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// 10 - Royal Reception 
// Story: Brilliant Sunburst 
// by David Silver 
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"Woog?" Flurry was looking at her foalsitter as if amazed at what she saw. She crawled around Sunburst, examining them.

Sunburst reached for Flurry and drew her into a hug. "Hello there."

Cadance smiled at the exchange. "How do you... feel, Sunburst? You've been through... a lot."

Shining rubbed behind his head. "I thought, if you were changing at all, it was probably back to your old self."

"This is my oldest self." Sunburst nuzzled Flurry's top quietly a moment. "So old, I never got to know them. Um... You're not mad, I hope?"

"No!" blurt out Cadance, perhaps too forcefully. "No... You are still our precious friend, and crystaler. This is quite a change. I hope you'll forgive our adjusting... You would be caught off-guard if I approached you as a stallion, hm?"

Sunburst went distant, imagining the stallion Cadance.

Cadance clopped her hooves. "That is quite enough of that... I'm happy as I am...  Hm, since that came up... What are you, exactly? Besides Sunburst, who we love regardless."

Sunburst smiled softly disentangling Flurry Heart's inquisitive hooves from exploring the new textures of her belly coat. However fascinating, some areas deserved gentle restraint!

"I suppose the truest explanation is I was born intersex - neither wholly stallion nor mare as society defines such things." She exhaled, tension easing to share that truth with ponies so dear. Cadance and Shining listened earnestly.

"As for manners of address however..." Sunburst rolled a hoof expansively. "I respond warmly to either, both or any. He, she or they all ring harmoniously to me." She winked down at a now distracted Flurry rearranging apile of blocks. "I'm yours to call as feels most fitting, little one."

Shining snorted. "Come on... If you were picking, which would you pick."

"If I had to..." Sunburst worked his hooves together. "She probably, but they works? I feel a lot like a she."

She jumped as Flurry confirmed she still had the best parts for a tiny foal to care about. Sunburst pried Flurry free with the greatest of care. "Ask first. Good manners." That got a pout, but there wasn't any big arguments. "Besides, your mom is right there. Don't make her jealous."

Cadance warmed in her cheeks. "I thought... you might not... Only mares have those, you realize."

"One reason maybe I'm okay with she?" Sunburst got to their hooves, returning a floating Flurry to Cadance's arcane grip. "Oh! With my body put right, magic is... It's wonderful! The spells I had read about, now I can cast them."

Shining chuckled at the bubbling energy there. "Been practicing?"

Shining traded a knowing glance with Cadance as their friend practically vibrated sharing magical escapades with her teaching compatriot. "Been dabbling with a certain chaos buddy perhaps? Rainbow mentioned strange scorch marks around the practice field..."

He waved a hoof airily, tone dripping faux gravitas. "As if royals never discretely vet palace applicants with a friendly informal skills showcase now and again themselves!" He mimed locking his lips as his wife snorted.

Snickering herself at memories of the crashing create-and-catch debacles with Starlight, Sunburst shrugged. "My methods may be unorthodox but we can't all receive classically formal Princess Twilight regimens, now can we?"

She inclined her head curiously. "Is having a renegade wizard cause for concern though or..."

"Sunburst please, after all our years together do you truly think your happiness not cause enough for celebration? Questions of propriety be damned?" Cadance gently squeezed Sunburst's shoulder, smiling radiantly.

"Now come - a welcome feast awaits. We've much to celebrate with Equestria's newest and brightest magical maverick!" She led the way, floating her child with her. "We missed you terribly while you were gone."

"It was..." Sunburst went quiet.

Shining bumped sidelong into Sunburst. "Hard?"

"Hard..."

Shining seemed to notice the hesitance in that word. "Want to... talk about it?"

Cadance slowed to be on the other side of Sunburst. "We are friends, Sunburst. Please, if you want to talk, talk. We want to hear, and help."

Sunburst's steps became stiffer with each step. "On one hoof, I'm very happy to really... be exploring being a wizard... On the other..." They colored rapidly, darkening from the tip of the nose on back. "I think I like Starlight."

Shining burst into laughter, at least for the moment before Cadance slapped him with a rolled paper. "Shining!"

Cadance snorted softly. "What about that is so funny?"

"Sorry..." Shining regained control, heaving in aborted guffaws. "It's just... We thought you two were already a thing. Just waiting for one or the other to go on and ask. We have a betting pool!"

Cadance sighed loudly. "It's hardly a betting pool with two ponies, Shining..."

"You two were already conspiring about my non-existent lovelife? Truly I can keep no secrets here!" Sunburst's blush intensified even as she dissolved into snickers hearing such candor regarding perceptions of her bond with the unicorn who knew her best.

Still, an undeniable warmth kindled within imagining what developments might yet bloom between herself and Starlight as understanding blossomed deeper. The thought of seeing one another through newly appreciative eyes as their own self-revelations distilled carried profound appeal.

"I suppose subtlety never was my strong suit, was it?" She conceded with a rueful chuckle. "Trust my closest companions to read emotions woven plain as day from me like favorite tomes memorized long ago."

"Oh pish posh, don't act as if your little herd of confidants didn't tell the future before you did!" Cadance tutted playfully. "We simply know our Sunburst. Though for the record, my prediction won on timeline..."

Shining rolled his eyes in mock exasperation as Sunburst's laughter echoed through the sunlit halls. Some melodies needed only the right moment to resound sweetest.

