The week after Sunset and Coppertone’s Manehattan visit passed in a blur of sleepovers, one not-too-many trips to the ice cream parlor, and generally having fun the way fun was meant to be had: together. Today was no exception.

Thankfully, the weather pegasi had some sense to keep today as beautiful as Mondays—or any day, really—should be, and with hardly a cloud in the sky, Coppertone lay on a playground bench beside Sunset, watching Lily do her thing.

“Sunset!” Lily shouted from the top of the playground set. “Watch this!”

Copper watched Lily go down the Big Slide—Big with a capital B; it was a rite of passage for foals Lily’s age—and end with a graceful tumble through the mulch. She smirked, wondering just how much mulch Lily’d get in her mane by the time they left. Maybe those sensible pegasi could be convinced to start up a rainstorm on their way home to save her the trouble of giving Lily a bath.

“Yeah, Lily!” Sunset had looked up from a research article about wind or something. She wore the prettiest smile that got Copper all squirmy on the inside.

Lily beamed before hopping to all fours and brushing herself off. She made for the stairs leading back up for another go.

Copper watched Sunset cheer Lily on. She had “forgotten” her manedresser’s magazine on the counter, and so had nothing to pass the time other than enjoying the scenery—of which Sunset counted for most, through little peeks and glances.

“She really likes you,” Copper said.

It was an idle statement, something even Sunset couldn’t be oblivious to. But Copper wanted Sunset to look at her. She wanted to look back into those eyes and maybe get a peek at what went on inside that beautiful head of hers.

“No kidding.” Sunset brushed her mane out of her face so she could watch Lily scramble back up the stairs, bowl through a group of foals, and dive back down the slide for another tumble through the mulch. “Glad she’s having fun.”

“Yeah,” Copper said. “Are you?”

“Hmm?” Sunset brought those eyes of hers around and oh, Copper could have stared into them forever. “Having fun? Of course. Why wouldn’t I be enjoying myself? I’ve got my best friend, her little sister, a research article on geostrophic winds, and the perfect day to enjoy it all.”

“Is ‘geostrophic’ another word for ‘huge nerd stuff’?”

“Yes,” Sunset said. She shot her a smirk that would have brought the biggest blush to Copper’s face had she not expected it. “Enormous nerd stuff.”

Sunset had been practicing her whole “keep up with Copper” thing. The way she tried being raunchy was beyond adorable—and if Copper were honest, pretty damn sexy.

Not that Sunset’s usual self wasn’t pretty damn sexy. Those teal eyes and gorgeous smile, that fierce yet humble intelligence. It was enough to drive a girl wild. Add in a healthy dose of raunchiness, and Sunset had the perfect recipe to get Copper feeling things too PG-13 for a public playground.

Not to be outdone by such a grade-school-level dick joke, however, Copper sidled closer. “Oh yeah? Like other enormous things you like, huh?”

“Totally.” Somehow, Sunset managed to keep a straight face, and the glint in her eye hinted that she just might keep up for once.

“Wow,” Copper said. She elbowed Sunset in the ribs. “You didn’t even blush that time. Before you know it, you’ll be flirting with strangers and you might actually know you’re doing it.”

Sunset pushed Copper’s elbow away. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“I think it’d be fun to watch.” She raised her hooves in front of her and spread them wide. “Sunset, walking off into the distance, a trail of broken hearts in her wake.”

“Oh, yeah, because that’s totally me.”

“Haha, okay, maybe not that extreme, but it’s nice seeing you actually, like, not freak out from the most basic small talk like when we met. And you can finally talk about dicks now without gagging like you’re smokin’ one.” That got a face out of Sunset, and Copper laughed. “Okay, maybe not quite.”

Foalish laughter rang out over the playground. It seemed the foals had taken to playing tag, and Copper took the break in conversation to sigh.

“So I’m not complaining,” Sunset said, her eyes back to the article in her lap. “But I thought Mondays were Whistle’s day to watch Lily over the summer.”

And there went the happy mood like a deflated balloon.

