Sunset's back in her home town for the winter break. After a long first semester at her university, she's glad to finally be back with her friends. One friend in particular, Marionette, will help her prepare for the future to come.
Schedules, classes, long lectures and longer tests, combined together and they all added up to a much-needed vacation for Sunset. Winter is now and the winter break dawns a new year, soon to have new classes and new challenges.
After promising to take her fencing career to new heights and change the reputation of Canterlot High, Sunset's first step to that goal is in sight. By getting herself into a first division school, she has a shot at some of the most competitive fencing tournaments in the nation. But getting ready for that will take more than routine conditioning.
Winter vacation is a time to have fun, but once the new year ticks over, it's the perfect time to break some personal records.
Sunset’s phone buzzed as a message from Twilight came.
Got off the plane, she sent back. Gonna find a bus stop on the 51 route.
Take 362, there are fewer stops.
Sunset sent back a thumbs-up before opening an internet tab on her phone. She searched for the bus routes around downtown Canterlot City until she found the 362, which just had a bus leave the airport stop at one o’clock. She checked the time on her phone: One o’five.
Well, there was nothing to be done. New Trottingham University, where she studied, was two hours away by plane. Waiting a half-hour for the next bus didn’t seem like much by comparison. Sunset pulled up the handle on her suitcase and strolled leisurely to the other end of the airport.
As she walked, a couple signs passed her that read “Canterlot Airways supports students at Crystal Prep!”
Of course, ever the expanding bureaucracy, Crystal Prep was. Their new headmaster, Cadence, was a nicer woman according to Twilight, but no less a bright mind and great leader. The way Twilight spoke about her, Sunset was pretty sure Cadence knew how to get big corporations to make charitable donations in the name of education and good publicity.
She slowed her pace for a moment. The name Cadence, didn’t it sound familiar to her? Sunset shrugged and walked up to the bus stop. She had an old life a long time ago, it was probably just a name she heard in passing. Probably no one important.
She sat down and played around with some games on her phone while she waited. “Pouch Monsters Run!” was one of her favourites. It tracked her progress whenever went on runs for her cardio conditioning, rewarding her with the chance throw nets and catch mythical creatures that, according to the app, “only her electronic device can detect.” There were five tied-up unicorns in her game inventory that she was going to trade for “Cheat Day Chocolate Bars,” the in-game currency.
“Wait a minute,” Sunset paused. Something felt really wrong with the fact she was playing this game, all things considered. But she was eight chocolate bars away from buying a new hat accessory for her character.
After what seemed like just a few minutes the bus came and Sunset dragged her suitcase along. It wasn’t much, enough clean clothes for the two-week break. In her backpack, she had a few books she needed to return to Twilight and a receipt for a room reservation at a bed and breakfast location, outside the downtown area of course. Prices in the city were borderline robbery.
Like entering a forest and seeing the shrubbery grow into towering redwoods, little appliance shops and grocery stores sprouted taller and taller, becoming banks, offices, and designer fashion buildings.
Sunset’s phone buzzed again, a message from Pinkie Pie, encased at the start and finish by pleading emoticons.
Twilight’s house has no extra frosting for the gingerbread houses! She says excess sugar “can progress fatty liver disease to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis which increases the risk of progressive fibrosis and cirrhosis.” Can you please with extra icing on top stop by a bakery shop and get more frosting? It’s not like I’m going to eat it all. Really I’m not.
Sunset shook her head with a smirk on her face. I would, but there’s no way she wouldn’t notice, and she gets mad when we don’t listen to science. You’ll just have to make do.
A string of crying images filled Sunset’s phone, the last one being a selfie of Pinkie. But since the pleading stopped, Sunset knew everything would be fine. Pinkie would find another way.
Sunset felt a chill down her spine. Oh no. Without an easy solution, there was no telling what extraordinary measures Pinkie would take. Sometimes, the lesser of two evils was needed. Sunset quickly pulled out her phone again.
On second thought, there’s a grocery store right before the bus hits the crowded side of the city. I’ll see if I can get some frosting there.
Sunset waited with growing dread until a smiling emoticon came back as a reply. Pent-up stress left Sunset’s chest with a deep gasp of air. Knowing what Pinkie could do, and acknowledging how much more there was that she didn’t know, it felt as if a disaster had been avoided.
The bus rounded the corner to where Sunset was staying. She wanted to head over to the winter party at Twilight’s, but she needed to put her suitcase away first. She was staying at an old brick townhouse that had been renovated and painted over with fresh white paint.
“Willow House’s House of Willows,” read the sign, alluding to a small park the house had been built next to, which boasts a few large willow trees with swings on their lower branches.
Sunset checked in and went up to the third floor. She had paid for an affordable room: smaller space, one window with a bad view, and her bathroom was located on the other side of the house. But, she wasn’t picky, and it gave her a lot more wiggle room in her budget than a hotel inside the city.
As soon as she found a spot to set down her suitcase, Sunset hurried back out to the bus stop again and caught a ride to Twilight’s party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pinkie Pie waited for Sunset at the steps of Twilight’s home. Her parents were out, going on a free cruise her mother had won from an online survey, so they were free to decorate with boughs of holly and energy-consuming light-up reindeer on the roof.
Sunset stared up at the reindeer as she walked over from the bus stop. “Hey, Pinkie,” she said, impressed. “Looks like that levitation comes in handy.”
“This is no time for aesthetic impressions!” Pinkie hollered. “Twilight’s on the phone with her dad right now, it’s the only time she won’t notice the ‘you-know-what.’”
