream. As she contemplated herself, she thought that not only was she comfortable with how she looked as a human, but also recognized that she had features that were considered attractive, such as long and slender limbs, and a bust that, according to Luna, was quite large for her age.

As she made another twirl, making the skirt of her dress billow, she wondered if Twilight found her attractive. She didn’t ponder whether Twilight liked her the same way she did. That was a completely different question altogether. She just wondered if Twilight would see her and think she was attractive.

Thirty minutes later, Celestia parked the car right outside Garden Grove Elementary and Middle School’s parking lot. Twilight could only invite up to three people to her graduation ceremony, two of which were her parents, and the third one was Sunset. This meant that Celestia wouldn’t be allowed to enter. Not that it mattered anyway, since once the ceremony was over, Sunset’d spend the night at Twilight’s house, and the next day they’d be on their way to the yearly trip to the beach.

“Before you go,” Celestia said just as Sunset unbuckled her seatbelt. “I want to apologize for how the meeting with Headmaster Sombra ended up. He, uh… He had other expectations when he went to see your project.”

Sunset looked at her for a moment. “I get it. I’ve lived in this world long enough to know that any talk about magic is met with ridicule.”

Celestia shook her head. “Still, I should’ve told him instead of trying to surprise him. In any case, I talked to him, and he’s going to keep his word and keep that pear for at least a month. I hope that whatever you did to it will be enough to convince him that this is real.”

“Me too,” Sunset said. If anything, Twilight deserved to be noticed by such a prestigious university.

“Have fun, Sunset,” Celestia said. “I’ll see you next week.”

With a curt nod, Sunset got out of the car. It was still a strange feeling, having Celestia apologize for anything and being earnest about it. The woman could be overbearing at times, but never spoke in infuriating riddles and didn’t see life as just a bunch of lessons to learn. Instead, she was always straightforward and offered explanations instead of wanting Sunset to figure things on her own.

She actually made Sunset feel like she was worth the time.

Twilight’s parents met her right away, and after waving Celestia goodbye, they led Sunset around the corner towards the entrance of the school. The front yard was covered in folding chairs, half of which were already occupied. A podium sat at the bottom of the stairs that led to the entrance, upon which more chairs were placed, facing towards the street.

Sunset sat between Twilight’s parents, which wasn’t very comfortable, but it was better than sitting next to strangers and having to endure their small talk as they waited for the ceremony to begin. Fortunately, the wait wasn’t long. When almost all the chairs were occupied, a rather old man of wrinkled light blue skin and balding head walked towards the podium and started talking.

And Sunset thought there had to be a spell in either his voice or the microphone, because as soon as his ashen, dry voice reverberated through the speakers, Sunset was overcome with a powerful need to sleep. Some random laughter in the audience told her that the man, who had introduced himself as the principal, made a joke or another, but she just couldn’t care to pay attention to him.

A round of applause snapped her awake, and she barely turned her head in time to see a long line of students walking from the side of the school, in between the audience’s chairs, and onto the seats that were placed behind the podium.

It didn’t take Sunset long to spot the silky sway of Twilight’s hair and the bob of her bangs against her glasses. Her appearance was almost the same as the day before, when they had met Everton’s headmaster, except that she now wore a pink shirt of short sleeves and a blue necktie. She wasn’t overdressed, compared to the other students, but she was the only one wearing a necktie.

Twilight waved energetically at Sunset and her parents as she followed her soon-to-be ex classmates towards the raised chairs. She was in the back row, which meant that Sunset could barely see her behind an unfortunately seated boy.

In her attempt to remain awake through the principal’s dry speech, Sunset entertained herself by trying to get a good angle from which to see more of Twilight’s face. It wasn’t long before Twilight spotted her, realized what she was doing, and started playing a sort of hide and seek with her, moving behind the boy and back into view. The kids at her sides gave them odd looks, but Twilight didn’t seem to notice, and Sunset didn’t care.

Some students were called to make speeches on their own. Sunset thought Twilight would be called to the podium, but she wasn’t. Not that it mattered, really, since the speeches were full of platitudes anyway.

