Compatī

Sunset Shimmer stared out the train car window as the grassy plains of Equestria’s countryside rolled by. It was always a sight. So much green, so much life, so much potential. There was an entire world out there for her to explore.

The door to Sunset and Copper’s little room slid open, and the chugga chugga of the train’s engine got a little louder. It snapped back into place, and the dark-wood paneling again muffled the engine.

“So why go to this thing, anyway?” Sunset asked, knowing it was Copper who had entered. “What even is a seminar for manedressing?” She turned to look at her friend, who had bought a little bag of sweets off the trolley pony.

Copper popped one of the candies in her mouth. “It’s not just manedressing, it’s also makeup and stuff. All the newest fashions and styles.”

“Why not just read a magazine for that?”

Copper raised an eyebrow at Sunset. “Because it’s all about being ahead of the curve. Everything in the magazines is at least a month old by the time you’re reading it.”

“Well, okay, but you don’t even do any of that stuff. At least, like, not professionally.”

Sunset eyed Copper’s sweetbag. She wouldn’t admit it, but she kinda wanted one, whatever they were.

“So? What’s wrong with using my license to keep ahead of the game for myself?” She flashed Sunset a sly wink. “Gotta be on top of it if I wanna be on top of it, if you know what—”

“I know what you mean,” Sunset said, rolling her eyes. Not back for even a second and already off to the races with the dick jokes.

Laughing, Copper hopped up on the bench seat and leaned against Sunset. The smell of a honeydrop candy on her breath could have attracted all the bees in a mile radius. She nuzzled Sunset on the cheek.

Sunset pulled her into a hug. “Well, we can’t have all those nameless and totally un-objectified stallions keeping my tour guide away from me while we’re here.”

Copper squeezed her back. “Don’t worry about that, Sunset. I’m sure they’d let you join in.”

Oh, that dirty mind of hers… Sunset pushed her away. Maybe a little too hard, seeing as Copper fell off the bench.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Sunset said. “I didn’t mean to push you that hard.”

Copper snickered and got up to her haunches. “Uh-huh. Sure you didn’t. You just wanted me on my back, get a head start on them. Can’t even wait ’til we’re at the hotel to get frisky, can you?”

Sunset slanted her mouth. Nope. Not taking that bait. She turned back to the window.

“Wow,” Copper said. “You’re bein’ a real party pooper today. Everything alright?” She retook her seat on the bench.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just can only handle so much Copper at a time. Gotta pace myself, right?” Sunset tossed her head over her shoulder to try and catch her off guard with one of Copper’s own trademark winks. It never felt as natural as Copper made it look, but the raised eyebrow-smirk combo Copper fired back said it hit home to some extent.

Copper flipped her mane out of her eyes and countered with a carelessly seductive smile, as if to show her how it’s done. Though, Sunset swore she saw a little blush hiding under it all.

“Oh, well don’t you worry,” Copper said. “There’s plenty of me to go around, and you can tell Doppler aaall about it later.”

Sunset wrinkled her nose. Yeah, this sort of talk still bothered her, even when she used it against Copper. And especially if Copper turned it back on her. And super especially if she dragged Doppler into the picture.

Copper snorted and held a hoof up to her mouth. “That look on your face. Watching you try to be raunchy is so adorable.”

Sunset frowned into the distance behind her. “Yeah. So adorable.”

“You know,” she cooed. “I wonder how down for that he’d actually be.” She wore an expectant grin, just waiting for Sunset’s reaction. At the very least, Sunset could deny her the satisfaction of taking that bait. She’d rather gag herself with a spoon.

“Oh, come on,” Copper said after a beat of silence. “I know that face. You can’t actually be bothered by that. I’ve said way worse stuff than that before.”

“Yeah, but never about Doppler.”

“Well, I kinda have, but okay.” She wore a growing smile that ended in a giggle and a shake of her head. “Hey. What’s bothering you? Seriously.”

Sunset sighed. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the window. “I don’t know. It’s just, he’s been gone almost two months now. I haven’t seen him since then, obviously, and he hardly writes.”

“Didn’t you say he writes to you like once a week?”

“Yeah, but that’s once a week.”

“Well,” Copper said around a mouthful of what was probably another one of her candies. “At least he’s writing to you. That’s a lot more than most mares can hope for from their stallions.”

Sunset rolled her head back and forth against the glass in what hopefully passed as shaking her head. “I mean, I guess? But… is it wrong to wish for more than that? How does this even work? What am I supposed to be doing right now? Am I being needy?”

Silence filled in the cracks between the engine’s muffled chugga chugga.

“Copper?”

“Hey!” Copper said more enthusiastically than she had any reason to. “You should see the dam they got here. Thing’s huge!”

Huh? Wait, that was the letter Doppler sent yesterday. Sunset whipped around to see the letter floating in Copper’s mint-green aura.

