//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirteen 
// Story: Falling For Our Stars 
// by bobdat 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Thirteen

Then, as if my sixth year had never happened, I was packing the last of my belongings into the last suitcase. The wardrobe was empty; the other three had already left, leaving promises to write and to get in contact over our planned holiday. It was just me and our room for the past three terms, which looked a lot more bare now that it didn’t have photographs tacked onto the walls, pictures of fashion models cut out of magazines and note cards containing quotes and phrases for our exams. All that was left was a pile of my suitcases and me, staring around and feeling sad that the year was over.

In six weeks I’d be heading back to Buckingham for my final year. Once exams hit in less than ten months’ time, I would leave for good. This was my last ‘last day’ before the summer, and the thought was making me a little sad. Our past ‘last days’ had always been full of hugs and jokes about seeing everypony next year. But this year, I just felt sad to be leaving it all behind. As the phrase went, my best years were behind me. I strolled over to the window and gazed out, taking in the grounds and the multitude of younger ponies streaming out to the carriages that would take them and their parents home. 

A group of three ponies caught my eye. There were hugging, looking embarrassed as their parents exchanged small talk, and sharing their last moments with their friends. After a minute or so, they waved goodbye and headed for their respective carriages. They reminded me of how I’d been a few short years ago; complaining about how long the summer would feel without Fly to talk to; looking forward to my first lie-ins of the summer; wondering if maybe this summer I would find a cute colt and finally be one of those fashionable ponies with a handsome coltfriend. But that had passed now, and I was a sixth year, worrying about exams and the future. 

I carefully shut the window for the last time and turned around, patting my bed as if to say goodbye to it. It seemed like no time at all since I’d bounded in on the day I’d got my exam results, quickly snapping up the best bed in the room and admiring our great view. I thought back to the first day of the year, taking in all of my new lessons and teachers and loving the idea of free periods where I could do nothing. Ignoring the painful memory of the winter dance, I moved onto the excitement of meeting River and getting a crush on her, and our freezing cold first date. So much had changed since the previous September.

“Cat? We’re here, darling. Have you got everything?” Dad asked as he entered the room. “Mum’s waiting in the carriage.”
“Okay Dad, everything’s in the suitcases,” I said, turning to look at him. “We can go.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, noticing my slightly reddened eyes.
“I’m fine. Let’s go,” I replied, using my magic to levitate a few of the lighter bags and floating them into the corridor. Dad got the rest, and once everything was out of the room, I locked it. “Remind me to hand in the key,” I asked my dad as we headed for the stairs. And just like that, my sixth year at Buckingham was over. I passed the trip home by daydreaming about visiting River and going on holiday with my three best friends.

As usual, the first part of the holiday passed in a blur of piano practice and sunbathing in the garden. I felt like I should really have done something productive, like getting on with my homework or something, but the weather was divine and I preferred to read magazines to boring textbooks. Before I really knew it, two weeks had flown by and Miri was suddenly on my doorstep, clutching two giant roller suitcases. 
“Hi Cat! Are you ready to go?”

It was five o’clock in the morning, and she’d been dropped off by her parents. We were going to ride the train together to the airport, where we’d meet Fly and then head for the tropical resort of St. Ponada by plane. 
“I’m ready,” I said sleepily, rubbing one eye as I dragged my suitcases out of the door. My Dad waved goodbye from behind his jumbo mug of coffee, so I waved back before shutting the front door. “Okay, we’re on time.”
“I nearly slept through my alarm,” Miri informed me as we loaded everything into a taxi carriage. “It was a close call.”

“So, are you excited?” I asked her as we got comfortable and the carriage rumbled away. 
She nodded. “I really am! This is going to be the best summer ever! What about you?”
“It’s hard to be excited at five in the morning,” I replied truthfully. “But I’ll feel better once I’m awake.” The sun had risen already, but was fighting to burn through the hazy skies. Once it did, it was going to be a really hot day.
“I hope Fly is on time. I really don’t want to miss the flight,” Miri said, tapping her hooves together. “I haven’t flown anywhere before.”

