The Proposal

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"Oh, okay. Here's a good one." Starlight Glimmer smirked as she pulled out a card from the latest edition of Knowledge Hunt: Equestria and Beyond. She looked over the card's question a couple of times, humming to herself, and eyed her rival who was sitting across the small wooden table.

Sunburst watched her expectantly, a few beads of sweat beginning to break out on his brow as she continued to taunt him by glancing at the card, opening her mouth, gazing at him, and closing her mouth. Currently he had the lead with four of the six sections he needed to win, and he was aiming to take his fifth after this question.

Clearing her throat just to torment him a bit more, she finally continued, "Famous ponies in psychology. Which pony. In 943 ALB." She purposely broke her sentences just to drag it out and see him squirm more.

“Come on, Starlight!” he protested, doing his best to remain seated. He began fiddling with his spectacles as Starlight snickered and kept her mouth shut.

Finally, after she let her pause continue for a few more seconds, she continued, "Proposed. The concept of individuation. Which is.” She cleared her throat and put on a fake Germane accent, “‘The development of the psychological individual from the collective psychology?’”

She grinned. Sunburst had always dedicated his studies and knowledge more to the hard sciences. The soft sciences were her specialty. It was once a useful skill: knowing how to poke and prod ponies in just the right way to get them to do what she wanted. Now she knew that it was just a way to lord some kind of knowledge over Sunburst.

Sunburst began mumbling to himself, clearly thinking the question over. "Sweet Celestia, he's so adorable when he's stuck," Starlight mused, propping her head on her right fetlock and watching him struggle to find an answer. A slightly whimsical smile crossed her features, a smile that was suddenly dashed when he answered.

"Oh, I know! It was, it was Curl the Younger!" he exclaimed, clapping his hooves together excitedly. He raised his eyebrows expectantly at Starlight. "I'll be taking that fifth triangle now, please." He flexed his hoof and flashed her a cocky grin.

"Ugh!" Starlight groaned, planting her face onto the table and levitating over the yellow triangle. It slid into his piece with a soft click. Looking up, she morosely switched her gaze between Sunburst's piece and her own. She'd only managed to get two triangles so far. She cursed her luck and inability to answer anything related to sports.

"How does he know so much about sportsball or whatever it's called?" she thought, sighing inwardly as defeat slowly approached her.

It was the beginning of summer, and since she was now the headmare of the School of Friendship, that left her with a lot of free time to kill. Sure, she had to start working on syllabi for the new school year come autumn, but she could bang that out in a week. It's not like Twilight ever spent much time thinking about the lesson plan for the year when she was headmare.

As Sunburst still had responsibilities in the Crystal Empire—he was the official Crystaller of Flurry Heart, after all—he was wrapping up everything that he could do in Ponyville before departing this weekend. Actually, convincing him to not leave sooner was hard enough, and Starlight had to promise all kinds of sciencey things to do to occupy his time. Playing a game of Knowledge Hunt was one of the last things she could think of.

"—arlight!" she heard Sunburst shout, which shook her from her thoughts. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at her with tightened lips. “You there?”

Starlight chuckled, scratching the back of her neck slightly.

"Is it time for the next question?" she asked. Almost instinctively, she took a card from the deck.

Shaking his head, his horn lit up with a golden glow which formed around her card, and he said, "It's your turn. I just went ahead and answered the next question I got myself. I, I got it wrong. Trust me." Softly, he smiled and continued, "And don't worry, you still have a chance at beating the master!" Mirth practically oozed out of his voice, but Starlight just rolled her eyes and grabbed the dice and shook them in her magic.

She rolled a three.

"Oh, Celestia damn it!" she cried, moving her piece three spaces. Once again, she landed on her mortal adversary. "One day I'll convince Twilight to outlaw all sports, then we'll see who gets the last laugh!" She glowered at the sports square, wishing that it would burst into flame and end this embarrassing string of failures.

Sunburst precisely levitated a card from the front of the deck and looked at the question. He glanced up at Starlight and then back down at the card. Up at Starlight, then at the card.

Starlight began sweating a bit. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn she was being interrogated. As he continued switching his gaze back and forth, brows slowly climbing in consternation, she finally snapped, "Oh, just tell me the question!" At the sight of Sunburst's shocked face, she blushed and meekly added, "Please."

"O-okay." After a few more seconds, he finally began, "What is, is the most basic rule of sportsmareship in the game, hoofball?" Under his breath, he muttered, "It's like they knew you'd play, Glimmy."

Scrunching her brow in thought, Starlight finally answered, "Uh... three strikes and you're out." She watched as Sunburst remained silent for a moment. "Horse apples, I bucked it up again, didn't I?"

With a smile, Sunburst chuckled and slid the card to the back of the deck and said, "Correct."

"What?! No way! I actually got a sports question right?! Wooo!" Punching the air with a hoof, she grabbed the dice again and rolled. She rolled a seven. It landed on another sports square. "Oh, come on!" she huffed. Unfortunately, she wasn't as lucky this time.

After Sunburst rolled and landed on his square, Starlight grabbed another card with her magic and searched for the correct question category. She eyed Sunburst for a minute. He watched her back, slowly raising an eyebrow. "What?" he asked. Looking up, he inquired, "Is there something in my mane?"

"Oh, it's nothing! Honest!" Starlight spat out with a nervous laugh. "I just thought I saw some giant, pony-eating spiders coming up behind you. But there's definitely none of those around here! Nope, definitely didn't botch a spell trying to make normal house spiders a better force to deal with annoying insects!"

Sunburst blinked. "What?"

Blushing behind the card a bit, Starlight cursed herself. "Just ask him out, Starlight! You've been friends since you were foals! What's the worst he could say?"

She opened her mouth, intending to do just that. Instead she just monotonically asked the question, to which he almost instantly knew the answer. Groaning, she faceplanted the table again. “Good job, Starlight. Great way to ask him on a date!” Briefly, she kept her face connected with the table. Rubbing the back of her head, she peered up and watched him continue his move.

"Okay, maybe I should just show increased interest? He’ll get it then!," she thought. However, nothing good came to her mind, except... "Hey Sunburst," she began, instantly regretting opening her mouth before she had planned what to say.

"Hmm?" he answered, looking up after moving his piece to the final square.

"Do, uh, do you have a marefriend, back in the Crystal Empire?" A few beads of sweat broke out under her mane. "Stupid! Why would you ask that! Oh, sweet Celestia please kill me." She visualized light streaming down through the roof of Twilight’s old castle, focusing into a deadly point right on her position. If that was possible, it’d suit her just fine.

"Nope," Sunburst innocently replied. For emphasis, he gave a quick shake of his head, flinging a few bits of dandruff here and there. Starlight mused that he needed to wash his mane more, although then it wouldn't smell like him anymore. Not that she secretly tried sniffing his mane on occasion when he was close, definitely not.

"I just haven't, well, I just haven't had the time," he continued, putting down his game piece. Resting his forehooves on the table and tilting his head slightly in confusion, he asked, "Why do you want to know?" He accidentally knocked off his piece and bent down to retrieve it.

"No reason! You just don't talk about living in the Crystal Empire much outside of what Flurry Heart is up to," she replied. She grabbed a card from the deck and prepared to read the question, but before she did, she added, "I was just curious. You know, as a good friend and all."

"Right." He slowly nodded his head.

The game continued on in silence for another minute after Sunburst answered. “Uh,” she stammered as she read from the card, “what was the event of ancient Equestria that led to the holiday, Hearth’s Warm—Oh, come on!” Furiously, she slammed a hoof on the table and growled, “Who writes this stuff?”

“This game is approved by the EEA.” Sunburst smirked. “The answer is the banishment of the Windigos from Equestria, by the way.” With that, he took the dice again and rolled.

Resting her chin on the table, Starlight watched him as he lifted his piece and gingerly moved it across the board. The soft clacking of the game piece sounded like pounding drums in Starlight’s ears. Her right eye twitched occasionally while he moved. She turned her head and sighed, staring at one of the bookcases in the library.

Eventually, she heard Sunburst clear his throat and realized that he was waiting for her to read him another question. Pushing herself back up, she weakly grinned and took a card with her magic.

Holding the card in front of her face, she silently read the question before asking, "Hey, Sunburst, have any mares ever asked you, you know, out?" She nervously bit her lip, although, unfortunately for her, the cues were hidden by the card in her grip.

"Not that I remember," Sunburst replied, tapping a hoof against his bearded chin. The action caused his spectacles to slide down the bridge of his nose. He pushed them back up with said hoof.

"Oh my Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and Cadance, if he does that again, I'm going to have to kill him. With love," she thought. A faint blush formed on her cheeks for a few seconds before she distracted herself with her turn. Sports. Again. "Buck me," she groused.

Once again, the room in Twilight's castle descended into silence after Starlight answered incorrectly again, to no surprise. Sunburst rolled for his next move.

To Starlight, the spacious library of the castle, which served so many functions, from study, to library, to discount bookstore which she'd never tell Twilight about, felt inexplicably small right now. She glared at the floor for a few seconds before hardening her gaze instead on an old tome. It was probably hundreds of years old and harmed nopony, but, really, it did deserve the eye thrashing it was receiving.

"Why is it so hard to just ask that dork—admittedly a cute dork—out?" Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth to ask. She asked a question, though not the one she wanted to.

"Hey Sunburst, are there any mares that you're interested in right now? Any cute crystal ponies, one of the other professors or school faculty perhaps?" In her mind, she smacked her hoof against her face so hard that it knocked her clear into next week.

However, at this question, Sunburst did blush a bit and look away. He cleared his throat and said, "W-well, there is this, there is this one mare that interests me," he began.

"Yes?" Starlight drawled, raising an eyebrow to try and act like she wasn't inwardly about to explode from excitement. This was it! He was definitely going to ask her out now, saving her the effort of doing it herself.

"Well, she's really cute, and very smart, too. But, well, she's, she's uh, kinda busy with so many other things right now in her life, and I don't really want to make it even busier," he finished, knocking a hoof against the table pathetically.

"Ugh! Do I have to do everything myself?!" Starlight screamed internally. Her face wore a rather unimpressed frown, although Sunburst was too busy looking at the floor to notice it at the moment. By the time he had recomposed himself, Starlight was visibly back to being herself. Being a counsellor and then a headmare did pay off in some ways.

Sunburst grabbed the dice for his next move and the game continued. For a few minutes, an awkward atmosphere settled in the room, only to be broken by the occasional trivia question. Unsurprisingly, Sunburst continued his streak of correct answers.

Gazing around, hoping for anything that could potentially rescue her from the awkwardfest she was going to unleash, Starlight sighed. There was nothing. Among the towering bookshelves of the library, there would be nothing to help her. While the busts near the entrance may have been of famous ponies, they were lifeless and could not aid her. The singed wooden horse head from Twilight’s old home watched her with its blackened, sooty eye, but it could not rescue her. There was no hope. She was doomed.

Her eyes rested finally on another book, this time a fairly new one, that was in the Self-help section of the library. Why Twilight needed one of those, she didn't know, but whatever. 101 Ways to JUST DO IT! by Shia "Bulk" Biceps. "Real subtle there, fate. Or Discord, or Twilight, or whoever." Slowly she steeled herself for what she was going to say.

"Sunburst, I really like you, and I was wondering if you'd like to go out on a date with me before you leave for the Crystal Empire?" was what she was going to ask. Instead, she screamed, "Just go out on a date with me already!" A couple of veins bulged on her neck and another tightened across the bridge of her nose as she glowered at him.

Sunburst blinked once. Twice. He grabbed his spectacles with his magic and righted them back on his nose. "What?" he asked.

"Uh." Starlight gulped and chuckled nervously. Heart pounding in her ears, she contemplated her next statement very carefully. For all of three seconds. "I really like you and honestly want to kiss you, but I don't want to do that yet, because we aren't dating. Would you go on a date with me?" she blathered out. When Sunburst stared at her, mouth wide and cheeks turning pink, she coughed a couple of times and laughed softly.

"What?" Sunburst asked again.

"Crap."

Panic in the House

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Twilight groaned contentedly as she stretched on her throne. Being Princess of Equestria and Princess of Friendship was no easy task, especially given that there were so many noble ponies already trying to vie for her favor. She grunted, and scratched her chin. Did Celestia have to put up with this all the time?

Laughing, Twilight hopped off the throne and observed a couple of the stained glass windows on the left. At least half a dozen nobles tried to woo her today. Didn’t they know that all she needed was her friends? And maybe a good book, too.

The throne room of Canterlot Palace was awash in many red-hued colors as the sun neared the horizon. Soon, Twilight would have to lower it and raise the moon in its place. She tried her best. After all, she did have big shoes to fill, literally and figuratively. Apparently both Celestia and Luna found minor faults in how she performed their duties. It was not uncommon to see a few panicking ponies of Canterlot point to one of the bodies as it suddenly moved position in the sky to better fit its respective princess' whims.

No matter, so long as it didn't cause actual harm to the ponies of Equestria, Twilight didn't care. Every time she saw it, it warmed her heart to know that her former mentor and her sister still cared so much about their former subjects that they ensured that their day and night was perfect.

With another stretch of her back, eliciting a few pops, she trotted out of the throne room, the evening sun creating a kaleidoscope of red-hued colors on her fur as it shone through the stained glass. As she cantered down the halls of the castle, she passed several guards along the way—a few pegasi and unicorns, but most were being relieved by their thestral counterparts as evening approached—the soldiers nodded in respect for the princess.

Clopping hooves echoing in the hallway, she soon reached Princess Celestia’s room. Mentally she corrected herself. It wasn’t Celestia’s room anymore. It was her room. She paused at the door and let the thought permeate.

A few images flashed before her of times she entered the room to speak with Celestia. Frequently, the monarch would be reading the latest report from one of the nobles of her court, but she’d always put her work aside to assist or comfort her.

Returning to the present, Twilight stretched out a hoof and pushed the door open. “Some day,” she hoped to herself, “I’ll be that mentor. Hopefully I’ll be ready.”

After entering the room, she walked through the disheveled stacks of boxes of personal items. Although she’d been in Canterlot for a few months now, everything had been so hectic that she hadn’t had a chance to fully set up her things in the room. Piles of books were scattered about, and a few packages of papers were sitting squarely in the middle of the room. How she or Spike hadn’t collided with it during the night was beyond her.

Her telescope was still in its constituent pieces and propped up against the far left wall. In the corner near the balcony, there was a large unopened box for one of the bookcases she had requested. In the opposite corner was a grandfather clock that she had found at the Ponyville antique store a few days before departing to Canterlot.

On top of all this, she had to spend time digging through some of the items that Celestia had left behind. A few were things that she knew she wanted to keep: a painting that Celestia had commissioned after Twilight had graduated from her first year at Magic School, a few old books from before the Equestrian diarchy even began, and some other knickknacks.

On a small coffee table, a letter from Celestia was held open by a used mug. She’d read the contents a few times. Celestia was requesting that Twilight send her everything she didn’t want from the room in a “timely fashion.” That letter had arrived three months ago.

As she passed the table on her way to the balcony, she groaned when she realized that she was no closer to fulfilling Celestia’s desire than she was when the letter arrived. Some ruler she was.

She trotted out to the balcony and looked at the city below. The lights of Canterlot twinkled and appeared as small pins of light in contrast to the deep orange and red horizon. Small clouds of smoke puffed up from the occasional house. Along the edges of the city, skeletal frames of future buildings blotted out some of the clouds in the sky.

Canterlot was changing, as was much of Equestria, now that Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow were no longer threats. Ponies were working hard to usher in a new era of prosperity for the nation. Some of the construction sites were new industrial complexes.

Breathing in and out deeply for a few seconds, she charged her horn and stretched her magic toward the sun. Shortly, she felt its mass and began dragging it slowly, smoothly down under the horizon. She did the same with the moon, pushing it up and beginning its trek across the sky.

Flicking a few beads of sweat away, she went back into her room. Now she had a couple of hours to relax, read a book, sleep, or whatever else she felt like doing before she began monitoring ponies' dreams.

However, that would not be the case, as suddenly, in a flash of cyan magic, Starlight Glimmer appeared in the middle of her room. Her face was alternating between a manic grin and despairing frown. For a few seconds, she stared right through Twilight, her breathing rapid and her eyes the size of pins.

Finally getting her bearings, the light purple unicorn noticed Twilight and dashed toward her, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her incessantly. Between bouts of frenzied laughter and despondent sobbing, Twilight managed to make out "Sunburst. Date. Royally screwed. Dead."

With an annoyed purse of her lips, she broke a forearm free and reached out to Starlight to rest a hoof reassuringly on her friend’s shoulder. Flushing her annoyance away, Twilight smiled and said, "Starlight. It's okay."

To Starlight, it wasn’t okay. While Twilight might have stopped herself from being jostled, Starlight was still blubbering away and trying to shake the alicorn. Her expression was now firmly fixed in the despair camp and her mane was beginning to fray along the edges. "I don't know what I'm going to do! I've never been on a date before!" she exclaimed, a few tears streaming down her face.

"Starlight," Twilight repeated, putting a bit more pressure on her friend's shoulder. "It's okay, just tell me what happened."

"What if I mess it up? What if I say the wrong thing? Can I use a memory wipe spell? Maybe I should use a memory wipe spell and pretend this never happened," Starlight continued, her breathing slowing a bit and instead turning into ragged gasps for air. She let go of Twilight and held them to her own head instead as she continued rambling.