“Copper, what the hay!” She swiped at it with her hoof, but not before Copper whisked it out of reach. She threw her own magic around the letter, but couldn’t get a grip without the risk of tearing it, and so she gave up in a huff. “Seriously? Haven’t you heard of privacy?”

“Relax, Sunset. One, we’re besties, meaning no secrets. Two, it was halfway sticking out of your saddlebags. You’re crazy if you think I’m not gonna take a peek.”

Sunset glowered at her before sighing. Well, best not to start a fight before their vacation even started. Not like the letter had anything compromising in it anyway.

Copper’s smile came back slowly, punctuated by a laugh. “But the co-op, yaddah yaddah. Tracking a storm cell off the coast. Lots of rain… Wouldn’t mind getting caught in it with you? Sweet Celestia, he’s gonna give me cancer if he keeps this up.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. Copper had no tolerance for sentimentality. Probably why she never landed an actual coltfriend.

“Anyways,” Copper continued, her eyes snapping back and forth like a typewriter. “Hope you’re doing well. Blah blah blah, romantic mushy stuff. Sincerely yours, Gorgeous Eyes?” She shot Sunset a disbelieving smile. “He seriously signed it like that?”

Okay, maybe one compromising thing. Sunset snatched the letter, now that Copper wasn’t playing keep-away. She folded it neatly and slipped it into her saddlebags. That was the last time she let anything stick out the flap when Copper was around.

“Yeah. He signs them all that way, thanks to you and your big mouth.”

Copper laughed. “Oh, Celestia, that’s awesome. I really do have to keep telling him embarrassing things about you.”

“I will legitimately kill you if you do that.”

“Yeah, and how many times have you threatened me like that before?” She raised an expectant eyebrow and underlined it with a knowing smirk. A hoofful of Professor Phoenix Flare’s pyromancy spells came to mind, along with visions of what Copper might look like without eyebrows.

“That’s what I thought,” Copper said when Sunset didn’t respond. “But seriously, look at this…” She floated Doppler’s letter out of Sunset’s bag and unfolded it. His scraggly cursive stared Sunset in the face. “Like, really look at it. This is a letter. From your coltfriend. To you. He’s talking to you in the best way that he can. He wants this as much as you do.”

“I…” Sunset let out a sigh and looked at her hooves. “I just… Why does it have to be so complicated?”

The letter fell to Sunset’s hooves. Copper’s smile had all but vanished, and her voice took on a frighteningly sober tone:

“Sunset, you have no idea what the word ‘complicated’ means.”

Sunset frowned at her. “And you do?”

Copper stared back. She seemed unsure whether to frown or smile. Whatever it was, it turned into one of those eyeroll and snort combos of hers.

“Oh, you know me. Such deep, emotional connections with all my lays, right?”

Sunset shook her head weakly. Of course. Leave it to Copper to lay the smartassery on thick. Oh, Copper… Don’t ever change.

Copper leaned in closer. “But really,” she half whispered. “He’s taking this seriously, in as serious a way as he can. He wants this. He wants you, Sunset.”

Copper threw on a roguish grin and elbowed her in the ribs. “Also, you know he totally wants some of that sweet Sunset puss—”

“Copper, why!?” Sunset shouted to the ceiling.

Copper let out a laugh that ended in a snort. “You know why. Because your reactions are priceless.”

Sunset glared at Copper, who stared back with that dang smile of hers. Sunset sighed, shook her head, and turned back to the window. She could never be mad at that smile.

The engine chugged along in the wake of their silence. A warm weight pressed against Sunset’s back, and a familiar pair of hooves wrapped around her.

“You’re my best friend, Sunset,” Copper said. “I just want you to realize how special you are. To both of us.” She rested her head in the crook of Sunset’s neck. “Don’t ever forget that, okay?”

Sunset kept her gaze trained out the window. She knew Copper meant well, but it didn’t stop the aching feeling that things just weren’t how they should be. Still, Copper was there, and with her best friend by her side, Sunset knew she could get through anything.

“Okay,” she said. She couldn’t think of anything else to say, and so she found herself resting her head against Copper’s as they quietly watched the Equestrian countryside roll past their window.

• • •

Quickly enough, Manehattan rolled into view, and its towering cityscape welcomed Sunset and Copper with a flash of sunlight off its thousands of windows. A final hiss of steam signaled the train pulling into station, and the two gathered their bags from the overhead racks.

It was cool for a summer day. Manehattan’s weather team had scheduled clear skies, but must have had some sort of lake effect going on with the ocean to keep the sun from beating down as relentlessly as it should. That was a Doppler question. Sunset had never read much on weather stuff.

Against her usual habits, she hadn’t packed every last nook and cranny of her schedule with things to do around Manehattan. For once, she elected to just let the day come to her, follow a sort of Copper-like whimsy while her friend was busy with the seminar.

“So how long is this thing going to take?” Sunset asked as they stepped through the front doors of the Mareiott Hotel.

