Stealing Smooches (and other things)
“Hey guys,” Rainbow Dash called out as she opened the door to Sugar Cube Corner.
Sunset would have been embarrassed if that wasn’t how the soccer player always arrived at their hangouts. Thankfully, only the six, now seven with Rainbow, girls were in the restaurant currently.
Despite that, and the fact that they always sat in the same booths, Pinkie Pie got up and waved to Rainbow like she might miss them.
Rainbow came over to their booths, an excited grin on her face, but she didn’t sit down immediately. “Guys, I got great news. My old friend from way way back in the day decided to stop by. I told her she could meet up with me here if that’s cool.”
The girls all gave various signs of agreement and excitement though it probably wouldn’t have mattered if they did have protests because just a few seconds later the bell above the door chimed again and another person came over to the little group.
The newcomer was a tall young woman with white and purple hair wearing a brown jacket and heavy purple eyeshadow. She had a large frame, easily dwarfing Rainbow Dash who gestured to her while facing the group.
“Everyone,” Rainbow said once the women had stopped next to her, “this is my friend-“
“Gilda?” Sunset Shimmer sputtered, almost choking on her milkshake in shock.
Gilda’s eyebrows shot up. “Well I’ll be, if it isn’t Sunset Shimmer.”
Rainbow Dash, and everyone else, looked between the two of them in shock. “You two know each other, G?”
“Yeah, we, uh,” Sunset said, fiddling with her milkshake in an attempt to avoid eye contact, “we’ve met. Just once and during that time I kinda…”
“Made out with me.”
“-stole her motorcycle aaaaaa, ah ha ha!” Sunset’s face turned bright red as every eye turned towards her. “I guess that happened too!”
“You made out?” Rarity and Dash both asked, though Rarity with ecstatic delight and Rainbow with more confused gaping.
Applejack leaned over the table to shoot Sunset a disappointing glare. “You stole her motorcycle?”
“It was back when I first came to this world,” Sunset explained quickly, “I was still doing evil stuff!”
“Story story story!” Pinkie Pie chanted, pounding her fists up and down in excitement.
Sunset peered at Gilda from the corner of her eye. “Would it be okay if I…?”
Gilda shrugged and pulled up a nearby chair, sitting backward on it. “Go ahead. I don’t care. I kinda wanna hear how things went down from your point of view anyway.”
***
Sunset Shimmer had not even been in the human world for a week.
She hadn’t really been sure what her plan was when jumping through an unstable portal into a different universe. She just did it and now she couldn’t go back.
Not that she wanted to go back, of course, pain and anger and greed were burning away in her chest, fueling her desire.
Unfortunately, that was all that was fueling her. As a pony being hungry was a nonissue, you just did some light grazing and you were good to go. But as she was getting used to this new body she had discovered that grass did absolutely nothing for it.
So she was hungry, and she didn’t know how to get food, and because of that she was walking down a street she had not yet explored, sopping wet and cold in the pouring rain that she was too proud to try and get out of.
It was as she was walking down this street that a motorcycle passed her. She had seen cars before, but this was something completely new and she watched it intently as it zipped past.
But, after a few moments, the motorcycle stopped and backed up until the driver was directly next to Sunset.
“Hey, you lost?” The person asked, helmet covering their face and muffling their voice.
Sunset had the impulse to give them a rude gesture and completely ignore them but two things stopped her. First, she didn’t know any human rude gestures, and second, the motorcycle looked so captivating she couldn’t help but stop and stare at it.
She did sneer at the rider, though. “What’s it to you?”
“It’s like pouring out here,” the rider replied, “and you don’t really have the clothes on for a late night rain stroll. Maybe I just don’t want to see a cute girl die of hypothermia next to a Starbucks.”
Sunset didn’t know what that was. A Starbucks. She knew what hypothermia was. “Well, good news, I’m not lost. So you can continue on your way.”
The stranger, did not, in fact, continue on their way. Instead, they flipped the shield of their helmet up and Sunset got a glimpse of purple eyes and darker purple eyeshadow. “Ah, one of those nowhere to go kind of situations, huh?”
Sunset stiffened and glared at her instead of answering.
The stranger sighed and jerked their head to the back of their motorcycle. “Gonna get my freaking karma in today. Hop on.”
“What?” Sunset could not have heard that right.
“I said hop on,” the rider turned away from her, flipping her helmet back down, “this offer is only going to last for the next ten seconds.”
Sunset hesitated. Did she really want to go with this stranger? Who knows where she would-
“Ten! Nine!”
Practically jumping out of her skin, Sunset moved almost without thought and climbed onto the back of the motorcycle.
The second Sunset had a firm enough grip around the other girl’s waist the motorcycle went rocketing off. The wind and rain were more intense than the fastest carriage ride Sunset had ever experienced and she found herself burying her face into the girl’s back as they raced along.
But it didn’t scare her. No, the speed and the ease at which the cycle moved, even on the slick streets, made Sunset’s heart beat with excitement and adrenaline. It was a rush she had not felt since leaving Equestria and she soaked it all in like a sponge, losing herself to the sensation of riding.
In what seemed like no time at all they were slowing and eventually stopped outside of a tall building.
