Rules of Hospitality

I knocked lightly on the door in front of me and nervously waited to be called in.

It wasn’t that I disliked Adagio at all.

The once-leader of the Dazzlings was always polite, refined, and really quite nice. That she could snap me in half by main force notwithstanding, I admired her. She was the textbook empowered woman, really; strong, confident, intelligent, and beautiful, and someone who had made her way in the world by a combination of business savvy and political acumen to rival the more dug in competitors in her business.

Honestly, it’s just that she intimidates the sprinkles out of me.

“Come in,” Adagio’s voice was as strong and mellifluous as ever, and I pushed the door labeled: General Manager, open.

The room was an orderly kind of chaos, with multiple suitcases gathered up here and there, and all manner of clothes and accessories strewn about.

Adagio was by the bed folding clothes into a neat pile and setting them into an open suitcase, one of several.

“Good morning, Miss Sparkle,” Adagio said without looking up.

“G-Good morning,” I replied, feeling a little out of place.

As ever, Adagio was a powerful presence. She was dressed in a simple gray business skirt, dark blouse, and a jacket and somehow managed to make the drab and ordinary outfit look menacing.

It didn’t help matters, also, that I had no idea why I was here. Sonata had just told me last night that her sister wanted to speak to me, and that it wasn’t a big deal but if I could come down soon she’d appreciate it.

Not a big deal… right.

“I don’t suppose my sister explained anything?” Adagio said, finally looking up as she folded the last article of clothing and set it aside.

“Does it have anything to do with all the refurbishing going on?” I ventured, figuring it was a good enough guess. “I saw a lot of rewiring and some construction crews doing measurements.”

“It does, in point of fact,” Adagio nodded as she fixed those intensely bright eyes on me. “Miss Sparkle, tell me, how experienced are you with circuitry and hardware?”

“Oh, uhm, pretty experienced, actually,” I said, feeling a little more comfortable on the topic of something I was interested in. “I’ve built all my own computers, and most of my more advanced equipment, myself… I’ve had to fine tune it all by hand, too, especially back when I was trying to track thaumic output signals.”

Not my finest moment, but whatever.

“Excellent, then with those credentials and your sterling reference, I’d like to offer you a job,” Adagio said as she came out from around her bed to tower over me, and I felt my voice catch in my throat for a moment.

“A… a job?” I squeaked. “B-but I’m still in college!”

“I’m not a fool, Miss Sparkle, I did my research on you,” Adagio replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. “We both know you could likely test out of better than half your classes if you wanted to, you’re already beyond most of your professors if I have any eye for talent… which I do.”

“Would you stop domineering the girl, my love,” a softer voice came from the bathroom, and a woman stepped out wearing a similar outfit who was every bit as regal as Adagio, but significantly less frightening. “You’ve terrified the poor thing.”

She wasn’t exactly tall, maybe Sonata’s height or a little more, and she had a soft gray complexion, hair like ink, and warm mulberry eyes. She was fit, but in a comfortable, human way that spoke more of someone who liked to stay healthy rather than someone who wanted to get ‘yoked’.

“My name is Octavia,” she said with a smile, holding out her hand to me, “Octavia Melody… I believe we’ve met before, haven't we?”

“Twilight Sparkle, and yeah… Canterlot High,” I said with a nod. “I transferred from Crystal Prep during senior year.”

“The Friendship Games, I thought so,” Octavia said, snapping her fingers, and I winced. She gave me a guilty smile. “Apologies, dear, I didn’t mean to bring up a bad memory.”

“Apology accepted, I guess,” I said sheepishly.

“And further apologies for my brute of a girlfriend,” Octavia gave Adagio a playful nudge. “She’s rather used to employing heavy-handed tactics and sometimes forgets to ask nicely.”

She said the last words as she cast a pointed look at Adagio, who flushed and rolled her eyes.

“Yes, of course,” Adagio replied blithely, “thank my love, my dearest, and light of my life, for dressing me down in front of my potential new employee.”

“Oh hush, I’ll really dress you down later,” Octavia prodded a blushing Adagio on the nose before leaning in to peck a kiss on her lips. “Besides, if she’s going to be working with us then you want her to like you, not fear you.”

“Fear is a perfectly adequate motivating factor, my Melody,” Adagio riposted, wrinkling her nose in a manner that oddly reminded me of Sonata. “I’ve made excellent use of it in my time.”

“Well, personally I’d rather you be loved, not feared. dear,” Octavia replied as she moved past Adagio to pack a few toiletries.

I watched in faint amusement, much of my earlier fear dissipated by the exchange between the two women. I’d never had the opportunity to really get to know Octavia but I found myself really looking forward to it, the way she handled Adagio like that gave me a newfound respect for the woman.

That and there was something charming about how much Adagio put up with from her. They obviously loved each other a great deal.

“So… what would you want me to do?” I said, finally breaking my silence, and Adagio turned to me with that familiarly raised eyebrow. “Working for you I mean… what would my job be?”

Octavia gave Adagio a victorious smirk, and Adagio rolled her eyes again.

“She’ll be intolerable after this, you know,” Adagio muttered, shooting me a glance, before rolling her shoulders and turning back to me fully. “Miss Sparkle, I’m aware of your abilities, so I’ll be frank: my Lounge has come into an extremely lucrative contract recently, and Octavia and I are going to be away for several months cementing the deal,” she gestured around to the many suitcases. “During that time, I’ve contracted the Last Note to be expanded a great deal, and as a part of this I’m upgrading our security system.”

“That’s a tall order for a place this big,” I said, glancing around. “It’s not as bad as it might be with older buildings, but if you’re expanding then that’s a pretty massive undertaking.”

“Precisely,” Adagio agreed, “and as you might have noticed when it comes to my business I prefer to keep the higher end of the employment amongst trusted associates and family-”

“I think that’s called nepotism, darling,” Octavia called out from beside the bed, and I watched as Adagio’s eye twitched just slightly.

“-and as such,” Adagio continued as if Octavia hadn’t spoken, “the project of ensuring the security of both my home and my livelihood is not something I trust to an outside contractor.”

“I… suppose I get that, yeah,” I nodded carefully. “So, uhm… why me?”

Adagio rolled her eyes. “Twilight, darling, your liaisons with my sister aren’t exactly subtle.”

I blushed heavily, but didn’t deny it.

“Sonata has never asked for a day off, and when I’ve offered them to her she’s always turned them down,” Adagio explained as she went about the room gathering more clothes to be folded and packed. “Now she asks for at least one day off a week, and don’t think I haven’t seen you sneaking in and out of her room, plus you’re here at the bar every other night at least.”

“That’s… fair,” I admitted quietly.

“Miss Sparkle,” Adagio said in a softer voice as she reached out and laid a hand gently on my shoulder, “understand that all I want for my sisters is their happiness, and you clearly make my baby sister very happy… enough so that she recommended you for this role, understand?”

