The chair clicked loudly on the floor as Rainbow pulled it back to sit down. She leaned to the side and extended an arm to fish her lunchbox out of her backpack, then set it down on the table and began to open it, taking out her sandwich.
Vanity finished her own lunch, swallowing the last remains of her tuna salad, and started to clean the table in front of her.
From the seat in front of her, Applejack gave a cough and a nod in her direction.
Vanity looked up. "Oh, right. Sorry dear." She looked at the remaining two girls sitting at the table, then continued, "So, Applejack and I were thinking of going to the fair this weekend, and she was wondering if you girls wanted to come along as well. Pinkie will be managing one of the stalls, and Rarity insisted that she come as well, so it could be nice to hang out together."
Sunset swallowed the bite of sushi in her mouth and looked up. "Well, sure, if it's not a problem for you two and you wouldn't rather stay alone."
Applejack shook her head. "Don't worry about it. If we wanted to stay alone we'd have other places to go. There's a reason I keep a copy of the farm's shed's keys after all."
"Applejack!" Vanity hissed, her white skin making her blush rather easy to spot.
Sunset chuckled. "Okay then, I'm sure Twilight will be happy to come along as well."
"Yeah, I think I'll come too," Rainbow said, lazily putting an arm behind the back of her chair. She looked at Sunset, and asked, "Hey, speaking of Twilight, where is she?"
Sunset swallowed another bite. "She said she was busy helping her brother with... something, I honestly don't remember what."
"Ah-ha!" Trixie yelled, mere centimetres from Sunset's face. She victoriously held up a finger and marched away with a smile.
The four girls sitting at the table, along with quite a few other people in the room, stared wide-eyed and confused at her as she walked away. Others ignored her, perhaps more accustomed to her Trixieness.
"What was her deal?" Rainbow finally asked.
Sunset shrugged. "No idea." She returned to eating.
Applejack finished her lunch. "Well, I should be going. Gotta help Fluttershy with some renovations." Wiping some crumbs of apple pie away from her mouth, she got up from her seat and grabbed her backpack. "See you later, sugarcube," she said in Vanity's direction, blowing her a kiss.
"Are you not going with her?" Sunset asked without looking up.
Vanity sighed. "Nah. I have to help Rarity with a dress, she was pretty categorical about it. Speaking of which, I really should better go. See you around." She got up and grabbed her own backpack, then walked away in the opposite direction.
A few moments of silence passed by. Sunset looked at Rainbow, noticing she had finished her meal as well. "Are you not going? No sports training or anything like that you want to get to?"
Rainbow gave a cough and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, eh..."
Sunset lifted an eyebrow. "Something you want to talk about?"
Rainbow gulped and puffed her cheeks, sitting straighter in her chair. She looked around to make sure neither Trixie nor someone else was going to suddenly pop up again, then leaned forward slightly, and whispered, "So, I... About that stuff the aliens said..." She swallowed and looked to the side. "You and Twilight..."
"Me and Twilight are a couple, Rainbow, I'm pretty sure that's not a secret to anyone," Sunset replied in a flat tone.
Rainbow drew back, cheeks slightly flushed. "No no - I knew that, I know," she rushed out. "I was just, you know... That stuff they said seemed kind of weird, and... There's... There's nothing weird going on between you two, right?"
Sunset smiled and gave a hearty chuckle. "Oh, no, nothing of the sort. It's a perfectly normal relationship, really. You can ask her about it. She just gets a bit embarrassed when it's brought up, that's all." She stared in the distance for a moment. "I think she's really cute when she does that. Maybe it's why I like teasing her about it," she added with a smile.
Rainbow leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Oh, thank goodness. I mean-" she nervously straightened and looked at Sunset "-yeah, uh..." She forced a giggle. "I knew you were just joking around, yeah. You almost got me there, though." She made a show of wiping her brow with her forearm. "How did you convince them to play along?"
Sunset looked puzzled, though with a touch of amusement hiding underneath. "Play along?" she asked in what was still genuine confusion, but lightly coloured by a slowly rising mischief.
"Well, you know..." Rainbow leaned forward once again. "The aliens. That little show they had with Celestia. Because it really sounded like you-" she paused, her mouth hanging open and her eyes fixed on what was in front of her.
As Rainbow had begun to explain herself, Sunset had leaned to the side to put a hand inside her backpack, and she'd now pulled it out, dangling its contents in front of Rainbow.
