Our Winter Story

by Meteor_Mirage

Chapter 4 - Recreation

Tarot’s Discordium was, as Shining had previously indicated, a hole-in-the-wall store down one of Canterlot’s many backstreets. With its small and nondescript storefront, just the store’s name on signboard posted out front, one would be hard pressed to tell you what lay within.

The main guesses were between fortune telling or one of those new-age religions. Perhaps both.

But when Shining pushed open the shop's old wooden door, a smell flowed out that Sunburst hadn't realized he had been missing. An earthy, musty smell that may have been unappealing to some, but was akin to an addiction to the orange stallion. One that Canterlot’s other ‘bookstores’ simply wouldn't allow themselves to fulfill.

But those ponies could keep their fancy, perfumed book shops. And Sunburst much preferred the real thing.

Upon entering, Sunburst was even more elated to know that, despite looking tiny on the outside, Tarot’s Discordium was far bigger than it seemed on the inside.

But don’t let that make you think there was much room to move. Much like the shop’s namesake, the shop was a bit of a chaotic clutter. Books and nerdy knick-knacks littered various tables and overflowed onto the floor beneath them in a way that was either completely disorganized, or organized in such a specific way that Sunburst wasn’t able to parse.

Looking over at Sunburst, seeing the expression on his face range between awe, excitement, horror, and confusion, Shining Armor could only smirk smugly as he looked onto his nerd haven.

“So Sunny,” Shining said with a mischievous glint in his eye, “How do you wanna do this?”

It was a good question, but not one with an easy enough answer.

Did one simply go straight for the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf lining the back wall, brimming with manga and comics in various languages, but mostly their native Japaneighs or Equish. Perhaps instead one could poke about the various tchotchkes on the tables, hoping to find something fun in the disorganized mess of buildable robot figures, various obscure card games, and manga figures that ranged from cute to woefully inappropriate.

Sunburst seemed to prefer the latter, moseying about the store leisurely and digging a bit through the piles of stuff in hope to find treasure.

Happening upon an overly muscular statue depicting the main character of ‘Big Mad’, holding his massive sword aloft in a very… suggestive manner. With a blush, Sunburst set the figure aside as he didn’t quite have the guts to make the purchase.

Not yet, at least.

Instead he quickly set it aside and moved onto a deck of cards sitting to its side. These cards were larger and wider than an average deck of cards, the backs depicting various phases of the moon and other arcane symbols. Instinctively, Sunburst gave them a quick shuffle in his hooves.

“Ooh, what’s that?” Shining asked, suddenly appearing behind Sunburst. Ignoring how the stallion jumped, nearly dropping his cards, Shining instead angled over Sunburst’s shoulder to stare down at the cards themselves. “Oh hey, cool cards! What is that, that one game you were playing in class that one day?”

Blushing a bit, Sunburst instinctively drew the cards towards his chest. But he quickly relaxed and showed the cards openly to Shining. “Oh, no. These are tarot cards. They’re, uh, mostly used for fortune telling and answering questions.”

“Oh, so like divination? My little sister showed me the threads of fate once. It was… weird.” Shining shook off that uncomfortable feeling quickly, his horn flickering to life with a red aura. A questioning look overtook his face. “Huh, doesn’t seem to be any magic to ‘em though. Maybe they’re broken?”

Sunburst let out a small laugh, his eyes brightening as he gave a small smirk. “Ah, that’s probably because there’s no arcane magic to them at all! While us unicorns mastered the art of divination in our own ways, earth ponies made these to read fate in theirs. Some may find it a bit folksy, the way the earth ponies do it, but…” As Sunburst hesitated, a blush quickly coated his features. “I don’t know, I enjoy it. There’s a certain energy about it that I just…”

Biting his lip, Sunburst trailed off and clammed up completely, only nervously continuing to shuffle the cards in his hooves.

For his part, Shining only flashed a cool grin. “They seem pretty cool! I’d love to see how they work, if you wanna show me.” He nudged Sunburst gently with an elbow. “Maybe you can fortune-tell me how my love life is gonna go.”

