//------------------------------//
// Lazy Sunday 
// Story: A Ray of Sunlight 
// by BChunter426 
//------------------------------//

Sunset awoke the next morning with a start. She immediately realized she wasn't at home. The first thing she saw was the still sleeping face of Twilight.
    I could get used to this. She thought with a smile. 
    She planted a small kiss on Twilight's lips and her eyes fluttered open. When she saw Sunset she smiled and stretched before hugging her close. 
    "Good morning." She said in a raspy voice. "How did you sleep?"
    "Very well." She responded with a twinkle in her eye. "I should probably switch to a different spot before your parents learn we 'slept together'." She made swishes with her fingers.
    "We already know." Velvet said, coming down the stairs. "Morning girls, French toast sound good for breakfast?"
    Velvet entered the kitchen. Twilight and Sunset smiled at each other and got off the couch. Sunset let out a snort as she attempted to suppress a laugh. 
    "What's so funny?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
    "Your hair is perfectly split down the middle."
    Twilight raised a hand to her head. The right side was a little tangled but fell straight as it usually did. The left side was bunched up on the side and had strands that seemed to defy gravity. She blushed and tried to straighten out her hair as best she could.
    "You're not much better." She motioned to the mess of red and gold hair.
    Sunset flattened it before embracing her. "You're just jealous because I make this look good."
    Twilight swatted her butt playfully and headed toward the kitchen. "What can we help with Mom?"
    "Could you two start scrambling eggs? There should be a new carton on the top shelf."
    The two of them took turns cracking eggs, Sunset even tried her hand at cracking one-handed. After five minutes of picking shell fragments out of the eggs they separated enough for the toast and gave the rest to Velvet to be cooked. They added the other ingredients to the mix and Velvet instructed them on how to make french toast while she cooked the eggs. A few minutes later, Nightlight walked down the stairs and inhaled deeply.
    "Mmm something smells delicious."
    "Convenient of you to join us now when there's not much left to do." Velvet chided him.
    "You know I'm useless in the kitchen. The grill is where I shine." He hugged his wife from behind and kissed her cheek. "Good morning my dear."
    She chuckled. "Good morning to you too, but you're not getting out of helping that easy. You're setting the table."
    He smiled and grabbed the necessary dishes for four people. The kitchen smelled heavily of delicious breakfast. On more than one occasion Sunset's stomach audibly growled. Both Twilight and Velvet teased her when they heard it. 
    "That's not fair, I don't have a teammate." She dipped the last slice of bread into the egg mix and put it on the skillet. "I can't help it if my stomach isn't afraid of public speaking."
    Velvet returned from placing the pan of eggs on the table. "It's okay Sunset, I think it just means we did everything right."
    "I'll say." She inhaled the sweet aroma of the French toast before placing it on the plate with the others.
    The four of them ate the meal and talked excitedly. Twilight noticed, with a smile, the way Sunset would occasionally take a forkful of eggs and lightly dip it in the excess syrup. She logged it away with the other endearing quirks she loved about her. Like the way she twirled a strand of hair around her finger when she was deep in thought, and how she rubs her eyebrow with her thumb when she gets tired. She was looking dreamily at Sunset while thinking about this when she heard her dad saying her name.
    "About time you heard me." He teased.
    "Sorry, what were you saying? I was-"
    "Distracted?" He raised an eyebrow.
    Twilight scrunched her face at him which Sunset found adorable.
    "I was asking if you'd like to go driving today."
    "Sure, would you like to join us?" She asked Sunset.
    "I'd love to! I've been curious how your driving is coming along."
    "It's... coming." She said nervously.
    "Oh don't listen to her." Nightlight interjected. "She's been doing great."
    They helped Velvet clean up and wash the dishes before loading up into the car. Sunset took the seat behind Twilight. She gripped the wheel and pulled onto the road. Sunset was impressed at how comfortable she seemed already. Other than a few rough stops she seemed to be getting the hang of it.
    "Alright, now turn left up here." Nightlight instructed. "We're going on the highway."
    Twilight tensed up. "I don't know if I'm ready."
    "You've got this kiddo. It's the last place you need practice on."
    "Do I though? I can just stay in town my whole life." She joked with a waver in her voice.
    "You can do this babe." Sunset gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
    Twilight exhaled as the car drove onto the entrance. She sat rigidly in her seat with both hands on the wheel. She saw an opening and turned the wheel a little roughly to merge onto the highway.
    "Sorry." 
