The two stallions woke up the next morning on top of each other. Event Horizon was the first to wake, his muzzle pressed against Sunburst’s neck and forelegs pinned painfully against both of their chests. Sunburst, however, had his hooves wrapped around Event in a death grip, stopping the smaller stallion from moving around at all. Just a normal Saturday for the two of them, really.

But, unlike most Saturday mornings where Event would laze about around the house until something interesting happened, he had to work. And not only did he have to work, but he had to work in…

About twenty minutes before he woke up. Event looked at the clock above the TV, running the hours Sunburst scheduled him to through his mind once again. There was just no way that the times worked out. He was scheduled to go in at 8, and yet it was 8:25. He shrugged slightly, as much as he could given the situation, going back to nuzzling Sunburst’s neck. He probably just made a mistake while writing the schedule, he thought.

Or, the rational part of his brain suggested, maybe Event was just late.

But that was crazy talk. Event Horizon was never late to work, except for maybe every other month when he decides to drink a bit. Or if there’s a wrestling Pay-Per-View that ends up going late. Or if he trips and lightly bumps his nose on the ground, forcing him to drop everything and cry for only twenty minutes. Or, it seems, if he’s trapped in a vice-like grip by the pony that wrote the schedule in the first place.

Event struggled in vain against the cuddles he was given, despite thoroughly enjoying them and not wanting to go to work at all. Thankfully, all the movement managed to wake up a Sunburst, though one who didn’t enjoy being roused from his slumber.

He opened his eyes about halfway, glaring at the very pony that woke him up. Event halted his struggling immediately, trying his best to look bashful and apologetic without a hoof to scratch the back of his neck with. Sunburst always melted at that look.

At least, awake Sunburst would have. This Sunburst, however, just grumbled something under his breath. Something that even he didn’t hear.

“Uh,” Event started slowly and softly, so as to not spook Sunburst. Any sudden movements would probably have broken a rib at that pressure. “Do you think you can maybe let me go? You don’t want me to be late for work, do you?”

Sunburst continued to stare blankly at Event as the wheels in his head slowly started to turn, processing his friend’s request. A subsection of his mind was working on whatever answer, while the rest was wondering why his warm pillow was trying to leave. Still, the rational bit won over, as it usually does, and he released the gator grip.

Event quickly rolled out of the way before anything could be rethought. He then rushed to get ready for the day, starting with a quick sink bath.

Just as quickly, Sunburst rolled onto his side, propping his head up with his hooves, and went back to sleep.

Sunburst kept sleeping for a good number of hours, the number being ten which is objectively the goodest of numbers, only to be woken up by an alarm he set himself. The alarm’s very very loud beeping emanated from the side table that was right by the stallion’s hooves, startling him awake almost instantly.

His head shot up, looking for the fire or the dying horse or whatever it was that was causing that incessant beeping noise. Almost instantly, his eyes caught sight of the offending object and, just as quickly, he picked it up with his light yellow magic. The clock let out one last muffled beep before a sickening crunch as Sunburst mercilessly crushed it. He felt no remorse. He had about twenty more stashed away elsewhere.

With that done, Sunburst sat up and stretched, letting out a long and loud yawn. He took a second to just breathe deeply and just scratch himself in areas. Don’t judge, it’s his apartment and no one is watching. Let a man do what he wants.

After finishing that ‘task’ he stood up, cracked his neck, and set off to make some lunch. He’d set the alarm to one in the afternoon so that he had time to eat and relax, definitely not panic, before his ‘date’ at around six o’clock. And it was definitely more than enough time to plan what to say and do in order to get Starlight to trust him more. Maybe he’d share with her a story from his school days to win her over. Just, you know, his earlier ones.

He thought it over as he brewed his fancy coffee. It was fancy because it was expensive and no other reason. Once it was done, he sat at his table and drank to wake himself up, his magic getting to work on making him a sandwich. He stared out the window to his right, watching the sun as it rose and left the sky with in a breathtaking shade of orange.

He took a sip of his coffee. It ended up all over the table as it shot from his mouth in an almost Triple H-esque act of a spit take. He took another look out the window and saw the exact same thing. An orange sky at what he thought was noonish. Now, he wasn’t one to criticize Princess Celestia on how she did her job, but this most certainly wasn’t right. The sky was usually blue at times like this. Not counting the villain attacks and general magic mishaps, of course.

Still, ever the paranoid little scamp, Sunburst decided to double-check the time on the clock he had set on the side table in the livingroom. Then, remembering that it was still a smoking ball of metal and wires, he decided to check the other clock in the room. Same model and everything, just set farther away from the couch. And to go off at a different time.

He stumbled over, hoping the coffee would take effect soon, and stared very very closely at the time object. It read 6:06 p.m. on the display. Sunburst had to think that one through, looking between the working clock and the smoldering ball on the side table. Then he remembered why there were two clocks. One to wake him up at noon, and the other just in case he got sidetracked and forgot about his date.

The waking alarm was set pretty far from him so he wouldn’t just hit snooze and sleep until the other went off. Sunburst thought it was ingenious when he thought of the idea, but now he just thought he was an idiot. He never accounted for sleeping through the alarm due to slightly drunken wrestle watching.

