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// 12 - Awkwardly Together 
// Story: Brilliant Sunburst 
// by David Silver 
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Sunburst awakened with a slow yawn, only to be grabbed. Starlight had slept there, with them. She was hugging Sunburst right back down into her grasp. "Oh, um, good morning?"

"It is now." Starlight kissed under Sunburst's chin and nibbled there. "I can see why ponies sleep together now. This is... so comfortable." She squeezed Sunburst close. "But getting up is a lot harder."

Sunburst's horn glowed, to no effect for just a moment. Starlight perked an ear confusedly until the tickles came. She burst into laughter as Sunburst's magic poked and ran over her body in every sensitive place. "N-no! I give, stop!" She fell from the bed, scrambling to her hooves. "Cut that out!"

With a little smile, Sunburst hopped free of the bed and started into the modest kitchen. "We're awake now."

"Foul play." But Starlight didn't argue it, giggling as she went to help in the morning activities. "So what's on the plan today?"

Starlight leaned casually on the kitchen counter watching Sunburst preparing a simple breakfast, chin propped cozily in both hooves. "Sooo...think we'll manage actual responsible agendas today or inevitably devolve into further impromptu magical chaos bringing authority pounding on our door?"

She winked playfully as Sunburst shot her a wry glance. "Not that I'm complaining either way, mind! Though, fair warning, Cadance invited us both to dinner tonight so some restraint might be wise beforehoof."

Sunburst merely arced a brow skeptically.

"What! I can be perfectly behaved given sufficient incentive," Starlight protested around a mouthful of daisy omelette. After a thoughtful moment she amended "- for up to twenty minutes at least. But hey, I promise to shield you from any flying soup tureens if it gets too stuffy."

Laughing, Sunburst floated their dishes over to wash up. "Far be it from me to curb your spirited self-expression dearheart...but let's calm down on that." Sunburst leaned over to touch nose to cheek. "You're a little drunk."

Starlight recoiled. "Drunk? I don't touch the stuff."

Sunburst curled a hoof at themselves. "You're drunk on me, and you look very silly. I know you can be a perfectly reasonable mare, but you're a mare in love, and it's, um... showing."

Starlight colored at that, called out so bluntly. "Hey, um... It's... new."

"And I'm ready to explore it, with you." Sunburst sat next to her and drew her close. "But let's not make the world suffer for our joy, okay?"

Starlight smirked softly. "The world suffered for the lack of it... I guess we can give it a break now..." She nuzzled under Sunburst's cheek. "This all feels like a dream." Starlight smiled sheepishly under piercing yet gentle wisdom proffered by her dearest confidante. Trust Sunburst to consider runaway reactions objectively despite being swept up in them herself.

"You have the right of things as always, my sunlight..." She leaned into Sunburst's flank appreciatively. "I suppose near lifelong... want has left  me a bit overeager now this dream just kinda burst in. I'll calm down, promise."

She turned a sincere smile up to her love, all manic energy flowed to warmed glow. "I'm just a bit, what, overwhelmed? Having this actually happen instead of hazy dreams of mine? It's nuts, and in the best sorts of ways."

They leaned together in the lingering hush. Sunburst perked her ears suddenly. "Oh. Um, we do have to decide where we're going to live... You live in Ponyville, and here I am." Sunburst waved about her small house. "All the way up here in the Crystal Empire... Is... Is one of us moving?"

Starlight chewed her lip, eyebrows knitting. In truth the implications of maintaining such distance long term were only just dawning now that breathless euphoria had eased.

"I can't claim I have solutions handy," she began, "But surely we can work it out...somehow." Even voicing that half-hearted assurance aloud rang lamely hopeful.

"We'll make it work!" The rejoinder came fiercer than her own sinking conviction. This wouldn't be the first love left languishing without nourishment thanks to demanding rival priorities. But before old griefs choked optimism anew, Sunburst was already pacing, scheme glimmering hastily.

"The train exists, yes? We budget visits whenever able - maybe I petition royalty for concrete concessions given services rendered?" Those beautiful eyes turned Starlight's way kindled with fiery determination no void would undermine. "We've faced worse odds. I'm not surrendering this without a fight!"

Starlight smiled at that bold look. "I love it when you decide something has to get done." She let out a soft sigh. "It makes me hope, and I think I needed that." She rose to her hooves and approached the sink, her glowing horn already working to wash the dishes in it. "Seriously,  I hate this. I want my Sunny!"

Sunburst smiled from where she took a seat by her books. "Don't sound like we're already far apart."

"It just feels like it..." Starlight rubbed at the sides of her head, though her magic kept right on cleaning dishes. "On one hoof, I abandon Twilight and everything she's doing. She's working so hard... Abandoning her school feels awful, to say nothing of the friends I have. None of them are.... this... But they're still friends. I have no friends up here."

Sunburst considered that with slow taps of her hooves. "Well... I have friends here, um. Mostly, Cadance and Shining, but they are very good friends, um, and employers? It's murky, but we are friends."

Starlight rolled a hoof. "Then I'm going to just flat out sound selfish here, but it's sounding like you could afford to leave way more than I could! Cadance and Shining are the rulers of the city! They can find another foalsitter. They're far from alone. They may get sad, but they'll get over it."