Copper bunched up her hooves. “Y-yeah…”

“‘Yeah’?” Sunset stared at Copper with a curiosity that bordered on worry. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Oh, Sunset… How was she so good at reading everything but the obvious?

“Yeah… So Lily got sent home for fighting on the playground the Monday after we got back from Manehattan.”

“Lily got in a fight?” Sunset said. She wore a little smile that seemed unsure of itself. “That sounds like something you’d be proud of.”

Copper laughed. It felt good to laugh. It made the coming conversation that much more bearable. Not that it would be easy.

“Well, yeah, I am. And I always will be, because she stood up for herself. But it’s not about the fight. It’s…”

What was she supposed to say? How could she put this into words that Sunset would understand?

“It’s because she kissed another filly,” Copper said. She nodded at the foals gathered beneath the rope bridge. “The redhead with the pigtails, actually. That’s how the fight started.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “She kissed another filly? Okay? I don’t get where this is going. Everypony has schoolyard crushes when they’re little.”

“Even you?” Copper asked with a smirk. This might not have been the time for it, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to poke fun.

“I feel like we’ve been over that before.”

“Knowing you? Probably.” Copper waggled her eyebrows when Sunset stuck her tongue out at her. She sighed again and stared at the mulch beneath their bench. “But yeah. Some colt who also apparently has a crush on that filly picked a fight with her because of it, and Whistle cheered her on instead of breaking it up. The colt’s parents brought them home. Mom was pissed.”

“Oh,” Sunset said. Then her ears fell back and she stared off into the distance as the meaning finally dawned on her. There was no way even Little Miss Oblivious could forget that… discussion Mom and Dad had over pancakes the other week. “Oh…”

“Yeah…” They watched the foals go ’round and around the playground.

“Well,” Sunset said. “I still don’t get why it’s a bad thing. What’s it matter who you like?”

“It doesn’t…”

“Youuu don’t sound convinced.”

Copper opened her mouth, but the words didn’t immediately come. She shook her head while trying to corral them into proper order.

“It’s just… pretty young fillies aren’t supposed to grow up liking other fillies. They’re supposed to grow up into beautiful mares and find loving stallions and ‘have lots of grandfoals for Mommy.’”

Copper couldn’t look Sunset in the eye, as much as she so truly wanted to. All of this was just so wrong and so… so… just, not how it should be.

An awkward silence filled in between them, broken here and there by laughter from the playground and birdsong from the trees. Sunset did that fidgeting thing she always did with her hooves whenever she didn’t know what to say.

“Mom…” Copper said. “Mom didn’t grow up in a big city like Canterlot where everypony’s all happy and accepting and progressive and stuff. She’s from the outskirts of Hoofington. They don’t have openly gay ponies, or wheelchair ramps… some of the places there don’t even have indoor toilets. And the few pegasi that are stupid enough to live in that shithole make sure to keep their homes at least above the cumulus level.

“I know she’s not entirely like them, and she’s definitely not the shitbag my grandpa was, but that stuff still sticks with you. Pair that with how much she won’t shut up about the grandfoal thing, and now you know how much it fucks her up in the head to even imagine her little bundle of joy kissing another filly.”

The silence filled in again. Which was good. Copper needed to focus on keeping the tears in.

“Well,” Sunset said. “Then it’s a good thing she has you.” She wore a little smile that got Copper’s heart racing. “That way she can have those grandfoals and still love Lily just the way she is. Everypony wins.”

Copper couldn’t help the painful laugh she let out, but an instinctive smile leapt to the rescue. Yeah. Everypony wins.

“Hey, now,” she said to keep the hurt from digging too deep. “I can’t just go poppin’ out foals like a potato cannon. Gotta keep things down there in one piece for the stallions, right?”

That got a picture-perfect face out of Sunset. If only Copper had a camera on her.

“I… really didn’t need that mental image,” Sunset said.

“Too bad.” Copper shrugged, and she passed off her sigh of heartache as one of relaxation. “That’s what you get when you hang out with me, right? You know how much of a hopeless romantic I am.”

If only she did. If only she really, truly did…

“Yeah, okay,” Sunset said. “But for real, with how much you’re all”—she waggled a hoof at Copper’s flank—“that, I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened yet.”

