Pinkie had no idea how long she had been here. She had stormed in after... everything. Maud had asked what happened and Pinkie had told her. That was bare minimum a week ago, and she hadn't seen anyone besides her mother, who brought her dinner to her room. Maud had, evidently, told them the basics of what happened, and her parents did not want to upset her broken heart.

She sat in the dark, knowing full well there was light outside her curtained window. She didn't want to be near the light right now. She had spent... however long she had been here, thinking of Twilight. She didn't want to forgive her. She didn't want to leave herself open to heartbreak again. Still, she knew that everyone deserved a chance. She had said she cheated on someone in Equestria, though. She had broken somepony's heart, just as she had done Pinkie's. Were they hurting as badly as she was?

She was worried about them too.

Maud had left Boulder on her nightstand after their talk, or she had come in and placed him on the nightstand while Pinkie was sleeping, she couldn't be sure, but Pinkie stared at him now. It was almost as if Boulder were supposed to give her a message, but she couldn't hear him. Just like Maud couldn't hear Gummy when Pinkie could.

Maybe her pet rock was the message. Maybe her sister was trying to say something like 'harden up, it'll be okay' or something like that. Although, her sister never was one for such sentiments. Maybe Maud was leaving for a few days and was simply leaving Boulder where he could easily watched by someone who might actually move less than him.

"Would you talk to her?" Pinkie asked Boulder.

Boulder made no reply.

"I want to talk to her." Pinkie continued. "I just don't know how to see past what she did. I mean, I know we weren't officially a couple or anything, but I kind of thought we had something special. Maybe, something more than just sex." she said. "And she did use me to cheat on some pony in Equestria."

Boulder still made no reply.

"I don't want to forgive her, because she hurt me." she said. "But, I want to forgive her because I'm so in love with her that it hurts." she sighed. "Does that make any sense to you?" she asked Boulder.

"If you love her that much maybe you should hear her out." A raspy voice came from the other side of the door.

"You shouldn't eavesdrop." Pinkie called through the door.

The door opened to reveal Pinkie's third sister, Limestone. "Sorry." she said, her face betraying that she was very much not-sorry. "You can't keep doing this though." she said. "You've been in here pining after this chick and crying over her, if she means that much to you, then get off your ass and go get her back."

Pinkie stared at her sister for a moment before smiling. "You know what? You're right." she said as she pulled the blankets off of her and began to march for the front door. "I will go get her."

Limestone reached out an arm to stop her. "You might want to get a shower and change clothes first." she mumbled.

Pinkie blinked at her before inspecting herself. She had been spending... that time... in her room hiding under the blankets in the same outfit she had been wearing, consequently, she smelled of sweat and body odor, and the clothes she had been wearing when she came home from Sunset's that day, were as filthy as she was.

Pinkie smiled at her sister. "Who knew you could get this gross from doing nothing." she beamed.

"Shower." Limestone said.

Pinkie nodded. "Then I'm gonna go get my girl."

Rainbow nestled her head further into her girl's hair. She hummed contently in their early morning embrace. She opened her eyes and stared at her girlfriend.

Fluttershy's face was bright red and she had a strange look on her face. Rainbow chuckled to herself as she realized, Fluttershy never wrote down the dream she had yesterday. She probably wanted to finish it so she could write it down in its entirety. She slowly and carefully removed herself from the bed to let her butterfly dream away.

She wasn't as uncomfortable with her girlfriend's dreams as she pretended to be, usually she only woke her up when she caught her having one of those dreams to be a nuisance. She had caught Fluttershy before, dreamily staring at the pages of her dream journal, her face bright red and a small smile on her face. Rainbow considered waking her again, but decided that she had already interrupted her lover's dreams, she need not do it again.

She walked into the living room and stared at the kitchen. Rainbow was a terrible cook, but she thought it would be nice if she could make something for her girlfriend to wake up to breakfast in bed. She smiled as she decided, not even she could mess up eggs and toast.

She walked to the kitchen and began preparing the eggs. She had thought it strange, the first time she had seen her vegetarian girlfriend eating eggs and had asked her about it. Fluttershy had simply given her a confusing response about unfertilized eggs, to which Rainbow had made a not-at-all-classy joke about eating chicken periods... Fluttershy had only recently begun eating eggs again.

