Chapter 21. Offerings and Managements.

By the time Sunset woke up, Rarity and Rainbow were already in the kitchen, finishing their breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs with bacon, and some orange juice. Just then, Sunset realized that a whole week with no responsibilities whatsoever had messed her schedule up, as she was now used to waking up a lot later than usual.

Looking around, Sunset noticed that she was alone in the living room. Sleeping bags scattered in a somewhat star pattern was the only reminder of the prior night. Even Pinkie was nowhere to be seen, to which Sunset would have made a snarky comment, but she was still too sleepy to care.

She stood up and lazily made her way to the kitchen. “Good morning, darling,” Rarity greeted, while Rainbow only mumbled, still half asleep.

“Morning,” Sunset said, walking up to the stove, where a pan half full of still hot scrambled eggs awaited for her. She stretched a little before picking a portion for herself, being extra generous with the bacon.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be herbivuroos?” Rainbow asked, gazing at Sunset’s plate.

Sunset sat down at the other side of the table, next to Rarity, and as far from Rainbow as possible. “First off, it’s ‘herbivorous’. Second, humans tend to call it as ‘being vegetarian’. Third, bite me.” She then proceeded to take a mouthful of her bacon and chew lazily.

“Oh? Someone’s grumpy in the morning I see.” Rarity teased, playing idly with the last bits of eggs in her plate.

Sunset’s only response was an angry mumble. It had come to her knowledge in more than one occasion that she wasn’t exactly pleasant right after waking up.

But it couldn’t be too much of a surprise, really. True to her own name, Sunset was not a morning person. Sure, she could wake up at the crack of dawn without a problem if she needed to, and she had been doing it for years since coming to the human world. But, even so, it hadn’t become a habit in the slightest, as she’d easily sleep all day long, if hunger didn’t force her to move.

And, to make matters worse, Pinkie had casually mentioned last night that she didn’t have coffee in her house. Something about messing with her sugar-powered body or some nonsense like that. Sunset had stopped paying attention the moment she realized she would be deprived of her bitter fuel until she could buy some.

“Oh, hey there, Marble!” Rainbow said.

Sunset perked up at that. She wasn’t particularly fond of meeting Pinkie’s sister, even after Rarity reassuring her they weren’t very alike. She couldn’t be too sure of how true that was, and she had hoped to leave before having to meet this Marble girl. But it couldn’t be helped, Sunset realized, and she decided to at least say hi.

Looking up, with her mouth still full of food, Sunset was surprised at the sight in the kitchen’s door. Judging by the many portraits around the house, Pinkie’s parents and big sisters all had dull, grayish colors. Sans her dad, whose skin was light brown, but still dull. Marble Pie was no exception to the rule, her skin and hair were different shades of gray, her eyes were a dark shade of purple, and her hair was straight and waist length.

So, basically, she and Pinkie weren’t identical twins. Had they not been born together, Pinkie’s mother would have had a lot of explaining to do. The thought was so amusing to Sunset, she realized too late that she had been staring at Marble for a long time.

And the girl didn’t look too comfortable with it.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Good morning, Marble dear. Let me introduce you to our friend Sunset Shimmer.” She turned to Sunset. “Sunset, this is Pinkie’s sister, Marble.”

Sunset was about to say something, but her interest was piqued by Marble’s body language. Her shoulders were a little above her collarbone, her elbows were tightly pressed to her sides, her knees were touching, and her torso was a little leaned towards Sunset. And on top of that, she was fidgeting with her fingers as her eyes drifted from Sunset to the floor too much and too fast.

In a normal day, Sunset would have playfully teased the girl in an attempt to soothe her, but she didn’t have enough caffeine in her veins, and she wasn’t exactly in the mood to be friendly.

She stared a little longer at Marble, chewing her food very slowly before swallowing.

“I take it you don’t talk much?” she said, lazily poking her bacon.

“Mhm,” was Marble’s only response.

“And judging by your reaction, Pinkie didn’t tell you I was here, right?”

“Mhm.”

“And although you want to have breakfast, you’re not sure what to do if there’s an unknown face in the kitchen, even though it’s your house.”

“Mhm.”

Sunset made chewing movements with her jaw, still staring at Marble. She was really glad that she had met her after the Fall Formal fiasco, or she’d have mocked this girl until she was reduced to a pitiful pile of sobs and cries. Not that it would be too hard, but that wasn’t the point.

With Marble still fidgeting, and the other girls in complete silence, Sunset knew that it was upon her to make a good impression.

She let out a soft sigh. “Would you be more comfortable if I just go to the living room?”

