"This would be our new guest who we're losing? And now I hadn't even gotten to meet you." Igneous Rock Pie looked up from his paper just in time to see a streak of red feathers dive back down the stairs to the basement. "Ah, Pinkamena, you're looking more energetic than usual. More naked, too."
"Da-ad! You scared Sunny! It's alright Sunset, Dad doesn't even have his glasses on!" Pinkie Pie strutted across the kitchen, but when Sunset didn't follow, she turned back. "Sunset?"
"I don't need 'em." Igneous said. "Tell her, Cloudy-dear."
Serving a plate of pancakes to her husband, Cloudy Quartz let out an exasperated sigh. "You do, dear. Your eyes are worse than mine now. Look away so Pinkie's shy little friend can come through."
Wearing an oversize shirt she'd kept from days when she she didn't have a girlfriend who insisted she sleep naked, Sunset peeked up the stairs and saw Igneous' head was turned away. "Th-Thanks!"
Sunset could hide most of her wings under the shirt, but Cloudy raised an eyebrow in Sunset's direction as she ran past. "Later," Cloudy Quartz mouthed at Sunset Shimmer.
No sooner than the interloper was hidden in the bathroom than Marble Pie slipped out of her room. She knew things would be crazy-complicated if she was going to move out of home, but she needed to go to college, and they wouldn't teach biology as an online course.
"Yo." Limestone Pie knew how to hold still. She knew how to stand and not give any sign of movement—not even breathing—which was how she'd been laying in wait for her little sister. "I heard you want to move out and go to college."
Marble froze, then nodded.
"Cool. How's the thing going?" Walking past her little sister, Limestone tapped the side of her head.
"It's going." Marble glanced back at her bedroom door and remembered her bed linnen needed to be cleaned again. "At least I don't have a problem finding new subjects to study."
Limestone wasn't actually paying much attention to the talk from her sister about the bugs she insisted on studying. "Huh? How's that?"
"I'm kinda making my own. It also explained how they got in the river in the first place." On topic, Marble could chatter all day long. Though she wouldn't tell anyone how she'd worked all this out—waking up by the river, naked, was not a memory she wanted to fall back on. "What's for breakfast?"
"Whatever Mom's cooking." Limestone savored the look of shock her little sister displayed the moment she'd let slip that their parents were home. "They heard something about…" She trailed off as Marble rushed to the kitchen, then shrugged and followed.
"Mom!" Marble rushed the last few steps toward her mother and dove in for a hug.
"Hot pan!" Cloudy barely got the words out—and the pan held aside—before Marble wrapped her up in a hug. "Dear, what's the matter?"
"She wants to move out," Maud said, walking into the kitchen behind Limestone, and causing her older sister to nearly jump through the ceiling. "Good morning."
Igneous Rock looked up at Maud and smiled. "Good morning, Maud, Limestone, and little Marble. Could one of you read this for me? I don't know why they print these things so small."
Maud eyes tracked the newspaper for a second. "European digging implement. Twelve down, four letters beginning with A. Adze." Her tone was, as always, completely flat.
"Put your glasses on." Cloudy Quartz stuck her hand into Igneous Rock's pocket, pulled out the new glasses case, removed the glasses within and deposited them on her husband's face. "Honestly, dear, they make you look distinguished."
"They get in the way. Besides, my parents never wore glasses!" Igneous' pen quickly filled in adze and pyroclastic now that he could see.
"We had this argument yesterday, too. Wear your glasses and you can have another pancake," Cloudy Quartz said. "Now, where was that nice friend of your sister's? She seemed awfully timid."
"You mean when she got to the top of the basement stairs without a stitch of clothing on, like she does every day? I bet she was timid." Limestone pulled a chair out and dropped into it. She didn't need to ask, her mother was already slipping a plate before her.
"Pinkie and Sunset are in the bathroom." Despite her voice being completely monotone, Maud managed to put enough facial expression into saying the last word that it was obvious something deeper was meant.
"How serious is it?" Igneous asked.
Limestone actually smiled. It wasn't her sunny disposition that made her lips curl up, but rather that one of her sisters was (really) happy. "Well, they were at it last night, and I'm pretty sure their shared showers that take over half an hour aren't so long because they're both clean freaks. What with them both moving out and into a place together—I think it's pretty serious."
Cloudy Quartz leaned down and kissed Limestone on the cheek. "It's about time one of you found someone to keep your bed warm."