She hummed to herself as she cooked, enjoying the smell of eggs filling the air. Her lover was asleep in their bed, food was cooking in the kitchen, the extreme heat of summer had toned down to the point that Rainbow could comfortably cook, but still do so in only her underwear. For just a moment everything seemed to be perfect in the world.

Of course, that would be the moment when a knock at the door would shatter everything beautiful about the day.

Rainbow turned down the heat on the stove before quickly running to the living room door. The door opened to reveal a panicked Sunset Shimmer. The girl's eyes were almost completely red and she disheveled, as if she had only just woken up and run out of the house this morning before anything else. The fact that she was wearing pajama bottoms and a tank-top (Rainbow tried her best not to notice her lack of a bra) supported this theory.

"What's wrong, Sunset?" she asked as she protectively pulled the crying girl inside.

Sunset stumbled in and fell into her friends arms. "It's Adagio." she whispered through her tears. "The hospital just called me." Sunset pulled away to look into her friend's eyes, her words chilling Rainbow to the bone.

"They said she tried to kill herself."

Adagio groaned and slammed her head back into the bed. Stupid, stupid, stupid... she thought.

"I hate to leave you alone, Adagio... but, me and Rares ain't exactly had a date in forever..." Applejack said as she slid on her boots underneath her emerald dress.

"It's fine." Adagio said with a smile. "I'll just cook something myself while you're gone. I'm still impressed that Rarity got you into that dress." Adagio laughed.

"Yeah," Applejack muttered, "Let's hope I earned enough brownie points that she'll get me out of it too, right?" she laughed.

"Definitely." Adagio laughed as well. "So sleeveless and strapless, what did she promise you for that?" she asked as she slid her finger over her friend's bare shoulder.

"She's takin' me to some swanky place apparently." Applejack said with a shrug. "Somethin' bout the best in gourmet, and rated number one in service."

"Well, I hope you two have fun." Adagio said as she gently pulled Applejack's hat off of her dresser and handed it to her.

Applejack stared at the hat for a moment. "I don't think she wants me to wear that." she mumbled as a red tint spread across her cheeks.

"Trust me..." Adagio whispered, "she does."

Adagio sighed loudly as she again tested the straps on her arms. "Suicide watch is bullshit!" she called out the door. "I told you, I didn't do it!"

The fresh stitches on her wrist burned a reminder that she did, in fact, do it... just not intentionally. She knew she couldn't cook, but she was hoping following that book's instructions would work. Who knew cutting onions could be so dangerous.

The ambualance drivers that Applebloom had called when she discovered the siren passed out in the kitchen floor had apparently, seen the bruises covering Adagio's body, the tears streaming down her face, and... What, just assumed that I had decided to kill myself halfway through preparing my dinner?

The door opened to reveal Adagio's quack of a doctor. "Miss Dazzle." he nodded as he closed the door. "I would ask you to keep the swearing in my hospital to a minimum."

"I would ask you, to let me leave the hospital." Adagio said in a mock friendly tone.

"We have to observe all potential suicide attempt victims for a minimum of twenty-four hours." he explained for the third time today. "I can't let you leave."

"At least, untie me and give me something to eat. I've been here all night and I'm hungry." she said, exasperation evident in her voice.

"Well," the doctor began, his shaggy brown hair falling in front of his eyes as he nodded. "you do seem stable enough." he said as he marked something on his charts. "I'll tell you what, I called the person that young girl put on file for you, when she gets here, she'll have to observe you and then we can remove the straps and see about getting you something to eat."

"If she put down her sister, then just tell Applejack to bring something with her." Adagio said.

The doctor laughed quickly. "I don't know who Applejack is." he said. "I called this person myself, apparently her name is Sunset Shimmer."

Adagio froze. Applebloom had forgotten the plan... or simply not cared when she realized that the person she wanted to see most was the one person she couldn't risk seeing.

Then the door opened once more and Adagio thought, To hell with the plan...

Sunset Shimmer practically tackled the doctor out of the way and threw her arms around her girlfriend. Adagio for her part merely nestled her nose into Sunset's hair. Tears fell down the bound siren's face as she felt sobs wrack her lover's body. They had spent over a month apart, and their reuniting was done in a hospital under the pretense that Adagio had attempted to kill herself.

