Twilight found herself somewhat aloof later that night. When she stormed out of Sunset’s estate, tears in her eyes, Twilight was convinced that she may never see her love again. She knew that perhaps pushing the vanity over and screaming was a bit of an overreaction, but she also knew that Sunset responded better to extremes. Either way, Twilight wasn’t stupid, far from it, she knew that Sunset had been struggling with ending herself, all the signs pointed to it after all. There was no telling what would put her over the edge, but Twilight knew she needed help and she wasn’t sure that she was the one who could save Sunset from herself.

The entire drive home was spent letting the tears just empty from her eyes. She wanted to get it all out before she got home early and made excuses for why she was not having that dinner with her girlfriend that she had told her parents she was having.

As the tears came down her face, Twilight wasn’t entirely sure why they were soaking her cheeks. Part of her felt they were tears of anger, another felt they were tears of sadness and a third felt they were tears of concern for Sunset. The most likely answer is they were a mixture of all three.

Twilight was hurt, but at the same time, she was more worried over Sunset’s well being. She was scared that she’d get a news report the next day that Sunset had been found dead in her home. Everything in her body screamed to turn around and go apologize up and down, to beg Sunset at the gate to her home to let Twilight in so she can make it up to the redhead. She wanted to do that, but she kept on driving back to her parents' house instead, almost as if in a trance.

She was mulling over her thoughts, recognizing that even if she returned to Sunset, this wouldn’t be the last time they fought. It also wouldn’t be the last time she worried about her either. Given that magic surrounded Sunset, danger was always just around the corner, there was no telling what tomorrow would bring for the girl who was an alien to this world. That was the real reality though, Sunset Shimmer was an alien and Twilight Sparkle was human. Her girlfriend looked human, acted human and even shared a lot of similarities in biology, but the fact remained that she was an alien.

Twilight told herself originally that such a thing wouldn’t get to her, and while it didn’t bother her, it did remind her that Sunset would occasionally face problems that Twilight was incapable of resolving. For a moment, she understood why Shimmer almost left Sunset back in Equestria to remain. At least in Equestria, Sunset was safe, she was among her own kind as well, creatures that understood her. In Equestria, she could do magic to her heart’s content, and the weight of the world wouldn’t be on her shoulders. She wouldn’t feel obligated to take action against magical mayhem caused by super-powered freaks all because she was one of the few people on the planet who had access to abilities that could stop them.

The more she thought about it, the more Twilight wondered if she was holding Sunset back if their relationship was destined to fail from the start. Was it possible that she and Sunset were never meant to be together?

Try as she might, Twilight couldn’t squash the thoughts of self-doubt and sadness. The rest of her evening was spent quietly alone with her thoughts until dinner time where she was forced to sit at the table with her parents, just poking at her food, barely touching it (though she had had a few slices of pizza earlier, she was far from full). The broccoli on her plate only reminding her of how Sunset is a vegetarian and that her mother had gotten exceptionally better at cooking vegetarian dishes just for her.

Her family really liked Sunset, and Twilight remembered being so thankful and grateful for that. It was almost as if her girlfriend had already become a part of the family.

Noticing Twilight’s lack of appetite, her mother spoke up from across the table. “Twilight, what’s wrong? You’re not hungry?”

Looking up lazily from her food, Twilight blinked and shrugged. “Oh… I guess not… Sorry…”

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Her father chimed in, showing just as much concern as her mother.

Twilight was thankful that her parents cared so much about what was going on in her life, though sometimes it forced her to speak about problems she was having before she wanted to.

“It’s nothing…” She lied.

“It’s definitely something, you’re looking more upset than that time you got a B- on that math quiz…” Velvet stated.

Rolling her eyes, Twilight spoke up. “First of all, I actually got an A+, I wasn’t mad at about the grade, I was mad that I was forced to explain the answer to the teacher and correct his mistake.” Clearing her throat, Twilight decided it was best to get it out in the open. “Second… I guess I’m just a little upset over what went down at Sunset’s house…”

“Did you two have a fight?” Velvet blinked, her voice hinting at her concern.

Twilight bit her lip and thought of how to word it. She didn’t want to tell her mother that she lost her temper and knocked over a vanity and then screamed at Sunset. “Yeah… I guess you could say that…”

“Fights happen, sweetie. I’m sure you’ll both move past it eventually.” Night smiled at his daughter.

