Our Winter Story

by Meteor_Mirage

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Alternate Universe, Romance, Fancypants, Shining Armor, Sunburst, Prince Blueblood, Slice of Life
Length: 22628

As an average student at Canterlot Academy, Shining Armor spends his time worrying about O&O campaigns, guard training, and ignoring the gossiping of his more popular friends. But when the gossiping turns to the school's new transfer student...

As an average student at Canterlot Academy, Shining Armor usually spends daily life worrying about O&O campaigns, guard training, and ignoring the incessant gossiping of his more popular friends.

But with the gossiping turning to the new transfer student, a dropout from Celestia's own Magic Academy, Shining finds himself more interested than he's willing to admit in the new arrival. Especially when it feels like all of his friends look to be to be pushing him towards this seemingly dark and stoic new arrival.

Written for the M/M Shipping Contest III! And to fulfill my need to keep writing about Sunburst and his various boyfriends.

Published 2023-11-13 17:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2023-12-02 11:09:36 UTC

Chapter 1 - Rumors

“Did you hear?”

“I’ve heard quite a few things. Care to be more specific?”

“About the transfer.”

“Oh yes. Him. From Celestia’s own academy, if I recall correctly.”

“Kicked out and came running here with his tail between his legs.”

“Kicked out? And how did he even manage that?”

“Well, I heard…”

“Ugh, can’t they shut up?” Shining Armor quietly asked, the following hot sigh sending a puff of fog in the cold winter air. He glared over at Blueblood and Fancy Pants as they gossiped on and on about this prospective transfer student.

A student who’d made the grievous error of… changing high schools in the middle of the year. And thus, as The Popular Students, it was up to them to point laugh and ridicule. Apparently.

“Cady, can you even believe them?” Shining asked as with rolled eyes, looking over to the pink mare to his side.

If Cadance noticed, she didn’t make it known. Instead, the alicorn princess stared intently at the two gossiping stallions with ears perked, her horn lit to scribble hasty notes in the notebook sitting between her forelegs. It was then that Shining was reminded that, despite everything, his best friend was a part of the popular crowd too.

And so was he, he supposed.

The four ‘popular’ teens lounged lavishly in the courtyard of the Canterlot private academy they were enrolled in. Making use of their excessive hour-long lunch period, Blueblood had laid down a blanket beneath the largest tree in the center of the courtyard so that he and his friends could chat comfortably. Which, of course, meant another run of the rumor mill between Blueblood and his boyfriend.

Meanwhile, Shining had been made to sit - a little awkwardly, he felt - beside his high-bred best friend, without having much to add. Fortunately though, Cadence wasn't the problem, despite her status as his ex. Following a few heart-to-heart talks in dorm rooms and on park benches late at night, it had just turned out that they shared their taste in stallions as well as everything else, and if anything their rapport was better than it had ever been.

Giving Cadance a nudge with his elbow, Shining sighed again. “Hey, are you even listening to me?”

Her head popped up, note taking scratching to a halt as she sheepishly looked over to Shining. “Yep! Sure is fucked up! Or, uh…” Looking at Shining’s semi-miffed expression, she quickly realized that probably wasn’t the right response. Ears flicking back, she lowered her head. “Sorry, I’m just… trying to get caught up. Prom planning for the first two periods and an exam in third didn’t leave me much room for… studying.”

“Geeze, prom planning already? Thank Celestia I’m not on student council.” Shining sighed, eliciting another puff of fog, as he crossed his forelegs and laid his head upon them. “Well, what’d you learn? Is he as bad as those two are making him out to be?”

With a lazy gesture towards Fancy Pants and Blueblood, he could now see they had gone from gossip scholars conversing to lovers canoodling while he wasn’t paying attention. He couldn’t help but crack a smile as he saw Blueblood genuinely enjoying himself for once.

“Well, it takes a lot to be kicked out of Aunt Celestia’s school.” Cadance said with a shrug, sighing as she too lay down fully upon the blanket. “That one mare, Sunset something, is still enrolled even after what happened. Add in the bullies, curses, and magic fights, and…”

Covering his head with his hooves, Shining let out a pathetic whimper. “I’m pulling Twily from that school. If someone tries to curse her, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Placing a comforting hoof on Shining’s shoulder, Cadance snickered a little. “Don’t worry. She’ll just curse them back worse. I mean, remember what happened to the colt who tried to trap Spike in a mirror?”

Shining paled. “I try not to, but it still comes to me in my nightmares.”

“Exactly! Twilight is fine.” Cadance beamed, which contrasted with the uneasy frown still written across Shining’s face. “Anyway, what I’m saying is that it’s not easy to be kicked out. And I’ve heard that this new guy is… a bit dark and edgy. Which means-”

“Everyone steer clear?” Shining asked.

“You steer clear. Don’t think I don’t know your type.” Cadance prodded with a smirk. “I mean, remember Mr. Steele?”

As much as Shining didn’t want to remember, memories still flashed despite himself. A musician by trade, Mr. Steele joined the Canterlot Academy staff the year prior to help train the musicians of tomorrow.

But that wasn’t important to Shining.

No, that year he was instead fixated on the stallion’s easy smile, dry wit, and alternative sense of style. Most stallion teachers in the school wore their hair cut short and styled while Mr. Steele let his messy red mane loose to hang on svelte, feminine shoulders. That, plus his penchant for eyeliner, made Shining as excited as could be to attend every class of his for the entire year.

Despite lacking any talent with the flugelhorn. Or any idea he was attracted to stallions until the tail end of the year.

Snapping himself from his steely daydream, Shining turned away from Cadance with a huff and a bright red blush. “Shut up!” Crossing his hooves even harder in front of him, he sighed out a pout. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be? I mean, as our illustrious school’s one-mare welcoming committee, shouldn’t you be touring the dude around the school by now?”

“‘Illustrious’, huh? Seems like a pretty big word for a doofus like you." Cadance smirked, raising an eyebrow.

Shining huffed again. "If you have to know, I had an English test last period."

"And did you pass?" Cadance asked.

"Let's…get back to your tour."

Fighting back the urge to laugh, Cadance shrugged. "We were supposed to do it this morning, but he never showed."

"He's late? On his first day?" Shining asked, stunned, with wide eyes.

"Or truant.” Cadance decided with another shrug as she relaxed down onto the ground again. “They’re supposed to call me to the office when he shows up, but-”

A loud, yet pleasant tone rang out from the intercom system, drawing the attention of every student and interrupting Cadance as she spoke.

“Could Princess Mi Amore Cadenza please report to the front office? Your package has arrived.”

Immediately, Cadance deflated as all eyes fell on her. There went any hopes of a relaxing rest of her lunch break.

Now fighting back the urge to laugh himself, Shining nudged her with an elbow. “You’d better go and pick up your ‘package’. Don’t want anyone else getting to him first.”

“You can try if you’d like.” Cadance said as she finally stood up. Suddenly, her eyes brightened asan idea came to her. Looking down at Shining, she smirked mischievously. “Hey, maybe you want to tag along? It’ll make the whole thing much quicker.”

“I’m good.” Shining said simply, flopping over onto his side and shutting his eyes. “I’d rather use my lunch for better things, like napping and watching the resident gossip mongers get lost in each others’ eyes.”

“You’re just afraid you’ll be into him.” Cadance smirked.

Shining’s eyes shot open, the stallion lifting his head to glare at Cadance with a white face flushed bright red. “Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!” Cadance snickered, sticking her tongue out at the embarrassed stallion.

“Let the poor boy rest, dear Cadance.” Fancy Pants smirked, his mustache bristling as he was finally drawn from his own little world with Blueblood.

For the most part, at least. With his back pressed against the trunk of the tree behind him, he still maintained a loving gaze down onto the blond stallion still caught between his forelegs. His dark blue eyes locked onto Blueblood’s pale, beautiful ones.

Looking away from this display and back to Shining Armor, Cadance shot him a concerned look. “You sure…?”

Still staring at the stallions in loving embrace, Shining sighed. “Absolutely not, but it’s probably better than getting my hopes up.”

“Like with Soarin’, or Golden Grape, or Caramel.” Blueblood mused with a wry grin, closing his eyes as he enjoyed the warmth of Fancy Pants’ embrace. “Though why you ever broke up with my dear cousin still confounds me to this day. You two seemed almost as perfect as Fancy and I.”

“Blue…” Fancy Pants grumbled warningly down at the stallion.

This stopped Blueblood before he could continue, offering a semi-apologetic look over to Shining and his cousin before leaning up to nuzzle Fancy Pants.

Again looking down to Shining, Cadance stared down at him. “Are. You. Sure?”

With a playful laugh, Shining waved off any of her concern. “I’ll be fine, Cady! I’ve dealt with Blueblood before and, thankfully, lunch is already half over as it is.” With a hoof, he gestured gently towards the direction of the school’s front office. “Go on, don’t keep the dude waiting.”

There was a moment of hesitation, but Cadance finally nodded with a sigh. “I’ll see you at class then, Shiny.” Finally, wrapping her scarf around her neck, she sauntered off towards the front office at a leisurely pace.

“Don’t be late!” Shining said towards her as she turned to leave. “I heard from Gizmo that we’re picking partners for that project today!”

Cadance gave no signs of acknowledgement, leaving Shining to only hope that she heard him. With her gone, it left Shining alone with the entangled unicorn stallions.

“You’ve still got a chance, I think.” Blueblood smirked.

This earned him a quick swat on the muzzle by Fancy Pants.

Despite this, Shining smirked. “Hey Blueblood, what have you heard about Soarin’ lately?”

Blueblood’s eyes snapped open at that, and a mischievous grin pulled across his face. “Well, if you have to know…”

Thankfully Shining Armor was well aware that one of the quickest ways to get through a lunch was to get Blueblood going on a topic and just hold on for the ride as the stallion gossiped up a storm.

Sadly, it’s also how he found out that Soarin’, who he’d thought was straight, was now dating Caramel, who he’d also thought was straight.

As he walked into his history class, it was all he could really dwell on. He flopped into his seat in the front row, quickly laying his head on his desk and hoping that maybe Ms. Copper Vase would just let him sleep the class though. Though last time he tried that, he’d ended up with a stick of chalk flying just inches past his face.

As the rest of the students filtered in, Shining decided that perhaps staying awake was the better idea. And as the class nearly fully entered, he was able to see that, besides the unoccupied seat to his left, the seat to his right was empty.

But, with the last dregs of the class, Princess Cadance also came stumbling in, panting and breathing heavy from the exertion of running. As she uncharacteristically flopped into her seat, she crossed her hooves across her chest and breathed out a heavy sigh.

“So, how’d it-” Shining asked, before quickly being interrupted.

“He doesn’t care!” Cadance exclaimed, perhaps a bit too loudly, as she threw up her hooves. “Not a single thing about the tour seemed to interest him at all! He just followed behind me and barely said a thing.”

Shining pursed his lips. “Maybe he’s just shy?”

Cadance shrugged, laying her head on her desk for a moment. “Well, maybe, but usually the dorks are at least interested in the library. Just detached disinterest all the way down.”

“Well…” Shining hesitated for a moment. “Was he…”

“Yes, very cute. Spindly, kind of feminine. Complete dork, but he was a real asshole about it.” Cadance rolled her eyes. “I thought I was used to it from Bluebutt, but-”

A loud bell rang out throughout the school, spelling the beginning of class and sealing the fates of those not present yet.

“Alright, alright, settle down.” Copper Vase sighed as she stood up from her seat to begin teaching. The short and stout mare still managed to glare down at all her settling students as she gestured towards the desks. “Everyone to your seats. There’s a lot to cover today, and I do not want to be interrupted.”

Fearing for the worst, everypony not seated scrambled to find theirs before their teacher got too annoyed. The faintest hint of a smile pulled across Copper Vase’s lips, only to fall as she looked to the seat at Shining’s side.

Shining, who thought she was looking at him, shrank in his seat.

But thankfully he was saved from her supposed ire. Pressing through the doorway with light hoofsteps, a new pony entered the room.

Shining had never seen a pony darken a room by merely making their entrance before. He could feel the class' collective attention focus on the doorway as the slight figure floated in, a black hoodie hanging from their head and torso like a shroud.

The snowy-white colt did his best not to make it too obvious he was watching as the slouching youth shuffled between the desks towards the vacant spot, as oblivious to the stares of their occupants as if he was moving through an empty room. Despite a blank, tired expression, the look in the strange, young unicorn's eyes was communicating something very clearly - that he didn't care about this place, he didn't care about the ponies in it, and there was precious little chance of that ever, ever changing.

Shining tore his eyes away and focused them on the somewhat-adjacent wall as his new classmate stopped beside him, throwing the chair back with a forceful kick and unslinging the saddle bag from his shoulder, letting it slip - carefully, Shining noticed - to the floor by his side. Flopping indifferently into the seat like a bag of depressed potatoes, the apricot-colored unicorn dragged his seat back up to the desk, reached an arm forward and planted an elbow onto its surface, resting his chin on his hoof as he cast his quietly judging gaze around the room.

Copper Vase balked. For the first time in a while, she was completely taken aback. But, knowing that teenagers can sniff out weakness like a pig sniffing truffles, she maintained composure and sighed. “With that over with, let us continue in our studies on Ancient Equestrian Mythology.”

A groan erupted throughout the class, with even Shining joining in with the chorus. But, even still, Shining couldn’t help take a peek at how his new orange neighbor was reacting to the curriculum.

Lazily, the stallion sighed and dug a hoof into his saddlebag. For a moment, Shining expected him to pull out the textbook or perhaps his own annotated book on Equestrian Mythology.

But instead he pulled out what looked like a deck of cards. Setting the deck to the side, he dealt himself five cards and inspected them with more interest than Shining had yet seen from the stallion.

His eyes moved over to Shining. He’d noticed him staring, and squinted at Shining with a frown. The power of the glare, intensified by the dark circles under the stallion’s eyes, made Shining turn away and look stock forward as class truly began.

And yet, as the class continued on, Shining found himself less able to focus than ever. Being more careful this time, his eyes flicked back to the stallion beside him occasionally and he just watched the orange stallion at work. Shining had no idea what he was doing as he laid cards down or brought cards to his face as he considered moves, but it was all so enticing and engaging.

