Twilight settled beside Sunset, crossing her ankles and clutching her own wrists around her legs. A glass bottle of soda snuggled between her feet. Sunset sat back with her legs against the grass and her hands propping her up. A drink of a similar type lay against her side. Twilight looked over the town. “I’ve never been here. Everything seems so small.”
“Mhm. The wind picks up during the day and if you close your eyes, it’s the closest thing to feeling like you’re flying while on the ground.” Sunset looked around at the trees, mountains, the river that snaked through the valley, and the multitudes of colors splashed across the sky. No cell towers or cars. She could imagine the whistling birds greeting the pegasi as they arranged the clouds if she closed her eyes.
“Really?” Twilight asked. Her voice was weirdly small.
Sunset turned to her, snapping out of her melancholy instantly. “Yes, really,” Sunset answered. “And it’s great. Free.” A heartbeat of silence spanned between them. “It wasn’t your fault what happened.”
Twilight hid behind her legs. “I know.”
Sunset chuckled. “You know, I wasn’t lying when I said I did the same thing. Sort of. I stole a magic crown and turned into a horrible demon monster.”
Two violet eyes peeked out from above her knees.
“We’ve already forgiven you, Twilight. I understand what you went through. It won’t happen again.”
Twilight set her chin on her knees and stared at Sunset.
Sunset mock-groaned and rolled her head back. “Oh, no. What have I done this time?” As much as Sunset loathed being “studied” by people, being picked apart like a lab experiment, she fought to put down a smile as she saw Twilight doing it. Their world’s Twilight Sparkle, too shy and socially awkward and bullied to properly speak to people much less try to get to know anything more than the superficial, trying to grasp a deeper understanding of everyone’s childhood bully, Sunset Shimmer, a brute who couldn’t keep a lid on her temper.
Twilight said, “You were nice to me when we first arrived. Everyone was. I know that’s because everyone thought I was Princess Twilight. Then you got… angry with me. Did you know I was capturing magic?”
To the point. Sunset’s smile fell and she pulled her head up. “Well, yes. You stole the portal and my magic. Then after what happened to Pinkie Pie, that just confirmed it.”
Twilight nodded. After a long moment, she asked, “Do you feel everyone’s emotions all the time?”
“Yeah. I can feel them and understand them. I know what people are feeling around me all the time. Why?” Sunset’s eyebrows furrowed.
Twilight grimaced and she looked away. “Um… well… when I took your magic… did that mean you couldn’t do that, anymore?”
Sunset grimaced. “Yeah. No, I couldn’t.”
She mumbled, “Yeah, I wouldn’t have been happy about that, either.”
A short silence stretched between them. Sunset sighed. “Twilight, it’s not your fault. You didn’t mean it.”
“When I was younger, I didn’t care about making a lot of friends. But I always had my bigger brother. Then he graduated and went to college. I had to go to Crystal Prep Academy and grow up. I did everything alone. I thought that was the worst it could be. I didn’t even consider what you were feeling after I took away your magic.”
Sunset closed her eyes. “Twilight, you didn’t intentionally take my magic. And yeah, it was bad, but I got it back in the end. You regret it now because you’re a good person.”
Twilight’s gaze darkened. “Yeah, after nearly destroying this world.”
“That was Principal Cinch’s fault, and those other Crystal Prep students,” Sunset reminded her.
Twilight stiffened upon hearing her name and her fingers curled a little tighter.
Sunset sighed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned–it’s in the past, now. And we can’t change that.”
A short silence stretched between them.
Twilight asked, “What… is the other Twilight like?”
Sunset snorted and picked up her drink. “She’s confident, smart, an expert on friendship magic, an expert magic wielder, a level-headed and wise leader, caring, efficient, practical, organized, and kind of naïve. But I can blame that last part on being a pony. All ponies are naïve. I was when I first came here.”
Twilight shuffled her drink with her feet but didn’t pick it up. “Do you guys know each other?”
“Yeah, a little. We’re friends, in a way,” Sunset responded. “Like… pen pals that actually meet up. Or something.”
Twilight snorted. “Technically, you wouldn’t be pen pals, then. You would be pals.”
Sunset grinned. “But we live in different worlds, so we mostly talk through ink. Hence: pen.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Words have meaning, you know.”
“I know.” Sunset grinned smugly and took another sip. “Did you want any of that? It’s not gonna be cold forever, you know.”
Twilight looked down at her drink. She plucked it out of the grass, grabbed it by the head, and tried to unscrew it. Unfortunately, the bottlecap was stuck fast. Too fast for poor Twilight as she wrestled with the bottle at different angles and even used the bottom of her shirt for leverage.
Sunset sighed dramatically. “Need help?”
Twilight stared at her drink, defeated, and then Sunset with the most heartbroken eyes one could conceive over a bottle of soda. “Yes. Please.”
Sunset set her drink down between her legs and took Twilight’s. With one twist and barely a hitch, the bottlecap popped off. Sunset handed the drink back with a victorious smirk and held the bottlecap between her fingers.
Twilight stared at her for a moment before recognizing the bottle was being presented to her and she took it. “Thank you,” she managed.
Then, she looked ahead of herself at the valley. “It’s really pretty out here.”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah. And it’s even better at night.”
