Chapter 65

I let Sunset sleep on me for a few hours, enjoying the heat that was radiating off of her naked body as it remained pressed tightly against mine. I stared at the ceiling, taking in the sounds of her quiet breathing, as well as the occasional soft snore, which would make me look down at her face to try memorising her features as she slept.

She looked like a different person when she was like this. She always had a beautiful face, but when she was awake, there was always that look of confidence and power, making her a bit intimidating for most people to look at, despite the fact that she was very friendly most of the time.

But while she was asleep, her face was completely relaxed and that ‘tough girl’ persona had faded away, leaving behind a vulnerable innocence that, if it weren’t for her fiery red hair, would have made her unrecognisable to me.

There was a single copper-coloured lock draped across her face, which I gently brushed away so I could see her more clearly. I ran the back of my index finger down her cheek, giving it a gentle stroke, eliciting a light smirk from the corner of her mouth for a few seconds before it slowly faded back into a neutral state again.

The surprisingly delicate appearance of the red-head reminded me of Fluttershy, and I found it ironic that Sunset used to bully her simply because she was an easy target; so meek and innocent, and such a stark contrast to Sunset’s tough persona. And now, here she was, looking just as vulnerable and timid as the shy girl herself. It was truly amazing how the personality of someone can change their outward appearance so much.

My thoughts drifted more to the shy girl. Where was she right at that moment? What they were doing to her? How she was feeling and was she able to deal with it on her own? Of all the people for this to happen to, why did it have to be her? Her shyness was so profound, the first time I met her she couldn’t even handle with being in the same room as me. How was she supposed to deal with being locked up with all of those assholes doing god-knows-what to her?

I sighed as I worried what this would do to her. What if it changes her forever? What if they make a monster out of her, irreparably destroying the sweet, shy girl that I fell in love with? Even if she can’t be killed, if she comes back to me a changed person, then in a way I still would have lost her.

I could feel a lump forming in my throat as I laid there ruminating over it, so I decided to get up and do something to take my mind off of my missing princess.

I carefully slid my shoulder out from under Sunset’s cheek and let her head settle onto the pillow. I wanted to let her sleep, after all it was something that our kind rarely gets to do, and even though it isn’t needed, having that jump ahead in time can be a godsend. Being forced to witness every minute of every 24 hour day can wear on the nerves after a while.

Plus, she needed a break. She deserved it.

I got dressed and was about to go outside, but I stopped when I had my hand on the doorknob when I saw her sleeping naked on the bed in plain sight. I didn’t think it was right to leave her on display like that, so I picked up and unrolled the blanket that had been set on the foot of the bed, which had fallen onto the floor during our sex, and I covered her up with it.

Before I walked away, I looked at her once more, noticing her hand sticking out from under the blanket just in front of her face.

A thought suddenly hit me. "What if she wakes up while I’m gone and gets scared wondering where I am?"

I rubbed my chin for a moment, thinking about her being here alone, then I had an idea. I closed my eyes and concentrated, then reached out and held her hand with mine for a few moments as I watched her face closely to see if she would react. She didn’t, so I eventually let go of her hand and headed out the door.

I got into the Diplomat and looked at the fuel gauge, noticing it was quite low. This was one problem with that old car, it went through fuel like crazy. Having that four-barrel carburetor on top of that big engine was like flushing a toilet every time I hit the gas pedal.

I remembered seeing a gas station a few miles outside of town, so I decided to go and fuel up for something to do.

I arrived there only a few minutes later, noticing that there was a ‘cash only’ sign in the window of the small, ramshackle store next to the fuel pumps. I pulled up beside one of the pumps and shut the car off, then got out to walk towards the door. I stopped a few feet away from the building once I could see the man behind the counter, who didn’t exactly convey the appearance of being ultimate story of success.

“Hey,” I called out to get his attention.

He leaned forward, furrowing his brows a bit as he looked out through the door at me. “Whut?”

“Why is it cash only?” I asked.

“We ain’t got no inner-net,” he relied in a thick southern accent that was even worse than Applejack's.

“Seriously?” I asked. “You can’t get it from the phone lines?”

“No phone lines either,” he muttered as he held up an old flip-phone.

“Wow. You use a cell phone for your business line?” I asked, shaking my head incredulously.

“Yeah. Why not?”

I wasn’t actually worried about the lack of up-to-date tech in this place, it was simply my way of learning if there might be some security cameras inside the store that ‘Us’ could be hacking into, which may trigger an alert with them if their computers picked up my face on camera. The fact that this gas station was so out-of-touch with the current year was actually a good thing. I could go in and make my purchase and not have to worry about being noticed since the place was so isolated from the world.

“OK,” I said, heading back to the pump. "Whatever works for you."

I started filling the car up, leaning on the fender as I thought about the secret organisation that was holding my girlfriend hostage. I thought about Vegas and how they surprised us by trying to kill Chupacabra, a brash move that smacked of desperation since it revealed their presence to Sunset and me.

I started to think about how they caught onto our trail. How did they do it? I didn’t think they were onto us on our way to Virginia, and not in Washington either. If they had been there, I would imagine they would have given us trouble when talking to Dr. Hooves and Agent Daniels, the same way they did with Chupacabra in Vegas. It must have been after we left DC. Did something about our break-in at the CIA alert them?