“It’s only running until noon today. They have a thing tomorrow, but I doubt it’ll be anything as useful as today’s stuff.”

The mare at the check-in counter wore a cute little gold-trimmed maroon-and-black suit jacket and bowtie, and the most genuine smile Sunset had seen all day. She got them their room key, and a bellhop escorted them up to room 834. When the door opened, Sunset and Copper gasped in unison.

Inside awaited all things crystal and gold and stained wood. A massive window dominated the far wall, inviting them to witness its commanding view of the cityscape. Even having just stepped into the room, Sunset could see the hoofball stadium from here.

“Damn, Sunset,” Copper said. “Princess Celestia knows how to treat a pony.”

Sunset blushed and shot the bellhop an embarrassed glance. She didn’t like showboating her status as Celestia’s pupil in front of strangers, or even accepting these sorts of perks that bordered on cronyism.

The bellhop didn’t seem to care, at least. He yawned like a stallion who had stayed up too late with his friends. Considering he looked about university age like them, that probably wasn’t far from the truth.

Copper tossed her saddlebags into the little space between the bed and the bathroom wall and flopped onto the bed. Well, into might have been a more accurate description. It practically swallowed her whole. She flailed her hooves around as if making a snow angel, swishing them along the fabric and rolling around to feel the silk with every inch of her body.

“Oh, Sunset,” she said. “You need to try out this bed. It’s so comfy!”

Sunset giggled and trotted over. She put a hoof on it, and yeah, it was what she assumed walking on a cloud felt like.

“Yeah, that’s comfy, alright.”

The bellhop unloaded their cart, bowed, and left before Sunset could tip him. The door shut behind him, and a happy silence overtook the room.

Copper rolled onto her stomach, wearing a conspiratorial grin. “What’d you think of the bellhop? Totally bangable, right?”

“Uh, no. Not really. Doppler’s cuter anyway.”

Copper sat up and formed a little “o” with her mouth. “Wow, Sunset. You’re using the word.”

“What, ‘cute’? What’s so weird about that?”

Copper pulled her saddlebags up onto the bed so she could rummage through them. “Nothing. It’s just that it’s a step closer to you calling him ‘hot,’ and that’s just a stone’s throw away from poppin’ a squat on his—”

“Yooou don’t need to finish that sentence.”

“That sentence? Maybe not, but finishing is definitely somewhere on that list, right?” She waggled her eyebrows at Sunset.

Sunset deadpanned at her. She didn’t even bother dignifying that quip with a response. For real, Copper’s lewd jokes were getting more and more baseless and tryhard. And more Doppler-centric, which was all the more aggravating.

Sunset had better things to do than think about Doppler’s anatomy. Unless it was his robin’s-egg-blue eyes oh my gosh. But rather than dwell on that and get a stupid, dreamy smile on her face that would only give Copper more ammunition, she trotted to the window. The view almost took her breath away.

She had stood on Celestia’s balcony a few times in her life, and the view never failed to give her goosebumps. But where Celestia’s balcony boasted a grand scene of glittering gold and whitewashed stone and all the beautiful perfection that was Canterlot’s architecture, Manehattan offered a different aesthetic.

Rigid high-rises of brick and glass stared back at her from across the street and those beyond. Trees dotted the sidewalk below to add brief splashes of green to a world ruled by concrete grey and rusty brown. In the narrow strips of sidewalk visible between the trees, ponies trotted along like ants through a maze.

The faint haze of industry loomed over the city, but rather than dulling the view, it almost seemed to constrain its aesthetic, or at least act as a happy little frame around the picture that was Manehattan. A little dirty? Yeah, but leaps and bounds more down-to-Equestria than Canterlot. Here, the film of dirt and grime symbolized hard work and progress, whereas the lack of it back home felt more a façade, a demanded perfection that detracted from its equinity.

“You done getting all philosophical over there?” Copper said.

Sunset blinked, and there went the mysticism of the moment. She turned around to see Copper lying on the bed, leafing through a tourist’s pamphlet she had snagged from the concierge’s desk downstairs. Well, not really leafing through it, since her eyes were locked on Sunset.

Copper let her casual smile inflate into a grin as she tossed the pamphlet onto the dresser. She rolled onto her flank, crossing her hooves over the edge of the bed as if posing for a pin-up photo session, and damn if those curves didn’t get a jealous flutter going in Sunset’s heart.

“What are you talking about?” Sunset asked.

“You were staring silently out the window for like three minutes,” Copper said. She tapped a hoof to her temple. “I know what goes on inside that head of yours. You were filling your head with all sorts of dramatic philosophical thoughts about this city’s potential, weren’t you?”

Sunset stepped back, blushing. “I, I, no I wasn’t. I was…”

“Getting lost in the whimsy of your Manehattan expectations?”

Sunset huffed. “Do you always have to finish my sentences with some rewording of what you just said?”