By now my face was redder than I care to admit, but I nodded slowly as Adagio looked on in that strangely inhuman fashion. It was like being watched by a great, crocodilian predator that was at rest and basking in the sun.

“My sister trusts you implicitly,” Adagio continued. “That extends you a great deal of credit in my eyes, so I advise you not to waste it.” The look in her eyes softened a second later and she relaxed as Octavia came up behind her and put an arm around her waist. “And… I will be honest, a part of this is selfish,” Adagio said with a roll of her shoulders. “I mislike my sisters being unhappy, and this contract I’ve pulled us into will be very lucrative… and very time consuming.”

I felt a cold chill along my back.

“H-How time consuming?” I asked quietly.

“Whatever she likes to say, dear Sonata is not just a bartender,” Adagio replied with a smirk. “She keeps the books for the Lounge, making sure we stay solvent and above board, ensuring all of our payroll gets met, and everything else that has to do with the grit and numbers of the matter.”

“I see,” I swallowed hard as I nodded. “I guess, with this new contract, things are going to get pretty chaotic, financially speaking.”

“Things will be chaotic in a variety of regards,” Adagio agreed, “but yes, Sonata will be spending a great deal more time ensuring our money isn’t wasted and goes where it is needed, and that our employees are taken care of,” she sighed quietly as she put a hand over Octavia’s. “And I highly doubt she will have very many more days off in the coming several months to spend with you.”

“But if I’m working for you…” I returned to her original offer, and Adagio nodded.

“Sonata won’t abandon us, I know,” Adagio said, “but she will be miserable without you, and I would sooner head that off at the pass, as it were,” then she straightened and held out a hand to me. “So I would be very much obliged if you would accept my offer of employment, both for yours and Sonata’s sake, and because I truly do believe you’re the best person for the job.”

“If anything I might be overqualified,” I joked and, to my surprise, Adagio actually smiled.

“I’m glad you recognise a measure of your talent,” Adagio said with a smirk. “Now, I must be off in a few hours and there’s more packing yet to do… yes or no?”

“Uhm, before I agree, who will I be working with?” I asked with a touch of concern. “You said you had a programmer?”

Adagio gave a level look, then lowered her hand and sighed.

“I had hoped the rumors were untrue, but it seems I was wrong,” she said a touch bitterly. “Well, as they say, hope is the first step on the road to disappointment… I’ll be frank with you, Miss Sparkle, the programmer you’re working with is Sunset Shimmer.”

My heart plummeted.

“S-Sunset?” I felt that familiar sliver of ice in my chest. “She’s-”

“-Aria’s lover,” Adagio spoke over me. “I offered her the role both because I respect her personally and professionally, and because Aria would be even more of a disaster than usual without her.”

Sighing more heavily, Adagio closed her eyes, rubbed at her temples for a moment, then looked back up at me.

“I’ll be frank, I don’t know what has happened between the two of you, nor do I particularly care except where it impacts my life and the lives of my sisters,” her eyes narrowed dangerously at that before returning to schooled professionalism. “So I’m going to have the employment paperwork sent your way and I would very much appreciate your agreement to it. Tempest, my head of security, knows how to contact me however you decide, but if you can resolve whatever this matter is between Sunset and yourself, or can at least agree to work amicably, I would be… grateful.”

For several moments I stood frozen with indecision.

Sunset was the last person I wanted to talk to right now, and I certainly didn’t want to work with her. I still hadn’t spoken to my parents or Cadence in person since that disastrous dinner a couple of weeks ago.

We’d exchanged a few texts, they knew I was okay, but the conversations, if I could even call them that, were remarkably subdued.

The truth was that I wasn’t sure what to say to them.

‘I’m sorry’?

‘I forgive you’?

Sonata was right, I understood them now. My mother loved me and everything she did was in an attempt to be kind, she’d just been flailing. Maybe it was partially my fault for always seeing my mother as this perfectly put-together woman.

The idea that she’d been just as lost and confused as I was hadn’t ever really clicked.

Sunset was another beast entirely, though.

A phantom twinge crosses my face as I remembered the feeling of her knuckles cracking against my face.

“I’ll… I’ll try,” I said finally.

Adagio gave me an even look for a few moments before nodding.

“Alright,” she replied after a moment of consideration, “I suppose that’s all I can ask for.”

“Thank you for the opportunity, either way,” I said with a small bob of my head.

No sense in being impolite.

With that I turned and let myself out of Adagio’s room, and I made a few meters before a voice called out.

“Twilight.”

I turned to regard Octavia with a questioning look.

“Something awful happened, didn’t it?” She said quietly.

“I think so,” I replied, with a shrug. “I’m just… kind of lost right now, I guess.”

“I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say Sunset did something, yes?” The dark haired young woman said with a sad smile.

It was hard to remember that she and I were very nearly the same age. She seemed so much more mature than me.

“Why would you think that?” I ventured carefully.

“Because,” Octavia said, her smile fading slightly, “Sunset has many positive qualities, but she’s also vengeful, rash, and… a little petty. She always has been.”

“A month or two ago I would have gotten really mad at you calling Sunset petty,” I said, a hollow opening in my stomach as I made the admission. “Now… I’m not sure I want her back in my life.”

“That’s your call,” Octavia replied, stepping forward and taking my hand. “But think of Sonata too… you don’t have to take Sunset back to work with her professionally…” as she said that she looked away and scowled. “But perhaps that’s just me, I certainly put up with more than my share of poor working relationships.”

“Maybe,” I allowed. “I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you,” Octavia said quietly. “Adagio does want you here, by the way, I know her.”

I gave another short nod and turned to leave. I liked Octavia, and I wanted this job, not only because it was excellent work in a field that I enjoyed and would keep me close to Sonata, but because I genuinely liked most of the other employees I’d met.

Even Aria had her positives when she wasn’t being a complete bitch.

Sunset was the real wrench in the gears though.

I made my way further down the hall to Sonata’s room. It was early, at least by the standards of the Lounge, at just a little past ten in the morning, and Sonata had still be dead to the world when I’d gotten up and gotten dressed to speak to Adagio.

Slipping into our now shared room I walked over to the bed where, per usual, Sonata was cocooned up in a burrito of blankets and sheets snoozing lightly. There was nothing regal or graceful about how she slept, really, and if I’m being honest she was kind of a mess.

Her hair was a chaotic halo of blue-tone strands set askew by her constant small movements, I’d learned the hard way that Sonata was a restless sleeper when she’d twitched in bed and headbutted the both of us awake.

I reached out to wake her up, just a gentle nudge, but stopped a couple of inches away with my hand hovering over her. She looked so peaceful while she was sleeping, and I couldn’t bring myself to disturb her.

Not like that anyway.

