Lightning Dust took a deep breath, combing a wing through her windswept mane for what felt like the hundredth time. She steeled her nerves, reaching a hoof forward to push open the door to the cafe, but stopped just short. She turned away, pacing before the entrance, fretting over nothing.
Today was so important because it would be the first lunch date she would have with her…
Standing up tall, face flushed at the thought, Lightning bit down on her lip to stop the ensuing yell of frustration. Passerby looked at her with concern, but she glared at them until they backed off.
She was usually as confident as confident can be, but the mere thought of seeing her marefriend for the first time as her marefriend was giving her a serious case of frayed nerves. Her! One of the top flyers of the Wonderbolts and she couldn’t handle entering a donut shop.
Smacking herself hard on both sides of her face with her wings, she huffed roughly a few times, hyping herself up. She was Lightning Dust and that meant she could tackle this situation just like she did everything else: with a brazen attitude and too-cool-for-you attitude.
Because was too cool and was definitely not intimidated at the thought of seeing the most perfect mare she’d ever met in her life.
Puffing out her chest with her mind properly psyched, she strutted up to the cafe entrance and shoved it roughly open with a hoof.
The interior of Cafe Serenity Glaze looked the same as usual: mismatched. One side was made up of bright pastels and foalish decor; advertising sugary donuts and subpar coffee. The other was all soothing greens and blues; promising light snacks and exotic teas. Two competing aesthetics that clashed in every way, but were merged together for reasons only known to the owners.
More importantly, sitting at their usual table by the window at the exact intersection where tea and donut met, was the mare of Lightning’s dreams. She stared off into space, idly stirring her tea cup with a stick.
The mare was everything Lightning wasn’t. Elegant in the rounded curves of her body where Lightning was pure sleek speed. She was thoughtful, guarded underneath her signature white stetson, while Lightning was upfront about anything and everything. To Lightning, she was like a surprise updraft. Exactly what you needed when you were falling toward the ground.
“Hey, Fiddle,” Lightning greeted affectionately as she trotted towards her, nervousness melting away the closer she got to her marefriend.
Fiddledust turned towards Lightning, startled. A graceful smile spread across her face as her features softened in the over-saturated light spilling in from the window. “Hey, Dust,” she answered. “I’m so glad you could make it.”
Taking her seat across from Fiddle in the dim lighting coming from the window on the donut shop side of the store, Lightning leaned her body forward, front hooves crossed before her.
“I’d never miss one of our d-dates,” Lightning stuttered, chuckling nervously as she looked askance at her marefriend. “Did you have to wait long for me?”
“No, I got here about fifteen minutes ago,” Fiddle replied. “Just long enough to set up a playlist for the jukebox.”
Lightning glanced at the aforementioned object on the far end of the cafe. It stood perfectly at the intersection of both the donut and tea shops. Like the rest of the cafe, it was a mismatch of themes with one side being bright pastels and the other a soothing blue-green.
“Good. The usual goers have awful taste. Always playing lame folk music on repeat.” She renewed her focus on Fiddle. “So, how you been? Made any progress with your loser sister?”
“She’s not a loser, Lightning,” Fiddle answered dryly.
“But she doesn’t make her own decisions, which makes her pretty close to one,” Lightning fired back.
Heaving a hefty sigh, Fiddle said, “Octavia does have a bad habit of just listening to whatever our parents tell us too. Always scheduling performances at the most boring venues where the most interesting thing you might play is a slightly upbeat symphony written by a pony two hundred years ago.” Fiddle made a fake gagging sound. “Honestly, I wish my parents would just stay out of me and my sister’s business instead of trying to control every aspect of it.”
“Yeah, really. Hopefully, Octavia’s new beau will get that stick out of her rump,” Lightning commented.
“Her what?” Fiddle asked incredulously.
“You don’t know?” (Fiddle shook her head) “Oh! She’s even keeping it from you, huh?” Lightning leaned further toward Fiddle, using a wing to cover her snout conspiratorially. “Just the other day at one of my shows, I saw your sister with another mare hiding out in the back row, sneaking smooches when no one was looking.”
“Really?!” Fiddle exclaimed.
Lightning leaned back in her cushion, laughing at Fiddle’s surprise. “Yeah, she’s dating that famous DJ. Surprisingly. Wouldn’t have expected that match-up.”
Fiddle tilted her head to one side, confused. “She’s dating Long Play … ?”
“No, Vinyl Scratch,” Lightning corrected. She frowned. “Who’s Long Play?”
“Nopony important!” Fiddle replied a tad too loud. She tapped her cup with her hooves anxiously. “Just some stallion that also happens to be a DJ. Anyways, that’s not important. This Vinyl… what’s she like?”
“What do you mean?” Lightning asked.
“Well, I mean, you said she was famous, so you must know something about her,” Fiddle reasoned.
“Admittedly, I do end up in the same places as Vinyl since I’m a famous flier and she gets booked for most celebrity parties, but—” Lightning shrugged her shoulders “—the most I know about her is that she’s quiet and your sister is dating her. I don’t know everything about everypony I meet, ya know.” The last part, Lightning said with a smirk.
“Oh, of course, I didn’t— !” Fiddle fumbled. “Sorry, I just got curious since my sister doesn’t tell me about these kinds of things.”
“Heh, no worries.” Lightning glanced towards the menu above the donut shop and scanned quickly through the items. “Is there seriously nothing healthy on the entire menu?”
“There are healthy options on the tea shop menu, but somepony has the palate of a five-year-old,” Fiddle teased.
