You just couldn’t see the stars in Maretime Bay as well as you could in Bridlewood.
That was Sunny’s excuse, anyways, for how frequently she would make the trip to Izzy’s cottage. It wasn’t even a lie, really—you couldn’t! And considering Sunny’s special talent was locating and identifying stars, it really made all the sense in the world for her to spend time where she could see them best.
Except she kept forgetting to look at them.
“Ooh, what’s that constellation?” Izzy said, pointing straight above them.
They were laying on their backs next to each other just outside the forest. It was a warm summer evening, and the skies were exceptionally clear. Perfect for stargazing, of course. Around them fireflies bobbed and weaved in the air, reminding Sunny of the little lantern she had sent out so many years ago. She had been watching them in a trance, her mind elsewhere when Izzy asked her question, and shook her head to come back to reality.
“Let’s see,” Sunny said, following Izzy’s hoof up to the massive canvas above them. “Magnus’ Shield,” she answered. “If you look a little to the bottom right of it, you can see three bright blue stars in a row, right?”
“I see them!”
“Those form the top of a lightning bolt, called “Rainbow’s Mark”. It’s always been one of my favorites.”
“Coooool,” Izzy said, dropping her leg and staring in awe at the sky. “So who was ‘Magnus’?”
“No idea,” Sunny laughed. A firefly flittered past her face and she followed it until her gaze landed on the unicorn next to her. “Dad couldn’t find any reference to them outside of its relevance to Rainbow’s Mark.”
“And Rainbow Dash was one of the Guardians, right?”
“Yeah!” Sunny nodded excitedly. “She was a pegasus, one of the fastest to ever live. She symbolized Loyalty.”
Izzy glanced over and caught Sunny staring at her, and smiled at the attention. “You know a lot about them.”
“Dad spent his whole life researching them. There were lots of old and abandoned libraries and town halls he would travel to and investigate, and every time he would bring back new information.” Sunny sighed deeply and suppressed a shudder. “When I was really young I kept encouraging him to go find more, but as I got older I started to worry about him digging around in those ruins.”
“Oh, right,” Izzy said, her enthusiasm dropping in favor of a sympathetic frown. She slid over on the grass and wrapped a hoof under Sunny’s neck, hugging her. “I’m sorry about your dad,” she said.
“It’s okay,” Sunny said, struggling to keep her voice steady at Izzy’s touch. Immediately her mind moved on from past tragedy, focusing instead on the present warmth of the body next to hers. How soft she was! And how comforting!
And how beautiful.
“Uh, so, I guess we’re like the new Guardians of Harmony, then?” Izzy asked, moving the conversation on after misinterpreting Sunny’s quaver.
Sunny blinked and then slid her own leg under Izzy, pulling her just a tiny bit closer. “Yeah… Yeah, I suppose we are!”
“That’s so awesome. So Zipp would be like, Rainbow Dash, then? Cause she’s so fast.”
“Hmm.” Sunny rubbed her chin, thinking. “Not really, actually. Rainbow was a great flier, but she was egotistical and uh, more ‘brawn-over-brain’. Zipp really seems to care more for the well-being of others and is really, really smart.” Sunny thought back to the week Zipp had tried to teach her the mechanics of flight, and how her mind still reeled from all of the calculations the pegasus had run off in a row as she described every minute detail of banking and rolling and diving. “I think she’s like Applejack, mixed with Twilight.”
Izzy was quiet, and responded instead by gently rubbing Sunny’s shoulder, sending a wave of sweat rolling down her body and her heart into overdrive.
“Er, Applejack represented Honesty and Twilight was Magic, but she was like the nerd of the group.”
“Thanks,” Izzy tittered. “So Pipp would be Rainbow?”
“Rainbow and Rarity.”
“Ooo! Wait, so we’re like, a collage! Bits and pieces of them rearranged into us!” Izzy danced where she lay, bumping her hips into Sunny as she did so, and Sunny inhaled sharply at the contact.
“Uh, yeah! You’re just like a collage of Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Generosity and Laughter. Pinkie Pie was really energetic and carefree, and Rarity was extremely creative and artistic and beautiful.”
Izzy turned her head back to Sunny, raising an eyebrow slyly. “Beautiful, eh?”
Sunny gazed into her eyes and spoke without thinking.
“Extremely,” she breathed, blushing.
Izzy smiled brightly and looked back up to the stars, humming happily, while Sunny’s eyes went wide at the realization of what she had just done.
“Uhm, so yeah, we’re all sorts of bits and pieces of… of the Guardians and I mean, you’re very pretty, anypony would say so, of course,” she stammered. She moved to slide away from Izzy and found a powerfully strong grip yanking her back to where she had been, pinning her hard against her friend.
“Y’know, Sunny, I miiiiight not be as smart as Twilight or Zipp, but I like to think I’m like, medium-smart.”
“Uh-huh,” Sunny nodded, hyperventilating.
“And I really do like learning about the stars and the past with you, don’t get me wrong.”
“O-okay,” Sunny said, her eyes frantically searching the stars for any sort of undo or replay button for her to go back five minutes.
“But you have to admit that wanting to come visit me for star-gazing every weekend for a couple months in a row is a little suspicious, don’tcha think?”
“Sure,” Sunny agreed, wondering if Izzy could feel how hard her heart was beating.
Izzy looked at Sunny and smiled deviously. “And did you know?” she asked, grabbing Sunny’s chin with her other hoof and turning her head to her.
“Know what?” Sunny asked distantly, already finding herself lost in Izzy’s eyes.
“I think you’re extremely beautiful too,” she said, placing a quick kiss on Sunny’s lips.
She lay back down, her cheeks filling deeply with their own blush as Sunny melted in her hooves. With a giggle, she pulled Sunny overtop her.
“How long have you known I’ve had a crush on you?” Sunny asked, incredulous.
“Since the week we met. Pretty much every pony I meet tries to remind me about their personal space. You not only didn’t complain, but kept leaning into me at every chance you got.” She placed another kiss on Sunny’s lips, and this time Sunny kissed back.
“I’m hopeless, aren’t I?” Sunny laughed, sinking down onto Izzy and wrapping her hooves around her. She rested her head on Izzy’s chest and listened to her heart, feeling a tiny bit of satisfaction that it was racing just as fast as her own.
“Oh well I dunno about hopeless,” Izzy said, stroking Sunny’s mane. “You’re definitely not subtle, though.”
“So how come…?”
“I wanted to let you ask me out. I’m happy just having friends, and if you wanna stay that way, I’m cool with it!” At Sunny’s frown, she kissed her again. “But once I noticed you were wearing lavender perfume, I knew it was time.”
Sunny laughed and looked away. “It’s your favorite flower, isn’t it? You seemed so interested when you told me my luminescence was lavender. I uh, overthink things a lot.”
“So what’s that make you then? Twilight? Fluttershy?”
Sunny stared into Izzy’s eyes for a long moment before kissing her one more time.
“Happy,” she answered, nestling into Izzy’s shoulder.
