confluence / / cousinry

by WritingSpirit

/ / vertices

“You’re absolutely sure your mom’s okay with it?”

“Sure I’m absolutely sure!” Spitfire happily slid a glass of whiskey across the countertop as she poured another one for herself. “As long as neither one of us snitches, we’re good.”

Sunburst gulped. He stared into the immaculate blend of liquid amber swivelling in his magic, the pungent scent a spice to his senses, only to wrest his eyes away. “But wouldn’t she notice? Like, at all?”

“Dude, this is, like, the twenty-eighth time I’ve raided her stash. No snitching and we’ll be fine! Don’t worry too much about it!”

“R-Right. Okay… okay…”

With all reservations cast aside, Sunburst took the first gulp of his drink, wincing from the silken burn smoothly skating down his throat. Spitfire followed suit, proving herself to be the much heavier drinker of the two as she tipped her head back and finished half her glass in one go, much to the stallion’s sheer awe and consternation.

“That’s the good stuff right there,” the pegasus exhaled giddily into the midnight. “You know, I never pegged you for a drinker, Sunburst. Always thought you were the kind to keep it clean.”

“Sorry to disappoint you then,” Sunburst replied, inciting another giggle from his cousin. “This is a good blend though. Your mom has excellent taste.”

“Right?! And she knows exactly where to get them too!”

“Trade secret, I’d imagine.”

“Maybe she does know I raided her stash.” Spitfire frowned in deep thought. “Huh. Maybe that’s why she’s not telling me where to get them.”

“She’ll tell you eventually, I’m sure.” Sunburst took another tentative sip. “So, uh, how’s life been? How have the skies been treating you at the Academy?”

The pegasus groaned, planting her face into the cold surface of the countertop. “Ugh, where do I even begin…”

“That bad eh?”

Spitfire jerked her head back up. “It’s not… I mean, okay, bad’s not the right word for it, I think.” She bit on her lip, her eyes drifting into her glass of whiskey as she gave it a few pensive stirs. “So, you know how I am with these things. You know my standards.”

Sunburst nodded. “They’re up there.”

“Wayyyy up there.”

“Stratospherical.”

“Exactly.” Spitfire downed the rest of her glass. “So these rookies that are joining in. You know the usual, right? The ones that watched our flight shows and they want to be in on the action? So it goes without saying they saw what our team could do. They’ve watched our stunts, they know our signature moves. Some of them literally paid money to see what our team could do.”

“Like an impromptu lesson,” Sunburst pointed out.

“Right… yeah, exactly! But then, you start to realise that more and more of them aren’t actually giving their all. They’re playing it safe even though I can tell they can do much, much better than that.” Spitfire sighed and hung her head. “I mean, who am I kidding, we were like that when we were rookies as well. Can’t remember how many times mom had to go out of her way to yell some sense into us.”

“But your team has talent.”

“Yep. Au naturel.”

“And your current rookies…… don’t?”

“They’re just not good enough, plain and simple,” Spitfire spat, already aching to take a sip from the glass she was pouring for herself. “And maybe I’m just… I guess, confused as to why this bunch signed up in the first place if they aren’t willing to try and keep up with any of us. And all I’ve been doing is just yelling and yelling and yelling and… I don’t know, Cuz. It feels like I’m running a flight camp full of tiny little fillies sometimes.”

Sunburst smiled wryly. “Tiny little fillies who think they know better, I presume.”

“Yeah. Heh. Can’t imagine what that’s like for you, vice-principal,” Spitfire said, resting her cheek on the countertop and staring up at him. “How’d you guys do it at the school? How’s that work?”

“Well, Gilda, our disciplinary teacher, she usually does the bulk of the yelling for us. Though I’m starting to think she enjoys it more than she has any right to.”

“Oh yeah! Dash told me about her.”

“She’s a belligerent one, that’s for sure. Always getting in fights with our guidance counsellor.”

“Sounds like a treat.”