There was silence in the room as the two girl's cried over one another. Rainbow stepped in behind the doctor. The doctor stared at Rainbow before whispering, "You can't be in here."

"You can't make me leave." Rainbow said, her voice dripping with an unspoken threat. "Sunset Shimmer is my friend and this girl means the world to her... you aren't going to kick either of us out."

The doctor nodded and shook himself to try to dislodge the ice in his veins. This girl was terrifying. The doctor merely closed the door and cleared his throat for all of the girls' attention. Sunset did not remove her arms from Adagio, but she did turn her head to the doctor.

"Hello." he said. "You must be Sunset Shimmer. I'm Doctor Grant, Doctor Pale Grant." he said as he gave a small wave. "I've been your... uh, sister's-"

"My girlfriend's." Sunset said curtly.

"Right." Doctor Grant said quietly. "Listen, I know I made you aware of part of Adagio's condition over the phone, but there is a reason that she's strapped down." he said.

"She shouldn't be..." Sunset said. "Even if she tried to kill herself... I'm here now, she shouldn't be strapped down."

"She can be released from the straps." he said quickly, attempting to avoid any of these girls and their wrath.

Sunset ignored everything to unstrap her girlfriend. The minute the straps holding Adagio's arms were freed, the siren threw her arms around her lover and held her close.

"Miss Dazzle." Doctor Grant said. The siren looked over Sunset's shoulder and raised an eyebrow at him. "We need to know what you took..."

Adagio, for her part, merely looked confused. "I didn't take anything." she said. "I admit I ACCIDENTALLY cut my wrist, but I didn't take anything."

"We found toxins in your blood samples, Adagio." Doctor Grant said. "Our EMTs are not idiots, we didn't think you tried to kill yourself because of the unfortunate cut on your wrist, in fact, we assume the reason your hand slipped while you were chopping that onion, was because of whatever drugs were in your system. That's why we've been holding you here. We haven't identified it yet, but by all means you should be dead. That's why I have to know, what you took. So we can make sure your system is clear."

"I didn't take anything." Adagio said as she wracked her brain. "Hell, I didn't even eat anything yesterday, all I had was some cider before I started making supper. I thought it tasted funny but-" Adagio froze as cold realization washed over her. There was only one explanation.

Adagio Dazzle had been poisoned.

Adagio entered the barn and looked around. She knew this was where Applejack kept their cases of homemade cider and she was excited to finally try some. Applejack had told her where they kept it weeks ago, but Adagio had never gotten around to trying any. According to Rarity, it was the best cider they'd ever made. There was a case sitting on the table in the middle of the barn with a bottle opener sitting next to them.

Adagio smiled to herself. Applejack must have known she would try some while they were on their date and made it easy to get to them. She was truly a thoughtful friend. Adagio opened the first one and took a sip. It left an unpleasant aftertaste in her mouth, but aside from that it was smooth and still cold. Or rather, it felt cold. There was no way that Applejack could have made sure it was cold by leaving it in a hot barn in the middle of summer. Could she?

"Doctor Grant, I'm afraid I can't tell you what I took, because I didn't take it directly. Please, go run my blood samples and see if you can't figure it out." Adagio said.

Doctor Grant seemed hesitant at first, but nodded quickly and left the room.

After the door shut behind him, Adagio explained what had happened to Sunset and Rainbow.

Rainbow shook her head and scowled. "I think now would be the time to get the cops involved." she seethed.

Sunset shook her head. "I don't understand." she mumbled. "At first, whoever was out to hurt us was happy to just play a slander game. They bugged your phone and followed us... while that's creepy, I didn't think they'd resort to violence or even-" Sunset's eyes widened in fear as the implications of what had happened hit her. "They tried to kill you."

"If they tried to kill her," Rainbow said quietly. "then maybe, they'll try killing someone else."

Fluttershy awoke and reached her arms out to hold her lover, but she was shocked when she realized that she was grasping at air. She opened her eyes to see Rainbow's half of the bed completely empty.

She quickly left her bed and searched the living room. She found a short simple note on the coffee table.

Fluttershy, I don't want to worry you. Everyone is fine, but I'm taking Sunset Shimmer to the hospital. Apparently something happened to Adagio and she didn't want to go alone. I'm letting you sleep and there should be eggs and toast on the kitchen table so you can have breakfast. I'll come home just as soon as I can so take care until then.

