The elevator dings and its doors lazily slide open to reveal a hallway barely adequately lit with florescent lights. The walls are covered in peeling white paint and the large windows that show an amazing view of Canterlot are in desperate need of cleaning. Most of the great view being possible because the apartment complex is resting on the crest of a hill.

Trixie quietly follows Minty Sprinkles down the hall with the box still in her magical aura while the officer is carrying a bag of candy from Bon Bon's shop. They do not have to walk far since they are the fifth apartment on the floor, labeled “505”, and while Minty works to unlock the door, Trixie takes the moment to look out the window.

The orange colors of the setting sun give the bustling city a peaceful hue, and as Trixie looks at the growing skyline of Canterlot, she notices a huge construction site in its skeletal phase on the outskirts of the city. It is the largest of the buildings, even in its early stages, and the only reason why the Royal Palace is above it is because of its vantage point on the mountainside.

“Hey, Minty, what’s that over there?” asks Trixie as she points at the distant site.

Minty looks at what Trixie is pointing at. “That would be the Celestial Spire.”

“What’s it for?”

Minty opens the door and trots inside the apartment. “Not a clue. It’s probably going to be a monument of some kind. But forget about that thing. We have an apartment to explore!”

Minty shows Trixie the living room first. Its a decent size with dark gray carpet, a ceiling fan, and a glass table with a love seat and a couple of chairs, and next to them on a nightstand is a dial radio. After that is the kitchen and dining room area. The kitchen has all the basics, but only one pony can fit in there comfortably, and even then it will still be somewhat cramped. The dining room is next to the kitchen and has a wooden table with a lighting fixture above it and cushions surrounding it. Trixie is then taken to the bathroom. It has all the necessities, nothing more, nothing less, and has just enough room for one pony, just like the kitchen. And finally there are the two bedrooms that come with a small closet, a single bed and a window with a curtain that shows them a great view of the urban jungle. However, while the apartment is quaint and has a humble touch, the apartment, the number of rooms is the extremely unsettling for Trixie.

“Um, Minty, why are there two rooms?” asks Trixie quizzically.

“We're going to be roommates,” replies Minty. “And I call dibs on this room!”

Minty balances the box from Octavia's home on her head and skips inside the nearest room, leaving Trixie to stare straight ahead. Pale and trembling with Minty's words echoing in her brain like mocking demons who take joy in her misery.

“Roommates, huh?” says Trixie.

“Yep! We're gonna have a blast!” says Minty from inside her room.

“Yeaaaah... Fun times...”

And then Trixie faints.

“Trixie~” says Minty, her voice smooth and echoing inn the vastness of Trixie's darkness like an angel calling a lost soul to the light. “Oh, Trixieeee~~”

The voice is so smooth, so calming, so peaceful. It is nowhere near as annoying as Trixie remembers and-

“WAKE UP!”

Piercing cold water suddenly splashes all over Trixie's face and she screams and jumps to the sitting position, teeth chattering and her soaked body shaking as her vision is completely blocked by her drenched mane. She wipes some of her mane away from her eyes and sees Minty tossing an empty bucket into the kitchen. That really gives her a strong desire to sock Minty in the jaw.

“I had to get you up somehow,” says Minty.

“You didn’t have smelling salt?” says Trixie through gritted teeth.

“You slept through it, so I had to use ice water, instead.” Minty then grabs a towel that she has draping over her back and offers it to Trixie. “Towel?”

Trixie frowns at Minty, but still takes the towel with her magic and pats herself dry as she explores her room in a feeble attempt to calm her nerves. All it takes is one stare and a two second closet inspection to see all that the room has to offer.

“Homey, right?” asks Minty, her smile now forced.

Trixie sighs and looks down, nodding as she drops the towel on the floor and approaches her bed. “Yeah. Homey...”

Minty sighs and leans against the doorway, her smile gone. “Look, I know you’re eager to go out on your own and put your mess behind you and all that, but Celestia is just worried that you might do something bad if we left you on your own. So I got to watch you until we think you are ready.”

Trixie silently presses her hoof on her bed, and the springs squeak and groan loudly in protest, and she can feel the lumps in the mattress, too. But despite the poor condition, she loves how comfortable it and the sheets feels, and can easily see many good rests with her new bed.

“But when you think about it, this set up isn't too bad,” continues Minty. “I mean, we have a great view of Canterlot and we’re on the top floor so we don’t have to deal with anypony up top. There's also a trolley stop a block down, lots of stores nearby and plenty of ponies in the neighborhood. You can start over. Write out the old you, put the new one in and make a lot of new friends, here.”

