Tonight was going to get a little bit odd. Regardless, Sunset found herself looking forward to it, and she prepared to meet it as she did most nights, if with an extra helping of anxiety to try to sort through.

She got home when it was dark out, though that was becoming harder to avoid doing as autumn took its final steps towards winter. After setting all her things in place and verifying that her phone was indeed well-charged, Sunset settled down in her bedroom, as unpleasant as it was, and laid down on the snag-ridden maroon comforter of her old bed with a gentle plop onto her back. It was 8:47 PM, so by her estimate she had made good time making it here.

All considered, there wasn’t much else she could do now except wait for the minutes to pass by. That was when the weird stuff was going to happen.

After thinking and failing to visualize precisely how the plan she’d agreed to would go down, Sunset let her hands work on muscle memory, which habitually brought her to her texts to see what was new - naturally her first destination was Rarity. Currently nothing was out of the ordinary from the last text she’d sent about an hour ago.

This was fixed in short order.

You
Home now
Today at 8:48 PM

Rarity
Hi darling ❤
Today at 8:48 PM

Sunset couldn’t help the smile that put itself on her lips.

You
Ready for tonight?
Today at 8:48 PM

Rarity
Somewhat
Having mixed feelings about it tbh
Today at 8:48 PM

Sunset cocked her head to one side quizzically as she typed her response.

You
How so?
Today at 8:48 PM

Rarity
On the one hand I’ve been hoping for something like this to happen for months now and I’m very glad we’re here
On the other hand,
Today at 8:49 PM

The typing stopped after that line. Sunset assumed the comma meant something, so she waited, though it took longer than she expected.

You
On the other hand?
Today at 8:50 PM

Still no reply. Another period of silence, though after about two thirds of a minute it finally made its way down the pipe.

Rarity
in a mood
1 attachment
Today at 8:51 PM

The preview said a lot. Sunset wasted no time in seeing the image in full.

The image was a picture of Rarity from the perspective of the phone in her hand when she’d taken the selfie, angled down so as to see all the way down her body. She was sprawled out on her bed, currently wearing nothing but a blue bathrobe, though “wearing” was perhaps a strong word in this case, considering how much skin was on display. The bathrobe was untied and most of the way open, providing a clear yet teasingly incomplete view of herself beneath it. The edges of the front flaps were mostly pulled aside, precisely blocking the sight of anything explicit on her chest while leaving nothing to the imagination. One leg was bent and moved over where she lay to likewise just barely block line of sight below the waist, but only barely.

Sunset swallowed as her heart sparked into overtime, not entirely able to stop herself from drinking in the sight for a while - as one does when being hit with that. She chuckled to herself as she responded to this, hands ever so slightly unsteady compared to before:

You
Firstly: holy shit Rarity
Today at 8:51 PM

Rarity
Felt pretty
Today at 8:51 PM

You
You are so hot
My heart is hammerinh rn
Today at 8:51 PM

Rarity
❤ ❤ ❤
Today at 8:51 PM

Sunset chuckled to herself again, taking another minute to admire the view as one hand made its way over her mouth at the sight. She folded one leg over the other where she laid and squeezed her thighs together.

Wow.

You
Secondly
You realize we’re about to have company right?
Today at 8:52 PM

Rarity
Yes
Yes I do realize
Keenly aware in fact
It’s a little frustrating
Today at 8:52 PM

You
You are really feeling huh?
*feeling it
Today at 8:52 PM

Rarity
A pinch
Part of me wishes it was just you and me tonight
Today at 8:52 PM

You
Any part of you in particular?
Today at 8:52 PM

Rarity
I think you know exactly which part
And where it is on me
Today at 8:52 PM

Yeah. Yeah she did.

Holy shit.

You
Well this is kinda shit timing hug
*huh
Today at 8:53 PM

Rarity
Extremely
Why the hell does it hit me now?
Today at 8:53 PM

You
Look
I’m not saying I would drop everything to meet somewjeee to uh
Pitch in
But I’m not not saying it
Today at 8:53 PM

Rarity
It’s got to be the stress right?
Today at 8:53 PM

You
I mean probably
This seems to happeb a lot when you’re anxious and tired
Today at 8:53 PM

Rarity
I am anxious yes
And maybe tired
Today at 8:53 PM

You
Just relax
It’ll br fine
We’re all friends here
but also like can we meet dontwgeew tonight? fr
*somrwhere
Today at 8:54 PM

The response was not immediate, though it did come after brief hesitation.