Fly was waiting for us as we left the taxi. I was handling Miri’s money for the duration of the trip, since her parents had apparently not trusted her with it. After paying the driver, we grabbed our suitcases and started trundling them through the maze of the airport. 
“Hot, eh?” Fly said, checking the details on her ticket against the departures board. “Almost a shame we’re going away.”
“Is it delayed?” Miri asked, looking blankly at the blinking boards.
“No, it’s on time. Let’s go and check-in.”

Miri was a bit of a nightmare. Waiting around in boring places, such as an airport’s departure lounge, was not really her strong point. We’d arrived two hours early to give us plenty of time to clear security, but we’d sailed through and ended up sitting around with ninety minutes to kill.
“You keep an eye on the bags, I’ll take Miri around the shops and keep her occupied,” I said to Fly, sighing at my bad luck. “We’ll be back before long.”
“Okay. Don’t let her buy loads of tat. Only stuff she’ll actually use.”

The lounge wasn’t busy, so Miri decided to browse everything. I was frequently telling her that she really didn’t need a travel pillow, and that we’d already packed sun hats and she didn’t need to buy more. I did let her buy a foreign fashion magazine, which was totally indecipherable but had nice pictures in it, and a yellow pen that lit up when you pressed down with it. 
“Do you think the plane will make me sick?” Miri asked as we went for a bathroom break.
“I have no idea. Probably not,” I replied. “They’ll take care of you if it does, though.”
“Will you hold my hoof if it’s scary?”
“Of course.”

Miri bought a grown-up coffee from a stand, so I bought a decaffeinated equivalent and had to surreptitiously switch them. The moment we sat down with the hot drinks, boarding opened for our flight, so the two of us tried to drink scalding-hot coffee as quickly as we could without burning ourselves.
“Hurry up, you two. We’re in section C, which is next,” Fly hissed, grabbing all of our carry-on luggage. Miri’s was massive, but she was somehow allowed to take it on board.
“One second,” Miri said, trying to drink huge mouthfuls of her coffee. “I’m nearly done.”

I threw mine away, half-drunk, then went to help Fly with the luggage. I checked we all had the right tickets and that we knew our seat numbers, then they announced that section C passengers could board. Fly handled the tricky business of getting the tickets checked, but we were soon settling into our allotted seats and trying to work out how the in-flight entertainment worked.
“Read your magazine before take-off,” Fly advised Miri. “You might get a headache if you read it once we’re moving.”
“I can’t read it,” Miri replied, pointing to the strange characters that all of the text was written in. Fly gave me an irritated look.
“Hey, it’s better than nothing,” I replied, shrugging. “Anyway, once we’re airborne, I want to catch up on some sleep.”

Fly kept Miri quiet whilst I slept for a few hours, catching up on the early morning. The shift in time-zones was easiest to deal with by staying up late once we’d arrived, Rarity said, so I didn’t have a problem with a power nap. I woke up in time for lunch, which was a hard lump of some kind of vegetable in a weird-smelling sauce, so I choked down half of it and filled up on the complimentary drinks. Fly finished all of hers, but Miri refused to touch it and kept asking for more of the warm bread. 
“Do you want to play a game?” she asked the two of us once our lunch was cleared away. 
“What game?” Fly asked, sounding weary. 

Miri explained it to us, and it seemed to involve a lot of messing around with pieces of paper. We tried it, but Fly lost a sheet of paper somewhere under her seat and it collapsed. 
“Try getting some sleep,” Fly said to Miri, handing her the pillow I’d been using. “You’ll feel more refreshed when we arrive if you’ve got plenty of sleep.”
Once she was asleep, Fly and I contented ourselves to watch a film on the entertainment system; the little display thing said that we were only two hours from St. Ponada, so once the film was over, we’d be nearly landing.

“Are you looking forward to it?” Fly asked me, looking away from the film.
“What? The holiday?” I moved my head and my headphones fell out, so I just ignored them. The film wasn’t that good anyway.
“Yeah. I’m a bit nervous about going on holiday without my parents,” she confided. “What if something goes wrong?”
“We’re only a couple of hours by plane from Ponyville, so Rarity will have everything covered,” I replied. “Just try to relax.”
“Okay. Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Will you really wear that zebra-print bikini on the beach?”

