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#143 - What is this feeling?1,557 words
#147 - What happens now?1,530 words
#149 - Do you still have that drawing?2,841 words
#1 - Did you mean what you said?2,446 words

#149 - Do you still have that drawing?

Sunlight shone starkly through the window of Sunny's bedroom; the newfound radiance of color that had swept across Equestria had even made the sun itself seem brighter and kinder. The sharp tweeting of songbirds outside her window sent Sunny's ear aflutter as the land of dreams left her behind, and as her sleep-crusted eyes slowly slid open, an ocean of brilliant cerulean and pale purple greeted her.

She recoiled as her fogged mind took a moment to process why another pony was in her bed alongside her, although it quickly gave way to a contented smile as she hugged Izzy closer against her side, the wonderful series of events from last night rushing back to her in an instant.

Sunny inhaled, long and unhurried, taking in the soothing mix of crisp morning air and the vibrant candyfloss-and-lavender scent of her bedmate as she did so. A mild commotion outside alerted her that work on repairing her home had already commenced, typical for those diligent construction ponies who always awoke not at dawn's first light, but before it.

"Mmmph..." The unicorn next to her moaned sleepily, the gradually building noise outside beginning to rouse her from her slumber.

As Izzy's eyes began to open and the two of them made eye contact, Sunny planted a soft kiss upon her cheek, drawing a soft smile from her.

"Hey there, Frizzy Moonbow~" Sunny giggled as she ran a hoof through Izzy's wavy sapphire mane. A night of bed rest hadn't done it any favors. Quite the opposite, really! Those long, wavy locks had lost any sense of restraint literally overnight, sticking out every-which-way in a complete mess of mussed mane. It looked like a strange blue beast had attached itself to Izzy's head while she slept, a thought which made Sunny burst out laughing so suddenly that she even snorted.

"Mmh. G'mornin'...yaaawn...Snorty Starscout." Izzy rebutted with a trademark playfulness, although marred by drowsiness as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "If this is what waking up next to somepony is like...I could soooo get used to this..." she moaned, pecking Sunny on the lips as she ran a hoof through the earth mare's equally bedraggled mane in return.

After a shared giggle, Sunny shuffled restlessly beneath the purple hoof stretched across her back. "Alright, Izz...mnnnf...as much as I could spend all morning laying here with you, we've both got stuff to do today..."

"Aww, but I don't waaannnaaa..." Izzy bemoaned, grumbling to herself as she intentionally went limp, making it as tough as possible for Sunny to get out of her embrace. Unfortunately for Izzy, earth ponies were remarkably strong, especially now that they'd had their magic returned to them - so rolling the larger unicorn off of her proved to be little trouble. "Unf! H-hey!" she yelped in surprise from the unceremonious treatment, hoof trawling against the warm spot Sunny had left in the bed with her absence.

"Places to be, Izz! Chop chop!" Sunny exclaimed, punctuating herself with a series of hoofclops against the hardwood floor.

"Fiiiine~" Izzy grumbled, clambering out of bed and onto her hooves as her horn lit, remaking the bed in mere moments. Her eyes flashed with mischief as she approached Sunny, a devious smirk widening across her lips.

"Say...your shower wouldn't happen to be big enough for two, would it~?" Izzy purred mischievously with a blep for emphasis, flicking Sunny's face with the tip of her tail as she walked past her. Considering how the very suggestion caused Sunny's eye to twitch as a riotous blush lit her face, it took several seconds for the poor girl to even muster a response.

"I-izzy?! W-wha...what happened to not doing that kinda stuff with me until I'm ready?" Sunny replied, thoroughly flustered at Izzy's scandalous...and yet ever-so-tempting...suggestion.

"I never said anything about not teasing you relentlessly about iiit~" Izzy singsonged over her shoulder as she walked down the hallway towards the bathroom.

