Two days later, the Glastonpony festival site is almost complete. It was another sunny morning, and Sunny and her friends are getting ready to set off and do the finishing touches. Sparky and Misty were still isolating from Hitch and Alphabittle ever since those moments, but hopefully they'll recover and come around.
But whilst they were getting their tools, the Brighthouse's doorbell rang. Sunny went up to the door and opened it, and was surprised to see that it was none other than Zack Thunderlane.
"Morning, Sunny. How ya doing?"
"Oh, morning, Zack." She giggles weirdly. "I'm doing okay, but we've been having a bit of trouble with Sparky and Misty recently."
"Really? What happened, are they okay?"
"Sparky's been going through a lotta issues with his 'dragon-dad', and Misty... well, she had a moment with Alphabittle. So they're both spending some time together for now."
"Okay then. As long as they're alright, that's all I need to hear."
"But, what are you doing here? I didn't expect you to come around this minute."
"Ah, you didn't? Do I always look like a surprise to you?" He said in a stylishly voice.
"*giggle* Maybe you do. So, what can I do for you?"
"Well, it's kinda hard to explain, but uh... See, ever since I left you to recover from your... weird, crazy head thingy a couple days back, I... I took the time to think of something that, maybe you and I can do, together. You know, like... hang out for the day, and maybe even know a little more about each other?"
From behind, Izzy was peeking from the couch and gasped with a big smile, hoping for something exciting to happen.
Sunny felt puzzled. "Hold on. So you're asking if... you want us to go out... on a date?"
"Yes, I am." Zack nodded, and Sunny was surprised. "But only if you want to, okay? I'm not persuading you or anything, I know that'd be rude and all. So, if you have something else planned for today, then yeah, that's fine. I totally understand."
Whilst Sunny was thinking about it, Izzy's smily grin widened. She was hoping for her best friend to say 'yes', but then...
"Well, Zack... I will say 'thank you' for the offer, but I have to finish setting up the festival, so... maybe another time?" Sunny suggested.
And with that, Izzy's face turned to shock and disappointment.
"Okay." Zack replied, as he felt a bit down. "I guess that's way more important than anything else, right?"
"Yeah... For now."
"Well, see you later then."
"Bye, Zack."
Zack turned away and walked off in a bit of shame, as Sunny closed the door behind him. But then, Izzy grabbed her in frustration.
"Sunny! Why not!?"
Sunny broke out from her friend's grasp with a shock. "Wait, you've been hearing all of that, Izzy?!"
"Darn right I did, maximum sneaky style! I mean, Zack Thunderlane, the most handsome Pegasus in all of Equestria, just offered you the chance to go out with him on a date, and yet, you turned it down just like that?!"
"Well, I had to, alright? Glastonpony's nearly complete, and we have to finish it." Izzy looked at her in disgust. "What, why are we doing another staring contest?"
"Your dad would be really disappointed in you right now." Izzy said in a low voice.
"Hey, don't bring him into this!" Sunny said madly.
"No, I mean it!"
"Izzy...!" Sunny growls in hesitation. "Look, you don't understand. I've never even been on a date before! What if I screw up and it all goes wrong!?"
"Of course it won't!"
"But how do you know that? *scoff* I just... didn't expect this to come down on me right here and now."
"So you're saying it's all new to you?"
"*sigh* Yes, it is. What else is there to say about it?"
"Then, you listen to me, Starry Sunny." She then held her friend's hoofs. "Ever since you met Zack that day, me and the others were starting to believe that you two would be great for one another."
"Oh c'mon, do you really believe that?"
"Yes, I do! You know, showing him the crystals and how they work, having a laugh or two... that was a nice start. But, what I'm really trying to say here, Sunny, is... don't turn it down. I know what it's like when ponies feel nervous about their first dates, and that's fine. But you disagreeing won't do you or Zack any good."
"But, Izzy, what about my job?"
"*blow raspberry* No need to worry about that, I'll take over for you."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely dooply! Anything for my best friend." Izzy said positively, and she hands her over a couple smoothies. "So, take these smoothies with you, be yourself, and just enjoy your quality time with him. It's all I can ask for."