"Starlight!" Twilight cried, finally snapping the unicorn out of her adrenaline-fueled panic.

With a blank stare, Starlight answered, "Yes, Twilight?"

"Let's have some tea."

Soon, the two ponies sat across from each other at a marble table. Starlight was mumbling to herself again. Twilight crinkled her brow and observed her friend as Starlight took a bit of her mane and began to twist it around her hoof.

Undeniably, Starlight was a mess. She was shivering as she continued to mutter to herself, and occasionally she’d cackle softly and say something about “her precious.” A few hairs of her mane had been pulled out as she continued to twirl it. More hairs had become undone from her usual style and were bouncing around as she quaked.

Behind Twilight, the doors to her kitchenette blew open and Spike stepped out, a tray of tea held in clawed grip. A steaming pot of tea, freshly prepared by him, was placed between them. He gave Starlight a concerned look. "Is everything going to be all right?"

"It'll be fine, Spike," Twilight responded, pouring some tea with her magic and levitating a cup over to Starlight. With a thankful nod, the haggard unicorn took a sip and sighed, relaxing slightly. "It's some grown mare stuff, nothing that'll interest you."

Flatly, Spike looked between the two ponies. “Sure, right.” Unconvinced, he crossed his arms and took a seat on Twilight’s bed. As the seconds dragged into minutes, he began to impatiently tap his fingers on her bed and huffed a small puff of smoke. He hunched over and watched the two as they slowly sipped their drink. Finally, he grunted and hopped off. “You know where to find me. Bye, Starlight.” He waved at the unicorn, although she barely nodded in return, still too shaken to fully comprehend what was going on.

At first, neither spoke. The only sound in the room was the ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner by the balcony. Every second or so, Twilight could faintly observe Starlight's left eye twitching in sync with the clock. Something was eating her former student. “It’d be nice if I could get details without it being a jumbled mess.”

She continued to watch Starlight for another minute, taking a sip of her tea. Hopefully the silence was helping Starlight calm down a bit more. Whatever it was, it involved Sunburst, and it didn’t sound good. Had he been seriously hurt? No, Starlight had said something about a date.

Rubbing her chin, Twilight pondered further. It was pretty obvious to everypony around Starlight that she had strong feelings for Sunburst. In fact, the only pony who probably didn't know was Sunburst himself. Rainbow Dash had even started a betting pool with everycreature in the School of Friendship on who'd finally snap and kiss the other first, although Twilight despised the idea and refused to participate.

Wait, did Sunburst go on a date with somepony else? That would explain why Starlight was so distressed. Twilight gulped. Ideally, Starlight hadn't done anything rash yet. The last thing Twilight needed was the optics of pardoning her friend for making somepony permanently disappear, or worse, become a living vegetable.

With a shake of her head, Twilight cleared her thoughts. She wasn't going to get an answer to this mystery unless she asked Starlight herself. Since said unicorn was still busy drinking her tea between the occasional breathing episode, she was going to have to ask instead of waiting for an explanation.

She made a mental note to teach Starlight the breathing techniques that Cadance showed her all those moons ago. If Starlight was to stay headmare, she’d need all the tools she could get.

Clearing her throat loudly, which snapped Starlight's gaze toward her, Twilight prodded, "Soooo?" She observed that Starlight's eyes had again returned to near pinpricks, although she managed to retain a calmer appearance otherwise.

After a few nervous glances, Starlight finally spoke, "I guess I had a massive freak-out moment, didn't I?" She bowed her head a bit, a frown beginning to form.

From the kitchenette, Spike's muffled voice came through, "You could say that again. You went past Twily-nanas levels of freak-out."

"Spike! What did I say about eavesdropping?" Twilight called back, eyeing the kitchenette sternly.

"Sorry!" Spike replied. A few seconds later, faint paw-patters headed off from the door. They were alone. Again.

Groaning, Starlight rested her head on the table, poking her teacup on occasion.

"Why don't you start again? From the top?" Twilight suggested, taking another sip of tea and feeling its warmth flow through her.

"Ugh! I feel so stupid now!" Starlight replied, planting her face right into the marble. "Ow," she muttered seconds later, rubbing her muzzle with her hoof.

With a chuckle, Twilight continued, "You've heard all the seemingly stupid things I've said. I don't think you'll be topping many of them." She smirked knowingly.

"R-right. Okay, sure," Starlight stammered. She turned her gaze to the ceiling for a moment before she started.

"Well, uh, I may have asked Sunburst out on a date. Okay, maybe not asked, but more so demanded, but, those are, you know, minor details." She nervously snort-laughed. Cooing a bit to herself, she turned her attention to Twilight and chortled, "Although, his expression was dreamy."

She sighed, a lovestruck smile forming on her features. Resting her chin on her right fetlock, she sighed again and stared out the balcony behind Twilight. Her cheeks grew a bright shade of pink.

After patiently waiting for a good three minutes, Twilight finally got up, walked over to Starlight, and waved a hoof in front of her. "Equestria to Starlight. You there?" she asked, rousing Starlight from her daydream.

Starlight laughed nervously and gave a toothy grin.

Sitting back, Twilight asked, "So he said no, I take it?"

Sputtering a bit, Starlight exclaimed, "No! No, he didn't! He said yes, I think. It was kind of hard to tell. He was kind of quiet..." She trailed off again, the same daydreamy look forming in her eyes as she mumbled, "He's so cute when he gets flustered."

"Yeah, you're two peas in a pod," Twilight snarked.

"What?"

Choosing to forget asking Twilight about her comment any further, Starlight continued, "So, yeah, I think we're going on a date. Although I don't know when. Sometime before he leaves for the Crystal Empire, I guess."

Quickly, Twilight left her seat and trotted to Starlight, giving her a strong hug. "I'm so happy for you," she declared, nuzzling her face into Starlight's. "Sunburst is a wonderful pony, I'm sure things will go great when you meet up."

"He-he, yeah." Starlight chuckled, squirming out of her friend's overly tight embrace. Twilight never used to be that powerful. As she caught her breath, Starlight pondered what the underlying cause could be. Alicorns did have traits of all three races, so it could be innate earth pony strength. Twilight also commanded the sun and moon, so maybe that gave her an extra dose of magic?

"But why are you freaking out over something going right?" Twilight asked, sitting down next to Starlight and staring in her indigo eyes. In an attempt to ease her friend’s mind, she gave a warm smile, although it did nothing to soften the expression of worry on Starlight’s face. The two held their gaze for a few more seconds before Starlight looked away.

"Well... it may be because it went right? I don't know, I was just so prepared for rejection that I have no clue what I'm going to do now!" She threw her arms up in the air in exasperation, barely avoiding knocking Twilight in the head.

Twilight gave her a slightly smug look. Starlight was definitely not prepared for rejection. In fact, she had an emergency number set up for just such a case. Sure, Twilight may not have thought gambling on her two friends' love lives was a good thing to do, but who would she be if she wasn't prepared for horrible outcomes? At least she could now tell the hazmat teams, unicorn slayers, and firefighters that they didn't need to be ready at a moment's notice.

"All right," she began, giving Starlight a reassuring pat on the back, "what do you think he would like to do?"

A growing frown on her face, Starlight groaned and smacked it into the table again. "I don't—Ow—know! We do so many things together already! There's nothing really that special that we could do for a first date."

Whipping her head up, Starlight gasped. "Twilight, what if he expects a first kiss on this date? What if, what if, what if we can't control ourselves after we kiss? I don't think I'm ready to handle foals yet, Twilight!" Starlight sprang up from her seat and began shaking her friend again.

A blasé look forming on Twilight’s face, the alicorn sighed and pushed Starlight away again. "I'm quite confident that Sunburst can handle himself and will respect whatever boundaries you set. For Celestia's sake, you've been his friend longer than I have, you should know him better than this!"

"Oh, you're right," Starlight humbly replied, freezing in place. She stared at Twilight briefly, then dropped to all four hooves. Nervously, she began pacing around the room, almost tripping up on the rug as she passed Twilight's bed.

"Well, okay, what if he doesn't like the date? I want this to go great! But I have no ideas! Agh!" Starlight picked up her pace, the clip clop of her hooves on the marble floors resonating slightly. "What if I say the wrong thing? I already bucked up royally when I asked him out. What if we begin to hate each other because I bucked up?"

Resisting the urge to scold Starlight on her language, Twilight began to say something before she was interrupted by Starlight.

"Would using a mind control spell so he doesn't hate me be unethical?" Starlight stopped in her tracks and rubbed her chin, scrunching her muzzle in thought.

"Yeah, that might not be a good idea," Twilight deadpanned, lowering her head in exasperation.

Before Starlight could start up again, Twilight continued, "If you'll let me finish, I was going to say that things will go fine. This may sound boring, but if you two just go to a nice restaurant for a meal, see a movie or play, stuff like that, you'll be fine. In fact, he might appreciate it for it not being anything unique; he's definitely had enough of those with Flurry Heart."

"Heh, yeah," Starlight agreed, slowly trotting over to Twilight and giving her a warm hug. Twilight nickered slightly in response before returning the embrace. She draped a wing around her friend. It barely wrapped around Starlight.

The unicorn whimpered a bit and leaned into Twilight. The princess felt a few tears warm her coat, and she used her other wing to lift Starlight’s chin. Smiling, Twilight said, “You’ll do fine, Starlight. Everypony gets some jitters on a first date.”

“B-but what if it goes horribly?” Starlight yanked her face away and looked out one of the windows of Twilight’s room. A soft shiver went through her. “I don’t want to mess this up, Twilight. What if... if we’re not meant for each other?”

Rolling her eyes, Twilight quipped back, “You’ve been through how much together? I don’t think much can separate you two.” She snickered and lightly jabbed Starlight with an elbow. “You’ll do great. Nothing will go wrong, and the date will be amazing!”

Pulling away from Twilight, Starlight turned to look at her friend, a few tears glistening in her own eyes. "Thanks for being such a good friend, Twilight." She leaned back into the hug.

"Pfft, it's not like I'm the Princess of Friendship or anything," Twilight replied, waving her hoof dismissively.

"Knowing Sunburst..." Starlight continued, levitating over the rest of her tea and taking a long gulp. Her confidence had begun to slowly return, and she began powering up her horn to teleport back to Ponyville. "He's probably already planned out the entire date."

***

"At last," Trixie exhaled, sitting back in her office's chair and resting her hind hooves on the table. "Trixie can finally relax." She levitated over a box of donuts that she kept for the students who came in and grabbed one, munching on its slightly dry, crunchy exterior.

No more school. No more students needing counselling. Sure, she enjoyed helping ponies out, brightening their day with a few magic tricks, that sort of thing, but she still needed her alone time. While school had finished a couple of weeks ago, there were some students that had to spend time arranging transport back home and lodging there as well. During that time, she had to keep her counselling office open in case the students needed support in handling the transition.

But now she could relax. Maybe she could take that vacation she totally deserved after spending a whole month working full time. Or, she could work on a few new magic tricks, hopefully ones that didn't potentially cause old ponies' homes to catch on fire through spontaneous combustion of water. She still had to lay low from time to time to avoid the authorities catching on to her from that one.

Her office was nice, she had to admit. It could even function as a second home. Bumming it was her style, after all. Who said that ponies needed to live in normal homes? Her trailer did all the work for her, but, well, it did get a bit cramped occasionally.

Besides, between the plush couches, the ornate crystal, and the locking door—those were luxuries you could never take for granted—this was like living as one of the princesses.

Tilting her magician's hat downward, she closed her eyes and gave out a long, loud yawn. Starlight was busy with Sunburst anyway, playing that stupid Trivia Quest game or whatever. She finally had a bit of peace and quiet.

Shortly, some soft snores rumbled up from under her hat. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically, and she slowly started leaning back in her chair more and more. Alas, gravity is a cruel mistress, and the chair soon toppled over, sending Trixie sprawling to the floor and landing harshly on her rump.

Reflexively, she cried, "Trixie meant to do that!" She quickly sprang up, chuckling to herself as she realized that nopony was around to see her gaff. Instead of getting back on the chair, she moved to one of the couches and used her cape as a blanket.

Once again, she soon fell asleep, dreaming of her favorite thing: herself, and Starlight, of course. All was quiet, for about thirty or so seconds before the door to the office slammed open, Sunburst running through.

Screaming, Trixie fell to the floor again, squeezing her eyes shut and holding up a hoof to protect her against the perceived threat. "Please, not Trixie's beautiful face! She will go quietly now. The Remorseful and Penitent Trixie hopes that the law will find mercy for her misdeeds at the Ponyville Old Ponies' home!"

After a few seconds of silence punctuated only by Sunburst's heavy breathing, Trixie cracked an eye open and took in the scene before her. Sunburst was heaving, like he had run a marathon in five minutes, although for him, a marathon was probably going twenty feet. Trickles of sweat flowed down his face and streaked his spectacles, and his mane was more frazzled than usual.

"Trixie!" he exclaimed, finally turning sideways to face his victim.

Before she had a chance to react beyond muttering, "Oh buck," Sunburst was violently shaking her, spluttering incoherent nonsense. Between his wheezing gasps for air, she managed to make out "Starlight. Date. Don't know what to do. I'm so bucked!"

"Sunburst," Trixie deadpanned, flopping around as he continued to shake her. Her face held a very unamused expression.

"What am I going to do? I-I've never been on a date before! What if I screw up, and she tries to use a mind control spell on me?" Sunburst babbled, more sweat pouring down his face and into Trixie's coat. Now she'd need to get a shower. A very, long, cold, cleansing shower to get the smell of him out of her coat.

Although, to be fair, he did have a nice flank. And cute eyes.

"Sunburst," Trixie groaned again. The shaking had become a bit less intense now, as Sunburst had begun running out of breath.

"I just don't know what to do!" he cried again, now a few tears mixing in with the sweat.

Actually, hold the thought of her needing a shower. He needed a shower first. Sweet Celestia, what did Starlight see behind the overly stereotypical nerd exterior? Well, again, he did have a nice flank. Maybe she should just go out and give a light smack?

Chasing the notion from her mind, she shouted, "Sunburst!" The shaking immediately stopped, although her vision certainly didn't stop shaking for a few seconds afterward.

Staring blankly at her, Sunburst asked, "Uh, yes, Trixie?"

"Why don't we grab a donut?" she suggested.

A few moments later, after Trixie had composed herself, she flicked the specks of dandruff from Sunburst's mane off her immaculate blue fur, and then subsequently grabbed a half-eaten box of donuts. She led Sunburst to one of the couches and set the box down on the coffee table. Grabbing a donut in her magic, she flopped onto the other couch and took a bite of the pastry.

Technically, Sunburst was her boss, so Trixie tried to avoid asking any probing questions too early, especially since he was still in a distraught state. The lamp on her desk cast some eerie shadows across his face, which danced and contorted as he mumbled a few words to himself. Occasionally, his features contorted in a spasm, creating deep ravines on his forehead and cheeks.

Trixie grabbed another donut from the box and munched on it loudly, eliciting a few eye twitches from Sunburst. What exactly got him in such an uppity manner? Something about Starlight, right? Whatever it was, it definitely spooked him. Still, it was odd he went to her first, maybe nopony else was around to talk to?

She finished her donut and felt her mouth was rather dry from the sugar. Thinking for a moment, she asked, "Want something to drink?"

The only response she got was a half-audible mutter of agreement. Sunburst was still slightly sweating, the neck of his cloak at this point soaked. It would need a wash. As Trixie walked past him to get to the small vending machine, which she still had to pay bits for, cheapskate Twilight, she observed that maybe she'd also need to get a new couch.

Reaching the machine, she dropped in a couple of bits and pressed the button for hot chocolate. This was at least one trick she had picked up from Starlight: empathy cocoa never got turned down by her students, so why should it be any different if it was one of the headmares?

After the machine burbled and chugged for a couple of minutes, dispensing both her and Sunburst's hot chocolates, she turned back around and levitated over the two cups. She placed one on the crystal coffee table between the couches near Sunburst and then sat back down across on the other couch. She stretched herself out. Just because she was here to help a friend didn't mean she had to be uncomfortable.

Sunburst was still mumbling under his breath, interrupted only by occasionally taking a bite from a donut—his fourth, which finished the box, much to Trixie's chagrin. Eventually, he registered that the hot chocolate was left for him and took a long gulp.

Trixie reached out a hoof to try and warn him, but it was too late, and he screamed as the still scalding liquid went down his throat. So much for empathy cocoa helping.

Between his pleas, Trixie managed to lead him to a nearby water fountain outside her office. As soon as Sunburst saw the fountain, he dived for it and held his mouth over the faucet and flicked it on. A content groan emanated from him as the water began to cool his mouth and throat.

Silent seconds passed by. Trixie glanced hesitantly left and right down the halls and started grinning sheepishly as Sunburst continued guzzling the water. Finally, he turned off the fountain and faced her. "Thanks," he muttered. Gasping, he cried, “W-wait! She really asked me out?!” His eyes grew wide and his knees wobbled before they gave out and he crumpled to the floor.

Trixie huffed. Without a word, she tried helping him up, although it became quite obvious that he fainted. Growling a bit, she tried pushing him up over onto her back, but he was deceptively heavy. Finally, she gave in and instead just grabbed the tail of his cloak and dragged him back into her office.

With a surge of magic, she levitated him onto the couch he was on before, his head lolling over to the side. His eyes were glazed a bit and he began muttering again about not being ready and what would Starlight do.

