How to Get a Marefriend (In a Roundabout Way)

Shining looked at himself with all the scrutiny he could muster, which wasn't much; he had been told that he could come off as self absorbed. He looked fine enough for the long day that he had had. More precisely, he supposed, the normal day preceded by the long night. Sunburst hadn’t let the requirement of getting three more shelves done undercut his performance in sorting our artefacts that met research criteria. The whole evening was spent trying to identify dates, track down ancient records of inventory, and blowing the dust off of very old things.

It was all done though, and it only took them until 2 in the morning, which was a convenient 3 hours before Shining conducted morning inspections. Tired as he was though, he was also excited, and sure that he looked off. Why did it matter what he looked like? The Crystal Empire did have one unique advantage, and that was reflective materials, so he knew that his mirror wasn’t lying to him. His looks really didn’t crack, he thought to himself. Maybe being around Cadence all the time has some kind of effect like that? In any sense, his eyes were bright and his mind was sharp. His hair looked fine. His armor hadn’t left any odd mattes in his fur. He brought his hoof up and scritched away at his chin, pondering. Oh.

His eyes now intent, he focused in on his chin in the mirror. He hadn’t had the fur on his face trimmed in quite a while; it was starting to curl at the ends with its length. If he let it get any longer the ends would start to tint blue. He hadn’t let himself get a scruffy chin since before he had entered the Royal Guard. Now as the captain he technically didn’t need to abide by the dress code, but it was still a formality. He met his own blue eyes. Maybe he would try to see how a goatee would look on him nowadays.

It wasn’t a long way to Sunbursts chambers. He lived on the royals grounds in a small bunker sitting just below ground level outside of the royal gardens. Most of his days were spent among the royal archives and libraries and, as opulent as those were, he had insisted that they not over accommodate him otherwise, so there he was situated in what was more or less a dormitory for the grounds staff. Shining had not actually gone to Sunbursts quarters all that often. Their shared business around the castle afforded them ample opportunities to hang out in their normal day to day. In fact, now that Shining thought of it, Sunburst would probably be considered a “work friend” more than anything else. He made a mental note that he wanted to connect far more with his daughter’s Crystaler.

The door was already being opened as Shining walked up to it, but Shining, a step ahead of his friend’s actions, was already beginning to speak.

“I want us to hang out more.” The words came bluntly.

“Uhh. We hang out a lot,” Sunburst began, “I’m at nearly every event for the castle staff. We talk when you help out with my work. I’m there for all of Flurry Heart’s events. Oh, and we do monthly O&O one shots with Shore Shine and--”

“No.” The natural weight his voice carried cut through the middle of Sunburst’s sentence. “We need to hang out more.”

The distinction seemed lost on Sunburst as he simply stood in the doorway processing. Lacking the acuity to understand and the will to care, he opened the door the rest of the way and gestured Shining inside.

Shining expected it to be far messier. It was actually surprisingly austere. His bed, while not clean, was made up well enough. His workstation, the messiest part of his room by far, was easily readable as an organized chaos, with things out of order in just such a way to suggest a method to the madness if Shining cared to investigate. His bookshelves were organized, though not at a Twilight level, Shining remarked to himself. Beyond any of that the room lacked much distinct personality. There were no heirlooms or pieces of art. Shining was sure there would’ve been pop culture paraphernalia or O&O figures. No, however, no such thing. Only a smallish room and the smallish scribe within it.

His cloaks seemed to all be in the armoire that sat ajar in the corner. Shining realized how little he had seen of his friend without his cloak. Without the added volume his figure was so slight. He wasn’t quite short as much as Shining was tall, but his narrower shoulders and softer slope from his withers into his back were something Shining was unused to, seeing more toned and battle ready stallions as much as he did. He spent too much time with soldiers, he thought to himself, if he got this caught up just seeing a normal stallion. It had to be the unfamiliarity that made his eyes linger as much as they did on Sunburst, he thought. It had to be.

“So the rules are actually pretty simple,” Shining realized that he had been staring as Sunburst began to speak, “I translated them this morning.” He turned away from Shining for a moment. His mane is so red, Shining thought. The moonlight was only just cresting the horizon and Luna was muting most of Sunburst’s coat, but the light was hitting his mane and reflecting brilliantly, bouncing a deep red that seemed to leak out into the air around him. Was Shining’s mane that pretty in the light?