Laughing to herself despite her embarrassment, Sunny slowly shook her head as she strode past the bathroom towards the kitchen. The hiss of the showerhead from behind the door, combined with Izzy's silly, nonsensical singing, confirmed the unicorn's entry into her shower.

"Walkin' through the crowd, givin' my brand new looks a spin~ I'm gonna fit right in~"

Sunny had to stop herself from bopping along to the imaginary beat that she felt in her head as her marefriend's gorgeous voice echoed through the walls; the compulsion to sing that familiar tune from their adventure together was so strong that she couldn't help but hum along, wiggling her flank as she rifled through her fridge and pantry for breakfast ingredients.

By the time Izzy had finished showering, Sunny was lost in her own little world, those ear-wormy lyrics cycling in her head as she prepared a simple meal of fried eggs and carrots.

"Oh, this is how a unicorn struts~ This is how a unicorn shakes her—" Sunny sang, so lost in her own world that she never heard Izzy's magic shimmer behind her, coiling up the towel she'd previously had draped across her back before she released its pent-up energy right across the earth pony's vulnerable flanks.

Thwap! "Butt!" Izzy cheerfully exclaimed, her sneak attack having precisely the intended effect.

"What?!" Sunny yelped, unintentionally rhyming with her marefriend as the sudden shock caused her forehoof to twitch, accidentally executing a perfect flip of the eggs she was frying. "I-Izzy! These could've ended up on the floor! Or on my face!" she shouted, glancing pointedly at the frying pan she was holding in her hoof. Not that she could stay mad at Izzy for anything longer than a second — that mare was weapons-grade cute, and she full well knew it.

And, well...it wasn't like she hadn't enjoyed having her flank struck by Izzy like that...

'Holy smokes, what is this mare doing to me? How the heck is a mare who seems so innocent on the surface such a bucking tease seventy percent of the time?' Sunny thought, now thoroughly flustered. She'd best stop that train of thought before it completely sidetracked her from the serious topic she wanted to talk with the unicorn about once breakfast was prepared.

"Mmh, well, they didn't, did they? If anything, I'd say I helped! That was an awesome flip, Sunny-bun~" Izzy replied with her trademark bubbly innocence, though Sunny could hear the telltale purr in her voice that meant she knew exactly what she was doing. Gods above, what an intoxicating dichotomy of a mare this unicorn was...

Putting aside for the moment how much Izzy's pet name for her made her heart do flip-flops, the best Sunny could manage was a half-hearted chastisement as Izzy took a seat at the nearby table, her damp towel flung casually across the backrest of the seat next to her. "Y-yeah, well...warn me next time, alright?"

Izzy's eyebrow quirked. "Buuut...that kind of defeats the point of it being a suuurpriiiise..." she said slowly, wiggling her forehoof in a circle as if to ask, 'What the heck are you thinking?'

Sunny sighed in defeat as she rolled her eyes, portioning out the piping-hot meal she'd made onto two separate plates as she chose to drop the subject. "Here you go, Izz. Enjoy!" she cheerfully stated, setting a plate of food in front of her marefriend before going back to grab her own.

After a few precious minutes of companionable silence as the two ate breakfast together, Sunny paused in her chewing as her brow knit thoughtfully, candidly expressing the troubling thought that had been buzzing in the back of her mind since last night. "Y'know, about what Pipp did yesterday...how do you think ponies are gonna react to that stream clip?"

"Aww, d'you really think so many ponies would get that worked up over one video? I mean, I know it was hot, so I don't think I'd want any young fillies or colts watching it, buuut..." Izzy trailed off as Sunny giggled into her hoof.

"Heh! That's not really what I meant, Izz. I'm really worried that it might undo all that we've done to reunify Equestria so far. Bringing Equestria together again is one thing, but a relationship like ours being revealed so quickly after that...? A lot of ponies probably got their magic back without knowing anything about what part the other races played in it, so they probably won't be as understanding...and now that they've got the power to do some real damage, I don't know what to think."

