“Wallflower, stop!” Sunset shouted as the two mares arrived at a small hill full of green grass. It was a noticeable contrast to the rest of the forest, like the eye of a storm.

Wallflower’s trot gradually slowed into a brisk walk until she finally stopped. She wiped her tears away as Sunset finally caught up to her. “Can we please just forget about it?”

“Wally, this is clearly upsetting you. You know we can talk about it, even if it involves me. Specially if it involves me.” Sunset wanted to hug her friend, but Wallflower seemed cautious of her touch, probably wary of getting her mind read again.

“I don’t want to. It’s in the past already, we can just move on with our lives.”

“You clearly can’t Wally,” Sunset walked around her friend to try and look at her in the eyes. “You don’t want me to apologize for what I did to you, and you insist that what you did with the Memory Stone was way worse. But that’s not true. We can’t compare what we did to each other, and we can’t just ignore it forever. We need to process it properly before we can move on from them, otherwise it will only eat you up inside.”

“Then I will process it on my own,” Wallflower said, still avoiding her gaze.

“Wally we need to do it together,” Sunset insisted.

“You’re not at fault!” Wallflower shouted.

“I told you to cut yourself!” Sunset shouted back.

“But I didn’t, and you changed, but I didn’t realize it and actually hurt you horribly.” Tears started flowing down Wallflower’s cheeks, the walls finally breaking down. “I just saw you sing a song with the princess and her friends and suddenly you were the best girl in the world. I thought it was a trick, I didn’t realize how much it made you suffer until I went too far and tried to ruin your life!”

Sunset was taken aback for a moment at the confession, but she pressed on to comfort her. “But I–”

“I was an idiot!” Wallflower interrupted her. “Everyone tells me I am. That I shouldn’t have done it. That I should’ve remained invisible or killed myself or get beaten up for what I did.” Wallflower was breathing heavily, her mane getting frazzled and the tears didn’t stop coming. “That I don’t deserve you. That you should be with Twilight.” Wallflower finally looked at Sunset as she sobbed. “And they’re right.”

Sunset was horrified. “Wait, how do they know what happened? Their memories–”

“Flash Sentry saw everything in the parking lot. He spread the word. Everyone in school knows about it.”

“The why hasn’t anyone brought it up to me?” Sunset questioned in disbelief.

“Because they don’t want to bother you. You’re the favorite. The popular magical girl everyone adores and–” Wallflower clutched her head, the cognitive dissonance of her anger tearing her apart.

“Wally calm down. They’re not right!” Sunset exclaimed trying to hug her friend, but she saw something in the corner of her eye, hidding in the grass. “Get down!” She tackled Wallflower right before a Timberwolf tried to bite her head off.
They had been surrounded by a pack of six wooden wolves that walked in circles around them.

“Stay back!” Sunset shouted before blasting one of the wolves into pieces, but its magic quickly put it back together. “Go to the trees, I will teleport to you!” she ordered Wallflower, and the frightened mare nodded before running.

Sunset prepared herself for a fight, but the Timberwolves ran after Wallflower, ignoring her completely. “What?” She quickly surrounded her friend in her magical aura and lifted her up, away from the bites of the wolves. However, the wooden animals kept their focus on Wallflower, and tried to jump high enough to reach her.

“Why aren’t they coming for me?” Sunset wondered while looking at her friend suspended in the air. She couldn’t hold her up forever, and she also couldn’t fire blasts of magic while maintaining the levitation. “What’s attracting them to her?” She noticed the relentlessness the Timberwolves showed, even starting to jump on top of each other to try and reach Wallflower, who had curled up into a ball as she cried. “Could it be… her anger?”

“Wally! Listen to me!” Sunset shouted as loud as she could, getting the attention of her friend. “What you said is true! I just sang a song and thought that everything was fixed. That all my sins were forgotten. I didn’t try to see if there was someone who’s wounds didn’t heal. That was my mistake. I should’ve seen your suffering just like you should’ve seen my regret. We both failed at that, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t forgive each other. Because I did and will keep doing it.” Sunset started to feel the strain of her magic. “And fuck what everyone thinks of you! They don’t get to tell you what you deserve or who you are. Only your friends get that right.” Sunset looked at Wallflower’s eyes, noticing the lack of tears. “And if you ask me, you’re a sweet girl that deserves happiness. And maybe, we can b–”

Sunset’s words were cut off as the Timberwolves lost interest in Wallflower and started approaching her instead. She lowered her friend as delicately as she could and started blasting the wolves apart, but they were far too many for her to control and was forced to teleport away before getting bitten.