Probably not. I think the CIA was unaware that anyone broke in at all, thanks to Sunset’s new ally, Agent Daniels. I felt a sense of pride in my friend and pupil after her first real mission, which she'd handled amazingly well, despite her reluctance to go through with it. What made me smile a bit was her allegiance with Agent Daniels. I had allies all around the world that I had accumulated over the years, and now, Sunset had found her first. The first of many yet to come, I’m sure.

I shook my head, shifting my thoughts to think about Cody. He caused all this trouble for me, just because he wanted into the organisation. Oh, how I wished I could be on the phone with him again, so I could give him a piece of my-

I stopped my train of thought immediately. ”DAMN!” I thought. “Flutters’ phone! I was talking to Cody on it. I bet she had Sunny’s contact on there, and they would have eventually made the connection when they saw that her passport had been scanned at the border.”

I shook my head. “Dammit.” Then I thought of something else: the picture. Fluttershy had secretly taken that picture of Sunset and me having sex with her phone. Granted, our faces weren’t showing, but if Cody had seen the image, her fire-coloured hair made it easy to figure out who she was. I shook my head when I remembered that Sunset’s breast was visible in the photo as well.

“Oh, I am so NOT telling Sunny about that,” I thought as another car pulled up into the parking lot. I wasn’t paying much attention to the person who got out of the vehicle and quickly walked into the store.

“Shit,” my thoughts continued. “They have Flutters’ phone with all her contacts on it. Except for mine, not that it really matters since I went and called the cock-sucker myself and gave myself away.” It had me on edge for a moment, thinking about them having access to the contacts of all the other girls on her phone. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised it didn’t really prove a whole lot.

Fluttershy did, after all, have over thirty contacts on her phone, only a few of which actually belonged to people who had noteworthy abilities. And it wasn’t like her contact list was separated in groups, consisting of immortals and mortals with magic powers or not. There were just names with numbers, like Jeff, her business partner at the shelter, or Rarity, her friend who runs the local boutique.

For all ‘Us’ knew, none of her contacts were immortals. Who says all immortals have to know each other?

The only contact on her phone who they knew was involved with immortals was Sunset. They’d obviously seen her cross the border and knew she was travelling with me, but even this didn’t prove that Sunset herself was immortal. Just because she was hanging out with one, trying to find another, doesn’t necessarily mean that she had to be one as well.

None of it was relevant right then anyway, since ‘Us’ had no idea where Sunset and I were. It had been about a week since we sent our doubles out in the rental car, and even if our stalker had realised that he was no longer following us, he would have to find us in an area potentially spanning seven states, and that’s just on foot. With a car, we could have been anywhere in the country by then. Adding to their difficulty is the fact that their technology can’t help them, since Sunset and I had abandoned such things, and stayed out of the cities and away from cameras.

I suddenly thought about Sunset at that moment. If, by some chance, they actually knew where we were, she was extremely vulnerable right then, alone in that motel room. Would they try to take her while I was gone? I would have been pretty easy, she was asleep after all. “Dang it Golds, get your head in the game!” I scolded to myself. Sunset was right, I did need a break to get my thoughts in line.

The pump kicked off right then, indicating that the tank was full, so I hung the nozzle up on the pump and put the cap on the car. I took out my wallet as I walked towards the store and counted out some cash to pay for the fuel.

As I approached the door, I could hear some harsh words being spoken at the counter. I looked up to see what was going on, and there was a man at the counter with pantyhose pulled over his face to disguise himself, and he had a knife pointed at the redneck behind the counter.

I rolled my eyes, realising this was the person who pulled up in the other car while I was pumping my fuel, and he was now robbing the store. “For fuck’s sake, is this fuckin dick robbing this place with a knife?” I thought to myself while walking nonchalantly into the store.

As I approached the counter, the robber turned his head to see me walking towards them, and he quickly turned the knife on me, shaking it wildly as he shouted frantically.

“Stop right there, motherfucker!” he screamed. “Give me your cash and lay down on the floor!”

I didn’t bother to look at him as I put my wallet away in my back pocket with my right hand, then switched the cash from my left hand to my right as I stepped closer to him.

“Get the fu-“ he started to say, but was cut off when I grabbed his forearm with my left hand and snapped both of the bones in half, causing him to drop the knife to the floor while letting out a scream of agony. I let go of his arm and quickly swung the back of my left hand up, catching him square on the chin. The force of the blow lifted his feet off the floor, flipping him over backwards before landing on his stomach against the cold tiles with a heavy thud. Once he was silent, I turned to the man behind the counter and held the cash out to him.

“Uh, fifty bucks on pump two,” I said in a somewhat blasé tone.

The cashier wasn’t listening, but was instead staring at the unconscious man on the floor.

I looked down at the robber for a moment, then back at the redneck. “He was robbing you, right?”

The redneck shifted his eyes onto me, his mouth hanging open in shock of what he just saw. “Uh...oh, yeah. He was.”

I snickered. “Oh, whew…” I said. “You had me worried for a second. The way you were looking at him, I thought maybe you guys were rehearsing for a play or something.”