I giggled. “I seriously doubt it. It’s a bit revealing.”
Fly sighed in relief. “I’m glad you agree. If you’d said you were going to wear it, I was going to tell you not to. I hope Rarity doesn’t wear hers either.”
“I packed it, to keep Rarity happy, but I’ve got three others that I prefer. You’re safe,” I said, nudging her. 
Fly nudged me back. “I can’t believe you bought it! I would die of shame if I wore it in front of anypony.”
“What about your coltfriend? I’m sure he would appreciate it,” I smirked. Fly just blushed and went back to the film.

Rarity’s flight from Equestria arrived earlier than ours, so when we stepped off the plane into the tropical heat, she was waving from the arrivals lounge.
“It’s so good to see you!” she exclaimed, pulling us into a group hug. “I hope your flight was okay.”
“Pretty good, yeah,” I replied, glad that Miri was still sleepy and not yet getting over-excited. “Yours?”
“Good also,” she said, waiting with us as we searched for our bags on the luggage conveyor. “I have directions to the hotel, so we can either get a taxi or try the shuttle bus.”

One taxi ride later, we were settling into our rooms at the plush hotel. I was sharing a room with Fly, and Miri was sharing with Rarity. We were relieved, since we could hear Miri getting more and more worked up as she discovered the various features of the hotel.
“There’s a free ice machine! Can we get some?”
“No, Miri, we don’t have a drink to put ice into.”
“Then can we get a drink? There’s a vending machine just down the hall! It has all kinds of drinks that I’ve never even heard of!”
“It’ll be expensive. I’ll get you something when we go out later.”

The tropical climate was sticky and humid, so Fly and I took quick showers before we headed down to the hotel lobby. We were going to go and find some dinner in a restaurant nearby, before making a quick trip to scout out the local beaches.
“What kind of food are you ponies in the mood for?” Rarity asked. She had donned a large pair of sunglasses, and I wished I’d remembered to wear mine. The sun was setting and starting to get low enough to be blinding.
“We’ve got the whole week to try everything, so I don’t mind,” Fly replied. “How about we try this Neighponese place?”

The air conditioning was heaven, so we decided not to face going back outside and just got a table near the window. A bored-looking waitress sauntered over with a forced smile and took our orders in a hurry. I couldn’t decipher the menu fast enough and ended up pointing to a picture of an orange dish and saying I wanted it. 
“And we’ll have four lemonades, please,” Rarity said, “I think we need it in this weather.” Apparently the weather was not of any interest for the inhabitants of the island, so the waitress just disappeared without any comment.

“Talking about the weather! You ponies have converted me to your Britannic ways,” Rarity complained, giving Miri a friendly poke. 
“It’s hardly surprising after three years,” I replied. 
“It makes you sound sophisticated and glamorous,” Miri reassured the unicorn. “When you’re back in Ponyville, I bet everypony there is jealous.”
Rarity gave this some thought. “I think you might be right, actually. Some of them can be rather... backward.”

Our drinks arrived, so we gulped them down in a hurry. 
“I’m sweating,” Miri said pathetically. “Tomorrow I’m going to keep showering until I’m immune, or something.”
“Don’t get too hot,” Fly warned. “If we’re going to the beach, we should really find somewhere with shade.” As she said it, our food arrived. I looked with some disdain at the rubbery orange slices that were placed in front of me, accompanied by a strong smell of seawater.
“Ooh, I didn’t realise you were ordering sea vegetables!” Rarity said to me, looking jealous. “They’re my favourite.”

Having never eaten sea vegetables, I didn’t know what to expect, but my first mouthful revealed that they mostly tasted of salt, which wasn’t really very appetising. I let Rarity pinch a few of them, feigning annoyance. 
“You can have some of mine if you like,” she told me, letting me try some of the bright yellow flowers she was eating. They didn’t really have a taste, so I was happy to munch on them instead of my strange sea vegetables.