Finally, the principal started calling each student by name. Each of them went towards a teacher that gave them a folder, and then walked through the same path they had arrived from as the audience applauded. Once the last student disappeared from sight, the principal cleared his throat.

“The ceremony might be over, but the celebration is not. Please follow the path to the gymnasium for one last dance.”

A few people chose to leave, but most, including Sunset and Twilight’s parents, went to the gym, which was in front of a small garden. The outside of the building was pretty bare, like the rest of the school, but the inside had a lot more color. There were a few tables set up for people to sit and talk, though the middle area was completely empty to serve as a dance floor. Streamers and balloons decorated the corners and the ceiling, and a large banner congratulating the eighth graders hung from the opposite wall.

A woman stood behind a laptop, playing some light music as the gym accepted the guests, while the teachers Sunset recognized from earlier flanked the entrance, welcoming the flood of people with handshakes. Sunset stayed away from them and instead looked around for Twilight. She found her standing by a large table at the left side of the gym, awkwardly holding her folder in front of her skirt.

“Twilight, honey!” Twilight Velvet said as she trapped her in a hug. “Congratulations. I’m so proud of you.”

“M-Mom!” Twilight said, tapping her mother in the arms. “You already congratulated me this morning!”

“What, am I not allowed to be proud of my little Twily?”

“Mom!” Twilight’s face turned a cute shade of red.

“Oh, fine.” Twilight senior took the folder from Twilight junior. “We’ll let you girls be on your own. Have fun.”

Night Light cleared his throat. “We are leaving at seven, though. Gotta wake up early tomorrow.”

They left to talk with other adults. Twilight huffed, though her blush didn’t disappear. She turned to Sunset, and her eyes traveled down and back up, making Sunset shiver.

“I thought you said you didn’t have formal clothes?”

Sunset shrugged. “Celestia got me this dress for today. I didn’t want to get it dirty yesterday.”

Twilight gave her a slow nod. “You, uhm… You look really pretty.”

Sunset’s breath faltered, and her heart picked up the pace so abruptly that she could feel it in her ears. Did that mean Twilight found her attractive, or was she just being polite? Should she ask? No, that would be stupid. Twilight would definitely know that Sunset had a crush on her if she did, and Sunset still wasn’t sure what to do with her life, which meant it wasn’t the right time to open that can of worms.

“Sunset?”

Blinking, Sunset realized she’d been silent for who knows how long.

“Oh, uh, thanks.” Smooth. “You look good, too.”

Twilight smiled. “Thank you. Do you want some punch?” She poured some in two red plastic cups and gave one to Sunset, then led her away from the table to allow others help themselves to some punch. “Thank you for coming. I know you’d rather work with your synthetic horn project.”

They reached a corner of the gym. While some adults were enjoying themselves on the dance floor, the kids mingled with each other in small groups, keeping a distance from their parents. Their corner was far from the speakers playing music and devoid of people. It was perfect for talking about magic research.

Sunset shrugged. “I brought the iridosmium sheet with me. I’ll practice plenty on the way to the beach.” At least she’d have something to do during the fourteen hours she’d be trapped in the car.

“Of course you did.” Twilight giggled as she leaned on the wall, holding her cup of punch with both hands. “You know, I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that I’m going to be a high schooler soon.”

Sunset sipped some of her punch. She didn’t like it. “How come?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, raising her head to glance around the gym. “I guess I just spent too much time in this school.”

“You humans do spend too many years in school,” Sunset noted. Compulsory education in Equestria had ponies going to school until they were ten, though they could choose to extend that time until they turned sixteen. Universities existed for research purposes only.

Twilight smiled. “I guess. But there’s something else.” She sighed. “You know how I have a scholarship for Crystal Prep?”

“You only mention it every time you have exams. In song form,” Sunset replied. The way Twilight blushed made her smile. “What was the last one? ‘Crystal Prep is waiting for me’?”

