Late-Night Phone Call

Canterlot High School was remarkable in a few ways compared to other schools in the district, but the ways in which it was not remarkable had always served Sunset best.

Security was not a high priority for the school, simply because it had never needed to be. It had a security staff and two or three guards that were on payroll, but the city of Canterlot had a particularly low crime rate compared to anywhere else around it, and it had remained that way for quite some time. As a consequence, safety measures sometimes were allowed to go slack, and when they did, there were seldom repercussions for it.

Once she’d become established in this world and started to get more ambitious, Sunset Shimmer went to great lengths to map out as many weaknesses in CHS’s security as she could get away with, sniffing out the ways that she could abuse the school’s sloth for her own benefit.

One of the most glaring security holes she’d found was the door to the roof, which had a busted mechanism that prevented the lock from latching at all. You couldn’t arm the security system to the school if any of the external doors weren’t locked, but it was also a pain in the ass for the maintenance team to fix. Rather than go to all the trouble of repairing the old door, the school’s security staff had plucked the sensor from it and removed that doorway from the alarm network, seeing as it was unlikely anyone would get in from the rooftop anyway. Of course, it also meant that there was a blind spot on the roof for people to linger up there after hours, but that was preventable by simply giving the roof an inspection before closing…which no one did. No one had been caught up there in many years, so no one checked it, and because no one checked it, no one got caught up there, thus leaving the door wide open for someone to take advantage of it.

Exploitation had some issues, of course. The most obvious problem was that the roof was open to the elements, which wasn’t great if it was anything but a clear summer’s night. Beyond that, there were still cameras inside the building, which were motion-activated. Sure, you could slip into the halls while sneaking after hours on the roof, but it was basically impossible to get into the building without showing up on surveillance once the school was properly closed. School staff was not so lax as to not pay attention to the red exclamation marks on the security terminal when those cameras picked up activity.

With a combination of snooping and careful questioning, Sunset had found that there was a window of about twenty to thirty minutes where one could get from the roof to somewhere else in the school before security started to lock the place up properly. This was often necessary, if you needed to stay there overnight for some reason, which Sunset sometimes did when she was still actively scheming. There were a couple options available for this, each of which had their own pros and cons, though one had proven both reliable and particularly entertaining to exploit.

Much like her princess counterpart, Principal Celestia had a thing about preserving books. There was a legacy section in the farthest corner of the expansive CHS library that had all the textbooks that normally went out of date, but which the school refused to get rid of at the principal’s behest, either for “just in case” situations or otherwise just not wanting to throw out perfectly serviceable literature that no one was using.

This was fine and all, but there were only so many shelves in the library, and over the years, the number of books had since outgrown the number of shelf spaces they could be put on by a substantial margin. The result was a large pile of old books which no one was allowed to throw out and which no one had a good place to put them. A tarp had been thrown over them to prevent dust buildup, and in lieu of other options, there they sat, untouched by students and generally ignored by staff. Because it was ignored by staff, there was nothing stopping someone from going in and rearranging the book piles to one’s liking, since it wasn’t likely to get messed with any time soon.

Thus, Sunset had simply put the books together in an arrangement like the walls of a fortress, with a space in the center big enough for someone to fit into if they laid down. The number of books meant that she actually had a fair bit of space to work with, and she had no trouble creating enough room to stretch out to her full body’s length on the floor, plus room to roll around a little without bumping into anything. All you had to do was lift the tarp, move a few rows out of the way, crawl inside, and seal yourself back in for good measure. With the tarp pulled taut such that it looked flat on top, the entire structure looked like a solid mass, giving away nothing of the stowaway currently lounging inside.

