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The Shimmer of Magic

by Hakuno

Chapter 18: 18. Abdication

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Trixie slurped her milkshake, making a loud and half-annoying sound. They had agreed not to buy anything, so they could perform better at the pizza eating game. But Trixie could not resist the temptation of a cold chocolate milkshake with cinnamon. She was really hungry after hours of waiting, and the girls were starting to consider the option of ordering at least a light pastry.

“So I was thinking,” Rainbow said. Her right foot tapping the floor in rapid successions. “How about we make a band?”

“A band,” Applejack deadpanned.

“A rock band,” Rainbow added.

“As… interesting as that sounds,” Rarity said, “I don’t think we are suited for that.”

“Yes we are!” Rainbow insisted. “I play guitar, and I know that you play the piano.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I play for recreation, darling. Besides, I don’t see how a piano forte fits in a rock band. Especially considering your tastes.”

Rainbow groaned and then looked at Applejack. “How about you? Being a country girl, you must know how to play something!”

“Ah will ignore the offense behind that phrase,” Applejack replied, “and just point out that Ah play the harmonica. Not exactly a rock band instrument.”

Rainbow’s eyes then fell on Pinkie. “And you? Please tell me you play something!”

Pinkie smiled widely. “Oh! I can tots play the drum!” She smacked her index fingers on the table repeatedly, producing a loud set of unsynchronized and senseless thumps.

Fortunately, Rarity stopped her by grabbing one of her hands. “I believe that drummers need more than just energy, dear.”

While Pinkie leaned back on her chair with a pout, Rainbow was already looking over Fluttershy. “I bet you have a hidden talent with music!”

Fluttershy gave her an apologetic frown. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t need to apologize,” Rainbow said, as she gazed over Twilight, but huffed. “I don’t think you play anything either, right?”

“Actually,” Twilight said, straightening up in her seat. “I’m considered an expert with the flute, and I’m generally good with any wind instrument.”

Rainbow was already resigned when she, at last, looked at Trixie. A faint spark of hope in her eyes as she silently waited for an answer.

Trixie looked up over her milkshake and deadpanned. “Trixie’s hands are for illusions, not for music.”

Rainbow sighed in defeat and leaned back, crossing her arms and pouting.

Trixie fought the urge to chuckle at that. She took one last slurp to her milkshake as her eyes drifted to the rest of the girls. It still escaped her how they had accepted her just because she started hanging out with Sunset, and it was even more impressive that they didn’t seem to mind their relationship, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She wished everyone were like them.

As she leaned back and placed the empty cup on the table, she casually eyed Twilight, narrowing her eyes a little. That girl knew the Sunset of this world, and said that she was a worse bitch than Sunset ever was. Trixie wondered what would happen if that Sunset also became a good person, and she imagined her coming to Canterlot.

A stupid smile appeared on her face as the idea of two Sunsets in the same room came to her mind. She couldn’t help but entertain the silly thought of the two of them fighting over Trixie.

In that moment, Pinkie Pie decided to do the most random thing Trixie had seen her do in a very long time. It was a very fast set of movements, and Trixie had to take a moment to process everything.

First, Pinkie shuddered in a way that looked like she was being electrocuted. Then, her arms shot up her head as her hair seemed to flatten and smarm just to become poofy and curly in an instant. And finally, she produced a sound that resembled a mix of a snort, a sneeze, and a groan.

It looked painful, Trixie thought, and by the looks of the rest of the girls, it wasn’t something that happened on a regular basis.

When her weird movement ended, Pinkie found herself balancing on her coxis alone, her arms and legs lifted and frozen, and her eyes and mouth agape. She looked around the table, unable to understand herself just what was going on. Her heart hammered in her chest almost painfully, and cold sweat ran down her spine.

“Pinkie?” Twilight, who was right next to her, cautiously asked. “Are… Are you alright?”

“I…” Pinkie managed to say. Her throat was dry, and she felt the urge to lick her lips before speaking again. “I don’t know… That’s never happened before…”

Rarity, who was at Pinkie’s left side, placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with a worried expression. This helped Pinkie relax, and she slowly returned to a normal sitting position.