“Oh, it can be a treat sometimes. Starlight always has some popcorn saved up for those kinds of occasions.” Sunburst let out a gusty laugh at the memory of their gaudy feuds. “But yeah, I’m just guessing from what you told me here, but maybe your rookies don’t know how to make full use of their talents yet. Maybe they just need some kind of direction. A bit of guidance from their teachers.”

“We never had any guidance when we were cadets,” Spitfire pointed out. “When my mom was captain, we tried everything we could to impress her and clinch our slot for the show. Even now, we were just winging it in practice half of the time. Trying to find the right set of moves to give our audience a spectacle for the ages. That’s just part of the job.”

“I guess? But maybe it’s like you said. Your team has talent. And maybe it’s because your current team is talented that they can afford to do that. Maybe your rookies knew that too. And that’s why they’re being careful with how they go about it. Maybe they have their own methods of achieving exactly that. Methods that not everypony is going to understand off the bat.”

Spitfire sighed. “You think I’m being too harsh on them?”

“I think you’re being too cynical. And believe me, I know a thing or two about being cynical. Not really a good place to be in.” Sunburst placed a hoof on her shoulder for good measure. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as that, Spits. They’ll probably figure it out for themselves eventually.”

“Guess I’ll take your word for it then.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Ugh. I’d better be surprised.”

“Oh, you will.” Sunburst grinned. “I can promise you that, here and now.”

Spitfire had only a breathless laugh left in her, awestruck as she was by his candid optimism. It was what she had sorely missed in the Hearth’s Warming dinners of the past—his frightening curiosity permeating their conversations, as well as his unconditional readiness of seeing the good of others. To hear his heartfelt opinions once again, this time with a varnish of wisdom he may not have had before? That was certainly something she will always be truly grateful for. And for a mare who had been becoming more and more jaded as time went by, it was just the magic she needed.

Likewise, when his eyes beheld the soft and sweet smile of his normally-rumbustious cousin, Sunburst felt his form rippling with a quiet yet poignant joy, one he had not felt ever since reuniting with Starlight back at the Crystal Empire. To know that even after all this time, even after all their years apart, he remained a kindred soul that she could confide in… there was just something inexplicably invigorating about it, this realisation that he once had a place in a time long gone, even if he did not believe it back then. And when the revelation properly sank in, Sunburst finally found, in this late hour, the courage to face the spectres of his past. The courage he had been looking for all this time.

A tranquil silence. The fireplace flickered onward, uncaring to any but the passing wind. In between their whiskey-laced sips, the two ponies gazed intently from the counter into the smouldering pit, as though they were divining from its frail, gemlike flames the path that had been laid ahead for the both of them.

“So!” Spitfire had emerged from her reverie first, reaching for the bottle to replenish Sunburst’s glass. “What’s up with the goatee?”

“Oh, yeah, hah, that!” Sunburst reached for the tuft of hair on his chin, flicking it casually with his hoof. “Don’t know, actually! I just decided to grow it out one day and it just… I don’t know, it kinda stuck with me, I guess.”

“It looks good on you.”

The wide-eyed stare Spitfire received from the stallion sent her cackling almost immediately.

“You’re making fun of it, aren’t you?” Sunburst had to ask.

“No! Nononono, no way, Cuz, I’m serious! It looks good, it does!” she insisted. “It gives you a sort of… pan-ash? Is that a word?”

“Panache is a word, yes.”

“Point is, it looks good on you, Cuz,” Spitfire reiterated one last time, taking a sip from her glass. “What does the coltfriend think about it?”

“Oh, Flash?” Sunburst laughed meekly. “Don’t really know, actually. Don’t think he’s ever seen me without it, now that I think about it. Far as he’s concerned, the goatee's something I was born with.”

“He’s gonna be so surprised once he sees your baby pictures.”

“You joke, but there’s a very good chance Flash might have an existential crisis when he realises I was born without a beard.”

“Hah! He sounds like good fun already!”

Sunburst smiled. “He is.”

In wordless unison, the two of them each downed a glass.

