"She hangs out at the docks sometimes?" The trio stood looking out at the sea. Was Adagio just homesick or something?

Aria rolled her eyes, looking a little annoyed. "She's one of those stare-longingly-into-the-distance girls sometimes. I know that's big with gooey, romantic types, but the way she does it is just sorta creepy."

Sunset looked skeptical. "Adagio is the romantic type? How many boyfriends does she have around town?" Aria and Sonata started snickering, which made her feel like she'd said something stupid. "What?"

"Boyfriends," answered Sonata, "I don't think she even has one!" None of them did, what with half the town hating their guts, but still.

Aria smirked. "Pro'lly get weirded out by her Puff-O The Clown hair." The smirk fell away as she looked at Sunset and shrugged. "But yea, I know she gets all weak-kneed reading those trashy novels she thinks we don't know about." Her eyes widened for a split second, her face turning neutral, but her tone forceful. "Which is what she will continue to think when we find her. Right?"

Sunset noticed Sonata standing very close to her, magenta eyes wide and unblinking as she slowly leaned closer. Stepping back, Sunset held her hands up placatingly. "Hey, makes no difference to me." She quickly glanced back and forth between the two of them. "But that you snoop through her stuff? Also kinda creepy."

Aria reddened vibrantly. "I, w-we just make sure she's not up to anything really bad!"

Sonata backed her up with rapid nodding. "Yea! That's why Aria double-checks the boo-OW!"

Aria had thwapped her on the back of the head, her blush no weaker. "You really need to shut up sometimes."

Sonata scowled back. "You need to quit being such a-"

Before the quarrel could escalate any further, Sunset stepped between the two, pushing them apart. "Focus! Why do you two care if she knows, anyway? Why are you so scared of her?" Sunset hadn't forgotten that Snips and Snails had been afraid of her, before Twilight came along. She had only ever seen those two as tools for her ambitions before the day she apologized for roping them into her schemes, so they only ever had reason to fear her, but Adagio had made it sound like her group was closer than that.

"I'm not scared of her," Aria said half-heartedly as she turned away, arms crossed.

Sonata was even more transparent. "I'm scared of her. She's just, like..." She scratched her head in thought, shrugging. "Just, scary beyond all reason, y'know?"

Sunset frowned. "You're really afraid of one of the only people in the world you care about?"

The two were silent, Aria looking annoyed, Sonata looking contrite. The former spoke quietly. "You would be too, okay?"

Sighing, Sunset shrugged. "Alright, so we can rule out popular dating spots for the places she might be. Where else?"

---

They opted to try that piece of paper with a list of people that didn't like the Dazzlings very much, as the first name on the list wasn't too far away. Sunset noted aloud that they probably shouldn't just kick in the door and demand to know where she is.

Aria was skeptical. "Why not?"

"More flies with honey, girls."

Sonata was Sonata. "We're not looking for flies, we're looking for Dagi."

Facepalm.

Aria shook her head. "Brought that one on yourself, Shimmer."

"Noted."

"Ooh," the ditziest Dazzling went on, "can we get some honey on the way home? It's soooo sweet!"

Aria and Sunset groaned at the same time. Before long, the first name on the list answered the door.

"I'm sorry girls," said Principal Celestia, "but I haven't seen your friend anywhere." Looking at Aria and Sonata, her eyes narrowed a little in suspicion. "Actually, I haven't seen you two around school, either. I'm pretty sure you're both still students, and Adagio Dazzle, too..."

Aria started sweating, she and Sonata offering Celestia a sheepish smile. "Welp, gotta keep up the hunt, she could pop up any time, kaythanksbye!" And down the street they ran, Sunset turning to follow.

Celestia called after her, her tone stern enough to stop Sunset in her tracks. "Sunset Shimmer?"

She turned hesitantly. "Y-yes...?"

Celestia smiled warmly. "Keep up the good work. Maybe you can get those three to classes."