“Alright,” Sunset smiled as she unzipped her jacket, revealing a WaySave shopping bag of sugar-free frosting. “But I had to make some compromises, just in case Twilight notices.”
Pinkie Pie squinted at the frosting label, then eyed Sunset warily. “It’ll do, Sun-Shim. It’ll do just fine.”
“Um, okay.” Sunset followed Pinkie Pie inside.
“Howdy Sunset!” was the first thing she heard when she saw the party. Applejack and Applebloom were in the kitchen, making dough for pie crusts and cookies with Pinkie.
Fluttershy and a couple of birds placed scented pinecone-shaped candles around Twilight’s house where they could look natural and give the urban indoors and wild outdoor feeling. They decorated the fruit basket, coffee table, and one outside the restroom.
Rarity, her hands full of bedazzled ribbons, nearly jumped on Sunset with a welcoming hug. “So good to see you, darling, it’s been too long.”
“Attention to detail as always,” Sunset chuckled, noticing the red and green ribbons around Twilight’s living room.
“Ah, yes.” Rarity handed her pile of ribbons to Sunset. “There’s still so much more to put up before everyone else arrives, could you be a dear and put those up by the fireplace?”
“Happy to.” Sunset warmed up by the fire as she stuck the ribbons onto the tape Rarity had already used to mark their places. Looking around, almost everyone had arrived.
“Rainbow Dash isn’t here yet?” Sunset figured she’d be the first to show up to anything.
“Oh, she was here early, I asked if she could pick up Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” Rarity told her. “They’re trying out dance lessons together.”
“I would’ve gone today too,” added Applebloom, pouting from the kitchen, “but I twisted my ankle practising one of the moves.”
Sunset winced at the thought. “Ouch.” She had a similar injury, overextending a lunge during a fencing match. Not fun.
“Oh, it doesn’t hurt much, just a mild sprain, but taking it easy means it’ll get better sooner.”
“That’s smart. Plus, it’s nice of you to help us out with our party.” Sunset stuck up the last ribbon, then took a seat on a chair by the fireplace. “Still, seems like a lot of work for just us.”
Rarity turned around and paused on adjusting her ribbons. “Didn’t Twilight mention she invited some of her old classmates?”
“Really?” She checked her phone and scrolled up to the past messages. “I didn’t see anything. Oh, I had my phone on silent. Didn’t see the messages before.”
“Reckon it’s better now than later,” Applejack chuckled.
“I guess since Twilight decided to have this party,” Sunset said, “I shouldn’t be surprised she invited a few more friends. Glad she warmed up to Crystal Prep after all these years.”
“Speaking of students from Crystal Prep,” Fluttershy said after lighting the last candle, “is Marionette still coming later?”
“I think she took off this morning.” Sunset looked out the window to the sky. It was only five o’clock but the sun had already begun to set, leaving just the fading violet bands on the horizon. “Her flight should land at around seven or eight.”
“Wow, long flight from England, huh?” Applejack whistled.
“Well, you know how it is,” Pinkie injected herself as she brought gingerbread from the kitchen to the coffee table. “The ocean’s always getting in the way, doing its oceany things.”
As the girls talked, Twilight came down from her bedroom, getting off the phone with her parents. “What oceany things?” she asked.
“Hey Twilight,” Sunset waved to her.
Twilight smiled. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were here already. Sorry, my parents just called to make sure I was handling the party well.”
Applejack opened the oven and put in the first pies. “Everything’s looking great, sugar cube.”
“Thanks.” She came down to the middle of the living room where she levitated more of Rarity’s ribbons. “The girls from CP said they wanted to wait at the airport for Sugar Coat so they could all come together.”
The ribbons floated around the house and lined the rails on the stairs and hung on the frames of the doors. Rarity watched thirty minutes of work completed in thirty seconds.
“Goodness,” she gasped, “I should have you join me at my internship. I could get so many outfits made.”
Sunset went and grabbed a piece of cracked gingerbread from the coffee table. “Well, this is going to be easier with magic. Got anything to pass the time?”
“I bought that new game Rainbow Dash kept talking about,” Twilight suggested. “Uh, Super Smash Gals, I think.”
“Is that right?” Applejack chuckled, “ Hoo doggy, I think it’s time someone showed Dash how a real champ plays.”
Sunset put her hands on her hips. “Not a chance, AJ. I beat Tirek’s Revenge on Nightmare Hardcore. This’ll be a piece of cake.” She took another bite of Pinkie’s baking. “Or, well, a piece of gingerbread, I guess.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As late as it was, six artfully animated cartoon characters careened around the screen, competitively smashing each other in an attempt to hoist the other off of the fighting arena. On one side of the room, three former students of Crystal Prep, Sugarcoat, Indigo, and Sour Sweet. On the other, students formerly from Canterlot High School, Sunset, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.
“No, please AJ, we’re friends!” Sunset tightened her grip on her controller as her character was kicked across the television screen.
Sugar Coat rolled her eyes. “This isn’t team mode. Friends just become opportunities to score points.”
As she said that, however, Indigo Zap booted Sugar Coat’s character off the screen, bursting it into a cascade of blue and pinkie and violet colours. Dash laughed at the irony and pressed forward to knock Indigo off too.
“Not so fast.” Sour Sweet pressed a sequence of buttons her controller and her character grabbed Dash’s, throwing the cartoon character onto the ground for a burst of points. “Aw, did that hurt?”
A few seconds later Rainbow executed the same move back at her. “There, now you know for yourself.”
