Trixie and Sunburst both made it very easy for Starlight to forget about the problems. Her lovers gave Starlight moments like this that made everything seem simple and perfect.
Between her legs, Sunburst kept his slow and steady pace, trying to focus on Starlight’s pleasure entirely. He was wonderful, thick and filling, but always more timid about his girth than proud of it. He was so gentle with it, so careful not to hurt her. He still did, but Starlight would never admit it - she loved it too much for him to worry more than he already did.
Trixie had her knees pressed against Starlight’s ears, dripping wetness soaking down to her chin. Every kiss, every lick and suckle, was met with another grind of Trixie’s hips, more throaty moans.
They couldn’t be any more different. All they seemed to have in common was magic and Starlight - and even the magic seemed tenuous. They both loved her, and she loved them back.
“You’re so beautiful.” Sunburst breathed, hilting himself and holding firm, and Starlight groaned and grabbed at the silk sheets as she stretched to take him. “I love you so much.”
“Fuck, you’re going to make Trixie cum,” Trixie’s laugh was manic and high edged, “You’re so fucking hot. Keep licking like that, just like that, fuck. Make that horn glow!” Starlight curled her magic inside Trixie, sending a warm buzz up against the back of Trixie’s clit as she sucked. Trixie pulled Starlight’s head tighter, and screamed in delight. Starlight groaned as much as she was allowed as Trixie’s magic touched her own clit, just as Sunburst had started moving again.
She didn’t have much warning. She clamped down hard on Sunburst, squeezing him, desperate for him to finish.
He let out a cute little grunt as he did, hot sticky bursts as he hilted again, and Trixie slowed her own touch to something feather-light. Enough to draw Starlight’s peak out longer, keep squeezing Sunburst wonderfully tight.
Simple. Perfect.
Starlight basked on the princess-sized mattress, Trixie sliding to her left and Sunburst crawling up the bed to fill his role as biggest spoon.
Trixie propped herself up on an elbow, and flashed an excited grin. “Ten minutes, and we go again?”
“I’m up for another round,” Sunburst added, “Ah. If you are, of course.”
Starlight buried her face in Trixie’s chest fur. “Go bother each other and leave me out of this one. I’m done.” She managed to dig herself out of Trixie’s ridiculously silky fur to hit her with the full force of pleading-eyes. “I could watch?”
Trixie and Sunburst gave each other looks over the top of Starlight’s head. Trixie, vaguely annoyed. Sunburst, vaguely terrified.
“No, you’re right,” he said. “I think I was being… a bit optimistic.”
“Aw, really?” Starlight rolled over so she was facing him now - Trixie glared Sunset down the second she could get away with it without Starlight knowing. “I like watching you two, though, but I’m usually…”
“Distracted?” Sunburst offered, keeping Trixie to the corner of his eye.
“Don’t get me wrong!” Starlight snuggled tight against Sunburst’s chest instead, “I love the distractions! I just love you two, too.”
“We two too love you,” Sunburst agreed.
Trixie rolled her eyes.
“Well.” Starlight rolled back to Trixie, who immediately put back on a sweet smile. Sunburst stuck his tongue out at her, even as Starlight pulled him against her back. “You’d better. I’m going to drag both your butts across Equestria with me, and you’re going to have to put up with it.”
Trixie shifted, propping herself up on an elbow. “Where are you taking us?”
“Bayhamas.” Starlight yawned happily. She was already half asleep. “Never been.”
“I’m not one for beaches…” Sunburst started. “But if it’s a nice hotel?”
“It is.” Starlight yawned again. “Got two rooms.”
Trixie tried to prop herself back up, but Starlight dragged her down to pillow-height again. “Two rooms?”
“You’ll see.” Starlight smiled. “‘S a surprise.”
“Starlight…?”
Nothing but a soft snore.
Trixie tried to lift herself off the pillow to whisper to Sunburst, but Starlight kept her pinned like a big teddy bear. Before she could figure out what to do about it, a slip of paper drifted over the top of Starlight from Sunburst’s side of the bed.
“Don’t panic,” he wrote. “It’s not you.”
Trixie snorted, obviously lover-boy thought he was gloating. “Don’t worry, you get your own room.” But no. She didn’t need to see his stupid beardy face to know he didn’t have that mean bone in him. He meant “It’s not you getting left out”.
Trixie had a skeleton’s worth of mean bones in her body, however. She sent the slip back; “So sure Trixie is the favourite? ;)”
Sunburst’s exhausted sigh was louder than even Starlight’s snoring. He crumpled the first slip up and Trixie watched it sail off the end of the bed. Another scribble.
“It’s us. She’s sleeping alone.”
That wiped the smirk from Trixie’s face.
Of course he was right. That was exactly how Starlight thought.
Now was the time to panic.
Trixie heard Sunburst sigh again, that same way, and roll off the bed, tucking Starlight in with a blanket when she tried to find his warmth again. Then he was beside Trixie with a pillow. A glow of his horn, a quick switch, and Trixie was exchanged and the pillow was in her place.
“Trixie could free herself,” Trixie muttered, cricking her neck. “Trixie simply didn’t want to.”
“I know.” Sunburst nodded. “Kitchen?”
Trixie paused. “Shower first. Then kitchen. Trixie wishes to be clean for this.”
And again, Sunburst nodded. “Good idea. I’ll take second, after I’ve put the kettle on.”
“Kettle?” Trixie snorted, trying to toss her sweat-knotted hair, but it came back down like a dropped ‘Welcome’ mat. “Give Trixie something stiff, please. Besides yourself, lover-boy.”
Sunburst was impressed. When he stepped out of the shower, he expected to find Trixie deeper in, but it looked like she’d settled on just the first shot. She was sat at the kitchen table in thought.
He took his own place next to his cooling cup of tea, now the perfect temperature. He’d kept the shower quick enough, then. It wouldn’t do to keep Trixie waiting. “There isn’t an empty bottle I’m not seeing, is there?”
Trixie snorted, picking up the empty shot glass and holding it up to the light. “Trixie only needed the one. Trixie planned on taking things seriously.”
Sunburst chuckled. “Well. It’s always serious when it’s about Starlight, isn’t it?”
Trixie didn’t jab him, poke him, tease him for that. She didn’t react at all, and that was the most surprising reaction she could give. Sunburst sipped his tea and thought.
“Why do you think she did it?” he wondered aloud.
“Why are you asking Trixie? You’re the one that worked it out.”
“We don’t know it’s what she did.”
Trixie held up a hoof, shook her head. “No. It is the only thing Starlight would do. Trixie feels stupid for not thinking it first.”
“Well. Let’s say I had my one good idea, and say you’re due yours,” Sunburst offered diplomatically. He always felt under-equipped for talking to Trixie like this, like he needed to be wearing green kevlar. Red wire, blue wire. Sometimes it was the attempt to defuse things that caused her to blow up the worst.
Trixie didn’t have it in her this time. She kept staring into her empty glass, slumped at the kitchen table. “Starlight wants both of us. And it is not enough that we ‘play nice’. She is forcing the issue.”
“Why now, though?” Sunburst moaned. “We’ve been… perfectly civil, I think. Considering.”
“Starlight wants to propose.” Trixie diagnosed, a doctor reading her own prognosis as much as his. “Getting along is no longer enough.”
Sunburst was silent a moment. Then he reached across the table, took the rum bottle, and knocked back a quick gulp of it.
“Ow, eugh, bleugh!” His eyes screwed shut and he slammed the bottle back on the table, clawing at his tongue, taking a big mouthful of tea to rinse out as much as he could. “Burns, burns, burns. How do you drink that stuff? It’s like… sugar-frosted mouthwash.”
Trixie poured herself a second shot and sipped it. Slowly, flexing just how much she liked it. “Eat a bag of cement, lover-boy.”
“Oh, get some taste.” Sunburst shot back. Then he slumped. “Sorry.”
Trixie waved it off. “You always apologize. Trixie would respect you more if you were less of a coward.” She considered that, then shrugged. “Well. Maybe. No promises.”
Sunburst crossed his forelegs on the table and slumped deeper, resting his chin against them. “I feel like you’d just hate me more.”
Trixie thought about it. “Trixie doesn’t hate you.” She was curt, raised her nose in the air when she said it and looked at Sunburst side-on. “She just has too much of your company. She needs some space.”
“You’re only around me when you’re around Starlight.” Sunburst tried to argue, but then winced his eyes shut as soon as he heard himself say it. “Nevermind, I understand the problem.”
Trixie’s glass hit the table like a whipcrack. “Are you saying I spend too much time with Starlight?”
Sunburst shook his head, miserable, burying his face deeper into his forelegs. “Of course that’s how you’d take it.”
Trixie poked him, but he stayed slumped. “Then what did you mean?”
“Don’t worry about it.” It was muffled against the table.
“Don’t be a child.”