“That looked like Pinkie sense to me,” Rainbow said, leaning forward and on her arms.

“Pretty much,” Applejack admitted. “But it ain’t never this big.”

“Pinkie sense?” Trixie asked with a raised eyebrow.

Rarity nodded. “As impossible as it sounds, Pinkie Pie does have a kind of sixth sense. She sometimes foresees very random events, like “Someone’s going to forget an object”, or “Someone is in dire need of a hug”.”

“Yeah, right,” Trixie snorted.

“It’s true,” Pinkie said, not looking at anyone and rather focusing on the table. “But it’s usually just an itchy nose, or a twitchy ear… This is something completely different…” She placed a hand over her chest. “It doesn’t feel like a good thing. No good at all.” She grabbed her chin thoughtfully and leaned back, humming.

“Let’s get down the list,” she said. “A shudder means bad. The more I shudder, the badder it is. If my arms lurch, it means that something will break, the more they lurch, the bigger the thing that breaks is. My left ring finger touched my palm, that means bacon, and it did when I sneezed-groaned-snorted; a sneeze means friend. I mean, I’m hungry, but I wouldn’t eat a friend, amirite. A snort means unstoppable, and a groan means sad…” She hummed some more.

Trixie lifted a hand. “That sounds awfully specific.” She grimaced, feeling a turmoil in her stomach.

“I know, right?” Twilight replied, writing down what Pinkie said on a notebook. “I’ve been hanging out with Pinkie just a little longer than you, Trixie, and I’ve already come to know about the so-called Pinkie sense. And trust me, as random and impossible as it seems, it’s very much real.” She finished her notes and leaned back, taking the pen to her mouth in a thoughtful gesture and staring at her notebook. “I’ve been studying it since the first time I saw it. I know that, even if I can’t discover how or why it works, I can decipher the meaning of the combined movements.”

Pinkie leaned over to read Twilight’s notes. “Oh, cool! I only know I don’t like how it felt.”

Twilight hummed. “Well, it’s obvious that everything here is connected, but I don’t see how the bacon fits in here…” She tapped the pen on her mouth before speaking again. “But let’s go part by part. First, the shudder meaning bad, or bad news, most likely. Then, something breaking. It’s easy to infer that that’s the bad thing: Something big will break. And that is related to a friend. We also know that it’s sad and unstoppable.”

Applejack looked over the girls. “Do y’all have something that might break?”

“Aside from our phones?” Twilight asked while shaking her head, not taking her eyes out of her notes. “But the bacon part is what puzzles me. What does bacon have to do with everything else?”

“Maybe that friend is hungry?” Rainbow proposed. “I know I am.”

Trixie couldn’t help but imagine a rasher of bacon sitting in the middle of a white plate. Her stomach growled a little, and she wished that Sunset would hurry up and come soon.

Her eyes widened and her heart leaped as realization hit her like a bucket of ice water. She stood up so suddenly, her knees hit the table and startled the girls. “It’s Sunset,” she said, and almost instantly ran to the front door. The girls were fast to move and catch up with her.

