//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: A Dazzling Sunset // by Fuzzyfurvert //------------------------------// A Dazzling Sunset Chapter 11   Loud footsteps, the crunch of asphalt grit under heeled boots, and the squeaking and rattling of metal and glass announced the unloading of some sort of cargo in the school parking lot.  Slowly, Sunset turned her head back toward the opening in the bushes.  No more than a dozen feet away from where she stood the grass ran into a concrete sidewalk that edged the lot and led to the building’s loading dock. “I need someone strong, with long legs.” Sunset froze, her fist still balled up in Adagio’s pink half-jacket, standing just a few intimate inches away from the siren.  Her hair drifted back down to rest normally as fear snapped at the heels of her anger, sucking away that agitated energy. “Plenty of stamina too.” A light breeze came off the school parking lot, mixing the warm sunlit air with the cooler shadows that clung to the side of the building where they stood.  Goose bumps were already starting to rise on her skin at the small of her back in the gap between her pants and her own jacket.  Under the skin, her muscles felt like iron springs wound tight around a sudden, queasy pit in her stomach. “You can stop butterin’ me up, Granny.  I already agreed to this, didn’t I?” In seconds, a couple of humans were going to walk right past the break in the greenery and see her and Adagio. See them in the little semi-private spot, standing close, hands on each other. Sunset opened her mouth and made a choking noise as her brain locked up, trying to fabricate an explanation.  She could make out that she was fighting Adagio.  After what the sirens had done to the school, no one would question that.  But what would that do to her hard-won “good guy” status?  One misspoken word could spread through the school like wildfire.  Everything she’d worked so hard for could crumble before the weekend was over. Of course, she could say nothing at all.  Let Applejack and Lunch Lady Smith make up their minds about the situation...and just as likely ruin her life in another way.  All the effort she’d put into keeping her romantic preferences out of that spotlight would be wiped away, probably taking her good cred right along with it. Either way, Sunset knew she was doomed.  This wasn’t something she could just casually explain to the Apples.  Applejack would probably understand, but her granny would likely be required to report them to Principal Celestia since they were technically trespassing on school property.  The police could become involved.  There was no way she could think of explaining herself that would keep this from blowing up on her in some way.  She would not only be a failure at helping Adagio, she’d also fail herself and lose any chance of coming out of this better off than before. But she had to try.  Giving up wasn’t in her blood.  Hope in the face of adversity was a good quality.  At least, Sunset hoped it was.  She turned back to tell Adagio to play it cool, but all that came out was a strangled yelp as strong hands gripped her and pulled her into the bushes.  A pale, golden hand found its way over her mouth a split second later, muffling her. Out in the sunlight, the sound of clinking glass and heavy boots stopped for a moment.  “Didja hear that?” “Bet it’s one of them raccoons again.  Critters always trying to get scraps out of the dumpsters ‘round back.” “Should I shoo ‘em off, Granny?” “Nah, ain’t worth it, lil’ sugarcube.  The school’s got an agreement with a pest service in town.  After we get this here fresh apple juice on ice, we’ll give ‘em a call.”   The younger woman answered with a noncommittal grunt.  The humans stood there for a moment more, watching the bush for further signs of habitation before continuing onward toward the rear staff entrance. Sunset stared hard at Adagio, the side of her face pressed into the damp ground.  It smelled earthy, under the foliage where the leaves collected atop sparse grass and moldy looking foundation stones.  She was so surprised by the sudden move that she didn’t resist when Adagio’s grip shifted, putting both of their arms in between them and looked away from her eyes. ‘What?’ Sunset mouthed.  She knew she was going to have all kinds of debris to get out of her hair later, and her anger flared again. ‘Sorry.’  Adagio mouthed silently back at her followed by something too fast and complex for Sunset’s lip reading skills. Sunset scowled, letting her confusion and frustration show plainly on her face before shaking her head and mouthing her question again, somewhat less silently than before. “Shhh!”  