“So then why don’t you ask her out?”

Shining had come to like the question. It rolled out of his mouth at this point like a cast pair of dice. Which side would it land on? Would he be too busy, would it not be the right time, or--

“She’s really just a friend,” Sunburst responded.

Ah. A four. That meant he must feel down today.

Shining liked to spend his free time with Sunburst when he could. Right now the two of them sorted odd artefacts to submit for research, bunkered deep in the archives of the Royal Library. The warmer colored crystals formed the deeper down they grew, so underground like this the oranges and reds of the walls bounced torchlight softly around the chambers, tingeing Shining’s own coat to more closely match Sunburst.

Shining lurched forward to catch the vase as it was dropped. Sunburst had a nasty habit of not communicating things when he was distracted, and had simply let his aura go on the vase without asking Shining to grab it. With a flash from his horn, Shining stopped it quietly and set it down in the “non-submit” pile.

The only noise for a moment was Shining letting out a tired breath. Sunburst, unfazed by the question, was scanning over the shelves and shelves of older artefacts to find more odds and ends to submit. So intent. It reminded Shining of a younger Twilight. Whereas Twilight grew into her studies, became boisterous and proud of her focus, Sunburst was still quiet, persistent. Shining’s eyes drooped with the nostalgia of the thought.

“You know exactly what I’m going to say to that.” Shining decided to prod forward a little bit. He liked Sunburst, but he felt like mercy was overrated at the moment.

“I know what you think you were going to say,” Sunburst didn’t even look behind him.

“Huh?”

“You think you can make a good point about how obsessed she was for me. Either that or you’re gonna tell me how much I talk about her and how I clearly like her back.” He was playing confident, clearly. Shining always liked it when he heard the slight waver in Sunbursts voice. It meant that he was trying to force himself to be more assertive. In an almost paternal sense, it made Shining a little proud to know that he was someone Sunburst could step out of his comfort zone with.

“So what am I actually going to say, then?” Shining flicked his tone up, challenging Sunburst right back.

Sunburst pivoted slightly. His muzzle caught the hardest edge of the bouncing torchlight, making him glow a soft red, and his eyes, staring with surprising energy directly at Shining, held in them two glimmers of the surrounding light. Shining leaned forward just a bit as the two looked at each other from across the small chamber. The silence was shattered.

“You’re going to ask me if I know how to play.” Sunburst held up a small box with, from what Shining could remember, middle (maybe early middle) ponish scrawled all along the front.

Shining stepped forward a bit, closing the distance between him and Sunburst. Drawing him in like a fish on a hook, the box slid through the air backwards until Shining, pulled by his own focus, bopped his side against Sunburst as they both looked down at the box.

“The...Unicorn...and the--” Shining tried to read the box aloud. He could feel Sunburst tense up next to him, struggling not to interrupt.

“The Unicorn and the Fighting?” Shining finished.

“The Unicorn and the Duel!” Sunburst almost spat the words out, having clearly wanted to correct Shining. Again, very Twilight. “You got the root right, but with that ending it becomes the noun ‘duel.’” Sunburst had leaned back from their point of contact a bit, bending his head to peer at Shining in a very teacherly way.

Shining, knowing that Sunburst hated the contact, mirrored him directly, squishing the ends of their muzzles together playfully, snout to snout, before saying “Whad issit?”

Sunburst didn’t recoil in the same way he had at first. Shining was a very physical pony, used to hugs and tackles and friendly cuddles, and Sunburst very much wasn’t, but it seemed like he was at least getting used to his friend’s antics, if not warming up to them. Still thought, much to Shining's continued disappointment, he levered his whole body away to face Shining at an angle, still holding the box out to him with his aura. He had that slight chip in his voice, that chirpy quality it got when he was just a bit more excited than his demure body could handle.

“It’s an old old old old game. 600 years--”

“I guessed that it was early middle ponish by the accents,”

Shining was taken aback for just a moment. Sunbursts face, breaking spastically from his excitement, showed a level of amazement at Shining’s pin on the date that was frankly almost demeaning. The same look a father would give a pegasus filly who managed to fly for the first time. If not for the fact that Shining knew that Sunburst didn’t have a mean bone in his body it would almost come off as backhanded. It didn’t though.

Moment aside, “yeah. You hang around me too much if you started learning stuff like that.” He looked down for a moment, stamping his hoof. “But, it was the first game, at least the first we have a record of, to use a dice system with modifiers in order to roll for your chances to do something. Meaning that this is one of the earliest design ancestors to--”

“Ogres and Oubliettes!” Shining matched Sunbursts energy exactly as the two spoke.

Shining didn’t even need to be asked, “I extend royal permission, as Prince of the Crystal Empire, to postpone the submission of the Items for Magical Research Initiative by one day.”

Sunburst let out a small staccato giggle at the faux formality of the situation. He waited a moment to let some air out of the conversation before piping up, “I don’t think we should. This report doesn’t just go to Cadance, it’s going to the other princesses too, and it’s meant for the royal archive.”

Shining began to smirk. The look on Sunburst’s face was almost comically sullen, like a foal being told that it hadn’t snowed enough to cancel school. He didn’t even bring his eyes up to meet Shining’s.

“And this is one of the biggest research projects I’ve ever been in charge of and I do--” A blue aura tilted his head up to meet Shining’s eyes. His face, eyes half lidded and mouth set in a soft smile, his eyebrows raised in amusement, gave off nothing but understanding. Sunburst quieted himself. Again, Shining noted, at this angle his light blue eyes caught the pinkish light of the archive chamber. Shining wondered what his eyes looked like to Sunburst.

“You are a very good researcher.” As soon as the words were out Shining knew that his habit of trying to make Sunburst uncomfortable was becoming one of his favorite hobbies. Beyond physical contact, beyond the habits he had to overthink, beyond all of that, the thing that Sunburst could not do was accept a compliment.

“I--” Sunburst stopped. Meeting Shining’s eyes directly.

“You work hard. You are motivated. Hiring you was one of the best decisions that I have gotten the chance to make.”

Sunburst’s posture tightened. His ears had begun to fold back, and his eyes, still struggling to hold their lock with Shining, had shrunk down to pinpricks. He was like an animal backed into a corner. Shining giggled internally. Only with Sunburst could he feel like he was being mean by being nice.

“My sister is the smartest pony in equestria and my best friend is the second.”

That was the finisher. Like he had been swatted with a newspaper, Sunburst swung his head down. Shining could almost see the blush through the pinkish light of the room. Maybe he had gone too far. Too bad, he thought.

“We will work ahead of schedule tonight,” Shining continued, he was aware now of the light echo, the bass of his voice bouncing gently in the small chamber, “and then tomorrow evening, after I’ve completed drilling and instructions, we will play.”

Shining liked to use his authoritative voice on Sunburst sometimes. It was a secret weapon. It always worked. Sunburst untensed a moment and faced Shining once more. His eyes again. This time Shining caught himself. Why was he so interested in Sunburst’s eyes?

With a stiffened lip and a look of determination, Sunburst set the box aside and Started, “We have at least 4 more shelves to get through then. Come on.”

Author's Note

The buildup begins.