Marble took a few seconds to answer, slowly shaking her head. “Uh-uh.”

Sunset blinked and then turned to look at her own food. “Alright. Food’s on the stove. Serve yourself.”

“Mhm,” Marble replied before quietly making her way to the stove.

It hadn’t been exactly the most fulfilling conversation Sunset had, but she was still half asleep and wasn’t feeling exactly in the mood to deal with shy girls. One Fluttershy is more than enough, thank you very much.

For the rest of breakfast, Rainbow and Rarity engaged in a one-sided conversation about the complex intricacies of the wondercolts uniform design process and how it might be updated to align with modern fashion. It was clear that Rarity tried to attach her interest to Rainbow’s interest, to keep her interest, but Rainbow was no longer interested. Instead she was poking at her breakfast with a look that said she never thought a wondercolts conversation could be this dull.

Sunset couldn’t really blame her, the only two that seemed to enjoy Rarity’s rants about fashion were Fluttershy and Pinkie.

All the while, Marble had sat down in the closest chair to the kitchen’s door. She had not produced a single sound, but she kept glancing at Sunset every now and then. Either she was truly afraid of Sunset, or was admiring her natural beauty, in its most natural state. Not that Sunset could blame her, in any case.

The sound of a door opening and closing moments after caught Sunset’s attention. She didn’t have to wait long to know the cause of it, as Pinkie Pie suddenly burst into the kitchen with plastic bags hanging from her hands.

“Good morning girls!” She said with a particularly high pitch. She bounced next to her sister, who looked oddly undisturbed by Pinkie’s attitude. Then again, they were twin sisters, so they were probably used to each other by now. “I’m so glad you already met Shimmy-Shimms, Marble! I told you there was nothing to be afraid of!”

“Mhm,” Marble replied as a little blush of embarrassment made its way to her cheeks.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. Marble had, in her own way, said that Pinkie didn’t tell her that she was there. But, considering that Marble was agoraphobic, Pinkie’s remark had probably more to it than just meeting one random girl in her kitchen.

Pinkie then bounced towards the counter where she placed the bags. “I went to buy some things!” She said while taking out the items. “Some green tea for Rarity.”

“Marvelous!” Rarity said. “Thank you very much, Pinkie.”

Pinkie nodded before taking a can. “A soda for Dashie.”

“Oh yeah!”

“Coffee for Sunset,” Pinkie continued, taking a little bag of instant coffee.

“What?” Sunset blinked. Pinkie had bought the same brand and flavor Sunset liked and had every morning. How in the world did she know?

“And malted milk, because it was running out!”

Sunset decided not to question it, and simply stood up to prepare her coffee. It took her barely two minutes and one sip of the heavenly brew to find the color in the world again. Letting out a content sigh, Sunset leaned against the counter, limiting herself to just watch and hear the conversation. It was just Pinkie talking about how much fun she had, with the occasional question to Sunset, to which she just answered with a nod or a shake of head, and then sipped some more coffee.

The moment didn’t last long, as Rainbow changed the subject.

“So, what are we gonna do today?”

Rarity stood up, taking her dishes to the sink. “Well, I was hoping for Sunset to come to the boutique with me.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at that. “Why?”

“The clothes you bought yesterday are simply marvelous, and they look really good on you. But they are a little bit oversized. I just want to tweak them.”

Sunset blinked. “I didn’t notice anything wrong with them.” She sipped the last of her coffee, and with a satisfied sigh, she let the cup in the sink. “But if you think they’re wrong, then I’ll take your word for it. But I kind of have to work today.”

Rarity made a face. “At what time do you think you’ll be available?”

“I dunno,” Sunset said with a shrug. “I’m two weeks behind my schedule.”

“Wait, you have a job?” Rainbow asked.

Sunset turned to her with a thoughtful expression. “Didn’t I mention it?” Rainbow shook her head. “Well, yes, I have a job. It’s not the best thing ever, but it pays the bills.”

Rainbow stared at her for a few silent seconds. “So… you’re a stripper?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity scolded.

“What? It’s so fitting!”

Sunset gave Rainbow a flat look. “If you want me to strip for you, it’ll be five hundred.”

“Sunset!” Rarity cried out, taking a hand to her chest. “Are you really-”

“Of course I’m not!” Sunset snapped.

Rainbow pulled out her wallet and opened it a little. “Are you sure?” She smirked slyly.

Rarity facepalmed. “Anyway,” she looked up at Sunset again, ignoring Rainbow’s scowl. “Tell me when you’re free so I can fix your clothes, ok?”