After a deep breath, panic started to set in. He was late. Absolutely, indisputably late. He still had to take a shower and get dressed and prepare objects for the date. It wouldn’t take that long, but at this point he had negative six minutes to do them.

Negative seven minutes at this point.

With that in mind, the stallion rushed as quickly as he could to Event’s bedroom. He ignored the oddities of the room itself, he’d gotten used to seeing the framed portrait of himself years ago anyway, and just went to their shared closet. By shared, I mean that Sunburst put all of his fancy clothes in there and Event borrowed them when it was needed. He had a bowtie in there somewhere, but never wore it.

Normally Sunburst would have spent a good hour picking out clothes, but this wasn’t a normally kind of time. As such, he wildly threw clothes out of the closet as he tried to find something presentable, but not too flashy.

Pretty soon there were clothes all around him that included: cozy sweaters that it was much too warm for, suits that he’d worn to the Grand Galloping Gala during the years he was invited, a number of Nightmare Night costumes because Sunburst celebrated every year, and even a very interesting looking robe. He’d gotten the star covered eyesore as a gift years ago and since then he’d worn it to every Mage Exam because it looked pretty snazzy. It even had a clip at the front in the design of his cutie mark. He couldn’t hate it.

And yet, it wasn’t what he needed so it was thrown in the pile behind him. With that done, he was left with a relatively empty closet, not including the small odds and ends that he didn’t want to consider. Maybe, he thought, his efforts would be better spent on making the rest of him presentable.

He stood up, then stepped over all of the clothings that littered the floor to reach the one bathroom in the apartment. The first thing he did after turning on the lights was take a look in the mirror.

He definitely looked a right mess. His orange mane was disheveled, standing up in the messy mohawk state that he had to fiddle with for hours to get back to ‘Canterlot Normal’. This was a process that took at least an ounce of hair gel and almost twenty minutes. With a look over at the counter in front of him, he realized he had neither. Just an empty jar with hair gel residue on the sides.

He grimaced but decided to move on, opening the closest drawer to the door. He retrieved the contacts that he needed desperately to see with his magic and opened the case, his paranoia requiring him to see that they were still there before he set to his task.

Right when deciding everything was in order, there was a very loud knocking on the front door that startled him, causing his magic to fail him and his contacts to come to a brutal meeting with the ground.

Sunburst took a moment to rationalize what just happened. Just as he was done, there was another, louder knock on the front door which caused him to stomp his hoof in anger. On his contact case. He didn’t care to think it through after that, just storming to the door to give whoever it was a piece of his mind.

Not bothering to look through the peephole to maybe save face, he threw open the door and gave the pony on the other side his best glare.

Starlight Glimmer flinched as she saw the door open, only to see a miffed Sunburst on the other side. Thankfully, his face fell fairly quickly as he squinted at Starlight. He saw the purpleish blob and tried to figure who he knew that looked like that.

Starlight scratched the back of her neck. “Did I come at a bad time?”

“Oh uh,” Sunburst stammered as he realized who it was from the voice, “No, you’re fine. I just haven’t had the best morning.” His horn lit up slightly as he tried to put everything back together in the other other room without tipping Starlight off too much. He hoped his aim wasn’t horrible as he attempted to throw clothes back in a closet without the benefit of sight.

Starlight didn’t bother correcting him on the time of day, as it looked like he either wouldn’t care or was too distracted to anyway, so she just nodded. “Well, I just came by to check on you,” she said, “But I can come back later, if you’d like.”

“No, it’s just that I-” He was swiftly cut off by the loud sound of crashing coming from behind him. Sunburst canceled his magic, quickly clenching his teeth to stop himself from releasing a torrent of swears due to present company. Sighing, he started again. “I woke up late and am now finding trouble getting ready for our date.”

There was a small pause before the two decided to ignore that he’d called it a date. Sunburst let out another small sigh. “Listen, would you like to come in? I won’t be longer than a few minutes, so it’s probably best if you just stay.”

Starlight nodded, trying not to show too much excitement that she was finally welcomed into her friend’s home. Sunburst took a step to the side, holding the door open with his magic for Starlight to enter.

She hurried in, not wanting to keep Sunburst waiting for very long, and tried not to be too obvious in her judging absolutely everything he owned.

Sunburst followed closely behind, hoping dearly that she wasn’t judging him too harshly. He hadn’t had the chance to clean up, after all, and the night before was the wildest one he’d seen in years. “So, uh,” he said with a small blush, “Make yourself at home and I’ll be back in a jiffy.” He then slinked off to Event’s bedroom once again, gently closing the door behind him.

Starlight quickly took up residence on the couch, avoiding the small wet stain at the edge of the right cushion. Other than that, the place was almost absolutely spotless. There were signs of living, of course, in the stain, the small amount of crumbs on the floor, and the one can of beer on the ground. It was on a coaster, and only half drunk at that. Surely there was a very hardcore night that preceded it.