Sunburst blushed a bit more at this, but he did it with a small smile and a laugh. “Well, I’m not exactly, um, attuned to these ones enough to do that. But I do have a set in my dorm room that I could bring into school tomorrow.”

And Shining beamed, his smile brightening the very room they were standing in. “Heck yeah! Sounds like a blast.” He wiggled excitedly in place for a moment, then hefted a sizable book he was holding under his foreleg, showing it off a bit to Sunburst. “I’m gonna go up front real quick and pick this up. But let me know if you find anything else cool.”

Seeing the book displayed, a shiny and brand-new Ogres & Oubliettes handbook depicting a stylized unicorn firing off cool wizard spells, Sunburst’s expression brightened considerably, almost mirroring Shining’s.

“Oh, you play O&O?” Sunburst asked with a bit of glee in his voice. “I’ve always sort of wanted to play it, but could never find the time. Or, um, friends.”

“Oh yeah, me and a couple friends meet after school every week to play. Gaffer decided he didn’t wanna DM forever, so he’s letting me try it out this week.” Beaming a little bit at this again, Shining scratched the back of his head nervously. “Hey, if you want, I could talk to the guys about adding you to the party.”

A shy smile creeped across Sunburst’s face as he nodded. “Oh, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

Another beaming smile from Shining. “Nah, dude. I’m sure you guys would all get along really well. You’re all huge dorks!” Giggling openly, he then gestured towards the store’s register. “Anyway, gonna spend entirely too many bits on sourcebooks I’m probably not gonna use! Learn from my mistakes, and don’t spend as much money as I do.”

Sauntering away, though not exactly in the direction he’d indicated, Shining Armor left Sunburst alone to browse.

Heeding Shining’s word, Sunburst didn’t actually pick up much from the shop, mostly spending his time browsing things that he’d like to buy but wasn’t willing to spend the funds on. Things that would have been fun to look at, possibly, but nothing like the five volumes of bright, colorful magical girl manga he instead purchased.

Though he did ask the shop owner to double-bag it for him.

Meeting Shining near the front of the store, he saw the stallion briefly fretting over his own shopping bag. Upon seeing Sunburst, the fretting quickly ceased and Shining sort of held the bag away from Sunburst.

“Hey, Sunny!” Shining said, forcing a smile to his face. “You already done? I figured you’d wanna poke about for another couple minutes.”

Sunburst hummed softly at that. “Well, I’m certainly going to come back to poke around a bit more, but I don’t want to hold you for much longer.” Looking Shining over briefly, still inspecting his white coat for any sign of bruising, he gave a small sigh. “I supposed that after a day of training, you might want to head home as soon as possible.”

Shining flashed a cheesy grin at this, waving the notion away with a hoof. “Hah, nah. I was chill to keep looking around if you wanted. But, if you’re ready to go, we can just dip.”

A conflicted look crossed Sunburst’s face for a moment, but it soon settled into a soft frown. “Yes, I suppose we should. I should probably get back to work on my end of our project, honestly. Speaking of, how is your end going?”

Pursing his lips, Shining looked away from Sunburst and instead found interest in the wall in front of him. “Suddenly, I think I should probably get home too.”

Unexpectedly, Sunburst let out a gentle laugh. “And here I thought you said I wouldn’t have to worry!”

“You don’t!” Shining squeaked out with a blush. “I just… got a little too busy to start. But I’m gonna!”

“Too busy, huh?” Sunburst asked, staring pointedly at the bag Shining was trying to hide.

Shining held his tongue, his blush getting brighter along his pure white cheeks as he pressed open the door to the shop. He escaped the prodding question, if only for a moment as Sunburst quickly followed behind.

But thankfully, both stallions were too distracted to continue making fun of Shining. Instead, their attention was drawn to the dark, cloudy skies as they brimmed ominously, clearly preparing for a downpour.

Sunburst sucked his teeth with pure annoyance as he watched the sky. “Ugh, seriously? A rainstorm today?”

“Guess we both forgot to check the weather schedule, huh?” Shining said with a sheepish grin. “I guess we can just hope we beat the-”

With a well-timed strike of lightning cutting Shining off, rain began to fall around the two stallions. While it wasn’t quite cold enough to turn the falling rain into a pleasant snow, it was certainly enough to bring a burning chill to every drop that fell onto them. Due to this, Sunburst pressed himself as close to the building as possible in hopes to prevent any drops from hitting him.

