Twilight Sparkle was not jealous.
She wasn’t glaring at Starlight Glimmer’s back. She was… studying her, searching for answers. Yes, that’s it.
Surely, there was a logical, reasonable cause for this. Sunset Shimmer wasn’t the type to just… ditch friends for other friends; she made friends--she made those friends friends.
Yet, in the twilight weeks of Summer Vacation, Sunset and Starlight were subatomically fused at the hip. A fact that remained as they walked along an unpopulated sidewalk.
Twilight glared--no, no, studied--harder. Even an impulsive, spontaneous lout like Starlight should’ve know about personal space. But the way her arm clamped over Sunset’s waist…
No. Twilight Sparkle was not jealous.
“So whaddya say? Think she’ll go for it?”
Starlight’s voice made Twilight’s mouth twitch. What was so special about her? Why had Sunset practically abandoned all her friends just to be with her? And skulking around in the dead of night?
Starlight was a horrible influence.
Twilight shivered at a sudden breeze. She offered paranoid glances at the buildings they passed, moonlight glinting in the curtained windows.
Everybody was asleep. Twilight knew they were asleep. She should have been asleep.
“That sounds like a horrible idea that could very easily backfire.”
Twilight looked at the back of Sunset’s fiery hair. It was so easy to forget that Sunset wasn’t really human. Starlight wasn’t human. They were Equestrian ponies. They talked magic. They studied Magic. They ate hay. They ran in open fields until they dropped. Of course they'd be drawn to each other.
“Whatever happened to living in the moment?”
Still, she didn’t understand it. Why couldn’t Sunset discuss magic spells in ‘Old Ponish’ with Twilight? Why couldn’t Sunset nessle and nuzzle against Twilight's cheek at any given moment? Why, oh why, did Starlight put those grubby, greedy, little hands all over Sunset? Why did Sunset allow it?!
Twilight didn’t understand.
But she was going to.
Even if it killed her.
“Maybe we should ask the girl in question,” Sunset said.
Twilight crossed her arms for the fifth time since they left her house, and had kept several paces behind for just as many minutes.
Twilight couldn’t talk to them. Either of them. She still had to figure this out. She had to decide if she hated Starlight Glimmer. If Starlight would truly take Sunset away from her.
“Whaddya say, Sparks? That is, if you’re still up for the main event. Hehe. Get it?”
Twilight refused to scowl. She’d avoided doing so all throughout the day. A faux smile here, a forced laugh there. She’d done so well.
Then Sunset knocked Starlight’s hip with her own, and that scowl came crashing in force.
“Ugh. Dork,” Sunset laughed, stumbling back into stride.
The main event. How could she forget. Afterall, Twilight was curious about Equestrian pass times. She’d said as much at least.
But wrestling? All that… touching and gripping? All that pain?
Twilight had to remind herself, late into the night, that her friends were ponies. If equine similarities ran deep between worlds, roughhousing was natural.
And Twilight wanted in. She wanted to learn.
The purple teen forced a smile and said, “I’m still game.”
Starlight gave a breezy exhale and grinned. “See, Shim? Told ya she’d go for it--”
Another bump of the hip. The trio stopped walking and faced one another.
Sunset cleared her throat and glared. “Details, filly.”
Starlight rolled her eyes. Twilight did the same for a different reason.
That cock of the hip. That cock-sure smirk. That cocky flip of smooth, amethyst hair. Starlight Glimmer was a total cock.
“Details, huh?”
Sunset shrugged, amber face stained with red. Twilight tried to ignore that much harder than she wanted.
“You’re really gonna make me say it?”
“You know what? I’ll say it, Starlight,” Sunset said.
“Say what?” Twilight's eyebrow started twitching.
Sunset's smile was now a tad forced. “Well… I, uh…” She took a deep breath, though that did nothing about her still-present-blush. “Okay. You know Starlight and I are ponies, yeah?”
Twilight nodded. “Mmhm.”
“And you know clothing isn’t really a necessity in Equestria.”
Another nod. “I gathered that.”
“And… a-and you know how rough ponies can get when we play.”
Twilight shrugged. “I’m no expert on the subject, but I--Sunset, what are you getting at?”
Sunset ran a hand through her fiery hair.“Well… I… I, uh…”
“Oh, for Discord’s sake!” Starlight said. “We wrestle in the nude, Sparks. We roughhouse with no clothing and want you to join us.”