Sighing, Trixie went back out into the hallway after guzzling her cup of cocoa. She filled it with water from the fountain. In a few seconds, she returned into the office again and set the mug down.

"Sunburst," she said, lightly smacking his cheek with a hoof.

"Wha?" he muttered, not registering her actions.

"Oh, sweet Celestia," she groused. With a frown, she picked up the mug of water, levitated it over Sunburst's head, and flipped it over. She had to hold back a slight giggle as he shrieked like a little filly from the sudden wetness of his face.

"Wh-what'd you do that, that for?!" he demanded, wiping off his spectacles before placing them on his nose. He tried blowing his wet mane out of his right eye, to no real effect.

"Trixie had been patient long enough. Plus, you were getting my couch dirty." She eyed said couch, which now had a growing splotch of water. "Well, maybe not just you, but still."

"Oh, yeah, I guess y-you're right," he stuttered, slowly getting back up into a sitting position, a faint blush forming on his cheeks.

Sighing again, Trixie went back over to her couch and rested her haunches on it. Since Sunburst wasn't interested in his hot chocolate and there was no point in wasting two bits, she levitated it over to her lips and took a sip. It was the perfect temperature, and besides, Sunburst owed her for having to dump her own empathy cocoa.

"All right," she flatly stated, "let's take it from the top." She rotated her hoof around loosely to emphasize before pointing it at Sunburst. "Care to tell Trixie why you came into her office—which was closed, she might add—and explain your incessant panicking?" She took a sip of her cocoa and raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, uh," he stammered, shifting in his seat a bit before gulping, "well, Starlight may have asked me on a date."

Snorting, Trixie spat out her cocoa, managing to barely miss Sunburst and instead hitting one of the potted plants in the room. Wiping her muzzle, she asked, "She what now?"

She did her best to hide any kind of emotion, especially considering it was rather conflicted right now. When Rainbow Dash had informed everypony of the betting pool on who'd kiss who first, she took the risk and betted on Sunburst. Didn't look like she'd be getting those bits now. However, Starlight was her friend, and what made her happy made Trixie happy. At least, that's what she was telling herself.

Wait, Sunburst was freaking out when he came in, saying he was... what was the word? Bucked? Maybe he said no? Shuddering, Trixie suppressed the thought of what that would do to Starlight. Unfortunately, images of Starlight setting Ponyville on fire whilst simultaneously gorging herself on ice cream managed to surface and Trixie realized she'd need therapy for months now.

She broke from her reverie to notice that Sunburst was staring at her with pleading eyes. A few tears were beginning to form on the edges of his eyes and drip down his face. "You said no, didn't you?" she inquired, glaring at the orange unicorn as he had now sealed Ponyville to destruction.

"N-no!" he emphatically responded, waving his hooves about in panic. "That's just it! I said, I said yes!" Lowering his voice, he muttered, "Although I wasn't quite sure what I, you know, said yes to at first."

Instantly, worries about having to evacuate Ponyville and deny any association with Starlight were driven from Trixie's mind. With a soft smile, she said, "That's good, right? By the way you stare at her when she passes by in the hallways, Trixie would say that's good." Her expression fell in line with his. "But what is wrong about something going right?"

Some sweat began to trickle down his muzzle again, and he squeaked, "Well, you see, I don't really know what to do on, well, you know, a date." He glanced nervously around the room as Trixie shot him a stare that would have given Starlight a run for her money in a "Are you serious?" stare contest.

He continued, "We, we just do so much stuff together already! It's not like, it's not like there's anything special we can do for one."

Gasping, he wiped a bit more sweat from his brow and brushed one of his white hooves against the couch, which definitely, definitely needed replacing now. "What if things go too far! I've never done, you know, you know! Anypony before! What if she has foals? I don't want to be a dad yet!" He sprung up, ran over to Trixie again and began shaking her, spilling the last bits of hot chocolate over her coat and her couch.

Trixie huffed.

"I'm not ready to be a dad yet, Trixie! I still have responsibilities for Flurry Heart! I can't be a dad to her and a dad to my own foals!"

"Sunburst!" Trixie bellowed, pushing him back onto his haunches. His admittedly cute haunches. He also had an adorable, dumbstruck expression on his face. "Take a deep breath," she began, following her own advice, "and breathe it out slowly."

Nodding, he quickly fell onto his back. "Okay, calm now," he said from his position. "I think, I think I'll just lie here for a bit, if you don't mind."

With a shake of her head, Trixie replied, "Whatever." Getting up, she walked around so her face was above Sunburst's. "How long have you been friends with Starlight?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well, uh, since foalhood," he answered, a hint of confusion in his voice.

"Exactly," Trixie smirked, "you've already done so much together, I don't think that Starlight would care what you did, so long as you did it together." She poked his chest. "As colt and marefriend."

Rolling around, he got up on his hooves and looked Trixie eye-to-eye. "You really think so?"

"Mhmm." Trixie nodded earnestly.

"Well, I guess you're right. I suppose it doesn't have to be anything, well, fancy." He fiddled with his spectacles a bit before going back to sit down on his couch.

Chuckling and looking out the window in Trixie's office, he said whimsically, "She does get so cute when she's flustered, I mean, that laugh, you know?" He pulled a fairly accurate imitation of the nervous snort-laugh that Starlight frequently did and then just stared out the window.

He kept staring, humming to himself, and smiling. Trixie raised an eyebrow. He kept staring. She softly coughed. He kept staring. Finally, she had enough and threw the empty donut box at him.

"O-oh, right," Sunburst murmured sheepishly, turning his attention back to Trixie. However, his eyes widened again and sweat started to break out.

Trixie cursed under her breath, preparing for another shake-fest that never came. Instead Sunburst just threw his hooves to his agape mouth.

"But how much will it cost? I had to spend quite a bit to ship all my belongings back to the Crystal Empire! What if I mess something up and she never wants to see me again? What if she finds someone else to be her vice-headmare? I couldn't handle that, Trixie!" He began to rock back and forth.

Trixie mused why the mental damage started now, instead of after the break-up? Crying his name again, she grabbed his attention and said, "Just show up, be your dorky self, and let Starlight handle the date details." She smiled. "Don't thank Trixie now, she already knows she's that awesome."

Almost instantly, Sunburst was hugging her, squeezing the air slowly out of her lungs. "Okay," she wheezed, pushing against the stallion, "you can let Trixie go now."

"Thanks, Trixie," Sunburst stated, still holding on to her for dear life. "You're a great friend."

"Trixie knows. Now let her go so her Crushed and Damaged lungs may recover," she said, pushing even harder out of the embrace.

"R-right," he answered, suddenly releasing her and causing her to gasp for air on the floor. As he prepared to leave the room, he bumped into the coffee table and fell to the ground. After fumbling for his spectacles, he got up and noticed a piece of paper on the table.

Levitating it over, he saw it was a poster for an event happening the night before he had to leave. His eyes grew wide as he read the event's name. A Midsummer Kite’s Dream read the poster.

He squealed in excitement, bending down to Trixie and waving it in her face. "Trixie! I have an idea for something Starlight and I can do!"

"That's great, just let Trixie get some air," she breathed, almost done wheezing on the floor. Unfortunately, her wish wasn't answered and she was gathered in another strong hug from Sunburst.

"Oh, buck me."

***

The next morning, Starlight was wandering the halls of Twilight's castle. It had been a fitful sleep, but she managed to get a few hours of R&R after she returned. Every so often, she'd dream of waking up and in it she swore she saw Sunburst beside her. When she rolled around to look at him, she was instead greeted with one of her friends instead.

"My brain really likes playing tricks on me, doesn't it?" she mused as she made her way down another hallway, passing the main kitchen.

Halting, she turned around and smelt what was cooking. Investigating, she saw Sunburst baking some fresh pancakes and humming to himself. "Sunburst?" she asked, causing the pony to jump up in surprise.

"O-oh, Starlight!" he said, a faint blush forming on his face. "You weren't supposed to see this yet."

She only paid half attention, her mind wandering. "Sweet princesses above, he's cute in that apron." Shaking herself, she muttered, "Uh, what?"

"Oh, uh, well, you see, uh, I don't think you ever suggested a, well, a time for the..." he trailed off before coughing and muttering under his breath, "...the date." He quickly regained his composure and flipped a couple of pancakes with his magic. "So I thought I'd save you the time figuring it out and suggest it instead. Oh,and make breakfast! Because I'm famished and I thought you might be, too."

Her eyes glistening a bit, Starlight was about to say something, but was interrupted by Trixie, who slammed open one of the other doors leading into the kitchen and yawned. The blue unicorn firmly sat herself down at the kitchen table and grumbled, "Trixie's hungry. Pancakes. Plate. Now."

"Really?" Starlight grumped at Trixie's sudden intrusion. Resisting the urge to "ugh," she sat down next to Trixie and waited for Sunburst to finish making the pancakes.

Soon enough, two giant specimens of the pastries were in front of Starlight, two slices of strawberries and some dabs of whipped cream forming smiling faces that stared back at her. Beside her, Trixie was already digging into her food, taking a moment to gulp down some orange juice that Sunburst had also poured.

To Starlight's surprise, the kitchen was not a complete mess. In fact, it was in an orderly state, unlike after her baking adventures. Usually it looked like a bomb had been detonated in the kitchen. At least her baking was good, according to Twilight and Spike. Outside of a few dirty dishes used to make the pancakes, and maybe a few motes of flour still hovering in the beams of sunlight coming in through the window, she wouldn't have been able to tell that it was used.

She always assumed that Sunburst wasn't much of a cook, as he always seemed to be ordering takeout whenever she walked past his own office in the School of Friendship. At first, she thought it was cute, but as she bit into her own pancake, eliciting a slight moan of enjoyment, her thoughts soon soured as she realized that the baking was far better than hers. "Is there anything he can't do better than me?"

Forgetting her annoyance for the moment, she eyed Sunburst, who wasn't fully paying attention, reading something in the Ponyville Express and occasionally cutting and eating a piece of pancake. Absentmindedly, she took another bite of her breakfast and sighed, watching Sunburst as he continued reading the newspaper.

A few minutes went by, not that it was noticed by Starlight, and she felt a hoof poking her ribs. "Starlight," she heard Trixie whisper. "If you're not hungry, could you give Trixie your other pancake before you drool on it?"

Closing her mouth and wiping her muzzle, she whipped her gaze over to Trixie, who was already going ahead and getting ready to grab the whole pancake. The magician gave a tiny wave, as she saw Starlight's glare harden on her, and a slow growl rise from the purple unicorn's throat.

"Ugh, fine." Starlight grabbed the pancake with her magic and tossed it over onto Trixie's plate. Trixie grinned with excitement and tore into the pancake, viciously defacing the face Sunburst had made.

"Trixie," Sunburst began, lowering the newspaper and raising an eyebrow. "You could have, you know, just grabbed another one from the counter, right?" He pointed to the large stack of pancakes that were backlit by the sunlight.

"Trixie needs to conserve her energy," she responded between bites, spitting a bit of pancake onto the table.

"For what?" Starlight incredulously asked, turning to face her other friend.

"Well, Trixie has to spend lots of energy figuring out new magic tricks." Trixie finished her plate with a content sigh and pushed her chair back, resting her hind legs on the table. Quickly, Starlight smacked them off, eliciting an annoyed sidelong look from Trixie.

"Trixie, you spend maybe five minutes cooking up new tricks. That's why so many of them flop," Starlight stated, completely deadpan. She stared at Trixie, who returned it with an earnest smile.

Slowly, Trixie’s smile began to fade and she diverted her gaze from Starlight. "Okay, fine, you got me." She shrugged. "Still, you don't know how hard it is to spend time relaxing."

Snorting, Starlight said, "Yeah, guess not." She shot an annoyed scowl at Trixie, who was avoiding looking in Starlight’s direction.

A few seconds of silence passed before Trixie noticed the growing glower coming from Starlight. Finally, she got the hint and said, "Okay, okay. Trixie will leave. No need to be a tough crowd." With that, she quickly pushed herself back and trotted out of the room.

Almost instantly, Starlight turned around to face Sunburst, lowering her eyelids a bit enticingly. "So," she said, biting her lower lip, "what were you going to tell me?" Her heart froze momentarily as Sunburst held up a hoof as he took the last bite of his breakfast.

After finishing his food with a final swig of orange juice, he began, "Well, I was going to say that since you didn't suggest a time for, uh, well, hanging out. That I'd save you the, the trouble."

Starlight's expression fell a bit at him calling their date a "hang out."

"Oh, sorry!" Sunburst smacked his hoof to his forehead. After readjusting his spectacles, he said, "It just feels so, you know, weird to say." His cheeks turned a slight shade of pink as he went on, "So anyway, how about we plan it for the night before I leave? Give us a bit more time to, well, prepare?"

With a sigh, Starlight slumped her shoulders. "Yeah, yeah, that sounds swell." Putting on a forced grin, she said through gritted teeth, "It's not like I haven't been waiting weeks or anything."

Sunburst cleared his throat. A yellow field of magic surrounded the copy of the Ponyville Express he had finished. Slipping from between the pages, he levitated an advertisement and tapped it on his muzzle. "Well... I w-was going to keep this a surprise, but I guess I can show you this now." He floated the paper over to Starlight, who hastily grabbed it in her own magic and read it.

Too busy in her reading, she failed to notice Sunburst watching her, a dopey smile on his features. After reading through it once, she read it quickly again. By the time she rotated it so she could point with a hoof, she exclaimed, "For real?! I didn't know this was happening!"

"Uh-huh," he replied, nodding his head, a smile growing on his face. "I-I know you like kite flying, and well, I saw this last night. They have, well, hundreds, if not thousands of different kites that they fly over their destinations. I didn't know there were so many!"

Starlight barely heard his explanation. Instead, she was switching her gaze between the advertisement and Sunburst, a blush and a content smile forming on her face. "Oh Celestia, he's so sexy when he talks kites."

Broken from her thoughts, she heard Sunburst explain the rest of the date. Six o'clock, at that new Prench restaurant that opened. It wasn't too snooty or expensive, but it definitely beat eating hayburgers for a meal. And then, oh and then it'd be kite time!

Thinking about it more, she lost her grip on the table and fell face first onto the crystal floor. "Ow." She stayed where she was, taking a minute to process everything.

"Starlight!" she heard Sunburst cry and gallop over to her. "Are you all right?" She felt one of his hooves reach down and lock with her own.

"I'm okay. I think I'll just stay here for a bit. I always wanted to get more acquainted with the crystal here in the castle."

Food and a Show

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Tonight was the night! The whole two days that Starlight had to wait were pure torture. Every chance she had to interact with Sunburst had been an arduous task of keeping herself from calling the date off there and just making out with him. But, she made it.

This area of Ponyville was a rather new section, designed to be part of the student housing for the School of Friendship. There were days when she wondered why Twilight never offered her castle to the students that couldn't live in the school itself, but never got around to it.

The sun was low in the sky, red and orange streaks of light painting the houses in warm colors. A faint breeze blew through the street, rustling the leaves on the young trees and causing them to sway.

"Oh buck me! Has he bailed? Oh, he better not have bailed!" she ruminated, pacing back and forth outside the restaurant of choice, Parfait Poutinerie Prançais de Pierre. The sign for the restaurant was of a giant, gruff pony holding up some hayfries slathered in gravy and cheese curds. Slowly, Starlight was beginning to regret eating here.

As she had made her way to the restaurant, she swore that she saw somepony ducking behind cover every so often, but she never got a glimpse of the culprit. Eventually, she just let it go as a trick of the shadows from the setting sun.

She continued pacing, her hoofsteps thudding and crunching against the gravelly road. It was almost a quarter after six! "Oh, when he gets here, I'll tell him what's for!" she angrily thought to herself, nearly colliding with a couple of other restaurant guests.

She'd even done herself up, too! Well, not that one would be able to really tell, but she had gotten Rarity to give her mane a quick perm and managed to grab one of the last bottles of perfume from the Perfume & Toilets shop. "Why are there so many weird shops here in Ponyville?" she mused as she waited, finally stopping in her tracks and going to sit outside near the entrance.

She received a few glares from guests that entered and gave a few nervous smiles in return. "Hurry up, Sunburst. I don't want to keep looking like a homeless pony."

"Starlight!" she heard Sunburst call. She whirled around, trying to find her date before being swept up behind in a strong hug. Closing her eyes, she felt him inhale the perfume she was wearing, a smile creeping upon her face. "Okay, maybe I won't kill him. Yet, anyway."

Turning around, she beamed and took in his appearance. At first, it didn't seem that he had done anything different for the night, but then she noticed his cloak was a slightly brighter shade of blue.

Noticing her staring, Sunburst explained, "Oh, I uh, I have a few spares. You never know when you might need a replacement cape!" He smiled, a few dandruff flakes falling off his mane as he raised his head proudly.

Snickering, Starlight gave him another hug and nuzzled his neck. "Well, you finally showed up." She breathed in. Thankfully—to her, anyway—he hadn't showered, and his mane still smelled wonderful. Stepping back, she suggested, "How about we head inside? They may start to think we're looking for a free meal."

"Oh, you're right. Sorry to keep you waiting, I just had a hard time deciding what to wear." He sheepishly grinned, leading her by the hoof.

"You have a closet of the same cloaks, how hard was it to choose?" she inquired as the two waited to be seated by the maître d’. The restaurant was definitely not some smelly fast food joint, but it wasn't really high class either.