Sunset watched and calmed down from the blood-boiling heat of competition. Twilight, Fluttershy, and the rest of Twilight’s old classmates sat aside from the action at the dining table and assembled a structurally sound multi-story gingerbread complex. She thought about taking a break from the game and join them, but she paused to check her phone.
No messages from Marionette yet, and she was ten minutes late. Was she close, so that’s why she didn’t bother to send a message? Sunset tried to clear her thoughts and just appreciate the rest of her friends. Still, she found herself pausing when she looked at the clock on her phone. Eleven minutes late. Then a message popped up.
Got out of the airport, but the 362 doesn’t run this late. I’ll have to wait forty minutes for the 51 to come around.
Forty minutes? Sunset buried her face in her hands. The streets weren’t that crowded at night, why couldn’t the buses go faster? A thought raced into Sunset’s mind.
She went over to Twilight. “Hey, your parents lent you their car, right?”
“Uh-huh.” She was focused on her gingerbread house, though. “Sunset, could you lick these? They need to be sticky to keep the walls together.”
A handful of puffy marshmallows fell into Sunset’s hands. “That’s gross but okay.” She softened each one until they could squeeze between two crackers to make the structure stable. “By the way, Marionette’s waiting for a bus at the airport. Is it cool if I borrow your car to pick her up instead?”
“Is she taking the 362?”
“Closed. Has to wait for the 51.”
“Yikes,” Twilight’s glasses slipped from surprise, “that’s like one every hour.”
“Forty minutes right now, but yeah,” Sunset replied.
Pinkie held the roof of the gingerbread mansion in place while some guy from Twilight’s old engineering club attached gummy bears as roofing tiles.
“Uh, I’m a bit busy,” Twilight told Sunset, “my keys are by my bed. You can go ahead and grab them, and bring my phone charger down too, it’s about to die.”
Sunset spun on her heels. “Keys and charger, got it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the late hours, the airport was still teeming with life. Like robots, security personnel patrolled inside and out of the building while passengers carried their luggage around like ants on a routine trail. The little carts used to carry large bags, they were dispensed by actual machines to people who paid. The people who dragged them back to the cart station were just as mechanical.
Even at this late hour, the streets, the airport, the city's ceaseless wheel, they all continued on. Marionette stood by the curb, waiting patiently but excitedly for Sunset to pull up. A wide grin on her face cut a bleeding rift into the machine that was the airport as if daring the monotonous beast to weight her down any longer.
“Nǐ hàomǎ?,” Sunset called out in Marionette’s other language through the window as she slowed the car down just up to where Marionette stood. The unique mix of raven black hair and piercing ocean-blue eyes made it impossible to miss her.
“It’s pronounced ‘nǐ hǎo ma?.’” She put her suitcase in the trunk of the car and tossed her backpack on the back seat.
Sunset tilted her head down a little and mumbled to herself. “Isn’t that what I said?” She didn’t let Marionette hear her, tonight was not a night she wanted to be lectured on Mandarin.
“You know,” Marionette said as she sat up in front, “I could’ve waited another ten minutes for the bus. Didn’t have to come.”
“Yeah, but that route’s slow,” Sunset replied, turning out of the airport and hitting the gas to get onto the main road. “Would’ve taken another hour for the bus to reach Twilight’s house.”
Marionette gave a friendly bump on Sunset’s shoulder with her head. “So, how’s NTU? I heard you won the regional competition with the other colleges around there.”
“Yeah, their gyms are really nice. Everything’s new, the gym equipment, the facilities, and Coach Nachreissen has a lot of connections. He invites former students who are currently training for the Olympics to fence with us.”
“That’s nice of them,” Marionette said, “we have a few national champions who do that at my school, but they always make it sound like they’re really busy. They get really snapping sometimes when we train.”
Sunset made a right turn and then filtered left into a short, packed street. Late night shifts in many places were about to start, so there were cars coming in from outside the downtown area cramming the city with traffic.
“Guess we’ll have to wait too,” Marionette looked at the river of red headlights.
“Good time to catch up,” Sunset said. “Twilight invited a lot more people than I expected, it was wild when I left?
“You’re joking. I’ve never seen her do anything wild, let alone throw a crazy party.”
“They’re playing the new Super Smash Gals,” Sunset clarified.
Marionette shot a deep-eyed stare at her. “The hell, who bought that so soon?”
“Twilight.”
Her eyes widened. “Well then, that’s something I never expected.”
“People can change a lot when they go to college.”
Marionette reached out and suddenly squeezed Sunset’s arm and shoulder. “You’ve definitely changed. A little leaner and firmer.”
Some movement in traffic finally brought them to an intersection, and Sunset turned left on the green light, driving around the centre of the city toward Twilight’s neighbourhood.
“Also, wǒ huì shuō yīdiǎn zhōngwén,” Sunset added to Marionette’s assessment of her body. “Just a little though, haven’t learned much. It’s so different from what I’m used to.”
“Right, where you come from, most people speak one,” Marionette remembered. Outside of Sunset’s six main friends, Marionette was the only person who knew about Equestria. Well, knew a little about it. Sunset didn’t give all the details, like how humans become ponies in the other world. Trying to leave the past in the past.
“Doesn’t matter,” Sunset brushed off the comment. “I’m here now and I need to learn.”
Marionette nodded. “Right, of course.” Traffic started to clear up as they moved out of the business streets toward the residential neighbourhoods. Tall concrete business buildings and brick pizza stores gave way to wooden walls, painted bricks, and roof tiles.
“Where are you staying?” Marionette asked curiously. “I can’t imagine that you kept your old apartment all this time.”
“Haha, no. I’m at a bed and breakfast. If we were on the bus route we would’ve passed it, actually.”
