Twilight woke up.

Fractured sunlight streamed through her windows. She heard birds chirping and Spike barking from somewhere downstairs. Sweat stains covered her clothes, and as she sat up and yawned, she saw that Luna's necklace had lost its glow and cracked down the middle.

The effort that went into creating a shared dream like that had to be fascinating, It must have taken an immense amount of power, especially to have pulled them together across dimensions. The magic she had ingested could have interacted with Luna's necklace and acted like some sort of beacon, allowing her to reach across time and space so they could—

Twilight blinked, then burst into a fit of giggles. After everything, here she was, still trying to figure out the minute details.

That was who she was.

Twilight looked down at the diary, still lying open on her desk. She had poured her heart out into it last night: her past, her frustrations. It felt good. She had needed it. Still, it was a book, and all things considered, the ending left a lot to be desired. She could do better.

Twilight picked up her pen and wrote her final diary entry.

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

Thank you for being my friend.

"Princess Celestia did what!?" Princess Twilight sputtered, nearly choking on her morning coffee.

Sunset chuckled, then lifted a napkin over to Twilight. "I know, right? I'm sorry for shutting you out last night, by the way. I wasn't in an even remotely good place. Still, I think I've finally settled things with Celestia. There's still a lot of work left to do, but, well—that’ll have to wait."

Twilight cleared her throat. "So you're dead set on going back to Twilight, then? I'm not trying to second guess you or anything, just know that I really will be keeping the portal closed for a while this time. I'm sure I can fix it eventually, but I have no idea how long it will take."

"I'm sure," Sunset said. She reached up, touching the dream ruby hanging around her neck. "For one, I have a suspicion Celestia will be watching over me in her own way. And as for Twilight... I can make it work. I was so worried about trying to find my future, I kinda forgot about the present. I don't have to have all the answers right away. I should be taking time to just appreciate the people I'm with."

"Who knows," Twilight said with a grin. "Maybe it'll end up being your destiny anyway. Sunset Shimmer: genius, magical prodigy, rebel, troublemaker, demon, redeemer, hero; destined to be a housewife to the alternate counterpart of yours truly."

Sunset rolled her eyes just about as hard as she could. "If that's really the way you think things are going to play out, you need to go back to friendship school. I'm my own mare. Twilight's passion for science is inspiring, and I'll do my best to let her take the spotlight for a time, but I won't just let her beat me without a fight. I'll find something that sparks that same fire in me."

Twilight sipped at her coffee, a peaceful smile stretching across her face. "And you'll have plenty of friends to help you along the way. One of these days, I need to introduce you to all their pony counterparts."

"Someday," Sunset said, setting her empty mug down on the table. "But for now, I have a prom to catch."

"You look beautiful, sweetheart. Smile!"

Twilight did her best to smile, wringing her hands through the dark blue fabric of her dress as she stood outside the entrance to Canterlot High. The dress Rarity had made for her wasn't exactly comfortable, but she had to admit she looked stunning. Hair down, makeup, the works.

Cadence smiled, then put the camera down. "I know you said you guys had worked it out together, but are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." She had never felt more okay. Twilight grinned, then stepped back and twirled, her dress flaring up around her legs. She was able to manage it without tripping all over her heels, too. "Have I mentioned recently that you guys are amazing, the best siblings ever, and I love you both?"

Shining Armor laughed, then clapped his hand down on Twilight's shoulder. "Just go have fun with your lady-friend already."

Twilight winked, then turned and made her way towards the school entrance, filing in with the other arriving students.

"And take plenty of pictures!" Cadance called out as Twilight passed through the doors.

Twilight took a deep breath, then scanned the crowd.

"Hey," a familiar voice said from behind her.

Twilight spun and saw Sunset there, waiting for her, leaning against the inner wall. Her dress was long and ruffled; it clung to her body in all the right places, and shone with a fire to match Sunset’s heart.

"You look beautiful," Twilight mumbled, all thought fleeing from her brain.

Sunset strode forward, wrapped her arms around Twilight, dipped her low, and kissed her.

"I'm sorry," Sunset said when she broke free of the kiss, staring into Twilight's eyes.

Twilight swallowed, face burning. "Enough of that, we already figured it all out, remember? Let's just have fun tonight."

Sunset grinned, then pulled Twilight back to her feet. "You're right. My bad." She held her arm out, and they linked their arms together. "Shall we?"

The couple made their way to the gym together to find their five friends waiting for them.

