> Late-Night Phone Call
>  by Stagehands
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Late-Night Phone Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There had been many times in Sunset’s life where she had made decisions one might describe as ‘impulse-driven.’ The dial tone in her ear was the result of one such decision.

There were no lights on in her room, nor had there been for many hours, as what candles she had were currently extinguished. Her phone had a light, of course, but she couldn’t see much more of it but a line where the lower corner of her right periphery was slightly aglow from the screen where it rested lightly against her cheek.

The bed beneath her was unmade, but she wasn’t in it, laying atop it. She had tried sleeping once, but she wasn’t tired. No position felt comfortable, either. Her sea green eyes gazed up into nothing, staring past the darkness that enveloped the ceiling above her, listening to the monotonous note play in her ear, followed by silence, then again. Back and forth it went, presumably ringing on the other end, or at least vibrating. Sunset had no way to know if someone heard it. She wouldn’t until they answered, or it flipped to voicemail.

At one point, Sunset had wondered what she was doing right now. There was no plan. There were no expectations - she couldn’t have them, she barely knew what she was doing, and hadn’t thought this through at all. There was a good chance this would go nowhere, or just annoy someone. She could just hang up now if she wanted to, hit the red button and wave this away as having rolled over onto her phone or something with an apology that likely wouldn’t be seen as being as insincere as it would be. Applejack would notice, but probably drop it and then forget about it. This could all go away still. The longer she waited on the line, the lower the odds of that happening…yet similarly higher, if no one answered. The whole thing could just erase itself, if she was lucky.

Thoughts came, and like this one, they passed. Sunset did not touch on them for long, merely acknowledging their existence as they went by, waving her down for attention that she did not spare them. She was still and silent, gazing at the ceiling she couldn’t see, listening to the note play over and over in her ear in the dark.

She wasn’t sure how long it took - a while, longer than it probably should have. The dial tone suddenly stopped, and from the faint crackling and random noise coming from the other end for several seconds, she could tell it wasn’t voicemail. The voice on the other end was barely recognizable, as thick with grogginess as it was, but it was still vaguely recognizable as Rarity. “Hello?”

It felt strange to hear Rarity like this. It was a ping in Sunset’s mind, a reminder that this was unusual, and not wise. Too late now though. “Hey, Rarity.”

There was a long second of silence on the other end - Sunset could hear the groggy blinking in it. “Who is this..?”

“It’s Sunset.”

“Sunset?” 

Sunset nodded, as though Rarity might see.

There was a faint sound of fabric rustling on the other end, and another second before Rarity’s bleary voice came through again. “Darling, it’s…why are you calling me?”

Sunset, to her credit, opened her mouth to respond. Her mouth closed again after a few moments, and remained that way for a few moments more. There wasn’t much left but to come clean: “I don’t know.”

There was no response from Rarity’s end.

Sunset let her eyes slip closed. She didn’t think, simply closed her eyes and experienced the passage of time. Seconds passed by. She didn’t count them.

It took a while, but eventually a response did come - a sigh, laden with static as Rarity breathed slightly into the speaker. “Alright…” While still obviously tired and more than likely having been just woken up, some of the haze in her tone was gone, making way for something that sounded equal parts worried and stern, but still mostly tired. “What’s this about, Sunset?”

Sunset licked her dry lips before she answered: “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know.” It was a statement, not a question.

Sunset nodded. This time she actually spoke instead of leaving Rarity with silence, however: “Yeah.”

“Do you realize what time it is right now?”

“Not really.” She had an idea, but she wasn’t sure. 

“Too early for calling up your friends for no reason, that’s for certain. It’s…” There was a pause. “…it’s three forty one.”

Sunset didn’t reply. 

Rarity seemed to be waiting for something. It didn’t come, though, and there was a second sigh on the other end of the line, this one more haggard. “Darling,” Rarity said, now wearing her worry openly in her voice, “are you okay?”

As before, Sunset didn’t reply.

“Sunset?” Rarity prompted, urgency faint but  nonetheless audible. “Are you okay?”

Sunset took in a breath, slowly. She felt the cavernous weight pull against the inside of her ribs as her lungs expanded, trying to push it back down, though it made it no easier to breathe it back out again. “I don’t know,” she repeated.

The frown was audible on the other end. “Sunset, you’re scaring me. Are you safe?”

“Yeah- yes, yeah.” That came quickly, at least - a hand came up to her face as Sunset dragged it past her eyes and across her mouth, feeling a pang of guilt. “I’m safe. I’m…yeah.”

“Where are you right now?”

“My house.” A beat. “I guess.”

“You guess?”

Sunset emitted a noise that was equal parts scoff and chuckle at herself. It wasn’t really her house, what with not owning it or being legally permitted to live in it, but in a way, it was hers. Not that that really needed to get brought up now. “I’m at my house. Sorry.”

“You’re at your house right now?”

“Yes.”

“And you promise you’re safe?”

“Yes.”

“Say the words.” Rarity’s voice was soft still, but carried with it a quiet sternness that bore no room argument. “You promise me you’re safe?”

Sunset took in a breath, and spoke back clearly, “I promise you that I am safe, Rarity.”

There was a several second-long silence at this, comprised of Rarity…doing something. Inspecting the response for sincerity, maybe. She had since begun to sound much more alert, though fatigue still lingered faintly in her voice when she did speak again. “I’m glad, darling, but…why are you calling? It’s nearly 4 AM on a Monday morning. Clearly something’s wrong.”

Enough sense had been spurred into her by now that Sunset knew better than to keep answering with vagueness and non-answers. Rarity deserved answers at this point…which was problematic, given that she herself wasn’t quite sure of them. “I guess…” she began, gears in her head turning over as she processed this. It took a few seconds, and it was not coming more clearly than before, but she needed to present something for an explanation. “I guess I’m…just…”

Rarity did not interrupt. Judging by the quiet and the sense that the other girl got through it, she would wait as long as was necessary. She was worried, and alert, and waiting diligently as a good friend would, and really did not deserve to be going through this right now.

Sunset swallowed the lump that formed her her throat. “I just needed to talk to somepony.”

There was a beat before Rarity asked, “What about?”

“I don’t know.”

“Just talk?”

“Yeah.”

“Well…” There was a rustling again, overlaid by a soft sigh. “I suppose it’s not the worst hour I’ve ever been roused at…and there are certainly worse ways to burn some time than talking with a friend.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Oh I’m aware, darling,” Rarity said chidingly, “but I’m not so heartless as to leave you hanging in a time of crisis.”

“Ehh…” Sunset scrunched her nose and wavered her hand back and forth in a ‘so-so’ manner, as though the girl on the other end could see. “I don’t know if I’d say ‘crisis.’”

“Well on what other occasions do you call up a friend at 4 am because you need someone to talk to?” came the wry response.

“…fair point.” Sunset sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Seems you don’t know many things, tonight.”

Sunset didn’t reply to that. She couldn’t exactly disagree. 

The silence lasted a few seconds longer before Rarity asked, “What’s on your mind right now, darling?”

Sunset took a moment to observe her thoughts before reporting back: “You.” 

“Ohoho~…”

“N-not like that,” Sunset added quickly, though by that sound Rarity had made, she knew it was too late. “I’m not like, thinking much? But you’re talking, and, I’m, you know, I was thinking about it…”

“So you could say I’m all you can think about right now~?” The eyelashes fluttering could practically be heard. 

“Not quite how I’d-“ The sound that met Sunset’s ear was equal parts giggle and purr, and Sunset sighed, slapping one hand over her face as she shook her head, smiling despite herself. “Harmony’s sake, Rarity.”

“No no, please, do go on~ I am ever so curious as to the true depths of your feelings, darling.”

“I think you’re a pain when you want to be.”

The aghast sound was almost believable enough to make Sunset think she’d genuinely offended Rarity. Almost. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re saying! I’m delightful company, I’ll have you know! And I know you agree, because you’re the one who called me at 4 AM because you couldn’t stand another moment without my company!”

“You’re right, you got me,” Sunset deadpanned, shaking her head as she smiled into the darkness. “I truly cannot bear a second more without you being there. My love for you, it is as radiant as my namesake. However could I be expected to be apart from you for a whole night’s time.”

“Well at least you’re honest about it.” The grin of Rarity’s was audible in her voice. “Never fear, darling, I shall bid you company in such trying times as these. I could never leave such longing unsated~“

“Such a generous partner in our lustful romance you are. Come, let us make out prodigiously with our voices.”

“Let us shall~“

The next several seconds were comprised solely of over-the-top kissing sounds being exchanged. Sunset tried to keep it together, but eventually she broke and began laughing, and once she did, Rarity joined in. Occasionally one of them would start trying to make noises again in earnest, but the cork on their laughter had already been popped, and neither of them could last much longer than a second or two before the snorting and giggling broke up the stream of sound effects. They laughed like a couple of idiots, and for a little while, that’s all they were: just two slightly delirious idiot friends setting one another off with silly noises at an hour where they should both really be asleep.

It felt good. Sunset’s spirits soared over the course of their pseudo-conversation, and for a while she let herself be a stupid filly again, drunk with laughter at something that wasn’t really all that funny, other than in the moment, where it was hysterical.