Well, screw it, I was homeless and on vacation for the next few days, I might as well enjoy the time off. I wasn’t someone who idled well in normal circumstances, but spending time with Sonata was never something I begrudged, so with that in mind, I stood up, kicked off my shoes and socks, stripped down, and burrowed under the covers.

It took a minute or two to navigate the tangle of sheets and blankets that made up Sonata’s cozy little cocoon, but I eventually made it in and after another moment was happily ensconced in the warm bedding and pressed up against Sonata just as she began to stir from the disturbance.

“Mm?” Sonata’s voice was a small, sleepy mumble of inquiry, and I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” I said quietly. “Just getting back into bed.”

“Mm… good,” Sonata grumbled quietly, making room for me and wrapped her arms around me as she did. “Missed you.”

“I was gone for like, less than two hours…” I chided playfully with a small laugh. “You were asleep the whole time, too.”

“Still don’t like it when you’re not close,” Sonata replied, her words were still thick with sleep as she nestled herself against my hair, petting me softly as she did. “I love you, Twi’...”

“I love you too, ‘Nata,” I said back, feeling a small bloom of warmth in my chest. “So, uhm… you knew what today was about, right?”

She sighed softly and was quiet for several minutes, and I started to think she’d gone back to sleep as her breathing came slow and quiet by my ears.

“Yeah,” Sonata replied in a small voice. “Are you mad?”

“No,” I told her, truthfully. “But… you knew about Sunset too, right?”

“I… y-yeah, I did,” Sonata admitted quietly.

“I’m kind of surprised you suggested I work here if you knew she was going to be here…” I began, curling up against Sonata as I did. “You were so mad at her at the hospital, it looked like you were really ready to hurt her.”

Sonata shivered, then hugged me tightly.

“I wanted to kill her, Twi’,” Sonata whispered gravely. “I wanted to… I really did… she hit you, Twi’... she hurt you, and I couldn’t…”

Sonata made a sound in the back of her throat like she was choking for a moment, then tensed and clung even more tightly to me, and I felt hot tears trickle against my bare skin.

“I hate it,” she continued in a cracked, raw voice. “Sirens are violent… especially when it comes to our… our mates, and that instinct is still there, in my heart… I wanted to kill her so bad, Twi’.”

“Then why do you want me to work with her?” I asked in disbelief. “If you want to-”

“I don’t want to, though!” Sonata cried. “I’m… I’m not my instincts, Twi’... I don’t don’t want to hurt Sunset, and… and I do… but I won’t, okay? I can’t, because if I did then Aria would have to-”

“-Aria would be in the same boat,” I filled in, feeling a hollow pit open in my stomach.

The thought of that was too tragic to bear. Sonata bringing any kind of harm to Sunset would mean that Aria would be forced to protect her. If Sonata really gave in and came at Sunset with the intent to kill her then Aria would have to deal with her little sister in the same way and…

“Or we could leave,” Sonata said in a voice so quiet I barely heard her, and my eyes widened as I registered her words.

“Leave?” I muttered. “Leave the Note?”

“If it means keeping you safe, and Aria safe, and Sunset safe… if that’s what I have to do,” Sonata let out a small sob before pulling away and stared down at me with tear-filled eyes and a weak, broken smile. “Would… you come with me? If I had to leave would you come with me?”

For a moment, I stared into her eyes and felt that same strange distance between her and I. Not emotionally but fundamentally… like I was looking into the eyes of something that was clearly inhuman. Her eyes were fever-bright and wide, and I think if it had been anyone else I might’ve been afraid.

Instead, I was just sad.

“I would,” I said finally, “I really don’t have much tying me here except my friends, and I can always keep in touch with them… and I don’t want to lose you.”

“I don’t think I’d live through losing you,” Sonata said softly as she started to relax her tensed body and curled back up against me.

“But you shouldn’t have to leave your sisters, ‘Nata,” I said firmly, pushing her away so I could look her eyes again. “This thing between Sunset and I needs to be put to rest for good… no matter the outcome.”

“If you and Sunset can’t be friends again, then what happens?” Sonata asked, resting her head against the mass of pillows and covers at our head and staring across them into my eyes. “What will you do?”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Maybe… maybe we’ll be able to have a working relationship? But maybe not… I hope so, though.”

“I’ll talk to Aria,” Sonata said softly. “I’ll figure out when you two can sit down and talk. Everything is so busy now, and I don’t want to make things harder for ‘Dagi.”

“That’s fair,” I replied, reaching up to lay my hand on her cheek. “And… no matter what, you and I will always be together, okay?”

Sonata sniffled a little and laid her hand over mine, smiling as she did.

“Promise?”

“Mhm,” I nodded, turning my hand over to link our pinkies together. “Cross my heart and hope to fly.”

“What?” Sonata said with a small, surprised laugh.

“Sorry,” I laughed a little along with her. “It was something from high school.”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly…” Sonata repeated quietly, then smiled again. “I like it!”

“You and Pinkie Pie should hang out some time,” I said, although a part of me was terrified at the idea of it.

Another part of morbidly curious.

Sonata shifted and moved around under the covers for a few minutes before sitting up and stretching. Her joints popped as she turned this way and that, I felt a little voyeuristic as I watched her, thoroughly enjoying myself as I did, though.

I can’t say that I find Sonata sexually attractive, obviously, but I do find her very pleasant to look at.

There’s almost nothing truly remarkable about Sonata, at least not physically speaking. She’s not like her sisters who can walk into a room and immediately take the spotlight, but there is a certain aura to her when you get close.

She’s lithe and limber, but lacks the svelte, seductive confidence and composure of Aria. In addition, Sonata certainly has her curves, but they’re far more modest than her bombshell of an older sister.

And yet…

Sonata turned to look at me with that strange brightness in her eyes, and I smiled up at her as the dim lights of her room framed her wild waterfall of smooth, blue-on-blue hair.

If I were to call any of the sisters truly unearthly it would be Sonata.

“I’m ready to tell you now,” Sonata said quietly, without turning to look back at me. “If you want, I mean…”

“Tell me what?” I asked curiously as I propped myself up on an elbow and reached out to take her hand.

“Remember our first date?” Sonata said, glancing over her bare shoulder with a faintly sad look in her eyes. “What Aria said about me?”

“O-Oh… yeah,” I shifted the covers around me and sat up before sidling over and draping myself over Sonata’s back, letting my chin come to rest on her shoulder. “I told you I don’t care, though… I mean, if it’s something you can’t talk about I don’t want to make you… the last thing I want is to hurt you, ‘Nata.”

“I know,” Sonata replied, leaning her head a little so our cheeks were pressed against one another. “But… I promised I’d tell you eventually, and it’s kind of been eating at me, that you know a little of the story but not the whole thing.”

“I guess I can understand that,” I replied, wrapping my arms around her slim waist and sighing contentedly as I enjoyed her presence. “I love you, ‘Nata.”

“We just said that, silly,” she replied playfully, wriggling in a little in my grip.