Sunburst laid their ears flat to the left and right. "It's not that easy. Flurry is who... made this possible." She waved over her form. "They made the first pull, um, to let me see what had been hiding under it all. Without them, I'd still be the old Sunburst."

Starlight wrinkled her nose. "The old Sunburst was pretty good too, but..." She danced in place, almost dropping a dish from her unfocused magic. "This is unfair... If I had known, I would have ripped it off you years ago."

Sunburst smiled at that whimsical thought. "I imagine you would have... But you didn't. We didn't know." She rubbed her cheek softly. "We can't change the past." She saw Starlight looking pondering. "We won't change the past," they rephrased more firmly.

"Fine," she sighed out, abandoning thoughts of altering history's flow. "It'd be worth it, if it meant I got you."

Sunburst went in to kiss Starlight's cheek. "That's a very nice thought. Look... I'll talk with the royal couple and see what they think, alright? Maybe I'm worried about nothing. I won't know until I ask."

"Fine." Starlight turned away from the sink, emptied of dirty dishes. "Then you do that."

"We're meeting them for dinner, remember?" Sunburst grabbed her fancy wizard had with her magic and plonked it on her head. "You never said if you like this, by the way?" She soon donned her robe to go with it, completing her wizardly appearance. "Ta da."

Starlight laughed at the display. "Love it. Like a modern Starswirl, long beard included." She went in for a fresh smooch. "Way less grouchy..."

Sunburst sighed, feeling the tension finally easing off some as their eyes met again. Starlight still looked freaked out, but less than before at least. No way would either of them be okay saying goodbye for good. Somehow they'd figure out a way to make this work.

"Hey, you ever feel just so dang lucky ending up with your oldest best friend when you look back?" She gave Starlight a little smile and bumped their heads together. "Feels kinda like fate crossed our paths for a reason even before we understood it, you know?"

She scuffed a hoof self-consciously but kept the contact between them steady. "I just know I'll always be there for you 'til the end of our ride, however we get there."

Starlight exhaled, matching her softer tone as she leaned into Sunburst's shoulder. "But I do like it."

Sunburst cracked into laughter at that. "Glad to hear it. Now that I'm dressed, I'm heading out."

Starlight stepped with Sunburst. "Where to? Can I help?"

Sunburst gently nudged Starlight back. "Thank you, but I can take care of this one on my own, promise." She planted a gentle kiss on Starlight's nose. "Love is letting the other pony go on a walk on their own sometimes, okay?"

Starlight huffed at that, but let Sunburst make their departure. "No fun..."

Alone in the house, she considered what to do next. "What if... Yes." She turned her mind to the first thing that ran across it. "My little wizard wants new magic,  I know it. Let's make their dreams come true." With deep chortles, she left the house as well, eyes searching for magical tomes to offer her newfound romantic target.





"I'm worried."

Shining turned an ear at Cadance as he sat at the dinner table, there in the crystal palace. "What about? The guards are in order. Nothing unusual to report in the city..."

Cadance rolled a hoof. "The city's fine, thankfully. I'm worried about Sunburst. They're going through such a change... It's not just their... body, but their outlook. They're becoming a new pony, inside and out."

Shining mused that with a chinrub. "Well, yes... I never thought 'he' would become a 'she' and sometimes 'they?'. I don't get that part. Um, but they seem to be the same Sunburst, under it all?" Shining frowned, eyebrows knitting together. "I don't follow...they seem their same quirky scholarly self to me, if more openly fancying our visiting magician these days."

He shrugged amicably. "We all have our schoolfilly crushes I suppose, however those play out across the years."

Cadance simply gazed at him patiently another long moment until epiphany sparked at last within her husband's eyes.

"Oh...OH!" Shining reared back, sputtering. "Wait, you don't simply mean partner preference flipping here, do you? Is Sunburst truly embracing...?"

He trailed off, looking both enlightened yet somehow more like he was struggling to get some idea under control. However many quests one undertook with close companions, entire inward odysseys could yet unfold covertly all the while.

Cadance smiled, reaching across the table to squeeze his hoof supportively. "Shift sits hard, whether you're the one doing the shift or not." She winked playfully firelight dancing across thoughtful features. "Perhaps some fresh perspective may illuminate our next right steps?"

She gestured to the empty seats. "That's why I invited them, both of them. Let's stop guessing and start asking them directly. Nopony knows better what a pony is going through than the pony themself, hm?"

"Yeah! Yeah. Good idea." He waved for a servant to come into the room. "Can you get a little something?" He ordered Sunburst's favorite to be set on their plate, waiting for them to arrive. "He, um, she loves this. They used to? Their taste didn't change, I think. They'll love it."

Cadance wrinkled her nose with a little smile. "That you're thinking of them means more than the food will, Shiny. Stop being nervous. They still adore us, even if things are changing."

Cadance smiled affectionately at her husband's diversionary dining fussing before turning introspective eyes to the horizon visible through towering crystalline windows. She suspected status symbols meant little to one continuously redefining self so profoundly as their dear Sunburst presently walked. 

Cadance nodded firmly to herself just as approaching hoofsteps echoed down decorated hallways towards their private supper nook. She turned a radiant smile towards the arched entryway where questions awaited from the mouths of those directly involved.

"We are so happy to have you, Sunburst, Starlight." She waved towards their seats at the table. "Heroes of the city, both of you, and..." She could see the bright line between them. "Much more than that."