His aura picked up the small wooden box from next to his desk and hovered it gently over the floor, landing it on a small carpet by his bed. In the darkened room as Sunburst walked Shining took a moment to learn his stride. It wasn’t just his cloak that always gave him the appearance of gliding. In fact, he moved with a very natural grace as his smaller form seemed to slither between the patches of light draping in through the windows. Shining stood in the doorway watching.

Sunburst sat excitedly on the floor, shimmying his back up against his own bed and looking up at Shining. His eyes caught the moon perfectly. They seemed to hold it. It's almost like they offered it to Shining.

“Sit.”

Sunburst’s voice almost sent Shining into a sensory overload. Had his voice gotten deeper?

Shining never cared much about acting like an idiot. It came natural to him so he never worried about embarrassing himself. Even so, he could feel himself blushing a bit. How did he feel smaller than than he was? He made his way over and finally sat opposite Sunburst on the carpet, his back open to the air, the game between them.

“We pick characters,” he began, taking several old, worn wooden slats out of the box. The smell of age was immediately apparent as the whole room seemed to sour with it. “That are represented by these. Then we pick weapons for them,” more slats, “that have different modifiers to different types of attack. Then we pick one of these,” again, more slats, “that give a special power, like negating a certain type of attack, adding onto certain rolls, or getting to reroll. We only get to see each other’s character and primary weapon, our other two weapons and our special abilities are hidden from each other.”

Shining was amazed how much he had hung onto. Very few things caught his mind enough to make him focus, but apparently this was one of them. Every word.

Shining was quiet as they began to play. His mind took a moment to start slipping into the strategy of the game. It was played by using their attacks on each other, rolling for the base damage and using the weapon to modify it. Shining lost the first few rounds, both getting poor rolls and not being able to find a good loadout that he enjoyed. He found himself looking up at Sunburst often. Shining was no idiot, and being the husband of the Princess of Love can make a pony pretty emotionally intelligent. He felt like he needed to leave.

Sunburst flashed his aura behind him, his blanket slid off the bed and draped itself around his sleek shoulders, giving him back his usual form of being cloaked.

“It’s cold, isn’t it?” Shining let the words stumble out before he could reel them in. Eh, he figured during the silence that hung for a moment after, he just gave himself a door at least.

Sunburst looked back up at him, he held his slats in his aura close to his chest. His eyes were brighter than Shining expected them to be.

“Here.” His aura floated one of his cloaks to Shining. “I don’t have any more blankets, but these should be pretty clean.” Shining took it in his own aura and wrapped it around his shoulders. He was too broad for it to close and too tall for it to reach very far, but it hung limply down his back nonetheless. The gesture sent blood rushing to his face, warming him nonetheless.

Shining had to get some control of the situation. He had learned from Candy that emotions were natural and can’t be fought. They were like a river. But he could still control himself as he floated along.

He won the match.

He could smell the cloak.

He picked the card that said “sword” in middle ponish.

Deep breaths.

The smell of books of course.

Sunburst played the armor card.

The smell of magic. The faint spice that Sunburst’s aura seemed to carry.

Shining played the sword again. Sunburst couldn’t seem to figure out a counter.

He could smell something else very faintly.

Shining could see the shift in Sunburst’s body language. That was his tell. He had a plan.

Shining played Armor this round.

Sunburst played the Cloth Cloak.

He smelled Sunburst’s body on the cloak, Shining realized. It was the smell of his fur, his skin.

“The Cloak’s ability!” Sunburst cut in, proudly asserting himself in the situation. “You’re defenceless right now!” Sunburst began to lean in as he placed the slat representing his Spear down. Shining tried to recoil, leaning back as far as his sense of balance would let him. “And with your guard down I roll and…” Sunburst had looked down at the die as he cast it. It was a 4. Shining was dead. The die was not what Sunburst was looking at. Shining was not one to get embarrassed often, but this was embarrassing, being out like that in front of a friend.

Shining rolled to his side and closed his legs quickly, casting the cloak to the side. “Oh shit. I’m...wow I’m so sorry.”