Something about creating a book fort as a means of bypassing campus security was very funny to Sunset. She viewed it as being one step removed from sneaking past guards using an overturned cardboard box. The book fort itself was also a throwback to her foalhood, bringing back memories of creating similar structures to hide away in and chow down on her stolen foodstuffs like a bandit in her hideout. What really put a cherry on the nostalgia cake was the pillow and sheet she’d smuggled in there combined with the carpet beneath her, all of which did work to really sell the “sleepover in the living room” experience. All that was missing was the crackle and glow of a fireplace on the other side of her fortifications and the gentle tick of a grandfather clock across the room. Even without these things, and in spite of it being some of the darkest days of her life, Sunset couldn’t help but feel a little like a filly again.

It’s funny, the way life conspires to take you home, sometimes. Even when you can never go back, it still tries.

The light from the phone that had slipped out of her hand illuminated the inside of her pitch-black fortress. Sunset’s eyes found it, though she didn’t move until the screen dimmed again, which is where she nudged her hand to the side to tilt the phone enough that she could read the preview.

Fluttershy
Are you awake?
Today at 11:32 PM

Sunset’s eyes flicked to the top of the screen. 11:32 PM.

She spent a few seconds laying there like that, just looking at the phone. After the screen went dark, she sighed and thumbed the home button, then opened the text properly to respond.

You
Yeah
Today at 11:34 PM

Fluttershy
Hi ^u^
Today at 11:34 PM

Sunset couldn’t help but emit a breath of a chuckle - both at that response and how it was almost instantaneous.

You
Hi
What’s up?
Today at 11:34 PM

Fluttershy
Cuddling a kitty
Today at 11:34 PM

Sunset barely had time to get halfway through a response before an image file was sent her way.

Sure enough, the picture was taken of Fluttershy lying on her bed in a fuzzy-looking green onesie, lit only by her lamp on her nightstand out of frame. She was visible only from the waist up where the covers had been peeled back, and only half of that half was visible past the nearly spherical gray bundle of fur of a feline variety nestled into her side under her arm, looking quite pleased with its position.

You
Cute
Today at 11:35 PM

Fluttershy
She issss
Today at 11:35 PM

You
The cat is too
Today at 11:35 PM

An ellipses cycled back and forth at the bottom of the screen, then stopped. Sunset smirked at what she could only assume was Fluttershy dropping her phone.

You
Sorry, couldn’t help myself
Today at 11:35 PM

Fluttershy
BAD
Today at 11:35 PM

That made Sunset properly chuckle.

You
You know how this goes by now, c’mon
Besides, it’s late
My filter’s shot
Today at 11:35 PM

Fluttershy

///>
I think you just like teasing me
Today at 11:36 PM

You
Definitely a factor
Today at 11:36 PM

Fluttershy
Mean
Today at 11:36 PM

You
Think of it as how I share my love
Today at 11:36 PM

Fluttershy

.<‘
Today at 11:36 PM

Her and her emojis.

Sunset wasn’t sure how to continue with this particular line of dialogue, as amusing as it was. She waited a minute or so to see if there was more, then went on.

You
This is a little late for you to be up
Today at 11:38 PM

Fluttershy
Yeah… U-U
I can’t sleep
Today at 11:38 PM

You
How come?
Today at 11:38 PM

Fluttershy
Anxious
Today at 11:38 PM

You
That sucks
Today at 11:38 PM

Fluttershy
U-U
How come you’re still up?
Today at 11:38 PM

Sunset glanced down at the floor she was lying on. She’d wrapped some of the sheet she was using beneath herself and had even shed her jacket to use as additional padding, though neither had done much to detract from how the floor was the floor. The carpet was permissible for naps during the day, but night was a different beast.

You
Mixing up my sleeping situation
It’s not great
Today at 11:39 PM

Fluttershy
What do you mean?
Today at 11:39 PM

Sunset hesitated, considering how best to word it without lying. She settled with:

You
My room’s too cold so I’m trying to sleep in another room rn
Definitely warmer in here but it’s hard to beat a bed
Today at 11:39 PM

There, that wasn’t lying. She never said the room was in the same building.

Fluttershy
What room is it?
Today at 11:39 PM

Damn it.