Sunburst lifted his head again, grumpy. “If you just want to spend time with Starlight, it’s because you want to spend time with her, not with me. I get it.”
His head fell into his forelegs again. He was pouting, now. Trixie had to admit the pout was almost cute, if it wasn’t so annoying. Sunburst in a nutshell.
Trixie nudged him.
“It’s the same with you?”
Sunburst snorted, blowing his fringe up and out of his eyes. “Of course it is. I feel like I’m walking on eggshells around you. With Starlight I just want to relax.”
“In Trixie’s defense,” Trixie smiled, “it is very funny to watch you try.”
Sunburst didn’t smile back. Trixie stopped smiling.
“Sorry.” Trixie mumbled.
That got Sunburst up, ear flicking. “Really? You have never said ‘sorry’ to me before. Not once”.
“What? I obviously have.” Trixie snorted, paused, thought. “Haven’t I?”
“Never, not once.”
“That can’t be true. Not even the time I replaced your shampoo with super glue?”
“Nope.” He paused and considered it. “To be fair, you did replace my conditioner with the solvent. I admit, that was a nice touch.”
“Hmm. Good enough. The time I dyed your stupid cape pink?”
“No. I didn’t mind because Starlight liked it, though.”
“She called you ‘Sunrise’.” Trixie grimaced. “Right. What about—?” She cut herself off. “Trixie is going to stop suggesting things she should have apologized for, now, before she digs herself any deeper.”
“No, no, keep digging.” Sunburst rolled his eyes. “It’s very funny to watch you try.”
Trixie considered that. “You should be snarky more often. It suits you.” With a sly smile. “You almost had a personality for a second there.”
Sunburst sat up straighter, propping his chin up on just a hoof now, leaning on his elbow. “Charming.”
“See? Almost.”
Sunburst heaved an identical exhausted sigh. “This isn’t going to be easy, is it? There’s not going to be any twelfth-hour revelations that you really liked me, and that’s why you were pulling my hair. You know.”
“Admittedly, Trixie would do that.” Trixie traced the rim of her empty glass with the tip of her hoof. “It would make things a lot easier.”
Sunburst sighed. “What do we tell Starlight, then?”
“I’m not telling her anything.” Trixie stood up from the table, stretched. Gestured with her head back toward the bedroom. “Not my style. I prefer to either fix the problem before she notices, or pretend there isn’t one.”
Sunburst bit back a retort about communication being the foundation of a healthy relationship. He wasn’t going to push his luck on how far ‘snarky’s cuteness would get him. “Alright. What does fixing the problem look like?”
“It looks like me liking you.” Trixie screwed her mouth up, the words had an awful taste to them. “I guess.”
Sunburst considered it. “Well. If we don’t, I think Starlight just picks one of us. Or neither of us. You know that, right?”
“Good luck.~” Trixie hummed, but Sunburst moved in front of her, grim. Normally she’d just push past him. This wasn’t normally.
“Starlight doesn’t ‘do’ monogamy.” Sunburst spelled it out for her. “She loves you. Obviously. But how far do you think that’ll get you if it stops her from being with other people she loves, too?”
“I’m worth it.” Trixie said, but she didn’t sound as confident to her own ears as she liked.
Sunburst didn’t say anything about that.
He stepped aside and let her pass, but suddenly Trixie didn’t feel like going back to bed anymore. She sighed, one very much like Sunburst’s.”You sound like you have a plan.”
“Not really.” Sunburst rubbed the back of his neck, stared down at the floor until he could find his courage and draw it. He rubbed sleepy eyes. “I know it’s not the most romantic of starts, but how about we actually try the dating thing, for a while? If it doesn’t work out…” He paused. “I’ll break the news to Starlight. Nobody to blame. We’ll work something else out.”
“Deal.” Trixie offered a hoof to shake, and Sunburst shook it firm. “Where are we going, for our first date?”
“I was thinking the Bayhamas.”
The view from their boat was breathtaking, the waters shallow and clear enough to see the vibrant shells and coral on the sand below. Turtles swam alongside them towards the beaches to lay their eggs. Stingrays moved in the opposite direction like rippling shadows suspended between the surface of the water and the seafloor.
In the distance their hotel shone like a bright pearl surrounded by beachfront bungalows. Palm trees leaned out from the beaches and shaded the waves below. Trixie leaned over the prow railing, watching the world ripple past, and wondered which room they’d had booked for them.
“Look, Starlight!” Trixie pointed at a big blob she’d seen, chasing the stingrays. She saw it clearer now. “Knucklehead shark!”
She loved them. Their skulls were outside their heads in a big carbuncle knob, usually overgrown with moss and lichen, except for around the eyeholes. They looked like big tough stupid idiots. The cheap nightclub bouncers of the sea
“Scary.” Starlight muttered.
“Yeah!” Trixie pumped a hoof. “Aren’t they great?”
“I’m happy you’re getting so into this.”
“Of course! Wouldn’t miss this for…” Trixie trailed off. “Where’s Sunburst?”
“Belowdecks.” Starlight jerked her head towards the stairs. It wasn’t that big a boat - there wasn’t that much of a ‘below’ to even go to. “He’s seasick. He told me not to tell you, because you’d make fun of him. But I told him you wouldn’t. Right?”
Trixie grimaced. “Right. I mean. Little weak, though, isn’t it?”
Starlight raised an eyebrow.
“Admit it.”
“Okay,” Starlight let out an uneasy breath. “It is kind of funny. Just don’t be mean about it.”
“I believe that you’ll find that laughter is important to any healthy friendship.” Trixie imitated Twilight Sparkle’s voice, big watery doe-eyes. Starlight tried to look unimpressed. Trixie shrugged. “You have Trixie’s word.”
“Good. Thank you.” Starlight squeezed her in a hug. It felt nice. “You’re staying in one of the bungalows, by the way. I’ll be in the hotel, mostly using the conference rooms. This is a working holiday for me.” Another weary sigh, but it ended with the best smile Starlight could manage. Even if it wasn’t much, it was clear she meant it to be bigger. “I was hoping this could be something nice for you and Sunburst, while I was busy. Prove you can look after yourselves?”
“What?” Trixie gasped. “This is such a surprise. An ambush!”
“Sunburst already told me you figured it out.”
Trixie gave a little bow. She’d doff her hat, but she’d left it in her bags in the hold. Too windy for it. Instead she tossed her hair in that breeze, and this time it flourished perfectly. “How was my performance?”
“Little hammy, honestly.” Another weak smile out of Starlight. “But I appreciate it.”
“You do?”
“It means you knew, and haven’t complained about it at all, for a week.” Starlight pointed out. “That was the better performance.”
It was true. Trixie had also stayed entirely away from Sunburst all week, getting as much personal space from him as she could. She told him as much, too. If she was going to be giving him an honest chance, then she wanted to go into it fresh. he hadn’t had anything to complain about, yet.
Then the weenie had to be a huge dork and get seasick, and now she wanted to give him a wedgie.
“We’ll have breakfast together every day.” Starlight promised, interrupting Trixie’s thinking. “Or brunch, if you want to… sleep in.” Trixie didn’t miss the implication.
She shrugged. “Breakfast sounds good.” Starlight didn’t hide her disappointment. She didn’t say anything, but she made it too obvious she wasn’t saying anything. Trixie nuzzled her. “If we’re not there by 9 AM, we’ll look for you after noon. And if we’re not there by 1, you come find us.”
“Alright.” Starlight didn’t sound convinced. Trixie turned up the heat, pressing tighter to Starlight’s side.
“You know, this might be our last time alone together, for a little while.” Trixie murmured into Starlight’s ear, and Starlight clearly wasn’t too overworked to shiver from it. “Just us.”
Sunburst slammed open the door from below decks, and inhaled a deep breath of the sea air. He had replaced his cape with a beach towel tied around his neck, and two thick lines of sunscreen lined his cheeks where his spectacles rested - tinted, now, for the beach sun.
“Magic!” He laughed a little too long and a little too hard. “Is magic.”
“Found a seasickness spell?” Trixie grimaced, as Starlight peeled away from her side to kiss Sunburst on the cheek.
“Found a seasickness spell!” He clicked his heels together and joined Trixie on the prow railing, where Starlight had been. “Hey, look! Trixie, there’s a knucklehead shark!”
Starlight kissed Trixie’s other cheek. “I need to go plan my schedule anyway, now that we’re nearly here. Love you.”
“Love you too.” Trixie muttered darkly. Starlight kissed her cheek again.
Then Sunburst was nudging Trixie’s shoulder, even before Starlight disappeared. “You know how knucklehead sharks eat oysters?”
Trixie frowned. “They eat oysters?”
“They swim directly down at them, hard as they can.” Sunburst pointed. “But their eyes aren’t very good, in those helmets of theirs. So sometimes they just miss. And then they have to do it again. Here.” Sunburst reached over the prow again, and tried to peel a barnacle off the bottom of it. But as much as he tugged, he couldn’t break it free. “Little help?”