He blinked a couple of times, then gave his head a shake. “No, yeah he was robbin me, man. We get robbed here all the time.”

I shook my head. “That’s cuz you need better security; an alarm system, a proper phone line…” I pointed up at the phony camera that was screwed to the wall up in the corner behind him, “and those fake-ass cameras aren’t doing shit for you, bud.”

He turned around briefly to look at the phony camera, then brought his eyes back to me. “I’ll talk to the owner ‘bout it,” he replied, finally taking the cash from me. “Thanks man, by the way.”

I shook my head. “No worries,” I said as I reached down and adjusted my pants. The moisture from having sex with Sunset was still soaked into my nether region, and was causing my boxers to stick to me and bunch up a bit.

“You OK, man?” the redneck asked, watching me fidget with my package.

I looked at him, then nodded. “Yeah. I just fucked the shit out of my friend, that’s all.”

He nodded slowly. “Oh…uh, good job.”

“Speaking of which,” I said, turning around to look at the snack selection in the store. There were some shelves full of snack food just like in a variety store, plus there was a small fridge and freezer section along the opposite wall. “How old is the food here?”

“Truck just came Tuesday,” he replied.

I nodded with approval. “Oh, that’s not too bad then. I’m gonna have a look around.”

I had an idea for when I got back to the motel room, but after taking a quick around I realised right away that the selection was rather poor. I hummed and hawed at what was available, then finally picked up a few things and carried them to the front counter, stepping over the unconscious robber as I went.

“Is that everything, man?” the cashier asked.

“Yeah,” I said, getting my wallet out again before glancing up at him. “Listen, bud. You didn’t see me here, OK?”

He stopped for a second, then nodded. “Sure thing, man.”

“If you call the cops on this guy, just tell them you kicked his ass,” I instructed as I handed him the cash.

He chuckled a bit at my casual attitude about everything as he took the cash from my hand.

“Keep the change,” I said as I grabbed the plastic bag full of food and walked out.

“Later, man,” I heard him say flatly as I walked to the old car and got in to drive away.

Once I was back at the motel, I quickly went to the room and opened the door a crack to check on Sunset. She was still there, sleeping soundly under the covers, so I closed the door and headed to the front office.

“I guess that means they haven’t found us yet.” I thought to myself as I walked along the row of doors on my way to the front office, where they had a small coffee and breakfast station, as well as a large microwave that I had noticed earlier when we checked in.

I walked into the reception office, shaking my head at my own lack of common sense for leaving my friend here, alone and defenceless.

I nodded to the middle-aged lady at the desk as I headed to the food station. On the way past, I noticed the tacky red LCD sign on the wall behind the counter.

At the small counter, I set the bag down and unloaded the food items I found at the gas station and set them out on the counter. I leaned over them, shaking my head, wondering if I was going to be able to make this work.

I took a deep breath as I took inventory of what I had. “Two bottles of cola, a bag of frozen onion rings, a bottle of BBQ sauce, a bag of cheese strings, a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and one pack of hot dogs,” I whispered to myself. “What the fuck.”

I clapped my hands together. “OK, here goes nothing,” I said to myself. I grabbed a few paper towels and lined the bottom of the big microwave with them. Then I ripped open the onion rings and piled them on top of the towels and turned to microwave on for a couple minutes.

Just then, a man in a Coke uniform came in the front door with a cart full of cases of pop. He rolled up to the vending machine that stood by the end of the reception counter and opened it up to start re-stocking it.

I watched him for a minute, noticing how the pop cans were packaged in those cardboard trays with the plastic wrap on top.

After a moment of mindless staring, I went back to what I was doing. I opened the cheese strings and unwrapped the first one, then started peeling the little strips off the side of it and piled them up on a paper towel. Once that one was done, I took out the second cheese string and repeated the process. I continued this way for about fifteen minutes until I had all of them peeled, then I took a plastic spoon from the breakfast counter and started cutting the thin strings of cheese into one inch pieces.

After I finished that, I walked away from the counter to the guy who was filling the pop machine. I bent down and put my hand on one of the empty trays and looked at him. “Hey, you mind if I take one of these?”

He looked over his shoulder at me, then nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“Thanks bud,” I said as I headed back to the counter, peeling the plastic off of the cardboard tray and setting it on the counter.

I took the hot dogs out of the package next and cut them into small pieces with the spoon, then put them all in a paper coffee cup from the station beside me. I cooked the onion rings a second time since they had cooled off while I was ‘shredding’ the cheese, then I took them out to set them on a paper towel. They were sizzling when I picked them up in my hands, and I happened to look over at the lady at the counter who was watching me with a perplexed look on her face.

“Oh…uh, ouchie!” I said, dropping the hot food onto the paper towel. “Or whatever,” I finished under my breath.

I proceeded to cut the onion rings up into little bits, then grabbed another coffee cup to put them into.

I turned the cardboard tray over and tapped it a couple of times to make sure it didn’t have any dust or paper fibres in it, then set it down on the counter. I then opened the bag of Doritos and dumped them in the tray in a big pile. Then I sprinkled the ‘shredded’ cheese on top, followed by the hot dog bits and finally, the crispy onion bits. To top it off, I opened the BBQ sauce and drizzled a few ribbons in a cross-hatch pattern over the pile of shit that I just made, then I put the whole thing in the microwave and turned it on for a few minutes while I cleaned up the mess I made.

