Rediscovery

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

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She'd been a stumbling mess, clinging to his shorter frame for support as they walked. By the time they'd reached the small diner, one of the few that didn't care about curfew so long as you paid, she was almost walking on her own.

The silence during the brief walk had been stifling, he'd found himself uncomfortably speechless even when she would gasp or whimper over something as mildly uncomfortable as stepping on a rock.

He helped Sunset Shimmer into a booth before seating himself, waving down the waitress when she looked their way.

"This is new, kiddo! You ain't brought a girl by before." She held up a pen and pad. "So what can I get ya' tonight?"

"Just a cocoa for me and load up the whip. As for my friend here-" Had she said her name yet? Spike couldn't recall. "-I don't think she knows yet."

She was gripping on to the table hard enough her knuckles had turned white.

"I'll put her down for a hot chocolate as well and come back in a bit, give you two a few minutes at the menu. Alright?" She turned and walked away, shooting a questioning glance over her shoulder at him once she was behind the redhead.

He shrugged, looking honestly bewildered.

"How do you-" Sunset's voice was almost a growl, more frustration than speech. "How do you use these things?"

She held her hand up, curling her fingers into a fist and relaxing them. She did this several times before he caught on.

"It takes some getting used to." He gently grabbed a hold of her wrist, ignoring her flinch, and slowly flexed her fingers one by one. "With a little practice you'll have it down in no time! That mirror... The magic is really thorough."

She held her other hand next to where he was moving her fingers and looked between the two. Slowly one finger flexed individually, then another. The third tried to as well, but ended up dragging along the forth. She glared at her hand and continued trying before she watched him place a folded piece of plastic, a menu, into her hands.

"So does everypony know about the mirror here?" Her voice dropped, finally taking notice that, while sparsely filled, they were definitely not alone.

"Not everybody. So far as I know, nobody who isn't from the other side knows about it." He sat back into the plastic cushion as the waitress returned, two steaming cups in hand.

"Here you go kiddos, you two figure out if you want anything to eat?" She set the mugs down. The one in front of Spike was topped with a pyramid of whipped cream. Sunsets, in contrast, simply had a small blot floating in the middle of her mug.

"I'm good. Sugar and chocolate are what I run on!" He flashed her a grin, one that finally felt like it belonged.

"I'll have the... Uh... Bacon sausage pancake breakfast platter?" She only said pancake without hesitation, the words bacon and sausage unknown to her.

"Coming right up dearie. I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." She winked at Sunset playfully and scurried off, likely to refill another patron's coffee.

"Alright..." Her glare hardened and focused on Spike, reminding him far too well that she, too, was once Celestia's personal pupil. He was terrified she'd already figured him out. "So Thorn, who are you supposed to be?"

"Myself." He leaned back, crossing one leg over the other and putting his hands in his lap. He couldn't let her see that he was nervous. "If you mean what am I in connection to the mirror? I'm stranded here, for some reason I can't go back through."

Her glare had him sweating bullets but he refused to fess up to everything. He knew, from personal experience, that the footsteps of an ant could stomp out a mountain from ever forming. He knew he'd already changed things, though he couldn't know what.

"That eye of yours says enough I guess." Her glare softened and she grinned.

He thought a hydra's smile was less threatening.

"You were playing with dark magic, weren't you." It wasn't a question. "You must've been dumb enough to try it next to the mirror. That's the only way to activate the trap Starswirl put into it."

He sipped his cocoa while he let her words wash over him. If she was trying to make him feel small, like a failure...

She was succeeding.

"I didn't think anyone could make much of his notes." It was a leading question, playing to her superiority.

"Oh they're badly written, there is that. But if you spend enough time tracing the letters and spreading them out they're not as bad." She put her hands together and looped them behind her head, her posture alone said how smug she was feeling. "Of course, a thousand years later and nobody could figure that out? Idiots, all of them."

The waitress dropped off Sunset's plate, loaded with delicious, fattening foods.

She grabbed a hold of a fork, no more struggle in her manipulations, and stabbed it into a slice of crispy bacon. She brought the broken chunk to her mouth and began to nibble.

Vengeance was his!

"You know what bacon is, right?" He had to keep the laughter out of his voice, this would make up for the whole conversation.

"No idea, Thorn, but it's delicious!" She shoved the whole piece into her mouth, breaking it apart between her teeth.

"It's meat." Her chewing came to a halt. "From a pig."

She grabbed a handful of napkins out of the tray at the end of the table and began gagging, wiping at her tongue with them. She spat and choked as she worked to get all of the red bits out of her teeth.

"Yeah." He was grinning at her display, barely keeping himself from laughing. "I had that reaction, too."