She had snacks. She had a comfortable place to rest her head. Orchard had a city full of wrongs just waiting to be righted one at a time. She had met all her basic needs!

Which left her to consider other issues. Sugar Belle still wanted to see her. The caring girlfriend was still at the Apple farm, wanting to help Big Mac. She was so nice. Orchard let out a soft sigh at the thought of her, but blushed quickly. She cared, perhaps too much! Thinking of Sugar made her tingle in much the same way Big Mac did when thinking about her.

"That ain't right." She was a princess! Princesses were nice and predictable that way. A girl and a boy got together and made kissy noises. Her cheeks blushed dark red hues as she imagined the scenario, but it refused to materialize quite the right way. She kept putting herself in the stallion's place. Perhaps that made sense, since she saw the stallion as 'herself' for so long, even if she was a mare. It meant that it was a mare playing smoochy times with a mare, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"Dang..." Why did things have to be complicated?!

"Ah gotta visit her..." If nothing else, she had to sort her feelings out and set Sugar down gently. Yes, that was it. She trotted for the front door and spread her wings wide. "This can't be let to sit like this." And she was off in a blur. With just a touch of nightly magic, she put Rainbow Dash to the test in how quickly she arrived over Ponyville.

Orchard Blossom craned her neck in a slow surveying of the sleepy town. It looked so different in the night, from the sky, than it did from the ground and during the day. She could imagine all the ponies she knew taking naps in their various houses. "Oh!" There was one pony that'd be awake and she owed a word to.

She banked in to a smooth landing in front of the two-pony house. Was it always so... cut in half? Orchard raised a hoof to knock gently. "Miss scratch?"

But it wasn't Vinyl Scratch that opened the door. A sleepy other mare opened it and peered at Orchard guardedly. "Can I help you?" she asked with a thick accent of some kind. "It is terribly late, and I'm not expecting you."

Vinyl nudged her suddenly. "It's for me, Octi! Go get some rest." Vinyl slid into full view with a grin. "Hey! We meet again. How did things turn out?"

Orchard smiled at the mare she knew. "Hey there, um, ma'am."

"You're the princess." Vinyl tapped at her goggles. "Pretty sure you don't need any honorifics for me. Seriously, how'd it go?"

Orchard Blossom felt much safer speaking with a mare that knew her. "It went well, all things considered. You gave right good advice, and it led me right where I needed to be. So ah thought to come back and say thanks fer the good advice." She dipped her head at the night owl that was Vinyl. "Who was that other pony?"

"Hm? Octi?" Vinyl glanced off, though it was difficult at times to pick up such motions with her goggles blocking the easy view of her eyes. "She's great, but into the classic stuff. Which isn't bad or anything, but I usually prefer something with more of a beat you can dance to." She stepped into place as if dancing to some unheard rhythm. "That's alright, sometimes she lets me add some beat to her music and then things get really shaking. Either way, I stay out of her way and she stays out of mine and we don't drive each other crazy... usually."

Orchard rubbed at her cheek with wandering thoughts. "Pardon if this is a bad kinda question, but do you an'... Octi was it? Are you two special someponies?"

But instead of being offended, Vinyl broke into laughter as she sat back and put her hooves on her belly. "Oh wow, yeah, special someponies, that's exactly what we are not, big lady. Pretty sure if we were, we'd go right over that line and drive each other completely nuts."

Orchard joined in the laughter with nervous noises as she shuffled in place. "That's a right silly thought to have; A mare and a mare together an' everything."

Vinyl cocked a brow behind her thick goggles with an equine snort of indignation. "What? No. If two mares want to be together, there isn't a force in this world that'll keep them apart, and there really shouldn't ever be. It's just us two that aren't very compatible and that's alright. We don't get along that way, and that's all there is to it. I'm not making judgments on any other two ponies other than saying it's none of my business."

"What are you yelling about?" Octavia had returned with a stifled yawn. "You're making a lot of noise."

Vinyl waved her hooves wildly with a nervous look on her face. "No, no no. I was just telling this mare that it isn't up to me what two ponies get together."

Octi raised a fine brow. "I should certainly hope not. Now say goodnight to your friend and close that door already."

Vinyl nodded as Octavia wandered off back to her business. "And, as you can see, we'd drive each other nuts as special someponies, but I love her to death, as a roomie and a musical peer." She leaned out of the door. "Now I really should go before she gets super mad at me. Good luck, alright?"

Orchard made quick little shooing motions with her hooves. "You go on and get before she gets mad at both of us. Um, and thanks again. You've been nothin' but helpful fer me." She left Vinyl to her business and took flight back into the night sky of Ponyville, where there were only her own thoughts to keep her company. Pity they were so good at it.