The maître d’ was a squat, brown pony with thick wrinkles around his eyes. When he saw Sunburst and Starlight enter, he walked around his stand and said in a heavy Prench accent, "Ah! Two more 'onored guests! Welcome to Parfait Poutinerie Prançais de Pierre! Right zis way, s'il vous plaît!" He grabbed a couple of menus in his forearm and led the two ponies to one of the tables on the open floor.

Ponies of all ages were gathered here tonight, the buzz of conversation creating a din that could easily keep their own private. Soon, a waiter was by and gave them both glasses of water, shuffling off after promising to return shortly to get their orders.

Playing with her mane a bit, Starlight glanced around the establishment at some of the different plates of food that ponies were eating. She looked back down at the menu and tried deciphering the different names. "Knew I should have paid attention in Prench class instead of plotting out revenge schemes in crayon."

She scratched her muzzle as she thought back to her fillyhood days. "They weren't even very good plans, either. 'Find Sunburst and make him write "I will not abandon my friends'' one thousand times?' Please." Another waiter caught her eye as he brought out some kind of dessert and subsequently lit it on fire before serving it to one of the guests.

Despite the flames looking unappealing, her stomach reminded her she hadn't eaten since this morning. As she felt it rumble some more, she grumbled to herself, “Thanks nerves.” Turning back to her menu, she read things over again. Thankfully, it had images of some of the meals they served, dotted around as the restaurant’s best examples of what to order.

She looked up from her menu and smiled when she saw Sunburst watching her. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, "Yes?"

"O-oh, I was just waiting to see if you found something you wanted," he answered, scratching the back of his neck. While she couldn't hear what he said, she did see him move his lips some more and managed to make out "wasn't watching."

Humming, she looked back down at the menu again. There were a few options that looked interesting. About the one thing she did know was poutine, but seriously, gravy and cheese with fries? Gross. She stuck out her tongue as she thought about it.

Flicking through the pages, she thought, "Let's see poutine, blech; cretons et pain, that sounds, well, painful, I think; fèves au lard, maybe; hmm, this pâté chinois sounds interesting." With a shrug, she concluded to herself, "Sure, let's go with that."

"All right," she said, folding her menu and placing it next to Sunburst's. "I think I'm good."

"Great!" he replied, waving their waiter over when he noticed the pony.

After briefly giving their orders, Sunburst ordering hay fingers and fries—which garnered a scathing glare from the waiter—and Starlight adding soupe aux pois to her order, the two were left alone in the crowd of ponies. At last.

First out of Starlight's lips was a question. "Why did you order hay fingers? Why come to a Prench restaurant just to get something from any old place?"

Coughing a bit, Sunburst replied, "Well, ah, you see, I just really like them. I always get them if a restaurant has them on the menu. Some crispy hay fingers and plum sauce?" He held up hoof and mouthed "perfection." When he saw that Starlight wasn't convinced, he continued, "D-don't knock it until you try it. I might, well, I might try a bite of your dish, if you don't mind, that is."

Smiling, Starlight shook her head.

The two fell into silence. The sounds of the crowd felt mildly overwhelming to Starlight, as it was hard to concentrate on one conversation to keep her grounded in the soundscape. Soon, some sweat began to form on her brow, and she started smiling a bit too widely.

Sunburst, for his part, was matching her body language to a T, avoiding eye contact wherever possible and trying to find something interesting either on the ceiling, the floor, or the crowd. Grabbing his spectacles in his magic, he breathed on them and wiped them with a hoof.

Suddenly some accordion music filled the air, and all eyes turned to watch as the staff carried out a small piece of cake with a candle on it, singing happy birthday in Prench. The object of their attention were two ponies, themselves probably on a date. They didn’t appear much older than their mid-teens. The colt looked like he wanted to melt into the seat, but the mare held back a few giggles and watched as the staff continued their show.

Turning back to face Sunburst, Starlight thought, "Come on, Starlight, you're losing him!" A trickle of sweat slid down her face, and her eyes slowly shrunk. "It's not that hard, you've talked to him for months on months now! A stupid date shouldn't be so hard!

"Ask him about what he's hoping to accomplish with Flurry this summer, that always gets him going!" She stopped to watch their waiter go by, but he was delivering another table's food. Allowed to continue her monologue, she thought, "Or, ask him if he's found any antiques lately. Sure, they may be boring, but at least it shows interest. That's always a plus!"

"Well," she heard herself say, almost against her will. "Stop moving, tongue! I haven't thought of a good thing to say yet!" Unfortunately, being a part of her, her tongue paid no mind and continued. "Here we are!" she said, her voice rising nervously a bit at the end.

"O-oh yes! That we are!" Sunburst replied with a few vigorous nods. "Yep. Definitely here. Waiting for food. On a. Date." He punctuated the last word extra hard, like it was still hard to pronounce.

If her spirit could somehow leave her body, smack it upside the head fifty times, and then turn back time to reverse that statement, Starlight would have done so in a heartbeat. But she couldn't, so she didn't.

Some more time passed. Whether it was a few seconds or a few minutes, Starlight couldn't say. Not that it really mattered, as she felt like she was currently trapped on the moon for a thousand years with her worst nightmares. No, that'd still be too nice and easy for her.

Finally, Sunburst broke the silence. As he opened his mouth, she expected him to usher in a wealth of conversation topics, sure to defeat any chances of awkward conversation that she had started. Unfortunately, he didn't.

"So, uh, what are your plans for the summer?" he asked, using his magic to levitate his fork around and dig it into the tablecloth without care.

"Oh, Celestia and Luna above, you've got to be kidding me." As much as she willed to answer with something more interesting that would lead to deeper topics, she replied, "Oh, you know, stuff. Summer stuff. Trying to not die from the heat, that sort of thing."

"Yes, it is going to start getting hot soon. Thankfully the Crystal Empire is up north enough that it isn't too bad."

Once again, the table fell into silence. Starlight sighed and rested her head on the table, watching with a bemused expression some of the different ponies in the restaurant. The young couple from earlier had left and were replaced by a couple of boorish construction workers, who were laughing it up over a couple of drinks.

Trying again to get the ball rolling, she asked, "Did you read any good books, lately?"

Adjusting his spectacles, Sunburst replied, "Oh, not really. Just a few dry theses by long-dead ponies. Some light reading. It took me a day to read one, but I never back down from reading something that's over two thousand pages."

"Yep. Just an A-grade date happening here," Starlight mused, kicking one of her hind legs against the table and rocking the water in her glass a bit. She sighed and rested her head again on the table before pulling back slightly and letting her forehead prop her up while she looked at the paneling on the floor.

"Uh, Starlight?" she heard him clear his throat and ask.

Starlight jerked her head up and looked at Sunburst expectantly. Inwardly, she didn't expect much from his upcoming question, but one never knows. "Yes?" she asked when he didn't continue.

"Well, uh," he pulled a bit at his cloak and looked around, "I always wondered what you thought about handling the school now. I mean, you're going to have to create the syllabus, organize housing, find new professors and substitute professors, deal with Chancellor Neighsay and the EEA. I-I mean, I can always help with that, of course!" As he continued his train of thought, he became more and more flustered. "It's just that it seems like an awful lot of work for, you know, one pony, and I wondered what you thought of Twilight handing the reins off to you, so to speak."

Starlight blinked. Twilight never really talked much about her responsibilities as headmare beyond caring for the students. Starlight always assumed that it'd just be dealing with course syllabus that would keep her busy in the summer. Furrowing her brow, she grumbled to herself, "Twilight, you A-class bitch. Probably thought I'd figure this out on my own or with all my friends, right? After probably freaking out and vaporizing half of Ponyville!"

Her face grew hot, and she could feel it contorting in anger. From across the table, she could see Sunburst take a long, hard gulp. But, before she could explode in a bundle of anger-fueled magical death, she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She wasn't calm enough, however.

"How do I feel?!" she bellowed, enough to make a dent in the conversations of many ponies and cause them to turn their attention to her.

In the background, a couple of younger ponies said, "Hey, you should record this and put this on Yourbook. This could go viral!"

"I feel upset! Betrayed! Left to dry!" Starlight continued, glaring up at the ceiling. "Twilight's my friend, sure, but she didn't think to tell me any of this!" She raised a hoof and shook it at the ceiling. Twilight wouldn't be able to see it, but she didn't care.

Sitting back down, now slightly more in control over her rage, Starlight continued, "I work as the counsellor for a few months, and she decides I'm good enough to be headmare! I should have known she was planning something more! Always Twilight and her friendship tests! Ugh!" She began waving her forehooves around in emphasis

Sunburst tried to sink down into his seat as much as he could, to avoid the eyes of all those who were watching Starlight. Currently, she was just sputtering as she was trying to think of what else this revelation made her feel. Occasionally, she waved a hoof while trying to start a point.

At that moment, their waiter was coming out from the kitchen, plates of food and a bowl of soup in his magical grip. He started walking down the floor toward them, ignoring the ponies staring at his customers. With a haughty air, a small smirk forming on his face as he expected to save the struggling date , he started to place the food on their table.

Without warning, Starlight began her tirade again. "I was this close to getting comfortable as headmare and then—" She stopped mid-sentence as she flung a hoof out, whacking the waiter right in the face and causing him to lose his grip on the food. Said food was hers, and it was now soon to become Sunburst's.

"Crap. Crap, crap crap crap!" Starlight panicked as she watched dumbfoundedly as the dish went flying through the air, collided with Sunburst's dinner, and sent both his and her food into his face.

The plates fell to the ground and shattered, scattering porcelain pieces everywhere. A few of the pieces managed to lodge themselves into some of the booth seats on the edges of the floor. One of the servers barely managed to avoid tripping on the mess of plate fragments.

"Buck."

Their waiter shook his head and glared at Starlight. After a few seconds of him fuming, he cried, "Licorne pourpre imbécile!" With that, he stormed back into the kitchen and came out a minute later with a dust tray and broom in tow and swept up the debris.

Scoffing, he turned around when he was finished and went back into the kitchen. He popped out a moment later and shouted, "You are being sharged doobel! Espéce de garce insouciante!"

The restaurant was quiet for a moment but soon returned to its normal hubbub as the ponies forgot the event.

Starlight was beet red. If a pony met her right now, they’d think that her fur was indeed red, and not its normal light purple. She said nothing and continued to watch Sunburst, who was still sitting motionless in his chair. A few pieces of her meal, which was some kind of vegetable pie, fell off his mane and onto his nose.

Chuckling nervously, she said, "Sorry."

Sunburst blinked.

A pit starting to grow in her stomach, she begged, "Please, please please! I'm sorry, I got too caught up. I'm sorry!" She started to get up, her napkin in her grip, but Sunburst held up a hoof. Sitting back down, she gulped.

"Well," he finally spoke. He used his magic to levitate his fork up and spear a piece of her meal from his nose. "I guess I got that taste test like I asked." He smiled and took a bite. "Mmm. This is really good!"

Suddenly, Starlight felt blood flowing through her body again and she eased back in her chair slightly. "Well, I don't think anything worse can happen now!"

Somehow, the incident had managed to get the conversation gears in both their heads turning. Starlight spoke first as she rested her forehooves on the table. “So, what else do you plan to do this summer?”

“Oh, n-nothing much, really. I think Cadance will be relieved more than anything that I agreed to spend the season there.” He chuckled a bit and flicked a piece of food from his mane. “I mean, she wrote to me while I was asleep last week. Fifty letters!” To emphasize, he placed his left hoof on the table and then stretched his right as far as he could. “Fifty!”

“You’re kidding!” Starlight exclaimed. She leaned in slightly. “Flurry Heart couldn’t be causing that much trouble!”

Quickly nodding, he continued, “She was. L-like, I’ve never seen Cadance this panicky before.” He pulled on his beard, getting some food on his hoof. Squinting, he hummed to himself and peered past Starlight. Finally, he proclaimed, “Oh, now I remember one of them!”

He cleared his throat. “N-now, if I recall right, her first letter said, ‘Sunburst, Flurry has been acting really strange the past few nights. Would you be able to spend the next few weeks here looking after her? Shining and I need your help figuring out what’s going on.’”

He stopped, waiting for Starlight to say something. Instead, she just leaned further still, almost completely off her seat. Her eyes were wide, exposing her desire to hear the end of the story. At last, when he saw that she was going to stay silent, he finished, “Well, by the end of the night, I was buried in letters.” Faintly, a blush formed and he muttered, “I-I would tell what the last one said, but, well, I don’t think Cadance would appreciate me repeating it.”

“You can’t leave me on a cliffhanger like that, Sunburst!” Starlight cried, flopping back onto her seat. She crossed her hooves and playfully pouted at him.

Glancing around, Sunburst uttered, “Well, her last letter may have involved the words ‘Oh Celestia, it’s all on fire,’ and ‘So help me, I’m going to end this nightmare.’” He blinked and readjusted his spectacles. “Actually, wait, that was her second-last letter. Her last letter just said that she got Flurry to sleep, and I needed to come soon.”

He smiled. “What about you?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m topping that,” she answered, shaking her head in amusement. After a second or two, she grunted and grimaced, turning her gaze to their waiter, who walked past and served another table. As the waiter walked back to the kitchen, he locked eyes with her and glared.

She sighed and placed her forearms on the table. Resting her head in her hooves, she gently rubbed her temples and stated, “I think I’m going to be spending a lot of time in Canterlot with Twilight. Mainly about not placing all the responsibilities of a school on somepony and having them figure it out!”

“Oh! Speaking of that,” Sunburst interjected, his eyes lighting up. “What do you think will happen now that Equestria is safe?” He looked around the restaurant at its almost entirely pony clientele. “Do you think more creatures will immigrate here?”

Starlight shrugged. “Maybe. Twilight told me before she left that she’ll be spending time negotiating with the changelings, Yakyakistan, and other nations.” Again, she watched as their waiter went by to another table. Was it just her, or did the food seem to be taking longer this time?

Raising an eyebrow, Sunburst reached across the table and tapped her arm. “They’ll bring the food soon, Glimmy.” Like on cue, the kitchen doors opened and their waiter backed out, holding their meals in his magic.

Sauntering over, the waiter sniffed arrogantly and left Sunburst’s meal on the table before turning to Starlight. . As he placed her meal in front of her, he shot her another look so cold, that it would have frozen her on the spot if it was possible.

The food was, she had to agree, really good. Outside of the beets that were part of her main dish. Those things could perish in Tartarus for all she cared.

After the main dish, they both decided to try the crème brûlée for dessert. Soon after their order, their waiter brought out two small cups of cream and set them down in front of them. With a brief flash of his horn, the surface of the dessert ignited, sending waves of heat toward the two ponies.

Almost instantly, the fire was out, and they tried the treat. Waves of pleasure washed over Starlight as she took the first bite of the dessert and she quickly ate the rest of it, eyeing Sunburst's dish when hers was empty. She smiled as he offered her the last spoonful of his dessert, and quickly accepted.

When Sunburst flagged down their waiter, the pony brought with him the bill. He huffed and grabbed the two dessert dishes and marched off to the kitchen, giving a nasty glare to the two of them.

Sunburst levitated up the bill and blanched. Readjusting his spectacles, his eyes quickly moved through the bill again. For good measure, he did it one more time.

Anxiously, Starlight began chewing her lip. Would the restaurant accept an I.O.U. backed by the Equestrian monarchy? As Sunburst read the bill again, she piped up, "So, how much?"

"T-two hundred bits," he slowly replied, showing the bill to Starlight.

"Double crap." Sighing, she said, "I'm sorry, Sunburst, I guess this has been a screw up so far, huh?"

"W-well, don't be so sure. I happened to bring a bit extra for this occasion, so I can cover it," he answered, pulling out a sack of bits from a pocket in his cloak. He counted out the amount and nodded, leaving them on the bill and waiting for their waiter to return.

Said pony soon did and looked at the bits expectantly. After counting them, his face fell, but he pocketed the bits and the bill anyway. Coldly, he said, "Bonsoir, do not let the door hit you on the way out. Radin."

"That was quite an experience," Sunburst declared, leading Starlight out of the restaurant and into the very late-day sun. A few cicadas were buzzing their song, and the last red rays of daylight made the roofs of the houses appear on fire.

"You know, I think he really accepted us in the end. I think he wished us good luck, or something. I don't know, I need to brush up on my Prench." He stopped near the end of the patio and waited for Starlight to catch up, as she was slowly plodding behind him, her posture indicating her defeated mindset.

"Yeah, I didn't pick up on that," Starlight muttered as she reached him.

The sun reflected off his spectacles, making his eyes appear like they were two lasers headed straight for her head. Being honest with herself, she'd prefer if they were.

"So, when is this Midsummer Kite Dream thing?" she asked half-heartedly.

"It doesn't start until an hour after sunset, so I was thinking we could just walk around Ponyville, maybe visit one of the parks, or just head to the event now and find a good spot," he replied, ignoring the bits of food that were still left in his mane.

"Yeah, sure, that sounds—Oof!" Starlight grunted as she walked past Sunburst and smashed into a pony who was attempting to sneak past the patio entrance and into a nearby bush. She winced as she fell on her rear. It was a specific pony with whom she collided. A friend. Said friend was sprawled flat on her back, mumbling to herself as she tried to regain her bearings.

Shaking her head and getting back to her hooves, Starlight growled, "Trixie! What are you doing here?!"