She decided to leave it alone, as she wasn’t Sunburst’s maid just yet. There’d be time for that later. Instead, she decided to judge his home furnishings as she could hear grunts and banging noises coming from the other room. He was probably fine.

Now, it’s not like his house was bad or anything. It just wasn’t really homey. There weren’t any pictures lying around, no messes that showed that there were two ponies that lived here daily, and not even a clothes to wear. Canterlot ponies normally wore clothes, right?

Before Starlight could get too sidetracked on the clothing etiquette practiced by the Canterlot elite, the door behind her swung open. From the other room came a slightly less frazzled Sunburst, still fiddling with ‘his’ bowtie using magic. He muttered to himself as he entered the room, hating that it was all he had to wear.

He looked up at Starlight, allowing her to see that he was wearing glasses. Big ol’ circular ones, sky blue in color. He blushed as he caught her eyes, embarrassed that he was seen wearing them. Starlight, on the other hand, absolutely loved them, thinking they made him look hecka cute..

Sunburst took a deep breath. “Sorry for keeping you waiting,” he said softly, rubbing a hoof behind his head and drawing attention to his now slightly combed mohawk, “But I’m ready now. That should count for something, right?”

Starlight continued to stare without a word. He looked dapper as heck, and adorable to boot. She couldn’t really formulate a response with something like that staring her in the face. So, she just stood up from the couch and continued her staring.

Sunburst was of course taken aback by this and didn’t know how to really respond, only scratching at his muzzle in embarrassment. “Is there something on my face?”

“No!” Starlight said quickly, shaking her head, “Well, yes, but I think it’s supposed to be there. The glasses, I mean.”

“Oh right, these.” He touched the edge of the aforementioned glasses, his blush getting ever so stronger. “Well, uh, normally I wear contacts, but it looks like today isn’t really going my way. It’s why my mane is like this too.”

Starlight scrunched up her face, looking Sunburst over in deep thought. She took steps closer, moving to really scan exactly how he looked. From the dapper bowtie to the fluffed up mane to even the white splotches on his hooves. She loved those. Leaning back up, she looked Sunburst deep in his cyan eyes. “I like it.” She said simply, “Though, now I do feel a bit underdressed.” She then gestured to his bowtie and collar.

“Sorry,” Sunburst said with a small grin, “Canterlot sensibilities, you know. Always gotta look my best if I’m to become a mage some day.” His smile faded for almost a second before he caught himself.

Another smile found itself on Starlight’s face, though much less practiced than Sunburst’s. She nodded along before looking over to the clock, as she wasn’t a nerd that needed glasses to see the time. They had been spending time together for about twenty minutes now. “We should probably get going. The night is only going to stay young for so long.”

“It’s barely night as it is,” Sunburst rebutted, “We have all the time we could need.”

Starlight grimaced slightly, shrugging. “Well I kinda have to leave for Ponyville pretty early tomorrow, so I should probably get to bed early too.”

Sunburst raised a quick eyebrow. “You’re leaving? Well, I mean, of course you’re leaving, but so soon?”

“Yeah,” Starlight said, scratching the back of her neck, “I meant to tell you earlier, but I couldn’t work it into conversation too well. Twilight wanted me back by tomorrow so that we could continue my ‘friendship training’.”

Sunburst was unsuccessful in hiding his frown, more of a pout really, as he heard the bad news. “I guess I shoulda seen this coming. You can’t stay in Canterlot forever, can you?” He sighed sadly then, after a moment, looked at Starlight seriously. “Can you?”

“As much as I’d love to…” She said, then neglected to finish the rest of her sentence. “I’m not sure that Canterlot is for me anyway. It’s a little too big.”

This got a shrug from Sunburst, though it was followed by a nod. “It can be a bit daunting, yeah. Though,” he paused, grabbing a saddlebag from a kitchen cabinet, in order to hide it from Event’s prying eyes you see, and strapped it around himself, “How’s about I show you my favorite non-book-filled part?”

Starlight eyed the saddlebag for a moment, but decided not to ask. It was probably supposed to be a surprise, and ruining it would probably make Sunburst even sadder. Instead, she just smiled politely and motioned forward. “Let’s do it. Before we get caught in another banter, that is.”

“But I like banter,” Sunburst whined very annoyingly, “It’s what keeps me sane, you know. I wouldn’t be half the stallion I am today without witty banter.”

“Nowhere in this conversation have I called anything witty.” Starlight rebutted.

Sunburst responded by pouting. Heavily exaggerated pouting. “I thought I was pretty witty.”

Ignoring Sunburst’s response, Starlight stomped her hoof. “Dang it, we did it again. We’re gonna be here forever at this rate.”

Sunburst nodded. Without saying another word, he lifted a hoof to his mouth and made a zipper motion, then gestured to the door. Just like that, they were on their way to the park on their date(?).

Author's Notes:

I'm kinda disappointed that no one looked at Author's Note #4 and thought, "Hey, I'mma solve that" so how about this.
Solve it, and I'll give you all a gift. You have about a week, I guess.
Do with that information what you will.
Edit: Post your answers in the comments of my most recent blog post, plox.

I'm even more disappointed now. :T