Sunset didn’t know how much time passed like that - she could find out easily, but that would involve removing the phone from her ear for just a moment, and that wasn’t acceptable. Eventually the laughter died down, and she lay there with one hand on her stomach, smiling up warmly at the ceiling. The silence yawned on, but neither girl much minded it. It was a comfortable silence, feeling almost fuzzy and warm - perfect for resting in.

“I hope I didn’t wake anyone just now,” Rarity mumbled. Sunset heard the sound of quiet movement on the other end of the line, and after several seconds of silence, she added, “I don’t see her light on…”

“Think we’re good?” Sunset asked.

Another second or two on Rarity’s end, followed by quiet movement again. A mattress squeaked. “I think so.”

Sunset sighed quietly. The comfortable silence moved back in, but it only could make itself at home for a few more seconds before Sunset spoke. “We should have a sleepover or something sometime.”

Sunset could feel the eyebrow quirk through the phone. “I didn’t think you were much of the sleepover-y type, if I may be honest.”

“I guess I’m not? I dunno.” Sunset shrugged to herself. “I guess I’m reminded of my fillyhood days. I had a couple of sleepovers when I lived in Canterlot, and it was a lot of fun. Younger me thought so, anyway.”

“The girls and I do occasionally have sleepovers…” Rarity hummed thoughtfully. “Well, nothing recent, not since our freshman year. We used to do them fairly often, once we could get out of the house on our own more routinely. A bit of a celebration of growing independence, I suppose you could call it.” Sunset didn’t say anything, so Rarity went on. “I know I wouldn’t mind having one again. It would be a nice change of pace. That and I could finally show off this lovely nightgown I got for Christmas last year~“

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes indeed.”

Sunset didn’t speak up, waiting for Rarity to go on. She did not, however, and a silence spread over the line. It perplexed Sunset, though a bit more so when she realized how pointed it felt. Like Rarity was waiting for something. “Uhh…are you going to tell me about it?”

“Possibly,” came the teasing response. “Are you going to ask?”

Sunset didn’t get it at first. She blinked owlishly, about to ask what she meant, but a moment later it clicked. “Really?”

“Go on~”

Sunset sighed in faux-annoyance. She was silently thankful that they never turned this into a video call, lest Rarity be egged on by the smile Sunset couldn’t completely repress. “Are you seriously going to make me ask, ‘What are you wearing?’”

“Oh I’d never make you do such a thing, that would be quite uncouth of me. But seeing as you asked–“

“Sun damn it, Rarity,” Sunset said, her attempted irate tone undermined by her chuckling as Rarity went on into explicit detail about her blue silken nightgown. To her credit, it did sound like a pretty well-made piece of clothing, though Rarity could make a handkerchief sound like it was fit for royalty if she set her mind to it and threw enough verbose terminology at it. She knew this because she had done such a thing. It was a plain white handkerchief, but it had been made out to be a piece of fabric touched by the gods. To this day, Sunset was not sure if she genuinely felt so strongly about it, or if she had been messing with them all. Knowing Rarity, both were just as likely.

“And what about you, darling?” Rarity’s minxish voice addressing her brought Sunset back into focus. “What are you wearing~?”

“Uhh.” Sunset looked down at herself. There was a moment where she considered whether she should actually say it, but she chose to regardless. “I’m actually not wearing anything.”

There was a long pause. After a while, an exasperated breath could be heard from Rarity. “Sunset, darling, we’re supposed to work our way up to that. You can’t just skip straight to it, that cuts out half of the excitement of the game. Have you ever heard of ‘foreplay?’”

“Have you ever been told you’re a menace to society?” Sunset quipped.

“Once or twice, by purely irreputable sources that have since been stricken from the records,” Rarity answered crisply. The minxish tone returned after: “Besides, society doesn’t have to know what goes on between us. I can keep a secret if you can.”

Sunset saw her opening, and went for it. “You sound weirdly intent on having phone sex with a horse.”

The sound Rarity made was very much one of a spittake- had she been drinking something, it likely would have been sprayed all over her phone. She protested profusely, though whatever she said to berate Sunset was lost to the sound of the unicorn’s own laughter filling her bedroom, drowning out her indignant friend. She could perfectly visualize the exact look on Rarity’s face in that moment, and it was enough to have the already slightly delirious girl in stitches once again for several minutes.

“Unbelievable,” Rarity huffed after a while, audibly trying to keep from contributing to the laughter. “Simply unbelievable. To think I was willing to open my heart up to you at this ungodly hour, and this is what you do to me…”

“It’s what you get for being lewd,” Sunset informed her, one wrong sound away from another fit of laughter. 

“You’re taking far more enjoyment in this than I am,” Rarity snootily informed. “Besides, I’m not being lewd.”

A giggling fit was stifled before it could spread. “No, I’m pretty sure you’re being really lewd.”

“You’re the one who’s naked,” Rarity retorted. 

“You’re the one who asked.”

“You’re the one who’s laughing.”

“I’m not laughing!” Sunset said, beginning to laugh once again, which made her laugh harder. “W-wait hold on, pause, this doesn’t count-“

“Mhm,” replied a smug Rarity, who simply listened to her friend start to crack up all over again. “Go on then, get it out of your system, it and your baseless accusations.”

And she did. By the end of it, Sunset felt lightheaded, and more than a little bit giddy from all this stupid laughing. A headache was starting to form from it as well, but Sunset was in much too good a mood to mind that dull ache where it was beginning to rise from her forehead. She was also starting to get rather tired - a consequence of having worn herself out throughout the course of this conversation and their antics. 

“I think I see the sun,” Rarity mused past the faint stream of giggles that had begun to sputter out. “Happy sunrise, Sunset.”

Sunset snorted, and started giggling again. “Quit it, you’re doing that on purpose.”

“Doing what?” Rarity asked, entirely too innocently. 

“I’m getting a headache from all this laughing.”

“Hardly the worst problem to have.” Rarity’s voice softened. “Besides…that must mean you feel better. Right?”

Sunset giggled again, and sighed as the last of the fit faded. “I do,” she said, the gratitude thick in her voice. “Thank you, Rarity.”

“Was that all it was? Loneliness?”

Sunset was quiet as she considered this. Those heavy feelings were nowhere to be found now, that crater in her chest having long since filled in, replaced with warm fuzzy feelings of having spent the better part of an hour chatting and laughing with a friend. “I think so.” The realization left her feeling suddenly sheepish, and she added, “Sorry. That wasn’t really worth waking you up for this early.”

“You don’t need to apologize, darling. You needed someone to be there, and I was happy to be there for you. Besides…” Rarity’s voice softened so much that it almost felt plush on Sunset’s ears. “I enjoy the sound of your laugh. You have a nice voice.”

The smile on Sunset’s face was involuntary. “You have a nice voice too,” she said, voice matching Rarity’s. “It’s nice to listen to.”

“I suppose we’ll simply have to talk more often then, hm?”

If her cellphone had a cord, Sunset would twirl it around her finger. “I wouldn’t mind that.”

“Me neither.”

“Talking to you is nice.”

“I’m happy you think so, darling. I feel the same way.”

“I’m glad.”

“Me too.”

A comfortable silence fell once again. Something about it felt different, though. Sunset let her eyes slip closed, listening to the faint, barely audible background noise of the speaker in her ear, transmitting the tracest amount of static that let her know that on the other end of this line, Rarity was there, listening in the same way that she was. She was relaxed, and oddly light. Feathery, almost. Just so comfortable and…soft.

“Hey Rarity?” Sunset murmured.

“Mm,” came the response. Rarity sounded much like how Sunset felt in that moment: utterly relaxed, and full of rosy fondness.

“I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open.”

“Mmm…well, it is…” A pause. “…five twenty three.”

Sunset let out a chuckle. “Well so much for that hour.”

“Indeed,” Rarity chuckled back. 

The silence came back, for a time. It was getting harder to think, and Sunset’s eyelids were growing heavier by the moment. “Gonna have to get up soon…”

“Have you slept yet?”

“Nnnnope.”

“Oh dear.” Rarity gave a sympathetic laugh. “My condolences.”

“Eeeeyup…today is gonna suck a little bit.”

“It might be worth coming in a bit late, just for the sake of getting at least a few hours in? Everyone is half dead with exhaustion for the first and second periods anyway.”

“I guess, but I want to see you.”

There was a delay for about half a second before Rarity responded, that rosy warmth coming back to her voice as she replied, “I want to see you too.”

The conversation ebbed once again, but Sunset didn’t mind. The silence had proven very comfortable…too comfortable, perhaps. At some point, the phone slipped from her hand, and her last efforts to cling to awareness were undone by the very thing that had proven so pleasant to her. Beside her, the phone remained lit, the symbol of Rarity’s contact lingering on that screen as the minutes continued to tick by on the time elapsed counter. 

Neither girl hung up that morning. The call ended an hour later, when Sunset’s battery died.
> Less-Late-Night Phone Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sound of the door opening could be heard clearly through what little space made up the inside of this shanty, sparsely-furnished living space, as was the sound of it closing. 