“Well, if a spoon’s made of silver, you call it a silver spoon, right?” She batted her eyes and oh, she was just the most unbearable thing sometimes.

Sunset rolled her eyes and made for their luggage by the door. She haphazardly tossed her bags against the far wall and threw Copper’s at her on the bed.

“Hey! Careful!” Copper said, shielding herself from her flying luggage. “I’ve got some good shit in there.” Her saddlebags hit the bed, and its contents spilled out like a miniature avalanche—an assortment of bottles of foundations and makeups and mascaras and other cosmetic stuff Sunset couldn’t name.

“Why?” Sunset said, raising an eyebrow at her. “It’s not like you actually use any of that stuff.”

Yet another checkbox on the “things to be jealous of Copper for” list. In all the time Sunset had known her, she couldn’t rightly remember a day where Little Miss Bottle-And-Brush-For-A-Cutie-Mark had used more than a spritz of hairspray for a bit of pizazz when she was feeling “extra spunky,” as she put it. Really putting her special talent to good use there, wasn’t she?

“Well,” Copper said, placing them one by one into her suitcase. “Mom kinda… collects them for me. It makes her happy whenever she sees them, so I just kinda got into the habit of toting them around. Besides, they’re still mine. That should be enough reason not to fuck with them.”

Fair enough. Respecting one’s property and all that. Couldn’t demand that of Copper about Doppler’s letter if she didn’t follow that rule herself. Though, she couldn’t help but notice a folded note among the contents Copper hadn’t yet put away. It was the same paper Doppler used for his letters. Curiosity got the better of her, and she unfolded it.

Hey Copper, I need your help with somethi—

The note crinkled itself up and flew away in Copper’s mint-green aura. “Hey, now. Spoilers,” she said with a wink.

“That was Doppler’s writing. What’s he writing to you for?”

“Nothing.” She fixed Sunset with a disarming smile. “Like I said. Spoilers.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at her and frowned. “What do you mean ‘spoilers’?”

Copper tossed her suitcase back into the little space between the bed and the bathroom wall. “I mean exactly that. Spoilers. It’s kinda self-explanatory. Just you knowing that there is a thing to spoil is enough of a spoiler.”

“But what’s the thing?”

Copper frowned at her. “Were you even listening just now?”

“But you just—”

“No buts. Unless they’re firm stallion butts.” Copper gave one of her dramatically over-the-top winks before strapping her saddlebags on. “Now stop asking.”

Sunset threw on her best pouty face and set Copper dead in her crosshairs.

Copper smirked. “You really think that’s gonna work on me, Sunnybuns?”

Well, that was the hope. Sunset turned her pout into a hopeful smile. Twisted into, more like, for how strained it felt. And yeah, given Copper’s snort and shake of her head, it didn’t look like this was going anywhere.

Damn Copper and her talent for this sort of thing. Not only did she have all the looks, but she had all the charm, too.

“It’s a surprise, and that’s that,” Copper said. She cinched up her saddlebags and gave Sunset a mindful glance. Another tug on the saddle strap enunciated the point.

“Alright, so I’m off to the thing,” she added. “You go have fun doing whatever millions of things you already have planned. See ya!” And with that, she was out the door.

The door shut behind her, and Sunset stood in silence. Well, almost silence. The muffled din of carriages and city noise snuck in through the window.

Sunset frowned at the door. So what, she was supposed to simply ignore the fact they were keeping a secret from her? Wasn’t Copper the one that said no secrets between besties?

A surprise, though. Sunset smiled. Her birthday was coming up soon. Doppler would know that, and Copper was definitely the kind of mare to help him make it special. She was just that kind of friend.

Sunset rolled backward onto the bed and sighed. It was plush, and the cool silk begged her to swish her hooves all over it and feel how soft it was oh my gosh.

Her dorm back home was nice, all things considered, but with the few extra bits Celestia had given them as a congratulations on another successful semester, the upgraded suite was unparalleled. She could have lain there for hours. But that would mean missing out on all the city had to offer, and she saw at least three things on their way to the hotel that she just had to explore.

It took some extreme self-motivation, but Sunset managed to roll her lazy butt out of bed. With that initial hurdle out of the way, throwing on her saddlebags and skipping out the door came easily enough.

The street roared with the sounds of stomping hooves and rickety carts taxiing ponies to and fro. A general chatter floated above those using the sidewalks, and the air hung ripe with the smell of discovery.

She craned her neck to look up at the tippy tops of all the skyscrapers. They were so far up! The perspective made some of them look as if they were coming to a point, and she couldn't tell if the shapes flitting between them were low-flying birds or high-flying pegasi.

Back at ground level, a multitude of fancy-looking ponies went about whatever business Manehattanites went about. They all wore colorful saddles and top hats and their manes done up and other “shi shi foo foo” stuff, as her mom used to say. Nothing out of the ordinary in Canterlot, but to see it in another city took Sunset by surprise.

