Starlight Glimmer was always at least ten minutes early for any appointment she made. She felt that it would help equalize the time spent between her and whoever she was meeting and, on a regular basis, whoever was meeting her tended to be at least ten minutes late. One was late, the other was an equal amount early. To her, that equaled zero and helped her sleep at night. When she slept at all, that is.

Because of this, she was a bit put off when Sunburst entered Clydesdale Coffee at the exact moment every clock struck noon. He didn’t pause to look around as he entered, no, he just walked up to the counter to talk to the barista who seemed to know him very well. They had a conversation that lasted thirty-nine seconds, Starlight counted, and had nothing to do with coffee, tea, or even scones.

Starlight hated to admit it, but already she felt jealous, and maybe a bit of envy from this. Thankfully, she wasn’t allowed to dwell on it much before Sunburst broke free of his conversation with coffee in tow, and approached her table. She tried her best to compose herself in the small amount of time it took for him to pull out his chair and sit down.

“I hope that you haven’t been waiting for long,” he said with a smile, setting his tea on the table.

Starlight shook her head. “I only just sat down when you came in,” she lied, “I haven’t even had the chance to get anything to drink, really.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, not having anything to fiddle with.

Sunburst nodded. “Well you should certainly try the green tea. It is the only thing that I find myself drinking here.” He glanced at his cup for a second, “But I suppose that we aren’t here for me to recommend drinks, are we?”

“I guess not,” Starlight said with a sigh, “Though that would be much less awkward, I’d think.”

“Is this awkward?” He asked, his mood taking a quick turn to frantic, causing Starlight to jump a bit. “I apologize if it is so. I never intended to make everything so off-putting, but I was just kind of really happy to see you in my library and-”

“You’re fine, Sunny,” Starlight said, interrupting him before it got any worse, “It’s just that we haven’t seen each other in years. I’m not sure where to start, really.”

“Oh,” Sunburst’s heart rate quickly dropped back down to a normal level as he breathed a sigh. “I suppose we could just start with questions then?”

“That sounds like a start.” The two sat in silence, both awkwardly shuffling in their seats before Starlight spoke up once again. “Do you think you could start?”

Sunburst continued his nervous shuffling, trying his hardest to come up with some sort of question to ask. “Uh, what brings you to Canterlot?” Just as he said that, he mentally berated himself for such a stupid question.

And still, Starlight smiled slightly. He was definitely still adorable when he was flustered. “Oh, I’m just stopping by, I guess.” She lied once again, “A friend of mine is letting me borrow her house to use while I’m here.”

“Oh?” Sunburst asked, his eyebrows raising a bit, “And how long will you be staying?”

Starlight shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. I have a few things to do, but there aren’t really any time constraints or anything.”

“Must be some friend then,” Sunburst said with a small, stifled chuckle, “Letting you borrow her home just for some errands. How long have you known her for?”

“That honestly depends on who you ask,” she said with a sigh. “It’s a very long story, but let’s just say that I’ve only really known her for a few days now.”

“That long?” Sunburst asked, dry wit practically dripping from his voice. “I’m surprised she didn’t just hand you the keys when you met her.”

Starlight blushed, immediately taking a slightly defensive stance. “It was a long couple of days. She really helped me through a lot.”

“Oh.” Sunburst’s face fell as he saw the effect of his unchecked wit. He really needed to get that thing fixed. “I apologize. I didn’t mean anything of my comment, I promise.”

“It’s fine,” Starlight said, holding a hoof up, “She and I just grew close due to really unexplainable circumstances.” She sighed once more. There were another few moments of understanding silence between the two of them before she spoke again. “So, what do you do around here?”

“Well,” he was back to smiling once again, this time followed by a gesture to himself, “I am the head librarian at Canterlot’s best public library. There is one better, but most ponies are disallowed from entering. I myself have only been once for a short period of time, and even then it was when I was still in school.” He shrugged. “I suppose that I am just lucky to have seen the place, but whatever.”

Starlight quickly put two and two together, though decided to lead him on just a tiny bit. “And where is this lost source of knowledge?”

“It’s in Princess Celestia’s palace.” Sunburst said, like this was common knowledge to everyone. “I am still allowed entry, as I am and will forever be a student of the crown, but even that is not enough to grant me access to the private library. Last I checked, only her favorite pupil was allowed entrance. Even if she doesn’t use it at all anymore.” He ended his sentence with a loud, dejected sigh.

“Well,” Starlight started, her horn immediately lighting up with a turquoise glow as she magically reached into a bag she had long ago set on the floor. “I might have some solution to that.” With that, she pulled out a fancy looking golden key, emblazoned with the cutie mark of Princess Celestia on the head.