Sunset Shimmer didn’t so much walk into her room as she did shamble into it. She stepped out of her shoes in the doorway, leaving them where they lay on the floor, then took a few more steps forward before she fell face first into the mattress, barely managing to roll her shoulders enough to let slip her leather jacket, which was blearily peeled from her back and haphazardly shoved off of herself. It didn’t even make it all the way off the bed; gravity had to finish what she started, signifying that it had completed its task about a minute later to the sound of a muffled plop on the floor.

Today sucked. Today massively sucked. It hadn’t even sucked for a particularly good reason, either. And the best part was: it wasn’t over yet. There was still an entire night ahead of her, one in which she still had to find it in her to both get through and also end up sleeping at the correct time, something which she had not done an especially good job with so far.

She didn’t want to be in this house right now. She really didn’t. It wasn’t a charming place - really, calling it a house was an honor it didn’t deserve, more like a shack with delusions of grandeur. It didn’t even smell nice. At least there were ways to fix that…

Sunset heaved a sigh into the sheets below her, reaching stiffly into one pocket, fumbling slightly with it at the awkward angle and having to push past the weight of her thigh pressing the pocket closed. She hated the feeling of this pocket. She hated the feeling of these pants. She hated clothes. She hated how humans forced you to wear these things. She hated not having fur, so that she had to feel everything rubbing on her skin. She hated feeling everything, all the time, all over her body. Too much, it was too much to do all the time. She wanted to find this lighter and light all these damn clothes on fire so she could be free.

She found something hard in her pocket, and this pleased her. Then it started vibrating. This pleased her less. It was a double whammy: not only was that not her lighter, but someone was calling her.

Growling in frustration, Sunset rolled into her back and rammed her hand the rest of the way into her pocket so she could actually retrieve this object, then yanked it back out to examine the screen. She read the screen for a second, and her expression lifted. Answering it was a bit easier than it had seemed a moment ago. “Hey Rarity.”

“Hello, darling,” came the fashionista’s chipper voice. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything terribly important right now.”

“No, not at all,” Sunset said through a sigh, letting her gaze find the ceiling again. “I just got home.”

“You sound exhausted.”

“Kind of am,” Sunset admitted. “I made it to bed, and, uh…didn’t really plan on going much further than that.”

“I see…” A tinge of concern entered Rarity’s voice. “Would you rather I call back, darling?”

“I mean, I haven’t even heard why you called in the first place. What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing,” Rarity replied, casually. “I just wanted to check up on you and see how you were feeling today, make sure you were adequately socialized, lest we end up with yet another situation like we were in two days ago.”

Sunset winced. She could tell Rarity hadn’t meant it as such, but the phrasing evoked a ping of guilt. “Yeah, I’m…yeah. Sorry about that, again.”

“Pah.” The hand wave was not seen, but heard. “Nonsense, don’t apologize for such a thing, Sunset. If anything, I should be thanking you for feeling like I was someone you could trust with that.”

“What, waking you up at 4 AM?” Sunset deadpanned. “Sure, I’ve got you covered if you ever want to lose sleep.”

“Oh you stop that, you know that’s not it. I meant more…” There was a squeak of a mattress on the other end of the line. “Oh, heavens, what’s the phrase I’m looking for, erm…” Sunset had no idea what she was getting at, so she wasn’t sure how to help here. “Like…feeling like I’m someone you could reach out to, for that sort of thing. You know? It felt like high praise.”

Sunset shrugged as though Rarity might see, raising the lighter she had fished from her pocket in this time with her free hand, turning it over idly as she talked. “It was kind of stupid of me to do that, to be honest. I expected you to be mad about it.”

“Whatever for?”

“The part where I woke you up at 4 AM.”

“…I suppose there’s some merit to that concern,” Rarity admitted. “I was a pinch frustrated, but I figured it was for a good reason. And it was. Or at least, I think so. Water under the bridge, darling, as I said. If you need to do that again…well, you know my number.”

Sunset didn’t say anything to that, though a smile made its way to her lips. She looked up at the lighter in her hand, suddenly remembering why she had fished it out, and heaved herself stiffly back up into the sitting position, then eventually pushed her legs back under her so she could make her way to her scented candle. Lavender sounded vastly preferable to dust and sweat. 

“Are you lifting weights or something?” came the wry voice in her ear. 

“Just my own dead weight.” Sunset clicked the lighter several times, each resulting in a shower of sparks until a tongue of flame was finally summoned. She would prefer magic for this, but, circumstances.

“That was an awful lot of sound effects for just that.” 

“Like I sa- ow.” Sunset shook her hand sharply where the heat of the flame scorched her finger - reached in too deep. She rolled her eyes and reignited it, lifting the candle instead. Definitely preferred magic for this. “Like I said, I’m tired.”

“And pinching yourself, apparently.”

“Burning myself, actually.”

“Well don’t do that. There’s a fine line between well-done and overdone, darling, and I’m afraid you’re crossing it.”

“It’s just so hard to get that nice crispy brown, you know?” Sunset set the lit candle back down on the folding table, where it would eventually do it’s job, once the wax melted enough. “I get a little too enthusiastic.”

“Patience is a virtue, as they say. I’m sure ‘Don’t cook yourself’ is also said somewhere.”

“Don’t tell me how to live my life.”

Rarity laughed for a moment. “Let’s compromise with, if you’re going to cook yourself, at least season well. How’s that?”

“Sounds almost like you intend to eat me.”

“Well if you’re going to keep aspiring to be delicious, there’s only so much I can do, darling.”

Sunset flopped back onto her bed, smirking. “Just can’t help yourself, huh?”

“A lady always bears in mind what her vices are,” Rarity said, tone picking up a suggestive quality. “We’ve all got our guilty pleasures.”

“Like?”

“Ohh…you know,” came the teasing response. “This and that.”

“Would I happen to be this or that?”

“Possibly.” The half-lidded, conspiratorial   smile was practically audible. “Possibly not…who’s to say?”

“I’m interested in finding out, myself. Always looking to learn new things... Any advice?”

“Like I said, darling: patience is a virtue.”

Sunset tsk’d coyly. “Well, that’s a problem for me. Everyone’s got their vices, you know? I’m pretty impatient.”

“A problem indeed…perhaps we’ll have to work something out together sometime, figure out a little something that will work for the both of us.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“As am I, darling…though only if you get that crispy brown texture down pat for me.”

Sunset chuckled. “I’ll aspire to be as delicious as I can be, just for you.”

The sound that came through the speaker was equal parts giggle and purr. “I await our meal with baited breath.”

A silence came over the two of them, for a time. Sunset only just then realized she was smiling - a big, wide smile, directed at nothing in particular, save perhaps these rosy vibes that once again danced in her chest. A feeling of deja-vu came over Sunset, and she glanced at the phone in her hand, noting how the number under Rarity’s name had grown dramatically. “…man.”

“Woman, actually. It was a coin flip chance, you tried.”

Sunset snorted involuntarily, rolling her eyes. “Look at the time elapsed.”

There was a pause. “Oh,” said Rarity, sounding a bit more distant for a moment. “Well that’s a conspicuously large number, isn’t it?”

“I feel like we just started talking. I swear when we talk, time goes into fast motion.”

“The flirting probably had a lot to do with it,” Rarity stated, like it was the most obvious thing. “I do enjoy a good flirting now and then.”

“Apparently,” Sunset absently replied, feeling a little strange now that it had been pointed out. She wasn’t quite sure when that started, and now that she was made aware that’s what they’d been doing all this time, she wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. Not that she was new to flirting, it’s just she was typically aware of it when it happened. It was a conscious decision, usually to mess with someone. This was…not that.

Apparently Rarity was that easy to flirt with, not just talk to. Or they just bounced off one another really well? Sunset wasn’t sure. She decided she didn’t want to think about it right now. Today had sucked, and this was too nice a talk to sully with thoughts about such real topics.

The conversation had lapsed again, and Sunset took this opportunity to glance about herself. Speaking of today sucking: the discomfort of the day likewise took this opportunity to re-introduce itself to Sunset’s awareness. She was unbuckling her belt before she even thought to say anything. “Gimme one minute, I’m gonna get undressed.”

“We discussed this on Monday, darling,” came the drawling response, as lofty as it was wry. “We’re supposed to work up to that, or there’s no point.”

“Well, uh…” The tank top was plucked from her person, and unceremoniously tossed away. “Sorry? But I feel like I’m covered in sandpaper right now, and I am really, really over it.”

“Mm…”

Something else was said, though Sunset didn’t hear it clearly, too busy expressing grunts of sheer, unadulterated relief as article after article of chafing, suffocating fabric was all but flung across the room, replaced with the sweet sensation of open air. She let loose a heartfelt sigh when she had shed her cloth prison, then picked the phone back up off the pillow it had been placed on. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I said, do you have some sensory thing or another, darling?” Rarity repeated, with a hint of concern. “Or do we need to go clothing shopping even more direly than I thought?”

“Oh- no, no. Uh…I think.” Did she? No, probably not. “Wearing clothes constantly just really gets to me. I don’t know how you do it.”

The frown was felt as much as heard. “You need to work on that one, there’s far more elegant ways to try and get me to strip.”

”No,” Sunset groaned. “Harmony’s sake. Does it seriously not bother you? To like, always be covered up like that?”

