Twilight

When Twilight and Lucien emerged from the next section of the Labyrinth, it was already dark out. Twilight looked to Lucien's face in the dim lighting and could see the frown that dragged down his features. It was unfortunate that they had lost so much time on what Lucien had explained to her while underground as a "short trip". It was stressful, to say the least, not knowing how the passage of time on Earth equated to the passage of time in Equestria.

"I know what you're thinking, and stop," Lucien said gravely. Her face must have soured while thinking. "We can't afford to worry about what's going on in Equestria right now. I don't know what's waiting for us out there, but I do know that we need to be completely focused on our objective. Ty doesn't make predictions often, but when he does, they come true."

Twilight nodded firmly, setting her eyes ahead. He spoke those final words with an air of knowing. She knew he had dealt with some serious problems in the past, and suffered some serious losses as well. Could Ty have predicted the tragedy in Chicago that still seems to hang over Lucien?

"Okay, we're good to go."

The pair exited the rocky outcropping they had been talking in since leaving the Labyrinth. As they walked out into the moonlight, Twilight was easily able to see for miles around them. They had come out onto a desert plateau that stretched on until the sky met the earth. She was stunned to look and see the unfamiliar night sky above them, the stars splashed out into a baffling, beautiful expanse. How strange it was that something so familiar to her at home could be so different here... and yet... she felt comforted by their light. She couldn't quite put it into words, but it felt perhaps reassuring to know that some things would never change. The night sky would always be there for her to find solace in, regardless of where she was.

"It's one thing that never changes."

"What?" She must have spent too long staring up. He's getting better at reading her too.

"The stars."

"...Yeah."

"No matter where I go, Equestria, Earth, maybe someplace else entirely... the stars are always the same."

They shared a look after a moment's silence.

"I'm glad you're here, Twilight. I just wish it were under better circumstances."

"I... feel the same way, Lucien." Twilight felt a warmth in her chest as she looked at the kind man she had been journeying with. He seemed older now, like their adventure had left a physical mark on him thus far. It could've been a trick of the light, but it almost seemed he had more wrinkles on his face now, and his hair, usually a cocoa-brown, looked more faded than before. He had explained to her once that magic-users on his planet aged differently than the normal population, but there was no way just a few days could put so many years on his features. Of course, she couldn't say he looked bad now. Her eyes trailed along his jawline, up past his cheeks, wrinkles bored in them from years of smiling, and came to rest on his own eyes.

She'd been staring. A lot.

But he seemed to be staring back.

"Lucien..."

A distant howl echoed across the dusty landscape. Lucien's head snapped in the direction it came from, Twilight's ears only swiveling, her eyes locked on his. And like that, the moment was broken.

"We need to keep moving. I don't like the sound of whatever that was. We're wasting enough time here as is," he said in a voice that Twilight could only describe as callous.

Her ears fell flat. "What am I thinking? What am I doing? We need to get back to Equestria, not spend time just staring at each other. But... is it bad that I want to?"

Lucien

That came out much harsher than he had intended. But he was right, they were only wasting time by waiting around. As much as he wanted to take some time and enjoy Twilight's company while they're on his home turf, they were on the clock. He could grapple with his emotions later on, when the fate of Equestria didn't hang in the balance. Oddly enough, that seemed to be a situation Twilight and her friends encountered quite often. The thought couldn't quite bring a smile to his face, but it was enough to move his mind in the right direction.

"Alright, we're heading over in that," he pointed out across the expanse, "direction. Humble should only be a few miles away, so it shouldn't take too long to reach. Especially considering our mode of travel."

"Walking?" Twilight asked, confused.

This time, Lucien did smile. "Nah, I'm gonna be stupid and waste a ton of energy to get us there faster." With that, he pulled off his backpack, rummaged around inside for a moment, then withdrew a can of his own special upgraded Red Bull. "Cheers." He popped the tab and chugged it down, feeling the liquid energy swirl around inside him as the drink went.

"Whew, can never get used to the kick those things have," he said upon emptying the can. Resisting the urge to start literally vibrating due to the large amount of energy he'd just ingested, he tossed the can back into his bag and slung it around his back again.

"Uh, what are we doing?" Twilight asked, confused.

"Styling!" Lucien exclaimed, grabbing Twilight by the barrel and lifting her up. She squeaked as he lifted her, and he would bet that she had a massive blush on her face.