Rarity
Let’s just see how this goes first ok?
Idk how good it’ll sound then
I’ll think about it
Today at 8:54 PM

You
Flattered you’d even di thay
*di thff
**di thgt
Today at 8:54 PM

”Bucking-”

You
D O. T H A T
Today at 8:54 PM

Rarity
I’ve really gone and flustered you haven’t I?
Today at 8:54 PM

You
My hands are literally shakjng and ifs so annoying
lmao
Today at 8:54 PM

Rarity
😂 ❤
Take some breaths, sweetheart
Log in and we can sit in voice for a little bit
Today at 8:55 PM

Sunset allowed the phone to slip from her hand and drop onto the mattress next to her. The hand not already on her face made its way there, the one on her mouth went up to mirror the other across most of her face, and she let out a long, loud breath as a single drawn-out “hoo” while she began to laugh intermittent giddy laughter while her legs kicked in a barely-controlled manner. Her room was cold, yet she felt significantly warmer than she did when that conversation had started.

See, she knew tonight was going to be a little weird. She hadn’t expected that to happen. That was completely unrelated to any weirdness on the forecast tonight.

Sun and stars in the bucking sky, I am on call for a booty call. With the prettiest girl in school. Holy shit is this real?

Sunset took some time to allow this to work its way through her system a bit, venting some of the near-manic excitement so she could get her chill back on. She found limited success with it, but she could hold her phone steady and was at least confident she wouldn’t be squealing with girly delight if she went on voice now, which was probably the best she was going to get without keeping Rarity waiting. It would have to do.

Now for the odd part: Discord.

Fortunately it was not the emblem of the god of chaos that Sunset tapped on her phone’s home screen, but the app she’d been shown the day before and had her hand held throughout because she’d never signed up for something like this. Logging on was easy enough: just put in your email and password (which she had to tab out to find the note on her phone for), wrestle with the authentication three times because you managed to get it wrong despite knowing for certain you’d inputted it correctly, worry you’d somehow screwed this up despite being so sure before, then be let in the fourth time without knowing why or what you did differently. And of course, remember why you hated these stupid human things in the first place.

…no? Just her? Might be just her. She wouldn’t be surprised if it was just her.

Buck my life.

Regardless, she was in. This was some app that existed for playing video games, supposedly (or that’s how it was explained to her), but it also had some functionality in it that was rather convenient for speaking to multiple people at the same time. It even had video and streaming capabilities.

Sunset wasn’t sure what the difference was between this and a phone, frankly. She also wasn’t sure why this had been suggested as opposed to regular old video calls, but she trusted that there was wisdom in it somewhere. Perhaps it was a data thing. Or it was just more convenient. Y’know, for people who could do this easily. Not her, that was to say. Whatever.

There was only a single server that Sunset had access to: a server with a default icon that only she and two other members were a part of, which were Rarity and Fluttershy. An animated picture of a kitten rolled onto its back in the chat - the only message posted, put there for demonstration purposes when this whole thing had been explained to her.

Rarity’s icon of a diamond was in the voice chat, so Sunset called upon the only know-how she really felt sure of for this thing and tapped to join. A single note played from the phone speaker, and Rarity’s voice blessed her ears in greeting soon after. ”There you are! I was starting to get worried.”

“Eyup, sorry.” Sunset chuckled apologetically. “This thing still hates me.”

“Well you made it, and that’s all that matters.”

“Barely. You almost bucking killed me back there.”

“Did I?” Rarity’s voice was far too innocent-sounding to be even remotely genuine, even if there wasn’t photographic evidence saved on Sunset’s phone proving it. “Oh well! Silly me, these things happen.”

“Yeah, happens all the time if you’re built like a goddess like you are.”

Rarity’s calm demeanor exploded as a fit of giggles burst out of her - those musical, high-pitched giggles that were far and above Sunset’s favorite.

“It is not fair.” Sunset laughed along, whatever else she was going to say falling to the wayside in favor of listening to the sound of Rarity’s voice. Such pretty laughter... ”So not fair.”

Rarity giggled gleefully for a while longer before the stream of them dried up to the sound of an airy little happy noise. “Let me see your face, darling,” she sighed, voice warm and inviting. “I want to see you.”

Sunset’s fingers twitched to immediately comply, though as her eyes focused on the screen, the unfamiliarity of the sight made her hesitate. “Uh, I’m- ok how do you do this again?”

Rarity then had to walk Sunset through the process for the second or third time. It was simple, however, and before long Sunset had the privilege of beholding Rarity again whilst being beheld in turn.