Trixie cleared her throat and reared dramatically, forming a saber with her magic and slicing the barnacle off the boat. She pulled it up to Sunburst and offered it like a bouquet of flowers. He gave a polite round of applause. Trixie bowed. “What did you want to do with it?”
“I think this looks enough like an oyster, don’t you? Especially if your eyesight’s not very good.” Sunburst took his glasses off and wiped them on the corner of his towel-cape, as if to underscore his point. “Huck it.”
“Excuse me?” Trixie laughed. “Did you really just say—”
“Huck it!” Sunburst repeated, excited.
Trixie hucked it ahead of the shark, in the direction the boat was heading. The two of them followed the railing of the boat around, watching it.
The shark tracked the sinking barnacle sidelong, circling it as it sank. It went up even as the barnacle went down.
It dove ferociously, working itself up to a blistering speed from something so big and dopey looking.
At the very last second, Trixie yanked the barnacle away, and the shark exploded against the sandy ocean floor, sending murk and debris and seawood flying. Sunburst howled laughing.
The shark reared up for a second charge, and again Trixie yanked it away at the last second. Another explosion. The shark shook its head. Trixie wasn’t even watching it now, she was watching Sunburst double over laughing. That was a much better show.
“Okay, okay,” Sunburst admitted. “I get this kind of joke now. It’s a lot more fun when you’re in on it.”
Trixie yanked again, and Sunburst stopped laughing. Trixie looked over.
This time the shark had stopped, and was tracking the colour of the magic back to its owner. Deep in the bone helmet, its beady eye swivelled up from the shellfish and all the way to Trixie’s glowing horn.
“Ah, yes, and now I remember.” Sunburst took a step back from the railing, and pulled Trixie with him. “The joke’s not funny to everyone.”
Trixie noted that Sunburst put himself between her and the shark. Even though it had no way for the shark to get them here, and the gesture was totally meaningless, it was also automatic and without hesitation. Maybe the nerd was a big wuss, but maybe he wasn’t a coward either.
The shark trailed them all the way to the dock, and swam alongside the pier until Sunburst, Starlight and Trixie made it all the way off the beach.
Trixie and Sunburst couldn’t stop snickering about it, but whenever Starlight asked, she said they wouldn’t get it. Inside joke.
The smile that Starlight couldn’t give Trixie before, she gave for that.
Trixie had been disappointed they’d be getting the bungalow while Starlight got the fancy, modern hotel room. That didn’t last. It was love at first sight.
Their bungalow was built just over the surface of a warm lagoon. Water trickled into the lagoon through a curtain of rock walls, and then followed a brook down and out to the main beach, maybe a hundred steps away - but those steps were filled with lush forest, head-high ferns and sagging coconut trees. The privacy was complete, total.
The bungalow itself was a beautiful thing of a palm wicker roof and raw timber walls. The most beautiful birds nested over it, and it looked so immediately part of the environment it was built into.
It was everything she loved about camping out with her wagon, but taken to its most wonderful extremes.
Sunburst struggled under their bags. “Starlight said this one’s ours.”
“I never want to leave.” Trixie breathed.
“Well, we have a week.” Sunburst heaved Trixie’s bags to the water’s edge and left them for her. Trixie raised her eyebrow at him, and he snorted. “There’s a lagoon between us and the front door. Do you really trust me not to drop these?”
“Of course Trixie trusts you,” she said too quickly, and of course Sunburst picked up on it. Trixie cleared her throat. “Of course, they are her bags, and if you’re worried about it, then she will carry them herself.”
“Thanks.” Even Sunburst couldn’t work out whether he was being sincere or sarcastic. “Hey.”
“Yes?”
Sunburst spent a few seconds wondering whether he should say it or not. But Trixie demanded courage, not tact, and so he felt he had to. “I promise to try to make it a good week if you do.” It came out almost too sincere, so he took the next leap, imagining himself hopping across stones to cross a river. Slowing down was what made you fall in. “You’re obviously in love with the place. I don’t want to be the reason this isn’t a happy memory for you.”
Trixie squinted. He sounded so… resigned. “This is a date, isn’t it?”
Sunburst straightened up. “Ah. Yes? Maybe? That was the plan.”
“And that’s the best you can do, sweeping me off my hooves?” The highest of highly arched eyebrows. “Hope you don’t ruin this for me?”
And, to her relief, Sunburst laughed at that. That could have gone either way, but unlike Sunburst, she didn’t stop to think before taking a risk like that. Hesitation was death on the stage – either from stage fright or from not ducking the stray pyrotechnics - you had to ride the energy, no matter what it cost you.
Trixie kept the haughtiness, rode the energy, let Sunburst react.
“Listen, it’s just…” And there he was again, thinking about what he was going to say before he said it. Seconds of silence, not caring if it was awkward. It was almost worse that he knew it, and just thought the awkwardness of not saying anything was worth preventing saying the wrong thing. So Trixie had to wait. “I’m more of a libraries and museums guy. I don’t really do… the outdoors.”
“Well, you’ve clearly never been taught to appreciate them. Maybe you just need a good teacher.”
The look that Sunburst gave her sent a happy little shiver through her. ‘Why think before you speak, if you can just say the right thing in the moment, idiot?’ Trixie wondered if this was how flames see moths.
The big dork cleared his throat. “I think I’d like that.”
“Really?” Trixie teased. “That easy?”
“Not that easy,” he grunted, searching for where he’d put the front door keys, until he found them in the front pocket of his suitcase. “A good start, though.” Then he turned, and started to cross the bridge to their room, carrying only his own bag.
Trixie had expected him to roll over, for how flustered he’d just gotten. But no. There really was something under here, after all. She didn’t know if she liked it or not, yet. Frankly, figuring out she could make him roll over and crush on her would have been much easier. Then he could have done all the work in the relationship.
But nooo. She had to work for it, too.
Trixie hauled her luggage over the bridge after Sunburst.
“What’s all that stuff around the windows? Those can’t be curtains.” For as much as the bungalow was made of thatch and wicker, the curtains were the only things that looked shoddy. They were a faded green muslin, worn thin, that barely blocked any light.
“It’s mosquito netting.” Sunburst seemed surprised she didn’t know. “It keeps the bugs out.”
Way better than her wagon, Trixie decided.
The inside of the room was just as spectacular. Natural wooden floors, polished smooth. A wide bed with a radio, an antique wardrobe, and a spacious kitchen and eating area just through a beaded doorway that made the best clattering noise. Trixie had spent the first minute that they got there just going back and forth through it, making them rattle and dance.
The first thing Sunburst did was lay his books out. He had his light reading and his heavy reading, split between fiction and non-fiction. A book for every mood he might find himself in, he’d had to building-block them into his luggage any way they’d fit.
There. Now they could breathe. That was much better.
Trixie looked at the piles, unimpressed. “Hardly the most social thing, are you?”
“You could read too, and we’d have something to talk about.” Sunburst fanned his selection out in front of her. Trixie raised an eyebrow.
“Please. Trixie gets enough of that from Starlight.”
Sunburst snickered, and took his books back. “You’re right. I get her all to myself when she wants to talk about books. Wouldn’t want to give that up.”
Trixie set out her collection of hats and capes, and swimsuits. She pretended to ignore that last comment. “What do you think, the white bikini, or the blue one-piece with stars?”
“The one piece. It matches your cape.”
“Good answer.” Trixie agreed. “You do have excellent taste, where it matters.”
“So hard to find anyone who appreciates a good cape.” Sunburst unpacked his own.
Trixie came back one last time through the beaded curtains. “There’s only one bed.”
Sunburst nodded. “I noticed that too. That’s not going to be a problem, is it? We’ve slept in the same bed for a while now.”
“Always with Starlight, though.” Trixie sounded more nervous than anything. Sunburst couldn’t tell what about. If anything, he had every right to be more worried about her. She was the… he didn’t want to say 'problem'. It always took two to disagree, after all. Definitely the more opinionated.
“Look,” Sunburst went and sat on the edge of the bed, and patted next to him. “Sit here.”
Trixie did, and looked across at him. Nothing happened.
“Good?”
“Good.” Trixie breathed. “Good.”
“You’re tense?”
“Trixie is going to be very upset if Starlight breaks up with her, because she can’t work out how to make her stupid boyfriend like her.” She huffed, nose high in the air. That lasted only a second though. “You’re clearly not stupid. You know what I mean.”
“No, actually, I don’t?” Sunburst scooted closer to the middle of the bed, and to his relief, Trixie didn’t scoot away.
“I was hoping you would, so I didn’t need to explain it.” Trixie laughed bitterly. “I don’t think I can.”
“I think we’re going about this the wrong way.” Sunburst suggested, gently. “This is still a date, I promise. But I think it’s good enough if we’re friends after. Real friends, not just pretending to get along.”