"Lucien!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Style!" he yelled before jumping off the rocky outcropping they had been on since emerging from the Labyrinth. However, instead of the hard landing that Twilight no doubt expected to await them, the earth bent down with them, catching them softly. For a brief moment they were cradled by the dust and stone, then they were catapulted forward.

Lucien found a firm footing on the rock slab he had conjured as the earth bent and wove beneath his feet, shooting the two forward at an incredible speed. He looked down and saw the earth crumble and shift out of the way, the stone reworking itself to make a path for the pair. Making sure there was enough room, he set Twilight down behind him, making sure she had her footing-- hoofing.

"You're insane!" Twilight yelled at him over the sound of the wind and rock. He looked back at her briefly and noted that she was smiling despite the shock he had given her.

He chuckled to himself. "So you like my ride?" he called over the wind.

Instead of responding, she just laughed aloud shook her head. Lucien turned his attention back to steering but was caught by surprise when he felt a pair of forelegs wrap around his midsection and hold on tight. He swiveled his head back once again to see Twilight, blushing, using him to keep her balance.

It only took a few minutes of traveling across the dusty, starlit expanse to see the edges of the town they were traveling to. Lucien's eyes narrowed as they entered the outer rings of neighborhoods.

The houses, though clearly not of a great quality beforehand, were in various states of disrepair and dereliction. House by house sailed by, each one featuring collapsed roofs, destroyed walls, and, sometimes, strange remains. Something, or more accurately, a swarm of somethings attacked the town long ago, if Lucien's educated guesses were anything to go by. The actual city was still pretty far off, but it didn't look to be in much better shape.

He could feel the next Labyrinth entrance's marker pulling at his attention, a few miles further ahead in the business district of the city, but something else was grabbing at him. There was a magical presence off to the north, something he could only barely detect. Still, something about it felt strangely familiar.

They had wasted enough time fighting and getting sidetracked as is, but he felt like he needed to go investigate whatever it was. They didn't have to fear an attack at the very least, given how dead the town was. After a few seconds of weighing the pros and cons, he made the decision and took a hard left, banking on his mobile rockslide.

"Lucien? Aren't we supposed to be heading straight?" Twilight's voice came from close behind him.

He turned his head to shout over his shoulder at her. "There's something I need to check out first!" He had learned to trust his instincts a long time ago, and he wasn't going to abandon them now.

It was only another minute of travel before they arrived at their peculiar destination. Peculiar because it wasn't much of a destination at all. The feeling, the pull he experienced in his gut, was leading him to yet another broken down house. Though this one was different from the others, in that it was sunken down into a sinkhole rather than destroyed by time.

The rockslide slowly ground to a halt and Lucien and Twilight disembarked. The ground rewove itself back into its normal position behind them, rumbling gently.

"You felt it too?" Twilight asked Lucien.

"Yeah," Lucien responded simply. Now that they were closer, he could make out the finer details of the familiar magical signature. Down in the sunken ruins of the house he could feel a relic that was keyed to Equis' and, more specifically, Equestria's magic. It was a faint echo of a familiar spent power, something Lucien had seen and experienced before in his travels.

"Someone opened a rift to Equestria here," he said after a few moments passed in silence. They were both standing by the edge of the hole, looking down at the wreckage. Twilight turned her head to look at him, though he didn't meet her gaze. "I'm pretty sure this is Aiden's house, actually. Feels a little too familiar not to be." Well that solves the mystery.

He opened his mouth to call for their departure, but his voice caught in his throat as a new presence entered their area like a supernova washing over the two of them. It took only a second for the burst of intense power to fade, but he got a feel for it in that short of a period.

It was Chaos magic, a rarity on Earth, but not quite so in Equestria. And he only knew of one "person" that was able to do that. Which was why he hardly needed to turn around to confirm who it was behind them. Although, Twilight's gasp did wonders for that.

"Discord," Lucien said evenly, turning around.

What he expected to see and what he actually saw were two very different things entirely. He had briefly interacted with Discord while in Equestria, the mismatched creature seemingly avoiding him whenever possible. So it was to his surprise when he saw that there was not a draconequus but a rather well-dressed man.

