Old Friends

The air in Starlight's office was filled with fluttering papers. They danced and ruffled into neat little stacks on the floor, the only staging space large enough to accommodate the last minute project.

She was already late for dinner, which was stressful, but her joyfulness spurred her on in her work. It was Sunburst's first time visiting her in Ponyville, and though things were already not going to plan, the promise of spending Hearth's Warming with him filled her with an uncharacteristic levity. She sighed dreamily as she scribbled down half-baked notations in boxes she'd planned on filling out later. She needed to prepare take-home progress reports for the few students leaving early for winter break.

Starlight clicked the stapler on the corner of every stack in a staccato assembly line process and slipped each one into its own big envelope. Now she just hoped that Twilight Sparkle would cover the rest. She threw on her scarf and beanie, not worrying if it would look too presumptuous to her.

In a blink, she aparated outside of Twilight's office with her stack of labeled envelopes and knocked on the door.

"Enter," came a muffled and alarmingly flat voice from within.

Starlight pushed her way inside, floating her stack with an awkward grin. "Hey, Twilight, could you do me a huge favor? I finished all my reports, well, the ones that needed immediate attention anyway. Could you maybe deliver them for me? Sunburst just got into town and I'm supposed to be having dinner with him and Trixie right now."

"Oh, of course," replied Twilight. "I'm not even busy at the moment."

"Oh, thank you so much!" she gasped in relief. "I gotta go. See you later."

Starlight teleported into town, then once more to the restaurant. She stopped and smiled through the front window where the grills on the glass had piled picturesquely with little white snow parabolas. There in the warm glow of the candles and firelight, she could see Trixie and Sunburst laughing and between them an empty chair waiting for her.

Things were going well. What a relief, thought Starlight. She looked at her own reflection, teasing her mane into place, then hurried inside, making sure to stamp off the little bit of snow collected on her hooves. She pranced straight to their table.

"Hey! So sorry I'm late," she announced breathlessly.

"Starlight!" chimed Sunburst. He got up to hug her before she sat down.

"We already ordered," said Trixie. "But we saved you a menu."

"Thanks," replied Starlight, scooting in her chair. "I was not as caught up as I thought I was. I'm so glad I invited Trixie. You'd have been so bored waiting alone."

Sunburst adjusted his glasses. "Oh, we were having a great time. She was telling me about all of the places she's been. Some of the furthest reaches of Equestria."

"She does get around," laughed Starlight, cracking open the menu.

He turned back to Trixie. "So have you been to Saddle Arabia by chance?"

"Oh, yeah," she replied. "I go there all the time."

"Really?"

"Sure. In fact I'm a favorite of the sultan. I perform at his palace every time I visit."

"So have you been to any of the temples then?" he asked excitedly.

"All of them," she replied smugly, swirling the wine in her glass. "I can go pretty much wherever I want. They treat me like royalty over there."

His jaw dropped. "That's amazing! I'd give a leg to get inside just one."

"I bet I could get you in. You'd just have to come with me next time I go."

Starlight side eyed the two of them and scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably at the proposal. This all sounded a lot more interesting than anything she had to talk about. She quickly made her food selection and then tried to find a segue to pry her way into the conversation, maybe something about travel, but she'd only been to a hoofful of places in her life and the only interesting one was the one she didn't want to discuss with anypony.

"So how has work at Twilight's School of Friendship been?" he asked abruptly.

Starlight perked up, a sparkle in her eye. "Oh, I've been pretty busy with wrapping everything up before winter break. And so many students seem to come in at this time of the year. There are a lot more family issues. But I love being the guidance counselor there. It really feels like I'm making a difference."

Sunburst nodded. "That's nice to hear. You should show me around the campus while I'm here."

"Yeah, that would be great. So what are you working on?"

A sly smirk grew across Sunburst's face. "Have you ever heard of the lost civilization of Zi' Coatali?"

Starlight shook her head in bemusement.

Trixie raised her hoof excitedly. "I have!"

"You- you have?" he blathered. "Really?"

"The locals told me about it while I was passing through the jungles of Talcana and got stuck. It's a really funny story. I wasn't even supposed to be there," she laughed.

Starlight found herself on the outside of the conversation, listening to Trixie's travel stories with cultural and historical sidenotes from Sunburst. The two of them ate their food. Then she got her food slightly later which made her feel even more like an interloper. Before she knew it they were outside in the snow covered plaza, basking in the colorful glow of the big Hearth's Warming tree.

Sunburst yawned a big puff of steam. "Well, I'm pretty tired from the long trip. Think I'll turn in early tonight. We do have plenty of time after all. You can show me around tomorrow."

"Sure," agreed Starlight, trying to shake off the weird feeling. "I should be off earlier tomorrow. About five. I promise I'll show up on time," she giggled.

"Hey, I'm off all day," chimed Trixie. "I could get the tour out of the way and then you could use the rest of the time to do fun stuff."

Starlight's face fell. "Uh, well, the tour was… supposed to be part of the fun stuff. And you don't even… you know… live here really." she looked away and cringed, unsure of how to handle the dynamic of the situation.

Trixie looked at the ground and frowned. "Oh… No, that's fine. Whatever you want. You do it however you want."

"Why don't we just meet right here after work, Starlight," suggested Sunburst with a smile.

Starlight nodded slowly. "Yeah, that sounds good." Who was 'we' though, she wondered. All of them? Part of her was dismayed that she may have accidentally made Trixie a fixture of his whole visit when she wanted him mostly to herself. She'd already made an awkward comment and certainly didn't want to further agitate things by intentionally excluding her.

The three of them plowed through the holiday shopping crowds as they walked to Sunburst's hotel where they parted ways. Starlight sighed and cast a longing glance back at him, wishing she could just have a couple of minutes. Dinner did not go how she envisioned it. They'd barely interacted at all. But it was only the first night. Everything would be fine. She'd have her moment in the coming days.