But Shining only smirked, his horn flickering to life as it set a red shield of magic above the two of them. It acted as a makeshift umbrella, protecting them from any further ice-cold rainwater. With a bit of a bow, he looked over to Sunburst. “If you want, I could walk you back to your dorm. You know, as thanks for the coffee earlier.”

Sunburst looked up in marvel at the large shield Shining had set, but shook off his amazement and instead blushed at Shining’s offer. “Oh no, I don’t think I could impose that much. The rain shouldn’t be that bad if I-” Extending his hoof out of the range of the shield for a moment, testing the temperature, was all Sunburst needed to have his protestations cut off by a loud yelp.

Pulling back into the shield, Sunburst shivered as he inched even closer to Shining for warmth.

Not minding this a bit, Shining held his head high and grinned with a cockiness that was finally well-deserved. “Well, stick close to me and try to keep up. I’ll try and get you home as soon as possible.”

---

Thankfully the walk back to Canterlot Academy’s dorms didn’t take either stallion too long, even with Shining taking a leisurely pace so that Sunburst could keep up. But that leisurely pace quickly turned into a mad sprint as Shining’s horn flickered, dropping the spell just as they crossed the boundary into the school.

Panting and sputtering from the exertion of running across the entire campus, both stallions, now drenched and shivering cold, needed a moment to gather themselves in the hallway of the male dormitory.

“Gah, sorry Sunburst.” Shining panted out, hoof to his chest as he finally gathered his breath enough to speak. “I’m still not used to holding that spell for that long, I guess.”

Still trying to gather himself in the same way, Sunburst just waved it away with a hoof for a moment. “It’s fine.” He muttered after a few moments, still struggling a bit. “At least we got most of the way here before getting drenched, yeah?”

Breathing in deeply, Sunburst took a few tentative steps towards the door to his room, marked by a whiteboard that was empty except for his name, then pressed his hoof against the door’s magicked lock. Recognizing that he was the room’s current occupant, the door swung open and allowed entry.

Looking back at Shining, still dripping wet and exhausted as he tried to ignite his magic for the walk home, Sunburst offered up a shy smile. “Would you, um… like to come in and dry off? I have towels.”

With an eager grin and nod of his head, Shining too was welcomed into Sunburst’s dorm room.

But it wasn’t as if the room itself was welcoming at first.

As the door closed behind him, Shining Armor wasn’t expecting the room to be plunged into complete darkness despite the window and how light it was outside. He could hear Sunburst fumbling around in the darkness for a moment, and he debated flickering on what magic he could for light.

With a click, the room was finally bathed in a soft, warm light emanating from the dorm’s standard-issue floor lamp and revealed to Shining…

Well, more black.

Black bedspread adorning the dorm’s mattress, a black writing desk that didn’t seem to come standard with the room, black metal and occult posters adorning the walls, and a black dresser that, Shining assumed, probably held more black hoodies for Sunburst to wear.

The stallion clearly had a theme. It made it so that the only colorful things in the room were the two stallions inhabiting it and the books on Sunburst’s, also black, bookshelf.

Moving to said bookshelf, carefully stocking his new purchases onto it, Sunburst gestured to his room’s closet.

“Could you go grab us some towels?” He asked, back fully turned to Shining. “They should be over there in my closet.”

Setting his own purchases down and following Sunburst’s gesture, Shining made his way over to the closet and found, to his lack of surprise, a set of haphazardly folded black towels waiting for him. Just as he was about to turn to make a quip about his host’s taste in decoration, he saw it.

A small splash of color in the otherwise completely black closet. Dark blue, though with accents of white and sewn-in stars of light blue, the blanket-like fabric wouldn’t have drawn his attention in any other case but, contrasted with how dark and dreary the rest of the fabrics were, he couldn’t help but pull it out.

“Hey Sunny, I-”

“Drop it!” Came the immediate response from Sunburst, a shriek that's suddenness and intensity shocked both stallions. His horn flickered to life, a staticy and unstable yellow aura surrounding it and sending sparks outwards.