You
Living room
Today at 11:40 PM

Fluttershy
Ohhh, couch bed?
Today at 11:40 PM

You
Floor bed
I don’t have a couch
Today at 11:40 PM

Fluttershy
Oh
That’s unfortunate
Today at 11:40 PM

You
Yep
Today at 11:40 PM

Now stop asking about it.

Fluttershy
Why’s your room so cold?
Today at 11:40 PM

...that was answerable truthfully, so it wasn't so bad.

You
The heating in my house is shit
It’s been getting way too cold in my room to sleep
Today at 11:41 PM

Fluttershy
That sucks ><
You’re not gonna get sick, are you?
Today at 11:41 PM

Sunset swallowed lightly. The simple action made her wince - it was like swallowing a razor.

You
Ideally not
I’d love to stop having a sore throat though
Cuz fuck me
Today at 11:41 PM

Fluttershy
Well um
I know that we don’t know each other very well, and everything, but if you need somewhere to stay while you’re figuring things out, I can talk to my mom about having you stay here for a little while
We’ve had guests from our church stay over when their house flooded cuz their pipes burst, so I’m sure it’s doable
Today at 11:41 PM

Sunset pursed her lips together as she read this over.

On the one hand, that would be…so nice. It would be so nice to sleep in an actual house, with actual heating, where she was actually welcome and where she didn’t have to sneak around and worry about things like being caught, or deal with shitty living conditions. She’d have access to food as well, assuming they let her share their food…and they would, right? Surely they would. It was Fluttershy, surely she could convince her to help with that at least a little bit. Even without that, it was still a massive step up from what she had now, and that was tempting enough on its own.

The problem was that it wouldn’t last. She couldn’t stay with Fluttershy’s family forever - not without it looking weird and inviting some questions she couldn’t afford to answer. It’s not like her situation would have improved much by the time she had to leave again, either. After all, how could it? It’s not like she could ever afford her own place, what with never being eligible for a job. What was she going to do, leapfrog her way between her friends’ homes and hope none of them ever put two and two together? She didn’t have enough of those right now anyway, unless she wanted to suck up to the other Rainbooms, which currently she did not.

Was it even worth engaging with this? It would be so nice, but it would also be troublesome, and more than a little bit. It was getting hard enough to keep this act up even while she had the benefit of distance between herself and others, nevermind if she was bunking with someone. What was she going to do if she got asked something she couldn’t answer and couldn’t just lie her way out of it when the other person was right there in the same house as her? Hell, what was she going to do if that happened now?

Sunset’s head fell forward, coming to rest on her palm as she squeezed her forehead with one hand. Her jaw clenched and unclenched a few times, a strained sigh working its way out her throat. Her chest felt like a fist had clenched over it. The muscles were so tight that it was starting to ache.

What did she even say here? She had been staring at her phone this whole time, but only now did Sunset start to wrack her brain for a response.

You
Idk if that’s a good idea
Today at 11:44 PM

Fluttershy
Why not?
Today at 11:44 PM

A bitter scoff burst out of Sunset’s throat as she typed a response.

You
“Why not,“ she says. You’re joking, right?
Do your parents even know who I am?
Today at 11:44 PM

Fluttershy
Like I said, we’ve had guests over from our church before
We didn’t know them especially well either
Today at 11:44 PM

Sunset’s thumbs twitched for her phone’s keypad, though she stopped them. After a few more seconds of feeling her pulse start to quicken and her heartbeat start to register more in her chest, she gave into her feelings.

