About an hour later, Starlight and Sunburst returned to the library with sandwiches in stomach. It was a very uninteresting trip full of small horses making small conversation. Still, it served to ease them into whatever it was they were going to say next. Very important, big drama things, I’m sure.

“So,” Sunburst continued as he pushed open the door to the library, “My dorm room is absolutely destroyed and Event is sitting in the middle of a wreckage. There are holes in the wall, and the carpet has burn marks everywhere.” He stepped to the side, holding the door open for Starlight. “He looks up at me with an ashamed grin, and in the most pitiful voice I have ever heard someone muster, says ‘I thought I saw a mouse’.”

There was a short beat before the two broke down laughing. It was warm, friendly laughter that lasted until they reclaimed their table.

Starlight looked across to her friend, trying her hardest to stifle her chuckling enough to use words. “What’d you do in response?”

“I just,” Sunburst shook his head with a sigh, “I just went to bed. Long day at work and I did not want to deal with that.” He then let out another burst of giggles. “He- he just looked so sad though.”

“I can imagine.” Starlight said with a grin. “Your friend certainly seems like an interesting character. How long have you known him, again?”

Sunburst thought for a moment. “About fourteenish years now? I met him not too long after I moved to Canterlot. I set off fireworks in a classroom, he stole Celestia’s crown. We met up in detention and have been friends ever since.” He smirked. “Much to Celestia’s ire, in the beginning. So many pranks were had.”

Starlight had to forcefully keep her jaw from hitting the floor. “Why would you prank Princess Celestia? How would you prank Princess Celestia?”

Sunburst just leaned back in his chair and shrugged. “She always seemed to find it funny. Especially when the two of us sort of made a blizzard in her throne room.”

Starlight blinked a few times in disbelief. She then put a hoof to her mouth with a sigh. “And what did she do then?”

“She held audiences like nothing happened.” Sunburst said, gaining the biggest grin Starlight had seen yet. Then, in a beat, it faded into a joking grimace. “Though she did have Event and I accompany her for the entirety of the time. That would be how I learned that she resists cold fairly well. Two colts with no winter wear, on the other hoof, did not.”

“So you learned your lesson?”

His eyes lit up a small bit. That was the exact question he was hoping for. “Yeah,” he replied, holding back his chuckles, “The next time we superheated the place. Worked much better.”

And, once again, the two found themselves ensnared in friendliness chuckles. It was a dumb joke and the both of them knew it, but it was the kind of dumb joke that flowed with the conversation.

“You were such a rebel, weren’t you?” Starlight asked, still coming down from the giggle high. “I hate to say it, but what happened?”

Sunburst gave another grimace, this time minus the joke, and scratched the back of his neck with a sigh through slightly clenched teeth. “Well, as I have said, I would like to be a magical instructor in the future. To do that, I need to become a certified mage, and just to take the test I have to exhibit full control over my emotions. Just so I don’t screw up.” He groaned, covering his face with his hooves in defeat. “All I have ever wanted to do since I came to Canterlot was to teach under Celestia.”

“Well,” Starlight interjected, “From what I can see, you’re fairly good at doing that.”

“Tell that to the princess when you see her, then.” He frowned. “She has been the one reason keeping me from taking the test. I guess she knows something that you have yet to see.”

“I’m sure she means the best by that.”

“She does,” He admitted, “But I just want to impress her sometimes, and show her that I’m worth the chance she’d take.” He let out a sigh, then moments later shook his head. “That was probably not the best thing for me to bring up. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, Sunny. It’s more about yourself that I didn’t know before.” She gave a small smile. “Though now I should probably share something now as well.”

Sunburst nodded slightly. “That would be the natural thing to do, I suppose.”

“Right.” Yes, she absolutely shuffled nervously. There is nothing else these horses do when they’re nervous. I mean, there was a small bit of lip biting before she spoke again, but that’s a different story altogether. “The only real interesting thing I have done in years has been running a town. And that was a nightmare in thousands of ways.”

“What happened?” Sunburst asked, very obviously concerned.

“Well,” she thought for a moment about how to put it in the most delicate way possible. Then, she threw that out and accidently blurted the worst possible thing. “I had a huge mental break and started running a dictatorship centered around a skewed sense of equality that had me stripping ponies of what made them special.”

Now that that was out of the bag, all Sunburst could do was stare blankly in response. He regained composure a few seconds later, but the damage was still done. He let out a deep sigh and tried his best to keep a straight face. “Right. Well, I am sure that you had your reasons.” He glanced briefly at the entryway, but decided that leaving would make everything even more awkward.