Trixie looks at Minty out of the corner of her eye, frowning. “Friends are unreliable.”

Minty stares at Trixie, unmoving, and Trixie looks at the bed again, testing the purple fabric with her hoof, noting its thickness.

“Hey, Trixie,” says Minty.

Trixie looks at Minty and almost misses a box of mint gum that is tossed at her, and she looks at the box for a moment before looking up at her parole officer, who is leaving the room, now.

“I’ll be in my room if you need anything,” says Minty.

Trixie nods and after hearing Minty close her bedroom door, she sneaks up and presses her ear against it to see if she can get an idea of what is going on. She hears the box being cut open and some stuff being taken out and sorted, and Trixie tip-hooves back to her room and stares at the bed sheets as she carefully opens up a box of mint gum. Her eyes then drift to the window and after realizing how dark it is getting, she hurries over to her bed and yanks off the blanket with her teeth while simultaneously using her magic to pull off the bottom sheets.

After some trial and error, she finally manages to wrap the sheets around her body to where it keeps her the majority of her body hidden, leaving only her hooves exposed. To cover her mane and tail, she pulls off the pillow case from her pillow and with the help of magic, she ties her mane in a bun and sticks the cover over it, and does something similar with her tail. Once that is said and done, she tests her movements in her cheap disguise and smiles at the fact that it works great, with the only major problem -besides the lack of protection- being that it feels stifling. However, she cannot afford comfort at this point, and despite her feeling like she is going to be sick from what she is about to do, she knows she has wasted enough time. Bon Bon is in danger and there is no telling how much time she has left.

Pinkie Pie's mouth carefully guides the brush on one of the leg pads from a set of hoofball pads she had stuffed inside the box she mailed to Octavia. Every stroke leaves a shining layer of dark purple paint, and she thinks it is coming along nicely, but she pauses when she hears a window slide open and click shut. She gratefully spits out the foul tasting paintbrush and looks out her window to see a pony in bedsheets slithering her way down the fire escape, then leaping off at a good height and awkwardly landing on a dumpster. The bang from her impact echoes in the alley, same her very colorful choice of words to vocalize her pain, and the disguised pony rolls off the dumpster and gallops down the street in silence while a random dog barks in the distance.

Pinkie Pie hums, cracks her back, and then she grabs her keys and hastily exits the apartment.

“What are you up to, Trixie?”

In the manager's office of Bonbon Land, Bon Bon hastily stuffs the last of the small bags of bits in her safe. With every bit of her financial resources pulled, her safe can barely close, but while she is nauseous with panic and can barely think straight, much less concentrate on what is in front of her, there is a little voice in the back of the head that is telling her it will all be okay. That little voice is not strong enough to stop her from wanting to vomit, though.

“Hey, Bon Bon, you ready to go?” hollers Lyra from somewhere nearby.

Bon Bon quickly slams her safe shut, spins the dial, and turns just in time to see Lyra poke her head in the doorway, looking beaten by the rough day at work.

“Yeah, I'm almost ready,” says Bon Bon with a smile that is ruined by a sickly gurgle in her gut and a thick layer of sweat on her face.

Lyra's tired, beaten state has concern stacked on top of it as she steps in the room. “Are you okay?You look a little sick.”

Bon Bon nods quickly. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I just had some bad food, is all.”

“You didn't eat at that donkey restaurant did you?”

“I, uh, did, actually...”

“Dang it, Bon Bon! I told you donkeys are dirty, and now you got food poisoning because they can’t keep their stupid place clean.”

“I'm sorry, Lyra, but I like donkey food.”

Lyra sighs. “Sure, whatever. Do you want me to reschedule the dates I got set up? I mean I'm not going on a double date with just me and two stallions. That'll give them the wrong idea and I really don't want another Neigh Orleans night.”

Bon Bon sucks in some air to calm her queasy stomach. “You don't have to reschedule anything. Just tell the guys I'll be late.”

Lyra arches a brow critically. “Late as in Neigh Orleans late or late as in late-late.”

“Late-late, Lyra.”

“Good. I don't want to wake up on a hotel floor surrounded by ten different stallions and needing a wheel chair to get around again.”

“Jeeze, Lyra, I get it! I won't stand you up on your date nights again.”

“Our date nights. Seriously, you need to get out more and loosen up, because, believe it or not, too much work can lead to your face falling off. Just ask my Aunt Larry up in Townsville.”

Bon Bon huffs and sits down on her chair, rubbing her sweaty head and swallowing bile. “Lyra, I don't even know how this double date thing is supposed to work with the curfew in effect.”

Lyra smirks mischievously. “Don't worry. I already got it all figured out.”

