The Sunset Also Rises (Part 2)
“Adagio, dear, it’s been far too long,” Madrigal addressed her daughter as she held her arms out wide. “How about giving your ole mom a hug?”
Adagio really shouldn’t have been surprised to see her mother in the dimly-lit hallway she and Kiwi found themselves in - given that she’d seen her there in her dream - but she was. Instinctively going into big sister mode, the Dazzling leader moved right in front of Kiwi so as to place herself between the PostCrush girl and Madrigal. Since she had no idea what it was Madrigal was up to, she wanted to keep a close proximity to Kiwi in case the scarlet-haired vixen she called her mother tried anything funny.
“How about no,” She strongly refuted.
“O-Oh, okay then. That’s fine,” Madrigal replied in a pained manner. “I understand if you’re not quite comfortable with that.”
Madrigal’s distressed demeanor at being turned down for a hug baffled Adagio. Heck, just the simple fact that the woman had even asked for a hug baffled her. Never in her life had she recalled her mother seeking such a sign of affection from either her or anyone else. The best explanation the Dazzling could come up with for the odd request was that Madrigal was playing some sort of twisted game in the hopes of getting a rise out of her. And if that was indeed the case, she sure as hell wasn’t going to play along with that game.
“Why don’t you drop the act already,” She said. “I know you’re not actually my mother, you practically said so yourself back at the Overlook. So why don’t you just stop pretending and tell me who you really are.”
An anguished expression suddenly appeared on Madrigal’s face, one that was accompanied by a single teardrop that fell down her right cheek.
“You’re breaking your poor mother’s heart, Adagio,” Madrigal then said. “I just want to heal our broken relationship so that we can be a family again. But all you seem to want to do is hate me for trying to love you.”
The Dazzling leader was now all but certain that Madrigal’s false sadness was meant to get a rise out of her. And damn if it wasn’t working like a charm. The more the woman spoke, the angrier she got. Right now all she wanted to do was rush right up to Madrigal and let out how-many-years’ worth of repressed anger towards her mother through her fists, but thankfully she was able to maintain a cool enough head to resist the urge to do so. Such a rash act would surely be a foolish mistake. A mistake that could potentially cost her not only her own life, but Kiwi’s as well.
Kiwi, meanwhile, simply watched silently as Adagio and her mother have what was easily one of the strangest and most confusing conversations she’d ever witnessed. The whole thing made her feel like she was a supporting character in a warped sitcom called, The Dazzlings. More specifically, it made her feel like she was a supporting character in a very special episode of a warped sitcom called, The Dazzlings. One where, after years of not seeing one another, mother and daughter meet again leading to a series of wacky situations that would ultimately end in a heartwarming reunion. Though the PostCrush girl had a feeling there would be no heartwarming ending to this particular ‘episode’.
“Fine, keep up your charade. See if I care,” Adagio retorted. “Because in case you hadn’t figured it out from our encounter at the Overlook, I’m not afraid of my mother anymore. So pretending to be her in order to prey on my fears isn’t going to work.”
Madrigal gave no visible reaction to Adagio’s statement. All she did was recompose herself and shift her focus from the Dazzling over towards Kiwi.
“Tell me, Kiwi; do you have such high levels of hatred for your mother like my daughter seems to have for me?” She inquired.
Kiwi had no idea how to respond to Madrigal’s question, in no small part because she’d never even known her mother. But before the PostCrush girl was able to utter so much as a confused ‘um’ though, Madrigal spoke up once again.
“Oh and by the way, it’s nice to meet you, dearie,” She said. “I always enjoy meeting my daughters’ friends.”
“I-It’s nice to…meet you too?” Kiwi replied, not wanting to be rude.
Almost immediately after Kiwi finished replying to Madrigal, Adagio took a couple of short steps backwards until she was standing no more than a foot directly in front of the PostCrush girl.
“Don’t talk to her,” The Dazzling whispered back to her. “You don’t know the kind of mind games she can play just by having a conversation with you.”
Adagio’s words of warning filled Kiwi with a mixture of anxiety and confusion. She had heard about how bad Madrigal was from the Dazzling and her sisters earlier in the day, sure, but was their mother really that bad? Bad to the point where she could very well be considered a monster? The PostCrush girl didn’t want to believe that that was potentially the case, but given that Adagio knew Madrigal far better than she did she chose to assume the worst and heed the girl’s advice.
“G-Got it,” She tentatively assured her companion.
“Really, Adagio, must you be so callous?” Madrigal spoke up, gaining both girls’ attention. “I mean, I admit that I’m not the friendliest person in the world, but that doesn’t mean I’m some sort of monster, dear.”
A look of frustration involuntarily crossed Adagio’s face for a brief moment when she heard Madrigal’s claim. Her mother, not a monster? Please. The Dazzling and her sisters had a number of emotional, mental, and even physical scars to prove not only that Madrigal was a monster, but that she was a monster amongst monsters. The sheer fallacy of her claiming otherwise was practically rage-inducing. But despite this, Adagio still managed to maintain a cool head. Though she knew that if she didn’t end this encounter with her mother soon - or at the very least take some level of control over it - her cool head was going to turn into an erupting volcano.
“Just what is it you want?” The Dazzling very sternly inquired, right before she redirected her attention to the hallway itself. “Or better yet, how is it that you’re even here? I thought you weren’t able to escape the Overlook without - ”
Adagio cut herself off midsentence as something caught her eye that she hadn’t noticed earlier. The hallway’s carpet, it looked incredibly familiar to her. The Hicks’ Hexagon design, the red, orange, and black coloring of it; she knew she’d seen this carpet somewhere before. It took her a moment to recall where that somewhere had been, but soon enough she remembered all-too-well where it was she’d previously laid eyes on it. And once she remembered she felt an unmistakable twinge of trepidity take hold of her.
“T-This place,” She started to say as she struggled to maintain her collected composure. “Is it…part of the Overlook?”
The possibility of being back within the walls of the Overlook Hotel filled Adagio with no small amount of dread, for more reasons than one. Firstly because the hotel itself had given her the hibbie jibbies, even when it’d looked like a five-star ski resort and not a haunted house. But mostly it was because of what it meant if she actually was back there. It meant that she and her sisters had failed to truly defeat their mother like they’d believed they’d done. And if the magic of friendship wasn’t powerful enough to stop Madrigal, was there anything that was?
Kiwi also felt fearful at potentially being within the Overlook, though not quite as fearful as Adagio. Even though she’d never been there herself, the chilling way the Dazzlings had talked about it had been enough to instill a small amount of anxiety within her regarding it.
Fortunately for both girls though, Madrigal didn’t confirm Adagio’s assumption right away, which each of them took as a sign that the hallway wasn’t part of the Overlook like the Dazzling leader had thought.
“Oh dear. You really don’t understand what’s going on here, do you, Adagio?” Madrigal eventually answered. “Though I can’t say I blame you for that. This is a rather esoteric situation we’ve found ourselves in, isn’t it.”
Adagio said nothing in response.
“To answer your question, dear; No, this place isn’t part of the Overlook. It’s the inside of Sunset Shimmer’s mind,” Madrigal began to explain. “Well, it’s a three dimensional representation of Sunset Shimmer’s mind that you’re able to comprehend at least. One most likely created by the girl’s geode in order to allow you access to it without losing your own minds in the process.”
Not surprisingly, both Adagio and Kiwi had a difficult time grasping some of Madrigal’s explanation, especially the parts regarding the hallway being a three dimensional representation and how it had been created by Sunset’s geode. Though as far as either of them were concerned, such details were of little importance at the moment. The only piece of information that was of any true concern was that the hallway they were in was inside Sunset’s mind. Things like how this was so could wait to be explored at another time…if ever.