Love- Your Dashie

Fluttershy frowned slightly. If Adagio was in the hospital it was something to worry about. Still, she trusted Rainbow, so if she said everything was okay and not to worry, then everything was okay, and Fluttershy would not worry.

Fluttershy went to the kitchen in search of the promised breakfast only to stop as she spotted a shadow, crouched by the fence in the backyard. She pressed her face into the glass, hoping to see whatever it was.

The shadow moved. It slowly stood, revealing itself to be a person before sprinting for Fluttershy's back door.

Fluttershy yelled and ran into the living room even as the apparent intruder banged on the door. Fluttershy said a silent prayer of thanks that Rainbow had remembered to lock the back door and set the alarm before she left. She checked the front door to make sure it was locked before running to her bedroom and locking the door behind her as she entered.

She sat on the floor and stared at the bedroom door, praying that whoever was assaulting her home would never make it that far.

Trixie floated in space. She stared at the darkness ahead and took note of the lack of stars in the sky. She sighed. This is what happened when they took her.

They didn't stop her, so much as they kept her unaware of herself.

She wished for a moment that her sister was here. She became aware of a snarling and a pain in her knuckles, but that was her corporeal body. As far as she was concerned it did not exist here, because it didn't.

The madness was gone for her. Her mind was her own, but the darkness had a body now. A body that just obeyed its last command before its controlling voice was forever silenced. Sabotage the Rainbooms. That's what the darkness craved.

The darkness was smart, it was constantly plotting. Trixie had begun to realize that her plans for hurting Adagio and the Rainbooms were not her own. She was not capable of such a grudge, nor was she capable of the planning. Trixie was actually peaceful by nature. She could fight the darkness and take control of herself occasionally, but the medicine made it so difficult.

She should not be on anti-psychotics for this. She wasn't psychotic. That's why she didn't take her medicine. They didn't calm her down, they just locked her in her own mind. When the darkness was weaker, this only led to her passing out, but now that it was stronger it wanted blood. It wanted to use Trixie's hands to destroy the Rainbooms and the original source of its power.

Adagio Dazzle.

"This is my fault." Adagio said quietly.

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow asked. "As much as I love pinning the bad things you've done on you, I don't think this is in any way your fault.

"It is." Adagio said. "Applebloom told me last night... I finally talked her into telling me who was following us. I was gonna ask everyone to meet up so I could tell you all."

Applebloom sighed as she hugged the siren. Adagio looked down and smiled at her. "What was that for."

"I'm sorry." Applebloom said quietly. "For how I treated you... and well, all gay people... at first."

"I've already told you, I forgive you, Applebloom." Adagio said as she stroked the young girl's hair.

"I'm worried about her." Applebloom said quietly.

"Who?"

"My friend... the one that's out ta get you." Applebloom sighed. "At first, I thought was she was doin' wasn't that bad. But, now... now she's gettin worse. She's the one that broke into Rainbow's house. Apparently, Scoots sold her some harmless information... she didn't think she'd break the law."

Adagio sighed and hugged the girl tighter. "Is there something you want to tell me?" she asked.

"Yeah." Applebloom said. "I'm gonna tell you who she is... She's gettin' worse and I don't think she's herself right now. If I tell you who she is, I figure you gals can come up with some way to get her back to normal... She won't even tell me her plans anymore and she broke into Rainbow's home. This has gone from highschool drama to felony stuff and I'm real worried."

"Who is it?" Adagio asked, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice.

"It's-"

"Trixie?" Rainbow asked. "I don't think so." she said as she crossed her arms. "She's not capable of anything like this."

"Think about it." Adagio said. "Remember where she was at the Battle of the Bands?"

"Yeah, she performed on stage and then she went..." Rainbow paused.

"I think she went under the stage." Sunset said. "She was probably going to let us out."

"So, what does that have to do with anything?" Rainbow asked.

"Under the stage, how well could you hear her song?" Adagio asked.

"It was muffled really bad, but we still heard it." Sunset said.

"And," Adagio knew her last argument would help them connect the dots. "where did you play your song that dispelled our dark magic?"