“You’re just pretending to get along?” Trixie scoffed, and Sunburst rolled his eyes.
“Yes, Trixie, you exhaust me. You’re loud, mean, rude, self-centered and callous, and you keep insulting me and pretending you don’t.” An exhausted, exhausted sigh. “But Starlight clearly sees something in you, so I have to trust that it’s there to find.”
Trixie straightened on the bed and looked back at Sunburst with wide eyes. “Oh! Oh! When I say something, and you ask me what I said, and I say ‘nothing’, you did understand what I said, you were just trying to make me say it to your face!”
Sunburst took a deep breath and rubbed his face with a hoof. “Yes.”
Trixie flopped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Trixie just thought you weren’t paying attention.”
“I was.”
“Wow.” Trixie looked up at him, clearly impressed. Not an iota of embarrassment or shame or self-reflection. “That’s impressive. You really just said nothing? I’d have thrown something at me.”
“Believe me, I wanted to.” Sunburst kept his tone even, and it wasn’t easy.
Trixie thought about it. “That must be why you always felt so condescending. Clearly you don’t respect me.”
Sunburst blinked. “What.”
“You don’t respect Trixie enough to be honest with her. You’ve been treating her as a child that you need to lie to, and manage.” Trixie explained, sprawled out on her back and staring up at the ceiling. A wicker fan with a pull chain. She left it off, for now. “You should just fight with me. It’s a lot more fun.”
“Fun?” Sunburst spluttered.
“Yes, fun.” Trixie nodded. The beautiful thing about her magic was she could pick up a pillow and whap Sunburst behind the head with it without having to sit up. “I’m not the one making you bottle everything up. Just argue with me and you’ll feel better. I’ll like you a lot more.”
“You’ll like me more if I’m meaner?” Sunburst ducked the pillow, picked his own up, and held it up as a shield. He couldn’t help from laughing as he parried Trixie’s next two swings.
“Take the stick out of your arse so we can play swordfights with it.”
“Gross!” This time he tried to smack Trixie’s face, and this time she parried him.
“You’ve clearly been jealous,” Trixie shot back.
“Jealous? Of what?” Sunburst was standing up now, and Trixie was dual-wielding pillows even as she lay on the bed with her eyes closed, the picture of serenity.
“You think you have to hold back because of me. I get to be mean and you have to manage me. Trixie’s a solo act! She doesn’t need a manager!” She whirled her pillows like nunchucks, and Sunburst had taken to sticking his forearm into the pillowcase so he could wield his like a paladin’s shield. “Be honest!”
“Well!” Sunburst blocked one strike for his head with a sweeping overhead blow, jumped the one that went for his legs and stomped that pillow to the ground, pinning it. “I do feel a lot better, actually.”
Trixie yanked the pillow anyway, sending Sunburst back onto his rump. She caught him with the pillow she’d sent at his head, so he didn’t land too hard. Then she yanked that too, before he could feel too grateful. “Good. Trixie can’t promise she won’t get mad. She just promises she’ll get over it. So. Just. Let her get over it!”
Then Sunburst was standing over her. Trixie blinked, sending a pillow for him. He dropped to the bed, bouncing her up and directly into the pillow she’d sent at him, hitting herself hard in the face.
“I win?” he asked.
“Never!” Trixie hissed, swinging at him with the other pillow hard. He parried it, at the very last second. Then Trixie was up on her knees, fighting for real.
It was impossible to tell who was laughing harder.
Sunburst held the ice pack to his bruised head. Trixie ate her ice cream to deal with her ribs. Both of them were still grinning like idiots, side by side on the bed, close enough to touch.
“Thanks,” Sunburst said, “I think that helped.”
“I just thought you thought you were better than me.” Trixie admitted. “Which is ridiculous. I’m clearly amazing.”
Sunburst snickered. “Great and powerful, I”ve heard.”
“You’ve heard right.” Trixie punched him in the shoulder, and he rubbed it. “What do you want to do next?”
“Swim? Go make sandcastles? Read in bed?”
Trixie thought about it. “Swimming here sounds nice. Trixie’s a bit too sore for the beach. You’ve got a good swing, lover-boy.”
“Never know when you need to fight a monster. Or beat up a street magician. You know?”
Trixie snorted at that, taking another big spoonful. Cherry ripple, and amazing cherry ripple at that. “Keep working on it. I was still going easy on you.”
Sunburst rolled over, leaving his ice pack on the bedside table. “Really? That’s the line you’re going with?”
Trixie poked her tongue out, and noticed Sunburst had froze. “What?”
“Ah. You got a little something, on your uh…” he trailed off, then finished lamely. “Lips.”
Trixie tested her mouth with her tongue. She’d been a messy eater. She realized what Sunburst was getting at. “You want to get that for me?”
He leaned closer. He looked nervous. He was a breath away. Trixie panicked. This was… a lot. Too much. It wasn’t right. She turned her head, just as he did the same.
They bumped foreheads together.
“Ow.” He said, laughing. “Okay, that was…”
“Weird.” Trixie agreed.
“Still working on friends, right?” Sunburst suggested.
“Clearly.”
“Still.” Sunburst settled back on his side of the bed, and Trixie felt the return of her personal space like a gulp of fresh air after holding her breath too long. “Good to know.”
“Trixie is glad you tried.” She offered. She felt guilty, almost, or something close to it. Not that she’d done anything wrong, but that she had wished she could have made it that easy. But Sunburst had flinched too.
They’d both only wanted to want it. That was all.
“Yeah, well.” Sunburst rubbed a foreleg self-consciously. “Just braver than you thought, I guess.”
Trixie nodded, staring up at the ceiling, her heart hammering in her chest. Too much, too fast. Ridiculous. She’d had sex with him - or at least, with him. Didn’t that count for anything? A kiss shouldn’t have been anything.
Clearly not.
She cleared her throat. “Can you even swim?”
Sunburst flinched. “Of course I can swim. Who can’t swim?”
Sunburst hadn’t swam since he was a kid. But it was like riding a bike, right? You didn’t forget.
Trixie looked great in her one-piece, at least, doing a lazy backstroke around their bungalow’s lagoon. And the clear water was more than warm enough. The slight breeze moved through the palms and ferns, and the leaves scraping over themselves sounded like an exam hall of scribbling students.
It wasn’t so loud as to be distracting, but it made the lagoon feel more private, more intimate than it already was. It meant sound wouldn’t carry, nobody would be eavesdropping on them.
“Well?” Trixie drifted by.
“I’m working on it.” Sunburst stared at the water.
“It’s only chest high.” Trixie pointed out. She stopped paddling long enough to flip over and prove it. The water barely rose over her collarbone. “You’re not going to drown.”
“What if there’s sharks?” Sunburst asked, and Trixie splashed him. “I know, I know. I’m not being rational. I’m just being anxious for no reason, so my head’s trying to make up its own reasons.”
“Would you like me to throw you in?” Trixie sounded borderline bloodthirsty with eagerness. “I would like to throw you in.”
Sunburst took a deep breath and steeled himself. “I think that’d help, honestly. Just, be gentle—”
Trixie was not gentle. Trixie’s horn glowed as she picked him up, carried him directly over the middle of the lagoon, and dropped him. Sunburst yelped like a kicked puppy when she let go.
He tread water, gasping and spluttering, for a few seconds before he remembered he could touch the bottom. Then he stood there, staring down at his hooves. “Huh. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” Trixie paddled up next to him, then started doing loops around him, making sure she kicked hard enough to splash him lots. “You good, lover-boy?”
Sunburst took a deep breath, hopped, and started to tread water with all the grace of a big dog, kicking at the water and slowly paddling forward with a huge effort. “I think I got it.”
“Technically, you are swimming, I suppose,” Trixie observed wryly.
“I know!” Sunburst’s face couldn’t fit his smile, it looked like the top half of his head would fall forward, “This is great! Ha! Ha!”
Trixie drifted next to him, then dunked his head under for a second. He popped up, and spat out a mouthful of the water he’d half-gulped.
“Hey!”
Then Trixie shrieked as Sunburst pulled her up and out of the lagoon by one of her back legs, and dunked her head-first. Then he dropped her, and she went down in a big splash.
When she popped up again, Sunburst made it impossible to be mad at him. Big dopey smile, so obviously proud he’d done it. Waiting for teacher-Trixie to mark his test “A”.
She splashed his face again, and he didn’t even raise a hoof to shield himself. Clearly he agreed he deserved at least that much.
Trixie dove forward to dunk his head under again, and Sunburst darted back. Trixie splashed in a bellyflop where he’d been a second ago. More of that huge, playful smile.
She’d wipe it off his face yet.
Another big dive forward, and again Sunburst darted to the side, and splashed her when she missed. She unleashed a torrent of splashes back at him, but when the whitewater cleared, she’d lost sight of him.