Twilight was always amazed at how simple her father could make things sound, even if they were usually far more complicated than he made them out to be.

“I don’t know… We’re not exactly on speaking terms right now… I think I really messed this one up…” Twilight frowned, sinking a bit in her seat as she ran over the events of the night in her head one more time. She could still hear the echoes of herself shouting. She knew that Sunset had a problem, but she had wished she had approached it better.

“So you two are broken up then?” Her mother asked with a raised brow.

A slight tinge came to Twilight at those words. She had never formally said anything of the sort, and she had avoided thoughts of that subject, but it had occurred to her that this could indeed mean that Sunset and she were no longer an item. She didn’t want it to be over, but she knew that such a thing was on the table when she stormed out of that door.

“I… I don’t know… I don’t want to be, but I’m not sure if I get a choice now…” Twilight frowned, her eyes focusing on her plate to avoid eye contact with her parents.

“Well, maybe you can apologize…” Velvet suggested.

“I’m not sure an apology can fix all of this… The reality is… Sunset has… Problems… Serious ones…” Twilight explained.

“Everyone has problems, sweetie,” Night reminded.

“Not like this… Sunset’s problems are in a whole different league.” Twilight shook her head.

“Sure, Sunset may not be a typical girl, and her problems may be unique, but problems can be worked through, Twilight.” Velvet raised a finger as she spoke with a matter-of-a-fact tone.

“I don’t know if it’s possible with the stuff she’s dealing with…” Twilight frowned.

“You’d be amazed at what people can work through. Give it time, she may come around.” Velvet smiled.

Twilight let out a sigh and nodded, realizing that even if she agreed or disagreed with her mother, her only option at this point was to sit and wait. Whatever Sunset was going to do was going to be completely out of her control, and Twilight had already resigned to that.

Twilight’s words had hit Sunset hard, she knew there was some truth to them, but at the same time, she didn’t want to consider that aspect. Shimmer’s belongings were all Sunset had left to remember the girl who would call Sunset her sister, and she would be damned if she allowed Twilight to disrespect that, regardless of the circumstances. Twilight simply didn’t understand, she had a family, people she could go home to, people who cared about her, Sunset had nothing. The only person in the world that she could even call family was taken from her, robbed of a chance to live even half of a full life, all because of someone wanting some petty revenge.

Sunset found herself going through a few of Shimmer’s old things in various boxes, things that she had put away either due to not having a use for them, or simply just not knowing what to do with them.

To Sunset’s surprise, outside of Shimmer’s video logs that she recorded almost daily, Shimmer didn’t keep a lot of records of herself. Sunset had watched every one of the girl’s video diaries at this point and memorized a few, however, Shimmer didn’t keep many journals or photos of her past around. This was likely due to the fact that she didn’t have many friends or people that she interacted with for a long time, so she had no reason to try and preserve memories.

Most of the photographs of Shimmer that Sunset found were either of Shimmer’s family long before Sunset arrived in the human world or of their group of friends and them together.

When Shimmer had first passed away she went through all of her photos to try and find some of the best ones to make copies of to give to Moondancer. She felt bad that the girl had little to remember her deceased girlfriend from, so she had made it a mission to ensure that Moondancer had a few keepsakes. It didn’t fix the hole in her heart, but it at least helped mend the girl slightly.

Sunset was trying to take her fight with Twilight out of her mind, and thus she buried herself in memories of Shimmer, in the hopes that she’d forget about the entire ordeal.

Eventually, though, she found a camera that looked fairly recent in a box. Flipping it over to the display on the back she tried to turn it on, only to find the battery was dead. She rummaged through the box it came in to see if a charger was anywhere nearby, but of course, no such charger was present. Examining the charge port revealed it was one of those proprietary ones, so no generic charger would work.

Thinking for a moment, Sunset recalled that these types of cameras usually stored their photos on a removable memory card. It took her a moment to recall they were called “SD cards”, but she thanked Moondancer silently in her mind for her lessons on technology.

Finding a side of the camera that opened, Sunset removed the SD card and examined it, noticing there was a heart drawn on it, along with a date that predated when Sunset and Shimmer met, clearly Shimmer’s work. Curiosity got the better of her, and she decided to take it to a computer where she could examine the contents.

