A Time of Reckoning: Seven Days in Sunny June, Book IV

by Shinzakura

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Sunset Shimmer, Main 7 (EqG), Profanity, Violence, Twilight Sparkle (EqG), Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Gore, Dazzlings, Octavia, Horror, Equestria Girls, Sex
Length: 406425

The climax of the Seven Days in Sunny June saga: Sunset Shimmer faces her biggest challenges, among them the return of HUMAN Sunset Shimmer! And yet things can - and WILL - get worse...

A Tale of the Berylverse. Joint project with BlueBastard and Flynt Coal.

The climax to the Seven Days in Sunny June saga!

With weeks to go before Sunset is to realize her dream - being adopted by the family she loves more than anything - her world is about to fall apart: the human Sunset Shimmer has reappeared and it's only a matter of time before her loved ones come across the human girl who has no clue of what has happened over the course of the past five years.

But if that's not enough, Divine Right and Cantata Blast begin their final plans to summon a force beyond comprehension and to bring the world to its knees using arcane powers. All it calls for is a sacrifice, or two...or more.

Fortunately, they can be stopped.
Unfortunately, the one who can stop them's a little busy with personal issues at the moment....

TVTropes page!

Published 2015-09-03 05:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-07 22:30:33 UTC

July 29: One Step Closer

A pair of women stepped off the concourse, headed towards the Baggage Claim. Both looked as if they’d seen better days, though the older one was looking much better than the younger, in comparison.

“Mom, next time Uncle Noblesse insists we take a private jet, I promise not to gain a sense of entitlement,” Shimmer groaned.

“I’m in agreement,” Solaire said with some regret. “Had I known that we were going to suffer so much turbulence during the flight, I would have reconsidered.”

“Oh, I think I’m going to hurl,” Shimmer moaned. Fortunately, it was likely only nausea, but the airsickness bags on the plane had gotten a workout.

“Soli? Sunset?” a voice called, and both practically sprinted out of the concourse exit and to a large, burly man with hair and beard the color of autumn foliage. He was with a woman and two teens, the pair roughly about Sunset’s age.

“God, Soli, you look great!” Autumn Forest said as he hugged his sister-in-law. He then turned to Sunset, embracing her as well. “And little Sunny! You’ve grown!”

“Thanks,” Shimmer said, blushing hard. The blush didn’t stop as she spent a few more minutes being coddled over by her aunt, Vanilla Cream.

“You look absolutely gorgeous, Sunny!” the woman cooed.

“Thanks, Aunt Vanilla,” Shimmer murmured, turning redder than the locks in her hair. Fortunately, Shimmer’s mother had suddenly caught her sister-in-law’s attention and the woman let the teen go, allowing her to face her cousins. It had been a while, but she was sure she’d remembered their names; she hadn’t spent much time growing up with them, given that they’d attended separate schools than she had. “Uh…Fancy and Coco, right?”

“Absolutely right, your highness,” Fancy said, bowing elegantly while Coco curtseyed. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance once more, even though it’s been years.”

Seeing their reaction, Shimmer sighed. “Look…we’re cousins, I don’t like being a princess – figuratively or literally – and I just want to consider myself a normal American girl while we’re here. So let’s try this again.” She offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Shimmy.”

Fancy smiled and took her hand. “It’s been a long time, cousin. You’ve grown.” Behind him, Coco said nothing, but instead gave a soft smile.

“I hope so. I mean, I was what, nine, when you last saw me? And Coco, you were barely in kindergarten or something like that.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Coco said with a blush. “But after we….” Coco suddenly went silent and turned her head. After a split second, Shimmer could hear a soft sobbing coming from her younger cousin and the sound practically ripped at her heart.

“Coco was really close to Nana,” Fancy apologized by way of explanation. “It’s a shame that you couldn’t get here in time; I know she would have loved to see you.”

That statement affected Shimmer greatly. She could barely remember her grandmother; she’d never known her grandfather and she tried to claw on to whatever memories she had of her father, as well as the recollections of her mother and other family members back in France. Sometimes she could barely recall her early years here, as if the pain had caused her to shut them from her mind.

Maybe it’s really like that phrase I read about in school, she thought. “Jamais vu” – the feeling you haven’t been somewhere before even though you know you have.

Sensing his cousin’s distress, Fancy offered, “Since I know you’ll be in town for a few weeks, after the funeral is over, would you like Coco and I to show you around town? May give you some happy memories to offset the bad ones.”

Shimmer nodded. “I think I’d like that.”

“Maybe I can even introduce you to some of my friends!” Coco exclaimed wiping away her tears and casting them aside. “I’m sure you’d like to get to know them as well.”

Watching the teens talk, Solaire smiled and looked at her in-laws. “They’ve grown to be such wonderful people, Autumn, Vanilla. You should be proud.”

“No less than you should be about Sunset,” Autumn replied. “Our young princess has grown up to be quite the literal one.”

Watching from a distance, three men, muscular and dressed in casual clothing, eyed the small group then looked around. «Tabarnac! Où diable est notre contact?» the lead, with short-cropped brown and green hair commented.

“Yo, cut the Fran-sayse!” hissed a second one. “We’ve got fake IDs, and we’re supposed to pretend to be American – if you have to speak a foreign language, it’s Spanish.”

The first one grinned. “As if,” he replied back. “I had them make me some fake documents to say I’m from Louisiana just so I can talk in French whenever I want.”

“Asshole.”

“Okay, cut it, you two,” a third voice, apparently the one in charge, cut in. “Now we have to look for our Goddamn contact. That asshole from the CIA said he’d be around here somewhere.” He pointed towards the group they saw earlier, who were at the carousel grabbing their bags. “Tell you what, let’s casually follow those folks, get our bags, then we can stand outside and I’ll call the number CSIS provided me with. If we can’t get a hold of our contact, at least we have the address to the safe house, okay?”

The second one grunted. “Most of the SIRENs have been spotted overseas and we’re chasing some fuckin’ wild geese here in Northern California. Waste of my fucking skills, I swear.”

Watching from a distance, a bored girl dressed in airport janitorial gear watched the men. To the average person, she looked as though she was drooling over the trio of beefcakes. However, a practiced expert could have noticed her eyes looking towards very specific positions, as if gazing for something in particular.

The girl tapped a small button on her collar. “Aleph? Gimel. We have three tangos spotted. Fifteen mikes from my position, and from the looks of it, they’re tracking our ‘guests’.”

“Roger that, am inbound. Zayin, do you have a status on Che and her team?”

“Just extracted them from the plane and VIPing them to the rendezvous point.”

“Disregard; have all of you rack up and form up on Gimel. Gimel, I have you on visual – and I have them as well. Zayin, how fast can you get there?”

A pause, over the radio, then, “We’re doubletiming, but we’re gonna need a distraction.”

Gimel leaned over towards the radio’s mic. “Let me take care of that. Chief, be ready to back me up.” With that, the girl pushed the portable cleaning station forward, moving faster as if a particular urgency had taken over the janitor. Finally as she approached just behind her targets, she slipped, crashing to the floor while the cart continued onwards, slamming into the trio. As the cart was made of a durable, light plastic, the two men it impacted into weren’t injured, but knocked off their feet in the process, crumpling to the ground. The cart flipped onto its side, spilling dirty water all over the place.

“Aw mah Gawd!” the panicked voice of a young woman followed up right behind them. She looked terrified, as though she was watching her job disappear before her eyes. “Aw, Ah’m sow sarry!” she said, trying to help the men up while wiping them down with paper towels at the same time. She was making a bigger scene of it than it needed to be, and had it not been for the dirty, spilled water, it would have been nothing more than just mild embarrassment. But the horror-stricken histrionics of the girl made just about all the other watchers turn away, feeling sympathy for her plight.

“Look, it’s okay, mon cherie,” the French-speaking man told her. “Just an accident.”

“Cleanup!” a new voice shouted, and a woman dressed as an airport official, and carrying a radio, approached them. “What did you do this time?” she snapped at the janitor angrily enough to make the remaining bystanders start to wander off. She then looked at the men and said, “Sirs, my apologies. Let me take you to the back area, and we’ll get you cleaned up, okay?”

“No, that’s quite alright, mi—” The man suddenly stopped and realized that one that had hit him was a young woman, clearly fit, and clearly beautiful. Backing her up was another woman clearly fit and as just as beautiful. Instinctively, his hand went for a sidearm that wasn’t there. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that his partners had suddenly realized the same.

Less than a second later, four more sets of footfalls arrived, all belonging to other young and beautiful women. The three men could see bulges in various pockets: firearms. It was clear: the trio would be killed one way or the other, and it was a matter of being killed in cold blood where civilians could be hurt, or going with the SIRENs, where there might be a small chance of escaping.

“Please, sirs,” the one dressed in the attire of the airport concierge said with a smile, though her eyes radiated pure murder. “I insist.”

A dozen miles away, Cantata pulled back from the monitor she looked at. “XO,” she called out, “we have three members of Les SCARS that two of our fireteams just captured, and I want to know what the hell just happened.”

Brushing her Alice-blue hair out of her green eyes, Rhapsody Blue, the SIRENs’ executive officer, said, “Captain, if it weren’t for my suggestion that we have Canterlot International infiltrated, we’d be completely caught unawares. As it is, we were lucky that our infiltration team happened to be on the ball and the monitoring team’s flight just happened to land. OPS, INTEL, do you two have anything to weigh in on this?”

“I’ll have a second team infiltrate CJV,” Violin Elegy, the SIRENs Operations officer, replied. “In fact, I recommend that we leave some of the fence riders there on duty. That way, once we finish our duties here and begin the main strike on CSIS headquarters, they can be here as a reserve force. And once we win, they’ll have new careers and lives to start with, which will cool their grumbling.”

“I’ll consider it,” Cantata ordered. “INTEL?”

Clavichord Thrust, the SIRENs Intelligence officer, set down the tablet she was looking at. “It should be obvious, Captain: they had help from the CIA. The Americans are getting involved, which up the stakes. Unless we’re planning to go after Langely and the American intelligence apparatus afterwards, I strongly recommend that we just treat them as unfortunate bystanders.”

“I agree,” Elegy added. “Take out any immediate threats that can be confused with our tangos, but make it clear that this is none of their business and as long as they stay out of it, we won’t go hunting afterwards.”

Cantata looked at them all, and said, “Ladies, that’s nice and all, but I don’t think you even began to realize what happened: we have a mole on our team.”

“A mole?” Clavichord asked, her lilac eyes showing surprise. “Ma’am, with all due respect….”

Cantata caught her gist immediately. “Permission to speak freely granted, Clavi.”

“Canta, this is stupid! Every one of our forces knows what’s at stake here!” Clavichord cried. “They know that the slightest violation of OPSEC could doom us all!”

“And yet we have so many SIRENs that could cause security risks,” Cantata reminded her. “What about Sublieutenant Dulcimer Glide? She was assigned temporarily to Fleet Air so she could learn how to fly a helicopter – that’s an unnecessary exposure. And I don’t need to discuss our troops’ personal lives. Didn’t you date an RCAF captain?”

“Yeah, but I broke it off once I found out he was assigned to ARROWHEAD,” Clavichord explained. “And I lied to him about what I did for a living; he still thought I was just an assistant manager for the local branch of The Bay.”

“Even still, they’re security risks,” she told them. “So here’s what I want. Rhapi, I want you to focus on our weaknesses and ways to counteract them.”

“That’s my job, Canta,” Elegy grumbled.

“Yes, it is – now it’s hers, at least for the moment. I want you and Clavi to go through our personnel’s dossiers and find out anything that might be a security threat. Anyone you find, you two interrogate them.”

“And if it doesn’t pan out?” Rhapsody asked.

“I want them executed immediately,” Cantata replied.

“Captain, you’re talking about killing fellow members of the Sisterhood!” Clavichord gasped.

“If they sold us out then they weren’t a part of the Sisterhood to begin with,” Cantata snarled. “Now you ladies have your orders. Dismissed.”

A Canterlot Police Department officer led a distraught Mayor Mare away from the area. She looked completely shattered, and the look in her deep blue eyes was one of complete loss.

“Wow,” a Siskyou County Sheriff’s Department deputy commented to no one in particular, “I guess Councilman Caballeron’s muckracking about Mare dyeing her hair in order to look more distinguished really was true. I mean, yeah, I always thought she had that two-tone gray hair, but I never really noticed her fuchsia eyebrows before an—”

“Hey, asshole, unless you want to be the next corpse we find,” Sandalwood snarled, “then shut the fuck up. A girl is dead, her father’s in the hospital in critical condition, and her mother’s grieving that she might lose her entire family. So shut the fuck up, understood?”

“Hey, Sandy, calm down, okay?” Shining told her.

“No, I will not calm down, Shining!” Sandalwood pointed to one of the CPD officers that had accompanied Mayor Mare as part of her detail. “Hey, Closeby, get the mayor out of here, and then lock this place down with an IQ of at least 1.” She then pointed at the offending deputy and added, “That doesn’t count you, so get the fuck out of here!”

The scene was Black Butte, California, a small town an hour’s drive north of Canterlot, in Siskyou County, on the far side of Mount Shasta. An ambulance and officers from the SCSD, ECSD, CPD and the FBI were present for one reason: a hiker had discovered the body of Liza Doolots and had reported it. The tang of the dried vomit that had come from the hiker upon finding Liza’s body was still stinking up the area, and only the sad expertise of the law enforcement officers had made them ignore it.

“Jesus, what a piece of work,” another – and clearly smarter – SCSD deputy had said to Shining. “This is some serious shit. Glad you Feds get to deal with this, and not us.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Shining replied in sober tones, not in the mood to explain to the deputy that he was just on loan to the FBI, not an actual agent himself. He then looked down at the body, which Siskyou County Coroner’s Office personnel were readying a body bag for while an SCSD deputy was taking photos.

Liza Doolots had been composed, her body completely nude yet cleaned up as if she were asleep. The proof that she wasn’t asleep was that her skin was completely pale, as if she’d bled out, though there was no blood anywhere near the body. Furthermore was the vicious stab wound through her heart, and poked through the gash was a single red rose. All in all, the body of Liza Doolots looked like a particularly sick display of art, made moreso by the tarot card held in her hands: card zero, the Fool.

“I wonder what kind of sick sonnuvabitch did this to this poor girl,” the deputy with the camera commented.

“The kind I’m going to kill,” Sandalwood snarled.

Shining knew his partner was just about to blow her fuse, so he looked at everyone else and said, “Hey, can I get a moment alone with my partner?”

“Yeah, sure. I gotta put these shots on a flash key for you, anyway,” the deputy said. The coroners merely nodded and stepped away.

Once they got a suitable distance, Shining inquired, “Okay, what the fuck is going on, Sandy? Don’t tell me you’re rela—”

“No, not related, thank God,” Sandalwood said, “or I’d probably have fucking lost it right about now.”

“Then what…?”

“Remember I was an MA2 when I was in the Navy?” she began. He looked at her oddly and she explained. “Petty Officer Second Class in the Master-at-Arms rating – MAs are the Navy’s police. Anyway, I was just at my first assignment, Naval Station Sasebo, in Japan. I’d only been on station for three days when my chief has us go out to base housing, to the house of some Marine sergeant major assigned to NAVSTA staff. It was a blood bath – the Marine and his Japanese wife had been slaughtered, and their thirteen-year-old daughter was missing. Both we and Sasebo police probably tore the town apart looking for her, and it didn’t help that the locals figured that it was probably just another American gone psycho – this was the year after some seaman assigned to a ship at Sasebo raped and murdered a local, so the townsfolk weren’t exactly on good terms with the base.

“Anyway, we found her; she’d been raped repeatedly and then murdered. They found the killer the day after – and the locals were real apologetic afterwards when Sasebo police discovered it was an ensign from the JMSDF – the Japanese navy, that is – that had killed her; that otaku freak apparently obsessed over the girl with the long mint-green hair and red eyes, because she looked like his favorite anime character.”

“And after that you swore you’d never let another girl get hurt again,” Shining figured it out.

“Why the hell do you think I went to your place to personally warn Twily and Tavi when I heard about the Vibe? Why do you think I worry about my kid sister even though she’s in college in Seattle?” Sandalwood asked. “I saw that girl – her name was Sakura Petal – and knew she’d never grow up to have a future. And now there’s another little girl that won’t grow up to have a future.”

“We’ll catch this asshole, Sandy, you know we will.”

“Yeah, we’d better. Because if I ever catch him alone? You’ll be arresting me for murder.”

Sunset sat down on her bed, having just left the shower before. It felt great to sleep in late, she admitted to herself privately, having stayed up all night going over old family photos with Twilight and Octavia. Being introduced to members of her soon-to-be-official family that she’d get to know someday, like her maternal grandparents, who lived in San Diego; her aunt Twilight Glitter, who lived in Miami; and her uncle, Everblue Sky, who was stationed overseas in Berlin with the State Department. She saw pictures of Twilight and Octavia as kids, and when Twilight asked her if she had any pictures from her childhood, Sunset had to lie and said she didn’t know. In truth, she knew – Princess Celestia had tons of them, both official and otherwise – but Sunset wasn’t about to show her sister and her cousin pictures of the filly she used to be. That would be all kinds of awkward on many levels.

Anyway, enough of that. I have to meet Rarity in an hour, so that we can finish planning our trip to Mendocino, and then we can talk to the girls tomorrow about all of it. Sunset chuckled when Rarity had emailed her late yesterday with the news that she’d managed to secure a private rental cabin in the area’s luxe “Sonata Pacific” district. The name alone would tease the Sonata they knew, Sunset mused, and besides, a private cabin would probably put their collective parents more at ease about the whole trip – it was safer to stay in a cabin than in tents, after all.

She had just slipped on a t-shirt when her cellphone began to ring. To her surprise, it was Pinkie. “Oh, hey, Pinkie, what’s up?”

“Sunny! Oh, God, I’m glad you’re there! Look, Auntie Cup and Uncle Carrot need you to come in today – it’s a crisis! They even said they’ll pay you overtime for the whole day!”

Sunset blinked at that. Sure, the Cakes were generous with their pay, and Sunset had worked overtime more than once, but she never wanted to gyp Pinkie’s aunt and uncle. Still, if they’re offering, something must’ve happened. “What’s going on?” she asked as she continued to dress.

“Fluttershy’s fams are having lunch today at the cafe and the news got out – Auntie Cup says they’re swamped!” That in itself was understandable, but the next news made Sunset freeze in her tracks. “Plus, Soni called an hour ago! She suddenly quit! No reason, she just said that it was personal and that she hoped we wouldn’t be mad.”

Soni quit? That was completely unlike the girl she knew; even though Sonata could be flighty from time to time, it was mostly an act and Sunset knew her friend was very conscientious and a hard worker. “What the hell?”

“I know! Uncle Carrot, Blossom and I are closing our second store here and heading back home, but Auntie Cup’s all by herself! We really need your help, Sunny!”

That was more than enough for Sunset: she’d helped out Pinkie and the Cakes’ counterparts back in Equestria, and she didn’t know them; how could she turn down people she’d known for close to a year now? “Sure. I’m on my way – let me get my sister so she can drive me in; I really doubt there’s any parking left at this rate.”

“Yeah, no kidding – thankfully we’ve got the spot reserved for the catering van or we’d be toast. See you there!”

As Sunset hung up, she looked shocked. Soni just quit? she asked herself again before quickly dialing Sonata’s phone, only to get a recorded message: “The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Thank you for calling AT&T.” She then tried Adagio’s and Aria’s numbers in turn, only to get the same thing. What the hell? However, she shoved her phone in her pocket, figuring it would have to wait until later. She then rushed to Octavia’s room, where her sister and cousin already were. Sunset wasted no time in explaining the situation to both of them.

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like Soni at all,” Octavia agreed. “I’ll keep trying to get a hold of them.”

“Yeah, let me get dressed real quick and I’ll drive you, then I’ll go see Rares in your place,” Twilight told her sister. “Looks like you’re in for a day, sis.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Ugh, Spangle, remind me why we’re here again?”

Spanglemaker looked at her friend. “Mel, I thought we agreed to go shopping today. School starts in a few weeks and I want to make sure I look good….” She blushed.

“Yes, we all know that you have a crush on Denim Jeans,” Watermelody told her friend as they walked through the Old Towne ped mall in San Palomino. “But I’m wondering why you think you’ll find something here. I’m telling you, hit Forever 21 – that’s more your style, girl!”

“Well, I kinda heard Denim has a job at one of the stores here, and I….” Spanglemaker blushed furiously.

Watermelody grinned. “Welllllllll…then I don’t have to tell you that’s him over there, right?” Spanglemaker squeaked and hid behind her friend, and as Watermelody laughed, Spanglemaker realized that he hadn’t seen her.

“Mel, that’s not fair!” Spanglemaker accused, gazing at Denim, handing out balloons to kids. He looked dreamy as always, and Spanglemaker’s face somehow managed to burn with an even brighter blush.

“Go talk to him,” Watermelody suggested.

“Mel, I can’t,” Spanglemaker said, fidgeting. “If he finds out how I feel….”

“Trust me, he probably feels the same way about you,” Watermelody said, pushing her friend forward. “Go on, ask him! I’ll be right here, cheering you on.”

“Okay, fine,” Spanglemaker acquiesced. “But you’re buying me a large chocolate shake if it doesn’t work out.”

“I will! Go on!”

Spanglemaker made her way from the secluded place by the alleyway where she and Watermelody had been, and it hadn’t been long before she walked into the main pathway that Denim waved at her. “Oh, hey, Spangle, what’re you doing here?”

“Oh, hi, Denim!” she said, blushing slightly. “Shopping and getting ready for school. You?”

“Uh, just…handing out balloons, see?” he said, pointing to the inventory in his hand. “Kids love balloons.”

“Yeah. Well, uh, see you around?”

“Sure! I…hey, wait a second!” he said as the moment she readied to walk off. “Look, I…do you, ah, want…to…well, you know….”

“Are you asking me out?” she said, crossing her arms and standing there, while trying not to cheer at the top of her lungs.

“Yeah,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah! So, are you…free Friday night?”

“I could be, for the right guy,” she cooed. “Pick me up at eight? I’ll text you my address.”

“Sure!” he said, and in return, she kissed him on the cheek.

She felt giddy at that point, so she said, “Look, I’m here with Mel, and I don’t want her to think I ditched her, so…call me tonight?”

“You betcha!” he told her.

Victorious, Spanglemaker rushed off to where her friend was waiting. “Mel, I did it! She cheered. “I….” To her surprise, her friend wasn’t there. “Mel?” she asked. “You there?” She then looked down to find her friend’s red beret. She never goes anywhere without her beret, Spanglemaker noted, and as she picked it up, she noticed a weird playing card underneath it.

The Chariot? she thought, looking at the strange card. What does that mean?

Sonata looked at her purple strapless long sleeve blouse. It had been a gift from Sunset the last time they went shopping, because she thought that it looked good on her. It was one of Sonata’s most cherished things, possibly even more than her old FN P-90 that she’d lost in the destruction of that old pizzeria that they’d gotten into a firefight in.

And I’ll never be able to use it again, she thought, slipping it back into the closet. At the moment, she was packing her seabag, and that meant only enough room for her CADPATs, dress uniforms and other necessary gear. All the other stuff to her name, the various things that marked her as a teenager, would have to be abandoned. She would even have to leave her car behind as would her sisters their motorcycles and even two of their sœurs - only Intermezzo, who had purchased a minivan on purpose, would get to use hers, and that would be to transport them to the base.

Worse: even if they somehow succeeded at their final mission and destroyed CSIS, they could never return here. The authorities would realize what this house was and confiscate it and everything on the property; after that, they would lose everything forever. Chances were, Sonata and co. would probably have to resettle far from North America – some place like Singapore, or Hong Kong or something like that. Hell, given that they were Chinese ethnics, Shanghai, Beijing or Taiwan was just as realistic. But they wouldn’t be home.

Even though she’d lived here only a handful of weeks, this place – this house, barely broken in and still very much looking mostly undecorated – was home. Was her home. And now she was finally leaving home for good.

“Soni?” She turned to see Madrigal standing there, looking at her with concern.

“I hate this,” Sonata admitted. “I feel like they’ve made a mistake and that I need to make the same one because I won’t lose people I love…”

“…but that you are losing people you care about, namely your friends here, right?” Madrigal asked, completing her petite sœur’s statement. Sonata nodded, and in return, Madrigal sat down on the bed. “You know, we don’t have to leave here until 1800. You can go visit your friends one last time.”

“I…I can’t. I can’t face them. What do I tell them? That I’m just abandoning them and can’t ever come back?”

“I know it’s not easy, Soni,” Madrigal commented, putting an arm around her sœur, but if they’re really your friends, they’ll understand, even if they never see you again. Friendship is more than just being with the same people over and over, Soni, I promise it is.” Sonata leaned into her grande sœur’s embrace as she did so often growing up, letting the older woman comfort her.

“Are we doing the right thing, Maddie?” Sonata asked.

“I think so…but I’m not sure you’re doing the right thing for yourself,” Madrigal admitted to Sonata.

As Sunset arrived at the Sugarcube Corner, the throngs trying to peek through the window and the line around the corner was more than enough to know that things had reached terminal. Wasting no time, she rushed to the back entrance, taking a quick second to chew out one groupie who was trying to sneak in through the back, then used her key to go in.

“Oh, you’re here!” Cup said, looking like a dozen miles of bad road: her hair was frazzled and she was sweating slightly, as though she’d been running around non-stop since the morning. “The others got delayed by an accident just off Candlewick Boulevard, and things are out of control out there!”

Sunset reached for the nearest clean apron. “I’m on it, Mrs. C, don’t worry,” Sunset assured her, rushing out to the heavily-packed floor of the café, which had reached huge levels of insanity. A long line stretched from the door to the front counter, and all the tables were taken by people who looked as though they hadn’t left since they arrived. And, last but not least, taking the booth by the farthest corner and seemingly holding court for the dozens who wanted to get his autograph, was Discord and his family, not the least of which was a very blushing Fluttershy, if anything was clear by the mortified sound of her voice.

“Dad….” Fluttershy moaned, trying to hide under the table with little avail.

As for Discord, he was acting the proud father. “Hey, I’m just saying that my daughter has a hotter career than mine right now – and you don’t even have a career! Personally, I’m proud that you’ll be the next Wreckingba….” He suddenly paused, as if in realization. “On second thought…maybe you should aim higher than her.”

The chiffon-haired girl pouted. “Dad, I haven’t even thought of that yet – and if the people staring through the window are any indication, I’m still not sure I want to do it!”

Posey then spoke up before her husband could rejoinder. “Well, what did you have in mind, dear? Zookeeper?”

Discord immediately added, “Model? Go-go dancer? All-powerful sorceress?”

Fluttershy then noticed Sunset and shared a private smile with her friend as she cryptically replied with, “Well…you’d be surprised on that last one.”

“I don’t get it,” Discord commented.

“Well, hi, Flutters! Hello, Doctor, Angel and Mr. Discord!” Sunset said, approaching them to ward off any further mortification of her friend. “Have you been helped yet?”

“I’m afraid there’s no psychiatrist in the world that can help me,” he cracked. But as he practically felt the radiating glares of his wife and daughter on the back of his head, he said, “We’ve been waiting for some assistance, seeing as how the lady of the establishment has been working herself to the bone.”

“Well, allow me to take your order then!” Sunset chirped as the reinforcements arrived; Blossomforth immediately waddled over to the cash register as fast as she could, Mr. Cake immediately began to work the ovens in the back, while Pinkie rushed to help the other tables. A couple of minutes later, Sunset had their order and with an insistence that she’d get it in quickly, she rushed back to the cooking area. “Wow, you guys got here just in time!” she said.

“Looks like it,” Carrot said as his wife quickly went upstairs to check on their children. “If I’d known it was going to be this busy today, I wouldn’t have opened the other store.”

“Well, we’re here now,” Pinkie cheered, “so let’s get this show on the road!”

Shining and Sandalwood trudged back into the office, and had no sooner done so than they noticed Hardline and one of the other agents headed out the door. “Take your time with the report,” Hardline told them, “Badge is going to be out of town today – had to head to headquarters in DC to give an update. How’d it go?”

“Other than the fact that I want to put the asshole that did it up against the wall and shoot his balls off before I end him?” Sandalwood snarled angrily. Shining merely gave a pleading look, but Hardline understood.

“Remind me sometime and I’ll tell you about a case my Dad worked on while he was assigned to the LA Office. Sad part is, they never caught the guy that did it, either.” Hardline patted Sandalwood on the shoulder. “Sometimes they get away, I know. Our job’s just to make sure we do our damndest not to let them.” She then looked at the other agent and said, “C’mon, Cloud Lance. We’ve got to get to CJV.”

“CJV?” Shining asked. “Something up?”

Cloud Lance nodded. “About an hour ago, one of the custodial staff found the bodies of three men, all stuffed into a broom closet, their clothes and any immediate form of identification gone. Based on what the airport police told us….”

“We think they might be CANSOF, specifically Les SCARS. We’ve contacted someone from the consulate in San Francisco to dig up the information,” Hardline clarified. “Now we have to get going. We’ll tell you the rest at Happy Hour – I get the feeling we’re all going to need it after the day’s over.”

Twilight looked over the plans she’d typed on her laptop once more, quadruple-checking it. She briefly considered looking it over one more time when she was done, but there was such a thing as overkill, as her sister had reminded her. “Okay, so now that the plans are settled, let me email everyone a copy, then remind people to send it to their parents, then make sure I have copies printed out in case anyone needs a hard copy, and th—”

Rarity chuckled. “Twilight, dear, I think simply making sure everyone having access to it is more than enough. I’d just say put a copy up for download on Google Docs and that should suffice.”

Twilight flushed from embarrassment. “Sorry, I just want to make sure this is perfect, you know? This is my chance to finally spend some vacation time with Sunny!”

Rarity smiled. “It sounds as though you’re looking forward to this vacation, Twilight dear.”

Twilight nodded her head so fast Rarity briefly wondered if she’d been possessed by Lyra Heartstrings. “Yes!” the teen squealed enthusiastically before calming down - relatively. “It’s finally a chance to vacation with my sister and get her to let her hair down.” A sober smirk replaced the earlier smile as Twilight added, “She’s…always so reserved, and I want to see her happy.”

“Reserved is not something I’d call Sunset,” Rarity commented. “But you sound as though I'm wrong.”

“Can I be honest with you?” Twilight asked.

“You know you can, darling. And anything you say I will keep in confidence.”

“Thanks. It’s just…sometimes I wonder. Sometimes I wonder if there’s a whole other life Sunny’s lived and that she pines for it.” The plum-haired scholar looked wistful. “It’s not as much now, but there have been times when I caught her with a distant look in her eyes, as if something’s on the tip of her tongue and she can’t remember it or just doesn’t want to say anything about it.”

“And that bothers you?”

“Yes. She’s my sister, and I love her. I want to do everything I can for her, especially after all she’s done for me. And I know Tavi would say the same thing if she was here.”

Rarity chose not to mention her own conversations with Octavia, but instead chose to reply with finesse. “Twilight, believe me when I say that I have known Sunset for years, through the good and the, ahem, ‘bad’. And she and I have grown close in this past year. So I can say with utter confidence that this is where she wants to be. You are her sister – your family is hers – and there are few people she loves more than you and yours.”

A wide smile came onto Twilight’s face and her eyes glistened with tears; Rarity surmised that this must have truly bothered the younger girl. “That’s very generous of you to say, Rarity.”

The fashionista smiled. “Well…it is my Element, after all.” The moment she uttered those words, however, she knew she’d opened her mouth in as big a blunder as Pinkie often inadvertently committed.

And sure enough, Twilight caught it. “Your what?”

Best pass it off as best as I can and then pass the information off to the others. Plunging in, she breezily laughed and said, “Just…remembering something your sister told me, just days after kindling our friendship. That she sees me as elementally generous, far more than others.”

Twilight nodded. “Well, that does make sense; you’re one of the most generous people I know.”

“Thank you for the compliment, darling.”

“It’s the truth,” Twilight said with a grin as Rarity inwardly sighed in relief, having covered her faux pas.

But for how long? a voice in the back of her head asked.

There was a knock on the door, and Sweetie appeared once the door was opened. “Dinner’s ready!”

“Thanks, Sweetie, dear,” Rarity told her. Then turning to Twilight, “Would you care to stay for dinner? We could talk a bit more afterwards.”

“That’d be great, thanks!”

Shimmer collapsed on the bed, talking on her cellphone, having just changed out the SIM card to let her call on an American network. “Yeah, and so we’ll be here for about a month. My cousins are going to show me around after the funeral, so that should be fun.”

“Well, it’s already been a day, but we miss you here, Shimmy!” Beachcomber said over the line. “The girls and I were thinking about going to Disneyland tomorrow, but then we figured it’d be without you, so we held off.”

“Eh, go ahead and go – maybe before I leave my aunt and uncle’ll take me down to the original one. It’s just a few hundred miles south of here.”

“Lucky you! I barely remember anything about Honolulu, but hey, I live in Paris now, so – tradeoff!”

“I dunno, I’d take Hawaii any day,” Shimmer said. “Anyway, I just wanted to call you and let you guys know I made it safely.”

“Thanks, we really appreciate it, Shimmy. Take care of yourself, and we’re always here for you.”

“Thanks, Beachie. Talk to you later!” Hanging up the phone, she placed it on the drawer in the room that would be hers for the month. Technically it was the smaller room in one of the two guest cottages on her uncle’s property, but her aunt had told her and Solaire that they had pretty much intended it to be their home whenever they visited, with others using the secondary cottage when they stayed over. And it was a very comfortable room, even if it wasn’t exactly her style.

There was a knock on the door. “Shimmy, can I come in?” The voice was that of her cousin, Coco.

“Yeah, sure.” Coco opened the door, peeking in. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to get to know you better,” the younger teen replied. “You are my only female cousin, after all. All the ones on Mom’s side are boys.”

“Well, as long as you don’t ask me what being a princess is like,” Shimmer said. “I’m so tired of people asking me that I feel like I could practically collapse from exhaustion.”

Sunset slumped in her chair, so tired she was barely able to eat the sandwich in front of her. “I think I have blisters in places I didn’t even know you could get them,” she groaned.

“I think if I had the baby right here and now it’d be less painful than the day we had,” Blossomforth murmured, teetering in her chair.

Pinkie, of course, said nothing, having somehow managed to fall asleep in her mac and cheese.

Blearily, Sunset said, “Well, if nothing else, the tips were worth it.” Blossom wordlessly nodded, and as semi-conscious as she was, Pinkie managed to stick a thumbs-up in the air. They’d worked their bones off for the day, and the café had made its biggest one-day income since the first day they’d opened it. Furthermore, with the generous tip that Discord had given and all the dozens of customers they had, the three waitresses had cleared enough tips to have made close to $5000 that day.

A half-roasted Carrot stumbled out of the kitchen; he’d spent nearly the entire time in the back running the ovens to capacity. “Well, if nothing else, girls, you all get the day off tomorrow – we completely sold out of everything we had in inventory here and what I was going to send to the other store. I’m going to have to ask for a rush delivery of supplies.” He leaned against the counter, just as fried as the girls.

“I wish Soni had been here,” Blossomforth stated. “We could’ve used her tonight.”

Sunset looked over at Pinkie. “What happened when she called you?”

Pinkie raised her head, bits of macaroni and cheese sauce stuck to her face. “She…just said she couldn’t work here anymore and had to quit,” Pinkie said in a subdued voice and whether that was due to sorrow or exhaustion, Sunset wasn’t really sure. “She…she sounded like she wanted to cry.”

“Cry? That’s a bit extreme even for Soni,” Sunset commented. “I mean, yeah, she can get emotional at times, bu—”

Sunset’s phone suddenly rang. Reaching into her pocket, she picked it up and automatically thumbed the answer button. “Yeah, this is Sunny, what’s up?”

“Sunny?”

Sunset practically shot out of her seat. “Sonata!” Both Blossomforth and Pinkie looked at Sunset with surprise. “Where are you? Is everything okay?”

“I’m….” There was a pause on the other end for a second, then: “Can you meet me at my place in half an hour? But you have to be fast – I’m leaving soon and I don’t have much time.”

Dinner was instantly forgotten. “We’re on the way! Just…stay there! Everything’ll be okay!”

“I’ll grab the keys to the van!” Pinkie said, running upstairs.

“Don’t worry about me,” Blossomforth told them, “I’d just weigh you guys down. I’ll clean up here. Now go!”

The Gunshot, located downtown, was known for being a cop bar. Most of those that patronized it were officers from the CPD, ECSD or the CHP station just north of the city. Occasionally when a law enforcement officer from out of town arrived, someone pointed him in the direction of the Gunshot. Even the owner, Grampus, had once been a constable for the London Metropolitan, before he won the National Lottery and decided to resettle in the “land of paradise”. People often joked how he ended up in California, instead.

“‘Ere ya go, lads and lassies,” the man said, his Scottish brogue still present even after having left the UK decades ago. “On th’ house; y’ look like y’ could use a dram or two.”

“Thanks, Grampus,” Cadance said, having joined her fiancé with the group. “So, NDA or no?” she said to the others.

“You’re an ADA,” Hardline said after taking a quick quaff of her beer. “I guess we can trust you.”

“You can trust her,” Shining said firmly.

“Right now, Armor, I don’t trust a single damn person I haven’t known for years, but I get your point.” She punctuated the comment with another swig from her mug.

“So what the fuck happened?” Sandalwood asked. “You guys head out to CJV….”

“And we get stopped by a couple of agents from the Company,” Cloud Lance snarled. “We tell them that it’s not their job, but then they show me some docs telling them that USM – the fuckin’ USM! – has jurisdiction. And if that’s not enough, there’s a couple of guys from DCIS, NSA and ONI there, too.”

Hardline grinned. “Fortunately, I got to remind them that none of them get jurisdiction and they needed to get the hell out of here and let us do our jobs. Not surprisingly, they didn’t like my answer, but too fucking bad for them.”

“I know what NSA is, but the Company? DCIS? USM?” Cadance asked, a bad feeling starting to sink in.

Sandalwood looked at her friend, knowing what she was about to say was probably going to give Shining a headache that night. “Cady, the Company’s the CIA. USM are the US Marshals; DCIS, DOD Criminal Investigative Services; and ONI’s Navy Intelligence.” Looking at Cadance, she asked, “Now or later?”

“Now.” With that, both women rose from their chairs and headed towards the door.

“Yeah, I’m in a world of shit now,” Shining grumbled.

Cloud Lance nodded. “It’s why I don’t bring my wife to these things, or I’d end up divorced again.”

“Yeah, I don’t disagree with either of you,” Hardline commented. “Our jobs aren’t exactly safe, and this is well outside of our territory. But we’re looking at a huge fight here if we let Les SCARS starting hunting, and we cannot let that happen. If we do that, nobody will be safe, and this town will be a war zone. So let me make this clear if the boss hasn’t already. We don’t let anyone get away with this shit – not the SIRENs, not CANSOF or the CSIS, not even the Goddamn CIA and DOD. We draw the line here.”

“Here’s to that,” Shining said and he, Cloud Lance and Hardline raised their drinks in a toast, and for a moment, there was a little peace in Shining’s life.

That piece died as Sandalwood and Cadance returned from outside – and the look on her face was somewhere between holy rage and absolute horror.

The catering van pulled up to Sonata’s house as Pinkie slammed on the brakes. The first thing the pair noticed was that the house was dark, as though nobody was home. The second thing they noticed was that there were no cars in the driveway, or either Aria’s or Adagio’s motorcycles. If anything, the place had the distinct look that it was about to be put on the market, and that whoever lived here was long gone.

“You sure this is the right place?” Pinkie asked as they made their way to the front door.

“Yeah, it’s the right address.” Sunset knocked, waited a bit, then knocked again. “Weird, I thought that Soni said she was going to be home.”

“I am,” a voice suddenly said behind them. Both Sunset and Pinkie turned in surprise to see Sonata standing there, but it wasn’t the Sonata that they knew, the cute girl with preference of dressing in baggy clothing and a penchant for listening to house music. No, this girl was short-haired and steely-eyed, dressed in military fatigues, and standing ramrod straight.

“Soni?” Sunset asked, shocked. Pinkie merely looked at the other girl in surprise.

Sonata nodded. “Yeah, it’s me,” she said with a hint of a smile.

“What…what the hell happened?”

“Oh, my hair?” The sudden frown on the aqua-haired girl’s face wasn’t happy. “Yeah, I miss my ponytail, but regs are regs, you know?”

“I mean…what’s with the military outfit? And the short hair and…why did you quit on us?”

Sonata approached Sunset and Pinkie and hugged them both. “You guys are the best friends a girl could have, you know that? I wish I could stay – so do Ari and Dagi. But we have a mission to accomplish, then it’s off to the next bivouac.”

“Look, Soni, if you and your sisters are in some kind of trouble,” Sunset began, looking at her friend, “I can help. Jus—”

“Sunny, that’s sweet of you, but there’s nothing you can do. This has to be done, and even though there’s a good chance we’re never going to come back again, we’re always going to think of you, I promise. All of you.” The look on Sonata’s face was one of heartbreak and though she tried to keep a stoic look about her, it wasn’t very easy.

“Soni, don’t do this. We don’t want you to go back to Canada,” Pinkie said, nearly sotto voce.

Sonata’s eyes widened. “How…how’d yo—”

“Only girl I know who eats poutine!” Pinkie said, sounding a little more cheery. “And you said that even though you like the Sugarcube’s coffee, you like Timbits’ better! Ari watches hockey and the CFL, and Dagi said once that you three were from Cold Lake! There’s no place in the US called Cold Lake, but there’s one in Canada!”

“Goddamn it, I thought we were better at OPSEC than that,” Sonata muttered, and neither of the other two girls understood what she meant. She then looked into the sky. “Damn, I need to get going. Look, Sunny…on my bed is a gift for Twily, from the three of us. I…we can’t give it to her, so do it for me, okay?” She pointed to a rock by the front door. “Key’s underneath there, and the security alarm code is 2581.”

Both Pinkie and Sunset turned to look at the rock. “Okay, got it. But you really oughta give it to her yourself.” Both then turned back to speak to Sonata…

…only to find her completely vanished, as if she was never there. The two looked around, thinking she might have hidden in the surrounding environs, but to no avail.

“Wow, she’s really good at hide and seek!” Pinkie said. Sunset nodded and hoped Pinkie didn’t pick now to mention her magic, or else that could be problematic, as Sonata could possibly still be around and keeping her identity hidden was more important than her friends and their problems – something that really galled Sunset’s sense of decency, but she didn’t have much of a choice.

“C’mon, Pinkie, let’s go in. We can talk on the way home,” Sunset said glumly as the two girls entered the house.

Watching from the roof of the neighboring house, Sonata fought back tears. Those were her friends. She wanted to stay with them, have a normal life and all that went with it. She wanted her job back at the Sugarcube Corner Café. She wanted to go out with that guy that asked her on a date, to go to school and be a normal girl.

To be anything, really, other than a lethal, murderous machine with no hope for tomorrow.

She heard footsteps behind her. The average person probably wouldn’t have, but Sonata was a SIREN – and to her, situational awareness was a fact of life. “It’s not fair,” she sobbed. “It’s not fair.”

Adagio Dazzle hugged her little sister from behind. “I know it’s not, Soni,” she murmured, holding her as the light went on in Sonata’s bedroom – a bedroom Sonata could never return to. “But it’s the life we lead. C’mon, we gotta go – the Old Man’s securing liberty early tonight and we don’t want to get caught sneaking back onto grounds.”

“You’re right,” Sonata said coldly as she rose to her feet. “Lead the way, Seaman Dazzle.”

“Soni, don—”

“Dagi, just shut the hell up right now before I deck you. Let’s go.”

The two SIRENs, rooftop hopping as if they were anime characters, snuck off into the night.

Watermelody felt a splash of water, dragging her back to consciousness. The first thing she felt afterwards was the chill; she soon noted that she was completely naked. The second thing she noticed right after was that she was tied down – and laying in an unfamiliar place on a wooden plank. Finally, the last thing she noticed, was the strange man standing there, wearing a deep velvet robe with silver sigils on it, as if he were some kind of whacked-out wizard.

“Look,” she snarled, “I don’t know who you are, but let’s get something clear: my dad’s wealthy and well-known in this town. You let me go and I’m sure he’ll pay you and we’ll forget about the whole thing. But if you’ve touched a single hair on my bod—”

Watermelody was suddenly interrupted by the raucous laughter from the man with the violet hair and blazing yellow eyes. There was something wild and unnatural in them and suddenly any sense of bravado she had was gone.

Divine looked at the girl. “Your father couldn’t hope to have as much money or power as I do, child. And frankly, if I wanted to do whatever I wished to you, then there’s nobody to stop me. Hell, do you even see a door in this room?”

The girl looked around as much as she was able to, and when she realized he was right, she gasped, “H-how….”

Ignoring her, Divine continued. “Fortunately for you, you are still chaste, have no fear of that.” As Watermelody sighed in relief, Divine then brought out the Blade and said, “I needed you to be. How else could I have a virgin’s blood?”

No one else in the world heard her scream.

“What the fuck, Sunny? You just let her go?”

“What the hell could I do, Rainbow? She just disappeared on me and Pinkie like she was Batman!”

“Oh, my, I hope she’s okay,” Fluttershy interjected.

No sooner than Pinkie had dropped her off at her place, Sunset ran upstairs, barely saying hello to her family, running into her room long enough to grab her laptop, then meeting Twilight and Octavia in the latter’s room as the former was giving the latter an update on their planned vacation. Without ceremony, she immediately started a Skype conference, and explained to everyone what she and Pinkie had just experienced.

“Did she even say what the hell was going on, Sunny?” Octavia asked.

“No! She didn’t. I don’t understand anything of what’s going on!” Sunset explained. “She just showed up, dressed like she was in the Army and telling us that she was leaving and never coming back!”

The look on Twilight’s face was surprisingly analytical. “Something’s up with them. Both Soni and Dagi can fight better than some martial arts films I've seen – Dagi took out two people with guns, while Soni beat up another girl that was trying to hurt us.”

“And Ah was watching Ari shoot arrows in her backyard last week,” Applejack added. “She’s got some serious skill and power.”

“I wish I knew how to help them, darlings, really I do,” Rarity commented, “but until they come to us for help – if they come to us for help – there’s little we can do.”

Twilight looked over at the present that Sunset had brought with her. She said it had been from the triplets to her, and yet, something was off about it. Either it was the way that the gift was wrapped in a too-precise and perfect manner, or that it just loomed there, a reminder of their missing friends, but no matter what, it was something that left a hole in Twilight’s heart.

“Sis?” The sound of Twilight’s voice was broken. Sunset walked over and put an arm around her in silence while Twilight leaned into her.

Unbeknownst to them, Octavia got angry with that. Her eyes flashed red and her vision spun into a kaleidoscope of noxious colors before she heard voices again. “—okay? Tavi? Speak to me!” It was Sunset, and the look on her face was concerned.

“Huh, what?” Octavia asked.

“What? Tavi, you just punched through your computer monitor!” Sunset cried. Sure enough, the monitor’s screen was cracked and a thin trail of bluish-gray smoke rose from the vents. Octavia’s hand began to sting and bleed as the glass impaling it drew blood.

“Here, let me see that,” Twilight said, looking at her cousin’s hand. “Everyone, she’s okay, but I’m going to bandage her hand just in case.”

“Tavi, let AJ do the breaking around here,” Rainbow cracked. “You’re just not cut out for it.”

“Rainbow, that was incredibly crass!” Rarity scolded. “Still, I suppose I shouldn’t expect anything different from you. In any case, Octavia, dear, she’s right: a lady must take care of her hands, especially when it’s vital to her needs, as yours are.”

Sunset patted her cousin on the shoulder. “Yeah, I know, I’m out of sorts, too. But murdering screens isn’t the answer, cuz.” She gave a wan smile. “Let Twily wrap your hand; I guess I’ll explain to Mom and Dad that it was an accident.”

“Thanks,” was all Octavia could say, unable to admit that she’d blacked out…or that for just the merest hint of a second, she’d seen Sunset’s face in front of the monitor as she swung.

“Hey, Blaze, come join us for poker,” a SIREN her age suggested.

“Naah, I’m reading,” she said as she lay on her bunk bed. That wasn’t entirely true; she was half-reading and half looking out the window. Lights out on base had been secured five minutes ago, and it wouldn’t be more than another hour before they were completely secured for the night. On the surface, Aria was interested in this book that Twilight had lent her – a book that Aria would never have the chance to return now – but she was just as worried about her sisters. If they got in trouble, it wouldn’t be just them – it would be them, her, and their sœurs as well.

“Ooh, the sniper’s reading,” the other girl said. “When’d you get so smart? Anyway, we got a seat open if you change your mind; it’s me, Elegy, Gust and Squall.”

“Yeah, thanks, Scorch, but I’m a little tied up right now.”

“Suit yourself.” The girl named Scorch walked back to the table, where three other girls their age were doling out cards.

“You know, you could’ve gone.” Aria blinked and she saw Adagio leaning against the window. Next to her, though looking out of sorts, was Sonata.

The middle triplet practically leapt out of her bunk. “You guys made it! You know how worried I was?” Aria asked her older sister, before adding, “Is she okay?”

Before Adagio could answer, Sonata sullenly snarled, “No, she’s not.”

Aria went over and hugged her sister. “It’s gonna be okay, Soni. I promise it will.”

“No, it’s not, Ari,” Sonata told her, the younger girl’s eyes nearly glistening with tears. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“See, toldja they were carpet munching each other.” The triplets turned to look at three other girls, same age as them. The lead, a fair-skinned girl with cobalt-and-silver hair and blazing yellow eyes, sneered. “If you three are going to lesbocest each other, have the decency to keep your hands off each other while in uniform, got that?”

A sneer came onto Adagio’s face. “Classy as always, Rush.”

“That’s Master Seaman Contralto Rush to you, Ordinary Seaman Recruit Dazzle.”

“Leading Seaman. The three of us were brought on active duty as of last night.”

A second girl, with dark skin, a riot of neon purple, neon green and neon red hair in a ponytail, and silver eyes behind glasses, chuckled. “Wow, what a loser. Most fireteam leaders start off at master seaman. You must be barely competent if you didn’t make the cut, Adagio.”

“Oh, go fuck yourself, Trance,” Aria snarled. “Dagi couldn’t be promoted to master seaman because we didn’t complete our training.” If there was one girl on this base that Aria hated, it was Medley Trance, the sniper for Contralto’s fireteam. The two were rivals to say the least, and they took it very personally.

“I hope you’re not going to back them up, crybaby,” a third girl, more muscular than the other two, taunted Sonata. She was of First Nations descent, with deep gray eyes and fiery red, orange and white hair. “Of course, you’ve always been a weak pussy, which is why I guess your sisters use you as a sex toy.”

Sonata didn’t answer Canzione Burst’s taunt. She just launched herself at the other girl, slamming her against the ground despite her greater bulk and started trying to cave her head in via punches. Medley tried to pull Sonata off her teammate, but got tackled by Aria, and the two began fighting. Before Contralto could react, Adagio picked up the chair Sonata was sitting on and hit her across the head, the furniture cracking easily.

The other SIRENs dropped what they were doing and watched as the two fireteams went at it. The rules were that the senior petty officers were supposed to break up the fight, but given the animosity between the two teams, it was more entertaining to watch them beat the hell out of each other. Seconds turned into minutes as the two groups savaged each other without a let up whatsoever.

“ATTENTION ON DECK!” a voice boomed and everyone went to attention as Formation Chief Petty Officer Basso Rime, the seniormost enlisted SIREN, walked into the barracks room, a scowl on her face.

“Okay, why the hell are six seamen beating the fuck out of each other when I have petty officers here who could break up the fight? You bitches should know better; we need to keep every SIREN in fighting condition, not conditioned in sickbay!” No one said a single thing and the chief shouted, “Is that clear?”

“AYE AYE, CHIEF!” the population of the room shouted in unison.

Rime then marched right up to the six battered, bruised and bleeding SIRENs, all standing at attention in a row. “Now I should cycle the six of you cunts, but I’m going to make an example out of you: each team has five minutes to pick a member and when that time’s up, I had better be seeing those two out there cycling,” she said, then turning to the room, added, “or else the whole company will cycle, is that understood?”

“AYE AYE, CHIEF!”

“Carry on, then,” Rime said. “Clock is ticking.” The Chief paused to talk to the petty officer first class in charge of the company before departing.

The triplets looked at each other in horror. Cycling was the worst punishment one could receive outside of mast or court-martial. Basically, the offending SIREN was required to do laps around the facility until the time was up, or they collapsed from exhaustion…and sometimes they were still required to continue until the time was up.

“I’ll go,” Adagio said.

“No, sis, this is my fault,” Sonata said.

“And this is my duty – I should have been the one to stop the fight before it started. It’s my responsibility, Seaman Dusk, and I don’t want you arguing. That’s an order.”

“We’ll be here for you, Dagi,” was all Aria could say, unsure of what else to say.

As the other team was silently still arguing as to who would take the blame, Adagio walked up to Petty Officer Charm. “What do I need to do, Petty Officer?” she asked.

“Report to the Quarterdeck. They’ll oversee your cycling,” Charm said with a scowl. “And don’t do this again, Dazzle. Next time, Chief may recommend mast for you and your team. And since we’re in wartime operations, you know what that means.”

“Yeah, that I do,” she said, leaving the room. As she looked out of the corner of her eye, she noted that Medley Trance had been chosen to cycle for her team.

Figures Rush wouldn’t do her dirty work. She doesn’t know what leadership is. But as Adagio felt every bruise and ache as she jogged to the quarterdeck, she added, I wonder if I do.

“Yeah, this is Hardline,” she said, answering her phone at home.

“Hey, Hardy, how’s the office?” Shining Badge asked over the phone.

“Well, we got a can of shit here, boss, and getting worse. I take it the shitstorm’s just as bad in DC?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. DNI is trying to convince Congress that they should have permission to deal with the SIREN issue, while the Director’s telling them that spooks aren’t cops – they don’t know how to handle it. Problem is, they’re right when they say back that these guys we’re going after aren’t your garden-variety crooks.”

“Yeah, that I know.” She then detailed the incident that she and Cloud Lance had at the airport. “It’s gonna get worse before it gets better, that’s for sure.”

“Well, Director’s putting HRT and NCT teams on standby in LA in case we need them. I’m hoping not, but if we need it, they’ll have the hardware and we can justify getting backup from CPD’s SWAT teams.”

“Yeah. I just wonder what the bodycount’ll be before we’re done. And that’s just a side issue to the murder.”

“Fuck of a world we live in, Hardy. Fuck of a world.”

Sunset stood in a massive circle of people she knew. They were wearing white robes, and their faces were hooded. As each individual removed their hood, they asked the same question: “Would you die for me?”

Sunset stood there wordless, not sure of what to say. This was her family, her friends, everyone she knew. She’d risk her life for all of them, no questions asked – she certainly did with Twilight and she had no compunctions to do it again.

“Would you die for me?” Celestia asked, removing the robe from her face.

“Yes,” Sunset said. She and her mentor’s counterpart were on much better terms now, enough so that Celestia had started to refer to her by first name and not just the cold, impassive “Ms. Shimmer”.

“Would you die for me?” Flash Sentry removed his hood. Sunset balked at that; she hated him. But at the same time, she once cared for him, even if she had never admitted it. But the Sunset Shimmer she’d been would have let him die even when they were in the middle of their relationship. The Sunset she was now, even if she hated him, couldn’t let someone nominally innocent die.

“Even for you, though I would grit my teeth,” she replied.

And so on it went. Minuette. Lyra. Watermelody. White Cyclone. Practicality. Derpy. Noteworthy. Mr. Will. Mr. Cake. Ms. Luna. Even Mrs. Armonia, Cadance’s mother. One by one, they unhooded themselves and asked.

Finally, there was one left. Though she didn’t remove her hood, she – clearly a she – asked the same question: “Would you die for me?”

“I…who are you?” Sunset asked, and was shocked as the girl removed her hood…

…letting her stare right into her own face.

“You,” Sunset Shimmer said to Sunset Shimmer.

Sunny blinked open her eyes, then sat up, looking at the clock. 3:00 AM, the clock read. Weird dream. Eh, I guess it wasn’t as weird as the time I was being chased by giant flying sausages singing “The Star-Spangled Banner”. She then felt a rubbing against her arm. Looking down, she saw Twilight instinctively trying to snuggle closer. Just past her, Octavia was barely hanging on to the edge of the bed, once again a victim of Twilight hogging the bed – if there was one thing her sister had a habit of in her sleep, it was monopolizing the bed.

I love you both, you know that? Sunset thought, looking at two of the members of her family that she was closest to. I might not have been in any of those pictures today…but I’ll be in the ones tomorrow. Yawning, she finally lay back down and soon drifted back to sleep.

The following morning, Precious Memory swept out front of her store. Today was the big day: two new Uniquecorns, Golden Harp and French Lily, would be introduced to the public as well as the first limited-edition model, the double-sized white winged Uniquecorn, Solar Queen. It would be a grand day, certainly.

She then heard a scream from outside, her granddaughter, Raindrops. I wonder if Rainy’s okay? Peeking her head out the door, Precious looked at her granddaughter, who was on the floor, shaking like a leaf, pointing up at the tree by the store. Precious looked at what Raindrops was pointing at, and a second later fainted in shock and terror.

Thirty minutes later, the Equestria County Coroner’s Office removed the body of Watermelody from where she’d been impaled on the tree through her heart by a giant broadsword. ECSD investigators noted the tarot card and continued searching for clues, though the card, in tandem with the one found the day before alongside the other killed girl, hinted at the horrific:

There was a serial killer loose in the Canterlot Metropolitan Area.

Jogging through a trail in the Everfree Forest, Indigo Zap and her boyfriend raced. The two were training as always, and hoped that with the upcoming Olympic Trials next year, they’d be a shoo-in for the Women’s and Men’s marathon, respectively.

Coming around the rise, they came to a stop at a nearby waterfountain. “Wow, what a rush,” Long Trail said, pausing to kiss his girlfriend.

“Wow, you’re sweaty,” Indigo said with a grin.

“Yeah, sweatin’ for the Games and for my babe,” he said with a smile.

“That’s cheesy as hell. Good thing I love you. If you can hold on a second, I’m going to get a drink.”

“Sure,” he said, sitting down at a bench right next to the waterfountain. “Just need to rest for a second.”

“Yeah, build up your strength,” she taunted, “because maybe you’ll get lucky today.”

“Oh really?” he asked.

“Your parents are out of town, mine left for the week today, and that means that I can stay at my boyfriend’s the whole week and nobody will care,” she cooed as sultry as she could before taking a drink.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said, closing his eyes and virtually undressing her. They’d been sweethearts since sixth grade, and at this point nobody doubted that they’d probably end up marrying each other. Yeah, it was fairytale and goofy, but that was the kind of thing he enjoyed when he was with her.

Leaning back up, he said, “Okay, Indy, let’s get back to my place and we can shower together an—”

Indigo Zap was gone.

“Indy?” Long called out, first looking behind the bench, then the tree on the other side of the trail, then calling out towards the treeline just beyond the thin strip of grass separating the path from the forest proper. “Indy? Okay, stop hiding, you know you’ve never been good at hide and seek….”

If Long Trail had looked down to the ground by the fountain’s pedestal, he would have noticed another tarot card: VIII, Strength.

Author's Note

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July 31, AM: (Don't Fear) The Reaper

“Yeah, okay, I’ll tell them,” an older woman wearing the CPD dress uniform said into her cellphone. “Just got a call; a girl just got nabbed off Central and Montebello. Somehow one of the Feds found out and got there a little too late, though.” She looked at Shining Badge. “Your folks and mine are on the spot now, but I don’t need to tell you it’s a little too late.”

Shining Badge looked at the clock. It was a miracle that he was still awake, given that he was just shifting over from Eastern Time to Pacific and was now here at one in the morning, with the rest of these yahoos, arguing as to who was going to be the one the media would character assassinate at the press conference tomorrow morning. The word had already been sent out, so there was no avoiding it.

“Yeah, Chief Justice,” he told Lady Justice, the Canterlot Chief of Police, “but from what you just told me is that my people were on the scene first. I’m glad that your folks were there, but as you can see, fat lot of good it did.”

“Yeah, well, anything else y’all two idiots ‘re gunna bitch ‘bout?” Cormano Cherry, the Sheriff of Equestria County, grumbled. He pushed back a dun-colored Stetson while wearing the day uniform of the ECSD. Badge knew the man was effective at fighting crime, but hated him on a personal level: the poser acted as though he was a ‘Hang ‘Em’ Texas lawman complete with accent, but Cormano was from New Hampshire. “Fillies ‘re still dyin’, and y’all jest complainin’ ‘bout who’s gunna talk t’ the press!”

“None of this shit happened in my county until you yahoos sent it my way,” Iron Post, the Sheriff of neighboring Siskyou County, grunted. As the first victim had been found in his jurisdiction, he’d been invited as well. That, Badge thought, was turning out to be a mistake. “What next, Frisco and LA gonna send it north?”

“Oh, shut up,” Sealed Scroll, the Equestria County District Attorney, grumbled. “The four of you are so busy stepping on each other’s toes that you all look like delightfully autistic little spastics. Need I remind you that we already have one crisis on our hands and this one is going to make it worse? Plus, tomorrow we’ve got the sheriffs from the neighboring counties coming, so you three get your shit straight and stop having a penis contest!”

Tall Order, the vice mayor of Canterlot, looked at the four. “Scroll,” he said, “you can be just as bad. You’ve prioritized all the little shit as of late. What, trying to get a seat as a judge? Or afraid that one of your senior ADAs is going to run against you in the next election?”

“C’mon, Tall, you know it’s not like that!” Scroll shot back. “And what about your fights with Caballeron? Isn’t he going after the same state senate seat that you are? Oh and since Mare’s announced her plans to go for reelection, you’re screwed there….”

“Oh, fuck you, Scroll.”

Badge looked at the clock, then at his phone and sighed. Saying to no one in particular, “The body count’s rising, folks – we have better things to do than to argue with each other.”

The doors to the conference room were thrown open and a middle-aged woman with frazzled pink hair partially dyed with gray stormed in, her glasses half-fogged. Her opaline eyes looked red, as if she’d been crying, but the look on her face was one of cold determination. She wore a sweatshirt and jeans, but for the look on her face, she may as well have been dressed like she was headed for war.

“Mare,” Scroll said. Badge knew that the mayor’s name was actually Maré, Latin for sea, but in a town with a name like Canterlot, one played to one’s strengths, and so she often used mare, meaning horse, as an “acceptable pronunciation”.

“Scroll, shut the fuck up,” Mayor Mare said coldly. She then faced the rest of them, and slamming her hands on the table, she looked at them with a baleful stare. “I have spent the last seventy-two hours out of my mind with grief. I now have to bury the man I have been married to for thirty years and my precious, only child. Meanwhile, you all are bickering like a gaggle of prostitutes trying to see who gets the premium john. This shit ends NOW!

“In five minutes, you four so-called law enforcement officials will start crawling through every fucking nook and cranny from here to fucking Ponyville, Oregon, Chico and Horseshoe Bay. I want every Goddamn tree checked, and every drop of water in the river looked over. You,” she said, pointing to Scroll, “will make sure you have so much of an iron-tight case I want the bastard that did this to choke on the words. And you,” she said to Order, “will lead the conference, and I don’t give a Goddamn bit about how the media savages you – lives are more important than your Goddamn bruised ego.

“As for me? I’m going to go find my husband’s guns, and I’m going to wait until you catch this asshole. And then I’m going to bankrupt the city using every bullet we can buy on him. Because if you assholes let this fucktard get away, I will use all the bullets on you.”

She pulled away from the table. “Now get the fuck out of my conference room, do your jobs and I want you all lined up first thing in front of City Hall at 9:15, got that?”

Casually lounging around outside – or at least looking like it, Adagio was still recovering from last night’s cycling. She’d already been up for close thirty-six hours, and while it was nothing new to her, she knew it was degrading her potential combat performance from the slight exhaustion she felt. Plus…the civilian clothing that she was forced to stand duty in was nothing like her preferences. It seemed like it was bought in bulk from the cheapest store possible.

For the umpteenth time in private, Adagio realized the mistake that she’d made. She’d let her passions override her judgement, and this was the result. She wasn’t cut out for this lifestyle, not anymore. She was, as Sonata had put it, “a normal girl in the normal world”, albeit one with highly specialized training.

Maybe I should’ve followed my heart instead of my stupid brain cells. We would’ve been free of this shit. She sat down on the front step of the building she was in front of. Fuck, I could use a piece of Shim and Sham’s pizza right now. I’m going to miss that. I’m going to miss a lot of things.

“Hey, Dagi?” Adagio looked up to see Aria standing there, carrying a Chinese Type-05 that the elder sister didn’t know she had. “You okay?”

“What’s with the Type-05?”

“It belongs to Seaman Flood over in Echo Company. She asked if she could borrow my XK9 and in turn she lent me this. Personally, it’s your typical PRC piece of shit, but I have my sidearms on me in case something happens, which it won’t.”

“Yeah,” Adagio said. “Canterlot’s too quiet of a town.”

“Anyway, now that you dodged the question, you gonna tell me?”

Adagio nodded, then said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I got us into this. I was stupid, I didn’t listen to Maddie, and now here we are, in a place none of us want to be. You’re probably angry with me – I know Soni is.”

Aria sat down next to her. “Hey, Soni’s just sensitive, she always has been. But you’re our fireteam lea—”

“No. I was your sister before I was your fireteam leader, and I should have been that when you two needed me to be.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I don’t hate you. I disagree with what you did, and I think we shoulda stayed civvie, but I don’t hate you, sis.”

“I don’t either.” Sonata came out of the darkness, carrying three sodas for them. She had her P-90 slung around her shoulder. “And I’m sorry I took it out on you, sis. It wasn’t fair of me.”

Aria took the soda gratefully but said nothing. This was for her sisters to sort out.

Adagio took it as well. “No, you were right. I should listen to my sisters, not because we’re on the same team, but because I love you both.”

Aria punched her sister gently on the shoulder and leaned in, while Sonata merely grinned…

…right up until the clatter on the roof. Training took over and the three immediately drew their guns. “Who goes there?” Adagio challenged.

“None of your fucking business, Seaman,” an all-too-familiar voice said as three figures dressed in black alit on the ground. To Adagio’s shock, Contralto was now wearing the rank of a petty officer, second class. A second later, she noted that the other two had also been promoted and now outranked her – and that Canzione carried a package over her shoulder that was the rough dimensions of a person.

“It’s my duty as a guard, so identify yourself,” Adagio said to Contralto, knowing full well, who she was. “Besides, you’re out of uniform and nobody’s allowed off the base after lights out.”

“Well, for starters, I don’t have to answer to you, Seaman Dazzle, I’m a petty officer now and I’m returning from a mission authorized by the Skipper herself. So get the hell out of my way, or I’ll have your ass cycled – I can do that now, you know.”

“What’s your authorization code?” Aria challenged. “If you have orders, you have a code.”

“None of your fucking business, Blaze,” Medley answered, her hand going to her sidearm. “Now you three stand down and go play three little guards. The big girls have business to do.”

Instead, Sonata pointed her weapon right at the three. “You will give your code, understood?”

“Ladies, stand down.” Cantata walked into the light, and all three immediately snapped to attention. Had they been in uniform, they would have saluted, but as part of the subterfuge, salutes were belayed on the premises. “They don’t have a code because I authorized the mission myself, Seaman Dazzle. There wasn’t time to have it entered in the POD, so I came out here to give it to you myself.”

Adagio lowered her gun. “Understood, ma’am.”

Looking at Contralto, she said, “From now on, your authorization code is Rhombus Delta Seven. It will be a permanent mission code, with no expiry.” Turning back to Seaman Dazzle, she said, “Enter it in the duty log for further reference.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.”

Returning her attention to Contralto and company, she said, “Okay, let’s get going. We’re well overdue and we have to get some other things out of the way.”

Contralto grinned. “Roger that, Skipper.”

Aria asked, “But what about their cargo?”

Cantata looked at them. “I’ll clear it; I asked them to pick it up. It’s a ballistic dummy that the teams will be using to practice assassination shots from a distance.”

For some reason, Aria didn’t believe that, but she wasn’t about to argue with her commanding officer. “Understood, Captain.” With that, she watched as the four of them walked off, with Medley turning to Aria long enough to flip her off.

“Classy,” Sonata replied.

“Okay, let’s get back to work, forget about them,” Adagio told them both. “We still have close to an hour until we’re relieved, so let’s make the most of it.”

Sunset woke up. She’d had that strange dream again, when dozens of people she knew asked her the same question: if she would die for them, and then finally herself, asking the same thing.

Or maybe it’s my counterpart here on this world? Sunset mused for a second then dismissed it. At this point, the girl had to be dead; after all, she’d spent time whenever she could trying to research her existence, and she’d never found anything to indicate she’d moved or anything of the sort. Of course, she also hadn’t trolled the local cemeteries for proof, either.

Either way, it was moot, now. The ex-unicorn had an existence here, had a family she loved and who loved her, friends who thought the world of her and she’d salvaged her reputation. That was more than enough. She was, as far as everyone was concerned, the only Sunset Shimmer they needed to worry about, and that was fine by her.

Sitting up, she noted that the clock once again read three in the morning. Maybe it was coincidence, maybe it was something else, but right now, there were other things on her mind. Noticing that both Octavia and Twilight were still asleep, she cast the appropriate spells, lit the dragonfire candle, and then called another cellphone which only she knew the number to.

“Sunset?”

“Hi, Twi,” she said, sitting down on her desk chair.

“Hello yourself, but why did you call me at this hour?”

“Just felt like talking to someone and there’s only one pony I know who’s up at this time of night.”

“Yeah, okay, you got me. I was just up researching study methods for Rainbow Dash.”

“Rainbow? She doesn’t seem like the studying type, to be honest.”

“Well, she has the written portion of the Wonderbolts test coming up, and she really wants to excel at it, so she’s asked us all for help.” Sunset heard her friend sigh on the other line. “It’s gone as well as you can imagine. She wasn’t worried at first, but once I got across to her that she was going to fail if she didn’t focus, I think she got the point. But after Fluttershy’s attempt at teaching her via historical play and it not sinking in, well…I think Rainbow’s worried now.”

“Well, I’m sure the other girls have ideas, right? Although I’m wondering if Razz’ idea involves unintended brainwashing….” Sunset commented.

“Oh, Razz isn’t in town right now. She’s actually in the Empire, researching Sombra’s mirror. Cadance let her have full access to Sombra’s old records, so we’re trying to track if he found ways to other mirrors in your world.”

“That’s…a pretty terrifying concept, especially given the way the mirror doesn’t exactly have the firmest grasp on spacetime.” She imagined Sombra marching over into Equestria carrying a modern-day thermonuclear weapon and just the thought made her wince.

“I know. While I was there I read a book on Earth weapons, and frankly, you guys are way ahead of us; if it wasn’t for magic, any hypothetical invasion by humans could’ve gone badly.” A second later, Twilight realized who she was talking to and she added a hasty, “Um, no offense, Sunny.”

“None taken,” Sunset commented. “Seriously, though, humanity has a lot of regret built up in those weapons. Many, like nukes, were intended to save lives by preventing a huge war from spiraling out of control. But now, everyone has them, including people who wouldn’t use them for honest purposes.”

“That’s worrisome.”

“No more worrisome than the any of the superweapons in Equestria. The Elements, though with different effects, were one. And then there’s the Celestial Spheres—”

“You know about the Spheres?” Twilight gasped.

“Uh, yes, I was Celestia’s student too, you know,” Sunset reminded the alicorn.

“Sorry, forgot. She’s never forgiven herself for creating them, ever since the side effect caused the creation of the Celestial Ursas.” Twilight sighed again and said, “So you have a point – we have weapons we regret creating as well. But how do you know the bad guys won’t use them?”

“Same way you know the Celestial Spheres won’t be misused: they’re under lock and key for the most part and mostly in the hands of the world’s most trustworthy people. On Earth, since the knowledge of creating them is pretty much public – another well-intentioned incident that went wrong – we have to worry about terrorists creating them. But I guess in Equestria, you have to worry about some madpony creating similar weapons, or maybe a tribalist sneaking into the vault or—”

“Look, could we talk about something else? You’ve got me a little worried right now.”

“You and me both, Twilight.” She then explained what was going on, from the disappearance of the triplets to the apparent serial killer in town. On the other end, the alicorn listened eagerly and after a few minutes, Sunset could hear the scratching of something as Twilight was hastily jotting down notes.

“On one hoof, this cultural observation into your world is fascinating, Sunny, but at the same time…you know if the Princess finds out about this, she’s going to insist you return to Equestria. You are practically her daughter, after all.”

“Yes, but I’m a grown mare, at least in terms of being a pony, and sometimes you have to let your foals go their own way. I know the Princess worries about and loves me and I love her for that. But I am my own woman now – my own mare, too – and I have my life to lead, whether it’s here or there. And she knows I really wouldn’t be happy there. This is where I belong.”

Sunset could practically hear the smile on her friend’s face. “Definitely spoken like the foster daughter of Princess Celestia. She’d be proud of you, you know. I know I am.”

The ex-unicorn blushed. “Thanks, Twi.”

As the two talked on various things, eventually Twilight had to break the call as the sun began rising over the horizon; Sunset looked out her window and noted the night was slowly giving away to day. After saying good night, Sunset hung up the call, put out the candle, then crawled back into bed.

A second later, Octavia sat up, puzzled. I could’ve sworn Sunny was on the phone a second ago, but…why did she say she was talking to Twily? She’s right here in-between both of us. Curious….

Her long red and purple hair flying everywhere, Ruby Tuesday, sans clothing, struggled against her bonds like her life depended on it. “LET ME GO!” Ruby screamed, pushing and pulling as much as she could, but to no avail.

“Wow, she’s what,” Medley said, looking at Ruby’s driver’s license, “twenty-one and she’s got a body like a thirteen year old. Sad.” Medley then pulled up her CADPAT blouse and undershirt, taunting, “Hey, in case you’re wondering, these are what real tits look like!”

Canzione thumped her teammate on her head. “Stay classy, Med.”

“Not my fault that the grown-up little girl is underendowed, Canzy,” Medley said with a shrug.

Contralto looked at the woman on the table, then back at her friends. “Okay, you two lesbos don’t get squirrley, okay? We got a job to do.” She looked back at the woman, then muttered, “I just wish I knew what that was.”

Medley leaned forward, her chest still on display. “Hey, want me to rub these on you so you can know what they feel like?”

Contralto facepalmed. “Med, get back into uniform.”

“Aye aye, Alto!” Medley pulled her tops down and tucked her undershirt back in.

“My, my,” a voice said from nowhere. “You have an interesting body, Seaman Trance. Too bad the same can’t be said about your victim.”

The three jumped as one at the sound of the voice, revealed to be Divine Right and Cantata Blast, both wearing ornate silk robes with silvery sigils embroidered onto them.

“Wow, dig the duds,” Medley said, then sidled up to Divine Right. “You can see my body anytime…can I see yours?”

“Down, Seaman,” Cantata barked, and Medley immediately fell back into formation. “Now, do you know why you’re here?”

“So Medley can make an ass of herself hitting on your boyfriend, Captain?” Canzione offered.

“Not exactly,” Cantata smirked. “However, you’re going to kill that girl and drain her blood.” Ruby, overhearing that, started screaming again; however, Divine raised his hand and a yellow glow enveloped it. A second later, Ruby Tuesday thrashed even harder, utterly consumed by the panic that she’d lost her one major chance to summon help.

“I think I’ve had more than enough of that,” Divine told them.

“Wow, he’s a magician,” Medley commented. “Can your next trick be me?”

“Seaman Trance, enough already,” Contralto chided.

“Yes, Petty Officer,” she sighed, her entertainment now done.

“You were saying, sir?” Canzione spoke up.

“As you can see, I injured myself performing a magical ritual needed to…succeed in our future endeavors. As we are on a timetable, I asked Captain Blast here for her three best SIRENs – utterly ruthless and willing to do whatever is needed.”

“That would be us, sir,” Contralto said. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Easy: I give you a list of people to capture, and you stab them with this sword—” he then held up the Blade of Balance, “—and the blood, if the girl is pure, will drain into the cask,” he added, pointing at the Cask of the Damned. “If she is not, then her blood will turn into an acid and scorch everything around.”

“That’s not good; that might ruin my perfect looks!” Medley mourned.

“Can’t be any worse; your brain’s already mush, Med,” Canzione commented, to which Medley stuck her tongue out at her teammate.

“Ah, don’t worry, I have a serum here that will take care of that.” He reached into a pocket in a robe, producing a half-liter bottle containing a fluid as black and viscous as oil, save for the throbbing pulse of green that occasionally permeated its depths. “This, once you three drink it, will give you undreamed of powers, and unending strength. It will, of course, also protect you from any failed spells. You three will be invincible.”

“It looks like it’s alive,” Canzione observed.

“That’s what magic is about, my dear,” he told her, a wide smile on his face. “It doesn’t follow the normal rules.”

“Sure, what the hell, I’ll be first – no one lives forever, anyway,” Conralto said, taking the bottle from his hand, ripping the stopper off, and taking a swig from the bottle. Handing the bottle back to him, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and said, “Eh, it’s okay, but I could use a shot o—” She never finished the sentence as her eyes widened, and she collapsed to her knees as she started gagging, her pupils constricting as a look of terror came onto her face.

“Alto!” Medley shouted in worry, rushing to her friend’s side.

Canzione’s own eyes narrowed as she raised a fist in anger. Turning to Divine, she snarled, “I’m gonna—”

“Seaman Burst, stand down,” Cantata ordered. “As for you, Seaman Trance, I strongly suggest you step away from Petty Officer Rush now.”

“But Captain, Alt—fuck!” The SIREN hopped away from her friend, and with good timing too, as the sharp spines erupted from her back. Her muscle mass exploded exponentially, practically ripping off all her clothes as if she were a discount She-Hulk. Her skin turned to piscine-like scales, shaded red. Her eyes turned into that of a reptile’s, and her fingernails became claws. She reared back her head, and the roar that bellowed from it was completely inhuman.

Divine looked bored.

Cantata’s mind weighed the advantages of this new supersoldier.

Medley looked at her friend with worry, and though she was still stone-faced, the slight bead of sweat that rolled down Canzione’s face indicated that she too, was worried.

The roar turned into laughter, and with a speed and grace that no human could ever have, the nearly-nude creature leapt to her feet. “Oh, my God this is better than sex!” she cooed. “Though…my clothing…. It’s going to be awkward running around naked.”

Medley eyed her friend’s new body. “Oh, I don’t mind the view, Alto.”

“Must your first thought always be sex, Med?”

“Hey, I’m the specialist at seduction missions, so I must always be prepared,” Medley replied, matter-of-factly. “If it wasn’t for the fact that you and Canzy are like my sisters, I’d do you both.”

“I did not need to know that.”

Ignoring her teammate, Canzione asked, “Does it hurt?”

Divine looked at her. “A little bit of pain, and then awesome power will be yours.”

Medley looked at Contralto’s body. “Yeah, that’s probably fun and all, but I can’t do my job if I look like a teenage fish instead of this sexy body!”

“Petty Officer Rush,” Cantata ordered, “focus on returning to normal.”

On cue, Contralto closed her eyes, let her breath become steady, and thought of herself as she normally looked. She felt her body burn and twist, and as it did, she felt the shift in her body mass as she returned to normal and felt slightly weaker as her muscle shrank to their original proportions. Claws retracted, spines shrank into the skin and scales returned to flesh, and when the feeling went away, she opened her eyes, holding her hand in front of her face, which was back to normal.

“Looking good!” Medley said with a grin.

“Feeling great,” she said, though now conscious of her nudity, which Divine solved by removing his robe and handing it to her, much to Contralto’s gratitude. “What was that?”

“The first of something to come,” he told her. “And you are now the first in history – the first to be a supersoldier, a weapon to be used against your enemies. But to create more, I need your help…and it starts by killing that girl over there.” Reaching for a scabbard to his side, he pulled out a silver longknife that looked warped, weathered and somehow diseased. “Are you ready?”

Contralto took the blade, looked at the still struggling girl, who was horrified to realize what she’d seen and that she hadn’t been forgotten. Looking down at the blade, she asked Divine, “So, what next, sir?”

Octavia woke up after having a vivid dream of herself lost in a black glass maze, while in the distance, she could see Sunset and Twilight walking away from her as if she didn’t exist. In her dream, she’d screamed to no avail, but what had woken her up was when she felt the tap on her shoulder and when she’d turned to look—

She shuddered. I don’t ever want to see that again, she thought. At that moment, she swore she heard the strains from the classical song “Commendatore” fill her mind. She didn’t know why, but she felt something go very, very wrong.

“Hey, you okay?” Octavia turned in Sunset’s direction, only to see a vile demon and—

“Tavi, wake up!” She felt herself shaking and waking up, she saw Sunset over her, concern radiating from her cyan eyes. It was just a dream, Octavia mused, just a dream.

As she sat up, Sunset looked at her. “Hey, you okay?” she asked.

“No, I had a nightmare,” the raven-haired musician told her cousin, “and I really don’t want to talk about it right now. Where’s Twily?”

“Went downstairs to get you some water just in case,” Sunset replied. “You sure you’re going to be fine?”

“Yeah,” she said, hugging Sunset. “I’ll be fine.”

—In her mind a demonic voice sang and the strains of “Commendatore” roared along with the barks of black laughter and the screams of the damned—

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Octavia said as she released the hug.

Shining woke up to see his fiancée almost dressed and out the door. She was slipping on her Heart of the Siren, more because it went with her outfit than anything else. “Oh, you’re up,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah. The boss insisted that I take a day off, since I’ve been working non-stop. I really don’t like the idea, but I’m not about to turn down sleeping in.”

She walked over to the bed and sat by him. “You need it, love; you look exhausted. I’ve always known you to go the extra mile and your bosses know that as well. But it’s not going to do you any good to hospitalize yourself. You’re only twenty-six – you need to take care of that body, so that I can take care of your body later,” she said with a soft smile.

“I still want you to take the gun with you in case something happens, okay?” Shining insisted, reluctantly ignoring his teasing.

“You know the rules: We’re not authorized to carry them into the building and I don’t feel safe about leaving it in my car. Plus, if the intelligence is right, they’re only after virgins,” she cooed, caressing his cheek.

“Yes, and a girl who wasn’t was found dead yesterday,” Shining reminded her. “There’s nothing that says they know the difference between who is, and who isn’t.”

She looked right at him. “Sweetheart, I’m not going to live my life as if I could be a target at any minute. I mean, c’mon, I already have one death threat stemming from that case I handled six months ago.”

“Yeah, from a guy behind bars that can’t do anything but bluster. This is a little more serious.”

“Yes, and I have every confidence you’ll stop him. So get some sleep and plan where we’re having dinner tonight. Oh, and dress up – we should go out and relax tonight. I have a bad feeling it’s going to be a very rough day for those of us at the office.”

“Sure,” he said, leaning back in the bed, while she stood up and, double-checking her clothing in the vanity mirror, headed out of the bedroom. A few minutes later, Shining barely heard the front door to their apartment close.

But it was the phone that woke him up. Hand scrabbling back and forth for the phone, he finally slapped his hand on it, grabbed, and pulled to his head. “Yeah, ‘ts Armor,” he slurred into the phone.

“Rise and shine,” he heard Sandalwood’s voice over the line, but there was neither the usual mock-flirting she did, nor the typical weary military vet in her voice. If anything, she sounded angry.

“Sandy?” he voiced. “What’s up?”

“Do you have time to have breakfast? It’s on me.” Shining sat up at that; Sandalwood was not only notoriously anti-morning, but wanted company? She was Cadance’s best friend, but had gravitated over more to him over the years due to the similarities of his job.

“What’s wrong?”

“I…I fucked up, Shiny. I fucked up, and it’s going to cost a girl her life.”

He was out of bed in an instant. “I’ll meet you at the IHOP just off I-5, okay?”

“The one on 16th and Westland?”

“Yeah. Be careful.”

“Hey, did you hear? Black Team’s moving out!”

Aria and Sonata were in the underground firing range that had been planned to be a locker room once. It was well shielded and whoever did the work got it set correctly, as if it were magic. Aria was currently on the range, but practicing with her trusty bow and arrow instead of her guns. Mainly it was to work stress off, but still, it was important – they sure as hell couldn’t do anything else, as with the exception of supply runs and long patrols, they were confined to base.

“Sis, I don’t care what those three assholes do,” Aria said, nocking her bow, drawing, then letting the shaft fly. It bulleted forward, the shaft rotating in tight, undulating circles, until it met its mark – the bullseye on the head, right between the eyes. She reached over to her quiver, grabbed another arrow, and readied to do the same.

“I don’t trust them,” Sonata said, matter-of-factly.

“Neither do I – that’s why I don’t care about them,” Aria told her. “Besides, if you want to fill your free time with gossip just because we have nothing left in our lives, then that’s up to you. As for me, I’m going to keep going to master my weapons until I am perfect at them.”

“Is that all you want to do with your life?” Sonata asked her.

“It’s all that I can do with my existence.” Aria turned to look at her sister, and the look on her eyes was somewhere between anger, sorrow and stoicism. “My life ended the day I made that mistake that we’re still paying for.” She set down the bow and arrow, moved away from her station, crawling under the counter and walking towards the bullseye to collect her arrows.

Sonata, not sure of what else to say, left her sister to her own devices. When Aria was in a funk, she preferred to work things out by herself, as having others around made it worse. Strangely enough, there were two exceptions to that rule, and the two exceptions they would probably never see again: Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“You did your best,” a voice said, as Sonata felt a hand patting her on the shoulder. She turned to see Aria’s sœur, Vesper.

“Lieutenant,” Sonata began, “I—”

“We’re not on duty right now, Soni,” Vesper reminded her kindly, “so you don’t have to call me by rank. And besides, I know how you feel right now: you want to do everything for your sister and you feel helpless that the one thing you can’t do is rewind the clock.” Vesper sighed. “Mezzo, Maddie and I talked – we should have never let you decide to come with us. You three don’t belong here.”

“Vesper, I—”

“You girls are strong, probably the best I’ve ever seen from those your age. But you don’t have the heart to be killers. It was why you three weren’t selected for the Black Team and why your team’s specialty is infiltration and collection. You’re thieves, not murderers.”

“Gee, that makes me feel much better,” Sonata drolled.

“Thieves in the military sense: you sneak into places and grab intelligence and other things. I’m not accusing you of anything.” But Vesper released the smile from her face and asked, “If you were ordered to, could you kill Maddie?”

“No! Are you shitting me? Hell no!”

“What about your friends? Sunset, or Pinkie, or—” The firm shake of her head was an answer of her own. “Then you know it yourself: you’re not meant to be soldiers, Sonata. As rude as it seems to say, having you three brought into the SIREN program was probably one of the biggest mistakes the Admiral made.”

“We’d have died otherwise.”

“No, likely you would have been left at the orphanage in Vancouver until you three were adopted. Maybe you three would be attending high school in West Bay, living normal lives with your adopted parents. You can never know the future.”

“So, Black Team moved out today,” one of the senior seamen told Adagio. Both of them were looking at intelligence reports, and looking over immediate plans on how they would be able to storm CSIS headquarters, take out all the targets and deal with security on-site, the addition of the Toronto PD and likely reinforcements from the RCMP, and ultimately elements of other CANSOF teams like IRTF, ARROWHEAD and possibly even the regular army. So far, it was looking feasible, but most of their forces wouldn’t survive the assault. The plan was to maximize survival while removing the worst of elements, including CSIS Director Golden Rule and CSIS Assistant Director Maj. General Horizon Brave, the military’s liaison to CSIS and in the wake of the death of Vice Adm. Poutine, RCN, likely now the head of the SIREN project.

“Oh? What, did their panties get too big for us peons?” another SIREN asked.

“Yeah. Heard the Old Man’s got some special missions she has them running, so they’re on a moment’s notice. They’ve moved into a special room in the main building and they’re getting treated like rock stars!”

A third SIREN spoke up. “Their lieutenant isn’t going to like that. I heard she’s a real hardass when it comes to that sort of thing.”

“Doesn’t matter; Overheard Chief Comet tell Petty Officer Stars that Lt. Rise has been missing for a couple of days. Probably Seaman Rush – excuse me, Petty Officer Rush – probably killed her and dumped the body or some shit.”

“I doubt that. She probably went AWOL. You notice that Delta Company moved out a couple of days ago? They probably went after her.”

“No way!” the first one spoke up. “I heard that Delta Company’s been tasked with building a bolthole for us in the local forest, in case something goes wrong. And believe me, it’s gonna. Sooner or later the American military’s going to find out we’re here, and they’re coming after us.”

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” the third one replied. “American military can’t operate in the US, it’s one of their laws – saw it on TV once.”

“Yes, because television is the gold standard of truthfulness and authenticity.”

“Well, we have an expert here,” the second one said, turning to Adagio. “Hey, Dazzle, you’ve been assigned to deep cover here for a while. What do you know?”

Adagio put down the report she was looking at, trying to hide the disgust she felt; she felt as though she was being asked to give away secrets regarding her home. Sure, she wasn’t American and technically was an illegal alien, but…Canterlot was her home now, not CFB Cold Lake; and she didn’t like giving up information easily. “Two things,” she said. “One, the military can be deployed in the US; each state has units called the National Guard and Air National Guard, which can be deployed at a moment’s notice and be temporarily federalized into the American army and air force.”

“Oooh, listen to you, all American now!” the first girl teased. “Maybe you should try applying for the SEALs?” The other two SIRENs giggled.

“Second, unless you want major casualties when we hit CSIS HQ, maybe – just maybe – you should focus less on what those assholes in Black Team are doing and more on how we’re going to take and hold Station Blvd. and everything within a 200 meter radius without half the Sisterhood dying!” The other SIRENs, chastised, turned away from their gossip and went back to work, leaving Adagio alone.

Sisterhood or not…I’m really getting to hate this place.

Shining arrived at the restaurant to see Sandalwood sitting at a lonely table, and he could practically feel the sorrow and rage radiating from her on the other side of the building.

“Welcome to IHOP!” The greeter at the door told him, a cheerful smile on her face. “How many people for your table, sir?”

“Actually, joining a friend,” he said, pointing at her.

“Oh,” the woman said with a drawl that indicated that something was seriously amiss. “Look, I don’t know what is wrong, but seriously, try to cheer up your girlfriend there,” she advised him. “She’s been growling at the staff since she got here.”

Shining did a double take. “Um, we’re…FBI agents, not lovers,” Shining clarified.

“Yeah, that’s what they all say. Now talk to her, and I’ll bring the menus in a bit.” She patted him on the shoulder and beat a hasty retreat back to the cash register.

Shining sat down and instantly noticed that Sandalwood was both angry and crying. “Hey, I’m here.” Sandalwood muttered something incomprehensible and Shining asked, “Want to repeat that?”

She looked up at him and her eyes were haunted. “I said that my neighbor is missing, and I got there just in time to find the fucking card, Shiny! They’re probably going to find her body in a few hours, and it’s my Goddamn fault!”

Shining didn’t know what to say. What could he say? “Sandy….”

“No. Do not comment whatever fucking platitudes you’re going to say to me. I promised myself that I would look after Ruby and her boyfriend, because they’re Minty’s age, and now she’s fucking DEAD BECAUSE OF ME!” Sandalwood’s shout caught the attention of everyone in the restaurant, and not a single person paused to do anything else than that.

Shining pulled out his badge. “FBI issue, please go about your business,” he said in his “police voice”, and as the rest of the restaurant patrons turned back to their meal, he pocketed his credentials again.

She demurred. “Sorry. I’ve had about half a pot of coffee before I got here and I’ve already been through a full carafe.”

“Is that even healthy?” Shining asked, just as the waitress brought them their menus.

“You weren’t kidding about the cop thing, were you?” the waitress said, horrified. In response, Sandalwood pulled out her own badge, and the waitress gasped. “Whatever you two want, it’s on the house,” she murmured in barely-present comprehension, walking away.

“Hey, maybe I can get those chocolate chip pancakes with the smiley face and a billion calories. For once I can say ‘fuck you!’ to the world,” she said with a humorless smile.

“Sandy, talk to me.”

“No, you’re the last person I wanted to talk to, but the person I wanted closest. But it’s never going to work.” She leaned back in her chair.

“What’s no—”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” she growled. “Please, Shiny…just sit there, don’t say a word and keep me company right now, okay?” She looked at him and for once in his life, he saw a girl more fragile than at any time he’d ever seen her before. “Right now, I don’t want anyone around but you, Shining Armor. Not even Cadance.”

“Fine, but we’re going to talk later, okay, Sandy?”

“I’ve always been available for you, Shiny. Always.”

Gathering in the conference room at work, Velvet asked her secretary to get the large screen ready. She and the rest of the staff at ECDSS were ready to watch a televised news conference that would probably change their lives forever. In the corner of the screen, just off to the side of the podium, she could see several members of the DA’s office, including her future daughter-in-law.

“Well, Director,” a woman said to Velvet as she sat down next to her. Velvet recognized her: Mercury Mail. She was one of the senior aides for the County Board of Supervisors. “Do you have a plan to deal with this?”

“I have to discuss it with Dr. Venerable as soon as he arrives,” Velvet told her.

“I’m afraid not.” Mercury dropped an envelope on the desk. “Dr. Venerable resigned as of last night, effective immediately. Apparently the stress of losing his granddaughter was too much for him, and he had a heart attack this morning. He asked this be given to you; it’s a copy of his resignation letter. The Board met last night and I don’t need to tell you that you have been appointed acting director until further notice, Dr. Velvet – the appointment documents have also been placed in the envelope as well.”

“I….” Velvet was stunned. One of Ven’s grandchildren was a victim? “I….”

“I know, you’re not prepared for this. None of us are, and how could we be?” Mercury rose from her seat. “If it’s any consolation, Doctor, I know you’ll do a good job. You actually care about what you do in office, and let me tell you, that’s all too rare in this day and age. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my office before the storm starts.”

“I see,” Velvet said, looking at the envelope as if it was a live snake. She considered getting one of the senior staffers in the room to call for an emergency meeting, but the sound started to come onto the screen, and Canterlot’s vice mayor – I wish I could remember what that jackass’ name was. I always met with Mare; at least she gave a shit about the kids in the orphanage – stood in front of the podium.

“At this time, it is my sad duty to inform you all that we have a growing crisis on our hands. A few days ago, you were informed about the brutal and senseless but unrelated murders of Mayor Mare’s husband and daughter. What you were not told is how her daughter was killed, and today I’m here, on behalf of the City, County and Federal law enforcement agencies, to give out details of what happened to Liza Doolots – because we now have three girls that are dead just like her, and it is my reluctant duty to inform you all that the Canterlot Metropolitan Area may be under the attack of a serial killer.”

Everyone in the room gasped, save for Velvet, who had already been informed of it and was now having to deal with the weight of being in charge of the hundreds of young lives who were now potential targets. One of the negatives of Equestria County was that it had one of the largest social services systems in the state; only Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange, and San Diego counties had bigger. She’d regularly read the names of those under her care, and though she wanted a large family and had thankfully already drawn from the system once, she couldn’t give them all a home, as much as she wished. Now, she had to protect them from this, in addition to everything else.

Cornflower gasped in shock at what she was hearing. She grew up in this city and now it was turning into the playpen of a madman?

“Ma, is it true?” she heard a voice say behind her and she looked to see Apple Bloom watching, her attention rapt.

“Applejack,” she said to her daughter, who was busy stocking shelves, “turn off the TV.”

“Ma, Ah don’t thi—”

“DO IT!” Cornflower roared, holding on to the table she stood at both so she wouldn’t fall and so she wouldn’t take any more of her anger and fear out on her older daughter.

“Ma….” Apple Bloom replied, not sure how to react while her mother was in such a state.

Nor did she know how when her mother grabbed her, held her tight and sobbed, “He’s not going to get you. I’m not going to let either of you go.”

“I did not raise my girls so that some fucktard thinks he can chop them up,” Firefly seethed as she watched the video, her muscles tensing.

Scootaloo watched her mother’s reaction to the news coming onscreen. “Rainbow?” she asked her older sister.

“We’ll be fine,” Rainbow assured her. Pointing to their mother, she added, “If anything, any killer coming after us has to worry about her.”

As part of the reporters in the audience, Cookie Crumbles felt faint. Her daughters were home right now, by themselves. Were they safe? Was she risking their lives by being here? And even if she was here, her husband was on the road right now, covering some surfing event in Honolulu for ESPN. Would he come back to his daughters in caskets, and Cookie herself broken?

You’re a reporter, Cookie. Cover the story – you can save your daughters; your weapon is the truth. Continuing to jot down notes as the vice mayor spoke, Cookie swore that she would do everything she could as a journalist to cover this story. The dead had the right to be defended by the truth and while the lawyers and cops would eventually catch him, they needed help. That, she knew in her heart, was what the press was for.

Discord carried Fluttershy back to her room; after watching part of the report, she fainted, and he couldn’t blame her – his family knew one of the victims personally. Placing her on the bed, he took off her shoes, placed the cover on her and kissed her on the cheek. “No one’s going to harm my little girl,” he promised.

The TV still blaring, he walked to the window of the penthouse they were renting. In the distance, he could see the southern end of the city, and possibly out there somewhere was the person or persons responsible for doing this. He was a musician and a celebrity; there wasn’t much he could do to help, but someone had to record the aftermath of it all, to place it in history’s firmament, mourn the dead, honor the heroes and condemn the wicked forever.

“You may have left us naked for a moment, whoever you are,” Discord growled at the murderer somewhere out there, “but I will leave you naked for all of eternity.”

“Your sister is never going to let us hear the end of this,” Carrot Cake said as he turned off the TV. “She barely agreed back in December to letting Pinkie stay. Now, we have a serial killer, it’s the summer and there’s nothing stopping her from insisting Pinkie move back.”

“There’s us, dear,” Cup replied. “This is Pinkie’s home and we are her family. My sister doesn’t see it the same way we do. She might be safe there from serial killers, but what about tornadoes and other things? Life is risk. Pinkie has been living with risk since she was born, and to stop her now would break her.

“No, my sister doesn’t get what she wants,” Cup told her husband, “and if it gets to that point, I’ll fight Quartzie in court all the way.”

Watching in the conference room in the Greater Equestria Unified School District’s headquarters building, both Celestia and Luna had scowls on their faces. These were their students; in a way, their own children. They looked at all the other principals and vice principals present, and all had the same look of elemental rage on them. As a courtesy, their equivalents at the private schools had been invited and their faces all read fury; had the situation not been so horrific, the look of righteous anger present on Sister Bellflower, the principal of Holy Cross, would have been one to laugh.

As the conference ended, no one said anything. Then Sombra spoke up: “Give me five minutes with that asshole and I’ll show you what a Marine does to motherfuckers like him.”

“Amen to that,” Sister Bellflower intoned grimly.

Watching the television at The Merrie Wytch, tears streamed down Harmonic’s eyes as she knew what was coming. Somehow, her instincts told her, it would be worse. She’d lived through that hell the last time, and now someone wanted to open Pandora’s box once more…and hope, as always, would be loosed long after the horrors were.

Moving away from the cash register, she said nothing but instead moved over to where Trixie and Lyra had also been watching. Then she hugged them both tight, wordlessly, the tears flowing unabashedly.

Goddess, these are my girls, she prayed. Don’t let them be harmed.

As they walked away from the office, Cadance and Hearts Aflutter ran into Shining’s friend Melati Jasmine. “Cadance, I don’t need to tell you this, but take care, okay? Shining’s a good guy and I’d hate to see him go Lethal Weapon because something happened to you.”

“Thanks, Mel,” Cadance replied. “This guy’s good as caught.”

“Yeah – this asshole just hit the sore spot of sore spots, and everyone with a badge in this town is going to be going cowboy until this guy’s caught. Forget about ‘Good cop, bad cop’. You’re about to see ‘Bad cop, worse cop’.”

As the special televised broadcast of the murders ended and the regular broadcasting began again, three girls in a home in San Palomino were utterly speechless. “Are we going to be okay?” Octavia asked.

“We’ll be fine, Tavi,” Sunset answered her. “We will be fine.”

“As long as we stay together. Safety’s in numbers; they’re probably looking at single targets, so as long as we go anywhere together, we should be okay.” Twilight then looked at Sunset. “I’m worried about you, however. You have to go from work to your car, as well as stop for gas and such.”

Sunset gave her sister an earnest smile. “Don’t worry – anyone tries to catch me? Hadōken, straight up their ass.”

“So you’re going to fireball them?” Octavia replied, trying not to laugh.

“Sunny, please, I’m being serious here,” Twilight huffed.

“So you don’t believe me?”

“Only place anyone can throw fireballs is a videogame.”

“Fine, don’t believe me then,” Sunset sighed. “But don’t worry about me. Dad insisted that I carry a key baton and a can of pepper spray. I don’t think it’ll help, personally, but I think I’ll be okay otherwise.”

“You sure?”

“Well, we can always go back to the explanation about magic missiles.”

“Fine, fine, I get it.” Twilight crossed her arms and pouted and there was something so innately cute about that that it caused Sunset to burst out in peals of laughter.

“It’s done,” Contralto said a few minutes later, walking into Divine’s office in her human form and wearing a t-shirt and shorts that he’d created for her before he departed. “Creepy as hell that that bucket that looks like bones sucked up all the blood like it was a vacuum, but I don’t know shit about magic and I don’t want to.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, setting down the book he read. “It’s not for you to know. Only certain people – those born in the magical bloodlines – can hope to wield even the least of cantrips, enchantments and glamories. But to be a master magus as myself, you have to be born from the greatest of them all—”

“Merlin?”

“Hah!” Divine laughed. “Merlin was powerful, yes, but he left no descendants, and there is no record of Morgause – his real apprentice, not Morgaine Le Fey, who is labelled as such in those stupid stories – having had any either. Trust me, I’ve checked; no descendants of Emeraude of France, of Abe no Seimei of Japan, Flamel of France, or any of the other greats in history. Only one – my father of fathers, Baldassare di Cavalcanti, the Great Mind of Italy – has survived, and has produced the prodigious mind that is me.”

“Don’t be so modest,” Contralto drawled.

“Modesty is for the weak – those with true strength know they have the right to shout it from the highest peaks, for who is there to stop them?” he asked. “So, is there anything you wish to report?”

“Yes, how long does this serum last?”

“We do not know as of yet; it is a first generation serum, after all. But don’t worry; we are working on creating enough for you and your teammates, and once the means of production is settled, then enough for all the SIRENs.” He leaned forward on the desk and looked at her, eye to eye. “I want you to win; your enemies are mine, and I will see to it that you have the means to avenge yourself against those who wronged you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Contralto said. “Is there anything else?”

“Yes.” He handed her a sheaf of paper. “Please drop off the body in accordance with what the instructions specify. If you wish, you may wait and see what the responses of the police are – and I guarantee there will be responses. Afterwards, check with your captain; she is currently working with your logistics personnel to create improved armaments for you. Once you have all the means worked out, report back to me and we’ll test it.”

“We’ll test it?”

“Would you rather be shot by your compatriots because they do not yet know what you’ve become, or would you rather test with someone who is aware – and has already seen you in the nude.” He shrugged. “You need fear nothing untowards from me; your captain and I are…involved…and I do not wish for a concubine.”

“Fine. You can look, but don’t touch the merchandise. I’ll be back later.”

“I look forward to it,” he said, nodding to her as she stood at attention and saluted, then departed his office. Feisty, that one, he mused as she closed the door. Were it not for my agreement with Cantata, perhaps she would have been a better target.

Giving it no more thought, he turned instead to the book that would be the centerpiece of everything, The Heptameron. It was of unknown age, but first mass published in either 1485 or 1520, depending on who you believed. It mattered little, because he had one of the very first copies, dating back to the middle-12th century. It had been a long, but worthwhile translation onto modern-made parchment and leather binding, and he had been very sorry to have had the antique bookbinder in Barcelona killed, but one did what one had to do.

Opening the page to where he was, he read through the transcribed Latin, thankful that his education as a boy provided him with the means to read the book: “And with this spell thus, thou shalt summon a demon of great power and terrible fury, one which in its own plane was ken as the Great Destroyer and tamed here in this celestial realm by the great Merlin and a sorcerer whose name hath been lost to time….”

A reality away, in the deepest recesses of an ancient crypt under the gleaming spire of the Crystal Empire, Raspberry Beryl groaned. “For fuck’s sake, did you ever write anything straightforward, you old idiot?” she groaned, looking at the documents of her great-great-great-great-great-(she stopped counting after that)-grandfather, Sombra, the Dark King. She’d been looking through his research collection and so far, she’d found two things: one, he was a master of circular writing, so much so that he could put modern poets to shame; and that she was getting very irritated by phrases like “…and thus that which is so and thus be which is known that which is to be….”, which his writing was littered with.

She felt the flash of light magic behind her; how could she not? It was her polar opposite in spellpower, after all. “I came looking for you when you missed breakfast,” Princess Cadance gently chided.

“Sorry, been trying to translate Sombra’s writing from Early Middle Stupid into Equish,” Raspberry groaned. “Seriously, I’m not ever letting Twilight look at these things, not because I’m afraid she’ll be corrupted by the contents, but because just trying to read them is going to give her conniption fits.”

“Well, from the records, Sombra was always a ‘wheels within wheels’ sort of stallion,” Cadance mused. “But you need to get out of this place.”

“Yeah, I know,” Raspberry nodded. “I probably could use some food and sleep, and plus Heelee’s probably looking for me, too.” She got off the chair and closed the book. “You know, though, I haven’t found anything that will help, either regarding his mirror, Platinum’s, or other mirrors. But there was one thing I did find, though that was curious.”

“What’s that?” Cadance asked as she teleported them from the room directly towards the dining room.

“There’s one book that Sombra has that I can’t make heads or tails of, and written in a language that I’m not familiar with. I’m wondering if it’s from the human plane.”

“I couldn’t answer that, but perhaps Twilight could?”

“It’s possible. I didn’t sense anything different about it, and it doesn’t seem…well, informed by dark magics or light, so it should be safe for her to look at. But if it’s from the human world….”

“It could be a problem?”

Raspberry shook her head. “From what Sunset told me, the human world is for all intents and purposes, magically dead. Either this book predates the loss of magic on…Earth? I think it’s called, or it was written by a human madstallion completely out of his mind.”

“How important is it? I can arrange for a courier to send it to Twily as soon as possible.”

“Did I hear about a courier?” Shining Armor then approached, dressed in his armor. “Working out with the troops. Some of them need some extra polish, but others look like they’re going to be good to go.”

Cadance gave him a mock-disapproving look. “Anything to get out of your princely duties, Shiny?”

The stallion rubbed the back of his head. “Well, yeah, you know I’m not as good at that stuff as you are. I’m a guardstallion, tried and true.”

“I bet the other Shining Armor knows how to do paperwork,” the alicorn teased and got a pout from her husband. Cadance laughed and said, “Oh, Shiny, you know you’re the only stallion for me.”

“I hope so; I don’t think I’d look good as a scrawny monkey like that,” he said, remembering the image the mirror had shown them. He then turned to Raspberry and asked, “You said you need a courier, Razz?”

“It might be important enough to justify,” the unicorn mage replied.

Shining mused on it for a second. “Well, Cataphract is heading back to Canterlot tonight for a couple of weeks of leave. If I contact him, he can get it to the palace, and Celestia should be able to get it to Twilight with no problem.”

“That sounds like a good idea. This….I’m not sure I’m even pronouncing this correctly…Heep-Tame-Ron? Ugh! I thought humans had the same languages we do!”

Sirens blared as cop cars roared down the street. The main road was regularly patrolled by the CPD, ECSD and CHP, and all three police agencies were now out in force, as if letting the serial killer know that there would be no more, that a line had been drawn in the sand, a thin blue line, and the hounds that watched that line had teeth.

None of it, however, mattered to True Thoughts. His girlfriend was missing, and if the news was true, she was likely dead. He tried to call her parents just a few minutes ago, but they were likely blissfully unaware, the news having not made it out to Wisconsin yet. He had no other way of contacting them, and so until he was able to get a hold of them, they would never know that Ruby was in danger, or worse.

He plopped on the couch, drinking straight from the bottle of Crown Royal. He didn’t care if he was sloshed. He didn’t care much about anything right now. Ruby would have gotten on his case about it, but that was exactly why he was drinking. Maybe if he got hammered enough, she’d come back to him and chew him out for getting pants-on-head plastered, but he welcomed that – anything to gaze into her tangelo-colored eyes once more.

He thought he heard a knock at the door, but he was too busy drinking to care. He then looked out the window and, fucked up as he was, thought he saw something right out of his nightmares: a woman with a face that reminded him of a fish, looking back at him with a smile filled with dagger-sharp teeth and eyes that looked like they belonged on a snake. He blinked and she was gone, and he cursed the drinking, throwing the bottle of Crown Royal against the wall, shattering it and spraying the precious brown liquid all over the place.

He mumbled something in an approximation of Ruby’s name. To a normal person, it would have sounded like random vowels and consonants blended together by a fine blend of ingredients that made up Canadian whisky. Tears streamed down his face. He loved and missed her, and without her, he had nothing left. They’d been together practically since the first day they met four years ago and nothing had torn them apart. Not his previous girlfriend, who had flown out from their hometown to try to woo him back and not her ex – he was a prick anyway, Ruby had admitted to him.

The knock came at the door again, and in an alcohol-fueled haze, he swore it was Ruby at the door, calling to him, beckoning to him to come and love her. He crawled, one movement at a time, towards the door. Forcing himself to his feet, he struggled, once, twice, to open the door, but finally he opened it.

“Ruby….” True breathed, almost approaching actual words. “You came back.”

And there she was, waiting for him, affixed to the door, looking as pale and beautiful as ever. Another person would have screamed in horror at the way she’d been crucified to the door, but not True. His love was back, and she’d come back for him. He removed the card from her mouth and kissed it, slurring that he loved her more than anything and would always be with her.

The corpse of Ruby Tuesday said nothing, remaining as still as it did from the moment she died.

Something in the back of his mind, however, knew what was going on, and kissed her again, looking at her beautiful nude form. She’d stayed in the peak of physical perfection, as much as anyone who wasn’t an athlete could, so she could always be perfect for him, she often said.

Forever.

Perfect.

I have to be that way for her too, the most reptile part of his mind said. If he was sober, he would have screamed and called the cops. But for now, all he could remember were the lyrics from his favorite song:

“Valentine is done,
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (Like Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (Redefine happiness)
Another 40,000 coming everyday (We can be like they are)
Come on baby, (Don't fear The Reaper)
Baby take my hand (Don't fear The Reaper)
We'll be able to fly (Don't fear The Reaper)
Baby I'm your man...”

He let go of her and climbed onto the bannister.

“I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid!” he cried.

The coroner would be there that afternoon…and they swore that True Thoughts had a smile on his face.

Author's Note

Yup, this again. :twilightsmile:

July 31, PM: The Trooper

Melati Jasmine had never seen anything like this before in her life. Granted, she wasn’t the most normal of Muslim women on the planet, but this went beyond the pale. When she’d told her husband about what was going on, he’d flat-out told her, “And I hope this bastard gets sentenced to whatever hell awaits him. I don’t care what religion it is, just stick him in the worst one.” Having seen what she was witnessing now, she had no doubt that this monster was going to drag the world through hell on Earth until he was caught.

One woman murdered, one man joining his love in the grave. She’d never understood the Romeo & Juliet angle of it all, but it wasn’t her cultural norm, she supposed. Then again, given that love suicide pacts weren’t the norm here either, maybe it was just one of those things that was from a different time.

“Hey, Mel?” Cuff ‘Em asked.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“This shit is fucked. Girl – just a friggin’ girl not much younger than me – dead, her guy gone off the deep end and then off the deep end, and now that woman there,” he said, pointing to the shaken landlady talking to detectives, “don’t look none the better, either.”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s up to us to find this asshole and put him behind bars.”

“I’d rather put him on a firing squad,” he said, as the coroner’s van drove off with its tragic contents.

Melati looked down at her service pistol, and briefly imagined herself drawing it against the murderer in her mind. She’d have zero hesitation pulling the trigger against a monster like that. But it also made her think: what kind of monster would do something like this? She read the profiles, that most serial killers were young white males. But she’d also lived long enough to know that her people, that had once been considered weirdos and unusual, were now considered murderous terrorists.

“Me too, Cuff,” she said as the meat wagon disappeared down the street. “Me too.”

Watching from a tree in the distance as she slipped on her clothing, Contralto felt a sensation like she never knew before. It was like an adrenaline rush, like orgasmic sex…but the moment she changed back into her human form, it had disappeared. She wondered: was it the killer’s instinct? The raw feeling of taking a life with impunity and with no one to stop you? Whatever it was, it felt…good. Like had to have it good.

As she watched the cops get into their cruisers, she leapt down from the tree she was in, ran across the nearby yard, hopped another fence, and then got into the car that she’d used to get this far. She’d heard that it had belonged to Piano Bliss before she gave her life defending the captain from Les SCARS. It didn’t matter; Bliss had been a stupid cunt that had gotten herself killed instead of proving herself in battle. And that’s just the way it was: like the freaky wizard they worked for had said, the strong ruled and the weak surrendered.

Gunning the engine, she headed southbound towards Colton, where she would then take an alternate route back towards headquarters.

“Has anyone tried to reach Fluttershy?” Rarity anxiously asked over the netcall.

“Yeah, me,” Rainbow answered. “Her old man said she passed out ‘cause of the news, and he’ll have her call me later. Oh, and he said that he wants us to take care of each other.”

“Eyup, Ah’d have to agree with him,” Applejack added. “When Ma heard the news, she practically broke down. Practically refused t’ let go of Bloomie. Pa had t’ come out of the storeroom and get her to let go, an’ she insisted Bloomie and Ah come right home. Ah don’t think Ah need t’ underline how much mah ma is worried about all of us.”

“Yeah, I here ya there,” Pinkie chimed in. “My mom called Auntie Cup and…well, I can still hear them arguing in the other room. Uncle Carrot took the twins downstairs so they could sleep, but….”

“I hope your mom doesn’t decide to make you move home,” Sunset voiced.

“Oh, not at all! Auntie Cup…wait, did she just?” A pause on the line. “Oh, wow, she did. Well, I’m not going to repeat it but Auntie Cup’s mad right now. She says I’m staying put, so there!”

“That’s good to hear,” Octavia replied. She was in her room right now, working with the replacement monitor that she bought. Hopefully, Sunset noted, her cousin wouldn’t lose her temper again, though it was understandable.

“Well, I guess there’s safety in numbers,” Twilight said from her computer. “But…I’m worried about the triplets.”

“They might be gone away from here,” Rainbow replied. “But you know what? I’m fucking pissed. They’re our friends – well, they were supposed to be, and they just bailed like this? With no fucking answer at all? That’s just dicked, I swear to God, that’s just so fucking dicked.”

“Rainbow, they might not have had any choice,” Sunset explained. “I mean, think about when I first came to live with my family: my choice was to stay here, or go to Social. All things considered, that wasn’t much of a choice and it’s entirely possible they had a situation just as fucked up.”

“Then we should be out looking for them! They’re our friends and friends stick together!” It was always amazing to Sunset how Rainbow would flop between criticisms of her friends to being closer than glue to them, but given her status as the Element of Loyalty, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Rainbow might bitch you out, but no one better to have in a pinch, Sunset thought with a smile. Then a thought came over her. “Does anyone want to have lunch?”

“Ah hope yer kidding, Sunset. Ah think mah ma’s going to go completely out of her mind if’n she even thinks that Ah left home alone!”

Sunset was about to speak, when she was completely caught off guard: “Actually, bring your sister along, AJ. In fact, Rarity, Rainbow, you do the same. We should show them that Canterlot girls aren’t afraid. We’re stronger than the killer.” Sunset practically wanted to leap out of her chair and hug her sister right then and there. She’d never heard such bravery in her sister’s voice before, and though it seemed maudlin, Sunset’s eyes glistened with pride for Twilight.

“Fuckin’ A, you’re right, Twily!”

“Rainbow, would you please be more circumspect in your language? Some of us prefer more ladylike speech!” Rarity groaned. “In any case, I think that would be a divine idea, Twilight, dear, and besides, I believe it will do my sister well to get out after watching that horrible conference.”

“Eyup, Ah think that it’s a great idea as well, plus, if’n Ah let Granny know where we are, she’s not gonna mind much. Count us in.”

“Hey, no way are Scoots and I missing this one!”

“Can someone pick me up? It can’t be a party without your local Pinkie!”

A second later, Fluttershy popped on the line. “Sorry, I…um…fainted and Dad told me you guys were having a meeting. Did I miss anything?”

“Only the fact that we’re all gonna have lunch somewhere together to show this puto that we’re not afraid of shit!”

“Rainbow, language!”

“No, Rares, Rainbow’s right. For a change, admittedly, but she’s right.”

“Well…um…hold on a sec.” Fluttershy had a quick conversation in the background, and when she came back, she said, “Well, Dad just told me that he insists I take you all to lunch. He just gave me his credit card, so where do you guys want to go?”

“What about the Goal Post?” Sunset suggested. “It’s fairly new, we can get whatever we want there, and it’s got good ratings on Yelp. Plus, if something happens, it’s across the street from City Hall, so the cops will be there in a heartbeat.”

“Great idea!” Pinkie cried. “And since we supply them with the desserts, I know their desserts are good! I’m just nervouscited to try one! Or two! Or three!”

“Pinkie, dear, please calm down. So, I suppose I can pick up Rainbow and Scootaloo,” Rarity offered.

“I can swing by and pick you up, Pinkie,” Fluttershy told her.

“Okay, so then meet in thirty?” Octavia asked.

They all agreed, and virtually as one, signed off. Sunset logged off and shut down her laptop, heading out of her room. As she stepped out, Twilight and Octavia stepped out of theirs as well.

“Twily, that was amazing!” Octavia gushed. “I’ve never seen you like that before. It was like you were a totally different person.”

Twilight blushed. “Well, I just had to say what I felt. Sunny does that all the time, and I guess it was something I needed to do.” She leaned into Sunset’s shoulder. “And I couldn’t have done it without you, sis.”

Sunset put her arm around Twilight. “You don’t have to thank me. We’re family.” She then reached around and hugged Octavia. “All of us, and we girls stick together.”

“Yeah,” Octavia said, looking at her cousin with love and telling the voice in the back of her head that no, she wasn’t going to rip Sunset’s heart out and feast on her entrails.

“Oh, shit – thanks for calling me, Mel.” Shining and Sandalwood had moved on from the restaurant off to the Equestria County Fairgrounds, which was located in Bella Vista. The place looked lonely, as the County Fair wasn’t normally until next week, and given the situation going on, it wouldn’t be surprising if it would be cancelled this year. A place like that would be perfect for serial killers to operate in, he knew.

But that wasn’t his worry. No, his worry was the girl trying to get a couple of cokes from the dilapidated vending machine. Melati had wisely called him to let him know about both her neighbors, and unfortunately, that also meant that her apartment was inaccessible while the investigation team checked it out. Sure, they’d let her go in to get some clothing, but she and the neighbor on the other side would be barred from going home for the next couple of days.

He texted Cadance a simple message: Sandy 06. Cadance would know what that was, just by the historical reference: it was the year that Sandalwood’s grandmother had died, and she’d been a complete wreck for a few days, needing a lot of attention from Cadance. A second later, a text came back: Buca’s, 8. I’ll make the reservations.

As Sandalwood came back with a couple of cokes, she asked, “How long?”

“How long what?”

The answer came as Sandalwood threw his can at him. “Don’t you dare treat me like some coddled child, Shining! How long have they been dead?” When he didn’t answer, she threw her soda down and the can exploded, sending Diet Vanilla Coke everywhere. “I’m not stupid – when you didn’t come over immediately, that meant something was up. Plus, the way you moved your fingers indicated you sent a text! Now when did they find Ruby’s body and when did True kill himself over it?”

Shining just looked at her in surprise, still not saying a word.

She flipped him off. “You know what? Fuck you – I’ll go find out myself.” She turned and he reached out and grabbed her arm, preventing her from leaving. “You’d better have a good reason for grabbing my arm,” she growled, “because I’ll fucking snap yours in half if you don’t.”

“Sandy, for God’s sake, listen to me!” he told her. “I’m not trying to treat you like a kid, okay? I just found out from Mel!”

“Fine, fine.” She yanked her arm away from him and looked away.

“Now relax, okay? I’m on your side!”

“Yeah, I know; sorry, lost my temper there,” she sighed. “I’ve never met a pair who was so perfect for each other like those two – they’d even give you and Cady a run for her money. I looked out for them not only because Ruby reminds me a lot of Minty, but also because True was a bit…unstable, I think. He didn’t just love Ruby, he obsessed over her, and that’s never good – that kind of stuff leads to abuse down the road; seen it in one too many cases. I had hoped that butting into their life would calm him down; maybe it did. But I knew the moment she was gone that she was dead, and I knew that the moment her body was found it was only a matter of time until he went.

“I don’t blame myself for True. He needed help and medication. No, I blame myself for Ruby’s death – because I wasn’t fast enough to put a fucking bullet in the brainpan of whatever motherfucker chewed her up and spit her out. That’s what I blame myself for – because I’m always second fucking place when it counts!”

“You’re not second place, Sandy. I don’t know where you—”

“You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“So you keep saying, but you’re not explaining.”

“I shouldn’t have to,” she said, sitting on the ground. “You know, I remember when I used to come here and pig out on cotton candy and ride the rides…and then throw up and get chewed out by my mom because I ate too much cotton candy and barfed on Minty to tease her. Good times.”

“You are weird, you know that?” he said, sitting down next to her.

“Whatever,” she sighed. “But I’m so Goddamn tired of being second place, Shiny. For once – just fucking once – I want to cross the finish line before everyone else does.”

“So you want to catch this guy because you want the fame and fortune?” he asked her.

“You know it’s not like that.”

“Could’ve fooled me with the way you’re talking,” he pointed out.

“I know, and I probably sound like an ass for that. Sorry. I mean….” She paused, then got up and brushed off her pants. “You know what? It’s not important. Now c’mon, I need to stop at the florist. Get some flowers, say my goodbyes to True and Ruby, then have you escort me into my place so I can get a few days’ worth of clothing. Your couch still open?”

“I thought you hated our couch?”

“I hate paying for a hotel room even more – HR takes forever to reimburse people.”

Celestia rushed down the steps of the school district building. “Sombra, wait!”

He stopped in mid-stride, looking at her with a smile. “Sorry, about that, Tia, lost my temper in there. Thank God Waddle’s my father-in-law, or…well, fuck it, he’s probably going to rag on me anyway,” he said with a laugh.

“I suppose. I just wanted to check on how you’re doing. Your school is year round and….”

“Look, though I hope to change their path in life, I cannot deny that the grand majority of my students are gangbangers, criminals and other lowlifes. I want to raise them beyond that, sure, but until I can, they are what they are. And right now, that’s an asset for them and frankly, I’m…conflicted.”

“Conflicted?”

He nodded. “Until this guy’s caught, what do I do? Steer my students towards non-violence, or let them stay the way they are and give them a fighting chance? You know that they’ve already got a dozen strikes against them, scholastically and extracurricular – they’d be prime targets for any serial killer and I’ll bet the Sunnytown PD wouldn’t bat an eye if they’re gone. But to me they’re not statistics, they’re my students.

“Take for example, Painted Lady – she’s originally from Colton High; got tossed out because she got in a fight and stabbed a teacher with a small Swiss army knife. Girl’s got a mouth like a gunnery sergeant and has tried to proposition a couple of her teachers. But she’s smart – AP-level smart – and she’s fierce and she admitted to her counselor that she wants to be a doctor someday, but can’t because she lives with her grandmother because both her parents are in jail. If I can steer her away from what she’s afraid is her destiny, she’s got the chance to be something far better than some thugette-in-training.” He threw up his hands and added, “But can I do that if she ends up dead on someone’s doorstep?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure that out, Sombra.” Luna had voiced that, coming down the steps after both of them. “It’s why you’re still at The Blanks all this time.”

He gave her a smile. “Maybe. Waddle offered me North Glades High, since Pinstripe’s retiring…but I couldn’t. My job’s not done at the Blanks, not to my satisfaction, anyway. But for now I’ve got to let my staff know that they can dial up the ‘mean sonnuvabitch’ mode. These kids are my responsibility during school hours and I’m not going to let a single one of them fall if I can help it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I promised my wife I’d meet her for lunch since I’m in the area. Talk to you again soon.” Nodding to them both, he walked over to the car.

“He deserves better than The Blanks,” Celestia said admiringly, “but they sure need him.”

“I agree,” Luna commented. “So, want to tell me what’s on your mind? It’s plain as the look on your face, you know.”

“It was an idle thought,” Celestia sighed. “You know I would never endanger Sunset like that.”

“Well…. That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking where your mindset was, but I’m glad that it’s not completely out there.”

“While I would be thrilled if she would be able to help us in this situation, I remember how much she exhausted herself during the Vibe incident and how much we worried about her when she went through the mirror. And aside from that, she might be far more powerful now, but in the end she’s still just a teenage girl and that puts her directly in the crosshairs already. I wouldn’t dare do that to her.”

“You mean you wouldn’t want Velvet to beat you within an inch of your life?” Luna mused.

“Exactly,” Celestia said with a grin. “So no, even if she volunteers, I’m against it. I’ve grown to like the person she’s become and I would be heartbroken if we lost her.”

“So would I, sis. So would I.”

“Thank you, Sparrowspeed,” Princess Twilight said, acknowledging the pegasus guard before her. “Please, rest before you return back to Canterlot.”

“Of course, your highness,” the guard said, bowing before he left Golden Oaks.

“Oh, my, Twilight, what’s that?” Fluttershy asked. The two were going over last-minute details before their plan to teach Rainbow Dash what she needed to know for her Wonderbolts test. Fluttershy privately had been briefly worried about playing Princess Celestia after her prior disaster, but Twilight assured her that everything would work out.

“It’s a book,” Twilight explained. “Apparently Razz wants me to look at it, given that it might contain a clue from Sunset’s world.”

“Oh, my,” the pegasus stated, cyan eyes gazing at the ebon-bound book. “It looks scary.”

Twilight gave her worried friend a comforting smile. “It might look scary, but all books in the end, even the magic ones, are just paper and ink. Sure they might have curses on them or horrific pictures inside, but books in and of themselves are just that – books.” At Twilight’s words, Fluttershy dived right underneath the table, and Twilight mentally chided herself for her slip. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy – it’s a book from the human world. There’s not much chance of it being dangerous. Remember, no magic in their world?”

“Sorry, I’d forgotten about that,” Fluttershy admitted, sitting back up.

“It’s okay,” the alicorn assured her. “It wasn’t as though we’re used to ‘magic books’ being not really that.” She looked at the book and the cover. “The Heptameron. I wonder what that means?” she said, before using her telekinesis to open the book.

A deep, bassy rumbling hum that seemed more at home in one of Vinyl Scratch’s speakers seemed to radiate from the book, and then a shockwave of smoky, undulating energy, hued as red as blood, blasted forward from the book, catching Twilight off-guard. Fluttershy ducked under the table to save herself, but the bow shock continued on past them through the walls and expanded forward, the deep tone of the magic blast continuing with it until it faded into the distance.

“W-what was that?” Fluttershy stammered as she dared to peek up from her hiding place.

Twilight was about to answer, when a group of guards rushed in. Wasting no time, Twilight ordered, “Racewing, gather your fastest pegasi and have them chase that blast. It might be harmless, but I want to make sure.”

“Understood, your highness,” Racewing said, saluted, and wandered off.

“Fluttershy, relax. I’m going to put this book in a containment spell, then I’ll check you out to make sure there were no ill effects.”

“I feel okay….” the pegasus said, checking herself.

“I want to make sure. I’ll be right back.”

He heard it.

Over the sandblasted hills and burnt karst canyonsides, he heard that, clear as a bell – that deep pulse of tone that gave him both direction and purpose.

The withered, wounded centaur gave a smirk of a smile. “Ah yes, that is where he shall head.”

The creature wandered towards the center of the sound, and towards destiny.

“Heya, Sunny!” The girls had no sooner walked into the restaurant when they were waved by another table. Bon-Bon had waved to them from a table containing her, Lyra, Trixie, Compass Rose and Rose’s girlfriend, Boysenberry. Thankfully the table had already been lengthened, so the Eightmazing Eight made room for themselves as everyone said hi and more menus were brought out.

“So, what are you guys doing here?” Applejack asked.

Rose blushed slightly and said in her usual soft voice, “Well, I thought it would be nice if we’d go out for lunch to show the killer that we’re not afraid. Take a stand, as it were.”

Brash as always, Boysenberry grinned. “And since none of our usual circle’s available, we decided to come on our own. We saw Trixie, Lyra and Bonnie here, so we thought we’d park by them.”

“As for us, we thought the same thing,” Lyra explained. “I take it you did too?”

Twilight nodded. “My idea, and the girls agreed.”

“Well, we just got here ourselves,” Boysenberry said, “So, have a seat and we can talk!”

“Oh, and don’t worry about your bills,” Fluttershy said with a sweet smile. “Dad gave me his credit card, so I’m taking care of it.”

“Wow, thanks, Flutters!” Lyra commented. “How are…well…you know….”

The chiffon-haired girl smiled demurely. “Now that we’ve mended fences, it’s finally nice to know what I’ve missed. And now that Dad can be himself out of the cameras constantly, he’s doing a lot of stuff that people didn’t expect. He’s planning to buy CHS all new musical instruments, both for the class and for the band. And he’s talking about helping fund a new afterschool program for County.”

“Wow, never would’ve expected that,” Lyra said to herself. “Discord, wild child of rock, turns out to be a family man. Who knew?”

Boysenberry’s eyes widened. “Wait – your old man is Discord?”

“Duh, Berry,” Rainbow groaned. “Didn’t you watch the concert at the beginning of the month that was on TV? Flutters performed a whole set with her dad and she fucking rocks the guitar and other instruments! You shoulda seen her shredding on the guitar onstage! I wish I could play that good – of course, I have to learn how to play a guitar first, but—”

“Rainbow, darling, perhaps you should watch poor dear Fluttershy instead?” Sure enough, Fluttershy – mortified by a combination of attention from the other restaurant goers, Boysenberry’s look of sheer admiration and Rainbow’s increasingly laudatory statements – did what any normal girl terrified of everything would do: duck under the table.

“Oh, sorry, Flutters,” Rainbow apologized. Fluttershy squeaked something approximating an acceptance of her apology and managed to crawl back into her seat just in time for the waiters to come out and take their orders.

A few minutes later, the group was snacking on various appetizers and chatting along breezily. Comfortable in her seat, Sunset looked around at her circle of friends from those closest to those newest in it (Boysenberry had admitted to Rose that Sunset had eyes that screamed “Do me now!” much to the former unicorn’s chagrin) and smiled. She knew that Princess Twilight had moments like this and Sunset no longer had to envy her sister’s counterpart; she now had the same luxuries of amicity that brought her joy.

But the circle of friends was missing three and seven other girls knew it. Each of them could practically imagine Adagio discussing a high-brow topic with Rarity, Octavia and Twilight; Aria, probably laughing to a rather earthy joke told by either Rainbow or Applejack; or Sonata, most likely challenging Pinkie to a contest of who could stuff the most jalapeno poppers into their mouth at once. The three were part of their circle, and would always be – and that made their absence all the more disquieting.

“Hey, just noticed something,” Bon-Bon spoke up. “Where’s the triplets? Usually they’re here with your gang.”

Not a single one of the girls in question spoke up until Octavia deflected with, “They’re…out of town right now. I think they’re on vacation, but I forgot to ask.”

“Wow, you guys look glum,” Lyra added. “What, you joined at the hip with them?”

“Nothing of the sort, Lyra, dear,” Rarity chimed in. “It’s just…well, Twilight’s birthday is next week and we were hoping they’d be back by then, but…you know how family vacations are.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Trixie chimed in. “Most of last month was spent on the road with my family and let me tell you: Branson, Missouri? Tough crowd.” Rose then asked more about it and the conversation then descended into the explanation of Trixie’s travels with The Amazing Lulamoons and all that it entailed, including a few tricks she performed on the spot for her friends, getting a few claps from the surrounding tables as well.

As the food arrived, a baker’s dozen worth of girls chatted on and ate food, their worries and cares forgotten for the moment. While they would return once the group departed the restaurant, for now, everything was right with the world.

“You okay, Cady?” Hearts Aflutter asked.

“She’s probably missing her schmoopy-boo,” Amicus Brief teased.

“No, thinking about tonight. Sandy’s neighbors were two of the victims, and she was kinda attached to them. So she’s staying over until she can go back to her place.”

Hearts dropped her burger. “Are you fucking stupid?”

“She’s my best friend, Hearts! Or are you planning to offer up your couch?”

“I don’t have a couch, just some beanbags my boyfriend couldn’t part with,” Hearts replied. “Besides, I know better than to invite the Serpent into the Garden of Eden.”

“I trust her – and him.”

“You’re one of my oldest friends, Cady, but you’re a fucking idiot.”

Amicus stopped in mid-bite from her salad. “Did I, uh, miss something?”

“Old history,” the other two women said at the same time.

“Well, want to update those of us who didn’t grow up here? I swear, for a city as large as Canterlot is, everyone seems related to or grew up with one another. Don’t know about you ladies, but that’s just freaky as fuck to me.”

Cadance said nothing, but instead stormed off snarling, “I need a drink refill.”

“Okay, Hearts, what the hell just happened?”

“Cady’ll get over it. Trust me, as long as Cady, me, Sandy and Lemony have known each other, we’ve drawn blood against each other and we’re all still tight. It’s just…well….”

“Well, what?”

Hearts groaned. “Sandy has always been in love with Shining, but she’s always been too chickenshit to admit it. She had a chance to go after him but because she and Cady are so tight, Sandy – and I quote – sacrificed herself for the greater good and all that shit.” Hearts took a swig and added, “It’s why she joined the Navy immediately after she graduated high school. It wasn’t to see the world, or because her old man was a sailor too, it was to get away from them before her heart got shattered into a billion pieces. Problem is, she came back, joined the sheriff’s department and now thanks to the world falling apart, she’s partnered with Shining.

“Look, I don’t think she and Shining are up to squirrely shit; they both care about Cadance too much to do anything like that; and besides, Shining’s too dense to even notice how Sandy feels. But I can tell it’s driving Sandy nuts as fuck and something’s going to give – and I’d hate to see a lifelong friendship between Sandy and Cady get nuked because, well, you know.” Hearts shrugged her shoulders and went back to her burger.

Amicus looked at Hearts, then in the distance where Cadance was blowing off steam by somehow managing to fill her soda with both Diet Coke and raw anger, then looked out the window. “Mom told me I should’ve went to college in New York, but did I listen? Nooooooooooo….” she muttered under her breath.

As Cadance came back, Hearts looked at her. “Sorry, Cady, but that’s just how I feel about it. Lemony would tell you the same thing.”

“I know. And if it was one of you involved and I had to turn to Sandy for advice, she’d say the same thing. But…she needs help, and she turned to me and Shining.”

“Then take my advice: don’t do this. I know they won’t do anything, but do you want her to hurt even more?”

“No, but what’s the alternative? Especially one that doesn’t make her think I don’t trust her?”

“I really don’t know. But, counselor, that’s why you’re a lawyer – you’re a professional liar. Better start thinking of one.”

“Come in,” Velvet blurted from her desk, which was currently swamped with paperwork.

“Here, thought you could use this.” Night was at the door, carrying a grease-stained paper bag and a pair of styrofoam cups.

“You didn’t!” Velvet said, a look of utter delight coming onto her face as her husband sat down at the other seat and set things on the one clear spot on the desk.

“Aren’t husbands supposed to come to the rescue?” he asked, pulling out two pastramis on rye, handing one to her, then chips and one of the cups. “Besides, Brisket Brine’s Deli is on the way here and knowing how your day was, you probably haven’t left for lunch.”

Velvet attacked her pastrami on rye, managing to say an “I love you” around mouthfuls. Swallowing her bite, she took a draw from her drink, then grinned. “Night, I swear, I’d marry you all over again if I could.”

“Wasn’t aware the pastrami was that good,” he teased. “But how’s your day gone?” Velvet then launched into her boss’ retirement, Mercury’s untimely delivery and the fact that she now had the whole kit and caboodle to look over, especially in a time of crisis as now. “Wow,” he said as his wife finished both explanation and meal. “And I thought that just having extra security guards at the university was going to be a headache.”

“I’d trade that for the meeting I need to have in an hour with Sheriff Cherry. Guy rubs me the wrong way, I swear.”

Night then produced a second bag, containing cheesecake from Brews & Bakes, as Sugarcube Corner Café was still closed for inventory restock. “Does this rub you better?”

Velvet took one and blew her husband a kiss. “Mister, you can rub me any way you want,” she cooed. After taking a bite, she added, “Seriously, though, we probably should think about the girls. I know we laid down the rules, but I don’t think it’ll be enough; one of them, it should be noted, is very headstrong.”

“I don’t think Sunny’s a problem, sweetheart. If anything, she seems a little too eager to please lately, as if she’s worried we’ll change our minds on the adoption.”

“Actually, I was talking about Tavi. I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago and just happened to look out the window and I thought I saw her walking around outside…and naked, if you would believe that. I went downstairs to check – should’ve checked the girls’ rooms first, I know, but I didn’t see anyone. Checked in Sunny’s room and there they were, fast asleep. Weird as could be.” She set down her cheesecake and added, “Maybe I imagined it, but I do think that what’s going on is getting to her. Tavi probably feels that Sunny’s impending adoption is sidelining her, and her birthday – especially your parents’ hijinks – didn’t make that better either.”

“I know. I’d say my parents learned their lesson, but these are my parents we’re talking about.”

“Regardless, I think you and I should have a talk with her. She needs us, probably more than she ever has before.”

Night nodded. “Of course. She’s just as much family as Twily or Sunny.”

Feeling utterly drained, Celestia went home. A simple lunch with her sister turned into an ambush interview by a reporter from the Equestria Daily, wanting to know how the school system planned to deal with the impending threat. Given that Celestia already had the authority to talk to the press – essentially why they ambushed her – she gave a measured response to the reporter. Said measured response turned out to be a bad move on her part, as the “couple of questions” turned out to be a practical indictment of the school system and the numerous problems it had over the years. From the destruction of the Canterlot High School façade to student stabbings to the numerous problems at the Blanks to the Vibe and now this, people wanted to know what the school district was doing to fix it. With Waddle likely to retire some day and Celestia’s name brought up more than once as not only a future assistant superintendent but even the superintendent people wanted to know from her and they wanted to know now.

Last time I speak to one of those morons at KPNY. “News 5 Now!” my ass, she groaned as she walked into the house, tossing off her shoes, setting her bag down….

…and immediately getting whisked off her feet by Sable. “Wow, you work fast,” she said with a grin.

“If I’d heard your car sooner, I would’ve carried you in from there,” he said, moving her over to the couch. Setting her down, he said, “For milady, dinner tonight is a fettucine carbonara—”

“Oh, my, making a dish I grew up with from scratch,” she said with a smirk. “Aren’t we being daring?”

“I have it on the best authority that the chef, a gentleman by the name of Ragú, knows his stuff. We also have a wine from Napa Valley, the finest vintage that I could find on hand while shopping in an utter panic; and last but not least, for dessert we have strawberries, dipped horribly in a chocolate fondant and drizzled by an even more pathetic attempt to add white chocolate to the mix.”

“Oh? And what is the cost for such a fine repast?”

“Lots of kisses and cuddles tonight wouldn’t be bad,” he commented. “I also won’t object to sex.”

“We’ll see,” she commented, tracing a finger against his jaw; he took her hand and kissed it tenderly before letting go.

Walking back towards the kitchen, Sable called out, “The dinner rolls should be ready in a few if you want to munch on something. Also, did you want some wine?”

“If you would, please,” she said, snuggling comfortably into the couch and sighing in relaxed contentment. Now she had a chance to catch up on a few movies she missed, and maybe she could not look like a crippled shut-in whenever Luna and Velvet talked about something over lunch. Not paying much attention, she reached over to grab the remote…

…and pulled up a gun. She dropped it in shock, sat up and gasped, “Sable!”

“Something up?” He was approaching her with a small basket of rolls and a glass of wine. If her panic hadn’t been so pronounced, she could have noticed the jaunty camouflage apron that read ARMY VET – I KNOW HOW TO COOK MORE THAN MREs.

“What is this?” she said, pointing to the gun.

“Well, I had to guess on some variables, so sorry if things aren’t perfect. It’s an FDA Model 92. Polymer, so it’s easy to carry, and fairly simple to point and plink—”

“What is it doing in my house?”

Setting down the rolls and wine, he said calmly, “It’s yours. This weekend, we’ll hit the range and teach you how to shoot it. Don’t worry, I still have my Springfield XDM—”

“English, please. Some of us aren’t ex-Army.”

“I got you a gun because I can’t be everywhere, Tia.” He sat down on the couch next to her. “I saw that news report. There is a madman hunting women and I cannot be there to always save you.” He grabbed the gun and held it up. “This, for good or bad, will.”

“Sweetheart, for starters, I don’t like guns. I’m not anti-Second Amendment or anything, I just don’t like guns personally. Plus, how am I going to carry it around on me? Hell, even you can’t carry guns at the Blanks.” He gave her an even look, and she caught it immediately. “Oh, that motherfucker,” she seethed. “How the hell didn’t Sombra tell—”

“Because it wasn’t his call to make; he argued against it as well. But Waddle apparently asked for a list of teachers and staff who are qualified with guns, just in case. And I want to make sure that you are as well.”

“We have a resources officer for that reason!” she argued. “If there’s a gunman, Officer Quickdraw can be on the scene in seco—”

“And if they take him out first? How fast until CPD gets there? How many children get killed, Celestia? How many innocent children have to die?” The look in his face was frantic, and from long practice and years of both her own experience and her friend’s knowledge told her something was very, very wrong all of a sudden. “And what about you? What happens if I get a call in class from your sister saying, ‘Hey, that woman you’re in love with? Time to fit her for a pinebox!’”

“Sweetheart, I’m not going to die. This isn’t Afghanistan.” She took his hands in hers. “This sounds macabre, I know, but I’m a woman in her fifties – and the killer is only going after young virgins. I’ll be safe.”

“Says the woman that I thought was only a couple of years older than me. And last time I checked, people still haven’t learned how to tell who’s a virgin and who’s not just by a casual glance.” To her surprise, he grabbed her close. “Please, Tia. I can’t bear to see another person I care about end up KIA. I just can’t.”

Reluctantly breaking from the hug, she looked at him, eye to eye, seeing the haunted look in his face. “What happened out there? When you were in the Army?”

He turned away. “You don’t want to know.”

She reached over to turn his head back to her. “I’m your girlfriend, Sable. I want to know. I want to be there for you.” She glanced at the clock. “Look, if you haven’t started cooking dinner yet, don’t. We’ll order Chinese or something. Just…please….” She took his hand, holding it up against her cheek. «Io sono sempre qui per voi, il mio amore,» she said in her native language.

At any other moment, he would have jokingly told her he had no idea what she said. But the translation in her eyes was clear enough: I’ll always be here for you, love. And he couldn’t hide anymore. He hadn’t even been with her a half a year yet and everything in him said that this was the woman he was likely going to spend the rest of his life with. If that was even remotely true, she deserved to know. And if it wasn’t true, he’d be able to tell someone who could help him – someone who would stand by his side and fight the nightmares that came so damn often.

He sighed, and when he looked up at her, a river of sorrow started to wend its way down his cheek.

“I didn’t come back whole from Kabul, Tia. I killed a child, and no sane human ever comes back whole from that.”

Cadance watched as Sandalwood crashed on their couch. After dinner, she called it an early night, and so did Shining and Cadance. I wish I could help you, Sandy, she thought to herself, but I don’t even know where to start.

She walked back to the bedroom she shared with her fiancé, and he looked exhausted, moreso especially since it was the first day he’d had off in ages. But he’d spent that day trying to keep his partner – her best friend, a woman that was in love with him just as much as Cadance was – from losing it.

“Ugh, this day’s been draining,” Shining said. “No closer to catching him, no closer to a night’s rest and I have to get up early tomorrow because Hardline wants us to go examine some possible evidence in Oregon.”

“This whole thing is a bag of cats, Shiny,” Cadance said as she slipped between the bedsheets. “Maybe we should’ve considered that offer.”

“I’m sure it’ll come up again. From what I understand, the police departments in Hawaii are always short-staffed and the recruiters there constantly try to poach officers from the mainland. But what about you?”

“Well, if I can’t get a job with the DA’s office or the state, I can always look into private practice. That should pay better.”

“Yeah.” He sat there for a moment before asking, “But do you really think we could leave this place?”

“Not really. I’m a Canterlot girl for life,” she said with a tired laugh. “Honestly, I don’t know how Sandy managed to do so for a few years.” She knew that was a complete lie, but she decided not to tell Shining the truth of that; he would be better prepared if he figured it out for himself. Then again, she knew that dealings with the fairer sex had never been Shining’s strong point.

If they had, maybe it’d be me on the couch and Sandy here with Shining, Cadance thought before brushing it away. That was for science fiction stories about other realities; this, however was real life and she was Shining’s fiancée.

“Well, I should get some sleep before it’s too late,” he said, turning off the light. “Night, love.”

She kissed him on the cheek before laying back down. “Night, Shiny.”

Sunset stood up from the couch. “I don’t know about you guys, but I need to get some sleep. I have to go back to work tomorrow.”

“That’s tough. You going to be okay?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah. Mr. Cake asked me to call him just before I get there, so he can keep an eye out for me. Admittedly, it’s during the daylight hours, and I should be safe, but I can understand how he wants to look out for me.”

“Well, we’re going to stay up a little longer and watch another movie,” Octavia commented. “Keep the bed warm for us.”

“Tavi, do you know how wrong that sounds?” Twilight chided.

“Oh, sorry – keep the bed warm for us; Twily and I are going to make out for a little bit down here and then we’ll be up for the threesome.” Octavia would have said more but then got hit in the face by a couch pillow.

“Well, our perverted cousin aside, we’ll be up after the movie, sis. Night.”

“Yeah, night,” Sunset yawned, before walking up the steps and into the bathroom, attended to her needs there, grateful that the monthly hell had stopped, then went into her bedroom, changed into her sleepwear, and—

BHWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMmmmmm….

She felt that in her bones. That…wasn’t an earthquake. It was a quake, however – a magic detonation, something that happened when a spell misfired horribly. She knew what that was like; as a filly of six years she’d spent a day in the hospital and the following week being attended to by Princess Celestia after she was trying to sneak cookies from the royal kitchens, ran into a bunch of old, leaking flour bags and gave them a telekinetic shove to get them out of the way….

Sunset chuckled at the memory. Most of my mane and a good portion of my coat singed; thankfully one of the chefs was able to put out the flour bomb I inadvertently created. But the smile fell away as she realized a huge fount of magic that hadn’t come from her just appeared. Did Twi come over and not tell me?

A quick spell changed her back into her normal clothing. A second spell—

—and she stood in front of the statue facing Canterlot High. Feeling the front of the statue, it was still solid, with no indicator the portal had been opened. I’m going to have to find a way to move the portal one of these days; I need it somewhere that I can monitor on a regular basis and I can’t do that here. Making a mental note to look more into that later, she had two other spaces that were mapped out and—

She stood on the summit of Mount Shasta, seeing the cityscape of Equestria County below. The thinner air bit at her and she quickly put up a counterspell to keep warm as she looked around, trying to avoid the one or two campers that were at the summit. There was a natural leyline here, she’d found but with the practical emptiness of magic here on Earth, it was pretty much all but dead to her. With her powers back at full, she could tap into it, but she didn’t want to risk turning the mountain into a volcano.

Besides, the magic’s dead, she thought, as her hand lay on the icepack at the top of the mountain. So nothing here. One more place to check—

—and a last-second second spell to keep her floating above the water just before she fell in. She was now currently sixty miles off the coast and there was nothing out here but the dark sea beneath her and the incredible canopy of stars above. Normally she would appreciate the view – I think Princess Luna would absolutely love this – but for now she had a job to do. Casting a warding spell to keep everything from the area, she then conjured a waterspout to remove the water, creating a tunnel of air, allowing her to look down. She didn’t dare descend, given that even though the water was gone, gravity and other physics still remained and if Sunset tried her magic directly against the Earth itself, it’d be a virtual punching contest and she didn’t like her odds of being hit with the planet.

Still, it was more than enough to…. Is that what I think it is? Her hand lit with aquafire and something rose from the ocean floor. A basketball-sized object rose to meet her, and a few minutes later, Sunset plucked the pearl from the air, letting the dead clam fall away. The fact that one that large was here meant it was ages old and probably even pre-dated the loss of magic on Earth, something that she still really couldn’t pinpoint.

Still, this has a tiny bit of magic in it…. A thought came, followed by a smile, and—

“Aaah!” Sunset popped right behind Twilight, freaking her out. “You scared me.”

Dammit, should’ve been more careful! “Sorry, sis. Didn’t mean to.”

“I know. Thought you went to bed an hour ago?” Twilight asked, pointing at Sunset’s clothing.

“Oh, I suddenly felt like talking a walk,” Sunset commented. “You guys were busy watching your movie, so I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Well, I’m not going to tell Mom or Dad about that, but please don’t do that again. You could have been attacked by that killer!” The look in Twilight’s eyes was one of sheer worry. Taking Sunset’s hands in hers, she said, “I couldn’t afford to lose you, sis.”

Sunset’s guilt kicked in; she’d been so focused on doing the job that Princess Celestia had assigned her that she’d completely forgotten about the reason she stayed in this realm. “I’m sorry, sis. I wasn’t thinking and I didn’t mean to worry you. It won’t happen again.” But Sunset’s worries were forgotten as her sister wrapped her up in an embrace.

I wasn’t thinking, sis. I forgot the most important thing of all while I was investigating that, and I can’t let that happen again. She looked at the dragonfire candle and the wooden box next to it, both reminders of her duties to Equestria. But that all melted away in the stark realization of the family member worried most about her.

Damn I fucked up.

Sitting on the floor just outside the door, Octavia cried. She didn’t know why, just hearing Twilight’s words of “I couldn’t afford to lose you” ripped a hole in her heart larger than the Grand Canyon. Logically, she understood that; of course Twilight loved Sunset – they were sisters. For that matter, Octavia loved her cousin as we—

—hateyoumurderyoudrinkyourbloodcutyourskinfromyourbodyandwearitlikearobedecoratemyroomwithyourentrailsihateyouihateyouihateyou—

—ll. And right now she needed to show that, to be with two of the people who were practically sisters to her. Forcing herself to her feet, she went in and wordlessly embraced both. She needed them, her sisters. She needed them both.

There was a knock at the door to the cottage. Solaire answered it. “Yes?”

“Sorry, your highness—” the security guard began.

“Please, while I’m here, just my family name will do,” Solaire told him.

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry. Anyway, Mrs. Solaire, I apologize for bothering you at this hour, but I wanted you to know that we’ve increased security patrols on the grounds,” he told her. “Frankly, Mr. Forest didn’t want to either, but we figured that we should before your consulate insists on increased security.”

Solaire groaned at that; as royalty, she was technically entitled to a security detail, courtesy of the French National Police Protective Service. She disliked it, but as a “living treasure of France” she could request that the Consulate in San Francisco send over two NPPS agents, but that would remove her desire that her daughter grow up as normal as possible.

Apparently Autumn had other ideas. But then given the news this morning, it was prudent. She wasn’t afraid for herself or her daughter; she knew long ago about the realities of living in the United States, but that’s just how things were.

“Well, thank you very much for that. It’s appreciated.”

He smiled and nodded. “Thank you for your understanding. Have a pleasant evening and again, apologies for the disturbance.”

Solaire shut the door and went back to the couch, the stack of documentation on the table and her glass of wine. On the loveseat, covered by a simple throw blanket, Shimmer dozed, the book in German that she’d tried to read set aside.

Solaire smiled. Ah, my little scholar. How proud you make me. At that point Solaire felt a pang of regret for not having taken education while she was studying at both universities here; imagine how interesting it would have been to be her daughter’s teacher as well as her mother! Alas, we all travel different roads and I am more than proud to serve the role that I do in your life, Sunset.

Taking another drink of her wine, she went back to her main duty: one of her family’s foremost diplomats. After all, even though France had long been a republic, there were still some times when the voices of the Kingdom or the Empire were more suited for France’s needs, and that was where Solaire, her brother and his wife, and her recently-deceased older brother and his wife had shone.

Hrm. According to this, Divine had been meeting a lot with Prince Opalflame quite a bit before his death. That was unusual, given her cousin’s predilections towards the sybaritic lifestyle as opposed to Opalflame; the latter was quite severe given his ties to the former royal family and was proud of his duties as an officer in the French Air Force. He died during a training accident; his plane had crashed just off Corsica. His sister, Princess Bienfait, was one of Solaire’s childhood friends. I suppose friendship makes for odd bedfellows; I always thought Opal was the kind of man that hated everything Divine stood for – he certainly railed about “useless playboy billionaires who were a drain on society”.

She gave it no more thought; besides, dwelling on it more meant getting involved in her cousin’s affairs, and she had no desire to be a part of that, metaphorically or literally. Setting that report down, she then focused on a request by the French government to represent them at a cultural festival in Russia in October.

Feeling restless, Celestia sat up in bed, the images of just hours ago filling her mind. Sable was many things to her, but tonight, he’d showed a side to her that he was terrified of, and that she had to privately admit scared her as well: the years in Afghanistan where he’d earned the nickname of “The Wolf of Kabul”.

The horrors he had to face, the atrocities he had to commit just to keep his fellow soldiers alive…. She bit her finger down to stop a sob even as the tears started again. He’s been through hell, goes through it nightly…and I’m such a Goddamn fool for not knowing earlier. Of course she had no way of knowing, but that mattered little in the presence of a man who slept next to her.

For the first time in probably ages, Celestia thought about something other than her own needs. Picking up her phone, she quickly popped off an email to her secretary, letting her know that she was taking the day off. Granted, she knew that said secretary would probably have a cow at the fact that her boss decided to take a day off during the period that no school was in session, but Celestia was a workaholic, she knew.

Now she had reason to be something else…and that something else was now starting to move. Fitfully, jerkily, she watched as the nightmares claimed him again. No! She reached over to him, hoping that her touch would stop them all…

…and he froze up, and as if it were nothing, all his muscles relaxed and he calmed down. A second later, his eyes fluttered open and he looked at her. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself.”

“Sweetheart, it’s three in the morning. What are you doing up?”

“Watching over you and your nightmares.”

He swore something under his breath and sighed. “I knew I shouldn’t have told—”

“No,” she interjected. “You should have. Maybe there’s not much I can do, and unlike my friend Velvet I’m not versed in the ways of psychology. But if it means I don’t get a wink of sleep every night, I’ll be here to watch over you.”

He sat up. “You don’t have to do that.”

“You didn’t have to come into my life,” she said with a soft smile, “but you did.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “We’re two of a kind, Sable. Can’t get rid of me now.”

His face took on a contemplative look, and then he added, “Well, if you wanted me to move in, we’ll have to figure out a time to move stuff and all that.”

“I have an army of people who owe me favors,” she said off-handedly. “I’m sure that the traditional bribe of pizza and drinks should cover it.”

“Well, we can talk about that later. You need to get some sleep if you’re going t—” He was shut down by her finger laying upon his mouth.

“Not going to work tomorrow,” she told him. “I’m spending the whole day with my boyfriend, including learning how to shoot that gun he insisted on buying me.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“You want me to,” she told him, “and while I disagree, it’s at least something I can try, right?”

“Mom,” Trixie told Harmonic, “Go to bed.”

“Nonsense, dear,” Harmonic replied to her daughter behind a stifled yawn, “I can manage the store tomorrow. Must…realign my chi, however. Perhaps focusin—”

“Mom, please. You’ve been at this since the police were here earlier,” Trixie told her. “You didn’t eat dinner, and you’ve been researching at the table the whole time. Dad’s asleep, Lyra’s conked out in my room—”

“And you should be too, dearest Beatrix,” Harmonic replied. “I will be okay. At worst comes to, you and Lyra can open the store for me in the morning.”

Trixie put her arms around her mother in an embrace. “Okay, if you insis—” She suddenly felt her mother freeze in her arms.

“It can’t be. It can’t be!” The look on Harmonic’s face was one of complete and utter horror.

“Mom?” Without warning, Harmonic turned and hugged her daughter tight, tears flowing down her cheeks. After a second, Trixie joined in as well, entirely due to sympathy with whatever panic her mother felt.

Finally, after a few minutes, Trixie asked, “Mom? What—”

Her mother held up a book, Canon a Demonilor, where the title of the author had been replaced by incomprehensible sigils. She guessed it was from her mother’s research library; contrary to what most people believed, her mother was considered an expert in various non-Abrahamic belief systems, and had even taught a course on it once at Canterlot Community College. Harmonic no longer taught it, as she felt no one took her seriously and instead took the course as an “easy A.”

“This,” she said, “is a copy of a book dating back to the 14th century on how to summon demons from the spiritual plane. While a number of the beings within are daemons – the old spelling, meaning benevolent spirits – more than a few are demons, modern spelling, implying those with which we have more, ahem, ‘familiarity’. Each of them has methods of summoning, but it is this one that I am most worried about.” She handed the book to Trixie.

With some nervousness, the Alice-blue-haired mage took the book and started reading, ignoring the horrific picture above the description. “And this thus is the method of calling forth the Great Destroyer, who hath been sealed by the pernicious wizard Merlyn and his aide, a mystical wizard from beyond the lands we know. Those who wish to call the Great Destroyer must present him the brides, mandated by the cards, and shall serve the master who knoweth him by name….”

Una vez más, maldito aburrido, the man thought to himself as he sat in his little fishing boat thirty miles southwest from the coast of Ensenada, Mexico: Just another day of him running his charter boat so that drunken Norteamericano gringos could have another failed fishing expedition. He chuckled; last week had been fun. Sure, the guy who paid for the cruise had been an asshole, but his wife, oh, not only did she have a body, but by the way she was willing to sun topless? Clearly she flaunted it.

Vergaseca cursed himself; maybe if he’d straightened up, lost a few pounds and quit smoking, maybe he would’ve gotten himself a piece of sweet peach-haired tail that night; the way those two acted, they weren’t going to be together much longer. Ah, but he was a man of the sea, however, and any man of the sea never tied himself to the land – wives included – for long.

Which made him wonder why the hell he was out here tonight – oh, yes, it was the drunken stoner kids from San Diego that had hired him so they could do a little midnight fishing. Heh, “fishing”, right: They came out here to drink, smoke weed and all that shit because they couldn’t do it legally on their side of the border. ‘Course they could do all that shit here, and given that the head kid threw a few thousand at him without question, sure, some rich kids want to come and find a place where they could stare at the ocean at four in the morning and get blitzed. Personally, he stayed away from that stuff; beer was probably his only vice and that was more than enough of one.

Looking at the helm, he couldn’t help but watch as one girl, probably no older than twenty, kept looking back at him. Part of it was the druggy haze in her eyes, part of it was something else. He grinned. Maybe it wasn’t going to be as lonely a night as he thought. Sure enough, she saw him look at her, smiled, and started sauntering towards him, unbuttoning her shirt.

Damn, these girls work fast, he thought with a grin.

BHWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMmmmmm….

The sound hit his ears just as the girl, in her now-topless glory, reached him. He ignored the beautiful scene just before him as the ship buckled suddenly.

“Woah, man, look at that shit!” he heard one of the stoners exclaim. Giving the girl a look that said he would be right back and headed for the boat’s gunwale.

The water around him, undulating not with the movement of the waves, but as if by something else, was boiling, bubbling, as he’d been placed in a giant pot on a stove. A fish wafted up to the surface, the scent from it as if it had been cooked.

“Dios mio,” he said softly, as the water started to churn faster. Just beyond the movement, he could see the natural rhythm of the Pacific’s waves move, then stop, as it then bent to the unyielding cadence of the unnatural flow.

He rushed to pull up the anchor, but found it was steadfast, for some reason – then something tugged. The whole vessel jerked and he had the sensation of being tossed from one side of the ship to the other, like that American space show from the sixties.

The water started to glow, and Verga could start to make out unnatural, unholy shapes in the water. Not devils, demons or anything of the like, but clearly not of this world. And he remembered the stories of his grandmother, and how dark magic required a sacrifice. Back then, as a boy of ten, he thought she was crazy. Seeing them now…he knew he very much didn’t want to be that sacrifice.

Knowing he had to free themselves of the anchor before whatever yanked it pulled them to the point of capsizing the boat, he grabbed the nearby barge pole from its position on the hull, then swung for the cleats on the side of the gunwale, breaking them off and letting the anchor’s line race off the deck and slither down through the chock. Without giving it a second thought, he rushed back up to the helm, gunned the engine and sent them rushing even as the spiraling water started to claim more than an—

He heard a scream from the deck and turned around to watch with horror as one of the idiot stoners picked up the anchor line as a joke and got caught in it. The line did what line normally does in that situation, curling around him and thus his leg. But it got pulled tight quickly and yanked him along, without warning, until he got pulled through the chock, like squeezing a tube of toothpaste. Verga forced the bile in his throat down, and then felt the iron grip of the cute girl, as she held onto him in panic. In a normal situation, he knew he’d get some for sure, but now? It was a matter of seeing if he’d live to see tomorrow. If he pushed the engines, he could make Ensenada and let the Maritime Search & Rescue know. In a pinch, he’d gun straight east and then run them aground on the beaches of El Retiro. He’d ruin his boat, but better that than dea—

The world went black as the ocean became a massive wall of water, escribed with unnatural, blood-red symbols. The symbols seem to reverberate with a horrid tone, one that sounded like a hundreds voices all uttering a dark, hissing, dissonant chant. Behind him, he could hear the screams of the remaining stoners, as they freaked out about the fact that the boat was now imprisoned by a massive wall of water, moving faster and faster, like a spinning top…

…or a hurricane.

He looked at the girl, and the last thing Verga did was to kiss her. May as well enjoy one last kiss.

He and his clients didn’t enjoy much more as the wall turned into a massive hurricane, sending fiberglass, metal, wood, and dead, ripped bodies, all over the Pacific.

August 2: Come As You Are

Sunny Skies walked into the ready room of the National Weather Service’s San Diego station. It was five in the morning and a Sunday to boot, and the fact that he’d been called into the station this early in the morning pretty much dispensed with any chance that he was going to be able to take his kids up to Disneyland today. “Okay,” he said, walking over to the coffee pot and pouring himself a cup of the thick sludge that passed for java around here, “what’ve we got?”

Rainy Afternoon ran his hand through his graying blue hair and sighed. “You aren’t going to believe this one, boss.”

“Oh, trust me, I’ve seen enough weird shit to last a lifetime. Did I ever tell you about the time it snowed here in San Diego?”

“Way too many times,” a third voice called out from the direction of the bathroom.

“Heya, Strawberry,” he said as the second person on watch sat down at her console. Strawberry Sundae was young – so much so that she reminded him of his kid sister – but she was hella smart. He wouldn’t be surprised if she made director of the whole service someday.

“Heya yourself, Skies. Rainy’s right – this ain’t normal.” Moving the onscreen map, she moused over to the thing. “Tropical storm, just off the coast of Ensenada; started yesterday on Carefree’s watch.”

Skies blinked; there was no indicator of a tropical storm, much less a hurricane. For one, this part of the Pacific was too cold to start tropical depressions much less hurricanes. The chances of it happening were simply astronomical, so much so that the last one recorded was in the early 1900s. “You’re telling me it just formed?”

Rainy commented, “Yeah. Showed up so fast, we haven’t even given it a name yet. At this rate, it’s going to go Category One in a few minu—”

“Just did,” Strawberry commented. “Pulling from the list now, name is Everblue.” The woman looked on-screen at the newly-christened Hurricane Everblue. “And it seems to be growing, if I’m reading this right.”

“Okay,” Skies said, the coffee in his hand unconsumed as he looked over Strawberry’s shoulder at the radar display. He’d never seen anything like it before. “Get me the possible tracking,” he ordered. “Also, talk to the Navy, Coast Guard and the folks in Mexico; they have to be watching it as well.”

“SMN station in Ensenada was the one who told us about it. They’re frankly floored and asked us for help figuring it out.”

“It’s not going to be their problem much longer; should be out of Mexican waters within the hour,” Rainy commented. “Sending an email now to Third Fleet and the Coast Guard Station; we’ll hear a response back from them soon, given where the Hurricane is.”

Skies took a deep draw from his coffee, then readjusted his glasses over the bridge of his nose. “See if Third Fleet can loan us a hurricane chaser until I get someone from Kansas City here. I want direct eyes on that thing; this is going to be one for the records. Now if you’ll excuse me for a second, I need to make some calls, the first of which will be to my very disappointed kids.”

The nondescript plane landed at the equally nondescript airfield at Pinehurst, Oregon. The side of the plane opened and before the ladderway could be driven into place, the lead man jumped to the tarmac as if it were no big thing.

“What, trying to impress me, Blackthorn?” a man in a plain gray suit commented. He ran a hand through his gold and black hair, then adjusted his eyeglasses. “You boys done fucked up in Dubai, so yeah, I guess you have to impress me somehow.”

Blackthorn fixed his red eyes on his target, his short black and red hair blowing in the wind. “Not my fault. I told you we needed Sgt. Loam for ALICORN—”

The man pointed an angry finger at Blackthorn. “First off, you’ve got some of the top operators in the fuckin’ world with you, and you fell apart because you were missing one man? Are you that fucking useless? Secondly, you called your team ‘ALICORN’? Seriously? When do you change it to ‘Pretty Pretty Princesses’? I’m paying you to be a black unit, not the Filly Funtasia Fan Club! If I wanted those…what the fuck are they called?…Bronies…I would have gone on a recruiting drive at their Goddamn convention in Baltimore!”

“Your guys gave us bad intel,” Blackthorn continued, ignoring the other man. “Fortunately, I was able to make up for that; caught me a little piece of tail at the airport.” He reached to his side for a radio and spoke, “Okay, bring the bitch out.”

A woman, apparently handcuffed, was thrown out of the airplane, rolling down the metal steps until she came to a painful stop on the ground. She was immediately picked up by a man who was practically a mountain, who effortlessly slipped her over his shoulder, walked over to the others, and threw her on the pavement.

She turned over and spat out something. The bloody blob landed on the ground, and was revealed a second later as one of her teeth. Despite the bruised and battered condition of her face, she looked at the trio with searing orange eyes of rage. “You mother fuckers are going down, you know that?”

The man spoke. “Not the way I see it, Lt. Commander Arpeggio Crash. From where I’m standing, you’re the one with a choice: spend the rest of your days in our supermax jail under the Hudson Bay, or a bullet through your brain. All the same to me, really.”

She laughed a cruel, heartless laugh. “And the head asshole comes out: CSIS Director Golden Rule himself.” She looked at him with a fury so intense that it could’ve murdered him from the gaze alone. “Come out to play?”

“CSIS? I thought you were Agency,” Blackthorn asked.

“Yeah, well, I thought you were smart, but I guess we all have to live with disappointment.” he said, shaking his head. “I called in a few favors from Washington, which they were all too happy to give over. That’s why Five Eyes are better than one.”

“Well, I’m not talking,” she said, “So you can go fuck yourself.”

“That’s okay, you don’t need to,” he said, pulling a gun from a holster underneath his blazer. “I already know where they are, because they’re getting help, and their help is none too smart. I’ll say hi to them while I visit Canterlot. I hear it’s a lovely place.” While the SIREN’s face remained impassive, he knew he had her to rights. Putting the gun to her head, he commented, “You know, it’d be a waste to remove a good pawn from the board. Tell you what: you work for me and I’ll spare you. Of course, you’ll have to take care of all my needs, and I hear you ladies are trained to be the best in bed—”

“Sorry, I can’t work miracles with tiny peckers,” she spat.

“I see. Well, that’s a shame of an answer,” he told her. Placing the gun to her head, he added, “And I have a thing for girls with blue and green hair, too. Reminds me of my first girlfriend.”

“Yeah, how many times you rape her until she left?”

“And you SIRENs are just as classy as I expected. Well, it was nice knowing you. Oh, and one more thing: I’m not Golden Rule. She has better things to do with her time.”

He pulled the trigger. A second later, he pulled a white handkerchief from a breast pocket and wiped the blood off the gun. “Such a shame,” he murmured. Looking back at Blackthorn, he said, “Well, now you know where to go.” Pointing to a semi-rig at the other end of the field, he said, “Rig’s loaded with everything you need to end those, ahem, ‘ladies.’ Full armament and a Humvee in the back for your needs; we would’ve added a Predator, but the Americans didn’t want anything that would point back to them. I want them all dead with the exception of Captain Blast. Her I want alive and unharmed. It seems that she and the Director need to have a little chit-chat. Ladies’ business you know, not for us menfolk.”

“And what about her?” Blackthorn asked, indicating the corpse of Arpeggio Crash.

“Bury her on a mountaintop or something. Preferably with this; she probably earned it at some point in her life before everything went wrong and I suppose we Canadians should be grateful for her sacrifice.” The man handed Blackthorn a Cross of Valour. “Oh, and afterwards, clean up all this blood. We wouldn’t want the fine citizens of the United States to think their neighbors up north were anything less than the model of politeness, would we?”

Sunset set down the last box. “Well, that should be everything, Mr. Cake,” she told her boss.

Carrot looked at the high piles of boxes in the Knickerbocker. “Thanks for helping out, Sunset,” Carrot told her. “I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

“Oh, please, Mr. C, it wasn’t a problem at all,” Sunset said with a smile. “After all, you were the one taking care of breakfast, right?”

“And here we are!” a shout came from the kitchen. Pinkie came out carrying a dozen donuts, a pot of coffee, a six-pack of Coke, a dozen breakfast burritos and an order of eggs Benedict. “Hope you’re hungry!”

“Pinkie, you shouldn’t have,” Carrot told her. “No, really, that’s a little much.”

“Actually,” Sunset suggested, “maybe we can give some to the homeless shelter down the road? Would give us a little goodwill, get the attention of the staff and when the clientele gets back on their feet, they’ll remember this place and want to come back?”

“Thbts a grbt idbr!” Pinkie said between bites of her donuts.

“Manners, sweetie,” Carrot reminded his niece.

“Sorry, Uncle Carrot, but that’s a great idea!” Pinkie exclaimed, inhaling another donut and taking a shot of coffee. “I’ll go get started on making more for the shelter!” Before he could say anything further, she picked the next five boxes and walked in with them, effortlessly.

“I will never understand her,” he said, shaking his head but with a tone of pride in his voice.

“You must be absolutely proud of her,” Sunset asked.

Carrot nodded. “As much as if she’d been mine and Cup’s flesh-and-blood daughter. We don’t regret having taken her in at all, and through it all, she’s been nothing but a joy for us. We’re going to miss her when she goes off to college, but we know we’ve done our best to bring her up to be the best woman she can be, and I guess because of her, we’ll get Pumpkin and Pound right, for sure.” He gave Sunset a smile and said, “But I guess your parents already know about that sort of thing, right?”

“I don’t know, to be honest. My parents have already raised Shining, Twilight and, well, Octavia as well, and they’re already well on their way to handling Spike with no problem. I know they love me, but sometimes I feel as though I’m an interloper.”

“You should probably never forget then that they wanted you in their lives, Sunny. I know it doesn’t have as much of an impact as a near-adult as if they’d adopted you as a child, but the feeling is very much the same. They want you to be part of their family, and I daresay you’ve needed a family for the longest time.”

“Yes,” the flame-haired girl replied, not sure of what else to say.

“But just a few more weeks, and then there you go!” Pinkie shouted, walking out of the kitchen with a bunch of marked bags filled with foodstuffs. “Oh, and question: Since you can change your name once you’re adopted, are you?”

“You can?”

“Uh-huh! Remember that Rainbow’s parents changed Scootaloo’s name when they adopted her, and a good thing, too!”

“Why’s that?” Carrot asked.

“Um, because of the Sweet Cicely?” Pinkie stated in a tone indicating that she really didn’t want to talk about it.

“Who’s Sweet Cicely?” Sunset added.

“Well, gotta go!” Pinkie said, rushing out of the Knickerbocker, with the bags in hand.

Sunset looked briefly at Carrot then rushed out the door after her friend. “Pinkie, wait!”

They got two blocks from the café before Pinkie slowed down. “Wow, I didn’t know you ran that fast!”

“I cheated; I flash stepped,” Sunset replied. “It’s early enough in the morning that I can get away with it. Now, do you want to talk to me, or are we going to drop it?”

“We’re going to drop it,” Pinkie told in her in a serious tone, “because it’s my personal business, Sunny. You’re my friend and all, but my romantic life – fuckups and all – is my business. It’s the same reason why Fluttershy hasn’t talked about hers, and why Rainbow and Soarin’ don’t talk much about theirs, either. You’re our friend now, but there are still some things we’re not ready to deal with yet.”

“Did I do something to you?” Sunset asked, her worries climbing as her feet came to a stop.

Pinkie kept on walking. “No, not directly,” was all she said.

Cadance was slipping on her ear and eye protection at the range when she caught sight of the person walking to the stall next to her. “Aunt Tia? What’re you doing here?”

The smile on Celestia’s face was one of delightful surprise as well. “Well, I’m here to learn how to shoot a gun, courtesy of my boyfriend here.” She pointed at Sable and from the look of utter appreciation on her niece’s face, the older woman chuckled inwardly. “Guess I got lucky, huh?”

“I’ll say,” Cadance agreed, and Celestia giggled. Celestia then made the introductions and Cadance afterwards asked again, “So, here to learn how to shoot?”

Celestia nodded. “Sable insisted on it and I can’t quite argue with that,” she said as he wordlessly slipped on his own protection and then passed her hers. “But what are you doing here?”

“Annual quals,” Cadance replied. “Ever since the Equestria County District Attorney was assassinated back in the mid-1930s, they’ve required all their ADAs to be gun qualified. It’s a dumb county ordinance and mostly not enforced, but I figured that as the fiancée of a cop, I probably should be familiar with what Shiny does. Besides, I’ll be escorting the girls on their camping trip next week and Shiny insisted I take the pistol in case of an emergency.”

“I remember that,” Celestia commented. “Looking forward to it?”

Cadance smiled. “About as much as Aunt Luna enjoyed taking me and my friends camping when I was the girls’ age.” Celestia tried not to laugh much at that; Luna had gotten into an argument with a park ranger that was asking who the adult in charge of the campsite was. It didn’t help that Luna always leaned towards a younger demeanor, but when the ranger insisted that her ID was faked the near-arrest that Luna earned yelling at the ranger to the point of deafness was something Celestia’s younger sister was trying to forget, even ten years later.

As everyone got into position and Sable briefly went over the gun and how it worked, he then suggested that Celestia watch her niece for form. Taking the hint, Cadance relaxed, picked up the pistol, aimed and pulled the trigger three times, sending rounds down the range.

“She’s good,” Sable said, and Cadance felt a little proud of herself…

…right until her aunt picked up a larger gun and sent the blasts down the line, where they easily tore through the center of the target.

“How…?” Cadance asked, looking at surprise while they pulled back both their targets. While Cadance’s shots had been decent, Celestia’s had been near-perfect.

“What, Luna never dragged you into a marathon session of shooting games because she bickered with her boyfriend and needed to blow off some steam?” Celestia joked.

“Thanks for your time,” Shining commented to the detective at the Ashland Police Department. He and Sandalwood had left early in the morning for Oregon and scenic Rogue Valley County and other than a breakfast at the Borderline (“The best part of Oregon is eating at The Borderline!”) they had nothing more.

Sandalwood looked over the record. “Okay, so the girl’s boyfriend copped to using her like a Fleshlight and they got high, drunk, and all the usual things that most teens do, yourself excluded,” she teased. “She was kidnapped along the Southbound 5 and when someone found out little miss prissy was – gasp and shock – not a virgin, they chopped her into a dozen pieces and left her for her parents to find, complete with a joker card. A little harsh; I’m sure there are better ways to tell parents that they need to raise their kids better, but still, not getting us anywhere near what we need to find this asshole.”

“Not that her boyfriend’s any better; he’s already seeing her best friend – that’s fast,” he commented.

“Yeah, not like I wish I knew how that was,” Sandalwood muttered under her breath.

“You say something?” Shining asked.

“Uh…yeah, was just going through the order. We’ve got The Fool, the Chariot, Strength, one joker, then the Wheel of Fortune. Something’s missing, but I’m not sure what it is, and frankly, looking through these Mystick Knights of the Oingo-Boingo books, I’m completely stumped. You hear anything from Witchipoo?”

“No, though I don’t blame her, we only asked her to look into this a couple of days ago. As ironic as it is to say, well, she’s not made of magic. Besides, the kinds of stuff that she’d look up are less likely to be in our range of expertise.”

“Says the guy who got us the best lead we’ve had,” Sandalwood said, fishing out her phone and looking at her emails and texts. “I don’t think anyone would have looked at it the same way that you did. Hell, even Hardy, who’s used to this sort of shit, ignored it. But you got us something that we can sink our teeth into, and hopefully we can catch ourselves a nice, fat perp soon.”

“Hey, I can live with that,” Shining said as they got onto the on-ramp for the southbound Interstate and headed back to California.

The first thing Adagio saw – or what she thought she saw – was Rarity, chatting along with a nice guy, but it turned out to be in vain, as the face was entirely different. Still, it would’ve been nice to see her again, the teen sighed.

“Yo, Dazzle! You helping with this or not?” another SIREN behind her asked.

“On it,” she said, with a notable lack of enthusiasm. This was her first time off-garrison since they were brought on active duty and it was to Horseshoe Bay, no less. She was part of the supply crew that had been voluntold to pick up the supplies and in return they would get a chance to spend a few hours looking around the scenic resort town nestled on the Pacific Ocean. Horseshoe Bay had definitely been on the list of places that Adagio wanted to visit.

However…it was a place that she’d hoped to visit with her sisters and friends – friends that were now on the way to being bittersweet memories and sisters who could die at any moment, if caught in battle.

I think I’d give anything right now just to hear Rainbow make another stupid comment, Adagio sighed mentally.

“Yo, Dazzle, you okay or something?” a petty officer asked.

“Yeah, just thinking of maybe sunning a little on the beach or something,” she lied.

“Yeah, me too,” another seaman replied. “Thinking about sunning on the beach, getting me a hot guy, then releasing a little stress, if you know what I mean.”

“Eh, not for me. I’m going to go get shit-faced in the bar. None of the guys here catch my eye.”

“I’m guessing the girls do?” Adagio piped in, hoping to disguise her melancholy with an attempt at getting into the banter.

“You wish, Dazzle, though I’m sure you want to munch my carpet.”

“In your dreams, Gust,” Adagio replied, her mind already wandering to a time that never existed, one with her and her sisters and friends, relaxing on the beach – a place where Adagio could be the girl she should’ve been.

Standing on top of the hills overlooking Horseshoe Bay, Aria and Sonata watched her sister suffer in silence. “Yeah, this is Thunderbolt 3, I copy,” Aria said into her mic. “Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing seems up with stations 1 and 3…Roger that.” Cueing off her mic, she said, “Command wants us to stay put until we’re relieved by the secondary team. After that, then we can go down for liberty.”

“Roger that,” Sonata echoed, looking around a bit before slinging her carbine. “Who’s relieving us?”

“Ballad Break and Musica Snap,” Aria replied. “They should be here in an hour. But let’s not worry about that right now. You have any idea of what you want to do while we’re down there?”

“Why not lunch?” Sonata asked. “There’s a seafood place there that….” Sonata suddenly trailed off into silence.

“Soni?” Aria looked away from her scope.

“Twily recommended a place here,” Sonata said in a hushed voice. “She said that she wanted to hit the place sometime and make happier memories. I guess that was when that Flash guy attacked her.”

Aria completely turned away from her scope now. “You know, we should have killed him for her sake.”

“Do you really think we could have done that?” Sonata asked.

A pause from her sister. “No, I guess not,” Aria admitted. She had already realized that; she could snipe with the best of them and she could protect those she cared about, but that was a far cry from being the kind of stone-cold killer that was required by being a SIREN. “Look, could we talk about something else right now?”

“Sure. What do you want to do?”

“Honestly, probably go surfing. Me an’ Rainbow were thin…king…a….” Aria’s words trailed off into silence again as she realized what she’d done.

“Do you think we’ll ever see them again?” Sonata asked.

“I hope so,” Aria admitted.

Sargasso leaned back in his chair. “Oh, trust me: after I freak out my girl, she’ll be all like, ‘Take me now!’ and BOOM! I get me some.”

“Don’t you mean your ex-girlfriend?” Doubleflip told his friend.

Sargasso shrugged. “She was just kidding about that, you know that. She just plays hard to get.”

“Yeah, right.”

Green Onion looked at Sargasso. “I’m not sure that’s gonna work. For starters, Dusty Rose is going to completely freak when you pretend to be the Dead Hand Killer. Secondly, once you reveal yourself, she is so going to kick you in the balls for that. Third, my girl is her friend and she clearly said ‘ex’.”

Sargasso waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, trust me, I know Dusty. She’s wanted my hot bod for the longest time. Woulda gone all the way if her parents hadn’t gotten home so early. But this is the perfect way to get it! Especially with the rumor that the killer’s only going after virgins? I guarantee even guys like Runt and Snips are gonna get some. Hell, I might be able to trade up!”

“Dude, don’t say I didn’t warn you, okay? You’re gonna get your nuts kicked in and your girlfriend pissed as fuck at you,” Green explained.

“You mean his ex-girlfriend,” Doubleflip corrected.

“I toldja, man, I got it all down pat!” Sargasso insisted. “What could go wrong?”

“Hey, thanks for checking in on me, Mr. Roadway.”

The CHP officer standing at the door nodded. “Well, your parents asked me to check up on you while they’re out of town on business, Dusty, so I don’t mind. In fact, I think the biggest concern I have is my son trying to peek in your window.” Dusty Rose blushed furiously and Roadway laughed. “Don’t worry, I told him he was grounded for a month if he tried.”

“Thanks,” she said, trying to recover. She actually liked Oak Leaf, but he was a couple of years too young for her, with her starting her senior year at Forest Edge and him just starting his freshman year. I mean, he’s cute for his age and pretty mature, but…young. Then again, my cousin’s going out with an incoming freshman, and he’s a junior. Then again again, people are gonna talk….

She sighed. Well, they were going to talk anyway, especially after she decided to break up with Sargasso. He was a nice enough guy but she just wasn’t feeling it in the relationship and it was better to let him down now before things got serious. Honestly, she was much more in tune with Oak instead of Sargasso. Besides, she’d hoped her friend Summer Sparkle was wrong when she said that from what she knew about Sargasso, he didn’t take no for an answer easily. Fortunately if worst came to, she could always ask Oak for help.

Better think about that later, she mused. For now, she had to do the laundry and a whole bunch of other things in order to get ready for tomorrow. Plus, she wanted to make sure that she was safe: after all, even though she had a cop as a next door neighbor, she still had to take care of herself and make sure that there was no way she could be attacked without anyone knowing. She had to be careful. She made a mental note to call her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend and tell him she would meet him tomorrow.

“Cherry, is it a good idea to be here?” Mango Juice asked her older sister. “Mom’s gonna be pissed at us.”

“Why?” Cherry asked. “Look, I don’t want to take over Mom’s store when I grow up. I want different things out of life, and I have to push myself to do so.” She looked at the books on the shelf in the neighborhood library. “I mean, look at Mom. When Dad left us, she did her best to make sure that we made it okay. I want to be able to take care of Mom when she gets older, and the only way I can do that is if I become the best pharmacist I can be.”

“But you know about the killer, right? Right? I don’t want to be killed by some mean guy!” Mango wailed.

“Don’t worry, you won’t,” another girl said. She was dark skinned and had hair hued in bands of purple, green and neon-red – a virtual riot of color. She had stone gray eyes behind fashionable lenses and she wore a simple t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. “I know for a fact that the killers don’t go after little girls.”

“Really? How do you know?” Mango asked the stranger, who smiled in return.

“Oh trust me: killers really don’t like hurting cute little girls. I read it somewhere.” Mango gave the stranger a smile and stood matter-of-factly next to her sister.

“Yay!” Mango chirped, then looked at her sister. “Hey, can I go look at the computers?”

“Yes, but don’t go anywhere else,” Cherry told her. “Let me finish my research and then we can go to lunch later, okay?”

“Burger King?”

“Yeah, we can go there.” Mango hugged her sister, and then scampered off towards the computer. Cherry then turned to the stranger and said, “Thanks for that. She’s been really worried as of late that the killer’s going to get her.”

“I can understand those fears, but she should know they’re unfounded.”

“Why’s that?”

Medley Trance lowered her glasses. “Oh, trust me: I just know these things.”

Sunset waved goodbye to Pinkie and Carrot, setting her car back on the road to the Sugarcube Corner Café. The time she’d spent with Pinkie passing out the food at the homeless shelter had earned the Knickerbocker the eternal gratitude of those who were housed at the shelter as well as the admiration of several staff members. But for Sunset and Pinkie, it had been slightly different. Sunset had never realized it, but the homeless shelter was in a former warehouse just a block from the place where she used to live. If I’d been smart instead of a stubborn jackass, I’d have been in a better position. Maybe the staff would’ve changed my life, and I could have been a normal girl sooner instead of just a little wannabe terrorist with mommy issues.

I need to send another letter to Celestia, to tell her how much I love her. Official or not, she’ll always be a mother to me. Sunset felt a tear slide down her cheek and she chuckled. Back before her change of heart, she came across the book Heather Has Two Mommies and laughed her ass off about the child who was raised by two lesbians; while her own life was vastly different from the fictional Heather, Sunset now had to admit that she herself had two mothers: the one that had raised her and the one that was raising her now.

I wonder if I could contact the author and interest her in creating Sunset Has Two Mommies – I know I’d buy a copy, she thought with a chuckle, getting on to the Interstate and heading towards her destination. Letting that movement come automatically made her wonder briefly about ponies on Earth and her new duty, assigned to her by the Princess: that of ponykind’s ambassador to Earth. If she was ever successful, that would mean her own birth kind would be here. But would they be here as humans or ponies, and if somehow they were in their native form, how would humans react to them? Technically, there were already “ponies” here on Earth long before she – or Musica Allegra, if that story was true – but they were nothing like what she was and in truth it had taken her more than once to get adjusted to the non-sapience of horses on Earth. Applejack had teased her briefly that the flame-haired girl could probably make a fortune being a natural matchmaker – a “whisperer”, the term went – but that fell flat the moment Sunset explained that ponies could speak English – or Equish, as they called it – natively.

I’ll have to see about Twi sending me a biology book, then hitting up the library for a copy of a horse anatomy book. I have to wonder how much my anatomy has evolved from the equine baseline. I could write a paper on this and win the Know Belle Prize! But before she could imagine the plaque given to all the Know Belle laureates sitting on her shelf, she had to do the paper, first.

Something to think about when I get home, she mused as she got off the freeway and steered towards Sugarcube Corner. There was fortunately a parking space in front, which Sunset immediately monopolized. She got out of her car and went over to the doorway, opening it. “Heya, I’m here.”

“Oh, thank you!” Sunset was immediately enveloped in a hug by Blossomforth. “I’ve been worse than useless today and I’m glad I got reinforcements!”

“You’re not useless, dear,” Cup said from where she was busily opening another box. “It’s just that there’s not much you can do while with child.”