Hearing those words, in a very familiar voice, touched something in Sunset's heart. She couldn't speak, but gave a sharp nod and a wide grin before running after Aria and Sonata.

When she caught up to them, she had a question. "So, Celestia didn't seem to really hate you guys. Why is she an enemy?"

"The school part," growled Aria, "weren't you listening?!"

Touchy topic for her? Adagio seemed more annoyed about meeting my friends than entering the building... "Ah, right. You know, you guys could grab free meals if you attended, cafeteria's open to students and it would save you some money..."

"For realzies?"

"SONATA, NO! IT'S A TRAP!!"

Sunset spent the walk to the residence of the next-nearest name on the list arguing that they might actually have fun in school if they gave it a chance, but Aria was vehement that she never wanted to go back. Sonata seemed reluctant to weigh in, so maybe there was hope after all.

This house looked familiar. Bad-familiar. "Uh, g-guys," Sunset asked shakily, "whose house is this...?"

Aria double-checked the paper. "Flash Sentry. He might have gone after Adagio, what with that thing with Twilight Sparkle and-hey, get back over here!"

Sunset had ducked behind a tree. "I, uh, just, really think you guys can handle this one, what's the next name on the list? I can head there while you're busy and-"

Sonata pushed her lightly from behind. "We need you to talk to him!"

Sunset dug in her heels to retain as much distance from Flash's house as possible. "B-but I-"

Aria crossed her arms. "Look, I'm thinking that if everyone we ask sees us first, they'll know we're here for Adagio, so if they know where she is, they'll clam up. But people trust you, don't they?"

"I'm still getting weird looks every now and then, actually."

Aria shrugged. "Whatever, can't be worse than the ones we get. Now are you gonna help us find Adagio or not?"

Biting her lower lip, Sunset struggled with indecision for a moment.

I don't have anything against Flash at this point, but, The Awkward!

It would be slow, it would be brutal, and neither of them would want anything to do with one another for weeks. She may have been hyperbolizing a little, but it was bad. Still, if there was even the faintest chance that Adagio was in trouble and Flash knew something, she'd regret not doing this forever. Sighing in defeat, Sunset nodded. "Okay, fine, you two hide somewhere nearby."

Sonata looked especially pleased, grabbing Aria and yanking her behind the tree before she could so much as snark about the situation.

Steeling herself, Sunset knocked on the door of her ex-boyfriend. The one she used to further her plans to conquer Equestria. The one she never even bothered to get to know as a person. The one that-

"-et Shimmer? Hello? You there?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Sunset noticed he had answered the door and was looking at her with concern. She smiled sheepishly. "Hi. I'm here to talk to you."

Flash nodded slowly. "That would explain why you knocked on my door, yes."

They spent a long moment in silence, Sunset's smile getting increasingly forced. "So, how have you been? Since, uh, things?"

"I'm... good? Not on fire or being mind-controlled." Sunset visibly shrunk back, making him wince. "I-I mean, not like your mind control, but someone else's, I mean, not someone else's, nobody is mind-controlling me right now." He held up his hands defensively, looking increasingly uncomfortable. "Not that I mean to say you even do mind control, outside that one time. That happened. Which is okay? I mean, not okay, but-wait-it's, it's not so not-okay that anyone still begrudges you for it. Okay?"

Sunset looked to the floor. "A-actually..."

"Oh. W-well, I'm completely over it, and," he forced a smile, "the Dazzlings were WAY worse, right?"

Knowing that Sonata and Aria were still in earshot, she really didn't want to answer that question. Luckily, she saw an opening. "Well, I kinda wanted to talk about, uh..." She glanced around, eye-contact getting more unbearable by the second. "Are you seeing Adagio Dazzle?"

Flash paled. "What?"

"I-I mean, have you SEEN Adagio? Like, in the last day or so?"

He seemed mostly relieved. "Oh. N-no, not really. Why, are you seeing Adagio Dazzle?"

Sunset flushed. "WHAT?!"