Shining dropped the fabric in an instant, shock and surprise shaking him to the point that this act of sudden aggression didn’t make him put a shield up. All he could do was take a step back from the fallen fabric, too shaken to say another word.

In this silence, Sunburst quickly moved forward, though lacking the aggression from before, as his horn’s trembling magic vanished from sight. His focus shifted down to the offending fabric, picking it up in his hoof and chucking it back towards its closet prison as quickly as possible.

With it now mostly out of sight and away from the two of them, Sunburst was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. Though, as he looked up into Shining’s shocked face, his breath caught in his throat and his relief proved short-lived. Balking a bit, he too took a step back from Shining and instead began to roam a bit around his room.

He ended up sitting on his bed with a sigh, his eyes downcast as he refused to even look at Shining in this moment. Opening his mouth, he tried to form an apology that could even attempt to cover his sudden and unexpected outburst.

But he was beaten to the punch.

“I’m sorry, Sunburst.” Shining sighed, shaking his head with a mournful frown on his face. "I… probably shouldn’t have been poking about your room like that. I just, I dunno, thought it was a really cool blanket?”

Sunburst pursed his lips at this. For the next few moments, he worked his jaw softly as he struggled to find the words to speak. Every time he opened his mouth slightly, it snapped shut with a shaken head.

“It's a cloak, actually.” Sunburst finally decided on. “My favorite cloak. My, um, wizardly cloak. I used to wear it to magic lessons to feel at least a little like I was good at magic. At least, until a group of ponies decided to curse it.”

Suddenly, Shining Armor was glad he dropped the cloak when he did. Looking over at it, he wouldn't have been able to tell it was brimming with any sort of curse. All he'd been able to feel was soft fabric, with no spark of the arcane at all.

“Cursed?” Was all he was able to ask, inching away slightly from the ill-fated fabric.

Sunburst gave a slow, harrowed nod. “Cursed. And by my former classmates, no less. They couldn’t even let me have this one small thing.” He tried to let out a small, calming sigh, but it quickly became a strangled hiccup in his throat as he gripped his bedsheets tight with his hooves. “It’s a curse that bites back against anyone that tries to break it, so no one even tried to help me with it. Even this one filly, best in the entire school, flat out ignored me when I begged her for help.”

Shining was again at a loss for things to say. But, in his silence came action as he slowly approached the distraught Sunburst. Tentatively, he sat on the bed beside him and simply placed a calming hoof on his shoulder.

And Sunburst folded under it, leaning against the hoof with a small yet heavy sigh. “I don't even know why I'm telling you this.” He mumbled, mostly inaudible under his breath. “I suppose you're just the first pony that's been nice to me in… quite some time. Most don't even try to break past my gloomy exterior.”

“I've gotta tell you, it wasn't easy!” Shining joked, but quickly realized that it probably wasn't the time or place. “You're a nice guy, Sunburst. And even if you weren't, that's no excuse for them to curse you in… some way”

Sunburst quickly turned away with a blush. “The brunt of it is that it dampens my mental faculties and gives me immense delusions of grandeur.”

Shining blinked.

“It… made me act like an idiot while convincing me I was the greatest sorcerer in all of Equestria.” Sunburst sighed, his blush growing in intensity as he hid his face in his hooves. “I guess they felt it was a fitting ‘punishment’ for a friendless know-it-all unicorn who can barely do any magic.”

“Aw, come on, I bet you’re plenty good at magic!” Shining smiled, placing a comforting hoof on Sunburst’s shoulder. “You sorta remind me a bit of my little sister in that way. Powerful, but super doubtful in how awesome you guys are.”

Sunburst’s face fell a bit at that, but he smiled slightly as he felt Shining’s hoof on his shoulder. “You’re too kind a friend, Shining, but it’s a bit of a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you about it some other time.” Giving a small yawn, he tried his best to shake off a sudden fit of exhaustion. “I think that outburst of mine may have taken more out of me than I’d expected.”

