It was earlier than Cadence preferred to be up, but a frantic phone call had roused her almost before the sun rose. After talking down one of her friends from the station from a panic after a particularly disastrous Valentine’s Date, she found herself shuffling about the kitchen, setting on a pot of coffee to clear the cobwebs from her brain. As she stared petulantly at the percolator, cursing its slow speed, she could hear the ceiling creek overhead, suggesting that someone else was awake and she would soon have company. She half turned towards the kitchen door, expecting Twilight Velvet or Night Light, given the hour.

So when Sunset dragged herself into the kitchen, eyes shadowed and bloodshot, Cadence immediately became concerned. That worry increased when those eyes lit upon her with something akin to desperate relief, and the fiery haired girl spoke in a shaking voice. “....C-Cadence?”

It was a tone she was far more used to hearing from Twilight, when her Ladybug was overwhelmed and stressed and fighting off a meltdown with everything she had. It was so like Twilight that the pink skinned woman couldn’t resist her instinctive impulse to leave her mug by the coffee machine to gather the teen into a gentle hug. “Sunset, what’s wrong? Bad dream?” When Sunset leaned into the hug, Cadence felt a bubble of happiness well up inside her…though that quickly deflated when a sound of distress escaped the younger girl. “…I’m here to listen if you want to talk about it.”

The redhead started to nod, before shaking her head, then going still. After a quiet moment, she finally voiced a soft, “…I-I don’t know…Maybe? It…wasn’t really that, but other stuff…and…can…can we talk?” Her voice quivered a little, and as she pulled back from the hug, the expression on her face, so lost and exhausted and stressed, that Cadence’s heart went out to her, even as she realized that Sunset trusted her enough to confide something in her.

Patting her on the upper back the same way she would for Twilight, she gave her an encouraging smile. “Of course we can, Sunset. Here? Or would you like us to move somewhere a bit more private?”

“Private, please,” Sunset responded quickly, her hands curling into awkward fists close to her chest, shifting from foot to foot. It was a mannerism that the woman had noticed her display in times of stress or agitation. “If…I mean…if it’s not too much trouble…?”

Gentle fingers smoothed some of the wild hair back from Sunset’s forehead, trying to help her relax. “It’s perfectly fine, Sunset. That’s why I offered. We can use Mom’s office—before you worry, she doesn’t mind at all. It’s where I often go to talk with Twily when she doesn’t want to talk in her room. Everyone knows not to come in without knocking, and it's almost impossible to hear anything when the door is shut. Everything talked about there is private and in total confidence.” She met the girl’s eyes. “Does that sound like someplace you’d feel safe talking?”

She gave a slow, somewhat jerky nod, her face still wearing that lost expression. “…yeah…okay…”

Cadence suppressed the urge to frown, knowing that the warm, slight smile was more effective to helping lower stress and make someone feel comfortable about opening up than a scowl would be. Still, it did nothing to help combat the growing urge to find whoever had made Sunset feel like it wasn’t okay to seek out emotional support, so she could practice a few of the self-defense moves Shining had taught her on their person. “You think this is an ice-cream talk? Or is it more a hot-cocoa-slash-coffee talk?” she asked, keeping her voice to the calm and comforting tones.

The girl blinked, not expecting the directed question, an odd, startled sound escaping her in her confusion. It took her a moment to focus, clearly running the question through her mind again before she answered. "Um…coffee? My stomach is..." She trailed off, grimacing and pressing a hand to her stomach, clearly nauseated. Cadence took a closer look, realizing that Sunset was a few shades paler than normal, and remembered a recent talk with Velvet where her mother-in-law commented that she felt Sunset’s emotional stresses led to the girl’s stomach rebelling, sometimes violently.

"Coffee it is then,” she responded, giving her one more gentle shoulder pat before crossing back to the coffee pot, reaching into the cupboard for a second mug. She filled them both, prepping hers with the appropriate amount of creamer and sugar and glancing at Sunset in thought. The pink skinned woman decided it might be better if she took charge for the moment, with how Sunset was standing there, hands still fisted up against her chest. “Two scoops of sugar and a generous splash of creamer for you, right?” Once she got a jerky nod in assent, she finished preparing the teen’s drink and led the way to Velvet’s office.