The unicorn in question gazed up at Starlight and Sunburst. "Well, you see, Trixie was, uh, heh heh." She trailed off as Starlight got closer, fixing her with a strong glare. Scooting back a bit farther, she bumped into the wall of a house. Starlight continued inching closer, still glaring.

She laughed nervously, glancing between Starlight and Sunburst. Her brow began to moisten and she gulped.

"Trixie," Starlight growled, pushing her face right up to the unicorn and causing their muzzles to bump together. "Were you following us?"

"Uh, well, uh, maybe?" Trixie squeaked in reply. She winced when Starlight snarled.

"You have five seconds," Starlight threatened, her horn beginning to glow.

"Well, T-Trixie may have wanted to keep an eye on your date. But she just wanted to know that you were safe! Honest!" She waved her hooves back and forth helplessly, a bit of sweat making its way down her neck.

"Ugh! Seriously, Trixie?" Starlight groaned. Leaning back, she offered a hoof to help Trixie get up. Wordlessly, she let Trixie know that the magician was in deep trouble later.

Her friend merely chuckled again and scratched behind her head. "Perhaps Trixie isn't the best at staying hidden..." she mumbled.

Starlight smacked her hoof to her face. The shadow she kept noticing as she walked to the restaurant made sense now. "You've been following me since I left the castle, haven't you?"

Slowly, Trixie nodded.

With a sigh, Starlight stepped closer and smiled. "Trixie, I can take care of myself. If Sunburst tried anything—" she switched her gaze to her date, who was doing his best to find something interesting in the bushes beside a house, "—he wouldn't know what hit him."

Trixie smiled for a few seconds before her eyes opened wide and she gasped. Shortly, a devious smile grew, and she narrowed her eyes knowingly. "Oh, Trixie gets it." She jabbed an elbow into Starlight's chest. "You're just wanting to keep all the fun to yourself. Wink." She winked.

"Not this again," Starlight complained, her face once again turning a bright shade of red. "T-Trixie! I don't know where you got that idea, but it isn't funny!" she stammered.

"Uh-huh, Trixie understands. She'll let you two have fun by yourselves. Wink." She winked once more and stood still. Almost squeeing a bit, she looked at Starlight expectantly, as if she was hoping her friend would invite her along for the rest of the evening.

"Trixie," Starlight began, intending to choose her words carefully. "Go." Or not. Being blunt worked, too.

"Fiiine," Trixie exhaled, lowering her neck and looking at the ground. "I suppose the Lonely and Heartbroken Trixie will have to entertain herself at Twilight's castle. Alone." She gave one last plaintive look at Starlight, flashing her with the best puppy dog eyes that she could manage.

Unfazed, Starlight merely pointed a hoof to leave.

Whining a bit, Trixie slowly trotted off. Eventually, she reached a turn in the road and disappeared behind some houses. As she did, the last bits of sunlight passed the horizon and the moon began its ascent into the sky.

After a few seconds, Sunburst noticed that Trixie had left and trotted up to Starlight. She was morosely kicking a hoof against the ground and sighing every few seconds.

"Well," he began, placing a hoof on Starlight's shoulder, "I never knew Trixie was so protective of her friends. You're lucky to have her as one."

Looking up into his teal eyes, Starlight sighed once more. "Yeah, you could say that." She shook off his hoof and stretched her back. Putting on a smile, she continued, "I know I shouldn't let that bother me. We still have a kite show to see!" She chortled a bit, her sadness from earlier washing away.

As he saw his date lighten up a bit, Sunburst smiled himself. "Would you, would you be so kind to accompany me to the Riverside park, Starlight Glimmer?" he asked in an overly formal tone. He bowed and extended a forehoof. "The moon reflecting on the water is a, is uh, uh, is kind of a pretty sight," he finished, losing the snooty accent in the end.

Snorting and laughing a bit, Starlight replied in a similar manner, "I'd be honored to join you, my dear Sunburst." She extended her own forehoof, locking it with his and starting to walk.

The two laughed as they left the suburb and headed toward the town square of Ponyville. As they did, the occasional pedestrian passed by. A few waved to Starlight, recognizing her as Twilight's protege and school headmare. Thankfully, the most they said was a quick "Hi" or "Good evening, Starlight" and nothing about their offspring's grades.

In the evening, the town square was alight with ponies milling about in the cool evening air, chatting on a few tables set up around, or enjoying a quick stroll by the river. The town hall was the centerpiece, many hanging lights attached to the underside of the roof illuminating a large swath of ground around it.

Many dark homes around the square began lighting up as ponies returned from a hard day at work.

As the pair passed by a couple of the abodes, Starlight caught a glimpse of a few families gathering around to play a game or two. In another, she spied a mare pulling out some freshly baked scones, placing them on a nearby counter. Starlight suppressed a chuckle as a filly in the house snatched a scone when the mother wasn’t paying attention.

A few foals were playing a game of tag, running around the square and weaving in and out between the tables and different ponies. Watching the children, Starlight hummed to herself, remembering her younger days before Sunburst left.

Soon, they crossed through the square and made their way down another street. At the end of the line of houses was a small park. Its many trees created a dark silhouette against the backdrop of Canterlot Mountain and the swiftly darkening sky. A few lights from houses across the river peeked through gaps in the treeline, appearing as tiny, artificial stars in the otherwise black foliage. A sliver of the full moon began to climb over the trees as they approached.

Her heart skipped a couple of beats as she looked down at her and Sunburst's intertwined hooves. Inwardly, she was screaming like a little filly who had received a once in a lifetime gift. Turning her gaze upward, she thought, "Thank you, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, whoever."

A few silent moments later, they reached the park, their hoofsteps changing from the clopping of cobblestones to the soft thudding of grass and dirt underneath. The park was mostly empty. A couple of ponies were gathered here and there, mostly watching the moon rise over the horizon and shine off the glassy water.

The two walked for a bit along the riverside, enjoying each other's presence. When they passed a bench, Starlight suggested they sit down and watch the moon for a bit.

Settling down, Starlight pulled her legs underneath her chest and waited for Sunburst to take his seat. The orange unicorn fidgeted for about half a minute, eventually having to remove his cloak and leave it hanging on the back of the park bench.

They looked into each other's eyes for a moment before turning to observe the moon. Sunburst was the first to break the silence, "You know, I was always curious what it was like to live on the moon. For years when I was at Celestia's school, I'd study the features of it."

He pointed to the moon, its pure white rays of light casting a shadow on Starlight's face. "You know, uh, when Nightmare, uh, Princess, no wait, I guess she isn't princess anymore," he stuttered, fidgeting a bit more. Gathering his thoughts for a second, he continued, "When Luna was trapped on the moon, the 'Mare in the Moon' was only visible without a telescope. When you, you know, looked through one, all you saw were a bunch of craters."

Starlight followed his hoof up to look at the moon. Its featureless face still caused her to do a double take every so often, she was so used to Nightmare Moon's effigy on it from when she was young. Looking back at Sunburst, she pursed her lips. "Oh Celestia, he's so cute when he talks nerdy. And hey! Astronomy to boot!" She wiggled her way toward him a bit and turned to look at the moon again.

"It's actually really fascinating. I was recording the moon when Luna was released. I mean, right before my eyes, I could see craters disappearing, maria forming and reshaping. It, it was astronomical history happening in the moment!" He sighed and looked at Starlight briefly.

"And then Nightmare Moon brought in eternal night. For a, for a moment, I actually thought of you, and hoped that you were safe, wherever you were." He smiled, running a hoof along the back of her mane.

Closing her eyes, Starlight returned the smile and rested her head on the side of his neck. She opened her eyes again, a couple of tears welling up, and watched the moon's reflection shimmer in the river's water.

The water babbled and burbled as it slowly meandered downstream, occasionally splashing over a particularly low bank. Starlight sighed and took in the sounds of nature, along with the faint beating of Sunburst's heart.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, letting the rippling of the river’s water wash over them. Eventually, Sunburst continued, "And when I became the Crystaller of Flurry Heart, I took the opportunity to write to Luna to learn more about what it was like on the moon." He winced, sending a few crumbs of food into Starlight's mane. "I learned a lot of old Equestrian curse words that day."

Starlight chuckled, nuzzling further into Sunburst's neck. "So, did that stop you from trying to find out more?" She asked, already guessing the answer.

"O-oh no! Shortly after that, I was looking through the Crystal Palace's library for some books on magical inhibitor spells." He scratched the back of his neck. "Flurry was being a real pain that week. She destroyed five diamond doors! Do you know how much magic you need to channel to destroy a door made of diamond?"

"Uh, never gave it much thought." She pulled her head back to look at Sunburst and raised an eyebrow. Sunburst's expression was blank, his memories returning back to the events of that fateful week.

Briefly, he shook his head to clear it, sending more food crumbs flying in all directions. "Well, you see, when I was looking through the books, I found an old tome with different protection incantations." His face lit up. "And in that, I found an old spell that had the same effects of what I saw on the moon!" He got up from the bench and trotted around it excitedly. "Not only that, I realized that it was the same spell that was placed on the Crystal Empire.

"I thought that the Elements did something special, but they must just massively amplify the magical potential of all ponies!" His cyan eyes sparkled, both from the moon's reflection and the pure thrill of discovery. "The spell basically is a long-term regeneration spell. If something gets damaged, it will slowly repair itself until the item..." He stopped and made a popping noise with his mouth. "...quickly restores itself visibly."

"So, your conclusion was...?" Starlight inquired, not fully following him, but not really caring that she didn't, either. Absentmindedly, she wondered if Twilight had studied the magical powers of the Elements. If not, Sunburst should definitely geek out with her over them some time.

"Princess, uh, I mean, Celestia must have cast the spell on the moon, not Luna! I mean, the Elements vaporized Luna, and I’m still not sure on how they did that, but what was left of her impacted the moon. Something about the moon “healing” itself also helped bring Luna back!" He started pacing around the bench again. "And, and the Crystal Empire was destroyed, but the land was slowly healing and repairing itself until it could make it appear again."

"Huh," Starlight mused, rubbing her chin and looking up at the moon again. "Did you tell this to anypony?"

"D'oh, I tried, but most just laughed. They dismissed it as being antiquated magic and that modern scientists have determined that Celestia must have used a standard imprisonment spell or the like." He narrowed his eyes and grumbled. "Puh! They didn’t even try to prove it. I-I handed them a new theory on a silver platter to test, but no!" He began muttering to himself, scowl illuminated by the pale moonlight.

"You know, I feel like I'm slowly starting to appreciate antique hunting more and more," she thought to herself. She patted the open spot next to her and Sunburst hopped back up.

"Sorry to hog all the talking. I don't, you know, get to talk about my findings much." He sighed, taking a long look at the ground before looking back up at Starlight. "Thanks for listening." Smiling, he wrapped a hoof around her back.

With a chuckle, Starlight said, "Well, I was a friendship counsellor for a reason." Moaning contentedly, she pressed up against Sunburst and tried to bury her head into his neck. She breathed in as she moved her face near the back of his mane. Smelled like nerd. Yet, she didn't care. "I wonder if it's creepy if I snip a bit of his mane off for keeping," she wondered, pushing deeper into his neck and rubbing his mane.

Suddenly, she fell face-first into the bench. "Ow," she murmured, getting a delicious taste of aged oak wood. Groggily, she raised her head and saw Sunburst flat on his back. She had tried so hard to bury herself into him that she managed to push him right off the bench.

Blushing, she giggled a bit and said, "Sorry." She rolled off the bench and onto her hooves and helped Sunburst right himself. "Are you okay?" she asked, checking him over. He didn't look hurt, aside from maybe what little pride he had.

With a nod, he grabbed his cloak and set it around his body again. Pulling out a pocket watch, he cast a brief illumination spell to check the time. "We still have a few minutes," he said, putting the pocket watch back into one of the pockets lining his cloak.

"All right," Starlight simply stated. She looked around at the park, which was now totally deserted. A blissful smile on her face, she walked up and gave Sunburst another hug. "Thanks for this," she whispered into his ear.

A light shade of pink on Sunburst's cheeks, he rested his chin on her head and returned the embrace. For a few seconds, they held each other before Sunburst let go and looked into Starlight’s eyes. As he took a step back, he waved a hoof indifferently and said, "O-oh, no problem! Uh, in case you were wondering, I didn't manage to find a good spell to stop Flurry Heart." Wincing again, he continued, "All that furniture came out of my pay for a good while."

Starlight chuckled again and sat back down. Following suit, Sunburst returned to the bench and asked, "What about you? What were you doing when Nightmare Moon, uh, I mean, Luna returned?"

Starlight grimaced. Glancing around, she sighed and said, "I'd rather not talk about it right now. Would take too long to explain." She figured enough time had passed, so she got back up and motioned for Sunburst to follow. "I suppose we should be heading to the kite show?"

"Y-yes!" Sunburst cried, jumping up from his seat. His hoof caught in his cloak and sent him flying onto the path, a few grunts coming from him as he tumbled.

Gasping, Starlight rushed over to check on him. His cloak covered his front half, leaving his flank high up in the air for all ponies to see. If there were other ponies, that is. She stared at his haunches for a few seconds, her eyes growing wide. Reaching out a hoof, she hovered mere inches away from his exposed cutie mark. At the last moment, she turned away, a small blush beginning to form on her face. “No! Must resist!”

From underneath the cloak, she could hear a muffled, "I'm okay." He pushed himself to his haunches and rattled his head around, clearing the glazed look from his eyes. There were a few cuts and scratches along his face and chest, but nothing that wouldn't heal over in a couple of days. After clearing his mind, he briefly searched around for his spectacles on the floor. With the help of Starlight, he soon had them back on the bridge of his nose, thankfully no worse for wear aside from a small scuff on one of the lenses.

With a short laugh, a bit of the air catching in her throat, Starlight exclaimed, "You had me worried, you dork!" She nuzzled his neck and got quite a few of the remaining food debris from earlier in her mane.

As Sunburst got up, he took liberty to flick the crumbs from her mane and took her hoof. Casually, the two unicorns trotted out of the park and back into town.

More Food, More Show, More Panic

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The pair approached the hill outside of Ponyville. In the sky, moonlight shone down and illuminated their path as they began their trek to the summit. Soon, the path was lit with the occasional lantern, providing more light to travel on the small, winding path. The gravel crunched underneath, and they passed a group of foals who were giggling as they threw a ball back and forth. One of the fillies groaned as she dropped the ball and the others teased her for her fumble.

A few trees dotted the path, rustling in the wind as it blew. The breeze was growing stronger as they climbed the hill. Overhead, the occasional weather pony kicked at some wayward clouds to keep the sky clear for the event. Along with those duties, they were providing a bit of extra power to keep the gusts constant for the kites.

A few kites were already dotting the skies, although none from the official show. Starlight and Sunburst passed a few families that were enjoying the kite weather ahead of the show. Pausing for a minute, Starlight watched as one filly struggled hard to keep her kite under control in a gust of wind.

Sunburst walked a bit further before he realized his plus one was missing. He turned around and saw Starlight offer to show the filly a couple of tricks with the kite, which was readily accepted by the struggling child.

Quickly taking the line in her magic, Starlight spread her legs to plant herself firmly on the ground. She loosened the line just a little and then gave a strong yank, jerking the kite further into the wind. After a few seconds, the kite stabilized and Starlight smirked. Sticking out her tongue in concentration, she gave a slight twist to the line and caused the kite to do a complete roll in the sky, earning the filly's cheers.

After spending a few more minutes with the filly and quickly chatting up her parents, Starlight floated the kite string back over to the child, who grabbed it in her teeth and pranced off. The filly tried doing the same tricks that Starlight had shown, but only caused the kite to fall to the ground. However, she then started a full gallop, catching the kite in the breeze again and sending it soaring into the air.

A satisfied smile on her face, Starlight turned back to the path and noticed Sunburst watching her happily. "What?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Oh, nothing," Sunburst replied, wiping the goofy smile from his face and walking back over to her. "I just, you know, see why Twilight chose you to be headmare, that's all."

"Oh, uh, heh, yeah, sure," Starlight sputtered back, scratching the back of her head. Rubbing her mane caused her to smell a bit of her perfume, or, the smell of it mixed with the food from Sunburst's mane. "Rarity's going to kill me if she learns what happened to her perm job," she thought, wincing a bit.

"It was just, uh, you know, kites. Needed to show somepony how to do better with them, heh." She laughed awkwardly as Sunburst raised an eyebrow in a mirthful expression. He didn't say anything, however. He just held out his hoof, and she linked hers with his.

The two set out to climb the rest of the hill. Soon enough, they heard the sounds of ponies chattering away mixed with some electronic dings and whistles. Over the crest of the hill, they could see the glow of lights signaling the end to their trek.

As they reached the top, Starlight felt her mouth fall agape as the hill she saw so many times travelling around Ponyville had been transformed into a menagerie of ponies, tents, stalls, and magical generators and machines. On the far left of the hill were a series of food stalls, ranging from caramel apples, to popcorn, ice cream, pies, and other confections. On the right was a small, fenced area with a couple of magical generators. The sound of arcade machines and pinball tables echoed out of there, and an electronic sign advertising Flim & Flam's Electronic Extravaganza! gaudily illuminated the grass around the entrance.

"Hey, Starlight! Hey, Sunburst!" Starlight heard the drawl of Applejack's voice call to them. Turning around, the pair saw said pony waving to them from one of the closer food stalls. Unsurprisingly, her stall sold all things apple-related.