“And I’ve never had anyone to say it to like this,” I countered. “So I’ve got to make up for it somehow.”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” Sonata said with a touch of sarcasm to her voice.

“I am one hundred per cent sure that’s how it works,” I replied with another laugh as I laid a gentle kiss on her shoulder.

Sonata leaned back a little, relaxing into me for several moments, then turned and pressed her lips to my cheek in a warm, lingering kiss before starting to speak.

“It was my fault, y’know,” Sonata began slowly. “What happened to the Sirens? What happened to us? Everything was my fault.”

“That’s…” I started to refute her but I realised that probably wasn’t reasonable. Sonata knew what she was talking about better than I did, so instead I just asked: “Why?”

“Adagio knows what I told her, but Aria knows the truth,” Sonata said, her voice quiet as she pulled the blankets around us. “The Siren Empress, Concerta, and her inner circle, wanted more power… they wanted more territory, they even wanted the dry land.” Sonata grimaced and shivered. “She was so cruel, Twi’... you have no idea how horrible the Empress was, and I’m glad she’s gone, but…”

“It’s okay,” I pulled Sonata down until we were laying side by side. “I’m here, so… tell me what happened?”

Sonata nodded.

“There’s… two kinds of Siren magic, see?” Sonata started uneasily. “Adagio was a Sorceress, I was a Geometer… Geometers are like scientists, I guess, and the Siren Sorceresses were basically a priesthood,” Sonata turned over so she was laying on her back, and I moved until I was resting on her shoulder, and she wrapped an arm around me. “The Empress came to the Hall of Symbols one day and asked for the impossible… a way to consume power from a distance, a way to spread her song across swathes of land… the masters said it was crazy but… but I was dumb and young, and I said… I said: ‘no its not’ and that’s where it all went wrong.”

Tears trickled out from the corners of Sonata’s eyes.

“She convinced me to make a new rubric, and to me it was just a fun new challenge,” Sonata turned and pressed her forehead to mine. “I didn’t realise what I was doing until I told Ari’ about it and… and Aria told me that she and all the other Myrmidons were making ready for war!”

“She was making a superweapon,” I said in a tone of awe. “She was making a magical nuke.”

“I was making a magical nuke,” Sonata replied bitterly. “I’d treated it like a math problem or something, and I was just too silly and stupid to realise what it was for…” Sonata sniffled, and I suddenly had a small realisation as to our first fight over Emotion and Logic, and I realised where it had come from. “But it was too late, the other Geometers were already working on my plans, they knew how to finish it so it was only a matter of time!”

“What happened?” I pressed, and Sonata lowered her face.

“Aria told Adagio, she was the High Priestess of Nodens back then,” Sonata said softly. “Adagio’s priesthood were going to be involved in the big ritual to use the rubric I made to drain an entire coastal town as a test.” I blanched at that and Sonata looked ashamed for a moment, but continued. “So… so I lied to ‘Dagi and told her the spell wouldn’t work, that it couldn’t work… that there was too much power and it would explode and that the Empress wouldn’t listen to me!”

“What did Adagio do?” I felt consumed by the story and Sonata sighed quietly.

“She petitioned the Empress,” Sonata replied. “She tried to convince her the spell was too dangerous to use, but Concerta was insane… she was going to do it anyway,” Sonata chuckled bitterly. “They had a huge row over it, actually, ‘Dagi and the Empress, they used to be allies but after that, the Empress stripped ‘Dagi of her marks as high priestess and sent her back to the temples.”

“Adagio must have been furious,” I said with a wry chuckle, and Sonata nodded. “Why do you say what happened was your fault, though?”

“W-well, the High Priestess and Empress butting heads is a huge thing, see?” Sonata said, fidgeting nervously as she did. “It’s a spectacle, and everyone showed up to see the two of them have it out… even the Geometers.”

“Sonata… what did you…?”

“I snuck back into the Hall of Symbols and modified some of my equations that they hadn’t finished work on yet!” Sonata spoke quickly with the air of a confession, and my eyes widened. “It… it wasn’t that hard, y’know?” She gave a weak, cracked laugh and wiped at her eyes. “Transpose a variable here… alter the angle of a sigil there, and suddenly…”

“Suddenly the equations don’t math out,” I had a cold feeling in my chest as I imagined what would’ve happened if someone had done something like that in the middle of the Manehattan Project and shuddered. “Oh god… ‘Nata…”

“I couldn’t let them use it, Twi’,” Sonata sobbed, “I couldn’t let them hurt that many people! Ponies, Griffons, Minotaurs… everyone would’ve been hurt and it would’ve been my fault!”

I can’t even imagine having to make a choice like that.

“How did they not notice?” I asked quietly.

“Because they barely understood the equations in the first place,” Sonata replied bitterly. “They just plugged in numbers and, poof, instant energy coefficients!”

“They knew what the equations did but not how they worked,” I said and gave a hollow laugh. “I guess that’s the story of every tyrant who gets their hands on science.”

“I told Aria what I’d done,” Sonata continued wearily. “I told her what would happen when they used the ritual, and I told her to steal three of the heartstone rubies from the treasury she guarded,” Sonata was almost completely wrapped around me by now, and I could feel her shaking. “We brought them to ‘Dagi, and I told her that if she used the temple’s grand sigils there would be enough to empower the stones and we could survive and leave Coltlantis.”

“So she did it,” I put in, and Sonata nodded. “She jump-started the stones you three used to…”

“To hurt a lot of people,” Sonata cried. “I didn’t realise what they would do to us… how they would change us… how they would change my sisters!”

“And Coltlantis?”

Sonata sagged and rested her head against my shoulder.

“We fled in the night just as the Empress completed the ritual,” Sonata spoke in a small, dark voice. “The explosion wiped Coltatlantis and every other Siren in the city out in an instant… there might’ve been a few others outside the city who survived, but… I killed them all, Twi’,” Sonata pressed her forehead to mine. “Not even ‘Dagi knows what I did, but it’s my fault it happened. I made the spell, I made the stones, and I… I wiped out my own people, Twi’! We’re alone because of me.”

I suddenly understood why Sonata had been so terrified of me finding out what had happened, and why she had reacted so intensely back on the boardwalk to her sister referencing her ‘body count’. I had never really given it the kind of thought it probably warranted, but those three had likely been responsible for a lot of strife in their time, and that strife has probably led to a lot of pain and suffering.

A lot of death.

It also made more sense now why Sonata was so pacifistic for the most part. She played the part of the vacuous kid sister, never strove for anything beyond what contented her, and just… tried to live with herself.

‘I’m just a bartender,’ made a whole lot more sense now.

Adagio and Aria had caused pain and suffering on the scale of cities, they’d probably rocked the foundations of history a couple of times, too, given their age and their powers.

But… Sonata had committed genocide.

Literally.

And yet, it had been done to a race of legitimate monsters who had been on the cusp of ruining her entire world with their greed and power.

