They had both taken it down to the wire. The digital display perched on the pedestal that had once supported Canterlot High's mascot statue was down to the single minutes now. "So," said Sunset. "This is it." "I guess so," Twilight replied, adjusting her glasses with her one unoccupied hand. There was a breath of silence between the two girls. Somewhere, a cicada roared out. "This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't smashed it," Twilight blurted out. "This portal was in complete homeostasis before I—" "Before Midnight Sparkle," Sunset said. "You weren't yourself." "I brought it on," Twilight said firmly. "If I had just left well enough alone—" "If you had left well enough alone, then you wouldn't have been you. And you's who I love." "Stop it," Twilight whispered, gripping Sunset's hand all the harder. "Maybe they'll find a way to restore the balance," Sunset said. "Maybe we can stop the slow bleed?" "Sunset, we've been over this. It's killing this universe. It was bad enough when it was merely shunting power back to the creatures and artifacts your people have sequestered here over the past thousand years. Then, after I—" "After Midnight Sparkle!" "After Midnight Sparkle broke it open. The wisps started leaking through. Bringing our worst selves to light. Now it's literally destabilizing the fundamental laws of physics in its vicinity. I'm not going to risk [i]all existence[/i] for—" "I know," Sunset said. "But we'll be able to drop the barrier again, just as soon as we find a foolproof, one hundred percent solution—" "This is science, Sunset," Twilight sniffed. "How many foolproof, one hundred percent things are there, really?" "I'm just saying—" "Sure," said Twilight, closing the topic with her encouraging smile. "If there is a way, you'll be the one to find it." Quiet, for a moment. "You could come with me." "Sunset, please, no. Not again." "Equestria is [i]beautiful[/i], Twilight. It's a perfect little jewel-box of a universe. Uncharted frontiers, grand cities, tidy little village, beautiful sunsets—" "Beautiful Sunsets," Twilight said, a tear welling up at the corner of one eye. "Yes, I'm sure there are." "It's a living paradise, Twilight." "I'm not a unicorn, Sunset. I will never be a unicorn. I know I'm passing up a thousand kids' elementary school fantasies with this, but I'm not going to live the rest of my life in a place where I wake up every morning keenly aware that my entire body is wrong and that I'm not where I belong." "Welcome to the last four years of my life," said Sunset. "It gets better. It's bearable." "I don't want 'bearable,' Sunset," Twilight whispered. The two of them stared at the little digital clock, its luminescent numbers steadily falling away toward zero. "If we wish really, really hard," said Sunset, "I bet we can make this moment last forever." "That isn't how time works." "We've done the impossible before," said Sunset. "Yes," Twilight replied. "Yes, we have." "Commence wishing on my mark," said Sunset, her jaw trembling. "Roger that," said Twilight, clutching Sunset's hand. "Three, two, one," said Sunset. "Mark."