She didn’t know why, but Trixie had a very bad feeling. She was sure that she had to hurry to the school and make sure that Sunset was ok. And she wished, with every fiber of her being, that the pinkie sense was just as stupid and impossible as it sounded.

~~~~~~~~

Wind blew hard against her hair, making it dance and twirl in weighless daze for just a second. The whole world stopped for an endless moment, only to being brought back to motion with a loud thump. She felt like her soul was being torn from her body, and she couldn’t even scream out the unbearable pain.

But if said pain was physical or emotional, she couldn’t really tell.

She watched helplessly at the hammer hitting the surface of the portal to Equestria, producing a nasty set of cracks. Dust and pebbles fell to the ground, and Sunset could see -she could feel tiny, virtually invisible sparks of magic, breaking off the statue and dispersing in thin air. Her heart shrunk in on itself, and she felt something shattering inside of her.

Lyra retrieved the hammer and looked at what she did with a big frown. She hadn’t expected that it was so resistant. She lifted the hammer again, but instead of aiming for the same surface, she decided to raise the stakes, and swung upward. The hammer hit one of the legs of the horse statue, effortlessly obliterating the piece of rock.

The statue, unable to hold with just one leg, began to tremble and crack, until it finally gave up and collapsed on itself. Lyra barely got out of the way as the sculpture fell and smashed, becoming a mere pile of whatever type of rock it was made of. She dropped the hammer and took a moment to admire her work. The base was cracked only where she hit it first, along with a couple of severances there where chunks of the sculpture fell.

Somehow, Lyra didn’t honestly feel like it was enough, but when she looked at Sunset, she knew that she had finally gotten even.

Sunset’s look was one of desperation and horror, and her skin had lost color, making her look like she had seen a ghost. Her mouth worked silent words as she swayed back and forth for a few seconds, taking her hands to her mouth, but not quite touching. Her breathe was cracking up as tears began falling through her cheeks. She tried stepping forward, but her body didn’t respond her commands, and so she just stood there, staring at the broken statue, unable to make out coherent thoughts.

Sunset’s chest began spasming and her throat started to let out short, jarring gasps. Lyra briefly thought of putting salt to the wound by mocking her, but a yell made her drop that idea.

“What the heck?!”

Lyra jerked her head to the side and saw seven girls running towards school grounds. She cursed out loud and broke into a sprint in the opposite direction.

Rainbow Dash saw this, and for a reason she didn’t quite understand yet, her chest filled up with pure anger. “Oh, no, you won’t!” But just as she was getting set to sprint, she felt a hand grabbing her arm. She came to a halt and turned around to find Rarity. “What are you doing?! She’s getting away!”

“Let her,” Rarity replied with a stern voice and a deep frown. She looked at Pinkie. “You saw her, right? You know her name.”

Pinkie’s hair had managed to flatten, and she could only stare in pain at the sight of a broken friend. She bit her lip hard enough to open a small wound, and nodded. “Yes…” For the first time in her life, she hated having such a good memory, as she was going to be unable to forget the look on Sunset’s face.

Trixie did her best not to look at the statue and instead ran towards Sunset. Unsure of what to say, or even if she should say anything, Trixie placed her hands on Sunset’s shoulders, staring her with a pained frown.

Sunset didn’t register Trixie’s touch at first; her eyes locked on the pile of broken rocks. It wasn’t until Trixie filled her field of view, that Sunset looked up and stared into Trixie’s eyes. And for a reason she’d never get to know, the sight of her girlfriend was the last straw.

And she cried.

She grabbed Trixie’s hoodie with both hands and held onto it with all her strength, resting her head on Trixie’s left shoulder. And she screamed. She screamed the loudest she had screamed in her entire life; and she screamed, not even feeling her throat giving up at times. And her legs gave up, forcing her to kneel down and drag Trixie with her. She barely felt Trixie’s arms embracing her head and pulling her closer.

Even if her voice was being a little muffled by Trixie’s body, Sunset kept screaming. And she felt her torso give in too, weighing on Trixie and still clutching on her as if her life depended on it. She didn’t notice when she had closed her eyes, but now she was pressing them shut, not wanting to open them anytime soon. And yet, her tears continued cascading through her face, drenching her hands and Trixie’s clothes.

And for what felt like an eternity, she cried. And she cried until she used the last remnants of her energy.

And when she had screamed all there was to scream, her senses blacked out, and she fainted.

~~~~~~~~

Time was an unmeasurable thing when strong emotions collided with each other and altered the senses of a person. Thus, Sunset couldn’t tell if it had been seconds, minutes, or hours, since she lost consciousness. She only knew that she was waking up, and that her heart felt like it was being crushed with knives.

She saw a grayish white ceiling, and she was sure that she recognized it, but she wasn’t exactly in the mood to try figuring out.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, grunting as she felt her body jolt with a freezing chill. Her mind was a complete mess of unorganized thoughts, and it was making her head ache and throb.