Bon Bon sighs sickly. “Of course you do.”

Lyra's smirk changes to a worried frown, and she steps forward and places her hoof on Bon Bon's shoulder. “Are you sure you're okay?”

Bon Bon nods hesitantly. “I'm fine. Really. I just got to do some last minute work before I go.”

“Do you want me to stay and help?”

“I'd rather you not. This is something I have to do by myself. But I'll meet you at your place, okay?”

“You sure?”

Bon Bon nods and swallows a lump. “Yeah.”

“I mean, I can stay if you want me to. I got no problem with that.”

“Please just go home, Lyra.” Bon Bon's eyes water and her hooves rub against each other as she looks at her friend. “I'll catch up with you, I promise. But I gotta do this alone, okay?”

“Okay. I'll see you later.”

Bon Bon nods and Lyra reluctantly heads towards the backdoor. Bon Bon does follow her friend to make sure that she does in fact leave, and when they are outside the cool night air feels good on her burning hide, but the comfort does not last for she sees predatory eyes staring at her from an alley. To her relief, Lyra does not notice, but she does turn and flash Bon Bon a quick smile.

“So, I'll be seeing you at my place when?” says Lyra.

Bon Bon sighs. “When I'm done.”

Lyra does an about face and starts trotting away, smiling broadly. “So, forty five minutes, then. Got it.”

Bon Bon's jaw drops and she holds out her hoof. “Wait, it might-”

“I'll see you soon, Bonnie!”

And Lyra keeps on walking, leaving Bon Bon frozen in place with her hoof outstretched and her heart racing. She really needs to puke, but it is only by sheer willpower that her stomach is holding all her contents in.

Though, as soon as Lyra is out of sight, a group of six griffins swoop down from different areas of the dark city. Bon Bon gulps and steps back, mind racing to figure out why so many griffins are needed to grab some money. She is just an earth pony, after all. She does not contain magic like a unicorn or can fly like a pegasus. She is stuck.

The only griffins she recognizes are Winny -who is carrying a holstered pistol- and Grim. All of the others are new faces and they all look the same to her with their build and plumage, save for a frail, male, white griffin covered in dirt and losing feathers with a bad case of twitches. There is another griffin that stands out, and she is a female who is slender like Winny, but with a Polaroid camera hanging around her neck. Bon Bon is not sure why they brought a camera with them, but she does not get a chance to ponder or ask because as soon as Winny steps forth, she tries to put on a brave face and open with pleasantries.

“Hey, Winny, how's it going?” asks Bon Bon.

Winny ignores her. Instead she points at two griffins and orders them to guard the front of the store, and after they fly off she turns to the dirty griffin. “Nasty Hick, cut the power and lock the door behind us.”

“Oh, none of that is necessary, Winny. I got all your money waiting for you, so you can grab it and leave, and we can forget everything,” says Bon Bon.

“Let’s get inside and get this over with,” says Winny.

Bon Bon nods and leads them to her office, flinching and looking over her shoulder when the back door slams shut. She gulps when Nasty Hick locks it and makes his way to breaker box, but she forces herself to look ahead and once she is in her office, she opens her safe and points at the bags of bits, straining herself to smile.

“See? I got the money. It's all there. We're okay, right?” says Bon Bon.

Bon Bon looks at Winny hopefully, but the griffin does not move. She keeps her head down and her breathing is slow and labored, and when Winny glances at Grim, he grunts.

“We're okay, right?” repeats Bon Bon, her voice cracking and eyes moistening as she takes a step back.

Winny takes a deep breath and looks at Bon Bon, eyes glistening in the dim light and her talons flexing. “You’re a good mare, Bon Bon, you always have been. You just made some mistakes, like all of us do, but this mistake is going to cost you more than just money."

Bon Bon pales and takes another couple of steps back, bumping into the wall with her rump as her eyes swell with terrified tears. “What are you saying?”

“I told you that Gilda ordered you dead unless you have the money.”

“And I have it.”

“She changed her mind. She wants you dead with or without the money.”

Bon Bon shakes her head in disbelief, and she slumps on the floor. “This can’t- How can she do this? You don’t have to kill me! I can leave town and never speak a word of this!”

“Sorry, Bon Bon, but I told you I couldn't protect you anymore.”

“Look, I have the money, okay! It’s in the safe! Just check!” sobs Bon Bon desperately. She looks at the griffins for any signs of mercy, but she finds none. “I have Gilda’s money! I told you I would get it and I got it! You don’t have to do this!”

Winny stares at Bon Bon as she cries and begs them to take the money and leave, but when Bon Bon notices Winny tapping her talon against the carpet with regret crushing her features, her trembling becomes more severe and is barely able to push herself into a corner.

