“Before you go, there’s something else you need to know.”

So close. Sunset was within inches of the back door when her mother’s words hit her hard in the stomach. So close to sweet freedom!

“What else do I need to know?” she asked wearily.

“Your father will be having dinner with us tonight,” the woman said as she tossed the skillet’s contents, looking at Sunset out of the corner of her eye. “And you will be there.”

“What…? He—what?!”

The disapproving glare was exactly where it normally was on her mom’s face. However, she spoke in the exact same tone of voice as before, setting the skillet down to give her daughter her full attention. “Yes, I know it’s last minute, but we both know how often he… ‘forgets’ about these dinners, or cancels them because he’s in some other country. I didn’t even bother telling you until now because I expected him to ‘forget’ again.”

A small part of her was amused by her mother’s finger-quotes, but most of her was outraged at this sudden and violent change of plans. The day had been going at least reasonably well until this news hit her like a freight train.

“I have work, I can’t make it.”

“Dinner won’t be until eight. Your shift is over by then, isn’t it?”

“Damn it,” Sunset breathed.

“Don’t swear. You think your old mother is pretty oblivious, don’t you?”

“Not even for a minute.” Sighing, Sunset ran both hands all the way down her face to her neck. She considered briefly what would happen if she strangled herself… but realized not even that would get her out of family dinner. Her mother would simply drag her corpse there -- and complain about it the whole way. “Fine. Fine, I’ll come, but I’m not dressing up or anything — and I’m bringing a friend.”

Her mother’s eyebrows lifted. “A friend? That Flash you’re so fond of?”

“No… or maybe.” Why not? Stranger things have happened. Goddess-related things, even. “I’ll ask him, but either way, I’m bringing someone I can talk to while Dad tries to impress everybody with his super awesome, jet-setting lifestyle.”

“Hah!” her mother genuinely laughed. “Glad to hear neither of us are impressed with it. You like to think you’re nothing like the old woman who shot you out of her loins, but you are.”

“Mom! God! Seriously, can you not?!” But her protests were drowned out by mad laughter. The woman did have a tentative grip on reality.

Which was how Sunset found herself in a real tight spot. Yes, she had said she would scare up a wingman for this completely unwanted dinner with her estranged progenitor, but she didn’t know how well that would go over. It wasn’t exactly the most enthralling prospect for wasting a night of one’s life, after all.

Rainbow was out immediately. Though she would have loved to eat her mother’s fresh cooking off the stove, she and the cute soccer player in their class had a study date. Sunset made sure to give her plenty of ribbing for it, and they both laughed and chattered about whether or not it would turn into ‘more than studying’ and so on, but at the end of the conversation she was right back where she was started.

Even before she texted, she knew Rarity would be no good. They hadn’t even done more than send a message or two back and forth since the mall, so skipping right to ‘Do you want to come over to dinner with my parents?’ was too much friend-bonding all at once. But she did at least offer up a polite ‘Raincheck?’ instead of just calling her an idiot or blocking her number.

Progress was progress.

Fluttershy was also a no-go. Aside from the fact that they weren't really all that close, Sunset had the distinct impression that the animal and nature-lover would take issue with her mothers healthy, yet meat-centered cooking.

That only left Flash. Getting him alone was difficult, given the staggered nature of their schedules. But she had a plan for that. Their supervisor was pretty flexible with their schedules, so she simply told her that she really, really needed to make a call at that time, and she said it would be fine as long as she made up the time at the beginning or the end of her shift. Therefore, she plotted this ‘call’ to be right at the time Flash always showed up for work.

And she waited. As it turned out, he was running late that day, but a few minutes after when she expected he finally breezed in on his shiny red bicycle, rolling it the rest of the way to the rack to chain it up. As he worked at the lock, she approached nervously, trying to wipe her sweaty palms on the sides of her slacks.

“Um… hey, Flash.”

“Huh? Oh! Hey, Sunny!” As he finally got the lock to slide into place, he looked back at her again, slightly confused. “Wait… what’s going on? Do you smoke or something?”

“What? Why would I smoke?”

“Well, you are standing around outside for no reason during your shift…”

Why did she always seem to turn into a complete idiot around him? Smiling sheepishly and trying not to laugh aloud at herself, she said, “Okay, yeah, I guess it’s kinda weird. But um, actually, I had a question…”

“Go for it,” he told her as he took off his helmet.

