Private Prom

It was the night of senior prom at Canterlot High School, and all across town excited students were preparing to fit themselves into formal wear, picking up their dates or finding clandestine ways to enact a heist on their parents’ liquor cabinets.

Every senior was abuzz with their preparations, all except for one in a quiet studio apartment who was currently finishing up doing her dishes.

Sunset Shimmer put aside the final plate, dried her hands with the dish towel and glanced at her vibrating phone over on the coffee table. She considered picking it up, decided it would just be another group chat notification she’d leave unanswered and pondered instead what to do with her evening.

The tv guide disappointed. Maybe a movie from her collection instead, or perhaps a videogame. There was that HD remake of the original Ace Attorney trilogy she’d been meaning to get around to. She looked over at the art supplies in the corner of her living room. Maybe drawing would be a good distraction. Keep both mind and hands occupied.

Her planning session was interrupted by a series of honking noises from outside. Raising an eyebrow, she glanced out the window just in time to see six girls streaming out a limousine and making a beeline for her door.

Sunset rolled her eyes, silently counted a few seconds in her head and noted her doorbell ringing without surprise. She pressed the buzzer for the downstairs door without bothering to inquire who was calling and opened her apartment door to await her guests.

Even though she didn’t want visitors, she couldn’t help but smile at the chattering and laughing voices as they made their way up the stairs. “Sunset, darling! There you are.” It was Rarity who was in the lead, followed by her other friends, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Twilight Sparkle, all dressed to the nines for a night out.

“Why aren’t you dressed yet, darling?” Rarity asked as a pajama-clad Sunset Shimmer stepped aside to allow her friends inside.

“And why aren’t you picking up your phone?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

“Two questions that very much have the same answer, Rainbow,” Sunset informed her bluntly. “As I’m sure I’ve told you several times this past week, I’m not going to the prom.”

“But why not?” Pinkie Pie almost whined. “It’s gonna be a super fun night! It won’t be the same with one of us missing!”

“Is it the dress, darling?” Rarity asked. “I have my emergency sewing kit with me. We still have a little time if you want some last minute alterations.”

“It’s not the dress, Rarity,” Sunset assured her. “It’s just a decision I’ve made.”

“But why would you skip out on this?” AJ asked. “Is it because of bad memories from the Fall Formal?”

“No.”

“Is it because you couldn’t get a date? None of us have got a date. Well, almost none of us,” Rainbow declared while elbowing a blushing Twilight Sparkle in the ribs playfully. “That’s why we’re going as a group.”

“It’s not that either,” Sunset replied.

“Then what is it?” Twilight asked.

As Sunset felt herself getting penned in by the increasingly intense stares of her best friends, a quiet voice with a hint of steel in it spoke up. “Girls, that’s enough,” Fluttershy said. “If Sunset doesn’t want to come, that’s her choice, and she doesn’t owe us any explanation as to why.”

While the rest had let their excitement get the better of them, they now backed off a little sheepishly at being told off by the quiet girl in the group. “Thank you for understanding, Fluttershy,” Sunset said with a smile.

Fluttershy nodded and smiled back, albeit a little sadly. “We will miss you, though. That’s why we dropped by on the off-chance that you might change your mind at the last moment.”

“We won’t even have any pictures with you to remember this night,” Pinkie Pie said with a pout.

Rarity, who had made out the box that contained her dress sticking out from under her bed, (mainly because she’d made said dress and put it in said box to give to her a week before,) picked it up and held it out to Sunset with a pleading expression.

Looking at the disappointed faces in front of her, Sunset sighed and took the box. “Alright, if I put this on so we can take some group photos here, will you leave me in peace and go enjoy your night?”

They all agreed to that, and Sunset excused herself to the bathroom for a couple minutes to put on her prom dress. When she came back out, she was glad to at least be able to bring some smiles back to her friends, even if her own smile didn’t reach her eyes as they posed in various combinations together for pictures.

When they were finally satisfied with their photo session, Rarity opened the door and, while pushing Sunset towards it, said brightly: “Now that that’s taken care of, let’s be off!”

Sunset put out a hand to catch the doorframe to arrest the movement and gave her friend a look over her shoulder.

Rarity sucked in her lips in an insincere display of contrition. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.” She sighed. “Alright, darling. We’ll miss you.”