Again, Flash raised his hands placatingly. "I'm just asking! If it's the first thing you ask when you think I might know where she is, I thought I'd ask the same thing!"

"How does that make any sense?!"

"I don't know!!"

Sonata popped out from behind the tree, her face and tone very casual. "So, he doesn't know where she is?"

Flash's jaw dropped. He looked quickly back and forth between Sunset and Sonata, raising a finger to point at the latter. "Are-"

Sunset held up a hand. "Whatever you're about to say, please don't."

Sonata turned to Aria, who was still facepalming behind the tree. "I don't think he knows where Dagi is, Aria."

Any chance of remaining concealed thoroughly Sonata'd, Aria stepped out where Flash could see her. "Yea. Got that part."

Again, Flash quickly looked over the three of them. "What's going on here?"

Sonata smiled. "We're looking for Dagi, the yellow one with the orange, fluffy hair?" She walked over to put her hands on Sunset's shoulders. "Not like Sunny here, she's yellow with red/yellow wavy hair, totally different."

Flash gave Sunset an inquisitive look, which she confirmed with a nod. "Okay," he said while scratching his head, "so why were you two hiding?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Would you have been honest if you saw us answering the door?"

He answered with a perfectly straight face. "Yes."

Aria blinked. "Oh. Well." She shrugged, turning to leave. "Looks like it didn't matter anyway. Ciao."

Content to leave the scene behind her, Sunset followed right along as Sonata spent another minute talking to Flash about how Sunset wouldn't have been enough to replace Adagio, but that she didn't mind having her around while they looked. Part of Sunset was touched. She turned to Aria. "So, are we leaving her there? You might have to spend another day tracking down one of your friends."

"Pfft. As if I could get rid of Sonata even if I really wanted to. You ever heard The Cat Came Back?"

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Sonata had learned to make cat noises just to rub it in, but luckily seemed to forget the correlation and went back to eating cereal with her mouth open. "Why were you so scared of Sentry, anyway? I know he's got that 'tough guy' jacket, but yours looks way harder."

Sunset couldn't decide right away if that was a compliment or not, but coming from Aria, who favored the 'punk' look, it might have been. "Thanks, I guess. I'm not scared of him, really, it's more that we used to go out, and, well..."

Aria stopped mid-stride, her eyes widened. "He... was... your...?" She slowly turned to look at Sunset with something between reverence and horror. "Oh. OH! Wow. Sorry. Yikes..." Scratching the back of her head ruefully, she gave Sunset an apologetic look. "Damn, no wonder you were all..." All she could offer was a vague, shuffling motion.

Despite her own very recent predicament, Sunset couldn't help smiling a little in amusement. "You really didn't know?"

Aria shook her head. "Nah, left it to Adagio to keep track of who was doin' who, so-"

Sunset blushed vibrantly. "I NEVER 'DID' ANYONE!!"

Aria blinked once, crossing her arms. "For real? No wonder it was so awkward between you guys!"

Sunset facepalmed, groaning. Before she could explain the intricacies of relationships and how getting into one another's pants wasn't the end-all goal even if she weren't just using Flash at the time, Sonata popped up between them.

"Flash double-definite, super-sure didn't know where Dagi is."

"Tch," Aria said with an eye-roll, looking like she was restraining herself from saying the first thing that came to mind in the name of her and Sonata's fractured name-calling truce, "great job, you confirmed what we already knew. Why'd you stick around, anyway?"

"I wanted to make extra sure." Sonata tilted her head a little, looking confused. "The principal barely gave us mean looks, so I wondered if Flash was a not-enemy on the enemy list too, and he is! He said he was surprised we thought he hated us, so I asked about that mind-control thing he said. Then he ran in the house and locked the door." She scratched her chin. "Wait, maybe he does hate us..."

There was a long moment of silence before Aria turned to Sunset, pointed at Sonata, and deadpanned. "That there? That's what it looks like when Sonata has a thought."

Author's Notes:

Just Sunset, Aria, and Sonata this time.