Adagio hissed, her eyebrows shooting up.  She flicked her eyes over Sunset’s shoulder toward the parking lot.  Sunset continued to glare back at her, thankfully silent again.  As the seconds crawled by and the footsteps faded, Adagio watched Sunset’s expression soften and eyes slowly return to the normal white.   Once she heard the school door open and close again, Adagio relaxed, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.  As soon as she did, Sunset grabbed her by the arms roughly. “Did you have to throw us into the mud?”   Adagio shivered in Sunset’s grip.  She tried to look away from the girl, but no matter where else she looked, she was drawn back to Sunset’s intense eyes.  Adagio grinned nervously, one corner rising higher than the other.  “...no?  Look, did you want them to see us together?  From where I stood, you seemed pretty spooked.  So I did what I had to.” Sunset’s lips narrowed into a line, not quite frowning.  She searched the siren’s face for some tell that would turn Adagio’s actions self-serving.  Try as she might, Sunset couldn’t see it.  Adagio looked serious—even a little bashful—about hauling them both into the bushes and out of sight just to protect her reputation. “Sunset…you’re not...just a tool to me.”  Adagio squirmed in place, all her swagger from earlier gone as she tried to put how she was feeling into words.  “Look, Sunset, I screwed up, okay?  I wasn’t thinking and habit got the better of me, I swear.” Sunset’s eyes still held her own, but she felt suddenly tired from all the posturing she’d done since the sun came up several hours ago.  “I messed up, but I really did mean that first kiss.  I wanted to...I dunno...try it out?  Just to see if you’d kiss me back?  I don’t know what I’m doing when I’m not in control of a situation, and the way I maintain control usually means using and manipulating people.  I...that’s...I shouldn’t have done that to you, of all people.” Adagio hung her head, chin buried in her chest, when she felt Sunset gently touch their foreheads together. “Yeah…well…I shouldn’t have blown up on you like that either.  Sometimes…sometimes my anger gets the better of me.”  Sunset sighed.  “Sorry about that.  I-I liked the kiss, Adagio, and then I felt like an idiot for letting you get to me and…” “Raging she-demon, right?” “Yeah.”  Sunset chuckled, a genuine smile breaking out on her face. “As nice as this little heart to heart is turning out, do you think we could do it without lying on the ground?  I’m pretty sure they’re gone now.”  Adagio smirked.  “Plus this is going to get all kinds of crap in our hair.” Sunset’s chuckle grew into full-on laughter, but she let go of the other girl and climbed awkwardly out from under the brush.  She offered Adagio a hand, and once they were both standing, she reached up to pluck a broken trig out of Adagio’s curly mane.  “C’mon, I think I know a place we can keep an eye out for Aria and avoid any more interruptions.” “That would have been a good suggestion to make, like, ten minutes ago, you know that?”  Adagio grinned despite the condition of her clothing.  After spending the better part of a week outdoors, she felt oddly numb toward the dirt and grass clinging to her.  She shrugged the jacket off, leaving her shoulders and the top of her chest bare.  “Where are we headed now?” Sunset brushed her hands over the sleeves of her own leather jacket, flicking away the larger pieces of grime that clung to her.  “Up there.”  She pointed vaguely above them toward the roof, then followed Adagio’s lead and slipped out of her own covering.  The breeze coming off the parking lot picked up a little, catching her hair and shirt so that both waved lazily. Another easily picked lock later, and Sunset led Adagio out of a cramped, half-sized access hatch from Canterlot High’s library skydome to the exterior of the main building’s roof.  Sunset tossed her coat onto a raised ventilation duct where it could dry in the sunlight and stretched languidly, working out the last of the tension in her shoulders from their earlier encounter. “Back when I used to sleep at the school all the time, when I was fresh out of Equestria, I’d come up here to watch the sunrise.” “To remind yourself of home?”  Adagio joined Sunset, folding her arms across her stomach and looking out into Canterlot City beyond the school grounds. “No.”  Sunset huffed quietly, walking toward the edge of the roof where it overlooked the main entrance and the statue that normally held the portal between this world and their original.  One corner of her mouth tugged down at the sight.  While it was cleverly hidden, thanks to the landscaping, from above, the edges of the crater where she’d ended up after the Fall Formal was clearly visible.  