There was several seconds of silence following this. “Ah,” Rarity said suddenly, as though something had clicked. “Pony.”

“Yes. Pony. We don’t like, do that in Equestria. I guess some people do, but like…eugh.” Sunset itched her neck, where she could still faintly feel the ghost of a shirt’s collar nagging at her. “Seriously, it messes with me really bad some days. How do you manage it?”

“How do…” The uncertainty in Rarity’s voice was palpable. “Well…erm…I mean, it’s…it’s not really a problem for me, I suppose?”

Sunset frowned at this reaction. “Weird question?”

“…a pinch,” Rarity admitted. “It’s not really something I’ve ever thought about, if I can be truthful. It’s just…” A brief pause. “It just is? I don’t like wearing socks to bed, but, I’m not…really…certain, about the rest? It’s clothing. I guess there’s powders or something you could use, if it’s causing you so much discomfort…”

“Like what?”

“Baby powder, perhaps? If you don’t mind being gently dusted with flour.” A beat, followed by a chuckle. “Though, you do seem to be aspiring to be delicious…”

“Just call me shake-and-bake.” 

There was an extremely loud burst of static as Rarity sputtered directly into the speaker of her phone.

Sunset grinned. “What, too good?”

“You’re awful,” Rarity managed through quiet laughter. “Oh you’re awful, Sunset.”

The wide grin did not indicate that she felt especially awful about it. “Bad girl at heart, what can I say? Assigned shake-and-bake at birth.”

Rarity couldn’t even berate her, unable to push it through the laughter her end of the line was momentarily consumed by. Sunset soon found herself chuckling along as well, listening happily to the joyous sounds flowing through the speaker. 

Rarity really did have a nice voice. Her laughter was especially fun. Everything she said sounded almost melodic in the way she strung her sentences together, and her laugh was much like that as well, though much of the structure was lost, replaced with joyous chords that bounced about, like a bouncy ball that had been dropped and was being gleefully chased after. 

Sunset didn’t recall rolling onto her belly, nor resting her chin on her hand as she listened along. Rarity’s pleasant sigh into her ear brought her back into focus. A moment later, a decidedly less pleasant muttering was faintly heard: “Oh damn it.”

Sunset’s dreamy smile faded a little. “What?”

“Oh, nothing…I just looked at the time.”

Sunset glanced at the phone’s screen for a second. 9:42. “Time folded up on itself again.”

“Indeed…” A wistful sigh. “We do need to consider going to bed at a reasonable hour this time, darling.”

“We’ve got plenty of time still.” Sunset did feel some fatigue, but was not feeling any inclination to submit to it. Not yet.

“I still need to take a shower.”

“Ah.”

A few seconds passed. From Rarity’s end came a consternated growl, then a scoff. “Oh to hell with it.” Faintly there was the noise of drawers being opened, then closed, one after the other. “Hope you don’t mind being put on speaker for a while, darling.”

Sunset arched an eyebrow at this. “Why?”

“Because you’re coming to the shower with me.”

Sunset bit back a snort. “Uhh, Rarity? I don’t think phones work super well in the water.”

“Well it’s not going in the shower,” Rarity huffed. “Just by it.”

“You sure? I don’t want to be the reason you bricked your phone.”

“Oh please, I think I can manage.”

Sunset shrugged, as though Rarity might see it. She really needed to quit doing that. “If you say so.” 

“And I do.” The audio quality shifted, suddenly sounding a bit more echoey than it did previously. The sounds were all a bit more flat, less focused on Rarity - the sound of a door opening was heard with much more clarity than it otherwise would, as did the footsteps that Rarity took as she went down what sounded like a long, empty hallway in a massive warehouse. “It’s not my first rodeo with this, I’ll have you know.”

“Oh I’m sure.” Sunset rolled back onto her side, taking the opportunity to swap hands to hold the phone against her other ear; sitting on her stomach with her arm up was causing the limb to start to tingle from poor circulation. “I always figured you were the sort to like, walk around the house and talk.”

“And you’d be right! Well, more right in the past.” There was another sound of a door opening, and then closing, followed by a faint sound of fabric being dropped. “It’s a bit more troublesome when you have a nosy little sister living with you, always shadowing your steps and trying to figure out who you’re talking to and what you’re discussing.” The muttered, “Thank you, mom and dad,” was barely audible with the sound quality the way it was. 

Sunset wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything. She rolled onto her back, and listened to the faint sounds of movement on the other end. For the better part of a minute or two, there was no further dialogue. 

“If the water is unbearable, just let me know, would you, darling?”

“Sure thing.” Sunset wasn’t sure what to expect, though when the droning noise filtered through the speaker into her ear, she figured that was it. “Eh.”

“Tolerable?”

“Eh,” she repeated. “Might be kind of hard, I don’t know.”

“We did get a new…hm.” A few beats of silence, then the sound of water got a lot closer. There was a rattling sound, and something bumping against the microphone, and while the water was a lot louder now than it was before, so too did Rarity sound clear, if significantly more echoey. “How’s that sound?”

“Sounds like you did that thing I said was a terrible idea and put the phone in the shower.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny at this time.” A curtain rustled.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Just don’t drop it.”

“Oh, hush, it’ll be fine.” There was the sound of splattering, and the sound of the water would occasionally shift as the thing it was striking against moved about some. 

Another lapse in conversation happened. Sunset didn’t really mind it, though admittedly the sound of the water through the less-than-stellar quality audio filling her ear was not quite as engaging as Rarity had been up till this point. Taking this as a chance to multitask, Sunset got up off of her bed with a grunt to get something to eat. She realized she’d missed dinner and should probably not go to bed without eating again.

“You know,” said an echoey Rarity down her rain tunnel, “it’s really easy to forget you aren’t human.”

“Oh yeah?” A cupboard was opened…there was only one box to choose from, so pick it she did. The sight of it wasn’t exactly thrilling, and a bowl was fished for out of another nearby cupboard. 

“I find it a little strange to think about, if I may be quite honest.” Something clattered on the other end; Rarity didn’t acknowledge it. “I’ve known about you and you’ve been living among us here for several years now, and only recently has it come to light that you’re not even from earth, and it’s expressly because we were told as much. I mean, even with some of your…erm…”

“Weird-ass questions?” Sunset dryly offered, pouring a bowl of cornflakes for herself. No milk because no refrigerator, so she popped a handful of them into her mouth like chips. 

“To be fair darling, you don’t ask many of those. And your-“ A pause, presumably washing-related. “-and your little quirks could be excused as just that. I would never in a hundred years have guessed that you were a pony in a human body, even after having gotten to know you better.”

“Probably a good thing,” Sunset said past a mouthful of dry cornflakes. She swallowed a bit too hard, and grimaced at the pain. “Walking around wondering whether or not any of the people you meet on the street is secretly a technicolor horse wearing a human body seems a little unhealthy. That’s pretty firmly in tinfoil hat territory.”

There was a faint, echoey snort. “I suppose you’re right about that. Even still, it’s strange to consider. I would have thought someone from another world would feel very stilted, and…unnatural. I never really got that sense from you or Twilight.”

“Twilight was a lot more obvious.”

Silence.

“Rarity, she ran on all fours through the hallways,” Sunset said flatly. “She was trying to type on a computer like a gorilla. I know I made the drool in those videos pretty clear, I specifically edited it to be.”

Rarity gave a loud, resigned sigh. “I’m just trying to be charitable to the poor dear. Lord knows how stressful it must have been to be dealing with all that at once.”

“It is stressful.” Sunset paused for a more reasonably-sized handful of cornflakes, taking a second to admire the alien appendage while the topic was on her mind. “It’s…cool. It’s really cool. But it’s a lot. Especially when you’re trying to figure out stuff like…you know, like, survival, and figuring out how the world around you works, never mind your anatomy.”

“For what it’s worth, I think you’ve adapted fantastically, darling.”

Sunset curled her fingers into a light fist, and a smile made its way across her face. “Thanks.” The praise did indeed mean something to her, but she was also keenly aware of how she looked right now. Eating plain cereal like potato chips while stark naked in a horrible little house she didn’t even own with no electricity or running water was not exactly the spitting image of ‘fitting in.’ “I think I’ve got a lot of work to do still on this whole ‘human’ thing, though. There’s a lot to it, and I don’t think I’m ever going to be…you know…spot on.”

“Perfection is a noble goal, so long as you never truly expect to achieve it. Besides, I’m quite fond of you the way you are.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course, darling.” Sunset could feel the smile she aimed at the phone, in that moment. “It’s not every day I find someone I can enjoy talking with so much that I never want to stop. You’re wonderful company, oddities all included. If anything I’d say it adds to the charm.”

“Well…geez.” Sunset couldn’t repress the smile, rubbing the back of her neck bashfully. “You’re making me blush over here.”

“Oh my my, what is this? Bad girl Sunset  Shimmer can’t take a little compliment?”

Sunset snorted, shaking her head, as though it would be visible through the phone. “Yeah, you’re right, I’m bucked. I’m going to get my bad girl card revoked at this rate.”