Then there was a grip around her waist, and she got yanked under. She opened her eyes underwater, and there Sunburst was. He waved at her.
She broke the surface again, and Sunburst followed just after, taking a deeper gasp of air. He’d been holding his breath longer. The moment he got his wind back, he threw his head back and laughed like a lunatic.
“This is great!” He pulled Trixie into a tight hug, moving faster than she could dodge, spinning her in the water. “Thank you so much for pushing me!”
“Any time.” Trixie said.
“You mean only if I ask, right?”
“No.”
“Ha ha!” Sunburst jumped off the sand at their hooves, and floated on his back, just as he’d watched Trixie do. “Good.”
“Good?” Trixie laughed, too. “Good!”
“This is great!” was the only explanation Sunburst cared to give. He was trying to copy the strokes he’d seen Trixie do, but it was lopsided. She moved up next to him.
“Here. Keep your limbs straight. Just sweep past—like that.” She took one of his forelegs and guided it through the stroke properly, pulling him along as she walked beside him. “That’s more like it.”
“Like this?” he said, almost getting it.
“Not quite. Here.” Again Trixie pushed his forelegs, lifted his back more.
“Oh!” Now he got it. “That is better, I can feel it.”
He was a fast learner, wasn’t he? A second ago he’d been about as good as a border collie, but a few little touches, and he had it. His form got worse after only a minute or so, but he felt himself slip, and managed to correct himself to just what Trixie had shown him without her having to point it out.
Not bad at all.
Trixie realized she liked Sunburst. Really liked him. A crush would have been too strong a word for it, but she wasn’t just trying to work out how she was going to survive putting up with him. She was looking forward to spending the week with him. She definitely hadn’t liked him before.
Well, she liked him when she got him alone like this. Maybe it would be different when they had breakfast with Starlight again, and she had to fight him for her company. Maybe that was what had changed.
She had a day to figure out how to keep liking him, just in case tomorrow morning was what ruined it.
First thing she tried was dunking the nerd harder, but he was better in the water than he was at pillowfights.
Sunburst was so sore he couldn’t move any of his limbs, and he hadn’t been happier in years. He also hadn’t realized how much the water had been holding his weight until he’d dragged himself out of it, and all the jumping and splashing caught up to him at once. He felt like a sack of concrete.
Fortunately for his ego, Trixie looked just as beat when she followed. They’d laid out on the soft grass until they’d dried off, both pretending that was the only reason they were taking so long. Neither bought the other’s front. It was obvious it had just taken them that long to be able to move again.
What had finally moved them were the mosquitos and other biters that came with the setting sun. The promise of the bug nets carried them inside, otherwise they might have just spent the night on the grass.
Now that Sunburst had collapsed into bed, he didn’t want to move again. He was ready to call it an early night. His stomach growled, and he was hungry enough it hurt almost as much as his legs did. Trixie had done the smart thing and checked the kitchen first before she stopped moving.
“We could order pizza?” Sunburst suggested.
“There’s fruit in the fridge,” Trixie replied. “Papaya, grapes, watermelon. There’s more, I just don’t know.”
“Well, I’m happy to try new things,” Sunburst said. “Just grab a bit of everything and we’ll eat in bed.”
Trixie took a big wooden bowl, filled it with a bit of everything, and took it back to the bedroom without bothering to cut any of it up. Her legs were just as knackered as Sunburst’s, and she was just as desperate to get off them. She collapsed into bed with a whumpf as he took the bowl off her.
“I think this one is guava?” Sunburst rifled through the bowl. “This is a mango.”
“That’s what guava look like?” Trixie didn’t even raise her head, the pillow had claimed it completely. “I’ve only had it in smoothies.”
“I haven’t even had that. Were they good smoothies?”
“Trixie thought so.”
Sunburst shrugged. “I wonder if the hotel does smoothies for breakfast.”
“Well, I”m hungry now.” Trixie rolled over, keeping the pillow over her eyes, opening her mouth. “Feed me.”
“Feed you?” Sunburst glanced over, and saw Trixie holding her mouth open expectantly. “Oh. Alright. Can you see?”
Trixie lifted the pillow off her eyes. “I can now, why?”
“No, no, put it back, I want to make a game. I want to see how many you can guess.”
Trixie covered her face with the pillow again, and made a sound of pure bliss for it. Light was the enemy, it seemed. “So you feed me, and that’s the game?” Trixie shifted so she could hold the pillow tight to her eyes with a foreleg. “I already love it. We should play it all the time.”
“Hold on.” Sunburst rummaged through the bowl. “Okay. What’s this.”
Trixie leaned forward and bit down. “Easy. Apple slice.”
“Yeah, I thought I’d start off with a simple one.” Trixie could hear the bowl shift again, and then something was pressed to her lips. She bit again. This one was soft and juicy, and it burst at the slightest pressure. Sharp, citrus, but not as sour as an orange. It was a lot sweeter.
“Mandarin?”
“Oh, that’s what it is?” Sunburst laughed. “I thought it was just a weird orange.”
Trixie pulled her pillow down. “You can’t give me fruit you don’t know!”
“Since when do you care about rules?” Sunburst teased.
“I care about rules when I’m winning.” Trixie pulled the pillow back over her eyes. “And I am clearly winning.”
“Clearly.” Sunburst agreed, and it sounded a bit too teasing for Trixie’s liking, but she kept feeding him, so she allowed it. The next one was also sour, but tangier and way firmer all the way through. It had lots of gritty seeds, which added a bit of texture to it. “Gooseberry?”
“What’s a gooseberry?”
“It’s got a fuzzy brown skin, and the inside’s green.”
“Then yeah, you got it right.”
Trixie pulled the pillow off her head again, and sat bolt upright in a single fluid motion that startled Sunburst. “That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“Your turn.” Trixie insisted, pushing him down on the bed and smothering his face with a pillow. Sunburst pushed it back up a bit. He kept squirming, so she straddled his hips to pin him down. “Open.”
Sunburst obediently opened his mouth. Trixie looked through the bowl.
“Well?” Sunburst asked.
“Don’t rush me, I’m thinking.” Trixie pulled a green fruit out that didn’t look ripe, but it definitely squeezed like it was. She sliced it in half with her magic, and the inside was a bright pink with little white seeds. She licked it.
Guava! It tasted like smoothies!
“Trixie licked this one,” she admitted. “Only a little bit. Is that a problem?”
Sunburst shifted underneath her. “Ah. I mean. We’ve shared a lot more than that, through Starlight, right?”
Trixie thought about that for a moment. “... yes. Point taken.” She put the slice of guava in front of him that she hadn’t licked, anyway. “Guess.”
Sunburst bit it, and took a moment to think. “Guava.”
“Cheater!” Trixie laughed. “You just said you’ve never had that.”
“You said you had to lick it, though.” Sunburst held the pillow tighter to his eyes, just to prove he wasn’t peaking. “So I knew it was the one you only knew by taste.”
Trixie sat in silence for a moment, trying to work out how that counted as cheating but not coming to anything. It felt like cheating. It should be cheating. “I’ll allow it, this time.”
Sunburst raised the pillow a little. “What else have you got for me?”
Well. If he said he didn’t mind. Trixie pulled the pillow back down, and Sunburst just opened his mouth for the next round.
Well.
He had to know this was coming, right? But no. The big nerd really would have been happy to keep trying to guess fruit.
Trixie wasn’t though. She’d chickened out of that kiss earlier. And Trixie couldn’t stand the thought of being a coward. Who was she, to feel intimidated by a doofus?
She kissed him.
Too quick. She pulled her head back like she was scared he was going to burn her. He didn’t get a chance to react.
Prove she wasn’t a coward? She’d flinched.
She went back a second time, properly. This time it was different. Sunburst had time to process what was happening, to think of what to do. Had his chance to flinch, or turn his head, or even just move the pillow.
He kissed back.
Gentle. Close lipped. Tentative. Both waiting for the other to push, and neither did. After a second, Trixie pulled back again, and Sunburst didn’t follow after her. After a moment, he pushed the pillow to the other side of the bed.
Trixie looked down at herself, straddling Sunburst like she was, and slid off him without a word. She’d gotten vertigo, like she was too high up, like she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be.
It was nice enough. But it was nice, and it was enough. It had felt like neither of them had wanted more.
Trixie ate the other half of the guava fruit as she stared up at the ceiling, and Sunburst took his pillow back and put it under his head this time.
“What do we tell Starlight?” Sunburst asked. “At breakfast?”
“She’ll know when it’s breakfast, not brunch.” Trixie stared up at the ceiling. “We could show up late and just pretend…?” She didn’t know why she bothered to suggest it. Sunburst was a bad liar when he wanted to, and he wouldn’t want to.
“I don’t think we need to.” It was surprising he even thought about it at all. “Want to cuddle?” Sunburst asked, before the silence could get awkward.
“... yeah.” Trixie shifted closer to him. “Sure.”