Apparently, stuffy ponies lived all over Equestria. Who knew?

But anyway, first things first: the ice cream parlor. Like usual, Sunset had hit the snooze button one too many times and missed out on breakfast, and she wasn’t one to spoil her appetite with candy on the train. She was, however, one to spoil her appetite with ice cream, because that wasn’t candy. Technically. That was totally a case-by-case basis, depending on the flavor.

Undoubtedly, Copper would have some snide remark about that.

Copper… That note. What surprise were they planning? What surprise could they plan? She was awfully protective of it. But that was the whole point of surprises, really.

Whatever. It was ice cream time.

Sunset trotted past the innumerable storefronts and skyscrapers. Cologne and perfume hung heavy in the air, and it brought a smirk to her lips that she couldn’t attribute to the stores themselves or all the ponies brushing past her.

The giant neon-wire ice-cream cone on the corner wasn’t lit in the daytime, but it nevertheless shone like a beacon to welcome ponies in for a tasty treat.

The inside reminded Sunset of Gumball’s back in Canterlot, complete with roller-skating waitresses, swiveling barstools, and all the flashy chrome a retro dive bar could furnish. The soda jerk behind the counter wore one of those silly paper hats and a smile as infectious as the swing music crackling overhead. His orange coat reminded her of sherbet, so she got a small to go.

A quick jaunt down the street, and same as the ice cream shop, entering the toy store was like stepping back in time.

Lacquered wood reached up up up toward the distant ceiling, where wind-up toy biplanes strung from the rafters spun excited circles. Little train sets click-clacked through mock towns of prancing ponies, marquee boards, and grassy hillsides that ringed the periphery of the store.

Foals ran every which way, looking at all the toys and gizmos. Some played with Link-’em Logs and other buildables on two large wooden tables while others rolled toy carriages around on a giant-sized version of that carpet city Sunset used to have as a foal.

An old stallion with more liver spots than hairs on his head sat behind the desk, tinkering with the wheel of a little fire truck. All the while, he wore a smile that said this place was his life’s work.

Seeing that kind of pride worked up a sense of gratification in Sunset, a sense of being proud with him. Even though he was probably old enough to be her great grandfather, he was still a kid at heart.

When Sunset asked him where to find the building blocks, he had the kindest voice she had ever heard—not that she would ever admit that to Celestia—and he happily pointed her toward the back of the store.

They had literally everything here. From paddleballs, to wind-up chariots, to those helmet clappers she always wanted as a foal but could never convince her mom to buy. They even had those whirlibird sticks that for some reason reminded Sunset of dragonflies instead of actual whirlibird seeds.

She spent what felt like hours wandering with a nostalgic smile on her face, looking at all the little things that made up her early childhood. And then she realized it actually had been hours when the cuckoo clock above the old stallion’s desk cuckooed noon.

She quickly bought a whirlibird stick for Doppler, a jewelry puzzle box for Copper, a bent-nail puzzle for Whistle Wind, and of course a bag of life-size water-and-grow bugs for Lily. Then it was back to the Mareiott where she and Copper agreed to meet. She missed out on the sunglasses shop, but maybe Copper would like to swing by after lunch.

Sunset found her in the lobby lying on a loveseat, resting her head in the crook of one hoof, the other swinging lazily off the side. She was the only pony there other than the concierge.

When she saw Sunset come in, she sat up and threw on a big smile. “Hey, you. Thought you went and got yourself lost.”

“Sorry I’m late. I got distracted.”

“Yeah, I’m not surprised. There’s lots of shiny things in Manehattan, aren’t there?”

“Oh, shut up.” Sunset turned back toward the door. “So what do you want to eat?”

As much as she meant it, she wasn’t all that hungry herself. That sherbet ice cream from earlier actually had kind of spoiled her appetite. Hopefully the walk to wherever would fix that.

“Hayburgers sound good,” Copper said.

“Okay. I think I passed a place on my way here.”

They headed south on Canterbury until they reached a park where a jazz band played for a small crowd of ponies and crossed the street for a tiny brick building sandwiched between two high-rises. Everything about it screamed hole-in-the-wall, from the large neon sign reading “Rusty’s” to the giant sticker advertisements in the windows. But if any universal truth existed of big-city restaurants, it was that those were always the best places to grab a bite.

A black-and-white checkered floor welcomed them into a dark interior, buffed with enough wax to figure skate on. Exposed brick poked out from around the hundreds of pictures, bottles, bicycle wheels, street signs, and all sorts of other random tchotchke fire hazards that were hung up, nailed to, or otherwise affixed to the walls. Some generic light rock music played in the background of the conversations drifting over from the bar.

An eggshell-white pegasus mare done up in a loose fitting t-shirt and red ascot welcomed them in and showed them to a booth. She said something else before walking away, but Sunset was too distracted by her tattoo of a dolphin swimming up her left foreleg.

“You enjoying the view?” Copper asked.