After we’d eaten (and I’d had another drink to wash the taste out of my mouth,) we headed for the sea, stopping only to get a couple of drinks cans from a roadside vending machine. I shared with Miri for a change, and ended up having most of the can. 
“Isn’t it pretty!” Fly said as we turned a corner and found ourselves on the beach. “It’s so blue.”
“And the sand is really white... at home it’s always a dirty yellow or brown,” Miri added, drawing a giant heart with her hooves. “I can’t wait to come back tomorrow when it’s sunny.” The sun was slowly setting on one side of the beach, casting long shadows across the sand. I kicked through Miri’s heart and giggled.

We walked down the beach, heading for our hotel. Miri insisted on a quick paddle, but ended up with sand stuck all over her hooves.
“You’d better clean every last speck of sand off your hooves before you go back into our room,” Rarity said sternly. “I’m not having sand everywhere for the next seven days.”
“This was a great idea for a holiday,” Miri said, trying to redeem herself. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“You’re welcome. I’m just glad that I actually get to see you ponies this summer, instead of sitting at home bored for six weeks,” she replied. “It’s the only good thing about being at Buckingham.”

“Being a seventh year will be the best year yet,” Miri said. “Not only do we have a short year, but with me as your head filly, I’ll be making all of the decisions. I could probably get us the best room in the entire school.”
“I doubt it. I think you pretty much just have to make a bunch of speeches,” Rarity told her. “Don’t get too excited.”
“I don’t care. It’s going to be fun,” Miri said, trotting ahead of us. 
“We do get a lot more responsibility next year,” Fly said. “We get more free periods, and we get to organise things like the Winter dance.”

I had no opinion. In reality, I was feeling a little bit down about the fact that this would be the last year with my friends, but I didn’t want to share that thought. Instead, I just shrugged. 
“Well, I’ll have my work cut out making you all dresses,” Rarity said, stalking off after Miri. Fly just smiled at me as our hotel came into view. 
“You know that Miri’s never going to get all that sand off,” I said to the pegasus. “Rarity will be complaining all of tomorrow.”
“Oh, I know. We should never have let her go into the sea.”

We spent the entirety of the next day on the beach. Because of the jet lag, Fly and I had woken early and decided to put it to good use by securing nice spots on the beach. Rarity and Miri joined us later, complete with breakfast.
“I’m so glad we can just relax. All of those exams really took it out of me,” I said, stretching out on my towel once I’d finished my food.
“I remember you hanging around in the room, refusing to pick up a textbook,” Fly reminded me. “It’s only thanks to River that you did any work.” She paused, taking in my blank expression. “Have you organised any visits to universities?”

This triggered my guilt. Since nopony had been nagging me to get on with it, I’d just ignored the idea of organising visits and put it to the back of my mind. 
“Er, not exactly,” I said, looking shifty. “I got sidetracked.”
“By what?”
“Piano.” This wasn’t entirely untrue, but it left out the hours of reading magazines and sunbathing. Fly didn’t let me get away with it for even a second.
“Cat, this is your future. You need to get on with it.”
“I know,” I complained, rolling onto my back. “I’ll organise something once I get back.”

“No you won’t. You’ll see River and that’ll take up an entire week, then you’ll finally start your homework, and then school will start again and you won’t have done anything.” Fly’s tone was serious, so I sighed. She knew me too well.
“Okay, so maybe I haven’t started my homework yet. But I will,” I said, trying not to sound hurt. “Soon.”
Fly rolled her eyes. “It’s for your own good. If you don’t get all of the information, then you’ll make a bad choice and regret it.”

“So where have you visited?” I asked, deflecting the topic. I was in the mood to relax, not to be criticised. 
“I’ve been to Oxmare and three others already. I’ve got four more booked after this week, and I’ll probably take some time off school in the autumn to visit others, if I haven’t chosen five,” Fly said. I detected a hint of smugness in her voice.
“Wait, you can take time off school for visits?” I asked. This was news to me; if it meant getting out of lessons, then I was going to schedule all of my visits for the autumn.
Fly’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Most places have their official visit days during the summer.”