“Huh, pretty close to downtown, then.”
Sunset scanned left, right, then left again before turning towards a school zone. “How about you? Excited to see your parents again.”
Marionette laughed a little nervously. “Honestly, no. My parents trust me to handle my own classwork, but they’re getting worried that I’m too focused. My dad keeps talking about what romance is like in college and it’s making me feel weird.”
“Oh, I’m so glad I don’t have to go through that,” Sunset laughed.
“My mom’s worse,” she continued in disbelief as if she couldn’t believe it herself. “Did you know, last month she straight-up just asked me why I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.”
“If that was me, I would’ve hung up,” Sunset said blatantly. Princess Celestia had a way of sticking in Sunset’s mind as a motherly figure, and the thought of Celestia getting involved in her romantic life was too uncomfortable.
“No hesitation, I would’ve just instantly hit end-call.”
“Ugh, I wish I did.”
“What did you do instead?”
“I lied my ass off, that’s what. Told her that there was a guy on the men’s fencing team that was kind of cute.”
“That’s a lie? Feels like it’s vague enough to be true.”
Marionette shrugged. “I don’t really like any of the guys on the fencing team. Half of them come from upper-class families, the other half are way too competitive, and that’s saying something coming from me.”
“Come on, you just haven’t met the right guy,” Sunset tried to make her feel better. “Don’t let your parents rush it.”
“Yeah,” Marionette looked at Sunset, “just gotta find the right one.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Nǐ hǎo!”
The other Crystal Prep girls greeted and pulled Marionette in a massive group hug as she and Sunset came through the door. The gingerbread mansion that was almost complete when Sunset left was now unimaginably huge, a gingerbread palace.
“Zhè shì shéi zuò de?” Marionette asked her friends.
“Dàduō shì nà liǎng gè, Twilight and Pinkie,” Sugar Coat replied. “But technically it was a team effort. We got tired of winning at Smash Gals.”
“Only because you kept doing the same attack,” Rainbow quickly countered. “We were winning until you found that combo.”
“No way, we do what it takes to win,” Indigo Zap snapped back. A short skirmish over who was in the right broke out.
Sunset nudged Marionette in the arm. “What the hay, dude. Why’s Sugar Coat’s pronunciation so good?”
“Mandarin was an elective at CP,” she answered.
Twilight eventually got in between the two rival schools and stopped the argument. “Come on, we all worked on the gingerbread, I think now that Marionette’s here, we can have our barbeque. The kababs should be almost done.”
“You already made the kababs?” Sunset asked as they all gathered toward Twilight’s backyard.
“Well, we gotta have something to go with pie,” Applebloom said. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both nodded.
“Sorry we started cooking without you, sugar cube,” Applejack said. “But, at least they’re ready.”
The savoury and sweet smell of pineapples, peppers, mushrooms, and meats filled the small backyard. Hickory wood smoke wafted around and filled the air. Sunset realized how hungry she actually was when she saw the pies laid out on the table by the barbeque.
Tall bottles of soft drinks, plus a few cans of hard cider and whiskey from Applejack, were packed into a cooler. Marionette whistled, impressed, and patted Twilight on the back.
“Damn, never would’ve guessed you were holding out on us,” she said. “But you do know how to throw a party.”
What followed could only be described as wholesome, though slightly drunk, fun as friends and rivals from highschool swapped stories of their new challenges from college. Perhaps some things changed. Sunset was surprised to find out Fluttershy joined a public speaking club. But, they were all still the same friends she had when they left for school.
Applejack was still protective of her family, Rainbow Dash was still wild, and thus it was only natural that Applejack started wrestling Rainbow after Applebloom mysteriously got a hold of a couple cans of whiskey.
“Why’d you even bring it if you knew they’d be here?”
A week of winter vacation flew by quick and slow in a weird way. Going to a hockey game with Rainbow and Pinkie, touring an observatory outside of town with Twilight, writing a song with Fluttershy, and trying on Rarity’s dresses with Applejack, it all seemed like she had all the time in the world while she was with them. Thinking back, it all mutated to a fleeting moment rushing up into Friday.
Sunset rounded the corner of the block on the last mile of her warm-up jog. She had done this warm up four times a week, up and down the hills around New Trottingham University and on the sand along the nearby beaches. The flat streets of downtown Canterlot barely fazed her.
For winter, it was oddly sunny. Still, clouds still blocked half the sky, while the cold air still bit her lungs with each breath. Sucking the air through her nose burned, but Sunset knew to breathe through the mouth would feel worse, and she didn’t want to make herself look bad in front of Marionette.
Today was their day, and Marionette wanted to start it off with some fun in the park. So Sunset adjusted her normal jogging path and took a straight path to Canterlot Gardens. Once the personal garden of a railway tycoon, it had long since been converted to a public park for children and pets to play.
The park sat a little farther away than Sunset’s usual warm-up, but given how repetitive her warm-ups had grown, she figured it was for the better. Even in the cold, she felt properly warmed up by the time she passed through the big metal gates into the park.
Marionette stretched her legs against the trunk of the tree while she waited, the definition in her calves and thighs showing through her fencing pants. Their gear bags leaned against the bench under the branches, swords all laid out and ready.
“Thanks for picking my stuff up for me,” Sunset managed her breath steadily as she slowed down and took a break on the bench. “Now I don’t have to get a taxi back to my room to get it.”
“No sweat. But I bet you could’ve just jogged back to get it,” Marionette joked while she put on her fencing jacket, “you’re probably in better shape than I am right now.”