“So what’s he been doing lately?” Spitfire inquired, pouring another drink for each of them. “I knew he was like a guard in the Crystal Empire or something before he moved in with you in Ponyville. Your mom filled me in, by the way.”

“Of course she did.”

“Hey, I was curious! Also, in her defence, I asked her first.”

“Could’ve turned out worse then, I guess,” Sunburst reckoned, chuckling weakly. “Flash has been keeping himself busy with a few odd jobs here and there. He’s helping around in the school as well. Though lately, Starlight and I have been talking about getting him something more permanent.”

Spitfire’s eyes lit up. “Oh?”

“Yeah, we’re thinking he could be good as a P.E. teacher. Would probably do wonders for the children, what with his time in the guard and how outgoing he generally is.”

“Does he… no… oh, he has no idea yet, hasn’t he?”

“No!” Sunburst affirmed a bit too loudly in his excitement, the two of them giggling softly even as Spitfire gestured at him to settle down. “But yeah, no, he doesn’t know yet. I’ve been meaning to surprise him once everything’s said and done. I think he’s gonna like it.”

“That’s great, Cuz. Honestly! I’m happy for you.”

“Yeah? Heh, thanks Spits.” Sunburst began blushing at her praise. “W-What about you, huh? You have anyone like that?”

“Honestly? And, uh, this stays between you and me, by the way, but…” Spitfire drew in a deep breath. “I’ve been seeing somepony lately.”

“Really now? Is it somepony I know?”

“What? Ew, no, I hope not.”

Sunburst erupted with laughter. “What the hay’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s just weird, okay?” Spitfire exclaimed as though such a short explanation would ever make any sense to him. “Okay, like, imagine this, alright? You haven’t seen your cousin in more than a decade, and then you find out that he’s already friends with the pony you’re dating wayyy before you two became a thing. That doesn’t sound weird to you?”

“No? You’re making it weird.”

“No, I’m not?”

“You are!”

“I’m not!” Spitfire gasped. “Look, I’m just trying to keep us on the down low for now, alright? We’re still trying to figure out what we are to each other. Last thing we need right now is a whole lot of speculation from ponies like you. No offence.”

“Oh wow.”

“Hey! I just said—”

“Wowwwwwwww.”

“You know what I mean by that, Cuz!”

“Okay? Uh-huh? So you want me to let you get away with outright slander just because you tacked on a little ‘no offence’ at the end, that it?”

“I swear, if you’re gonna do this to me, Sunburst, I’m never, ever gonna bring her up again!”

Silence.

Sudden, deathly silence.

“So,” the unicorn timidly spoke up. “She’s a her then?”

Spitfire started giggling. Sunburst followed suit seconds later. What was once a quiet conversation at midnight soon became a bewildering flurry of cackles and guffaws that tore through the living room in a matter of seconds. It was a wonder how everypony else sleeping upstairs did not wake up from their racket with how loud they were being. Though even if anypony did, neither would have the heart to come between the pair in the middle of their much-needed reunion.

“We should’ve done this sooner,” Sunburst remarked when they were done. “Well, I should’ve done this sooner.”

“Mm. Nah.”

“No?”

“I don’t believe that,” Spitfire said, absentmindedly stirring her glass of whiskey. “Well, I don’t believe that you believe that either.”

“I don’t know what to believe.”

“Shall I tell you then?”

“I’m all ears.”

“I believe… Give me a sec here…” Spitfire playfully glared at him when Sunburst began snickering away. She treated herself to one last gulpful of her whiskey, placing the empty glass down as she tried again. “I believe it doesn’t matter whether or not you join us any earlier or later, Cuz. It’s the fact that you thought to join us at all. I think that’s the important part.”

Sunburst remained silent.

“I missed you,” Spitfire added affectionately. “Pretty sure no one’s said it to you outright earlier, but yeah, I missed you. We all did.”

“I should’ve written.”

“I should’ve written. Check in with you, see how you are doing.”