“N-No! No! You-You can’t be serious!” sobs Bon Bon. “Winny, please!”

“I’m sorry, Bon Bon, but I have my orders,” says Winny.

And then the lights shut off, covering the entire store in a blanket of darkness.

Trixie sneaks behind a parked motorized wagon that is across the street from Bonbon Land. She strains her eyes for any signs of movement inside the dark building, but after seeing nothing sneaks across the street and hides by some shrubs and takes another peek. Again, there is nothing, save for a pair of griffins taking a spot outside the entrance, lighting cigarettes and quietly talking to each other.

Trixie makes a run to the far side of the lot and sticks to the shadows, but rather than scurrying across, she runs as fast as she can while trying to keep her steps light. The worst case scenario plays out in her mind and she goes from sneaking, to running as fast as she can. Fortunately for her, the griffins are too distracted to notice her when she slides to cover behind another parked motor wagon. After waiting a moment to see what the guards will do, Trixie crawls on her stomach and keeps herself low to the ground and close to the wall while the griffins continue failing at their task.

“Do you ever think we suck at life?” wonders one of the griffins.

“What do you mean?” asks the other griffin.

“I mean, think about it. Here we are, smoking cigarettes while our comrades rob a candy store. Doesn't that seem a little messed up to you?”

The second griffin thinks for a moment. “Yeah, we could be robbing banks or something more profitable.”

The first griffin shakes his head. “No, I mean we should be doing something meaningful with our lives. Like rescuing puppies or feeding the homeless or learning opera.”

The second griffin turns completely to the first, frowning disapprovingly. “Why the fuck would you want to learn opera for?”

The first griffin faces his partner, now getting annoyed. “Because its fucking opera.”

“I know its fucking opera. That's why I want to know why you want to learn fucking opera.”

“You're a fucking asshole, you know that?”

“Well, you're the fucker that wants to learn opera like a fucking douche bag.”

“Oh, fuck you, man!”

“No, fuck you in your rectum, bitch!”

And so a vicious argument erupts between the two. But little do the two squabbling griffins realize that while they are arguing about opera and rectums Trixie has sneaked her way to them, and she has coiled her body and-

Nasty Hick is casually walking around the store, ripping open random bags of candy and popping each delectable in his mouth and chewing obnoxiously loud. His wet smacks echo loudly in the building, and when he gets to the front counter he breaks open each cash register to see if there’s money in them. All twelve of them were empty. Sighing in disappointment, he shoves a handful of candy in his mouth and tries to take a peek at a gossip magazine with its headline claiming that the Royal Palace is a whorse-house. However, with the dim lighting all he gets is a headache from straining his eyes.

Huffing in aggravation, Nasty Hick continues his boring patrol of the front of the store, barely paying attention to anything. But his boredom comes to an abrupt end when he sees a pony in a cheap costume pounce on the two griffins outside beat them senselessly. One of the griffins tries to fly away, but the disguised pony uses their magic to pull them down by their tail and then they tackle them out of sight.

Nasty Hick stands frozen in place, too terrified to move. But after a couple of minutes of silence and no movements, and against the voice in his head, he shakily approaches the entrance to the store.

“I'm a fierce griffin. I'm a big scary griffin. Nobody messes with a griffin,” he mutters anxiously to himself. He presses his talons against the door and slowly pushes it open. “I got claws. Ponies have hooves. I'm scary. They're-”

A blur of purple suddenly socks him in the face and he black out instantly.

In Bon Bon's office, Winny puts the last of the bags of bits from the safe into another bag being held by Grim, all while the one with the camera leans against the door frame, admiring her recently taken photograph. Next to Winny is Bon Bon, lying on the ground with deep gashes in her neck with Winny’s talons coated in her blood.

“Damn it, she did have the money,” says Winny after tossing the last of the bits in the bag. Then she runs her bloody talons through her head feathers and sighs while patting Bon Bon's corpse apologetically. “I'm sorry Bon Bon. Hopefully you have a house in Paradise.”

“Are we done?” says Grim.

Winny nods with lowered eyes. “Yeah, we're done. Let's get out of here.”

The griffins then quickly make their way down the aisle with Winny in the lead, Grim in the middle with the money in his possession, and the camera griffin in the back. They do not get far before Winny comes to an abrupt halt and turns her head towards an approaching gallop; and right as she turns around she catches her camera griffin's back getting stomped on by a costumed pony that has leapt right on top of her.