Twilight hummed inquisitively, throwing a look back. Sunset pointed up. The sun had fallen deeper into the horizon and now most of the color was gone from the sky. Twilight’s eyes widened. “I can see… so many stars…”
“That’s not all of them,” Sunset reminded her. “It’s dusk, just past daytime. That magical time when the sun is below the horizon and you can see the stars, but you can still see some of the sun. Also known as twilight.” Sunset shrugged. “I always thought the forest felt a little more… magical during twilight.”
Twilight looked away. “It’s probably the shadows and hues of the sunlight since the sun’s light is incredibly dim at this hour. The lighting can make anything feel strange!” She chuckled.
“Yeah, maybe,” Sunset agreed, taking the last swig of her drink. She lay the empty bottle beside herself and played with both bottlecaps in her fingers. She kept her eyes on Twilight.
Twilight took another sip and looked at her bottle. “Hey, you never gave me my bottle cap back.”
“You’re right! I didn’t.”
“Can I have my bottle cap back?”
“Mmm… nope. It’s mine, now.” Sunset tossed it in the air and caught it.
“What else am I gonna use as a lid?” Twilight complained.
“Just drink it. I did.” Sunset shrugged. “If you don’t want it, I’ll have it.”
Twilight pursed her lips. Her gaze followed what was her bottlecap as Sunset flipped it from the back of her thumb like a coin and snatched it again.
Sunset snickered and splayed her fingers out, pinching the bottlecaps between her fingers. “Fine, you can have it back, if you want it.”
Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed and then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. She reached forward to grab the bottlecap. Sunset pulled her hand back. Twilight blinked and reached forward farther. Sunset, biting back a snicker, pulled back farther. Finally, once Twilight was leaning over Sunset, she groaned, “Sunset, come on!”
“What?” Sunset cocked her head. “If you want it, take it.”
“Fine.” Twilight reared back just enough to set her drink down and then lunged for the bottlecap. Sunset pulled her arm up. As the younger student hadn’t gone for her arm and instead for the bottlecap, she completely missed and ended up landing face-first in the grass.
The older student snickered. “Nice try but… no.”
Twilight shot a foul look at her. She pulled herself up and tried to reach for Sunset’s hand but was just out of reach. Twilight sighed and sat back. Then, she grabbed Sunset’s other hand and yanked it back. Sunset yelped as she was thrown off balance and fell back into the grass. Twilight lunged for the bottlecaps again.
“Nuh-uh!” Sunset laughed as she closed them in her fist and rolled away. “You cheated!”
“You cheated!” Twilight flung the accusation right back.
“M-me?” Sunset sputtered and slapped a hand to her chest. “I would never! I–hey!” She fell back into the grass, away from their spot. Sunset clambered off, sticking her tongue out at her with a mocking laugh and showing off the secured goods before running off. She hadn’t gotten all the way to her feet yet before Twilight was on her, grappling to get the pilfered bottlecap. Sunset ended up falling from the imbalance, and the plot of grass they landed on was not as coincidentally level as the patch they picked out to sit on. The two went tumbling down the hill. It wasn’t a steep hill by any means, nor was it littered with dangerous material. However, at some point partway down, she did shift from protecting the worthless bottlecaps to holding onto Twilight, keeping her head safe from the rocks they might encounter. It was too dark to tell. Human eyes were better than pony eyes in many aspects, but dark sight was by far not one of them.
They rolled to a stop at the foot of the hill.
After a moment of silence, Sunset asked, “Are you okay?” She loosened her grip and found, at that moment, Twilight had been clinging to her.
Twilight released her instantly. “I-I didn’t expect to–I didn’t–hill.” She stammered out.
Sunset, still lying on the rock-spattered grass as Twilight was still on top of her, shrugged. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. I fall down here a lot. Big hill.”
Twilight chuckled. “Yeah, a lot. I do that, too. I’m sorry. Oh my gosh.” She scrambled to her feet as if someone had set her on fire. “I’m so sorry.” She held out her hand and helped Sunset to her feet.
Sunset laughed and brushed the grass out of her hair with her fingers. “It’s fine, Twilight! No big deal! You want to go back up and show me the constellations?”
Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Yes! I know all the ones that should be out this time of year!”
Author's Note
In a Deleted Scene from the Friendship Games, it reveals an unused plot thread of Sunset being homesick and/or tired of the mundane. Makes sense for a unicorn of all things, tbh. She's been here a while (30 moons is ~886 days or ~2.4 years, given a "moon" is a "moon cycle" and not a "month") but time works differently in the human world than Equestria. While only weeks have passed between the first and third movies, seasons have passed in Equestria. Maybe time slows and speeds up? Maybe it's inconsistent? Either way, Sunset has been here a while.
Twilight, dearest, is a different story. She's likely the outcome of what would have happened if she hadn't been sent to Ponyville and Princess Celestia was more manipulative, narcissistic, and cruel than kind, wise, and cautious. Or maybe a bullied version of Moon Dancer who didn't become prickly? I honestly really like Moon Dancer, especially as a foil to Twilight.
Oh, yeah, and... this ship is a breath away from being canon. I'm in the process of writing a slight AU rewrite of the EG series with some of my headcanons so... keep an eye out! :) It'll be fandom-blind-friendly, too! Most of my longer pieces tend to be, I hope. In the meantime, I hope you like my "Two friends having a drink on a hill under the stars" fic! :D
Fun fact: Twilight is my favorite time of day, specifically dusk. :) There's no other way to describe it other than magical, especially in a forest, like where I grew up. It's likely the hues of sunlight/angle of the sun rays from the sun below the horizon, blah blah blah, but it's still fantastical.