Sunset blinked and shook her head. “Huh?”

Copper wore a devious grin. “She’s got a pretty nice flank, but I do have to remind you you’re spoken for. Window shopping only for you.”

“I— What?” Sunset flushed beet red. “I was looking at her tattoo, not her. Can you imagine how much time it would take to keep that thing looking the way it does? That’s on fur, not skin. Think of how much bleaching and dying and—”

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t need to hide it, Sunnybuns. Your secret is safe with me.” She winked.

Oh, that mare could be impossible at times. Sunset had the mind to say something, but the waitress trotted back over.

“What’ll you be having today?” She gave them a cheerful smile after pulling a notepad and pencil from under her folded wing. Whenever she glanced Sunset’s way, her smile grew a little.

Sunset coughed, hoping the mare hadn’t, uh… misinterpreted anything. For what it was worth, though, she had breathtaking amber eyes.

Sunset picked up her menu. “I’ll take an, um… the number one. Small soda.”

“What,” Copper said. “You’re not gonna just cart out the whole kitchen for once?”

“I’m allowed to eat however much I want, thank you very much.” Sunset stuck her tongue out at her.

The waitress giggled and scribbled down her order. “One number one. And for you, ma’am?” she said, turning to Copper.

“I’ll take a number three,” Copper said. “With a water, please.”

“Fries or hash browns?”

Copper’s eyes lit up. “Oooh, hash browns? Yes, please.”

The waitress mhmed and nodded with a final swoosh on her notepad. “I’ll get those right in for you two.”

She snapped her pencil and notepad in the crook of her wing. Before turning for the kitchen, she gave Sunset a quick smile and wink.

“Wow, look at you,” Copper said. “If I had to guess, she liked the way you were checkin’ her out earlier.”

Sunset clomped her hooves on the table and leaned in. “I did not ‘check her out,’” she whisper-hissed.

“Uh-huh. Tell it to the judge.”

“Yeah, okay. And even if I did, who made you such an expert on…” Sunset waggled her hooves in the air. “Orientation?”

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know when somepony’s flirting with you. I can’t help it if you’re too dense to see all the signs.”

“What do you mean too dense? She winked at me. Doesn’t mean she’s, like, into me.”

“Sunset.” Copper shook her head and giggled. “We really need to talk about your social awareness.”

“What do you mean? Why are you so adamant about this? And why is it my problem that you apparently have Equestria’s most powerful gaydar.”

“Because it’s a useful skill to have. You’d realize that if you actually had one,” she added, more flippantly than she had any right to.

Sunset rolled her eyes. It was like Celestia had personally ordered Copper to get into all of her business. Wasn’t carting her along for her first date with Doppler enough?

“Fine, Miss Know-It-All,” Sunset said. “Then what does your gaydar say about me?”

“It says your pride and self-consciousness are too big to let you act even remotely casually in this conversation.” A slow “change my mind” smile spread across her face.

Sunset bristled at the accusation. “I don’t have pride. And I’m not self-conscious.”

“Yeah you do, and yeah you are. Just listen to how defensive you’re getting.”

“I’m not getting defensive,” Sunset said, crossing her hooves on the table. “If your gaydar’s so flawless, then what’s it say about you?”

Copper sniffed. She held her gaze for a moment before looking away and shaking her head.

“It says I’m the gayest of ’em all!”

A slow, disbelieving grimace started on Sunset’s face, but Copper snorted before she finished. The giggle fits ensued on both ends.

“You’re the worst, Copper,” Sunset said.

“I learn from the best!” She reached over the table and booped Sunset on the nose.

As if to bookend that line of conversation, the waitress again strolled over. She made a show of carrying their plates with her wings and putting on enough hip sway to turn all the stallions’ heads at the bar.

“Here’s your number three,” she said, setting Copper’s plate down. “And the number one for you.”

She slid Sunset’s plate down her wing with enough flair to rival a circus act. She even brought an extra cup of dipping sauce just for her. “Can I get you two anything else?” she asked, smiling at Sunset.

“No, I think we’re good,” Sunset replied.

“Just let me know if you need anything.” The mare nodded and trotted off.

“Whoa,” Copper said, staring at her mound of food. “That’s way more than the picture made it look like.”

Sunset stared, too, and the more she did, the more “mound of food” seemed an appropriate description. An open-faced three-patty hayburger with a hoofful of what looked like everything they could find in the kitchen that wasn’t nailed down.

“Yeah, that actually looks really good,” Sunset said.

They shared a glance and, without a word, swapped plates.

“So much for not carting off the kitchen,” Copper said. She levitated her hayburger for a quick bite and gave a satisfied nod.

“Says the mare who ordered the thing literally called The Kitchen Sink.”

“How was I supposed to know it was going to be so much?” Copper threw her hooves in the air. She clomped them down hard, and a few of the other patrons looked their way. “The phrase is ‘everything but the kitchen sink,’ so I figured the kitchen sink part would be smaller.”

