The Everton AU.

by ssunsxt

Who drinks coffee in the forest?

“And with that,” Doctor Zecora turned to the class with a bright smile, “class dismissed.” The older woman shuffled papers around her desk as the rest of the room slipped notebooks into bags, scuffing chair legs against vinyl flooring. “Please don’t forget that end of term projects will begin soon! Please find a partner by Monday, at noon!” she called after the teens that had already begun filing out of the classroom. Sunset, of course, was still firmly planted in her seat, determined to copy out the rest of her textbook page before moving onto the extra readings she had requested from Zecora at the start of the lab.

“Hey there Red,” Starlight grinned as she approached the other girl’s table, nudging Sunset’s foot under the desk with her own. “Dismissed means we can leave.”

Sunset mumbled the next line quietly, not raising her eyes from the text until she had marked it down perfectly. “Yeah, I-... just doing… something…”

Starlight glanced toward the doctor, who flashed her a mischievous smirk in response as she collected her own notes and filed them away into her satchel. Doctor Zecora gave a polite wave, which Starlight sheepishly returned, the door clicking behind her as she left the two alone. “Can I sit?”

“Huh? Oh-” Sunset finally looked up and scanned the room briefly. “Uh-” she fumbled with her paper as she cleared her throat. “Yeah, uhm,” she tucked a ringlet of hair behind her ear as she dropped her eyes again, nodding in response. Starswirl knew her words would fail her.

Starlight smiled at her regardless and moved around the table to pull out the stool beside Sunset, settling into the seat with an unnerving creak of plastic. She spread her hands out flat in front of her with a deep puff of breath and tapped her palms lightly against the table-top. She pulled back and watched as the other girl intently flipped through the pages in her text book, cross referenced them with her notes, and nibbled on the end of her mechanical pencil.

“You alright?”

“Mh, yeah. I think there’s a problem with this book.”

Starlight arched a brow. “You mean… the textbook? The University Officiated Textbook?” Starlight scoffed, leaning over to get a closer look.

Sunset nodded and shifted in her seat, sliding the book over to show Starlight the table at the bottom of the page. “So it says here, in this example, that if you calculate the formatic breakdown of this solvent, that you should end up needing 250ml of liquid nitrogen; but,” she paused to wet the tips of her fingers with her tongue before flipping back a few pages to another section in the chapter. “It says here that you would use a different equation. It was either a typo or a human error with the experiment. Either way, the answer’s wrong.” Sunset let out a huff and sat back against her chair, allowing her shoulders to stoop in defeat. “That just makes things more complicated. I’m going to have to rewrite all the notes I just copied out and carry out my own calculation.” She ran frustrated fingers through her hair and sat forward, covering her face with her hands. “My eyes are killing me.”

Starlight’s mouth was agape. She flipped between the pages Sunset had shown her and looked down at the other girl’s scribbled writing, then back. “I can’t believe you caught this? Should we tell Doctor Zecora? How many people do you think have failed this section because of this stupid miss-print?”

“Mh,” Sunset hummed and dropped her hands to adjust the waistband of her skirt. “I’ll send her an email, but I doubt she’ll get back to me ‘til Monday. It’s just annoying.” Starlight nodded in agreement.

The blinds on the far end of the room clattered lightly against the window frame as a gentle breeze wafted into the room. Summer really had come to an end, but both teens were grateful that the sun continued to blaze, well into the later months of the year. Starlight inhaled the crisp smell of warmed gravel and stone.

“Wanna get out of here before the sun sets?” she forced her lips into a hard line, trying to hold back a snort.

Sunset narrowed her brows for a moment before rolling her eyes. She shoved papers into her bag and slipped out of her seat with a forced, mocking laugh. “Hahaha, before the sun sets, Sunset. You’re soooo original! Never heard that before in my life!” Starlight couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t even realise until I’d already said it, I swear!” The taller girl attempted, trying to defend herself as Sunset tossed her hair over her shoulder. It was getting long again, she noted, I should cut it soon.

Starlight giggled and followed her down the empty hallway toward the stairs. “Come on, you can make fun of my name if it’ll make you feel better.”

Sunset tried. She really tried to think of something; but she just couldn’t. Her brain was fried. It was because of her studying! She was just burnt out. Sure. Burnt out. “Sorry, I wouldn’t want to stoop to your level, Glimmer.”

“Oh pfft- cuh- uh!” Starlight grinned, fixing the other girl with a look before trying her best to subdue her smile. The best she could do was stretching her lips over her teeth, though. “Stoop to my level? Are you sure you’re tall enough to reach?”

