Author's Notes:

Pure slice of life, largely stream of consciousness, written in one take, and completely unedited.

The key unlocked the deadbolt with a satisfyingly loud clack. The brass knob turned, and the door opened, spilling the light of the afternoon sun into the mostly dark apartment. A slim amber hand groped around for the light switch on the inside wall and flipped it. Three overhead lights ensconced in off-white glass spheres came to life, spreading pleasing illumination over the living room with its plush violet carpet and tasteful leather and maple furniture.

Sliding her feet out of her suede boots, Sunset Shimmer closed and locked the door behind her, then opened the coat closet next to the front door. She slung her backpack off her shoulder, then shrugged off her jacket and hung it up. She placed her boots on the shoe rack in the center of the closet, next to her older bad-girl boots. With a grimace, she picked a stray pebble that had somehow gotten stuck in her boot out of the tender sole of her left foot. She crossed over to her desk and dropped the pebble in her wastepaper basket, then walked back to the door to collect the mail from the slot at the bottom. She sifted through it as she walked back to her desk, idly dropping her backpack beside the desk as she tossed her junk mail into the trash. The only thing left after she sorted out the junk mail was her monthly coupon saver book, which she flipped through idly for a minute before putting it in a desk drawer.

It was Thursday, and with school closed for a faculty workshop the next day and Monday being a holiday, she had a four-day weekend. Sunset had made plans with her friends for the weekend beginning Friday afternoon, but at the moment, she was looking forward to a stress-free, relaxing evening at home. She stood at her desk, rocking idly back and forth on her heels and flexing her toes. Her gaze swept over her apartment as she thought. After a minute, she headed for her bedroom.

Sunset stripped off the clothes she'd worn to school and tossed them in her hamper. After a moment's hesitation, she decided to take off her bra as well. Letting out an expansive sigh as her breasts bounced free, she snagged a white T-shirt from her closet and a pair of baggy shorts from her dresser, then put them on. She sat down on the bed, bouncing a couple of times, then flopped back against it and yawned expressively. For several minutes, she lay there, staring up at the ceiling, letting her mind wander aimlessly, nearly dozing off. Eventually, with a slight grunt, she stood up and padded into the kitchen. Opening her refrigerator, she took out a can of root beer and popped it open, then took a long, sweet sip. With a satisfied sigh, she ambled over to her favorite chair, sinking into the leather cushions and picking up the TV remote. She turned on the TV, then picked up the cable remote and started browsing the listings. Nothing really caught her attention, so she turned on a silly cartoon about a girl in a pet shop who can talk to animals and leaned back.

Sunset took another long swig of her root beer, then set it on a coaster on the end table. She let out an unladylike belch, then laughed at some silly slapstick antics from the cartoon. She leaned down to scratch at an itch on her right calf, grimacing at the faintly fuzzy feel of her leg.

Not long after arriving in this world, Sunset had studied up on a lot of things. As soon as she'd learned she was considered extremely attractive as a human, she read everything about fashion, beauty, and hygiene she could get her hands on. One of the first, and most perplexing, things she'd learned was that arm and leg hair—or really, body hair of any kind—on a female was considered unattractive. As a unicorn whose original body had been covered in a fine coat of amber hair, this confused her, but she soon came to understand why human girls went to incredible lengths to maintain a certain appearance.

Besides, fuzzy legs just felt wrong in her current body.

Making a mental note to do something about that later, Sunset turned her attention back to the cartoon. She watched the rest of it, then the episode after, finishing off her root beer. After the cartoon, she tossed the can in the recyclables bin, then went to the bathroom to pee. As she relieved herself, she ruminated on her plans with her friends for the long weekend. A new teen club had just opened in town, and they were all going tomorrow night. They'd even persuaded the awkward Twilight and the withdrawn Fluttershy to go along so the group would be complete. After that, they'd decided to go up to the Whitetail Woods on Saturday and spend the rest of the weekend camping out. Sunset was excited about the camping trip; she'd never been camping before, and it always looked and sounded like so much fun. This would also be their last chance to go for a while, because in a few weeks, the weather would be too cold, and by the time it warmed up again, they'd be busy with school stuff. And camping during Spring Break was out, because they'd already started talking about a beach trip that week—even as early as October!

Finishing up in the bathroom and washing her hands, Sunset wandered back into the living room, glancing at the clock on the cable box. It was a little early to eat dinner, but just about the right time to start cooking, and she hadn't eaten a very large lunch at school.

Sunset didn't cook often. She usually didn't have the time for it, and the prepared foods she could buy at the supermarket were good enough to satisfy her. Still, when she had the time, she did enjoy cooking for herself. It was a relaxing activity and a way to clear her mind and center herself. There was something special about smelling the cooking food on the stove, knowing that the meal would be perfectly suited for her because it was made by her own hands.

And now that she was friends with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, she was actually good at it.

