Sunburst was running late. There was nothing in life that he hated more than running late. Except maybe bigotry, by a small margin. It was a tough call. But bigotry just made him angry, while running late set him into a state of panic.

It started, as he noticed, with his hooves shaking as he set his coffee down on his Zebrican Mahogany table. Event Horizon, who sat across from him, didn’t notice this. He went on with his rambling about whatever it was he was talking about. Sunburst had gotten used to it. They were best friends, after all. They even shared an apartment to prove it.

He glanced at the clock, trying his hardest to follow along with Event’s monologue and add vague comments of understanding. He was twelve minutes later than he wanted to arrive at Starlight’s home. He’d set contingency plans in advance, but they all would require a certain brown coated stallion to not be chatting his ear off over coffee. He loved Event Horizon dearly, but he had to go.

“So anyway, Lava Plume started using the table as a surfboard, and somehow it didn’t burn,” the stallion said, his green eyes shining brightly as he continued on, “And that’s how I figured out the lava wasn’t as hot as lava, I guess. It was like a nice dip in a warm pool to be honest. Horrible for the books, yeah, but at least it felt nice. Sorry about that, by the way.” Event flashed a smile at Sunburst, who he thought was still paying attention. “Lava apparently didn’t read her spellbook right, I guess. And I’m definitely happy about that. Otherwise I’d be a bit too crispy right now.”

Sunburst nodded. He’d heard this before, of course, as Event had been over the event just about five times in his lengthy story. Of course, he wouldn’t tell his friend that he was repeating himself. Event enjoyed talking, and Sunburst usually enjoyed listening, but today was not a usual day.

He wiped his forehead with a foreleg, feeling all of the sweat that had built up over only a few minutes. Sunburst needed a way to get out quick, but without upsetting his friend.

“You alright?” Event asked just as Sunburst was fading back into the conversation.

Sunburst waited a few moments, just in case it was just a continuation of his story, before responding with a hurried shake of his head. “N-no,” he stammered, “I k-kind of forg-got that I had plans with a friend of m-mine. She was t-to show me Ms. Twilight Sp-parkle’s library, and I must have lost t-track of the time.”

“Aw heck,” Event said, turning to the clock behind him, “When were you supposed to meet her at?”

“I was supposed to leave twenty minutes ago if I was to pick up flowers, or ten if I was to pick up chocolates. Celestia forbid, if I was to do both.” With a sigh, Sunburst shook his head again. “And now I have time for neither, and I will be rudely showing up to her home with nothing to offer, while she has everything.” He looked back at his friend. “Do you see what I mean?”

“No.” Event said simply. “And what kind of ‘friend’ is this, exactly?”

“Just a friend,” he assured, “An old, old friend. Dates back to my childhood, really. You may have seen her yesterday. She was standing right next to me when you, uh,” he bit his lip, trying to find the least accusational phrase, “When you requested my help.”

“Oh,” Event’s ears folded back as he looked to the ground. “I’m sorry about that, I guess. I shoulda taken care of it myself.”

Sunburst shook his head once again. There was no point in having the both of them beating themselves up. “You did what you thought was right. It’s not your fault that I was trying to rekindle an ages old friendship.”

Event chuckled a bit, despite neither seeing a joke in this. “I guess I should let you go then.” He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “One of us has to get ready for work, anyway, and I’m betting it’s not the one who has to buy flowers for his girlfriend.”

“She is not my girlfriend.” Sunburst said quickly, though a bit more defensive than he’d like.

“And yet you’re planning on buying her flowers?” Event said with a slight frown. “Methinks that you have a bit of a thing for this mare. Who I still have yet to officially meet, I might add.”

“She came to town two days ago.” Sunburst said, scratching the back of his head, “I had no clue she would be showing up either. Maybe I can introduce you two tomorrow, but I really want to reconnect with her before that happens. Otherwise I feel it would be a bit weird.”

Event Horizon nodded, his frown fading only a small bit. “Just be careful, alright?”

Sunburst nodded, a smile growing on his face. “I will try my best.”

“You promise?” Event asked, a smile making its way onto his face as well.

Sunburst let out a small laugh. “You know me well, don’t you?” He pushed his chair out and stood up to walk to Event’s side of the table. “Now here is what I think I will do. I will take a shower, pick up some lunch for her and I, and then spend the rest of the day reading books with her and making up for fifteen years of lost time. Sound careful enough for you?”