Sunset gasped and stopped in her tracks, racing after Starlight as she burst from the science building’s large mahogany doors, out onto the campus green. “You didn’t just say that! I’m only shorter than you by, like, two inches!”

“Two inches is pretty much a mile, Sunset. That’s just basic math.”

The red-head’s face twisted. “At least now we know who did the mathematics for the textbook.”

Starlight punched her arm with an offended chortle. “You’re dead to me.”

“Is that what you said to the calculator?”

“Stooooop!” Starlight droned, letting out another laugh as she attempted to keep up pace with the shorter girl, as they both walked along the cobble-stoned sidewalk.

It was nice, Sunset admitted to herself, to have a friend outside of Moondancer. It was nice to have someone who could keep up with her, mentally, about things that didn’t include contrived movie plots or— which anti-hero was the best portrayed in classic literature? It was nice to just… breathe.

“So. Is Sunset your real name? Like… when you were dropped off as a baby, did your parents leave a birth certificate and everything?”

Ever since movie night at her dorm, Starlight had seemed… fascinated by the concept of being raised in an orphanage. Her questions, originally, had been small. Was she close to anyone; was there a big difference between spending holidays without parents if everyone was like a family; was everyone like a family- and if not, why? And although she was apprehensive at first, Sunset also had to admit that… It felt oddly cathartic to actually talk about her childhood to someone who wasn’t Moondancer, or a therapist. Starlight didn’t look at her with pity— rather, it was sheer curiosity.

Sunset loved watching the way the other girl’s eyes would sparkle whenever she listened. The way she let out little gasps whenever the red-head laid out explicit details about the foster system and all of the supports put in place for other people in her situation.

“Yeah. It’s my real name, unfortunately.”

“Why unfortunately?”

“Because it’s dumb,” Sunset gave a half-smile. She held the door open for Starlight as they both entered the small coffee shop and bakery that Moondancer and Sunburst had taken them to before.

Appropriately named ‘The Forest’, Sunset had commented with distinct interest, as long, plastic vines spread across the ceiling in criss-cross patterns, overlapping each other like a canopy until they met and tangled around the thick, brown, concrete pillars that dotted around the cafe like tree trunks. Tucked into the corner were singles and couples tables, just before the rows of bookshelves stretched far back into the rest of the large establishment. Her favorite part of all, however, was how the far end of the shop dimmed, illuminated by twinkling fairy lights that found themselves tangled amongst the make-shift foliage of, Sunset could only guess, the forest.

It was fairly packed— seeing as it was a Friday, and most classes had just ended for the week— that was to be expected. Their usual spot was occupied. Sunset clicked her tongue with a sigh. “Should we go somewhere else?” She scratched her head and turned to Starlight who had already moved to join the shuffling queue.

“We can just grab some to-go cups and head to the library. I-if you want, I mean,” the taller girl smiled and twirled a lock of hair beside her ear. “I know you still have some readings you wanted to do. I thought maybe just grabbing some coffee could help wake you up, since you said your eyes were tired. I could even keep you company.”

Sunset blinked, heat rising to her cheeks as she swallowed the tightening lump in her throat. “Oh. Uhm. A-are you sure?” She felt herself mirroring Starlight, toying with a lock of her own hair before rubbing the back of her neck instead. “I mean- you probably have better things to be doing.”

Starlight waved her off and stepped closer to the counter as the line moved up. She rolled her eyes with a scoff. “Trust me, grabbing coffee with you and studying beats literally anything else I could be doing today.” She counted off on her fingers, “Study alone. Go listen to Sunburst argue about the importance of art-history in his debate society. Watch my roommate gorge herself out on Froot Loops for the third time this week,” she rolled her eyes with an amused grin, “trust me, that last one isn’t as fun as it sounds.”

Sunset’s forehead creased. “Froot Loops?”

“Don’t ask,” Starlight said with a sigh. “So… hot chocolate again?”

The red-head pondered for a moment, squinting up at the overhead menu boards and tip-toeing over the crowd to get a better look. “Mh… probably. Thought I might try being adventurous today, but I think I’ll play it safe.”

The two settled into a comfortable silence amongst the chatter of customers, curiously glancing around the cafe until they both met eyes once more with sheepish smiles, each of them turning away from the other to hide their reddening cheeks. Sunset smoothed down her skirt as Starlight approached the counter once it was her turn and waited patiently to place her own order.