Though of course there was still a great plethora of non-metaphysical related questions the Dazzling and PostCrush girl had after learning that they were inside Sunset’s mind.
“If this is Sunset’s mind, then where’s Sunset?” Adagio asked aloud. “I’m guessing that if her geode created this physical representation of her mind then it must have also created a physical representation of her for us to interact with.”
Like Adagio, Kiwi was also curious as to Sunset’s whereabouts after learning that they were inside the Rainboom’s mind. Though unlike Adagio, Kiwi’s belief that a physical representation of Sunset existing somewhere within the mental landscape of the girl’s mind stemmed more from her having seen it in movies and on TV.
“Very well deduced, dear,” Madrigal replied heartily to her daughter’s illation. “There is in fact a physical representation of Sunset in here.”
Madrigal then paused for a second as she gestured over towards one of the doors to her left.
“And she’s right through there if you’d like to see her,” She continued.
Both Adagio and Kiwi immediately turned their attention over towards the door Madrigal was gesturing to; a dark brown flush-style with the number 217 on it. The sight of the door elicited no real reaction within Kiwi, as it appeared to be just another random door amongst the many doors lining the hallway to her. Though for Adagio, the sight of the door elicited a feeling of great trepidation within her, for she recognized it almost immediately.
It was the door from Sunset’s room at the Overlook.
The feelings of trepidation within the Dazzling leader did not emanate from her own fears of the cursed hotel, but rather from her fears of what the door represented within the context of Sunset’s mind. Was it a scar left on the girl’s psyche from her traumatic experience at the Overlook? A scar so deep that it was slowly consuming her conscious mind? Or was it a gateway back to the Overlook itself, where Sunset’s mind was somehow trapped? Whatever the case, the one thing Adagio knew for certain was that if Sunset truly was behind the room 217 door as Madrigal had said, then her dear friend was in even greater need of help than she’d originally believed.
“Sunset?!” The Dazzling hollered as she ran towards the dark brown door.
“Adagio, wait!” Kiwi called out as she tried to follow her companion, having been caught off-guard by the girl’s sudden hegira.
But Adagio didn’t wait for Kiwi to catch up to her, nor did she give any sort of acknowledgement that she’d even heard the PostCrush girl call out to her. All she did was continue to make her way over to the door with 217 on it like a bat out of hell.
Soon enough Adagio reached her destination, and when she did she flung the door open and stepped through the threshold into the room beyond it in one fluid motion. It only took Kiwi about a second or two to catch up to the Dazzling, but by the time she did she was already too late. The instant Adagio was fully through the threshold the door slammed shut, nearly smacking Kiwi square in the face. Thankfully though the PostCrush girl managed to brace herself against the door before making contact with it, but the simple fact that it had closed on her instantly filled her with anxiety. Anxiety that only grew when she tried to open the door herself but found it to now be locked.
“Adagio?! ADAGIO?!” She shouted in her panic as she started to pound furiously on the door.
No answer came from the other side.
“Well that was certainly unexpected,” Madrigal remarked, gaining Kiwi’s attention. “But now that it’s just you and me, Kiwi, perhaps we can finally get down to the rather urgent business at hand.”
“U-Urgent business?” Kiwi replied tentatively, having completely forgotten about Adagio’s earlier warning to her about talking to Madrigal. “W-What urgent business?”
“Why, helping me save Sunset Shimmer of course,” Madrigal answered. “After all, that’s the whole reason why I brought you and Adagio here, dearie.”
“Kiwi?! KIWI?!” Adagio hollered as she pounded on the 217 door with her left hand while trying – and failing – to open it with her right hand.
No answer came from the other side.
Despite the Dazzling leader’s laser-like focus and determination to save Sunset Shimmer only a few short seconds ago, she hadn’t been oblivious to the fact that the door she’d just stepped through had inexplicably shut behind her. As soon as Adagio had heard the loud sound of the door closing she’d turned around to see that she’d only just barely made it into the room before the door had closed, which meant that her companion was still in the hallway with Madrigal.
“Dammit!” She shouted in frustration as she continued to try and open the door, angry more at herself for inadvertently leaving Kiwi behind than at the door for failing to open.
After a few more seconds of trying to get the door open, Adagio ceased pounding on it and let go of the knob. She realized that no matter what she did or how much she tried the whole thing was an effort in futility. The door clearly wasn’t going to open anytime soon.
“DAMMIT!” She shouted once more as she balled her right hand up into a fist and punched the wall to the right of the door with it.
Adagio’s assault on the wall hadn’t damaged it in any visible way, but it had sent a small jolt of pain running through the girl’s hand. And as far as the Dazzling was concerned, she deserved it. She’d been so focused on helping Sunset that she’d completely forgotten about protecting Kiwi from her mother, if only for a brief moment. But because of that brief momentary lapse in her acumen her friend was all alone with Madrigal, and Celestia only knew what fate awaited Kiwi now.
As much as Adagio felt like beating herself up further for being so foolish, she knew she didn’t have that luxury right now. Right now she needed to regain her laser-like focus and find Sunset Shimmer as soon as possible. After all, Sunset was still very much at the center of all this and in need of help too. Not only that, but maybe Sunset would be able to help her save Kiwi from Madrigal, since it was her mind they were all in at the moment.
After taking a deep, calming breath, the Dazzling leader turned around and was immediately surprised to see where it was she was at. Despite the door that she’d just stepped through having been the door to Sunset’s room back at the Overlook Hotel, she found herself not within said room but just outside of the hotel’s large lounge that she and her sisters had once crossed through. With no Sunset Shimmer in sight.
“Great. Just great,” She sarcastically remarked, feeling less-than-thrilled about being back within the beautifully decorated yet hauntingly cavernous lounge.
Perhaps it had been the creepy typewriter with a piece of paper in it that had read, ‘Welcome to the Show’, or the fact that she’d nearly fallen down the staircase at the other end of the room, but Adagio simply did not like the Overlook’s lounge. The place just creeped her out more than any other room within the hotel, including the Gold Room where she’d faced her mother last.
Reluctantly, the Dazzling leader took a few steps forward into the lounge with the intent of heading for the stairwell on the other side, figuring that crossing the room once again was necessary if she was going to have any hope of finding Sunset. Though those few steps were all she took before she heard a faint yet ominous echoing sound that caused her to come to an abrupt halt. It took Adagio a moment or two to realize just what the strange sound she was suddenly hearing was, but as soon as she realized what it was she felt a small chill run down her spine. It was the sound of a typewriter typing.
Knowing exactly where it was the sound was coming from, Adagio quickly turned her head over towards a nearby table to see the same typewriter she seen at the Overlook before sitting on top of it, typing all by itself. The sight of this phenomenon made her feel as though she were in a horror movie, which caused her instincts to start screaming at her to ignore the darn thing and continue onward towards the staircase like she’d been doing. But the Dazzling’s curiosity at what the phantom machine was typing was far too great for her to simply ignore it. She needed to know what it’s message was.
After taking a short, deep breath to steel her nerves Adagio tentatively approached the typewriter. With every step she took the sound of the typing became a little bit louder and her courage began to wane a little bit more, but nonetheless she continued to get closer and closer to it. Soon enough she was standing right in front of the machine and she could make out what it was typing. Only a single word, repeating over and over again.
Monster
“I tried. I really tried,” An emotionless voice suddenly said from right behind the Dazzling.
The chilly and toneless statement caught Adagio completely off-guard and caused her heart to skip a beat.
“Waaah!” She uttered in her now startled state as she turned around to see who the mysterious voice belonged to, grabbing ahold of the table with both hands as she did so in order to prevent herself from stumbling over it.