“Except waddle to and fro and have to stop because of the weight,” Blossomforth commented glumly. “I feel worse than useless, the baby’s heavy and I just want to get this pregnancy done with and not have another kid for at least a decade!”

“Don’t worry, I’m here. Besides, you’ll be at home starting next week, right? You should be fine. You won’t have to worry about the stuff the rest of us do. And when it’s all over, you’ll have the cutest little kid, and I’ll have access to a kid I get to spoil rotten.”

“You’d better not!” Blossomforth laughed. “I’ll still have to take care of her at night!”

“Maybe,” Sunset said with a wink. “Now, let me get to those boxes, because the Sugarcube can’t stay closed forever!”

Though admittedly it was on her own time, Cheerilee loved volunteering at her local library while school was out. It let her keep in touch with her first true love – books – and let her learn the latest in librarian sciences from the head librarian, Worthy Tome…and he wasn’t bad looking, either. With his sandy blonde hair and pink eyes, he reminded her of a weathered, older version of one of her former students, Macintosh Apple.

Yes, she’d found one of her students attractive; she was young but not stupid – it never went beyond anything professional. But Tome was a different story: he was a reluctant divorcé, his wife having left him for another guy that she moved with to South Carolina. He was a single father and his daughter Bookmark was absolutely adorable. And she and Tome liked much the same things, an…

“Ms. Cheerilee?” Cheerilee looked down to see Mango Juice. She was the daughter of Tropical Punch, who lived across the street and ran the Smoothie Salon, the smoothie bar that seemed to rival Sugarcube Corner Café in terms of afterschool student population. Despite being a single mother, Tropical managed to raise her children well. Thus, it was odd seeing little Mango alone, given that she was usually seen here either with her mother or her older sister, Cherry Cider.

“Yes, sweetie, what can I do for you?” Cheerilee asked.

“Have you seen Cherry?” Mango asked. “I was looking at the computers while she was looking at books, but that was two hours ago and when I went back I didn’t see her. Her car’s still in the parking lot, so she still has to be here.”

“Would you like me to try calling her phone?” Cheerilee asked. Mango nodded and gave Cherry’s phone number; Cheerilee dialed it and a second later a buzzing sound came from the lost and found drawer. Cheerilee opened it and found a phone, buzzing, with the number of the library onscreen.

Holding up the phone, Cheerilee asked, “Did anyone find this?”

Another of the librarians, Thrilling Chapter, said, “Yeah, I found it on a shelf in the Science section, why?”

Cheerilee looked at Mango, then back to Chapter and then, with a horrified look on her face, it clicked. “Chapter, call 911.”

The other woman got it instantly. “What are you—”

“Call 911 now!” Cheerilee shouted as she vaulted over the counter, sprinted as much as she could and rushed up stairs to the Science section to see a card sticking out of one of the chemistry books. Carefully, Cheerilee removed the book from its place in the shelf and opened the tome, looking at the insert.

Worthy Tome was right behind her. “Cops are on their way, Cheer,” Tome told her. “What did you find?”

A worried look on her face, Cheerilee motioned toward the book in her hand. Nestled on the page was Card XVII, the Star.

Canzione watched as Cherry Cider’s blood – now a brutal acid – burned away at the wall. She’d been wearing a protective suit, as she hadn’t had the serum yet; the same went for Medley. Contralto, who was in her “altered” form, as she called it, had most of her clothing burned away but was otherwise unharmed, several globs of the dead girl’s blood still sizzling away on her.

Medley sighed.

“Something wrong, Med?” Contralto asked.

“Well, we’re gonna have to tell Princey-baby that we need another girl,” Medley commented, “and now she’s dead and I can’t sleep with her.”

Canzione facepalmed. “What is with your obsession with sex, Med?”

“Hey, just because you don’t think about getting any doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to have a healthy sex drive, Canzy! I mean, did you see her body? I’d have had fun all night, but now poor widdle me ain’t getting none!”

“You’re a whore, Med.”

“And proud of it!”

“Look, you two, clean this up,” Contralto ordered, changing back to her human form and grabbing a towel. “I’m going to go take a shower, then explain this to the Prince. After you’re done, Canzy, you dispose of the body, complete with Joker card – do not get caught. Med, you report to the medical labs; apparently they have your serum tailored to you and the Captain wants to go over the transformation to make sure it will go okay.”

“Maybe she just wants a peek at the goods.”

“Med, shut up.”

“Aye aye, Alto!” Medley replied with a flippant salute.

Contralto shook her head and instead walked through the wall – now that it was magicked to allow them through – and into the gym shower room, where she threw herself into one of the stalls. A few minutes of washing off Cherry’s blood, which outside of the ensorcelled room had reverted back to its original chemistry and was now nothing more than biological waste. Besides, getting back to cleanliness made her feel better, anyway. Going back to her locker, she slipped on one of the new uniforms, glad that without the body armor it merely looked like an industrial-style of fashion rather than military attire. With that done, she left the gym and walked over to Divine’s office, where he was watching what looked to be a hologram of a hurricane off the coast of San Diego. A second later she realized it wasn’t a volumetric display but a magical view of the actual sky in that area.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” he told her, leaning over the desk, his long violet hair blown by a wind that seemed to come from the scene. “A scrying spell that lets me watch my latest creation. In a few days that hurricane should be here and we can harness its natural energies to prepare for the next phase of the spell.”

“That’s above my paygrade, sir,” Contralto said as she watched the scrying spell in action. If she got close enough she could almost feel the pressure change in the air and the spray of the water from the storm itself. “I’m just the dispatch service.”

“And a fine dispatch service you are, Petty Officer. Now, I presume you’re here to report?”

“Yes, sir. The girl, Cherry Cider, was not a virgin. We’re disposing of her body as per the Joker protocol, but we’ll need the next name on the list.”

“I see. A shame, that; but I suppose I cannot control which girls do not have the mental and spiritual fortitude to keep themselves pure for marriage. I will have to make it punishable by death once I am Emperor of All – one never knows when a virgin is needed.” Leaving the scrying, he walked over to the wall, where he had a list of names on a sheet whose title was THE STAR:

Noting the next name on the list, he raised his hand and cast a summoning spell. A cabinet on the other side of the room opened, and a dossier folder departed it, floating over to Contralto. “This is all the intelligence I have on the next girl,” Divine told the SIREN. “Capture her at once.”

“Yes sir,” Contralto replied, saluting, then turned away.

As she left, Divine turned his attention back to the view of the hurricane, slowly but surely wending its way up the California coast. Soon I will have all the power in the world and I will surpass my Father of Fathers, just as he intended. And then I will rule as a god and there will be none that can even hope to stop me. I will be everlasting!

Well, it was a long day, but now I can go home and relax, Sunset mused as she waved goodbye to Cup and Blossomforth, who was waiting for her father to pick her up. It had been an exhausting day of backbreaking moving and unpacking boxes, but it had been worth it in the end, as it would get both the Sugarcube Corner and the Knickerbocker back in business. Admittedly, it probably could have been done a long time ago if she’d used her magic, but there was something satisfying about doing it the human way of a little muscle grease.

But now as the sun began to finally sink over the horizon and she got into her car again for the trip home, she dialed her phone quickly. “Hi Mom, it’s me. Is there anything at home to eat? Been busting my butt all day and I’m starved.”

“Sure. I was just making bierock for dinner tonight. Do you want me to save you some?”

“Please. I’m so hungry I could eat a whole cow by myself.” I’m so glad that none of the cows in this world can complain about that sort of thing, though the ones back home would probably complain up a storm. “Do you need me to pick up anything at the store?”

“No, Sunny – as much as I’d love you to pick me up some wine, you’re not old enough.”

“Trust me, Mom, you’d be surprised about that.”

“And I’m sure you know how to get away with it, dear, but I’m supposed to set a good example for you, so I’ll have to pass on that. Plus, because it’s sunset out, I need my Sunset home, got that?”

“Yeah, crappy puns and all,” Sunset laughed.

“All part of the family, Sunny. See you soon.”

“Yup.” Ending the call, she plugged her phone into the power jack and got ready to drive off—

BHWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMmmmmm….

There it is again. But this time I can’t risk checking! Dammit! She started up the car, cued the headlights and got on the road, feeling the throbbing of the strange magic through her. Since she couldn’t do another investigation, this time she mentally analyzed it and had a sick feeling. It feels a lot like the time I was corrupted by the failure of the Element of Magic, so it could be dark magic. But that should be impossible, as the only magic thing here on the planet is me!

But then she remembered the Mirror of Cavalcanti was still in town. They promised me that they would shield the mirror from further magical effects, so none of Razz’ magic could make it over here by accident, Sunset mused. But Razz may not be the only dark magic user in Equestria – and most likely not on all of Equus – so if they did an individual block spell, it would only prevent her spells from making it over, not anyone else’s.

Well, you knew this wasn’t something you could solve with a song and dance in thirty minutes, no matter how much life seems like that, she said to herself. This isn’t Equus, this is Earth – and that means that whatever it is has the potential to be a problem if I don’t figure it out. I can only hope that in the short term it really isn’t doing any harm, or at least anything I can’t fix.

I hope.

“Girls, it’s dinnertime!” she heard her aunt call from downstairs.

Octavia fell to her knees, her insides quivering like they never had before. She felt a sensation rip through her and now her body was throbbing like a heartbeat on overdrive. Without even pausing to wonder why, instinct drove her back to her bedroom to get a change of clothing, then into the bathroom. Her mind racing, she’d only managed to get off half her clothing when she threw herself in the shower. A half-second later, she had the presence of mind to remove her now-soaked socks and bra.

A knock came through the door and she called back, “I’m in the shower! Be down in a bit!”

“Okay, I’ll let Mom know,” Twilight called back and Octavia breathed a sigh of relief as she sank into the bathtub, the steady, warm rain of the showerhead spraying on her.

Another sensation ripped through her again, and she bit off a scream. The sensation throbbed around her crotch and her mind went into overdrive. I’m not due for another week, unless I’m starting ea— Another feeling – this time pain – ripped through her once more and she whimpered. She usually never felt it like this; she was one of the types of women who barely noticed this time of the month at all….

She looked down and it was everything she could do to prevent herself from screaming. Sure enough, she was bleeding…if what she was seeing could be called blood. Instead, a black, syrupy ichor poured from her body, looking less like blood and more like thick, viscous oil. A stench hit her, the smell of burnt hair, and it filled her nostrils as screaming sounded around her, through her, within her—

She closed her eyes and prayed that whatever she was feeling would stop.

She opened her eyes again and the pain was gone. She was laying naked in the tub, with no sign of anything that happened. There was no stench or anything out of the ordinary.

A knock on the door. “Tavi, you okay?” This time it was Sunset.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’ll be out shortly,” she called back.

“I hope so; I’ve been waiting for about an hour for you to come out of the bathroom so we can eat together!”

Octavia blinked. An hour? She suddenly realized that the warm water from earlier had now turned cold, only possible if the water heater had been completely exhausted of its storage.

Getting out of the shower, she noticed her skin had shriveled, like a prune – another indicator of long-term water exposure.

How long have I…?

Dusty Rose opened the door…and screamed.

There, standing at the door, was a man, dressed in black and wearing a Venetian jester mask. He was also carrying what looked to be several knives. He lunged at her, and she raced into the house and darted behind the couch. She picked up a lamp and threw it at him, which he dodged, but he failed to dodge the second projectile, which hit him square in the face: a bronze plate that her parents had picked up in Morocco years prior. While he collapsed to the ground, she took the chance and ran out of the house, screaming at the top of her lungs. The man came after her anyway screaming, “STOP!”

Her mind in a panic, she raced around the couch and out of the house, rushing towards the next door neighbors.

Oak Leaf was big for his age. Though he was just fourteen, he was easily bigger than people years older than him and he was a shoo-in for a football team. In fact, he was hoping that he’d make the football team, if anything just so he could impress Dusty Rose, the girl next door. He’d had a thing for Dusty for the longest time and though he’d already gone out with a couple of girls his age, that didn’t dull his feelings for his neighbor.

But when he heard her scream, he rushed down the stairs from his bedroom like his life depended on it. Her screams indicated that she was in trouble and so long as he breathed air, nobody was going to hurt his Dusty. He cleared the front door in record time, just to see her reach their property.

“The killer!” she screamed. “He’s after me!”

“Get in the house and call 911!” Oak told her, just as he saw the darkened figure emerge from her home. “I’ll deal with this!” Before she could stop him, his bravado and testosterone already mixing with his adrenaline, Oak rushed forwards like a wall of tan and forest green, slamming into the figure like a high-speed train. The black-robed figure went down, and Oak pressed his advantage, punching down right on the man’s face, cracking the heavy ceramic of the jester mask. The guy however kicked Oak in the nuts and the boy went down, the man screaming, “What, are you fucking stupid? This was just a—”

BLAM! BLAM! The shots rang out from the gun held by Oak’s mother, who had retrieved her husband’s spare gun and fired it in defense of her son. The shadowy figure staggered back, but a third and final shot from her finally dropped it even as several police cars descended on the area, the first of which was Roadway’s.

“EVERYONE GET BACK!” he roared as he pulled out his sidearm and rushed towards the downed individual. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a cop from the Everfree Glades Police Department pull up and move into a covering position behind his open door. Nodding to the EGPD cop, Roadway moved forward until he got close and kicked away the knife, only to realize….

Wait…the knife’s rubber? Oh shit….

Bending forward he pulled off the cracked mask, revealing a balaclava mask with still eyes and an open mouth from which blood had drizzled out of the corner. Pulling off the mask, he looked in sick worry.

It’s just a kid. Just a fucking kid. A second later he realized that it was one of Dusty Rose’s friends. He looked by his neighbor’s front door, to see his son, who had crawled in for safety once his assailant had been shot. Willing himself up despite the pain, he looked at his father and then at the victim.

“Shit, that’s Dusty’s ex-boyfriend,” he said, turning to look at Dusty, who was looking at him with something in her eyes akin to admiration…and something else.

“Get her in the house, son. She doesn’t need to see this.” Oak nodded and jogged over to his mother and Dusty Rose, ushering them inside. Roadway started at what was now obvious: a dumb teen playing a stupid prank during the worst time – and now he’d just paid for it in the worst way possible.

The EGPD cop joined the CHP officer. “Is it sad that I figured this was going to happen in Canterlot, not here?” he asked Roadway.

“Stupidity happens everywhere,” Roadway responded, “and it’s never pretty when it goes south fast.”

Octavia, now wearing her sweats, shivered. “Thanks,” she said, as Twilight put a blanket around her.

“No problem. But what were you thinking, taking a shower for ninety minutes?” Twilight asked.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it was that long,” the musician replied. “To me, it felt like just a couple minutes went by, no more than five, tops.”

“Well don’t do that again!” Twilight scolded. “You could have given yourself hypothermia!”

“Thanks, Dr. Science,” Octavia snarked.

“Seriously, though, are you okay?” Sunset asked. She remembered when Twilight had gone through something similar, and it had torn Sunset apart to watch her sister go through it. Now if her cousin was suffering the same thing, it would be the absolute worst possible thing to experience again, especially now while a serial killer stalked the streets of Canterlot.

“I’m…fine. And I know what you’re thinking, Sunny. I was cleared, remember? I’m not going through anything that’s affecting me, and besides, I have you two and my friends if something happens. Ironically, I’m in a better position than when Twily suffered what happened to her.”

Twilight sat down next to her cousin and wrapped her in an embrace. “You know we’re always here for you, Tavi.” A second later, Sunset sat down on the other side and did the same thing. Extracting her arms from the blanket, she hugged them both and the three stayed in the embrace for several minutes.

“Well,” Octavia yawned, “I think that extra-long cold shower drained me, so I’m going to go to bed.”

“Yeah, I’ve had a long day myself,” Sunset added, “so I think I’ll turn in as well.”

“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Twilight said, standing up and taking off her clothing. “If we just strip down to panties and bras tonight, we can lend our body heat to Tavi to get her warmed up pretty quick! That should get her hot in no time flat!”

Sunset and Octavia looked at Twilight, then to each other and then back to Twilight before both teens facepalmed at the same time. “Twily, would it kill you to think about what you say, just once?” Octavia groaned.

For the fifteenth time, Tropical Punch opened the door, eyes stained with tears, and looked outside in the hopes that her daughter would come home safely. The police had been here earlier to tell her about Cherry’s disappearance from the library and her possible abduction by the Dead Hand Killer. The detective that spoke to her had assured her that they wouldn’t rest until Cherry was found. What he hadn’t said was that to date none of the abductees had been found alive again, and the news had borne that out. Tropical still held out hope for her older daughter, but knew deep within that it was too late.

She’d received several calls during the course of the day: Cherry’s boyfriend, hoping that she would be okay; her parents, who said they would be on the next flight over from Milwaukee; and of course, her ex, who in a rare display of actually giving a shit about his kids told her he would be driving down from Seattle immediately. All of them were worried. None of them truly knew the hell that she was going through. Cherry was her oldest, her dearest child and a delight. Other than a boyfriend that she was sure that they’d already gone all the way, Cherry was the perfect daughter and better behaved than Tropical had ever been at that age.

Now, with her younger daughter staying with friends, all Tropical could do was the inevitable: wait for news that Cherry Cider was dead. It was hell, absolute fucking hell, but it was the only thing she could do. She’d already failed as a mother, because she failed the most paramount thing a mother could – should – do: keep their children safe.

Looking at the body bag before her, and the joker card sitting on top of it. Tropical sank to her knees, opened her mouth and screamed all the rage and pain in the world.

Blazing Star looked at the nighttime sky. Out here on the Badlands Station for the Royal Astronomer’s Guild, she could see whole galaxies, constellations and stars that were all part of the bounty that was Princess Luna’s gift to ponykind. She’d heard that once, ponies had shunned the nighttime sky, and that had turned Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon. Looking up at the velvety collection of diamonds above, she couldn’t see how. It was an utter thing of beauty that had taken her breath away more than once, which is why she’d offered to do a third straight tour of the remote station instead of heading back to Canterlot to turn in her newest paper.

This was the perfect time to test a theory, anyway: that other dimensions didn’t exist. Sure, that ran counter to standard metaphysical theories, but Star had a theory: that the other “dimensions” were actually other galaxies in the universe. Of course, that could also mean that aliens existed on other worlds, but pulp fiction aside, if Equus was a world capable of multiple sapient species, what about the variety of potential life beyond this world?

It could be the paper of her life…or the end of her career; after all, it was hard enough being an earth pony studying a science that usually only unicorns delved in, but the fact that she seemed to outstrip many of her peers had made her quite a few enemies over the course of the years. Perhaps she could have it pitched directly to Princess Luna; maybe with that, she had less of a chance of being utterly humiliated by her peers. Besides, the princess might even point her in a right direction.

“Does he see something from the world of magic?” Star heard the creaky, aged voice behind her. She turned to see a wizened creature of a type she’d never cast her eyes on before. He looked to be dressed in rags, and was similar in form to a pony, save that he seemed to have horns and arms like a minotaur as well.

“Can I help you?” Star asked.

“Perhaps the pony can,” the creature said in that reedy voice. “Perhaps the pony realizes the danger she is in. Or perhaps not.”

“I’m sorry, is there something the matter?” the earth mare asked, her citrine eyes darting to and fro. “Sir, if there’s somepony dangerous nearby, perhaps you should come in. The station has the latest in anti-changeling shielding—”

“Indeed, the pony does not,” the creature said with a malevolent smile, and then opened its mouth, inhaling. Inexplicably, golden energies seemed to rip away from Blazing Star, burning towards the creature as the earth pony tried to wrap her mind around what was going on. She turned to run, but as she did, each movement seemed to stretch longer, hurt more, as if she’d just run hundreds of miles in a never ending marathon. By the time she’d completed her turn, each of her muscles seemed to strain with complete and utter exhaustion and she found it hard to stand up. A second later, she slumped to the ground, completely and utterly spent.

“That…will do nicely,” the creature said; out of the corner of her eye, Blazing Star could see the beast moving with more agility and speed, as if whatever he drew in had given him new vim and vigor. “The pony doesn’t even comprehend that it was the first in the path towards giving Tirek what he needed.” The creature then laughed vilely, a brutal, shrill cackle that seemed to make Star’s ears ache.

“Oh, but there is still the pony to deal with: Even though her magic is gone, she could still be a threat.” She saw as he reached behind him, bringing out a black steel dagger. It looked twisted and corroded, as if it were made from a changeling’s horn. It had glowing purple and green lettering on it, though she could not comprehend the language. “He must end her, if there is any chance of his plan to succeed.”

“No,” she whispered, unable to say more. “Please…I have a husband and filly back in Canterlot….”

“That…is not his problem,” Tirek said, thrusting the dagger.

Sunset could feel herself again as the demon, but it was a thousand times worse. Nothing could have been worse than this.

The right hand of her demonic form had punched through a girl, now dying and had gone out the other end. She could hear herself laughing, but within she was screaming. “NO THIS ISN’T ME, THIS ISN’T ME ANYMORE!” Sunset yelled, but to no avail.

The girl lifted her head and the moment Sunset saw her face, she shrieked even more in terror, even as her left demonic arm moved towards the girl’s face.

Twilight Sparkle looked at her sister, blood dripping down her mouth as an oversized red hand clamped over it. “Will you die for me?” Twilight asked…

…seconds before the fist ripped the head from the body.

Sunset nearly threw herself out of bed, panting hard, her heart beating in her chest like a new wave drum machine from the 80s. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted the time – three in the morning – but forgot it as she could still hear the demonic laughter of her demon form in her mind.

I killed Twily. I know I didn’t, but in the dream, I….

She heard the toilet flush in the bathroom down the hall, the brief turning on of the faucet, then doors opening, closing and opening again as…. “Sis?” Sunset turned to see Twilight’s form, lit by the moonlight, standing in the doorway. “What are you doing on the floor?”

“I…” Sunset didn’t say anything, but instead just got to her feet and wordlessly hugged her sister.

“Bad dream?”

“Yeah,” Sunset said, burying her face in her sister’s shoulder. “Like the ones I used to have when I first got here,” she lied, knowing full well this one was far different.

Twilight pulled away from the hug, to look her sister in the eyes. “Sunny, you know that—”

“I know. Maybe it’s just my mind at work. I mean, what we have twenty-two days and a wakeup before it’s official? Of course it’s just my mind working overtime.” Sunset gave Twilight a smile. “I mean, I finally, really get to be a part of this family, Twily. That alone means the world to me.”

“You’re wrong, Sunny: You’ve always been a part of us. All this does is just puts it down on paper.” Twilight leaned over and kissed her sister on the cheek. “Now, c’mon, let’s go get some sleep, okay?”

The hurricane continued to move on, its winds buffeting the Southern California coast like the blows of the damned. Those who risked stepping outside swore that it sounded not like the howling of the wind, but like the scream of a banshee.

Hundreds of miles to the north, a man laughed in full, knowing that his next step towards his rightful rule of the world was soon to be at hand. All the pieces were finally falling into place….

“Dammit, dammit, dammit, I’m late! Stupid car,” Lemon Zest groaned as she parked at the After Midnight club. It was the hottest club in town, and even for a place that had shit nightlife like Canterlot did, you could still find a decent place here and there. Currently that decent place was the After Midnight.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to be her night. She’d broken up with her boyfriend a month ago and now he heard that the motherfucker was chasing after some high school piece of tail, that Goddamn asshole. Still, part of her missed Trenderhoof, but she knew that she shouldn’t have gotten involved with him, especially not after he fucked over Sweet Orchid in order to date her. Sure, she didn’t realize that until after the fact, but she should’ve picked up then what a flighty fuck he was. Besides, she should’ve known better than to date someone younger than her; the asshole was all nothing but hormones anyway.

Fortunately, she had some friends she could rely on and one of them, Cottonfluff, fixed her up with a guy she knew. It was a blind date, but she and Cotton were besties and Lemon knew her best friend wasn’t going to screw her over like this. Of course, there was no way that Lemon knew she was going to have a flat tire while on the way from her home in Colton.

Her phone rang. “Yeah, Lemon here.”

“Lemmy? Where the fuck are you?”

“I had a car problem,” she growled into the phone. “I’m already having a fucked up night, okay? I just want to get into the club, have a few drinks, then go the fuck home.” She waved her driver’s license in front of the bouncer, who gave it a cursory look before waving her on.

“Well, fortunately for you, I just got a text from your mystery date, and he’s still in there, waiting for you.”

“He is?” Lemon looked at the clock on her phone; she was two hours late, and no reasonable person would wait that long. Either he was the perfect guy or a stalker. Probably a stalker, with her luck.

“Yeah! Trust me, he’s a total sweetie, and he really likes you, so I’m not surprised he waited.”

“Well, he’d better be good.”

“If he isn’t then fancy dinner’s on me tomorrow, okay?”

“I’ll hold you to that, Cotton.”

“Go have fun and tell me all about it later. Bye!”

Hanging up, Lemon slipped her phone into her clutch purse and walked through the second set of doors, into the throbbing, techno-filled demesnes of the After Midnight Club. A dozen colors radiated from the lights above, while neon was everywhere and bodies moved and swayed to both music and passion, Lemon felt completely in her element at the moment. Fuck that asshole Trenderhoof. “Why don’t we head to a concert at the Musicave?” Indie hipster motherfucker. Glad he’s gone.

She sauntered over to the bar and the moment she got there, she ordered a beer, making sure that she looked good. Or at least as good as I’m going to look while recovering from a flat tire.

The bartender had just passed her the beer when a woman about her age came up, dressed in jeans and pants. She looked like a Native American and was burly enough that at first glance, she could have passed for a guy. Oh, I hope this isn’t my date! Cotton, what the hell did you do?

“Excuse me, are you Lemon Zest?”

Lemon sighed. “Yeah, that’s me. You’re my date?”

The girl grinned. Pointing to the second floor, she said, “No, actually, he’s waiting up there for you. I just happen to be a friend of his – here with some friends – and came down for another round. Told him I’d look out for you while I was down here.” The woman then signaled to the bartender.

“Thanks. Stairs are that way?” she asked, pointing towards a dark area.

“Yeah, got it in one,” she said, turning to the bartender and giving her order.

“Do you want me to wait for you?”

“Naaah,” the other woman said. “Don’t worry about me; I’ll probably be here a bit. Just go ahead and – oh, that’s right, you don’t have the passkey, do you?”

“Passkey?” Lemon asked.

“The areas upstairs are privately accessible; you have to have a keycard to get through.” She reached into her pocket and fished out a plastic rectangle. “Here, take mine.”

“You sure?”

The woman waved it off. “Yeah, I can just have one of my friends go open it for me. Now get going; he’s really cute and if you don’t move fast, one of the other girls is going to make their move!”

“On it!” Lemon cheered as she walked off into the darkness. But as she did, she looked at the plastic security key.

Odd, I wonder why it has a star and the number 17 on it? I wonder if it’s an in-joke I’m not getting.

Author's Note

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August 3: Stripped

Gilda Griffin woke up, her head aching. This was the second day of detox that she was going through, and thankfully it was mild; she’d known plenty of people who were far worse off during her time at the Blanks – excuse me, “The Equestria County Alternative High School for At-Risk Students”, her mind snarkily commented; use of the school’s nickname, like anything else, was forbidden.

There was a knock on her bedroom door, and before she could call “Come in,” her father, Frequent Flyer, opened the door. Well, not her real father; that asshole was sitting in the pokey and deservedly fucking so; she was still lucky to be alive after the last beating he’d given her. Her mother, Love Intervention, had married Frequent in the years since and even Gilda had to admit he’d been more of a father to her than the sperm donor had ever been.

“Gilda?”

“Yeah?”

“Today’s the day,” Frequent told her. That was another thing she loved about him: that he tried to be a parent. By now, her biological father would have been busy trying to put her head through one of the walls that made up her room. “If you’re going to be allowed back into CHS, you have to do this today, because the school will have someone do a final interview before they transfer your records.”

“Would you be ashamed of me if I didn’t?” Gilda asked him.

“Honey, I’ll always love you,” he told her. “Blood or not, you’re my daughter, and I want what’s best for you. And part of this means to make up with and apologize to that girl you stabbed.”

“That girl you stabbed.” Sunset Shimmer. At first, Gilda hadn’t given the girl a single thought since she got expelled from CHS; it had been Sunset’s fault for being such a bitch. But it had been her time at The Blanks where she’d learned what being a true bitch was, and while Sunset had been an alpha bitch, she was far better a person than Gilda had ever been. Or Gilda’s former best friend, Lightning Dust, who hadn’t said a word at all to her since she’d been kicked out. Ironically, it had been Rainbow Dash, Gilda’s former friend and later nemesis, who had inquired how she’d been. Rainbow, whose ass she’d kicked and threatened to publicly humiliate. But it was Rainbow who had turned out to be a far better friend than Lightning had ever been.

“Dad…I just don’t know if I can do this,” she admitted. And that was true. For the first time in her life, Gilda Griffin was afraid. Funny, there was a serial killer out there killing girls her age, and the thing she feared most was the girl she had stabbed.

Frequent sat down next to her. “Gilda, this is your chance to make a new beginning and make new friends, to start over and improve everything that there is about you. I want you to grow up and be happy, not end up like your biological father, wasting away in prison somewhere.”

She looked up at him. “Okay, I’ll try.”

“Good. You get ready, and I’ll make breakfast. Do you know where you can find her?”

“No,” Gilda admitted, “but I know someone who does.”

The janitor at the After Midnight Club pushed the broom, moving away the nightly detritus of spilled cups, dirt, used-up lipstick, strewn drugs, occasional large amounts of currency and even the rare condom or two. He sighed. That’s why he hated cleaning up here in the private areas; the hedonistic assholes did whatever they wanted up here and watched the kids down there like they were just peons. A modern day Babylon, this place was, and he wasn’t being metaphorical about it, either. The shit that happened up here was likely going to get someone arrested or killed someday, mark his words.

A second later, as he came upon the brutalized and maimed body of Lemon Zest, his first realization was that it was horrifyingly true. His second was to turn, throw up, then run screaming.

“Thanks for having me over, Mr. Apple,” Sweetcream Scoops commented from her seat at the Apple family breakfast table. “With my parents out of town for the next few days, I definitely do not feel safe at home alone.”

“Eyup,” Appleseed said with a grin. “Now if’n Ah c’n git mah son t’ jest keep his hands where they belong….”

“Pa!” Big Mac gasped in shock, getting a laugh out of those assembled at the table.

“Son, ‘twasn’t that long ago when Ah wuz yer age an’ wuz thinkin’ th’ same thoughts,” the elder Apple told him. “‘Sides, Ah know soon ‘nough y’ two are headed fer th’ aisle.” This time, both teens blushed furiously, making Appleseed’s grin larger.

“Oh, leave the kids alone,” Cornflower admonished her husband as she walked on unsteady legs as she made her way to the kitchen table; behind her, Apple Bloom moved carefully in order to make sure her mother was supported.

Behind her, Granny Smith laughed. “Youngin’, yer ma’s made o’ tougher stuff than that. Let ‘er move at ‘er own pace, y’ get me?”

“Yeah, Ah savvy, Granny,” Bloom replied, moving away from her mother and plopping into a seat next to her brother.

“Well, we’re all here,” Granny said as she took a seat. Looking at Scoops, she winked an’ added, “Yer ‘bout t’ try some o’ mah World Famous apple fritters! Should make ya nice an’ plump fer the day y’ and mah grandson put a bun in th’ oven.” Scoops immediately started to turn almost as bright a shade of red as the apple-shaped salt and pepper shakers on the table.

“So, shall we eat, or embarrass the lovebirds further?” Cornflower asked, as she heard the sound of her older daughter’s voice ring from upstairs. And Applejack did not sound happy.

“Are you out of your mind, Rainbow? No way is Sunset gunna agree to that, and Ah sure as hell won’t either!” She stomped into the kitchen, plopping down at her seat. “Now Ah gotta go, Rainbow. Ah’ll call ya later…when your brain kicks back in!” Slipping her phone into her pocket, she said, “Sorry, y’all, but Rainbow’s got a stupid idea.” The family said a silent grace, then dug in.

“Oh, what’s that, dear?” Cornflower asked.

“Gilda s’posedly called her about ten minutes ago and said she wants t’ apologize to Sunny. Personally, Ah don’t think that’s a good idea. Might just be another excuse for Gilda to stab Sunny again, and Ah’d hate to see her family go through that once more.”

“I don’t see the problem with it,” Scoops said. “Ever since Lighting Dust was kicked off the track team, she’s said nothing about Gilda or any of her old friends. If anything, she’s staying clear, because her only chance left for Olympic glory is the track team at her community center, and they already laid the law down for her.”

“How’d you know about that, Scoops?” Bloom asked.

The recent graduate grinned. “I’m a journalist, Bloomie. Granted, I’m still not sure if I want to do it for a living or go into the family ice cream business, but at the very least it comes in handy. I had the network access of Sunny without all of the nasty stuff she used to do to get it.” She then looked at Applejack. “AJ, I really think you should give her a chance. I know if I were in her shoes, I’d want it. Besides, you gave Sunny a chance, so why not her?”

“Fine. At least Ah’m not th’ one who has to talk to her about it.”

“Hello?” Sunset voiced as she answered her cellphone.

“Ah, Sunset Shimmer?”

“Yeah, this is she,” the fiery-haired teen said, looking at the mid-morning sun. She had to work the late shift at the café today, as Mrs. Cake wanted her present to interview for a new waitress. While business had been down due to the immediacy of what the news was calling “the Dead Hand Killer”, life would still go on and eventually custom would recover. Sooner or later, someone from one of the high schools in the area would see the HELP WANTED sign and take the spot as the “new” Sonata.

Wish we had the old one back. Sunset recalled the look in Sonata’s eyes, an anguish that she’d never seen there before. A cry for help? Guilt over betraying them – well betrayal was probably too strong a word, but she’d clearly left Sugarcube Corner Café in a bind, regardless. Either way, it was blatantly obvious that something was not okay with her friend, but what did Sunset do? Nothing.

I feel like such an idiot for not prying further, Sunset groaned inwardly, and now it’s too late.

“Uh, Sunset, you there?” the voice on the other end asked.

“Oh, uh, sorry, kinda spaced out for a second. Anyway, this is Sunset. And this is?” she asked, feeling slightly guilty about not having checked the caller ID when she answered the phone.

“Oh, heya, this is Tennis Match.” Sunset did a doubletake on that. While at one point after her change of heart, Scotch Bonnet, Compass Rose and Tennis Match had held a grudge, later on she’d made up with Rose and was even indirectly responsible for Rose’s relationship with her girlfriend, Boysenberry. Of course, that had been due to the fact that Rose had a crush on the former unicorn herself, but Sunset had navigated those waters with the grace of a soft rock chanteuse, steering a happy couple together and making a friend in the process.

“Well, hi. Forgive me for asking, but why’d you call? I didn’t even think you had my phone number,” Sunset told her.

“Well, to be honest, I didn’t. But…I promised Rose that I would make up with you, because you’ve been responsible for a lot of the happiness in her life, lately. I didn’t think that she’d last with Berry, but they’re perfect for each other, and…well, I guess you’re not as bad as Scotch and I thought. So if you’re free this afternoon, I wanted to take you out to lunch to make up for everything I’ve done.”

“Thanks, but that’s really not necessary.”

“No, I think it is. The thing is, you changed…and I didn’t. Up until Rose told me how much you did for her and Berry, well, I thought you were a self-centered bitch. But she told me about how you helped Lyra and Bon-Bon and how Trixie vouches for you. I don’t know Minuette well, but she said that you helped her with something that she can never repay you for. Everyone I talked to has said that you went from being the girl the world feared to being the one that they trust most…but I never believed it. If nothing else, I owe you for being there for Rose in the way that Scotch and I should’ve.”

“I only did what was right,” Sunset insisted. She wasn’t looking for a reward and while she appreciated Tennis Match’s overture, Sunset felt a bit guilty about accepting. “In any case, I’ll have to take a pass, as I have to work today.”

“That’s okay, I’m free tomorrow. Besides, I think I can get Rose and Berry to join us.”

That clenched it; while she might be able to talk her way out of lunch with a former adversary, she couldn’t do that to two friends. “Well, if that’s the case, sure, I can do it. Let me know when and where, and I’m all set.”

“Sounds like a plan then. I’ll text you this afternoon and let you know, okay?”

“Works for me. See you later!” Grateful to hang up, Sunset clicked off the phone and set it down, plopping back down on the bed. She wanted to go back to sleep, but that wasn’t likely to happen, given the call.

There was a knock on the door and before Sunset could say anything, Octavia walked in, carrying her backpack. “Hey, what’s up?” Sunset asked as she looked at her cousin, who did not look very happy.

“That was close,” the raven-haired girl sighed, plopping on the couch. “Spike’s penchant for going through everyone’s stuff nearly got Twily’s gift exposed right when she was in my room!” Her fists clenched in anger. “So fucking pissed.”

“I’ll talk to him about it,” Sunset promised.

“I’ll just tell Aunt Velvet when she gets home,” Octavia replied. “In the meanwhile, do you mind if I wrap the gift in here? Twily’s downstairs vacuuming and that’ll keep her busy, but I also need a place to hide it.”

“Ask my parents; I’m sure they’ll be happy to put it in their closet for the meanwhile.”

“That’s a good idea,” Octavia commented as she pulled a book out of her backpack. It was encased in an acrylic box, and just by the look alone, was well over a hundred years old. “This is part of the gift,” the musician explained as she pulled out some gift wrapping and ribbon. “The other part of it will be here next week – solid redwood bookshelf, custom made just for her.”

“Wow, that’s nice,” Sunset replied. “What’s the book?”

“Went to Books & Sewing Machines and got this one; apparently the owner says that Twily’s wanted it for some time now.” Octavia passed the book over. “No idea why, but hey, not my book.”

Sunset looked at the tome within the plastic case: “A Treatise on Magick, by Midnight Black.” Sunset handed it back, and Octavia immediately started to wrap it. “Huh. But Twily doesn’t believe that magic exists, or else she’d be making best buddies with Trixie and Lyra.”

“Maybe she just wants to research the overall concept of it, to wonder where it split from science?” Octavia suggested. “Didn’t modern chemistry originate out of all the screw-ups in alchemy? Anyway, so…what’d you get her?”

“I…haven’t had much time to go shopping,” Sunset sheepishly admitted. “Between working and the ‘rentals insisting that I stay home because of the Dead Hand Killer, haven’t had time to hit the mall.”

“Well, Amazon does overnight shipping,” Octavia reminded her, “and they gift wrap, too. You’d better not forget her birthday, Sunny. This one’s going to be really special for her, and if you screw it up, well….”

“Fine, I get it, I get it. Well, I’ve got to go downstairs and get some breakfast; I have a long day today. Take whatever time you need; Spike knows he’s not allowed in here on pain of death or worse.”

“Thanks.”

Sunset finally went downstairs to see Twilight sunnily cleaning up. “Aren’t you being the domestic goddess?” the former teased the latter.

“Oh, quit it; at least I don’t sleep in ‘till all hours,” Twilight replied with a grin. “Finally getting up for breakfast?”

“You know I like to sleep in.”

“Sure I do: it’s how others can tell you’re adopted,” the plum-haired girl teased. “The rest of us are early risers, even Dad.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, tease the new girl,” Sunset said as she poked her head into the fridge. “Just be glad that I’m in a good mood this morning.”

“Whatever. So what are you plans today?”

Poking her head out with some eggs and bacon, she commented, “Well, first thing I need to do is head over to Olde Towne and pick up something for Rarity. Since we live closer, she asked if I would head over to Precious Memory’s and grab something that she needed.”

“Mind if I go with you? I wanted to do some shopping today, and Tavi said she wanted to get some musical practice in, so she’s staying home.”

Sunset grinned. “Sure, it’d be great to get a little sibling bonding time in, don’t you think?”

“Plus, we can leave Spike here to Tavi’s tender mercies. By the time we get home, he should be taped to the ceiling or something.”

Seated in their rental hotel in Sunnytown, Blackthorn sat and worked on gun maintenance. At the same time, he had a phone dialing a particular number. He’d called it before, but this time he wanted to make sure that he gave a second chance. Usually that wasn’t possible in his business, but the choice here was between losing more valuable troops and choosing someone who could get the job done.

Finally, the phone answered. “Hello?”

“Hey, Sunshine,” Blackthorn growled. “Ain’t got time for an old friend?”

“Really? Wasn’t aware that you qualified as an old friend,” Sable Loam said on the other side. “And the answer is still no.”

“Really? I think you might change your mind,” Blackthorn said, reaching over and opening a laptop. “Oh, and congratulations on the girl, by the way. Real looker, too. Did you know that she’s got this birthmark under her right breast that looks like a sun?”

The voice on the other end was murderously cold. “You did not—”

“Oh, and the carpet matches the curtains, too. Nice. Plus, she keeps in shape. That’s gotta be a bonus.”

“I swear, if you touch her, Blackthorn, I’m going to fucking ki—”

“Slot’s open, Sergeant. I’ll call you when I need you – and that’ll be pretty soon.” Unceremoniously, he hung up the phone. Heh, wonder how deep she goes for him. After this is done, I’ll need me a new girlfriend – maybe I can convince her to trade up.

Sable burst out of the house, EK knife in hand, and raced for the side of the building he and his girlfriend lived in. Looking to where the upstairs master bathroom was, sure enough, was a remote camera, painted almost the same shade as the next door house. Angry, he threw the knife and hit the camera, breaking it off and sending both to fall down into the neighboring house, which fortunately, was for sale and thus vacant. Withdrawing his sidearm, he picked the lock of the backdoor to the house and walked in, armed.

A quick sweep of the house showed that it was empty, and that people were just recently inside. Then the screech of tires was heard, and Sable raced out the front door to see a Jeep race down the road and flip the corner at high speeds. Holstering the gun, he walked back into the house, locking it from the inside, and went right out the back but not before he noticed something on the kitchen counter.

To his anger, it was a picture of Celestia, soaping herself off in the shower, and the timestamp on the printed paper showed that it was less than five minutes ago. Next to it was a note that said THIS ONE’S FOR YOU. WE KEPT THE HIGH-REZ ONES. SEE YOU LATER.

No, you fucking won’t. Sable crumped up the paper, shoved it in his pocket, then went back home, pausing only to grab the camera and knife. Setting all that down on the kitchen table, he then walked into the kitchen, fired up the stove, and placed the offending picture into the flames, setting it ablaze easily; he waited until it was half burnt, then placed the rest under the sink faucet, soaking it, then threw the rest in the garbage disposal, firing that up and letting the machine chew up the rest and flushed it down the sink drain. Finally he set the oven for self-cleaning mode, knowing the smell of that would mask the stench of burnt paper in the air, then sat down at the table to take apart the camera.

Ten minutes later, Celestia came down, toweling off her wet hair. She was dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans and she looked beautiful to him as always. But the anger in his mind stewed as he knew that lowlifes also had her pictures, and would no doubt make use of them in the sickest way possible…unless he played along.

“Well, that felt great,” she said with a smile, plopping down in the seat across from him. “So, any ideas where we should go for brunch?”

He gave her a smile, hoping she wouldn’t notice it was forced. “Actually, I was thinking of just staying home today, you and me. We can catch up on some TV and I could do some cooking and hope you don’t make fun of my feeble attempts to make Italian food.”

“You tease me as always,” she said with a laugh. “But what brought this on?” she inquired. “This morning you wanted to go grab brunch and then start moving your stuff here.”

“Oh, you could say that I had some inspiration,” he said with a completely straight face.

“As you can see, Captain, we’ve built the bolthole facility here. On the outside, it looks like a prefab cabin built on State or Federal property. But the facility goes down for three levels and that should be enough to take on survivors in case we’re attacked,” Clavichord Thrust said to Cantata and her fellow officers. “I’ll be taking the OIC position here, and we’re already working to set up an additional SCIF so we’ll have an additional intelligence facility.”

“Sounds like you have everything set,” Violin Elegy mused.

“Yeah. We have enough space for the sixty regular troops that you’re stationing here, and in the event of an emergency we have open bay berthing for the rest. Things will be tight if we get to that point, but manageable.” They followed her down a set of stairs to the bottommost part of the hidden base, where a hastily-built sanitation facility was built, meant to supply the whole base with the necessary water systems while not directly tying into the county’s system. “And with the auxiliary room, here, that’s that.”

“Anything else we need to know?” Rhapsody Blue asked.

“There’s something I’d like to know,” Cantata asked. “Yes, Commander – care to tell us where you were last night?”

“I was here, working with my team, finishing up the SCIF, why?” Elegy looked at her commanding officer strangely. “What’s up, Canta?”

Cantata looked at Rhapsody. “Your call, XO.”

“Care to tell us where you really were, Clavi?” Rhapsody replied.

“I just told you guys. Me and my crew were busy finish—”

“—ing up a deal to sell us out to Les SCARS,” Violin Elegy said, anger in her eyes. “Petty Officer Sharp Piccolo confessed. All your people have been arrested and will be dealt with.” The look in her eyes was one of betrayal. “We grew up together, Clavi! How could you?”

“Okay, guys, ha ha, you’ve had your joke.” A second later, and the stony-faced looks on her friends, suddenly horror struck the woman. “Wait – you’re serious about this? You’re crazy! We grew up together – you guys are like my sisters! You know I wouldn’t betray the Sisterhood!”

The look on Cantata’s eyes was one of infinite hurt. “I loved you like a sister, Clavi.” Then the hurt went away, replaced by the steely-eyed commanding officer as she said, “Play Surveillance Recording One, please, XO.”

The look of anguish was on Rhapsody’s face as she pulled a phone out of her pocket, and played an audio file:

“Yes, this is Travertine. May I have the price for the shirt?” The file sounded clearly scratchy, as though the person was calling overseas. Moreover, to her shock, Clavichord recognized the voice as her own.

Another voice, clearly on the other end, replied, “Thanks for the information for the Dubai silk blouse. We were able to get it at a great deal.”

“Then perhaps you can point me to another bargain, and in turn, I can tell you where to get that clothing you so very much desire.”

The conversation went on for a few more minutes, with the look of horror growing on Clavichord’s face as she heard her own voice say things she knew she’d never spoken, speaking to a stranger in a blatantly obvious code. If it wasn’t for the fact that her childhood friends believed she’d actually betrayed them, she’d have thought it to be a complete hoax and an utter prank.

Elegy walked over and slapped her. “How could you, Clavi? What did they offer you to backstab us – your sisters, your family?”

“I didn’t do it – that’s not me!” the SIREN shouted, the look on her eyes aghast as she rubbed her cheek. “You girls know me – we grew up together!”

Cantata looked at her with studious eyes. “I want to believe you, Clavi, but the evidence is pretty damning. We all looked it over for traces of electronic modifications and the like, but we didn’t find anything. The only thing points to someone who has the exact same vocal signature as you, like an identical twin; or that you really did do this.”

“But I didn’t, Canta! You have to believe me!”

Cantata sighed. “Girls…I believe her.”

“So do I,” Rhapsody replied, “but we want to make sure. She’d do the same if it was one of us.” Elegy said nothing, but instead merely nodded.

“Okay, here’s the deal, then, Clavi: we’re going to place you in confinement to quarters until one of our personnel can definitively prove it’s not you. While we do believe you, given the loss of lives to the intelligence put out by the mole, the rest of the unit might not be as accommodating.” The lead SIREN put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“And that should do it,” Octavia said to herself as she finished the wrapping. She would have completed it earlier, except for Spike’s repeated pestering, then his friends coming over and her having to set the rules for them. Finally, though, she heard them gaming downstairs and could focus once again on what she intended to do in the first place.

She took a final look at the gift, completed in its wrapping, then shoved it under Sunset’s bed, hoping it would make for a good enough hiding spot until her aunt and uncle got back and they could cover it further. With that done, she stuck the extra wrapping, tape and scissors in Sunset’s desk, then plopped on the bed; she was certainly no stranger to it, given that she’d slept with both her cousins on a regular basis – and that was something she was never going to say aloud, lest someone get some really weird ideas.

Like all the strange ideas that were floating in her head as of late, many of which involved murder – or worse – to Sunset, as if Octavia hated her with a passion, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Octavia loved Sunset, not only because they were family, but because she’d been such a force in bringing Twilight out of her shell; the latter was nowhere near the girl she’d been months before, and she had her sister to thank, more so than even Octavia. Admittedly, that hurt on an emotional level, but Twilight never meant her any harm, right?

That was when a peculiar scent filled her nose, a cloying, sweet scent that reminded her of mint and really grabbed her attention. Sitting back up, she sniffed once in the air, catching the scent from something atop Sunset’s dresser. Getting off the bed, Octavia looked at it briefly before identifying the small metal tin that Sunset had bought at one of the Sanrio stores the last time they went to the mall. Popping it open revealed the treasure in question: jellybean-sized dots of a bluish green color and an appearance very much like gumdrops.

Without even thinking, she popped one in her mouth, carefully chewing. The result was an explosion of tangy citrus and mint on her tongue, the flavors blending perfectly even before the sugar’s sweetness kicked in. In a word, they tasted, well, magical.

I wonder what these are? Octavia wondered as she turned the tin around in her hands, looking for some kind of information. Some kind of Japanese candy? I’ll probably have to go back there and get her some more, the musician told herself as she popped another one in her mouth, then another and then ano—

“What are you doing?” Octavia turned to see Twilight standing in the door, carrying a bunch of bags. It was clear that the two had gone to the mall prior to Sunset going shopping and from the looks of some of the bags, Twilight was dropping some off for her sister.

“I, uh, took a nap in here and…then I thought I’d have a candy or two,” Octavia said with an awkward smile, glad that she’d hidden the gift in time. Holding out the tin towards her cousin, she said, “Want one?”

“Tavi, those aren’t candies,” Twilight said, a look of worry on her face. “Those are incense dots! She got them from Trixie’s mom’s store and she didn’t know where to put them which is why they’re in there, an—” The rest of Twilight’s words were in vain as Octavia vaulted past her at high-speed and raced for the bathroom, locking herself in. A few seconds later, the sounds of retching could be heard. Wanting to help her cousin, Twilight cheerfully added, “Well, Sunny did say that they are non-toxic in case something like this happened….”

More retching came from the bathroom.

“Uh…I think I’d better go get you some water, Tavi,” Twilight said in awkward tones. “I’ll…be right back.”

“So, do you feel up to going out today?” Coco asked her cousin as they ate lunch. “I figured it’d be a great way to show you around the Canterlot area.”

Shimmer gave her younger cousin a smile. “That’d be great, thanks. All this sitting around is driving me mad, honestly. Besides, I promised to get some gifts for my friends. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Not really. I wish my friend Crackle was in town, as she’s really good at that sort of thing, but apparently she’s visiting her grandparents in China for the rest of the month – I think you would’ve liked her. And as for my other friends—”

“One thing at a time, Coco,” Shimmer said with a soft smile. “I’m not really comfortable around strangers. Besides, I thought we could use this time to get to know one another personally, given that I don’t have many cousins, myself.”

“Fair enough. You know, why don’t we start in Everfree Glades, then? I’d say Olde Towne San Palomino, but that place tends to be busy; and besides, we can hit the mall tomorrow, if that’s okay with you – I have to get a birthday gift for a friend.”

“Works for me! Maybe we can get some swimsuits and then go to Horseshoe Bay the day after? I hear that place is pretty sweet this time of year.”

Coco took the last drink from her glass, then rose from her chair. “Let me see if the chauffeur’s available, and if so, we can get going.”

Gilda, by her own admission, wasn’t a girl who scared easily. By her very aggressive nature, she was typically thought of as “scary black woman”, even when she was trying to turn a new leaf. Maybe it was the new clothing, designed to bring out the sensitive side of her. Maybe it was the therapy sessions she had to attend during her school year at the Blanks, part of the price she had to pay for staying out of jail.

Or maybe it had to do with the two girls sitting across from her, their eyes looking down at her like twin sets of lasers that would cut her to the bone. Either way, fear was starting to become an emotion she was slowly but surely getting the hang of.

“So, let me get this straight,” Applejack said, leaning forwards on the table. “Y’ wanna make nice with Sunny after y’ done ran a pig sticker in her? An’ ya want us to be the ones to let ya? Are ya fucking stupid or just brain damaged?”

“AJ, let me handle this, okay?” Rainbow commented, the look on her face indicating that perhaps this wasn’t such a great idea after all before turning to Gilda. “So, anything you want to say?”

Gilda gave an awkward smile, thinking along the same lines as Rainbow. “I’m…sorry for threatening you at knifepoint and was going to send you out in public topless?”

“Well, that’s a start,” Rainbow replied, “but I want something more akin, to, oh, I dunno, the truth? Granted, you’re going to do whatever it is you’re doing, but I want to protect my friends – something I thought you were, once.”

“Dash….” she started, then stopped. “No, Rainbow – look, when I was a kid…I should’ve asked for help. I should’ve not let my birth father do to me what he did. That was bad enough. But the worst part is that in getting away from him? I was already infected by his…well, I suppose you could say that in trying to get away from him, I became him. And now he’s rotting in jail for years, and I was nearly on the way there as well, despite the best efforts of my mother and stepfather, who’s been more of a father to me than my old man ever was.

“Maybe you’ll never forgive me, Rainbow. If that’s the case…I’m okay with that. I’m already used to having my boyfriend dump me, my best friend ignore me, and having to start from scratch. I’m at the bottom, and that’s probably where I belong right now. But if I have a chance to improve myself, don’t you think I should take that chance? Even if she doesn’t forgive me…maybe I’ll have the chance to forgive myself.” Gilda looked at her former friend and said, “Look where I went and where it got me. It’s time for me to take the higher road.”

Both girls on the other end of the table blinked, then looked at the newcomer. It was Rainbow that finally spoke: “Okay, who the hell are you and what did you do with Gilda Griffin’s corpse? Seriously, if this is like that old 70s film about the pod people and shit….”

“Wait, y’ watched that?” Applejack asked. “Thought you said it was stupid.”

“Well, Scoots liked it, so I was willing to sit through it for the sake of my little sis.” She then turned back to Gilda. “Okay. This is against my better judgement, but I’ll arrange it. We were willing to forgive Sunset for everything she did to us, so for me to turn you away for that would be hypocrical.”

“Hypocritical?” Gilda offered.

“Yeah, that.” Rainbow looked at Applejack, who got the message immediately.

“We’ll call you in an hour. If she’s willing t’ meet with ya, then we’ll tell you where she is. If not, well…Ah’ll guess y’all have to live with it.”

Gilda ran a hand through her short white hair. “I guess that’ll have to do, then.”

“No more,” Compass Rose told Tennis Match as she dropped her racket and doubled over, panting. “You’re too good at this, Matchie.”

Tennis Match grinned as she walked around the net to join her friend. “Rose, you’re not half bad yourself. You really should consider joining the school’s tennis club. I think you’d do great!”

“Yeah, says the girl who’s a shoo-in for the Olympic tryouts next year!”

Tennis Match rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. I still have a long way to go, Rose. Played against a ranked girl from Shasta U last week, and while I held my own, it was clear that she was beyond me. I’m not there yet, but give me a couple of years.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll be there to cheer you on,” Rose said, adjusting her glasses. “I’m just not the sporting type.”

“But I thought that Berry liked you hot and sweaty?” the other girl teased and Rose turned a bright shade of red as a result. Noting that, Tennis Match asked, “Don’t tell me you two….”

“Maybe,” Rose said, her blush starting to extend beyond her face.

“That’s great, really! I’m glad you found someone who makes you happy, Rose. Now if Scotch and I can find guys of our own, we’ll be set.” Picking up the spare tennis racket that she’d lent Rose, her eyes drifted to the clock against the wall. “What time did you say you were meeting Berry?”

Rose then adjusted her glasses and gasped. “Shit, I’m late! Sorry, Matchie, but I have to go – I promised Berry we’d go to the movies this afternoon.”

“No problem; I was going to practice a bit more against the backboard. It’s three blocks to where my mom works, so I can just walk over there afterwards. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

Tennis Match laughed. “If you’re that worried about me, I’ll call you later tonight and you can tell me how your date went, okay? Now go shower and get ready! That girl of yours deserves you at your best!”

“Yeah, that she does. See ya later!” Waving goodbye to her friend, Rose walked off towards the locker rooms, leaving Tennis Match to pick up the balls the two had hit, before then moving over to the backboard and solo practice. She did this for a few minutes, until someone else, another girl, joined her. Nothing was said, but instinctively the two started playing single-wall tennis, moving and going at it with a skill that made Tennis Match get a second workout, happy to play someone a little bit higher up on the skill level.

Finally, the two stopped and Tennis Match gave her opponent a tired smile. “Hey, you’re good.”

“That’s what they tell me,” the other girl replied. “Hope I’ll get the chance to prove it to the tennis federation when they start doing quals next year.”

“You’re going for the quals? Neat!” Tennis Match cooed. “You seem like you know your way around a court.”

“Yeah, I do,” the girl said, offering her hand.

Tennis Match took it and introduced herself. “And you are?”

“You can just call me Contralto,” the other girl said with a wolfish smile.

“Look, this is a really bad time for me,” Sunset said over the phone as she walked into Sugarcube Corner Café.

“Look, Sunny, as weird as this sounds, she’s sincere about it,” Rainbow replied. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so nonbigiling—”

“Nonbeguiling.”

“Whatever. The fact is, she’s on the up and up about it and I think it’d be good for both of you. Besides, both me and AJ will be there. Seriously, what can go wrong?”

“Didn’t AJ have to bail you out of whatever Gilda and Lightning Dust tried to do to you? Besides, I can take care of myself.”

“Yes, I’m sure you can – but nobody wants the place burned down due to whatever magic fireball you threw at her. Look, just trust us, okay?”

“Fine,” Sunset sighed. “I guess I’ll see you guys later. Bye.” Hanging up the phone, she leaned over the countertop, face down. “Why me?”

“Is everything okay, dear?” Mrs. Cake asked.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Sunset groaned.

Coco watched her cousin as the older girl looked around the town in a sense of jamais vu. “I swear I’ve been here before,” Shimmer told her. A few seconds later, she pointed at a coffee shop. “If I remember correctly, that used to be a drug store there with an ice cream counter. I used to love getting the chocolate malted crunch – it was my favorite – and then Dad used to tease me by pretending to take licks from my ice cream cone, followed by Mom admonishing him for that.” Shimmer sighed. “Hard to believe that it was years ago.”

“I was just a baby when Uncle Summer was killed,” Coco told her, “so I don’t really remember him, sorry.”

“It’s okay. Sometimes I’m afraid that I’ll wake up one day and I won’t recall that scratchy stubble he had because he didn’t like to shave and Mom insisted on it. Sometimes I can barely remember his voice, or that I think of my uncle Noblesse’s instead of his. And sometimes I wish that I wouldn’t hear my mother cry because she still misses the only man that ever won her heart.” A wistful look came over her face and she groaned, planting face in palm. “Listen to me: Our grandmother just passed away and here I am, whining like a little girl, when she wanted more for me. I’m such an idiot.”

“No, you miss him,” Coco told her cousin, “and that’s natural. I’m lucky: All my life I’ve had Mom, Dad, Fancy and Nana, and my best friend, Crackle, too. But I can’t imagine the sorrow that you feel because your father’s gone.”

“He would’nt’ve been if he hadn’t taken me to the circus that day. Mom was busy with work, and so Dad took me, and we had fun. But then the car blew a tire and we crashed. By some miracle, I was the one that survived. He didn’t.” Shimmer felt her eyes grow wet with tears that she never thought would end. “And I blamed myself. Ran away, first chance I could get, and the cops brought me back. I felt like I deserved to be the one to die. I don’t admit this to my mom, but sometimes I still do.”

“But that wouldn’t be the best thing for you or your mom. Look, my best friend Crackle? She absolutely loved her older sister – technically half-sister – and she and Suri were tight as tight could be. But a couple of weeks ago something happened that Crackle still won’t tell me about, and she and her sister aren’t on speaking terms. I can’t imagine not being able to speak to my brother, or his girlfriend Fleur, or any of my other friends…well, maybe Scootaloo’s an exception to that, but she’s my friend regardless. In any case, Aunt Soli loves you, Shimmy. You are her daughter and for you to say that you’d be better off dead…would that really be the case?”

Shimmer shook her head in surprise. “So when did you get all wise?”

Coco winked. “Learned it from my mentor, Twilight Sparkle. Twily’s been helping me adjust to some of the stuff I’ll need to be aware of at Zacherle.” Coco then went on to explain some of the problems she’d had with a couple of seniors and that Twilight and her cousin Octavia had stepped in to mentor Coco and her friend Crackle; that normally seniors would do it but that in the wake of the inexplicable rupture between Crackle and Suri, the two juniors – both divas, another concept she had to explain to her cousin – stepped in to watch over the two girls, and used their authority to prevent further shenanigans. “According to Tavi, it was when some seniors spiked a drink at a restaurant that me and Crackle went to that they just happened to be at, that was the final straw. On the bright side, I have some new friends now.”

“Sounds vastly different from my life,” Shimmer said as she went on to discuss her life in Paris, and her friends back home. Coco laughed when Shimmer told her the part about her friends’ utter shock when they discovered that she was a princess of the Bonaparte dynasty. “Mom and I don’t live like the rest of the family does; we have a normal house, I don’t even have a car yet, and I take the train like most people my age. If it wasn’t for the fact that I travel a lot and that we spend plenty of time on the family estates, nobody would know at all that we’re royalty.”

“Wow, and to th—” Coco started before she was bumped into by a pair of girls. Abruptly, the young girl collapsed to the ground in a heap, ending up in an undignified sprawl on the sidewalk.

“Hey, watch where you’re walking!” a girl with long blonde hair and lavender eyes snarled. Her face was contorted in an angry sneer, and her posture indicated that she was looking for a fight, a position bolstered by the strategically-ripped jeans and the Metallica t-shirt she wore. Behind her was a meek girl, wearing white jeans and a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt; her hair was a short dark fuschia, while her bright blue eyes radiated a kind of worry, though Coco wasn’t sure what she was worried about.

“Hey, I’m talking to you, stupid!” the first girl said, when the second one grabbed her hand.

“It was just an accident, Lav, okay?” the first girl stated in what seemed like a plaintive whine. “Let’s just go, okay?”

“No, Fuchsia, we’re not,” “Lav” contradicted her. “This girl just tried to knock me over and I’m not leaving without an apology.”

“Lavender, we’re gonna be late for the movie!” the girl named Fuchsia whimpered.

“No, I’m going to get my apology if it means beating it out of her.”

“Excuse me,” Shimmer began, stepping into the fray. “It was an accident; nobody’s fault, really. So why don’t we just let this matter lay at rest, then you and your friend can go your way and we can go ours, okay?”

“Oh, you.” To Shimmer’s surprise, Lavender got right in her face. “I knew that sooner or later I’d run into you, Little Miss Hot Shit,” the other girl hissed in a threatening tone.

“Excuse me?” the flame-haired girl asked.

“You heard me. You think you’re the shit just because you have CHS under your boot,” Lavender intoned, “but I run Forest Edge and so to me, you’re nothing.” The blonde poked Shimmer repeatedly in the chest, vowing, “You can have your little shit place, but don’t you dare think that makes you more than just a small fish in a big pond, because in this place, I’m the shark, got that?”

Shimmer’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I like your tone.”

“Yeah, well I don’t give a fuck what you think about my tone. I’ll just say this one last time: stay the hell out of my territory, bitch, or you’d better hope that serial killer finds you before I do.”

Fuchsia tugged at Lavender’s arms. “Lav, we gotta go!”

Lavender sighed. “Fine, fine, we’re going.” The two then walked in the direction they’d intended, but not before Lavender turned and added, “Last warning, bitch. Better heed it!” With that, the two walked on, leaving Shimmer and Coco to watch as they receded into the throngs on the sidewalk.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Coco said, brushing the dirt off her clothes. “Admittedly…Crackle usually does, but I don’t want anyone to think of me as a baby or anything.”

“No, that wasn’t the case. You did nothing wrong and that girl was a bully. Though strangely, she acted as if she knew me.”

A thought crossed Coco’s face. “Do you think she confused you with someone she knows?”

“Probably,” Shimmer said with a smile. “I mean, how many American-born French princesses do you have running around the Canterlot metro area? I’m going to guess not many.”

“Probably not,” the younger girl said with a laugh.

Watching from across the street, Flash Sentry looked in surprise. I knew she’d changed, but…I didn’t think that much. From his vantage point at the coffee shop he watched as his former girlfriend, alongside a younger girl he didn’t know the identity of, backed down from a fight with Forest Edge High School’s Queen Bitch Supreme, Lavender Lace. Despite her “sweet and sugary” name, the girl was as much of a problem child as Gilda Griffin or Lightning Dust, but with the bonus of Sunset’s intelligence and instincts and was usually able to avoid the trouble that would have otherwise come her way. In fact, the only reason he knew of her is because of a few romps in the sack that he’d had with her before he hooked up with Blossomforth; he’d hoped that someday he could have sweet talked Lavender and Sunset into a ménage a trois, but unfortunately for him, Sunset dumped him and Lavender had hooked up with that timid little piece of tail with her, a waste of space named Fuchsia Blush that somehow managed to make Fluttershy look like a street tough.

But that wasn’t the important part. No, the important part was that he just saw Sunset back down from a fight; and more importantly, she was showing kindness to another girl. The Sunset he knew never showed that consideration to others, at least not until the day he ran into her at that restaurant in Horseshoe Bay, all to protect that girl that she claimed was her sister.

Twilight Sparkle, a girl that Sunset had never mentioned before in all their years together. A girl that, for reasons he still didn’t fathom, seemed to remain on the tip of his tongue. He wanted her, not like he’d ever wanted anyone in his life. Sunset, Lavender, Blossomforth – all the others – were nothing more than mere conquests, while Twilight was the grand prize. The kind of prize he might even settle down with, though to him that was an insane idea.

Besides, Sunset would never allow it.

But then again, he said as he watched the two girls walk off, that might not be a problem much longer.

If there was one thing that Sunset had learned to do over her time working at Sugarcube Corner Café, it was to focus on the work and filter out all the ambient distraction, whether it was the hateful stares of others, at first; or, for a more current example, the hopeful stares of the occasional person who wanted to ask her out. Eventually, when she got her magic back, she was able to additionally categorize and balance her mental filtering with a sense of what her customers needed, and finely honed it to the point that she was the legendary waitress of Sugarcube Corner, even outpacing Pinkie’s popularity (though she was building her own rep over at the Knickerbocker.)

But as Gilda Griffin walked into the door, flanked by a very wary Rainbow and Applejack, for the first time in a while, Sunset wondered what to do. Part of her recoiled as the phantom pain of her wound burned through her. Another part of her, the pony within her soul, wanted to do what ponies generally did best: run, run fast and run far. A third part of her wanted to utilize what she’d been taught by the closest pony she had to a biological mother and burn Gilda to death via fireball. But the human within Sunset, the human she currently was, remained conflicted and confused.

Then Gilda said her name: “Sunset.”

“Gilda?” Sunset’s hand went up to her face and her eyes opened in surprise. She felt her skin blanche and her breath stop as her heart began to pump blood through the body in preparation for the former part of the “flight or fight” protocol. That in itself warred with the need to cast the most powerful spell she could and leave not even a trace of a blood smear left of her assailant. Both sides clashed, the fearful and the fearless, and neither counseled her on what was the best choice. Even friendship itself seemed hollow when facing the girl that had very much did her harm.

“Look,” Gilda continued, “It’s clear that I scare you, and that…I guess…is natural. Maybe a year ago I would’ve enjoyed it. I know I would’ve craved it. But that person isn’t me anymore. I can’t let it be me, Sunset. Just like you changed…I need to, too. And the first step…is apologizing to someone that I know I hurt, almost as bad as I have my own parents.”

“Sunny, she’s not kidding,” Rainbow spoke up. “Trust me, AJ and I have been riding this the whole day and I think she’s legit. Not saying you owe her anything, given the situation, but…as your friend, maybe you should give it a shot.”

“Ah agree, sugarcube. Usually Ah’m not one to say no to something like this, but given yer past with her, Ah’ll be the first to admit that Ah balked,” Applejack added. “But Ah think Gilda’s on the up and up, and maybe this is something she needs.”

“Something she needs?” Sunset said in a cold tone that surprised even her.

“Eyup. Just like you did when you changed your ways. You needed us to forgive ya before you could even hope to forgive yerself.”

“I see.” Sunset unconsciously ran her hand down to where the scar was, and watched as Gilda briefly looked at the spot before wincing. She tried to square the angry girl wearing the tan jeans and torn up clothing stabbing her with the girl wearing the rather preppy clothing before her, trying very hard not to be what she was. Maybe it was better, but maybe not.

Her mind wandered back towards a time when she hadn’t been very far from where Gilda metaphorically stood:

“There,” Rainbow replied, shrugging her shoulders. “Can’t believe that….” She then looked at Sunset. “Sunset, what is wrong with you?”

“I…I just…I just wanted….”

Rainbow allowed herself a rare moment of not-coolness. “Look, Sunset…it’s a Monday. People are just getting used to everything that happened this past Friday. Nothing happens overnight – literally or metaphically.”

“Metaphorically?” Sunset supplied.

“Yeah, that.” She looked at the other teen, who was starting to stink of coffee and whose clothes had acquired a very caffeinated stain. “Plus, really? This ‘meek’ you isn’t…well, you.”

“I know, but… I have to make amends. Truthfully, it took a lot of effort to even get out of bed this morning.”

And I’ve spent every day of my life since making up for that, Sunset realized. It’s not the quick answers I was looking for, but what the Princess told me: A lifetime of discovery is just that, a lifetime, not a single shortcut-riddled garden path. Her eye looked down at where the stab wound was, covered by her t-shirt, then back at Gilda, who was starting to look a little worried. It’s like that old saying that Twily told me about the other day: “Mankind was always meant for his reach to exceed his grasp, or else what’s a heaven for?” If I don’t forgive her, then I’m not worth anything that anyone – or anypony – blessed me with, certainly not the trust and friendship of the Princess of Magic herself.

Sunset closed her eyes. I don’t know if I can be half as trusting as you need me to be, Twilight…but I can try.

Gesturing to the empty table, she said, “Guys, take a seat. AJ, apple spice chai for you; Rainbow, double mocha Americano, right? And what about you, Gilda?”

Gilda, plopping into the empty seat next to Rainbow, said, “Um…iced white chocolate mocha.”

Sunset gave the same smile she did with every customer. “Sure, be right back.”

Gilda looked at the two of them. “Did I miss something?”

“Yeah. Y’ got yer foot in the door, Gilda,” Applejack said, leaning back into the seat. “For your sake: don’t fuck it up.”

Cup watched as Sunset walked towards the coffee machine. “Go ahead and take the time to unwind, Sunset, dear.” When Sunset looked at her in surprise, Cup smiled. “I can see it in your eyes right now. You’re feeling emotionally fragile at the moment and you need some time to compose yourself. Go ahead and take a few minutes in the back; I’ll take care of the drinks.”

“Thanks, Mrs. C,” Sunset said softly, giving a wan smile to the woman before she let herself stumble to the kitchen area, crumple to the ground and put her arms around herself in a comforting hug while she shivered, the adrenaline in her body taking her on a very uncomfortable physiological ride, the tears coming to her eyes before she could even wipe them, the sob uttering from her mouth before she could even bite off the anguish.

Clavichord sat on the bunk in the room where she was confined in. That very fact galled her: She knew she’d never betray the friends she grew up with, or the Sisterhood. After all, there wasn’t much choice: CSIS declared Poutine’s life forfeit when he decided that the best thing for the SIRENs was to be disbanded and in doing so, declared war against the organization that had been responsible for much of Canada’s stealth “iron fist in a velvet glove” strategy. Let the Americans make the big show with the SEALs, Delta Force and the Green Berets; SIREN, more so than any of the other CANSOF forces, was the dagger in the back of the enemy when they were waiting for others to break down the door instead.

That had set Cantata and the others against their former masters in a war of attrition that the SIRENs were slowly losing, if only because CSIS could field far more personnel and materiel against them. Which made the whole idea of a mole within the organization confusing at best and nonsensical at worst. If Les SCARs continued the way they were going, eventually they would have the Sisterhood destroyed with little collateral damage. Cantata’s plan to take CSIS HQ would succeed, but it would be a pyrrhic victory, with all of them just as dead as the person they would go in to kill: CSIS Director Golden Rule. They had to know it was a matter of time, then.

So why then the subterfuge? To sow dissent amongst the Sisterhood? That was clearly what happened in the short term, but in the long term Cantata would prove her to be innocent and the SIRENs would be wary for any further attempts to sow dissent amongst the SIRENs. If anything, using former SIRENs – classified reports stated that some who had betrayed the Sisterhood still existed out there somewhere – would’ve been something that would have been far more effective. And yet, this was a complete and utter failure.

But why? In the long run, it did nothing other than take me out of the equation for a bit, and preventing me from being able to do my duties as the Intelligence Officer. But what if—

Clavichord thought nothing further as she suddenly felt five spikes punch through her chest, and the searing pain that came with them. She heard a voice whisper in her ear, “And I really never liked you at all, Commander.” As her vision began to tunnel into darkness, Contralto told her, “Oh, and just for your information: It was the Captain who set you up for this.”

“Can…ta…?” Clavichord managed to spit out of her mouth, as it filled with blood. Then she felt her head being pulled backwards, a monster from hell stare at her with eyes of malicious glee, and raise a hand ending in long, sharp claws. Then the claws moved forward…and Lt. Cmdr. Clavichord Thrust, formerly of the RCN, knew nothing more.

The four girls were laughing while Mrs. Cake had the run of the café for the day. Though the matron kept an occasional eye on the quartet sitting at table six, she relaxed slightly as nothing had happened in the past few hours, save for Sunset gradually calming down. Though Cup’s practiced eye could tell that her employee was still ill at ease with the other girl, the fact was that she knew that Rainbow and Applejack would step in if things got problematic. Furthermore, Cup could easily call the police, and given that Sunset was involved a cruiser would be here in a moment’s notice. Thankfully, it didn’t seem as if that would need to be the case.

“And so the last time I talked to Lightning, she said that her family was moving to San Francisco before the school year starts so she can get away from all ‘my negativity’, quote unquote,” Gilda said, leaning against the back of her chair. “I don’t know what she did to convince her parents that she’s the one completely innocent of wrongdoing, but it worked.”

“How are you dealing with that?” Rainbow asked. From the sound of her voice, Cup noted, she sounded sincere. Her niece Pinkie told her once that the two had a past together, but what that past was, she didn’t know. Had they been friends before? Lovers? Admittedly, it wasn’t any of her business, but ensuring that her patrons didn’t start a war in her restaurant or harm each other was her business; likewise, so was protecting her employee, namely Sunset. She’d also privately admit to having somewhat of a protective streak for her niece’s friends but that was to be expected when one was a parent.

The phone rang and Cup opted to leave the girls alone. They would have it in hand, she was sure.

Meanwhile the conversation continued on, unaware that the proprietress was no longer hovering. “Same way I did when I found out that I was dumped by Garble without warning when I saw him making out with Honeyed Chocolate. Went home and drank myself into a stupor. Mom was pissed and Dad was disappointed.” Applejack raised an eyebrow and Gilda had the grace to blush. “Yeah…in addition to everything else, I had – have – a drinking problem. I…inherited a lot of my biological father’s problems and though my parents have gone to lengths to try to help me move past them…it took nearly ending up in jail to realize that I was on the same path as he was. And personally, I don’t want to end up in jail. So I have to move on.”

“Well, that’s nice and all that, but I hope you don’t think that we’re gonna be buddy-buddies after this,” Sunset said, trying – and not entirely succeeding – to keep the anger out of her voice. She knew she had to forgive; that was just a part of her nature now, both pony and human. And certainly after everything she’d done to people and having been forgiven for it – even though she worked for it – to turn down Gilda would be hypocritical, to save the least.

But maybe that’s the answer.

“You’re going to work for it,” Sunset said, as her two friends looked on in surprise. “You’re going to be the most hated girl in the school and it’s going to be a damn climb up. And it won’t be easy or quick; I got lucky and found a way to help the school and that put me back on top. You probably won’t be as lucky. But if you’re willing to do it…I’m willing to give you a chance.”

“Really?” the three other girls said at the same time.

“Yes. There will be times you will hate yourself for doing it and you’ll wonder what the hell you’re doing. The day you stabbed me, it was because I went back to where it all started for me and I wondered if I was doing the right thing. There will be a time when you’ll do the same, and I hope that you’ll be in a safer position than I was. Because you’ll need to understand: it’s worth it.”

“I…see,” was Gilda’s terse answer.

“And another thing: Get yourself a better set of friends. Garble used you in the same way that Flash used me; and Lightning Dust, who unlike my friends, isn’t one you can trust and rely on. Find a friend that won’t stab you in the back.” Both Sunset and Gilda involuntarily winced at the former’s choice of words before she continued. “I don’t know who you know outside of your normal circle, but I strongly recommend you start talking to them…and to leave your old ones behind.” Sunset stood up. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work; the café closes in ten minutes and I do have to help my boss. But I hope you take what I’ve said in context.”

“I will. But…do I have your forgiveness?”

“Maybe,” Sunset said as she walked away. “But let’s see what you do with it.”

As the flame-haired girl went into the back of the store, Gilda looked at her retreating form with surprise. “I don’t understand.”

“Sugarcube,” Applejack spoke up, “Sunny’s just trying t’ give you another chance in her own way. Ah’m not going to even pretend that Ah understand it, but she does have a point. Who do you have that y’ can turn to, because your old circle ain’t gonna cut it.”

“What about you and the others?”

“That…we’d have to talk to the others,” Rainbow admitted. “While you and I go way back, some of the others might not be as comfortable. Besides, Sunny might not be so cool with that. Plus, friendship starts with the first step and reaching out to someone. What about some of your next door neighbors?”

“There’s a girl that goes to Holy Cross that lives right next to us. She’s reached out to me before…but I was never interested in the past.”

“Then that’s yer first step.” Applejack winked and pointed at the door. “Get going and get friendly. B’sides, it’s gonna get dark in a couple of hours, and given what’s going on, ya probably don’t want to be on the streets when that happens.”

“Yeah,” Gilda agreed. “No kidding.”

“Well, that was fun!” Coco said with a smile as they sat in the back of the limousine, bags by the bulk in the trunk and the passenger compartment.

Shimmer nodded. “Yeah, I’ll have to agree. Though I wish we didn’t run into those weird girls from earlier.”

“Yeah, I wonder what was up with them?” A second later, Coco waved it off with a cheerful smile. “Eh, don’t worry about it; it was probably a once in a lifetime thing and we’ll probably never see them again.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Shimmer said with a nod. “So, you wanted to go to the mall tomorrow?”

“Yup! Fancy can take us there and everything, since he’s not busy,” Coco explained. “Plus, I want to make sure I have gifts for Twily, since her birthday’s in a couple of days.”

“I’ll help you wrap – papercraft’s a hobby of mine and I’ll be more than glad to help you make it look the best.”

“Thanks!” Coco cooed as she hugged Shimmer. “I really appreciate it, Shimmy!”

Shimmer returned the embrace. “Always, for family.”

“Goddamn kids,” a gruff, older voice muttered. Whisk Broom had been working at the gym for a long time now, years, and there were two things he could always count on: babies making huge messes in the daycare section, and kids with no business in the gym and thus making messes. Hell, he still remembered the day a few months back when he caught a couple of teens doing what came naturally in the men’s sauna. The look of shock on their faces made the cleanup almost worth it, especially when he watched the girl run off. Ah, if he was only a few decades younger….

But now, here he was, in the tennis court room, where one of the overnight staff had reported that the lights had shorted out. So much for those new-fangled LDEs (or whatever they were called) that worked differently than regular lights – apparently they didn’t hold a candle (pun intended) to traditional incandescents. He knew that for a fact, especially since his wife Molasses Cookie had him change the one in the living room lamp this morning; he originally used one of those DLEs – yeah, that’s what they were called – but she complained and he swapped it out with one of the older ones from the garage. That made her a happy camper and made his life easier.

He shuffled in, mop and cadillac moving along with his feet as he walked into the room. Sure enough, the lights on this side were out, with the sconces above flickering with the thin tendrils of electricity that showed that there was a surge or a circuit fried or something like that. The lights on the far side were controlled by a different circuit and those seemed okay. Fortunately, he didn’t need much light to see by; that’s why he’d been a tunnel rat during his days in the ‘Nam. One of the more successful ones in the Army, too – both because he got promotions and decorations…and because he lived to see the end of the war.

Finally, he made it to the other side and flicked on the switches. The lights came on, and with it, horror.

Suspended from the ceiling from the net that made up one of the courts, was a formerly beautiful young woman. She was nude, and at any other time, would have been a sight to appreciate. But that was taken up from the horrifying gash that went from her neck to her crotch. That was horrifying enough. But it was the strange drawing, painted on the ground in the tennis courts, that gave him pause. He couldn’t understand it, or the meaning behind it. All he knew was that a young girl had been murdered; and as he ran out of the courts as fast as his elderly legs could carry him, the image of The Star – whatever that meant – would haunt him for the rest of his days.

Following its dark directive, the storm moved up past Ventura County and headed north. The damage to the California coast was already brutal, so much so that the governor had declared a state of emergency and the Federal government was soon to send in assistance as well. But that didn’t matter for the hundreds already dead from coastal Los Angeles County and southwards, and that the body count would soon increase, as the hurricane had already spun off one tornado that was tearing through the northern part of Los Angeles County.

Watching it hundreds of miles away, a man laughed as his mystically-created hurricane grew larger. Soon it would give him the power to make his final push and start his endgame.

In Sunnytown, a man reviewed intelligence reports and planned for a strike on the SIREN facility. He knew he had the men, and Sable Loam or not, he could take down those bitches with no problem at all. The incoming storms would give him plenty of cover and that asshole from Canada would be able to work some official cover so that the stupid rubes in this town would never know what would go on.

Maybe after that, he’d go visit Loam’s girlfriend. She seemed like she was fun in the sack, and Blackthorn bet he could make her sing soprano once she rode him.

As Celestia slept on his lap, Sable looked at the TV, made sure she was asleep, then reached over for his phone. Switching it over to a particular app, he cued that on. A second later, he got the ALL CLEAR, and he smiled.

They’re not touching you, love, he thought, taking her hand and giving it a soft squeeze. Not with the alarm system he set around the house that was designed to wake him up in a moment’s notice. Any common burglar who tried anything would get a decent taser jolt; not enough to knock him under, but enough to drive him away. And anyone who moved on beyond that was someone he would have to deal with – in a very lethal manner.

But I’m not going to be proud of it at all, he said to her silently. Not one bit.

Walking into her bedroom with the phone ringing, Sunset asked, “Tavi, can you pass that to me?”

“Yeah, sure,” her cousin said and lobbed it over.

Without looking at it, Sunset answered, “Yeah, it’s Sunny.”

“Sunny hunny, still fuckin’ funny?” a voice said on the other end.

“None of your business if I am or not, Brad,” she snarled. At that, Sunset watched as her sister winced, and that only made Sunset’s blood boil. “You have less than a second to explain what the fuck you’re calling me for, because if it’s more than a second more, I will murder you without even batting an eye, so help me God.”

“Ha! Good one, almost had me worried for a second. And I thought I told you not to call me Brad.”

“Well, I thought I told you not to call me ever, so we’re even.” She mentally counted to ten before continuing. “So, what do I owe the displeasure of your call?”

“Just wondering what you were doing in Everfree Glades, pissing off Lavender Lace.”

“For starters, I was at work today, making peace with Gilda. Secondly, it’s none of your damn business what I do or who I do it with, so you can just fuck off and ride the next horse out of town, got it!” Especially since that horse isn’t going to be me! she mentally added.

“Look, not that I should give a shit, but I was going to warn you about fucking with Lavender Lace. She’s got your kind of reputation – well, the one you had before you became Ms. Goody Two-shoes – and she’s gunning for your ass regarding whatever you and that other girl argued with her about earlier today.”

“Look, I told you I wasn’t in Everfree Glades—”

“Yeah, and I saw you with my own two eyes, Sunset. Unless you’re some kind of magical wizard, even you can’t do that.”

“Well, I am, but you’re right, I can’t do that.” She chuckled inwardly at that; she’d just told him the truth and he’d never realize. “In any case, I was never in Everfree Glades, I don’t know who the fuck you’re talking about, and if you ever call me again, you’ll regret it!”

“Look, I’m just trying to make nice, okay? You and me had some fun times and maybe if I was nicer to you, we could have them again. Or maybe I could hook up with your sister. Or maybe….”

“You’re a Goddamn pig, you know that?” Sunset said, and decided right then and there she was going to teach him a lesson. Her mind went through all the various spells she could transmit by voice – a rare method of spell transmission, but it was how the Ostriches of Ostralia could do magic – remembered one and then whispered it over the phone. It sounded guttural and hurt her throat slightly but then again the human larynx wasn’t meant to speak in Osterrich language.

“What was that?”

“I said don’t ever call me again, Brad. Good riddance.” She then hung up the phone, plopped on the bed and screamed into a pillow.

Octavia looked away from the screen. “You really should get one of those call-blocking apps.”

“Downloading one the first chance I get,” Sunset sighed.

“Was that really him?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, and no, he’s never going to come near you, sis. I promise,” Sunset told her, and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.

“That’s good. But I am curious: why do you call him ‘Brad’?”

Sunset laughed. “Well, it’s his real name – ‘Flash Sentry’ is a bullshit lie he tells everyone.” When both girls looked at her oddly, she added, “I got to see his birth certificate once, and it’s Bradley, which is—”

“Old English for wide meadow,” Twilight interjected.

“Got it in one,” Sunset said. “But he never liked the name, because well, it’s archaic, so nobody would ever call their kid that – well, except his parents. He told me he got ‘Flash Sentry’ from some movie that he stayed up way late once and watched, some stupid 70s sci-film. He liked it, told everyone that he wanted to be called that from now on, and eventually everyone started to, to the point that when I met him, there was no indicator that he had any other name.”

“So why do you bring it up?” Octavia asked.

“Easy. At first, it was to let him know who clearly held his balls. Now? It’s to clearly let him know who’s better than he is. I could easily destroy his rep – even more than him getting away with the shit from the Vibe could – by broadcasting to everyone in town that he has a dorktacular name. And if that’s what keeps him in line, that’s what does it.”

“Really?” Twilight asked.

“Really,” she said, putting an arm around her sister. “Besides…I have other ways of getting back at him.”

Thirty minutes and one shower later, “Flash Sentry” had panic on his mind. He’d spent the week trying to sweet talk Cream Soda into coming over. He’d never slept with a black girl before, and Cream was a cutie regardless of ethnicity: skin the color of milk chocolate, sweet-smelling caramel-and-tan hair, and beige eyes that said he was in for a fun night tonight…

…until what was going on right now. What the fuck whatthefuck whatthefuck whatthefuck…. As he tried to calm down, he knew that there could be only one person who had to be responsible for this, even though it wasn’t possible. Sunset! That bitch did this to me…but how? No, there’s no way she could’ve. Maybe this is just some strange reaction to the body wash I used in the shower….

The doorbell rang and his panic grew. He was just about to get rocks off…or maybe not…

…given that his skin had turned into a glowing cream orange color, certainly not normal much less healthy looking. He’d always had a perfect look to him, but now? Now he looked like an oversized creamsicle with blue hair.

The doorbell rang again and he realized he wasn’t going to get any tonight – not from Cream Soda or anyone else.

I’m so screwed….

Author's Note

And that's it Remember,your donation helps a starving artist!

And as I mentioned before, 7DSJ Book IV will be going on a hiatus for the month of November. Reasons why:
- Editing my latest novel
- Finishing up Protection, Shake It Off, and another story which some folks might be interested in
- Doing some art and taking care of some web stuff.

Don't worry, I hear there's more going on in the world of 7DSJ...but you'll have to find that out for yourselves.

???: On the Outside

The piercing, shrill laughter roared through her ears. The darkness was then split by a bolt of lightning – but it was no ordinary bolt of plasma. No jag of energy shaded deep green and glowing with purple motes could ever be construed as normal.

A second flash of light occurred, revealing a figure better left in nightmares.

“Beware,” the voice said in malicious tones. “I live.”

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, sat up in her bed, her eyes adjusting to the wooden walls of her home at the Golden Oaks library. At the foot of her bed, she could hear Spike gently dozing. Looking at her clock, she knew it wasn’t that far off from the daytime, and then after that, the next day would be her birthday. No doubt her friends had something in mind; Pinkie, in particular, was expected to probably show up at dawn with a huge cake and a heavily-decorated downstairs.

But that was something else, and certainly for another time. Right now, that had to take a backseat to the focus now at hand: her dreams. Certainly, she wasn’t blessed with oracular gifts, and even had this been a portent, she wouldn’t have been able to discern what it meant. Besides...even in her waking mind, pushing away the detritus of dreams, she could scarcely recall what had been at the epicenter of that nocturnal imagination. Whatever it was, however, had to be important, else why would she fret about it so?

Gently moving out of bed and walking quietly to the bedroom door so as to not disturb her younger brother, Twilight descended the stairs, silent as a ghost, and ready to do a little early reading…

...so it was a surprise to see a familiar figure seated in the library, making herself comfortable by the hearth. “Hello, Twilight,” Princess Luna said, a soft smile on her face.

“Luna! It’s a surprise to see you here,” the younger alicorn said to the older.

The smile the night alicorn gave her fellow princess was melancholy. “I wish I could say it was a personal visit, Twilight, but something’s just come up, and we’re calling for an emergency meeting of the princesses. We have an issue in the Badlands, and we have very little answers, and just a single indicator that something is amiss.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Twilight admitted. “Should I let the girls know?”

Luna shook her head. “Right now this is a preliminary briefing; a small one, but one that Shining Armor wanted the princesses involved in. We can notify our friends later, should it come to that.”

“Well, in that case, I’m ready when you are,” Twilight said, though in truth something felt off, not like anything she’d ever felt in her life previously. Even standing next to one of her former enemies (in a manner of speaking), the trepidation that the young alicorn felt was nothing like the days of her first adventure.

As for Luna herself, she didn’t respond, but instead closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. Incredible, incomprehensible power burned through her eyes as the night alicorn wrapped herself and her counterpart in a gauzy cocoon of magic before whisking them off, dozens of miles away, to the great city of Canterlot, seat of the power of the world.

Shining Armor looked at the troops that were on standby in the courtyard – a full battalion’s worth. For a change, the situation had been considered dire enough that not only was the guard being brought on in force, but the army and navy had been placed on alert as well. Seeing the rows upon rows of his guardsponies standing wither-to-wither with a battalion of troops from the Royal Equestrian Army, well...it was both awe-inspiring and worrisome. The former because his troops were highly-polished and professional, their golden-and-silver armor standing up leagues from the polished metal plate of the army.

But the latter because he knew that REA troops laughed at his folks, thinking them ineffective in a true emergency. And now that emergency had come...and Shining could only hope those soldiers weren’t right.

“Impressive, my lord Prince – the troops almost look effective,” a voice said behind him. “Of course, they’re not up to true military stuff, but such is the difference between the Guard and the military.” Shining turned to see a pegasus mare approaching, wearing the finery of the Royal Equestrian Navy. Behind her was an earth stallion wearing the steely armor of the REA.

“Admiral Tumblehome, General Halberd.” The unicorn prince nodded, acknowledging the presence of both. Technically his equals in terms of where they stood in rank, as a prince he had overall authority here – and both Tumblehome and Halberd, Shining silently noted, would be more than happy to try to push their luck in countermanding him whenever convenient.

“Prince Shining,” Halberd said. “Or should I refer to your rank, Captain?”

“Rank is fine, General. We are all equals—”

“I would strongly disagree,” Tumblehome spoke as she raised an eyebrow in impudence. “Your authority supersedes your inexperience and—”

“Enough, Tumble,” Halberd said, his bushy mustache quivering. “Captain Armor is quite aware of his youth as compared to his rank. And if you ask me, he’s been one of the finest and certainly most approachable guard captains we’ve had in awhile, am I not right?” Tumblehome’s answer was to merely scoff, a raspy sound as if the very tone was precursor to insult.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have my sailors to inspect – they’ll be doing the heavy lifting after all.” Without waiting for a response, Tumblehome walked off down towards the parade grounds.

Halberd looked at the younger stallion. “Don’t let her get you down, son. She’s always been an insufferable plot who thinks ‘The Wooden Walls of Equestria’ are all that keep the nation safe. You can be sure that as little respect that she seems to have for you, she has even less for your sister.” The general chuckled and added, “You should’ve seen her the day she found out that Celestia’s student – a mere civilian – defeated the greatest threat the Crown had seen at the time! She was so infuriated I thought she would molt right then and there!”

“Thanks, General.”

Halberd smiled. “Hell, I remember the day your cohort came out of bootcamp. Most of them opted for the Army, but you – you went with the Guard. Always wondered about that one. Now I know why.”

“With all due, General,” Shining told him, “my concern is about Tumblehome and her flippant attitude.”

Halberd shrugged. “What can I say, son? She takes it personally. Think about it: we were caught flat-footed during the Nightmare Night incident, then completely neutralized during the whole Discord affair. Months later we were blindsided again because of the changeling invasion during your wedding – an affair that should have been bolstered by REA and REN forces, not left up just to the Guard. After that, we mobilized in time when Sombra returned...but we hadn’t even reached the Northern Wastes when news came that he was defeated. And how? That’s the part that chaps her hide the most: all of these incidents were stopped by your sister and her friends. Six civilians did what no branch of the military could, not once, not twice, but repeatedly!”

“But Twily never asked to do that,” Shining said, defending his sister. “She only did what she felt she had to.”

“I’ve met your sister, Captain – I know how she thinks, and personally, I’m glad she did – somepony stood up to face the big bad when a badass was needed. But I think of her as an asset. Tumblehome, however, is old school and set in her ways. She respects the princess’ authority because we know the legends of their battle prowess. But your sister and her friends started out as nothing more than mere civilians, and to Tumblehome that’s all they’ll ever be. It matters little that your sister was the former Grand Mage. Mark my word: if this turns into a situation where the military is mobilized in full, Tumblehome’s biggest priority will be that the Bearers sit this one out. She might tell the princesses that they’re too valuable to risk, but the truth is, she merely thinks of them as rivals that cannot be abided by.”

“Twily’s not interested in a rivalry,” Shining told his counterpart, gesturing that they should head in the direction of the meeting.

“It matters little if Princess Twilight is interested or not. As far as Tumblehome’s concerned, she is the Fleet, and if there’s anyone that’s a threat to her ships and sailors, real or imagined, she’s going to go after it, logic be damned.”

The two walked in silence for a bit, not sure of what to say, as the most important thing had been covered: Tumblehome considered the navy their best asset and the Bearers as a danger, and if that meant that she was going to get in the way of the job getting done, they would have to do something about her, and fast.

Intoxication.

That’s what it felt like, Tirek decided.

Holding the dead body of the pony in his hands, he grinned a little bit. This pony – a mangy stallion that looked as though his horn was broken – wouldn’t be missed, he was sure. After all, no one came here to be missed, especially if they remembered the stories of old. Doubtless, thanks to the simpering, whimpering princesses, they would have candy-coated the legend of this place until it was something sugary and happy, perfect for the weak-willed and quivering creatures that called themselves ponies.

But there was a time when he knew this place as the Black Garden – a place filled with poisonous plants as far as the eye could see. The caterpillars, immune from the toxins, ate the plants and became butterflies and in turn killed the things that ate them. Even birds stupid enough to try to eat the worms and insects of this idyll found themselves as bloated corpses not to long afterwards. Ponies too, were familiar with the death of the Garden.

After all, that’s what they did in the days of the Warring Tribes – those too weak-willed to commit atrocities in the name of their particular breed instead sought the embrace of death. From his recollections, after the alicorns took over, they banned its knowledge, but couldn’t kill it, for reasons he couldn’t recall.

And this pony likely came here to change all that, Tirek thought, seeing the vials in the pony’s rucksack. Neutralizing fertilizer, purity plant seeds, defender rose bulbs – all plants used to turn against dark flora, meant to beat it, just as the princesses once beat him by luck. Clearly this pony had come to put an end to the Black Garden, and establish a place safe for ponies – as if the whole world wasn’t safe enough.

Tirek couldn’t abide that. There was enough dark beauty in the world crushed by the forces of light – too much of the delicate, loving darkness that were stamped out by the hooves of ivory and navy, and that made the world a lesser place.

Savoring the last morsel of his magic, Tirek dragged the unicorn into the center of the Black Garden; like so many of the things in the surroundings, he too was immune to the sweet siren’s call of death that the Garden provided. Taking time to remove the pony’s rucksack so that none of the vile potions would harm the plants of the Garden, he let the body remain there. Eventually, worms, cask beetles and so many other residents would feast and grow stronger, and in turn Black Garden would grow stronger and larger.

One could only hope, he thought with a smile as he went to go destroy the sack. And with that adventure done, came the next ones: conquering the alicorns, as he was destined to; and then to find the dark, pulsating thing that was calling out to him. It was a dark power on a level he hadn’t felt in years; not even that simpering idiot in the Crystal Empire who fancied himself a king was this refined of a talent.

Perhaps he would find a worthy opponent, one on the level of Discord or any of the other one of legend – ones he knew were still in Tartarus, or no longer amongst the living.

He sniffed the air again, as the scent pointed towards the east, and likely the Everfree Castle. Perhaps it was chained in the dungeons there, and would be grateful for being freed.

Just long enough for Tirek to claim – and savor – that beautiful dark magic.

He continued his journey towards his new target.

“I must protest!” Tumblehome screeched. “To think that we should have non-military personnel within this meeting—”

“Princess Twilight is a former archmagus,” Luna reminded the pegasus, “and the archmagi are always welcome at these meetings.”

“Ex-archmagus,” Tumblehome replied, “not current.”

“Well,” Cadance replied in a nonchalant tone, “as I understand it, Baroness Sunset is unavailable at the moment. We could ask Princess Raspbe—”

“NO! I forbid it! It is bad enough that we have one useless archmage; do you really want to bring in somepony that could spell the end of the Crown?”

“Admiral Tumblehome, allow us to remind you that you serve at our pleasure,” Luna said in formal tones, “and we do not take insubordination lightly – and lese majeste even less so.”

Tumblehome winced at that and it gave Halberd a chance to step in. “Your highness, I surmise that my colleague is suggesting that as this is a hastily-arranged meeting, that inviting more ponies and waiting for them to arrive would only delay the matter. I presume she meant no ill will towards the baroness or the princess in pretense.”

“Well said,” Shining whispered to Halberd. The old stallion merely gave his counterpart a wink in reply.

“I am in agreement.” Celestia added. “We can pull in other ponies as necessary. Anyways, I have called you all here at the darkest of night – and my apologies for that – because we have a potential crisis. A few days ago, a team of hikers came across one of our scientists at a research station. She was murdered.” The room fell silent at the white alicorn’s announcement. “Furthermore, she was killed with this.” A glass case floated in the air, and within it was a flame-shaped dagger with runes etched on the sides; the dagger still had the blood of the victim on it.

“That looks hideous,” Twilight spoke.

“That looks familiar,” both Luna and Cadance said at the same time.

“It should; we have what I thought was the last of them in the armory section of the Royal Museum,” Celestia intoned softly. “These were the ceremonial daggers that Sombra made upon his ascension to the throne of the Crystal Empire. These were the daggers I asked you to destroy without looking in the contents of the box.”

“I took care of that personally,” Shining assured her. “Took a trip to Inari and with permission of their emperor, dumped it in the center of Sakurajima, their main volcano.”

Celestia nodded in thanks, but then said, “Yes, but the fact that this exists means that it was given out prior to our initial assault on the Empire, and then your subsequent invasion once it returned. And to my recollection, sixteen of them were given out by Sombra – and those sixteen are still alive. Fortunately, eleven of those who received them are still within Tartarus, and one of them, thankfully, is no longer a problem.”

“Which one?” Luna asked.

“Nightmare Moon,” the solar alicorn replied, with a pained look on her face. “The dagger was delivered to the castle the day after I banished the Nightmare to the moon. The courier was supposed to arrive the day of your, ahem, ‘change’, but it was delayed.”

“I wish to know no more,” Luna said, turning her head away. Cadance, sitting next to her, wrapped her forelegs around her aunt in sympathy.

Twilight then stepped in. “But then who are the remaining remaining four?”

“Omnigul the Death Singer, is one,” Celestia began, “but I was in conference a week ago with Iwisa, the king of the rhinos, and he said that his finest warrior, Impi, is hunting down Omnigul, as she’s started to prey on his gazelle vassals. Halberd, will you send a legion of troops to assist?”

“I’ll get right on it, Princess,” he insisted.

“My thanks. As for the other three: The King of the Shadows, who attacks the mind, but Luna’s been keeping a look out for him and like the Nightmare, he can do nothing without a willing subject; Torch Hammer, the scourge of the seas, but without his ship and a pirate crew, he can do little; and Tirek, but I believe that he’s likely turned his tail and headed back to the centaur and gargoyle lands. He is a member of the ruling family there and probably wishes to lick his wounds after such a long imprisonment in the bowels of Tartarus.”

“So who do you expect is behind this?”

Celestia sighed. “Likely Torch Hammer. Though he is a pirate now...he was once the Archmagus of Equestria. He vowed to conquer Canterlot….” She blushed.

“He vowed?” Twilight asked.

“He, uh, claimed to have found the Black Garden, and within it, a potion to, ahem, ‘tame’ me.” Twilight’s eyes widened, both at Celestia’s implications, as well as the mention of the Black Garden. Unlike most mages, she knew that it truly existed, and even had the map with the location noted on it, though she never had any interest in going there.

“The Black Garden?” Halberd asked. The senior military officers knew of its existence as well, though they didn’t know its location.

“About two weeks past, I assigned Rough Road, one of my best spies, with instructions to destroy the Black Garden. I should have done so in the past, but I was worried about the ecological imbalance that would result. He has not reported in since, and I fear the worst.” She sighed. “I knew I should’ve assigned two members of my Hooves….”

Tumblehome scoffed. “Oh, the Princess’ Hooves. Yes, because maids are obviously the ones to send in. Why you so often joke that your housekeeping staff and personal hoofmaidens are of any value, I’ll never know. You should’ve sent some of the Guard with this saboteur of yours – at least that way they’d have proved their worth!”

“Oh, that reminds me: I have a fencing lesson with Rhythm Inferno in the late morning. I suppose I’ll have to cancel,” Cadance said matter-of-factly.

“That’s a shame; she’s said that she enjoys sparring with you,” Luna replied with a smile.

“Why me?” Tumblehome muttered under her breath. Focusing on the matter at hand, she said, “I’d like to send an airship to the location of the Black Garden and put it out of commission.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Celestia said. “Twilight, please contact your fellow Bearers to get here as soon as possible; I’d also like Raspberry to come as well to be a liaison, as she’ll be able to tell the extent of the issue.” Tumblehome’s mouth widened in an o of outrage, and ignoring her, Celestia continued. “Luna, have some of your guardsponies start a search in full for the King of Shadows. While his physical form is weakened right now, we can take advantage of it.”

“I’d like to borrow a couple of your Hooves; they may be of assistance,” Luna asked.

“Contact the ones you need. Cadance, I need you to return to the Empire and brief your staff about what’s occurring. I want the Empire ready for the worst case scenario. After that, I’ll need you to speak to our closest allies. The griffins, bisons and others should be ready to defend themselves if necessary.”

“On it!” Cadance said with a smile.

“Shining, you will temporarily take command of both the Guard and the Army. Halberd, while I hate to remove you from your vaunted position, I feel that I need you where you’ll be of most help, and that is in command of the legion assisting the rhinos. Omnigul is a far-off threat but a bigger one than Torch Hammer, and I fear it’s only a matter of time before she turns her eyes on Canterlot.”

“So long as I get my cushy job back when I’m done,” Halberd said with a laugh.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep your office seat warm,” Shining teased. Tumblehome started rubbing the temples of her head, the migraine in her mind increasing due to the sheer unprofessionalism around her.

“And with that, I suggest we bring the meeting to a close. Twilight and Cadance, I asked the staff to make up your old rooms for you. Tumblehome and Halberd, you are welcome to stay overnight in the royal suites as well.”

“My thanks, your majesty; it’ll be nice to see how the lazy life is,” Halberd cooed, giving her a grin.

“My regrets, but I need to contact my captains and prepare them for their missions. Ships take a bit longer than troops when it comes to outfitting for a mission, and though I have every confidence in my sailors, they are not perfect yet.”

“I see. Well, I need to get a bit more beauty sleep,” Celestia announced. “All, dismissed.” The second she said that, Tumblehome raced out of the meeting as if her very life depended on it.

“Well, what bug got up her ass?” Luna said, her eyes narrowing.

“Forgive her, Luna. She can be brusque, but she has the best of intentions. She has just not learned the ways of gentility, not unlike our good general here.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Princess,” Halberd added, bowing.

She smirked. “I still remember the private who told me fifty or so years ago what a nice ass I had.”

He laughed. “I still remember all the laps the general made me run afterwards, too.”

As the group began to disperse, Celestia said, “Twilight, a moment, if you please?”

“Sure thing, Princ...I mean, Celestia,” Twilight chirped. “What’s up?”

The smile fell from the regent’s face. “I just realized that this mission will put you away from Ponyville on your birthday. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” the youngest alicorn said. “I’ve gotten used to it. Besides, I’ll have my friends aboard ship with me, and I’m sure that once Pinkie gets her hands on the galley, she’ll turn the place into a Party Boat.”

“That would be interesting,” the solar alicorn said with a soft smile. “But I promise to make it up to you as soon as I can.”

“You don’t have to.”

Celestia put her wings around her student and daughter figure. “It’s for you – so I want to,” she said with a smile. “I only wish Sunset could be here to share the moment with us.”

“You miss her,” Twilight said.

Celestia nodded. “Every mother misses their foal when they’re away.”

“Pinkie, y’ okay?” Applejack asked a few hours later as the other Bearers, along with Raspberry, caught the train to Canterlot. Normally, chariots would have been sent for the group, but given the military alert, few guardsponies could be spared for the duty. However, due to the urgency of the summons, they were placed on the fastest available train to the capital.

“Just thinking,” the party pony said quietly.

“Wait – are you sure you’re Pinkie?” Raspberry jested. “Hey, Rainbow, did you dig up another changeling?” Rainbow, already fast asleep, ignored the unicorn’s jest.

“Well, I for one think that watching Pinkie be, well, contemplative, I suppose one would say, is enlightening. It’s not often that something like this occurs.”

“Oh, but I think it’s cute,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile.

“There, done!” the earth pony announced.

“So what were you thinking of?”

“Me! Or the other me! The me that’s with Sunny! I guess that’s the SunnyMe? Or the MeSunny? Or...well, you know. Anyway, I was wondering if she goes by Pinkie, or Pinkaemena, or Diane, or Pinks, or something else, because I know I go by Pinkie and if she goes by Pinkie, then there are two Pinkies, which would make us PinkiePinkie or Pinkie squared, or DualPinkie or something like that! But then how would anypony tell us apart if we’re both Pinkie? And does she really qualify for anypony? Wouldn’t she be an anyhuman? An—”

Applejack reached over and clamped Pinkie’s muzzle shut. “Ah think we get th’ idea, sugarcube,” the farmer said sardonically.

“Well, can we get back on focus? Twilight wanted us to be prepared for this mission, and I think we should get ready.”

There was a yawn, and with a tired look on her face, Rainbow nonetheless tried to listen in as much as she could while semiconscious. “Yeah, for what? I get this letter delivered by Derpy at six this morning saying to be on the 7:30 train, so we can what, go take care of some evil garden or something? Why didn’t Twi just send for the Flower Trio? Yeah, Lily and Daisy are lunatics, but Rose has a stable enough head on her withers to keep those two in line.”

“Rainbow, darling, I hardly think the Flower Trio are qualified for a dealing of this nature, especially when Twilight asked for we Bearers to be here.”

“Except we don’t have the Elements anymore?” Rainbow stretched her wings, then sat up. “Twi can be a total egghead when it comes to figuring stuff out, but you know as well as I do that sometimes she tends to forget little details here and there. Oh, details, like, y’know, the Elements we no longer have?”

“Give Twi a li’l credit, sugarcube,” Applejack scolded. “Admittedly, she c’n be a bit out there at times, but ‘er hearts in th’ right place. Y’know that.”

“Additionally, Elements or no, we are still the Bearers and we have a responsibility,” Rarity pointed out.

“Oh my, but what about the evil garden Twilight was talking about?” Fluttershy asked, her voice tinged with worry. “What if the garden is hurting poor, precious defenseless animals? I’d hate to see a bunny get hurt because of some dangerous plant.”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Pinkie insisted. “I’m sure the local animals are smart enough to tangle with nasty plants!”

“Don’t you mean ‘not tangle’?” Raspberry asked.

Rainbow, in return, rolled her eyes. “What, did you decide that since Twi’s not here, you get to wear the egghead hat?”

The mulberry-coated unicorn groaned. “Rainbow, can you quit being an idiot for more than five seconds?”

“Whatever,” Rainbow shrugged. “Anyway, I hope everypony remembered the plan to cheer Twi up for her birthday! It’s going to be hard enough for us to be on this mission while that’s going on, so it’s our job to make sure that it’s one to remember!”

“You betcha!” Pinkie said with a grin nearly large enough to go around her head.

The next hour was spent mostly in silence. Rainbow Dash read from a well-dogeared copy of one of her Daring Do novels, while Applejack and Pinkie looked over a book about genealogy – for some reason, as of late there was a chance the two were related and they dived into research whenever they could. Rarity worked on sewing a dress for Cadance – “One long overdue,” she insisted – and Fluttershy played with the foal of one of the other passengers on the train. As for Raspberry, she looked over some Mage Guild paperwork, as well as poring through one of the books Twilight asked her to bring from the library.

Pansy Power’s Pamphlet of Pernicious, Poisonous and Perilous Plants, Raspberry thought, reading the cover. Wonder what this is all about?

“Girls, I’m glad you could get here in time,” Twilight said as she met them at the station. “There’ll be some chariots here in a second that will take us from the train station to the shipyard. We need to get to the Super-Electric as soon as we can, as we’re scheduled to take off within the hour. I’ve already briefed Captain Easychord on the situation.”

“Captain Easychord?” Applejack asked. “Name sounds f’miliar.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. Easychord is Octavia Melody’s cousin. We – well I – met her at the Gala last year. She’s in command of the Super-Electric, and she’ll be the one to get us to the Black Garden.”

“Well, that sounds fun!” Rainbow said, stretching. “Bet I could get there faster than the ship can!”

“Well, Rainbow’s bravado aside, Twilight dear, what information do we have about this Black Garden?” Rarity asked. “It sounds like a dreadful place.”

“Only what I sent you to read.” A pause. “You did read the material, right?”

“Yeah, but it was boring!” Pinkie supplied cheerfully.

“Aww, don’t mind them, Twi,” Applejack said, the twang in her voice practically vibrating mirth. “Ah c’n promise ya that Razz n’ Ah read th’ docs.”

“Thanks, Applejack,” Twilight said, feeling a little relieved.

“Well, while we’re on the way, why don’t you tell us a little more?” Raspberry asked.

“Sure,” she said as the chariots arrived. Applejack and Raspberry dutifully climbed in with Twilight, while the others got into the second chariot. As the pegasi-drawn vehicles pulled away from the street, the alicorn began. “We have reason to believe that a former archmage named Torch Hammer is headed towards the Black Garden to get something that could affect the alicorns, myself included. I don’t think I need to tell you what will happen if that occurs.”

The even look on Raspberry’s face turned into a grim line. “Right, then let’s get going.”

The chariots treated the girls to a sight only Rainbow – and now Twilight – rarely saw: Canterlot, from a pegasus’-eye view. However, most of them couldn’t enjoy the sights, due to the seriousness of the situation (though Fluttershy’s fear of pretty much everything also did no favors for her). For several minutes the two chariots raced across the Canterlot sky before finally arriving at the skydocks in the north of the city. Several of the finest airships of the Royal Equestrian Navy were berthed at their towers, the sailors aboard working their craft to make sure the lofts, lines and planks of the ships were in the finest working order.

“We’ll land just before Tower Six,” Twilight shouted, “and Easychord will meet us there.”

“Roger that, ma’am,” the sergeant in charge of the chariots replied, as the four pegasi towing the chariots arced downwards in a lazy circle, headed towards the concrete slabs of the ground below.

Standing there was a black unicorn with pink-and-white hair and light gray eyes. She wore the combo cover and bridgecoat that was the uniform of REN officers. “Hiiiiiiii~~~~~!” she shouted up.

Rainbow facehoofed. “Speaking as a military reservist...that’s just embarrassing.”

In the other cart, Twilight shook her head. “Octavia warned me that Easychord was a little...off, but I didn’t think she meant ‘complete lack of military bearing’ off.”

As the two chariots alighted on the ground, Easychord went up to Twilight. “Oh, it’s sooooooo good to see you again, your Studentness! Or...sorry, that’s Princessesness now, isn’t it?”

Twilight blinked. “Uh….”

“We were in the same class in Magic Kindergarten, remember? Only I went off to music school and then the fleet when my parents thought I was waaaaaaaaaaaay too chillaxin’ for a musician, not that I have any idea where they got that idea.”

“Uh….”

“Well, don’t worry, your Twilightness! We’ll get my ship underway, we’ll go bomb some plants, and then we’ll be back in time for your birthday! Didn’t think I remembered that? I remember e~~~~~~~verypony’s birthday! What kind of filly would I be if I didn’t?”

“Wow, a mare after my own heart!” Pinkie spoke up. She walked up to the other mare and asked, “Where have you been all my life?”

“Pinkie, darling, do you really understand what you just said?” Rarity asked.

“Well, I think it’s just wonderful that Pinkie found her special somepony,” Fluttershy interjected.

“Uh, what’s a ‘special somepony’?” Pinkie asked.

“Nevermind, Pinks,” Applejack said, trying to get a handle on the situation before it went out of control in their special method of insanity. It was then that another pony approached Easychord, got her attention and handed her a piece of paper. It was hard to tell, given the exuberant nature of the mare, but the smile fell from her eyes.

“Is there something wrong, Easychord?” Twilight asked.

The captain nodded. “One of our ships on long patrol, the Whisper Pitch, was captured by Torch Hammer off the coast of Las Pegasas. Most of the crew were hypnotized and forced to do his bidding, but one managed to escape, though he was seriously injured. Fortunately, he’s in one of the hospitals in LP. But based on that intelligence, it’s clear that Hammer’s headed to the Black Garden. To make matters worse, the Pitch is one of the fastest ships in the fleet, and it’s very well armed. Fleet Command has detailed two ships to intercept, but we’d best make haste if we’re going to get to the Garden faster than him – it’s a two-day trip, and he’s already got a lead on us.”

“You heard the lady, folks,” Raspberry cried out. “Time to get aboard!”

The unicorn would soon regret those words a couple of hours later as the airship got underway. Long treks were nothing new to her, but a long trek through the air, turbulence and all, was something entirely new to her.

“I’m going to be sick,” she said, turning a bizarre shade of green.

“Well, you wanted to come on this one,” Rainbow teased.

“Rainbow, stop being mean to her,” Fluttershy said. “She wanted to help Twilight and that’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

“Yeah, well my stomach’s regretting it.” Raspberry laid her head back down on the pillow, wishing that airships didn’t come with hammocks as the choice of sleeping locations. But this was a warship, not a pleasure cruise, and every movement and eddy in the air, despite the air-calming magic and a pegasus sent ahead of the ship as a scout and to untie air turbulence, reminded her vertigo of just how bad things could be right now.

Pinkie bounded right up to Raspberry, a bottle filled with a greenish-brown fluid in it. The liquid was thick and oily, and within it seemed to burble and swirl like something not of this world. “Here! Granny Pie’s special anti-sickness remedy! It’ll cure your airsickness right up!”

Applejack looked at the concoction. “Pinkie, can Ah see that f’r a sec?”

“Sure!” Pinkie chirped, passing it over.

Applejack uncorked the bottle, and a sliver of greenish fume wafted away from the mouth. Taking a sniff, the farmer’s muzzle crinkled up in distaste, and waving away the smell while handing the bottle back to her friend, she said, “Yup, that’s th’ Ol’ Apple Family Cure-All.”

Pinkie’s grin grew even wider. “See! Knew we were related!” She then passed the bottle to Raspberry. “Okay, drink it all up!”

The unicorn, watching all of this, felt even more ill. “Celestia, just kill me now,” she moaned.

Meanwhile, Twilight was in conference with Easychord in the captain’s cabin. “News just arrived, your Twilightness: the High Expectations was just shot down over the Badlands; we don’t know what the condition of the crew is. Additionally, the Tone Burst was heavily damaged, though they managed to make it to Dodge Junction, though she’ll need heavy repairs.”

“Do we have anything else we can send against the Whisper Pitch?” Twilight asked.

The second in command, a reedy pegasus by the name of Mizzenmast shook her head. “The nearest ship is the Miss Modular, and she won’t make before either Hammer’s ship or ours arrives at the Black Garden. Even at best speed, by then, it may be too late.”

“And we only have until two days from now before we arrive,” Twilight sighed. “Okay. Have our forces continue intelligence flights, but track only the Whisper Pitch. We need to know how much damage it took.”

“The Tone Burst is sending us a report just as soon as they get access to a dragonfire candle,” Mizzenmast replied.

“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need time to come up with a plan, and that means sleeping on it. Let’s meet tomorrow morning in my cabin. I should have something up my saddle by then.”

“Roger that, O Royal Twilightster!” Easychord said with a smile and a wave.

Seeing that she had everything in hoof, the alicorn headed down to the private berthing section that had been reserved for her group. Explaining the situation to her friends and her need to get more information on the situation, there was only one real option: Rainbow would be the one to fly long patrol and find out the exact location where Hammer was coming from, as well as to head to the Black Garden to see if he’d sent any advance forces.

Rainbow nodded in agreement. “Probably going to completely wear me out, but you’re right; we need to know. Okay, give me a couple of minutes to change into my flightsuit and then I’ll get going.” She grinned. “Heh – been itching to try out the camouflage mode on it – it’s supposed to make me look like a cloud to anypony who doesn’t have the right magical frequency.”

“Just be careful, okay?” Rainbow nodded, then walked off towards her bag, while the rest looked at their friend with concern. This far out, all they could do was to sit and wait. In the meanwhile, it would be a long, anxious race against time to reach the edges of the Black Garden and the terrible secrets held within its floral grasp. And the result of this could be the end of a long-forgotten threat to Equestria, or a genuine unstoppable threat that could spell doom for Twilight and her fellow alicorns.

But for now, all they could do was wait and to see what happened next, whether for good or ill.

The following morning, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, the girls met in Twilight’s cabin; as agreed, they had been joined by Easychord and Mizzenmast. As a princess, Twilight was entitled to the use of the flag cabin aboard ship, and despite the fact that she didn’t like that her friends were sleeping in the ship’s open bay berthing, there was little she could do aboard the vessel; as the highest ranking member of the group, only she could use the room. At the moment Pinkie and Easychord were in the private galley attached to the flag cabin making Pinkie’s Super Duper Especially Awesome Enpañadas for everyone.

“Oh, I hope Rainbow returns soon,” Fluttershy said, looking out the window afforded to the cabin. “She wouldn’t want to miss breakfast.”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Pinkie chirped. “I have it all in hoof – she’ll get fed! Only the best for Dashie!”

“Besides, with her caloric debt from her reconnaissance flight, I daresay she’ll need the repast,” Rarity said. “It’s not as though she’ll get fat.”

“Well, everypony eat up!” Easychord said, passing out plates filled with the pastry delight. “If it’s as good as it smells, it’s gotta be good!”

Just as everypony was about to take a bite, there was a pounding on the cabin door, followed a second later by Rainbow barging in, soaked in sweat and breathing heavily. Her soaked-in-sweat outfit dripped pools of perspiration onto the deck, and her wings looked as if they’d seen better days. “Sorry, just gotta catch my breath,” she gasped, panting a few more seconds before adding, “I don’t think I’ve ever had the challenge of flying fast enough to do a triple rainboom – and then trying not to make sure anypony sees it.”

Twilight motioned to the chair reserved for her friend. “Rainbow, sit down – you look exhausted.”

However, to the alicorn’s surprise, Rainbow looked at her before standing in a ramrod-straight posture and saluting. “Returning with a report, ma’am,” the pegasus intoned with utmost gravity.

“You don’t have to do that right now, Rainbow,” was Twilight’s reply.

“With all due respect, no, I have to. You activated my duty status, we’re on a military ship and you’re the highest ranking pony on this vessel, while I’m just a sergeant, ma’am – I do take the Wonderbolts seriously, you know.”

Twilight smiled and returned the salute. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. You said you have a report?”

“You betcha,” Rainbow began, relaxing her posture.

“ROYAL ON DECK!” a voice boomed; everypony was jolted out of what they were doing when the shout came. Rainbow, however, acted on the instinct of a military flyer following an order and snapped right back to attention. The girls took a second to look at where the audio onslaught had come…

...and to their surprise, it had come from Easychord, who took a deep breath and then steeled herself. Gone was the easygoing unicorn and in her place was a steely-eyed commander. “Sergeant Rainbow Dash,” the unicorn said in an even but firm tone that brooked no argument. “You will act with the proper bearing that is required of an NCO when in the presence of superior officers, is that understood?” Rainbow Dash, having seen the goofy unicorn turn deadly serious, was taken aback by the change in demeanor and suffered for that. Eyes narrowing, Easychord said, “I asked if you understood me, Sergeant. I will not repeat myself a second time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash said, coming to attention.

“That’s ‘aye-aye, Captain.’ You’re on a naval vessel; you should follow proper etiquette.”

“I...understand, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash replied, unsure of what else to say. “Won’t happen again, ma...er, Captain.”

“I’ll let it slide this time. Now then, lay before the mast.”

“She means ‘give your report’, Rainbow,” Twilight said, who then got a glare from Easychord.

“With all due respect, Princess, I would appreciate it if you leave the main military and naval matters to me?” Not waiting for an answer, Easychord just stood there, as if expecting the report. Now.

Rainbow looked at Twilight out of the corner of her eyes, who gave her an understanding nod. With that, the pegasus began: “First thing I did was fly to the far perimeter of the Garden’s spread; based on that, we’re looking at about 160 acres, if the size bears out—”

“160 acres?” Twilight and Raspberry said at the same time.

“Everything burns if the right pressure is applied,” Easychord said nonchalantly. “Continue.”

“There’s a contact bearing 285 and inbound at seventeen knots, about a day’s flight away. BRAH indicators identify it as the Whisper Pitch.”

“BRAH indicators?” Raspberry asked.

“It’s a system of being able to tell ships apart based on their Ballast, Rigging, Armament and Hull,” Mizzenmast explained. “For example, we Equestrians use magically-buoyant inflatables for our airships’ ballast, but the griffins tend to use ensorcelled sails. It’s not a perfect system, but for watchstanders and advance scouts, it’s the quickest way to identify a ship class, if not the ship itself.”

“Well, whatever it is or means, the Whisper Pitch is clearly headed to the Black Garden at best speed,” Rainbow explained. “By my estimation, at our current speed, we’ll get there just before they will, with only an hour, tops, to spare.”

“That’s not good enough,” Easychord snarled. Turning to Mizzenmast, she ordered, “I want the ship at Battlestations, now. Have all air assets ready for strikes on the Whisper Pitch or to interdict their flyers. I want all cannons, cannonades, sakers and culverin ready; mixture of shot and rounds. All crew are to be issued cutlasses and knives, in case of boarding. Lastly, have our battlemages prepare for guided strikes. We need to be ready and we need to be ready, now!”

Mizzenmast saluted. “On it, Captain.”

Easychord took a couple of quick bites of her food, then wiped her chin with a napkin. “My apologies for leaving so abruptly, Princess, but I need to ready my ship. I leave the planning in your capable hooves. We have a battle to fight and personally, I intend not to lose.” Nodding slightly to Mizzenmast, both departed Twilight’s cabin.

The others paused in silence as they digested Easychord’s Dr. Jingle and Miss Hide behavior.

“Okay, she turns on and off like a switch like a light and is completely insane,” Rainbow muttered. “She remind you of anyone?”

“Really? Who? Tell me!” Pinkie asked excitedly.

“Nevermind, dear,” Rarity replied. “That being said, Twilight, Easychord does have a point. What plan do you have for dealing with both this Torch Hammer fiend and the Black Garden?”

“Well, let’s start with the bigger issue: the Garden itself. Razz, as our resident black magic specialist, what were you able to come up with?”

The mulberry-coated unicorn lit her horn; a second later, Pansy Power’s Pamphlet of Pernicious, Poisonous and Perilous Plants appeared in front of her. “Based on my research, the Garden is likely composed of seventeen of the most deadly plants in Equestria.”

“Such as?” Applejack asked.

“We’re not talking about anything as relatively harmless as poison joke,” Raspberry replied. “For starters, there’s ghost flowers, which have thorns sharper than knives – a cut from one of those will never heal, not even with the most potent healing magic.”

Fluttershy hid behind Rarity. “That sounds scary,” she said in a timid tone.

Nodding, the black mage continued. “Then, there’s bloodroses, which gives you a horrible fever which lasts for weeks. Probably other fun things like plundervines, ponydrake, cherrybomb trees, and so forth as so on.”

“Ah’m thinkin’ we should’ve brought Zecora with us,” Applejack said, a knot twisting in her stomach. Plants that had negative effects could be handled by most earth ponies, but there was something about Raspberry’s descriptions that told her otherwise.

“I wish we could have, too; her advice would’ve been invaluable,” Twilight agreed. “But she’s back visiting her family in Zebrica, and it would be unfair to call her back for this.”

Just then a flash of green exploded above the dragonfire candle on the desk in the room, and a second later the smoke from the candle turned into a large package on the desk. The brown box looked as to be made of cardboard and had unusual symbols and glyphs on it.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked, while Fluttershy, already worried about their mission, nearly passed out in fright.

“It’s a package from Spike,” Twilight told them as she went to the desk. “I asked him to send me anything that urgently needed my attention and I guess this applies.” Twilight pulled the note attached by her brother from the box, quickly perusing it. “He says the box is from Sunset.”

“Yay human candy!” Pinkie cheered.

“I wonder what’s in it,” Rainbow asked. “Looks kinda boring.”

“Good question,” Twilight replied, opening the box. Inside was a pearl of incredible size, as well as a note written in Sunset’s hoofwriting, or rather, handwriting. There were also some various things inside that looked like, sure enough, candy.

“Knew there was candy in there!” Pinkie said, without being anywhere near the contents. “The nose knows!”

“Whatever, Bon-Bon,” Rainbow teased. “Well, don’t keep us in suspense, Sparkle. Read the letter!”

“Oh, sorry. Sure,” Twilight agreed.

“Oh! It’s good to hear she’s doing so well,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile.

“Ah agree,” Applejack added. “She’s a nice mare, even if’n she’s in an odd situation.”

“GIMME CANDY!” was all Pinkie could blurt out.

“Well, let’s take a quick break while I look at this thing,” the alicorn suggested, using her magic to pass each pony a candybar. Afterwards, she reached into the box with her hooves, and pulled out the massive jewel.

“Wow, that thing’s huge,” Raspberry said, whistling in appreciation. “And I can feel the magic from here. And that came from the human world?”

“Apparently so – the magic signature doesn’t match anything I’m familiar with. Plus, Sunset wouldn’t forge magic, and she couldn’t back when she was, ahem, ‘misbehaving’. So this has to be on the up and up.” Setting it on the desk, she asked Rarity, “I think I have an idea of what Sunny would want, but I think I might need your help on this, Rarity. Up for the challenge?”

“For a chance to create a masterwork for a human?” she cooed, her eyes lighting up at the size of the pearl. “Admittedly, metalwork isn’t my forte – Golden Earring is much better at it than I am – but I certainly understand the need for discretion and so I think I can come up with something.” Enveloping the huge sphere in her magic, she added, “If I may?”

“Be my guest,” Twilight nodded.

Rarity reached out with her magic, enveloping it in a hue of blue energy, lifting it...before the glow disappeared with a pop, dropping a small distance back on the table. “Odd...I thought I put enough lift into it,” the fashionista said. “Let me try again.” A second attempt was just as fruitless, as was a third.

“Ya feelin’ okay, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“I think so, but I hope I’m not coming down with the horn flu...I do so hate losing my magic while at a critical junction. But that’s odd; I had the flu shot last week.”

Twilight, however, noticed something else. “Did you see that?” she asked Raspberry.

“Yeah, let me try it,” Raspberry said, reaching out with her magic. A second later, she had the same problem. “This...is weird.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up in that way. “Simply amazing! It seems to have a magic canceling spell on it, but it’s not canceling so much as it’s absorbing the magic! If we could just study it—”

“Focus, Twi. We can figure out the strange hoofball-sized pearl later. In any case, we still need to come up with a plan of what we’re going to do – and then we’re all probably going to need to get ready.”

“Right,” Twilight said with some reluctance, getting back to their conversation.

The rest of the meeting went out smoothly, the positions plotted out: Raspberry, most likely the safest around the Garden, would be in charge of putting a stop to it. Twilight would deal with Hammer directly. As for the others, Rainbow would have overwatch on everyone; Fluttershy would be in charge of corralling the animals and keeping them away from the operation; Rarity would try to shield them all with some techniques Twilight would go over; Applejack would be in charge of seeing what plants could be safely kept on site; and Pinkie would use her Pinkie Sense as a tripwire in case something went wrong.

After that, the remainder of the day was spent with Rarity practicing her spells and Pinkie vibrating to and fro as she tried to actively control her Pinkie Senses to get an idea of what Torch Hammer’s group was up to. Fluttershy and Applejack, with nothing else to do, assisted the ship’s crew in preparations. The ship’s flyer squadron, eager to learn some tricks from an actual Wonderbolt, listened to her every word. Finally, that left both Twilight and Raspberry, both standing on the ship’s poopdeck, looking out at the distance receding from them as the vessel moved ever forward.

“Something on your mind, Razz?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah. Just thinking about what’s coming ahead. We’ve faced werewolves, unintentional curses and all sorts of other things, but something feels different about this one. Not that I’m worried anything’s going to happen to us, only that I think something’s about to go very wrong.”

“You know, that’s funny: those are the same words Sunset told me the night she got here.” At the news of that, Raspberry gave her friend a curious glance. Twilight nodded in reply. “Serious. She was terrified: her sister was under attack by a magic spell she couldn’t comprehend—”

The unicorn laughed. “I have a real hard time imagining a Twilight Sparkle who’s not good at magic.”

“She’s not me, Razz, and magic is dead to the point of myth on their world – it’s natural she wouldn’t know what it is. If our situations were reversed, I’d probably be the same way. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. My point is that Sunset was on the verge of breaking down – she was desperate to save...well, Twilight...and all she felt was that everything was going to go wrong, that her sister could already be dead and she was here on the verge of a death sentence from Celestia. All I could do is to tell her the same thing that I’m going to tell you: that choosing to ignore your feelings isn’t much better than doing the wrong thing. Believe me, I have those same concerns.”

“Really? How so?”

Twilight looked at the moonlit sky and Luna’s orb, floating in the ocean of stars above. “Well, it’s simple: we know that Easychord is going to take on Torch Hammer’s ship, but that’s not the problem. No, the problem is Torch Hammer himself. Remember, he’s a former grand mage.”

Raspberry shrugged. “Yeah, well, you used to be one, and I currently am the one for dark magic, so?”

“But he’s had plenty of time to figure out some new spells that we don’t know, and while I can figure them out, in a battle you know that time is of the essence. Plus, we have to prevent him from accessing the Black Garden while finding a way to destroy that. The girls can keep innocents – well, the ones not already completely corrupted by the Garden’s influence – away from the battle. But I’ve got to be the one to stop Torch Hammer, and the responsibility of so many lives when they’re under his metaphorical hoof can be stifling at times.”

“Well, as soon as we arrive, we’ll get a good look at it and I might be able to do something about it. Although, admittedly I have my reservations about destroying something like this. Not because of the evil, uncontrollable magic – I might not even be able to do so – but because, well, it’s destroying something natural, even if it’s not nature as we know it.”

Twilight put a comforting hoof on her friend’s withers. “I know. And if there’s any way to stop it without destroying it, we will. I don’t like the idea either, even with the fact that it could hurt me, Celestia and my fellow alicorns. But I promise we’ll find a way to fix this. But believe me when I say that I know you have reservations about destroying the Black Garden; believe me, I’d be worried if you didn’t. But I also believe that you’ll do the right thing, when it’s time, because you’re Raspberry Beryl.”

Raspberry grinned. “Grand Mage of the Black Arts, Princess in Pretense to the Crystal Throne and Head of House Sombra?”

“No,” Twilight smiled back, hugging her. “Because you’re my friend.”

The day of reckoning finally arrived, and the girls stood on the weatherdeck of the ship, staring out into the vast expanse before them. The exception had been Pinkie, who had commandeered the ship’s galley, and with the happy assistance of Easychord, made smiley-face pancakes for the whole of the confused crew. Now the two were in the middle of bonding over huge stacks of pancakes, talking freely as two old souls tended to do. For the others, however, they gazed with growing dread over the vista that was the Black Garden. The skies above were mottled black and purple, looking all to the world like an ugly, pulsating bruise. An odd, wintry cold seemed to settle over the area as if the location was ruled by windigos hell-bent on wresting the whole of the world from ponydom. And below, stretching for acres upon countless acres, were giant slabs of an unknown stone, being slowly swallowed up by blackish-green vines from which blood-red flowers sprouted. The air was filled with the sickly-sweet scent of rotten honey, dying sugar ants and too many other perverted delights.

Strangest of all was the whole configuration of the location: spreading out from the center like the legementon of the damned, the unnaturally-patterned pathways of the mysterious vegetation forming a magic circle that was strong enough for every unicorn aboard the ship to feel – and it wasn’t anything particularly pleasant.

“Hoofprints on the edges of my mind….” Rarity moaned, grasping her head in the throes of pain, until Twilight tapped her horn and a shield of purple surrounded her. The agony abated, the fashionista looked at her friend with utmost gratitude. “My thanks, Twilight, dear. I felt...as if something was reaching into my consciousness.”

“Ah think all th’ unicorns ‘board th’ ship are actin’ that way,” Applejack said, looking at her friend with concern.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be here sooner,” Twilight replied as she joined her friends. “I thought Rarity would be able to withstand it better given the shielding spell I taught her, but it seemed to have overwhelmed all the unicorns aboard. I’ve been moving through the ship trying to help each one back to rights, but I forgot about my friend.”

“That’s alright, dear,” Rarity said, lying down on the deck and rubbing her horn gently. “The crew of the ship takes precedence; I understand that.” Rarity closed her eyes, concentrated, and a second later a dome of blue covered her. “Ah, that’s much better, certes,” she happily said as she returned to a standing position.

There was the stomping of hooves as a lower hatch opened and Raspberry, clearly none the worse for wear, came to a stop on the deck. “You were right, Twi,” she said, gasping. “I laid down countermeasures, but they’re only temporary – in fact, they could just intensify a second wave once the initial spell bounces back and then rebounds.”

“That’s okay,” Twilight said somberly. “By that time I’m hoping that we can put an end to thi—”

A blood-curdling scream filled the air; everypony turned to see Fluttershy at the gunwales, her body shaking as if a leaf caught in a deadly whirlwind, her eyes radiating abject horror.

“They’re...they’re….” She turned away and her eyes were filled with tears. “They’re dying, Twilight! This...monstrosity is killing them! Killing those poor animals so it can use their bodies as fertilizer!”

“Sugarcube,” Applejack began, a heavily feeling sitting in her barrel as she instinctively knew her friend to be right even if a part of her said otherwise. “That’s just a part o’ nature; you know tha—”

“THIS ISN’T NATURE!” the quavering pegaus screamed. “This is evil, and we have to stop it!”

“We will,” Applejack said, scowling at the ground as if her anger was a blast from Celestia herself. This overgrown weed patch had managed to hurt Fluttershy at her core, and Applejack would do anything to protect her friend, including pulling weeds on an industrial scale if need be. However, she trailed off as she saw the hatch open again and a woozy Easychord was stumbling onto the deck, with one leg around Pinkie, who was supporting her. But it was Pinkie that was a surprise: her hair was straightened and she was slightly grayed in her normally bright hues. Her eyes radiated ice cold fury and she seemed almost on the verge of madness. Setting her friend down, she walked over to the gunwale and shouted down at the Black Garden.

“YOU WILL NOT WIN, YOU HEAR ME, YOU BIG BAD MEANIE GARDEN! I AM PINKAMENA DIANE PIE AND WHEN I SAY FUN, YOU SAY ‘HOW HIGH’, DO YOU GET ME?”

Raspberry sighed. “I always knew this day would come. Did anypony bring the straightjacket?”

“Oh, hush, she’ll be back to normal sooner or later, you know that,” Rarity scolded, then amended it with an “I hope.”

“WHEN I SAY YOU PARTY, YOU WILL PARTY!” Pinkie shouted down at the Black Garden.

Letting go of Pinkie, Easychord steeled herself and looked at Twilight. “Princess, we are ready for your command to commence the operation. A skiff is standing by in the well deck to take Archmagus Beryl and her strike team.”

“Execute your orders,” Twilight said gravely. She then turned to Raspberry. “Okay, get going, girls. Take care, okay?”

The girls all got into a group hug. “You too, Twilight dear,” Rarity said. They remained that way for a few seconds until necessity made them break off. With that, they headed towards the hatch and towards the well deck, where the ship’s skiffs were.

“I’m sending my best flight of combat fliers to escort them, your highness,” Easychord said. “I know it’s not easy, but in my opinion, there’s no finer troubleshooters in Equestria than the Bearers.”

“My thanks,” Twilight said, turning her attention away from the naval captain and towards the bruised sky above and the sea of black-green and red below. Bloodflowers appeared to take up most of the area, but with her pegasus vision, the alicorn could see signs of ghost flowers, plundervines, ponydrake, cherrybomb trees, and so much more. Then, in several strategic places she saw the thing that could spell doom for the alicorns: spirit mint. Looking more than a little like it’s more mundane relative, the unknown chemical in spirit mint took over control of three parts of the alicorn’s body: the mind, the nervous system, and….

Twilight blushed as she thought of the third thing it took over: the reproductive system. Anyone who distilled spirit mint blooms as the core of a control spell would have any alicorn under their control; worse, said alicorn would be a love slave, unable to think of anything other than the spell’s caster. In many ways, it was worse than the love potion the Cutie Mark Crusaders came across; that would at least allow for the final embrace of death. Between absolute control of an alicorn and the immortality each had, it was a fate worse than anything else Twilight could think of. Granted, it was just theoretical, but it was the kind of theory that Twilight had no interest in proof-testing.

Rainbow, seeing the dire look on her friend’s face, tried to assure her. “Don’t worry, Twi. Whatever this Hammer blockhead thinks he can do to us, we’re gonna show him he can’t mess with the likes of you and me, okay?”

“Right,” Twilight said, rising to the air. Rainbow followed suit, and with that, on cue, two squadrons of combat flyers fell into position behind them, their intent to bring the fight to the enemy and to protect their princess.

As the group rose into the sky, Mizzenmast joined Easychord on the deck. “When I was a filly, I wanted to be a Wonderbolt. Imagine my shock when I found my cutiemark made me more suitable for a naval officer than a combat flyer. I was shocked.”

“And now?” Easychord asked.

“With ponies such as the Bearers behind us? I would sail this ship into Tartarus if those were my commands, Captain.”

Easychord smiled. “Good, because going up against the Whisper Pitch? That’s exactly what we’ll be doing.”

The skiff landed near the painted rocks just across from the start of the grass that signaled the domain of the Black Garden. Stepping off the skiff, Raspberry looked at the flyers assigned to them. “Stand by for immediate rescue if need be,” she ordered, “but don’t get too close until you have to. We’re protected by magic that you might not be.”

The senior flyer saluted. “Roger that, ma’am.”

As the group wandered off, Applejack stated, “Ah think they could’ve come with us. Won’t they be in danger this close t’ the Garden?”

“Which is why I asked them to stay behind, AJ. With Rarity handling the brunt of shielding, I don’t think we can afford to strain her magic on protecting extra ponies. At least this way, we can all focus on our job without Rarity having to worry about unnecessary distractions.”

Rarity nodded. “That being said, darlings….” Rarity immediately cast the spell and the four mares became enveloped in near-bubbles of energy, the bottom portions flat in order to allow them to walk unimpeded.

“Wow, Rares, nice work,” Raspberry replied.

The fashionista bowed. “Why thank you, Raspberry, dear. It is nice to be appreciated for a mare’s touch in the arts.” The four soon were walking into the Garden, and as they did, Applejack’s eyes grew impossibly wide.

“This...this shouldn’t be possible!” she gasped, pointing at the plants. The group stopped and looked down at the grass, which had a look very much akin to thread and yarn. Rarity in particular noted that some of the tufts of grass resembled serge.

“Care to explain?” Raspberry asked.

“Yeah – it’s fibergrass,” the farmer noted. “In an’ of itself, ain’t a bad thing, but it’s when y’ put it together with other plants that it becomes a problem. Mah cousin Pinova Apple’s farm in Maneasota almost got completely ruined b’cause of this here grass. Once it gets in touch with other plants, it turns them into giant yarn balls.” Her face scrunched in distaste as she said, “Entire crop got destroyed, and if’n it weren’t fer the fact that she was able t’ sell the garbage as textiles, she woulda been ruined.”

“And yet it seems to exist symbiotically with the other plants,” Fluttershy said, a sad look on her face. By her feet were the remains of a rabbit, with strands of fibergrass making a home amongst the bleached ossification. It was both beautiful and macabre at once and a fitting symbol for this hell that was the Black Garden.

“We need to get to the center of the Garden as soon as possible,” Raspberry told them. “The sooner we do so, the sooner we can get this mess over and done with.”

“That’ll be a little bit of a problem, missy,” a voice suddenly came out of nowhere. The girls looked up to see a group of pirates standing there, amongst them a stallion with a tawny coat, red mane and charcoal-grey eyes, behind glasses. He had an outdated manestyle and wore pince-museau glasses. If it wasn’t for the fire-and-maul cutie mark the stallion had, they would have assumed him to be the Whisper Pitch’s accountant, reluctantly forced to work for the pirates.

Raspberry looked at the stallion with distaste. “Torch Hammer, I presume?”

He grinned. “You assume correctly, lass. Though I’m not surprised to see that Celestia has sent her newest pupil after me – a smart move, but not smart enough. After all, I’ve taken the time to study your ways, and me and my crew are more than ready to deal with the likes of you, Miss Sunset Shimmer. Though I must admit, you don’t quite look like your description.”

Raspberry and the others looked at each other, and she could see that they were very much trying not to laugh at their situation.

“It’s...um...a disguise,” Fluttershy said, trying to look serious and hide behind Rarity at the same time.

“Yes, well…Sunset, dear, perhaps we should just confess,” Rarity “admitted”. Raspberry heard the slight titter of amusement in the fashionista’s voice, not that Raspberry could blame her. Sunset’s personal peeve when she met Raspberry was being confused for her “copy”; now that the horseshoe was on the other hoof, the unicorn could see why her friend was now so vexed. However, there was an advantage in being confused for the wayward pony, especially if Torch Hammer was behind the times as he seemed to be.

Focusing greatly, Raspberry recalled a spell that was in Sombra’s personal journals. He’d used the spell often to spy on his people, and the very basics of the spell utterly disgusted her: it was a glamorie spell similar to the one she used as her everyday guise, but added a touch of compulsion to it in order to make somepony actually believe it to be the individual in question. The page where Sombra discussed it…the concept had rankled her on a personal level. But if could be turned to good, like now….

She lit her horn, the appendage bathing itself in magical tones of claret…

...and a second later the magic vanished, leaving a rankled maize-hued pony to glare at Torch Hammer, her cyan eyes radiating irritation behind locks of red and yellow.

“Okay, you have us at a disadvantage,” Sunset Shimmer said to Torch Hammer. “You may as well explain your terms.”

“Twitch – twitch – itchy eye – creaky knee!” Pinkie suddenly shouted proudly on the bridge. Her eyes then widened and she whispered, “Oh, no!”

“Something wrong, Miss Pie?” Mizzenmast asked.

“My Pinkie Sense just told me that we ran into that meanie Ham Torcher—”

“Torch Hammer.”

“Whatever! But that something doesn’t seem to be what it is!”

Mizzenmast pondered on it for a second, her chin propped up by a posed hoof. Speaking to the bos’n, she asked, “Do we have a location on the Whisper Pitch?”

“We have it spotted just entering the far side of the Black Garden, and our combat flyers have already have engaged theirs. Strangely enough, though, the Pitch itself has not attacked.” The bos’n looked at a small compass-like item that was flickering with a magic glow. “It’s just floating there, no cover fire or additional support, though it has a heavy magical shield around it.”

“What of the princess’ strike force?”

“Wait one.” The bos’n checked the device for a few seconds before saying, “Inbound, and nopony’s challenged her yet. Shield might stop her, though.”

“Nuh-uh!” Pinkie said with a grin. “When it comes to magic, Twi’s the best! Nopony can outdo her!”

Twilight, using all her knowledge of her brother’s shield spells, tore down the enemy barrier in an instant. Seeing that, Rainbow ordered her combat flyers to board and take out the enemy forces, but to their surprise, there was no one there. Rainbow’s forces scoured the ship in seconds, but soon another one of her flyers reported that aside from some prisoners in the ship’s brig, the ship was completely empty.

“I don’t get it! Why would they abandon the ship?” Rainbow asked. “That makes no sense! Common sense you don’t just not use your heavy hitter when you’re under attack! That goes against everything that military experts like Von Canterwitz and Pommel have repeatedly said!”

Twilight smiled. “You read military doctrine, Rainbow?”

The pegasus shrugged. “Started out because of training needs for Wonderbolts; ended up reading because some of the awesome things some of them did. Did you know that during the Diamond Dogs war, Rocketfuel lead a two-pony team deep into enemy territory to recover stolen battle plans?”

Twilight, who read Gen. Rocketfuel’s memoirs only about four times, only nodded, silently promising to expose her friend to more doctrine as necessary. RightStuff’s books on hyperflight might be of use to her. But the princess said nothing, merely nodding silently while listening out for anything unusual. After all, it took more than just eyes and magic senses to find something that could be dangerous – and given that the ship was practically abandoned with living prisoners, that definitely meant something was up.

A few seconds later, the answer was discovered. “Sarge! Princess! We have a problem!”

Rainbow looked right at the flyer. “What’s up, Farshot?”

“There’s an explosive of some kind around the ship’s magic core – it’s set to detonate within thirty minutes. Furthermore, Airspeed just checked out the ship’s course and based on our best guess, it’s going to detonate right over the center of the Garden!”

“Detonate over the center of the Garden?” a second flyer named Control Point asked. “But that doesn’t make sense, at least not from his standpoint! Doesn’t he want to take it over or something?”

“Let’s check it out,” Twilight insisted. “In the meanwhile, why don’t we check this explosive out? Might be something I’ll be able to stop, and we might get an idea of what Torch Hammer’s game is.” No objections were raised and with that the four ponies raced down the hatches, deck by deck, until they reached the engineering spaces and the large half-machine, half-crystal lattice that was the ship’s magic core. Surrounding it was a series of spinning, magical chains that glowed with a fiery aura. Twilight knew the spell the moment she saw it; after all, it had been her predecessor, Sunset, that had created it.

“Th-that’s Sunset Shimmer’s Special Solar Circlement!” Twilight stammered. “H-how did Torch Hammer learn this?”

“Something up, Twi?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah: it’s an illegal spell – not dark magic, but an incredibly destructive spell nonetheless. Celestia told me that Sunset created it when she was a foal, and by complete accident, as she’d been trying to create a spell to use the sun’s warmth so everyone could use it.”

“I take it that didn’t happen?”

“No – she created something that uses the sun’s warmth to burn away everything in its path.” Her eyes widened horribly. “Now I know what he’s going to do—”

At that point, another flyer called out “Princess!” and brought before her a frightened mare. Her name was Ocean Wave and she was the ship’s jack-of-the-dust, the one in charge of the ship’s foodstocks. She looked as though she’d been roughed up by some of the pirates, and she wove a horrible tale: somehow, Torch Hammer’s escape had been planned for some time, as many of the crew aboard the Whisper Pitch had been descendants of his original crew and had been taught from the cradle to the grave to break out their leader when appropriate.

“I’m ashamed to admit, I’m one of the relatives of the crew,” Ocean Wave said, “but I wanted no part of this – I didn’t even know until we were told! But I’m loyal to the Crown and when I told him I refused to go against the Princesses, he had his pirates rough me and the other innocents up and then he killed the rest….” She broke into sobs and it was all that Twilight could do but to hug her.

“Sergeant! We have a message from the Captain!” A new flyer, this one clearly exhausted from flying from the Super-Electric at the fastest speed possible. She all but collapsed in front of Rainbow as she passed over the message.

“Couldn’t send by dragonfire?” Control Point asked.

“Probably being blockaded; if you know what you’re doing, you can intercept a message sent by dragonfire. Grand Mages know the spell easily, and I’m glad Easychord knows that as well,” Twilight said with relief, looking over Rainbow’s withers as her friend read the message.

A second later, Rainbow grunted. “Well, that’s great – Pinkie’s Sense went off and we haven’t heard from Razz and the others.”

“Then it confirms my theory,” Twilight replied.

“Your...theory, ma’am?” one of the combat flyers asked.

Twilight nodded. “My guess was that he never intended to keep the Whisper Pitch. No, he intended to crash the ship in the middle of the Garden, thus spreading the spirit mint everywhere due to the explosive force of the cherrybomb fruits. Between that and the mint, it would be carried in the wind and would hit us alicorns with no problem and not have any effect on the rest of the populace! He could conquer the world without so much as a single bit of effort!”

“Ma’am, we’re approaching the center of the Garden – the ship should start its terminal dive any minute now,” one of the combat flyers said. “If there was only a way to neutralize the ship—”

“Neutralize the ship?” Twilight repeated and as if guided by a mechanical god, her mind immediately laser-locked onto a solution. “That’s it!” she chirped.

“What’s it?” Rainbow, completely out of the loop on whatever her friend’s mental processes were at the moment, asked.

“I’ll be right back!” Twilight replied. “For now, evacuate the ship and make sure it stays on course!”

“On course?”

“Yes! Don’t move it so much as an inch!” With that, Twilight winked out as she activated her teleport.

On the bridge, Pinkie started up again.

“Grumbling stomach – twitchy tail – teary eye!” Pinkie cheered before shouting, “Be right back! I have an important date with the outside!”

Mizzenmast looked at her oddly. “Is something the matter, Miss Pie?”

“My Pinkie Sense just told me that Twilight just found a super splendiferous way to beat that meanie Spam Scorcher—”

“Torch Hammer.”

“Whatever! But I gotta do it now! See ya!” With no further ado, she raced out of the wheelhouse and towards the lower decks.

Mizzenmast watched the earth pony go. “I will never understand her, Captain.”

Easychord allowed herself a ghost of a smile. “Only like can understand like, Mizzenmast. It’s how the world goes.”

Twilight appeared above the ship, hoping her plan would work. It made more sense to send Rainbow, given her speed, but at the same time, they knew who she was and they would target her. No, teleporting back and forth made the only sense. Now if the damn thing would cooperate with her – after all, she was the one using her magic on herself, not on it; that meant it was merely along for the ride and nothing was being actively applied to it, right?

As she landed by the bow, Pinkie was already there, with a box in hoof, gift-wrapped and a gift tag that said HERE’S FOR YOU, MEANIE! “Hiya, Twilight! I brought the thing! I don’t know why I brought the thing, but my Pinkie Sense told me to because I had a series of incidents that happened that told me so!”

“Oh, really? Like what?”

To Twilight’s surprise, Pinkie blushed. “It’s not polite to talk about that,” was all she said. Twilight did not inquire further, but instead gratefully took the package and with a muttered hope it would work teleported away from the ship.

As Pinkie watched the magic dissipate, she grinned widely. “Silly Twilight, of course it’s gonna work!” With that, she raced off to the kitchens to plan the victory party. Parties weren’t going to plan themselves, after all.

“And you’re telling me you planned this via time jumps?” Raspberry, still wearing her disguise as Sunset and currently “helpless” being tied up, asked. Torch Hammer turned out to be the stupidest kind of villain available: the mustache-twirling-while-cackling-maniacally-and-telling-you-all-their-plans type And oh, how he was doing it with gusto.

“Of course! Now, you having been trained by Celestia, I know you can barely understand some of the concepts – now, now, that’s not an insult to your intelligence, but rather an understanding that you weren’t taught properly by her, as I know she hides all her secrets. Unfortunately for me, I learned the truth, and that set me free!”

“Rather full of himself, isn’t he,” Rarity, tied up next to her, whispered.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Raspberry replied.

Either not noticing or caring that he was the subject of a second conversation, he continued. “So then I decided to look through Star Swirl’s secret archives and stole some of his unfinished spells, like time anchor and the like – oh, what a hoot for Celestia to think I was in Tartarus all this time, when I was merely there for seconds! In all this time, I’ve been anchoring myself to several time periods, all so I could study the time spells in peace – and it was then when I discovered the Black Garden! A wonderful land that could give me both the chance to rule Equestria – because after all, it should be someone intelligent and wise to rule, correct? – and a chance to make Celestia understand exactly what it’s like to be a slave under her rule!”

“Then why not bring it up t’ ‘er?” Applejack asked. “Ah know Celestia, an’ she’s a fair-minded gal.”

Torch Hammer theatrically sighed. “I wouldn’t expect somepony, who is the result of Equestria’s poor education system – again, no offense intended and certainly not your fault – to understand the futility of bringing something like that to Celestia. All she cares about is cake, her throne, and her own sybaritic pleasures. So, it stands for someone to take the throne. And with nopony in the royal line save for her, that leaves it to outside talent, shall we say, to make amends.

“So with time, ahem, on my hooves, I formulated a plan: for decades, my loyal minions have been infiltrating the highest levels of government and the military. We’ve been carefully shepherding weather patterns and keeping watch over the other nations. And now, while the changeling attack – which, I will sadly admit, I had no involvement in, as it was a masterful stroke – proves that Celestia is incapable of protecting the populace and that somepony with a firm hoof should rule. Naturally, we know who that is.”

“Smart move,” Raspberry replied, deciding to play to his strengths. If he was stupid enough to give away his plan, he was surely stupid enough to give up extra information that the Crown needed to protect Equestria. And if there was one thing Raspberry took seriously, it was her oath to protect the realm. Giving a quick wink at Rarity, she then continued: “Tell me more.”

Finally he seemed to realize some bit of common sense. Eyeing her carefully, he asked, “And why should I? How do I know this isn’t some trick by that harridan to keep Equestria under her bit and to prevent me from freeing the world as is my right?”

“Because I, too, have hidden something from Celestia – I know dark magic.” On cue, “Sunset” activated her horn, channeling dark magic for the pirates – and her allies – to see.

Fluttershy, not having caught Raspberry’s ruse, cried out, “No! You can’t!” Granted, it worked in their favor, as Fluttershy’s belief had been genuine and so her worries had not been faked. Applejack, not sure of what was going on, but a terrible liar, opted, to stay shut and continue to stew at the situation.

Rarity, however, was a better actress in this regard: “Sunset! How could you? Celestia’s like a mother to you!”

Torch Hammer, however, smiled. “And yet you hid this dark knowledge from her – quite shrewd. You vow to follow my path?”

Raspberry tried not to double-take at the sudden change in the stallion’s ideas. This is the biggest idiot I’ve ever met – and I’ve met more than a few in my life! “Yes, I vow.”

“Sunset! Don’t!” Rarity screeched, a little too loudly, Raspberry thought, but if this was going to be an accurate trick, then it had to be so.

“So, what’s the plan, boss?” she asked.

He grinned. “Simplicity itself: I’ve made very special adjustments to the Whisper Pitch’s magic core, then added some magical explosives. I’ve then set it to crash in the middle of the Black Garden, where I’ve spent centuries growing a particularly strong strain of spirit mint. Between that explosion, the cherrybomb trees that ring that grove and the specially-trained people under my aegis, the world should be blanketed in the spirit mint I need to control the sole alicorn in the world – and thus rule the world myself with Celestia as my whore!” He cackled like the psycho he was. “I WILL RULE THE WORLD AND ITS SOLE ALICORN! BEHOLD!”

True to his word, the Whisper Pitch appeared and started its fall towards the ground, and each foot it descended, the manic howls of laughter from Torch Hammer continued, showing the stallion had zero sense of normalcy whatsoever. But then Fluttershy’s pegasus eyes, staring at horror as the ship fell, caught a distinct purple glow underneath the bowsprit of the great vessel and she couldn’t help but say the words that utterly confused all the enemies present:

“Too bad there’s another alicorn. And she’s about to stop you – you meanie!” Fluttershy said with a confident smile.

With mere dozens of feet to go as the airship rushed towards the ground, Twilight teleported right into its path, holding onto the pearl while she conjured up some tar and a lemegeton that she’d written down once on a whim, but never thought she’d use for any occasion. Slapping the tar onto the hull of the ship, she affixed the pearl, and then the lemegeton sheet, hoping that it would work, as it was a one in a billion chance – and a stupid one, too: it was a prank she’d created once – just for research; back then she had zero interest in using it much less friends to use it against – and the rules were simple: the magical circle would create a jolt against whatever the paper was attached to, then amplify it based on the ambient magic in the air. The victim would receive a huge harmless, but shocking blast of magic energy.

“TWILIGHT!” She could hear Rainbow should at her, moving at a hurried speed. “WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!”

Twilight looked at the pearl one last time, then at the ground oncoming below. It was now or never, if not, she might be able to last the crash as an alicorn, but Rainbow certainly woudln’t. “NOW!” she shouted and Rainbow grabbed Twilight, then going from zero to Sonic Rainboom faster than anypony had ever expected her to.

With nothing to stop it, the Whisper Pitch collided right into the dead center of the Black Garden. At first there was the massive crunch as the great ship broke against the unyielding surface of the ground. The impact, as expected, set off the explosive magical core, which in turn set off the cherrybomb trees, culminating in a gargantuan ball of fire that reached into the sky, sending up a mushroom-shaped blast of magical mist and dust and a shockwave, a huge wall of white noise that rocketed out to the extremes of the Garden.

Seeing that Torch Hammer was still too much into his self-congratulatory laughter to protect everyone from the explosive onslaught, Raspberry dropped her disguise, returning to her normal form, and threw up a shield to protect everyone as the blast of energy passed them. Fluttershy screamed in utter horror, and yet Torch Hammer, lost in his insanity, paid no heed to the destruction around him, his laughter railing on.

But then a second wave, a warm and gorgeous enveloping wave of soft-blue, warm-yellow and pure white, seemed to reach out from the center of the Black Garden, appearing to pull the deadly force back towards the center. Like a supernova in reverse, the power of the light overmuscled and compelled the power of the Black Garden in on itself, countermanding it at every turn, until it compressed, a brilliant, blinding star at the blastpoint which then turned into a column of solid power that roared into the air for a second before strobing into nothing.

The Black Garden became a lifeless collection of strange stones and inert columns, its floral denizens having been obliterated in the blast or captured by the white brilliance. And in the center of it all was a white pearl, now the size of a large pony, glistening with power and radiating a sheer brilliance of light. Marks of black briefly appeared across its surface, but were soon erased in golden flashes, as if something within the pearl slapped the hand of a petulant child drawing on a window.

In the air, having been thrown a mile away, Rainbow and Twilight looked at the place that was once the Black Garden. The speedster looked at her friend and said, “Twilight, I have no idea what you did, but you stopped it!”

Twilight smiled. “Oh, I can’t take the credit for this one. This one is entirely Sunset’s fault.”

Torch Hammer finally realized that his plan hadn’t gone according to plan. “Wait? Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!” His face turned into a snarl. “This makes me very angry, very angry indeed!” He then turned to “Sunset”, to demand to know what happened. Instead, he found the unicorn to be back in the colors she wore earlier, and with a wise grin, looked to her friend, the farming dunce.

“Care to do the honors?” Raspberry asked Applejack, a wide grin on her face.

“Gladly,” she said with an equal one, then turned and bucked Torch Hammer in the face, point blank. He was catapulted off his hooves and sent cartwheeling in the air before crashing face-first into one of the battered columns that remained of the Garden.

“An’ that’s fer callin’ me stupid!” the farmer said, shaking a forehoof.

For her part, Rarity simply smiled at the remaining pirates and asked, “Darlings, who’s next?”

The pirates, as one, surrendered immediately. They didn’t need further evidence of their defeat.

“There,” Sunset Shimmer said to herself as the last of the box she’d sent the pearl in vanished into the flame of the dragonfire candle. With that done, she could activate its normal candle mode before her sister or her cousin got back an—

Suddenly a small wooden box appeared from the dragonfire candle. Not wishing to risk further mail, Sunset turned it into a normal candle once more, closing the small portal back to her home world.

Looking at the small box, she thought, What’s this? Opening it, she found a pair of gorgeous amethyst stud earrings, along with a necklace made of pure white silver. Expensive, sure, but with Sunset’s paycheck, it wasn’t anything she couldn’t cover with pretending to have saved up. Once again, her friend had come through, though Sunset had to wonder what Twilight did with the pearl. Given its size as well as the mysterious magic within it, the object was probably taking up space as in her lab, Sunset laughed silently.

There was also a note, which she assumed was from Twilight. Unfolding it, the flame-haired girl read:

With that, Sunset slipped the letter in her desk, just as she heard footfalls outside the door. She looked to see her sister, Twilight Sparkle, standing there with a load of laundry in her hands. “Can you help me fold this? Tavi’s practicing and we have a ton of laundry.”

Sunset smiled. “Sure thing, sis.”

Twilight set the laundry on her sister’s bed. “You’re in a good mood. Something happen?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, just got a text from someone. Good news, too. Remind me to tell you about it sometime.”

Author's Note

Well, that didn't take long, right? Good things come to those who wait and all that. Seriously, I didn't expect my misadventures (and a small writer's block) to tie my up so. Thanks to those who were patient.

The next chapter will be in two weeks, as I've got a con to do and trying to rebuild the buffer. Hopefully after that, we'll be back at weekly updates.

August 4: How Low

“N-no….” Compass Rose looked at Scotch Bonnet. “This isn’t a funny joke, Scotch. Seriously.”

Scotch Bonnet stood in front of one of her closest friends, tears streaming down her face. “It’s no lie, Rose. She’s gone.” Scotch explained that she’d gone over to Tennis Match’s place earlier in the morning, because they were meeting for breakfast. Instead, Scotch was treated to a number of news vans and police cars around her friend’s house and that only served to make the girl worry that much more. But it was when Match’s father, tears streaming down his face unashamedly, that Scotch’s worst fears were confirmed. She stayed only long enough to get the barest details, and raced over as fast as she could.

Scotch embraced her friend and both girls fell to their knees, holding each other and bawling. Not too long after that, Scotch Bonnet headed home; for her safety, her parents restricted her to the house for they feared she’d be the next target. But that left another potential target – Rose herself – alone in a house, mourning the loss of someone dear to her.

Rose never felt more shattered than in that moment.

Contralto Rush, petty officer in charge of the SIRENs Black Team, plopped on the nearby sofa, beer in hand. “Ah, how I needed a break!”

“A beer? This early in the morning? And you’re not of age to drink, not even back in Canada!” Medley Trance tsked. “Why don’t you do something more productive and legal, instead?”

From where she sat, Canzione Burst chuckled. “Bet ten to one she propositions you for sex.”

Medley stuck her tongue at her fellow SIREN. “Awww, way to take the suspense out of it, Canzy!”

Contralto rolled her eyes. “I’m not sleeping with you, Med.”

“C’mon, Alto! I’ve pretty much exhausted all the members of the Sisterhood who are interested! I have to have a challenge! Besides, once you set sail to the Island of Lesbos, you’ll be forever more in paradise.”

“Paradise? So you’re naming your body parts now?”

Medley grinned sultrily. “If you think those are good, you should head to my valley of fun.”

“Give it a rest, Med,” Contralto insisted.

Canzione nodded in agreement. “Anyway, question for you, Alto: Why are we on stand down for the next few days? Personally, I’d rather be on the hunt.”

Contralto took a swig of her beer, then sighed. “Yeah, personally I agree with you: I’m addicted to hunting these little cunts, but the Captain says we’ve made too much of a profile for the past few days, and that’s only going to get more of their police involved, ergo, more of a chance to get caught. And apparently the Prince doesn’t want us to be caught. So we’ll have to sit tight, at least until the hurricane gets here, and then we can get on to our business.”

“My business is fuc—”

“Med, would you stop?”

Medley pouted. “You guys never let me have any fun!”

By the time noon had rolled around, the news of Tennis Match’s death had become public knowledge. Celestia and Luna, as the senior staffers at Canterlot High, had been notified, and as such, were immediately on the way to Tennis Match’s house to offer condolences to her parents.

Luna, looking very out of sorts, sighed. “I cannot believe this is happening. For years, Canterlot has been a relatively quiet town, and now all this has happened. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but it’s almost as if Sunset’s arrival was merely the tip of the iceberg.”

Celestia frowned. “This can’t be blamed on Sunset, and you know it. Nor would I.”

“I didn’t mean it that way, Tia. What I meant was….” Luna sighed once more. “It seemed as though things were easier when we first accepted the positions to head CHS. And then Sunset showed up and things have been an avalanche of instances since. While Sunset has been the result of some of those issues, obviously she’s not behind them all. And given her new outlook on life, I doubt she would ever be the source of any more of it. But even still, these problems – the Vibe incident, and now this – would have existed whether Sunset Shimmer came into our lives or not.”

“I know,” Celestia replied, “and the fact that she’s now in touch with her homeworld disconcerts me – not because I don’t trust her, but rather, with the strength she has now...what if something stronger comes across?” Luna had no answer to that, and as they turned onto the street where the family lived, they had to be waved through a police roadblock before continuing on.

“Too many lookieloos,” the officer had explained with an apologetic shrug. “Amazing how many people are afraid of stuff like this, but when it happens to someone else, the morbid curiosity kicks in.”

“Not mine,” Luna muttered as they drove past the news vans and law enforcement vehicles. “Not mine at all.” They finally pulled in front of the house where the crowd was most centered, and as various reporters approached, another police officer arrived. “Sorry, but no visitors allowed at this time. We’re conducting interviews right now and we don’t need further journalists.”

Celestia was about to explain when another voice announced, “They’re clear, Gunsight. I know who they are.” Celestia smiled at that; if she’d known this was going to be a problem, she would have called him.

Sure enough, Shining Armor poked his head into the car window. “I’m guessing she was your student.” He pointed two houses down. “Go ahead and park there; the neighbors have been kind enough to let us use their driveway while we’re checking out the scene.” Shining walked over while the two went and parked, and as they got out, Shining added, “If I had known you were coming, I would have told you and set up clearance.”

“No need to apologize, Shining,” Celestia said with a melancholy smile. “This is a duty that I never wished I had to do.” Nothing more said, Shining escorted them to the house to let them do their duty. As they did, someone flagged Shining’s attention and with a nod, he pointed them to the door before heading off.

“Shining, you’re not going to believe this shit,” Sandalwood said as she approached. “Lab just got back with the results from the Ruby Tuesday case, and...well, take a look for yourself, man.” She handed over the tablet she was looking at.

Shining looked at the tablet, his eyes darting to and fro as he looked over the report. Then he paused and gave her a look that would’ve been comical had the situation not been so serious. “Is this shit for real?”

She grinned. “You know, I thought the same thing: what the hell are the FBI lab techs smoking and does the DEA know about it? But turns out that we send some of our cases at the ECSD down to the lab in San Diego, so they are on the up and up.”

Shining rapped his fingers on the screen. “But this—”

“—says she was killed by something with fish scales, I know. Furthermore, they’re checking with San Diego State to see what kind of fish it was, though that doesn’t make any sense either. So either our killer works at a supermarket and handles fish, or we’re dealing with a sick fuck that wears gloves made out of fish scales. Either way,” she groaned as she took the tablet back, “I don’t think we could’ve asked for any weirder of a case.”

“Hey, maybe if we stay with the Feds after this case, we can go work with the X-Files. Can’t get any weirder than this.”

She jabbed him with the tablet. “One, the X-Files are fake – I hope. Two, at the rate things are going, I’m very sure this can get weirder. Now, c’mon, we’ve got to start talking to some of the local experts – I don’t think the lab’s going to do this alone, and I dunno about you, but I’d rather have a second opinion before Special Agents Badge and Hardline insist that we do.”

Sunset lay on her bed in her room, digesting the news she’d heard. We were supposed to go to lunch today. She wanted to make up with me. But now she’s dead...and things will forever be left unfinished. It’s not fair, dammit – it’s just not fair.

There was a knock on the door, but before Sunset could tell them to go away, Octavia opened the door. “Hey, you feeling okay?”

“No,” was Sunset’s simple answer.

“Yeah, I figured when you left your breakfast half-uneaten. Twily’s doing the dishes, so I thought I’d come up here and talk to you.” What was unspoken was the fact that Octavia suddenly had the urge to throw Sunset through the window, then take a glass shard and skin her alive before feeding her to Fluttershy’s zoo animals. Repressing a shudder at the out-of-nowhere thought, she sat down on the bed next to her soon-to-be cousin. “Want to talk about it?”

“Yeah. The murdered girl? I...knew her. She was one of the girls I tormented in the past, and with all I’ve done to help one of her friends with a relationship problem that said friend had, she thought she wanted to go to lunch today to bury the hatchet. We were actually going to go yesterday, but I was too busy.” She looked away from her cousin and said, “I wasn’t really busy, but I wanted some time to prepare.” While Sunset wasn’t crying, she clearly looked broken up about it. “If I hadn’t been such a lazy ass, she could still be alive.”

“Or maybe we’d be the ones broken up today, because you’d be amongst the dead.” Octavia reached out and stroked her cousin’s hair. “Is that what you would’ve wanted?”

Sunset sat up. “No, of course not, Tavi! You know that.”

“Then don’t. Look, you’re alive, you’re with us, and while yes, you’re mourning, don’t forget that there are people here who are glad that you’re alive and that you’re not the one we have to bury.” Violet eyes met cyan, and there was truth in them.

“I know, but I still feel bad about it.”

“So, Twily’s feelings don’t matter? Or mine? Or the rest of your family?”

“No, not that. Maybe I’m just being maudlin.” Sunset stood up and looked at her cousin. “Did you ever feel you had a responsibility that you had to fulfill?”

Octavia shook her head. “It’s not your job to catch this guy, Sunny. You’re not a cop.” She then pointed to the door. “Go down and eat something, okay? If not for yourself, at least for me and Twily.” Octavia then went over and hugged her cousin. “I might be going through a lot right now, but that doesn’t mean you have to. I mean, you’ll officially be part of this family at the end of the month, so that’s something to look forward to, right?”

Sunset gave a bright smile. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

But then Octavia placed her arms akimbo and asked, “So, spill: what did you get for Twily for her birthday?”

Sunset went to her desk and opened it. “I’ve been saving up forever for this. I really hope she’ll like them.” Sunset handed over the earstuds from Equestria, and hoped that Octavia wouldn’t ask what store she got them from.

Octavia opened the case, then her eyes lit up...then she looked at Sunset with utter heartbreak. “You don’t love me, do you?”

“Huh?”

The musician pouted. “You got her this! You love her more than me!” She handed the case back to Sunset, her eyes nearly wet with tears. “And I thought I was important to you.”

Sunset facepalmed. “I wonder if it’s too late to get that pearl back,” she muttered.

Octavia gasped. “You got her a pearl, too?”

Sable was busy washing the dishes when Celestia returned home. “How’re you feeling?” he asked her.

She gave him a look of surrender. “I don’t ever want to be in that position again. The mother? Mrs. Accolade looked as though she was going to lose her mind right then and there and frankly, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she did. As for Tennis Match’s father, he wasn’t there. Accolade said he was probably drinking himself away at a bar in grief.”

He walked over to her and started massaging her shoulders. “Sounds like you had a hell of a day.”

“Hell is right.” She moaned gratefully as her muscles relaxed. “You have a wonderful touch, you know that?”

“Takes the perfect woman to appreciate that,” he told her.

“You spoil me rotten, you know that?” She plopped in a chair by the kitchen table. “Seriously, though, I hope this doesn’t run into the school year. That could really cause me some headaches.”

“Hey, at least your students aren’t going to be considered some of the suspects,” Sable commented as he walked over to the refrigerator and removed a bottle of wine before going to retrieve a pair of wine glasses. “I’m honestly in awe that some of the pupils at my workplace continue to walk free,” he admitted.

“Every student deserves a second chance,” she told him, and her tone indicated that she genuinely believed that.

“You might change your mind after you work with some of the fine pupils that I work with,” Sable insisted as he poured the drinks. “Those two idiots that tried to molest you – Grayhoof and Gladstone – weren’t interested in your concern for their futures, only what they could get out of you...or rather, put into you.”

“That’s rather crass, hon,” she replied as he passed her the drink.

“Crass or not, it’s true. When I met you, I told you they were our worst students. I wasn’t joking. Gladstone got off on a technicality at his last trial, and Grayhoof is attending as a condition of his parole officer. If I hadn’t arrived in time….” The look on his face was one of worry, and Celestia’s eyes widened in horrific realization.

“But they’re just kids!” she gasped.

“No, no they’re not. Sweetheart, you’re making the same mistake everyone else does: that these are just kids, that they’re mixed up and confused and once they graduate at eighteen, then they’ll be adults. No – the truth is that they’re adults now, at least in terms of biology and mental capacity. Age isn’t determined by something as arbitrary as a high school diploma or the annual turn of the calendar. Trust me, those two who accosted you were men, even if just young men, and as capable of evil as any other out there. Might even actually be them.”

“Do you really think that?” she asked.

He looked at her, and the look in his eyes was fierce and unfriendly, enough so to make her back up in fright. However, the look was also distant, which meant it was a memory. “First week in Khandahar, my unit was on the hump. My fireteam and I were moving to high ground, scouting ahead. Unfortunately, someone got the drop on us; two of my guys got it immediately, and one of them was one I knew since Boot Camp. Lakeside was from some small town in Michigan, and he always used to tell me about his plans for what he was going to do when he got out – now those plans were shit. We ducked for cover and returned fire, and for a few seconds – and it felt like a fucking hour – we cut them down, and but good.

“But the part that horrified me and Pine Pass was what we killed: a bunch of kids, no older than Grayhoof or Gladstone, and behind them, seriously injured but still alive, was their cell leader, some raghead asshole in his thirties who threw kids at us with AK-47s from the 1950s and other antiquated shit. Seriously, some of that shit had to date back to some of the Arabic wars in the 60s. So anyway, I’m screaming at this guy – Pass wanted me to kill him, and oh was I tempted.” His eyes reflected a thousand mile stare, and while Celestia wanted to comfort him, she held off, because he clearly needed to talk about this. “And the man looks right at me and says, ‘You think they are boys, but you are wrong, infidel, because they are men, like all men, who come to kill you.’”

Celestia could barely realize what came out of her mouth next. “Then?”

“We killed him,” Sable said, his voice barely a whisper. “He didn’t want to surrender, and we weren’t going to let him go. We killed him, and left his body for the animals to feed on, or for someone to bury. Our unit made it through, and...I wasn’t the same after that. It set me on the road to becoming the Wolf of Kabul.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Based on some quick calls that Shining had made to his father, they were directed to Dr. Leafydragon, a professor of ichthyology at Canterlot State. Looking at the results given to them, he chuckled. “You know, when Night told me that he was going to send something interesting my way, I had no idea.”

“Anything you can tell us, Doctor?” Shining asked.

“Oh, if I didn’t know better, I think that the animators down in Burbank and Anaheim could tell you more.”

“Explanation?”

He held up the culture dish that held the sample that they’d supplied him with. “This isn’t a fish scale, as far as I can tell. Oh, it looks like one – in fact, it looks like placoid scales, which are usually found on sharks – but the composition just doesn’t look right.” He walked over to a computer, fiddled with it for a second, then flicked a switch next to it; a projector from the ceiling threw an image against the wall. “These are placoid scales; these came from a dead leopard shark that beached itself off the coast of Arcata a few weeks back. “Note the shape and the look, as well as the composition.”

Both Shining and Sandalwood studied the image before them; while there were similarities, there were also enough differences that were clear even to their untrained eyes.

“So, okay, what do you think it is?” Shining asked him.

“Speedshark scales,” Leafydragon told them. When the looks on their face registered one of confusion, he added, “About four years ago I was part of a team that developed a new swimsuit for the US Olympic Swim Team. The suit was composed of thousands of miniature synthetic scales that emulated sharks, so that the swimmers could speed faster. Boosted their performance about thirty-seven percent, if I recall correctly, and I hear the Russians are trying to develop a version as well.”

“I see,” Sandalwood said in a voice that indicated that she didn’t believe a single word he was saying, but said it just for the sake of conversation. “Doctor, if we were to leave this with you, how long do you think it would take to confirm it?”

“I’d probably have to get my sample of the synthetic scale from my home, but I’m pretty sure I could have it done by tonight. Worst case, early tomorrow.”

“We’d appreciate it if you could,” Shining said.

“Hey, anything for the Feds – if this is tied to the murders, then I’m all too happy to help in any way I can. Plus? This research, honestly, is rather exciting.” Pleasantries were then exchanged, as well as Shining’s phone number, and a few minutes later both officers walked out.

“I don’t like this,” Sandalwood said.

“You don’t like anything, Sandy,” Shining joked. “What, you think that he’s lying?”

“Leafydragon? No, I don’t think he’s lying at all; in fact, he went above and beyond in giving us the information that we really didn’t ask for. The problem is, he doesn’t have the whole story.”

“Oh, how so?” Shining asked as they made their way to the agency car they were loaned.

“Simple: I recall those suits he mentioned, and they aren’t the only one those were made for. Surfers have them as well – knew a guy at my last command who had one of the wetsuits.”

“So you’re telling me that this is a dead end?” he asked as he plopped into the driver’s seat.

“Could be worse: it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a military version available to NAVSPECWARCOM and other special forces units, but somehow I really doubt that the military’s involved.” Sandalwood laughed. “Yeah, so much for X-Files shit.”

“Where did you get that?”

Sonata gasped, caught. She’d been hiding up on the roof for the past couple of hours. With only the duty section working at the moment, there was a two-day liberty call for all personnel as long as they didn’t leave the perimeter. It gave her time to stay away from the Black Team, but at the same time, it let her relax.

“I can explain!” Sonata pled.

Adagio gave her younger sister a smile and plopped down next to her. “Soni, it’s me. You don’t have to explain, okay?” Instead, Adagio sat down next to her. “Can I see that?”

“Sure,” Sonata said, passing it over, and Adagio taking it in her hands. A wide, sunny smile came over her face and she handed it back. “I remember that. Good times.” Sonata retrieved the picture of all of them – herself, her sisters, and their friends – taken just days before the triplets vanished into nothing.

“D-do you think they’ll ever forgive us?” Sonata asked. Adagio looked at her sister, and there was a troubled look on her face. “They were our friends – our first real friends – and we vanished on them without so much as a word. We may never see them again. But I miss them a lot, Dagi, I really do.”

Adagio reached over and rumpled Sonata’s hair; she’d had to cut it to a military-compatible length and short hair didn’t look good on her at all – not on any of the triplets. “If they really were our friends – and you know they were – then they’ll forgive us. They might wonder whatever happened to us, but I know they’ll forgive us. And like I said earlier, when this is all over, we can go back and live normal lives, I promise.” She then looked at the pad and pen at her side. “And what’s that for?”

This time Sonata blushed. “I’m...writing apology letters. I was gonna smuggle them out and send them.”

“You know you could get in serious trouble if you do.”

“I know...but they were our friends, Dagi! They deserve to know we’re okay and that we miss them, right?” She looked at the perimeter fence, and the streets of Canterlot beyond. “One of the seamen on Bravo Team switched duty with me and I’ll be going out to Colton tomorrow.”

A studious look came over Adagio’s face. She knew the penalties that Cantata Blast had imposed and more of the reduced communications that they had with the outside world, given that they were so relatively close to enemy territory. But...her sister was right. None of this would’ve been what they planned for under normal circumstances; there would have been no apologies to make had they been able to break off like they wanted to. And when this was all over, whenever it was, Adagio knew that she and her sisters – and possibly even their sœurs – would return here and make their lives finally their own.

“Do it,” Adagio advised, “and tell them that Ari and I miss them, too.”

Sonata gave her sister a wide grin. “You got it.”

On the other building, from her sniper position, Aria watched and read her sister’s lips: “—nd I miss them too.” Lowering her scope, Aria frowned. Sonata was going to do something stupid and Adagio was going to let her. It was the height of idiocy, and if Sonata got caught, she – and likely Adagio, too – would be in deep shit.

Still, she’s right. If Adagio wasn’t planning to say a thing, neither would Aria. And hopefully, just hopefully, Sonata’s plan would go through, and holes in hearts would be mended.

Best of luck, sis, Aria said as she turned away from her sisters and went back to her duties.

“Rainbow! What were you thinking?” Fluttershy glared at her childhood friend.

Rainbow had a hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar look on her face. “Uh, that Twily would like a soccer ball?”

The chiffon-haired girl crossed her arms. “And would she?”

“I dunno – hell, I like books.”

“Okay, then I’ll suggest to her that she get you The Compleat Works of Shakespeare when your birthday comes up.”

The look of shock on Rainbow’s face was priceless. “You wouldn’t!” Fluttershy’s response was just to stand there and give the Latina athlete an even look. “Fine, fine – you got an idea of what to get her?”

The smile immediately returned to Fluttershy’s face. “Actually, I do.”

The girls, nearly as one, decided to go shopping for Twilight’s gifts. While Rarity and Fluttershy had already done so, Rainbow had stalled at the last moment, and neither Pinkie nor Applejack had time to do so either. So the group decided as one to go out and do the gift purchasing, as well as some other shopping in preparation for Twilight’s birthday the following day.

“Awwww, but she’d really like this!” Pinkie insisted.

“Ah’m sure she would, sugarcube,” Applejack assured her, “but Ah’m not sure that a giant fifteen-layer cake is a very lasting gift, Pinkie.”

“But cakes are always an awesome present!”

“Plus, you’re buyin’ it from a competing bakery. Dontcha think your aunt and uncle might not be a bit happy?”

Pinkie sighed. “Can’t I chalk it up to research and super-secret spy stuff?”

Applejack laughed. “C’mon, sugarcube. Let’s do some shoppin’ and Ah’ll treatcha to something from the churro counter. Ah know you don’t sell that at Sugarcube Corner.”

Pinkie grinned widely. “Deal!”

As for Rarity, she was already in the middle of shopping, and with a friend. “Thank you for coming, Octavia, dear. I truly appreciate the company, given that Fluttershy and Applejack are, ahem, ‘corralling’ our other friends’ proclivities?”

Octavia laughed. “You mean preventing Rainbow from buying Twily a baseball bat and Pinkie from buying cookies that she’ll eat half herself?”

Rarity giggled. “I wasn’t going to say as much, darling, but you do know our friends.”

“It’s too bad that I’m going to look like a fool,” Octavia muttered.

However, the sharp-eared fashionista heard it. “Is there something wrong?”

Octavia held up a hand. “It’s nothing, Rarity, really.”

“No, it’s not merely ‘nothing’, of that I can tell already.” Rarity moved in closer in order to preserve her friend’s privacy and stated, “You know that I would never say anything.”

“And for that, I appreciate it. But you’re going to think this is idiotic on my part.”

“And you know what I’ve said before in regards to that. My offer still stands, regardless.”

“Okay, if only because I’ll regret it if I let it blurt out. I...I saw what Sunny got for Twily. It’s really expensive, and...well, I didn’t get anything cheap for her myself, but now I feel like I copped out on her, and….”

“Are you doing it for her, or for yourself?” Rarity asked. The two had coincidentally wandered over to the jewelry section, where tons of priceless baubles and trinkets lay. “Sunset likely saved up for them for a while if they are as pricey as you say. But even still, she did it out of love. If you’re desiring to do it out of envy or an attempt to escalate things for Twilight’s affections, that’s hardly fair to Sunset or Twilight.”

“I know.” Octavia’s eyes fell onto a pair of studs made from some purple gem. They resembled musical notes, and would be a very good way of reminding her cousin about how much she cared. But how would Twilight take it, especially in lieu of what Sunset was about to get her? And what was wrong with that? They were siblings after all.

But they’re not. Sunset’s just an interloper who came into their lives, a voice said in the back of her mind. You thought that inviting her into your lives would just make it better. Instead, you’re practically a stranger now with the people you grew up with. Octavia inwardly flinched at that description, but at the same time...wasn’t it true? Weren’t they more focused now on Sunset than Octavia?

Uncle Night and Aunt Velvet used to be a second mother and father to me, the girl moaned inwardly, and now that they have a real second daughter, I’m not important anymore. But I want to be.

“You are, Octavia, dear, I assure you, you are.” Hearing Rarity’s words, she looked on with horror that made her realize she’d just said at least part of her thought process aloud.

“I...uh….”

The fashionista favored her with a smile. “It’s quite all right to worry, dear. You and your family are going through quite a bit at the moment and it can be complex and worrisome. But you have to know that we’re here for you, no matter what.”

Octavia looked at the earstuds, then back at her friend, then back at the studs, then finally to her purse. It called out to her, a clarion call singing a pure siren’s song, demanding that her debit card be unleashed against the cashier’s terminal as though a paladin reached out to slay a venomous dragon; and that the prize of the ancients awaited: two glistening, violet-jeweled earstuds in the shape of a G-clef.

She then looked to Rarity…

“Hey, Rares!” Applejack called out. “Ah need help tryin’ to keep Pinkie from buying Twily her own chocolate store!”

“Coming!” Rarity called back. “I’ll be right back; shan’t take but a moment. After that, perhaps lunch would be in order?” Without further delay, Rarity moved as fast as she would dare walk, headed in the direction of Mrs. Sweettooth’s Chocolate Wonderland.

Octavia looked at her purse once more…

...and a part of her crumbled inside. Flagging the nearest clerk, she asked, “Could I see those two earstuds, please?”

Sunset dialed a number, hoping the phone’s owner would pick up. She also hoped that she’d be forgiven, as despite her conversation with her cousin, she still felt incredibly guilty about what happened.

One ring. Two. Three. Then on the fourth, there was a click, and a voice said, “Hello?”

“Rose? That you? It’s Sunset Shimmer.”

“Oh, hi, Sunny. This is Berry. Rose is...indisposed at the moment.”

“Oh. I…” Sunset was lost for words. It was clear that Rose didn’t want to talk to her and that she’d screwed up; worse, Rose had delegated the unpleasant business to her girlfriend, Boysenberry. She then heard some commotion in the back, and wondered if things were going to get worse.

“Sunny?” This time it was Rose; the very slight British lilt in her voice that she got from her parents, just as the younger members of the Apple family had picked up their accents from exposure to their relatives.

“It’s me, Rose,” Sunset began. “Listen, I want t—”

“Sunny, someone very close to me just died, and I….” On the other end, the girl sighed. “Look, I need to talk to you in person. Would you mind coming over my house?”

This was not what the flame-haired girl had expected at all. “Rose, I’m not sure—”

“Please. I need to talk to someone, my brother won’t be home until late tonight, and Scotch’s parents won’t let her come over since they’re afraid. Please!”

“I….”

“Sunny, you’re the only one I can trust!”

