Sunset woke in a fog, her head pounding from the booze of last night , as a pale yellow arm hugged around her waist , she remembered being at the bar and the cute woman she had spent the evening with.
She lay there staring at the hotel room with it’s boring brown carpet , thinking to herself “ how many times have I been in situations just like this ….hungover in a cheap hotel with a new person that makes me feel wanted , if only just for fun. Sunset brushed a lock of her hair out of her eyes , thinking back to her talk with Adagio at the bar and just why she had mentioned she was not from around here, it was a slip up that she had not made recently , since the last time it happened drove her lover to ask too many questions that Sunset didn’t want to answer. Of course this caused a rift with the pair and Sunset decided it was best to move on. She hopped the next train to anywhere with her duffel bag and guitar case . As she lay there being spooned by Adagio she thought back to just how she ended up where she was .
Sunset’s life had been like this ever since she had got to this world, when she said she was not from around here , it wasn’t exactly a lie . She was formerly a gifted unicorn , a student of Princess Celestia Sol of Equestria , they had a falling out and in her desperation, Sunset used a ancient artifact and it sent her to Earth . It had taken her a good amount of time to get used to being bipedal , having to wear clothing and losing her magic, but she was determined to make the best of things here on Earth as the way back to Equestria was locked away.
The former prodigy spent her last gems and gold bits from her home at a pawn shop. She had to wait for the gold to be verified. As she waited, she looked around the store and she spotted a V shaped guitar with a flame over black pattern , she knew she had to have it . She also spotted a black leather jacket with silver pips lining the collar of it , she held it up beside the guitar and smiled, they matched.
Sunset took both up the counter, the owner of the pawn shop had finished his tests on the coins and informed Sunset of their value , she wasn’t sure of the man was honest with her but as a runaway from another dimension she didn’t have much choice . Sunset took the cash ,then exchanged some of it for the guitar and jacket which she slipped on . Before leaving the teller had mentioned she would need something called an “amp “ to make the guitar loud enough to be heard, none of the string instruments of Equestria needed such a device but Sunset chalked it up to one of many differences in her former and current realities. Sunset asked which would be small enough to use on the go and the teller soon had a portable amp boxed up for her to take.
Being a former prodigy, she had taken music lessons in Celestia’s school , Sunset had a solid basis in music theory so once she had a cheap motel rented she sat for hours and picked at the strings of her new guitar till she had gotten rather good. Of course by this point her stash of money was getting low so she asked the innkeeper how might she get a job that wouldn’t ask too many questions about her origins, the innkeep took a drag off of her smoke and replied “ well there's the old standby for us girls ...or if you can play music there are always gigs for fill in musicians or even bandmates , just gotta look for flyers. The innkeep stubbed out her smoke and pointed her figure to point eastward “ If ya walk 2 blocks down there is a Quick Stop convenience store , they should have some flyers up there , or just ask one of the stoners out front . “ Thanks “ Sunset said after waving the smoke that lingered out of her face and made her way to the store.
She soon passed the stoners that the innkeep had warned her about, a strange acting youth in a yellow coat and a chubby kid leaning up against the storefront, Sunset decided it was easier to go inside and ask the clerk as suggested so she did just that , she was pointed to a large cork board at the back of the store . Scanning the posters she found one that looked promising “ Gig guitarist needed for Flash and the Drivers “ taking the number, she took it to the payphone outside of the store and dialed it after dropping her quarter into the machine .
A teenage male answered and Sunset asked about the gig , at first he seemed skeptical that a chick would want to play in his band but Sunset being determined to get this gig, mentioned a few famous “chick “ guitarists like Lita Ford , Nancy Wilson and Jan K to name a few . He paused after he realized this girl might just know more about rock then he did and suggested she audition for the spot this coming Saturday when the rest of the band was available. After hanging up the payphone and starting her walk back to the cheap motel , Sunset thanked her lucky stars that she had made it a point to research the history of the guitar at the local library .
Sunset yawned as she shook her head dispelling the trip down memory lane ….that was her first gig and her first boyfriend , her and Flash had dated for a few months but he started asking too many personal questions that Sunset didn’t feel like answering , as if he would actually believe her if she told him the truth . After a night of fighting combined with underage drinking Sunset slipped out of Flash’s garage with her duffel bag of belongings and her guitar . She would miss that garage as it was a common crash spot for the band but her time here was done . Making her way to the train station she found an open spot in the chain link fence and waited for a train to hop .
This had been Sunset’s way of living for better or worse since she arrived on Earth , she would arrive in a town, find a band that needed a guitarist or session player , and end up dating or just sleeping with one of the band members and skipping town once things got too serious . Those people were fun but she never felt a connection to them , and they couldn’t understand her past of course .
As she was spooned by Adagio she felt the older womans breathes on the nape of her neck and she looked over at her guitar in the corner , it had gotten beat up in her journey but much like herself , it was gonna make it . Sunset snuggled into the spooning for now and pondered if maybe , just maybe , Adagio was different from the past lovers. In a way she was different, Sunset had met her at a bar and not as a bandmate for example.
Only ...Sunset didn’t know just how different Adagio was.