“Well, um, it’s like this. I know we haven’t really ever spent an time together outside work, but…” Already she was screwing this up, making it sound like he owed it to her or something. “Well, I mean there’s no reason you should, but there’s this thing with my parents tonight, and I really don’t want to go into it by myself, so if you’re not busy, I was thinking, like… maybe you could come.”

For a second, Flash just blinked down at her as he tried to parse out her stuttering. “Wait, what’s the thing? Your parents are there? I’m kinda confused, here…”

“Oh! Dinner! It’s dinner!” A forehead slap was the least amount of punishment she could offer herself. “God, did I really leave that part out? I’m sorry I’m such a dope!”

“Ohhh,” he laughed a little less uncomfortable that he had been a moment ago. “Nah, don’t worry about it. I mean, I still don’t know why you’d want me to have dinner at your parents’ place.”

“Because my dad is… kind of unbearable, and I’m not looking forward to this much.” Sighing, she waved a hand in front of her face. “Nevermind, this was stupid — there’s no reason I should put you through that when I don’t even wanna go myself.”

Still laughing, he put on a hand on her shoulder to hold her steady — and she felt like she was going to pass out. Usually, the most contact they had was a high five or something. “No problem, seriously. And even though it sounds awkward and terrible, I totally would go if I didn’t have plans already. We’ll hang some other time.”

“Oh.” Astoundingly enough, that made her feel both better and worse at the same time. “Wow, so… wow. What are you up to tonight?”

“You fact-checking me?” he teased. When she looked like she was about to burst a blood vessel in her haste to reassure him, he beat her to the punch. “Kidding, totally kidding! I just have this club thing that meets sometimes. I go there straight after work.”

“Yeah? What club? You don’t have to tell me, but…”

“And I never will,” he said, his voice very suave and debonair. He finished sliding his helmet into his bag as they turned toward the doors to the store. “Seriously though, we should get some fried mac and cheese at the student union sometime, right?”

Her cheeks bunched up with the force of her smile. “That sounds greats. I’ll see if Rainbow wants to come, maybe.” There; pressure was released.

“Awesome! Alright, time to go down to the shelves. Later!”

Though she was mostly pleased that he was being less stand-offish in regards to her, part of her brain was pouting that he hadn’t batted an eye at her inviting another friend. She’d been hoping he’d say something — tell her that he wanted her all to himself. Of course, that was a wild dream painted on the tear-drenched canvas of her never-touched romantic heart. Oh well. At least she’d never been dumped, either.

By the time she got off work and breezed in her door to change, Sunset was already dreading the prospect of facing down an entire night of boring conversation with her father. Yes, he wasn’t always quite that irritating, but most of the time, yes. Yes, he was.

It was also that she resented him for taking off, of course. No amount of reasoning that it had been the best decision for everyone involved could erase the fact that he skipped out on them, and she and her mother were left to pick up the pieces. They were all better off, but the two women weren’t ‘great’. They had struggled, and barely came out on top, in spite of his meager offerings in the way of financial support.

Once she had struggled into some less-grungy clothes and was fixing her hair, and it just wasn’t cooperating, she threw the brush into the sink and sighed, gazing at her reflection in the still-broken mirror. Why wasn’t she truly an adult yet? In the eyes of the state, she was, but to her mother was still a little kid who had to do as she was told. All she wanted at that moment was for someone to tell her she could blow them off and not feel any repercussions.

A ‘Get Out Of Familial Obligation Free’ card.

But it wouldn’t be coming. She had to go, or she’d never hear the end of it. And she wouldn’t even have a friend to help draw some of the rapid-fire questions away from her.

Or would she…?

The moment she had the thought, she dismissed it again. No summoning; her period wasn’t coming back until her meds decided her body needed another ‘spring cleaning’. She had to get used to the idea that Twilight wouldn't be around, at least not for a while. It rankled, but she knew it to be true.

Then again… she could try summoning her another way. That had occurred to her before, as well, but seemed too drastic. She didn’t want to become another girl with little white scars along her arm, even if it would be for a slightly different reason. That was not a depressing image she wanted to project to the world.

Permanently depressing. There were already enough girls who had that problem and didn’t feel like they could reach out. She didn’t want to pull focus away from them just because she missed Twilight.