Once it was done, I took the steaming tray of food out of the microwave, picked up the two drinks in the plastic bag and walked out of the office, giving the lady at the counter another nod as I left.

When I opened the door to the room, Sunset was awake and sitting up on the bed with the blanket wrapped around her chest like a towel. She turned to look at me quickly when I came in, holding the tray behind my back so she couldn’t see it.

She looked a bit worried at first, then her expression softened when she saw me standing there. “Hey,” she said quietly. “So I feel asleep, huh?”

I nodded. “Yeah, you did. Are you OK? I was hoping to get back before you woke up.”

“Yeah I’m fine,” she replied. “I was kind of worried, but somehow…I knew where you were.” She scratched her temple as she looked down at the bed. “You were thinking about Flutters, so you went to put gas in the car to occupy your mind.”

I nodded. “That’s right,” I said with a chuckle. “Heh, it worked.”

Sunset gave me with a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Before I left, I concentrated on where I was going and what I was doing, and I touched your hand.”

She raised an eyebrow. “While I was sleeping??”

“Yup,” I said with a nod. “And it looks like you got the message. That’s pretty cool.”

She lifted her hands up to look at them, then closed them into fists as she looked up at me with a smile. “I didn’t know that would happen,” she said. “Thanks though, for letting me know where you were going.”

“No problem Sunny,” I said. “I put gas in the car, so it’s got a full tank, but that’s not all that happened. I also stopped a robbery, AND…” I took the tray from behind my back to show her what I had made. “I got you nachoooooos!”

Sunset laughed, covering her mouth at the sight of the grease-soaked cardboard tray. “Ghahaha! What the fuck is that?”

“Hey! This was all I could find. The selection was extremely limited,” I explained in defence of my gift.

She shook her head. “Jeez, you didn’t have to do this,” she said, her cheeks glowing. “You’re such a sweetheart, Golds.”

I shrugged. “Anything for you, Sunny.”

She smiled at me once more, then looked back at the tray before cocking an eyebrow. “Are those hot dogs on there?”

I sighed. “Yeah.”

Sunset shook her head as she timidly reached for a chip with a smile on her face. “I’ll give you points for creativity at least.” She picked up a chip, making sure to get one with a bit of every ingredient on it, then looked at me as she held it to her mouth. “Here goes nothing.”

She put it in her mouth a chewed a few times, then she froze, glaring at me with blank eyes.

I hung my head in shame. “Sorry. It was the best I could come up with.”

She chewed slowly one more time, then spoke with her mouth full. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

I chuckled at her and glanced across the room, looking for the garbage can.

“This is delicious!”

I snapped my head back to her. “Huh?”

She nodded. “This is-” she swallowed the mouthful before continuing. “You’re a genius! Try one.”

I frowned as I picked one up, making sure I got a fully loaded one like hers. I put it in my mouth and tested it while she picked up another.

She was right, it was pretty good. The salty smokiness of the hot dogs complimented well with the zesty, crispy onions, which contrasted nicely with the sweet tanginess of the BBQ sauce and, well, cheese is cheese, so…

“It’s a little soggy, but oh well,” she said. “If you cooked this in an oven, it would be really good.” She opened her mouth to bite the second chip, but then she paused. “Wait,” she frowned. “What was that other thing you said you did?”

I looked at her, then swallowed my food. “I put gas in the car.”

Sunset shook her head. “No, there was something else.”

I let my eyes dart around the room for a few seconds, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

She looked at me for a brief moment, then shrugged and continued to eat.

We enjoyed the nachos for a bit, snickering back and forth about the absurdity of how I managed to produce such a bizarre meal, only to have it turn out to be pretty good.

I had something on my mind, so I wiped my hands together and swallowed my food so I could ask her. “So what’s the deal with you and Flutters?”

She glared at me for a second. “Me and Flutters??”

“Yeah,” I replied. “When we were fuckin, you were talkin her up, sayin she was hot n’ stuff.”

Sunset cleared her throat. “She is hot. Can’t a girl say her friend is hot?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s just…you seemed to really like watching her ride me.”

Her eyes went wide with sarcasm. “Uh-huh…cuz it was amazing.”

“How?” I asked.

She paused, the shook her head as she picked a chip from her teeth. “I don’t know, she was just…she’s got such a perfect body, and the way she used it was just like…wow,” she continued. “Plus, it’s Fluttershy! Who would have thought she could come out of her shell like that?”

I nodded, agreeing with her fully.

“I still wanna see her finish you off though,” Sunset continued. “It’s just…it's one of those things I’d have to see to believe…you know?”

“Hm,” I mumbled. “Trust me, it happens.”

She shook her head. “You lucky bastard. You get to see it whenever you want. In fact, you get to experience it. I won’t lie, I’m a little jealous of that.”

“Really?” I asked. “Do you have a thing for girls?”

Sunset shook her head. “Not…really? It’s hard to explain.” She sounded unsure.

“What is?”

She took a deep breath as she thought about how to say it. “It’s like…I think some girls are hot, and they turn me on physically, but I don’t really have feelings for them.”