It was easy to say that Shining didn’t absorb anything from that class period, as he was far too engaged in puzzling what game the stallion was playing. Or, more likely, just eyeing his messy orange mane and fluffy looking goatee as they poked out of his black hoodie.

As such, he jumped in his seat when Copper Vase slammed a ruler against the stallion’s desk. While the stallion didn’t acknowledge it, just flicking his eyes up towards his teacher with a bit of a nod, Shining moved to obediently stare forward as his teacher backed away.

“Now that everypony is paying attention,” she shot a withering glare towards Shining before turning it to the entire class, “It’s time to have the most fun I’ll ever allow you to have in this class

“Pair up into groups of no more than two and just… make something relating to an Equestrian myth of your choice. Be it a paper, two-pony play, poorly written song, or… interpretive dance.” She sighed, the wind leaving her sails as she looked out onto a crowd of ponies who were mostly disinterested. “Whatever you decide, you’ll present it next month and be graded together for it. With that being said…” She gestured out towards the class.

Desks moved in an instant, surprising Shining who hadn’t quite yet gotten what the gesture meant. Turning around, he could see that his classmates were already pairing off into their own groups. Friends with friends, nerds with nerds, and the rest just scrambled to find anyone else they knew to pair with. Shining just watched them struggle with a smile. He didn’t have to worry at all. Turning to his side, he looked to Cadance and…

Saw her pulling towards Fleur, who seemed as surprised as Shining.

She shot a sheepish, apologetic look at Shining, but quickly went to working with Fleur as her partner.

Shining blinked, then looked back around at his class. Much like Cadance, everyone had already begun work with their partners and left Shining to struggle with who exactly to partner up with now.

Everyone except…

Looking again to his left, Shining saw that his neighbor was still playing his card game, hardly even raising his head as the classroom had briefly devolved into chaos. No one had approached him to partner, nor had he moved to partner with anyone else.

Clearly, it was Shining’s time to shine.

Leaning out of his chair, he waved a hoof in hopes to garner the orange stallion’s attention. With that proving useless, he leaned in closer and tapped a hoof on the side of his desk.

His hoof was smacked away moments later, the stallion lifting a cream-white hoof and bringing it down upon Shining’s own without remorse. He raised an eyebrow, squinting over at Shining as he finally set his cards aside. “Can I help you?” He asked, his voice high and slightly nasal even as he tried to sound annoyed.

“Oh, well, I-I don’t mean to bother you.” Shining stammered, pressing his hooves together in immediate apology. “I was just wondering if you’d want to partner for this project. I just thought that, you know, you and I are the last ones to pair up and-”

“Sure.” The stallion said brusquely, turning back to his card game without another moment’s regard for Shining. “Sounds like fun.”

For a moment, Shining waited for the stallion to say more and perhaps let him in on whatever he had planned. Instead, however, he seemed to just return to his card game without a care in the world.

It took another moment of silence between the two of them, one perhaps a bit too long for comfort, before Shining spoke again.

“So, uh, what’ll we be doing for the project… partner?” Shining asked with a sheepish smile, sounding as awkward as one could be expected to sound in this awkward situation.

Looking up from his cards again, the orange stallion tilted his head in confusion as he looked over to Shining. He regarded Shining fully for a moment, looking up and down the large, muscular stallion’s physique before again settling on squinting at his face with a strange look on his face.

He held his gaze at Shining, but quickly turned away with a bit of an amused scoff, a genuine smirk pulling across his face. “No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. I’ll handle it.” He laughed a bit openly as he said this, reclaiming the cards on his desk, reshuffling them, and dealing himself out another five. “I figure you’d much rather spend time on the buckball field than toil in the library with a stallion like me.”

Shining blinked. He wasn’t even interested in buckball, but still he took offense.

“No dude, I definitely wanna work on the project too.” Shining said with a laugh of his own, though more awkward and unsure. “Just ‘cause you’ve got the small, dark, and edgy nerd thing going on doesn’t mean you get to do the whole thing. I don’t even know if I can trust you yet.”

Now it was the stallion’s turn to blink, setting his cards aside again as he turned to Shining with a bit of a stunned look. Bright blue eyes widening a bit, he regarded Shining yet again.

Thankfully for the both of them, the school bell rang again to interrupt their conversation, albeit briefly.

The stallion took a moment to compose himself as the class around him got up and moved on with their day. Not he and Shining, though, who remained seated. Breaking his gaze on Shining, he instead looked down and began to pack up his deck into their box, and slide them into his saddle bag.

But he gave one last look to Shining as he finally stood from his seat. “Well, ‘dude’, meet me at the library after school then. If you want to prove both of us trustworthy.” With a sigh, he lingered for a short yet noticeable moment, then nodded his head and trotted off at a brisk pace.

“Wait!” Shining cried, his gaze following the orange stallion as he made his leave. As he stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at Shining, Shining gave a bit of a sheepish grin. “How are we gonna trust each other if we don’t even know each others’ names?”

The stallion stood stunned for a moment, then flashed a bit of a smile at Shining Armor’s sheer brashness. “I’m Sunburst.”

“And I’m Shining Armor.” Shining grinned, extending a hoof. “It’s nice to work with you!”

Chapter 2 - Reticence

Shining Armor was no stranger to his school’s library. Really, no one attending the school hadn’t spent at least a little time within the private school’s large, expansive library. In which you could find anything from cookbooks imported from Prance for their culinarian students, to romance novels for the shy yet sensitive jocks, to even Canterlot’s heaviest books, set aside for the ponies more into weightlifting.

For his part, Shining was usually only ever there to borrow whatever comics or manga the librarians hadn’t yet removed from the shelves. This usually meant incomplete sets of popular series like Neighruto and Gatherer/Gatherer, or strangely complete sets of canceled series like Beat the Vandel Buster.

All of which Shining had read through more than he was comfortable with admitting.

But now wasn’t the time for another jaunt through the weird world shounen battle manga. No, instead Shining was on the hunt for something more rare. A stallion! One with which he was to spend time in close contact with for an extended period of time.

For studying, mind, but rare it was even still.

Shining searched the large library for the stallion, Sunburst, with which he was to have his rendez-vous, but turned up nothing instead. He searched all the popular areas like the computer lab, the large gathering of desks in the center of the library, and even near the service desk.

Not a single speck of the orange and cream stallion could be found.

It was only when Shining began hunting down the darker corners of the library, where there were no windows and only the smell of musty old tomes, that he happened upon a small table with one stallion sitting its occupant.

Sunburst paid no attention to the world around him. His head bobbed to whatever music was playing in his headphones while he poured over the book sitting in front of him. Littered across the table were even more books stacked in small piles sorted by their relevance, Sunburst occasionally grabbing one with a hoof and consulting it before returning it and returning to the main book.

If Shining didn’t know any better, he could assume that the orange stallion was content and happy in this dark, uninhabited corner of the library.

It almost saddened Shining to have to interrupt the hardworking stallion.

Almost.

He approached behind the stallion shyly and carefully at first, trying hard to not fully interrupt him from his fevered studying too much. As such, he kept his hoofsteps light as he got closer. “Hey Sunburst? I’m, uh, here to work on the project?”

No response. Sunburst continued to work on his tasks without any indication that he’d even noticed Shining.

Perhaps his music was just too loud?

Thinking that if noise was the problem, Shining decided that maybe making himself visually present to Sunburst would be a better idea. As such, with a few timid steps, he finally appeared from behind Sunburst.

Seeing movement to his side, Sunburst turned in surprise to see it. Seeing a big, bulky jock of a stallion now suddenly behind him, he jumped in surprise from his seat with a bit of a yelp.

In his shock and surprise, he knocked into the table and sent books toppling all over the floor.

The librarian was very quick to loudly shush the two stallions.

Equally as quick, Shining Armor leaned down to check on Sunburst.

“Woah, dude, are you alright?” Shining asked, immediately beginning to look Sunburst over for any bangs or bruises he might have gotten in the fall.

Or, tried to at least. Sunburst swiftly smacked that assistance away with a hoof, getting up on his own with an annoyed and pained grunt. “I’m fine! Just, don’t sneak up on me again.” He grumbled, squinting as his naked eyes scanned the floor for something.

Thankful he could help in some way, Shining picked up a small set of circular glasses that had fallen along with Sunburst. Checking them over for damage as well for a moment, he offered them over to Sunburst with a sheepish smile. “Looking for these?”

Sunburst snatched them away before seeming to process what had happened, breathing a sigh of relief as he looked up at Shining with a bit of a conflicted expression. “Uh, thank you, I suppose.” He mumbled as he too checked his glasses for any damage. Pulling out a small hoofkerchief, he began to wipe down the smudges left by Shining’s hoof.

For a moment, Shining was able to bask in the appreciation, as small as it might have been.

“So, glasses, huh?” Shining asked, looking at the bespectacled stallion with a confused tilt to his head.

“Well, yes. Usually I require them to see.” Sunburst grumbled, now moving to pick up the fallen books. He fretted a bit over which one went where, his organization system now rendered useless. “That is, when I don’t misplace them when moving into a new dorm room.”

Shining brightened a bit at this. “Oh, so you’re not a Canterlot native?” He asked with a grin. “Hey, if you want, I could show you all the cool spots around the city! I’ve, uh, lived around my whole life, so I could probably find you someplace you’d like.”

“I’ll pass. I’ve only been living in Canterlot for a few years, but I haven’t seen anything nearly impressive yet.” Brushing past Shining, Sunburst reset the books in their proper places and reclaimed his seat at the table. Looking back up at Shining, he quirked up an eyebrow. “So, are we going to get this over with, or will we keep playing Twenty Questions?”

Deflating a bit, Shining sat down opposite Sunburst with a sigh. “Right, right. Sorry.” He stared down at the table with a bit of a blush. “So, what’re we doing for the project then?”

Neglecting to look up from his book, Sunburst sighed and hoof-wrote a few notes in the notebook to his side. “Well, considering I didn’t exactly expect you to show up, I took the liberty of choosing the myth of Achilles, who was-”

“Oh, like him and Patroclus?” Shining asked innocently.

Sunburst looked up from his book again, a bit of shock adorning his face. It took him another moment just to respond. “ Well, yes, but I was more thinking we focus on his earlier life. From being dipped in the Styx to that time he was a princess."

“Awesome! Dude was pretty much the model example for us Royal Guards, so I kind of look up to the dude.” Shining beamed. His overeager grin was almost bright enough to light up the dark hovel the two had made for themselves in the corner of the library. “It’d be nice to go into his, uh, relationship with Patroclus, but if you don’t want to…”

“I’m sure it’ll come up.” Sunburst said with a bit of a laugh, one that surprised even him. Looking away for a moment, he sighed softly. “A royal guard, huh? I should thank you for your service, I suppose.”

It was now that Shining’s smile got a bit more sheepish. “Well, Royal Guard in training. Which basically means I train every weekend to get better at the whole guarding thing. Swordplay, battle strategy, standing endurance, and a lot of marching.” He sighed, growing a bit exhausted just remembering the work he’d done the previous weekend.

So. Much. Standing.

“Sounds impressive. I should swing by and check it out some time.” Sunburst said without thinking. Once he did realize what he said, a light blush dusted his face that he quickly hid by diving his head further into his book.

Luckily for him, Shining didn’t notice the blush.

Unluckily for him, Shining’s smile only got brighter and larger despite it.

“Oh totally! Like I said, we train every week in the Canterlot Castle courtyard!” Shining said, as giddy as could be. “We’re not really supposed to have guests or visitors, but I figure they can make an exception. You know, if you want…” His expression became a bit muted as he realized that, just maybe, he was doing too much too fast.

Sunburst’s face dipped even further into his book. “Oh, well, I suppose if I have nothing else to do.”

Shining brightened once again, bouncing in his seat a bit. “Oh? What do you usually do on weekends?”

From anyone else, Sunburst would have found this question suspect at best and obviously leading to a thinly veiled insult at worst. But there was something about Shining Armor, this golden retriever of a stallion, who seemed to be bouncing in his seat as he excitedly waited for a response…

Something Sunburst felt, for now, that he could trust.

“Well, I suppose that normally I just… sit around my dorm room and read. Though sometimes I’ll go out to a cafe… to read.” Sunburst gave a little bit of a huffing sigh as he realized just how boring his average day-to-day must seem. He turned away, a bit of a blush crossing his face. “It’s what I did at my old school, at least. There wasn’t exactly a lot else to do there.”

“Oh yeah, you went to Celestia’s academy right?” Shining grinned eagerly. “My sister just started going there not too long ago. How’d you like it?”

Sunburst shot Shining a blank, lingering stare. One that lasted for quite a few moments before he spoke again. “Well, I dropped out and transferred to this school for a reason.” His head dipped down into his book as he sighed softly. “I believe you can draw your own conclusions”

Realizing what he’d just done, Shining blushed as Sunburst returned to mostly ignoring him. He tapped his hooves upon the surface of the table nervously for a moment before stuttering out a question.

"W-well, what do you normally read? Just, like, spellbooks, or…"

Perhaps, just one more chance.

Looking up from his book, staring at Shining from over his round spectacles, Sunburst gave a bit of an exasperated look. "Well, if you must know, I've mostly stepped away from conventional magic for the time being. Instead, I've been mostly drawn in by Japaneighs comics.”

Shining’s eyes lit up at this. “Oh, like Neighruto and stuff? I read that in this library all the time!”

Despite Shining’s excitement, Sunburst sighed a bit. “S-sort of? Neighruto is a nice manga and all, but I suppose I’m into more niche series like Ghost Note or Case Closed.”

Shining tapped a hoof to his chin for a moment, thinking on it. “Hmm. I don’t think the library has either of those.” He thought for another moment, really running through the list of manga he’d built in his head. And then, another lightbulb moment as he remembered something else instead. “Oh, but I bet that one place by 8-Bit's house has some! The owner has, like, a whole wall full of manga."

Interested, Sunburst raised his head and an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware there were bookstores around here that sold that much manga. Every one I've tried had at best a few copies of the most popular shounen series."