"Marble has a girlfriend too," Maud said.
The whole kitchen went silent.
Limestone hadn't brought the matter up because, despite her dislike of her baby sister's issue, she saw dating as a positive. "Oh, right. I've found a cute guy, too."
Marble shot Limestone a look of shocked surprise that quickly melted into relief and thanks. But she also realized that Limestone was sinking herself into a quagmire of questions from their parents. "W-When are you going to find someone, Maud?"
"I already have the love of my life. He's smart, loyal, and around two hundred pages long. He's going to make me a happy woman." The ghost of a smile pulled at Maud's lips.
"You can't marry your thesis," Cloudy said.
Igneous reached out to his wife and pulled her close for a hug. "I did, and it worked out for me."
Marble, when it got to her turn to describe her relationship, stuck to talking about Rainbow Dash. What had happened with Twilight Sparkle had been amazing, but she was still unsure what exactly to do with this new study partner. She also managed to eat a few pancakes.
When Sunset tried to sneak past with a naked Pinkie behind her, all attention shifted toward the pair. Sunset tried to keep Pinkie covered, but when her girlfriend kept moving around it quickly turned into a game, and Pinkie was too good at those.
"Do you love her?" Igneous asked.
Pinkie groaned. "Dad! Of course I do! She has the hottest mind and body in Canterlot, after all."
"I was talkin' to this-un." Igneous stabbed his fork in Sunset's direction.
This was the discussion that Sunset had never realized she should fear. Her mouth ran dry—ironic considering what it had just been doing—and she struggled to think of things to say. The truth, Applejack would tell her. "I love Pinkie Pie to bits. I've never met someone so completely devoted to throwing herself into everything with all her heart. She did the same to me and doesn't seem to want to leave." For a heartbeat Sunset worried she might have said something wrong, but she noticed genuine smiles grow on Igneous and Cloudy's faces.
"Well duh. Of course I'm not going to leave." Pinkie Pie leaned in and kissed Sunset Shimmer's cheek. She whispered, "Not when I have the hottest girlfriend in Canterlot."
"I think I'm gonna be sick. Why can't you two just move out now?" Limestone meant it as a joke, of course. After all, she only had another two weeks of leave before she was shipping out again.
"Well, we are." Sunset enjoyed the look of surprise on Limestone's face at her revelation. "I'm going to pick up the keys to the new place today, and we're going to move our things over today." She looked at Marble significantly.
"R-Right. I can help carry things if you'll help move my stuff too," Marble said. Even with a week of Sunset in the house, she still felt a little nervous around her.
Sunset tried to be as inclusive as she could with Marble, which was hard given Marble had only asked to be part of their little college house so recently. "Sure! We're going to get Twilight to help with the heavy stuff, then move her in tomorrow."
Twilight. That Twilight. Marble's brain skipped a gear before she managed to recover. "Okay." A little memory played in Marble's mind, it involved her trapped in the best pleasure she'd ever had for nearly five minutes while Twilight tweaked the machine feeding her the constant orgasm. It'd been the single most amazing time she'd ever had, which her parasite concurred with. "That sounds good."
"Great. Give us a few minutes to get dressed and we can start, okay?" Slipping sideways, Sunset covered for Pinkie and the pair slipped down to the basement with much giggling.
"Well?" Limestone asked Marble. "Aren't you going to go and pack your stuff?"
"Ahh!" Marble jumped up and ran to her room. Her closet was first—or so she decided. She pulled out the few dresses and pants she liked, her regular tops, underwear, and looked at the other two thirds of the room's closet space. Pretty dresses, swimsuits, scoop-neck blouses, and a drawer full of push-up bras of sizes ranging from just above training to her current Cs.
New life, new look? Marble thought, then shook her head. She left all the things she wouldn't wear behind.
The same went for Marble's other things. Childhood attempts by her parents and sisters to get her to fit in with school, participation trophies, ribbons, and even a commemorative cup. Instead of pack those, she gathered up her experiments and projects. Several of the live parasites (now in double-glass containers), many dissected dead ones, along with a collection of odonata that had each of their stages in their life-cycle preserved in dissection.
Just the important things.
She pulled out a few old travel cases that'd always been in her bedroom closet and filled them with her clothes and experiments.