Sunset snorted. She took a bite of her now-food, and yeah, it was worth the swap. Hopefully Copper wouldn’t realize Sunset had her hash browns.

“This is, like, something you would do, not me,” Copper said.

“Yeah, well look who did it.”

Copper raised an eyebrow, then threw a hay fry at Sunset, hitting her just below the base of her horn.

“Hey!” Sunset caught it before it fell. She considered throwing it back, but ate it instead. Yeah, this place’s hash browns were way better.

They both tucked into their meals and let the low thrum of the rock music on the overhead fill in the silence. Well, Sunset tucked into her meal. Copper… not so much.

The way she chewed slowly, without any of the gusto from before. Just Copper fussing over her figure like always. Never wanting to eat too much for fear of gaining a single ounce of body fat.

But as Sunset jealously had to admit, it was a body worth fussing over. And that mane she so carelessly flung over her shoulder. A pair of stallions across the way were eyeing her up.

“See something you like?” Copper asked Sunset. She threw on a salacious grin and waggled her eyebrow.

“No, but I think I found your friends for the evening.” Sunset shoveled in another mouthful of hash browns.

Copper tossed a glance over her shoulder, hmmed, and turned back with a casual smile. “Maybe you did. And maybe if you’re good, I’ll let you join in,” she added, winking.

Sunset wrinkled her nose. Yeah, that was enough smartass talk for one day. She tapped her hoof on the table, thinking of a way to change the subject.

“So what’s this surprise you and Doppler are supposedly cooking up for me?”

Copper laughed behind her burger. “I told you, I can’t tell you that. That’s kinda the whole point of a surprise.”

“Well yeah, but can’t you tell me even just a liiittle bit?” Sunset held up her hooves an inch apart from each other.

“Sunset, where’s your dictionary?”

“Uh, back at school where I left it?”

“Well, next time you go back there, be sure to look up the word ‘surprise.’”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “But really.”

“But nothing! It’s a surprise, Sunset. Jeez. This is why we can’t have nice things.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Copper broke down into a laughing fit, almost faceplanting into her food. “Sunset, you’re adorable. You know that?”

“Uh-huh.” Sunset stared into her plate. That was the sort of thing Doppler would say. Oh, Doppler… What was in that letter?

Was it… was it even a surprise? Sunset watched Copper happily munching on her burger. What could they possibly be writing to each other about? What if…

No, she didn’t want to think about that. They wouldn’t do that to her. Still, her ears fell back, and she ate the rest of her meal in silence.

A few minutes later, the waitress swung by with their checks, sliding Sunset’s in front of her with the tips of her primaries. She caught Sunset’s eye with a friendly smile.

“No rush,” she said. Her tail accidentally brushed against Sunset’s leg when she turned back for the counter.

Copper rolled her eyes. “Big rush.”

She slapped a hoofful of bits on the counter—enough to pay for the both of them, plus a tip—and stood up, abandoning the leftover half of her burger. “Alright, let’s get going.”

“Hey, wait,” Sunset said, frowning at her check. “She didn’t charge me for my drink.”

“Of course not. Let’s get out of here before you two start making out.”

Sunset snapped her frown to Copper. “We’re not going to make out. Where did that even come from?”

Copper groaned at the ceiling. “Come on, Miss Oblivious.”

“But she didn’t charge me for my drink. I have to go tell her she made a mistake!”

“No shit you have to talk to her. That’s the point. Come on!”

With that, Copper yanked Sunset out the door and off to their next big-city adventure.

• • •

“I still don’t get why you were so rude about that waitress,” Sunset said. “She was really nice.”

She stared out the window of their hotel room. All the city lights twinkled in the dark like a reflection of the night sky on a quiet lake. Dozens of ponies still filed through the streets, little shadows trotting from lamplight to lamplight.

“Too nice,” Copper said. She lay reading the tourist pamphlet, snuggled up with one of the big, poofy decorative pillows that matched the maroon curtains.

“There’s no such thing as too nice.”

“Sunset, remember our conversation about my gaydar?”

Sunset turned to face her. “No. We’re not having this argument again. There’s no way she was hitting on me.”

Copper burst out laughing. She slapped the pillow and fixed Sunset with a sardonic grin. “Okay, fine. Then do you remember how I said you’re adorable?”

Sunset pursed her lips. She turned away before the heat rushing to her cheeks could give Copper more ammunition.

“Hey,” Copper said. Her voice carried softly in the silence and wrapped around Sunset’s shoulders like a pair of hooves. It brought Sunset’s ears flat against her head and put a little smile on her face. “Come here,” she said, and Sunset couldn’t resist.

Copper gave Sunset a warm hug that lasted longer than it probably should have, not that she was complaining. Being held by Copper was one of the most natural and wonderful things in the world. Even as she pulled away, the comforting weight of Copper’s hooves on the nape of her neck urged her to stay near.