After her pep talk with her parents, Twilight was feeling slightly better, but still rather defeated when it came to the subject of Sunset. A part of her wanted to believe things would work out, but at least 80% of her was accepting that their relationship was likely over and she should simply try to start moving forward. Either way, she knew a shower could help her clear her head.

On her way up to her room, Twilight let Spike into the bedroom and shut the door behind her before stripping down to her bra and panties. Her eyes were drawn to her computer desktop which displayed a photo of her and Sunset together, Sunset planting an affectionate kiss on her cheek. Twilight smiled as she remembered when that moment happened.

Walking over to the desk, Twilight decided to check her phone that she had left upstairs when she went down for dinner. A part of her was hoping a text message or a missed call from Sunset would be waiting for her, but naturally, when she opened her phone, no such thing happened. A sigh escaped her as she sat down in the chair in front of the desk and began to thumb through old conversations between Sunset and her.

Sunset: Hey, did I leave my bra there?
Twilight: Nope.
Sunset: Shit, where the hell did I put that thing? These tits are out of control and I need to tie them down!
Twilight: Did you only bring this up so you could send me perverted messages like that?
Sunset: What? You gotta be TIT-ing me! I would never do such a thing!
Twilight: And send me bad puns…?
Sunset: I’d never do such a thing. After all, I am a model TIT-izen.
Twilight: You can’t see it but I am cringing super hard right now.
Sunset: Oh you love (t)it!
Twilight: Why am I dating you?
Sunset: Maybe it’s because of my (tits) personality?
Twilight: Stop.
Sunset: Alright, I think I reached the limit of this joke.
Twilight: Oh so NOW you’ve reached the limit?
Sunset: What can I say? Even I have my lim-TIT.
Twilight: … I can’t believe you right now…
Sunset: ;D You’re still my girlfriend right…?
Twilight: … Begrudgingly… But yes.
Sunset: Okay cool, because there’s probably at least like 800,000,000 more bad puns that await you in the future should you choose to stay with me.
Twilight: We’re going to have to draw out an agreement where you agree to only two puns a day maximum.
Sunset: No fair!
Twilight: Take it or leave it.
Sunset: Fine, but we’re going to both have to like… Live a lot longer so I can get all 800,000,000 of those puns out before we die if I’m limited to two a day.

Twilight giggled as she read over the old messages, albeit she would have never admitted back then that Sunset’s messages made her laugh. Her girlfriend always had a crude sense of humor, but it was one of the traits that Twilight found endearing about her. Sunset was unapologetically herself, and as much as Twilight pretended to be annoyed by it, she would be lying if she said she wished it would stop.

Twilight found herself reading another conversation between the two of them not long after.

Twilight: So what kind of girls were you into back in Equestria?
Sunset: Attractive ones.
Twilight: Haha, could you be more vague?
Sunset: Ones that exist.
Twilight: …That was rhetorical…
Sunset: Just being a smart ass, as usual.
Twilight: Better than being a dumb ass, right?
Sunset: Now you’re getting it!
Twilight: In all seriousness though, what kind of girls did you like back home?
Sunset: In all honesty… I don’t know… I wasn’t really into romance back home, so I never gave it much thought. However, if it’ll appease your ego, I’m heavily attracted to you.
Twilight: I do not have an ego.
Sunset: Oh please, I bet you’re looking at yourself in the mirror making poses right now since I said that.
Twilight: You wish.
Sunset: A girl can dream, right?
Twilight: Keep on dreaming.
Sunset: Every night.
Twilight: So long as you’re dreaming of me, I suppose that’s alright by me.
Sunset: I always dream about you.

For a brief moment, she considered calling Sunset. What would she say though? How could she simply play off their big fight like nothing happened? Was Sunset still mad? The constant questions that lead to self-doubt ultimately made Twilight decide that calling the girl was definitely a no-go. She needed time to think, she needed time to consider if it was even worth calling her at all.

Setting her phone back down, Twilight lazily found her way to the bathroom in her bedroom and yawned as she made it into the shower. The exhaustion of the night was finally hitting her as she allowed warm water to stream down her body after stripping off the remainder of her clothing.