Starlight shook her head. “Twilight and I have went over it a few thousand times. We have yet to see a direct cause.”

“You could just be remembering it wrong.” Sunburst suggested.

“No no,” she waved her hoof dismissively, “Twilight and I have literally watched past me formulate the plans and build the town. I had to fight myself figuratively to not fight myself literally, but,” she tried to look anywhere but at Sunburst, “We didn’t see any discernable cause.”

Really, she could have said anything for that second sentence. She could have admitted that it was Sunburst himself that indirectly drove her to insanity. Sunburst was too caught up in the first sentence to care. “You watched yourself? How did you accomplish that?”

Starlight shrugged. “It was a time travel spell I cooked up after reading over some of Starswirl’s notes. Not very interesting. Really just a hassle to cast.”

“How long ago was this, then? Two weeks?”

“The town building was a year ago, but Twilight and I found traces of the plan and practice in,” she paused for a second as a shiver ran down her spine, “What it is that I did to the ponies four or five years ago.”

Sunburst nodded. “And this...spell of yours. It sent you both back that far?”

“Yep.” Starlight said with an innocent smile.

He nodded again with a blank face, preferring to keep his screaming internal. “And you know that Starswirl’s spell was only able to send one pony back a week, right? And even that was only for a few minutes at a time.”

“I fixed it.”

“You fixed it.” He repeated. “How did you fix it?”

“Two spells and a spell scroll.” Starlight explained. “Starswirl’s spell and then a simple glue spell to fix your placement in the timeline, then the scroll just repeats that until you get where you’re going. It keeps you in the same place you cast it from normally, but there’s this magic map in Ponyville that you can sync the spell up with, and with that you can go anywhere and anywhen in Equestria.”

Sunburst was floored. His jaw had dropped a centimeter, as he wouldn’t allow it to fall any further, and he stared at his friend blankly. “You...know that’s impossible, right? It doesn’t follow magic theory at all, and I’m surprised you’re even here for me to say this to. How?”

“I dunno.” Starlight shrugged. “I just did it after learning the two spells. It sounded rational at the time. And it worked so,” she finished her sentence by sticking her tongue out.

“You’re something, Lighter. Definitely full of surprises.” He laid his head on the table and sighed. “I feel like I aged twenty years from just hearing that.”

“Twilight said the same thing.” Starlight replied. “Must be a Canterlot thing.”

“Yeah,” Sunburst rolled his eyes, “Must be.” He lifted his head and dusted himself off. “So, you did unspeakable things to a town of ponies for a year. But you faced repercussions, right?”

Starlight dared not to inform him that it wasn’t all she had done. Baby steps. “Twilight is ‘punishing’ me by having me live in Ponyville to see how equality truly works. I asked for more, but no dice.”

“Are you enjoying your newly found friends?”

“Yeah.” Starlight smiled, thinking of all of the friends she had finally made. “They’re all really different and weird, but Twilight told me that’s how friends usually are. Everyone there is so closely knit and loving in Ponyville. It kind of reminds me of Sunnydale, really.”

Sunburst chuckled, interrupting her. “I’d give anything to not be reminded of Sunnydale.”

Starlight was, of course, confused. All of her memories of Sunnydale were fond, if a bit distant. “What’s wrong with Sunnydale?”

Sunburst sat there and thought for a moment. “You know, sometimes I just say words without thinking them through. I actually have no clue how to explain my feelings about Sunnydale. Only that I will not be returning any time soon.”

“Did something happen, or…?” She let her invasive question trail off, letting him fill in the blank with his painful personal experiences in order to further conversation.

Sunburst gave a sigh in response. “I just haven’t heard anything from my parents since they shipped me off to Canterlot. Not a letter or smoke message sent my way, and fifteen years of that makes you think, you know?” He looked at Starlight and gave a small, unsure smile. “It’s nothing to worry about, I promise.”

“If you say so.” She said with a nod. “But maybe try sending a letter of your own, if you haven’t already.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Lighter.” He said, his smile growing a small bit. He glanced behind her for a split second, out the window, and saw that light was slowly growing dark. “Aw, is it that late already? How long have we even been talking?”

Starlight turned in her seat to see what he was, and responded with a frown. “I guess it was longer than we assumed.” She turned back to face him with a shrug. “Time flies when you’re having fun?”

“I guess, but I should probably be getting home soon.”

“Curfew?” Starlight jokingly assumed.

Sunburst rolled his eyes. “No, I have work tomorrow. I gotta go in to sort and categorize, because Event never does it the way that I want it. Through no fault of his own.”