Cadence settled her on the well worn, well-loved, much used little couch in small room, clicking on the desk lamp to bathe the space in soft golden light, snagging the soft blanket that Twily always liked to hug during their private chats, and tucking it around Sunset's shoulders. Her smile returned full force when Sunset turned her face immediately into the fabric and inhaled, relaxing a fraction. She pressed the mug of coffee into amber skinned hands and found a seat on the other end of the couch. “Okay, before we start this talk, I want you to know that anything that gets shared here stays between you and me, unless you choose to share it with someone else. The only exception I make for that is if I believe you or someone else is in danger of coming to actual physical harm, but if that happens, I’ll tell you that, and tell you who I believe we need to tell—and why.” Wrapping her hands around her coffee mug and taking comfort in the heat seeping into her palms, Cadence watched Sunset closely. “This is the exact same rule I have when I talk to Twilight. Is that okay with you?”

"...that’s fine... It's not something I want Twilight to…find out about…not right now..." Sunset shook her head, sending sleep-tangled curls this way and that. “…but I don't want anyone to get hurt,” she whispered, almost too soft to hear. “Especially Twilight.”

The woman still heard it, but for the moment she let Sunset talk at her own pace, in her own fashion, listening patiently rather than asking too many leading questions or making any kind of demand. Someone like Sunset, who didn’t open up easily, with a rough past and a history of extreme self reliance couldn’t be pushed into opening up—that would only alienate her, drive her further into her own head. As it was, the way the teenager was talking, it sounded like something more than just a bad dream—Twilight was usually Sunset’s go-to for those, and the fact that she didn’t want to tell Twilight whatever was eating at her right now was fairly telling.

Fingers toyed with the coffee mug before Sunset took a tentative sip, her eyes a million miles away. “I feel like I’m losing control,” she said at last.

Blinking, Cadence watched Sunset for a minute. None of what she saw looked ‘out of control’ to her. In fact, other than seeming immediately exhausted and emotionally overwrought, Sunset looked healthier than ever, with six months of Velvet’s cooking having filled out her frame and a wardrobe that was no longer comprised mostly of worn, well patched and repaired things. She scanned restless arms, but saw no signs of track marks or bruises, and the hug had detected no scent of alcohol or smoke—just whatever faintly scented shampoo the girl used. “Sunset,” she asked carefully, “can you explain what you mean by that?”

Silence, as troubled, shadowed eyes stared into the coffee mug as if it held the secrets of the universe. "...It’s hard to explain," she admitted after a minute or two. "...I...I feel like I'm fighting myself, all the time. What...what my body is feeling, what I find myself wanting..." Sunset hesitated, hunching in on herself as if trying to seem even smaller. "...I want it so badly sometimes that it hurts, but I'm..." she broke off, as if registering that her babbling was making no sense whatsoever.

A few, slow deep breaths, and the redhead tried again, slower this time. "I want her. Twilight, I mean. Every day that goes by, I want her more. She's...one of the best things to happen to me since I came to this city..." A humorless chuckle. "...By the Sun, if I'm honest, she's the best thing to happen to me in my entire life. And I know that as much as I want her, she wants me too...but…what I want is all wrong! I almost—” Her voice cracked and the flow of words halted.

Never had she been quite so grateful that Lu had talked her into getting that degree in teen counseling on top of the journalism studies as she was in that moment. Cadence reached out a gentle hand and touched Sunset’s shoulder. “Sunset, I want you to stop and breathe a minute for me, okay? In and out, nice and slow, just like we make Twily do.”

Blue-green eyes shut, and the teenager did as she suggested, until the agitation bled off to a level where she was at least able to communicate. Cadence patted her shoulder before moving her hand back to her own personal space. “Better?”

“Yeah…sorry…”

She smiled. “You don't need to apologize, Sunset. It's obviously a subject that is very personal to you, and I’m flattered that you trust me enough to confide in me about it.” The she made a thoughtful sound. “Though I would like to ask for a little clarification on what it is you are ‘wanting,’ and the situation with you and Twilight before we get into why it’s creating these feelings for you?” She gave a soft chuckle. “I want to make sure I’m not misunderstanding and offering bad advice based on a false premise. Can we do that?”

Sunset nodded, setting her coffee mug on the low coffee table. “…sex. I…Want…Twilight physically…but you…know about that part.” Her hands fisted and twitched in her lap now that she wasn’t holding a scalding hot beverage. “But…last night…I realized…it's more than just the physical…I had her…under me….and I liked it…which was…we talked…because I don't want to hurt her, and it was like how I first saw her, and I didn’t want to make her feel like they did…but she said it was okay…because she trusts me….”