“Quite a predicament indeed…I’ll tell you what, I’ll make a deal with you.” The sound of water suddenly stopped, and Rarity’s voice came through much clearer. “I’ll refrain from reporting this little incident to the proper authorities, and you will never refer to yourself as ‘shake-and-bake’ again. Deal?”

Sunset let let out a long, windy sigh, which slowly transformed into a stream of throaty chuckles. “Well I guess they don’t call me shake-and-bake. End of an era…”

“I’m quite confident you will find a way to endure in these trying times.” Rarity almost managed to sound like she was trying to not laugh herself. Almost. “Shake-and-bake…honestly.”

“It’s not a phase, mom, this is how I really am.” 

This tipped Rarity over the edge into giggling laughter, which in turn set Sunset off as well. Once again, the two laughed together, words set aside to enjoy a moment of mirth.

As Sunset let out a sigh at the end of her chuckling, she glanced at her phone, and made a painful discovery. “Oh buck. My phone’s at two percent.”

“Sunseeet!” Rarity whined. The echoing effect of the shower made it seem significantly louder than it was. “Did I not just get done saying that I didn’t want to stop talking to you?”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” Sunset dragged a hand down her face as she let out an irritated breath. “I charged it yesterday, but I didn’t expect to be having another call like this again, so I didn’t charge it at school.”

“Oh this is worst thing. Worst! Possible! Thing! I’m ruined, Sunset!”

“Well look, we can do this again, right? We’ll just…reschedule for tomorrow, I guess.”

“Oho, we’re doing appointments now,” Rarity said with a curl of intrigue, her life sounding suddenly a lot less ruined than it did a moment ago. There was a sound of bumping and jostling on Rarity’s end, then the audio quality suddenly spiked as the phone was taken off speaker. “I suppose I can make do with that…same time tomorrow?”

“Same-ish time, yeah.” Sunset flicked another glance at her phone. “One percent…gotta call it here.”

“Sunset?” Rarity’s voice was suddenly quite soft, and sincere.

“Yeah?”

“I really enjoy talking to you.”

Sunset opened her mouth, and found no words came out of it immediately. She emitted a combination of a breath and a single chuckle, smiling down at her bed as she tried to process the feeling that this simple statement had caused to leap through her chest like lightning. “I…I do too. I’m…yeah. Yeah.”

The silence that closed in over them was rosy, and embracing. Though nothing was said for a time after this, Sunset really, really did not want to hang up…so, she didn’t. Sunset remained on the line, listening to the barely audible hiss of the phone in her ear letting her know that they were still connected, content with the knowledge that Rarity was there, smiling that same smile, just as happy to be there in that moment as she was. Their shared quiet felt like a hug.

One minute and twelve seconds later, the phone died, and only then did the call end.
> Evening Drive
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There comes a time in everyone’s life when a simple question must be asked: ‘What do I do with myself today?’ It was a question that Sunset Shimmer had asked herself many times, and this was one such time. It wouldn’t be nearly so problematic if the very asking of that question didn’t highlight how the answer was not self-evident. 

The go-to answer would typically be to start thinking about how to work on projects she had going on. Idle hooves on a day where she was feeling restless was a recipe for dissatisfaction, so getting right into the thick of it seemed like a good idea. 

The problem, of course, was that she had nothing to work on right now. She had long since dropped her ambitions of social engineering (though “conquest” was a more apt term), so there weren’t plans to go over, and she had nothing lying around that she could get up to her elbows in. There was always some housework that she could do, but with a home that wasn’t even legally hers, what did it really matter? If anything, working on it would draw attention to it, and that’s the precise opposite of what she needed.

She could always look at better alternatives for residency. She had a place now, sure, but it was a dump, and living in it was constantly balancing on the razor’s edge. At any time she could get ousted and then wind up on the street again, and that was not a place Sunset had any desire to return to. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d gotten away with it for as long as she had, and while she was lucky there, some stability in her living conditions would not go amiss. Less anxiety about that would also be nice.

And the problem with that was living somewhere costs money. She could get some, sure, easy enough…but employers require paperwork. Paperwork she didn’t have, and could never have, because she was not a legal resident of this country. She wasn’t a legal resident of any country on earth. You know what sounded fun, compared to opening that can of worms? Anything else.

Okay, fine, so nothing that mattered could be worked on. What was left?

Little else. Because if it didn’t matter, it didn’t matter, and wasn’t really worth her attention on account of, by definition, not mattering.

Sunset breathed in through her nose, then let it back out in an agitated sigh. The statue in the CHS courtyard was cool against her back where she leaned on it, and she let her gaze find the stairs to the entrance to the high school, arms crossed over her chest and one foot against the statue idly. 

Classes had been dismissed about an hour ago. The busses had long since vacated the premises, and now all that remained were a few teachers and students attending some extracurricular things, both of whom were beginning to exit the building themselves in a slow, increasingly irregular trickle. It wouldn’t be too long before it was dinner time, and nobody was willing to miss that.

…well, Sunset could name at least one mare who’d be willing, especially if you dangled something literature-based in front of her. She was back in Equestria, though.

Lucky her.

Sunset shook her head, rattling that thought free from her mind’s eye as she tried to focus on something else. Something productive. Easier said than done, though, and once again did Sunset’s thoughts do another lap around the ring of frustration they’d been spinning around for the better part of an hour.

That was one perk of being the bad guy: it was easy to come up with things to do. At least when she had her ambitions, she had felt a sense of purpose. The way forward wasn’t always well defined, sure, but she knew what her end goal was, and connecting the dots was something she could easily work out, given the time and means to do so. If she lacked the means, that then became the next thing she’d pursue, and if she lacked means to acquire those means, there again was the way forward…on and on, for however long it took her to get to where she wanted to be. There was always a plan, or a potential for a plan. Morality being an afterthought only made the whole process easier; less restrictions meant more options to pursue the ends she sought, and less hoops to hop through oftentimes meant a more straightforward advance.

Now, though? There was no goal. Well, no, there was ‘be a better person,’ but that wasn’t something tangible, something she could wrap her hands around and grip and pull and shape and work with. That was an idea. A noble one, maybe, but a vague yet noble idea wasn’t going to put food on the table, or solve her living situation, or serve as a tool to apply to a problem, or give her a half-decent idea of how to spend her evening other than standing here brooding against this statue in front of a school building that, by all rights, she should not even be attending. Hell, she shouldn’t even be allowed to stand here. She should be in a prison somewhere, or strapped to a table at the bottom of a government lab, being peeled open like a grapefruit for all her juicy insights about what unicorns were like and how they worked and whether or not they tasted good when they were chopped up and cooked, like humans seemed to do with every other four-legged creature that they didn’t decide was a plague vector.

Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose. She took a long, level breath, then breathed it slowly back out in a controlled stream through barely-parted lips.

A short, sharp hiccup of a car horn sounded off nearby, and Sunset couldn’t help but glance in the direction of it. It took only a moment to collect herself from being jarred from her thoughts enough to recognize the car parked on the side of the road, and with a small smile and a slight shake of her head to herself, she pushed off of the statue and began to make her way over.

The station wagon that sat there looked remarkably out of place by virtue of just how old it was. Whereas other cars were sleek and rounded and painted in solid colors, this vehicle was made up of flat edges, halfway covered in a color scheme intended to mimic wood, the other half painted a shade of turquoise that modern cars simply didn’t come in. Everything about it screamed ‘old person car,’ even though the weight of the ages had been visibly kept at bay by diligent care and maintenance, and probably an unreasonable amount of money. It wasn’t the kind of vehicle you ever expected to see outside of a magazine, and certainly not belonging to the person sitting in the driver’s seat.

Sunset Shimmer couldn’t help from adopting the half-swagger she picked up as she strolled over to the awaiting car. When she finally reached it, she leaned up against the door with her forearm, her other hand on her hip, and she tilted her head forward as though to look past an imaginary set of sunglasses at the driver through the open window. “Ma’am, you realize there’s no parking here after school hours? I’m gonna need you to scram.”

Rarity looked up from her phone she’d been studying, peering up over the edge of her actually-existent designer’s sunglasses in a manner that rather convincingly read as though she had not seen Sunset coming, or in fact been the one to summon her over. ”Very sorry officer,” she replied loftily, “but I’m afraid my hands are rather tied here. You see, I’m awaiting a dear friend of mine, and I simply cannot bear the thought of leaving without her.”

“Are you now?” 

“Quite.” Rarity’s gaze left Sunset to tap a line out on her phone’s touch screen. “Perhaps you’ve heard of her? I’m told Sunset Shimmer frequents these parts.”

Sunset nodded along pseudo-thoughtfully. “The name rings a bell. I hear she’s trouble, though. What’s a finely-crafted young lady like you doing waiting around for trouble like that?”

Rarity shrugged flippantly without looking up. “What can I say? I enjoy a little bit of trouble now and then.”

“Might be in some soon if I don’t see some license and registration. How much have you had to drink today?”

This earned a look from Rarity, who peered up from over the edge of her sunglasses in a way that would look far more indignant if she wasn’t smiling. “Get in the car, darling.”

The cocky smirk of the cop routine finally broke into a proper grin. Sunset pushed off of the driver door to walk around to enter through the passenger side, chuckling as she did. 