It was the first time they’d slept in the same bed together without Starlight as a buffer between them. It still felt like she was missing, but only like a puzzle misses a piece. Not like two enemies need a wall.
Trixie was half-worried Sunburst would treat her too gently, like she was fragile, like he was scared of breaking her. Instead, she was surprised how strong he was, and how firm he let himself be with her. That, she thought, would do just fine.
To his own surprise, Sunburst realized he felt lucky that Starlight had given them the bungalow, and kept the hotel for herself. He’d thought he’d step into the wide marble foyer, feel the air conditioning, hear the live piano music, and feel jealous.
He didn’t. It made him feel like he was getting ready for a conference. When Starlight looked at them with jealousy, he had to admit, he didn’t make the joke they could trade.
The breakfast buffet, though? That he was happy to share. Trixie was still stacking her plate with pancakes and syrup, while he and Starlight had settled in with pastries and coffee.
“Really?” Starlight nudged one of her pastries without eating it. “It’s really fine?”
“Trixie might overplay it,” Sunburst looked over to make sure Trixie couldn’t hear that. She was still trying to hold a plate of eight-tall pancakes with her mouth while she poured syrup on it with her magic. Sure. “She wants to impress you. You know how she gets. ‘Good’ isn’t good enough. It is good though, I promise.”
“I’m not that transparent, am I?” Starlight finally stopped playing with her food long enough to take a morose bite. “I thought I was a bit more subtle than that.”
“It wasn’t.” Trixie was coming back, now, behind Starlight. Sunburst tipped his head towards her, and Starlight zipped her lips. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. It might be why it worked, though. Trixie.”
“Lover-boy.” Trixie sneered, pulling Sunburst’s chair out from under him. He didn’t budge - he’d been holding himself an inch over his chair since the moment she got close to the table. Trixie’s facade cracked. She almost looked impressed as she moved to sit down.
And fell right through the air where her chair had been a second ago, before Sunburst had pulled it out.
Trixie howled laughing as Sunburst caught her stack of pancakes, balanced it, and put it on the table in front of her. Starlight rolled her eyes, and waited for the other diners at the tables near them to stop glaring.
“If this is you two getting along,” she said, “I almost preferred it when you were fighting.”
“I feel bad just copying you,” Sunburst apologized to Trixie, “but you would not believe how hard it is to find a whoopie cushion in a nice hotel.”
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I’ll have you know.” Trixie preened, rolling the top pancake up into a tube and inhaling the whole thing in one bite. She didn’t even chew until she’d popped the whole thing in. “We should probably stop here, before it gets out of control.”
Starlight and Sunburst blinked at her, and shared a look. Both unsure they’d heard it. Starlight broke first. “That’s very… unlike you.”
Trixie rolled her hoof, as if to say ‘and so on and so on’ before she’d even said anything. “We all know how this would go. Sunburst and I get into an arms race, it gets out of control, and then finally Trixie is the uncontested winner when she takes it too far, and Starlight has to get mad at her. It’s how it always goes, isn’t it?”
Sunburst took a bite of his own pastry. “I mean,” he said, his mouth deliberately full, “You always seem to look forward to taking it too far.”
“You could try not taking it too far, this time?” Starlight offered, a little too hopefully. Now it was Sunburst and Trixie’s turn to give her disbelieving looks. Starlight shrank down in her chair. “You’re right, you’re right. I’m just happy you’re getting along, is all. Is it wrong that I want to encourage it?”
Sunburst swallowed. “As if Trixie needs encouraging.”
Starlight was about to step in and defuse the situation, but Trixie’s chest was puffed out with pride. “I’m incorrigible,” she agreed. “And I’m glad someone at this table recognizes it.”
“Am I the third wheel now?” Starlight asked, letting out the breath she’d been holding in.
Before Sunburst could reassure her, Trixie took the slam dunk. “Yes, you are.” Trixie preened as she stole one of Starlight’s pastries, even though she still had six pancakes left. “Thank you for noticing it.”
Sunburst was glad Trixie did. Starlight had a very dry delivery when she made jokes, and he hadn’t picked up on that one. He filled his mouth with a pastry again.
“Well, then this is good news, I guess. I’m still going to be too busy for the next few days to hang out, so if you two are just faking that you get along now, this is your chance to say it.”
Sunburst and Trixie looked at each other, waiting for the other to break, to reveal they’d just been trying for Starlight’s sake. Both were surprised when the other didn’t. Sunburst sat up a little straighter in his chair, and Trixie leaned back more comfortably in hers. One last little bit of doubt they’d been holding on to, gone.
Sunburst reached across the table to hold Starlight’s hoof. “We’re good. Promise.”
Starlight squeezed back. She tried to say something, anything, but the words caught in her throat. Trixie even stopped eating, trying to work out what Starlight was trying to say. Whatever it was, Starlight couldn’t work out how to say it.
Instead, she pushed out her chair, and downed the rest of her coffee in one gulp. “Sorry, I’ve got an appointment with- I’ve got an appointment I need to keep. Same time tomorrow?”
“Maybe,” Trixie replied airily, giving Sunburst a sidelong look. “Maybe brunch?”
“Same time tomorrow,” Sunburst said firmly. “Let’s not ruin a good thing by setting expectations on it, alright?”
Trixie looked to Starlight, and didn’t find the disappointment she’d feared she’d see there. Relief, more than anything, and a little pride. Trixie relaxed a little. Sunburst hadn’t thrown her under the bus - he was stopping her from jumping in front of one of her own making.
Starlight kissed both of their cheeks. “What’s your plans for today, then?”
“Trixie’s going to surf.” Trixie beamed.
“I’m going to watch her surf.” Sunburst finished his coffee, too. “How about you?”
“I’ll tell you later, I promise.” Starlight pushed her chair out. “I’m already late, though. Enjoy Trixie surfing.”
Seconds later, she was gone, leaving Sunburst and Trixie with their breakfasts. Trixie stabbed at her pancakes again, while Sunburst nibbled on a pastry.
“White bikini today?” Sunburst took another bite out of a chocolate pastry he’d been saving for last.
“Salt water would ruin my cape,” Trixie agreed, with a half-hearted stab at a strawberry she’d been avoiding. “Try not to drool over it.”
“Shut up.” Sunburst said it with a smile, though.
Sure, Trixie could have used magic to propel her board out. But paddling so far out that Sunburst was just an orange blob on the shore, only visible against the sand because he was lying on his big teal beach towel - that wasn’t work. It was fun she’d be cheating herself out of.
Well. The first time, anyway. She stopped being such a purist after the third time she had to head back out. The first few times were the fun ones, though.
Still, she was at the break, now. The best whitewater she’d ever seen in her life, while Sunburst sat on the beach reading his stupid books for nerds.
“Hey!” She called out to the beach, waving as hard as she could. “Are you at least watching?”
She was too far away. And if Sunburst had heard her, he wasn’t yelling loud enough for her to hear him. She hoped he was watching. Trixie was a damned good surfer, and he was going to be very impressed, and she’d get to bask in his admiration for the rest of the day. It was almost as good as—
Trixie shot up into the air, at least two stories high. Her board didn’t go with her - two pieces of it ripped away from each other in a burst of white confetti and plastic snow.
Between them, waiting for her to land, a shark with a thick bone helmet broke the surface of the waves. It rolled onto its side so it could watch Trixie fall with one hateful eye deep within the armour plate.
Trixie threw a big fist with her magic, straight down, hoping she could smash the shark away and break the surface tension for her fall. “Can’t a fish take a joke?”
Apparently not.
Trixie hit water and shot down. That much she knew how to do from her high-diving acts. She was lucky she hadn’t broken anything when she got sent straight up, but the shark was built for hammer-and-anvil strikes. Without an anvil to smash her against, all that force went to waste.
That changed with Trixie in the water. Now there was nothing stopping it from driving her into the sand below and shattering her like an oyster shell. She might be able to grab it, but it had teeth, too, if she got too close.
She swam up again, broke the surface and took a huge gasp of air. she’d lost sight of the shark amidst All the bubbles and the thrashing, She hoped she could cry out to Sunburst, but she already knew he couldn’t hear her. Now, just a blue head bobbing in blue waves, there was no way he could see her. And without her board to stand on, she couldn’t get clear sight of the beach either.
A wave rolled past, dragging her torrent of bubbles with it. Trixie kicked up with it, and tried to use the height to see the beach.
She couldn’t see Sunburst anywhere!
She was on her own with the shark - to her left, now. The full force of her magic hadn’t been enough to chip its helmet, and it didn’t have enough brains in its head for her to hope for a concussion. It had just been enough for it to lose sight of her, though, but its eye had swivelled on her again.
“Listen, buddy, one of us is a dangerous predator, and the other’s a cue ball that grew fins. Do I look like the cue ball to you?” Trixie flicked her salt-hardened mane. “Figure it out.”