No… not just her world… Sunset’s world, too.

Sonata had sabotaged her own work, murdered her own race, and practically sacrificed her soul to save Sunset’s entire world and no one but Aria, and now I, knew about it.

God, no wonder Aria was wary of her baby sister. Not even Adagio knew the choices Sonata had made.

And she never would. No one would.

“Do you hate me?” Sonata asked in a tiny terrified voice. “I… did a bad thing, Twi’... I’m bad… but I didn’t have a choice! I… I couldn’t let-”

I silenced her with a kiss, and Sonata was suddenly pressed against me and clinging to me like I was the only thing solid in the world. I held on to her as best I could, as she cried and muttered soft ‘I love you’s’ to me, and I said them back to her.

Whatever she had done, whatever choices she had made, Sonata was mine, and no one was going to take her away from me. No one would ever hurt her again, I wouldn’t let them, and if anyone even tried to hurt a single hair on my beautiful Siren’s head they would-

I pulled back slowly from Sonata and stared into those gorgeous eyes of hers, realising I might, maybe, have something to talk to Sunset about.

“I love you so much, ‘Nata,” I said softly. “You’re so much better than me… than so many people…”

“But I-!” Sonata began, and I pressed a finger to her lips.

“You’re brave and smart,” I ran a finger over her lips and up along her cheek, brushing away a tear. “You’re incredible, you saved a whole world and it's killing you, but you keep trying… I can’t… I can’t even imagine.”

Sonata let out a tiny sob, one that turned into a rattling gasp, then a loud, drawn out cry of abject sorrow as she finally gave voice to the grief she’d been holding in for over a thousand years.

For hours she cried until her throat was raw and her eyes were red and dry of tears. For hours I held onto her as she grieved for her dead people and for her ruined city, stammering out words in a twisting, serpentine tongue, and somehow I knew she was begging their ghosts to forgive her.

For her whole life Sonata had only ever had her sisters, and she couldn’t let them see what she had done, and what her actions had done to her.

But here? With me?

She could finally, after millennia, give voice to her pain.

It certainly put my problems with Sunset into perspective.

Sonata had fallen asleep, exhausted after the emotionally harrowing rollercoaster we’d just ridden through. I didn’t blame her in the least, and laid there comfortably with her for another hour as she slept fitfully. Finally, she drifted into something more peaceful, though, and as soon as I was certain I could get up without waking her I did.

Sitting up in bed, I fetched my phone from the table, pulled on a bathrobe, and slipped into the bathroom. I stared down at the contact for several minutes, psyching myself up to do what I knew I had to do… what I ought to have done weeks ago, and finally just forced myself to hit the call button and lifted it to my ear.

It only rang once before the call connected.

//Twi’?// Sunset’s voice was smaller and more fragile than I was used to hearing. She always sounded so confident, but not today. //I’ll be honest, I… I wasn’t really expecting to hear from you for a while… or maybe ever.//

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, actually,” I replied, taking a seat on the toilet. “If it’s okay with you… can we maybe meet up and talk tomorrow?”

//Tomorrow?// I could hear the hope in Sunset’s voice and it gave me a little courage. //S-Sure, when and where?//

“The bar at the Lounge,” I replied, it was where I’d feel most comfortable. “I figure it’s easiest, no one will interrupt us, and ‘Nata will let us if it’s before the Last Note opens.”

//Okay… yeah,// Sunset sounded a little awkward, and even a little scared. //Twi’... I-//

“Don’t, Sunset,” I interrupted her, but gently. “Let’s… let’s save it for tomorrow, okay?”

//Oh, uhm, sure, yeah,// the disappointment was evident in her tone, but I couldn’t deal with everything right now. Not after the talk with Sonata, I just didn’t have the emotional energy to. //I’ll… I’ll talk to you tomorrow then?//

“Yeah, tomorrow,” I confirmed, “talk to you then.”

I lowered the phone and pressed the end call button.

My chest was getting tight, and I could feel my breath shortening. I really needed to see someone about these panic attacks of mine. I’d always had anxiety in one form or another and to a certain extent it had gotten worse after the Friendship Games, and I’d probably have ended up a horrifyingly neurotic mess if it weren’t for Sunset and the others being there for me.

I needed to end this.

I couldn’t live with this uncertainty hanging over my head between Sunset and I. I couldn’t keep running from it, either. Sonata hadn’t had a choice, she’d had no one to talk to, no one to confide in except for her eldest sister whom she couldn’t bear to tell, and Aria who knew and probably saw nothing wrong with it. I had the option of clearing the air, in one way or another, and not doing so just because I was afraid of something that would probably happen anyway if I let things fester was just…

Illogical.

I chuckled to myself a little as I tucked my phone away and sighed.

However it happened, I would clear the air between Sunset and I, whether we were still friends at the end of it all? Well, that would be up in the air until tomorrow, but at least I knew something would happen.

I would make sure of it.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly…” I muttered quietly.

Tomorrow came faster than I was comfortable with.

I relaxed through the prior evening at the bar with Sonata, not really drinking, just sitting at the bar and talking with Sonata when she had a moment free between bartending. She looked better than she had in awhile, moving with the fluid surety of her profession, and she was clearly far more comfortable behind the bar than anywhere else.

She would always take a few moments for me, though, and between customers she would come by and share a few words, or if it was really busy just reach out and give my hand a squeeze.

It was those small touches that helped keep her grounded, I think. A constant, physical reminder that I was still there, and that I would always be there for her.

God, I really fell into this love thing deep, didn’t I?

The next afternoon came quickly in part because I was starting to share Sonata’s sleep schedule. I couldn’t hardly sleep without having her nearby, so I’ve ended up staying up with her through her shift and going to bed when she did, which naturally led to us waking up around the noon or later mark.

Sitting up in bed, I slipped out from under the covers to the tune of a hum of discomfort from Sonata who was still snoozing a few inches away.

I pulled on some comfortable jeans, a loose shirt, then a sweater, got up… then thought better of it and turned back around to grab socks and shoes. I wasn’t really planning on going out but the floors out in the main hall were significantly colder.

“Come ba~ck,” a small whiny voice emitted from the bundle of covers that was Sonata. “It’s still early…”

“It’s almost one in the afternoon, ‘Nata,” I replied with a small laugh. “It’s no one’s definition of early.”

“It’s my definition of early,” Sonata said sullenly, poking her head out of the burrito of blankets she’d made for herself. “I’m still sleepy and I need you.”

I felt a blush color my cheeks.

“Any other day and that would work,” I said quietly. “But… I promised to talk to Sunset today, is it alright if we sit at the bar?”

In an instant Sonata was burrowing out of the covers with an excited look on her face, although her legs got tangled up near the end of her egress, sending her tumbling gracelessly to the floor in a naked tangle of sheets and muffled curses.