It certainly didn’t take a trained eye to spot the difference in the older and newer concrete laid side-by-side in the cleanup. “I came up here to help convince myself that if this world could get by without someone like the Princess, then surely even Celestia was fallible.   That she was wrong about me.”  Sunset shoved her hands in her jean pockets, slumping tiredly where she stood.  She turned a little to look back at Adagio.  “This was the place where I built myself up with the plan to steal Princess Twilight’s crown.  Where I started that whole chain of events in motion.  I was here again—a little off the edge really—when Twilight used the magic of Harmony to crater me into the pavement below.” Adagio cocked a hip to the side, watching Sunset move.  Up here in the clear morning light, against the backdrop of a cloudless sky and the city’s skyline, Sunset’s hair looked more like fire than ever.  The former pony seemed to radiate a warm glow; tanned sun-kissed skin almost had its own aura that complimented Sunset’s fire-burst hair.  When Sunset twisted to look back at her, the move pulled Sunset’s shirt taut in the front and back, outlining an athletic build. Altogether, it made Sunset a stunning package of strength and beauty.  It was enough to make her body relocate moisture from her mouth to elsewhere.  Adagio smacked her lips before biting the bottom one.  Set up a chain of events that would lead me here too.  Can’t say I’m exactly unhappy about that either.  She growled low in her throat, reflecting back on the sirens’ defeat and where that had taken the three of them. Adagio shifted her weight to her other hip, her fingers running idly over her own biceps.  “How does it feel?  Coming back, I mean?” “Honestly?”  Sunset looked back out over the lip of the rooftop, frowning sadly.  “Not good.”   Adagio scowled. It wasn’t her intent to make Sunset sad.  After the whirlwind morning they’d already been through, one upset scene with Sunset was her limit.  So she changed direction and walked up next to the redhead.  “You know, we’re two boxed lunches away from a cliche up here.”   “What?”  Sunset looked at Adagio, one brow raised.  “What are you talking about?”   “You know, from those cartoons with the big eyes?”  Adagio smirked, forcing her brows higher and cheeks lower with her fingers.  “We’re on top of a school building waiting for a magical showdown with a crazy girl that has zero fashion sense.  Isn’t that like ninety percent of those?  Should have made lunches before we left your place this morning and the scene would be complete.”   Sunset stared at Adagio blankly until the reference struck her hard enough to put a grin back on her face.  “I wouldn’t make you a bento box lunch even if there was a giant robot in it for me to pilot!  Besides, the ratio really couldn’t be more than eighty five percent of those shows with a high school rooftop scene.”   Adagio tilted her head to side and smiled slyly.  “But if you didn’t make me one of those, how would I ever notice you?”   Sunset snickered, her grin getting wider until she was smiling ear to ear and laughing loudly.  She didn’t know which was funnier, Adagio imagining herself to be the sempai, or that the siren made the reference in the first place.  She did know, however, that the laughter really did help work out the little knot of tension and anxiety that had formed in the pit of her stomach when she’d first heard Applejack’s drawl.  She laughed until she ran out of breath and had to suck in another lungful of air, only to start again, this time with accompaniment from Adagio.   Adagio chuckled, pleased with herself for changing Sunset’s mood.  Is it still manipulative to make someone feel good for a good reason?  She pondered that idea, feeling out her own emotional response to seeing Sunset happy.  She was happy—genuinely so—that Sunset wasn’t sad or angry.  She knew that they really should be focusing on the upcoming fight.  Developing some sort of strategy to deal with Aria.  But this...this was nice.     She liked this.  Whatever this was.   Sunset laughed until her sides hurt.  She wheezed when she ran out of breath a second time, coughing uncontrollably when she tried to refill on oxygen.  It took a few tries, but she finally got her lungs to cooperate before her lips started to turn blue.  The whole time, Adagio was watching her, a small smile on that perfect face and a sparkle in those perfect eyes.  When she could, Sunset straightened up, shaking her head and stepping away from the edge of the roof.   “Wow...huh...so, now that that’s out of the way...can we stop dancing around the subject at hand?”   