You
So question for you
Today at 11:45 PM

Fluttershy
Yes?
Today at 11:45 PM

You
How long are you going to pretend like what happened didn’t happen?
You and your friends
“Why not?” Why the hell do you think not?
I tried to fucking kill you
To this day I still don’t know why I failed to
None of the magic that happened on any of your ends had a source besides sympathetic resonance, and I don’t know about you, but last I checked, thinking about superpowers sufficiently hard doesn’t typically give you superpowers without years of training and absurd willpower
There’s no reason I understand that could have channeled that sort of power like that
Love and friendship and all that be damned, that came out of nowhere
Today at 11:45 PM

Fluttershy
I don’t know what happened any better than you do
Today at 11:46 PM

You
Then where do you get off inviting me over to stay at your house like we’re regular classmates? Why are you people acting like we can still be friends and like what Twilight asked wasn’t a bucking joke?
You should be dead
All of you should be bucking dead
I should be dead
Are we going to just ignore that?
Are we gonna just pretend like everything’s fine and like this isn’t a completely fucked situation for everyone involved?
Today at 11:46 PM

The response didn’t come immediately, or even especially quickly. Sunset stared at the screen all the while, grip on her phone tight as her heart thudded in her chest at a quickened pace.

Fluttershy
What else am I supposed to do?
Today at 11:47 PM

You
I don’t know
Today at 11:47 PM

Sunset had typed out the response before she ever thought about it. Afterwards she was left laying there, heart hammering, staring at that line of text that barely felt like she’d typed it, slowly trying to wrap her head around the words despite being the one responsible for them.

What did you do, in this situation? Can you really just go on with your days after having gone through something like this? Was there something that needed to be done first? Some kind of understanding reached? Should you be angry? Sad? Hateful? Happy? Was there anything to feel about it? Which was better? Which was worse? How did you make it make sense?

She didn’t know. It had been months since the Fall Formal, and Sunset Shimmer still didn’t know what to do with herself.

Fluttershy
I’m sorry
Today at 11:49 PM

Sunset didn’t realize she was staring at the text until the screen went dark from inactivity. She did it one better by holding down the power button until the phone turned off, then dropped it somewhere in the darkness beside her. She then turned herself over where she lay, gruffly pulled the sheet over herself, and willed the night to take her.

As she had so many mornings before this one, Sunset Shimmer woke up in pain.

Something about sleeping on the floor tended to be rather unforgiving to human anatomy, and Sunset’s anatomy in particular was feeling particularly taxed. Her throat hurt especially bad this morning, and she felt a cough coming on that it took a fair bit of work to stifle as she was still gathering her bearings. Her muscles were already sore from constant exposure to the cold, her back ached something fierce, and she was thirsty enough that it was difficult to separate her tongue from the roof of her mouth. In addition to this, she had gotten four hours of sleep at the most, so there was also the haze and general bleariness of exhaustion to have to wade through on top of aching across more or less every inch of her body, both inside and out.

Simply getting up proved to be uniquely difficult. Any amount of contortion of her spine resulted in stabs of some of the worst back pain Sunset had ever felt in her life. When she had first tried to sit up, the pain had all but physically taken the air out of her lungs - which was good, because if she could breath, she probably would have screamed.

When she had the thought that she’d somehow injured herself and might be unable to get up, the entire experience went from upsetting to terrifying. The entire time she was dealing with that, Sunset was in total darkness, surrounded on all sides by walls of books that felt increasingly claustrophobic as her panic grew. To make matters worse, she had to be careful not to knock out the walls of books around her, or else they might collapse on her - not exactly life threatening, given the number of them the walls were made up of and how the ceiling was just a tarp, but in the moment it felt like a danger all the same. In case all of that wasn’t scary enough, just to make it that extra little bit scarier, she also knew throughout the entire ordeal that there wasn’t going to be anyone outside this hiding spot to help her if she needed it.

After a lot of painful struggle, Sunset did manage to sit upright, though it wasn’t clear in her mind what played a bigger role in it: the gradual loosening of her back muscles caused by her constant writhing, or the extra strength and pain tolerance from the panic-induced adrenaline surge.

There were a lot of reasons why sleeping in the library wasn’t a sustainable option, but after the scare she’d received that morning, Sunset had no intention of ever trying it again unless her life depended on it.