Behind Applejack, Big Mac was busy stomping away inside a large press bowl, sending guts of apples flying every so often. Next to him, Sugar Belle was frantically preparing different baked apple goods. She alternated between fritters, pies, cakes, crisps, and other apple concoctions that Starlight couldn't even name.

Trotting up to her friend's stall, Starlight greeted the farm pony. "I thought you'd be busy helping Twilight transition to Canterlot," Starlight stated, watching the rest of the Apple family working behind Applejack. She got a quick wave from both Big Mac and Sugar Belle. Briefly, Apple Bloom popped her head out of the juice bottler and waved, too.

"Are you kiddin'?" Applejack declared, guffawing a little. "Twilight can handle herself for a few days with the others. This here show hasn't come around since Ah was a little filly! It used to come every year, but then the ponies who ran it got too old, and nopony wanted to fill their shoes." She cleared her throat and turned her attention to a potential buyer.

The pony soon left a satisfied customer of Apple family tradition, and Applejack turned back to Starlight. "But, now that Twilight's helped bring around a lack of, well, baddies, some ponies got to thinking about bringing back some old traditions."

Apple Bloom bounced up next to her sister and cried, "Ah finished bottlin' all the juice! Can ah go find Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo now? A don't want to miss the show!" Bouncing up and down, she waited expectantly for Applejack's answer, flashing her sister a pair of begging eyes.

Chuckling, Applejack rubbed Apple Bloom’s mane and said, "Yeah, yer done for tonight. Go have fun!" As the filly took off, Applejack yelled after her, "Now don't wander too far, ya hear?"

The pale-yellow filly just waved and galloped away, looking for her friends.

Now that there were no more distractions, Applejack turned her attention to Starlight. The farmpony smiled and continued, "Ah used to remember when the entire summer sky was filled with lights from these kites. Big Mac and Ah used to watch them and guess which kite would stay up last. That's the thing with this here show: they put candles in 'em and send 'em up until they burn out."

Sighing, she added, "Mom and Dad would always take us out to see them and we'd watch as one after 'nother, they lit up and burnt out." She paused as Big Mac sniffed behind her. Turning around, she patted her brother on the back as a few tears slid down his snout.

"And then, after Dad passed, Mom still took us out there, even when she was sick. Reminded us that, in a way, ponies are just like them kites. We don't know when our time is up: all we can do is do our best and make the best impact on the ponies 'round us." She took off her stetson and wiped a tear or two from her eyes.

For her part, Starlight had also begun to tear up, and she could hear Sunburst sniffling a bit beside her. Quietly, she said, "That's sweet, Applejack. I'm... I'm sorry for your loss."

"Aw, ain't your fault, Starlight. Mac and Ah made peace with that years ago. 'Sides, we haven't been able to share that story with anypony in ages. Thanks for listenin'." Applejack glanced between the two ponies and narrowed her eyes. "Say..." she muttered, wrinkling her brow in thought. "You two aren't on a date, are ya?"

Blushing and scrunching her face, Starlight looked away, although she briefly stopped her gaze on Sunburst. She laughed, her voice cracking a bit and said, “Whatever gave you that idea, Applejack?” She avoided the farmpony’s smug gaze. Slowly, Starlight grinned, a few nervous whimpers escaping her throat.

“Oh, tweren’t nothin’ much,” Applejack smirked and swiftly exchanged glances with the two unicorns. “It’s not like you’ve been making googly eyes at each other the entire time you’ve been at mah stall.” The statement hit home, and Starlight and Sunburst’s faces both turned a bright shade of pink.

Sighing, Starlight stammered, “I-I just don’t want anypony at the school to find out yet. I’d just feel weird if the students knew their headmares were an item.” She looked to the ground and kicked her hoof a bit at the base of Applejack’s stall. She muttered, “Of course, probably half the town knows by now. I wonder if a mass memory wipe spell is in order?”

Applejack just laughed and slapped the wooden counter of the stall. "Sure, sure. Don't worry." She winked. "I won't say nuthin'. And Big Mac and Sugar Belle didn't see anything either, right?" She shot a sisterly glare at her brother and sister-in-law.

"Eeenope," the muscular red pony replied. His wife echoed his sentiments.

Another chuckle, and Applejack hopped down from her perch at the stall and walked to the large cabinet set up. She opened it and grabbed a couple of glass bottles. Walking over to Sugar Belle, she took two freshly baked fritters and made her way to Starlight and Sunburst.

Flashing the pair a smile, she held the fritters and fresh apple juice out for them, saying, "Here. Compliments of the house!" After Starlight and Sunburst each took a fritter and bottle, she pulled them in for a group hug and wished them well. She trotted back behind the stall and waved them off.

A smile on her face, Starlight took a bite of the fritter. Despite being full from the restaurant, she still somehow managed to find room for Sugar Belle's baking. "Mmph," she mumbled mid-bite, "thif if rearry good!" She took another bite of the fritter and then sipped on the apple juice.

Taking a piece of his own fritter, Sunburst nodded in reply and quickly finished. Drinking his own juice, he looked around the hill and then brought out his pocket watch and checked the time. A quarter to eight. "Well," he said, putting the watch back into his cloak, "the show should be starting shortly."

At that, some speakers hooked up to a large tree in the center of the hill squawked to life. "Attention everypony," a calm masculine voice said. "Due to unexpected delays, A Midsummer's Kite Dream show will be postponed until nine-thirty. We apologize for the inconvenience." The speakers gave an ear-splitting squeal and then went silent.

Embarrassedly grinning, Sunburst corrected himself, "Or maybe we'll be here a bit longer."

Finishing her apple juice, Starlight gave a slight burp and then blushed. She threw away the bottle into the nearest recycling bin and turned to Sunburst. "So, since we still have time, how about we try that arcade?" She pointed to the ramshackle fenced area behind him.

"Oh. Uh, sure," Sunburst conceded, finishing his juice likewise and putting it away. He took one final bite of his fritter and followed Starlight into Flim & Flam's Electronic Extravaganza!.

Inside, the arcade was filled with electronic beeps, whizzes, and plings. Underneath the noise, the rumbling of multiple magical generators could be barely heard, but definitely felt as it vibrated the ground around them. Harsh neon lights flooded the hastily-constructed building in an otherworldly glow, and the area was mostly filled with younger ponies, eagerly spending their hard-earned bits to beat their friends' high score.

One unfortunate colt was being observed by the proprietors of the establishment. The two older stallions were watching the young, brown colt suspiciously as he played on one of the arcade machines. Without noticing his observers, the colt wiped sweat from his orange mane. Despite the wind being blocked by one of the proprietors, his propeller beanie twirled seemingly on its own accord.

As Starlight and Sunburst wandered by, they heard one of the stallions ask the other, "What you do think, Flam? Is this fine gentlecolt endowed with gifts of arcade prowess?" They turned around to see what the two stallions were talking about.

At the statement, said colt jumped, pushing the stick of the arcade machine far forward and sending his onscreen avatar flying into the abyss of space. Game Over, the screen read. For a few seconds, he stared at the words in disbelief before breaking out into tears.

"Waa-ha-ha!" he sobbed nasally. "I spent all day on this thiiing!" Briefly looking up, he reached out his hoof at a light brown mare who was busy talking with another mare and cried, "Moooom!" Said mare flattened her ears against her head and made a cutting motion with her hoof as she looked back.

"All right there, sport," Flam said, swooping his head in front of the screen. "I think you've had enough time on that machine."

"But I haven't finished it ye-he-he-et!" the colt whined, snot running down his nose and mixing with his tears. "Moooom!" he cried again, desperately trying to grab his mother's attention.

"Tell ya what, kid." Flim slid into the conversation, a greasy smile on his face. "You run along to your mother, and we'll give you this free, one-of-a-kind action figure!" He held up a cheap-looking doll of Rainbow Dash.

Curiously, the colt raised an eyebrow. His tears had stopped, for the moment. "But I already have a Rainbow Dash action figure," he stated, crossing his hooves over his chest. "I wanna beat this game! It's cool!"

While Starlight and Sunburst couldn't see both brothers' faces, they could tell from their shared posture that both had said, "We are absolutely done with you."

The colt looked between Flim and Flam briefly and nervously laughed, hopping off the stool to the arcade machine and galloping to his mother, nearly crashing into Starlight and Sunburst as he tried to squeeze between them. "Excuse me! Coming through!" he cried as he dived between their legs.

He tugged at his mother's leg and whined, "Mooom! They won't let me play on the Galaxy Babe Destroyer machine anymore!" Pulling on the mare's leg harder, he said, "Can you talk to them? Please?!"

"Ugh, Button," the mare said, shaking her son off her leg and turning to glare at him. "If you get banned from one more arcade, I swear I'll ban you from video games for six months!"

Button lowered his gaze and muttered something in an incoherent language. He paled when his mother cried, "Button! Watch your language, young colt!"

Protesting, he struggled to get away from her as she grabbed him in her teeth by the scruff of his neck and walked out. "Just wait until your father hears what you just said to me," she threatened. Button continued to scream in desperation as the two left the arcade.

Before Starlight and Sunburst could fully react, Flim and Flam popped up behind them. "Ah, fresh pock—Er, new guests!" they exclaimed in perfect unison. Sliding around, they took off their showpony hats and bowed. Flam pointed to Flim and Flim pointed to Flam, stating who the other was.

"Be sure to ask myself or my esteemed brother of mine any questions you may have during the operation of our high quality, one hundred percent legally obtained arcade and pinball machines!" Flam stated, his bushy red moustache wiggling slightly.

"Enjoy yourself!" Flim decreed as Starlight and Sunburst left to wander the arcade area. "Flim and Flam's patented electronic extravaganza machines are now fifty-five percent less like to randomly explode in somepony's face!"

The brothers' waved as Starlight and Sunburst continued to explore. Out of earshot, Flim whispered to Flam, "What's the Princess' student doing here?"

Flam shrugged and whispered back, "I don't know, oh brother of mine, but we need to make sure we burn everything before she starts snooping around. Can’t be too trusting of these royalty types."

With that, the two of them rushed to the back room. Soon, a soft "fwoomph" left the office and a burst of orange flashed underneath the crack of the door. The noise was drowned out in the sea of sound effects from the arcade machines.

Above the many neon lights, Starlight could just barely make out the moon in the sky. It was fast approaching a third of the way through the sky, meaning that there was probably about forty-five minutes left before the main event started. Turning her attention back to the rows of machines in the arcade, she found one that looked interesting.

Instantly, she realized she had no bits on her and huffed. Scanning the arcade, she soon found Sunburst busy working on one of the many pinball machines near the back fence. She sauntered over and tapped him on the back, causing him to start in surprise, although he managed to keep his ball from falling through.

"What?" he asked absentmindedly. He stuck out his tongue in concentration.

Starlight coughed apprehensively and said, "Bits?"

At last, Sunburst missed hitting his last pinball, the machine sputtering a series of pathetic toots at his loss. Groaning, he looked over and raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he asked.

“Okay, I may have forgotten in the excitement of checking this out that I left my own bit purse at the castle. Happy?” Starlight groused. Her face was beet red and her stomach was beginning to twist itself silly. “Good job, Starlight,” she muttered silently. She chuckled meekly as Sunburst stared at her.

Finally, he sighed and pulled out the significantly lighter sack of bits he brought with him. "All right, good luck. I have..." he trailed off and checked his sack of bits. "About thirty bits left, so uh, try not to lose too much?" He frowned as he tossed her a few bits.

Wiping a few beads of sweat from her forehead, Starlight replied, "Will do."

And like that, she was off. Past the back fence she could barely make out the faint view of Ponyville, but what she saw was impressive nonetheless. The lights of the town twinkled through the holes in the chain-link and glowed prettily.

She made her way back to the machine that looked interesting. Jump or Die! was its title. A "platformer", if she remembered correctly. With a shrug, she dropped a bit into the slot and waited for the game to start.

When she was a filly, she was never one to pay attention to things like video games. Besides, they were just coming out when she was growing up, and they didn't look nearly as impressive as the one before her. Most were just moving beams around or shooting little circles with some triangle that you could control.

But this! This actually had fully discernable characters. There was even a story! She watched with wide-eyed amazement as the first scene of the game, almost like a movie played out before her eyes. Her character was a stereotypically buff pony, with muscles of steel and a gaze just as hard.

Within the first thirty seconds of the scene, he had dispatched over three dozen bandits who tried to ambush him as he was delivering some ancient artifact from the Griffonian continent. The movie ended with him jumping off the ship he was taking back to Equestria, looking back at the camera with a gaze hardened by years of tough trekking through jungles, deserts, and mountains.

Play! the letters that flashed on the screen said along with a muffled, barely masculine-sounding electronic voice. Her character landed on a floating piece of wood, which began sinking immediately.

"Buck! How do you play this?!" She frantically tried pressing buttons and switches. Instead of going where she wanted the character to go, it instead decided to jump straight up, hover for a few seconds, then move five feet to the right and dive straight into the water, drowning in seconds.

"What?!" she screamed in her mind, a faint scowl forming on her features.

A few seconds later, her character fell from the sky of the level and landed back on the piece of wood. Text flashed across her screen informing her that she had two more "lives" left in this run.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at her options. There were two large buttons for hooves, and one stick that could be maneuvered with her right hoof. Gingerly, she tried pushing the stick with her hoof to the right. She squeaked as her avatar moved a few paces to the right of the driftwood, teetering on the edge of the water.

"Okay, that controls walking," she deduced, looking back down at the two buttons on the machine. She pressed the left one first and watched as her character jumped into the air. Putting two and two together, she made her character move all the way to the other end of the still sinking wood and then jumped when she reached the other edge.

She laughed as the pony went flying into the air and started coming back down toward another piece of wood nearby. She groaned as her pony overshot and splashed down again in the water. Too much momentum.

On her last life, she got farther, knowing now to jump before she reached the edge of the platforms. Soon, her character reached dry land, and she took a deep breath to ease some pent up tension. She felt her back pop as her surprisingly tight muscles relaxed.

At the edge of the screen was a large snake, its form plastered with a huge smile. She started her character walking again, and it approached the snake. As soon as her avatar touched it, he spun around a few times before falling flat on his face, cartoonish x's over his eyes and text reading Game Over! flashed up.

"What?!" she exclaimed to herself, slamming her hoof onto the arcade cabinet. "Since when do snakes instantly kill you?!" Huffing, she dropped another bit into the machine and started over. This time, she tested the other button, which caused her character to leap forward and punch whatever was in front of it. This earned her another death. Starlight grunted as the punch left the avatar over open water. It hung in mid-air for a second before plummeting to the ocean below.

Over the next fifteen minutes of trial and error, she managed to lose the rest of her bits, but reached the third level on her last life. Beads of sweat coated her forehead, and she was staring intently at the screen. Suddenly, before she could react, a spike came out from the floor beneath her character and impaled it with a cartoony squishing sound.

"Oh, for buck's sake!" Starlight cursed, slamming her hooves again on the cabinet, which jostled the frame.

After a few seconds of staring at the Game Over screen, she noticed that the avatar pony was back at the start of the level. Humming to herself, she checked around and then looked behind at the back of the machine. It was a relatively simple setup of spell matrices which were then used to take input from the player and translate that into data that could be interpreted by the arcade game.

With a little fiddling and perhaps a bit of luck, she believed that her magic could tamper with the matrix controlling the death counter and rid herself of the Game Over screen and its control lock.

She whipped her head up to scan the area again and found nopony was paying attention to her, so she ducked back down and ignited her horn. The matrices glowed indigo as she began visualizing the spells she'd need to alter the incantations.

So concentrated in her work, she failed to notice Sunburst trotting up to her. "Starlight? Uh, what are you, what are you doing?" he inquired, poking her hind leg with a hoof.

Crying in surprise, Starlight whacked her head against the enclosed space behind the arcade machine and pulled back. She smiled widely, her eyes pinpricks and her voice higher-pitched. "Sunburst!" she exclaimed, moving back to the front of the machine.

"I was just trying to figure out a little, er, problem this machine had." She solidly thumped a hoof against the cabinet, and it made a dull hum before the screen went dark.

Whirling around at the dead machine, she gulped. "That wasn't supposed to happen." She looked back to Sunburst and winced, a high-pitched laugh escaping her lips.

At once, the two realized that they had just killed one of the arcade machines and quickly scanned their surroundings. Flim and Flam were nowhere to be seen, and none of the other ponies in the arcade paid them any mind.

"How, uh, how about we leave? Before, you know, they come after us?" Sunburst suggested, getting a slow, empty nod from Starlight.

The two dashed for the exit, gasping for air as they slowed their pace when they reached a safe distance. After catching his breath, Sunburst checked his pocket watch again. Twenty minutes until the show started.

Starlight flopped onto the ground, groaning as she thought about her mistake. Finally, she asked, "Do you think we should go back in and let them know?"

Shaking his head, Sunburst replied, "I get the feeling they didn't buy that machine anyway..."

Starlight groaned again and placed her face down into the ground.

With a sigh, Sunburst sat next to her and awkwardly eyed the area. Starlight didn't move. At last, he shakily lifted a hoof and slowly started rubbing it back and forth over her back in a reassuring manner.

Soon, he spied a photo booth which had a small line of paired ponies waiting in front of it. Getting an idea, he patted Starlight and caused her to lift her face to look at him. "Why don't we wait in line there?" he suggested, pointing at the photo booth.