The shark dipped and made another try to spear her out of the water. Maybe it was just as stupid as it looked, or maybe it had just worked out that it’d hurt a lot more without the surfboard to soak the hit.
Trixie’s horn flashed, and she heaved a huge gout of water beneath her, throwing her up and over the shark’s back. The thing had a turning radius like a double-wide wagon, and it seemed to struggle keeping things in its field of view. She wasn’t just getting out of its way. She was buying time hoping it would need to find her again.
No luck. The shark twisted on its side as Trixie shot out of the water, and kept that one eye fixed on her when she landed. Trixie was already panting. All this magic, on top of treading water, after paddling all the way out here? She couldn’t keep dodging forever. She couldn’t fight it, either, she wasn’t strong enough to hurt it, let alone stop it.
The shark couldn’t accelerate well, but it was fast when it built up momentum. Without her board, there was no way Trixie could outrun it.
There was too much water to boil or scald it, and it was immune to cuts or whatever stabs she was strong enough to make. It was too heavy to throw, and she had nowhere to throw it to.
Another wave popped her up like a cork, and this time she blasted it with freezing magic on the way back down, shooting a narrow crust on the surface of the water. It only needed to last long enough for her to slide and skate down. She could keep an advantage as long as she could keep out of the water.
The knucklehead smashed through the slope she’d made, breaking straight through the ice shelf on the other side, sending a shotgun blast of slushie crystals. Whatever illusion Trixie had that it might make a useful shield shattered with it. She shrieked, desperately freezing the surface of the water in front of her as fast as she could skate across it.
“Oh, come on!” She was losing momentum, she couldn’t keep speed on a flat. “I refuse to get eaten by a tuna fish with a callus! There’s got to be some way to hurt you.”
That was when she heard the motor.
“I’m almost there!” Sunburst cried out, behind her. Trixie dared to look. Sunburst was moving fast, piloting one of those hard black inflatable boats that skipped and skimmed across the waves, gunning the engine with everything he could, holding a large wet burlap sack in the seat next to him. “Come this way!”
“Are you crazy?!” Trixie changed tack, focusing on making a big chunk of iceberg to balance on, and stopping on a dime. “You’ve got the boat! You come to me!”
The shark, committed to the chase, had too much mass to make a sharp stop, a sudden turn. A few more seconds while it worked out how to turn itself around at that speed, but after that, Trixie had no more momentum.
She’d made herself a sitting duck, but it was her best chance at letting Sunburst get to her.
Sunburst was coming hot, though, and already veering to pull up alongside. With two forelegs he grabbed the sack he was holding, spun around with it, and tossed it as hard as he could in the shark’s direction. Trixie saw what was spilling out of it, in the second before it hit the water.
Oysters. Dozens and dozens of oysters.
“Hope it takes the bribe.” Sunburst drifted into Trixie’s iceberg like a bumper car, and Trixie jumped just as the boat hit. “I’ve got to get this thing up to speed again.”
Trixie gave the motor one last kick with her magic, and it roared to life. Sunburst let out a relieved breath. “Thanks for the muscle.”
“Thanks for the mussels.” Trixie shot back, and in spite of himself, Sunburst grinned at the joke. As the engine guttered away, they looked back towards the shark. “Oysters. Whatever.”
Whatever it was, the shark was going wild for them, rolling around in the sinking shellfish like a cat in catnip. Smashing and batting and punting the oysters as they dropped, crunching others whole.
“They serve oysters at brunch.” Sunburst explained. “Apparently Starlight really shelled out for our rooms, because a valet even helped me fill the sack.”
“Shelled out. Really?” Trixie deadpanned, and Sunburst blinked.
“Oh, ha, I didn’t actually do that one on purpose. Wish I had, though.”
Trixie grabbed him by the neck and pulled him into a kiss, hard.
Sunburst kissed her back, just as hard, pulling the back of Trixie’s head tighter in, long after they’d run out of breath. They kept going.
He broke first, to make sure they were still going in the right direction. They were, but only because the beach was a hard target to miss - they’d drifted off course. He shook his head. “You know, Fine Mane once said that if you can drive a speedboat and kiss a pretty girl at the same time, you’re not giving one the attention it deserves.”
Trixie kissed his neck. “What did he say about blowjobs?”
“Not much, he had his mouth full.” Sunburst grunted as the boat bounced off a wave breaking on a sandbank. “I also didn’t get a chance to cast that seasickness spell, before I stole the boat.” He quickly corrected himself. “Borrowed. We’re giving it back.”
Not only had lover-boy charged ahead before he could spend a few seconds on a cantrip, he’d committed crimes for her. The craft was definitely nice enough to count as grand larceny. The second sexiest crime, behind arson.
“I hope you know that the second you beach this piece of junk,” Trixie warned him, “I’m dragging you back to the room and grinding those pelvic bones to dust.”
They were close enough to the beach now to feel the midday heat radiating from the scorching sand. Sunburst gave a queasy smile. “Oh yeah? Try me.”
Trixie threw Sunburst on the bed. Her magic was strong enough to do it, and his wasn’t strong enough to resist, and that was that. He bounced twice on his back with a nervous laugh.
“I didn’t even fight it!” Sunburst protested. “I bribed it! You’re the one that was doing all the stunts and acrobatics!”
Trixie stalked up to the bed like a tiger. “Please. You think real heroics do anything for me? You stole a hundred bits worth of shellfish and a boat for me, and got out of a fight you couldn’t win. That I’m into.”
Sunset raised his eyebrows. “That is the most Trixie possible thing you could have taken from this.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Trixie stopped in her approach. “Hrm.”
“What?”
“A moment.” Trixie opened the door to their bungalow again. “You are clearly not feeling the raw sexual energy of almost dying like I am, and I need to wash the beach out of me. So come out here, so I can seduce you properly.”
Sunburst got off the bed, shook himself. But Trixie had already sauntered out the front, and he had to hop-skip to catch up to her.
Trixie had already dove into the lagoon by the time he made it to the front porch, and was giving a lazy backstroke, with a deliberately wide kick of the legs. Sunburst flushed, which just encouraged her.
“You don’t have to do this, you know.” Sunburst watched Trixie drift by. “I already saved you because I like you.” At that, Trixie drifted back to the floating porch, and rested her weight on it.
“Dip your hooves in, lover-boy, the water’s perfect.”
Good boy that he was, Sunburst did as he was told, and sat over the edge of the porch with his hooves in the water beside Trixie. She dove down, and before he could wonder where she went, she broke the water again between his legs, wet mane clinging to her neck, her cheek warm and wet against his inner thigh.
His pulse pounded.
Trixie brushed her mane back out of her eyes a little, and kissed Sunburst’s thigh while she did. “I’ve decided that I want you. Not because it makes things easier with Starlight, though that doesn’t hurt. I want you, because I’ve figured you out, and I like it.” Another kiss on the opposite thigh, and Sunburst didn’t move away, just like she’d hoped.
“You have?”
“Here I thought you were a big nerd because you were a big wimp who couldn’t be anything else.” This time Trixie kissed the edge of his sheath, and lover-boy twitched. She traced it with the tip of a hoof,and Sunburst let out a shuddering breath. “Clearly that’s not it. Anyone can throw a bag of oysters. You could have asked someone else to do it. A pegasus would have been a smart choice. But I bet you didn’t even think of that, did you?”
“Couldn’t waste time…” Sunburst, normally so smart and eloquent, could barely think a sentence out like that. Poor thing. Trixie kept teasing him and enjoyed his growing appreciation.
“You don’t want gentle, and nice, do you?” Trixie was performing right now, all the confidence she had on stage, because the truth was this was a wild guess, a shot in the dark, just what she hoped was true… but it would be more fun if she was right, like this. “You want to play rough.”
Sunburst didn’t say anything. He couldn’t try to understand what she was saying, and answer her at the same time. What was most important was that he was still listening. Trixie held his growing length against her cheek, then turned her head and gave it a long lick, lingering at the tip.
“You can handle it, alright.” Trixie lit her horn, freeing her to lean on Sunburst’s thigh again and bat her eyelashes at him. “You like getting teased, and bullied, don’t you?”
Sunburst leaned back, propping himself with just one elbow and holding the back of Trixie’s head. She purred at the touch, and tried to see just how much she could fit in her mouth.
Now for my next trick… she thought, but she couldn’t quite make him disappear. Disappointing. Barely halfway before she couldn’t take any more.
Then Sunburst pushed her head down again, and her eyes bulged, and watered. He pushed against her throat, then into it, then down it, another quarter of his length. She couldn’t breathe, she could taste him all the way down her throat as she swallowed against him. Trixie tapped his thigh, hard, and he let her go. She came up for air, gasped, glared at Sunburst.
She glared at him and held her weight up against the porch with her top half, because her knees had just squeezed together too hard for her to tread water.
“You brat.” Trixie spat.