“You made out with Flutters though. Like, a lot,” I reminded her.

“I know,” she replied, scratching her neck somewhat frustratingly. “I just…that’s the most I’ve dabbled with a girl. I don’t really know where I stand, plus not really being born human muddies the waters even more.”

“Yeah, true.” I nodded.

“I think that’s one of the reasons I haven’t fallen in love with anyone here,” she continued.

I looked at her, somewhat surprised by the statement.

“Take you for example,” she said. “You’re a great friend, but I just don’t have the type of feelings for you that Flutters and Rare do. Think of it this way, you’ve had pets before right? Like a dog?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. Lots.”

“Well, you love the dog, right?” she said. “Like, as a companion, but you’re not in love with it…like, romantically.”

“Right.” I nodded. “I’m pretty sure that’s illegal anyway.”

Sunset snickered before continuing. “That’s because you’re not a dog.”

“Yeah, only dogs are supposed to fuck dogs,” I chuckled.

She sighed, bringing her fingertips to the bridge of her nose. “No, I meant that’s why you don’t fall in love with them. Cuz you’re not their kind.”

“OK,” I said, “but I don’t remember ever fucking any of my dogs.”

Sunset shook her head. “That’s because you never lived as a dog.”

I picked up another chip to take a bite. “No Sunny,” I said with my mouth full of food and sarcasm. “I’ve never been a dog. You got me there.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well anyway, it’s the same with me. I’m not really human, so I don’t fall in love with humans, but I do have the body of a human. And that body has needs.”

“Yeah, no shit,” I joked, opening my eyes wide and darting them back and forth.

“Yeah, yeah…shut up. You like it,” she fired back.

We both picked up another chip to have a bite, enjoying the soggy blast of flavour in silence.

I swallowed my bite so I could speak. “Don’t you get lonely?”

She cocked and eyebrow at me for a second, then swallowed her food to answer. “What do you mean?”

“Like, I mean if you can’t love anyone,” I said, “don’t you feel the need for companionship or anything?”

Sunset swept her mouth out with her tongue, looking up at the ceiling as she thought about her answer. “Um, I do think about going back to my world sometimes. You know, to find a mate and start over, but…”

I watched her closely, waiting in silence for her to finish.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking back down at the food with a shake of her head.

“Why won’t you go?” I asked.

She sighed deeply. “Well, at first it was because I was scared. You know, of facing everyone. The Princess especially, after all the things I did.”

“It’s been a long time though,” I said. “I’m sure they’re over it by now.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m not worried about that anymore. It’s just…now, when I think about going back, I think about leaving the girls behind, and it breaks my heart.”

I nodded in reply, understanding her reasoning perfectly.

“And now there’s you, too,” she continued, which made my heart flutter when I heard it.

I smiled at her. “I wouldn’t want you to leave, Sunny.”

Sunset’s cheeks darkened a little bit, and she looked away for a moment to hide it.

I decided to ask her something I’d always wanted to know. “What are you?”

She turned back to face me, her expression one of surprise.

“Like, what are you for real?” I clarified.

She took a deep breath and held it for a moment, then she gave me her answer. “I’m a unicorn.”

I stared blankly at her for a moment, then started laughing out loud.

She scowled a bit; unsure of what I thought was so amusing. “What’s so funny?”

“Just forget it,” I replied, shaking my head.

“What?” she shrugged.

I slowed my laughter, then cleared my throat. “Look, if you can’t be serious for two seconds to answer a simple question, then just forget about it.”

Sunset looked a bit put off by the comment, then shook her head and opened her drink to take a sip.

While she was doing that, I looked at the far wall of the room, pretending to be talking to someone else. “Hey, I just fucked a unicorn, then made it nachos,” I said, followed by a smarmy smile and a wink.

She snorted suddenly, laughing at my expression, causing a spurt of brown cola to emit from her nose. She brought her hand up to her face as I looked over at her, watching the pop dribble from between her fingers.

Sunset reached over to slap me on the shoulder. “You fucker!” she laughed. “You’re lucky that doesn’t burn.”

“Haha, you’re welcome for that.” I chuckled, reaching to the nightstand to grab some tissues for her.

“Sorry about that, Sunny,” I said as I watched her wipe herself off.

“Well,” she giggled, “I guess I can see you’re point, when you put it like that. It does sound pretty ridiculous.”

I was still smiling as I looked down at the floor. “It’s not something you hear everyday.”

“I guess not,” she said, crumpling up the tissues and dropping them to the floor. “Um, so anyway, like I was saying before…”

“What’s that?” I replied.

“All this magic arousal stuff that’s been going on…I don’t know,” she continued.

“What?” I asked, dipping my head to look into her eyes.

“That sex we had today,” she stopped to close her eyes for a second. “It was fucking incredible. Like I said, even though I’m not really human, I do have a human body, and it has its own set of needs. I don’t know about you, but as long as we’re friends, I’d be totally OK with keeping our benefits as long as Rare and Flutters are cool with it.”

I felt my heart leap with excitement at the prospect. “You sure about that?” I asked. “You wouldn’t get jealous of the other girls?”

“No.” She shook her head. “They’re your girlfriends. I’m not. And I want nothing more than to get you back together with them. All I need is a good release every now and then.”