"On the hill..." Rainbow whispered, understanding dawning on her. "She wouldn't have heard the counter spell."

"So the dark magic wouldn't have left her." Adagio said.

"But your crystals were destroyed." Rainbow said.

"Remember what Twilight said?" Sunset asked. "That we needed to have everyone in one place for the counter spell."

"Even with our magic destroyed..." Adagio held a hand to her throat before continuing. "It still wouldn't have been enough to undo the magic. The way our magic works, it sends a message. A subtle message to any listener." she said. "The message we used on Trixie specifically was, 'sabotage the Rainbooms' the message we sent during the battle was..." Adagio trailed off and set her gaze upon her now shaking hands. "Oh my god..." she whispered. "I actually tried to... I wanted to... We were going to..."

Sunset wrapped the girl in her arms and cooed to her quietly. Rainbow shuffled uncomfortably at the sight, but remained silent. Even if she hated Adagio... she didn't like seeing her like this.

"Sorry." Adagio mumbled several minutes later as she wiped fresh tears from her face. "What I was getting at, was that if she had both of those planted in her head, mixed in with dark magic, she still shouldn't be quite this bad. At most, she would still sabotage you in ways she normally would have."

"Like planting a bug on a phone." Adagio said with a small smirk.

"Or sending incriminating videos." Rainbow said.

"Right." Adagio nodded quickly, silently noting that Rainbow was at least being civil enough to hear her out. "Something's changed though. Something has to be giving the dark magic more control if she's willing to try to kill me."

"That's another thing." Rainbow said. "I get her sabotaging us, but why is she going after you too. And why did she try poison instead of something more direct?"

"Well as for the more direct thing," Adagio said. "I've actually been learning how to fight from Applejack the past couple of weeks." she gestured to the bruises covering her body, each one a lesson from Applejack about guards and timing. "She's probably still rational enough to realize how strong I've grown in the past two weeks and would rather not risk getting hurt. I don't think she'd try getting physical with anyone unless she considered them extremely weak. As for targeting me in the first place-"

"While the passive magic in her mind is sending her after us, her own personal prejudices against Adagio must be manifesting with the dark magic." Sunset said quickly.

Both girls blinked at her.

"What?" Sunset said. "You guys do know in Equestria my special talent was literally magic, don't you?"

"Regardless, you're right." Adagio said. "So, whatever's making her lose control, is probably targeting me for her sake."

"Why hasn't she gone after Aria or Sonata then?" Rainbow asked.

"Opportunity." Adagio said. "They don't present any because they rarely leave the house."

"So, basically..." Sunset began with a thoughtful look. "We need to get rid of the magic in Trixie and that'll stop everything bad happening to us, right?"

"Right." Adagio said.

"Well, we'll need Princess Twilight's help." Rainbow said.

"That's not good." Sunset mumbled. "Pinkie broke her heart a few days ago... as far as I know, she's sitting in front of the portal right now hoping that Pinkie will show up and let her explain herself."

"Shit." Rainbow muttered.

"So... We need to help Twilight, if not win Pinkie back, at least help her get over her." Adagio said thoughtfully.

"Then we can stop Trixie." Sunset said.

"Then everything will be over." Rainbow smiled.

"So, we have a game plan?" Sunset asked.

Rainbow's phone rang and she quickly raised a finger and answered it after checking the caller i.d. "Hello?"

"Rainbow, please come home." Fluttershy's tear filled voice came through the line, sending chills through the girl. Her next statement sent her flying out the door as fast as she could possibly run.

"Somebody's outside the door... I think they want to hurt me..."

Author's Notes:

So, we're finally reaching the ends of the PinkieLight arc and the Trixie arc... Wait, is that implying I've still got more after that? I most certainly do. It's not much, but even after that's over we're going to get to see the holidays, New Years, Valentines Day, and a different version of Adagio's and Sunset's anniversary, with plenty of fluff and filler and porn in between to relax after all this drama.

You guys have really been making me smile with the comments lately and I really appreciate it. Please, if you don't mind, keep it up. I wanna hear from you.

This chapter was kinda an all day thing. This chapter is really the kickstart for all of the suspense that's coming up, so of course, I wrote three different versions of it before settling for this one. What do you guys think, did I pick the right one?

As always, I regret nothing.