A bug buzzed around her ear a few times before landing on her neck. Without thinking, she swatted it with a quick slap! And sighed. She had hoped the growing chill in the air would have killed all of them off, but it seemed a few more were still hanging around.

Her hand was inches from the pouring water of the sink before she saw the red splotch. Blood. The damn mosquito had been full to the brim when she caused its timely demise.

“Oh… well, there we go.”

Never had she scrambled around and performed the summoning ritual in such a short time as this. Within minutes, the air was sparking and a presence was filling the room that wasn’t there before.

“Wow, ugh,” Twilight coughed, waving her hand in front of her face to clear away the smoke as she staggered into the wall. She smacked her lips, as if to rid a bad taste out of her mouth. “Is that…? Do I taste… mango? Blegh.” She shivered all over. “What did you do?”

“Didn’t have much blood to work with,” Sunset breathed back, face completely transformed into that of a child on her birthday. It was going to be alright. This was way better than even Rainbow or Rarity would have been. A goddess was coming to dinner — and now this could actually be fun.

“Can you help me with my hair?”

A finger jabbed into the small of Sunset’s back as they walked up the path to her mother’s cozy, two-bedroom ranch-style house. Actually, it was still ‘her’ house; her room was there, and was mostly the same as when she moved out. However, part of the promise she made to her younger self was that the moment she was old enough to be out on her own, she would at least attempt the ‘single life’ instead of just mooching off her mother. So far, so good. But there were times she missed the familiarity.

“What?” she whispered over her shoulder.

“Don’t slouch,” Twilight muttered into her ear.

“Okay, we’re going to see my parents already; if I’d known I’d be bringing a third parent, I wouldn’t have called you!”

“You know what crappy posture like that conveys? Besides laziness?” When there was no reply, she went on in the same low tone as they reached the welcome mat. “That you don’t want to be here. We both know it’s true, but you can fake that you’re happy about this dinner a little bit better than you are. Body language that broadcasts your displeasure is only going to put them on edge early.”

“Maybe that’s what I was going for,” Sunset pouted.

“Bullshit. You asked me to look my best to impress them with your ‘class of friends’, right?”

Turning around, she glared at Twilight. “That’s not why, I just… I didn’t want them to dislike you because you’re dressed like a hobo, that’s all.” Then she added with a slight smirk, “Or as a reject from ‘Grease’.”

“Excuse me? I happen to like that skirt, thank you very much!” Never before had she seen Twilight look so offended. “Wow. Just wow. Now I know where we stand, Sunset Shimmer.”

Smiling wryly, she bumped the goddess with a shoulder. “Maybe sometime I’ll update you on the more trendy styles.”

“Says the girl wearing the ‘Reptar’ shirt. Real trendy.”

“Pssh. Hey, he’s just a dinosaur~!”

Giggling, Twilight rolled her eyes. “Celestia, you are such a dork.”

Sunset stuck her tongue out, but turned around to jab her thumb into the tiny button beside the door. It only took a few moments before they heard footsteps, and her mother threw open the door.

“There you are!” the woman sighed heavily, though with a smile. Against her will, Sunset was actually very pleased to see her in anything other than her usual restaurant-wear; the simple orange blouse clashed a little with the chunky necklace of random green rocks, but for the most part she looked very nice. Also, was much less ‘white trash’ to borrow a semi-offensive term, but they both knew she was anything but.

“Sorry, mom,’ she said as she was pulled into a tight hug. “Twilight had to help me with my hair.”

“Oh, I see! Hello, Twilight. Thank you for coming tonight.”

The next thing that Sunset knew, her friend had stepped forward and held out a hand, her back straight and her chin held high, a look of friendly warmness written all over her face. “Hello, Mrs. Shimmer. It’s lovely to meet you.”

“Wow!” The woman was practically exploding with excitement as she grasped her hand. “Thank you — you too! It’s so nice to finally meet someone polite these days!”

“Well, I try to be polite to everyone,” Twilight laughed demurely. “Especially my friend's family.”

“Naturally,” her mother gripped Twilight’s shoulder and practically dragged her into the house. “But don’t just stand there — please, come in!”

Once the goddess’ head dipped in carefully-arranged chagrin as she walked back, her mother shot Sunset a look that clearly said, “Where did you find a friend this friendly?” The only response she could muster was a shrug and a smile. Granted, she wasn’t that surprised with Twilight’s attitude. She could be extremely nice when the situation called for it.

