This Is Awkward

Sunset counted some clouds above her as Lyra trotted next to her, talking her ear off about who knows what. The last topic Sunset remembered them being on was about her music.

“You still play, don’t you?” Lyra asked suddenly and Sunset presumed they were back on the music conversation.

“Guitar here and there, yeah. Not since I left Canterlot though, no.”

“I meant video games. You still play video games?” Lyra asked and Sunset nodded. “Epic.”

“Yeah I guess. How did you even know about that?” Sunset demanded and Lyra snorted as she rolled her eyes.

“Sunset, everypony in Canterlot knew you played video games religiously. You were late to class many times because of how late you stayed up playing games. I even saw you playing a video game in class on a hoof held one day.”

“Professor Cinch’s class on plants of ancient Equestria was boring,” Sunset muttered and Lyra was inclined to agree. She had spent most of that class asleep. “Now why are we asking about my gaming life again?”

“Indeed. And I’m asking because we can hit up the arcade down the street that I take Liza to occasionally,” Lyra answered and Sunset’s eyes widened slowly.

“There’s an arcade in Ponyville and nopony thought to tell me? When did this happen?” Sunset demanded and Silverspeed coughed into a hoof. “What?”

“Sunset, the arcade has been here since the day you moved to Ponyville,” Silverspeed reminded her and Sunset blushed.

“Oh.”

“How often do you get out of your office?” Lyra wondered aloud and Sunset hung her head as she scuffed her hoof in the dirt.

“Not as often as I’d like,” Sunset muttered and cracked her neck. “My job keeps me busy. Really fucking busy. I only really get out to see my friends and fix whatever chaos the world decided Ponyville needed for that day.”

“Well, you’re out now so,” Lyra wrapped a foreleg around Sunset’s neck and Sunset resisted the urge to levitate it off. “Have fun!”

“By spending bits at this place,” Silverspeed gestured at a multi colored building with a neon sign. “The Party Palace.”

“Just one question,” Lyra removed her foreleg. “What’s fucking mean?”

“It’s a alternative way of saying bucking in our group,” Silverspeed explained and Lyra nodded sagely.

“Gotchaaaa. I fucking love it.”

“The word or bucking?” Silverspeed gave her a confused look and Lyra smirked, bumping flanks with the pegasus.

“Both.”

Silverspeed sat in a corner booth, wincing at the bright flashing lights and loud sounds coming from all around her, a paper plate with a cheap cheese pizza slice in front of her.

“This is the worst fucking place in Equestria,” Silverspeed muttered to herself and hung a foreleg over the edge of her seat.

“What, it’s amazing here,” Lyra commented with a piece of pizza dangling in front of her muzzle with her magic. “Liza has fun here. If she wasn’t at school right now, I’d have brought her along.”

“Didn’t you say you’ve been to places like this before?” Sunset asked and glanced at Silverspeed. “I swear you have.”

“I went to a royal guard bar after graduation but it was nothing like this. This isn’t even a bar. Mostly it was just full of drunk soldiers and fights. The amount of stallions and mares that hit on me that night because of my uniform is insane,” Silverspeed shrugged and took a bite of her pizza and made a face. “Eugh.”

“I wanna see you in uniform, not just your armor,” Sunset commented and Silverspeed tilted her head at her.

“I mean, it’s usually reserved for ceremonies, inspection or funerals for royal guards or other important state figures but I guess we can make that a possibility? I don’t have any medals or anything so it’s not much. But it does look nice on me, especially on the flanks,” Silverspeed mused to herself and took a sip of water. “Why?”

Lyra raised an eyebrow slightly as she watched on, tilting her head slightly at Sunset before looking at Silverspeed.

“Interesting,” Lyra muttered to herself as the other two kept talking.

“I miss this arcade back in Canterlot that shut down. Never forget the After Hours arcade,” Sunset sighed sadly and shook her head.

“After Hours?” Silverspeed echoed and Sunset nodded. “That sounds like a BDSM club.”