She grabbed Sunset and examined her back and shoulder muscles. As a fencer, she didn’t need bulky muscles, but her time spent competing at the collegiate level had transformed her trapezius and deltoids into firm wiring that packed a hidden power. Without strong shoulders, a fencer lost the snapping speed in their thrusts when exhaustion started to come over them.
Sunset turned around. “You’re still getting a scholarship for fencing with your university. Don’t act like you’re out of shape.”
“Not completely,” Marionette chuckled, “but I’m not working out as hard as I used to. Tends to happen when you spend half your day coding instead of doing sprints. I’m just better technique-wise than some of the other fencers.”
Sunset swapped her sweatpants for the fencing suspenders in her bag. A few eyes glanced their way, taking in the odd sight of two fencers putting on their gear at a park. Marionette watched as well, noticing the difference in the rest of Sunset’s physique. She had good legs and core when she was just a club fencer, but being more competitive put her on a completely different level.
“Catch.”
Marionette fumbled as Sunset tossed her fencing mask to her. The rim of the mask caught onto her fingers by some miracle, avoiding the recently cut, dew-covered grass.
This was the battleground Marionette wanted to see. She needed to see. Sunset had been emailing her videos of victory after victory at college competitions, but there was still one thing Marionette had to know before Sunset started taking on the higher-ranked fencers in the nation.
They carried their bags and picked out a corner of the park behind a tree just to make sure no one got too close and took a stray thrust.
“Three weapons?” Sunset offered, leaning her gear against the tree and pulling out a foil, epée, and sabre.
Marionette did the same. “Sure thing.” More of a game than an actual bout, the three weapon challenge required its fencers to rotate weapons after every point was scored. They transitioned the same way tournaments usually did, from foil to epée to sabre, repeating three times before the points were tallied.
Marionette tested the grass under her shoes, hopping gently left and right to build up a steady rhythm. Sunset wasn’t going to get caught off guard. They might have been fencing for fun, but she wanted Marionette to know how much better she had gotten.
After they faced each at CHS’s Interregional Fencing Tournament, Sunset felt like she owed Marionette for putting her on the path to a larger goal. She had no idea what she wanted to do in college, her high school was the only piece of the human world she had really gotten to know, and leaving it terrified her in a way she could never describe.
It was Marionette who had recognized Sunset’s passion and pushed her to hit new heights at the IFT. In return, Sunset set her mind on the single greatest accomplishment for an athlete, the Olympics.
Go see the world, take the gold medal, and show millions of people that a lost girl from an underdog high school wouldn’t be stopped. She had the best friends anyone could ask for. She knew Marionette would understand how she felt if they fenced each other at their best.
Relaxed but focused, they nodded to each other, mutually acknowledging that the other was ready to fence. Sunset took the first steps, advancing forward to put Marionette within her reach. Marionette beat her blade aside and lunged in.
Sunset voiding the thrust was second nature. She took one step back to escape, and a second to dodge Marionette’s follow up attack. But the second thrust never came. Instead, Marionette approached more cautiously, taking her time to recover from the lunge position and advance.
They traded feints, moving back and forth without giving up their strong positions. A fencer at their level wasn’t going to get caught by an attack out of the blue, not when their defences were up. They had to wait for the other to commit to an attack and expose herself to a thrust.
Foil was the first weapon in a three weapon challenge, so Marionette had the advantage in experience. Sunset knew she couldn’t lose sight of her pace if she wanted to keep up.
Feints turned into committed attacks, relying on constant pressure more than perfect technique. Marionette parried at first, but eventually switched to using retreats to step away, leaving the attacks to fall short.
Sunset felt her weight load up on her front leg, telling her she had gone too far and started leaning into her attack. It wasn’t perfect, but she ran every day to make her legs strong enough to take the load. Before Marionette could plant a counterattack, Sunset powered her front leg and dove back.
The grass, meanwhile, was enjoying the moderate winter day, content and joyous at the fact it was covered by a sheet of morning dew.
Sunset’s foot slipped, stopping her retreat short. She managed to stay up, but the momentary loss of balance exposed her guard, and Marionette landed a hit squarely on her sternum.
They stepped back and swapped to their epées. Sunset felt more comfortable with the weight of her weapon now. They gave each other another nod and began to fence. Combining her reach and familiarity, Sunset threw herself into a powerful flying lunge for the bottom of Marionette’s hand.
While her back foot pushed, she lowered her torso and twisted her hand until the thumb faced down, letting the point come up behind the bell guard.
The explosive force was faster than anything Marionette had ever been able to achieve. Despite the grass sapping some of the power out of her, Sunset managed to land the thrust before Marionette could flinch back.
“Nice,” she called out, rubbing her pinky knuckle. Sunset was not a heavy person but she still carried a lot of power when she moved. Mass and acceleration, two variables of force, if she still output as much power as any other fencer, all of that force had to translate into speed.
Sunset threw her arms wide apart as if to goad Marionette. “You haven’t seen anything yet. Been working on my sabre skills too.”
“Uh huh,” Marionette shrugged off the taunt.
Sabre was a lighter weapon than either epee or foil, and cuts being able to score turned a lot of amateur fencers into weed whackers. To be completely honest, Marionette thought Sunset looked a little like a weed wacker herself when she first saw her fence sabre.
As they measured their distance with a few feints back and forth, she reconsidered. Sunset was right about getting more practice with fencing’s fastest weapon.
Instead of maximizing her footwork, Marionette planted herself and reacted with her bladework. Sunset’s hand flashed out, and Marionette could barely move her guard in time to catch the end of the cut. She stepped in with the riposte, hinging with her hip to lean forward instead of stepping too far.