"Sure. Beats sitting here and potentially being hauled off to where they haul off ponies that break arcade machines," Starlight griped, getting back to her hooves and following Sunburst to the line of ponies.

Eventually, the pair of fillies before them entered and they heard a few "fwoomphs" as pictures were taken. After a minute, the two young ponies grabbed the string of pictures that were ejected from the side of the booth and giggled at the faces they had made for the camera.

"See?" Sunburst said, pointing at the two fillies that took off. "Doesn't that look fun?"

"Hmm?" Starlight muttered. "Oh, yeah, sure. Fun."

Pulling Starlight into the booth, Sunburst closed the curtain and inserted a bit. A small timer began ticking and the first flash of light exploded into their eyes, catching both by surprise. Shortly, the two exited the booth, slightly disoriented, but otherwise no worse for wear.

Sunburst went ahead to grab a spot in the line for popcorn and Starlight went around the side to inspect the string of pictures that had been taken. The first couple were garbage, as both of them were unprepared for the pictures being snapped. The next one was okay, as they managed to both smile for the camera. "Maybe send that one to Twilight," she thought as she went on to the next picture.

The second-last picture was also pretty bad. Sunburst was in the middle of blinking, and Starlight had a blank expression on her face. Freezing, she looked at the last picture and contemplated burning the pictures right there. The last picture was a nice one of Sunburst, sure, but he was completely unaware of the sultry look that Starlight was giving him.

For a few seconds, she stared at the picture. Her horn briefly lit up, ready to ignite the pictures, but she decided against it. Ultimately, she determined to teleport it to her room where she could clean things up as she wished.

She slid her way through the line of ponies that had formed after Sunburst and soon was standing beside him. The orange unicorn was tugging at his goatee in thought, observing the sign above the stall which advertised the different sizes of popcorn that could be purchased.

"How hungry are you?" he inquired after he noticed she had arrived by his side.

"Honestly, I don't know how you can think about food after dinner and Applejack's treats," she groaned, rubbing her stomach for emphasis. "But," she continued, "I suppose I could split something with you if you want." She smiled at him in return.

"O-oh, great! I'll just get the large then!" he stated, pulling out the last few bits he had.

"No!" she cried, placing a hoof on the bit bag.

"But large is the best deal," he said, confused by her outburst.

"I feel like I'll explode if I eat much more. Just, buy a small, please?" She flashed him some puppy dog eyes and he began to stutter a bit.

Flattening his ears against his head, he grumbled, "Oh fine."

As they waited in line, Starlight watched a couple of young ponies, obviously on a date themselves, hug and nuzzle each other before finding a spot to sit down to watch the show. Sighing, Starlight said, "When did we get old?"

"Wh-what?" Sunburst exclaimed. He turned to look down at Starlight and then noticed the couple that she was watching. "Starlight," he began, observing the young ponies lie down on the grass and watch the sky. "W-we aren't o-old! We have at least another forty years left in our lives! That's over half our lifespan, you know."

"Well, I certainly feel old," Starlight replied, not bothering to look back at her date. She sighed again.

Giggling, she asked, "Remember when you tried to rescue me from the 'Block Monster'?" A faint blush was beginning to form on her face, and she rested her back against his. Closing her eyes, she sighed. Ahead, she heard the ring of a cash register and felt Sunburst give her a light tap on the shoulder. Quickly jumping to her hooves, she moved with Sunburst as a couple more ponies received their popcorn and left the line.

It took a moment, but he finally responded while fiddling with his spectacles a bit. "O-oh yes. I remember now." He didn't say anything further, but a faint blush of his own was beginning to spread.

"You said," she began, looking up at him, "that you'd always be my knight in shining armor." She paused to realize that it sounded weird, knowing that Twilight's brother's name was literally that. Whatever, it was time to tease him some more with old memories.

"I guess, I really took that to heart. Deep down, I think, that day I saw us together." She smiled. "Like this." With that, she hugged him and giggled as his blush flared even redder.

Soon, they got their popcorn, despite all the grumbling from Sunburst about the price of a small size and left the line. They wandered for a few minutes, idly popping a few pieces of the snack into their mouths and searching for a spot to sit down. They passed the Apple's stall again, although it was now empty. Probably the entire ensemble was at their own spot to watch the show.

Minutes later, they found a relatively empty area and stretched out on the grass. There were a few families along their peripheral vision, and the foals of the groups were running around. They appeared to keep their distance, though, so the two hoped to remain undisturbed.

Silently, the two munched on the popcorn. Starlight stuck her tongue out, as she finally concentrated on the taste. Under-buttered, overly salty and way too dry. She spat a few kernel fragments from her mouth and then took another piece.

The two unicorns didn't say anything at first. Instead, they simply took in the cool night air and the view of Ponyville. The breeze from the weather ponies was still going strong, and it was set to be perfect kite weather. Along the river, Starlight spied a few small lights appear. Barely, she made out the silhouettes of some ponies that she assumed were just too lazy to climb the hill. Shortly the ponies on the river let their kites fly, the reflections mixing with those of the houses of Ponyville.

All this was cast in a pale shade of light blue as the moon illuminated the townscape. "Why did anypony ever reject Luna's night?" Starlight mused as she looked up and saw a myriad of stars in the sky.

After taking a few more bits of popcorn, she bit her lip and looked to Sunburst, who was contentedly munching on the popcorn and watching the night sky. "So," she said, breaking him from whatever contemplation he was having. "You wanted to know what I was doing when Luna returned, right?" A few tears began to well in her eyes and she blinked them away.

"You don't have to tell me tonight if you don't want—" Sunburst began before Starlight cut him off.

"No!" She sighed and slumped her shoulders. "You should know. For Celestia's sake, not even Twilight knows." Gulping, she began. "When Nightmare, uh, Luna, returned, I was living in Trotsin. It was about fifty or so miles from where I set up Our Town."

Even in the moonlight, Sunburst's face grew a tad paler.

Giving another sigh, Starlight continued, "I wasn’t leading my group yet. I mean, I knew a couple of my eventual... followers, but I guess it doesn't matter." She paused for a moment, grimacing as she recalled a few unpleasant memories.

"The town was in a panic when Luna returned. It was then, well, I thought was the right time to start my plan rolling. I could feel that they’d listen to anyone who projected authority. So, I, I, I..." She blinked away a few tears before continuing, "I broke into the mayor's house, knocked him out, and then painted a cutie mark on him. You know, one that looks like the Lunar Guard’s emblem? Half moon with pegasus wings and a unicorn horn in the shape of a wand?” She tried to draw it out with a hoof, and Sunburst nodded as he visualized the insignia.

"I then trotted him out and showed him to the rest of the ponies. They were surprised, for sure." Wincing, she took a moment to compose herself and then added, "I said that Luna could corrupt anypony's cutie mark and turn them into her slave. Then, I provided an escape. I showed them my staff and said that I could take the risk away by removing their cutie marks. Make everyone equal. Luna would have no use for ponies that were all equal."

Sniffling, she choked, "And they fell for it. All of them. The whole town willingly agreed." More tears began falling from her eyes and onto the grass below. "I tricked them all, and they believed me. So, that's what I was doing. I, I didn't deserve your thoughts then and—"

Sunburst placed a hoof over her mouth and shushed her. Withdrawing it momentarily once she ceased her attempts at speaking, he said, "I-I wasn't entirely honest with you in the park. Uh, well, you see, when Luna returned, that was the first time I had thought about you since I left for Canterlot."

Sadly, he drew a long breath and continued, "I was just so, well, focused on my studies for years, and then my first job after I flunked out, that, well, I just didn't think about you."

A few tears of his own glistened in the moonlight. "I knew you were hurt when I left for Celestia's school, and I did intend to write at first, but I, you know, got busy and, and then I thought you would have gotten over it, and, well, forgotten about me." Looking down to the grass, he took a few deep breaths and then looked back at her. This time, even more tears were shining in his eyes, and a few streaked down his cheeks to create what appeared to be silver rivers in his fur. "Will you forgive me? I wasn't a very good friend for a lot of those years."

Casting her forearms around Sunburst in a big hug, she cried, "Yes, I forgive you." She held on for a few more seconds, her tears streaming down her face and dampening the back of his cloak. Releasing him, she sniffed and wiped her muzzle, the tears beginning to fade.

The announcement speaker barked that the show would begin in five minutes, and the two ponies wordlessly waited for it.

Lying down on her back, Starlight watched the night sky. Stars twinkled in the deep black of space, mostly concentrated above her. When she looked near the moon, all she could see was pitch black sky. The moon was too bright to allow any stars near it to shine through.

Shortly, out of the corner her vision, she spotted a warm light begin to rise from the bottom of the hill. She propped herself up to check, and saw a few ponies releasing kites into the sky and tying them down to stakes planted on the hill. A smile spread across her face and her eyes opened wide as more and more kites were released to join their brethren.

Within minutes, the entire sky was filled with kites, alight with candles in their center. The soft rustle of the fabric of the kites mingled together with collective ooh’s and ahhh’s from the ponies gathered. In the distance, Starlight could spot a few ponies releasing their own kites to fly with the official event.

Flopping back down, she looked at the sky for another minute and then turned to face Sunburst. "He really is the one, isn't he?" she mused, smiling dreamily at him when he noticed her watching.

She scooted a bit closer to Sunburst and tried to wrap a forehoof around his back. Failing this, she instead opted to rest her head against his chest. Sighing and listening to his heartbeat, she felt her own heart begin to match its speed to his. As she watched more kites ascend, she faintly heard his breath, inhaling and exhaling in steady rhythm. For a few minutes, all was right, then she heard screams of fillies and the galloping of hooves headed her way.

Before she or Sunburst could react, the group of fillies that had been playing earlier zoomed by their spot. One was holding a large bottle of pop from the popcorn stand. She stumbled as she passed the pair.

"Buck." Starlight managed to think to herself as she watched the pop fly toward her in slow motion. In an instant, she was soaked in the sticky, sugary substance. It dripped down her mane and pooled on her nose before sliding down her now-open mouth.

She blinked. "What in Celestia's sweet name just happened?" She blinked again. Sluggishly, her mind caught up to the moment, and her face reddened. A few veins bulged around her neck as she pulled her chin back into a scowl. A low growl left her mouth, and she prepared to get up and tell those foals a piece of her mind.

However, she then realized that Sunburst had also been caught dead in the blast of the pop bombing, and she turned around to look at him. His face was fine, aside from the few crumbs of food from earlier that hadn't left his mane. The fur around his chest, however, was now a sickly shade of brown-yellow as the pop mixed with his coat.

The two blinked at each other.

"Do you want to keep watching?"

"Yeah, no."

Furiously, Starlight stomped off toward the main concession area. Off to one corner of the event, she spied a few portable restrooms. Hopefully there'd be a mirror or working faucet—or Luna hope both—that she could use to fix her mane and get the pop out of it.

As she entered, she failed to notice the flies and other insects hovering around the stalls. Opening the door, she was hit with a wall of stench. Gagging, she stuck her head out and took a long breath before ducking into the stall. Desperate times and all that.

She hastily looked around the stall, which was dimly lit with a weak bulb. On the grimy far wall there was a small, cracked mirror, but unfortunately no faucet. "Great," she grumped, shaking her head back and forth and slinging the liquid from her mane. "This is going to be one big pain to fix tomorrow."

Momentarily, she left the restroom, her face mildly green and gasping for air. She tasted the smell. She tasted. The. Smell! Holding back an urge to vomit, she shakily made her way to Sunburst, who was watching her from the center of the stall area.

Growling as she approached him, she grabbed his right forehoof and yanked him. "Come on," she grunted, managing to move him a few inches before he started up pace behind her. "Let's go home."

The walk back down the hill and to Twilight's castle was done in tense silence. Ponies that passed the two by quickly made way to avoid the supreme, fully armed and operational death glares Starlight was giving to any of those who dared approach.

Her fur was matted. Her mane was a mess, flopping down her face and getting in her eyes. The back half of her mane was plastered to her neck, and she was convinced that it would take a crowbar to remove it from there when she cleaned herself the next morning. With every step, she felt like she was going to collapse from exhaustion. On top of all that, she stank. Despite only spending at most a minute in that restroom to attempt to improve her appearance, the noxious odors of that horrible restroom had sunk deep into her mane and fur. Her perfume managed to mix with the pop and the restroom smell to create a truly wonderful aromatic musk. To a fly, anyway.

Said fly buzzed around her head and tried to land on her nose before she swatted it away with a hoof, managing to clip herself in the muzzle in the process. "Ow."

Sighing, she slowed her pace and hovered her head above the ground. The cobblestones were extremely interesting this time of night, after all. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she thought. "Why did you think it'd go well tonight?"

"Hey," Sunburst said, walking up beside her and poking her side, "are, are you going to be okay?"

Casting him a sidelong glance, she silently shook her head. Some barely audible sniffles were heard by Sunburst, who tilted his head slightly in concern. He trotted around and faced her. She continued walking, staring at the cobblestones beneath her hooves. Reaching out a hoof and placing it on her shoulder, he gave her a sad smile.

"W-why not?"

Starlight stopped. She looked at him for a moment, taking in his own disheveled appearance. Dishevelled more than usual, anyway. He had multiple scrapes over his face where he fell in the park and a big splotch of his coat was darkened and starting to mat where the pop had landed on his chest. What used to be his fresh and clean cloak was a bit tattered and had a dark ring on the tail from the spill.

Also, even from her distance, she could smell the pop mix with the Prench food, and probably a bit of his own mane's smell. That, or she was still smelling her own stench. Either way, it wasn't pretty.

Choking up, she cried, "Because everything went wrong!" She fell to the ground and covered her eyes with her hooves as tears started flowing freely again. "T-Tonight was supposed to be, supposed to be a fun night out!” She slammed a hoof to the ground, wailing as she felt her stomach churn. “We, we, we were supposed to have a n-nice quiet evening at, at a restaurant, and then whatever that k-kite thing was!" Burying herself in her hooves again, she quivered as sobs wracked her body.

She snorted a bit as more tears came, creating puddles on the cold cobblestone. "A-And this was my only chance!" Laughing maniacally, she began to blather, "Wait! Maybe I can fix this!" She hopped to her hooves, a mad light in her eyes. "Yes! I can just go back in time, smack my old self on the head and—what?"

She squealed in surprise as Sunburst pulled her into a tight hug. Holding her there for a good solid minute, he finally said, "You know, I, I, uh, had a great night. I mean, I hoped there wouldn't be anything that came up, but you know, things not going as planned seems to be a running thing with the two of us." He still held her in his grasp.

At first, Starlight tried to struggle out of the grip, her heart racing. As she tried to escape, Sunburst instead hardened his embrace even more. She felt herself get pressed into his chest, and she began to cry some more.

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks and into Sunburst’s coat. A few whimpers escaped her mouth and she hid her face in his torso. Gently, she felt him pat her back and make a few soothing noises. For a few seconds, she continued to sob, but eventually the crying began to subside. As her breathing steadied, she gulped for air.

A couple of hiccups racked her body, and she stayed buried in Sunburst’s chest. She felt his heart thumping against his ribs. It was remarkably calm. In time, she felt her own heartbeat begin to slow, the intense drumming in her ears quieting.

Soon, he released her enough so she could see him face to face. Warmly smiling, he looked at her for a few seconds, maybe a minute and asked, "Maybe we can do this again soon? I should be able to get a weekend off next month."

Blinking, she looked at him. Gears turning in her head, she thought, "Did he just say what I think he said?" A rising pit in her stomach shot itself into orbit in her throat, and she fully fixed her gaze on his face. "Oh buck it, things can't get any more awkward."

To Sunburst's surprise, she surged forward for a kiss, planting her muzzle square on his. At first, he struggled a bit, a few muffled noises escaping the sides of his mouth, but he soon returned it and leaned into her.

Softly, Starlight moaned before releasing for a breath. She watched his expressionless face for a solid half-minute. "Crap, I just screwed things up, didn't I?"

"Wow," was Sunburst's response.

Fluttering her eyelids at him, she said, "I'd love that. But this time, I plan the surprise." She giggled warmly.

Suddenly, the two heard some stomping of hooves around them and they finally noticed that a small crowd had gathered to observe the two lovers.

With an abashed look on her face, Starlight released herself from Sunburst's grasp and used her magic to tug on his cloak. Mutely, he followed her back to Twilight's castle.

When they reached the doorstep of the castle, they shared another quick kiss before bidding each other goodnight. To Starlight's chagrin, Sunburst had to be up early for the train to the Crystal Empire tomorrow, and she herself was just plain tuckered out from the whole ordeal of the night.

In a lovestruck daze, Starlight trudged her way through Twilight's castle. Her hoofsteps echoed loudly in the empty corridors as she turned corner after corner on her way back. She passed the library, the game of Knowledge Hunt still where they left it after she proposed the date. She passed the kitchen, the second library, and even the Emergency Starlight Freakout Room.

Stepping back, she looked at the last room she passed. She swore that she never saw that one before. On its door was plastered a picture of her face underneath a circle with a backslash and another one that said in crudely written hoofwriting, Break in case of world-ending Starlight apocalypse.

"Twilight," Starlight concluded. That was all that needed to be said. Hopefully her friend had decided to deprecate the idea, and she would never need to find out what was behind that door.

Soon, she reached her bedroom. Yawning, she readied herself to just flop into bed. Matted fur and messy mane be damned: that was a "Tomorrow-Starlight" problem. Right now, her only problem was her body not connecting with her plush pillows.