As soon as the Dazzling saw who it was that had given her such a fright, she instantly felt her heart skip yet another beat. Though this time it wasn’t out of startlement, but rather out of a sense of sheer and unbridled dread.
“S-Sunset?” She said as she stared at a revenant-like version of her friend.
“I tried to be good. I truly did,” Sunset replied dispassionately as she stared back at the Dazzling with eyes as glassy and dead as a doll’s. “I tried to be a good student, but I betrayed and abandoned Princess Celestia. I tried to be a good friend, but I alienated Twilight Sparkle and allowed her to become corrupted by Equestrian magic. I tried to be a good sister, but I let Sunrise down when she’d needed me the most. I tried - ”
All Adagio could do was listen in stunned silence as Sunset continued to list off various ways she’d tried to be good but failed. The sight of her dear friend in such an eidolon state was almost too much for the Dazzling leader to bear. The lifeless look in the Rainboom’s eyes, the cold and hollow tone in her voice, the self-deprecating words coming out of her mouth; it all made the poofy-haired girl feel like shedding tears of sorrow. But for some reason she found herself unable to shed even a single tear.
“No matter how hard I tried to be good, I failed every time,” Sunset eventually said. “I’ll never be able to be good, because I’m just a monster.”
Sunset’s alarming statement that she believed herself to be a monster was what finally caused Adagio’s eyes to start tearing up – uncontrollably. As rivers of watery sadness began to stream down the Dazzling’s cheeks, she lunged forward and grabbed ahold of Sunset by the arms in what could only be described of as a fit of grievous rage.
“How could you say such a horrible thing, Sunset?!” She hollered lugubriously right in the girl’s face. “How could you ever think that you’re a…a monster?!”
Sunset gave no response.
The lack of an answer from Sunset filled Adagio with even greater amounts of fury and anguish. She wasn’t upset with Sunset herself though, she knew that the girl’s reticence wasn’t of her own will. She was upset at whatever had turned Sunset into this tormented and near-lifeless shell of her former self.
As the Dazzling leader stared at her friend in heartbreak her anger slowly began to dissipate, but her grief remained strong. Eventually her grief caused her to lose her strength and let go of the Rainboom’s arms just before she gently fell to her knees right in front of her nearly soporose friend.
“What’s happened to you?” She dolefully inquired as tears continued to run down her cheeks like waterfalls. “What’s caused you to become like this? What could have possibly made you believe such an awful - ”
Adagio cut herself off midsentence as she abruptly came to a great adumbration. She couldn’t explain how, but somehow she suddenly understood everything. Like someone who’d just completed a jigsaw puzzle, she could now see how a bunch of seemingly unrelated pieces had come together to form a great big picture as clear as day. A picture that told the story of how Sunset had come to be in her current state.
“How could I have been so blind?” She uttered softly to herself.
After quickly wiping the tears from her face, Adagio steadily got back onto her feet and looked Sunset square in the eyes.
“I’d wondered why it was Madrigal had asked my sisters and I to use our magic to help her escape the Overlook when she’d known perfectly well that we’d refuse, but now I understand why,” She continued, speaking more to herself than to Sunset. “She’d never needed our magic. That whole confrontation we’d had with her in the Gold Room had been nothing more than a farce, a way to keep us distracted so that we wouldn’t realize what it was she’d actually been after.”
It was at this point that the Dazzling balled up her hands into tightly clenched fists at her side.
“To keep us from realizing that you were her target from the very beginning, Sunset,” She concluded.
“W-Wait. You were the one that brought us here?” Kiwi asked Madrigal, sounding almost completely bewildered. “And you brought us here to…help you save Sunset?”
“That’s what I said,” Madrigal replied, somewhat annoyedly.
Kiwi was too lost in her bewilderment to take notice of the slightly irked tone within Madrigal’s response. Despite having just received clarification that she’d heard the woman correctly, she was still having a rather difficult time coming to grips with what Madrigal had said. No matter how much the gears in her head turned she simply couldn’t make sense of any of it. How was it that Madrigal had been the one who’d brought her and Adagio into Sunset’s head? It’d been the Rainboom’s geode that had called out to the two of them…hadn’t it?
Even more puzzling to the PostCrush girl though was Madrigal’s apparent reason for why it was she’d brought her and Adagio into Sunset’s mind in the first place. How come Madrigal was looking for help to try and save Sunset? Why was she even trying to save Sunset, period? She was the one that Sunset needed saving from…wasn’t she?
“I…I don’t understand,” Kiwi stated aloud.
“I gathered that, dearie,” Madrigal replied as she started taking a few steps forward. “But don’t worry, I can explain everyth - ”
Madrigal cut herself off mid-sentence - as well as mid-stride - when she noticed that for every step forward she’d taken Kiwi had taken a step backwards. That, coupled with the salient look of fear in the PostCrush girl’s eyes, once again brought a pained look to the woman’s face.
“T-There’s no need to be afraid, Kiwi. I’m not going to harm you,” She tentatively tried to assure the former popstar.
Only after hearing Madrigal’s remark did Kiwi realize just how much she was letting her fear show. She’d of course been aware from the very beginning of all this chaos that she hadn’t exactly been concealing her anxieties very well, but it wasn’t until this point that she’d become fully cognizant of just how much those anxieties were noticeably affecting her. And just how much of a problem that was. Based on everything she’d learned about Madrigal from the Dazzlings, Kiwi knew how dangerous it could be to show such strong levels of fear in front of their mother. The fact that Madrigal hadn’t yet preyed on her fear seemed nothing short of a miracle to her. But regardless, the PostCrush girl knew that she had to get her emotions in-check quickly if she was going to survive dealing with the scarlet-haired vixen. Especially now that Adagio wasn’t with her.
And so, after a brief, calming breath, Kiwi straightened up her posture and dawned a more ardent face.
“Forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical, Madrigal,” She began to reply steadfastly. “But I find that difficult to believe based on some of the things I’ve heard about you.”
Kiwi’s new demeanor seemed to catch Madrigal off-guard for a moment, as evidenced by the sudden look of surprise that crossed her face. Though soon enough the woman’s expression returned to its previously pained state.
“O-Oh,” She said dejectedly. “My daughters must have told you stories from when they were growing up, huh?”
“A few, yeah,” Kiwi confirmed. “And they told me about what happened at the Overlook Hotel too.”
“I see,” Madrigal simply replied, sounding even more dejected than she had a moment ago.
Madrigal’s continued state of despondency confused Kiwi, but she paid it little to no mind. So long as the woman standing before her didn’t appear to be angry or threatening in any way than that meant things were going about as well as they possibly could be, at least as far as she was concerned. Which, unbeknownst to her, was starting to make her forget about the gravity of her situation.
“Tell me something; are you even the real Madrigal Moonlight, or are you just an imposture like Adagio said?” The PostCrush girl brazenly asked.
There was a moment of silence after Kiwi asked her question. And in that quiet moment Kiwi could’ve sworn she saw a single teardrop fall down Madrigal’s left cheek, though she couldn’t be one hundred percent certain due to the lackluster lighting of the hallway.
“I’m not sure,” Madrigal eventually answered in a very somber manner.
Madrigal’s response took Kiwi completely by surprise. Of all the possible answers she could’ve received to her query, the one she’d gotten hadn’t even crossed her mind. And once again the PostCrush girl found it difficult to conceal her emotions.
“You’re not sure?” She said back. “How can you be unsure about whether you’re Madrigal Moonlight or not?”
Another brief moment of silence followed as Madrigal brought a hand up to her face and wiped it across her face, confirming to Kiwi that she’d been correct about the teardrop.