In an uncharacteristic show of raw emotion, Sunburst’s jaw dropped. He knew instantly what the key was for and was figuratively floored by it. He looked back and forth from the key to Starlight’s slightly smug face, uttering only one word. “How?”

Starlight’s smile grew wider. “Like I said, my friend let me borrow her Canterlot home for a while.” She then shrugged. “If you’d like, I could take you there and let you poke around for a bit. Twilight has a bunch of rare tomes and studies that were gifted to her by Princess Celestia herself.”

“Say no more,” Sunburst said with more than a small bit of excitement in his voice. “What do you say we change plans and move our little rendezvous to the library, then?”

“That sounds like a great plan,” Starlight answered, “And maybe I can tell you how I met Twilight on our way there. If you’re interested.”

“I am very interested, Lighter.”

Starlight snickered a bit at that. “I forgot you called me ‘Lighter’.”

Sunburst shuffled a little. “I hope that won’t be too much of a problem.”

“No no,” she said, shaking her head. “I like it. Keep doing it, if you want.”

‘I’ll think about it,” Sunburst said with a smile, “But we should probably get out of here. I kind of really want to see those books.” He scratched the back of his neck for a second. “And hanging out with you again. That is most certainly a plus.”

“Just a plus?”

Sunburst grimaced, not quite knowing how to answer that. “I mean, I really like books. But you being there makes it better, I guess?”

Starlight smiled. It was a start. She stood up from her seat, pushing it in with magic, and strapped her bag on her back. “Shall we be off?”

“Oh, of course,” Sunburst hurriedly stood up, almost tripping over himself in the process, and nudged in his chair with his snoot. He looked up at Starlight bashfully. “Would you like to lead the way, or shall I?”

“Let’s just walk together. It’d be hard to tell a story to your tail, wouldn’t it?”

Sunburst’s tail flicked a bit as he chuckled. “I suppose that is right. Together it is, then.” He gestured a hoof towards the door. “Let us embark.”

The two left together, though Starlight had to leave first due to the coffee shop’s door not being wide enough for two horses.

“So, as for how I met Twilight,” Starlight started as they quickly started their journey to the royal castle, “It was about two or three months ago when I met her-”

“I thought you said you only knew her for a few days.” Sunburst quickly interrupted.

Starlight frowned at her friend. “I’m getting to that. Anyway, a few months ago. I, to be brutally honest, wasn’t a very nice pony.” A blush crossed her face as she remembered the atrocities she had committed not too long ago. “I thought I was doing something right by doing what I did, but Twilight and her friends showed me that I was wrong. But I didn’t really believe her at first, so I got angry.” Her ears folded back as she dipped her head lower.

“Well, what did you do in the first place?” Sunburst asked. “It can’t have been that bad, could it?”

“Well I-” Starlight started, only to be interrupted seconds later.

The interruption came in the form of a loud yell, completely unbefitting of Canterlot sensibilities, originating from behind the two. It was a short yell, but it was enough to make everyhorse on the street look at the stallion who was doing the yell.

Starlight didn’t quite hear it, but she saw that her companion had frozen in his tracks. He slowly turned, but not before the stallion behind them yelled once again, this time crystal clear.

“SUNBURST!” The brown coated stallion yelled. The street had essentially cleared, the Canterlot ponies having ducked into the closest stores possible, leaving the two friends staring at a stallion only one of them knew. He dashed towards them, making Starlight ready her magic just in case. He stopped a foot in front of them and smiled at Sunburst, completely ignoring Starlight for the moment. “Hey buddy.”

Sunburst grimaced slightly. “Hey Event. What’s up?”

Event hooved at the ground a bit, his green eyes flicking down to the ground. “I, uh, kinda need some help. The library is sort of bubbling and lavaish, and I really don’t know how to handle it.” He looked at Sunburst hopefully. “I hate to ask you on your day off, but can you do the fixing thing?”

Sunburst sighed. “Yeah. I will get right on that.” He looked over at Starlight quickly. “I am so very sorry, but it looks like something came up. Do you think we can reschedule this for tomorrow?”

“Yes of course.” Starlight said quickly, trying to hurry him off. “Just stop by whenever. Now go save the library.”

Sunburst smiled. “I’ll see you then, Lighter.” He looked over to the other stallion. “We are going to have a talk about this after I fix everything.”

With a sigh from Event, the two ran off. This left Starlight to return to her home alone.

But she was still making friends again. It was a good start.

Author's Notes:

An abrupt end, I know, but I promise you that it isn't just a cop-out. There's a method to my madness, and such.