Her voice filled with painful anguish. “She trusts me, and she shouldn’t….I feel like I’m at war inside, with wanting to do things to her…” Horrified eyes full of self loathing looked up at Cadence. “I had a dream. I've had them before…but not like this. It was…I was like the old me…exerting power over her…but with…sex…instead of bullying…and when I woke up…I wanted to do it all while I was awake. Just wake her up and…do what I was imagining…and it took everything I had to stop and get away before I hurt her.”

She watched as the redhead curled in on herself, rubbing at her eyes with the back of one still fisted hand, looking for all the world as if she was expecting condemnation and judgment. There was a part of her that wondered, not for the first time, if wherever Sunset had lived, before being tossed out on her own, had been an environment where sexuality and sex where considered shameful, or at least forbidden to discuss openly, because it was starting to feel like Sunset had been taught the basic mechanics and little else—things she could have easily read in a textbook or off the internet.

Cadence kept her voice very calm, and not for the first time when faced with someone in the throes of an emotional breakdown, wished she could manage Luna's cool, professional, yet caring tones that seemed to work wonders with teens of all backgrounds. "Focus on breathing again for me, Sunset. It's okay...you are safe here. I'm not going to judge or condemn you for things you did in the past.” Pausing, while she waited for the teen to look less distraught, "Alright...I'm wondering just how much do you know about how sex and intimacy can work between two consenting individuals? Has anyone—besides me or Twilight—ever talked to you about sex, or let you ask questions?"

Those eyes went wide and Sunset turned red, though whether it was embarrassment or shame, Cadence wasn't entirely certain. “…that’s complicated,” she mumbled. “…it’s different here from back…home.” The hesitation was slight, but telling. “I…know how things work. I read the biology books, and I’m not ignorant of ‘where babies come from.’” She looked away. “…I forged a parental note to get out of sex ed—I had better things to do with my time than spend an entire month every year getting the same lecture about information that took ten minutes to read on my own…and since I never planned on letting anyone get that close to me, it…never felt worth looking more into it.” She grabbed her coffee and took a long, bracing sip. “…so not really. Just you and Sparky…”

The pink skinned woman mulled over the words, then asked, “Can you explain how it’s different here to where you were?” She searched for an example, then said, “For example, in some cultures, a girl wouldn't be told anything until her wedding night and the expectation is that she would refrain from engaging in any intimacy with anyone except her husband. Is it that kind of different?”

Sunset visibly shuddered. “Nothing like that, thank the stars.” Licking her lips, she fell quiet for several minutes. “It's…I talked about it before…it’s like everyone here is oversexed but repressed at the same time?” She sighed, the air escaping from her nose in a way that was almost a snort. “Here…people just…have sex for the sex, but then there's also people putting all these…restrictions on who or how or why, which just…it makes no sense.” One hand gripped her elbow. “I can't do that. It’s…it’s supposed to be about…trust…and feelings, and wanting to share all of yourself with somepo—somebody else.”

A small laugh escaped Cadence before she could stop it. “That is…an exceedingly accurate representation of sex as portrayed in mainstream media and to an extent, mainstream culture.” Sobering, she made a loose gesture with one hand. “I’m going to guess then, that most of your knowledge other than what Twily or I have told you is from that source?”

Another awkward shrug, Sunset’s face still slightly flushed. “…such as it is. Before Twilight….I never wanted to let anyone that close, so I mostly ignored anything to do with it. I…had a boyfriend last summer, but it was all part of my plans to control the school, so it…never went anywhere. I barely even kissed him unless it was for the social games—you know, ‘popular girl has cute boyfriend who everyone likes?’”

“I’m familiar,” Cadence responded dryly. “I imagine it also served to prevent unwanted attention from other boys?”

Sunset wrinkled her nose in disdain. “…which was the other reason for dating Flash. He respected boundaries, and I had to introduce fewer guys to my size nine and a half.”

Rolling her eyes, the pink skinned woman nodded. “That’s ‘guy code’ for you. A girl says no, and it means ‘keep trying’, but the instant they realize they are treading on another man’s ‘territory,’ they back off.” She huffed. “It can be infuriating.” It felt satisfying when Sunset laughed, and she shook her head. “However, I think we’re off topic here…”

The teen seemed more relaxed with the banter, which she counted as a win. It made the next bit go smoother. “To summarize, most of your knowledge on sex comes from mainstream media and textbooks, the latter of which is heavy on biology and light on anything more than ‘this is how babies happen, don't do it.’” At the nod of agreement, Cadence continued, “Now, if you’d like to learn more, I do have some materials I can loan you that focus more on the aspects of sexual and emotional intimacy…or I’m happy to answer any questions you want to ask.”