“You said my daughters told you about what happened at the Overlook,” Madrigal said as she lowered her hand. “But did they tell you the part where I’d told them how I didn’t know how I’d ended up there?”
A third moment of silence followed as Kiwi tried to recall whether or not the Dazzlings’ had, in fact, made any mention of this in their story.
“No, they didn’t,” She eventually answered.
“I figured as much,” Madrigal then said. “But you see, Kiwi, that’s why I’m not sure if I’m really Madrigal.”
Kiwi’s confusion only grew upon hearing this. How was it that Madrigal not knowing how it was she’d wound up at the Overlook related to her not knowing if she was actually Madrigal or not? The only possible explanation she could come up with was that the woman was suffering from some form of amnesia, but given how she’d both recognized Adagio and was keenly aware of what’d transpired between the two of them last time they’d met that seemed highly unlikely to her.
“I’m…not following,” She confessed.
A small, almost sarcastic-sounding chuckle could be heard escaping Madrigal’s mouth after Kiwi expressed her confusion. One that drew the ire of the PostCrush girl, as evidenced by the mild scowl that briefly crossed her face when she’d heard it.
“I’m sorry, Kiwi,” Madrigal apologized, sensing Kiwi’s slight irritation. “But I wasn’t expecting you to understand. I know that your experience dealing with situations involving magic is…limited.”
This, not surprisingly, only drew further ire from Kiwi. Though that ire was quickly overshadowed by a burning question that popped into her mind.
“How do you know what my experience dealing with magic is like?” She inquired sternly.
“I don’t know how I know that! That’s what I’m trying explain here!” Madrigal replied, now sounding borderline hysterical, as she started to frantically pace the hallway from side-to-side. “I don’t know how it is that I know all of these things! I don’t know how I’m aware that you and your friend, Su-Z, once used the Time Twirler! I don’t know how I know that I have a granddaughter named Dolly! And I’m pretty sure I’ve made it clear by now that I don’t know how it is I ended up at the Overlook!”
Watching Madrigal traipse the hallway and ramble on like a bedlamite renewed Kiwi’s earlier feelings of apprehension towards the woman. It was unsettling behavior to witness from anyone, but given that it was Madrigal who - up until this point - had been so incredibly collected it was especially unsettling for the PostCrush girl. But despite her revived anxieties, Kiwi couldn’t help but feel a smidge of sympathy for the distraught woman. She herself had never experienced anything close to resembling the identity crisis that Madrigal appeared to be going through right now, but even still she couldn’t help but imagine what it might feel like if she had. And as she did so she highly doubted that she would be able to handle the situation any better.
“That’s why I don’t know if I’m really me, Kiwi!” Madrigal continued as she ceased her pacing and turned to face her. “Because there are so many things that I know that I don’t know how I know!”
That last part caused Kiwi to mentally pause for moment so she could try and make sense of it. Thankfully it only took her about a second or two to fully fathom Madrigal’s near-nonsensical phrasing.
“But…but there are things I know that I’m sure I know because I am Madrigal,” Madrigal went on, a bit more calmly now. “Like how Sonata’s first word was ‘mommy’, or how Aria and her father had once gone on a hunting trip together when she was younger. Or even how Adagio and I had gotten into an argument once because she’d kept insisting that she could live on a diet of nothing but shellfish for the rest of her life.”
A brief, practically inaudible chortle could be heard coming from Madrigal as soon as she’d finished her last sentence.
“Honestly, that girl can be so stubborn sometimes,” She then remarked nostalgically.
This was something that Kiwi could not only agree with, but attest too as well. In the short time that she’d been living with Adagio she herself had experienced times where the Dazzling leader had shown high levels of strong headedness. Times like when she’d vehemently defended the quality of the movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters, or when she’d insisted that she would find some extra money for Sonata so that her sister could get Rainbow Dash a nice birthday gift despite all evidence to the contrary. Those times and a few others were all she needed to know just how stubborn Adagio could be when she believed herself to be right about something.
However, Kiwi couldn’t similarly attest to Madrigal’s claims regarding Sonata and Aria, for obvious reasons. But the sheer certainty in the woman’s tone of voice as she’d mentioned them made it difficult for the PostCrush girl to believe that they weren’t any less true than the one regarding Adagio.
“That…was a good memory though,” Madrigal continued. “Because even though we were fighting there was still love between us. I still loved Adagio, despite her belief to the contrary.”
There was a brief pause as Madrigal looked Kiwi dead in the eyes with the most austere look the PostCrush girl had ever seen.
“Kiwi. I know my daughters must have told you some awful stories about how I treated them growing up, and I’m ashamed to admit that most of them are probably true,” The scarlet-haired woman confessed. “But please, believe me when I say that the reason I did all of those things was because I loved them.”
Kiwi was instantly blown away by what Madrigal had said. Not because she believed the woman in any way, but just the opposite. She couldn’t believe Madrigal had just claimed that the reason she’d been so malevolent and downright torturous towards the Dazzlings for how-many-years was because she had loved them. It was enough to enrage her so much that she could’ve sworn she could feel the blood within her veins begin to boil.
“Love?! Love?!” She hollered at Madrigal in her anger. “Are you…are you serious right now?! You honestly believe that all of the horrible things you did to your daughters when they were growing up was because you loved them?!”
Madrigal gave no verbal response to Kiwi’s heated question. All she did was look away from the girl and to her side in shame, but that was all the answer Kiwi needed.
“You…you really are just as bad as Adagio and her sisters said,” She then remarked in disbelief. “I just…I don’t understand it. How could you possibly be such a…such a monster to not only treat your own daughters so awfully, but to also believe that you did so out of love for them?!”
Once again, Madrigal gave no verbal response to Kiwi’s question. At least not initially. For a few seconds there was nothing but an extremely awkward silence in the hallway as Madrigal’s sullen face slowly grew even more morose until it looked like she’d sunk into a deep despair.
“Maybe you’re right,” She eventually, and very softly, said. “Maybe I really am a…a monster.”
Needless to say, this was not the response Kiwi had expected to hear. Not by a longshot. Normally such an unexpected reply would elicit a highly noticeable reaction from her – like gasping loudly or taking a step backwards – but since she was finally starting to grasp the concept of concealing one’s emotions she gave no such highly noticeable reaction. So despite her nearly awestruck level of surprise mentally, physically she managed to keep her reaction to merely that of a look of mild perplexity. Though, of course, Kiwi’s mentally stupefied state did leave her at a loss for words.
“I always thought that I was doing the right thing by being so hard on my daughters,” Madrigal continued somberly. “I thought that by doing so I was preparing them to face the harsh, merciless world I knew they’d one day be entering without me, but…but maybe I was wrong. Maybe all I ended up doing was setting them on a path of cruelty and ruin.”
As Kiwi listened to Madrigal admit her follies as a mother, she couldn’t help but once again feel a twinge of sympathy for the woman. She in no way believed that Madrigal trying to prepare her daughters to one day face the world alone was an excuse for being so awful to them, but she was at least able to understand the logic behind it. However twisted that logic may be.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they ended up so lost for so long,” Madrigal went on as she turned around in shame until her back was facing Kiwi. “But…but I never imagined that they’d ever become so callous that they would leave their own mother for dead.”
At this, Kiwi found it impossible to hide her level of shock.
“T-They what?!” She barely managed to utter in her now stunned state.
A small, misanthropic smile briefly crossed Madrigal’s face upon hearing Kiwi’s flabbergasted question. One that the PostCrush girl was unable to see though due to the fact that Madrigal was facing away from her.
“Oh, I’d assumed my daughters had told you about how I’d died,” The scarlet-haired woman said as she turned back around, quickly losing her smile as she did so.