She woke up at around 5 AM that morning…or so she assumed, at least. She was too busy freaking out and then recovering to keep track of time, but by the time she’d calmed down a little, the library had opened and Sunset was able to emerge from her book fort. The hardest part was standing upright; she was surprised Cheerilee didn’t hear the amount of grunting and groaning she was emitting from the strain of it. After that, most of the early morning was spent feebly trying to limber up, or else trying to find some position she could sit in that would hurt marginally less than others. If there was such a position available to her, she’d yet to find it.

You know what would have helped a lot in that situation? A nice relaxing hot shower.

You know what would have helped even more in that situation? The door to either of the locker rooms being unlocked. Y’know, like they had been every morning for the last astrological epoch right up until Sunset really, really needed access to those locker rooms.

Can't have that, though. That would fall under the umbrella of "nice things," and that's just not allowed. Especially not if your name's Sunset Shimmer.

Just as Sunset was considering how today was even going to work, her phone vibrated. Memory of the previous night made her slightly apprehensive to check it, but she did.

Rarity
Are you at school?
Today at 6:15 PM

Sunset released the small breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

You
Yeah
Why?
Today at 6:15 PM

Rarity
I’m here early
Do you mind coming to the band room? I wanted to talk to you about something
Today at 6:15 PM

So much for relief.

You
Is this about Fluttershy?
Today at 6:16 PM

Rarity
No
What happened with Fluttershy?
Today at 6:16 PM

Sunset couldn’t hold back the eye roll. Immediately tattled on herself. Smooth.

You
I snapped at her last night
Idk if she’s upset or not
I figured you knew
Today at 6:16 PM

Rarity
I haven’t spoken to Fluttershy today
What did you snap at her for?
Today at 6:16 PM

Sunset’s thumbs hovered above the touchscreen keyboard. She only considered her response for a few moments before she shook her head and sighed, then started typing.

You
Nothing. I lost my temper
It was stupid
Today at 6:17 PM

Rarity
Well, make sure you apologize to her. I’m not sure what precisely happened but I suggest being heartfelt when you decide to approach her about it
I’ve never known Fluttershy to bear a grudge, for what it’s worth
Today at 6:17 PM

No sooner did Sunset finish reading did the phone screen suddenly go black. No button she pushed did anything except for the power button, which made the screen change to a faint lightning bolt beside an empty battery. She never charged her phone that morning.

Sunset took in a slow breath through her nose, then released it as a controlled stream of air through the O of her lips. She carefully put the phone back into her pocket and muttered evenly to herself, “Just gonna go see Rarity. Just gonna go to the band room, and go see Rarity. It’s fine.”

It’s fine. This was fine. Today was absolutely, totally fine. It’d be fine.

It wasn’t an especially long walk from the library’s seating area to the band room, though it felt like it took a lot longer to travel the distance with her stiff, hobbling gait. Every other step was accompanied by some grimace or small noise of discomfort, and her one shoulder was so stiff that she had to carry her backpack expressly on the other one. At least there were barely any students in the halls this early. Band class wasn’t until third period at the earliest, so combine that with the time of day and there were very few people to dodge the gaze of…which was good, because Sunset wouldn’t be dodging much of anything in this state.

At least the cough was under control. For now.

Normally the classroom itself was locked at this hour, and upon testing the handle, Sunset confirmed this. The handle to the students’ instrument storage room, however, was much more cooperative.

There was little to see in the storage room. What was there was on the tin: rows and rows of cubbies on shelves of various different sizes to fit every instrument the school could imagine students keeping here, each with a metal bar door and padlock to keep instruments secure.

It also had Rarity in it, which was a weird addition but a very welcome one. Said girl perked at the sound of the door opening and, upon seeing Sunset, flashed a warm smile her way. “Hi darling~”

Sunset returned the smile, though she refrained from speaking until the door closed behind her. Whatever she was about to say was lost as she found herself distracted by the small wooden wedge that Rarity pulled out of her purse, looking like it had been abducted out of a child’s block set. Before she could ask, Rarity crossed the room and dropped the block on the floor in front of the doorway, then guided it narrow-end first with her foot to the gap beneath the door, where she gave it a light kick to secure it in place. A few testing nudges confirmed it wasn’t going anywhere by accident.