Twilight suspected that Sunset and herself were now an identical shade of red.
“Starlight!” Sunset cried.
“What? You were beating around the bush. You know I hate that.”
Sunset socked her in the arm. Starlight just rubbed the sore spot and giggled.
Twilight regained enough of herself to scowl again. “Ab. Solutely. Not.”
Sunset sighed in what sounded like relief. Starlight, on the other hand, stepped closer.
And Twilight was sure that Starlight wasn’t so… tall. Maybe if she stood a little straighter… Nope. She still felt the spicy, oat scented breath on her forehead..
Twilight kept her head straight, but she looked up to meet that challenging gaze.
“Oh, come on, Sparks?” Starlight jeered. “What’s so wrong with a little competition?”
Twilight kept her arms crossed, leaning on her hip. “I said I was game, Starlight Glimmer. But the clothes stay on.”
Starlight leaned on her own hip, a hand clutched to it. “Uh-oh. Using full names. Should I be worried, or should I be laughing, Twilight Sparkle?”
Purple nostrils flared. Out of sheer impulse not felt since her Crystal Prep days, Twilight’s eyes hit the ground, then slowly, deliberately raked upward. They stopped at those daring, indigo eyes again.
"Ah, Starlight, lay off.”
The pink girl ignored Sunset Shimmer and smirked, an eyebrow raised.
“You like that? I promise, it gets better underneath. Sure you wanna decline our offer?"
"Um, hi? Your offer!" Sunset barked.
Twilight said nothing, flat-cut bangs dancing with the gentle night winds.
“Well, we have all night to… explore,” Starlight said, her voice low and… threatening, Twilight decided. “But why wait for the school gym? How ‘bout we go right here? Right now?”
Twilight reached up, and slowly removed her glasses.
Sunset shoved herself between them.
“OKAY! That's our cue to get this night going!"
Sunset turned on a swivel, facing her startled fellow pony.
“You.” A word punctuated by the finger jabbing the left breast. “March.”
Twilight snorted at the muffled squeak.
“Aw, come on, Shim. I was just having some fun,” Starlight protested, hands raised. “If she wants to keep these restricting rags on, who am I to judge?”
Sunset shoved that same breast, and Starlight stumbled back.
“Move it, jerk! I swear. Why do I put up with you?”
Starlight turned on her heal, and sauntered ahead. Twilight frowned at that trying-way-too-hard sway in the hips.
“Like I really need to answer that. See you on the mat, ladies.”
Twilight was shaking. Shaking with hands at her waist, balling into fists.
She both felt and heard shifting *crack* in her grasp.
“Oh no!” she cried.
Sunset sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Ooh… ”
Twilight unfurled her hand, staring sadly at her now-mangled glasses.
She carefully bent the onyx frame back in place, slipped them on and hoped for the best. They slanted to one side.
Sunset snorted, and Twilight glared at her.
“S-sorry, Twi.” Sunset said, righting herself. “I can help pay for another pair.”
Twilight pushed up her mutilated glasses. They slanted right back down. With a sigh, she crossed her arms for the seventh time that night.
There was nothing for it. So Twilight turned toward their destination and walked.
“I have needle nose pliers at home. I’ll fix them after… whatever this is.”
Twilight winced into the night. That came out far more venomous than she wanted. She listened for another set of footsteps, and sighed with relief as they came.
“Twilight?”
“I’m sorry…”
Uncomfortable silence passed between the walking pair. Sunset rubbed the back of her neck.
“She was only teasing you, Twi. I hope you know that.”
Twilight hesitated to answer.
“Yeah… I do.”
Sunset quirked a brow. “Then what’s with the frown-y eyebrows?”
That worried Twilight. Sunset was normally reserved and patient with her. She never pried, or demanded answers. Unless a friendship was in danger, or if she needed answers. Usually both.
“Just… What is it, Sunset? What do you see in her?”
To her credit, Sunset looked a bit miffed at the question.
“W-what does that mean?”
“It’s been two weeks, and I barely see you anymore.”
“Well, yeah. That’s becau--”
“I know why, alright? It’s because of her!”
Twilight’s hands shot to her mouth as Sunset recoiled.