“How much have I had to drink today,” Rarity repeated in a disbelieving tone, talking around the sound of the passenger door firmly shutting. “Not enough, firstly, and secondly, how dare you?”

“Hey,” Sunset put up one hand innocently as she buckled up. “Someone’s gotta give you some flak.”

“Oh please, as though I don’t get enough of that already?” The station wagon’s engine roared briefly as the engine began with a start, then mellowed back out as Rarity jostled the stick shift from park. “I’ve had more than my share from Sweetie Belle today.”

Speaking of whom, Sunset flicked her gaze to the pristine leather seats in the back of the vehicle, halfway expecting to see one of three faces that she did not end up seeing. “No company today?”

“Mercifully not. I’ve done my due diligence already.”

“Sleepover?”

“Oh I highly doubt sleep is going to be involved at any point,” came the wry retort, “but ostensibly yes.”

Sunset considered briefly to speak the thought that came to mind - how it seemed more like Sweetie slept over at Rarity’s house and lived at her friends’ - but decided not to touch that topic. Conversation lulled for a brief time as Sunset turned her head out the window, watching the world begin to swiftly pass by as Rarity pulled out onto the main road away from the school. “Where are we going, anyway?”

“Haven’t decided yet,” Rarity replied whimsically. “Have you eaten?”

“Nope.”

“What sounds good?”

“Uhh,” Sunset said lamely, feeling a little put on the spot. She fumbled over a couple of ideas, but she still felt like she barely knew most of the places around here, despite having lived here for several years. Nothing she did know jumped out at her. “I dunno.”

Rarity tsk’d. “Well we’ll have to think of something, because I really don’t feel like cooking today.” 

“I dunno. Pizza?”

The response was almost automatic: “Alright, Rainbow.”

Sunset put up her hands in defense. “Well hey, it’s not my fault pizza always sounds good!”

“Alright, Rainbow.” Rarity glanced over her shoulder briefly before toggling her blinker to shift lanes. “I seem to have picked up the wrong girl from school today, hate when that happens.”

“Rainbow wishes she was this hot.”

The most unladylike laugh escaped Rarity’s throat of its own volition, and she did little to stop it. “Careful, darling, your humility is showing.”

“Hey, it’s a Friday. Gotta let it all hang out once in a while.”

“It’s Thursday,” Rarity deadpanned.

Sunset didn’t miss a beat: “Hey, it’s Thursday. Gotta let it all hang out once in a while.”

Rarity rolled her eyes with a touch of a smile. “I think you may just have a thing about not tucking in, darling.”

“You complaining?”

“Merely critiquing. A lady should always aspire to hold herself in the most dignified manner possible, even when no one is around to look.”

“Someone is around to look, though.” Sunset leaned over on one arm against the divider, a coy smirk in her voice. “And I know you look.”

“I look at a lot of things, that’s hardly relevant.”

“Could be.”

“Could not be,” Rarity replied innocently, shrugging one shoulder. “Who’s to say, truly?”

“Dunno, I think the wandering eyes say a lot.”

Though her gaze remained fixed on the road ahead of her, Rarity’s voice possessed a curl to it that perfectly matched the minxish smile on her lips when she replied, “I’m allowed to look.”

Sunset’s smirk deepened. Though no further dialogue followed this particular line of conversation, something of a conversation was nonetheless had in the form of the playful silence and mutual grin that felt much favorable to and more intimate than actual words.

They never actually decided on where they should eat. Sunset was not feeling particularly inspired at the idea of eating in general, but also didn’t feel like playing the ‘I’m not hungry,’ ‘oh but you have to eat something darling’, ‘no I’m okay honest,’ ‘are you sure’ game, and so when Rarity brought them to a drive-thru, she didn’t offer any resistance and pointed at the first thing that sounded half-decent on the menu…then the second thing, after looking at the price associated with the first. Rarity likely wouldn’t have protested, but the look on her face definitely bore signs of relief when Sunset suddenly changed her mind.

It was only when Sunset was in the process of unwrapping her burger that she noticed the label on the wrapper, and on the bag it had come from, and realized that it was McDonald’s. She glanced over at Rarity as the car’s engine cut and she began to fish out her own meal from the bag, making idle commentary about the sorry state of this parking lot all the while.

There was something deeply amusing about this whole situation, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. Something about it being Rarity, of all people...

“And what are you smiling at?” came the lighthearted challenge from that very girl. “You can resume ogling after you’ve eaten, darling.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sunset chuckled, ceasing her staring to pay attention to the…what had she ordered again? Sandwich. Yeah, whatever. A Mc-something-or-other. She bit into it. 

“And don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Ah dihn’d.”

“Really? Because you just did.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. Rarity giggled.

The mundanity, Sunset would eventually decide over her meal. It was the mundanity of it all. Rarity, this high-class, stylish, (relatively) wealthy, attractive young woman,  more or less slumming it out with the homeless illegal immigrant in a McDonald’s parking lot, eating cheap food because that’s just what they ended up getting and didn’t feel like getting out of the car was a symphony of contradictions, and it seemed to fly in the face of everything that Rarity stood for, at least on the surface. Part of her suspected Rarity was only being caught dead putting this fast food in her mouth because it seemed like something Sunset would eat, but after having gotten to know her for a while, Sunset couldn’t bring herself to earnestly buy into that theory. She was not the stereotypical pretty girl who obsessed about every minutia of her appearance that her pride in her looks and attentiveness about style would suggest, and she also wasn’t the sort to demean herself for the sake of meeting someone else on their level. That would likewise imply that Rarity held herself above Sunset, and that simply was not the case. If anything, she thought rather highly of Sunset.

Sunset caught a glimpse of dark thoughts as they began to circle overhead, and she swerved to avoid them. “Got any plans tonight?”

Rarity made a noise in response to this, though any actual words were delayed until the fries being deposited into her mouth were swallowed. “Am I being inquired upon, or propositioned?”

“Uhh.” There was a beat of silence, which was then punctuated with a shrugging response of, “Maybe? I don’t really, uhh…just asked.”

“Right...” Rarity began the process of scrubbing her fingers clean of any residual evidence of the meal she’d been eating using the tangle of napkins provided. “Well, I suppose that depends.”

“On?”

“Do you have any plans tonight?”

“Not really.” Been months since I’ve had the luxury. “What, you planning on being my plans?”

“If you’ll have me,” came the playful response. “I figured, you know…I’ve got a free day, perhaps we can spend the rest of the evening in person, rather than over the phone?”

“Heh.” Sunset rubbed the back of her neck with a small bashful smile. “I mean, if you want to. I don’t really know how to uh…I mean, like, I was kinda just standing around, and I don’t really know how to budget time for two here. I’m  having a hard enough time with one.”

“Now that I am not concerned with,” Rarity declared as the crumpled napkins were discarded to the spent meal bag. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last few weeks, darling, it’s that even just sitting with you, blathering back and forth all the while, is thoroughly entertaining. We could sit here in this parking lot, even.” A beat. “Let’s not, though.”

“Yeah, let’s not,” Sunset chuckled, buckling back in as Rarity started the station wagon up. “Unless you’re really itching to meet your dealer out here or something.”

Rarity rolled her eyes at this, twisting about in her seat as she reversed them out of the parking space they’d been occupying. “While so very tempting, tragically, I left my needles back home.”

“No big deal, I’m sure there’s some spares in these bushes out here.”

“Oh god, Sunset.” 

“Waste not!” Combined with how utterly appalled Rarity sounded and the growing horror on her face, Sunset couldn’t help but laugh.

In the lapse of conversation that followed, Rarity pulled the station wagon out of the McDonalds parking lot and merged onto the highway for the quick jaunt it took to get back to a road that lead to the side of town that Sunset was significantly more familiar with, as it’s where she’d spent most of her time. She had never been gifted with the arcane knowledge that was how to drive a car, what with being ineligible for it by way of being an alien invader from planet Pony, so outside of the places she had convinced Flash Sentry to ferry her to and from, her area of familiarity was essentially anything that didn’t take more than an hour or two to walk to from where she was currently living. Most of Canterlot was still unfamiliar to her, and there was at least half of the city she had never seen at all except as it passed swiftly by while on route to some other destination.

It wasn’t all that different from how it was in her own Canterlot, thinking on it. The human equivalent was bigger, for sure, if not as grand, but it seemed to her - at least, at a glance - that she knew this Canterlot about as well as the one she had grown up in. There was too much of the city for her to see, and her interests did not extend throughout the whole of it, so large swathes of the capital simply fell outside of her notice to the point that it may as well not exist, and when it did come up, it felt foreign and unfamiliar, despite being a piece of the city she had always lived in.

Sunset pondered whether or not this was some effect of the portal and the relationship between Equestria and the mirror world. As often proved the case, it could go either way. It’s just how it had worked out on this end, logistically, though it was difficult to completely discount the possibility of some manner of influence from the world itself. It tried to keep just about everything as close to one-to-one as it could between both worlds, from what could be observed of it, with varying amounts of success. Sometimes it was eerie how it kept things in line with things on the other side, and like she had many times in the past, Sunset wondered to herself just how deep it went, and how it prioritized keeping things as close to a mirror image as possible. Without seeing the process at work - if such a thing could be seen at all - and with no real knowledge of the mechanics behind it, it was impossible to know. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, the possibilities were nearly limitless. It was hard not to feel the ground sway beneath one’s feet as one looked over the edge into a fathomless abyss of unknowables that made up everything around her, every possibility as potentially great as they were frightening in scope. 