“On the off chance that she actually was hitting on you,” Copper said, “what would you have done?”

Sunset looked up at the square of street light splashed across the ceiling. “I don’t know. Probably just have said sorry and that I was both not interested and already taken. And that I’m not into mares? At least… I don’t think I am.”

Copper smirked and leaned in. “We could always test that theory.”

Sunset reared back. “Whoa, ’kay now. Save it for the stallions there.”

Copper laughed and jabbed Sunset in the chest. “We’re still gonna have to work on that uptightness of yours.”

A skeptical frown was all Sunset could bring herself to dignify that with.

“Well anyway,” Copper said. “I’m glad to hear you’re not some closed-minded homophobe. Couldn’t have you being that socially retarded on me.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “And if I was?”

“I’d start calling you Mom.”

Sunset frowned. “That sounds like some sort of weird kink nickname.”

“Only if you want it to be.” Copper winked.

Sunset rolled her eyes and turned back to the window. A few of the lights in the windows across the way blinked out, other ponies with other lives heading to bed. Down below, somepony hailed a cab, but somepony else jaywalked in front of it just as it pulled up. They were getting into an argument.

“Was she really hitting on me?” Sunset asked.

“Oh, so now you believe me?”

“I didn’t say I believe you,” Sunset said. “I just asked you a question.”

Copper broke down into a fit of laughter. That dang smile of hers lit up the room more than any city street light.

“She was ready to sit on your face right there in the restaurant,” she said.

Sunset opened her mouth, then clamped it shut. She wasn’t going to set herself up for another quip. Surprisingly, Copper didn’t follow up on it with some other gross innuendo.

“So,” Sunset said, making sure to keep her voice level so that Copper couldn’t twist it as easily. “Say, hypothetically, that she was hitting on me.”

“‘Hypothetically,’” Copper chimed in.

“Hypothetically. What would you have done if you were in my place?”

“Me?” Copper said. “Probly hit on her back until she was all hot and bothered, and then popped a kiss right on your lips just to fuck with her.” She made a kissy face, complete with smoochy noises.

Sunset scowled. “If you did that, I would have slapped you into next semester.”

“Hey now, what happened to that open-mindedness of yours?”

Sunset laughed. “Says the mare who would lead somepony on only for them to find out she wasn’t actually into them.”

Copper flicked her ears back against her head, but found a reason in that dirty mind of hers to smile and blow out a quiet snort. Surprisingly, she didn’t push that envelope any further and instead let the silence filter through, her eyes wandering about the room.

Sunset was thankful for the end of that line of conversation. She turned her gaze back toward the window. The distant sounds of streetcarts and big-city noise bled through the glass.

“Hey, Sunset?”

“Yeah?”

Copper wore a smile that Sunset rarely ever saw. It was an endearing smile, like the ones Celestia usually wore, one that only scratched the surface of whatever happy thoughts might be tumbling through her head. Seeing it on Copper, though, made it… not quite weird, but different.

“I just… wanted to say something.” Copper’s eyes fell to the pillow beneath her hooves, then traveled across the way to the dresser. She bunched up her hooves in front of herself.

“Well then say it,” Sunset said. “It’s not like you to be all…” She waggled her hoof at Copper. “This.”

Copper raised an eyebrow and said, “It’s not like me to be my usual piece-of-shit self?” She giggled and shook her head. Her smile came back quickly enough, and she scooted closer.

There were words on the tip of her tongue, Sunset could tell, from how Copper folded back her ears as she leaned forward just so, and an almost pleading look filled her eyes.

“I just…” Copper rubbed a hoof up and down her foreleg. Silence. She sighed and looked up at her. “You’re my best friend, Sunset.”

Sunset smiled. “You’re my best friend, too.”

They leaned their heads together, and Copper pulled her into a hug. “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she whispered.

Sunset giggled. “Sappy much?”

“I’m allowed to be every once in a while, aren’t I?”

Sunset couldn’t argue with that. She closed her eyes and let her head fall to Copper’s chest. She took a deep breath of Copper’s coconut shampoo and let the gesture become the wonderfully intimate if sappy moment Copper wanted.

“Alright,” Copper said. “Enough of that sappy crap. Let’s go see the nightlife, eh?”

Sunset cracked a smile. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Come on, Sunnybuns,” Copper said, hopping off the bed. “Let’s go see how many other ponies we can get to flirt with you without you noticing.” She tail-flicked Sunset on the flank.

Sunset yelped and rubbed her cutie mark. “Ow! Jeez. Could you do that any harder?”

“I don’t know,” Copper said with a sidelong grin. “But if you play your cards right, you’ll be screaming that word later.” She threw open the door and headed out, already warming up her sultry hip sway.

Sunset rolled her eyes. Yeah, like that would happen. After a quiet sigh, Sunset followed her out the door and toward whatever crazy shenanigans Copper could drag them into.