Her mind was growing hazy. It was so hard to pay attention to anything going on in the room, save for the sound of Sunset Shimmer's voice. Adagio knew that she should have already fallen asleep, but the one constant sound in the room renewed her. Just hearing Sunset's voice, seeing her smile, feeling the warmth of her arms wrapped around the siren kept her spirits up.

Her vision was a blur, save for the pearly white smile of the girl she cared so much for, she could see nothing else clearly. But her lover? She could see her face as clearly as if it had been programmed into her mind. The noise Sunset was making was the most important sound in the world, even if she was saying nothing at all. Which, she very well could have been saying nothing at all. It did not matter. Adagio remained awake to hear it regardless.

These were the crucial moments. As sleep forced its way into the siren's body, her lover had to remain strong. No tears would comfort either of them this day. Only laughter and joy would bring them comforting thoughts in the days to come. Adagio hoped she would dream of Sunset, while Sunset simply hoped her siren would awaken.

Adagio smiled as she tilted her head towards Sunset's waiting lips. She wanted one last kiss... just in case.

Sunset felt her lover go limp in her arms after she finished telling her about her week. She knew that after a while, Adagio stopped hearing her, so she had just been distracting their minds. Now, after one last kiss on the lips, Adagio was well and truly asleep. Sunset knew that she was supposed to go get Doctor Grant after her lover fell asleep. Had she been stronger, that was exactly what she would have done. However, this day, Sunset was weak. She was so much weaker than she would have liked to have been.

Instead of fetching the doctor as she had been instructed, she held her siren's unconscious form closely and cried. She buried her face in the curly orange locks of Adagio's hair and felt them quickly grow damp. She had held in her pain, just as Adagio had wanted, now was the time where her selfishness could be forgiven. Now was the time that she could cry and whisper silent pleas to her lover to just wake up soon and come back to her. Now was the time for her to mouth a silent prayer to whatever gods may claim her siren if she wasn't strong enough.

Her silent weeping had become loud sobs that wracked her body and drew the remaining Rainbooms into the room. The girls dared not interfere with Sunset's grief. They merely stood in the room as moral support for their friend while she continued to hold her lover and friend, Adagio.

Sunset saw Fluttershy slowly leave the room, but said nothing. She was no longer sobbing loudly, but neither was she 'okay' by any means. She was simply... numb.

Despite Adagio's original wishes, all of her friends now knew exactly how bad her condition was. They all cried as they stood and stared at a numb Sunset Shimmer holding an unconscious siren. Rainbow would later be asked about the tears streaming down her face, and to the disbelief of most who heard her, she would claim the tears with pride.

All of the girls allowed themselves to cry for the sake of their friend, and all of them stood by her. Whether they were crying for Sunset or Adagio, none of them knew for sure.

Doctor Grant stood from his desk and roared with rage as he threw his computer from the desk. His fury not quite quelled, he threw the desk too. Then in an act of malice and spite carried his computer to his window. He opened the window to his office, located conveniently on the twelfth floor of the hospital, placed the computer on the sill and gave the tower one final push.

He had been trying most of the day to figure out the perfect chemicals for an antidote to the cocktail of toxins in Adagio Dazzle's body. Nothing seemed like a viable option, and he had almost run out of options.

He had taken a personal interest in this case. He had passed along all of his patients to another doctor he trusted and focused all of his time and energy on the strange girl with the poisoning case. He didn't know why, but the concern those other seven girls showed for Adagio compelled him to focus everything he had into helping her. It confused him.

He had seen whole families entreat him to focus on their loved one, and of course he had, but he had never become this emotionally involved. It was the love, he noted, the love in their eyes that they all shared, not just with Adagio, but with each other. They were more than friends, more than family, they were all one another's worlds.

He knew as he had looked into their eyes, that losing even one of their friends would completely destroy them.