Sunset paused in thought. She didn’t have to go to work today, and she’d been in this situation because she didn’t go before. Likely nothing bad was going to happen to Rose or Berry, but the former unicorn could never live with herself if something did. Furthermore, she’d rebuilt her reputation at school as the girl anyone could go to if they were in need, and for better or for worse, that was what she was obligated to now.

“Sure. I’ll be there within the hour,” she finally replied.

“Thank you, Sunny. You don’t know how much that means to me. Please hurry.” With that, Compass Rose hung up, leaving an unsure Sunset on the other side. She didn’t know if she was doing the right thing, but at least she was doing something. She could figure out whatever it was to be done later; after all, that tended to be her modus operandi anyway.

There was a knock at the door, and Twilight opened it. “Hey, sis? Are you hungry? I was about to make lunch and didn’t know if you wanted to eat. I know it’s been a rough day.”

Sunset gave her a wan smile. “Actually, I need to get going. I’m going to go see Compass Rose and undo my mistake.” She rose from the bed and paused. “Actually, are you free?”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Twilight asked. “I don’t mind, I don’t have anything going on and it sounds like you could use some company.”

Once again Sunset knew that she had the best sister in the world.

Blackthorn looked over his latest set of reports. He was closing the circle, and each area that checked out closed the noose around those Canadian bitches and ensured that he and his group would get paid. After that, then he was sure there were other duties out there; there was always some problems that needed fixing. Plus...he wanted that sweet piece of tail that asshole Sable Loam had. Of course, once she realized how good he was, she’d give it up for him in no time flat.

“Did you figure it out yet?” a voice asked behind him, and Blackthorn jumped. Reflexes kicking in, he unholstered his sidearm and swung to aim…

...only to have it disarmed in a second courtesy of a dagger. “You’re good, but you’re not great,” the man told Blackthorn. “Stick to being a hammer, not a surgical blade.”

Blackthorn looked at the man; it was that damn Canadian agent from earlier. “Oh, it’s you, Agent—”

The CSIS agent smiled. “You can call me Changeling. Not my real name, of course, but I don’t expect you to ever be able to figure that out.” he shrugged. “Still, your reaction time was far faster than many I’ve worked with, so take that as you will,” Changeling said as he handed Blackthorn his gun back.

“Yeah, whatever. So what the fuck do you want?” Blackthorn asked, taking the gun back and holstering it.

“You’re taking far too long,” Changeling told him. “This incoming storm is the perfect time to take down the SIRENs and you’re sitting here, leisurely looking for them as if you’re a child playing duck duck goose. I’m afraid that isn’t good enough. Normally I’d just have you replaced, but my counterparts at the CIA still have some use for you, though I can’t imagine why.” Changeling reached into his jacket and pulled out a USB flash drive. “On this key is some of the surveillance I’ve done, including their location, their hardened points, and troop strength.”

Blackthorn plugged the drive into a nearby laptop and a few minutes later he had his answer. “Perfect. It’s just far enough off the main drag that the police aren’t going to be a problem. Heh, and if they are...well, hope their insurance is paid up.”

Changeling slapped a hand down. “You kill a single cop intentionally and I’ll cut off your balls. That’ll make it hard to rape that schoolteacher you’ve been stalking after, won’t it?” Blackthorn scowled at Changeling, but the latter didn’t even bother to respond to the reaction. “If it happens in the line of duty, so be it, but do not go after any of them intentionally, understand?”

“Yeah, yeah, what-the-fuck-ever,” Blackthorn replied. “Now get the fuck out of my—” He turned to see that the agent had disappeared. “Fucking creepy asshole; good thing he’s paying the bills or I’d put one between his fucking eyes.” Putting that aside, Blackthorn started to look over the data available, as he now had a party to plan and some bitches to murder.

And after that? Celeste, or whatever her name was? Oh, she’d be begging him to never stop.

Done with exertions, Divine Right and Cantata Blast lay in the bed they now shared. “You know, when I first got into this arrangement? I thought that I’d have to sleep with you a few times against my preferences, then let you forget about me while we conquered the world. But now,” she said, tracing a finger down his chest, “I think I’m getting used to this...agreement we have.”

“Should I take that as a declaration of love?” he said, a smile coming to his lips.

“Of course not – you and I don’t love each other and probably never will. But once we are the immortal rulers of all that you promised, I can make sure that what you’ll get from me is as close to it as possible. Who knows? It might even actually happen.”

He rose from the bed to slip on his underwear. “I’m no child with dreams. There was a woman I loved once, but she didn’t love me, and I grew out of that illusion ages ago.”

“Oh, so what if I were to serve her up to you on a silver platter?” Cantata asked, sitting up in bed.

“Oh, I’d be tempted – sorely so. But I suspect she would meet with an untimely accident if I told you who she was, am I correct?”

Cantata favored him with a wolfish smile. “Only one woman will bear your children. I won’t have any challenges to what is mine.”

“And you’re so sure that I’m yours?”

“No more than you’re sure of the opposite,” she retorted.

He laughed. “Touche,” he replied, the hint of an amused smile on his lips.

She rose from the bed and started to change into her own clothing. “Now that the pleasure’s out of the way, let’s get to business. We’ve inoculated the first full group of SIRENs with the serum, and they’ll be assigned to work our backup facility. The mass production of the new battle dress is underway in a factory in Los Angeles and will be completed within a few days. I’ve detailed a unit to go down there and take out anyone involved in the production. I don’t want them to stray too far, as they should be here for the ritual.” A thought then came to mind. “And how goes that?”

He groaned. “Other than complaints from Seaman Trance as to why she ‘can’t have fun’ in her own words, it goes apace.”

“Yes, Seaman Trance takes her job a little too vigorously.” She flashed him a smile and added, “And if I ever find her in bed with you, I will gut her with a butter knife and drape her entrails all over you, understood?”

He grinned back. “Don’t promise anything you can’t offer, Captain Blast.”

“It’s okay, sis.” Twilight gave her sister’s hand a squeeze. “I’m here for you.”

“Thanks, Twily,” Sunset said as she knocked on the door. They waited a few seconds, and a second later a young girl with purple pigtails opened the door. “Heya, Berry.”

“Heya yourself, Sunny.” Boysenberry stepped aside and the trio entered the house that Compass Rose shared with her older brother. If Sunset recalled as of recent, Boysenberry had been spending a lot of time here as well, though that was probably due to the relationship Rose and Boysenberry shared. “Want something to drink?”

“Sure, what have you got?” Twilight asked.

“This is a house where two Brits live – well, two Americanized Brits, but you get the point. Anyways, there’s a lot of tea.”

Twilight considered a moment. “Chamomile?”

“No problem.” Boysenberry then went over to Sunset and looked her eye to eye. “Look, I’m not as old as you guys are, and Rose doesn’t want to talk about it, at least not to me. She needs you, Sunny. There’s just something...I dunno, adult about you, if that makes sense.”

“You have no idea,” Sunset muttered.

“So she needs to talk to an adult, and Line isn’t here, and Scotch can’t come either. She trusts you. I think she’s still in love with you – I know she loves me, so I’m not jealous or anything. Just...remember, her lips are mine, got it?” Boysenberry smiled to clarify she’d been joking and Sunset nodded.

“Anyway, her room’s over there. I’ll whip up some tea and scones and stuff, and as soon as you can, bring her back out, okay?”

“Sure thing.” Sunset went over to Rose’s door, and knocked. “Rose, it’s Sunny. Can I come in?” There was a squeak of an answer, and Sunset took that as a yes, opening the door and going in, closing the door after.

Compass Rose’s room was pretty much what Sunset expected it to be; in the times they’d talked, Rose talked about her love of cartography, archeology and world travel, so naturally her room would look like a tug of war between World Market and Pier 1. And centered in the bed, eyes stained with tears, hair disheveled and clutching a huge teddy bear as if the world depended on it, was Rose.

“Hi, Ro—” Sunset never finished her words before Rose leapt from the bed, tackling Sunset and began bawling. Crumpled on the ground, all Sunset could do was hold Rose close while the girl’s tears stained her shirt.

“Rose?”

“Myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault….” Rose said over and over like a mantra. Sunset held her close for a few more minutes, and finally, Rose was able to look at Sunset with bleary eyes. “My best friend is dead because of me, Sunny! I killed her!”

“Wait, what? No! You couldn’t have done that, Rose!” Sunset said. “There’s not a mean bone in your body!”

“But I was the last person to see her alive!” the shy girl cried. “I could have stayed with her, but I was selfish and went off to my date with Berry! Now someone I grew up with – someone who was like a sister to me – is dead and it’s my fault!”

“Rose, please, calm down and explain, okay?” Sunset asked. “I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

“I’m damned, Sunny! What happens next? Does Berry die? Scotch? You? Did I deserve this because I’m a selfish bitch?” Compass Rose was on the border of hysterics, Sunset knew, given that she’d driven others to that point before and been there herself on more than one occasion.

I need to end this and fast, Sunset thought. “Rose, do you trust me?”

“Absolutely,” Compass Rose whispered. Rose looked at Sunset, and there were a billion emotions in her eyes, all of them at war with one another.

Sunset wasted no time. Bringing up a magic spell, she snapped her finger, cyan force coming to life. “Relax,” Sunset intoned, and Rose’s eyes registered shock as she realized what she’d seen Sunset do for just a second before the hypnosis spell kicked in. Slipping out of Rose’s embrace, she helped Rose back to the bed, and said, “You are under compulsion, Rose. I want you to tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I still want to sleep with you, but I feel extremely guilty about that,” Rose spoke, her voice robotic.

Sunset blushed and amended that with, “Rose, tell me about that day.”

Compelled, Rose told her everything from her perspective, up until the point where she left Tennis Match. “And I’ll never see her again,” Rose murmured.

Shiny needs to know about this. “Okay, Rose, when I snap my fingers, you’re still going to feel as you do, but you’re going to have the clarity that it wasn’t and never will, be your fault. Tennis Match wouldn’t want you to blame yourself, understand?”

“I do,” Rose said.

Sunset snapped her fingers, and a spark of cyan flashed. Rose pitched forward, and Sunset caught her. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I...what happened?” Rose inquired, blinking her eyes.

“You were hysterical and blanked. I helped you back to your bed, though you’re not in the best of shape,” Sunset told her.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to unburden on you like that, but you were the only one I could get a hold of and trust. Scotch can’t come, Berry’s too young and my brother won’t be home until tonight.”

“Hey, isn’t that what friends are for? A shoulder to cry on – although you did soak my shirt.”

“Sorry about that,” Rose blushed. “If you’d like, you can borrow one of my shirts. My t-shirts are in the bottom drawer.”

“Thanks.” Sunset reached in and found a Hello Kitty one that she liked. Slipping off her shirt, she then slipped it off, her back to Rose. A quick tug of the shirt – it was more than a bit tight around Sunset’s bust – and she was dry once more.

“Sunny?” she heard Rose ask.

Sunset turned around...and then her jaw dropped. “Rose, what the hell are you doing?!”

“Keeping a promise,” Rose said, as she removed the last of her clothing. She stood before Sunset, as naked as the day she’d been born. Seeing Sunset’s closed eyes, she asked, “Sunny, please look at me.”

When did I get so embarrassed about this? Sunset wondered. A few years ago, I thought this was a weird shape and couldn’t figure out why humans wore clothing! “Rose, I...look, we talked about this: I like guys. Plus, your girlfriend is right out there!”

“I know,” Rose said with a smile. “I told her I’d do this and she thought I was nuts, but she understands.”

“Well I don’t!”

“When I first fell in love with you, I told Matchie, and she said that if I really loved you, I would offer myself to you, show you the girl I really am. This is me, Sunny. A girl who still loves you – though I love Berry, no doubt of that – and I wanted to show that to you. Maybe I’m crazy, but this is me keeping my promise to Matchie, because I promised her.”

“You didn’t make any promises to Scotch that you’d try to seduce me or anything, did you?”

Rose laughed. “No, that would be all me.”

Sunset, despite herself, grinned. “Look, Rose, you are beautiful and if I was that kind of girl, I would be honored. And Berry is a very lucky girl. And I am a friend who will always be there for you if you need me.” Not sure why she did it, Sunset approached Rose, hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. “If you need me, I’m there.”

Rose leaned against Sunset’s shoulder. “Thanks, you have no idea how much that means to me. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get dressed – I’m freezing. Should’ve turned down the air conditioner.”

Ten minutes later and some explanations, both Sunset and Rose were blushing.

“Oh, so that’s why you took so long!” Boysenberry challenged. “You putting the moves on my girl, Sunny?”

“Sis, is there something you’re not telling me?” Twilight asked.

“Kill me now,” Sunset moaned.

“Girls, Sunny was very gallant about the whole thing. As it is, I feel somewhat, ahem, relieved to know that someone else thinks that I’m beautiful.”

“What did you tell her, Sunny?”

“Berry, knock it off,” Sunset said. “Look, Rose, you need to talk to the police. If you saw anything that can help them to catch what they did to Tennis Match, you’re obligated. I don’t want to put undue weight on you, but….”

“I know. Matchie would do it if our positions were reversed,” Rose admitted. “Okay. As soon as my older brother gets home, we’ll talk to the police.”

“I can do one better,” Sunset said, looking at her sister. Twilight nodded, and that was enough for Sunset to reach for her phone. Dialing a number, she spoke, “Hey, Shiny? It’s me. Got a second?”

“What?” Shining said into the phone. “No, no, that’s great! Thanks, sis. Text me the address, and I’ll make the call as soon as I can. When did your friend say her brother was home?...Okay, fine. I’ll call tonight. Hey, listen, Sunny, I owe you, sis. You and Twily.” He hung up the phone and set down his taco. “You are not going to believe this shit.”

Sandalwood swallowed her bite of burrito and said, “You’ve decided to dump Cadance and make me your love slave?” He glared at her and she grinned. “What’s up?”

“My sisters went over to comfort a friend of theirs who was the best friend of Tennis Match.”

“Last night’s victim?”

“Yup. Turns out that the girl, Compass Rose, was the last one who saw the victim alive. Rose’s older brother is her legal guardian, and is going to be home later tonight, so I’m going to arrange an interview for tomorrow.”

“You sure about tomorrow? Isn’t that Twily’s birthday?” Sandalwood asked.

“Yeah,” Shining sighed. “I still have to go get her a gift. Cady already did and has been reminding me all week.”

“That’s because she’s on the ball when it comes to that shit, Shiny. You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached.” He stuck his tongue at her and she laughed, then went back to her burrito. That ended a second later as her phone rang. She swallowed her bite, and then answered it. “Yeah, Deputy Sandalwood here.”

“Hello, Deputy Sandalwood, this is Dr. Leafydragon. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Oh, not at all, Doc,” the woman said as she dropped her burrito and fumbled in her coat pocket for a pen and paper. “You’ve got my attention. What’s up?”

“I asked my wife to bring me the sample that I mentioned, and I have something...how shall I say, unique, to report about this specimen. It turns out that sample you brought me might be biological in origin, not synthetic – and if that’s the case, we’re dealing with something that is heretofore unknown in the scientific community. With your permission, I’d like to run this through a DNA analyzer. Nothing will happen, and we’ll need only a tiny fraction of the sample to get to work.”

Sandalwood jotted down every detail he said. “No, do what you have to, Doctor. I’ll get it cleared with my supervisor. We need this information, even if it’s just a dead end. Please get it done.”

“Absolutely, Deputy. I’ll call you when I have more information.” The pair got off the call, then Sandalwood explained to Shining what Leafydragon had told her.

“That doesn’t make sense!” Shining sputtered. “Yes, the original design is based on biology, but he insisted the thing was synthetic – that there was no way it could be anything natural!”

“That doesn’t mean that there isn’t,” Sandalwood countered. “For example, for years, the military’s been trying to develop better camouflage. That’s why the Army moved from Woodland to ACUs to the new Scorpion design. This could be some sort of new gear, though don’t ask me if I think the military’s involved, because I don’t want to get into that X-Files shit again. But what I do believe is that our murderer, assuming this is some sort of outfit, is wearing it just to throw us off. I don’t think the K9 units found anything, did they?”

Shining looked through his notes. “No, nothing of interest.”

“I think we’d better go to the office after lunch and update the boss on this. This might be the thing we need in order to stop whoever the fuck is doing this.” Shining flagged down the waitress while Sandalwood started to shovel her food in her mouth.

“So, Shiny told me that you two had a very interesting day today,” Night Light said to Twilight and Sunset. Both girls squirmed in their seats; Twilight Velvet merely looked at her daughters while Octavia narrowed her eyes and Spike, having no clue as to what was going on, merely ignored the conversation and tried to avoid eating his vegetables.

“Sorry, Dad,” Sunset told him, “but Rose wanted my advice. Her best friend was the one that was killed last night, and she needed to talk to someone. I had to do it, and Twilight wanted to make sure that I didn’t go alone.”

Velvet looked at her niece. “And you didn’t go with them, Tavi?”

The musician shook her head. “Actually, I went shopping with the others. I didn’t know about Sunny and Twily going there, though Sunny told us about her friend’s problem this morning.”

Night looked at the three girls, then sighed. “Well, I can’t fault you for doing the right thing, girls, and you were home well before curfew, so you’re good. But I don’t think I have to stress how much Velvet and I worry about you three. Especially with Shiny’s news that you may have found a clue to the identity of the killer.”

That caught Spike’s attention. “You what?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not like that, Spike; it’s Rose that has that information, assuming that Shiny and Sandalwood can use any of it.”

“At least I’m glad that Rose is okay and that she has people to lean on. I can only hope that she has information that can avenge Tennis Match,” Sunset said.

“I’m glad that you’re with us now and not where you used to be,” Twilight told her sister, reaching over to hug her. “I don’t know how you managed so long to live by yourself in that horrible place where you were.”

“It’s in the past now,” Sunset said as she looked at the family that had become hers. She loved them all, completely and utterly, and though she still loved Princess Celestia and thought of her as a mother, she had a family that she could call hers. And at the end of the month, they would finally be hers, and then maybe she could tell them the truth about herself.

Watching the moonlight fall on the rocks and the sea lions below, Sunset Shimmer laughed slightly. She was in San Francisco now, a guest of her cousin Fancy Pants while he had some business here, and unfortunately because of other things she had to do, Coco couldn’t come. Still, Fancy’s business was brief and sparse, and he’d been showing her the sights of the city. At the moment, he was meeting with an architecture firm on behalf of his father, and as the business bordered the Embarcadero, it gave the teen girl time to head down to Pier 39 and enjoy the sights.

“Ah, there you are, Shimmy,” Fancy said as he walked towards her. He was carrying some poster tubes under one arm, likely blueprints that he had to take home. “Ready to head to dinner?”

“Sounds like a good idea,” she said, taking some of the tubes from him. “This was a great idea, by the way. Thanks for bringing me.”

Fancy smiled. “I only regret that you’ve had to spend some time alone while I’ve been helping my father shore up some of the issues left over from Grandmother’s passing. Besides, Aunt Soliel said you’d never been to San Francisco before, and while my sister couldn’t make it, it gave me a grand opportunity to pass the time with my cousin.”

As they walked down the pier towards the restaurant Fancy had recommended, the wind blew through Shimmer’s hair, her red-and-yellow locks blowing like a burning flame in the dying light of the early evening. More than a few teenage guys stopped, caught by the radiant beauty of the girl walking past them. While Fancy noted it, she seemed to ignore it, if not outright oblivious.

A second later, a stronger gust came along and she lost her footing. She slipped into him, and he caught her easily. “Sorry,” she blurted, slightly embarrassed for her misstep.

He chuckled. “It’s no worry, cousin, though I suspect that I’d have to do some explaining to Fleur were she here.” Sure enough she looked down and the position he’d caught her in was usually reserved for more intimate couples. She blushed as he let her go, and out of the corner of his eye Fancy saw more than a few guys from earlier give him the evil eye. Meanwhile, she continued to look flustered as he asked, “So I take it no boyfriends?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “There was this one guy – Vlamwacht; he was Belgian – who was cute and really into me. I later found out that it was partially because he found out who I was, and he had a streak of girls a mile long. I was just going to be the princess – literal and figurative – that he was going to get. Needless to say I broke up with him, and haven’t dated since.”

“That makes excellent sense,” he told her.

“I just don’t want anyone to get the wrong ideas of who I am, Fancy. I want to be a normal girl, and my friends see me that way now – and that took more time than I’d like. I worry that no prospective guy will see me as anything but normal.”

“Well, if it’s of any comfort, you seem very normal to me. Most of my friends' sisters – and obviously my own – try to live normal lives despite being in families of means. Of course we try not to see ourselves as better than others, but I know too many who do. The fact that you do not, credits your family – both sides.”

She flashed him a smile. “My uncle Noblesse always says that because we are princes means we should be princely towards others – and that it’s an obligation that cannot be undone.”

“Smart man,” he told her. “Well, the ferry to the Island Restaurant should be here in a few minutes. We can peruse the menu until then, okay?”

“Ugh...do we have to do this, Lems?” Sweet Pea groaned. She had planned to stay home and work on her home studying – for a rare change, she was on a roll, and she wanted to study – but then she got an emergency call from her friend Lemon Tart who said she needed her help urgently. Said help turned out to be a huge sale at the boutique record store at Pier 39.

“Aww, c’mon! I couldn’t get Sugarcoat to help me, and you were the only one I could get a hold of!” Lemon groaned.

“And why are we doing this again?”

“Because Seasidesounds is having a totally awesome BOGO sale on house music!”

“When did you start listening to house?” Pea asked.

“You know me! I’m always listening to all things awesome!” Showing her usual flagrant disregard for, well, everything, she danced around the crowd, wearing her “summer attire”: tubetop, shorts that would be more at home on a ten-year-old (mainly because they’d fit normally) and rollerblades. Even Pea hadn’t dressed as scantily during her days as Amelia, and while her friends had gotten her to loosen up slightly on the “near-burka clothing” (as Sugarcoat called it), she still wouldn’t dress as scantily as Lemon did.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost there! The store’s right next to Dock I.” Lemon slid around one guy, dodging his attempt to pat her on the butt, instead giving him a playful wink and moving on.

Pea was about to chew out her friend for her flirting, but instead noticed someone familiar waiting by the dock. “Hey, do you mind a second? Think I see someone I know.”

Lemon shrugged, then slid to a stop. “Sure, friend away. We got time.”

Pea went up to the pair and said, “Hey, Sunny! Why didn’t you tell me you were in town? And who’s your boyfriend?”

Sunset Shimmer turned around, but the response she got wasn’t one she expected from one of her (technically) oldest friends. “Excuse me, but do I know you?”

“Haha, Sunny. Seriously, where’s Twily and the others?” She then looked at the guy. “Or do your parents know about this?”

“I’m sorry,” Sunset told her, “but you must be mistaking me for someone else.”

“Red and gold hair, cyan eyes, has a sorta model look? No, I don’t think so,” Pea told her. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, Sunny, but you don’t have to pret—”

“Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are, and frankly, you’re being a little pushy at the moment. Now, I have a dinner date – and who he is, is frankly none of your business – so if you’ll excuse me, please leave me alone.”

At that point, Pea was about to say something nastier, but Lemon intervened. “C’mon, Pea, you promised me!” she said, grabbing her friend’s arm.

“Fine,” she told her. “But this isn’t over yet, Sunny.”

As the two girls wandered off, Fancy looked at his cousin. “Don’t you think that was a bit harsh?”

“Yeah, maybe,” she admitted, “but it’s the second time in as many days that I’ve been confused for someone else and it’s somewhat disconcerting. You’d think I have a clone running around here or something.” She sighed in relief. “Well, thankfully the ferry’s here now. Let’s just get going.”

Lemon managed to drag her friend into Seasidesounds, but no sooner than she did, Pea pulled out her phone and dialed a particular number. “Sunny, what the fuck?”

“Oh, hey, Pea. What’s up?” Sunset asked on the other end.

“What’s up is that you just blew me off at Dock I with that guy you’re with! Not cool, Sunset, not cool at all.”

“Huh?” the girl said on the other side. “Dock I? I didn’t even know we had a place like that here in Canterlot!”

“Canterlot? I’m here at Fisherman’s Wharf, you doof! So why the hell did you blow me off? It’s not like I was hitting on him or anything!”

“Wait, what? I’m lost here. What are you talking about?” Frustrated, Pea unloaded on Sunset, explaining everything that had happened in the past few minutes. “Uh, Pea?” Sunset finally replied, “I’m here in my bedroom in Canterlot.”

“Look, I know what I saw, Sunny – she looked exactly like you! My friend Lemon Tart’s with me and she can vouch.”

There was some background noise, and a second later a different voice chimed in. “Pea, this is Twily. We are sitting in Sunny’s bedroom in our house.”

“Wow, you aren’t kidding,” Pea admitted. “Uh, sorry.”

“No worries; happens all the time. Pinkie was telling me about some exchange student that was in town last year that looked a little bit like me. Would’ve been interesting to meet her.”

“Yeah, but you gotta see this girl; she’s a dead ringer. Hold on, let me go outside and get a picture.” Pea departed the store to see the ferry sailing away. “Well, so much for that; she’s not there anymore.”

“I believe you, Pea, it’s not a problem, and Sunny’s not offended, so no problem there.” The two talked for a few more minutes, and then finally Pea ended the call.

“Pea, you promised to help me carry these!” Lemon said as she poked her head out of the store.

“Fine, coming!” the teen grumbled.

“So there’s some girl in Frisco that looks like you,” Twilight mused as she handed her sister the phone back. “Would’ve been interesting to run into her.”

Sunset, on the other hand, kept an even smile on her face as she nodded – and her brain went wild. Looks just like me? Could it be? A second later, she shook her head. No, if I recall they said the Sunset native to this world died ages ago. Must be someone who just looks alike.

Still, that’s weird.

Author's Note

We're swimming along, so see you in two weeks (or less) with Twily's birthday party!

August 5, AM: Hot Fun in the Summertime

Sunset couldn’t sleep that night.

She wasn’t sure why; it was raining, and the steady patter of the rain was something that she’d always loved. She’d loved it as a filly sleeping next to Princess Celestia, she’d loved it as a teenaged mare studying for her future, and it had been one of the few comforts she’d had while living in the abandoned warehouse while plotting her eventual conquering of the universe. It was something she loved, and now, next to two of of the people on this earth that she loved so much, she could hear the steady beat of the rain coming. It had been her personal nighttime serenade for so many years, and as she lay besides the gently dozing Twilight and Octavia, things should be right and perfect, should they not?

Getting up from the bed, something told her otherwise. She wasn’t sure if it was what humans called their “sixth sense”, or her unicorn’s sense of magical intuition. But something told her that the precipitation was unnatural. Sure, there was a logical, scientific reason behind it: it was part of Hurricane Everblue as it made its way up the California coast. But that was just it: Hurricane Everblue, by everything she’d noted, wasn’t anything that could be considered a normal element of nature. For starters, it was something more akin to the east coast of the US than the west; the waters of the northern Pacific Ocean were far too cold for a storm to be able to operate as it did. Secondly, even discounting the above, the geography of the continental shelf prevented such storms from occurring. There were only two recorded storms that had hit the California coast – Long Beach in 1939 and San Diego in 1958 – so any kind of cyclonic storm in California waters would be big news.

And yet Hurricane Everblue had chewed through most of California in the past few days, and was expected to make landfall and break up somewhere in the southern Oregon forests. That’s what the current records had predicted, but everything about this storm was wrong.

Sunset grabbed her laptop and headed downstairs for some research. Maybe if she just read about freakish things like this being happenstance somewhere else in this world she now called home, she could feel more at ease about it.

“Sunny, what are you doing up?” Seated at the kitchen table over a laptop and papers and drinking from both coffee and something that was decidedly not coffee, was Twilight Velvet. “Sweetheart, it’s three in the morning. You sure you want to be up?”

Sunset sat down and gave her mother a smile. “I could say the same about you.”

“Touche,” Velvet said with a hint of a smile. “Unfortunately, I’m looking over the security measures for our social services. Given the fact that we’re one of the largest counties in the state, you can imagine how many children we have in a fostering situation...certain fire-haired girls notwithstanding. What scares me is that our previous standards, which were good enough in the past, are antiquated compared to some of the southern counties, like Los Angeles or Orange.” She groaned, slapping a hand on a small pile of documents. “I’m lucky my predecessor retired – he’d have been excoriated by some of the things I’m reading now, and while the media might give me a pass on this, it’s only a matter of time until some of the local politicos decide to rake me over the coals.” She reached over to the bottle of cinnamon whiskey and poured some in her coffee. “Want some?”

Sunset blinked at that. “Um, Mom….”

Velvet giggled. “One, I’m sure I can count on you to not tell County Social Services that your foster- and soon-to-be adoptive mother gave you alcohol. Two, we’re at home, so it’s borderline legal due to privacy reasons, at least from that standpoint. And three, I trust you, Sunny. Frankly, sometimes you act like you’re older than Cady.”

“In that case, sure,” Sunset said, setting down her laptop and grabbing a mug from the cupboard. Pouring some coffee, she sat down next to Velvet, who poured in a bigger dose than she’d poured for herself.

“Careful, this shit’s potent,” Velvet cautioned.

Sunset laughed. “First drinking, now swearing? Are you trying to be a reverse role model?”

Velvet gave her daughter a loaded look. “Says the girl who’s already sexually versed, has been blackmailing people for years, and was an all-around terror? Sunny, you hardly need any practice from me. If anything, I’m glad that you’ve been able to get your sister and your cousin to relax a little more – sometimes I think they’ve got too much of your father’s family in them.” A thoughtful look crossed her face as she admitted, “Then again, given my behavior when I was your age and older, maybe that might not be too much of a bad thing at all.”

“Oh, how so?” Sunset closed her laptop and listened. In the past, she’d pay attention to every detail, in order to make sure she got the good blackmail material. Now, she just wanted to know more about this wonderful woman she now called her mother – well that and to maybe get a little bit of blackmail material, but she figured that Velvet was smart enough to keep the really good stuff hidden.

“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard about all the stuff that Tia and I did in high school, or how Luna spent four years trying to catch up. Then when we were at college, it was that all over again. While it didn’t cause Tia and Lu to go to blows like they did in the past, the effect of Tia’s previous relationship and the impact of Luna wanting to grow up a little too fast didn’t help either. I’m not going to go into detail because they do deserve their privacy and they are your teachers, but let’s just say that when you’re in your early twenties, drunk as hell and in a wet t-shirt contest your mother won’t hold it against you because she knows that all too well.”

Sunset drank the mixed coffee and whiskey; the bite of the cinnamon was sharp and masked the alcohol well. Seeing the even look on her face, Velvet asked, “I want the truth, Sunny, and obviously you won’t get in trouble: how much experience in life do you have? How much have you been hurt by your previous, uh, ‘caretaker’? And why don’t you feel that you can trust me enough to tell me?” Sunset looked at her, shocked. How could Velvet even think that Sunset didn’t trust her? However, the older woman explained. “You never talk about your past, like you’re deliberately hiding it. You’ve been living with us for nearly a year now, and you should know that we love you, Sunny. You are a part of this family and we will always be here for you. You have no need to hide anymore, not from those who love you.”

Sunset wasn’t sure of what to say. She couldn’t tell her everything, not yet – not until there was a way for her to explain without her family running into trouble. And to tell her everything she did since her arrival on Earth would still make things look woefully incomplete. Plus, what she had told them before, about a mentor that had picked her up practically out of nowhere wasn’t exactly a lie but without verifiable information was virtually indistinguishable from one. She found herself in the same trap she always was: afraid to lie to the people she loved, but unable to tell them the truth because it was so outlandish and dangerous.

“I had my first real alcoholic experience when I was thirteen years old.” It had been true in both senses of the word. As a filly, she had been given the wrong kind of apple cider at a palace celebration; Celestia had nursed the drunken Sunset back to sobriety and then had to explain what had happened to her. As a young human teenager, she’d gone to a party where alcoholic drinks had been served; it had been at Flash Sentry’s house and unsurprisingly, his parents weren’t home. She later found out that it was part of his plan to bed her even back then, but it could also be argued that Flash was beyond hope even at that age. “It was also the same night I lost my virginity.

“Look, you know I haven’t had it easy, and that it took me a long time to trust people, not to mention acting like a normal person. But it’s not because I don’t trust any of you – I don’t think I could have had any better of a life if it wasn’t for you all. And Twily and Tavi mean the world to me – having two people that I can always share my life with means everything. I just…I just don’t want you to think ill of me.” That much was true. Sunset would never want to hurt her loved ones if it was the last thing she did on this world.

Velvet, realizing she wasn’t going to get anywhere at the moment, changed tacks. “So, again we get to the question: what are you doing up so late?”

Sunset finished off her drink, then told her, “Couldn’t sleep. Plus, I wanted to know how much the hurricane will affect Twily’s birthday. This is important for her, and all our friends are coming, so I don’t want it to be ruined.”

A soft smile came over Velvet’s countenance. “Are you and Tavi ready for this?”

“As much as we can be,” Sunset admitted. “Tavi’s taking her out to breakfast while Pinkie comes over to help with the decorations. Everyone should be here by about two in the afternoon.”

“Okay, that should be plenty of time for the Fire Department to prepare.”

“Mom….”

“Just kidding, sweetheart. Now go get some sleep and worry about it in the morning, okay?”

“Uh, you just poured me some whiskey and coffee. I’m going to be wired for a while.”

“No, you just had whiskey and decaf. Trust me, I’d like to get some sleep as well,” Velvet said with a wink. “So get upstairs and get some sleep, young lady.”

Sunset grinned, then got up and kissed her mother on the cheek. “Okay, I know when I’m beat. Night, Mom.”

“Pleasant dreams, sweetheart.”

“Bored,” Medley Trance said to no one in particular. “I need to be entertained!”

“Med, shut up!” Contralto hissed. “I’m trying to sleep!”

“Well, you could sl—”

“Finish that sentence and you’ll have watchstanding duties every evening we’re not on a field op, understand?”

“But Alto!”

“That’s an order, Med.”

Medley sighed. “Fine, fine. I’ll just go outside and play with myself in the rain. Then if I get sick, I can say it’s your fault because you didn’t play with me.”

“Whatever,” Contralto mumbled. “I’m not sure we can get sick anyway.”

Frustrated, Medley slipped on a t-shirt and gym shorts then headed to the door. Taking the time to flip off Contralto – who probably didn’t see anything because she’d drifted back off to sleep – she stepped out into the rain. It was warm and soft, like a lover’s kiss, and that only frustrated Medley all the more; it had been at least a couple of days since her last fun, and the SIREN she’d been with only agreed to it since her girlfriend had been on duty that night. Medley smiled; if only Petty Officer Smoke had known Medley had slept with her partner the night before.

She walked away from the barracks, down into the central courtyard of the facility. Still surrounded by construction equipment and the appearance of something being built above ground, the truth was that the subterranean complex was nearly complete and ready for full operations. Once finished, the new SIREN base would be impregnable to anything short of a full nuclear strike, and anyone intending to raid it would be dead before they even reached the second level.

Medley had stopped in the middle of the courtyard, to see another woman, lying down on a towel, letting the rain fall on her. She was gorgeous, and Medley found that she couldn’t take her eyes off the woman’s curves; she was wearing gym gear that left almost nothing to the imagination, from the soaked white t-shirt sans bra, to the hints of black, lacy underwear that partially showed through the gray of the RCN gym shorts. With the water pooling around her, she looked a lot like the famous image of Ophelia lying in the river as she drowned, and something about that turned Medley on fierce.

Still, she knew this woman and had to be polite. “Fancy meeting you out here, Lt. Spike.”

Lieutenant Sonnerie Spike, leader of the SIREN Team Two, grinned without opening her eyes, her chiffon-pink hair framing her honey-brown skin and soft reddish-orange eyes. “You like what you see, Seaman Trance?” Medley didn’t say a word, but she didn’t have to; the fact that she stood there in the rain, over the lieutenant, said it all.

Sonnerie opened a delicate eye and grinned brashley. “I’ve had my eye on you, Seaman Trance...or is it Medley? Do you know how...unfair...it is, watching you enlisted girls having all the fun and me being the lone officer? Unattached? Unentertained?” She sat up, the rain flowing down every curve of her body, caressing it, practically worshipping it. “Am I so unsightly that I can’t have anyone of my own, Medley?”

“I….” Medley’s earlier interest turned into an acute need. “No, ma’am—”

“You can call me Sonnerie, or just Rie….” She then ran a delicate finger across her lips, licking it with the desire of someone who knew exactly what she wanted. “Or is there something else you wanted to call me?” She stood up, letting Medley have a full view of her feminine bounty. “Too bad there are those fraternization rules preventing enlisted and officers from, well…‘fraternizing.’”

A pout came to Medley’s face, one she didn’t even know she had, but Sonnerie just giggled and said, “However...you and I are both seduction specialists, correct? We have to be, in order to get the information we need. But...those skills get rusty if they’re not used, don’t you agree?” Medley nodded, almost as if an involuntary motion, her body on automatic, her mind entirely focused on the sexual being in front of her.

Sonnerie bent down to whisper in Medley’s ear, “Seaman Trance, I am out of practice. And as an officer, that just won’t do. So, I request – no, I order you to assist me in getting up to speed.” She sealed the deal with a gentle nip on the girl’s ear, and said, “Now, if you follow me, I know just the place where we can practice unimpeded...set the place up just for my needs, you know?” Sonnerie ran her hands down the front of Medley’s shirt, then stopped just at the drawstrings of her shorts. “Would you like me to repeat that order?”

“No, Sonnerie,” Medley said, a wild smile coming onto her face. Maybe this night won’t be as bad as I thought. “Shall we?”

“Oh, yes we shall,” Sonnerie sighed huskily. She could feel herself getting wet over the thought, and it wasn’t due to the rain. “We’re going to make this a day to remember, Medley,” she said, just before her lips touched Medley’s.

There weren’t too many things Sandalwood liked, he told himself. For starters, being a boy with a name that was originally male but mostly used by females, didn’t help much – that was his mother’s fault, he knew. Secondly, he loved having his grass-green hair in thick, ropy dreadlocks – until Jungle Beat sported the same hairstyle, and he took shit for that. Lastly, most of the student body at CHS thought he was gay, because he was one of the very few boys in the school who wasn’t in a relationship and hadn’t been a member of The Club. Of course, the truth had been far more nuanced than that.

For starters, he could proudly say that he was one of the few with an alibi; granted, he was still kind of miffed that Cloud Kicker had moved away, but supposedly she’d found true love...and given that she’d once admitted to him that she might have made their affections more permanent if it wasn’t for the fact that she’d fallen in love with Vinyl Scratch. Sandalwood found that to be bullshit; he didn’t think Cloud was the kind of girl who could love anyone.

“Heya, Woody,” a voice rang out. Sandalwood turned to see his father, Proposed Idea, walk into the room. “Got those pancakes done, son?”

“Yeah, sure thing, Dad,” the boy said, expertly sliding some pancakes off the griddle onto a nearby plate. “So, how long are you going to be gone?”

“Should be gone for about a week; two tops,” the man said. “Going to meet with some fundraisers. If I’m going to run against Quorum Call in the next election, I need to be at the top of my game, and for starters that means meeting with these folks.”

“Plus, the wives will need to be entertained, and that’s where I come in.” Into the kitchen came his stepmother, Sweet Pastry. An elegant and refined woman, Pastry had been the one to make his father happy after the divorce. Besides, it had been years since he’d seen his real mother since she moved to Seattle, and though he kept in contact, it had been Pastry that had been a help.

Sandalwood set the plates on the table in front of his father, his stepmother, and his own spot. He then went over to make a fourth batch. After all, the last person in the house hadn’t gotten up yet.

Then there was a yawn, and a voluptuous girl wearing nothing but a long t-shirt and underwear wandered into the kitchen, headed straight for the coffee. As she was not wearing a bra and had on lacy underwear, she may as well have been undressed.

“Coffee? What did I say about coming to the table dressed like that?” Pastry asked.

“Oh, this shit’s good,” she said as she drank from her coffee mug, pointedly ignoring the woman. She reached over and patted Woody on the shoulder. “Good job, little bro.”

“Thanks,” Sandalwood said, blushing.

“Coffee Cream, I asked you a question,” Pastry said.

“Mom, I swear it’s probably nothing Idea or Woody haven’t seen via porn or in real life. Besides, I’m 23; I’m fuckable and I get to flaunt it.” She sat down at the table, looking at her mother and stepfather. “Besides, we’re family, right?”

Pastry sighed. “Dear, you know Idea is running for office, and your behavior could be problematic for the campaign. You know that someone like Senator Quorum Call will use anything he can find to attack him.”

She rolled her eyes. “Mom, I’m studying pre-med. If they’re going to pick on a college student, you guys can easily say that the Call campaign goes after families and has no sense of dignity. Trust me, the public’ll eat it up.” She turned to Sandalwood. “What do you think, bro?”

Sandalwood looked flustered. “I guess,” was all he said.

The family ate in relative silence, with the morning radio playing on, delivering the day’s news. Finally, Idea finished eating and looked at his watch. “We’d better get going, sweetie,” he told Pastry. “Our flight leaves in an hour, and the taxi should be here any minute.” The minute he finished his words, a horn sounded outside. Both adults got up.

“You guys going to be okay?” Idea asked.

“Eh, we’ll be fine,” Coffee assured her stepfather, giving him a genuine smile. “It’ll be great to spend time with Woody, just me and my little bro.” She reached over and put an arm around him.

“Okay, but remember what I said, Coffee,” Pastry told her daughter. She gave both her daughter and her stepson pecks on the cheek and said, “We’ll bring you back some souvenirs from Boston.”

“You do that,” Coffee commented with a wink, watching as they grabbed their bags and headed out the door.

Walking to the taxi, Pastry said, “You know, despite the fact that Coffee cannot behave herself at times – I blame my ex for that – she really does love Woody. He’s the little brother she always wanted, I guess.”

Idea nodded as the pair reached the taxi. “I know, and I’m glad. I just hope that she doesn’t get jealous when her little brother finally finds himself a girlfriend.”

Sandalwood and Coffee continued to eat their breakfast in silence. Finally, he picked up the dishes from the table, then put them in the sink and began to wash them. Strangely enough, he felt relaxed – relaxed and yet excited for what was to come next. A second later he felt arms slither around his waist and voice whisper in his ear, “They’re gone. We can relax now.”

Sandalwood turned to kiss Coffee, the action long and deep until both were breathless. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed that,” he told her.

She smiled and ran a finger across his chin. “I’ve missed you, too.” The two then kissed once more, the actions and emotions of two lovers who had been together for years, which wasn’t off the mark. After all, their relationship had started three years ago when Sandalwood had just started puberty and exploring his body, and Coffee came home, half-drunk and walked in on him in the shower. As they were both home while their parents were on vacation, the two talked, smoked some weed, got a little drunk and the next morning found themselves in the same bed, horrified to realize that they’d given each other their virginity that night – the twenty-year-old woman and the thirteen-year-old boy. They slept alone in separate beds the next night, but talked about it the next day over some fine bud and booze, and upon that moment, an agreement was reached: in public, they’d be step-siblings. When they were alone together, however, they became a pair very much in love.

Even now, they had discussed their future as of late: Sandalwood intended to do his college years in Rhode Island, the only state in the union that would allow their relationship to be. Likewise, Coffee intended to intern there as well, and once all went fine, they would make their relationship permanent. At this point, the seven years of difference between the two were unimportant to them, and now that he was sixteen, he was well at the age of consent. And to the beautiful girl in his arms, this wasn’t Coffee Cream, his stepsister. Right now, that person didn’t exist. This was Coffee Cream, his long-time girlfriend, and the girl he wanted to marry as much as she wanted him.

She broke off from the kiss, albeit reluctantly. “As much as I want to continue this, Woody, unfortunately I have a tutoring session with Emerald Blaze in a couple of hours.”

“So you’re saying you don’t have time for me?” He kissed her on the neck, tracing a path down. She sighed in pleasure, her body shuddering with delight.

“You know you’re the only man I could ever love,” she told him, looking him right in the eyes.

“You know you’re the woman I intend to marry,” he told her, kissing her on the neck. His hands went down, then under her shirt, removing it.

“So, your bedroom or mine?” he asked.

“The guest bedroom,” she breathed. “For the next week or two, it’ll be our bedroom.” Slipping off her remaining clothing, she allowed him to pick her up and carry them across the house, headed towards the stairs, the guest room, and utter ecstasy.

“You’re being quiet,” Twilight said to Octavia as both sat, looking over their breakfast menus. As her part of the plan to keep Twilight out of everyone’s hair while they prepared for the birthday party, Octavia was dragging her cousin all over the place. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, sorry, just thinking about Sunny,” Octavia answered.

“I know. I’m kinda worried about her, too. You should’ve been there yesterday: Rose was very unstable and yet Sunny went in to try to help anyway. Rose’s girlfriend Berry told me that Rose tried to hit on Sunny and didn’t know that Sunny’s straight; even still after she carries a torch. And then Berry told me that Rose was going to make a pass at Sunny again, but Berry wasn’t worried because Sunny’s...well, you know.”

The teen musician sighed. “Can you explain to me why every one of our friends that we met through Sunny is certifiable? There’s the triplets, who were here and gone; Lyra, who seems to think that unicorns are actually real; Trixie, who acts like Fluttershy when she’s not talking in the third person like some ego-tripping athlete from hell; and now these two. Plus that lunatic in San Fran – Sweet Pea? Oh, and don’t get me started on Pinkie!”

“That’s not nice, Tavi,” Twilight admonished. “We just happen to know a lot of...unique people, is all.”

“No, unique is Chammie and Fleur – and don’t get me wrong, I like them. Who we know is clearly classified as weird.”

“Tavi, what’s wrong?” Twilight said that so clearly that her cousin focused on her, violet eyes to violet, almost not noticing the waiter as he arrived. They both quickly gave their orders, and as the waiter wandered off, Twilight began again. “This isn’t like you. I’ve never known you to really say anything bad about anyone, Blueblood and Vinyl Scratch being the exceptions.”

“I….” Octavia paused in mid-speech. Instead, she spooned more sugar into her coffee, drank, then set it down and did a breathing technique that Cadance had taught them both a long time ago: inhaling as she brought her forearm close, then moving it back as she exhaled.

“Okay, I haven’t seen you do that in years,” Twilight told her. “You’re worrying me.”

“Twily...do you love me still?” Octavia asked.

Twilight blinked, took a drink of her own coffee, then blinked again. “What kind of question is that? You are my cousin, my best friend and have been as much a sister to me as Cady has for my whole life! Of course I love you, Tavi – I can’t believe you’re even asking that! What the heck brought this on?”

“I remember this girl who was shy and always used to rely on me for help. I don’t see her anymore. Now I see a girl, brilliant and fierce, able to stand on her own two feet...and doesn’t need me.” She then looked out the window of the restaurant as she added, “I used to feel like the one who was always there when you needed me. Now I feel like the one left behind.”

“That’s a lie and you know it. Yes, like I told you before, Sunny’s been an influence on both of us – you and me. And we’ve been an influence on her as well...you were just talking to her yesterday, weren’t you?” Twilight reached over and took her cousin’s hands in her own. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t need you anymore. It’s never going to mean that. You and I grew up together – we’ve spent practically all our lives together. You are just as much my best friend and sister as you are my cousin, Tavi.

“I know it’s been a lot of change dumped on all of us this past year. But things are going to stabilize soon. And it’s not as though you’re alone. You have a family that loves you and is always there for you. We’re not giving up on you, Tavi, just because Sunny’s in the picture. Don’t ever think that, okay?”

Octavia’s smile seemed sincere, but the truth of it was, she wasn’t sure if it ever could be. And part of her mind repeatedly told her that it was all the fault of one person and one person alone: Sunset Shimmer. The family fraudster. The cousin coveter. The sister stealer.

Within her heart, a part of Octavia knew it wasn’t true and tried to stick up for the soon-to-be-adopted cousin she cared about so much. But within the deepest recesses of her soul, a dark, bitter flame built, one that hungered and threatened to snuff out any light, and could only be sated by blood.

The blood of Sunset Shimmer.

“I cannot believe this!” Sunset fumed.

“Sunset, dear, please calm down,” Rarity pled. “I know this is important to you – it’s important to all of us – but it is unfair of you to blame Pinkie for having a last-minute medical appointment!”

Sunset sighed. “Yeah, I know. Sorry.” Sunset recalled the incident, a mere thirty minutes ago, when an angry and sullen Pinkie Pie showed up, apologizing that she couldn’t come back until later, because she ran out of her prescription and she had an appointment today to get her dose adjusted. Given that Sunset hadn’t even known she was on meds, it came as a surprise.

Rarity nodded. “I don’t think I’m the one you need to apologize to, but...I understand. I know that Pinkie tells everyone that she’s been cured of her maladies, but she’s only confided to her closest friends that she still needs lithium doses for...other things. I’m sure she didn’t mean it as a slight to not tell you, darling.”

“She shouldn’t have to; she’s entitled to her privacy if she doesn’t want to tell me,” Sunset replied. “Not offended. Though I am worried now that you’ve mentioned it. How bad are we talking?”

“That’s something you’ll have to bring up with her aunt and uncle, I presume,” Rarity answered. “I don’t know myself, though I do know that the last time she didn’t have it filled, it was...well, nevermind. I do believe we have other things to busy ourselves with, do we not?”

“You’re changing the subject,” Sunset accused.

“Yes, I am,” Rarity stated. “Sunset...I think you need to talk to Pinkie about this, and just her. It’s...personal and private and something you should know.”

“Well, well, well,” a voice purred. Sunset and Rarity looked forward to see a girl with long blonde hair standing there in an aggressive posture. Her lavender eyes radiated a disgust, and her mouth was an angry jag of hate. “So, dumped the other carpet licker and got yourself a new one? Tell me, does she bump your ugly? Because she sure as hell don’t make you look good, skank!”

Rarity blinked. “Excuse me? You don’t think that….”

Lavender Lace grinned. “Not to you, cute stuff. Honestly, if you weren’t dating the bitch here, I’d do you. You’re too good for this cunt.”

Sunset took a step forward. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t appreciate you insulting me or my friend, got that?”

“You really that stupid, Shimmer? You already forget what I told you about coming into my territory, you prissy CHS bitch?”

That seemed to ring a bell. “Oh, now I know who you are. You’re Lavender Lace, right?”

“Yes,” Lavender snarled, cocking a fist back, “and you’re dead meat!”

The girl took a swing immediately, and Rarity stepped back instinctively shielding herself. She then heard the slap of flesh against flesh and knew that the other girl had successfully thrown a punch. That success was soon put in doubt a second later as Rarity removed her hands, and now viewing Lavender trying to pull her hand back...and Sunset, with her own hand clamped around the other’s.

“I’m not a violent person by nature,” Sunset hissed as she clamped down harder on Lavender’s fist, “but you could have hurt my friend here. And while I generally take a dim view of solving problems by fisticuffs, when it comes to my friends, I’m not one to give quarter.”

Rarity thought she heard knuckles pop as Sunset increased the pressure; the look on Lavender’s face clearly indicated that she was feeling some pain. Whatever had happened in the split-second she missed looking at the incident, it seemed to have put things in Sunset’s favor – not that such an outcome was ever in doubt.

“So here’s what I’m going to do,” Sunset told her. “In a second, I’m going to let go of your hand. And then you’re going to walk away and never bother me again unless it’s to apologize. The same thing goes for my friend Rarity here. And after that, you’re not going to lift a hand against a single person unless it’s in self-defense, whether it’s in your school, or not. You want to be the bully of your school? Trust me when I say that’s just a splinter of a moment on top. Sooner or later, you’re going to piss off the wrong person or people, and when you do – and it will happen – your fall will be hard and painful.” In the distance, Sunset saw another girl running towards them, this one with short, dark fuchsia hair and a terrified look on her face.

Sunset threw her opponent back, then looked at the other girl as Lavender crashed to the pavement. “Get her out of here, if you will. We don’t want to cause a scene here.”

“YOU FUCKING BITCH!” Lavender screamed as she held her hand. “YOU FUCKING BROKE IT!”

“No, I bruised it,” Sunset said calmly, though her voice seemed to radiate an authority that could have only come from her true nature. “If I wanted it broken, that would be more than easy.” The newcomer looked at Sunset with fear, and Sunset’s frown softened. “Don’t let her get in any more trouble, okay?”

“C’mon, honey,” Fuchsia told her girlfriend as he helped the tough girl to her feet. “Let’s get to the car.” The look on Lavender’s face was one of impotent rage, eyes filling with tears but unable or unwilling to allow her opponent the pleasure of seeing her cry.

As the two walked away, Sunset sighed. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Rares. I remember who she is now, and if this were the old me, I would have done so much worse. Now, I just wanted her to leave me alone, but she wasn’t going to listen to reason.”

“Are you so sure about that?” Rarity asked.

“Bullies rarely listen to reason,” Sunset told her friend. “Trust me, I know that all too well.”

In the FBI’s conference room in the Canterlot Federal Building, Shining Armor and Sandalwood gave the report they had on their investigation’s progress. “And that’s the cursory evidence we have so far,” Shining told the others involved. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the SIRENs case and the serial killer case are somehow tied together, though the chances of that are infinitesimal.”

“Not as small as you might think, Agent Armor.” Shining Badge reached for a dossier folder that was in front of him. “We’ve had some of our analysts in the Los Angeles Division look into it, and you might be right.”

“Excuse me, boss?” Hardline interjected, the look on her face one of complete surprise. “The SIRENs are attacking civilians now?”

“Not quite. What I mean is that the Extremist Intelligence Unit recently had some information on a potential private military contractor company. Given that the last indicator out of the CIA was that said group, named ALICORN, was involved.” Badge paused while several other agents in the room laughed. “Yes, I know, stupid name. But not so stupid when you realize the kind of people we’re going to be up against.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, that isn’t going to be our problem at the moment.

“No, what is going to be our problem is Hurricane Everblue. It’s expected to pass just to the east of us, but ‘just to the east’ is still enough for some major damage to town. For the next two days I’m suspending all investigations while we assist local authorities in dealing with this crisis. That doesn’t mean that if you run into something significant, you should ignore it; rather, that life and safety come before apprehension. Remember that our first order of business is to protect people, not catch the bad guy.” He looked to his side. “Hardy?”

Hardline looked at the others. “We have a list of the agencies that you’ll be assisting during this crisis. Those of you who are on loan from other agencies, you’ll be going back to them temporarily, though you’ll still be under FBI auspice instead of your parent organization’s. Keep in mind that unless it’s a major bust, let the locals have the collar – makes interagency cooperation a thing and prevents us from doing any extra paperwork. Now, as for myself and the boss, he’ll be here in the office keeping tabs on all of us, while I’ll be on heavy standby in case things get squirrelly.”

“You think they will?” one of the other agents asked.

“Oh, I know they will,” Badge insisted. “Perps always use natural disasters to make things worse, whether it’s looting, a chance to settle old scores without supposedly getting caught, or a million other things. While this town might seem sleepy, mark my words: the next few days are going to be an absolute bear. And that’s without contemplating all our other issues, folks.” He reached up and rubbed his eyes, looking weary ahead of time. “Okay, call it a day and be rested and ready for tomorrow, got that? Report in via phone, and do what needs to be done. Dismissed.”

As Shining got up from the table, he asked Sandalwood, “And now to get some shopping done before it’s too late.”

Sandalwood rolled her eyes. “Yes, and only you would consider getting your sister’s birthday present on her birthday and when stores are shutting down due to the hurricane.” His smile fell, and she laughed. “C’mon, if we get going now we might be able to make it to Books & Sewing Machines before they close.”

He nodded but added, “No idea what to get her, though.”

Sandalwood sighed. “Did it ever occur to you why I know your sister so well?”

“Not really, no.”

“You’re really dense sometimes, you know that?”

“Wow, that looks good, girls,” Velvet told the two in her kitchen.

“Thanks, Mrs. V,” Applejack said as she added another candy apple to the white chocolate and apple cake she’d baked for Twilight’s party. “Pinkie’s not the only one ‘round here that can bake. Ma taught me how.”

“Well, color me very impressed, Applejack. But you, Rainbow, are the surpriser, if I may say so: I haven’t had empañadas since I was a kid back in San Diego.”

Rainbow blushed slightly as she pulled the pastries out of the oven. “Wellllll...my grandmother insisted that I learn how to cook, given that it’s tradition. Mom wasn’t too happy about that, but she learned why arguing with Rainbow Fiesta is a bad idea. Besides, whenever my parents aren’t around, someone’s gotta cook for me an’ Scoots. Eating out all the time’s just not healthy.”

“Maybe I should have you come over and cook dinner sometime, Rainbow.”

The teen made a distasteful face. “Sorry, but I got a rep to maintain,” she said with a smile. “Maybe if I make something at home...I’ll bring the remainder by next time.”

“That would be wonderful. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll check on the others.” Velvet left the kitchen and walked into the living room, where a second group was settling up. Cadance, who had taken the day off of work, was now directing two of the girls’ other friends helping to decorate the house. A bit of a ways from them, a third one was setting up a chocolate fountain.

“Lyra, don’t pull so hard!” Trixie shouted while she was arranging bunting.

“I’m not the one pulling – you’re the one pulling!” Lyra shouted back.

Bon-Bon gave both of them a glare. “Girls, if you’re not careful, you’re going to fall and end up in my fondue!”

Cadance went over to the table where the fountain sat. “I think we need to move this a bit aways.”

“Good idea – you grab one end, I’ll grab the other,” and with that, both managed to move the chocolatey goodness out of the harm of two arguing friends.

“How are things going in here?” Velvet asked. “It looks good.” She looked over at the fountain, and Bon-Bon laying out an assortment of things to dip and sticks to dip with. “I swear, I’m going to gain so much weight tonight.”

“Tell me about it,” Trixie grunted from her perch as she tied some balloons together. “I don’t have half the hyperness that Lyra does or the regimen of Bonnie, so whatever’s going in me tonight’s going straight to my hips.”

“You know, you can just get your lazy ass out of bed and come jogging with me in the morning,” Lyra told her.

“Excuse me? You’re calling me lazy? You?” Trixie laughed riotously. “Besides, the Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t do ‘running’. We can go do laps in the pool.”

“The Great and Powerful Pain in the Ass better get back to work, or else we’ll never get done!”

“Bạn biết bạn là hai kẻ ngốc, phải không?” Bon-Bon spat, looking up at her girlfriend and said girlfriend’s best friend.

“Do I want to know what you just said?” Lyra asked.

“No, you don’t. Now get back to work, guys! We’re running out of time here!”

Cadance looked at Velvet and commented, “I think you’d better call Tavi and have her stall.”

“Already on it.”

Coffee Cream looked at the girl she was tutoring. “Well, your work’s improving, but if you’re going to bump up your grades, you really need to pay attention.”

“Why?” Prismatic sat in her chair, painting her nails and giving her tutor the least amount of attention possible. “My parents are loaded, and they’ll always be there for me. And if not them, then my trust fund.”

“Except your parents aren’t in town right now, and they told me to do whatever it takes to get you to listen,” Coffee growled. “So what’s it going to take?”

Prismatic looked away from her nail polish and gave an easy eye towards Coffee. “You really want to know what it’s going to take?”

“Yes, I really want to know what it’s going to take.” With that, Prismatic leaned forward and whispered in her ear. Coffee pulled away and said, “What?”

“That’s what I want. And my parents are out of town, so you’re going to give it to me,” the teen said, matter-of-factly. “You see, I already know what I want out of life. That’s why my parents are trying to get me to improve my grades – they think that doing that means that I’ll change my mind.” She bit down gently on one of her fingers, a motion making clear what she wanted. “But let’s just say I’ll have a lucrative career ready for me when I’m eighteen. Of course, I’ll need the practice, so that’s where you come in.”

“And if I say no?” Coffee snarled, an angry look on her face.

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll say no. After all, what will your parents think once they find out that brother and sister are as close as close as can be – and by that I mean the only thing separating you two is the occasional thin layer of latex.”

“What?”

Prismatic reached over and grabbed her phone, then set it for gallery. “You know, you should really be careful where you go.” The image on the screen was of her and Sandalwood in a very compromising position. “So, tell me – what’s more important: satisfying my needs, or destroying your family and spending time behind bars?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I would. After all, I’m just a rich, spoiled bitch – I’m so flighty and vapid that naturally people will believe me because I’m too stupid to lie.” She went back to polishing her nails. “Look, I’m not looking for whatever it is you two have – you two love each other? Fine, get your rocks off. I just want to have some fun.” She then leaned forward and smiled. “Plus, your brother’s not the only one I’m interested in. Really, you should be flattered.”

He could feel it. Even this far away, he could feel it, and it filled him with an incalculable, terrible anger.

The Black Garden – it now lay in ruins. Worse, the remnants of the lands were being protected by a damnable object whose origin and power were uncharted. At his current strength levels, there was no way that he could assault the thing directly without wasting time and energy. In order to show whatever it was the error of its ways, in order to crush the fools who placed it there, only one path led ahead towards victory.

Tirek almost smiled. Walking through the Everfree forest now, he could almost feel the comforting touch of the malevolence and violence that lived within it. Of course, it wasn’t true evil, per se; it was just nature at work – cold, hard and brutal, but just nature in and of itself. And in the general area itself, the sweet darkness that he’d felt earlier. As he’d gotten closer, he’d realized it wasn’t a fount or an artifact or so, but a living, breathing creature. And whatever it was, it was strong in the dark disciplines, strong enough to possibly even topple an alicorn. Given that it existed as well, it was smart, enough so to stay hidden from those simpering princesses that ruled the land. That meant whatever it was, was likely intelligent, which meant a potential ally or…

Tirek laughed. “He needs no allies,” the cruel centaur claimed to himself. “He only needs power, yes? For it is power that makes everything grand. Yes, that is all he needs.”

With that, Tirek continued his slow trek towards Canterlot and his path towards domination.

“Damn it….” Of all the places he could have landed, Cloudcover thought, it had to be in the middle of the Everfree. It was bad enough that he thought he could get away with taking a shortcut over the cursed forest while on his flight from Nimbusville to Cloudsdale. But then he had to run into that turbulence while he was in the middle of his flight, a twisted snarl of air that slammed him down to the ground. He’d managed to recover from that, but in the process, he lost his gift that he was bringing to his mother; and worse, he sprained his wing. It hurt like Tartarus right now, but as the old saying went, any landing you can trot away from….

Looking around, he noticed that at least he landed in a clearing. From what he knew, guards from Ponyville and Berryville patrolled their portions of the forest; just as important, there was a zebra shaman named Zecora who lived in the forest and was one of Princess Twilight’s advisors. If he could find his way to either the guards or the zebra, he should be fine, he figured.

Though my wife’s going to kill me, he groaned as he slowly made his way down what seemed to be the clearest path. She spent a fortune on crystal roses while she was in the Crystal Empire, and they cost a fortune and oh, I’m repeating myself, aren’t I? He sighed; it was a bad habit of his and his wife, a schoolteacher, never quite let him off the hook on that. Still, he loved her, and he cherished every moment he was with her.

“Means I need to find the nearest patrol or that zebra, soonest,” he said to himself. Taking a careful step and finding it didn’t agitate his injured limb, he started off at a slow but steady trot down the path, out of the clearing and into the cathedral of dark, twisted trees that made up the Everfree. It made him nervous to walk amongst the unusual noises, chirps and chitters of the wildlife, but he figured as long as he stayed on the path, he’d be reasonably safe. But as the path meandered on, it became less defined, with the cobblestones being broken up by weeds, until he found that there were few demarcations that there had been any thoroughfare to begin with.

Instead, he found himself in front of ancient, crumbling ruins, and a massive castle with scaffolding all over it. Various construction equipment could be seen, as well as a sign that read

CASTLE EVERFREE RECONSTRUCTION SITE
CONCRETE MIXER CONSTRUCTION CO.
BY ORDER AND PATRONAGE OF
HRH PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

“I’m at Castle Everfree?” he yelped, getting a very bad feeling about it all. The castle had been abandoned until the events of the war between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon, the one that trapped Princess Luna in the moon itself for a thousand years. This place was dark and sinister, and even though Princess Twilight was trying to improve its image – her intentions were, if he remembered reading the newspaper right, was to rebuild the castle as a museum to commemorate the history of that dark time, and to restore the village with the intent of having it become a new town.

Curiosity overcame the stallion, his wounds forgotten in the interest. Walking past the security barriers, he started to head towards the castle, and into it. There was rubble all over the place, and at the same time, tons of construction scaffolding and the like. In the main throne room he found two thrones, those of Celestia and Luna, as well as a third one in the back, the reasons for which he couldn’t discern. He spent a huge amount of time looking around the place, and by the time the sun started to head towards the horizon, he realized he’d gotten too lost in his focus to realize that he’d wasted the whole day looking at the castle...on the bright side, though, the slide was fun.

Finally, he climbed up to the castle’s sole intact tower in the hopes that he could signal somepony. By now his absence would’ve been noted and there would be others looking for him. As he opened the aged hatch to expose the sky, he clambered up the last part of the stairs to step out into the air. The violet band of twilight started to cover the sky, one half of the sunset sky covered in Luna’s stars, while the last rays of light of the sun started to slip into the horizon beyond. It was a beauty that he could appreciate, had he not been in his situation. He then looked around, stepping away from the hatch, heading to the far side of the tower. From here, he could see the bunch of lights that was Ponyville at night, and from the looks of it, it didn’t look more than a mile or two off. If he was very careful, he could reach it.

“Or he thinks he can,” a voice said behind him, guttural, dark and chilling. Cloudcover turned to see a figure standing there by the hatch, looking straight at him. Indeterminate and mysterious due to the cloak it wore, there was something nevertheless unsettling because of its presence. “He thinks that because he is found, he is safe.”

Cloudcover dismissed his fears as just idle panic; this person clearly had to be a guard sent to retrieve him. “Oh, thank Celestia you’re here! Listen, I know I wasn’t supposed to wander around here without permission, but I thought it would be safest to be seen from a location where I’d be found easily. Plus, I’m sure timberwolves and other monsters tend to not walk around the grounds, so….”

“Monsters do,” the being before him said, and he could see the barest hint of a smile; it wasn’t a friendly one, however. “He should know. He is one of them.” And with that, he opened his mouth.

What Cloudcover felt in the next few minutes was something he never thought he would know: sheer and utter horror, combined with steady weakening as a fine white mist slipped away from him and down the gullet of the creature before him. He couldn’t run away; the creature stood by the only way out. Likewise, he couldn’t fly away; his wing prevented any flying and likely he couldn’t even just glide down. At the moment, he was feeling worn out, though, too worn out. Was that mist floating away from him his strength? His magic? His life? He didn’t know. And a second later, as he leaned against the parapet, he could barely keep his eyes open.

“There, much stronger,” the creature said, reaching up with spindly legs – the type that minotaurs had – and pulling the cloak’s hood away with strange, spidery hooves.

Cloudcover looked at the red face and graying hair of an ancient...whatever it was...and realized that something was wrong – very, very wrong. He then looked away from the creature, looking down...and noticed his cutie mark was gone. Three clouds in a row superimposed over a shining sun. It had always been there, but now, his flank was the same light gray it had been since the day he was born. His head drooped further, not from shock, but exhaustion. It felt like it was taking every bit of energy he had to just keep breathing.

“And so now he knows he cannot run, cannot hide, cannot flee. This is destiny,” the strange, demented monster approached, “and he cannot fight it. None can. But if he wants to escape...he shall be helped.” The creature approached, laid its hands on the stallion, and only the densest of foals could not comprehend what was about to happen next.

“No, please!” Cloudcover pled, hoping for a miracle. “I have a wife! A family! You can’t do this!”

“Oh, but he can,” Tirek said, lifting the pegasus over the parapet. “And soon, all of Equestria – and then Equus itself – shall follow.”

Unable to fly, unable to escape, Cloudcover could do nothing but scream as he went over the side of the tower and the ground rushed to meet him…

...and then no more.

Tirek sniffed the air, ignoring the new tang of blood. He’d been led false. Now that he had more magic, he could tell there was a great amount of dark magic here, much more recent than when Nightmare Moon turned these castle walls into an abattoir. But whomever the magic owner was, said caster was not here. He knew he’d have to search more, and though he couldn’t find the trail now, it was only a matter of time. Yes, he smiled with a grin that almost bordered on happy, only a matter of time.

With that, he descended Castle Everfree, headed back towards the forest. It would be a long march, but he knew that somehow, the path still led to Canterlot.

Looking at the sunset sky over Rainbow Falls, Twilight looked at her friends and said, “We probably should get to our hotel, then find a place to eat around here. Tomorrow’s going to be another long day.”

Raspberry mock-pouted. “Well, I’d go with you, but you asked me to be your representative at the restricted goods exchange and that goes on in ten minutes at town hall.” Her horn glowing with ebon power, she pulled a long checklist out of her saddlepack. “This list looks very long, Twi. You sure you have everything on it?”

The alicorn shook her head. “Not really, but I’m hoping the chance of human materials and equipment won’t show up. Now that we know the mirror was left empty and alone for so long, there’s a decent risk that something contraband from Earth made it here, something that could really cause problems in Equus, like guns, for instance.”

“What’s a gun?” Pinkie asked.

“It’s a hoof-held, er, hand-held weapon,” Twilight explained, “similar to griffin shoot-sticks, but more on the power level of a cannon. While I was over there, I got to see some examples of how they worked, and if they got over here, they could be real problems.”

“Well, darling, could shoot-sticks be based on these ‘guns’?” Rarity said with distaste. She’d been present for the latest talks between one of the more civilized griffin kingdoms and Equestria and she went with Princess Luna to a demonstration of the weapons. They were loud and created a ton of soot, but they were, without a doubt, dangerous.

“It’s possible, but I hope they came up with them on their own,” Twilight cautioned. Turning back to Raspberry, she asked, “Do you want me to order something for you and send it over?”

“If you don’t mind. I get the feeling I’m going to be really busy tonight.”

“Well,” Fluttershy said with a smile, “I can bring you something after I eat and then keep you company afterwards. I don’t mind.”

Rainbow sighed. “Look, I said I was sorry for trying to trade you, Fluttershy!”

“You’re lucky I knew you just made a goof up and weren’t trying to violate the 1163 Anti-Slavery Law,” Twilight said with a grin.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Miss Lawyer,” the pegasus grunted.

“I’d really appreciate it, Flutters,” Raspberry said. “Both the food and the company.”

“Oh, it’s no problem. Will a daisy and dandelion club sandwich be okay?”

“Perfect,” the mulberry unicorn said with a smile. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to town hall.”

Raspberry walked a few blocks south of where her friends were, then stopped in front of a building that looked very similar to town hall back in Ponyville. Opening the door, she asked the receptionist present about where the room was, and she was directed downstairs to the basement into the room the community usually used to hide from the various disasters that seemed to hit Equestria at least biannually.

Maybe I should have Twi suggest to Mayor Mare about putting one of these in the basement of our town hall, she thought. You never know when some huge, evil badflank wannabe is going to come through and play Paraspritezilla through the whole place.

As she entered the room, she looked at the portly stallion with the glasses, pinto coat and the boutonniere. “Mayor Bigspots?”

The stallion looked at her. “Yes, I’m he.”

She smiled. “Archmagus Raspberry Sparkle of the Mage Guild. I’m here to represent her highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Ah, Princess Raspberry, a pleasure to meet you,” he said, bowing. “Or do you prefer Archmagus Beryl when on duty?”

“Just Razz is fine, thanks,” she said, waving it off. “So where do I sit?”

“Actually, if you’ll follow me, please,” Bigspots said. “We haven’t even started yet and two individuals have already started to bicker about their trade. I tried to get them to listen, but I think this might take someone with both Guild and royal authority.”

“Sure, lead the way,” Raspberry said, and she followed him, where a pair of ponies argued. One of them, she knew: Bedazzle, the town mage for the village of Blue Savannah, out in the Derby Grasslands. The other one she couldn’t peg, but from the look of him, he was a scholar, possibly a mage, though she hadn’t met him if that was the case.

Bedazzle heard the approaching hoofsteps and turned to see Raspberry approaching. “Oh, hi, Razz!” she said.

“Mage Bedazzle, as much as I would like to chat, I’m on duty right now, so you can refer to me either by my rank or royal title,” Raspberry said gravely, practicing the sober attitude that Luna had said would be necessary for her mage duties. Given the level of arguing she’d seen, it was best that she let them know who was in charge, even if meant violating what she’d told Bigspots a second prior.

“I’m sorry, my lady mage,” Bedazzle apologizing and curtseying at the same time.

“Well met, lady mage,” the other pony said, pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his muzzle. “I’m Mage Sunburst, recently assigned to the Crystal Empire by the Guild.” He bowed, and she nodded in reply.

“I’ll handle this from here,” Raspberry told Bigspots, “and then I’ll meet you back at the entrance so you can show me where to sit afterward. Would that suffice?”

“It would indeed, lady mage,” Bigspots said to him, then wandered off.

Seeing him depart, Raspberry turned her attention back to the problem at hoof. “Okay, what seems to be the problem?”

“Well, Sunburst here wants to trade for a copy of Tome of Transmission: The Ultimate Guide to Teleportation, Blinking and Other Magical Means of Movement,” Bedazzle explained. “It’s an old copy, and very rare. But he wants to trade that...piece of junk...for this!”

“Lady mage—”

Raspberry was reminded why she hated using titles, just like Twilight did. They got in the way of ponies being ponies. “Look, let’s just drop the titles, okay? Just...just keep it professional, you two.”

“Sure thing, Razz,” Bedazzle said.

“Absolutely,” Sunburst agreed. “Anyway, I found this object ages ago that I’ve been studying. An ancient relic that I think dates back to the time of The Longest Night. It makes this loud sound, and I think it was meant to be a clarion call for troops. I was planning to show BD how it works, but for some reason, it just doesn’t.”

“Because it’s a piece of junk!” Bedazzle said. “I really doubt it’s anything from the Civil War era, Burst. For all you know, it could be something from the Discordian era.”

“True, but if so, then it’s still a worthy piece of magic to study,” the stallion countered. “And weren’t you working on a monograph regarding ancient artifacts, anyway?”

“Only if they really are, Burst.”

“Okay, mind if I take a look at it, Burst?” Raspberry asked. “BD, I don’t need to see yours, since I own a copy myself. Good book, though Long Travels definitely got the bit about blinking wrong.”

“Yeah, who wants to tear holes in spacetime to travel, anyway,” Bedazzle muttered, shivering at the thought.

“As for mine, here it is,” Sunburst said, floating his up in his magic field. A second later, the hue changed from gold to black as Raspberry took a hold of it and brought it into sight.

The object was clearly made of metal, and girded with wood that had mostly rotted away. It was L-shaped, thick and slablike on one end and a thin, hollow tube on the other end. The remains of an arc of metal seemed to bridge the two pieces at one end, and it seemed to block another crescent-shaped piece of metal.

“Where did you find this?” she asked.

Though she didn’t look at him, Sunburst replied, “I went back to my hometown of Mooreglade to say hi to friends; it borders the south end of the Everfree. While we were there, one of the town’s fillies got lost in the forest. We found her, but during the search I found this object in a dried riverbed. Given the direction of the gully, it likely fills only when it storms heavily in the forest, and the riverbed passes by the ruins of Castle Everfree, according to a map I later looked at. Additionally, a thousand years ago, Mooreglade was a staging base for the Lunar Army during the Civil War, so it could have just been buried over the years.”

She noticed strange symbols on the side of the object: 南_大型自動_銃. Most of it was worn away, and what could be read was completely illegible to begin with. “And these sigils?”

“At first, I thought they were Moon Runes, the code developed by the Lunar Army to communicate in secret during the war,” Sunburst told her. “But that didn’t make sense at all. I then thought it might be one of the Eastern languages, so I contacted colleagues at the Inari and Joseon embassies, but the latter said it doesn’t look like raccoon runes. The fox at the Inari embassy was able to read only one part,” the stallion told her, taking the object in his magical grasp and turning it so the bottom of the flat end could be read. Sunburst then used his magic to highlight three runes, 小石川, so Raspberry could see them. “Tamamo said that it means ‘River Pebble’, but she doesn’t know of any place in her homeland that bears that name. She said it’s possible that it refers to a secret project, but that for the time period, the foundries of Inari weren’t advanced enough for this level of metalworking; and in any case, it was about a century before foxes and ponies established diplomatic relations.”

Raspberry looked at the object, and for some reason, Twilight’s words warning about equipment from Sunset Shimmer’s world arriving in theirs. But this doesn’t look anything like a shoot-stick, and it can’t be one of those ‘gun’ things Twi mentioned, Raspberry mused. I’ve seen shoot-sticks, and this is way too small to be one.

Meanwhile, Bedazzle, who had been watching the goings-on, thought about it. “Now you have me interested, Burst. Why didn’t you mention those symbols before?”

“Because I was too focused on the loud noise it makes, I guess,” he admitted. “Why, are you still interested?”

“Yup!” she answered, floating her tome over to him. A second later, the strange metal object was passed over to her.

“Well, looks like you two got that squared away. Now, please, enjoy the rest of the market and try not to give me any more headaches, okay?”

“You got it, Razz,” Bedazzle chirped, while Sunburst merely nodded.

Relieved that one issue was solved, Raspberry went to go join Bigspots, who had Fluttershy standing next to him carrying a picnic basket. Good, food’s here, she thought, glad to see her friend. Her mind briefly wandered back to the mystery item now owned by Bedazzle, but as she approached Fluttershy, the smell of good food hit her nostrils.

I’ll have to suggest to Twi that we look at it later, Raspberry thought while giving Fluttershy a greeting smile. Might not be dangerous, but never hurts to check, right?

August 5, PM: Mental Hopscotch

“Oh, I’m quite sure she will love it,” the clerk at the bookstore said to Shining Armor as she handed him the bag. “Thanks for shopping with B&N, and have a nice day!”

As Shining and Sandalwood left the store, she looked at him. “Wasn’t aware your sister read the Tomb Raider series.”

“She’s not much of a pop culture kind of person, but she’s followed the adventures of Daring Do since she was first able to read. She also reads the Spellbound series and some fantasy and sci-fi novels here and there. Mostly they’re distractions for her.”

“If you say so,” Sandalwood said, leaving the main portion of the mall and heading towards the parking garage. “Well, since we’re off, drop me off at my place before you head to your parents’ place. I need to get my gear in order for tomorrow.”

“You know, you’re more than welcome to come to the party. You’ve known me and Cady forever, and you’ve met my sisters, so what’s the issue?”

Sandalwood gave him a soft smile as she got into his car. “I appreciate it, Shiny. But…I probably should call my parents, since they’re worried about me. Plus, I haven’t talked to Minty in a while and I should give her a call too, just to see how she’s doing.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, trust me, normally I’d love to go anywhere you are, but….” She shrugged before she could say anything else. “Now, drive on and wake me up when we get to my place, okay?”

“Sure,” Shining said as he maneuvered his car out of the lot and into the heavy rain. Part of him wondered what she meant by that, but she was fast asleep before he could ask, her face turned away from him.

“And that’s that,” Divine Right said, as he took the vial from Canzione. As I told the others, you should feel some disorientation at first, but then once you get used to your transformations, you should be able to do it with ease.

“Thank you, sir,” Canzione Burst said, focusing. A second later she changed into what they were calling their “true SIREN” form, though privately Canzione wondered if it should be siren – meaning the old mythological concept – vs. SIREN, the appellation for their group. Either way, it wasn’t her concern to deal with such trivialities.

She focused on her new form, calling up spines, scales and the other necessities of the form. Had she been wearing clothing it would have been shredded in an instant, but fortunately she was wearing the predesigned armor, which immediately molded itself to her new contours.

“What now, sir?” she asked him.

He pointed to the car that had been brought into the training area. “Tear that apart – with your bare hands. I think you’ll find that it’ll be easy. I want you to break it down into nothing but scrap.” He started walking away, adding, “Once I get behind the safety barrier, of course.”

As he moved behind the heavy Lexan barrier, watching as Canzione rushed towards the small car, Cantata and Contralto were already waiting for him. “Strength training, betrothed? I approve.”

“As I understand it, she’s the strongest of the trio, correct? Who better to do strength training with?” Noting that the leader of the Black Team was standing there, he added a quick, “No offense intended, Petty Officer Rush.”

“None taken, sir; it’s important to know our strengths and weaknesses,” Contralto explained. “For example, my biggest weakness is trying to find out just what the hell Seaman Trance is up to right now…or maybe I should say who she’s with.”

“Let her have her entertainments for now, Petty Officer,” Cantata told her subordinate. “Within a few days, we’ll have much more to deal with. For starters, my little trap has worked perfectly.”

“Trap, ma’am?”

Cantata flashed a wolfish smile that held no trace of humor. “Over the past few days, we’ve been stalked by some mercs. I know the one in charge particularly: Blackthorn, former American army who thinks he’s a hotshot since he went independent. Gathered up a bunch of other so-called badasses and they’re coming for us. Unfortunately for them, our bolthole? It was designed to lead them to us. They think they’re going to take us and have their way with us.” The look in her eyes changed from angry to murderous. “I won’t rest until they’re dead and left for the buzzards, understood?”

“Roger that, ma’am,” Contralto replied.

Divine reached onto a nearby desk and handed her a manila folder. “This is your next set of targets. The hurricane over the next two days will provide you plenty of opportunity for you to hunt down the next pair. Time is of the essence, and you have four targets to investigate.”

Contralto opened up the folder, looking at the dossiers inside. Four girls this time. She looked back at Divine and said, “As soon as Seaman Burst is done with the training, we’ll go into prep mode. I take it this new gear will let us maneuver through the storm easily?”

“It was designed to handle a number of situations, and what it can’t, your altered forms should be able to. I want two of them captured, and as for the others, liquidate them to cover your trails.”

“Understood, sir.” She gave both him and Cantata salutes, then wandered off.

“Now,” he said to Cantata, “I have something else to show you, something that I’ve had hidden from all your troops, as well as you.”

Cantata’s eyes narrowed. “That was not a part of our agreement.”

“Which is why I’m telling you now,” he said, giving her a smile. “The time will come soon when we’ll need that place, and it will be one of the keys to our victory.” Before she could react, he took her hand…

…and the blinding flash cleared, Cantata blinked away the shock to find that she was in an entirely new location that could be described as “cavernous”. The area, about the size of the football field that the SIRENs’ lair was supposed to be in terms of land, looked like what could be a giant movie studio designed to mimic ancient Rome, or Greece. Broken columns and shattered buildings seemed to lay everywhere. Countless objects of what seemed to be ancient provenance were there, as well. And in the center of it all, carved into the marble flooring, was a massive magic circle, filled with more runs and sigils than the SIREN captain could hope to comprehend, all leading towards a black marble obelisk, veined with silver and gold, and with restraints embedded into it. In turn, the obelisk had an engraved gully leading down towards the magic circle – a blood channel.

“So, what do you think?” Divine asked her.

“Ostentatious,” Cantata replied evenly. “Maybe if I was filming a movie about ancient Rome or Atlantis, this would be great, but we’re expending a lot of time and money to ensure our plans succeed. And you had a movie set built?”

“Not a movie set,” he told her. “An offering. Many of these objects you see are from museums around the world. After all, you weren’t the only organization I had doing, ahem, ‘contract work’ for me. I’ve spent a pretty penny acquiring these objects.” He walked over to a vase on a pedestal. “For example, this vase has been missing from the Museo del Prado for six years now. It’s never been on display, so they’ll never admit to its absence. Likewise, that one over there?” he said, pointing to a column, standing by itself. “That was stolen from the Brentwood in Los Angeles a year ago. Again, from their warehouses, so they won’t admit to it. All of these, picked from the forgotten annals of the world…and all of it will be a dagger in their perspective backs, put there by us!”

“Okay, that’s all well and nice, but what’s all this supposed to do?”

“It’s a welcoming gift for our summons. You see, with all the blood we’ve captured, we’re going to call forth a great demon to serve us. And these priceless artifacts will serve as its treasure. After all, you don’t just summon demons without having something to bargain with.”

“And the plinth?”

“That’s for the blood of the last virgin to flow into the circle. My final addition to the whole scenario. Not only someone pure, but meant to teach a lesson as well.” He grinned and there was a malicious glee in that rictus as he snapped his fingers and a card appeared in it.

“Card Sixteen,” Cantata noticed. “The Tower?”

“Yes. The card that means the destruction of everything: the old order, the world as we know it, and a starting point from where new things rise. Our empire eternal,” Divine told her. “And it all begins with the end of this precious little lamb.” He flipped the card around, revealing a photograph on the other side, one of a teenage girl.

“Yes, it all ends with the sacrificial slaughter of my cousin’s precious daughter. The child she bore after rutting with someone unworthy. It all ends…” he intoned, as the card immediately caught on fire and he threw it to the ground to burn, the flames rising to consume the face of the girl with the red and gold locks of hair.

“…with the death of my cousin’s most precious treasure: her daughter, Sunset Shimmer.”

Seventy-three miles southeast of Canterlot, three girls walked through the city of Chico, underneath the midsummer sky. It was their assigned liberty period, but unlike the majority of the SIRENs, they were banned from enjoying the sights and sounds of the city that had been their home for the past few months. Still, they needed to get out, and with a supply convoy headed to Chico, Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk took a ride and rented a hotel in town there for the next two days, planning to enjoy themselves.

That plan went right out the window the moment they saw a little girl playing in the park. She had plum hair, and though her hair was missing the signature locks of someone else they knew, it was more than enough for them to head in the opposite direction, destination anywhere but there.

Sonata sighed. “It’s her birthday today,” she said to no one in particular. “Did you know that Pinkie had asked me to help her bake a special cake for Twily? I don’t know the first thing about baking, and yet she asked me.”

Aria looked away from her sisters. “I was going to teach Rainbow how to shoot a bow and arrow. Apparently she has a relative that’s an archery expert, and when she found out that I knew how, she practically begged for lessons. That was going to be the plan for the weekend we left.”

“Can we not talk about this?” Adagio asked, looking up information on her smartphone. It was, of course, a new phone complete with a new number, as she had to destroy the one with her old life on it. “There’s a movie theater about a couple of blocks down. Want to go see a movie?”

“Fluttershy was trying to get us all to go to the movies the week after we left,” Sonata replied.

“Applejack wanted me to stay over her place and catch up on some flicks,” Aria added.

Adagio came to a stop. “Look, how long are we going to do this?” She turned to face them. “I miss them as well. But we agreed to this, as much as we hated it. We did this so we could be fr—” Her eyes widened, and she grabbed both her sisters and pulled them into a nearby alleyway.

“What the?” Aria asked, but Adagio hushed her and listened carefully to the goings on out on the street.

“Weird, sis – I coulda swore I saw Dagi and her sisters here a second ago.”
“Sham, I think you’ve got our best employee on the brain. Although the store opens up in a few weeks, so we probably should give her a call and see how she’s doing.”
“Eh, let her enjoy the summer – she’s just a kid, still. Besides, that way we can work on getting her maid outfit ready for the grand opening!”
“Sham, she’s our employee – not your cosplay victim!”

Adagio walked as her employers – my former employers, she corrected herself – continued to walk down the street.

“We all agreed to this?” Aria snarked. “Looks like someone doesn’t want to be caught by her bosses.”

“My former bosses,” Adagio corrected. “Besides, it was like your job at the YMCA – it was just a front.”

“No, it wasn’t a front,” Aria snarled. “It was my life!” She got in her older sister’s face. “We fucked up! This isn’t our life!”

“What do you want me to do? Desert?” Adagio yelled back. “We can’t just abandon everything, not when we’re at the verge of victory!”

“Like hell we can’t,” Aria snarled. “We’re exiled here because Canterlot is our home! The Black Team will frag us in an instant if they get the chance! And our sœurs can’t protect us forever!”

Sonata got between them. “Please! We’re sisters! We shouldn’t be fighting!”

“I’m the senior enlisted here,” Adagio snarled, “and I’m ordering you to back off now, Seaman Blaze!”

“No, you’re my older sister, but you’re still stupid enough that I apparently need to beat some sense into you!” Aria said, pushing past Sonata and getting right into Adagio’s face. “This isn’t the life our sœurs wanted for us, don’t you understand that? A few days ago, this wasn’t the life you wanted, either! What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M DOING TO PROTECT YOU BOTH?” Adagio screamed. “DO YOU?”

“What?”

Adagio collapsed on the ground, spent, by the dumpster. “You stupid idiot. All this time and you haven’t even noticed.”

Sonata stepped in front of Aria again and looked at her oldest sister. “Dagi, what’s wrong?”

Adagio looked away from her sisters, because it was hard to face them right now. “I guess since you don’t have command authority, you wouldn’t know.” She sighed. “Because of our extended time in Canterlot, we’re considered suspect. There’s someone from INTEL watching us right now, because we’re a security risk.”

“A what?” Sonata asked.

She sighed again. “We’ve been in deep cover for an extended amount of time, during a period where Command cannot afford to have their side exposed to the week or second-guessing. To be honest, the reason why our sœurs didn’t want us to come back was because they knew that we’d be suspected. They wouldn’t, because they’ve been with the SIRENs for ages. But we’re still trainees…and subject to temptation…just like the lives we’ve lived.”

“What?”

“Did I stutter? They want us dead, unless we can prove we’re loyal or unless we make a break for it! And I don’t know what the hell to do, except that I have to keep you two protected, because you’re my sisters! And I’d do anything to keep you safe!”

Aria looked away. “Sorry,” was all she could say.

Sonata, meanwhile, peeked her head out of the alley for a second. “Okay, I’ve spotted our tail – it’s Petty Officer Sonatina Crush.”

“Not familiar with her,” Adagio told her.

“Wetworks. Specialist in clean-up operations. There’s a rumor that she specifically seduced our liaison with TF Arrowhead just so she could personally kill him. She’s never confirmed nor denied, but I’ve seen her knife work and…well, she’s a sadistic bitch. Cut off the genitals of the practice dummy with a grin on her face.”

“Great, so we’re dealing with a psychopath,” Aria groaned.

“Well, I for one don’t intend to stick around to find out what her choice is,” Adagio told her sisters. “C’mon, we’ve got a movie to go see. She won’t be stupid enough to attack us in public.”

A block away, a girl with a slight build, black and gold hair and red eyes behind eyeglasses spoke on her phone. “And you’re sure about this, Contralto? Our investigation has shown that they’re completely on the up and up.”

“Absolutely. I don’t give a damn what the investigation says, Tina. I know those three are up to something. Coddled little bitches who think they’re more important than the mission. After all, why are they in Chico? Why can’t they just take liberty in Canterlot? You know they’re up to something.”

“This could cause a problem for me, Alto.”

“It won’t. I’ll go to bat for you directly with the Old Man. Don’t worry. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

“Deal, then.” A cruel smile came across her face. “Never liked that bitch Dusk anyway.”

"Sorry I’m late,” Pinkie said to Sunset. Her hair was uncharacteristically straight and she was dressed in a sweatshirt and slacks, another sign something was up.

“Pinkie, are you okay?” Sunset asked her, ushering her in.

“Just…the medicine I’m taking is making me feel bleh,” the cheerleader told her friend in a soft voice. “I’ll be fine, really. Besides, I want to be here for Twily.”

“Listen, if you need to lie down or anything—”

“I’m not a child to be coddled, Sunset,” Pinkie said in a tone tinged with the barest hint of anger. Furthermore, Pinkie hadn’t called her by her full first name in ages.

“Pinkie, are you sure you’re okay?”

Pinkie flinched. “Yeah. Sorry, Sunny. Just…mood swings, ya know?” She leaned forward and hugged her. “I’ll be okay. But maybe I do need to take a nap.”

“Sure, you can use my room. C’mon.”

Lyra looked at the others. “Is it just me, or is Pinkie looking a little ragged?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rainbow told her. “She’s just had a bad day, I guess. She had a medical appointment earlier.”

“I hope she’s okay,” Bon-Bon said.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. Me and Pinks, we’re tight, so I know these things,” Rainbow assured her.

Meanwhile, standing where they were, Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack looked at each other.

“You don’t think…?” Fluttershy asked.

“Naah, Ah think she’d’ve told us if that was the case,” Applejack said.

“Don’t be too sure,” Rarity warned them. “She didn’t tell anyone, save for me, last time.”

“The only reason she told you was because the rest of us weren’t on speaking terms back then and you just happened to run into her,” Fluttershy recalled. “To be honest – and no offense, of course – I’m surprised you didn’t talk about it.”

“I’m not one for gossip,” Rarity huffed, “and I most certainly do not gossip about my friends…even if we were having difficulties at the time.”

“Yeah, we know,” Applejack said sincerely, while Fluttershy nodded.

As Sunset came downstairs, Rarity asked, “Is she okay, Sunset?”

“She’s not her usual self, but she said that’s due to the medicine. She’s lying down on my bed for a bit, and I’ll check on her just before Twily and Tavi get home.”

“Do you mind if I go check on her?” Rarity asked.

“Sure, you know where my room is,” Sunset said with a hint of smile. “In the meanwhile, I think I need to start working on the pastries I was making for the party. AJ, can you give me a hand?”

“Sure thing, sugarcube,” her friend said, following her to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Rarity went up to Sunset’s room. She knocked on the door. “Pinkie? Darling, are you okay?”

“Come in,” came the sorrowful tone on the other side.

Rarity opened the door and sat down, looking at Pinkie. “Pinkie, dear, are you okay?”

“No, I’m not,” she said as she sat up. “I…I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Not even to me?”

She sighed. “Do you hate me?”

Rarity, in turn, hugged her friend. “Even when we were all mad at each other because of what Sunset did, I could never hate you, dear. You’re one of my closest friends.”

“Good,” Pinkie mourned. “Because I just remembered how much I hate myself.”

Down in the kitchen, Sunset looked at Applejack, trying to figure the best way to ask something delicate while preparing to bake pastry shells. “Did I do something to Pinkie? She’s been hinting around it for the past few days.”

Applejack sighed. “Then you haven’t been paying attention, sugarcube. She’s been hinting around it for the past few months.” Sunset blanched and Applejack tried to give her a comforting smile. “Don’t think ‘bout it right now. You want to be happy for Twily’s sake, and what you did to Pinkie was long ago.”

“What did I do, AJ?” Sunset asked. “Pinkie’s my friend, and I want to make it right!”

Applejack was silent for a long time, before she said, “Ah can’t tell you – it’s not mah place to say, truthfully. And don’t go asking the others – only me an’ Rarity know the full story, and saying something’s only going to make it worse.”

“Worse? You mean like worse than ‘Pinkie hates me’ worse?”

The blonde sighed. “She doesn’t hate you. You know that. And even if she did, you know we forgave you for all the things you did already. Plus—” Applejack caught herself before she could say anything further.

“You’re not going to tell me,” Sunset stated.

“For what it’s worth, Sunny, Pinkie will be the first to admit that in the end, it was her choice and she has no one to blame but herself. But…if Ah have to use an analogy, it’s like pushing someone towards a cliff, but it’s their choice to jump.”

“That’s not a very comforting analogy.”

“Sorry.” Applejack was silent for a few more minutes while they prepped the shells, then looked at her friend intently. “Ah want you to promise me you’ll let Pinkie tell you when she decides to – and especially no pestering her tonight.”

Sunset opened the oven, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t listening. “AJ….”

“Ah mean it, Sunny.”

“Fine,” Sunset said as she took the trays from her friend and slipped them into the metal box. “If only because I’m bent over with my head in the oven and my ass sticking out,” she groaned.

Applejack laughed. “Well, in fairness, it is a nice ass.”

“AJ, don’t make me come out of this oven and strangle you with the piping bag.” That got an additional laugh from her friend, which magnified as Sunset banged her head on the edge of the stove as she stood back up. “Fine, I’m maimed. Satisfied?”

“Awww, sugarcube, Ah don’t mean nothing by that, you know that. But Ah do want that promise out of you.”

“Fine, fine. But that won’t stop me from worrying about her or feeling guilty, you know.”

“Ah know. And frankly, it’s the fact that you do that shows how much you’ve changed, Sunny.”

“You want me to pick up how many?” Night Light asked.

“Don’t worry, hon, I’ll make the order myself,” Velvet said on the other end of the line. “Besides, with the girls tying up the kitchen, we really don’t have anywhere to make dinner, so pizza’s the best option.”

“But fifteen pizzas? What, are we feeding the whole neighborhood?”

“We’re going to have about twenty people in the house.”

“Yes, and half of them are female. Given that the average female diets, that should be, what, one, maybe two slices to cover everyone?” he joked.

“You’re lucky I love you, or else I’d put you on the couch.”

“You mean you’re lucky I radiate enough heat for you to keep warm at night.”

“Well, yeah, that too,” Velvet laughed.

“Fine, I’ll pick them up on the way home from the office. Anything else I should know?”

“That our little girls are growing up, and then it’s only a decade or so more before Spike goes off to college? I’m not sure I’m ready for an empty nest, love.”

“One adoptee at a time, Vel. We just expanded to accommodate our niece; we keep adding on to the house and we’re going to hit zoning regulations.”

“I’m serious, hon.”

“I know you are. But let’s adopt Sunny first and then see how things go ten years from now? By that point, Shiny and Cady may have children of their own, and our girls might find loves of their own to settle down with.”

“Speaking of which, I think I hear Cadance calling for me, so I have to deal with whatever’s on fire. I’ll see you when I get home, love.”

“Sure. Love you too. Bye.” He hung up the phone and looked around at his desk, then saw the picture of his family, taken at Sunset’s birthday party. There they stood together: himself, Velvet, his two sons, a future daughter-in-law, and two daughters, as well as a niece who was practically a third. To say he lead a charmed life was an understatement in his opinion.

Just days to go, and I’ll have a second daughter. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, showing the miles of his age. Even still, he was able to have the family he did because he was able to keep up with his spitfire of a wife. Well, that and the fact that Tia stood me up because she was too drunk. He chuckled inwardly; it was the best date he’d ever been stood up for in his life.

If I had to do it all over again…I’d at least have asked Velvet out directly, he mused before he went back to typing his report.

“Hey, Spike,” Featherweight said. “You sure you’re not going to your sister’s birthday party?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Remember what happened at the party back in February? Basically that happens.”

“Oh. Sorry, man, I feel for you. Well, you’re welcome to crash here for the night. My parents are out of town, so it’s just my big sister and she’s a pushover.”

“Yeah, cool. Why don’t we get some game time in?” Spike asked.

“On it!” the other boy chirped, racing towards his game console.

“That was an absolutely devious plan to get Spike to stay at his friend’s place, Sunny,” Cadance told the fire-haired girl. “I may just insist you pursue a career in law.”

Sunset blushed. “I, uh…I’ll think about it.” She was about to say more when she felt the pressure of someone glomping her from behind. This lasted for a fraction of a second until she lost her balance, pitched forward and crashed into Cadance, sending all three to the floor.

“Wow, human dominoes,” Rainbow joked. “That or a sexual posi—”

“Finish that sentence and I will tell the entire soccer team know that you secretly play chess and backgammon,” a delicate voice warned.

“Really?” Applejack asked. “I did not know that.”

“Rares!” Rainbow gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

“I most certainly would, if you continue to make such crass comments.”

“But I thought a lady doesn’t gossip about her friends!” Rainbow countered.

“A lady most certainly does not,” Rarity began, before giving the athlete a wolfish smile. “But a lady should always know when a bit of, ahem, ‘delicate pressure’ should be applied.”

“You mean blackmail.”

“A rose by any other name….”

Standing just away from them, Bon-Bon squeezed Lyra’s hand. “Don’t get any ideas, sweet stuff. You’re all mine.”

Lyra blinked. “Don’t we need more than two people to play dogpile?”

Both Lyra and Trixie mastered synchronized facepalming at that point. “Shoulda went after the one with brains,” Bon-Bon muttered.

“Sorry, Bonnie, you know I don’t swing that way,” Trixie joked.

“You sure? I’d be willing to trade in last year’s model,” she said, hooking a thumb at Lyra.

Trixie mock-thought about it for a second. “Pretty sure,” she answered, and both girls laughed.

It was then that Lyra realized something was up. “Did I miss something?”

The doorbell rang, and Sunset, having managed to untangle herself from the human car crash, dusted herself off. “I’ll get that.”

“No, dear, I’ll get it,” Rarity, closer to the door, commented. “Besides, it seems that Pinkie would like your attention.” She pointed to the cotton-candy-haired girl, who had mysteriously slipped her arm around Sunset’s own.

“C’mon, we need to talk,” Pinkie said, but before Sunset could object, the oven timer went off. “We can go check the crème puffs!” Pinkie then chirped, dragging her along.

“Sweetheart, no making out with your girlfriend in the kitchen,” Velvet told her older daughter.

“She’s not—” Sunset managed to blurt before Pinkie dragged her into the kitchen.

“Mrs. Velvet, you do know we’re all straight, right?” Fluttershy asked her.

“I know, dear, but if you can’t tease your daughter, who can you tease?”

Rarity, in the meanwhile, had answered the door. “Oh, Coco! This is a surprise.”

“Hello, Rarity!” Coco Pommel beamed. “Nice to see you! Is Twily here?”

“I’m afraid not; she and Octavia are still out while we’re readying her party. Would you like to come in?”

“I wish, but I can’t.”

“You were invited, weren’t you?” Rarity asked.

“Of course! But my aunt and cousin are in town, and my parents are headed out of town for the next couple of days. I’m meeting my aunt at the airport, since she wants to take me and my cousin to Seattle for the next few days.” She handed Rarity a gift. “Please tell Twily I’m sorry I couldn’t make it, but that I promise to make it up to her once I get back.”

“That’s sweet, Coco, dear, but you really don’t have to. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“Plus, I want her to meet my cousin! Shimmy’s visiting from France, and she’s really nice.”

“France?” That piqued Rarity’s curiosity. “Perhaps I might join you as well?”

“Sure! We can all do lunch – my treat.” She looked back at the street and the limousine idling by the curb. “Okay, gotta go, but again, tell Twily that I’m sorry and to have a happy birthday!”

“I most certainly will, darling. Enjoy Seattle!” As Coco scampered back to the limo, Rarity closed the door and smiled. “So young, cultured and a lady – perhaps her befriending my sister might just do Sweetie a world of good.”

Pinkie pulled the pastries out of the oven. “You’re probably wondering why I dragged you in here.”

Sunset, not looking at her friend, made the crème for the puffs. “Applejack says I shouldn’t ask you unless you told me.”

“She’s right. And I’m not telling you.” With the expertise of someone who worked in a bakery, she put the two baking sheets down on the stovetop without even looking at it and said, “I know you. You’ll feel guilty about it. And maybe you should. But the truth is, in the end, it was my mistake and my price to pay.”

“Look, Pinkie,” Sunset said, turning around, “I don’t think I can ever apologize enough for whatever it is I did.”

“No. No you can’t.” Pinkie took the piping bag from Sunset. “This looks like the stuff we use at the café.”

“Yeah, switched out all the gear we used to have here with the stuff the café uses,” Sunset admitted. “Since I do a lot of baking around here in my free time, I asked your aunt what brand we use at the café. Complimented the set you guys got me for my birthday.”

“Good idea. But back to what I was saying.” Pinkie walked over and grabbed the bowl of crème, then went back to where the pastries were. “You know, there was a time when I really hated you, Sunset. I hated everything about you. And if you want to know the truth, when that…thing…took hold of you? I honestly thought you were really just showing us who and what you really were all along.” Sunset gasped, but before she could say anything, Pinkie added, “Please, let me just say my piece, okay?”

“O…okay.”

As Pinkie spoke, her hair seemed to deflate once more, growing longer and straighter and somehow darker. It seemed as if Pinkie was losing her brightness. “You remember when Twilight – Princess Twilight, that is – asked all of us to be your friend, right? You were in that pit, we were all looking down at you as if to render judgment, and Twilight asked us to be your friend. It took me everything to smile right then, because if I had my way, I would have had you killed. I hated you that much, Sunset, I really did.

“But it was after the main part of the dance, just before she went back, that Twilight asked us individually if she could really count on us to be your friends. Everyone – even Rainbow, who outwardly showed her contempt for you – said they would. All but one.

“Me.”

Sunset was horrified by that. She’d always thought that it was Rainbow that had been the one to reluctantly participate in what had been her redemption. To find out wrong was one thing – to find out that it had been Pinkie that had been the reluctant one was overwhelming.

“Pinkie, I don’t know what to say.”

“Because you can never fix it, Sunset. Some things can’t ever be fixed. But anyway, I was the lone holdout. When I found out she was what you ponies consider a goddess? I begged her that if there was any justice in this world, that you would be cast into the deepest parts of pony hell or whatever; that Biblical, unspeakable things would be done to you. Think about every bit of the rage and anger you have against Flash for everything he’s done…and I don’t think it would equal how I felt. If I’d been pushed far enough that night and given a chance, I probably would have gleefully executed you that night, personally.”

Sunset slumped to the floor. This wasn’t Pinkie, not the girl she knew, not her friend. Even Gilda wasn’t this restrained in her hatred.

Seeing her confusion, Pinkie sat down on the floor next to her. “Do you know what changed my mind? Twilight then told me about a pony she once saved. A monster, probably even worse than you, and when defeated, was revealed to be nothing more than a pony who’d made a catastrophic mistake. That the pony had caused pain a million times over, and had even taken lives…but in the end, couldn’t even fathom what she’d done wrong. In many ways, like a child who’s been given a gun, then innocently points it at someone and pulls the trigger because he doesn’t know what the consequences will be.”

Pinkie looked at the floor as she said, “It was then that I agreed to give you a chance. Not for you – for Twilight. Because she said that when you were put on the right path, you would probably do something that would make everything worth it in the end. And for the longest time, I didn’t believe. I kept that fake smile up – the time I referred to you as the worst thing, not the worst person? I was on the rag that day and couldn’t hold it in.”

“Then why—”

Pinkie ignored her, continuing: “But the job offer that I went to my aunt and uncle for? That was sincere. Because I wanted to believe. Because I wanted to see what an innocent child, finally shown the right path, could do.”

Pinkie looked up and was crying. “Today, I had to go in for a refill for my lithium medicine. Even though I was cured of that neurological disease I had when I was a child, I’ll need lithium for my bipolar disorder for the rest of my life. It’s manageable, and I should have told you about that sooner. That’s my fault, and I’m sorry. But when I was there at the doctor’s office, I had a reminder of something else – the part I won’t tell you about – and it tore me apart. I almost didn’t come today, but I did because I didn’t want to disappoint my friends.”

“Which I’m guessing is everyone but me?” Sunset said in a soft voice.

To that, Pinkie leaned forward and hugged Sunset as hard as she could. “No, that includes you. I saw what you did to stop the Club – you did something nobody else could do. When nobody else could stop them, you used the same force and power you did to commit evil and used it for the side of angels, bringing righteous rage against your foes.” The wording, the phrasing was things Sunset had never heard her friend say before, and she realized she would greatly have to reassess the happy-go-lucky cheerleader.

“Twilight was right about you, and now I realize why: you are your mother’s daughter.” Sunset could feel the wetness of Pinkie’s tears against her hair. “And I’m not talking about your adopted family. In the letter that Princess Twilight sent to me last month – the one you brought to work for me – she revealed something that I suspected all along.” Pinkie pulled away from Sunset and asked. “You weren’t Princess Celestia’s student, were you? You’re her daughter, aren’t you?”

“I….” Sunset didn’t know how to answer that.

Pinkie smiled despite the tears. “That’s why you were always semi-behaved around Ms. Celestia, isn’t it? Because she’s just like your real mother. Believe me, I know – emotionally, I feel that Auntie Cup is more my mother than my actual mother is. I do understand that.”

Tears started to fill Sunset’s eyes. “You’re changing the subject. Please tell me what I did, and what I can do to make it up to you.”

“You can’t. It’s too late. And I stopped hating you a long time ago, Sunny. You’re one of my best friends – how could I hate someone I love so much?” Pinkie flashed a smile again and seemed to brighten, returning to normal. “I don’t know why you want to be adopted by your family here, but I think you should tell them the truth about who and what you are. If you are the daughter of a princess, you are a princess yourself and you owe it to your mother – both of them – to be honest with them.”

“Pinkie, I….” Sunset’s emotions were a mess regarding that, and they’d just been pushed further now.

Pinkie hugged her again. “If we are really friends, Sunny – if you care about me as much as I do you – you’ll tell the truth.” She pulled back and in a very Twilight Sparkle-esque manner, quoted, “This above all: To thine own self be true.”

“I…uh….”

Pinkie shrugged. “I do read, you know.”

“So you’ll never tell me what I did?”

“No. It’s my cross to bear, Sunny. Think of it as penance for me not believing in you initially.”

There was a knock on the door and Velvet poked her head in. “Tavi just called a few minutes ago. They’ll be here in ten minutes.” She saw both girls on the ground and asked, “Dare I ask what happened?”

Before Sunset could say anything, Pinkie grinned and chirped, “She said she’d marry me! Don’t worry, Mrs. Velvet, I’ll make an honest woman out of your daughter!” Velvet merely shook her head, chuckled and left the two to her own devices.

“Great, now everyone’s going to think I’m gay.”

“Do me a favor? Don’t borrow any books from Compass Rose, okay?”

“Why?”

“Just trust me on this, Sunny.”

“No, for the final time, I’m not going to join you!”

“That’s a real shame, Loam,” the voice on the other end of the phone said. “We could’ve been such great friends. Now, well…don’t worry, I’ll make sure your girl is kept happy. Tell me, she go all night?”

Sable gripped the phone receiver so hard he could hear the plastic casing crack from the stress. “You take one step near Tia and I won’t be responsible for what happens next, do you understand me?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Loam – we’ll make sure you get a decent burial. Least I can do for a fellow former operator. And after I’m done dicking your porta-twat into forgetting about you, I’ll make sure she knows how to smile again.” The call immediately disconnected and it was everything Sable could do to set his cellphone down gently before he hurled it against the wall.

Taking a deep breath, he stood up from his chair and went back to putting up the window barricades the school district had haphazardly spent for all the schools in their purview.

“Wow, someone’s being a slowpoke.”

Sable turned around and saw Sombra standing there in a t-shirt and jeans, carrying a tool bag. “I already finished the next class over. I thought you’d be done with yours by now.”

“Heh, sorry, got a call that kinda captured my attention.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Sombra set his bag down on Sable’s desk and picked up the phone; the outer casing clearly looked like it was broken. “You and Tia having problems?”

He knew when he was caught; ever since he found out that Celestia and Sombra were old friends, the latter had teased him about it relentlessly. “Sorta. Some asshole has been harassing Tia and doing it just on this side of the law. He just called me and told me to dump her, or else she might find herself ‘with a new dick inside her’, quote unquote.”

Sombra winced. “Yeah, that does sound nasty. Look, Sable, for what it’s worth, I’ve known Tia since we were both teachers at Everfree Glades High. My wife is a good friend of hers as well, and…call me maudlin, but I’ve never seen her so happy as I have since she’s been with you. I’m not going to say anything like ‘take care of her’, because I know you will. All I’m going to say is that couples that go the distance are willing to be honest with one another about it and always play from the same playbook.”

“Oh, don’t worry – we do,” another voice said behind them. Both men turned around to see Celestia coming in. Pausing only to give her boyfriend a quick kiss, she put a sack down on one of the student desks, and pulled a sandwich out, handing it to her friend. “This deli you recommended better be good, Sombra,” she warned.

“C’mon, Tia, when have I ever steered you wrong?”

Passing Sable his sandwich, she said to Sombra, “January 1991 – Forestview Burgers, two blocks down from the school. You said it was the best burger you ever had. As I recall, five of us ended up getting food poisoning and Principal Starheart pretty much freaked out about it.”

“Hey, in my defense, I’d only been there a couple of times,” he plead.

“Okay, what about Crestline Diner, April 1993? Luna had just joined the faculty and when we went to go get lunch, you recommended the taco salad. She was sick for days, so much so that she had to stay over my place so I could look after her for the weekend!”

He groaned. “Okay, so I wasn’t the best at choosing places back then. I promise I’ve gotten better at it.”

“Okay, but if I get sick,” she said, taking a bite of hers, “you’re going to have to explain it to Sable.”

“Of that I have no doubt,” he said with a chuckle. “Okay, so aside from playing delivery girl, what brings you here?”

She took another bite of her sandwich, after quickly swallowing, said, “Well, since the school year still hasn’t officially started for faculty until next week, Waddle asked me, as superintendent of the summer school system, to check on the status of all the schools being designated as hurricane evacuation centers.”

“Congrats on that, by the way. I know Waddle’s doing it because he’s grooming you for an assistant superintendent slot.”

“Yeah, I kinda noticed.”

“So, what was the other reason?” Sable asked.

Celestia blushed. “I, um….”

“Knowing Tia, she probably was hoping that you’d ditch your t-shirt and she’d get to see her sweaty hunk of man flex his muscles while putting up the storm barrier,” Sombra said with a laugh.

Celestia pouted as she took a sip from her bottle of water. “Hate you so much for that,” she mock-snarled to Sombra.

Sunset hugged her sister for what had to be the umpteenth time. “Happy Birthday, sis.”

Twilight laughed. “Getting a bit touchy-feely today, sis?”

Sunset smiled. “Hey, just happy to be around my favorite younger sister.”

“You only have one younger sister.”

“Technicalities, technicalities. So, enjoying yourself?”

The teen scholar nodded. “Yeah. This time last year, we didn’t even have a birthday party for me because it was just me and Tavi. We just went out to dinner, instead.” She looked around the room at all her friends and said with appreciation, “Wow, my life has changed.” She looked back at Sunset and said, “I still can’t believe you did all this for me.”

Sunset shrugged. “Well, I had some help—”

“Nuh-uh!” Pinkie interjected. “Usually I’m the party planner, but Sunny insisted on planning yours, because she said, and I quote—” Pinkie then did a credible imitation of her friend as she intoned, “— ‘Twily’s my sister and I don’t want anything going wrong for her special day!’”

“She said that?” Twilight asked.

“Girl, you should know by now that when Sunny’s serious, there’s not much that gets in her way,” Minuette told Twilight. The guests had arrived just minutes before Octavia and Twilight got home, all of them a mix of girls that Twilight knew from Canterlot High and her own school. Blossomforth was also in attendance, though now that she was close to term, she was currently seated in a chair. Twilight had been told about Coco being unable to make it as well as her promise to make it up to her, and she grinned at that.

“Well, planning to open the presents, birthday girl?” Cadance asked her.

“Sure thing,” Twilight said as she wandered over to the table where everything was. She sat down in one of the chairs and almost instantly a birthday hat (courtesy of a fast-moving Pinkie) had been placed on her head.

“Okay, get to it, Twily!” she chirped.

“Okay, okay, I’ll do that,” Twilight giggled before reaching for the nearest box. “This one’s from Minuette.”

“Hope you like it. Spent forever trying to find something that wasn’t dental related,” she said with a wink.

Twilight opened it, revealing a new backpack. “Thanks, Minnie,” she said to her friend.

“No problem, Twily,” came the response.

“Next up, we have…” Cadance read the handwriting. “I can’t read this.”

“Probably mine,” grunted Rainbow.

“What, you can’t recognize your own wrapping?” Bon-Bon asked her.

She sighed. “No, my mom wrapped it. I can’t wrap gifts to save my life,” the athlete admitted.

“Well, whatever it is, I’m sure it’s nice,” Twilight said as she undid the packaging and opened the box, revealing…. “Wow, never got one of these before,” she said, holding up the box, a Tomb Raider collector’s set, collecting the first three novels, the live-action movie and a deluxe 12” collectable Daring Do action figure; the figure was based on the movie version, and thus looked like actress Angelic Joy.

“If you’ll note, it also has Angelic Joy’s autograph on it; I got that when I went to the Canterlot Comic Con last month,” Rainbow admitted. “So, you might not want to open the box.”

“Thanks, Rainbow,” Twilight said, surprised that her friend had parted with what Rainbow would consider a priceless treasure.

“Eh, anything for a friend,” was Rainbow’s response.

“Well, next is Adagio,” Cadance announced, and the room was met with utter silence. “Something wrong, girls?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Sunset lied. “We thought the triplets were on vacation, but turns out that…um…there was a custody fight and….” She paused, hating to lie about it. “Anyway, they don’t live in town anymore.”

“Wow, that’s a shame; I thought they were cool from when I met them,” Lyra said.

“Well, at least they thought enough of you to get you something,” Velvet told her daughter.

“You should pass her Aria’s and Sonata’s as well, just to get it over with,” Sunset suggested, pointing to the gifts in question.

Silently, Twilight unwrapped their gifts. Adagio’s was a first-edition copy of The Hobbit, complete with an autograph from Rashbold himself. Aria’s was a custom-made diary; given that she and Twilight had once discussed writing poetry for no reason, Aria must’ve taken it seriously enough to gift Twilight the opportunity. Sonata’s was a custom bow that she had ordered for Twilight’s violin, having heard her play and absolutely loved it.

Twilight stared helplessly at the three treasures from friends now gone. “I…I miss them,” she said to everyone.

Fluttershy hugged her. “We all do, Twily. We all do.”

“Aw, c’mon! Don’t be a grumpy-grumps!” Pinkie announced, passing Lyra’s gift to Twilight. “Here, open this and then make sure that you schedule an appointment for cult deprogramming!”

Lyra glared at the party girl. “Hate you so much, you know that?” Pinkie, in turn, stuck her tongue at her.

Twilight just ignored her friends’ antics and opened it up. “Wow, Lyra. Really?” She held up the book for everyone to see: Unicorns ARE Real: A Scientific Study of the Elasmotherium.

Lyra blushed. “I just thought you’d like a book on unicorns…well, until real ones are found that is.”

“Lyra, just drop it, okay?” Sunset said.

“Sunny, I’m going to make it my life’s work to prove that unicorns – the true ones – are real! Just watch.”

Bon-Bon patted her girlfriend on the shoulder, then said to Twilight, “Just open mine now so you can move past the humiliation.”

Twilight took the hint. A few seconds later, she revealed a polo shirt in brown, tie-dyed stains. “Wow, this is beautiful, Bonnie! Where did you get it?”

“My sister Burgundy does it as a hobby, and when I saw that you liked the one I wore, I knew I had to get you one. This one’s special, because it’s made from the cocoa dyes from the batch of chocolate I made that morning.”

“Really?”

Minuette nodded sagely. “Chocolate has many uses. We only think of the ones that are cavity inducing.”

“Well, this one’s from Rarity,” Cadance said as she passed her the next gift. “This one, I’m sure is to be less caloric.”

“Well of course so – I only use the best.”

Twilight opened it to reveal a set of bath oils and perfumes by Sandalwood Bath Essentials. “Thanks,” Twilight said, knowing how expensive these were.

“I use it after a trying day,” Rarity explained. “It’s the best on the market.”

“I’ll let my friend Sandy know,” Cadance commented. “Her grandmother owns the company and Sandy herself is named after her grandmother.”

“Oh, really?” Rarity asked. “That’s quite fascinating to know. I suppose I should own stock in the company, given how much my mother, my sister and I have purchased their products.”

“Well, this one’s from Coco – that’s the young girl who was at the door, right?” Velvet asked. “Apparently she couldn’t come for some reason, but she was kind enough to bring you a gift.”

“She’s the one I’m looking after at school,” Twilight explained to her mother. Opening up Coco’s package, Twilight’s mouth curled into an o of surprise: sitting in the box was half of a diamond-encrusted “Friends Forever” pendant necklace, the other half likely with Coco herself.

“Wow, I….” Twilight was at a loss for words.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Trixie commented. “Well, I think my gift is next, so I hope you’re not too disappointed.” At that cue, Cadance passed Twilight Trixie’s gift.

“Wow,” Twilight commented after unwrapping it. “This…this is great, Trixie! Thanks!” Twilight held up a piece of amber, with an ancient flower fossilized within. To anyone else, it would’ve been blasé, but to the scientific-minded Twilight, it was a truly grand gift.

“Think nothing of it,” Trixie said as she hugged Twilight. “It was an item accidentally sent to our store, but when I saw it, I thought of you, so I asked my mother not to send it back.”

“Well, back to the presents. This one’s from Applejack,” Cadance commented.

“Is there a reason you’re playing present MC?” Octavia asked.

Cadance looked at her evenly. “I’m sure you don’t want Twily to go through a repeat of your birthday with what your grandfather got you?”

The teen musician shuddered. “Point made,” she admitted.

Meanwhile, Twilight had uncovered a beautiful apple blossom-festooned tea set. “This is nice, AJ. Thanks!”

Applejack nodded. “Asked Licorice to have it custom-made for you. Monkey Picked usually doesn’t carry custom tea sets, but for me, she was willing to go the extra mile.”

“Thanks. I mean that,” Twilight said as she took the next gift, this one from Pinkie. She opened it up and grinned. “Really?”

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. “One night only, at the Center for the Arts! Figured you wanted to go, so I got them!”

“What are they?” Velvet asked.

“Tickets to go see Blue Man Group at the Equestria County C of A. Thanks, Pinkie!”

“Well, I guess Fluttershy’s next,” Cadance said, pointing to a rather sizeable box that Twilight had to actually get up to open. When she did, her jaw dropped. “You didn’t.”

Fluttershy blushed. “I did. Sorry, access to Dad’s credit card and all that.”

Velvet looked in astonishment. “Is that what I think it is?”

Everyone looked at the antique printing press sitting in the living room. It was old enough to be one of the very first ones, and it likely cost a small fortune.

“I have no idea where I’m going to put that,” Velvet said. “Fluttershy, you shouldn’t have.”

“It was for Twily,” Fluttershy half-defended, almost taking a stand for herself.

“No, I mean it: you shouldn’t have, Fluttershy.” Velvet’s eyes then took on a resigned look. “I’m going to have to rearrange the living room to find a place for this….”

“Well,” Cadance interjected, “there’s still two more gifts before your father gets home, Twily.”

Velvet caught that, then looked at her older daughter and her niece. “I hope you two didn’t join the ‘one up the other’ club.”

Octavia and Sunset looked at each other, daring the other to go first. Velvet frowned at that. Cadance pointed to the two gifts left. “Your call, Twily.”

“I’m already up, so I’ll just open Tavi’s first,” she said, walking over to it and tearing the wrapping off. “Oh, my…Tavi, this is gorgeous! Thanks!”

Velvet blinked. This was not happening. By her estimation, that was at least a year’s worth of Octavia’s allowance – and the money she’d earned from performances. “Tavi….”

“Yes?” Octavia asked, a sudden deer-in-the-headlights feeling coming over her.

“How much?” was all Velvet said.

“Well, you see, Aunt Velvet, Twily’s been asking—”

“How. Much.”

Octavia looked at the expensive bookcase she’d purchased for Twilight, debating whether or not she should doom herself by answering her aunt. She told Sunset that it was made from redwood, but….

Fluttershy blinked. “Oh, wow – that’s kaya, isn’t it?”

“Kaya?” Velvet asked.

Not realizing the trouble she was getting her friend into, Fluttershy explained. “Wood from the Japanese torreya. It’s one of the world’s most expensive lumbers, and even a tiny amount is worth a ton. Dad has an acoustic guitar made of it – he said it cost him close to seventy-five grand to commission.”

At that, everyone looked at Octavia who started to flush. “It’s for Twily,” she said in a tiny voice, as if that excused everything.

Cadance looked at Sunset as she picked up the latter’s gift to Twilight. “Do we really want to open this?”

“Um…no?” Sunset squeaked, suddenly realizing that maybe Twilight’s gift wasn’t such a hot idea after all.

Velvet then turned to her daughter and she was no less pleased. “What did you do, Sunset?”

“Mom, I can explain….”

“Sunset….”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Cadance sighed and handed it off to Twilight, who looked at her sister sympathetically.

“Twily,” Sunset said, “just before I die, I want you to know that my gift is worth every bit of my precious lifeblood that Mom will probably spill in less than a second.”

“That does not sound good,” Twilight said, as she unwrapped the final gift. “How bad is…oh, my.” Her voice came out sounding almost exactly like the famous trademark comment of actor Rainbow Nisei. “Oh my, oh my, oh….”

“I get it. I’m doomed,” Sunset moaned.

Velvet took the gift out of her younger daughter’s hands, for the group to gasp. A precious necklace of white gold, upon which sat a pendant with an amethyst cut into a star, encircled by smaller diamonds cut into white stars. The obvious look of it indicated that it was more valuable than everything that sat on the property of the house, the property itself included. Included with them were also two stud earrings that looked the same - and just as expensive.

Rarity looked at it with astonishment and naked hunger. “That…that looks like one of my designs!”

“You don’t say,” the flame-haired girl groaned, burying her face in her hands. Way to go, Twi. Get Rarity involved in it, never mind that the Rarity I know probably has the same design instincts!

“Sunset, explain.” Velvet’s voice brooked no argument.

“Mom…look, for one, it’s legal. The girls can attest that I haven’t done anything wrong—” The girls all nodded on automatic, as one, “—and I had no real idea of how expensive Tavi’s bookcase was.”

“Sure, deflect the blame to me, why don’t you?” Octavia blurted.

“Sunset, I want an explanation,” Velvet quietly insisted.

“Um…okay, so you see, it all started when I was living back in Equestria as a unicorn and the personal apprentice of the realm’s ruler….”

Lyra, for a change, facepalmed. “The one time she brings up unicorns and I don’t even believe it….”

“Sunset Shimmer….” Velvet said one final time. The room grew quiet as everyone knew what happened when a parent said a full name.

Sunset sighed. “Fine. They’re…they’re my old mentor’s,” she lied, hoping it was convincing. “She told me once that it was part of my ‘inheritance’, and when I ran away, I took them. I’ve been sitting on them for the longest time and they’ve been in a safe deposit box at the bank.” Fortunately, she did have a safe deposit box filled with some expensive items Princess Celestia had sent from their last conversation; Sunset only hoped that Velvet didn’t follow up on when the teen opened the account. “Finally, I knew I couldn’t keep them anymore, but when I saw Twily with those sapphire earrings Cadance got her, I thought the gems would be perfect for her. So I saved up to have them set into a set for her.”

Not sure why, Rarity immediately put herself on the line. “I…I’m rather surprised that you used my design, Sunset. I would have appreciated you asking me…but given that it was for a good cause, I shan’t complain further.”

“I’m sorry, Rares,” Sunset said, knowing full well that she hadn’t seen Rarity’s design book…and Rarity knowing that as well. “When I asked for the design, I was just thinking of the stars on Twily’s favorite poodle skirt—” Well, actually, the stars on Twi’s cutie mark, but let’s not get into that, shall we? “—and it stuck in my head. It was a coincidence.”

“Well, I believe her,” Minuette said. “I know she wouldn’t lie about this.” Eventually, the other girls spoke up in agreement, with the lone exception of Applejack, who tried to hide in the crowd.

At that point, the keys jingled in the front door, followed by Night Light walking in. “Okay, I could use some help carrying in the pizzas,” he told everyone. Seeing them all standing there like that, he said, “Um…what did I miss?”

“Only the fact that we’re going to have a family meeting about fiscal responsibility,” Velvet said in a testy tone. “Aside from that, we now have to apply for a grant to turn our home into an annex for ECMAH.”

It was then that Shining arrived at the house. “Sorry I’m late; had to deal with some paperwork over at CPD HQ, but it was necessary in preparation for the next few days.” He carried a bag from B&N in, and the smile on his face lasted just long enough to see the Tomb Raider set that Rainbow had gifted Twilight.

Then he noticed the other items in the house, in terms of exponentially increasing cost. “Do I really want to know what happened here?” he asked Cadance.

“No, no you really don’t,” she answered him back.

The living room was once again laid out in a familiar location, with the bodies of various girls sleeping in what could almost be described as a feral pack. Due to the hurricane starting to approach in full, the wind outside began to howl and the rain fell down in sheets; the house would be packed to the brim so far as estrogen went for the next couple of days. Knowing that she would be needed elsewhere, Cadance left with Shining just before the weather made a grim turn for the worse.

But in the room, the girls slept in bunches: Lyra and Bon-Bon shared the same sleeping bag, with Trixie right near them; Minuette cuddled an adorable tooth-shaped throw pillow. Pinkie somehow managed to sleep upside down, while most of the other girls slept normally. Rarity, with a sleeping mask and subliminal suggestion MP3 playing through her headphones, ignored all the gentle dozing. And in the center of it all, almost as if were a normal night, were Sunset, Twilight, and Octavia, dozing away as they’d done so many nights, ignoring the blasting weather outside.

However, it wasn’t exactly the same. For the eyelids of both Sunset and Octavia flickered with incredible speed, the sign that REM had taken over from delta sleep, and that they were lost in the land of dreams.

Sunset stood in a granite-cragged valley. The sky was an ugly, bruised purple, with a pale, dying light in the distance that Sunset couldn’t be sure was the sun or the moon. A river the color of blood bubbled and burbled past her hooves. And with that, she realized she was in pony form…right until she held a fur-covered hand to her face. She looked to her right to see a broken, dirty mirror, revealing her form: a hybrid of human and pony, fur, horn, tails and ears of her heritage, but with the body and human form of her daily life. To call her a furry wouldn’t be wrong, but at the same time seemed to be an oversimplification. Better to say that she was both herself and herself, pony and human, in a syncretic form.

She blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, she was surrounded by all her friends. Not just those that had come to the party, but those who couldn’t attend for various reasons: Derpy, Carrot Top, Cloud Kicker, Compass Rose, the triplets, and so many others. Though “here” was a relative term, given that each girl was stripped bare and impaled on a spike of granite that seemed to needle its way to the highest spires of the heavens. Blood, more than any human could even possibly hold within their body, flowed down the spires and merged into a puddle that flowed downhill as one, the river she’d seen a second ago.

Bon-Bon reached out to her, speaking, even though somehow dead. “I believed in you when we first met. Then you betrayed me. Then you befriended me. And now I know not what I should do.”

Trixie, though impaled almost through her head, spoke. “You belittled me. Then you built me up. You are my enemy and my friend. And I don’t know which one I see on a daily basis.”

Rose, impaled in such a way that implied something obscene, moaned, “I love you. I have a lover and yet I love you for both your cruelty and your kindness. And though I love my girlfriend, I would leave her for you instantly. Who’s in the wrong – you, or me?”

Behind her, Pinkie spoke. “You are my very best friend in the world. And my most hated enemy. I both embrace and strangle you. And I want only one path – but which do I choose?”

Rarity then spoke. Even in her death, she was incredibly beautiful. “I trusted you with secrets you spurned. And then you trusted me with your most vital of secrets. I wish to shout it to the world for a number of reasons, but I must keep the faith you never did. Which way do I fare?”

Finally, she stood before Twilight. Seeing her like this, more than anyone, brought tears to Sunset’s pony-sized eyes. “You are my beloved sister. And yet at the same time, a stranger. You hold me both in loving embrace and at arm’s length. What am I to you?”

“My sister,” Sunset spoke before she even realized she did. “My true and beloved sister.”

“Will you die for me?” Twilight spoke.

“Will you die for me?” both Bon-Bon and Compass Rose asked.

All her friends spoke the same question, over and over, a cacophony of confusion and a dirge of inquiry. It drove Sunset to the ground, insensate, until she could only cry one single word: “Yes!”

“You lie,” a voice, all too familiar, said behind her, its tones mocking and gleeful. Sunset turned to see hair of red and gold—

Sunset sat up, gasping for breath, sweat rolling down her face. She looked around, too see all the others asleep. “Just a bad dream,” she murmured as she got up to go get some water. “Just a bad dream….”

It was a shame she didn’t notice she wasn’t the only one going through that.

“Hey, wait—
I got a new complaint
Forever in debt
To your priceless advice….”

The music, a song from a hard rock band from the 90s that Shining listened to often, played over and over in the hallway. It was black and grimy and cold, dotted with endless dingy white doors. A perpetual draft blew through, making Octavia shiver to her core and scrunch down inward, wishing she had clothing on. She turned to see a broken mirror and gazed at her visage...and it was all she could do to prevent herself from screaming in horror.

She was nude, and she bled black from every possible orifice – nose, eyes, mouth, under her fingernails. A steady torrent itself flowed from her sex, worse than the monthly issue, yet she felt no pain. And yet where it flowed off her it burned great gouges in the ground, leaving behind a burbling hole, acrid smoke and an unnatural, inexplicable stench.

Seeking an escape, she opened the first door. The door held Blueblood, face covered in shards of glass, his face torn and battered and blood splattered everywhere. “I name thee whore,” he told her. “Whore shall be your name evermore, for thou lust after thine own flesh and blood, wanting to take her maidenhood. Whore is what thou are, and what thou shall ever be.”

She slammed the door in his face and ran down the hall, trying to blot out his maddening laughter as she left him behind.

Some ways away, she opened the second door to see Vinyl Scratch standing there in the purest robes of white and silver. “I name thee whore,” she spat. “Thou spurned my love and affections, and for what? So thou can lie, unclean, with thine cousin? With a girl thou ken as a sister? Whore I name thee, and whore thou shalt always be.”

Octavia slammed the door, running as far as she could from Vinyl’s screams of rage and accusation.

Finally, she reached the end of the hallway, and a single door there. This door was cleaner and brighter by far than all the others, and it hurt her eyes to open it. As she reached for the doorknob, she felt the brightness, the cleanliness burn her harsher than any fire, and yet she still reached the door.

Behind the door was Twilight, dressed in a bridal gown of unspeakable beauty. She looked radiant, divine and despite it all, Octavia cried tears of joy to see Twilight as this…

...until there was a flash of red and gold. Twilight’s bridal gown became a topless bustier with below parts that revealed all, especially her glistening maidenhood. Sister kissed sister and hands groped and felt.

“I name thee late,” Sunset said to Octavia, “for she is mine...because you moved too slow.”

“I name thee nothing,” Twilight spat, “for my maidenhood belongs to my sister, not thee.” Younger sister turned to older, moaning, “Make me a woman.”

“You shall be my woman.” Sunset removed her their clothes and sister led sister to a silken bed.

“YOU!” Octavia snarled, filling herself with a righteous rage. Her eyes became pinpricks of blood red. The black ichor emanating from her became smoky trails of power, imbuing her with a terrible force. Leaping between the two sisters, Octavia took Sunset’s head and slammed it into the wall with a sickening crunch. She then threw her to the floor and started choking the life out of her, laughing maniacally as she roared how much she hated Sunset.

“IhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyou—”

“—IhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyou—” Octavia could feel her hands pressing down on Sunset’s neck, so close to snapping it. It was pleasure, almost a sexual release…

“Tavi, stop, please!” a voice wheezed underneath her and clarity came to the raven-haired teen’s eyes as she realized who she was strangling:

Twilight Sparkle.

“TAVI!” She barely had time to react before something slammed into her, sending her bowling into Trixie, Pinkie and Rainbow. She then felt herself being hoisted up by her shirt. “What the hell?”

Sunset looked at her, eyes filled with a mixture of surprise, worry and anger. “What were you doing?”

Behind Sunset, Twilight gasped for air, with Applejack and Lyra moving to her side to assist. “What the hell just happened?” Applejack asked as the other girls got up.

A second later the upstairs lights came on and Velvet looked down at the teens. “Girls, what’s going on?”

Everyone looked at Octavia, who did the only thing she could: pushed past all of them, running into her room and locking it, then diving under the sheets and shivering. I almost killed Twily. I almost killed Twily!

No, her brain corrected. I wanted to kill Sunny. And that’s the worst part…

I wanted to kill her.

Author's Note

Shit be gettin' weird.

Anyway, if you liked this, feel free to drop a bit in the tip jar! You'll be glad you did. So will I. :twilightsmile:

August 6: Consequences of Falling

The wind buffeted the city of Canterlot and its suburbs as the unthinkable happened: a hurricane had made it onto land this far in with all its strength intact. Rain slammed into everywhere it could like bullets, breaking windows and scoring stone, concrete and metal. Winds howled with force that turned anything loose into missile hazards, pushing flower stems to the speed of missiles and embedding them in poles, throwing cars all over the place and the like. Five cities lay in its path and though the major one, Canterlot itself, would be mostly spared, the poorer suburbs to the south and east would be hit hard.

Though the hurricane itself seemed normal despite its freakish strength and its sustaining ability so far from open water, there would be few that could discern its true intent.

Seated in the storage basement of the building both their businesses and home were in, Harmonic looked at her husband. “I hope the girls are okay,” she said, her voice a lilt barely above the whistling winds outside.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Cashflow told his wife. “Besides, aren’t they staying in the part of town that’s not in the path? Trixie will be fine, don’t worry. So will Lyra and Bon-Bon.” He loved his only child, and was fond of Trixie’s lifelong best friend, but his wife thought of Lyra as one of their own as well; probably because Lyra wasn’t as close to her own family as his daughter was to them, he reasoned. And now with Lyra having a girlfriend, Bon-Bon now occupied a quasi-filial position in Harmonic’s heart.

“Ah hope yer right,” Harmonic said, slipping into her native accent as she did when she was nervous. Oftentimes he had to remind himself that “Harmonic Convergence” was just an act and that at the end of the day, he was really married to Dixie Flower.

“They will be,” he said, putting his arms around her. “Our girls will be.”

The skies were so dark that the SIRENs on duty required night-vision goggles to perform their watchstanding. Not that it mattered much; the storm was so strong that any of them were bunkered down with orders to stand at position in the event that it cleared. As that was unlikely, the groups changed in fifteen minute shifts in order to prevent gear degradation and getting soaked to the bone.

It was during this shift that three dark figures slipped into the rain. With giddy, jubilant motions that somehow seemed to indicate their enjoyment of the weather, the first one leapt the fence easily and without an issue. Landing on the other side of the large brick barrier, she laughed. “This is awesome!” Contralto laughed. She was currently in her altered form, feeling the blood-and-magic mixture pumping through her veins, feeling each splatter of a raindrop against her scaly skin as a baby’s caress.

“Yeah, this certainly is,” Canzione said as she then leapt the wall as well. Given that she was the strongest of the trio, she cleared the wall by nearly a third more than Contralto did, vaulting over it as if it were nothing but a bump on the ground. “So, we waiting for stupid?” the Black Team strongwoman asked the moment she landed.

“Aren’t we always?” Contralto grunted. “She’s probably practicing masturbating techniques a—”

A split-second later, Medley landed, joining them. She had a sad, dejected look on her face like a child with its hand caught in the cookie jar. “Sorry I’m late,” she said softly. “Had to clean up.”

“What do you mean, clean u—” Canzione cut her thought off. “Nevermind, I don’t want to know.”

Contralto, however, sniffed the air. “Wait, do you smell blood, Canzy?”

“Now that you mention it, I do. The smell’s coming from….” Both SIRENs looked at Medley. “What did you do, Med?”

“I didn’t mean to!” Medley stated.

“Med, don’t make me order it out of you,” Contralto warned.

“Fine. I was playing with Rie, and I got a little excited, and….” A tragic look came over her face, as if Medley had destroyed her favorite toy by accident. Which, Contralto wondered, might have been the truth.

“Where’d you put the body, Med?” Contralto asked.

“But I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine. I’ll clear it with the Captain – you might get your ass chewed out for it, but we’re too valuable for her to do anything serious to.”

“Level 3, Room G321.” Medley fished a key out of her pocket. “Nobody goes on that floor, so there shouldn’t be any issues.”

“Fine.” The team leader groaned; she did not need this kind of mess right now. “Canzy, you take Med and execute the mission. It’s just two lesbos wanting to bump uglies, so no harm there. I’ll clean up Med’s mess and talk to the Captain.”

“Roger that, boss.” She looked at Medley with disgust. “C’mon, stupid. We’re going to be late.” With that, the two ran off, into the dreary distance.

Hopping the wall once more, she made a beeline towards the main building, but as she got closer, she noticed one of the guards on duty. Well, well, well…Harmonica Slice. A petty officer second class like herself, Contralto never knew why Harmonica was in the SIRENs – she was too sweet, too kind, and too gentle to be in such a force. She should have been cashiered out, given a new identity and let free to lead her own life. Contralto had no use for those kinds of soldiers and the only reason Harmonica likely remained with the SIRENs was because she was extremely athletic and a spot-on medic when the need arose for it.

Well, now she has a different use, Contralto mused as she dashed forward. Too bad she won’t be able to dispute it.

In a dirty, broken warehouse, ALICORN met for their newest mission. Standing with them was Changeling, the mysterious Canadian intelligence officer who had been feeding them information.

Smoking one of his stogies (especially as it tended to disgust Changeling), Blackthorn said, “Okay boys, here’s the threefold plan: Tomorrow night, we hit the SIREN base hard and fast. No survivors. Be clean about it – we don’t want to waste ammo – but if they’re still breathing after the two-step, then pop another two right into the heart. Body won’t survive the brain and the heart Swiss-cheesed.”

“You sure, boss? You’ve been surviving just fine,” one of the other team members joked, and they all had a good laugh for a second about it.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were almost funny there, Gunbolt. Anyway, once that’s done, rig explosives and the gas cans. I want this to look like arson, like some little shit delinquent thought it’d be a good idea to burn a couple of acres of the Everfree and hope nobody catches his ass. If we play this right, we’ll have every law enforcement agency in the area looking for a firebug and not us.”

Changeling looked at Blackthorn with an even glance. “You do know that they’ll find bodies, right? You’re taking out the bulk of the team, but they do have reserve units that we don’t know about. What are you going to do once they come hunting?”

Blackthorn took another draw of his Cohiba and then blew a smoke ring. “Ah, Agent Changeling, ye of little faith. We did our homework. We’ll be carrying phosphorous rounds – Russian 7H51s. The Russian MVD still holds a grudge against those guntits for what happened back in Karachi two years ago and thanks to one of our boys there—” A big man of Slavic descent waved his hand, “—we got some of the Russkies’ toys in exchange for leaving the SIRENs a message. Our contact at the Company doesn’t give a fuck, so you shouldn’t either.”

Changeling rolled his eyes. “So long as the job gets done, I’m willing to overlook the unorthodox methods.”

Ignoring that, Blackthorn went back to his men. “Anyway, after that comes Phase II. He’ll be waiting for us, so need to move in quick and hard. I want both Loam and his fucktoy captured, not killed.” He then turned back to Changeling. “You still got us that flight clearance?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t expecting you to kidnap two Americans. I’ll have to clear that with my superiors, and they’ll have to contact the CIA.”

“Yeah, whatever. We can give the proper people a gift basket later,” he grunted. “Anyway, after that, boys, then we head off to Belize for some relaxation. We get to see if Sable Loam can land safely after we throw him out of the plane at 40,000 feet – betting pool opens now. Lastly, I’ll have me a nice cutie to take back to my place. Who knows? If the flight takes too long, I just might share.”

Changeling narrowed his eyes at that. He was a professional, and though he did distasteful things, he did it for Queen and Country, not for pleasure. This barbarian sellsword was an amoral bastard who didn’t seem to have a single kind molecule in his body. They were supposedly highly effective, but he took no pleasure working with the bastardly Blackthorn, neither him nor any of his mongrels.

For a moment, Changeling almost hoped the SIRENs would win their fight against him.

Almost.

In the living room of a house in San Palomino, a bunch of games were going on. One group was playing Monopoly, while a second group played Uno, a card game that Pinkie always seemed to have on her. A third group were watching movies on the TV, leaving Sunset, Minuette and Rainbow to lounge in the chairs, sofa and loveseats, reading books.

Upstairs, a girl with long plum hair and with shocks of purple and magenta in it moved quietly towards a door. Her hair tied in a ponytail and gauze around her neck, she paused just before the door as if to knock, moving the hand down to rap softly against the fiberglass surface, but stopping before flesh connected with simulated wood. She backed off, then walked away, headed towards the stairs and back towards the others.

Minuette looked up from her book. “Sunny, that’s the third time she’s done that today. Aren’t you going to do something about that?”

Sunset slipped her bookmark in its place, then looked at her friend. “What should I do, Minnie? I just saw my cousin choking my sister and shouting at her as if she hated her. And instead of explaining anything, she just ran upstairs and locked herself in her bedroom for the past seven hours. My parents aren’t even sure what the hell to do, though I think they’re trying to call Paris right now.”

“Sorry. I’m an only child, so I guess I really don’t know how to react,” Minuette replied.

“I know, and I appreciate the words, Min. But until she comes out, what can we do?”

“Personally, I’d bust down her door and drag her ass out here to explain,” Rainbow said, shutting her book. “It’s bullshit.”

“Rainbow, dear, that’s the wrong action to take, and you know it,” Rarity said, looking up from her game of Monopoly against Trixie and Applejack. “Octavia is probably afraid that something’s wrong.”

“No shit, Rares – ya think?”

“Look, I’m no psychologist,” Lyra said as she laid down a Draw Four, “but something had to happen. If you want, I can go up there and check her chakra out. Maybe she just needs someone t—”

“God, you sound just like my mother,” Trixie groaned. “Are you sure we weren’t switched at birth?”

“I’m just trying to help, Trixie!” Lyra shot back. Trixie wilted under her best friend’s glare.

“I know,” she said in a soft whisper. “I’m sorry.”

Lyra reached over where she was to give her friend a hug. “It’s okay. We’re all just a little on edge now, especially since we’re stuck here for the next two days.”

“Still, we should do something,” Pinkie said. “Maybe we can bake her a cake?”

“A cake that says ‘Congratulations on Not Killing Your Cousin’?” Applejack replied. “Not a smart move, sugarcube. Not smart at all.”

“We have to do something, though, girls,” Fluttershy insisted. She was about to say more, when Twilight reached the bottom of the stairs. Everyone was quiet as the scholarly teen walked over to the empty spot on the couch, curled up into a ball and put her head on her sister’s lap.

“It’s okay, Twily,” Sunset said softly as she stroked her sister’s hair. “You’re safe.”

“She didn’t mean it, she really didn’t….” Twilight said to no one in particular, her eyes filling with tears. She winced slightly as a sting went through her neck where she’d been scratched by Octavia’s nails during the whole incident. “She didn’t mean it.”

“I know she didn’t,” Sunset said, reaching down to hug her sister as best she could. “I know.”

“Twily…” Bon-Bon began.

“Don’t, Bonnie. Please don’t. It wasn’t her fault, I know it. Something…happened. I don’t know what it was,” Twilight said as the tears fell. “But I love her. She’s just as much a sister to me as Sunny is. And family’s always been important to me.”

Bon-Bon didn’t know how to respond to that, so she said nothing and went back to the movie she and Fluttershy was watching.

In a bedroom on the opposite side of the house, a door was closed and the lights were off. Against that door was a chair. And the dresser. And the nightstand. The bed would have been as well, but it was too big to move, even in her panicked state. The sheets were ripped off the bed, though. And under the bed was the proverbial monster, covered in sheets, sleeping fitfully on the ground. The wind howled outside and the rain slapped against the glass of the window repeatedly, enough to make it difficult for anyone to doze easily.

But the girl didn’t rest easy. Even if it had been a perfect day out, she couldn’t rest easy. She’d nearly committed an act that was pure insanity, and she had no idea why. And she knew she was hated – damned – for it. Her life had begun to unravel and spiral out of control and now it had reached the point where there was no going back unless she grabbed onto the last bit of reason.

She was going insane, she knew it. And the people she loved most – her family – would suffer for it.

But these were thoughts she would have had if she’d been awake. Instead, she moved through a daytime nightmare, a torturous and twisting dream, one that wouldn’t let her out until it had wrenched free the last of her sanity.

But Octavia Melody didn’t know that.

All she did was dream.

The elegant strains of Hip Harp’s 1965 jazz classic “Elegance of Sapphire” played through the Brentwood Museum. Dressed in a black gown with long gloves, Octavia walked through the galleries, admiring the works of art. There were others there, but they seemed vague and indistinct and as she approached them, they seemed to vanish into the ether.

She stopped in front of a painting entitled “The Goddess of Purity”, though she didn’t know the author’s name. In it was a beautiful girl her age, dressed in the purest white robes imaginable. She carried a huge amethyst cut like an irregular star, and it seemed to bring out the light in the girl’s own violet eyes. The girl had long, flowing hair the color of ripe plums, while two single locks of purple and magenta graced the left bangs of her hair. She had a smile that was pure and innocent, so much so that it made Octavia feel like a part of herself was missing, though she knew not why.

Moving on, she glanced at other works of art, nothing catching her attention until she came across a huge work of marble. Entitled “The Confusion of Transformation”, it was made of three pieces of marble. The first part was a horse running forward – or rather, half a horse, the latter end. Finely detailed in its sculpting, the yellow Sienna marble would have seemed real had it not been for the strange brand on the horse’s flank: a yin-yang sunburst. In any case, the yellow horse raced through the second part of the installation, an archway that seemed to be carved of the most delicate blue-gray Carrara marble available. The craftsmanship on the portal was so precise, Octavia could almost see it as a gateway to another world. Lastly, the final part came forth, a delicate rose Ruschita marble, depicting a young girl, no more than twelve, stepping from the mirror. She was nude, and the look on her carved face was one of confusion and anger. The striking contrast between the beauty of the whole sculpture and the frozen rage on the face of the horse-turned-girl cut Octavia to the core, making her turn from the statue once she’d taken a final look at the whole artwork.

From there, she moved over to a painting called “The Abandonment”. In it, the sky changed from a sunny, perfect day to a stormy, brutal one. On the perfect half, a couple strolled, breezy and happily, as if they had nothing to care for in the world. The picture, however, revealed it to be a lie, as a crying girl no older than ten tried to reach out to them as unnatural, evil hands threatened to drag her off the nearby cliff. This one resonated deeply within Octavia, though she wasn’t really sure why. She felt that she wanted to wrench the girl from the unnatural grasp and hand her off to the security of the clueless parents – though maybe, given their actions, that might not have been the best course, either. Regardless, touching artworks such as this was prohibited, so she gave it no further thought and moved on.

She moved on from the artworks, crossing a bridge leading from one part of the museum to another, the open-air skyway too bright to look at in the Los Angeles sunshine. It was odd, she knew; she had been born in Los Angeles, but had lived nearly all her life in Canterlot, her parents deciding to move back to the place where her father was born so that the young couple could have support. This was the city of her birth, and it felt as empty and soulless as people often described Hollywood to be. Perhaps that was the truth of the City of Angels: the angels were looking away, and all that was left was silence.

Moving into the next room, she noticed it was bare, save for a singular mural that took up one of the long walls. Across from the artwork, however, were a few dozen chairs, and a screen that displayed video thrown from a ceiling-mounted projector. The video was blurry, surrealist; this felt like it belonged more at the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art downtown than a place that specialized in the classics, such as the Brentwood. Ignoring the video, she decided to turn her attention to the mural across room.

It was an artist that truly spoke to her, though she could not recall the name. It was a compilation of the three earlier works she had seen, tied together by the hand of a new painter. The Goddess of Purity moved hand in hand with the girl from the marble statue, now with colors added to her: eyes as cyan as aquamarine gems, hair with gold and scarlet that burned as fire; they accompanied the wings of flame on the back. The two women looked as though there was love between them, not that of two lovers but of two who were very close – sisters, perhaps? They moved on together because they seemed so familiar and comfortable together and a part of Octavia felt as though she belonged, as if her heart ached with an unyielding pain because she was not part of the duet.

At the far side of the mural, away from the brightness and purity of the two girls were hands, outstretched. The hands – though almost vaguely more like claws – were almost attached to a mist that seemed to vaguely take form and shape. There was something primal, elemental about the intangible being – yes, it had to be some sort of being there – that reached in the direction of the two girls that made Octavia want to reach in and pull them to safety. She wasn’t sure why – it was obviously a painting and they were clearly fictional characters, but if the artist could engender such feelings in her, he was a master at his craft.

But most of all it was the figure in the center that truly took hold of Octavia’s soul. She looked to be an older version of the girl from the earlier painting, right around Octavia’s own age. She was in the nude, with cuts and bruises – but she bled no ordinary blood. What dripped from her was as black as oil or tar, giving her an inhuman, unnatural appearance that layered over and contrasted with her very human shape and form. She seemed to be desperately crawling towards the other two girls, and away from the shapeless figure that Octavia now realized was after her. The girl wanted them to stop and help her, hoping her to escape with them, but the girls were too busy in tune with each other to really understand. The creature knew that and so it bluntly stalked the girl in the middle, knowing that sooner or later, it would have its due….

Octavia turned away from the mural, taking advantage of one of the seats by the video presentation to collect her breath. This painting was, by far, the one that spoke to her the most and she couldn’t understand why. It felt like it was a part of her, like a telling of her own life. But that couldn’t be possible, could it?

“Everything is very possible, granddaughter.” Octavia turned towards the voice to see another young woman sitting next to her. Wearing a gorgeous dress that seemed to be out of style in this day and age, she nonetheless looked good in it. She had long ivory hair in the same style as Octavia’s, save for two jagged shocks of scarlet and gold in her hair – the same colors as the transformed girl, but the same layout as the Goddess of Purity. Her skin was dark; not enough to be of African descent, but clearly enough to be Arabic. Her light blue eyes seemed that they would be normally bright, but at the moment, they seemed to hold the world’s sadness within them. And lastly, her facial features, surprisingly, were the same as Octavia’s own.

“Granddaughter?” Octavia spoke.

The girl smiled. “Well, it would probably take too long to say all the ‘greats’ in between, wouldn’t it?” she said with a giggle. “Besides, this is how I remember myself as: the girl who stepped out of the waters of Lake Sanabria and surprised a viscount spending a day on the lake trying to impress a ladyfriend. I suppose I was the one who impressed him; he married me, even though I later turned out to be pregnant.” She sighed. “I loved Almirante, and when he claimed my son Lutier as his own. We then had Cuerda Dulces, Toccato, Gran Valz, Adagio and Canto Allegre as well. They grew up as performers like myself, becoming great composers and the spouses of royalty and nobility. Even now my progeny is everywhere and are mostly in music. It is a life I never expected, and a blessed one at that.” She smiled sadly. “I wish my parents could have known. I wish I knew what became of them. But I guess such is the mystery of being La Musica, isn’t it?”

Octavia’s eyes finally widened in shock. “You’re—”

“I know. There’s a lot of distance between us, but even still, I’m glad someone in my family inherited my looks. My daughters got theirs from their father, and I suppose descendants from theirs. I guess that means my genes were weak and had to be supported, in a manner of speaking, before they came to the forefront in you.”

“Gr…I….” Octavia wasn’t sure of how to refer to the woman beside her.

“Musica is fine,” she giggled. “It makes me feel young again, Octavia. When you grow into an aged grandmother, you’ll understand.”

“Musica, what is all this?” Octavia asked.

“This is magic. Or maybe it’s the fevered mind of a girl with too many problems dropped on her at once. Maybe it’s just the magic that wants me, a grandmother many levels removed, to see what I can do to help her lookalike granddaughter, again many generations removed. Or maybe you can’t cope with the fact that you strangled someone who is like a sister to you and you’re sliding into insanity just to hide from the world. What do you feel?”

“I don’t know what to feel.” Octavia looked away from Musica and then at the screen showing the blurry video. She realized, with clarity, that the video was showing her scenes from her own life: How she’d started to become jealous of Sunset. How she’d murdered Twilight’s pet owl. How she’d lied repeatedly to Rarity, who only wanted to help. The list ran on, and on, every scene for the past few months, all trading the light for the dark.

What had happened?

She blinked…and when she looked around, she was standing around in a desolate field, waist deep in what appeared to be coins of a tarnished, blackened metal. Standing next to her, a heartbroken look on her face, was Musica.

“Octavia, you can still turn away from this madness,” Musica pled. “As your ancestress, I beg you: please, do so! I would not want you hurt!”

“You don’t know her, you bitch,” another voice echoed from nowhere, and somehow, Octavia recognized it from the depths of her nightmares.

“You spoil me, you know that?” Celestia said as she lay down on the bed, naked as a jaybird and sipping from a margarita. The room was filled with nothing but candlelight, and giving her a massage was Sable. He too was undressed, and was right now rubbing on her back.

“You were tense, Tia. That, or maybe old age is getting to you,” he cracked.

“Well, if I make my boy toy keep up with me,” she replied in a nonchalant voice, just as whimsical as he, “then I must be doing something right.”

“I’ll say you’re doing something right if you landed me,” he said, whispering in her ear.

“Careful, Sable – I might just wear you out,” she chuckled.

“It would probably be the first time I’ve been worn out over something I liked,” he said soberly. Both looked at each other and the even looks lasted long enough for both to start riotously laughing together.

“Well, here I am, in the middle of a hurricane, spending time with the man I love,” she sighed. “Hardly how I expected my life to go, but I’m glad it did. Now I’m glad it didn’t work out with Frozen Plains.”

“Oh? Well, I’ve told you a story about a previous love, so now it’s your turn,” he egged her.

“Sable, you’re here giving me a massage, we’ve been intimate, and it’s you I love now,” she told him. “Can’t I leave this one in the past? I’ve got a much more interesting prior relationship.”

“If you’re talking about Discord, Luna already told me,” Sable replied. “That you told Velvet that you guys broke up while in high school but you kept up with the on and off until your junior year of college. Plus, one of your students is his daughter, according to her.”

“Damn, caught,” Celestia said, taking another sip from her margarita. “Okay, fine, I’ll mention it. I was thirty and had just transferred from Everfree Glades High to Bella Vista High to work as the Head of the Humanities Department. There was a guy there, Frozen Plains, recently divorced, with this cute as a button daughter named Stained Glass. She was just adorable. Anyway, Plains and I tended to work afterschool a lot – you know I tend to overwork – and so did he. Eventually we had working dinners together, which turned into dinners out and dates and before I knew it, he and I were together. There wasn’t just any one thing that did it, until we leaned over the table and kissed.

“Anyway, he and I were happy and Glass really adored me. I adored her as well, and I honestly began to wonder if I was stepmother material. Obviously I don’t have children of my own, but being a teacher is a teaching moment as well, and for the four years we were together, I think we were leaning towards marriage.”

“What happened?”

She closed her eyes. “He had a family emergency that required him to move back to his hometown of Fairview, in Alaska. He asked me if I’d marry him and come with him, but right about that time I received the offer to take over as vice principal of County High. I was torn – really torn – it was the chance of a lifetime, and I knew where he was, at best I would be promoted to the position I was. The unified school district, because he had connections, even offered me the position of vice principal of one of the elementary schools there. It wasn’t really my style. But I was torn – I had to choose between the man I loved and the little girl who had become my daughter, a girl who had already had a mother figure walk out of her life. Then on the other hand was the position at County, being offered to me especially at a time when the rest of my family had followed me and Luna north from San Diego.”

She downed the rest of the margarita. “I stayed. Two years later, Plains rekindled his relationship with his ex-wife and they remarried. That hurt. But the part that hurt the most was that I let Stained Glass down. She needed a mother, and she looked to me – and I failed her. We still talk occasionally, especially now that she moved to Horseshoe Bay, but it’s never been the same. And after that, I stopped dating until I met you.”

He took the message immediately. “I’m not leaving, Tia. I’m not leaving and this isn’t going to be a repeat of your past relationships.”

“Heh, if you think my love life is bad, you should see my sister’s.”

“Well, I promise, I’m not leaving. And I guarantee that we’re going to see this through to the end. Don’t know where that is yet, but I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

“Even if it means a ring and kids? I’ve probably got about a decade or so more left in my childbearing years. Don’t get me wrong – the outside doesn’t age normally, but some parts of me still register as a fifty-six-year old woman. Though I wish I was still thirty-one.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, what if I asked you to go elope right now and that I want a child soonest – that the bomb on my biological clock’s about to go off. We’ve only known each other for two months, and we’re already living together. We’re moving faster than many so-called ‘whirlwind relationships,’ and I can’t imagine that I’m being fair to you.”

“Who said anything about fair?” Sable asked.

Celestia was caught off-guard about that. “I…I don’t understand.”

“Age aside, Tia, you’re a woman who has been hurt by love and choices. I suppose that defines us all, but I can hear the haunting loneliness in your voice. You see what Velvet has on a regular basis and you’re craving it. You hear about the loving married life that Sombra and his wife have and you want it for yourself. And you’re afraid that you’ve thrown yourself at the first person who looked at you, as if there’s an expiration date on you. Trust me, there isn’t.” He grinned and added, “I’m familiar enough with your body that I haven’t seen one yet.”

The educator couldn’t help but break out into a full-body blush at that. “Flatterer.”

“Maybe, but you’re being unfair to me in the fact that you’re forgetting one thing: I came after you, not the other way around. I didn’t know your age, and obviously I didn’t care after you told me. I just saw the beautiful woman that caught my attention and would have even if some of our delinquent students hadn’t, ahem, ‘introduced us’.” He leaned close to her. “Fairy tale relationships may be just that, but sometimes we have to believe in love at first sight. So if you’re asking me, given that you already want me to move in, if I’m interested in making that relationship permanent? I do, and I don’t – and that last part is that we probably should wait at least a year before thinking about engagement, because otherwise both your family and mine are probably going to think we absolutely lost it.”

She laughed at that. “I hadn’t considered that point,” she admitted, “but I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather lose it over.”

“Oh, when it comes to you?” he stated. “I lost it long ago.”

Octavia Melody turned around to see a girl standing there wearing what could be best described as an “organic dress”. She recalled the time Rainbow and Applejack were playing this one shooter with aliens, and one of them looked like some sort of freakish zombie alien witch, whose robes of station were embedded onto her body as if it was an exoskeleton. The dress the newcomer wore seemed very much the same: grown, not fabricated.

“Maybe it’s time you listen to my side of the story,” she said. She looked up and Octavia saw that, like Musica and herself, the newcomer had the same facial features. But that’s where it ended. The newcomer had shock-white hair in the same style as Octavia, and had eyes that seemed to be of a pale shade of violet almost as to be translucent. But it was the pupils – thin dark lines that seemed more reptilian than anything else – that seemed to echo within Octavia. “After all, it’s the very least you owe me, you cunt.”

“She owes you nothing, demon,” Musica told the newcomer.

“This is all your fault, you twisty bitch, so just shut the fuck up,” Newcomer said. “This is all because you had so many stars in your eyes that you let any old dick squirt into you. And then you ran and let someone else squeeze the manpaste into you. So you don’t get to say shit about what I have to tell little miss frigid pants here.”

Newcomer then turned to Octavia. “You owe me, you twiceborn freak. You owe me for every moment you breathe, and every second you last. You owe me, and I don’t see why I don’t get what’s due.”

“What do you mean ‘what’s due’?” Octavia asked. “I don’t know who you are—”

“You should,” Newcomer snarled, cutting her off. “After all, it’s my fingers you slip up your taco when you think of how you want to make Twily sing like an opera star. Oh, wait – you’re not the one thinking of that, I am. Because it’s my mind. You’re just a parasite on the body, the stupid fuck who got handed the keys to the car that ain’t hers.”

“I don’t—” Now it was Octavia’s turn to pause as she realized with horror. “You’re….”

“Yes, yes I am. Congratulations, you’re not as stupid as you seem. That’s right – I’m your unborn sister. The one that should have lived. The one that your stupid zygote decided to play Pac Man with and absorbed me, denying me my life. All of this is your fault as much as that ancient slut’s!” Newcomer swung her hand out and backhanded Octavia hard, sending her crashing to the ground.

“Stop it!” Musica shouted. “I will not let you harm my descendant—”

“Of which I was one – or was going to be!” Newcomer shouted at her. “That is until Octy here did the octopus thing and absorbed me like she was The Blob!” She turned back to Octavia, who was still on the ground and took advantage of it, kicking her in the side. “So how does it feel to hurt? Just like you hurt me, you skank!”

“I didn’t…I didn’t mean….” Octavia gasped through the pain.

“You didn’t mean what? To take away my body? My life? Didn’t you ever wonder why you were named Octavia Melody? Because you’re two people in one: you, Octavia; and me, Melody! You stole my life! You took everything from me! And now I’m going to take it back!”

“What? I don’t—” Octavia asked but instead got kicked in the face for it.

“You will speak when spoken to, bitch,” Melody told her. “You’ve already had a lifetime more than I ever did to say something.” She then turned to Musica, pre-empting her interruption. “And I told you to shut the fuck up! The only reason you’re here is because little miss too-sweet’s mind is fracturing, letting both you and me in.”

“She is my precious grandchild,” Musica said sharply to Melody. “You are nothing more than an abomination. What, you don’t think I’ve seen what you’re doing to her mind? You’re twisting her love for her cousin into something sexual and abhorrent!”

“Yes, well, someone has to appreciate that hot bod Twily has. Especially the times we’ve seen her in delicate situations? Oh, that makes me creamy, I don’t know about you—”

“SHUT UP!” Octavia screamed. “Leave Twily alone! Leave Sunny alone! They’re my family!” Tears came to the girl’s face. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because you’re damned,” Melody said. “Twice-child of your parents. Twice however many greats-grandchild of this bitch here,” she cooed, pointing at Musica, who huffed. “All of us carry her curse, and lucky you – you got it twice, because one of your great-grandparents had kids with someone who was also a descendant of Musica. That meant one of us would be free, and one of us would have the curse – maybe if I was born, I’d be locked up in the funny farm because I would have made Twily my love slave. Hell, could’ve been a three-way between you, me and Twily.” Melody polished her fingers against her body-dress, then continued. “But you took my birthright and made it yours, pretty much literally. So you get the whole package, both the good and the bad. But I think you’ve had enough time at the wheel – it’s my turn to drive now.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Octavia said. “How can I believe anything you say?”

“You’re the one dreaming here, frosty vag,” Melody told her. “You tell me.”

It was odd, Sunset decided, to be knocking on her own door. From within, she heard somebody say she could come in, which still felt odd to Sunset in needing another’s permission to enter her own room. “I brought you some soup, Blossom,” she said as she set it down on her desk. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, just tired,” Blossomforth admitted. “Thanks for lending me your room while we’re stuck here.”

“Hey, I’m just sorry that you can’t sleep down there with all of us,” Sunset told her. “After you eat, if you want, I can help you downstairs.”

“Thanks. I hate feeling like a useless, bloated shut in,” she admitted. “Thankfully, this should all be over soon.”

“Wow, next month,” Sunset said, giving her friend a smile. “Motherhood – the challenge of a lifetime.”

Blossomforth nodded. “Yup – a daughter. And I know that little Sunset Blossom will love her auntie for all she’s done.”

Sunset blinked at that. “You’re naming your daughter after me?”

“Sunny, I’ve said it before: you’ve been there every way that Flash hasn’t. He doesn’t care, and he doesn’t want to be a father. But you have never let me down. You have given this little girl the chance she needs to be what all little girls should be: better than their parents. So I had to name her after her role model: an auntie that would never let her down.” She closed her eyes briefly and said, “I know you’re not religious, Sunny, but I am – I’m a pastor’s daughter, so it’s in the blood. And there’s a position known as a godparent, someone who always looks after a child, up to taking her in if there’s no one left. I want you to be my daughter’s godmother, Sunny.”

“You mean that?” Sunset asked. She knew what a godmother was, sorta: while there wasn’t anything of the sort in Equestria, Sunset had come across the concept over the years here on Earth. What she discovered was that it varied depending on culture and situation; what Blossomforth was asking was for Sunset to in effect become a second mother for her child and that was something that made Sunset blush inwardly – it was a huge honor.

Blossomforth smiled. “Sunny, with all you’ve done for me…if you were a guy, I’d be seriously considering a marriage proposal instead of asking you to be the godparent.”

“Not planning that anytime soon, I’m afraid,” Sunset said with a laugh, “but I accept being Sunset’s godmother.”

Blossom leaned over and hugged her friend. “Thank you. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.”

“Anytime. Go ahead and eat the soup and I’ll come back in ten minutes to bring you downstairs, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks again.”

Sunset leaned on her doorframe and nodded. “Hey, that’s what friends are for, right?”

As Sunset headed towards the stairs, she encountered her mother-to-be. “Sorry to intrude, dear, but I heard what Blossom said. It’s a big responsibility – are you sure you’re up for it?”

Sunset nodded. “I want to. I know I shouldn’t, but I feel partially responsible for what happened to Blossom. It’s taken months for her and Minnie to parse what they’ve been through and know it wasn’t either of their faults, but there’s a part of me that keeps saying that if I had cared more, Flash wouldn’t have done what he did to them.”

“And maybe you would have been a victim instead, Sunny,” Velvet told her. “The guilt isn’t yours and taking it on is neither healthy or helpful. But if you truly wish to take the responsibility of being the godmother of Blossomforth’s daughter, then I’m proud of you, Sunny.”

The teen blushed. “Thanks, Mom.”

“I just wish I knew what to do with your cousin,” Velvet said aloud, and Sunset caught that.

“Mom, is there something you’re not telling me about Tavi?”

Velvet nodded. “We were able to get a hold of your aunt and uncle this morning. They want us to take Tavi in for counseling. I know she’s already been through that in the aftermath of what happened back in January, but I fear this is worse.” Her eyes moistened with pre-lacrimal fluid. “She’s hurting, Sunny, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I can go through another round of what we went through with your sister.”

“Speaking of which—”

“I’m going to take her to the doctor late next week, after they’ve had time to settle down from the hurricane. That’s of course assuming that everything goes well, and I doubt it will.”

“Mom, if there’s anything I can do to help….”

“Take care of your sister. This will hurt Twily; she’s not as strong as you or Tavi. This will probably hurt all of us to some degree or other, and I may need to rely on you.”

“All part and parcel of being adopted,” Sunset said with a smile. Velvet laughed and hugged her daughter close to her as the tears for her niece flowed.

Sandalwood leaned back in the bathtub, feeling both a mixture of pride and shame. Pride, because he had two girls at his beckon call tonight, two that would do anything he wanted – anything. Shame, because this is what the younger girl wanted – she wanted this, or else she’d expose everything that he and Coffee had, ruining them both. It was a fucked up situation all around.

It didn’t help things that he’d probably enjoyed having fun with Prismatic, and he was sure he was going to be in the doghouse with Coffee just for that. But he couldn’t help himself – it was just biology, and he wasn’t entirely willing! His heart still belonged to her, and he still loved her more than anything. He was sure that after this, Prismatic would find someone new to entertain herself with, and he and Coffee could begin rebuilding their relationship together. He thought about it and thought that maybe once school started, they could go somewhere together for Columbus Day weekend. He knew his father and stepmother would be out, and that meant they would have the weekend to themselves.

He stepped out of the tub, reaching for the tub drain switch, letting the hot water flow out. It was one of Prismatic’s stupid idiosyncrasies: she didn’t want to have sex with anyone that was dirty, so that meant that every time he rested, he was going to have to shower before they did anything again. It was beyond stupid; he really didn’t want to do anything with her to begin with! He wanted to spend time with his Coffee, love her, then fall asleep in her arms like true couples did. Prismatic was only using them for her own needs, and it made him angry to think about that as he toweled himself off.

Well, she wanted him to give it to her and her alone all weekend, and to make Coffee watch. Well, he would do just that – and he’d be sure it would hurt. Tying a towel around his midsection, he left the bathroom, headed towards the guest bedroom where it was all happening.

As he walked in, he was surprised to see two new girls standing there. And then he saw the blood – sprays of it everywhere. And laying on the bed, their eyes as wide open as the gash in their throats, was Coffee and Prismatic. He gasped in shock, and the spasm of motion his body made caused the towel to fall off.

One of the girls looked at the other. “See, I told you I know when I can smell these things, Canzy.” She then looked at Sandalwood appreciatively. “Well, I can see why I can smell those sorts of things.”

Canzione looked at Medley. “Yeah, well, let’s just kill him and get out of here.”

Sandalwood turned and was about to run, when he suddenly was pushed down on the floor. “Oh, honey,” the first girl commented. “You don’t get to run. What you do get, is me. I’ll make you a deal: I haven’t had a guy in a while, so give me the best time a girl’s ever had and I’ll make sure you die easily. If not…well, I can do slowly and painfully.”

Canzione facepalmed. “We don’t have time for this, Med.”

“We don’t have to report on station for the next four hours. We have all the time in the world, Canzy, and I want to have some fun! Tell you what: go make a sandwich or twelve, and leave me to be with my temporary boyfriend here, okay?”

“Fine, whatever. Just don’t leave any trace when you’re done.”

“W-what are you going to do to me?” Sandalwood asked, the horror of what was happening getting exponentially worse by the second. He tried to struggle, but this girl pinning him down was too strong. She got to her feet, and with a single hand, she effortlessly dragged him over to the next room – his parents’ bedroom – throwing him on the bed and leaping right atop him again. With him snuggly pinned under her body, she reached into a pocket on her belt, pulling out some wire. She then tied his wrists to the headboard.

“I usually use these to strangle people, so be careful; you don’t want to hurt yourself.” She then got off him and tied his legs to the footboard, giving him just enough clearance to squirm.

“Now then,” she said as she closed the door, “my name is Medley Trance, and I’m your new girlfriend. I like what you have as a boyfriend, and the longer we have fun here, the longer you get to live.” She unzipped her vest, revealing that she wore nothing underneath. “Now, I understand you just lost a girlfriend—” she looked at the wall between this room and the other one, “—or two, and I feel for you, I really do. I just lost a girlfriend myself. But I have to admit, the best way to get over a bad relationship is a nice, long, fun time.”

She then kicked off her boots, removed her socks, then removed her web belt, pants and underwear, standing there as nude as he. “Normally I want to go on a date before getting this intimate – I am a traditional kind of girl at heart – but we’re in a rush here.” She leaned over him and kissed him; though he tried to squirm out of it, it just seemed to interest her more. “All I’m going to say is this. Give it your best shot, don’t worry about me, and if I get a bun in the oven, I’ll think of you fondly – though it might cramp my style for a bit.”

Walking into the kitchen, Canzione opened the fridge, staring at all the shit inside it – or rather, the lack of shit inside it. She hated to admit it, but she was feeling hungry. Again. She’d always been the kind of girl that burnt off a lot of calories, but since she’d taken the serum, she’d felt a lot hungrier. Just as Med seemed a lot hornier, and Alto seemed a lot more machiavellian than previous. Maybe it was the serum doing it to them, intensifying who they were at the cores, but Canzione didn’t really care – she wasn’t the member of the team paid to think.

“Didn’t these idiots know there’s a hurricane going on?” The fridge was nigh bare. Fine during a normal situation, but there was that aforementioned hurricane, where the stores would likely be closed for a few days because nobody would be able to get to them. Canzione figured that they were lucky she and Medley were here to kill them; the three little rabbits would’ve starved to death beforehand.

Still, there was nothing to put together to eat, nothing to feed on out of the package…and she was getting really hungry, and when that happened, she got really cranky….

She then felt a lump on her foot, and she looked down. A cat purred gently, rubbing against her. The critter had to be the family’s housepet, and in a house where the occupants would be very dead soon – well, at least the one not already dead – leaving this poor animal here to starve would be a crime.

Canzione felt herself naturally sliding into her altered form as she smiled. She could take care of two problems at once, now.

The medics carried the covered stretchers out, scowling. This would cost them overtime, and it was on one of their own, too.

Meanwhile, Cantata gave orders for security to double the watchstanding, hurricane or no. “I want everyone that Petty Officer Slice talked to in the past forty-eight hours in my office in ten minutes. I want to get to the bottom of this immediately, understood?” The guards on site saluted her and went off to carry out her orders.

“Petty Officer Rush, please, tell us, what happened again?” Rhapsody Blue asked.

Contralto stood there, having her arm wrapped by one of the medics who were on-site. She looked in pain, a sign that something had happened to her. “Yes, ma’am. I was jogging down here as part of my workout, since we’re not authorized to go outdoors due to the weather, and the gym is full at the moment, so I figured I’d be out of the way. As I was running past, I heard some giggling and someone scream, ‘This is what happens when you betray the Crown!’ Wondering what’s going on, I opened the door and there I saw Harmonica – that is, Petty Officer Slice – slamming down on Commander Thrust with an axe. There was blood everywhere, and….” She shook her head as if to shake out the nightmares that would come. “She then turned around and she had a gun on her. She shouted that she was assigned deep undercover by CSIS to infiltrate and destroy us if we ever went rogue.”

“I have a hard time believing that,” Rhapsody stated. “We’ve been airtight with checking our group for moles.”

“And yet we've had two senior officers killed in a matter of days,” Canata countered. “XO, they got someone close to us and we just paid the price. I want to find out whoever is responsible and whoever else might be a part of this.” She then turned to Contralto. “Please, Petty Officer, continue.”

“Yes, ma’am. She pulled the trigger, but I guess something went wrong, because the round never went off. So she attacked me with the axe, and I wasn’t quick enough, so it hit me in the shoulder. She then rushed forward with her knife, but I dodged it and threw her into the wall. When that dazed her, I grabbed her pistol, wrenched it away from her, and fired two shots, killing her. I was able to make it to pull the alarm before I passed out.” She winced again at the shoulder injury. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I know I should have tried to subdue her….”

“No, you did what you had to, Petty Officer Rush,” Rhapsody said. “Thank you for your report. Captain, if you don’t mind, I need to go talk to Sublieutenant Madrigal Storm. She’s the only one who can take over the Intel position.”

“Do so,” Cantata ordered. “Also tell her that she’s getting a promotion to lieutenant, effective immediately – her first assignment is to sweep all records for any discrepancies. This disaster not only puts us in danger but our benefactor as well, and we cannot afford for the Prince to be harmed by any potential threats, understood?”

“Understood,” Rhapsody said with a salute, then wandered off.

Cantata looked at the medic and said, “I’d like a couple more minutes to talk to Petty Officer Rush, so I’ll escort her to her quarters. You can head back to station.” The medic nodded and left.

As she did, Cantata looked at her testily. “Truth. Now,” she ordered.

“Well,” Contralto said with a shrug, “would you rather what I just told everyone, or that your Intel Officer got fucked to death by Seaman Trance, and that I had to kill Petty Officer Slice and fake everything to make it look realistic?”

“So she didn’t hit you in the shoulder with an axe?”

Contralto rolled her eyes. “She probably couldn’t hit the inside of the toilet bowl when she craps. No, I did it to myself to make it look convincing. She was already dead by then.”

“I see.” Cantata looked at Contralto evenly and said, “Next time, you are to clear it with me before you do anything like this again. Furthermore, Seaman Trance is to keep her pants on until further notice. I don’t want her so much as to blow a kiss at another SIREN, understood?”

“Crystal clear, ma’am. Anything else?”

“Yes. Go find your two fellow troublemakers and hide out somewhere else overnight. But you have until tomorrow to capture the targets. We have a defined window tonight before the next part of whatever Prince Divine wants, and you already know anything he wants, he gets.”

“Understood, ma’am. You have a nice rest of the day.”

Octavia lay on the ground in this place, feeling herself kicked and kicked repeatedly by the being that called herself “Melody” – the entity that claimed to be her unborn sister. Meanwhile, her ancestress, Musica Allegra, kicked and scratched in vain, in an attempt to pull Melody off of Octavia.

“I hate you, do you know that?” Melody screamed at Octavia as she delivered another kick to her. “Why won’t you just die and let me live?”

“Leave her alone, you monster!” Musica screamed as she pulled as hard as she could to save Octavia.

“Help me,” Octavia whimpered. She was alone, abandoned. Her parents had abandoned her. Her aunt and uncle, who were practically her other parents, ignored her. Her cousin, Twilight – her sister in practically all but name – ignored her. And the one person who was responsible for it all wasn’t here. She didn’t even figure into this. And why should she? She was a stranger until recently, and though Octavia had grown to love her, things were changing.

“I bet when Twily moans, she calls out Sunny’s name, huh?” Melody jeered, kicking Octavia between the legs. Though it reportedly would hurt a guy more than her, she still felt the pain of the strike and screamed out.

“You fiend!” Musica shouted. “I’ll end you! I will en—”

“Okay, I think I’ve had enough of your shit,” Melody snarled, turning on Musica. Melody’s arm burned with green fire, and with a punch that would have made a heavyweight boxer proud, she punched through Musica’s chest. She withdrew her arm, her hand pulling out a beating, pulsating sphere of light.

Musica looked at the sphere of light in Melody’s hand, then at Melody, then whispered, “Please save yourself, granddaughter,” before falling to the ground and breaking into nothing but ash.

Still holding the ball, Melody pulled Octavia to her feet. “So, cunt, or is that…big sis? Or little sis? Which one are you? Eh, doesn’t matter, it’s just you, me and your insanity now.”

“No, leave me alone,” Octavia begged. She felt her strength failing. With Musica gone, her will had all but capitulated.

“Oh, no. You and I are going to have some fun. You’ve wanted this for the longest time. And so have I.” Melody brought the sphere to her hand and with a few bites, ate it.

“Please, you can harm me, do whatever you want – but leave my family alone,” Octavia begged. The last refuge of the defeated, she knew, but if this monster was going to destroy her and harm her loved ones, Octavia had to try.

“Oh, no, sister, dear. You get to watch. You get to watch as I have,” Melody said, bringing her face closer to Octavia’s. “You get to see it all, and feel everything, just as I have.

“I’m tired of your goody two-shoes life, ‘Tavi’. Time to show you how life is really lived!” With that, Melody, leaned forward and kissed the individual that was supposedly her sister. She pulled her into the embrace, tongue probing and holding her tight, despite Octavia’s attempt to fight back…

…a struggle which soon ceased as Octavia suddenly joined in the kissing. Their clothes melted away, leaving the two sisters bare.

Melody smiled viciously. “Now it’s time to show you that it’s better when sisters are together,” she said as kissed Octavia’s body, heading downwards….

Reality shattered into a billion pieces.

In a futile attempt to dodge the rain, Shining left the SUV he’d been issued by the FBI for the duration of the storm and waded into the diner. One of the few places that risked remaining open while the weather raged outside, it was a little Greek slice of heaven that catered heavily to first responders. As he walked in, he grabbed a towel that had been laid out on a table by the entrance so he could dry his hair.

“Coffee. And a beef gyro, if you please,” he told them. He looked around at all the other cops and emergency responders from various agencies and gave them all a friendly nod; due to the emergency they were all pretty much serving as a semi-unified force.

He wandered over to a booth where he saw a familiar face. “Hey, Mel, thought you’d be home with the family.”

Melati Jasmine grinned. “Thought you’d be home, snuggling up to Cadance. So since your answer is the same as mine, we’ll just have to split the difference and moan and whine together, right?”

He laughed. “Anything new on your front?”

“No, not really, though it sucks not having you there to joke with back at the station. Anything new with the Feebs and the Dead Hand case?”

He shook his head, then looked out the window. “All we’re doing is finding them just after they’re killed, with no indicator of who’s next or why beyond another tarot card. There are some parallels with a case that happened down south in LA during the 80s, but there’s nothing clear that indicates that they’re related or even the same killer. Still, we have some promising leads and we’re hoping for a breakthrough.”

“Good. The fucker needs to be put away for good,” she insisted. At that point, they brought Shining his gyro and her the Greek salad she’d ordered. She took a bite or two and said, “So how’s your partner doing? Sandalwood, I recall her name?”

“Sandy’s taking it hard. One of the victims was her next door neighbor – Ruby Tuesday– and she’s putting in practical overtime to get this done. She’s a bit on the obsessed side, and I think there’s something else going on, but she won’t tell me what it is. I think Cady knows, but she’s letting Sandy handle it in her own way.”

“I…see,” Melati said, taking the bear-shaped honey dispenser and pouring a little in her tea. “Well, all I can say is that I hope it all works out before everything goes to hell or you get a clue.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She laughed. “You’ll figure it out someday, Shining.”

Octavia opened her eyes. She felt…released. Great. With a purpose once more. She felt a part of her mind scream out that something was wrong, something was terribly, horribly wrong, but she ignored it. She’d paid attention to that part of her mind for too long, and now she was well overdue for some fun.

She withdrew her hands from underneath her pajama bottoms. Her hands were sticky, as were her undies and said pajama bottoms, but that was okay. There was clarity in that. A gate long closed had been opened and she was a new Octavia. Let the old one scream in her mind, she thought, mentally flipping off that part of her persona; she had plenty of ideas and thoughts now.

She opened her closet, trying to figure out what to wear. Frankly, what she saw disgusted her. Feminine – but not too feminine – clothing was in, all conservative and bland and as interesting as watching mold grow in a laboratory culture dish. Why should she hide her body? She was a sexual being, with all that came with it. She wanted to peel back everything, because right now everything felt soooooo good.

She began to look through her clothing. Stuff she’d bought a while back, but never wore because it was too risqué, too conservative for Octavia Melody. No more. She was now the person she was destined to be, and if someone said she was high, oh yes, she was. High on her own libido. Slipping the clothing on, she felt giddy for the first time. She looked at herself in a mirror: midriff shirt she’d considered too high, pants cut too low, drawstring panties, and stiletto heels.

Moving over, she saw something that had defined so much of her life: her contrabass. Good little miss Octavia, who played the instrument that her parents wanted her to. Good little Octavia who always did what the adults in her life wanted. Good little Tavi who was always a perfect older sister for Twily and never the girl who fucked, who toked, who sucked, who drank, who flipped off the cops and didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone.

Good little Tavi needed to be taught a lesson.

Grabbing the instrument by the neck, she swung it as hard as she could on the ground. The instrument cracked on the first strike, then busted open on the second. Not enough, she grabbed her acoustic guitar and swung that against what was left of the contrabass, hammering one stringed work of art against the other until they both shattered like twigs. She then reached for an electric guitar, a gift. She raised that over her head, ready to smash it to bits as well—

“You shouldn’t have!”
“We thought you’d like it. I know you don’t have one, so we saved up to get one for you.”
“I love it! Thanks! I love you both, you know that?”

Octavia held the instrument above her head, trying to find the strength to break it. She couldn’t. She didn’t know why, she couldn’t. She threw the guitar on the bed, then went back to moving the stuff away from the door. Moving what she could, she finally freed herself and opened the door.

“And I’ll always love you, Setsuna.”
“Kiss me, Hideo!”

The girls were at the moment watching an NHK drama piped onto the television via Fluttershy’s laptop. A hobby of hers, Fluttershy had fansubbed it personally; and while the translation was spot on, there wasn’t something about two young lovers in Tokyo that quite translated to the gaggle of teens and one adult watching.

“Can we watch some anime next?” Lyra asked. “At least that’s in English.”

“Flutters is a sub purist,” Rainbow grunted. “She’d watch it raw if she could.”

“Well, maybe we can get Bonnie to translate, right hon?” Lyra suggested, leaning into her girlfriend.

“Yes, because all us of Asians are just the same – we just swap out our ethnicities when we’re bored,” Bon-Bon groaned.

“Well,” Velvet said, sitting on the couch next to her daughters, “personally I find this fascinating, Fluttershy. Do you have any more of these?”

“Yes, Mrs. V,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile. “I can burn them to a DVD if you like.”

“Well, let me go get my flash key and we’ll copy whatever you recommend – then I can watch upstairs in my room so I don’t disturb you all, and—” She heard footsteps on the stairs and looked up.

Octavia walked down in a sultry manner. Her shirt, or what little of it there was, seemed to barely float above her breasts, not that that was easily discernable, given that the shirt was cut from the bottom up to a point just barely covering her nipples. Her pants were of a cut so low that it made her drawstring panties obvious.

Bon-Bon and Lyra – the lesbians present – looked at her as if the goddess of sex had descended onto the earthly plane. Without taking her eyes off Octavia, who knew she was being ogled, Lyra said, “Bonnie, you know I love you, right?”

Not taking her eyes off the sexpot in front of her, Bon-Bon said, “I love you too, Ly. And yes, I’m thinking the same thing you are right now.”

“Tavi?” several girls said at once, unwilling to believe what they were seeing.

Octavia instead went up to Bon-Bon and whispered something in her ear, then whispered something in Lyra’s.

“Okay, now I know this is bullshit,” Bon-Bon said, as if getting a joke. “I remember you telling me that there was this guy that you like over at Munchinger. And now you’re telling me all of a sudden you bat for the other side? Yeah, right.”

“Want to test me?” Octavia purred. “Trust me, right now, I don’t care what gender it is.”

Several girls blinked in surprise. This was not the snarky but overall quiet girl that they knew.