“I’m sure you won’t even notice I’m not there after a dance or two. Have fun enough for all of us, you guys.”

As they all filed out in between various versions of goodbye, Sunset thought she heard a whispered conversation of a Plan B from between Pinkie and Rarity, but her attention was soon taken up by Twilight, who had lingered behind. She looked stunning tonight, more so than the others even, Sunset thought. “You know I’m always here to talk if there’s something bothering you, right?”

Sunset returned a genuine smile. “I know, Sparky. But this isn’t something you need to concern yourself with. Now stop wasting your thoughts on me. Timber must be getting anxious waiting for you.”

Twilight smiled back. “Goodnight, Sunset.”

Sunset let out a long sigh after closing the door behind Twilight. She slowly walked back into her apartment, stopping when she caught something from the corner of her eye. She turned to regard herself in the mirror. The dress Rarity had provided was stunning, because of course it was. Bare shoulders framed by her fiery hair, the halterless black dress flowed down from her breasts, hugging her figure in all the right places until parting at the thighs to reveal her long, slender legs. And the choker added just the right touch of class. It was elegant, sexy and easy to move in for the purposes of dancing, the full package, and Sunset felt a pang of guilt at letting this beautiful example of Rarity’s handiwork go to waste.

She was about to go and get out of it when there was a knock at her door. So she went over and opened it. “Did you forget something …” She blinked, having expected one of her friends to take one last shot at talking her into leaving with them. Instead, she saw a familiar boy, hair slicked back extra straight today, dressed in a black suit with a red tie and holding a flower corsage in a clear plastic box. “Flash.”

Flash Sentry stood there for a bit, his mouth working wordlessly for a while, before he said: “Hi, Sunset. You look … incredible.”

Remembering that she was still wearing her prom dress, Sunset blushed slightly. “Thanks. You look pretty good, too.” As the silence stretched between them, Sunset’s mind jumped back into gear again and put two and two together. “So you’re Plan B, I take it,” she said wryly.

“That’s what your friends have been calling me all day, yes,” Flash confirmed with a nod. He looked at the corsage in his hands and unceremoniously dropped it on a nearby dresser. “This is silly. I know full well the futility of trying to change your mind when you’ve decided on something. Plus, I have an idea of why you don’t want to go.”

Sunset tensed up for a moment. Do you? If there’s anyone who would, I guess it would be you, but … No, he’s probably thinking something else. Must be a coincidence.

They both heard the noise of a car engine revving outside and glanced out the window. “And there goes my ride,” he said.

“That would be Plan C, I guess,” Sunset surmised, “guilt-trip me into giving you a ride to the prom and staying because, heck, ‘I’m already dressed, and I’m here anyway. Might as well go in.’”

“Well, you don’t have to do that,” he said. “I’m not going to the prom either. I’ll take the bus home.”

Sunset gestured at his formal attire and asked: “If you weren’t going anyway, then why did you let them drag you along this far?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this,” he replied with a dead-pan stare, “but your friends are kinda intense when they all band together to stick up for one of their own.”

Sunset chuckled. “Yes, they are. It comes from a place of love. And you could never say no to a pretty girl, much less six of them. So, if neither of us is going to the prom, what does that make us?”

He shrugged with a smile, putting his hands into his pockets, the initial stiff demeanor gone. “I dunno. Couple of overdressed idiots standing in a hall?”

She nodded at that. “Well, I think the ship has sailed on that first part, but why don’t we fix the latter? The next bus doesn’t come for another hour. Least I can do is invite you in for a drink.”

“I’ll take it.”

“Make yourself at home. I’m sure you remember your way around the place,” she told him, gesturing towards the sofa, while making her way to the kitchenette.

Flash popped the buttons on his formal jacket and sat down.

Meanwhile, Sunset poured two glasses of soda and carried them over. On her last step, she suddenly felt something catch on the rug and began wobbling. “Whoa!”

“Watch out!” Honoring his name, Flash got up and managed to catch her by the elbow just in time.

“Thanks,” Sunset murmured, gingerly setting down the two glasses on the coffee table. Holding on to his shoulder for support, she disentangled her shoe from the carpet while cursing. “Stupid ankle strap heels.” Before long, she’d kicked off the shoes into the corner of the room and was now barefoot. “Thanks, Flash.”