Now, however, Grant felt hopeless. He could analyze the toxins and chemicals in the girl's system all day, but they were unlike anything he had ever encountered before. He had thrown his computer out a widow, because he knew that nothing online would help him solve this medical mystery.

He sighed as he sat on the floor, now strewn with papers and wires. He rubbed his fingers on his temples as he thought. Surely, there was some cure he just hadn't figured out yet, some antidote that would have the girl back in fighting shape in no time.

A knock at the door distracted the doctor from his thoughts.

"Uhm... excuse me... Doctor Grant? Is this a bad time? I can just leave." The quiet pink one said. Grant lifted his head to see the girl trying to hide herself behind the door.

"Is Adagio finally asleep?" He asked.

"Y-yes." Fluttershy said. "Sunset hasn't moved since...."

"I'll head that way now." Grant said as he stood from the floor.

"Is everything okay?" The quiet girl asked.

Grant sighed loudly. "It will be... I hope... I just can't find the right chemical mixture to negate the toxins in her body. Whatever poison is in her system, it's unlike anything I've ever seen."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Fluttershy asked.

"I'm afraid not." Grant said. "Just be patient... and pray..."

Melody stretched in her new bed. The bed itself was far from new. In fact, the bed was probably the same one Trixie had had since she was a kid. Melody considered asking her body-mate, but decided against it. She refused to spend too much time in Trixie's memories, so she resigned herself to leave the subject of the old bed alone.

She had tossed her new jacket on the floor and thrown herself on the bed. She could hear Trixie's mom on the phone with someone, but her voice was too muted for her to know who.

"Trixie." Melody said.

What?

"What do you normally do for fun?" Melody asked. "I'm kinda bored."

There isn't a lot I normally do outside the house. Trixie explained. I can usually find a good book to read, or watch some television, and every now and again Trixie enjoys playing a video game.

"Video game?" Melody asked.

Trixie sighed in her mind. Go to my computer over there and click on the one that says 'Counter Offensive: Global Strike'.

Melody complied. She turned on the game as Trixie efficiently guided her through the main menu. After a quick loading screen, the game began. What followed could only be descried as a series of rage fits filled with language that would have made a sailor blush, all the while Trixie cackled with glee in Melody's mind.

Two hours, three coffees, two holes in the wall, and one bathroom break later Melody finally switched the infernal computer off. "That was sadistic." she said. "Why would you enjoy that? Seriously, Trixie, I want to know what possesses a person to say, 'okay, I'm gonna go do something that leaves me so filled with rage I want to set stuff on fire afterwards'."

Please don't set anything on fire...

"I'm considering it!" Melody shouted. "I had a kill/death ratio of point zero-eight. I was, literally, the worst player on either team."

Just go to sleep... you might feel better afterwards... besides, Trixie can actually feel your exhaustion.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Melody said before plopping back onto the bed. "After that, I feel like I could sleep for a week."

Adagio awoke to the sound of her friends yelling. "I wanna be the princess!" Sonata yelled with a hint of a pout in her voice.

"Well, I wanna be the princess, you can be the prince!" Aria yelled, her scowl evident in her voice.

Adagio yawned widely before rolling out of her bed and onto her hooves. "Girls." she said, her voice firm, yet kind. "I've told you before how you need to settle this." she said. "I'm really tired of waking up to my two best friends refusing to get along. Now, who was the prince last time?"

"Sonata." Aria said, the filly brought a hoof to her muzzle. "I just don't think it's fair. Why can't we both be princesses?"

"Because, you're playing wedding." Adagio said. "Usually, it's a prince and a princess, not two princesses."

"Well, that's dumb." Sonata said. "If I wanna marry Aria when I'm grown up, then I should be allowed to marry Aria when I grow up."

"Trust me," Adagio said with a chuckle. "You two will not get married when you grow up."

"But, I dooo wanna marry Aria!" Sonata whined.

"Like I'd ever marry you!" Aria said as she attempted to hide her blush behind a scowl. "You're the worst!"