Both girls stopped walking, and faced one another. Twilight righted herself with another deep breath.
“Ever since Starlight came back you’ve… I don’t know, you’ve changed.”
Sunset snorted, and that was starting to piss Twilight off.
“I haven’t changed. Starlight and I… well, she just knows how to get under me, ya know?” Sunset smirked at crooked glasses. “Yeah, you know.”
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Twilight said, futilely adjusting her glasses.
“Nothing’s funny. I just really think Starlight might be good for you,” Sunset replied.
This time, Twilight snorted..
“No I’m serious, “Sunset continued. “Being around a gal like that? I mean, I can be pretty competitive but… damn, she just does something to me.”
“And you think she affects me too?”
“Are you saying you weren’t about to take her on right here? On the street? In the middle of the night?”
“You’re actually enjoying this…”
Sunset shrugged with a quirked eyebrow. “I’m just saying, cut loose with her. Mess with her, egg her on. For Equestria’s sake, give her a taste of her own medicine. Starlight likes to… derail everything. Serious or not.”
Twilight frowned hard. “Yeah, serious. Like turning your personality inside out.”
Sunset erased her smirk with a frown of her own. “That’s ridiculous. I’m still me.”
“Really? You’ve never gushed about eating hay, or running in open fields . Heck, you’ve barely talked about magic spells--that I’m pretty sure aren’t possible in this world--before Starlight came.”
“Okay, what’s your problem, Twilight?”
Twilight did not appreciate that tone.
“Let’s start with the crime we’re all about to commit.”
Sunset rolled her eyes, reached in the back pocket of her skirt, pulled out a loop of keys and jingled them.
“It’s only breaking and entering without these. I thought we were passed this.”
“Oh, we were. Until I came to my senses!” Twilight’s glasses slanted further, but were ignored. “Let me guess; Starlight put you up to it. Because breaking into CHS after hours isn’t you.”
Twilight tried to ignore the dark shift in her friend’s eyes. Sunset seemed to notice as she looked away.
“You don’t know everything about me, Twilight…”
A three-second pause…
“T-then how about what I do know? Naked wrestling is not normal. I can’t believe you thought I’d go for that. Oh, wait. That was Starlight’s idea too, wasn’t it?”
Sunset’s face twisted up like she’d been punched in the sternum. That same face slumped with the rest of her features.
“It… it is normal…”
That’s when Twilight’s brain caught up to her words.
“No, wait a minute… T-that’s not what I... “ She took a tentative step closer. “I’m so sorry. It’s just… so easy to forget, you know?”
Sunset frowned at the concrete sidewalk. “Forget what? That I’m a pony?”
Twilight slowly nodded.
“Right. Well, I am. I get homesick, and miss doing pony things every now and then. Is that normal?”
Twilight flinched at the snark. “Sunset, I didn’t mean--”
“She gets me, Twilight,” Sunset said, now leering at the bookworm. “With her, I don’t have to pretend!”
Twilight reached for Sunset’s shoulder, but thought better of it. “But you don’t have to pretend. You never did. Not with me, or any of our friends!”
“No, you don’t get it. In her, I have everything I’ve missed for nearly seven years. I have my old life back!”
“God dammit, I know that! I JUST WISH…!” Twilight deflated, suddenly very tired. “I just want to be part of it.”
Sunset’s eyes widened, jaw slightly agape.
“I miss you,” Twilight whispered. “I miss you so much, and you’re just… drifting away. I can feel it.”
Her hands were taken into Sunset’s.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not.”
Twilight stared at the hands gripping her own.
“I thought you were homesick…”
Sunset tightened her grip. “That’s not fair, Twilight. Seriously, why did you even ask to join us? I wouldn’t have agreed if I knew how much you hated her.”
Twilight’s breath hitched at that.
“You even went the extra mile and fitted for matching unitards? A little late for second thoughts, right?”
Twilight pulled at the stretchy, breathable spandex beneath her skirt and blouse. Rarity did work extra hard on those measurements. Nevermind creating the garment on such short notice.
She just wish it didn’t ride up so much. Or so often.
“I… I-I don’t hate her.”
“Mnh.”
“I don’t! I just don’t want her to… take you away from us.”
Sunset pressed her forehead against Twilight’s.
“Stop talking…” Sunset whispered.
“B-but I still--”
“Shut up.”