As she stood there in the shower she thought about how her night should have gone. She should have enjoyed a nice meal with her girlfriend and by now the two should have been finishing up a night of sexual exploration and enjoying a bath together, or possibly snuggling in Sunset’s lavish bed, completely nude.

The thought of such an activity made Twilight blush as she stood there in the shower, and before she knew it, she was imagining Sunset there with her, helping her wash, being her usual flirty self, and feeling the warmth of Twilight’s body on her own. Twilight’s imagination was so vivid she could feel Sunset’s breath on her neck, and the slight tingle in her buttocks that she got when the girl groped her.

The more she imagined it, the more real it became. Her fingers began to run down her own body as she imagined being held in the shower and eventually pressed up against the wall.

Blinking Twilight realized what she was doing and quickly switched the water over to cold.

Finally getting down to the laboratory, Sunset was in the closest room with a computer in it that she could locate. She had forgotten where she set her MacBook down, so this room would have to do.

Sitting down in front of the desktop that was stationed in the center, Sunset looked at the SD card in her hand and then at the tower. Shrugging, she slotted the card into the reader on the front and began to navigate to it on the provided screen. Sure enough, on the computer, the card was labeled “Babe”, which only sparked Sunset’s curiosity more.

A message appeared on the screen asking if she wanted to play the media on the device via the media player. Shrugging, Sunset clicked “yes” and sat back in her chair waiting to see what would unfold in front of her.

A video started to play showing someone holding the camera very shakily, Shimmer in the shot of what was being filmed. Shimmer smiled at the camera and giggled. “You aren’t in the shot, babe…” She called out toward the person holding the camera who couldn’t be seen.

A voice that Sunset swore she recognized called back to Shimmer from the camera holder. “Someone has to hold this thing…”

“Well, that’s no fun, I wanted a video of us together, something to remember today by…” Shimmer frowned.

“Why would you want a video to commemorate just a random day? Do you make videos to commemorate sandwiches you make or other random useless crap?” The voice asked as they tried to keep Shimmer in focus, albeit doing a poor job.

Still, Sunset could make out that Shimmer was wearing a more casual outfit of a scoop cut T-shirt and some ripped shorts, her hair naturally tied in her signature ponytail, and her designer glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose. She looked as cute as ever.

Judging by the octave of the voice, Sunset could determine the voice was female, and it began to sound more and more familiar the longer they spoke.

“I don’t know, we just had a good time, so I want something to remember it by! Now get in the shot!” Shimmer protested, crossing her arms and putting on a pouty face.

Sunset found herself smiling as she watched her little sister pout. It was interesting to think that this video was a time before Sunset was a part of her life. It was refreshing to see that there were other times when the girl was happy at the very least, and seeing footage of her that she had never seen before felt almost like she was in the room with her.

“I’m not really big on pictures and shit, you know that, babe…” The voice replied.

“Oh for heaven’s sake…” Shimmer rolled her eyes before approaching. There was a minor scuffling, followed by the camera being moved all about before refocusing on an image that caused Sunset’s heart to nearly stop and her body to run cold.

Shimmer adjusted the camera into a selfie style cinematography as she brought the person holding it into the shot with her, as she pressed up close against them, their cheeks touching with the other girl being a good few inches taller than Shimmer.

Sunset recognized her anywhere, long wild curly orange hair, piercing red tinted eyes, and a perfectly chiseled face. She even wore her spiked hairband that tied back her obnoxious amount of hair.

As she came more into the shot, Sunset could see she was wearing a white button up blouse and a confused expression as Shimmer smiled.

Sunset was speechless.

“Okay, so smile for the camera, Dagi!” Shimmer instructed.

“You are really strange, you know that?” The other girl stated from behind the camera.

“Oh come on, Adagio, you always look like such a grump in all our photos, for once I’d like to see you not look like you want to murder someone…” Shimmer complained.

Sunset’s eye twitched at the sight before her, she found herself unable to look away, though. She wanted to smash the computer screen, she wanted to rip it right out of the outlet and toss it out the window. Instead, however, she sat there and watched, only feeling her anger grow and grow with each passing second.

“Fine…” Adagio rolled her eyes.