Rarity scrutinized her work for only a moment longer before she gave it a satisfied nod, then directed her attention towards Sunset. She noted the confused expression and answered it with a questioning if amused look. “What? Do you like being walked in on?”

Sunset’s lips mouthed some unspoken question, but after a few moments she decided that she was far too strung-out and low on sleep to commit brainpower to this. “S- sure.”

Rarity giggled that musical little giggle of hers before opening her arms invitingly. “Now come here, sweetheart.”

That was much more up Sunset’s ability to comprehend, and she wasted no time closing the distance to put her arms around Rarity. Rarity, in turn, slipped her arms around Sunset’s midsection, letting her head fall forward to settle in the crook of Sunset’s neck.

“There we go,” Sunset murmured, head coming to rest against Rarity’s. She took in a deep breath, then released it as a sigh, trading some of the tension of this rocky morning for the happy little spell that Rarity’s embrace always carried with it. “I needed this.”

Rarity let out a soft contented note as she closed her eyes. “It’s nice, isn’t it?”

Sunset nodded a little, cheek rubbing against the top of Rarity’s head as she did so. Her violet hair was always as soft as it was vibrant. She didn’t have many words, so she conserved her focus and let herself be lost in the moment.

Things always seemed so much simpler when it was just her and Rarity. She could stop thinking about everything else going on and just…enjoy her. Just enjoy the touches, and the feeling of Rarity’s breath where it occasionally wafted over the skin of her neck, and the warmth that spread between them the longer they held one another, both physically and spiritually. Moments like these were some of the only things Sunset had left where she could feel truly at peace.

For a while, that’s all they did. Time passed, but how much wasn’t important, nor was it considered. Sunset did maneuver them back a little so that they could lean against the wall and take some of the work off her aching back to hold them up, but that was the extent of it. Everything else was just gentle touches, feeling each other breathe, and soaking in the intimate silence.

At some point during the embrace - Sunset wasn’t sure how or when it happened - Rarity’s hand ended up on the left shoulder, just beneath her jacket. The only reason Sunset noticed this happening was because she suddenly felt the cool end of Rarity’s finger touching bare skin where the shirt should be. She looked down at the unexpected feeling and saw Rarity looking disapprovingly at the same thing Sunset was: a hole in the weathered burgundy fabric, just large enough to fit the width of the finger currently probing it.

Sunset grunted quietly. “Old shirt.”

“Retirement age, methinks.” Rarity retracted her finger as she inspected the shirt with a quiet disdain. She opened Sunset’s jacket a little to see more of it, looking it over with an appraising kind of critical eye a mother might give a girl that her son had brought home. “We really need to get you some better clothes.”

Sunset just shrugged. Her arms had slipped from where they had been around her to hanging loosely around her waist. “It does the job.”

“But it looks ratty!” Rarity whined. “You can’t just go around wearing tattered old rags because it ‘does the job.’ You need nice clothes! Something nice and pretty and well-made.”

“So…like you.”

This earned a swat to Sunset’s shoulder through her jacket. “Don’t distract me with flattery,” Rarity chided, though it was undermined by her smile she couldn’t manage to force down. ”And get that smirk off your face till I’m done scolding you.”

“Sorry,” Sunset chuckled, failing to both stop grinning and sound even slightly remorseful. “It’s so hard not to smile around you, though. I can’t help myself.”

”Quiddit.” Rarity’s gaze fell from Sunset’s face to her torso as she shifted in place, that same smile on her face. “You’re going to make me blush.”

“Wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

“Insufferable.” Rarity leaned forward till she had her full weight gently leaning into Sunset again, her head coming to rest on Sunset’s shoulder. “It’s a wonder why I put up with you most days.”

Without hesitating, Sunset nonchalantly replied, “Cuz I’m hot.”

A snort of a laugh burst out of Rarity’s throat at this. “Well it certainly doesn’t hurt, I’ll give you that.”