“…I like books,” Sunset said quietly. “…but...that…doesn’t help…with losing control…”

Cadence took a drink from her own mug before she addressed that. "To a certain extent, yes it will...because what you're feeling is completely normal, Sunset, just like I told you before. Sexual desires are a complicated thing, and every person has different things that triggers desire…but desire itself is a normal thing. It's not bad or wrong to feel desire, and doing so does not make you a bad person or some kind of twisted evil monster." She paused as she saw the girl whiten a little, and it hurt to realize she'd hit the nail on the head with her words. Sunset did see herself as a monster for having normal teenage desires.

It was official, she decided. If she ever met Sunset’s former guardian, that person was in for a world of hurt—forget the self defense moves from Shining. She’d raid Luna’s SCA weapons cache instead. Maybe shove a bardiche where the sun didn’t shine.

First though, she needed to focus on the teenager who sat nearby. “I will freely admit, being caught up in the moment with someone you care deeply for, when all the kisses and touches makes your heart race and it feels hard to breathe…desire at that moment can feel like you are losing control…because in a way you are. You’re letting go…and…like you said earlier…you're letting someone see the hidden parts of you. You’re trusting that they won't look at the things you hide away from the world and laugh or be disappointed. You’re letting them in. Letting them see things most people will never know…and that can definitely feel like you’re losing control of yourself and the situation, especially when you’re dealing with fear or shame about some of those aspects of your identity.” Her hand reached out to steady the shaking ones holding a coffee mug, her voice as soothing as she could make it. “But let me ask a very important question. When you woke up, let's say you had followed through with your desire from your dream…but when Twilight woke up she said, ‘Sunset, stop, I don't like that.’ What would you have done?”

“I…would have tried to stop. I promised her I’d never hurt her like that…” There was another of those distressed sounds from Sunset. “…but what if I couldn’t? If I really lost control?” Her voice grew even smaller. “Bad things happen when I lose control. I hurt po--people.”

Thinking about what Luna had told her about Sunset, about comments Twilight had made, and about what the adults had put together from Shining’s findings, Cadence was starting to get a better picture of Sunset, and it was heartbreaking. Even the girl’s own words were painting a painful picture of the kinds of things the girl would have to have been told to internalize an attitude like that. It wasn't ‘people get hurt,’ it was ‘I hurt people.’ “Sunset…” She chose her words carefully. “…while I believe you, like any person, have the capacity for terrible violence, the Sunset I’ve come to know, the person my Ladybug adores, is compassionate and considers other peoples’ feelings with an empathy and care beyond her years. No matter what people may have blamed you for in the past, you are a good person, deep down.” Cadence winked. “Twily is very vocal about that.”

Sunset sagged, discarding her cup again, this time to hug the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “Twilight’s got a weird bias,” she mumbled.

“Almost like you showed her the real you from the get go,” Cadence pointed out. “A bad person doesn't jump into a fight against physically stronger opponents and terrible odds for a complete stranger.” She scooted closer, and hugged Sunset around the shoulders. “You are more than you’ve been convinced you are, and we see that, even if you aren't ready to yet.”

Hands clutched at the blanket, but Sunset leaned into the hug for a minute. “…I’m trying…I want to be someone Twilight can be proud of. I want…I want to show her that being my friend wasn't a mistake.”

The woman shook her head. “She will never consider being your friend a mistake. You’ve changed her life—are changing her life, with every day that goes by.” Idly, she ran her fingers through Sunset’s hair, the same way she had done when Twilight was little, and the way Velvet had done for all of the children under her care over the years. “She talks about you all the time, you know. I haven't had a single conversation with her since you two met that hasn't involved her talking about you at some point.”

That got a tiny, lopsided little smile out of Sunset. “…nerd…” she murmured with affection. “…I can only imagine what she’s said.”

“Can't tell you. Big-sister confidentiality.” The grin on her face coaxed a stronger smile out of the teen. “The point is, you are being a little too harsh on yourself. I don't believe for a single second that if Twilight asked you to stop, that you wouldn't do everything in your power to do so.”