Before she could do just that, a light flicked on beside her bed and Trixie whirled around in a swivel chair. Starlight didn't have a swivel chair in her room. Trixie must have brought it with her.

"Well, at least she's dedicated," Starlight mused, an annoyed expression on her face.

"Trixie sees that you are late," the blue unicorn stated, looking Starlight up and down. She sniffed the air and scrunched her nose. "What is that smell?"

Getting up from her chair, she moved closer to Starlight and took a whiff of her mane. Gagging and stepping back, she observed her friend again. "And you look horrible, like somepony really took you for a... rough ride," she said, spitting out the last couple of words.

Glowering, Starlight prepared to speak, but Trixie managed to continue first. With a sinister smile, she said, "Oh Starlight, you naughty mare. Sunburst must have had a big surprise tonight." She gave a slight, suggestive growl. Suddenly, her expression lit up and she laughed happily at her friend and punched her lightly in the shoulder.

"I—Wha—You—" Starlight sputtered as Trixie continued to laugh.

"Oh, it's okay, Starlight. Trixie remembers her first time fondly." With that, she jumped on Starlight's pristinely made bed, creasing the duvet. Flailing her hind legs in the air and propping her head up with her fetlocks, she asked, "Soooo, how did it go?"

Her vision growing slightly red, Starlight burst, "Trixie! That!" She punched the air to try and emphasize what she was talking about. "Didn't happen!"

"Ooooohhhh, okay. Trixie understands. Take your time, Starlight. Trixie knows it’s been a long time since you let loose. "

"No!" Starlight retorted, growing more irate by the minute while Trixie still stared at her innocently. "Nothing that you are insinuating happened! All right?!"

"Don't worry, Starlight. Your secret is safe with me. Wink." Trixie winked. She flashed Starlight a massive grin.

Facehoofing, Starlight groaned. "Ugh! Trixie, I look like this because somepony spilled pop all over me at the kite show."

Trixie stared at her emptily for a few seconds. "Wait," she said, pushing herself up on the bed and making Starlight whine because she couldn't get into her bed yet. "You're saying you didn't actually do it?"

Sighing, Starlight replied, "Yes, Trixie. We didn't 'do it.'" She flexed her hooves as air quotes.

"Oh."

"And Sunburst and I, well, we're dating now." On the turn of a dime, Starlight was staring off again into space. For a few seconds, she was allowed this reverie of daydreaming about future dates, but was soon broken by Trixie cursing aloud.

"Celestia damn it! Now I owe Rainbow Dash a hundred bits! Pleeeeease tell the Broke and Penniless Trixie that Sunburst kissed you first!" Trixie was on her hind hooves, pleadingly looking into Starlight's eyes.

Confused, Starlight answered, "Uh, no.

"Oh, this is horrible!" Trixie wailed, burying her head in her hooves. "Now Trixie owes Rainbow Dash three hundred bits!"

Narrowing her eyes, Starlight asked, "Trixie, why do you owe Rainbow Dash money?"

Realizing her slip-up, Trixie scrambled to her hooves and tried to make for the door, which slammed right in her face as Starlight flung it wide with her magic. Rubbing her head, Trixie laughed, and turned to face Starlight, whose horn was now charged, a bright cyan shine lighting the floor around the unicorn.

"Uh, well, you see," Trixie stammered, pulling at a non-existent collar. Sweat started to break out along her forehead, and she backed slowly into the door as Starlight approached her.

"Choose your next words very, very carefully." Starlight snarled.

"Uh, uh," Trixie squeaked, stuck against the door and with only one avenue of escape. She began to charge her horn, but felt the energy fly away as Starlight’s horn grew brighter. Gulping as she figured out that Starlight was using a magic absorption spell, she blurted out, "Well, Trixie needed the money at the time, and Rainbow Dash was starting a betting pool with everypony at the school on whether you or Sunburst would kiss the other first!" she quickly spat out, gulping as Starlight's horn grew brighter.

"Rainbow Dash," Starlight grunted, shifting her gaze to look out the window.

"Can Trixie leave now?" the blue unicorn asked, relaxing a bit when Starlight began to calm down.

"Fine." Starlight sighed, powering down her horn and releasing the door to her room. "I'll have to 'talk' with Dash tomorrow."

Exhaling loudly, Trixie blew a quick "phew!" and prepared to head out. As she entered the hallway, she muttered, "But I was hoping to date Sunburst."

"What?!"

"Nothing!"

Epilogue - Like Mother Like Daughter

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Starlight sighed contentedly. She looked around her office. Headmare of the School of Friendship. Still, after so many years, it took her by surprise at points.

Adjusting her burgundy suit jacket, she got up from behind her desk. A few pops emanated from her back. Life loved to remind her she wasn't as spry as she once was. Softly, she chuckled as she thought back on some of her adventures when she was younger. Imagine pulling the acrobatic moves now that she did then!

She moved a standing mirror over to where she stood and observed herself. No more wrinkles, yet, anyway. Aside from a few crow's feet, she looked barely different than she did when Twilight ascended to the throne. Turning to the side, she straightened her dark purple blouse and did one more onceover.

Sliding the mirror back into its corner, she grabbed a small watering can from her desk and cantered over to a nearby water cooler. As it emptied its contents into the can, she looked at the wall above it, specifically one of the many pictures hanging on the wall.

Smiling, she relived the moment captured again. The birth of her daughter, with her loving husband hovering over both of them. The picture was taken shortly after her daughter arrived, and despite how tired she was in that moment, she had wanted it taken. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.

Air bubbled to the top of the water cooler, taking her attention away from the picture and back to the present. Her can was almost overflowing, so she closed the water stream and gently brought the watering can over to her desk.

Sitting back down and groaning a bit as the plush leather cushioned her old bones, she lifted the can up and poured it over Phyllis XXIX. As the philodendron plant sucked up the water she provided, Starlight turned her attention to the school calendar for the week. For once, her schedule was mostly empty, aside from a couple of parent-headmare meetings.

"Hmm?" she hummed, bending down near to the plant. "Oh, okay. I'll stop." Like that, she ceased pouring water on Phyllis and dumped the rest of the water back into the water cooler. Nopony used it aside from her, anyway.

Sighing again, she placed her forehooves on the desk and sat still. Perfectly still. A clock ticked above her door, striking noon hour. Its loud clanging was soon interrupted by the murmur of students leaving their classrooms for lunch. Shortly, she fidgeted a bit in her seat and wondered, "Maybe I should send a letter to Twilight, I haven't seen her in a few months."

She turned her attention to the rest of her desk. Planning materials lay scattered about, and sheets of paper showcasing different proposed school budgets were splayed around. A couple had coffee cup rings from long nights spent reading reports. . Stuck to the side of the desk was a note about contacting Chancellor Neighsay II—apparently it was a hereditary position—and the EEA about some minor "infraction," as they called it, by one of the students.

Lastly, a few photo frames were strewn about. One was of Twilight and the old Elements of Harmony when the school opened officially for the first year under her leadership, another was with the new Element bearers together in one of the restaurants of Ponyville. They were having a bit of a laugh as a very pregnant Starlight tried sitting down at the booth, but she was laughing in it, too.

Carefully, the door to her office opened and Sunburst strolled in, humming an off-beat tune. When he saw that Starlight was sitting behind her desk, he smiled and closed the door, keeping the noise of most of the student body out of the office. "Hey," he said, taking a couple steps toward the desk.

"Hey," she replied, giving him a tired smile. She pushed back again from her desk, wincing as her right knee took her weight. "Ow," she hissed before trotting from behind her desk and planting a soft kiss on his cheek. She managed to mostly avoid getting beard hair in her mouth. He hadn't changed one bit, well, aside from somehow becoming even more hairy, not that it mattered to her.

From her bottom desk drawer, she pulled out two wrapped daisy sandwiches and floated one over to Sunburst. Sitting down on the left-side couch in her office, she unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite. After gulping down the bite, she asked, "So, how did the morning go?"

After finishing his own bite of lunch, Sunburst teleported in a bottle of water sipped loudly on it. He then said, "O-oh, these students are really bright this time around. They caught on really quickly to the fundamentals of magical matrices and how they can be used to amplify the power of generosity and kindness." He took another sip. "Although there was this one yak that kept wanting to see who could shoot spitballs the furthest."

Starlight hummed to herself, taking another bite of her lunch and teleporting in a cup of coffee. The hot liquid slid down her throat and warmed her body. Unfortunately, being the main headmare of the school meant she didn't teach as much as she would have liked, so her daily lunches with Sunburst helped keep her in the know about the students' lives.

"Anything else?" she inquired, taking a final bite of her sandwich. Mentally, she noted which spices she had used this time so she could make these ones again. They were better than usual.

Tapping his chin with a cream hoof, Sunburst squinted his eyes. About the only thing that had changed about him was his eyes, or more accurately, his eyesight. From her angle, his spectacles caused the eyes to warp slightly and appear humorously large.

She snickered to herself as she waited for him to say something.

"Well, I did bump into Luster and a few of her friends when I was heading to teach Friendship Foundations. I-I told her how proud we were of her improvement, although she seemed to have a lot on, you know, her mind." He shrugged and finished his lunch.

Warmth spread through Starlight's body, and not from the coffee, which she had quickly chugged. Whenever she heard mention of how quickly her daughter had improved on her life's outlook after Twilight had listened to her concerns and fears, she couldn't help but beam with pride. To think that only a couple decades ago she, Starlight Glimmer, hated the idea of friendship! Now she had her own legacy of friendship. With Luster Dawn and her own friends, she could impart all the lessons she had learned as Twilight’s student. Hopefully, long after she was gone, Twilight could use Starlight as an example of how everypony should be given a second chance.

Sunburst didn't have much else to add as he took another drink of water and got up to throw his sandwich wrapper in a nearby wastebasket. Likewise, Starlight took aim and threw hers through the air. The wrapper hit the wall behind the basket and bounced in.

"Whoo!" she exclaimed, throwing up her hooves in victory and ignoring the pops they made when she moved them so quickly. "I still have it!" She got up and sauntered over to Sunburst, lightly tapping his flank with hers.

In return, Sunburst chuckled and brought her close for a quick hug, nestling his head on top of her mane. He breathed in the perfume she decided to wear today. Vaguely, it reminded him of the past, although he couldn't quite put his hoof on what.

Blowing his beard away from her face, Starlight tapped his nose and made her way back around to her desk. She opened another drawer and pulled out a small bottle of Sweet Apple Acres' top-grade apple cider: Made with love, tradition, and love of tradition read the label. Afterwards, she pulled out two small glasses and poured a bit of the cider into each glass.

Offering it to Sunburst, she downed her glass in one gulp. A new, different wave of warmth rushed over her from head to tail, and she smiled sultrily at Sunburst.

Quizzically, he eyed the drink. Looking back at her, he arched an eyebrow as she poured a bit more for herself. "Uh, isn't it a bit early in the week for this?" he inquired, not drinking his cider yet.

Waving a hoof dismissively, Starlight answered, "Pfft, we have like, an hour. That's plenty of time for it to start wearing off." She leaned forward again. "Besides," she stared at him with half-lidded eyes, biting her lip seductively, "today is a special day."

It was just then that Sunburst noticed one of the pictures on Starlight's desk. It was a bit faded, but to him it was still as clear as the day it was taken. In it, he was smiling happily, unaware of the loving look that Starlight was shooting him.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, nodding his head in understanding. Instantly, he downed his own glass and moved closer to Starlight. "How could I, I forget that day?" He moved in and poked a hoof right in one of her ribs before she could react. Smiling, he continued with the unexpected tickle attack as Starlight snorted and giggled in delight.

"Okay! Okay!" she cried, still suffering from a few laughs after she pushed Sunburst out of hoof's reach. She finished one last swig of cider and put her glass down next to the bottle. She giggled a bit more and said, "Remember when we thought that was our worst date?"

"Oh, yes! T-tell me about it!" Sunburst stated, pouring himself another drink.

"I thought I had lost the stallion of my dreams," she said, looking deeply into Sunburst's eyes.

"And I thought the mare of my dreams wasn't ready for me," he replied, staring back into hers. He poked one of her cheeks, just below her crow's feet. "And she's still just as beautiful as the day I met her."

Starlight let out a soft "aw" and pulled Sunburst in close. "Come here, you." She snickered and went in for a kiss. Pleasure mixed with the taste of cider, food, and most importantly, love, and she held the kiss, Sunburst returning it passionately.

For a few seconds, her world was just her and her husband, then she heard a mocking "Rawr, rawr" come from the entrance to her office. Jerking her head up, she saw Trixie standing in the doorframe, a smug grin on her face.

Trixie jokingly wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead onto her purple teacher's uniform. Somehow, even after all these years, she still managed to look like a magician at least a bit. Maybe it was the stubborn desire to keep the stars on the back of her skirt.

"Trixie," Starlight grumbled. "Who said you were allowed in here?"

"Oh, don't worry," Trixie responded, cantering into the office and closing the door behind her. "Your secret is safe with me." Briefly, she eyed Sunburst up and down, then turned her attention to Starlight.

Sighing, Starlight leaned back and released Sunburst, who sheepishly got up and inched away from the desk. "All right, what is it you need?"

"Well, I can see that you're 'busy' right now, so I can tell you later," Trixie replied, turning around and opening the door again. She looked behind her and said, "Don't be too loud, you crazy lovebirds. School's in session, you know. Wink."

"No! Stop!" Starlight called, halting Trixie in her tracks. Grimacing, she continued, "The mood's ruined now. What were you wanting to speak to me about?"

Trixie looked between both her friends—and bosses—and sighed, "Well, it's good for once that Sunburst is here, too, because I believe you both should know this."

Raising an eyebrow, Sunburst looked at Starlight before moving his gaze to Trixie.

"Go on," Starlight stated, folding her hooves together. While Trixie was better at speaking in first person, she frequently reserved it for serious matters.

"Well, as you know, the Responsible and Caring Trixie makes her rounds every so often around the school, so if there are any students who need friendship counselling, she can quickly see to their needs," Trixie began, playing a bit with her silver mane.

"Yes, Trixie, we know what you do, get to the point," Starlight muttered, circling one of her hooves in an attempt for Trixie to pick up the pace.

"Er, well, I..." Trixie started legitimately sweating a bit. Gulping, she said, "You may want to sit down for this, Sunburst."

Silently, Sunburst complied, although his face grew even more confused.

After both her friends were as comfortable as they could be, Trixie went on, "When I was passing by one of the back halls, I heard something come from one of the broom closets. So, I thought it was maybe a student that was experiencing something horrible." At the statement, Trixie shuddered herself.

"Yes, Trixie, go on." Starlight grunted. Tapping her hooves together, she watched her friend squirm slightly. Trixie stuttered a bit as she tried to put sentences together.

"Well, er, uh, I may have found Luster discovering some of the more 'intricate parts of friendship', if you know what I mean," Trixie punctuated each part of that statement with her hooves acting as air quotes.

Sunburst paled. He sat rigid on the couch before flopping over listlessly on one of its arms, his mouth hanging open in shock.

For Starlight's part, she fared much better, only managing to sputter a few words incoherently. Eventually, she managed to regain enough of her faculties to question, "Luster? My Luster?"

"Mhmm." Trixie nodded, a small blush beginning to creep up on her face.

"With whom?!" Starlight demanded, getting up from behind her desk and trotting over to Trixie.

"Oh, you know, one of the students. I don't remember his name, but he was a nice enough pony," Trixie answered meekly.

Narrowing her eyes, Starlight switched her gaze between Trixie and Sunburst. She quickly filled her watering can and poured it over her husband, who sputtered awake from unconsciousness.

"Get up. We're finding Luster," she ordered, getting ready to leave the office.

Both ponies followed suit down the hallways which were currently fairly empty. A few students that were just getting to their lunch break now spied the trio and quickly ducked out of the way. Starlight’s face was pulled in a furious scowl, the crow’s feet crinkling more and appearing like scars.

Rounding a corner, Starlight called out, "Luster Shimmer Shine Dawn! You get here right now, young filly!"

The only response was her voice echoing down the hallway. Starlight narrowed her eyes again and growled. "When I find Luster," she said to Trixie and Sunburst, "she is so bucked."

FIN

Author's Notes:

Well, that was my first foray into writing since 2018. In between that time, Starlight has become a much loved character of mine. I've already written a couple more stories involving her and a certain future character from the series finale.

As a side note, this story was written in three days. The idea came into my head, I wrote the outline, and then I just started writing. While fun, writing 13,000 words in one day can be a bit exhausting.

So, now we reach the "credits" section of my author's note. First off, I want to thank sneaky_boi for being the mind behind getting me on the Starlight train and also for being a pre-reader. Next, I to thank The Bamboozler for being my first line of editing, and proving to me that I didn't write a bunch of garbage.

For the cover, I thank Little Tigress for her amazing art skills. I'm glad that I was able to commission her for the amazing cover.

Last, but truly not least, I thank EverfreePony for all the hard work editing this story they provided. If it wasn't for their critical eye, this fic would have been a lot rougher around the edges. They made the story what it was, and I'm eternally grateful for the assistance.

Well, I've rambled long enough. I've returned again to the world of writing for now, and hopefully I'll have a few more stories to tell.

T4E

Starlit Romance

by Test4Echo

The Proposal

Panic in the House

Food and a Show

More Food, More Show, More Panic

Epilogue - Like Mother Like Daughter