Sunny wasn't so sure. "You really want me to do this, do you?"
"Well, I'm not giving you a choice, so..."
"So..."
"What's it gonna be, BFF?"
Sunny looked down at the smoothies she's carrying, and had to think really hard for a second. She then brought out a big exhale and decided.
Outside, Zack was walking along the path, heading back to his house. He did feel a tad down that Sunny refused to go out with him. But then...
"Zack!" Sunny called out behind him, as he stopped and turned to see her catching up. "Zack, wait!"
"Sunny?"
Sunny caught up to him, and began panting in short breaths. "Alright, you got me. I'm coming along."
"You sure? What made you change your mind?"
"Izzy. She said she would take over my job for today, just so I can go with you and not turn it down. She didn't give me a choice."
Zack giggles surprisingly. "Your best friend doing wonders, huh? I like the sound of that."
"Oh please, do you really know a lot about Izzy?"
"Well, she likes glitter and glamor of all things, as well as arts and crafts, and crystals, so yeah, I do. You jealous about that?"
"*snicker* No, I'm not jealous. Such a strong word."
Zack saw a glimpse of the smoothies Sunny brought in her bag. "Ah, I see you've brought some smoothies for the trip! Mind if I try one?"
"I was wondering you would say that." Sunny said, as she took a cup out of her bag and gave it to him. "Just remember not to have all of it straight away."
"Alright, I got ya." Zack said, as he then had a slurp of the smoothie, and found it quite tasty. "Mmm, orange? I like it."
"Thank you. So tell me, where are we going? Bridlewood?" She asked, whilst they were walking.
"No."
"Zephyr Heights?"
"Nope."
Sunny then stopped, feeling confused. "Well then, where are we going?"
"You like adventures, right?"
"Uh... yeah, I really do."
"Then you're gonna like what I have in store, just you wait." Zack winked.
"Okay, but... one more thing, this is my first time on a date, so whatever you do, don't make it a disaster, please."
"Hey, don't sweat it, this is my first time on a date, too. And no, it won't be a nightmare, I promise." He then shivered in fear. "Seriously, nightmares are the worst..."
"Yeah, I hate them too."
From the balcony of the Brighthouse, the rest of the girls saw Sunny and Zack walk off in the distance, and Izzy was looking out with some binoculars.
"Do you think it's working, Izzy?" Pipp asked.
"All according to plan." Izzy replied, as she and Pipp hoof bumped with a smile. Does it look like she set them up? No, not at all! She just wanted them to have a nice time together.
During their date, Sunny and Zack came across a huge field filled with hundreds of pretty flowers. Sunny bent down and had a smell on one of them; she thought it was beautiful as she let out a sigh, and a butterfly popped out and landed on her nose by surprise. As Sunny gave it a sweet smile, she then turned to see more butterflies coming out from the flowers. With her smile widening, she then ran though the field and twirled around them in joy. But for Zack... he also decided to have a smell on one of them, but he was shocked to see that there was a group of buzzy bees lying around. He startled as the bees seem to have got angry after being disturbed by him, and whilst Sunny sat down in peace with the butterflies around, Zack screamed as he ran away from the chasing bees in terror, and Sunny watched on in total laughter.
The two were then walking over a big hill, and Sunny, who was looking over it, thought of doing something fun. She took off her bag, laid onto the grass, and began rolling down like Izzy and Misty did on the other hill near the festival site. Seeing what she did, Zack giggled and wanted to do the same. He laid onto the grass and started rolling. He seemed to be liking it too, but he kept rolling and unknowingly went by Sunny. Zack got into a scare and began rolling faster and faster, losing control of himself and he crashes into a big bush. Sunny laughed out loud at this, as Zack felt so dizzy having rolled down at such fast speed.