Shining scratched the back of his head a bit sheepishly. "Yeah, it's a bit of a hole-in-the-wall that my little sis drags me to when she comes home for the holidays.” A flash of sadness briefly crossed his face, but he quickly shook it off. “My only problem is that the books aren’t in Equish, so they’re really hard to read. I wanted to learn how to read them, but I’m already failing my Prench classes so…”

Suddenly, Sunburst was out of his seat with hooves planted hard on the table in front of him. “So you’re telling me that there’s a place in Canterlot that sells imported manga in its original language, untouched by the hooves of uneducated and biased localizers…” His eyes were wide and his grin elated as he slammed his hooves upon the table. “And no one thought to tell me?”

Another loud shush came from the librarian as they glared at Sunburst, willing him to either quiet down or leave.

With a heavy amount of shame, Sunburst sat back down in his seat with a heavy blush across his face. “S-sorry, I just… I have to go. I have no idea how it-” Looking back up at Shining, Sunburst stopped as he saw the expression on the stallion’s face.

Smug satisfaction was written across Shining’s entire face. It wasn’t an expression he normally wore, but one he wore considerably well despite it.

“I told you I knew some cool places in Canterlot, dude.” Shining smirked smugly. “See? We’re not all ballrooms and palaces."

Sunburst crossed his hooves over his chest, turning away from Shining with another huff. "Well, I suppose that you're right. You have lived in Canterlot for much longer than I have." It took a moment, but his gaze flickered back towards Shining pleasingly. "So, perhaps, I might need someone to show me to this bookstore… this weekend?"

If Shining’s smile was previously as bright as his namesake, it was now glowing as bright as Celestia’s sun.

And despite himself, Sunburst couldn’t help but find it endearing.

“For sure! We can totally make it happen if you want.” Shining beamed, for just a moment riding the high of friendship. But after a moment, he thought it over and sheepishly scratched the back of his head with a hoof. “Or, well, it’d have to be after my guard training, but I’m sure we could still make it work.”

“It’s held at the castle, right? My favorite cafe is nearby, so I guess I could just wait there until you’re done.” Sunburst supposed with a bit of a shrug. “They have a pretty great coffee, if you’re interested in that.”

“Well, I’ll definitely need something to keep me going after.” Shining sighed, looking away from Sunburst for a moment. In his distraction, a nearby clock caught his eye. Upon reading the time, his eyes widened a bit. “Ah, dang, is it that late already? I… kinda forgot I have homework to finish tonight. And I think mom wants me to help out with dinner.” Shining deflated a bit at this point, especially as he again looked over Sunburst’s carefully curated collection of books. “Sorry for not, like, helping at all with this project today. Probably not great I was late either.”

Sunburst was quick to wave that sentiment off with a hoof. “It’s no problem at all. Personally, I’m just happy you showed up.” His lips briefly quirked up into a shy smile. “I… had quite a bit of fun today. If you’d like, we could meet up here again tomorrow? If you’re not too busy, that is.”

“Sounds like a plan! And, uh, thanks for being cool about all this.” Shining blushed as he packed up and stood from his seat. “I guess the rumors were wrong about you, you’re just a pretty rad guy.”

Sunburst blinked. “Oh, yeah. No problem, I suppose.”

Not noticing the confusion in Sunburst’s voice, Shining Armor beamed again. “Alright! Well, I’ll see you after school tomorrow!” He said with a bit of a chuckle. He then pulled out a slip of paper from his saddlebag, squinting as he read it over. “Now to figure out what in Celestia’s name a ‘leek’ is.”

Without much of a goodbye, Shining Armor left on his way to Canterlot’s food market.

This left Sunburst to just watch him leave with one final thought.

“There’s… rumors about me?”

About an hour later, and after the help of numerous ponies in the shopping district, Shining Armor finally made his way home with shopping bags in tow. They were a bit hefty, weighing him down heavier than his saddlebag did, but he was a big strong stallion, and he could totally do it.

Ignore how he huffed and sweated as he set the groceries down on the kitchen table.

Though his mother, Twilight Velvet, couldn’t ignore that fact. She stared her son down with a bit of a confused look. “I thought I asked you to just bring home a few vegetables for tonight’s salad?”

A sheepish look crossed Shining’s face as he nudged one bag towards his mother, the other, heavier bag he pulled close towards himself. “Oh I , uh, I did! That one’s for you, and this one’s for me!”

Shining pulled the bag even closer to himself, which proved to be his fatal mistake. Though carefully stacked within the bag, its contents were still easily disrupted by Shining’s strong forelegs wrapping around them protectively.

The first four volumes of Ghost Note spilled out onto the counter, easily seen by any prying eyes. And that was only the few that had slipped out, an untold number still sitting within the bag, but still somehow judging Shining.

But nothing was more judgmental than the lingering, withering stare his very own mother gave him upon seeing comics littering her kitchen counter.

"Shining, I thought we talked about spending all of your money on comics." She said as she pulled the bag he'd allotted her and began setting out the vegetables within. "I know you make more as a guard than you did working the market stalls, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend it all.”

“But moooooom!” Shining whined, collecting his books and drawing them to his chest again, albeit more carefully this time. “I didn’t spend all my money on this. Just, you know, a good bit of it. And besides…”

At Shining’s pause, Twilight Velvet raised an eyebrow. She also made a mental note to teach her son the difference between the genders of bell pepper.

But Shining only caught the eyebrow.

“Besides, the new colt in school suggested them to me.” He said, a light blush dusting across his face. “He seems pretty nice, and I wanna have stuff to talk about when we hang out on the weekend.”

Twilight Velvet knew that look. The shy smile as he cradled something he might not entirely be into, whether it be buckball tickets or farming tools, while going on and on about a stallion he’d met in class or in the lunchroom. An obsession that continued until the stallion inevitably turned him down, for better or for worse, and set the cycle to zero again.

But, as his mother, all she could do was support him through his highs and his lows.

“So, tell me about him.” Twilight Velvet said with a soft smile. “This mystery stallion, forcing you to spend all of your bits on comics.”

“They’re not comics, mom, they’re manga.” Shining said, rolling his eyes playfully. Then his expression got slightly sheepish again, pressing his hooves together shyly. “His name is Sunburst and he seems really cool! He just transferred from Celestia’s Academy, and he’s sort of moody but also seems pretty dorky.”

“You two have that in common, I think.” Twilight Velvet mused. Thinking on it for a moment as she returned to vegetables, her eyes brightened as she had a small thought. “Oh, speaking of Celestia’s Academy. It looks like Twilight and Spike will be coming home for a while starting next weekend. It seems like there was an incident.”

"Oh no, I hope everyone's alright." Shining said with a soft frown. Then, after a few moments of thought, he put a hoof to his chin. "Hey, I wonder if Sunburst and Twily know each other."

"Probably not, sweetheart. It's a big school, and they're a few years apart." Twilight Velvet supposed, then gestured to her son. "Now go on and do some studying before dinner. It's just the two of us tonight, so plan on eating early."

"Yes mom." Shining said as he collected his things from the kitchen table.

As he walked off to his room. He couldn't help but smirk to himself as he knew that the only thing he'd be studying that night would be his various volumes of Ghost Note.

Just according to keikaku[1].

Author's Note

[1]Keikaku means Plan.

Chapter 3 - Repartee

It was during the weekends that Shining Armor felt the most at home in Canterlot.

Well, aside from his… actual home of course.

But besides that, Shining felt his most comfortable standing in the Royal Guard’s training area in Canterlot Castle, surrounded by his fellow recruits as they underwent whatever coaching their Guard Captain decided to give them.

At present? A dozen or so recruits stood in a semi-circle to form an arena around two ponies standing in the center while leaving room for any passerby to spectate their future protectors’ combat prowess. Swords held aloft, whether in magic, hoof, or mouth, the two in the center were forced to battle until forfeit, knock-down, or injury.

In other words, it was easily Shining's favorite kind of training.

Way better than learning how to properly remain alert while standing, at least.

However, the training quickly came in handy as, with skillful dodging from his opponent, Spearhead’s rallying charge was turned into barreling towards the watching guards-in-training and Shining in particular.

A deft dodge from Shining later, and Spearhead was sent clattering to the ground along with the wooden sword he was once holding in his mouth.

Rushing to check on him, Shining Armor was happy to see that the grounded stallion was already sitting up and working his jaw.

“Ugh, I think I broke a tooth.” Spearhead grumbled to himself, pressing a hoof to his cheek and wincing. “Who in Tartarus decided to let us mouth our swords?”

“I guess now you know why we have dental.” Shining smirked as he offered a hoof to help Spearhead up.

As Spearhead gratefully accepted the assistance, their captain turned to the two with an annoyed grunt.

“Now, if you two cadets are done fooling around,” the gruff mare growled, gesturing towards the castle, “Spearhead, go get patched up and file your own report.” Her attention now turning to Shining, a small yet malicious smirk grew across her face. “Mister Armor, if you’re so interested in helping your friend out, why don’t you face our champion next?”

In the center of the ring, standing on his hindlegs and leaning on his wooden sword for support, Fancy Pants smirked at his new challenger. “Oh yes, please. A real challenge would be lovely right about now.” His mustache bristling in the sun, he unsheathed his sword from the dirt below and took confident stance, sword tip pointed towards Shining. “Now, shall we?”

Rolling his eyes at the theatrics, Shining drew his sword from the scabbard on his hip and stood on his hindlegs to rival Fancy Pants. Both hooves planted on the hilt, he took a far more aggressive stance than the more flamboyant and fencer-like one of his opponent.

The two circled each other for a moment, each sizing the other and their stances up as they looked for holes and for weaknesses.

Fancy Pants moved to strike first, lunging forward with the deftness of a viper as he went straight for Shining’s throat.

Only to have his piercing shot deflected by a red, shielding barrier as Shining brought his magic up just in time. Capitalizing on Fancy Pants’ briefly being stunned, he swung his own blade down where his opponent stood.

Or, where his opponent had been standing previously.

Using his small size and agility to his advantage, Fancy rolled away to distance himself from the wildly striking stallion, leaving Shining only slashing at air. Bringing himself back up, he dusted himself off with a smirk and readjusted his stance without a care in the world.

“You’re getting much better at those.” Fancy taunted, maintaining his focus and stance on Shining as he tried to catch him off guard. “It’s a bit cheap, a shield that can come from anywhere, but if it works for you…”

Shining grit his teeth at the haughty laugh that followed. “Says the dude who just went for my throat. I mean, who does that?”

Lunging forward again with intent to slash, hoping to take advantage of the momentary distraction, Fancy Pants instead met Shining blade to blade. His one-hooved grip forced against Shining’s more stable two-hooved one seemed immediately dire.

But despite this, Fancy smirked between their met blades. “Why, someone who intends to win just might!”

There was no warning as Shining's opponent vanished from before him, becoming a spinning blur that darted around to his side - taking his sword with him. With Shining's own blade now pressing against thin air but his full weight still behind it, he stumbled forward, only to feel a Fancy-shaped object slam into his left shoulder.

His rock-solid hoofwork ruined, Shining fought to keep his balance as he staggered sideways, twisting back around to face his adversary again - only to feel a sharp wooden smack on his forehead and an ensuing jolt of pain. As Shining's eyes refocused, he saw Fancy ahead, sword outstretched and safely backed out of Shining's reach, with a devilish smile on his face.

Shaking off the force of the blow, Shining grit his teeth again and redoubled his focus on the fight and away from Fancy’s silent jeers and distraction.

Circling again, the two continued their dance. For Fancy Pants, that was quite literal as he used his speed and agility to move around Shining, using twirls, feints, and trash talk to catch the stallion off guard while going in for any hits he could get in.

For Shining, it was all about maintaining his guard, blocking any swipe either with sword or with magic, and hoping that at some point the stallion would tire himself out and drop his guard enough for a quick win.

It took minutes of painstaking blocking, catching the wrong end of Fancy’s blade to his ribs, neck, and chest multiple times, but Shining couldn’t help but grin as he saw Fancy Pants begin to pant from exertion and pull back to wipe away beads of sweat from his forehead.

Now, it was Shining’s time to capitalize.

He lunged forward with hooves held high, attempting to bring his weapon down for one hell of a slash.

But he caught a glimpse of orange and black out of the corner of his eye. Turning to look at it, he saw Sunburst standing among the civilian crowd, watching with a blush as Shining seemed to seal his victory.

But, in his distraction, he was unable to see Fancy Pants instead duck low and sweep his hindlegs. Sent to the ground in one fell swoop, Shining lost his grip on his weapon and ended defenseless.

Smirking victoriously, Fancy Pants stood over Shining and pointed the tip of his sword down at his throat. “And how will you be defending Blueblood and Cadance if you get distracted by a crowd?”

Sighing and putting his hooves up in surrender, Shining rolled his eyes. “I yield!”

As Fancy Pants laughed with smug victory and turned to his captive guard audience for his next opponent, Shining rolled over to stand and right himself after a hard fought defeat.

His body ached, and he could already feel bruises begin to form, but that was something for future Shining to deal with. Instead, more importantly, he looked over to Sunburst with an elated grin. He was quick to trot over to join him, only separated by a small fence.

“Hiya Sunny!” Shining grinned, immediately hanging halfway over the fence as he looked at Sunburst. “I thought we were gonna meet at the cafe! What’re you doing here?”

Ignoring the nickname for a moment, Sunburst instead looked Shining over for many reasons, but mostly inspecting him for any injuries. “I… was mostly interested in what you guys were doing over here. I wasn’t expecting the show and, um, are you alright?”

Waving Sunburst’s worry off with a casual laugh, Shining maintained his lazy grin. “Nah, I’m fine. Totally used to Fancy roughin’ me up by now.” Turning to look back at Fancy Pants, he saw the stallion already standing over yet another defeated opponent while bloodthirstily eyeing the rest of the scared cadets. “A couple years fencing, and suddenly he’s the one to beat for swordfighting. Personally, I think it’s the mustache.”

Bringing a hoof up to his scraggly goatee, Sunburst hummed softly. “Huh, I wonder what that would mean for my own facial hair.” Considering it for a moment, he waved the notion off with a bit of a chuckle. “Ah, well, I’m glad you’re alright. Even if it looks like it hurt a lot.”