Twilight meeped and fell silent. Sunset nudged Twilight’s forehead back with her own, then pulled away.
“Shut up and listen to me, okay?”
Twilight nodded without a word, eyes locked with shimmering turquoise.
“Starlight Glimmer is… special to me. I can be a pony without leaving. All thanks to her.”
Twilight wasn’t feeling any better about this.
“But you? Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash… You saved me from myself. How could I ever leave you?”
It still happened. Here and there, Sunset would confuse her with the quirky, confident princess that actually did save her. But she didn't get mad about it. Not anymore.
“I didn’t save you, Sunset… You saved me.”
Sunset’s forehead pressed unto Twilight’s again, light and life dancing in her eyes.
“I would’ve killed the entire world, all for magic. That monster… I… I let her take me, whisper sweet nothings to me. But you brought me back. You taught me things about magic that Midnight Sparkle never could.”
A shadow of a smile pulled at Sunset’s lips. Somehow, Twilight felt unworthy to return it.
“You accepted me at my worst. And if I ever lost you, I’d--”
Twilight’s breath hitched again. She closed her eyes at the nose and lips pressing hard against her cheek.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Sunset whispered against that soft face. “My place is here, right where I should be. Starlight won’t change that. She can’t.”
New instincts flooded every cell in Twilight’s body. Instincts that didn’t belong to her. She knew they didn’t, and that scared her. But she listened to them, anyway.
She closed her eyes, nuzzling Sunset right back.
There, they remained beneath the starlit blanket of night. Chirping crickets their only company..
When they pulled away, Twilight’s face was hot for multiple reasons.
“Okay. What was that?” she asked with a growing smile..
“That, Twilight, was a natural pony gesture. Hello. Goodbye. Good luck. Cheer up. Good work.The list goes on.”
“And… what did that one mean?”
Sunset closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Twilight was quite sure the brimming sincerity would melt her.
“Thank you. For accepting the real me. And… I’m sorry. For never giving you the chance before.”
The chest-filling, stomach-twisting flutters that followed were not new to Twilight. She’d felt it once before--several times--when she dated a young camper named Timber Spruce. But that ship had sailed. Now?
Now, Twilight didn’t know how to continue. Or even if she should have.
Her eyes willed themselves down to the mouth oh so close to hers..
“Are ‘You’re welcome,’ and ‘It’s okay,’ expressed the same way?” Twilight asked.
A smirk sharpened those amber lips. An inviting smirk. Daring, even.
“Uh-huh…”
Doubt melted away with their intermingled breaths. She wanted this. Twilight wanted to lean forward and kiss Sunset Shimmer right on the mouth. Hard.
It was risky. It could’ve very well ended the first real friendship she’d ever had. And she didn’t even like girls!
A cold grip clutched at her heart. A grip that loosened when she stared around Sunset’s neck. No geode. No magic. No empathy. Sunset couldn’t see the wanton impulses ripping through Twilight’s head.
But that damnable smirk. She could probably read Twilight like a book.
A new respect bubbled and festered to life in Twilight’s chest. A loathing respect for ponies.
To be this close on a regular basis? Without clothing? Without jumping each other’s bones the very next instant?
How did they do it?
“Hold on a sec. I feel like we’re forgetting something.”
Sunset’s eyes clicked wide.
“Gee. Imagine that…”
Both girls whipped their heads to a fuming Starlight Glimmer.
“Ah, yeah, that’s right,” Sunset said..
Starlight crossed her arms with a blushing pout that Twilight may’ve actually found the slightest, barest possibility of being cute.
In some other reality.
In another part of the Multiverse.
Ten thousand life times from then.
“You could’a told me you’d hang back twenty minutes to make out.”
Twilight and Sunset unlatched from one another, the former stammering like she’d been caught cheating on a chemistry test.
“W-we were just--”
A hip bumped into hers.
She looked over to Sunset, and got the hint.
Twilight crossed her arms and mirrored her best friend’s smirk, gaze averted to the street.
“--totally about to suck face,” Twilight said as crassly as she looked.
Sunset’s cheeks blew out as she stifled a laugh. “Adda girl.”
The way Starlight’s fingers squeezed her own arms. The pursing lips. The slowly narrowing eyes. Twilight wished, with everything in her, that Starlight was jealous.