    "It's ok. Next time, take your time, you want to slide into traffic like you're sliding into DMs."
    Twilight let out a shaky laugh. "Gross Dad."
    "What? Did I not use that correctly?" He chuckled. "Okay, now I want you to try merging. Turn on your blinker, check your mirrors and blind spot, then turn the wheel gradually."
    It took a minute for another driver to give her the room she needed, but when she was able to she moved into the next lane. Her father congratulated her and she felt good, but she was still really nervous to be on the highway. Her heart was beating quickly when she felt a cool hand gently press against the base of her neck. She felt herself relax as Sunset gently massaged the area. She hazarded a quick look back and gave her a grateful smile. She drove on the highway a little longer before Nightlight had her turn off onto an exit that allowed them to get back home.
    "How'd it go?" Velvet asked when they walked in the door.
    "It was good. Dad took me to the highway and it wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be."
    "Glad to hear it hon." She moved over on the couch to make room for her husband. "So what is your plan miss Sunset? Do you work today?"
    "Nope, I'm free as a bird." She opened her arms wide and flapped.
    "Would you like to hang around and join us for dinner? Shining Armor and Cadence are coming over tonight." 
    "Absolutely! I haven't seen them in so long!"
    Velvet smiled. "I hope you like pork roast."
    After visiting with the parents for a while Twilight and Sunset broke away and walked to the park. The weather was starting to warm up and melt the snow. The park already had several areas that were showing grass. They chose a bench and huddled together on the seat. Twilight leaned her head on Sunset's shoulder and watched a group of children making the most of the snow they had left and building a snowman. She smiled at the memory of their snow-woman and let out a little chuckle.
    "What are you laughing at?"  Sunset playfully nudged Twilight.
    "I'm just thinking about everything that's happened this year."
    "It has been a wild ride." She wrapped an arm around Twilight's shoulders and kissed the side of her head. "I'm sorry I've been so distant the last while."
    "Hey, it's fine. You had a lot of stuff you were dealing with."
    "I know I did, but I still shouldn't have neglected you like that. I'm sorry."
    She gently shoved Sunset's shoulder. "I thought we agreed that there were enough apologies already?"
    "Alright, alright, no need to resort to violence."
    Twilight hugged her. "Hush you. So what should we do now? We've got the whole day ahead of us."
    "If I tell you you can't laugh."
    "I promise nothing." Twilight smirked.
    "I really want to go down that slide." She pointed to the tall twisty slide on the playground.
    Twilight stood and held out her hand. "Then that's what we'll do."
    Sunset smiled and took her hand. Before Twilight could react Sunset was pulling her toward the playground and up the steps. When they arrived at the top Sunset grabbed the bar over the entrance to the slide and used it to swing herself onto the plastic spiral. She landed hard, causing the slide to shake momentarily. Twilight laughed as she saw her disappear around the first curve. She followed after and slid into Sunset's back, wrapping her arms and legs around her from behind.
    "Was it all you hoped it would be?" Twilight asked.
    "Hmm, not quite." She said while looking around.
    "What are you thinking?"
    "You'll see." 
    Sunset stood up and grabbed a handful of snow from the grass. She quickly made her way back to the top of the slide. Twilight followed and shook her head, getting an idea of what her plan was. Sunset placed the snow on the platform and rubbed the soles of her shoes in it. She turned and gave Twilight a mischievous grin.
    "You're crazy, you know that?"
    "And yet you love me." She winked. "Think of it as an experiment. I'm testing the slipperiness of wet rubber on cold plastic and how fast the reaction will shoot a human down a twisty structure. My prediction, real fast.
    Twilight laughed. "A few more scientific words and you've almost got a hypothesis."
    "Care to help me on my scientific quest?"
    "Please don't hurt yourself."
    Sunset smiled and squatted down before scooting forward. She slid down considerably slower with her shoes squeaking the whole time. When she reached the bottom she stepped out and looked up at Twilight with a frown. 
    "That did not go as planned."
    "I'm sorry babe."
    "That's alright. On to the next test!"
    "There's more?"
    "Of course there's more, I'm a scientist. I just left my lab coat at home."
    Twilight felt her cheeks grow warm as an image of Sunset in a lab coat entered her mind.
    "Alright, what is your next test?"
    Sunset tried a few more ways to increase her speed while sliding and found the best was to sit on some snow and keep her feet off the slide. After the third time she tried to convince Twilight to try.
    "I dunno. I don't really want to push my luck and break my arm or something."
    "I promise I'll catch you." Sunset called from the bottom of the slide.