Sunset didn’t like to think too hard about it, most of the time. The kind of existential questions that the mirror world raised ranged from unsettling to spiral-inducing, and being an inquisitive mind at her core, Sunset was aware that thinking too long or hard on this particular topic was not good for her mental health. In saying that, though, she was an inquisitive mind at her core, and there were days where madness seemed like it wasn’t such a steep price to pay in exchange for finding out precisely how deep the rabbit hole went. After all, what is peace of mind if it means living in ignorance? Knowledge is power, after all, and it’s power that lets you reshape the world. Is blind, dumb, and helpless to your environment really living?

...listen to me. Really does explain how I ended up here, huh?

“Sunset.”

Sunset reacted with a start, turning her head from the window and blinking her eyes back into focus. “Huh?”

Rarity had her head pointed forward at the road, though her gaze was very much sidelong at Sunset. A ghost of a frown found her lips as her eyes flicked to the road again. “You’ve been rather distant today, darling.”

It took Sunset a second or two more to collect herself after having had the gears in her head shifted so abruptly. She cleared her throat quietly, turning her head from Rarity to the road to view the city passing by. “I guess.”

“Are you okay?” 

The knee jerk response was to brush it off, but the sincerity of the question and the earnest tone in Rarity’s voice demanded some other response, one Sunset wasn’t prepared to offer. “I’m,” she started, forgetting almost immediately what she meant to follow that with - if she had anything in mind at all - and waved a hand vaguely, expecting something good to respond with to present itself. It didn’t, and the raised hand flopped back to her lap with a faint sound of skin slapping against fabric.

Such a simple question. It should be simple to answer. And yet…

After several long seconds of fruitlessly ponderous quiet, Sunset shook her head. Her vexed gaze returned to the window of the door she leaned against. “I dunno.”

Rarity didn’t say anything at first. When she did speak again, though, her voice was as soft as it was heartfelt. “You know that I care about you, right?”

Sunset swallowed, and her awareness briefly touched on the rubber band that felt like it was bound around her windpipe. “Yeah.”

Though she wasn’t looking at her, Sunset could hear the small smile in Rarity’s voice as she replied, “I’m glad.”

“Sometimes I wonder why, though.” Sunset didn’t think about saying it, but the words happened all the same. “I feel like you could do better than…y’know.”

“I’m not sure that I do know, darling, now that you mention it. What do you mean?”

Sunset reached into her mind to pull up her thoughts, but as she did, the shutters came down hard. Her half-gesture halted and the raised hand fell to her lap a second time, landing lifelessly on her thigh. Once again, Sunset shook her head, what focus she could manage locking onto the way that the street outside the window streaked by. “I dunno.”

A second or two of silence preceded a response. “Well,” Rarity began slowly, voice sounding like how down feathers felt, “if you ever figure it out, I’d be interested in hearing about it, should you feel like sharing.” The car swayed gently in unison with a steady turning of the steering wheel. “I’m always glad for another reason to hear your voice.”

Sunset bit back a scoff. In spite of the storm clouds that had gathered in her mind, she still found it in herself to mutter back, “It helps that you’re nice to talk to.”

“I'm glad you think so, darling. I feel the same way.” Though there weren't eyes ready to see it at the time, Rarity's wry, playful little smile could be felt quite clearly in the brief pause. "I've quite the phone bill to prove it. Won't be the last, I suspect, and frankly, I couldn't be happier for it."

One corner of Sunset’s lips tugged up, and remained up. 

Nothing more was said on that topic, or any other topic, for a while. Still halfway under a cloak of choking storm clouds in her mind, Sunset was not entirely sure when it happened, just that at some point during their drive, Rarity’s hand had ended up resting against her arm where it had fallen to her lap, and had not moved for quite some time. Sunset didn’t mean to, but her focus went fully into the contact, mapping it out in great detail. Rarity’s palm was nearly flat against her forearm, the long, slender fingers making it to about the halfway point between her elbow and wrist. The skin felt warm - surprisingly warm, but not unpleasantly so. It felt like sunlight, though with a comforting weight behind it. A sun-warmed blanket, perhaps, left out to take in the rays, now sharing the comfort with the girl beneath it.

Sunset was tempted to look. She didn’t, though, for whatever reason. The hand resting on her arm didn’t move, nor did the contact stop. They didn’t talk about it, either, but that was fine. If time with Rarity had taught Sunset anything, it's that you can say a lot with silence.

A fair bit of time passed like that. Sunset didn't keep track of it, nor pay much attention to anything that wasn't Rarity or the sound of the road. Occasionally she would glance up at the scenery as it whisked by, sometimes making distant note of something, and it was at some point during this indeterminate stretch of time that Sunset recognized a building that she had seen earlier which she knew was close to the high school. 

This realization was made with a slight lifting of the head. "Are we going in circles?"

"Something close to them, yeah." Rarity lifted her hand on Sunset's arm to flick on a blinker, though she placed it back down in roughly the same spot, still not seeing fit to acknowledge the contact. "I wasn't sure where to go in particular, so..."

"Just kinda going nowhere, huh?"

Rarity shrugged casually, completing a turn at a corner that they'd visited at least twice now. "Did you have somewhere you wanted to go?"

Sunset made a noncommittal noise, adjusting her posture in her seat in a manner that her back muscles agreed with a little more.  Her arm under Rarity's hand remained undisturbed. "Honestly, I'm happy like this."

"Same, I think." Rarity glanced up at her rear-view mirror briefly, then found the road again, her posture seeming more relaxed when they had started some amount of time ago. "I enjoy driving in general, though. There's not much to think about while you're on the road, you're just...in transit. Watch the road, pedal down..."

"And don't die in a horrible wreck."

"Preferably, yes," Rarity chuckled. "It's not so bad on this side of town, though heaven help you if there's so much of a drop of rain on the pavement. You'd think the world itself was coming to an end."

Sunset smiled a little bit to the sound of Rarity's chuckling, but otherwise didn't respond.

"Do they have cars in Equestria, darling?"

"No, nothing like this." Sunset's eyes tracked another car as it passed them by, going the opposite direction at speeds that most pegasi would be quite happy to cruise at, though maybe not so close to the ground. "There's wagons and carriages, but nothing self-powered. Well," she corrected herself quickly, "no, I guess there's some self-powered stuff, but not like..."

"Nothing mechanical, I imagine."

"No, not at all. Not with material power sources, anyway. It's all magic, and...honestly it's not really great for transportation? Not unless you're going really far out to a major city or something. It's just like, needlessly complex to have stuff like this when you could get a carriage to take you across town. If you've gotta go really far, then you're talking like, a fly-team or something, and that's not a super big deal either, just hit up the flyport. There's always guys around there." A second passed, then Sunset looked at Rarity. "Why?"

Rarity shrugged nonchalantly. "Just curious. Your world doesn't come up all that often, and you've been happy to share when it has."

"I guess." Sunset looked ahead, watching Rarity change lanes, though she didn't know enough about driving to know whether or not it was needed. She assumed it was. "It's nice to talk about home sometimes. I don't get to much."

"I figure it's a tricky topic to bring up..."

"Not at all," Sunset deadpanned. "People are very receptive and totally believing when you explain you're actually secretly a unicorn trapped in a human body from a world made up of technicolor ponies ruled by the gods of the sun and moon. They've got these real cozy rooms they'll let you stay in for free, too. Nice and padded."

Rarity snort-laughed once, then caught herself before it went any further, though the smile was stubbornly persistent. "I'm sorry, darling, I shouldn't laugh."

"Guess I'll take the clown makeup off, then. Deny me my every pleasure, why don't you."

"I mean it," Rarity managed, chuckling despite herself. "I mean, it's good that you can laugh about it, but I have to imagine it's hard to have to keep all of that under lock and key. You always seem so happy to share with me."

Sunset shrugged, gaze drifting to the side, once again peering out the window to her right as her reflection's small smile faded. "Don't really have anyone else I can talk to about it, I guess."

"You could share with the others?" Rarity offered. "I'm sure you could spin any number of stories to wow Rainbow, and Applejack and Fluttershy would probably love to hear about life in a pony world. I know for certain Pinkie would be delighted to learn about celebrations from a foreign culture, too."

This was....more than likely true. Sunset had no reason to doubt Rarity on it - not that she even necessarily needed to take her word for it - but even still, she found herself shifting somewhat in her seat at the thought of it. "I dunno. Feels kinda weird."

"How so, darling?"

Sunset devoted several seconds to contemplating this, though by the end of it she simply shrugged, unsure of how to vocalize her thoughts on it.

Rarity waited a little, taking her eyes off the light she had stopped at to watch Sunset. When she did not respond further, she said, "Well...is it alright if I talk to the girls about it, should it come up? You needn't be the one to do it if you don't want to."

"I...guess?" It still felt weird. "I dunno when that would ever come up, though."

"You'd be surprised. The girls ask about you a lot."