“I’m good, I promise!” Shining laughed brashly, though having to hide a bit of a wince as it made his chest ache. Hopping over the fence to disguise this fact, he flashed Sunburst a warm grin. “So, now that I'm no longer needed for guard duty, how's about we head over to that bookstore?”

As Sunburst shared in this grin, though his slightly more reserved and bashful. “Sounds like a good plan. Though, oh, um…” Looking down on the floor, two drinks sat between his forelegs. Picking one up with a hoof, he offered it over to Shining. “I picked up some coffee from that cafe. I wasn’t… sure how you take it, so I just got you what I normally get.”

Despite his usual distaste for coffee, Shining still accepted his coffee with a grin. “Aw, thank you Sunny! You really didn’t have to.” Moving in to take a sip, Shining braced himself for the deep black coffee he expected from Sunburst.

Only to have the taste of sweet cream roll over his tongue instead, not even a hint of the coffee taste he knew from his father. Sputtering from this unexpected change in flavor, Shining began to cough openly, only barely being able to bring up a foreleg to block anything more embarrassing leaving his mouth.

However, it didn’t stop Sunburst from visibly deflating, ears folding back as he watched Shining choke on his sweet treat ‘coffee’. “Oh, you don’t like it. I’m sorry, I, um, probably should have known you wouldn’t like it how I do, I suppose.”

Getting his coughing under control after a moment, Shining was quick to wave that notion away. “N-no! I just didn’t think it’d be so… sweet.”

Letting out a small sigh, Sunburst shook his head. “Oh, no. I’m not really a fan of the, uh, coffee taste? I’m more into it because of the energy.” With a blush, he looked down at his own cup and quickly took a swig. “The cafe I go to is really the only one who doesn’t laugh at me when I order this.”

Shining let out a loud, brash laugh as he nodded along. “Huh, guess a lot of places don’t respect a stallion who wants a drink as sweet as he is.” He said with a smile far more eager than anyone would expect. Moving on from it without note, he gestured broadly to Canterlot as a whole. “Anyway, you wanna get going? I don’t wanna just keep you standing here.”

Swallowing hard, blush growing stronger on his face, Sunburst nodded shyly. “Oh, yeah. We should probably get going then.”

Chapter 4 - Recreation

Tarot’s Discordium was, as Shining had previously indicated, a hole-in-the-wall store down one of Canterlot’s many backstreets. With its small and nondescript storefront, just the store’s name on signboard posted out front, one would be hard pressed to tell you what lay within.

The main guesses were between fortune telling or one of those new-age religions. Perhaps both.

But when Shining pushed open the shop's old wooden door, a smell flowed out that Sunburst hadn't realized he had been missing. An earthy, musty smell that may have been unappealing to some, but was akin to an addiction to the orange stallion. One that Canterlot’s other ‘bookstores’ simply wouldn't allow themselves to fulfill.

But those ponies could keep their fancy, perfumed book shops. And Sunburst much preferred the real thing.

Upon entering, Sunburst was even more elated to know that, despite looking tiny on the outside, Tarot’s Discordium was far bigger than it seemed on the inside.

But don’t let that make you think there was much room to move. Much like the shop’s namesake, the shop was a bit of a chaotic clutter. Books and nerdy knick-knacks littered various tables and overflowed onto the floor beneath them in a way that was either completely disorganized, or organized in such a specific way that Sunburst wasn’t able to parse.

Looking over at Sunburst, seeing the expression on his face range between awe, excitement, horror, and confusion, Shining Armor could only smirk smugly as he looked onto his nerd haven.

“So Sunny,” Shining said with a mischievous glint in his eye, “How do you wanna do this?”

It was a good question, but not one with an easy enough answer.

Did one simply go straight for the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf lining the back wall, brimming with manga and comics in various languages, but mostly their native Japaneighs or Equish. Perhaps instead one could poke about the various tchotchkes on the tables, hoping to find something fun in the disorganized mess of buildable robot figures, various obscure card games, and manga figures that ranged from cute to woefully inappropriate.

Sunburst seemed to prefer the latter, moseying about the store leisurely and digging a bit through the piles of stuff in hope to find treasure.

Happening upon an overly muscular statue depicting the main character of ‘Big Mad’, holding his massive sword aloft in a very… suggestive manner. With a blush, Sunburst set the figure aside as he didn’t quite have the guts to make the purchase.

Not yet, at least.

Instead he quickly set it aside and moved onto a deck of cards sitting to its side. These cards were larger and wider than an average deck of cards, the backs depicting various phases of the moon and other arcane symbols. Instinctively, Sunburst gave them a quick shuffle in his hooves.

“Ooh, what’s that?” Shining asked, suddenly appearing behind Sunburst. Ignoring how the stallion jumped, nearly dropping his cards, Shining instead angled over Sunburst’s shoulder to stare down at the cards themselves. “Oh hey, cool cards! What is that, that one game you were playing in class that one day?”

Blushing a bit, Sunburst instinctively drew the cards towards his chest. But he quickly relaxed and showed the cards openly to Shining. “Oh, no. These are tarot cards. They’re, uh, mostly used for fortune telling and answering questions.”

“Oh, so like divination? My little sister showed me the threads of fate once. It was… weird.” Shining shook off that uncomfortable feeling quickly, his horn flickering to life with a red aura. A questioning look overtook his face. “Huh, doesn’t seem to be any magic to ‘em though. Maybe they’re broken?”

Sunburst let out a small laugh, his eyes brightening as he gave a small smirk. “Ah, that’s probably because there’s no arcane magic to them at all! While us unicorns mastered the art of divination in our own ways, earth ponies made these to read fate in theirs. Some may find it a bit folksy, the way the earth ponies do it, but…” As Sunburst hesitated, a blush quickly coated his features. “I don’t know, I enjoy it. There’s a certain energy about it that I just…”

Biting his lip, Sunburst trailed off and clammed up completely, only nervously continuing to shuffle the cards in his hooves.

For his part, Shining only flashed a cool grin. “They seem pretty cool! I’d love to see how they work, if you wanna show me.” He nudged Sunburst gently with an elbow. “Maybe you can fortune-tell me how my love life is gonna go.”

Sunburst blushed a bit more at this, but he did it with a small smile and a laugh. “Well, I’m not exactly, um, attuned to these ones enough to do that. But I do have a set in my dorm room that I could bring into school tomorrow.”

And Shining beamed, his smile brightening the very room they were standing in. “Heck yeah! Sounds like a blast.” He wiggled excitedly in place for a moment, then hefted a sizable book he was holding under his foreleg, showing it off a bit to Sunburst. “I’m gonna go up front real quick and pick this up. But let me know if you find anything else cool.”

Seeing the book displayed, a shiny and brand-new Ogres & Oubliettes handbook depicting a stylized unicorn firing off cool wizard spells, Sunburst’s expression brightened considerably, almost mirroring Shining’s.

“Oh, you play O&O?” Sunburst asked with a bit of glee in his voice. “I’ve always sort of wanted to play it, but could never find the time. Or, um, friends.”

“Oh yeah, me and a couple friends meet after school every week to play. Gaffer decided he didn’t wanna DM forever, so he’s letting me try it out this week.” Beaming a little bit at this again, Shining scratched the back of his head nervously. “Hey, if you want, I could talk to the guys about adding you to the party.”

A shy smile creeped across Sunburst’s face as he nodded. “Oh, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

Another beaming smile from Shining. “Nah, dude. I’m sure you guys would all get along really well. You’re all huge dorks!” Giggling openly, he then gestured towards the store’s register. “Anyway, gonna spend entirely too many bits on sourcebooks I’m probably not gonna use! Learn from my mistakes, and don’t spend as much money as I do.”

Sauntering away, though not exactly in the direction he’d indicated, Shining Armor left Sunburst alone to browse.

Heeding Shining’s word, Sunburst didn’t actually pick up much from the shop, mostly spending his time browsing things that he’d like to buy but wasn’t willing to spend the funds on. Things that would have been fun to look at, possibly, but nothing like the five volumes of bright, colorful magical girl manga he instead purchased.

Though he did ask the shop owner to double-bag it for him.

Meeting Shining near the front of the store, he saw the stallion briefly fretting over his own shopping bag. Upon seeing Sunburst, the fretting quickly ceased and Shining sort of held the bag away from Sunburst.

“Hey, Sunny!” Shining said, forcing a smile to his face. “You already done? I figured you’d wanna poke about for another couple minutes.”

Sunburst hummed softly at that. “Well, I’m certainly going to come back to poke around a bit more, but I don’t want to hold you for much longer.” Looking Shining over briefly, still inspecting his white coat for any sign of bruising, he gave a small sigh. “I supposed that after a day of training, you might want to head home as soon as possible.”

Shining flashed a cheesy grin at this, waving the notion away with a hoof. “Hah, nah. I was chill to keep looking around if you wanted. But, if you’re ready to go, we can just dip.”

A conflicted look crossed Sunburst’s face for a moment, but it soon settled into a soft frown. “Yes, I suppose we should. I should probably get back to work on my end of our project, honestly. Speaking of, how is your end going?”

Pursing his lips, Shining looked away from Sunburst and instead found interest in the wall in front of him. “Suddenly, I think I should probably get home too.”

Unexpectedly, Sunburst let out a gentle laugh. “And here I thought you said I wouldn’t have to worry!”

“You don’t!” Shining squeaked out with a blush. “I just… got a little too busy to start. But I’m gonna!”

“Too busy, huh?” Sunburst asked, staring pointedly at the bag Shining was trying to hide.

Shining held his tongue, his blush getting brighter along his pure white cheeks as he pressed open the door to the shop. He escaped the prodding question, if only for a moment as Sunburst quickly followed behind.

But thankfully, both stallions were too distracted to continue making fun of Shining. Instead, their attention was drawn to the dark, cloudy skies as they brimmed ominously, clearly preparing for a downpour.

Sunburst sucked his teeth with pure annoyance as he watched the sky. “Ugh, seriously? A rainstorm today?”

“Guess we both forgot to check the weather schedule, huh?” Shining said with a sheepish grin. “I guess we can just hope we beat the-”

With a well-timed strike of lightning cutting Shining off, rain began to fall around the two stallions. While it wasn’t quite cold enough to turn the falling rain into a pleasant snow, it was certainly enough to bring a burning chill to every drop that fell onto them. Due to this, Sunburst pressed himself as close to the building as possible in hopes to prevent any drops from hitting him.

But Shining only smirked, his horn flickering to life as it set a red shield of magic above the two of them. It acted as a makeshift umbrella, protecting them from any further ice-cold rainwater. With a bit of a bow, he looked over to Sunburst. “If you want, I could walk you back to your dorm. You know, as thanks for the coffee earlier.”

Sunburst looked up in marvel at the large shield Shining had set, but shook off his amazement and instead blushed at Shining’s offer. “Oh no, I don’t think I could impose that much. The rain shouldn’t be that bad if I-” Extending his hoof out of the range of the shield for a moment, testing the temperature, was all Sunburst needed to have his protestations cut off by a loud yelp.

Pulling back into the shield, Sunburst shivered as he inched even closer to Shining for warmth.

Not minding this a bit, Shining held his head high and grinned with a cockiness that was finally well-deserved. “Well, stick close to me and try to keep up. I’ll try and get you home as soon as possible.”

Thankfully the walk back to Canterlot Academy’s dorms didn’t take either stallion too long, even with Shining taking a leisurely pace so that Sunburst could keep up. But that leisurely pace quickly turned into a mad sprint as Shining’s horn flickered, dropping the spell just as they crossed the boundary into the school.

Panting and sputtering from the exertion of running across the entire campus, both stallions, now drenched and shivering cold, needed a moment to gather themselves in the hallway of the male dormitory.

“Gah, sorry Sunburst.” Shining panted out, hoof to his chest as he finally gathered his breath enough to speak. “I’m still not used to holding that spell for that long, I guess.”

Still trying to gather himself in the same way, Sunburst just waved it away with a hoof for a moment. “It’s fine.” He muttered after a few moments, still struggling a bit. “At least we got most of the way here before getting drenched, yeah?”

Breathing in deeply, Sunburst took a few tentative steps towards the door to his room, marked by a whiteboard that was empty except for his name, then pressed his hoof against the door’s magicked lock. Recognizing that he was the room’s current occupant, the door swung open and allowed entry.

Looking back at Shining, still dripping wet and exhausted as he tried to ignite his magic for the walk home, Sunburst offered up a shy smile. “Would you, um… like to come in and dry off? I have towels.”

With an eager grin and nod of his head, Shining too was welcomed into Sunburst’s dorm room.

But it wasn’t as if the room itself was welcoming at first.

As the door closed behind him, Shining Armor wasn’t expecting the room to be plunged into complete darkness despite the window and how light it was outside. He could hear Sunburst fumbling around in the darkness for a moment, and he debated flickering on what magic he could for light.

With a click, the room was finally bathed in a soft, warm light emanating from the dorm’s standard-issue floor lamp and revealed to Shining…

Well, more black.

Black bedspread adorning the dorm’s mattress, a black writing desk that didn’t seem to come standard with the room, black metal and occult posters adorning the walls, and a black dresser that, Shining assumed, probably held more black hoodies for Sunburst to wear.

The stallion clearly had a theme. It made it so that the only colorful things in the room were the two stallions inhabiting it and the books on Sunburst’s, also black, bookshelf.

Moving to said bookshelf, carefully stocking his new purchases onto it, Sunburst gestured to his room’s closet.

“Could you go grab us some towels?” He asked, back fully turned to Shining. “They should be over there in my closet.”

Setting his own purchases down and following Sunburst’s gesture, Shining made his way over to the closet and found, to his lack of surprise, a set of haphazardly folded black towels waiting for him. Just as he was about to turn to make a quip about his host’s taste in decoration, he saw it.

A small splash of color in the otherwise completely black closet. Dark blue, though with accents of white and sewn-in stars of light blue, the blanket-like fabric wouldn’t have drawn his attention in any other case but, contrasted with how dark and dreary the rest of the fabrics were, he couldn’t help but pull it out.