The camera griffin squawks painfully and her body buckles from the sudden weight, and as she flops to the floor, wings flapping madly and talons digging into the tile, the pony brings their hoof down on the back of her head, smashing it into the floor and making the griffin go still. Winny barely registers what has happened before Grim tackles the equine off of the fallen griffin, and the two start rolling head over tails over each other, both snarling viciously.

Grim slices and claws at the pony and the costumed menace deals sharp blows to him and burns him with bolts of lightning flashing from their covered horn. Both are crying and snarling with pain as skin is sliced and flesh is burned from their dueling. In seconds, Grim has the pony pinned underneath him and he raises his talons for a killing slash, but the pony yells and slams their hoof against the front leg that is holding them down. The result is a snapping bone, Grim's wrist popping in a direction it should not, and the large griffin howling in pain and collapsing on top of the pony. The unicorn then shoots Grim in the chest with a telekinetic burst, blasting him backwards into the ceiling. His back breaks apart the ceiling tile and breaks loose a lighting fixture, and when he falls back down with the raining debris, the back half of his body hits the top of the aisle shelf, sending him spiraling awkwardly down and landing on his back, still and silent, while the shelving starts to tilt over.

Winny is about to make a run for it just so she is not killed by shelves full of candy, but the attacking unicorn stops the heavy shelves from crushing them. What the magic does not do, however, is stop the boxes and bags of candy from sliding off and falling all over the floor. But Winny would rather have a carpet of boxed cavity bombs than a crushed head.

After the costumed unicorn straightens the shelf, she sighs with relief, then looks at Winny, and in turn, she narrows her eyes and flexes her talons as she drops the bag of bits to the floor, hoping the stranger cannot see her sweat. If there had not been any moonlight shining through the windows and shooting sparks from the broken wire, then Winy would not be able to makeout the pony in front of her. But with the minimal light offered, she is able to see the feminine build, the blood trickling from her wounds, and the fabric soaking it up.

The mare is huffing and shaking, too, but Winny does not know if it is from fear or fatigue. But what she does know is that this pony has made this night more complicated than it had to be.

“Whoever you are, whoever you think you are, I'm going to give you this one chance to walk away,” says Winny. "Walk away right now, or I will hurt you badly."

The pony replies with a snort and a scuff on the floor.

Winny's body coils and she expands her wings. “All right. Have it your way.”

She then rockets towards the pony, blowing aside debris with the wind tunnel she makes and tackles her target into the back wall, eliciting a painful, feminine grunt from the pony, now covered in broken plaster on top of the blood. Winny brings her talons down, but the mare blocks it with her hoof, screaming in pain as the sharp claws dig into her flesh and quickly soaking her cheap costume in red.

But to Winny's surprise, the mare manages to twist their bodies around so her back is slammed against the broken wall with enough power to shake it. The mare then snarls and punches Winny in the jaw, and as her world shakes and a splintering pain erupts across her beak, the mare yanks her hoof away from the talons that dug inside her, crying out in pain as she does so and stumbles back, holding her bleeding hoof to her chest.

Winny, meanwhile, staggers around, breathing raggedly and clutching her beak, and glares at the pony as she licks off her own blood from her beak. The pony goes for another punch, but Winny grabs the pony's hoof and twists her body so she throws the fiend to the ground with a loud crack. She can see the pony's eyes roll as she clambers on top of her, and after dealing a couple of punches to her muzzle, her target's fabric is drenched in blood and the tears in her terrified eyes shimmer in what little light is offered while a thin pool of blood oozes from under the back of her head. Not in the least bit moved by the pathetic display, Winny grabs the pony by the neck, and with a vicious yell she swings and releases, sending the unicorn sailing through the air and crashing through the office door, spraying shards of wood and glass all over the office and Bon Bon's corpse.

Winny growls and pushes aside the remains off the door, and then she stomps inside the office, barely able to avoid touching Bon Bon's mutilated body. Her eyes gleam in the dark as she stares down at the bane of her evening, and the pony whimpers and presses her injured hoof against her chest as she squishes herself against the wall, knocking a chair over along the way. Winny can see the pain and terror in the pony's glistening eyes, and when she draws her silenced pistol from her holster, the pony stiffens and shakes her head.

“N-no. Please don't,” begs the mare, her bloody hoof extended and shaking with droplets of blood pattering to the floor.

“Stay down,” growls Winny.

Then she shoots the unicorn three times in the chest and the equine jerks with each shot and slumps to the ground, curled up and shaking with weak, choking cries. Seeing such a sight, Winny sniffs, holsters her weapon and takes one last look at the disguised pony before shaking her head and walking out of the room.

“Fucking idiot,” grumbles Winny.