“Sunset…” A voice distracted her from the pain. Sunset turned to her right and found Trixie sitting on a chair next to her. Her eyes showed quite a few emotions, but Sunset couldn’t make out any of them. Trixie looked like she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t mutter a single word.

Sunset then remembered, and the pain in her heart increased.

She remembered the portal being smashed, and its magic dispersing and disappearing in the air. Her jaw stiffened, and tears formed at the corners of her eyes. She took a hand to cover her face in a failed attempt to stop herself from crying.

She wanted it to be just another nightmare. She wanted to wake up in her bed, to believe -to know that it had been just the worst dream she had ever had. But the pressure in her chest felt too real; the pain of her sore throat and her stiffened jaw and her throbbing head -it all felt too real to just have been a nightmare.

And Sunset couldn’t do anything about it.

The past days, she thought of the Fall Formal as her greatest failure. Not because Princess Twilight and her friends had stopped her plans of attacking Equestria, but because it represented the epitome of everything she had done wrong in her life. She had thought that she deserved punishment for every time she lied and insulted and bullied and blackmailed and disobeyed and thought she was better than everyone else. She had thought that she could take anything they threw at her, that she’d be able to endure whatever punishment for her actions.

Once again, she had been wrong.

The only way she had to return to Equestria was now gone. Her plans of apologizing to Celestia, of trying to start over, were gone.

It was too much. She was now trapped in the human world for the rest of her life. She’d never be able to see her family again; to eat hay again; to do magic again. She’d never be able to be her true self ever again. She was now bound to live as an alien to her kind, forced to the mundanity of a magicless world.

“I’m done.” Her jaw felt heavy, and her teeth were still clenched, but her words were perfectly understandable. She lifted her hand from her face and looked at it with foggy, vague eyes. It was wet with tears. She turned it into a fist and pressed hard until her knuckles became white and her nails dug small wounds in her skin. “I’m done.”

Trixie wrapped Sunset’s fist with her both hands, shedding her own set of tears as she looked at Sunset, but remained silent.

Sunset lazily looked at her, blinking her tears away. “I know I did bad things to everyone…” Her voice was low and hoarse, but she managed to not stutter, even when her lips quivered in a failed attempt to make her cry again. “I was willing to let them do anything they wanted to me… I deserved punishment…” She closed her eyes, and she had to take a moment to fight back the urge to cry. “But… I think… I want to think… That they went too far…”

“Sunset…”

“I’m done,” Sunset repeated, and this time, she was able to focus her sight on Trixie. “I won’t return to this school ever again.”

Trixie was silent for a moment, but kept staring into Sunset’s eyes. “What are you going to do?” she asked cautiously.

Sunset moved her eyes to the left thoughtfully. “I don’t know.” She opened her mouth a couple of times, trying to come up with the right words. “For now, I just want to go home…” As she said that, she looked at the rest of the room, and realized that she was in the school’s infirmary. “Why am I here?”

“You passed out. This was the nearest bed we could take you to.”

Sunset sat up slowly, groaning at the pain and tiredness of her body. “I mean... It should’ve been closed well before I even finished detention.”

“Well,” Trixie said, never letting Sunset’s hand go. “We called Principal Celestia. Apparently, Pinkie Pie has the phone number of, literally, everyone in this school. Even the gardener’s.” Her little joke did nothing to make Sunset smile, but she didn’t let her disappointment show. “Anyway, we told her what happened and she came as fast as she could. She’s furious.”

“She should be. She commissioned that sculpture with her own money.”

Trixie sighed. “Anyway, she said she’ll get in contact with that girl’s family. We all think she’ll get expelled.”

“Yeah, right,” Sunset huffed. But before Trixie could reply, she decided it was time to change the subject. “Where are the girls?”

“At the cafeteria,” Trixie answered. “They decided to order pizza, and Principal Celestia is letting us use the school for today… And speaking of food, you must be hungry. Wanna go eat something?”