Sunset chuckled along, head leaning against Rarity’s like before. As she fell silent again, she took in a breath and let it out as another soft sigh, breathing out another layer of her woes along with it.

They’d come a long way from how this all started. For the longest time they would almost hide their affection from each other, like acknowledging it would make it stop. This was…nice. To say the least.

“…I did want to talk to you about something, though.”

It took Rarity saying that for Sunset to remember that she had indeed been summoned here for a purpose, and said purpose was not to cuddle in the room they’d locked themselves in. She was a bit reluctant to let go of the atmosphere they’d created, but Sunset nonetheless lifted her head off Rarity’s to look at her a little more properly. “What’s up?”

Rarity quit leaning on Sunset, pulling away ever so slightly, though not enough so that Sunset’s arms slipped free of her waist where they’d been resting. She started to look a little shy as she played with a lock of hair, her cerulean eyes momentarily having trouble looking squarely at Sunset. “So,” she began, slowly, “I’ve been doing some thinking lately…”

Sunset nodded along. She wasn’t entirely conscious of the assuring circle her one hand traced along Rarity’s back. “What about?”

“Us.”

Sunset continued nodding along. “Us like, you and me, or us like…” The loose hold around Rarity’s waist tightened just a hair, for the sake of emphasis. “Us?”

Rarity started replying, though the words never quite reached her lips and she let the breath back out in a sheepish chuckle. The purple lock continued to twirl around her finger, over and over, slowly. “Us. Like…you know.”

“What we’ve got going on.”

Rarity nodded. Her eyes left her hair to peer up past her bangs at Sunset. The moment her eyes met Sunset’s, she recoiled from the gaze skittishly and avoided it despite the smile. “...I guess it is fair to say that we have something going on, isn’t it?”

“Well…” Sunset meant to roll her shoulders in an easygoing shrug, though she only managed to bring them up a bit before they hurt too much to move. The tone would have to communicate the rest. “I don’t think it’s gotta be something, but it does feel like…more. More than it was. Y’know?”

Softly, Rarity murmured, “It’s nice.”

“It is.” Sunset’s arms wrapped around Rarity’s middle a little more securely. “I really like it.”

“Me too.”

“I think about you a lot.” A beat. “Us, too.”

Rarity nodded. She’d stepped a little closer to Sunset, not quite committing to the embrace but tiptoeing closer to it all the same. “You’re never far from my thoughts. It’s just…”

Sunset cocked her head a little, though she didn’t speak the question aloud.

It’d take Rarity a few moments to elaborate, using the pause to compose her words to her liking enough to say them. “It’s weird for me. I’m not…really…sure what to make of the…” She mouthed a couple things indecisively, tripping despite her preparation. “It- the- I’ve never had a-”

“Girlfriend.”

“Yes.” Rarity nodded, then a little less confidently, “Yes. It’s…I don’t know.” The playing with her hair became a little more anxiety-charged than before. “I’m worried it’s…” She gesticulated vaguely with her other hand, communicating little beyond her nervous energy as she tried to explain herself. “I-I don’t know. It’s not…normal, for me, I don’t quite…I don’t fully understand it.”

Sunset nodded along as Rarity spoke, letting her do so at her own pace. She occasionally rubbed Rarity’s back in what she hoped was an assuring gesture. Admittedly, she didn’t really have the full context for why this was so disruptive for Rarity (surely she just was also into girls?), but Sunset both had the benefit of an outside perspective and was a fair bit more confident in her own sexuality. This wasn’t exactly a novel topic for her. “It doesn’t look that weird to me, to be honest. I’m thinking back to that conversation we had a while ago about this, and it doesn’t sound like this is new. To me, anyway.”

“I don’t know.”