But she’d lost the battle. I was already making mental plans to go visiting on days when I had the worst lessons. I could practically feel Fly’s exasperation, but she abandoned me and went back to her book, stretching her wings out to provide some more shade. 
“Hey, Cat and Fly, I’m going for a swim, want to come?” Miri said, jumping to her hooves after the allotted hour-after-eating was up. Fly nodded and put her book down again, but I shook my head. 
“Maybe next time. I want to get a bit more sun.” Miri just nodded and disappeared down the beach at a gallop, leaving Fly to chase after her.

“What happened to that swimming costume I picked out for you?” Rarity asked from behind her sunglasses. “You did remember to pack it, right?”
I could feel a blush rising, so I looked at the ground. “Yeah, I just thought I’d wear it another day.”
“Oh, good idea. We can wear them together one of the days!” the unicorn enthused, poking me with a hoof. “Everypony on the beach will be jealous.” I didn’t reply, preferring to stare at my towel and not think about the swimming costume in question. It was carefully hidden at the bottom of my suitcase, and I had been hoping that Rarity would forget.

My nightmares were realised on the morning of the third day. 
“I’m going down to get breakfast. Cat, Rarity says she’s going to wear her swimming costume today, so you should wear yours,” Miri informed me as she poked her head around our hotel room door. “She also says you should wear it under something when we’re getting breakfast.”
I looked at Fly, panicking, as Miri shut the door. “What should I do? I can’t wear it.”
“Try it on. I saw a few swimsuits like that at the beach yesterday so maybe it’ll be okay,” Fly said. I puffed out my cheeks and then nodded. It had been a long time since I’d last worn it, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as I remembered from the shop.

Oh no, it was much worse. Once I’d put it on and shown Fly, she turned a deep shade of red and began mumbling. 
“Oh come on, just tell me,” I said, spinning around.
“Um... it’s more revealing than I remembered,” the pegasus said, averting her eyes. I trotted over to the mirror and then cringed, trying my best to cover up with my tail. 
“I can’t possibly go out in this. I’ll never get married,” I said, but Fly had hidden herself in the bathroom.
“You could talk to Rarity,” Fly said through the door. 

I threw a towel over myself and then went into the hallway, knocking on Rarity’s door. “It’s me, please open up.” I glanced around, expecting somepony to come along and embarrass me. Nopony did, and I leapt inside the moment that Rarity opened the door.
“What is it, darling? You look distressed,” Rarity said. She wasn’t dressed in her swimming costume, thankfully. I pulled off my towel and turned around.
“I really can’t go out like this,” I said, hoping that she would have the same reaction as Fly. “It’s just not...”

“Just not what?” Rarity asked, apparently entirely unembarrassed by the unrestricted view of me. “I think it really complements your coat colour.”
“It’s...” I started, but I was just flabbergasted that she couldn’t see it. “I think...”
“Shall I put mine on, and we can compare?” Rarity suggested, reaching for her own ensemble. She slipped into it before I could reply, and I realised just how great it had really looked on her. The silvery material seemed to enhance certain features, and I found myself blushing furiously and trying not to stare.
“See? It’s really no different,” Rarity said, giving me the rear view and almost giving me a nosebleed.

I somehow lost the will to complain after that, so I ended up putting on a summer dress to cover up the zebra print nightmare and making my way down to breakfast. I was sure that I would die of shame if I wore it on the beach, and I’d lost my appetite by thinking about it.
“Come on Cat, eat something. At least have a drink,” Fly said, but she knew what I was occupied with. Miri seemed clueless, and I had no desire to tell her.
“I think I’m going to go back to the room and put on bug spray,” I said, losing my nerve entirely. Before anypony could protest, I jumped up and headed for the stairs.

Once back in the room, I locked the door and took off the dress. In front of the mirror, I did my best to justify it. From the front, it didn’t look so bad. In fact, there was so little of it that you might not notice it at all. From the side it was passable. No worse than some of the swimming costumes I’d seen at the beach before. But from behind... it was intolerable. I couldn’t believe I’d even put it on. I should have been stronger and told Rarity I didn’t like it in the shop. It was just awful. I turned around again so I was looking at the front, and tried to convince myself that nopony would see. Maybe if I just kept the dress on all day and never went swimming.