"You mean silly ol' meanies like Sprout? C'mon, he barely did anything! Queen Haven and Alphabittle didn't even want to fight him when he showed up right in front of 'em with that crazy machine of his!" Izzy replied with cheerful, blind optimism. Sunny wordlessly gestured to the severe structural damage on the other side of her house. "Right, and destroyed half of your house!" The unicorn added tactlessly, causing Sunny to briefly facehoof before mustering a rebuttal.

"That's exactly my point, though. If one hare-brained, big-headed young pony like Sprout could accomplish so much herd-mentality aggression and wanton property damage in such a short time, what's to stop someone more crafty from coming along and taking advantage of ponies' confusion about their magic coming back, and using that influence to do something really awful?" Sunny bemoaned, propping her head up with a hoof as she absentmindedly took bites of her breakfast.

"Is the two of us sitting here discussing how much we need to worry about it really gonna accomplish anything? Please don't work yourself up into a frenzy by worryin' about could-bes and might-happens! That's the magic of the future — nopony knows what's gonna happen, right?"

Sunny's expression softened as she tiredly exhaled, smiling softly at her marefriend from across the table. "Heh...thanks, Izz. I guess now that I accomplished what I set out to do, I'm just worried about losing it all over again. I never want Equestria to go back to that isolationist insanity."

"Neither do I...but we've got this! I'm lookin' out for you, remember?" Izzy replied with a wink before levitating the last bits of her meal into her maw.

"When you're off track, I've got your back~" Sunny answered in a singsong tone as she brought their dishes over to the sink and laid them in the basin. "I guess I was the one who got off-track there, huh? Sorry I doubted myself...sorry I doubted us." she added sweetly as Izzy got up from her seat and hugged her tightly.

"Aww, it's all good! Everypony doubts themselves sometimes, it's just a matter of how ya deal with it." The unicorn replied, her carefree attitude quickly infecting Sunny's dour mood as the earth mare smiled more and more.

As the pair nuzzled into each other, a thoughtful look crossed Sunny's face once again. "Izz...there was something else I wanted to tell you about. No, that I need to tell you about. It's...it's about..." she trailed off, ears flopping down as she glanced at the picture of her and her father. "About my dad."

"Oh!" Izzy brightened, pulling back to stare at Sunny with an excited grin...one that quickly died down to an understanding frown once she realized the aura of depression that had become palpable around her marefriend. "...Oh. Oh, Sunny..." Izzy said softly as she held Sunny's frowny face up with her forehoof. "Your sparkle feels sooo dim right now. We don't have to talk about this unless you really want to."

Moving out of Izzy's grip, Sunny ambled over to her couch and flopped onto it heavily, motioning the other mare over with a beckoning wave of her forehoof. As Izzy took a seat on the couch facing her, the two of them locked eyes once more. "Hey, Izz...do you still have that drawing? I...I think I'd like to see it again."

Izzy nodded softly as her horn shimmered with power, that faded yet familiar piece of paper levitating out of the unicorn's mane and depositing itself into Sunny's hoof.

"His name...was Argyle Starshine." Sunny began softly as she stared intently at the note, examining its every detail - the clumsy, misspelled crayon hoof-writing, the cute little ponies she'd drawn as a filly, and the clear signs of folding wear along the creases in the center.

"He taught me everything I know about how much better Equestria used to be. All the artifacts he's collected, those knickknacks sitting in the study...he was trying to find some tangible, undeniable proof that the three races all used to live together as friends. But it was all so long ago...any written word from that time is long gone. Every artifact he showed off was written off as something he'd made up to try and convince ponies of his 'radical' ideas. One day, he went out searching for more answers. And...he...he didn't come back." Sunny's eyes began to brim with tears as her jaw trembled.

Izzy gasped as she held a hoof up to her mouth, though she didn't comment besides that.

"Ever since then...I resolved myself to finish what he'd started. I owed it to him, to myself, and to the ponies of Equestria. And, well..." she trailed off with a chuckle as she smiled at Izzy, despite the tears welling in her eyes.