After that, they encountered a group of rock pillars, like where Sunny originally got across on her first adventure with Izzy. Sunny showed Zack how she did it the previous time: jumping from one pillar to the next until she made it across. Zack, feeling unsure about doing the same, spread his wings open as he wanted to fly across instead, but Sunny doesn't want him to. Zack scoffed, reluctantly rolling his eyes and closing his wings. Taking a deep breath, Zack started leaping across the pillars one by one, nearly slipping on one of them, and he eventually made it across. Zack felt amazed, as he sighed in relief and started to move on, but Sunny stopped him as he was about to walk off a cliff. Having had her hoof on his chest, Zack felt a little touched and decided to hold it, looking at Sunny with a charming smile. But Sunny scoffed as she freed her hoof and pushed Zack's face, who giggled at the remark.
After working together to get a pineapple from a tree, Zack took Sunny down to a sparkling, glowing waterfall. Sunny gasped with a smile, as she slowly put her hoof in the falling water, feeling the splashes as she sighed in awe. Zack put his hoof in the water, joining in with her, but then, Sunny smirked as she threw some water onto Zack's face, putting him in shock. Zack started throwing some back at her, and they got into a hilarious water fight.
A little later, Sunny and Zack have been having fun as they were laughing with joy, walking through a lush green forest.
"Alright, Zack, I'll admit. That wasn't so bad."
"Are you kidding me? That was... well, crazy! I mean, you saw what happened to me, right? All those bees chasing me, throwing myself into a bush after rolling down the hill that fast?! I could've been stung, and... not feel my anything. I could've not feel my BODY!"
"Oh come on, it wasn't that disastrous. Look at you, you're okay!"
"Well, I am lucky to be alive, but..." He flapped his hoof to his head, feeling a little dehydrated. "It sure is hot out here, I'm breaking a sweat."
"Yeah, no wonder we have so much heat..." Sunny said, as she wiped her sweaty head. "Too bad our smoothies didn't last long. Isn't there any place around here where we could get something to drink? I think we're in the middle of nowhere."
Just as Zack was about to answer, they then arrived at his house. "Ah, glad you asked. Behold - the residence of Zack Thunderlane!" He said in a heroic voice, raising his hoof with a big smile.
Sunny felt confused, looking at Zack's house with a blank stare. "You mean this is your house?"
"Yup. And you can ignore the word 'residence', this is way too small to be residential."
"*giggle* You're full of weird, you know that?"
Zack opened the creaky door as they walked inside, and Sunny looked around, as she thought it looked really similar to her old lighthouse.
"This place... looks familiar." She said.
"Familiar? In what way?"
"It's... just like my old lighthouse, I think."
"Where you and your dad lived? Does it bring back some memories?"
"A lot, actually. Sure, you've got the wooden floors, the concrete walls, and some other old stuff, like this chair and all..."
"Classics never go outta style, as they say."
"And something tells me... you're not even from Zephyr Heights, are you?"
"*sigh* Well, I know most Pegasi live in the big city, but... my mom wanted to get away from all the buzz, so we decided to come down and live here instead. My job maybe all the way back there, but living here is really quiet, so I can relax and unwind from time to time."
"I see... Say, seeing that your job's making drinks, do you have any here?"
"Ah, right, got carried away for a second." Zack opened his fridge and grabbed a drink, throwing it to Sunny. "Catch!" Caught by surprise, Sunny quickly caught it in a flash. "Nice one!"
"Caught me by surprise." Sunny said, as she peeled off the lid and had a slurp. "Mmm, blueberry. This is kinda nice."
"Wow, at first, I like your smoothies, and second, you like my drinks. We're in the same boat."
Sunny went to have a look in his fridge, seeing it was mostly filled with blueberry drinks. "You seemed to have had blueberry's for so long, right? Seeing they're your favorite?"
"Yeah, but I'll be real here, they're all great. And of course, you have a lotta smoothies that are great as well, so..."
"We seem to do a good job on serving everypony."
"Uh, I don't serve drinks, but, yeah, you were pretty close."
"Oh... Well, on the bright side, you do make yourself a hard worker, so you should be proud of yourself."
"Just doing my part as always. So, uh, I'm gonna head in my room. Can I get you anything else before I-"
"No thank you. I'm just gonna sit back, relax and unwind a little before we move on to this 'other place' that you've mentioned earlier. But, I'll let you know."
"Okay. Well, make yourself at home." Zack said, as he walked off to his room.