“Hm,” I thought as I rubbed my chin. “Well, I’m sure that the other two will be OK with it if you’re little magic curse thing keeps up. I mean, they’ve already let us do it.” I looked at her suddenly. “How is that, by the way?”

“My arousal? It’s gone right now. I’m totally fine,” she replied, then put her index finger in her mouth to lick off some BBQ sauce.

I shrugged. “Well, that’s good.”

Sunset smiled at me, then wiped her hands on the blanket. She then leaned closer to me, putting her lips a few inches from mine as she looked into my eyes. “Thanks for the nachos, Golds. You’re the best friend a girl could have.”

“My god, Sunny,” I said.

“Yeah?” she replied with a seductive smirk.

“Your breath is fucking atrocious.”

“Pffft!” she rolled her eyes.

I shrugged. “What? You’re curse is cured anyway, at least for tonight, so you don’t need to have anymore sex for now, right?”

Sunset quickly looked back at me with a scowl on her face. “Says who?”

*****

The next day, Sunset and I were in the front office at the breakfast counter, the same place I made the Nachos for her the night before. It was almost noon now, and we had decided to leave the room for some fresh air and a nice cup of hot coffee each.

The motel looked like it used to be a very nice one, but the current owners, although nice, seemed to be letting it go downhill pretty badly. There was an outdoor patio with weeds growing under the tables from between the stones, which was behind the office and could be accessed through a back door that we noticed next to the vending machine.

Sunset was wearing her red T-shirt with the sun on it, and a pair of tight jeans to go along with her boots. She looked good as usual, but incomplete without the leather jacket. I watched her look around at the wilderness as the breeze blew a lock of hair across her cheek, which she cleared away with her finger before taking another sip of coffee.

“How many times?” I asked, after which she looked at me.

“Including the first two?” she asked back, to which I nodded. “Five, I think.”

“That’s what I thought,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee. I watched Sunset as she rested her chin on the heel of her hand with her elbow resting on the table.

She stared off into space for a moment while I tried to think of something to say that would bring her attention back to me.

“I love watching you shake after,” I said.

This got her attention. Her eyes shifted onto me, followed by a bashful smile that spread across her face. “I love it when you make me shake,” she said back.

I chuckled. “I’m gonna have to start calling you Sunset Shiver.”

She snorted and dropped her forehead down, resting it on the heel of her hand where her chin had been a second before. “Please don’t,” she mumbled. “At least not around the others.”

“Deal,” I replied, followed by another sip of coffee. I took a moment to look around at the beautiful scenery. The area we were in was still fairly hot, and looked very much like the desert that we’d spent all those days in, except there was far more vegetation here.

“Hey Sunny?” I said, looking back at her.

“Mm-hm?” she mumbled back.

“I was thinking about something, about the thing with you and Flutters.”

She lifted her head to look at me, wondering what I was going to say.

“Not that you and her should get into it with each other,” I explained quickly so she wouldn’t get the wrong idea.

She sat back in the chair and folded her arms. “OK. What then?”

“I was thinking about how you said you were jealous that I get to ‘experience’ her, and you can’t,” I continued.

Sunset raised an eyebrow.”Right…”

“When you read someone’s mind,” I started, then I paused, chewing my bottom lips as I thought about how to word it. “You can do different things, right? Like access different parts of their memory?”

She nodded. “Yeah, kind of. Why?”

“Can you tap into what they’re experiencing right at that moment? Like a live feed?” I asked.

Sunset rubbed her chin a bit, looking up with her eyes as she thought. “Um…yeah, but it’s hard to do. I kind of have to, like…follow it, you know? Cuz it’s constantly moving along.”

“Hm,” I replied.

“Why?” she asked. “What does this have to do with Flutters?”

“Um…” I paused for a second. “Can you…I don’t know, feel everything that person feels when you do that?”

“Yeah, usually,” she replied, brushing her hair from her face again.

I took another sip of the coffee. “So, if you practiced, and got good at tapping into my mind in real time…”

Sunset looked at me sideways. “Uh-huh…”

I continued, “Maybe next time me and Flutters hook up, would you care to-“

She put her hand up to stop me. “Whoa whoa, hold on,” she said, closing her eyes. “Are you about to say what I think you’re gonna say?”

I nodded. “You can feel what it’s like to have sex with Flutters. Through me.”

Her eyes were darting around as the wheels started to turn in her head. Finally, she brought her hand up to rub her chin again. “That’s an interesting idea,” she finally said, before looking back at me. “I won’t lie, I am intrigued. I have, on occasion, wondered what it feels like to cum inside a girl…you know…as a guy.”

“Well Sunny, you’re not gonna believe this…but it’s actually pretty awesome,” I joked with a smirk on my face.

She giggled a bit, looking down at the table. “Is it awesome with me?” she asked, keeping her head down, avoiding eye contact.

I frowned. “Of course. What kind of question is that?” I replied with a shake of my head.

Sunset shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Hm,” I mumbled, then I decided to steer the conversation back to my proposal. “So would you be interested in trying that? The mind reading sex-thing? You don’t have to make a decision right now or anything,” I said.

She smirked as she reached for her coffee again. “We’ll have to fuck on it.”