Copper kept herself from biting her lip, but her smile turned strained, and that nervous feeling came back enough to have her bunching her hooves in front of herself.

Just tell her. Just grow the fuck up and say it: yeah, about that… There was nothing wrong with it. There was nothing wrong with her. The princess herself said so.

But what would Mom think?

And just like that, the words never came. So she strangled the thought with a giggle and jabbed Sunset in the ribs.

“Hey, you never know. There’s a lot of back alleys and coat hangers in Canterlot.”

A look of horror overcame Sunset. “Copper, what the crap?”

Copper snorted. “What, too much?”

“Do I even need to say yes?”

Copper sputtered and waved a dismissive hoof at Sunset for effect. “Fine, fine. I’m sorry. Abortion jokes are bad, I know.”

She threw a sidelong grin Sunset’s way after a beat. Sunset could never stay mad at her when she did that, she’d learned.

Like clockwork, Sunset’s frown turned into an eye roll and a shake of her head, and a tiny smile poked through like the sun through the clouds. “But anyway,” Sunset said. “Your mom shouldn’t be mad that Lily likes other fillies. And if Whistle happens to, too, then whatever, right?”

Copper raised an eyebrow at her. “I know for a fact that Whistle’s the straightest of all three of us.”

“Straighter than you? I find that hard to believe.”

Copper let out a real laugh for the first time in way too long. She savored the feeling of simply lying there beside Sunset and looking into her eyes. Oh, those eyes…

But the wonder of the moment drained away too quickly, and it left her alone with a crumbling smile. So close, yet so far away.

Oh, Sunset… If only she could just see…

“Believe what you want,” Copper said, shrugging. “She gobbles cock like it’s her job.”

An uncharacteristically wry smile ran across Sunset’s face, and she let out the tiniest snort. “She learns from the best.”

With that, they both sputtered into a giggle fit that lasted a solid minute. Copper had tears in her eyes by the time they got ahold of themselves. She had lost her balance somewhere in the middle of doubling over and had rolled against Sunset’s side. With the rush of sudden closeness and her now-racing heart, she cuddled in closer, resting her head on Sunset’s shoulder.

Sunset in turn lay her head on Copper’s, and they shared a happy moment of silence.

This was it, right here. This feeling. Pressing herself into Sunset’s side, feeling her warmth against her own. This was where Copper wanted to be, always and forever.

“By the way,” Copper said, somberly. “Don’t tell Mom we took Lily to the park. She’s been low-key grounded all week.”

Sunset said nothing as she gazed out at the foals on the playground and the redheaded filly in particular. A little smile grew on her lips, and she pressed her weight into Copper.

“You’re a good big sister, you know that?”

Copper was. She knew she was. Every day, she tried her hardest to be the big sister Whistle and Lily deserved. She wasn’t always. Nopony was perfect like that.

But here, on an easy-going summer Monday, when Mom and Dad were at work and the rules didn’t apply, nothing could be easier. She just wanted Lily to know there was nothing wrong with being herself.

There was nothing wrong with being herself.

Copper leaned in closer to Sunset, listened to the thu-thump of her heart, and dared to rest her hoof on Sunset’s foreleg. She tilted her head to get a better glimpse of Sunset’s cheek and a sliver of her left eye, preoccupied as she was with the research article between her hooves.

A thought crossed Copper’s mind: she could reach up and pull Sunset into a kiss, right on the lips. Easy. She wouldn’t even have to fumble for words.

To hell with what Mom thought, to hell with all her ignorant bullshit. There was nothing wrong with being herself.

But the very thought of how Mom would look at her…

Who was she kidding? It wouldn’t accomplish anything: Sunset had a coltfriend, and it would only make things worse with Mom. So she traced little circles in the fur of Sunset’s foreleg and smiled away the nonsense.

For now, this, right here. She could still be herself. Just a little. Everypony would be happy.

And there was nothing wrong with that.

Author's Note

This chapter always hurt to reread while proofing. Onward and Upward, Copper. Onward and Upward....