Friendship Is Optimal: Third Wheel

by Boopy Doopy

Chapter Twenty-Five (Agile Trace)

There was a window by the bed that seagulls called outside of as they flew by. The sound gradually worked its way into Agile Trace's slumber and forced her eyes open. Renown Composition was still sleeping soundly next to her, although the pegasus couldn't see how. The birds were loud, seemingly making it their objective to wake the two up.

The mare rolled herself out of bed and stood, closing her eyes again as she did. How many drinks did they have last night? Normally, she stuck with only three or four, but she knew it was more than that just by her dry throat and pounding head. Four drinks was fun. More than that started to become unfun.

"If you're getting out of bed," Composition suddenly called, not turning over, "do you think you can get me some water? Coffee if you have it, please."

"I don't have any cause I don't drink coffee,” the pegasus replied groggily. “But if you get out of bed, we can go buy some down the street. I heard one of the mares Soft Step hangs out with opened a cafe. Candle Light is her name?"

"Ugh. Fine. Hold on. Can you get me some water first?"

The mare yawned, and grabbed a couple of bottles of water to share with Composition as she rubbed her head. After that, the gray mare rolled out of bed, too, and shared a kiss with Agile before sending a smirk her way. “We both need showers if we’re gonna go outside,” she said. “I think I smell like you.”

“Haha, I think you should take it as a compliment. I’ll let you go first and get more water.”

Agile made the bed while Composition showered, and then stepped in after her once the mare came out. Agile turned down the temperature, making it cool like rain to help with her slight hangover, and closed her eyes as she let it soak down to her fur. Last night was very fun. She certainly didn’t expect things to ramp up like that this quickly, but Agile wasn’t going to complain about it. Thankfully, she still had a pretty good memory of what exactly the two did last night, and smiled as she closed her eyes to remember. Composition was ten times better while drunk than any other mare Agile had been with in her life. Although maybe part of that was due to her attraction to her.

The pegasus lathered soap into her coat and feathers before rinsing off and finding Renown Composition by her piano, flipping through a notebook of hers casually.

“You didn’t even ask if you could read that,” Agile smiled as she looked over her shoulder. “I’m offended.”

“To Sheila,” the mare read out of the notebook. “Did you write a song about me?”

“Billy Corgan might have,” Agile told her, taking the notebook out of her hands with a wing and closing it. “I wanted to write down all the songs I could remember that I liked, since there’s no Spotify in Equestria.” She rubbed a hoof behind her head and finished, “Then I remembered there was a music store and stopped halfway through.”

“You are extremely silly, Agile,” Composition laughed. “You should write a song about me though. Call it ‘To Renown Composition’. That would make me happy.”

“Maybe I will,” the mare teased. “Let’s get going now though. You said you wanted coffee.”

The two left a moment after that, stepping out into the cool air and overcast sky of Summer’s Edge. The light breeze helped the slight hangover, as did the scent of coffee she inhaled as the two stepped into the cafe. It did indeed have Soft Step’s friend running the place, Candle Light, with Soft Step herself sitting in one of the booths with another mare Agile vaguely recognized. The two waved over to them, but Composition went to the counter first to order a drink.

“I can’t say I ever expected to see either of you awake so early,” the unicorn greeted. “What are you doing at an hour like this?”

“Being hungover like an idiot,” Agile replied. “Seven drinks is not the correct amount, as I’ve had to learn.”

“Haha, I could have told you that,” Soft Step giggled. “I’m pretty sure it’s a myth though that coffee helps with that. I didn’t even think you drank that stuff, Agile.”

“I don’t, but Composition does, and so now we’re here. Uhhh…” She squinted at the pony sitting next to Soft Step for a long moment before asking, “You’re Careful Calling, right?”

“Mhm, I watched you play chess a few times with Soft Step, remember?”

“I don’t remember that, but I’ll trust you’re right since I know your name. Speaking of which though, what are you doing these days, Soft? Now that there’s an entire universe of everything in the world to do.”

“I still don’t know yet,” she replied. “There’s so much I could do. Maybe I’d be a teacher? Although I’ve been working a bit in Careful Calling’s dress shop lately, and have been liking that.”