“I could walk you home,” Starlight suggested, “If you’d like, that is.”

“I’d actually like that,” he decided, “And it would give us an excuse to talk more, though hopefully about less important things. I’d actually like to hear about your friends, if you don’t mind.”

Starlight gestured to the door. “Lead the way, and I’ll steer the conversation.”

And so they went on their way. Starlight shared anecdotes about her new friends and life in Ponyville, and Sunburst tried his best to follow along as she followed him to his home. There was no talking about their past. No one brought up their personal hardships beyond the anxiety of having everyone in town in the same room focusing on them, or Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Everything was nice.

But it wasn’t long before they happened upon Sunburst’s small apartment. He lived close to the midpoint between Canterlot’s public library and Princess Celestia’s castle to save on time and energy. Starlight was in the middle of a particularly interesting story about Twilight finding a mysterious steam valve when they happened upon the apartment, and Sunburst was tempted to just pass it just to hear the end of the story. But he decided against it, thinking that any moment spent listening to the story was a moment away from his bed.

“I hate to interrupt you,” he said, spouting the most true sentence of the day, “But we seem to have happened upon my home. Maybe we can finish this story next time we meet?”

“Of course,” Starlight said with a nod, “But when do you think next time might be?”

Sunburst groaned softly. “Well sadly I have to work open to close tomorrow, and I’ll be recovering for most of the next day. We could meet up that night, but I wouldn’t want to force you outside during the evening. We could go out for dinner, maybe?”

Starlight screwed her face up a tiny bit. “Every plan you’ve made with us both in mind revolves around food. I’m starting to think you’re trying to imply something about me.”

Sunburst’s eyes widened as he attempted to sputter out an excuse. “No, it’s not like that. It’s just that, you know, food is the easiest thing that comes to mind. First thing, I mean.” He bit his lip. “Maybe we should try something different.”

“We could go to a park.” She suggested. “They tend to be fun at night. I’m not sure how many stars will be out, considering the lighting issue,” she then gestured to the numerous street lamps that were littering the streets, “But maybe it’ll be fun to talk outdoors. And hopefully we’ll get some snow, or something. I haven’t felt it drop below 60 degrees the entire time I’ve been here.”

Sunburst shrugged. “We don’t really have much of a winter here. Canterlot ponies don’t want to be inconvenienced. As for lights, I’m sure Luna will make her stars bright, just like any night.”

Starlight considered it for a moment. “I guess it sounds like a plan. I’ll see you next time, then?”

“Yeah. Until next time. I'll try to be at your place by six or so.” Sunburst nodded. Just as Starlight turned around to leave, Sunburst stomped his hoof, trying to draw her attention once again. The sound echoed louder than he’d have liked, making him blush slightly. “I, uh, didn’t actually mean for that to be that loud. I just, you know, wanted to say that I’m sorry for everything. Whatever everything is. I just have the feeling that I should apologize.”

“If you don’t know what you’re apologizing for, then why apologize?”

Sunburst scratched the back of his neck with a hoof and tried to look anywhere but at Starlight. “I don’t know. I just get the feeling that I’m doing something wrong sometimes, so I apologize. Makes me feel a bit better.”

Starlight shook her head. “You haven’t been doing anything wrong, so stop blaming yourself for nothing.”

Sunburst let out a sigh. “I’ll try my hardest. Like I said, it was just a feeling.”

They stood there for a second, shuffling and moving about. Starlight was the first to break the silence. “We’re both going to stand here until someone initiates the goodbye hug, right?”

Sunburst nodded. “Looks like it.”

Starlight then sat down on the ground and opened her forelegs in offerance. “C’mere then.”

And he happily c’mered, sitting down in the middle of the street to embrace his friend. This hug was a slight bit more close than the previous. It wasn’t quite an “I love you” hug, it was more like, “You’re a good friend and I cherish you”. It was cute.

But all cute moments must come to an end at some point. Sunburst released his friend from the warmest of warm hugs, much to her unconscious ire. The two stood up, shook themselves off, and shared a small smile.

“I guess this is goodbye for now?” Starlight asked.

“It is, but we’ll see each other in two days.” Sunburst responded. “Be safe, keep out of trouble and such.”

“You too, Sunny.” And with that, Starlight made her way back to the library, and back to her sleeping desk.

Sunburst watched her leave for a short while, all the while with a dopey grin on his face. He was a very happy horse. But, when he realized what he was doing could be classified as creepy, he quickly rushed into his apartment. He rushed himself inside and shut the door nice and fastlike. He could deal with all of that the next day.

Author's Notes:

This notes section has been rewritten.
I'm sorry.