“Just because I like my food and drink with taste doesn’t mean I don’t have a refined palette,” Lightning shot back with a teasing grin of her own. “But I gotta keep my figure lean with the upcoming show on Friday. Speaking of!” Lightning slammed her hooves on the table, excitement bright in her eyes. “Are you free that day?”
Tensing in her seat, Fiddle replied, “Sorry, Lightning. I have a, um…” she fidgeted with her cup, biting her lip nervously, “...gig that day. The Canterlot Orchestra is playing and they want me as a guest musician.”
“O-oh, that’s… fine,” Lightning said as she hung her head. A moment later, she perked back up, a teasing grin on her face. “What happened to classical being a total snooze fest?”
“It’s in a park!” Fiddle defended. “Totally different!”
“Really? Sounds like the same boring schtick but now trees are involved,” Lightning teased.
Fiddle scoffed. “I can hardly explain the minute and important differences between playing at a gala and in an open venue, love.” Her face flushed cherry red as she realized what she said.
“Love, huh?” Lightning grinned, her eyes betraying mischievous intent.
“W-well, that’s perfectly normal!” Fiddle hunched forward and took a sip from her cup, hiding her expression behind the container. “Regular couples give each other nicknames all the time.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But I didn’t expect you to be the first one to use one.” Lightning leaned in close, bumping her snout up against Fiddle’s cup. “The fact that you did it by accident is just too funny to me. Little Miss Perfect goofing one up before the perpetual flying menace.”
“Oh, please.” Fiddle slammed her cup back on the table, snorting. “I’m hardly Miss Perfect. That’s more my sister’s deal.”
Lightning laughed sharply as she pulled back. “True enough. I’m going to go order something for myself, do you want anything?”
“No, I’m good with my tea.” Fiddle tapped her cup.
“Alright, be back soon—” Lightning smirked, “—love.”
Fiddle snorted indignantly as Lightning trotted away, snickering all the while.
Fiddledust needed to stop. She tapped her cup guiltily as she watched Lightning Dust saunter up to the counter to order food. It caused her to take in the visible seam along both cafes and truly grasp what she had done.
Over and over again.
The first time had been an accident. By pure coincidence, she had seen two songs in the jukebox on recommendation from her friends Strawberry Sunrise and Cherry Berry. She’d put in the required bits, fired up the playlist, and then suddenly both Serenity Tea and Donut Glaze merged into one store, split right down the middle at the threshold of the jukebox.
It had been overwhelming at first, stuck between two worlds that weren’t supposed to coexist. She’d been scared. That is until Lightning Dust appeared. The other world’s Lightning Dust. She had been trying out the new donut place as her cheat day from the Wonderbolts and had run into her by happenstance. In later conversations, Lightning had described the meeting as magnetic. There was just something about Fiddle that just drew Lightning toward her. On a whim, Fiddle had agreed to weekly meetups that soon transitioned into whenever possible.
That first meeting and every afterward was the very reason that kept Fiddle doing this. She didn’t know the dangers posed by using the jukebox, she wasn’t some magical prodigy. She knew this whole relationship was pointless as they couldn’t leave the store — fear kept her from trying to enter into the other world through the other world’s front entrance.
In an effort to disentangle herself from the other world’s Lightning Dust, she had sought out her own world’s Lightning Dust in the hopes that she could move on and stop leading other Lightning into a dead-end relationship.
Apparently, her world’s Lightning Dust had died several years back in a stunt gone wrong. So, the only way Fiddle could have the love of her life was to continue taking the risk.
There was no way she could keep this up forever. Just in their last conversation, her knowledge of the other world had slipped and she’d shown how much she didn’t know. Lightning would eventually catch on and then… then… Fiddle didn’t know. Nopony seemed to notice the dimensional seams except her and she was too scared to test whether somepony could. If Lightning did catch on, if Fiddle told her what was really happening…
A small part of Fiddle hoped Lightning might risk everything to keep their relationship going.
Because at the end of the day, she wanted this, she wanted Lightning, and the consequences be damned to continue merging worlds to see her. None of this situation made any sense, but what did make sense was that she needed Lightning in her life, no matter what that might look like.
But it was selfish of her and she hated herself for it.
“Hey, Fiddle, you okay?”
Fiddle snapped out of her internal thoughts and gazed at Lightning who looked at her in concern.
“I—” Fiddle cleared her throat “—Everything’s fine.”
Lightning’s expression showed she didn’t believe her, but she quickly covered it up with her trademark smirk. “Well, suit yourself, but if you keep looking at me like that, it might start going to my head.” She brushed a hoof against her chest. “Leaving a mare speechless by just looking at me is a great brag.”
Snorting at the display of egoism, Fiddle followed up with, “No, I’m just stunned by how narcissistic you are. It’s honestly amazing.”
“But that’s part of my charm!” Lightning chuckled as she took her seat across from Fiddle once more.
“Uh-huh, sure,” Fiddle teased. “Couldn’t find any food to fit your delicate sensibilities?”
“Nah, just nothing worth getting reamed out by Captain Spitfire over,” Lightning replied. She leaned towards Fiddle, her face showing visible concern. “You’re okay, though?”
She was being selfish. She was in the wrong. She couldn’t keep doing this.
Fiddle kissed Lightning lightly on the snout who flushed at the contact. “Everything’s fine. Just thinking how willing I am to do anything to be with you.”
Leaning back while puffing up her fur, Lightning said, “wow, that’s—” She flared her wings before quickly folding them once more. “You really aren’t helping me deflate my ego here.”
“Why should I? You’re amazing and you should know it,” Fiddle teased. “Besides, I meant what I said.
“I’d break the universe for you.”