“Anytime.” When he sat back down on the sofa, Sunset plopped down next to him, turned, and swung her legs up and over to rest across his lap while letting out a sigh. Flash blinked rapidly at the bare calves that had suddenly appeared under his nose.

When Sunset realized what she had done, she blushed furiously. “S-sorry,” she stammered. “Old habit, I guess.”

She immediately lifted her legs again to move them off, but surprisingly Flash put his hands above them and lowered them back down into his lap. “It’s alright. I don’t mind. This is your home. You put up your feet wherever you like.”

Sunset was quiet, but relaxed again. She watched his fingers twitch almost involuntarily and wondered if he was thinking about the foot rubs he used to give her right now. She certainly was. In an attempt not to think about that, she said: “Well, there’s another reason not to go to prom. I don’t have to spend all night torturing my feet with those things.” She indicated the discarded heels indignantly with her chin.

“Don’t you wear heels all the time?” Flash asked in response.

“With boots, yeah,” Sunset countered. “Makes a hell of a difference when you have some solid support for your ankles. But something like these are a fucking health hazard is what they are.”

“If you detest them so much, then why do you wear them? Why do girls wear them in general? I never understood that.”

“Well, if Twilight was here, she’d probably be rattling off facts from a sociology paper right about now.” She looked off to the side. “But for me personally, I guess it’s mostly your fault.”

“My fault?” Flash balked. “How is your love-hate relationship with uncomfortable footwear my fault?”

Still looking away, Sunset collected her thoughts on how best to explain. She didn’t want to come across as harboring genuine resentment. “Do you remember our first Fall Formal?” she finally asked while glancing back in his general direction.

Flash furrowed his brow, seemingly confused by the non-sequitur. “Sure,” he said nonetheless, “it was right around the time we first started dating.”

“Bingo, and do you remember what my condition was when you asked me to be your date for the Fall Formal?”

He looked up at the ceiling as if to remember, then his expression changed as if he’d suddenly bitten into something sour. “Yeah, I remember now. You wanted to go shopping with me first. Our first proper date. Longest fucking six hours of my life.”

“Well, that makes two of us, buddy,” she grumbled while crossing her arms.

He turned back to look at her quizzically. “Now that I think about it, you didn’t seem to be enjoying yourself very much that day,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “I remember thinking that I’d blown my chance with you right then and there, and I’d never even know why. So it wasn’t me? It was the mall?”

“Of course it was,” Sunset admitted with a sigh. “Let’s just say it was a good thing that I didn’t have my magic at the time, because I was ready to set the fucking place on fire with my mind by the time we left.”

“If you were as miserable as I was, then why did you drag me through every single store in the place that day, some of them twice?”

Sunset cocked her head and gave him a look. “You haven’t figured it out by now?”

“Should I have?” he asked in a genuine voice. “At some point, I just figured it was some sort of weird girlfriend test to see if I’d put up with it and stopped thinking about it.”

She was about to snap back with an indignant remark, but caught herself and glanced off to the side. “I guess that sounds like something the old me would have done, doesn’t it? But no, it wasn’t that. I had a different underhanded reason to ask you to accompany me.”

He looked back at her quizzically.

Sunset began to blush slightly. Through nobody’s fault but her own, she’d maneuvered herself into a position to confess to something she’d sworn never to let anyone catch on about. “I don’t blame your fourteen-year-old self for not figuring it out, but think about it now, with everything you’ve learned about me since. Do you remember when I came to CHS?”

He scratched his cheek. “I dunno, but I guess it couldn’t have been too long before we went on that date. Maybe a week or two. I crushed on you hard the moment I first saw you, and inviting you to the Fall Formal was my first, best chance to make something happen before someone else asked you.”

She opted to remain quiet, letting him figure it out for himself.

“Oh,” he finally said in a moment of realization. “I see. It was just after you came from …” He trailed off.

“Exactly,” she confirmed with a nod. “I was literally fresh off the boat from a world where everybody habitually walks around naked. Thankfully, the mirror portal gave me a set of starter clothes, but what the fuck did I know about human fashion or what one would wear to a formal event?”

“Is that why you hesitated so long when I asked you to the dance?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “You seemed so aloof, looking at me as if I was something you’d just scraped off your boot. I thought for sure you were about to laugh at the mere notion of me asking you out.”