“Okay, cuz, I don’t know what game you’re playing,” Sunset then interjected, “but you owe Twily an apology for what happened last night.”

Octavia then turned her eyes on Sunset, and the look in them was murderous. “You want to know what game I’m playing, you lying, good for nothing bitch?” Octavia then reeled back and slugged Sunset in the face, as hard as she could. As Sunset reeled back, Octavia then took a lamp from the nearby stand and smashed it over the flame-haired girl’s head, drawing blood as Sunset collapsed to the floor.

“Tavi, what the hell are you doing?” Applejack said, grabbing her friend’s arms while the others went to see to Sunset. Twilight, however, was the exception. She actively stood in front of Sunset, as if to shield her from Octavia.

“Tavi, what’s gotten into you?” Twilight cried.

Pulling at her restraints, Octavia screamed, “Twily, if you have any sense, get away from that backstabbing skank before she hurts you too! That lying cunt needs to be put down!”

“She’s your cousin! My sister!” Twilight shouted back.

“SHE’S A CANCER THAT NEEDS TO BE KILLED OFF!” Octavia roared. She continued to squirm and push against Applejack’s grasp, and the look in her eyes was barely human.

“Octavia Melody, what has gotten into you?” Velvet shouted.

“It’s none of your Goddamn business what’s gotten into me!” she shouted at her aunt. “If you actually give a shit about this family you’ll take a kitchen knife and slit that scumbag’s throat before she ruins us all!”

Shocked by her niece’s behavior, Velvet reacted on automatic, doing the one thing she had never done to any of her children – Octavia included – before. But she was stunned by her niece’s insensate behavior and irrationality fed irrationality. By the time Velvet horrifically realized what she’d done, the red mark of her palm had already appeared on Octavia’s cheek.

But that was nothing compared to what happened next: enraged by her aunt’s apparent betrayal, Octavia broke free of her friend’s restraints and threw another punch, hitting Velvet right in the stomach. That seemed to snap Octavia out of her behavior as she saw the stunned look on her aunt’s face before Velvet crashed to the ground.

Pinkie moved to Velvet’s side in an instant. Looking at Octavia, Pinkie said words that cut the musician to the core: “She raised you. How could you?”

“I…I didn’t… I….” Octavia had become lost for words, but a second later found them. Looking at the unconscious Sunset with pure hatred, she snarled, “This is your fault!” She took one step towards Sunset…

…and that was all it took as Applejack pulled her back and Bon-Bon moved into a striking posture, aimed right at Octavia’s throat.

“One more step and you’ll be breathing out of a straw for the rest of the month,” Bon-Bon hissed.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” Everyone turned to see Night Light step out of his office, an angry look on his face. It only took him a second to see Octavia being restrained, Velvet and Sunset on the ground and Twilight shielding them both, tears in her eyes.

“Get to your room, Octavia Melody,” he said in a cold voice. “I don’t know what you did, but apparently being grounded isn’t anywhere near enough. You are not to come out of that room until I tell you, understood?”

Still not believing what had just happened, all she could do was numbly nod.

Bon-Bon and Applejack took a look at each other and nodded in silent agreement. “Ah’ll take first watch,” she said, sadly. Wrenching Octavia’s arm behind her back, she said, “C’mon. Let’s not make this harder than it already is, Tavi. Please.” With that, Applejack led the silent girl back to her room.

Night found himself in the middle of a bunch of shocked girls, his unconscious daughter and his dazed wife. “Girls,” he said to all present, “I don’t know what just happened, but I’m sorry you saw that.”

“It’s okay, Mr. Light,” Trixie said, unsure of what else to say. Picking up the unconscious Sunset, she said, “Someone grab her feet and help me carry her to her room.” Rainbow nodded and helped her friend carry their precious cargo upstairs.

“Go, Twilight,” Rarity told her friend. “Your sister needs you now.” Teary, Twilight nodded and followed Trixie and Rainbow upstairs. The fashionista looked at Pinkie and Minuette, who were tending to Velvet. “How’s she doing, girls?”

“Well, I’m no doctor, but I know enough first aid that I can say she looks okay,” Minuette replied. As Pinkie helped Velvet to her feet, Minuette said, “I’m going to go check on Sunny. You guys got a first aid kit anywhere?”

“In the girls’ bathroom upstairs,” Velvet numbly mumbled as Minuette nodded and rushed up.

Night helped his wife to the couch while the girls tried to clean up the mess. “What happened, hon?”

“Tavi’s in trouble,” was all Velvet could say. “She’s worse than we thought. What’s going to happen to our girl, Night?” The tears came to the woman once more and her husband held her in comfort.

Outside, as if a symbol of the chaos that had unfolded within the house, the rain and winds continued to howl and lash at the whole of Canterlot, portending worse things to come.

Author's Note

Bet you weren't expecting that, were you?

Also, if you were curious about "Essence of Sapphire"....

August 7, AM: The Big Chair

Sunset came to. Her head was ringing, and she felt nauseous. Her vision was blurry, though she could tell it was dark.

“Don’t try to move, dear.” She heard Rarity’s voice, to the right and saw as a light came on. The searing brightness blinded her briefly, but it took a few minutes for her vision to return to normal.

The look on Rarity’s face was one of tear-stained relief. “Excuse me,” she said, daubing her eyes. “We’ve all been worried about you these past few hours.” Sunset started to move, and Rarity gently pushed her back. “Don’t try to move, darling. We think you might have a mild concussion. Stay there. I’ll wake Pinkie.” The fashionista went over to where the curly-locked girl was passed out on the floor. “Pinkie, dear, wake up,” she hissed.

“Five more minutes, Auntie Cup,” the cheerleader mumbled.

“Pinkie, wake up!” Rarity insisted. “Sunset’s awake.”

Blue eyes flashed open and Pinkie sprang up like a slinky on overdrive. “Sunny! We were sooooooo worried about you!” Pinkie, remembering what her friend went through and the worries about a concussion, restrained herself from hugging Sunset. “How ya feeling?”

“Feel like shit,” Sunset slurred, trying to blink away the pain and not quite succeeding.

“Go microwave some of the tomato soup that Mrs. Velvet set aside last night,” Rarity ordered. “Bring that back here, then I want you to wake up both Twilight and Mr. Light and Mrs. Velvet. If any of the girls downstairs are awake, let them know that she’s okay, but that we want her parents to see her first, okay?”

“On it!” Pinkie chirped. Turning to Sunset, she said, “Sunny, promise me you won’t ever worry us like that again!”

“I…I don’t understand.”

Pinkie finally gave into her wishes and gingerly hugged Sunny, then grinned again. “Please don’t play crash test dummy again, okay?” Before the flame-haired girl could react, she headed out.

Rarity smiled fondly. “She was the first one to insist keeping a watch over you. Rainbow wanted to as well, but between her, Applejack and Bon-Bon, they needed their sleep.”

“What happened?” Sunset asked. “Last thing I remember, Tavi came down dressed…well, I’ve never seen her dress like that before, and it seemed like she was putting the moves on both Lyra and Bonnie. Then I said something and I…I don’t recall any more than that.”

“Well, I’ll be blunt, dear: after her, ahem, flagrant display, Octavia turned on you. She slugged you, then grabbed a lamp and smashed it over your head. Then she attacked your mother.”

“She what?” Sunset said, sitting up…and paying the price for it. She rocked back, biting off a loud scream, then fell back.

“Sunset, please contain yourself – if you did get a concussion, those take weeks to heal.”

“Don’t worry,” the flame-haired girl replied. “As soon as I can think clearly I’ll cast a self-healing spell.” She looked at her hand; she could barely make out the whorls and lines of her handprint. “And I have to wonder if this is my fault.”

“No – don’t even think that, Sunset. You see, in light of what happened last night, I feel I must break confidentiality and tell you something.” The fashionista then explained the conversations she had with Octavia and all they entailed. Sunset, calling up a spell, called a ball of cyan fire to her hand and basically slapped her forehead, inserting the ball in through the skin. It was, she had to admit, an odd situation that Rarity had grown used to Sunset’s magic that she didn’t blink twice at something that others would have considered a hallucination.

When she was done, Rarity said, “You should pretend to be a little bit dazed for a day or two. An instant recovery might raise questions, dear.”

“I know; I’m used to it by now – the family thinks I just recover faster than the average.” Sunset sighed. “You know, it would be a complete irony if I was to blame for what’s happening to Tavi.”

“Darling, there’s no way you coul—”

“No, Rares, there is. You see, when you, Twily and Tavi were hit with the Vibe, you were lucky: your cold medicine was the key to neutralizing it. Twily was successfully drugged, but she had Cady there to protect her. But I was the one that had to save Tavi, and I was angry and worried and not really in my right mind – I just wanted to protect my cousin, who was drugged to the point that she was completely at Vinyl Scratch’s mercy. So I did the only thing I could think of: I hit her with a point-blank purification spell. It’s similar to what I just did to myself, but it’s intended to vaporize toxins and the like in the body.” She sighed. “But I think I may have made a huge mistake.”

“How so?”

Sunset looked at her friend. Though she trusted Rarity completely, she promised Octavia she would never mention her chimerism. So instead she took a different tack. “I used a medical spell on someone without knowledge or authorization. While I can get away with that under Good Samaritrot laws in Equestria, I’m not a human doctor. And they found traces of LSD precursors in Twily’s body, even though we know now why she lost it. But Carrot Top also had similar problems, and there’s no reason to suspect magic there. And I have to wonder that when I hit Tavi with the purification spell, all I did was delay the inevitable.”

“But you couldn’t have possibly known, Sunset,” Rarity countered. “You were just trying to help your cousin. If the same thing happened to me, I don’t doubt that Octavia would be here telling you the same thing.”

“No, it is my fault, Rares. I violated one of the principal rules of healing spells: first, do no harm. I thought I was cleaning up the toxins in her body, but if the spell was never designed with humans in mind – and it isn’t – then how would the spell matrix know what to hit? It’s like using human antibiotics against the hornpox back home – it might work, but it might also make things worse.” A glum look came over Sunset’s face as she said, “And I think that’s exactly what happened.”

Sunset would have said more, but Pinkie picked that moment to walk in. “Here ya go: tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Made especially with lots of Pinkie goodness!”

Sunset gave Pinkie a wan smile. “Thanks, Pinkie.” She took a bite, and her mouth lit up with flavor. “Pinkie, this is good – what’d you do?”

Pinkie winked. “Oh, just made the family grilled cheese recipe, not the one we have at the café. This one involves pretty much every cheese you had in the house and herbed butter. I also made the sourdough fresh.”

“When did you—”

“When you were knocked out,” Pinkie said sadly.

“Well, it’s great, Pinkie. You outdid yourself.” Sunset picked up the spoon to eat her soup, when she felt two familiar arms snake around her and pull her close. Pinkie snatched the tray off Sunset’s lap before anything spilled.

Sunset could feel the hot tears of her sister against the back of her head. “You’re okay!” Twilight sobbed. “I was so worried! Tavi could have seriously hurt you!”

“I’m…okay,” Sunset said, not entirely a lie. “I guess I’ve got a harder head than expected.”

Twilight turned Sunset around. “That’s not funny, Sunny! You could have a concussion or the like! In fact, after the storm’s done, Mom wants me to take you to Dr. Zecora’s for a checkup.” She could see the worried look on Twilight’s face turn into one of anger, and it worried Sunset greatly. “That damn bitch—”

“Twily, stop. I know you’re worried about me, sis, but Tavi’s clearly sick. You were in a bad way a few months back; if you attacked me, would you want her to react that way?”

“I don’t, but—”

“No, listen to me. She’s our cousin – she’s been like a sister to you longer than I have. And right now she needs us – all of us.” Sunset looked at all her friends; now that the news had been passed that she was okay, they all filed into her room. She did, however notice three notable absences: Applejack, Rainbow and Bon-Bon, but she thought it best not to ask. Turning her attention back to Twilight, she said, “I did everything I could to protect you when you were down, Twily. I would do the same for Tavi, even though she hit me. And Mom would do it for all of us.”

“She hit Mom, too. Mom was so shocked that she actually slapped Tavi – she’s never laid a hand on any of us.”

“I know. But I’ll bet if we ask Mom later, she won’t think of it as Tavi hurting her. I suspect she’ll think of it as her niece needing help.”

“Yeah,” Twilight admitted. “But I just wish we could fix Tavi’s problems instantly – like magic.”

Sunset looked at her sister sadly. “Twily, you of all people should know there’s no such thing as magic.”

“Yeah, we’ll do so as soon as we can. Don’t worry, Evening, we’ll take care of it. You know we’ll take care of her…even if it means that we’re going to have to replace all the stuff in her room…yes, she even broke even those. Yeah, we’re worried too. I’ll keep you guys updated.” Night hung up the phone and looked at his wife, who was lying down in bed. “Evening and Ballad want us to take her to see a psychiatrist as soon as we can – actually, they beat me to the punch in suggesting it.”

“I’ll call both Zecora and Posey in the morning and see if there’s anyone they can recommend,” Velvet mourned. “I hate this. I hate seeing our girls like this, Night, at each other’s throats. It’s that damn drug – it hurt Twily, and now it’s hurting Tavi!”

“We don’t know that, Vel,” he said, moving next to his wife. “Maybe it’s something else. We won’t know until we take her in.”

“You didn’t see, Night. The look in her eyes – it wasn’t like she was our Tavi anymore.” The look on Velvet’s face was heartbroken. “It wasn’t our niece, Night…it was like she would have murdered Sunny if she had the chance!” She turned away from him. “I can’t bear to see another one of our girls go through this again.”

He reached over and embraced her. “We’ll get her the help she needs. Evening and Ballad are counting on us, and I would do it even if they weren’t.”

There was a knock on the door. “Mr. Night? Mrs. Velvet?” The door opened slowly, revealing Trixie. “I just thought you’d want to know: Sunset’s up.”

Velvet, despite her pain, leapt off the bed and raced for the door in a flash. She nearly made it to Sunset’s room when she stumbled, only to be caught by Minuette.

“She’s fine, Mrs. V,” Minuette explained. “We’re giving her some space to eat and talk to Twily. But I think our bigger problem’s in the other room. How are you feeling?”

“Truthfully? I don’t know what hurts more right now: my stomach or my heart.” Velvet looked down the hall that had led towards the addition of the house had been built. Sitting outside a door and looking very uncomfortable, was Applejack. “Where’s Rainbow and Bon-Bon?”

“Inside with Octavia,” Applejack yawned. “Rainbow wanted to say something to her, and Bonnie didn’t trust Rainbow to be by herself. Granted, Rainbow can scrap with the best of them, but…Tavi’s just a little OP right now, if that makes any sense.”

“And why are you there?” Velvet looked to see Night standing next to her, looking at the teen. He already knew the answer, and though he said nothing, the very idea worried him.

“Y’ know the reason, Mr. Light – we ain’t gonna let her go anywhere near you or Sunny. Tavi’s one of mah friends, but between you an’ me, that…whatever…that’s in there? That ain’t Tavi. Not the one we know.”

“Well, I need to go in there to talk to her,” Night said. “I trust that my niece won’t hurt me.”

“Frankly, right now Ah don’t, but you’re the one in charge here,” Applejack said, standing up and moving from the door.

In the bowels of the SIREN complex in downtown Canterlot, a quartet of women stood in a small, forgotten storage room. “We don’t have much time, so let’s make this fast,” Rhapsody Blue spoke.

“Yeah, what’s up, sis?” Intermezzo Blue spoke. Also present were their younger sister Vesper Blue and their trusted companion and fellow SIREN, Madrigal Storm.

“Look, I trust you three completely. Two of you are my sisters; the other I’ve known for years. So I need your absolute silence on this, are we agreed?”

“Classified, Rhapi?” Madrigal asked.

“No – worse than that. The Sisterhood may be in grave danger from within, and I’m not talking about the supposed spy network that Harmonica Slice reputedly set up. That may be true, but I have my doubts. No, what concerns me is the way that Captain Blast has been acting as of late. Cantata doesn’t seem too interested in planning our assault on CSIS HQ anymore, but she is spending a lot of time with our benefactor. Scuttlebutt is even that they’re lovers.”

“Don’t we have a no relationships rule in effect right now?” Vesper asked.

“We do, but you know that I turn a blind eye to it in order to improve morale,” the SIREN XO explained. “But that’s not the issue here. The problem is that our captain might be less interested in trying to get revenge for the Admiral and more on carving out her little space in the power vacuum of the world. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t sign up for this to become mercenaries. My plan was to get revenge, and then retire somewhere in peace. But that just might not happen.”

“You’re right,” Madrigal spoke up. “Last night, I was going through Rie’s old remains, and there’s a lot of stuff she had. A lot of weird things. Spooky shit – and by that I don’t mean intelligence. I mean weird weird. Magical shit kinda weird.”

“What?” Rhapsody asked. Madrigal then detailed exactly what she found and how odd it was, and when it was over, Rhapsody shook her head. “But why would she have any of that sort of stuff?”

“I don’t know,” Madrigal replied, “but we’re going to have to find out and soon.”

Rhapsody nodded. “Cantata has something big planned in a couple of days, and then after that, she’s got another thing going. As far as I know, none of it has to do with our plans. Furthermore, she hasn’t told me or OPS. As I said before, I really have to wonder if any of these plans are for our future, or hers.”

“I’ll be honest, Rhapi – I’m having a hard time believing this,” Intermezzo said. “It was the Captain’s idea to rebel in the first place, and she’s always been our best advocate for fighting CSIS. To believe that she’s changed….”

Rhapsody clapped her sister on the shoulder. “People change – it’s a constant. For example, those three roughnecks you three were training? Why aren’t they here? You could have brought them.”

The three junior SIRENs demurred at that until Vesper admitted, “We told them to take liberty down south for their own good. They’ve built a life here and we didn’t want them to be made into liars.”

Rhapsody chuckled. “And there’s change in action. You three aren’t acting like sœurs – you’re acting like mothers. You three don’t just care about your petite sœurs, you love them.”

Madrigal was the first to admit it. “Yes, I think we do. Didn’t you feel that way about your sœur?”

Rhapsody shook her head. “No – and Contralto Rush has been a thorn in my side ever since.”

“Sorry, I’d forgotten you two had a falling out.”

“Well, she hasn’t, I can assure you. Then she bought Symphony’s shit, and now that idiot’s dead and Alto’s star’s on the rise, the teacher’s pet for Cantata along with her buddies. I don’t like that one bit. But that’s not important right now.” She reached into a pocket, pulling out three discs. “These were something I was able to recover from a flash drive Cantata left around. It’s heavily encrypted, so I don’t know what’s on it. But given that she didn’t give me any knowledge that it existed at all, it can’t be good. I copied it and returned it, so she doesn’t know that it’s gone. Based on that, I think it’s honestly fair to say that if I die in the next few days under odd situations, you’ll know that she did it – no arguments.”

“You think she’ll kill you?”

Rhapsody nodded. “Canta and I have been friends since we were little girls, but she’s always been ambitious. And even though we’re close, she’s not going to let a little thing like friendship get in the way of her goals. She’ll do it with me or without me, and I think it will be the latter.” She then thought about it. “Keep those girls of yours away from here right now. They’re the ace in the hole that we need. If anyone asks, they’re on a secret project for me – that should be more than enough to keep them covered.”

“I’ll let them know,” Vesper replied.

“Now, let’s get out of here, one at a time, five minute intervals. We don’t want to be seen together, as any group seen together right now just might spook the Captain into premature action – and that’s something we really don’t need at the moment. Dismissed.”

In the warehouse they rented, they took a final look over the two vans they had modified to look like ECSD vehicles. “Last chance to join in on the fun, Changeling,” Blackthorn told him.

“Thanks, but no. I need to leave town myself to report your success to my superiors,” the agent stated. “Get the job done before I arrive in Canada and there might be a little bonus waiting for you.”

“Yes, that sounds great,” Blackthorn said, reaching in a pocket on his web belt for a stogie. He slipped it in his mouth, then pulled out a zippo, lit the cig and took a long, satisfying puff. “This is gonna be the first of great things, Changeling. I just know it.” With a final wave, he got into the van as two distant men opened up the warehouse’s doors. Under normal circumstances, they would have moved under dark of night. But now, with the storm blowing and some of the streets flooding due to the effects of the massive weather blasting, they could move into position, scout the location to their heart’s content and then when the moment was right, attack with everything they got.

Changeling watched as the men got into the van. He nodded, indicating he would close the doors, and with that little agreement, they sped off. He waited until a second or two later, then stripped off his suit and threw it into the back seat of the rented SUV. He slipped on some jeans, a wrinkled polo, and a jacket. Opening a briefcase and using the side-view mirrors, he perfectly attached a fake beard. He then combed it and his hair out, then mussed it a bit to look a little scragglier. He reached into the briefcase for a plastic, bladder like device, then slipped it under his shirt and around his waist before attaching a pump to it, inserting air; the effect gave him what appeared to be a beer belly. Finally, he tucked his shirt in, threw on some slightly-out-of-fashion eyeglasses, and topped it off with a sweat-stained Florida Marlins ballcap. Finally, he fished into the briefcase for an ID card, a couple of credit cards, and a passport. He looked at the driver’s license and his new identity for the next week and a half it would take to drive back to Ottawa: Travelled Path, residence 335 Hickory Lane, Barstow, California, off on a drive to see his sister Cherry Soda, who married one of those damn Canadans up in Ah-ta-wah or whatever the place was called. Changeling grinned; it was as perfect a cover as it could be.

He got into the car, drove it out into the rain, and then got out to close the door. It really didn’t matter much anyway; if for some reason Blackthorn and his folks failed, the carefully-planted explosives in the building – and the surrounding ones – would go off and level the block. Fortunately, with the hurricane passing to the east right now, few people would be around and the deaths would be minimal. Still, buildings being taken out with no regard to life – it was both barbaric and brutal, but that’s why he hired these monsters – monsters knew monsters best, and when it came to Cantata Blast and her forces, he could think of few monsters more dangerous.

Getting back into his truck, he pulled a tab on the side of the briefcase, then threw it as far away as it could. The thermite within would activate and burn his identity here to cinders, leaving no one the wiser. Closing the door and muttering about how the rain soaked him to the bone, he drove off, headed south towards Interstate 5 and a roundabout path to take him as far away from this soon-to-be abattoir of a city as possible.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Twily,” Rainbow told her friend. Both Twilight and Night Light were standing in front of the door leading to Octavia’s room. Rainbow was standing in front of them, while Bon-Bon was currently blocking the path within. Applejack, who had been up all night guarding the door, slipped into Twilight’s bedroom for some sleep.

“She’s my cousin and I’m worried about her, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “Besides, I can ta—”

“No, you can’t,” Bon-Bon replied, looking at both Twilight’s father then the plum-haired teen. “Sunny wasn’t expecting Tavi’s attack – none of us were, and as a result she got taken down hard. That was a serious blow there, and any instructor would sit an injured person like that out of practice for a few weeks so they could recover – anyone with a concussion cannot afford another hit like that again.”

“Yeah, if you’ve been following the NFL, it’s all over the news,” Rainbow stated, and Bon-Bon nodded in agreement.

“She won’t hurt me, I know it,” Twilight told them, though privately she wasn’t sure if that was the case anymore. She saw the hatred and rage in her cousin’s eyes, and for a brief second she had to wonder if there was anything human in them at the time.

“No,” Rainbow interjected. “You’re not a fighter, Twily. Your sister and I are, even though we’re not trained. AJ and Bonnie are, and Tavi broke out of AJ’s grasp and got to Sunny before Bonnie could react. Even with one of us present, it won’t be safe for you.” She looked at Night and said, “Truthfully, I wouldn’t let either of you in there, but you’re the adult, Mr. Light, and it’s ultimately your call.”

“Speaking of which, girls,” Night Light said, “Is this really necessary? I mean, I know that Tavi attacked both Sunset and my wife – Velvet’s given me all the details – but is all this, ahem, ‘security’ actually needed?”

“Mr. Light?” Rainbow said, “I consider Tavi to be cool and a good friend of mine. What is in that room ain’t Tavi. She’s more like….” Rainbow paused for thought, then said what she really considered to be accurate. “She’s more like a horny, coked-up Gilda right now. The kind of person that would just as much shoot you as sleep with you. Maybe not the most accurate way to phrase things, but certainly probably true.”

Night looked at the rainbow-haired girl as if she were insane; certainly what she was saying didn’t make sense to him. He knew his niece, had always known her. To hear of her as some sort of thugette-in-training, well, he couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Astrophysics and theoretical astronomy, sure. The girl that was practically his daughter as some hoodlum? Not even remotely.

Before he could say anything else, Bon-Bon spoke up. “For a while, sir, I hated Sunny. Then, when she tried to make up with me, she was with Trixie at the time. I sucker punched her, and she didn’t see me, so that blow hit. But then I tried to hit her again, and I almost hit Trixie…if Sunny hadn’t blocked the blow. I didn’t even see your daughter move her hand – it was like she caught it by magic.”

“You don’t say,” Rainbow drolled.

“Yeah. Since then, we’ve sparred a couple of times, and I have to say she’s really good. Picked up something – not sure of the style – but something. AJ’s also taught her a little bit, and it shows. But Tavi got through those defenses and put her down. That’s the kind of assailant that I don’t want people who can fight to be with, much less those who can’t.” She looked at Twilight. “I know she’s important to you, Twily: I’d feel the same way if this was happening to my sister Burgundy. But your father’s a grown man and you’re a wisp of a girl who can’t really defend yourself.” She then turned back to Night Light. “At the risk of being brutal, sir, if things get to their worst, you can throw a punch. Twily can’t.”

“Bonnie!” Twilight gasped. “I can’t believe you’re even suggesting that Dad hit my cousin!”

“Twily, what’s in there isn’t Tavi!” Rainbow insisted. “Your cousin – my friend – I recall joking with about liking guys! Whatever’s in there said a whole bunch of things regarding me, my hair color, gay jokes and….” She blushed. “I really don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“Dad?” Twilight pleaded. “Your call.”

Night Light sighed. “As much as I hate to say it, I don’t think the girls are doing this all for entertainment. The rest of your friends haven’t come up here save to check on them and bring them food.” A thought came to him. “Has Tavi been out of the room in the last few?”

“We brought her food, Mr. Light,” a voice behind him spoke. “She threw it in our faces an’ told us to go to hell.” Applejack soon joined them; she looked tired but determined. “Ah have to admit, Ah don’t like this. Ah don’t like treating any of mah friends like this. But something’s not right about her, and Ah don’t know about you, but Ah’m worried.”

“Applejack, I would appreciate it if you accompanied me in my daughter’s stead,” Night Light said to the blonde, finally resigning himself to the fact that all of this might actually be necessary.

“Be careful,” Bon-Bon said as she opened the door for them. “Don’t expect the ordinary.”

“Direct order from the XO? Sure, we can do that, Maddie,” Adagio said into her cellphone. “Not going to ask why, but we’ll remain on standby.”

“Tell her about the tail,” Aria reminded her. Currently in their hotel room, Sonata took turns between watching whatever was on the television and “casually” peeking out the window for Sonatina Crush. The hotel tile floor made enough noise that being able to hear anyone walk up and down the hall was obvious, so the likely attack vector would come from outside.

“Thanks,” Adagio told her sister. “Yeah. We have a tail on us – one of the wetworks folks that are under your command now. Sonatina Crush. No idea why, but it can’t be good.”

“Let me look into it for a second.” There was some clacking in the background, like fingers on a keyboard. A second later, she heard Madrigal swear. “Assignment is on lockdown, on direct orders from the Captain. I can’t override this easily, though I’ll keep trying. You may want to move hotels, though, just to be on the safe side. Also, look into renting a car; we might need you to jet back here as soon as possible once the storm’s over and you can’t afford to wait for buses or a supply pickup from the command.”

“We’ll get on it right away,” Adagio said. “Probably should ditch this fake ID and cards anyway; we’re leaving too much of a trail.” She looked away from the phone for a second. “Girls, pack up. We’re checking out in an hour.”

“Roger that,” Aria commented.

Sonata silently nodded, but instead moved the curtains back slightly, looking down the street. There, standing across the street and seeming to look up at her was a girl with black and gold hair, dressed in a simple t-shirt, shorts and shades. To any other person, she didn’t seem any different from the average girl walking down the street, but Sonata knew better. This was confirmed a second later as Sonatina Crush removed her glasses and stared briefly at Sonata, who returned the glare.

She turned away from the window and looked at her sisters. “We’d better move fast,” was all she said as she moved towards her bag.

The first thing Night saw when he entered his niece’s room was the fact that what he’d told his brother was correct: she’d destroyed every piece of furniture in the room: the sheets were torn apart and the mattress was ripped open; the desk, dresser and nightstands were shattered, and the closet and everything in it was ripped out and shredded. Even Octavia’s most prized instruments, her contrabass and Spanish guitar, had fallen prey to the destruction present. Only two things had seemingly survived: the electric guitar Twilight and Sunset had got her for this past Christmas, and the chair that had been part of the desk.

That chair was being used right now as Octavia sat in it. She was dressed – if you could call it that – like a pornstar, leaving nothing to the imagination. Night and Applejack averted their eyes, but for different reasons: the shopclerk now felt guilty for the day the girls all went “intimate” shopping on a lark, while it disgusted Night to see his niece like this.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. “Octavia, please put on some clothing.”

The smile on her face was lurid, and Night had to keep his surprise to wonder where it came from. “Oh, Daddy,” she purred, “don’t you want to see how your little girl’s grown up?”

“Octavia, I’m not your—”

“One,” she said, lifting a single finger. “I’m not your dear little Tavi. That frigid little cunt had her chance, and now it’s my turn. My name,” she said with a tone that bordered on the imperious, “is Melody. And two, yes, you might not want to admit it, but you are my father. Certainly not the guy who dunked his pecker in the woman who pushed me out nine months later. Oh, I’m sure they wanted to be parents at first, but taking care of a little baby must have interfered with their careers and fucking each other. Why else would they run off to Paris and abandon us?” She sighed, moving her legs just enough to give both Night and Applejack a little show. “Now they can go fuck to their heart’s content. Maybe they’ll make another brat they can throw away.”

Applejack blushed. “Tavi, ple—”

“Not that cunt, I told you,” “Melody” said in a dangerous growl. “Call me that again and I’ll beat the shit out of you. Or,” she cooed, “maybe you’ll just rough me up again. Truth be told, that kinda turned me on.”

“Fine, Melody,” Night spat. “Go put on some clothing.”

“Sure thing, Daddy.” She got off the chair and sauntered over to the closet, where she found a teddy that was slightly more covering – slightly, due to its sheerness. Moving back, she sat down, and crossed her legs, sparing them any further embarrassment. “So, as I was saying, Daddy, I want a life now. I want everything the cunt had, and because I’m your precious little daughter, you’re going to give it to me.” She got up from the chair and moved close to him. “Oh, I’ll try to behave, but…I want fun. I promise I won’t get pregnant or arrested, because that’s an impediment to what I want.” She then hooked a thumb at Applejack, adding, “You may as well take me out of that virginfest private school and put me in the zoo with stupid here. You won’t waste as much money that way.”

“Stupid?” Applejack hissed.

“Hey, you’re the muscle-bound moron who complained to little miss prissy pants that you’re working hard to keep a high-B average, right? While little miss frigid fuck Tavi had straight As. I’ll give her credit for that one, she worked her little butt off for that, but that’s at a real school. I figure if I go to your little travesty of an education center, I should probably get a perfect GPA just for giving blowjobs to the right teachers.”

“Why are you doing, this, Tavi?” Night asked. “You’re breaking my heart right now – all of ours.”

“I AM NOT THAT LITTLE BITCH!” Melody screamed. “HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU EVEN THINK THAT? WHY, BECAUSE SHE’S THE PERFECT LITTLE GIRL THAT NEVER COMPLAINS BECAUSE OUR SO-CALLED PARENTS THREW US OUT? BECAUSE SHE WHINED ABOUT BEING TOUCHED BY THAT RICH FUCKER BLUEBLOOD WHEN SHE COULD HAVE JUST SPREAD THEM AND LANDED US A RICH BOYFRIEND? OR FUCKED THAT DAMN DJ SILLY JUST TO HAVE SOME FUN? WHY DO I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH HER BEING IN THE LIMELIGHT ALL THE TIME AND I’VE BEEN THE ONE FORGOTTEN? WHY, DAMN YOU, WHY?”

Night tried to keep himself under control. This was not the girl he raised. Octavia knew her parents had sacrificed for her and had lived with them regularly up until recently. She had a total dislike for what Blueblood did, though she let it pass because she didn’t want to bring difficulty for them. And she was, as far as he knew and she’d often said, not bisexual or lesbian, though he wouldn’t have loved her any less if she was. But the girl in front of him was exactly as Rainbow had warned him: this wasn’t Tavi. He didn’t know what this was.

He looked at the now empty chair and a lyric from his college years came to mind. It was, ironically, a favorite of Celestia’s and she’d played the album often whenever he came over to her and Velvet’s apartment:

“She wants to sit beside you
In Your big chair”

The song was by Tears for Fears. The song…was about insanity and split personality.

Night was a man of science, a man of reason. He drilled it into his children and while Shining and Spike had taken their mother’s nature of emotion over reason, his younger daughter followed in his footsteps. It had guided him throughout his life, even as his parents disregarded it, one brother used it to fly above the skies and another chased his parents’ path. To Night Light, reason was both friend and master, something to guide him and lead him and ensure that his future was there.

As he looked at the wrong gaze in the eyes of his niece, he couldn’t help but think about the song and the conversation he had with Celestia about it, about three decades in the past:

“Yeah, kinda weird, I know, but the song talks about Sibyl.”
“Sibyl? You mean the movie?”
“No, the real person the movie’s about, though her name wasn’t Sibyl – that was just for the movie. Read about the actual case, it was from the 50s, some college girl named White Life. Anyway, she was documented with dozens of split personalities, the worst of which was Black Death, a girl who was the exact opposite of the nice person White was normally.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’ll have to find the book in my room somewhere. Anyway, where White was the girl next door, Black slept with the father of the family next door just so she could get her kicks watching the family fall apart in divorce.”
“What happened eventually?”
“No idea, man – I’m guessing I’ll have to watch the movie to find out.”

Recalling that conversation from years ago, he had to wonder if he was looking into the eyes of Black Death right now, with White Life screaming for help just behind them.

Night, at that point, decided that for once in his life, reason could shove it – he had his niece to save.

Reaching out to her, he said, “Listen to me: I need something from you right now.”

Melody’s eyes seemed to light up with malicious glee. “Do you need to spank me, Daddy? Because I’ve been a bad, bad girl – and if you spank me, I’ll be even badder!”

He ignored that. Not taking his eyes off the girl in front of him, he said, “Applejack, go get my wife. I’ll be okay here.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Light?”

“Very sure.” Reluctantly Applejack left and Night turned his focus to the girl before him.

“Tavi, if you can hear me in there,” he said to her softly and carefully, “please come out. We miss you.”

Melody’s face became a twisted sneer of rage. “DID YOU NOT LISTEN TO ME, YOU FAT FUCK? I’M NOT THAT PRISSY BITCH! NOW BE MY DADDY AND SPANK ME OR DO ME OR WHATEVER IT IS YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO!”

Night ignored that and looked deep into her the girl’s hateful eyes. “Tavi, you can do this. Please. We need you.”

Melody pulled away from him. “Fuck you,” she said, flipping him off. “I see what you’re trying to do, Daddy. You want your precious little pretty bitch back. Well, you can go fuck yourself, because I'm the one in charge here, do you understand? ME!”

“Tavi, you can come back. Don’t be afraid. We’re here for you.”

Melody picked up the chair. “FUCK YOU! THIS IS MY BODY, MY LIFE AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, I’M GOING TO BASH YOUR BRAINS IN UNTIL YOU D—” Suddenly, she dropped the chair and Melody’s eyes widened. “No,” she whispered to nobody in particular. “You go the fuck away, you bitch! This is my body now! GO DIE LIKE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO!” Melody then inexplicably dropped to her knees and slammed her head on the seat of the chair as hard as she could, drawing blood as she fell back.

Night moved to her side in an instant as Velvet opened the door, horrified to see what had become of her niece’s room and what Octavia had done to herself. “Night, what’s going on here?”

Meanwhile, Night moved to his niece’s side, scooping her up in his arms as she lay on the floor. Her eyes opened up, and in them was fear.

“Uncle Night,” Octavia spoke in a quavering voice, “help me!”

He brought her into an embrace. “It’s going to be okay, Tavi. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.” Tears ran down his cheeks as she hugged him, shaking in his arms, bawling.

“She’s going to kill me, oh my God, she’s going to kill me,” Octavia whimpered over and over.

Moonshadow strummed on his acoustic guitar as the wind howled outside.

“You keep your distance with a system of touch
And gentle persuasion
I’m lost in admiration could I need you this much?
Oh, you’re wasting my time
You’re, you’re just wasting time”

Luna, drink in hand, sat down next to him on the couch. “Shadow, honey, could you sing something else, please?”

“I thought you liked ‘Head Over Heels’?” he asked. “You play it all the time in your car.”

“Well, I do, but….” She looked out the glass sliding doors to her back yard and the raging storm outside. “For some reason, it just seems wrong.”

Now wearing a baggy pair of sweats and shivering as she drank a cup of coffee, Octavia tried not to look at anything but the mug as she told her aunt all that had happened to her over the past few weeks. “And now she’s in my mind and I’m afraid of what she says and what she’ll do, Aunt Velvet,” Octavia said, feeling the sting of tears come again. “I can’t take it anymore….”

“Shhh, sweetheart. Nothing’s going to happen to you, I promise,” Velvet insisted, hugging her niece for all it was worth and inwardly cursing herself. How could I have been so fucking blind? I was so focused on other stuff that I let Tavi fall apart right in front of my eyes. Watching another child of mine get run through the grinder once more. Some parent I am.

“No, please. Lock me up or throw me in some institution, Aunt Velvet! She’s dangerous! Melody’s a monster!” Octavia was completely detached from the creature that Night had explained to Velvet twenty minutes back. “She’s lusting after Twily and she hates Sunny! And she’s using my body to do it!” The tears came down her face as she said, “Or kill me – whatever it takes to stop her!”

“Tavi, stop that. You know we’re not going to do that. We’ll get you help, whatever it takes. And we’ll do this together, okay?”

“No, she’s too dangerous,” Octavia moaned.

“Maybe she is,” Velvet stated, “but if she is, then she hasn’t seen what I can do whenever one of my children is threatened. And you, dearest niece of mine, are definitely part of that.” Velvet reached over and took her niece’s hand in hers. “I don’t care who or what wants to harm any one of my family. If anyone even tries, they’re not going to like my response.”

“But she’ll come back. When I fall asleep, or when I’m weak or wh—” Octavia suddenly felt herself being smooshed in a hug.

“She can try,” Velvet said in a firm tone. “She’ll just fail.”

“Night, what the hell’s going on over there?” Posey said over the phone. “I’m at the hospital right now on standby duty and I get a call from my daughter saying that all hell’s broken loose over there!”

“Posey, relax. It’s not quite that, but Fluttershy isn’t exactly wrong. Mind going into doctor confidentiality mode?”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“Trust me, I’m liking it even less.” Seated in his office, Night then had a conversation of everything his niece had told them, interjected with additions from the other girls. Ten long minutes later, he said, “And I’m stuck with all this and have no idea what to do. I can’t imagine how Evening and Ballad are reacting right now, over in France.”

“Yeah, I don’t doubt that. Sorry for coming down hard on you. Anyway, what can I do to help?”

“Do you know anyone who specializes in psychiatry? She might need an evaluation. Velvet already called Zecora a few minutes ago, but couldn’t get a hold of her.”

“Cora’s over here, assisting us with incoming patients. I’ll tell her you said hi, then when we both get a break we’ll knock our heads together and see what we can come up with for you, okay?”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Hey, I owe you guys, if nothing else, for what Sunset did for Flutters and the problem with her father. Trust me, Night, you have a great daughter there, and once the adoption becomes official in three weeks, you don’t know how blessed you are. It’s actually made me and Discord think about possibly looking into adoption as well, and I’d be surprised if anyone else who knows you guys isn’t, either.”

“Well, I’ve probably taken up too much of your time as is, Posey. Thanks for all your help.”

“No, I needed the break, even if it’s for bad news. I’ll call you in a couple of days when this is all over and let you know what we got, okay? Talk to you later.”

Night set the phone down in the cradle, took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. This felt entirely too much like a new crushing layer on top of everything else he and his family had to deal with in the past year. All three of the girls in the house had suffered the worst, and all he could do was to pray that it would get easier – but if what he suspected about his niece was true, the chances of that were somewhere between slim to none.

It was a few minutes later when he walked into the dining room. The girls, with the exception of Applejack, who had gone back to sleep; and Sunset, who was restricted to her bedroom until she could see a doctor; were swarmed around Octavia, who was eating one of Pinkie’s special grilled cheese sandwiches.

“Bonnie, I’m sorry you had to see that,” Octavia said, feeling completely distraught. “I…it wasn’t me.”

“It’s okay,” Bon-Bon said in a tone that hinted it wasn’t, but for the sake of the others she’d forgive. “Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had someone grope me.”

“You did that?” Rarity gasped.

“Girls, please – she wasn’t in her right mind!” Twilight pled. “She wouldn’t do that normally.”

“I know,” Octavia nearly whispered in an ashamed, horrified tone. “The things…the things she wants to do…. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to fight it.”

“Bullshit,” Rainbow said, slapping her hands on the table. “You’re my friend and you aren’t in this alone, okay? You got me. You got all of us, okay? You aren’t alone, Tavi, so don’t give me any shit like you are.”

“But Rainbow, what if I’m losing my mind? What if it’s not some part of my imagination and I’m going mad? Or worse, what if she’s real?”

“I wholeheartedly doubt you have anything to worry about, Octavia dear,” Rarity insisted. “That uncouth individual is not the Octavia we all know and love and I can assure you that Sunset feels the same way.”

Octavia gasped; in everything she’d completely forgotten about what she’d done to Sunset. Turning to her aunt, she asked, “Can I go see her?”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea right now. Blossomforth’s up there with her at the moment keeping her company and it may not be best to agitate either of them.”

“I…see,” was all Octavia could say.

“Aww, c’mon, guys! We’re still stuck here for at least another day, so let’s not be so grumpy about it!” Pinkie sang. Raising her hand, she said, “All in favor of having a ‘Yay Tavi didn’t kill anyone’ party, raise your hand!” Everyone suddenly glared at Pinkie and she amended it with, “Okay, maybe not my best idea off the cuff, alright?”

“Yeah, probably should’ve thought your cunning plan all the way through, Pinks,” Lyra laughed.

“However, maybe we should come up with something to cheer Sunny up,” Trixie proposed. “She’s going to be stuck up there for a few days more and I know I’d go stir crazy if I had to stay in bed for a few days.” Everyone preferred that plan instead.

“You know, you’re good at this party planning thing!” Pinkie said to Trixie.

“Thanks, but I reall—”

“I got my eye on you,” Pinkie said with sudden seriousness. “Trying to steal my job?”

Minuette rolled her eyes. “Yes, because the last thing we need around here is you to go insane, Pinkie!” Everyone then glared at Minuette, who cried, “It was a bad figure of speech, okay?”

In the bedroom he shared with his fiancée, Shining Armor dressed for the day’s trip out: jeans, a pair of military-style boots he bought once for a paintball game he’d played with friends a year back, t-shirt, body armor and a loaner windbreaker that had FBI emblazoned on the back. Lastly, he also put on an FBI ballcap, this one given to him by Hardline. With that done, he opened up the gun safe, retrieving his pistol, and ammo. Today he’d be wearing a web belt as opposed to the shoulder harness he’d been wearing since he’d been on loan to the Feds. The belt had been a gift from Sunset, and even though it wasn’t exactly uniform regulation, he wore it anyway, as the CPD had been lax about that sort of thing.

Looking at the phone, he thought about calling his parents to see how they were doing. But he was in one of the areas where both the phone and the power had been knocked out. Cadance had marshalled all the candles in the apartment and was using that to keep the light going, and ironically it seemed to give everything a romantic, intimate feel. But that wasn’t something he could afford right now – he had a job to do and that meant getting out there to see what he could do for his fellow citizen.

As he walked out of the bedroom, he saw Cadance, sitting on the couch, reading a book. She looked absolutely beautiful and poised perfection, and part of him longed to just forget about the world outside and to remain with his heart’s desire. But if he did that, he wouldn’t be the person that she loved; his sense of honor and duty was one of the things that had made him alluring to her and that wasn’t something that he was going to change anytime soon.

She looked up from the book, closing it. “Do you have to go out?” she asked, a tinge of worry in her voice.

He nodded. “Yeah. My shift doesn’t start for another hour, but I figured better to get this over and done with. Besides, the radio said there’s a good chance that there’s flooding down at the end of Mulberry Street, so if I don’t go now, I could get trapped in the neighborhood for the rest of the storm.”

“Well, you’d be with me,” she said with a smile. “That’s not so bad, is it?”

He laughed, a sound that segued into an inhalation of a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I wish I could, Cady. But the people out there need me, and you’re safe here. I have to do what’s right.”

She giggled. “Oh, just go, you big doof,” she said, kissing him on the nose. “I’ll be here when you get back, though if I’m not, it’s probably because I went to help Old Mr. Cummerbund downstairs – I’m not sure he’s ready for the storm.”

“Take care of yourself, Cady,” he said as he went to the door.

“You too, my love,” she said, as she watched him step out of the apartment and be pelted by the weather howling outside. As the door closed, she watched the growing puddle of water that lay on the foyer tiles. She got off the couch and went to the kitchen to grab some paper towels to clean it up. She had to make sure that he would come home to a perfect apartment and a perfect fiancée, right?

As she went into the kitchen, she saw her cellphone, still attached to its charging cable, sitting as placidly as her pet cat, Obsidian, did. Obsidian was currently dozing on their bed, she’d noticed earlier; being a cat, he really didn’t give much of a care about what was going on in the world. Cadance envied her pet that; at least he could skip out on the responsibilities and duties of the world. If only she could live the life of a cat.

She thought about picking up her phone and calling Shining’s family to see if they were all right; no doubt Velvet and Night were going mad with twelve teenage girls having the run of the house, but then thought better of it. With the power out, she had to conserve power in case the worst happened.

Looking at the clock briefly (and glad that it ran off a double-A battery), she went to the bedroom to change clothing. She needed to venture outside their apartment to check on her car and to see if any of her neighbors needed help. As a government official, it was partly her responsibility to do so, and she felt it would be something she should do regardless.

The lights went out for the whole group mid-movie.

“Aww, man, just when it was getting to the good part!” Rainbow groaned.

“Only you would think Batman nearly getting killed by Bane would be a good thing,” Trixie told her friend. “Personally, I’ve seen the movie enough times to know how it ends by heart.”

“Well, I think we should probably start lighting some candles, girls,” Twilight advised.

Pinkie reached into her pockets and pulled out a bunch of lighters. “Glad I had these in case of lighter emergencies,” she told them.

“I don’t even want to know what you’re doing with all those lighters,” Lyra commented.

At that point, Velvet came into the living room, carrying a box of candles. “I think you’ll put these to good use, girls.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Velvet,” Rarity said.

“You’re quite welcome.” Turning to her daughter, Velvet asked, “Twilight, would you be so kind as to check on your sister, dear?”

“I can do that, Mom. Fluttershy, will you come with me?”

“Sure, Twily, I’d love to,” the chiffon-haired girl said. Both girls headed upstairs, towards where Sunset was currently sleeping.

Sunset grimaced as she got up from bed and set down the letter; she then ended the firefly light spell she was using for illumination. She had a lot to think about and how she was going to bring it up to her family. I have to tell them. If nothing else, then for…. She sighed. For my mother’s sake. Both of them.

She didn’t want to admit it, but Twilight was right: Celestia was her mother. The alicorn had raised her since she was four, having come into her life the day Sunset had a surge of magic strong enough to core the orphanage and hit the coach the princess had just exited; the magic blast had instantly turned the expensive, finely-crafted coach, as well as four other nearby wagons, into a teapot and teacups that still somehow retained the look of their original forms. But that, Celestia had told her years later, wasn’t what had truly caught her attention.

It was that Sunset had tapped into the sun to use as her magic source. Unicorns tended to draw from the air, or the earth, or even within their own natural wellsprings as a power source. But Sunset had tapped into the one thing that only one other pony had ever drawn power from.

It had been natural that Sunset became Celestia’s daughter. And even when she fought with the princess, it was because she wanted to prove worthy of her mother. She’d fallen so far from then, and had worked her way back up. And now, being adopted by people she loved – her family, with no question and no argument…she was inadvertently forgetting the family she already had.

I have to tell them the truth, Sunset thought to herself as she felt the crushing weight of shame on her. I have to tell them before they adopt me. Even if it costs me that, I love them enough that I should tell them the truth about who and what I am. And about my real mother. Sunset chuckled inwardly; Sunset had only seen the mare that had birthed her courtesy of Faust’s dreamwalking; given that, she was really just a random mare and nothing in Sunset’s life. But it was Celestia, the same biological creature with minor differences, did that mean that Celestia was her “biological” mother and Velvet her adoptive one?

I’ll have to ask Mom about that. If they ever meet, I owe the Princess more than just calling her “Princess” – she’s my mother too.

She crawled into bed just as there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” she said, and both Twilight and Fluttershy arrived.

“We came to see how you were doing,” Twilight told her sister.

“Plus, we have an update on Tavi,” Fluttershy said.

“I could be better,” Sunset admitted. “I haven’t had anything to eat since the power went out. And, as good as it was, tomato soup and grilled cheese doesn’t make for a great breakfast.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Pinkie wanted to make sure you had home-cooked comfort food. I think she forgot about the time, though,” the chiffon-haired girl said as she sat in the seat by the desk.

Twilight, on the other hand, plopped into bed right next to Sunset. “Are you sure you’re okay, sis? You look like you were crying.”

“Still in a bit of pain,” Sunset lied, feeling guilty that the fib rolled off her tongue all too easily. “I’ve been taking the Advil like Mom said, so don’t worry about that. I guess that she’s right that I’m probably going to have to have Dr. Zecora see me.”

“Well, if she can’t, I don’t think my mom will mind coming out to check on you,” Fluttershy offered. “Besides, I think she and Dr. Zecora are old friends, and I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“That would be appreciated, Flutters,” Sunset commented before she yawned. “Sorry, I’m feeling a little tired all of a sudden. Maybe everything is just catching up to me.”

“Well, maybe you should take a nap and when you get up, we can bring you something, okay?” Fluttershy said, rising from her seat. “Twily, I’m going to go see if the others need help. You should stay here with Sunny and tell her about Tavi, and make sure she gets some sleep, okay?”

“Sure thing,” Twilight agreed as Fluttershy bolted through the door.

“Sorry about that. She’s still more than a little freaked out about the whole thing with Tavi, not that I blame her. I’m still freaked out about it,” Twilight said. “Truthfully, if it wasn’t for the fact that our friends are here and I have to be a good host, I’d lock that door right now and stay in here with you until we could get some protection.”

“What happened?” Any traces of exhaustion that Sunset felt were now immediately banished. “Twily, what—”

“I’ll tell you later, okay? Right now, what I want for you is to sleep,” the younger girl insisted.

“Twily, if it’s about our cousin—”

“Mom and Dad have it in hand, Sunny. Though I’m worried about her, I’m more worried about you. She hurt you – seriously hurt you – and you’re bedridden here for the next few days until we can get you to see a doctor. That’s not anything minor. For that matter, our friends are worried about you, too.” She sighed. “Please, just for my sake, go to sleep and rest, okay? When you wake up, I’ll tell you about what happened to Tavi.”

Sunset gave her an unsure look. “You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure that I want you to take care of yourself.” Twilight looked her sibling right in the eyes. “You’re my older sister and I love you dearly, Sunny. I want us to all grow old together and stuff, and you can’t do that if you’re injured, okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Twily.”

“I know – because I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you are.”

Knowing when she was beaten, Sunset closed her eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, sis,” she murmured as she cuddled next to the younger girl.

And I don’t know what I’d do without you, Twilight said to herself as she lay there while Sunset drifted to sleep. Once she was sure the older girl was out, she gingerly moved out of Sunset’s grasp – Sunset, despite looking model-beautiful, had quite a bit of strength in her – she paused long enough to give Sunset a tender kiss on the forehead before she moved to the door to open it. Unfortunately, she pulled it open a little too quickly, and a forced breeze scattered a few papers from Sunset’s desk onto the floor.

Guess I should pick that up, Twilight said, as she went to go grab them. She didn’t think much of what she was picking up – drafts of homework, a form that Sunset had to fill out to satisfy the adoption, and a letter from Twilight herself to Sunset.

What? Twilight had never written her sister a letter. Sure, she’d left notes – the one she’d left her during Sunset’s stay in the hospital was one such example – but this was a letter, written on Hello Kitty stationery – another thing Twilight didn’t have. And yet Twilight recognized her handwriting, clear as day, on the paper.

Twilight read the letter and was further shocked. What is this? The letter read like a disjointed wonderland of psychedelic weirdness. Sure, some parts rang true – Cadance being Celestia’s niece for one – but the latter being Sunset’s mother? Or that Twilight herself was admonishing Sunset for “disregarding” said mother? Rainbow accidentally selling Fluttershy into slavery? Hornwriting?

Star Swirl? Razz? Who are they? And minotaurs? Yeah, other than the Greek myth and the robots from that shooter we were all playing last week, I have no idea what the heck this is. Any of this!

Confused, Twilight set the letter down on the desk. Part of her wanted to look in Sunset’s desk to see if there were any other letters like this, but she stopped. Sunset was her sister, and she was entitled to her privacy. But even still…this didn’t make sense.

Did I write the letter under the influence of the Vibe? But the Vibe doesn’t cause hallucinations, and besides, Cady was with me when I was under the effects. Or maybe I wrote it while suffering the aftereffects, but…I don’t have Hello Kitty stationery. She plopped into the chair by Sunset’s desk, ready to open it and look within despite what she’d told herself earlier. She wanted answers. She trusted her sister; likely this was something that Twilight wrote under the influence and Sunset was hiding it because she was protecting Twilight.

But even still, this doesn’t make sense. Twilight looked at the candles lighting Sunset’s room, especially the large green candle with the green flame. She’d seen a few candles like that; they tended to have copper (or some other metal) filaments woven into the wick in order to give that effect; Twilight herself had a candle with a purple flame when she was younger. She probably got it from Lyra’s mom’s shop, Twilight figured, giving the candle no more thought.

There was a knock on Sunset’s door, and Minuette poked her head in. “Hey, Twily, me, Bonnie, AJ and Blossom are about to start a game of Monopoly. Want to join us?”

“Sure. I’ll be down in a sec,” Twilight replied.

“How’s she doing?” Minuette asked. Given that Minuette had admitted that Sunset had been there for her during a bad time, she was one of the girls that had formed a fierce, protective attachment for the flame-haired girl. Twilight was proud of that; her sister had so many friends and had introduced them into her life because otherwise, Twilight and Octavia would have had nothing but each other. And Twilight couldn’t see that hermetic existence that she lived anymore. And in the time since, Sunset had engendered that in her own sister, and for that, amongst billions of other reasons, Twilight felt lucky that she had an older sister like Sunset.

But still, the letter….

Twilight picked up the letter and, folding it, slipped it into her pocket. She’d look into it on her own, then ask Sunset about it later when she had a chance. Sunset would likely be angry that Twilight took the letter, especially if it was for her own good. But Twilight was a scientist, first and foremost, and when a question came before a scientist, the answer had to come from natural law itself, right?

Making sure to quietly close the door, Twilight stepped out and headed downstairs. There would be time for odd questions and answers she probably didn’t want, Twilight admitted, but that would be latter. Right now, there was a boardgame downstairs with three other people waiting for her, and she refused to accept anything less than total victory, because that was just how she rolled.

Author's Note

The beginning of the end....

August 7, PM: By What You Live By

Sitting in the treeline across the highway from where the SIRENs hideout was, Blackthorn looked through the scope and took observation of where those wannabe soldier splittails walked. By the end of the day, there’d be a whole lot of corpses with bullet holes in them, and he’d be on the way to Belize with new entertainment. He could almost taste her thighs, that’s how much he knew victory was at hand.

“Argo Two, this is Argo Six,” he spoke softly into his radio. “How’s the view?”

“I got thermals on their forwardmost guard,” Argo Two responded. “Oh, and she’s warm, just the way I like ’em. We tranq her ass, can I have her?”

“Sure, why the hell not?” Blackthorn chuckled into the speaker. “In fact, everyone on this channel, if you can take one alive, you just got yourselves a new girlfriend. Fuck what Changeling says; so long as we kill the major players he’s not going to give a damn if we take some low-ranked poontang.” He moved his eyes away, looking at the steady curtain of gray rain pelting the road ahead and the thundering drumbeat of noise the rainfall left as it splattered everywhere. He was soaked to the bone sitting out here, waiting for dark, but it would all be worth it in the end.

That changed a few minutes later as bright lights lit up the relative gloominess of the distance. A few seconds after that, the heavy thrum of a car sounded, soon revealed to be a Canterlot Police Department cruiser. Though technically this part of the road belonged in the jurisdiction of the Equestria County Sheriff’s Department, the line between Canterlot and Equestria County was close enough that both CPD and ECSD kept tabs on this area.

“Argo Six, Argo Three,” cracked the radio. “We’ve got a problem inbound – CPD cruiser. Advise as to action, over.”

“Set up the smokescreen, see if you can scare him off,” Blackthorn ordered.

“And if we can’t?”

Blackthorn gave an evil grimace. “You know what to do.”

As her headlights lit up the ECSD van and the roadblock, Melati Jasmine slowed her cruiser down and spoke into her radio. “Dispatch, 6-India-1 here.”

Static briefly uttered from the radio speaker, followed by a tinny voice: “This is Dispatch, go ahead 6-India-1.”

“I’m on Old Horsetail Road. There’s an ECSD roadblock here. Know anything about it?”

“Nothing we were informed of – there were reports of flooding out there, but that was a few hours ago. I’ll get on the pipeline with ECSD Dispatch and see what we’ve got, over.”

“Roger that; I’ll go have a talk with them and see what’s going on. 6-India-1, out.” Melati pulled up to the block and stepped out of the car. “Hey guys, what’s up?”

The first man, tall dark and seemed to wear the ECSD uniform like he was born in it, gave her a rough smile. “Evening, officer.” His partner didn’t say a word and merely nodded.

“So, what’s with the roadblock? Our Dispatch doesn’t have anything on it.”

The deputy shook his head. “Figures. Hey, Ironsights, pop in the van and call Dispatch, see what the fuck’s going on?”

Ironsights nodded his head. “Yeah, sure thing, Sarge,” he said, popping into the van.

“Sarge” shrugged, the rain using his arms as new points to start micro waterfalls from. “Sorry about that. I’d call them myself, but my ex is working Dispatch tonight and I really don’t want to deal with that, you know?”

“Yeah,” Melati said, relaxing a little. “I can understand. So what’s up?”

He pointed back there. “Rock Creek Bridge is partially washed out; the section overpassing both the creek and the Sacramento River’s highly unstable,” Sarge told her. “CALTRANS station called us to barricade the area since we’re the closest to the scene.”

She blinked. “Wait, isn’t the bridge a half-mile down the way?”

“Yeah, but I guess they want to give people enough of a warning. Hey, I just follow orders; I don’t question them.”

“What about the other side?”

“Heard some Sunnytown PD folks are covering that end,” he told her. “Personally, I’d be surprised if you hear about that end; you know how bad their Dispatch is.”

Melati nodded; the Sunnytown Police Department’s own dispatchers were notorious for giving wrong or false information – and worse, it was clearly an institutional problem, given that enough people had been fired over the years and the issue had still not gone away. It was so bad, she’d heard rumors that the Sunnytown city council was considering shutting down their dispatch and contracting out to CPD or ECSD.

“Yeah, well, look on the bright side: you get to go be dry in your cruiser. My partner and I have to stand here and get waterlogged until someone from CALTRANS gets their ass out here, and I’m sure that’s going to be a while.”

Sure that the guys were on the up and up and that the bridge washout was likely true, she gave them a quick, friendly wave, and went back to the cruiser. She’d opened the door right as her radio went off. “6-India-1, this is Dispatch. ECSD states that they have no, repeat, no assets in the area. ECSD assets are now enroute to assist you, and we’ve informed them that they’re armed and dangerous.”

“Roger that,” Melati said as she began to turn away from her cruiser—

—then felt the sudden ripping shock as a round passed through her, bullet-proof vest notwithstanding. She spun and crashed to the ground, feeling the rain splattering her face as she tried to get up but felt completely numb. As she tried to move she suddenly heard the splashy, squishy footsteps of someone approaching her. She looked up and saw Sarge standing there, reaching for a shoulder harness.

“You know, shame you had to be so damn nosy,” he told her in a matter-of-fact voice. “If you’d tried to drive off, we woulda just left you alone. But then you had to turn, and that spelled trouble. Well, can’t have that.” He pulled out of his jacket what looked to be a Mateba .454. “For a moment, I wondered if I could get you – you got a pretty face, and I’m sure since you’re a cop, you have a body that matches. But…boss says that you’d be too high-profile to take with us. Sorry, but just bad luck, you know?” He aimed the gun right at her face. “I’ll make it as painless as possible.”

Taking no chances and knowing her life was on the line, she lashed towards her hip for her service pistol, pulling it out to aim.

There was a flash of lightning, and a split-second later the ominous boom of thunder, as well as the flash of a muzzle and the bark of a round going off.

A thundering peal of lightning outside, and two people climaxed.

Cantata rolled off Divine. “You’re getting better at this,” she told him in a breathy voice as she collapsed on the bed next to him.

He smirked. “Of course – I’m a prince. I studied swordsmanship, my dear, and a swordsman must always know when to parry and thrust.” He sat up and looked at the clock in their room. “Hrm. It seems that if plans go apace, the eye of the hurricane should be on the summit of Mount Shasta in a few hours. From there, we’ll use the bell to absorb its power, and then once the hurricane goes away, everyone can be speechless, in shock and that should give us the remainder of the week to complete our plans.”

“Good. I have three teams disposing of the last of the problems now.” She grinned wolfishly. “That idiot Changeling never realized that his handler is one of our deep cover agents, and she’ll be going into hiding now. I hope you don’t mind – I took the liberty of giving her a new identity and the, shall we say, ‘ownership’ of your vacation cottage in Noumea.”

“If it removes the sole thorn in our side, I’ll personally give her all my lands in New Caledonia with my utmost gratitude.”

She got off the bed. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, dear, I must go tend to the injection of my troops – they think that it’s just routine battery of inoculations given all the places we go in the world. As soon as that’s done, we’ll train them on their new abilities – I might just have to promote Petty Officer Rush and her partners in order to train the whole of them. I’ll give it some consideration.”

“Anything else I should be aware of?” he asked her.

“Not that I can think of,” she said just before a chirp started on the laptop over on the desk. “Hold on, I might have something.” She sat down at the desk and looked at the alert. “Hrm. Looks like one of my senior officers isn’t as loyal as I thought. Guess I’ll have to do some pruning.” A sad look then crossed her face as she admitted, “A shame, too – Rhapi and I have been together since we were children. This won’t be easy.”

“Sometimes the path to power leads one to make strong, final decisions that would be unsavory to mere commons,” he told her. “I cared about my cousins – but they were in the way of my power and so I had to deal with them. It’s an unsavory business, but if you truly wish to ascend the pinnacle of perfection, then you have no choice.”

She nodded. After all, she’d already ended the lives of people she cared about, not just members of the Sisterhood, but SIRENs actually close to her.

But if this leads me to the throne of eternity, then let one more body fall.

Looking out the window of their new hotel room, Sonata watched the rain fall. It had been hard enough getting a new hotel; many people had evacuated Canterlot for other cities and so they were lucky to be able to trade up for a place farther down south, closer to Sacramento yet still close enough that they could rush back to Canterlot as soon as could be. Even still, they knew they were being tracked by Sonatina Crush, so they still stood in a very tense readiness situation.

So, to pass the time, Sonata watched the weather. Right now, it was a comfort to her; truth be told, it always had been. Maybe in another life she was a dolphin, or a seal or some sort of happy aquatic thing, swimming in the ocean and not worrying about a single thing, just singing a song. Maybe if things had gone right in this life, she’d live a simple existence now, entertained by rain and smiles and tacos, her favorite food. After all, miles to the north and in Canterlot, that’s what her friends led – normal lives with easy pleasures and nothing more difficult than the daily rituals of being young, urban girls growing up and striving for the future. Certainly not the hellish existence she and her sisters had led. Regardless, they’d do this together, just as triplets were meant to.

Still didn’t mean that she liked any of it, though.

There was the chirp of a door key, followed a second later by Aria coming through the door. She wore a wig that obscured her military-short hairstyle, and was carrying herself more like Rarity as to seem like a different person. “So, darlings,” she announced, setting the bags on the table, “I have prepared a repast for us, courtesy of Le Roi du Burgers from the far-off land of across the street, as it were.”

“Ari, knock it off,” Adagio, not taking her eyes from the television, said.

“But, Adagio, darling, it—”

“Aria, she is one of our closest friends and she deserves to be treated better than that,” the eldest sister snarled, “so knock it the fuck off.”

“Ease up, sis, okay? Rarity means a lot to me, too – they all do. So calm the hell down!” Aria retorted.

Adagio finally looked at her sister and then back to the TV. “Sorry,” was all she said.

Sonata went over and hugged her older sister. “It’s okay, Ari,” she murmured. “I miss them, too. We all do.”

“Well, we’re not going to ever see them again until we get out of this alive,” Adagio said, continuing to watch whatever was on the television. “And that’s even assuming that we’ll be able to….” She then turned to look at her sisters. “Or even if they’ll ever want to see us again.”

“What, are you crazy? They’re our friends!” Aria shouted. “Why wouldn’t they want to see us? Sure, they’ll probably be a little mad at us for just disapp—”

“Because we’re killers, Ari,” Adagio interjected. “Sooner or later, they’re going to find that out and….” She sighed, then continued in a soft voice: “Even if we want to live a different life – can live a different life – the blood won’t wash off our hands. We’ll never see the world as they do, no matter how much we want to.”

“So there’s no hope for us?” Sonata asked.

Adagio got up from her seat and went over to hug her sisters. “We’re together. So long as we have each other, there’s always hope.”

Sitting in a rented car in an empty parking lot across the street from the hotel, Sonatina Crush looked at her tablet – or rather, the infrared feed the drone was feeding to said tablet. “Found you bitches,” she hissed with a malicious grin. Reaching over to the passenger’s seat, she grabbed one of the burner phones she’d procured for the mission. Flipping it open, she quickly tapped a cryptic text to a prearranged phone number: Heya! Found that pizza place you were raving about. Going to swing by later and get me some slices. I’ll let you know how they taste. Bye! Once the text was sent, she bent the phone back until it snapped, then slipped it into a box of phones she’d throw away later.

Stepping out of the car, she reached into her pants pocket for a small flickblade she’d disguised as a handyman’s tool. Looking at the darkening sky, she knew that it was only going to be a matter of hours until darkness came and with that, the cloud cover would make for a decent moonless night. Perfect for infiltrating that flea-bitten hotel and if she played her cards right, she could get rid of Dusk and her sisters with a minimum of fuss. That would give her even more time to play: arrange the scene as a lovers’ spat gone wrong, and given that Dusk and her sisters were actual sisters the scandal would be focused on and that would put her in the clear.

She smiled; soon, she’d hit that bitch Dusk, and just about time, too: nobody made her look second place – nobody. The little cunt thought she was a freak because she knew how to use knives effectively? And had the nerve to joke about how “Sonatina” was just a little “Sonata”? She wasn’t going to put up with that kind of shit from a cunt who couldn’t be as talented with blades or intelligence. Plus, Dusk was just a seaman – Sonatina was already a petty officer and on the way up the promotion ladder!

Well, after tonight, Sonatina might be the freak…but Sonata would be a corpse.

Only one place in this world for a real Sonata, Dusk. And that’s me!

“All units, we have a potential officer down at Old Horsetail Road just north of Rock Creek Bridge Parkway. Suspects are presumed to be impersonating ECSD personnel. CPD, SPD and JTF assets will assist. All ECSD personnel are required to stay out of the area for the duration to prevent misidentification.”

Shining had just turned onto Brookstone and Magnolia when the sound came out. Reaching over to tap his radio, he said, “This is 4-Golf-5, I’m moving in.” His heart raced as he cued the siren and took off as fast as the SUV would allow – it certainly couldn’t do the speeds of either his personal car or the police cruiser he used to drive, but this would at least keep him from sliding all over hell and gone while racing along the rain-soaked streets.

He then heard another voice on the channel: “Dispatch, this is Sierra 227 – I’m not far from the location and moving in.” Somehow, he wasn’t surprised that Sandalwood was going to try to get involved.

“Negative, Sierra 227; all ECSD personnel have been ordered to stay clear.”

“Dispatch, I’m in an FBI unit and dressed in cammies with an FBI jacket on. I don’t think I’m going to be confused with normal ECSD personnel.”

Shining reached for the radio. “Dispatch, 4-Golf-5 here. Have Sierra 227 meet up with me and I’ll keep charge on her; I know her personally.”

“Aww, you’re making it a date, Shiny? That’s so sweet!” Sandalwood gushed over the line and a few people listening in laughed, much to his chagrin.

“Dispatch, this is Agent Hardline,” their boss suddenly announced over the line. “I’m in the area as well – I’ll chaperone their date.” After that, four other speakers – one CPD, three SPD – announced that they were moving in as well.

“All units, this is Dispatch. Rendezvous with Agent Hardline; she will be in command. We’re going to have an ambulance in the area, though due to the current situation it might not respond immediately.” Though unspoken, the line was clear: civilian needs were going to be prioritized and that any of them injured – including the officer down at the scene – would just have to survive…or not.

Ignoring the rest of the chatter, Shining instead did what came normally in these situations, a rote pattern that he’d been taught during his days at the police academy: doublechecking his body armor by feel, checking his gun and his ammo, and checking for the Knight’s PDW that he’d been issued as additional armament. He wasn’t too comfortable about it – he’d been trained on the CPD’s M96 Expeditionary, but they should be reasonably similar.

Yeah, reasonably similar, he chided himself. Shining, you’re going into a potential firefight and you’re blowing off important details. That shit’s going to get you very, very dead – and if that happens, you know Cady’s going to find a way to bring you back from the grave and kill you again for being stupid.

Not knowing what else to say, he continued on, racing towards the location, knowing that whatever was awaiting him, it was going to be bad. Very bad.

Early evening descended on Seattle, and as she carried a ton of shopping bags, Coco pranced around, as happy as could be. While the rest of her family had left Canterlot to take care of business, her aunt Solaire wanted to visit Seattle to visit some old haunts of hers, and she’d happily taken both Shimmer and Coco with her. The former was obvious: Sunset Shimmer was Solaire’s daughter and thus wanted to show her child everything about Shimmer’s deceased father that she could. It was also good for Coco as well, given that she knew very little about her uncle Autumn and wanted to know more; she was getting to know her aunt and cousin as it was, so spending time with them was paramount, given that they were returning to France at the end of the month.

“Enjoying yourself, Coco?” Shimmer asked as the trio stepped out of the taxi, headed back into the hotel to drop off their bags before they went off to dinner.

“Yeah! I’m getting to spend time with my favorite cousin, and I’ve never been to Seattle before, so this is great!” she squeaked in delight.

“Favorite cousin?” Solaire said with a bit of amusement.

“Well, and favorite aunt,” she said with a wink. “Granted, I really don’t know any of my aunts, uncles or cousins from my mom’s side of the family, so you guys get it by default.” That brought a grin to Shimmer’s face and the giggle to Solaire’s.

“Well, if it makes you feel better, you’re my favorite cousin,” Shimmer responded back, dropping her bags briefly to hug her cousin, who seemed to melt into the older girl’s embrace.

“Hey, when we get back you have to promise that you’ll meet some of my friends, okay?” Coco insisted. “They’re just the best! Plus, you just have to meet my mentor, Twily – she’s awesome, too! You have to meet them before you go back – promise me, okay?”

Between Coco’s hugs and the placating look of her mother, Shimmer had to agree. Shimmer still felt some trepidation about meeting other people at the moment – especially people who could cause her issues given her royal status – but she knew that being social was her biggest weakness. Outside her circle of friends, she hadn’t socialized much since her boyfriend’s betrayal, and despite her friends’ attempts, she was becoming more of a wallflower as of late. As a princess of France, that wouldn’t do; she had to be worthy of her nobility…even when it bothered her to do so.

“Sure,” Shimmer conceded. “I’m okay with that.”

“Okay, I’ll call Sweetie and set something up! I’d ask Crackle, but she’s out of town – maybe you can meet her next time you’re in town!” Coco chirped.

“You might want to wait a few days until the town has recovered from the hurricane, though, Coco.”

She blushed. “Oh. Hadn’t thought about that.”

As the three ladies walked into the lobby, a hotel representative greeted them, holding up a package. “Excuse me, madam? This package just arrived for you, FedEx.” The woman had curly eggplant-and-dark-fuchsia hair and deep magenta eyes. She seemed to be of subcontinental descent, though she had a clear American accent.

Solaire looked at the girls. “Go ahead and take the stuff up. Let me sign for this and I’ll be up soon. Sunset, dear, would you be so kind as to make reservations for us? Wherever you two wish to go.”

Shimmer nodded. “Sure thing, Mom!” she said, taking her mother’s bags as well and, cousin in tow, headed towards the elevators.

Solaire waited until her charges were just out of eyeshot before looking at the package – which was a DHL-labeled envelope. Solaire shook her head; if there was one thing she hated, it was having introductions that way. “I figured that DCRI would send someone sooner or later, despite my request not to.”

“They didn’t.” The woman shook her head before flashing a badge. “Agent Saffron Masala, US State Department Diplomatic Security Service. We were obligated to send someone the moment we found out you were in the country, and given that the DCRI officially asked for our assistance, I’m glad I was able to meet you here.”

Solaire suddenly felt a shiver. “Is there something wrong, Agent Masala?” Solaire had always disliked dealing with the General Directorate of Internal Security, but generally the DCRI was usually good about her requests to not require protection. For them to change their minds….

All I wanted was just to give Sunset a normal life, so she wouldn’t have to be a princess all the time, Solaire mourned internally. And now this. Will Coco be dragged into this as well?

“Please, just look at the report, madam.” Masala put her badge back, then produced a card. “Dinner, 8:30 PM, it’s on me.” She began walking away. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go pick up someone at the airport.”

Solaire looked at the card. “The Tasty Treat – Finest Indian Cuisine in Washington State, Coriander Cumin, Proprietor?” She blinked. “Everett? That’s forty-five minutes north of here,” she called back. “Are you sure about this?”

Masala waved back. “I grew up in that restaurant – I know it’s the best!” Before Solaire could say anything further, the DSS agent rounded a corner and disappeared.

Solaire fought to keep a straight face as she looked at where the agent had gone, and then to the envelope metaphorically burning a hole in her hand. The top had been torn open, revealing the letterhead of the DCRI, which never meant anything good. Slipping it into her purse and hoping to have a chance to read it before tonight, the princess then went off to the lobby to see about a car rental.

Why is this getting worse and worse?

Out in the roar of the rain, the visibility of the patrols was reduced. If it wasn’t for the fact that the OIC had been expecting something – though she didn’t say what – protocol would have been for them to reduce the external patrols to someone every fifteen minutes. But that wasn’t the case, and instead here they were, getting soaked to the bone and with nothing to do.

“Oh, shut the hell up, Lied,” her partner, Hierodrame, moaned. “If I hear you bitch one more time about how we’re stuck out here—”

Lied rolled her eyes. “Look, Drammie, all I’m saying is that the OIC’s fucked in the head for putting us out here in the fucking soup, okay? God, I need a date with a fifth of Black Label, just to make it through the rest of the Goddamn day after this. Then I need some guy to treat me right and make me very satisfied.”

Hierodrame barked a rude laugh. “Look, if you’re that hard up, go pester Synthpop. She’ll fuck anything.”

“What, do I look like a carpet muncher to y—”

Hierodrame cut her off. “Shhhhh! Did you hear that?” she whispered, crouching down to provide less of a target, the action born of years of constant training.

Lied brought her sniper rifle up, looking through the scope not to target anyone but to look around. “I don’t see anyo—”

The shot was perfect and instantaneous. The round, burning through the air, blasted through the scope and into Lied’s eye, then punching out the back of her skull in a clean exit. Lied staggered for a second, lowering the rifle to reveal her ruined face before collapsing to the ground.

“LIED!” Hierodrame screamed, before rushing for the radio on the table near them. Whoever had taken out Lied was one hell of a sniper and Hierodrame knew she was dead the moment she left cover. But she needed to warn the others, even if it meant her life—

—the command of which was taken out of her hands by the K-BAR held to her throat. “Oh, looks like I got me a perty one,” was a long, slow drawl. “So, darlin’, should you tell me your name before or after our date?”

Hierodrame knew in a second what that meant. “Go fuck yourself.”

“All the same to you, miss, you’re much more available.” At the second voice, Hierodrame felt her web belt being removed. She tensed up, ready to strike, but then felt the knife prick closer. “You’re feisty, I like that,” the first voice said. “But too feisty and I might have to end our relationship, got it?”

The second ALICORN member looked at the first. Hierodrame couldn’t make out details, as he was wearing a monkey cap, but from what details, she could make out, he was heavily armed. “What, you think you’re going to get away with this?” she snarled.

Her answer was a fist across the face. “Grey, you need to teach your girlfriend manners,” the assailant said, as Heirodrame spit out blood.

“Yeah, later, Maroon, but leave her mouth alone. I might need it for later.”

“Yeah, well, let me leave you on your date here. I need to tell Gold that we have Patrol One out of commission. Oh, wait – you’ll need some help unwrapping your gift, won’t you?” Maroon reached over and in one fell swoop pulled down Hierodrame’s pants and underwear. “Oh, drawstring type. Looks like she was ready for you, buddy,” Maroon said, clapping Grey on the shoulder.

“Yeah, lucky me. Now go let the boss know we’re ready and go find your own girlfriend. Me and my sweetie here need to make wedding arrangements.” Maroon moved into the distance, and with that, left Grey in a compromising position behind Hierodrame. “Well, since this is our first time, honey,” he said, hissing into her ear, “I’ll just park it in number one. But if you like it that way, we’ll see how much fun we can have, okay?”

“I’ll kill you,” Hierodrame snarled, even as she could hear him unbuckling his own pants. “If it’s the last thing I ever do, I’ll kill you.”

“Well, don’t the Frenchies call an orgasm ‘the little death’?” he said with a grin. The grin fell a second later, as a sharp, tinny bang occurred. Both looked down to see Lied, with the last of her strength, using her remaining eye to aim her pistol, which had shot Grey around the heart. Despite whatever padding the man had that indicated a bullet proof vest, the welling blood around the hole showed the truth of Lied’s armor-piercing round striking true.

Lied gave Hierodrame a weak, friendly smile before dying.

“YOU BITCH!” Grey instinctively slashed Hierodrame’s throat wide open with his knife before falling back. Feeling the slash of blood spurt out, Hierodrame knew she was dead and only had seconds to act. Reaching over to the table where her pistol and radio were, she turned to aim at Grey, who was down on the ground, his pants down around his ankles.

Gurgling something that sounded like, “Honey, we’re through,” she fired twice, once at his manhood then right between the eyes. She didn’t notice if either round hit as she collapsed to the ground, her lifeblood staining the front of her shirt. Her strength fading, Hierodrame set the radio to the emergency channel, then left the broadcast key open. With the sounds of the rain and no voice to counter it, it would be the best chance she had of warning her fellow SIRENs that they were under attack.

Her duty done, she crawled over to Lied’s body and managed to cradle her friend in a hug before she took her final choking breath.

Klaxons split the air as the SIREN base went into lockdown and all personnel went to Action Stations. Relying on training, each member of the units assigned to the main facility moved as one, falling into their familiar cadence as they slipped into position.

Standing in the middle of the command center, Cantata looked at those assembled around her. “All stations, report!”

“Outer perimeter under control, ma’am,” came the response from one of the SIRENs assembled at a command console. “All units in position.”

A second SIREN at another console spoke up. “Inner perimeter is being swept and there are no signs of intruders. All vital locations are secured or are being manned at this time.”

“We have a breach at the Bolthole,” a third one responded. “Unknown forces attacking—”

“Unknown, my ass,” Cantata hissed. “Looks like Les SCARS moved in.”

“That’s a negative, ma’am. From what reports we’re getting, these are SOFs, not ARROWHEAD or CSIS,” the SIREN said, an air of distaste in her mouth.

“Good, then we don’t need to send backup if they’re just gangsters who went to bootcamp,” she said with an easy grin. “Inform the OIC we’ll have people on standby, but they will not engage unless they run into serious opposition.”

It was at this point that Rhapsody walked in. “Captain, may I have a word with you?”

“Sure thing, XO,” Cantata said as she walked up to her. “What’s up?”

Moving out of earshot of the junior personnel, Rhapsody asked, “Look, we’ve got personnel in trouble and we need to extract th—”

Cantata shook her head. “No, Rhapi. Do you know why we put those particular individuals in the Bolthole? Because if we got attacked there – and I honestly wish we hadn’t, given that it was our backup plan – they would be able to defend it. The fact is, we just got our backup facility taken down. And if we send reinforcements, then we’ll have personnel that will be traced. They know that and we know they know that and they know that we know that they know that.” She sighed theatrically. “Didn’t you take any intelligence courses?”

“No, my sœur was more concerned with me learning weapon systems and the like,” Rhapsody admitted. “But still, this is Ellie we’re talking about!”

“I know!” Cantata said, holding back her anger. “But she’s a professional, just like you are – or I thought you were.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rhapsody asked.

The fact that you’ve betrayed us, Cantata thought, though she didn’t vocalize that, instead stating, “You’re the Executive Officer here, Rhapsody. Act like it. The fact that Ellie is in the middle of that is bad enough, and that despite what I told the others, yes I know what they’re dealing with is a problem.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Canta?”

The senior SIREN looked at her junior officer. “Think about it: do you think Les SCARS would just hand the job over to anyone, much less get the CIA to sign off on letting them run ragged around the American hinterlands? No – it has to be someone the Americans have worked with themselves, and there are very few groups that fit the bill…but only one that I know of that CSIS would even bother with. I don’t know the group’s name, but they’re all composed of people who have left various global special operations forces under…dubious circumstances.”

“Really?”

“No, actually, I have no idea. I only know what I was told and from the records the Admiral left me when he died, I got the feeling he didn’t know too much about them, either. Whoever at CSIS does know about them, well, they’re not on our payroll.”

“Well, they’re in trouble – and I’m not going to stand by idly. I’m taking a small strike team out there to reinforce.”

“This might all be done by the time you get out there, XO.”

“Yeah, and our troops might be dead – and they’ll have access to our intel!” Rhapsody cried. “And when they get that, they’ll be on top of us like bees on honey.”

Cantata shook her head. “Fine, get a squad out there. If they’re fine, have Ellie report in. If they’re not – standard field disposal protocol.”

“I don’t like that, Canta.”

“You don’t have to, Commander,” Cantata said, waving her rank in front of her subordinate. “You just have to do it. Dismissed.”

The glare of red and blue LED beacons burned through the dismal gray of the unyielding rainstorm as one law enforcement vehicle approached another. As Shining’s vehicle approached Melati’s police cruiser, the fact that the door was open and everything looked completely untouched worried him. Then a jag of lighting lit up the area, revealing the body lying on the ground.

Shining wasted no time. Grabbing his radio, he shouted into it, “This is 4-Golf-5 – man down, we have a man down on location!” He then withdrew his pistol and opened the door to his car slowly, getting ready to move towards his friend’s corpse – of that, he had no doubt. Emotions welled in him, but he fought them down for the moment. He needed to get whoever got Melati and put that bastard behind bars.

He didn’t have to wait long as he heard the shattering of the windshield following by the report of a rifle. Instinct taking over, he bolted behind his vehicle just as rounds tore through the door and the space he’d been a second ago. He didn’t bother to return fire; without knowing where his assailant was, all it would do would be to waste ammunition.

A few more rounds blasted through the SUV, and from what he could tell, they were tearing through it easily, which meant that someone was firing a high-powered sniper rifle, though he wasn’t that up on that kind of hardware. Maybe I should’ve done time in the military; maybe I’d be able to tell the difference between a really good sniper rifle and an anti-materiel one. A bullet then ripped through the back gate of the SUV, coming uncomfortably close to his head. Yeah, I really need to figure out where the gunfire’s coming from.

In the distance, sirens grew louder, and he smiled to himself. Or maybe I just need to wait this out, he thought to himself. “You know,” he shouted in the direction of the gunfire, “if you just surrender, you’ll make it much easier on yourself!” The response to that was another round of gunfire, and he felt the vehicle shift as one of the tires was blown out.

Guy’s good, Shining thought to himself, a cool calm washing over him. He was going to beat this bastard, if it was the last thing he did. As the sirens drew closer, he made his move, rushing away from the car and towards the relatively better-armored cover of Melati’s cruiser. As he tore through, he felt something burn through the air just past his ear, and a split-second later heard the muzzle report. Instinct forced him to dive and roll, coming to a stop just before her trunk. This time, however, he returned fire, pulling the trigger and letting his pistol bark as he sent rounds into the darkness of the nearby trees, hoping that he’d hit his target. He didn’t have much to lose by that; his attacker already knew where he was.

Finally, he could hear the roar of several engines as his backup arrived. Now or never, he said to himself, hoping that the body armor he wore would be able to stop whatever rounds were going to probably impact against his chest. Once they were ready, they would sweep whoever it is and put them down. He felt like he was repeating himself, but at the moment, time flowed slow when you’re being shot at, many a senior officer had told him, and you tended to think cyclically if it didn’t immediately pertain to the situation.

A few seconds later another SUV roared towards them, the engine gunning and the cherry light on the top radiating red and blue as the blaring drone of the siren ripped through the air. The brakes of the huge steel wagon squealed against the rainslicked road, sending a spray of water in a forward blast as the car spun to come to a stop. With a final shriek of metal against soaked asphalt creating a fugue of sound against the onslaught of patters that was the storm, the car came to a stop. The driver’s side door slammed open and with the practiced move of someone used to combat, Hardline rushed out, headed towards Shining’s side in a motion that left him in surprise. He’d been at the top of his class in the academy and he was probably the fittest person in his precinct, but the way the FBI agent moved, it was clear that her years of Marine training had turned her into something far beyond him.

So his reality moved in horrifying slow motion as he heard the zip of a round tear through the air and rock her head back in a terrible blossom of dark red illuminated by the headlights of her vehicle. Surprise hadn’t even had a chance to register on Hardline’s face as she let go of her FBI-issued MP5, the carbine skittering to the ground just ahead of her as she crumpled to the ground. There was no chance to see if she’d been grazed; not with the unnatural angle her head bent at.

“HARDLINE!” Shining screamed and was rewarded by two more rounds coming in his direction, one of them shattering the windshield of Hardline’s vehicle. However, in his success, this time the shooter had given away a vital clue, as the light from one of the headlights briefly glinted off the sniper rifle, just enough for Shining to see – it was coming from the damaged-looking police vehicle on the other end of the barricade. It had been damaged to appear as if it had already been attacked, and that was probably what had done Melati in, he realized. He couldn’t afford to allow her death to be in vain; moreso, he had a fiancé to get back to in one piece.

Got you now, you son of a bitch, he snarled silently as he dropped to the floor. If he moved fast enough and luck was on his side, he could reach Hardline’s rifle and that would give him an advantage. That advantage ended a second later as the rifle barked once more and the MP5 in front of him cracked in two from the shot; whoever his assailant was, he wasn’t going to give Shining the luxury of even a small advantage.

“Shining, you there?” The sound of his radio went off, and in his shock, he realized he’d forgotten about it. Revulsion washed through him as he realized he could have warned Hardline about what was out there, but he put that aside – there was nothing he could have done and in any case, there were other things to consider at the moment.

“Four-Golf-Five here,” he spoke into the radio. “Sandy, we got a sniper out here, sitting in that fake police van. He’s got me pinned down and he’s taken out Hardy and Mel.”

“The fuck?” she sounded over the line. “Oh hell no. You sit tight; I should be on site in two minutes, tops. I’ve got others behind me, so cavalry’s coming.” She groaned. “Cavalry. Fucking Army term – never going to live that down.”

“Sandy, what are you going to do?” he asked.

The answer sounded a second later as the roar of an engine bellowed and an unmarked black Ford Taurus rocketed past him, lights and siren booming. Without even considering to stop, Sandalwood pushed forward and rammed the sniper’s nest at top speed, the deafening crunch of metal against metal as the sedan caved the van’s back in. The impact was strong enough to push both vehicles well into the treeline, knocking down some of the smaller ones as the mass of man-made materials became one very impromptu battering ram bulldozing its way through the local flora.

Shining forced himself to his feet, ignoring the shock. He could already hear the whine of other sirens in the distance, but he ignored those for the moment. Rushing to where Sandalwood had crashed her cruiser, his mind raced. It was bad enough that he’d lost two friends here – but if Sandalwood was one of the fallen, he didn’t know how Cadance would react. The two were tight, and it would utterly wreck her if the boisterous brunette joined the angels….

“Sandy!” he shouted as he reached the ruined cruiser, fearing the worst. Instead, he found a collapsed airbag and Sandalwood bleeding from multiple cuts, though thankfully none of them looked severe.

“Great, took me a car crash to get you to pay attention,” she said in a woozy voice. “Fuck my life.”

“Hey, you okay?” he asked, a concerned look coming over his face.

“No, I think my leg’s broken,” she grunted, a stab of pain radiating through her visage. “Look, I’m not going anywhere. But you better check stupid and see if I got him.”

“You stay here, okay? Help’s on the way.”

She laughed bitterly. “That was supposed to be my line.”

He gave her a friendly smile as he patted her comfortingly on her shoulder, then moved forward towards where the wreckage of the van had been. The first thing he saw was the ruined, bent remains of a nasty-looking, military-issue sniper rifle. That did not make him easy about the situation. The second thing he found was, pinned under some bent metal and clearly with a leg sheared off, the sniper. Despite the fact that he was bleeding out, he was trying to move himself free of the wreckage, in the hopes that he could somehow get out of his predicament. While the suspect was dressed in an ECSD uniform, the look of him made it glaringly obvious he wasn’t a sheriff’s deputy in any way, shape or form.

“Don’t move,” Shining ordered the man. “Let me get you some assistance. Is there any sor—” Before Shining could finish the sentence, the man reached for a pistol in a holster on his chest, and in one easy move, pulled the gun free, with the intent to kill Shining.

However, Shining’s instincts took over and as the man began to aim, Shining pulled his trigger twice. The bullets hit true, and the man managed to get off a shot that came nowhere near him as he gave his death rattle. But it didn’t end. As soon as the ringing echo of the shots went away, he could hear something in the distance – repeated popping – and he didn’t need to see the evidence to know what that was.

“Freeze! SPD!” a voice shouted behind him.

“FBI,” Shining said, putting up his hands briefly. Given the situation here, he fully expected to be frisked and after the SPD officer did so, he backed off, giving Shining a nod of all-clear.

“Thanks,” Shining replied, taking his mind off the man he’d just killed in the line of duty. “You got here just in time.”

“Not soon enough,” the officer replied. “I take it the two down over there are ours?”

“Yeah,” Shining answered, biting off his anger; while the SPD officer had been neutral about it, the fact was he couldn’t have known those were friends of Shining’s, or that Shining himself still felt guilt over Hardline’s death. Furthermore, Sunnytown’s police tended to see a lot more action than the other agencies in the Canterlot Metro area, so growing hard-hearted was probably all too easy. “Agent Hardline and Officer Melati Jasmine. They were friends of mine.”

The SPD officer put his hands up. “Hey, relax, pal – I don’t mean anything by it.” He offered his hand. “Gumshoe,” he replied.

“Shining Armor,” Shining said, shaking Gumshoe’s hand.

Shining heard another voice call out, “Yo, anyone in there? CPD, I’m coming in!” He looked over to see Takedown, one of the CPD officers who would be backup. He’d only run into Takedown a few times, but Shining knew the man to be up and up. “Hey, Armor. Sorry to hear about Jasmine. I’ve got Chaser with me and she’s getting out some blankets to put over Jasmine and that FBI woman.”

Shining nodded curtly. “Either of you know first aid?”

“Yeah, I teach that for our precinct,” Gumshoe replied.

“Okay, got an injured ECSD deputy in her car. You and Chaser make sure that we get extra backup here, maybe SWAT or something. Takedown, you’re with me. Get to your cruiser and get your rifle.”

“Look, Armor, I don’t—” The sound of gunfire in the distance caught the attention of all three men.

“Is that…automatic fire?” Gumshoe asked.

“Right, going to get the shotgun,” Takedown said. “What about you?”

Shining looked around the destroyed innards of the fake van. It clearly had been designed to deliver troops and materiel, and the gun racks on shattered bulkheads – not police standard – were mostly empty. Mostly, save for a single machine gun, which Shining grabbed. He’d seen it before: An Arsenal Shipka, a Bulgarian-made machine gun that he’d happened to see at the Northern California Gun Show a couple of years back. It seemed like something of a military fantasy, and he’d never had a chance to touch it, much less use it.

That was about to change.

Checking the ammo and the condition of the weapon, he looked at Takedown and said, “I think I’ll manage.”

Blackthorn spat out a gob of blood. So far, things had not gone the way he intended. Sure, the cunts in SIREN had some skills; he’d have been a fool not to admit that. But he had every tactical advantage and was moving on them with no chance of them knowing about it at all. Things were going to be perfect, he was going to put these sluts down like they were supposed to go down – much to the delight of many of his men, he was sure – and then he was going to go collect his girlfriend, kill that Goddamn traitor Loam and then sip a mai-tai on the beaches of Belize.

But so far things weren’t working out that way. Despite the fact that he’d had every advantage and some of the best fighters around, the little bitches were still giving him issues. Many of his men – good operators, guys who knew their shit in and out – were cut down by the little fuckholes. Sure, his men were giving them as good as they got – he personally enjoyed putting a few extra holes in some of them that clearly needed them – but the body count was going to be horrible. As it was, he already had to pull both his reserves and leave the checkpoints manned only by single guards instead of the triple setup he had initially. But his hands were tied, he was losing men and he had still several of these fucking cunts to kill.

Damn, he wasn’t going to have much time to relax back in their new digs before he went on a hiring spree. Fortunately, there were always SOFs going off the leash – he’d heard some rumors of military drawdowns in China, and the PLA always produced hardcore results.

With a grunt, he pulled the knife out of his shoulder, glad that it hadn’t hit any vitals when it went in. Fortunately, he couldn’t say anything about the one he’d stuck in the girl on the ground next to him. As he got up, the one he’d fought directly against, Violin Elegy, the leader of the base, looked up at him weakly and burbled through bloody lips, “Go to hell, fucker.”

“Ah, but you don’t want to say that,” he said, looking at the knife he buried right into her heart. If it was removed, she’d die instantly…or left there, would eventually bleed out. “Especially since I’m such a nice guy,” he said, gesturing to himself as he got back to his feet. “Right now, my guys are rolling over yours and well, getting a few dates.”

“Getting their dicks cut off, more likely,” Elegy managed to his before coughing up more blood.

“Yeah, but I look at you, girlie, and, well…I don’t like it. I’m a family man, you know. Got this cute girlfriend here, nice body, all the curves—”

“How many times you rape her before she fell unconscious?”

Blackthorn spat another wad, this time in her face. “Hey, my girl’s a nice lady, so you don’t get to say shit like that. She knows how to make me feel right and that’s all that matters, got that? But anyway, not my point.” He reached behind him and pulled out a pistol, tossing it to the ground next to her. “Only one round, tits. You can either shoot me and I’ll just limp away – but I’ll get away. Or you can end it all and go out quickly, because,” he said as he pointed to the knife in her chest, “that’s gotta hurt.”

“You won’t live to see tomorrow, you bastard,” Elegy spat. “I swear if there’s any justice in the world, you won’t live to see midnight.”

“Maybe,” he said as he walked away, “but I guarantee I’ll live longer than you.”

Ignoring her, he walked away, moving throughout the passageways and away from her. He didn’t take more than a few steps before he heard a single tinny, metallic ping sound out. He grinned; mission accomplished. The other sounds of gunfire, still resounding around him as his men fought and died to kill bitches that didn’t deserve to live, but to Blackthorn, it was a musical symphony, a grand theater of percussive sound that informed him that his mission was a success and that Belize was not too far off.

Oh, I can’t wait to get between your thighs and wrap my fingers around that pastel hair, he thought with a salacious leer. And then I’m going to put down that fucking dog that you call a boyfriend. And then, sweet cheeks, you’re all mine.

Solaire rarely was one for Indian food, she had to admit; her husband preferred it far more than her, and her daughter had inherited his love of spicy foods. So coming to the Tasty Treat was, truthfully, a complete surprise. The owner, Coriander Cumin, had studied at the Sorbonne briefly before his return to India and his eventual move to the US, settling down in a suburb north of Seattle. He had learned to fuse the local foods with his native Indian flair, and by the end of the meal, Solaire had found that she was genuinely surprised that the place had not earned more accolades. She knew someone on the Michelin board, and she would have to recommend this restaurant soonest.

As she looked over the diamond-shaped slice of kaju katli placed in front of her by the waitress, she stole a quick look at Shimmer and Coco, who were seated at another table, looking intently at their phones. Solaire sighed; she hated to tell them that this was business, but in a sense it was, and in any case, she didn’t want them knowing what this could be, unless it was absolutely necessary. In the meanwhile, these two were just “business associates”, and that’s the way it would remain.

At the moment, she looked at Agent Masala, sitting there and sipping from a pot of chai she’d went into the back and brewed herself – “Soothes the nerves,” she said – and looking very much like a young schoolteacher as opposed to a DSS agent. But it was the man with the blond hair in a mullet, 5 o’ clock shadow, lazy purple eyes and a rumpled cyan shirt and jeans who was slugging back multiple beers, that had her concerned. He’d been quiet and somewhat lackadaisical during the whole time they’d been there, and if it was an act, it was a good one.

“Pardon me,” she began, “I know Agent Masala here, but I don’t know you, Mister—”

He gave her the kind of grin that said he already knew everything about her; she hated that. “Your next husband?” he said.

“This is not the time for that,” she told him.

“Fine, fine,” he said. “Though if you’re still available, I do have a thing for older women….”

“Zephyr!” Masala admonished.

“Y’know, Saf, you’re cute when you get angry. But I digress.” He pulled out a badge. “Zephyr Breeze, DSS.” He then took another swig of his beer and added, “Et une personne incroyablement sexy, pensait que ce assez évident.”

“Your French is impeccable, sir,” Solaire replied.

“Thank you. My mother was from Calais, so she taught me everything. Dad, however, was from Atlanta, so I grew up there, but spent summers with the grandparents back in France and that went double when the parents divorced. When I was old enough, joined the Army, saw the world, got a girl back in France pregnant, married her, then had a kid, though I doubt I’m still grown up much myself. Got out of the Army, joined the DSS and got stationed in the Pacific office down in La-la-land. When I’m not on the clock, I spend most of my time surfing, playing videogames and trying to be a somewhat decent parent; my wife hasn’t killed me yet, so I assume that’s a plus.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Solaire could see Agent Masala roll her eyes in response before she took control of the conversation. “In any case, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to see us, your highness. I realize this is your personal time, but I’m afraid that when we’re done, you may want to reconsider said personal time.”

“I declined protection from the SPHP, and I know they have agents in the San Francisco consulate.”

“We understand the French government has declined to do so based on your wishes,” Masala explained. “However, the DSS has different requirements. We’ll be shadowing you; there won’t be any direct contact unless you request it. I take it you read that documentation that I gave you earlier?” Solaire shook her head.

Breeze took another drink of his beer. “And here I thought we had a smart one.”

“Fine. The truth is, we have a report, forwarded to us by both the CIA and our French allies….” Masala looked straight at her. “The French government has reason to believe that someone is hunting both the French royal and imperial families. The accident with your brother, Battaille and his wife Quinelle? They found an embedded round in the car wreck. Your brother was assassinated.” Solaire gasped, then bit it off as soon as she could so the children wouldn’t hear her.

“Your sister, Etoile?”

“She prefers Star,” Solaire said with a worried look. “She’s a bit of an Anglophile. Is she okay?”

“There was an incident in Oslo. She’s fine, but she’s been hospitalized. Your brother, Noblesse, is on the way to see her. SPHP has assigned guards to him.”

“But that’s not all,” Breeze said, pulling out his phone and turning it on; clearly he was reading something from the screen. “Members of the French royal family have been attacked in several locations. Yesterday, Prince Hateur was killed during a vacation in Germany. They’ve arrested suspects, but DCRI believes that they have been paid to take the fall. Additionally, Australian authorities found a body that was identified as Prince Divine Right, floating in Sydney Bay.”

Solaire turned away from that. She hated her cousin, but she never wanted anything to happen to him.

Masala reached over to touch Solaire’s hand. “I know this isn’t easy for you, your highness, and I sympathize. I worry about my family every time I’m out in the field, and I don’t doubt Zephyr here is the same way.” She gave him a look out of the corner of her eye that said that she didn’t want an argument from him, then continued. “When you return to Canterlot, and for however long you’ll be in the US, we’ll be present.”

“I don’t like this,” Solaire admitted.

“Well, that makes two of us,” Zephyr said. “I’d planned to take the family on vacation to France last month, but then I got this call. So I’m stuck – which means, so are you. You don’t have to like it, Princess, but you do have to put up with it. But hey, look on the bright side: at least you’ll be able to keep your daughter in complete ignorance, right?”

Masala facepalmed. “Stay classy, Zeph.”

“Okay, we ready to do this?” Adagio asked her sisters. At the moment, she had her bag packed and looked out the window at the early evening.

“Yeah. I told them we were checking out tomorrow, and they’ll just charge the card,” Aria informed her sisters. “In the meanwhile, I rented a car on the second card and got us a new hotel room just north of town. From there it should be a straight shot up the freeway to Canterlot once the rainstorm dies down. We’ll be able to make it with little problem.”

Looking out the window one last time, Sonata said, “I haven’t seen our tail at all. I don’t like that.”

“Yeah, I don’t think she gave up, either, which is why we need to move fast,” Adagio answered. “Sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can work to lose her.” Both sisters nodded, and with that, they picked up their bags and readied to depart…

…only to have the door kicked in, slamming Adagio in the face. Sonatina immediately moved fast, firing four rounds on doubletap, hitting both Aria and Sonata in the chest, with no doubts that they were fatal blows. She then shot the window out, ready to make her escape.

As Adagio shrugged off the blow, she suddenly felt Sonatina’s gun right in her face. “Too bad you guys went rogue,” she said with a smirk. “Actually, no – good for me, because I’ve wanted to kill your sister for the longest ti—AAAAAAAAGGHHH!” Her words were cut off a she suddenly found a few throwing stars buried in the arm.

“Knew stopping at that dollar import store would be a boon,” Sonata said as she got off the ground. Her shirt had a hole in it, revealing the body armor she wore underneath. Holding her hand up like she was playing a poker hand, she produced four more black 24-point throwing stars.

“Wait, aren’t those illegal here?” Aria, also having worn protective gear, said, rubbing the spot where the round had sunk into the armor but had not gone past.

Sonata smirked. “Rainbow has some – she told me it’s, quote, ‘jaywalking illegal, not napalm illegal,’ whatever that means. Plus, these came on a chain so technically they’re decorative necklaces that kinda look like throwing stars.” Looking back at Sonatina, she gave a dark look and added, “But I bet they still hurt, don’t they, Crush?”

“I’ll kill you!” the would-be assassin screeched, turning away from the dazed Adagio and towards her hated nemesis. If there was one person in the room that deserved to die more than anyone else, it was Sonata Dusk, and Sonatina Crush was going to put her down. Despite the wounds in her arm, she threw her knife at Sonata while bringing up another to bury between her eyes.

So it was a shock to her that with an easy motion, Sonata caught the projectile in mid-air, then moved forward and slugged her right in the solar plexus. Sonatina’s air expelled and she buckled but recovered quickly. Still, that brief stall was more than enough for Sonata to move forward, slashing her opponent across the face with one her shuriken, following it up with taking Sonatina’s own throwing knife and stabbing her in the eye.

Sonatina shrieked and instinctively stabbed out once more with the one knife still in her hand. Sonata, with the practiced ease of a martial artist, grabbed the arm and pulled forward, then reached over and grabbed Sonatina’s hair. As she moved, she snarled, “You’ll never hurt my sisters again, you bitch!” And with minimal effort, threw Sonatina Crush out the window. The screaming could be heard until it was abruptly silenced by the sound of crunching metal – Sonata didn’t need to look out the window to know Sonatina had crashed atop a car, and in the process had set off its siren.

Aria helped Adagio steady herself. “C’mon, sis, we gotta get out of here.”

“Well, she knows how to hit,” Adagio said, closing her eyes briefly.

“She can’t do anything anymore,” Sonata said in a final tone. “Now c’mon; that kind of noise is going to draw attention. Aria, you know where you parked the car; lead the way.” The middle sister nodding, the three grabbed their bags before jumping out the window and sliding down the drainpipes. As soon as they hit the ground, they disappeared into the shadows, leaving the mess and one would-be killer behind.

“Christ, this is a fucking mess.” Blackthorn leaned his carbine over his good shoulder, looking at the burning ground behind him. For some reason, the place was rigged to blow in the event of a successful incursion; one of his men had tripped that alarm and in the process had been killed shortly thereafter. In the process of him escaping, he had to put two more holes in two of the bitches, and mercy kill one of his own men – a shame; Gunsmithy was one of the better SOFs he had. But work was work, and now this was finally over.

“Hey, boss.” One of the new guys, a former Australian SAS guy by the name of Thunder Bay had something over his shoulder; from the looks of it, she was out cold and nearly completely undressed. She also looked like she was fourteen – Fuck, how young were they training these little tramps? – but she clearly had the musculature of someone who was used to pushing it hard. “Got me my present.”

“Yeah, can tell. Already tested the merchandise?”

Thunder nodded. “Yeah. Oh, she’s gonna be a fun shiela, I can tell ya. I say give her a couple of years, and I’ll have her so broken in, she’ll be like one of those sitcom mums: apron, baking biscuits and all.”

Blackthorn nodded his approval. “Okay, you know the drill. Get to the van, wait for the rest. If you don’t hear from anyone else in thirty minutes, assume the worst and get going. We’ll make it out okay.”

“Roger that.” With that, Thunder whistled a happy tune as he walked into the rain-soaked distance. Blackthorn was glad he did; there was something about that guy that gave him the creeps. Will have to look at cutting him loose as soon as I can, though if he’s wrong about that SIREN cunt he’s got, she might just do the job for me. Hrm. Maybe I can pay her to off him and join us. That might not be a bad idea, especially if she’s going to be without a job real soon….

He clicked his radio. “All, this is Argo Six. SITREP, over.” Silence came from the radio. “All units, this is Argo Six. Report.” Nothing. “All units, this is Argo Six. Mission complete, we are pulling back and heading to the barn. Anyone on radio, proceed to the vulture; we bounce at the preset time. Argo Six, out.” He threw the radio on the ground, then aimed quickly with his carbine and shot it. Anyone who heard that had their orders; anyone who didn’t, well, they likely weren’t going to hear anything ever again.

A soft orange glow started to grow brighter in the distance as the SIREN backup facility started to catch fire from the explosions within, the muffled sounds of the charges going off as the facility self-destructed. He was sure that there was some valuable intel in there that he could have sold to Changeling and those Canuckian assholes he worked for, but they hadn’t negotiated that. Besides, he was sure that his contacts at the Company already knew about what was going down and tomorrow this place would be swimming with people who worked for alphabet agencies. If not, he’d make a discreet call; SOF or not, he was still a patriotic American, after all.

His job done, he started to walk in the direction where he’d parked the van. This part of the job was over. Now, the fun would begin: he would kill that cowardly shitbag Sable Loam with every little bit of pleasure he could wring out of it. After that, he’d have a new girlfriend; maybe he’d even celebrate with Little Miss Titty right there in her bedroom before they went off on their permanent vacation – Loam’s dying vision being his girl trading up for a better class of man and a better lay certainly had an appeal to it. He could practically taste her thighs now….

“FREEZE! FBI!” He turned to see a pair of boys standing there – definitely not men; not with their clean-shaven faces and all-too long hair. The front guy, his FBI badge glistening and his long two-shades-of-blue hair looking like a mop soaked it, and seemed like he barely knew how to hold a gun, much less the gear – Is that a Shipka? – he was holding. Behind him, carrying your standard barely-could-hit-anything police shotgun, was a kid even more wet behind the ears than the G-Man. Between the two of them, Blackthorn was surprised either had hit puberty.

“Ha! You kids are funny, you know that? Well, Halloween ain’t for another couple of months, so why don’t you go scurry on home and wait until you learn how to tie your shoes, okay?” Blackthorn said to the FBI agent.

“Drop the weapon,” the agent told him, bringing the Shipka up to a decent firing position. By the book, just your typical cop bullshit. Blackthorn rolled his eyes. At least the Fibbie was ready for this. The kid behind him looked like he was about to wet his pants. Maybe in a few more years, the FBI kid would be something of value, but Blackthorn wasn’t going to let him live long enough to do so.

“Kid, both of you have one chance to walk away before I kill you both,” Blackthorn said, still not moving from his position. “You don’t have the stones to take me down and I’ve killed better men than you’ll ever be. And since the best part of you both are still in the condoms your daddies flushed down the toilet, I’m going to be nice and let you walk away. So that’s the deal. Walk, or die.”

“I said, drop the weapon,” the FBI agent told him. “This is your last chance to comply.”

“Kid, you’re wasting my time. I got a traitor to kill and a woman to fuck until she begs me to make her my love toy. So get out of here, or you get a bullet between your eyes. Both of you.” The only response was for the kid behind the FBI agent to suddenly look like he grew a spine and started to step forward.

That was more than enough of an answer for Blackthorn. Instinct took over and he brought his gun to bear, pulling the trigger. The gun responded, its barrel spitting out a lick of flame and a staccato BRRAAP of noise as it did what it was designed to do: be an instrument of death.

Time seemed to move at half-speed for Shining. He saw the movement of the suspect’s barrel and knew that he’d be in the line of fire, with no way of making it out of there. Instincts seemed to kick in and Shining felt himself moving to the side, jumping to the right as he pulled the trigger on his gun twice, feeling the kick of the rounds leave the carbine and head forward.

He heard – practically felt – the rounds from his attacker’s gun burn in the space where he was just a split-second before. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of the anime that he was fond of watching and instead of coming to a precision stop, he felt his foot slip as he tried to regain his balance, sending him towards the ground, only able to watch as his enemy staggered back from his shot. Despite the fact that it was clear that the assailant been wearing body armor, dark blossoms appeared on his shirt as the man fell to the ground like a sundered Jenga tower.

As time finally moved into normal motion, Shining felt the firearm bounce out of his hands upon impact with the ground, skittering away and sliding out of reach. Instinctively, he got up, reaching for his pistol as Takedown covered him; he felt the adrenaline kick in as he was now in a firefight. But it wasn’t necessary; his rounds had struck true.

“Wow, armor piercing rounds,” Takedown said as he offered Shining a hand up.

“Shouldn’t you be covering me instead of giving me a hand up?” Shining said, practically lampshading the issue.

“Naah; you took his ass down but good,” Takedown said with a shrug. “But what the fuck is going on?”

“Don’t know, but I want answers,” Shining said, marching over to his would-be assailant.

He found the man, gurgling in a desperate attempt to breathe, glaring at Shining with eyes of hate. “You fucking little kid,” he spat. “Fucking lucky shot.”

“Talk,” Shining ordered. “What the fuck is going on here?”

The man ignored him. “Lucky fucking shot. Managed to get through all the bitches and all the world shooting at my ass and I get cut down by—” Another desperate gasp of breath, “—some Sheriff Woody wannabe.”

“Call an ambulance,” Shining told Takedown, but he knew it was too late. This was the only chance he had was to get the perp to spill some – any – information. “Now talk.”

Blackthorn, however, didn’t seem to hear him. “I… I was going to fuck her ‘til she sang like a canary,” he murmured. “Oh, I was going to fuck her good. Call her my Lusty Lesti. I can tell she works out – probably best fuck a guy could ever get.”

“Losing him,” Takedown said.

“TALK!” Shining roared, as a large explosion erupted several hundred feet to his right. Both he and Takedown looked at the fireball in complete shock, the blast wave thankfully muted by the treeline. Shining immediately turned back to the man. “What the fuck is going on here?”

But Blackthorn was too far gone by that point. “Gonna dick her ‘til she marries me,” he slurred to no one and everyone. “Then gonna get married, have kids and grow old with her. Just me and my pastel-haired sweetie. Grow old and diii—” His words cut off to a death rattle, and then all Blackthorn did was stare into eternity.

Shining screamed in anger and frustration and futility, before turning and walking away, back towards where he’d left the others.

“What do we do now?” Takedown asked, but Shining just ignored him and continued walking, a scowl on his face.

Two hours to the west, a small campground overlooked Horseshoe Bay. The campground was currently off-limits due to the presence of Hurricane Everblue, but neither the park rangers nor anyone else in authority had bothered to check to see if anyone was there, much less the green Jeep Liberty that was parked under a copse of trees, just off the road.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Lavender Lace took a drag from a joint, and blew it out. “Fuck this shit. Parents don’t give a fuck about me, think I deserve to be grounded for picking a fight. Yeah, right, stupid bitch; should just slap her silly for that shit, but my old man would be fucking pissed. Eh, don’t matter, not like she’s my real mom anyway.” She took another toke, then passed it over to her girlfriend. “But I guess that’s what Dad gets for fucking his secretary – she might’ve had a body, but she’s got no brains.”

Fuchsia Blush took the joint and smoked it. “You know, at least your Dad cares about you. I have to live with my grandparents because my mom died in a car accident and my dad offed himself.”

“Yeah, but at least your grandparents trust you. My old man would have kept me at home if I didn’t tell him I was staying out of town at a friend’s house to avoid the storm.” She laughed. “Fuck, like he’d give a shit if I died. Probably just put a bun in my stepmom’s oven and call it that.” She pushed strands of her blonde hair out of her eyes as she said, “Still, yeah, at least he took me in. Mom moved to Florida and hasn’t given a fuckall about me since.” She tapped the seatback lever to the side of her driver’s seat and stared at the ceiling of the car. “Neither of my parents give a fuck about me. Ain’t that a joke.”

Fuchsia set the joint down in the ashtray and looked at her girlfriend. “Hey, I give a fuck about you.” She leaned over and kissed Lavender, the magenta of her bangs seeming to intertwine with her girlfriend’s blonde locks. “And I’m always going to be here for you.”

“You know, your grandparents are going to shit bricks if they ever find out you’re a lesbo.”

“Yeah, but they’ll deal. And if your parents ever kick you out, I’m sure they’d let you move in.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.” Fuchsia took another drag of the joint, then leaned forward and kissed Lavender again, blowing some of the smoke into her mouth. “Now, c’mon, I got an itch that needs to be scratched.”

“Oh?”

Fuchsia pulled off her t-shirt, then started unbuttoning Lavender’s own. “Yeah. And I brought the toys, too. We’re still here for a few more days until they reopen the park, so until then, this is just our little world, Lav. Just you and me and paradise.”

Lavender needed no prodding, leaning forward and kissing her girlfriend on the neck, her hands moving and probing as passion took them both, never knowing that three unnatural pairs of eyes watched, looking for the perfect moment to strike.

Divine cocked his head slightly; it was time. Getting up from his desk, he took a final quaff from his wine goblet, and with a simple incantation, teleported away with a flash of purple magic.

A second later, he appeared atop the summit of Mt. Shasta. Even in the summer weather, it was high enough to be cold, so he cast an additional warmth spell, then summoned a decent windbreaker to add to his warmth. He was sure that there were going to be others atop the summit, ready to take a picture of the historic Hurricane Everblue, the first Category 5 storm that had managed to make it this far inland without breaking apart, and he couldn’t allow them to see what happened next.

Snapping his fingers, he summoned his grimoire, looking over the spells in the moonlight for the perfect one. A second later he banished it, and a second after that, he snapped his fingers, releasing a spell.

Five hundred yards away, an award-winning photojournalist in perfect health suddenly had an epiphany about his career. He left the mountain, deciding that he wanted to chase his dreams about being a professional skydiver.

Three hundred yards in the opposite direction, a CNN reporter and her cameraman finally admitted how they felt about each other and with a passionate kiss, departed the mountain. They would be found three days later in Reno at a quick-wedding chapel.

Flying above in a rented prop airplane, its pilot, a man who reported for the New York Times suddenly had engine trouble. Angry that it meant he could potentially lose control as he got closer to the storm, he winged his way back towards Oregon, pissed to have missed out on the story of a lifetime.

Divine used his magic to feel out and make sure there were none that he missed. Killing any of them would have been child’s play, but probably would have brought too many questions at such a critical juncture. Fortunately, a prince knew the softer arts just as well as the harder, and where violence couldn’t solve things, subterfuge did – all he did was reach into the minds of those in the area and give them what they wanted most, or in the case of the pilot, what he feared most.

When he was sure there were no other potential problems and snoopers around, he summoned the Bell, throwing it into the air, where it floated a mile above the mountain. With that done, he called to the hurricane, beckoning it to come. The storm answered his call, moving forward with an freakish speed across the trees and the mountainside, like a lover crawling across silken sheets and pillows, hungry and insatiable. With a motion that could only be called unnatural, the hurricane enveloped Mt. Shasta, becoming a wall of rain and wind, howling and screeching as Divine stood in the center of it, directing its energies skywards, towards the bell.

Finally, the hurricane exploded, sending torrents of water in every direction, as a gash of blood red energy soared into the sky, hitting the bell. The bell absorbed the force, turning bright red, then burning white, almost as if it intended to replace the moon and the sun itself with its intensity.

Then the bell sang out, pealing with an unnatural tone, sounding strong enough that the whole world could hear it, if only they knew what to listen out for.

Divine laughed. Soon, the world would be his. It was, after all, his divine right.

A giant gong rang in Sunset’s ears, making her sit up. The first thing she could feel was the intense ringing, as if it ripped through her. The second thing she could feel was the dark energy burning in the air.

What the hell? she thought. She immediately got up, planning to investigate, but then…

“Sunny?” Twilight stirred next to her, then sat up. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you hear that?”

“Hear what?” the plum-haired scholar asked.

“The….” Sunset realized that whatever she’d heard, it was clearly magic-based, and that meant that only she could hear it. Maybe her friends also did, but now was not the time to ask. Now was the time to comfort her sister, who was clearly worried about her in a situation that was already natural.

“I…I guess my ears are ringing. Let me get some Advil and water and I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“No, let me take care of that, sis,” Twilight insisted, walking over to Sunset’s desk, where bottles of the needed stuff had already been placed. Sunset would have to sit this one out for the moment, but as soon as she had the chance, she would investigate. With that much dark power, there was no way she could ignore that.

But for now, as much as she wasn’t comfortable, there was sleep to be had, right next to her sister. That, at least, she could deal with, Sunset thought to herself as she accepted the medicine and water from Twilight.

In her destroyed bedroom, a raven-haired girl removed her hands from her pants; they were sticky and wet and she loved every moment of it. She’d felt the raging power in the air, the dark majesty and it turned her on. If she could somehow harness that power, she could break and bend everyone in this house and then the world beyond. That thought made her feel creamy-thighed, so she dealt with her need.

And now, she stood, feeling sated for the moment, wishing she’d had a little plum-haired playmate to make things perfect. Unfortunately, she was in the bedroom two doors down with that bacon-haired cunt, and the frigid bitches sleeping outside her door at the moment weren’t going to let her have her fun.

Still, only a matter of time, Melody thought. Now, if she could only get the bitch screaming within her mind to stop – to kill Octavia, once and for all – then she could have all the fun and more.

August 8: Looking for Clues

The rain had barely stopped hours ago before a legion of law enforcement officials from every part of the Canterlot Metro arrived at the location of the crime. At least fifty marked cruisers, a CPD SWAT van, a CPD bomb squad van and emergency vehicles and ambulances from the ECFD were on scene.

Looking completely haggard, Firefly walked over to Shining Badge, who also looked like he’d seen better days. “Okay, fire’s out on floors one through three,” she said, “and you’re clear to go in. No idea how many more floors there are down there, or how many more fires or explosives are present. We’re trying to use foam on whatever we come across, but needless to say, my folks are a little worried about the number of explosive devices we’ve found. Are you sure there’s something you aren’t telling me, Special Agent Badge?”

Badge looked at her with the gaze of a man who’d already lost too much. “Captain, I have one of my best agents – and a friend, too – dead, with a CPD officer dead as well. I have another one of my agents down, and a third dealing with the fact that he was here and being the thin blue line between putting this down and letting it all spin out of control. Now I sympathize with your situation, Captain, but all I can say to you is to put those fires out, and let EOD take care of the rest, all right?”

Firefly, her face covered in ash and smoke and her blue hair looking greasy from sweat, nodded. “Yeah. I gotcha. Fucking world we live in, I swear.”

“We survived a hurricane, Captain Firefly. That’s a plus in my book. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to debrief my agent on scene.” Giving a nod of his head, he wandered past the legions of heavily-armed officers on site, towards where a bunch of paramedics were set up. And in the middle of them, being checked out, was Shining Armor, who looked exhausted, but otherwise holding up. “How you holding up, Armor?” Badge asked.

“One of my closest friends on the force is dead,” Shining said in a dull voice. “Mel didn’t deserve that shit – any of it. Neither did Hardy. And Sandy should be here, not being shipped off to CanterGen.” He shook his head. “Meanwhile, I put down two guys who can’t tell us jack shit, and we’re no closer to figuring out what the hell happened here.”

Badge looked at the paramedics. “You mind stepping away for a second? Bureau business.” The paramedics nodded and stepped away to give the two privacy. “Look, I know it wasn’t supposed to happen this way. But your friend found a SIREN base. A fucking SIREN base, right here in the forest, where nobody expected them. I mean, look – hidden base, highly advanced installation in the middle of the Everfree, right by the road. That’s some kind of GI Joe crap that nobody – and I mean nobody – expected. She uncovered that. And she’s a hero for it.”

“Yeah, tell that to her kids. Man, I mean who’s going to tell Sales Pitch – that’s her husband – and her kids that Mommy’s not coming home? I mean…fuck, I don’t know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I have to talk to the head of the bureau office in Seattle this afternoon so he can go pay condolences to Hardy’s ex-husband and daughter. That ain’t going to be any easier, I can assure you. But what I can assure you, Shining, is that you did your job out here, and there are some officers that owe you their lives for taking charge when it counts. Don’t forget that.”

Before Shining could answer, a dark-skinned man approached them both and said, “He’s right – you did your job, Officer Armor, and you should be proud of yourself.” The man had a big but vague smile on his face, and the look in his golden eyes and gray-and-light-red hair somehow set off Badge’s hackles; the fact that he was dressed in an expensive suit when the order of the day in the area was casual due to the mess made that mental alarm go off all the more.

“And you are?” Badge asked, somehow already knowing where the newcomer was from.

“Oh, yes, forgot,” the man said affably, producing a badge. “Agent Hidden Truth, STB. Sorry it took so long to get one of us out here, but apparently someone’s paying attention now.”

Badge groaned. “Took you guys long enough. What, the high and mighty Sciences and Technology Branch going to let my people do their jobs, or are we going to end up having one of those pointless turf battles?”

Truth waved his hands. “Hey, I’m not the bad guy here: I’m just here to assist. Furthermore, I’m just a forensics guy – I don’t handle the big arrests like guys do, okay?”

“Look, that’s nice and all, but I’m standing on a pile of corpses that include military personnel from another country – personnel that, if I recall, aren’t supposed to exist – as well as what looks like mercs. Oh, yes, and don’t let me forget the two cops that lost their lives here and the agent I have in the hospital now.”

“Yeah, heard about that. Apparently several folks from the CIA are in front of Congress trying to explain why they were covering for whatever the Canadians are doing here. But as I understand it, whatever line there was just got crossed in a major way, and we’ve been given whatever go ahead there is to shut this shit down. Got some information from the OTI and DDI with permission to pass everything that they know on to you guys.”

“Look, it’s nice that you know your vowels and consonants,” Shining said, the sarcasm in his voice thick, “but you might want to speak in plain English for the people who can’t connect the dots.”

“Understandable. Look, I’ll meet you guys in your conference room at 8:30 and then we can talk. I think you might be interested to find out what we know. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to talk to their forensics folks and see what I can get.” Nothing more to add, Hidden Truth headed into the investigation site, the look on his face as passive as he seemed overall.

Badge looked at Shining. “Look, you’ve had a hard day, so…go get some rest, check on Sandalwood, all that. Meet up back at 8:30.” The senior lawman sighed, looking as if he’d put on a million years in that statement. “I…I need to get back to the office and perform some duties I’ve never wanted to, but have done all too often.”

Shining nodded. “Understood.”

The morning came, and with it parents who were more than a little concerned about their daughters; Velvet briefly wondered how the others had found out, but soon realized that it had to have been Posey who had passed on the information over the course of the night. Neither she nor Night were happy about that, but she had to admit that had the situation been reversed, she likely would have done the same. Moreover, seeing the potential for crisis, apparently Posey thought she could defuse the situation by sending over her quite-literal rock star husband to help; it was apparently a good thing that in-person, Discord was nothing like his stage persona.

However, either Posey had forgotten (or didn’t know) that Discord and Velvet had a past, namely over Celestia – and it hadn’t been a particularly fun one, as during their teen years, the two clashed often. So the morning started off with both Night and Velvet feeling as though they were on the defensive, even if decades of problems she’d had with the platinum-tousled rock star was obviously water well under the bridge. Regardless, they’d stick to the defensive because Octavia was their niece and ward and they loved her dearly; they would do everything and anything to protect her from danger, herself included if need be.

So Velvet tried not to bristle as she hugged her best friend’s former flame and bade him to sit down at the table. But then he did the strangest thing, bending down and whispering in her ear, “Look, put the gun down, okay? I’m on your side, Vel.”

“Look, Disc,” she said, falling into the old nickname, “if this is about the past….”

He shook his head. “No, this is about me repaying a favor.”

“A favor?”

“Let’s just say I owe your oldest daughter a solid and we’ll call it that, okay?”

Velvet blinked. “I don’t understand.”

In reply, he gave her a grin that she was all-too-familiar with. “Watch and learn, Vel,” he said in a cheerful tone. “Watch and learn.”

Sitting down at the table, Discord looked at all the other parents, who had arrived before him. Cookie Crumbles was the first to address him. “I suppose now would be a bad time to ask for an interview?”

Discord gave her an affable smile. “Just here as a concerned parent, like you are. Perhaps later, though?” Without waiting for an answer, Discord then looked at the others and began. “Look, I’m sorry that my wife jumped the gun a little; that’s usually my job. And I think it’s fair to say as parents, given what Poe may have told you, that we’re just a little concerned about what may or may not have happened here.”

Rainbow Blitz looked at Discord. “I think none of us have any idea of what happened.”

“Be that as that may,” Discord replied, gesturing to Velvet, “I’ve known her for decades, both bad and good. But I can tell you that she’s got a good head on her shoulders – she always has. And whatever went on here, I should be shocked – absolutely shocked – if Velvet didn’t have things under control.”

Velvet tried to keep the surprised reaction from appearing on her face while he continued. She certainly hadn’t expected that, but in hindsight it should have been obvious: he was a parent, just as she was, and from the last conversation she had with Celestia, Discord was trying to make up for his years separated from Posey and her children. Admittedly, Tia’s always had a soft spot for him, but Posey doesn’t put up with much.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say that I have no idea what sort of insanity went on here over the weekend,” Cookie began, but was quickly cut off by Night.

“I would very much appreciate it if you didn’t refer to my niece as insane,” Night said in an uncharacteristically cold tone, and the journalist couldn’t help but flinch.

“Night, I think Cookie meant the general craziness of the weekend, not specifically Tavi,” Cup, who had come not only to check on Pinkie but to support her friends, stated. “But you have to admit, the things Posey told us, unless she was exaggerating, isn’t very comforting, and I’ve never known Posey to be one for blowing things up. But please, Night, Velvet, remember that we’re all parents here. We’re just worried about our children, even if we can’t help but sympathize what’s going on, especially in light of what happened to Twilight earlier in the year.”

“Plus, Vel, you know me,” Discord added. “Supposed living morality warning label or not, I hate seeing people suffer. I’m the one that’s supposed to cause chaos – well, at least so far as my record contract goes – but that’s my stage image, not me. And I know Poe has already said this, but we’ll do everything we can, I promise.”

“Thanks,” Velvet said, glad that whatever changes that had happened to him over the decades had occurred. “I just want to take care of my niece. She’s hurting right now and she needs support, not demonization.”

Rainbow Blitz adjusted his glasses, looking at both Night and Velvet. “Listen, I know this must be hell for you – I can’t imagine otherwise – but I think I speak for the rest of the parents when I say I have concerns.”

“‘Concerns,’ he says,” Cookie scoffed. “Blitz, ‘my daughter stole something’ is a concern. ‘My daughter went fucking psycho’ is something differ—”

“That’s not very helpful,” Appleseed said, looking at the journalist. Part of him wondered if he should have sent his wife along, as Cornflower was much more versed in talking to people than he was. But cleaning up from the storm was likely going to take a lot out of her, so she stayed home and he went along. “Plus, that’s being rather insulting to our hosts, y’ know.”

Meanwhile, Cookie took a sip of her coffee; she disliked being the heavy here, but she had Rarity to consider. “I just state the facts, Appleseed, for good or ill.”

“No, right now that’s opinion, not fact,” Cup said, rebuking the journalist. Turning then to Velvet and Night, she added, “I think it’s fair to say that none of us here are going to insist our daughters never see your children again – that’s not likely to help anything.”

Appleseed nodded. “But given that we all had t’ deal with Sunset’s antics in th’ past – and Ah sure as swear on mah family that we all know it’s in th’ past – we’d hate t’ see anyone with a passel o’ problems like that again.”

“And keep in mind that we’re just the parents of Octavia’s closest friends,” Blitz pointed out. “What about the others? I noted that several other girls are here as well, and their parents may have concerns, ones that you can’t quite explain away because of history.”

Night looked at them all. “Look, we felt it was prudent to tell you all because your daughters are close friends with our daughters and niece, but please, let me make it clear when I tell you that thing is being handled. As Discord here said, Posey is looking into a mental health professional for Tavi, and I have faith that she will find someone.”

“Probably the same one Pinkie saw a couple of years ago,” Cup said sadly.

“Yes. So while we informed you as a courtesy,” Velvet said with finality, “in the end, this is our business, not yours.”

Cookie was about to say something when Discord noted that and cut her off at the pass. “Listen, that’s good enough for me. And I know Flutters will be there for Tavi to rely on – knowing her, she’d probably never let me hear the end of it if I even considered saying otherwise.” He grinned with the pride that only a parent could have and said, “Sometimes it’s like she’s made out of nothing but pure kindness.”

Cookie couldn’t help but smile as well. “Sometimes I think my Rarity is generous to a fault, but I couldn’t be prouder.”

“My Rainbow’s loyal as hell,” Blitz noted, “and she would never run out on a friend.”

“Mah daughter’s as honest as the day is long,” Appleseed said, “an’ Ah’d be shocked if’n she wasn’t there fer a friend.”

“Pinkie loves to make people smile and laugh,” Cup said with a grin, “and she’d do that especially for a friend in trouble.” The baker looked at those around the table. “We all have special children that are unique. I think we should let them do what they can for Tavi.”

Cookie nodded; her fears were assuaged and that was more than enough for her. “So, that brings up the next question. They’re still planning to all go to Modesto this weekend, right? Shouldn’t we consider some parental supervision? A chaperone or two?”

Appleseed waved that off. “Ah think yer worryin’ a tad too much there, sugarcube. Th’ girls are old enough an’ Ah think they’ll be fine.”

“Yes, but they’re taking the younger ones with them,” Cookie insisted. “It’s one thing for Rarity to take care of herself. It’s another for her to take care of herself and Sweetie.”

Blitz waved that off. “I don’t think that’ll be an issue; Firefly was talking to another den mother in the region after the news reports said that several of the southern and western suburbs got hit really hard, so the local troops’ll try to organize some fundraisers. And you know as well as I that when it comes to Scoots, Sweetie and Bloomie, if there’s one thing they can’t resist, it’s a new scouting badge. Trust me, the fact that their older sisters are gone next weekend won’t even occur to them.”

Meanwhile, upstairs in her shattered bedroom and unaware of the conversation unfolding downstairs, Octavia curled up like a fetal ball on what remained of the mattress, shivering in panic. Fluttershy currently had her arms around her friend, refusing to let go while the raven-haired teen needed someone. Also present were Rainbow and Bon-Bon, who refused to leave Fluttershy alone with Octavia given what had happened earlier; Minuette, who was there for moral support; and Pinkie, because someone had to make Octavia smile again, in her opinion.

“It’s okay, Tavi. We’re here for you, I promise.”

“Why?” Octavia asked in a choked voice that everyone present strained to hear. “I’m a monster. You should leave me be.”

“You’re not a monster and you know we’re not going to abandon you,” the chiffon-haired teen said gently as she brushed the hair out of her friend’s eyes. “You’re just going through some problems right now,” Fluttershy said with a smile, “but it’s nothing that we can’t beat together.”

“Problems? I’m out of control!” Octavia wailed.

“Uh, why?” Rainbow asked. “Just because you rubbed one out last night—”

“Rainbow! That’s crass as hell,” Minuette scolded.

“Hey, it’s not like we can’t all smell it. You telling me you never flicked the be—” The rainbow-haired athlete suddenly had a hand clamp over her mouth.

“Rainbow, just drop it, okay?” Bon-Bon said from behind her. Rainbow nodded and the martial-artist removed her hand.

Pinkie, uncharacteristically quiet for most of this time, looked up from where she sat. “Look, it’s been a long couple of days, and we’re all tired as hell,” she spoke in unusually calm tones. “I just want to go home and crash for a few hours, personally. And Rainbow, seriously, TMI, okay?” She then looked at Octavia and said in a voice closer to normal, “Tavi, if you think what happened this weekend is going to scare us away, it’s not. You know I don’t give up on my friends, no way, no how!”

“Me neither,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile.

Scratching her head, Rainbow gave her friend an apologetic look as she said, “Yeah, me neither – especially not me. Tavi, I’m your friend and you know I’m here for you, okay? Just try not to paddle the pink canoe whenever we’re here, okay?”

At that, everyone groaned and Bon-Bon once again gave in to her facepalming instinct. “Why me?” she asked no one in particular.

Shining got home, looking exhausted. “Hey, I’m home,” he said in a dull voice. Right now, he needed some sleep, then maybe visit Sandalwood in the hospital before going back to attend that me—

No further words were said as he felt himself slammed to the floor unexpectedly. Instincts were about to kick in when he felt drops on his face. He looked up to see Cadance, lunging over him and crying.

“Shining…you…you didn’t have to….” Her words dissolved into an incomprehensible bawl as she bent down and glomped him, soaking his shoulder with her tears. All he could do was lay there, gently embracing her back and assuring him he was okay, that everything would be okay.

He wished he could believe it, though.

“Damn good thing th’ others volunteered to stay with Twily while she went to see Tavi,” Applejack said, glad to see the early afternoon sun burning through what clouds remained of the hurricane. At the moment, the members of the Eightmazing Eight, save for Twilight and Octavia, were in Sunset’s room. The other two were in Octavia’s room, with Twilight’s safety overseen by Bon-Bon, Trixie and Lyra. Minuette had left for home thirty minutes ago, with Blossomforth having caught a ride with her.

A small ball of flame appeared in Sunset’s hand as she sat on her bed. “Look, as long as I keep this spell up, nobody will have any reason to disturb us. As it is, your parents did say that you could stay until the end of the day.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I think that’s just because Dad wanted to get the interview with Rarity’s mom done before she keeps pestering him.”

Rarity exhaled in slight annoyance. “Okay, so I know my mother can be somewhat…dogged…when it comes to chasing down a story, but seriously darlings, aren’t all journalists?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Sunset replied. “I’m still perma-banned from being on the school newspaper after I turned it into a gossip rag.”

“Yeah, well, Gabby Gums is a stupid reporter name anyway,” Rainbow huffed, though in a way to make it clear she wasn’t really offended.

Sunset laughed. “I actually wanted to use Anon-a-Miss, but the student editor said that violated school reporting policies,” the flame-haired girl said. “Anyway, enough of that. I think we need to talk about the upcoming trip.”

“I GOT THE SNACKS TAKEN CARE OF!” Pinkie announced at maximum volume. Everyone in the room winced and shook their heads, as if to banish the temporary ringing in their ears.

“I’m sure you do, Pinkie dear, but could you do that at a less, ah, vehement volume?” Rarity asked.

“Heh, so~rry!”

Sunset quickly cast another spell and everyone looked relieved as the ringing went away. “Heh, had to learn that one when I was a filly – just don’t ask why, okay? Anyway, I’ll go over the stuff with Twily later tonight, but I want to make sure that we talk amongst ourselves to make sure that we do everything we can to make Tavi feel at home. It’s been…well, I’m not going to lie, it’s been a rough weekend for us all, but moreso for Twily given that it was her birthday that got ruined; and Tavi, who probably thinks we hate her or are walking on eggshells around her.”

“Look, Sunny, I don’t know what the fuck went on; I ain’t magical or anything like you are,” Rainbow said. “But she’s my friend, okay? I didn’t run out on you when you were learning how to be, well, the you you are now, so there’s no way I’m bailing on Tavi.”

“I promised I’d be there for her, and I will, okay?” Fluttershy insisted. “Besides, someone has to bring the music to the camping trip, right?”

“Thought Tavi was taking care of that, sugarcube,” Applejack asked, and Fluttershy’s response to that was a blush.

“I…I’m thinking about taking Dad up on his suggestion that I go into music instead of veterinary work.”

“Wow, that’s great, Flutters!” Pinkie said, leaping up from where she sat to go over and tackleglomp the chiffon-haired girl.

“That is seriously wonderful, Fluttershy dear, but I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a repeat of the whole modeling affair,” Rarity commented.

“Modeling affair?” Sunset asked.

“Yes. Late in our Eighth Grade year, before we graduated, I had designed some clothing, but I wasn’t sure about how it looked. Fluttershy offered to wear it, and caught the eye of an art designer at The Broadway – that was before they went out of business and were replaced with Liberty House, but that’s another thing entirely, dears – anyway, The Broadway bought the rights for the designs from me and had Fluttershy model them for their Spring Catalog. But somehow the images leaked out and Fluttershy was bombarded with tons of requests to model for teen fashion designers. It got so bad that Dr. Posey had to put her foot down, but the damage had been done.” Rarity sighed. “A shame too, Fluttershy. Your exotic looks really do you credit, you know.”

Fluttershy blushed once more, but said, “No, I think I’m a lot more confident about it then I was back then. Besides, if I do what Dad suggests and just let myself flow into the music, they’ll be focusing on my playing, and not specifically on me, right?”

“Uh, guys, weren’t we talkin’ about the camping trip?” Applejack interjected.

“Yes! And we’re going to have s’mores and churros and campfire cakes an—”

“Okay, Pinkie, that’s enough,” Sunset said with a smile. “Look, I just want to make sure that you guys are still in.”

“Sunny, Ah’d be a liar if Ah didn’t think that all of us are in for the long haul,” Applejack said with a smile. “Twily and Tavi are part of us, just like you are, and friends stick together.”

“Well, said, Applejack,” Rarity said with a nod.

“Yay friendship!” Pinkie cheered.

“I’m in,” Fluttershy insisted.

“You know my answer,” Rainbow replied.

“Thanks, you guys,” Sunset said with a wide, emotional smile. “It means a lot to me. Now I’m sure you guys probably want to get home, so your parents can harangue you about your weekend.”

“Oh, no need,” Pinkie said with a grin. “Auntie Cup is still here.”

“Yeah, and apparently Dad and your mom went to high school together,” Fluttershy added, “so they’re going to be catching up on old times. Plus, since we’re here, I think Dad wants to check out the lot at the end of the street where he’s going to build the new house.”

“Wow, so your Mom and Discord went to school together. Think they did the thing?” Rainbow asked.

“I’m too young for a headache,” Sunset groaned.

Sandalwood finished munching on her bacon double cheeseburger. “Hey, thanks for sneaking that in, you two. No way in hell am I going to eat the hospital slop while I’m here.”

Cadance rolled her eyes, then giggled, while Hearts Aflutter shook her head. “Yeah, maybe the broken state of your legs’ll match the one in your head. Seriously, what were you thinking?”

“Look, I was just trying to cover Shiny’s back, okay?” Sandalwood suddenly realized what she said could be easily misconstrued, and she looked away before she blushed.

“You are soooo lucky he’s using the bathroom right now,” Hearts said, crossing her arms.

“Look, Sandy,” Cadance began.

“No, Cady. I’ve beaten around the bush too many times already, okay?” The look on Sandalwood’s face suddenly grew wistful. “And no, you know me. I’m not that kind of woman – my thought was to protect a fellow cop first, then whatever next. I promise.”

“You can’t hide this forever, you know,” Hearts told her old friend.

“Yes I can, and I will,” Sandalwood insisted. “This is my cross to bear, Hearts, just like when Lemony had a thing for Buck before Cady here shot him down. I’ll manage.”

“Except that Lemony married Buck,” Hearts insisted. “Unless you got some sort of time machine and—”

“Hearts, that’s enough,” Cadance interrupted. “Sandy’s already hurting enough as is, okay?” She then turned to the brunette. “But Sandy, you can’t just keep doing this to yourself forever. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t want you to hurt yourself forever. Why can’t you just let go?”

“‘Why can’t I just let go’, you say?” Sandalwood’s purple eyes narrowed briefly. “Do you know why I can’t let go? Because the day you and I were going to ask him out, you did…and I couldn’t build up the courage. So I stayed silent, and played uninterested. But I can’t do this anymore, Cady. I don’t want to do this anymore – but I don’t have a choice! What you and he have is special, and even if I had some magical ability to disguise myself like you and brainwash him into not noticing, I don’t think I could. What you and he have…nothing’s ever going to break apart.”

“Yeah, well you’re doing a great job of passive-aggressive not-doing it, idiot,” Hearts snapped.

“You know, it’s a good thing I’ve known you since first grade, or you’d be breathing through a straw,” Sandalwood snarled.

“Okay, that’s enough, you two!” Cadance interjected again, moving in-between the two. “This was all settled ages ago, or so I’d hoped. Sandy, I don’t know what I can say that can make it better, but I hope you’ll be able to move on. Hearts, give her a break, okay? Shiny might be dead right now if it hadn’t been for what Sandy did.”

“Yeah, point made,” Hearts replied.

“No promises,” Sandalwood added. “Believe me, I did the BEQ bunny thing.”

A second later, there was the sound of a toilet flushing, then Shining came out, his nose wrinkling at an unpleasant smell. “Wow, that place smells too much like disinfectant. Bothering my nose.”

“Yeah, you’ve always had a sensitive nose there, Shiny,” Sandalwood drawled before Hearts glared at her. The bedridden woman shrugged as much as she could. “Hey, it’s not like it’s a lie or anything – he was famous in high school for that, remember?”

“Yeah,” Hearts relented. “Forgot about that.”

A nurse poked her head in. “Hate to bother you all, but visitor hours are up in fifteen minutes.”

“We got it,” Shining replied. “Well, we gotta go, Sandy. Obviously I need to get some food in me and get Cady home before I head off to that 8:30 meeting.”

“8:30?” Sandalwood and Cadance asked at the same time.

“Yeah. We’re getting a new briefing on the situation.”

“Great,” Hearts sighed. “That means this is going to get passed to the Feds, which means a shit-ton of paperwork for us. Well, makes our lives easier in the long run, but for now,” she said, clapping Cadance on the shoulder, “you and I are totally screwed by the paralegals.”

“Yeah,” Cadance agreed with a sigh. “We should probably gather what we have now, because they’re going to come knocking in the morning.” She went over and kissed Shining on the cheek, adding, “I’ll catch a ride with Hearts, go to the office, then she can give me a lift home afterwards. You go do what you need to do and I’ll see you when we get back, okay? Sandy, I’ll swing by tomorrow, ‘kay?”

He nodded, and with a wave to him then to Sandalwood, both women walked out. Shining glanced at the clock on the wall and said, “Well, time for me to get going. Got just enough time to go home and catch a shower before I need to get ready. Anything you want, Sandy?”

“Oh, there’s lots of things I want,” she purred playfully, but then added, “but we can’t all have everything in life that we wish for. But there is something you could do for me if you can, Shiny.”

“Yeah, sure. Just name it.”

“If you catch the fucker behind all of this?” Sandalwood asked, her face sober. “Kill the son of a bitch.”

Given the sheer number of law enforcement personnel around the place, it was somewhat difficult for Rhapsody to sneak in. The rest of her fireteam waited in the nearby woods, ready to tear down the human wall of police if she needed a distraction, but she hadn’t worked her way up to Executive Officer of the SIRENs just by brute force and overwhelming strength. Sometimes, military tactics needed a woman’s touch – the whole reason the SIRENs had been created, after all.

So, standing in the former command center with two police at the doors, she was glad that her faux-NSA badge still worked. Either the Americans were slipping at checking their own backdoors, or CSIS had a few entryways into the American halls of power that Washington wasn’t aware of. Either way, that wasn’t on her mind right now.

She was here to investigate a murder. Several murders, in fact. The murder of Violin Elegy and the SIRENs assigned to the bolthole. They had been killed by a merc group that had been paid by CSIS, no doubt on that, but that didn’t make them the murderers.

No, the murderer – or should I say murderess – is Canta, Rhapsody thought, looking at the taped outline on the ground that she was completely sure had been the place Elegy had died. She could have taken extra precautions, but instead she treated the situation as if they were expendable – as if our Operations Officer was expendable. To me, that’s one of the last officers you want taken down, but that didn’t mean a thing to Canta. Which means she had something going on, and Ellie was in the way. The recent losses attributed to CSIS also came to mind. Thrust, Rise, the other senior cadre – were they victims, too?

Fingers danced across the keyboard she was at, and various documents came up on the screen. The two police officers weren’t going to say anything; after all, they just made half their annual salary tonight, and if they wanted to push it, Rhapsody had a few more thousand on her still. After all, neither the CIA nor the NSA wasn’t supposed to get into domestic intelligence matters, and so it wouldn’t do for an agent like Rhapsody – or rather, “Dark Secrets”, the name on her badge – to get caught breaking federal law, right?

Her eyes traced across the screen until she came across an unfamiliar folder: PROJECT ANTHEMUSA. It’s the same file that was on Canta’s USB, Rhapsody noted, but this one’s much larger. She reached into her pocket, copying everything. When she got back to the base, she’d have to make sure that she gave a copy to her sisters and Madrigal; whatever was going on was big and pointed to something sinister within their own ranks.

Please, Canta. Let me be wrong about this, she pled mentally as she walked out of the bolthole, flashing her badge to let her through the security cordons. Please don’t do something that will make me have to kill you.

“Why are we being followed?” Shimmer asked, as she looked around, noticing the Indian woman and the somewhat slovenly guy that had been two steps behind them in Seattle, two seats behind on the plane back to Canterlot, and now even after they had recovered their baggage, were still on their trail.

“They’re….” Solaire paused for thought.

“We were assigned extra security, weren’t we?” Shimmer asked, her cyan eyes looking into her mother’s lilac ones. When Solaire looked away, Shimmer shrugged. “It’s not that I don’t understand that we need a security consideration, given who we are. And I know you want me to have a normal life, where I don’t have to think about such things. But I don’t think that’s possible right now, Mom.”

“I know, mon petit tournesol,” the older princess said in a soft voice, “and I wish it weren’t. But until this is solved, we’ll have some assistance at this time. Hopefully, they won’t be too intrusive.”

Meanwhile, not really listening to the conversation, Coco was busy on the phone. “Really? Do you think so, Sweetie? I mean, sure, I’d love to do that, but I have to ask my aunt because my parents are out of town. But otherwise, I’m in. Yeah, talk to you later. Bye!” She hung up the phone and looked at her aunt. “Aunt Solaire? A friend asked me if I want to join her Girl Scouts group in helping with cleanup from the hurricane. We’ll be camping out in Sunnytown Park with some other troops and our assistant den mother. Can I go?”

Solaire thought about it for a second. “I don’t know. Are your parents familiar with the people?”

Coco nodded. “Sorta. But most of my friends will be there – Sweetie, Bloomie and Scoots, since Crackle’s in China. But I should be okay. Plus, we’ll be with a bunch of other adults. I’m pretty sure my parents would approve.”

“Well, if they’re okay with it normally, then I’ll allow it.” Solaire turned to Shimmer. “Is that something that sounds like you might be interested in?”

Shimmer shook her head. “Unfortunately, school started up this month, so I need to get back to my curriculum; I think I have a test coming up this week. But since we’re not leaving until the end of the month, that still gives me plenty of time to catch up with my cousin.” She reached over and put an arm around Coco, saying, “If you’re going to go, have fun; we’ll still have time to make it up, okay?”

The younger girl grinned. “Sure!”

Walking a discreet distance behind the trio, Saffron Masala looked at Zephyr Breeze. “Okay, I have our hotel set up. Closest I could get is about ten minutes away from where they’re staying.”

Zephyr shrugged. “Whatever works; I don’t really care. Funny, though; never realized it until now: the older girl reminds me of my little sister.”

Saffron glared at him. “So now you’re skirt chasing jailbait?”

He shrugged. “Hey, I might be incorrigible, but not that much. No, was just thinking of my kid sister back in Atlanta. I think she graduates high school this year.”

“Wait – you have a sister?” Saffron gasped.

Zephyr shook his head. “Yeah. Her name’s Fluttershy. She’s attending Alpharetta High. Pop says I should move the family back to Atlanta so I can beat off Shy’s boyfriends with a stick. But hey, what she does is not my business. Besides, I think we should focus on our current issue.”

Saffron made a dismissive gesture. “Ten to one this is an easy case and that the worst thing we have to do is the occasional stakeout. I guarantee, whoever’s behind this, the Frenchies’ll catch them and then ask us to drop the case by the end of the week.”

“You think so?”

She grinned. “I know so.”

The coffin opened up and with dead eyes Tennis Match looked at Sunset. She lay in the coffin, looking at Sunset with accusing eyes. “I died because you couldn’t protect me.”

“I’m sorry,” Sunset replied. “I know you were against me – the whole school was once, but that’s no excuse.”

Match clawed her way out of the open burial plot and stood before Sunset with her lifeless features, looking like death’s embrace had come to accuse the flame-haired girl in person.

“Will you die for me?” She moved closer, until she was right up against Sunset and the flame-haired girl could smell the fetid stench of Match’s undead aspirations.

“Will you die for me?” she asked, as she reached into her shirt, tearing it off, and into the sutures that kept her body closed, ripping them open and exposing the empty cavity that her body was now.

“Will you die for me, Sunset?”

Sunset woke up with a start, looking at the clock. That’s the Xth nightmare in as many days, she said to herself, sitting up in bed, taking care not to wake up her sister. Maybe I need to talk to Mom about this. But for right now, I need a glass of water. She got out of bed to go get one, but then remembered that she wasn’t allowed to leave the room unescorted in case Octavia had a relapse. Reluctantly, she reached over to wake Twilight.

“Sunny, why?” she heard Twilight mumble, and just as the former unicorn was about to touch the scholarly teen, she mumbled, “Why did you lie to me about the letters? Why?”

Letters? What letters? Don’t tell me…. Sunset immediately went over to her desk, looking for the most recent letters that Princess Twilight had written her on the Hello Kitty stationery. She didn’t find those. But with Twilight in the room, she didn’t risk looking for her other correspondence from Equestria, lest something be found out—

“I see you’re looking for something,” she heard Twilight’s voice say behind her – and she didn’t sound happy, either. As Sunset turned to face her sister, Twilight continued. “I found the letters. I…it looks a lot like my handwriting, a lot,” Twilight said. “But nothing in those letters make sense. Plus, I’m not one for trainwreck stationery.”

“I know,” Sunset said in a soft voice. “Listen, sis….”

“Why,” Twilight asked in an even voice, “did you hide this from me? Do you not trust me, Sunny?”

“What? No! You know better than that, Twily! You’re my sister! Why wouldn’t I trust you?”

“Because you hid that from me!” Twilight accused. “Look, I get that you were probably trying to protect me – from the looks of it, that’s recent, and I’m afraid that it means I might have a relapse. But if that’s the case, if you didn’t think you could tell me, at least you told our parents, right?”

“I….” Sunset found herself unable to say anything further. She was tired of the lies, but she could hardly tell her sister the truth, much less have her believe it. In many ways, the lies had reached the point that they were tailoring themselves to her life, which hardly made her any less ill at ease.

“Please don’t tell me you’re hiding this from our parents, too.”

“Twily, I….”

“No. I love you, sis, but I really don’t like this secrecy. I know why you did it and I appreciate it, but you just can’t keep secrets all the time, especially from your family, and especially if it involves me!”

“Twily,” Sunset said without a trace of irony or humor, “I keep more secrets than most people should. And I have a reason for that.”

“And I’m sure it’s tied to your past, and I’m sure you’re not telling anyone so no one else gets hurt from what you know. I get that. It’s just….” Twilight sighed. “Look, we’ve already got enough going on because of the impending adoption and now Tavi’s issues. Just…please don’t add any more right now. I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but…we’re family, through the good and the bad. And even when it’s bad, we stick together.” The younger girl went over and embraced the older. “Please don’t do it again.”

“Okay,” Sunset agreed, the bitterness of the lie feeling as though it burnt her tongue. “I won’t.”

“Good. Go get some sleep. I know you have a long day tomorrow, with the funeral and all.” Twilight kissed her sister on her cheek. “And if I hadn’t said it already, I forgive you.”

“Yeah,” Sunset murmured, climbing back into the sheets and forcing herself to go back to sleep; the water could wait until the morning. Now if I can just forgive myself for all the lies I’ve told the people I love.

Twilight was just about to crawl back into the sheets again when she felt a pressure in her loins. Great. Mother Nature needs me to empty the bucket. She briefly thought about waking Sunset up, but opted not to, given that it was just a quick jump to the bathroom. Sliding out of the bedroom silently so she wouldn’t wake Sunset, Twilight left the room, heading towards her destination. But no sooner than she closed the door than she saw Octavia standing there. She was dressed in a way that left nearly nothing to the imagination, and unless Twilight was imagining things, her cousin’s hair had turned white and her eyes red. There was a look on her face that no one, much less a relative, should have towards her.

“Well, hello,” Octavia cooed. “My wet dream just showed up.”

“Tavi, go to bed,” Twilight said in a tone more confident than she felt; mostly she felt revulsion and the need to run back towards Sunset’s bedroom. Although, to be honest, being half-asleep and with the odd way the moonlight was shining through the upstairs window, she wasn’t sure if she was seeing everything with true clarity or not. “You’re not well,” the plum-haired scholar added, knowing that much was at least true.

A salacious grin etched itself onto the other girl’s face. “Oh, I’m very well. And if you let me play with your hot little body, I’ll show you just how good I feel.”

“Tavi, please – you’re my cousin. I don’t know what’s going on, but this isn’t…this isn’t right.”

Octavia crossed her arms. “Fine, go fuck the bacon-haired skank. Just know this: sooner or later, I’ll get you right where I want you and I’m going to make you beg me to never let you go.” Octavia turned around and added, “Just know that you’re more familiar with my body than hers.” Just as she was about to open up the door, she finished up with, “Oh, and don’t be so quick to trust your ‘all-loving’ sister. She lied to you about the letter…what else is she lying about to you? To us?” Not waiting for an answer, Octavia returned to her room.

Twilight didn’t sleep well that night. Mainly because for the first time in a while, she slept by herself.

“Thanks for coming, Sunny,” Compass Rose said, her eyes filled with tears. “You don’t look so good.”

“Sorry,” Sunset apologized. “Not used to coming to funerals, to be honest.” And to be honest, this is my first one in the human world. I’ve only been to a few pony ones, and they never get easier. Sunset remembered her first one, an event that had struck close to home for the then nine-year-old filly. The funeral had been for Recurved Bow, one of the guards that had been assigned to Sunset. She had been injured in a freak storm, and to Sunset, it had been a scary time. She hadn’t understood what had happened, and with Celestia focusing on Recurved’s family at the time – she’d left behind her mother and two foals of her own – the alicorn didn’t have much time to explain what was going on to the confused filly. Eventually, with time, realization and grief had come to her, but just like her adopted species, funerals weren’t something that was easy for a person.

Rose hugged her. “No, I’m glad you came, even if it was just for my sake,” she admitted. “I know you and Matchie didn’t see eye to eye, and now you never will….” The teen turned away. “I’m sorry. I’m just getting emotional about this.”

“It’s okay, Rose. I’m here for you,” Sunset assured her. “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

Rose leaned into Sunset. “Catch this guy.”

“I’m sorry?”

Rose looked into Sunset’s eyes. “Sunny, Matchie was murdered. And someone is coming after all of us – all of us! You’re the only one who can stop the murderer! The police can’t, or they won’t!”

“Rose, I—”

“No, Sunny, I know you.” Rose jabbed a finger into Sunset’s chest, a literal pointed accusation. “I know you. You were the one who stopped those boys from hurting everyone. You were the one that dove into traffic to save your sister. You were there when Fluttershy and her father got back together on national television – I saw you in the audience, so don’t deny it! And I bet there’s a million other things that none of us know about. Something’s different about you since the day you changed, Sunny. Something…well, something magical.”

“No, there’s not Rose, I promise you,” Sunset insisted, as she saw the mortuary personnel pick up Tennis Match’s closed casket. Fortunately for her parents, they decided to go with cremation and burial in the family columbarium. Sunset winced inwardly at that, a leftover reminder of the days she thought Celestia hated her – cremation for ponies was considered a state punishment directly from the solar alicorn herself, or so the story went; the Princess herself had said that was ridiculous but she never outright denied it. Still, Sunset thought she knew her maternal figure well enough to know that it wasn’t true, but that still didn’t quite remove the icky feelings afterwards.

“Yes, there is. I can almost feel it.” She laughed. “No, I’m not into that New Age stuff like Lyra Heartstrings is, but…there’s something about you, Sunset, that seems otherworldly, if that makes sense. Maybe I couldn’t help but fall in love with you – I know I can’t ever have you, and I’m happy with Berry, but that just seems to be my lot, I suppose.” Rose finally released her embrace. “But I know in my heart that if there’s someone who can stop this murderer, somehow, it’s you. Only you.”

“I’ll talk to my brother,” was all that Sunset could say.

Sunset tried to shut out the bad feelings she had afterwards, especially when meeting with Tennis Match’s mother, who was hysterical and begged the girls to go home, where they’d be safe. The one good thing about the wake, if anything good could be said about it, was that Scotch Bonnet finally buried the hatchet with Sunset right then and there; she said that Match’s death made her realize that life was too short to hate, and if her friends had forgiven Sunset, then so should she. Feeling drained, Sunset finally departed the funeral home an hour later; she got a text from Pinkie saying that she didn’t have to come in to work today at the café, as both her aunt and uncle had to be called away on urgent business, so they closed both the Sugarcube Corner and the Knickerbocker for the day. Sunset texted a tired reply of thanks, and after a quick stop at the Burger Shack, Sunset decided to head to the library and see what she could do to speed things along. She certainly couldn’t catch a criminal, but maybe she could help her brother find information that would stop this Dead Hand Killer before he hit anyone else, especially someone she cared about.

“Are you sure this is where we’re supposed to meet them?” Sonata asked.

“Yeah. Got the text this morning,” Adagio stated, looking at the phone. It was the last of the burner phones she’d been provided with, and so until further notice, was her “permanent” phone. She didn’t like that; it was a tool by which she could be caught, but right now she didn’t have much of a choice.

The three got out of their rental car, looking around at the rolling hills, occasional trees, rustic homes and the aged motel in front of them. “French Gulch Motel and Grill,” Aria murmured, reading the neon sign with the faded paint. The three looked around cautiously; if this was a trap, it was a very well placed one, given that there was little cover, it was far enough away from an ECSD station to allow for efficient killing before law enforcement got involved, and in a small town like this, no one was likely to risk their neck for three girls who (in their probable opinion) probably deserved what they were getting anyway.

“I don’t like this,” Adagio stated. “Way too open for my tastes.”

“I think we’ll be fine,” Sonata said, watching the car coming up the road. She began reaching for the pistol tucked under her shirt, just in case, and she knew her sisters were doing the same. But as the car slowly pulled into the driveway, the three teens instinctively moved into positions where they had what little protection they could just in case a firefight broke out, and….

“Wait, girls,” Rhapsody Blue announced as she got out of the car. “You don’t want to make a mistake, you know.”

“XO?” the three girls said at once.

“Rhapsody,” the woman said, reminding them of her name. “We’re in public, remember?” But before the girls could apologized, the other three doors to the car opened, revealing three people that absolutely brightened the triplets’ day as six people immediately dived into hugs.

“Maddie!” Sonata practically leapt into her grande sœur’s arms. “You have no idea how much I missed you!”

For her part, Madrigal Storm ruffled her petite sœur’s bangs. “That goes for me too, Soni. Me too.”

“How’s it going, kid?” Vesper Blue asked Aria while they were in their tight embrace

“Better, now that you’re here, Vesper,” Aria gushed.

For their part, Intermezzo Blue cuddled her own mentee. “You know, you’re getting bigger, Dagi. Soon you’re going to be taller than me.”

“Stop that,” Adagio replied, blushing. “I don’t think I could ever outdo you, Mezzo.”

“Ladies, hate to break up the hugfest; I know how much you all mean to each other,” Rhapsody replied, with what sounded like a bit of sorrow. “But we have a lot to discuss and not enough time to talk about it.” As one, the other six nodded, and they all went into the diner.

A few minutes afterwards, the seven were all seated at a table in the middle of the diner. The restaurant was mostly empty, and this gave them time to talk freely.

“What made you choose this place?” Vesper asked her sister.

“The person who owns this place is a former SIREN, one of the earlier generations from the Vietnam era,” Rhapsody answered. “She ma—”

“Why don’t you let me tell this story, kid?” a woman stated, carrying a large tray and a pot of coffee as if it were nothing. Despite appearing to be in her seventies, she looked incredibly fit for her age, and appeared to still be somewhat of a match for any SIREN at the table. “I married a nice American Army guy and got out – that was back when SIRENs could still do so. Moved here, settled down, had some kids. But I always watched what happened in the background afterwards, and what I liked I didn’t see. Fortunately, I saw that admiral of yours, Poutine – knew him back when he was just a lieutenant, nice fellow – and I was glad to see he was trying to clean up that dirty mess of a program. Personally, I wanted it gone, but I know it’s too valuable to the muckity-mucks in Ottawa.

“But when I heard that Poutine had been killed and you SIRENs went rogue, then I knew something was up. And when Rhapsody here contacted me and told me everything that had happened, I knew that it was rotten from within. I’m sorry, girls, but the SIRENs ain’t what they used to be. It’s time it ended, and it’s time you ended it.”

Adagio looked at the old woman. “Listen, uh….”

“You can call me Spoonful. Ain’t what I was born as, or what I was as a SIREN, but it’s who I am now and who I’ll die as.”

“Okay then, Mrs. Spoonful,” Adagio asked, “why do we need to end the SIRENs? I mean, can’t we just go back to the way things were?” The teen already knew the answer to that, but she wanted to hear it from someone else – someone outside of her sisters, their mentors and the XO.

“Because it’s not right,” Spoonful answered without hesitation. “Because when I held my daughter, and then my granddaughter, I wondered if someone, somewhere, was holding me when I was a baby and didn’t know what my future would be. Because I wanted to be a normal girl, not a killer. From what I can see in your eyes, I can tell you think the same way – you just want to be normal girls with normal lives, and you’re anything but. I don’t doubt there are others in the SIRENs that feel as you do, and I can’t tell you the number of girls in premature graves who probably were the same.” Setting the food down in front of them all, she said, “You all have to stop this madness. Don’t care how you do it, but it has to be done.” As the others gave Spoonful a nod, she walked off, back towards the kitchen and her own happy future.

“She’s right. We have to stop Canta, regardless of whether or not that breaks my heart,” Rhapsody said, looking at Vesper and Intermezzo. “We grew up together – she’s just as much a sister to me as you two are, and she would be the last person I’d suspect of masterminding something like this. But she’s always been ambitious. And…” Rhapsody admitted as a sorrowful look came over her face, “…that is the sort of person that I would expect to this.”

“Do what?” Vesper asked.

“This,” Madrigal said, dropping some folders on the table. “This is Project ANTHEMUSA, something that apparently Prince Divine has been working on with Cantata for the longest time. They spend a lot of time together, and I’m fairly sure it’s not all sex, so they had to get something done. Take a few minutes to have lunch and then read, because after you’re done, you’ll probably think this is the weirdest thing you’ve ever read.”

The other five quietly looked through the files that Madrigal had provided, while Rhapsody and Madrigal looked at each other with knowing glances, not bothering to open the file folder. Lunch was about halfway completed when finally Aria closed her file and said, “What the shit is this fuck?”

“Aria—”

“No!” Aria said, rapping her fingers against the folder. “What is this shit? Seriously! This is some serious science fiction bullshit! She wants to turn the other SIRENs into monsters? Prince Divine has magic? What is this shit. Please tell me this is some codeword crap, because if it isn’t, then Cantata needs to be removed for cause, not overthrown! I mean, seriously, nobody’s going to believe any of this shit!”

“You’re right,” Rhapsody told her. “Nobody’s going to believe any of it. But that’s not the point. I had Healing Refrain analyze some of the components that are in the serum—”

“Refrain? Can she be trusted?” Madrigal asked.

“She’s on our side. She came to me a couple of days ago complaining about the number of medical supplies that have been stolen as of late: syringes, medicinal equipment, that sort of things. Additionally, she’d received some supplies that she’d never ordered and it disappeared the next day. When she brought the issue to the Captain, Cantata just blew her off – and Refrain does not like being blown off.

“Anyways, the serum’s components and forumula are described in the project files. While the rest of it might be absolute bullshit, the fact is that this serum is a mind-wiper. Cantata will be able to make the others highly suggestible, and apparently she’s been working on this for quite some time.” The senior SIREN turned away in disgust. “I’ve been so busy trying to make sure that we’re prepared to take the fight against CSIS and Les SCARS, that I didn’t even bother to realize that we had a viper in the nest. But snakes need to be put down. And we have to put her down now, or else she’ll have an army of mindless slaves at her disposal.”

Adagio crossed her arms. “I’ll bet the Black Team aren’t.” When Vesper and Intermezzo looked at her, Adagio continued. “Cantata has three junior personnel that have been rapidly promoted and answer only to her. They haven’t been around much, and whenever we’ve run into them, it hasn’t been pleasant.”

“Additionally, when they brought something back a couple of weeks ago, it looked like a body. The Captain cleared them and said it was a ballistic dummy, but I really have my doubts,” Aria told her. “I should have said something sooner, but I didn’t think it would be this.”

“None of us did, Ari,” Vesper told her. “We expected the Captain to lead us – and Cantata clearly has her own agenda.” She then turned to Rhapsody. “What are we going to do now?”

“That’s what we’re here to talk about. For starters,” she said, looking at the teenagers, “you three are our ace-in-the-hole. You have rooms here; Spoonful will set you up until we can get a hold of you. Since Spoonful owns this place, it’s off the grid and you three will be safe here until we call for you. I want you to throw away all of your identification, credit cards, burner phones, the works – I’ve given Spoonful some funds to get you new ones. But even still, I want you three to stay put until we call for you. And it will be at a moment’s notice, I have no doubt.”

She then turned to Madrigal. “Maddie, I want you to go through all of our intel files. Find anything that is related to ANTHEMUSA. I don’t care what it is, or how outlandish it sounds. I don’t care what you have to do to get that information. The moment you have it, send it to me, Refrain, Vesper, Mezzo and Spoonful. And then I want you three to act as if nothing is going on, even if it means looking outwardly as if you’re not on my side.” The look on Rhapsody’s face was stern. “We cannot afford even the least bit of lack of preparation to undo us.

“Vesper, Mezzo, I want you two to keep track of any of the Sisterhood that may look as though they’ve been compromised. You’ll be able to tell; many of them won’t be themselves or something will be off. Likewise, keep an eye out for SIRENs that are aware that something is going very wrong. They may be potential allies in this fight. Don’t alert them immediately; just keep their names and pass them to me, Maddie and Refrain. We need to know if there’s anyone we can rely on.

“Now, I want all of you ready to strike at a moment’s notice. We have to be prepared to take her down, and we may as well be prepared to capture the Prince as well. I have a funny feeling we’ve been played, and we’ve been turned against our government so that Cantata could do this. I don’t have proof of that, and I hope to God I’m wrong, but if I’m not, we’ve been fighting a war with CSIS for no reason – and too many people on both sides have been killed as a result.

“Which leads me to the last thing: I have no doubt that Cantata already has some of the SIRENs under her control, doubly so if the Black Team works directly for her. Which means we will have to kill them as well. I don’t like that; it means that we have to kill our friends, our fellow soldiers – our sisters. But if this serum is real, there may be no coming back for those impacted – they may as well be zombies. But it’s better to put them down than to let them be her playthings.” The others gave grim nods; if they had to do it, it was their sworn duty and they would not shirk from it.

“Okay, then it’s settled,” Rhapsody said. “The triplets will stay here, rest and get ready. Madrigal, you, Vesper and Mezzo will head back immediately after dropping me off by my car. I’ll head back an hour later, then liaise with Refrain to see if she has any new information and then we’ll see what else we can dig up while we plan. We’ll keep in touch with each other, every three hours, using the drop phones. Text if you’re safe, call if there’s trouble, understood?” The others nodded.

“Now let’s get to work. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can take down Cantata before it’s too late.”

Vesper looked at her older sister with no small amount of sympathy. “Rhapi…you may have to kill your best friend. I’d say it’s already too late.”

“Sunset Shimmer,” Princess Celestia said with a voice that was stern and regal, but breaking. That last part only Sunset could hear, but at the time, she didn’t care. “I am removing you from the position of my pupil. If we cannot get past this, your studies end here.” The look in those lilac eyes were one of controlled fury, but Sunset could see more in them – the pain of a mother trying desperately to reach out to her daughter, but held back by her own station in life. “You are welcome to stay in Canterlot,” the solar alicorn continued, “but you are no longer welcome in the castle.”

Sunset saw all that – every detail – and still didn’t care, though. She was well beyond caring about anything at that point. “We’ll never get past this because you can’t see how great I deserve to be!” Sunset wanted all but to scream at the princess, to do anything and everything to get her attention. But it was a failing effort – it had long been a failing effort years ago. “Is that really all you have to say to me?” she asked.

“No,” Celestia replied, turning away. “The guards will escort you out.” With nothing more to say, Celestia turned away and began walking away. Sunset thought she heard the start of crying from her would-be mother, but again, the young unicorn was far too gone to know for sure.

“This is the biggest mistake you’ll make in your entire life!” Sunset shouted as the Solar Guards approached her. “You’ll regret this!” she shouted at Celestia as the guards withdrew their swords, getting ready to escort her out the hard way, if needed.

No, the only one that regretted it was me, Sunset thought as she parked in the parking lot of the Canterlot Central Library. It took me years to realize that, and years of losing somepony I loved because of my own stupidity. And she’s forgiven me for that. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to forgive myself.

Stepping out of the car, she wasn’t really sure why the memory came to her, or what it portended. If Princess Luna was correct about anything – and Sunset had no doubt that she was – pony dreams, especially those of unicorns, weren’t like those of humans. They were prophetic, magical and could tell something of the future. And even though Sunset spent most of her time as a human now, where dreams were merely the cast off detritus of the subconscious mind, she had to wonder if she still had a unicorn’s dreams.

No, she finally thought as she quickly summoned her laptop. If I did, then I would have been able to predict what’s happening to Tavi. The fact that she failed her cousin still stung, even as Velvet had explained it was nothing that Sunset was to blame for. But the flame-haired girl saw it differently: Octavia was family, like a sister to Twilight and very much in the same way to Sunset herself. If Sunset couldn’t do anything to resolve Octavia’s problem, even if it was beyond her ken, she still felt it was her fault.

As she walked through the doors of the library, she put her thoughts aside and walked in. She looked around, seeing the vastness of the great, early-20th century building. The building was doing increased duty, since one of the branches was closed as a result of a police investigation revolving around the murders.

“Sunset? Sunset Shimmer?” Sunset turned to see one of CHS’s teachers, Cheerilee, approaching her.

“Ms. Cheerilee? What are you doing here?”

Cheerilee smiled. “Oh, during the summer I usually volunteer working at the library. It’s a great way to keep well-read and a good way for me to spend the time working on my novel. Someday, you’ll probably see it on Amazon or something,” she said with a wink. “But the branch near my house is closed for the week due to the investigation, so I’m helping out here at the central branch until mine reopens. So, what brings you here?”

“Doing some research on the Dead Hand Killer,” Sunset told her.

“Oh, that,” Cheerilee replied, clucking her tongue in distaste. “Honestly, there are better things to do with your time, young lady. Why not catch up on the Spellbound series? We just got in the latest novel, This is Where the Magic Happens. You’d be best served by reading that, instead.”

Sunset shook her head. “I really appreciate it, Ms. Cheerilee, but this is kinda personal.”

Cheerilee nodded. “I know. I saw you at the funeral with Compass Rose and some others, but I thought you might want your privacy. But even still, you’re probably too young for this sort of thing.”

I’m older than you, and I’m still probably too young for this sort of thing, Sunset said to herself. “Look, I promised that I would do something for Rose, and I want to keep that promise. She grew up with Tennis Match and this whole thing is tearing her apart. She’s my friend and I want to do what I can to help her, even if it’s not much.” Sunset looked the older woman in the eyes and added, “Even if it’s nothing, I can’t shirk my promise to Rose. That’s not the kind of person I am.”

Cheerilee looked at her student with arms crossed in determination before the merest hint of a smile came onto her face. A second later, that smile grew until finally it encompassed the front of the librarian’s face, a proud rictus. “That’s exactly what I would expect from Canterlot High’s Go-To Girl.” Nodding her head in a certain direction, she said, “Follow me; I have something that may be of interest to your particular reading preferences. But you didn’t hear me say any of that, got it?”

Sunset smiled. “Hear what? I didn’t hear anything.”

A few minutes later, she was looking over a stack of books that had been collected from all over the Canterlot Library System, as well as several loaned from the Equestria County Library System and a few of the other surrounding counties as well. The books were to go to Shining Armor and Sandalwood, according to a few of the documents, and although Sunset offered to take them to her brother, Cheerilee pointed out that the rules were the rules, so he had to come get them himself. He was scheduled to do so tomorrow, but until then Sunset had time to look at them.

And right now, the biggest clue was in her hands: the 1997 book The Devil Card: The Mystery of the Dead Hand Murders. Sunset flipped through the pages with the reading speed she was well used to as Celestia’s student, absorbing every iota of detail that she could peruse within its pages. It was one of the skills, as much as she wasn’t one to admit it, put her on par with Princess Twilight, though her alicorn friend was more about lab work as opposed to Sunset’s preference for field research.

Regardless, books were her best weapon at the moment, and it was a weapon she was well familiar with.

According to this, the Dead Hand Killer is believed to be a copycat of the 1985 Dead Hand murders in Los Angeles. Given the age range, assuming someone as young as their teens at the time would be in their forties and would be at the end range of being able to successfully do all the killings that the Dead Hand did. But to do all the things he did and to be in all the places he was either takes a very affluent teen with too much time on his hands, or more likely an adult with a car and a job and a way to be around everything.

Sunset continued to read the book, as well as the looked at images of the cards. The tarot cards at the time were originally believed to be a custom deck, but instead was found to be a limited-print deck known as the Black Sun. Created by Tela Vuota, the man disappeared about a decade before the Dead Hand murders, but given that he was elderly when he created the Black Sun deck, he wasn’t assumed to be the killer. Furthermore, according to a second book, The Search for the Dead Hand Murderer, a 2005 DNA analysis on some of the evidence from the victims confirmed that in one case, the Dead Hand was likely a white male in his twenties at the time, information that Sunset wished she’d known earlier.

She then looked over some traditional tarot reading books as well as the most common of the readings and, the joker cards notwithstanding from the kills in both the Dead Hand and the Dead Hand Killer murders, she was able to come up with some of the most probable readings, based on the tarot cards that had been put in use earlier. By the time her phone’s alarm went off, signaling that sundown would be in thirty minutes and she had to head home, she looked over the notes she’d made form a pad she’d conjured up earlier in the day.

From what it looks like most of my friends are safe, though I may have to watch Fluttershy and Minuette for a few days, she thought. Magic pulsed in her hand and suddenly two cards appeared in her grasp: Number Five, the Heirophant; and Number Fourteen, Temperance. But instead of the traditional images on the card, the first had Fluttershy, jamming away on what appeared to be her father’s guitar, while the other one was Minuette, by the fridge, opting not to get any ice cream. Both cards were not really cards, but instead scrying spells that let her gaze on them.

Yeah, way too creepy for my tastes, Sunset thought as she watched Fluttershy in what was probably a personal moment that she wasn’t yet comfortable sharing with her friends; she’d made mentions about her increasing interest in music since her father came back into her life, but nothing concrete yet. Given that this was private, Sunset needed to find a better way to keep an eye on her friends.

She’d just banished the spell when there was a knock at the door. “Okay, Sunset, I need to head home for the day, so I’ll have to put a halt to your research,” Cheerilee said as she poked her head in.

“That’s okay, Ms. Cheerilee, I was just finishing up anyway. Need to get home,” Sunset admitted.

“That’s good. Find what you were looking for?”

“No, but not for a lack of trying,” Sunset explained. And besides, I need to leave the investigation to the professionals. My job is just keeping my friends safe.

“Her? Seriously?” Contralto Rush said as she looked at the dossier, then a glance back to Divine Right. “With all due respect, your highness, I hardly think she qualifies.”

Divine poured himself a glass of wine, then did the same for Contralto, passing her one. “Trust me, I can assure you that she fits the bill quite well, Petty Officer.” He snapped his finger, and a card appeared in front of her, wreathed in purple flames. “You know what to do.”

Contralto downed the glass of wine, then passed it back to him. “That’s why I do what I do, sir. Because I’m the best.”

The knife plunged down.

Fluttershy screamed.

The knife struck over and over and over, slicing flesh and sinews as the chiffon-haired girl’s voice reached hysterical heights, begging for it to all stop.

And then it did.

“DISCORD!” Posey shouted. She shouted his name again, as an irritated look crossed her face.

“In the kitchen, sweetheart,” he called back. “Making chicken Thai curry tonight. Cutting up the chicken right now.” He put down the kitchen knife and pulled off his headphones just as Posey came into the kitchen.

“Yes, but did you leave the Horror Channel on again? Our daughter’s passed out in the living room.”

An embarrassed look came over the man’s face. “Whoops,” was all he had to say.

Night came, and with it, two figures meeting in one of the basements of the SIREN compound. The room was unused and a perfect place to meet, given that this part of the building hadn’t been completely renovated yet.

“This is everything I could find,” Healing Refrain said as she handed Rhapsody a flash drive. “You know, with everything I’ve been reading in Project ANTHEMUSA, if I didn’t know better, I’d actually start to believe that Canta has found a way to turn the Sisterhood into monsters.” The look on the doctor’s face was stern. “But whatever it is, Rhapi, it’s not good – not for us, or for anyone.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Tested part of the serum on a patient I had in my office,” she said, ignoring Rhapsody’s scowl. “Don’t look at me like that; I only used enough just to test a few commands, and I’m sure Seaman Cello metabolized it within a couple of hours. In any case, she did everything I asked her to while under the compulsion, from the average to the…not so average.”

“Not so average?”

“Let’s just say that if I was a lesbian, I’d have a new girlfriend now,” Refrain explained. “And if she’s suggestive in that way, what do you think she’ll do if Canta gives her a gun and tells her to kill or be killed?”

“I don’t know,” Cantata’s voice called out. “Let’s find out.” The lights came on, blinding both Rhapsody and Refrain as they stood at the bottom of the staircase. Standing at the top was Canata, with several of her forces pointing guns at the two.

“You know, Rhapi, I love you like a sister. You and I grew up together and shared everything. You meant everything to me, Rhapi – you still do,” the SIREN commanding officer said in a tone that sounded as if she was going through some serious pain at the moment. But then her voice grew cold as she added, “And all you had to do was look the other way while I made sure that we got everything we ever wanted. But noooo, you and Refrain had to go play heroes. Well, we’re not heroes – we never were! We’re child assassins and women that grew up from child assassins, and we’ll never be loved by Ottawa, the public or even CSIS!”

“So you threw everything away just to get in bed with that prince of yours?” Rhapsody countered. “You replaced getting vengeance for the Admiral with getting your rocks off with some spoiled playboy? Are you mad?”

“As a hatter, and as crazy as a fox,” Cantata answered. “And I’m doing it all so that eventually Ottawa will burn with my righteous fury. That it will be crushed underneath my heels and that my husband and I will fashion diamonds from the carbon soot and ash that was the capital. And the only thing standing in my way is you.” She grinned. “Fortunately, I know you and Refrain are the only ones in your little rebellion to be, or else I would have murdered your baby sisters and their buddy a long time ago.”

“And so now you’re going to kill us?” Refrain asked, a defiant look on her face. “Or are you too much of a coward to do so yourself?”

“Watch your tongue, Refrain, or I’ll cut it out.”

“That will still leave me the teeth to rip your throat out,” Refrain snarled. “I’m a SIREN, and I don’t fear death – I am death.”

Cantata broke out into hysterical laughter, finally coming to a stop after a few minutes with, “Thanks, Refrain. I haven’t heard a good joke in a while. Always good to know you had your sense of humor intact.”

“Yeah, well, come down here and I’ll show you my other talents,” Refrain taunted.

Rhapsody looked at her best friend and now would-be murderess. “You and I know how this ends, Canta. Please, don’t do this.”

Cantata walked down the steps, several of her brainwashed SIRENs in tow. Rhapsody recognized several of them; many of them were close friends and confidants, all professional warfighters and under normal circumstances would never stand for this. But normal was a condition that was now dead.

The SIREN’s commanding officer stood before her executive and medical officers, an impassive look on her face. Finally, it was split by a soft, friendly grin. “Rhapi, you know I could never hurt you,” Cantata said, meaning every word of her statement.

But then she looked at Refrain with contempt. “Too bad for you I haven’t known you as long,” before pulling out a combat knife and in one quick blow, slammed the blade as hard as she could between Refrain’s eyes. There was the snap of bone and the gush of blood, and before Refrain could even register she was dead much less scream in final pain, she fell to the ground, her eyes wide open but partially obscured by the knife’s crossguard.

“CANTA! YOU BITCH!” Rhapsody launched forward, only to be grabbed by two of the mind-controlled SIRENs.

“You and I both know how this ends, Rhapi,” Cantata said with a voice that seemed to show genuine regret. “But as much as I should, I can’t bring myself to kill you. I love you too much, the sister I always wanted.”

“No. You’re dead to me,” Rhapsody pronounced. “The Cantata I knew would never do this. And you killed her.”

Ignoring her statement, Cantata went over to Rhapsody and caressed her face, embracing her in a genuine hug. “I need to go. This is almost as hard as when I had to end Piano.”

“Piano Bliss?” Rhapsody asked, horror dawning on her face. “You killed your sœur? You told me you loved her as if she was your own daughter!”

Pulling away, Cantata nodded. “I did. And I ended her, because she was in so much pain – because of the experiments that made Project ANTHEMUSA succeed. I love her for that – she will always be my precious child. I’m a proud mommy,” Cantata said with no trace of irony but instead with glistening eyes and a soft, motherly smile on her visage.

“No, you’re a murderer – and a traitor,” Rhapsody spat as she fought against her bonds, knowing it was useless. “But mark my words: the Sisterhood polices its own. A Sister will end this madness, Cantata. A Sister will end you.”

Tears filled Cantata’s eyes. “I…I can’t do this. Not again. Not to another person I love.” She went and embraced Rhapsody, letting her tears fall, kissing her on the cheek. “Farewell, my sister. If Divine and I have a daughter, know that she will proudly bear your name.” Letting go of the hug, she turned and looked at the senior hypnotized SIREN present. “End it quickly, and as painlessly as possible. Then get me Lt. Guitarron and let her know she’s been promoted to full commander immediately and to report to me at once.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the SIREN said in a dead voice.

Cantata walked back up the stairs, hearing Rhapsody’s snarls and threats become whimpers of terror as the ANTHEMUSA SIRENs assumed their new form. There was a tortured scream, and a few seconds later, just before she left the room, she could hear the splatter of blood against the far wall like a rainstorm.

Cantata left the room before she could turn to face Rhapsody – or rather, what was left of her – one last time. No, it was better to remember her friend as she was, friendly, loving and supportive. Cantata would need those memories now as she used them to further her plans.

As her soon-to-be husband loved to say, it was their divine right.

She stormed out of his apartment, angry as hell. How dare he? How dare she? All that time and all that effort that she’d tried to get her own boyfriend – and then she went over to his place to find him in bed with her sister!

Traintracks stormed out, wobbling slightly on her stiletto heels. She’d spent so much time and effort trying to win the heart of Slick Moves, and tonight it was going be their night. After all, how many seventeen-year-olds got to say that they bagged themselves a boyfriend just out of college, even if Slick just finished up his associates at Sunnytown Community College. So she’d dressed up like the woman she clearly was – makeup, tight clothing and the stilettos. She’d gotten her cousin to take her to Night Dream’s Intimates Store, just so she could get the stuff for tonight.

Tonight was supposed to be their night.

But no, big sis Hot Stuff set her eyes on him. Tracks sighed; she knew this was going to happen sooner or later; Stuff was a tramp that slept around and even at nineteen already had two children of her own from two different fathers. She and her two babies were already crowding the apartment they shared with their grandmother, but Tracks loved her nephews. She certainly loved them more than she did their whore of a mother.

But now her plans for the night were ruined. Ruined because Hot Stuff just had to have her fun. Ruined because Tracks just wasn’t fast enough to give it up for a guy she liked. Ruined because Slick wasn’t as faithful as she thought he was.

She sat by the train tracks, by the old North Sunnytown station. The subway line was closed this late at night, and the only thing that use the rails after hours were drunks looking to piss on them and freight trains heading from one destination to the next. And right now, it was the latter that was coming, the bassy rumble of the tracks working in tune with the blaring of the train’s horn as it blew while going past the station.

A train, heading from one destination to another, seemingly forever, without a place to call home or someone to love.

“Where’s the justice in it all?” Traintracks asked.

“Fuck! Where the hell is she?” Slick Moves said a few minutes later. He’d run out there in a half-tucked shirt, pants that seemed like they didn’t fit, and sandals. He was hardly the fashionable icon that had won Traintrack’s heart, and right now he looked as though he couldn’t win a prostitute if he’d paid enough. “This is all your fault!” he said to his companion.

“Yeah, whatever,” a girl snapped back. “Look, hate to break it to you, but you were more than willing to put it inside me. No one forced you to cheat on my little sister.”