A year ago, that might have worked, but now Sunset’s reaction speed was too quick. She hopped back, inches away from Marionette’s reach. As her feet landed together, perfectly in-time with a textbook retreating step, she pivoted with her back foot, pushing off with her toes and rebounding forward with a lightning-fast cut to Marionette’s mask.
Even with all that speed, Marionette found it all too easy to avoid. She simply recovered from her leaning position, standing upright to pull her head back. The motion was faster than a retreat back, and it didn’t sacrifice her stability to the slippery grass.
Sunset’s back foot, however, suffered to the reduced friction and slid back, leaving her in a lunging position without going anywhere. With a smile through her mask, Marionette came down with a light plink to the top of Sunset’s mask.
“Got’chya,” she chuckled.
Sunset smiled and wiped the dew off her pants. “Switch weapons, then we’ll see.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The game repeated from foil to epee to sabre again. Foil to epee to sabre. Nine points total, three in each weapon, the girls walked back to their bench by the tree once they tallied up their points. Marionette ended up taking the game, five to four.
“I can’t believe it,” Sunset said after a refreshing drink of branded electrolyte water, “I thought I had that last epee point.”
“Yeah, well, you got the other two,” Marionette said, rubbing her hand. “Kinda had to win that, I don’t know if my hand could take another hit.”
“It didn’t hurt that much, did it?” Chuckling, but looking a little concerned, Sunset took a look at Marionette’s hand. The padded glove was standard protection at all fencing tournaments, but her bottom knuckle was still red and swollen from the double hits.
Marionette pulled her hand back before Sunset could take a good look. “It’s fine, I’m just being a baby.”
“Well since you’re complaining, I guess I could whine about the grass.” Sunset used the point of her foil to flick off a clump of leaves and grass stuck to the bottom of her shoe. “Weather’s pretty good for the winter, but it was still so slippery.”
Marionette shrugged. “Why do think I asked to fence out here?”
“Huh?”
She poked Sunset in the thigh. “Yeah, on a fencing strip, I’m pretty sure you have me beat. But I figured you’d still have an efficiency problem.”
Sunset tossed her fencing gear into her bag. “Efficiency problem? I’m not some engine you gotta tune-up.”
“That’s not how your school sees it,” Marionette said. “And against a better fencer than me, the power you’re wasting is going to cost you when you’re tied at fourteen in a DE.”
“Alright coach,” Sunset rolled her eyes, “let’s walk and talk, and I’ll hear your infinite wisdom.”
“Maybe later. First,” Marionette unzipped a side-pocket on her fencing bag and fished out her phone, “let’s watch a movie!”
“Wha-” Sunset looked at the screen. Marionette had opened an email-confirmation for two tickets for the newly released movie Daring Do: Death In the Family. “Dude, no way. How the hell did you get seats? Tickets sold out weeks ago.”
“Well, I had to stay up and finish my programming assignments anyway,” Marionette said, “so I was awake when the sales started at midnight.”
“So what time did you get?”
“Midnight premiere, of course,” Marionette smirked. “Crystal Prep always comes first.”
They both laughed. Sunset had moved beyond competing with high school fencers, and Marionette had proved she could still outperform other students without the school’s ridiculous pressure. The stress Crystal Prep’s expectations had placed on them became funny when they thought about how far they had come.
“Alright,” Sunset said, “but that leaves the whole day. What’re you thinking of doing until then?”
Marionette reached out her finger and traced it along Sunset’s shoulder. “Getting you into a shower, for a start.”
“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to fence,” Sunset dragged her hand off. “Plus, you’re not exactly an air freshener either.”
Marionette cracked a small grin, but flicked her eyes down. “So we’ll both take a shower then.”
“Marionette, we have a whole day before the show.” Sunset checked her phone. “It’s not even noon, I need a real plan, not a shower.”
“No, you need a shower. Call me after and then we’ll figure out where to go.”
Sunset wiped the cold sweat off her neck. Even in the winter, her fencing jacket was really warm. “Damn, you're right.”
Night came while the girls waited in line for the midnight premiere. The mall was packed, fans swarming even from the next city over to see the cinematic version of A.K. Yearling’s thriller installation of the Daring Do series. Mystery, adventure, and tension. Anything to get the blood pumping.
Marionette cupped her hands together in a heavy pair of winter mittens. Of course, she had her own reasons to be excited. The theatre didn’t let people start lining up until three hours before midnight, so the two girls had a lot of spare time after their fencing practice in the morning.
So they went window shopping. Dresses, boots, and all the other bright new outfits that two college students could never afford on their budget.
As their phones ticked down to midnight, Sunset stepped behind Marionette and adjusted her new scarf, one of the few things they found on sale.
“How are you not freezing?” Sunset asked, wrapping the wool fabric around Marionette’s face. “The back of your neck wasn’t even covered.”
“Well, England has about only one week of summer,” she replied, “so I guess I’m used to it.”
“I could never,” Sunset turned her face away from the chilling wind. “Sometimes I wish I could just cast a spell and make the winter go away. I like staying warm.”
Marionette smirked, casting her eyes down to the shimmering orange gemstone that hung from Sunset’s neck. She reached out and thumbed the unusual pattern. “Cast a spell, huh? Controlling the weather a common thing for you?”
“No,” Sunset took her hand and pulled it away.
She expected more, but when Sunset let the topic drop, Marionette raised a brow at her. “You ever going to tell me more about that world you came from? I get that it’s in your past, but you can’t just give me proof of a magical world and leave me hanging.”