Adagio smirked, following Sunset with her eyes.  She felt warm, but it had nothing to do with the rising sun or temperature.  “But I like dancing.  You saw that first-hand down in that musty excuse for a storage room.”   “You know what I mean.”  Sunset coughed again, but she smiled when she looked back over her shoulder at the blonde girl.  “This.  Us.  There’s an obvious attraction here between us.”   “Is there?”  Adagio  clasp her hands behind her back innocently.     “You can drop the act, Adagio.  We might as well be honest with ourselves.”   “Act?”  Adagio tilted her head askew, blinking wide eyes as she skipped after Sunset.   “I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you, Adagio.”  Sunset sighed and took a seat on the same vent duct that their jackets were draped over.  “You enjoy teasing me, don’t you?”   The siren stopped a few paces away from Sunset, the vacant look on her face disappearing, replaced with her customary predator’s smile.  “You have no idea.”  She chuckled darkly before lighten her expression somewhat.  “But you do have a point, Sunset.  And we do have time.”   “So you agree with me that the attraction is mutual?”  Sunset leaned forward, grabbing the edge of the vent.   “Eh...sure.”  Adagio rolled her eyes.  “I can agree with that.” Sunset nodded idly, folding her hands in her lap and looking down at her boots.  She crossed her legs at the ankles, sitting quietly.  Now that they had finally arrived at the topic that had dominated her thoughts since she’d gotten in bed after formulating her flawed plans to use the portal, Sunset found she didn’t know where to begin.  She interlaced her fingers, twiddling her thumbs while she searched for a place to start.   Adagio yawned and took a spot against the domed skylight over the school’s library.  She leaned back and folded her arms, waiting for Sunset to say something.  The girl was hunched over, obviously lost in her own thoughts.  Adagio let Sunset think.  She could admit to her attraction to Sunset, and feeling it returned was as pleasant a feeling as ever.  This time, she told herself, after I deal with Aria, I’m not going to let those two keep me from going after whoever I want to.  I’ll enjoy rubbing it in their faces for a change.   Sunset bit her lip, eyes still downcast.  When she opened her mouth to speak, her voice came out calmer and quieter than she felt inside.  “Do you remember, last night when you asked me if I’d had any girlfriends in this world?”   “Right before I insinuated that your volunteer work was a cover for getting romantic with the animals there.”  Adagio hung her head, her fist clenching and relaxing reflexively.  “Yeah...sorry.  Again.  That was cruel of me.”   “What about you?”   The siren’s head snapped up.  “What?”   Sunset looked over at the confused girl and shrugged.  “Have you had any girlfriends here?  You’ve been here a lot longer than I have.”   Adagio’s mouth hung open.  This wasn’t the line of questioning she’d expected.  Faces, names, voices all flashed through her mind as memories surfaced.  The sound of their laughter.  The color of their hair.  How they tasted and moved.  Human women that she had known intimately, stretched back through the years, further than she could count.  Women that had shown her some of the better parts of a world she thought of as a prison.  Out of all of them, only a few stood out as meeting the modern definition of a ‘girlfriend.’  They were the ones she didn’t like to think about if she could help it.   “Y-yeah.”  Adagio sucked in a deep breath through grit teeth.  “A couple.  Why?”   Sunset shrugged again, a gentle smile playing on her lips.  “I’m curious, that’s all.  You don’t have to answer the question, though.  If it makes you uncomfortable.”  She sighed and idly reached over to feel the leather sleeve of her jacket.  The material was already mostly dry so she brushed off the little flecks of dirt and leaves.  When she looked back up, Adagio was standing closer, a distant look on the siren’s face as if she was lost in thought.   Maybe I shouldn’t have asked that.  Sunset watched Adagio think, drinking in the way the sunlight bounced off Adagio’s hair and the way it made those bare shoulders look like living bronze.  With looks like hers and that personality, and having been in this world as long as Twilight and I could estimate...that must be quite the list of lovers.   Adagio ticked off her fingers slowly, counting the clearest faces in her memory.  She cocked her hips to the side and tapped her chin for a moment.  “It’s hard to tell, truthfully.  I’ve never really had anything you might call a long term relationship here.  