“N-No, they hadn’t,” Kiwi replied. “They hadn’t even said anything about you dying. All they’d said was that after years of not seeing you they’d run into you at the Overlook.”
“I see,” Madrigal then said. “Well in that case, allow me to inform you about my…untimely demise, dearie. You see, one day I’d decided to do a little hunting down inside a trench. The trench itself had seemed fairly safe when I’d first ventured down into it, but not long after I’d been in there I learned that it was anything but safe. A number of rocks started to fall all around me and soon enough I’d found myself trapped underneath some of the larger ones, slowly bleeding to death after having been hit by a few of the smaller ones.”
An involuntary gasp escaped Kiwi’s mouth as she couldn’t help but imagine the pain and fear that one must feel from being trapped in a trench while severely injured.
“I had called out for help and my daughters must’ve heard me because a few minutes later they showed up, but…but when they did they didn’t help me,” Madrigal continued. “All they did was just…look at me silently for a bit before leaving. The last thing I remember before losing consciousness was frantically calling out for them to come back. But they never did. After that I inexplicably woke up inside the Overlook, and you said you already know what had happened from that point on.”
To say that Kiwi felt taken aback by Madrigal’s tale would be a gross understatement. She felt absolutely perturbed by it. While she’d been aware of the Dazzlings’ troubled past for some time, what she’d just learned from Madrigal regarding them went far beyond what she considered simply being part of one’s troubled past. Abandoning their mother when she was injured and leaving her for dead? What the three girls she’d come to admire and consider family had done was nothing short of…monstrous.
That is, of course, if the tale were actually true. There was always the possibility that Madrigal was making the whole thing up. Though as much as Kiwi wanted to believe that to be the case, she found it difficult to do so. Once more the certainty in the woman’s tone of voice as she’d spoken her words left little doubt within the PostCrush girl’s mind that they were in any way false. But even still, she simply refused to accept that Adagio and her sisters were even capable of such a horrid act.
Several questions quickly popped into Kiwi’s mind in regards to Madrigal’s story. Questions that she hoped would reveal some flaw or inconsistency within the woman’s yarn to show it to be a falsehood. But before she could ask even a single one the lights in the hallway started to flicker, disrupting her train of thought. The flickering only lasted a few seconds, but when it ended the lighting in the hallway was noticeably dimmer. And Madrigal was doubled over in pain.
“Ahh!” The woman shrieked out before falling to her knees.
Instinctively, Kiwi started to rush over to Madrigal to see if she was all right. But when she remembered just who it was she was rushing over to she promptly stopped. Though that still left only about a four foot distance between herself and Madrigal.
“A-Are you okay?” The PostCrush girl inquired, still feeling somewhat concerned for Madrigal’s well-being.
“I’m…I’m fine, Kiwi, ” Madrigal panted in response. “ But we’re…we’re running out of time. If we don’t hurry than…than soon Sunset and I will…will both die.”
Hearing Madrigal mention that Sunset may soon die filled Kiwi with great trepidation. For as bad as Sunset had seemed back in her apartment the PostCrush girl hadn’t thought that she was anywhere near death’s door. Once more the thought that Madrigal was merely lying crossed her mind, but given the severity of the woman’s claim she felt that she couldn’t afford to outright dismiss it. After all, if Madrigal wasn’t lying than she needed to act quickly if she was going to save her dear friend. And Madrigal too, if only by mutual inclusiveness.
“What are you talking about?” She inquired as she gently got down on her knees in order to be at eye-level with Madrigal. “How is it that you and Sunset are in danger?”
“Because…because her geode is trying to expel me from her mind…at any cost,” Madrigal explained.
It stood to reason that Kiwi required a more detailed explanation than that to fully understand what Madrigal was saying. Though fortunately Madrigal seemed to perceive this and continued on without her needing to ask for said details.
“I’m assuming my daughters told you about how they’d ‘defeated’ me back at the Overlook, no?” The scarlet-haired woman asked.
“Yeah, they did,” Kiwi confirmed.
“Well just before that happened I used what little magic I had left to enter Sunset Shimmer’s mind through her geode,” Madrigal then said. “It’s magic acts like a psychic doorway that allows her access into other people’s minds, to a certain degree. But since doors work both ways and I’m highly-skilled with magic, I was able to gain access into her mind fully in order to save myself.”
Madrigal’s explanation was, to say the least, fascinating to Kiwi. Even though she’d experienced first-hand the power of magic when she’d used the Time Twirler, she found herself in awe that it could be so powerful as to allow someone to enter another’s mind like it had allowed Madrigal to enter Sunset’s mind. There was, however, one aspect of Madrigal’s explanation though that she found rather concerning. An aspect that had nothing to do with the power that magic can possess.
“That wasn’t something you just came up with on the spot though, was it, Madrigal?” She sternly - but not too sternly – inquired. “It was something you’d planned in-advance.”
“Yes, it was,” Madrigal admitted as she looked the PostCrush girl straight in the eyes. “But I assure you, Kiwi, it was only a plan of absolute last resort. I didn’t want to, for lack of a better term, invade Sunset’s mind like this, but I had no other choice if I wanted to survive in the event that talking to my daughters ended badly. Which, after they’d left me for dead, I couldn’t rule out as a possibility.”
As much as Kiwi hated to admit it, Madrigal did sort of have a point there. If she’d been in a similar situation as Madrigal she too would most likely have felt the need to have a plan B handy.
“My overall plan was simply to recuperate within the safe-haven of Sunset’s mind and then leave when I was strong enough, but…but I’ve hit a bit of a snag in that plan,” Madrigal continued as she averted her gaze from Kiwi. “Sunset’s geode is trying to forcibly expel me from her mind, that’s what the flickering lights in this physical representation are supposed to, well, represent. It sees me as a threat to Sunset and is doing everything it can to try and get rid of me. And I mean everything. Including things that are harmful to Sunset.”
It was at this point that Kiwi began to understand what Madrigal had meant earlier when she’d said that Sunset’s geode was trying to expel her at any cost.
“It’s a ‘kill the host to kill the disease’ situation, isn’t it?” The PostCrush girl half-inquired, half-stated. “The geode is so desperate to get you out of Sunset’s head that it’s going to destroy Sunset in order to do it.”
Admittedly, Kiwi found the situation she’d just described to be strikingly improbable. Sunset’s geode destroying Sunset in order to protect her? It was the very definition of paradoxical. But then again, maybe Sunset’s geode wasn’t even aware of what of was doing to its owner. Maybe it was simply acting like a computer program and solving a problem it had encountered with no discernable consciousness to guide its actions. Given her limited understanding of how magic worked it wasn’t a possibility that the PostCrush girl could rule out.
“I would leave Sunset’s mind if I could, but I’m not strong enough yet,” Madrigal then said. “That’s why I brought you and Adagio here. Because I need your help in order to save Sunset without dying again.”
Kiwi couldn’t help but get the distinct feeling in that moment that Madrigal didn’t give two licks about Sunset’s safety, only her own. Maybe it was because of the way the woman said that last part about saving Sunset without sacrificing herself ,or maybe it was simply that she still didn’t trust her, but the PostCrush girl just couldn’t help but be leery of Madrigal’s true motives here.
“I know what you must be thinking right now, Kiwi. You must be thinking that I’m only concerned about my own survival,” Madrigal said as she once again made eye contact with Kiwi. “And I’ll admit it, I am concerned about my survival. But I truly am concerned about Sunset’s safety too. I honestly do feel bad, guilty even, that I’ve put her in danger by being inside her mind.”
Once again, the sheer conviction in Madrigal’s voice made it difficult for Kiwi to doubt the woman’s sincerity.