Once Starlight had paid, she turned to offer Sunset one of her two cups. “Here you go.”

“Wh- you didn’t have to-” Sunset followed her out of the line, the heat from the cup wafting up into her face and spreading warmth over her neck.

Starlight waved her off and twisted her face with a small grin. “It’s nothing, don’t mention it. You can get it next time.”

Next time. Sunset liked the idea of a next time. She liked the idea of this being a regular thing: grabbing coffee with Starlight. As Starlight led them back out of the cafe, she lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip. “Blech-” Sunset’s face scrunched and she stuck out her tongue, as if to banish the foreign taste from her mouth. “This isn’t hot chocolate?”

Starlight giggled and bounced in her step, swirling her own cup around a bit to cool it down. “It’s isn’t. It’s a mocha. It’s coffee with hot chocolate. You said you wanted to be adventurous, so I thought it was a good compromise.”

Sunset pursed her lips into a small line and hummed, taking another sip. “I suppose.”

It wasn’t long before they’d reached the library and, thankfully enough, the computer lab desks were relatively empty, once they’d swiped their student ID’s at the library’s reception. Sunset simply wandered over to the closest vacant table once they were inside and set her bag down on the chair next to her to rifle through her papers. Starlight took up the chair opposite, dropping her own backpack onto the floor and kicking it under the desk, out of the way.

“The library’s bigger than I thought it’d be, wow,” the purple-haired teen said in quiet amazement, tilting her head around to get a better look at the large space.

The library’s main area was for practical use: computer stations taking up the middle and left sides while desks and tables took up the far right. Along the left-hand wall spanned off three separate study rooms, separated from the main area by large glass windows. From there, the above floors were open-planned, with glass sheets acting as a banister, silver piping topped off as a railing. Starlight let out a small whistle.

Sunset eyed her curiously, raising a brow ever-so-slightly at the implication. “You’re saying that as if you’ve never been in here before.”

Starlight didn’t reply, sucking in her cheeks and looking askance.

Sunset’s eyes widened as she narrowed her brows. “You’re unbelievable.”

“What!” Starlight tried desperately, flexing her eyebrows upward in defeat. “I told you I’m no good at studying!”

The shorter girl shook her head and pinched at the bridge of her nose. “I know, I know…” she sighed, sorting out her research papers in front of her and flipping her notebook open to the last page she had been working on in class. Sunset scanned over her writing, trying to focus on the words, but something was nibbling at the back of her mind. She drew her lower lip between her teeth and glanced back up at Starlight with narrowed eyes, folding her hands into the crooks of her elbows as she pulled herself closer into the table.

“Say… I looked more into the local area and stuff- you know, places to go, restaurants to eat at and stuff, maybe-”

Starlight looked up from inspecting her nails, pushing back her cuticles with her thumb nail, and straightened herself to attention once she realised Sunset was talking to her. “Oh- uh, yeah? What’d you find?”

Sunset pinched at the skin of her arm. “Well, uh,” she allowed her eyes to drift, as if looking away from the other girl would stop her face from flushing, “it turns out that Canterlot has a Planetarium which hosts science exhibits. I thought it might be fun to check out, but I don’t really think Moondancer would be into it.” Starlight found herself smiling, fingers curling around the edge of her seat as she nodded, inviting the other girl to go on. “Well, uh,” Sunset pressed a hand to the back of her neck, “would you wanna go? Like, I mean, we don’t have to. I just thought it could give us something to do. You know, and still relate to class. I thought you might find it interesting. But, like, obviously if you have other plans or just think it’s lame we don’t-”

“I’d love to,” Starlight beamed, and Sunset could swear her eyes were twinkling. “Would you want to go this weekend? I don’t have any plans.”

Oh! Sunset tensed. She hadn’t thought this far ahead. She really hadn’t thought this far ahead. “U-uhm, sure!” She sputtered, an awkward grin splitting her face. She held Starlight’s stare for longer than she’d intended and ducked her head to pretend to read over her notes again. Smooth, Shimmer, she screwed her eyes shut.

“Awesome,” Starlight sipped at her coffee, never drawing her eyes from the other girl as she watched her with amusement, trying her best to fight off her own grin. “So it’s a date.”

Author's Note:

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Comments

[Fillyfoolish]

“So it’s a date.”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaa

How can you tease me like this omg

Give it up for everypony's favourite gay girls and my favourite puppeteer~

[Sundaee]

Amazing loved it like always