Sunset winced at hearing what kind of air she’d given off at the time. Deciding there was nothing to be done about the past, she simply shrugged and said: “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was probably more freaked out than you were when you asked. I was in a full panic. If you could have heard my internal monologue at the time, you would have heard a lot of colorful, pony-punned expletives, hence the thousand-yard stare.”

There was a momentary pause before something rose in Flash’s throat. Still holding on to her ankles gently, he doubled over and burst out into a full belly laugh. “You know what?” he said wiping away a tear of laughter from the corner of his eye. “Oddly enough, that does make me feel a little better about that day.”

Rather than saying anything, she decided to let the chuckles run their course. Knowing that today he could get a laugh out of what a terrible girlfriend she had been before made her feel a little lighter somehow.

After he’d collected himself, he gave her a rueful smile. “So that’s what it was. You dragged me along for fashion advice. You must have been terribly disappointed at having your improvised plan ruined by a moron. Cause what the fuck do I know about fashion?”

“Not a whole lot, going by your own personal fashion sense, Mr. Ripped Shirts,” she replied with a grin and a shrug, then let her eyes linger on the formal suit he was wearing for a bit. “You do clean up nice though, it has to be said.”

“I don’t remember giving a lot of input at the mall,” he confessed.

“Oh, you gave plenty of input, at least once I’d worked out The System.”

“The System?”

“I told you, I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I was just grabbing stuff off the racks at random and trying them on. Pretty soon, I stopped looking at the clothes and started watching your face instead.”

“My face?”

She nodded. “As you said, you were miserable that day. And whenever you’re unhappy about something, there’s this dimple that forms on your forehead.” Sitting up slightly, she stretched out her arm to point at a spot between his brows. “Right there. It was there for most of the day. But every so often, when I came out of the changing room, it would vanish. I took it as a sign that you liked what you saw. So whatever I was wearing at the time went into the maybe pile.”

“That sounds like a horribly inefficient way of doing things,” he commented, rubbing the spot she had indicated.

Sunset shrugged. “It was. But it got us there in the end. And in the shoe store, the only non-dimple I got was for a pair of heels,” she said, bringing the topic back around to where it had started, “hence I submit to the jury: It’s guys like you that are the reason why womankind will forever be tortured by uncomfortable footwear.”

She’d expected another chuckle out of her playful accusation, but Flash went quiet for a bit. “I guess I was always an easy to read fool, huh?”

Now she regretted telling him that story. That must have brought up some painful memories for him. “You’re not a fool, Flash,” she told him earnestly, “just honest to a fault. And yes, that made you an easy target for the manipulations of someone like me. But I’m glad that never changed about you. Rather than becoming like me, you made the right choice and dumped my sorry ass before senior year.”

“Sunset …”

She didn’t want to hear whatever he was about to say in response. Knowing him, it was probably an apology for breaking up with her, as if he owed her any apologies. So Sunset played it off with a forced laugh and a wave of her hand. “Anyway, at least we can both agree that our first date was an epic disaster. It makes me wonder how you’ve put up with me as long as you did. I really was such an awful …”

“Stop it!”

Fully on track to deliver some more self-deprecating remarks, Sunset suddenly found herself shut up while looking at an expression on Flash’s face that he seldom showed, genuine anger.

He must have realized it too, because his features softened almost immediately as he looked away in embarrassment. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to snap. It’s just, I can’t stand it when you put yourself down like that. And our first date wasn’t a total disaster.” A soft smile came to his lips. “Remember right before we left?”

“You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”

Flash sighed and closed his eyes to help him remember. “It was down by the food court. I was exhausted. I’d sat down to rest for a moment, and when I looked up, I’d lost sight of you.” He chuckled ruefully. “For a split second, I thought you’d just left because you hated our date so much, that I’d done something to upset you, and I’d blown my chance with you.”

Sunset quirked an eyebrow and couldn’t help herself from stating the obvious. “Hey, genius. The reason you were so exhausted was because you were lugging around my shopping bags all day. I wouldn’t have just flaked and left them with you.”

He laughed at that, and Sunset was glad that some of the gloom from moments ago seemed to have lifted so easily. “I think we’ve established that, even with the honest to a fault defense, fourteen-year-old me was kind of an idiot. Anyway, when you came back, you brought me a drink. You remember what it was?”