Sunset opened her refrigerator and looked inside. Her eyes fell on a pitcher of pancake batter she'd made the day before. There was no way she'd use it all up before the weekend, and she'd have to throw it out. "Why did I make so much pancake batter, anyway?" She shook her head as she examined everything else in her fridge. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck. With a bright, wide-eyed smile, Sunset took a waxpaper-wrapped piece of skirt steak out of the fridge, followed by a half head of cabbage, some green onions, a bottle of corn syrup, and a bottle of soy sauce, followed by the pitcher of batter. Humming to herself, she spread everything out on the counter, then turned on two burners on the stove to medium heat. Getting out a frying pan, a cutting board, and a knife, she began slicing the green onions and the steak into fine pieces. She then broke the cabbage up and stuffed it into her electric food processor, shredding it.

Sunset poured some cooking oil in the frying pan and set it on the burner, then scraped the steak and green onions into it with the flat of the knife. Once the meat began to sizzle, she emptied the cabbage into a large mixing bowl, then stopped and tapped her chin. "Hmm...aha!" Opening her cupboard, she pulled out a small can of sliced mushrooms, a small can of bamboo shoots, and a small can of water chestnuts. Opening them, she drained them and dumped half of each can into the bowl with the cabbage, then dumped the rest into a Supperware container which she put in the refrigerator. After mixing up the vegetables, she poured a third of the batter into the bowl, then began carefully mixing it all together. Satisfied it had mixed properly, she checked on the meat and onions, turning everything over.

With that done, she took out a small, shallow saucepan and poured equal measures of corn syrup and soy sauce into it, then added just a dash of chili powder. Stirring it vigorously, she set it on the other hot burner, then went back to tending the meat. Seeing that it was done, she removed it from the heat and turned the burner up to high, getting out a larger skillet. She oiled the skillet, then poured a generous measure of batter into it. She watched it carefully, stirring the sauce on the back burner as she did so. Once the pancake began to crisp and brown at the edge, she spooned some of the beef and onion mixture onto the uncooked side, then flipped it over. Two minutes later, she turned off the burner the sauce was on, then removed the finished food from the skillet, flipping it over onto a plate and checking to make sure the meat had adhered properly and hadn't burned. She poured more batter into the skillet, then spooned some sauce onto the first finished okonomiyaki.

She tapped the spatula against the side of the skillet idly as she waited for the second one to brown, then added more of the meat and onions to it and flipped it. Three minutes later, she placed it on top of the first one and turned off the burner, setting the skillet aside. She spooned more sauce onto the top one, then reached back into the fridge, pulled out a squeeze bottle of mayonnaise, and spread a decorative drizzle of mayo over the top.

With a happy sigh, she carried her plate over to the living room table, then went back to the kitchen for a knife, a fork, a napkin, and a cold bottle of peach tea. She grabbed the cable remote and sat down on the floor by the table, skimming through the listings. Finding a movie that looked interesting, she set the remote aside and cut into her dinner, savoring its aroma before taking her first bite. If she was honest with herself, it'd have been better if she'd had the right ingredients for the sauce, but it was still good enough, and she was rather pleased with herself at having managed something as unusual as okonomiyaki. The water chestnuts and bamboo shoots in the batter gave it a nice, crispy texture, and grilling the cabbage gave it a different flavor. She ate slowly, following every few bites with a swig of tea.

The movie turned out to be a comedic fantasy about a farmboy turned pirate trying to save his true love from being murdered by the prince she was engaged to. It kept Sunset riveted to the end, and as she watched, she finally began to understand a lot of references her friends had made that never quite made sense to her. When it was over, she took her plate to the kitchen and started cleaning up her mess.

Once the kitchen was cleaned, Sunset decided to take a long, hot, relaxing bath. She headed to her bedroom and stripped naked, then studied her reflection in her full-length mirror.

The human body was a strange thing. It had taken her a few days to really get used to her body, and longer than that to make sense of all its little nuances. It wasn't as hardy or sturdy as a pony body. The fleshy feet with their weird, wiggly little toes hurt to walk on after too long. Breasts were an especially odd concept, and it had taken Sunset three thorough reads of the Quickipedia article about them to really understand them. They were so different from how a pony's mammary glands worked, and yet completely unlike, say, a cow's udders or...

And then she'd had to learn—the hard, painful way—about menstruation. That had been a fun week. To this day, she wasn't entirely sure she hadn't actually killed someone that week.

Still, once she became fully accustomed to the human body, she began to appreciate all its little quirks and nuances, and in time, she grew to love her own body. She was proud of her appearance. Not excessively vain, but certainly proud. She knew she was, in human terms, 'hot', and once she finally put the last of her past behind her, maybe she'd even think about dating again.

Maybe.

As her gaze drifted down to her crotch, Sunset frowned. "Should I wax?" She'd given it serious thought. She'd learned to trim her pubic area, and certainly didn't like when it grew out too much (there was just something ick about a lot of pubic hair, but she wasn't sure why it bothered her), but she'd never considered taking the extra step and removing it completely. Especially since the process sounded a bit on the painful and embarrassing side.