Shimmer smiled and turned Adagio to face her, pressing her forehead to Adagio’s; the two locked eyes affectionately for a solid eight seconds or so, “I love you, babe…” Shimmer said.

Adagio was sporting a mild blush as she nearly whispered her reply. “I love you too… Sunset…”

In horror, Sunset watched as their lips closed in and the two shared a passionate kiss. Their lips smacked and their tongues began to dance before Sunset couldn’t take anymore. She paused the video and looked away from the screen. She wanted to throw up, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, it had to be a mistake, it simply had to be.

There was no way it was possible. Looking back at the screen, Sunset flipped through the rest of the files on the SD card, all relatively similar, photographs of Adagio and Shimmer together, some of just Adagio, and some of just Shimmer, but all of it pointed in the same direction.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, but the evidence was overwhelming; Shimmer and Adagio were an item at one point, they were intimate, possibly even sexual. At that moment, everything Sunset understood about the situation with Shimmer’s murder collapsed. She thought she understood everything, but now she was left in complete confusion. The person that had ended Shimmer’s life had at one point been someone that Shimmer apparently felt was important enough to preserve videos and photos of.

Anger welled up in her as she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her with a thud.

With her fingers on a cigarette, Adagio leaned back in an expensive recliner and closed her eyes. Everything around her faded as she relaxed after an inhale. Letting the smoke exit her mouth, Adagio let out a content sigh. Normally she’d be stressed out about something, but at that moment, everything felt right. She could forget about the stress of money, the stress of her two siren subordinates and even the stress of life in general.

Somehow when she spent time at Shimmer’s estate, she was content. Ever since her defeat at the battle of the bands, she found it difficult to find peace, but somehow Shimmer changed all of that.

Shimmer returned from the kitchen with a bottle of wine in hand and a smile on her face. She giggled and approached Adagio and climbed onto the girl’s lap, sitting on top of the girl, forcing her to meet Shimmer’s eyes.

Adagio raised a brow as she noted the compromising position that Shimmer had placed herself in and gave a “hm?” as she puffed on her cigarette.

“I brought us some wine…” Shimmer playfully whispered. “It’s some of the good stuff too,” she added.

“Fuck, you’re already high, you want to be drunk too?” Adagio asked with a raised brow.

“We get high all the time, drunk is a change of pace!” Shimmer explained.

“No kidding, you’re either high or about to get high every time I’m here…” Adagio rolled her eyes.

Shimmer giggled and nodded. “It’s because you’re such a good dealer, that’s why!”

“You’re just saying that because I fuck you after, aren’t you?” Adagio asked.

“That’s definitely a perk…” Shimmer winked.

Looking away, Adagio sighed. “Gee, thanks…”

“I didn’t say you were bad at it. By no means are you just a fuck to me, Adagio Dazzle…” Shimmer stated, grabbing Adagio’s chin and forcing her to face her. Shimmer’s face always seemed to put Adagio at ease for some odd reason. There was something calming about staring at her gentle face, in an ironic sort of way, given that Shimmer shared a face with one of Adagio’s mortal enemies.

Adagio stared for a moment before removing her cigarette. She held it between her two fingers as she looked at the girl on her lap. “Yeah… I know… I also look good in guy’s clothes right?”

“Then stop teasing me…” Shimmer giggled. “Though yes, you do… You’re like that perfect blend of masculine and feminine… I’m sort of jealous… You can look cute in guy’s clothing, but still, dead sexy in women’s clothing…”

“You’re an easy target, what can I say?” Adagio shrugged, ignoring Shimmer’s comment regarding her gender conformity being a bit mixed.

“So… Tell me something about yourself that you’ve never told anyone…” Shimmer changed the subject.

Adagio merely shrugged as she lifted the hand with the cigarette back up to her lips. “I’m an award-winning tennis player; played with some of the best players in the whole world.”

“Really!?” Shimmer blinked in astonishment.

“Nah, I’m just an award-winning liar…” Adagio smirked playfully, as she usually did.

Shimmer lightly smacked the girl’s shoulder as she scolded her. “Come on, tell me something… Something you’ve never told anyone before…”

Adagio thought for a moment and then looked up to Shimmer’s eyes as she spoke. “I… Actually… I’ve never really trusted anyone before…”

“Really?” Shimmer asked with curious eyes, though not entirely surprised given the nature of Adagio’s line of work.