“Ahh, there’s my girl,” her father said with a wide smile, showing off his pearly white teeth. To his credit, he hadn’t got wrapped up in her friend and forgotten to pay Sunset any attention; he’d done that once before. When she obediently stepped closer, he wrapped her in a tight hug. “I missed you so much!”

Resisting the temptation to say “Oh yeah? Then why has it been since last Christmas?” was nearly impossible, but she found the strength somehow. “I missed you, too.”

“Should I take off my shoes, Mrs. Shimmer?” Twilight was asking, glancing between the older woman’s brightly-patterned socks and how Sunset was removing her own blue flats.

“Oh, no, no,” she dismissed with a negligent wave of her hand. “Only if it’s muddy or snowy out; It’s just an old habit. We don’t really care about that. And don’t be so formal — call me Dawn.”

“Dawn, then. Thank you very much.”

They all laughed at the budding familiarity as they made their way toward the dining room and settled into chairs. Sunset ended up across from her father, with her mother on her right and Twilight on her left. Of course, her mother’s place setting was almost a pure formality, because she would have ended up gathering the food the entire time. All three of her guests tried to insist on helping, and she actually swatted her father across the shoulder for insisting too much, so he sat back down with both hands raised in an ‘I surrender’ gesture.

“You got a haircut,” Sunset mentioned to him as her mother brought out bowls of chowder.

“Yeah,” he said with a sheepish grin, passing a hand over the neatly-sculpted buzz. “The mullet look kind of went out again, and I want to keep things relatively professional for the clients. Thought about shaving ‘Biz Whiz’ in the back though…”

“Oh, you totally should. Subliminal marketing, right?”

“I don’t know how subliminal it is if it’s spelled out right in front of them,” he countered. “But I’ll take that under advisement.”

After a few seconds, Twilight picked up her spoon and dipped it gently into the chowder as she asked, “Your last name isn’t Shimmer, is it? I mean, I could be going out on a limb, here.”

“No, it isn’t — umm… was is Starlight?”

“Twilight, but close enough. I get that now and then.”

Nodding as if at least pleased he was close to the mark, he went on. “Well, Twilight, you’re correct. My name is Rain Storm. Please don’t call me that though; call me Rain. Yeah, Dawn and I were never that well suited for each other. Not long-term. We like each other well enough and were attracted to each other, but—”

“Dad!”

“Sorry, hon,” he said, trying not to make light of Sunset’s embarrassed outburst. “Anyway, it just wasn’t in the cards for us to be in a relationship. We tried marriage for a while, but she didn’t take my name because she was already pretty sure it was going to end eventually. At the time, I resented that a little, but… yeah, kind of hard to argue with it now.”

“And this tall drink of water,” her mother drawled as she came back in, “could never settle for one woman, anyway. He’s the sailor of the business world — a girl in every port.”

Now his guffaws were both embarrassed and loud, but still coming from the depths of his belly, and it was impossible for Sunset and Twilight not to laugh — at least at his laughing. The conversation kept rolling along until they were partway into their soup.

“How do you like your steak cooked, Twilight?” Then Sunset’s mother glanced at her daughter briefly before adding, “Assuming you’re not a vegetarian or anything.”

“You know what, it’s funny,” Twilight replied as she worked her way through her soup. “I was raised vegetarian. But over the years since I got out from underneath my family’s thumb, I started to branch out a little. You could say my job—” she grinned briefly at Sunset. “Makes it difficult to be picky about what I eat. Besides, a good, rare steak every now and then is fine with me.”

Leaning in, her father smiled a rather excited smile. “A woman after my own heart — most girls want theirs charred to a crisp!”

“Why do that?!” Twilight gasped as if scandalized, but winked at Sunset. The message was clear; she was being charming on purpose to make sure she left a good impression, not returning what could be misinterpreted as advances. “All the flavor, the juiciness is gone if you cook it off that way!”

“So right, so right. I guess that’s two rare, and two medium-well?”

“Actually,” Sunset said as she glanced between the pair of blood-drinkers, “make mine medium this time. I’ll live a little.”

“Don’t let Mr. Storm bully you into it, though,” Twilight told her with a pat on her hand, which she appreciated. “Eat what you want to eat.”

“Please, I told you not to call me that,” he groaned as Sunset’s mother rolled her eyes and went back into the kitchen. “Makes me feel old.”