She considered something else that she had noticed. “…I'm also beginning to wonder if this loss of control is not the problem but a symptom.”

Sunset’s full attention was on her now, and she pulled out of the hug to turn towards Cadence more fully. “What do you mean?”

She answered with another question. “When you ‘control’ your emotions, what do you do?”

Brows furrowed. “It's like fire…under my skin…wanting to burn out and explode…so I…pull it in, and…” she made an obscure gesture with her hands, “…I push it down deeper, so it doesn't explode…deep, like into my bones…wrap myself around it until it stops trying to get out. Eventually, I can calm down and it stops.”

Just as she thought. “Do you ever take the emotion out to figure out why you felt that way?”

“Um…sometimes? If I’m alone I can do that…but it’s not usually too complicated….” Sunset grimaced. “It's pretty easy to figure out what made me angry.”

Sighing, Cadence thought for a minute about how best to explain it. “I…think that might be part of the problem. You are suppressing your emotions, and then never working through them. Is it safe to assume you do the same ‘squish it down until it stops’ technique with your recent desires for Twilight?” At the slow nod, Cadence tapped her fingers on her knees. “That's…not exactly healthy, Sunset. Containing volatile emotions in the moment to keep them from getting away from you is a reasonable response, but you still need to deal with them eventually. Otherwise they build up until you can't contain them any more and they have nowhere to go but out.”

The teenager looked away, staring at the wall. “I’ve been trying to be better about stuff like that. It's why I asked for space last week. I had to fix all the stuff that got stirred up in my head.” She chewed absently on a thumbnail. “…it…helped…some.”

Cadence could work with that. “Alright…so let's look at your desires for Twilight. You said it's a mutual desire for physical intimacy between the two of you?”

Sunset’s cheeks turned red. “…yeah. We talked a bit last night…but I’m…not ready…there's just so much about it…about me…about what it means. I want to, so bad it hurts sometimes…” Her voice was shaky and she wouldn’t look at Cadence, shoulders slumped like the weight of the world rested on them. “…but it means things I don't know if I…”

She had that million mile stare again, and Cadence wondered briefly if she was even aware entirely of what she was saying. “It means this thing between her and I is more than I ever thought it could be...it means I want this, want her, maybe forever...” she paused, and when she spoke again, it was words voiced so softly they were almost inaudible. “It means telling her everything about me, including all the things I’ve been avoiding…It means never going home again...”

The pain in that whisper was almost tangible, and Cadence’s heart twisted in empathy for the redheaded girl seated beside her. While it wasn’t the first time—nor would it likely bet the last—that she heard that kind of pain from someone, they usually weren’t someone she was as close to as she had become to Sunset Shimmer, who in many ways she was coming to think of in the same ways thought about Twilight: as a younger sister with whom she could share sisterly laughter and secrets with, someone whose successes and joys she could celebrate, whose sorrows and suffering she could help alleviate with hugs and copious amounts of ice cream and chocolate. There was little that she could offer in this matter though, beyond pulling her into a tight hug. “Oh, Sunset…I wish there was a magic way to make this better, I really do, because I’m guessing that wherever your home before this was, it is not in a place where you can be open about your relationship with Twilight.”

When the body in her arms stiffened, she hastened to reassure Sunset that her privacy was still respected. “You don’t have to tell me where, or any of the details as to why. I just want you to remember what we said at Christmas and last night. You have a home here, with this family, with Twilight and her parents and Shining and me too, for as long as you want it. I know it doesn’t undo the past or change it, but I hope that it does help…and for what it's worth, that part of your life and your past won’t always be as bad as it feels right now.”

Sunset made a sound like she was choking on a laugh. “No...no...I couldn’t take Sparky there...that would end in a huge disaster, for so many reasons.” She let out a breath. “...and knowing I’m welcome here...it doesn’t solve the problem. I don’t want to make a choice—it’s...No matter what choice I make, I lose…and I feel like I’m running out of time.”

Cadence tilted her head, feeling a little confused, "Why do you feel that way?”

Blue-green eyes finally looked back and met Cadence's gaze, tired and strained by far more than just the current topic. "...I...I'm not good with temptation," she admitted at last. "...I’m fighting with myself every time I’m with her to not just…go through with it and take it that far…and on top of that...there are things I...things I need to tell Twilight that I've been putting off, because I'm not ready, because like I said, then it's real..." It wasn't much of an answer, and it was abundantly clear that Sunset was avoiding disclosing something at the core of the whole knotted up mess.