“Well, maybe if her older sister wasn’t such a whore,” he said under his breath, though the accusation struck home. Just a few days ago, they’d started having fun and had actually gotten to penetration when she asked him if he had jimmys. Well, he didn’t and he promised her that he’d go get some. Meanwhile, Hot Stuff had come by and she wasn’t too picky about that sort of thing.

Well, now all was said and done, his girlfriend was gone for good, and while her sister was a good lay, she clearly wasn’t the girlfriend type. Yeah, this is what you get for not keeping your pants on, he chided himself.

“Hey, is that her purse?” Hot Stuff asked as they approached the metro station.

“Fuck if I know.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that?”

“Yeah, says the girl who fucked over her sister,” Slick Move was about to say, when he noticed Hot Stuff had bent down to pick up Tracks’ purse – and stopped. “Hey, what the hell?” She didn’t move, and with an annoyed grunt, he turned on the flashlight function on his phone. “What the fuck are you doing now, Stuff? Because no way am I going to get busy in a place that smells like pis—”

She stood up, the look on her face one of horror. In her hand, was what looked like a playing card, and Slick’s heart stopped. He knew what that was; he’d heard about it nonstop in the news over the past few days.

Flashing the light onto the rectangle, Hot Stuff and Slick Moves were horrified to see Card VIII, Justice, in all its cardstock, glossy-coated glory…and the obvious horrors that it portended.

Hot Stuff screamed.

August 10: Policy of Truth

The detective looked at the crime scene with mild horror and disgust. In the background, she could hear the uniformed officer that had discovered the bodies still vomiting up his breakfast, and probably dinner from last night, and lunch before that…. She wished she could still be innocent enough to have problems seeing what she had, but she worked the homicide beat here in Horseshoe Bay, and despite the town’s reputation as an idyllic surf resort, bad things happened here.

But never like this.

The coroner on-site came over to her. “We found some identification in the car.” He produced two driver’s licenses. “Lavender Lace and Fuchsia Blush, both sixteen and from Everfree Glades.”

“And someone posed them the way they were found?” She groaned; it was way too early in the morning to deal with this kind of sick shit. Plus, the detective had a daughter around the age of these girls, and to even consider her baby girl being in such a situation…. Her eyes briefly glazed over with righteous anger.

“Fine, someone call the DMV and see if the addresses are current, then get someone to see if our contacts over at ECSD can do the dirty work. I really don’t feel like driving all the way out to Canterlot to deal with this shit,” she growled. “Then let’s start hunting down our perp.”

“Look, there’s something else you’ll want to see,” the coroner said, handing her two cards. The moment she saw them, she knew that she was probably going to be joining that junior police officer soon. Holding up cards VI and XX of the Major Arcana – The Lovers and Judgement, respectively – she knew that the case had just moved into a position far beyond her hands.

Looking at another cop who thankfully hadn’t lost his breakfast yet, she ordered, “Call DMV and get me the addresses of the girls. Then get a hold of the FBI office in Canterlot.”

The cop looked confused. “The Feds? Why the Feds?”

“Clearly you haven’t been paying attention to the news, have you?” the detective said and the cop shrugged.

“Not really a big news kinda guy. Something big going on?”

“Yeah, this.” She looked back at the car and the coroners pulling the first body bag out of it. Encased within was a girl far too young to have gone, just like her friend next to her. “This shit’s already the Feds’ business. This,” she said, holding the cards up for him to see, “is the big shitstorm happening over in Canterlot right now. And now we’re a part of it.”

Vesper, Madrigal and Intermezzo looked at each other briefly, trying to keep the shock and rage off their faces. Currently they were seated at a conference table with the rest of the surviving officers and senior enlisted. Standing present was Lieutenant – now Lieutenant Commander – Canción Guitarron – the new executive officer of the SIRENs. Cantata Blast, was of course, not present.

“Look,” Guitarron said, looking at the shocked faces of those assembled, “I know it’s shocking. We always expect to go out in a blaze of glory, but that didn’t happen to two of ours last night. And now we’ve lost our Executive and Medical Officers in one fell swoop. It’s embarrassing enough for civilians to die in a car accident, but….” Guitarron leaned on the table. “There was an accident last night on the freeway. We have our people looking into it, but it was confirmed that Rhapsody Blue and Healing Refrain were killed just south of Sunnytown while on a mission for the Captain.

“In the interim, the Captain has asked me to take the position of XO, and even though it meant a promotion, I’d rather have Cmdr. Blue and Lt. Cmdr. Refrain back. But we’re getting ready to ramp up for a major operation, and we don’t have the luxury of mourning.” Guitarron turned to Vesper and Intermezzo. “I’m sorry for your loss, and we will have time to grieve, but right now I need you two on your best.”

“Roger that, Cion,” Intermezzo forced herself to say in an even tone.

“I’ve got your back, XO,” Vesper said, preventing herself from lashing out at the pretender in her sister’s spot.

“Thank you. In the meanwhile, Acting Sublieutenant Lullaby Cross will be promoted to Sublieutenant and will take over MED. With that in mind, my understanding is that our personnel need to be in the best of shape for our next operation. Lieutenant Cross, I want you to schedule medical exams and inoculation batteries with all our personnel and I want it done by tomorrow evening.”

Lt. Cross nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Now, are there any other personnel that are out of bounds at the moment?” Guitarron asked.

The acting Operations Officer stood up. “Currently on assignment are petty officers Elderberry Wine, Sunny Side, and Evergreen Pine from Team Four. Additionally, we have one team out on liberty: Team One’s seamen Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk.”

“What’s their duty status?”

“Petty Officer Wine was assigned an intelligence mission with the other two as backup. They should be reporting back later tonight,” the Team Four officer stated.

“And the seamen?”

Before anyone else could speak up, Madrigal caught her attention. “I assigned them to a supply run, XO.”

“They’re not supply personnel, INTEL,” Guitarron stated. “Care to explain?”

“Yes. With most of our supply personnel as casualties from the CSIS attack of two days ago, our logistics capabilities have been severely damaged. As they were already out on liberty at the time, I contacted them, cancelled their liberty status and sent them the last supply order we had. Given that we’re running out of a few things that we’ll need in the near future, it felt more prudent to send them out immediately than to bring them back and waste time we don’t have.”

“Sounds fair. When are they due back?”

“They should be back in a few more days. They had to go all the way down to Chico and Colton to get the necessary gear.”

Guitarron frowned. “Not good enough. I want them back within two days, with whatever supplies they have on hand, whether they’ve completed their task or not.” She then looked at the rest of them while a junior-ranked SIREN set folders down in front of all those present. “Listen up: The Captain has some big plans in order, and we’re going to be making a huge mark soon, thanks to our benefactor. In front of you, there’s a packet containing all the information you need for this next major operation, which we’re calling ANTHEMUSA. The Captain and Prince Divine believe that this will bring us closer to our final goal, and from there, we can finally begin our assault on CSIS proper – but only if this plan succeeds.”

Madrigal fought to keep this shock off her face as she opened the folder and looked at its contents: This was not the ANTHEMUSA they found earlier. From the description of this version, the whole operation was a raid on the local National Guard armory, with the intent to steal their weapons, as well as to raid a couple of the local foster homes for “potential candidates”. It was believable; after all, they’d certainly done that before in the history of the SIRENs. But it was blatantly obvious this wasn’t the case. Either the ANTHEMUSA that had been uncovered was a red herring – and the plan was both too large and too detailed to be such a thing – or this was to weed out who was on Cantata’s side with who still remained with their own free will intact.

She stole quick glances at Intermezzo and Vesper; though they were just as surprised, they only gave the briefest of looks to their friend and fellow conspirator. The three of them would meet up later in the day and discuss this, as well as the information she’d managed to glean from the computer systems. Madrigal was good at information warfare, and she knew certain tricks to get into systems without being detected. And what she found only supported what Rhapsody had known – what Rhapsody had apparently given her life for:

That Cantata had turned traitor…

…and the whole world would burn in her and the Prince’s hands unless they were stopped.

As the meeting adjourned, Madrigal gave her partners a look. It was time to discuss things, and it was time to find out who their friends were and who they weren’t. Unfortunately, the latter was becoming all too clear.

“Uh, Twily?” Spike asked as he looked in Sunset’s room and saw Twilight rifling through their sister’s desk. “What are you looking for?”

Twilight jolted up from what she was doing. “Uh, I, er, well….”

Spike’s eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to do something to Sunny’s desk?”

“Um…yes?” Twilight stammered.

He waved it off. “Oh, okay. But if you’re going to play a joke on her, you need to be more…um, discreetee?”

“Discreet,” Twilight corrected. “The word’s pronounced ‘discreet’.”

“Right, got it. Anyway, you have fun with your prank. I’m gonna get me the high score on Mortal Kombat.”

“You’re not supposed to play that game, Spike.”

The look of an innocent angel – or a guilty-as-hell child – came across his face. “Well, I could tell Sunny what you’re doing….”

“Fine, fine. But if you have nightmares, don’t come running to me.” Ignoring her little brother further, she decided to keep looking into her sister’s desk. Granted, it was a violation of Sunset’s privacy, but after what Octavia had to say last night and Sunset’s near-refusal to talk about that strange letter in Twilight’s handwriting, Twilight couldn’t help but do this. Sure, she’d probably get in trouble if her parents found out; and if Sunset found out, she’d be in hot water there. But this was something she had to know. She was never one for secrets being kept when it came to her, and that went double when it came to her family.

Even still, Sunny’s my sister…. A dark thought came over the girl’s mind. Well, technically she’s not my sister yet. Still, that’s pure sophistry, but I have to do this. She did feel bad, however; if her sister had just come clean, Twilight wouldn’t have felt compelled to do this.

After a few minutes of digging, she finally found what she was looking for…and her heart sank. Several letters from “her” to Sunset, all of them in her very precisely-accurate handwriting, but with byzantine references and confusing comments. Cutie Mark Crusaders? That’s from that kids show with the horses, right? I think I heard Spike mention that once. But what the hell is a Cuteceñera? And a timberwolf is just a northern gray wolf, not a monster made out of wood! But that wasn’t the weirdest thing. There were also letters from Ms. Celestia, presumably done in her handwriting, also with the same bizarre themes. “Princess” Luna – Ms. Celestia would probably never call her sister a princess, unless it was in jest. And “Princess” Cadance? Sure, I think of Cady practically like one, since she’s like my big sister and all, but still…. There were stranger things still: references to Rainbow as a pegasus and a weather coordinator? Vinyl Scratch, living in Ponyville when she moved to Detroit, if Twilight recalled correctly? And Shining as the ruling prince of the Crystal Empire, along with Cadance. Shouldn’t an empire have a ruling emperor?

Twilight left the room with the letters in hand, deeply troubled, not knowing what to say. However, she did know the first person who she could talk to about this. While in the past, it would have been Octavia, given her current issues, she was not being left alone to her devices at the moment; right now she was with Twilight’s mother, at her workplace. Sure, annoying given that Octavia was a teenager ostensibly able to take care of herself, but right now that didn’t seem to be the case. Plus, she wasn’t the one she could ask at the moment.

Walking over to her room, she picked her phone and dialed. “Hi, Cady. Sorry to bother you at work, but can we meet for lunch somewhere? I need some advice.”

Sunset froze. Someone had busted her ward that she’d placed on the desk, where she kept her letters from Equestria. Why? Dammit, I knew I should’ve set up a deterrent spell as well. Crap. Part of her wanted to teleport home straight away, but there would be too many questions asked. As it was, Twilight had already found out the….

Fuck me. Twily. She knew in an instant who would have done so. Spike wouldn’t have any interest, and with Octavia’s issues, Sunset’s parents were keeping a close eye on her. That would leave only Twilight, who had already gone through her stuff, as the obvious culprit – and thus probably now had the letters in her hands. Sunset groaned and tried to ward off a headache. She would now have to explain the letters, including those from Princess Celestia and pony Rarity, who was the one who wrote to her the most outside of Princess Twilight.

“Hey, are you okay, Sunny?” Sunset turned to see Pinkie looking at her with a crooked smile. Not quite happy, not quite sad, a little bit concerned and very much classic Pinkie.

“Twily found the letters I’ve been receiving from Equestria. There’s no way she’s going to make sense of them, so she’ll probably think she did them when she was affected by the Vibe or the curse and I didn’t tell her; or worse, she’s going to think that I forged it – and then she’ll go to our parents. Either is not good.”

Pinkie looked away for a second. “Hey, Auntie Cup? Can Sunny and I go upstairs? We have, um, ‘girl things’ to talk about. Yeah, girl things.”

Cup chuckled. “Well, it’s a slow day, so I don’t see why not. I’ll call you two if things pick up.” Both teens nodded and after Pinkie grabbed some quick snacks, rushed up to the residential part of the building. They then made their way into Pinkie’s bedroom.

The moment they got there, however, the cotton candy wonder turned serious. “I knew this was going to happen. I should have said something, but I didn’t and I’m sorry.”

“You knew this was going to happen?”

“Sunny, secrets are made to get out. I know that sounds funny, but it’s the truth. You tried to keep your dark side a secret, even to yourself, and it got out. You suppressed your good side, and it came out too. And so forth and so on.” She popped a chip in her mouth and practically inhaled it, then continued. “Secrets just want to get out.”

“Like yours?” Sunset asked.

To her surprise, Pinkie turned away. “Yes – and that’s why I’m fighting to make sure you don’t find out.”

“Pinkie, I—”

“I thought we were talking about your problem, not mine?” Sunset piped down and Pinkie continued. “I know it’s hard, Sunny, but I think it’s time you tell your family. They love you, they believe in you and they’ll be with you every step of the way. And you know we’ll be here too.”

“Oatmeal, are you crazy?” Sunset cried.

“No, I’m not. And my name’s not Oatmeal. But what I am saying is that sooner or later, you need to tell them who and what you really are. If you love them, you owe that to them. And if they love you now, they still will once the truth is out. I promise you that.”

“But Pinkie…when they find out what I am….” Sunset immediately cast a spell, locking Pinkie’s door. She then cast the amniomorphic spell, transforming her from her human form to her real form. As Pinkie looked on in surprise, Sunset settled on all fours. “You can see me like this, because you know this is who and what I really am, Pinkie. You’ve known me for years, even if we’ve only been friends for a fraction of that. But my family—”

Pinkie sat down on the ground next to her. “Will love you because you’re a part of them. Not because of this,” the cheerleader gestured to Sunset’s whole body before pointing at where she assumed the unicorn’s heart was, “but because of this. You love them. They love you. You are family, and you belong together.” Without warning, Pinkie scooped the unicorn up in a hug. “And like I said, we’ll always be here for you, okay?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied, despite the bone-crushing strength of Pinkie’s hug. “I know.”

“Good, then let’s go downstairs, and you might want to change, because you’re shedding.”

Sunset looked around at herself. “I am? Wow, a little early for my winter coat to be setting in. Anyways, let me take care of that.” A flash of cyan spellfire, and a second later, the teenager Pinkie was more familiar with stood in the room. “Better?”

“Much!” Pinkie chirped. “Oh, and one last thing.”

“What?”

Pinkie suddenly grew stern-eyed. “If you value your life, never let Fluttershy see your real form. Trust me on this.”

As they both came downstairs, they arrived just to see Rarity rush in. “Sunset, Pinkie, darlings, perfect timing, because I need to talk to you both!”

“Well, we just got back on the job after a break,” Sunset explained, “and so—” The flame-haired girl was interrupted by the cough of an adult.

Cup pointed towards the stairs. “It’s okay, girls. I remember when I was young and filled with fun.”

Pinkie immediately glomped her aunt. “Thanks, Auntie Cup! You’re the best!” With that, Pinkie grabbed more snacks and ushered her friends upstairs to her bedroom.

At that point, Carrot came out of the storage basement. “Hey, where are the girls? I could use some help bringing up the items we’ll need for tomorrow.”

“She’s upstairs with her friends, hon,” Cup said as she walked towards him. “Sooner or later, we need to let our little girl grow up.”

Buntingville was a small village southeast of Ponyville, a couple of hours away from Canterlot and just a sleepy farming town with no interest or dealings with the metropolis dozens of miles to the west. To them, Ponyville, with its 18,000 people, was “the big city”, something that Buntingville and its 3000 residents could keep up with. Pretty much other than a few shops, a greasy spoon and a couple of fast food joints, the rest of the town was homes for those commuting to and from Ponyville or worked locally.

The local cuillère graisseuse, The Buntingville Inn, was nothing to write home about. It was comfy and cozy, a place for locals to kick back and unwind while drinking bitter coffee and chowing down on runny eggs, starchy hashbrowns and greasy bacon and sausage. The waitresses all looked as though they were just on the other side of their prime, and the whole place could have done with an extensive makeover, mainly to get rid of the decades’ worth of grease and fat that had all but baked itself into the furniture.

For some reason, Adagio thought it was the best place she’d been in for a while. And she continued to think about that as she tried to focus on the conversation, because right now they were all in desperate need of something else to think about, especially Vesper and Intermezzo. Their older sister, Rhapsody, had been murdered – and the culprits really hadn’t even bothered trying to cover it up. Supposedly, given that Rhapsody and Cantata had been best friends, this kind of fratricide left no doubt that the other side was playing for keeps, and their lives were on the line.

Right now, more than anything, Adagio wished she could rewind her life to a time where the biggest problems she had was arguing over fashion with Rarity. It was completely out of her bailiwick, given that most of her life fashion had meant to her what uniform to wear. But those few weeks had meant the world to her, and she hoped that she could have some semblance of it again. She stole looks at her sisters, knowing they felt the same – Sonata had even given everything up, despite being the most reluctant of them all. She wondered: did their sœurs feel the same way? Did Intermezzo, Vesper and Madrigal wish to have the same normal lives as their charges?

If we survive this, Adagio swore for what felt like the billionth time to her, I’m going to find out.

“They’re on the move,” Intermezzo said in a dispassionate voice. The look in her eyes was cold and unfriendly, a mirror to Vesper’s. Madrigal, though not biologically related to Rhapsody, had much the same action. “In two days, you three have been called back. Additionally, there’s a second group that will be reporting in tonight. You three need to stop them at any cost – they’ve been out of the loop as to what has been happening, and we might find allies that we can use against Cantata.”

“And if they won’t work with us?” Aria asked.

Madrigal’s answer was succinct. “You liquidate without hesitation.” The three teens looked warily at their elder, and she nodded sadly. “This is what it’s come to: Sisterhood vs. itself – all because our leader went rogue. If the Admiral were still alive, he’d be hurt and dismayed by what we’ve become, girls. But the targets have changed. I don’t know what her game plan is anymore, but I’m betting it won’t just stop at CSIS HQ.”

“Assuming it’s still that,” Vesper grunted.

“What other information do we have?” Sonata asked.

Intermezzo handed her a key. “This is a copy of what Rhapi was able to obtain before they killed her. We were able to uncover the real project ANTHEMUSA, but there are two other files on there that we have not been able to break. I’m worried that it might be something worse than ANTHEMUSA.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, like a plan to assassinate the Prime Minister, or something worse? Do you really need to think about that?” Madrigal asked. “Cantata and her boyfriend aren’t likely to stop at CSIS HQ. They’re probably going to continue beyond Ottawa. I don’t know what her game plan is, but I don’t need to. She’s bad news, and she’s betrayed the Sisterhood – and using fellow SIRENs to do it. Do you need to know more?” The three younger SIRENs shook their heads and Madrigal nodded grimly.

“Okay, we need to get back before we’re missed. After tonight, they will probably report you AWOL, so you will definitely have to be on your toes. Be on guard at all times and we’ll contact you – assume that if you don’t hear from us after twenty-four hours, you are on your own.”

“Does that mean you’ll want us to assume the attack?” Adagio asked.

Intermezzo looked at her petite sœur, and a look between worry and maternal concern came over her face. “No – I want you to survive, Dagi. Although I’m not going to tell you to run away, you do what you three need to do to survive. But if anything of what we’ve heard of ANTHEMUSA is true…surviving is going to be a relative thing.”

Cadance looked over the letters. “Are these all of them?”

“All of them I could find,” Twilight admitted, then looked at Cadance’s disapproving look. “Okay, I know I shouldn’t have gone through her stuff, Cady, but you have to admit, this is strange.”

“Have you asked her what this is about?” Twilight shook her head in response and Cadance sighed. “While I have to admit this is…well, odd, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this.”

“Reasonable? That’s my handwriting! But none of that makes sense!” Twilight gasped.

“Actually, if it’s what I think it is, it does,” Cadance said. “Back when Shiny and I were attending CHS, my aunt had an assignment she taught in her classes. What you did was that you took the people you knew and imagined them as fantasy characters. I remember writing a letter that made my trig teacher look like Lord Barleycorn, Black Knight of the Land or something like that.” The older girl folded the papers and gave them back to Twilight. “I’m guessing these are left over from that assignment.”

“But – my handwriting!”

“Twily, yes, I know that you don’t have the most legible writing in the world, and yes, it’s hard to mimic. The letter from ‘Princess Celestia’ that you showed me looks like a dead ringer for Aunt Tia’s. But you have to remember that Sunny came from a shady past – but one she’s ashamed of now. And I don’t doubt my aunt knows about the letters – Sunny would have to turn in the assignment, after all. But I can also see why she wouldn’t show anyone.”

“Why not?”

“Because of the reaction you had, Twily.” The younger girl had the grace to look incredibly embarrassed at that point, and Cadance looked at her with sympathy. “Twily, just because Sunny has a talent for, well, forgery, doesn’t mean she’s going to become one. There was a guy I knew in law school that had the same talent, and he ended up becoming a forensic scientist specializing in handwriting. I really wouldn’t worry about it.”

“You sure?”

“Just ask her. She is your sister, after all.” The hurt look on Twilight’s face was too much for Cadance to bear and she said, “C’mon, cheer up, ladybug.”

“Why do you keep calling me that whenever I’m down?” Twilight asked, blushing.

“Because we’re family. As your dad says, if family can’t completely embarrass you, who can?”

“Darling, you should know better than to hide things from your family,” Rarity told Sunset, who was starting to feel more than a little bit overwhelmed by her friends. “Hiding does no one any good at all.”

“I know….” Sunset groaned. “Pinkie and I just had this conversation a few minutes ago, Rares, and now you’re beating the proverbial dead horse, that dead horse almost literally being me!” Sunset facepalmed and muttered, “Look, girls, I know you mean well, but I just can’t tell them right now!”

“Then when?” Pinkie asked. “When they officially adopt you? When you graduate from high school? Or college? Maybe when you marry? Or have kids? Or grandkids? Or maybe on your parents’ deathbed? Or at their graves? Or….”

“I get it. Just…let me tell them when I think they’ll be ready.”

“At the way things are going, you won’t think they’ll ever be ready,” Rarity said. “It took us a year to adjust to the fact that you’re not really human, Sunset. The longer you take is the longer they’ll take to adjust as well.”

“I know. Believe me, I know. And it’s not easy for me to do this. But I don’t want to be rejected.”

“They won’t reject you, Sunny,” Pinkie said, wrapping her arms around her friend. “If what I saw the day of your birthday is the norm, you won’t ever be rejected. They love you, just as much as we do.”

Sunset smiled despite herself. “Thanks, Pinks.”

They then heard a shout from downstairs, “Girls, the lunch rush is here!”

“Well, I guess it’s time to get busy, then,” Pinkie said with a grin, practically teleporting to her feet. “Let’s go do this lunch thing!”

Rarity smiled. “Good, then I guess I’ll go downstairs and order. I ate a light breakfast this morning, so I’m positively famished.”

As the three headed towards the stairs, Sunset turned to Rarity. “So what brought you over?”

“Oh, I thought I’d bring over some clothing that I’d made for us. After all, if we’re going on a vacation we may as well all look like we’re the height of fashion, correct?”

“What did you bring over?”

“Just a few sundresses, some dinner attire, dressage attire should we decide to go horseback riding, swimsuits, beach wear, monogrammed beach towels, capri pants and camisoles, little black dresses for the nightlife—”

Sunset raised an amused eyebrow. “Only a few things?”

Rarity shrugged. “What can I say, darling? I love being generous when it comes to my friends.”

Now having moved to a new motel just outside of the Ponyville city limits, Sonata hacked away at the files on the flash drive with her computer. She was in the zone, as it were; as the team engineer and information warfare specialist, which meant she was good at “hacking” things. She always laughed at that term; people thought of hackers as unwashed introverts in pizza-stenched closets banging away at a computer with useless jargon usually found in Hollywood films. The truth was far more mundane and pedestrian, she knew.

After all, she built the botnets herself, designed to slave computers out on the net for their processing power to get the job done, and then to delete any trace she was there. She hated crackers who did nasty shit with botnets, and one time she found one trying to access hers while she had them going. She grinned at that; he probably thought he was hiding behind seven proxies or some shit, but she knew her talents – and she knew a detachment of SIRENs in the Ukraine who dealt with that issue promptly enough. Either way, she was pretty sure that nobody was going to try that shit again.

Except for that 5Trab1Mu5 dude, Sonata thought. She’d come across him once, and he seemed cool enough; left her botnets alone and even offered some code when Sonata hinted that she was a military organization doing information hunting. Hope I get to meet the guy someday; he really seems to know his way around the keyboard.

To her right, Adagio looked over her sister’s shoulder. “Any luck?”

Sonata leaned over the keyboard. “Whatever encryption they’re using, it’s pretty good. Probably won’t hold up against the botnets for long, but it’s good enough to hold up against a server or two. Too bad for them I kinda took control of Floral Wind, though I don’t know how long that’s going to last.”

“Took over what?”

To answer that, Sonata pushed a tablet towards her sister, who read the Jane’s reference page. “Uh, sis?”

Sonata didn’t look up from her work. “Yes, Dagi?”

“If I’m reading this right…Floral Wind is the Chinese Ministry of Public Safety’s espionage botnet, isn’t it?”

“Your point?”

“Are you trying to paint a bullseye on us? If the INTEL folks aren’t wondering what the hell we’re up to, then someone else is paying attention. We could have CIA or the Jinyiwei at that door in a second!”

Sonata tapped on another keyboard. “Pre-PRC guard forces?”

“You know what I mean! The Chinese equivalent of us!”

Sonata looked at her sister oddly for a second. “The Chinese have SIRENs?”

“Sorta – the Jinyiwei use both boys and girls, from what I recall of the intel briefing. Plus, they’re chosen from their Olympic hopefuls, not raised from childhood like us.” Adagio sat in a seat next to Sonata. “And I’ll bet they have an INFOWAR branch, too.”

“Would you please not worry about it and let me do my job?” Sonata laughed. “Sis, you have no faith in my skills, do you? Seriously, I’m running everything through a backdoor at CSIS and MOD right now. Our traffic looks like official ARROWHEAD stuff. I guarantee if the Chinese super-elite SPECOPS force is going somewhere, it’s going to be there, not here.” The youngest triplet shrugged. “If anything, we probably look like a honeypot right now.”

“Honeypot?”

“Basically part of the network designed to look like it’s legit, but it’s actually meant for infowar countermeasures. Mostly meant to catch crackers and IOs. The smart ones – like the Chinese, needless to say – are going to see it and know it’s a honeypot. Which, of course, it’s not.”

Adagio shook her head. “How do you know all this?”

“How do you know about all the tactics and strategy that you’ve ever learned?” Aria said; she was carrying a box filled with more of Sonata’s computer stuff. “How do I know about sniping, countersniping and everything I do? We all have specialties, Dagi. I know Soni likes pulling that ditz act of hers—”

“What act, Ari?” Sonata said with a look that seemed like the light in her eyes was courtesy of a hole in the back of her head.

“That look,” Aria said with a grin.

“Fine, fine, I get it,” Adagio replied, relenting. “Sorry, just worried about all of this. It’s clear that once they took out the XO that Cantata is not messing around, and while we know fatalities are all a part of the job, there’s a difference between that and going up against our own. And now we’re going to be down one while you and I deal with these other SIRENs.”

“Wait – I’m staying behind?” Sonata asked, surprised.

Adagio nodded. “You have to, sis. This—” the eldest triplet commented, gesturing at all the computer hardware, “—is your specialty. Dealing with takedowns is part of mine, and if we have to stop those three in the worst possible way, we can do it.” She turned to Aria. “Get your best gear, and be prepared for the worst. We’re going to leave this afternoon and we’re going to deal with this one way or the other.”

“Got it,” Aria replied, setting the box down next to Sonata and going over to where she kept her gear.

The trio slowly got ready for their operation. Aria readied her and Adagio’s guns, while Sonata continued her assault on the file and its contents. As for Adagio, she spread a set of maps out on her bed and started to look over them, as if memorizing every single nook and cranny. The trio fell into their comfortable roles, none speaking to the other but each enjoying her sisters’ company. It was just the way the things were between the three siblings, and it was the way it would probably always be, if luck continued to move along their path.

Finally, as the sun began to set, Adagio said, “Okay, Ari. Time to get going. I’ll meet you at the car, okay?”

Adagio grabbed her rifle case as well a converted luggage case that carried the rest of their equipment and nodded. “Don’t take too long, okay?”

Aria turned around to see Adagio go over and say something to Sonata. The younger triplet agreed, and both hugged. Adagio soon joined Aria as both went to the car. “So, what’d you tell her?” Aria asked as she threw her weapon case in the back.

“Don’t worry about it,” Adagio replied.

“Seriously…what did you tell her?” the middle triplet asked as she got into the passenger seat and buckled up. Adagio got into the driver’s seat, but instead of buckling up and starting up the car, she leaned against the steering wheel looking completely drained – not just physical exhaustion, but mental and emotional as well.

“Dagi?” Aria questioned again, her voice gentler. Adagio continued to sit there, silent as a stone, and it worried Aria. “Sis, please…. What did you tell her?”

Adagio’s voice was almost a whisper. “I…I told Soni that if we didn’t survive this…that her final orders were to get that file to the American government. Then to run far away where nobody would find her, and to remember us.”

Aria gasped. “Dagi! You didn—”

The older triplet turned to look at the younger, and on her face was a heartbroken look. “I said it earlier: we’re heading into unknown territory and I don’t know if we’re going to make it out of this, Ari. Honestly, if I could, I would spare you, too. But if we fall, Soni is the last chance to stop Cantata. But more than that, I want her protected.” Adagio turned away from her sister and looked out the driver window. “She’s our baby sister, Ari. If one of us has to survive, it has to be her!”

“Sis….”

“This…this isn’t easy for me, okay?” Adagio looked at Aria and there was worry and the edge of fear in her eyes. “I never thought I would ever be risking your lives! I mean, yeah, I know what we do for a living, and yes, all three of us have been thrown to the wolves time and again, but this time it’s me ordering us to do it!”

“Hey, we took on the assassins in that old pizza place; we can certainly handle thi—”

“THAT WAS DIFFERENT!” Adagio shouted, and Aria backed up in surprise. “I was stupid then,” Adagio said in a smaller voice. “So easily willing to do the job that I didn’t think of the long-term costs! The three of us barely survived a building being dropped on us, and we just shrugged it off.”

“Because we’re trained to do that,” Aria argued.

“Because I nearly lost two people I loved because we were being hunted!” She fell back in the seat. “God, I know how Sunny feels now.” When Aria looked at her oddly, the older SIREN said, “Apparently earlier in the year Twily had some issues, to the point that she tried to commit suicide.”

Aria’s eyes widened. “That does not sound like Twily!”

“I know. But she confirmed it. Anyway, Sunny practically lost her mind trying to make sure that her sister was okay, and she said that at the end of it she was more afraid of what would happen to Twily more than anything else. It sounded like Sunny went through an ordeal and a half trying to bring Twily back from the brink of whatever happened, but she didn’t tell me anything more.” Adagio reached over and turned the key, starting the car. “Anyway, that’s how I feel right now. I want to protect you both – and I can’t.”

As they departed the parking lot, Aria said, “I know, sis. And we’ve probably been through this a billion times since we stupidly agreed to this one last thing. None of us ever expected to be over our heads. But now we are, and things are changing. Let’s just get through this and then we’ll be in charge of our own lives – just us three and our sœurs. Then we can laugh about this a decade from now.” Aria put her arms back and said, “One thing at a time, sis. Right now, let’s just intercept that other team, or do what we have to do. We’ll figure it out next.”

Adagio chuckled. “How’d you get so wise?”

Aria smiled. “I have my older sister to thank, of course.”

Two women in lab coats came to a stop before a door. “Ready to do this?” Posey asked her colleague.

“I don’t like this,” Zecora said to Posey. “Call me crazy, but I feel…I feel a great malevolence on the other side of that door right now.” The dark-skinned woman focused cyan eyes on her friend. “My husband and I were watching The Exorcist last night – he loves horror films.” She turned to look at that door. “That’s what I’m feeling right now.”

Posey gave her friend a lidded look. “Look, I don’t have ‘Tubular Bells’ on my phone and I’m really not an Oldfield fan.” She sighed. “Cora, there are bigger things going on right now than a girl who needs medical help; we’re small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, especially with that serial killer running around. I already have to worry about my daughter as is.”

Zecora nodded. “Good thing my son is already off at college and I don’t have a daughter.”

“Lucky you. But as I was saying, even despite all that’s going on, you know that under state law, two different doctors must see a minor patient before she sees a psychiatrist.”

“I know. And for the record, I don’t like this – I’ve known that child since she was, well, a child.”

“I understand,” Posey said as she reached for the door. “But I promised Velvet that I’d help, and as their family’s GP, you should be involved, too.”

Seated in the examination room were Velvet and Octavia. Posey looked at the teenager for the first time and could instantly tell something was wrong. There was something unnatural about her eyes; she couldn’t put a finger on it, but maybe….

Maybe Cora’s right, Posey thought to herself.

“I thought that the psychologist was supposed to be here,” Velvet asked.

“California State Law requires that two independent doctors evaluate the patient,” Zecora told her old friend. “Posey and I are stretching the letter of the law doing this at the same time, but I assure you we’re doing this by the book as much as we can. Once we’re done with our exam, then we’ll make the referral to the psychologist in question.”

“I’ve already told her to expect you guys in the near future, so let’s get this over and done with, okay?” Posey assured Velvet. Looking at Zecora, she said, “After you, Doctor.”

Zecora nodded. “Thank you, Doctor.” She moved forward to look at Octavia…but there was something different about her. It was almost as if she wasn’t the child she’d seen over the years. There was a darkness in her eyes, as if a spirit had taken hold of her and wouldn’t let go. Zecora wasn’t exactly the most religious, she would admit; she was a doctor and thus the laws of the physical realm held more sway for her than the supernatural. But her grandmother had been both devout and insisted that demons were everywhere. Zecora hadn’t believed her before. Now? She wasn’t so sure.

Still, she approached. She was fond of Octavia, and she had a duty to fulfill. Reaching for her stethoscope, she began. “So, Octavia, dear, how are you feeling?”

The look on Octavia’s face became positively demonic, and Zecora gasped in shock as the girl’s eyes shifted from their normal violet to an angry red. “My name is Melody,” the teen announced, “and I can smell your fear!” With that, she launched herself off the inspection bed and towards the doctor like a wild animal, slamming her against the ground. The teen lorded over the frightened woman for a second. “I’m going to break you like you want to break me,” she threatened.

Velvet leapt from her chair, trying to stop Octavia’s intended assault on Zecora. “Tavi, please get a hold of yourse—” the woman began, as she pulled her niece off the doctor, only to be elbowed in the face and grabbed by her arm. She felt the distinct sensation of being thrown over Octavia’s shoulder until she came to a painful crash on top of the stunned doctor. The next thing she felt was Octavia kicking both of them in the ribs, making them lose air.

Meanwhile, the out-of-control teenager focused her attention on Posey, the last one standing. Posey, however, had come prepared. Reaching into her pocket, she quickly withdrew a stun gun. “Look, don’t make me do this, kid. This is hard enough as is.”

It caught her completely off-guard as Melody rushed forward and grabbed the gun by the tongs, the electrical discharge flowing into her – and not doing a thing to stop her. As Posey reacted with shock, the teen slammed her against the wall and looked into the familiar frightened face. “You know, I always wondered how Fluttershy tastes,” she cooed. “Maybe I should get a sample.” And with that, Melody leaned up and deep-kissed the older woman, much to Posey’s shock. It didn’t last long, however, as the teen still had enough presence of mind to punch the doctor in the solar plexus, crumpling her in an instant. As she fell to the ground, Melody moved her out of the way in the roughest way possible: kicking her in the side of the head to push her away from the one drawer the teen knew she’d need to access, and did without fail.

As Velvet and Zecora regained their semblance of mind, Melody pulled a box of scalpels out of the drawer and unsheathed one. “Now I’m going to cut both you bitches for trying to get rid of me,” she snarled, rage building within her.

“No, please, Tavi – stop this!” Velvet pled. “You’re my niece and I love you like a daughter. Please don’t do this!”

Ignoring her, Melody forced the stunned Posey to her knees, and held the scalpel to her neck. “Maybe I’ll start with miss Pretty Pussy here. Or maybe I’ll save you just to get a threesome in with you and your twin daughter, huh?”

“NO!”

The scream was so loud and so forceful, Zecora and Velvet were surprised by its sound for a second before they realized it had come from the teenager herself. The trio looked to see Octavia having let go of Posey, who slumped to the floor, having been rendered unconscious by the shock, while Octavia suddenly and inexplicably seemed to be fighting herself over control of the weapon.

“Let go, you bitch!” she yelled at herself.

“No! I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else!” a voice that sounded closer to Octavia shouted back.

“Shut up, you cunt! I’m in charge now!”

“No! Not when you hurt my family!” With strength born of rage and fear, Octavia plunged the scalpel into herself, screaming with a cocktail of emotions loud enough that it brought Posey back to consciousness.

The woman voiced what the others were thinking as blood poured from the wound and Octavia slumped to the floor. “What the fuck!?”

A nurse the slammed the door open as if on cue, looking at the destruction within: the three bruised women and the stabbed girl. “What the hell’s going on in here?” he asked.

Zecora picked herself up and ordered, “I want two more nurses in here, stat. Also, give me a strapped gurney – no arguments. We’re going to get this girl patched up, and then she is not to leave the gurney until further notice, understood?” The nurse nodded. “Also, get us some painkillers and water. We’re going to need them.”

Meanwhile, Velvet went over to Posey’s side. “You okay?”

“No, I’m not,” she winced. “Not only does your niece know how to throw a punch, she’s a better kisser than my husband is.” Posey gave her friend a wan smile and added, “I’ll be better after the world stops spinning. How you holding up?”

“Reminds me of a few fistfights I got into with Tia when we were young and stupid,” Velvet said. “I survived those, I’ll survive now.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Posey said, but the other woman refused to say anything further, and that in itself was an answer of its own. “As soon as I patch us both up, I’ll call Chrys. This…this is out of our hands now, Vel. We’ll make sure your niece is taken care of, I promise, won’t we, Cora?”

Zecora nodded. “We have to,” she stated grimly as she looked into Velvet’s bleak face. “You know we’ll do everything in our power, Velvet. I swear it.”

“I know,” Velvet murmured, “but it doesn’t make any of this easier. Not one iota.”

Shining Badge and Shining Armor got into the former’s car. “You know, that uniform looks good on you,” Badge said, referring to Shining’s formal police uniform. He’d worn it today for Hardline’s funeral, which had surprisingly been planned pretty fast. “You look like the kind of guy at home in a police or military uniform. Me, well, I never was, which is why I guess I went FBI instead of local.”

“Yeah,” Shining replied blankly, looking at the car across the way. A stony-faced man was by it, holding a pre-teen girl close to him; she looked as though she’d cried her eyes out, and she in turn held a folded American flag as if it were a talisman. Shining had been told that the two were Hardline’s ex-husband and daughter, and that they’d flown out just for the funeral. “How’d things get arranged for Hardline’s funeral so fast?”

“That’s a bear of a question to ask,” Badge said. “Hardy was dating one of the mortuary guys, so when they heard, they dropped everything they could to get her taken care of. As it is, they’re overworked, due to the number of deaths that happened. They’re still finding some bodies in Sunnytown and parts south.” He then looked out his window, where the last of the mourners were departing, and where soon Hardline’s casket would be lowered into the ground, into her final resting place. “So many people dead, either from the hurricane or that madman running around, and they stopped everything for just one person. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but it’s a good thing for her family.”

“Yeah, no argument there,” Shining said as the pair drove off. “So what’s next?”

“We’re going to have reinforcements coming in – bad enough we have that killer around here, but now those SIRENs have popped their heads out. Personally, I’d be just as happy if both sides just kill one another, but we’re not going to be that lucky. So we’re going to do our job and we’re going to make sure those fuckers pay, got that?”

“You’ve got no argument from me,” Shining replied. “They hurt a friend of mine, so I’m going to hurt them.”

“Why, you getting along merrily with that Sandalwood number? She’s a cute little thing and, trust me, you could do far worse than her.”

Shining blinked at that in confusion for a few seconds. “I think you got it wrong. Sure, Sandy’s an old friend, and I’m pissed they hospitalized her, but nothing’s going on between us. I certainly don’t think of her that way, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t, either.”

“Right, gotcha,” Badge said in a way that sounded like he absolutely did not believe it. “You’ll find out soon enough anyway,” he said to himself, remembering when he was young and clueless and let the right girl get away because he chased after the wrong one. Who knew back then? Maybe the kid’s already with the right one and Sandalwood’s the one that’s playing with fire, but hey, not my job to interfere with the lovebirds, I guess.

The two drove on in silence, as a remaining cloud overhead poured a gentle rain, like the sky itself wept for Hardline’s loss. Given that Badge thought she was one of the best he’d ever served with, it was a fair enough assessment.

“No, Cady, I don’t recall assigning that particular lesson in my classes this year, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do it,” Celestia replied over the phone. “As for the forged documents, I already know she can do it – I caught her once during her freshman year, and as punishment I had her ghostwrite several long letters to the other principals in the district for me. Her hand was cramped by the time she was done and I think she learned her lesson.”

“But Twily’s worried that she’s doing something again. After all, there was a strange letter in her handwriting,” Cadance explained. “Aunt Tia, personally, I think Twily’s worried about nothing, but I just want to come up with something that will calm her down.”

“Well, the only thing I can think of is that she does it to keep in practice, though I don’t know why. As for a reason why she didn’t use it, that’s easy enough: from the sounds of it, we’re talking horse references and mystical things out of a fantasyland. Obviously that’s not going to pass for legitimate, and she wrote it so it wouldn’t look like it does, even by accident.”

“That certainly makes sense. Well, I’m going to have dinner over there and explain to everyone what happened. Maybe if she just comes clean about it, that should settle Twily’s fears?”

“That makes sense. Well, I would love to chat more, Cady, but I have a date with Sable tonight.”

“Oh really? Sounds like you two are getting serious.”

“Hey, I’m old – I’m allowed to get serious in an instant if I want, right?” Celestia laughed on the other end, and said, “Seriously, Cady, I’m happier than I’ve ever been with him. I think he’s the one.”

“That’s good, Aunt Tia – you deserve someone of your own. Now if we can only get Aunt Luna tied up. Anyway, I’ll let you go since I still need to shut down here for the night. Love you and talk to you later.”

“Love you too, dear. Bye!”

Cadance hung up the phone. She was sure that just a quick talk with Sunset would assure Twily, and that Sunset would be more circumspect in the future. Cadance sighed. Sometimes being the lawyer in my family gets to be a hassle.

Celestia hung up the phone and sighed. Another weird thing going on when it came to Sunset – and this time the educator was involved. She was sure that there was a perfectly good reason why Sunset would do something like that, but she was at a loss to explain what it was. She would just have to find a way to talk to the teen before school and find out exactly what it was. While she was sure that it would all turn out to be a fairly mundane thing, she wasn’t happy about having her handwriting copied for some inexplicable reason, though Sunset had apparently at least taken the time to ensure that the letter wouldn’t be understood in any logical form other than those in the know.

I just have to make sure that I talk to Sunset before she digs herself any further, she thought to herself. She giggled at the thought of the fact that once, she spent years trying to keep the teen out of trouble and taking the wrong path. Now, she was trying to keep her out of trouble…by taking the wrong path.

“I guess I’ve never really grown up, have I?” Celestia said to herself, mildly amused.

She felt a pair of strong arms encircle her. “Personally, I’m glad – I’d hate to see how hard it’d be to keep up with you if you did.” In response, Celestia turned and kissed the man she loved, glad as the stars above the earth below that she had him.

In a car with Oregon license plates heading down Interstate, three young women looked at the road. One, a tan-skinned beauty with short wine-hued hair, green eyes and a short temper, shouted, “Look, speed the fuck up, okay? We need to be back at base immediately.”

A girl with long, flowing two-tone blonde hair, hazel eyes and a pair of eyeglasses – that if one inspected closely, would realize were blanks, not prescription lenses – sighed. “You know what? Just shut the fuck up, Wine, unless you want to drive.”

To her side, a black girl with curly pine-green hair and brown eyes laughed. “Don’t you mean whine, Sides?” She put out a fist out and the other girl bumped it with a grin.

“Look, you two grasslickers want to keep this shit up, fine. But I’m putting both of your asses on report the minute we get back unless you speed the fuck up and get this car going now!”

Seated in the driver’s seat and paying more attention to the road than the completely whiny bitch, Petty Officer 2nd Class Sunny Side wanted nothing more than to turn around and shoot said offender, Petty Officer 1st Class Elderberry Wine. She gave a pleading look to her best friend and virtual sister, Petty Officer 2nd Class Evergreen Pine. The two of them had been together ever since their first day of training, and together they formed “the Weird Name Twins”, given that they had different names when SIRENs (by intent or coincidence) generally had musical-based names. They did everything together, and with their sœurs, they were unstoppable.

But then came the delaying fight against Les SCARS in a battle in downtown Caracas, Colombia that the news had attributed to competing drug lords. Though the SIRENs had completely decimated the enemy, it had been a Pyrrhic victory; Side and Evergreen’s sœurs had been amongst the first to fall, and out of an ambush squad of thirty, only three had survived. Once they arrived in Canterlot, it had been decided to pair the two up with a third similar to them, Elderberry Wine, a girl with a normal name but “weird” in the SIRENs.

The three hated each other from the moment they met, and things weren’t going to change anytime soon. The older girl, in her late twenties and only a PO1st because she was slow to earn promotions, lorded her rank over her subordinates. She was also not as attractive as the other two, and let them know in the worse way possible: Due to the familial intimacy Side and Evergreen had formed, Wine accused the pair of being lovers. Needless to say, the thought completely disgusted the pseudo-sisters, and they began to make plans to desert the SIRENs; they already had an inkling that something odd was going on that didn’t quite fit the norm for the organization. The two had been practicing their Irish accents for the past few months, and when they had the first chance, they were going to bolt to Ireland, where they could live their lives as the siblings they considered each other. It was possible, after all; there was a case in Britain of a pair of fraternal twins born to a mixed-race family where one twin was a blue-haired, yellow-eyed white girl and her sister a pink-haired, gray-eyed black girl. Sides and Evergreen planned to say they were older than the other twins, but that their parents hadn’t wanted to make a fuss. Either way, it was a perfect plan.

All it meant was just ditching Wine, but neither girl was willing to commit murder to get rid of her.

Though if she keeps getting worse, Side seethed silently, I might just change my mind.

Meanwhile, Evergreen looked out the window, at the rear-view mirror. “Car behind us, heading same direction,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“About time one of you taco scoopers did something right,” Wine growled, reaching for a rifle.

“Are you fucking stupid?” Evergreen snarled. “You’re going to dust some poor person who’s headed back south?”

“Probably someone tailing us – the Captain said that we needed to keep an eye out for more CSIS assets, given the attack on our bolthole.”

“Yeah, you’re fucking stupid.” Evergreen did a facepalm, then said to Side, “Hey, sis, can we throw her out the car?”

“Wish I could, Greenie, but I don’t want a ticket for littering,” Side snarked. “Wine, put the fucking gun down. Probably someone headed back to town early from the hurricane. You did know a freak hurricane hit Canterlot, right? Or do you not pay attention to anything other than insulting us?”

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t fire,” Wine said, taking aim.

“Because if the round is traced back to us, you’ve let them know we’re here,” Evergreen replied. “Contrary to the CBC, the Americans aren’t stupid. You want to take the credit for having SIREN taken down by the local cops?”

“Yeah, I heard if you piss them off, the cops can be worse than the military – at least the American army’s trained to restrain itself,” Side added.

“Fine,” Wine grunted, sounding distinctly unhappy about it. “Take the next offramp, then pull over. We’ll wait and see. If they pass by, good. If not, I’m taking them out.”

“Even if this is their stop?” Evergreen asked, angry at the other girl’s bloodthirst.

“Be glad I don’t wax you, or else your fuckbuddy will be all wonwey and shit,” Wine said with a sneer. Evergreen looked at Side, who nodded in sympathy. Still, complying with the orders, Side got off at the first exit, making her way down the forested road, pulling off at the first chance—

—only for what was following them to gun its engine and crash into them at a high speed, pushing both into the trees.

“We’re under attack!” Wine shouted, reaching for her rifle, only to have a sniper shot cut through the window and zing past her, embedding itself in the seat – a warning shot if there ever was one.

“Okay, ladies,” Wine ordered, “this is what we’re going to do. In a second, I want you to gun the engine and try to get us back on the road. I’ll return fire, and with a little luck, we should be able to get out of this.”

Meanwhile, both Evergreen and Side went for their guns. “I’ll go right, sis, you go left,” Evergreen suggested.

“Keep your head down, Greenie; either their sniper was lucky or he’s good, and I don’t want to take a chance that it’s the former,” Side told her.

Wine was livid. “Are either of you listening to me?”

“No, because your plan’s going to get us killed,” Side told her. “Best chance we have is to fight it out and then steal a car. Now if you want to be a bullet sponge, then by all means, take the wheel. My sister and I are going to kill whoever just shot at us, then live another day.”

“Wait – why aren’t they continuing to fire?” Evergreen asked.

A second later, the answer came. “You three can come out – leave the weapons in the car, though.”

“Yeah, and what are you going to do if we don’t?” Wine shouted back. Two quick sniper shots disabled the left and right side mirrors, answering that question immediately.

Side called out, “We’re coming out unarmed.” Wine glared at her, and Evergreen in turn glared back. “Can we trust that you won’t just shoot us?”

“If we wanted to do that, we’d have done so already.”

The three slowly climbed out of the car, hands up, and to their shock, found a single girl roughly their age, standing there, weapons trained on them. That was a surprise enough. But what the bigger surprise was…

“You’re a SIREN?” Wine, the last of the trio to get out of the car, looked at the SIREN with shock. For a change, both Evergreen and Side agreed with her. “What the hell is the meaning of this?”

Standing there, calmly, the Chinese girl with the orange-and-yellow hair said, “My name is Leading Seaman Adagio Dazzle. I used to belong to Team One. I’m here to make sure you three don’t make a mistake that will cost you your lives.”

“Seaman Dazzle,” Evergreen asked, “pointing a gun at us and threatening us is a mistake you don’t want to make. From what you just said, it’s clear that you’ve already deserted, and you’ve already compounded your mistake by attacking us. Put down your gun and surrender, and we’ll make sure you get a fair court-martial.”

“That goes for your sniper, too,” Side added. “I’m guessing she’s probably with you, and is one of us. That, or you’re one of the CSIS moles we’ve heard about.”

Adagio shook her head. “Neither. I have proof that over the past few weeks, Captain Cantata Blast has been working to consolidate her power base and not help us get our revenge, but rather work towards becoming a warlord of her own, with the assistance of our new benefactor, Prince Divine Right. If you’re willing to listen, I have everything in that car I just crashed into yours.”

“And if we’re not?” Side asked.

“Then I’ll have to put you three down. I don’t relish that option, really – I’ve already seen too much of the Sisterhood die, and with the news that the XO and MED have been killed by the Captain’s own hands, I don’t want any other innocents to die. We’ve been played, ladies, and now the one pulling the strings is going to waste all of us at a chance to try to conquer the world.”

“You’re lying, Seaman,” Wine snarled. “I heard the report yesterday. The XO and Cmdr. Refrain were killed in a car accident, nothing more. You’re just a deluded fool trying to take whatever petty agendas you have against the Sisterhood out on us.”

“Really?” Adagio countered. “The lie about the XO’s death already made it that far? Too bad I have documentation saying otherwise in the car. Please look at it. It doesn’t do any harm to just look, right?”

Evergreen looked at Side. “You know the rumors we’ve been hearing, Sides.”

Side nodded. “I know, sis.” She looked at Adagio. “I’m going to move forward slowly. I take it the documents are right by the door?” Adagio nodded, and Side started moving slowly, her hands behind her head.

“Petty Officer Side, you will not move further,” Wine ordered. “Those papers could be rigged to an explosive device!”

“Yes, because I want to be within the blast radius myself,” Adagio said, rolling her eyes. “Are you sure you’re really a SIREN?” Evergreen giggled at that, and Wine glared at her.

Meanwhile, Side made it to the car, looking at a folder. Reaching for it, she began to read. Several tense minutes followed while hazel eyes scanned the countless lines of paper, and the sun began to finally sink past the treelines as Side looked up and at Adagio. “Is this true?”

“I swear it on the Admiral’s name,” Adagio said solemnly. The martyred status that their fallen leader had become in the eyes of the SIRENs was enough for a vow in his name to be taken with utmost seriousness. “Commander Blue – my sœur’s biological older sister, lost her life to make sure we got the information. Remember, she grew up with the Captain – they were the best of friends. And yet the Captain killed her without a second thought.”

Side, shaken, looked at Evergreen and Wine. “You have to read this.”

Evergreen looked at her sister. “Are you serious?”

Wine said the same thing, though in a different tone and clearly different context. “Are you serious? You’re going to take the word of some seaman who shot at us and is still pointing a gun at us? Are you that fucking stupid of a slut, Side?”

Side ignored her and looked at the other girl, walking over to Evergreen with the documents. “Greenie, these are serious, damning accusations. And it ties in with what you heard.”

Adagio caught that. “You heard something?”

Evergreen nodded as she looked through the file. “A girl on our squad said that Seaman Piano Bliss – the Captain’s petite sœur – was supposedly killed in an assassination attempt on the Captain. But one of the SIRENs that was present that day said that there was no attack and Seaman Bliss was last seen in the company of Prince Divine. Said SIREN was assigned to the bolthole, and was one of the ones killed that night. Our teammate believes that Seaman Bliss was sleeping with the Prince, and sœur or not, the Captain killed her out of jealousy.”

Side spoke up this time. “I heard that Prince Divine is spending a lot of money – a lot of money – that will be used on materiel and other necessary needs for the SIRENs. But the expenses are more than just for us to hit CSIS hard and then fade away into the wallpaper. The money being spent is for targeting multiple locations on the planet, which means that the Captain has long-term plans for us, plans she vowed she didn’t have beyond hitting our tormentors. At the time, I didn’t believe her – I mean, who would believe that shit? But then she got assigned to the bolthole and was one of the ones killed as well.”

“Figures. I think the Captain knew the bolthole would be targeted, so she set it up to get rid of some of those that found out, at the same time flushing out Les SCARS,” Adagio said. “Look, right now it’s just my teammates and our sœurs up against the rest – and the Captain has an iron hand here. She’s sold out the Sisterhood, and there are worse things we haven’t shown you yet, things that will horrify you…and as SIRENs, there’s not much we’re horrified by.” The teen looked at them, said, “Turn around and let me tie your hands, then we’ll get in the car and head to our hideout. Then I’ll show you the rest.”

Side looked at Evergreen. “Greenie…I’m going with them. If this is serious, people we know could be in danger.”

“I’m not going without you, sis,” Evergreen insisted.

“Okay, ladies, I think I’m done with this shitshow.” She reached forward, grabbing Evergreen, then pulled a gun out and held it to the girl’s head. Looking at Adagio, she said, “Shoulda frisked us, idiot. And that’s why you’re a seaman and I’m getting paid the big bucks.”

Adagio brought her rifle to bear. “Let her go or I’ll take you out.”

Wine laughed. “You might be able to pull that off, but I can still pull the trigger with a reflex. Even if I’m dead, so’s this lezbo.”

“Let her go, Wine!” Side snarled.

“Get bent, bitch. Should’ve known you two weaklings would give up.” She looked at Adagio. “Got to hand it to you; you guys found all the holes that the Captain’s been asking me to plug. Honestly, I thought it was just these two snatch snackers, but looks like they led me to the jackpot.”

“What?” Evergreen asked. “You’re on her side, Wine?”

“What, are all of you lezbos dain bramaged? My name’s not even wine.” She laughed, as if the joke was on them. “I’m Lt. Coda Scorch, SIREN Deep Reconnaissance. The Captain let me in on her little scheme, and in return, she’s going to set me up with my own little place to rule. All I have to do is get rid of some loose ends!” As she said that, she began to change. Evergreen could hear unnatural sounds coming from behind her, and from the horrified looks on Adagio and Side’s faces, she wasn’t missing much.

Without warning a trail of smoke passed through the air, punching through the face of Lt. Scorch. She fell back, not dead, but as if stunned. Still, it was enough for her to let go of Evergreen, and as she hit the ground, Adagio opened fire, riddling the creature with bullets. The armor-piercing rounds sliced through the body, making it jerk and dance like a marionette until it fell to the ground with a wet squish.

Side ran to her sister’s side and gasped, “What the hell is that thing?”

Adagio was more informed, but no less shocked. “They are real,” she voiced. A second later, she recovered enough to say, “That is what Cantata Blast is going to turn us all into if we don’t stop her. We’ll be turned into her own private army of monsters, and I can bet you that we won’t have a say in it – or have the free will that this idiot had.”

A thump sounded from behind them as Aria leapt out of the trees where she’d been stationed. Looking at that thing, she said to her sister, “I’ll go get the flares. We’re going to want to burn this body and hide the remains.”

“Yeah, I have explosives in our car. We need to destroy both the one we stole and their car.” She then looked at Side and Evergreen. “Ladies, I think we’ve made our point, but do we need to ask further?”

“No,” Side told them, looking down at the remains of Lt. Scorch. “No. I swear on the Admiral’s honor that we’ll come peacefully. In fact, you may want to get our gear out of the car we had before you destroy it. If we’re going to join you, then we’re going to need all the equipment we can get.”

“And you, Petty Officer?” Adagio asked Evergreen.

“I go where my sister goes,” she replied, as if that was enough of an answer.

Adagio blinked. “Wait – you two are sisters?”

Side put her arm around Evergreen. “Adopted,” they explained.

“Oh~kay,” Adagio answered before turning to Aria. “Send a coded message to Soni to relay to Mezzo that mission’s accomplished.”

Aria looked back at Adagio. “See? Toldja, nothing to worry about.”

Velvet looked at her foster daughter with disappointment. “I really don’t know whether I should be amazed or horrified by this new talent of yours.” She held the letters in her hand.

Night looked at her. “It’s things like this that are going to jeopardize your adoption, Sunny. We can’t afford slipups, not when we’re so close.”

“I’m sorry.” Sunset looked down, genuinely crestfallen at her parents’ reaction to the letters. She knew she had nothing to do with the letters other than being the recipient, but she couldn’t exactly explain that.

Luna looked at them all. “I suppose this is partially my fault; I did assign this during summer school and encouraged the students to write in a different way as to make the project look as if it were from different people.” She then looked sternly at Sunset. “But I thought you were done with this, Sunset.”

Sunset had no idea why Ms. Luna had come to bat for her, but she was glad that she did. “I was excited about the project, and…well, I forgot. I did give it that Filly Funtasia treatment so that nobody would think it was real.” She turned her head and said with genuine sorrow, “I didn’t think it would get out of hand like this.”

Cadance looked at Twilight and said, “See? I knew this would be easily solved.” She then looked at Sunset and added, “Still, I hope you don’t do this again, or at least without some warning. I’ve seen some kids run through the system for the same issues, and given your past, Sunny, I don’t want that to happen to you.”

Velvet nodded. “Then it’s settled.” She then looked at Twilight. “I also think you owe your sister an apology for what you did.”

Twilight looked at Sunset, and somehow the younger teen knew the older was lying. Sunset worried about that, but she continued to look at her sister, hoping that Twilight would convince herself that she was wrong.

She didn’t. “You’re lying. To me. Your sister. How could you do it?”

“Twily, look, I’m sorry that I copied your handwriting without letting you kno—”

“No, it’s not that, and you know it. No, you’re lying to me about the writing itself. I don’t know why, but you are, I just know it.” The implication, of course, was that Luna was lying as well, but Twilight wasn’t ready to challenge her.

“Twily, I—”

“When you’re ready to tell me the truth, I’ll listen. Until then, I want you to know that this hurts me, Sunset, more than you know.” Twilight got up from her seat. Looking at everyone present, she said, “I think I’m going to turn in early. Do some reading, understand what it’s like to find some trust in someone, even if fictional.” She went over and kissed her mother and father on the cheeks, then waved goodnight to Luna and Cadance before running up the stairs, teenage drama set to disrupt.

Sunset sat there, jaw slack and eyes radiating shock. Practically since they knew each other, Twilight had never referred to her sister as “Sunset”. It was a distancing motion, the sign of someone who wanted Sunset to stay as far away from her as possible. She’d experienced this the first few weeks after the Homecoming Dance last year, a time that felt so long ago in light of this past year. And now the crushing sorrow was sinking in again. Subconsciously, Sunset wrapped her arms around herself in lonely solace.

Velvet and Night looked at one another; neither of them had expected this – neither Twilight’s overreaction to what really was just a stupid mistake on Sunset’s part, or the sudden crushing anguish they could see their older daughter going through now.

Fortunately for her, both Cadance and Luna saw it as well. “I’ll go talk to Twily,” Cadance offered, heading upstairs to deal with the unpleasant melodrama.

“Well, this has been an experience,” Luna said, setting down the drink. “I’d love to stay and chat longer, you two, but I need to get an early night’s sleep – I need to drive up to Oregon for a conference tomorrow.” She looked at Sunset. “Please come outside with me, Sunset, as I need to tell you something.”

Velvet, assuming it was yet another parable of Luna’s life and fights with Celestia, nodded. “I’ll talk to you later, Lu.”

Night figured the same. “Don’t be such a stranger, okay?”

Luna smiled at two of her oldest friends. “My life is strange as is,” she chuckled. “Have a pleasant evening.”

The pair walked across the street to Luna’s car. “Sunset,” Luna said softly as soon as she was sure no one could hear her, “I’m disappointed in you right now. I thought you ceased this behavior.”

“I did! The letters are from Equestria, honestly!” the teen replied.

“But a Princess Celestia? A Princess Twilight? I could understand the latter, given that I’ve met her, but the rest of it I don’t understand, and given that I didn’t see those letters, I don’t want to know.” Luna sighed. “You know, I figured that when Tia called me and explained that you might be in trouble and that your, ahem, ‘past’ might be involved, I figured it would involve us. That is the only reason I volunteered to cover for you.”

“I didn’t mean for them to get out. I should have hidden them better.”

“No, what you should have done is what you still should do: tell them the truth. If you need your friends there to support you, I’m sure they will. Even Tia and I would do so. But I will not lie to your mother like that again. Vel is my closest friend and as much a sister to me as Tia or Moni, and it makes me ill at ease to have done so. I won’t do it again – this is the last time, Sunset. Keep that in mind.” The look on Luna’s face was stern. “Each mistake like this runs you out of options, Sunset, and as well it should. Do you want to keep lying to those you love?”

“No,” she said in a soft voice. “I never wanted to do so in the first place.”

Luna put her hands on the girl’s shoulders. “‘This above all: to thine own self be true.’ There’s a reason why those words have lasted the test of time. In the end, you must be honest to yourself if no one else, or you lose who you are. You’ve already been through that once, and it would hurt me to see you go through that again.” Luna brought Sunset forward in an embrace. “I have faith in you, Sunset. You’ll do the right thing. But I hope you’ll do it in time.”

“So do I,” Sunset said, though she wasn’t sure if she was agreeing with Luna or trying to convince herself. “So do I.”

“Hey, sis, we’re back,” Adagio said, carrying four pizzas into the apartment. “Things are going to be a little crowded around here, but I’m sure the five of us can deal.”

Sonata sat stock still at the keyboards, unmoving, as if she was a corpse. Aria noticed immediately. “Soni?” she asked.

Adagio threw the pizzas to Side and rushed forward. “Soni?” she said, turning her, only to find her sister, her eyes red with tears.

“You’re back,” Sonata said, enveloping her sister in a hug, silently sobbing into her sister’s shirt. “You’re back!”

Adagio patted the youngest triplet on the head. “I told you we’d be back, Soni. I promised you.”

“I know, but I’m the baby – aren’t I supposed to worry?” she said, breaking from the embrace and turning to look at Aria. “About both my sisters.”

Evergreen looked at Side. “Know how that feels,” she said to Side, who merely smiled.

“Well, intros will have to wait,” Adagio replied. “First things first. Were you able to crack the file?”

The sky-blue-tressed girl nodded her head. “I did. And I wish I hadn’t.” She gestured to the keyboard, which revealed that Project ARACHNE was just a cover operation and that in its place was the real deal, Project SLAVORUM. “Read,” she said, getting up from the keyboard and walking over to the bathroom to wash her faces.

Adagio read, and a second later, winced as if shot. Aria knew her sister’s body language well enough that she joined her. A second later, she turned, horror in her eyes and said, “Sides, Greenie, you guys will want to look at it.”

A few minutes later, after everyone had read the files and Sonata had come out of the bathroom, she could see the looks of abject alarm in the faces of the other girls. “It’s true. I cross-referenced everything. I wish I didn’t, but it’s true.”

“The Sisterhood….” Adagio murmured, her world feeling as though it had fallen out from under her feet and that the world would not be the same again.

“The SIRENS are the serial killers.”

Zephyr Breeze opened his door. He looked as though he’d been drinking. “Saf, you know what time it is?”

“Yeah. It’s ten in the evening,” Saffron Masala said. Currently she was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, both of which hugged her body and showed off its curves. “I was going out for a run. Want to join me?”

“Why don’t you come inside? I’ll give you all the exercise you need.”

She gave him a lidded look. “And you’re married?”

He laughed. “I don’t know what the fuck you were thinking of. I was talking about Pilates. I brought my home set with me.”

“Oh,” she replied. “Well, not my style, anyway. I’m going jogging, and then I’ll hit the hay. We back on stakeout at eight?”

“Yeah, it’s horrific to get up that early in the morning, but I’ll manage,” he yawned. “Anyway, night.”

“Night,” she waved and went down the elevator before leaving the hotel. Passing the cars in the parking lot, she stopped briefly on the sidewalk in order to slip in her earbuds and put on her preferred music mix on her phone before she started jogging at a brisk pace. She’d driven around three of the blocks, and it measured roughly to about a half mile all around. There was a dark patch around the last corner where the streetlight was burnt out and it was around the side of a building that didn’t have lights, but this area was safe and as a precaution she had her service revolver with her. She would be fine.

So, armed with the music of Midnight Moondust – Saffron was a fan; she wasn’t afraid to admit it – she began her jog, with a wonderful workout in mind, one that would tire her enough for a good night’s sleep followed by a great day at work.

The only remains they would find of Agent Saffron Masala the following morning would be her headphones, a single shoe, and a tarot card…

…XI, Justice.

Author's Note

Things are getting a little worse....

August 11: Destroy Everything You Touch

In her bed, Sunset Shimmer tossed and turned.

Shimmer looked at the skyline of her homeland with horror: Paris burned. The City of Lights was alit with an inferno, and the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks were reduced to rubble or slag. As she walked the streets, she could see bodies strewn everywhere, innocent victims ground up in a charnel house only but one example of what she bore witness to. The very sky itself seemed to burn with volcanic hues of scarlet, orange and black.

What happened here? she thought, her jaw slack with horror.

Not knowing the answer, she continued to walk through the shattered streets and cindered alleyways, looking for something – anything – of a sign of life other than herself. Eventually she found herself at the steps of her school, the Lycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye. But like everything else she’d seen so far, it was a soot-stained shell, the wood and glass seared away, leaving a battered shell of bricks…

…and in the center of what was the school’s lobby, four bodies. Three had been stripped of their attire, then crucified, brutally murdered and slapped up on seared wooden beams in cruel mockery of Christ. The fourth one was just before it, a body laid before a dark symbol of her nation’s past: a guillotine, having been used.

Shimmer looked up and gasped in horror: there, stripped before the world and murdered, were her best friends: Night Lily, Beachcomber and Priceless. Their deaths had been painful, and additionally, Beachcomber’s throat had been slit as her lifeblood poured out over her naked body.

Shimmer scrambled back, instinctively, running into the guillotine. Her eyes were instinctively drawn to the bloodied blade, then to the basket, where she saw the head within.

She screamed as she saw the decapitated remnants of her mother, Solaire, her lilac eyes staring with a blank horror into eternity.

Shimmer screamed, unable to move and transfixed by the murder of those closest to her, only stopping when she heard cruel laughter behind her.

Soon, a voice familiar to her whispered.

She then felt a searing sensation as her clothing exploded away from her. She felt her arms wrenched towards the back and bit of a scream as she, too, was nailed to a wooden beam.

And as a strange figure approached her, she heard the laughter once more, followed by a statement. I am coming, and you cannot stop me.

The last thing Shimmer heard was the mocking laughter as cruel implements gored her from her neck to her groin.

In her bed, Sunset Shimmer tossed and turned.

Sunset looked at the skyline of her birth home with horror. Canterlot burned. The capital of the world was alit with green spellfire, as the parapets and spires of the white skyline were reduced to rubble or slag. As she walked the streets, she could see bodies strewn everywhere, innocent victims ground up in a charnel house. The very sky itself seemed to burn with volcanic hues of scarlet, orange and black.

What happened here? she thought, her jaw slack with horror.

Not knowing the answer, she continued to walk through the shattered streets and cindered alleyways, looking for something – anything – of a sign of life other than herself. Eventually she found herself at the front gates of Canterlot Palace, seeing everything burned as if the world had been turned to cinders by Princess Celestia’s power. The castle was now nothing more than a soot-stained shell, the wood and glass seared away, leaving a battered pile of bricks…

…and in the center of what was the foyer, countless bodies. Ponies she knew as friends – those of Princess Twilight’s court – were cruelly stabbed with spears, as if they were animals that had been hunted to death. Behind them were her best friends, their human counterparts, and Sunset screamed at what had been done to them. She rushed to their sides, looking for signs of life…but found none.

Sunset went wild eyed looking at those she cared about, slaughtered. In the distance, she heard laughter, cruel and mocking.

The human called cyan spellfire to her hands. “YOU JUST MADE A BIG MISTAKE!” she screamed in the direction of the laughter, rushing forward and ready to deal some damage. She’d been taught magical combat by the finest of guards and was the former prodigy and surrogate daughter of the Princess of All. She would have her revenge.

Sunset followed the laughter through the blackened halls of the castle, throwing fireballs. Along the way she’d summoned an auto rifle and a part of her made her think that she probably looked like Daring Do did during the worst parts of the Tomb Raider remake videogame that she’d just bought. But this was worse, so much worse.

Finally, she reached the darkened remains of what used to be her rooms within the palace. The laughter came from within, and Sunset answered by pulling the trigger, letting a spray of bullets rocket forth, where they disappeared into the inky blackness – and nothing more. Figuring conventional weapons weren’t enough, she dropped the rifle and resummoned her magic, eyes ablaze with power and ready to fight for the sake of those she loved.

What she found shocked her once more. In the middle of her bedroom, impaled on a dizzying array of spikes, crucifixes and various horrific elements, was her family – both families. She found herself frozen in shock, looking at the remains of both her mothers, who had been….
Sunset turned and vomited, unable to take the shock. Everyone she loved, everyone she knew, had been horrifically murdered and, in the case of Princess Celestia and Twilight Velvet…. Sunset forced herself not to think of it.

You could have died for them, a voice said in a sing-song tone.

“COME OUT!” Sunset ordered, forcing herself back to her feet as her body ignited with an aura of spell fire. “I AM THE ARCHMAGUS OF EQUESTRIA, AND THERE WILL BE JUSTICE SERVED!”

There is no such thing as justice, the voice said and threw something at her. Sunset saw what it was, and forced herself to focus on the direction of the voice as the decapitated head of Princess Twilight flew past her.

“OUT NOW! I WILL NOT SAY IT AGAIN!” Sunset demanded as her aura grew to the power of a star.

The voice laughed. If you insist.

A figure stepped out of the darkness – and out of Sunset’s worst nightmares. Wearing an outfit that left nothing to the imagination, with deep purple bat wings and coronas of dark light around her eyes, Twilight came forth, dragging the dead corpse of their cousin, Octavia.

Twilight kissed the dead body, then threw it down. You ruined my fun, she said with a giggle.

“Twily?” Sunset murmured, shocked. “What?”

Will you die for me, sister? Twilight said as she sauntered forward, the thin leather straps she wore accentuating her body in ways Sunset never thought her sister capable of. Or will you continue to lie to me?

Sister got within mere fractions of an inch from sister.

“Twily? Why?” Sunset asked.

Because you need to pay, Twilight said, producing a knife.

The last thing the former unicorn felt was being stabbed in the heart.

Shimmer woke up with a start. She was sweating bullets, her clothing soaked and despite the summer warmth, she shivered.

Bordel de merde! she thought. Qu’est-ce que c’était? She hugged herself for security and an attempt to warm herself. Jesus, get a hold of yourself, Shimmy! You’ll be fine, just a dream…. Writing her bed off as a loss, she changed into new sleepwear and went to go crash on the couch.

She didn’t sleep well for the remainder of the night.

Sunset woke up with a start. She was sweating bullets, her clothing soaked and despite the summer warmth, she shivered.

What the fuck? she thought. What the hell was that? She hugged herself for security and an attempt to warm herself. Christ, get a hold of yourself, Sunny! You’ll be fine, just a dream…. Not wanting to deal with stepping out of her room, Sunset quickly cast a drying spell, cleaning up both her bed and her sleepwear, then crawled back under the sheets.

She didn’t sleep well for the remainder of the night.

Sunset strolled down the stairs, feeling like the waking dead. She was tempted to cast a rejuvenation spell, but with others in the house likely awake now, it didn’t seem like it would be a good idea. So instead, she threw herself in the shower, then got dressed and came out, hair bunched up in a towel and yawning.

“Heya, Sunny. Boy, did you mess up,” Spike said.

“Yeah, good morning to you too, squirt,” Sunset replied as she met him at the stairs. “What’s up?”

“Did you and Twily have a fight? Because she told me this morning that she wanted me to use up all the hot water.”

Sunset groaned; only her sister would think of something so petty, given that she’d admitted once to doing it a couple of years back when she and Octavia had been arguing.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t do it,” he whispered. “Mom would kill me if I did.”

She mussed his hair. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” she said with a grateful smile.

The two went downstairs, where Twilight was seated at the table with Velvet. There was a noticeable frigidity to the younger girl, a stiffness that she’d never seen in her sister before, Sunset noted. Even during the week that Twilight hadn’t spoken to her it hadn’t been this bad; the plum-haired scholar’s body language had strongly indicated that she wanted the argument to end, but was waiting for Sunset to make the first move. Not this time, however: Twilight’s ramrod posture made it clear that whatever had come between them still hadn’t cleared.

“Good morning, you two,” Velvet said as she looked at her other children.

“Good morning, Spike,” Twilight said in an overly-saccharine tone, clearly meant to be mocking. She did not, however, acknowledge the flame-haired girl in any way.

“Twily….” Sunset began.

“I’m sorry, did anyone hear the sound of pants on fire?” Twilight said idly. “I thought I’d heard denim aflame, but it must have just been me.” She then turned back to her mother. “So, is Tavi going to be out of the hospital today? It’d be nice to have an older sister-type that I can rely on. Not that I apparently seem to know what that is.”

Velvet briefly considered correcting her daughter, but decided that a peaceful breakfast was more valuable at the moment. “I don’t know. I took the day off in case I need to head over there, but it’s going to be a long day for me otherwise.” She turned to her older daughter. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to come with me. I’m sure Tavi would appreciate a familiar face after being cooped up all night in the hospital.”

“Sure thing,” Sunset said. “Since I don’t have to work today, I should be good to go.”

“And what about you, Twilight?” Velvet asked.

“No, I have things to do,” she said in a tone that indicated she really did have things to do. “You and the Fabulist should be fine.” She got up from the table, her breakfast half-eaten. “I need to get going, Mom. Give Tavi my love and I’ll see you later.” She went over and kissed Velvet on the cheek, then mussed with Spike’s hair…before completely leaving Sunset alone.

Sunset sighed. “I….” She slumped in her chair.

Velvet gave her older daughter a sympathetic look. “Give it time. You know Twily’s sensitive about things like that, and she looks up to you, so for you to turn on her, real or otherwise, hurts her immensely. Although….” Velvet paused her statement by taking a drink from her coffee before continuing with, “I would like to actually know if you are lying to your sister about something.”

“Et tu, Brute?”

“I’m glad to see you’re paying attention to your education more, but that’s not going to cut it with me, Sunny, and you know it.”

Sunset looked genuinely hurt. “Do you actually think I would lie about something like that, Mom?”

Velvet nodded. “Yes, actually, I think you would.” Seeing the crestfallen look on her daughter, Velvet added, “Sunny, people don’t change overnight. While I’m proud of the strides you’ve made, you are still quite capable of things that no girl your age should be able to do. And while I don’t think that you lied to Twily intentionally, you may have done so to protect her. But she inherited her sense of sniffing out the truth from your father’s side of the family. She suspects something is afoot even if I don’t think you meant to hurt her.”

Sunset sat for a few minutes in silence before she said, “The handwriting…it’s not based on Twily’s. At the start of last year, just before my, ah, epiphany, we had an exchange student come to our school, some girl from Paragon City by the name of Purple Smart. I got into a fight with her for the week she was here, and I did just about anything to get her in trouble. I found a handwritten report from her to one of our teachers, and I copied it; learned to copy her handwriting from that. From there, I got the idea to leave notes that she was sleeping with Mr. Tofu, the technology teacher. Anyway, it didn’t work, I left and she helped Rarity embarrass me for the title of Princess of the Homecoming Dance. It didn’t come up again until the subject that Ms. Luna taught and I needed some handwriting that didn’t look like the others, so I used hers. I honestly didn’t know it’d be an exact copy of Twily’s writing, Mom, honest.”

The look on Velvet’s face was both horrified and understanding at the same time. “So, let me get this straight: you tried to frame both a student and a teacher for something that would have gotten the student sent back in disgrace and the teacher fired if not on charges for statutory?”

“Not one of my better ideas,” Sunset said with some embarrassment. “Plus, Ms. Celestia informed me that I wasn’t the first to do that, so Mr. Tofu was used to it.”

“Sunny, I’m honestly glad this is water under the bridge, or else that would have seriously put a hamper on the adoption.” Sunset looked as though she’d been slapped, but Velvet stood firm. “I am, however, glad that you told me this. Let me verify it with Tia and then I can talk to Twily. It may take a few days, though, given that Tia’s too tied up with that boyfriend of hers as of late.”

Sunset blinked. “Ms. Celestia’s dating?”

“Yeah – color me surprised even more than you,” Velvet laughed as she looked at the time on her phone. “Anyway, we should get going soon. Spike, if you want to go visit a friend, tell Twily first, okay?”

The best thing that Vesper and Madrigal could say was that the new place the triplets and the other two SIRENs had moved into was substandard, to say the least. It was one of the abandoned buildings in Sunnytown, across the street from Sunnytown High and in one of the better neighborhoods in the city – if any neighborhood in Sunnytown could be “better” than the other – but with the aftermath of the hurricane, most people were shying away from this location. Still, the building had power and the water hadn’t been gunked up by the system, so they were looking good.

As she walked in, the two newcomers stood at attention, dropping the books they had been reading and rendered salutes. “Good morning, ma’am!” they said in unison, then realized their three subordinates weren’t moving at all.

Vesper laughed. “At ease – our sœurs know we don’t stand on ceremony, and I’d rather see results than a perfect salute. Besides, we’re special forces – we leave the polished crap to the regular sailors.” She went over and shook hands with the duo. “I’m Lt. Vesper Blue, but you can just call me Vesper.” She hooked a thumb at her counterpart, adding, “And my partner here’s Lt. Madrigal Storm.”

Madrigal extended her hand as well. “Just call me Maddy. Welcome to our little insurrection.”

Sunny Side nodded. “Given what we saw Wine turn into, I don’t think there’s anything little about it.”

Evergreen Pine nodded. “If anything, I think we’re on a quest to save the world, as cheesy as that sounds. If what Sonata was unable to unearth on that flash drive is even remotely true, well, we have a duty to stop it. Not just because we’re SIRENs…but because we’re people.”

“Well said, sis,” Side told her, and Evergreen blushed.

Madrigal patted the girl on the shoulder and went over to Sonata. “Okay, Soni, what’ve you got? What you said over the phone sounds a little far-fetched….”

Sonata pointed to one of the laptops, where a sniper scope was attached via USB. “Just finished downloading the images from Ari’s scope camera.” She handed the laptop over to the older woman, saying, “Watch for yourself.”

Madrigal and Vesper watched the transformation on the video, their faces becoming frozen masks of shock. “This…this is real?” Vesper blurted.

“Yeah, and it’s a good thing I was using an armor-piercing round,” Aria said as she approached her sœur. “We would’ve been in serious trouble, otherwise.”

“I can believe it. Anyway, what else have you found?”

“Project ARACHNE, whatever it is, has mostly been completed,” Sonata said. “The attacks are ritualistic, each based on a series of indicators, though I’m not sure of how, just yet – that might take some intelligence analysis, though the other names might be moot at that point—”

“No – we find that pattern,” Adagio snarled at Sonata, enough to make the younger triplet wince. “They nearly killed Rainbow! That list you just uncovered for Justice? TWILY WAS ON THAT!” Adagio slumped in her chair. “She could be dead, for all we know, killed by our own!

Turning back to her computer, Sonata said, “I know. And that’s why I’m risking everything to get the rest of these subfolders cracked, sis! Do you think I want our friends out of the line of fire?”

Vesper and Madrigal looked at each other, and both nodded at once. “Sides, come here, if you would.” The trio walked a slight distance away from the others and Madrigal said, “We’re going to give you a list. You need to make sure that the girls on this list are safe.” Vesper held out her phone, and gestured for Side to do the same.

The blonde passed the officer her phone and said, “Normally I’d say this isn’t regulation, but there’s nothing really regulation about any of this. I take it the triplets know these girls?”

“We were part of the advance team, so the triplets were here long enough to become close friends with them,” Vesper explained. “From an operational standpoint, I’d be concerned that this would degrade their performance. But I’m not going to say any bullshit like that. The fact is that these eight are defenseless girls, and while a few of them might be able to fight, fighting doesn’t mean shit against a bullet, much less what Cantata’s throwing at them.”

Madrigal nodded. “As you can see, we care about our sœurs more than just as junior personnel.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Side said, waving it off. “Greenie and I were raised by our sœurs as sisters, so that’s what we are. Truth is, our sœurs were lovers, so they acted more like parents to us than trainers. So you don’t have to explain a thing to me. I’ll check it out and make sure they’re safe, I promise.” With that, she headed out, following the list.

As Side left, Madrigal turned to the remainder. “What else do we have?”

Evergreen looked up from the computer she’d sat by. “Whatever this shit is for, the ARACHNE part of the mission is being covered fairly well. The media believes it’s a copycat from some murders back in the 1980s. Unsolved set of murders in Los Angeles.”

“Maybe not as unsolved as we think,” Sonata said, peering at her screen. “Guess who went to university back then?” She turned her laptop. “Prince Divine was a student at the University of Southern California back during the murders. He was studying – get this – human psychology, and also had a minor in mythology.”

“Great, so we’re dealing with a psychopath who’s been doing this shit before and is doing it again.”

“No proof of that,” Aria said as she looked at her computer. “They never found a suspect.”

Sitting on her bed, Adagio stewed in her juices. “And with the kind of person the Prince is, he’s kinda too high-profile to get away with that kind of stuff.” She got up and started to pace, a grim look on her face. “Anything else we can find out about that timeframe?”

Vesper went over to Adagio and patted her on the shoulder. “Unless you changed your name to Billionaire Playboy and had a sex change we don’t know about, you can drop the Batman schtick, Dagi. This is real life.”

“Yeah, I know. But our friends—”

“Will be fine,” Madrigal told them. “We just sent Sides to check on their status. But assuming they’re okay, the only way we can keep them okay is if we find out who the next victim is, and what their methodology is.”

Evergreen groaned. “This is the shit for the cops. We’re not police, for fuck’s sake.” To her surprise, Sonata punched her in the shoulder. “What the fuck, Soni?”

The look on Sonata’s face as somewhere between tired and angry. “We may not be the police,” she seethed, “but that means that when we finally put a stop to this, we don’t have to worry about a trial, either.”

“All I need is a verdict of one round right between Cantata’s fucking eyes,” Vesper said. None in the room could argue with that.

“This is getting way out of hand,” Badge said to nobody in particular.

Seated across from him, Agent Zephyr Breeze, Diplomatic Security Service looked bleak. He was actually in a suit for a change and was desperate enough that he actually shaved. “Look, I don’t know what the hell you guys are doing about whatever the fuck is going on, but my job is to protect a couple of high-profile visitors in the area. And now my partner is missing and you guys are telling me that there’s a fucking serial killer in town that might have put her down?”

A statuesque blonde with tanned skin and blue eyes looked at the man. “Look, Agent Breeze—”

“No, you look, you stuck up FBI paper-pusher,” Breeze barked. “Saf’s parents asked me to keep an eye on her while we were doing babysitting duty up in Seattle. Now what the hell am I supposed to tell them? Sure, I could lie and say that Saf lost her life protecting her charges, but we both know that isn’t the case and once the media vultures find out that a DSS agent is missing and presumed dead at the hands of this Handy Dead Guy—”

“Dead Hand Murderer,” the woman replied.

“What the fuck ever, Miss Chatterbox. Tell me, did you get this assignment by bending over or spreading your legs?” The girl gasped.

“Agent Breeze, I can get that you’re angry and frustrated,” Badge told him, “but Agent Trinary Star just flew in from LA this morning and she’s playing catchup as well, so there’s no need to get on her case.”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Sorry. Anyway, I’ve asked the Princess to stay put for the moment while I find out what happened to Agent Masala. But that won’t last long. I’ve already got someone flying in as well, but I want Saf found alive and well, got that?”

Shining Armor, who had been quiet all this time, gave the DSS agent a nod. “We’re working on it.”

“Work on it faster,” Breeze seethed.

After the meeting ended, Shining and Star got in the car and headed off. “First stop is Everfree Glades. Need to talk to the parents of those two dead girls.”

“That’d be Lavender Blush and Fuchsia Lace, right?”

“Lavender Lace and Fuchsia Blush, actually. HBPD found them in an, um….” Shining reached into his jacket pocket and handed the photos to her. “You’ll see.”

Star looked at the photos, then back at him. “Yeah, I can see how this can affect someone,” she replied, setting them on the dashboard. “Hope we don’t have to show them to their parents.”

Shining looked at her as if she’d grown a third eye. “You’re not bothered by them?”

“No, I’m not. Remember, I work LA, where some fresh-faced kids come from the Midwest, thinking they’re going to hit the big time as an actor – and boom! Next thing you know, you’re finding what’s left of them after they ‘inadvertently starred’ in a snuff film.” She fixed soulful blue eyes on him. “So how’s Sandy doing?”

“Sandy? As in Sandalwood?”

“Yeah. Badge said you knew her. She and I spent some time in the Navy, though I was intel and she was MP. I got out, got offered a position with the Feds. I offered to get her an in, but she said she wanted to go back home – had something important she had to do here.”

“Well, can’t tell you what that is, since I don’t know, but I do know Sandy. We grew up together, and she and my wife are best friends. Why?”

“Sandy, you Goddamn idiot,” Star muttered under her breath. “Now I know what it is. Or who.”

“You say something, Star?”

She shook her head. “No, nothing – I guess I’d better get on my research. The FBI doesn’t pay for my specialty for nothing, after all.”

“Specialty?”

“Yeah – I’m the LA Division’s specialist at occult-based cases. And in case you haven’t noticed, this has occult written all over it.”

“DAMMIT!” Divine swept the equipment and papers off his desk a second before upturning that himself. “We’re so damn close,” he seethed. “So damn close!” He’d been in a rage for the past few minutes, and Cantata, taking a rare day off from her duties, wasn’t about to let her insignificant other continue to throw a temper tantrum and have it affect her. At the moment, she was seated in a plush chair they’d appropriated for their bedroom, and she was reading a book, and dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt, the first time in a while she’d been out of her uniform.

Still, if she was going to get what she wanted, it meant she had to pay at least a modicum of attention to him. “So close to what?” Cantata asked him, closing the book she’d been reading.

“The fog,” he muttered, “that God-forsaken fog that happens whenever….” She looked at him oddly and he explained. “I’ve been using so much power that I’ve temporarily exhausted it, and it feels like everything mystical is hazy to me, hence my term.”

She got up and went over to him, putting her arms around him. Men were so easy to figure out, after all, and Cantata had him decrypted practically from day one. “Maybe you should take a day off? We could do other things, you know? Maybe you should take your queen-to-be out on a date? I do so love French food, and isn’t there a place in San Palomino?” She reached over and kissed him. “Trust me, making me happy will be very worth your while.”

He gave her a wan smile, one she knew wasn’t real. “Alas, I cannot rest! We’re so close and in a few days the Harmonic Convergence will be here and if I don’t do it then I’ll have to wait another thirty years – and I doubt either you or I wish to wait that long!”

“Harmonic convergence?” Cantata asked. “Didn’t that happen ages ago? I was on an op at the time, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the news, admittedly.”

“There are many kinds of convergences,” the prince said, “and each of them fulfill a different magical purpose. You’re clearly thinking of the one where the planets were entirely in alignment, in a straight row, like a gaggle of schoolchildren. And while yes, that one serves a mystical purpose, there are other kinds, that do as well. The one coming up in a few days is a mandala formation, and these are perfect for summons.”

“Mandala formation?”

Divine walked over to a whiteboard he hadn’t knocked over in his tantrum. Picking up a marker, he started to draw.

“Now do you get it?” he asked.

“Um…sure,” she said, still not understanding a thing. Granted, she didn’t really believe magic existed until she met him, and so far, he’d done things she’d never thought possible. But that didn’t mean that there was any kind of information she had on mystical warfare, and though she was trying to pick things up as quickly as she could – it would not do for the future queen of the world to be lacking in any form, after all – it didn’t mean she could.

Divine groaned. “There! And there!” he shouted at her, eyes filled with anger. “How can you be so blind?”

She frowned. “Let’s get something straight, Divine: I will be your wife, but I am no pushover. In case you haven’t forgotten, I’m a soldier and that means I can break you in half without a sweat – and all those ladies you’re turning into monsters? They work for me. So don’t ever raise your voice at me again, are we clear?”

A strange look came over the prince’s face, and inwardly, Cantata prepared for anything. Would he snap? Would he apologize – probably not that, given that she knew he could be a massive dick at times. Would he attack her? She would put him down, sure, but then she wouldn’t have access to his wealth and other things – as much as she hated to admit it, she needed him as much as he needed her. She wasn’t sleeping with him just because she enjoyed it.

Well, not entirely, in any case.

He walked away from her and plopped in the chair. “I need to rest. You’re right. I need to conserve what little power I have left before the Convergence occurs. It will likely come to me in an insight, anyway. Tell the Black Team to capture the last two girls on their list. After that, they can take a few days off, but be ready at a moment’s notice. We will need to work quickly.”

“Sure,” she said, glad that the whole thing deescalated without him losing his cool – or without her having to hurt him. “Anything else?”

“Yes.” He handed her a wad of cash. “Find yourself a decent dress tonight. I’ll make reservations at that restaurant, and we can have a night of dinner and dancing – a way to celebrate our inevitable victory.” He gave her a smile, a genuine one this time, she could tell.

“That sounds lovely,” she said, giving him a kiss – also a genuine one – and walked off to take care of her business.

She would learn to love him in time, she was pretty sure. After all, it was her divine right.

As she departed, Divine gave himself a wry smile. He knew he pushed it with her, and he knew that she was more than capable of following through with her threats. Fortunately, he was smarter than her, commander of his forces or no. After all, she was just a woman and like any woman, all you had to do was to show them a bit of attention and they instantly got weak in the knees. Even a woman like Cantata Blast was no exception.

But for now, he had bigger fish to fry. He had to start his meditations soon – that would help to boost his power just enough to make it through the days, and make it through he must. There was too much riding on his success, and failure would be an utter disaster.

But he knew he would win, in the end.

It was, after all, his divine right.

“Wow, Flutters, this is an amazing place,” Twilight said as she entered the penthouse where Fluttershy and her family were living.

The chiffon-haired girl brushed it off. “Oh, it’s really nothing, Twily,” she said with a smile. “I’ve had to get used to it for a while, since Dad says it’s going to be a bit until the new house is built. As it is, I feel guilty about having all my friends have to go through the hotel’s lobby just to get up here.”

Twilight gave her friend a smile. “It’s not a problem, really. If anything, it’s kind of interesting.”

“It’s an interesting I could do without, especially now that it’s public knowledge of who I am,” she said with a blush.

“So are the rest here?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Rainbow just arrived a few minutes ago, so everyone’s here except for Sunny and Tavi. Are you sure they’re not going to make it?”

“Positive – I’ll explain later,” Twilight demurred. “Should I just go and meet everyone in the living room?”

“Please – I’m getting snacks and drinks. Rarity’s setting up everything. Go ahead and I’ll join you all shortly.”

Twilight nodded, walking towards the living room. A part of her felt that doing this was wrong, that these were Sunset’s friends and they weren’t likely to believe Twilight’s story that she thought her sister was hiding something from her. Then again, they could honestly overreact, and that would put Sunset in a worse position.

A position she put herself in by lying to me, Twilight recalled. A position that I don’t want her to be in, but she has to learn her lesson! How is she going to learn anything about trusting us if she keeps lying?

As the plum-haired scholar entered the living room, she could see her friends gathered there. “Sup?” Rainbow asked.

“Hey, sugarcube, you okay?” Applejack asked. As she said it, everyone turned to see Twilight and her sober face. “It’s not about Tavi, is it?”

“It’s not, but I’d rather talk about it when everyone’s here,” Twilight responded.

“Well, I’m back,” Fluttershy said, carrying a tray of various sodas, chips and cookies.

With the usual Pinkiness that was Pinkie, she seemed to flit from her chair to the cookies back to her chair in less than a second, taking the next second to inhale several of them. “Dese ah gub!” Pinkie blurted between bites.

“Pinkie dear, don’t talk with your mouth full, if you please,” Rarity told her.

“Dad made them,” Fluttershy explained as she set the tray down on the table. “He’s really enjoying the time being a husband and a father. He told the rest of the band to take a year off to work on solo projects. I think he’s happier now. I know I am.” She looked at Twilight. “Anyway, we’re all here now, Twily, so go ahead.”

“First, no matter what I tell you girls, will you still be my friends when all of this is said and done?”

“Absolutely!” Pinkie chirped. “Friends always have each other’s’ backs!” She bounced out of her seat and over to Twilight. “So tell us what’s on your mind!”

“I think…I think Sunny’s lying to me about something, something big,” Twilight said. “I found these in her room,” she told them as she handed over the letters. “I understand that it’s part of a school assignment, but I don’t think that there’s anything that would allow her to copy your handwriting, would it?”

The girls looked at the letters, then at each other in mixtures of confusion and misunderstanding. “Yes, this is our handwriting,” Fluttershy began, “at least this one is mine.”

“Mine too,” Applejack said, holding up the letter.

“Mine three!” Pinkie chirped, holding the letter in different directions, as if trying to read it from the side, upside down, and from the back. “But I don’t know why I would call Auntie Cup and Uncle Carrot ‘Mr. and Mrs. Cake.’ Sure, that’s their second names, but that’s like I’m not related or anything! Weird.”

“Well…I’m…um…not sure what to say about this, Twilight, dear. Would you be so kind as to give us a couple of minutes?”

“Sure, I’ll go get us some soda reloads,” Twilight offered, and headed towards the direction of the kitchen. As she did, she began to hear the low buzz of people whispering to each other, and she wasn’t sure about how to feel in regards to that. She felt elated telling them about it, but again, this could seriously hurt her sister’s standing with her friends, and from what Sunset understood, up until fairly recently these were the only friends that the flame-haired girl had. Was she doing the right thing? Did it make any sense?

Would I forgive my sister for this?

After a couple of minutes, she came back in with the tray. Her friends looked back at her with strange glances, and Twilight was unable to read them.

“I, er, know this looks strange, dear,” Rarity began.

“Strange? These are perfect copies of our handwriting, Rarity!” Twilight said. “Aren’t you worried?”

“Yeah, it does look odd, Twily, Ah’ll admit that,” Applejack said, though from the completion of her statement there was a huge indicator that she wasn’t going to say anything further.

Fluttershy took it from there. “I know this look odd, Twily, but you have to trust Sunny. We do, even after looking at this.”

“Rainbow?” Twilight pled, hoping for some sanity.

“The day she approached us and said she wanted to change, you should’ve seen the look in her eyes. There’s no faking that. So I believe in her, and I know if the situation was reversed, she’d do the same.”

“Pinkie?”

“She's your sister, Twily. What are you accusing her of?” Pinkie was abnormally serious at that point, and Twilight swore she could see Pinkie’s hair starting to straighten. “She loves you and would do anything to protect you. She has protected you, or have you forgotten that?”

“No, I haven’t.” A guilty look crept up onto Twilight’s face. “But I don’t like the fact that she’s lying to me about something, girls. She’s my sister and part of my family. She has to let go of whatever her past is, because she’s with us now and it’s never going to come back again! I won’t let it!” Tears started to crawl down Twilight’s cheeks. “When she first came to live with us, she was so standoffish, because she was afraid as she got closer to us, her past would haunt her. But it’s just that: the past, right? When she lied to me – it felt like that all over again.”

“Twilight….” Rarity murmured, approaching the distraught girl. “It’s not like that.”

“Yeah, sugarcube, it is,” Applejack said. The room suddenly fell silent as the other girls save for Twilight looked at Applejack with utter shock. Applejack continued to look at Twilight. “Twily, Ah can say without a doubt that Ah’ve never told a lie in mah life, even when Ah sorely wanted to. Hell, even when it was probably better that Ah did tell a lie, Ah never did. It’s never sat right with me. So Ah tell you this true: Sunny is lyin’ to you. And yes, we know why.”

“AJ, what the fuck?” Rainbow said, but Applejack turned to glare at her. Rainbow glared back for a second and then finally nodded, breaking the deadlock. She turned to Twilight and added, “You know me. Loyal to anyone who’s got my back, and I know Sunny’s got my back, so I got hers. And yes, AJ’s telling the truth: Sunny’s lying to you. But there’s a good reason for it.”

“Wait – you’re telling me you all know?” The five others nodded in unison, and Twilight looked at them, anger creeping up on her face. “And you were going to tell me this, when?”

“Never!” Pinkie said, as her hair poofed back into place. “Twily…you’re not ready for this, and it’s not our place to say. Trust me, everyone has a secret they want to keep from their loved ones. I’m sure you do, too.”

“Not really. I’m not one to keep secrets from my family,” Twilight grunted.

Rarity stepped in. “But you see, Twilight dear, while that is your personal stance, not everyone has that same kind of reaction. And you know that Sunset would tell you – tell all of you – if you were ready. This is not something that should be discussed easily.”

“Oh, please, what, like my sister’s actually an adult in her thirties or something?” Twilight commented, looking down to spear a chip in the onion dip and thankfully missing the surprised looks of the others. As she looked back up and the girls recomposed themselves, Twilight continued. “What, is it that she was sexually abused as a child? Or she’s the daughter of an incestuous relationship? Or that she even had a child of her own?”

The room was filled with silence again. Rarity looked uncomfortable, as did Applejack. Rainbow said nothing. Fluttershy had a contemplative look on her face, but for some reason Pinkie had a hurt and angry glare to answer Twilight with, but it was quickly gone before the plum-haired teen could ask further.

“No, no, and no,” Fluttershy finally said, “and that’s a clear indicator that I need to stop lending you some of my manga.” Everyone looked at her and she shrugged. “What, you thought that Rainbow was the only one who read my scanslations?”

Rarity just shook her head and tried to steer the conversation back on track. “Be that as it may, dear, the fact is that Sunset told us in confidence, and we are honor bound to that confidence. You wouldn’t want us to break a promise, would you?”

“Yeah, no shit, Rares,” Rainbow added. “Breaking a promise is the fastest way of fucking up a friendship—”

“Foreeeeeeee~ver!” Pinkie suddenly said behind Twilight and she jumped in fright. “Don’t mind me, just wanted some Doritos!” She quickly grabbed the bag and virtually teleported back to her seat.

Twilight sat there for the longest time, digesting her friends’ words. Whatever Sunset had told them, it was clearly in confidence, and she wasn’t ready to tell her family yet. Yet they knew it and still trusted her completely and utterly, even if it could, in theory, be bad. Would she ever tell them? Was it even Twilight’s business to know? And could it be changed if the secret got out?

I don’t know, Twilight thought to herself. She loved Sunny dearly, but was also completely bothered by the lack of truth. Twilight was a woman of science, and science meant seeking the truth out, even if it was uncomfortable or shattered taboos. But if I do that…will I shatter my own sister?

As the rest of the conversation went on and they talked about their upcoming trip in a couple of days, Twilight couldn’t really answer what the question was, much less even know what the question entailed. She only knew that it was unintentionally driving a wedge between her and Sunset – and that she couldn’t quite forgive her sister until she knew the truth, whatever it was.

She could only hope that Sunset would forgive her when Twilight eventually found out.

The psychologist in question spoke to Velvet behind a closed door that had enough sound padding that Sunset, even with her pony hearing couldn’t make out clear sounds in the least. Part of her wanted to use a spell to get around it, but she was sure that her mother would tell her what was going on. They’d probably call a family meeting for it.

“Sunny?” A soft voice called out to her and the teen turned around. There, seated in a chair and looking far frailer than she’d ever had since the day they met, was Octavia. She was practically a shell of herself now, making Fluttershy look like a gangster in terms of forwardness. Sunset suddenly remembered somepony she’d known from the earliest days when she had to attend the Guild Academy, a filly by the name of Daisy Gloriosa. She hadn’t adjusted well to moving away from her parents, who lived in the Scoltish village of Ivory Cliffside, and from the looks of it, she was meek and shy to begin with. While it had been before Sunset had started her turn for the worse, she wasn’t exactly a friend of Gloriosa’s and looking back on it, maybe she should have been – it would have saved the filly from making the mistake she had in transfiguration class.

They had been working with simple amniomorphic spells, nothing that would affect their person, but to change apples to oranges, as the saying went. It was a class that Sunset had no problem in, much to the surprise of her peers and her professors. Gloriosa, wanting to prove that she could do it, tried to change a stack of pencils on their professor’s desk into a bonsai tree. Instead, she changed it into quickvine, and the plant all but exploded, swallowing the building in seconds. Sunset had heard of plants in Japan, kuzu, and their invasive variant, the kudzu, which was known as the “vine that ate the South.” Quickvine made kudzu look lethargic in comparison, so much so that you could practically hear the growing as it happened, and as it started to practically inhale the building everypony was trapped inside.

Nopony had been hurt in the incident, but Gloriosa was so shaken that the next day her older brother, Timber Spruce, a member of the Solar Guard, came to take her back to their hometown. The day after, Celestia had told the students that Gloriosa’s parents had withdrawn her from the school, and that she would instead attend a school in Glasscow, the provincial capital of Scoltland. Sunset never saw the filly again, but also never forgot the look on her face as they fished her out of the sea of tentacle-like vines. The look back then had been akin to If something doesn’t break me, I’m so fragile I might just break myself, and to this day she could still picture the face of the forlorn filly.

Will you die for me? a voice in the back of Sunset’s head said, and she shook it, wondering where that came from. Then she looked at her cousin again and saw Daisy Gloriosa once more, in spirit if not literally. “I’m here,” she said to Octavia, moving to sit next to her. The moment she did, the raven-haired musician turned to bury herself in Sunset’s bosom, bawling. Sunset hugged her close, saying, “I’m here, Tavi. I’m here with you.”

“I’m so afraid, Sunny,” she cried. “There’s something destructive in me, something that wants to wantonly destroy and hurt things. I hurt you, Aunt Velvet, Fluttershy’s mom, so many. And I feel like I’m barely in control, right now.”

“Tavi, listen to me. We’re going to get you help, I promise. Mom’s speaking to the doctor right now and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure you’re well. And I’ll be here every step of the way – you have my word.”

Octavia didn’t move from her spot, continuing to soak Sunset’s shirt. “But I could hurt you again! I nearly hospitalized you last time, and I stabbed myself this time around! What if I do so much worse?”

“But you didn’t hospitalize me; I’m okay and running around. And you stabbed yourself to prevent hurting anyone else – that’s the cousin I know.” She pulled Octavia back so the two girls could look at each other, eye to eye. “I know you, Tavi. You were there for me, from the first day. Let me be there for you, too.”

“You mean like I wasn’t there for Twily when she was going through all this,” Octavia moaned. “That I left you both high and dry.”

“That’s not me, Tavi. I’m not leaving you hanging – none of us are. You have our family and our friends and we’re going to be there with you every step of the way. So don’t lose hope now, okay?”

The door opened, and the doctor looked at Octavia. “Octavia? Please come in. And you too, miss….”

“Sunset, my older daughter,” Velvet explained. “She should hear this as well.”

“Then please, come in as well.” The other two girls came in and took their seats, with Velvet standing behind them, putting her hands on each girl’s shoulders in comfort. “I’ve already introduced myself to Mrs. Velvet, but to you two ladies, I’m Dr. Feelgood, one of the junior psychiatrists on this staff. Unfortunately, due to recent events, I’m the only doctor in practice right now while the rest of our staff is assisting the medical needs in the worst-hit areas.” He went over and picked up a 3D mouse from his desk, and pointed it at a large screen in the room. “Octavia, the bloodwork results came back earlier today. You are not suffering from the same issues your cousin was earlier in the year.” He held up a thick folder with Twilight’s name on it. “That was a result of a LSD precursor in her body from the involuntary ingestion of Vibrasnopam, and while they did find traces in your blood of the drug as well, the study showed no long-term indicators of the precursor, which leads us to believe that it must be something else.”

“You mean that I’m insane,” Octavia said tonelessly. Sunset reached over and took Octavia’s hand while Velvet hugged her niece from behind.

“We don’t use that term, for obvious reasons,” Feelgood said with a smile. “After all, ‘insane’ pretty much nowadays means ‘crazy’ or ‘acting foolishly’, all of which have nothing to do with mental illness. No, Octavia, you are sick, and there’s no shame in that at all. And I assure you that we will do what we can to make you better.” He turned to face the rest of them and said, “Our preliminary diagnosis is that Octavia is suffering from dissociative identity disorder.”

“MPD?” Sunset asked.

“That’s the old name for it, yes,” the doctor said. “I assume you’re familiar with it?”

“I’ve read up on it a bit,” Sunset said. She had, in the days after her possession, if only to make sure that it wasn’t the deepest part of herself that had come out, and that she’d been taken over by some sort of malevolent spirit. To this day she wasn’t really sure, though she assumed that it had been the case; everything she’d found on Earth pointed that it was more common for people to be possessed than it was for them to become demons in their own right. It never made that fear go away, however.

Looking to Octavia, Feelgood explained, “Multiple personality disorder, like the name before it, split-personality disorder, doesn’t really capture what is going on. And I know there’s that old movie about the Sibyl case and that TV show on cable – The United States of Turnip – but the first was a case in the days when almost nothing was known about this malady, and the latter is just pure fiction. Even the earliest known cases have been reported more in fiction than in reality. But the truth is much different, Octavia.”

“How? Melody wants to kill my family, if not worse.” She remembered vaguely that she – no, Melody – tried to seduce her uncle, and Octavia shivered at the thought. The man was like a father to her, and Melody…. She closed her eyes as hard as she could, squeezing her hands tightly until she could feel her grip crushing Sunset’s fingers. “Sorry,” she said as Sunset pulled her fingers back, wincing.

“I’ll be okay, Tavi,” Sunset said.

“Doctor, please continue,” Velvet said.

“I don’t think that’s the case. From what your aunt told me, you have a very conflicted relationship with your parents, and your grandmother is trying to orchestrate conflict between you and your namesake cousins, just as she has done with her daughters, am I right?” Octavia nodded, and Feelgood smiled. “You are not the only one who has that sort of issue, you see. I was just reading in one of the medical journals about a boy in the UK with a similar case. They called him Kid A. He was the son of a nobleman whose father had passed away and the mother, sadly, was pitting her sons against each other to see who would take care of her in her dotage. Kid A apparently snapped and created a second pseudo-self that the journal referred to as Kid B. Kid A was a bright, conscientious and talented child. Kid B, while not exactly a hoodlum, had much looser mores, drank and got into fights. The whole thing came to a head when Kid A’s girlfriend saw his practical change and instead of leaving him when he did something foolish, worked to get him help. The end of it is that with the right treatment and counseling, Kid A was cured, and while the journal didn’t say whether or not he inherited his father’s estate, I believe he got something far more important out of it: peace of mind.

“As my discussion with your aunt has revealed, your life has always been turbulent and in many ways preordained. Even with the impending adoption of the young lady here, you feel like your place is being cut away from the family you were raised with, even though you know that’s not the case. Your parents are on the other side of the world, and you feel abandoned. And your grandmother has not been the nurturing matron that she should be, but instead an enemy trying to drive a wedge into her family, am I correct?” Octavia looked at him in shock, and he gave her a warm smile. “So it’s natural that your mind would assign a way for you to act out your impulses without harming those you love. And that part of your mind is Melody, rationalized by your uncommon medical condition – we checked both bloodtypes, for the record.”

“But Melody – and Uncle Night!” she blurted, her cheeks flaming.

Feelgood looked at Velvet. “Is there something I missed?”

Sunset reached over and took Octavia’s hand again. “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

Octavia nodded, acknowledging Sunset’s words, but continued anyway. “Melody tried to seduce my uncle. Came on strong. Wore clothing I didn’t even know I owned. And she destroyed my room there, and everything in it, including my musical instruments. The only thing she didn’t destroy, strangely enough, was the bass guitar that my cousins got me for last Christmas.”

“I see. Well, I would have to speak to your family further on this, but my ballpark guess is that your mind was compensating for a romantic relationship gone bad, and with the Melody part of your mind being the one demanding control, you were looking for someone who had traits that you see in your uncle, am I right?” Octavia looked down both in embarrassment and out of not being sure what to say.

“Then how can I fight her?” Octavia said, nearly sotto voce. “She lashed out at my aunt, Dr. Zecora and Dr. Posey. And I did something to Dr. Posey that I wouldn’t have done normally, I’m sure of it. She – Melody – she’s depraved. She’s not me. And I don’t want to be here.” Octavia sobbed, and Velvet reached over to embrace her niece once more.

“It will be a long journey, Octavia and it won’t be easy. And the journey starts in two weeks.”

“Two weeks?” Velvet asked.

“Yes. You asked for our best specialist, and she was also requested by Drs. Zecora and Posey. Unfortunately, as the senior medical specialist here, she’s also busy with the medical efforts in the hurricane-affected areas. However, I’m confident that her schedule should be open then. In the meanwhile, I’m going to prescribe 100mg of Malarson – it’s a vastly improved version of mesoridazine that’s very effective in potential cases of schizophrenia. It should keep things in check until your regular doctor can see you. However, there are some side effects that I should warn you about.”

“Side effects?” Octavia said in a soft voice.

Feelgood nodded. “Yes. You may feel lethargic for a few, and prone to some untimely behavior – I know that schizophrenia normally acts as such behavior, but Malarson has been very effective against cases of DID where one of the facets shows violent or aberrant behavior.”

“So you’re going to give Tavi a drug that is meant to stop her dark side – whose side effects essentially make her act out her worst impulses?” Sunset asked, astonished.

“Normally the chances are really small, and any side effects are felt in less than two percent of those taking it,” Feelgood assured them. “But the truth is, due to Octavia’s, ahem, ‘unique biology’, most drugs would not work well. Plus, there was a case in Australia where someone who was also a medical chimera took the drug for similar reasons and had a successful treatment, which is why I recommend this drug. I’m honestly not sure that anything else would work, given your two bloodstreams.”

“I see,” Octavia said, her voice the tone of a forsaken woman.

This is great! Lakefront stretched out after having set her campground by the shores of Lake Shasta. She’d be here for a few days, away from everyone and everything, and she was okay with that. With the hurricane having done serious damage to parts of the Canterlot Metro Area, it meant that no one would be looking for her for a while, which was perfectly fine with her – those she lived with weren’t likely to miss the camping equipment that she’d taken.

Lakefront looked at the late afternoon sky and sighed. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. If things had been different, she would still live with her parents in their house in Northside. But then there was the car accident last year, and suddenly she had to live with extended family, namely her aunt Crystal Dream and her uncle Pennywise over in Bella Vista. And she was very sure that they cared about her, or as much as they could given that she was a fifth wheel in a family already composed of four older teenagers. But with her cousin Luminescent Star in college, her other cousin Tiger Stripe off at Army bootcamp and the youngest of her cousins, the twins Sapphire and Opal getting ready for college, there wasn’t enough to keep Lakefront in the lifestyle that she’d been used to. And she couldn’t attend Northside High any longer, and she wasn’t adjusting well to Mountain View High.

She wasn’t abused or neglected in any way. And she knew that her aunt Crystal and Uncle Penny did everything they could to try to keep her life stable. But they didn’t have the means that her parents did, and that money was tied up in a trust that wouldn’t mature until she was 26. So she was stuck with this life and all the emptiness that came with it. Even her so-called best friends in her old school, Corriander and Brightstreak, no longer had time for her. And the people at her new school thought she was stuck up – they even called her ‘Sunset Shimmer’, whatever that was supposed to mean.

But here, Lakefront could commune with nature. She loved nature. A lot. She’d inherited her love of the outdoors from her father, Blue Ocean; and her love of artistry from her mother, Natural Tone. Out here she could paint the outdoors, create and enjoy the world for what it was. At least until her aunt and uncle got back from visiting Luminescent over in North Carolina.

She giggled. Who knew? Maybe she’d even meet a guy.

“Oh, wow, I didn’t think anyone else would be here!” Lakefront turned to see a girl with short hair the colors of a rave, sunglasses, a camisole and shorts. “Hi!”

“Hello,” Lakefront said, giving the girl a friendly wave. “So what brings you here?”

“Oh, adventure, excitement, stuff like that,” the girl said. “I’m the kind of gal who likes her peaks and valleys, and I’ll do anything to get my fix, you know?”

Not catching the double entendre, Lakefront said, “Yeah, I like nature as well. Planning to be a nature artist and photographer when I grow up. You?”

“Eh, probably a porn star,” the other girl said with a laugh. Lakefront thought it was an odd joke, but she guessed from the way that the other girl was laughing, it was a probably a private in-joke she’d said aloud.

“Well, I was just about to get a campfire started and cook some hot dogs. You’re welcome to join me. You brought some stuff?”

“Yeah, it’s back in my car, just a quarter mile back, but I’ll go get it before sun sets. I’d rather appreciate the view I have now.”

Lakefront smiled; this girl totally understood her. It was a shame, because she’d never connected with anyone like this before. Too bad she’s a girl; she seems like total boyfriend material otherwise. “Anyway, nice to meet you,” Lakefront said, extending a hand.

The girl reached and shook. “Medley Trance. And you know what?”

“What?”

“You’re mine.”

From a distance, Canzione Burst set down the binoculars and looked away in disgust, ignoring the screams for help in the distance. “We’re actually going to let her do that, Alto?”

Sitting on the hood of their rental car and reading from a tablet, Contralto Rush sighed. “Do you want to deal with ‘Oh, Canzy, I haven’t fucked in thirty whole seconds! Please find me someone to fuck! Please?’ Personally, I’ll just let her work out her urges on that girl. Besides, from what the prince said, so long as it’s not heterosexual sex, it doesn’t count towards the virginity factor.”

“You know that’s sick as shit,” Canzione said. “I don’t put up with much, but this is the limit of what I’m willing to put up with.”

Alto reached over and grabbed Canzione’s binoculars, and looked through them. “Wow, I was not aware she’d go that far,” the Black Team leader muttered. She then set down the binoculars and said, “Truthfully, me neither. But Med’s one of us, quirks and all, and we just have to put up with this until tomorrow before we get some much-needed R&R.”

“But this? Fuck, Alto, it’s like Med’s perpetually in heat nowadays, like she’s some literal Goddamn bitch looking for her next screw!”

“Well, I’m not in the mood to deal with it,” Contralto said. “You want to stop her, you can go out there yourself. Just don’t blame me when it turns into a threesome.”

Canzione watched, sans binoculars, as in the vague distance, a girl with bright hair threw another one into the tent. From the looks of it, the other girl was unconscious. “No thanks,” she muttered. “I’m not that stupid.”

“I’m not hungry.” Sunset watched as Octavia walked upstairs, ghostlike, towards her battered bedroom.

“Do you want me to bring you something later?” Sunset asked her cousin.

“No. I just want you to….” Octavia never finished the sentence and instead continued walking up the stairs.

“Tavi, nothing’s going to happen. I trust you,” Sunset said. “You won’t hurt me.”

“You’re right. I won’t hurt you, Sunny. But I’m afraid as hell that Melody will.” Nothing more to say, Octavia walked into the room and shut the door.

Watching the interaction, Velvet looked at her daughter and said, “It’s going to be okay, Sunny. We’re going to make sure she gets well.”

“I know, Mom. I just hate to see her like that.”

“I know. Anyway, I think we should have a family meeting tonight, so I’m going to order Chinese. Moo goo gai pan okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Do you want me to let Dad know?”

Velvet shook her head. “I want you to let Twily know.”

Sunset seemed to slump even further. “Mom, I’m not sure she wants to talk to me.”

“Sweetheart, you are the older one. You should be the bigger person and try to make things right with her. I know Twily’s being a bit childish right now, but that’s likely just because of the big changes coming in a couple of weeks.”

Sunset folded her arms and gave Velvet a look of disbelief. “The child psychologist at work?”

“No, just your mother,” Velvet said with a smile.

Sunset walked up to Twilight’s room and knocked. “Twily?”

“Not here, especially for supposed-older-sisters-who-lie-to-their-younger-ones!” Twilight shouted back through the door.

“Twily, not now, please? I need to talk to you about Tavi.”

Twilight immediately cracked opened the door. “Is she okay? I mean, I’m worried about her, given that she actually loves me, unlike someone who’s su—”

“Twilight, I don’t have time for this,” Sunset growled. “We need to talk.”

“Fine,” Twilight grumbled, opening the door and inviting Sunset in. The plum-haired teen sat as far away from her sister as she could, and Sunset, taking the hint, used the seat at Twilight’s desk. “Start talking.”

The next few minutes were of Sunset’s recollection of what had happened, and what Octavia was going through. As Sunset explained the horrors their cousin felt, Twilight eventually softened, hugging a pillow in worry. Sunset finished up with, “And she’s on 100mg of Malarson for the time being, but I’m worried about the side effects. We need to keep an eye on her while we’re in Modesto. Our parents are counting on us.”

“I’ll let her know I’m there for her,” Twilight said. She then told Sunset about her meeting with the other girls, leaving the part out about their confrontation. She mentioned the reservations and that she and Rainbow had worked out an essential plan of events for the group.

“Thanks. I appreciate the update. I’ll get out of your hair now, at least until after dinner.”

Sunset got out of her chair and was about to leave, when Twilight spoke, her voice wavering and fragile. “Why did you lie to me?” the younger teen asked. “Worse, why are the others lying to protect you? Applejack isn’t the kind of girl that lies, and even I got the feeling she was hiding something from me.”

“Twily, it’s not—”

Twilight began to cry. “Why don’t you trust me, sis? I would do anything for you and you know that. You are my older sister, ever since we met! I knew even before Mom and Dad did that you would always be a part of us! So why do you keep separating yourself?”

Sunset looked at her sister, her own eyes stinging. “Twily…it’s not that easy.”

“So that you’ll tell our friends, but not your family?”

“Because you’re not ready.” The words came, unbidden, from Sunset’s mouth, and though she was just as shocked that she said them, they weren’t something she could retract. “Because you won’t believe.”

“What? I am your sister, and I’m there for you!” Twilight said, getting to her feet and standing on the bed. “I’m not afraid of what you’re hiding, Sunny! Whether it’s that you were abused as a child, or you’re a siblieger—”

“A what?”

“A siblieger. A child born of incest.”

The look of shock on Sunset’s face was one to behold. “Twily, I never knew my parents. If I was one, I sure as hell don’t know.”

“Then tell me!” Twilight pled. “I hate what this thing is between us, sis! That…damned secret that keeps you from us! It’s like I’m reaching out to grab your hand, but there’s a transparent wall between my hand and yours, and I don’t know if you’re trying to tear that wall down…or keep it up at all costs!”

“Twily, you just won’t understand, okay?” Sunset retorted. “There are things that your mind just won’t wrap around, Twily, because I know you! You think there’s only one way of seeing the world, when there are so many others!”

Twilight leapt off the bed and glomped Sunset, nearly knocking her over. “Don’t say that, because I don’t believe it! Why do you want to keep pushing us away? How can you be my sister – really be my sister – when you’re treating me like a stranger?”

Sunset then said something – the wrong words.

“Because you’re too blind to see the colors of the world, Twily – you only see the scientific data.”

To Sunset’s surprise, her sister suddenly pushed her off with a look of anger on her face. “Get out,” a voice, suddenly angry, growled into Sunset’s shirt.

“Twily….” Sunset began, but any further words were met with a sudden slap to Sunset’s face.

Twilight looked up at her with amethysts of rage. “GET OUT!” she yelled.

Sunset looked at her sister, with a look of betrayal, feeling the sting of her cheek and her hand going to it and the burning of her eyes as tears came as well. Without saying anything further, the older teen ran from the room, crying.

The younger sister collapsed to the ground, heartbroken and unable to do anything more than bawl her eyes out for what she felt she was about to lose.

In the depths of space, four worlds began their continued march towards their places, their Harmonic Convergence nigh.

From somewhere beyond, a dark voice gleefully laughed. Soon, it told its owner. Soon….

Author's Note

For the record, there's no such thing as a "mandala Harmonic Convergence". That's just Divine talking out his ass.

The TVTropes page could use a little love, for those who hang over there....

Like the story? Patreon me! You'll be glad you did.

August 12, AM: Suedehead

“Yeah, uh huh, of course!” the girl holding the phone said, seated at her favorite breakfast restaurant. It helped that her parents owned the place, after all, so it was practically a second kitchen for her. At the moment, she was drinking a mimosa – her parents were okay with her drinking alcohol, so long as she was careful – and eating a breakfast prepared especially by the head chef. “Yeah, yeah, I know.” She gave the waiter a look of disdain, though said person didn’t notice. They always hired cute girls to be waiters here and it irked her to no end. Her parents had her, after all – why would they want any other eye candy for their place? “So she did? Really? Wow, I did not expect that of her,” she said, continuing to let the untouched meal sit before her.

“Yeah, yeah, well, if you want, I can talk to him about it; maybe it’s time for him to trade up, anyway.” She shook her head briefly, letting a lock of her lilac-and-white coiffure shake out of her amethyst eyes. “Yeah, it’s no problem, and don’t worry about owing me any favors – I’m just happy to see true love bloom.” She took a brief look at her meal, then at the waitress, who by this time had looked in her direction. “No, best of luck to you, Masq. Ciao!” She then looked at the waitress. “It’s cold. Take it back and have the chef make me a new one.”

The waitress looked at the girl with shock. “But you’ve been on the ph—”

“Not my problem that you can’t time things.” She clapped her hands, commanding, “Now, chop chop! Be a good little community college waste of space and go get me a new meal before you get pregnant from one of your multiple boyfriends on the way, okay?” The waitress angrily looked at her while she turned briefly back to her phone. “Now that’s a good little wage slave.” The girl, pissed, walked off.

As she vanished behind the doors to the kitchen, Upper Crust giggled. Let that wannabe bitch Polomare whine about not making diva and let those two simpering idiots Sparkle and Melody screw up their jobs as divas – besides, Crust just knew that despite their claims that they were just cousins, those two were deep in each other’s gashes – they definitely typified the “it’s better when sisters are together” shit. In any case, people at Zacherle really knew who was in charge there: none other than Crust herself. After all, her parents were executive chefs with a long string of successful restaurants around the world, and the crown jewel was the one she was at right now: the Bistro Amélie, one of the best French restaurants in all of North America. Let those idiots over at La Fantasie think they were hot shit – even the owner of that lousy-ass hole in the wall came here for real food.

And her talent for culinary arts, combined with her mother’s ability to manipulate made her a master at controlling people. The person she’d just got off the phone with was a girl that she knew was going to be making a play for Crust’s boyfriend, Jet Set – after all, she’d seen them kissing in the park the other day. Crust wasn’t angry with Jet about that – she knew he was just a guy, and like all guys, he thought with his lower head and rarely the upper – but Masquerade definitely spelled trouble. Fortunately, Crust’s stock in trade as an information broker/wheeler and dealer at school paid off. There was a guy who attended San Palomino High by the name of Charming Smile that Crust knew that Masquerade would sleep with half the school if it meant getting a chance with him. It only took a few well-placed letters between Smile and his now-ex-girlfriend (courtesy of her proxies, of course) and a chance meeting for the two at a café in Old Towne, and viola! Problem solved.

Best of all? Masquerade didn’t know that Crust knew about her attempt to seduce Jet, and so between the guilt over that and Crust owing her a huge debt, it would leave that bitch in a spot where Crust could demand anything and Masquerade would have no choice but to agree. She gave herself a soft smile at that – that was power. Screw that diva shit, or any of the other school cliques; Crust really ran the school and everyone knew it.

The girl brought her a new plate, and Crust looked at her. “You know, Lightfoot, I know you don’t like me,” she said with a look of utter seriousness. “And you know I could have you fired from here practically with my next breath. But you know what? I’m going to do you a favor.”

“You don’t know a damn thing about me,” Lightfoot spat.

“Oh, you’d think that. But you see, I do. I know you’re sleeping with Green Onion, the potager. I also know that he’s sleeping with Clarity, one of the evening waitresses, did you know that?” The look on the girl’s face registered shock. “But do you know what I know most of all? That you’re sleeping with her as well, and that ‘roommates’ thing is just a cover because you don’t want your family to know you’ll fuck anything.”

“How the hell—”

Crust smiled wickedly. “I’m a girl that pays attention to things. And you’re a bimbo that comes to work drunk on occasion and talks too much.” The look on Lightfoot’s face was red with rage, and Crust knew she had her right where she wanted her. “But like I said, I’m here to do you a favor. All three of you really like each other and I mean really like each other.” She reached down and produced a bag. “In this is $4000, two bottles of our best wine, and a recommendation for the head waitress position over at The Old Stable, whose owner is an old friend of my family. And all you have to do is quit, right now, this second, and this is all yours.”

“What?”

“Did I stutter? Quit, and this is all yours.”

“And what do you get out of this?”

Crust smiled. “Well, I get the knowledge that you’ll stop hitting on my daddy, because you’re such a whore that you’re willing to accept anything between your legs so long as you get what you want. And I get to make sure my parents’ marriage stays happy – my father loves us, but I know he has a wandering eye. Not his fault, just how men are.” She then leaned forward and whispered, “But most of all, because when you’re old and gray and you look at your sagging tits and your failure of your life, you’ll know that you were bettered by a girl still in high school.” She then leaned back in her chair and said, “I’m going to eat breakfast now. My offer is only good while I’m eating. If you’re not gone by then, well, then I rescind my offer and I’ll let my mother deal with you. And trust me, you won’t be the only one to lose your job. I like being efficient – my mother’s the vindictive one.”

“You’re bluffing,” the girl said.

With that, Crust idly brought a fork down towards her eggs Hollandaise. With her other hand, she reached over towards her purse and produced an envelope, handing it to Lightfoot. The waitress took it, opened it and pulled a couple of pictures out – and immediately blanched.

“Where did you…?”

Paying more attention to her food than Lightfoot, she said, “Does your mother know you got to know her boyfriend in a Biblical way? According to the information I have, they’re about to get engaged. You must really like things in the family way.” She then reached over and pulled out one of the wrapped bricks of cash. “I’m penalizing you $1000 for your stupidity. Interrupt my meal again, and I’ll withdraw my offer here and now.” She pointed at the door with the fork. “Do you have somewhere else to be and someone else to do?”

Lightfoot was gone by the time she looked back up.

A ECSD cruiser drove through the town of Bella Vista. It was fairly quiet this early in the morning, and as the recovery from the hurricane continued, the most the deputy had to deal with was to look through some of the damaged properties in search of anyone still missing at this point. And even that was odd: From everything he knew, hurricanes rivalled earthquakes in terms of sheer destructiveness…yet most of the Canterlot area was still standing. Only the poorest and oldest areas of the region – and in many cases, not even that – were demolished. If anything, it almost seemed as though the hurricane had been elitist, avoiding the northern and western parts, and sparing those who could afford to survive that sort of hit. But that was silly, of course; hurricanes were forces of nature, not a weapon to be used.

That line of thought, however, disappeared as a body was suddenly thrown through the windshield of his cruiser, coming to a body-jolting halt as it hit the front seat. He lost control, the car spinning twice and flipping over before coming to a halt via impacting against a streetlight. The deputy was rattled, but otherwise okay…until he noticed the figure that was flopped into the seat next to him. She was naked and pale – too pale, despite her dusky skin. But as the deputy turned to get a better look at her, it was all he could do to scramble out of the damaged vehicle before he threw up.

There, crumpled in the passenger seat, lay the remains of Agent Saffron Masala, United States Diplomatic Security Service. And her otherwise unharmed body was drained nearly completely of her blood, save for the drops that came out of the wound where her badge was pinned to her forehead. And held fast by that pin was the card Justice.

Justice…for a woman who served it, and would now never see it.

If silence was golden, Octavia thought, it was also well overdue. As she trudged downstairs, she looked like the waking dead: her cousins had been arguing for a good portion of the night, drawing from that eternal wellspring nearly all teenagers had, known as the ability to create drama. Admittedly, she was no different, but she was being medicated for her brand of chaos – and at the moment, she was more than tempted to shove some of her drugs down Sunset and Twilight’s throats.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she noted her aunt and uncle seated at the breakfast table, holding onto mugs of coffee like sacred relics; they too looked like they’d been victims of the teenquake in the house. “Morning,” she slurred as she slowly shambled, zombie-like, towards the coffee maker.

Night took another drink of his Sumatra-originated life elixir. “How are you feeling?” he asked his niece.

“I could ask you both the same thing,” she groaned as she leaned against the counter. “Between the yelling and the crying, I think I might’ve gotten about thirty, maybe forty-five minutes of sleep all night?” She looked at her bottle of pills on the counter, knowing she had to take one. “What I wouldn’t do to wish the side-effects of this thing caused extremely long sleep,” she yawned, opening the cupboard for her personal mug.

“Tavi, you may want to read the label,” Velvet advised.

Bleary-eyed, the teen looked at the bottle’s warnings, which included that she wasn’t allowed to have caffeine for an hour before or after ingestion. Sighing, she put the cup back. “Is it too late for a do-over?”

“Oh, wouldn’t that be nice?” Night said, a contented smile coming over his face as he took another sip of joe.

“Honestly, I don’t know what’s gotten into them,” Velvet sighed. “Twily’s been…well, you know how your cousin can be at times. And Sunny isn’t quite acquitting herself as I’d hoped she would. They’re both old enough that they should solve their own problems, and I’d rather not step in, but the longer this goes on the longer they should know they’re not setting the best of examples for their younger brother.”

Octavia allowed herself a smile as she went over to the fridge to grab the orange juice. “Sometimes I wonder if Spike’s the only sane person in this house,” she joked. She then popped back to the counter, took a pill out of her bottle, and downed both that and the juice straight from the jug.

“Tavi, I taught you better than that,” Velvet admonished.

“Sorry, wasn’t thinking,” the teen apologized, blushing. “But honestly, I hope this won’t affect our trip. Really don’t want to deal with being the non-stop peacekeeper around here. I have my own problems, after all.”

“Will you be okay enough to make the trip?”

“I have to be,” Octavia said in a sad tone. “I need to show my friends that I’m in control, and that…thing…they saw that night wasn’t me. That Melody can’t take over my life and that I’m in charge. Plus, my cousins need me right now. Sunny’s been so strong all the time, but she needs someone to rely on, especially this close to the court date. And Twily’s always needed me. I need to step up, no matter what.” She then looked at them both and asked, “So, what’s the breakfast plans?”

“Your aunt and I were just about to head to Donut Joe’s, and then take care of some things that we need to do for the adoption. We’d invite you along, but we won’t have time to come back.”

“That’s okay; you two have fun.” Octavia smiled. “I need to make sure that we’re ready to go for the trip in a few days. As it is, I’m going to have to make a shopping run to replace a few things that Melody destroyed during her episode.” A look of horror flitted briefly over her eyes as she recalled the parts that she could of that night, and what had happened. Blushing furiously, she then said, “U-uncle Night…I-I have to apologize for….”

He went over to her and hugged her. “You don’t have to apologize. You weren’t in control, and I know that – the niece I know would never be that kind of person. And even if worst came to, your friends were there to make sure nothing went wrong.”

Octavia looked forlorn. “I know, but I could’ve….” She shuddered, and Night continued to hold her.

“It’s okay. I believe in you and I know you wouldn’t harm me or anyone else you care about. That’s why we’re family, and we’ll get through this together.”

“Tavi, something made me think about what you said,” Velvet commented. “You said you want to be strong for both my daughters? Convince them that they need to stop this. You might be the only one who can right now.”

Octavia continued to let her aunt’s words focus in her mind as she started making breakfast for everyone. Granted, she wasn’t that great of a cook; Sunset far outpaced her, though she wasn’t the kind of person who nearly burnt water to a crisp like Twilight did. The tale of when Sunset tried to teach her sister how to bake cookies, and the resulting “baked bads” was still a topic of humor at the dinner table. Fortunately, whatever Sunset was teaching her, Octavia was putting to good use.

Though it didn’t seem long ago that she didn’t know how to cook herself, she mused. Maybe working in a café has been a boon for her.

A huge, boyish yawn sounded from Spike as he came downstairs just in time for Octavia to finish making the last of the omelets. “Morning, kiddo. Rough night?”

“You know, if all adults do is yell at each other, I don’t wanna grow up,” he insisted.

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know those feels, believe me. Can you do me a favor and set the table while I go wake up Shouty and Yelly?”

He laughed at that. “You sure you want to deal with Round Two?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure – remember, I’m a musician, so as loud as they want to be? I still have more volume to spare. Besides, the girls and I need to do a lot of stuff still before our trip, and I we can’t do that if they’re yelling at each other.” He nodded his agreement, and she went upstairs, steeling herself for the worst, namely Twilight’s room.

The moment she knocked, Twilight pulled open the door and pulled Octavia in, hugging her with gusto. “Tavi!” the younger teen squealed. “Oh God, I’m glad you’re okay!”

“I won’t be if you keep crushing my ribs!” Octavia laughed. “Anyway, I just made breakfast, so get dressed. Remember that we’re all supposed to meet at AJ’s home at 10:30 for the last-minute planning?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, actually, they’re supposed to be here at noon. Big Mac and his girlfriend are having a barbeque for a few of his friends, and apparently one of them hits on anything that moves, so she asked if we could move it. I offered to have it here, so I guess we should get the living room ready for guests.” A strange look came over her face and she bit her lip, as if hesitant to say anything further.

“Out with it,” Octavia said.

“Out with what?”

“Twily, I know that look, okay? Last time you had it, you were afraid to tell me that you broke one of my contrabass bows.”

“Okay. After last night, I’m not really sure I want to go anymore.” Twilight’s voice sounded like she didn’t even believe it, but was carried along more by her own drama than her own thoughts.

“Why not? You just invited our friends over.”

“They’re not our friends, Tavi – they’re hers,” Twilight said with a notable bitterness. “They just humor us because we’re supposedly her family.”

“They’re our friends, too. Just because we met them through Sunny doesn’t mean they’re going to take sides.”

“You weren’t there yesterday! You don’t know what happened! They took her side completely and utterly – they told me she lied and that they wouldn’t tell me what it was! For all I know, they’re laughing at us right now!”

“I promise you, they’re not, okay? You’re starting to get a little hysterical about all this, cuz.”

A different thought came over Twilight’s face. “Hey, why don’t we just stay home and hang around locally? Just like old times?” she asked. “Maybe we can even find some reason why the adoption shouldn’t go through—”

Those words completely shocked Octavia. “Twilight Sparkle, I cannot believe I just heard those words come out of your mouth! She is your sister and she loves you. Whatever reason she doesn’t have for not telling you whatever this is, is beyond me, but she is family!”

“No, we only thought she was,” Twilight muttered. “I guess that term should only be reserved for those who really qualify.”

“Stop acting silly. She’s going to officially be family in two weeks and she’s already family now. Plus, I want to go to Modesto – Dad told me it’s one of his favorite places – and I want to spend the time with the two people who are the closest things I have to sisters, got that?”

“That should be sister, singular.”

“I’m not going to sit here and keep arguing with you. Get dressed and get downstairs. Then the three of us are going to hash this out like the responsible young women we’re not supposed to be, understood? We’re going to end this petty shit if it’s the last thing I do.” Nothing more to add, Octavia walked out of the room, towards Sunset’s. But as she did, the bathroom door opened and Sunset walked out, toweling her hair and looking as if the world had fallen down around her. Given the strife between her and her sister, it probably had.

“Hey, you feeling better?”

“I’d be lying if I said I did,” Sunset replied. “I want to say that Twily’s overreacting, but I said something last night that I didn’t mean to and it just made things worse.”

“Well, heat of the moment, right? Just apologize and everything’s going to be okay.”

“If wishes were clouds, every earth pony and unicorn could be pegasi,” the flame-haired girl sighed.

“Huh?”

“Er, nothing. Anyway, you know how she is when she gets into one of those funks, Tavi. She won’t come anywhere near me, much less let me speak to her.”

“Hey, I grew up around her, remember? I know her ability to act above and beyond childish when she wants to, and I probably had something to do with that.” She flashed Sunset a smile and said, “But I believe in you, Sunny. You have become as important to me as Twily is, and I believe in you both. We’ll get through this.”

“Thanks. You have no idea how much that means to me right now.”

“Good. Well, I made breakfast for us all, so come on down. The three of us can talk and get this finally out of the way.”

Anything else Sunset was going to say was suddenly interrupted by the chime of her phone. “Gimme a sec.” She then went and grabbed her phone. “Yeah, this is Sunny…Oh, heya, Rares, what’s up?” A few minutes of conversation followed, with Sunset finally speaking: “Yeah, sure, I can do that. You girls still planning to come over later today?…Sure, we can make that work.” A few more seconds of Rarity speaking before Sunset said, “Yeah, okay, I’ll be sure to let them know. See you there. Bye.”

“Something up?” Octavia asked.

“Yeah, the girls made reservations for breakfast at El Torito in ten minutes. They want me to join them there. I think they want to talk to me about the scene Twily made yesterday.”

“Shit. So much for breakfast,” Octavia grumbled. “They still coming over at 10:30?”

“Later tonight, since that gives them time to do their shopping. Flutters said she’ll pay for the pizzas.” Sunset finished toweling off her hair, and then looked at the clock in her room. “Great, no time to style my mane,” she groaned, tying it into a ponytail behind her. “Look, I’ll be back as soon as I can. Please just talk to Twily for me, okay? Tell her I’m sorry for what I said to her, and I don’t know what I can do to make it right, but I want to.”

“You know I will. That’s what family’s for, right?” Octavia took the towel from Sunset. “You get ready to do what you need to do. I’ll take care of this.”

At that point, Spike shouted up from downstairs, “You coming back soon, Tavi?”

“I’ll be down shortly!” she shouted back. Giving a nod to Sunset, Octavia headed into the bathroom, placing Sunset’s towel on the rack, then went to wash her hands, briefly looking at her reflection in the mirror. As her hand went to her face, she thought, I could really use this vacation. I feel like I’m falling apart lately. She then threw some water on her face, hoping it would make her feel better.

“Maybe you just need to get laid, instead?”

Octavia froze in shock the moment she heard those words. She looked up at the mirror to see the image that had haunted her nightmares so much lately. Melody stood on the other side, naked as a jaybird and with an unknown person’s hands moving across her body with abandon. “You could take care of that little problem so easily,” Melody assured her. “We have several big, strapping men in our family that could fit the bill? Or perhaps you’re waiting for little Spike to not be so little?”

Octavia screwed her eyes shut, whispering, “Itsjustanillusionitsjustanillusionitsjustanillusionitsjustanillusion….” She then heard the shatter of glass, and she looked to see Melody remove a baseball bat from where she’d hit the other side. Except that the baseball bat was a lot more phallic, and as Octavia finally realized what it was she stared with incomprehension.

Melody chuckled. “Now that I have your attention, if you’ll listen closely, I’ll tell you just how you can get a three-way with Shining and Cadance.”

“What?”

“Oh, don’t be a prude. You know you want Shining’s armor. You want it in, ramming, thrusting, harder and harder—”

Octavia raced out of the bathroom, hearing the cackling laughter of her evil doppelganger.

“Just keep running! Sooner or later, you’re going to lose and your sweet little body will be my plaything!” Melody crowed. “You won’t be able to run away!”

Zephyr Breeze looked like he’d had a long night. He knew he was going to have many more of them soon, all of them haunted by the guilt that he couldn’t save his partner. He looked into his mug, at the coffee that was the color of her skin, and he cringed inwardly. Yet another reminder of his failure.

“I’d, ah, appreciate your discretion on this, your highness,” he told Solaire. As part of his job, he was supposed to update her daily on significant events, and the murder of one of her guards – Zephyr’s partner and friend – was pretty critical on that list.

As for Solaire, her face was one of shock, unable to picture the vibrant girl now in her final rest. “I don’t know what I can say that will make it better, Agent Breeze, save that you have my sympathies. Does her family know?”

He shook his head. “No. I only got the call a half-hour ago, and I haven’t even been to the morgue yet to confirm. As for her parents, they only know that she’s missing, but it’s only a matter of time before this hits them right between the eyes.” He finished off his mug and slammed the plastic cup down on the table. “Fuck, I can’t do this,” he moaned. “You were there when I told her old man that I’d protect her and now look at me, the useless son of a bitch that I am. She’s dead, and I’m here to tell the tale. Another kid dead and us old fucks keep living until forever.”

“Agent Breeze, I barely knew her, and yet it was clear to me that she was a brave, dedicated and talented woman.”

“Yeah, you have to be in this line of work. Being nuts also helps.”

“Yes, but she’s clearly one of your agency’s best,” Solaire continued, “and that’s the kind of people that I want my daughter exposed to. I want Sunset to have positive role models so that she’ll understand that being a princess isn’t as important as being a productive member of society. And for the brief time she was here, I honestly feel that Agent Masala had a positive impact on my child.”

Solaire poured them another round of coffee and a few minutes of silence passed. Finally, Breeze spoke once more: “I have to tell you, because an agent has been killed in the line of duty, protocol is that we significantly increase the protective services on our VIPs,” he stated. “Right now, my boss is talking with your embassy to decide whether this will continue to be considered your personal vacation, or whether the French government will declare this a security ‘event’. Should the latter happen, additional DSS agents will be sent here, and we may even have some DRSG agents join for the ride. At worst, since you are technically tied to the French government, you could even be recalled.”

“I hope not,” Solaire told him. “My daughter and I try to live our lives based on the fact that we have no real interest in government life; as it is, I only do so when the Palais de l’Élysée asks. Otherwise, I’m just a mother with a few extra hobbies, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I have no wish for Sunset to have the same type of childhood I did, where my every breath and step was plotted out eight steps in advance.”

Breeze gave her a look of disbelief.

She laughed. “Oh yes, the lives of royalty and nobility, even those of us in pretense, are just as heavily choreographed as those still in power. One of my greatest joys was the chance to study abroad here in Canterlot, because it allowed me to understand freedom on the same level as the everyday person, and even though I don’t have that same lack of restrictions now I never forgot the years I was merely Mrs. D’Celestia rather than Princess Solaire Beaharnaise Pagerie Trois-Îlets de Martinique d’Celestia of the House of Bonaparte. So even if it wasn’t already my most fervent wish that Sunset grow up with a normal life, I owe it to the memory of my husband to ensure that she does.”

“Well, I should probably tell you then that I made a slight recommendation to my boss on the issue.” He grinned and added, “I just happened to tell my boss – who just also happens to be an old college buddy – that between me and the house bodyguards here, that you should be okay until you depart for home. So, knowing Locked Key like I do, he’s probably telling the ambassador that this is your vacation, and that people need time away, and that even with what’s going on both with your family and here, that adding tons of guns and fun only ruins whatever your plans are. You arrived here as a normal person, so you should leave eventually as one, too.”

She gave him her sunniest smile. “You don’t know how much that means to me, Agent Breeze.”

He gave her a smile back. “And here I am, a married man. You know, you could be a hell of a heartbreaker with that smile.”

Her snooping accomplished, Shimmer quietly stepped away from the kitchen door and headed back to the couch, where a dog-eared copy of Les Thibault sat. It’s good to see Mom smile, she thought to herself as she plopped on the sofa. It had been so long since her mother had seen herself as someone other than a parent and a diplomat, all because she was far more focused on raising Shimmer – but at a great cost: that of her social life.

Looking over the top of the book to make sure her mother hadn’t noticed she’d been spying, Shimmer thought, I think she likes that agent. Too bad he’s married and that we live in Paris, or I’d probably try to play matchmaker. Strangely enough, when it came to affairs of the heart outside of her family life, she had a knack for setting people up. Unfortunately, that didn’t extend to her mother, herself or even her friends.

Thinking about it a second, she grabbed her phone off the coffee table and quickly tapped out an email to her friends, letting them know that even though she’d only been here a couple of weeks, she’d missed them greatly. By now, Beachcomber would have made herself at home here, given how she was quick with a joke or her infectious laugh. Night Lily would have loved the evening views from around the area, and probably would have insisted on going to the movies and other nightlife around town. Precious, the intellectual in the group, would have thoroughly been wowed by the museums in town; ECMAH wasn’t the only one, and while not at the level of Paris or even some of the larger cities in California, there were enough places of note to keep someone of that streak entertained. Given that Precious tended to be a hanger-on at many of the Parisian museums, she would have been thrilled to see something new.

She flicked over to the gallery and the last picture the group took, the day before Shimmer’s departure; they were all at the Eiffel Tower and huddling together for the shot. Her best friends, absolutely vital to her life and she couldn’t imagine a time without them. Of course, there was a time; after all, before Paris, she’d lived here and had friends who probably no longer remembered her. As it was, she could scarcely remember them. Compass…Compass Flower or something like that. Then there was that other one, Minute or Minutia or something along those lines – I do recall she was black. And Suhri. Sooree? I barely remember her, and now that I think about it, I’m not sure I got along with her anyway. Part of her thought about seeking them out and rekindling friendships, but the chances of that were minimal. After all, she could barely recall them, and it wasn’t as though they had a daily reminder of her in their lives.

She’d barely set down the phone when it chimed, the sound of an email from one of her friends. It was a message from Beachcomber, saying that they were going nuts without the fourth member of their quartet. Shimmer silently giggled at that; it had been Beachcomber who had named them “The Flawless Four” – well, technically “Les Quartes Parfaits”. She added that they hoped she wouldn’t forget about them and that they’d be waiting for her at the airport when she arrived. She felt a warmth pulse through her, knowing it was good to have someone to come back to.

She had barely set down the phone when her mother plopped into the empty spot next to her. “Zephyr saw himself out,” Solaire explained. “As you can guess, he and I spoke—”

Shimmer put down the book. “So you’re on a first-name basis with him now?” she asked with a knowing grin.

Solaire ignored that and continued. “—and I agreed that we would stay put until Monday, when your aunt and uncle return from their trip. Zephyr is confident that having extra people around the house will be enough of a deterrent, and that should satisfy any concerns.” She then addressed her daughter’s impish comments. “Besides, mon petit tournesol, being cooped up indoors gives you time to catch up on your schoolwork.”

“Eh, already done,” she said. “I’m actually a little ahead of the curve, so the teachers are taking their time to send me the next batch.” She then sat up and said, “So, how’d flirting with the cop go?”

Solaire placed fingers on her heart in a gesture of innocence. “My dearest daughter, I was merely talking to him.” Shimmer gave her a lidded look and the older woman’s composure broke. “Okay, perhaps a little,” she admitted.

“Good. Mom, you’re getting older and you deserve someone to call your own. Even Dad would want that for you.”

“Dear, it’s nice to be noticed as a woman, but Zephyr is married. I’m merely happy that I apparently caught his eye, even though neither of us would do anything. Perhaps someday I will meet someone, but I don’t think that’s in the cards. Such is life, I suppose.”

“Mom, I’ll be headed off to university in a couple of years,” Shimmer insisted. “Throw yourself in the dating pool now. You aren’t getting any younger.”

Solaire playfully reached over and smacked her daughter’s leg. “You cheeky little brat!” she laughed. “I’m only forty-two!”

The teen, however, pushed her luck. “After how many years subtracted?” she snarked…

…and was immediately beset upon by her mother’s tickling.

“Mrs. Convergence,” Trinary Star spoke, “thank you for meeting us on such short notice.” Both Star and Shining had arrived at The Merrie Wytch, after a phone call to Shining indicated that the shop owner had something of note she wished to discuss.

“Oh, that’s never a problem,” Harmonic Convergence said. “I found new information that I thought you may wish to know. You see, I spoke with a variety of other shoppe owners about—”

“About the whole thing and a woman in Hawaii totally might have found the solution!” Lyra, from her point of dusting off one of the bookshelves, blurted. The three adults looked at the teen, and she had the good grace to try to slink back behind the shelf.

“Yes, that,” Harmonic said, giving her employee a disappointed look before turning back to the agents. “I spoke to a woman in Honolulu – Amber Gemstone, wonderful woman, runs The Witches’ Paradise, lovely store – and she thought the summoning looked familiar.”

Shining asked, “She did?”

“She owns a book: Le Livre des Éternitiés et des Infinies, a grimoire—”

“—created by the 18th century philosopher Lecteur d’Âme, who was not actually French, but French-Canadian. His book was discovered in an archive in a Belgian castle after the end of World War I.” The other two looked at Star. “Hey, I did say I was the LA Division’s occult specialist, right? I have a copy of the 2009 reprint on my desk back in LA.”

“A 2009 reprint?” Harmonic asked. “Why, I only know about the 1993 edition from Mystical Groves, Pty. Ltd. of New Zealand.”

Star smiled. “A small company in Detroit prints them on demand. The Bureau needed one for a case back then and ordered a copy. When my predecessor retired, I got it. I can give you the information on the company, if you wish.”

“Splendid!” Harmonic clapped joyfully. “I would be most appreciative, Agent.”

“Ladies, I don’t mean to rush things, but can we keep going?” Shining asked.

“Sorry,” both women said at once before Harmonic continued.

“Anyway, in Amber’s copy of the book, on page 84 there’s a spell to summon a being called The Bellwether of Darkness. D’Âme claimed to have gotten it from a much older grimoire, but if so, said book was lost to time. In any case, the spell calls for a being of great darkness – a demon, if you will – to be summoned using the power of a bell hidden away by the Vatican, a bell older than time itself. A song will be sung by a maiden who is both pure and a whore, and the blood of the innocent shall be spilled. When done on the night of a harmonic convergence, the astral plane will be opened and a being of great darkness and vast power will be summoned to the world.”

Shining blinked at the description. “A maiden who is both pure and a whore? Ladies, forgive me for being coarse, but is that even possible?”

“And this is where a woman’s touch comes in handy, Shining,” Star pointed out. “The singer is likely a lesbian. She has never lain with a man, so she is a pure maiden, but she sleeps around with other women, thus a whore. There are dozens of beliefs and mystic theories that lesbians have a link to the arcane, many of which are in goddess-oriented religions.”

Shining shrugged. “Sorry, a little out of my depth here,” he admitted.

“No problem. Trust me, I’ve seen all the shit,” Star assured him. “Anyways, Mrs. Convergence, please continue.”

Harmonic nodded. “As for the harmonic convergence, I’m not sure about that. If I remember the article from Celestial Houses Monthly, they only occur every 500 years, with another true alignment not scheduled to happen until the mid-29th century.”

Shining grinned. “And this is where being the son of an astronomer and astrophysicist comes in handy. There are different kinds of syzygies. There’s a square alignment of the inner worlds scheduled to happen in a few days, if I remember correctly.”

Harmonic’s eyes opened. “A celestial trine! Why didn’t I think of that?” She raced upstairs as fast as her skirt would let her move, and after a couple of minutes, she returned with a book labeled Encyclopædia Astra, flipping over to a particular page. “The square astrological alignment places four worlds in opposition to one another, turning their metaphysical energies on each other, with the largest of the worlds as the grand recipient.”

Star looked at Shining. “So all we gotta do is find out when this alignment is and where they would do something like this.”

Shining looked at Harmonic. “Please, I need a list of any and everything around here related to metaphysicism and the like. If something big is going down, then that’s where the killer will strike.”

Harmonic looked worried. “You don’t think…they’ll actually summon a demon, do you?”

“No,” Star replied, “but if their attempt at going the Bellwether of Darkness route is right, an innocent girl will be killed and when they realize their little scheme didn’t summon Satan or whatever, they’ll try to melt into the wallpaper just like the original killer. We have to stop this killer now, before it’s too late.”

Sunset pulled up in front of the El Torito, seeing her friend’s cars. I have no idea what I can say to fix this, she realized. I hope Twily didn’t do anything to make them really ticked at her, because it’s going to be a miserable vacation otherwise. Hopefully they realized that she’s off-base right now and they can come up with an idea for me to make things right with her, because the last thing I need right now is my sister hating me.

After finding a decent spot by the front door, she then went in and saw her friends seated at the table just across from the hostess. “Heya Sunny!” Rainbow called out to her. “How’s it shakin’?”

Sunset laughed. “How’s it shaking, or how are they shaking? We are girls, you know.” The Latina blushed furiously at that and Sunset giggled as she sat down. “Anyway, I’m doing okay, girls. How about all of you?”

A silence came over the table as Rarity was the one to start. “I wish it could be better, darling,” the fashionista replied. “As you know, we spoke to your sister about, well…the secret you’ve been keeping from her. Turns out, she wasn’t the only one with a surprise.” The look in Rarity’s eyes flickered towards disappointment for a second. “The conversation was…illuminating, to say the least.”

Sunset mentally groaned. I am not going to like this conversation, am I? the flame-haired girl thought, but chose not to voice that. She then saw the looks on her other friends’ faces, and her supposition became cold, hard fact. “How exactly did you find it illuminating?” In response, Rarity held up a pink scroll, and though Sunset continued to keep her face even, her heart practically jumped out of the zip code. That’s Rarity’s letter! Sunset mentally gasped, and not referring to the human girl in front of her. Then, as if on cue, the four others held up scrolls as well, and it was all Sunset could do to remain seated.

“Could you clarify this for us, Sunny?” Applejack asked, holding up a rather plain parchment scroll. “‘Cause last time Ah checked, mah parents are alive an’ well and not buried in a rose garden in a place called Sweet Apple Acres.”

Pinkie flipped a bright pink scroll back and forth between her hands, though she never took her eyes off Sunset. “Yeah, and I don’t know why I would ever treat my aunt and uncle like practical strangers! They’re more my parents than my mom and dad are, and I would never be so rude to just call them ‘Mr. and Mrs. Cake.’ Auntie Cup and Uncle Carrot mean too much to me to ever do that!”

Rainbow produced a scroll that Sunset recognized as official Wonderbolts parchment. “Well, aside from not knowing who the Wonderbolts are and why they’re the coolest, I take a very dim view of anyone calling my sister not my sister,” she said in a dangerous tone. “You know the shit she went through just this Christmas, and I wouldn’t ever say she’s not my ‘real’ sister.”

Fluttershy mumbled something, then blushed.

“You may wish to repeat that again, Fluttershy,” Rarity suggested, and the part-Japanese girl grew even redder.

“Flutters?” Rainbow asked, starting to worry about the chiffon-haired girl hyperventilating.

“I do not find my father attractive!” Fluttershy gasped, then quickly hid under the table. From the safety of being underneath composite particle board, she added, “Sure, he’s handsome and wonderful and funny – but he’s my father!”

Oh, am I in deep shit, Sunset’s mind blurted. And I just had to joke with the other Rarity about how her Fluttershy’s home seemed set for two, and how she told me that she was trying to fix up Fluttershy and Discord because “they pair well together and she’s completely smitten!”

As if on cue, Rarity opened her scroll and read: “‘And the two just looked marvelous together, Sunset dear. Oh, you should have seen the smile on her muzzle when he presented her with the bouquet of judy blue-eyes. You must return again someday to help me with my master plan of romance!’” She looked at where Fluttershy had been sitting with sympathy. “While I readily admit to being the most romantically-inclined of all of us, I think I’d pretty much draw the line at incest, I assure you. Besides, Fluttershy already has a beau.”

Sunset sighed. “Look, girls, I can explain.”

Rainbow leaned on the table, nearly knocking over her Coke. “Start,” she growled.

Full minutes passed before Sunset sighed began. “They’re from Equestria,” she admitted.

“So we gathered,” Rarity commented. “Do you mean to tell us we have counterparts? After all, we know that your sister does, and from inference, so does Principal Celestia.”

“Frankly, if we do have counterparts, and there’s another Pinkie Pie running around,” Rainbow added, “then I think that for the safety of mankind, we should be made aware of it.” She then flashed the cheerleader a grin. “No offense, Pinks.”

“None taken! In fact, imagine me in a world of magic!” Pinkie said with a wide smile. “I could do something like fall into a magical lake and poof! Dozens of clones of me as far as the eye can see! Wouldn’t that be something, huh?” Everyone else at the table briefly shuddered at the thought.

From her sanctuary below, Fluttershy added, “And I don’t think I can live with knowing that somewhere, there’s a me that….” She eeped and went silent, unable to finish the mind-numbing thought.

“All jokes aside,” Applejack commented, “Ah think we deserve a better answer than ‘they’re from Equestria’. Seriously, this is disturbing.”

“Sunny, we trust you, but we’ve kept your secret for so long,” Pinkie added. “We deserve more than just ‘trust me’, you know.” Pinkie gave Sunset a particularly piercing look that instantly reminded the flame-haired girl once again why Pinkie was the most “dangerous” in her circle of friends – the clown face she always wore was a great mask for the brilliant mind behind it. “So please, explain. We want to know, and I think we deserve to know.”

Sunset looked at her friends and rolled the mental dice. She knew Applejack had a sixth sense when it came to lies and was very good at figuring them out. Pinkie also had a sense for that as well. Rainbow, always loyal, wouldn’t take a betrayal so easily, and she didn’t want to break either Fluttershy or Rarity’s hearts by lying to them.

But it’s more than that. They’re like family to me – they were the closest things I had here until I actually got one, Sunset considered. Now that she had friends, she couldn’t go back to the life she’d led when she was first here – she wouldn’t and couldn’t if she tried. She had too many people who loved her now, people she loved dearly. A mental image of her family and friends abandoning her filled her mind; the former for keeping it from them and the latter for forcing them to be burdened with it. It was silly and irrational, she knew, but the mind rarely worked on the purely logical.

I’m already dangerously close to losing Twily, she insisted. I can’t afford to lose my friends as well. And if it meant lying to them, it would be her cross to bear. She briefly thought about casting a spell on them to improve the believability of what she was about to say, but then thought better of it; she was already going to lie to them, but ensorcelling them would be a bridge too far. That was old Sunset, she told herself.

Just like lying to them is, her conscience answered back, though she ignored that.

“As I said, they’re from Equestria.” She took a drink of water – was her mouth parched all of a sudden? “I…I had a problem with the dragonfire candle a few weeks ago, and the last group of letters you asked me to send to Twi came back garbled and ponified, for lack of a better term. The letters got merged with some correspondence that I’d been sharing with some of Twi’s friends that I met over there.” She shook her head. “I know I should’ve thrown them away because they didn’t make sense, but I was trying to see if I could undo the glitch. Unfortunately, I got too comfortable at home and left them on my desk. Twily found them, and well, here we are.”

“And you’re saying these ponies can do perfect duplicates of our handwriting?” Rainbow asked.

“Hoofwriting, you mean. And any similarity is probably a result of the merger,” Sunset stated. “Basically, I think it imprinted their words onto your handwriting.”

“What about Princess Celestia’s letter to you?” Pinkie asked.

“It’s genuine; obviously Ms. Celestia doesn’t know she has a counterpart, and I’m not going to be the one to tell her,” Sunset insisted, taking a deep breath and hoping a waitress would come by soon. “And that’s the whole thing.”

“I see,” Fluttershy said as she got back into her seat.

The five looked at each other before grins broke out on their faces. A second later, they were all laughing. It took a few seconds before Rarity was able to get catch her breath long enough to say, “Brava! You should be an author, Sunset, dear. You certainly have the imagination for it.”

“Huh?” Sunset asked.

“Did you really think we wouldn’t know?” Rainbow asked. “Look, I’ve read enough DC and Marvel in my lifetime to know how a multiverse works. And given that Scoots is adopted, I just assumed in another reality, she’s only a younger girl I look after. Maybe I babysit her enough that she thinks of me like an older sister?”

“And I figured it out after I received those Uniquecorns from Precious Memory’s shop,” Rarity said. “It dawned on me one day that the design looks too much like your natural self, and since Diamond was designed based on me, it just clicked.”

“Ah remember once that Pa said Ma wanted to buy some land in Ukiah where we could build a farm to supply the store. She even thought about calling it ‘Sweet Apple Acres’, like our store’s the Sweet Apple Supply Stop,” Applejack said. “So maybe there’s a place where they did. And,” she added in a sad tone, “maybe there’s a place where they didn’t survive the car accident, either.”

“Well, since given quantum mechanics and multiversal theory,” Pinkie proclaimed, “there has to be millions upon millions of different mes. And maybe you just happen to come from the one where Auntie Cup and Mom are just friends, not sisters – then the ‘strangerness’ makes sense.” She then looked at Applejack. “Maybe there’s a place where we’re even related!”

The blonde laughed. “You still going on about that theory that we might be related because we’re both from the same general part of the country?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Hey, it’s possible.” Applejack, acknowledging that, simply nodded.

“And it’s creepy to me, but maybe this other Fluttershy and Discord aren’t related at all,” Fluttershy said. “Although….” She shuddered. “Anata ga watashi ni tazunerunaraba, mada kanzen ni amarini mo kimiwarui,” she murmured.

“Translation from weeaboo, please?” Rainbow asked and Fluttershy glared at her. “Fine, fine, I get it.”

“So, your secret’s laid bare for us,” Rarity commented. “At least, I hope this was a prelude to admitting the truth instead of lying to us, because, Sunset, we would hate that.”

“Because it means you’re slippin’ into your old ways, and Ah care about you too much to see that happen, sugarcube,” Applejack added.

“Honestly, I’m glad this is behind us now,” Fluttershy commented, and Sunset breathed a sigh of relief.

At least, until Pinkie chimed in. “Because we can’t let this happen again, Sunny. We’ve protected you all this time, and you couldn’t be honest with us about this. I understand why, and while I’m a little hurt that you wouldn’t admit it, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we understand.” But then she turned serious again and said, “But this isn’t just about us – it’s about your family, and what you should’ve told them a long time ago. It’s two weeks until the adoption and they still know nothing, Sunny. This is your family we’re talking about.”

“Pinkie, what am I supposed to tell them?” Sunset asked. “How am I supposed to tell them?”

“With words,” Applejack commented. “With true, honest words. That’s what Ah’d do if Ah was in your position.” She looked at Sunset with both sympathy and confusion. “And Ah don’t know why you won’t tell them. This is your family – they love you and whatever you really are doesn’t change who you really are, girl.”

“But this much is true,” Rainbow said. “The longer this goes on, the deeper the divide gets. Your sister already figured out that you have a secret that you refuse to admit, one that you dragged us into. How long until the rest of your family figures that out – or worse, that they misunderstand? And your mother is best friends with the principal and vice principal of our school. Honestly, I’d be worried just about that alone, given that they know, too.”

“Sunny, speaking as someone who just had her family life returned to normal for the first time in a decade, you can’t afford this,” Fluttershy intoned. “Look at what the good-intentioned lies my parents told me did to my relationship with my father. You were there for the whole patching up mess, all its wounds and scars. I don’t ever want to see you go through that kind of hell…except you’re headed in that direction without my help. And I refuse to enable that.”

“This is the part where we show you that we care, even if we don’t want to do this,” Applejack said. “This is where the tough love comes in.”

“Tough love?” Sunset asked, already liking that last line even less in a conversation that was unsavory to begin with.

Pinkie looked at Sunset directly, her blue eyes boring into cyan ones. “Sunset, either you tell your family the truth by the time we get back from Modesto…” she began.

Sunset swore that despite being midsummer, the whole temperature dropped more than a few degrees. “Or?”

“We tell them everything,” the cotton-candy-haired girl finished. “Everything.”

“What?” Sunset gasped. “You can’t!”

A sad look came over Rarity’s face as she said, “Oh, I assure you we can, darling. And I also promise you that we will. Please understand that we’re doing this for your sake – we don’t take pleasure from this at all.”

“But it has to be done,” Applejack added. “Either you do it or we’ll do it for you.”

“And I’ll ensure that it happens.” The girls froze as one, turning in the direction of the speaker, behind Sunset. Sunset turned around, knowing who the voice belonged to, and how exactly fucked she was now and sure enough, when she finally got her view, there stood Principal Celestia. The educator was dressed far more casually than she’d ever seen her before, in a camisole and tight-fitting jeans that accented her body. She had her hair in a long, flowing ponytail draped over her right shoulder. Her arm was on that of a well-muscled man who Sunset hadn’t seen before, but based on conversations with her mother, was clearly Celestia’s boyfriend.

Celestia leaned over and kissed the man. “Sable, honey, would you find us a table? I need to talk to my students for a moment.”

“Sure,” he said with a grin, “I’ll go flirt with the hostess for a bit.”

She briefly glowered at him before a loving smile returned to her face as he walked off. “Isn’t love grand?” she said to the girls, only to see the shocked expressions they wore. “Sunset, you of all people should’ve known about this. I’m pretty sure Vel had to have mentioned him by now.”

Sunset, in turn, turned to her friends, a hurt look on her face. Did they betray her?

No more than you just did to them, the voice in the back of her mind reminded her.

Seeing the expression of pain on her friend’s face, Pinkie shook her head. “This is just as much of a surprise to us as it is to you,” she admitted.

Seeing a potential rift in the making, Celestia put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Sunset, my boyfriend and I just happened to stop here based on Luna’s suggestion, so it’s a complete coincidence that we’re here the same time as you. But if I may also add, color me surprised to see you all here discussing the same subject you and Luna went through the other day.” The girls all looked at Celestia and she knew that whatever she was going to say, they’d probably agree. “Frankly, as your educator, I wholeheartedly agree with their ultimatum. You should have dealt with this by now.

“And in fact, I’m going to take it one step farther: if you do not come clean by the time you return from your vacation, my sister and I will gather these girls and their families and we will tell them all, including what you briefly became.” Her face became the very picture of sobriety as she added, “Technically, your very presence puts these girls in terrible danger, especially given what happened just a couple of months ago. I daresay they might even be in more danger than the serial killer running around targeting young women your age.”

As a horrified look came over Sunset’s face, Applejack intervened. “Beg your pardon, Principal, but how did you know about our trip?”

Celestia smiled. “Did you forget your mother and Luna are friends? Your mother actually asked Luna for suggestions, given that my sister’s been to Modesto more than a few times.”

Rainbow worriedly pointed at Sunset. “I think you just short-circuited her mind, Teach.”

Celestia moved over to face Sunset and saw the genuinely terrified look in the girl’s face. Guilt crossed the educator’s visage as she admitted, “Sunset, I meant everything I said to you nearly a year ago: your mother is my best friend and so for me, this is personal. And I know you’ve changed; no one understands that more than I do…but you’ve had all this time to tell them the truth and what happened the other day only shows that this is the lone area where you’re afraid of change. But lies of omission are still lies, Sunset, and I care too much to see you do this to yourself.” Celestia embraced the girl, adding, “You are a wonderful young woman, one I’m proud to have seen grow into the person you were always meant to be, but I can’t watch you slide back into your old ways. This has to end, Sunset.”

“But if they find out, they won’t want me anymore,” Sunset sobbed, her eyes starting to fill with tears. “I’ll be alone again!”

“Do you really think that little of those who love you?” the older woman asked. “They adore you unconditionally and trust you completely – that’s what families do, after all. And I truly hope that you learn this for yourself the easy way, rather than the hard.” She wiped the girl’s tears from her eyes and said, “I believe in you, Sunset. Don’t prove me wrong.”

“This getting too intense for anyone else?” Rainbow asked nobody in particular.

Realizing she might have gone a little too far, Celestia backed off. “Sorry to interrupt your meal, girls. I’ll see you back in school in a couple of weeks, hopefully, and not sooner than that.” Not sure if she should say anything further, Celestia opted to walk away.

“Okay, that was a bit too awkward for my tastes,” Applejack agreed. “Rainbow’s right: that was more than a bit hair-raising, but Ms. Celestia’s right.”

At this time, finally the waitress came with a menu, and Sunset rose from her seat. “I…I think I lost my appetite. I’m going to head home now. I’ll see you girls tonight.”

“Sunset, please don’t go,” Rarity said, sounding genuinely regretful. “We didn’t mean to hurt you. We’re doing this because we care and want the best for you, truly.”

“I don’t see how this could be best for me!” Sunset all but shouted.

“Because sometimes, Sunset,” Pinkie said in a stark tone, “you do something that is for the best and that people don’t like – and that you even hate yourself and others for.” Sunset froze at the steel in Pinkie’s voice and as she turned to look at her friend, she noticed the girl’s hair was straightening and her warm blue eyes were becoming frostier than Alaska, never a good sign.

“What are you talking about?” Sunset asked.

“The thing you did to me. That I did to myself. That I hated you for a long time for,” Pinkie said in a small voice, “and that I will forever hate myself for.”

Rarity realized it instantly, her eyes widening. “No, Pinkie, you don’t have to!”

“You don’t have to w…oh, shit,” Applejack said, as realization kicked in. Rainbow and Fluttershy said nothing; what could they say? All four knew something was about to happen, and the chances of stopping it were about as possible as holding back a train with a newborn baby.

“What’s going on?” Sunset inquired, looking at her friends and the worried looks that were not directed at her.

“Sunny….” Pinkie spoke and she looked so vulnerable right now. The brilliant yet happy-go-lucky girl was gone, replaced by someone quivering and shaking. “I did something I never should have done. Something that made me hate you for what you did to me and for what I did to myself.”

“What are you saying?”

“Do…do you remember November in our freshman year? There was this guy that I was completely in love with. Do you remember Royal Atlas?” A nostalgic look came over her face as tears of either joy or sorrow came. “Cute as hell, beautiful blue hair and green eyes. I’ve never been in love with anyone the way I loved Atlas. I think he was the first person that ever made me feel like I was a woman.”

“Yeah, he was a winner, that’s for sure,” Sunset agreed. “Whatever happened to him? Didn’t he move at the end of the year?” Pinkie didn’t answer, and Pinkie looked like she was going to break apart. “Pinkie?” Still no answer came from the girl, and Sunset went over to her friend’s side, looking as the normally chipper girl buried her face in the crook of her arm, softly sobbing. “Please, you’re scaring me.”

“GOOD!” Pinkie shouted, suddenly glaring at Sunset with a raging intensity. “YOU SHOULD BE!” There was a rage in Pinkie’s eyes that Sunset had never seen before, but she knew what it was: the hatred the other girl had felt for her so long ago. Pinkie was caught up in those emotions now, and the raw fury being unleashed right now reminded her of the time she and Princess Celestia departed on bad terms.

Sunset felt herself go numb. As she looked up at Pinkie’s eyes, she could see they were filled with the same hatred she’d felt so long ago, a massive inferno of emotions directed straight at Sunset. The flame-haired girl fell backwards, out of her seat, and a second later, she felt something less numbing – the cold, tiled floor as she hit her head.

Rainbow rushed to Sunset’s side and helped her up. “You okay?”

Sunset got back to her feet, ignoring the scene they’d just caused. “Am I okay?” the former unicorn parroted. “Is she okay?” She pointed to Pinkie, who was crying and being helped by Rarity and Fluttershy.

Applejack came over. “Ah think you’d better leave, Sunny.”

“Why? What did I do wrong?” Sunset asked.

“It’s…it’s the past, sugarcube,” Applejack said in a sad voice. “We can talk about it later. But right now, the last thing you need is for Ms. Celestia to come over here, okay? Sunset looked over and sure enough, Celestia was looking in their direction, with a look on her face that indicated there was a mental debate as to whether she should get involved.

“Please, Sunny,” Rainbow said. “This is going to be as hard as it is.”

“Okay,” Sunset said, grabbing her purse. “I think I lost my appetite anyway. I’ll talk to you girls tonight.” She managed to make it as far as the front door when Applejack stopped her.

“Sunny, please don’t think this is anything against you,” Applejack insisted. “This is all water under the bridge – it’s in the past.”

“No, it damn well isn’t,” Sunset said, her voice thick with confusion and a bit of fear that she wasn’t so much being asked to leave the restaurant as much as it was to leave their lives. “If she’s acting like that? Then it never was over to begin with.”

For a change, it was a short bit of respite from the hell that the five girls that had dubbed themselves “The SIREN Resistance Unit” were enjoying. Adagio was reading a book, Aria was throwing daggers at a makeshift dartboard she’d made on the wall on the far side of the room, and Sonata was looking out the window at something. Neither Sunny Side nor Evergreen Pine were to be seen, though in a room to the side, hearty smells wafted into the other room.

“Wow, I am so jealous,” Sonata said, sniffing the air. “Can you smell that?”

“Yeah, and it’s making me hungry,” Adagio said. “I didn’t know either of them could cook.”

“Soni, I wouldn’t worry. I still think you’re the best cook.” Aria lazily threw another knife, this one bouncing off the first one and landing blade down on the ground. As she was just goofing off, she wasn’t trying for the best score anyway.

Sonata blushed. “Thanks, sis.”

“Soup’s on!” Both Side and Evergreen came out of the room, carrying trays of various foodstuffs. “Since we’re taking it easy for the moment, thought we could do with something a little more on the go than fast food or MREs.”

The three girls came over to the table in a heartbeat. “Wow, you managed to dig up all this?”

Evergreen nodded. “The market across the street is still abandoned, and the owner hasn’t even been by to check it yet. I raided all I could and left him some money for his trouble. I’m sure he’ll notice the store’s been broken into, but I think he’ll flip when he realizes the food’s been paid for.”

Adagio looked at the bowls. “Is that French Onion soup? I haven’t had a decent one since we were in Paris!”

Aria took a look at the rest of the food. “Is that a steak and cheddar panino? I think I’ve died and gone back to Venice!”

Sonata merely pouted briefly, but Adagio put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Hey, don’t sweat it, Soni. Out of the three of us, you’re still the best cook.”

“I know. I was just thinking this reminds me of the café,” Sonata said softly.

“Oh, that’s right!” Evergreen commented as she passed the bowls and sandwiches to each SIREN. “Your sœurs said that you three had been here a long time. How’d that go?”

“You know, lived like normal girls, got jobs, made friends,” Adagio said, looking at her sisters. “If the undercover op lasted long enough, we probably would’ve gone to high school here, which would’ve been interesting.”

“I liked working in the café,” Sonata said. “Hanging with our friends, living like normal people.”

“Soni….” Aria began, but couldn’t finish the sentence. She knew how her sister felt, because she felt the same way. The three younger girls eventually came to an uncomfortable silence which said more than they could have ever voiced.

Side and Evergreen looked at each other. “Hey, we know how you feel. We had an op when we were your ages – had to infiltrate a Parisian café that was frequented by a Cuban diplomat. We got to enjoy our time there, and we decided that when we eventually leave the SIRENs, we were going to start our own place somewhere here in the US.”

Evergreen grinned. “We even came up with a name – The Candy Sisters! You see, sis knows how to cook the regular stuff, but I especially know how to make confections! Learned from the head chef at the Boulangerie Pizzazz. So trust us, we know you want to be normal girls, because we want to be, too.”

Side nodded. “I think if you asked most of the Sisterhood in private that they’d all want to be normal girls. After all, none of us chose this life.”

Adagio was about to add something when she heard one of the computers chime. “What’s that?”

Sonata leapt from her seat, racing over to the computer. “Looks like the next part of the encryption got cracked,” she said, dropping down into the chair in front of it. Her fingers started racing over the keys as the other girls’ attentions were now caught.

“Is this for real?” Side asked as she looked over Sonata’s shoulder.

“Yeah, looks like it,” Sonata answered, not taking her eyes off the system as she typed along. She then looked away and pointed at the screen, adding, “But what this shit is, I’ve no idea.”

The rest looked as bizarre glyphs moved across the screen, things that weren’t even recognizable. They were nothing like they’d seen before, and most likely nothing like any of the common languages on the planet.

“What the fuck is this shit?” Aria asked. “Moon runes?”

“Says the Chinese girl,” Evergreen commented.

“Hey, I’m 100% All-Canadian Girl,” the pigtailed teen replied with a grin. “Either way, Chinese does not look like that.”

“Hey, that actually looks familiar,” Evergreen said, to the surprise of everyone present…except one.

“Oh, shit, here we go again,” Side groaned.

“Sis, I don’t make fun of your hobbies, so please don’t make fun of mine.”

“Greenie, my hobbies involve watching hockey and reruns of The Red Green Show. Yours involves batshit stuff.”

“No, I swear I’ve seen that before!” Evergreen said, moving away from the computer and towards the room she and Side shared. “Be right back!”

“Something we should know, Sides?” Adagio asked.

“You really don’t want to know, Dagi, trust me.”

“Sides, if this is going to degrade our unit performance….”

“No, this is a personal thing. My sister….” Side sighed. “Greenie has some odd hobb—”

“HAH! I was right!” Evergreen came into the room, bearing a book in her hands. “It’s Linear A! I was right! So it’s true!”

“Greenie, no, it’s not, okay?”

“Of course it is! Think about it! Where did the Prince get his magic from?”

“Well, for starters, we don’t know if he actually does have magic,” Side countered, “weird shit that Cantata is doing notwithstanding.”

“Personally speaking,” Adagio cut in, “I’m far more inclined to believe magic than previously. What Wine changed into can’t be normal. Regardless, assuming the Project ANTHEMUSA documentation is correct, he inherited his abilities from his ancestor, Bald-something-or-other.”

Evergreen grinned with the rictus of someone on the verge of triumph. “And where did Baldassare di Cavalcanti get it from?” she said with authority. “From the Black Unicorn, of course!” Hearing that, Side facepalmed, and the other girls looked in confusion.

“Wat,” Aria blurted.

“Greenie thinks that there was once an ancient civilization of unicorns,” Side explained, “and that one of them – the Black Unicorn – went rogue and taught black magic to several people around the world.”

“Exactly!” Evergreen crowed. “We now have proof!”

The room was silent for a few moments before Aria commented, “Someone please tell me she’s not related to Pinkie.”

Meanwhile, Evergreen popped over to one of the unused laptops, brought up the browser, and headed over to a particular site, turning away so the others could see. “If you ask me, I think we get an expert involved.”

Side read from the screen: “Golden Harp’s Compendium of the Lost Unicorn Civilization. Seriously, sis?”

Sonata looked at the site and giggled. “Greenie, hate to break this to you, but this is an Angelfire site. The only people who still use Angelfire are edgy twelve-year-olds and isolated conspiracy theory nutbars!”

“You mean like all the people who insist that the Canadian government would never run anything as illegal as a child soldier program?” Evergreen defended, opening a new tab and setting it to a Tripod website called SIRENs: Are the Canadian Child Assassins Real?

“Fine, fine, point,” Side said. “Let’s just get this over and done with.”

Evergreen grinned and went back to Golden Harp’s site. “GH is an expert on metaphysics and works in the occult support business here in Canterlot. Apparently she’s well-known in the brony community—”

“The what?”

“Bronies. You know, like bros and ponies – it’s the term we experts on the Lost Unicorn Civilization use to refer to ourselves,” the dark-skinned girl said with a hint of pride. “Anyone who is anyone in the brony community knows who GH is.”

“Wait…local occult su….” Sonata groaned. “Lyra. Has to be.”

“Lyra?” Aria and Adagio asked.

“A few days before we, ahem, ‘left’, I met one of Sunny’s friends, a girl by the name of Lyra Heartstrings. She works at the lone spiritualist shop in town, she’s a Wiccan, she said, and she’s looney enough to make Pinkie look like a stoic.” Sonata shook her head. “And I hate to say it, but thinking about it? Maybe Greenie has a point.”

“Seriously?” Side asked.

Adagio thought about it for a second. “Soni’s got a point, Sides. We saw what Wine turned into, and there’s no scientific explanation that we know of that could cover that. Plus, we know that for some reason, the Prince and Cantata are ritualistically murdering virgin teenagers out there – I’ve seen enough movies to know that’s Grade-A black magic shit. And we’ve looked down all the normal avenues we can, but we’re running out of time and this is the only path left.”

Aria nodded. “Look, I don’t believe any of this, but think about the Law of Parsimony: When all theories are equal, the one with the least logical issues has to be the truth.”

“Who?” Side asked.

“Parsimony of Occam, a 14th century philosopher,” Evergreen said without taking her eyes off the screen.

“Fine, fine, if this is the only way we can go, what harm can it do besides the obvious?” She looked at her sister. “You’ve got the helm, sis.”

“Right.” The goofy grin on Evergreen’s face disappeared as she started issuing marching orders. “Soni, I need you to start looking online at every possible bit of info on Baldassare di Cavalcanti, especially concerning him and the Black Unicorn.”

“Roger that,” she said, flexing her hands out and cracking her knuckles.

“I need the best person at stealth to break into the Canterlot Library. They have a small collection of occult books that due to their age have to be checked out of reference and can’t leave the building. I’ll need everything taken.”

“Leave that to me,” Aria said. “That’s what I’m best at.”

She then turned to Side. “Sis, you and Dagi head to San Francisco. There’s a large occult center there, and I’ll need you two to look up whatever information you can.”

Adagio looked at the clock. “If we leave now, we can get there a little after two. That should give us several hours to do some spelunking.”

“Good,” Side said. “Let’s get ready. We’ll be out the door in fifteen minutes.”

“And what are you going to do, Greenie?” Sonata asked.

The older girl went over to the laptop and started to download a gaming program. “She’s usually on chat about now. I’m going to ask her if we can meet in person. If anyone can point us in the right direction, it should be her.”

Author's Note

This chapter was actually finished last week, but after some consultation with my 7DSJ collaborators, we decided to make some changes. I'm glad, because this chapter and next are some of the strongest work I've done for the series, so much so that I ended up splitting the chapter in twain.

Let's just say that next chapter will wow you.

August 12, PM: Tears of a Clown

In the depths of space, four planets spun around a white ball of gas in the center, as each of the rocky spheres hurtled in their orbits towards a predestined location that would change the course of things to come.

Standing on an asteroid in the orbit of the blue world carrying the dominant lifeform of this system, a figure watched. A sad look came over her eyes. She knew what was to come, though she did not know how it would play out.

“This has been willed where what is willed must be,” the figure said sadly, “but I have done enough. And now it must begin.”

She looked at the blue ball and the hell that it would experience in a few days, and thought of the long game she’d played. A game that should never have been played, but she did anyway, for a reason that no living being could forgive…but one she needed to.

Because that’s what love meant.

Sunset sat at the edge of the Sundial bridge, looking at the ducks swimming by on the river. She tried to enjoy their little ducky ways, but she couldn’t.

“GOOD!” a scream repeated in her mind. “YOU SHOULD BE!”

Sunset froze as the scene played once again in her head, seeing those friendly blue eyes become virtual fireballs of hatred. For the first time, Sunset had seen how much Pinkie had once truly hated her, and it scared her shitless. She recalled the weeks of the immediate aftermath of the Homecoming disaster, when nearly the entire school had hated her, and only nearly because she wasn’t sure if she hated herself enough during that time.

I hurt Pinkie. I hurt one of my friends so much that she remembered that hatred and finally showed me. Sunset couldn’t even fathom what she did that would have turned such a friendly girl against her with that level of intensity. She knew Pinkie had the hots for Royal Atlas, but frankly, she didn’t give a shit about that guy. If I recall correctly, he was a stuck-up motherfucker, but that was probably how I saw him through the lens of the person I used to be. She tried to think about that year, but couldn’t come up with anything – she’d done too many things to too many people to remember anything other than the “hits”. I really never did anything significant to Pinkie, because frankly, I didn’t care. I’d always thought of her as some druggie.

Sunset looked up to see a loving couple walking on the bank. The girl had frizzy hair like Pinkie, though in tones of light brown and magenta, while the guy looked nothing like Atlas. Still, there was something about them that reminded Sunset of the pair. There’s something there, something that I just can’t remember, and it hurt Pinkie bad. Bad enough that the others wouldn’t tell me and enough that she practically bludgeoned me with just its existence.

For the first time in a long time, she almost wished that Princess Celestia had actually ordered Sunset’s execution. Because right now, not knowing what she did? She felt almost as numb as death itself.

“Mind if I sit here?” Sunset turned to look and saw Compass Rose standing there. She looked like she’d been crying.

“Hi, Rose. You okay?” Sunset asked, patting the spot next to her. The other girl brushed aside her skirt and sat down as well.

“No. I…I just needed to get away for a while. Berry and I were going through my room, going through my old childhood pictures, and I just kept seeing Scotch and Matchie over and over, and it reminded me of what I lost,” she started to sob as she started to break down again. Sunset immediately put her arms around her friend and Rose complied, crying against Sunset’s chest. “I just miss her so much,” Rose sobbed. “Why…why would anyone do that to her?”

“I don’t know, Rose. I wish I had the answers,” Sunset replied. She tried to brush aside the fact that at the funeral, Rose had begged her to solve the case that the police were clearly stumped on. Sunset hadn’t given it much thought, other than there was something out there that was wrong, and she’d been so focused on her own personal issues that she’d given it short shrift.

“Why? She was family to me, Sunny! Why would they take away someone I cared about so much?”

“The world’s not fair, Rose. It never was. Look at me. I’m an orphan, and yes, I have a family now, but I have things in my life – things that happened to me long ago – that give me nightmares now and then, things that no child should ever see.”

“Really? Is that why you were so sad when we were younger?” Rose asked. “It seemed as though you never had a smile during second grade, and then you vanished until eighth.”

Sunset bristled slightly, the realization filling her mind. She knew my counterpart? Sunset had never given much thought about her, given what little she’d discovered. But to find out someone she counted as a friend knew the other Sunset Shimmer put her at definite unease. It made the girl whose life she stole a little more physically real, no longer just an abstract on paper.

Rose moved away slightly. “I hope I didn’t make you recall something unpleasant. It’s bad enough I’m out of sorts.”

“Just that kind of day, I guess.” Sunset looked at the ducks once more, then at the loving couple, which were busy setting up. “What else do you remember about me when I was that young?” Rose looked at her in confusion, and Sunset shrugged. “I…I really don’t remember, Rose. Trust me, I would’ve remembered someone like you.”