    Twilight rolled her eyes and held out her hands. Sunset tossed up a decent amount of snow and excitedly bounced on the balls of her feet. Twilight nervously readied herself and pushed off. She felt butterflies as she picked up speed and before she knew it she was shooting down the slide and into the waiting form of her girlfriend. Sunset wrapped her arms around her and cushioned her fall as they both laughed on the cold ground.
    "Hey there sexy." Sunset winked. "See, that wasn't so bad."
    Twilight straddled Sunset and planted her hands on the ground to look in her eyes. Her long hair falling on either side of them. "Only because you were there to catch me."
      "And I always will be."
    Twilight smiled and lowered herself to meet Sunset's lips. They kissed, their faces hidden in the comfort of Twilight's violet hair. After several moments Sunset attempted to break the kiss. Twilight shook her head with a smirk and kissed her again.
    "Mm, Twilight, babe." Sunset gasped when she was able to break free.
    "Hmm." She responded.
    "I'm all for p.d.a.," She said between kisses. "but we are at a park with kids around. This might be a bit much. Also my butt is frozen."
    Twilight sat up, face flushed with color. She stood and held out a hand for Sunset. One rowdy boy who looked around thirteen called out after them with a well worded, 'ow ow!'.
    Twilight pulled her hood over her head and pulled the strings to hide herself more, her cheeks burning. Sunset chuckled and draped an arm around her shoulder before turning back toward the group of younger kids and sticking her tongue out at them. Once they were a block away from the park, Twilight finally broke down and laughed about the situation.
    "I can't believe we were just making out in public! I used to turn my nose up at couples that did that." She chuckled. "And I was the one that started it!"
      "I know! I would have expected that sort of behavior from me. I think your girlfriend is a bad influence on you babe."
    "Nah, she's just irresistible." She winked.
    This time it was Sunset's cheeks that reddened. She smiled and scooped her into a hug before kissing her.
    "You're pretty irresistible too."
      They walked the rest of the way back to Twilight's, hands clasped together not caring about the cold. As they approached they noticed a second car that wasn't there when they left. Twilight gasped excitedly when she recognized her brother's car.
    "Shining and Cadence are here!" 
    Sunset nearly slipped on the lawn as Twilight dragged her toward the front door. Twilight burst through the door and pushed past her brother to throw her arms around Cadence. 
    "I see where your loyalties lie!" Shining Armor called with mock hurt in his voice.
    "Don't take it too hard, I'm sure I would have gotten the same treatment." Sunset joked as they watched the two perform their usual greeting.
    "How have you been Sunset?"
    "Can't complain. I was going through a bit of a rough patch, but I think it's behind me for the most part now."
    "I'm glad things are looking up."
    "Me too." She smiled and took a seat on the couch. "So how have you been? It's been a while."
    Shining Armor sat in the slightly over stuffed chair his dad always sat in. "I've been good. Though I may have over stretched myself this semester. I decided to take an extra class and I'm really feeling the mental drain right now."
    "At least it's one less class you'll have to take later right?" She smiled.
    "That's true. If I keep it up maybe I can graduate a semester early."
    "There you go, motivation! What are you majoring in?"
    "I've made myself a pariah by going into communications instead of education." He made a show of looking ashamed of his life choice. "What about you? Any idea what you want to go into after you graduate?"
    "I dunno, maybe an english major?"
    "Oh, do you have an interest in writing?"
    "It's kind of new, but I took a creative writing class and I've really enjoyed it so far." She smiled. 
    "What have you written?"
    "We've had to write a couple poems, a short story and I have a couple fan fiction ideas I've started on my own time."
    Shining armor chuckled. "My sister's dating a nerd." He said playfully.
    "So is Cadence. Twilight's told me about your weekly Dungeons and Dragons games you go to."
    "Hey, what about you? She's told me you both want to start playing."
    "I never said I wasn't a nerd, I just had to humble you." She smirked.
    "I'm telling my sister you're picking on me." 
    They both started laughing which caught the attention of their partners.
    "What's so funny over here?" Cadence asked as she leaned against Shining Armor.
    "Just putting your boyfriend in his place."
    "Oh good, he needs that from time to time." Cadence kissed his cheek.
    "I'm feeling so attacked right now."
    "Leave my boy alone, he's sensitive!" Velvet said with mock seriousness as she and her husband entered the room.
    "Yeah, you tell 'em Mom!" 