Once again, Cadence had to consider her approach, not wanting to destroy the rapport that had formed during the conversation by pushing too hard about what Sunset was going out of her way not to share. “Maybe we can look at this from a different angle? What’s the worst possible outcome that you believe could happen, if you were to give into temptation?”

The redheaded girl stopped, her expression twisting up with contemplation as she genuinely considered the question. “...besides sex?”

Cadence nodded encouragingly. "Yes, besides the fact that you would have engaged in some kind of sexual intimacy. What are the possible bad things that doing this could cause?" She laughed softly. “I know it might seem a little strange, but sometimes verbalizing what has you tied up in knots can help you see it from another angle. Do you think you can try that for me?"

“I can try...” Sunset’s brow furrowed in thought. “It...it would mean that I’ve made my choice, even if I didn't actively make the choice. It would mean that I...have to tell her the...things I’ve been avoiding talking about, because she...she would deserve to know about it. It would mean...coming clean to her about all of my past, about everything, even the stuff I’ve only touched on before.” Despite the curiously detached manner in which she spoke, Sunset Shimmer was trembling all over, minute muscle twitches that made her seem about ready to bolt.

One hand started to rub slow, soothing circles on Sunset’s back, as Cadence mulled over the response. “…Okay, so for you, having sex means that you’ve chosen Twily over the past, and that you feel you’ll need to be completely honest with her about that past. I can’t see anything there to really disagree with—honesty and communication with your partner are two of the fundamental foundations of any healthy relationship.” Voice still gentle, she continued after giving that a minute to sink in, “It seems like something about doing that is extremely terrifying for you, Sunset. Do you think you can explain to me why it frightens you, what about it is so upsetting?”

"....Because it could change everything. Because it could cost me everything. I...I don't know if Sparky will still want me once she knows the truth of who I am....and if...if that happens after everything, after I've gone that far...made that choice..." There was something broken in that hanging thought, something full of fear and the potential for despair.

She tilted the redhead’s face up to look at her. “Sunset, I've known Twily since she was born, and I am very confident that she would never, ever do something like that to you.” Cadence tried to inject a little levity into the situation, "Even if you were to turn out to secretly be a princess in disguise, Sunset, on the run from movie-style bad guys and shady government agencies... I promise, it wouldn't change you being important to this family, or how much we all love you. Especially Twilight.”

There was a biting harshness to clipped words. “I’m no princess. I’ve proven more than once that I will never deserve a title like that.” Sunset picked up her coffee mug, drinking deeply. “…but how can you be so sure it won't ruin everything?”

It was time to put some cards on the table. “…because…I know how you feel. I know what it's like to be afraid that you're going to lose a friendship because of the complicated mess that sex and secrets creates.”

Sunset looked at her oddly. “I was under the impression you and Shining have been together longer than Twilight’s been alive.”

“I’m not talking about Shining.”

The silence in the room was so total that it was almost oppressive. She forced herself to clear her throat and explain. “I…felt that way once about my best friend…afraid that one night of lost control and confessed secrets was going to mean I would no longer have her in my life.” Cadence smiled faintly at the memories that she now looked back on with amused fondness. “But…like your friendship with Twilight, it was made of stronger stuff…and our desire to remain friends was stronger than anything that could tear us apart—it was certainly stronger than a six pack of cheap beer and some brownies laced with more than just chocolate chips.”

Cadence could tell she had Sunset’s attention now. “Think honestly about your friendship with Twilight, Sunset. Would you turn her away if she told you some deep dark secret about herself?”

“No!” Sunset’s response was immediate and intense, like the very thought was offensive.

She tilted her head curiously. “…then do you honestly believe she would do it to you?”

Silence, but this time it was a thoughtful, contemplative one. “You can't let yourself be ruled by fear, Sunset,” she encouraged. “If you let fear get a hold of you, it will take your ability to choose away from you. Have a little faith in the people in your life. We love you for who you are, and I can't see any revelation changing that." She nudged her playfully. "It’s obvious to all of us that Twilight is totally and completely head over heels for you, and we couldn't be happier about that. You're family, no matter what you do or say, because that’s what family means—no matter what kind it is, real love is unconditional, and it persists, even when things are at their worst."