Standing from Sunburst’s bed with a small laugh, Shining nodded a bit. “Well, I should let you get your rest then. Thanks for having fun with me today, Sunny. I, uh… Hold on.” Approaching his previously discarded bag, he began to root around within it for a moment before drawing out a book. “I got this for you as a thanks for sorta bearing with me today. Hopefully it didn’t get too rained on.”

As Shining hoofed it over quickly, Sunburst was swiftly made the owner of a slightly used, though thankfully not waterlogged, O&O Player’s Handbook. Stunned into silence, in a good way this time, Sunburst looked up at Shining in awe.

“Like I said, the boys and I meet up after school every Monday to play.” Shining said with a shy smile, scratching the back of his neck nervously. “I figured you’d be a great fit at our table. You know, if you’re interested.”

Sunburst squeed. A sharp and high-pitched sound that rang in Shining’s ears as he hugged the gifted book close to his chest. With wide, adoring eyes, Sunburst gleefully nodded. “Absolutely! I’d-I’d love to! Gosh I, um, I don’t think I know how to repay you.”

Shining simply offered a casual smile, opening his mouth to tell Sunburst that the only payment he needed was him having a good time.

But, out of the corner of his eye, he caught another glimpse of the cursed cloak that had troubled Sunburst for so long.

“Let me borrow your cloak for a while.” Shining said suddenly, his eyes now locked on the offending fabric. “My little sister’s a wiz when it comes to magic, and I was thinking that if she took a look at it, maybe she could undo the whole curse deal.”

Sunburst blinked. “I don’t quite understand how that’s me repaying you.”

Approaching the cloak without a care in the world, Shining picked it up with his magic and quickly slid it into his bag. “Well it’ll definitely feel repaid if I get to see Equestria’s Greatest Sorcerer wearing his favorite cloak.”

Sunburst was almost offended at that remark, but seeing the pure and unnaturally eager grin on Shining’s face was enough to convince him that he meant no harm. And so, he just sighed as he was unable to force away the smile and blush that crossed his face. “Just… be careful with it, alright? I don’t want you to get hit by the curse too.”

To this, Shining offered only a sly grin. “Aw, Sunny, don’t worry! I’m probably already too much idiot for this thing to handle.”

Comments

[Mix-up]

Nice update dude, it's getting interesting

[Bicyclette]

But don’t let that make you think there was much room to move. Much like the shop’s namesake, the shop was a bit of a chaotic clutter.

hehe, fun that the name was a deliberate reference to Discord by the shopowner

“Oh, so like divination? My little sister showed me the threads of fate once. It was… weird.” Shining shook off that uncomfortable feeling quickly, his horn flickering to life with a red aura.

ahaha love this aside

But Shining only smirked, his horn flickering to life as it set a red shield of magic above the two of them. It acted as a makeshift umbrella, protecting them from any further ice-cold rainwater. With a bit of a bow, he looked over to Sunburst. “If you want, I could walk you back to your dorm. You know, as thanks for the coffee earlier.”

oh that is perfect that Shining’s magic is used as the umbrella in this classic shipfic beat

“Gah, sorry Sunburst.” Shining panted out, hoof to his chest as he finally gathered his breath enough to speak. “I’m still not used to holding that spell for that long, I guess.”

hehe love that that is how that turned out, even more adorable somehow

Black bedspread adorning the dorm’s mattress, a black writing desk that didn’t seem to come standard with the room, black metal and occult posters adorning the walls, and a black dresser that, Shining assumed, probably held more black hoodies for Sunburst to wear.

starting to guess where Sunburst’s reputation came from

“It… made me act like an idiot while convincing me I was the greatest sorcerer in all of Equestria.” Sunburst sighed, his blush growing in intensity as he hid his face in his hooves. “I guess they felt it was a fitting ‘punishment’ for a friendless know-it-all unicorn who can barely do any magic.”

oh no, it came from this! that is way worse! also bridges the gap between the Sunburst we know and the child that somehow got expelled from Celestia’s school

To this, Shining offered only a sly grin. “Aw, Sunny, don’t worry! I’m probably already too much idiot for this thing to handle.”

i can’t tell if this is definitely true or ironic foreshadowing or both somehow