Cadance casually circled in front of Sunburst. "There is one important thing. Two, technically. One, have you two made it official? If yes, permission to make a really big deal about it?"

Shining cantered to Cadance's side. "Yes! Say yes! We can invite the girls up. Shoot, I bet Pinkie would die if we asked her to plan it."

Cadance let out a little laugh at that. "She would... I would gladly cede that task to her, if she accepted. But none of that will happen unless you wish it, Sunburst. This is your event."

"Um..." Sunburst turned their ears down and back. "It's not...official... I'm just... I just feel things... I don't even know how to tell her!" She sank to her haunches. "What do you say?!"

Cadance waved a graceful hoof through the air, weaving illustrative illusions in violet light. "What does any soul yearn for most but to feel seen for everything held within?"

The visions danced, resolving into familiar profiles - two mares laughing joyously. With a spark, the scene shifted to depict them gazing into a starlit pond, hooves gently intertwined at its mossy banks before fading.

Sunburst stared after the fading sparks, heart suddenly galloping. She knew just such a pond, secluded yet rich with memory...

"Darling, no grand words or fanfare need adorn realizations finding their moment at long last." Cadance's smile glowed with quiet understanding. "Just be present with what you discover side by side - that shall say more than poetry ever could."

Shining swatted Sunburst's back. "So go tackle her and tell her you like her."

Sunburst coughed, despite not drinking anything. "Shining!"

Cadance rolled her eyes. "You made much more of a show, Shining. I was there when you finally worked up the courage... My little shy Shining... What a day that was..."

Shining rubbed an arm, looking quite called out. "Yeah... Um, but really... Even I had to just say it. Say it... She likes you. Say it."

"That much I agree with." She leaned in, kissing Sunburst's forehead. "Just tell her, even if it feels like your heart may explode. It'll be worth it when it's done. I promise that."

"Thank..." The rest didn't come right away, with Sunburst following the couple towards the throne room.

"I need to get to work." Cadance hugged Sunburst, then Shining. "You two have things of your own to do. I hope to hear it went well." With a loving smile, she parted for her royal duties.

"You know..." Shining caught her hoof as Sunburst turned hesitantly towards the guest wing housing visiting Starlight. "If poetry feels hollow... you don't need to swear forever love right away.."

He winked conspiratorially. "We save such expectations for second dates after all! But just admitting you have those kind of feelings means the world." Gripping firmer at Sunburst's lingering reluctance, he offered a final encouraging nod.

Sunburst gulped, pulse racing as she stared down the empty hall where awaited unknown outcomes and uncharted potentials...as well as the dearest friend she had ever known. Her breath came more and more forcefully. At least there was Shining, smiling encouragingly.

She could do this - or so she urged herself. "Y-yeah... Okay."

Sunburst staggered from the palace, trying her very best to hold her head up high. It was such a simple thing.

Barely anything! They already liked each other. They'd been friends forever...

Was it even news, if she said she liked Starlight? Was it even news?

Maybe it wasn't. Maybe Starlight would just laugh at Sunburst for even thinking it was something that needed saying.

Sunburst smiled at the idea, some tension ebbing as she nodded at passing ponies. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe Starlight was already several steps ahead.

That did sound like her.





Starlight fussed about. She felt like cleaning everything. Unfortunately, Sunburst had already cleaned their living area fairly well. "Damn you and your newfound cleanliness..." A pity it was also a bit... She liked it.

"You went from... an eight... to a ten..." She clopped her hooves against either side of her head. "Curse you... You did it on purpose." She envisioned a wildly laughing Sunburst doing every single step with borrowed knowledge, somehow knowing exactly what Starlight had dreamed of.

"Are you a changeling?" Her mental image of Sunburst burst into green flames, becoming an unreformed changeling. "Here to capture me and steal away my love..." She groaned, falling on Sunburst's bed. "Is it wrong some part of me feels like letting them do that?"

She beat on the bed savagely, as if it had somehow been involved. "They're not a changeling..." She sat up, huffing softly. "They're Sunburst... My forever friend. My foal friend... The very pony that sent me down a downwards spiral when they moved away."

Starlight listed to the side against a wall. "I missed you so much, I lost myself... I helped a whole town get lost, just wishing I had you... Moron..." She punched a pillow. "And now this!"

A vision came of Sunburst heading out that morning. Did they even know their rump was perfect? "Probably not. Not everypony is a lecher like you, Starlight." She rubbed firmly at her temples. "And when they find out, they will kick me out. That bookworm? They'll panic, then I'll be outside, and they won't want to talk to me ever again."

Starlight moved to a window, watching ponies walking past outside. Many of them had a second pony. "They make it look so easy," she muttered, glaring at each couple with a burning rage. "Surrender your secrets, crystal ponies!" Not that un-crystal ponies were any faster to give her advice on relationships. "Not fair. Not fair..."

She took a slow breath, forcing herself to calm. "Relax... All I have to do is... Keep it cool. I'm a friend. Don't make this creepy. Just a friend! Magic pal! A gal pal." She nodded with greater strength with each term she thought up. "Foal friends, not more than that."

She hurried to a mirror and straightened out her mane from her fits. "Keep it even, and there won't be any problems. Sunburst needs a friend, not some creepy pony leering at them like their new body is some toy they won in a box..."