“There you are!” Rarity still had that bathrobe on, though it was indeed actually being worn instead of only technically. She was laying on her bed on her belly, the fine purple sheets and lavishly regal-looking pillows giving her a pretty strong “royalty on her day off” look in that bathrobe. She perched her chin atop both of her hands as she beamed fondly at Sunset like she hadn’t seen her in weeks. “Hi, my darling~”

“Hey.” Sunset had rolled onto her stomach as well, chin in hand as she smiled back just as fondly. ”Your darling, huh?”

“Mhm.” Rarity’s voice was so soft it was almost plush against Sunset’s ears. “Do you mind?”

“What, being yours?”

Rarity nodded.

Sunset rested her chin atop her arms as she peered into the phone screen with a smile. “I’d have to be crazy to mind that. You’re my favorite.”

Rarity giggled, though it came out more like a purr. Her legs gently kicked behind her where she lay. “What a coincidence, you’re my favorite as well.”

“I’m glad.”

“Me too.”

Silence fell between them, rosy and embracing, as it so often did. Sunset hadn’t been keeping good track of time, but as she and Rarity shared another of those tender silences together, she lost track of it completely. The affection flowing between their eyes at one another was so thick you could all but reach out and touch it. Sunset wanted to swaddle herself in it - with such blankets to call hers, she'd never want for warmth again.

Sunset could lay here like this for hours. She knew this because she'd done it before. However, that was not going to be quite as simple nor private an affair tonight, because with a chime of the app, their third member joined the call, immediately signaling her arrival further by blurting, "Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry, I got distracted talking to my mom."

"Quite alright, darling," Rarity sighed, doing her best to pass off her slight start with a detailed examination of her nails. "We've simply been getting a head start on the socializing in the meantime, Sunset and I. Right, darling?"

'Socializing' was a curious word for the latest addition to Sunset's photo collection, in her opinion, though the topic itself and the way Rarity looked at her were more than sufficient incentives to keep such remarks to herself. "Yeah, we're just chilling." Sunset rolled a little onto her side to take some of the pressure off her neck, propping her cheek up on one hand. "Sorry if uh, if I'm quiet here, by the way. Two people on the other end of the line already feels weird.”

“It’s okay, Sunset.” There was a clatter of something against what sounded like a desk on Fluttershy’s end of the call, who had yet to appear in video. “Um, it’s a little weird for me too. I’m used to being able to let everyone else talk, so um, I might be quiet also…”

Sunset shrugged with her one shoulder. “Worse comes to worse, we can all just stare at each other awkwardly for the next three hours.”

Rarity tisked as she loftily turned her hand over, oh-so-occupied with those nails of hers. “Well if between the three of us we’re reduced to that, I dare say we deserve it. We’ll figure something out, surely.”

“Look, I got this. If it gets way too quiet and weird, I can just burp really loudly.”

“Kindly do not,” Rarity droned, casting Sunset and her smirk a judging look. “I get more than enough of that from Rainbow Dash already. Let’s maybe not aspire to live by her example.”

Sunset opened one arm in an ‘option’s open’ way while Fluttershy giggled. “It’ll definitely spark conversation, ‘sall I’m saying.”

A disdainful scoff. “Oh, it’ll spark something alright…”

“Like a fire in your heart?”

“More like a fire under your pillow when I set your bed ablaze in your sleep, miss Shimmer.”

Sunset broke out into laughter, momentarily creating a harmony with Fluttershy’s. “Well that will be something to talk about, so I guess that’s just the price of business around these parts.”

“Your hair already looks kind of like fire,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Yeah, perfect, see? I can even go into school the next day. No one will notice a thing.”

”Your hair is, um, really pretty by the way…”

Sunset, already primed to retort with something clever-sounding, was momentarily disarmed by this compliment. “Thank you,” she said graciously, with a surprised little chuckle and small flip of the scarlet and gold-streaked locks where they came forward past her shoulder at this angle. “I mean it’s not like- I haven’t like, done anything with it lately, so I’m not exactly at peak performance over here…”

“It is nice hair.” Rarity’s agreement sounded more like a concession. “Regretfully it would be a waste to burn it, no matter how insufferable you can become…”

“High praise, coming from you.”

Rarity tilted her head at Sunset with a half-lidded gaze, an eyebrow quirking. “The hair, or that you’re insufferable?”

“Oh, you know,” Sunset shrugged with a coy smile, “Little of column A, little of column B…”

“Mhm,” Rarity monotoned as Fluttershy giggled again. She returned her lofty gaze to her nails, though she had a lazy smile on her lips as she did. “At least you’re honest about it.”

“I’m a lot of things.”

”This I can’t contest. You are, truthfully, multiple things.”

