Sunset and Adagio walked through the front door of their apartment and crashed. Adagio fell back on the couch and Sunset flopped down in the chair that was ninety degrees to it. Both women were exhausted; physically and emotionally.

"So what do you want to do now?" Sunset asked, rubbing her eyes with her right hand.

"I don't know," Adagio replied in a tired, somewhat annoyed, somewhat apathetic voice. "It's what? - two thirty in the morning? We meet Shimmer at ten thirty but we both need a shower; plus it's a half hour drive to the mall from here. So I'm figuring we'd have to get up at least no later than eight o'clock to be there on time. That's roughly six hours of sleep, and that's if we fell asleep right this very second. So it's not enough time to get some sleep but too long to stay up."

Sunset tilted her head back onto the back of the chair, her eyes closed. "Yeah," she sighed. "Darned if you do; darned if you don't." Sunset then turned her head to look at Adagio. "Want to talk?"

"Always," Adagio said flatly.

"Ok. And by talk, I mean I want to talk. I just want you to listen; that's all. I don't want you to offer advice or try to solve anything. I don't want you to interrupt or none of that. I just want you to listen. Understood?"

"Completely," Adagio answered flatly and sat back in the couch.

"Alright then. I have no clue what I'm doing. Let me rephrase that. No. That'll work. I started a relationship with a man, a boy; when I logically knew I shouldn't. I didn't take the threat from Chrysalis seriously. I mean, I knew whatever it was had killed and it was serious; but I still acted as if we would handle this like always.

"But even that aside; I knew I was going back to Equestria after this was over. So even by that criteria I should have known better. Yet I met him, was attracted to him, and I pursued him. Heck, I was the one that initiated sex. And now I have to go to him and tell him it's over.

"I could say, and I will say, I don't want him hurt; that it's too dangerous and all that. But he already knows that. I told him what I was doing; hunting down a man-eating monster from another dimension. And you know what? - he actually volunteered to help. I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't. The guy has skills too. He would be a great asset to us. He could physically hold his own against anybody.

"Yet, when I think like that, I can't help but think how could and utilitarian that sounds. 'Oh yeah, you can put your life on the line for me and potentially die; but after this is over, I'm going to bugger off back home and leave you high and dry anyhow. Hope you don't mind'. And that just makes me feel worse.

"I like him. I have feelings for him, I had, made, whatever you want to say; him have feelings for me as well and now I'm going to crush them because?" Sunset shrugged. "I just wanted a fling, I didn't think things through even though me and Twilight had talked on length about her and Flash. Should she visit him, should he come visit her, what possible future could they have; and her I am doing what she did."

Sunset paused. She breathed deep as small tears slowly rolled down her cheeks.

"And sitting here, telling this to you, it's unfair to you. I know you care for me. Love me. I have never had those feelings for another woman. I told you that. I never even considered it since I was so obviously straight. But I do have feelings for you. I can't explain what they are and why I do, I just do. I know I always want you around me, with me. And since you and I come from and are going back to the same place; that whole cross dimensional romance thing never comes into play.

"But then that sounds so utilitarian too. I mean, you're not Mr. Right, but because you check off enough boxes, you can be Mrs. Right Now. And what if I come to realize, you know what, it really is all about body parts and I really need an 'outie' as you put it? Then what? ' Oh, hey Dag, I've decided to go back to men so you and I are done; but I still really like you so you can continue to live with me, just in a separate bedroom and you'll get to see me and my new boyfriend be all lovey, dovey all the time. Okaaaaaaay?' What half way decent person would do that? Especially after they force you into an asexual relationship for however long."

Sunset then chuckled bitterly. " 'Men'. I guess I mean stallions. Oh god Dag; I don't want to go back. I don't. I like it here. I'm attracted to human males. I can't even imagine being with one of my own kind in that way anymore. Stallion or mare. I like walking upright and having hands and fingers and a flat face. I even like this crazy, mixed-up, brutal planet. Yes humans are bucking crazy and I can't understand how they've made this far without killing themselves off; but, there's a magic and wonder about them I can't explain. This is where I want to be now; but I can't. I'm a princess now and my place is in Equestria. It's my duty to return.

"Saying all this, feeling all this, knowing I'm about to hurt someone I care about because of my own selfishness, knowing that I'm probably hurting you right now by telling you all this; it makes me feel as though I've learned nothing; that I haven't changed at all. That I'm still the same selfish witch I was when I first came here. Fug, I'm horrible."

Sunset looked at Adagio, who looked back at her with a blank expression. She waited to see what Adagio would say but she said nothing. Eventually Sunset got annoyed and asked, "Well?"

Adagio just shrugged. "You said you didn't want me to give you any advice, so I'm not. Besides; I'm the last person who should be giving advice to anyone, My track record of making good decision is really poor. It took being homeless and turned into a slave to make me realize that; but I have.