"Nice of y'all to make an appearance," Applejack drawled, standing at the head of the group with her arms crossed.

Twilight blinked, looking everyone up and down. They all looked rather annoyed. "Uh, hey. You got my texts, right? About everything being okay?"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because it's not like we were worried or any—"

"I can't believe you two!"

Everyone froze, then turned to look at the source of the sudden outburst.

Fluttershy strode forward, baring her teeth. "We. Are. Your. Friends!" Fluttershy shouted, punctuating each word by poking either Twilight or Sunset hard in the chest. "You can't just shut us out like that!"

Twilight stared, her mouth hanging open, and she glanced over at Sunset. "Uhhhhhhh..."

"I know you guys have your issues, and I know you had things you needed to work out with yourselves and each other. But that's no excuse for treating your friends like dirt, leaving us to worry when all we wanted to do was help! Not to mention ruining Pinkie Pie's party. She worked really hard on that, and you both need to apologize to her right now!"

Pinkie Pie blinked, then waved her hands back and forth. "N-no, really, I didn't care about that, I just—"

"Apologize!" Fluttershy snapped.

Rather than comply with the demand, all Twilight could manage to do was stare at Fluttershy. Her brain couldn’t even process what was happening right now, and a quick glance around the room showed that nobody else was faring much better than her.

Fluttershy finally started to wilt as she realized everyone was paying exclusive attention to her. “That is, um…” she mumbled, twirling her hair through her fingers, “if you want to, I suppose, that would be nice.”

There was another beat, and everyone burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry!” Twilight managed to get out in between giggles.

“We’re sorry,” Sunset repeated, then grabbed Fluttershy and pulled her into a hug. “I mean it. You’re right, we’re both total jerks. Especially since you told me to just talk out my problems with Twilight in the first place, and I put it off to the point where it ended up almost ruining everything.”

Twilight joined the hug. “Friendship is tough sometimes, you know? It adds a lot of variables that you have to consider for any given situation, and it can be easy to forget that ignoring those variables can hurt people.”

“Group hug!” Pinkie Pie shouted, and they all piled in together.

Rarity sighed, wiping at her eyes. “Look, we all love the two of you, okay? You’re both your own people, and you’re free to chase after whatever destinies you fancy, but we want to be a part of your lives too. Decide what you will, but please, at least include us in the conversation.”

“I’ll do my best,” Sunset said, as the hug broke apart. “Thanks, girls. I think we needed to hear that.”

Twilight nodded. “Me too.”

Fluttershy blushed, fidgeting back and forth. “I, um… right. You two have fun, okay?”

“Speaking of, there’s something I want to take care of real quick,” Sunset said, dragging Twilight with her across the room and tapping Principal Celestia on the shoulder.

Principal Celestia turned around and raised her cup of punch in greetings. “You ladies look quite lovely. I trust you’re enjoying yourselves?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, it’s… magical. Listen, do you remember that offer you talked to me about a month ago?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Offer?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I’m afraid that offer had a somewhat limited timeframe, Sunset. The semester’s practically over; there’s not much more I can do.”

Sunset sighed and lowered her head. “Look, I’ve… been going through a lot lately: trying to find my place in the world, interpersonal journey, blah blah. I put your offer aside because I thought it wouldn’t matter one way or another. But now… I know it’s probably too late, but do you have any summer programs available?”

Celestia blinked, then smiled and placed a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Well, it might not be the most ideal situation, but I’ll see if I can pull some strings. You have to promise to stick to it, though.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Sunset said, grinning.

“What was that about?” Twilight asked as they made their way across the dance floor.

“If I’m going to live here,” Sunset said, squeezing Twilight’s hand, “then I’m not going to half-ass it anymore. I’ve spent so much time thinking that nothing in this world mattered because I would just be returning to Equestria eventually. That changed a bit with you and the girls, but even then... Now though, I’m not going to look back. This world better watch out, because Sunset Shimmer is finally entering the ring.”

Twilight giggled, then grabbed Sunset’s other hand. “Come on, let’s go dance.”

Step, step, rock-step, step. Sunset danced back and forth with Twilight. They had at least gotten to practice together a little before prom. She was able to handle it a lot more gracefully than her girlfriend, but it didn’t really matter. Twilight was lovely and charming, even with two left feet.

The atmosphere of the dance was intoxicating; Rarity’s dresses had done their job, and she could feel countless eyes watching them. They looked like a couple right out of a movie, and the contrasting colors of their dresses flowed together in beautiful harmony, which was more than enough to mask their clumsy feet.