Sunset shrugged. “Alright. I’ll text you tonight.”

A quick refreshing in Pinkie’s bathroom later, Sunset packed all her things in her bag, deciding to use her usual attire and save the new one until Rarity worked her magic on it. And after a few farewells, Sunset was already on her way to the emporium.

Working with the Flim Flam brothers had always been somewhat relaxing to Sunset. They were ridiculously disorganized with their files, and they more often than not would lose important documents beneath mountains of hastily stacked papers. Had Sunset not taken over when she did, they would have lost all their money long ago.

But Sunset had never complained, not even in her thoughts. Going to work every day after school always helped her, in a way, take a break from all the plotting and scheming. It was her own private grotto. It also helped her workload wasn’t that heavy, so she could take it easy and make sure that everything was perfect.

Unfortunately, she had taken two weeks off as vacations. Originally, she didn’t have any intention of returning to this job, as she was sure that she was going to get back to Equestria. So, of course, these two weeks had piled up, and now she had to put up with the incredible ability of the brothers to create a big mess in such a short time span.

It wasn’t precisely tiresome, but it did take her until late night to get the most important papers out of the way. She’d need another day or two to return to her usual pacing, but, then again, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do.

She even had the whole morning to rest and take it easy, now that school wasn’t going to consume any more of her time.

She sighed heavily as she carefully placed her perfectly organized stack of papers upon Flam’s desk. She had tried to not give it a thought in the slightest, but the image of the statue, shattered in front of her, would play in her mind every now and then, and she’d have to take a break to the restroom to wipe out the tears from her eyes.

It was becoming really frustrating.

If the brothers noticed this, they didn’t show it at all, to which Sunset was immensely grateful.

“I believe this will be all for today,” Flam said, eyeing the new stack in his desk with delight. “You can go, Sunset. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, good night,” Sunset replied lazily and spun on her heels, making her way out of the office and into the shop.

Her house was barely twenty minutes in bus from the emporium. Once she got there, Sunset prepared herself a cup of coffee, sat down on her couch, and opened her laptop lid. Whilst she had the whole mornings now, she still wanted to use what little time she’d get to search for a good job opportunity for Trixie.

So far, she had a few options she had been gathering the past week, all of them wrote in a text file with numbers, addresses, dates, and more. Of course, all of them had to be either on weekends, or after school. It had been taxing, but Sunset was sure that she had quite a few good possibilities. Now she just had to decide which one should be the one.

A loud, obnoxious sound startled her, and she quickly recognized it as the MyStable website, or more accurately her private chat alert. She arched an eyebrow. Up until three weeks ago, the only ones that ever messaged her were Snips and Snails, and they had blocked her since the Fall Formal.

Opening the chat, she was surprised to find a message from Pinkie Pie.

“Hey there Shimmy-Shim-Sham!” The message read. “Are you busy?”

Sunset sighed at the ever growing nickname Pinkie was giving her. She should probably stop her before it was too late. “No,” she wrote back. “And stop adding syllables to that nickname.”

“Oki doki loki! Hey, did you find Trixie a cool contract yet?”

“Not yet,” Sunset replied. “Why?”

“Awesome!” Pinkie answered.

Seeing how she was taking her time to write the next message, Sunset took the chance to sip from her coffee.

“So, do you remember Diamond Tiara? You know, that girl that always walks around with a tiara! Anyway, her birthday is in three weeks and they hired me as her party planner! Isn’t that cool?! Apparently, she reeeaaally likes how I plan the school events!

DT (That stands for Diamond Tiara btw) told me that she wants an illusionist! And of course I thought of Trixie, because the show she gave the other day at school was incredibly spectacular! So sad DT missed it because she would have thought of her too! But since I didn’t miss it, I know how good she is, and I thought to hire her! But you are her manager, so I thought that I should contact you first!

What do you think?!”

Sunset blinked several times. She could actually feel the sugary energy coming from that wall of text, and it was already tiresome. She took her hand to her mouth and hummed. It was yet another option for Trixie’s performance. A quick search told her that the birthday was on October 3rd, a Saturday.

With a hum, she wrote back.

“Sounds like a plan to me. What kind of illusions are you planning for?”

“The whole shebang!” Pinkie replied almost instantly. “The best of the best she can do!”

Sunset smirked at it. She and Trixie had agreed to have two kind of prices for now, seeing that Trixie was still an amateur. Sunset cracked her knuckles before writing again.

“Alright. Trixie charges 250 per hour for complex illusions.”