"As for a non sexual relationship, I've never been a big fan of it myself. I've had sex- with both men and women; but never out of desire for them, only to manipulate them. I can't really say I'm sexually attracted to you either. I just want to be with you."

It was then Adagio stopped and looked off for a bit. Her mind obviously deep in thought.

"The first woman I ever had sex was back in France, late twelve hundreds. Remember when I said the girls and I had taken refuge in a nunnery for a while? It was there. Woman entered the sisterhood for many reasons. Some were truly devout in their beliefs. Some because it was the only moderate form of food, shelter, and protection, some where girls who had become pregnant out of wedlock. They were forced to give up their babies and then live the life of a nun in penance. Others joined because they had 'unnatural' desires and thought or were told The Church would solve that.

"That was sister Anna. Young girl, between eighteen and twenty-two. Pretty. Even in her habit she was pretty.

"Anyways, I kept noticing her looking at me. At first all the sisters looked at us. They were naturally suspicious of outsiders. But she looked only at me and not in a suspicious way but a 'I really like looking at her but I hate myself for liking to look at her' type of way. I knew exactly what she was and what she wanted from me. So I decided to make her my plaything.

"At first I playfully and innocently flirted with her. Enough so she wouldn't run in terror of her feelings, but enough to make her self loathing increase yet still want more. Slowly, and subtly I became more forward until, one night, I snuck in her room and seduced her into her first sin of the flesh. Which, I must say, wasn't as bad as I expected. It wasn't good; but it wasn't horrible.

"From then on, I had her tied around my finger. I would torture her with the fact she was a sodomite, evil and corrupt and that I should go tell the Mother Superior how she had seduced me. She would cry and beg me not to. Then I would wait, be nice to her, lay with here and start the whole cycle over again. I hat such fun emotionally destroying that girl.

"One day, one of the other sisters found her hanging from the bell in the tower. She had killed herself. She wrote a note explaining she was cursed with demonic desires she couldn't control so she decided to kill herself to escape them and hoped God would forgive her. Well, the Mother Superior sent a messenger into to town to fetch Anna's father. As a lesbian and as someone who committed suicide, she was deemed a worthless sinner who could not be buried in consecrated ground. The last thing they told her father, as he picked up the body was his daughter was now burning in Hell for all eternity. I was barely able to contain my laughter when I heard that.

"So you see Sunset Shimmer; I'm the last person who could or should lecture anybody on their morality or decision making."

Sunset sat forward and looked down at her hands that were folded palms up on her lap. "I guess we're all flawed. We all hurt people. We will hurt people. For all our lives. We will be short sighted, selfish, and hurt those around us. No matter what."

"It appears so," Adagio said flatly.

"And, of course, because of that; we will be hurt and betrayed ourselves by other people."

"Yes," Adagio said again.

"And that is why we must forgive." Sunset looked up and over at Adagio. She reached out and touched her knee. "Because all of us are fallen, all of us are broken, we must forgive; forgive others, forgive ourselves; knowing that in our brokenness we are all the same and all connected and that if today we are hurt, tomorrow we can be healed and if today we hurt someone else, tomorrow we can heal another."

"Are you saying that for me or for you?" Adagio asked.

"I guess I'm saying that for all of us. I was ready to kill Aria, to kill anyone who was aligned with Chrysalis. Heck, a small part wanted to kill myself. Not a large part, but still a little bit. You, telling me that story, pouring out one of your darkest deeds to someone you loved, risking that they might reject you, that was courage. And given that you risked everything by telling us it was Chrysalis we were fighting, AND fighting her yourself, no one is too far gone.

"Whatever happens Monday is going to happen. I'm going to cry, feel bad, probably get yelled at. Heck I hope he does yell at me. I deserve it and maybe it'll make me feel less like a piece of crap. But then I'll turn around and help save the world. And so will you. With me. Side. By. Side. Because each new day is a day we might fall but it's also a day we might fly."

Adagio reached out and put her hand on Sunset's cheek. "By your side."

It was then Sunset kissed Adagio; one soft, slow, and gentle kiss on the lips. "And Dag, I do love you." Sunset then stood up and held out her hand. "Come, let's get to bed and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow after we meet myself, we can move your stuff into our bedroom."

Adagio took Sunset's hand and the two went to the bedroom. Sunset set the alarm, both women stripped down to nothingness, crawled in bed, and fell asleep in each other's arms, with Sunset's head on Adagio's chest.

Author's Notes:

Ok, I know I said the Sunsets would meet in this chapter. And that's how it was going to start. But then I got the idea this for this opening. The idea of both these strong women, letting the veil down a little bit, exposing some of their weakest or darkest parts to each other; I really liked it. I felt it added to the strength of their relationship as well as sets up the emotional minefield Sunset will be stepping into when she talks to Val.

As I stated before, this book will get darker and darker. More people will die and the girls will be pushed to their breaking points by the time the final book starts. These girls will be shattered. I'm just trying to make that clear so if you want to stop reading now, you can.