Rose blushed. “You’re a tease, you know that?” She laughed and said, “I remember that you used to dress very nicely, and that you had all the toys that everyone our age wanted…but you looked so sad. I remember we used to play together occasionally, and I think you played from time to time with Minuette, too, but…most of the time you just read. And then at the end of the school year, you left.” Rose looked at Sunset oddly. “You really don’t remember?”

“Trust me, Rose, I can assure you that it feels like it happened to someone else.”

“Sweetheart, you seem troubled,” Sable said to Celestia. “Want to tell me about it?” The two were enjoying a nice afternoon together just lazing around the house. Somewhere along the way, he plugged a videogame console into the TV and started to goof around with it while Celestia leaned against him, reading a book in Italian; the cover read La Tragedia della Regina by some author named Stellaturbinio. However, she was too engrossed in her book to answer. “Tia?” Still nothing.

“‘So what’s that?’ he asked the ravishingly gorgeous woman,” he said offhandedly, but she still didn’t respond. Finally, he paused the game and snarked, “Tia, sometimes I secretly turn into a werewolf and worship Sombra like an ancient evil god.”

“That’s nice, dear,” she finally said, clearly having not heard a word she’d uttered.

He then went for the ultimate ploy: he then pushed aside her hair and placed tiny kisses on the nape of her neck. He’d found out it was one of the spots that turned her on. Sure enough, she dropped the book and hummed contentedly. “Sable, I thought you weren’t in the mood,” she breathed.

“I’m not,” he said, backing off, “but it got you to finally pay attention to me.”

She looked disappointed for a second, but then said, “I do pay attention to you.”

“What did I say last?”

“I….” She sighed. “Okay, I didn’t hear what you had to say. Sorry. Just wrapped up in my thoughts is all.” She set down the book. “I don’t even like this book.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah – it’s a book by an Italian fantasy author about a royal family. A princess inherits the kingdom from her mother and becomes queen. But her beloved little sister becomes jealous, and instead of talking it over, the two wage a civil war with the younger sister being defeated and exiled. The queen never finds love, because she’s considered untouchable by everyone she knows; there are no suitors from the other countries around, as they despise her kingdom’s success and fear her military might. To ward off her loneliness, she adopts two young girls and a boy, and absolutely loves them but in the end, she’s distant to them because she must remain queen first rather than a parent. The older daughter is surprisingly well-adjusted and falls in love with one of her bodyguards, but the queen never really notices this, and one day said princess runs off with a guard to a distant land; they become king and queen there, but now the first queen has an unintended rival, because her daughter is approachable in the ways her mother never was. As for the queen’s son, he becomes a wastrel, always sleeping with the maids and boasting about how he is the most important man in the lands. But it is her youngest daughter, the one that adores her mother and wishes to follow in her ways, that troubles the queen most.” Celestia set down the book. “I can never really finish the book. There’s something about it that feels too personal.” She finally turned to him. “What did you want?”

“It’s more along the lines of what you wanted, hon,” he told her. “You’ve been quiet all day since we got back from brunch and been buried in that book you say you dislike. If you ask me, I think that it has something to do with those girls you talked to earlier.”

“I think I went too far,” Celestia said. “I embraced one of my students in public.”

“That’s not a shame, hon. Shows you’re human.”

“No, it shows favoritism. Remember my friend Velvet? That girl – Sunset – is her older daughter. If that becomes publicly known, that could be a problem for me. Furthermore, those girls are her best friends. And I acted—”

“You acted like someone who cares about those girls, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Sable told her. “Tia, I obviously haven’t been an educator as long as you have, but it’s clear that you care about them. It’s not a shame to admit that you have favorite students over another – everyone does. It’s only when you favor them over others in a school setting – in a school setting – where it would be wrong. And personally, I don’t recall Mexican restaurants being exactly known for their educational qualities.”

“Sable, I’m being serious here!” Celestia huffed.

“So am I. I know you’re concerned about doing the right thing, because you’re under a microscope right now since you might be promoted. But you also have to realize that you are human, and you need to be one, hon. Sombra’s told me the number of times that you’ve been somewhat…unapproachable because you were worried that you would prioritize one thing over another, and I have seen that in you.” He frowned. “Let’s be honest: if I hadn’t saved you that day, would you have gone out with me if I asked?”

“Sable….”

“Would you have?”

A pause. “No.” She turned away. “It would’ve been…improper…for a superintendent to fraternize with a teacher.”

He sighed. “No, it would be improper for a superintendent to fraternize with a teacher directly in the chain of command, which only happens almost never. And that certainly doesn’t apply to summer school employees, given that it’s only a temporary job. And lastly, even if it did, Sombra oversees me, not you. Sure, it’s a bit of fraternization given that Sombra and I are friends, but I’m not exactly sleeping with him.”

Celestia laughed. “I think Chrys might have something to say about that,” she teased. “But yes, you’re right. Maybe sometimes I do feel like the queen in that story, pushing away everyone by the virtue of constantly trying to do the right thing. Maybe it’s why I couldn’t help Sunset for so long.” She then fell silent for long time, long enough that Sable started to worry.

“Hon?” he asked.

“I want a child,” she said softly. “I want to be a mother. That’s what it is. I want a child of my own, Sable!”

He slightly backed off. “Tia, our relationship is strong – I mean….”

She laughed. “I know what you mean, you dork. We’ve only been together a little bit and we’re already living together, but even I think it’s a little too early to discuss marriage, much less what comes after.” She leaned over and kissed him quickly, then backed off. “It’s just…I’m well past the point that I should have children. And—”

He placed a gentle finger on her lips. “We have all the time in the world to talk about this later, Tia. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. Let’s take this one step at a time and we’ll get there eventually.”

“Love, I might age gracefully, but even I grow older – I’m not some ancient immortal, you know. Sooner or later the biological clock is going to run out.” She looked heartbroken right now, though he knew it wasn’t her fault. “I’ve had so many chances for love and I blew it all. I’m not letting this one slip by.”

“You’re not, Tia. I’m here. I promise.” He reached over and held her and the two stayed like that for a while.

“Oh, I just remembered something,” she said. “Are we doing anything this weekend?”

“Not that I’m aware of, why?”

“Luna wants to have a barbeque over at her place. Her, us and her boyfriend. Apparently, Moni’s noticed that Lu and I now have ‘lives’, and she wants us to introduce you both to the family. Fortunately, Lu and I agree that we should give you two a bit of warning, so she’s having us all get together so you and Shadow can figure out how you two are going to protect yourselves when Mama, Papa and Moni tear into you.”

“Trust me, sweetheart, I’ve been through the worst street-to-street internecine warfare ever. This should be a walk in the park by comparison.”

“Trust me: it’s worse than you think,” Celestia insisted. “At least be glad that Luna and I love both of you enough to give you a metaphorical sword before we throw you to the lions.”

Why do I need to adult right now? Octavia muttered silently. I’m too young to have to adult. “Sunny, would you please come downstairs now? The others should be here in a few minutes and frankly, this isn’t fair to our friends.”

It had started around noon, when Rarity called Octavia to find out if Sunset had come home. She hadn’t, and that began several hours of her calling Sunset to find out what happened as well as all their friends calling to find out if Sunset had yet returned, the answer in either case being no. Finally, about an hour ago, Sunset came home looking worse for wear and emotionally exhausted, but before Octavia could ask her what happened, she walked past Twilight without a word, upstairs into her bedroom and shut the door.

“Sunny, I’m coming in,” Octavia said as she opened the door, and she found Sunset, lying on the bed, looking as if she’d been crying.

Sunset looked at Octavia right now as she lay on her bed, feeling and looking frazzled. “I…I just can’t deal with it right now, Tavi. I can’t.”

Octavia sat down next to Sunset. “Want to tell me what happened over there?”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?” The look in Sunset’s cyan eyes was one of sorrow; Octavia knew that look too many times. “Just tell them that I’m feeling under the weather and I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Look, if this is about what Twily did—”

“No, it’s not. And I appreciate you talking to her, even if it blew up in your face,” Sunset began.

You have no idea, the raven-haired teen thought, recalling the conversation she’d had with her younger cousin just a few hours earlier. It did not go well at all, but that was something Sunset didn’t need to hear right now. “Whatever happened, hiding isn’t the answer, and you know it. If you argued with them because you defended your sister, there’s no shame in that.”

“It wasn’t about her, okay? My past came to bite me in the ass again, and there’s nothing I can do about that.”

“Talk to me, please?”

Sunset said nothing, however, and just turned around. A second later, Octavia left the room. “I cannot believe the drama around here,” she grumbled. “I’m the one who needs medical help and my cousins just went insane. Why me?”

Twilight poked her head out of the kitchen. “Almost done with the cookies,” she said to Octavia. “Made enough for everyone, even the freeloader upstairs.”

“Twily, not now, okay?” Octavia grunted, though she had to privately admit that was the closest thing Twilight had made to a positive comment about her sister so far today. Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, the doorbell rang. Octavia walked over and opened the door, grumbling, “Welcome to Drama Central, where the one being medicated for DID is apparently the sanest teenager in the house.”

Standing outside, five girls had sobered looks on their faces, Pinkie strangely most of all. “I take it she doesn’t want to speak to us,” Rarity said softly.

Octavia moved aside so the others could come in. “She told me to lie and say she’s not feeling well, but she’ll be okay in time for the trip,” she said non-chalantly. “What the fuck happened?”

Rainbow sighed. “We gave her an ultramatum,” she said.

“Ultimatum, Rainbow, not ultramatum,” Fluttershy clarified.

“Whatever, Flutters. Anyway, we told her that she wasn’t being fair to her family by keeping her secret and making us keep it as well, so we told her that she had to tell you by the time we got back from our trip, or else we were going to tell you guys. And then shit got worse.”

Octavia’s eyebrow shot up. “Got worse?”

Applejack nodded. “Yeah. By coincidence, Ms. Celestia just happened to be there, and she overheard us. She then came over and insisted she’d help enforce it, too.”

“Wait – Ms. Celestia was there?” Octavia asked and the other girls nodded. “And there really is a secret – and she knows?” Another nod. “Fuck, and we all thought Twily was overreacting to those letters after Ms. Luna explained what they really were.”

“Well….” Fluttershy began, “In a sense, she was, but Sunny did herself no favors by not telling everyone the truth a long time ago. And I hate to break a promise like this, because it’s a great way to lose a friend….”

Everyone looked at Pinkie for the inevitable outburst, but instead she had a heartsick look on her face. “I fucked up,” was all she could say.

“Anyway, Octavia, darling,” Rarity interjected, “We are all just as guilty as her for letting this sit too long, and we all agreed that enough is enough. We cannot let her make a mistake that would damage the relationship between herself and those she loves. And even if we end up losing her as a friend because of this – though I sincerely hope it won’t come to that – we’re doing to do it anyway, because we care.”

“Care about what?” Twilight asked as she came out of the kitchen with a tray of cookies and sodas. “Hi girls. Want any? Also made a second batch just for you, Pinkie. I’ll make it double if you can get rid of the pest upstairs.”

“TWILY!” Octavia barked.

Applejack looked at Twilight. “Sugarcube, you know we never meant to hurt you like that. We’re all friends, and friends go through rough spells. But in the end, we all back each other up, and we try to do what’s right for one another. And that’s why we’re trying to do what’s right for you and Sunny.”

“Me, I guess – she’s not family,” Twilight said. Everyone there just gave her a stare, and Twilight folded her arms. “Fine, whatever. Look, I don’t know how to feel about that right now, but I’ll accept your apologies. As it is, I’m far angrier with my supposed sister.”

“No, not ‘supposed’, Twily,” Pinkie snapped, her voice rising. “She is your sister. Despite how angry you may be with her, she loves you and cares about you. You didn’t see her go through all the Goddamn shit when you were under the Vibe’s aftereffects. She lost sleep, got in trouble in her classes – she was losing it because she loves you and she didn’t know how to help! If you really knew what the hell she had to go through to save you, you wouldn’t be so Goddamn high and mighty about it – she went through her own personal hell, just for you! SO IF YOU THINK I’M GOING TO STAND HERE AND LET YOU SLAM HER, YOU BI—”

Rainbow immediately grabbed her and pulled her back. “Hey, hey ease up on the throttle there, Pinks. We’re all cool, okay?”

Pinkie had a disgusted look on her face. “Sorry,” she said to no one in particular.

“Can we please all get back to being friends?” Applejack asked.

Octavia ushered the others to the couch. She and Twilight sat on the loveseat, while Applejack and Rainbow purposefully sat on either side of Pinkie on the couch. Fluttershy and Rarity took the plush chairs on the far side.

“Ladies, it’s fair to say that these have been a trying few days for us,” Rarity said, “and we are all due a vacation. Now, since we know our little sisters are not coming after all, I think it’s safe to say we can just rent a large passenger van that can transport us all.”

“Or maybe just a small one – remember that I have a minivan that I transport my instruments in,” Octavia pointed out. “Well, used to, at any rate.” The room fell into an awkward silence before she added, “In any case, I don’t mind switching out driving duties with someone else.”

“I suppose so, but it probably makes more sense to just get one so we don’t have to spend so much money on gas,” Rarity suggested.

“Actually, if that’s the case, no need,” Applejack told her. “Pa just bought a new van for the store, so he said we can use it before we get rid of the old van. Since it doesn’t have the store markings on the side, shouldn’t be a problem. But it should fit all of us and the gear we’re taking with no problem.”

“Well, that’s unexpectedly fortuitous,” Rarity commented. “Any problem with the foods, Pinkie?”

“Nope! Uncle Carrot said that he and Auntie Cup need a vacation anyway, so he’s just going to close both cafés for the week and give me, Sunny and Blossom full pay – says we deserve it for all the business we’ve brought to both cafés.”

“Dad said he was going to see about getting us some camping gear from some of the stores he oversees,” Rainbow said, “but then I told him we got a group cabin. So he said he’s going to lend me his access card in case we need anything from the Main6 store in Modesto.”

“Access card?” Octavia asked.

“Yeah, it’s a special manager’s card that lets him get free camping or sports gear whenever he needs to. It’s something that regional managers and above have, so he tends not to overdo it.” He sighed. “The one time he gives me the card and I can’t get all the soccer stuff in the universe.”

“You’ll live,” Fluttershy teased. “And speaking of the cabin, I called the campgrounds and confirmed our reservation.”

“I’ve got all the bedding, so we should be fine bunking together.” Octavia coughed and said, “Twily, not now, okay?”

“Fine, I’ll bring a sleeping bag just in case,” Twilight muttered.

“Well, it sounds like we’ve got everything in hand then. I suggest we all meet here then. If you want, I can pick up Pinkie and Rarity. Flutters, if you pick up Rainbow, I don’t think my aunt and uncle will mind you leaving your car here,” Octavia suggested.

“That works for me,” Fluttershy said with a smile.

The next few minutes were spent just chatting about all the things they wanted to do down there. As they did, Twilight started to relax around her friends again, glad that she had them. She’d felt isolated from them just because they were her friends first, but now she realized that didn’t mean they would cut her out of their lives – they weren’t that petty. A part of her mind told her that word better suited her right now, but she ignored it. Eventually, she sincerely apologized and Pinkie bearhugged her in return, saying that everyone has their moments and not to let it get her down.

Several minutes later, Fluttershy announced, “Okay, I’m going to call for the pizzas now. Should we think about what we want? Also, do you know what kind of pizza your parents want, Twily?”

“Oh, don’t worry about them, Flutters. They called earlier in the day to say that since we moved our meeting, it would be a great time for them to have a date night. And as for Spike, my brother and Cady are taking him to go see the Stars play the Blue Jays tonight, so we have the house to ourselves.”

Cantata felt both giddy and charmed. This was what she wanted. After all, admittedly, in the end she was a woman and like any woman she just wanted to feel some affection from the guy in her life. And right now, that affection was magnified by the absolute humor she was watching.

“What?” he asked, as the tailor continued to adjust the outfit Divine had ordered. An authentic replica of the military uniform of his ancestor, the Emperor Bonaparte I of France. Back in the day, it probably looked both imposing and regal. Nowadays, however, it looked more than a little bit silly.

He saw her grin and smile. “But I must, my dear. After all, I am of the House of Bonaparte.”

“Mister,” the tailor said, “for all the money in the world you’re paying for this costume, you could be Emperor Presidio himself. This costume party you’re planning to attend must be swank for all the accuracy you want in this.”

“Ah, costume party. Yes, it will be quite a show,” Divine pronounced.

Cantata smiled; she only planned to wear her formal dress blues when the time came, though she supposed she’d need to promote herself once she became ruler. Admiral of the Fleet Cantata Blast, Empress of the World? She liked the sound of that – liked it a lot. “You need something a little more casual, just in case it gets too hot. What about a cravat as well?”

“A cravat? What do you take me for, some commoner?” he gasped.

“You’re really good at that imperious tone – you must be a professional actor,” the tailor laughed. “You know what? I’m having so much fun off this commission, I’ll throw one in, free of charge. This has been a fun venture – you won’t believe how many people only have tailors for just tweaking stuff. They tend to forget, we can make clothing and costumes, too.”

“Well, he is quite the performer,” Cantata admitted.

“You seem quite taken with my performances, my dear,” Divine told her.

“Wouldn’t be marrying you if I wasn’t,” she told him. “But you’d better make good on your promise to me, buster!”

“You hear that? You don’t want to piss off the lady,” the tailor told Divine, the smile of one too many memories coming onto his face. “Once you get the wifey pissed, well, you don’t know what she can do.”

“Oh, I assure you I do,” Divine told him. “It’s why she’s in my life to begin with.”

As Sunset heard the goings-on downstairs, she felt isolated, alone. She wanted to belong, but at the same time, she felt she couldn’t. As strange as it was, she felt…anonymous, as if she didn’t exist.

She thought about firing up her computer, but gaming really didn’t feel fun without one’s friends. Same with surfing the net and chatting on Facebook. And she was never one for Twitter. She didn’t feel like reading and everything there made her feel all the emptier for what was occurring at this very moment in the opposite end of the house.

And then her eyes set on the dragonfire candle. There was at least one friend she could talk to right now. She went over and tapped the dragonfire candle, and as it lit and then switched over from normal orange flame to magical green, she picked up her phone and dialed a phone number. Ostensibly the phone number in question was officially a Google Voice line attached to her phone, it was actually attached to her old phone, which was on the other side of the dimensional veil.

“C’mon, pick up the phone,” Sunset whispered, hearing everyone laugh downstairs. “Pick up the phone….”

After a second, someone did. “Uh, hello?” a young, halting voice said.

“Hey, Spike, it’s me – Sunset Shimmer. Is your sister home?”

“Oh, heya, Sunny. This thing is weird. What did you call it again? A sailcone?”

“Cellphone,” she told the dragon. “And you can walk it over to her. The range to the candle should be enough to keep up the LTE signal. Just make sure your candle stays lit.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he told her, “but she’s in her office.” The dragon walked along and the two talked about various things, from how everypony was doing, to Twilight’s latest endeavor with the mirror. “She and Princess Luna work on it whenever they can. I think they’re anxious for you to be able to come home whenever you want.”

“I appreciate that, but for me, home is here, Spike. I do get what you mean, though.”

“Well, I’m here,” he told her and there were a few seconds of muffled conversation before a new voice came online.

“Heya, Sunny!” Princess Twilight chirped.

“Heya, Twi. Hope I didn’t call at a bad time,” Sunset commented.

“No, the girls and I just got back from our latest misadventure,” the alicorn replied. “We took a trip to Sibearia – always wanted to visit the polar bear lands, and Celestia, Luna and Cady all couldn’t go for various reasons. Anyway, the polar bears were on the verge of a diplomatic spat with Yakyakistan, but fortunately we were able to help the Sibearian prime minister with her friendship problem, so it worked out. But that’s enough about me. How’s things going on your end?”

“It could be better. Do you have time to talk?”

“We’re friends, Sunny – I always have time to talk to friends. Is your sister okay?”

Sighing, Sunset then went into a detailed explanation of how her life had gone to hell in the past few days and how she had no clue to fix it. That she’d managed to horribly reveal to her friends that they had counterparts, and that somewhere along the way she’d infuriated Pinkie. And as things stood now, her sister hated her, her cousin didn’t – but only because Octavia didn’t know yet – and she wasn’t sure where she stood with those she cared most about. If anything, she felt she was on the verge of losing everything she loved.

There was a pregnant pause before Twilight spoke. “I know you didn’t mean to, but I think you made things worse,” the alicorn stated. “And I know it can be scary to reveal important secrets, especially in a unique situation such as yours, but the others are right: it’s time to tell your family the truth.”

“Twi, ‘I used to be a unicorn’ isn’t going to go over well, especially when I change into one.”

“Have you already?”

“Pinkie, AJ and Rarity know what I really look like, so yes.”

“And that means you can do it. If they can deal with it, why can’t those who love you?”

“Because my friends have known what I am for close to a year now, so they were prepared.”

“But they didn’t know when you changed into….” Twilight politely left off the rest of her sentence, then started again. “Regardless, despite seeing it for the first time, they managed.”

“You were with them when they ponied up, Twi. They didn’t have a choice but to manage, and for a while afterwards, they felt weirded out by it and me. And you know what Pinkie said to you.”

“I do. And truthfully, I have a hard time reconciling the happy-go-lucky pony I know with what your Pinkie told me. Obviously, there’s differences between my friends and yours, but in the end, she forgave you, right?”

“I thought she did, but after today, I don’t really know anymore.”

“That’s not true. If she forgave you, then she forgave you and even the bitterest of memories won’t change that.” Sunset could practically hear her friend’s smile in her words. “You have ponies and humans that care about you and want to be there for you. All you have to do is just open your heart and believe.”

“I wish it were that easy, Twi. But the human world isn’t that simple.”

“Yes it is – friendship always is. We might not be as advanced technologically as you, but we are in magic. And regardless, humans and ponies are both sapient and sapient beings are always complex. You just have to let yourself believe.”

The conversation eventually moved onto other topics, with Twilight briefly talking about Rarity’s new “Anthro” fashion line based on the fashion magazines Sunset had sent her. The critics were raving about how bold and avant garde the outfits were, especially the hoodies. Pinkie was loving the cookbooks and the Cakes were thinking about adding an additional site to the business given how much the party pony’s unique new recipes were bringing business hoof over hoof. As for the others, Applejack had planted the apple seeds from Earth and couldn’t wait to see how they fared; Fluttershy was grateful for the extra veterinarian books, especially since the town vet had recently moved; Rainbow had plans to see if she could create a pony version of soccer based on the stuff Sunset had sent her; and Raspberry appreciated the cleaning supplies Sunset had sent – ponies were amazed to see the inn spotless without any use of magic whatsoever. And last but not least, Twilight had of course appreciated all the books and Spike the comics.

“Well, I hate to end this call – it’s called a ‘call’, right? – but I have a lot of paperwork to do. The Princess fun never ends,” Twilight moaned. “Sometimes I wish I was just still the town librarian.”

“Thanks for listening, Twi. I appreciate it.”

“Not a problem. But before I go, I want you to remember something I told you before: if your sister’s anything like me, she’s tougher than she looks. Twily might be shocked to find out what you really are, but she loves you, I know it. And she’ll be there for you, because she’s your family, and family always looks out for each other.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. Anyway, goodnight!” A pause. “Uh, how do I turn this off?”

“Just press the button with the red crescent pointing down. Anyway, night!” Sunset hung up the phone, then deactivated the dragonfire candle, the flame reverted back to a normal one and filled the room with a pine scent. She then lay down back on her bed, wondering if she should brave going downstairs to get food or risk teleporting to the nearest Burger Shack.

That option vanished when someone knocked on the door. “Sunny?” a familiar voice sounded from the other side of the door, and Sunset froze – it was Pinkie. “Can I come in?”

“Uh, I’m feel—”

“No, you’re not,” Pinkie insisted. “I brought dinner for you – thought we could eat together.”

A growl from Sunset’s stomach suddenly uttered, and she knew she was trapped. “Sure, come in,” she said, and Pinkie walked in the door with a pizza box, a six-pack of Cherry Coke, some napkins and paper plates.

“It’s just you and me,” Pinkie said as she set the pizza and soda on Sunset’s desk. “Besides, we need to talk.”

“I…uh….” Sunset began, then took a breath and said what was on her mind: “Pinkie, do you hate me?”

“No,” Pinkie said, taking some napkins and a plate, then opening the box and throwing two slices on it before passing those and a Coke to Sunset. “I never could now. I was just overcome by my memories earlier, sorry,” she said.

“I see,” Sunset told her, taking the pizza. “Pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms – my favorite.”

Pinkie smiled. “Mine, too.” She took a bite, and then looked at Sunset. “I told the others that if I was going to expect you to come clean to your family, then I had to be honest with you as well. Frankly, Rarity thinks it’s a bad idea, but I told her I needed to, that you and I are big girls and that if we want to be technical, you’re already an adult.”

The two sat there and ate in silence for a few minutes, before they set down their plates. “Can I sit next to you?” Pinkie asked.

“Sure,” Sunset said, sitting up and scooting over, and Pinkie slowly moved over.

Pinkie was silent for a long time before she spoke. “When I was a freshman, I started dating Royal Atlas. And I thought the world of him. In fact, you could argue that he was my only world, given that you had started to destroy the bonds between me and the others, and I was on the auxiliary cheerleading group since there were so many that tried out that year so I had no real friends there, either. I loved him more than I could say, and he was good to me. Auntie Cup and Uncle Carrot trusted him and even when I told him about my health problems, he stood by me.”

“Health problems?” Sunset asked. “I didn’t know you had health problems. Sure, I knew you had something when you were a kid, but—”

“There are two things that run in my family. The first was degenerative nerve disease, which they were thankfully able to cure with the experimental treatment I got. My name’s somewhere in a medical textbook as a footnote,” Pinkie said with a small smile. “But eventually they found there was a price to be had for that treatment: somehow, it triggered another disease that runs in my mother’s side of the family: bipolar disorder. I have it – I know, shocking, huh? – but I’ve kept it mostly in check with regular doses of lithium.”

“I…I didn’t know,” Sunset admitted.

“I know you didn’t know. Maybe – just maybe – it would have stopped you from stealing my bookbag – and my monthly supply of lithium pills – if you had.”

Sunset’s eyes widened as she suddenly remembered. She’d wrangled Snips and Snails into her plans, and the two guys, desperate to impress a girl, followed along willingly, stealing just about every bag in the school, including their own, just to avoid suspicion. They’d brought it to an abandoned building – not the one Sunset lived in, but one closer to the school and Sunset had told them that she’d return them in two days. Instead, she raided them all for money, food and things she could sell. It was one of the many things she had regretted, and she was lucky she hadn’t been arrested for it.

But now, as she found out she had greatly harmed one of the girls that had become her friend, it was all she could do to look at Pinkie. “I’m sorry,” she said, meaning every word of it.

“It wasn’t entirely your fault, Sunny. I’d picked up the pills the day before and my aunt and uncle had warned me to separate them into those weekly pill containers, and I was too dumb to do so. In any case, I’d lost all my pills, and I could feel myself coming onto a low end. Fortunately, Atlas noticed and said he would cover for me. He even went to go buy me some generic ones.” She gave Sunset a smile. “At the time, as young and stupid as I was, I thought I found the guy that I’d be with forever. I used to dream of being the wife of Royal Atlas.”

But the smile came off her face as she said, “And then I met Sweet Cicely.”

“Who?”

Pinkie looked out the window at the trees. “Sweet Cicely, his stepsister. Apparently, she used to live with her father, but then something happened and she came to live with Atlas’ family. Because I was dating Atlas, we got to know each other. And for a while, I had a new best friend. Cicely and I were close, and because I thought she’d be my sister-in-law someday, she also meant the world to me. Atlas later told me it was Cicely that had been the one to get me the pills and I loved her for that. I would have done anything for her, because I knew I could trust her.

“She told me about a party coming up, one that she had promised to go to, but was afraid of attending alone. She asked me to go, and after I got the go-ahead from Auntie Cup, I said sure. I’d stay the night with Cicely, and we’d go to the party. Atlas was on the JV baseball team, so he’d be out of town. And she promised me I’d have the best night ever.”

“I didn’t.” Pinkie began to cry, and Sunset instinctively put her arms around Pinkie, only to have them batted away. “You know, when I heard about everything you did for those girls affected by the Club, I was so happy. Because you protected all of them and put down the motherfuckers that needed to be downed.

“You saved all of them, Sunny. All of them except the very first girl.

“Me.”

Sunset gasped, and Pinkie looked at her with a sad face. “The party Cicely took me to wasn’t what I thought it was. For that matter, what I thought she gave me, new lithium pills, weren’t what I thought they were, either. The pills were placebos, and I was sliding into dependency without even knowing it. And Atlas? He never loved me – in fact, he’d made a bet with his sister to see which of them could bed me first. And Cicely? Cicely thought she’d give a present to all the guys she’d been sleeping with since she arrived.

“I was the first victim of the Club, because many of those boys there later started that group. I honestly don’t know if you know this, but you might not have been the first girl Flash slept with. That was probably me – and ‘sleeping with’ is putting it nicely.” She briefly shivered, though the room was nowhere near cold. “And I will never forget that moment, being…being degraded by Atlas and Flash at the same time, while Cicely laughed at me because I dared to take her boyfriend from her. And guess who that was?” Pinkie laughed bitterly. “Some things stay in the family, I guess. And after they were done, she….” Pinkie started to cry again, and Sunset reached out once more. This time, Pinkie accepted the hug and the pair stayed motionless for several minutes, the only sound being Pinkie’s sobs.

Finally, Pinkie managed to recover herself and said, “The day after, I found out that they’d been ‘checked out of school’ because their parents had to suddenly move. In all that time, I’d never met their parents. Nowadays? I have to wonder if there honestly were any, or if Atlas and Cicely were actually stepsiblings…or even underage, like us.” Pinkie looked at Sunset with a glance that suddenly made her feel guilty. “They wouldn’t have been the first people I knew who turned out to be far older than they claim to be.”

“Pinkie, I—”

“Sunny, please, let me finish. I don’t know if I have the strength to ever talk about this again, but I need to tell you.” Sunset nodded and Pinkie continued. “It was a few weeks later that I started to feel sick and bloated in the mornings. To this day, I’m amazed that Auntie Cup never figured it out, because she was going through the same things that I was at the same time.” Pinkie looked away again. “Morning sickness.”

“Morning sickness? I don’t know what that is.”

Pinkie nodded. “Guess it must be different for ponies, then. Well, for humans, morning sickness happens in women when their hormones start to change in preparation for the months ahead.” She shook her head and said, “It’s the first indicator that you’re pregnant.”

That almost broke Sunset’s mind. “What?”

Pinkie looked at her friend. “Sunset, I was gangraped by your boyfriend, my supposed boyfriend, several guys at the school and one twisted girl who laughed at me all the while. Do you think they were actually concerned enough to wear condoms?”

Sunset looked at her in shock and added, “But you don’t….”

“I know. And I’ll hate myself forever for it. And nothing you can say will make me forgive myself, or you, or Atlas or anyone else involved for what happened next. Rarity, thanks to all those romance novels and teen magazines figured it out after she saw me throw up on two successive days. And even though we were at odds, for the sake of our old friendship, she helped me take care of it.” Pinkie leaned against Sunset again and said, “There’s a clinic in Norville that all the teens in town joke about where you go when you were, and I quote, ‘fucking stupid’. Well the place is no joke, and I was fucked in the ‘nicest’ way of putting it. I suppose you could say I was stupid, given that I’d fallen for the worst guy possible.

“I still have nightmares from that day. The doctor says you don’t remember what happens, but that’s a lie. I did. I do. And that day I flushed what would have been my child down the memory hole.” Pinkie started to cry again and Sunset put her arms around her once more. “It’s funny, you know? I’ve never really bought into the hyper-religious crap my mom spews every time I’m over there, and for the most part, I’m pro-choice. But…every time I see a girl around that age, or a girl I think would look like her, I die a little inside. People tease Blossom about deciding not to have an abortion, but I swear to God I will beat the Goddamn shit out of anyone who says that in front of me, because she’s braver than I will ever be. I don’t have the courage to do what she did, and I never will.”

Sunset was silent for a long time – what could she say? “Pinkie, I’m speechless right now. I didn’t know and I don’t even know where to begin saying anything.”

“How can you? You were indirectly responsible for me being raped and having an abortion. And truthfully, maybe not even that. Maybe Atlas would have switched my pills, or slipped me a roofie, or maybe Cicely would’ve just hit me over the head with a baseball bat and let everyone do their thing while I lay there with a concussion. I don’t know – I don’t want to know. But after Atlas and Cicely bailed, I had to focus my blame and hatred somewhere, and you were the most obvious target, given the bitch you were and what you did to me. It got as bad as I told you. And I’m sorry I did that.”

“Sorry?” Sunset immediately pushed a hand back and blasted the door with a privacy spell, her hand glowing with cyan fire. She immediately turned back to Pinkie with a look of horror and gasped, “You’re sorry? For what you did to me?” Her eyes started to fill with tears and she wanted to die. “Pinkie, I ruined your life! I don’t know anything about abortions, but I know with the magical equivalent, they’re so dangerous they run the risk of a mare never being able to foal again! And I did that to you! You don’t have anything to apologize to me for!” Sunset wailed as she realized even if she’d been possessed by a demon, she’d been a horrific monster long before that.

But it was Pinkie who reached over and wiped the tears from Sunset’s eyes. “Please don’t cry, Sunny. It’s a pain that I will never be rid of, and one I’ve learned to live with. I will always be Pagliacci, with a smile on my face despite all the pain. And now, I don’t have to cry as much anymore, because I have someone that saved me.”

“What? Who?” Sunset asked, desperate to know. She had to thank this person at any cost. “I owe this person.”

“So do I!” Pinkie said, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “I owe this person so much.”

“Who is it? Pinkie, if this person saved you, I think I’d do anything for them.”

“Really?”

Sunset nodded. “Really.”

“You promise?”

“I promise. Even your Pinkie Promise, if that helps.”

“Will you hate me if I tell you?”

“Pinkie, I could never hate you. Frankly, I’m stunned that you still don’t hate me.”

“I can’t hate you, Sunny.”

“Why not? I deserve it.”

“Because you’re the one that saved me.”

“What?”

Pinkie, for a second, looked as if she was going to regret something. “Please don’t hate me for this.” Pinkie then pushed Sunset down on the bed.

And kissed her.

As Pinkie broke off the kiss, Sunset briefly looked as if her mind had short-circuited. “Wha?”

“Sunny, I can’t ever hate you now, because when you feel so strongly about someone, and they change, sometimes your feelings do, too.” She blushed as she hovered over Sunset and admitted, “And I’ve not-hated you for a long time now.”

“Huh?”

Pinkie laughed, and as she let Sunset up again, the flame-haired girl couldn’t tell if Pinkie’s laughter was joyful or bitter. “I finally work up the courage to tell you that I’m in love with you and you don’t get it. I swear, my life is so fucked up.”

“Wait – you’re in love with me? How? Why?”

“Sunny, you can’t control the human heart, even with all your magic. And I know you don’t and never will feel the same way about me, and I can deal with that. But after you were defeated, I wanted to die.” The look on Sunset’s face was one of confusion, and Pinkie didn’t wait for her to ask. “I’d metaphorically slain the monster that had caused my pain. And promise to Princess Twilight or not, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to fulfill it, because of my deepest shame. You see, the night I was raped, I found out three things. One, I wasn’t sure I could trust anyone, even some who loved me. Two, I was defiled, and I couldn’t tell anyone, because who was going to believe me, the cloud cuckoolander on a perpetual sugar high? And the third one? When Atlas had his way with me, and then Cicely, it was a fucked up way of finding out I’m bisexual.” Pinkie wiped her eyes and laughed bitterly. “There I was, getting raped and there’s a part of me still in love with Atlas…and realizing I’d fallen for Cicely as well. Do you know what that does to a person? I was being defiled and a part of my brain was happy, because I had them both and they had me and I didn’t have to choose which one would be my lover.

“And then once your, ahem, ‘prison sentence’ began, I had honestly considered suicide and I talked it over with the girls, who swore they’d keep it silent – as you can guess, our circle of friends is good at keeping secrets. And they begged me to reconsider, because if a girl like you could change, there was something worth living for. And so I did. And eventually, I started living for you. Eventually, love came from that.”

“Pinkie, I don’t know what to say. I’m a little overwhelmed right now, honestly.”

“Welcome to my life. And like I said, I know you’re completely straight, so what I want won’t happen. And to be honest, I mostly lean towards guys, myself…though there are a few girls that I’d go out with if they ever asked. Still, count yourself lucky: you’re probably the only girl I’ve really ever fallen for, Sunny.” Pinkie smiled, and Sunset was glad to see that for the first time since the conversation had begun, it was a true Pinkie smile. “Besides, none of us are normal – I don’t think there’s even a need for that word.”

“So, does anyone else know?”

“I think Auntie Cup knows; I don’t know about my uncle. Your parents always know something about you even if you don’t say it, and honestly, my mom and dad really aren’t my parents – my aunt and uncle are.” She gave another sincere smile. “I think that’s why she fights tooth and nail to keep me here – not just because I don’t fit in there, but because my mom is homophobic. Found that out last Christmas, though I suspect Auntie Cup’s known for longer. I also think my sister Maud knows; older sisters tend to know that sort of thing, too.” She then looked at Sunset, slipping back into timidity. “Um…Sunny, if you….”

Sunset blushed, knowing what Pinkie was about to ask. “Yes, if I were gay I would. Pinkie, I’m flattered. Really.” A thought suddenly came to mind. “Uh, when we were in the kitchen on Twily’s birthday….”

Pinkie blushed furiously. “Yes, I almost confessed. I guess I sorta did, given what I told your mom.”

“Um…okay.” Sunset looked at the clock. “Oh wow, it’s almost midnight. I guess the girls already went home. Guess I should drive you home?”

“Naaah,” Pinkie replied. “I told Uncle Carrot I was going to stay over the night.”

“Not that I mind, but why?”

“It was Rarity’s idea.” The look on Pinkie’s face became sly. “She said it was the best way to sleep with you.”

Sunset’s eyes went wide, then realized what Rarity meant. She started laughing, and in turn Pinkie did as well, and both girls leaned against each other, their giggles breaking out into full gelotologic reactions.

And for the first time in years…

…Pinkie Pie finally felt whole.

As the other four girls pulled up in front of Rarity’s house, the fashionista got out of the back seat. “Thanks for the ride, Fluttershy.”

“Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Pinkie behind?” Fluttershy asked.

“She needed this, Fluttershy, dear, and you know it,” Rarity said. “She’d been carrying around her heart for so long, it was tearing her apart. Maybe it’s just my romantic senses tingling like Spiderman, but I knew that her confessing to Sunset would give her the closure she needed. Plus, probably more than anything, her admission will be the catalyst that will really get Sunset to think about a confession of her own to her family.”

“Playing with fire, Rares,” Rainbow warned her.

“Yes, but some of us have our specialties, right?” Rarity insisted.

“Ah just hope you know what you’re doing, Rares,” Applejack insisted. “Or else one of these days, you’re going to bite off more than you can chew.”

Rarity’s smile was that of the cat that ate the proverbial canary. “If you remember that letter that my counterpart sent Sunset, you could argue that I already did. So that means she can make all the mistakes and leave the expertise to me, n’est-ce pas?”

Applejack shook her head. “You’re incorrigible, you know that?”

“Of course I do.” She winked. “Isn’t that why we’re all friends?”

As Octavia picked up the last of the pizza boxes, she looked at Twilight. “Wow, that was fun. Should do this more often.”

“I’m just glad we got a chance to,” Twilight replied. “We have some good friends.”

“Yes, we do.” Octavia picked up the final Coke and started to walk towards the kitchen. “Twily?”

“Yes.”

“I know you don’t want to hear this….”

“I already know what you’re going to say. She hurt me, Tavi. Maybe she didn’t mean to, but…she’s supposed to be my older sister. She’s supposed to trust us! What am I supposed to say to her that I haven’t already said? Besides, it wasn’t all that long ago that you said you were jealous of her and wanted her gone.”

The raven-haired girl looked crestfallen. “I…I was wrong, Twily. I thought that she was stealing my place as your older-sister type. But that’s never really been my place. That’s always been Cady, for both of us. And now Cady’s got her own life and she can’t do it as much anymore, and Sunny’s stepped in. For both you and me.” They opened the door to the garage and put the boxes in the trash can. “I never really thought about it, but I like having an older sister to rely on, Twily. And now I have Cady and Sunny. And so do you. Please don’t forget that.”

“I’m trying not to,” Twilight replied. “It’s not easy.”

Octavia put her arm on her cousin’s shoulder. “We’ve fought dozens of times before. Why is this so much harder than all those other times?”

“Because I really thought she loves us, Tavi, wanted to be a part of our family,” the plum-haired girl said, embracing her cousin in a much-needed hug. “And now? I honestly don’t know anymore.”

Lyra Heartstrings and Evergreen Pine looked across the table at each other. “Thanks for meeting me, Golden Harp. I really appreciate it.”

“Golden Harp” waved it off. “Hey, just glad to talk to a fellow aficionado about all this. Anyway, I gotta go.”

“You need a lift? It’s dangerous out there with that killer,” Evergreen said with genuine concern. Not only did she feel guilty that her fellow SIRENs were committing the murders, but she genuinely didn’t want this nice girl with a genius talent for information on the Lost Unicorn Civilization to be a victim.

In turn, the celeste-and-ivory haired girl pointed to a guy with shaggy hair the same colors as her. “Naah, got my big brother to drive me here. He’s visiting for a couple weeks from college, so I get free muscle.”

Evergreen laughed. “Anyway, thanks again for coming. Bill’s on me.”

“No, thank you, Milk Chocolate. I appreciate everything.”

Evergreen went over to the cashier, paid the bill, gave a friendly wave at the guy, then walked out of the restaurant and right over to the big Cracker Barrel sign, where she’d parked her car. She looked into the bushes and called out, “Brought you dinner; might be a little cold, though.”

“I’ll manage, somehow.” Sonata, wearing all black and a ski mask, slipped off the latter and slung Aria’s sniper rifle around her shoulder as she crawled into the back seat. Looking completely unconcerned, Evergreen got into the car and drove off. Sonata pulled off her military top and body armor, revealing a normal t-shirt underneath. She wiped her facepaint off, then as they pulled up to a stoplight with nobody around, she got out of the backseat and slipped into the front. “So, how’d it go, ‘Ms. Milk Chocolate’?”

As the light turned green and they drove off, Evergreen reached into her pocket and pulled out a flash key. “Got everything I expected, and more. She’s great at what she does, seriously.”

Sonata opened the doggie bag and pulled out the lukewarm burger and fries, munching with gusto. “I hope so. We’re taking a risk on this, Greenie.”

“I know, but what choice do we have left? We have to stop Cantata and the Prince before they commit to their plans, and if this is the road we need to travel down, as horrifying as it is, so be it.” The look on Evergreen’s face became sober. “We’re SIRENs, after all. We don’t do easy.”

“Fuckin’ A,” Sonata agreed.

They made it two more blocks before another empty traffic stop and another dark figure slipped into the car, quickly removing facepaint and the bow and quiver she’d brought with her. “Hopefully someone picked something up for me.”

“We weren’t sure when you were joining us,” Evergreen said, making a left at the signal, “but we can stop somewhere for you.”

“Sure, I think the local Del Taco’s 24 Hours,” Aria said, wiping off the last of the face paint and removing her top to reveal a camisole underneath. As she pulled away the back seat to stow all their stuff in the trunk access, she added, “It was interesting. Apparently, the library lent all their stuff to ECMAH for a special event going over there, so I had a change in plans. The museum apparently just upgraded their security, too, so that was a challenge. Plus, had to knock out the guard on duty. Shame; he was cute.” She held up a backpack. “Here’s the stuff, though.”

As they pulled up to the Del Taco, Sonata looked at her phone. “Just got a text from Dagi. They got everything we asked them to, and they’ll be back late morning tomorrow.”

“Well then, we better call it a night as soon as we get home,” Evergreen advised. “Going to be a long day tomorrow.”

“Roger that,” Aria said. “By the way, get me two chicken quesadillas and a Diet Coke, if you would.”

“Sure thing,” Evergreen said with a grin as she pulled up to the menu.

A black BMW pulled up in front of a gated home in the wealthy Northside district of Canterlot. It was one in the morning and a magical date had just come to a close.

“Thanks for a wonderful night, Jet,” Upper Crust said to her boyfriend.

Jet Set smiled. “Anything for you, honeybuns,” he said to her, flashing her a smile. “Are you sure you don’t want to come over? My parents won’t be home for the rest of the month, and as I recall, yours are out of town for the week, aren’t they?”

She was tempted, so much so that she showed a brief moment of weakness by biting her lip in front of him. Part of her imagined herself at his place, her on top of him, sweaty and breathless and she didn’t care. It was her biggest weakness, and she hated herself for it: as much as she wanted to be a master of manipulation and largely succeeded at being so, she genuinely loved Jet. So much so that she honestly wrestled with giving her maidenhood to him.

She looked at him, mentally undressed him with her eyes. His house wasn’t that far….

Sometimes I hate my life.

“Jet, I would love to,” she said, “but Mom asked me to look into something for her early in the morning, so I need to get up early,” she said with regret. “But after I’m done, I’ll come over, and we can play house, just you and me.”

“You tempt me so,” he said as she undid her seatbelt.

“Just think of it as a preview of what you’ll be getting tomorrow,” she said, giving him a kiss of desire and promise and then getting out of the car. It was all she could do right now to get out before she gave in. They looked at each other longingly, then she closed the door, letting him go.

As she watched his car disappear down the road, she gave herself a satisfactory smile. She might not be the perfect person when it came to control but she was trying. Besides, she had Jet where she wanted him. True, he had her much in the same way as well, but didn’t that make them ideal for each other?

She looked at the night sky, feeling its warmth as it were all for her. Things were almost perfect, and each day that passed inched that much closer to nirvana. One day, she knew she would get everything she wanted and deserved.

As she opened the gate to her home, she heard a rustle in the bushes that served as a perimeter fence for the home. “You really don’t want to get closer,” Crust warned. “I have mace and a stun gun on me.”

A voice spoke from behind her; it was female and taunting. “You probably have pepper spray, since mace isn’t widely available. And your stun gun is probably one of those cheap double-A models – they pack a short punch, but if you know what you’re doing, you can dissipate the charge with no effects.” Hearing that, Crust turned around to see a girl standing there. She had short hair the colors of a rave, eyes that seemed to look at Crust with naked lust, and she was literally dressed in lingerie and only that.

“You know, you really shouldn’t be dressed right now,” the stranger said. “Hard to do what comes naturally when you’re wearing all that.”
Crust rolled her eyes; she knew this type. Claimed to act like a female rapist, but in truth was nothing more than an exotic mugger. “So what do you want?” she asked. “I don’t carry cash – too gauche – and you can’t use my credit card; it’s a high enough one that you’ll be caught in a heartbeat.”

“Who says I want any of that?” the girl said, stretching; what little clothing she wore seemed to flaunt her curves as she did. “You came born with everything I want.”

Okay, this is a weird one, Crust thought to herself, but nothing I can’t handle. “Look, you’re being entirely too blatant; has anyone taught you the fine art of negotiation?” Crust took a few steps onto her family property and sat down in a bench by the fountain. “I could call 911 in a second and the cops would probably shoot first and ask questions never. There is a reason rich neighborhoods are very safe, you know. Even with the police resources stretched thin from the hurricane cleanup, they’d be here in an instant.” Crust smiled. “Or…you could let me go and I could make it worth your while.”

“Oh?” the girl asked. “How so?”

Crust smiled; she had the idiot right where she wanted her. “Let’s speak honestly, shall we? You probably came here thinking you were going to have your way with me. And frankly, the only one I want doing that to me is my boyfriend. And while I feel sort of flattered, the fact is that clearly all you care about, as boys would say, is pussy.” She reached in her purse and pulled out a phone that wasn’t her normal one. “I have a few connections on this phone and one of them is, ahem, a ‘gentleman’, shall we say, who has a few employees on hand. You let me go, and I’ll make a call. Trust me, I’ll get you so many paid girlfriends for a week that you won’t be able to walk for a month.”

The strange girl took a step closer and as she did, the thin thread on what could be called her top threatened to break, exposing what could already be seen anyway. “But then I’d have to wait,” the girl said, “and I really don’t want to.” She sat down next to the girl and ran a finger across her dusky skin. “You have everything I need, and I can smell you. You were just turned on very recently. You need something and I can give it to you.”

It took everything for Crust not to back away, but she wouldn’t show weakness. She’d lose if she did, and she never lost, especially to freaks like this girl. “You’re making a big mistake, you know that?”

In the distance, a dog – probably the neighbor’s – started to bark, and then suddenly yelped in pain before going silent. Crust jerked at that and the girl laughed. “Oh, don’t mind that,” she laughed. “That’s just my friend. She was probably hungry and Fido was available. I’m hungry, too, you know.” The girl’s finger traced a trail down Crust’s cheek, past the pearl necklace she was wearing, and stopped just at her collar. “Can I tell you a secret?”

As carefully as she could, Crust reached for her phone and tapped it three times, activating its recording function. She’d had it specifically programmed in her phone for this purpose and it never failed her. “Sure. What is it?”

The girl smiled and Crust suddenly noticed that she had unusual teeth – at least four of them had been filed down to look like fangs. She’d heard some of the dance club freaks who listened to techno and shit did weird things like that, but she didn’t believe it was true until now. The girl leaned conspiratorially close and whispered in her ear, “I figured something out that Alto didn’t.”

“And what would that be?” Crust asked. She didn’t know who or what Alto was, but if something happened to her, at least there would be a phone recording. Plus, she still had her mace and stun gun on her and if she had to use it, this drugged-out slut wouldn’t stand a chance, not how she was dressed. Either way, Crust would make sure she had enough information on this whore to put her behind bars for the remaining days of her life.

The girl giggled slightly and sighed. “The serum’s changing us,” she said. “I always want it now – always,” she cooed, rubbing her hands sensually across her body. “I can’t stop, even if I wanted to – and I don’t. And Canzy? She’s always hungry now and she doesn’t care what she eats. She’s started to acquire a taste for raw meats – I wouldn’t doubt if the rat population at the base started to go away.”

“What?” Crust gasped, starting to feel a bit afraid. The words this girl was speaking was that of a madwoman, no way close to normal.

As if she didn’t hear her, the girl continued. “And dear sweet Alto herself. She’s always filled with an animalistic rage, raw and primal. Did you know she nearly killed one of the gate guards this morning? Saw the poor girl with her gig line out of whack and with one punch, snapped her spine. She’ll probably never walk again, but Alto probably thinks she deserves it for being out of standards.” The girl tapped her hand to her cheek. “I wonder if she’ll need some cheering up sex as a result? Eh, I’ll give it to her anyway; I’ll need a new partner.”

Now Crust was really worried. Whatever was going on, this girl wasn’t normal and she wasn’t drugged. She’d heard about the serial killings that had gone on before the hurricane hit and had thought that was only a problem for the poorer neighborhoods, but now, she wasn’t so sure. Could a girl be a serial killer? Crust didn’t know, but right now, she didn’t want to know. She wanted to run.

“Look,” she said, trying to gain one last semblance of control. “Let me call my, um, assistant and I’ll get you all the girls you want. Hell, I’ll pay to fly you out to Nevada. There’s a brothel there, if I recall and I’ll rent you all the girls in the building for free if you just let me go.”

“Are you scared?” the girl said with a smile. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon.”

“NO!” Crust screamed, losing control for the first time in her life. She lunged forward and stabbed the girl straight between the breasts with the stun gun. The girl didn’t even bother to block as the prongs went right into her chest, sending a blue blast of electricity into her body. The jolt of power ripped away the remainder of her shirt, leaving her topless, but otherwise did no harm, not even leaving a mark.

“What?” Crust asked, and at that moment, the girl leaned forward, kissing her. Crust fought at first, but then slowly stopped as something passed through her. The girl broke the kiss, and as she felt her consciousness slipping, she asked, “What…what did you…do to me?”

Medley Trance looked at her the remains of her top, fallen away from her and burning on the ground. She then decided that why should she bother hiding what she was born with and quickly removed the rest. She then looked at her new playmate, and as the girl looked her with dazed but frightened eyes, Medley started to remove her clothing. “Well, this is a bit complex, but keep up with me,” she said with a smile. “I don’t think I’m human anymore, because I just pumped a neurotoxin into you that makes you highly suggestive to my requests. Apparently, my body creates it now,” she giggled. “I do have to be careful about it, though, because otherwise you’ll end up in a coma like poor Petty Officer Guitarstrings. Honestly, I didn’t mean to do that to her and if she ever wakes up someday I hope I can make it up to her.”

As she removed the last layer of Crust’s clothing, she looked at the girl’s flawless skin. “Bet a girl like you’s never seen a bit of dirt in your life,” she said. “So you know what? The Prince promised that I get to have all the girls for at least a few hours before well, you die. So as much as I want to do you right now, we’re going to wait until we get back to base. There’s an obstacle course filled with mud and dirt and grime and all the things you’ve never touched in your life, and I bet that’s exactly where a girl like you deserves to be taken.” She then spat in Crust’s face. “You actually insulted me. I have standards, you know. I’d never pay for sex – why pay for what you can get for free?”

She then saw the girl’s pearl necklace. “What is this?” she asked.

Crust, though she screamed in her mind, couldn’t help but answer. “A gift from my boyfriend,” she said.

Medley took it off and put it around her own neck. “Not anymore,” she said. “Now it’s a gift from you to me. And believe me, you’re going to be giving me a lot of things in the next few hours.”

Upper Crust, in a last-ditch chance, tried with every bit of her willpower to run and escape, to scream and plead for help. The most she could do, though was to fall to the ground and gurgle a half-uttered subvocal gasp.

Medley looked at the girl, wondering if she could actually wait until she made it to the base when a police van rushed up to the house. “GET IN THE FUCKING CAR!” Contralto Rush ordered her subordinate.

At that point, Medley decided that no, she couldn’t wait. “Be right there, but first, let me have some fun, okay? I want to get to know my new temporary girlfriend better.”

Contralto responded by pulling a pistol. “Get in the car now, Petty Officer – that’s an order.”

“Or what?” Medley asked.

“I’ll shoot you in the fucking twat, you whore,” she said, her eyes filled with rage. “Then I’ll shoot your fuck toy’s arms and legs.”

“You do that and she’ll die, and the Captain won’t be happy with you.”

“She doesn’t have to be intact to be alive,” the senior SIREN said, cocking the hammer. “Last warning.”

“Fine, ruin my fun. You know, just for that, I’m not going to sleep with you.”

“I can live with that,” Contralto growled.

As Medley picked up Crust and threw her in the van, she looked at her friend. “What the fuck’s got your panties in a bunch?”

At least I’m wearing some, you whore, Contralto thought, but decided to be diplomatic for a change. “I was two blocks away, and some asshole cop pulls me over for being parked by a fire hydrant. So I shot the fucker, but his partner was still in the police van. Went over and the bastard tried to shoot me, but little fucking moron was shocked that I caught his bullets. So I took him in the back and that’s his blood spilled in the car.”

“Ooh,” Medley squealed, thinking of an idea. “What about the other car?”

“Bodies are in it,” Contralto explained. “Rigged it to blow up in—” Her words were cut off as a massive fireball lit up the sky a block or two away.

As if it were a predetermined signal, Canzione Burst appeared from the bushes. She had blood around her mouth and a small patch of fur sticking out of her lips. “Sorry, for being late,” she apologized. “Got hungry.”

“Feeding again, Canzy?” Medley teased.

“Was hungry,” she repeated. “You want to sit in front?”

“Hell no! There’s some fun fluid in the back, and I want to introduce my new girlfriend to a world of new experiences.”

The three got into the stolen vehicle and Contralto gunned the engine. In the far distance with her now better than human hearing, she could pick up the blare of sirens as emergency responders and police started to arrive.

“FUCK!” Contralto screamed, throwing a punch at the dashboard in frustration and putting her fist through it and the police radio. “FUCK FUCK FUCK!”

“Doing just that,” Medley said. “Now let me have some privacy.” She then closed the privacy screen and a few seconds later, the two other SIRENs could hear Medley’s exertions in the back.

“Hungry? I get angry when I’m hungry, too.” Canzione offered her friend some of her latest meal.

Contralto looked at it in disgust. “I’ll just wait until we get back to base,” she said, starting to calm down once more as she focused on her driving. She heard mastication next to her and said, “Hey, tell you what: you throw that out the window and I’ll stop at a Burger King for us, okay?”

“Sure, this tastes kinda gamey anyway,” Canzione said, lowering the window and tossing the remains out.

As the three SIRENs drove off, their latest mission complete, Contralto looked for a fast food joint, feeling something in the pit of her stomach rise once more. To her side, she could still smell the blood on Canzione’s lips as she sat there in contentment. In the back, she heard Medley promise the newest girl to be sacrificed that for as long as she still lived – which wasn’t long – the perpetually-horny SIREN would be the best girlfriend the girl – what was her name? Upper Crisp, or something like that? – would ever have.

Things were starting to spiral out of control, Contralto thought, but she couldn’t feel her mind wrap around the problem anymore. Whenever she did, something animalistic took over and she’d lose it again.

What’s happening to us? she thought as she moved down the darkened streets of Canterlot.

Author's Note

Been planning this chapter all the way since Book I, Chapter 1. If you read through all of the parts of 7DSJ where Pinkie's involved or mentioned, you should see the clues.

Donate to the Patreon, folks! It gives me nacho money! :rainbowlaugh:

Also, don't forget to tweak the TVTropes page. Definitely a big one this time around.

???: Plainsong

A pony walked through a winter wonderland, as white powdery snow blew into drifts, carried about by the light breeze. The pony looked oddly at the snow, then at the summer sun above, then back at the snow that hadn’t melted in the past few days. It had been here since the airship dropped her off at the edge of this miles-long winter wasteland, and it didn’t look like it was going away anytime soon. One thing she knew, though, was that it was black magic, terrible and pure on a scale she hadn’t seen before.

This had been how things had gone in the past few days since they’d all returned from Sibearia, when Luna met them to give Raspberry Beryl an assignment as the Archmage of Equestria for the Dark Arts. A century of the guard had been put at her disposal, as well as two of the most reliable mages that were available for a mission. And so now, she was put in charge of investigating a quandary that had so far confused her.

As she climbed a fallen spar of ice, she looked to her side at something hidden under her weather saddle and packs. Her side glowed with black energy, something clicked and then suddenly a haunting guitar droned in the background, along with other musical instruments as a voice gently sang along.

“I think it’s dark and it looks like it’s rain, you said
And the wind is blowing like it’s the end of the world, you said
And it’s so cold, it’s like the cold if you were dead
And you smiled for a second….”

Raspberry felt a tap on her withers, then turned to see a guardspony speaking to her silently. That is, she couldn’t hear him over the sound of the plaintive singer.

“Oh, sorry!” Raspberry said, popping off her headphones and using her magic to hit a button on the white device.

“What is that?” the guardspony asked.

“Oh, it’s called an Empeethree player or something like that,” the unicorn said. “It’s a gift from a friend, and it plays music. Right now I’m listening to some songs by a band called The Cure, and it’s kinda nice in that elegiac way.”

“That plays music?”

She nodded. “I’d tell you more, but it’s classified. All I can say is that it’s a gift from one of Princess Celestia’s top spies abroad.” As the truth about Sunset was still not widespread and the townsfolk of Ponyville sworn to their usual secrecy – not that they’d likely tell anypony anyway – the unicorn’s brief return had been buried until the solar alicorn could come up with a better way to reintroduce her surrogate daughter back to ponykind.

“I see,” the guardspony said in a way that indicated he absolutely did not. “Anyway, Archmagus, I was ordered to let you know that we finally broke through the ice barrier and found Rolling Hills…well, what’s left of it, anyway.”

Raspberry looked around at the snowy hilltops, so beautiful and yet so unnatural right now. “Were there any survivors?” the mulberry unicorn asked, and the guard shook his head.

“I see. Well, I’m dutybound to investigate. Let’s go,” she commented, following him down the freshly dug path, walking past the massive walls of ice that had been melted through by unicorn guard magic, and looking down towards the ruins of the town of Rolling Hills, nestled in a small vale not too far from her hometown of Lonesome Dove.

“Hell of a way to be back home again,” she sighed, commenting to herself.

Hours later, an exhausted Raspberry walked into the saloon back in Lonesome Dove. She was followed by an EUP lieutenant wearing Solar Guard division armor.

A burly earth stallion by the name of Sarsasparilla Mug looked at her and waved, his handlebar mustache wobbling as he spoke. “Heya, Razz. How’d things go?”

“Could be much better, truth be told,” she admitted. “We’ve given up on any chance of finding further survivors and have moved on to decedent aftercare,” she said, using the distasteful yet polite term. “I know it’s a little late, but is dinner still available?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Sarsasparilla said with a nod. “Anything in particular?”

“Just whatever’s the house special. And one for my lieutenant as well,” the mulberry pony insisted, nodding her head to indicate the other pony present.

“You got it! Two House Specials, coming up.”

Raspberry sighed in contentment as she sat down at one of the tables, taking the time to remove her packs, saddle and cloak. “Oh, so that’s what feeling light is like,” she joked. “Almost forgot.”

The other pony, an armored pegasus mare with light-amber fur, a three-shade-blue mane and yellow eyes nodded. “It can be quite trying, your grace,” she answered.

“You don’t have to do that, Indy,” Raspberry told her. “You’ve known me since we were foals, you know.”

Lt. Indigo Zap looked at her commander with an even look. “We were never friends, your grace,” Indigo stated. “In fact, I was one of the schoolfillies who taunted you the most, as I recall.”

“That’s in the past,” Raspberry insisted. “Water under the bridge and all that. So please drop the formality?”

“I cannot, your grace,” Indigo continued. “I’m on du—” She quickly stopped as Raspberry levitated her helmet off her head.

“Now you’re not. And I was saying, we’re adults now. I became who I am, and you went on to the Guard Academy and became a highly-decorated officer. We’re not the foals we were and we never will be. So, we can change.”

“But…can you forgive me?”

“Already did,” the unicorn said with a smile, as another pony approached. “And here’s another pony I’d like to talk to. I haven’t had a chance to thank you for letting my troops set up shop in the town square, Shady.”

Shady Tourmaline nodded; at the moment, the old earth pony mayor was with Captain Javelin of the Lonesome Dove town guard. He waved at her. “No problem, Razz. After the refugees from Rolling Hills started coming in, we made sure to clear the square to make room for the guards we knew would come to investigate. I’m just glad I wasn’t wrong.”

Javelin nodded, her short mane bobbing in time with her nod. “My troops are at your disposal, Razz. In fact, the few survivors from the Rolling Hills town guard now report to me, so I’ve effectively doubled my forces. Are we up against anything like what happened the last time you were here?”

“Well, my lieutenant was just about to give me a report, so you’re more than welcome to listen. Indy, if you please?”

“Well, well, well! Look who made lieutenant!” Javelin said with a laugh. “Almost seems like you just made ensign yesterday.”

“You know her, Javelin?” Raspberry asked.

“Oh yeah – Indy’s my kid sister,” the muscular earth mare replied.

Indigo shrugged. “Hey, sis.”

“That’s Captain right now, Lieutenant,” Javelin said, and Indy flushed with embarrassment. “Hey, just kidding, little sis. Seriously, though, why don’t you tell us what you found?”

“Sure,” Indigo said, relaxing again. “This morning the archmagus and I arrived at the Rolling Hills site, where the advance group managed to finally break through all that ice to uncover the place. The town was frozen over by a massive glacier, the kind you usually find in the Empire; anyway, it was magically created and it looked as if it wasn’t about to disappear anytime soon. We went in and found that most of the building there had either been crushed by the ice, or had received extensive fire damage…a few of them were still even burning, despite the cold and the ice. Magical fire, obviously.” Indigo slunk her head as she added, “There were no survivors.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Indigo looked up at Javelin and a smile came across her muzzle. “About half the town managed to make it out alive, thankfully. We have refugee tents set up at Glass Ruby park for all of them.” She then looked at Raspberry, adding, “Good thing you asked us to build it into a park and not a summer mansion – we really needed that space after all.”

Raspberry perked at the words. “There were survivors?”

Shady nodded. “Why I’m here: wanted to know if you wanted to meet with their leader, the town’s vice mayor. Have a meeting with her tomorrow, and if you’ve got the time, I’d love to have you there.”

“That’d be great,” Raspberry replied.

“I’d also recommend having the other two mages accompanying us join in as well,” Indigo suggested. “As it is, they volunteered to continue their part of the investigation. I’ve detailed Sgt. Siege Engine’s squad to keep an eye on them.”

“And what about your courier?” Raspberry asked.

Indigo laughed. “Your precious little cargo should arrive safe and sound, Razz. Per the last word from the garrison, Sgt. Lemon Zest departed this morning. She’s one of my best flyers and she’s not easy to take down. She even has a little Wonderbolt training, though she didn’t make the cut for other reasons.”

A few seconds later, Sarsaparilla came out with a tray on which two huge bowls of corn chowder rested. “Guess everypony will be wantin’ the special?” he asked.

“Couldn’t hurt. Also, I think we should probably move to the largest table you have, too.”

Later that night, Raspberry was in the room that she’d been given by Shady. She’d set out the last of her things and was just about to call it a night when there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” she said, and the door opened, with two unicorn mares walking in, both wearing saddlepacks and looking exhausted, as if they’d worked themselves to the bone.

“Sorry for bothering you; we just got back and we thought we’d give you a report while it was fresh in our minds,” the first said. She had a light thalo-blue coat, with a mane of ice-blue and white that ended in pigtails. She also wore red horn-rimmed glasses that were currently smudged. “Feeling a little exhausted, so I know I’m going to probably oversleep in the morning.”

“Lucky you,” the other one drolled, “as I can never sleep in, no matter how much I want to. Can’t help but be an early riser.” This one was turquoise in tone, with a short mane in two-shades of violet. When they’d been introduced, Raspberry had been instantly reminded of the pictures she’d seen of Twilight Sparkle’s mother, Twilight Velvet. This later made sense as the unicorn in question, Sunny Flare, was Twilight’s cousin on her mother’s side. “Anyway, we went through everything but the mines, and we found that there’s no chance that what befell the town was in any way an accident. The spells are pretty much alicorn-grade, or something that at the very least would exhaust a senior mage, maybe even an archmage like you or Twilight back when she was a unicorn.”

“Not necessarily – a spellcaster specializing in pyrothurgy could have done this,” Sugarcoat pointed out.

“Yes, but the chances of them working with a glacithurgist is rare, given the volatility of their disciplines,” Flare countered. “Besides, it’d be easier to just burn the buildings and make it look like a freak thunderstorm – occasionally, lightning storms do get out of control from pegasus weather teams, so it’s not unheard of.”

“True,” Sugarcoat admitted, removing her glasses to wipe them against her coat. “So either we’re dealing with elemental forces doing this, or most likely black magic. My bet’s on the latter, so much so that if you weren’t on our side, you’d probably the top candidate, Razz. No offense.”

“None taken,” Raspberry sighed. “As it is, I had The Agency – whatever that is – bothering me on a daily basis until Princess Celestia told them to knock it off.”

“Funny, I’d heard they were disbanded,” Flare said.

“Nope,” Sugarcoat stated. “My ex-coltfriend used to be part of the Agency before he got a new position with the Crystal Guard. Apparently, they were just doing some weeding of bad seeds and sending some agents into deep cover.” She looked at Raspberry. “Wouldn’t surprise me if they have a deep cover agent or two in Ponyville just to keep an eye on Princess Twilight and you.”

“Anything else I need to know about what you found at Rolling Hills?” Raspberry asked, eager to change the subject.

“Nothing comes to mind at the moment. Indy said you were going to interview survivors tomorrow – that still on the agenda?”

“Yes, and I’d like you both there. Too many folks are worried about the guard presence, and having mages there might calm everypony down a little.”

“I’d like to get a head start on the mines tomorrow,” Sugarcoat suggested. “Besides, Flare’s far more the social breezie than I am, so she’s the better pony to have around for this.”

“Not a problem!” Flare insisted.

“Good. You two get a good night’s sleep and we’ll go over plans in the morning.”

“Sure thing, Razz,” Sugarcoat replied as she headed towards the door. “Night!”

“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, Vice Mayor Sabistar,” Raspberry said to the newcomer as they hoofbumped. She was an exceptionally tall earth mare, much like the residents of Saddle Arabia. She had a fire-orange coat, a pink-and-white mane and blue-green eyes. “That’s an unusual name you have, if I may say,” the unicorn commented.

Sabistar laughed. “You can just call me Sabi, your grace,” the mare stated, “as my name is the Saddle Arabian word for desert rose. You see, my grandfather was from Saddle Arabia and fell in love with a local mare during his travels. He never returned home, and my family has had Saddle Arabian blood since. As for my name, it’s both the word for desert rose, and the name of a legendary heroine of Saddle Arabia who protected her people from camel bandits.”

Shady then gestured them all to his conference table. “So, Sabi, what can we do to make the burden on the Rolling Hills refugees easier?”

“We’d like to return home as soon as we can,” Sabistar told the group. “We need to bury the dead and decide on rebuilding.”

“We already took care of that for you,” Flare informed the earth mare. “Infectious diseases are too high of a risk in situations such as these, and the last thing you want is a hoofrot outbreak happening. More importantly, your fallen deserve better than to lie around rotting. The guards and I spent a good part of yesterday using spells to encase them in crystal to prevent further deterioration. We then moved the coffins into one of our tents so they could be identified and buried once your folks are ready.”

Sabistar’s eyes began to tear up. “Thank you,” she sobbed. “I couldn’t bear leaving my beloved husband behind, but I had on choice – I had to protect our children and the townsponies!” She looked at the table, tears filling her eyes. “I feel like an utter failure.”

Shady looked at her. “Don’t even say that. Your quick thinking saved dozens of lives, and I’m sure Pickaxe would have never said you were a failure – you’re a hero to all those ponies that survived.”

Raspberry produced a kerchief for Sabistar, floating it over to her. “I’m sorry to bring this up, but I need to know: Did you see anything that could have indicated how the attack happened?”

“No! That was the thing!” Sabistar yelped. “Fire and ice rained down from the sky, as if it were coming from the sun and moon itself! Our town mage, Blazing Shield, tried to deflect it all, but there was too much coming! It punched through her shields and….” The mare looked away and was silent for a few seconds before continuing. “Once she was gone, then there was nothing to stop the barrage from cutting us down. Pickaxe started to evacuate the mine, while Mayor Saddlespur and I started to round the townsponies up and get them out of town. Then Spur was killed and it was all that I could do to make sure that I got as many ponies as possible to safety.” Sabistar started to bawl, and Flare immediately moved in to embrace her.

“Thanks for your cooperation,” Raspberry told the soul-wounded mare. “I know it couldn’t have been easy.” She then turned to Flare. “We need to get back to Rolling Hills. We still haven’t checked the mine, and the answers may lay there.”

As she headed to the door, Shady looked at the mulberry mare, whispering, “Didn’t want to say this aloud, but you know of anything that can get them back home soon, Razz? I know how she feels, and I know I’d be just as burnt if it was us stuck in Rolling Hills.”

Raspberry looked at the heartbroken mare as Flare let go of the embrace. “Start building them homes here in Lonesome Dove,” Raspberry advised in hushed tones. “The magic in that iceberg is so powerful, it’s going to take a decade or two to start melting naturally, unless Celestia uses the sun directly against it. And even if then, there’s nothing left.” Raspberry looked at Sabistar once more before adding, “But I will see that those ponies get justice, Shady. You have my word on it.”

A quick thirty minutes of steady galloping later, and the two unicorns arrived at the split canyon crevasse that was the western entrance to Rolling Hills. As Raspberry came to a stop, Flare came to a halt a couple of minutes later, sweat-soaked, exhausted and clearly on the verge of collapse. The other mare all but crashed against her superior, who had to turn to catch her. “When…did you become…gasp…an earth pony?” she exasperated between breaths.

“I spent a long time on the run, Flare,” Raspberry told her. “When that happens, you pretty much end up in the best shape possible. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m the Crown’s archmagus for black magic, I probably would’ve been recruited by either the Agency or one of the branches of the military. And while yes, I tend to be earth pony fit, thankfully I’m not bulked out to Tartarus like Bulk Biceps. That poor stallion’s a walking wall of muscles and magical enhancers, I swear.”

“Razz!” At the foot of the trail, Indigo Zap waved to her. Next to her was her second-in-command, Ensign Sour Sweet. The earth mare had an alternating friendly and abrasive attitude towards everypony, but she’d once told Raspberry why: She was the sort of pony that didn’t want to see her guardsponies injured or worse, and if that meant having them more terrified of her than potential enemies, so be it.

“Heya, you two,” Raspberry commented as she approached them. “Having a good morning?”

Indigo started. “Just got back from a perimeter check, hoping to find any indicator of who did this. There’s no sign of encampments, which means that the perpetrator used long distance magic spells, well beyond standard-range. Ballistic-range spell have almost no use outside of combat, which means that we are dealing with some bad juju here.”

Sour, for her part, smiled, the smile on the light-gold pony seemingly out of place against her two-tone rose and aquamarine hair and hard indigo eyes. “See, knew Indy could figure it out!” The smile turned to her more natural frown as she grumbled, “Took fucking forever, but she figured it out.”

Indigo bristled at that. “Sour, save that shit for the junior troops, okay?”

“Have to keep in form, Lieutenant – don’t want me to get rusty, do you?” Sour said with a wink. “Besides, I recall a certain friend of mine that needed that ‘encouragement’ once or twice while we were in the Academy. Furthermore, I may only be an earth pony, so my knowledge of combat magic may be summed up in the words jack and shit, but I knew what this was the moment I saw it. Remember, I was stationed in Canterlot when the changelings attacked.”

“You think this is their work?”

“You’re kidding, right? Changelings wouldn’t kill ponies – it’d be a waste of food for them. No, what we’d find is duplicated ponies sowing chaos with the refugees, and actual victims cocooned up somewhere in the mine, with Chrysalis draining emotions from them like she was sipping on a maregarita on the beach in Acoltpulco.” She looked at the burnt shells and shattered husks that were once buildings, all that remained of the once-bustling town. “No, I’ll bet my next paycheck that this is something else – and I’m not sure that I want to know what exactly did this.”

“Lieutenant!” One of the unicorn troopers raced down the street at top speed, rushing towards them. He came to a stop in front of them, rendering a salute. “Cpl. Diamond Cutter, reporting, ma’am. We found something in the mines.”

“That should be interesting. Isn’t the makeup of the product here not high-grade?” Flare asked.

Indigo nodded. “Yeah, Rolling Hills’ mine is a gourmet gem supplier for the dragonlands. They’re not good for magical or treasure grades, but for a dragon’s diet, apparently they’re top shelf.”

“Spike loved it when I brought him some gems to snack on from the last time I was here,” Raspberry added. “He has one of the markets in town make an order for him on occasion now.”

Sour looked at the corporal. “Continue, Corporal.”

“Yes, ma’am. Mage Sugarcoat found something in the mines just now, and it does not look good. She’s requested the presence of the senior cadre, as well as Archmagus Beryle and Mage Flare.”

Sour slipped her helmet back on and looked at the others. “Time to get some entertainment around here, shall we? Lead the way, Corporal.”

Several minutes later, the group made it towards the mine entrance at the opposite end of the town, nestled where the canyon ended. As the group entered, they saw gems of various types as they sparkled and glittered in the lantern light. Normally they would have shone with their own innate light – the sign of magical- or precious-stone grades – but as these were lower, they merely reflected the soft glare of the magical lights. These were the food grade gems, with too many inclusions to be pure, but for those who consumed such far, far more important than being set on the crown of a Canterlot noble or the end of a mage’s staff.

“How much farther?” Flare, still tired from her run, asked.

“Just around the bend, learned one,” the guardspony replied, and sure enough, he was right. Sugarcoat, along with three other guardsponies, were looking at a giant pillar of hiddenite that was encircled with multiple layers of floating runes of black and red, spinning and emitting an ear-grating sound as they did. If there was something that screamed “black magic”, this was it.

“What in Tartarus is that?” Raspberry asked.

“I don’t know,” Sugarcoat replied, not taking her eyes off the pillar, “but it’s grown about three feet since I got here this morning.” She finally turned away from the object to look at Raspberry. “I take it you have no idea?”

Raspberry shrugged. “Hey, on my research trips to the Empire, I still find shit from Sombra that boggles the mind. It’d probably drive the average unicorn to drink.” She looked at the pillar again and said, “Whatever it is, it’s got more black magic in it than I could reasonably put together in a week. This thing has been down here long enough for somepony to put some effort into this.”

“I’d recommend putting a quarantine around town,” Sugarcoat told her. “We can transport the dead to Lonesome Dove for burial there, but I don’t think it’s a safe idea to have anypony here.”

“Sabi isn’t going to like that,” Flare commented, “but it’s better than having her ponies turned into strange abominations or whatever this thing was created to do.”

“I already told Shady that it’s not safe for ponies to come back here,” Raspberry told them all, “and you just gave me a good reason to make that official.” She turned to Indigo. “Have your best flier present head over to Fort Mountainside and get me every able-bodied pony the Army can spare. If the commanding brigadier present complains, they can come along and complain to me personally.”

“You want the Army involved in this?” Indigo asked. “This is usually outside their jurisdiction.”

“You need the backup, and we don’t have time for pleasantries – you need reinforcements until Shining can send some.” She pointed at the pillar, which seemed to be throbbing. “We don’t know how long that’s been there, or if the attack on the town was to protect it…or wake it up. I’m going to do the safe thing and have this place locked down. Please, Indy, make it happen.”

“You heard the lady, Sour,” Indigo said. Sour nodded to everyone present, then departed to start barking orders as needed.

Looking at her mage subordinates, Raspberry said, “Ladies, time to get back to Lonesome Dove – we need to get in touch with Canterlot immediately.”

“Somepony order room service,” Flare groaned as she collapsed on the floor of Raspberry’s room. “I don’t know if I can keep up this galloping back and forth.”

Sugarcoat snickered and poked her friend’s barrel. “Toldja you should’ve stayed in shape.”

“She did,” Raspberry teased. “Round is a shape.”

“Are you saying I’m overweight?” Flare pouted. “I’ll have you know that I work out!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Sugarcoat replied. “And Princess Celestia hates cakes, too, I’ll bet. Anyway, Razz, what now?”

In response, Raspberry walked over to her bags and pulled out a small wooden birdstand before she went to open the window. “Got a note that Sgt. Zest arrived an hour ago, which means that Heelee’s probably hunting for dinner right now,” the unicorn explained. “And if Twi got what I asked for, then this should be easy.”

“Who’s Heelee?” Flare asked, and as if to answer the question, a young phoenix with feathers of emerald and gold soared into the room from the open window. He came to a perfect landing on the perch before chirping a hello.

“Done hunting, you little rascal?” Raspberry asked the bird; Heliodor, in turn, puffed out his chest to pantomime being full before chirping out a sort of burp. Turning to the others, she said, “Anyway, this is Heliodor, or Heelee for short. He’s my pet phoenix and closest confidante.”

Flare got up and looked at him carefully; Heliodor responded by posturing like a model. “Wow,” she said, reaching to touch him. “Non-red phoenixes are extremely rare. How’d you get him?”

“Long story,” Raspberry replied, “but remind me later and I’ll tell you.” She then asked the phoenix, “Were you able to pull off the spell?”

The bird jauntily saluted with a wing, then spat out a burst of green flame, which began to sparkle and swirl in midair as it grew larger.

“Flamefax?” Flare asked. “Thought only dragons and alicorns could do it.”

“Spike wasn’t sure, so he asked me to leave Heelee behind for a day so he could teach him the spell,” Raspberry explained. “Looks like it worked. Good thing, too, because it’s perfect for situations like this.” As the unicorn spoke, the flame turned into a strangely-shaped object, which a second later became an odd contraption of precious metals and crystals. As it clattered to the ground, the three mares noted that it looked like an orrery gone mad, a steampunk mishmash of copper, bronze and steel spokes, gears and switches, many holding either tubes of gas or large glowing quartz crystals.

As the others stared with wonder, Raspberry explained, “This is an astralpresence device. It was one of the items that Sombra had been working on for the day he’d conquered the world – he’d need a way of keeping in touch with his generals and governors, right? Anyway, Princess Cadance had some mages in the Empire inspect the prototype and found that aside from its creator, it’s a normal magical device that runs off a neutral magic spell, so anypony can use it. The Guild’s artificers got wind of it and now they’re churning them out by the dozens. Twi suggested that we field test one, so I had her send one.” Heliodor pridefully puffed again and Raspberry giggled. “Yes, you silly bird, you were very helpful in bringing this.” In response, he flew over and perched on her horn, contentedly cooing. Ignoring him for the time being, she added, “To use it, it’s very simple – all you have to do is touch the crystals with our horns – or a wing or hoof if you’re pegasus or earth pony – and we’ll be operating in an astral form with those we’ll be conferring with.”

“Who’s going to be there in the conference?” Flare asked.

“Twi, the other Bearers, and most likely Princess Luna, given that she’s overseeing this investigation, why?”

To Raspberry’s surprise, Flare started backing away. “I…think I’ll pass on this one if you don’t mind.”

“Seriously, Flare?” Sugarcoat looked at her friend with disappointment. “That’d be very unprofessional.”

“Something I should know about?” Raspberry asked.

Sugarcoat nodded her head. “Flare here always feels inadequate around Princess Twilight.”

“SUGARCOAT!” Flare cried. “You promised not to tell!”

“Yes, but that was mitigating circumstances. Our boss needs to know,” Sugarcoat explained.

“Why?” Raspberry asked Flare. “Twi’s one of the kindest mares I know.”

“You try being five years older than her and looking like a laggard,” Flare said with anger. “Hell, some of our family is in the top of our fields! And as for my cousins? Shining’s the captain of the guard and a prince – and the other is a freakin’ alicorn! Me? I’m barely a mid-ranking mage, and I’m surprised I can hold my own!”

“You have an advantage that she doesn’t, right now: You know what’s going on, and she doesn’t. You can do this, Flare,” Sugarcoat insisted. “You’re one of the best investigative minds in the Guild. Besides,” she added, “you could end up with my cousins.”

“Well, excuse me for not growing up with my cousins,” Flare spat back. Seeing the confusion on Raspberry’s face, she added, “Sugarcoat here was raised by her aunt since her parents were killed in a train crash outside of Manehattan when she was a kid.”

“Hey, my cousins are pretty much my sisters,” Sugarcoat said with a shrug. “Grass Glade and Lilypad never treated me as anything less, so that’s how I grew up. Nothing wrong with that, right, Razz?”

Raspberry smiled. “Remind me sometime to tell you about a mare I know – she has a cousin who is in the same position you were. Anyway, let’s start.” She placed her horn on one of the crystals. “Ladies, if you will?” Sugarcoat joined her, and after a second of hesitation, so did Flare.

A second later, the trio were standing underneath the shadow of Castle Everfree, by some crumbling buildings. “This is where my old hideout used to be,” Raspberry commented. “I used to live here at one time, and still have my artificial crystal labs here.”

“What are you talking about?” Sugarcoat asked, looking at the mulberry mare with an odd glance. “We’re in my favorite park, in downtown Baltimare. About a block from my aunt’s place and right across the street from that bakery that made the best cupcakes ever. I used to go to the park sometimes just for the smell.”

“You two are both nuts – we’re here in Seaside Village, where I grew up,” Flare insisted. “Over there’s my parents’ seashell shop, and over by the docks is Mr. Guido’s boat repair shack. That old griffin’s like a grandpa to me – to all the foals in town, actually.” She lifted her muzzle in the air. “You can still smell the seabreeze.”

“And that’s because each of you sees a different thing central to your lives,” a familiar voice said, and a second later, Princess Luna appeared from out of nowhere; at her side was an earth mare with a cream-colored coat and a bouffant mane and tail of an evenly-split cobalt and fuchsia. “For example, my friend here was just regaling how this looks to her like Jamaneca, where she and her husband went on her honeymoon.”

“Glad I only told you about the outdoor parts,” the mare teased.

“As the current saying goes, I believe – TMI?” the alicorn teased and the earth pony snickered.

Raspberry recognized the other mare instantly. “Bon-Bon? What are you doing here?”

It was Luna that answered. “There’s a time and a place for that, but now is not it,” the alicorn said as the Bearers showed up. The sextet briefly discussed their dream locations – Pinkie’s was by far and away the weirdest of them all – and finally Luna interrupted the small talk. “As entertaining as this all is, I suggest we dispense with the chit-chat. We don’t know how long the charge on this device will last, so expediency is key.”

“You’re right, sorry,” Twilight replied. “Razz, what were you able to find out?”

Raspberry pointed at the other two unicorns, and Flare unconsciously pulled a Fluttershy, hiding behind Sugarcoat. “Flare and Sugarcoat found out that we’re dealing with somepony who has alicorn-level magic and used it to completely decimate the town, killing dozens. Unless Celestia wants to dedicate using her full power on the glacier covering it – and I don’t recommend that – the town is a complete loss. I’ve requested assistance from the local Army garrison to set up a quarantine until we can completely lock down the place.”

“That bad?” Luna asked.

Sugarcoat created a replica of the hiddenite pillar and its magic wrappings. “Razz wasn’t able to identify this, but it’s growing at an accelerated rate in the main shaft of the Rolling Hills mine. It’s pumping out extreme amounts of miasma and black magic.” She then adjusted her glasses and said, “One thing’s for sure: it’s something we have to assume could be a critical threat to the nation.”

“Because a week doesn’t go by when there isn’t one,” Rainbow Dash drolled, rolling her eyes.

“There’s a whole lot of weird going on lately,” Bon-Bon strangely noted. “First the sudden return of—”

“That’s classified and not germane to the situation,” Luna interrupted.

“I think it is, but you’re the boss,” the earth mare commented. “Disregarding that earlier issue, there was a report of a fatality at the Castle Everfree restoration site; the victim was a pegasus with his magic almost completely drained; from the report, he’d probably been pushed from one of the towers. Additionally, there was a murder at a Royal Astronomer’s Guild research station; in that case, the mare at the facility was also drained of magic and stabbed to death. Then there was the White Garden incident, though as I recall, that’s tied more to the previous unmentionable than anything else. Lastly, the towns of Merriweatherston, Townsville, Road Island and Hoofstep Pass were all recently attacked as well and much in the same way as Rolling Hills.” She looked at everypony present and said, “At some point you start to see something you really wish you hadn’t.”

“With the exception of the White Garden, none of that was reported in the news,” Twilight noted, “nor did I get any intelligence briefings on it. How do you know about all this, Bon-Bon?” The mare opened her mouth as if to speak, but then her ears drooped and she closed her mouth, ending any potential reply.

“Twilight, we can discuss this later,” Luna assured the other alicorn. “But I’m interested in why a town with a regional weather facility, a village known for its rutabaga crops, a lakeside village with a sizeable griffin population and a town with a regional train maintenance depot were all hit. Have we sent ponies to investigate?”

“We already did,” Bon-Bon explained. “The Director recommended a media blackout, and with your sister’s permission, just to be on the safe side. All residents have been reimbursed by the Crown and relocated to adjacent towns, as we do not know how long the towns will be quarantined, or like Rolling Hills, is permanently made off-limits.” She then looked at Sugarcoat’s hologram. “But nothing like that was ever reported.”

The room grew quiet again until Rarity spoke. “Ladies, perhaps we’re looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps that…thing…is there for a different purpose? Could it be there to disrupt certain parts of the economy? As I recall, Rolling Hills is famous for their food-grade gems. Road Island and Townsville were attacked as well, correct? Trains are important for shipping goods from one part of the nation to the other, and if I recall correctly, Road Island is famous amongst the griffin community in Equestria for its seafood.” She said the last part with distaste, owing to her pony nature as a partial herbivore.

“But that doesn’t make sense, Rarity,” Bon-Bon retorted. “Townsville is on a sure of the rail system that isn’t often used; in fact, if I recall correctly, the Townsville Depot is set more for supply to the other depots with material to fix their issues. And hitting Road Island only inconveniences the carnivore and pescavore populations – Dodge Junction is only a half-day’s travel to the south and its cherry orchards are far more vital to Equestria’s economy.”

“Or it could be a pre-emptive military strike,” Rainbow suggested. “Attacking a supply depot is a good way to prevent repairs in case the nation gets invaded. As for Road Island, the Thunderheads are there.”

“The who?” Flare asked.

“The Thunderheads. They’re a Royal Navy combat squadron made up of Equestrian griffins. They’re not as famous as the Wonderbolts, because, well, we’re cool an’ all, but their skills lend far more towards combat than those of the ‘Bolts, admittedly. Anyway, I’ve flown a few times against their CO, Capt. Gallard, and he’s one hell of a flyer. Anyway, the Thunderheads are based out of Road Island, and probably a few of them have relatives in town there. Hitting them hard would make sense, save that they’re out in Inari right now, doing military maneuvers with the kitsune.”

“But then how does Merriweatherston factor into it?” Applejack asked. “Attackin’ a regional weather station just means th’ weather happens on its own until the station’s rebuilt, am Ah right, Rainbow?”

Rainbow, a former weather manager, nodded. “You do have a point. Merriweatherston makes it the oddball in the mix, not to mention those other deaths that Bon-Bon mentioned.”

“Well, what if they’re trying to cause interspecies strife?” Fluttershy asked in a voice that sounded as if her heart was breaking. “An attack on Equestrian griffins would cause strife in the griffin lands and that would make things worse, wouldn’t it? Plus, cutting off dragons and other lapidivores from a needed food supply would also come into play, right?”

“Ah don’t think that’ll be much of a difference, Flutters,” Applejack stated. “Th’ griffins’re tearin’ at each other like a whole passel o’ pigs in a sty back in th’ griffin lands, so Ah don’t think they give much of a hoot at what happens t’ griffins that live here.”

“And the dragons are on one of their migrations,” Rarity noted, “and if I recall, during those times they rely more on diamond dog mines in Canistralia and kitsune gemfields in southern Inari, am I right?”

“Then maybe we should look at the socioeconomic factors again,” Pinkie suggested. “So far, that seems to be the angle that makes the most sense, given that each of these places somehow play a minor role in the economy. Is it possible that these are just probing affairs into what could later be hits on the tentpoles of the Equestrian economy?”

Flare, silent all this time, looked at the other mares. “Wait – you’re a baker, a farmer, a vet, a fashionista and a former weather manager. Rainbow, I can see that you might have intel access now, given your status a Wonderbolt…but how can any of you make the kinds of detailed analyses you just did?”

The five mares, as one, pointed at Twilight. “Her fault,” they all said in unison, while the young alicorn merely blushed.

“Speakin’ of that,” Applejack commented as she looked at Bon-Bon, “Ah’m wonderin’ how a simple candymaker knows how t’ do this stuff, especially when she doesn’t have th’ advantages of bein’ around Twi on a regular basis.”

Bon-Bon chose to sidestep any answer. “Ladies, have you considered any other patterns we might have precluded, like the most obvious one? Why is there a large, unidentifiable gem pillar in the middle of the Rolling Hills mine that’s pumping out pure, unadulterated evil?”

“Patience, Agent Sweetie Drops,” Luna advised.

“Sweetie Drops?” everypony present save Luna and Bon-Bon parroted.

“Long story,” Bon-Bon replied. “We have other concerns right now?”

“Fine, but you and are talking later, Agent,” Twilight said. “I get the feeling you’re hiding something from Lyra, aren’t you?”

Bon-Bon seemed to deflate. “It’s for her own good,” she said with a tone of sadness. “Can we please get back on subject?”

“The most obvious point that we know of is Rolling Hills’ gem mine,” Luna stated. “However, it’s food-grade, not magical grade, so I think that—”

“THAT’S IT!” Everypony turned to look at Sunny Flare, who up until now had spent most of the conversation being as quiet and unassuming as the average mouse. “Think about it, ladies: What’s the biggest problem with food or industrial grade gems?”

“Well, that’s rather obvious, dear,” Rarity stated. “Ponies don’t usually use anything other than precious or magical grade gems, because the lower in quality a gem is, the lesser magical force it can be enchanted with. As I recall, food-grade gems only hold a third or so of a full magical charge and industrial ones can barely hold any sort of charge at all. I don’t see where you’re going with this, though.”

“Minos,” Flare responded. “The minotaurs’ gem mines on their island nation tend to be almost entirely industrial-grade, right? So how do they compensate for it? By fusing the gems together. Sure, it’s never going to look as pretty as precious-grade, but they’re not using them for that purpose. And as for magical-grade, well…a Minoan gemblade has as much magical force behind it as a standard sword with a magical grade gem, because it’s entirely made of gems.”

“And you’re saying that…?” Luna prodded, a clever look in her eyes. She’d figured it out the moment Flare had made the gem connection and wanted the others to as well.

“I just remembered: Merriweatherston is the location of an old mine from a couple of centuries ago. All the precious and magical grade gems are gone, and all that’s left is industrial – and there’s a risk that further mining could destabilize the whole complex. The town decided to rejigger the whole place as a tourist trap, because they’ve set it up to create this really interesting light show,” Flare explained. “Went there when I was just a foal, and loved it.” She then conjured a map, laying it down on the ground. “As I recall, though, there were more than enough gems in there to fuse into something magical grade, like that column.”

Rarity’s eyes then lit up with a sudden recollection. “A couple of weeks ago, Filthy Rich approached me about an investment suggestion. He said…they’d just discovered a major subterranean gem cave underneath Hoofstep Pass, and that the gems were all food-grade. Rich thought that with our financing, the prospectors could create a decent competitor to Rolling Hills.”

The others finally began to look at each other as realization began to work its way through the small group.

“I’ll be right back,” Luna said. “I think I need some information that will be of use to us all.” She immediately vanished from the conference and as one, everypony looked at Twilight.

“I’ll be right back as well,” Twilight commented, looking at Bon-Bon. “Agent Sweetie Drops and I need to have a conversation.” The earth mare stood there with a guilty look on her face, at least until Twilight teleported over to her and both vanished immediately afterwards.

Raspberry looked at Flare. “Can you illuminate the areas that were impacted?”

“Sure thing.” Flare then added small fire images to indicate the known incidents: The White Garden, the research station and Castle Everfree attacks, and the five towns that had been hit.

“Anyone else see a pattern?” Sugarcoat asked.

“With Rolling Hills, Merriweatherston and now Hoofstep Pass?” Rarity stated. “So do I, sad to say.”

A second later, Luna reappeared. “Well, that is some disconcerting information,” she said aloud. She was about to speak further, when she noticed two absences. “Where are Twilight and Bo—”

The two suddenly reappeared, the former with an angry look on her face and the latter with a guilty one. “We’re back, Luna. Bonnie and I had to have a ‘chat’.”

Luna looked at the younger alicorn with disappointment, but then turned back to the conversation. “Were any of you aware that one of the upcoming talks between the Appaloosa provincial government and the bison tribes involved the mineral rights underneath the apple orchards? Apparently, there’s a massive gemfield underground that could stretch from south of Appaloosa…all the way to well north of Townsville. In fact, the bisons have already started to set up a mine there for industrial-grade gems.” She gave Flare a smile. “Mage Flare, it seems that you may be due for a well-deserved promotion.”

“Anyone want to explain what’s going on for us stupid ponies?” Rainbow asked testily.

“Massive gem deposits of the type that ponies usually don’t care about – but could still be magically charged with enough patience and process,” Bon-Bon explained. “Anypony want to take bets that we’ll find them under Road Island as well?”

“Celestiadammit, why didn’t we see this sooner?” Rainbow said more to herself than anypony else.

“Sweet Stars of Harmony!” Twilight went over and hugged her cousin, much to Flare’s surprise. “You did it, Flare!”

“But Flare has three other spots marked on the map: Castle Everfree, a research station near Merriweatherston, and the White Garden,” Pinkie inquired.

“All of which have had casualties as of late,” Sugarcoat explained. “But outside of the White Garden, everything else is tied to another location. The ruins of Everfree are actually closer to Townsville than any other location. And the research pony station was overseen by the Royal Astronomers’ Guild office in Merriweatherston.”

“They’re likely coincidences or attacks of convenience on the way to another target,” Bon-Bon suggested. “The White Garden can likely be written off in entirety due to the distance. Regardless, this isn’t the work of some random monster. This is starting to get out of my branch of the Agency, though if you need me I’ll do whatever I can to assist.”

Suddenly another figure popped into the room, namely Shining Armor. “Okay, I got that information you needed, Luna,” he told the night alicorn. “Somepony want to fill me in on what’s going on?”

“First reveal what you’ve found, Shining,” Luna asked. “It will help fill a vital piece of the puzzle.”

He nodded. “The Ministry of the Interior reported that new gem deposits were discovered in an underwater grotto underneath Road Island. The griffins reported that there are some precious gems there, but most of them are industrial-grade. However, they’ve left it alone because it could potentially destabilize some of the land on the northern part of the island. However, due to its discovery, it was required to be reported under ministry rules.”

She nodded in understanding. “Thank you, Shining.” She then looked at the others. “So all five towns have gem deposits. I suspect that if we searched, we’d find something like that pillar growing in each of them. But as to what it’s purpose is, I don’t think we should wait until something happens. Shining, I want you to liaise with Adm. Tumblehome and Gen. Halberd and deploy troops to those other four sites immediately. We need to know if those other locations are impacted.” She then looked at the map. “Now, as to the remaining sites….”

“Remaining sites, Princess?” Sugarcoat asked.

With that, the night alicorn designated three towns on the map: Berryville, a farming community northwest of Ponyville; Cloudy Vista, a ground-based pegasi settlement just north of Cloudsdale; and Icicle Works, a new settlement being built on the snowy border between the main portion of Equestria and the Empire. “With these three potential sites, look at what forms.”

Raspberry looked at the map and her jaw dropped. “That’s a massive magical circle. Worse, the nexus—”

“Is Canterlot, which has a massive abandoned gem mine underneath it,” Twilight interrupted. “Cady and I were stuck down there once and the number of gems that are still down there could create something that will make this other pillar look like a pencil.”

“I can have the Crystal Guard running through Icicle Works by tomorrow,” Shining told Luna. “I’ll have advance troops there within the hour.”

“We can be in Berryville by tomorrow as well,” Twilight told the others. “Bonnie, I want you with us.”

“You sure about that, Twi?” Bon-Bon asked.

“You know things that I need to know now,” Twilight said. “You can brief us on the way.”

“Fine. Let me just tell Choc. I haven’t had time to tell him the truth yet, so I need something to tell him.”

“Tell him the truth,” Twilight insisted. “That I need you for something that you might be an expert on, and that we’re just going to Berryville. Should be vague enough to cover you.”

“But you’d better tell him the whole truth sooner or later,” Applejack insisted. “Ah don’t cotton to tellin’ lies, as you can guess.”

“Lyra, too,” Rainbow added. “If she’s your best friend and you’re doing some super-secret stuff for the government, then you put her in danger. And she deserves to know the truth.”

At the sound of that, Bon-Bon’s ears flattened and she looked down. “Fine,” she replied. “When we get back.”

“What about us?” Raspberry asked.

Luna looked at the archmagus and her subordinates. “I’ll have Adm. Tumblehome detail a ship out to you immediately. I want you to investigate Cloudy Vista. Having a military unit suddenly storm in may not be the best idea, so having just three mages and their Guard unit will be more than enough. I’ll get in touch with the mayor there and have her contact you as soon as possible.”

“We won’t let you down, your highness,” Flare replied.

“Of that we have no doubt, Grand Mages Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat,” Twilight said, looking at Luna, who only nodded and agreed.

“But we’re not….” Flare commented as Twilight’s words suddenly sank in.

“You are now, dears,” Rarity said with a congratulatory grin.

The following morning, the airship Sunny Rainphase began its trek across the skies of Equestria. The captain, an avuncular earth stallion by the name of Fiery Yellow, made sure that the units accompanying his ship was set up and ready to go. “So, y’sure y’ won’t be needing anythin’ else, lass?” he said, a large grin on his face that somehow barely managed to hold onto the corncob pipe in his mouth. With his curly chinstrap beard of white and fire orange, his faded white captain’s cap and the blue bridgecoat he wore, it was hard for Raspberry and her friends to not see him as a larger-than-life character from a book.

“No, Captain, I think we’ll be fine, thanks,” Raspberry insisted.

Light blue eyes looked around the room and said, “Aye, ‘tis no finer berthin’ than you’ll find in this ship, all. And why not? The Navy rules th’ skies and seas, dontcha know. No, if y’ll be excusin’ this ol’ salty dog, I have a ship t’ run.” With that, the earth pony departed the stateroom, headed towards the bridge.

“Yeah, he reminds me of Captain Fairwinds, from those old novels,” Flare said. “All he needs is a blue phoenix just like Fairwind’s loyal companion Seasprite, and we’re good to go.”

From where he sat on his perch, Heliodor chirped with a sense of indignity.

“No one’s going to paint you blue, Heelee, so you can calm down okay?” Raspberry assured him. Looking at Flare, Sugarcoat and Indigo, she explained, “He can be a little defensive at times, so don’t take it personally.”

“No problem; I wish my pet dog Emma was as loyal,” Indigo told her. “Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

“Something that I’d been thinking about during the meeting – it helped that we were back in Lonesome Dove at the time. Indy, what do you know about dross?”

“Dross? Well, that usually it’s the fifth classification of gems. They tend to be magically useless and have so many metal or mineral inclusions that they’re essentially trash. Some dross locations end up being good rock farms, but that’s few and far between, why?”

“My family farm was mostly dross,” Raspberry explained. “My parents thought they’d found fertile land, but it in retrospect, it must’ve been part of the mountain chain in prehistoric times, and everything was worn down since. Maybe if they’d considered becoming rock farmers, we would’ve thrived – everypony needs bricks and stones for building material, right? But no, my old stallion just spent the majority of what little bits we had drinking himself stupid and….” Raspberry fell silent for a moment. “Well, you already know the rest.”

The four fell into an uncomfortable silence until Sugarcoat said, “Look, we’ve got a day’s trip ahead of us and we’re not going to get there until tomorrow. So why don’t we take this time to rest? I know I could use some sleep.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Indigo said. “Besides, I haven’t really flown in a while, so I can do some ship sprints with the deckhooves.”

“Yeah, and I’ve got a letter to write to my parents,” Flare said. “Think you can send it for me, Heelee?” The bird saluted her with a wing and chirped his agreement.

“We’ll see you later, then, ‘round lunch, okay?” Raspberry nodded, and looked at the books and other items that Twilight had sent via flamefax the moment they settled in.

“Well, looks like I’ve got some reading to do, Heelee,” Raspberry commented. “I should be so busy I won’t get airsick like last time.” Heliodor nodded, then looked at the port hole. The unicorn added, “Unfortunately, we’re too high up for you to go hunting on your own, but I’ll have Indy take you later, okay?”

“Okay, sure thing, toots,” the bird said in a Maresechusetts accent. Raspberry stared in shock until her bird opened its mouth wide, and a gooey substance looking worse than week-old vomit spewed out from the bird, who immediately fired a bolt of green flame at it. The liquid dodged, then moved upwards starting to take shape, until it revealed….

“Discord,” Raspberry said with a facehoof. “What are you doing here?”

“Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

“Discord….” Raspberry said, only to have the draconequus hold up a sign that read WAIT FOR IT…. while he continued.

“…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

“Look, I don’t have time for this!” the mare said to the Avatar of Chaos.

“…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” He then took a bow. “Thank you, I’ll be here all night, boys and girls. Try the chicken – it’s great!” He then went over and hugged Raspberry. “Hey, Razz! El Razzo! The Razzman! The Razzinator! Sir Razzius of Razzistan! How’s it going?”

“It—”

“Well, I was just swinging through town and who else but Luna asked me to check up on you! Actually, the words were more like ‘Get out of mine sight or I shall smite thee henceforth to the moon!’ but who’s actually counting, right?”

“Look—”

“And so since I heard that you were looking into some interesting things,” he said as he produced a spyglass from nowhere and looked through it, his eyeball elongating four times its length and moving around on its own accord, “I thought I could be of help!”

“Disc—”

“Besides, Fluttershy insisted that I needed to get out more and help my circle of friends. And since I have only a very small circle of friends – you certainly know how that goes, right? – I figured I’d start with my bestie! Or at least my worstie bestie!” He then changed into a duplicate of her. “We can do each other’s hooves or powder our horns, or—” He then changed into a copy of Sunset Shimmer and added, “—we can tell each other stories that I missed while I was out of town while Little Baby Celly was here!”

Despite her annoyance at him, Raspberry couldn’t help but giggle. “Little Baby Celly?”

A bassinet suddenly appeared underneath “Sunset” as she became wrapped up in a bonnet and diapers. “Oh yeah, Celestia’s little bundle of explosions and chaos! I swear, that’s a mare after my own heart – she really had the castle going at one point. But enough about that.” Discord pulled a blind down from out of nowhere, and behind it rang out an explosion, followed by a mushroom cloud. The blind then retracted and there he stood in his natural form, or at least as much as one could call a being like Discord natural.

“So, what are you here for, Discord?”

“What, can’t be here to back up a buddy and chum?” A gaudy Haywaiian-style shirt and oversized shades suddenly appeared on him. “Figured we could go out for a few Mai-Tais in Hoofalulu tonight. My treat.” She looked at him evenly and he gave her a smile as the clothing disappeared. “Isn’t it obvious? Why, I’m here as your stealthy secret weapon!” He then changed into a Day-Glo-colored version of himself while a giant neon sign behind him read YOU CAN’T SEE ME – I’M INVISIBLE! “You see, somepony – or rather, something – is sniffing you out.” He walked over to a door and opened it, revealing a titanic-sized red nose poking its way through the door.

Startled by the thing, she said, “What the hell?”

Pushing the thing out the door, he commented, “Oh, please, that’s just a taste of things to come, Ol’ Razzy! Why I—” A green ball of flame enveloped him and a second later, a pile of ashes fell to the ground. The pile grew a mouth that said, “You know, that was completely uncalled for.”

From his perch, Heliodor gave as much of a self-satisfied smile as any phoenix could give.

“Heelee, stop – he’s a friend. I think.” Raspberry then walked over to the pile of ash. “Discord, what’s going on?”

As if in response, the ash turned into a desk that the draconequus, dressed in a cap and gown. “Class is in session!” he crowed, and a split-second later, Raspberry, Flare, Indigo and Sugarcoat found themselves all sitting at desks, while Helidor was placed in a corner with a dunce cap on his head. “Well, boys and girls and mostly girls because I’m the only boy here—” Heliodor gave an angry squawk and Discord shrugged. “Okay, almost the only boy here, happy?” There was no further complaints, so he continued.

“What’s going on?” Flare asked.

“Discord, should’ve known,” Sugarcoat drolled.

“Razz, what the hell is he doing here?” Indigo asked.

“Ladies, can I please get back to being the good guy here?” There was a puff of smoke and a second later, Discord wore a red cape and blue tights with a red D emblazoned on a yellow shield. “That or we’ll have to deal with copyright infringement.” He snapped his claws and a second later the four ponies stood before him. “Anyway, as I was saying, there are plenty of things out there, Razz, even things that neither Celestia or I are aware of, or things that neither of us have seen in quite some time. And believe it or not, not everything is as charming or friendly as yours truly.”

“We’re still trying to comprehend the ‘charming and friendly’ part,” Indigo drawled.

“Why Lieutenant, you wound me!” Discord suddenly had an oversized arrow appear in his chest and he fell dead to the ground, his eyes showing Xs and the arrow turning into a lily. His ghost floated out of his body and continued to talk. “So anyway, as I was saying, many of these things have their own natures and specialties, and there’s something out there that runs on dark magic, so to speak. And it’s hungry and looking for you.”

“Me?” Raspberry asked.

There was a puff of smoke, and a market stall suddenly appeared, with a dozen plastic duplicates of the magic pillar in Rolling Hills. “Get yer enchanted pillar!” Discord barked like a carnival worker. “Five down, maybe three to go – and we don’t know what any of them do! Fun for the wife and kids – if they survive!”

“What are you prattling about?” Sugarcoat asked.

In response, Discord looked at his right wrist and pulled back the fur to reveal a watch. The watch’s face opened up and spat out a long platform, upon which was a cuckoo clock. The cuckoo looked at its right wing, which revealed a watch, whose face opened up and spat out a long platform, upon which was another cuckoo clock. That cuckoo clock opened up to reveal a miniature Sunset Shimmer, who held out her smartphone, revealing the time. “Well, whaddaya know, this is the part of the chapter where I leave you all with more questions than answers. So riddle me this, Batman: what is the one thing that could be sniffing you out, and why could it be dangerous to us all?” Discord then changed into a fruitbat, and opened the port hole. “And now I bid you auf wiedersehen!”

As Discord disappeared into the distance, Sugarcoat was the first to recover. “Well, that was an…experience.”

“He really freaks me out,” Flare said to nopony in particular.

“Should I put the Guards on alert?” Indigo asked. “As it is, I need to meet with Capt. Yellow in thirty minutes to discuss defense issues, as he’s under your command until you release him.”

“Do that. As it is, I think the rest of us will be looking into this research Twi sent over. We don’t have much time left before something bad happens, and I hope with the stars as my witness that we’re not too late.”

“We’re too late,” Shining said softly as he looked into the sky. There, where the recently-erected town hall of Icicle Works once stood, was nothing more than crystalline and wooden rubble. In its place, a massive pillar, made out of dozens of industrial-grade gems continued to reach into the sky. A deep black fog radiated from the pillar as did a hum that seemed to resonate through their bones.

“Sweetheart, what is that?” Cadance asked. As the ruler of the Empire, she felt obliged to come, and sensing a need to make sure the populace stayed calm, for once Shining didn’t argue with his wife. Now, however, he questioned that wisdom.

“I don’t know,” he told her. Then he explained the rest, what Luna had told him about and what Twilight and Raspberry’s investigations had uncovered. And as he explained, a horrified look came over the face of the romance alicorn.

“I…I can sense great evil in that…thing, Shiny,” she told her husband. “It needs to be destroyed. It needs to be destroyed right now!”

“You sure?” he asked her and the look in her eyes told him all he needed to know.

“Firestorm!” he shouted to the unicorn next to him. “Want to show off a little?”

Lt. Firestorm grinned widely. “Absolutely, sir!” he said with a laugh. His horn began to glow with electric blue energy, as he put magic into his most destructive spell. As one of the sappers assigned to the Crystal Empire, Firestorm knew just about everything there was to making stuff go boom. “Better stand back, everypony,” he told them as winds whipped up by his spell began to encircle him. “This might get just a bit messy.”

“Everypony, stand back!” Shining shouted and cast one of his shield spells. While the pillar before him could likely be encircled by the same spell he used to cover all of Canterlot, he knew the toll that level of spell would take on his body. Instead, knowing the level of destruction Firestorm was capable of, the captain of the guard opted to throw up multiple layers of small shields, yet even this did little to prevent the intensely blinding light that came from the unicorn’s magic bolt.

The blast hit the pillar straight on, turning it into a glowing candle of such brilliant luminosity that it drove everypony for miles around away from the sky and towards the safe darkness of the ground. The unicorn poured the blast on for all it was worth, and the force of the blast almost made him buckle his stance; certainly the ground beneath him began to slowly give way as the pressure of his own strike began to slowly feedback on him.

Finally, the world filled with blue-white and the energy could be seen even through closed eyes and as others in the area screamed in fright and panic, the energy disappeared and the pillar appeared completely unharmed.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of Firestorm. With a look of utter horror on his face, the unicorn looked completely frozen and almost completely blanked out, as if he were a statue hewn from marble. Only the realism of the “statue”, in a way no artisan could ever capture, told the terrifying truth of what they had seen.

“Medic!” Shining shouted. “Get the lieutenant out of here!” Another guard, a pegasus mare wearing the light armor of a field medic, approached. “I’ll keep you shielded, Heartbeat,” Shining told the mare, “but you’ll have to get him to medical care immediately.”

“You can count on me, Captain!” she said with a grin and approached the fallen guardspony. “C’mon, Stormy, let’s get you out of here,” she said as she reached over to grab him. The moment she made contact with him, however, she screamed in pain and a steady mist of plum-colored energy flowed from her towards the pillar. When it was done, she too looked like a statue.

Seeing the reaction, Shining reacted quickly. “Thunderchaser! Star Flicker! Get the Princess out of here now! The rest of you, start evacuating the town immediately!” He then turned to his right. “Heaving Line, I’m going to throw up a shield. The minute I do, I want you to grab them with your magic. Do not touch them at all – I just want to get them out of the blast zone. Bullwhip, you stay here as well.” He then finally turned to Cadance. “Cady, we need to get you out of here.”

“No! I’m staying with you,” she insisted. “I don’t want you at risk either.”

“We talked about this,” he told her. “You are the ruler of the Empire. If something happens, our ponies need you, Cady!” She opened her mouth to protest, but knew he was right and said nothing. Giving him a sad look, she followed her escorts away from the location, and as soon as she did, Shining threw up a shield between the others and his troops. He then turned to the earth pony next to him. “Bullwhip, if for some reason her spell fails, I want you to grab all three of them with your whip.”

“I gotcha, captain.” Bullwhip, who was the son of Equestria’s ambassador to Minos, nodded. He’d been named after a Minoan weapon that he’d learned how to use since he was a foal. Reaching over for the specially-made bullwhip, the namesake pony nodded. “Hey Line, you’d better not fail, or else you’re paying for the beers after this is over!”

Heaving Line laughed, her voice a soft, lilting giggle. “Trying to flirt again, Bullwhip?”

“No, succeeding at it,” he joked. “I always do.”

“Well, tell that to our daughter, I guess,” she said wryly to her husband before turning back to Shining. “Captain, I’m going to cast the spell now, sir. Keep me covered.”

“Of that I have no doubt,” Shining replied, throwing another spell around her, the parts almost forming another suit of armor. With that, she then fired a tractor spell at the two stricken ponies, with the intent to pull them away immediately. Instead, the moment she connected her spell against them, the mint-green of her magic started being sucked into the pillar, and then a mist the same color was pulled away from her. A second later, the magic armor Shining had cast around her started to split apart, dissolving into a cerulean mist that was quickly absorbed by the pillar.

“LINE!” Bullwhip shouted, moving towards his wife’s side, but then found himself pushed back by Shining’s shield.

“Can’t risk you too!” Shining shouted back. “Pull those others back with your whip and let’s get out of here! Bullwhip looked at his wife worriedly, then back at Shining. “Bullwhip, I promise that as soon as we figure out what’s going on, we’ll make sure she’s okay,” Shining told his trooper. “I worry about my wife too, you know.”

“Yes, sir,” Bullwhip said, taking the handle of the whip in his mouth. A second later he cracked the whip, the snap of the sonic boom ringing out as the lash encircled Firestorm’s leg. Bullwhip slowly but surely pulled the unicorn towards Heaving Line, finally stopping when they were both close. “Now for Heartbeat.”

Shining looked around as his other guardsponies started to clear out the town of Icicle Works. He looked at the pillar, which seemed to continue growing, and knew something had started – something terrible.

Across Equestria, as if bidden by an unknown signal, massive pillars erupted in eight places throughout the nation. Meanwhile, on Mt. Canterhorn itself, the mountain began to change and glitter as it transformed into a titanic copy of the others. In the various towns surrounding the pillars the military forces went on alert and tried to destroy the strange obelisks, but in each case the magic – and lifeforce – of the attackers was absorbed, leaving behind ponies in stasis.

In Berryville, just as Twilight and the other Bearers entered the town, they looked with horror to see a massive spar of hibonite in the middle of the town, punching through what had been the town market. Around the base of it were dozens of white ponies, far more than could naturally be of that coat color. And rushing towards them panic on their faces, was the rest of the town of Berryville, in utter panic.

“Stop!” Twilight shouted, and coming to mind before a princess of the realm, many of them actually did.

“Oh, thank Celestia you’re here, Princess!” an earth mare said to Twilight. She was an aged mare, with a lime-green coat, salt-and-pepper mane and had a chalkboard for a cutie mark. “The town’s been decimated by that…thing!”

“Are you okay, ma’am?” Applejack asked.

“Chalk Board,” the mare stated. “I teach at the elementary school here. But I’m glad to see that the Bearers are here.” She then looked at the ponies in question. “You did bring the Elements, right?”

“Long story,” Rainbow said, and opted not to elucidate further.

“OKAY, PONIES,” Twilight shouted with the Royal Canterlot Voice, “IF YOU HEAD DOWN THE ROAD YOU’LL SEE THAT MY GUARDS ARE SETTING UP CARETAKER CAMPS THERE. YOU’LL BE SAFE THERE!” The townsponies got the clue and started marching out in an orderly line.

“Rainbow, can you notify the guards to expect incoming?”

“Sure! I’ll be back before you know it!” Rainbow immediately blasted off like the proverbial rocket.

“Everyone, let’s get closer,” Twilight told them. “I want to get a better look at that thing, and to see what happened to those ponies that aren’t moving!”

“Don’t get too close!” a pony passing by warned Twilight. “If you touch one of them, you get turned into a statue, just like them!”

“What?” Rarity asked, surprised.

“He’s right, you know.” The others turned to see Discord standing there, wearing some sort of weird yellow suit that covered all of him. “They’re caught in a stable chronospatial subpocket while momentum, mana and even bioelectromagnetism is being taken from them!” He made the suit vanish and as he stood there, all the color drained from him. “That’s what the pillars are! They’re force vacuums!” He almost looked pleased to see them. “This is a stroke of brilliance! Why didn’t I think of this back when I was naughty?”

“Discord!” Twilight shouted at him.

He shrugged, then left his arms floating in the air as he walked away from them and then grew new ones. “Hey, I didn’t say I was considering it, just a bit nostalgic. Anyway, we need to get everypony away from these pillars. From what I can figure, they’re placing ponies in a chrono—”

“Wanna explain it in clearer words?” Applejack asked.

He bowed. “Of course. To simplify it, put a pony in a bag, and then take all the air out – they can’t breathe, right?” The ponies looked at the draconequus in horror as he explained. “Only it’s not that simple. The pillars are stealing momentum from them – that’s the energy any living being, magical or not, produces as they move. When ponies move, they produce momentum. When donkeys move, so do they. Every being does.” He brought out a whiteboard and drew an eerily-precise copy of Applejack on the board, along with a thin blue circle that enveloped the figure. At the same time, a blue field of light started to encircle Applejack as well.

“What’s going on?” the farmmare asked, glaring at the draconequus. However, she never actually voiced it, because she found she couldn’t move.

Discord ignored her. “Because momentum is being stolen from the ponies, they can’t move at all. They’re not dead, but how can you really tell? Anyway, to continue.” He then drew a thin red line around the blue one. “Next to be stolen is the mana field that magical creatures generate. Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, whatever – every magic user is vulnerable to this.” As he finished the circle, a similar red one enveloped Applejack and she fell to the ground, the color bleeding away from her until she was no different than the other ponies near the pillar.

“Discord, change her back,” Twilight threatened.

“Almost done with the example, I promise,” Discord replied. By now, an artist’s smock and paint-splattered beret had appeared on him, and the whiteboard suddenly became a canvas, with the realistic image of Applejack now animated, and moving, as if the mare’s presence had been transferred to the painting itself. As he put a brush to the canvas, he began to paint a green circle. As he did, he explained. “And eventually, when the second layer runs out – or isn’t there, in the case of non-magical beings – it’ll start working on the third, your bioelectromagnetic field.”

“Gezuntheit,” Pinkie responded.

“What is that?” Fluttershy asked. “It sounds scary.”

“It is,” Discord said sadly. “You might have heard of it by another name. The kitsune call it ki, while the pandas call it qi, and the tanuki chi. As for us in the western lands, well, we refer to it as life.” Everyone looked at Applejack, who looked as if she was going to die, and Discord giddily painting a circle around the panicking Applejack figure on the painting. “And once there’s nothing left, there’s nothing but a husk.” Just as he finished the circle, he pulled the bottom of the easel up as if it were a blind, rolling it up. It vanished, and at the same time, Applejack returned to normal, getting off the ground.

She shivered as if she’d been in the middle of a blizzard for hours. “Never wanna go through that again.” She looked at him. “Never.”

“I know. I don’t want any of us to do so, either,” he said, offering her a cup of hot apple cider. She hesitantly took a drink and felt better; downing the cup, she was back to normal. He then looked at his friends and said, “If what these things are doing locally is correct, they’re storing that energy for use. And they have to send that energy somewhere.”

“Or?” Rarity asked.

“Nothing can hold infinite power eternally,” Twilight said. “It’s both a law of physics and magic. But you think they’re going to steal all of the magic in Equestria?”

“No, but the magic circle Luna said would form is spot on,” he told her. He conjured a map of Equestria and most of the parts affected by it. “The inner circle’s already begun to form,” he told them, “and I’m sure there are places in Equestria where a secondary circle could form.”

“Which means?”

“We’re in trouble,” Raspberry said. At the moment, they all stood on the weatherdeck. They’d arrived just outside of Cloudy Vista, as a pillar, seemingly made of grandidierite tore into the air and slowly started to split apart into a tuning fork.

“What the hell’s going on?” Flare asked.

However, Indigo, as a pegasus, knew exactly what was about to happen. “Captain! Bring the ship earthside?”

“Earthside?” Yellow asked, looking at the guardspony with surprise. “Yer askin’ me t’ dive the ship?”

“If that tuning fork goes off, we won’t have to worry about it much longer!” she told him. In the distance, a deep, bassy rumble began to sound in the air. Without warning, the air turned into solid black, so much so that everything outside the bridge windows was nothing but inky darkness.

“Captain!” one of the boatswain’s mates shouted. “We’re losin’ power in the forward aerostat!”

“Get th’ mage’s mates t’ the foredeck!” Yellow thundered. “Get that ‘stat afloat pronto! All hooves to battlestations!” Klaxons sounded throughout the airship and sailor scurried to and fro.

“Anything we can do to help, Captain?” Raspberry asked Yellow.

“Aye – find out what happened t’ m’ mages!” he told her.

“Sugarcoat, Flare, you two stay here and see if you can help the captain with anything. Indy, we’re going on deck!” The two rushed out of the bridge, headed towards the foredeck. But as they headed towards the forward airlock, they could see black miasma streaming through cracks in the hatchway.

“That does not look good,” Indigo said as she looked at the door.

“I want you to stay here—” Raspberry began.

“Overruled, Razz. My job’s protecting you,” the pegasus reminded her.

“And you will – if something happens out there, I want you to get me out of there,” Raspberry insisted. Indigo looked at her and Raspberry looked back. “I trust you, Indy. Trust me, too?”

“I don’t like this plan,” Indigo said as she reluctantly sat down.

“I don’t like it either, but I just might if you have to pull my flank out of the fire,” she insisted as she opened the hatch and stepped out of the deck.

She walked into pure miasma, like nothing she’d ever seen before. She couldn’t see anything before her, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she just shut the door behind her, she wouldn’t have known it was there. She could barely hear herself as it was with the bassy rumble around her that was so loud that it was starting to give her a headache.

“Great, just great,” she muttered as she cast a spell. “Glad I’m the one doing this.” The miasma spell pushed away the miasma just enough to give her enough of a space to see where she was going. She couldn’t dispel it completely – that took a light magic spell, and she could only do neutral magic ones outside of her specialty – but she could make it easier for her to maneuver around. A column of clarity opened around her and she made her way towards the ship’s prow.

“Where are the…uh oh.” She found the mage’s mates…or rather, what was left of them. Four mummified ponies, as if everything had been sucked out of them, lay on the deck. She was momentarily bothered by the fact that she’d seen so much death during her life that it didn’t faze her anymore, but what did was that four ponies were killed by miasma, when that shouldn’t have been the case. Miasma only made ponies sick, it didn’t kill them much less turn them into mummies.

What the hell’s going o—

A major explosion ripped above and Raspberry didn’t need to wonder what that was. She could feel the deck lurch and twist beneath her feet, followed by the anti-slip spells as the power gave away and the hull began to list. It would be microseconds before the airship, with nothing left to keep it in the air, fell to earth. And as the mulberry unicorn felt her hooves pull away from the deck as the ship entered freefall, she knew two things:

First, Equestria was in big trouble.

Second, she hated that tooth-jarring rumble.

???: It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)

Raspberry slowly opened her eyes. She lay in a bed unfamiliar to her, with its surroundings looking more like that of a foal’s room than anything she’d ever seen before. Sure enough, after turning her head slightly, she saw the Wonderbolts poster on the wall and that pretty much confirmed it. The next question, however, was simple: where was she?

She moved to get out of bed…and felt searing pain rip through her side. She looked down to see her body, wrapped in gauze, though thankfully her leg was still as okay as it could ever get. Still, she was feeling pain, something that was generally more of an annoyance to her than a motion-halting issue – that was one of the things she’d inherited from her detested ancestor, Sombra. But with the wrappings and the pain, it meant her innate healing ability suddenly vanished.

Unfamiliar location, healing way too slow for normal…what’s going on? she wondered.

A second later, the door opened, and Princess Celestia walked in. She was dressed as Raspberry had never seen her before: in the barding of a mare at war. Stranger still, her hair was not moving with its natural motion, but laying as limp as any normal pony’s mane would.

“You’re up,” the sun alicorn said, relief in her voice. “We feared the worst.”

“The worst?” Raspberry asked.

“You’ll notice you’re healing normally now,” Celestia pointed out.

“Yes, and I’m wondering why,” she mused.

“You were exposed to, amongst other things, nearly lethal levels of miasma.”

Raspberry looked at her liegelady as if the armor she wore was somehow diminishing her intelligence. “Princess, miasma’s harmless. It only makes normal ponies sick, and it doesn’t affect me at all, given that I’m, well, me.”

The ruler of Equestria shook her head. “The world has changed in the past three days, Razz.”

Rose eyes widened in shock. “Three days?” she gasped. “How long was I out?”

“Please rest. There will be time to talk about that later.”

“Princess, please – I need to know. What happened?”

Celestia was about to speak, when a guard appeared. “Please rest, Razz. Somepony will be by to debrief you later. But for now, I have a war to fight.”

“A war?” Raspberry asked, wondering if somehow she’d ended up in a parallel universe not involving humans.

“Regardless, it’s good to see you up and about. I’ll be sure to let both the girls and your parents know; they’ve been worried about you. Until later.” Celestia favored her archmagus with a sad smile, then departed the room.

It was several hours later when she received another visitor not tied to the nurses who occasionally popped in to look in on her. Princess Luna, wearing silver barding reminiscent of what Celestia had worn earlier, walked into the room. And like her older sister Luna’s hair was not flowing of its own accord, either.

“That’s a new look for you,” Raspberry snarked, trying to raise the somber atmosphere in the room.

Luna nodded, favoring her friend with a smile. “I had this made after I retired my old armor for obvious reasons,” the night alicorn explained. “After Nightmare Moon’s defeat, I thought it would be better to have something more…approachable. Either way, I came to explain what’s happened…and to apologize.”

“Please. Celestia didn’t explain much. And I have other questions. Like where’s Heelee? What happened to the others? What’s happened to me?” She would’ve said more, but she winced and her hooves went to her side.

Luna bid her to lay back down. “Please don’t injure yourself further, Razz. We’re doing everything we can for you. Now, as for your pet phoenix, he’s under Fluttershy’s care right now – he was nearly killed in the attack on the Sunny Rainphase. As for the others…Lt. Zap is in intensive care for severe wingstrain; the doctors say it will be months before she can fly again. She saved your life, Razz. Your assistant mages were able to teleport away, but with injuries severe enough that they’re both in surgery right now. As for the Rainphase and its crew….” Luna turned away. “The crew is being awarded posthumous medals for their valiant service, both for trying to fight off the enemy and steer the dying ship away from Cloudy Vista.”

“Posthumous? Luna, what the hell happened?”

“Well, I’ll make this simple, but I want a promise from you first. Until we give the all-clear, I do not want you using any magic whatsoever, save for what it takes to maintain your guise. I won’t demand it as your liege, but rather as a promise between friends. Will you do that for me?”

The look on Raspberry’s face was one of utter confusion. “Don’t know why, but sure, I promise. I’ll Pinkie Promise if I have to. I take it that this is somehow tied to your and Celestia’s bad mane day?”

Luna smirked. “I suppose you could say that. Anyway, I’ll make it simple: your healing factor was stolen from you, and as of now, you heal like a normal pony. Given that we know almost nothing about black magic, it’s quite possible that you may permanently lose that ability. To make matters worse, we don’t know what other skills you may have lost as well, or if you’ll gain those back, either.”

“I take it there’s a story to all this?”

“There is. Three days ago, we found out what those pillars really were – and you were practically on top of the one in Cloudy Vista when it activated.” A nurse came in bearing fresh bandages, but Luna looked at her, shaking her head. The nurse nodded, then departed. “The pillars were, as we assumed, creating a magic circle, and Shining unfortunately discovered that their purpose was to becoming a force vacuum, to steal momentum, mana, and in many cases, life itself. These pillars then would transfer the stolen forces to a creature, a centaur named Tirek, that has been a thorn in the side of Equus for a long time, so long that he vexed even Discord when he sat on his throne.”

“So, it’s an elaborate magic theft? Seriously?”

“More than that, sadly. Equestrians near the pillars when they activated were put in a sort of stasis that not only can’t be broken, but then infects anyone attempting to do so and transfers their forces to the pillars. Worse, once it taps out the momentum and mana, it steals the life forces until there’s nothing left of the victim. As of now, over seven hundred of our subjects, including the young, are fatalities. We ended up evacuating the affected towns…” Luna looked haggard as she sighed and added, “…and Canterlot.”

Canterlot? The fact that the princesses had left their stronghold was a worrying thing. “So where am I?”

“A home in Pyrite Town, on the western edge of Neighagra Falls. It’s where we have the temporary government while we amass our forces both in the Empire and in Ponyville for a counterattack. The Minoans are sending military forces to assist, as are the kitsune and the tigers. Unfortunately, we can’t spare troops from our overseas colonies, so we cannot rely on the troops in Haywaii, Mareitania or Saddle Arabia. As it currently stands, Tirek holds a good portion of air superiority, and much of the Navy has been grounded. If this keeps up, all flyers will be grounded as well.”

“Because of the enemy forces?” Raspberry asked.

“Yes, but just as much because of the miasma. The pillars are not only transferring the magic to Tirek, but have a secondary function: wherever there are enough gem deposits, even the most minor of ones, the magic is creating golems with it – crystalline imitations of centaurs and wyverns, and sending them against our people. Additionally, the magic circle in itself is slowly filling with this new kind of miasma, which is nothing like anything we’ve seen before. It weakens all but the strongest of our forces, and in many cases, leads them towards the pillars.”

“I still don’t understand why I lost my healing ability, though. And you said that I might have lost other powers as well?”

“We believe that the pillars function to seek out unusual magic properties: alicorn, chaos, dark, so forth and so on. During the destruction of the Sunny Rainphase’s aerostats, one of the deckhooves and Lt. Zap found your magic being sucked into the pillar. Petty Officer Deckplate sacrificed himself to push you away and give Lt. Zap time to grab you. But the cost is that your healing is gone, and we don’t know how much else of your magic is gone as well. But early reports against Tirek’s forces indicate that the golems are harder to break, which hints that your healing ability may have been transferred en masse to that monster and his forces.” She pointed at her mane. “This is why we halved our own magic. We will explain further at tomorrow’s meeting, Razz, but for now, please rest. As I understand it, a doctor from Manehattan arrived thirty minutes ago and he’s a specialist in magical healing. You should be back on your hooves by tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?”

Luna nodded. “Rest for now. You’ll need your strength in the morning. And it’ll be a long meeting.” Luna lit her horn, casting a sleep spell on the unicorn. “I will see you tomorrow, my friend.”

“If you insist,” Raspberry yawned. Luna saw herself out, and heavy lidded, the unicorn looked at the foal’s room, the Wonderbolts poster and the other things of youth, and she wondered how the foal that normally lived here fared. Did he have loving parents? Did he have everything she hadn’t when she was that age? She could only hope he did.

And as she finally closed her eyes, she dreamed of a life she never had – one where she did have what she’d wanted.

The following morning, Raspberry opened her eyes once more to find three mares, all earth ponies, standing in her room. The three wore black armor that was completely bare of unit identification or rank. They also wore two swords each and a bow. The lead one, with a coat of dark salmon and a mane of celeste and Alice-blue in the same manestyle as Cloud Chaser, had gentle violet eyes and bowed before her. “Good morning your grace. We have been assigned to be your protectors from this point on. I am Marimba Rondo, your most humble servant. To my left is Cuíca Trecento.” A smiling mare with a cream coat, pink and magenta mane in a docktail, and also violet eyes, bowed. “And to my right is Pavane Bayan.” A sleepy-eyed mare with a two-tone blonde mane in waves, a rose coat and golden eyes, bowed. “We will serve you in any way possible. Our lives and bodies are yours to do as what you wish, Lady Raspberry.”

Raspberry caught the odd phrasing. “Lives and bodies?”

“She’s a smart one, Mari,” the one identified as Pavane said. Turning to Raspberry, she said, “There have been times in the past where a Hoof has had to guard somepony…who takes it a bit literally. In my parents’ case, my father took my mother’s vow literally, and…well, Mom had to retire, but the Princess insisted father marry mother in return. But blood always rings true, and when I showed the legacy, I came to fulfill my mother’s spot with the Hooves. Besides, Mom and Dad eventually did fall for each other.”

“I…see. Well, I don’t swing that way….” She the saw three mares give looks of relief on their faces. “Please don’t tell me you would have…!”

“Part of our duties, Lady Raspberry,” Cuíca explained. “Even if we don’t, ahem, ‘have that inclination’, our duties are all. There is a reason why our duties include lives and bodies. The Princess has asked us multiple times to amend our vows to her, but we dare not. We serve our regent dutifully for what she’s done for us and we dare not disappoint her at all.”

Marimba looked at Raspberry. “Fortunately, our duties rarely come to that. Most of the time, we have much more urbane duties for the Princess, and it is only in rare times that we serve in positions outside our scope. Besides, if you were, I suspect the Princess would have assigned a triune more inclined to do so, filled with mares who were ready to step away from active duty.” She bowed once more and said, “Regardless, we are the Princess’ Hooves, and this triune is here to serve you, life and body, Lady Raspberry.”

“The Princess’ Hooves? Isn’t that a myth?”

“All myths have a grain of truth, milady,” Pavane explained. “Our tribe owes a perpetual debt to the Princess for what she’s done, and so we serve her every wish and need.”

“Your tribe? Aren’t you earth ponies?”

“You’d think that, but it’s a bit more complex and I’m not at liberty to say, Lady Raspberry. What I can tell you is that right now, some of our forces are being deployed to serve the Princess in the old ways,” she said, nodding her head to indicate her weapons. “Others not as talented remain in their modern duties.”

Cuíca stepped forward and said, “In any case, we are here to escort you to the meeting. Lady Luna has requested that we do so.”

“Lady Luna? Don’t you mean Princess Luna?”

Pavane nodded. “We mean no disrespect, but we Hooves only have one Princess. It is merely our way, and I assure you, Ladies Luna, Cadance and Twilight understand. In fact, Lady Twilight’s repeatedly requested we even drop the ‘Lady’ sobriquet, but we do have to respect our nobles, milady.”

“Please, whenever you are ready, we will depart, though we strongly recommend that you dress suitably for the meeting, milady,” Marimba told her.

“We have had your formal robes sent from Ponyville,” Cuíca told her. “I will be happy to assist you, as I understand you are honor bound by Lady Luna to not use your magic.”

Mariba nodded. “Please assist Lady Raspberry, Cuí. Pav, move into a position where you can neutralize any threats if need be. Magic arrows are authorized.”

“Understood, Mari.” Pavane immediately departed.

Marimba looked at Raspberry. “I shall be right back, Lady Raspberry. I need to make sure that the pathway is secure for our trip from the manor to Government Hall.”

After a few minutes, Marimba came back, carrying a halberd and a triple staff. “Cuí, brought your sansetsukon.”

Both Raspberry, dressed in the formal robes of her station as an archmagus of Equestria; and Cuíca, still dressed in her armor, departed the room. Marimba threw Cuíca her triple staff. “Thanks, Mari. Means a lot to me.”

“You have a triple staff?” Raspberry asked Cuíca.

The mare nodded. “Yes, it was a gift from the kitsune princess Hatsumaru. I defeated her in a duel of honor on behalf of Lady Cadance, and in return, Hatsumaru bestowed her personal sansetsukon on me. It’s my most valued treasure. You are familiar with them?”

“Not really,” Raspberry said as the two mares escorted her from the mansion and out the doors, into a wide garden. “I’ve only seen them in magazines, though my understanding is that it’s a kitsune weapon and incredibly hard to get used to.”

Cuíca grinned. “I’ll say. Still, learned it – I gained the weapon from Hatsumaru, and thus was honor bound to use it in my duties. It is a fine weapon of war – and letting it sit around, gathering dust, just won’t do.”

The trio continued to walk through the gardens on their way to the main gate. Raspberry found the place beautiful, though the look of the ponies around was dour. One of them looked up into the sky, and so did Raspberry. High above, she saw black clouds floating up there, and she knew it was miasma, beginning to coalesce as clouds, something she’d never seen before. Additionally, arcs of energy, burning green and purple, tore across the sky. It looked as if the very heavens above were starting to fall apart.

“That isn’t your fault, milady,” Marimba told her. “We heard that you tried to stop what came, and that you nearly lost your life trying to halt it and that your companions are still fighting for theirs.”

“We will seek justice for them,” Cuíca insisted. “They are heroes of Equestria and deserve to be treated as such.” As they arrived at the manor gates, Cuíca opened the gate and cleared a path while Marimba followed alongside Raspberry.

As the duo led the unicorn towards their destination, she tried to talk to them. Marimba said that she was in her thirties while Cuíca was in her twenties and Pavane in her late teens, and all three wanted this life they chose. Yes, the Princess’ Hooves existed and served as Celestia’s maidstaff in peacetime. Marimba and Cuíca were both lone foals, though Pavane had an older brother she adored. All three had been trained in the arts of both domesticity and war since the day they earned their cutie marks. No, they didn’t wish for a normal life, because to them, this was normal, though Pavane had once told them her parents had wished she’d stayed with the family. Yes, if necessary, they would sacrifice their lives to save her. Yes, that was just how their tribe worked. Yes, their tribe was as rare as crystal ponies used to be, and only superficially looked like earth ponies. No, they weren’t at liberty to divulge that; she would have to ask the Princess directly.

Finally, they arrived at Government House, the building that was serving as the temporary home of the Crown. The building, normally what was likely Pyrite Town’s community center, was encircled with various members of the Solar and Lunar Guards, Royal Army soldiers and several members of the Hooves; the latter group looked to be the heaviest-armed of all. Standing by the door was Celestia and Luna, still dressed in their barding and speaking to a well-dressed earth stallion.

“Hello, Razz!” Luna said, waving her over. “This is Earl Waterspray. We’re currently holed up in his manor while we work to recover Equestria.”

Waterspray turned and offered his hoof for Raspberry to bump. “Ah, Archmagus Beryl. A pleasure to meet you! The princesses have been kind enough to tell me of your efforts to save Equestria, and I assure you, the land is in your debt.”

Raspberry blushed, not sure what to say. “Thank you, sir,” she finally said.

Celestia addressed the unicorn. “Well, we’re about to start the meeting. Please head on in and take a seat.” She then turned to her Hooves. “Marimba, thank you for keeping her safe.”

Marimba looked at her liegelady. “And we will continue to do so, my Princess,” she said. “We shall continue to honor you and Lady Luna in all that we do, both on battlefield and in chambers.” She then turned to Raspberry. “We will depart for now, Lady Raspberry, but I promise you that we will return before the end of the meeting.” With that, they departed.

“I object to this!” Tumblehome shouted, looking around at the number of Hooves present. “Princess, you should have real guards – your Solar Guard, even! Dressing your maids up in weapons and hoping they know what they’re doing is not good for your health!”

“Tumblehome, relax,” Halbard said, his eyes filled with mirth. “I am quite sure that Captain Armor would not risk the life of both his regent and his wife’s aunt to untrained ponies. I am more than sure they are vetted.”

“Thank you, good sir,” a mare spoke. Like the Hooves present, she wore a pair of swords and a bow. Unlike them, however, she wore a uniform that was akin to the Guard formal uniform, though there were slight differences. She had a lavender coat, a wavy cyan mane, and brown eyes. “My forces are more than vetted, and I would make them available for training against yours whenever you wish.”

“And you are?” Tumblehome demanded.

“I am Symphonia Breaker,” the mare said with a bow. “Castellan of the Princess’ Hooves. When she is unavailable, I speak for her in all matters associated with the Hooves. Though we are a rankless organization, for the sake of argument, I hold the same rank as you, the good General, and Captain Armor. Besides, Captain Armor will vouch for me.”

“Princess, again I protest!” Tumblehome insisted. “If the Guard won’t do their duty, then I assure you, the Navy will!”

“Admiral, you exceed your authority,” Luna told her. “Do not worry, Symphonia. We know we are in good hooves.”

Symphonia bowed. “My thanks, milady.”

“That’s ‘your highness’,” Tumblehome grumbled.

“Please, all, let’s get this meeting started,” Luna told those present. “Sister, if you would?”

As Celestia began the meeting, Raspberry looked around. She could see several other senior-ranking mages present from the Guild; most gave her a cursory glance and a nod of acknowledgement, but continued to focus on the introductions. Present for the Guard was Shining, via astralpresence; additionally, his Vice Captain, a jovial pegasus mare by the name of Arrowswift, was in attendance, flanked by some of the regional lieutenants in charge of Guard detachments. Halbard, accompanied by some of his junior generals, represented the Army. On the Navy side was Tumblehome as well as two vice admirals who were meek enough that she clearly had them around as yesponies. Strangely enough, though, she had three lower-ranked officers as well, two of which Raspberry recognized: Captain Spitfire, the Commanding Officer of the Wonderbolts; and a steely-eyed griffin in a haze gray flightsuit that had to be Captain Gallard, the Commanding Officer of the Thunderheads. The third, however, was a mare in a naval captain uniform that didn’t look at all familiar. On the far side, seated close to Cadance – attending through astralpresence and wearing a bronze replica of the same armor Celestia wore – was a kitsune in samurai finery. Finally, through astralpresence, Twilight was present; she was wearing her formal attire as Princess of Friendship and wore a torc that held a replica of the Element of Magic.

“Thank you all for coming,” Celestia said. “Additionally, my thanks to Prince Dōkaku, our ambassador from Inari, for committing his troops to aid us.” She bowed to him and he bowed back in a resplendent manner. “I will not mince words: this is the gravest threat that Equestria has ever faced in modern times, far more so than the return of Nightmare Moon or Discord’s brief rampage. This time, subjects – your fellow countryponies, beings that swore fealty to the crown and I could not protect – have died. Last night I received reports that Tirek’s golems were invading Vanhoover and the city’s defenses will not hold. Additionally, Baltimare, Manehattan, Las Pegasas, and many of our largest cities are under attack right now. We even have reports of changeling spies fleeing for their lives.” Several in the room laughed at this.

“While many of you may find this funny,” Luna said to the crowd, “I assure you this is no laughing matter.” She looked to Celestia again to continue.

“Three days ago, our archmagus for the dark arts, Raspberry Beryl, was partially affected by a near-direct exposure to an activated pillar. In the process, her natural accelerated healing ability was stolen, and possibly others as well.” Celestia looked to Raspberry. “Raspberry, would you be so kind as to lift the statue in the middle of the table?”

“Sure thing.” The statue of Queen Faust rearing into the sky was made of gold, stood a foot in height and weighed no more than ten pounds – foal’s play to lift. Raspberry looked at it and cast the natural levitation spell that was second-nature to all unicorns…

…and failed. She then cast a lifting spell, to no luck. Spell after spell after spell was thrown at the statue in an attempt to make it move, and still nothing happened. In frustration and desperation, she finally cast a force bolt at the statue. Chances were, it was going to break it into tiny pieces, but at least an explosion was a form of motion.

But nothing happened.

Raspberry looked at Celestia and Luna with an expression of horror.

“Raspberry…you’re not using any magic, including that which you use for your normal look,” Luna said, a look of sympathy for what her friend was going through.

“What are you saying?” Raspberry asked, knowing what the night princess was about to explain.

The look in Celestia’s eyes was one of sorrow. “You finally got your wish…but at a terrible price, Raspberry. You’re normal…

…and depowered.”

Raspberry collapsed to the ground, in shock. She couldn’t stand, she didn’t know what to do. She was normal again, normal for the first time since the accident had happened. But she was also very not normal. Unicorns had normal magic. Right now, she had none, just as if she were a three-month-old filly.

Luna was at her side in a flash. “I didn’t want to tell you,” the princess said. “And that’s why I wanted to apologize.”

Meanwhile as all present looked at the pair, Celestia raised her voice and caught her attention. “Right now, Tirek and his armies are using Archmagus’ Beryl’s power against us all. He will not stop until he has won. And worse – she is not the only one he is hunting.”

“August Princess,” Prince Dōkaku spoke to Celestia, “what do you mean?”

“I mean, Dōkaku-dono, that Tirek will be after Discord soon, to add chaos power to his arsenal. After that, he will go after the alicorns. And after that, your father, the august Ō-kyubi. And then countless beings after that. He will not stop until all power is his, and whether that means that there’s any beings left to oppose him or is immaterial.” The kitsune gave her a wide-eyed look, and the sun alicorn sadly nodded.

“Tirek has been running rampant in my realm for too long, ladies and gentlestallions. I think it’s time to deal with him for once and for all.” Celestia gave her forces a surprisingly wolfish smile. “Fortunately, my senior cadre and I have been working on a four-fold plan.” She then looked at Halbard. “General?”

“The first part is the easiest,” Halbard said as he stepped forward. “We have the bulk of the military that we can spare amassing in two places: The Empire, and Ponyville. From there, the northern forces will concentrate on destroying the northern and eastern pillars, while the southern armies will handle the western and southern pillars. Our most powerful mages, soldiers and guardsponies will tear through the enemy forces guarding the pillars, leaving clearance for the ships to destroy them.”

“What about those crystal dragons?” an Army pegasus asked. “Those things are nearly as dangerous as real ones!”

Gallard laughed. “Oh, please – we’re the most dangerous things in the sky, soldier! Nothing is more dangerous than a pissed-off Equestrian, and I don’t know about ponies, but as a griffin? This is my homeland, and I won’t stand for it being taken over by some scum-sucking, landlubbing centaur!” He then looked over to Tumblehome. “Ma’am?”

“My thanks, Captain,” Tumblehome started, giving nods to both Halberd and Celestia. “To deal with the air assault, our ships will do what we can, though our main plan is to destroy those pillars. As for dealing with one-on-one combat, we’ve established combat squadrons to deal with it. Some of them are already in existence: Capt. Gallard’s Thunderheads and Capt. Spitfire’s Wonderbolts. But we are establishing another one made of Equestrian griffins, two from the batponies, and the remainder from Wonderbolt reservists. After they cover the destruction of the pillars, their orders are to engage and destroy the remaining crystal dragon golems as well. Which leads to the second part of the plan. Captain Armor?”

Shining stood up, and looked at those assembled. “Once the pillars are down, Phase Two will begin. Given the amount of magic Tirek will have obtained by then, the princesses and I, with the exception of Princess Twilight, will engage Tirek’s forces. We have reason to believe that he is somewhere in the Unicornia Plains, so he shouldn’t be all that hard to find.” He looked back briefly at Celestia and Luna, then to his wife. “Some of you will notice that the princesses don’t look as…vibrant…as they normally do. That is because they transferred most of their magic to Princess Twilight. While we engage Tirek, she and her forces will focus on undoing the damage he’s done.”

“And what if you’re defeated?” somepony from the back asked.

Celestia looked up, noticing who it was. Ah, took them long enough. It happened during every crisis: there would always be some of the greedier nobles looking out for themselves before the good of the realm, and this time, it was no different. Duchess Highfalutin’ had been a recent thorn in her side, and now, with a genuine crisis going on, the young firebrand apparently thought she would make her move. Time to remind her who’s in charge. She watched Twilight carefully, knowing the younger alicorn would deal with Highfalutin’’s proxy.

Sure enough, Twilight addressed the speaker. “Then I will engage him, if need be.” The room gasped, looking at admiration for their young warrior princess. “Ponyville stands ready to do what it must, and so do my Bearers. Furthermore, we will have what forces are available from The Agency to assist; while they are not soldiers, I have no doubt they know how to fight, if it comes to that.”

Another voice came from the back. “With all due respect, Princess Twilight, you are a very capable battlemage, but what are the alternatives if the unthinkable occurs and you are defeated? We have to think about the alternatives of our people!”

Celestia, Luna and Cadance all looked at one another, then at Twilight. “Go ahead, Twilight,” Celestia said.

Twilight gave her mentor a knowing smile. “In the event I am defeated, we activate Project Wanderer.” The room fell silent as Twilight walked to the center of the room, looking at them all. “While the main brunt of our attack on Tirek’s forces occurs, we will send two small teams to prepare for the worst-case scenario. The first team will head to the known entrance to Discord’s pocket dimension to seal it off. It is the best way to keep him protected from Tirek, lest the beast steal his power. He has agreed to this.” Murmurs broke out amongst the crowd; to think that Discord would consider the good of ponykind above his own selfish desires was shocking, to say the least.

“The second thing that will happen, I have no control over,” Twilight said. “Once the other nations realize that we have been defeated, they will do everything within their power to assault Tirek on our lands. Our diplomatic personnel overseas will do their best to ensure that the invading armies will follow the Geneighva Convention, but in a catastrophic situation, we cannot guarantee that they will bind themselves by international law to do this.” Louder murmurs broke out with a couple of shocked gasps. This was a controversial statement, after all; if the alicorns and ranking nobles of Equestria were wiped out, what would happen to the common ponies? Celestia couldn’t help but be proud of those present who actually cared about that statement. One way or another, they would do what they could to ensure the safety of the populace.

And then it happened. A lone unicorn mare stood up. She had a cyan coat, sea-green eyes and a purple mane done in a style reminiscent of Cadance’s. She wore a resplendent white dress that covered her cutie mark – a diamond, topped by a crown – but she wore a torc that had the design emblazed on it in gems. The look on her face was that of somepony who owned the place, and clearly thought of Celestia as an impediment to her plans. This was Duchess Highfalutin’, and she prepared to play her part in the game that she thought would vault her past the alicorns.

“Princess Twilight, far be it from me to question your wisdom,” Highfalutin’ began, “but I refuse to believe that in a worst-case scenario, we would simply allow our ponies to be leaderless! Ponykind needs those to look up towards, to be role models and rulers. I would think that someone as learned and wise as you wouldn’t do that to our gentle species?”

The four alicorns present read the threat as it was: abandon the people and Highfalutin’ would declare herself the rightful heir to Princess Platinum in a heartbeat and would depose Tirek and Discord to become the rightful dictator and tyrant of Equestria, if that was what it took.

Unfortunately for her, Twilight was far from done. “Thank you for our concerns, Duchess. It is good to know where you stand.” The princess of magic let her silence speak for her for a second before she continued. “We would not leave our ponies to the vagaries of the literal and metaphorical four winds, Duchess. I will now tell you the final part of Project Wanderer. Should we all fail, Archmagus Beryl will activate a protocol and summon the one pony left who stands a chance of defeating Tirek. That pony will be our candlelight in the darkest hour.”

The room erupted in ironically loud whispers:
“Starswirl is returning to deafeat our enemies?”
“The Queen! It must be her! Queen Faust is finally returning to rescue us all!”
“Commander Hurricane will return from the dead to save us!”
“Could it be that Daring Do is real and has a plan to win the day?”

Twilight let the murmurs die down before she looked at Highfalutin’. The duchess took the bait and asked, “And who, praytell, your highness, will be coming to save ponykind in its darkest hour?”

Raspberry looked up at the duchess and said, “The only other pony aside from the princesses who has ever wielded the Element of Magic.”

As everypony present looked around in confusion or surprise that a third could wield the vaunted relic, Celestia couldn’t help but have a smile wide enough to split her face in two as she said, “Who else? My daughter. Sunset Shimmer.”

The room then exploded in verbal roars of outrage and shock.
“THE EXILE? HOW DARE SHE?”
“The Would-be PrincessSlayer dares to return to our lands? She must be punished!”
“Oh, so she plans to join Tirek in conquering the world?”
“PRINCESS TWILIGHT, SAVE US FROM THAT MONSTER TIREK – AND KILL THAT OTHER MONSTER AS WE—”

“SILENCE!” The room rattled as Twilight roared the command in the loudest tones of the Royal Canterlot Voice that she could muster. “You dare to threaten the daughter of our Princess?” the Bearer of Magic thundered.

Despite her status at the moment, Raspberry drew herself up straight. “Sunset Shimmer is not that kind of mare – not now, not when she came to see us in Ponyville a few months ago!” The room collectively gasped as one at Raspberry’s words.

“Everything you know about my niece…is a lie,” Luna said, practicing the speech she’d been working on for some time now. After Sunset’s brief visit to Ponyville, it had been decided that to counter the dark reputation she’d built up in Equestria would be covered up with a lie. None of them liked that at all, but the truth was because the outrageous stories ponies had said about the “PrincessSlayer”, the typical “turn on a dime” attitude ponies had about a foe that was defeated was likely not going to happen; by coincidence, an Equestria Daily article from two years ago on the possibility of Sunset’s return had shown that around the nation, ponies just could not forgive this one act. Thus, the lie: Luna, Cadance and the Bearers had worked it out with the Agency, who had spent the past couple of months laying the groundwork for the moment the speech had to be used. It went without saying that Applejack was disgusted enough by the lie that she left the room; she later told them that though she hated the lie, that ponies refused to forgive Sunset was just as bad, so while she could not endorse the plan, she understood.

Besides, my sister lies on occasion to our people via omission – she hid the existence of Nightmare Moon and my exile for centuries, to the point that ponies forgot I exist, Luna mused sadly. So, lying to protect my niece is something I can live with. After all, running this realm can be a dirty business, sometimes.

“Years ago, when the return of Nightmare Moon became inevitable, my sister told her daughter that she would be the one that would likely face me in battle and that it would end with one of us dead. You see, our dear Twilight here may have far more finesse in magic than Sunset or Raspberry, but when it comes to raw power, Sunset outstrips them both.” The room looked at the night alicorn with disbelieving eyes, and she knew she had their attention. “However, Sunset could not find it in her heart to do what her mother had asked, and so she asked to take a journey, a long journey that would take her far from the pony lands, to places no pony has ever trod before, and to learn new skills and abilities that would be of benefit to us. Reluctantly, my sister said yes.”

Cadance cleared her throat and then added. “However, given how much she was beloved by the populace back then, we knew it would cause my aunt a major scandal to send her only child out into what looked like exile. So, Sunset and I planned something that hurt both her and my aunt – Sunset would make herself out to be a traitor, to turn against her mother and would head into exile herself. It worked.” Cadance hung her head as if in shame, but she knew it was one of an entirely different kind. “It worked too well.”

Halbard looked at Celestia. “Your majesty? Is this true?”

Celestia looked at her faithful general with teary eyes. Those, if nothing else, were true. “I miss my child,” Celestia said with a true heart. “I miss every day that she is in alien lands, far away from me and doing what must be done. I missed watching her grow into the mare that she’s become. When she came back a few months ago to speak to Twilight – who has valiantly served as my go-between – my heart broke when she returned to the role she is in. I pled with her to stay, but what she is doing now is too important to the realm to have her pulled away so hastily. Which is why bringing her back is the last resort it is.”

Celestia smiled. “I see the questions on your face. ‘How powerful could she be?’ That is a simple answer. She is the first non-alicorn since the days of the old dynasty to be able to access the true power of the sun. And those sunkeepers did so in groups. My daughter did it by herself.” At that pronouncement, more voices broke out in surprise.

Raspberry whispered to Twilight’s astral image. “Is that true?”

Twilight nodded. “Apparently, she did it when she was twelve. Wanted to impress Celestia for Mother’s Day and accidentally caused a solar eclipse. Celestia said she wasn’t allowed to do it afterwards. Oh, and I just barely learned how to get a grasp on the sun and moon last week. Sunny did it instinctively.”

Twilight turned to those assembled. “We also hope that by heading to where Archmagus Shimmer is, she will be able to restore Archmagus Beryl’s magic, and by doing so, will remove that asset from Tirek’s grasp.”

“Excuse me?” A guardspony lieutenant spoke up. “Your highness, is that even possible?”

“We really don’t know,” Raspberry spoke up. “Dark magic doesn’t play by its own rules. And yes, it might actually fail. But…we have to try, right? What’s the option? Letting Tirek win? I don’t think so.” The mulberry unicorn looked at the assembly. “I hope we never have to get to the point that we bring Sunset back; I can only hope that the beast is defeated long before that. But we have to try, regardless – millions of ponies depend on us!”

“Well said,” Celestia told the younger mare. “Now, you all have your orders and you all know what to do.”

“Dismissed,” Luna ordered.

Later that night, Raspberry sat in her room, preparing her new saddlebags for the trip. It was a fortunate thing that she was still in good physical condition, her lame leg aside, because she would need to use everything they had given her for the trip ahead: two crossbows and several dozen quarrels. They would be the only thing protecting her from being assaulted by Tirek’s forces.

Well…almost the only thing. Raspberry felt her eyes go misty as Heliodor flew into the room, chirping happily as he saw her. He tried to land on her horn, but his weight was now too much for her depowered self. As she started to give way, he hopped off and hovered before her face, a curious look in his eyes.

“I’m okay, Heelee,” she lied. “I’m just getting used to not having magic. It feels…weird.”

There was a knock at the door, and the unicorn was glad for the distraction. “Come in,” she said. The door opened to reveal the three Hooves standing there, wearing cloaks and carrying a variety of weapons. “Are you ready to go, Lady Raspberry?” Marimba asked.

Raspberry looked at the trio with surprise. “What?”

Cuíca laughed. “Oh, you sweet summer foal.”

“Be nice, Cuí,” Pavane admonished. “We announced your departure intentionally, because we had no intent of sticking with it, milady. All that does is make you a target in case of sympathizers.”

“Sympathizers?”

Marimba nodded. “Of course – in war there are always those who would cozy up to whoever they think will last to the end. And we watched Duchess Highfalutin’. She clearly is hedging her bets, and we’re sure that she’s covered up any necessary evidence. Additionally, I think the Princess wants to deal with the Duchess herself. That being said, she presents a threat to you, and the only way to stop that is to kill her or to get you out of here.”

Cuíca nodded. “And since Mari won’t let us kill her, the only other option is to just depart earlier than announced.”

“Your bird will have to remain behind, of course,” Pavane informed her. “We’ve arranged to have your pet sent to the Empire, which is likely the safest place at the moment. I assure you, it will be in good hooves.”

But Raspberry shook her head. “Heelee’s coming along,” she told them. “He goes where I go, and he’s more than just a pet – he’s one of the closest friends I have.”

“Pet phoenixes aren’t exactly common, milady,” Pavane argued. “And green ones even less so. Even with the disguises we brought, we have no way of hiding him. And we cannot put him in your bags, milady; you need those weapons while you are depowered.”

“I need him there. Once we separate and I head into the other realms – wait, do you gals know about…?”

Marimba nodded. “We have been told all that we needed to know, Lady Raspberry. Anything else would be a breach of our duties and protocol both to you and our Princess.”

“In any case, I will need him for additional protection. The lands beyond the mirror are, for the most part, magicless, and while Sunset retains her ability, without any, I am completely at the mercy of everything there until I find her.”

Marimba nodded. “I see,” she said, placing a hoof under her chin in thought. “We still have a couple of hours left to craft something for him. But in turn, he must be willing to live with our restrictions. No excessive hunting or flying, no revealing that he’s anything other than what his disguise will make him appear to be.”

Heliodor nodded and did another wing salute in reply. “I think you have his vote of confidence,” Raspberry told them.

Cuíca nodded. “I’ll be right back then. Heliodor, right? Please follow me. We shall return shortly and we should plan to leave no later than two hours from now.”

Marimba agreed. “Two hours it is, then.”

Meanwhile, Raspberry looked at the crossbows she’d been given. To say that she didn’t know how to use them was obvious, or at least she didn’t know how to use them well – she certainly wasn’t trained for them. Yet it only served to underscore that things weren’t going to be the same for her anytime soon.

Pavane looked at Raspberry with some sympathy. “I understand your concerns, milady. Such equipment is not meant for gentler souls. And I suspect that if the Princess had her way, she would have prevented many of us from taking up these arms. But we swore a vow, inviolate and immortal, and we will fulfill the compact until the last breath of the last Hoof.”

Marimba looked at her friend. “Look at her, Pav. She’s no stranger to the long roads. She’s not the wilting flower that Lady Twilight used to be.” The mare then directly addressed Raspberry. “I know a little of your past, milady. While I am not privy to the remainder, I am told you know the backroads and byways as well as the best trained scout.”

Raspberry gave a smile. “Don’t mean to brag, but I’ve been around the block a few times, yeah.”

Hours later, as the sun began to rise, Marimba slowed to a canter and looked to the trees in the distance to the right of them. “There seems to be the ruins of an old homestead there,” she said as she pointed towards the copse. “We should be able to sleep there for a few hours.”

“I’ll go scout it out,” Pavane replied and took off at another gallop towards the site.

A few minutes later, two more mares followed up. “And I thought I was in shape,” Raspberry gasped as she came to a stop by Marimba. “Now I know how Sunny Flare feels.” Seated on her saddlepack was a very concerned-looking greenjay, chirping in worry. She turned her head. “I’m okay, Heelee. I think.”

“You are, I assure you,” Cuíca said as she came to an easy stop. “It’s just that we three undergo the same training regimen as do the EUP and the Army. So we’re in top form. For somepony who doesn’t work out at that level, I’m impressed that you can keep up.”

Marimba looked towards the copse, where Pavane was waving her stave. “It looks like we’re clear to go,” Marimba replied. “I think we can take it a little easier for Lady Raspberry’s sake.”

“Thanks,” Raspberry gasped as the trio cantered over to the trees.

The copse turned out to be several large oaks of the same type that grew in the Everfree; either this had once been part of the great forest, or these had been seeds dropped by a bird. In the center of it was a weathered cabin that looked like it had seen far better days; Pavane identified it as being early colonial revival style, which meant it had to have been abandoned for a few decades. However, as they went in, it was clear that the inside had been enchanted, as it kept the same look as it likely had ages ago.

“This is probably our best chance to rest,” Marimba told the three. “We’ll sleep for a few hours and once it’s afternoon, we’ll head out once more. We’re only fifty miles or so from our destination, so we should be able to get there by tonight.”

“I’ll take first watch,” Pavane insisted.

“No, you rest,” Marimba told her. “You’ve been working harder than the rest of us, and I’m concerned you’re overdoing it.”

“I’ll be fine,” Pavane promised. “I’ve been through worse.”

“I doubt it,” Cuíca laughed. “You haven’t had Blueblood duty.” The three mares looked at each other and began laughing, but from the moment she lay down to rest, Raspberry’s eyes grew heavier. She wanted to ask something, especially since it dealt with Prince Moron, but when she opened her mouth, all she could do was yawn. And before she knew it, sweet darkness claimed her.

“Lady Raspberry!” Pavane said, shaking the unicorn. “Wake up!”

Raspberry opened dreary eyes. “Huh, wha?” She then looked out the window, seeing the last rays of sunset hitting. “Shit!” she said as forced herself to her feet. “Why didn’t anypony wake me up?”

“Because this happened twenty minutes ago,” Pavane told her. “You’ve been asleep for only two hours at most.”

“Two hours? It was just dawn!”

“The Princess has fallen,” Marimba said. “We just received this flamefax from Captain Armor an hour ago. The Princess, along with Ladies Luna and Cadance, Captain Armor and the Castellan, engaged Tirek directly just outside of Canterlot. The first part of the plan has succeeded: the pillars have fallen. Unfortunately, it has only made things worse.”

“Worse?” Raspberry asked.

“The Castellan was slain outright by Tirek’s sword. Captain Armor barely survived and is currently reassembling the troops. But the Princess and our ladies…they were soundly defeated, and their powers stolen by the damnable centaur. He then spirited them away to an unknown location, but most likely under his control. So we need to join up with Princess Twilight’s forces and assist them in any way we can. That, of course, includes getting you to your destination, Lady Raspberry.”

Raspberry was about to ask why they were now referring to Twilight as their princess, but then she stopped as she recalled their earlier words: they only served one princess. With them referring to Twilight now as their Princess, it meant that they didn’t believe that Celestia, Luna or Cadance had survived. And that revelation made the room spin.

Is Twi all that’s left? A bigger fear then filled her: if something was powerful enough to wipe out three alicorns without much struggle, then it was headed to take out the last one – Twilight. Worse, it was heading for Ponyville: her home, where all her family and friends were.

Meanwhile, Cuíca turned to Marimba. “Your orders, Castellan?”

“Castellan?” Raspberry asked, forcing herself to think past the completely horrifying shock she felt at the moment.

“A few months ago, Symphonia announced that I would be her replacement as Castellan. She intended to step away from active life to marry a stallion that was on the palace staff.” Marimba looked away. “They were perfect together and I wanted her to be happy. I never wanted to succeed her like this.” Her eyes then grew steely. “But I do not have the luxury of a choice now.”

“Will you be okay, Mari? You two were friends,” Cuíca asked.

“I will grieve later,” Marimba answered, her voice dull. “I will cry my heart out and stomp my hooves like a foal later. Right now, we must honor our fallen Princess and rally to the side of our new one. We must keep the faith.” The new castellan of the Princess’ Hooves looked at Raspberry. “Pavane, your only task will be to get Lady Raspberry to the portal. Cuíca and I will join up with the Princess to ensure the safety of her and her court.” She then turned to Raspberry. “Pavane will see you to your goal, milady. I must join up with the Princess.”

Raspberry gave Marimba a stone-sober look. “Protect Twi – she’ll need your help more than anything, Castellan.”

Marimba gave a faint smile. “I have known the Princess since the day she earned her cutie mark, milady. I have no doubt that the Princess will succeed where our fallen Princess did not.” The smile then fell from Marimba’s face, and the mulberry unicorn could see the heartbreak on the Hoof’s face.

“You must’ve served her a long time,” Raspberry said.

“Faithfully and loyally, and I fully expected I would be the one to fall before her. In truth, I wish I had. The world is now going to be a dangerous unknown without the Princess and Ladies Luna and Cadance, and I fear our new Princess is not yet ready for such a heavy burden, no matter how talented and able she is. And with Captain Armor now in charge of the Empire, the Princess cannot be left be. I must be at her side to help – we must all help.”

“I know. So let’s get to it.”

The last time she’d seen day and night out of whack, it had been when Discord had decided to take a metaphorical – and maybe literal, given him – whack to both the sun and moon. However, there was something orderly about this time, as if Twilight was trying to get a hold of the sidereal cycle and just couldn’t yet. Within the first few miles, a technical day had passed. A few miles after that, and a week had. Yet the four raced on, with Heliodor flying just beside them to lighten the load on Raspberry. She was glad for that; the pace that they were rushing at was more along the lines of one of Rainbow’s exercise regimens and something even the mulberry unicorn had some difficulty keeping up with. By the time the Everfree was finally in sight, the equivalent of a month and a half had passed by.

The group came to a stop as they hit a fork in the road. The right fork would push them towards Ponyville, while the left led into the Everfree Forest, and was the historical route to take towards Castle Everfree.

The four looked at each other. “It is time for us to part ways, Lady Raspberry,” Marimba told her. “Please, take care. Should the Princess fall, it will fall to Lord Blueblood to rule the land, and well, I’d rather not discuss that.”

“Oh, trust me,” Raspberry grunted, “I certainly have no interest in serving that self-centered, egotistical twerp of a would-be prin—”

“Ladies,” Pavane cut in, “we should make this farewell short. After all, time is of the essence.”

“You’re correct, Pavane,” Marimba said. The three Hooves looked at each other, each clearly wanting to embrace one another, given that to Raspberry, they seemed very much like a family, certainly far more than any other member of a tribe would feel towards one another on the average. They all gazed at each other with trepidation and Raspberry knew that look: it was the look of a pony committing to memory the features of the other, because it could be the last time the three ever saw each other alive again, and it would be up to the survivor to carry on the memories of those lost. With that, the unicorn couldn’t help but do it herself.

After a few more seconds of silence, the four moved from their reverie and, without a word, began to take off, both Marimba and Cuíca rushing off down the Ponyville path like quicksilver. Meanwhile, Pavane and Raspberry watched them run off. “I hope they make it okay,” Raspberry told her escort.

“As do I, milady,” Pavane said, looking around to make sure they were safe despite being out in the open. “Lady Raspberry, before we continue, I have a couple of things to say.” The mare smiled as she said, “It has been a true honor working beside you. In the past, I’ve had to escort nobles and high-ranking officials who have tried to be, shall we say, less than kind. A few of them attempted to insist on fulfilling the compact that Hooves serve body and soul – the Princess gave me special dispensation to ignore that part of the compact, but there have been quite a few who have insisted, though they failed.”

Blueblood and his asinine ways immediately came to mind. “Oh, I can think of at least one good – or should I say bad? – example.”

Pavane then went over and whispered something in Raspberry’s ears; despite the two of them being the only ones present; while it seemed like overkill, it was clear that Pavane took security and privacy seriously. As she stepped back to allow the mulberry mare to process what she’d just said, Pavane gave a small smile and said, “That is my last request, milady. If you will do that for me, I will be content if I pass.”

Raspberry looked at the mare as if she’d turned into a live lamia. “You’re serious about this?”

Pavane nodded. “I will likely die today.” As if to underscore her statement, a deep boom in the distance sounded, and the ground shook a little. “I would like to see my wish be fulfilled, but I cannot. As such, I need somepony of honor that would do so. Would you please be so kind, Lady Raspberry?”

“I can’t,” she said.

“You can, and you will. You are the kind of mare who would do so, even if I hadn’t asked. The Princess chose you well when she made you an archmagus; that befits your character. So, I implore you, please, see that my final wish comes through. I know that you will – I believe in you, milady.”

Raspberry opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off be a louder thump, and the ground shaking a little more. “What the hell is that?”

“We do not want to be around to find out, milady. Run!”

The two began galloping as fast as they could, the ground shaking and the deep rumbling behind them starting to slowly pick up. Pavane and Raspberry looked at each other, hoping that one or the other would have some sort of answer as to what was happening, but neither having a clue. Finally, a familiar sound chirped at Raspberry’s ear.

“It could be dangerous,” the unicorn said to the disguised phoenix.

“What could be dangerous?” Pavane asked.

“Heelee’s offered to fly back there and find out what it is, but he could be hurt!” Raspberry explained.

“True, but he might also be our best chance to get some needed intel on what’s behind us. It could be part of Tirek’s army…or it could be Tirek himself.” Neither of them wanted to deal with either of the choices, but it was likely that, ironically, they were far safer up against hundreds of crystalline golems than a single overpowered, megalomaniacal centaur.

“But it’s not safe! And he’s barely just a fledgling!” Heliodor chirped a long, steady and variable-pitched blur of sounds at her, and Raspberry narrowed her eyes. “You watch your mouth, Heelee,” she scolded. “And you’re a phoenix, not a normal bird – so you are just barely a baby.” Pavane, for her part said nothing, but gave a small knowing smile.

A massive gout of flame suddenly ripped apart the ground beneath the two, sending both flying. Raspberry, no longer with her magical healing ability, crashed painfully against a massive oak, knocking her out. Pavane, however, was able to recover, flipped in the air, and landed on her hindlegs, using her forelegs to withdraw her crossbows from underneath her cloak. “RUN!” she shouted to Raspberry, who couldn’t hear her.

A massive hoof crashed down next to her, nearly knocking her off-balance. Pavane looked up to see a titanic monster, the size of a mountain, looking down at her. It was mostly ponylike, with a coat of sable nearly as dark as a crow. But that’s where the similarities ended. The monster had red arms like a minotaur, as well as a chest and face similar to one. A downwards inferno pointed where a beard would have been on its face, and its eyes were like twin suns of hate. He had massive horns, each as long as a tree, and between them a massive sphere of magic burning with shades of purple, green and indigo warped and woofed with power.

Pavane looked up at him, pointing her crossbows right at his face. The quarrels began to glow with golden magic, the charge within them igniting. “IN THE PRINCESS’ NAME, STAND DOWN OR I WIL—”

Pavane Bayan never completed that sentence.

With no more concern than squishing an annoying insect, Tirek brought up a hoof then brought back down. An explosion ripped underneath his hoof once it hit the ground, and he winced, looking at it once he’d lifted it again.

“So the little bug had a sting,” he said in a bored tone. “Too bad it’ll never have a chance to sting Tirek again.” The creature looked around and soon found what he was looking for. “And there you are, little insect. You’re going to be Tirek’s little pet now.” The giant minotaur gently plucked the unconscious unicorn from the ground placing her in his palm. “You gave Tirek such power, little thing. You will get to live, so that Tirek becomes that much more powerful.”

The minotaur felt a slight bit of warmth on his hand and found a greenjay breathing an immense blast of fire on it. “And so Tirek’s pet has a pet of its own. How quaint.” He snapped his finger with his other hand, and a blast of energy hit the bird, removing his disguise and revealing it to be a green phoenix. The blast also slammed him against the unicorn, waking her up.

Raspberry snapped to, seeing Heliodor’s unconscious form before her, and the towering face of Tirek above her. “You monster,” she spat at him. “You know you’re not going to win this, right?”

“There is none who can oppose Tirek, insect. Your power is Tirek’s. The alicorns have fallen before the hooves of Tirek. And soon, all shall bow before Tirek’s majesty: that fool, Discord; that bitch, Chrysalis – all shall bow. And you have no chance to survive, make your time.”

Raspberry moved in front of Heliodor to shield him. “You will lose, Tirek. You will be defeated!”

Tirek laughed, the harshly booming sound filling the air. “Someone will defeat Tirek? Is that what you claim? There is no chance of that! Tirek has beaten the alicorns! Tirek has made Discord hide for his filthy life! And soon, THE WHOLE WORLD WILL BOW AT TIREK’S HOOVES!”

Without warning, a massive magic circle opened up in his palm, and Raspberry could feel herself being pulled in. Was she being absorbed into Tirek? She didn’t know if he had that ability, but he clearly had black magic to spare. Worried for Heliodor, she reached out to him, taking him in her forelegs. If she let him go, there was chance he would fall to his death.

Although maybe I’m sentencing him to his death by holding on to him, Raspberry thought worriedly as she saw the look of anger on Tirek’s face. A second later, it didn’t matter much, as she started to feel dizzy and her vision started to black out. Is this what death is?

Meanwhile, she could see Tirek as he opened his mouth as if to say something—

—and a second later a massive column of purple energy hit him in the face as Twilight Sparkle roared in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “I AM MAGIC, AND YOU WILL NOT WIN, MONSTER!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Raspberry could see a lone figure, blazing like a violet comet, rushing in their direction. Raspberry wanted to shout a warning to Twilight, to warn off her friend. Raspberry wasn’t sure if Twilight could win it alone, even with the magic boost she received from the other alicorns.

And a second later, as Raspberry’s world crashed to black, it didn’t really matter.

August 14, AM: Club Tropicana

“Dad!” Fluttershy shouted from her room.

“It’s too early in the morning for this, hon,” Posey said, trying not to fall asleep in her coffee. “What did you do?”

In the kitchen making omelets, Discord had the very look of innocence on his face. Which, of course, meant that everyone knew he was guilty as hell. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean.”

“Hon?” Posey said simply, and in that simple syllable contained the multitudes of every raised eyebrow, every huffed statement and every angry glare. This was clearly a married woman who knew her husband all too well.

And he knew it too. “Okay, okay, look, I just want to try to make up for not being there all those times, okay?”

“It’s not a contest, Dee,” his wife reminded him.

“You’re right, it’s not,” he said in a tone that sounded hurt. “I just want to make it up to her, okay?”

“I don’t know what you did, but you’ll want to explain it soon.”

At that point, Fluttershy came out of her room with her bags in tow, the look on her face somewhere between hurt, testy and worried. “Dad, I’m sure you had a very good reason for doing it, but could you please tell me why you cancelled our plans to go to Modesto?”

Discord gave his daughter a bemused smile. “Because it’s nothing but farmland?”

Fluttershy crossed her arms. “Except for the camping area and the cabin we took forever to find.”

He sidled over to her and put a loving arm around her shoulders. “Fluttershy, dear, don’t you think that I would’ve made sure my darling daughter and her stalwart friends had the time of their lives?” With a sleight of hand that would’ve made a magician – or at least a particular teenage one Fluttershy knew – jealous, he produced an ivory-colored folder with gold embossing on it. “You might just prefer this instead.”

Fluttershy took it and looked at it. “Club Tropicana?”

Posey woke up slightly at that. “The one in Harmony?”

“I would’ve set them up at the one in Jamaica, but I didn’t know if the others had passports,” he said with a shrug.

Posey walked over to the coffeemaker, a slight smile on her face. “You old charmer,” she said fondly to her husband.

He winked. “Aren’t I, though?”

As for Fluttershy, she opened the folder and looked at the documents within. “Dad, this is—”

“One of the best resorts in the world – exclusive luxury beachfront villas, complete with a private beach, golf course and reservations desk service. So premier, in fact, the waiting list is a year in advance – and that’s if you’re a celebrity; the merely wealthy have to wait even longer. You’ve got two weeks to enjoy everything there is there, as well as the town of Harmony itself and nearby Cambria and Morro Bay. You’ll love the place.”

“You will,” Posey said, moving to where her husband was. “Your father took me there before we were married. It’s a gorgeous place.”

A look of amazement crossed the teen’s followed by realization that there was no way she could afford this, much less her friends. “Are you sure?”

He waved it off. “Just put it on the card. In fact, you can pretty much put everything you all need on that card. Heaven knows American Express charges me a fortune for it anyway.”

She gasped and said again, “Dad, are you sure—”

“Am I absolutely sure I want my daughter and her closest friends to be treated like royalty at a place known for it? Yeah, pretty sure.”

“But if it takes a year to get a reservation,” Fluttershy asked, “how did you manage?”

“Oh, I called in a favor from a friend,” he admitted. “Besides, Madonna’s on a world tour right now, so she doesn’t have time to use it. Fortunately, Starlight Glimmer’s on the same tour, so she pulled some strings for me.” He then looked at his wife. “Also, I’m going to be in Spain for the rest of the month, because Starly needs a guitarist, so I’ll be guesting.”

“Something happen?”

“Yeah, her usual guitarist had a family emergency, so that was the price.”

“Fine by me,” Posey said as she held her coffee in a ready-to-drink position, “but if Madonna tries any of that Kabballah shit on you I’m going to kill her.”

“Eh, I think she dumped it and is neo-Buddhist now or whatever. Besides, that phase should be over by next year, anyway,” he said glibly.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy put the folder in her bag and then hugged her father. “Thanks, Dad, really. I’m absolutely sure—”

“—that I’ve died and gone to heaven!” Rarity swooned. As planned, they all met at Sunset’s house, with all packed and ready to go. Everyone was surprised by Fluttershy’s statement until she told them it was her father’s idea, to which nobody was surprised in the least.

“That good?” Applejack asked.

“Are you kidding?” Pinkie gasped. “It’s only the crème de la crème of resorts in California! It’s totally AWESOME!” A second after Pinkie hit the Royal Canterlot Voice, the rest rubbed their ears from the brief sonic assault.

“How do you two know about it?” Fluttershy asked.

“My family stayed there for a week as a part of an article my mother was writing for Condé Nast Traveler,” Rarity explained. “It was one of the most wonderful places I’ve ever been. If I could have, I would’ve have stayed there forever.”

“How would I not? It’s practically the only reason to go to Harmony!” Pinkie clarified.

“Harmony? Where’s that?” Rainbow asked. “Doesn’t sound familiar.”

Twilight looked up from her phone. “A lot longer of a drive than to Modesto,” she said. “It’s down by San Luis Obispo.” Applejack gave her a blank stare, and Twilight clarified: “It’s closer to LA than it is San Francisco.”

Seeing the look on her friend’s face, Sunset spoke up. “I can trade off with you, AJ. You don’t have to do all the driving yourself.”

“Thanks, Sunny,” the blonde said gratefully. “Ah was a bit worried about the drive as is, but practically to LA? No thanks.”

“Well, let’s get going since we got a long drive! I got shotgun!” Rainbow announced.

“Nope – Ah think Sunny needs to be, because she’s gonna need to see the road,” Applejack said, “unless you’re planning to drive.”

“Uh, no thanks. Just got a copy of The Ancient Machines. Been waiting for that book forever!”

“Isn’t that the Tomb Raider/Uncharted crossover?” Twilight asked.

“The first part of a crossover franchise!” Rainbow said back excitedly. “Videogame comes out next February and the movie next summer! Now we’re gonna see who’ll find the lost legacy of Dr. Indiana – Daring Do, or Golden Compass!”

“I’m just astonished that she’s actually reading something,” Rarity joked, and the others laughed.

“Well, daylight’s burning and it’s a six-hour drive,” Octavia added, picking up her bag. “Time for us to go.”

“I’ll lock up,” Twilight suggested.

“I’ll grab your bag for you, sis,” Sunset said as she grabbed hers; the others took theirs as well. However, once she reached for Twilight’s, she felt a sharp sting on her hand. She looked up in surprise to see Twilight angrily having slapped her hand, then took her bag as she glared at her. “Twily!” she said, hurt. Twilight didn’t answer, instead pointing out the door.

Sunset got the hint, and walked. Pinkie immediately joined her and said, “It’s okay, Sunny. Believe me, I understand more than anyone here how you feel.”

The former unicorn felt comforted by that. “Thanks, Pinkie,” she said, trying to fake a smile.

Pinkie put her arm around her friend. “C’mon, I wanna get a comfy seat, since it’s going to be a long ride.”

A second later the only two left in the house were Octavia and Twilight. “That was uncalled for, Twily,” Octavia said in a disappointing tone.

“What do you mean? I was just grabb—”

“You know what I mean, Twilight Sparkle,” Octavia said, using the full-name ultimatum. “You just humiliated your own sister in front of all our friends, and now you’ve gone way too Goddamn far. Frankly, I think I’ve had enough of your antics – I think we all have. You’re outright torturing Sunny now, and I’m not going to put up with that, understand?”

Twilight reacted as if she’d been betrayed. “What do you mean ‘won’t stand for that?’ Look at how she treated me—”

Octavia continued to glare at her. “Yes, I have – and I’ve already told you what I think of it. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe my parents should adopt her instead. At least that way she’d have a sister who gives a damn about her.”

“What? That’s not fair, Tavi!” Twilight cried.

“Really? Just like ostracizing your sister for…how many days now? Twilight, she loves you – the fact that she’s putting up with this bullshit should be proof enough!”

“But what about what the others said?”

The older teen threw her bags down in frustration. “For fuck’s sake, grow up! Do you even realize how sick we are of this little game of yours? Do you really hate Sunny that much?”

“You know the answer to that!” Twilight looked both scandalized and angry at the same time.

“Funny, because we just had this talk two days ago and yet here we are again.” Octavia went face to face with her cousin, mere inches separating the two. “Yes, Sunny’s lying about something, I know that. And I want her to tell us, because she means the world to me – but I also want her to tell us in her own time. She’s afraid right now, or can’t you tell?”

“Not really,” the younger girl admitted. “Afraid of what?”

“Why do you think a girl as smart and caring as her would run away as a twelve-year-old and turn into a hardass just short of being a gangbanger if she didn’t have something to run from?” Octavia snarled, and as the blank look continued on Twilight’s face, the former shook her head in bemusement. “Everyone in this house realizes it except for you! Don’t you think that if something was really a problem Shiny would’ve looked into it? Hell, even Cady doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal, and she’s the fucking lawyer!

“You amaze me sometimes – and I don’t mean in a good way. How would you feel if she did this to you?” Not waiting for an answer, the older teen picked up her bag. “Look, whether she lied to us or not isn’t important – the fact that is important is that she’s your sister, Twily. She saved your life just a few months ago, and I’m not telling you that to guilt trip you or anything, but…you could’ve died – and she nearly died saving you. And if you were gone, Sunny and I would’ve had to pick up the pieces. If you’re not careful, someday…she might not be there.” Nothing more to say, Octavia headed towards the van.

As Octavia reached the van, Pinkie pulled her aside. “Thanks, Tavi.”

“For what?”

“For reading Twily the riot act.”

“She deserves it,” Octavia grumbled. “Besides, you weren’t exactly holding back the other day, you know.”

“No, you were being kinder than I would’ve been,” Pinkie explained, briefly glaring at the oblivious plum-haired girl as she locked the door to her home. “Truth be told, Rainbow probably stopped me from beating the shit out of Twily right then and there.”

It was just south of Colton, a bit over an hour later, when the radio stations they were familiar with dissolved into static. “Well, that’s the last of that,” Applejack said, turning off the radio. “Anyone got any ideas to keep us busy while we get to our first stop?”

“We could find a station? I’m okay with any music,” Fluttershy said.

“I could look one up,” Octavia agreed. The two were bonding over their mutual love of music and had even jammed once together, an impromptu performance for their friends. It seemed more and more that the chiffon-haired girl was planning to change her life goals, and the raven-haired musician was already more than comfortable with that.

“Naah, because we’re going to argue about who likes what music all day,” Rarity said. “We all have varying tastes in music, and while we appreciate some of the others’ tastes, a long trip might just make things a little annoying.”

“Look, I don’t want to sit in a quiet van all day,” Rainbow declared. “I’ll die of boredom or something!”

“Well, why don’t we sing some campfire songs?” Pinkie suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Sunset called from the passenger seat. “Anyone know any?”

“I’ll go first!” Pinkie shouted in glee, then immediately started singing:

“Step One: Try not to be so self-conscious;
Two: Shift your weight onto your haunches;
Three: Give a leap into the air; and
Four: Just forget your parents are both dead!”

The van suddenly fell silent as the lyrics Pinkie sang sank in. Meanwhile, oblivious to the stream of consciousness record scratch she’d caused, she continued:

“Chin up! Even if you’re not ad—”

Tavi reached over and covered Pinkie’s mouth. “I think we’ve heard enough, Pinks.”

“Where did you hear that awful song?” Fluttershy asked.

“There was this one girl with hair like mine singing it repeatedly at the cheerleader camp I went to during Spring Break,” Pinkie explained. “Funny, though, during one routine she had an emotional breakdown and we didn’t see her again. I wonder why.”

“Does anyone else know a song?” Applejack begged.

“I have another one!” Pinkie called out. “The German Name Song!”

“The what?” everyone else asked.

Without further ado, Pinkie began:

“Sunny sunny sunny von set set set set
Sunny sunny sunny von set
Sunny sunny sunny von set set set
Sunny sunny von set set set!

“Flutter flutter flutter von shy shy shy shy…”

Fluttershy facepalmed. “My father put you up to this, didn’t he?”

From the front, Applejack and Sunset looked at each other with weariness.

“It’s going to be a long, long trip,” the blonde mused.

“Apple apple apple von jack jack jack jack
Apple apple apple von jack…”

In response, Sunset started to look on her phone. “Looking up a radio station of some kind,” she groaned. “At this point I’m desperate enough to listen to talk radio.”

The van pulled off Interstate 5, just before it split off onto Interstate 505. Applejack navigated her way towards a diner seated on a lonely lot between farm fields. Pulling into the parking lot, she maneuvered into a slot practically in the center of the near-empty lake of asphalt. Finally, she got out of the vehicle, briefly stumbling before bending down to massage her legs. “So that’s what legs feel like,” she mumbled. “Funny that Ah can work my legs out for hours without a problem, but any long-distance driving just kills ‘em.”