Dash stammered to regain her ability to speak. "I-I-Is t-that..."
"It's exactly what it looks like," Sunset replied in a perfectly casual tone, giving the chain she was holding a light push and watching it sway from side to side as it clinked.
Rainbow tried and failed to articulate more words a couple of times, then audibly swallowed and backed away into the confines of her chair, almost as if Sunset had been holding a dangerous snake instead. Her cheeks went crimson, and she just stared at the thing, almost in fear.
Sunset playfully let it run through her fingers, watching the way it caught the light.
After a moment of hesitation, Rainbow moved back forward. "So does that go... on her?"
Sunset looked back at her. "This one? Oh, no, this one's a little too thick and heavy for her to wear, we use smaller ones. This one's the one I use to tie her collar to the floor," she stated.
"Her collar..."
Sunset nodded.
"To the floor..."
"Sometimes to the wall. Or the ceiling, but this one isn't long enough for that," Sunset explained, wrapping the chain around her hand and putting it away in her backpack. Rising back up, she continued, "We don't use it too much though, or for too long. It puts a bit of strain on her neck, so we save it for shorter sessions usually. Unless it's a longer scene that's relatively calm, we have those from time to time, then she can just lie on the ground and it's not much of a problem, mostly symbolic at that point. I have talked to her about using a leash instead, but she likes the chains more. So do I, honestly, but sometimes I worry about her, she doesn't always speak up when she should. And then she ends up having to bring pillows to sit on during class, when she isn't forced to skip them entirely. Like there was this one time when- Is everything alright, Rainbow?"
Rainbow sat almost motionless on her chair, eyes seemingly staring at nothing. "Oh?" she replied, startled, shaking her head for a moment and focusing back on Sunset. "Oh, yeah, sorry."
Sunset leaned back in her seat, smirking. "You know, I could show you the rest of my stuff if you wanted. You'd have to come to my house though, some stuff is too big to bring here and some other I don't think I'm allowed to bring at all." She looked to the side for a moment, whispering, "Didn't stop Twi from keeping it on though." She turned back to Rainbow, smiling. "But anyway, yeah, that would be great if you're interested, I could show you the room so you'd get a better idea of how things play out."
"I-I-I mean..." Rainbow seemed to hesitate. "What about Twilight? Is she okay with you talking about this like this?" she asked, diverting the conversation.
Sunset toyed with a strand of her hair. "Oh, she doesn't mind." She paused and briefly grimaced, then took on a more serious expression. "Well, okay," she began to explain, opening her hands above the table as she focused on Rainbow, "typically speaking, it's not okay to openly talk about stuff like this without the other's permission. We've talked about it with each other, and basically she's into me doing it. It's kind of though to balance it, because sometimes I'm not sure if I'm going too far, but she really likes getting publicly embarrassed about this stuff. It's complicated."
"Well, ah..." Rainbow blinked. "After what you pulled with the aliens at the goodbye celebration I doubt there's anything that's too far for her."
Sunset erupted into a loud chuckle, and had to stop herself before moving on to actual laughter. "You think that was far, Rainbow?"
Dash nervously smiled, chuckling along. "The implication of what they said was that you two, uh, did it in front of them, right?"
"Multiple times, actually."
Rainbow gulped. "And that... isn't going far."
"Oh, Rainbow. You have no idea of the stuff I've put her through."
Dash gave a nervous laugh.
"So what do you say, want to come take a look at our room?" Sunset asked, reclining back in her chair.
"Well I..." Rainbow looked around, and spotted the clock hanging from the wall. "I-I have to go now, it's getting late for practice," she said, quickly getting up. "Thanks for the invitation though. Maybe another time, okay?" She slid her backpack over her shoulders. "Bye Sunset!" she said, walking away.
"See you!" Sunset replied, lazily waving back. She gave a small sigh, reclining further in her chair, and threw a look at the clock herself, confirming she was in no hurry to get anywhere. Humming to herself, she took a small remote out of her pocket, and looked at it for a couple of moments pondering. Then, with a smirk, she flipped the switch at the bottom on to the ON position, and turned the dial at the centre halfway, smirking to herself. Then she put the black piece of plastic and electronics back in her pocket, quietly finished the last of her meal and got up from the table, picking up her backpack as she walked away.