He looked to be about middle-aged, perhaps in his 50s, if the slightly-silvered surfer-style wavy hair was any indication. He wore a pair of brown slacks and a suit jacket of the same color, buttoned over a yellow dress shirt with a matching whimsical "Shit Happens" smiley-face tie, a pair of brown flip-flops completing the ensemble. His eyebrows were just as wild as ever, though now they were lowered, matching his downbeat expression.

"Why are you here? What's happening in Equestria? Is everyone alright?" Twilight ran forward, moving past the change in appearance much faster than Lucien had.

He had a sinking feeling in his gut about his new looks though. Some suspicions that weren't going to be put to rest until he got answers out of the man.

"Settle down, Twilight, I'll be happy to explain everything." He turned and motioned to the side of the sinkhole, where a patio set had materialized suddenly.

The group made its way over, slowly finding their seats on the brightly colored furniture. Lucien took his and leaned forward onto the table, fixing Discord with a harsh glare.

He noticed, if the way the ground suddenly grabbed at his attention was any indication.

"So what's happening back in Equestria?" Twilight asked, her eyes wide in concern.

Discord let out a slow breath, looking back at her and still avoiding Lucien's gaze. "Your friends are all alright, my dear Twilight. As are the Princesses and everyone's loved ones, as best I can tell. The Engineers caught Canterlot by surprise with their flight from Cloudsdale, and their anti-magic weaponry was too much for their siege to be halted. They occupied the city within a day of their attack; everyone got out when they could. Last I checked, their warship was traveling to Manehattan, where they will undoubtedly experience the same success. The Princesses and most of Equestria's minor towns and cities evacuated to the Crystal Empire immediately. Hopefully the defenses there will be enough to stop the charge, if the Engineers even want to siege the city."

"How long has it been? Since we were gone?" Twilight asked quietly. "And why do you sound so different?"

"Much has happened since you left," Discord said, forlorn. "It's been a week in Equestria, and I suspect just about as much time has passed here on Earth." He ignored Twilight's secondary question.

Hearing Discord say the name of his planet, his home, caused something to shift inside of him. The tone of his voice, the familiarity, the way he looks... "You would know, wouldn't you?" Lucien finally broke his silence sharply, the words harshly spoken.

Twilight looked to him, confused and concerned. "I thought it was weird when you didn't talk to me, didn't interact with me, barely even looked at me. And I had this slight suspicion that you always knew a little more than you should. References that you shouldn't be making, jokes that you shouldn't be cracking. It wasn't much to go off, but something about you kept reminding me of here," he said, gesturing to the landscape around them.

Discord sighed and smiled softly. "It wasn't that big of a stretch to make after that, was it? Yes, I am from Earth."

Twilight shifted forward in her chair, her ears snapping to attention.

"But there's more to the story, and there's more to it than you might think, Lucien, whatever that may be. I have more important things to tell you besides the state of your friends in Equestria, information that needs to be passed on, because it will undoubtedly help you in your eventual fight against Sandcroft."

Lucien's back went straight, his hands clasped tightly together. "I'm listening," he said, voice taut and hard, like a steel cable stretched to its limit.

"My story begins here on Earth, before all that you see around you." His hands spread wide, and the world washed away around them like chalk in the rain. The three were left sitting on their table in a black void; then color and sensation came rushing back. They were sitting on the shores of a warm and sunny beach, looking out at the waves. Several fruity-looking drinks had appeared on the table.

"I was young when everything started. Just another college student looking to skip class and spend time at the beach instead." He pointed out into the waves. Lucien and Twilight followed the gesture and saw a young version of the man before them, his hair long, blonde, and shaggy instead of the current grey as he rode a wave in to shore. "Destiny wasn't something I had considered before, aside from the drunken ramblings I occasionally indulged in as a business major, but it was something I could no longer deny after this day."

The world once again washed away before them, but this time it was quickly replaced by a similar scene. They had relocated to the patio of a house, the sound of the ocean reaching them from what sounded like only a block away. The young Discord was strapping his surfboard to the top of his car, when the sudden sounds of a car's brakes grabbed his attention. He turned to look to the middle of the street just in time to see an older man get clipped by a speeding car.

"Looking back on it now, I can see with such clarity the way fate conspired to put me in this position. A crowded day at the beach, yet nobody was around except for me and him." The young Discord ran out to the prone man as the car sped off. He yelled something incomprehensible at the taillights, then turned his attention to the bloodied man. Some words were exchanged quietly between them, then he fell limp to the street.