“Takes one to know one.” Sunburst grinned.
Trixie pulled him down into the water after her, and he laughed all the way down as he splashed. He caught her around the shoulders as he went down, dragging her with him.
It wasn’t that deep. Reared up on their hindlegs, pressed against each other, they could both keep their heads above the water. Sunburst leaned against Trixie, and slid his cock between her legs, pressing against her. She let her weight settle against it.
This was her seduction though, not his. She grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and kissed him hard, above the surface of the water, trying to regain the initiative.
He was passive in the kiss, letting her lean further into him, press her weight down on him, press her chest down against his. He was hers. He just needed to know that.
Then she felt him shift his hips under her, and then he pulled one of her legs up, and Trixie found herself balancing with her other knee pinned to her chest, and Sunburst stopped.
He stopped and pressed against her, but for the last push. Trixie broke the kiss.
“Not here.” She hissed. “Underwater is not as sexy as it looks.”
“Not here.” Sunburst agreed, not moving. Trixie wiggled against him, grunted. Fuck, it would be such a bad idea to move that one last bit. Awful idea. She needed to stop thinking about it.
She bit her bottom lip. “Bedroom?”
“Not going to make it that far. Front deck.”
“Anyone could see us.”
“Yeah, they could.”
Trixie kicked him away, and Sunburst stumbled back, eyes wide with shock. She needed the space to press off the bottom of the water and drag herself out of the lagoon. She dragged Sunburst after her, up over the side and then all the way on top of her. She lined him up with her magic, and he bit down on the side of her neck as he slid the rest of the way in.
Trixie squeezed him tight and let out a silent, soundless scream as she felt impossibly, wonderfully full. She always wondered what Starlight got out of this. A lot, apparently.
“Enjoy it while it lasts, lover,” Trixie huffed out, before Sunburst had figured out how to move. “Get too big a head about this, and I’ll introduce you to the brave new world of pegging.”
Sunburst stopped biting, murmured something and Trixie felt him jump inside her. Much more than a twitch. She pushed his chest up so she could see his bright pink face.
“Really? That hit a nerve?”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, that is rich. You really—”
Then he started fucking her, and Trixie shut up. Her head rolled back against the deck, and her hoof tips dug hard into Sunburst’s back as she held him tight.
“F-u-u-u-ck,” she panted.
“Can understand why I might be jealous,” Sunburst teased in ragged breaths, “When it does that to you.”
“Shu-shu-” Trixie shivered, but couldn’t manage out. She squealed instead, and curled even tighter into Sunburst. She knew he had stamina, she’d seen it, but this time she wasn’t waiting for her turn with Starlight at the end of it. “Fuck.”
“Love you too.” Sunburst laughed, and then both of them realized what he said. Sunburst stopped.
Trixie held him around his shoulders and twisted, rolling him underneath her, still squeezing him tight with her hips. Now, though, she was on top of him, riding cowgirl. Back on top, back in control, and back looking down on that dumb dorky face of his.
Trixie raised herself up, then fell down again, hilted herself on him, getting a grunt out of both of them. Yes, this was much better, she thought. “I didn’t say you could stop, lover.” She chided. “Now, I said I was going to grind you to dust. And what was it you said?”
“Try me.” Sunburst repeated, dared even.
Trixie took that as a challenge.
“Shut up.” Trixie said over the brunch table, even though Starlight hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t needed to. Starlight had been grinning that huge, smug, “I know” look at them the second they’d…
Well, limped in. Walking was still a bit more than either of them was capable of, even after sleeping in.
“So, yesterday…?” Starlight prodded. Sunburst took a big bite of his waffles, and looked to Trixie to answer.
“Yesterday.” Trixie agreed. “And most of last night. And almost this morning.”
“Why not this morning?” Starlight was clearly disappointed. Sunburst swallowed so he could answer, leaving Trixie free to drink her bloody mary. She clearly needed it.
“We wanted to have something left, in case you were free.” Sunburst coughed into a hoof. “Didn’t want you to feel left out.”
“No! No, no, no, this is exactly what I was hoping would happen!” Starlight took a hoof from both of them, and squeezed it. “I mean, I didn’t think it’d go this well, but…”
“You weren’t really busy, were you?” Trixie raised an eyebrow.
Starlight snickered. “No, I wasn’t making that part up. Planning a three person wedding is a lot of work.”
“Whose wedding is it?” Trixie asked blankly, and Starlight laughed. Then she saw Sunburst was giving her the same neutral expression, and she stopped laughing.
“Ours. I was planning—you knew I was planning our wedding, right?”
“Starlight, honey.” Sunburst squeezed the offered hoof. “Do you remember when you proposed?”
“Of course I do! How could I forget?” Starlight looked to Trixie for reassurance. “It was, uh… It was…” There was no reassurance from Trixie. “... now? I’m proposing now, on this beautiful vacation, at this perfect moment?”
“Smooth.” Trixie snorted, taking the celery stick out of her drink and giving it a hard chomp.
“Of course we’ll marry you.” Sunburst got out of his chair and kissed Starlight’s cheek.
“Speak for yourself.” Trixie snorted. “Come on, Sunburst, do we really need her?”
Sunburst stroked his chin. “I guess she did just forget about us, didn’t she?”
“We’ve got a few more days on our own, if we want it.”
“Ah?” Starlight asked, a rising inflection ending on a panicked note.
“I think we should marry her anyway,” Sunburst told Trixie. “It’s a package deal.”
“Two for the price of one does sound pretty good,” Trixie admitted trailing off. “Okay, I’ll put up with her,” Trixie locked eyes with Sunburst, nodded. “For your sake.”
“We should probably stop being mean to our fiance, then.” Sunburst nodded.
Starlight sniffled.
“Too mean?” Trixie asked.
“He said…” Starlight wiped her eyes, “our fiance.”
Trixie blinked. “Yeah?”
“She hasn’t had a whole week to get ready for this like we have.” Sunburst reminded her.
“Hold up.” Trixie tapped the table. “Actually, now that we’re finally talking about this-”
“Finally!” Starlight agreed, and it was clear she really had been working the whole week - the exhaustion was clearly catching up to her.
Trixie continued, “We’re both just marrying you, right? Sunburst and I aren’t marrying each other?”
“If that’s what you want.” Starlight looked to Sunburst, and Sunburst looked wistful.
“That does make the most sense,” he thought. “I’ll admit, I didn’t see what a difference it would make, practically speaking.”
Trixie stabbed at her fried egg with the last of the celery stalk, not taking a bite of either. “Well, Starlight has clearly taken it for granted this is her wedding, and taken all the responsibility for it. If we get married, then we get to do that wedding how we like it.”
Sunburst snorted, then thought about it. “Actually, you know, I’d taken it for granted, since… well, you know what Starlight’s like.”
“Clearly.” Trixie agreed, and Starlight shrank down in her chair, giving both of her fiances a sheepish smile that they pointedly ignored.
“Might be something to look forward to. Maybe, eventually, if we feel like it.” Sunburst agreed. “You’re planning on having the wedding here?”
“What?” Starlight blinked, and sat back up in her chair. “No, no, of course not, we’re getting married in Canterlot. Getting all our friends out here would be a nightmare. I’m just doing all the organization stuff here so that nobody could snoop. I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“You were very good at that part,” Trixie said, and Starlight grimaced.
Starlight sat up straighter in her seat, tapped the table. “Hey! I brought everything here for a reason, too! You have a very important part of this planning!”
Trixie gave Sunburst a sidelong look. Sunburst shrugged.
“What’s that?” Sunburst asked.
“It was your job to try out the honeymoon suite!” Starlight clapped her hooves. “So, tell me, it’s good, right?”
Sunburst started to answer, but Trixie reached across the table and held one of his hooves in her own before he could. Trixie kept her eyes on Starlight the whole time. “It’s perfect.” She breathed.
“Well. Try not to get sick of it. I’m still run-off-my-hooves busy…” Starlight sighed. “As much as I’d love to join in, it’s going to have to wait until… well. After the wedding.”
“We have the rest of the week here to ourselves, then?” Sunburst asked, and Starlight nodded.
“Try not to sound too disappointed.” Starlight teased. “I want you two to be experts on the place for the honeymoon. I’m counting on you, really.”
“We have gone above and beyond, Starlight, and I am going back to bed.” Trixie groaned. “Lover-boy is insatiable.”
“You keep starting it!” Sunburst shot back.
“You keep letting me!”
Starlight thought about her schedule. The florists, organizing replacement staff at the school for them while they took an extended vacation, the catering, the music, the venue, the rings - gosh, the rings! - the tailoring, the suit, the dresses, the guest list, the invitations, the table placements…
No. For once, Starlight was excited that she got to be jealous. There’d be plenty of time for her later. For now, she needed the time alone to be exhausted and recover, and trust these two to entertain themselves for once, without her having to mediate or fix anything.
That made it her vacation, too.