The meekness in Rarity’s voice made Sunset hesitate. At the same time, though, it made her want to step up a bit and try to make it better somehow. She strongly disliked a scared Rarity. “...well, look, I’ll be up front about it: I’m biased. I like you a lot. Maybe more than a lot.” Her hug around Rarity’s waist tightened for a few moments. “You’re really important to me. I would like more of you...” She took in a breath, trying to ease out what came next. “...but I also want you to be comfortable. So…if this is like, a source of stress for you, and like, you need to step back and take some time to…y’know, process everythi-”

Rarity leaned forward against Sunset suddenly, tone swelling to something close to defiant: “I don’t want this to stop.”

Sunset couldn’t help the smile, pausing to give the girl a proper hug that concluded with a pat on the back. “I don’t either. But if you need some time...”

“I don’t want this to stop,” Rarity repeated. Her tone shrank a little after. “...but perhaps we keep it at a um…manageable pace. Is that okay?”

“Course it is. We’re going slow right now, aren’t we?”

“Well- yes.” Rarity hesitated, then a little bit more surely, “Yes, we are.”

Sunset traced another soft circle on Rarity’s back. “And this is fine, right?”

“It is…” Rarity contemplated this for a few moments. Her face shifted into a frown as she grumbled, “Not that anything’s making a grand deal more sense…”

Sunset could only shrug. She tried to suppress the grimace from the motion. “If you wanna like…y’know, do a little exploration, that might be informative, but I’m cool with whatever you need. I’m not in a big rush to third base here.”

It was barely audible when Rarity mumbled it, but it was audible all the same: “Yeah well, I kind of am and I’m annoyed.”

Sunset gave a sputtering laugh in surprise.

“I’m annoyed,” Rarity grouched. “I’m annoyed with all this. I know what I want, damn it, why’s it got to be so-” She gave a series of aggravated if vague gestures, then let out a wordless growl of vexation as she fell forward into Sunset with her arms crossed over her chest.

It was very amusing to see a pouty Rarity, but Sunset swallowed it back to make her point a bit more firmly. “Don’t rush it. Seriously, alright? Just go at your own pace.”

Rarity huffed in frustration. “I really wish I was more at peace with this.”

“It’d be nice,” Sunset admitted. “But you’re not, so don’t rush it. I’ve got enough regrets already, and the last thing I want is to be one of yours on top of everything else.”

This was met with silence.

It took a couple of seconds for Sunset to realize what she’d said. When she did, she cleared her throat. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright, darling.”

If either girl had more to say about that, they failed to express it, allowing the silence to take over where it had been waiting for its cue. It wasn’t precisely peaceful, at first, though it wasn’t difficult for Sunset to focus more on where Rarity was leaning into her. Touch with Rarity was always nice to think about. Better than most things, really…

…though saying that, it was a little difficult to focus on that, either. Sunset grunted quietly as she shifted where she stood, and then said in a hushed voice, “Can we sit? My back’s killing me.”

“Oh-” Rarity took her weight off of Sunset with a start. “Of course! Sorry, I- I didn’t mean to pin you.”

“No no, it’s cool.” Sunset chuckled as she stiffly began the process of lowering herself to the floor, with Rarity following her down the whole way. “I have been thoroughly enjoying you pinning me to the wall like this.”

Rarity scoffed and rolled her eyes with an amused smile. “Oh, please. You make it sound so violent.”

“It’d be hot if it was.”

Whap, went Rarity’s hand against Sunset’s shoulder. “You quit that.”

“What?” Sunset tried as hard as she could to sound innocent. “I’m just saying-”

“Well quit saying.” Despite her demanding tone, Rarity was already settling in under Sunset’s arm, nestling cozily into her side. “You’re killing the mood.”

“Well look, you pinned me against the wall for a reason, and it wasn’t cuz I’m smooth.”

Rarity let her head fall to the side until it came to rest against Sunset’s shoulder. “You’re something alright.”

The grin on Sunset’s face shone at full force for a few moments, then softened as she laid her head against Rarity’s. She took in a breath as her eyes slipped closed, then released it as a gentle sigh.

There weren't any words after that. As was so often the case between the two of them, words weren’t necessary to say what they meant to tell each other.