Popping up from the floor a moment later, Sonata dashed past me and into the bathroom, turned on the shower, then poked her head out of the door and nodded for me.

“C’mon! Your hair is a mess!”

I looked down at myself and sighed. “I just got dressed, ‘Nata, it’s fine!”

“It’s not!” She harrumphed back at me. “It’ll only take a minute.”

I sighed, well, it was her bar we were using so I couldn’t really act like a brat about this.

“Fine,” I grumbled, walking into the bathroom as I pulled my clothes off.

I’d gotten a great deal more comfortable with my body since I’d been with Sonata.

I slipped into the shower with her and turned to let her wash me, it was something we’d gotten into the habit of lately and I wasn’t complaining. There was something very… intimate about it. Something bonding that made me feel closer to Sonata afterward, and I had absolutely zero complaints about anything that made me feel close to Sonata.

“I’m really happy, Twi’,” Sonata said softly as she started washing my back. “I was really scared you weren’t gonna talk to her again.”

“Well, you were right about one thing,” I replied as I rolled my neck back and forth under the stream of warm water. “After everything we’ve been through together I owe her a conversation, at least.”

“I don’t know about owing her a conversation,” Sonata turned her hand to start washing my arm. “But… I think you owe yourself that, y’know?”

“What do you mean?” I glanced over my shoulder at her and she smiled at me, taking the opportunity to lean in, peck a kiss on my lips, and make me giggle as I elbowed her gently. “Seriously, though, ‘Nata.”

“You’ve been friends for years, Twi’,” Sonata’s voice was firm and concerned as she pulled back. “Like, literally almost a decade, right?”

“Almost, yeah,” I confirmed.

“If you just cut things off with Sunset? If you never talked to her again? I don’t think you’d be happy with that,” Sonata set the body sponge aside and stepped closer to wrap her arms around me and hug me from behind. “I don’t think you’d be able to really let it go like that, even if you thought you could at first, I think it would eat at you.”

I turned in place until we were facing each other and raised my arms to lay them across Sonata’s shoulders, wrapping myself around her and leaning up to kiss her softly.

“You’re probably right,” I admitted quietly, “as usual.”

I relaxed as Sonata ran her hands through my hair, slowly teasing out knots and tangles with her fingers before layering in some shampoo and working up a lather. I laid my head on her shoulder and held onto her as she carefully washed my hair, reveling in Sonata’s gentle touches, and sighing softly as she went through the lather-rinse-repeat cycle a few times before teasing the rest of the suds from my hair.

I had never been particularly comfortable with my body, and I’d certainly never pictured a time when I’d be comfortable being naked with someone else, but showering with Sonata was quickly becoming one of my favorite things. I’d rather shower with her than shower alone at this point, the closeness she had with me and the way she could make me relax even when I was nervous to the point of vibrating was sort of incredible to me.

“There… that’s better,” Sonata said cheerfully.

I stepped out of the shower and looked into the mirror, turning this way and that to admire the shiny locks of purple Sonata had left me with. My girlfriend followed a moment later, wrapping a towel around me first, then another around herself, before taking a third and laying it over my hair to start carefully drying it.

“What did I do to deserve you?” I asked, giving an appreciative hum as Sonata gently wrung the excess water from my hair.

“Probably way more than I did to deserve you,” Sonata said in a soft voice. “I…-”

I could feel her mood taking a turn for the maudlin, and I turned slightly to lean back and peck her on the cheek, interrupting her train of thought.

“Don’t be like that,” I said in quiet admonishment. “No one else has ever made me feel this wanted and… and this whole. I’m not 'settling' for you, ‘Nata, you’re everything I could have ever asked for in a partner, okay?”

Sonata let out a slow breath, nodded, and hugged me tight.

“Okay.”

I dried off and got dressed, this time paying a little bit more attention to my outfit which mostly meant letting Sonata dress me. I swear I’m not color-blind, I just have no real sense of color-coordination, if that makes any sense, which is a little annoying since I’m a polymath and I’ve studied the light spectrum extensively as it relates to physics!

Apparently that kind of thing doesn’t transfer over to fashion, though.

I held Sonata’s hand as we walked through the back halls and out into the VIP room, making our way through the empty areas where construction was already being started. The VIP room had been torn up a few days ago to install new wiring mounts and bases for the future expansion. The crew had been in earlier getting some more work done, and most likely they’d be coming back tomorrow.

The Lounge was still open but the VIP room was going to be closed until all the preparations were completed. Fortunately, Sonata had said it would likely not take more than a week, give or take a day or two.

In a month, though, once some of the finalizations on the contract had come through after Adagio’s meetings, the whole Lounge was set to shut down for a few weeks while it was renovated.

Sonata was thrilled that Adagio was finally adding in an extended bar. Apparently, Adagio had lost a bet of some kind.

We stepped out onto the main floor of the Lounge, and I leaned against Sonata as we made our way to the bar. She helped me move one table nearby, put in two chairs across from one another, then Sonata slipped quietly behind the bar itself, taking up her usual spot, and started prepping for the evening.

For my part, I just took a seat at the table and waited.

I wasn’t to wait long, as it turned out, because Sunset came out of the VIP room where we’d just emerged from less than ten minutes later. She rarely went back to the dorm room that we ostensibly shared anymore, preferring to share Aria’s bed.

Something about silk sheets.

“Morning,” Sunset said quietly, her voice strangely subdued as she sidled around the table and meekly pulled the lone remaining seat out to sit down.

Sunset wasn’t supposed to be quiet or meek, it wasn’t really in her nature, and I guess it spoke to how seriously she was taking what had happened between us that it was affecting her this severely. That being said, it was seriously unnerving how self-effacing she was acting.

We sat in awkward silence for several long seconds as Sunset looked up, down, around, and essentially everywhere but at me, until her gaze landed on Sonata and she furrowed her brow slightly.

“I, uhm, I thought it was just going to be us?” Sunset said after a moment. “Y’know… to talk about what happened?”

“It… it was, but…” now it was my turn to fidget nervously, “I just… feel better when Sonata’s around, y’know? Safer.”

I realised as the last word left my mouth that that was probably the wrong thing to say, because if she made me feel safe and I needed her here with me while I was talking to Sunset then, perforce, it would mean…

“I guess I deserve that,” Sunset said weakly, her attempt at a smile gone as she looked down at the table in dismay. “I… c-can I just start this off by saying how fucking sorry I am?”

The last few words cracked as tears spilled over onto her cheeks, and it was clear she’d been holding that in for a while. She wiped at her eyes several times before cursing under her breath and giving up on the effort.