"Do they?" The surprise was as plain in Sunset's voice as it was on her face as she turned her head to look at Rarity. "About what?"

"This and that," came the casual response, head bobbing either way in conjunction with a shrug. "Nothing in particular, really, just...generally interested in how you've been lately."

"Why?"

Another shrug, much like the first. "I guess because we've been talking so much lately, they figure I would know better about your situation."

"Have you been talking about like, the calls and stuff?"

"Some." Rarity glanced from the road back to Sunset. "Just that it's happened, nothing about like, what we've talked about. Is that alright, darling?"

Sunset had to ask that question herself. She hadn't realized that she had been sitting up straighter throughout this conversation, and after a moment she eased back into her seat, trying to relax again. "I guess so."

"I was only half-joking in that first call, darling." Rarity caught a glimpse of the light changing overhead, and the station wagon started forward again, picking up speed steadily. "I can keep a secret, and as far as I'm concerned, everything that's said between us stays between us. I know you value your privacy."

Sunset didn't have a response for that.

"Besides..." Rarity's tone softened, and Sunset was once again reminded of the hand on her arm when Rarity gave it a gentle squeeze. "Some things aren't meant to be shared."

It was a small smile, the rosy one that made its way to her lips, but one that couldn't be stopped if she tried.

Another long, comfortable silence rolled over them, and Sunset let herself be lost to it for as long as she was able to. It wasn't long - or at least, it didn't feel long, it could have been hours - before Rarity spoke back up again, muttering irritably, "Damn it, again."

Sunset glanced over at her. Upon recognizing the tone, she glanced out the window, noting the way that the lighting had changed over time and the street lights had turned on, and then glanced at the clock on the dashboard. She couldn't help but crack a grin at the number that was significantly larger than it was last time she'd bothered to check it. "The curse lives on."

"Every time!" Rarity huffed, flicking a look over her shoulder to see if she could adjust course quickly without cutting someone off. She removed her hand from Sunset's arm for the first time in what had possibly been an hour in order to do so more swiftly before the corner she meant to take passed them by. "We really need to find that hole, find out where all that time has been falling into every time we get together. It's very inconvenient."

"I'll keep an eye out, let you know what I find."

"Splendid, do keep me informed. I'm having no luck on my end." One more turn, and Rarity's quick maneuvering relaxed a bit, as did her apparent huffiness. "Where would you like me to drop you off?"

"Oh, uh..." She had not considered that. "Just kinda anywhere, I guess."

Rarity frowned, somewhat expectedly. "I can take you straight home, darling."

"It's fine," Sunset said smoothly, taking the opportunity to roll her shoulders back in a good stretch to appear more at ease. "I like walks at night anyway. I haven't had one in a couple of days."

"Well, if you're certain...I'd rather you get home before it gets too dark out, though. What's close by?"

Sunset shrugged, giving their surroundings outside the car a cursory glance. "I dunno, where's your house at?"

"Five minutes that way?" Rarity gestured vaguely west.

"Yeah, that's perfect. I'll just walk from there."

Rarity still didn't seem totally at peace with the idea, but she offered no further resistance to it.

Much like the car that she'd been granted by her parents (there was frankly no other explanation for this station wagon that Sunset had been willing to accept beyond that her parents owned it, at least at one point), the house that Rarity lived in was best described by the age bracket of its owners, which was apparently "old person." Sunset was no architect, so she couldn't place exactly what it was about the structure that made it feel that way, but that was how it felt. Perhaps it was the "classical" vibe that the two-story home gave off, in spite of the pinks and purples that dominated its color scheme, though it also could have been the neighborhood. It was an older part of town, by the feel of it, and her own brief tours through this part of Canterlot had always given an impression of being on the more quiet side of things. Wealthy and old people lived out here, for the most part, with Rarity and her little sister being something of an island of youth...though surely her own parents weren't that old. Or maybe they were?

Sunset's considerations on the topic were cut off by the sound of the engine stopping, followed shortly by the clicking of a seatbelt coming undone. She followed suit, though she somewhat loathed to do so, in part because it meant their meeting was coming to an end, but also because she'd been sitting for the last four hours and her back was not much favoring the idea of contorting in a hurry.

To sounds of exertion, Rarity wryly asked, "Need some help there?"

"Just unfolding my spine like a lawn chair, don't mind me..."

"It sounds like it." Rarity chuckled, coming around the front of the vehicle where she'd parked it in the driveway, outside of the garage. It was still plenty light out to see the amusement on her face as she came up to Sunset, who was currently standing while doubled over, hands on her back. "I know a very good chiropractor, if that's going to be necessary."

"I'll get back to you on that one." In saying that, Sunset stood back upright, stepping aside to allow the door to be shut, and let out a loud sigh. "Back surgery I'm due for aside, that was pretty nice."

"It was, wasn't it?" Rarity flashed a smile as she brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "We should do it again sometime. Or something like it, at least."

"I was gonna say, yeah. I don't want to crank up your gas bill and your phone bill."

"Well there's a delightful solution to that!"

"Yup, bucking off, you'll never see me again." Sunset turned on a heel and did not manage to get a single step away before she was promptly yanked back around by the arm, where she threw up her hands in defense amidst laughter. "Kidding! I'm kidding."

"You'd best be!" Rarity huffed, hands planting on her hips. "I certainly haven't spent this much time with you just to have you bugger off into the wilderness on me. What I was going to say is..." The apparent annoyance dropped away, in favor of a tone that almost sounded a little bashful. "Perhaps maybe...go to the mall or something?"

"Ehh..." Sunset rubbed the back of her neck. "I've kinda been the source of a lot of expenses for you lately, Rarity, I dunno if I want to keep having you hoof the bill all the time."

"Foot."

Sunset blinked. Her blank stare lasted all of a second and a half before she considered her wording, and then chuckled, "Right."

Rarity shook her head slightly with a smile. "I promise it's no trouble, darling, but if it makes you feel better, we can always just walk around. I drove us around in circles for about three and a half hours, and that was just fine. We can make it work on foot."

"Oh, I'm sure about that." Sunset gave it another half-second of thought and shrugged. "Yeah, it's- we can do that, yeah, whenever. Did you have a time, or..?"

"Doing anything tomorrow evening?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah, there's this really cool girl who wanted to do some stuff with me, mostly like walk around in circles and stuff? It's kinda weird, but she gives me things sometimes, so I can't complain."

"That sounds like it'll be a splendid time." Rarity giggled, and Sunset couldn't help but mirror her. "Well I wish you the very best with that, perhaps I'll meet someone while I'm at it? Someone charismatic and funny and looking oh so dashing with her red and yellow striped hair..."

"Why would you want that? Sounds like you're meeting a loser."

"Oh get out of here," Rarity gave Sunset a playful shove, who took it and used the momentum to start her walk away. "I'll pick you up after school, don't be late! Walk safe, darling!"

Sunset gave Rarity a wave as she picked up her leisurely pace to a more proper walking speed. The smile on her face lasted well after she turned away from the house and the girl standing outside it, unbothered by the chill of the autumn steadily closing in as the sun began the process of leaving the waking world to its own devices for the night.

Sunset breathed a light, happy sigh to herself as she heard the door to Rarity's house close, stuffing her hands into her pockets. She hadn't even made it to the end of the street and already her mind was cycling back through interactions that had happened, replaying conversations and occasionally emitting a quiet chuckle to herself here and there at what she remembered of one of Rarity's many reactions where they'd been entertaining.

There had been a few things that weren't purely entertaining, though, and her mind inevitably touched on them. The smile died down as Sunset thought back on some of the things that had been said, in particular their brief conversation on opening up to her friends about Equestria. 

She supposed, somewhere between her home and Rarity's, that maybe there was some wisdom in the suggestion. She couldn't imagine a world where her friends were disinterested, though maybe a little...confused? No, not confused...she searched for a word, and eventually she settled on "unsure." She had some rapport going already, having been friends with them for a few months now and...yeah, they generally seemed to trust her, certainly, so it's not like they'd disbelieve her, though they might be a little unsure of what to think exactly about it all. It was a lot to take in, believable or not. She was no stranger to how she looked to someone who wasn't informed about all the more fantastical elements of what stories she had to offer; being the catalyst of the rainbow lasers that they'd blasted her with on that fateful day didn't make it any less otherworldly or alien to someone who'd simply never dealt with anything vaguely like it before.

That wasn't really the worry, though. Worst case scenario, they'd simply have no opinion and think little on it. After all, it's not like it mattered that much, in the grand scheme of things. No, that wasn't the home that she was more concerned with being asked about.

Sunset came to a stop in her walk as she reached a familiar corner, casting her gaze down a street she'd been down many times. It was shaded, most of the street lights dead or missing entirely, and while she could see it from where she stood, there was little to truly see. It was barely a house, and it was even less so a home, but the run-down, condemned dwelling that she had been taking shelter in for months now stood there, waiting for her to take refuge in it once again.

And she did. Sunset Shimmer closed herself away in that dingy little shack with delusions of grandeur, lighting one of her many candles to do battle with the dark where the inoperable light bulbs would not, and filled her thoughts with her time with Rarity to drown out the questions of how best to keep lying to the people who wanted nothing more than to be her friend.