“Now you’re just patronizing me.” Event said with the most forced frown he could manage on his face. “I’m just looking out for you, buddy.”

Sunburst snorted. “Just give me a hug so we can both get out of here, you nerd.” Event Horizon smiled up at him, and they embraced like the nice friends they were. No homo at all. Sunburst pulled back after a few moments, but Event lingered just a bit longer.

He scratched the back of his neck with a nervous smile. “Have fun with your stuff, I guess. I’ll have fun not burning down the library.”

“You better not,” Sunburst said, rolling his eyes. “I would rather this day not be interrupted if I can help it at all.”

Event put both forelegs up. “I’ll stay as far away as I can manage. Now, go and do your thing.”

“Fine,” Sunburst said with a sigh, sauntering to off to the bathroom, “Enjoy work.”

During his shower, Sunburst contemplated the day ahead. It seemed full of excitement and wonder at the time.

During his walk to the closest sandwich shop to the castle, he tried his hardest to remember what kind of sandwich Starlight would want. It was inconsequential information that a twelve year old wouldn’t really bother himself with remembering, but Sunburst still felt he should remember it.

And so, he stood outside the fancy sandwich shop, trying to remember if a small, twelve year old horse enjoyed Brie or Neufchatel better. Or if she even liked cheese at all. Or sandwiches, for that matter. With a stifled grunt of displeasure, he stormed off to the castle, sad and sandwichless. He’d just have to ask her.

At the castle, the guards in front just nodded and let him pass. He was by very often to seek audience with Princess Celestia, either just to seek advice or just chat and talk like normal ponies. It was fun for both, as Sunburst got to make his mentor smile, and Celestia got to talk to someone she could drop her act for, even if it was for a little while.

But that wasn’t the plan for the day. Instead of going into the castle, he made his way up a staircase circling up an ivory tower to the right of it. He did it slowly, but still was very winded at the top. He was a librarian, not a gymnast. He paused to catch his breath, then knocked on the door at the top of the staircase.

And he waited.

And waited.

Waiting.

Wait.

He heard stumbling, falling objects, and clopping hooves. He was worried, of course, but he didn’t move for fear of catching his friend in an awkward situation. It was a very common occurrence, sadly.

Moments later, the door opened to reveal Starlight Glimmer. A very tired, Starlight Glimmer. Her blue eyes were surrounded by dark circles, her multicolored mane was tangled and mussed up, and there was an unnoticed piece of paper stuck to her face. Sunburst, being a gentlecolt, didn’t say anything. He just smiled and waved slightly.

Starlight’s eyes widened slightly as she realized that she most likely looked awful in front of the one pony she wanted to impress the most. She stammered, contemplating shutting the door in his face to take a shower or putting on makeup. Heck, even a brush might have helped.

Sunburst just smiled wider and chuckled. “Are you going to invite me in, or…?”

Starlight blanched slightly. She was being rude. Canterlot sensibilities, she had to remember. Canterlot sensibilities were different from Sunnydale sensibilities. Or ‘Our Town’ ones, for that matter. She shuttered at the memory, but then turned swiftly on her right hindleg, the wind rushing by her cheek knocking off the piece of paper. She blushed, and both chose to ignore it. “Uh, please come in.”

Sunburst nodded, and entered without hesitation. He found himself in the main room of the library, walls taken over by shelves and shelves filled to the brim with books. He was immediately in love.

“Feel free to poke around,” Starlight said from behind him, “I have to go and take care of some ‘things’.”

Sunburst nodded again and left Starlight to her business. She ran off quickly, leaving him to fiddle about with the cool books that the library held. It was mostly spellbooks and things on magic theory, as Twilight Sparkle wasn’t one to bother herself with anything that wasn’t about school, but there were a few fiction books lying around. Some books on astrology, astronomy, prophecies, card reading. Things like that. And some more racy novels hidden behind the larger textbooks. Sunburst just ignored those and moved on.

He settled on an older Doctor Whooves novel, some novelization of a Fourth Doctor radio drama, and sat down at the first desk he could find. It was an okay read, engaging but a bit dry and boring at some points due to the Doctor, but it got the job done. He had made it a quarter through by the time Starlight reentered the room, this time slightly more presentable looking. Her eyes still had dark circles around them and her mane was still a slight bit frizzy.

“Doctor Whooves? Really?” She asked after taking one look at the book he was reading. “Isn’t that a children’s book?”