Nodding, Twilight pulled her hand back and turned to face him again. “Sorry, but I’m just not comfortable calling you Rain; it’s weird! I mean, you’re wearing a suit and everything!”

Glancing down at the grey suit and skinny black tie, he sighed heavily and started to take the tie off — which in turn led to both girls begging him not to strip at the dinner table, a request her mother echoed from the relative safety of the kitchen. The shouts and laughter got louder the more he threatened to do it, regardless of their feelings on the matter.

By the end of the steak and accompanying sides — which Sunset was surprised to see in both variety and style — she knew she had made the right decision. Having someone outside the family there curtailed come of the uglier scenes that could have played out. For instance, when her father mentioned some twenty-five-year-old blonde from another country that he had spent a few ‘evenings that turned to mornings’ with, her mother would normally have told him in her usual disgusted tone that she didn’t need to know those details and wished he would be more responsible. He’d have told her that it wasn’t her business and he was just making conversation, and from there it would have devolved into a terse argument. Not a full-on fight, nothing so horrible, but definitely a scene that would have left an ugly pall over the rest of their dinner.

Instead, Twilight was there to make the joke that the girl barely old enough to be his daughter was a little too old for him, which got her mother laughing out loud and her dad acting indignant that she laughed. When he asked what she thought was so funny, Twilight chimed in that a ‘young thing’ like Mrs. Shimmer was more his speed, and they were both properly charmed and forgot the quarrel that almost was. Even though Sunset was drawing out the word ‘Eeewwwwwwwww’ as long as possible, privately, she was beyond grateful.

Still, the first thing she did when giving Twilight a tour of the house — to give her parents a moment alone, and also while waiting for the pie to be gently heated for their desert — was to ask what she and her mother had whispered about while her father was regaling her about his latest business trip.

“Nothing really important,’ the goddess said dismissively as they briefly poked their heads into her mom’s room. “Seriously, you don’t have to worry.”

“I’m worrying anyway. And I mean, my mom’s always been pissed that the most polite I’ve ever been is to add a ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in sentences. I swear to Christ she’s gonna adopt you or something.”

Nodding, Twilight stopped in the hallway and put a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Just some stuff about me — I lied about most of it, of course — and how you’re doing at school, that kind of thing. And, um…”

“What?” Twilight paced into her room, and Sunset followed close behind. “What is it?”

“Great room,” she remarked with a slight smile. “You grew up with this bay window? The view from here is awesome, I’m so gelatin.”

“Jelly. The phrase is ‘so jelly’ — and don’t change the subject!”

Rolling her eyes, she turned to look Sunset square in the face. “Just that she wanted to know if there was anything I could do to set you up with Flash. I know, I know — it’s none of her business, and she’s pushy about ‘having some grandkids’, and all that crap. I get it, seriously. So I just told her I’d see what I can do so she’d let it drop.”

Unable to help herself, Sunset groaned and sank down into her bed, flopping over onto her side as she stared at her dresser. “Why?! Why can’t she just… let my life be my life?”

“Because she’s your mother, that’s why. And not a bad one, either.”

“Great, take her side.”

“I’m so not. Just… she’s gonna do what she does because she wants the best for you. Please believe me when I tell you that you only get one mom, and when she’s gone… she’s gone.”

That made Sunset lean upward on her elbow. “What about you? What was your mom like?”

Not that she expected a reply, or Twilight to even entertain her question, but it seemed to catch the goddess completely off guard. She suddenly turned around, the hem of her simple lavender A-line swirling around her knees as she came to a stop. She was stunned, and unsure of what to say.

“What? Did I, um, bring up something that you… don’t wanna talk about? Or can’t? I mean… you… mentioned a sister before, so…”

“No. Yeah,” she breathed quietly. “It’s just… something I haven’t thought about in… wow, I’m not sure how long it’s been since I thought about my parents.” Perching on the edge of the dresser, she thought about that question for several seconds. “Well… my mother was pretty easy-going. She and dad did what she could to prepare me for the real world, even after I got noticed by my teacher and left home. She was warm and loving; really liked to write stories. Got published quite a few times, too. My father worked a lot. I remember him being really… neat and orderly — the complete opposite of my mom. But then again, opposites attract and all that. They were very supportive of me and my brother.”

“You have a brother and a sister?”