What with Aria interfering...and my own blunders…”   She looked into Sunset’s blue eyes, so much like most of the faces in her past.  Fiery, passionate, strong, a never-say-die stubbornness.  If she had a type for bipeds, Sunset more than met it.  Romantic loneliness was an old, familiar ache.  It faded into the background easily enough when she had to keep hers and the other sirens’ safety foremost in her mind.  It was only in those times when they were doing well, feeding off the adoration of hundreds of humans that it ever became something that really bothered her.   Adagio licked her lips.  Maybe now that we don’t have our gems, things would turn out differently?  When she and the other sirens fed, it kept them happy and controlled the minds of the humans around them, but it also brought out conflict, anger and aggression – despite their advanced society, these were things humans possessed in abundance.  It was one of the first lessons she’d learned in this world: keep the number of thralls small and keep moving or start a war.  Chaos was fun now and again, but it flew in the face of a happy, sedate, stable lifestyle.  Fighting made for a poor romantic conductor in most cases.   “Now that I think about it, I’ve only had a handful of...partners...I would call a girlfriend.”  Adagio smirked at Sunset’s shocked expression.  “Think about it.  We sirens cause strife.  Any girl I wanted to get close to would be affected by that, even if Aria didn’t do something first.  The ones...I cared for...I didn’t want to subject to that.  So I had to wait for periods where we were doing good enough to not have to feed all the time, but whenever we hit those points we were also one match strike away from the whole thing going up in a blaze.”   “So…” Sunset gestured with her hands, “like, how many we talking about here?”   “Probably less than six or seven.”   Sunset blinked, running the numbers in her mind and comparing it to the loose timeline she and Princess Twilight had discussed weeks ago.  If Adagio was telling the truth—and she didn’t see any benefit the girl got from not doing so—then the literal magical seductress in front of her averaged a serious relationship every century and a half.  Give or take a couple of decades.  On one hand, she was surprised by the low numbers, but then again, Adagio made a good case for why that would be.   I wonder...now that she doesn’t have her gem, would that mean she could actually maintain a happy, stable, relationship?  That thought lead to another, and before she knew what she was doing, Sunset opened her mouth.  “When you had your gem, why didn’t you just control one of your minions to be your girlfriend?  You three seemed to have pretty strong sway over Principal Celestia and Luna before the Battle happened.”   Adagio scowled back at Sunset, her earlier buoyant mood well and truly sunk now.  Between the unexpected trip down into the depths of her memories, and Sunset’s knack for tactless questions, her anger had been dredged back to the surface.  “Our powers can only suggest—strongly—for others to do what we want.  I told you to think about it.  If I had the power to make people act against their own revulsions and limits, don’t you think I would have?  I can’t make a girl like me...like flipping some sort of switch from straight to lesbian!  I’ve had to wait for all the factors to come together, Sunset.  Balance with our needs, our thralls not trying to kill each other, and for a girl that likes other girls to come along!  You know this place’s history.  People like that are a tiny portion of the population and it’s usually been in their best interest to never reveal their preferences.”   She growled, pinching the skin between her eyes.  “I don’t know who’s worse at spitting out words before they think things through, you or Sonata.”   “Hey…”  Sunset leaned back from the force of the siren’s ire, eyebrows raised.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize...when you say it like that, it seems obvious.”  She grinned lopsidedly.  “My mind control magic made my minions essentially robots.  But yours...doesn’t supplant their free will?  That’s a lot less morally reprehensible than mine, to be honest.”   “Point to me, then.”  Adagio rolled her eyes.  “I thought you wanted to talk about what’s going on between us...not my ancient history.  Why bring that up all of a sudden?”  She followed Sunset’s lead and took a seat on a raised air conditioning unit facing the redhead, its metal exterior already starting to grow hot in the morning sun.  The heat felt good through her leggings and she crossed her ankles while bracing her palms on the edge of the AC unit.   “I was just curious.”  Sunset fought the urge to shrug again, opting instead to lower her feet slowly back to the rooftop’s surface.  “I didn’t mean to make you upset, I promise.  But...well, I kind of have a lifelong history of acting without considering the consequences.  That’s more or less how I ended up here.”   She shot Adagio a genuine smile, relaxing a little when she got a small smirk in return.  Sunset’s smile lingered on her while she thought.  We seem to be getting over these little bursts of anger together.  Not the smoothest we could be...but tripping over each other is still moving forward, right?  That’s what friends do.   “I guess...what I’m really curious about, Adagio…”  Sunset took a lung-filling breath and let it out quickly.  “Is this attraction I feel something real and mutual?  Or am I just thinking with my ovaries here?”  Sunset deadpanned.  “It’s been a long time since I’ve had any kind of romantic attention and I want to know if I’m just horny or is there something going on between us?”   “You think with your ovaries and rush into things without really giving thought to the consequences?”  Adagio barked with laughter, rocking forward with a sharkish grin.  “How big are your damn ovaries, girl?”   “Ovaries the size of moons.”  Sunset leered right back at Adagio, her voice dropping as low as she could make it.  She waggled her eyebrows at the siren across from her.  “Moons.”   Adagio chuckled, her cheeks heating up and turning flushed.  “You really are a girl after my own heart.  Are you sure you weren’t a siren back in Equestria?”   “Unicorn born and bred.  Four hooves and a very sharp horn, I assure you.”   Adagio’s grin turned softer and she appraised the girl sitting across from her.  Again she was struck with the mental image of what Sunset probably looked like as a pony.  A long silky tail to match that fiery mane, honey-brown coat to match her human skin, and the same whirlpool blue eyes she could get lost in.  “I’d bet you’d look good as a siren.”   Sunset snorted and nodded at the satchel by her foot with the journal inside.  In all the excitement of the last hour or so, she was glad she remembered to swing back by the Audio Video room to snag it on their way to the roof.  “Well, if I can get the portal open again, maybe we can try our hooves at some transmutation spells when all this has blown over.”   “I’d like that.  A vacation by the sea.”  Adagio sighed wistfully, hugging herself and running her fingers over her arms.  “I miss my scales, Sunset.  Having them again would make a lot of things right for me.”   “We’ll contact Princess Twilight later and make sure we don’t have to worry about the Equestrian authorities.  Assuming we don’t end up in eternal detention or jail here first.”   “Do you think she can forgive me?”  Adagio looked down, squeezing until the flesh under her fingertips paled.  “I don’t think immortals recognize any statute of limitations.”   “I don’t know if Twilight is...wait, you mean Celestia?”  Sunset raised an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side when Adagio nodded.  “Twilight forgave me.  Twice.  And she’s Celestia’s student, so...probably?”  Sunset smiled, crossing and uncrossing her ankles.  She wondered if it would have been better to just assure the girl, but a little voice in her soul said that a friend would be honest.  The little voice also sounded suspiciously like Applejack.   “I’ve never met her, aside from the human version in this world.”  Adagio rubbed her arms like she was chilled.  “The principal seemed okay...what little I saw of her before we put her under our spell, anyway.  I don’t know if that extends back to the pony version though.  We were...kind of not cool to the ponies that lived on the coasts, before Starswirl showed up.”   “I don’t know, Adagio.  But Princess Twilight said that Celestia...Princess Celestia...asked how I was doing.  She didn’t say so in as many words, but I think that means the Princess has forgiven me at least some.  To be honest, I worry about that sometimes.  It keeps me up some nights.  I did really wrong by the Princess.  A younger me might not see a way to forgive somepony for what I did, but me now?”  Sunset reached forward and put her hand on Adagio’s knee.  “I think I can see a way now.”   Slowly, Adagio let go of her death grip on her arms, one hand slipping down to join Sunset’s.  It rested there for a moment, but when Sunset lifted her hand Adagio intertwined their fingers together.  They sat there like that, in the sunshine, the only sounds around them coming from the machinery that kept the school cool in the summer heat.  She squeezed Sunset’s hand in her own, the smile on her face reaching her eyes when she looked back up.  Then her brows knit.  