Sunset laughed. “You ever going to stop asking me?”
“I have never,” Marionette gasped, her eyes bulging at the audacity to accuse her of such pestering, “asked more than once-”
“Twice,” Sunset corrected.
“-more than twice!” She pitched up in a fake shrill voice. But Sunset just looked away, smugness written all over her face.
“Well, you still haven’t told me why I couldn’t keep up with you this morning when we were fencing. Felt like the year got reset and I was the newbie on the team again.”
Marionette’s face twisted with disbelief. “You’ve been thinking about that all day. I know you figured it out.”
“But more fun when you say it!” Sunset whined.
The back of the line crowded as the last of the fans poured in from the street. Drivers from online services like Ober and Swift dropped off crowds of high-schoolers bouncing with energy. This was their winter break too.
They were kids in their late teens, nearly matured into adults, but Sunset could see the difference. It was an element in how they carried themselves. Maturity, experience, or something else, Sunset could just sense it. And then she thought about herself, and all the things she learned since she went to CHS. The need to show Marionette that she had grown has a fencer slowly crept up on her again.
Sunset took Marionette by the hand. “The grass was wet when we fenced. That made it hard for me since I put a lot of energy into my footwork. I’m normally fast on a fencing strip, but with wet grass, it’s a different story.”
“See? You got it!” Marionette cheered. “Anything else?” She watched Sunset’s brow furrow with deep thought. Filled with more passion than classical training, Marionette saw her friend like a glowing piece of iron yet to be forged into the perfect blade.
Giving tests was a bit of a habit she picked up from Crystal Prep and all the pressure to go to college. But in this case, it was a good test. If Sunset could see what she saw, there’d be no stopping her when she hit the fencing strip.
“You seemed better on the grass than me,” Sunset finally said. “I mean, technique was always more your thing than mine, but is there really a technique that stops you from slipping?”
Marionette smiled and shrugged. “Close. It’s not really a technique against slipping specifically. The key is focusing on your balance and footwork.”
“Yeah,” Sunset made a funny face at her, “so is half of all fencing.”
“Ah-ah,” Marionette waggled her finger, “you need continuous control. Your kind of balance is a bit, well, explosive. You power through your advances and lunges, meaning you start and end with good balance, but there’s a lot of in-between that you don’t focus on. You might not be slipping over when you’re on a fencing strip, but being off-balance becomes draining over time. And with your aggressive fencing style, you need to save as much stamina as you can, since you use so much power.”
Sunset looked down. Her coaches at school said her technique was on par with other top competitors, but one trip in the park managed to reveal a whole list of flaws she needed to fix. The wet grass was the perfect setting to test her footwork.
“Guess I can’t be surprised,” Sunset smiled, “I bet you already had an idea on what I needed to work on, right? That’s why you picked the park.”
“To be honest, most fencers struggle with it,” Marionette said. “It’s easy to lose control in the heat of the moment. Sometimes you see an opening, and you just want to take it.”
“Yeah, I can get like that sometimes,” Sunset chuckled. “One time, I let my opponent catch up three points just because I was at fourteen and wanted to finish the bout.”
“Speaking of rushing into openings,” Marionette frowned as she checked her phone. “It’s a minute past midnight already. When are they going to start letting people in?”
The two girls swung their heads to the front of the line, where a mob of fans were pushing against each other in a slow shuffle into the theatre.
“Huh, I guess they just don’t have enough ushers to handle everyone,” Sunset mumbled as they eagerly awaited two hours of Daring Do thriller.
Marionette watched the line and felt chest tighten. She wanted to see the movie with Sunset. She thought she’d be to eager to focus on anything but getting to their seats. But when their arms linked together to stay close inside the pushing crowd, Marionette realized she couldn’t take her eyes off the woman next to her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The musical composition of the movie was, as always, phenomenal. Heavy rows of brass instruments filled the audience’s ears as the first scene opened with Daring Do investigating some kind of high-class charity ball.
The image on the screen was spectacular, the camera panning across the entire scene, not cutting once. The tension was palpable. Every element clear to the audience. Where the goons stood, where Daring Do was searching.
And Marionette found it hard to focus. She had imagined going to the movies with Sunset, but this was a different feeling.
“Oh, shoot look!” Sunset squeezed her wrist, pointing to someone in the background. It was Shadow Spade, who had joined the Daring Do cinematic universe a year ago when the Shadow Spade author sold the film rights.
Her heart kicked her in the ribs when Sunset leaned closer out of excitement. “She’s actually here!” she whispered.
“I thought the leaks were just rumours!” Marionette replied.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited over Daring Do. Far from it. The character was an excellent role model for young girls and Marionette was no exception. But at every lull between the stunts, fighting, and rope swinging out of the ballroom to escape the thugs, Marionette caught herself stealing glances at Sunset.
Their hands were still locked together, and it was getting warm. The theatre was packed, and Sunset’s knee couldn’t help but be brushed up against Marionette’s thigh. She ate her popcorn and drank her slushie all with her left hand so she wouldn’t have to let go of Sunset.
This could be enough, right? She thought to herself. They spent the whole day together, fencing and shopping and now seeing a movie. And they were even holding hands for what seemed like the first half-hour of the movie.
They were both students. So, they were both busy. Plus, they went to two different universities. Marionette swallowed her emotions. This had to be enough. It could get dangerous if she tried to push too far. She was just letting all her buried feelings drive her crazy.
But the scene was alight with fire and explosions. Daring Do threw sticks of dynamite from the back of a truck while Shadow Spade drove. They crashed through a midnight forest while being chased by giant hounds, the mutant creations of one of Shadow Spade’s enemies.