Adagio rubbed her neck. “Yeah… I mean… Until you that is…”

Shimmer smiled and nodded before kissing Adagio’s forehead. “I trust you too, Dagi.”

Dagi. A nickname that Adagio usually hated, but for some reason, coming out of Shimmer’s mouth it sounded almost… Sweet. Adagio could almost feel herself actually enjoying the nickname when it came from her lips. When her boss said it, she rolled her eyes, when Sonata said it, she wanted to punch her, but when Shimmer said it… It was like music.

There was a silence as Shimmer leaned in to be held, Adagio wrapping her arms around the girl, keeping her warm with her body. Shimmer closed her eyes and lost herself in the feeling as she thought. “Hey… Dagi…”

“Hm?” Adagio responded as she continued to hold the girl.

“Have you ever… Done something that you regret?” Shimmer asked quietly.

A million different memories raced through Adagio’s mind at that exact moment. “Yeah… tons of shit…”

“I mean like something… seriously bad…” Shimmer’s voice was soft and concerned sounding.

“Yeah… A few things actually… Stuff that I still live with to this day…” Adagio replied, gently stroking the girl’s long thick hair.

Adagio caught a full whiff of Shimmer’s scent as she held her and the two fell into silence as they sat there in an embrace.

Finally breaking the hug, Shimmer climbed off of her girlfriend and stood in front of her with her arms behind her back, her simple zip up dress complimenting her gorgeous figure. “Well… I guess that’s why we should try and live in the moment whenever we can, right?”

Adagio shrugged. “I guess…”

The sound of a zipper could be heard before Shimmer’s dress fell to the floor, exposing most of her body. She stood there in her panties and giggled as she climbed back on top of Adagio.

“Then let’s not waste any time, right?” Shimmer cooed.

Adagio grinned and sucked down the remainder of her cigarette, tossing the butt into a nearby ashtray on the coffee table in the room before grabbing Shimmer’s waist with both of her hands. “You don’t have to tell me twice…”

The next few hours would be spent in the wine cellar by Sunset. She was dumbfounded, confused, angry and just an emotional wreck all at the same time. Her relationship with Twilight likely was over for good, her sister was dead, and to top it all off, she was sleeping with the person who murdered her. Sunset felt like the universe was laughing at her, or in some way punishing her.

She had finished off a bottle she had indiscriminately grabbed on her way down and used it to drown her thoughts out. Unfortunately for her, no amount of alcohol seemed to make her brain stay quiet. Everything that was happening around her just kept playing in her head, it was like a ringing in her ear that wouldn’t stop. Nothing brought the young woman peace.

After she had finished her bottle, she dropped it onto the floor and grabbed another random bottle from one of the racks and slumped down to the floor with a grunt. Sunset put her back against the wall and sighed as she struggled to open the bottle for a moment.

Eight seconds of struggling later, Sunset managed to use the corkscrew she had snagged on her way down to get the cork out of the bottle and wasted no time. She chugged the sweet liquid as quickly as she could and let out a belch after she stopped to get some air.

The effects stacked on top of what she had already drank were starting to kick in; the room around her blurred, the ceiling seemed to move around in circles as Sunset stared upward with a frown on her face. Alcohol completed the moment, she was perfectly miserable.

Sipping from the bottle again, Sunset closed her eyes and felt a tear run down her face and drip onto her hand.

As she lifted the bottle for another sip of the liquid, she heard something that sounded like a muffled voice in her ear. Blinking she rubbed her ear and squinted around the poorly lit cellar, looking for the owner of such a voice. The more she focused, the more the voice started to sound familiar.

“H-hello?” Sunset slurred out.

“I said, what a lovely evening to be completely shit face drunk…” The familiar voice spoke.

Blinking a few times, Sunset could see a figure start to appear before her, a figure that she recognized. Long red hair, with golden streaks, a cute face with shining teal eyes and a gorgeous blue and orange trimmed dress stood across from Sunset.

Adjusting their glasses, the figure gracefully sat down on the floor across from Sunset with a smile on her face. “Well, good to see you’ve been taking care of yourself…”

“You’re dead…” Sunset stated though she wasn’t certain if she had said that for her own sake or to inform Shimmer of her status among the living.