Honestly, Sunset really didn’t feel like eating. Her stomach felt empty, but not exactly because of the lack of food. She just wanted to go home already, but she supposed that she could eat a slice or two of pizza, if only to not worry her girlfriend any further.

“Sure…” She said, but before Trixie pulled away, she continued. “Hey, can I ask you a favor?”

Trixie looked at her. “Sure, what is it?”

“Would you accompany me home?”

That took Trixie by surprise, and she couldn’t hide the growing blush in her cheeks. “Uhm… Not that Trixie doesn’t like the idea, but… Why?

Trixie half expected Sunset to grin deviously, or to insinuate something. But instead, Sunset’s gaze was weak and almost pleading. “I could really use your company a little longer…” She looked away. “But I’ll understand if you don’t want to… My apartment is a little far from here, after all.”

It took Trixie a moment to react, and when she did, she let out a soft sigh and placed a hand on Sunset’s cheek, leading her head to look at her. Trixie then leaned closer and gave Sunset a soft, yet meaningful kiss. “Of course I want, and I will.”

Finally, and after what felt like an eternity, Sunset managed a small smile.

~~~~~~~~

It was fortunate that nobody decided to ask Sunset if she was alright, or if she was feeling better. Normally, she’d feel out of place if nobody talked at all, but this time, she appreciated the silence. It gave her a good chance to ruminate on what had happened, and on what she wanted to do from now on.

The pizza was tasteless to her, and since she wasn’t even hungry, she just grabbed one slice. She knew that the girls were giving her glances every now and then, but if they were of pity or honest concern, Sunset didn’t know, nor did she particularly care. Besides, she made sure to avoid looking straight at any of them. And she was very aware of her appearance, knowing full well that her red, swollen eyes, messy hair, and pale skin, didn’t make her look her usual gorgeous self.

When everyone finished their meal, they went to the principal’s office to tell her that they were leaving. Rarity had been the one to call her because even though Pinkie Pie was the one who had her number, she wasn’t exactly in the right mind state. And so Rarity was the only one that dared enter the office.

Rarity got out after only a couple of seconds and only motioned the girls to move on. Sunset was very glad that Celestia hadn’t asked for her; for some reason, she didn’t want a disgruntled Celestia to be her last memory of the principal.

Once they got out to the school’s entrance, Sunset did her best not to look at the statue. Her heart ached at the memory, and she wanted to bury it deep inside her mind. The girls noticed this, and they were fast to wave their goodbyes so that Sunset could get away as soon as possible.

For once, Sunset didn’t mind being pitied. She grabbed Trixie by the hand and began walking away from CHS. And during their silent walk to the bus stop, Sunset kept her head lowered and her gaze straight to her own feet.

Even though her mind was a confusing swirl of incoherent thoughts -all an attempt to keep her busy, Sunset looked at Trixie every now and then, grateful that she had agreed to accompany her. Even though the girls and Twilight especially, after overcoming her initial shock, had been trying to befriend her, Sunset found Trixie’s company to be the most enjoyable. Probably due to the fact that Trixie was the only one whose selfish reason to be with Sunset wasn’t a promise to Miss Princess Sparkle, or an attempt to overcome a physical and emotional trauma.

During the bus travel, Sunset never let go Trixie’s hand, squeezing it every once in awhile.

It was also a weird feeling to have someone know where she lived; she didn’t even bring Flash. She was sure that Trixie was subject to freak out or something, but Sunset really wanted to be with her, if only a couple more hours.

And so they descended the bus, managing not to let their hands go.

Trixie shivered as a cold breeze met her, and she gazed the place wearily. She had inferred their destination just minutes earlier, but seeing it with her own eyes still left her with widen eyes and a deep feeling of insecurity.

The streets weren’t particularly dirty, but there were potholes everywhere, and not exactly small ones. The buildings were majorly apartment complexes, but they were really worn out, with their walls cracked and full of graffities, many windows broken, and some even looking about to collapse.

Hollow Shades was known as the darkest part of Canterlot, and not because of the lack of illumination.