“I don’t have any excuse, alright?” Sunset sobbed as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and it looked for a moment like that was all that was holding her up. “Quill, I don’t blame you for not feeling safe with me anymore after what I did…”

“I never really thought you’d ever hurt me, Sunset,” I said softly, and she let out another tiny, wracked sob, and I felt my throat close up with emotion. I choked the words out anyway, I needed to say them. “You’ve always been my best friend, even if I wasn’t yours… you were the one who understood me best, and I know I crossed a line, a big one, back in the dorm room-”

“No, I had no right to slap you like that,” Sunset spat. “Even if you did cross a line, even if I was in a really bad place, emotionally, I had no right!”

Sunset met my gaze and I saw nothing of the confident young woman I had always, maybe mistakenly, idolized. In its place I saw the woman I know now… no, that even back before all of this, that I knew was there. I saw a hot mess that was just as riddled with neuroses and anxieties as I was, even if they were slightly better hidden.

Okay… a lot better hidden.

“No, you didn’t,” I said finally, forcing the words out. “You… you didn’t have any right to hurt me.”

There was no forthcoming answer, Sunset was just nodding silently as she stared at her hands where they were folded on the tabletop.

“But,” I continued, “I… I didn’t have any right to say the things I said either, especially since they were wrong.”

I bit my lip as the words came out and violently shook my head.

“No, no, no, no.” I pounded my fist angrily on the table, making Sunset jump in surprise as I looked back up at her. “No, that’s not right, it doesn’t matter if I was right or wrong! I was angry and mean and cruel and it wasn’t just because I was afraid that Aria was hurting you!”

“It… wasn’t?” Sunset looked confused. “Why else would you have-”

“BECAUSE I LOVED YOU!” I had to shout to get the words out of my throat, and Sunset froze stock-still.

For years… literal years those words had been wrenched shut somewhere deep in my chest. For so long I had left those words unsaid, even when Sunset had asked me out I’d turned her down because I was terrified of destroying our friendship.

Because I was terrified she’d find out how broken I was inside.

“W-what?” Sunset stammered, looking bewildered.

“I’ve loved you for years, Sunset,” I bawled as I stared down at the table. I didn’t bother trying to keep the tears in, it would’ve been a wasted effort. “I’ve been in love with you for years, okay? And I knew it would never work because I’d never be what you needed and I hated myself for all those years because I was so… so…”

A drink clinked into place in front of me.

It was clear and fizzy in a thick, old-fashioned glass with three large cubes of ice resting against one another. I could smell lime and something sweet, like berries almost, and I reached out slowly to grasp the cool, chilled surface.

This was what I needed, because I knew Sonata and she knew me.

I lifted the drink to my lips and swallowed a gulp of the drink and felt-

-CALM-

-myself relax as the sweet, lime chill and fizzing liquid rolled down my throat in a soothing wave of quiet. It was like a cold, cold drink on a hot day. It was an evening breeze over my back and my face after a long, hard afternoon. It was cold and sweet and sour and the flavors danced on my tongue for a few moments before settling into a quiet whisper of calm in the back of my mind.

“Twi’?” Sunset said softly as I set the drink down.

I wiped at my eyes and smiled wanly at Sunset, sniffling a little as I did. My feelings for Sunset were no surprise to Sonata, I could tell as I glanced over at her. She was smiling that same small, enigmatic smile she was wearing the day I’d first sat at her bar.

You can’t hide those kinds of things from a Siren.

“It’s true,” I said finally, after taking a deep breath. “I really was in love with you, like… crazy, stupid in love with you.”

“B-But why?” Sunset asked, looking genuinely confused. “I… I asked you out and you told me-”

“-that I didn’t feel that way about you,” I finished. “Which was a lie… and a bad one, because I did… but I was ashamed.”

“We could’ve tried,” Sunset said softly.

“It would have been a disaster, Sunset, and we both know it,” I said with a slightly bitter laugh. “You’ve got a libido like a volcano and I’ve got… an iceberg.”

“A relationship is more than sex, Twi’,” Sunset said a little sullenly.

“I know,” I said and I honestly meant it for once. “I mean, I know now… to be honest I think I’d half convinced myself that wasn’t the case but… I do know.”

“Then why couldn’t we have tried?” Sunset pressed.

“Because a relationship is more than sex,” I repeated her words with a tired shrug, “but that doesn’t mean that for some people sex isn’t sort of a necessary part of it, y’know? I don’t want sex… but that doesn’t mean you wanting sex is wrong.” I sagged back in my chair and lifted the drink to my lips, taking another sip. “What you need out of a relationship includes sex, Sunset, and that’s just as important and valid as me not needing or wanting it.”

Sunset sat awkwardly across from me for several moments before holding up a finger to Sonata.

“Can I get an Old Hunter?” Sunset asked in a quiet voice.

Smiling, Sonata set out a rocks glass and dropped a single large cube of ice into it. As the cube clinked into place in the middle of the glass she raised a bottle of fine rye whisky and another that looked like a wine bottle and had the image of an old Roaman statue of a woman gripping the neck of a wild goat.

She tipped both, slow pouring them in a short measure over the ice cube before pulling back, stowing the bottles, and then pulling out a small container of honey, scooping out a portion with a thin spoon, and drizzling it over the ice cube and all along the bottom of the glass where it would dissolve into the alcohol before dipping the spoon quickly into the glass, giving it a few sharp turns that sent the cube spinning in place, before pulling it free and slipping the spoon into the sink.

“Order up,” Sonata said softly as she walked over to the table, lifted the glass to her lips, then lowered it to the table in front of Sunset.

I wondered briefly what it was that Sunset would feel. What was it that Sunset was lacking that Sonata knew she needed?

Sunset lifted the drink and took a slow sip, and her eyes closed slowly while she took a deep breath. There was a faint redness to her cheeks, and I watched as sweat broke out on her brow and she smiled.

“Good,” Sunset said in a slightly raw voice as a few tears trickled down and traced new lines down her cheeks. “It’s… it’s really good.”

“I was worried about you,” I said quietly as we both sipped at our drinks. “With Aria, I mean, but I think deep down I knew that wasn’t why I lost it on you that night.”

“So what was the real reason?” Sunset asked, glancing up at me over the rim over her glass. “Seriously, Aria isn’t exactly the first girl I’ve dated.”

“No, she isn’t,” I allowed, then grimaced as I came to the point of my real shame. “But she’s the one that I was afraid might actually be able to keep you for good.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow, a habit I realised she was probably picking up from Aria, and I laughed dryly.

“When you were with Rainbow we all pretty much knew it was going to blow up,” I said with a small shrug, and for a moment Sunset looked a little put out before frowning, then nodding. “And we also knew neither of you would take it from us that that’s what would happen, we just tried to keep you two from killing each other.”

“So far so good,” Sunset said with an acerbic chuckle. “And you’re right… we wouldn’t have listened.”

“I know,” I replied. “Just like I knew you two wouldn’t last, and the same went with your other girlfriends… I knew that… that none of them could take you away from me.”