She shrugged and replied without so much as a pause: “Sprite Zero.”

“Without ice,” he pointed out.

“So?” Sunset asked perplexed. “That’s your favorite.”

“Ah, but don’t you see? Therein lies the contradiction,” he said, closing his eyes and wagging his index finger like he was Phoenix Wright from the Ace Attorney games, a title they’d played together extensively when Flash had introduced her to the amazing world of videogames, “you’ve pointed it out yourself in your earlier testimony. We’d barely known each other for two weeks back then. How could you have known my favorite soda?”

“Objection!” Sunset said, taking the bait and wagging her finger like Miles Edgeworth. “It was just a coincidence.”

She could see the recognition in his eyes as they embarked on a playful argument the likes of which they hadn’t had in years. “Objection! You knew full well back then.”

Sunset shook her head, shrugged and gave her adversary a shit-eating grin. “If that’s what you think, then present your evidence, counsel.”

Flash nodded. “Take that!” He pointed straight at the drinks standing on the coffee table next to them, hers with ice and his without ice. “The proof is in the ice!”

“The ice?”

He nodded again. “You knew I didn’t like ice with my soda. And the cup you brought me that day had no ice!”

Feeling herself on the back foot, Sunset wondered briefly why they were suddenly having a mock courtroom battle about soft drinks, but she wasn’t one to back down from an argument, so she pressed on. “Objection! After what I’d put you through that day, getting you a drink was hardly something praiseworthy. I just happened to pick your favorite flavor, and the barista just happened to give me one without ice.”

“Objection!” Aren’t you taking this bit a little too far? “It was a late summer day, and I know that all the stalls at the food court put ice in the drinks by default. So you had to have ordered it without ice deliberately.”

“…”

“Well, what is it, counsel?”

“Alright, fine!” She picked up one of the sofa cushions and threw it at his head. “I saw you order that drink at the cafeteria the day before, and I also noticed that you picked the ice cubes out of your cup. Happy now?”

Flash smiled. “Very. I so very rarely get to win one of our arguments.”

Sunset sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Was that the point of this exercise? Anyway, I retract my earlier statement. Fourteen-year-old Flash was an idiot after all for reading so much into a stupid soda.”

“Was he?” Flash picked up the tv remote and pressed a few buttons to get a certain something to play. “Exhibit B.”

Sunset stared blankly at the screen while the familiar drone of engine noises echoed around the room. “Monster trucks?” she asked when she turned back towards him. “Now you’ve lost me completely.”

“You don’t like monster trucks,” he stated plainly.

“I don’t hate them or anything, but yeah, I don’t much care,” she admitted.

“So why do you have a monster track rally from three years ago taped to your DVR?”

Raising her shoulders and sinking deeper into the sofa, Sunset pulled her hair across the bottom of her face to hide her blush. She suspected he knew the answer. “Because you like them, and back then I wanted to have something I could just put on in the background when I had you over. Also, you were so upset when the original Bigfoot retired, I could never bring myself to tape over the old recordings.”

He smiled as if he’d just landed a decisive blow, and for some reason the way her heart was currently beating so fast somehow confirmed that he’d scored that particular point, whatever it was. “See? This is what I mean. You’re so quick to demonize the person you used to be, and yeah, you did some awful things. But there was always this observant and kind girl just underneath the surface that nobody but me seemed to notice. That’s why I can’t stand it when you pretend like the person you used to be was this irredeemable villain who is no longer here. After all, that’s the you I fell in love with. Unph!!!” His musings were unceremoniously interrupted by a grunt of pain.

Having delivered a swift kick to the ribs, with more force than she had honestly intended, Sunset stood up from the couch and turned her back towards him. She couldn’t take it anymore. “Why are you saying all this? Why are you here, Flash?” And why am I fighting you so hard on the old me having any redeemable qualities?

He turned off the tv, the room becoming quiet. “Because I couldn’t stand the thought of you sitting here all night in the dark and self-flagellating the person you used to be, my ex-girlfriend. She wasn’t perfect, but we truly had something special. Even though everyone else has forgiven you, you’ve never forgiven yourself, have you? I know because I’m the same. I haven’t forgiven myself for giving up on you, on us, right before you managed to become who you always were in my eyes.” He shook his head sadly and added quietly: “And sometimes I wonder if it was me who held you back all these years.”