“You two are so gonna get it. Forgetting about me like that…”
Starlight shoved herself between the pair, and draped an arm over Twilight’s neck and shoulders.
Twilight offered the offending cock-of-a-girl a sidelong, lidded glare.
“But I can’t be too upset,” Starlight continued, smirking down at Twilight. “Sunset accomplished her mission, afterall.”
“And what mission was that?”
She was answered with a face pressed against her cheek. Then her ear. Her breath hitched, no differently than it had with Sunset.
“Showing you how us ponies get down.”
Twilight didn’t mean to shiver. Starlight didn’t deserve that satisfaction. But her voice was so low. So… husky.
Twilight pulled away as far as Starlight’s confining arm allowed her. She regretted, for perhaps the third time that night, leaving her telekenisis-granting geode at her house with Sunset’s.
Though, she couldn't help but wonder just how much Starlight had heard...
“God. Did anyone ever tell you you’re an enormous cock?”
Both Starlight and Sunset laughed at that.
Twilight couldn’t see it--she didn’t want to--but she knew Sunset was on Starlight’s opposite side. And she knew that other offending, detestable, breakable arm was slung around the waist again.
Starlight led them both to walk with her before Twilight could protest.
“So…” Starlight began, “which of you meatbags are eating the mat first?”
Sunset scoffed. “That would be you, sweet teats.”
Twilight smiled at that.
“Pah! Your head still swollen from your last lucky-ass win? And I do mean ‘last.’”
“Luck? Making you tap out three consecutive times has nothing to do with luck.”
The confining arm left Twilight, and she shivered.
“Oh, I’m gonna suplex you into a wall, Sunset Shimmer!”
Twilight glowered as Starlight tormented Sunset. Yet another reminder of how close they had gotten.
How much closer they were to each other.
Without her.
A point driven home when Sunset laughed.
That pony-ish laugh she almost never let out. The one with a faint, nickering undertone. A laugh Twilight had heard more times today than for the length she’d known Sunset.
Twilight never got her to laugh like that.
It wasn’t fair.
“And you.”
Twilight reeled back too late to escape that returning, confining arm. “What about me?” she asked, eyes roaming the ground again.
“After I make Shim tap out like the little bottom she is,” Starlight grunt-laughed at a strike to her ribs, “it’ll be your turn. Hope you stretched.”
Twilight latched onto Starlight’s wrist before she even realized she did so. Whatever power Starlight possessed, Twilight didn’t like it.
Luckily, Sunset provided the knowledge with which to fight back.
“And I hope you brought a toothbrush. It’ll help you wash the taste of my cat-snack out of your mouth.”
Twilight foreswore the decency to cover her dirty little mouth, instead, smirking at the gaping indigo eyes thrown down at her. That smirk sharpened as wide, bright and proud turquoise joined in.
Laughter exploded into the echoing night. The girls nearly toppled over as their walk devolved into a collective stumble.
Sunset wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh, wow.”
Twilight felt Starlight’s arm constrict around her neck and shoulders, hand clawing vicariously beneath her breast.
“And here I thought I should take it easy on you,” Starlight said through the last of her laughter. “I’m gonna make you scream, princess.”
Twilight dared not say another word. But she held a solid smile, which was much harder than she let on.
Not for the teasing she was in for; Sunset had never forgotten the cat-snack comment.
No.
But because she couldn’t not ignore the prowess of the smug little girl-cock binding them all together.
Twilight knew it when she sized her up only minutes before: how lean, lithe and fit Starlight was.
She felt it in the arm holding her fast.
She saw it in the way her ankles dipped so smoothly up into solid calves.
In how tall she carried herself.
In how confident she was.
How magnetic.
And that she was only minutes away from wrestling with this creature.
Twilight Sparkle knew she didn’t have a chance.
But it didn't matter. The longer Starlight remained in her presence, the more certain Twilight became. She had to do this.
She didn't care what Sunset claimed; Starlight was whisking her away. How could she not be?
The way Sunset's eyes lit up when Starlight laughed… How her eyes narrowed when Starlight teased her… How her face dimpled out so gloriously when Starlight made her smile…
It wasn't fair.
But if Twilight could prove her strength, if she could topple Starlight Glimmer in the ring…
Maybe Sunset would stay home.
With her.
Right where she belonged