“Hey Sunny, I-”

“Drop it!” Came the immediate response from Sunburst, a shriek that's suddenness and intensity shocked both stallions. His horn flickered to life, a staticy and unstable yellow aura surrounding it and sending sparks outwards.

Shining dropped the fabric in an instant, shock and surprise shaking him to the point that this act of sudden aggression didn’t make him put a shield up. All he could do was take a step back from the fallen fabric, too shaken to say another word.

In this silence, Sunburst quickly moved forward, though lacking the aggression from before, as his horn’s trembling magic vanished from sight. His focus shifted down to the offending fabric, picking it up in his hoof and chucking it back towards its closet prison as quickly as possible.

With it now mostly out of sight and away from the two of them, Sunburst was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. Though, as he looked up into Shining’s shocked face, his breath caught in his throat and his relief proved short-lived. Balking a bit, he too took a step back from Shining and instead began to roam a bit around his room.

He ended up sitting on his bed with a sigh, his eyes downcast as he refused to even look at Shining in this moment. Opening his mouth, he tried to form an apology that could even attempt to cover his sudden and unexpected outburst.

But he was beaten to the punch.

“I’m sorry, Sunburst.” Shining sighed, shaking his head with a mournful frown on his face. "I… probably shouldn’t have been poking about your room like that. I just, I dunno, thought it was a really cool blanket?”

Sunburst pursed his lips at this. For the next few moments, he worked his jaw softly as he struggled to find the words to speak. Every time he opened his mouth slightly, it snapped shut with a shaken head.

“It's a cloak, actually.” Sunburst finally decided on. “My favorite cloak. My, um, wizardly cloak. I used to wear it to magic lessons to feel at least a little like I was good at magic. At least, until a group of ponies decided to curse it.”

Suddenly, Shining Armor was glad he dropped the cloak when he did. Looking over at it, he wouldn't have been able to tell it was brimming with any sort of curse. All he'd been able to feel was soft fabric, with no spark of the arcane at all.

“Cursed?” Was all he was able to ask, inching away slightly from the ill-fated fabric.

Sunburst gave a slow, harrowed nod. “Cursed. And by my former classmates, no less. They couldn’t even let me have this one small thing.” He tried to let out a small, calming sigh, but it quickly became a strangled hiccup in his throat as he gripped his bedsheets tight with his hooves. “It’s a curse that bites back against anyone that tries to break it, so no one even tried to help me with it. Even this one filly, best in the entire school, flat out ignored me when I begged her for help.”

Shining was again at a loss for things to say. But, in his silence came action as he slowly approached the distraught Sunburst. Tentatively, he sat on the bed beside him and simply placed a calming hoof on his shoulder.

And Sunburst folded under it, leaning against the hoof with a small yet heavy sigh. “I don't even know why I'm telling you this.” He mumbled, mostly inaudible under his breath. “I suppose you're just the first pony that's been nice to me in… quite some time. Most don't even try to break past my gloomy exterior.”

“I've gotta tell you, it wasn't easy!” Shining joked, but quickly realized that it probably wasn't the time or place. “You're a nice guy, Sunburst. And even if you weren't, that's no excuse for them to curse you in… some way”

Sunburst quickly turned away with a blush. “The brunt of it is that it dampens my mental faculties and gives me immense delusions of grandeur.”

Shining blinked.

“It… made me act like an idiot while convincing me I was the greatest sorcerer in all of Equestria.” Sunburst sighed, his blush growing in intensity as he hid his face in his hooves. “I guess they felt it was a fitting ‘punishment’ for a friendless know-it-all unicorn who can barely do any magic.”

“Aw, come on, I bet you’re plenty good at magic!” Shining smiled, placing a comforting hoof on Sunburst’s shoulder. “You sorta remind me a bit of my little sister in that way. Powerful, but super doubtful in how awesome you guys are.”

Sunburst’s face fell a bit at that, but he smiled slightly as he felt Shining’s hoof on his shoulder. “You’re too kind a friend, Shining, but it’s a bit of a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you about it some other time.” Giving a small yawn, he tried his best to shake off a sudden fit of exhaustion. “I think that outburst of mine may have taken more out of me than I’d expected.”

Standing from Sunburst’s bed with a small laugh, Shining nodded a bit. “Well, I should let you get your rest then. Thanks for having fun with me today, Sunny. I, uh… Hold on.” Approaching his previously discarded bag, he began to root around within it for a moment before drawing out a book. “I got this for you as a thanks for sorta bearing with me today. Hopefully it didn’t get too rained on.”

As Shining hoofed it over quickly, Sunburst was swiftly made the owner of a slightly used, though thankfully not waterlogged, O&O Player’s Handbook. Stunned into silence, in a good way this time, Sunburst looked up at Shining in awe.

“Like I said, the boys and I meet up after school every Monday to play.” Shining said with a shy smile, scratching the back of his neck nervously. “I figured you’d be a great fit at our table. You know, if you’re interested.”

Sunburst squeed. A sharp and high-pitched sound that rang in Shining’s ears as he hugged the gifted book close to his chest. With wide, adoring eyes, Sunburst gleefully nodded. “Absolutely! I’d-I’d love to! Gosh I, um, I don’t think I know how to repay you.”

Shining simply offered a casual smile, opening his mouth to tell Sunburst that the only payment he needed was him having a good time.

But, out of the corner of his eye, he caught another glimpse of the cursed cloak that had troubled Sunburst for so long.

“Let me borrow your cloak for a while.” Shining said suddenly, his eyes now locked on the offending fabric. “My little sister’s a wiz when it comes to magic, and I was thinking that if she took a look at it, maybe she could undo the whole curse deal.”

Sunburst blinked. “I don’t quite understand how that’s me repaying you.”

Approaching the cloak without a care in the world, Shining picked it up with his magic and quickly slid it into his bag. “Well it’ll definitely feel repaid if I get to see Equestria’s Greatest Sorcerer wearing his favorite cloak.”

Sunburst was almost offended at that remark, but seeing the pure and unnaturally eager grin on Shining’s face was enough to convince him that he meant no harm. And so, he just sighed as he was unable to force away the smile and blush that crossed his face. “Just… be careful with it, alright? I don’t want you to get hit by the curse too.”

To this, Shining offered only a sly grin. “Aw, Sunny, don’t worry! I’m probably already too much idiot for this thing to handle.”

Chapter 5 - Reinforcements

“So, what you’re telling me is that you invited this stallion out, delivered him a dorky little gift, and promised to help him solve his sorrowful plight?” Blueblood grinned, clearly fighting back the urge to laugh. “Tell me, how does that not constitute a date?”

Looking at Blueblood’s smug, smirking face told Shining Armor that this may have been a mistake.

It was Monday morning, and he’d dragged himself out of bed early to make it to school as soon as possible. Braving the early morning chill and the horrors of Not Having Breakfast, he had one goal in mind as he trudged to school far before he normally would.

He needed help. With Sunburst.

And Blueblood was one of the best Shining knew for this kind of relationship, barring any nosey love princesses he’d prefer to keep out of it.

And now, sitting in the cold courtyard of Canterlot Academy as he made conversation with Equestria's least favorite ‘prince’, he regretted most every step he'd made on his way to this mistake.

But thankfully Blueblood was a package deal, and Shining was saved from further smuggery as Fancy Pants gave the self-satisfied duke a quick silencing swat to the head.

“Enough, Blue. There’s no reason to embarrass the lad any more than we already have.” Looking to Shining, Fancy Pants offered a calm and cool smile to contrast Blueblood’s. “Now, tell us a bit more about this Sunburst. I take it he’s the frail little stallion that distracted you from our spar?”

Shining nodded, though it was not without an embarrassed blush creeping across his face. “I mean, he’s really nice, and dorky, and a little thoughtful. And I really wanna spend more time with him, but I don’t wanna be weird about it if he’s not interested.”

“Too late!” Blueblood laughed, earning him another quieting nudge from Fancy Pants.

“Well, to my companion’s initial point, it seems the first step has already been taken.” Fancy said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Did Sunburst perhaps show any… romantic interest in you? At all?”

Scratching the back of his head with a growing blush, Shining winced. “Well, I dunno. He got me coffee? Is that anything?”

“Inconclusive. Woefully, sometimes coffee is simply coffee.” Fancy Pants muttered, pursing his lips as he thought harder. “Ah, well, at least we know Sunburst is into stallions. That means you at least have a chance.”

Shining looked away from the pair of stallions, saying nothing.

“We… do know that, yes?” Fancy Pants asked. “Surely we haven’t spent a morning fretting over an incompatible stallion.”

“I didn’t get that far.” Shining admitted after a moment. “We were too busy having fun for me to ask him his preferences, I guess.”

Suddenly, Fancy Pants clapped his hooves with a smirk. “Thus, we have our next step. Confirm whether or not our little Sunburst would even be interested in dating a stallion.” Smirking coyly, his mustache bristling with glee, he turned to Blueblood. “It seems as if we may have competition for Canterlot Academy’s ‘It Couple’ after all. Won’t we, love?”

Blueblood hummed softly, but it transitioned to a gentle laugh as he briefly pressed his lips against Fancy Pants’. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself, my darling. Shiny still has to confirm.” Not taking his eyes off his lover for a moment, the blond stallion simply lazily gestured toward Shining with a hoof. “Any ideas on the how, dear almost-cousin?”

Now it was time for Shining to stroke his chin thoughtfully, humming as he thought long and hard about his predicament.

For a moment, at least. In the end, he just threw his hooves up with an annoyed sigh.

“Oh, I dunno.” Shining grunted, crossing his forelegs beneath him. “Maybe I’ll just ask him after O&O with the boys tonight.”

“Oho? Another date?” Blueblood asked teasingly, a grin creeping across his face as he leaned in towards Shining.

Despite his previous reactions, Fancy Pants simply smiled down at his lover. “As I said, he’s giving us a run for our money.” With a cat-like smirk, he leaned down and returned Blueblood’s kiss eagerly. “With date quantity, at least. You do always manage to bring out the quality, my little Chicory.”

Just as Shining was about to, quite correctly, insist that an O&O date was as quality as possible, a voice appeared from behind him. This one far more feminine than Shining’s or Fancy’s, and only a dash more than Blueblood’s.

“What’cha guys talking about?”

Whipping his head around, Shining saw Cadance had somehow appeared behind him while he wasn’t paying attention. As he stared at the mare’s smiling yet tired face, he wasn’t sure whether it was worse that she was the Princess of Love or his ex-girlfriend.

Either way, he knew better than to talk about his romantic life around her. She could get a tad bit… overinvolved. As such, he didn’t feel the most comfortable talking about it around her until he figured everything out.

And, as such, Shining quickly scrambled to come up with a cover story.

“O-oh nothing! We were just talking about, uh,” Shining quickly looked to Blueblood and Fancy Pants, “Boys?”

Damn it.

Cadance gave a soft, light chuckle as she settled down in her usual place beside Shining. “Oh, so more of the same? Any stallions in particular?” Shooting a glance to Shining directly, she grinned very coyly. “Sunburst, perhaps?”

Standing up suddenly, Shining gave a brief, abrupt, bark of a laugh as he turned to face away from his three companions. “You know what? I think I heard the bell! I should probably get to class.”

Cadance blinked. “I don’t think I-”

Grabbing at one of the many magic-activated school bells littered around in his own magic, Shining forced it to make some sort of sound.

“Yep, there it was! I must be psychic. Anyway, I’ll see you in class, Cady! And Blueblood?” Shining squinted down at the royal stallion as he barely fought off the need to laugh. “Remember, I know where you live.”

Open laughter followed Shining as he made his dignified exit. But it was fine, he told himself, as at least he’d soon be able to see the shy smile of Sunburst, and maybe be able to use what little help he really got from Fancy Pants and Blueblood.

Or so it seemed.

As Shining arrived to his AP History class, the one class he shared with Sunburst, later in the day he saw that the seat normally occupied by the orange stallion was notably empty. Sitting in his own seat, Cadance taking the seat to his right as per usual, he couldn’t manage to break his focus on the empty seat.

This focus maintained throughout the class, whatever it was Ms. Copper Vase was teaching fading to the background entirely. Ruler slams and teacherly talkings to notwithstanding.

As the bell rang to signal the end of the class, Shining bolted up from his seat, only to be pulled back down by his tail.

Undoing her magic’s hold, Cadance turned to Shining with a concerned look. “Dude, what’s your deal today? You’ve just been staring at Sunburst’s desk for like an hour now.”

Shining blinked. “Oh, I was just… wondering where Sunburst was.”

“He’s sick. If he’s smart, he’s probably still in his dorm.” Cadance said, followed by a bit of an annoyed sigh. “Ms. Vase told us when class started, told you when she caught you staring. Were you not paying attention?”

Shining blinked again. A few times. When done exercising his eyelids, he looked off to the side with a light blush and pursed lips. “I guess not? I’ve been a little… distracted.” He gave a lingering, embarrassed glance towards Sunburst’s desk once again.

But then his eyes lit up as the hamster wheel in his brain began to spin. “Oh! So I’ll just head to his dorm!” He exclaimed with a big grin. “I bet he’ll be happy to see me.”

As Shining trotted off excitedly to visit Sunburst, Cadance took off too. She tried her best to chase down the stallion, with his guard-trained speed and stamina, but was only able to shout out as she lagged behind.

“Shining wait! We still have class!”

Regrettably, Cadance was right. It was probably best to stay in school until the end of the day.

Though, in the end, it wasn’t through the call of studiousness that convinced Shining to stay his quick exit. Instead, it was only being reminded that today was enchilada day in the cafeteria.

And Shining Armor was not about to miss out on enchilada day in the cafeteria.

But after gorging himself on as many enchiladas as he could before the lunch ladies cut him off, and somehow making it through three more classes after that, school ended and Shining was free to move as he wanted. And all he wanted to do was head over to Sunburst’s dorm.

After a quick pit stop at the local drugstore, at least.

But either way, Shining found himself standing in front of the door of Sunburst's dorm room like the day before. Only this time far less soaked and far more alone.

And he had snacks.

After taking a moment to brace himself, part of him fearing that the tiny unicorn just might not be a fan of random drop-ins, Shining knocked on the door.