“H-hey it’s fine man, it’s fine,” Sunburst stammered.

Shining curled up on his side, “I just haven’t--”

“I’m sure you wanna get back to your wife--”

“That’s...Yeah. No.” Shining was in the fetal position, his back to Sunburst.

“Yeah. A butterfly flaps its wings, yeh?” Sunburst spoke breathlessly, “You know what they say?”

“I’m just sorry you had to see--”

“It’s fine.”

They both hung in silence for a moment. Neither had moved much after their initial burst. Sunburst was still leaning forward, a hoof on the ground supporting him, while Shining was curled on his side, craning his head back to keep his body turned away from Sunburst.

“It’s fine.” This time Sunburst had a confidence in his voice that scared Shining. “Do you want to keep playing?”

It wouldn’t go down.

“No thanks,” Shining began, “It’s been a good few hours and I’m tired after last night.”

“I guess so. Besides, if you spend another night up late with me Cadence might start to get jealous.”

Did he know?

It was fairly obvious, Shining remarked to himself.

He really did have to leave.

“I really do have to leave.” It was fairly clear by Shining continuing to remain prone what the persisting problem was.

“I already saw it, dude, just get up and go if you need to.”

“I can’t let the guards see this.”

“You share a locker room. I’m sure they’ve seen your penis more times than your wife has.”

He just needed to wait and stop talking about it.

“I just need to wait...And let’s stop talking about it, please.”

Sunburst rolled his weight back onto his haunches with a smirk. “I’m not used to seeing you so embarrassed.”

“It’s an embarrassing thing,” Shining snapped. He really didn’t like feeling this embarrassed. Why wouldn’t it go down?

“Sure sure, it is. I would feel so awful if it were me right now.” Sunburst leaned his body forward, seeming to seep onto the floor, resting his head on his hooves. “And you know the thing,” he talked at Shinings back. Shining didn’t want to face him. “If it were me, you would be ruthless.”

Shining had taken shrinking potions before. He had never felt smaller.

“You,” his head pronounced itself forward, bringing his mane partially in front of his face, “you would say something about my size.”

Why was he doing this?

“You might even ask me to just ‘sack up and sit up. I don’t care if I see it.” His impression of Shining was kind of funny, thought Shining wouldn’t admit that to himself in the moment.

He wasn’t that bad of a person. What kind of Karma would serve him retribution this severe?

“And ooooh boy. You would even say I must be gay.” How close was he going to lean. Shining could almost feel his breath on his flank at this point. Sunburst slipped ever closer to Shining. “You might even accuse me, if this were reversed,” He crawled noisily up behind Shining, “of wanting to fuck you.”

This was almost too much. Too much emotion. Shining was not in control right now. He did not know what to do. It was all too much.

Sunburst was laughing.

Shining turned back around, his eyes almost shrunken back into his skull. Sunburst had fallen back onto the carpet, rolling on his back at this point. Holding his sides. Shining felt a little more comfortable but a little more conflicted. While Sunburst wasn’t in the same state, he had also become present.

Relaxing from his curl he felt comfortable enough to chuckle.

“You suck right now,” he said. Only half joking.

“Oh come on. You know how guys are. You’ve actually been in locker rooms before, right?” He made no effort to cover himself from where he laid on his back.

He was right, of course. Stallions were an excitable enough group, and when it can't just be hidden under a tail like mares, stallions had gotten quite used to not worrying about it in certain company. He sat back up, feeling the tension in the room soften.

“And you know,” Sunburst continued, looking over himself at Shining from the ground, “that if I had been the first to pop a stiffy in private that you would’ve gone harder than that.”

“The problem is that I went harder.”

“Oh haha. Get out of here and get your wife to take care of that, dude.”

“I’ll make sure to think of you since you seem so concerned about it.” That shrank Sunburst back again, closing his legs slightly. Shining still knew how to make Sunburst squirm. He stood up, both of their problems having taken care of themselves at that point, and held his gaze with Sunburst while he was still prone. With his red mane glowing in front of his face, Sunburst’s eyes still seemed to hold the moon out to Shining. To offer it. Shining may accept it. More than the moon, as he stared at Sunburst, on the floor but still mockingly on display, he resolved himself with his feelings. He saw an impending resolution.