"Now, girls, why don't you go ahead and get the pretend wedding out of the way before you start arguing like a married couple?" Adagio asked innocently as Aria's jaw dropped and Sonata giggled.

The door opened and the three fillies beamed as a stout earth pony with a heart for a cutie mark walked in. She was a mare with a brown coat, a yellow mane, and the most gentle blue eyes the orphans had ever seen. "Marey!" the fillies cried in unison as they launched themselves at their caretaker with an impromptu group hug.

"Now, now, my little ponies." Marey said. "One of these days you girls are going to be too big for this." she said as she untangled herself from three sets of little hooves. None of the fillies knew their real parents, their earliest memories were of Marey and her gentle care. "So, what do you girls want to do today?" she asked.

"We're playing wedding," Sonata said. "but, Aria said she wanted to be the princess and I want to be the princess too."

"Well, why don't you both be princesses?" Marey asked kindly.

"Because two princess can't get married." Adagio said. "Isn't it supposed to be a prince and a princess?"

Marey laughed lightly as she shook her head. "No, dear, two princesses can get married if they want to." she explained. "Princesses make the rules, so if two of them want to get married, they can."

"So we can both be princesses?" Aria asked, trying to keep the hopefulness out of her voice and failing.

"Yes, you can." Marey said with an affectionate ruffle of Aria's mane. "Now, if they are playing the brides, what are you going to do?" she asked the remaining filly.

Adagio smiled proudly as she looked at her caretaker, "It's obvious isn't it? Every good wedding needs amazing music... I'm gonna sing."

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack sat in the cab of Applejack's truck watching Trixie's house. They had been there since Adagio had gone to sleep, watching and waiting to see if Trixie was up to anything devious. They arrived shortly after nightfall, but had seen nothing.

"Maybe she's sleeping." Fluttershy suggested.

"Or maybe she's sacrificing a baby." Rainbow oh-so helpfully suggested.

"Are you insane?" Applejack asked. Her irritation had with the guitarist had only grown since they had clambered into the truck. At first, her newfound loyalty to the siren had been endearing and inspiring, but after a few minutes of mumbling that involved several different forms of torture towards Trixie, Applejack had been forced to remind her friend that Trixie had no control of herself when she did any of the bad things she had done.

"No." Rainbow answered. "But, we know for a fact that she is right now, who knows what that magic is making her do?"

"You've watched too much T.V., Rainbow." Applejack said. "I really don't think she's in there sacrificin' anything."

"You don't know though..." Rainbow mumbled darkly. "I still say we go in and kick her teeth in."

"Rainbow." Fluttershy said softly. "I understand you're upset and worried about Adagio, but you know that Trixie isn't in control of herself right now... It's like she's sick. You wouldn't hurt someone who was doing something wrong if they had a brain tumor."

"She hurt us because of the dark magic." Rainbow said. "The magic didn't have anything pushing her to hurt Adagio, it was her magic."

"We can't be sure about that, Dash." Applejack said.

"No, we can't." Rainbow said. "We don't know for sure either way, that's why we need to be prepared. For all we know, the magic isn't controlling her, it's just making her more likely to do something bad she's always wanted to do."

"Or, it could have complete control of her." Fluttershy stated. "If that is the case, then she's in danger and we have to help her, not hurt her."

"Ugh," Rainbow groaned. "I get it... I just don't want anyone else to get hurt because we didn't stop her in time."

Applejack had opened her mouth to respond to Dash, when a movement near Trixie's house caught her attention. "Who's 'at?" she whispered, her mind now on full alert. Approaching the door was a tall woman wearing a leather jacket. Long green hair fell down the woman's back as she approached the house with a confident strut.

"I don't know, I can't see from here." Rainbow said.

"Wait a minute." Fluttershy mumbled. "Isn't that the woman who installed our security system?"

"I think so..." Rainbow said. "Why would she be involved though?"