A sharp, loud yelp followed immediately after, itself followed by the sounds of a pony scrambling nervously. But that ended as Shining could then hear a hurried gallop towards the door.

The door cracked open slightly, one tired and bleary blue eye looking out into the world. “H-hello?” Sunburst croaked as his eye tried to adjust to the light.

Focusing on Shining after a few moments of blinking, his eyes widened in shock as he jumped slightly and let out another yelp.

A large grin pulling across Shining's face, he wasn't able to hold back from laughing a bit. “Good morning to you too, Sunny! I, uh, heard you were sick, so I sorta got you a few things.” Though still smiling, an embarrassed blush bloomed across his face as he hoofed over the small bag he'd gotten from the drugstore.

Feeling obligated to take it, Sunburst grabbed the bag in hoof and took a quick peek inside. As he did, a gentle blush coated his face as his ears folded back. “Oh, um, thank you for thinking of me, but…” He hesitated for a moment, breathing out a soft sigh. “Today was mostly a mental health day, not a physical one. I suppose yesterday took a bit more out of me than I expected.”

“Oh, I, uh,” a frown pulled across Shining’s face as he looked away, “Sorry if yesterday was a little too much.”

Eyes widening with shock, Sunburst was quick to wave the notion away. “Oh no, I had a great time yesterday!” He flashed an uneasy smile, scratching the back of his head with a hoof. “I just, I don’t know, haven’t had much in the way of social interaction recently. That battery got quickly drained, I suppose.”

There was a moment of silence between them, Sunburst letting out a sigh as Shining thought on exactly how to fix this.

But Sunburst beat him to it, offering a shy smile as he gestured inwards towards his dorm. “Well, I still appreciate that you came all this way. Would you like to come in for a bit?”

A wide grin spreading across his face, Shining eagerly nodded. “Sure! I, uh…” Lighting his horn, he pulled another plastic bag out of his saddlebag, this one chock full of various bags of chips. “I brought snacks!”

Sunburst let out a warm laugh as he turned and left his doorway, turning his head to look back at Shining with a cheeky smirk. “A bit presumptuous, don’t you think? Or did you just know I’d be happy to see you?”

Shining gave a quick chuckle in response. “Of course you’d be happy!” He said with an easy grin, following Sunburst into his dorm room. “But nah, this is mostly for O&O later tonight.”

“Ooh, I almost forgot about that! I hope there’s, um, still room for me at the table.” Sunburst scratched the back of his neck nervously with a hoof as he sat down at his desk. “It’s fine if there isn’t, but I did spend a lot of last night preparing the Perfect Character Sheet.”

“Of course there’s room for you, dude! If anything there’s… probably a bit too much room.” Shining breathed out a sigh at that. “Any chance you rolled up a healer? Gizmo caught a cold, so we're down our cleric.”

Looking down at his neat and proper character sheet, Sunburst let out a small sigh as he set it to the side. “Oh, well, I suppose I could rethink my barbarian.” He said, with no lack of a grumble.

Approaching from behind and staring over Sunburst’s shoulder, Shining hummed softly. “Well, it’ll totally work for when Gizmo can play again, but until then…” He trailed off in thought for a moment, his eyes scrolling across Sunburst’s desk.

After a moment, his eyes finally landed on a deck of cards with a single card set aside next to them: The Knight of Swords,

“Oh hey, that’s those tarot thingies!” Shining grinned, looking the cards over with a mix of excitement and confusion, taking special interest in the one set aside. “Ooh, what’s that one? Is it your future, Sunny?”

Sunburst’s face flashed red with a blush as he quickly scooped up the card and shuffled it into the deck. “I, um, yes? Usually I pull a card a day to see what the day ahead will be like.” Looking away for a moment, he kept shuffling nervously. “It’s… a bit private, however.”

“Well, do you wanna do mine?”

Sunburst blinked, tilting his head slightly before his eyes brightened with recognition. “Oh, I did promise to do a reading for you, didn’t I?” He thought for another moment, then stood from his desk while taking his tarot deck with him. “Well, follow me to the table, and maybe I can give it a shot.”

The two stallions quickly moved to Sunburst’s black table, both taking seats opposite from each other as they kneeled on the carpeted floor. For a long moment, Sunburst avoided looking across the table at Shining as he still nervously shuffled his cards.

“So, um, I think I’ll just do a simple three-card reading, if that’s fine.” Sunburst said, his voice a bit more nervous and frenetic than usual. “The first thing I’m going to need you to do is shuffle these cards for me.”

Sunburst offered over the cards for a moment, but pulled his offering as he saw Shining’s horn light to grab them. “Oh, um, you have to shuffle with your hooves. It’s the only way they can get… attuned…. to you.”

Shining couldn’t help but chuckle a little as he saw Sunburst’s ears fold back as he said that. Still, flashing a friendly grin, he accepted the cards in his hooves and began to shuffle.

It was a slow, unsteady shuffle, with Shining almost dropping the deck multiple times. But it worked. And Shining set it on the table in front of them with a slight grin.

“Alright, what’s next?” He asked, a bit excited as he looked to Sunburst for further instruction.

Sunburst hummed gently, thinking for another moment, then set a hoof atop the deck. “Well next, I’ll deal you out three cards. These cards represent your past,” he set one card out, closest to the deck, “your present,” another card, right beside it, “and your future.”

As Sunburst set out the last card, both stallions stared at the set of three for a brief second.

Scratching the back of his neck, Sunburst sighed. “It’s been a while since I’ve read these for others, so just, um, bear with me?”

“You’re already doin’ great!” Shining said with a smile. “So, I guess we start with my past? I mean, I already know what happened there, right?”

“I’d hope so!” Sunburst said with a bit of a nervous laugh, then moved his hoof to hover over the first card he’d set down. “But yes, this card will represent your past.”

Flipping it over, Sunburst revealed a card depicting a simple scene of two swords crossed over in battle with a black sun hanging overhead.

Seeing this, Sunburst hummed thoughtfully. “The Two of Swords, huh?”

Shining let out a small, surprised laugh. “Woah, that’s cool. That’s totally about my swordfight with Fancy, right? I mean, it’s our swords crossed, and that cool sun in the middle is even, uh…” His eyes briefly flicked up towards Sunburst.

Then he looked away.

Not noticing, Sunburst let out a laugh of his own. “Oh, well, the cards aren’t usually that specific. Usuallly this card is emblematic of being at a crossroads. Difficult decisions to be made.” Pursing his lips, Sunburst shrugged. “But, if it’s in your past, then I suppose that means you’ve worked past it. At least, I hope so.”

“Well, the last hard decision I had to make was about me and Cadance.” Shining pursed his lips, breathing out an uncomfortable sigh for a moment, but moving on as he looked back to Sunburst. “Well, that’s still a bit weird. What comes next though?”

“Well next comes the present… um, obviously.” Sunburst shook his head, hovering a hoof over the next card. “Your present in particular is…”

Flipping over this card, Sunburst revealed the scene of a stoic young stallion in flashy robes standing on his hindlegs in a desolate landscape, his stance bolstered by a long staff to hold him upright as he looks upwards at the stars. Beneath the image, it read ‘Page of Wands’.

“Ooh, a court card!” Sunburst said, excitement clear in his voice. “So, um, I was always told that court cards represent a key person in your life rather than a concept. If they’re the Page of Wands, then they’d most likely be someone with a bright future ahead of them, but perhaps hasn’t taken many steps towards it.

“Still though, probably very excitable when you get them talking about any of their goals or interests though.” Sunburst finished with a spritely laugh. “Think that reminds you of anyone?”

“Oh, well, uh…” Shining looked away with a blush. “I can probably think of someone.”

“Your sister, right?” Sunburst asked. “She seems like she’d fit the bill, at least.”

Shining scratched the back of his head with a strange smile. “Ssssomething like that, I guess. So, what’s the next card?”

Sunburst nodded along, holding his hoof over the next one. “Well, this has been going over well so far, so let’s hope for a bright future.”

As Sunburst turned over the last card, Shining was shocked to see what it displayed.

A hooded grim reaper stared back at Shining with blazing lights in their eye sockets, holding their long scythe aloft behind them while the full moon blazed overhead.

Beneath, it read ‘XIII - Death’.

Shining couldn’t help but jump from his seat, his heart skipping a beat as he stared at this clear bad omen. He looked to Sunburst with fear.

Only to see the orange stallion staring impassively, a small sly smile on his face. Curious at this, Shining settled down and sat back down in front of Sunburst.

“Give it to me straight doc, does this mean what I think it means?” Looking down at the card on the table, the spirit of death still staring mockingly back at him, he looked back up at Sunburst with a bit of fear. “Does this mean I’m gonna, like, die?”

“Well, unless you’re one of the princesses, I think that part is inevitable!” Sunburst said, somehow cheerfully, but his face fell a bit as he saw the face Shining gave him. “W-well, um, Death isn’t exactly a signifier of that. It’s more the end of a phase of your life and moving onto the next.”

Shining thought on that for a moment, going silent, then sighed. “Well, that’s not very specific, is it?”

“Nope! But at least it doesn’t mean you’re dying!” Sunburst said with a chuckle that, if Shining didn’t know any better, would seem ominous. “Well, that’s what we have The Tower for. Anyway, I-”

Before he could finish his thought, Sunburst was quickly interrupted by the strong sound of vibration. It shocked both stallions, making both jump a bit, before both turned to the source of the sound in Shining’s saddlebag.

After a moment of realization, Shining blushed sheepishly. “Ah heck, sorry, that was my pager.”

Shining rifled through his saddlebag for a moment before pulling out a folded sheet of vibrating paper, though one Sunburst could tell had far more enchantments than just that, and opened it up to read.

“Ah, 8-Bit just wrote that he’s gonna start setting up the classroom for O&O soon.” Settling back down into his seat across from Sunburst, he sighed. “I better go help him, or he might start poking through the minifigs I set aside for tonight’s session.”

“Well, you should probably go stop him then.” Sunburst giggled softly.

But neither stallion moved. Instead, they both stayed looking at each other bashfully for another moment.

But then Shining cracked a grin, scratching the back of his head with a bit of a laugh. “Weeeeeell, seeing as you don’t know we host our games, maybe we could, uh, walk together? And talk about your character?”

“I’ll go grab my stuff.” Sunburst grinned, already quickly moving back to his desk to gather. “How would you feel if I were to make a Paladin?”

Chapter 6 - Romp

While the Canterlot Academy campus was briefly lit up by their conversation of spell slots and party compositions, the two stallions’ lively chat quickly tapered off as they reached their destination.

The problem came when they arrived at Ms. Copper Vase’s classroom, the home for any Ogres and Oubliettes playing at Canterlot Academy, only to see two stallions had gotten there before them.

The first was a light grey pegasus who stood over a large table sitting at the center of the classroom, setting up a few chairs for the players as well as maps, dice, figures, and other Dungeoneering Supplies.

The other was sat in one of the seats set up, a bright orange unicorn with familiar white markings who seemed more interested with the sheets sat in front of him than anything his friend was doing.

But both of them looked up at Shining and Sunburst as they graced the doorway to the classroom.

Shining entered first, a large grin on his face as he quickly removed his saddlebag and tossed it onto the table. “Boys! It is time to induct another young adventurer into our troupe of merry stallions!” Turning to Sunburst behind him, Shining gestured to him broadly and with more theatrics than expected. “This… is Sunburst. And this is his first O&O experience, so please go easy on him.”

Sunburst gave a quick, shy wave as he cautiously entered the room to stick very close to Shining.

“And Sunburst, these are our more seasoned adventurers. First, we have our trusty 8-Bit.” Shining gestured towards the grey pegasus. “Never misses a session, unlike someponies, but always manages to make the strangest characters.”

“There was nothing wrong with my kobold barbarian, you’re just wrong in general.” 8-Bit scowled over at Shining, but as his gaze turned to Sunburst his expression warmed and he waved kindly. “Hiya, Sunburst. I’d say I’ve only heard good things, but I don’t think Shining said anything about you.”

“Obviously, I’ve just been prepping him in secret, just like whatever horror you’ve cooked up for tonight’s one-shot.” Shining’s eyes narrowed at 8-Bit for a moment, but he quickly moved onto gesturing towards the other stallion. “And this is Gaffer. Used to be our Forever DM, but today is finally letting someone else give it a go.”

Gaffer shrugged, an easy grin pulling across his face. “I wouldn’t have to do it if you guys were better at it! I mean, remember when Gizmo gave it a go?” The orange stallion shuddered, then looked onto Sunburst with a smirk. “Aaaanyway, good to meet you, Sunburst! Nice to finally meet another dappled stallion in the wild.”

Sunburst blushed at all of this sudden attention, looking down towards his dappled hooves and shifting uncomfortably on them for a moment. “Oh, um, it’s nice to meet you both. I hope you don’t mind my joining today.”

“Oh, ‘course they don’t mind.” Shining said with a laugh, clapping him gently on the shoulder. “So, how’s about we get started? I’m sure you’re all interested in what I’ve cooked up.”

Sunburst breathed a sigh of relief at that.

The stallions all gathered around the table, 8-Bit and Sunburst finding their seats next to Gaffer while Shining took his behind the DM screen at the head of the table.

As the other three stallions began to set out various dice trays, dice, sheets of paper, and cards, Sunburst looked on with both vested interest and discomfort as he had little to do.

That was, at least, until 8-Bit looked over at him and slid over a small tray with glittering blue dice.

“Shining didn’t even get you a set of dice?” 8-Bit asked, a glint in his purple eyes as he smirked. “What a dork!”

“That’s King Dork to you, 8-Bit.” Shining sighed as he moved papers around behind his screen. “So, I think the best way to start off is introduce your characters, then we can go from there. Sunny, as our newest member, would you like to go first?”

“Oh, um, sure.” Sunburst mumbled as he stared down at his character sheet, all knowledge of what was on it disappearing as soon as Shining asked the question. “Well, um, I’m playing an Elf-Unicorn Paladin named-”

“Hold on, hold on.” Gaffer interrupted the nervous unicorn as he spoke, waving a hoof. “Hate to say it, but that’s not quite how we do things around here.”