Shaking her head, Twilight said, “I just had an older brother. He married Cadence, who became my sister-in-law. Cadence is really the only family I have left. Well, she and her daughter, Flurry Heart.”

“Are they both goddesses, too?” Sunset asked, interested in hearing more about Twilight's family back home.

“Yes. Along with me, there are four other alicorn goddesses. I’m the Goddess of Friendship. Cadence is the Goddess of Love. Flurry Heart is the Goddess of Music. The last two are the rulers of Equestria — my home — and they are Luna and Celestia. They are the goddesses of the Moon and Sun, respectively.”

“Huh.” So, now Sunset had a name for Twilight’s mysterious pony homeworld.

Hah. Equestria. Ponies. Funny.

After a moment, Twilight shrugged. “That’s about it, really. My parents and brother died a long ago... Cadence, Flurry Heart and I ascended to godhood... though we're all still princesses, too... and it’s just been us since then. Well, us and Luna and Celestia, of course.”

“Oh, okay.” She was bursting to ask for more details; how she became something like a goddess, namely. How did something like that happen? Was it just a random, Disney-esque occurrence with some crazy song-and-dance number encompassing the entire town? Or was it something more… personal? Did she lose something close to her? Her family? Her friends? From how Twilight acted sometimes, Sunset wasn’t willing to make any bets, but she still wanted to know.

When it was clear that Twilight didn’t seem too keen on divulging any more information, she instead went on, “The way you said my mom cares about me, I thought that maybe yours didn’t. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize; you didn’t do anything wrong.” Sighing, she continued, “But I’ve seen lots of people and ponies who grew up with absentee parents, or ones who just let them run around doing whatever they wanted, and didn’t care. They were… sad. About that, and other things that happened as a result of that. So it wasn’t my personal experience, but… Sunset, I’ve seen so much…”

She scooted forward and gently punched Twilight in the leg. “Hey, who the hell is this? Not my friend, Twilight. She’s never been mopey a day that I’ve known her.”

“Yeah.” With a slight nod, Twilight straightened up and smiled. “You’re right. I’m bringing you down, and that’s a pretty crappy way to help you tonight, isn’t it?”

“Dude, I was kidding. You have every right to feel a little down about things — you’ve lived way longer than me.”

“You don’t have to put it that way,” the goddess grumbled, but was still smiling. Sunset didn’t look away; she just sat and watched her intently until Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You okay down there?”

“I worry about you sometimes.”

“Hey, it’s my job,” Twilight laughed. “You don’t have to worry about me. If there’s anything I can do, I’ll take care of it. I’ve been doing it for a long time, and will continue to do it for even longer.”

Shaking her head, Sunset stood up and wrapped her arms around a slightly surprised goddess, nestling her chin on her shoulder. “You don’t have to do that; pretend you don’t have any feelings that way you do. I know that this ‘job’ of yours has to get to you a little sometimes. Maybe it’s in your contract, or magic or something, that makes it so you can’t let the feels leak out. But I’m right here if you can, and if you ever need me.”

“O-oh,” Twilight whispered in a soft voice. After a few seconds, she simply returned the embrace. “You know… strictly speaking, I don’t usually make comments like this, but you’re a pretty special person. And… I feel really fortunate that I met you. More than I should.”

“Why shouldn’t you? It’s not like you aren’t allowed to feel things, or make friends, right? I mean… you are the Goddess of Friendship.”

“Yeah. I know. I just…” Twilight paused, her eyes drifting away from Sunset’s face to the window. “It’s been a long time since someone wanted to be my friend, is all.” Sunset opened her mouth to say something, but then Twilight pulled back to clap her firmly on the shoulder. “Now, should we get back to the table before your mom sends out a search party?”

“No.” But when Twilight only held her eye for a very long minute, she grumbled under her breath, “Yes… ugh. Let’s go.”

As they left, Twilight added, “By the way, I love that giant Ninja Turtles poster — especially since it’s in the original comic style. Always had a certain realness and energy to it that I appreciated.”

“Wait, you know the turtles? Seriously?! They were my fucking jam growing up — I wanted to be Michelangelo!”

“Oh yeah? Funny story; Flurry Heart actually helped with their inspiration,” she chuckled with an arm slung around Sunset’s shoulders, tugging her close and she explained, “She went through a comic book phase a while back and ended up pitching the idea to the creators. She said she meant it ironically, but hey, look where a little sarcasm and a pet turtle gets you…”