“Honestly and truly. I am a number of things equal to two or more.”

“One of which is insufferable.”

Sunset started replying, though sudden laughter midway through stole the air reserved for the words and left her with only a wheeze, forcing her to make a second attempt. “That too.”

Fluttershy let out another stream of giggles from her as-of-yet faceless corner of the call. “You two are funny.”

“Call it a coping mechanism,” Rarity quipped, finally seeing fit to stop ceaselessly examining her (probably flawless) nails, though the regal loftiness had yet to be abandoned. “I’ve needed something to get me through the day, look at this g- Look at her!” She stabbed a finger at her screen, intending Sunset who was smirking more and more. “Look at that face! She knows what she did. She knows what she puts me through.”

”No idea what you’re talking about,” Sunset cheekily replied.

”Oh I’m sure. I’m sure you have no clue.” Rarity huffily reached off-screen where she lay as Fluttershy continued giggling, retrieving a glass of water from a nightstand out of sight of her phone, or laptop. She took a sip from the glass with a disdainful shake of her head. “Unbelievable woman…”

Sunset leaned back a bit where she lay, a wide grin plastered on her face from the play. “I’ve been called worse things.”

“I’m sure, darling, I’m sure.” The glass was put back down out of frame. “Very sure of that.”

Conversation lulled, though it wasn’t an unwelcome silence - not to Sunset’s ears, anyway. She let out a quiet sigh, releasing a little bit more of the tension that she’d been feeling going into this. It had thus far proven unfounded - mostly due to Rarity, she reasoned. Being able to bounce off of her and play and joke helped a lot.

I’d be so much worse off without her.

The one to break the quiet was a meek-sounding Fluttershy. “Um, confession? Sunset?”

Sunset came a bit more into focus. “Yeah?”

“Um, I’ve um…” It sounded like Fluttershy was physically retreating from the microphone, the way her voice shrank. ”I’ve meant to say you have pretty hair for, um, a long time, but I never, um, had…um…you know…”

“Never had the chance?”

The nod in the pause was audible. ”Yes.”

“Ah, well,” Sunset chuckled, though a somber note had entered her voice. “Better late than never, huh?”

Rarity spoke up, her faux-affronted tone vacant from her voice in favor of something far more earnest. “I, for one, am very grateful for the chance to be able to talk to you like I have the last few months, Sunset. I don’t think it exaggeration to say it’s been an improvement to my life to have you in it.”

Sunset was, very briefly, totally disarmed by this and was left feebly trying to find words. “Geez,” she finally managed, lamely, and could not stop the laugh that followed. “Geez, alright.” The hand not holding her phone rubbed her face as she smiled and chuckled bashfully. “Really coming at me swinging here. Um…”

“She’s been very kind to me,” Fluttershy pitched in, voice hushed yet still somehow louder than her at her ‘peeking out of my shell’ voice. “It’s nice…”

Whilst Sunset was in ruins from these heartfelt praises and struggling to do much more than gasp like a fish out of water in their wake, Rarity chose then to ask, “What is the full story there, if I may ask? I’ve heard the abridged version, but…”

Fluttershy, to her credit, gave Sunset a moment to speak, but Sunset had taken a step back from the conversation to get her head back on straight, so she went on. “…there’s, um, not a lot more to say about it, um, actually…I was kind of sad, and Sunset sat with me and talked with me so I wasn’t lonely anymore. And um…we’ve been sitting together in the mornings since then. Listening to music and stuff…um, we ate breakfast together on, um, Thursday…”

“I hope she’s been well-behaved, at least.”

“Oh, very!” Fluttershy’s voice filled out swiftly as she audibly brightened. “I was a little scared to talk to her at first, but she’s been nothing but nice to me. It’s very nice.”

Sunset found some of the relaxation reversing itself as she listened. It was just Rarity, but Sunset nonetheless found herself a bit tense as everything was spilled. “I uh…I didn’t realize we were gonna be so candid about that.”

The blank look on Fluttershy could be heard in the silence. Rarity gave Sunset an odd look, though it became slightly troubled after a moment. “Did you not want me to know?”

“Well no, it’s not like that,” Sunset said quickly, raising one hand as though to bring that train of thought to a halt. “I just- I-I dunno, I- I’m not used to like- I’m not used to this like, open book stuff, you know? It’s…it’s weird for me, I don’t normally uh…it’s weird, being so like, open, and-“

”Sorry…”

”Nonono, it’s fine! It’s fine,” Sunset laughed nervously. “It’s fine, honest, it’s just uh…I’m not used to it? I’m not like, trying to like, keep secrets here, I don’t mind you like, knowing, I’m just not…used to…sharing, I…I guess.” She scratched the back of her neck as she found something in her room besides her phone to look at. “I feel so like, maladjusted saying it.”