Sunset was quiet, her shoulders slumping in defeat. This was a mistake. After our talk at Camp Everfree, I thought we could start over as friends. But there’s just too much baggage, isn’t there?She jumped slightly when she suddenly felt his hand on her shoulder.

“Sunset, be honest with me.” She could hear him swallow behind her. “The reason you’re here tonight, the reason why you wouldn’t go to the prom no matter how much your friends asked, isn’t it because of the promise we made?”

“… So you do remember.”

“Of course, I do. We promised each other that we’d share the first dance at senior prom. It was our last promise before we broke up.”

“I’m not your girlfriend anymore, Flash, so I couldn’t keep that promise,” she told him, still not turning around to face him. “If I went, I’d have danced with someone else. Even if it had been something innocent like a goofy dance with the girls, it would have meant breaking that promise right in front of your eyes. I thought if I could just stay home tonight, even if I couldn’t keep it, at least I wouldn’t have broken yet another promise to you. I couldn’t do that to you.”

Sunset could hear something rustle behind her as Flash evidently took his phone from his pocket and a song began to play, Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence. As the music played on, she didn’t resist as he gently put his arms around her from behind. It didn’t take long for her body to betray her and move along with his gentle swaying.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her lips suddenly feeling dry as sandpaper.

“Helping you keep your promise,” he said quietly, though she detected a hint of uncertainty in his voice, “and keeping my own, if you’ll let me.”

Sunset stepped out of his embrace, breaking the hold. When she turned around, there was a look of disappointment on his face, but also a little resignation as if he’d expected the possibility of rejection and steeled himself for it beforehand. After a moment of looking at him like that, she stepped closer and gently placed her left hand on his shoulder.

Flash looked up, some hope and a small smile returning to his eyes as he took her right hand with his left and placed his right on her hip, resuming the slow movement to the music from before.

“One dance isn’t gonna make up for all the mistakes I made,” Sunset told him quietly.

“Again with the self-deprecation,” he said with a sigh and lowered his eyes. “You’re not the only one who has made mistakes they regret, you know. I never apologized for the way I treated you during the Battle of the Bands. I was awful.”

Sunset shook her head. “There’s nothing there you need to feel sorry for. It was the Sirens.”

“I know, but …” He sighed. “Yes, they manipulated us. But it’s not like they emptied our heads and puppeted us. There had to be something there for them to tap into, some lingering resentment. And there was also the way I was chasing Twilight around that time, right in front of you, without considering your feelings one bit. That wasn’t the Sirens. That was all me being a jerk.”

“Flash,” she told him reassuringly, “we weren’t together anymore. You had every right to pursue some genuine happiness.” She looked away while continuing the slow dance, slowly working up the courage to say: “Why didn’t you ask me to write to her in the journal before the prom? She might have come over for tonight if you’d asked her to be your date.”

“No, she wouldn’t have,” he said much more quickly and with much more certainty than she’d expected. “You remember how we all got stuck in Equestria for a bit during the Spring Fling?”

“Uh-huh.”

He drew in a deep breath. “While we were waiting for you and that student of hers to set up the portal thingy for a large group, Princess Twilight and I had a long talk.”

“About what?” Sunset asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

“About the many ways in which we don’t make sense. About how we enjoyed that night at the Fall Formal, but then kinda fell in love with the idea of being in love, not necessarily with each other. In a weird way, I’m grateful to our Twilight for showing up when she did. I know they’re not the same person, but that kinda put things into perspective for me.”

Sunset was torn between several feelings at that exact moment. She felt sorry that it hadn’t worked out for them. Then from somewhere deep inside, she felt happy that they weren’t a thing and likely wouldn’t be. And finally, she felt guilty for being happy at the thought of Flash still being single.

The music stopped, and they both stood there awkwardly for a moment. “Thanks for the dance,” Sunset eventually said. “For not making me a liar.”

“Sure thing,” Flash said, but he made no motion to let go of her. “Sunset. I’ve been thinking about us a lot lately.”

No, no, no, no! Please don’t say it. Please don’t say what I think you’re about to say.

