"Today is Twilight's entrance exam."
"Yeah, I know."
Sunset Shimmer replied casually.
During the time before Twilight Sparkle's exam, they met at Aurora's home every day, so even without paying special attention, Sunset Shimmer knew what day it was.
"Why don't we go and take a look? It's not like we have anything else to do anyway."
Aurora suggested.
Sunset Shimmer knew this was Aurora's goal; one could say it was already quite obvious when she voluntarily brought up Twilight Sparkle.
Since Aurora and Twilight Sparkle were friends, it was normal for her to think of the other, but Sunset Shimmer vaguely felt that things were not that simple.
She knew it wasn't good to groundlessly speculate about her only friend, but this thought was like an intuition, constantly lingering in her subconscious.
So she couldn't help but say:
"I always feel like you're overly concerned about Twilight."
"Really? Maybe it's because she's my friend, and today's exam is very important to her."
Aurora explained matter-of-factly.
"Isn't that what friends are for?"
Sunset Shimmer glanced at her, her lips moved a few times, but in the end, she chose not to expose her.
Ever since Aurora resumed her social interactions with the ponies she knew before, Sunset Shimmer gradually realized that Aurora's interactions with those ponies were more like just going through the motions.
Especially after Aurora skipped grades, she basically had no other communication with her former classmates other than greeting them when they met.
This wasn't incomprehensible; after all, their environments were different, and it was understandable that relationships that weren't very close to begin with became even more distant.
However, this made her attitude towards Twilight Sparkle appear extraordinary.
According to what Sunset Shimmer knew, the two of them only had a passing acquaintance at the Summer Sun Celebration initially, and the timing of their second meeting could even be described as terrible.
The third time happened recently, when Aurora took the initiative to find Twilight Sparkle. Although the motive was reasonable enough, it gave Sunset Shimmer the feeling that Aurora had set her sights on her.
That was the problem. Twilight Sparkle looked like a very ordinary Little Unicorn; she might have been as studious as Aurora, but there were plenty of such ponies in the academy.
In short, Sunset Shimmer didn't understand what Twilight Sparkle had that was worth Aurora's attention.
If it was guilt that made Aurora pour extra attention into Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer would immediately say that was impossible; this pony didn't look like she felt any guilt for having done something wrong at all.
Instead, it was more like she held some kind of expectation for Twilight Sparkle.
This sounded incredible, but Sunset Shimmer just had this premonition.
Because this phenomenon had already manifested when Sunset Shimmer was with her, especially when she didn't behave in a way that satisfied Aurora, Aurora would look at her with a look of "wishing she would become better," which made her feel very confused.
She was clearly just her junior, so why did she always look at her with the same eyes as Princess Celestia?
Therefore, Sunset Shimmer often complained to Aurora about this, although she didn't always listen.
Getting back to the point, Sunset Shimmer believed that the degree of importance Aurora placed on Twilight Sparkle had reached the same level of attention as she gave herself.
Based on Sunset Shimmer's understanding of Aurora, she wouldn't casually pour energy beyond daily social interactions into an ordinary pony.
This meant that in Aurora's eyes, Twilight Sparkle was definitely not an ordinary pony, but Sunset Shimmer had absolutely no awareness of anything extraordinary about Twilight Sparkle.
Hearing no response from Sunset Shimmer, Aurora turned her head and saw Sunset Shimmer's troubled expression. Although her mind was clearly not here, she was still following her without a word, which was tacit agreement to go watch the Sonic Rainboom with her.
Aurora smirked in her heart, leaned over to Sunset Shimmer's ear, and asked:
"Don't tell me you're jealous because I've been caring about Twilight lately?"
"What?! No! I am not!"
Sunset Shimmer suddenly came back to her senses, then saw Aurora's malicious smile, knowing she had fallen into her trap.
"I just happened to want to go see the results of Twilight's hard work for so long."
Sunset Shimmer forced a smile and then walked quickly to the front.
Even if she really only had Aurora as a pony who could be called a friend, she wouldn't care about these things; how could she possibly be jealous?
Sunset Shimmer just wanted to know the reason for Aurora's concern for Twilight Sparkle, that was all.
The teaching building for welcoming new students was not hard to find; one could say that both Sunset Shimmer and Aurora started their campus life there, and the location hadn't changed for so many years.
"Wait."
Aurora suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong? If we don't hurry, she'll probably finish the exam and come out."
Sunset Shimmer urged impatiently.
"Do you feel the ground shaking?"
"What?"
Hearing Aurora say this, Sunset Shimmer also felt a slight tremor under her hooves, and even the pebbles on the road showed unnatural movement.
An earthquake? No, this was clearly caused by another phenomenon. And they soon found out what had happened.
A gorgeous rainbow-colored light appeared from the horizon, passed over the sky of Central City, and was immediately followed by a heart-stopping explosion that stimulated their eardrums.
Sonic Rainboom!
Watching this historic scene, Aurora felt a sense of relief in this instant, followed by a burst of excitement and ecstasy.
The gears of Equestria's fate began to turn at this moment, and the legendary story began to be written from today.
If there weren't other ponies around, Aurora would have squealed with excitement.
The surging heat in her heart made Aurora's face blush, and even the magic in her body became active, as if it had been sleeping for a long time and had just been awakened, as if she had suddenly realized something, giving Aurora many new understandings of magic.
Aurora shook her head a few times, reached out a hoof and tapped her glowing horn, soothing her restless magic, and reminding herself not to show any strange reactions.
"What is that? A rainbow? And an explosion?"
Sunset Shimmer couldn't understand this phenomenon; it happened so suddenly that she hadn't even reacted yet.
However, today was destined to be a day full of unexpected events; without giving Sunset Shimmer time to buffer and think, a flash of magical light flickered across a window of the teaching building, and then a huge dragon head with purple and green scales broke through the roof of the teaching building and poked out.
Although it looked like an adult dragon, its eyes were full of baby-like innocence and ignorance.
"So cute."
Aurora couldn't help but comment.
"Now is not the time to say that?!"
Sunset Shimmer retorted to Aurora, who actually had the elegance to make small talk at a time like this, and then activated Teleportation Magic and disappeared from the spot.
Aurora shrugged indifferently and appeared right after in the classroom where the incredible event was taking place.