I laughed as I watched her take another sip. “Whatever works for you, Sunny.”

“Do you think Flutters would let me do that?” she asked, cocking her eyebrow over the cup as she took her next sip.

“If there’s one thing I know about Flutters, it’s that she’s pretty much down for anything,” I replied.

Her eyebrows went up. “That is true,” she said, tilting her head a bit as she set the cup down on the table.

“We’ll ask her what she thinks when we see her,” I said, looking down at my reflection in the dark coffee.

Sunset swept another lock of hair from her face before replying. “Yeah, but not right away, Golds. She might need some time first…you know, after what she’s been through.”

I nodded, then gave her another smirk. “Yeah, we should probably ask her if she’s OK first, eh?”

Sunset snorted. “Well, yeah.”

I gave her a little smirk before taking a pause to think about the previous evening. “You know, Flutters isn’t the only one who knows how to ride.”

She looked at me for a moment, then blushed a bit at the compliment. “Heh,” she chuckled. “You mean the first time we did it last night?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “You rode me like a boss.”

Sunset chuckled. “Haha, like a bauss,” she repeated, changing the pronunciation to sound more animated. “Yeah, I was kind of on a roll there.”

“You were, how they say: ’on point’,” I chuckled. “But, I guess it was understandable after how long you put up with that horn-dog magic.”

She sighed, leaning her chin on her hand again as she looked into my eyes. “Well, there’s plenty more where that came from, big fella.”

I smiled back to her, then took a deep breath as I thought about the rescue mission for a moment. “Well Sunny,” I said after a pause. “Got any ideas yet?”

Her face became more serious. “You mean about finding the base? Not really. It’s only been half a day. Don’t worry, Golds; a solution is going to present itself eventually. I promise.”

“I know, I know.” I nodded, rubbing my face with my hand, before looking at her again. “You know what I’d like to do?”

She shook her head.

“Talk to Rare,” I said. “Let her know what’s up.”

“Mm,” Sunset moaned flatly, looking down at the table. “Is that a good idea?”

“No,” I replied. “Their system might be triggered by voice recognition if I called her, and I’d rather stay hidden as long as we can.”

“Yeah,” she agreed.

I leaned back in the chair and stared into the sky, thinking about how we were ever going to get into the underwater base. It was frustrating to me, knowing that there was something I couldn’t do.

As I was thinking this, Sunset stood up from the table suddenly and headed back to the office. “I have an idea,” she said, turning back to me. “Come on!”

I followed her into the reception office, where there was a middle-aged man sitting behind the desk with a teenage goth girl sitting on the end of the counter next to him.

Sunset walked up to the girl and crossed her arms. “Hey kid,” she said, prompting the goth girl to look up at her. “You wanna make five-hundred bucks? All you gotta do is make a phone call.”

*****

“OK kid,” I said, reviewing the plan. “Just like we rehearsed. You’re having a conversation that sounds like a different conversation, OK? They’ll be looking for key words or names, so you can’t say anything too specific, got it?”

The goth girl rolled her eyes as she chewed her gum. “Yeah dude, I got it…for like the hundredth time.”

I nodded. “OK. Let’s do it.”

The girl picked up the phone on the reception desk and held it to her ear as I dialed the number for the Carousel Boutique. She held the phone to her ear, letting her eyes dart around the room as she listened to it ring.

I glanced up to the LCD sign above the desk.

Her eyes seemed to focus suddenly, then she spoke. “Oh hi, could I speak with the owner, please?” she asked, then nodded after a short pause. “Thank you.”

She fidgeted for a moment as she waited, then she paused again as she listened. “Oh hi," she paused for a second, "uh, I’m good, how are you?”

I looked at Sunset, who was watching the girl nervously.

“Good. Um, I was trying to place a web order for a dress for the school dance, but it wouldn’t let me calculate the shipping because you’re in Canada, and…” The girl paused for a moment. “Yes. Yes, I just figured I would call instead.” The girl paused again. “The name on the order?” she asked, looking at me.

I nodded to give her the go ahead.

“The name is Rari-shy,” the girl said. After a moment, her eyes began to dart around the room, then she looked at me and shrugged, holding the phone away from her ear as she shook her head.

I glanced at Sunset as the girl put the phone to her ear again. “Hello? Are you still there?” she asked, then her eyebrows cocked suddenly. “How old am I? Fifteen.”

Sunset rubbed her forehead. “Come on, Rare,” she whispered.

“I have to be eighteen or older place an order?” the girl said suddenly. “Oh…parent’s permission?” she looked at me.

I shook my fist victoriously. “Yes! She gets it!” I nodded to the girl, waving my index finger in a circle, signalling her to continue.

“Yeah, they’re here,” she said. “You think my mom is a previous customer? What does she look like?” she asked, looking at Sunset.

“She’s pretty tall, red hair with highlights,” she continued, then she suddenly pulled the phone away from her ear and cringed as Rarity’s voice started screeching out of the phone.

Sunset and I could both hear her voice from where we were standing.

“Sounds like you’re in shit for something,” Sunset teased as she folder her arms and headed over to a small magazine stand in the corner.