Now came the part where Pinkie would try to negotiate the price. Sunset hoped she wouldn’t have to spend the whole night trying to convince Pinkie that it was impossible.

“Alrighty!”

Sunset blinked. Really?

“She’d have to perform two hours,” Pinkie continued. “She’ll need a stage, right? Mr. Rich has one in his backyard. I dunno why, but I’m sure Trixie can use it for her performance! When can you come to check it out?”

Sunset hesitated for a second. Well this was easy. “This saturday,” she answered.

“Oki doki loki! I’ll see you there at 10 am! I’ll text you the address tomorrow morning. For now I have to get going. Good night!”

“Night.”

Sunset leaned back on the couch and let out a long sigh. She knew that Pinkie somehow knew everyone at school, but just now it dawned on her that Pinkie’s social nature and unnervingly high professionalism were the qualities a good contact needed.

Suddenly, Sunset was very glad she had decided to give this friendship thing a shot.

Stretching up her arms, Sunset realized that it was a little after nine. She decided that it wasn’t too late, and that it was safe to give Rarity a call. She’d have preferred using the chat like with Pinkie, but Rarity was either doing homework, working on her boutique, or watching soap operas, and she wouldn’t probably notice the message until it was too late.

Finding Rarity’s name in her contact list, Sunset pressed the call button and held her phone to her ear.

“Good evening, Sunset!” Rarity’s voice greeted immediately after taking the call. “How was your day?”

Sunset shrugged. “Average. Yours?”

“Simply marvelous! It might not be the best thing for my grades, but this extra day off really helped me finish a few commissions I had.”

“Ok,” Sunset replied. “So, about that thing of my clothes-”

“Oh, that’s right! When will you be available?”

“I can work tomorrow morning and meet you in the afternoon,” Sunset replied. She was really glad that the brothers didn’t really care the time she showed up, as long as she worked her mandatory hours, and did her signature perfect job.

“Perfect!” Rarity squealed. “How about we meet at Sugarcube Corner at two fifteen?”

“Sure. See you there.”

“Very well. See you tomorrow, Sunset.”

“Night.” And with that, Sunset finished the call. Not a moment later, she browsed her contacts again and pressed call. After a few beeps, she spoke up. “Hey, Trix.”

“Hello, Sunny, what’s up?” Trixie answered back.

Sunset relaxed in her couch, and couldn’t help the smile forming in her face. “Just wanted to know how was your day.”

“Really?” Trixie asked with curiosity. “It’s the first time you call me just for that. Alright, what’s up?”

“What?” Sunset did her best to sound offended. “Can’t I call my girlfriend to see if everything’s right in her life? You insult me!” Trixie giggled, and Sunset could picture her rolling her eyes. “Come on Trix, don’t be such a grump.”

“Fine, fine. School’s boring as always. And I feel neglected by my girlfriend!”

Sunset chuckled. “Oh woe is you! But don’t worry, I want to invite you on a date tomorrow.”

“That sounds great,” Trixie replied. “Where are we going?”

“Well, I first need to stop by Rarity’s so that she fixes my clothes. Something about them being oversized… Anyway, after that I want to take you to go see a movie or something, I dunno.”

“Oh! I want to see that one with the dog and the helicopter!”

Sunset smiled. “Alright. See you at Sugarcube Corner at two fifteen. Good night, Trix.”

“Good night.”

Stepping off the bus, Sunset found herself barely a block away from Sugarcube Corner.

For whatever reason, Flim and Flam had seemed to enjoy the idea of Sunset working in the mornings. Apparently, they didn’t tell her anything because she was attending to school, but after explaining that she had abandoned it, the brothers looked all too pleased with the new development.

It seemed like Sunset would have to become a morning person once again. At least, that would allow her to hang out with Trixie and the whole gang more often.

It occurred to her that she was getting too used to this friendship thing.

She decided to shrug it off for now. It served her as a distraction from her own problems.

It took her barely a few minutes to get to Sugarcube Corner. She was a little late, but she figured it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Hey, Sunny!” Trixie called from the table where the gang got together every so often.

“Hey,” Sunset replied back with a smile.

Rarity flashed a smile to Sunset. “Good afternoon, darling. How was your day?”

Sunset shrugged. “Average.” She sat down next to Trixie and leaned in for a quick kiss. “How about you?”

“Boring,” Trixie answered, crossing her arms and huffing a silver tuft from her face. “Can’t wait for classes to be over.”

“Oh come on, now,” Rarity offered. “It’s not that bad.” Sunset raised an eyebrow at that. Rarity cleared her throat. “Anyway. Shall we get going? I’d really love to see you in your new style, Sunset.” She turned to Trixie. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Absolutely.”