The plot had something to do about Caballeron working with a rogue scientist to create weapons that could defeat the guardians surrounding a priceless artefact. Marionette realized she had missed the name after ogling Sunset for so long.
They were sitting almost shoulder to shoulder now. She could feel Sunset’s warmth. It took less than a second for a fencer to cover a meter and find their target. Yet, crossing just a few inches to reach her now seemed like an insurmountable feeling.
The risks and reward had to be balanced on a scale. Is it worth it, to tell her what I think? Marionette recalled the first time she met Sunset. It was infuriating. She, a fencer from Crystal Prep, couldn’t believe she had lost to a CHS amateur. Her form was sloppy and inconsistent.
But then she talked to her. Sunset had a way of drawing out feelings from the people around her. They were strangers then, barely even acquaintances. She only talked to her because she didn’t want to be embarrassed by losing to a fencer who didn’t take first place. But somehow, she felt comfortable around Sunset and told her more about herself than she did to her classmates.
Passion and energy, that was Sunset. Marionette found herself mesmerized by Sunset as a fencer, and then as a friend. As crazy as it seemed, Sunset even shared her own secrets. Secrets of another world, with different people and different rules. She came from a world of magic. And sitting beside her, Marionette believed it.
That’s why I can’t just tell her I like her. She knew it. Their lives were different. They could sit together and enjoy a movie, but more than that? Even if Sunset felt the same way, now just wasn’t a good time.
Marionette reached for her slushie with her right hand, letting go of Sunset. She would enjoy their night together and that would be it. A good memory.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“That last chase scene was so good!” Sunset threw her arms up to the night as they walked to the car. It took a lot of convincing, but Marionette was able to borrow her parents’ car for the night.
Marionette smiled. “I know, right? I almost dropped my popcorn when the mutants started crawling from the ceiling. Eugh, they were so squishy and silent, it was unnerving.”
Sunset squirmed at the reminder of the movie’s horror elements. “I almost forgot it was a Daring Do movie for a moment. The creatures were just so creepy.”
“I just wonder what they’re going to do with Shadow Spade now. The whole movie was just a massive reference to Hounds of Mutant Town, but none of the other books has as much horror or thriller stuff.”
“I don’t think it’ll be that hard,” Sunset said as they got to the car. “I think if she gets her own movie people will know it’s going to be different. But, I guess this wasn’t the best way to start a new franchise.”
Marionette kept a smile on her face but sighed under her breath as she got in the driver’s seat. Winter break would be over soon. She’d have a few more days with her parents and then there was a flight waiting to take her back to New Trottingham University. Perhaps the next vacation they could do this again.
“Hey,” Sunset asked as she got in the passenger seat, “everything okay?”
Marionette turned her head. “Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m just tired is all.” She checked her phone. It was ten minutes past two in the morning. “Dang, it’s pretty late.”
Sunset quietly pulled out the gemstone on her necklace from under her jacket. “I know I don’t like to use this a lot, but sometimes I can’t help but hear other people’s thoughts. It’s like really strong feelings just get picked up too easily.”
Marionette froze. A dozen thoughts rushed through her mind, but mainly she just cursed herself for not remembering that Sunset could read minds with her magic. Quite frankly, it was unfair.
“Is there something you want to tell me?” Sunset asked, reaching out her hand. “You know you don’t have to say anything if it’s too hard.”
Don’t fall for it. Sunset’s hand was too inviting. She still had no idea how to understand or explain magic, but she knew that once they touched, all her feelings could be read like a book. Just drive, moron. Don’t fall for it!
Marionette reached her hand out tenderly. Gah! What are you doing? Her body refused to listen to the storm inside her head. It was just too easy to let Sunset know. She wanted to do it so badly that it hurt to think about pulling away from her hand. Come on, it for both our sakes! It’s a trap, don’t fall for it. Don’t fall in love!
A jolt shot through her arm at the last second, and her hand slunk back. “I do have something to tell you, but not with your magic.”
She took her necklace off immediately, tossing it up on the dashboard. “Not a problem. I just want you know I’m here, whatever it is.”
Marionette nodded. “Sunset,” she took a deep breath, “I’m gay, and I’m pretty sure it’s because of you.”
“Oh, I see.” Sunset blinked. “You’re only pretty sure it’s me?”
“Wha…” Marionette sputtered. Of all the things Sunset could have said, she didn’t expect to be teased.
“Damn, I thought for sure I was your gay awakening,” Sunset muttered. “If you’re only pretty sure, what’s the other part? Is it Dash? Yeah, she gives off some pretty big lesbian vibes sometimes.”
“Hold on,” Marionette blurted out, staring at Sunset. She wasn’t entirely sure what was happening anymore. “I’m trying to tell you that I like you, Sunset. Like, a lot.”
Sunset smiled. “I know. Thought if I made you feel awkward you’d stop being embarrassed.”
“You don’t sound very surprised.”
She shook her head. “I might not use my gemstone all the time, but that doesn’t mean I can’t tell people’s thoughts. I think I’m just kinda good at reading people. So yeah, I had my suspicions. I couldn’t be sure though until you said it yourself.”
“O-oh, o-okay,” Marionette stammered hopefully. “So, does that mean you like me too?”
“Tell me if this is clear enough.” Sunset leaned in.
And finally, Marionette found herself across that barrier she could not cross on her own. Inside her car with the smell of popcorn on their lips, embracing, the two of them decided that they didn’t need to go anywhere for a little while longer.