“Not only that, but I’m not afraid about my own survival because I’m afraid of death,” Madrigal solemnly continued. “I’m afraid that if I die again I’ll…I’ll never have another chance to make things right with my daughters. I meant it earlier when I’d told Adagio that I wanted to mend our broken relationship and be a family again. I want that more than anything. But if I die here then I know that will never happen. I know I won’t mysteriously come back again, and I know I’ll never get another chance to make amends with my children.”
The way Madrigal poured her heart out nearly brought Kiwi to tears. Nearly. The PostCrush girl still had a doubt or two about whether Madrigal was truly being sincere at the moment, despite how much she appeared to be. But her feelings aside, there was still one thing about all of this that Kiwi was confused about, and that was what sort of help Madrigal expected from a magicless individual like herself?
“But…how can I help you?” She inquired. “I don’t have any magic.”
The look of solemnity within Madrigal’s eyes quickly intensified after Kiwi asked her question. So much so that it sent a brief chill down the PostCrush girl’s spine.
“I need you to allow me access into your mind, Kiwi,” Madrigal answered.
Upon hearing Madrigal’s answer, Kiwi promptly got back onto her feet and took a few steps backwards away from Madrigal.
“Y-You want me to what?!” She inquired, making no effort to hide her newfound sense of fright.
“Kiwi, please, just listen to me,” Madrigal calmly pleaded as she too got back onto her feet.
Kiwi gave no response to Madrigal’s plea. Not because she was willing to hear the woman out though, but because she was too paralyzed with fear to voice any objections to the contrary. And she did have objections.
“I know that based on everything that’s happening here it sounds like I’m asking you to risk your own life to save me,” Madrigal began to say after a few seconds of silence. “But remember, the only reason Sunset is in danger from me being inside her mind is because of her geode. You don’t have a magical geode, so there won’t be anything trying to destroy you.”
If Kiwi hadn’t been so overcome by feelings of fear she would’ve given a sarcastic laugh at that last part. Nothing trying to destroy her? Madrigal herself could try to destroy her. Who was to say that as soon as the woman entered her mind she wouldn’t try to take over her body, or drive her insane, or any number of other horrific things that one could potentially do while inside someone else’s head. It was out of the question. There was no way in hell she was going to allow Madrigal into her mind.
“I-I’m not - ” Kiwi started to say before the lights in the hallway started to flicker again.
“Ahh!” Madrigal winced as she doubled over in pain once again.
The flickering didn’t last as long as the last time nor did it seem as intense either, so despite her feelings of pain Madrigal managed to stay on her feet. Just like the last time though, Kiwi couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the woman’s suffering. But more than that the incident reminded her of a very crucial fact. If she didn’t help Madrigal, Sunset was doomed.
“I…I know I’m asking a lot of you, Kiwi,” Madrigal said as she slowly regained her composure. “We’ve only just met and…and you have no reason to trust me. Believe me, if…if I were in your shoes I’d be apprehensive about bestowing trust upon someone I’d just met too.”
The fact that she’d just met Madrigal wasn’t what was making Kiwi apprehensive about trusting her. It was the stories she’d heard about her from the Dazzlings’ that was making her apprehensive. According to them Madrigal was vicious, evil, and most certainly one of the last people you’d ever want to trust. In short, they were enough to paint the woman as the devil herself. But Kiwi had to admit that she didn’t find Madrigal to be any of those things after meeting her. She was a bit eccentric to be sure, and, by her own admission, as terrible a mother as the Dazzlings had described, but she hardly seemed either vicious or evil. And she did seem pretty sincere about wanting to save Sunset as well as make amends with her daughters.
“I know that my word alone probably isn’t enough to earn your trust, Kiwi,” Madrigal continued. “But I do give you my word; I promise that if you allow me access into your mind I won’t do anything to harm you, and I’ll leave once I’m strong enough to survive on my own.”
It was then that Madrigal reached out her right hand to Kiwi.
“Please, Kiwi, I’m begging you. Help me,” Madrigal then pleaded.
As Kiwi stared silently at the outstretched hand before her, she knew that her decision to either help Madrigal or not was quite possibly going to be the most important choice she would ever have to make in her entire life. And she had no idea which choice she was going to make.
“It all makes sense now,” Adagio continued to delineate in front of Sunset. “Madrigal knew that my sisters and I would never help her, but she also knew that we’d be able to stop her if she’d tried to force us to. So she came up with a plan to not only escape the Overlook by possessing you, Sunset, but also to keep us from realizing that that was her true target all along. And now that she’s inside your head she’s playing mind games with you. Literally. Trying to convince you that you're a monster by making you remember all of your worst memories on constant repeat. All for the purpose of breaking you so that she can then become you.”
A sarcastically amused chuckle escaped Adagio’s mouth after she’d finished her delineation.
“Typical Mom; ever the real monster,” She remarked with a hint of animosity in her voice.
What really got under Adagio’s skin about all of this wasn’t only that her mother was up to her usual wicked ways, but that she had gotten Sunset involved as well. She just couldn’t help feel that Madrigal had specifically chosen Sunset for her plan because she’d known how much the Rainboom meant to her. In truth though she knew that Sunset had most likely been chosen because of her strong magical prowess, but even still she just hated the fact that her mother had targeted one of her best friends of all people.
For the second time today the Dazzling leader felt like beating herself up for having been so foolish, this time because she hadn’t been able to see Madrigal’s true plan from the very beginning - which had resulted in Sunset’s life being put at risk. But just like before, she knew she didn’t have the luxury to do so right now. Right now she needed to find a way to break the spell Madrigal had used to make Sunset relive all of her worst memories. Though given that she didn’t even know what kind of spell had been used on Sunset she wasn’t entirely sure she would even be able to find a way to cleft her mother’s hex.
The more Adagio focused on what it was she didn’t know about Sunset’s predicament, the more frustrated she became. She was supposed to be a doyen of magical knowledge and yet here she was, as lost and confused as an abecedarian. That alone was enough to make her feel stymied, but the fact that Sunset continued to be in danger because of her benightedness made things even worse.
Thankfully though, the Dazzling refused to give in to her feelings of frustration.
“Okay, just calm down,” She told herself as she took a few deep, mental breaths. “Think, Adagio, think. You don’t need to figure out how it is Madrigal’s doing this, you only need to figure out how to counter it.”
After quickly refocusing her mental efforts, Adagio began to think about the things she did know.
“You know that what Madrigal was doing was making Sunset relive her worst memories over and over,” She continued saying to herself. “You also know that Madrigal has been able to accomplish this because she’s literally inside Sunset’s head. And you know that your surroundings are a three dimensional representation of Sunset’s mind constructed by her geode so that you can interact with it. You know - ”
The Dazzling cut herself off as an especially bright lightbulb suddenly turned on inside her own mind.
“It’s so simple,” She remarked softly. “So simple that it seems too obvious to be the answer.”
Adagio then looked her friend square in the eyes.
“Sunset,” She solemnly started to say. “Do you remember when you helped Twilight discover the magic of friendship?”
As soon as Adagio finished speaking, a door appeared just a few feet away from the girls’ left. It promptly opened itself and gave off a small bit of light – that was nowhere near as blinding as the light from the hallway doors - as it did so, gaining both Adagio and Sunset’s attention. Once the light subsided the front grounds of CHS were revealed to be on the other side, along with a number of people occupying it. Including Sunset and Twilight Sparkle’s alter ego, Midnight Sparkle.
“Even with all that magic and power you’ll still be alone,” The Sunset within the door said to Midnight Sparkle. “True magic comes from honesty, loyalty, laughter, generosity, kindness.”