The girl didn’t say anything to Sunset, she just dismounted the motorcycle and walked towards the front doors.
Feeling practically giddy with adrenaline, and having nothing better to do, Sunset Shimmer followed.
The building turned out to be an apartment and the girl led Sunset up a couple of flights of stairs before they entered one of the many doors.
“Alright, here it is, try not to drip all over the carpet.”
Sunset got the impression that the girl was joking as she casually draped her own soaked jacket on the couch and placed her helmet next to it.
“Name’s Gilda, by the way,” Gilda said, not even looking at Sunset as she headed into the small kitchen area, “You want a beer or something?”
Sunset sniffed indigently as she wrung out her hair. “I’m Sunset Shimmer, and no, I don’t drink.”
Gilda barked out a laugh like Sunset had just said the funniest thing in the world and came back holding two bottles of what could only be beer though Sunset of course didn’t recognize the labeling. “Sure you don’t. Everyone knows people wandering around the streets in the pouring rain are too good for alcohol.” She uncapped the bottles, took a swig from one, and handed the other to Sunset.
Reluctantly, Sunset took the beverage, though she wasn’t about to drink any. You didn’t get to be Princess Celestia’s Personal Student by going partying on the weekends.
Ex-student.
Sunset took a drink. “Where are your parents? Don’t humans our age usually still live at home?”
Gilda looked at her strangely but answered the question without comment. “Nah, I’m a free bird. I don’t need parents weighing me down. You get what that’s like, yeah?”
Sunset thought of Celestia and her jaw tightened as she took another drink. “Yes, I do completely.”
“You’re some kind of freak aren’t you?”
Sunset sputtered into her drink, turning into a hacking mess. “I beg your pardon?”
Gilda did not seem to notice. Or maybe she just didn’t care. “I mean, look at you, walking alone in the pouring rain like you’re mad at it for raining. You got on a random chick’s motorcycle and followed her home. Everything about you screams mommy issues for sure, too. That’s a certified freak.”
Either because she was too stunned to think or because everything else was completely true, Sunset found herself snapping, “she’s not my mother.”
Gilda smirked and moved out of the kitchen and back towards her dingy little couch. “So what is she? Grandmother? Sister?”
“Princess,” Sunset answered, sitting down next to her with a huff, her blood boiling at just the thought of Celestia.
Gilda flinched in a performative way. “Oof. A breakup? And you still carry that much of a torch for her?”
Sunset fought between correcting her and just yelling but settled for the middle ground of glaring while taking another drink of beer. “Can we not talk about this?”
Gilda shrugged and lounged back. “What else is there to talk about?”
Sunset latched onto the first positive thing she could think of that didn’t have anything to do with Equestria. “How about your… it’s called a motorcycle, right?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“How does it work?”
Gilda leaned forward, obvious surprise on her face. “How does it work, like how do you drive it?”
“Sure,” Sunset relented, “but also, how does it move on its own? It’s just a bike but it can go incredible speeds with no outside help and it seems like magic but I know it’s not magic because there is no magic in this place. But the way it moves certainly feels like magic, the way it responds to your controls and glides so seamlessly around bends.
She was talking too much, she could at least recognize that, but either because of the alcohol or the stress, she couldn’t get herself to shut up.
Gilda stared at her, studying her face with confusion and also amusement. “Besides running on the basic stuff like gas, I guess it also depends on the driver.”
Sunset stared at her, intently, as if looking hard enough into her purple eyes would give her all the answers she needed. “The driver?”
“Yeah,” Gilda leaned closer, “see I’m a cool kinda chick. I live on my own and do my own thing. The motorcycle is kinda like that. No extra baggage like a car, no protection, just you and the wind and the road. It can be kind of intoxicating.”
“It’s beautiful,” Sunset breathed, her face felt warm which was probably also an effect of the beer.
“It really is,” Gilda agreed, putting a hand on Sunset’s leg.
Sunset froze, suddenly realizing how close their lips were and how incredibly hot her face was. “Sorry, I’m not into… humans.”
Gilda snorted. “Yeah, I bet you aren’t, freak girl.” And then she leaned in and kissed Sunset right on the lips. It only lasted for a second but when Gilda tried to pull back Sunset found she had lost her breath. “You still not attracted to humans?”
***
“And then we made out for a while, fell asleep, and when I woke up the next morning my motorcycle was gone as well as my jacket.” Gilda said, ending the story with a smirk.
Sunset, on the other hand, had her burning red face buried in her arms. Near the end of the tale, she had lost the willpower to keep going and Gilda had picked up the rest to save her from dying of embarrassment.
“Honestly, I’m surprised she didn’t die,” Gilda added, thoughtfully, “I did not think she knew how to use a motorcycle.”
“I am so sorry,” Sunset groaned, removing her head from her arms to flash Gilda a pleading look, “I promise you I’m a better person now. If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you I… just name it.”
Gilda hummed as if deep in thought, and leaned her elbows on the table. “Well, if you really are such a good person now.” She tilted forward and planted a small kiss on Sunset’s lips. “Then all I want is a second date.”
Author's Note
Not a type of story I usually write so an interesting challenge. Fingers crossed it counts for the contest even though Gilda isn't particularly villainous in this story.