Shimmer nodded. “Very astute of you. I see your observation skills haven’t changed. I imagine your sense of humor likely is exactly the same as I remember it as well…”

“Great… Now I’m talking to an imaginary version of my dead younger sister who is also an alternate reality version of myself… Today couldn’t get any more fucked up…” Sunset grumbled.

“Am I imaginary?” Shimmer asked, tilting her head.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Ummm, yeah? You died, remember? I was there, I held you… I had never seen someone die before…”

Shimmer shrugged and leaned back against the wall, her expression remaining relatively neutral. “Maybe so… However, I’m here now…”

“So you’re a ghost?” Sunset chuckled.

“If you want me to be, I am. Either way, I’m here… What difference does it make if I’m real or not, right?” Shimmer asked with a raised brow.

“Tons… If you’re real then I can take what you say to mean you’re helping me from the great beyond… If you’re not, then you’re just a figment of my imagination and I’m just talking to myself, which is one of the first signs of being completely batshit insane… So if you are a ghost, then I probably need years and years of therapy…” Sunset answered before taking another swig of the bottle.

“To be fair, I don’t think either of us had far to go to qualify as ‘batshit insane’ for this world. While your antics are commonplace in Equestria, in this world being able to conjure fire from your hands, defeat evil magic controlling villains and claiming to be from other worlds would land one in the mental ward here, or at the very least on some government operating table…” Shimmer pointed out.

“Then why didn’t they lock you up when you spouted all that shit to the police about accidentally killing your parents with an explosion from your hand?” Sunset raised a brow. Ordinarily, she would have dressed that statement up when talking to Shimmer, but given that she was under the impression that this Shimmer wasn’t really here, she saw no point to try and avoid offending the girl, and thus opted to not bother mincing her words.

“When I told them, I was a child who had just experienced a traumatic event, so they just assumed I was making the whole magic explosion thing up to cope with what really happened…” Shimmer explained.

Sunset sighed and shook her head before downing a good portion of the liquid in the bottle. “This is fucking mental… I’m having an argument with myself…”

“Again, that’s all up to your perspective… For all you know, your first assumption could be correct and I could very much be a ghost… Back from the great beyond to give you advice,” Shimmer reminded.

A laugh escaped Sunset as she considered that possibility. “If I need advice from the afterlife, then clearly I’m not doing so hot.”

Shimmer smirked. “Or maybe that means you’re special enough for denizens of the afterlife to come and offer you their wisdom.”

Sunset shook her head and took another drink, releasing a belch as she finished. “Either way… who cares?”

Shimmer shook her head and gave a disapproving “tsk” before looking at the empty bottle next to Sunset. “You’re drunk…” She pointed out.

“You pointed that out already, but only a little…” Sunset smirked at that comment.

“Let’s see… You’re around 160 pounds-“ Shimmer began her calculation only for Sunset to cut her off.

“148 pounds, thank you very much…” Sunset corrected, an offended look on her face.

Shimmer rolled her eyes. “We have close to the same body weight you know… So if I were insulting you, I’d be insulting myself too…”

“What’s your point?” Sunset raised a brow and gave a gesture with her hand rolling in a circle to suggest she’d like the girl to speed up her explanation.

“My point is given your weight, age, sex, how much you’ve consumed and how strong that wine is… I’d say you’re most likely pretty drunk right now…” Shimmer nodded approvingly as she figured it out. “And that’s factoring in the pizza you ate earlier…”

Sunset sighed and shook her head. “I’m assuming you’re here for a reason?”

“Right to the point, aren’t you?” Shimmer asked.

“I’d rather not have delusions longer than necessary if that’s alright… My life is totally fucked up as it is without more craziness…” Sunset smirked, taking another sip from the bottle, getting close to polishing off the second bottle in a single night. It had only been a few hours since Twilight left, but for Sunset time felt like it was moving in slow motion.

Shimmer sighed and nodded. “Alright, we’ll cut right to the chase then… I think you made a serious mistake screaming at Twilight like that…”

“Who cares? It’s probably over between us, it’s pretty clear that I’m too damaged to love someone… Or for someone to love me for that matter. Twilight is better off without me weighing her down…” Sunset frowned as she admitted it out loud. She had thought it before, but never out loud. It was hard to hear it from her own voice, but a part of her knew it was true. Twilight would face hardship after hardship so long as she was the girlfriend of Sunset Shimmer.