A rainbow of magical energy began to converge onto a device that Sunset was holding as she spoke, and soon enough the girl began to levitate.
“I understand you, Twilight, and I want to show you the most important magic of all,” Sunset then said before throwing the device in her hand to the ground.
The instant the device hit the ground it shattered and the magical energy it had gathered enveloped Sunset, transforming her into Daydream Shimmer.
“The magic of friendship!” Daydream declared before using her magic to seal a number of nearby spacial anomalies.
A brief battle between Daydream and Midnight quickly ensued, but soon ended with Sunset and Twilight – now back to their usual selves – slowly descending back down to the ground.
“I’m so sorry,” Twilight tearfully apologized once she and Sunset had finished their descent. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“I know,” Sunset then said heartfully. “And going by my own experiences, they’ll forgive you.”
The door closed after that and then disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, returning Adagio and Sunset’s attention to one another. Once the two girls once again locked eyes, Adagio noticed that Sunset’s weren’t as glassy and lifeless as they’d been a moment ago.
“Do you remember when you’d gone back to Equestria to make amends with Princess Celestia?” The Dazzling then asked.
As if Adagio’s question had been some sort of cue, another door suddenly appeared before the two girls and opened on its own. This time though, hardly any flash of light emanated from the door when it opened. Barely even a flicker.
“Princess Celestia,” A pony Sunset said from the other side of the door. “The last time we saw each other I was your snide little pupil who’d betrayed and abandoned you.”
“I wouldn’t have said it that way,” Princess Twilight Sparkle softly interjected before clearing her throat to address Princess Celestia. “What Sunset means to say is - ”
“I mean that I come before you a changed pony,” Sunset cut in. “Humbly asking for forgiveness, guidance, and knowledge.”
A brief moment of silence followed as Princess Celestia descended from her throne and stopped right in front of Sunset.
“Or I can just go and you never have to see me again,” Sunset then said nervously as she lowered her head.
Almost instantly, Princess Celestia used her right hoof to raise Sunset’s head back up until the two of them were making eye contact.
“I’ve missed you, Sunset Shimmer,” Princess Celestia then wholeheartedly declared.
“I…I’m so sorry,” Sunset replied just as wholeheartedly before she and Princess Celestia wrapped their hooves around one another in a hug.
The door closed after that and, just like the last one, abruptly disappeared into thin air.
Adagio and Sunset once again locked eyes as soon as the door vanished, and when they did Adagio noticed yet another noticeable improvement within the Rainboom’s eyes. They still looked a bit hazy, to be sure, but at least now she no longer looked like a creepy doll.
“Trust me, Sunset, I know how making mistakes can make you feel,” Adagio then said. “They can make you feel like you’re a bad person. Like you’re unforgivable. Like you’re a…a monster. And I know those feelings can seem really strong when you keep reliving them in your head over and over again. But please, believe me when I say that making mistakes doesn’t make you a monster.”
It was at this point that Adagio lifted both of her arms up from her side and placed her hands on Sunset’s cheeks.
“I know you’ve made some pretty big mistakes in your life, Sunset, but those mistakes do not make you a monster,” She continued, becoming more and more emotional with each sentence. “Because a monster wouldn’t have risked her life to save Twilight from corrupted magic, or gone back and apologized to Princess Celestia for abandoning her. Or…or given my sisters and I a place to live when we’d needed it and the chance at making a new life for ourselves.”
By now Adagio’s emotions had grown so powerful that they began to pour out the corners of her eyes in the form of a few teardrops.
“You’re a good person, Sunset. One of the kindest and most compassionate people I’ve ever met,” The Dazzling confessed before removing her hands from Sunset’s face and wrapping her arms around the girl in an impassioned hug. “And I…I love you.”
Adagio was unable to tell due to her hug, but as soon as she told Sunset that she loved her the last remnants of haze vanished from the Rainboom’s eyes and she returned to looking like her usual self. Though the Dazzling was soon able to assume all of this when she felt Sunset’s arms wrap around her back to return her hug. For a few seconds the two girls simply hugged one another in silence until a blinding light – more blinding than any of the doors had produced – precipitously covered the room and enveloped both of them within its glow.
When the light eventually subsided Adagio found herself back within Sunset’s apartment, standing in exactly the same spot she’d been standing in before she’d found herself inside Sunset’s mind. Her gaze was also still on the Rainboom’s geode like it had been before as well, and her peripheral vision allowed her to catch a glimpse of the nearby alarm clock which showed that only one minute had passed since she’d touched said geode; despite the fact that what she’d just gone through inside Sunset’s mind had clearly been longer than one measly minute.
“A-Adagio?” She suddenly heard Kiwi’s voice say from right next to her.
The Dazzling leader quickly turned her head to see that Kiwi was indeed standing right next to her – where she too had been right before entering Sunset’s mind – and looking at her with an expression of both relief and delight.
“K-Kiwi?” She said back just before throwing her arms around the PostCrush girl in an impromptu hug.
“Oof,” Kiwi involuntarily uttered in response to Adagio’s unexpected embrace.
“I’m so, so sorry I left you back in the hallway,” The Dazzling profusely apologized as she semi-broke her hug to look Kiwi directly in the eyes. “Are you okay? Did Madrigal hurt you? What happened after I left?”
“I…I’m fine, Adagio,” Kiwi answered, somewhat tentatively. “Madrigal didn’t hurt me. She just…talked to me for a while before a bright light covered the hallway and I found myself back here with you.”
Kiwi’s vague depiction of the events that had occurred between her and Madrigal after she’d left the hallway did little to assuage Adagio’s concerns about what had transpired between the two of them. She was about to ask the PostCrush girl for more details – specifically what it was that Madrigal had said to her – but before she could the sound of someone nearby rousing from their sleep caught both her’s and Kiwi’s attention.
“Wha…What’s going on?” Sunset Shimmer asked in a very groggy manner as she looked at the two girls with tired, half-lidded eyes. “Adagio? Kiwi? What are you two doing in my apartment?”
The sight of Sunset awake and well instantly brought looks of joy to both Adagio and Kiwi’s faces. And soon enough both girls rushed over to the Rainboom and lunged themselves right into her in a clumsy group hug that caused all three of them to fall down onto the bed. Which in-turn caused Sunset to snap out of her morning grogginess.
“Oh thank goodness you’re all right, Sunset!” Adagio proclaimed as she practically nestled up against her dear friend.
“We were so worried about you!” Kiwi then said as she did likewise.
“Um, o-okay. Thanks?” Sunset replied confusedly. “But, um, why were you worried about me exactly?”
“It’s a long story,” Adagio replied as she removed herself from Sunset’s person. “Maybe we should explain everything over breakfast.”
And so the Dazzling, PostCrush girl, and Rainboom all sat down and had breakfast together there in the apartment as the tale of Madrigal’s return was recounted. Throughout the meal Adagio and Kiwi each took turns telling Sunset of how they’d each dreamt about Madrigal, were drawn into the girl’s mind by her geode, and what it was they’d experienced whilst inside her head. Though, in all honesty, Adagio recounted her experiences much more than Kiwi did. The Dazzling leader left little to no detail out about all that she’d been through while Kiwi, by contrast, only gave ambiguous particulars. But between the two of them though Sunset was able to get a pretty clear picture of all that had happened whilst they’d been inside her head, and it left her nearly speechless.
“I…I can’t believe Madrigal was able to use my geode to get inside my mind like that,” The Rainboom remarked as she looked down timorously at said geode currently wrapped around her neck.
“Don’t let it worry you too much, Sunset,” Adagio tried to hearten her friend, sensing her diffidence towards her geode. “Madrigal was always an expert among experts when it came to magic. I doubt you’ll ever encounter anyone who could manipulate your geode’s magic like she was able to ever again.”