"Marble, we have some boxes with—" Sunset stopped when she reached the doorway. There was four medium-sized cases on Marble's bed, and around her was a mostly intact bedroom with one or two things missing here and there. She could remember abandoning a bedroom in much the same way—in Equestria. "Do you need a hand with anything?"
"N-N-N—" Marble bit back at her normal reaction to someone coming into her room, which was to say and do anything to get them to leave again. She needed help, and Sunset was just about the most perfect kind of person she knew of outside of family (she was attached to another family member, so there was no chance of romantic interest, and Sunset had actually been living at her house for a few days). "Yes. Please? I don't know what to do with the bed."
"Fold up the covers and we can take it apart. Pinkie's hired a trailer for the week to help everyone get everything moved." Having had glances into Marble's room before, Sunset noticed the lack of the insect displays. "Where's your bugs?"
Marble just wished she could say, Get out and let me do this in peace, but she realized what a mistake that would be. "I-I thought I'd pack them among my clothes so they don't break."
"Well, I'll leave you to it. Let Pinkie know if you need any help with anything, Marble." Leaving the girl to her surprised expression, Sunset walked back through the house and down to the basement. She didn't so much ignore everyone as just not give them time to wrangle her into a conversation.
Mentally preparing for the hard work ahead, Sunset froze at the bottom of the stairs. All her worldly possessions were gone, including the queen bed and drum kit (the latter being Pinkie's). Spotting the exterior door open, Sunset made her way over and poked her head out.
"Hey, Sunny, let's go!" Pinkie Pie had been waiting for Sunset Shimmer. Much as she'd wanted to see Sunset's chest bounce and heave while she packed, Pinkie was also excited about their first day in the new (shared) house.
"But how did you get the bed out?!" Sunset stared at the loaded trailer and didn't noticed the purple-skinned pony beside her until Twilight cleared her throat. "T-Twilight?"
"Well I did say I'd help. Besides, it's just like you said, embrace the magic!" Using her magic, Twilight adjusted her non-magical glasses that sat on her face, a nervous habit.
"Come on, Sunny, grab Twilight and jump in!" Standing up in the driver's seat of her Jeep, Pinkie Pie rocked the vehicle on its soft suspension.
"We still need to get the keys—" It seemed like a whirlwind to Sunset. She got Twilight into the Jeep and climbed in herself. The trip to the rental agency, grabbing the keys, and heading to their new house seemed to fly by. When they pulled up out the front of the huge house, she couldn't help but smile at it.
Pinkie didn't hesitate to drive up the driveway and park the trailer off the street. "This place is huuuuuge! How many rooms do we have?"
"There's six bedrooms, two living rooms, two studies, and a kitchen that's big enough to feed a small country." Sunset let out a sigh. For at least three years she had a house with her friends. It was a step up from worrying if her supply of gems would get depleted by another massive problem. "Twilight, I don't know how to thank you for arranging this."
"Me?" Twilight jumped down from the huge (to her) Jeep to land at Sunset's side. "This was all your doing."
"I mean that negotiation with Hurricane. You literally got us all put through college!" Having a pony around put Sunset in a hugging mood, and before she knew it she'd leaned down and done just that—pulled Twilight into a hug.
Walking up to the door, and leaving her girlfriend and her friend hugging out some relief, Pinkie shielded her eyes from the morning sun and peeked in through a window. "There's no furniture!"
"Pinkie! Of course there's no furniture. We have to provide that." Sunset let go of Twilight carefully, setting her back down on the ground. "Sorry about that. I guess seeing a pony around just made me think more like a pony."
"Ponies hug a lot?" Twilight asked.
"Like you wouldn't believe. Imagine the hugging we do as friends, and multiply that by a billion." Sunset led Twilight to the front door and fished her keys out of her jeans pocket. "Girls, welcome to your new home."
Sunset pushed the key into the lock, turned it, and opened the door.
"Our new home smells a lot more like lemon than I thought it would," Pinkie Pie said.
"Which room is going to be—" Stepping into the place to look around, Twilight was genuinely surprised at the size of everything. Her parents' home was big, but it only had four bedrooms. This was a house built for an extended family and then some. "Wow."
Pinkie started to tremble, then she started to buzz, then her tail started to spin. "Ineedpartysupplies!"
Used to Pinkie being Pinkie by now—particularly at close quarters—Sunset let out a resigned sigh and turned to Twilight. "Come on, let's pick rooms!"