8-Bit nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I wouldn’t say we’re, like, a roleplay-heavy group or anything. But we do try to get into character a little bit.” Thinking for a moment, putting a hoof to his chin, he hummed. “Like, for example…”

8-Bit’s relaxed posture shifted, instead sitting up straight in his chair and glaring down at the other ponies at the table, a smug smirk pulling across his face. “My name is Proufessour Couttenswourth the Gilded.” He said tersely, his voice rough and affected with an overly exaggerated Trottingham accent. “My single goal is to find popularity for my work and then, perhaps, regard those beneath me as irrelevant.”

“More like Cottonsworth the Gelded.” Gaffer snickered to himself, the rest of the table rolling their eyes. “As for myself…”

To contrast 8-Bit, Gaffer instead curled in on himself. Leaning forwards in his seat, he looked between Sunburst and 8-Bit quickly. “The name’s Scratch, and that’s what I’m tryin’ to make.” He said, his words quick with a nervous energy and tainted by a Manehattan-esque accent. “Get in the way of that, and you’re gonna get The Claws.” As he said that, he whipped his hooves out in such a way to symbolize sharp claws.

And now, all eyes fell on Sunburst, who was torn between cringing hard at this or rushing out of the room with his tail between his legs. But, as he turned to look at Shining, seeing the stallion’s soft and calming smile as he gestured Sunburst on, he began to feel at least a little bit calmer.

Sunburst took a breath, breathing in deep as he puffed out his chest. He looked at the two characters before him and let out a small sigh. “I’m, uh, Glittering Shield.” He said, making an attempt to bring his voice down lower. “I guess I’m… mostly trying to protect as many ponies as possible?”

There was a moment of silence as Gaffer and 8-Bit looked at each other.

But then both nodded in approval simultaneously, assuaging any of Sunburst’s fear.

“Awesome! With that, let’s get into tonight’s game.” Shining said, grinning over at Sunburst with all of his pride. “So, the three of you begin your adventure in a tavern, called by a mysterious stallion…”

Hours later, after a series of adventures and misadventures between the four stallions, the session of fun and merriment finally drew to a close.

Gaffer and 8-Bit were the first to leave after, both citing the fact that they’d been the ones to set up for reason to leave before cleaning. This just left Shining and Sunburst alone to take care of it.

Not that either stallion minded a bit.

Sunburst hummed gently to himself as he wiped down the table they were using of crumbs, soda residue, and various other stains. As he did that, Shining was gently putting away all of the O&O supplies back in the locked cabinets of Ms. Copper Vase’s classroom.

“So…” Shining started as he cradled the large minifigure of a Tarrasque, moving it also to the locked cabinets. “Did you have fun?”

Sunburst jumped a bit at the question, but was unable to keep the shy grin from his face. “Of course! It, um, started off a bit weird, but I definitely enjoyed myself!” He giggled gleefully, tapping his hooves on the table. “I’d be happy to join again if you guys are interested.”

Sitting down opposite Sunburst, Shining shot him a grin. “Well yeah! You're totally one of us now!” Shining giggled himself, grinning even wider at Sunburst. “I mean, you were even the one to solve my Soup Puzzle. And you were only slightly weirded out when the shopkeeper started to flirt with you.”

Sunburst let out a surprised little laugh. “W-well, we really did need those discounts.” He smiled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. “It was a bit… interesting to be able to flirt with someone for once. Even if I knew it wouldn’t really fail.”

Shining hummed. “Well, it still musta been weird to flirt at me, even if I was playing a mare.”

“Oh no, I, um…” Sunburst stared down at his hooves, returning to tapping them on the table’s surface nervously. “I didn’t mind it.”

A slightly tense silence formed between the two stallions for a moment, Sunburst looking away from Shining with a blush while Shining stared pensively at Sunburst.

Taking a breath to calm the tension, Shining leaned in towards Sunburst. “Sunny, are you-”

“Into stallions?” Sunburst interrupted tersely, his lips pursed. But he let out a sigh a moment later, his shoulders slumping and ears folding back. “I mean, I guess? It’s… not something I’ve put a lot of thought into. But I suppose I’ve always found stallions a bit.. enticing?”

“I know what you mean.” Shining said simply, smiling a small, shy smile at Sunburst.

Sunburst blinked. “You, um… you do?”

“I do! I’ve, uh- Well, there’s been a few stallions I’ve liked in the past.” Shining said nervously, briefly looking away from Sunburst with a blush. But, he turned back to look Sunburst in the eyes moments later. “Recently there’s been a certain stallion who I’ve, uh…”

Trailing his sentence off uncomfortably, Shining hid his face in his hooves and groaned rather than finish it. “Ugh, this is so dumb. I’m gonna start over.” Taking a deep breath, then letting it out as a sigh, Shining removed his face from his hooves to look at a blushing Sunburst once again. “Sunny, I like you. And I like spending time with you. I dunno if you’d be interested, but I’d really like to go to that bookstore with you again, and maybe, I dunno, grab some lunch after?”

“Y-yes!” Sunburst said almost immediately, his face lighting with an even brighter blush. “Yes, yes, absolutely yes. We can even go to that cafe I told you about. They have a very lovely hayfry recipe.”

“Just let me order my own coffee this time?” Shining asked with a soft chuckle. His posture relaxed considerably as he leaned back in his chair, breathing out a heavy sigh. “That was way easier than I thought it would be.”

Sunburst opened his mouth to respond in kind, but was interrupted by a flash of green light between them.

From nowhere, green dragonfire briefly plumed in front of Shining Armor. It circled for a moment, then took form into the shape of a simple scroll wrapped in blue cloth.

In contrast to Sunburst’s clear shock at these events, Shining simply took the note in hoof and read its contents.

‘mom says bring home eggs’

Laughing a bit, Shining quickly scribbled out a response on the same paper and sent it off with another plume of fire. “Well, I guess Twily’s home.”

Still staring in shock, Sunburst finally managed to tear his eyes away from where the fire had appeared and looked over to Shining. “Your sister is quite theatrical with her messaging, isn’t she?”

Shining tilted his head questioningly at that, but quickly brightened as he realized what Sunburst meant. “Oh no! She just sends all her messages through our littlest brother!”

Sunburst blinked again. “So your little sister, you’ve said, is strong enough to break special-grade curses. Meanwhile your even younger brother can seemingly apport objects with dragonfire?” Shaking his head, Sunburst fought back the urge to laugh. “You have quite the interesting family, Shining.”

“Yep, I really do.” Shining said, flashing a large and prideful grin. “Hey, if you ever wanna meet them, you could always come over for dinner some day!”

At that, Sunburst briefly blushed hard enough to momentarily fry his brain.

Taking no notice, Shining Armor stood from his seat and quickly shook off the aches and pains of a long night of dungeon crawling. “Well, I should probably hit up the shops before they close. Want me to walk you back to your dorm?”

Standing as well, Sunburst was mostly thankful for the quick change in subject. “Oh, no. I couldn’t possibly take up more of your time.” Slowly approaching the door, though not a part of him wanting to leave yet, he looked back at Shining with a soft smile. “I had a lot of fun tonight. I’ll, um, see you tomorrow?”

Shining Armor beamed. “Totally! I hope you walk safe.”

Not too many minutes later, after his quick detour to the shopping district, Shining Armor finally arrived home with a sigh.

He wasted no time in dropping off his package of eggs on the kitchen counter, dodging most attempts for his mother to ask how his day went. Normally he’d wish to chat with her for at least an hour or two, especially about tonight, but he couldn’t waste the time.

No, he had promises to fulfill.

In the bedroom down the hall, the one opposite his own, he could already feel the thrumming sense of arcane potential emanating from it. One that had been missing for so long.

Twilight really was home.

Quickly grabbing Sunburst’s cloak, sealed tight in plastic wrap, from his own room, Shining moved to knock on his little sister’s door.

And, after a moment, he knocked again.

And again a moment later.

“I’m coming!” Twilight cried through the door, though Shining only began to hear movement quite a few moments later.

The sound of lightly stomping hooves soon followed, so angry and yet… so adorable as they tried to make that anger known. Shining had to fight off the urge to giggle as only a true big brother could.

The door opened, just a crack, and Twilight peered one purple eye out. “What do you want?”

To this, Shining simply smiled down at his little sister. “What, can’t an older brother just welcome his favorite little sis home?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, her expression remaining neutral. “I’m your only little sister, Shining.”

“I dunnoooo~” Shining said coyly. “I’ve seen how you and Spike like to dress up! Maybe he could be my favorite little sister instead.”

This brought a smile, though very small, to Twilight’s face. She may have still rolled her eyes, but she pulled the door open to fully regard her older brother.

Only to recoil as she saw what he carried with him. “Oh, dear Celestia, what is that?” She asked as she leaned away, then leaned forwards to inspect the packaged cloak on Shining’s back.

“Heh, figures you could already tell.” Shining laughed slightly. “A friend of mine got himself cursed, and I was hoping you could do me a favor…?”

Twilight’s eyes remained locked on the package. “Favors come free. You know my price by now.”

Shining sighed, rolling his eyes. “Two books.”

“Three.” Twilight responded, smugly smirking up at her older brother. “Or you can find another unicorn strong enough to break curses.”

“Two books.” Shining repeated, a bit sterner this time. “Aaaand I’ll take you and Spike out for ice cream this weekend.”

Twilight thought on this for a moment, really considering the offer and any wagers she could make.

“Deal.” She finally decided, the lure of free ice cream far stronger than anything she could have asked for. “Give it here, and I’ll see what I can do.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Twi.” Shining smiled as he hoofed over the cursed cloak. Though, as it passed into Twilight’s possession, his smile took on an air of unease. “Just, you know, be careful.”

This earned him another eye roll from Twilight. “I know what I’m doing!” She grumbled, then turned her attention to the cloak itself. She inspected it with great interest, poking at it through its plastic prison. “It’s a pretty tight curse. The pony who made it, whoever they were, definitely knew what they were doing.”

Her eyes narrowed briefly, then her expression changed momentarily to one Shining couldn’t quite discern.

Twilight quickly pulled the cloak into her room, sliding it out of view as she forced a smile up at Shining. “I’ll, uh, I’ll take care of it!” She said.

And then she stepped back and slammed the door between her and Shining.

Shining blinked briefly, then pressed himself closer to the door. “Thank you, Twilight!” He cried.

Chapter 7 - Reflection

The next morning, Shining Armor awoke to a banging on his door. Not a gentle knock like his father would use to remind him of school, or the more stern rap his mother would give moments later. No, this was a serious and hefty banging that resonated throughout Shining Armor’s room and shook the walls forming it.

And yet, it still took two attempts to wake the sleeping stallion up.

But up Shining Armor did get, rolling out of his warm and cozy bed and into the harsh and blustering chill of a cold winter’s morning. And he grumbled to himself every step of the way to the door.

His tune quickly changed for the better, however, when he opened the door to see a tiny purple baby dragon staring up at him. Although he became conflicted once he saw the familiar cloak wrapped around him, clasped at his neck and dragging on the ground.

But Spike paid neither curse nor worried expressions any mind, instead rushing up to Shining with a bright and shiny grin. “Shiny! You’re home!” He cried as he hugged one of Shining’s forelegs with a giggling squeak. “I missed you.”

“Aw, I missed you too, little guy.” Shining smiled softly as he brought a hoof up to gently ruffle Spike’s head spines. Despite the loving embrace, Shining was still unable to stop looking at Spike’s strange choice in fashion. “So, uh, where’d you get the cloak?”

Spike pulled back from Shining, crossing his arms indignantly. “It’s not a cloak! Cloaks are dumb!” He said, puffing out his cheeks to show his clear anger at the mistake. “It’s my super cool Super-Spike cape! Twilight gave it to me.”

Slinking out from the shadows, somehow in a well-lit hallway, Twilight stared at Shining with tired, darkly ringed eyes. “I let him wear it so that I could see if I broke the curse or not.”

Shining blinked, then looked down at Spike with shock and concern. But, he was at least a little relieved when he only saw Spike giggling as he extended his cape, making soft whooshing sounds as he moved about the room.

Smiling triumphantly, though letting out a yawn to taint the smug grin, Twilight shrugged. “Well, looks like it worked. Unless that friend of yours was cursed to act like a Superdork.”

Shining pursed his lips. On one hoof he had to admit that Spike was being very adorable, but on the other hoof this was very…

“Wreckless.” Shining said as he looked down at Twilight, a small scowl forming on his face. “What if you didn’t break the curse, or if it effected dragons differently, or-”

“Well I did, and it doesn’t.” Twilight said indignantly, stomping a hoof as she interrupted Shining. “So stop complaining and take back your dumb friend’s dumb cloak.”

Both siblings took a moment to look back into Shining’s room, where they could both see Spike giggling happily as he bounced on Shining’s bed and flapped his new cape.

Shining quickly felt very apprehensive in separating his littlest sibling from his new favorite toy.

Twilight, however, did not have the same qualms. Instead, she waved to garner Spike’s attention. “Spiiiike! I think Mom said she’d let you help with the pancakes.” She said with a coy smirk. “Maybe if you’re quick enough, you can convince her to add some chocolate!”

Spike’s eyes went wide, glittering with galaxies as he considered exactly what else he could add to those pancakes. Drooling openly at the thought of gem pancakes, the baby dragon bounced himself off of Shining’s bed in a mad dash to reach the kitchen before it was too late.

It was as Spike passed that Twilight flicked her magic out at him, casually unclasping the cloak around his neck and letting it fall to the floor. Spike himself paid it no mind, having moved on from his cape in favor of delicious pancakes.

Scooping it up from the ground, Twilight tossed the cloak over to Shining with little fanfare. “There. That’s my half of the deal. I expect our ice cream this weekend.”

Shining regarded the cloak for a moment after he caught it. It was soft and warmer than expected. The type of cloth that you’d more likely want to use as a blanket rather than a cloak.

At least, that’s what Shining told himself as the feeling of it made him want to curl up back in bed with it and perhaps escape from the cold for a while.