The smile faltered and confusion set into Adagio’s smooth features.  Her curls bobbed when she sat back and looked quickly down at their hands and back up to Sunset’s face.   “Are...are we still flirting?  Or is this a friendship thing...moment...thing?”  Adagio lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug.  “I’m honestly confused right now.”   Sunset squeezed Adagio’s hand in return, one corner of her mouth rising.  “Uh...maybe it’s a little of both?  Sorry, I’m still new at this.”  Sunset snickered, leaning forward a bit more, her hair swinging out over their hands.  “Don’t ever tell Princess Twilight this, but back when she first befriended me, I kept getting confused and thought she was coming on to me half the time.”   “Friendship really does mess with your brain, huh?”  Adagio chuckled softly and leaned forward, matching Sunset and putting their faces inches apart.  Her voice grew quiet again.  “So how am I supposed to know when you’re just being nice and when you’re trying to get into my leggings?”   Adagio smirked, watching Sunset’s cheeks flush while the girl tried to stammer out a denial.  She ran her fingers up Sunset’s denim covered thigh, still holding the girl’s hand with her other hand.  She hooked her fingers into a pocket and tugged Sunset forward until their knees were touching, putting her lips next to Sunset’s ear.  Adagio puckered her lips slightly and planted a light-as-air butterfly kiss on the soft lobe.  “I hope, Sunset, that you aren’t confused about me.  ‘Cuz I do want in your pants.  That’s what the kids these days call friendship with benefits, right?”   Sunset gasped, shivering through the kiss.  Adagio’s voice was like silk against her skin, sultry and deep, all the power she knew it had lying just under the surface.  She...she wants…  Sunset felt her chest tighten almost painfully, her mind calling up the sights and feelings of the siren’s body from their wrestling match in her garage the night before.  It wasn’t hard to imagine it without the fighting.  She knew where the blonde was pliable, and where Adagio’s flesh was amazingly firm.     And now she knew Adagio Dazzle wanted to give her much more than just a feel.   “I-I-I’ve never had,” Sunset turned a tiny amount to catch Adagio’s eyes out of the corner of her own, “a um, friendship like that.  I...uh...wow.  Really?  You want...me?”   “If I didn’t, would I do this?”  The siren chuckled, the hand on Sunset’s hip slipping up higher along Sunset’s abs.  Her fingers trailed a lazy circle around Sunset’s navel through the girl’s light top.  They climbed Sunset’s ribcage and upward, running nails over the hard edge of Sunset’s underwire before her palm filled with the swell of Sunset’s chest.   Sunset gasped, jolting upright.  She snatched Adagio’s wandering hand by the wrist, fighting the siren’s considerable strength to keep it just off her breast.  Sunset grit her teeth, pushing down the butterflies and hot tension in her gut.  It took her a couple gulps of air to find her voice.  “As much...as much as I want this, Adagio, I have to know if there is more here than just a chance to get laid.  Not that I’m turning down the offer, but...is there any more to it?”   Adagio flexed, pushing back against Sunset’s grip, and grinned.  “Maybe?  I thought you wanted a little roll in the hay?”   “I do!”  Sunset growled in frustration, Adagio’s hand slipping closer to its target, as they struggled with each other.  “I really really do!  But I want more than sex, Adagio.”   Adagio sighed, relaxing and letting Sunset push her hand away.  She looked down for a long moment, composing her thoughts.  Now that she was admitting it, she really did want to let Sunset into her leggings.  I’d really like that, actually.  But...can I go through all that again?  I haven’t even wanted to look for a partner in years.  This girl...this pony though…  Adagio looked back up into those whirlpool eyes and felt the tug to lose herself in them again.   “Sunset, I can’t promise you anything more.  Love has always been a minefield for me.  Things are different now, I guess.  And I do like you.”  Adagio smirked.  “I really do want to do a whole list of unspeakable things to your body.  Multiple times, even.  Love...is hard.  But maybe this time it’s worth a shot?”   She sighed again, squeezing Sunset’s hand in her own.  “I’m willing to try, if you’re willing to let me fail a few times.”   Adagio fell silent, watching Sunset’s face.  The girl was examining her.  Measuring her.  Weighing options.  She could see it in Sunset’s jaw, the set of her brows and those pursed lips.  After what felt like a long time, the redhead nodded.   “I’m willing to help you every time you do fail, Adagio.”