Starlight's Weekend Off

Starlight woke up to the morning sun hitting her face. Which of course made her realize that they had slept through the night. She gave a disappointed groan, alerting Sunburst to the fact that she had awakened. He had been combing his mane over by his desk.

"Good morning, Starlight. I was just about to get you up, if we want to make it down to the dining hall to start breakfast."

Starlight rubbed her eyes, looked over at the clock, and realized they only had five minutes to get down to the kitchen before Shining, Cadance, and Flurry would be down for breakfast. She fired off a quick sanitation spell at her and Sunburst, although, in her opinion, they hadn't been at it nearly long enough to have any suspicious scent about them. But it was quicker than a shower, and it would barely keep them on schedule.

"Thanks, hun. Wouldn't want to smell like that in the kitchen." Sunburst said, hooking his cloak back on while Starlight quickly combed her mane. With that, the two of them left the room and quickly trotted down to the royal dining hall. They got there five seconds before a yawning Cadance and Shining came in with their daughter.

"Yikes, we don't have long." Sunburst whispered to Starlight.

"Pot of Earl Neigh tea would probably buy us some time." She said as they stepped into the kitchen after giving the royal family a wave.

Sunburst nodded, knowing exactly where the teapots and cups were from last night. As he set the kettle on the range to bring to a boil, he looked over at Starlight as she began prepping the teabags.

"Listen Starlight, might as well get this out of the way right now so I'm not dancing around it for the rest of the day. I'm... I'm sorry about last night." Sunburst apologized as he began to set up the silver platter.

Starlight looked at him quizzically.

"For what? Sunburst, it's alright. I hardly expected last night to be perfect."

"But I'm sure we both expected to last more than two minutes."

"Sunburst, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect. It's not like you didn't wake me up on purpose; we both fell asleep thanks to that tea." Starlight told him, bringing a ceramic cup of sugar cubes to the platter.

"I'm just saying, it wouldn't have been a problem if I had just used Cadance's pearls." The stallion said, bringing the cups and teabags over to the platter to join the sugar.

"What are you talking about? What pearls?" Starlight asked.

Sunburst glanced over to the kettle, and saw that the water wasn't quite ready to come off the burner, so he lit up his horn, and took out the vial with the pair of crimson pearls inside.

"Cadance gave me these right after we arrived at the castle yesterday. She said it would help with energy and endurance, and... You know, having more than one go at it. We just add it to any liquid, and it works within moments." He told his marefriend.

"So... So why didn't you?" Starlight asked, not accusingly, just with honest curiosity.

Sunburst looked her in the eyes.

"Because I wanted it to be us. Just us. I wanted our first time to be no magic or potions or enhancements to aid us. I wanted just you."

Starlight looked stunned for just a moment, but then smiled, came forward and kissed him.

"That... Is the best answer I could ever hope for."

Sunburst smiled.

"If it's any consolation, I tried holding back, I really did. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't, because that's how absolutely amazing you felt."

The compliment made Starlight blush.

"And even though it was barely a minute, I just want you to know that it was one of the best minutes of my life. I really mean it. We're going to get better at it." She told him.

Their conversation was brought to a pause when the kettle on the stove began to whistle. Sunburst immediately removed it, and poured the nearly-boiling water into the ceramic teapot, and brought it over to the platter. Lastly, staying true to Sunburst's suggestion a month ago, Starlight's horn lit up, gathered a few ingredients, and in a flash, had fresh cream cheese ready to go next to sliced bagels. Lastly, a bottle of warm milk and fresh ground apples joined the platter for Flurry. They sent the two platters to the expediting window, where a server was ready and waiting to take it over to the royal family.

Next up was the main course. Sunburst began cracking eggs and putting them into a glass mixing bowl, and heating a pair of cast iron skillets, while Starlight went about dicing vegetables.

"Now then..." Starlight began, as she started removing seeds from a few red chili peppers. "Cadance told me that if we can use our magic to strengthen our relationship, then we absolutely should."

Sunburst nodded, getting out a whisk to begin scrambling the eight eggs he had cracked open in the bowl.

"I'm not saying our relationship isn't strong enough. But the stronger a long-distance relationship is, the better. Because I know you're going to be Flurry Heart's Crystaller for years to come, and even though I formally graduated a couple weeks ago, I still consider myself Twilight's student with a lot to learn, and I'm not ready to leave Ponyville. I have a feeling once we get better at it, we'll be using that transportation rune a lot more than once a week." Starlight told him, getting a blush in return.

"So what do you say we use those tonight, and see what the Princess of Love's magic can do to us?"

Sunburst nearly dropped the whisk he was using to scramble the eggs, his cheeks reddening further. He composed himself, and resumed stirring with his implement of choice while the skillets continued to heat up.

"I'd say that sounds like a plan. But I've also got more planned for today, so let's get this breakfast made, because I can't wait to see what you think."