Shaking her head, she padded down the hall to the bathroom, stopping to grab a large, fluffy towel from the linen closet, which she hung on the towel rack. She turned on the taps in the tub, testing the water temperature with her hand. When it was just right, she stopped the drain and let the tub fill, adding some cherry blossom scented bath oil and stirring the water with a hand. She grabbed a smaller towel from the linen closet and wrapped her hair up in it, then turned on the small radio she kept in the bathroom, already set to her favorite easy-listening station. Once the bath was full, she lowered herself in slowly, sighing as she stretched out and let the water cover her body. Only her knees, the tops of her breasts, and her head remained above the cherry blossom scented bathwater. She closed her eyes and inhaled the fragrance, sighing deeply. She elected to simply soak in the water for a while, not really concerned with cleaning her skin. She hadn't exactly worked up much of a sweat since gym class, where she'd already taken a shower.

No, this bath was just for pleasure.

Sunset must have drifted off in the bath, because the next thing she knew, the DJ on the radio was announcing the top of the hour and the water was stone cold. Shivering, she pulled herself up out of the tub, unplugging the drain. As the water began to drain from the tub, she stood there, dripping wet and naked, squeegeeing excess water from her body with her fingers. She stepped out onto the cold, bare tile floor and reached for the towel, wrapping it around herself. She untied the towel around her hair and used it to dry her arms and legs, then spread it out on the edge of the tub.

Once she finished drying herself off, she hung her bath towel back up on the rack, then took her strawberry tangerine shave gel and her razor out of the medicine cabinet and sat down on the edge of the tub, grimacing slightly at the dampness of the towel under her butt. She carefully, methodically applied gel to every inch of her legs, then set about the task of shaving, first taking long, steady strokes down toward her feet, then back up toward her knees, using the tap on the tub to rinse her razor between strokes. Once she was satisfied that her legs were silky smooth again for a little while, she patted them dry with a third towel, as well as drying her butt and anywhere else that was still a bit damp from her bath. She thought about using her body lotion, but decided that could wait until in the morning.

Hanging up all the wet towels and washing her hands, she padded back to her room and took her bathrobe out of the closet, wrapping it around her body and cinching it shut with the thin cotton belt. She sat on the edge of her bed and took a pumice stone from the drawer on her bedside table, then went to work on her heels for a few minutes. Wearing boots every day took its toll on a girl's feet, and Sunset had to work on her heels and toes at least three times a week to avoid calluses.

She honestly would have preferred to let her feet toughen up, but soft feet were sexy, and Sunset Shimmer wanted to be as sexy as she possibly could be. It wasn't so much that she cared what other people thought about her; it was more for her own sake. Being sexy, feeling sexy gave her confidence in herself.

Once her little body maintenance session was done, Sunset headed back to the kitchen and scooped herself a small bowl of chocolate ice cream, then plopped down in her chair in the living room. She'd left the TV on while she was in the bath; there was some crime drama on now that she didn't care about. She checked the time and realized that a show she liked was about to start, so she changed over to that and settled back deeper into her chair, eating a spoonful of creamy cold ice cream with a soft, delighted moan.

Ice cream had always been one of her guilty pleasures, even back in Equestria.

Television was a newer guilty pleasure she'd picked up since coming to this world. At first, she hadn't been terribly interested in it, but the longer she'd been here, the more she'd come to appreciate it. While it would never replace reading, there was something immersive about it. The acting, the directing, the effects, the camera work...good television had a way of sucking you in, keeping you hooked, making you want to know everything about the characters on the screen and their little slice of the world. Television offered comedy, drama, mystery, suspense, horror, and a little of everything else.

It was also something you could just sort of turn your brain off and enjoy without worrying about anything, and there had been many days when Sunset had been grateful for the distraction.

All too soon, Sunset's show ended, and the next one on that channel wasn't one she really cared for. She searched the listings and didn't see anything that appealed to her, but one channel was showing a solid hour of Cheese Sandwich's music video parodies.

Pinkie Pie was a big fan of Cheese Sandwich...

Sunset decided to give that a try.

Before the first video ended, she was laughing herself silly. By the time the hour ended, she was practically in hysterics and had a silly smile on her face. She made a mental note to ask Pinkie for links to more videos later.

It was still a little early for bed, but Sunset was ready to start winding down her day. With a yawn, she pried herself out of her chair, turned off the TV, took her bowl to the kitchen, and washed it.

As she started walking around, she realized she was about to need the toilet. Frowning, she stopped by her bedroom to shed her bathrobe, then went to the bathroom. Being naked on the toilet felt weird; she resolved to never do that again.

As soon as she was finished, she wandered around the apartment, checking the door and window locks and turning off lights, before heading to her bedroom. She pulled her favorite pajamas out of her dresser and quickly put them on, then pulled back the covers on her bed and slipped into it. The only illumination in the room was the reading lamp on her bedside table, which was perfect for what she needed. There was a paperback novel lying next to the lamp, with a bookmark sticking out of it. Once she was snuggled in and perfectly comfortable, Sunset picked up the book and started reading.

An hour later, with a tremendous yawn, Sunset laid her book aside and turned off the lamp. Soft starlight glowed beyond the thin curtains over her bedroom window. She smiled a sleepy smile and turned over onto her side, wriggling around a little before closing her eyes.