Winny can still hear the sniffles of the mare as she sluggishly walks towards the bag of money in the middle of the aisle, noting how her partners are still out cold. She almost wants to wake up at least one of them before she makes her escape, but as she contemplates on whether or not that will be a bad idea, she hears a rumbling engine and tires screeching to a stop outside. She stops walking and looks out to the parking lot to see blinding headlights bearing down on the store like a pair of supernovas. With a racing heart and a new-found shortness of breath, she snatches the bag of blood money, hurries to the back of the store and opens and closes the door as quietly as her trembling talons will allow. Once the door shuts with a quiet click, she takes off into the night without looking back.

Pinkie Pie carefully walks through the mess that is now Bonbon Land. Her hooves crush pieces of candy and she steps around limp griffins while her eyes follow a trail of blood. With all the blood on the floor, panic assaults her in full force and her steps become quicker as she continues following the trail. Her heart thumps sporadically in her chest and her mouth goes dry as her eyes water and thoughts swirl in her mind like a hurricane. All those thoughts bring her back to finding Spike bleeding to death by Terra's hooves, and tears roll down her cheeks as she imagines finding Trixie laying dead on the ground.

“Please, no, not another one,” begs Pinkie Pie.

She rounds the corner and comes to a stop when she sees Trixie in Bon Bon's office next to the remains of the door, hunched over and sniffling with the her silver mane matted to her head by blood and more dripping blood from her hoof. Sitting on her lap is Bon Bon. Limp with three gashes in her neck and her colors drained from all her blood being spilled all over the carpet and tile.

“Trixie?”

Trixie tenses, then slowly turns to Pinkie Pie, face shimmering from the crimson, face bruised and cut and eyes hollow and broken. She stares at Pinkie Pie, whimpering and gasping for air as tears wash away the blood from her face. “I was too late.”

On the corner of a street with a failing lamppost, Winny slides inside a booth with a communications rig inside. She slams the door shut, yanks the surrounding curtains close, and after dropping the bag of money at her feet she slides a coin in the machine and hastily dials the needed number. As the phone rings, she taps her talon nervously against the platform and peeks out the window with a racing heart, not feeling even a drop worth of solace when she sees nobody around.

“Come on, pick up pick up pick up pick up,” mutters Winny.

“Canterlot Local Guard,” says a mare on the other end.

“I'd like to report a robbery-homicide at Bonbon Land. One dead, six injured with one in critical condition. Hurry!”

“Ma'am, stay calm. I'm going to need your name and-”

Winny hangs up in a snap and bolts out of the booth, and then with one powerful flap of her wings, she launches herself off into the night sky and disappears from sight.

Hours later, in their new apartment, Trixie staggers to the bathroom, covered in band-aids, gauze and tape, with three welts on her chest, leaving Minty alone at the dining room table to clean up the mess of bloody materials. Materials such as blood soaked rags, empty containers of rubbing alcohol, a bloody clothes iron, and a rolling pin bit to hell and back. The sheets she had used to cover herself have been tossed into the garbage can, and Minty mentioned how they needed to be incinerated and will need to bleach the floor to get rid of the blood. Ideally they would have used the kitchen or the bathroom, but seeing as how the spaces are too small, they had to play hospital in the dining room.

After Minty's operations, Trixie feels more pain than before that builds with every step she takes, but she is too broken to cry. She only feels hollow, and the scabs of burnt skin and the throbbing of her covered scratches and swollen eye and lips are just outside forces trying to break the shell she is. Not that she cares. She knows she deserves this. She failed to protect an innocent from death and made a huge mess out of it in the process.

She knows even Minty is disappointed in her since she has not been able to say a word to her the entire night besides the simple instructions relating to their spur of the moment hospital. The disappointment in Minty's eyes is clear as the window to her room, and Trixie cannot blame her.

When Trixie reaches the bathroom she stares at herself in the mirror, emotionless at the pathetic reflection of herself. Her mane is a mess and coated in red, her face is swollen and cracked with red lines around her lips and eye. The gashes on her hoof from Winny have been seared shut with a hot iron, which nearly caused Trixie to break the rolling pin when she bit down on it, and after, it was rubbed with lotion and covered in a lot of gauze and tape. The stench of burnt fur and skin still lingers in Trixie's nose, like the remnants of the blood all over her face and hoof that Minty had tried to clean off.

No matter how hard Minty tried, the blood would not come off of Trixie's fur, and in that situation, Minty appeared downright desperate to scrub it off. Her voice had cracked into terrified gibberish and tears went down the parole officer's face as she scrubbed until Trixie's felt raw. Trixie never saw anything like that, and it is after she failed at getting rid of the crimson stains that she reluctantly put the bandages on.