"I don't know. Mythic seemed like a nice person, I don't think she'd be helping Trixie." Fluttershy said.

"Did ya'll tell her what happened?" Applejack asked. "Maybe she took a personal interest into ya'll and she tracked down Trixie same as we did."

"I doubt it." Rainbow said. "The chick was weird, but I don't think she's out playing super hero."

"Her skin was almost the same shade of blue as Trixie's... maybe she's her mom." Fluttershy suggested.

"Nah, she had to be in her twenties still, I don't think she's old enough to have a seventeen year old... Maybe it's her sister?" Rainbow asked.

"It's possible, but I ain't heard bout no sister o' Trixie's." Applejack said. "Still, seems like the most reasonable explanation."

"Regardless, I get the feeling that this is about to get more complicated." Rainbow said. "Mythic seemed like a nice woman and all, but if we have to separate her and Trixie, it could get bad."

"Why's 'at?"

"Mythic probably doesn't know what's going on with Trixie, no matter how she knows her. If she did, she'd probably have Trixie in the hospital. So, if we show up and just try to take Trixie without any explanation, she might think we're crazy kidnappers or something." Rainbow sighed. "So, if we want to take Trixie to kick her ass or to clear out her dark magic either one, we'll have to explain everything to her and her mom, and even then we risk looking like crazy people."

"Why can't anything be simple here lately?" Applejack groaned.

Star sat in anticipation as she awaited the last person she wanted to see. She hadn't spoken to this particular person in over ten years, but she was truly afraid and had nobody else to turn to. She had heard the hatred in the voice over the phone, but she knew that her nemesis would return, just as she had promised ten years before.

Star was waiting on her oldest daughter.

Star had been discovered, ten years before. Just months after Trixie's father, Nimbus, had left them behind. She had been in the middle of punishing her daughter, as was her right as a parent, when her oldest daughter had come down the stairs. At age sixteen, her oldest daughter had delivered a kick that had broken Star's ribs and put her in the hospital. Her oldest child had left home after that.

Star hadn't cared, her oldest daughter was a freak of nature and an abomination, she had originally refused to even refer to her child as her daughter, but now she forced herself to. Insulting the child would not convince her to do as Star wanted and take her second disappointment away.

Trixie had begged, for ten years, for Star to convince her big sister to come home to no avail. Star did not know or care what had become of her child, but she still received text messages from her. They were reminders, that one day she would return and 'rescue' her little sister from their mother.

Star was their mother, but they did not respect that fact. Yes, she hit her child when she was out of line, but that was how they built character. She couldn't very well let her child grow up to be a deviant.

A knock at the door broke Star from her current thoughts. The house had a doorbell, but of course she wouldn't use it. Her daughter went out of her way to do everything out of the ordinary, she always had.

Star opened the door to find herself staring into angry green eyes. "Mother." the green-haired woman on the porch stated flatly. There was no hate nor malice in her voice, just resignation.

"It's good to see you too, so- I mean, dear." Star grimaced. Insulting her child would not help her right now.

"Whatever," she said as she entered the house. "where is she?"

"She's upstairs asleep." Star said as she took at seat on her couch.

"Did you hurt her?" the young woman asked, her gentle green eyes flaring momentarily with barely suppressed rage.

Star sighed, "To be honest with you, I tried. She laughed it off and threatened me. I've never been so scared of her."

Her daughter laughed bitterly. "And now that you can't force her into submission any more, you want to pawn her off on me." she said. "I'll tell you what, I'll ask if she wants to stay with me in the morning. If she wants to, I'll take her, but if she chooses to stay here, well, she's your problem."

"She's asked about you for the past ten years, I doubt that she'll turn down the offer, even with her mind as broken as it is." Star explained.

"I'm gonna assume that's somehow your fault." her daughter said before sighing. "I'm staying on your couch tonight." she said matter-of-factly. "When Trixie wakes up in the morning, I'll talk to her."