Lyra snickered and Sunset shot Silverspeed an unimpressed look.

“Your sense of humor has gotten really dirty these past few months, what’s up with that?”

“I’m friends with Trixie,” Silverspeed retorted and Sunset paused.

“Touche.”

“Actually, After Hours reopened under a new name last month. It’s called The Joystick Joint now,” Lyra answered casually and stirred her straw around her drink as Sunset looked at her.

“See, now that is a dirty name,” Sunset told Silverspeed with a smirk. “Also, we’re going to Canterlot.”

“What, today?”

“No but later in the week. It’ll be fun. We can hit up Donut Joe’s again. It’s been a couple months since I last visited Canterlot,” Sunset said and paused. “That’s okay with you, right? You can always stay behind with Silver Spoon. I can go alone.”

“It’ll take some convincing, but I might be able to get Lucky Clover to look after Silver Spoon. Or Blossomforth. I don’t think having parents or siblings of her classmates look after her is wise after last month.”

Sunset shrugged and nodded. Even a month later, apparently most of the school kids still didn’t trust Silver Spoon because of how close she is to Diamond Tiara.

“I’m down. I’ve been in Canterlot a lot recently than I have home. Should be fun though. Wanna tag along Lyra?” Silverspeed suggested and Sunset watched warily.

Sunset had to admit, Lyra wasn’t so bad. The mare was pretty fun surprisingly and could hold her own against Sunset and Silverspeed in Mario Kart. That had automatically bumped her up in Sunset’s list of ponies she didn’t mind to be around.

“Maybe if Liza can come with. She’s never been to Canterlot, not even to see Twilight or the others. She might have fun,” Lyra answered and Sunset tensed up at Twilight’s name. “Heh, I mean the other one, not the one who shall not named.”

“Thanks. And I guess you can come with. I must say, this is going better than I expected,” Sunset confessed and Lyra smirked slightly.

“Oh? And just how did you expect this to go?” Lyra asked and twirled her glass around on the table.

“I dunno, you slamming the door in my face or something along those lines?” Sunset suggested and Lyra burst out laughing. “Don’t die on us.”

Lyra rested her head on the table and kept laughing as Sunset and Silverspeed both shared a confused look.

“Oh man,” Lyra wiped a tear from her eye and giggled. “That’s funny. I only slam doors in the face of those ponies who try to sell me random shit. I’ve actually never had a problem with you unlike some others. You’ve always been pretty chill in some ways.”

“I thought you would have hated me. I never really hung out with you or anypony else before.”

“Listen,” Lyra rolled her eyes and sat back up. “I don’t hate anypony, alright? Hate is such a negative emotion. So draining to hate. Sure, there’s ponies I dislike, but you were never on that list, believe it or not. I’ve always looked up to you. You’re a leader and a strong pony. My friends may not like you much, especially Moondancer, but me personally I am quite fond of you, even if you never really noticed me.”

Lyra stretched out a hoof and Sunset didn’t really know what to do so she gave Lyra her own hoof and Lyra squeezed it. Silverspeed stared silently and licked her lips and pushed down her jealously as she watched Lyra patted Sunset’s hoof.

“Really?” Sunset asked and Lyra nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course. I also heard what you did for Berry, paying to get her out of the drunk tank that one time. Minuette also respects you for it. I can see why your friends care about you as much as they do. Shoeshine brags about you every chance she gets. About how she’s proud to know Princess Celestia’s bad ass biological kid,” Lyra winked and Silverspeed opened her mouth.

Sunset subtly shook her head and shot her a warning look. Silverspeed closed her mouth and Sunset gave a relieved sigh.

“Thank you Lyra,” Sunset smiled at the mare and Lyra waved a hoof dismissively in the air.

“It’s a pleasure. Now come on, all this talking is boring me. Let’s go finish the last few games. I saw a shooter around here somewhere,” Lyra looked around as she stood up.

“I’m so gonna have a migraine from all these lights and loud ponies,” Silverspeed sighed to herself as she stood up to follow the other two.