...The charity event went great! I don't think I've ever seen a bigger smile on Fluttershy's face. We only managed to tip over one table and thankfully it only had two plates on it by the time Rainbow and Applejack accidentally pushed it over. That might actually be a new record for them, I think. Anyway, thank you so much for suggesting it. The animal shelter is definitely going to be a lot better off thanks to you.

    I know I said I wanted to talk to you about graduation and everything, but I'm running out of room on this page, and I think the girls are done taking a break from our soccer game. I'll be sure and talk to you later!

    Your friend,

    Sunset Shimmer

    Sunset signed her name with a little love heart, a smile crossing her face as she looked over the page and clicked her pen. She felt that familiar sense of giddiness build up inside her, just like every time she expected a new reply from Princess Twilight.

    "Hey, Sunset! You ready to get your butt kicked again or what?" Rainbow asked with her usual cocky smile. She bounced the soccer ball against her knee as the other girls walked out onto the field beside her.

    Sunset rolled her eyes and let out a laugh. "Sure, just let me--"

    Sunset slipped her finger under the page and a shock sped through her entire body at what she felt. Her fingertip slipped past the hard inner cover instead of another page. Sunset gasped and looked down at the book in her hands, quickly pulling the page over and seeing nothing but that harsh off-white of the back cover. She pulled the page she just wrote on up into her view, desperately trying to split it apart with her fingers, hoping that maybe there was one more page left she'd missed.

    "No no no no no no no," Sunset said. Her fingers frantically slipped down the last page, but she couldn't find any way to split the pages apart. That was really it. That was the last page.

    "Sunset, dear, are you alright?" Rarity asked. The rest of the girls stopped in their tracks once they heard the panic in their friend's voice.

    "No, this can't be. There's no way this is the last one," Sunset said to herself. She ignored her friends as her eyes darted over the book and she flipped erratically through the pages. "There's gotta be one I didn't write on.  There's gotta be something!"

    Rainbow let the ball fall out of the air as she and the rest of the girls rushed over to Sunset on the bleachers. They all gathered around her, looks of concern on each of their faces.

    "Sugarcube, what's wrong?" Applejack asked as she puts a hand on Sunset's shoulder.

    Fluttershy knelt down in front of her, trying to look Sunset in the eye. "Is everything alright?"

    "No... It's not alright. It's... It's the last page," Sunset said, shock and disbelief in her voice. "I can't talk to Twilight anymore." Sunset slumped as she stared down at it, feeling defeated. The girls looked between each other, the worry in their face growing, as they knew how much this meant to her.

    "Could you try writing over a past entry to tell her you need another book?" Rarity asked.

    "The magic won't work on a page I've already written on..." Sunset said, a lump forming in her throat. She looked down at that last page and closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to believe it was really the last one.

    "Couldn't you just, you know, staple some more pages into it?" Rainbow asked.

    "I don't think that's how magic works, Rainbow Dash," Applejack said flatly.

    "Oh, oh, oh! We could go through the portal and ask Princess Twilight for another one!" Pinkie added, jumping in next to Sunset with a big smile on her face. That smile died once Sunset closed the book and opened her eyes, her face sad and scared.

    "The portal hasn't been open since The Friendship Games. I have no idea when it might open again, if it ever does... I don't have any way to talk to her now..." Sunset let the book fall into her open bag. She grabbed the strap and stood up, staring out over the field, not knowing what to do. "I... I have to go."

    The girls exchanged a few worried glances between each other as Sunset walked across the soccer field. Finally, Rarity spoke up. "Sunset, wait!" she yelled over to her, but Sunset wasn't listening. She just kept walking until she rounded the corner of the school and passed out of sight.

    "Should we go after her?" Fluttershy asked.

    "I think she might need a little alone time right now, Shy," Applejack said as they all watched her go.

    Sunset stared at that empty back page as if there was nothing else in the world. She'd waited hours back at her apartment, hoping that maybe it was the last page in Twilight's book too, and they could finally open the portal and talk to each other again. She finally came back to the school to sit under the statue, with some childish hope that it might open up again just for her. Each passing minute was agonizing as she waited for a reply. She leaned her head back onto the cold stone of the statue behind her, wishing it had never been closed in the first place. The entire future felt terrifying to her now, now that she knew she might never be able to confide in Princess Twilight ever again.

    She flipped through every single page one last time, desperately hoping that she'd missed one the last hundred times she tried it, but to no avail; every page was completely filled, and she really didn't have any other way to reach Twilight. Her mind raced with ways to try and somehow get through to Twilight, but all her years of magical study did her no good in this world. She was truly out of options, and might never talk to Twilight again. Sunset gripped the book hard, the lump in her throat becoming unbearable as tears blurred her vision. Sunset closed her eyes tightly as the first few drops ran down her cheeks.

    Sunset cursed the stupid book for not having more pages, she cursed the portal for not opening again after Twilight had used it the last time, and she cursed herself for not realizing how many pages she had left, a mistake that might now separate her from one of her best friends forever.

    As more tears stained her cheeks, Sunset threw the book blindly away from her in frustration, not wanting to look at it anymore. She heard it slide across the concrete until it hit something with a dull little thud.

    "Thought we might find you here," Rainbow said, holding the book beneath her boot. She leaned down to pick it up and held it with both hands. The rest of the girls stood around her, giving her the same worried glances as earlier.