“Twi’…” Sunset said in a plaintive voice. “No one could-”

“I know!” I snapped, backing Sunset up a few inches, and I blew out a breath and took another drink. “I… I know… but I was jealous, and angry, and I hated myself for feeling like I wouldn’t ever be able to be with you because I was broken.”

“You’re not broken,” Sunset said quietly, and I nodded.

“You say that,” I shook my head and sighed, “but hearing it and believing it are two different things… and Sonata? Sonata made me believe it.”

“I’m glad,” Sunset said, with what might’ve been the first real smile of our conversation. “Does she make you happy?”

“More than I think I’ve ever been in my life,” I replied with a smile of my own.

“That’s all I ever wanted, Twi’,” Sunset said with a small sigh. “And… I fucked it up pretty bad, huh?”

“I wasn’t much better,” I said a touch angrily.

“But you never hit me,” Sunset said, her voice tight with anger. “I… I lost it, Twi’… the moment Aria told me you’d laid a hand on her I just saw red… and all I could think about was making sure no one ever touched Aria like that ever again…” She shuddered, and I saw her knuckles go white as she gripped the old glass. “I wasn’t even thinking about hurting you or… or anything like that! I just… when I saw you there I just felt this horrible, awful, twisting rage bubble up and the next thing I knew you were on the ground and I was yelling at you!”

“Y-You weren’t really yelling per se,” I correct weakly. “More like… threatening me with defenestration sans the window.”

“I spent days in a fuming rage at you,” Sunset said grimly as she raised her drink and finished it off. “Because… because I was so fucking ashamed of myself that if I didn’t stay mad I thought I might die of it, Twi’.”

Several moments more of silence passed, and I finished my drink trying to find a way to reach out to her. To reach the Sunset I knew was in there. I still wasn’t sure where we were going to end up, whether as friends or just… just as people who used to be close.

“Y’know what I always felt the worst about?” I said, realising something both important and unpleasant.

“What?” Sunset asked sullenly as she stared down at her empty glass.

I could see her contemplating asking for another.

“Every time you broke up with one of your girlfriends,” I began, feeling my stomach twist at the admission I was about to make, “or had a one night stand that I knew you were hoping would end up as more and didn’t… every time that stuff happened… I was happy.”

Sunset blinked in surprise and stared at me.

“Disgusting, right?” I asked with a small, bitter laugh. “I cheered you up and hugged you, and we watched old movies, and we’d talk, and all the while I was doing a dance in my head because… because you were still mine.”

“That’s kinda fucked up, Twi’,” Sunset said with a wry, quirked smile.

“Tell me about it,” I laughed, more easily this time. “God, between that and taking out my frustration on Aria? I’m… I’m so sorry… even if she did kick my ass, I was still such a bitch…” Sunset and I both shared a bitter chuckle at that one, but there wasn’t much real humor in it.

I sighed quietly and leaned back in my chair as I stared down at the table.

“Even if you never knew it,” I continued in a subdued voice, “I was still a bitch.”

“I guess… but you always tried to do right by me, and you never… never did what I did, so I guess all I can ask is ‘now what?’,” Sunset looked up at me without raising her head. “Are we…? I mean… what are we now?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “You… scared me really badly, Sunset… I’ve never been hit like that before… not by someone I-”

“I know,” Sunset said softly. “I know.”

“I w-want to be friends with you again, Sunset,” I shook, feeling my throat closing up again. “I still love you… not like I love Sonata, but… but I still…”

“I love you too, Twi’,” Sunset said with a small sob.

“But I don’t know if I trust you,” I said finally.

Sunset curled in on herself at those words, and for a moment it was like she was wilting as she wrapped her arms around herself and quietly began to cry. I felt like I had just run her through with a blade, she was even clutching at her chest like I’d stuck her in the heart.

I guess in a way I had.

I think maybe twenty minutes passed as we sat there; me with my head hanging in remorse, and Sunset quietly shaking and crying as I listened to her heart breaking. Once I glanced over at Sonata, and she was just standing at the bar, completely still, staring down at a glass in her hands that she had paused mid-polish.

There were tears falling from her eyes in a constant stream, and every so often a small tremor worked its way through her body.

You can’t hide those things from a Siren, and whatever Sunset was feeling… God, Sonata must have been feeling it, too.

Maybe it was that… maybe it was seeing the same pain on another face that did it. Seeing the pain that Sunset was in painted clear as day on the face of the woman I’d fallen weirdly in love with put it in perspective for me. I wasn’t sure I trusted Sunset but… Sunset hadn’t had any reason to trust me either, the day she’d offered me her hand.

All she’d seen was a girl in incredible pain who had made a host of poor choices and she’d taken a step forward, given me her hand, wrapped her arms around me…

And I fell in love.

Maybe now it was my turn.

“Hey, Sunset?” I said quietly, and she glanced up at me, sniffling and red-eyed, and she swallowed thickly before answering.

“Y-yeah?”

“We’ve been two different people than we thought we were for a long time now, I think,” I said carefully, feeling out the words as they came to me. “A-and I also think that maybe we’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way,” that pretty much went without saying, really, but I pushed onward. “So, with that in mind do you think that, I don’t know, we could just… just be who we really are and… try to start over from there?”

Sunset stared at me cautiously, as if she didn’t quite buy what she was hearing. Then she swallowed again, wiped at her face with a napkin at the table, and took a deep breath.

“Do you mean it?” Sunset asked with a touch of quiet hope.

I hesitated for a moment, and I her expression fell a little as I did. Steeling myself as much as I could, I met that burning, sapphire gaze of hers with as much strength as I could.

“I… I want to mean it, and maybe that’s enough,” I replied, shifting nervously as I fidgeted with my now-empty glass. “I’m kinda winging it here, to be honest.”

“It’s more than I deserve,” Sunset’s voice was so small, and could almost feel the pain in it.

“Maybe it is,” I said back, taking a breath and standing up from my seat. “But I’m willing to give a try if you are.”

I held out my hand to her, I wasn’t really sure what it was going to take to rebuild the bridges we’d both jointly burnt between our actions but I knew I didn’t want to lose Sunset as a friend. I wanted her to be in my life and if that meant stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying to forge a path to wherever it was that had both her and I being friends again then I was willing to work for it.

And so was she.

Sunset Shimmer was many things, but she had never shied away from hard work.

Standing up from her own chair, Sunset reached out and took my hand in a firm grasp, let out a deep breath, and nodded before shaking my hand.

“So… starting new?” Sunset said hopefully.

“Yeah,” I agreed with a nod. “Starting new.”

I turned to Sonata who was beaming at the both of us from behind the bar, and before I could say a word she just nodded and pulled out two glasses before quickly cobbling together another pair of drinks identical to ones we’d had before.

A moment later the glasses clinked into place in front of us and Sonata took a few steps back, still beaming.

I lifted my drink just as Sunset lifted hers and we raised them, clacking the rims together lightly.

“Starting new,” we said in unison before taking a deep drink from each of our glasses.