"Thank you, dear." Star said, fighting against a sigh of relief.

"You can call me by my name." her daughter said darkly. "I know it isn't the one you picked out, but you can still call me by it."

"You're right." Star said, swearing internally. She had sworn twelve years ago when her ex-husband had approved of their child's choice that she would never call her by that name, but this was not a request. Her daughter didn't have to say it, but these were her terms.

"Well?" her daughter said as she took off her leather jacket and threw it on the back of the couch.

"Thank you, Mythic."

Sunset sat beside her siren's bed. The doctor had come in already and done everything he needed to do to induce the coma. Now, Sunset merely sat beside the bed and hoped for the best. She would not leave Adagio's side if she had a choice in the matter, and Grant seemed more than happy for her to stay exactly where she was.

She had finally shaken off the shock of her lover going under and was now looking at things more rationally. When the shock wore off she had been embarrassed about the scene she had made for her friends, but they had all told her they did not blame her. They had cried with her when Adagio finally fell asleep.

She was happy that both she and Adagio had friends that cared so much for them both. She was terrified of what the future held for herself and her lover, but she was glad to know that no matter what happened, her friends would be their to guide them through.

She sighed as the door opened and Rarity stepped into the room. "What's up?" she asked, feigning cheerfulness.

Rarity sighed heavily as she handed a book to Sunset. "The others wanted me to bring you this. They said you probably wouldn't move from this spot until she wakes up." she explained. "They're going to look for Trixie and keep an eye on her while you watch Adagio."

"And you were picked as the first to keep an eye on me, right?" Sunset asked as she opened the book.

Rarity's jaw dropped.

"Don't look so surprised," Sunset said, "I guessed that you guys would keep an eye on me and... y'know, make sure I don't go crazy or anything."

"Well... yes." Rarity said. "We set up a schedule for each of us to stay with you until Adagio wakes up. Rainbow Dash and Applejack said I should go first, because aside from you and Pinkie, they think I'm the closest to her."

"Besides me and Pinkie, you probably are." Sunset said, her eyes never leaving the book. "She considers you a very close friend, I can tell..."

Rarity froze for a moment, attempting to read any implications in Sunset's words. Worried that her friend might take offense at the fact that Rarity had spent more time with Adagio than her own girlfriend, she made to apologize. "Sunset, I-"

"I'm glad." Sunset said quickly, her eyes still focused on the book even as tears began sliding down her cheeks once more. "She called me from a pay-phone a few times while she was staying at the farm. She seemed so happy that the two of you grew so close in such a short amount of time. She said that while Applejack was in the fields, the two of you were sitting on the couch watching movies, or gossiping, or anything like that... I wanted to... to thank you." Sunset said, her voice wavering with her words. "She needed a friend... and the two of you were there for her.I couldn't be there, but you were... It means a lot to me that you were such a good friend to her."

Rarity quickly ran across the room and threw her arms around Sunset. "It was my absolute pleasure." she said softly as her own tears stained Sunset's hair. "And it will be my absolute delight to be an even better friend to her when she wakes up."

"Thank you, Rarity." Sunset cried, her book all but forgotten. "Thank you..."

Author's Notes:

So, now we're getting to the crux of things. Questions are being answered, characters are making discoveries, CS:GO fans are getting pissed, and Adagio's tragic past is finally being revealed one piece at a time.

So, I know I'm a comment whore and I'm always asking for them, but this time I have a question. What does everyone think of Mythic? Am I being too obvious about who she is as a person, or is there just enough context to leave you guessing? Was the scene of Adagio finally going to sleep good, or did I f#@& it up? How does everyone feel about Adagio dreaming of her past life? And how was everyone's Thanksgiving? Seriously, I want to know.

As usual feel free to leave any comments (answering my questions or otherwise) below.

Thank you guys for being patient with me. I may be trying to get back on a daily update schedule, but it's going to take some time.

I regret nothing.