But Trixie knows she deserves this.

She deserves to be covered in her own blood and covered in her injuries. They will remind her greatly that comfort is not acceptable if she cannot protect an innocent person. She knows Gray Muffin would not allow himself to rest if he could not protect an innocent person from harm if he had the ability to.

She knows if Gray Muffin were with her, they would have been able to save Bon Bon.

But Gray Muffin is not with her. Only her failures. Only Bon Bon's lifeless eyes and gaping wounds in her neck seared into her mind.

“I failed,” whimpers Trixie, now hyperventilating with tears running down her face. “I failed... I failed. I failed. I failed. failed. I failed. I failed. I failed.”

Trixie closes her eyes and bows her head, trying desperately not to cry, but she’s failing miserably. She sobs quietly and forces her eyes to stay shut, not wanting them to open for any reason.

“Ya should’ve killed them,” says Sunshine.

Trixie freezes, and shivers as she reluctantly opens her eyes and looks in the mirror to see Sunshine’s shadowy face and demonic red eyes covering her reflection. She stares wide eyed at the entity as a coldness covers her from horn to tail.

“How are you here?” says Trixie.

Sunshine snickers. “Ya didn't think a simple wound would keep me from you, did ya now?”

“You're dead. I saw you die. I saw Gray Muffin kill you!”

“I'm as alive as you are, darlin'.”

Trixie backs up, shaking her head as terrified tears wet her face. “No, you’re dead. You can't be here. You're dead.”

“Am not.”

“You’re dead!”

“Nope.”

“You’re dead!”

“No, I’m not.”

“You're dead!”

“I'm still here.”

Trixie screams and smashes her injured hoof right in between Sunshine’s red eyes, shattering the mirror and destroying the shelves of the medicine cabinet hiding behind it. The containers inside and shards of glass cascade down and bounce off her hoof and sink, and Trixie slumps to the floor, breathing heavily with fresh tears swelling in her eyes and rivers of burning pain trailing all over her throbbing hoof.

“Just leave me alone,” says Trixie.

“Why would I do that when we were meant to be together?” says Sunshine.

Trixie stares at the bits of bloody tipped mirror, sobbing quietly as blood trickles from her open wounds. She can see her tear soaked face in the bits, all crying and looking at her, telling her that she has failed, and because of her failure an innocent had been killed.

Then Trixie notices that lying on the floor not too far from her is the container of pills that her psychiatrist at Singsong prescribed to her to combat the hallucinations. She uses her magic to bring the container to her eyes. The pills inside are so small, yet they banished Sunshine and the realities of the Hell she built. They made her happy, and wanting that happiness again, she opens the container and pulls out one of the pills.

“Tryin’ to escape reality, eh?” chuckles Sunshine.

Trixie glares ahead defiantly and she expects to see Sunshine in front of her, but even though she sees only a sink, she knows he is still there. She can feel him watching her and she will have no more of that.

Trixie pops the pill in her mouth and then drinks from the faucet to help swallow it down, and when it is down the effects are immediate. Trixie grins from ear to ear, and her whole body relaxes as her eyes dilate and her breathing and heart rate slows to a blissful calmness. Then she sees the mess and her smile twists into a frown.

“Did Trixie do this?” wonders Trixie out loud. “This cannot stand!”

Pinkie Pie is sitting in the dinning room, filling out her notebook with everything she can remember about Bon Bon's office. She heard Trixie’s commotion earlier, but has decided to do nothing about it since she has more important things to do rather than giving Trixie a hug. Things like figuring out who ordered Bon Bon killed and why. She knows it’s the least she could do since she knows she holds the blame for Bon Bon’s death.

Pinkie Pie stops her writing and her ear twitches when she hears Trixie singing and glass being swept up. She turns slightly and the pen drops from her mouth when she sees Trixie half walking-half dancing holding a broom and a dustpan full of broken glass with her hoof rewrapped and covered in band-aids. Her eyes are also red and puffy from her crying, yet she has a giant grin, so it looks like she was crying for joy.

“Sweep-a-dee-doo-dah! Sweep-a-dee-ay! My, oh my what a wonderful day!” sings Trixie in a very bubbly, yet horrible singing voice as she does her dancing past Pinkie Pie. “Something for a rhyme here! Sweep-a-dee-doo-dah! Sweep-a-dee-ay! My, oh my what a wonderful day!”

“Trixie, what are you doing?” asks Pinkie Pie.

Trixie dumps the glass in a garbage can and bounces towards Pinkie Pie with a huge grin on her face, leaving the broom and dustpan behind.