Sunburst shrugged, closing the book and setting it on the table. “Even if you were right, there are a few things in that book that should not be in the minds of foals.” He stood up and stretched a small bit. He looked at Starlight. “You look nice. Did you do something with your mane?”

“You’re too kind.” Starlight smiled with a blush, obviously flattered. “But still, I thought you would be reading something more magicky. Twilight has a lot of those cool magic theory books that I can’t stand.”

Sunburst scoffed, putting a hoof to his chest. “What do you have against magic theory?”

“Never did me any good, I guess.” Starlight shrugged, “I’ve found I work well without learning any of that boring stuff.” She waved a hoof in a dismissive fashion. “Anyway, it’s not what about what I read. I thought you wanted to come here to look at all the rare magic books.”

“I did,” He said, “But then I decided that we could probably do that sometime that is not now.” He moved to scritch his right foreleg with his left hoof, “Instead, do you think that we could maybe talk? Catch up or something like we were going to yesterday?”

“Oh,” Starlight said, slightly taken aback as she just expected a day full of reading and slight, but not awkward cuddling. She paused for a moment, then gestured to the table. “Sure, but we should probably get on that if you wanna get very far.”

Sunburst smiled. “Sure. I will try to speak quickly.” He then reclaimed his seat and waited for Starlight to take the one across from him.

And so she did. They sort of just looked at each other nervously, both trying to figure out where to begin. They had fifteen years of lost time to make up for, and yet had to get it stuffed into a small conversation.

“So, what have you been doing these past few years?” Sunburst asked nervously. It was an awful question to ask, but it was a start.

Even as awful as it was to ask, it was much worse for Starlight to answer. On one hoof, she didn’t want to lie, but on the other she didn’t want to get to the topic so quickly. “I haven’t been doing much, I guess,” she decided as her answer, “Just a bunch of boring stuff.”

Sunburst, of course, wasn’t really believing her. “You did something to meet Princess Twilight. I am sure that story is definitely interesting.”

“It’s not the best story to get into at the moment,” Starlight said with a frown, “I shouldn’t even have brought it up, but there I go with my big mouth.”

Sunburst nodded. “Whenever you feel comfortable with sharing, then.” The two spent the next few moments shuffling awkwardly, an act that had become second nature to them by this point.

“What about you?” Starlight asked finally. “What have you been doing?”

“Oh,” he started, leaning forward in his chair, “I have just been devoting most of my life to magic study in hopes that I can finally become an instructor at Princess Celestia’s academy.” He then let out a long, drawn out sigh. “And yet, I am trapped as a head librarian until Event is ready to take the position from me. That won’t be happening until at least next year.”

“Event?” Starlight asked simply.

“Oh right, you’ve hardly met him, haven’t you?” This made Sunburst crack a small smile, at least. “He was the stallion that set the library on fire, causing me to leave yesterday. He is also my coworker, roommate, and the best friend that I have had in years. He has carried me through times that, much like yours, are probably not the best to talk about at the moment.”

Starlight nodded in understanding. “He’s that special to you?”

Sunburst shrugged. “I suppose. He tends to be a bit of a pain sometimes, but he isn’t that bad of a friend. When he isn’t burning things down, that is.”

“Right.” Starlight responded. Then more silence.

Sunburst let out another sigh, laying his head on the table. “This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.” He looked at Starlight. “Do you just want to get some sandwiches and start over later?”

Starlight thought it over. It was a very good idea, as neither looked like they would be sharing anything on an empty stomach. And maybe by then she could come up with a plan on how to talk around her mental break. So, she nodded. “That’s probably our best bet. Shall we?”

Sunburst gave a large smile. “Let’s.”

Author's Notes:

So, like, I lost track of time. And then I realized that I have no idea what I'm doing. So updates are probably going to be every other week. If I can manage that, even. But hey, this one was longer, at least. More means better, right?

Also, I now realize that the name of this story isn't what I want. But now it'd be confusing if I changed it. And I'd have to rename one of my older stories in order to swap the titles. Life is hard, man. Then again, switching the titles would actually make the stories make more sense.

So, what I'm saying is, what does the one person who reads the author's notes think? Keep 'The Saltwater Room', or switch to "Isn't The Rain"? It's a much more obscure song, but I like it more.

Oh, and I'll give something to whoever can name the Doctor Who book referenced.

And, you know, abrupt end. This time I'm not sorry. I just needed to get this out before tomorrow and exposition isn't that fun to write. But plot is starting to happen. I promise.

And with that, I'll see y'all next year. Hopefully.