"He died before I could even hear his name, or for him to tell me the words that would've changed all our lives." The scene paused before them, and Discord stood, walking over to his younger self. "This is the moment where the fates of two worlds changed. The moment where that man's power passed to me, and I inherited the title of Gatekeeper of Earth. The whole thing reads like the exposition to a bad story."

The world blurred away again, this time reappearing quickly as the interior of a police station. Despite the bustle around the young Discord being questioned by an officer, Lucien and Twilight could hear nothing. "It was not something I could feel at first, but I became acquainted with my newfound abilities over time." His voice echoed around them as he was no longer present in the scene. "Nobody was ever able to identify the man or find out what happened, because his body disappeared not long after he had died. I looked away to call an ambulance and when I turned back he was gone. It was still enough for the police to come though, and I, shaken as I was, could only tell them what I saw.

"It didn't take long for them to dismiss me and call off any idea of an investigation." The scene blurred and reformed as the young Discord was sitting at a chair in what appeared to be a standard dorm room. Posters for alternative-rock bands adorned the walls, and a medium-sized acoustic guitar laid on the bed in the corner. Lucien and Twilight watched from behind the young man as he twitched with an ethereal energy, before some of it discharged and jolted the contents of the room. "I wasn't able to get a grasp on anything that had happened. The disappearing man, or the sudden appearance of what could only be called magical powers."

Their Discord strode into the scene suddenly, colors coalescing and shaping into his figure. He placed a hand on Young Discord's desk and looked down at him. "I kept it all to myself after taking a few days to get things under control, of course."

The scene bled away, Discord holding his position this time. When the color refocused into coherent positions, Lucien and Twilight could see that he now had his hand set on a table outdoors. They were seated in an outdoors dining pavilion, college students dining ravenously around them. Young Discord sat at the table their Discord was leaning on. The younger man was smiling and had his arm around a pretty, blue-eyed woman. A few others sat across from them, laughing along with what Young Discord seemed to be saying. After a few moments, he sat forward and pointed across the dining area, at a trash can several beefy-looking men were walking past. With a snap of his fingers, the trash in the can exploded outward, covering them in assorted garbage. The group at the table laughed even harder watching this. The scene paused, and their Discord placed a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"My dear Sofia," he said with a sad smile. "The last times we spent together were the best we ever had." The scene spun 90 degrees, shifting in the blur to a new one. Sofia and Young Discord seemed to be locked in an argument on the lawn outside a house party. The scene spun again and the two were outside Young Discord's dorm room, Sofia carrying a packed box of items, Young Discord following with his head down. The scene spun one more time and Young Discord was sitting at an empty table in the dining pavilion from before, looking off into the distance where Sofia was talking to several others.

"It was our relationship ending that motivated my change." Discord narrated, unseen. The scene before them slowly faded to darkness, though Young Discord and Sofia kept their color and clarity. "We had been together for three years, seven months, and fifteen days when she broke my heart. She said my new abilities had changed who I was, and she couldn't be with who I was becoming." Young Discord and Sofia slowly faded away as Discord continued. "I was going to propose to her at the end of that school year."

Color faded back in again, this time muted and grayed. Young Discord sat cross-legged in his dorm room. "I explored my new power and found that while I still had significant physical limits, my mind experienced no such drawback. Through meditation and exploration of the flow of magic around Earth, I began to learn about my role on the planet. It was a lot for a college student to take in." As he spoke, Young Discord suddenly recoiled and fell over backward, his chest heaving with ragged breaths.

"But it wasn't my problem." The scene paused as Young Discord struggled to sit up, his eyes wild and his forehead covered in the light sheen of sweat. Their Discord's voice had gathered an edge to it as he spoke. "No, it was never my problem. I could feel the claws of nightmarish monsters digging into the flow of Earth's natural energy. So many that it constantly threatened to rip the boundaries of this reality and begin destroying it in time. I made the connection that it could be my job to prevent these monsters from entering. But I reasoned with the idea, bargained with it. I could feel the immense power of the forces trying to bring Earth down, and I figured that more like me must exist around the world. That I couldn't possibly the only one holding the Gate to Earth shut.