Sunset had attracted attention like this before, in school dances past. Back then, she had reveled in it, clinging to her popularity and social power like a drowning man to driftwood.

Now, none of it mattered. She only had eyes for the girl in front of her: Twilight Sparkle.

“I love it when you look at me like that,” Twilight whispered, her cheeks bright red.

“I can’t help it,” Sunset said, grinning. “It’s you.”

“I’m supposed to be the one with an unreasonable amount of affection, you know,” Twilight said, stumbling on the next turn.

Sunset caught her, and turned the movement into a flourish. “They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? What we just went through, I just… I don’t know. I feel it now, stronger than before. I want to be with you, Twilight.”

Twilight somehow turned even redder, but stopped dancing to lean up and kiss Sunset. She heard a few whoops and hollers around them, but Sunset just ignored them, grabbing the back of Twilight’s head and kissing back.

“I love you,” they both said at the same time, before bursting into a fit of giggles.

To Sunset’s, and even more so, Twilight’s considerable surprise, there was a flash of light and a warm radiance as Twilight’s hair grew longer and her ears became equine. Sunset felt the same transformation in herself, though she was more used to it by now.

Twilight shivered, her new ears twitching and her long hair flowing down her body. “Did… what I think just happened happen?”

The cheers around them doubled in volume, and Sunset nodded.

She could see Twilight’s eyes sparkling with curiosity, the gears in her head turning to try and make sense of her new anatomy.

Twilight took a deep breath, no doubt to go on a long tangent.

Sunset kissed her instead.

Twilight leaned on Sunset’s shoulder as she fumbled with the keys to Sunset’s house, cursing under her breath.

“I still can’t believe Lyra and Bon Bon won Prom Queen and, well, Queen,” Sunset muttered as they stumbled into her living room.

Twilight giggled. They were both a little tipsy from Pinkie Pie’s after-after-prom party, but at least nothing bad had happened this time. “Aww, come on, they were a really cute couple, you have to admit.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “For most of high school, those two were so deep in the closet it might as well have been in another dimension. ‘Best friends’ my ass. They only started dating after we did.”

“Oh, did you see Flash Sentry? I don’t think he knew we were dating. Rainbow Dash was talking to him and apparently he was all like, ‘Man, I need to get out of this town. Meet some nice normal girls in college.”

They both laughed even harder, Twilight supporting herself on Sunset’s couch.

“I almost feel sorry for the guy, but eh,” Sunset said, grinning. “You want some water or anything?”

“Sure.”

As Sunset left the living room, a brilliant idea came to Twilight, and by the time Sunset came back, Twilight had stripped naked, and now lay sprawled across the couch. “Draw me like one of your Prench girls.”

Sunset stared, raising an eyebrow. “Uh… what? Twilight, I can’t draw.”

Twilight felt herself heat up. “It’s a reference to… nevermind,” she mumbled, sitting back up and covering herself.

“Sorry, don’t think I’ve seen that one.” Sunset set the glass of water on the coffee table, then sat next to Twilight, throwing her arm over her shoulder and pulling her close. Sunset turned her head and breathed air into Twilight’s ear, making her shiver.

“We could just head up to the bedroom right now, if you want,” Sunset murmured.

Twilight squeaked, then nodded. “Yes, please.”

Sunset looked out her bedroom window, the sun rising up over the horizon, the light casting shadows over her bare skin.

They hadn’t exactly gotten much sleep, but despite the exhaustion in her body, Sunset couldn’t sleep. Her mind was on fire, still processing everything that had happened.

It was a new day, a new era, and the future stretched before her with limitless possibilities.

“Mmm,” Twilight mumbled, struggling in the bedsheets as she sat up, rubbing at her eyes. “Sunset…?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Sunset said, still staring out the window. “I’ll come back to bed soon.”

Twilight stood up, making her way across the room and throwing her arms around Sunset from behind. “Something on your mind?”

Of course there was.

“I’m still scared,” Sunset said, closing her eyes. “About the future.”

“Ah.” Twilight snuggled closer, burying her face into Sunset’s hair and intertwining their fingers together. “I’m kind of scared too, y’know. But it’s not going to be a sudden, tragic change. Just a kind of... gradual one, where one day we look back and wonder how our lives ever ended up this way. Kinda like this relationship, now that I think about it. Yes, I’m scared—I don’t think I’ve been this scared since I was a kid—but I’m excited. I’m ready.”

Sunset nodded, then turned and gave Twilight a kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah, me too.”