Rarity visibly mulled this over for a few moments. She then reached out of frame and retrieved her glass of water again, sipping from it before informing her, “There’s nothing wrong with wanting some privacy, darling…it’s perhaps a bit selfish of me, but I do find myself wanting to know more about you where I can. I am, of course,” the glass was placed aside again, “fully aware it’s not my place to know everything, but if you did feel comfortable opening up, it’s…I always appreciate it, darling. I love it when you share with me.”

“Okay.” Sunset’s voice felt small in her throat. She swallowed. “I’ll- I’m…yeah.”

Rarity nodded in response. The moment she let the topic go could be observed when she rolled onto her side more, adopting a position not unlike Sunset’s. In saying that, however, Sunset was not wearing a rather short bath robe, something Rarity became visibly conscious of as she shifted position and kept her legs together while she moved. Midway through the movement, she quipped, “Meanwhile, I’ll endeavor to not flash everyone in the call right now.”

Sunset couldn’t help the snorting sputter that forced its way out of her throat. She tried to sound as disappointed as she could as she moaned, “Aww.”

“Oh don’t you ’aww’ me!” Rarity huffed snootily as she tightened the sash around her waist. ”Exceptionally unladylike behavior, miss Shimmer. Poor form.”

“Look,” Sunset chuckled, already feeling the tension from before starting to leave her, “I’m a lot of things, but a lady isn’t one of them, alright?”

”Evidently!” Rarity crossed her arms over her chest and set herself in what was a very convincing-looking affronted state of huffiness. Quite believable, if you didn’t know her. “Honestly.”

Meanwhile Sunset just grinned widely. She didn’t speak immediately following this, and it was in the space between conversation beats that Fluttershy peeped up, sounding a little vulnerable: ”I didn’t do something bad, did I? Talking about..?”

The swift “No” that came from both Sunset and Rarity was simultaneous, though it was Sunset who rushed to further assure. “No it’s cool, it’s cool, it- honest, it’s fine. It’s weird, and- and like, ok maybe like if it was just anyone I’d- but like, it’s Rarity, right? It’s- yeah it- it’s fine. There’s,” she laughed nervously once, “there’s a lot worse things than my best friend learning I’m hanging out with one of her friends in the morning, you know?”

Rarity smiled a little.

”Okay.” Fluttershy still sounded like she was half-hidden behind something on her end of the line, but a lot less like she was considering hiding away completely if it got worse. ”I’ll, um…I can keep it between, um, the three of us, if um, if you’d like that more…”

“That- yeah I’m cool with that.” Sunset considered that a little more seriously for a second or two before she went on. She didn’t know Fluttershy nearly as well as she did Rarity, but Fluttershy was also just…the nicest person, from what she’d seen? And everyone seemed to agree on this, so… “Yeah, that- yeah. That’s fine. I trust you two. Just um…just be cool.”

”Okay.” Fluttershy’s voice grew in tandem with the little smile in her voice. “I can do that.”

Sunset smiled back at the smile she could feel coming from Fluttershy, though when she went to speak it didn’t happen immediately. She tried again, and it came out as a full exhale of a chuckle, letting her head hang for a second or so. “…alright, so like, being completely honest? I was really nervous about this call and I’m glad both of you are cool.”

Fluttershy cooed a small touched-sounding noise. Rarity, meanwhile, got a pleased - almost smugly so - smile and informed her a little too warmly to be coy, “I told you it’d be okay.”

“Yeah,” Sunset laughed once, then sighed pleasantly. “Yeah, you did.”

The conversation went on for another hour. A lot of it was just Rarity and Sunset doing their thing while Fluttershy occasionally chimed in, giggling all the while at their antics. By the time 10 PM rolled around, Rarity was showing a great deal of fatigue, and between that and Fluttershy needing to rest from all the socializing, the three called it there and hung up for the night.

Sunset would remain in texts with Rarity for a few hours more. They traded four or five photos of themselves with the other from the comfort of bed, which Sunset would have to take as consolation for not getting the opportunity that had been under consideration prior to the exhaustion setting in. It would be a lie to say there wasn’t a little disappointment there, but the undivided attention of Rarity was never a bad thing. Nor were the sights.

For once, it was Rarity’s phone dying that would mark the conclusion of their evening together. Sunset found this disproportionately amusing.

Author's Note

Happy Halloween, everyone!