"I had fallen into a depression shortly after Sofia left me, and began failing my classes as well. Responsibility slid off me like oil on water, and this one was no different. I just wanted to leave and come back when things weren't as bad. When things made sense and I understood myself again."

The colors faded away again, this time slowly returning to show Young Discord wearing a backpack and light hiking gear as he walked through a forest. "I paid no heed to the pulling at the core of my being that told me to stay and keep the Gate shut, to stay and defend my home. I was done with my home, I needed somewhere new." Young Discord stopped suddenly, looking forward. He snapped his fingers, and a door appeared before him.

"I shook off my responsibility and forgot about the ties that bound me to Earth. And I left." Young Discord opened the door, revealing nothing but a bright white light. He squinted into it, then hesitantly stepped through. The door closed shut slowly of its own accord, then winked out of existence, leaving no trace that it was ever there. The colors of the scene ran away, leaving nothing but darkness.

Discord walked in from nowhere, taking a seat at Lucien and Twilight's table. The darkened landscape of Humble's outskirts came rushing back underneath them, sticking back to their original positions and holding fast. "I arrived in Equestria, long, long before you were born Twilight. As I passed into the world, its magic grabbed at me and twisted me into the mangled creature known by ponykind as a draconequus. I was the only of my kind, and I was keenly aware of that. The locals shunned me, and I them as well.

"I isolated myself and experimented. The best I could figure with regards to my transformation was that Equis' natural magic interacted poorly with mine, given that I was Earth's Gatekeeper, and disfigured me in such a way that it could make me stable while on the planet. I wasn't in any state of mind to question it, given how I went mad not long after." Discord looked down at his hands as he spoke. "Isolation and too much experimentation with the only kind of magic I could harness, that of Chaos, led me down a path that I couldn't return from. It didn't take me long to start laying waste to the land and launch a conquest for whatever reason popped into my mind at the time. Ponykind knows this as the Reign of Discord, a period of nonsensical time where I forced the world to obey my every whim. That is, until two alicorn sisters by the name of Celestia and Luna ended my reign of terror, imprisoning me in stone.

"Millennia passed, and I gathered enough strength to break free, only to be stopped again by a certain lavender unicorn and her five friends," Discord said, shifting his gaze to Twilight. The mare in question narrowed her eyes back at him, a reaction Lucien was surprised to see.

"And the rest is history. I had wondered before why I was even able to enter Equestria in the first place, given my correct assumptions that every world has its own Gatekeeper, but that was answered the day I was released from stone once again and recent events were explained to me. The only reason why I was on Equis in the first place was because Equis' Gatekeeper had allowed it. After all, nothing gets in or out without his say-so. It was stranger then that I never encountered this Gatekeeper.

"It was only after I saw Lucien and heard about the world he had come from that the full reality of my mistake came to hit me. The carefree stupor that I had operated in for the past several-thousand years faded away, and I felt as young and worried as the day I had left Earth."

Discord's gaze reluctantly shifted to Lucien's, and he noticed that the ex-Draconequus' yellow and red eyes had not changed from the way they were on Equis. "Several events conspired to cause the events that lead us to that planet, my friend. Destiny was something I said I believed in after that day so long ago, but I see the truth now. It was evident from the start, but I hadn't glimpsed the full picture until that thing began his attack on Canterlot.

"I'm sure you've realized it by now as well, Lucien. Neither you nor I arrived in Equestria by chance. The events in our lives were set in motion long before we could've changed them. The being known as Sandcroft has been alive far longer than any of us ever suspected, I'm sure. Perhaps from even before the foundation of Equestria as a nation. He's played the longest con I've ever seen, aligning his pieces in such a way to stack his influence not just across Equis, but Earth as well. I'm still not sure how, but I know he engineered my ascension to Gatekeeper of Earth and influenced me enough to know that I would abandon my post here even before knowing what my job was. He saw you leave your life in New York City behind to search for a solution to humanity's problems, the problems that I unwittingly and unknowingly had caused. It seems that the only force he hasn't harnessed is the distortion of time between our worlds, if the way time has progressed from when I left Earth and arrived in Equestria compared to now is any indication. After all, I only departed from Earth no more than three or four decades ago."