Sunset moved over to her and making sure she couldn’t be seen, walked over and tapped Applejack’s legs. There was a brief flicker of aqua-hued sparks, and a second later, the latter stood up, feeling much better.

“Thanks,” Applejack said, the tone of appreciation in her voice clear.

“What are friends for?” Sunset replied. “Besides, we’re driving – we deserve some perks, right?”

Both heard the van’s side gate open and a second later, the others stumbled out. “Thank God!” Rainbow said, instantly sprinting around the van. “I could practically hear the blood in my legs solidify!”

“No, that was just the blood in your head,” Fluttershy joked.

Rarity looked around with a concerned expression, asking, “Applejack dear, are you sure this is the place?”

In response, the blonde fished out her phone, looking at some information before nodding. “Yeah, the Freeway Split Diner. Apparently, Ms. Luna comes here now and then, so she told mah ma, and Ma told me. Ah guess if Ms. Luna comes here, can’t be all that bad.”

“Apparently, you forget that Twily and I have seen Luna outside of a school setting,” Octavia reminded them, “so we get an entirely different perspective than you guys do. And yeah, this would be somewhere she’d go to.”

Rarity said something under her breath that vaguely sounded like profanity.

As one, they all then looked at the facility in question. Seemingly built in the fifties from the looks of its googie architecture, the general feel of the location seemed as if it was originally part of a restaurant chain that had long vanished. As it was, the building wasn’t the best kept, with a desperate need of a paint-job, some fixes to the cracked and weathered signage, patching up the significant cracks in the lot’s asphalt, nuking the location from orbit until there was nothing left, and generally starting over. The only indicator that it was still open, in fact, was the sign on the front door – itself also cracked and on the verge of falling apart – and some vague notion of movement in the restaurant from the faded windows.

“I think I’m getting tetanus just from looking at that thing,” Rainbow announced.

“You know what that means?” Twilight teased.

“Thank you, Professor Sarcasm. I really didn’t know what I was missing in my life until I came upon your dulcet words. Now shut the fuck up and let me continue to lead my life, thankyouburninhell.”

“Honestly, girls, I agree with Rainbow,” Rarity commented. “This place looks as if I’m gaining calories just being in its general vicinity.”

“Look, it can’t be that bad,” Sunset said, hoping that she’d be able to survive the day. “Let’s just go in, shall we?” She walked over to the door and grabbed the handle; instantly she could feel a sort of congealed layer of grease upon the metal. It took every bit over her willpower to not freak out over that, instead giving a plastic smile as her friends walked through.

As bad as the outside was, the inside, however, was clean, bright and retained the popluxe feel, though the interior had been updated. Given the few other cars in the parking lot, the regulars were seated at their usual tables, eating away at whatever they ordered. It was mesmerizing, in a sense: they’d stepped far away from home, into a small town in the middle of nowhere and were now in the midst of a place they’d never expected to be.

“Can I help you?” someone behind them crushed. The girls turned to look at the new speaker. She stood there, squat, frumpy and old, maybe in her seventies if the unyielding wrinkles on her were any indicator. Her hair was nearly grayed out by age, though some traces of the prismatic spectrum of her hair color still remained. She wore a chiffon-colored blouse and skirt, the traditional attire of waitresses everywhere, though she’d added an off-white cashmere sweater. Her mouth wasn’t quite a smile but instead that stereotypical curl of someone who’d been a hard smoker and was now paying for it in her late years. Her wine-colored eyes were hard as gems and as faded in brightness as her liver-spotted dusky skin.

Finally, she wore a badge that said, HI I’M SPECTRAL RUSH.

“Gaah!” Rainbow lurched back, as if filled with a sudden and terrible primal horror.

The girls looked to Rainbow, then Spectral and then back again.

“I seem to recognize your face,” Fluttershy sang in a low tone, “Haunting, familiar, yet I can’t seem to place it….”

“That’s just mean, Flutters,” Sunset told her.

Fluttershy shrugged with a wry grin. “Sometimes I am my father’s daughter.”

Rarity, meanwhile, took hold of the conversation. “Yes, table for eight, if you would.”

“Sure, gimme a sec,” the old woman grunted. “HEY, NIGHTSET! STOP FLIRTING WITH WHEATFIELD AND GET OVER HERE!”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t bunch up your panties, you old raisin.” A new girl came, looking to be in her twenties, and could be best described as Suicide Girl. She wore emo makeup, the same outfit as Spectral, and had a half-shaved head, with the rest of her plum-hair parted on one side, including strands of violent and magenta. She had several tattoos, including an ankh around her left eye, bringing out the purple color of her eyes that much more so. Her badge said HI I’M NIGHTSET FLICKER.

Now it was Twilight’s turn to blanche. She sidled over to Rainbow and said, “You know we’re friends, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll protect us from the pod people,” Rainbow promised.

The eight finally stumbled out of the restaurant, feeling violently ill. “I’ve never eaten that much grease in my life,” Rarity moaned.

Holding her stomach, Applejack nodded. “Ah’m inclined to agree. Ah figured this was trucker food, but…good thing Ah ain’t driving the next leg.” She tossed the keys to Sunset, who inexplicably to Twilight and Octavia, was unharmed. “Do Ah want to know?”

“I’ll cast the analgesic spell slowly,” Sunset whispered.

“How are you two not affected?” Octavia accused her cousin – and Pinkie, who was walking out with one of the restaurant’s signature pies.

“Oh, I’m not really affected by anything,” Pinkie replied. “Trust me, when you live in a café, you get to deal with some occasional bad runs of food, complete with…well, ‘bad runs’.”

“Me?” Sunset replied. “Just luck of the draw?”

“Now I wish I was biologically related to you,” Octavia replied. “Maybe I’d survive this. Sunny, if I die before we get where we’re going, bury me somewhere nice, okay?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll make it,” Fluttershy assured her. “I, on the other hand, will probably not.”

“Bunch of prissy madonnas, the lot of you,” Rainbow groaned, looking as though she was going to vomit.

The last one of their group, however, did. Twilight took two steps before running over to the grass and vomiting violently. She managed to get it all over herself and the ground, making a mess of things.

Sunset took a look at her sister, dry-heaving on the grass, then at the others. She tossed the keys to Pinkie. “Pinkie, mind driving the next leg? I’ll do the last one.”

Pinkie immediately understood. “No problem. C’mon, girls, let’s get in the van. We’ll wait for you, Sunset.” Wordlessly, the others filed into the van while Sunset walked over to Twilight.

Once Sunset was reasonably sure that no one could see her, she summoned a bottle of water and handed it to Twilight. “Here.”

Without thinking, Twilight immediately took, then spit out some, washing her mouth out before she drank the rest gratefully. She then turned to look at her savior and glared. “Oh, it’s you,” she said in a soft voice.

“Well, you’re talking to me now, I guess,” Sunset said. “Progress, I suppose.” She then offered a hand.

Twilight slapped it away. “I don’t need your help.”

“You’re getting it, anyway. You might hate me right now – and I don’t entirely know why – but I’m still your sister and we’re still family. Besides, you’re not going to walk around with vomit on your shirt, are you?”

“No,” Twilight silently begrudged.

“And unless you’re planning to go topless, then you’re coming with me, okay?” The look on Sunset’s face was one of worry and a little bit of sorrow. “Please?” Sunset offered her hand once more.

This time, Twilight took it. “Fine, just this once – but only for my parents’ sake.”

“I’ll take what I can get right now,” Sunset said sadly, accepting the token gesture as the most she could get out of her recalcitrant sibling, as Pinkie pulled up in the van.

About thirty minutes later, whether due to the overloaded food or the day, everyone in the van was asleep except for Pinkie and Sunset, who was again riding shotgun. Pinkie peeked in the back via the rearview mirror. “Sunny, do you mind…?” Pinkie wiggled the fingers on her right hand for emphasis.

“Why?”

“Because I want to talk in private.”

“Sure, okay then.” Sunset snapped her fingers and a celeste-hued field covered the others. “They should be asleep until we get to the location or if I wake them up first,” she said. “What’s up?”

“I guess I wanted to know how you feel about us…I mean, you and me…I mean, well, me,” Pinkie said.

“Pinkie, I told you it wasn’t a problem, okay?” Sunset insisted. “We’re still friends – we always will be.”

“Are you sure? I mean, you say that, but you probably freaked out the other day when I kissed you.” Pinkie then hastily added, “By the way, you are a hot kisser. That or you really like pineapple lip gloss.”

“Uh, I’m not sure how to respond to that, so I’ll take that as a compliment,” Sunset said.

“You should. I just wanted to make sure that I don’t offend you.”

“Pinkie, I promise I’m not offended in the slightest.” A thought came over her. “Do you know what the male to female ratio is for humans?”

“Easy peasey, lemon squeezy!” Pinkie chirped, then added, “As of a study done in 2010, the standardized population is 1:1.03, female to male; 1:1.03:0.000061 if you add in intersex, and that number goes up to .000085 if you count the transgender population along with the intersex, which I kinda think is demeaning to both but I didn’t author that study, why?”

“And you found that out from?” Sunset asked.

“I have a subscription to Scientific American. I know everyone thinks of me as a bubblebrained sugar junkie, but the only ones smarter in school than me are you and Derpy, your grades notwithstanding, why?”

“Pinkie, I come from a world where that ratio is 1.7:1 – and that’s just for ponies. We have so many lesbian couples – ‘mare lovers’ in pony terminology – that nopony ever thinks otherwise. Hell, when I was growing up under the Princess’—”

“Your mother, you mean,” Pinkie said. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that.”

Sunset sighed. “Can I finish, please?” Pinkie nodded, and Sunset continued. “When I was growing up under the Princess’ care, there was a guardsmare assigned to watch over me whenever I wasn’t with the Princess, and Scintillating Steel was kind and sweet. She lived with two other guardsmares, Magicblast and Fireblaze, and there was no doubt what their relationship was, not when I saw them kissing one another. And it was no big deal, really: one time Scinty took me to a café owned by her best friend, Apple Biscuit. I knew Biscuit wasn’t a mare lover, because she was there with her husband and family, and they looked like a loving couple. That’s the norm I grew up around, so you being bi isn’t a big deal, Pinkie, honestly.”

“Good – for a moment, I thought you didn’t want to put up with me anymore.”

“Aww, Pinkie, but we slept together!” Sunset joked.

“Sunny, please don’t do that,” Pinkie replied. “You don’t know how much I really want to.”

“Seriously?”

“Uh, nevermind. Anyway, what about you? When are you going to tell them that you already have a mother?”

“Pinkie, I—”

“You can lie to yourself all you want, Sunny,” she said, “but you can’t lie to the rest of us – we know you. We knew a long time ago about our counterparts. And we know that Princess Celestia’s really your mother.”

Sunset was silent for a long time, and Pinkie was worried about her for a second before the girl finally spoke: “I love the family I have here: my parents, my brothers and my sister; my future sister-in-law, my aunt and uncle and cousin. You were there the day I met my paternal grandparents, and though they’re…odd, well…I don’t think I’d trade that for anything else. I love having an actual family, people who I know love me and who I love back. Does that make me an evil person?”

“But your mother – your real mother…what about her?”

She looked out the passenger window. “I…I didn’t have that with the Princess…with my mother,” she said, finally saying the word that had been on her mind for the longest time. “She’s not my real mother either, by the way.”

That caught Pinkie by surprise. “She’s not?”

Sunset shook her head. “I don’t know my dam’s name or who she was. Last time I went to Equestria, I saw her in a dream vision, but even then I don’t know her name or much about her. And I certainly don’t know who my sire was. And in the end, it really doesn’t matter – they may have been my dam and sire, but sure as hell not my mother and father. I really didn’t have a mother until the Princess came along.”

“So she is your real mother then – as much as any adoptive mother would be.”

Sunset couldn’t help but smirk. “Like the woman adopting me in two weeks?”

Pinkie didn’t have an answer for that, so she pushed her original question. “Look, it’s clear that you love Princess Celestia. You used to get wistful about your homeworld, and now that you’ve been back, you’re more open about it…except for this part. Why deny the woman…er, mare…that raised you?”

“I don’t! I never would!”

“But you are, can’t you see that?”

“Look, Pinkie, for the longest time, the Princess wasn’t my mother because she really didn’t know how to be one. She wanted to be, and she’s made it clear that she thinks of herself as my mother and that if I’d stayed, she’d have filled that role without reservation. And honestly? To me, she is my mother – she’s the closest thing I have to a biological mother, and I love her as much as if she’d foaled me. But there were four of us foals, I guess you could say – the Equestrian language really doesn’t have a word like ‘teenagers’—”

“Adolescents?”

“You know, that word does exist,” Sunset laughed. “Anyway, Cadance and I were of the same age, but we really didn’t socialize. Either Cadance was too busy, I was too bitchy or she thought I’d try to seduce Shining Armor just to mess with her.” Sunset shuddered. “That thought’s really creepy to me now, by the way. Blueblood—”

“Blueblood? Like in the guy who went after Tavi and Rares?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah, but the Blueblood I know is harmless, for the most part. Still pompous, but at least harmless. Anyway, he and Twilight are nearly a decade younger, and they were raised mostly separate from us – Blueblood by his parents, and Twi under a different caretaker team, plus she had her parents, so the Princess didn’t know what to do with me. She tried her best, but we both regret that it was heavy on the education and light on the parenting. Maybe I would’ve been different if I’d listened more and not just had mommy issues.”

“Yes, but then I wouldn’t have fallen in love with a wonderful friend,” Pinkie said, giving Sunset a smile.

“Do you want to know why I don’t call the mare who was for all intents and purposes my mother ‘Mother’? Because even though I wanted to – still do – and even though she deserves it completely and totally…I feel like I’d be betraying my family here if I did. As it is, I feel like I betrayed the Princess because I chose to remain here on Earth instead of returning for good.” Sunset sighed. “I left the family I had, because I didn’t realize I had it. Then I gained a family here only to realize I still have one there. And now I have two…and I feel like I don’t deserve either.”

“Because you can’t be honest?”

“Because I’m afraid to know what the answer is!” Sunset said. “You see how Twily’s acting!”

“I know. And while I love you and your sister is one of my best friends, I’m going to put her through a wall if she doesn’t straighten up. She’s really pissing me off right now what with she’s doing to you, and I’m shocked you’re letting her get away with it.”

“Because she’s my little sister – older siblings are supposed to look out for the younger ones, right? Even though you and Maud live whole states away, she still looks out for you, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, but I’ve never berated or emotionally abused her because we’ve disagreed on a subject. Look, I can understand Twily being hurt because she found out you’re lying to her. And I can understand how holding a secret in hurts people in the long run; I am not looking forward to telling my parents about me being bi.”

“I’m sure they’ll understand,” Sunset assured her.

“No, what will probably happen once my parents find out is that my mom will disown me and my dad will defend me. They’ll argue and scream and then figure since I’m nearly an adult and I don’t live with them anyway, that’ll be the last time I ever hear from my mother. I’ll probably still talk from my kid sisters about it briefly, at least until my mom forces them to cut off ties, and that will last probably until Dad puts his foot down or gets the divorce that I’m surprised hasn’t happened yet. I hope I’m wrong on that; she is my mother, after all.” A sad look came over Pinkie’s face as she added, “But if push comes to shove, I’m prepared for that.”

“If you need support, I’d be happy to go with you, Pinkie.”

“Thanks, but no – the girl I love, around my mom? Don’t even want to know what she’ll do. It won’t matter that we’re not a couple or even that you’re not gay; on the contrary, she’ll make it worse because I have no idea what goes on in her mind. And God forbid if she ever finds out I was raped – I still have to tell Auntie Cup and Uncle Carrot about that, and I’m not looking forward to that conversation.”

Sunset patted her friend on the shoulder. “If you need me there for that, the offer’s still open.”

“Thanks, Sunny.” Pinkie sighed warmly. “And you wonder why I fell in love with you.”

After a quick pitstop for refilling the van’s tank as well as some freshening up in the town of Madrone, the group was off once more, this time with Sunset in the driver’s seat and Fluttershy, who needed to provide directions, in the passenger’s seat. And as they approached their destination, they moved down Green Valley Road with a purpose, seeing a wall of perfectly-manicured trees to the left and the rolling hills of the central California shoreline to the right.

Sunset looked at the trees and asked her friend, “I take it we’re almost there?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Turn left at the intersection, and then it should be the first turn on the left.” A few seconds later, Sunset hit the intersection, a t-shaped conjoining of Green Valley Road and the Pacific Coast Highway. Across from them was a small strip of grass that made up Harmony Beach State Park, with the tan sands and the eternal blue of the Pacific beyond that. To the right was a small seaside town that in Sunset’s opinion made Ponyville – the one in Equestria, at least; she’d never been to the one here on Earth – look like Los Angeles in comparison. To the left was more of the perfect manicuring, but on both sides of the road.

A stately Rolls Royce then passed them, headed for Harmony, and if anything, that was the indicator that they were in the right place. Sunset and Fluttershy nodded to one another and they made the turn. A few seconds later, Sunset turned again, passing an ornate fountain festooned with seagulls and dolphins, and various buildings in a vaguely Balinese architectural style. The van moved on passing chauffeured vehicles and hyper-expensive sports cars and Sunset was glad the majority of the van did not have windows, as the others would probably be pressed against the glass at the moment if it did.

Finally, they pulled up in front of the reservations office, a building that looked more like a small hotel – and probably was – for those who chose not to rent the vacation bungalows. The van then came to a stop, and the girls filed out to what was, essentially wonderland, the eight surrounded by a sheer constellation of stars.

“Isn’t that…?” Rarity never finished her statement as her words devolved into a squee of delight.

“Ohmigod – is that Gridiron Slam? He’s my favorite quarterback! Man’s a Goddamn legend!” Rainbow joined Rarity in that girlish squeal.

The others weren’t disappointed either, as Pinkie noted one of her favorite comediennes, Jovial Delight; Fluttershy saw Enchanté, a Franco-Japanese singer whose music she was currently listening to. Additionally, there was High Note, a famous pianist whose works Octavia loved; and Nebraska True, a country singer whose music Applejack constantly gushed over. Even Twilight found some note in recognizing Numbercrunch, a celebrity software developer who was famous for reasons apparently only Twilight knew. Sunset really didn’t know half these people, given that she hadn’t been paying much attention to pop culture until she’d gained friends, but it was clear that these were the top notch of parts of human society.

“You guys wait here by the van,” Fluttershy told them. “Sunny, come with me, please?”

“No problem,” Sunset said, tossing the keys to Applejack so she could deal with the valets. As they headed into the building, Sunset asked, “What can I do to assist?”

“Oh, nothing,” Fluttershy said breezily before looking at the flame-haired girl. “But truth be told, I wanted to apologize to you. I’ve had some time to think about it, and I was really unfair to you the other day when we made that ultimatum. Granted, we think you should still deal with it, but we forced something on you, not really offering advice and assistance, and that was wrong of me – of us.” Fluttershy frowned. “None of us wanted to do this, honestly. I know you don’t like it, but we’re trying to do what’s best for you, really.”

Sunset tried not to frown, given that she was in a place that seemed to be a garden of earthly delights. “Flutters, I’ve got enough stress as is: the adoption hearing is in two weeks, my sister hates me, and while Tavi seems to be doing well under her medication, I’m worried about what the truth will do to her. All it will take is my parents – excuse me, my prospective parents – to lose faith in me and I’m done for.”

“Do you really think that will happen?” Fluttershy asked. “I’ve seen them. They love you, completely and utterly. Why would they spurn you?”

“I’m sure they won’t, but I can’t help but panic about it. They already know I’m hiding something, and Mom’s pushed me on it several times. I really don’t know what to tell her, and the more I think about it the less I’m sure about anything.”

“Three of us know what you really look like, Sunny,” Fluttershy said with a look on her face that made Sunset remember Pinkie’s warning. “I think once they find out that their daughter is a wonderfully cute and cuddly unicorn, they’ll adjust. Sure, it’ll be a shock – I know I’m still adjusting to what magic does to me – but if I can do it, so can your family. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Well, for starters, my brother is an FBI agent – cue the X-Files theme. That alone should be enough of a concern. Plus, I don’t have to only be concerned about how it’ll impact me – did any of you think about what will happen when the day comes the government finds out you all have magic as well? All your dad’s fortune and fame isn’t going to stop the government – any government.”

Fluttershy shuddered at that realization. “I…I’d rather not think about that.”

“I don’t have that luxury.” Sunset felt bad about saying that to Fluttershy, but it was the truth. Every day that loomed closer to what she had to tell her family was a horrifying experience, and Hollywood overexaggeration aside, there had to be kernel of truth to it. After all, Area 51 did exist, even if it was just a highly-classified military base.

Nothing more to say, the pair wandered over to the reservations desk, where an all-too-familiar reedy and pale man with an aquiline nose, pencil-mustache and slicked-back iron-gray hair stood.

Sunset and the man recognized each other instantly. “YOU!”

“What are you doing here?” Sunset asked, surprised to see the sanctimonious idiot she and Octavia had dealt with weeks before.

Pristine glared at his personal nightmare. “Me? What are you doing here, you little witch? Because of you and your fellow troublemaker, I lost my job at the Bayside! I was lucky enough to pull some strings to get this job here in the middle of nowhere! Now get out of here and take your future adult film star friend here with you!”

“Excuse me?” Fluttershy began.

“Shut up, nobody was talking to you,” Pristine told her, turning to Sunset. “Give me one reason why you even deserve to breathe the general air of this establishment?”

Sunset pointed at Fluttershy. “Because I’m here with her.”

“Oh? And who are you? Sweetie Drops? Or perhaps Carpet Diver? Actually, come to think of it, you look like you’re probably Spunky Wild. Sorry, we don’t le—”

“Leave her alone,” Sunset warned, stepping in to protect Fluttershy.

“Oh, I see. So you and that other girl and this one here are playmates,” Pristine said with an air of superiority. “Well, if you were rented by one of the guests, I’ll have to contact them and see which on—”

“Excuse me?” Fluttershy said in a low tone as she glared at the man. “Did you just insult my friend?”

“Well, you clearly have the intelligence of your average adult film star – dumb as a br—GAAK!” Pristine said no further, as Fluttershy reached over and grabbed him by the tie, yanking him down.

“Listen to me, you sanctimonious prick,” she seethed. “For one, don’t you ever talk to anyone like that again, do I make myself clear? Secondly, I am a paying customer and you don’t have the right to talk to me like that!”

“Let me go, you virago!” he yelped.

“No,” Fluttershy said in a dark tone that made Sunset wonder which one of the chiffon-haired girl’s parents Fluttershy had inherited that from. “You’re going to apologize to us, serve us correctly and then – and only then – can you start worrying whether I should report this to your boss.”

“Don’t worry, I’m already here.” A woman not much older than them appeared from out of nowhere and, looking at Pristine being strangled as no big thing, turned her attention to Fluttershy instead. “Is there something the matter, miss?”

“Yes, I’m checking in for a stay, and your reservations desk seems to have a problem with teenagers,” the chiffon-haired teen explained.

The woman got a good look at Fluttershy, and suddenly her eyes widened. “Ms. Fluttershy, if I recall correctly?” When Fluttershy nodded in response, the woman grinned. “I saw you at the concert in San Francisco. I must say, you’re an incredible musician. Did you learn from your father?”

Hearing that, Fluttershy blushed. “No, my grandfather taught me,” she admitted. “Dad’s suggested that I go into a musical career.”

“Well, if you’re as good as your father, then I’d be interested in seeing you on stage.”

Pristine then did a double-take. “Wait – Concierge, you know this brat?”

Concierge murder-glared at Pristine. “This ‘brat’, as you so just insulted her, is Fluttershy. She’s the daughter of Discord and an up-and-coming musician in her own right,” Concierge said. “And Discord is a regular at the resort, so you just made a big mistake on top of all the ones you’ve made already.”

“Already?” Sunset asked.

“Yes,” Concierge replied, watching her employee sweat bullets. “Midnight Moondust and Screwball were here just two weeks ago, and Mr. Personality here asked if they were prostitutes.”

“Well, if you don’t mind,” Fluttershy said to Concierge, “would you assist us in checking in?”

“It would be an honor and a privilege,” Concierge said with a smile, “just after I inform my desk attendant here that if he wants to keep his job he’ll be doing everything to ensure that your every need is met to your exacting specifications and satisfaction.”

He blanched. “Every need?”

“Yup! And there’s eight of us here!” Sunset said, rubbing salt in the wound. “You even know one of them – the girl that was with me last time?” If it was possible to become even paler than previous, Pristine did so at that point.

The next few minutes were spent as Concierge and Fluttershy conducted their business, along with a lot of compliments by the former towards the latter and a significant amount of blushing by the latter. A few minutes later as Fluttershy was handed eight keycards, she smiled and thanked Concierge for her excellent service.

“It’s no problem,” Concierge said. “Enjoy your time here.” She then turned to Pristine. “And now you and I are going to have a little talk in the back.” The look on the man’s face was one of abject horror, and as she dragged him into the office behind the desk, Fluttershy and Sunset walked back towards where the others were waiting.

“So, I take it you’ve had a run-in with that guy before?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, Tavi and I had the misfortune of clashing with him when we all went to San Fran,” the flame-haired girl replied. “Violet was with us at the time, and since it was her restaurant, her partner tore him a new one. Guess he got fired from that. No worries; not really concerned about that.” As they approached the others, she sang, “Hey, Tavi! Guess who we ran into?”

Fluttershy and Sunset related their mini-adventure while the former passed out the keys, and by the time it was over, the girls were giggling, with Octavia full out laughing.

“Well, let’s go check out our new chateau for the next two weeks, shall we?” Rarity said, her eyes positively gleaming.

“We got the Despansar bungalow, since it’s made for small groups like ours,” Fluttershy said. “I didn’t think we’d need anything extravagant, so I asked for the smallest thing they had.”

“THAT’S small?” Rainbow gasped as she stared at the “modest” bungalow.

“Ah think that’s larger than mah house,” Applejack said in shock.

“I know it’s larger than mine,” Twilight, Sunset, Octavia and Rarity all said at the same time.

Fluttershy looked a bit on the embarrassed side. “I did ask for the smallest they had,” she blurted.

Pinkie pointed to a concrete pad next to the house. “Oh, look! They gave us a golf cart, too!”

“Yes, if I recall correctly, there’s some portions of both the resort and Harmony proper that you can drive those on,” Rarity added. “As long as you don’t pass the posted limits, we can take it anywhere.”

“Ah think we should consider sleeping arrangements,” Applejack noted. Before she could say anything further, Twilight virtually teleported to Octavia’s side, grabbing her arm.

“Well, I guess my choice has been decided,” the raven-haired teen sighed, giving Sunset an apologetic look.

“Well, Fluttershy and I are fine with each other,” Rarity suggested.

“AJ and I will probably be up all night gaming or something – you did bring your PS4, right?” Rainbow asked her friend.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yes, Ah brought the damn thing – was hoping to try out some bodyboarding, but Ah suspect you’ll have me trapped in front of the PS4 all vacation, won’t you?”

Pinkie immediately sidled up to Sunset and put her arm around her. “Guess you have me all vacation!” the cotton-candy-haired girl chirped. “Don’t worry, I don’t snore in bed!”

“Pinkie, I—”

Pinkie dragged Sunset off in a cloud of smoke. “Can we take the room with the view of the ocean? Thanks!” Pinkie immediately raced into the house with her bunkmate before anyone could state otherwise.

Twilight looked at the space where the two had been just a second ago. “Is it just me or is Pinkie extraordinarily happy right now?”

Rarity couldn’t help herself. “Why, Twilight, dear, you should know by now that I wouldn’t stand in the way of young love.”

“I know that, but….” The plum-haired girl paused. “Wait. Pinkie? And Sunset?”

Octavia crossed her arms. “Pinkie, I can believe. There’s always been something about her that seems to pine when Sunny’s around. But I don’t think that Sunny—”

“Figures,” Twilight scoffed. “As if it was bad enough that I have to deal with her lying, now I have to watch my ass—”

SLAP!

Twilight felt her cheek sting like no tomorrow and instinctively, her hand went up to it. She then looked at Rarity, who was shaking her hand from its own pain, but who also had an angry look on her face.

“I think I’ve – no, we all have – had enough of your behavior Twilight Sparkle,” the fashionista seethed. “It’s bad enough that you’ve turned your sister into a pariah despite all she’s done for you and that you’re acting like an ungrateful little spoiled child. But I will not stand for you making light of Pinkie’s feelings for your sister, are we clear? It’s hard enough for her given that Sunset can’t return her devotion, as well as everything she’s been through to get to this point. Furthermore, I thought she was your friend, and as a friend you should have more tact and be supportive of her.”

“What? I wasn’t making fun of Pinkie!”

Rainbow crossed her arms. “No, you weren’t. But you’ve been a bitch to your sister, Twily, and that’s just bullshit. Speaking as someone with an adopted sister, you never do anything to make them not feel like they’re family, got that?”

Applejack nodded. “Can’t say Ah know about the adopted part, but Ah can agree on the rest of what she said.”

Fluttershy also agreed, looking at Twilight with concern. “Why are you doing this to her? She loves you, Twily. And all you’re doing is pushing her away.”

Twilight wheeled on her cousin. “Did you put them up to this?”

“No,” Rarity answered for her. “We’re all just saying what’s on our minds. We just felt now was the time to let you know how we felt.”

“How you feel?” Twilight asked. “What about how I feel? My sister has been lying to me all this time – and you all aided and abetted her! Instead of helping her to realize she’s lying to her family – you know, me, my brothers, parents and oh, my cousin here – you all just let it slide? I have to wonder: does Pinkie’s family know she’s a lesbian?” The other girls suddenly had awkward looks come over their faces and that was more than enough for the shark to smell blood in the water. “So you’re all lecturing me about handling an awkward situation and yet you haven’t helped someone you’ve known longer than Sunset with a personal issue of hers – and it’s been probably what, years?”

“It’s more complex than that, Twily,” Fluttershy defended.

“Bullshit. My mother’s a child psychologist – don’t you think she would offer to help if she knew? Or is it that Pinkie’s ashamed of it?”

Rainbow suddenly grew angry at that. “That is a Goddamn bullshit thing to say, especially given that Pinkie’s in love with your sister. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t punch you into next week for that.”

Applejack put her hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Not helping.” She then turned to give Twilight a bad look. “Are you done insulting everyone just because you’re throwing a temper tantrum over your sister?”

Twilight was about to open her mouth, but out of the corner of her eye saw Octavia’s disapproving look and wisely decided to keep her mouth shut.

“Girls, can I say something?” Fluttershy asked. All the others nodded, and the chiffon-haired girl continued. “Twily, I know we’ve handled things badly. I know I have. And I don’t know about the others, but I’m colored by being a de facto divorced child for most of my life. I now know that’s not true, but that’s how I felt and part of me still feels that way. So my life has been one big, huge lie. My own father lied to me, even though he meant well. And yes, Pinkie hasn’t dealt well with her bisexuality – part of that is because her mother’s a bigot. Despite the fact that she lives with her aunt and uncle, she’s still coming to terms with her own feelings, how she feels about your sister and how that plays into her life.

“We’re teenagers. We screw up completely and utterly – hell, I made a fool of myself literally in front of the entire world – and that’s just how things are. Maybe we haven’t been supportive of Sunset in the right way, or of you, or of Pinkie.” Fluttershy glanced at the others, and though they were stone-faced, she could tell that they were both silently in agreement and partially humiliated. “But we are all a family of sorts – our friendship has grown, and even though we’ve hit some hard spots, we all stick together.”

Fluttershy walked over and took Twilight’s hands in hers. “You don’t realize how fortunate you are. You have an older sister who has been through so much, yet has time and time again looked out for you, sometimes in ways you may not ever understand. And she’d do it time and time again for her loved ones: for any of us, but most of all for her family. She adores you, and you’ll have that love every day for the rest of your life, if you’ll let it happen.

“But right now, you’re not.” Fluttershy backed away, standing over by Octavia. “Lately, Tavi’s been more of a sister to Sunset than you have. I look at you and I don’t see Sunset’s sister, I see Gilda before she started to try to change, or Flash Sentry, or Lightning Dust or any of the girls that tried to get back at Sunset after she changed. I see the kind of people that turned the sweet girl your sister must’ve been in the beginning into the monster that we dealt with in our early high school years, and now the person who’s trying to turn her life around but is afraid of losing everything she holds dear.” Fluttershy looked directly at Twilight, asking a simple question: “Do you really hate the girl who is so happy to become your sister?”

Twilight was silent for a long time, looking down. It wasn’t until she looked up again that the others realized she’d been crying. “No,” Twilight sobbed in a near-whisper. “I don’t. I don’t, okay? Is that what you want me to admit? How could I hate her? She’s done so much for me, for Tavi – for my whole family! And all I want her to realize is that she’s not alone, that I’m here for her! But I can’t take that after all this time, there’s still a part of her that remains standoffish.”

“Sometimes that happens, Twily,” Applejack said. “Remember Winona?”

“Your dog?” Applejack nodded and Twilight looked at her oddly as she wiped her eyes. “What about her?”

“This is gonna sound strange, but hear me out. When we first got her, she was real standoffish – Ah mean really standoffish, but at the same time, there was something in her eyes that said she wanted to be with us. And it’s not like we weren’t gonna get her anyway; the real reason we were getting her was because Ma was in a bad way after her accident. Plus, we weren’t Winona’s first family; we were her third – the first ones had bought her from a puppy farm in Iowa, but had to get rid of her because of some reason. The second family got rid of her because their newborn was allergic to dogs – don’t know if that was true, but she was at the shelter. Anyway, it wasn’t until we got her home that Winona finally opened up and realized she was home for good.”

“You do realize you’re comparing Sunset to a dog, right?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah!” Rainbow laughed, “especially since isn’t she really about that size an—” To Rainbow’s surprise, Rarity, unladylike, punched her in the shoulder – and it hurt.

“Thank you,” Applejack said.

“It was a pleasure,” Rarity replied.

“Anyway, once we got Winona home, she realized she had a home for good, and turned into the spoiled, loveable dog you all now know,” Applejack finished.

“So the moral of the story is that Sunset needs a collar and is overdue for a flea and tick bath?” Rainbow jested, only to be glared at by Rarity. “Okay, kidding, kidding!”

“The point that Applejack was trying to make,” Octavia interjected, “is that Sunny’s probably still afraid that the family’s going to get rid of her at the last moment – and that you’re not doing anything that allay those fears. That and the other point is that Rainbow’s a shitbird.”

“Hey!” Rainbow snapped.

“I call it as I see it,” Octavia said. “Now can we go in? I need to take my dosage soon and I’m going to be fairly useless for the next hour or so afterwards.”

“On one condition,” Fluttershy said. “Twily, I’m not asking you to make up with Sunny right now. You’ve got a lot to think about. What I’m asking you is just to set it aside for now. We have two weeks of vacation here, two weeks to enjoy ourselves before we go back to a normal life. Give her – and you – that time to realize what you mean to each other, okay?”

“Fine.”

“Guess that’s all we can ask for,” Octavia said, grabbing her cousin. “C’mon, let’s go unpack.”

“Choose whatever room you want,” Fluttershy told them. “We’ll be up shortly.” As Octavia and Twilight went off to choose their room, Fluttershy said to the others, “Girls, we need to talk.”

Rarity nodded. “I assumed you were getting to that in your conversation.” Though they said nothing, both Rainbow and Applejack nodded.

“I spoke to Pinkie earlier today. She’s having second thoughts about forcing an ultimatum on Sunny. And honestly, so am I. We’re not being fair to her. We didn’t do this to Pinkie, so why are we doing it to her?”

“Because Pinkie was raped and found out her sexuality then? Because we’re not going to do anything that would harm our friendship or jeapordi….” Clarity suddenly sank into Rainbow’s mind. “Oh.”

Applejack, a bit more on the uptake, nodded. “Look, we didn’t mean to—”

Rarity sighed. “Yes, we did. We didn’t want it to come across that way, but yes, we did – and we’re not being good friends about it.”

“Look, we’re here for them both, right?” Rainbow asked.

“You’re not getting it, Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied. “Princess Twilight asked us to show Sunset the ways of friendship and to be a better person. How can we do that if we’re blackmailing and threatening her?”

“Fine, fine; maybe we should do something about it.” Rainbow groaned. “I’m beat, okay? We can talk about it later and let Sunset know we’ve changed our minds or something. We’ve got two weeks to talk about it. Can we all go get unpacked?”

A group of boys walked by. Despite their glasses, their body languages showed how stunned they were at the five ladies lazing out in the sun. One told the other something, and the other nodded, taking a step towards them, specifically the girl with large cleavage and chiffon-hued hair, and her counterpart with the statuesque body and flaming ruby and gold hair. The latter sat up ever just so slightly and reached for her sunglasses. The two boys backed off slightly, and ended up falling backwards into the pool.

Rarity turned her and chuckled. “My, you have a way with boys, Sunset. You as well, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy blushed, enough so to stand out against her bikini, which was purple, white, red and gold in a “futuristic” pattern. “You know they’re only after me for one reason.”

Sunset, wearing a jade-and-black bikini that didn’t leave much to the imagination, commented, “You have a boyfriend that’s wild about you, Flutters. Who cares what these guys think?”

“Yes, I wish I could find the beau of my dreams,” Rarity commented. Ever the fashionista, she was wearing a sarikini in muted colors. “Unfortunately, I found myself a reluctant member of Blueblood’s Attempted Molestation Club.”

“Tell me about it,” Octavia sighed. She wore a periwinkle-and-white tankini, and held a non-alcoholic mai-tai. “I swear, if I ever end up dating anyone who even remotely looks like him, someone please put me out of my misery.”

“At least you have a body.” The others looked to see Twilight, wearing an indigo one-piece and hiding behind a book. “No one’s ever going to look at me.”

“Twilight, why hide what you have, darling?” Rarity asked. “You look quite fetching.”

“I’m with four girls who make me look flat as hell,” Twilight said.

“Yes, and the two who make you look more, ahem, ‘fleshed out’ are all in the pool,” Rarity replied, pointing at Applejack and Rainbow, both of which were less built than Twilight, topwise. “Besides, if someone like Rainbow can get a boyfriend, then you should. All you need to do is just spruce up your look, dear. A little more elegance and a little less librarian, perhaps?”

“I just want a guy who I can love and who’ll love me,” Sunset replied.

“You already have a potential suitor, don’t you?” Octavia jested. Everyone gave her a lidded look and she said, “Look, I’m just kidding. Seriously, though, Sunny, don’t break Pinkie’s heart, okay?”

“We’ve already talked about it. She knows I can’t love her, and she’s mostly accepted that, I’m sure. But what I was saying is that I want someone I can tell my deepest, most intimate secrets to.”

“So I’m guessing not Flash, then?” Twilight asked, and Sunset tried not to react that her sister had actually addressed her, albeit indirectly.

“Not even when we were dating. Maybe there was something about him that I just couldn’t quite trust,” Sunset said, though she knew that wasn’t the whole story. “That should’ve been a warning, but one I didn’t listen to.”

“Well, it’s over and done with, right?” Octavia told her. “You’ll find someone. Hell, someone already found you, okay? I’m sure a year from now, we’ll be happily wined and dined by boyfriends that absolutely charm the pants off us.”

“Not me,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile. “I’ll wear a skirt – easier for Puppytails to deal with.” The others looked in mild surprise at her risqué comment; as for Fluttershy herself, she leaned back in her beach chair, a wide smile on her face.

“So, you going to do it?” Rainbow asked as she and Applejack floated in the water.

“I’m considering it,” Pinkie said.

“Wish you all the luck, Pinkie,” Applejack said. “Ah know it won’t be easy for you.”

“Thanks.”

A few hours later, the eight drove down to the Tahitian Moon, a grand restaurant on the end of a pier built only to host the restaurant. With the setting sun as their backdrop, enjoyed the fruits of a full day.

Applejack leaned back in her chair, stuffed from the meal she’d had. “Best teriyaki ribs Ah ever had. A gal could get used to this real quick,” she said, a contented smile coming onto her face. “Ah have no idea how you’re not spoiled by all this, Flutters.”

“I guess that’s just a side effect of Dad not living with us until recently,” Fluttershy said, still eating from a fish fillet she’d ordered. “Since Mom had to raise me and Angel pretty much on her own, even as a doctor she tried to keep it fairly low-key. Granted, the part of Canterlot we live in is pretty well off, but that’s upper-middle class, not a ‘Hey, did you know I’m rich?’ neighborhood.”

“So, what did you do with your old home?”

“Dad wants to turn it into a private recording studio, while Mom thinks we should rent it out. I’m kinda leaning towards Dad’s idea, but at the same time, I’d hate to see the old place torn up so we could make the changes.”

“So you’re really thinking about a career in music?” Sunset asked her.

“I…I’m torn, honestly. Part of me loves it, and since I’ve spent time with my Dad, I’ve had some discussions with him and others, and they really think I could do it for a living, and not just because I’m Discord’s daughter. Heck at one concert that Dad and I played at Sacramento, I was just on stage playing a tambourine and Violet got mad at me because she thought I was wasting my talents.” She then looked at the ocean and added, “So I really think I could do it. But at the same time, I’d have to let go of another dream: being a vet.”

“You love that, don’t you?” Twilight asked her.

“I do – I really do,” Fluttershy replied. “But I can’t do a career in both. There’s so much time and effort involved in veterinary medicine, and just as much time involved in music studies.”

Octavia nodded. “No argument there – I know it’s going to take up all my time in college. And pre-med and music are so vastly different, it’s not like you can flip back and forth between the two. Well, you can, but that’ll really be hell on your life.”

“I guess I have to think about it then.”

“Look at it this way: if you go into a musical career? I get a study buddy! Finally, I don’t have to deal with the non-musical philistines I have at home!” To punctuate that, the raven-haired girl stuck her tongue out at her cousins.

“Hey, maybe if we started that band I was talking about….” Rainbow began.

“Rainbow, for one, nobody’s starting a band with you and naming it the Rainbooms!” Pinkie groaned. “Secondly, you don’t know how to play an instrument!”

“I could learn!” the Latina responded, and the others laughed.

“Rainbow, you’re already a top-notch athlete,” Twilight giggled. “Leave something for the rest of us, okay?”

“Yeah. Besides, being musicians is kinda mine and Flutters’ thing,” Octavia pointed out. “Let us deal with that?”

“Oh, so you’re musicians?” Three girls appeared out of nowhere, as if they’d been stalking the group. The lead girl stood there, a haughty look on her face and undisguised loathing in her pink eyes. Her burnt-orange and gray-blue hair fell down her shoulders in cascading waves. “You really think you’re hot shit when you haven’t done anything other than hang on Daddy’s testicles for a couple of times on-stage?”

“Told you she had a bigger entourage than you, Quila,” a second girl, this one with curly gray hair and celeste eyes, said. “Bitch is apparently getting a little big for her britches.”

“Eh, with a group like this? Probably gotta be fucking at least one of them,” a third girl, with long brown hair shot with streaks of black and gold, said. “Goddamn carpet munchers are always like them, so up in each other’s gashes. You know, like those two back at school that can’t keep their hands off each other.”

“Yeah, well, I’m going to teach Vinyl a lesson someday,” the first girl said. “But first things first.”

Rainbow got up to her feet. “Listen, bitch, I don’t who know the fuck you think you and your friends are, but we were just having dinner here, minding our own business. You came over to see us, so you can wander your little asses back to wherever the fuck you came from.”

“And there’s the girl with the strap-on,” the third girl replied.

“Rainbow, do you realize who you’re talking to?” Twilight asked.

“Some rich stuck-up bitch who’s dumping on Flutters?”

“No – that’s Tequila Sunrise! And the other girl’s Windsong,” Twilight cried.

“Who?” Rainbow said, to the mortification of the newcomers.

“They’re two of the hottest pop stars around, though I don’t know who the third one is.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” the third one said in snobbish voice. “I’m Stagecraft, star of stage and the thespian arts. I wouldn’t expect lesser plebians to know talents such as mine.”

“Wow, one of them has taste, even if she’s hanging with the wannabe here,” Windsong said to her friends. “Still doesn’t explain that they’re losers, though.”

“You know,” Rarity said, interjecting herself, “I thought you would be as regal as you two are portrayed. Ms. Sunrise, wasn’t your first song ‘I’ll Always Be Your Friend’? And you, Ms. Windsong, wasn’t yours ‘The Stars We Are’? And yet you’re here, insulting fans and a fellow musician! I’m honestly disappointed.”

“And that’s why they say you should never meet your heroes,” Tequila hissed. “They turn out to be disappointments. Just like Discord.” She leaned forward into Fluttershy’s personal space and added, “When I was growing up, I wanted him so badly. Then my mother took me to a concert when I was thirteen, and because she’s a Hollywood star, she got me backstage to meet my hero. And you know what happened? You. Ruined. Him!”

“What are you even talking about?”

Tequila reached over and took a glass holding some sort of tropical non-alcoholic drink. “This was the guy that I told everyone I wanted to lose my virginity towards. Even now, I sorta dream of being in his arms,” she said with a soft, girlish look on her face, which turned into a frown as she added, “And you know what? The moment I met him? He treated me like a little kid. Not like someone who even at that age would’ve spread for him if he’d asked. Oh, no – he treated me like a sweet little girl, and that moment I realized he had a kid just like me.” She threw the drink in Fluttershy’s face and growled, “And now I know he did – some spoiled little fuck like you. I’ll bet he’s probably even with your mom, still.”

The other girls got to their feet. “That was uncalled for,” Applejack said, narrowing her eyes. “You really should consider apologizing.”

“Or what?”

“Or me, that’s what.”

“AJ, you shouldn’t be a bitch about it,” Sunset said breezily before turning her attention to the offending trio. “Let me handle this – I’m much more practiced at that than you are.”

But that wasn’t necessary. Fluttershy got up and looked in Tequila’s eyes. “My father would never mess with a person like you even if you were his age, do you know why? Because he likes girls with class; after all, he did marry my mother and have children with her.”

“Oh, so your mother’s a whore as well—” Tequila never finished her statement, because at that point, Fluttershy reached over and slapped Tequila, as hard as she could.

“Now I know why you said that about him,” Fluttershy said in a surprisingly catty tone. “Is it because when your career goes south and your looks fade, at least you could say ‘hey, I have a rock star I’m sleeping with!’ Too bad you don’t even have that.”

Tequila reacted to the blow. “You’re going to pay for that, you bitch,” she snarled at Fluttershy.

“No, you’re going to be outclassed,” Octavia said, coming to her friend’s rescue. “Flutters can – and will outsing you any day of the week…probably right now, even.”

“Is there a problem, ladies?” a waitress came over and asked.

“Yes,” Tequila said. “I want that stage there ready in five minutes. These girls and I are…well, let’s just say that the people here will get the show of their lives.”

The waitress replied with, “I’ll have to talk to the manager about it, but…you’re Tequila Sunrise, right? And that’s Windsong! I’m a huge fan of you both!”

“Just doing my part for the arts and entertainment, and for loyal fans like you,” Tequila said, slipping into her stage persona.

“Now would you be a dear and let the manager know we’re eager to celebrate this wonderful place with all the wonderful people here?” Windsong added.

As the waitress scurried off, Pinkie shook her head. “You know, if you two were actually as nice as you pretend to be, you’d probably have more fans.”

“Don’t open your mouth again,” Windsong warned her. “I can practically see the pubic hair stuck between your teeth.”

Sunset got in-between Pinkie and Windsong. “Don’t say what you can’t back up; between Rainbow and AJ here you’ll be lucky if you can walk away intact. Besides, it’s clear you two are afraid as hell that Fluttershy’s going to outclass you both.”

“You wouldn’t know class if you saw it, you bacon-haired bitch.”

“Look who’s talking? As much of a bitch that Tequila is, at least she has a few hit singles from her own albums!” Twilight added. “You needed a soundtrack to actually make your name. Plus, you’re picking a fight with the wrong girl – Sunny will break you in two.”

“Uh, thanks?” Sunset voiced, surprised that her sister was stepping in on her behalf.

“I may be furious with you right now,” Twilight whispered, “but I’m not going to let this slide, no matter who’s involved.”

At this point, the waitress came back with the manager in tow. “Ms. Sunrise, I understand that you and your friends wish to put on a show for us?”

“Windy and I are, and we were just, ahem, ‘talking’ with Discord’s daughter here, who is interested in a career of her own, so we figured, what better way than to perform here and now? After all, it’s a great way for people to see if they’re really meant for the stage or not.”

The manager, clearly not understanding what was going on, nodded. “Well, then, I can have the stage ready and make some announcements in thirty minutes. The band wasn’t scheduled to play tonight, but we do have some spare instruments here, as well as a karaoke machine. I guess you’ll need some musical accompaniment?”

“We got that taken care of, no problem,” Stagecraft insisted. “If you can get me a piano, Quila and Windy here are going to perform their upcoming duet single for the first time in public!” She then looked at Fluttershy with the same glance a wolf looks at its prey. “And I assume you have something ready?”

Realizing she couldn’t back up her own words, Fluttershy was about to back down when Octavia stepped beside her. “If you’ve got a programmable keyboard and an electric bass guitar, Flutters and I can put on one hell of a show,” she chirped.

“Oh, I’m sure we have those. Let me grab a couple of assistants on site and I’ll make sure it’s ready.” With that the manager wandered off, ready for this little performance that he was sure was only going to raise the profile of the resort further.

“So, another loser enters the fray,” Tequila said. “Little girl, I’m sure the only things you can play are a toy guitar and the skin flute, but this is the real music world.”

“Yes, and I’ve been performing since I was six and have likely played more instruments than you can spell,” Octavia replied. “I’m probably the only true instrumentalist here, and I know what Flutters is capable of. So let’s see you put your money where your mouth is, got that?”

“You talk good bullshit, but I bet you can’t back it up,” Windsong argued.

“Oh, I know she can,” Fluttershy interjected, “and she will. So you two just carry yourselves away and prepare to lose – badly.”

“Just keep up your bravado,” Tequila cooed. “Let’s see how well you do once you’re reduced to a mewling child on stage. C’mon, girls, we’ve got half an hour to burn these bitches.”

“If you’re smart, you’ll use those thirty minutes to start running as far away as you can!” Stagecraft crowed.

“Just keep talking,” Rainbow said. “We’ll see who has to run once Flutters and Tavi embarrass the hell out of you.”

As the other girls departed, Fluttershy nearly collapsed to the floor if it hadn’t been for Pinkie catching her. “Easy, Flutters. We gotcha.”

“Tavi, why?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because you’re better than they are, Flutters. And if there’s anyone who deserves to be a star, it’s you. And I’m going to help you do that.”

“How?” Twilight asked. “You have thirty minutes to find a song to wow the crowd, practice and outdo professionals, even if they’re acting like jerks.”

“What song do you have in mind?” Sunset asked. Octavia explained as well as her reasoning and by the time she was done, the others had shrewd looks on their faces.

“I can help Flutters get ready for singing,” Sunset asked her. “You got a copy of the song?”

“Lyric versions should be on Youtube. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go tune that bass guitar and program the keyboard. AJ, come with me, please?” Octavia asked.

“Sure, but Ah’m no musician, you know that.”

“Yes, but you are muscle – and frankly, I don’t trust them any farther than I can throw them.”

“Sounds reasonable. Rainbow, with me?” Applejack asked.

“Oh hell yes. You’re gonna need backup like there’s no tomorrow,” Rainbow insisted.

“Girls,” Rarity said, “we have twenty minutes to pick out an ensemble for Fluttershy that will be worthy of her being on stage, so I’m going to need your help. We need to get to the boutiques, fast!”

“On it!” Pinkie chirped, and Twilight wordlessly nodded, both following Rarity as they headed towards where they parked the golfcart, leaving Fluttershy and Sunset alone.

“I can’t do this!” Fluttershy moaned.

“You can, and I’ll help you,” Sunset insisted. “C’mon, let’s go find a private spot to chat.” Fluttershy quickly wrote the bungalow ID on the bill as well as the tip, and together the two walked out of the restaurant and down to the beach. The first stars of night were starting to break out over the crepuscular sky and the view had a soundtrack made from the distant din of the pier and building and the whispering waves of the ocean sliding towards the shore. They walked down the beach until they found two unoccupied beach chairs, and sat down. “Now I want to you to close your eyes and focus on the sound of the ocean.”

“Sure,” Fluttershy stated, doing as requested. “What are you going to do?”

“Do you remember the time I ran into you while you were getting accosted by those boys from Sunnytown High?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I was afraid back then,” she admitted. “Afraid of both them and you, sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know you were afraid, and yet you put aside that fear to help me become the person I am now.” Sunset reached over and placed the tips of her fingers on Fluttershy’s temples. “That’s the strength you have and the fire within you, Fluttershy. You are the kindest girl I know and you wielded Elemental magic. That makes you special and far stronger than those other girls.”

“But what if I mess up?”

“You won’t,” Sunset said in a gentle voice, watching her fingers start to glow with power. “And even if you do, those who are your friends and those who love you will still be at your side, because we know you stood before the challenge and didn’t back down.”

“Thanks. What are you doing?”

“It’s a simple hypnosis spell. It should allow me to basically implant the lyrics in your head as if you’ve been practicing it forever.” A second later, Sunset added just in case, “and that’s all I’m going to do.”

“I know. I trust you, Sunny.”

“Thanks. Now you have some bullies to beat. You ready?”

“Let’s do this,” Fluttershy said with a confidence that Sunset had often heard in her friend’s voice: it was the sound of the line being drawn, and the chiffon-haired girl knowing she was going to hold that line and woe be to anyone or anything that even thought they would even hope to cross it.

Sunset’s hands flared cyan. A second later, Fluttershy opened her eyes, and that same glow was there.

Author's Note

Thanks all for being patient with the delay. I know the wait sucks but it's been hell on me, too (the new administration has been a challenge, work-wise.) Still, we are approaching end game soon, so there's more to look forward to.

August 14, PM: Careless Whisper

“So, are you ready for this?” Twilight asked.

“I have no idea,” Fluttershy admitted. At the moment, she was wearing a large white-and-salmon French Navy-style shirt, Bermuda shorts, and a pair of salmon-colored espadrilles. The look was meant to be breezy, casual and very much in line with the look of the resort and Fluttershy had no idea how Rarity, Pinkie and Twilight were able to come up with a set of these in less than twenty minutes, much less two.

“Oh, you look wonderful, darlings,” Rarity said, tying a huge baby-blue bow to the end of Octavia’s jet-black hair. She wore a baby-blue version of Fluttershy’s ensemble, and if that wasn’t enough, somehow Pinkie had managed to come up with a white, blue and salmon guitar strap for her bass – “for guitar strap emergencies,” she explained, though Sunset advised that Octavia write it off as Pinkie being Pinkie. “We are so very looking forward to your performance tonight.”

“Yeah, no pressure,” Octavia replied, thrumming a string, then tuning it. Tweaking it, she felt both elation and guilt while doing so; the former due to the chance to play a musical instrument again, but the latter knowing what she’d done in her brief bout of madness. She hadn’t had much chance to play music since then, and she had to admit that regardless of the situation, she was looking forward to the performance.

“No pressure at all,” Sunset told the soon-to-perform duo; she and the others not directly involved were standing on the far side of the dressing room, trying to stay out of the way of Rarity’s gentle ministrations. “During the prep, something about those names struck me and I don’t mean just because they’re pop stars. I called Cloud Kicker – she says hi, by the way – and it turns out those three attend the same high school that Vinyl and Kicky do.”

“One,” the raven-haired teen counted off her fingers, “what made you call them? And two, I still think Vinyl’s a stupid cunt for what she did to me.”

“You don’t have to like her, cuz,” Sunset said. “You just need to wipe the floor with them. From what I got, Vinyl and Kicky spent the rest of the past school year protecting their friends from these three who are essentially power bullies. And if they’re doing it to them, they’ll do it to Flutters. You can’t let that happen.”

“Indeed,” Rarity agreed. “We’re all proud of you for standing up against those bullies, no matter what happens.”

“Yeah, but we want to beat them, not just stand up to them,” Octavia replied. “And I’m sure we’ll wipe the floor with them. You ready, Fluttershy?”

“Oh, I’m ready,” Fluttershy said with absolute confidence, looking briefly at Sunset before giving herself a confident smile. “We’ll hit them so hard, it’ll be like magic.”

The manager stood up on stage, looking at the crowd tonight. “Ladies and gentlemen, have I got something for you: a special performance of not just one, not just two, but three of today’s rising young stars! Tonight, you’ll be serenaded by musical stars, ladies and gents. First, I give you the current reigning queen of pop, Tequila Sunrise, and her lovely young friends, the gorgeous and talented singer Windsong and Stagecraft on piano! And after that, I give you rising rock star Fluttershy, and her friend, the classically-trained musician, Octavia Melody, on bass! It’s going to be a humdinger of a show tonight, folks! Enjoy tonight’s entertainment, courtesy of the Club Tropicana!”

The girls, at their assigned tables near the front, looked at one another. Rainbow sipped on a Grenadine and Coke. “Wow, for only thirty minutes, they really got the stage ready!”

“I’m hoping that’s part of the pre-set design,” Rarity worriedly said. “I would hate to think the deck’s stacked in the advantage of those three.”

“Ah think she’ll do fine,” Applejack announced. “Besides, look who she’s up against.”

“Yeah, two of the hottest teen popstars out there right now,” Twilight said, worriedly. “And they have star power compared to what she has.”

“Oh, I dunno: I can think of one thing our side has that they don’t.”

Twilight couldn’t help but look at her sister. “And that is?”

Sunset gave a smile. “Magic.”

The spotlight began shining on Tequila Sunrise and Windsong as they took the stage. From the moment they had stepped into their prearranged location, Stagecraft started playing a song on the piano, and after a few seconds, the two girls started singing along, their voices like siren’s calls on the wind:

“Oh, I’m running out of air….”

“Love you, need you,
Got me close to
Fading, ‘cause I’m
Livin’ on you…

“I’ve been wondering:
Do you need every
Little piece of me?
Am I like the air you breathe?”

The two moved through the lyrics, point and counterpoint, singing like a beautiful melody twinned within the soul. Their outfits sparkled and shimmered, giving them an ethereal look and proving why, at their young ages, they had conquered the music world. Their songs just seemed to grab onto your soul and demand the response their musical question begged an answer for: Am I like the air you breathe?

Even the girls, seated at their table, felt the sway of the music, being in the presence of masters of their craft. Even those who didn’t care much for pop songstresses couldn’t deny the elemental pull of the song. Though Sunset didn’t exactly have the time to check it out, she wondered if these girls had magic. If so, they’d harnessed it in some small measure when they sang, which meant they had to be related to a human magical bloodline somehow, but she worried what would happen if either of those girls ever came to that realization.

And if not, then they had charisma, which was almost as bad. Sunset had recalled reading about WWII and the man who had started it all. They had called him charismatic as well – but it was just as possible that he’d been possessed of magic. And the world had burned, regardless.

Nearly four minutes later, the last tones of the piano stopped, the girls bowed gracefully before the room and the audience exploded into applause, those seated at the table before the stage knew that their friends would have one hell of a fight before them.

“That was beautiful,” Twilight said in a voice filled with both wonder and shame. The former, because she loved the song; the latter, because she felt it was a betrayal of those around her.

“I’ll reluctantly agree,” Rarity said in much the same tone. “Still, I hope that Fluttershy and Octavia can better them.”

“They will, okay?” Rainbow defended. “Sure, those other girls were cool an’ all, but our gals? Got them beat, no sweat.”

“Could go either way, Ah reckon,” Applejack admitted. “What’s your take on it, Pinks?”

“Our girls’ll win,” Pinkie said. “Just gotta have faith in them, right, Sunny?”

Sunset leaned back in her chair. “I don’t need faith,” she said, a smug smile on her face. “Why have faith when you know what’s going to happen?”

From where they stood just off-stage, both Fluttershy and Octavia sized up their competition. “Wow, they’re better than I thought,” Octavia said.

“No they’re not,” Fluttershy corrected. “If you’ll note, Windsong is flubbing her cues, and Tequila isn’t used to singing in the register she is, plus, both of them clearly aren’t used to singing with someone else. Stagecraft seems to be a competent piano player, though.”

Now it was Octavia’s turn to correct. “I heard at least two sour notes, which means she’s not practiced at the song or the piano’s not tuned enough. Given that this place has a regular band, it likely is, which means she’s not all that.”

Both girls looked at each other and giggled. “We’re two peas in a pod if there ever was one,” Octavia said, hugging her friend. “We’re going to win this.”

“No kidding,” Fluttershy said with a smile.

“Awww, isn’t that cute? The two little lesbos are in foreplay,” Tequila Sunrise said as she walked off the stage, basking in the adulation that was still going on. “If you two can hold off on doing each other long enough, I can get a camera and film it for a porn site.”

“Yeah, I can see it now,” Windsong taunted. “Two rock starlets with the guitar going down on them,” she said, posing her hands as if filming. “Should get you guys quick careers with Brazzers or something.”

“Funny, you seem to know what that is,” Octavia snarked back. “Lifetime subscription?”

Windsong reeled her hand back as if to slap Octavia, but Stagecraft held her back. “Not worth it, Windy. Besides, we get to watch them fail – what could be better?”

“Watching us beat you,” Fluttershy said in cool tones. “C’mon, Tavi. Let’s go make magic.”

The two walked out onto stage, mixed feelings in the air. For Octavia, she was used to it a billion times over, having done this since she was six. But for Fluttershy, she had only been on stage a handful of times and she was still learning to get over her stage fright. The former had music in her blood for generations and knew what she wanted to be in life. The latter felt the pull of her love for animals and the pull of her love for music, and really wasn’t sure which one was going to win. And right now, both were sure that for the latter, this challenge, this mere tiny performance in front of a bunch of people who hadn’t expected this impromptu concert, would be the deciding point for the latter.

As Octavia slung on her bass guitar, she had to wonder: would this make Fluttershy into what she knew she could be, or would it break her into hiding so far within herself no one could find her? And would it be the fault of those obnoxious teens, their own group or herself? There was no way to really know. Fluttershy slipped the USB key into the keyboard, hit the first key, and for better or worse, they were off.

As Octavia let her fingers fly along the cobalt strings of the borrowed bass, she let herself slide into the music. She hadn’t really performed in front of a crowd with this instrument, and popular music was far out of the range of what she was accustomed to. Still, Fluttershy’s reputation was on the line, and that wasn’t something that the raven-haired teen was going to stand for. Granted, there really wasn’t much that she could do in the way of direct action, but one thing she knew was her music.

Someone had tried to bully Fluttershy when it came to music. That was Octavia’s balliwick – it was her way of fighting back.

And she knew this was where she was going to throw her punch.

Then, Fluttershy, letting the music wrap around her, easily danced over to the crowd, smiled to them, then brought the microphone before her lips and sang.

And conquered the room.

“Let me take you to a place
Where membership’s a smiling face;
Brush shoulders with the stars
Where strangers take you by the hand
And welcome you to wonderland
From beneath their Panamas…”

From the first note, from the first word, she had their rapt attention in a way that the other three couldn’t have. Maybe it was the rock starlet singing an impromptu disco song. Maybe it was the fact that the song Octavia suggested was the defacto theme song for the resort’s parent chain, written three decades back. Or maybe it was even just the crowd, having been wowed by the constellation of sirens earlier, now eager to see what a new face could do.

It didn’t matter. Along with Octavia, this stage, this moment, this all, was Fluttershy’s. The chiffon-haired chanteuse declared this stage her realm and now she held court.

“Club Tropicana, drinks are free –
Fun and sunshine, there’s enough for everyone!
All that’s missing is the sea –
But don’t worry, you can suntan!”

Laughter rang out a couple of hours later at a beachside bonfire ring, where the stars twinkled over the Pacific and a group of girls sat around the blazing flames, armed with s’mores. “Tired, sugarcube?” Applejack asked Fluttershy.

“But in a good way,” the chiffon-haired girl said, a pleased smile on her face. “I honestly didn’t think they’d like me.”

“Yeah, says the girl who only meant to sing a single song, then ended up doing an hour’s worth of a miniconcert, and then another thirty minutes signing autographs!” Rainbow pointed out. “And did you see those other girls? They bailed out of here like they were yesterday’s news!”

“I hope they didn’t leave the resort. I didn’t want that; I just wanted them to stop acting the way they did,” Fluttershy stated.

“Don’t worry about it, darling. They’re pop stars, so they have to get used to the concept that someone out there is simply better than they,” Rarity insisted.

“Yeah, Fluttershy. They had their star power, but you had something more out there, like…like it was magic!” Twilight said.

“Oh, so now you believe in magic?” Pinkie accused before popping down three toasted marshmallows as if they were air.

“What, you don’t get metaphor?” Twilight retorted. “But seriously, Flutters, if you haven’t considered a career in music, you really, really should. And when you do, can I have lifetime backstage passes to all your concerts?”

Fluttershy giggled. “As if you really had to ask?” She then looked at Sunset. “But speaking of magic…Sunny, what did you think of my performance?”

Sunset caught the question: Fluttershy was worried about how much was really her and how much had been Sunset using her own abilities. She could see those in the know give her the briefest of glances, all asking the same thing. And the truth was, there was nothing Sunset had done; it had been all Fluttershy and Octavia’s talents. She wouldn’t rob them of their victory, nor cheapen it in any way. Sure, if magic had been truly involved on anything more than the most passive of levels then she would’ve stepped in, but Fluttershy fought fire with starfire and won.

“It was a stellar performance, and aside from Tavi’s playing, there was nothing out there that could’ve made it better, believe me,” Sunset said, and from the soft smile Fluttershy gave her, the message was received. The others did as well, and they relaxed.

“Tavi,” Fluttershy asked, “if I started a band, would you be interested in playing bass?”

“Me?” Octavia looked up from the fire. “I’m not exactly rock star material, Flutters,” she said. “I’ve always been more of a classical musician.”

“Most rock stars have classical backgrounds,” Fluttershy explained. “For example, Frankenstrat made his name as a teenage classical pianist before he picked up a guitar. Loose Nut from Black Flag? Sure, he’s known for being a punk rocker, but before that, he was a jazz performer – and he actually played the contrabass. Prince? His father was a jazz musician as well, and that’s who taught him the piano and guitar. Even my own father’s classically trained. I could go on and on, but I don’t think I need to, because what I heard tonight? If I go professional, I know who I’d want performing with me.”

Octavia blushed. “Are you sure? I’ve got issues, Flutters. And if you’re really thinking about starting a band, won’t we need a guitarist and a drummer, unless you were going to do guitar?”

“I’d probably be better at rhythm, not lead,” Fluttershy told her. “And your issues just make it all the more critical that you should. You could be a powerful spokeswoman for that, and even if not, you would have a way of contributing and showing you’re more than what the pills say you are. I already know you are.”

“Then if you’ll have me, I’m in,” Octavia replied, though she later admitted, “just as soon as I can replace all my instruments. Remember that I broke them when I….” She fell silent, not knowing what else to say, before she was hugged by Sunset.

“You’re stronger than this, Tavi,” Sunset told her, “and you’ll move beyond all this. And we’ll be there, watching you – both of you – every step of the way, okay?”

“Yeah! I get to design the album covers!” Pinkie chirped.

“Just as long as I get to design your fashions for the stage and photoshoots!” Rarity equally gushed.

Rainbow looked them both and grinned. “So, what’re you gonna call yourselves? Because I know this gre—”

“We are not calling ourselves ‘The Rainbooms’,” both told her at once.

“We are going to need a drummer and a lead guitarist,” Fluttershy mused. “Like Dad, I think I’d be better suited for rhythm guitar and keyboards. Plus, the lead singer of any group has got to be mobile to address the audience. And though it scares the hell out of me, I have to do it.”

“Awww, our little Fluttershy’s done grown up some!” Applejack said in a half-teasing, half-proud tone. “Next thing you know, years from now you two’ll have buckets of Grammies or whatever they’re called all at your fancy Malibu homes!”

Rarity was suddenly disquieted. “You just reminded me all of something I didn’t want to think of,” she said out of the blue. “We only have a couple of years left with each other, before we go our separate ways.” She reached over and grabbed four of Pinkie’s campfire marshmallows, consuming them in short order. “And we’ll all be alone in our adult worlds! Just even thinking about it is unbearable! It is the. Worst. Possible, Th—”

“Warning, Drama Queen alert,” Twilight joked.

“Rares, could we not talk about that right now?” Rainbow growled in annoyance. “We’re supposed to be here for something great – celebrating summer and Sunny’s upcoming adoption, not the fact that we’ll all be headed off to different universities.”

“Besides,” Applejack added, “Ah’m pretty sure we’re all gonna be friends for life.”

“But everyone always says that before they drift away!” Rarity whined, and instinctively, it made Pinkie think as well. She gave a look at Sunset, the girl she loved, and Rarity’s words echoed in her mind.

And then Twilight spoke, looking at them all. “We can’t – we won’t. I just made friends with you all…real friends, friends I’ve never had before.” She looked at them all, with sincerity in her eyes. “I used to wonder what friendship could be, until you all shared that magic with me.”

“Twily, leave the songwriting to me, okay?” Octavia drolled. “I swear that last line sounds like it’s from a children’s cartoon.”

“Tavi….”

“Fine, fine. Continue.”

“Look, maybe it doesn’t seem as though I’m making a lot of sense right now; I’m actually thinking off the cuff. And frankly…that’s not anything I would’ve done a year ago. Not even with Tavi’s influence. I’ve learned a lot about being myself and about being with others. And…it really hasn’t been easy, but it’s been worthwhile.” She looked at the others and, illuminated by the firelight. “And I know I’m probably going to make a lot more mistakes. But I wouldn’t be the person I am without you – without all of you.”

Sunset blinked at that. It was the closest she’d had to having her sister back since this all began.

And then the moment was ruined by Rainbow uttering a huge yawn. “Well, it’s late enough, girls. Maybe we should consider calling it a night?”

The yawn was infectious. “Yeah, maybe we should think about it,” Applejack drowsed. “Got more of the same tomorrow, anyway.”

“Yeah, if we are going to start a band, Flutters, we probably should think about things tomorrow with a fresh mind,” Octavia agreed.

One by one, starting with Pinkie (who said a good night’s sleep was vitally important for having fun), they started to file away from the campfire while Sunset volunteered to make sure that it was put out. One by one they moved on, saying their goodnights, leaving Sunset to watch the flickering, dying flames of the bonfire ring. She gave herself a private smile; fire was a part of her, the strongest part of her magic. At one time, she’d wielded it as a blunt instrument and had been reprimanded for it by Princess Celestia. Since then, she’d learned to control it, fine tune it and it no longer burned within the warm hues of red, orange and yellow, but within the deceptively cool tones of blues and whites.

She was by far the strongest archmagus that had ever existed, when it came to raw power; a contrast compared to Princess Twilight’s super-granular finesse. Twilight could thread a proverbial needle with her magic, while Sunset had to shove it through. But to extend the metaphor, Sunset could shove a tree through said needle with her power, while Twilight had to settle for something smaller. In the end, it didn’t matter; Twilight had those extra parts, beyond that of normal magic, which had put her on her destiny to royalty and ascension. Sunset, on the other hand, took a more painful, circuitous path that did not lead towards either of those things, but those were destinies Sunset no longer wanted. She had the love of her family: both that at home and that here on Earth. And to her, that was worth more than any crown and wings.

“Sis?”

Sunset was jolted out of her thoughts from that one word. She looked up at the flames to make sure she hadn’t slipped into a dream. The flames themselves were almost out and more of the glowing embers from charred wood, as small tendrils of smoke escaped into the sky. But the smoke was clear enough that Sunset could see across to the other side of the concrete ring, and on that other side, was a plum-haired girl with locks of magenta and violet, looking right at her.

Sunset said nothing. She wasn’t sure what she could say anymore.

Twilight looked at her. “I really don’t know what to think anymore, I really don’t. So I’m going to say what’s on my mind – and I don’t want you to say a single thing. I just want you to listen.” Sunset merely nodded, waiting for Twilight to continue. “I don’t know what’s going on with you and the others – and I don’t care. What I care about is our relationship. You’re supposed to be my sister. You’re supposed to be there for me when I need you…and I’m supposed to be there for you when you need me.

“Tavi thinks you’re running from something, something so bad that it makes you refuse to talk about your past, because you’re so frightened that you refuse to even accept that it exists, much less tell us. And I have to wonder: are we in danger? Are you? Are you putting us in danger?” Sunset gazed up at Twilight, a horrified look on her face. She was about to say something when Twilight said, “Don’t. Talk.”

Twilight moved over next to Sunset and sat down. “This is the part I hate most about you, Sunset Shimmer. You’re supposed to be my sister. Sisters rely on each other. Tavi and I have been there for each other through thick and thin, you know that. And we’ve fought before – usually my fault, because I’m probably not the most mature person on the planet when it comes to my emotions. And you and I should be the same way.

“You saved my life – literally, and nearly at the cost of yours. And now there’s something you’re afraid of, but you’re not turning to the family that loves you, that’s there for you.” Twilight got back up and dusted off her shorts. “I have to wonder: should we be afraid as well? And if the girl who was brave enough to throw herself in front of a speeding truck in order to save my life is afraid of something? We should probably be afraid, too.”

Twilight took a step away from Sunset, her back to the flame-haired girl. “Please, if I’m wrong, tell me. If you love this family enough to protect it from whatever you’re afraid of, then you’ll say something. Because I have a family that I love, and that I have to protect as well.” Nothing more to say and not even sure her words made sense, Twilight walked back to the bungalow where they were all staying.

Sunset sat there, continuing to watch the embers until the last one went out and she was bathed in moonlight. She looked up at the moon, seeing that it was nearly full, and in the past, she would’ve been trying to absorb all the ambient magic she could from it – something she no longer needed. But the moon and its melodies, the moonlight that illuminated the beach, showed the footsteps of the last person to leave the ring and the chaos and confusion she’d left in her wake – a confusion that Sunset didn’t quite understand.

I’m a child of two worlds, she thought to herself. I know so little about my dam. And I just made up with my “real” mother. And now I’m about to be adopted by another mother, one I love just as much as I do the one I left behind. And yet I’m afraid of both sides finding out. I’m like a superhero in the comics trying to balance two identities. She sighed and leaned once more against the beach chair. But this isn’t the comics and life isn’t really a story. For one, it’s far messier.

As the last ember died, Sunset felt as if a part of her soul went with it. She felt drained and not in a good way. She stood up, took a look around and when she was sure that no one else was around, she snapped her fingers. A tendril of ocean water rose from the nearby beach and flew over to her hand, becoming a ball of water in her outstretched palm. She then dumped the water onto the wood, the brief sizzle being the final death knell of the fire. Feeling a bit melancholy about that, she went off towards the room she was going to share with Pinkie for the next two weeks.

Giving a brief yawn, Sunset moved up the stairs towards the second-floor bedroom that Pinkie insisted the both of them take. The moment she did, she noticed the lights were out and Pinkie was likely already asleep. So she slipped into the door, then gently closed it.

That’s when the lights came back on…reflected a million times over by the disco balls attached to the ceiling. And in the center of the room, was a weighted and well-polished metal pole. The sounds of a soft romantic ballad by Fastlove emanated from the speakers of the pink boombox on the other side of the room.

“Oh, Sun~ny,” a voice breathed, and Sunset froze as she turned to see the speaker. There, the scent of jasmine oil filled the air and in the center of the aroma storm was a breathlessly beautiful girl, so much so that even Sunset could tell. She dressed in pink leather panties, boots, gloves and brassiere; a soft red corset, fishnet stockings, and choker; and topped off with red gold necklace and arm band. She moved sensually, sultrily and like Aphrodite calling to a supplicant.

Sunset had known Pinkie was a dancer; all cheerleaders were, to some degree or other. But this rhythmic motion, the swinging around the pole, and dancing around the flame-haired girl made it clear that this wasn’t just entertainment for a friend. This was a mating dance that one would try to woo their chosen with, and the former unicorn already had a general notion of who the cotton-candy-haired girl had her mind set on…

…which made it even more embarrassing once Pinkie started her striptease. First came off the brassiere, and Sunset got an uncomfortable reminder why out of her circle of friends, she had the third largest chest. A few minutes later, she found out that Pinkie was in amazing shape, probably as much as Rainbow, if she wanted to make a comparison based on Rainbow’s slight six-pack. It didn’t help any more the moment that Pinkie shimmied around her, wearing nothing but the choker, the gloves, the stockings and the boots, pressing a little too close for comfort, sliding her arms around Sunset’s shoulders.

Sunset finally had enough. Gently, she cast a spell, and Pinkie found that she couldn’t move. Sunset gently extricated herself from Pinkie’s embrace, then went over to the bed, grabbed the comforter, and wrapped it around her friend. “Pinkie, please don’t tell me you got a Brazilian for my sake,” Sunset replied, trying for levity in which she knew was about to be a very bad situation.

Sunset released the stasis spell, and Pinkie fell to the ground, ignoring the closing strains of “Careless Whisper”. “Yes, I did,” she said in a broken voice. “Because I’d hoped….”

Sunset sat down next to Pinkie and held her. “Because you’d hoped I’d change my mind?”

Pinkie nodded; Sunset could see the tears start to come. “Is it so wrong that I want the girl that I love to touch me? To love me? So that I can feel like I’m worthwhile?” Pinkie looked at Sunset. “I’m damaged goods, Sunny—”

“No. Stop there. Stop right the fuck there, Pinkie. I’m not going to let you do this to yourself, understand?” Sunset told her. “You are a special girl and I already told you: if I even had that inclination, I would. But I don’t – and that’s not a bad thing. It just means that we are who we are: dear friends.” Sunset took Pinkie’s hands in her own and said, “Somewhere out there is the girl or guy who’s right for you, and will love you the way you deserve to be loved. You are not damaged goods, Pinkie, any more than I am a monster – you told me that.” Sunset hugged Pinkie close. “You’re my dearest friend, and I love you, okay? I can’t love you the way you want, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t at all.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“I do. Besides, out of the two girls who have thrown themselves at me while naked, I’m saying that you would win if I leaned that way, okay?” Sunset laughed. “Take a compliment, would you?”

“Wait – someone’s already done this?”

“Yeah, it was Compass Rose, but she was a bit stressed and—” Pinkie got off the ground, sloughing off the quilt and walking over to her phone. “Pinkie, please don’t. It’s nearly one in the morning.”

Pinkie ignored her, went over and picked up her phone, dialing a number on automatic. The phone dialed for a few seconds, before a groggy voice answered: “This is Rose.”

“Rose, this is Pinkie,” Pinkie said in a surprisingly stern voice.

“Pinkie, it’s one in the morning! Why are you calling me?”

“Because I officially hate you, you know that? Who gave you the right to throw your naked body at Sunny before I could?”

“Wait, what?”

“We are soooooooo going to talk about this when I get back from vacation, buster, got that?” Pinkie hung up the phone. “I’m going to bed now, Sunny. Night!”

Sunset groaned. “Aren’t you going to get dressed?”

“Nope! May as well show you what you’re missing,” she said as she plopped right on the bed where Sunset was going to sleep. “Now get over here, will you?”

“Pinkie, you’re creeping me out right now.”

“I don’t snore, you know that.”

“Doesn’t make it any less creepy.”

“Will you die for me?”

Sunset sat up again. There was that damn dream, the one she’d had a lot recently. The one she’d sent a letter to Princess Luna about and the night alicorn had informed her that it was just a matter of jitters – too many jitters, probably due to the impending adoption. The night princess had also chewed out her niece for waiting so long between returns to Equestria and that she should come to see her mother soon.

“You’re breaking your mother’s heart by not seeing her again.” The words from the letter, nearly a counterpart to Sunset’s own statement from earlier in the day had come back to haunt her. The Princess…who am I kidding? She is my mother, the only mother I ever knew until I was taken in by Twilight’s family. And I really haven’t thought much about what this is doing to her.

Sunset eased herself out of the bed and away from Pinkie’s grasp. That in itself was a whole different concern: Pinkie was deeply in love with her, and she didn’t want to break her friend’s heart, but at the same time, Sunset knew that Pinkie needed someone worthy of her. This was all but confirmed when she heard Pinkie mutter in her sleep, “Yes, Sunny, I would love to have your baby.”

I need to take a walk. Quietly, she threw on a t-shirt, shorts and sandals, then wandered out of the room, and then out of the bungalow.

She walked down perfectly tended brick walkways, past pristinely-tended grass fields, making her way to the beach. A few couples were there from earlier, seated by the dying light of bonfires, and those she steered clear of both for their privacy and hers. She headed a little more way down the beach, southbound, past the pier and right to the point where the property line of the resort ended and where Harmony Headlands State Park began. It was here, down by the palm trees, where she saw wonder.

Seated on the beach, all by herself, was a girl, seemingly around Sunset’s (physical) age, and with Asian features. She had mid-length chestnut brown hair with a neon-blue stripe, and what looked like sea-green eyes. In her hand she held a small glowing ball, and she sang a song in the moonlight, in words Sunset wasn’t familiar with:

“Win chent a lotica
En val turi
Silota
Fin dein a loluca
Si katigura neuver
Floreria for chesti
Si entina”

Sunset couldn’t help herself. “That is beautiful.” The girl turned around in surprise, looking at her with grave concern. “Hey, easy, not going to hurt you, just here for a walk and overheard your singing.”

The girl immediately recomposed herself. “Ah, alright then,” the girl said in an accent Sunset couldn’t identify. “Was right stuffed there, luv. Shouldn’t give a girl a scare like that. Not bloody good for the heart at all, you know?”

“Sorry,” Sunset replied.

“Eh, it’s alright. Probably my fault, getting tied up with memories of where I grew up.” She laughed. “The old gaffer dragged me here to the States when I was sixteen and he’s surprised I’ve never lost my accent.”

“Which was?”

“Wow, and usually I get bombarded with all sorts of questions because people figure that out. I’m originally from Cairns, Australia – well, technically I’m originally from Despansar, Indonesia, but Da raised me in Australia before he wanted to move back to America.” The girl shook her head. “Well, I’m being a right bloody jerk, not introducing myself.” She offered her hand. “Areca Palm.”

Sunset sat down next to her and shook. “Sunset Shimmer. So what was that song you were singing? And the thing in your hand?”

Areca laughed. “The song’s from some old anime show, and the lyrics are just nonsense, far as I know; it just happens to be my favorite song. As for the glow?” The girl reached in her hand and brought out a palm-sized drone. She tapped it on the top of the chassis and it began to glow a soft blue while it hovered off the top of her palm. “Just a microdrone Da asked me to test for him, while I’m on my sojourns. He’s an inventor, the kind that’s always mucking about with one thing or another, and since I’m on the way to Japan next week, he asked me to take it to a manufacturer he knows.” She grinned. “The Japanese and their toys, you know – they’ll buy them like they were going out of style.”

“Ah.” Sunset put it out of her mind; she originally thought it was magic, but now that she saw it had a mundane reality to it, she gave it not much more thought. Still, there was something unusual about the girl – maybe she was a latent magic user and didn’t know it. After all, Sunset knew five girls she was around every day that fit that criteria. “So, you travel a lot, but you’re still a kid?”

“Kid? Still a girl, I suppose – you Americans are so in love with that term. I’m twenty-five and have been out of school for years. Homeschooled, so I was in university by the time I was ten. Attended the Royal Queensland University, graduated summa cum laude and right well racked off every person a decade older than me. Probably part of the reason why Da moved us up to Seattle.” She looked at Sunset. “What about you?”

“Oh, here with friends. I’m just seventeen.”

“Really? You look older than that.”

“Nope, just seventeen,” Sunset insisted. “The father of one of my friends arranged it for us to take a summer vacation. You?”

“Just wanted to get a small holiday between my studies – was meeting with some business partners in Tulsa – and then on the way to Yokohama. As for me, well, given that the old gaffer owns half of the resort, we have accommodations whenever we need. It’s nice to get away from your problems.”

“What problems?” Sunset asked, figuring she could help.

Areca laughed again. “I hardly think we know each other long enough to discuss personal issues. Besides, I’m not the one with the problem – Da is.” She rolled her eyes and commented. “Love the old man, but he’s such a perve. Constantly dating younger women and…well, you can imagine how it goes betwixt an older chap and a younger lass. Anyway, Da’s currently dating someone around my age, and let’s just say it got me right gobsmacked. He’ll probably get over it and dump her for my sake, but….” She shrugged. “Maybe I’m just being unfair to that girl, but someone’s got to be pristine to even look at him, far as I’m concerned, you know?”

“Maybe,” Sunset said, remembering her own less than appropriate thoughts at first meeting Trixie’s father earlier in the year. It wasn’t something she wanted to revisit. “I’ve known some people at my school who have found their friends’ parents to be attractive,” she said diplomatically.

“So what’s eating at you?”

“Me?” Sunset asked, and Areca nodded. “Thought you didn’t want to discuss personal issues?”

“And yet I told you mine, being a jealous daddy’s girl and all,” she said lightly. “Surely yours can’t be too hard. Boyfriend left you for another? Parents being too hard on you? Or something else?” Areca looked at the younger girl with a sincere face, one that was genuinely interested in helping.

“A bit more complex than that,” Sunset explained.

“Oh, but don’t I know that in my life,” Areca replied with a smile. “Still, nothing’s so complex that you can’t express it in words.”

Sunset looked at the stranger – emphasis on stranger. It’s not as though she feared for her life; if the girl tried anything, Sunset knew they were alone and Sunset could easily protect herself magically. But emotionally? That was something else – the girl was asking her to reveal what had been gnawing at her for the past few weeks.

What have I got to lose? Sunset asked. It wasn’t like she was ever going to see this girl again, she was sure.

Sunset was silent for a few more seconds, before speaking: “In two weeks, I’m about to be adopted by a family. I love them – a mother and father, two brothers and a sister who I love dearly. I’ve been pretty much an orphan for the past few years, so it means the world to me.”

“Except?” Areca asked.

Sunset sighed. “Except…my mother. My, um, biological mother. I’ve met with her in the past year, and she wants me back. And I still love her, I always have, even when I ran away. That’s the truth: I’m not orphaned, I ran away. I ran away because I wanted what my mother had, because I wanted her affection – which I had, but I was too stupid to realize it.” The sorrow and guilt came easily to Sunset; recently, it was always under the surface. “But I like living here, and I love my new family. But I don’t know how they’d react if they found out that I’m not what I said I was.”

“That you’re not really an orphan and that you came from a good home with a loving parent and that you caused this all because you ran away?” Areca parroted.

“Well, it’s more complex than that, but…yeah, that’s the gist of it,” Sunset sighed.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, just found out that one of my best friends is in love with me, but I don’t swing that way. I’ll manage.”

Areca grinned. “Damn right you will. After all, you’re here, are you not? You’ve made it through a year learning about yourself and moving in with a new group that loves you. You’ve wormed yourself in right good, did ya not? But you still have the past to deal with. Good or bad, it’s the past: It’s a part of you and it’s not going to let go.”

“No, you’re right, it’s not.” Sunset pulled her knees to her chest in a scrunched-up position. “And I don’t want to let it go. I love my mother. I love the mother who’s going to adopt me now. And I honestly don’t know what to do. I really don’t! I’m here for good, and yet if I tell my new family the truth…they’ll hate me. They’ll hate me forever. And I don’t want that.”

“Perhaps you should tell them the truth?” Areca suggested. “You see the situation not saying anything has gotten you in. Heh, reminds me of a time when I got into something that the old gaffer didn’t want me to. An och, I did hear it from Da, let me tell you! But he was right: hiding something isn’t how it’s meant to be. Sooner or later, things’ll get into the light, they will. And it’s better than they get there with your hands, than without – because otherwise, it’s a right mess.”

“But what if they spurn me?”

“Remember the old saying: if you love something, set it free. If it doesn’t come back, it was never yours to begin with,” the other girl said. “I, of course, like the joke version: If it doesn’t come back, hunt it down with extreme prejudice,” she added with a chuckle. She then stood up. “Well, I shall be here for at least a week, so I hope to run into you again. You can tell me more about how it went.”

“My family’s not here…well, not most of them. My sister is.”

“Then you can tell me how that went so far and I can offer some advice,” Areca said, giving Sunset a smile. “Be seeing you around, Sunset.”

Sunset nodded as well. “Same to you, actually.”

Sunset watched as the older girl walked away, then looked at the moon again. This was the second time in the past few hours she’d found herself in this situation, and if she was the kind of person who believed in signs, it wouldn’t have been a good one. And having grown up with her mother, the literal goddess-ruler of a nation and extensively trained in the mystical arts herself, she would’ve been insane not to see the signs. Believing in them, however, was an entirely different matter.

She got off the sand and walked back to the bungalow. Chances were, she just needed some sleep and they could get back to the fun and sun. She could mend ties with Twilight, and they could leave here as the sisters they were meant to be. Sunset used her keycard to open the door to the bungalow, and walked in, yawning.

The yawn ended a second later as she was hit hard across the face, followed immediately by a punch. Her vision swam; she was still sensitive towards headblows after what she’d been through. She felt another hit across her face and she lashed out with her own punch, drawing an “Ouch!”

Sunset immediately hit the lights, only to find… “Twily? What the fuck?”

“You lying bitch,” Twilight snarled, and the hatred in her eyes was clear. “You lying, swindling bitch. It was all an act, wasn’t it? IT WAS ALL JUST A FUCKING ACT!”

“What are you talking abou—”

The look in Twilight’s violet eyes was one of pain and betrayal. “And to think I was so stupid to trust you – to think you were my sister! What’s your plan? To steal Dad’s emerald statue? Or to kidnap us?” Twilight gasped. “Or was it just to drive Tavi mad, you—”

Sunset clamped her hands on Twilight’s arms to prevent her from throwing more punches. “What has gotten into you, sis? And why would I steal Dad’s paperweight?”

Twilight shook Sunset off. “I heard everything you told that other girl! About your real mother and how she’s still alive – and how you went to go see her!”

Sunset staggered as she’d been hit even harder than before. She…heard? “What?”

“I saw you take a walk outside.” The tone of Twilight’s voice was broken and that cut deeper than any knife. “I went, because I wanted to make up with you. Because I thought we were sisters.” Twilight hugged herself and looked at Sunset with a shattered visage. “Was any of it real? Was it just an act?”

“Twily, please! Listen to me, I can explain!” Sunset cried, just in time to hear footsteps from the bedrooms upstairs. Great, just what I need.

“WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU! FOR FUCK’S SAKE, YOU ARE AN EXPERT AT MANIPULATING PEOPLE! MY BROTHER BELIEVED IN YOU!” Twilight screamed. “I BELIEVED IN YOU!”

“Girls, what’s going on?” Rarity asked as she came downstairs. She wore an elegant sleepgown and her eyemask was propped over her hair.

Twilight didn’t stop. “Is that what you were so afraid to share? That you’ve been a fucking liar to our faces this whole time? ANSWER ME!” The look on Sunset’s face was one of heartbreak and someone about to shatter – but also one that Twilight was right. “We trusted you. We loved you and all this time it was nothing more than a sham?”

“Twily…please, let me explain.” The look on Sunset’s face was one of pleading, asking for mercy.

Twilight met it with the hardest punch she’d ever thrown…and for a girl not inclined to violence or martial arts, it was painful indeed. “GET THE FUCK OUT! I never want to see your face again, you lying bitch!”

Sunset took the blow right across the face without moving, but looking at the girl she called her sister, her eyes soaked from crying. And a second later, she wildly ran, tears streaming down her face.

Twilight was about to yell something else at the other girl’s retreating form when she felt herself rudely slammed against the wall. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DID?” Pinkie roared at Twilight with the fury of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “YOU BITCH!” Pinkie cocked a fist back and swung—

—only for it to be caught, inches from Twilight’s face, by Rainbow. “Not now, Pinkie,” Rainbow said gently. “Go after her. She needs you.” Rainbow looked at Octavia. “You too. She needs her family.” Octavia and Pinkie looked at each other and raced out the door.

Rainbow looked at Twilight. “You okay?”

“No, not really. I just found out my family’s been housing and feeding a fraudst—”

“You call her that again and Ah’ll hit you, Twily,” Applejack said angrily. “And Ah won’t be as nice as the girl that’s in love with your sister.”

“She’s not my sister! And why—”

“Twily, shut up!” Fluttershy shouted at her. “Did you ever think of why we would put our necks on the line for the girl that tormented us for years? Did you?” The chiffon-haired girl got right in the other girl’s face. “I would trust Sunny with my life. I would put the Goddamn gun in her hand, hold it to my head and tell her to pull the trigger, knowing she wouldn’t. Because she means the world to me – to us.”

“Yes, Sunny lied about some things,” Applejack told her, “but she never lied about how you are her family. And you just stabbed your own sister in the back.”

“But she said her mother is still alive!” Twilight gasped. “And that she’s seen her and still loves her! She’s not an orphan!”

“No, you’re right,” Rainbow commented. “But you know what? It means she’s a foundling, just my sister was. And Rose has admitted to Scoots that she still remembers the good times with their mother before everything went bad – it takes a lot to make someone hate their parents, you know.” Rainbow plopped down onto the sofa and said, “But you know what? At the end of the day, Scoot’s biological mom dumped her – and then her real parents came in. Sunny ran from her home life – so what the hell does that say, egghead? C’mon, you can put two and two together, so figure it out.”

“Twilight, Sunset loves you. She saved your life not because she had to or even because it was the right thing to do…she did it because you are her sister. She has risked herself more times than you know – even when we’ve told her that it was a danger to her – she still went the extra mile. And she’d do it again for any of us. And quite frankly, I am tired of having to explain this.” Rarity stood there, arms crossed, her blue eyes radiating both disappointment and anger. “And do you know who is out there solving your problem? Your cousin and the girl who so desperately wishes Sunset would pay attention to her as more than just a friend. And you’re here. Lying in your own metaphorical pool of shit.”

Before Twilight could say anything, Pinkie frantically raced upstairs at a speed that Rainbow would find impressive. A second later, Octavia walked in, a heartbroken look on her face. “Pinkie?” she called out.

Pinkie jotted back downstairs, holding two familiar items in her hand: Sunset’s phone and purse. “She doesn’t have either!” Pinkie sobbed. “She could be hurt or injured or….” She slipped down to the floor, ungracefully, holding the objects close to her like precious totems.

“I’ll get her to bed,” Fluttershy told Rarity. “She’s not going to be any good to anyone like this.”

“Good thinking, darling,” Rarity replied. Looking at the others, she said, “I think we should go get dressed. We need to get looking, now.” Rarity then turned to look at Twilight. “Except for you. I think you’ve done enough damage for the day.”

“No, she hasn’t,” Octavia said, glaring at her cousin, “but that’s only because it’s four in the morning. Now if you’ll excuse me, Rarity, I need to call my aunt and uncle. Someone needs to let them know their daughter is missing.” As one, the other girls rushed upstairs to change, leaving Fluttershy holding Pinkie, insisting everything would be alright…and Twilight, standing by the door, wondering if that was actually true.

Divine Right, soon to be Emperor of All, sat up, his eyes wide. They briefly flickered with an intense light before reverting to their normal golden color, and clarity washed over his features.

“It’s time,” he said to himself, before hopping out of bed, pausing only to shake Cantata. “It’s time! The veil has lifted and destiny herself calls to me, smiling and offering her bountiful wares!”

Cantata stretched and yawned. “It’s nearly four in the morning, Divine. I don’t care who’s offering you their bountiful wares, I’ll kill them if they do. Now shut up and let’s go back to sleep, okay?”

“No!” he said, giddily. “We are on the verge of success! Dame Fortuna’s wheel spins in our favor – this is not the time to spend it shut-eyed and laid low!”

“What are you talking about?”

“The last two victims – I know who they are!” he chirped. “And,” he said, plopping back on the bed next to her, “One of them is a thorn in your side that you’ve been aching to get rid of.”

That caught her attention. Running her hands through her flame-colored hair, she gave him a smile and said, “Tell me more.”

He grinned. “You see, last night, as the fog lifted, I discovered who the Hanging Man is, or at least the names on that list. While there are three names at the top of the list, given the urgency, I think you’ll agree we can settle for number four.” He moved over and whispered a name in her ear.

She looked at him with malicious glee. “And you wonder why I said I’d marry you. You give me the nicest presents.”

Thirty minutes later, the pair were downstairs in the intelligence facility. As the SIRENs in the room came to attention, Cantata looked at them all and asked, “Okay, what’s the status of Project SIGEL?” She then looked around the room. “Also, where’s Lt. Storm?”

The chief petty officer in the room addressed Cantata. “It’s the lieutenant’s liberty day, ma’am. Did you need her immediately?”

“No, but I’ll need to talk to her sometime today, Chief. Anyway, what’ve we got on Project SIGEL?”

“With all due respect, Captain? I’m at a loss why we’re doing this,” the chief commented. “It seems like a waste of personnel.”

“I can explain, if you’d like,” Divine told her. Cantata briefly looked at him and nodded nearly imperceptibly. “My cousin and her daughter are in town. I have reason to believe that CSIS may attempt something against her, and so I asked Captain Blast if she would be willing to ensure the safety of two princesses.” Seeing the look on the enlisted woman’s face, he added, “And this was well before we got, ahem, ‘involved’, so it has nothing to do with that, I assure you.”

“No skin off my back, your highness,” the chief replied. “I just take orders around here. Though I still think this is a waste of time, Captain. We have several people missing, and no thoughts being given to them. Plus, don’t those princesses have their own set of guards?”

“We have reason to believe that assassins may be amongst them, Chief,” Cantata told her. “Which is why Prince Divine has asked us to watch over his family. The assassins might be good – but no one is better than a SIREN, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Certainly, ma’am, but we still run the risk of exposing our forces unnecessarily, an—” She suddenly noticed that Cantata was looking directly at her, examining her, eyes probing like scalpels on a dissection table. “Is there something wrong, ma’am?”

A thoughtful look came over the face of the captain. “Chief, have you taken your inoculations?”

The chief waved it off as Cantata pulled a small, thin pipe from one of her pockets. “Eh, save them for the junior woodchucks, Skipper. Us old salts like you and I don’t need that kinda crap, do we?”

“Let’s find out,” Cantata said, blowing on the boatswain’s call. No sound uttered from the nautical whistle, but the rest of the girls in the room reacted as one, all eerily turning to look at Cantata with a blank look. All, save for one, who looked at the other SIRENs in the room before turning to Cantata with a glance of confusion.

“Captain, wha—” The chief never finished her statement as a bullethole suddenly appeared in her head. She fell down instantly, dead.

She looked at two of them. “Take the body to another room and dispose of it…cleanly,” she ordered. The two immediately nodded before transforming into the monstrous forms the serum had imbued them with. “The rest of you, I want all the information you have on Project SIGEL. Now who’s the ranking SIREN present?”

As if a switch was triggered, a dark-skinned woman with saffron-yellow hair, green eyes and wearing the rank of a petty officer 1st class looked at Cantata. “That would be me, Captain. Petty Officer Trombone Shatter, ma’am.”

“Okay. I want all information available within the next five minutes: every little detail of who the princesses been seen with, places they’ve been, everything. Even if it sounds out of place, I want it. Are we clear, Chief Shatter?”

The newly-promoted chief got the message entirely. “I can get you everything you need, Captain. Send it up to your office?”

Divine intervened. “Please send it down to the Operations Office, Chief,” he told her. “We’ll be there, taking care of some other business.”

“Understood, sir,” she told him, before turning to the others. “Okay, you heard them, let’s get a move on! Chop-chop!” she shouted, clapping her hands loudly to get their attention.

“What was that all about?” Cantata barked at him angrily. “What did I tell you about countermanding my orders?”

“Relax,” he assured her. “We are on the cusp of victory, my dear. And I was hardly overriding your instructions, only making it easier. There’s a petty officer in the Operations Office that I arranged to give a special audition. We need a voice capable of the range to sing the summoning song, and when I heard her speak the last time we were in there, I overheard her sing and thought she might be of use. This way, we can make sure.”

“You should’ve told me sooner,” Cantata argued. “I could’ve checked this out.”

“The military may be your forte, my dear, but not magic,” he reminded her, “and even just now it has cleared and all has become so that I may see to the horizons beyond. Within forty-eight hours, our march to take the world as its rightful rulers will begin and there will be nothing to stop us.” He stopped in the middle of the hall, took her in his arms and kissed her. “We will be as gods, and seven billion knees will bend to us.”

“Let’s lower that number when we get around to it,” she told him, giving her lover a smile. “Never did care for large crowds, anyways.”

As they continued down the hall, they passed Contralto, who looked as though she was about to murder someone; additionally, her right hand looked bruised. However, she knew her place, stopped and saluted, wincing slightly as she did. “Good morning, Captain, your highness,” she said to both.

“You’re up early, Petty Officer Rush.”

“Yeah, well, unfortunately, thanks to Med, we’re going to be two SIRENs short, ma’am,” Contralto grimaced. “She was bored and you know how she gets when that happens. However, I wasn’t expecting her to take two SIRENs without their consent.”

“Who was it?”

“Sublieutenant Slam and Petty Officer Break from Team Five,” the junior SIREN explained. “Unfortunately, Med was a little too eager and she practically snapped Lt. Slam in half during their, ahem, ‘fun.’ Whatever was going on, it snapped Break’s mind and she went after Med, and given that she’s a huge, steroid-sucking bodybuilder, for a second I was worried that Med wasn’t going to make it, especially when I saw her getting choked by Break.”

“And your hand?”

“Had to respond, ma’am. Sure, Med’s a self-centered, idiotic whore, but she’s my teammate, my subordinate and a part of the Black Team. So I punched Petty Officer Break to stop her.”

Divine went over, took Contralto’s hand in his and cast a healing spell. “This is some severe damage, Petty Officer. Where did you hit her?”

“Let’s just say that I’ve never thought Bassoon Break had much of a head on her shoulders,” Contralto replied drily. “Now, I’m certain she doesn’t.”

“Are you sure this is going to work, Maddie?” Sonata asked as she sat down at the keyboard, her fingers dancing across the keys. “You’re taking a huge risk.”

“No kidding,” Madrigal Storm told her petite sœur. “If they find that microtransmitter, it’s not going to be hard for them to trace it back to us,” she said aloud. “We’ll be sitting ducks, for sure.”

“That’s why we need this information,” Vesper reminded her. “If we’re going to stop Cantata before she lets loose those monsters, then we’ve got to put them down and soon – even if it means we die or get caught by the American authorities.” She groaned. “As stupid as this sounds, the fate of the world may be at stake.”

Sunny Side chuckled. “Always wanted be on a ‘mission from God’, eh, sis?”

Evergreen Pine laughed. “I swear, you must’ve memorized every line from The Blues Brothers,” didn’t you?

Side tapped Pine in the shoulder. “Classic movie, sis, you know that.”

“Look, that’s all well and good, but we need to leave in a few minutes to arrange for the extra weapons we’re going to need,” Intermezzo reminded them. “And you need to get back soon enough, Maddie, before Cantata knows you’re gone.”

“Told them I was taking a day off,” Madrigal shrugged. “With all that’s going on and all the intelligence I’ve had to dig up, it’d only be natural. Trust me, there’s no way that I’m going to do anything that would jeopardize our situation here. Things are already tense with Cantata and Guitarron believing that Pine and Sides are dead and that the triplets are considered AWOL by this point. Don’t want them to even remotely think otherwise, or else we’re as good as dead.”

Aria called out, “Personally, Maddie, I prefer to live.” At the moment, the middle triplet was at the table, restringing her bow; several of her arrows were on the table as well, in various states of disassembly.

“You still using those, Ari?”

“A sniper has many forms of performing her mission,” Aria said with a smile. “Sometimes it’s just good to have an appreciation for the classics.”

“Yeah, well, we need to get going,” Mezzo replied. “Soni, you keep working that intel angle. The rest of us need to head out. Maddie, you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve got to go as well. Head back to the hotel room I rented in Bella Vista for some plausible deniability,” Maddie admitted. “Just because I think I’m in the clear doesn’t mean that I am. After all, if they sent that assassin after you, I might just have one on my trail as well. You all take care and I’ll see you in a few days.” She went over and hugged Sonata, then the rest before heading out.

“That’s our cue,” Pine said. “If we don’t leave now, we’re going to miss our shot. As it is, we’re going to have to hustle.”

Mezzo grabbed a duffel bag. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Vesper, Side and Pine all grabbed their bags, quickly doublechecked their gear and headed out the door towards their mission, leaving the three juniormost personnel alone.

A few minutes later, Adagio woke up, stretched and got up. “Hey, how’s my favorite sisters doing?” she yawned.

“Well, given that we’re your only sisters, I’d say we’re doing good,” Aria said, “unless our parents shat out some other kids they abandoned.”

“Ari, that’s not fair,” Sonata argued. “We didn’t know them – hell, if I remember they got buried as unknowns.”

“Personally, given that they were druggies, I’m glad we didn’t get to know them, or we might be hopped up on shit, too,” Adagio reminded her youngest sister. “You never saw Sunny complaining about the fact that she was an orphan, did you? She looks like she’s happy to be in the family she is. And I think we’re happy in the family that we have.” She looked at the clock. “Anyone want to tell me why we’re up at four in the morning?”

Sonata turned her attention back to the computer. “The transmitter widget that Maddie installed is designed to signal us whenever significant data in the INTEL office’s computers are being used, and right now they are. They’re looking up something called Project SIGEL.”

“SIGEL? That sounds like some Norse Viking crap,” Aria muttered.

“You’re close – it’s Old English. Basically, it’s what the Saxons used to call the Sun,” Sonata said, still not taking her eyes from the screen. “I Googled it out of curiosity.”

“Project SIGEL?” Adagio asked, getting dressed. “First Project ANTHEMUSA, now Project SIGEL. Is it something we should worry about?”

“We found out that the Captain authorized the serial killings that our friends have worried about. Then she and that Prince turned the Sisterhood into a collection of monsters and now they want to take over the world,” Aria replied. “What makes you think we shouldn’t be concerned?”

“Well, I’m a fan of cheese being the solution,” Sonata replied, “but I suspect you wouldn’t get that joke.”

“Is this another one of those inside jokes you made with Pinkie?”

“Hell yes,” Sonata said as a nostalgic smile briefly ghosted on her face before she went back to concentrating on her work again. “Okay, copying over the documentation we have for Project SIGEL. They were stupid and didn’t encrypt it, so we should be able to read the documents the moment we finish the download.”

“Any chance of them catching us?” Adagio asked.

“Only if we’re not careful,” Sonata said. “The girls in INTEL might be damn good at gathering and analysis, but they don’t know a damn thing about INFOSEC. Trust me, I could break into their systems with a Nintendo and two floppy discs.”

“Cocky bitch, much, Soni?”

“I’m your baby sister. I have to have something to make up for my crippling self-doubt by constantly being outclassed by my two superior older sisters,” Sonata said glibly.

“Brava. That almost sounded sincere,” Aria laughed.

A few minutes later, Sonata sat back in her chair and relaxed. “Okay, we got what we needed,” she announced. “Give me a few seconds to print out the executive summary and we should be fine.”

“No, put it on the big screen,” Adagio insisted. “We can read from a PDF, and if it’s something serious, we don’t need to waste precious seconds for the printer to bitch that it’s out of paper again.”

“Point,” she said, reaching for the remote and turning on the TV that served as a monitor. “Okay, it’s up.”

The trio read the executive summary on the screen and it made their skin crawl to see the level of information that was being presented to Cantata Blast. The Sisterhood had been compromised for far longer than anyone had suspected. A look of horror came over Adagio’s face as she realized that the Canadian government – their former masters – may not have been the one to assassinate Adm. Poutine, the SIRENs’ beloved commander and father figure.

“This…what the hell is this?” Aria gasped.

“Girls, you’d better shut up and read page seven!” Sonata, who was reading on her own screen and tended to be the speedreader of the trio, looked at her sisters with horror. “Fuck all and go to page seven!”

Adagio picked up the 3D mouse and maneuvered the document to page seven, reading the first few lines of the document. The lines expanded into the first two paragraphs, and by the time she got to the third, she’d dropped the mouse in a panic.

“Is this real?” Adagio yelled at Sonata.

“I don’t know, but if we’re going to do something about it, we don’t have time! They left for Modesto yesterday, and we need to get down there, double-time!”

“Okay, command decision: get your gear ready. If this is correct, then we need to get down there and end this before it’s too late. I want us out the door in five. Move, ladies, move!” Adagio barked, then tore off her civvies in favor of grabbing her CADPATs. Time was no longer a luxury they could afford, not in the least.

Not when the document said that the last girl who would be killed would be Sunset.

Author's Note

The song Tequila and Windsong are singing is Sydney Leigh's "Out of Air". The one Fluttershy's singing, is, of course, Wham!'s "Club Tropicana".

Thanks for being patient, folks. It hasn't been an easy past few weeks. Hopefully there's some stability going on now and I can finish this puppy.

The Endgame Begins....

August 15, AM: The Carnival is Over

A quarter mile off the shore sat Calliope Rock. It was known for being a natural honeycomb, the holes created by eons of water and wind blasting through stone until it had become a swiss cheese monolith. The wind blowing through it at times created a natural, eerie music, a macabre symphony for those who ventured near its edifices. However, time and tides continued to take its toll and in 1957 the California Register of Historical Resources granted it landmark status, with the Federal government doing the same a year later. As a result of this, despite the fact that the rock had a flat plain large enough to accommodate a campsite easily, both governments, along with the County of San Luis Obispo and the Town of Cambria declared Calliope Rock off-limits to within a ten-yard area.

But right now, someone sat on the flat plain, crying her eyes out. Sunset sat on the rock, ignoring the last hours of night. Her heart was broken and there was nothing that could fix it. Her sister hated her. Soon, so would her whole family, and she’d have no reason – or means – to stay here. Sure, she could easily return to her birthworld, but that wasn’t home anymore.

Home – assuming it still was – was six hours to the north.

A random wave sprayed Sunset with saltwater. She was already soaked to the bone, but she didn’t really care. She just curled up closer, holding herself, begging for it to end. She wanted to go home. She wanted her mother’s embrace, for her father to tell her everything would be okay.

But she knew it wouldn’t be.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

Seated on the balcony, Twilight watched the ocean as her namesake occurred from the opposite direction. The blue hour coated the world in azure light and because this was California, the sky was its usual unspeakably beautiful hue. But right now, all she could think about was the person she destroyed.

Was any of it real? And did I have the right to do that? I owe her my life – literally! Twilight’s eyes were already red from crying. She had a broken heart, and that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. She’d begged Octavia not to call her parents and let them know what was happening, and twenty minutes later, it had been Fluttershy who had come back down on behalf of Octavia and said they would wait until the end of day. After all, Sunset was a minor still, and with her gone, that meant that technically they needed to call the Sheriff’s Department, and given their proximity to the ocean….

Given their proximity to the ocean….

Twilight’s heart stopped. She wouldn’t…would she?

The answer came back, mocking and angry, as if it wasn’t a part of her, but something else: You mean like you forced her to? Disowning your own sister? An image of a dead body, bloated from having drowned in the ocean, red and gold strands of hair pushed listlessly by the lapping waves pushed into her mind….

SUNNY!

Twilight tripped over the lounge chair and came to a crashing halt on the deck, just in time to see a pair of baby blue flip-flops come to a stop right in front of her. She didn’t need to look up to know who it was; only one person she knew would go to the effort of painting balloons on her toenails.

She looked up anyway. “Pinkie, I….”

“Sorry,” she said, carrying a plate of pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast and sausage in one hand and a non-alcoholic mimosa in the other. “Can’t hear you over the sound of ‘fuck you’ right now, Sparkle.” She set the stuff on the table and plopped in the seat next to said table. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to eat. Since I didn’t get sleep, I need something that’s going to power me through a long, horror-filled day of looking for your sis…oh, excuse me, I forgot. You disowned her, right? Sorry, I meant ‘my friend’.” She looked as though a thought crossed her face and she added, “You know, I don’t think I had my pill yesterday. Going to be a fucked-up day for me, I guess.”

“You almost forgot your other one, too.” The door opened again, and out came Rainbow with much the same that Pinkie had, only with the addition of a translucent pink pill container. “Fortunately for you, I know what loyalty is.”

“Oh, thanks, Dashie!” Pinkie chirped as she caught the box.

“Pinkie, your hair’s starting to straighten a little. You okay?” Rainbow asked while she speared a sausage.

“Of course I’m not. The girl I’m in love with just got broken by her supposed sister and none of you will let me go Cupcakes on her.”

“Shoulda never let you know about that direct-to-video B-film, I swear,” Rainbow said between chews. “Didn’t even look realistic, the blood I mean.”

“Hey, at least Rainbow Factory was better, even if a little weird in that fantasy horror film way,” Pinkie replied, swallowing a gray-and-blue capsule before washing it down with some orange juice. “So, what brings you out here?”

“Didn’t want you to eat alone.” Rainbow looked over her shoulder and saw Twilight there, still on the ground, looking at her with regrets. “Well, technically not alone, but you get what I mean.”

“Yeah, that I do. I owe you one, Rainbow.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Pinks. That’s what being family’s all about. Guess we’re the only two here who know what that is, huh?”

Twilight picked herself off the floor. “Okay, I get it, Rainbow. You’re pissed at me.”

“Pissed doesn’t even begin to cover it, Sparkle. You pissed on the one person you should’ve been there for. You show no loyalty to your family.” Rainbow got out of her chair and walked over to Twilight until there were fractions of inches between Twilight’s fear-etched face and Rainbow’s fury-sculpted one. “The little girl who gave a big fucking speech about how ‘friendship is magic’ couldn’t wait to shit on the one person who needed her more than anything.

“You know, I found out from your mom back on your birthday that you’re Hispanic? You don’t look it – I’d’ve guessed that you were as white as Rares, AJ, your cousin or Pinkie—”

“I’m part Cherokee, if I recall correctly,” Pinkie said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Rainbow didn’t stop, instead jabbing a finger into Twilight’s chest. “I’m not the biggest one on being Hispanic and all, but frankly, you make me sick to be part of la raza if it means sharing it with you,” she snarled. “Latinas are supposed to look out for family – it’s fucking bred into us, you Goddamn tool! And now that you have a sister that needed you?” Rainbow walked over and picked up her fork, stabbing it into the pancakes hard enough for the tines to audibly scrape against the plate. “You couldn’t wait to break her just because you didn’t really understand her.

“You said part of you grew up because you learned friendship from us. Looks like you didn’t learn jack shit.” Rainbow stormed off the balcony, back into the house. Pinkie looked at Rainbow with a forlorn look, then turned back to her food.

“You’re not going to say anything, Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

“No. I have to eat, then get back out there to look for Sunny – that should be enough of a statement,” she said. “And I’ll keep doing it until I find her, or collapse. Now get the fuck out of here – you’re ruining my breakfast.”

Twilight walked into the house and downstairs, and if the reception she’d received upstairs was bad, the rest of it was worse. Seated downstairs at the table, eating was Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack, talking and laughing. The laughter gave way to glares the moment Twilight finished descending the stairs.

“I…think I’m done,” Rarity said. “My apologies, all, but my appetite just went south.”

“Yeah, think Ah need to get out of here as well,” Applejack said as she stood. “Anything to get out of this hellhole. No offense, Flutters.”

Fluttershy said nothing, instead Staring at one very uncomfortable Twilight. Twilight finally looked away and the chiffon-haired girl looked at Rarity. “We should probably get started on our search again.” She then looked at Octavia with an apologetic look. “Sorry that you need to be here to clean things up, Tavi.”

Octavia sat on the couch, eating and looking over what appeared to be a local map. “No prob,” she said between bites. “Keep in touch, okay? I’m already delaying contacting the authorities in case this isn’t anything major, but the longer this goes on….”

“We know,” the four girls said as one before vanishing.

Twilight looked at her cousin. “Tavi, speak to me.”

“No time,” Octavia said, almost as if to herself. “I need to find out where my cousin has gone, to let her know that she has some family left – that she’s not alone.”

“Tavi, I—”

Octavia threw her plate at her cousin and Twilight was lucky that the plate was plastic. “YOU STUPID BITCH!” Octavia roared. “YOUR SISTER IS MISSING AND YOU’RE STILL ON THE ‘WOE IS ME’ LINE OF SHIT? HOW DARE YOU!”

“How dare me?”

“Yes, how dare you.”

Twilight turned to look at Pinkie, and her hair was inexplicably straight. Her eyes were hard sapphires, and there was no trace of the happy-go-lucky girl Twilight usually knew.

“You broke your sister. Nevermind how I or anyone else feels about her – you broke the one person who needed you.” Pinkie stomped up to Twilight and she flinched back. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t hurt you.”

“You’re not a martial artist?” Twilight said, wincing.

“Cheerleading requires dance and dance is, in its own way, a martial art. What makes you think that I haven’t taken anything besides just dance? I may not be as up front about it as AJ,” Pinkie seethed.

“Pinkie, please knock off the Batman shit and get back out there,” Octavia told her.

“She deserves it.”

“No. And every minute we waste here is a minute closer to us finding a corpse.” That caught Pinkie’s attention. “Twilight is my problem, Pinkie. Please, go find my cousin.” Pinkie didn’t need further prodding and rushed out the door.

Twilight collapsed in a heap. “She…she was really going to hit me, wasn’t she?”

“She slammed you just a few hours ago, Twilight. Or did you forget that?” Octavia sighed. “You have no idea how much you’ve fucked up, do you?”

“You weren’t there! You didn’t hear what I heard!” Twilight said. “Did you think I wanted all this?”

“You tell me – this is all your doing, Twily. This is what you’ve wrought. Yes, Sunny probably lied to us about a few things. But I maintain that she’s afraid of something, something that would make any kind of lie permissible. What did she tell you last night?”

“She didn’t tell me anything.” Twilight let herself be led to the couch, while Octavia went to get some breakfast for her. “I heard her leave the bungalow, so I followed her, because I wanted to make up with her. Instead, I heard her talking to someone else and telling her everything.” Twilight looked at her cousin. “She’s not an orphan – her mother is still alive and out there, and Sunset not only knows it but has met with her during this past year.”

Octavia’s face was impassive. “Go on.”

“She told this other girl that she loves her mother, and that she’s torn between going back and staying with us. That’s not someone who is afraid.” Twilight took the plate and the drink as Octavia handed it to her. “I didn’t want to believe it, but she was so calm about it, so plainspoken, that it has to be true.”

Octavia sat down next to her cousin and was silent the entire time Twilight ate breakfast. Finally, when Twilight was finished, Octavia said, “Twily, you really have no idea of the damage you’ve done, do you? The girls are furious with you to the point that they wanted to toss you out – I told them that finding Sunny was more important. And as for this other person, do you know who she is?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, she didn’t look familiar at all. Why?”

“Then why do you think Sunset would tell a stranger her life story? We are her family and she doesn’t tell us much, and I’ll bet the girls don’t know much more than we. So what makes you think she would open up to a stranger?” Twilight tried to answer the question, but she couldn’t, and found herself staring slack-jawed at her cousin. “That’s right – you don’t have that proof.”

Octavia looked at her cousin. “Do you remember the weekend we were in Riverdale, just before Sunny came into our lives?” Twilight nodded slightly. “Remember that guy who kept staring at our chests? What was his name? Trophy Mantle? Guy was the richest kid in town and thought he could have one or both of us in bed just because he looked at us?”

Twilight blushed. “I’d rather not remember.”

“I do, you know why? Because I messed with his head. Told him that if he wanted me, we’d have to go skinny dipping in Lake Riverside, right? That I wanted to be loved by midnight.”

“But we were on the way home around that time!”

Octavia nodded. “Yup. And he took a skinny-dipping trip…right around a place where the local Girl Scout troops were having a weekend camping trip,” she laughed. “I fed him what he wanted to hear, because he wanted to hear it – and I’m not the one with the, ahem, ‘person-handling’ techniques that Sunny has.

“Yes, we know Sunny’s lied to us, and from what the girls say, her manipulation skills are legendary. But she’s never let us down, Twily, and I don’t believe she’s ever manipulated us, either. I know you want her to tell you everything; I want her to, as well. But what if she’s doing this for a reason? I remember what you shouted last night – that maybe we should worry about what she’s hiding. Maybe we should.” Octavia then said sadly, “but if that’s the truth, Sunny needs to worry more about what’s going to happen to her, first. And then you pushed her out of the metaphorical plane without a chute.”

The older teen sighed. “Normally, this is probably the part where we’d hold each other and cry about it until we feel better. But that’s not going to happen this time. Somewhere out there is your sister – our family, and she’s been missing long enough that we should be very worried. But I’m not going to assuage your guilt, Twily, not in the least. You need to learn this harshest of lessons, because what may come after might just be the death of someone. I only hope it isn’t the death of someone we love.”

The SIREN looked at her screen repeatedly, the look on her face one of utter befuddlement. “Chief? Chief, need your eyes for a sec.”

The INTEL chief walked over and looked over the shoulder of the SIREN, at the monitor. “Okay, what’ve we got? Remember, this info is due to the Captain in ten minutes.”

“Yeah, but none of this makes sense! We have records of Princess Solaire being in these three locations—” The SIREN pointed at a trio of far-flung sites on Google Maps, “but mainly here, at her family’s house; and here, at a townhouse in the Daybreak district.”

“Maybe she’s got someone’s she’s sleeping with,” the chief observed. “Every woman’s got needs, you know. She had a kid, kid had to come from somewhere, after all, am I right?”

“Which leads to the other weird thing. According to her cellphone logs, Princess Sunset has sat in her room at their family compound for the past few days. But about an hour ago, she apparently used her credit card down south, near San Luis Obispo.”

The Chief had a confused look on her face. “Stolen card?”

“No, doesn’t fit the profile. Plus, per our systems, the card’s been active long enough that there’s no chance that it’s fake. But if her phone’s here in Canterlot—”

From the other side of the room, another SIREN called out, “Got a phone hit. Sunset Shimmer’s phone, triangulated to the Canterlot location, two texts sent to friends in Paris.”

“See what I mean, Chief? It makes no Goddamn sense.”

A phone suddenly rang out, and all eyes looked at a cellphone on the chief’s desk. That, they knew, was the signal, but not what they wanted. The Chief went over to answer the phone anyway. “INTEL Office.” The phone was silent for a few seconds while she listened to what she knew was going to come. Finally, she spoke: “Captain, we can send it down but we have some discrepancies in the information that we really can’t understand.” More silence. “Sure, I’ll be right over.” The chief hung up the phone and said, “Transmit the whole package to the OPS Office. I’m going there to speak to the Captain and XO.” She looked at the clock on the wall. “Lt. Storm should be back in a few minutes, and when she is, ask her to join us in the OPS Office. I have a feeling she’s going to want to hear this as well.”

“Sure thing, Ms. Sunlight Twinkle,” the woman said, looking at the debit card. “Staying with us for the whole weekend?”

“Just until I sort some things out,” Sunset said. At the moment, she had a smile on her face that she didn’t feel, combined with a glamorie that made her look like a composite of Lyra and Trixie. The debit card was also fake, though the magnetic strip on the back would allow it to connect to her actual bank account.

The woman looked at “Sunlight” and gave her a sympathetic look. “Boyfriend troubles?” Sunset was about to speak when the woman laughed. “You’re not the first one who left Club Tropicana to head up here for a cooling head. Happens all the time. Don’t worry, I’m sure your beau’ll change his mind. You go rest yourself for a while and let him come to his senses. It’ll happen.”

“Thank you,” Sunset said, taking the key. She felt drained and didn’t want to dump on the woman, given that she probably heard more than enough sob stories in her lifetime. As it was, Sunset just wanted to get into the bedroom and sleep for a few hours, and if she was lucky, she wouldn’t have to dream.

Dreams meant nightmares, after all.

She lay down on the bed, feeling the rest of her strength drain out of her. Her eyelids felt like blast doors. Her body felt numb, and not just because she was still a bit cold from sitting out all night on Calliope Rock. It was because she was empty, because there was nothing left.

I want to go home.

But which home? Returning to Equestria would worry her friends and admit defeat – this was her home now. But did she still have a home here? She didn’t want to start over – she had people she loved, a family, a sister she still loved and a cousin that was like a sister as well. An older brother – sorta – that she looked up to, and a younger brother who wasn’t bad when he wasn’t bad. Parents that she respected. A sister-in-law to-be that she admired. And all that could be gone now.

She wanted to hope, to believe that she still had a home and loved ones. But when she thought of them, all she could think of the rage and hatred in Twilight’s eyes. The younger sister that she loved so dearly, turned completely against her and filled with a fury no world could turn aside.

“GET THE FUCK OUT!” Sunset heard as her sister slugged her. “I never want to see your face again, you lying bitch!”

Sunset reached towards the air, towards the memory haunting her mind, wanting to hold Twilight and never let her go, to hold her and say how sorry she was for everything and that she had a good reason, but she never wanted to hurt anyone.

And yet all she could see was the hatred in her sister’s eyes.

For the first time in nearly a year, Sunset Shimmer was afraid of a member of her own family, and the repercussions of her own actions.

And for the first time in nearly a year, Sunset Shimmer cried herself to sleep.

“You look like you could use some excitement,” Zephyr Breeze said to Sunset Shimmer. “How about we all go out for a bit?”

“You’re just looking for another excuse to flirt with my mother, Agent Breeze,” Shimmer said with a grin. “Aren’t you married?”

“Quite happily, may I add,” he said with a bow. “But your mother’s an exceptional woman, and were I single….” He shrugged.

“This is the part where I become a typical teenager and roll my eyes,” Shimmer groaned.

“Oh, but you do that enough, mon petite tournesol.” Both looked to see Solaire, coming out in a camisole and shorts. It was the most casual that Shimmer had ever seen her mother dress before and she knew why. “I would think you wouldn’t want to do that for the remainder of your life.”

“Yes, mother,” Shimmer snarked good-naturedly. She knew nothing would come of it, and her mother was feeling like a girl again, so why let the situation go to waste?

“So, you said you had plans for us today, Zephyr?” Solaire asked him. Was she blushing? She hoped she wasn’t blushing.

“I thought we could go out and see some of the sights in Horseshoe Bay. I have plenty of time before I need to catch my flight back.”

Solaire paused at that. “Flight…back?”

He nodded, surprisingly sober about it. “Yeah,” he admitted, scratching the back of his head. “With Saffron dead, I need to report back to base to give a complete report. Someone will be here this afternoon to replace me.”

“Replace?” Solaire asked, a surprised look in her eyes. “No, I didn’t ask for a replacement. I don’t want a replacement.”

Shimmer looked at her mother, then looked at Zephyr. I don’t fucking believe this! she mentally groaned, facepalming.

“Look, Soli, it’s not—”

“But Zeph, I don’t—”

“Get a room, you two!” Shimmer groaned. The two adults suddenly looked at each other, then both blushed before laughing awkwardly.

“I…I suppose I got carried away, Zeph,” Solaire apologized. “My apologies.”

“It’s okay, Soli,” Zephyr replied. “I love my wife, but things haven’t been going very well for us.” He groaned. “Probably shouldn’t unload on you, but she’s thinking about leaving me.”

Solaire reached over and touched his face. “Why would she?”

“I…I’d rather not talk about that,” he told her, taking his hand in hers. “I’m…I’m going to go get the car ready. You two meet me outside when you’re ready.”

Shimmer looked at the man go, then at her mother. “You know he’s married, right?”

Solaire looked away from her daughter. “I…would rather not set a bad example for you, Sunset.”

“Mom, I’m practically an adult. Just because I had a relationship that went sour doesn’t mean—”

“Yes, you had a relationship that went bad, tournesol. But that is not as bad as being the other woman.” Solaire looked at where Zephyr had been and where she would soon be. “I…need to change into something a little more befitting my station. Please inform Agent Breeze that I’ll be there shortly.” Solaire walked silently towards her bedroom.

Shimmer walked outside to find Zephyr talking to someone on his phone, a sad look on his face. “Look, I’ll…. Paradis, please don’t shut me out. They’re my children, too! I….” His shoulders slumped. “Okay, you win. I’ll sign the damn papers. Look, I’ve got to get back to work. We can talk when I get home – hopefully you and the kids will still be there, too. Bye.” He looked up to see Shimmer standing there.

“Something wrong, Agent Breeze?”

“You’re too young for this kind of shit, kid,” Zephyr told her. “You already saw my partner go down. Go back to your room and pick up your copy of Teen Beat or whatever it is you kids do nowadays and stay innocent while the world will still let you.”

“I lost my innocence when I grew up without a father,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, and if my wants-to-be ex-wife has her way, so will my kids,” he told them. “You ever heard of an actress known as Paradis?”

“A bit. She’s on New Orleans PD, right? If I recall correctly, she redubs her own parts for the French version.”

“Yeah, that’s her – and she’s my wife. She’s always been a bit of an actress, and well, you know what I do for a living. Except that her star’s rising, and my star’s really going nowhere, and now she has a chance to really make a name for herself – huge sci-fi film they’re filming down in Florida, which means that she can move down to Nawlins year-round, instead of just the two months they do the location filming. Also means she wants to file the paperwork, which I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Paperwork?”

“Look, when a mommy and daddy really really love each other, they have babies. And when a mommy and daddy really really don’t love each other anymore, they have divorce papers. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised; the movie she made two years ago with Dusky Hearth? They stayed on set in Hawaii two weeks longer after filming wrapped up and shortly after that, Hearth left his wife. My fault for not paying attention to my marriage.” Shimmer was about to open her mouth when he added, “And don’t say anything, kid. I know it wasn’t my fault; if a woman wants to take off her panties that bad, she’ll do it. But it’s my fault because my job has taken me away from the kids so damn often, it means that Paradis is likely able to build a case for sole custody based on that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Paradis is a good woman; it just didn’t work out. Sometimes that happens. Life sucks, but that’s just how it goes.” He looked to the door to see Solaire coming out, dressed slightly more conservatively. “C’mon, let’s go live life.”

Adagio stood outside of the Modesto Grasslands Campgrounds, looking at the cars, none of which matched that of any of their friends. She kept her hand on her sidearm, which was loosely tucked under her shirt; it wouldn’t be enough to stop the mutated SIRENs, but it might be enough to give her the element of surprise long enough to break out the important gear.

“Just looked around the entire compound,” Aria said, jogging up to her older sister. “I didn’t see hide nor hair of them. Either they’re not here right now, or they didn’t come here at all.”

“Could they be at home after all?” Adagio asked, worry creeping into her voice. “We were all planning to come, but something could’ve come up and caused a cancellation….”

“We’ll see what we can do to trace Sunny’s phone,” the younger girl suggested. “I just hope Soni took the time to put tracers on the other phones.”

“Don’t worry, I can triangulate.” Sonata, also having done a round of the campgrounds, jogged up to them. Without further ado, she reached over and grabbed a laptop out of the back. “Cover me; I’m going climbing.” She pointed at the cell tower just over the hill.

“Are you crazy?”

“Look, if they get their hands on Sunny, it won’t matter if I’m crazy or not,” Sonata shouted at her oldest sister. “We need to find her and save her – nothing else matters!” Before either sister could stop her – not that either was inclined to after that discussion – she scrambled up the cell tower until she was amongst its antennae, then plugged into the maintenance terminal on the top. It was going to take a few minutes to search for a phone, but if Sunset’s phone was on, the program Sonata had would be able to track her phone anywhere in the world.

A second later, she had a hit. Thanks, Google, she thought to herself as she started her descent. A second later, she joined her sisters. “Start the car,” Sonata told them. “We gotta get going, and we gotta get going fast.”

“What’s going on?” Adagio asked as the three got into the car.

“Got a ping on Sunset’s phone. It’s four hours south of here.” Sonata then held up her laptop, showing the Android Device Manager website. “And I guarantee if I can find Sunny’s phone, then they already know where she is.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice then,” Adagio said as she turned on the ignition.

“Please explain it to me once more,” Cantata said, a headache building, “because I have a hard time believing my intelligence staff is incompetent.” At the moment, Cantata was with several of her trusted senior officers, Divine and Chief Shatter. There was a palpable feeling of something being on the verge at the moment, but exactly what was on the verge was the question of the day.

“Yes, I’d like the same answer as well.” All turned to see Madrigal Storm enter the room. “Apologies for the delay, Captain. There was traffic on my way back to base from liberty, but I assure you that I’ll look into the discrepancy immediately.”

“Very well, Lieutenant, but still I want you to hear this.” Cantata looked at Chief Shatter. “Please, Chief, continue.”

The chief stood by the two large displays in the room, one screen showing a map of the Canterlot Metropolitan Area, while the second showed the state of California at large. “The blue blips you see on the screen are the most commonly-reported locations for both Princess Solaire and Princess Sunset.” While Solaire’s was relatively stable, the one for the teenager went all over the place, as expected.

“Is this aggregate or based on tower data?” Madrigal asked.

“Based on tower data, Lieutenant,” Chief Shatter replied. “Additionally, if we look at the current data, we have the current locations of both princesses in green.” Four spots immediately popped up on both maps: one in eastern Canterlot, while three more popped up on the California map, both in Horseshoe Bay and a single one down in central California.

“Could that one down south be an anomaly? Because I want hard proof otherwise.” They all looked to see Prince Divine Right standing there. He looked at the maps with a particular intensity that none had seen on the man’s face before. The truth was, that all in the room had thought him to be an adventuring prat that had won the support and heart of the SIREN Commanding Officer by bankrolling everything. However, seeing his thundering quiet expression, those present had to revise their thoughts about him.

“Well, that is not our only criteria for proof, ma’am. We have a number of people that both Princess Solaire and Princess Sunset have been seen around.” The maps vanished, replaced by numerous pictures of people that none in the room were familiar with. “These are all the people that both have been around. Now, if you subtract the ones that are currently known to be out of town—” Several images turned gray and minimized, as the remaining ones expanded to fill the space, “—these are the ones that are known to be regular associates of the two princesses.”

Divine looked at the faces before him. Some were inexplicable, like the middle-aged woman with gainsboro and violet hair. Others were more obvious, like the well-built man with green hair. Then there were the confusing, such as one that was even a police officer currently seconded to the FBI, while his fiancée was a local assistant district attorney. Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, there were all the teenagers; the names of at least two were on backup lists for earlier sacrifices. If nothing else, this was a pageant of the bizarre, a menagerie of the perplexing. “So, could two of them be false alarms and two together be real?”

“Why would they be?” Cantata asked him. “They don’t know about our plans, do they? As far as they know, you’re dead. And there’s no possible way that they could be aware of everything.”

“Maybe it’s part of the security program. I did have you assassinate several other members of the family, remember,” he told them. “Plus, the French and American governments might be a little antsy about foreign representatives murdered while on vacation. Doesn’t make for good news.”

“Well, if that’s the case, I think we should have leverage in case the princesses don’t see things our way, don’t you think, Divine?”

“Absolutely. I need everything in place no later than precisely 3:00 AM tomorrow morning. So do whatever it is you need to do, but I want Sunset Shimmer ready to go no later than tonight.” The look in Divine’s eyes was practically demonic. “She will be the culmination of every plan we have made throughout the years, every single bit of stratagem and suffering that I and my forebears have made…she will be the key to open the final door of perception and then the world will be mine!”

Cantata leaned on him. “Ours, you mean.”

He put an arm around her waist. “That should’ve went without saying.”

“And that’s why we’re together,” she said with a tight smile. “XO, start lining up teams to commence capture – and I want our best teams focused on both the cop and his bitch and the girls down south, since there’s so many of them in one spot. Take whoever you can into custody, as it will give us the maximum leverage we can use. But if they resist and you run the risk of injury, take them out – in the end, we only need the princesses.”

Guitarron nodded. “I’ll make sure I’ve got the best ready. Should I send Black Team after—”

“No,” Divine interrupted. “I want Black Team on standby just in case something goes wrong locally. We have all the cards in our favor, but all it will take is one unexpected issue to throw everything out of whack. Those three are by far and away the deadliest you have, and in case something happens, I want whatever they come across to be deader than Moussed Hair’s acting career.”

“On it,” Cantata told him. “Anything else?”

“Two more things: One, we wanted to hear Petty Officer Bass Drop sing, correct?”

Cantata nodded. “That’s correct.” She lifted her hand and snapped her fingers. “Let’s see how well she performs.”

A short while after, a girl with short green hair and silver eyes walked out, completely naked save for some golden ornaments. She looked like someone’s ideal dream, and indeed some of the females in the room of that persuasion certainly turned their eyes towards her. “Are you ready for my song, Captain?” she asked, leaning over by Divine as if to show her wares.

Divine, however, wasn’t going to take the bait – not with his fiancée around, at any rate. “Yes, Petty Officer, please, sing us a song that you’re familiar with.”

She stood up and bowed. “Yes. I would like to sing the first movement of Il Rullante, by Baroque Virtuoso, if it pleases you.” She looked at all present.

“Why in the nude?” Madrigal asked. For the first time, she suddenly realized that though she held a critical position within the SIREN chain of command, she hadn’t been consulted on anything. Cantata had gone through one of her petty officers – who she’d apparently promoted to chief petty officer second class, no less – for the information. And where, for that matter, was her chief? She’d been one of Madrigal’s trusted personnel within Cantata’s mechanisms, and even though Madrigal had planted transmitters on as much intelligence gear as she could, she still trusted her chief to make sure critical information went her way.

And if she’s gone, then….

“Lieutenant,” Drop said in a husky voice, “Il Rullante is traditionally performed in the nude. You see, it’s the story about a woman – an assassin – who is ordered by her king to murder a scandalous knave. But as the wily traitor is ever wary, the assassin comes upon a plan to catch him unawares. You see, she brazenly comes out to perform before her king in the nude, catching the scandalous attention of all, including the heinous rogue. But as she catches his attention, you see…” Drop reached into her voluminous hair, producing a small needle, then threw, announcing, “…she struck.”

Madrigal didn’t react fast enough to block the blow and it sank into her neck, the toxin sank in deeply before she yanked it out. “You bitch!” she snarled, grabbing her sidearm and firing. The shots rang true, two rounds sinking into Bass Drop’s heart, killing her instantly.

Divine Right sighed and shrugged. “So much for the singer,” he said. “Would any other girl care to assist in the endeavor?”

Cantata, meanwhile, focused more on her quarry, walked over to where the toxin was beginning to affect Madrigal. Kicking her in the face and then shooting her hand to push away the gun, Cantata laughed at her former subordinate’s scream. “To think, you could have gotten away with it if you’d only….” She paused. “No, actually, you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t have gotten away with it at all.”

With the toxin taking her over, she spat at Cantata. “You drove us down a path of madness. You don’t deserve to be captain.”

“Well, you definitely deserve to be a sacrifice.” She held her hand out and a longknife was placed into her hand; the knife was bloodied and stained, looking impure and no longer suitable for anything decent in this world. “You see, I had a choice today: hunt down some girl named Twilight Sparkle and drive this blade into her, sucking up all that lifeblood for our cause, but I really didn’t feel up to searching for her. So imagine the surprise when I find out that one of the girls plotting rebellion against me hasn’t had the time to have a man stick her with his love spear. And sure enough, you are on the backup list in case I couldn’t get a hold of Twilight Sparkle. Means that Lyra Heartstrings and Tapioca get away from this, whoever they are…but it means that you get to make history.”

“We’re going to stop you,” Madrigal said, not feeling her body much longer. With whatever strength she still had, she lifted her neck and snarled, “We’re going to stop your plans, whatever it takes.”

“Too bad you won’t be around to see your little insurrection lose,” Cantata teased. Pointing to two of her SIRENs, she said, “Pick her up and follow me.” She then looked at Divine and nodded.

“Of course, I would be honored, my lady,” he said, bowing. They both looked at each other, the future emperor and empress of the world.
It was, after all, their divine right.

Ten minutes later, a predesigned text went off on Vesper and Intermezzo’s phones. They didn’t have to look at them to know what was going on. They simply looked at each other with eyes filled with shock before holding each other. A few minutes later, Vesper was the first to speak. “We’re going to avenge Maddie. We’re going to stop Blast and her monsters if it’s the last thing we do.”

Over where they were loading more weapons into crates, Sunny Side looked at her sister. “Greenie, tell me we’re going to win this.”

Evergreen Pine looked at her sister and nodded. “Trust me: whatever just happened? I think Cantata Blast just made a big mistake.”

Aria looked at Adagio, ignoring the simultaneous chimes of her and her sister’s text signals going off. “Pull over.”

“We can’t afford to—”

“Pull over!” Adagio immediately did, and as she did, Sonata rushed out of the car, over to the edge and vomited. She stayed like that on the edge for a second, holding herself and crying.

Finally Adagio went over to her. “She was brave, Soni. We all loved Maddie and we know you did too.”

Sonata cried, tears soaking her clothing. “She was the closest thing I had to a mom, sis. My sœur – no, my mother – was murdered. By that bitch.” Sonata wriggled out of her sister’s grasp, then looked at her with tearless eyes, burgundy irises looking into Adagio’s own violet ones. The tears went away, slowly being replaced with calm, acceptance, and finally fury.

“We need to go,” Sonata snarled, standing up and making her way back to the car. “Sunny’s in trouble.”

Adagio had never seen her sister switch on and off like that before. “Soni, speak to me.”

“What’s there to say? Our friend is in danger. We need to rescue her, stat.”

“Soni, please. You’re my baby sister—”

“No. I’m your youngest sister now. I stopped being a ‘baby sister’ when the woman that was like…, no, was my mother was just murdered. And now I want Goddamn revenge, but more than that, I want to save Sunny. Because if I don’t do that, then Cantata wins. And if she wins….” Sonata’s eyes narrowed into pinpricks of hatred. “Then I can’t shove the barrel of a PAW-20 down her fucking neck and fire every round until she’s nothing but bloody chunks even the vultures won’t bother with.”

Five minutes later, they were back on the road, driving as fast as they dared.

“How do I look?” Sable asked, looking at his TRANSFORMERS t-shirt and wondering if he was underdressed.

Celestia didn’t even look at him as she maneuvered her car into the parking spot next to her sister’s. “For the last time, sweetheart, you are fine. Trust me, a t-shirt and jeans are more than suitable for a simple barbeque?”

“Yes, but I’m meeting your sister—”

“You already met my sister, remember?”

“I meant her boyfriend, sorry. And something about your older sister?”

“Don’t worry, Armonia and her husband are out of town this weekend; I checked. Besides, we’re here to practice before you meet Moni or my parents.” They got out of the car and headed towards Luna’s door. “Trust me, the beer you brought will be worth it.”

“Don’t people usually bring wine to dinners?”

“Obviously you don’t know Lu as well as you should,” Celestia laughed as she knocked on the door.

A second later, Luna appeared. “Hey, you two are early. Shadow hasn’t even destroyed the grill yet with his attempts to set things on fire.” She then saw what Sable was carrying. With a smile she took it. “Awww, Opperbacco! Tia, let’s trade boyfriends, okay? You can have the semi-useless musician, and I’ll take your strapping man here. I take it he goes all night?”

Celestia crossed her arms. “Funny.”

“I thought so,” Luna smirked. “Anyways, come on in. We’re on the patio.”

As Luna went off to the kitchen, Sable looked at his sister. “Is she always like this?”

The pastel-haired woman shook her head. “No, usually I’m the one who makes sexual jokes. I’m guessing she’s starting to hint at Shadow that she wants something a little more permanent, probably because I have you.” She shrugged. “Usually she’s not one to rock the boat, but she’s been with Shadow for about five years now, and I think our parents are tired of waiting for him to pop the question. Problem is, Shadow’s not a ‘pop the question’ kind of guy. You’ll see.”

The two crossed through Luna’s townhouse – amazingly, she’d actually cleaned up for a change – and headed out to the deck, where a man with tan skin, short midnight-blue hair and goatee and blazing orange eyes glowered disgustingly at a Big Green Egg grill from which black smoke was pouring out. There was a pteropine look to the guy, and from what Celestia had said, he was a musician, which probably helped add to the look.

“‘Sup, Princess?” he said without looking away from the grill.

“Princess?” Sable asked.

“Yeah. Shadow seems to think of me as the prim and proper princess compared to my sister,” Celestia said.

Moonshadow turned to look away from the grill. “I’ve seen your place, Tia – even the dustbunnies have white gloves to check for dust,” he said with a laugh. “Anyway, I’m Shadow. Struggling musician and guy with a thing for girls older than my mother but look younger than my sister.” He offered his hand to Sable, and the two men shook. “Anyway, glad to meet you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I got some wood chips to tame.”

“A komado?”

“You familiar with these? Lu just got this damn thing after her gas grill bit the dust back in April.”

“Yeah. One of my buddies back in Kabul was a grill fiend. Swore by his Egg and insisted everyone in the unit know how to use it. So, I have some experience with it.”

“Cool, all yours,” Shadow insisted, stepping aside. “What happened to your friend?”

“Taken out by an IED,” Sable said softy.

No further talking was done for a little while after that until Luna came out. Seeing the silence, she said, “Look, I am not to blame for this one, okay? This one is not my fault.”

Celestia groaned. “Way to be the life of the party, sis.”

“I’m just going to ignore you now,” she said to Celestia while handing a cold beer to Sable. “So, how’s life living with my sister?”

Sable put his arm around her. “It’s a blessing. Every day is perfect and it only gets better.”

Moonshadow and Luna briefly looked at each other, then away from one another. “That’s good. For a moment, I thought I’d have to deal with Lu complaining about being alone while I’m on tour. At least thi—”

“You’re going on tour? When the hell were you going to tell me?” Luna asked.

“I told you three weeks ago, hon,” Moonshadow told her. “We were asked to be the opening act for Hüfstompr for their World Tour. Now, we only agreed to open for the North American leg, so I’m not going to be gone for a year.”

“You promised me you were going to be home for the holidays this year!” Luna cried. “We were going to spend the holidays with my parents, remember?”

Moonshadow shrugged. “This was a chance of a lifetime, Lu! And I told you about it, okay? Not my fault that you weren’t listening!”

Luna’s turquoise eyes glittered. “Sis, could you and Sable give us a minute?”

“Ah, sure. Anything in the kitchen need tending to?” Celestia asked, knowing what was going to happen.

“You could make the pasta salad,” Luna suggested.

“Done. C’mon, let’s leave the two to slug this out.” Before Sable could argue, Celestia grabbed her boyfriend and took him into the kitchen. Sure enough, the moment the door closed, the voices raised and the argument began.

“Is this normal?” Sable asked.

“Sweetheart, my sister and I tend to be very passionate people – that Italian blood, you know – but we’re like night and day. When I’m displeased with you, I tend to do it in little ways.”

“Yeah, I know that,” he groaned.

“And Luna and Shadow? Well…. While they’ve been together for over five years, they have a huge tendency to break up and get back together more often than the main characters of a high school TV drama. I stopped keeping count a long time ago, but if I recall, they last got back together shortly before last October – this is probably the longest they’ve been, ahem, ‘together’, if you get what I mean.”

Sable grinned. “So you could say they’re already married before they even get engaged?”

Celestia returned the smile. “I would argue that they’re even better matched than you and I, and the only couple I’ve ever seen even more perfect is my niece and her fiancé.” She ushered him into the kitchen. “Now let me show you my family’s famous pasta salad recipe before—”

“SEDERSI ORA, CAZZO!” Luna stormed into the house, stomped over to the refrigerator, pulled out a bottle of Nastro Azzuro, slammed it against the edge of the counter to pop off the top, chugged it in one go and glared at the door where her boyfriend was. She then went over to Sable and kissed him on the cheek, saying, “You’ll do fine,” before turning to her sister and giving her a beatific smile, adding, “You picked a winner this time, sis.” She then stormed back to the patio, shouting, “SIT THE FUCK DOWN, ASSHOLE, WE’RE NOT DONE YET!” before slamming the door shut.

“What just happened?” Sable asked.

“And this is the curse of being a middle child, I tell you,” Celestia sighed.

In the SIREN complex, dozens of SIRENS loaded into vans painted with faux livery. A few minutes later, supposed vans owned by a plethora of companies from Verizon to the Sweet Apple Supply Stop moved on their way, heading into position.

Thirty minutes prior, a similar vehicle from Gladiola’s Florist made an unscheduled “delivery” to the Rapid Rotors Courier Company. A few minutes later, RRC One took off from Canterlot Commercial Helifield, courtesy of the local tower and some new air controllers, the previous ones – like the employees of the Rapid Rotors Courier Company – now dead.

In Hilmar, California, a sedan was left with enough explosives just to destroy any identifying marks on the car. A second later, a new sedan of a vastly different make and model was stolen, but bearing the original plates. This new car raced on towards its destination, the passengers hoping they could reach it in time.

Pinkie cried uncontrollably. “She’s gone! My Sunny’s gone!”

Fluttershy held her close, her eyes also filled with tears. “We’ll find her, Pinkie. I promise. Hell or high water, we’ll find Sunny.”

“That’s it!” Rainbow snarled, heading for the stairs, Applejack immediately following her. Rarity intercepted both before they got to the stairs. “Get out of our way, Rares. I’m going to do what needs to be fucking done, and then AJ gets her turn—”

“What makes you think Ah’m letting you go first?” Applejack barked.

“—and then Pinkie can destroy whatever’s left, got that? So get out of our way – I’m going to kill that spoiled fucking bitch!”

“How is that going to help Sunset?” Rarity argued. “How is any of that going to help our friend! All that’s going to do is just soothe your anger and injure another friend!”

“Twily’s been hysterical all day.” They all looked up to see Octavia, her eyes also red from tears, walk down the stairs. “She realizes what she’s done now, and she’s cried herself to sleep.” Pinkie turned to look at Octavia and the moment their eyes met, the raven-haired girl knew she would never forget that moment so long as she lived. “She’s asked me to call my aunt and uncle and let them know what’s going on. After that, I need to call 911. Rainbow, I need you to contact Resort Security and let them know what’s going on as well.” Octavia paused. “But before that, I need a couple of things from all of you, especially you, Pinkie.”

“We’re not going to like this, are we?” Applejack asked.

“Fuck no we’re not,” Rainbow agreed.

“I’ll do it.” Everyone looked at Pinkie as she stood up, her face a sketch of pain. “I hate this. I hate worrying about the girl I love, and I can’t stop. I hate what I want to do to her sister for this and I’m afraid I will. But I’m afraid this will make me the kind of person I fear I always was, deep down.”

“You’re not.” Fluttershy took her friend’s hands in hers. “You’re stronger than you know, Pinkie. Believe in yourself. I know Sunny believes in you.”

Pinkie forced a smile to her face, giving Fluttershy a thankful nod

Octavia went over and hugged Pinkie. “Thanks, Pinkie,” she said.

“This is all about someone we love, right? Anything else is secondary.” Pinkie looked at her friend. “So go ahead and say what you need to. We’ll all agree.” Pinkie looked at the others, and there were varying levels of agreement, from Fluttershy’s full endorsement to Rainbow’s very reluctant nod.

“Okay. First, I want your promise that you’re not going to do anything to Twily, no matter what happens. I’m not joking when I said that once she realized what she did she lost it. She’s feeling immense guilt right now – and whether or not that’s justified is not the point. I want to find my cousin safe and sound, but that doesn’t mean I want to lose the other one here, okay? Please?”

“Ah don’t like it, but yeah, we agree,” Applejack said, looking at the others to make sure they were all in accord. “And the other thing?”

“I want you to tell me about Sunny – the truth. I don’t care about what the deal is, or whatever promises you made. My cousin is out there and could be in danger if not worse. Whether or not any new information comes up that lets her still officially become my cousin is beside the point, but to me she is still family!” Octavia placed her own hand on her chest, her eyes pools of worry. “I don’t care if she lied about her past or anything like that. All I care about is that she was there for me and for Twily when she needed it and that she needs us more than anything right now! So please tell me! If there’s anything I can do to help, tell me!”

The room was silent for a few moments, each of the others looking at each other, until Pinkie was the first to speak.

“Sunny…she’s an alien.”

“So, what, she’s Mexican? Look, if she came over when she was young enough, there’s that law the president passed about Dreamers….”

“No…she means a literal alien, Tavi.” Rainbow almost looked incredulous as she said what she never thought she’d say. “Sunny’s actually not human…and she’s a thirty-year-old unicorn from another world.”

The room filled with silence as Octavia looked at them and they looked back at her.

But it was the voice behind her that said it all. “Rainbow, if I just heard what I think I heard, then Tavi and Pinkie are not the only ones who need to be on pills.”

They all looked to see Twilight there, standing at the top of the stairs. “Look, Sparkle,” Rainbow began. “I know you’ve seen that video on YouTube. You had to have – practically everyone in town has!”

“Okay, fine, I deserve the lie, okay? But Sunny introduced me to the girl that made that video; she said it was a project for art class that Sunny was glad to help out with.”

“I don’t think you understand, Twilight, dear,” Rarity cut in. “Rainbow’s—”

“Messing with me, I know. And I fucked up, okay? I’m hurting right now – I chased away the one person I shouldn’t have. But I don’t appreciate the lies, okay? Fine if she’s really an illegal alien, but seriously? An extraterrestrial?”

“Extradimensional, actually,” Fluttershy added.

“Not helping,” Pinkie sighed.

“Look, I know you all hate me. And I know you’ll never forgive me or want to be friends with me after this is over…I’ll accept that. But right now, whatever or whoever she is, Sunny is out there and she’s in trouble. And I can’t forgive myself if something happens to her that I couldn’t stop; worse, if it was my fault. Please, help me find her.” Twilight looked at Octavia. “I’ll call my parents; you call 911 and then someone needs to contact Resort Security.”

“Good luck with that; I’ve been trying on and off all day and I haven’t been able to reach them. Wonder if they went out of town and left their cellphones behind,” Octavia explained.

“Regardless, we need to find Sunny – and I need to apologize to her.” She looked at them all. “Do we agree?”

Whatever was going to be said was cut off a second later as the windows shattered.

Cadance walked into the apartment she shared with her fiancée. “Thank God for the weekend! I feel like I could sleep the whole weekend long!”

Shining was already there, sitting on the couch, watching TV. “You don’t want to do that, because I have plans for the weekend.”

She plopped down next to him. “You do?”

“Yup.” He put an arm around her, then reached over for something sitting on the table besides the sofa. “Thought this might interest you.”

She looked at the tickets and her eyes lit up. “The Cirque de Soleil? In Klamath Falls?”

“Yeah. Apparently someone opened up a new resort there by the whitewater falls and they’re starting it off right. Figured we could jet up there in the morning, catch the evening show and stay overnight before we have to come back on Sunday. Thoughts?”

She kissed him. “I think that should make my thoughts clear there.”

There was a knock on the door. “Tell you what: that’s the Chinese order I made for dinner tonight. You go change into something more comfortable, and I’ll get that.”

“No, I think I’ll eat first. That way I can change later…and maybe I can get a certain guy to watch,” she said with a wink.

“I’ll take you up on that offer,” he said as he went to open the door—

—only to have it kicked in. A woman in CADPATs and body armor rushed in and with methodical precision, fired twice. The tranquilizer darts sank in, taking affect nearly instantly.

She tapped the radio on her helmet. “This is Capture Alpha. We have Tango Alpha One and Two in custody, over.”

Another girl leaned over the unconscious forms of a man and woman, while another girl with her tied up a gagged child trying to scream at the top of his lungs.

“This is Capture Bravo. Tango Bravo One through Three are in our hands, over.”

The group sat down at Luna’s table inside the house, the two lovebirds having gone through the argument storm and right back to lovey-dovey again. Needless to say, Sable was definitely feeling off-kilter. Celestia, knowing this, squeezed her lover’s hand in comfort.

“So, did you bring it?” Luna asked, templing her fingers as she leaned over the table.

Celestia shook her head. “Yes, though I have no idea why you want to borrow this.” She set down her burger, then walked over to her bag, where she pulled an item out. “You know this thing cost me a fortune.”

“Yeah, and I promise I’m not going to get Dawnbringer damaged, okay? Someone at the renfaire Cornflower and I are going to this weekend wanted to see that and Nightsgleam, and so I promised her I’d show her. As it is, Cornflower’s considering picking up a lance so she can joust with other people in wheelchairs.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Moonshadow offered. Sable, saying nothing, agreed.

The women, on the other hand, ignored them. “Oh? You still have Nightsgleam?” Celestia asked.

“Nightsgleam?” Sable asked.

“Yeah, it’s my sword. Live-steel katana, cost me a fortune, I still have the skin-tight kunoichi costume that goes with it whenever me and Shadow roleplay,” she said with a smile.

“I did soooo not need to know that, little sister,” Celestia sighed. “Anyway, take care of my sword or I swear I’m taking it out of your hide, got that?”

The answer to that was a squad of heavily-armed women busting in through all the windows, the front and back doors at once. With perfect precision, they fired, hitting all targets…except for one. On instinct, Sable rocked his chair back, the tranquilizer round passing just through where his torso would’ve been. The moment he hit the ground the relatively cheap IKEA Ingolf chair shattered and that gave him all the weapons he needed. He grabbed them and immediately attacked the first SIREN, hitting the weak spots around her body armor before putting her down.

He then grabbed her sidearm, snarling, “Who the fuck are y—”

Shots rang out, and he suddenly dropped to the ground, as a pool of red began to expand beneath him.

The senior SIREN present called out, “Clear! Hold fire, hold fire!”

One of them bent down, looking at their downed teammate. “Wow, whoever the hell this guy was knew his shit. Body armor’s seriously damaged and Dulcimer’s down hard.”

“Get her out of here, then.” She then looked at a third one present. “Check him – if he’s capable of that, we don’t want him getting up.”

“No need; looks like we got him,” came the reply.

“Shame; we could probably use the challenge.” She reached out on her radio. “This is Capture Charlie. Tango Charlie One through Four down, but we have casualties – one blue, one red.”

“One red?”

“Yeah, some guy with more muscles than brains, I guess. He was with the Princess. Maybe one of her bodyguards?”

“Understood. Leave one of your people behind for site cleanup; we’ll make the order to do that once the Prince prepares a little surprise he has planned.”

“Does the Captain know about that?”

“She’s the one ordering that you leave someone behind. Once we give the signal, she can torch the place and RTB.”

“Roger that. Capture Charlie Actual, out.” The SIREN looked to one of the team members not currently busy. “Yo, Seaman Crescendo, you have wait duty, got that?”

A second one grinned. “You’re letting Troublemaker stay behind? She might just torch the place early.”

Seaman Treble “Troublemaker” Crescendo groaned. “Ha, ha, fucking ha. Whatever. Besides, I need to catch up on my TV shows, anyway. You know how long I gotta wait?”

“Command didn’t say. All I gotta say is just wait until they give the order, then grenade the place and rendezvous as soon as you can. Why bitch? You got the easy job. We gotta get Dulcimer and the Tangos RTB.”

“Yeah, yeah, I gotcha, Chief,” Crescendo said as she plopped down on the couch and reached for the remote. “You guys have fun. I’ll manage somehow.”

“I’m going back in the house,” Shimmer told them as soon as the car came to a stop, bolting out immediately. She knew what was going to happen, and she didn’t want the awkwardness of being around when it did.

Watching her daughter, Solaire chuckled. “I can assure you she loved the day, really,” she said to Zephyr.

“I’m glad she did, really,” Zephyr said with a smile. “Sunset reminds me of my own daughter, Fleur Précieuse. Préci is just the sweetest thing, too: rose-and-white hair, adorable little green eyes, tons of freckles, though she hates them. I think she and Sunset would get along wonderfully. Not much of an age difference between them – Préci’s only thirteen.” Zephyr reached in his pocket and pulled out a picture, showing Solaire. “Probably the only good thing that’s going to come out of the wreck of my marriage.”

“Do you have to go?” Solaire asked him.

“Yeah. I have to go because I need to give a report on what happened to Saffron – we need to make sure the bastard that did her ends up behind bars, but that’s not for me to do, not my jurisdiction,” he said sadly. “No, the real reason I need to go is because Paradis wants me to sign the papers to let her take Préci with her to New Orleans. It’s legal separation papers.”

Solaire looked at him with shock. “Are you going to fight it?”

“I can’t, Soli. For one, the US court system usually prefers the mother to have custody unless she’s a real fuck up. Even if she’s cheated on me, I still have to admit that Paradis is a great mother and has been a fair spouse. And even if she was a complete basket case that would end up with me getting custody…you know what I do for a living. There’s a chance I won’t come home one night and I would never do that to my child.”

“You’re a good man,” Solaire told him, reaching over and squeezing his hand. “Apparently better than your wife deserves.”

“Look, I’ll make some calls, make sure that the person replacing me is decent enough. And….” He muttered something under his breath along the lines of “Can’t believe I’m saying this….” He gave her a smile. “Look, I’ve got some vacation days coming up, and even signing the papers I know Paradis isn’t going to beat feet for Louisiana instantly, so maybe….?”

“Why, are you asking me out, Agent?” She playfully tsked. “What would your supervisor think?”

Zephyr gave her a knowing grin. “I think he owes me a few favors, anyway. Plus, I already know Paradis has moved on, and in the end, I need to move on as well.”

The two began to lean closer, lips approaching one another, their hearts guiding them…

…until Solaire paused, her eyes wide in shock. Knowing that look, Zephyr immediately went for his gun, withdrawing as he turned…

…to see two rifle muzzles pointed at him. And in the distance, a heavily-armed woman wearing a balaclava pointed a pistol at the head of a tear-streaked Sunset Shimmer. “Drop the gun or I drop her,” the woman ordered.

“You’re not going to get away with this,” Zephyr replied. “My partner—”

“Is dead,” the woman replied. “We killed her a few days ago, so we know that she’s not around. And unless you want to join her, you’ll lay down on the ground while we take the princesses, understood?”

He turned to look briefly at Solaire; she in turn gave him a quick kiss.

“I won’t let anything happen to her, I promise,” he told her.

“Wow, sleeping with your escort. How unprofessional,” one of the other women taunted.

“You harm either of them, and I swear you won’t live to see tomorrow,” Zephyr told the lead woman as he got out of the car.

“I’d be more worried about you, if I were you,” the woman said, nodding briefly to one of the other women, who pistol-whipped him, knocking him out cold.

“ZEPHYR!” Solaire screamed before she had a rifle pointed at her.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch. You’re lucky we don’t kill you,” the gunwoman said.

“Let’s make this easy, shall we?” the woman in the balaclava replied. “We have orders to take you two alive. Alive doesn’t mean unharmed. So, unless you want to be beaten within an inch of your life, I would shut the fuck up, get out of the car and get into that van over there before I kneecap your little shit here.”

“Mom….” Shimmer sobbed, looking at her mother worriedly. For as long as she’d been a child, she’d always relied on her mother.

“I’m counting down from three, Princess,” the woman warned. “Three….” She cocked the pistol. “Two….” To prove her point, she pointed her pistol and shot it at Zephyr. The round tore through his leg, painfully bringing him back to consciousness. “One….” She counted, placing the gun’s muzzle right against Shimmer’s arm.

“NO!” the elder princess screamed.

“Get in the van, now, or the next shot is going through his skull,” the woman warned.

“Mom, you can’t….” Shimmer replied, worried about both Zephyr and her mother, as well as herself. Who were these people and what did they want? Were these the folks behind the murders in her family? And if so, were she and her mother next? They’d already admitted to having killed Agent Masala, so who knew what they were capable of.

The third woman went over to the passenger’s side and yanked the door open. Solaire put her hands up, offering no resistance.

“Command, this is Capture Delta. Tango Delta One and Two are in custody. Tango Delta Three down; I’m leaving one of my personnel behind for cleanup.”

Shimmer had seen more than enough movies to know what that meant. “No!” she screamed, wriggling out of the woman’s grasp. “You can’t!”

The woman in command responded by punching Shimmer right in the solar plexus, driving the teen to the ground. “Oh, I will.” Ordering the second woman, she said, “Take this waste of skin to the van and her mother, too. I have no idea what the Prince wants with these two idiots, and frankly I don’t care. Afterwards, one of you will stay behind and take care of this shit.” For emphasis, she kicked Zephyr right in the side of the head.

The other SIRENs forced the two princesses into the van and rushed off, while the last one remained behind with orders to burn down the guest home both were staying in. She looked at the car Zephyr had been driving, as well as his service piece. “Oooh, nice toy,” she cooed. “Well, since I can’t afford to leave you alive, I’m going to do you a favor.” She cocked the pistol, aiming it towards his head. “A shame I have to do this; you’re kinda cute. But, alas, orders are orders.”

“Warrant?” one of the SIRENs replied. “I checked the whole place. No sign of either Princess Solaire or Princess Sunset. Just these girls here,” she said, nudging one of the tranquilized girls at her feet.

“Fuck, looks like this was a waste, WO,” another SIREN replied. “Decoys, just meant to fuck with us. Dust ‘em?”

“Let me get confirmation from command, first.” The warrant officer tapped her radio. “Command, Capture Echo here. We have Tango Echo One through Seven in custody, but neither Princess Sunset nor Princess Solaire is present. Repeat, we have decoys here. Request advise proceed, over.”

The radio was silent for a second before Guitarron’s voice came over the line. “Take them into custody. If they were smart enough to decoy, that means they’re close to Princess Sunset, which means we can use them as leverage.”

“Roger that,” the warrant replied. “Okay, you three, get these kids aboard the helo. The rest of you, come with me – we’re going to tear this place apart. Weapons free, no survivors. I want enough damage done to get the attention of the local cops, but not enough that they send in SWAT. While we can take a SWAT unit, we don’t need the delay.”

“Roger that, boss,” a particularly large SIREN carrying an XM556 minigun replied, a wide grin on her face. She then punctuated her point by firing, the loud buzz of the gun covering the 5.56 rounds tearing the wall across from them into nothing but particle board shreds.

“Okay, we’re on the clock, ladies. Do your jobs and we’ll live like queens.”

Seated on the couch, having a beer and eating one of the hamburgers, Seaman Crescendo laughed at the antics on TV. She hated to admit it, but she was a brony – she watched Filly Funtasia and loved the main character, Rose the Unicorn. Part of her even wondered if there were unicorns out there for realsies, but it wasn’t exactly something she was going to admit to her teammates.

She was so excited watching Rose and Bella thwart the evil Wranglum’s plans once again, that it gave her an idea for her fanfic. People were reading her works over at FillyFiction, after all, and she was a rising star of the fanfic world. In fact, her alternate universe fic about Rose secretly visiting the human world was something she was sure was going to get attention after she finished Book I of All-American Filly.

Besides, if it pisses off the haters over at 4chan’s /ff/ board, then all the better, she thought to herself with a smile.

She was so filled with new ideas of horsewords that she didn’t notice the sword driven through the back of the sofa and well into her back before it was too late. She screamed as she forced herself to her feet, only to find the man who’d been shot earlier, standing up, pointing a gun at her and looking the worse for wear.

“Not even my students are stupid enough to watch that,” he told her, then doubletapped. The first round went through the point where her shoulderblades met, followed by the second one tearing through her throat. She gargled on the blood and mangled wound before falling to the ground, dead. He quickly rushed through the house, checking for other mercs, ready to take them out with Celestia’s gun, if need be – it was a minor miracle that she’d just completed her concealed carry permit and was carrying. A quick jaunt through the townhouse, both upstairs and down, found nothing.

But it was while on the way down that slices of pain ripped through him like bullets, and he collapsed, falling down the rest of the stairs and crashing into a heap at the bottom. He tried to gulp down breaths of air, but it hurt like hell, and he had to bite off the pain, collapsing from the sheer agony. Goddamn, way too fucking lucky, he gasped. By luck, he’d still been wearing his body armor from when he’d been playing paintball with Sombra and a bunch of other guys down on the range. He’d gotten back late from that and didn’t have time to change when he’d met up with Celestia.

He ripped off both his shirt and his paintball armor, seeing that he hadn’t gotten off scot-free when he’d been shot: the bullets had been stopped by the paintball armor (which was actually just his own outdated bodyarmor), but they’d left bruises that he could still feel, as if he’d been slammed in the chest by a maul three times. Still, he forced himself back to his feet, ignoring the red-hot pokers of pain that he felt stabbing him. He looked at the merc he’d killed and thought that at least his stabbing feeling was metaphorical.

Whoever it was, they took Celestia, Luna and Moonshadow. He knew from the news reports that Blackthorn and his fellow assholes at ALICORN were done for…unless this woman was part of a backup team in case things went south. He knew that his old buddy was enough of a bastard to leave a fuck-with-you plan in case something went wrong, and sure enough, here it was. That meant his Tia, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend were in trouble.

No, scratch that…whoever took them is in fucking trouble.

He immediately began to strip the body of the bodyarmor, weapons and ammo. He’d have to leave a corpse here in Luna’s place as well as have to explain why he’d damaged Celestia’s sword, but he was sure that once he went and got her back, she’d probably forgive him for that.

The radio on the dead merc sounded. “Charlie Four, this is Command. Commence clean up.”

Sable couldn’t help himself. “Why don’t you come over here and clean up your own mess?”

“Who is this?”

“This is the Wolf,” he told the woman on the other end, feeling a bit of the old magic come back, like a band on a reunion tour. “The Wolf of Kabul. And you must be the bitch who had orders to take Tia. I’m not going to do the whole Gravelly Voice speech from Taken, so I’m just going to say this. Eyes up – I’m coming for you.” He then threw the headset on the ground and stomped on it.

He felt the pain tweak again and he stumbled over to the table. He reached over and grabbed the only thing he could think of to dull the pain: the bottle of Chateau Sultana cabernet that Moonshadow had been drinking. I had never pegged him from the wine type. It had been Moonshadow’s glass that he’d landed on, and had caused the pool of red on his chest; it wasn’t his fault that the SIRENs hadn’t bothered to see that the “red pool” was actually closer to purple.

Downing the rest of the bottle and wiping his mouth with his hand, he went over and grabbed the keys to Celestia’s car from her purse. Every minute that passed meant that something was going to happen, and Sable wasn’t going to put up with that shit. They took his Tia. They were now going to learn exactly why he’d picked up the nickname of “the Wolf of Kabul”.

They were going to learn that wolves bit, and bit hard.

“You know, rich place like this,” the SIREN said, still brandishing Zephyr’s gun and sitting in the car while waiting for her orders, “I’m surprised there aren’t any real guards around here. You know the kind that would give me a challenge.” She looked at the guy who was probably close to death at this point; though the bullet in the leg appeared to pass through cleanly, more people tended to die from the shock of a bullet wound than the wound itself. “I guess they got the day off since the fuckers who own this place aren’t here?”

Zephyr said nothing, remaining unconscious and nearly as still as death. She laughed, then spit on him.

“And here I thought you Americans had the best of the best protecting diplomats. Not only aren’t you worth shit, you were clearly fucking her. I don’t know about DSO back in Canada, but I’ll bet they know the fuck what they’re doing. Now, granted, maybe your partner was worth her salt, I dunno. I do know you aren’t.”

Zephyr continued to lie there, dead to the world.

Finally, the call came over the radio: “Delta Five, this is Command. Commence Cleanup.”

“About time.”

The SIREN’s eyes opened – she didn’t speak an—

Zephyr turned and pointed, surprising the woman with a revolver. He fired twice, the gun barking and tearing a hole in the woman’s forearm as well as ripping off her thumb. She screamed and he forced himself to his feet, pointing the gun at her, making sure she didn’t do anything hasty. “Throw me the headset – slowly,” he ordered. The SIREN did as requested, and Zephyr caught it one-handed, putting it to his ear. “You know, you really should train your people better, whoever you are,” he said glibly. “She just sat here and chatted instead of not checking me for a backup piece, you know that?”

“Whoever you are,” the woman on the other side said, “you are a dead man.”

“Right back atcha,” he replied with a smile. “Now, care to tell me who you are? You guys are organized and as far as I can tell, all female. So…Beliye Kolgotki? Some new unit I hadn’t heard of? Or…” He thought, muttering, “What was that report Candy Cup insisted I read…oh, yeah….” He then smiled and added, “Or maybe that rogue Canadian unit the CIA’s been spilling all the beans about. SIREN, right?”

The look on the woman in the car was an indicator that it made it clear, even though the person on the other line said, “None of your business.”

“So, SIREN, got it. Or…what’s the French version? Eh, probably wouldn’t remember it anyway. So, I have one of your people here, and I’m not going to kill her, but I’m not going to be nice about it, either. You can either cough up my charges, or I’m going to spare her – and come take you out.”

“Big talk for a glorified cop,” Command replied.

“Yeah, but you see, I wasn’t always DSS. I might be somewhat of a joker, a smoker and a midnight toker, but before I was with the Service, I kinda belonged to a particular Army unit. Perhaps you’ve heard of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment?” There was silence on the other end. “Now, it’s been a while and I know the world cares more about SEAL Team SIX than my old rag, but I’m sure I can make the same level of, oh, let’s just say, ‘impact’.”

“You’re a dead man. We’re coming for you.”

“Don’t bother. I’ll be there first.” He cut off the line and looked at the girl. “You want to live another day?”

She nodded.

“Don’t worry, even though you shot me with my own gun, not going to kill you. Not my style. However….”

A few minutes later he was driving off, hoping he’d find a cop along the way to turn the girl over. Fortunately, between the zipties and her being in the trunk, she wasn’t going to be a problem anytime soon.

No, his problem was finding Solaire and Shimmer and getting them back safe. He had no idea why the SIRENs had her, but if it had anything to do with their little rebellion against the Canadian government, then he was going to want answers. Whether or not any SIREN lived past giving those answers, well, that was what paperwork was for.

In her mind, Twilight Sparkle screamed.

Just a few miles north, aqua eyes opened in shock. A second later, the room was briefly filled with cyan light as the air rushed in to fill the space that 120 pounds’ worth of molecules no longer did.

Carrying the unconscious forms of the other girls, the first group of SIRENs headed off to the helipad, where the first helicopter sat, ready for takeoff. The second group, as ordered, began their wanton slaughter. Sure, it was a waste, but at least this way they’d be looking for whoever started a massacre instead of who kidnapped a group of girls.

The warrant officer ordered, “I don’t care who they are or even if you want to fuck them in your spare time. In ten minutes, the only things I want still living are SIRENs understood?” The attack team didn’t answer and instead started shooting all the people that by now had realized something was very wrong.

A golf cart of two security officers came up…only to be torn to shreds by the minigun one held. Another one fired grenades into one of the nearby bungalow and explosions within started turning the building into a charnel house of flame and debris, the screams of the dying within.

The warrant saw the first helicopter take off successfully. By now the local authorities had to be notified and were enroute, which means they only had time to light up just a few bits more before they had to take off.

She saw a child, a young girl come out of one of the wrecked homes, terrified out of her wits and wailing but somehow a survivor of the carnage that had befallen her. The warrant was an older woman and the life she lived, she knew marriage, 2.5 kids and a house with a white picket fence weren’t in the cards. Hell, she’d never even had a petite sœur of her own to train. So her heart went out in a motherly way.

She raised her rifle, aiming at the girl, ignoring the sounds around her and let the laser draw a bead on the temple of the child’s head. It’s better this way, kiddo, she thought. You won’t have to suffer the cruelty of the world coming, because it’s going to hit hard.

A second later, she would’ve appreciated the irony as she was hit, at full speed, by a glowing cyan fist, which knocked her off-balance.

The shot went wild, slamming into the stairs the child stood by. She screamed and curled into a ball of fear as the SIREN shook off the rather painful blow, turning to face her opponent. “What the…? You!”

Sunset didn’t answer, instead recalling the training she’d received from Applejack, Aria and Bon-Bon. While she could never call herself a martial artist, she was one hell of a fast learner. The flame-haired girl drove a flurry of blows into the chest of the SIREN, cracking the body armor. While the blow staggered the SIREN once more, she spun and slammed her foot across the SIREN’s face, completely shattering the goggles and protective mask she was wearing. The older woman slumped, and Sunset picked her up with one hand blazing with eldritch power.

“Where the fuck are they?” Sunset hissed.

The dazed woman looked at Sunset in surprise. “You are here! But they said….”

“I don’t care who or what ‘they’ said. Where are my friends?” Sunset demanded. “Either answer me or I’m ripping it out of your skull. And given that’s black magic, it’s going to hurt both of us – but you more than me.”

“What the hell are you?”

“I guess that’s a no, then. Fortunately for you, I don’t kill.” Sunset smacked the woman’s forehead and a spell went off, knocking her out instantly. Sunset then went over to the little girl. “It’s okay,” Sunset said. “You’re going to be okay, alright?”

The little girl looked at her. “Mommy and Daddy—”

“I know. You’ll be okay. Here’s what I want you to do, okay?” Sunset said, giving the girl what she hoped was her most confident smile. “Do you know where the restaurant is?” When the girl nodded, Sunset hugged her. “Here’s the thing: I’m going to give you a present. I want you to hold onto this, and as long as you hold onto it, nobody will see you, okay?” Sunset held her palm out and summoned a butterfly hairpin on which she cast an invisibility spell. “You go straight to the restaurant and hide and don’t come out until the police come, okay?”

“What about you?” the girl asked. “Aren’t you afraid?”

Sunset smiled, but this time there was no humor. “I’m the Archmagus of Equestria – the bad guys are the ones who need to be afraid. Now go, and know that you’re safe, okay?” The girl scampered off and Sunset let go of the smile, trying not to cry. Someone had taken Twily and the other girls – Sunset had seen their bungalow, blown to bits. And these strangers were now tearing the hell out of the place. Who were they – and given the weapons they had, what did they want?

A normal girl would’ve broken down right now, just like the little girl, and with reason, Sunset knew. But I’m no little girl. And the only ones who are going to break…are them.

Sunset suddenly heard the screech of tires and the roar of an engine, and she turned to see a car, and out of the car came three people – faces she knew.

Sunset’s heart broke. Suddenly, it all made sense: their knowledge and apparent training, their relative social awkwardness that at times outpaced Fluttershy’s…their sudden and mysterious disappearance. “Is this your doing?!” she screamed. “I TRUSTED YOU!”

Adagio slammed the brakes on the car, powersliding through the bushes as she saw the flames. “Fire at anything that’s…well, you know!” she ordered.

“Roger that,” Aria said, drawing a bead on a SIREN she knew. But that wasn’t the girl she knew anymore, not really. Under Cantata’s control, she was nothing more than a monstrous tool, a decent soul turned into nothing more than a mindless weapon. And as Aria fired, she knew she wasn’t really killing a fellow member of the Sisterhood – she was performing euthanasia.

A SIREN turned and fired on the car, and Sonata returned fire. “I don’t like this, Dagi!” she shouted back. “We’re killing our own!”

“No, we’re not,” Adagio said, pushing the car towards the flames. “They were already dead the moment Blast got her hands on them. Her and that freak of a prince.” She poked her head out the window and fired her pistol, taking down a third. “We need to find Sunny before it’s too late!”

In the distance, Aria saw a flash of turquoise. “Dagi, hard right! Just saw something!”

“Her?”

“Not a fucking clue – but it might just get us answers!”

The girls got there just in time to see Sunset let a girl vanish into the distance. “There she is!” Dagi said, slamming the brakes on the car, the other two leaping out to save their friend.

“Is this your doing?!” Sunset screamed at them. “I TRUSTED YOU!”

“She does not look happy,” Aria announced, setting down her gun.

“I’m going hunting,” Adagio told her sisters. “We need to stop this killing. You two take down Sunny and get her in the car. We’ll get out of here and then explain what the hell’s going on.”

Sonata looked at her flame-haired friend standing just a short distance from them. There was something…different…about her. “I got a bad feeling about this,” she admitted.

“So maybe she can throw a punch now,” Adagio said, pulling her trusty P-90 out from under the driver’s seat. “I trust you two to stop her safely. After all, we’re SIRENs, and she’s just a normal girl. How hard can it be?”

Author's Note

How bad, indeed....

August 15, 6:00 PM: Love Will Tear Us Apart

Something was going on, Adagio thought to herself as she raced through the burning resort, P-90 at the ready. At any other time, it looked like a place that she could enjoy a few days off at – it vaguely reminded her of a resort she’d stayed in on a trip to Indonesia while she had a few down days after an assassination the government had ordered her and Intermezzo to do. Well, she’d been spotter that day, Intermezzo had pulled the trigger, and…for a few days afterwards, it was soaking in the Despansar sun to allay any potential suspicion.

She had been thirteen at the time and was just starting to appreciate the looks she was getting from the Australian tourists, too. Back then, she’d still been coltish and ungainly and more than a bit shy at times about the attention, but Intermezzo had laughed and said that she’d get used to it.

In all the years, Adagio never really had. She couldn’t even imagine herself as some sort of sex symbol now. Especially not now, with her still-too-short hair, the military gear she wore and the submachine gun she held in her hands. If anything, she looked like some sort of monster, something to be feared and reviled once people truly understood what she was. Well, that was something that she never wanted.

She wanted to be normal.

This wasn’t normal, not by any stretch of the imagination.

Rushing forward, she brought the gun to bear and fired, the rounds hurtling through the air and tearing through someone that had just weeks before, been a professional and reliable SIREN, as loyal to the cause as Adagio herself had been. But things had changed in the past few weeks: the SIREN in question had been compromised into an evil, twisted form of herself, while Adagio had become, if anything, more human. She was no longer the switch-on assassin that she’d been trained for her whole life. Now she was something more.

And that something more meant something else: she had no more desire to follow orders blindly for Queen and Country. Everything had to have a reason now, everything had to have a justification. Not too long ago, she would pull the trigger because Canada told her to. Then she would pull the trigger for revenge against her homeland. And now?

Now, she wanted to put the gun away and never pick one up again. And as the SIREN Adagio once knew fell to the ground dead, she knew that was nothing more than a pipedream, one that she was cursed to never see in her lifetime.

Adagio bracketed another she knew, then pulled the trigger again, tearing that other SIREN to shreds, but not in time to save the attacker’s victim. As she looked down, her eyes came upon that of a bloody face with dead eyes that stared blankly at her, as if accusing the teen for not acting quickly enough. Adagio recoiled from the implied blame and felt a burning shame from the corpse’s curse.

“We did this,” she whispered to herself. Of course she knew that technically, she had not really been at fault for the death of the innocent. But that was immaterial – she should’ve seen the rotting within, should’ve done something about it. But she, her sisters and their sœurs hadn’t seen any of it until it was way too late, and that was in any case of absolutely no comfort to the dead woman at her feet.

“I’m sorry,” Adagio said softly, meaning every word of it. “We’re supposed to protect the innocent. We failed.” She would’ve said more in her soliloquy, had it not been the rattle of gunfire. Racing towards the sounds, she heard as the gunfire stopped and the wail of a baby broke out. That pushed her to move even faster, and as she rounded the corner, she saw another one of the SIRENs aiming her gun at a man holding a baby. Next to him another woman had taken her last breath.

Adagio moved completely on instinct, her anger taking a hold of her. Before she even realized what she was doing, she’d closed the gap and withdrew her knife. And before she could even scream a cry of rage, she sank it deep into her former ally’s neck, her eyes boring glares of hatred into the other, dying SIREN.

She then turned to the man and his child. “Get out of here!” she ordered and he obeyed without hesitation. As they left, Adagio stripped the dead SIREN of her primary weapon; she was running low on her own ammo and in the current situation, she wasn’t going to last long unarmed.

“TRAITOR!” Adagio turned to see another SIREN there, gun at the ready and a livid look on her face. The teen recognized the older woman and from the rage etched on the other’s visage, that went the same.

“I’m no traitor, Warrant,” Adagio snarled. “You’re the one who’s turning coat!”

“You’ll die if you don’t join us, Dazzle,” the other woman snarled.

“Not if I take you down first,” the teen warned, a bluff if she ever knew one, but she’d been repulsed by the atrocity committed here. She had a disadvantage: she was good, but the warrant officer was one of the best fighters in the Sisterhood.

“Then you’re a fool,” the warrant said, drawing a bead on the younger girl.

“No – I’m a SIREN,” Adagio said, charging her former superior officer. “And I do not run!” As she moved forward, Adagio knew she had to stop the situation at all costs…

…even if it meant sacrificing herself in the process.

Aria bobbed and weaved, barely dodging Sunset’s latest strike; Sonata was not as lucky and took the blow straight to the chest, knocking the air out of her and temporarily dropping her. Aria was torn between helping her younger sister and just dropping her jaw in awe at Sunset’s martial arts skills. When she’d last seen her friend, Sunset was awkwardly learning TKD from Applejack, who wasn’t bad for a civvie.

But now, now…Aria could see at least four different styles as Sunset had suddenly gone from “I play Street Fighter on occasion” to “better than Jun-Fan in Enter the Dragon”. No openings, fast and powerful; able to surpass Sonata, who was the fastest of them and certainly able to keep up with Aria, who had always focused on technique and was now at a considerable disadvantage. In another time, Aria would’ve insisted Adagio, the best of them, spar against Sunset just to see the difference in the girl’s style. For now, her plan was just to avoid the onslaught.

Two more well-timed punches and Aria managed to barely dodge another blow, this one nearly aimed towards her head. She warded it off, but only barely. “Sunny, stop!” she cried. “We’re here to help!”

“Then why are you dressed like the rest of them?!” Sunset roared, angrier than Aria had ever seen her. This wasn’t the snarky-but-overall-friendly girl she knew, but instead some sort of demon filled with hate and spite.

“We’re not with them!” Aria gasped. “Please, just give yourself up and we’ll explain everythi—” Aria said no more as Sunset practically maneuvered out of nowhere and slammed her across the face with a brutal kick. Before she could even crumple to the ground, she felt herself picked up by one hand by Sunset.

“Why are you doing this?” Sunset said in a surprisingly soft voice. “You were my friend – what the hell’s going on?”

“Look, Sunny…we don’t have a choice! Believe me, if we did, we wouldn’t be in this situation!” Aria begged.

“I don’t believe you,” Sunset told her.

Aria looked at her friend, then decided to tell her the truth. “Sunny…I’m a teenage assassin who used to – maybe still does – work for the Canadian govern—”

“Look, Ari, I can help, but not if you’re going to lie to me,” Sunset insisted. “Canada? Seriously, of all the bullshit lies?”

“I’m serious!”

“I just need to—” Sunset began, but Aria cut her off, knowing what her friend was going to say.

“Sunny, believe me…we were damned a long time ago. I never grew up with toys or fun. I didn’t know what a normal life was until I met all of you.” Violet eyes pled with cyan. “Please, Sunny. We’re doing this to save you!”

“I wish I could believe you, Ari,” Sunset said, her voice falling cold again.

There was the click behind her and Adagio’s voice said, “She’s telling the truth, Sunny. Please, let my sister go.” Sunset turned to see Adagio standing there, pointing a pistol at her. Her arm hung limply at her side and pain engraved its features on Adagio’s face. “We’re trying to stop someone from murdering you, honest.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you? Am I supposed to believe anything you say?” Sunset snarled.

“Look, I know this seems bad, Sunny, but we wouldn’t lie to you—”

“You mean again,” Sunset accused.

“Yeah, you’re right, and I’m sorry about that,” the other girl admitted. “And we didn’t really care for that. But we didn’t have a choice up until now, Sunny.” Taking a chance, Adagio lowered the gun, wincing as she did so. “And if you’ll listen, I’ll tell you everything. But we need to get—”

Gunfire ripped through the space, and Adagio pushed Sunset out of the way, feeling the shots ripping through her body. Everyone turned to see a SIREN standing there, a cruel smile on her lips as a tendril of smoke wafted out from the barrel. But that wasn’t where it ended. No, that turned out to be the monster that stood before Sunset, a scaly abomination wielding a weapon that would look comically anachronistic were it not for the horror that also lay before them.

And that horror was Adagio, fallen to the ground and bleeding out.

“DAGI!” Aria screamed, instinctively reaching for her sidearm, hoping to get a shot off in time.

Meanwhile, the seemingly once-human creature narrowed its feral eyes, gazing upon its newest targets. “DIE!” the beast shouted, drawing a bead, finger starting to depress the trigger.

It was the last thing she ever did.