The Timberwolves followed her as fast as they could, ready to pounce, when suddenly Wallflower stood between her and the wooden animals. “Fuck off!” she shouted as loud and with as much fury as she could, staring them down fiercely.

The Timberwolves growled in their cracking wooden voice, and to the surprise of both mares, slowly lost interest in them and walked away, back to the forest.

Wallflower let out a long sigh and sat down on the grass. “I can’t believe that worked.”

“What were you trying to do exactly?” Sunset asked, feeling exhausted.

“I guessed that since they were magical trees, I could use that nature skill to ward them off.”

Sunset chuckled. “And they say it’s a dump stat.”

Wallflower looked at her confused. “What do you mean?”

Sunset just smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “I need to invite you to one of our games.”

“Okay…” Wallflower said, still unsure. “And… thank you. I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear that.”

Sunset leaned on her friend’s shoulder. “That’s why you don’t have to keep these things to yourself. We can talk about anything, even if it involves bad things about each other. We will solve them together. Okay?”

Wallflower nodded before leaning into Sunset. “Okay. Thank you. For everything.”

They stayed like that for a while, enjoying the comfort of the other, until Sunset finally stood up. “Let’s go back to the castle.”

Wallflower blinked twice. “W-what? Why? We haven’t found what’s making that sound yet!”

Sunset gave her friend an apologetic look. “Wally, you almost got turned to stone, I almost got eaten by a plant, and right now we could’ve been torn apart by Timberwolves. We’ve taken enough risks.”

“And we're going to abandon all our efforts to get here?”

“We can come back later, with Twilight or Zecora or a platoon of guards to back us up.”

“But…” Wallflower looked at the direction the sound was coming from. “What if when I leave, I don’t hear it again? What if I lose my chance to get a cutie mark?”

“Wally,” Sunset said with a bit of tiredness. “That’s not how it works.”

“How does it work then? How did you get yours?” Wallflower asked, pointing at the red and gold sun on her friend’s flanks.

“I got it when…” Sunset started, but when she tried to recall the event, her mind went blank. “It was…” she racked her brain trying to find the memory, but nothing came up.

“Are you okay?” Wallflower asked worried. “Does it mean something bad?”

“It means…” Once again, Sunset couldn’t come up with an answer. “I can’t remember.” She sat down, looking shocked. She tried to remember her cute-ceañera, but nothing came up. She tried to remember her parent’s faces, but only got blurred images. “I’ve been a human for so long. How much did I lose when I left Equestria?” Sunset started to sob, realizing how much of herself she had forgotten due to her mistake.

Suddenly, soft limbs surrounded her in a hug. "Well, if I had to guess what your cutie mark means. It could mean the warmness in your heart for those you care about. The angry fire you have in your eyes when you defend your friends. The sunlight you shine on those who feel sad and in darkness. Or that empathy that you share with everyone.” Sunset could’ve been imagining it, but Wallflower’s voice sounded far softer, kinder, almost angelic in a way. “I think you've a lot of things that make you special." She looked up at her, seeing her coffee eyes and warm, caring smile.
Sunset didn’t feel sad anymore. She couldn’t feel sad. Not while Wallflower was close to her.

She hugged her back, smiling as she burrowed into her embrace. “Thank you, Wally.”

“You said it first; We can talk about anything and solve it together,” Wallflower said as she closed her eyes, enjoying the moment. “We can go visit Celestia and ask her about it. I’m sure she has the answers.”

Sunset smiled. “Sounds like a plan.” She let out a sigh, thankful to have her at her side. “But first we should go see what called you here.”

“Really?” Wallflower asked surprised.

“I think you’re right, it is important, and we’ve already made it this far.”

Wallflower smiled and hugged her tighter. “Thank you.”

“Can we stay like this a bit longer before going?”

Wallflower chuckled. “Of course.”

Eventually, they had to break apart, but there was no embarrassment like in previous times. Just happiness.