They sat quietly for a long time, Cadence allowing Sunset the chance to think things through. It gave her a chance to finish her coffee, and feel a great deal more awake than she had been. It was interesting to watch the emotions playing across the girl’s face, cycling from worried to afraid to angry, before finally settling on something Cadence would call ‘determined.’ “You’re right…” she admitted. “I’ve been…letting fear rule me…” Blue-green eyes meet Cadence’s. “Thanks…for listening…and helping me.”

“Do you feel any better?”

The teenager shrugged loosely, but it was missing the coiled tension from before. “…better than I did. I still need to do some thinking about…what I want…and I still don't feel ready…but…I’m not an emotional wreck anymore, at least?”

Cadence reached out to brush some of the tousled curls from Sunset's face, "You'll be ready when you're ready, Sunset, and I promise, you’ll know when that is. You won’t need anyone to help you there, so try not to let it get to you too much. I'm really glad though, that you felt comfortable enough to come to me with this." She held her arms out, letting the girl choose whether or not to initiate a hug this time, "And I meant what I said before, I'm proud of you for seeking help."

The teenager did hug her, though it was much shorter than one Twilight might've given her. "...Um...I did have something else I wanted to ask. You can say no, and I won't be upset...but...I've been organizing a park beautification project for next weekend with a friend. We're going to try and clean up in the park, and we've gotten permission to install some new animal feeders. Is...there any way you'd be willing to mention it on the radio or something--we’ve been advertising around school and to neighborhoods where people from school live, but…it's a big project that could really use as many volunteers as we can get to help out."

The pink skinned woman beamed, "Oh, what a wonderful idea! Of course I can! You write down the details, and I'll make sure word gets out. Do volunteers need to bring anything with them, or does your group have supplies organized already?"

"I'll get you the details before I leave today. And...we have all the basics—we’ve gotten a ton of donations and a bunch of local businesses have chipped in with supplies. They just need to wear old clothes that they don't care if they get messed up or dirty.” Sunset smiled. "...one of our groups will be repainting park benches, and others will be picking up trash or hanging animal feeders and bird houses.”

Cadence laughed and ruffled Sunset's hair, "That's why I know nothing can change you being part of us. No one who can care about the little things like that could have done something all that terrible in the past." She hopped up, and offered the girl a hand, "Anyway, I feel an urge to make pancakes for breakfast. Want to come help me, then you can surprise Twily with breakfast in bed for the two of you? How does that sound?"

Sunset made a strange sound. "...that...sounds wonderful," she answered. "...when I was little...that's what..." she halted awkwardly, then forged ahead. "...my mom would make...I've never managed to find pancakes as good, anywhere...but maybe these'll be close?"

It was small, but it was progress, and Cadence would take it. "We can give it a go, and even if it's not quite the same, I'm sure pancakes eaten with Twily will have their own sweetness." With an exaggerated wink, she led the way back to the kitchen.

Once again, Cady is proving to be one of the MVPs of the story.

Sunset's comment about humans being "oversexed and horribly repressed" is a nod to a story I read once where she referred to humans as "the horniest prudes in the multiverse." Its also not wrong.

This is once again, a point of odd frustration for her, because so many social, biological, cultural, and historical factors play into the human view of sex and intimacy. Factors that are either completely different, or completely lacking in Equestria or for ponies in specific. But its something she lacks the real understanding and words to voice and explain, because its very hard for the average person to be aware of the part of their culture that is acquired by cultural osmosis simply by being raised in a culture. Most of the time, its only when cultures come into contact that we become aware of the clash, and even then, we tend to see the OTHER cultures as "weird" or "strange" or "different" and our own as "normal." Its only when you do lots of deep thinking, or are someone who studies things like the evolution of culture and societies that you become aware and able to articulate it, or gain the ability to step outside yourself to look at it. And culture is so ingrained in us that we even project it into fantasies and fiction. (Look at how many times people have tried to use fictional stories in alien settings as allegories to things like real-world bigotry...or how fantasy creatures are often defined by "planet of Hats" thing that makes them different from the audience.

sorry....rambling. Allergies (or a cold, survey still out on which it is) are kicking my ass this week, and my brain is made of tapioca. Big words hard.

...yes, Cadence did let something slip there. Its been hinted at a few times before, but so far no one had twigged to it. *smirk* And as I say this, I chuckle because now I know some of you are going to go back and look for those hints.

Bruhahahaha.

Also, someone in one of the last few chapters made reference to Sunset talking to Cadence. You guessed right. Enjoy your cookie.