“You’re the Captain of the Wonderbolts, Spits,” Sunburst indicated out loud. “You’re probably too busy with the recruitment drives and the flight shows and the interviews and all that stuff to have time for little old me.”

“That’s not true, Cuz. You know that’s not true.”

“And even if you did, what would you even say to me?”

“That you should get your flank back to magic school and make sure you don’t drop out again? Fat chance,” Spitfire scoffed. “I don’t know what I would say to you, let’s be real here. But I should’ve tried anyway. I think not trying was a mistake.”

“Well…” Sunburst proceeded to down his glass, letting out his last fevered gasp for the night. “You’re in good company then.”

“The best.”

“Yup. The very, very best.”

Hours later, the two empty glasses were all that remained of them on the quartz countertop, gleaming placidly like glass monoliths rising to the moonlight.

Spitfire and Sunburst were outside by then. Seated on the snow-clad terrace at the top floor of the house, wistfully gazing out into the waking world with their hooves hanging off the edge of their respective rattan chairs, swaying in tandem to the rhythm of their heartbeats. The two of them were huddled together, her wings tightly wrapped around him as far as his star-spangled cape was around her, their mingling breaths emerging together in shimmering clouds that soared to patch the holes in the midnight sky.

“We should do this next year,” Sunburst suggested. “Just sit out here and wait for the sunrise alongside our partners, chatting the night away with a few drinks by our side, the way we did just now.”

“Depends,” Spitfire hummed at the idea. “Can your coltfriend hold his liquor?”

“Mm, somewhat. Can your marefriend?”

“Not sure yet. Though I guess we can always find out next year.”

“Mm-hmm. Next year.”

“Yep. Next year.”

The world spun on in silence.

“There… will be a next year, right?” Spitfire had to ask.

“Of course there will, Spits! There will always be a next year,” Sunburst reassured her. “We’ll be at my Mom’s place though.”

“Sire’s Hollow. Been a while.”

“Yep. Well, not really for me, I had this friendship problem with Starlight some time ago. But yes, going home for Hearth’s Warming would be interesting.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And if it’s not, we’ll make it interesting.”

“Like we always do.”

“Like we always do.”

A pair of gentle laughs filled the air, just as the first glimmers of sunlight spilled from the horizon.

“…”

“...”

"..."

"..."

“We should probably make sure that your Mom has a liquor cabinet first though.”

“Yeah, we should probably do that.”

Comments

[WritingSpirit]

11259362
Glad you enjoyed this story! Especially happy to hear you liked that paragraph in particular—I'm pretty sure I spent more time than I liked trying to make it sound right.

Thanks a bunch for reading!

[Genmaicha]

11260098
The time spent paid off Good luck in the contest!

[CGen]

I'd put off reading this for too long - I should have done it way sooner.

A very heartwarming slice of life with two relatively underappreciated characters, in my opinion. The pairings are an interesting (and preferred) departure from the usual, and you've done a good job of characterizing them in a realistic way that doesn't flanderize their personalities! I couldn't ask for much more. The little nuggets of info like how Gilda is head of discipline at the school is what's keeping things interesting - at this rate Fleetfoot and Flash Sentry might be connected too! It is Fleetfoot that Spitfire was talking about, no?

The big mystery that caught my attention throughout this was seeing just how big this family really is - who's related to whom? Who's seeing each other in this little alternate universe? I'd be interested in seeing more - if not their reunion next year, then maybe perhaps Sunburst and Spitfire could start writing letters like they said they should have been? In the post-series time that this appears to be in, I'd like to think they've both learned enough by proximity to the M6 to want to set things right. You've written them like they're the only ones that truly get each other in that family, that kinda support isn't the same as any regular friend who's just been told about things instead of growing up with it.

[SigmasonicX]

This was a really nice story. It was great seeing Spitfire and Sunburst's individual lives, and then seeing them talk about it at the end. They have a really cozy interplay that still works for their characters. As the above comment noted, it was also interesting parsing out who's related to who.