She banked towards the Apple orchard. Orchard could see where she had worked in the daylight hours. Well, where Big Mac had worked, who was also her? Something complicated it at the best of times. She didn't bother landing until she applied herself to the side of the farmhouse and peeked inside. There, she could see Sugar Belle snoozing with one arm dangling off the bed. For her, it was night.

Technically, it was night for everyone, but she was actually sleeping. Orchard considered leaving a moment, but she had come so far... She had to at least try... She nudged the window open and slipped inside. Sugar sat up sharply, awoken by the noise instantly. "Who's there?!" A world away, a dream was interrupted. "Wait..." She got a look at who was in her room. "Big Mac?"

Orchard Blossom folded her wings in tight. "He's asleep in his room." Not even that far away, really. But they hadn't allowed him to sleep with Sugar Belle, that woulda been inappropriate. Not like they got married yet or anything... "You... wanted to meet me?"

Sugar rolled out of bed with a big smile. "Wow! Look at you." She cantered up to the princess in her borrowed room and circled her on almost dancing legs. "You're pretty, and you got wings." She reached out to casually touch them, rubbing along them slowly. "Look at you!"

Orchard smiled awkwardly as they inspected her. "I ain't Big Mac... But I am, in a way? It's confusing, and yer confusing!" Just being around her was confusing. She felt many things bubbling up in her in a confusing array of conflicting emotions, and pinned her ears back. "Do you even like me? Ah ain't Big Mac!"

"Well, fine then." Sugar sat in front of Orchard and crossed her arms. "Let's assume you aren't, even if you sound like him and move like him." Her nose twitched. "You don't smell like him. Did you get a fancy bath?"

Orchard found new colors to be as her fancy bath was revealed to the world. "Maybe..."

"Well it's nice." Sugar leaned all the closer with a little smile. "But stop saying you're not Big Mac. I mean, obviously not physically right now." She reached up to tap Orchard on the noggin aside her horn. "But he's all up here, getting bashful of me being this close. My boyfriend's a girl." She inclined her head. "And that's a bit confusing."

"It's confusing to me too!" Orchard snorted softly with a flick of her tail. "Before ya go thinkin' it's just you."

"But neither of us went and ran away." Sugar reached up her hooves to cup Orchard's cheeks gently. "Hello, Orchard Blossom."

Being held by her was a delightful thing. She could sit there and... wait... "I'm a mare, you know. You sure you want to be like this with another mare?" Despite the words, she was still being held.

Sugar danced back a step but with no shyness in it. "My boyfriend's involved. Anything I do with you, I'm doing with him. I said I wanted to be a part, and I do! So how can I make your lady life better?"

Orchard Blossom smiled at the mare she felt an attraction to but couldn't quite put a hoof on. "Well, if ya insist, you can start by showing me exactly how to mare."

Sugar Belle raised a brow at Orchard. "You seem to be doing an alright job of it so far. You even got some delightful scents somewhere. Where did you get that? Flowery, but not overpowering, very nice for a mare. Now if your guy self had that scent, I'd be worried! It's not a stallion scent at all."

Orchard sniffed at herself, but had been around the scent long enough that it was largely in the background at that point and hard to pick up even with specific snuffs. "You smell alright." She could pick up Sugar's smell. It was one she'd sniffed before, and it was a pleasant aroma. She had noticed it before, as Big Mac, but never really paid it much mind. She had a reason to do exactly that. "Where'd you get it from?"

"Tell me and I'll tell you," sang out Sugar Belle, dancing in place with a smile.

"Fine..." Orchard pointed up at the distant city that couldn't be seen from inside the room. "Up in Canterlot, a nice pony had a maid give me a bath, and the scent came with it."

"Wow!" Sugar shook her head slowly. "They must have really liked you."

Orchard warmed quickly. "It wasn't like that! Fancy Pants just wanted to help a princess in need."

"Fancy Pants..." Sugar leaned in with a smirk. "I said I'd get angry, and I meant it. No dating this 'Fancy Pants', even if he offers really nice baths to princesses in need, alright?"

Orchard danced away with shame building rapidly. "Ah ain't! He's a patron, not a suitor. Um... So what I do counts?"

Sugar inclined her head. "Of course it counts. It's still you. Now how can I help you be the best... you possible?"

Orchard considered for a quiet moment before her ears pricked up. "I have a question, maybe a few of 'em now that ah think about it. First, if ya want me to not even think about that, that ain't much fair. I'm a pony." She pointed at herself. "Got needs and wants and all of that goin' up up here! So what're you going to do about that?"

Sugar colored slowly and quietly. "Well, I can't promise to always be there for both of you. You're awake basically... always, right? I'm not, not even close to always, but I'm here." She tapped her chest with a growing smile. "So if you're feeling lonely, I'm here to do what a girlfriend does.

"Even when I'm a mare?"

Author's Note

Orchard asks the important questions!

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