“Maybe,” Sunset replied, sounding less-than-convinced. “But I’m more worried that Madrigal isn’t really gone. I mean, how do we know she isn’t still inside my head.”
“I highly doubt that she is. When we broke whatever spell she was using on you it should’ve erased her from your mind.” Adagio tried to assure Sunset before looking over at Kiwi. “Unless of course you have reason to believe that she might have somehow survived, Kiwi.”
A look of shock quickly crossed Kiwi’s face after Adagio had asked her question. The kind of shocked look one might get after being caught doing something extremely embarrassing.
“W-Why would I have any reason to believe that Madrigal survived?” She inquired.
“You were with her when her spell over Sunset was broken. Tell me; what happened to her after that?” Adagio replied.
“I…I’m not sure,” Kiwi answered falteringly. “Everything happened so quickly at the end that I don’t know what happened to Madrigal. All I know was that one second the two of us were talking and the next I was back here standing next to you.”
A moment of awkward silence followed as Adagio gingerly stared Kiwi down with a suspicious look in her eyes while Kiwi tried her best to avert her gaze from the Dazzling’s.
“W-Well I’m confident that if you think Madrigal is gone than she is, Adagio,” Sunset eventually spoke up in order to break the silence. “But I’ll be sure to be on my guard just in case she isn’t and let you know if I start feeling unwell again.”
“Good,” Adagio simply said back as she broke her stare and looked over at a nearby clock.
As soon as the Dazzling laid eyes on the clock she instantly lost any and all conjectures she had regarding Kiwi’s attestation about Madrigal’s fate.
“Dammit. We have to go,” She then said hastily as she got up from her seat. “There’s only twenty minutes left before school starts.”
Upon hearing Adagio’s statement about the time both Sunset and Kiwi turned their attention over towards the clock as well and saw that the Dazzling was right; there were only twenty minutes remaining before the first period bell would ring at CHS.
“Shoot. I’ll never be able to make it in time by walking,” Sunset said in a somewhat alarmed manner as she too got up from her seat. “Do you girls mind if I catch a ride with you?”
“Not at all,” Adagio promptly replied before turning her attention to Kiwi, who was still seated. “Come on, Kiwi.”
“W-Wait,” Kiwi said as she finally got up from her seat. “You both still want to go to CHS today? After everything we all just went through?”
“I don’t want to, but I have to,” Sunset replied as she started gathering her various school items from a nearby coffee table. “I can’t afford to miss even one day’s lecture in history class. I’m struggling in that subject enough as it is.”
“And believe me, Kiwi, I’d love nothing more than to go home right now and have either Aria or Sonata cover for me, but it’s too late for that,” The Dazzling explained, a tad testily, as she helped Sunset gather up her things. “Now come on!”
“Okay, okay,” Kiwi replied profusely to try and calm Adagio down. “Just…let me go to the bathroom before we head out, all right?”
Adagio gave no verbal response to the PostCrush girl’s request, but she did discreetly roll her eyes in an annoyed fashion. Sunset, meanwhile, pointed to a nearby hallway.
“The bathroom’s down that way and the second door on the left, Kiwi,” The Rainboom precipitately informed her friend. “Just please try to be quick. History is my first period class and I really don’t want to be late for it.”
“I’ll be quick, I promise,” Kiwi assured Sunset before dashing off towards the hallway the Rainboom had pointed to.
“We’ll meet you outside!” Adagio shouted out to Kiwi before she disappeared from her sight.
It only took a few seconds later for the Dazzling to help Sunset gather her things, and once everything was zipped up inside the Rainboom’s backpack the two girls started to make their way towards the front door.
“So, Adagio,” Sunset abruptly spoke up in a suspiciously coquettish manner as they walked. “About that part of your story where you said that you love me.”
A small but very noticeable blush instantaneously crossed Adagio’s face as soon as she heard Sunset’s statement.
“D-Don’t get the wrong idea, Shimmer,” The Dazzling replied tentatively. “When I said that I loved you I meant it in a strictly plutonic sense.”
A hoydenish laugh could be heard coming from Sunset after Adagio had finished giving her explanation.
“Whatever you say,” The Rainboom simply replied, still sounding quite coquettish.
Adagio’s blush only intensified as she opened the front door and stepped outside.
Meanwhile, back inside the apartment Kiwi stood in front of the vanity within Sunset’s bathroom, clasping it with both hands as she looked at her reflection within the mirror hanging above it. In truth, she hadn’t needed to use the bathroom at all. What she’d truly needed was simply a minute to herself to contemplate what it was that had happened back within Sunset’s mind. Specifically, what had happened in there between her and Madrigal after the woman had held out her hand to her.
“Just what the hell have you done, Kiwi?” She asked herself as she tilted her head down towards the sink.
“You’ve saved my life,” She heard Madrigal’s voice suddenly say.
Feeling startled from having precipitously heard Madrigal’s voice, Kiwi lifted her head back up and saw Madrigal’s image within the mirror’s reflection, standing right behind her with her hands on her shoulders. The PostCrush girl then turned her head around expecting to see Madrigal standing behind her, but there was no Madrigal to be seen. Which was incredibly odd for a number of reasons, not the least of them being that she could’ve sworn she could feel someone touching her shoulders.
“I honestly can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me, Kiwi,” Madrigal then said, drawing Kiwi’s attention back to the mirror. “You are, without a doubt, one of the kindest and most compassionate people I’ve ever met.”
Chalking up Madrigal only being visible within the mirror and the feeling on her shoulders as just more magic, Kiwi simply stared at the Dazzlings’ mother for a moment before dawning a very stern and intimidating expression.
“Just remember your promise, Madrigal,” She stated strongly. “Because if you give me any reason to believe – even for a second - that you’ve forgotten it I’ll have Adagio and her sisters use their magic to rip you right out of my head before you’re strong enough to survive on your own.”
“There’s no need for threats, dearie,” Madrigal sedately assured the PostCrush girl. “I made you a promise and I intend to keep it. You have nothing to worry about from me.”
Madrigal’s assurances did little to convince Kiwi that allowing the woman into her mind wasn’t a potential mistake, but then again there really wasn’t anything that would’ve convinced her otherwise. She wasn’t even entirely sure why it was she’d agreed to help Madrigal in the first place. Maybe it was because, deep-down, she believed that Madrigal was being one hundred percent sincere when she’d said that all she wanted was the chance to make amends with her daughters. Maybe it was because she just wasn’t capable of leaving someone to their demise when she had the power to save them. Or maybe she'd done it solely for Sunset's sake. Whatever the reason, what was done was done. She’d made her choice and now she had to live with it, no matter the potential consequences.
Feeling overwhelmed by her continued debate with herself as to whether or not she’d made the right choice, Kiwi gave an exhausted sigh and closed her eyes as she once more tilted her head down towards the sink. Which caused her to miss the unmistakably misanthropic smile that briefly crossed Madrigal’s face within the mirror’s reflection.
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Why is it cancelled?
10902391
For a number of reasons, the biggest being that I just don't have the time for it anymore.
10902994
I see.
I'm sorry you're canceling this.
You've made Madrigal into one of the most conniving and evil villains I've ever encountered.
I hope you return to this someday.
10902994
I hope one day you try to continue it
Wait, what!?
Did I miss a story cause I don't recall Sunset ever mentioning she had a sister?
That's great.
Strange?
https://m.All but that last part is likely true Adagio.
She has feelings for Sunset! Wow, this was probably the one plotwist I didn't see coming.
Ngl, I'm not surprised on that one.
Yeah, she clearly still has feelings for her.
Well, something tells me we haven't seen the end of her.