Three words is all it takes to crack Sunset's heart like old glass.

"I got in!" Twilight yells as she leaps across her room toward Sunset Shimmer, hellbent on hugging her with all her strength.

Sunset inhales her girlfriend's vanilla-lavender-mystery breakfast scent, managing to keep the shards of her heart from collapsing a little longer. 

After a minute of cheerful hugging and hollering, Twilight's frantic glee slows down. Her arms slowly drag down from Sunset's neck to around behind her waist so she can twirl a few of the longer strands of red-yellow hair between her fingers.

"I don't have to go."

"Yeah, you do."

Now the pieces can fall apart.

[hr]

Summer runs by in a blur after that day. Snippets of lists and shopping and packing all swirl together in Sunset's memory, the only clear part are the eyes looking out from behind black horn-rimmed glasses; the focused center of her own hurricane.

From the periphery of her hearing, Sunset recognizes someone saying her name.

"Sunset, darling, did you hear a word I just said?"

"Not really, no. Sorry," she answers, running her hands through her hair and rubbing her scalp. "I've had a million things on my mind lately."

"Let's be honest, you've had exactly [i]one[/i] thing on your mind. And rightfully so, I believe. Which is precisely what I was trying to ask you a moment ago. Have you two decided what to do about 'you' yet? The plural, romantic 'you,' I mean to say."

"I've been trying not to think about it, honestly."

Rarity leveled her eyes at Sunset. "I wouldn't dare tell you what to do in this case, of course, but I will say that you must do something."

"I know. I think I've known what the right road ahead is since she opened that damned acceptance letter. I guess I just wanted to pretend she wasn't leaving at all a little while longer."

Rarity reaches out and gently squeezes Sunset's hand.

[hr]

"You're sure you've got everything on you for the train ride, Twilight?" Sunset asks, her thumb rubbing gently across the back of Twilight's hand.

"I've double checked every bag so many times the very concept of 'bag' has undergone an advanced sort of semantic satiation," Twilight replies. Her free hand slowly tightens and loosens at her side, barely releasing little bits of her pent up nervous energy.

Sunset sucks in and releases a deep breath. "Only one thing left to do, then."

"Get on the train?"

"Two things left to do, then," Sunset says.

"No, I'm very certain I did everything on the boarding procedure advisory—"

"—just take your little notepad out of your pocket and look at the back of the last page."

Twilight fishes out her travel sized notepad and looks at the last page. Sunset mouths the two words written there to herself as Twilight reads them.

[i]Let go[/i]

Her fingers uncurl from Sunset's, and her hand drifts to her side. She takes a small step away, toward the train, before turning and pulling Sunset in for a kiss. Their eyes lock as their lips drift apart, and Twilight mouths a reply before turning and running for her train:

[i]Never[/i]