“Stop,” Twilight whined, eliciting a chuckle from Sunset. “I’m trying to be serious here.”

“Ok, ok. Continue.”

Twilight glared at her for a moment, then looked down at her punch. “Well, I’ve been reading Crystal Prep’s website to get a feel of the school. I read what their updated syllabus for all four years is like, and let me tell you, it’s quite impressive.” She started rotating her cup in her hands. “But then I found an unaffiliated website where both students and alumni talk about the actual classes. As expected, Crystal Prep is really demanding, and students are flooded with homework, papers, essays, projects, and a large etcetera, and the teachers never accept sub-optimal results.”

“Sounds like your dream school,” Sunset said. If there was something she knew about Twilight, it was that she loved studying and learning with a passion even Sunset lacked. So why was it, then, that Twilight didn’t look excited?

“It is,” Twilight replied. She bit her lower lip for a moment, still looking down at her spinning cup of punch. “But between all the academic work, the compulsory extra curricular activities, and the fact that the school is almost an hour away by bus… Well, I don’t think I’d have time left to keep working on magitech with you.”

“Oh…” Sunset felt a void open in the pit of her stomach, and her heart fell right into it. She had originally wanted to work on her lonesome, but Twilight had been a part of it from the beginning and Sunset couldn’t see the project even existing without her. She couldn’t see herself working without Twilight at her side.

Twilight didn’t continue right away, leaving Sunset to drown in the suspense for almost a whole minute.

“So…” Twilight said, taking a deep breath before. “I’m considering turning down the scholarship and enrolling at a different high school.”

Even though she wasn’t drinking anything, Sunset still managed to choke. “You what?”

Twilight gripped her cup, almost spilling its contents. “I know. Crystal Prep is one of the best high schools in the country, and practically all its students are guaranteed to succeed. I’m being stupid for even thinking of wasting this opportunity. But I really think that magitech is going to revolutionize the world, and I want to be there when it does. A-And…” She raised her head and looked at Sunset. “And I really like working with you.”

Sunset’s heart was pushed from the void of her stomach with the force of a volcanic eruption, and it beat in her chest with the fury of a stampede. She knew she was blushing profusely because her own breathing was hot against her face.

“I…” How was she supposed to reply to that? She was happy. Flattered, even. But she also knew that Twilight had been looking forward to studying at Crystal Prep for years. She’d worked so hard to attain and retain the top student status by a wide margin all her life just for this opportunity. And yet she was willing to throw it away just to be with Sunset?

Of course, Sunset wanted to keep working with Twilight. She wanted her to go through with that idea so bad it was almost painful. But did she dare? Encouraging Twilight to do so would be extremely greedy of Sunset, so much so that it was on par to her wish of becoming an alicorn princess, and that hadn’t ended well. Being greedy then had gotten her hurt, but if she was greedy now, Twilight could be the one getting hurt.

And so there was only one question to answer. Would she risk Twilight’s happiness just so she could feel better about herself?

“I…” Sunset grit her teeth, knowing the answer as well as she knew her name, “I like working with you, too.”

Twilight’s face brightened with the intensity of a thousand stars, so resplendent that Sunset was blinded to everything but that smile. Her eyes glittered like the fireworks Sunset felt in her chest, shining like beautiful amethysts… No, that was wrong. It was the amethyst that struggled to compare with the intense violet of Twilight’s eyes, and it was the stars that failed to measure up to Twilight’s glow.

“Then…” Twilight’s silky voice was somehow louder than Sunset’s thumping heart. “I’ll talk to my parents… after the beach trip.”

“Aft…” Sunset lost her voice entirely, so she simply nodded.

Was it really right to let Twilight do this? Just so Sunset could have her way? Could she really let her greed go and ruin everything she cared for a second time? Her mind whispered no, but her whole body screamed yes.

She only had to make sure Twilight wouldn’t regret this decision.

Author's Note

So, apparently middle schools don't usually hold graduation ceremonies, though some do. It took me asking around and watching a video or two in order to get this as accurate as possible. Still I hope I didn't get anything wrong.

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