Twilight Sparkle was no stranger to reading.
As a point of fact, it was one of her oldest habits. Her mother, an editor for children’s and young adult literature at Hoovesbury Publishing, had always had a supply of new material that Twilight would eagerly devour, and she’d taught herself to read far above her age range by the time she started formal schooling. Soon enough, that had progressed into the world of higher-level science textbooks and technical manuals as her interests began to bloom, and, in her years at elementary school, her habits of carrying around multiple encyclopedia volumes in her backpack had nearly earned her a spinal condition. Her interest in narrative literature still remained, of course, and she’d always found it easiest to relate to her classmates when talking about the latest exploits of Daring Do. Thus, the habit had persisted into her high school years and beyond.
So it wasn’t exactly unusual for Twilight Sparkle to be sitting up on her bed with a book.
The fact that she was doing so without her glasses, a basic requirement to be able to see anything on the page, made it a bit stranger.
Notably, she also wasn’t the one holding the book.
As she sat, slightly slouched, against the pillows, with her head just above the backboard, her legs were spread out to accommodate another person resting between them. Naturally, that person was her girlfriend, Sunset Shimmer, whose bottom half was resting fully on the bed while the top was settled on Twilight’s midsection, head nestled comfortably in her soft chest.
It was Sunset who held the book, not a Daring Do but another young adult story. A bit frivolous for either of them at this stage in their lives, as Sunset was a very capable reader herself, but it was comfort food that they were happy to continue enjoying. Sunset’s arms were spread wide, elbows resting on the two legs that were hemming her in on each side, so that she could keep the text at eye level; meanwhile, Twilight’s arms had slipped up from underneath and wrapped themselves around her partner’s stomach, holding her close.
And Sunset was reading aloud.
“Cold Fire could take no more, and so she drew her blade and held it to his neck. ‘I do not have time for these insipid games of yours, do you hear?’ she barked, taking satisfaction in watching him squirm. ‘I am here on behalf of the Solar Empress herself, and I will bring the force of the Empire’s legions upon all Klugetown if you fail to deliver what I’ve been promised. The Lunar Rebellion will not be allowed to persist because you made a clerical error!’”
Twilight could feel the little vibrations against her as Sunset dramatically emphasized the dark imperial enforcer’s dialogue. Sunset was an amazing narrator, putting effort into making every character feel a little bit different in her inflections and maintaining a sense of energy throughout, rarely ever stumbling or retracing her words. It was as though she’d read it dozens of times before, not, as was actually the case, for the first time.
Twilight hadn’t intended to leave her glasses out of reach; originally, the plan had been a short nap, and so she’d placed them safely in her nightstand drawer. However, as it turned out, neither of them were all that tired, but nor did they particularly want to get up and break their cuddle, either. The book had been lying on the bed from Sunset’s reading session earlier in the morning, and so that had become the new afternoon activity. And Sunset was all too happy to verbally make up for Twilight’s current inability to read over her shoulder.
For her part, Twilight hadn’t actually read any of the book herself yet, intending to simply zip through it once Sunset had finished. But she didn’t mind the spoilers from this chapter, near the halfway mark, if it meant getting to hear them in Sunset’s lovely voice.
“‘It-it-it’s not that simple, My Lady!’ the Abyssinian cried out, whimpering at the feeling of steel against his fur. ‘The talisman was sold just this morning to a group of adventurers–but they may still be in town!’
“‘That would be them,’ Cold Fire snarled, as she–”
Sunset’s voice went quiet as Twilight bent her neck forward and planted a gentle kiss on the part in her hair.
“...Twi, we’re almost at the end of the chapter, can’t it wait a few more minutes?”
Twilight giggled. “Awww. Not even one little kiss?”
Sunset momentarily pushed against her, as though trying to lean her head back, but gave up after one try, so Twilight could only assume there was a sly grin and a mild eye roll on Sunset's face -- which, granted, Twilight wouldn’t have been able to see anyway -- when she replied. “It kinda clashes with the tone of the scene, y’know.”