“She loves you, Sunset…” Shimmer’s tone grew very quiet and serious. There was conviction in her voice.

“Man, what the fuck do you know about love? You fucked the person who ended up murdering you! You fell in love with a fucking life sucking monster!” Sunset hissed. “I don’t think advice on romance from you means much…”

“Maybe you don’t know the whole story?” Shimmer raised a brow and crossed her arms defensively.

The fact that Shimmer would even defend Adagio made Sunset’s blood boil, even if this Shimmer was merely an illusion created by wine and Sunset’s guilty conscious. Seeing words leave Shimmer’s mouth that painted Adagio in any light that wasn’t overwhelmingly negative felt completely wrong. It disgusted Sunset more to think that her brain might have been the thing suggesting such a thing, and making her see those words leave Shimmer’s throat.

“What’s there to know? How did you meet her? What did she tell you to trick you into being with her? She probably only wanted your magic, anyway,” Sunset questioned since they were on the subject anyway.

Shimmer shrugged. “According to you, I’m just a figment of your imagination, so I would only know things that you know if that were the case, how would I even answer a question like that? If you don’t know, then I shouldn’t know either, right?”

Sunset sighed as she submitted to that logic. The odds of Shimmer actually being in front of her were practically zero, so there was little doubt that she was merely talking to herself, personifying it as Shimmer in her drunken stupor. It pissed her off a little to know that she was basically potentially sitting on the floor talking as if someone were actually there, but she was too drunk to truly care.

“I guess that makes sense… Still… I just don’t understand why you’d want to be with… with her… She’s a murderer, a monster from another world…” Sunset closed her eyes as she tried to block out memories of Adagio.

Shimmer held onto her serious expression as she shrugged. “Maybe there’s another side of her that you didn’t know… After all… there was another side to you wasn’t there?”

Sunset bit her lip. “That’s…” she paused. “That’s different…”

“Is it?” Shimmer raised a brow. “Everyone deserves another chance, Sunset. Yourself included… You have to move forward though…”

“It’s difficult…” Sunset closed her eyes, trying to fight back tears.

“I know it is… The reality though is… I’m dead. You can’t bring me back, and throwing away every chance at happiness that’s offered to you isn’t going to make things any better…” Shimmer frowned.

There was a short silence between the two before Sunset opened her mouth to speak again. “What should I do then?”

Shimmer sighed and shook her head. “I think that part is painfully obvious, Sunset… You need to go to her, tell her how you feel, don’t let her walk away… If you let her go, it might be too late to get her back… She might change her mind and find someone else while you sit around here feeling sorry for yourself… Twilight loves you for who you are, even with all the baggage you have… She just wants to see you happy…”

Sunset continued to let tears wet her cheeks as she listened to Shimmer’s words. “What if… What if I screw up again? What if being around me gets Twilight hurt?”

“You can’t spend your whole life worried about what might happen… Take it from the dead girl… You may not get another chance to experience something like love… You should learn from me and just try to live every day like it’s going to be your last. If Twilight loves you, then she will come around,” Shimmer explained.

Thinking over Shimmer’s words, Sunset wiped her eyes and nodded. “You know… You’re right… I can’t just sit here… I love Twilight… Sure we might not be a very conventional couple and it’s definitely going to be challenging trying to make what we have work, but I need to try regardless… The harder parts well… We can cross those bridges when we come to them, right?”

Shimmer nodded, a smile returning to her face. “That’s the Sunset I know, now go to her.”

“R-right now?” Sunset blinked.

“Before the alcohol wears off and you lose your nerve.” Shimmer nodded, gesturing with her hands for Sunset to come to a stand, taking one of her own.

“Yeah… Good idea…” Sunset stated as she tried to pick herself up, only to find the world around her start to shake. Her vision blurred and when she looked back over where Shimmer was standing, there was no one. Sunset was once again alone in the wine cellar, but she found herself filled with all new determination as she slowly hobbled her way toward the staircase, gripping every wall on her way out.

“Twilight… I’m coming…” She stated out loud, trying to keep herself motivated.

Surprise.

Yeah.