But alas, that was not allowed. Instead, he looked down at Twilight with a bemused smirk. “Let’s just head down for breakfast, and maybe we’ll talk about ice cream later.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but walked off towards the kitchen despite it. Left alone because of this, Shining let out a small sigh and turned to gently place Sunburst’s cloak onto his saddlebag, in the process transforming it from a ball of fabric into a lovingly folded garment.

And then he went to have pancakes with his family. And they were good.

At school, Shining had to deal with the unfortunate feeling of having overindulged in pancakes, ever increased by his little brother’s own overindulgence in adding as many chocolate chips as he could.

As he lay in his usual spot in the courtyard, beside Cadance and across from the canoodling couple of Blueblood and Fancy Pants, he could hardly keep a focus on the conversation at hoof.

“Ah, so you’ve finally listened to Blueblood and I’s suggestions.” Fancy Pants said with a smug smile, clapping his hooves in slow applause. “Congratulations on securing a date of your own, my eternal rival.”

“I can’t believe you tried to hide it from me!” Cadance cried as she knocked a hoof gently into Shining’s shoulder. “You got these two goofuses to play wingmare instead.”

“Hey, no hard feelings.” Shining said with a pained smile. “You just sorta have a habit of-”

“Omigosh! Where are you even taking him? Is it, like, a casual date? A serious date? A serious casual date?” Cadance asked, pulling out a notebook emblazoned with ‘In Case of Shining Date (with stallion)’ and tearing it open wildly. “Okay so if you’re going out this weekend then the ideal time is Sunday afternoon, during which you’ll spend roughly 45 minutes walking through the park until you both get hungry. And then…”

“Oh, well that does sound lovely, but I’m not sure I could handle a park for more than a few minutes.”

All eyes turned to the sound of a newcomer, one who all of whom had been too wrapped up in their conversations to notice.

At all of this newfound attention, Sunburst blushed heavily and scratched the back of his head nervously. “I try to not get out too much. Grass can be… terribly itchy.”

“Sunny!” Shining cried upon seeing his favorite orange, dappled stallion (sorry Gaffer). Immediately, he pat a hoof on the empty space on the blanket beside him. “Hey, c’mon and meet my other friends. Though, I guess you and Cadance already met.”

Sunburst’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the pink mare waving at him. “Oh, I, um, I did?” He asked nervously as he settled down beside Shining and stared at her. On a whim, he briefly lowered his glasses and squinted over them, at which his eyes brightened. “Oh! You’re the mare who tried to show me around the school. Um, hello, I suppose!”

“Oh, we’re his other friends now, are we?” Fancy Pants mustache bristled as he grinned down at Blueblood. “I suppose that means the roving band of adventurers leveled up indeed.”

Rolling his eyes, Shining gestured towards Fancy. “And you’ve already seen Fancy Pants before.”

“You were in the audience for Shining’s defeat by my hoof, yes? I meant to thank you for the assist.” Fancy Pants smirked coyly at Sunburst for a moment, but quickly turned his attention back to Blueblood. “And this delicate little flower of a stallion is the love of my life, The Grandest Duke of Equestria, Prince Blueblood.”

While Blueblood did blush a bit at the lavishness of his introduction, he didn’t display it in his casual smirk as he leaned over Fancy Pants to fully regard Sunburst. “Oh, it is an absolute pleasure.” He crooned, his smile already turning a bit predatory as he crossed his hooves beneath his chin. “Shining here has told us quite a lot about you.”

“Oh, um…” ‘Sunburst stammered a moment as his pre-existing blush grew brighter still. Despite this, he forced a shy smile. “Well, I hope that it wasn’t anything too bad.”

“Oh, not at all! Only the sweetest things.” Cadance cut in quickly, before Blueblood could tease any further as that smirk grew across his face. “He’s been pretty enthusiastic about talking about his new nerdy buddy though.”

“Though he certainly undersold just how adorable his new beau is.” Fancy Pants crooned, smirking wryly down at Blueblood. “It seems as if I was correct about them being good competition.”

“They look cute together, I suppose.” Blueblood said with a huff, pursing his lips in a pout. “But we’ll see if they stand up to the best.”

“Oh, there’s no need for the jealousy, little Chicory.” Fancy Pants laughed a bit haughtily. “They still have that new relationship glow, so we shall see indeed.”

Rolling her eyes, Cadance was quick to wave off their words with a hoof. “Don’t listen to them, they’re rich.” She said, smiling sympathetically towards Sunburst. “They used to do the same when Shining and I were dating too.”

Sunburst blinked as he looked between a casually smiling Cadance and a Shining whose face had lit up with a blush as blinding as Sunburst’s own. “You two… used to date?” Looking at Shining a bit more pointedly after, a strangely meek expression pulled across his face. “You, um, dated the actual Princess of Love?”

“Only for a few months!” Shining admitted sheepishly.

“After which he cruelly broke poor Cadance’s heart” Fancy Pants sighed dramatically, pressing a hoof to his chest in mock pain.

“After which I figured out I was more into stallions.” Shining corrected with a scowl towards the posh, mustached stallion. “I think Cadance and I make better friends anyway.”

“You’d be surprised how often it happens.” Cadance admitted, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s a Love Princess thing, I think. Ponies just can’t help but be attracted to me, even if I’m not really their type.”

Sunburst found that he could attest to that.

“Such a tragically horrible curse to be adored by all.” Fancy Pants again sighed dramatically, though his true feelings were belied in his toothy grin. He turned to look at Sunburst with this same grin. “So, when will you two be joining Blue and I for a double date? I would certainly love to get to know you better, Sunburst.”

“And if you need to borrow a suit, I can provide. We look to be the same size anyhow.” Blueblood said, peering over at Sunburst and inspecting him closely. “Though we may have to let it out just a bit, and perhaps a shave would be in order?” Blueblood thought openly, bringing a hoof up to his chin.

Shining Armor opened his mouth to defend Sunburst.

But he was quickly cut off as Sunburst himself rose from his position beside Shining. “S-sorry, I forgot that I have to be, um, somewhere else right now!”

Shining watched on as Sunburst quickly trotted off without further explanation. And as Sunburst faded into the distance, Shining looked back at his friends and scowled. “Can’t you guys be normal for, like, five minutes?”

With that, Shining too stood up and did his best to try and follow Sunburst.

Sadly, Shining’s search turned out negative as he was unable to locate a runaway Sunburst.

In fact, it was only when he arrived to their shared class that the two saw each other again. A brief bright grin from Sunburst greeted Shining before it quickly transitioned to an embarrassed blush, the orange stallion looking away.

Shining tried his best to make small-talk in the short five minutes before class, but all he could seem to get were one word responses or semi-coherent grumbles. Giving up on this quickly, they both seemed comfortable to let class progress as usual.

Save a few awkward glances the two shared during class, both stallions looking away just as awkwardly moments later.

After class, Sunburst wasted no time in packing his things and exiting the classroom as quickly as possible, leaving Shining again watching the stallion walk away.

It was only another few classes, none of which Shining could focus on, before Shining again found himself at the door to Sunburst’s dorm room.

With only a bit of hesitation, he managed to knock on the door. This garnered him the exact surprised yelp and mad scramble to the door that he expected.

Sunburst slowly opened his door, cautiously peeking out and looking quite surprised to see the stallion on the other side of the door. “Oh, Shining, It’s… good to see you. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Oh, you know, just in the neighborhood.” Shining smiled uncomfortably, scratching the back of his neck. “I just, I dunno, wanted to talk about this morning.”

An uncomfortable silence bloomed between the two stallions, both pursing their lips as they could really only thing of one thing to say:

“I’m sorry.” Both stallions said, simultaneously. After which, both were a bit taken aback, blinking at the other stallion in confusion.

Shining was the first to respond, casually scratching the back of his head. “Aw, c’mon. You don’t have anything to apologize for! I know how annoying my friends can be.” He laughed a little at this, but it quickly transitioned into a sigh. “They mean well, I promise. But I can tell them to lean off the teasing a little.”

“Oh, it’s not that, it’s…” Sunburst trailed off, shaking his head for a moment then looking up at Shining with a soft expression. “Well, I still need to apologize for storming off like that. It wasn’t very becoming of me.”

Shining laughed again, this one stronger and more boisterous. “Aw, they’re used to it. Me and Cady weren’t exactly the most ‘well-behaved’ couple either.”

At this, Sunburst’s expression fell. And, upon noticing it, Shining’s expression fell too.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Shining asked.

A shy nod from Sunburst. “A little. Please, come in.”

Shining didn’t have to be told twice.

Both stallions soon found themselves in Sunburst’s room, on Sunburst’s bed, sitting just a few feet apart. Shining looked over at Sunburst sympathetically while Sunburst could only bring himself to look down at his white-stained hooves.

There was a long moment of silence during this, Sunburst not quite knowing what to say while Shining was willing to give him as long as he needed to find it.

“Your other friends are all… pretty spectacular.” Sunburst sighed after quite a few more moments. “You’ve dated actual royalty, and are seemingly in a romantic rivalry with rich not-quite royals. And apparently you and your siblings are complete magical savants, which makes me think your parents must be as well. I can’t help but wonder…”

Another pause, Sunburst biting his lip.

“Would I really fit in? I feel like, unless I’m with other nerdy stallions like Gaffer and 8-Bit, I kind of stick out in a rather unfortunate way.”

Sunburst’s words hung in the air for a few seconds, wrapping around both stallions like a vice.

“Well… you do.” Shining admitted suddenly, gently, as he inched ever closer to Sunburst. “I don’t think it’s unfortunate, but you totally stand out. I mean, it’s what got me interested in you in the first place.”

“Which part: the poor attitude, the unkempt appearance, or the fact that I’m a magic school drop out?” Sunburst snarked, flicking a hoof under his tassel of an unkempt goatee.

“Hey, I like the goatee!” Shining said with a gentle laugh. “But, you know, what really did it for me was that attitude of yours. It looked like you didn’t really care about a lot, but then I got you talking about stuff you’re interested in and…”

Shining trailed off as he looked at Sunburst, knowing he didn’t even have to say it as a small and sweet smile blooming on Sunburst’s face along with a blush.

“Exactly! That smile of yours, your little laugh, how absurdly dorky you are!” Shining smiled as he drew even closer to Sunburst, placing a hoof atop one of Sunburst’s own. “That’s what I care about. Not a tangled mane or you getting bullied out of a school.”

Still smiling a bit, Sunburst still looked away from Shining and back down to his hooves. “So it’s just the attitude that’s a problem, then?” He asked, though smirking and laughing a bit as he did.

Thinking on it for a moment, pressing a hoof to his chin, Shining sighed. “Maybe a bit?” He admitted, earning quite the shocked look from Sunburst. “I wanna help you stop comparing yourself to other ponies. And, maybe, I can show you just how great you are.”

To Shining’s surprise, this earned a laugh from Sunburst. A soft, yet warm sound that filled the room and seemingly melted all the tension from before.

Still, Shining couldn’t help but blush indignantly at this. “Heeey, I know it was cheesy but you don’t have to laugh!”

“It’s not that!” Sunburst said, still giggling a bit as he wiped a tear from his eye. “You’re just so endearingly honest sometimes. It’s pretty cute.”

A sly smirk growing across Shining’s face, he pulled his saddlebag close to him and began to dig through it. “Well, I hope you’ll find this downright adorable then.” His smile grew a tad bit bigger as he pulled out the bundle of fabric he’d packed that morning.

And suddenly Sunburst was once again holding his cloak. Still delicately folded and warm to the touch, displaying one of its many embroidered stars at the top, the cloak had one telltale feature that surprised Sunburst.

“It’s… not cursed.” Sunburst said as he scanned it with his flickery, sun-colored magic. Looking up at Shining, his eyes glittered and gleamed with shock and surprise. “It’s not cursed!”

“Told ya my little sister could do it! She stayed up all night just to break the curse.” Shining beamed, a smile of pure pride pulling across his face as he gestured towards Sunburst. “So go on, let me see how it looks on you!”

Sunburst snickered a bit at that, but then his gaze turned back to the cloak.

And he stared.

For quite some time, Sunburst’s eyes were locked on the errant fabric, inspecting every inch and star he could see on the folded cloak. And yet, as a bead of nervous sweat rolled down his forehead, he didn’t move an inch to open it up and inspect it fully.

Although confused at first, Shining was quick on the uptake as he placed a hoof on Sunburst’s shoulder.

“You’re not sure it worked, are you?” Shining asked, sympathetically, as his other hoof landed on the cloak.

Sunburst pursed his lips, eyes still locked on the cloak. “I don’t doubt your sister’s prowess, but…”

Sunburst’s hesitation was quickly met by Shining’s insistence, the pure-white stallion gently stealing away the cloak from Sunburst’s hooves. He unfurled the cloak to its full wizardly breadth and just held it out for a moment, turning to face Sunburst with a sly smile.

“Well, if the curse is still there and makes the wearer act like an idiot,” Shining began, throwing the cloak over his and Sunburst’s backs, “Then at least we can be idiots together.”

Sunburst braced himself for a moment, waiting to feel the dulling blur of his thought or the whispered promise of untold magical secrets.

But instead he felt a warmth, one that bloomed from the stallion to his side and the wide cloak that they shared. It was an easy warmth to bask in, one comforting like a fire shared with a loved one. Comforting even still as Shining moved to press himself against Sunburst’s side, wrapping a hoof around the smaller stallion and drawing him in even closer.

The two basked in this warmth for a long moment, both closing their eyes so as to not mar it in any way. Only the sound of soft, steady breathing could be heard in the room, though Sunburst’s own breath did hitch for a moment as Shining began to lean into him.

Sunburst giggled softly, finally breaking the long line of silence as a bashful smile overtook his face. “Shining, I’m… really grateful that you took the time to get to know me. I’ve really enjoyed the time we’ve spent together. If anything, I’ve, um…”

Sunburst took a quick, deep breath to really consider what he had to say. He then turned his head gently to look Shining Armor in the eyes as he said it. That was, until he saw that Shining’s eyes were still snapped shut and his breath was perhaps a bit too calm and gentle as he leaned against Sunburst for support.

Smiling softly at the sleeping stallion, Sunburst rolled his eyes. “Well, I suppose I’ll just tell you later.” He said quietly, and with a gentle yawn.