Discord paused to take a breath. "Lucien, I apologize for the destruction of our-- your planet. The course of action I chose so long ago was rash and uninformed, and it left Earth compromised of its only defender from all the horrors we could imagine. For that, I am truly sorry." He turned his attention to his right. "And Twilight, I am sorry for the way Equis has suffered from the effects my decisions have led to, regardless of Sandcroft's involvement. My interference with Equestria and my lack of interference with Earth has led us to this moment, where the fates of two worlds hang in the balance."

He looked back at Lucien. "So, I came here to begin to help make things right. My power, the power of a Gatekeeper, is not all-encompassing nor all-knowing, despite what Sandcroft may have you believe. While I am currently the best-suited individual for disposing of the monsters that have infested the planet, I cannot single-handedly defend Earth. I understand that in my absence humans have developed a community that can harness Earth's magic and have been using it to fight back against the darkness. I can only hope that they will accept my help and allow me to begin cleaning up the mess I've made."

His eyes narrowed. "Lucien, Twilight, I am sure you know by now the way that a Gatekeeper's magic operates. I trust that you will be able to take the necessary precautions and make the necessary sacrifices to stop the creature that is attempting to destroy not one, but two worlds. You don't need me to tell you just how much hangs in the balance."

Discord raised a hand and snapped his fingers sharply. With a soft pop, he disappeared.

Twilight

Twilight was still trying to process the abundance of information Discord had just delivered them. His personal history, the concept of Gatekeepers, the whole dramatic bit of 'the fates of two world hanging in the balance'. It was too much to take in.

She was shaken from her thoughts when she heard Lucien yell. He had stood and paced right after the former-draconequus departed, seemingly trying to find a way to release his emotions. "Lucien..." she began, but found that she didn't know what to say. "I'm here," she ended up finishing. She'd learned the friendship lesson about just listening when a friend needed to vent a long time ago.

"I'm so... aargh!" he mimicked strangling something with his hands. "The whole reason why everything on Earth has gone to shit was right in front of me and I didn't even punch him in the face!" Lucien stopped pacing and hunched over, wringing his hands together.

Twilight blinked. "Is... that what you're most upset about?" she asked, trying to get him to vent more.

Lucien stood back up and looked over at Twilight. "Not even close! But it's all I can think about doing, now! I'm so mad that he just left like that when he knew what kind of responsibility he faced! Sure, it sounds like a lot, defending an entire planet from eldritch horrors and abominations, but you can't just shirk off your duties like that! Hell, defending the planet is what thousands of mages like me have been doing since that idiot left!" Lucien was breathing hard.

Twilight continued to listen. "And I want to be more mad! Which just makes me madder!"

That part confused her. "What do you mean? You sound pretty mad now." He wasn't as mad as he had gotten back when Bronze Gear had detonated her bomb and taken away their magic, but he was close.

"I mean that if he didn't leave then I wouldn't have ever turned out to be like this!" he said, holding up a hand and igniting it into a green flame. "I'm mad about the way Earth has become, but I love being me!" He extinguished his hand. "And now he's finally here to begin fixing all his mistakes, and become the turning point in humanity's war to exist, and I'm happy about it, in fact I'm ecstatic!" He walked back to the patio set and sat down again, hands reaching up to rub at his temples. "But... god. Things really went to shit while he was gone."

It seemed like he was done. "Lucien..." The man perked up at hearing Twilight speak, and he looked up to make eye contact with her. "It's okay to have conflicting feelings about this. You don't have to decide to feel one way or the other, you can have mixed feelings." He sighed, sitting back further in his chair. "I know that was a lot to take in, but give it time to process and we can talk about it later, alright? When you've sorted out how you feel more."

Lucien opened his mouth to speak, his face indicating that he had more to say on the matter. After a second, he sighed again, and stood up. "You're right," he said, a bitter note biting its way into his words. "I'm still mad, but I need to think about it more." He walked over to where Twilight was sitting and pulled her chair back. "Come on, let's just keep moving. We're not too far away from the next Labyrinth entrance."

Twilight frowned. She could still see in his eyes the raw emotion he was experiencing. But if he didn't want to talk about it anymore, then that was his decision and she would respect that. Still, she couldn't help but to place a hoof on his thigh, rubbing it gently.

Lucien looked down at her, surprised. She could swear she caught a hint of a blush on his cheeks before he placed a hand over her hoof and stroked it with his thumb, looking off into the distance. "We should go," he said, pulling off from her abruptly and walking off.

Twilight sighed, and followed.

Author's Notes:

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