Sunset snickered. “Alright, alright.” They all stood up and walked away.

Rarity’s boutique wasn’t far, as it took them only ten minutes to get there. Sunset didn’t know what she had expected, but as odd as a house with a facade of purple and white diamond pattern was, it did feel very Rarity.

The interior was more of the same. Soft purple carpet and blue-ish walls, decorated with golden and magenta details everywhere. Mannequins and rolls of fabric scattered haphazardly at the corners, and a table at a far end with clothes and yarns of every color, although making a messy look of the building, somehow fitted in the whole boutique image.

“Fancy,” Trixie said.

“Thank you,” Rarity replied. “Now, Sunset, would you be a dear and change in your new outfit? There’s the changing room,” she said, pointing at a curtain behind the table.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because I need you to wear it so I can properly mark the needed corrections.”

Sunset and Trixie shared a quick look before shrugging. “Alright,” Sunset said and went to change her clothes.

Trixie sat down in one of the few chairs and looked up at Rarity. “When you said you had a boutique, I really thought you were speaking metaphorically.”

Rarity let out a soft giggle. “Many people say that, I wonder why.” Trixie rolled her eyes. “But this is also my house. My parents let me open the boutique here, until I earn enough money to move it to a proper locale.”

“Cool,” Trixie answered with a flat voice.

“Is something wrong, dear?”

Trixie looked away. “Nothing. I think it’s cool that your parents support your dream. Mine want me to be a lawyer.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Resting her chin on her hand, Trixie sighed. “Yeah…”

“But you’re now officially a magician, right?” Trixie nodded. “And you haven’t told them?” Trixie shook her head. Rarity held her breath for a few seconds. “Well, I hope everything turns out well for you.”

Trixie smiled. “Thanks. I hope so too.”

Rarity sat down next to Trixie and threw an arm around her neck, gently squeezing her shoulder. “Just remember that your friends will always be there for you, ok? And I don’t have to say that Sunset will too.”

“Thanks.”

In that moment, Sunset got out of the dresser, wearing her brand new attire sans the jacket. She looked at Rarity, then at Trixie. Raising an eyebrow and placing her knuckles on her hips, Sunset spoke. “Are you trying to seduce my girlfriend?”

Rarity gasped, and attempted to retrieve her arm, but Trixie held her with a hug, nuzzling Rarity’s cheek with her own while looking deviously at Sunset. “I’m sorry Sunset, she just smells so good!”

Beneath her arms, Trixie felt Rarity stiffen, then shudder. If she had to guess, she’d say that Rarity was as red as a tomato.

Sunset erupted with laughter. “You should see the look on your face!” Rarity pouted, but Sunset ignored her, even more so when Trixie joined her. After a couple of minutes, Sunset finally managed to calm down. “Ok, ok, I’m cool.”

Rarity had moved to her platform, surrounded by three mirrors, and was crossing her arms. “Shall we begin?”

“Oh, come on!” Trixie said, still snickering. “You find it funny and you know it.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I do not find amusing to be in the middle of your incessant teasing, no.” She flashed a small smile. “But it was funny.”

Sunset walked over the mirrors. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

“Sure, sure,” Rarity answered. “It won’t take long.” And with that, she began taking measurements and placing pins through pledged of Sunset’s clothes.

Once she was done, Rarity asked Sunset to change to her other attire, pleading her to be careful with the changes she had made. Sunset did as was told, and soon found herself with the same attire she had arrived.

“They will be finished tomorrow,” Rarity said, carefully stretching Sunset’s new shirt upon her desk. “When can you pick them up?”

Sunset pondered for a moment. “I believe I can change my work schedule to the mornings, so… tomorrow.”

Rarity smiled, pressing her hands together. “Marvelous! See you tomorrow, then.”

“Sure.”

Sunset grabbed Trixie by the hand and, after waving goodbye to Rarity, exited the boutique. Not long after the door closed, Sunset spun Trixie around and kissed her.

“I worry at how fast I’m getting used to that,” Trixie said with a very small frown.

Sunset snickered. “I have a surprise for you.” When Trixie raised an inquisitive eyebrow, Sunset continued. “I got you your first job.”

Trixie blinked. ”Really?” Sunset nodded. Trixie’s smile widened, and she could only hug Sunset’s neck and bury her face in the fiery hair. “Thank you! This is so awesome! You’re awesome!”

With a satisfied smirk, Sunset hugged Trixie back. “I know.”

Author's Notes:

I is not dead!