“I didn’t come here tonight for this to be our last dance. I …” He paused, swallowing nervously. Being as close as they were, Sunset could feel his rapid heartbeat, or maybe it was her own heart that was threatening to leap out of her chest. “I want us to give it another shot. I miss you. I’ve missed you since we broke up, and I thought maybe starting over as friends would be enough, but it’s not. I …”

“Stop!” She interrupted him with a choked cry. Just don’t finish that sentence, please! I’m begging you. … I don’t think I have the strength to say no right now if you keep going. “Drop it, Flash. Please, just drop it. Drop it, okay?” She was begging with tears in her eyes.

There was a long pause, but Flash spoke on softly. “I can’t. I came here tonight to win you back, Sunset. And I dunno, maybe that was a fool’s errand. As I said earlier, I know the futility of trying to change your mind when it’s made up. But I’ve also known you for a long time, and I don’t think your mind is as made up as you’re telling yourself right now.”

Sunset remained quiet. Even if she had said anything at this point, she probably wouldn’t have heard her own voice over the hammering of her heart in her ears. She lowered her head into his chest, hiding from his gaze under her red and gold mane.

“I think there’s still something there,” he said with certainty. “I wasn’t sure when I knocked on your door, but I’m sure of it now, and I think you feel it too, or you wouldn’t be putting up so many walls. You’d just come out and tell me no, gently but firmly, because that’s just how you are.”

Sunset’s whole body was shaking, from what she couldn’t tell. Fear. Guilt. Shame. All of the above? But he stood firm, holding on to her, comfortingly.

“If your answer is no, then tell me,” he said. “I’ll take the rejection like a man. But would you at least tell me why? In your own words? Don’t I deserve that much?”

Yes, you do. “I’m scared,” she admitted in a whisper. “Scared of making the same mistakes again. Scared of hurting you again. Scared of losing you again. I just got you back in my life as my friend.”

“I’m scared, too.” Flash picked up her chin between his thumb and index finger, lifting up her face gently to meet his eyes again. She could see tears on his face as well. And rather than drying his own, he gently wiped away hers. “I am scared, and that’s how I know this is real. We both made mistakes, individual mistakes. But maybe if we make the next mistakes together, it’ll be a little less scary. … I want you back, Sunset Shimmer. I want there to be an us again, because I …”

“Wait!” Sunset’s hand flashed upwards, her fingers pressing against his lips before the words ‘I love you’ could come tumbling out. He’d spoken those words in their previous relationship, once. Only once, and she hadn’t said them back. She looked into those blue eyes, full of honest feelings, and the last of her resolve came crumbling down. Damn you, ... you dorky, romantic, handsome bastard. It’s just not fair.“Wait, please. It’s not fair. I’ve been running away all night while you’ve been laying everything on the line. Will you let me say it first?”

He looked back at her and nodded slowly.

Sunset reached up to take his face in both her hands and looked at him for a moment. When had he gotten so tall? Right now, she actually felt like she could have used the extra height a set of heels provided. Instead, she stood up on her tiptoes to reach him, put her lips on his and closed her eyes. The gentle grip on her hips grew firmer yet as he steadied her and drew her in closer to return the kiss. When she pulled back after what felt like an eternity, she opened her eyes to look directly into his and said with a sniff and a smile: “I love you, Flash Sentry. If you would have me back, I’d love to be your girlfriend again.”

“I love you,” he replied without a moment’s hesitation, and they both shared another kiss in the silent darkness.

Sunset rested her head against his chest once more. He was still holding her by the waist, as if scared she’d suddenly change her mind and start running again. But she had no intention of running anymore. The shaking from earlier had ceased entirely. For the first time in a long time, things felt … right between them. Yet, she found herself chuckling in spite of herself. “Are we just the same two idiots who had no clue what they were doing from four years ago?”

“I think,” he said, stroking her hair like he used to, “that maybe we should stop being so hard on our fourteen-year-old selves. They got us here, didn’t they? This time we’re … older, arguably a little bit wiser.”

“Speak for yourself.” They both chuckled at that. “But yeah, they weren’t so bad. Maybe those two love-struck idiot teens had it right all along, and we were the morons for mucking things up and making it more complicated than it should have been.”

Flash reached out towards his phone and pressed a button to restart the music. “Thank you for keeping your promise,” he said, “for letting me have the first dance with my best friend. Now, may I ask for this next dance with my girlfriend?” He offered her his hand.

Sunset took it and smiled back at him. “I’d love to.”

The End