"I-I did my p-part." Sunny croaked out, sorrow nearly overwhelming her ability to speak.

"Hoof to heart. I'm never leavin' your side, not for anything else in Equestria. You can count on that." Izzy said firmly, the steel of conviction in her voice proving to be a jarring and meaningful contrast to her usual cheery demeanor.

"I know you never would, Izz...I've never doubted you for a moment. I just...I miss him so much. So much. I...I know he'd be proud of what we've accomplished, but...I just wish he were here to see how beautiful Equestria is with its magic restored. The wonderful friends I've made...the incredible stories of our adventures that I desperately want to tell him...th-that moment when the three gems lit...u-urk-" A strangled sob left her throat as she collapsed into Izzy's hooves, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I-if it makes you feel any better," Izzy said softly, after allowing Sunny a moment of catharsis, "I never really knew my parents. Alphabittle...he's told me about how they used to be, about how nice they were whenever they'd come in for drinks together...about how one day, they just...stopped coming, and that right after that, I showed up on his front step. I-in a little woven basket, with a cursive note tied to the handle, wrapped in a starry blanket. One of the cutest little fillies he'd ever seen, he always told me."

"O-oh, I-Izzy!" Sunny wailed, wrapping the other mare tightly in an abrupt hug, "I had no idea!"

"You've got nothing to apologize for, Sunny-bun...I've never told that to anypony else, except you. I don't...I don't want 'em to look at me differently, y'know? They're better off knowing "Izzy the silly fun unicorn" than they are "Izzy the orphan" o-or "Izzy the accident." It's simpler that way. B-better for everypony. I don't have to think about my past, and nopony else has to dwell on it, either. Growing up without my parents doesn't make me any less of a pony, and saving Equestria without your dad doesn't make you any less of a hero!" Izzy exclaimed, throwing a hoof around Sunny's crest as she pulled her into a soft, reassuring kiss. "Thanks for telling me about your dad, Sunny. It means a lot to me that you'd trust me with somethin' like that."

"Speak for yourself, Izz...what you told me was way bigger. I mean, really, wow." Sunny replied incredulously, eyes wide.

"Hey, I don't want you treatin' me differently for knowin' that, now, you hear?" Izzy said as she aggressively booped Sunny right on the end of her snoot, causing that cute orange muzzle of hers to wiggle ticklishly as she yelped in surprise. "We're one-for-one on sharing tragic backstories now, and as much as I love parties, I really don't like pity ones. Both our sparkles are way brighter now that we've gotten that stuff off our chests, so let's try to keep 'em that way, alrighty?"

"...That really smarts, y'know..." Sunny grumbled to herself as she rubbed her own nose, her previous worries completely forgotten after such an unexpected move.

"Aww, d'you want me to kiss it better~?" Izzy purred, wiggling her eyebrows impishly at the other mare as she inched her face closer to Sunny's.

"Umm, well, we really should get going on those err-mmh..." Her attempts at deflecting were for naught as the unicorn took her own initiative, capturing Sunny's lips with her own.

As the two ponies continued from where they'd left off last night on the grass, the earth pony, pegasi, and unicorn craftsmen outside continued their work on repairing the lighthouse - completely unaware of the interracial snogfest happening right under their noses.

The errands could wait a bit longer, Sunny supposed.

Author's Note:

I've gone ahead and changed the [Comedy] tag to [Drama] after...well, all of that.

Even as sorrowful as this chapter ended up being, there's a mix of cute, wholesome, and a teensy bit of lewd in there along with the tearjerker moments, so I hope that makes up for it :3

Please don't forget to like if ya liked, dislike if ya didn't (but please tell me why so I can improve), and leave a comment! Comments give me life. (But not in, like, a creepy "word vampire" way or anything. How would that even...? Ah, whatever.)

Swim fast, eat ass!
~RD 🦈

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