There were small gangs at every corner, usually three to five people, drinking alcohol and smoking what certainly didn’t smell like tobacco. Some were gambling with games Trixie was barely aware of, and some were just hanging there. She half-expected to see someone fighting at some point, but such thing didn’t happen. Fortunately.

But what unnerved Trixie the most was that all of them, no matter what they were doing, turned to look at Sunset and her as they passed by. Especially at Trixie, as she was the new face around.

And Trixie didn’t like it one bit.

She started shivering. She wanted to ask Sunset many questions, going from How can you live here? to Can you take me to the bus stop already?. But before she could even mutter a word, they were forced to a halt as a massive shadow interrupted their path.

As Trixie looked up, she noticed that it was a person. He was a very tall man, almost two meters high, built up with both exercise and steroids, short green hair laid back with unhealthy amounts of gel, dark purple skin, and deep, scrutinizing amber eyes. His gray t-shirt struggled not to rip apart as the massive muscles of his arms moved to cross in front of his chest.

Trixie, suddenly very aware of her true height, felt like a tiny ant in front of this man. And she wanted to run as fast as possible. She was about to, in fact, but Sunset squeezed her hand in a reassuring gesture.

“Wassup, Sunburn?” The man asked with a deep, raspy voice that sent a chill through Trixie’s spine.

Sunset only looked up at him with tired eyes, managing a fake smile. “Not much,” she answered, not even trying to hide the emotions from her voice. “How’s the business going, King?”

King shrugged. “Slow, as always.” He then looked at Trixie, and his grin was wide and predatory. “Who’s your friend?”

Trixie shuddered and tried to hide behind Sunset, and failing miserably.

“She’s my girlfriend,” Sunset replied.

King raised an eyebrow, still staring at Trixie. His smile disappeared, and for a moment, Trixie thought that Sunset had done a very stupid thing. Fortunately for her, King decided to look at Sunset again. “You have good taste,” he said, showing his very white teeth in a grin. “Anyway, I gotta do some errands. See you later Sunburn.”

“Later.”

With that, King walked past them and crossed the street, disappearing in a corner.

Trixie then hugged Sunset’s arm and clung to it as if her life depended on it. “You won’t laugh if I say I’m so scared I could die, right?”

Sunset turned to Trixie with a faint smile. “Of course not. He gives that first impression to everyone.”

“Ok, I have many, many questions right now,” Trixie said. “First of all, why did he call you Sunburn? Is that some kind of gang nickname? Are you in a gang?”

“Trixie, calm down,” Sunset said as she started walking again. It was a little difficult with Trixie clinging to her arm for dear life. “I’m not in a gang. Everyone here has a nickname. It was the brothers who gave me mine so that I could fit in here a little faster.”

Trixie hastily looked around, trying to make sure no one could eavesdrop them. “So this is where the apartment they gave you is located? Couldn’t they give you something less… dangerous?”

In that moment, Sunset came to a halt. Trixie noticed that they were in front of one of the many buildings, this one being one of the smallest with only three stories. “They grew up here. This was their apartment a few years ago.” She looked at Trixie. “Because I know them, the people here don’t do anything to me. And because King knows you’re my girlfriend, he’ll tell everybody not to do anything to you. So don’t you worry about it.”

Trixie wanted to feel relief by Sunset’s comment, but she still felt like someone would try to mug them at any time. She briefly looked at Sunset before focusing on her tight grip around Sunset’s arm. “Can I still be scared for a little while?”

“Of course.”

They entered the building, and to Trixie’s surprise, it looked way better on the inside. The wooden walls were recently painted a light blue, and the carpeted floor looked clean. As they climbed up the stairs to the second story, Trixie half expected to see someone through an opened door, or to hear yelling or crying or something remotely bad. But the place was so silent, she wondered if there even were neighbors.

She followed Sunset to the third door to the left, and when Sunset motioned her to enter. She didn’t think twice and obliged.

“Welcome to my humble abode. Get yourself comfortable. Mi casa es tu casa, and all that,” Sunset said as she stepped forward.