We arrived on the beach and I laid my towel out like usual, lying down on it and getting the first sun of the day. A sideways glance at Rarity revealed that she was still wearing her clothes, so I didn’t need to panic yet.
“Are you still wearing it?” Fly whispered to me.
“Yes... I can’t let Rarity down, but then I really don’t want to be seen in public with it on,” I said, burying my face in my hooves. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“Just talk to Rarity.”
“I can’t! I said I liked it. I tried talking to her in the room, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.”

Fly looked thoughtful. I was practically having a panic attack at the thought of taking the dress off.
“How about I talk to her for you?” Fly suggested. 
“Really? You’d do that?” I gushed, suddenly feeling relief. “That would be perfect.”
Fly beamed at me. “Leave it to me.” She got up and trotted over to Rarity, so I looked away and waited for my ears to burn. I was so lucky to have a friend like Fly to look out for me. Maybe I wouldn’t have to suffer the shame of wearing the swimming costume after all.

A shadow came over me, so I rolled over and squinted up at the pony causing it. It was Rarity.
“If you didn’t want to wear it that much, you should have just said so,” Rarity said to me in a gentle voice. “I’m not so scary that you can’t disagree with me, am I?”
“No, it’s just... I don’t know,” I replied, smiling. “I’m useless.”
“I understand. It’s a shame, since it suits you so well, but you should only wear what you’re comfortable with. Do you want me to go back to the hotel with you so you can change?”
I pulled her into a hug. “It’s fine. I’ll go back at lunchtime.”

With a much more modest outfit I could really enjoy the afternoon on the beach. Rarity, Miri and I decided to go for a swim during the hottest part of the day, leaving Fly to shelter in the shade and watch our things. Of course, this meant that Rarity could show off her costume, which seemed to be even better on the beach that it had been in the hotel room. Miri seemed oblivious (she had eyes only for the lifeguards doing drills) but I could feel my pulse racing as I deliberately followed Rarity down the beach, getting the best view. I felt a little guilty for doing it, but I was rewarded. When the water hit me, though, I did wonder what River might have thought if she knew what I was doing.

There were more than a few stares from various colts on the beach as we played in the sea. We did our best at ignoring them though, even when we were towelling off and a few of them had the nerve to actually walk past a few times to get a closer look.
“I think I’ll take a nap. Wake me up in an hour or so,” Rarity said, putting her clothes back on, much to the disappointment of most of the beach (including, I am sorry to say, myself). 
Fly giggled, whispering to me again. “I don’t think there was a single pony on the beach who wasn’t staring when the three of you came out of the water.”

Seeing Rarity in her swimming costume unlocked some kind of gate for me. For the rest of the day, I couldn’t help but stare at her, even when she was wearing clothes. All through dinner I was trying to catch glances of her, and I was rewarded when she dropped some coins when paying. The problem was that I felt terribly guilty for it. Fly could tell something was up, so she asked me about it once we were lying in the dark, trying to sleep.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I just keep staring at Rarity and I don’t know why.”
“Maybe it’s just because you like fillies and she’s attractive?” Fly suggested.
“I think so. That swimming costume just... did something to me.” I sighed, turning over and getting my sheets tangled in my hooves. “I’ve been obsessed all day.”

Fly went quiet for a bit before speaking. “Do you need to... you know. Do something. To yourself.”
I went the brightest red I think I had ever gone, which included the time my mum had tried to have ‘the talk’ with me. “Oh no, no, no, definitely not. No.”
“I mean, I can go for a walk or something,”
“No. No. Stop talking.” My face continued to burn.
“Okay.”
We both lay in silence for a while, then I had an irresistible urge to laugh. I ended up having a fit of giggles, which Fly joined after she got over her shock.

“You two seem happy,” Rarity commented at breakfast the next day. The two of us had been laughing about it when we were getting up.
“We just saw somepony funny out of the window,” Fly said, shrugging. 
“Ooh, what were they doing?” Miri asked.
“Balancing a ball on their nose?” I tried, and the earth pony seemed disappointed. I caught Fly’s eye and we giggled again.
“Whatever,” Rarity said dismissively. “You and your giggling.”