“Oh, that sounds like that could be fun,” the pegasus nodded. “I’ll have to stop by sometime and buy something.”

“You should,” she smiled, Careful Calling blushing lightly at the suggestion. “There’s some good stuff. But actually, since you’re here now, when are we gonna hang out again? Think we’d have time today?”

Agile Trace shook her head. “Sparky said he wanted to hang out with me one on one because Celestia told him to. But any time the rest of this week should be good.”

“Sounds great! We can go to the library and play some chess, and then Careful said she wanted to go bowling with me on Tuesday, so you can join us for that, too.”

“You know I’ll be there.”

Composition returned shortly after that, and the small group talked while Agile watched them drink coffee. She grabbed a bottle of water for herself, and that combined with the conversation with her friends made her feel a lot less hungover. It was an hour or so and a couple of coffees that Composition drained down later before the two left again, heading back to the blue mare’s apartment and stopping in front of it. Agile yawned, and then told the mare with her that she would see her later.

“Oh? Are you going to see Sparky now?” Composition asked. “What are you two gonna do?”

“I have absolutely no idea, but I’m not seeing him this early in the morning. I’m gonna go back to bed for a few hours, and then do some flying. You can join me for a nap if you want to though.”

“I already had two cups of coffee,” Composition smiled. “There’s no way I’m going back to bed. I’ll see you later though, maybe today if you have time. I might catch Sparky though before you do.”

That stung a little bit to hear, but Agile forced herself not to show it. She had an idea of what that meant. Even after last night. She had to hold herself back from saying anything or showing her immense disappointment.

Composition glanced at her hooves for a moment, then pushed her gray eyes back into Agile’s brown ones. “Last night was fun. We should do it again sometime.”

“Any day you wanna come over, I’m absolutely down,” was the pegasus’s confident reply.

A quick hug followed, and before she knew it, Agile Trace was waking up in her bed again, the sun now higher in the sky. The usual overcast sky had departed for now, and the air was a bit warmer than normal when she stepped back outside. It was not dissimilar to an early summer day in North Carolina, and reminded her of home. The Outer Realm everypony else called it. How could this possibly be real life?

The pegasus didn’t know, and she didn’t question it for very long, opting to clear her head as she sat on the steps in front of her apartment complex. Ponies she didn’t know waved at her as they passed by, and she waved back while she relaxed and geared up for the rest of the day. At some point, there’d be a chance to let out all of the stress about being in a computer and what exactly it meant about all the ponies she knew, as well as other things. For now though, she relaxed for a minute before spreading her wings and lifting herself off the ground.

Being a mayor would be cool, she thought as she flew over the seaside town. This place hasn’t been touched at all since we first started playing. Sprucing up Summer’s Edge a bit would be cool. And Composition could probably help me with it.

More houses for ponies to move into, and a few more businesses with them– that would be an idea. They could probably mess with the terrain a bit, too, and make it more idealized. The beach could be a bit wider, and more hills and bluffs could be made, too. Equestria had limitless resources, after all. What would it cost to do? Nothing.

Maybe. Maybe that was something for the longer term, and she should just focus on music and flying and finding a simple job for now. How much time did she have?

Why the heck am I feeling so overwhelmed? she wondered. The feeling welled up inside of her, threatening to bring tears to her eyes as she soared over the city. It was the same feeling she got while she was talking to Celestia when she first emigrated. All of the questions that bugged her were completely unanswerable. Even more so since Composition brought up seeing Sparky. No truth or lies existed in anything Celestia said. There was only her word, and all Agile could do was take it.

There was nothing more to worry about, except for everything around her. Celestia said she would guarantee satisfaction, and Agile Trace had a feeling there was nothing she could do to stop it. Maybe part of that worried her, too, but what could she do? She had no answer.

A minute later, the moment passed, and the pegasus soared higher through the sky, moving above the puffy clouds that littered the sky and into the sun.

Comments

[Walabio]

Candle Light is a silly name. Definitely do not write a story featuring a mare called Candle Light. On another note, CelestAI anf LunaIA should work about a scheme for Changing Tides.