“Seemed like it was getting kinda tense,” Twilight said with mock worry. “Didn’t want you to feel scared or anything.”
She laid her head down, left-cheek-first, on top of Sunset’s noggin, and she could feel it shake as her girlfriend snorted, then sighed.
“Well, I can assure you I’m a big girl.”
Twilight ran her left hand down the length of Sunset’s abdomen, toward her hips. “Do most big girls need to be held by their girlfriends like this?”
There was a jolt as the body against her pulled forward, and Twilight lifted her head up to find what appeared to be Sunset staring upside-down at her. “Do you even want me to keep reading?” Sunset asked in a playfully cross tone. “I was getting pretty invested there, you know.”
Twilight's hand started dragging back up to meet its counterpart. “Mmmm… that depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether your voice is cuter than the sound you’re about to make.”
With her palms synced up once again, Twilight squeezed her arms together, and Sunset squeaked. The smile that spread across Twilight’s face was so wide, and the heat that spread across her cheeks so intense, that she couldn’t have held back the vocal aspect of her reaction if she’d tried.
“Awwwwwwwwwwww!”
She could faintly make out the deep red on Sunset’s own face just before her partner jolted out of her grip, the sudden movement sending Twilight tumbling onto her side. Now laughing, she could feel Sunset crawl over her, and as she tried to get her bearings, she was met with the force of a pillow-thwomp to the face.
“Mmmph- hey!” Twilight cried out, failing miserably to hide her giggling. “No fair, I can’t see!”
Her pleading did nothing to spare her from a repeat of the pillow-face contact, delivered with equal ferocity. “Well, you should have considered before you started poking the bear. Shall I keep going?”
Lying helplessly on her back like a turtle, Twilight bit her tongue to stop the bits of hiccuping laughter. “I yield…” she begged. “I yield, I’m sorry…”
Now she could make out what was evidently Sunset on all fours, looming over her. “And what did we learn?” she asked, and the smug expression on her face was easy enough to envision.
“Don’t interrupt Sunset when she’s reading…”
“More like don’t be a demanding little bully when Sunset’s reading.” Sunset playfully tousled Twilight’s hair, and that brought the giggles right back.
“I won’t…”
That earned Twilight a pat on the head. “Very good. Now, here’s that kiss you wanted so badly.”
Twilight had just enough time to register the words before Sunset lowered herself down and pressed their lips together. And for a quietly exhilarating few moments, all of Twilight’s other senses were just as useless as her vision was, as the rest of the world faded away into simply that.
The kiss broke as the blurry Sunset lifted back upwards, but Twilight lay still. “Woah.”
“You can’t still be saying ‘woah’ when we’ve been together this long, Twi.”
“Can too!” Twilight replied as she scooted backwards along the bed, in order to sit up without colliding. Unfortunately, she’d misjudged how close she was to the edge, and suddenly found her upper body flailing over the empty space. Sunset quickly grabbed her arms and pulled her back.
Now both sitting up, they spent what was definitely over a minute, at least as far as Twilight was concerned, simply hugging, resting their heads into each other’s shoulders.
“...Want me to get your glasses?” Sunset finally asked.
“Yeah, but uh… leave them in the case and just set them beside me.”
There was a blurry shake, suggesting a nod. “Keep reading?”
“Absolutely,” Twilight declared. “I won’t interrupt. Pinky promise, or Pinkie promise. Whichever meaning you prefer.”
Sunset moved off the bed and opened the nightstand drawer. “I’ll go with the less intense one, since I’m not fully convinced you can keep it.”
“Hey…”
After about another minute, they were once again back in their original positions, glasses case laid off to one side like Twilight had asked. She’d put them on in a little while, but for the moment, they still weren't needed. She was perfectly happy to be fully absorbed in Sunset’s words as her girlfriend picked up where she'd left off in the adventure.
“‘That would be them,’ Cold Fire snarled, as she whirled around to her Guard. ‘Seal off the city, now, and send squadrons into the surrounding desert. They cannot be allowed to escape!’”
And in that moment, Twilight couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend an afternoon.