    After the room settled down Velvet announced that dinner would be done in a couple hours. While the others loaded up Mario Kart, Sunset and Velvet talked about writing.
    "So I overheard you talking to Shining. I didn't know you were that interested in writing." She said with a smile.
    "Yeah, I took the class as a filler and realized I was really loving it."
    "I'm glad to hear that. What do you want to write?"
    "I don't know yet, fantasy maybe? I really like horror movies so maybe I'll try my hand at that. Or maybe I'll write a memoir about this year." She joked.
    "That may not be a bad idea." She placed a finger to her chin. "People love a redemption story." She smiled.
    Sunset smiled back. "Maybe I will. Do you really think people would read it?"
    Velvet nodded. "You have a way with telling personal stories. Whenever you tell us stories from your past I'm captivated." 
    Sunset welled with a sense of pride at her words. It was then that Spike came bounding in from the other room. He yipped and leapt onto Sunset's lap. She was barely able to pet his head before the beagle pup hopped to the floor to make the rounds for other people's attention.
    "He's gotten big." Sunset observed.
    "Yeah," Velvet agreed, leaning forward to scratch the dog behind the ear. "but luckily he's  pretty much done growing so he can still be a lap dog."
    "He would probably still think he’s a lap dog regardless of how big he got."
    "You're probably right." She chuckled. 
    "How is your book coming along?"
    "I'm nearly done actually. I just need to finish the last two chapters before sending it off to my editor for a final proofread, then it's off to get published."
    "That's so exciting! I'll have to get a copy and have you sign it!"
    This caused Velvet to smile broadly. "Of course, I'd love to sign your copy!"
    "You know, I don't know that I've ever asked about your writing and I'm sorry about that. Anything I would have read?"
    "It's fine." She chuckled. "Probably not, so far it's been easy reader mystery stories for grade schoolers. They did pretty well, this will be my first full length novel. It's a little intimidating, but my publisher seems to think it will sell."
    "Awesome, I'll have to track them down. So will this be a mystery too?"
    "Mhmm." She nodded.
    "Can I hear a bit about it?" She asked, leaning in.
    The two talked for a while about Velvet's story. She was careful to not give too much away so Sunset would be able to fully enjoy it when it was released. Eventually the others wrangled them into playing video games. Despite Velvet's assurance that she wasn't any good, she held her own pretty well. She excused herself to finish dinner and soon they were all seated around the dinner table. The food was delicious. Sunset had a heaping pile of mashed potatoes with gravy drizzled over them and the meat. 
    She looked around the table at the smiling family that had taken her in, damaged as she is. She couldn't help but smile as she looked at each member.
    "Are you okay Sunset?" Cadence asked. "You've been smiling for a long time."
    "I'm just really happy. Happy and grateful for all of you. You give me hope that I can have a normal life."
    Twilight gave her hand a squeeze as the others smiled back at her. They finished dinner and went back to the living room to play card games and visit with each other. Cadence talked about the courses she was taking and how excited she was to go into her career as a psychologist. Sunset and Shining exchanged playful barbs about being nerds when they started talking about video games and their favorite tv shows. All the while Twilight was winning games back to back. After the third game in a row of Apples-to-Apples Sunset tossed her cards onto the floor in front of her and turned to glare at Twilight, who met her sour gaze with a smile.
    "How? How are you so good at these games?"
    Twilight giggled and wrapped her in the blanket she had been using to stay warm. "It's all about strategy and knowing the judge my dear."
    Sunset grabbed her side of the blanket and scooted closer to Twilight. "Well, I call shenanigans! You've gotten to know them since you were born. I'm a newcomer."
    "Don't worry Sunset, you've got plenty of time to get to know us." Nightlight smiled.
    "Then I'll finally crush your adorable face at these games." She squeezed Twilight's cheeks and kissed her nose.
    After a few more games it was time for Sunset to go home. She made the rounds, hugging each member of the family. She and Twilight walked to her car and said their goodbyes. They held each other against the breeze that picked up around them.
    "Do you have to go?" Twilight pouted. 
    "Unfortunately, yes. I've got to get ready for school tomorrow. You'll be fine without me for a few hours." She teased.
    "I guess so."
    "Come on, don't be like that." She tickled Twilight's sides. "I'll see you at your locker bright and early, I promise."
    That proved acceptable to Twilight and she gave Sunset one last long kiss before going back inside. Sunset drove home with a smile on her face. However, as the prospect of returning to school loomed ever closer, worry started to build in the pit of her stomach. She pushed the feeling down, telling herself that everything would be fine.