    Rarity dropped down to her knees beside Sunset, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Has she answered you yet? Does she know it was the last page?"

    "No. I think the pages might be different... she might not--" Sunset started, but had to close her eyes tightly again as she felt a new barrage of tears hit her at the thought.

    "Come on now, sugarcube. Don't think like that," Applejack said, leaning down on one knee beside Sunset. "I'm sure she'll figure it out sooner or later."

    "What if she doesn't? What if we never find a way to open the portal again and I can't talk to her anymore?" Sunset said, looking up to Applejack with a scared expression.

    "Well--"

    "We've beat evil magic like a bajillion times in the past, there's no way we can't figure out the portal too," Rainbow added.

    Sunset let out a tiny whine and wiped her tears with her jacket sleeve. "We did all that with Twilight's help... I don't know if I can do it alone."

    "Sure you can," Rarity said. "You were the one that used the trapped magic to save Twilight, remember? And you did that all without Princess Twilight's help."

    "Yeah! And you did all those tests on us and made all those magical explosions and goo that totally ruined all the school testing stuff!" Pinkie said.

    "Pinkie, that ain't really helping," Applejack said sternly.

    "Oh..."

    Sunset let out a long sigh. "Thanks for trying, girls, but I don't think this is going to be so easy. She's the Princess of Friendship, everything I know about friends I learned from her... and from you guys," Sunset said with a soft smile as she looked to all of them, but quickly went back to dejection as she looked at the book in Rainbow's hands. "I don't know what I'm going to do without her..."

    "You could be our Princess of Friendship," Fluttershy said.

    Sunset blinked a few times at the statement. "Huh? I couldn't--"

    "Wait, no, I think Fluttershy is onto something," Applejack said. "You remember the time my sister and her friends started fighting over that boy... what was his name?"

    "Oh, Rumble. I couldn't get Sweetie Belle to shut up about it," Rarity said.

    "That was it. When it looked like they were about to call it quits on being friends, who was there to tell them that no crush was worth losing each other over?"

    "I-I was," Sunset said, a little confusion on her face.

    "Hey, if it wasn't for you, I don't think me and AJ would even still be friends with how stubborn she is," Rainbow said.

    Applejack raised an eyebrow at Rainbow. "With how stubborn I am?"

    "You were the one that got almost the entire school together to host the charity event for the animal shelter," Fluttershy said softly. "They haven't all gotten together like that since the Fall--" Fluttershy stopped and her eyes went wide as she realized what she was about to say. She looked off towards the ground. "Oh... sorry."

    Sunset sighed and looked down to the concrete, just as lost as she was before. "It's okay. But that was Twilight's idea anyway."

    "But Twilight didn't rally the whole school behind it, did she?" Rarity added.

   Pinkie hopped in with a beaming grin on her face as always. "And I don't know anyone who talks to as many people around the school as me, except for you. I don't know how you do it! I don't know how I do it, now that I think about it..." she said, bringing a finger to her chin in thought.

    "You help pretty much everyone in the school with their friendship problems," Rainbow said. "You're basically our Princess Twilight."

    Sunset sighed again. "But I would've never stopped being the old me if Twilight hadn't--"

    Rarity gave her a stern glare and cut her off. "Stop thinking about Twilight, Sunset. You've accomplished so much with all of your new friends. You should be proud of that."

    "Yeah, if it weren't for you The Dazzlings would've totally kicked our butt too," Rainbow said.

    "What, you've given up on the whole 'I could've just shredded them into submission routine'" Applejack said.

    Rainbow shrugged. "I mean, I probably could have, but Sunset saved the day anyway, so what's it matter?"

    "You see, dear? If this world had a Princess of Friendship, you would definitely be our first pick," Rarity said, a warm smile on her face.

    "W-what? Are you guys serious?" Sunset asked. She blinked a few times at them, not sure if she was dreaming or not.

    "Totally!" Rainbow said.

    "You'd be right as rain for it, Sunset," Applejack added.

    Pinkie Pie gasped. "We should have a crowning ceremony with a plastic crown and a cake and all of us and super nice clothes and..." she said trailing off into another endless list of party ideas. The girls just rolled their eyes.

    "I think you'd make a great princess," Fluttershy finally said.

    "W-wow. I don't know what to say, girls," Sunset said, feeling herself tear up yet again, but now for an entirely different reason. She smiled at each of them, forgetting the worries that the last page brought her.

    "Even if you can't talk to Twilight anymore," Rarity said, "I think you'll do perfectly fine on your own."

    Sunset smiled brightly, tears of happiness rolling down her cheeks now. She'd worked so hard since the Fall Formal to make up for everything she'd done to tear everyone apart, it felt so great to her to know that everything finally paid off. "Thank you, girls, so much. I don't know what I'd ever do without you," Sunset said, her voice cracking.

    All of them leaned down and wrapped their arms around Sunset, putting her in the middle of a massive group hug. Pinkie even stopped her blabbing to wrap Sunset up in a hug as well. "We couldn't go without you either, dear," Rarity said, followed by a flow of accompanying affirmations from the rest of the girls.

    Sunset's smile grew even wider as she hugged them back. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of the embrace, and being around so many people that she loved and that loved her. For the first time in a long time, she felt good about the future, with or without Princess Twilight.