Sunny smiled as she laid back on the sofa and brought out a big sigh. As she turned her head, she then saw something intriguing. She got off the sofa and went to have a closer look. It was the portrait of young Zack hugging with his mom, and Sunny picked it up with a slightly sad look on her face.
Whilst Zack was looking through his paperwork in his room, Sunny walked up to him and showed him the portrait.
"Zack?" Sunny said, as the stallion turned to her in shock. "Is this your mom?"
Getting upset, Zack immediately took the portrait out of Sunny's hoofs, leaving her stunned. And after looking at it for a few seconds, he sighed through his noise and lowered his head. "It is..."
Thinking she had hurt his feelings, Sunny tried to apologize. "Look, I'm sorry, I just wanted to know, that's all. I didn't mean to make you upset, I-"
"No, Sunny... No. It's alright. I didn't mean to scare you, either."
"You look so cute in that picture." Sunny said, smiling a bit. "You with your mom."
"You're right I do." Zack smiled back, but then turned sad again. "Her name was Cherry Cloudburst. But this was taken a long time ago. A couple years before... before she died."
Sunny raised her eyebrows. "What happened?" She asked softly.
Zack took a big breath, and told her the truth. "When I was... 10, my mom told me that she came down with a horrible sickness. She only said that... the day before she passed. So while I was out on that day, I tried to find something that could cure her... but there was just nothing, so I got so scared. But when I got back... she was unconscious... so I called for help. *sniff* The doctors did everything they could... but they were unable to save her..."
"Oh, Zack..."
"Ever since I lost her, and because I didn't have any friends, I... I felt abandoned... and alone... and I thought I was left in a world of darkness... So I tried to do everything, just to survive on my own..."
"I'm really sorry you had to grow up without her..."
"But Mom told me to never ever stop believing that magic would come back. And when that dream came, because of you, obviously, I... I felt... happy, for the first time in years. I was... me again. But at the same time, I was still sad that she would never get the chance to see me fly... or even me seeing her fly herself. I keep talking to her through this picture, just to feel like she's watching over me every day. Doesn't really change anything, though."
Sunny took all of that in, having feel so much sorrow for him. And then, she started to tell Zack about her darkest time. "My dad died the same way." She said, and Zack turned to her, raising his eyebrows.
"What?"
"It's true... His name was Argyle Starshine... and he had a sickness, too... He'd been having it for a while, but I never knew he had it until the last minute..."
"He was keeping it from you?"
"That's what I thought. Or maybe he was trying to keep it from himself... because he didn't want me to worry. We did so many things together; telling stories, doing drawings, making unicorn cupcakes... He even cuddled me every time I got home. I was never the same after he was gone..."
"I'm sorry..." Zack said, as he gently touched Sunny's cheek.
Just as she was talking, her voice began to get more emotional. "He meant so much to me... *sniff* I just really wish he was still here to see everypony united for the first time in centuries... and to see all the dragons and breezies... and ultimately, to see me with such amazing friends."
"You could've told me all that before. At the Brighthouse."
"Well... I just thought now... would be the right time to tell you. And believe me, I know what it's like to lose someone you love so much. Someone who... gives you courage, strength and hope... to be the pony you always wanted to be." Zack understood what she said, and she brings out her old photo of her hugging her father, showing it to him, who smiled lovingly.
"Look at you..." Zack said softly, and he compared it to the other photo. "I bet you look even more cuter than me."
"Dad made me who I am now. And I'm sure your mom made you who you are." Sunny said, as they look at each other with a verge of tears. "We're really not so different, you and I."
Zack chuckled and smiled weakly. "No..." He said, breathing deeply and fighting back his tears. "No, I don't think we are."
With the tears now pouring down on her face, Sunny leaned in on Zack and nuzzled him for a hug. "I'm so glad we have each other..." She said in a broken voice, and Zack hugged her back, having a warm embrace.
"Yeah... me too."
After a couple more seconds, when they break up their hug, Sunny wiped her tears away and reminded Zack about their next stop. "So... how about that 'other place' you said we were going to? You ready to move on?"
"I was gonna say the same thing. Okay, I know a shortcut, but there's one small problem..."