I sighed and looked back at the girl, who was trying to bring the phone closer to her ear. “O…OK,” she said. “Uh, hang on, I’ll get a pen and paper.” The girl turned to her dad, who was sitting at the desk. She snapped her fingers and pointed to a notepad with a pen sitting on it, signalling him to hand it to her, which he did.

“OK, go ahead,” she said, then she started writing. “Uh-huh…uh-huh…yup. Got it.”

I was scratching my forehead, wondering what Rarity was having her write down.

The girl was nodding continuously. “OK…OK…uh-huh,” she repeated, letting her head hang back with an exasperated look on her face. “OK I’ll tell them,” she nodded once more. “But, um, actually, I was supposed to tell you some-“ she stopped suddenly, then held the phone out in front of her for a second before finally hanging it up.

I had my hands out to my sides. “What the fuck? She hung up?”

“Hey, watch your mouth around my daughter,” her father warned.

“Oh,” I replied. “I’m truly sorry about that.” I turned back to the girl. “So what the fuck happened? What were you writing down?”

She tore the piece of paper out of the note pad and handed it to me. “She said this is the price of the dress, that is the shipping cost, and expected delivery to your house is on this date,” the girl explained as she pointed to the different numbers. “And she told me to tell you that the dress has been ready for a couple of days, and she’s been trying to get a hold of you about it.”

I glanced over at Sunset. “We don’t have a phone anymore,” I explained.

Sunset rubbed her face in frustration, remembering that she’d wanted to keep her phone, but also knew that we wouldn’t have been able to lose the ‘Us’ spy if we kept it.

I shook my head, then furrowed my brows when I looked at the paper. “Has she lost her fuckin mind?” I wondered.

“Well that was a waste of time,” Sunset muttered, crossing her arms on her chest.

I shook my head again as I continued staring at the paper. “Something’s not right. Rarity knew it was us. She’s trying to tell us something”.

“Hey sunny?” I called out, “Come look at this.”

The red-head rolled her eyes and walked over to me with her arms still folded. “Yeah?” she asked, looking down at the paper.

I pointed at one of the numbers. “I’m no expert, but isn’t that cheap for a dress?”

Sunset looked closer at the paper. “$106.16? Yeah, that’s on the low side. Especially for one of Rarity’s pieces.”

I was tapping my bottom lip with my index finger as I scowled at the paper. "Maybe these numbers are supposed mean something else..."

“Uh, so can I have my five-hundred bucks now?” the goth girl asked.

I looked back at her for a second. “Hang on kid, one more thing. Do you have a smartphone?”

The girl groaned. “Ugh! Yeah,” she groaned, pulling it out with a roll of her eyes.

“Can you Google ‘32.92 by 106.16, then type in ‘coordinates’?” I instructed. “Just for shits and giggles,” I said, glancing over at Sunset.

She typed into her phone for a minute, then frowned, shaking her head. "That's in China or something."

I rubbed my thumb over my brows, trying to remember how coordinates worked. It had been a while since I'd used them. "Eastern hemisphere..." I mumbled to myself. "Shit, that's positive, the western hemisphere is negative." I looked at the goth girl again. "Hey kid, try 32.92 by negative 106.16."

She went back into the search bar and made the changes as instructed. “That’s close to Tularosa, New Mexico, kind of just out in the desert.”

Sunset and I each exchanged a look of shock.

“Holy shit!” the red-head exclaimed. “That’s gotta be coordinates for the chopper, and a date!”

I looked at the piece of paper, then back at Sunset, then at the girl, then back at Sunset, then the girl, then the paper, then Sunset, then the girl, then the paper, then Sunset, then the girl…

“WILL YOU STOP THAT!??!” Sunset screamed.

I let out a hearty laugh at her reaction, then glanced down to read the numbers on the paper again with a smile on my face. “I can’t believe that worked,” I chuckled to myself.

Sunset shook her head, then she started smiling at me. “I told you.”

“Huh?” I asked, looking up at her with a cocked eyebrow.

“That if we stop, the answer will just fall into our laps,” she replied smugly.

I shook my head. “Uh, actually, I meant…” I started to say, before stopping myself. “On second thought, nevermind.”

The goth girl cleared her throat, signalling that she was expecting her money. I looked at her for a second, then reached into my back pocket to pull out a wad of cash. “Here kid, have a thousand. All I need you to do is bring this location up on a computer and print me a map with directions on paper. K?”

She nodded and went to sit behind the desk to find the coordinates on the desktop computer.

Once we had the printout, Sunset and I ran outside then wrapped each other up in a tight hug. I picked her up and spun her around as we laughed happily over our newfound progress. I stopped suddenly and set her down to look into her eyes for a moment, her arms remaining around my shoulders as I spoke again.

“Wait, this date is October 20th. That’s a full week from today,” I said slowly. “What are we supposed to do until then?”

Sunset leaned in, closing her eyes as she pressed her lips against mine. It was a gentle kiss, not invasive or overly sexual, just enough to drop a subtle hint of what she was thinking.

We separated our mouths after a short moment. I licked my lips, watching her eyes become lidded as she let a sensual smirk invade her face. Sunset leaned in and gently rubbed the tip of her nose against mine from side-to-side for a few seconds before finally vocalizing her answer.

“We’ll figure something out,” she whispered.