//------------------------------// // Bleacher Girl // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Rarity spent her brief few minutes back at the campsite sifting through her old memories. What story was she going to share? She certainly had no shortage of them, much to both her amusement and her embarrassment. Crushes came and went for her like the seasons, especially when she was a temperamental teenage… dare she say, diva. Her first crush was a schoolyard crush with another colt when she was seven and didn’t know what exactly dating was, only that ladies did it. Most that came in the following years were more or less the same. Then of course, there were her celebrity crushes, especially on Prince Blueblood when she was seventeen. Though that was probably her most infamous experience, Rainbow already knew the whole story, and it wasn’t one Rarity particularly wanted to relive. So what could take its place? Then a specific memory came back to her that made her blush. Oh, yes, that one would do perfectly. She still had pleasant feelings attached to that memory. Why not relive it one more time? She decided to carry the jug of water back to the beach with her—Rainbow and Gyro would certainly appreciate it. Hefting it in her magic, she hummed to herself as she made her way back through the tree line and down to the shore. “Think of a story yet?” Rainbow asked when she returned. “I know it’s gonna be a good one.” Rarity set the jug down in the sand between Rainbow and Gyro. “I did,” she said. “My crushes are admittedly too many and too short for me to properly recount one, and I’ve always been obsessed with fashion. I haven’t had an experience like Rainbow that made me suddenly become interested in acting like a proper lady. But I do have a good story to tell about my first kiss.” Gyro rubbed her hooves together. “This sounds like it’ll be good. Like you’ve already made clear, a mare like you has had a lot of kisses. The first had to be something special, I’m sure.” “It… was,” Rarity said. “It wasn’t exactly the stuff of fairy tales and fantasy, but I appreciated it nonetheless. And, believe it or not, I did it behind the bleachers.” “Behind the bleachers?” Rainbow echoed. “Not on a date at a nice restaurant or something?” Rarity shook her head. “I was fifteen, practically a late bloomer if you’d ask me back then. I had this idea that if I wanted to be a lady, I needed to have a husband before I was twenty. After all, that’s what the nobles do all the time, especially in the olden days.” “Meanwhile mares today don’t marry until they’re twenty-five,” Gyro said. After a moment, she lowered her head. “I checked. I’m twenty-six, by the way.” “Give it time, girl,” Rainbow said. “You’ll have your pick of the litter when you get back. Stallions will just be eating out of your hoof!” “Anyway, my story,” Rarity said, drawing the conversation back on topic. “Like I said, I was fifteen. I hadn’t been dating for something like six months, which was a long time for me. But there was this colt, Whirlwind, he was the defender for Ponyville’s buckball team at the time. He was handsome, athletic, fast… honestly, he reminds me of a stallion version of you, Rainbow.” “I can see why you and Rainbow are a thing,” Gyro said. “Your tastes were already there.” “Well, he probably wasn’t as awesome as me,” Rainbow said, puffing out her chest fluff. “Nopony’s as awesome as me.” “Yes, well, I didn’t really know you all that well then,” Rarity said. “You were just an apprentice weathermare while you were still in school. Anyway, I liked him, and he liked me. He confessed with a rose he must’ve clipped off somepony’s rosebush or nicked from the flower girls at the market. But I agreed to be his marefriend, and we were inseparable for all of my junior year at high school. He truly made me feel like a lady. Took me on dates, we’d watch the sunset together, I cheered for him at his games… Those golden days of high school seem like so long ago now.” “What about the kiss?” Rainbow asked. “I wanna know how it happened behind the bleachers instead of on one of those fancy dates.” “Yes, the kiss.” Rarity hummed and stared out over the ocean, replaying the memories in her mind’s eye. “It was before the championship game of buckball season that year. Ponyville versus Manehattan. Who’d have imagined that our little town would go so far? Yet there we were, and the last game of the series was going to be played in Ponyville. Each school was tied at three games, so this would decide it. But before the game, I took Whirlwind behind the bleachers and gave him a kiss for good luck. We’d only been dating for two months at this point; I wanted to take it slow up until then, to really feel him out and get a sense of whether or not he was coltfriend material. But yes, that was our first kiss. We’d have many more after that, until we ended things when he left for college on a buckball scholarship. It was an amicable parting, at least, though sad, especially when my passions involved starting the boutique at Ponyville, not higher education.” “Huh,” Rainbow said. “That’s kinda neat.” “What about the game?” Gyro asked. “Did you guys win?” “Oh, heavens no,” Rarity said, shaking her head with a little laugh. “We were horribly outscored. It was a massacre.” “Sounds like your kiss distracted your coltfriend,” Rainbow said. “He was too busy chasing those butterflies in his stomach and not enough time chasing the buckball.” “Whatever the reason was, I gave him a few more after the game to make him feel better,” Rarity said. “Plus a little extra,” she added with a wink. Gyro blinked. “Did you lose it with him?” “He was the first,” Rarity confirmed. “But not then. That would come later. I just let him play with my tail and my teats a bit. Nothing more than some touchy-feely.” “Was that also behind the bleachers?” Rainbow asked, an amused quirk on her face. “No. That one was in my bedroom. My parents were out that night. I knew they were coming back late, so that’s why we didn’t go further. It’s hard to cover up the smell of sex after a buckball game.” “Sounds like that was fun,” Gyro said. “I wish I could say as much. I’ve gotten laid before,” she quickly interjected with a raised hoof before her companions’ thoughts could wander that way, “But nothing steady, nothing recent.” “Which is surprising,” Rainbow said. Rarity saw her ruby eyes flit over Gyro’s figure. “Now that you’re getting some muscle back, I can tell that you’re a pretty mare.” “Maybe the grease and grime is too much for a potential coltfriend,” Rarity offered. “That and all the travel would make it difficult to find somepony steady.” Gyro frowned at the sand. “Maybe. But I love what I do. I just wish I could find somepony who loved it, too.” “None of the other engineers on the Concordia?” Rainbow asked. It took a second for Gyro to answer. “…Not anymore.” “Oh.” Rainbow’s ears folded back. “Right. Sorry.” “Meh.” “Just give it time,” Rarity said. “I’m sure of it.” “I hope so,” Gyro said. “You got any stories you want to share, G?” Rainbow asked. “Surely you’ve got something good, current love life aside.” Gyro thought for a moment. “Well, now that you mention it…”