The first thing Trixie noticed was that the living room was separated in two. The part in the left was the living room, consisting on a large brown couch and a small T.V. upon a wooden furniture. The part to the right was the dining room, with only a dark wooden table and three chairs.

There were no paintings, or photos, or anything that gave the place even a little decoration.

A little more to the right was what Trixie guessed was the kitchen. Sunset walked to the narrow hallway that led to two opposite doors. She motioned Trixie to follow her, and she obliged.

Sunset’s bedroom was so simple, it didn’t really look like it belonged to the girl. The bed, night table, and desk were of dark wood, and the dresser was white, upon which a mirror stood propped up against the wall. The only thing that barely resembled to Sunset was the teal bed sheets; the color of her eyes.

Trixie grabbed the swivel chair and sat down while Sunset decided to lie down on her bed, not even bothering to take off her boots. They looked at each other for a moment, and Trixie started tapping her knees at some point.

“So,” Trixie started. The feeling of unknown environment heavy in her mind. “Are you serious? About not returning to CHS…”

Sunset narrowed her eyes, looking at her bed for a moment. She then looked up at Trixie and tapped her bed twice. “Come lie down with me.” At Trixie’s blush, Sunset cracked a small smile. “I won’t bite, I promise.”

Trixie decided to comply, and she stood up, walked up to the bed, and just like Sunset, lay down without even taking off her boots.

The bed wasn’t exactly big, and it barely fit the two of them. The space between their noses was just a mere inch. Trixie’s right hand was close enough to Sunset’s face to feel her soft breath. With her free hand, Sunset reached Trixie’s face, caressing her cheek and back to her hair, burying her fingers and twirling them with a white strand. Trixie could feel her heart hammering against her chest, and a thousand butterflies making mayhem in her stomach.

“I am serious,” Sunset finally answered. Her eyes locked with Trixie’s. “I was planning to stop attending when my detention ended anyway.”

“But, why?” Trixie couldn’t help the question.

Sunset sighed heavily as her eyes drifted to Trixie’s hand. “There’s nothing there for me. I only enrolled to CHS because…” She pursed her lips for a moment, squeezing her eyes before inhaling deeply. She felt Trixie’s free hand taking hers, and she looked at Trixie’s eyes again. “Now that the portal is no more… I have no business there…” Her voice was a whisper, but Trixie could hear her perfectly.

“What about the girls?”

“What about them?”

Trixie frowned slightly. “They’ll be worried about you.”

“Yeah, right,” Sunset replied. “Sans Twilight, all of them just want to abide by a promise they made to the princess.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to be pitied.”

“You’re wrong,” Trixie said. “I don’t really know what happened at the Fall Formal with the lot of you, but I’ve been hanging out with them too. They have honest intentions of befriending you, and not just for a promise.” She squeezed Sunset’s hand. “And they don’t pity you. They are truly concerned, just as I am.”

Sunset looked down again. “I’d like to believe that…” She moved her mouth silently a couple of times before continuing. “But my decision still stands.”

“Alright,” Trixie said. “And what are you going to do now?”

“Work,” Sunset replied almost robotically. “I don’t have goals or aspirations as of now. So I’ll just stick to working for the brothers until I figure something out…”

Trixie hummed, running her fingers along Sunset’s arm and up to her cheek. They were silent for a full minute, just looking into each other’s eyes. The only sound was their breathing.

At last, Trixie passed her thumb through Sunset’s forehead and back to a golden lock, twining her fingers with it. “Hey, something occurred to me.”

Sunset blinked. “What is it?”

Trixie grinned. “Would you like to work for the Great and Powerful Trixie? You know, as her manager.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like a very bad idea on paper.”

“Are you saying your feelings can mingle in your business decisions?” Trixie asked. “I thought you were better than that.”

There was a pause before Sunset sighed through her nose. “You know what? Ok, I accept. I’ll make you the best illusionist in the world.”

“Trixie would not expect anything less.”

Sunset smiled.

Author's Notes:

What? No more CHS? Stay tuned and find out!

Next Chapter: 19. Transition Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 46 Minutes
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