“Hey, Minty! Trixie kinda broke the bathroom mirror when Trixie was sad so Trixie cleaned up the mess and now the bathroom is clean and Trixie is happy.” Trixie takes a deep breath and smiles again while brushing some loose strands of her mane away from her face. “Wow, that was a mouthful.”

“Sounded like it. Why don’t you go to bed? You have work tomorrow.”

Trixie gasps. “You’re right, Minty! You are absolutely right! Trixie shall go to bed and enjoy her beauty sleep, for tomorrow she shall be employed!”

Trixie then gallops to her bedroom and Pinkie Pie sighs and trails her, shaking her head slightly.

“Hold on, you should take my blanket. I’m going to have to buy you a new one since you kinda ruined yours,” says Pinkie Pie.

Trixie slides to a stop and smiles at Minty. “Oh, how sweet of you Minty. Did you know you’re Trixie's favorite pony?”

“Glad to hear,” says Pinkie Pie.

“Everypony else is mean to Trixie, but you're nice to Trixie. You broke Trixie out of jail and bought her candy and-”

Pinkie Pie goes to her room to grab her sheets while Trixie rambles, and then she brings them to Trixie's bed to fix them up in ways that are suitable for a pony. It does not take long for her to do it, but it takes Trixie only a fraction of the time to completely ruin it.

“Tallyho!” hollers Trixie.

Pinkie Pie is nearly knocked over from Trixie's running leap, and the unicorn giggles like a filly as she bounces on the bed.

“Trixie can't believe that Trixie gets to sleep on a real bed again!”

“Yeah, its nice, isn't it?” says Pinkie Pie.

Trixie rolls on her back with her hooves pointing straight up and she starts rubbing and contorting her back on the sheets as if she is a canine rolling in a lush lawn. Just as fast as she started her antics, she quits and flops to her side and hugs the pillow close to her chest.

“This is comfy,” giggles Trixie.

Then the azure unicorn scrambles to her feet and pace in circles on her bed like a cat looking for a good spot to lie down. When she finds her spot, she spends another minute or two shifting her position before yawning obnoxiously and closing her eyes while grabbing her pillow again and pulling the blanket over herself with her magic.

“Nighty night, Minty!” says Trixie happily from under her covers.

Words elude her for the proper response, so Pinkie Pie sulks back to the dining room. Once there, she is tempted to sit down and finish her work, but seeing Trixie like that only confuses her to a complete halt. She wants to be happy because seeing the burden being lifted from Trixie's shoulders is a great sight, even if it is temporary. But that moment of happiness gives her some hope that Trixie can be helped, and in turn, there is hope for her to find the end of the tunnel she is in.

However, that said, that happiness is drug induced. It is only an illusion. A fake light in the night brought upon by madness and a desperation to feel something other than despair. A need to escape, but the only escape from Hell is a lie of Heaven existing. A Heaven that can only be achieved through the deception of pills. That in itself is a depressing thought for Pinkie Pie, for if Trixie can only be happy with drugs, can she only find false happiness as well?

An obnoxious sound of a chainsaw trying to slice rocks suddenly comes from somewhere behind makes Pinkie Pie jump and whip her head around, expecting to see a masked psycho charging her. What she sees instead is Trixie's door wide open, her roommate's muzzle poking out from underneath her blanket, and her mouth wide open and drooling. As her mouth closes, the horrible noise dies down, but when she opens it again, the noise returns.

Pinkie Pie watches Trixie snore with nothing short of amazement, and after a couple more cycles of the worst snoring she has ever heard, she shakes her head, trots to the bedroom and closes the door. It does little to damper the sound, but at least it is marginally less unbearable at this point.

With a loud sigh, Pinkie Pie shuffles back to the dining room, plops on her cushion and stares at her notes. The longer she stares at her notes, the more the weight of what happened bears down on her shoulders. The more she stares at the roster and the numbers that inhabit it, the more they blur into meaningless symbols covered by the haze of tears.

With the tears pattering down on her paper and spreading the ink, Pinkie Pie is seeing another life that ended because of her choice. She did not believe Trixie about what she said about the griffins and Bon Bon, and now she is lying in a morgue.

First Spike. Now Bon Bon. And Trixie almost suffered the same fate as them.

It all points back to her and her choices.

Pinkie Pie's injured hoof starts to throb, and closes her eyes and tries to comfort it with gentle strokes, but all it does is make her back hurt and make her heart feel weak.

The tears flow down her cheeks, burning her eyes and soaking her face, and she falls to the table, shivering and clutching her hoof tighter. And underneath the only light let she cries alone.

Author's Notes:

Edited on 07 Sep 2015