Moving with a speed that bordered on impossible, Sunset closed the distance and hit the monster with a blow to the chest hard enough that you could nearly see the cavity cave in. But that wasn’t enough for Sunset, who immediately spun and delivered a jumping crescent kick that connected with a blast of aqua energy. The force of the blow sent the creature flying, screaming in utter pain as she soared through the window of a flaming building that immediately collapsed.

Sunset didn’t bother to follow up on her fight however, giving her foe no further thought as she quickly rushed back to Adagio, who was dying in Aria’s arms.

“You’re gonna be okay, sis,” Aria sobbed, her eyes filled with tears and thankful that their baby sister was still unconscious. This was something that Aria didn’t want to see for herself, much less the most sensitive of the trio. So she was surprised to see Sunset look at her with sorrowful anger.

“Are you happy?” Aria snarled. “She’s going to die to save you, and that’s the thanks we get? That we’re supposedly your friends?”

“Ari…don’t,” Adagio coughed in a weak whisper. “We have to protect her. You know the drill.”

“No, not if it’s going to mean losing you!” Aria mourned. “I can’t lose you, sis. I’ve lost too much already.”

“No one’s dying here,” Sunset said with a firmness that surprised her. The flame-haired girl bent down next to the two. “Let me take care of her, Ari. You and Soni need to find us a way out of here.” She looked briefly down at her dying friend, then to said friend’s panicked sister. “I’ve got this.”

“No! I don’t want to lose her!” Tears unabashedly streamed down Aria’s face, and for the one supposedly being the toughest of the three, it was both surprising and yet not to Sunset.

“You won’t,” Sunset vowed. “You won’t, I swear. I can save her, but you need to trust me.” Aria looked at Sunset, then at her dying sister, then briefly at her unconscious one. The look on her face was one of utter anguish and she chewed her lip in worry.

“Please,” Sunset pled.

After torturous seconds, Aria handed her most precious treasure to Sunset. “Don’t make me regret this,” Aria warned her.

“Get Sonata and find a car. We need to get out of here.” As if on cue, police sirens started to wail in the distance. Aria needed no further prodding. She went over and picked up Sonata, then carried her as she went in search of a car they could steal.

As they left, Adagio used the last of her flagging strength to look at Sunset. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry for everything. All I wanted was to be normal.”

“You’ll be normal,” Sunset explained, looking Adagio over clinically and trying not to wretch as she tore off parts of the other girl’s shirt. She could see the scars and musculature of a life far different than she’d ever known; this looked more along the lines of a guardspony’s muscles that of a normal girl.

Or that of a soldier, Sunset had to admit, recalling Aria’s earlier words.

“Sunny…if I don’t make it, make sure Ari and Soni are safe,” Adagio spat before coughing up blood. “Promise me….”

“I don’t need to,” Sunset said, closing her eyes as she began to focus her magic internally. Granted, with her power levels now it wasn’t going to be much of an issue, but then again, there was a difference between what she’d done for Minuette and the battlefield surgery she was performing now. One false move and all the power in the world wasn’t going to save her. “You’re going to be fine.”

“Sunny, I’m dying.” Another coughing fit, this one worse than the last. Adagio could feel herself weaken, feeling so tired despite the pain ripping through her. “I’d need a miracle right now.”

In response to that, Sunset held up her hand and it began to spark with unnatural energies, her palm holding a fireball of warm turquoise energy.

“What…what is that?” Adagio asked, wondering if she was seeing the mythologized light that people saw at the end of their lives.

“One miracle,” Sunset said with a gentle, beatific smile, “coming up.”

And then she placed the energy sphere on Adagio.

The world went white.

Celestia, her arms and legs bound and face covered by black sackcloth, was thrown rudely to the ground, then kicked in the stomach, gasping for air as cruel laughter briefly sounded behind her. Something loud and metallic – a huge metal door, maybe? – slammed behind them as she lay on the ground, desperately suffering through the agony as she tried to regain her breath through the light-proof bag.

Finally, after a few torturous seconds, Celestia spoke. “Lu?” No answer. “Luna?” Celestia tamped down the fear that was starting to set in; she had no idea what was going on, only that they’d been grabbed at gunpoint by mercenaries and that—

—out of the corner of her eye she could see Sable being shot as her vision began to swim—

“NO!” the woman screamed, as realization suddenly sank in like a ten-ton anvil. “SABLE! NO!” She began to strain against her bonds, screaming in rage and fear, hoping someone would help her…and fearful that no help would come.

Finally, she felt rough hands on her and she continued to jerk, desperate to get away from the person accosting her, until a gentle voice said, “Please don’t worry, I’m here to help.” The voice sounded oddly familiar despite the accent; in any case, Celestia was completely at the mercy of the owner of the voice, and for good or bad, whatever would happen next would happen regardless.

So it was a pleasant surprise that Celestia felt her arms and legs being unbound, and a second later, she felt the mask being pulled off as the other woman told her, “You’re safe now, or as safe as I can aid you.”

Celestia nodded in appreciation. “Thank you,” she said in gratitude…

…as she suddenly found herself looking into a carbon copy of herself. Well, not exactly a perfect copy of herself: the other woman had a short hairstyle that Celestia was never really sure would work on her. Furthermore, the other her was dressed a bit more elegantly in clothing that Celestia herself was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be able to afford this side of ever. Even from this situation and what little was visible in the dark room, everything that the educator could see in her doppelganger spoke of a life that she couldn’t have, save for in her dreams.

It was finally the other “Celestia” that spoke: “C’est inattendu,” the other woman spoke in French, something that Celestia, given her Italian heritage, felt was more than a little unusual.

“You’re telling me,” Celestia said, wondering if her worry and grief was making her imagine everything.

The other giggled. “And I suppose you’re wondering if you’re seeing things as well, trying not to presume that you’re going mad by imagining another version of yourself, ai-je raison?”

“The thought had crossed my mind, yes,” Celestia admitted.

“Well, perhaps we should put this to rest.” The woman offered a hand. “Solaire.”

“Celestia.”

Solaire smiled. “Interesting. My second name – well, the one I use publicly – is D’Celestia.”

“Small world – when I was a teenager, I had a fake ID that said my name was Solaire,” Celestia admitted with a giggle. But the moment of mirth vanished as she asked, “Do you know why we’re here?”

She shook her head. “I…I don’t know. I was with my daughter and my….” Solaire blushed in a way that Celestia had known all too well as of late, the look of an older woman in youthful love. “Anyway, we were attacked, and separated.” Solaire clenched her hands into fists and closed her eyes as she said, “I don’t even know what’s happened to my daughter!”

Celestia went into her so-called “maternal mode”, embracing her lookalike; her emotions roiled within her, but right now someone needed her more than she needed to vent. “I’m sure she’s fine, Solaire. These people seem like they’re not the kind to take prisoners unless they want something. The question is,” she sighed, “is what.”

“I don’t know,” Solaire sobbed. “I thought this was an attempt on our family – we’ve had a lot of those lately – but I didn’t think anyone would be this desperate! And now they have you caught up in this!”

“Don’t be too sure that it’s you,” Celestia admitted. “My boyfriend is a former military hotshot and apparently, some people he pissed off are in town. You may be the one who got dragged into a situation you’re not at fault for.”

Before either woman could say anything further, the door tore open, a rough voice shouted, “GET IN THERE, BITCH!”

From the moment the form hit the ground, Celestia knew who that was. “LUNA!” she screamed, moving to her sister’s side immediately. Solaire, getting the hint, moved as well.

Luna looked as if she’d been run through the wringer: she had multiple bruises and a black eye. “Heya, sis,” Luna said weakly before wincing. “Guess they weren’t expecting me to fight back, huh?”

“Sei stupido?” Celestia retorted, half out of worry, half out of anger. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed, Lu!”

“Who says I haven’t?” Luna groaned. “Since I’m obviously staring at two of you right now….”

Celestia gently maneuvered her sister to her lap. “No, you’re not, but it’s a long story, Lu.”

“We probably have time, sis.” Luna gave a wan smile. “By the way, don’t tell Moni about this or we’re dead.”

“This is not the time to joke about things, Lu.”

“Yes it is. You’re usually the one with a sense of humor, okay? Let me have it for the moment?” The dark-haired woman then looked at her older sister with tears in her eyes and said, “I don’t know if Shadow or Sable made it out. Do you?”

“I don’t know,” Celestia said, giving Luna a bleak look. “I honestly don’t know.”

Solaire moved next to Celestia, giving the newcomer a concerned look. “Do you know her?” Solaire asked.

Luna looked at her sister, then at her not-sister, then blinked. “I think I have a concussion….” she moaned.

“You’re fine, Lu. You’re not seeing me in double, and I was rather surprised as well.” Gesturing to the other woman, she said, “This is Solaire D’Celestia, and she’s mixed up in this as well. Now, if I only knew what this actually is, I could give you a better answer.” To Solaire, she said, “This is my younger sister, Luna.”

“Are you okay?” Solaire asked.

“Wow, she even sounds like you sis. You sure you didn’t clone yourself?”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you’re okay,” she mock-sighed.

The door quickly opened and a trio of heavily-armed women in military gear came in. All three were wearing masks, had Amazonian physiques and were pointing nasty-looking weapons at the trio. “Get up,” the lead one said, pointing at the trio.

“She’s injured!” Solaire said, pointing to Luna. “You can’t possibly—”

“Look, I don’t know which one of you two pastel-haired cunts the boss wants,” the woman snarled, “but the bitch with the starry hair is expendable.” She nodded her head and the one nearest to her pointed her gun at Luna. “So either you get off your fat asses and follow me, or I splatter the slit’s brains all over the ground, got it?”

Celestia looked at them with a mixture of wild-eyed fear and deep rage. Fear that they would hurt her baby sister. Rage that they would even dare to try. She could feel herself, rising with a terrible purpose. She would likely die, but better that than for them to ever touch a hair on Luna’s head ever again. She’d started to stand…

…only to feel Solaire’s hand on her shoulder. “Taking care of her is paramount,” she whispered. “My older brother was recently killed, and I suspect I now know who did it.” She then turned to the others. “We’ll come,” Solaire insisted. “But I insist you let my…assistant…and her sister come with me.”

“You’re in no position to demand anything, Princess,” the lead thuggette responded.

“Oh, I disagree. I don’t know who your boss is, but if he went to this trouble to capture me, then he wants me alive. And since you can’t be certain that I’m your true target, then it behooves you to listen to what I say.” The look in Solaire’s eyes was one of someone who was used to wielding authority, even when at a disadvantage, and seeing this, Celestia wondered just who her counterpart was. Was the snide “princess” comment not sarcasm, but instead address?

“Fine,” the soldier acquiesced. “But anything out of the ordinary, and we dust her, understood?”

“We understand,” Celestia replied, looking at the woman with hate.

In a stolen car just east of the burning Club Tropicana complex, Aria Blaze sat and watched everything go to ruin. By a small run of luck, the person who owned this stunning burnt-pumpkin colored Panamera was the same size as Aria. And though the teen detested wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with RICH, DRUNK AND FUCKABLE as well as too-short shorts, she put them on and quickly dressed Sonata in similar clothing, though she gave the unconscious girl the DADDY’S BAD EXAMPLE t-shirt. After that, she slipped on the shades and put on her best look of horror as numerous cops sped past…and it wasn’t exactly hard to get into character, admittedly. Fortunately, the cruisers sped by, ignoring the stupid rich young bimbo with the ridiculously expensive import – they had more important things to do, after all.

After a few minutes, Sonata stirred. “Sis?” she spoke.

“Stay low,” Aria warned, not taking her eyes off the general direction she gazed in. “We don’t know what they’re looking for, and I’m hoping this is enough of a disguise. But if they see you, that could put us at risk.”

“Roger that,” Sonata said, briefly looking at her clothing and mentally shrugging off the implied insult that was on her acquired top. Still recovering from a massive headache, it took the youngest sister a second more to realize something was horribly amiss. “Ari? Are you okay?”

Aria wiped her eyes and continued to try to keep an even tone, even though she knew she couldn’t. “I’m fine, Soni. Just, please, not now, okay?”

“What do you mean, not now? You’re crying – I can tell! And we’re dressed like this and I’m sitting in a stolen sports ca—” Reputedly the smartest of the trio, her mind immediately locked onto the situation. “Sis, where’s Dagi?”

“Sonata, not now!” Aria finally turned to face her sister, and behind the ridiculously hot-pink sunglasses, tears could be seen streaking down her face. “Just…don’t ask, sis. Please.”

“No….” Sonata whispered, having figured it out anyway and unable to believe it. “You’re lying!”

“I don’t know, little sister, I really don’t,” Aria said, hugging herself and feeling a sudden chill that wasn’t in the air. “All I know is that if worst comes to, I need to keep you safe, no matter the cost.”

“What happened? And where’s Sunny? What’s going on?”

Aria looked at her sister, worry in her eyes. “I don’t know, Soni! I don’t know!”

“Jeez, Ari – you’re starting to sound like Rarity.”

Aria whipped around to see both Adagio and Sunset walking towards them. That was surprising enough. The bigger surprise was that Adagio looked completely healed.

“DAGI!” Aria leapt out of the car and tackleglomped her older sister, blubbering incoherently. For her part, Adagio held her sister close, wiping away her tears, assuring her that she was okay.

“But I saw…I saw….” Aria sobbed, unable to finish her sentence.

Adagio reached over and gently kissed her sister on her forehead. “Silly, you know I’m not that easy to take down. Plus, who’s going to watch over you two?”

Sonata, watching the whole exchange with complete confusion, looked at Sunny. “What’s going on?”

Despite the situation, Sunset rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Doing your ‘stupid’ act again, Soni?”

“No, for once, I’m actually clueless. Help a sister out here?”

“Dagi nearly got killed trying to protect me. I kinda owed her one, so I fixed her up.”

Sonata furrowed an eyebrow. “What?”

To display, Sunset immediately proceeded to levitate Sonata out of the car, her body enveloped in an aura of aqua energy. Her clothing began to shift around her and when she was placed on the ground, her clothing was now something a little more akin to what she normally wore.

Aria, having watched all this, looked at her sister, then at Sunset, then lifted up Adagio’s shirt, seeing the scarless body. “Sis, where’s that knife scar?” the middle triplet asked, searching for a wound she knew should’ve been there but wasn’t.

“The one I got when I was twelve?” Adagio asked. Aria nodded, and the former laughed. “Sunny, looks like you did too good of a job.”

It was Sonata that asked the obvious question. “Sunny…what are you?”

Sunset gave a bemused smirk. “Let’s just say that you’re not the only ones with a secret. And as to what I am, I believe I’m still your friend, hopefully.” She was about to say something else when a wave of dizziness slapped her hard. She nearly collapsed to the ground, if it wasn’t for Adagio’s timely catch.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I just used a lot more magic than I expected, healing you,” Sunset admitted. “You were literally at death’s door, Dagi.”

“Yeah, having several rounds punch through vital organs generally tends to do that,” Adagio said with gallows humor. “Look, I’m more worried about you right now. We managed to get you safe, but where are the others?”

Sunset’s only answer was to look at her feet, her previous composure giving way to a look of heartbreak as her fists trembled with fury.

Adagio, putting everything together immediately, looked at her friend in shock, her hand going to her mouth involuntarily. “Oh God, they’re not…?”

“No, they’re alive – they have to be,” Sunset answered quickly, shutting down any dark paths of thought. “They were gone before I arrived, but there’s only one reasonable explanation!”

Unable to contain herself any longer, Aria blurted, “Look, can we just get to the panicking part that Sunset is a fucking wizard?”

“Unicorn,” the flame-haired girl replied.

“What?”

“Unicorn. I’m not even really human. I’ve kinda adjusted, buuuuuuuut it’s been a bumpy road at times,” she told the three, waiting for the inevitable response. The responses she got was somewhat surprising. Adagio seemed to be taking it all in rather well, but given that she was literally dragged from death’s door, that was a given. Sonata was as well, given that Sunset had transfigured her clothing.

But as for Aria….

“Look, I really feel like I just want to lose my shit right now, okay? First I see my sister nearly fucking die right in front of my eyes, then to watch her get turned back to normal and seeing Soni’s clothing get magicked or something like that and you’re not really human and Oh my God is none of this making any fucking sense whatsoever!”

“Look, we can talk about this later, but right now we need to get out of here,” Sunset told them. “Then afterwards you can tell me everything, including why that girl I took down earlier turned into what looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

“You’re taking that better than we did,” Sonata commented.

“Not really being human might have something to do with it,” Sunset responded as Adagio ushered her to the stolen car. “There are dozens of sapient species back on my homeworld and while I’m not going to go into detail on that right now, I could see the miasma of a badly-done black magic spell. I mean that creature was practically farting miasma.”

“This could be a really interesting study,” Sonata commented.

“Could we get back onto something more normal?” Aria interjected as clambered into the back seat. The rest of the girls followed suit, with Sonata falling into the seat next to Aria, Sunset taking the passenger’s seat and Adagio slipping behind the wheel. “Like how we’re going to kill these things? I can deal with that. That’s perfectly normal.”

Sunset, despite the situation, couldn’t help but smile. “Normal would be nice right about now.”

“We’ll work on that,” Adagio told her as she started the car. “Look, I don’t know what else to say right now, Sunny, but we’ll get the others back, I promise.”

From her location in the backseat, Sonata leaned forward and hugged Sunset around the chair. “We missed you, you know that?”

“I missed you girls, too,” Sunset said with sincerity. “Now I need you to explain everything, as much as you can. If that mutation and the girls’ kidnappings are related, we need to know why, especially if you said they were after me specifically. That has to mean someone knows about me, and if that’s the case, neither I nor my family is safe. We have to put a stop to this.”

“It’s probably worse than you think, Sunny,” Adagio said somberly as she steered away from the charnel house that was once a resort. “Fortunately – or rather, unfortunately – we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it on the drive back.”

Three women were roughly shoved into a new cell, this one much larger than the others. And from what little light could be seen, Celestia gasped. There, in the room, was horror: Velvet was ministrating to a severely beaten-and-tied-up Night Light, looking like she was only barely keeping it together. Celestia had known him long enough to know that he was more the lover than the fighter type, and to see him mashed to a pulp like that hurt her in a way that she knew tore at Velvet’s heart.

But at least he’s alive, something in her mind told her. You can’t say the same for— Celestia immediately banished the thought and continued to let her eyes scan the room while she looked for any others, and tragically, her vision was rewarded. She saw her own niece, near tears, holding an unconscious Shining, who was in worse shape than his father; sadly, not a surprise given his profession.

But the biggest shock was Spike, whose presence here caught the educator for a huge surprise. He looked around the cell with a look somewhere between a child caught in an adventure and a child who was realizing what was going on was most certainly not an adventure. It was he who turned to the door first and saw those incoming. “Ms. Celestia!” he called out. “And Ms. Luna! And…Ms. Celestia?”

Velvet looked up at her old friend, her eyes radiating a deep fear and worry. “Tia?”

Hearing that, Cadance looked up and the tears began. She said nothing at all, just letting her anguish flow.

Celestia looked at Solaire and asked, “Will you look after Luna?”

Solaire nodded. “You have my word.”

Luna looked at her through a swollen eye. “I’ll be fine, sis,” she murmured. “You look after our family.”

Our family. Celestia took those words to heart. She’d known Velvet all her life, and even still nursed somewhat of a crush on Night despite everything. Both their older siblings had briefly dated. Next year, Celestia’s niece would wed Velvet’s oldest son and they would have a tie that had been there for practically all their lives.

Celestia, Luna, Velvet, all sisters in heart if not in blood.

The pastel-haired woman moved to Velvet’s side immediately. “Is he okay?”

“I don’t know,” Velvet said. As Celestia got a closer look, she could finally see the bruise where Velvet had been punched. Realizing that, the other woman turned away. “I don’t think any of us are, Tia.”

Before Celestia could respond, the door opened once more, and another woman dressed in fatigues pointed a nasty-looking rifle at the group. “You,” she said to Solaire. “Get your ass up and follow us.”

“And if I don’t?” she challenged.

“You’ll be the only living person in this room not holding a gun,” the woman threatened.

Celestia moved to Solaire’s side. “Go,” the longer-haired one replied. “We’ll be fine here.”

“Are you sure? I think I have an idea of what’s going on now.”

“All the more reason for you to go. We’ll be okay here for now, I’m sure of it.” Solaire silently nodded and got up, joining the woman with the rifle.

“If you harm them….” Solaire snarled – and got slapped across the face for it.

“You don’t have the stones or the authority,” the woman replied coolly. “But since you were a good little girl you just bought your friends here a little more time. Now come with me, and behave yourself or I just might change my mind.”

As they shoved Solaire through the door and shut it, Velvet looked at her friend. “Now I might be the worse for wear, but I know I wasn’t imagining that, was I?”

“Trust me,” Celestia told her with a wan smile. “I wish I knew what was going on myself, other than what I was able to piece together, Solaire is some sort of European royalty, and several members of her family have been assassinated recently. It’s a coincidence that we look alike – maybe we have a common distant ancestor – but I think that whoever is behind these thugs confused us with one another and decided to split the difference and capture us both.”

“And the rest of us?”

“Innocent bystanders caught up in the dragnet,” Cadance replied, getting a better grip on herself now that they were more in her bailiwick. “Happens all the time with police sweeps and it doesn’t surprise me that criminals aren’t as careful – or that they give a damn.” She then looked at her aunt. “Aunt Tia, is there anything else you can tell me?”

“There’s not much to tell,” Celestia told her, then started crying. That was more than enough for Velvet to figure out why Sable was missing and what had happened to him. She moved over and hugged Celestia close, with Cadance embracing both.

“We’ll survive this and we’ll make sure he’s not forgotten,” Velvet promised, crying alongside her destroyed friend. “He won’t be forgotten, not now, not ever.”

Never thought I’d be doing this in my own country, Sable thought glumly as he put on the remainder of his ACUs. As bad as the joke is, there’s a ring of truth to it, fighting wars is what other countries’ territory is for. He looked at the weapons he’d confiscated from the woman he’d killed at Luna’s place. With the kind of firepower she’d had on hand, it was clear that going to the cops was going to be a fool’s errand. Not that he didn’t think they were capable, but there was a difference between law enforcement and military forces for a reason – and a situation like this was going to get someone not used to punching above their weight in real trouble real quick.

But he had to save Celestia. She gave his life meaning, made him feel more alive than he had ever felt before. His life had been intertwined with hers since the day they met, and had he been the sort of person who believed in that sort of thing, he would’ve been convinced he and she were forever encircling one another – maybe here, maybe in other dimensions, maybe for all eternity. Maybe there was no Sable Loam without a Celestia.

He reached down and looked at the picture they’d taken down at the pier in Horseshoe Bay last month. They were as happy as could be, two people in love and there was no one who could disagree. The future was theirs to see, que sera sera, etc. etc., and they were meant to be. He loved her, she loved him.

And now she was gone, taken by bastards who wanted to get back at him for not being a part of their murderous spree. He knew it wasn’t directly tied to Blackthorn and his ALICORN bullshit; they’d been found dead, taken out by the CIA or some other organization. But a backup team had clearly meant to clean up the loose ends, and they’d done so, thinking to take him out and the others as well…and taking Celestia and her sister. Was Blackthorn somehow still alive? If so, did that mean he still had plans for Celestia – and now Luna, too?

His blood boiled at the thought. His hand unconsciously went to his sidearm, feeling the grip’s texture, feeling a weapon he was already well familiar with. It would see action tonight. For one last night, he would be the Wolf of Kabul, to save his love and her sister. For one final night he would be the creature of legends that Taliban soldiers spoke of with both hate and fear. Tonight, for one last time he would pick up the gun once more and wield it in conflict, becoming a god of war few had ever seen before and would hate to see ever again.

He picked up the picture once more, kissing Celestia’s image. “I’ll get you back.” He then gently set the picture down and walked toward the door, pausing only to pick up his new assault rifle.

It was time for the Wolf to show lessers what happened when they dared enter his territory.

Zephyr pulled over to a particularly empty part of the Everfree Forest. He needed a particular place to talk to his guest, and it had to be this way. Calling for backup was going to be a joke – these guys were mercs and they hit hard. Maybe – maybe – CPD SWAT or whatever ECSD’s equivalent was might be up to snuff, but the attack was so well-executed (and him nearly executed along with it) that it was obvious this was a pro operation, and anything other than ready troops was going to be nothing more than throwing bodies at the situation.

So he was going to have to improvise. Generally, people didn’t like it when he improvised. He’d gotten in trouble a couple of times when he’d improvised, like in Oslo; the charge d’affairs there still wanted his head.

Yeah, well, that’s what I get for being so Goddamn aloof. Even though he’d spent time in SOF, he knew he wasn’t the Rambo Apple “kill ‘em all and let someone sort ‘em out” type. He was more of the trouble magnet type, either attracting it or causing it. Someone had once called him “Discord”, as in the Roman god of strife; Zephyr, in turn, pointed out that the “god” was a goddess (Discordia) and that unless he was being compared to the rock star, then it made no sense.

Just like now. He’d cauterized the wound, earlier, thinking it was the easiest way to roll through the pain until he could see medical attention. So far, the third bandage he’d put around it was bleeding, his leg felt like shit and he was bulldozing his way through the pain. Probably meant he was going to take it out on the SIREN he’d captured, but oh fucking well.

Those bitches had taken both Solaire and Shimmer. He’d grown close to them, far closer than was professional, but he really didn’t give a damn at this point. His partner had been murdered, he was one step short of committing adultery and even if he hadn’t, his marriage was going to shit anyway. He wasn’t in the mood for subtlety or symbolism.

Walking over and popping open the trunk, he noticed the SIREN somewhere between pain and discomfort for being locked in a trunk. Deciding he could live with that, he pulled the girl out and threw her to the ground, making sure that she’d land face first. He then drew his pistol, cocking the hammer back and looking at her with a glance somewhere between indifference and insult. “Let’s make this clear: you’re not under arrest. We’re well past that.”

The girl made to scream obscenities into her gag. Gingerly, he bent down and pulled it off. “Sorry, wasn’t aware you were going to speak.”

“You’re a dead man, you know that?”

He rolled his eyes. “Do I look dead to you? I might hurt like a motherfucker right now—” As if to make his point, he winced, “—but still very much alive. Your condition, however, is debatable and dependent entirely upon your cooperation.”

She spat at him. “Get fucked! I’m a SIREN! I don—AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGHH!!” Her scream was due to the sudden but very explicable bullet hole she had in her leg.

Zephyr raised the gun once more. “Now we can be twins!” he said with a cruel smile, “and twins always share, right?” He pointed the gun at her head. “So spill. I’m done with good cop/bad cop. We’re now into bad cop/murderous cop.”

“Fine!” she snarled. “You want to commit suicide that easily? HQ is in the construction area downtown. But we’re armed to the teeth and we’ve got other things besides. Show up – you won’t set a single foot on the perimeter before one of my Sisters puts a bullet through your fucking head!”

He sighed dramatically. “Well, I’ve never been too good listening to directions, so I guess I’ll just have to live through it all. But thanks for the info.” He then looked at the late afternoon sky and wondered, “So what do I do with you?”

“Just get over and done with, asshole. I’m not afraid to die – and the Sisterhood will avenge me.” Despite her bravado, she turned away from him. “Just…get it over and done with.”

“No.” He holstered his gun. “That would be taking the easy way out. You don’t deserve that and like I said, I’m not a murderer. So you’re going to live with your crimes, all of it: betraying your fellow SIRENs by telling me where you’re located and that you guys are armed for bear. Means that I have to do things a little differently.” He picked her up.

“NO!” she screamed. “I SAID KILL ME!”

He ignored her, throwing her in the trunk and slamming it shut. “Kid, I said I wasn’t a murderer,” he told her through the closed metal. “I didn’t say anything about being merciful.”

Limping back to the car, he got back in the driver’s seat and headed back towards Canterlot. He was going to have to wait until night, and then when that was done he was going to hit that building like a Goddamn ton of bricks.

Stay safe until then, girls, he pled silently. I’m coming.

Cantata escorted the prissy bitch into the room, shoving her down onto the metal chair. She knew who she was; the SIREN knew she shouldn’t’ve really given a damn, but the fact was, this whore was competition for Divine’s attention and that was a distraction she could not afford. Nevermind that he said he didn’t want her any longer, the very fact that she was still alive very much indicated that he still might. And even something as remote as that was still too much for Cantata’s liking.

“Now are you going to tell me what I’m here for?” she asked.

“That’s not my job,” Cantata lied. What she would have rather done is put a bullet in her head and dump her somewhere for carrion, but again, that wasn’t her choice.

But Divine better not have plans for her that I don’t agree with, the SIREN captain thought, or else she’s going to meet with a little “accident”.

“I demand to see my daughter,” she ordered, glaring at Cantata with a haughty look in her eyes. Cantata knew said look so well: it was the look of authority and command, said by the sort of person that thought they were in absolute charge. And even a princess of a house in pretense had some sort of influence; plus she was a diplomat for the government that had deposed her ancestor, so she had pull there. And as Divine had said (with some admiration, which had annoyed Cantata even further), she was a formidable woman in her own right.

But looking at her now, bruised and shaken, but still defiant, Cantata could only see an enemy to put down at all costs.

“You are in no position to dictate anything, Princess,” Cantata barked. “You will only answer as you are questioned, are we clear?”

Solaire didn’t rise above the bait. “I said, where is my daughter?”

Cantata gave a glance to one of her troops.

A fist came down hard across Solaire’s face, drawing blood and nearly knocking her out of her seat.

“Next time I won’t be so kind,” Cantata warned.

“Oh, Canta dear, that will not do!” a voice rang out, and as Solaire turned, blinking away the pain, she saw a face from her horrors, one she thought she would never see again.

“Divine?” she spoke, her words numbed with shock.

He walked up to her, assured and confident, carrying a glass of wine in his hand and an easy grin on his face. “I see you remember me, dear cousin. And I see you’ve already met my betrothed.” He looked at Cantata. “I trust you two have bonded, my dear?”

She gave him a fed-up look. “Can we just get to the point?” she asked him.

“All in good time, my dear, all in good time,” he said affably. “Would you have one of your troops be so kind as to get both some water for my cousin as well as her daughter? We must show faith to our family, correct?” Cantata nodded silently and gestured to one of her troops.

Meanwhile, Solaire continued to look at Divine with absolute shock. “What? How…. How are you still alive? I heard you were killed in a boating accident!”

He took a sip of his wine and chuckled. “Yes, and I hear the deaths of our other family members were accidents, too. But I know better, of course – after all, accidents are much cleaner than murders.”

“What?” Solaire gasped, her eyes filled with shock at the presence of her cousin who she thought was dead, and now his confession that he had something to do with Bataille and Quenouille’s deaths earlier in the year. “No,” she whispered. “This has to be a lie.”

Just then, one of the SIRENs returned with a bottle of water. “Pass that to me, please.” Taking it, he then walked over and handed it to her, his citrine eyes looking into her lilac ones. “Oh, this is very real, cousin,” he told her. “And now you’re going to pay the price not only for spurning my offers, but debasing yourself with a commoner and defiling yourself by having his spawn.”

“What?” she repeated, still not believing what she was hearing.

He sighed theatrically, then looked at Cantata. “I did try, you know. Let the record show that I did try.”

Cantata, already bored with this, rolled her eyes. “So noted for the logs.”

“Thank you, dear.” He then went over to the nearby table and set the glass on it, then returned to Solaire. “Let me make things a little clearer, cousin.” With that, he raised his hand, and a violet glow filled his hands while his eyes started to emanate a sickly green energy. And then he lifted her out of the chair violently, by her neck, before throwing her against the wall.

“This is getting pretty interesting,” a SIREN behind Cantata commented. Cantata gave her subordinate a brief look before nodding in agreement.

Solaire stared dumbfounded at her cousin, ignoring the pain. He had done something impossible. Was it even him? She never really liked him, but if he had been killed and replaced by a demon wearing his skin…she wouldn’t want that on anyone.

“Oh, I assure you it’s me, cousin,” he told her as if hearing her thoughts, which Solaire could almost believe at this point. “I have merely claimed the birthright of our father of fathers, what my ancestor of ancestors has graced us with. While you were laying with that commoner trash you were stupid enough to call your husband, I regained the power that is due to us, made it mine and made the world my oyster. I will make everyone and everything in it my playthings and I will be as a god!”

“You’re crazy!” she told him. “Vous êtes un imbécile dangereux et trompé!”

“And you’re worthless,” he spat at her. He snapped his fingers, and from around a corner, two guards came, dragging a very frightened teenager. Though Shimmer looked unharmed, the word was a relative thing. She was dressed in a white outfit reminiscent of an ancient Greek peplos, with a belt made from a golden material. The fact that she was dressed that way – as if she were some temple virgin – seriously worried Solaire.

“If you’ve harmed her, I swear, Divine, I will hurt you,” Solaire growled.

“Oh, please, you couldn’t hurt a fly,” Cantata said. “But fortunately for you, we’ll be nice.” She turned to her subordinates. “Let the girl go.”

Shimmer didn’t need any further prodding; the moment the SIRENs let go of her, she dived into her mother’s arms, sobbing. “Mama, qu’est-ce qui se passe? Qu’est-ce qu’ils vont nous faire?” she cried. “Je veux aller a maison!”

Solaire held her daughter tightly as she also cried. “Sssh, mon petite tournesol. Everything will be okay, I promise, I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Divine taunted, “and I assure you this is one you won’t keep. Because you two are family, I’ll give you a minute alone. Please, let’s leave them to their devices.”

Solaire glared at them all as they left the room, while she continued to hold her daughter protectively. Once they were gone, she brought Shimmer’s face to hers. “Did they hurt you? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Shimmer said, forcing down her fear. “They…they didn’t hurt me. What’s going on? Why is cousin Divine with these monsters! And I thought he was dead!”

“I don’t know, Sunset. I suspect that things are not what we thought they were – but I know this much. Divine said he killed Bataille and Quenouille, your aunt and uncle. If that’s true, then he is orchestrating the downfall of our family for some reason or another, and I don’t know how to stop him.”

“What happened to Agent Breeze? Is he okay?”

Solaire brushed Shimmer’s hair with her fingers to call her down – or to calm herself down, she wasn’t really sure. “I don’t know. I hope so.”

“So do I, Mom. He’s a good guy. I hope you get to see him again.”

“Let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s focus on how we’re going to get out of this together, my dearest. Then we can worry about going to the police—”

“And I think we’ve had enough of that seditious talk,” Divine said as he reentered the room, with the SIRENs in tow. “Take our younger guest to the staging room. As for our older guest, well, she can join the others.” Nodding to the two guards, Divine gave Solaire a cruel smile. “Enjoy your last seconds with your daughter, Soli.”

The eyes of the two captives went wide with panic as the two SIRENs began to pry them apart. Solaire and Shimmer tried to hold on to each other but then Cantata stepped in, bashing Solaire against the side of her head with her rifle. As Shimmer screamed and Solaire crumpled to the ground, Divine appeared indifferent to it all on the surface, but in his eyes was a gleeful cruelty. He was enjoying this.

“Mom!” Shimmer desperately reached out to her mother, her face a mask of panic and her eyes pinpricks of fear. “Help!” But all Solaire could do was rub her head and try to push herself off the ground, her face one of both shock and heartbreak as her daughter was forcibly dragged from the room. And by the time Solaire had managed to regain some semblance of clarity, her daughter was gone.

“SUNSET!” Solaire screamed with all the horror in the world. “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!” She then forced herself to ignore the pain and the blood dribbling down the side of her head. With all the hatred she could muster, she glared at him. “ENFOIRÉ! CONNARD! VOUS M’ENTENDEZ? LAISSEZ-LA PARTIR!”

“Sticks and stones, my dear cousin, sticks and stones,” Divine replied. “And in case you’ve forgotten, I’m the guy who has the girls with the guns.” He bent down before her, looked her in the eyes. “I could have you killed in a second, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Solaire looked at her cousin, hatred in her soul. While she’d never really liked him, she did put up with him for the family’s sake. And now he’d murdered said family and there was no more real reason to tolerate him, save that he had her daughter. “Please, Divine, if there’s any humanity within you, you’ll let my daughter go. She’s innocent.”

“She’s not innocent,” Divine laughed. “No girl is nowadays.” A thought crossed his mind. “Those friends of hers that you used as a decoy? I’ll bet she’s having relations with at least one of them.”

“Other friends? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid with me, Solaire – you’ve done that for enough years. Do you think me an idiot? Send your daughter’s friends down south to keep my forces off their trail? Well, it almost worked. Unfortunately for you, Captain Blast here has a world-class intelligence apparatus, and we were able to weed out your fakes. I even hear your body double downstairs is a near-duplicate.” He grinned. “Congratulate her plastic surgeon – he apparently seems to be a master at the art.”

“Again, what are you talking about?”

“Defiant to the last, I see. Well, let’s see how defiant you are when I am the master of this world and you are my plaything—”

Cantata faux-coughed and gave him an even look.

“At least, that was my original plan. Instead, I intend to turn you over to my fiancée, for further…ahem…disposal.” So as to not upset his intended, he said, “Well, I think we must prepare for the ritual. Canta, dear, please take her to meet up with her friends. We have a few hours left before we inherit the world and the last thing we need running around here is a group of people that remotely even think they stand a chance of stopping us. Fortunately, within a couple of hours I will have all that in hand, but until then we don’t need the authorities snooping around, don’t you agree?”

“Yes, without a doubt. Plus, I want to make sure that once we raise our new tool that we keep this bitch alive.” The look on Cantata’s face was nigh monstrous as she turned back to Solaire. “By this time tomorrow the world will have new rulers and the most you can hope for in the new world order is that I kill you quickly. Because I certainly have no intention of that.”

Sunset came back to consciousness, feeling someone tapping her. As she opened her eyes, she saw Adagio hold an In-N-Out bag in front of her face. “You need to eat,” she said. “Chances are, it’s been a while.”

“Thanks,” Sunset replied, taking the bag gratefully.

“And thanks for changing our clothing back to something more normal,” Adagio added, looking at her plain black t-shirt, cargo pants, and combat boots. Not quite regulation, but it would do for now. There was something uneasy in the teen’s voice, Sunset noted, something she didn’t quite associate with the confident girl she knew.

“Is everything okay?” Sunset asked.

“I could’ve died. I should’ve died,” Adagio intoned, staring blankly at the windshield. “I could feel my vision tunneling, the pain vanishing into a cold, numbing sensation. If it wasn’t for my sisters, I would’ve just accepted it.” She looked at Sunset, and for the first time in her life, Adagio Dazzle felt completely adrift. “Why didn’t you let me die? I deserved it.”

“What do you mean you deserved it?” Sunset asked. “Dagi, I—”

“You don’t understand what kind of person I am – my sisters and I are. We have been trained since childhood to kill. I have killed already, and I’m not just talking today. I…I have blood on my hands, Sunny. And you saved me. Why?”

There was a companionable silence from the pair while they ate. Sunset finally asked, “Where’s Ari and Soni?”

Adagio pointed outside the car to where the two sisters were seated on the bench, both eating dinner and checking the weapons they had on hand. They looked completely focused on their job, and Sunset had to wonder if it was either due to a need to prep weapons or because the eldest of the triplets had asked them to.

Nodding slightly, Sunset took a drink of her soda before continuing. “You know about my past, right?”

“Yeah. You used to be a bully, but then the girls conspired with an exchange student to show you up, and as a result you saw the light, right?” Adagio popped a fry in her mouth, then smiled. “I wish it would’ve been as easy for the three of us.”

“I don’t think you understand, Dagi. There’s a lot more to the story than we told you three.” With that, Sunset then went into everything. As she did, the look of confusion on Adagio’s face just grew and grew, apexing as Sunset got to the part where she’d been possessed by a demon and that Princess Twilight and the others had saved her, and this was before she’d met the people that had become her family. She then explained everything she’d done, including her return to Equestria, and up until the point where they met.

All this time, Adagio sat there, eating her dinner and looking at Sunset with both a shocked expression and a studious eagerness. “Do you know why I pulled us over? Why I thought it was important to sit down and eat while here instead of on the road? Because I don’t know if I’m ready – I don’t know if we’re ready.”

“What?”

“Sunny….” The look in Adagio’s eyes was one of worry. “I think I just died, Sunny. I…did you bring me back from the dead?”

“What? No! I don’t have that power, Dagi! I don’t think anyone has that kind of power, not my mother, not—”

“Wait – are you trying to tell me your family has magic as well?” Adagio asked.

“I…. No, I mean my family back in Equestria. The mare who was my mother – she’s at a power level that makes me look quaint. Think of the difference between a match and a flashlight, then of a flashlight and the sun. I’m probably the flashlight, compared to other unicorns. But….” She could see the concern rise on her friend’s face once more, and Sunset stopped. “Nevermind, that’s not important right now. What is important is that I need to go back to Canterlot – I need to save them, Dagi…and I need your help.”

“I don’t know if I can help, Sunny. We have other SIRENs in Canterlot who can, but…I nearly bit the big one. I don’t know if I have the courage to do this again. Everything else has been just training, just rote movements and muscle memory. But psyching yourself up for a battle after you’ve had a few holes put in your heart?” She turned away, not wanting to look at the flame-haired girl’s eyes.

Sunset reached out and took Adagio’s hands in hers. “I need you, all three of you. I need people who can stand beside me when I go save them. You know who these people are and what they can do, and if what you told me is true, it’s more than just my friends and family that are at stake here.” Before Adagio could respond further, Sunset called out to the others, “Hey, Ari, Soni, mind coming here a second?”

“Yeah, sure,” Aria said, picking up the weapons and putting them in the bag.

“You two kissed and made up yet?” Sonata teased.

“No, Pinkie would probably get jealous,” Sunset said off-handedly.

Aria chuckled, then looked at Sonata. “You owe me five bucks.”

Sonata cocked an eyebrow. “For what?”

“I told you Pinkie had the hots for Sunny, but you didn’t believe me. As I recall, you thought it was Rares.” Sonata grumbled, then fished in her pocket for a billfold, opening it and passing several ones to Aria.

“Okay,” Sunset cut in, “now that that’s done, I need to know something from you three, and I want the honest truth: do you trust me?” Sunset asked.

“Absolutely, Sunny!” Sonata chirped.

“Yeah, sure, you know it,” Aria added.

Adagio, was silent for the longest time, enough so until Sonata asked, “Sis?”

“Yes,” Adagio said finally and nearly sotto voce. “But I wonder if you still trust us, after all this? Especially after I’m admitting that I don’t know if I can do this anymore!”

“What?” Aria asked.

“You’re giving up?” Sonata gasped.

Adagio’s response was to grab her sisters in a hug and start to cry. It was infectious and soon, all three siblings were in a group hug, crying for all they’d lost and would never have, for the life they never chose and what it had cut out of their lives.

Sunset stood there, watching the trio and their inner turmoil and feeling guilty about it all. She knew what had to be done: saving her friends, her sister and her cousin was the only option; moreso, if this Divine Right character had magic and was messing with things well above his paygrade, it could be disastrous for the world, even more than her own issue had been.

She brought up her magic, the spellfire encircling her…

…and a second later, to the surprise of the trio, a unicorn stood before them. “This…is the real me,” Sunset began. “Not a seventeen-year-old girl. A thirty-year-old unicorn. A quadruped the size of a German shepherd. The next door neighbor’s dog is probably larger than me, truth be told. And as you can see, in this way, I don’t look fearless or intimidating. And if anything, I’m at extra risk, because ponies have an inborn flight-or-fight nature that leans towards the left end of that phrase. I’m certainly nothing that would indicate anything brave or mighty.

“And when I look at you three, I see my dear friends – three sisters who came into my life and enriched it, by being there and growing with us. Yes, things haven’t been normal for you. They really haven’t been for me, either: I still struggle with being human on a regular basis, and I’m sure you struggle with acting like average girls. But I want you to know something: we’re all together in this. You don’t have to be alone, like I was, destroying everything out of childish stupidity. You have a circle of friends – of family – who will be there for you, because that’s what friendship is.

“And right now, our circle is sundered. The girls are in danger. My friends, my cousin, my sister. And who knows what else. You three are normal girls, but you’re also soldiers—”

“Uh, technically we’re sailors,” Sonata said, though Adagio shot her a silencing glance.

“Whatever. The point is, I need you – the girls need you. You three have abilities that we need to save not just our friends, but possibly the world as well. And I am oathbound to do this anyway, as the Archmagus of Equestria. But even if I wasn’t, I’d still fight, because my loved ones are in danger, and I cannot stand them being so. Not for one minute, one second, one instance more. And if you three were among them and I’d have to fight alone? I still would.

“Dagi, you told me that for the first time in your life, you’re afraid. I’m afraid every day, both that my family will find out what I am, and that the world will find out. But I can’t let that fear rule me. Because as someone once said, ‘Is it my destiny? This is no accident.’”

Adagio chuckled, then started laughing, wiping the tears from her eyes. “You would know that, wouldn’t you?”

“I don’t get it,” Sonata commented.

“The words are from Adagio Dazzle – that Adagio Dazzle,” Aria explained, referring to the pop star their sister was named after. “It’s from the title track to her album Testament. Only reason I know it, is because it’s the only Adagio Dazzle album I have on my iPod.”

Sunset looked at the three sisters and asked, “We’re all afraid of what could happen to us if we fight. But that’s nothing compared to what will happen if we lose.” She stuck her hoof out. “Will you join me?”

“Not the strangest thing I’ve done in my life,” Aria said, eagerly placing her hand on Sunset’s hoof. “Count me in.”

“Yeah. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do anything to save my friends,” Sonata added. “Just gonna have to tough it up.”

The three of them looked at Adagio. “Dagi?”

Adagio looked at Sunset. “You do know your eyes are freakishly large, right? They’re like squid eyes or something.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Blame evolution for that one – genetics are a relatively new field in Equestria and so nopony has any clue about how it works.”

“Nopony?”

“Dagi, you’re getting on my nerves. You in or what?”

Adagio giggled and placed her hand on top. “Someone has to keep you three out of trouble. Sure, count me in.”

Sunset backed up and changed back to her human form, and as she did, Adagio’s phone went off. Adagio looked at it and answered. “This is SIREN Rescue Actual. Go ahead…Yeah, we got her. She’s safe. But our friends were captured…Yes, lieutenant. I understan—Look, we did what we had to based on the information that we had. It’s on Sonata’s main laptop, you can check it out yourself!...We’ll be back as soon as we can. Stole a car fast enough to get us there on time; we just need to find a way to distract the cops.” Adagio hung up the phone. “Well, that was our sœurs. They’re waiting for us in Canterlot.”

“Then to Canterlot we go,” Sunset said. “I think we have a lesson to teach someone, one long overdue.”

“And that is?”

“That guy you said who thinks he’s the most powerful magic slinger on this planet? He’s about to learn what happens when you go up against a real master.” Sunset punched a fist into her palm, and sparks of turquoise shot from them. “And school is definitely about to be in session.”

August 15, 7:30 PM: Stand or Fall

As she carefully opened her eyes, Applejack’s head felt like it was a temporary replacement for the Interstate. Her vision was blurry, and there was a deep WHUP WHUP WHUP that filled the air. The ground felt jerky and unsteady, as if it were floating, somehow.

“Looks like one of them is coming to,” a voice said in the background, and Applejack felt herself being pulled up from the ground, before water was splashed in her face. That sensation didn’t last long before she was brought face-to-face – in a sense – with a woman wearing a ski mask and carrying a military rifle.

“Congratulations!” the woman said in a rough voice. “By dint of being the first one up, you’re now the speaker for your little group. And if you’re not, tough shit; you are now. Behave yourselves and don’t get your panties in a bunch, and everything will be fine.”

“And if not?” Applejack asked and discovered the answer immediately: the woman butted the blonde in the stomach with the stock of her rifle. Applejack would’ve collapsed if she wasn’t being held up by a second person whose face she hadn’t seen either. Still, the pain was more than she was used to, and being a martial artist, she was used to a lot.

The woman pulled Applejack’s face up to hers and snarled, “Ask again and next time I won’t be nice. So, now that I have your attention, this is the plan: you spoiled little cunts are going to sit at the back of the helo and do nothing – no talking, no sending signals, no eating each other out or whatever you do. Not one damn thing, am I clear?” Applejack nodded, unsure of what else she could say. The soldier looked at her counterpart and ordered, “Get this little whore out of my face.” The soldier complied, roughly throwing her quarry on top of the other girls.

The impact made the rest of them start to stir, and Applejack scrambled off them, ready to tell them all the truth: they were on a helicopter, headed away from the resort and kidnapped for unknown reasons. Worse, it meant there was no chance of finding or rescuing Sunset. Applejack didn’t know what was going on at all, but she knew this much: protecting her friends now took priority…

…even if it cost Sunset her life.

“How much time do we have left until we get to Canterlot?” Adagio asked.

“We’re approaching Salinas, so probably another three hours,” Sonata called from the backseat of the stolen car.

“Hey, I’m kinda surprised we made it this far this fast,” Aria added. “At the speed we’re going, we should have half the state’s law enforcement agencies behind us!”

Adagio looked to her side. “I guess you have something to do with that?”

Adjusting shades she’d just summoned a few seconds prior, a grin came over Sunset’s face. “Same reason why we haven’t run out of gas yet – it’s pretty much all I can do until I fully charge my magic again. Otherwise I’d just teleport us back to Canterlot.”

Sonata gasped. “Wait – you can teleport?”

“Yup! It’s a somewhat advanced spell, but yeah, I can do it and bring people along.”

Sonata practically did some teleporting of her own, moving fast enough that in a blink of an eye she moved from her seat to practically hugging Sunset’s. “Teach me, sensei!” the ponytailed girl cried.

“Soni, this is the part where I remind you we’re Chinese, not Japanese,” Aria said with a grin.

“Whatever! I need her power!”

“Soni, it really doesn’t work like that,” Sunset told her friend. “I’m still trying to figure out if humans have magi—”

“I thought you said the others had magic! TEACH ME!”

Sunset sighed. “Ari?”

“Yeah?”

“You know that shirt you kept wanting to borrow?”

“Yeah?”

“You can have it if you get your sister off my case.”

“On it.”

Adagio barked out a laugh and said, “You know, this is almost like old times.”

“How so?” Sonata asked from the headlock her older sister had her in.

“All the times we wanted to have a normal life, and just hanging with friends. It’s sad that we had to get to this point to understand what one was like.” Adagio looked over at Sunset. “I guess you have a little expertise with that?”

Sunset groaned. “Can we get this thing to go any faster?”

“I’ve got it redlined already, Sunny. There’s not much more that I can—” A light came on the dashboard, and the eldest triplet frowned. “Great, just fucking great. I don’t suppose you know how to put oil in this thing.”

“Not a clue. Soni?”

“Maybe if someone would let me out of the headlock!” the youngest SIREN yelped.

Aria grinned. “And for that, someone’s getting noogies!” she said, flexing her other hand.

“Gah! Dagi, stop her, will you?”

“Ari,” Adagio ordered, “let Soni go.”

The middle triplet huffed. “Spoilsport,” she said in a mock-annoyed tone, but she did as ordered.

“Okay, pull us over,” Sonata told her sister. “I have a bad feeling about this, but pull over, just in case.” Catching her sister’s point, Adagio shifted the car over towards the side of the road, where she could pull over safely. Once she’d done so, Sonata leapt out of the car, a concerned look on her face as she shimmied her way underneath the car. A few seconds later, she came back out. “Yeah, we’re screwed,” she sighed. “Just as I expected, the car is a mid-engine build. That means it’s going to be hella complex to get any motor oil in it, plus we have to get the right formulation.”

“I guess that means it’s a no-go for this thing anymore,” Adagio sighed. “And I was just enjoying redlining this thing.” She turned back to Sunset. “Any way you can hocus-pocus us another set of wheels?”

“Look, magic doesn’t work like that. I need to know the intricacies of whatever it is I’m creating out of air. Otherwise you’ll end up with an empty shell of a car that can’t go anywhere. As much as I hate to say it, we’re going to have to find another way of getting there.”

“Maybe steal another car?” Aria suggested.

Sunset frowned. “Look, I really don’t like that idea. Yeah, granted we needed this one to get out of the area and to get us to where we are now, but that was circumstances. Now you’re asking me to give you sanction to steal a car from someone who might need it. I’m not comfortable with that idea at all.”

“But the girls need us,” Adagio countered. “Given the circumstances, what’s more important, protecting our moral dignity or saving the others? I get what you’re saying, Sunny, really, I do. But this is the sort of thing that we’re trained for, both the good and the bad – and right now, things are very, very bad.”

Sunset was about to say something when Aria got her attention. “Hey, look over there!” the middle triplet pointed to the distance. On the other side of a fence and across a street after that, was a car dealership. The lot was darkened, and there were few cars, all recent models, in the lot. The neon sign, darkened, read LUCKY CHANCE’S HONDA/ACURA, and by all discernable means the business was no longer in operation.

“Up for stealing from that?” Sonata asked.

The answer never came, as Sunset closed her eyes and teleported the trio from where the other car was to just outside of the car dealership’s front doors. She sat down again. “I’m draining a lot of my magic right now, you know,” she explained.

“I thought you were going to recover?” Sonata asked.

“That was my plan, but teleporting us over here and throwing a stealth field over us—”

“We’re invisible?”

Sunset tried not to facepalm. “That’s not possible, Soni, and you know that. No, what a stealth field spell does is make you be ‘ignorable’, for lack of a better term. Unless you do something outrageous to draw attention to yourself, no one’s going to think anything of you at all.”

“Well that’s not really stealthy,” Adagio countered.

“Well, I like the name better than what it’s called back in Equestria – the ‘Background Pony’ spell.”

Adagio thought about it for a second. “You do have a point. Okay, so now here’s the plan: Soni, see if you can either disable or loop the security systems.”

“On it,” she said, heading to look for where the telephone and cable connections for the building were.

“Ari, check for security guards and if there are any, take them out quickly.” A pause. “And painlessly,” Adagio amended.

“Look, I wasn’t going to kill them or anything,” the middle triplet replied. “Sunny would never let me hear the end of it if I did.”

“You’re damn right I wouldn’t,” the flame-haired girl growled, to which Aria gave a grin before heading off.

Finished giving orders, Adagio then looked at the one she considered in charge. “Any ideas?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. Can you get us into their computer systems?”

“Well, that’s more along Sonata’s skillset, but I’m sure I can figure a few things out, why?”

Sunset gave her friend a huge smile. “Well, if we’re going to steal a car, the best kind of stealing goes on paper – I’m an old hand at that.”

Based on the information he could get, Sable made his way towards what was the enemy headquarters. He had to admit, it was the perfect place to hide: between the warehouses that had been destroyed during the hurricane (an obvious location) and the part that had made the news about a shootout in the Everfree (probably their bolthole), he’d taken the time to look over the information that he’d obtained from earlier.

Still, it was a little hard to comprehend.

Still can’t believe they’re real, he thought as he focused binoculars on the worksite from the top of one of the nearby office buildings. SIREN is supposed to be as much of a myth as Canadians being warlike. Next thing, I’ll find out GI Joe was based on a real unit. That he was looking at a bunch of heavily-armed girls was bad enough, but the fact that there were more than enough to put a stop to him was chilling. But it had been the unit patch that he was able to look at through the scope, along with a memory from his military days, that made him think twice. That, alongside the maps and other items the woman he’d killed earlier sealed the deal on the whole thing.

Still, with the number of people they have out on the perimeter just watching, it’s only a matter of time before I’m spotted. Better move locations. He then noticed a small park to the west of the facility. That’s probably better; while I don’t doubt they have people in that place, they’d be too exposed so they’ll have to be more circumspect. Heading towards the stairs, he knew he didn’t have a lot of time. The sun was going to set soon, and once darkness came, he’d have to formulate a plan.

He rushed down the stairs as quickly as he could, hoping the building’s security guards wouldn’t notice. The last thing he needed was to be questioned by the guards, especially since being this close to the enemy, he didn’t know if they were on their payroll or not; the irony of him being caught in his ACUs while the actual “camouflage nutcases” were meters away would be galling. Fortunately, he got down the last flight of stairs and made his way out of the building.

A few minutes of thankfully unimpeded movement, and he found himself in Carnival Faire Memorial Plaza. One of the various miniature parks in town, it wasn’t much to look at and certainly nothing in size compared to Three Heroes Park or even some of the other smaller parks in town. But for its size, it was both slightly hilly and had a number of trees on the property. He immediately climbed up one, making sure to get a position where he could see as much as possible while having enough foliage to prevent himself from being seen. It wasn’t easy and he’d climbed higher than he preferred, but he was able to maneuver into a position of usefulness.

It was then that he saw someone slowly stagger up towards the tree. The man moved woozily, almost as if he were drunk, until Sable noticed the bleeding, badly-patched up job the man had done on his leg. Sable knew field dressing when he saw it, and despite the man’s condition, his field dressing was indicative of someone who was very familiar with it. That alone was worrisome. From this angle, Sable also noted that the man had a stone cold look on his face. He might be here for the same reason, but with an attitude like that, it was going to get him dead.

How many people did Blackthorn intend to screw over? Sable mused. If this guy had his girl taken as well, or worse, a wife and kids, that would do a guy in, especially one that seemed to have already been in a gunfight. But as good as this guy might or might not be, the SIRENs had the numbers, which meant it was time to do things the stealthy way, not blast down the door and kick in some heads.

The only question now was, bail him out or not? If the guy could be of use, Sable could patch him up and then he’d have someone to work with to take down the SIRENs. Of course, if this guy was just a nutcase with a gun thinking he was the reincarnation of Duke Searcher, it would be another story. That was the kind of guy that would think he was in a remake of Die Hard and of course Hollywood didn’t square with reality. Worse, if it came to a point where their goals would diverge, there was no guarantee he would be logical about the whole damn thing. Sable was having a hard time trying to keep it cool while he knew Tia and Luna were in trouble; he couldn’t count on another person doing the same thing.

It was at that point, that a pair of CPD officers approached the man and, not surprisingly, drew their guns on him. Yeah, just what I thought, Sable mused at first, until he noticed something was definitely off. For starters, the two officers had long hair, which was probably not regulation in any way, shape or form. Additionally, one of the guns that one of the officers was carrying was a MAC-11, which was definitely not regulation in any way, shape or form. The two had to be SIRENs in disguise, which probably meant the guy below was on the up and up.

And just like that, one of them just had to look up. Sable sighed and muttered, “Aw, hell,” and immediately pulled the trigger, cutting down the officer. He leapt down from the tree, on top of the second one and cracked her head against the ground. The man finally reacted, pulling his gun on him, and for a moment Sable thought his life would flash before his eyes.

Then a gun cracked and he and the man turned towards the sound. A third woman, dressed in police attire, fell to the ground, dead. As Sable and the other man stared in surprise, a new voice called out, “Wow, and here I thought you would’ve seen her. You’ve really lost your edge, Sergeant.” The two men turned to look and see another woman standing there, holding a P-90. “Now, c’mon, we’ve got to get your friend out of here before he bleeds out and before those bitches notice that we just took out one of their patrols.”

Sable looked at her. “Have we met?”

“Yes, and look, we really don’t have time for this. You two can either come, or get shot in the head when the SIRENs notice. Your choice.”

Finally the bleeding man looked at her and, dropping his gun, pitched forward. Sable caught him. “Okay, I’ll take my chances. Again, who are you?”

Madrigal Storm looked at both men and smiled. “I’m the SIREN saving your asses before those turncoats kill you. So let’s get going and get your buddy patched up.”

The brand-new Acura NSX rushed out of the parking lot, rocketing down the street and headed towards the Interstate offramp. The car moved with a certain purpose, a don’t screw with me rumble of the engine that seemed to ward everything out of its way, including a police cruiser. And as it hit the onramp, the engines sang and the car roared, going from a pedestrian 40 miles per hour straight to 100 in a hair over a second.

“THIS. FUCKING. ROCKS!” Sonata shouted as she flawlessly steered through the traffic as if the other cars were stock still, mere obstacles on a course that the youngest triplet knew she could navigate with her eyes closed.

That didn’t help her terrified sister in the passenger’s seat. “Soni, slow the fuck down!” Aria yelped.

“Are you kidding? I told you I should’ve been the one driving! I’m the one who had strategic driving training!” Sonata insisted, her eyes off the road and looking at her sister.

“Soni, eyes forward!” Aria told her. “Are you trying to get us killed?”

“Not yet!” her younger sister chirped. “Gotta be the Master of Going Faster!”

“The what?”

“DAAAAAAAYYYYYYTTTTTOOOOOOOOONNNNAAAAAAAA!” Sonata sang at the top of her lungs as she redlined the engine and pushed the car towards its maximum speed of 200mph.

“I think I’m going to hurl,” Aria groaned.

In the back seat, Sunset sat with her eyes closed, while Adagio looked at her curiously. “What are you doing?”

A smile crept up over the other girl’s face. “Creating a buffer zone for Pole Position up there,” she nodded with her chin. “Any car that’s within a mile of us…the driver is going to have the sudden need to get off the freeway. I’m not filling in the blanks, just planting a suggestion.”

“That sounds useful,” Adagio noted.

“It is…and I don’t like using it. I used to use it whenever I could in the bad old days and while it’s not exactly black magic, it’s still unethical when used improperly.”

“I don’t see how you’re using it improperly, Sunny. They have a choice: take the suggestion you’ve given them, or risk having two tons of aircraft-grade aluminum hit them at about an eighth the speed of a bullet. It’s not going to be pretty.”

“There’s another reason I don’t like using it: keeping it up like this is going to drain a significant amount of the magic I’ve been trying to recoup. If I have to actually go in magic blazing, I may be at a significant disadvantage.”

“Against who? Zeus? Gandalf? Amelia Grund?”

“Against whoever created those monsters – and if your fellow SIRENs are being turned into them, that means someone has a talent for amnimorphy, and that’s not good.”

“Amniomorphy?”

“Yes. It’s the transformation of living creatures. Think of it this way: transformation has two branches of study: transfiguration, which is the changing of inanimate objects, like when I was turning the air in the other car into gas; and amniomorphy, which is the changing of living things. That, needless to say, is a dangerous study and can easily lead to black magic.”

“Well, you’d know a lot more than I do, so I can’t help you there. I’m guessing amniomorphy takes up a significant amount of power?”

“Yes, even more so to keep that spell in place. When you do that, you’re breaking laws of thermodynamics and physics. That’s what magic is, at least here on Earth: a way around the natural laws of reality, and if you want to keep it that way, you need a lot of power, because nature abhors a vacuum.” Sunset smiled again. “Now back where I’m from, the natural laws are a little different and complement magic more. But in reality that is near-magically dead like this one? Oh yeah you need to come packing mystical heat.”

Now it was Adagio’s turn to smile, even if Sunset couldn’t see it. “You make it sound as if magic is girding for battle.”

“Maybe in a sense it is, at least metaphorically,” Sunset told her. “And because I need to save the ones I care about? It’s definitely going to be a battle.”

“So it’s time to do the bullet mambo?” Sonata shouted from the driver’s seat.

“What was that?” Adagio asked.

“How the hell should I know?” Aria retorted. “I’m busy trying not to get PTSD just by being in the front seat here!”

“It’s from one of my favorite comic books, Sombrero Bob,” Sonata explained.

“Wait, when do you have time to read comics?” Aria asked her sister.

“I am a girl of many talents, sis. And anyway, whenever the hero, Sombrero Bob, gets ready to face off against his vile archnemesis Univof Neb’r, he whips out his pistols and shouts, ‘It’s time to do the bullet mambo!’”

“I cannot believe this shit,” Aria groaned.

It had been a while since she checked on her charges, Cantata had told herself. Between the plans for tonight’s attack and the ritual, she wasn’t sure what the Black Trio were up to. Nonetheless, she had to make sure the little shits were still alive, so….

Down into the vault she went. It was no longer guarded; there was no reason to do so. Even still, Cantata felt a twinge of sorrow over Piano’s death. Piano had been her sœur, and it had been Cantata’s duty to look after her. Now she was gone and though she served the cause, the SIREN commander had to wonder if there had been any way to save the young girl.

Cantata stopped, took a breath then went in. She would honor Piano by conquering the world and erecting a statue to her in her memory. That would be the finest way to memorialize the existence of a girl who had given everything for the cause.

Just as the three that were now before her in the cage had. In their case, however, Cantata wasn’t sure whether the best thing to do with them would be to keep them on a very tight leash…or put a bullet in their skull.

As she approached Medley, she could smell sweat and musk. The sweat was understandable. The musk, well….

A hand, covered in scales rushed out and Cantata barely dodged in time. She looked into the cage and two reptilian eyes stared back at her through limp hair.

“MATE WITH ME!” the voice burbled with unnatural tones. “I WANT BABIES FOR MY CLUTCH! FUCK ME NOW!!!!”

Disturbed, Cantata walked towards the second cage, withdrawing her sidearm. As she approached Canzione’s cage, she could smell rotting meat and as she got closer, she could see the bars had been gnawed on. Looking into the cage, she turned and threw up, seeing the remains of….

“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your head right now, Seaman Burst,” Cantata intoned.

“Because you need us.”

Cantata turned to look at the third cage, where Contralto sat, very much like a caged animal that would strike at any moment. “You need us to murder and maim, destroy and rend, to commit barbarous acts and atrocities you don’t have the stomach to do, because you’re nothing but a human.” She then smiled. “But we three don’t have that problem…and soon there will be more of us.”

“No there won’t,” Cantata told her. “I’ve already asked Divine to look into a reagent that will counteract whatever is happening to you three. There’s nothing I can do for you, but I will ensure the rest of the Sisterhood remains under my control.”

Contralto laughed, a guttural, hissing sound. “Oh, no, I’m not talking about the SIRENs, Cantata. I’m talking about us. I don’t think we’re human anymore. And furthermore, I don’t think Medley is female anymore.” Cantata’s eyes opened at that and Contralto chuckled. “When this is over, Canzy and I will take Medley as a mate and further our new…well, whatever we are. You’ll end up with a new army.” The girl’s eyes narrowed. “Or I will be queen of my new species, and you will have a new problem.”

“Then why shouldn’t I kill you now?”

“Because I can sense the threat, can’t you? Something powerful is coming, Cantata. Something you, or maybe even Divine, can’t control; a power that you cannot hope to counter easily. Whatever it is, you’d better hope you defeat it, or we will be free. And I will be a queen mother and this world will be our feeding ground.”

“No, you won’t.”

“You won’t kill us, Cantata – we’re too valuable for your needs. But soon,” Contralto laughed, “you won’t be able to.”

Cantata departed the room, hearing nothing more than Contralto’s laughter, Canzione’s mastication and Medley’s oddly seductive, “You’re going to love me….”

“There,” Evergreen said when she was done. “He’s going to have a limp once it heals – there’s no way around that – but he’ll live. It was close, too: that bullet that tore through him nearly hit the artery.” She took off her gloves and gear, wiping her brow. “Just let him sleep for a few hours, and then we’ll get him medicated. Good thing he’s on our side.”

Sable looked at the four women in the room. “I don’t even know what side this is,” he said warily.

Vesper sighed and looked at her sister. “We don’t have time for this shit.”

“No,” Intermezzo agreed. “We don’t. Look, Sergeant, either you can get with the program, or you can get out of here. I have no idea why you’re idiotic enough to try to storm the base by yourself – you didn’t strike me as that much of a moron when we first met.”

Sable looked again at the woman. “I’m sorry, I don’t recognize you.”

“Because I have all of my clothes on,” she admitted. His eyes widened and she laughed. “Oh, c’mon, you know I didn’t mean it that way. Remember the USO tour that invited the International Bikini Team? I was Canada.” She then smiled and added, “I was also the one that put a bullet in the head of the local warlord, too. You know the one in Spin Boldak who thought he was God’s gift to women that were tied up and drugged?”

“Yeah and as I recall, he died suddenly and the remaining members of his troops were more than willing to work with our forces afterwards.”

In response, Intermezzo put her hands together as if they were bound, then pulled them apart. “Apparently he didn’t like women who could get out of knots. He also developed a bad case of multiple inexplicable stab wounds, bashed-in head and a bullet at the base of the spine.”

Sable shook his head in disbelief. “Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem.”

“And we’re about to have other problems now. And that’s why I need the Wolf of Kabul on our side.”

“Again, whose side are we talking?” Sable asked, and the four SIRENs present began to explain everything that was going on, the changes and black magic, and Cantata and Divine’s dreams of worldwide domination. Finally they explained that they were the ones who drew the line and had to stop their own for the sake of the world.

“You do know how ridiculous this sounds, right?” Sable asked them as soon as they were done.

“Look,” Vesper said as she checked an M-4 and handed it to him, “you can believe us or not. But you were clearly there, and you were there for a reason. Now, none of us here care about that reason as much as you don’t care about ours, but at the end of the day there are bad guys that need to be killed and we’re not the bad guys. So, are you going to help us, or are you going to break into that place along with this lunatic—” she said, pointing to Zephyr, “—and probably get yourselves killed in the process?”

Sable looked at the unconscious man on the table. “Oh, he’s not with me. That murderhobo? I have no idea who he is. None whatsoever.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure he’s not a SIREN,” Evergreen told them. “He’s very male.”

“But if he was there, then that means that he was up to something as well,” Intermezzo replied. “Maybe we should drag him into this?”

“Maybe if you tell him the deal, he might just listen.” Everyone present looked at him, as he sat up. “Nice patch up job. You must’ve been the unit medic,” he said to Evergreen.

“How? You were unconscious!” the girl replied.

“Not really, just controlled breathing,” he told her. “If you’re playing attention, you can learn a few things here and there.” He then looked at the rest of them. “Well, I know you four are SIRENs….” he said, his gaze drifting to the only other man in the room. “But I have no idea who you are.”

“He’s the Wolf of Kabul,” Vesper said, as if that explained everything.

“Which means a whole lot of jack shit to me, because I don’t play videogames,” Zephyr replied. “Look, I know who you are, and I get what you’re doing. But we’re going to need something more than four SIRENs and some yee-haw motherfucker who learned how to shoot Daddy’s gun on the range.”

“And your excuse is?” Sable told him.

“Kid, you really don’t want to piss me off right now,” Zephyr warned, “not unless you want to eat that pistol. You might look like you spent some time in the gym, but unless you have something that can actually impress me, do yourself a favor and let the real experts handle this?”

“I could say the same about you,” Sable replied tersely, “and if you call me kid again, I’ll just have to whip your ass, Grandpa.”

The older man glared at the younger. “Hope you enjoyed having your teeth, because you’re not going to have them much longer.”

Vesper immediately stepped in between the two. “Look, as much as I would just love to watch you two testosterone-laden idiots tear each other apart, our older sister and our best friend were both murdered by our former organization. So, one of you we know can fight, because we saw him in action in Afghanistan.” She then turned to Zephyr. “You, however, we know nothing about. So unless you want us to consider you some joe schmoe who thinks he’s in an action flick, spill.”

“Surprised you didn’t check me earlier.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge. “Agent Zephyr Breeze, US Diplomatic Security Service.” He then pulled out his wallet and withdrew a thick coin. “This also speaks for me,” he said, handing it to her.

Vesper took the coin in hand. “This real?”

“Earned it with my blood, sweat and tears.”

She threw it back at him, then looked at Sable. “Sergeant, as a Ranger, you’re probably the least qualified in the room.”

“What?”

Vesper pointed at Zephyr. “He’s Delta.” The moment the SIREN spoke those words, Sable looked at the man with surprise and a bit of awe.

Meanwhile, Zephyr looked back at him. “Ranger, huh? Not bad.” He then turned to Vesper. “I think introductions are order. As I said before, I’m with the DSS, and prior to that, I was with Delta.”

“I’m Sublt. Vesper Blue, and this is my sister, Lt. Intermezzo Blue. The two there are respectively Petty Officers 2nd Class Sunny Side and Evergreen Pine. We additionally have three seamen who are back enroute – they had to rescue someone who is being targeted by our former CO for some reason.”

Sable spoke up last. “And I’m Sable Loam. I’m a teacher at the local Alternative School…you know, where all the hardcases go. Came in handy, given that I used to be a Ranger.”

“Busting some chops I take it?” Zephyr said with a grin.

“Almost literally busting heads,” Sable admitted. “Some of those kids are lucky they’re in the Blanks and not in lockup.”

Intermezzo spoke up. “Look, let’s be honest here: we probably all have different reasons for hitting our old headquarters, but we want the same thing: for the SIRENs to be stopped. Now, what I’m going to show you is live: it comes from one of our seaman’s sniper cams. None of this is faked; believe me, what we’re up against is bad enough without having to doctor any shit.” She then went over to a laptop and tapped in some commands and brought up Aria’s camera footage from that day.

The look on the faces of the two men went from feigned interest to mild surprise and led all the way to outright shock. “This isn’t some Hollywood shit?” Zephyr was the first to say.

Sable leaned closer. “As much as I have to admit it, it doesn’t look it. This is from an ATN X-Sight, right?”

Side looked at him, impressed. “Wow, you really know your sights.” She went over to the table and picked up the scope in question. “Original footage is still on this thing and if you know these scopes, then you know they can’t be easily cracked and you can’t upload to them.”

Zephyr, however was still skeptical. “Doesn’t mean the camera can’t lie. It only sees what it sees…or what you want it to see.”

“Yes, because while we have time to prosecute our own little civil war against the Sisterhood, we decided to take time out to make our own little horror movie. And then we’ll go have it shown at some film festival. Bravo Zulu – you figured it out,” Vesper snarked caustically.

He shrugged. “Hey, I’m a federal bodyguard and cop. Don’t expect me to not do my job, okay? As it is, I’ve already decided to thrown in with your little coffee klatch even though it’s going to cost me my job.”

“And why’s that?” Evergreen asked.

“Because they took…well, it doesn’t matter who they took. What matters is that I want what they took back alive and unharmed, and if they don’t, I will have to end a few careers the hard way.”

“And you?” Side asked Sable.

“They took my girl and her sister, and I suspect because I didn’t throw in with those ALICORN assholes while they were in town.”

“ALICORN? The merc group?” Zephyr interrupted and Sable nodded. “What, is this town a fucking magnet for stupid shit?”

“I doubt that’s the case,” Vesper told him. “ALICORN was contracted by CSIS to take us out. I don’t know if it was because we went rogue in the first place – and that’s a long story for another time – or because they found out what Prince Divine and Cantata were up to, not that I’m sure anyone would believe that.”

“Well, I don’t gotta believe, I just gotta shoot, right?” Zephyr shrugged. “Got any gear I can borrow?”

“Yeah, if we’re going to do this, we gotta start planning,” Sable added. “When do you want to get started?”

“As soon as the last three join us,” Intermezzo said. “That way we’ll have a fighting chance.”

The helicopter landed, and weapons were drawn. “All right you little barely legal bitches,” one of the masked soldiers said, “get out.” Seven girls stepped out of the helicopter, and one fell to the ground, sobbing.

There was the click of the gun. “Get up, you little cunt. I’m not going to ask twice.” Blue eyes looked up in terror as Fluttershy tried to hide behind her hair, but it did no good as a second later, a steel-toed boot sent straight to the chiffon-haired teen’s head, making her scream.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Applejack shouted and moved to her friend’s side, looking at the woman with the gun. “Touch her again and Ah will kill you,” the blonde threatened.

“In case you’ve forgotten, we’re the ones with the guns,” another one cooed.

Applejack didn’t back down. “You’re not harming one hair on mah friend’s head, got that?”

“What, you think you can stop me?” the first one said.

“Stop? No.” Applejack flexed a fist, and you could hear the knuckles crack. “Hospitalize? Probably,” she seethed.

The woman got in the younger one’s face. “Listen, I get that you think you’re tough, I really do. But let’s get something straight: I have this thing called a carbine. And if you don’t shut up, I’m going to fire so many bullets into your cunt that nine months later you’ll be the mommy of a tank, got that?”

“You’re so damn lucky you have that gun, you know that?” Applejack replied, not backing off.

“AJ, I’m fine,” Fluttershy said, now more worried for her friend than herself.

“And why is that?” the SIREN asked.

“Because if you didn’t? When I finished, there wouldn’t be enough left of you to breathe out of a straw.”

“Then let’s try it,” the SIREN snarled, only to look at Fluttershy…and then suddenly feel the need to back off.

“You will do no such thing,” the formerly afraid teenage said with a voice that almost approached command authority.

“Then get them out of here,” the fireteam leader ordered, hoping they didn’t hear her throat catch. The blonde was your typical tough punk who thought a couple of boxing moves would equate to genuine skill, but there was something borderline terrifying when the chiffon-pink haired one looked at her.

With a look that said I thought so, Fluttershy grabbed her friend and moved, ignoring the cut on her scalp.

“Fluttershy, my word! Are you okay, dear?” Rarity asked, reaching for her purse for a bandage, only to find she didn’t have it.

Instead a shotgun was pumped. “You wanna fuck her? Wait until you get to your cell and then you can tongue her until she squeals.”

Rarity hmphed. “And you call yourself a lady.”

“No, I call myself a girl with a shotgun,” was the reply. “And if you open that carpet muncher one more time, I’m going to call you dead.”

“Please, Rares, not now,” Octavia asked. “I don’t….” She said nothing further, not wanting to make their horrible situation that much worse.

Rarity, however caught it. “I understand.”

“Okay, get the fuck going,” the one with the shotgun said, poking it into Twilight’s back. “Start walking or I start shooting.”

As they walked down the hallways, the girls were ordered to look at the ground. “Where are we?” Pinkie asked morosely. She was already worried sick about Sunset, and now with her possibly being kajillions of miles away from her love – or worse, said love’s corpse…well, it did her morale no favors.

“I said no talking!” one of the soldiers ordered.

Rainbow and Applejack looked at one another, then at the rest, then gave each other the it was nice knowing you look. In that moment, both decided they would turn and attack and give the others a chance to escape, even if it meant their lives. Someone had to get away and tell the authorities what was going on and someone had to make sure Pinkie, Octavia or Twilight lived long enough to let Twilight’s parents know what happened to Sunset. Someone had to live long enough to find out if Sunset herself had survived.

And if I go, it’ll be hard on my parents, but I have to save my friends, Applejack thought.
And I know it’s gonna break my family’s hearts, but I gotta make sure my friends see tomorrow! Rainbow vowed.

Both prepared to move….

And then one guard said to the other casually, “Hey remember the last group of prisoners that we had down here? The one where one or two of them thought they’d try to overpower us while the rest got away?”

Her fellow soldier replied, “Oh yeah – that was the one where we brutally murdered the others in front of the other two before we slit their throats, right? Good times.”

Applejack and Rainbow worriedly glanced at one another. They could deal with sacrificing themselves for their friends, but not to get them killed.

The group walked down the hallway, and towards stairs then through them, three stories down. Down this far, there was almost no lighting and the air smelled dank and fetid, as if they’d slowly begun to migrated into the bowels of hell itself.

“Hope not ever to see Heaven,” Twilight said, trying to focus on something other than her fear and worry. “I have come to lead you to the other shore; into eternal darkness; into fire and ice.”

“Alighieri?” Pinkie voiced.

“Yes, I—”

“I still hate you right now,” Pinkie admitted. “But…I promised Sunny and Tavi that I would look out for you, and I intend to keep that promise.”

“Thanks, Pinkie.”

The girls watched with terror as a sudden dot of red light appeared on Twilight’s chest and crept up until it rested between her eyes.

“That’s the last time I’m going to tell you to shut the fuck up, cunts. Keep your gashlickers shut or we’ll permanently open you.” The septet finally fell silent, save for guarded looks at one another, until they reached the door. Once they did, the lead SIREN grabbed Octavia and held a knife to her throat. “Now, just so you idiots don’t get any ideas, either you get in there or I spill this slit’s blood on the ground.”

Octavia’s eyes were frenetically wild as she tried not to panic. The tears, already in her eyes, started to roll down her cheeks unabashedly as she whimpered.

“TAVI!” Twilight screamed, instinctively reaching for her cousin, only to be riflebutted across the chin.

“Pick her up and put her in the room,” the SIREN ordered Octavia, letting her go. The raven-haired girl tried picking her unconscious cousin up, and Fluttershy immediately moved to her side.

“Thanks,” Octavia mumbled.

“We’re all friends here,” Fluttershy told her, “and besides, we’re all afraid right now.”

“You know what? I’ve had enough of this shit!” one of the SIRENs said. She grabbed Rarity by the hair and unceremoniously threw her through the hole, Rarity’s shrieks sounding until it vanished in the distance. The girls looked in horror, as Fluttershy was wrenched away from Twilight and Octavia, grabbed by the shirt and tossed through the hole; there was a rip and the gunwoman dropped a bit of cloth. “Eh, her fault for not wearing a bra.” She then turned to the others and drew her gun. “You have a choice. You can go in peacefully, or I can hurt you as you go down. And believe me, I would love nothing more.”

One of the SIRENs reached towards the unconscious Twilight. “Well, this bitch doesn’t get a choice.” She moved to grab Twilight…

…only to have Octavia wrench her cousin back. “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER, YOU GODDAMN BITCH!” the teen screamed, murder in her eyes.

“Hey, looks like we’ve got a live one!” the SIREN said.

“Yeah, and looks like we’re about to have a dead one,” her counterpart said, raising her rifle.

Seeing Octavia in trouble, Rainbow immediately moved and tackled her, pushing her through the hole as the round went off. The round burned through Rainbow’s hair as both went through the gaping maw, into the distance. Not waiting, Pinkie and Applejack immediately grabbed Twilight and leapt through the hole, leaving the pair alone.

“Fuck, missed that little cunt!” one snarled.

“Eh, they’ll be dead soon enough, so don’t worry,” the other said as she shut the door and moved on.

Applejack turned and crashed on the ground, making sure to shield Twilight so she wouldn’t be worse off. Of course, that didn’t help Applejack as she smashed her head against a rock, drawing blood. Her vision swam, but she focused on Twilight and found she was safe, thankfully. Even with the blonde mad at her earlier, it all melted away compared to what was happening to them.

She heard a soft thump and then a flicker of light. It was Pinkie. “You okay?” she asked worriedly.

“Yeah,” Applejack grunted, trying to get back to her feet. “What about you? And where’d you get the lighter?”

“It was a short enough fall that I was able to twist and land on my feet – I am a cheerleader,” Pinkie reminded her. “And I always have a lighter in case of lighter emergencies, you know that.”

“Not even gonna ask, sugarcube,” Applejack said as she picked up Twilight. “Where are the other—AAAAH!” she suddenly yelped as she was grabbed.

“Are you okay? Applejack, you’re bleeding!” The blonde turned to look at the worried face of Twilight Velvet, motherly in her concern and looking very much the worse for wear.

“Mrs. V? What are you doing here?”

“Here, let me take her,” Celestia said as she approached. She took the still-out Twilight from her student, and looked at her closely in the dim light. “Applejack, you’ve been injured. Let Velvet look at that.”

Pinkie looked at her principal. “Ms. Celestia, where are the other girls?”

“They’re over with my sister and the others,” the educator explained, looking around the dark tunnel they were in. “From what we can tell, this is from the failed TransCity project. They were trying to build an underground high-speed rail between here and the Colton/Chico area. But this happened during the late 90s when CanterTransit went bankrupt, so they abandoned the project.”

“I remember that,” Velvet mused as Pinkie passed over her overshirt and Velvet began tearing it into makeshift bandages. “They touted it as Canterlot’s answer to the Japanese bullet train, something that neither San Fran nor LA had…and then it all went under.” The matron sighed. “Tia, were we ever that young?”

“I wish I could answer that,” Celestia told her friend. “But we have other concerns right now.”

The group finally arrived at their destination where to their shock, they could see the chaos. Spike sat quietly, while Octavia spoke to him to keep his attention from the growing horror. Rarity was helping Fluttershy, who had replaced out her torn shirt with a blazer supplied by Cadance, to check on Night Light and Shining Armor’s conditions. And Luna was sitting in a corner, talking to a woman that looked eerily like a short-haired version of Celestia.

None of the girls said anything, but they all wondered the same thing: was this secretly Princess Celestia, come to aid them in their time of need?

“Solaire, Lu, how are things?” Velvet asked.

“I told you everything I already know. My cousin is a murderous madman who has killed my brother and his wife and now is keeping my daughter hostage for some nefarious reason,” the woman spoke, her voice somewhere between worried out of her wits and a building rage that anyone dared put her child in danger.

Luna hugged her. “Soli, we’re with you. Whatever I can do, you know I will.”

Solaire smiled. “Thanks, Luna.” She then looked at Celestia. “You don’t know how lucky you are to have a sister, especially one as wonderful as her. I only had two older brothers growing up.”

Despite everything, Celestia smiled. “Yeah, kinda the opposite for me: one older sister, and then Luna. Though we were close to Vel’s older brother, Everblue Sky.”

As Twilight began to stir, Celestia set her down so Velvet could take care of her daughter. “Are you okay, sweetie?” Velvet asked Twilight. “Did they do anything to you?”

“M jw’s nmb,” Twilight moaned, and Velvet could see an ugly-looking bruise across Twilight’s jaw.

Her hands moving gently, she said, “Twily, honey, open your mouth. Cady, pass me that flashlight you have.” Cadance went over and flashed the light in her future sister-in-law’s mouth, while Velvet looked her over. “Looks like nothing’s broken or cracked, but you’re going to have a bruise for a while, Twily. How did you get it?”

“She was trying to protect me while they held me at knifepoint,” Octavia sobbed. “I was so terrified!”

“Twily was trying to protect you?” Cadance said, with a note of pride. “That’s usually….” Then she noticed the missing individual, and a split second later, that was when all the other adults in the know did as well.

It was Velvet that finally asked the question: “Twily…where’s your sister?”

Twilight looked at her mother and started to cry. “Ll my flt,” she sobbed. “Ll my dmn flt!”

Velvet immediately wheeled on the other teens. “Girls, where is she?”

Octavia looked at her aunt with a horrorstruck look. “Aunt Velvet….” she said softly, unable to voice her cousin’s fate.

“She’s okay!” Pinkie blurted out. “They got the rest of us and she made it out okay! She’s probably going to the authorities as we speak!” A look of relief came over Velvet’s face, while the others tried to hide their looks of horror.

“Pinkie!” Rarity hissed. “You just lied to Sunset’s mother!”

“I know.” Rarity looked at the destroyed look on her friend’s face and she immediately regretted the words. “But we need hope right now. I have to believe that she’s okay! I have to.”

Rarity hugged her, realizing the sacrifice she had just made and the fact that it was probably tearing her heart apart. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie, for what I said. Forgive me.”

Pinkie laughed. “If you want to make it up to me, when we’re out of this, I’ve got a long list of things I need you to make for me. Intimate wear, you know.”

“No—” The SIREN said nothing further as her throat was severed, her blood flowing down the channel and towards a basin at the bottom.

“This had better be worth it, Divine,” Cantata told him. “I cannot afford to have you continually kill my personnel. Sooner or later I’m going to need them to survive, and I already have most of the ones around the world here – the ones still out there cannot be compromised.”

“This is the last one. Besides, as I recall, this is one of the ones you didn’t like,” he told her lightly.

“I’ll admit that, dearest,” she told him. “Still, we can’t fight based on a single SIREN, which is what we’ll have if you keep killing them and those lunatics I locked up get their hands on them.”

“We had to give the Black Team the prototype serum; it was the best way to test it,” he explained. “Besides, I have other serums as well.” He gestured over to a table, where a captured pigeon sat in its cage, fluttering uneasily. “Do you remember when I asked you to have several of your personnel capture pigeons?”

“Yes, and I thought it was stupid. You’re telling me you actually had a method to your madness?”

He plucked a vial filled with a black liquid in it, and pulled off the stopper before pouring the contents onto the caged bird. The bird began to thrash around and blood poured from its eyes as it began an unnatural scream. Finally, the skin split open and the feathers flew off in a blast of energy, leaving smoke within.

Divine opened the cage and withdrew…something that was not natural. Still containing the head of a pigeon, its beak looked more like that of a raptor’s. The eyes were a solid blood red, and the body looked like more of a dragon. It nuzzled Divine before flying over to Cantata’s shoulder and began nuzzling her.

“What is this?” she asked.

“It is a basilisk,” he told her. “Unlike cockatrice, which are flightless, a basilisk can take to the air like a bird of prey. And it has some other admirable qualities as well.”

“Such as?”

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and before either could grant permission, a young SIREN came into the room. “Captain,” she began, “I—”

With a shriek of fury, the basilisk launched right at the surprised SIREN, murder in its eyes. Focusing on the girl, its eyes turned gray as stone. A second later, the SIREN’s eyes also turned the color of stone, and another second later, so did the rest of her, frozen in a shocked look of gray granite. Seeing that it was done, the basilisk flew back to Cantata’s shoulder and cawed, as if asking if she was proud of it.

“What the fuck was that?” the SIREN commander demanded.

“One of its qualities,” Divine explained calmly, “is that anyone it doesn’t recognize within its aura, it regards as prey. You and I are safe, as well as any of your troops who took the serum.” He looked at the former human. “Apparently Petty Officer Arietta decided to skip out on the inoculations.”

“Can she be changed back?”

“Once your lovely pet dies, unless her statue is destroyed. Also, I should point out that basilisks are believed to live for a couple hundred years.” He knocked on the statue that used to be Arietta. “So now she’s trapped in there, seeing and knowing everything we do, but she’s not going to be free for a century or two, unless I start working on a solution. And I intend to, but not now – that will take time. Thus, I strongly suggest you make sure that your SIRENs have taken them, because I have enough pigeons to make two basilisks per troop – and I’m sure they don’t want their precious pets to turn on them, am I right?”

Cantata nodded, then scratched the basilisk under its jaw, to which it hissed playfully. “One last question: Is there anything that can stop them?” she asked, gesturing to the bird to fly over to Divine, which it did.

“Yes, the flames of a phoenix, according to legend, can kill one instantly. But you and I know those are only myth…and I certainly don’t intend to create one, so for all intents and purposes, our little flying weapons are invincible.”

As Cantata departed, Divine set his new pet on a perch he made. Creating a ball of violet flame, he summoned magic into it. “And now to make sure no one can stop my victory.” The blood raced up from the basin, becoming red, ropy lines of sinew-like swirling around in bizarre, arcane patterns, as if it were creating a Celtic knot of gore. And when he was done with his Gordian knot spell, he sent it to the center of the complex, where it would start its work.

Soon, his troops would march on the world and he would be Emperor. He would be a God and unstoppable.

Somewhere, an old blind man laughed, tears of blood leaking from eyeless sockets. “So, it begins,” he cackled, as if it was a grand joke. “So the game begins at last.”

Somewhere, watching Earth from the surface of the moon, blue eyes gazed upon the vile spell that had just started working.

“So, it begins,” she said sadly.

The red light blasted away from the SIREN stronghold, a bloody energy that filled the air. As it spread out from Canterlot, anything within its surroundings, whether directly touched by the gory luminescence or not, simply stopped, as if living statues, frozen in time. Only the immediate environs of the base were spared the Gordian spell as it began to radiate away from the city, blanketing first Canterlot, then its suburbs, then Equestria County, then the surrounding counties, and on. Within seconds it had claimed a good portion of Oregon, Nevada and northern California and yet continued. Within minutes, the whole world was frozen in a zero-point state, and the energy continued to radiate out into space.

On the Moon, the figure let the light wash over her, knowing it would do her no harm. Still, she knew what an improper Gordian spell could do, and this one was as botched as botched could be. Sooner or later, the energy constant of the universe would clash against magic, and sooner or later, absolute zero would have to give way to the energy of motion. The resulting energy release….

This is not my battle, she grimly reminded herself. It is hers.

With her eyes, the figure scanned the Earth and the car that stopped on the freeway…only to continue moving forward. It was a stolen car, so she was not happy about that, but even she knew that situations dictated circumstances.

I believe in you, she said with a maternal pride. Prove me right.

The first thing that triggered Sunset’s warnings was the fact that a red light spread everywhere. By the time she cast a spell to ward off whatever had hit, the red light froze everything and she was violently slammed forward, the seatbelt shredding as she ripped through it and her forward motion rocketing her through the windshield, and several feet forward, where she crashed against the ground and rolled.

Sunset immediately got to her feet, thankful that she’d cast a defensive enough shield that it would cover her. And that was when she noticed something was wrong. Everything under the blood red sky had stopped – cars, people, birds – everything. It was quiet and still in a way that not even it had been back when she’d visited Equestria when she was on a mission to save her sister. Something was very, very wrong, and she knew what it was: something that her mother, Princess Celestia, had once told her about: a spell called a Gordian knot, a spell that messed with the very fabric of the universe.

There was a legend about the Gordian knot in this universe as well; from what she remembered, the knot was a challenge before the ancient warrior Alexander the Great. But back in Equestria, the legend dated back to the Discordian era, well before Celestia and Luna emerged from hiding to challenge the draconequus for control of their mother’s throne. During that dark time, ponies were desperate to create a way to stop Discord, and as a result the sorcerer Gordo the Large (name intentional, Celestia had told her) created a massive spell to stop time and space by twisting the fundament of reality into a knot; it was hoped that this would freeze him in place and allow him to be captured. Unfortunately, the spell only made him stronger, for it stopped everything. With the safety of the world at stake, Queen Aurora, the granddaughter of Queen Platinum, dispatched her mightiest warrior, the legendary earth stallion Bucephalus, to halt it as no magic could stop it. He finally ended it by drawing his great sword, Horsetamer, and literally sliced the spell in two.

Since then, the Gordian knot was an illegal spell, and all knowledge of it was purged from everywhere save the secure vaults underneath Canterlot castle. But somehow it had survived, and was being cast here by someone who had no knowledge of how to control it. She could feel the quantum strings of reality groan as they were being forced to stop. From what she knew from math, the spell would force everything to absolute zero, and when you did that, all the energy had to go somewhere. Even magic bowed to physics eventually, and sooner or later, the zero point would have to give way to the laws of motion and the subsequent energy release.

And if everything in reality released that pent-up energy at once…. Sunset shuddered. She had to find the spell and put a stop to it. This was barbaric on a level that not even Nightmare Moon or King Sombra would do, and for it to be cast here? The caster was either suicidal, a nihilist or didn’t know what it truly did – and from what the girls said, this Divine Right character was probably somewhere in the middle of those three insults.

But for now, she had to do something, and she needed her friends to do it. She walked back to the car and pulled her friends out, then steeled herself as she cast a spell to funnel away the pent-up kinetic energy and to release them from the Gordian spell. Sure enough, a blast of energy rippled through Sunset, making her wince each time she released them and threw a ward over them.

The dazed triplets, lying on the ground, sat up. “What the fuck?” Aria asked as she looked at the red reality and everything frozen.

“Long story, but we have time.” With the trio listening, Sunset explained everything, trying not to laugh as her friends’ faces went from stern to confused to amazed to finally horrified as she explained the end result of a Gordian spell.

It was Sonata who finally spoke. “Sunny, no offense, but your species is stupid as fuck if they think they can stop all of reality. What’s next, beating back the ocean with chopsticks?”

“Look, this makes it all the more important that we stop this freak, because I guarantee he’s already shielded Cantata’s SIRENs from this effect,” Adagio told her. “We’ll need a way to restore the SIRENs on our side. Can you do that?”

“Yes, but this magic is going to take more than I can spare. I’ll have to make an artifact in order to ward off the effect, but that will also take time we may not have.” She sighed. “I’m going to need you to trust me.”

“You know we do,” Adagio told her.

“Good, because we need to get to my house soonest. Afterwards, we have to break into ECMAH. Think you can help?”

“Oh, for a moment I thought you wanted something hard done,” Aria joked. Of course, with the whole world literally frozen, anyone could just walk in and even the best security was rendered inert.

“What’s the plan?” Adagio asked.

“First, let’s get back in the car, and let me cast a spell to ward it – that should get us back to Canterlot, since we’re back on the outskirts of Colton. After that, I’m going to get home and signal back to my homeworld for some big-league help.”

“How big league we talking?”

“A pony who is my equal in terms of magic. Where I’ve got raw power, she’s got the finesse to get things done, and I trust her completely.”

“You sure?”

Sunset smiled. “Of course. She’s the counterpart of my sister – her name is Twilight Sparkle, and she is Equestria’s Alicorn of Magic.”

Velvet looked at her younger daughter, sitting by herself, away from her friends and even Octavia. It was clear they were giving her space to deal with her separation from Sunset, and the woman thought back to Pinkie’s assurances that Sunset had escaped and was going to notify authorities. The questions were odd: why were the girls attacked all the way down there, unless they had to fit into the plans, somehow.

She then thought about Solaire’s captured daughter, and Rarity, the girl from the circle of friends who carried herself most like a sophisticate. She wondered, was Rarity confused for Solaire’s daughter and thus captured, with the other girls being nothing more than collateral damage? The two had conversed briefly in French for a while, and Rarity was taken by the fact that Solaire was a French imperial princess – the whole fact was mind-boggling in itself.

Still, it didn’t matter what the result was: they were all innocent and they were all held here against their will – and if they didn’t receive help soon, she feared her whole family would not see tomorrow.

She wept at how Sunset would react to finally having found a family, only to lose them.

Pinkie got up and walked over to Twilight. “Can I sit next to you?”

“I thought you hated me!”

Pinkie took a large breath. “No. I can’t. Life’s too short for that, Twily, and I’ve already done that dance before. Yes, I’m mad at what you did to your sister, but I can’t hate you and the others feel the same way. Besides, I know Sunny wouldn’t want me to hate you. I hated her once myself, and look what happened.”

“Yes. I got her killed. It’s all my fault.”

“No. She’s not dead.” Pinkie closed her eyes and gave a sublime smile. “I know she’s not. I know it in my bones, in my soul, in my all. Your sister is far tougher than you know, Twily, and I am her bride.”

“Her bride? I know you have feelings for her, but you do know she’s straight, right?”

“Trust me, I just know. I don’t know exactly what the future holds, but I know who and what I am. And I know your sister’s alive, and she’s not going to give up.”

“You make it sound as if she’s coming here to save us.” Twilight looked at ground briefly, then added, “I know she’s saved me and Tavi, and I know she’s capable of incredible things…but this is different, Pinkie. These are killers and they’ll tear her apart.”

“No they won’t,” Pinkie said, the timber of her voice as clear as a bell and as firm as stone. “I have seen your sister at her worst, and her best. And if these psychos have any brains, they’d better hope she did what I told your mother she did. Because if not, she’s coming – and I’d worry more about them.”

She held the paper over the green flame, and it vanished into nothingness. “There,” she sighed. “hopefully, she’ll get it and read it.”

“So that thing sends messages between dimensions?” Aria asked.

“Realities,” Sonata explained. “There are infinite dimensions within realities, and—”

“Thank you, Dr. Science,” Adagio snarked. “I think we can do without the explanation.” She then turned to look at Sunset. “What now?”

“I need to work on building you three some artifacts, because if we get separated more than ten feet, you’ll be outside the nullification spell and be subject to the Gordian effect.”

“Anything we can do to help?” Sonata asked.

“Well, if you have any suggestions, I’m open to them,” Sunset said. “Something simple; while I can enchant complex items, it’ll take longer.”

“Scrunchies,” Adagio suddenly announced. “Soni wears her hair in a ponytail and Ari bunches hers up, so it would be perfect. Now, while I don’t, I can wear one around my wrist or something.”

“No, belts,” Sonata countered. “Hairstyles can be accidentally removed, and we’re going to have to bun our hair up for helmets anyway. But a belt would have to be deliberately removed.”

“Except we don’t have our CADPATs with us right now, sis,” Aria pointed out.

“Think of them,” Sunset suggested, and all three did. There was a flash of light and all three suddenly appeared in their battle dress, complete with body armor and basic gear.

“Soni, give me your belt first, then the others,” Sunset said. “I’m going to do her belt, and then I need you to go into Tavi’s room to find the keys to her minivan. We’ll use that from this point on, since it doesn’t look like you’re going to fit in the NSX with all your gear.” Sonata handed over her belt and then Sunset burned cyan runes into it, which soon vanished as the belt returned to normal. “Okay, this should do it.”

Sonata slipped it on and stepped out of range. “Looks like it works. I’ll be right back.” Sunset continued working on the belts, and when she was done, she reached into her closet. “And now I need to get dressed.”

“Sunny, don’t you think you’ll want to be a little more protected?” Adagio asked, reaching for her sidearm and holding it out to her.

Sunset gave her friend a smile. “Trust me: you’re about to see a wizard war, and I have to dress appropriately. Don’t worry, I’m not going to put on a robe and wizard hat.”

“Sunny, please take the sidearm,” Aria added. “We want you safe.”

The look on Adagio’s face was one of concern. “Please.”

“Not right now,” Sunset told her. “But when we go get your friends, I’ll take it. I’ll need a gunbelt anyway, right?”

“Yeah, you’ve got a point,” the eldest triplet replied, holstering her pistol for now.

Sonata came back with a set of keys. “These be them?”

“Yeah, they are,” Sunset said, taking the keys. “Okay, next stop, ECMAH.”

In her locked closet, Shimmer cried. She didn’t know what was going on, only that her mother’s cousin was a monster and that he meant her harm.

“Someone help me,” she sobbed. “Someone save us!”

In the vault, three cages were ripped open, and the grunts and exertions of life taking its course could be heard.

Her teeth now razors and her tongue long and slitted, Contralto laughed while Medley expended himself on her/himself, their bodies bucking in time. He would then do the same for Canzione, and the three would start a new species that would rule this world.

“Only a matter of time,” Queen Contralto said to herself as she reached climax. “Only a matter of time.”

The four stood before Cavalcanti’s mirror, their faces a look of shock.

“I thought you said she looked like Twily?” Sonata asked.

“That’s who I was expecting.” The former unicorn looked at the unconscious – and nude – girl laying on the ground, a small green canary lying next to her.

“What the hell are you doing here, Razz?” Sunset asked no one in particular.

Author's Note

I'm sure you have questions about the Black Creatures (formerly the Black SIRENs or Black Team). Well, this should explain a few things:

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August 15, 9:45 PM: The Spider's Strategem

“Here, drink this.” Knowing how hard it was for a pony to use hands, Sunset held the water bottle to Raspberry Beryl’s lips while the naked girl drank. Something was very wrong, and right now her friend was as weak as a kitten.

“Sunny, you want to explain what’s going on?” Adagio asked.

“It’s a long story,” the flame-haired girl replied.

“Hey, we have all the time in the world – quite literally since Fucktardio von Asshole decided to do his ‘turn reality into a nuke’ spell,” the eldest triplet drawled.

Finally, Raspberry performed a weak gesture that might have been waving off, then looked at Sunset. “Give some to Heelee, too! He’s—”

“He’s fine.” Aria approached, and sitting on her shoulder was Heliodor, looking none the worse for wear. “You have an interesting canary here,” she said as she scratched under his beak, which made him puff up with joy. “Strong little guy. Actually got up before you did.”

Raspberry gave her pet a warm smile, and on instinct he tried to land on her horn…and then fell just before Sunset caught him.

“Wrong world, little guy,” she told him, and he chirped in thanks.

“So, Razz? What are you doing here?” Sunset asked.

Raspberry leaned forwards, grabbing Sunset in a panic. “I’m glad I found you! C’mon, we gotta get back!”

“Back…what?” Sonata asked, who was looking at the mirror.

“Tirek! He’s….”

“Oh, great, an Evil Centaurs Inc. fangirl, just what we need,” Aria groaned. “Sunny, we needed a mage, not a groupie.”

“What? You know what? Nevermind.” Wine-hued eyes gazed with horror into turquoise. “We’re under attack! Equestria is under attack!” She stumbled and Sunset caught her. “Tirek! He’s been taking magic from everyone! He’s taken mine! We have to stop him!” She looked at Sunset, desperation in her eyes. “We need you back!”

“Razz, we have problems here!” Sunset explained. “I just sent a letter to Twilight, because we have a madman who set a Gordian spell on the whole Goddamn universe and it’s going to blow unless we stop him!” She helped her friend to her feet. “We have to stop him or else there’s not going to be a home for me to come back to! There’s not going to be anything for me to come back to!” Cyan looked to burgundy. “I need your help, Razz! I didn’t ask for you, but I’m glad you’re here!”

Raspberry turned away. “I don’t know if you will be,” the other girl replied. “He stole my power. I’m…magicless, Sunny! It’s all gone!”

Adagio looked at Sunset, and then her friend, who Sonata would’ve likely called “palette-swapped”. Aside from the fact that she was naked, she had hair the same style as Sunset’s, but in locks of cornflower and lilac. Her eyes were a deep burgundy, and her skin was roughly the same tone as Rainbow’s, maybe a tad lighter. If the teen had to take a guess, she would’ve said the girl was of Arabic descent, but given that she clearly came through the mirror, that was probably not the case.

But the biggest thing was her left thigh: it was heavily mangled, and though it looked as though it healed over, the kind of damage that must have happened must prevent her from walking normally. “Aria, find the museum’s offices and see about a first aid kit. They should have a cane or something that she can use.”

“On it.” Aria rushed off, heading towards the other end of the museum.

“Sunny, is there a way to tell objective time?” Sonata asked.

“Yeah, my cellphone should still be working, why?”

“If we’re going to hit that place, we’re going to need to do precise timing, and well, knowing what time it is, usually does that.”

Sunset handed her friend her phone. “Go ahead and sync yours and Dagi’s, then Ari’s when you she gets back. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to show Razz here the joys of wearing clothing 24/7.”

It was at that point that Razz suddenly realized. “Wait – why are you all human?”

Adagio facepalmed. “Real winner you picked here, Sunny.”

Sunset, however, looked at her friend with sympathy. “Razz…welcome to Earth.” Sunset was about to say more, when she heard a loud hum, which turned into an ear-splitting whine. She turned just in time to see the mirror glowing a sickly green, before beginning to audibly crack.

Sunset pulled Razz away from the mirror. “GET BEHIND ME!” she shouted as she quickly threw up a shield, seconds before the mirror detonated, sending billions of shards of glass slamming into Sunset’s barrier, followed a second later by an intense pulse of dark magic and an unnatural scream that after a second, sounded like a neigh.

Sunset lowered the shield as the glass fell back to the ground. “Everyone okay?” she asked.

Adagio pulled the strange girl to her feet. “Yeah, quick thinking,” she told Sunset.

“What the fuck is that?” Sonata asked, pointing at the mirror. Now that the mirror was shattered, there was a demonic picture of a black alicorn staring at them, its eyes glowing red with flame. Even though it was nothing more than a painting hidden behind the mirror’s glass, it looked eerily lifelike, and to Sunset, it seemed as though it was particularly glaring at her.

But it was the words that sat above the dark creature’s head that said it all:

At last now you’ve unearthed these words
And my visage as well,
And now you realize our trade’s complete
And then thus ends this spell.

The gifts we’ve swapped will serve our needs,
Your wife will be my toy,
And as for what I’ve given you?
I hope she gives you joy.

And now the time comes for the end,
I give you words to claim:
Though you will be a mage ‘mongst men,
Son’s son will bring you shame.

The alicorns know of this world
And use it as a gaol –
There are worse things upon these lands
Son’s son will find the trail.

A hidden altar he will make
Then murder the very sun
If you allow this act to take
Your world will be undone.

A smart man, scholar learned art you,
A king, future’s aweigh
But your blood will raise doom upon Earth
Not now…

But perhaps…

Someday.

Sunset looked at the remains of the mirror. “He knew,” she said angrily. “That bastard knew.”

“Who knew?”

“This was a message for Cavalcanti, from the black unicorn!” Sunset explained. “Sombra!”

A second later, Aria showed up with the first aid kit. Looking at the damage all around, she sighed. “You guys always have fun when I’m not around, don’t you?”

A door clicked and it creaked as it swung open, catching the attention of all in the room. A muzzle was raised, barking a single report as a bullet slammed into the concrete ceiling below.

“I hate to interrupt your pity party,” an anonymous female thug surrounded by four other women shouted, “but maybe you’ll want something to eat – a last meal before you all die!” Four more SIRENs came in and dropped a bunch of steaming boxes on the ground, then the octet left and slammed the door shut.

Feeling a little more intact, Shining forced himself to his feet. “You guys stay back,” he told them.

“Shining, dear, you’re hurt,” Velvet told him.

“Better my life than yours,” he told them, before he approached the boxes. They looked like pizza boxes, and after a quick check, they were pizza boxes. Unfortunately, they were from Mambo Italiano, probably the worst pizza place in all of Canterlot. A box of lukewarm Shastas sat next to the boxes, and a roll of paper towels as well.

“Yeah, it looks safe…well, that is, if you can stand eating Mambo Italiano.” A bunch of simulated gagging could be heard, especially by those of Italian blood.

Luna shrugged. “Hey, anything’s good when you’re hungry or drunk out of your mind at two in the morning.”

Celestia sighed. “Lu, this is not the time to mention that, especially in front of some of our students!”

Luna looked at her sister. “Sis…I don’t know if we’re going to see tomorrow. At this point, I don’t care what they know about me.” She turned and looked at the girls. “Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I made out with another girl on a dare?”

Velvet sighed. “Luna, please, not now.”

“I thought you were straight, Ms. Luna,” Twilight asked.

“Well, I am – but you know that song ‘I Kissed a Girl’? Well, you’d be surprised the things you’ll do when drunk.”

“LUNA!” Celestia’s shout rang through the room.

Luna sighed. “…and that’s why you shouldn’t drink too much or let someone take advantage of you, no matter how hot he is,” Luna droned. “Because they might make you do something that you might think is fun and you’ll end up with another girl begging you to take them to bed because—”

“Aunt Luna, I love you dearly, but please shut up,” Cadance groaned.

“No, I wanna hear this story!” Rainbow said.

“Yes, by all means, let the walking Gay Pride Flag hear the story,” Rarity muttered.

“Oh, shut the fuck up, Rares. Don’t be such a prissy bitch.”

“Ladies,” Celestia said primly, “no. And if we die and you don’t listen, I will find a way to issue you all detention in Heaven, am I clear?” The girls all nodded, and Celestia looked at Luna. “And if you’re going to tell them that story, why don’t you add the part where Jalapeno Salsa stalked you to the point you had to get a restraining order.”

Luna facepalmed. “Don’t remind me.”

“Your sister is…unique,” Solaire told Celestia.

“Yeah, a little too much,” Velvet added.

At this point, Shining had moved the boxes over to where everyone else was sitting. “Sorry, but this is as good as it’s gonna get. We’ll just have to live with it.” Seeing his father still prone, he asked, “Mom, can you get Dad up?”

“I’m up,” Night said, turning and trying to sit up despite the bruises. “Looks like they got you good, son,” he told Shining.

“I’m more worried about you, Dad,” Shining told him back. “You’re not getting any younger.”

“That’s what you think,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe if a multiverse exists, I’m some kind of magical wizard or something.”

“I severely doubt that,” Velvet told him. “If you were, I’m pretty sure you would’ve gotten us out of this by now.”

“Who knows?” he laughed, then winced from the plain. “Maybe I’m just waiting for the most dramatic moment.”

“Then I’d really appreciate if you’d stop waiting now, Night,” Celestia told him.

“Yeah, right, Tia,” he told her. “I’m just getting started.”

The teens wordlessly passed out the pizza, and then they broke into groups again. “What’s going to happen to Spike?” Fluttershy asked nervously. It was already bad enough that she had to suffer this hell, but poor Spike was only a little boy.

“Ah guess the same thing that’s gonna happen to the rest of us,” Applejack said morosely. Fluttershy immediately wanted to go over and hug the young child, but that would only make it harder in the end, she knew.

“C’mon, we’ve been through worse!” Pinkie assured them. “We’ve always made it through with flying col—”

“Stop! Pinkie, please, just stop!” Twilight’s eyes glistened with tears. “I got my sister killed, and now we’re lying to my parents!”

“Twily, we don’t know if Sunny’s dead,” Octavia told her. “I’m worried about her too, but I have to believe she made it out okay, that, ironically, you telling her to go away was what made sure she’s safe.”

“Well, I for one, believe in her,” Rarity said. “As long as I’ve known her, she’s been capable of…well, things that will surprise you. She certainly surprised us all many a time,” the fashionista insisted, with the other girls agreeing. “You have to have faith in your sister, Twilight, dear. And I guarantee that faith will be rewarded.”

“Look, even Ah have some faith in Sunny to pull off things that’re like magic, but seriously, Rares, we’re in over our heads!” Applejack told her. “Not even we can get out of this situation, sugarcube!”

“I have faith.” They all looked at Pinkie, who didn’t look worried in the least; in fact, it was more than a little odd to see the teenager so completely calm and composed. “I know she’ll come for us – for all of us. We are all tied together by destiny, and our future calls to us.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Uh, did you get hit a little too hard, Pinkie? You’re starting to sound like that one stoner girl in class—”

“Rainbow Dash, that’s uncalled for!” Fluttershy admonished. “Especially now of all times!”

“I’m afraid she has a point, Rainbow, dear,” Rarity said admonishingly. “Besides, Perfect Paisley constantly falls asleep because she has narcolepsy, the poor dear. She has to take a cocktail of medicines and that slurs her speech too, so everyone thinks she’s taking illicit drugs. I think you owe her an apology when we get out of this.”

“If we get out of this,” Twilight said, worriedly.

Pinkie looked at the rest of her friends and their morose state, then at the adults and their situation, although given what they’d been through and might be facing soon, they were all adults now, the teen realized. Spike, fortunately, was asleep and spared the mind-numbing thoughts of what might come next.

She then reached in her pocket for her keys and opened her locket, gazing at a picture of her and Sunset. It had been just after she’d learned to forgive herself for wanting to commit suicide and before she realized what Sunset meant to her. But if someone looked closely, there was something in Pinkie’s eyes back then, something she knew, that said her destiny would forever be entwined with the flame-haired girl.

“Come back to us, Sunny, we need you,” Pinkie said softly, bringing the picture to her lips and kissing Sunset’s image. “Come back to me.”

“Can you stand?” Sunset asked her.

Raspberry nodded. “I…I think so. Am I trapped here?”

“Until we get Platinum’s mirror fixed, yeah, I’m afraid so.” A heartsick look came over her fellow unicorn’s face and Sunset hugged her. “At least you’re not alone, Razz. I’m here.”

Raspberry returned the hug. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Sunny.”

Aria looked at the two. “Look, we need to get going, so I suggest you do something about Discount Godiva here, okay? Even with nothing moving out there, I don’t think it’s wise to take her out like that.”

“Yeah, and we gotta do something about this little guy, too,” Sonata replied, rubbing Heliodor on the top of his head. “I swear, he’s the smartest canary I’ve ever met.”

“Oh, he’s not a canary, Soni,” Sunset explained. “He’s a phoenix.”

Adagio looked at the naked girl, then the small housebird that was apparently anything but, then back to her friend who she knew was a unicorn. “And here I thought my sisters and I were going to be the weirdest things here,” she commented in bemusement.

“What’s the military term? ‘Adapt and overcome?’”

“That’s an Americanism,” Aria pointed out. “Usually for us Canucks, it’s just ‘destroy and worry about later.’”

“Um…okay. Anyway, let me take care of one problem.” Sunset cast a spell, then a flash of cyan surrounded Raspberry before it went away, and a second later, she was wearing one of Sunset’s Discord t-shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes.

“This feels weird, Sunny. Are you sure this is normal?” Raspberry asked, picking at her clothing. “Also, does this thing say ‘Discord’? Why would you have that lunatic’s name on a shirt?”

“Because here’s he’s a rock star, not a chaos god,” Sunset explained. “Plus, he’s Fluttershy’s father.”

“Really?” When Sunset nodded, Raspberry sighed. “This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder.”

“Uh, ladies, we’re up against a clock?” Sonata reminded them. “A clock called the constant energy of the universe, remember? Personally, you might have a backup emergency reality, Sunny, but the rest of us don’t. And I like not being turned into scattered quarks because everything went kablooey!”

“Okay, let’s get going. You ready, Razz?”

“Not really; I’m still getting used to being a ‘hyu-mahn’.”

“Human,” Aria corrected.

So it was to everyone’s surprise that the new girl began walking on her legs and hands, balling up her fists and hunching over at an odd angle.

Sunset looked at the triplets. “No. Just…don’t. I already know what you three are going to say and…just no.” She moved over to her fellow former unicorn and said, “Razz? Humans are bipedal.”

Raspberry looked at her with a mix of embarrassment and surprise. “Yeah, I kinda forgot that. Let me try.” She stood up and gingerly took a step forward. “Okay, this isn’t so bad.” However, it was the second step, moving her left leg that a searing pain exploded in her nerves and she collapsed to the ground, screaming.

Sunset was there immediately. “Sorry, I forgot about that – your wounds carry over. You okay?”

“No, I’m not okay!” she shouted. “I’m hurt and in a strange body, I don’t have my magic anymore, I have no way to make it back home according to you and I might just die here! What part of okay is this?” Raspberry looked at Sunset, and there were tears in her eyes, not entirely from her pain. “I’m afraid,” she said softly. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Heliodor flew down to comfort his mistress, but to his surprise, he was caught in mid-flight by Adagio’s grasp. He glared at her and was about to blow a flame, when she looked at the bird and said, “Let me handle this.” Heliodor, surprised to be addressed, nodded, and flew over to Sunset’s shoulder. She then looked at Sunset. “Sunny, let me deal with this, okay?”

“Sure,” Sunset replied, wondering what Adagio was going to do.

“Sunny, come with me,” Sonata said. “We need to find a table for you to work on, because I have an idea that might get your friend walking.” Intrigued, Sunset followed the ponytailed-girl out of the room.

“They’re gone,” Aria said a second later.

Adagio wordlessly nodded. “GET THE FUCK TO YOUR FEET!” Adagio ordered. “THIS AIN’T NO PITY PARTY!” Raspberry looked at the girl with utter surprise, so Adagio grabbed her by the arm and literally pulled her to her feet.

“Let’s get something straight,” Adagio said, hissing at her. “I get that you’re one of Sunny’s friends, and that she cares about you, I do. But we care about her too. And I will not let her die just because you want to have a Goddamn ‘woe is me’ session!”

Raspberry’s look of surprise immediately turned to one of anger. “I don’t like your tone.”

“And I don’t like your attitude,” Adagio retorted. “I owe Sunny. She literally saved my life. I would be dead right now if it wasn’t for her, and before that she was one of my closest friends. And now her family and friends – my friends too – are all in the hands of a madman trying to destroy the universe. That’s not some bullshit hyperbole, this is the real fucking deal. And I don’t have time to carry some freaked-out little girl because she can’t get with the program!

“I get that you’re afraid, I do. I was nearly killed a few hours ago, and I’m scared shitless. My kid sisters watched me nearly die, and do you think they’re in any better condition?”

“We’re not,” Aria agreed.

“But Sunset seems to think you’re some sort of hot shit from her world. And right now, that’s what we need. I get your world is under attack and believe me, I sympathize wholeheartedly. But I’m not going to throw the ones I care about most in this world to their deaths because you can’t get your shit together! So either shape the fuck up or sit here and wait for the world to end, because I don’t have the ammo to spare to put one through your skull. So what’s it going to be?”

“You had better watch out when I get my powers back,” Raspberry growled.

“Good. You can hate me all you want, so long as you get the job done.” The two glared at one another. “Take whatever time you need to compose yourself, but the moment you step out of this room, I want your game face on, got that?” Nothing more to say, Adagio went off in search of Sonata and Sunset.

“And you guys are soldiers?” Raspberry asked Aria.

“No, we’re special operators,” Aria explained. “And we shouldn’t exist in a perfect world, any more than Sunset should. But this isn’t a perfect world – and it’s the only one we have. I hope you take that into consideration.” Aria then followed her sister out of the room.

A few seconds later, biting through the pain and forcing herself to walk, so did Raspberry. She took step by painful step, and though her body screamed with agony, she forced herself to move, roaring sting repeatedly, towards the door.

The first thing Raspberry heard when she stepped out of the room was a loud slap, followed by Sunset shouting, “That was uncalled for!”

She looked to see Adagio rubbing her face. “Look, Sunny, I get that you and she come from a world that shits rainbows and looks like a Lucky Charms cereal box exploded. But you’ve lived here on Earth for about five years now, right? And she’s going to have to adjust to being human as well. This isn’t the background of Robot Unicorn Attack, this is real life, warts and all, and we’re now at war.”

“Still uncalled for.”

“I’ll apologize to her later after we save the world and we’re all okay to sit around and have a beer, okay? And before you ask, yes, I’ve had to drink as a part of missions – and I’ll be glad to give that up. I don’t even like beer.”

“Now,” Sunset insisted.

“Fine,” Adagio replied, going over to Raspberry and offering her hand. “Okay, I’m so—” Adagio’s response was ended when Raspberry backhanded her across the face. “Okay, I guess I deserve that a little,” she admitted.

“She learns fast,” Aria said to Sonata. “I think I’m going to like her.”

Sunset pointed to a chair, then moved over by Raspberry. “Lean on me, Razz. We’re going to get you to a seat.”

“Why? You’re not going to leave me behind, are you?” the girl asked worriedly.

Sunset sighed. “Razz, would I do that?” Raspberry turned away but Sunset was firm. “Razz, look at me. Do you really think I would abandon you right now?”

“I…I don’t know. I thought you had to save your world?”

“We do, but I’m going to need your help.” She then gestured to Sonata, who was carrying something in her hands. “And you’re going to need this.”

Sonata bent down and started wrapping a series of metal tubes around Raspberry’s leg. “Hope I got this right,” she said. “This is just purely experimental shit I’ve read about and I’m not that good at bionics.”

“Is anyone?” Sunset asked.

“Yeah, the mad scientists at DARPA. I can build shit, but even some shit’s above my paygrade, know what I mean?” She slid the straps around Raspberry’s leg, checked the servos one more time, and muttered, “Seriously, if this works and we save the world, I’m going to Maker Faire with this shit,” then stepped away.

Sunset walked a bit away and held her arms out to Raspberry. “Okay, now walk to me.”

Raspberry looked at Sunset. “I…can’t.”

“You can,” Sonata said, “and you will.” Raspberry flinched and Sonata put a comforting arm on Raspberry’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m the stupid one. I’m not as forceful as my sisters are.”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Yes, the geek/nerd/twidget’s the stupid one. Of course everyone’s going to believe that.”

Sonata stuck her tongue at Aria, then looked back at Raspberry. “Ignore her. Just do it.”

“Oh God is she going to do that horrible imitation of that one actor again?”

“Hopefully not,” Adagio commented. “I kinda think it’s dorky, too.”

“Trust me,” Sonata told Raspberry as she ignored her sisters. “And if Sunny’s your friend, you’ll trust her too.”

Raspberry looked at Sunset, then back to Sonata, and then down at her leg, in the weird straps and contraption. She closed her eyes, took a breath, then counted to ten…

…and stood.

She walked over to Sunset with a slight limp, but otherwise, not feeling any pain. “What magic is this?” she asked, shocked.

“Not magic at all,” Sunset told her. “Welcome to a world where technology rules. Soni just built you a leg brace, designed to let you walk and run.”

Raspberry turned and looked at Sonata as though she was a god. “It will deliver extra power to make up for whenever your leg can’t take it, and it’s self-charging via energy recapture,” the SIREN explained. “There are better models that DARPA and other agencies make; this is just bare bones science fair stuf—WHOA!” She found herself buried in a deep hug by Raspberry.

“Thank you,” she sobbed into Sonata’s shoulder.

Adagio pulled Sunset aside. “Hey, between you and me….”

“No, Dagi, we’re not going to leave her behind and I don’t know if I trust you around her right now.”

Adagio sighed. “Look, you have my word I’m not going to touch her again, okay? I’m doing what I can to keep us alive right now.” When Sunset looked at her, the SIREN told her, “You figured out a cancellation path around this time freeze spell, okay? That probably means Divine Right has as well, which could very well mean that we’re still in danger. We need to get to our hideout before they find it.”

“That works for me. What else?”

“When we get to our hideout…when we go against Divine, I strongly recommend you leave your friend behind.” The look in Adagio’s eyes was serious. “She’s going through trauma right now…PTSD. She’s not going to be of any use to us when we get out into the field. Hell, if this were the old days, someone would’ve used MINDMAGIC on her—”

“Mind magic? I thought you said you didn’t have access to magic?”

“It’s not like that. MINDMAGIC is a code name for a drug cocktail that our government came up with to get rid of SIREN washouts. For anyone under legal age, they use it to wipe their mind, give them a new identity since the drug also makes you susceptible, and drop them off in an orphanage in various parts of the world, mostly the US. If you’re an adult they do the same thing, except you’re signed up for the regular RCN for four years, then sent completely on your way and into a new life.” Adagio paused. “Of course, I wouldn’t do that – I know what the stuff does and I was there when they used it on a SIREN candidate. Anyway, your friend is going through a lot right now, and I don’t think she’s going to be of any help.”

Sunset nodded, not sure of how to respond to that. Instead, she said, “Okay, get us to where we need to be. We need to start preparing for what happens next.”

“On it.”

Queen fed, and it was glorious. One of the Old Things they used to be, back when they were weak, wandered into their territory, and Sister attacked, killing the Old Thing instantly. And now they fed.

Mate, however, was doing something curious, pulling off the Old Thing’s skin. Queen vaguely remembered something about the part where the legs met, and in a few seconds, Mate did what came naturally, and Queen remembered why.

Sister growled at Mate and swiped him. That was a good thing. One did not play with their food like that or waste vital energy.

Queen lifted her tail, presenting herself before Mate. Mate responded, and a few minutes later, Sister did the same. Mate would have to expend that energy on them before sitting down to eat. After all, as big as the Old Things were, there was more than enough.

Queen and Sister looked at each other. Males, they thought in unison.

Divine slipped on his specially-made outfit for the occasion, walking around the chamber, checking everything. The only addition he’d made since was a cage for his “guests” who would be here to witness his triumph. He would command a demon and he had armies. The reign of Emperor Divine Right would soon begin and the Earth would be his.

Then after that, maybe the world his father of father’s mentor the Black Unicorn came from. It had been long enough, and he was sure the Black Unicorn no longer lived, and that world probably now suffered for a lack of a real ruler. Perhaps he would find a fitting descendant of that creature and make that individual a governor of that realm in memory of the being that had led him to this moment.

All of that would come in due time, though. For now, came the hard work.

He looked at the obelisk that would host the final mark. The blood would run down the channel and then pool underneath the bell. At the same time, the singer would sing her song, and would cause vibrations in the bell, which would wake up the demon within. And then Divine would cast the second spell that would bind the demon to him and make it his.

Oh, sure, he expected some rebellion from the creature; you didn’t control a thing as powerful as it without some problems, but he was sure that he would have everything under his control. After all, he froze time and stopped his enemies. His armies were building, and soon he would have command of a great demon and thus the armies of Hell at his fingertips.

He wondered how Divinerightia would sound as a name for the rechristened Earth.

He would make this town Divinerightopolis, the capital of Divinerightia, the first of the worlds of the Divine Dynasty. It had a better ring to it than “Canterlot” or “Earth”, after all.

He walked over to a small pedestal by the sacrifice stone and looked in a demonic bestiary, flipping it to the correct page, that of a massive blue demonic goat, with long, twisted black horns, red eyes and hooves of flame.

In just a few hours, you will bow to me, Grogar, Divine thought to himself with a grin, looking at the bell.

“Shimmer, how did you escape?” Zephyr had his hands on her shoulders and was looking at her with panic. “Where’s your mother? What the hell happened to you?” The look on his eyes was one of recognition, and that simple gesture poured ice water down her veins.

Somehow, he knew Sunset Shimmer – the other Sunset Shimmer, the human one.
Which meant that she was in town…
…and worse, she was with the enemy – and her family!

“I’m not who you think I am,” she told him.

“No, I know who you are. Sunset Shimmer, Princess of House Bonaparte, and I’m here to protect you and your mother.”

Sunset’s jaw dropped. “Princess? Other me’s a princess?”

“I thought you were a princess too, Sunny,” Sonata asked. “You said your mother’s one back in Equestria.”

“What are you talking about?” Zephyr asked Sonata.

“Look, Zephyr, I don’t know what you’re going on about, but I recognize this girl; she’s one of my girlfriend’s students,” Sable told him.

“Look, I see there’s going to be an explanation needed,” Sunset told everyone. She then turned to Aria. “Can you check up on Razz? You’ve already heard it, so you’re not going to miss anything.”

“Yeah, no problem. She’s still a little rattled, so she’s probably still sleeping it off. That bird of hers is something, though.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he looked bored, so we got one of the laptops we weren’t using and put a movie on. Only one we had is Top Gun, but he seems absolutely fascinated.” Aria shrugged. “Maybe because he’s never seen aircraft before, I dunno. Anyway, I’ll go check on her.”

“Thanks.” Sunset then caught the attention of the others, and said, “Now, listen up, because what you’re going to hear is true. You may not believe it, but if you don’t, realize that time has been stopped right now, and the only thing keeping you in motion at the moment is me.” She held her hand out and an aqua ball of spellfire came into her hand.

Aria entered the room silently, watching the girl fitfully toss and turn in her sleep. She knew what that was like; since her introduction to what could be considered a normal life, she’d had a few of those herself. She opted to leave the girl alone, and then went into the adjacent room where the TV was set up. The credits to Top Gun were playing and to Aria’s surprise, the bird flew over, hit the stop button on the laptop, then hit the full reverse one, then quickly hit start again. How he’d learned to do that was nothing short of amazing. Sunny was right – this bird was anything but normal.

She plopped down in the seat next to him. “Liking the film, little guy?”

In response, the canary perched atop a rifle tripod they brought in for him to use, and he looked at her before chirping something.

“I guess. Anyway, your…mistress needs to sleep a little more, but if she wakes up, you come get me, Soni or Sunny, okay?” To her surprise, the bird pulled off a perfect salute with his wing, and Aria couldn’t help but salute him back.

It wasn’t until she walked out of the room that she realized…bird wings don’t bend like that, do they?

She walked into the living room with everyone staring at Sunset in shock with the exception of Adagio, who had a bored look on her face; and Sonata, who was too busy prepping her gear.

“Did you know about this?” Vesper asked Adagio.

The eldest triplet nodded. “She told us everything – she was the reason we went south, and it turned out that they were trying to capture her, but as to why, we don’t know.” She then looked at Zephyr. “But I bet you do.”

“I was assigned to protect a French VIP: a princess of the former French Imperial Family and her daughter. This became all the more urgent after my partner was murdered in this shitshow you got going on here in Canterlot.” He looked at Sunset. “The daughter looks just like you and is also named Sunset.”

“She’s…probably my counterpart on this world,” Sunset admitted with some reluctance. “I’m not human, though I look like it right now. I’m actually a unicorn from a parallel dimension. So is my friend that I brought in. She’s going through something like what I went through when I first came to this world four years ago.”

“Seriously? I mean, yeah, you’ve got magic,” Evergreen said aloud. “But a unicorn?”

“Greenie, she’s telling you the truth. We saw it for ourselves,” Aria replied before walking over to Sunset and leaning against her. “And even if we didn’t…she’s our friend. We take her at face value.”

Adagio took the other side. “Completely.”

Sonata hugged them all. “Absolutely.”

“Uh…okay. But can’t she just…I dunno, change back into a unicorn or something?”

Sunset crossed her arms. “Look, I’m expending a lot of magic I can’t afford to right now, keeping the laws of physics running in this room. I used up most of it getting her and trying to keep things under control and that was after I saved Adagio from nearly dying.

The room suddenly got so quiet that you could’ve heard a pin drop.

Intermezzo gave a sickly-sweet smile and looked at everyone who wasn’t a SIREN. “Okay, make yourselves scarce, we have some keelhauling to do. Go outside and smoke or something.”

“I’ve limited the spell to the perimeter of the house,” Sunset explained.

“Then you two—” Vesper said to the men, “—go watch Top Gun with that strange bird of theirs. And you,” she said to Sunset, “go check on your friend. From what I gather, she’s been through a lot and if this other world you’re talking about is going through a war of its own as she said, she might have PTSD.”

Sunset nodded. “Good idea.”

She went into the other room before the screaming started.

“Sunset?” She turned to see the man named Sable approaching her. “Tia’s talked about you a lot. She’s pretty proud of you, and says you’re one of her top students.”

“No, I’m not,” Sunset admitted, “but I’m getting there.”

“Did she, ah, cover for you?”

“She did after she found out. It’s the only reason I’m not at the Blanks, or worse, even though I deserved to end up there after everything.”

“Well, from what I gather, you really turned your life around.” He thought about for a second, then added, “Sorry, that probably sounded insensitive.”

“Not offended, don’t worry. Besides, it’s true in more ways than one.”

“Well, I’m going to let you check on your friend, but just wanted you to know that in case you see her.”

“See her?”

Sable nodded. “Tia and Luna were captured by these guys as well. From what I’m gathering, if you look like this other Sunset, then either Tia or Lu may look like the other Sunset’s mother.”

A cold breeze seemed to surround Sunset at that moment. Practically everyone involved in her life was being hunted for reasons she had yet to understand, and if it was all just coincidence, it was the worst intersectionality in the history of ever, as Pinkie would’ve said. And now she was getting to throw three more friends into the fire to save everyone else, and possibly even the world, when her secret was now exposed to people who knew her in-universe counterpart.

She silently wandered away from Sable and towards the room where her fellow unicorn slept. That was something else she had to consider as well: what if the gate to Equestria never opened, or worse, it did only to find their home a wasteland? What if Raspberry had nothing to return to?

What if…. She thought about the white alicorn who had been so central to her life, her mother. How could she reconcile her mother with the other female who was going to be her mother as well? Forget Heather Has Two Mommies – Sunset had to reconcile that before it got reconciled for her, and that time was likely to be coming a lot sooner than she ever wanted.

Was she on the verge of losing everyone and everything she loved?

“Are you okay?” She looked up to see Raspberry, lying on the bed, looking up at her. “Sunny?”

Sunset looked down at her friend. “Yeah, I just realized that I’m going to lose my life here if I save this world. And I am going to save this world; there’s too much in it that I love and wouldn’t want to see hurt.” She shuddered. “But after this, I’m going to lose my family, the ones I love. I’m…I’m going to have to start life over again.”

Raspberry sat up. “What about our home? Your mother? My parents?”

“I don’t know. We have to save this world, or we won’t be able to go back. And I know from what you said, there’s a war going on over there, too – and there’s no guarantee that world will survive. I’m sure my mother will do something, but….” A bleak look came over Sunset’s face. “I’m going to lose the ones I love. Even if I save them, I’m still going to lose them.”

“I’m sorry,” Raspberry said. “At the end of the day, I still have Heelee. But….” She looked at herself. “I’m this human thing now. A human mare.”

“Girl,” Sunset corrected. “We’re not adults yet, so we’re girls. Once we hit adulthood, then we’ll be women, woman singular.”

A curious look came over Raspberry’s face. “But I thought ‘girl’ was a colloquialism for a female friend in Equish? I….” She shook her head. “This is going to be confusing.”

“Yeah, it’s not the differences that’ll throw you off, it’s the similarities,” Sunset said with a grin. “You lost your magic?”

Raspberry nodded. “I’ve been working with the Princess’ Hooves all this time.”

“So you know about them, huh?” When Raspberry nodded, Sunset smiled. “They were my bodyguards while I was a young filly, though I think I frustrated them a lot since I was a brat. How’s Acapriccio Inferno doing?”

“Who?”

“Acapriccio Inferno – she was the castellan of the Hooves and like a big sister to me. Or at least she tried to be.”

“Sunny, the current castellan is Marimba Rondo.”

Sunset looked shocked. “But Mari was just a junior Hoof when I was a….” Sunset sighed. “I should’ve taken the time to talk to some of them when I was in the castle, to let them know I was okay.”

Raspberry smiled. “They know. In fact, they fought valiantly to try to get me to the portal so that I could come get you. Celestia’s speech was quite moving during the war commission, and once the Hooves knew you were alive, they made it a priority to get me to you.” Raspberry looked at the ground. “Some died to that end. And they may think me dead now. I certainly feel it. I can’t feel anything anymore. It’s like….” She sighed. “I don’t know how to explain it.”

“I do. You feel more than just empty, you feel like a fake. I was that way the first few months I was here on Earth, before I learned how to mine the ambient magic from the lunar cycle. Took me a long time to learn how to do that and when I felt drained that feeling came back. Now that I have my magic back in full, I still remember those times. I don’t envy you at all.” She grinned. “If you’re stuck here, I’ll teach you how to do that. Who knows? Maybe you’ll learn how to use white magic.”

“Yes, but if I’m stuck here, where will I stay?”

“I’ll talk to Mom – you can stay with us and—” The smile instantly fell from Sunset’s face and Raspberry immediately wished she could take away what she’d just said, as reminding Sunset of her situation made things worse. “I…I’ll figure something out for us. I still have to save this world, no matter what.”

“Even if it costs you everything?”

Sunset nodded. “My family may not care about me if they find out what I really am. They may even hate me – my sister already does, and she doesn’t know the full truth. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love her, or the rest of my family, or my friends. And the innocents of this world don’t deserve to die, or be under the jackboot of a man like this Divine Right guy. And last, I am the Archmagus of Equestria and the Child of the Sun. It is my duty to make things right, no matter what.”

“Then what about me?”

“I want you to stay here. Heelee can guard you if need be. But the girls and I and the others – we have to face off against this evil. Too many people have been killed already and too many are still in danger. I can’t stand by, Razz. I can’t.”

The pair were silent for the longest time. Then Raspberry spoke.

“I want to help.”

Sunset sighed, realizing that her desperate optimism regarding her friend’s magic earlier would make her a hypocrite now. “Razz, you can’t. You’re just a normal girl now. And I can’t risk that.”

“I’m not just a normal girl, okay? I’m an Archmagus, too!” Raspberry retorted. “You even said you needed my help back at the museum!”

“An archmage without her power is no different from anyone who hasn’t trained at all.”

“That’s not true and you know it! I can still see what to look out for! And you need all the help you can get!” She then pointed at the door. “And just outside these doors are normal mares and stallions – I mean, women and…wait, what are adult human males called?”

“Men.”

“Ah, right. Gotcha. Anyway, there are normal men and women out there, magicless, who are going out to fight beside you!”

“Yes, men and women who are trained better than most guards,” Sunset explained. “Think of the SIRENs as the equivalent of the Hooves, and the guys…well, I don’t know their skills, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they know their way around a gun.” Sunset shook her head. “I can’t let you do this, Razz. Believe me, if you had your magic I wouldn’t hesitate. But you’d just be throwing your life away right now.” She sighed. “As it is, I can’t afford to use much more magic to protect you and I’m nearly drained to begin with. I’m going to have to tap the lunar cycle one more time.”

Raspberry pled with Sunset. “I’m not letting you go out there alone! If our world is gone, you’re the only other one of our kind left, Sunny!”

“No. What it means is that if our world is gone…we’re two of seven billion people on this world, because we will never be ponies again.”

But that wasn’t the detail Raspberry focused on. “Seven…billion? With a B?”

“Focus, Razz; that’s not important. If you’re going to be of help, we need to think of how. You can’t just run out there with a gun and expect to make it all better.” She got up from her chair and called out towards the other room. “Hey girls, you done arguing yet?”

Adagio popped back. “Yeah. Safe to say from a parental standpoint we’re grounded until the next century, but at least military-wise we’re too valuable right now to get into real trouble. What’s up?”

“This is going to sound crazy, but do you know any way for a human to use magic?” Sunset asked.

“Wat.” Behind Adagio, Aria looked at her friend as if she’d gone mad. “Sunny, we just found out earlier today magic is real and now you want to turn us into witches?”

“Hey, can I be Bayonetta?” Sonata asked, popping up behind Aria. “I want to fire guns with my feet, wear clothing made out of my hair and have expensive fashion glasses!”

“Why me?” Adagio facepalmed.

“Dearest sister mine, Bayonetta was a videogame. And you’re an idiot,” Aria told her younger sister.

“But…but…but….” Sonata began to pout.

“Soni, don’t do that. You know you’re not allowed to use lethal-level pouting,” Aria said.

“But Ari...!” Sonata went over to Adagio and started tugging on her arm. “Daaaaaaaaagggggggiiii! Ari’s picking on me!”

“Little sister, be serious, okay? For Sunny’s sake?”

Sonata immediately dropped the act. “Okay,” she replied calmly, a change so fast Raspberry looked at Sunset as though the girl with the powder-blue hair was a changeling.

“Good. Now, seriously – is there anything in human culture that can give someone the ability to use magic spells?” Sunset asked.

“Sunny, that’s the problem – it’s not that there’s anything, there’s a lot of things,” Adagio told her. “I could probably sit here for the rest of my life and tell you all the magical things that have been in media since the dawn of time. I take it that it’s for her?” she said, pointing at Raspberry.

“She has a name,” Raspberry growled in a sing-song tone.

“I didn’t get your name,” Adagio said back in the same inflection.

After proper introductions, Sunset looked to the former unicorn, then the teenage militiawomen, then back. “Okay, now you know each other and are on the same side so you don’t kill each other or make snarky comments. And now that we’re done with introductions, everyone put your Goddamn heads together so that we can figure something out, okay?”

“I’ve got it! Phoenix’s Dream!” Sonata said a second later.

“Phoenix’s what?” Sunset and Raspberry asked at the same time.

“Oh, that’s right!” Aria chimed in. “Sunny, you read the Spellbound series, right?”

“Yeah, Amelia’s my favorite character, followed by Sharon Rose, Amelia’s rival. He’s as dangerous as they come.”

“How far have you read?”

“I was about halfway through The Spelljackers – got to the scene where Sharon faces off against his evil half-brother.”

“Well, in the climax of that scene, the—” Sonata began, but was cut off immediately by Adagio, who covered her mouth.

“You bothered by spoilers, Sunny?” the carrot-topped girl asked.

“Huh?”

“No, seriously – are you bothered by spoilers? Because this is an important scene in the book and I don’t want the story spoiled for you, especially if you like the series.”

“Uh, Dagi? Fate of the world? Little more important.”

“It’s a simple question, really.”

“Yeah, just looking out for you, Sunny,” Aria added.

Sunset sighed. “Yes, I am, but right now the fate of the world is at stake and I have no one but myself to blame but at least there will still be a world where I can bitch that the story was ruined for me!”

“Okay, just remember we could’ve given you the Twitter version,” Adagio warned as she removed her hand from Sonata’s mouth.

Sonata continued as if she hadn’t been stopped. “—fact is that Sharon is seriously injured, while his brother Ruska is going for the kill, while Amelia is trying to save the last known phoenix before Ruska kills it. She finally gets it to the Arbiters, then has to go back and save Sharon. Unfortunately, at this point, Ruska has ingested too many Laerian mushrooms, so he’s practically a magical monster and if Sharon can’t stop him, no one can.

“But then the phoenix, realizing that she needs to go in and save Sharon and stop Ruska, flies over to a nearby stonebirch tree and tears off a branch, then cuts itself with the sharp, jagged edge, bleeding on it. The phoenix then rips out one of its own feathers and uses magic to fuse it to the end of the branch. Then with its last breath, it dies, giving Amelia the wand. The moment she touches it, her power increases immensely!” Sonata’s eyes grew wide with excitement as she added, “Then she charges in with what she calls ‘Phoenix’s Dream’ and beats Ruska singlehandedly, saving Sharon! It’s then that Sharon and Amelia look into each other’s eyes an—”

“Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!” Sunset immediately covered her ears. “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!”

Adagio shrugged. “I warned her. Did I not warn her?” the eldest triplet stated.

Aria gave her older sister a pat on the shoulder. “You did your best, sis. I’m proud of you.”

Meanwhile, Raspberry caught that immediately. “No! Are you kidding? It’ll kill him!”

“Don’t phoenixes set themselves on fire and rejuvenate themselves?” Sonata asked.

“Yes – when they’re adults! Heelee is only five years old! Phoenixes usually don’t do that until their first century!”

“Plus, I hate to tell you this, but stonebirch trees don’t exist,” Sunset added, “though I’m shocked that…Amelia and Sharon? Seriously? Ashley is much better for her! Ash loves Amelia! How could she betray him like that?”

Aria shrugged. “Well, in the next book you find out that—”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll turn you into a toad.”

“Noooooooo!!!!!!!!” Aria ducked behind her sisters. “Save me? Please?”

“I’m still mad at you for calling me an idiot,” Sonata huffed.

Raspberry got back to her feet. “I will not let you hurt Heelee and that is final!”

The three jokes stopped immediately. “Well, looks like she does have something worth fighting for,” Adagio said, looking at the girl with a calculated grin.

A similar one was on Aria’s. “Yup, loving pet will always do it.”

Sonata went over and patted Sunset on the shoulder. “It’s what we do, sorry. And besides, I made up the part about Sharon and Amelia.”

“You three are creepy sometimes, you know that?” Sunset told them.

“Yeah, we’re working on it,” Adagio said, a wistful look coming onto her face.

“So you guys spoiled the most important part of The Spelljackers just to try to see if she’s got a spine?”

Adagio sighed. “What happened to ‘Fate of the world? Little more important, Dagi’?”

“That’s not the point!”

“You know, you should’ve just asked me about the time I stopped a werewolf invasion of Equestria,” Raspberry drawled. “That wasn’t easy – my leg injury is proof of that. Oh, and there was the time I faced down a horrific spell that was the manifestation of my homicidal biological father! And let’s not forget the time I had a ruthless unicorn coming after my plot when she thought I’d hurt her sister!”

“Well, technically you were responsible for what happened to Twily, Razz.” Sunset replied. “And you forgot the part where we look similar, so I thought you were some evil doppelganger.”

“Yeah, forgot about that. And as for Twily, I promise if we get out of this, I’ll apologize to her personally, okay?” Raspberry then turned to Adagio. “You are really pushing my buttons now, and I don’t like that.”

“Back off,” Aria warned. “You’re not going to get a second warning.” As if that wasn’t enough, Sonata’s hand went towards her sidearm.

“ENOUGH.” The word was said softly, but Sunset put enough power behind the word that it practically snapped the attention of the other girls right onto her. “I see I have your attention,” the flame-haired girl intoned. She looked at Raspberry first. “Razz, when I said these girls are a match for the Hooves, I mean it. Maybe not a complete match, but they are what we call special operators, the most elite kind of warriors on the planet. They have been trained since childhood and they are lethal.”

She then turned to face Adagio. “Dagi, stop it with the mind games. Razz holds the same rank as me in Equestria, and she’s going through a lot, not the least of which is changing species. But I believe that when push comes to shove, she will be there. And I want her to have a gun.”

“Sunny, I’m not sure that’s a good idea—” Adagio began.

“You have until Ari, Soni and I get back to get her trained on how to use one,” Sunset said in a tone that implied royal authority. She looked at the other two sisters. “Let’s go tell them where we’re going, and that I’m taking you two as backup.”

Now it was Sonata’s turn to parrot her sister’s words: “Sunny, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Raspberry recalled the rifles the girls had carried earlier and said, “You’re right; I have no idea what those magical rod things they were carrying—”

“Magic wands,” Adagio corrected. “What you’re talking about is different from our rifles and are called magic wands.”

“Or rods, or staves or staffs, or—” Sonata added, only to be interrupted by Aria.

“What are you, a dictionary?”

“I’m serious about this,” Sunset told them. “We will be right back. I’ll go explain it to the others. They might slip out of time for a moment or two, because I haven’t given them shielding, but you know how that is.”

“Well, you haven’t given me any shielding,” Raspberry commented.

“Just tie a line between you two,” Sunset told her. “I’ll still need time to strip the remaining ambient magic off the moon.”

“Wait, I thought you said with this spell—” Adagio began.

“Yes, even magic is bound to the natural laws of the universe,” Raspberry intoned, “but it doesn’t mean that the magic is unrecoverable. It just becomes a case of more mining than fishing.”

“Wow, you just impressed me.”

Raspberry huffed. “Clearly, impressing you is the easiest thing I’ll do all day.”

“Grow up, child,” Divine Right looked at Shimmer for the last time before the ritual. He’d come here to gloat as well as bring her a last meal – he wasn’t a monster, after all.

“Why are you doing this to us?” Shimmer screamed, only to be backhanded by Divine.

“And here I thought your mother had taught you some manners,” Divine told the girl. “Do you realize what you are? How special I’ve made you? You stupid little bitch.” He got in her face. “You know, your mother could have been special. I could have made her Empress! But no, she had to go rut with the commoner your father is and have you. And you will pay for that.”

Out of desperation, Shimmer threw a punch at him. Divine easily grabbed her arm and slammed her against a wall. “You are a princess, even though you are hardly deserving of the name. Act like it.” He backed off and looked at the pathetic thing on the floor. “Now, if I had my way, I would make your mother my bride and give you as a plaything to the troops – after all, you are half-commoner, so you must enjoy nothing but carnal pleasures.”

He looked at her in a salacious manner, and a second later she saw why. She adjusted her top, then glared at him. “Creep,” she snarled.

As if a spell was broken, his glance turned to a cool rage. “You almost bewitched me, you little trollop,” he hissed back. “For a moment…nevermind. You aren’t worth it.”

Shimmer realized what he was discussing and she blanched. “YOU MONSTER!” she shouted.

“Perhaps,” he told her. “But I will be a monster that rules the universe. And you will be a footnote in my path to greatness, child. It’s just the way of the world and the woof and weave. But don’t worry: if there is an afterlife, you and your mother and that pathetic fool you called a father will be reunited and you can tell him all about how you were a good little whore.”

It was then that a thought occurred to Shimmer and she laughed.

“And what simplistic thought, praytell, amused you so?”

“Oh, I just had a thought,” she mused. “I hope the last thing you see as you go down is my face.”

“As if that will ever happen,” he told her and left the cell.

Shimmer leaned against the wall, still in pain, looking at the food she’d been brought. She didn’t know how long she was going to be here, but she knew that her mother’s cousin was insane and that definitely meant that he was clearly dangerous. She reached for the cold pizza and a Sprite, then closed her eyes and remembered when she was so much younger.

“Daddy! Lookit me!” Somehow she’d managed to get her mother’s formal gown from the closet and her tiara and gloves from the dresser. Not really understanding what they meant, she put them on and stumbled her way over to her father’s office.

“Hey, princess! You look so pretty! But does your mom know that you have her stuff?” Shimmer shook her head no and thought she was going to be in trouble. But her father just scooped her up in his arms and said, “We’ll just make this our little secret then, okay?”

She put her arms around his neck. “I love you,Daddy!”

“I love you too, princess.”

Of course, hindsight was twenty-twenty and now she realized when he called her princess he’d meant it metaphorically and literally. He’d died a couple of years later and now she didn’t know whether that accident was genuine, or whether it had been something Divine Right had caused in order to lay his plans towards fruition.

She curled into a bundle and whispered, “Daddy, if you can hear me…I need help. Mom and I need help!”

Of course, no answer came. It never would.

Her eyes filled with tears, once more, she remembered something her father told her: if she was ever afraid, all she would have to do is put out her hand, imagine what the thing she was afraid of was, then remember him and close her fist. There would be magic, and it would make her problem go away.

She knew it was just something he said to her to make her feel better. But for the first time in her life, she dearly wished it was true.

She wished that when she opened her palm, there would be magic.

A palm opened, and flash of cyan energy flared into the surrounding space as a spell completed.

Sunset looked at the now open door, and gasped. “Really starting to wind myself here,” she told the other SIRENs. “Hope this works.”

Aria moved next to Sunset and helped her up. “Lean on me,” she advised. “Soni, take point.”

“Against what? We’re the only things moving out here!”

“That we know of,” Aria told her. “Take point.”

“Roger that.” Sonata brought her M4 to the ready and went in, ready to do her job.

“You okay?” Aria asked while Sunset leaned on her.

“No, not really,” she admitted. “But I’ve been through far worse. I’ll manage.”

“Heh, we’ll make a SIREN out of you yet, Sunny.”

“I thought you were done with that after we win this?”

“Yeah, but who says we can’t start a new SIREN corps? We can be like The A-Team!”

“The what?”

Before Aria could respond, Sonata walked out of the building. “Coast is clear,” she told them. “You guys can come in when you get the chance.”

As they walked into the Merrie Wytch, Sunset was both creeped out and sad at the same time. She saw Harmonic Convergence reading from a thick book that she probably thought contained magic but was just as likely some 18th century mumbo-jumbo. Next to her, Trixie stood, fiddling with something on her phone, probably more of the prestidigitation that she loved so much.

Sunset went over and patted her friend on the shoulder. “Trixie, I wish you could know what it feels like to be actually magical,” she said to the still girl. “Sometimes it’s not all what you wish it would be.”

“You know her?” Sonata asked.

Sunset nodded. “This is Trixie Lulamoon, one of my good friends. That’s her mother, Harmonic Convergence. Mrs. Convergence is the ultimate granola-chomping hippie chick that thinks that magic is real. Trixie’s a stage magician and a member of the famed Lulamoon family. Neither of them know that magic is real.”

“You should tell them.”

The flame haired-girl shook her head. “Trixie grew up believing in magic being one way all her life. Her family is filled with generations of magicians, all entertainers. What if I told her magic was real – and she couldn’t use it? Do you know how that would devastate her?”

“Probably less than anything that would devastate these two.” Both looked over to see Sonata, who was by the book section. Sunset walked over and then rolled her eyes. Leaning against one of the bookshelves, across from a disused broom, two girls were in the middle of liplock.

“Celeste-haired one’s Lyra Heartstrings; the other one is Bon-Bon. As you can guess, they’re girlfriends. Lyra works for Mrs. Convergence here in the shop, plus, from what I understand, Lyra and Trixie almost have the same kind of relationship that Twily and I do. They love each other dearly.”

“Yeah, I can tell,” Aria said, looking at Lyra’s left hand, which was currently in Bon-Bon’s pants.

“Lyra and Bonnie…also love each other,” Sunset said, blushing slightly as she figured out what Aria was talking about. “So much so that I’d wager if one was a guy, the other would probably be pregnant by now.”

“I can see that. Anyway, aside from meeting three of your friends, two of which are seconds away from a porno video in practice, what are we looking for?”

“Something that I remembered that Lyra mentioned last time I was talking to her. One of the ‘mundane’ things they sell here in the store is some collectable stuff from things that Mrs. Convergence likes.” Sunset wandered over to a display on the far wall. “Like stuff from Spellbound, for instance.” The display held several items from the series, such as small resin statues of Amelia Grund and other characters, autographed books, and various other bric-a-brac.

“Is this…a replica of Phoenix’s Dream?” Aria asked as she picked up a box.

“It is, but it’s not what we need,” Sunset told her, taking it from Aria. “Magic isn’t going to channel through plastic. It needs a natural pathway to go through.” She then threw it back to her friend, adding, “And sorry, but something like this isn’t going to work.”

“Then what is?” Aria asked, and in response, Sunset pointed to a small sign against the wall that read COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS AVAILABLE AT COUNTER.

Sonata, however, had already looked and said, “I think this is what we’re looking for, girls,” she said, pulling out a small wooden box with golden inlay all over it. The box additionally had some fanciful lettering on it as well as “magical runes” that probably spelled out buy more Spellbound merchandise, assuming they spelled anything out at all. Lastly, on a small glued-on golden plaque there was a small inscription that this was number 349 of 500 made.

Sunset took it and pulled off the cover, revealing a thin wand sitting on a silken pillow. Taking it in her hand, she looked it over. “Looks like it’s made from wood, but it actually feels like granite. It’s got some heft to it, more than a polished stick would.”

“Made from hand-carved axinite,” Aria read from the box, then looked at the price tag. “Well, for as much as someone would have to shell out for this thing? I sure as hell hope it isn’t plastic.”

“This’ll have to do,” she said. “Let’s get going. But first….” She walked over to where Lyra and Bon-Bon and with some embarrassment pulled Lyra’s hand out of Bon-Bon’s pants. “When this is over, I think we need to have a talk about propriety,” she scolded the non-responding pair, before walking back to where the SIRENs were. “Okay, let’s get going now.”

Cantata took a drink of her champagne and smiled. “The finest sobriquet yet, my dearest betrothed.”

Divine refilled her glass as they lay there in bed. “In just a few hours, you will be Empress of All, my dear. How does that feel?”

She smiled. “An Eternal Empire, under us. There will be those who disagree, of course.” A smile came over her face. “Allow me some time to crush them. Don’t let our pet demon do all the work.”

He smiled. “Oh, I intend to do some crushing of my own, my dearest Cantata. After all, if I am to be the Emperor of All, then I must be fit enough to be,” he told her.

“Are you fit enough to go again, my love?” she asked, setting down her glass and getting on top of him.

“For you? Of course,” he said, bringing her body down to him.

Queen could feel it in her bones. Something big was coming. She might have been able to explain what it was when she was Other, but she was no longer Other and she was now what she was. Better, sleeker – more everything.

Queen looked to Sister, who sat there, watching the blinking lights on the wall; and then to Mate, who was so tired from spending himself on them that he needed rest at least for a while.

Queen looked about this place, with its strange geometric stones and lights in the walls and strange markings everywhere. When she was Other, she would have had other ways of identifying this place. But she didn’t need that now. This was Home, and that was all it needed to be.

Something big was coming, Queen knew, and it would be the first step towards her species’ domination of the world.

Sitting outside, glowing like a small incandescent star, Sunset sat in meditation. From above, a huge moonbow encircled the natural satellite above, raining down a steady stream of aqua light towards the girl.

“If I was asked, I don’t think in a million years I’d be able to explain this,” Zephyr admitted to everyone around. “She really isn’t the girl I thought she was, was she?”

“Neither of us are,” Raspberry told them. “Somewhere on this planet, I have a counterpart, too. She and I don’t belong here – but she calls this place home and she wants to save it. Even if it means that her life will be ruined as a result.”

Everyone looked at Raspberry, and then to the glowing girl. Raspberry walked out into the red outdoors, looking at the complete motionlessness of everything around and the absolute silence of a world never meant to be – a world likely cacophonic compared to hers. Sitting down next to Sunset, she asked, “So how goes it?”

Without opening her eyes, the flame-haired girl said, “I’m lucky. The moon is full tonight, so I’m stealing as much as I can. Unfortunately, without motion to the world, there’s only a finite amount I can drain. I can try to steal some from the statue holding the portal, but I don’t know if that’s going to cause problems in the long run, so I’m going to leave that be.” She handed her friend the wand and ended the spell, dissipating the aura. “It was cool of Heelee to cough up a feather, but I don’t know how much it’s going to help because he’s not a phoenix right now.”

“He can still breathe fire, and you have no phoenixes here on Earth, so how do you know that they don’t look like canaries?” Raspberry joked as she gratefully accepted the wand.

“Okay, you may have a point. But how are you feeling now?”

“I don’t know. I want to help you save this world, because you’re my friend and Sonata seems nice enough. But Aria’s still a bit standoffish and Adagio? That friend of yours is a complete bitch.”

“Ari will grow on you once you get to know her better. And Dagi just feels protective of me,” Sunset explained. “Trust me, once you get into the fight, they’ll back you, too.”

Raspberry nodded. “What happens if I can’t make it back?”

“Then you can come live with me and my family.” Sunset then sighed. “Assuming I still have one.”

“Tell them who and what you really are, Sunny. If they love you as much as you love them, they’ll understand. Remember, I had to tell my adoptive parents as well, and it’s going to be tough when I meet their children – I have brothers and sisters I have yet to meet, and that’s going to be a headache and a half all over again.”

But one former unicorn looked at the other and said, “I hope you’re right.”

“I know I am. You’re the daughter of Princess Celestia, Sunny – if you’re anything like her, you’ll succeed.”

“Yeah. I’m still wondering how I’ll tell Mom that not only is my ‘biological’ mother alive and well, but that she’s as human as I am.”

“Well, remember that stanza from Countess Coloratura’s song,” Raspberry reminded her, then sang:

“I’m only pony,
Of flesh and blood I’m made
Pony
Born to make mistakes…”

“Hey, when you two are done singing Human League songs, you mind getting back in here, so we can talk strategery?” Zephyr asked. The two looked at each other and walked in.

Inside, the others were in military attire: The SIRENs were wearing their CADPATs, while Zephyr and Sable had slipped into ACUs. Looking at the two not currently in camouflage, Intermezzo suggested, “You two don’t have to, but I strongly recommend you two change into the same kind of attire we have.”

“Well, we do have formal robes as archmages,” Raspberry suggested.

“Are you kidding? One, they’re ugly as sin,” Sunset said, ticking the reasons off on her fingers. “Two, they’re designed for pony sensibilities, not human ones. The point of pony military gear is to be seen. The point of human gear is to not be seen, so they don’t shoot at you. And three, no way in hell am I wearing them.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. You want to walk around with your bare ass sticking out because a tail’s not there, that’s your call, but not me. Besides, you can test that wand by changing our clothing to match theirs.”

“Fine,” Raspberry said, lifting her wand. The wand flared with cyan and green light, which soon spooled around the two teens, and a second later, they were in duplicates of the SIREN gear.

“That looks handy for changing into,” Vesper said as she presented two gunbelts to the girls. “I know one of you is trained on this; I saw Adagio do it herself. What about the other one?”

“I’ve…had some practice shooting,” Sunset admitted awkwardly as she slipped on the belt. “My brother is a cop, and he took me to a shooting range once just to see how guns work. I don’t care for them, but I know how to use one.”

“Good. You’ll have four magazines each on the belts. Keep in mind that your pistols should be considered a defensive weapon, not offensive. If you’ve gone through half your ammo supply, you’ll want to get out of the area quick or use your magic to put down the threat. You do not want to be in a long, protracted firefight with a pistol, because they have time, manpower and extra ammo on their side. If worse comes to, you need to retreat. We cannot afford to lose you two, because you two are the only ones who know how to stop this spell, got that?”

“Crystal,” both unicorns replied.

Intermezzo guided them to a table, upon which had a rough drawing of the lair. “Now, we know that we’re going to run into opposition here, here and here,” she said, looking at them all, “so our best point is to punch their funnel – we go through the front gate, then start shooting until we have their attention. That will draw almost all of the red forces towards us, and by stopping our vehicle here, we protect a doorway that our two, uh, ‘specialists’ can get into.”

“Nothin’ doing – I need to find and save Solaire and Shimmer,” Zephyr told them.

“You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?” Side told him. “We get our little mahō shōjos in there and they should do all the hard work.” Everyone then looked at them.

Sunset caught that instantly. “The first priority is the Gordian spell, because we don’t know how stable that is,” the flame-haired girl explained. “Once we do that, then we’ll go in and take down Divine Right. I don’t know if we’ll be in time,” she admitted, “but saving the world takes priority over the others.”

Everyone could see the look of anguish on Sunset’s face. Sable walked over to her and said, “This is war, Sunset. There are no good answers here, because when you get to this point, the good answers are gone. I once had to kill boys not much younger than you in order to save lives. I’ve had to do things I don’t like, because other lives were in the balance. And if something happens to Tia, I don’t know what I’d do. But I know that she couldn’t live with being saved if it meant millions of others died.”

“Sunny, I don’t want anyone to die,” Raspberry told her. “But I’ve had to take lives even before I was archmagus. It’s not easy and it will haunt you. But if others die – innocents or worse, the ones you love – you will never be able to live with that. I know it’s antithetical to our way of life as ponies, but our people are fighting for their very existence on the other side of this portal, and if the situation were different, I’m sure humans would be too.”

“Fuck yes we would,” Evergreen said with a grin. “If there’s one thing that humanity’s probably too good at, it’s hurting people and breaking things.”

“And now we’re going to break more baddies and their toys, right, sis?” Side said, putting her arm around her sister’s waste.

Evergreen hugged her sister in response. “Damn right.”

“Can’t do this without you, Sunny,” Adagio told her. A second later, she sighed. “Or without you, Ms. High Maintenance.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Raspberry replied. “I think.”

“Okay, we make sure that everything is good to go, and then we start tearing up everything,” Sunset told them. “We take back this world and we take back our loved ones. And when we’re done? Somebody’s going to learn the hard way why fucking with magic should only be done by a professional.”

Deep within a dimension beyond space and time, there was nothing but primordial, inky blackness, shadows cast without light.

Something slithered, wet and putrid, within the ebon. Something screamed with an unnatural sound, followed by a deep, bassy chortle, and then a crunching sound as if something masticated. Soon the sound was gone once more, as if it had never been.

Milky white eyes opened, glowing with a baleful light.

Soon I will be free, the creature thought, and there was almost a malicious glee in those words. Soon….

August 16, 12:55 AM: Danger Zone

The world was enveloped in ruby haze and was still and quiet. Birds that should’ve been asleep ages ago were still caught in mid-flight. The sun, which should’ve set ages ago, continued to rain down that same stationary light that itself was frozen in time. Nothing moved, nothing breathed, nothing was alive in the sense of living. The whole of reality was frozen in less than an instant, and all was still…

…except down at the level of the quarks. Deep within the subnuclear universe, quarks fought and railed like mad against the unnatural shackles that held them still. Despite their frenzied attempts to do what they had been created to do, they continued to be held in place just as they had been in a time before now. And yet they continued to rage against the dying of the light, building more and more energy within them.

Sooner or later, something would give way: either the immovable object or the unstoppable force. One would bow to the other and declare absolute victory. Either the universe would be frozen forever, or the incalculable energy building up in infinite quarks throughout reality would unleash their fury at once, creating a detonation that had never been seen since the Big Bang.

One of these forces was going to win, and the clock ran down on the contest.

“This is exhausting,” Sunset said as she went through every single bullet and arrow, casting a small charge on each one to keep them in motion once they left the weapon. “Not to mention boring.”

“Yeah, well, try taking apart the magazines and then putting them back together again,” Adagio told her as the three juniormost SIRENs did so, with Aria taking care of her sniper rounds and weapons, while Adagio and Sonata took care of the rest. “Plus, you’re the only one that can do it.”

“I can help,” Raspberry told them.

“Yes, but the charge on your wand is finite, so you can’t do this part,” Sunset reminded her.

“Also, I should’ve mentioned ‘trust to do it’,” Adagio added.

“Dagi….”

“Fine, fine,” the eldest triplet relented. “Get over here and watch what we’re doing, and then you can help. But be careful, understand?”

“Okay, I’m not a filly, you know,” Raspberry grunted as she sat next to Sonata. “Your sister is a bitch,” she told the youngest triplet.

“Heard that!”

“Sometimes, yeah,” Sonata admitted, “but she’s my older sister and I love her regardless.”

“Dagi, just do me a favor and drop it?” Sunset asked her. “We have a lot more shit that we have to deal with and that’s not helping.”

“I will if she stops being a bitch.”

“Takes one to know one!”

“You talk again and I will put my fist through your face.”

Raspberry raised her magic wand. “Hard to do that when you’re a frog.”

“ENOUGH! We’re supposed to be at war with the enemy, not with each other!” Aria interjected. She looked at Raspberry first. “You are a guest on this planet. Sunny’s already proven herself – you need to do so yourself!” She then turned to face her older sister. “What is wrong with you? We don’t need this shit right now, sis!”

“What’s gotten into you, Ari?” Adagio asked.

“What’s gotten into me? You’re the one antagonizing her! That’s just unsat, Dagi, and you know it.”

Sunset got up from her seat. “Look, I need a break. I need time to level out. I’ll be right back.” She immediately left the room.

“This is your fault, you know,” Raspberry told her.

Adagio sighed. “For once, I agree with you.”

Sunset took a walk outside into the strange non-dark darkness. The whole thing had a surrealistic quality to it, as if she was in some sort of painting. That was the thing, of course; paintings were always frozen, just like she felt. Images didn’t breathe or live or have family, just as she felt right now. There was nothing left for her here on Earth, and if what Raspberry said was true, the place where she was born – as well as her mother – was now in threat, too. What could she do?

The answer, she knew, was befitting that of a princess: help those who couldn’t help themselves. There was no one on this world that would be able to stop Divine Right save for her, and she knew it would be what her mother – her “biological” mother – would want, even if it meant the end of everything in the dimension she once called home. Plus, this was her world now, and she felt she had a duty to protect it, so she would do it anyway.

But there was also a price to be paid: once she did, she would lose the family that she’d gained here. She’d already lost her sister, and soon after would come the others. Worse, by her presence, she would then risk the lives of her friends and others who did know. She would have to start over again, and she didn’t like that idea one bit.

Well, if Razz is stuck here, then I won’t be entirely alone. Fortunately, they seemed to look similar enough that they could probably pass for half-sisters. But where to move to? She didn’t even want to move.

I don’t want to give up my life!

Sunset recalled the first time she said those words, so long ago. It had been just after her first magic flare, the day she stood outside the orphanage and watched as the Princess of All and her entourage paraded through south Canterlot. She’d stayed with Dreamy Heart that day after her first friend, a filly named Seamist, had been adopted, leaving Sunset as the only filly and only unicorn in the orphanage. The colts had all followed Dreamy’s husband Gentle Smile down to the front rows. But Sunset was too young and small to go, so she stood with Dreamy by the highest window in the building.

Then the painful flare came, and Sunset floated in the air, or so she was told; she really didn’t remember much other than the fear and the pain. What happened after it was over was everypony looking up at her, with Dreamy holding her though she was shaking like a leaf in a storm. And it wasn’t hard to see why: down below, several ponies’ wagons had been turned into wagon-shaped teacups, while the royal carriages below had been turned into a tea service set…with the Princess’ carriage becoming a teapot. As for the alicorn herself, Princess Celestia looked down at her new teapot, then back up in shock at the tiny unicorn that had done it.

The next day, Dreamy Heart and Sunset were summoned to the castle by a pair of stern guards. Though Gentle Smile had been sure that nothing was amiss, Sunset had seen the look of worry in his eyes and she realized she’d broken the personal wagons and carriages of so many ponies. The Princess had probably demanded she come to the castle in order to be punished. Sunset suddenly started panicking – she could be thrown in the castle dungeon! Or exiled! Or maybe thrown in a dungeon where she was exiled! Or worst of all – not being allowed to have dessert!

By the time they arrived at the throne room, Sunset was on the verge of panicking, and Dreamy Heart was nearly there herself. And as they were brought in before the Princess, Sunset at that point panicked and shouted out that she didn’t want to be clapped in irons and forced to eat broccoli forever. It was then that Celestia sighed and explained how impressed she was with what the young filly had wrought. The next day, Sunset was brought to the castle to live as Celestia’s ward, and a life of adventure, love and happiness occurred…at least before her downfall.

Sunset smiled at those halcyon times. She’d almost thought them lost when she’d changed and alienated everypony she loved, her mother included. But she was stronger for the experience and now she realized that if she ever saw the sun alicorn again, she would have to remind her that just because she had a family here now didn’t mean she didn’t remember who her other mother was.

But I’m going to lose both now, Sunset thought grimly. Still, I know what I have to do. These people need my help, and so do my family and friends. Mother would understand.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and walked back in. The time for introspection was over.

Now it was time to fight.

Stepping out of the shower, Divine Right reached for a towel, giving himself a smile. It was time. Finally time to begin his grand work that had been started so long ago by his father of fathers. He had been saying at to himself and others all day like a giddy child, but now it was truly time at long last. When the world drew its next breath, he would be master of all. When this was over, he would be the undisputed vision of what it was to be a man in this realm.

He sighed; he knew that the first moment peasant girls feasted their eyes on him they would probably orgasm on the spot, and he knew Cantata would not deal with that well. She would probably execute a city’s worth of women just for that, but in the long run it might serve to quell any silly notions of resistance, so it would have to be something he would allow.

As he walked into the room au naturel, he took time to pause in front of the mirror. Lithe and a sculpted work of art, by this time tomorrow every woman on the planet would be in hysterics just to be within a meter of him. Alas, he promised himself to his soon-to-be queen, and he was a man of his word, so those soft tunnels would have to go unexplored. It would be one of his faults, unfortunately; an emperor needed to make himself available to the people, especially those willing, and furthermore, it was the right of those better to taste the fruit when offered.

Slipping over by the bed, he put on his clothing: the usual undergarments, a fine silk shirt, slacks of the finest tailoring, and an expensive pair of shoes he bought in Milan a few months back. Once done, he went over to the table, picking up his equipment.

The longknife seemed to burn in his hands like cold fire. Though the ancient, corroded blade must’ve been a work of art once, now it served its purpose as his tool to grasp towards the other world. The metal was flaked with rust patches, darkened by the blood of innocents, and had been weathered down over the ages to the point where the fanciful etching on the blade could barely be seen – from what he could tell, either there had once been the shapes of unicorns, pegasi and horses running up and down the blood channel on both sides of the blade, or they were dogs and time added strange indentation to where no implications were intended. Either way, whatever knight had once hefted this was long gone and now it was his to slice a pathway towards his rightful place in the universe.

He then hefted the spear. It would be his means of control over the beast. This spear was the legendary weapon of Carolus Magnus, known to the lesser as Charlemagne. Still, he wondered why the ancient king would take a solid gold weapon into battle, especially one so ornately wrought – it looked more ceremonial than functional and the haft, with its inlaid silver and carved ivy leaves running up its length, ending in a broadleaf of a spearhead. Still, the weapon was said to be able to control the damned and with this in hand, he would make Grogar bow before him.

“Are you ready?” He looked up to see Cantata, standing there in a formal uniform that had some extra modifications to it. Her basilisk sat on her shoulder, preening itself and acting general as genial as a parrot.

“So, you’ve deemed yourself an admiral now?” he asked her, looking at the uniform sleeves’ one thick band and three smaller bands, with the topmost one forming the executive curl.

“Who’s going to tell me otherwise?” she said with a wolfish grin. “By this time tomorrow I will be the ultimate military power on this world. I could wear the blank sleeve of a seaman and they would have to bow down to me. Thus, I am hardly worried about anyone telling me what to wear. Besides,” she added coolly, “anyone who does won’t be living much longer after that.”

He nodded. “Have your personnel go get the girl and bring her down to the altar. Is the new singer ready?”

“Took me a while to find one,” Cantata admitted, “but we found one. She knows what to do and she will be ready. Once we do that then we shall be ready.”

“Savor this moment, my dear,” he told her. “These are the last moments of the world as we know it. Within a few hours, we will be as gods and there will be nothing in heaven or hell that can stop us.”

“Are you sure about this?” Raspberry asked Sunset.

“You’ve been here with us the past few hours, Razz. You’ve been fine, right?”

“I still don’t trust him.”

The group were loading the two vans they’d taken for the operation. However, during this time, Raspberry pulled Sunset aside and confessed her concerns about the man named Sable Loam. “He was your mother’s worst enemy and you trust him?”

“I didn’t have the same experiences you had, Razz. Hell, my mother never even mentioned him! And even if she did and I knew of his existence, this Sable Loam is different! For one, he’s dating Ms. Celestia!”

That thought seemed to cavitate the other unicorn’s thought processes. “What?”

“Yes. Don’t know how long, but they were clearly an item. Furthermore, he’s here to help save her as well as the rest of my family and friends, not to mention the world!” She crossed her arms. “Give the man a break, already! I mean, people aren’t the same as ponies are on the other side.” She sighed. “Have you ever met a stallion by the name of Flash Sentry?”

“Yeah, met him once during an official function at the palace. Generally a good guy, but a bit moonstruck about Twi. Why’d you ask?”

“Because I’ve never met him and from that description alone, he’s leagues better than the local Flash Sentry.” A quick mixture of infuriating and embarrassing thoughts rammed through Sunset’s mind, a mélange of now-pointless sexual desires and now-prioritized hatred. “Trust me, even if he’s a dork amongst dorks, he’s head and shoulders above Brad.”

“Brad?”

“Long story I do not want to get into, and besides, that’s not the point. The point is, while for the most part people here are the same as ponies, that’s not a universal. This may be an alternate reality from Equus, but it’s not a mirror universe!”

Now Raspberry was really confused. “But…it is a mirror universe. I got here through a mirror, remember?”

Sunset facepalmed. “First chance I get I’m going to lock you in a room with Pinkie and let her lecture you on sci-fi. You will probably not survive the PowerPoint onslaught.”

Raspberry was about to ask another question when Sunny Side showed up carrying gunbelts, helmets and body armor. “Okay, remember what we said: these are for PDW purposes – do not get into a gunfight if you can avoid it, as you will likely lose.” She then held up the armor. “You’re going to put these on now. The moment we get out of the van you do not remove those vests or helmets if you want to live, do I make myself clear?”

Both girls took the guns. “We got it. We’re all ready to go?” Sunset asked.

“Yeah. We’re loading the rest of the stuff in the vehicle and we’ll be leaving in a few minutes.”

“What happens after we win?” Raspberry inquired.

“This isn’t Equestria, Razz,” Sunset told her. “Happy endings aren’t exactly guaranteed.”

“Okay, that’s the last!” Adagio said. “Everyone needs to take five to get any last things in order, and then we’re off. No stopping us.” She then turned to Raspberry. “And you I need to talk to. Alone.”

“Dagi,” Sunset warned.

“I’ll behave,” Adagio insisted. Sunset gave her an even look before departing. That done, she turned to look at Raspberry. “Look, I’m not going to bullshit you. I think you’re a prissy little bitch that is holding us back, and this vaunted magic power that Sunny says you have? It’s all bullshit and Ouija boards, as far as I’m concerned. Not that I don’t believe her – I think you just lied to her.”

“What the buck is your problem?” Raspberry snarled. “I get that you hate me, but guess what? I’ve been through a lot of shit! I’ve lost all my magic, I’ve changed shape against my will, I’m literally an incalculable distance from my home and I don’t know if I’ll ever get back – or if anypony I love and care about will survive the Celestiadamn war that’s going on! You at least have your sisters, Sunny and friends! I may end up here for the rest of my days, basically never a pony again and just as unpowered as you! I think I’m allowed a little leeway, dammit!”

Adagio folded her arms. “Are you done?”

“I think I’m learning to hate you just as much as you hate me,” Raspberry seethed.

“Well, just as we’re being clear, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’d piss off Sunny, you’d be missing some teeth right now. Frankly, I don’t give a fuck about your problems – you try being a child soldier for your entire life and see how that goes watching everyone you know die around you. You might be some badass mage – supposedly – but I have never had a childhood or anything fucking resembling a real life! Furthermore, Sunny is the first real friend I’ve had that I can rely upon in a context outside all I have ever known, so I am not going to let her get killed just because you want to do your Goddamn sob story about ‘I can’t use my fingers as LEDs anymore!” bullshit! So get the fuck off your high horse, shut the fuck up and shove it so far up your cooch your fallopian tubes will have them tattooed from the results!”

Raspberry frowned. “Wow, so you decided to have a private conversation with me just to insult me. Thanks. I feel so much better, now.”

“Just get this through your fucking thick skull, you twat: when you and Sunny go do what you need to do, you better make Goddamn sure she survives. She is important to me and my sisters, more than you can ever know. And if she dies….” The look on Adagio’s face, to Raspberry’s shock, was one of sudden worry.

Raspberry put a hand on Adagio’s shoulder. “I won’t let her die. She’s my friend, too.”

Adagio glared at her, then swatted it away. “If she dies, you won’t outlive her long, do I make myself clear?” Before Raspberry could say anything, Adagio walked away. But while the Equestrian native stared daggers into the SIREN’s back, she didn’t hear what said girl had to say:

“If she dies…I don’t think any of us is going to outlive her that much longer.”

“Get in there,” another masked woman carrying a lethal-looking rifle snarled. As if to prove a point, she aimed it right at Velvet’s head. “I ask a second time, someone doesn’t get to see me ask a third, are we clear?”

“You’re a monster,” Velvet hissed.

“You think I give a shit what you think?” the SIREN responded. “I’ve heard worse from better. So carry your little babby-spawning ass in there or I’ll give you a new hole, one you can’t use.”

Cadance immediately moved to her future mother-in-law’s side. “She’s not worth it, Vel,”

“Yeah, Vel,” the SIREN snarked. “I’m not worth it.”

“You better hope I don’t survive this,” Cadance warned, “or I swear I will have your ass behind bars for the rest of your days, in a place where your only meaning will be serving as someone’s living blow-up doll.”

“Like you got the stones, you prissy bitch.”

Despite the danger, Cadance sized up the other woman. “I’ve heard worse from better. Get a new line,” the lawyer taunted.

“And what’s stopping me from killing you right here and now?”

Cadance gave a catty smile. “You don’t have the stones.” The SIREN was about to draw on Cadance when her partner grabbed her shoulder and shook her head. Giving Cadance one final death glare, the woman walked off.

“And you say I’m brave,” sighed a relieved Shining, who was still recovering from his earlier trauma.

She kissed him. “I learned from the best,” she said with love in her eyes.

“Well, as entertaining as that was,” Luna grumbled, “we have no idea where we’re going or what happens next, and I doubt our escorts will be anywhere near forthcoming.”

“Lu, we have to trust that we’re going to be okay. We have to for their sake,” Celestia reminded her sister, nodding her head in the direction of the girls.

“In case you’ve forgotten,” the younger replied in a whisper, “they’re likely the ones that will survive this, especially with those strange powers of theirs!”

“Assuming they still have them, sister. It’s not like we’ve ever asked. And given the situation, I don’t think further information is forthcoming anytime soon. I just hope they still do have the abilities that alien princess gave them – we may have to rely on them getting us out of here.”

“Is everything okay?” Solaire asked them.

“We’re trying to find a way to protect our students from this,” Celestia said, a half-truth, “but honestly, there’s not much we can do, given the circumstances.”

“That is completely understandable and I’m sure under a normal situation you would do your utmost,” Solaire insisted. “For now, it is the responsibility of we adults to make sure that they survive to bear witness to this. And I promise you, as much as I am heartsick over my daughter’s situation, I will do everything I can to help you.”

Celestia smiled. “You’re a good woman, Soli.”

Solaire frowned. “Not good enough to stop my cousin, I’m afraid.”

Luna looked at her. “There’s a story there, isn’t there?”

“Not a very good one. Divine has always had a sexual desire for me ever since we were children, and it enraged him when I moved here to America for university and fell in love with my husband. Summer Breeze…he loved me for who I was. He didn’t care that I was a princess – he didn’t even know I was one until I knew I could trust him. And even after that, it wasn’t anything to him. I was Soli, the woman he loved, not some princess.” The look on the woman’s face became one of wistful nostalgia and Celestia idly wondered if she looked the same way whenever she thought about her past relationship with Discord.

The melancholy then turned to anger as she then added, “And now I find my cousin, tied with these…inexplicable powers, but he has also murdered my oldest brother and his wife, and possibly even my husband as well! He was always trouble, but now he’s become a monster and I can’t help but feel responsible for it.”

“Take some advice from me, Soli: sometimes there’s not a damn thing you can do to help. When I was younger, I had…issues…that my sisters tried to help me with, and I had to learn the hard way. Clearly, this Divine Right person has to do the same way. He might even have to learn it as his last lesson.”

“God forgive me,” Solaire told Luna, “but I’m beginning to hope that’s true.”

“What do you think’s going to happen to us?” Fluttershy asked. Surprisingly, she was calm, which worried the girls: the calmness was either Fluttershy building up to one of those rare nasty moments that she had, the kind Pinkie had dubbed “Flutter-rages”; or worse, that she had accepted that they weren’t going to survive this and that she was coming to terms with her own impending end.

“We’ll get out of this,” Rainbow said, in a matter-of-fact tone. “We always do.”

“I would beg to differ, Rainbow dear,” Rarity said morosely. “We didn’t fare that well back in late January, and then we had that issue with Fluttershy and her father. And then the triplets came into our lives and then vanished. Right now, to use one of my father’s metaphors, we’re not exactly batting .400, dear.”

“Hate to say it, but Rares is right,” Applejack chimed in. “An’ Ah don’t want you to do anything stupid, Rainbow. We already know these jerks mean business.”

“I believe,” was all that Pinkie said. Rarity turned to say something, but then she saw the crystal-clear look in Pinkie’s eyes. “I know she’s coming. You guys know it, too. She won’t let us down.”

“We don’t even know if she’s—”

“Ixnay on the Unsetsay,” Rainbow warned. “If Twily and Tavi hear us….”

“Hear what?” Octavia walked up to them. “Care to enlighten me?”

“We were just going over the situation, dear,” Rarity improvised. “We were going to tell you as soon as you had some free time away from Twilight.”

The raven-haired girl sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Right now…I don’t trust myself around Twily. I’m still angry with her and the fact that we don’t know what happened to Sunny’s not sitting well with me. As for Twily, she’s with Uncle Night right now, not that he or Aunt Velvet are in any better shape.” She shook her head. “I feel like I’ve got a headache coming on.” She groaned. “Sorry, I’m just dealing with too much shit right now.”

Despite how she felt, Pinkie went over and gave her friend a hug. “I think we all are.”

“How are you holding up?”

“Great?”

“And if I asked you to tell me the truth?” Octavia insisted. Pinkie frowned slightly, let go of her and turned away. When that happened, Octavia turned to the others and said, “That bad?”

Applejack sadly nodded. “I’m not sure which one is feeling guiltier,” she told her friend. “But I do know that this is tearing them both apart right now, and I’m worried about you, too.”

“I’ll survive.”

“That’s not what Ah meant, Tavi, and you know that,” Applejack told her.

“I know what you meant. And the answer is, no, I’m worried sick right now. I have a cousin that for the longest time I was jealous over, because I thought that she was stealing my spot as Twily’s sister figure. And now that we don’t know if she’s alive, I feel as though it’s partially my fault. And that’s on top of my own medical issues –I haven’t had a pill since this morning.”

“That doesn’t sound good at all, sugarcube.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Look, if I start acting weird or something, just….”

“You don’t have to say it. You know Ah’ll look out for ya. What are friends for?”

Despite the situation, Octavia smiled. “Thanks, AJ.”

Due to his injuries, Night leaned on his daughter. By now, Spike, his fear having overcome his adventurous spirit, clung to his sister’s leg almost to the point of impeding her movement. Idly, a part of her mind wondered if this was what a child bride felt like. Then her mind turned away from that macabre thought, focusing on the equally-macabre reality.

“Not that I blame you, but you’re being awfully quiet,” Night told his daughter.

“I….” Her emotions warred within her, roiling for dominance. Was Sunset alive? If she was, would she ever speak to her again? Had her own stupidity cost her sister’s life – or worse, her own? Would anything ever be the same again?

“Dad, I…I had an argument with Sunny. I drove her away, said she wasn’t my sister anymore. And now…now she might be—”

“I know. Your friend Pinkie told your mother and I about an hour ago. She said we had to know, even though it’s tearing her apart.” He looked around for a second, as if wondering if he should continue. “I wasn’t aware Sunny and Pinkie were in a relationship.”

“They’re not. In fact, Pinkie confessed her feelings just before we left for our trip, and Sunny turned her down. I don’t know the whole story. The others aren’t talking to me, not after what I did.”

“I know about that, too – Pinkie was rather…explicit in what she told us. And I have to say, right now, Twilight, I’m extremely disappointed in you, just as your mother is. But…God help me, I can’t be mad. Not now, not when we’re in this situation. If we survive – if your sister survives – an apology is the very least you’re going to owe her. Adopted or not, she is a part of this family, and you failed her by making her not feel welcome, especially after how close you two have been. A ‘teenage spat’ doesn’t cover it.”

Even though she felt like she’d been crying for hours, Twilight felt the crushing pain of sorrow once more. I’m so sorry, sis. I know you’ll never forgive me – I don’t know if you’re even alive, but I’m so, so sorry!

“Wow, looks like you really fucked up, Twily,” Spike muttered.

“SPIKE!” both Night and Twilight admonished him at the same time.

“Well, it’s not like I’m going to live long enough to be able to say ‘adult words’!” the young boy admitted.

“You might not believe it, but I hope you’re wrong, son,” Night said, fighting the sorrow burning within him. “I truly hope you’re wrong.”

“Okay, listen up and we won’t kill you!” the lead SIREN ordered. “All of you fucking cunts and limpdicks are going to go into that door, one at a time. I see any stupid shit, and the first person I’m going to shoot is that kid over there, got that?” The command was so beyond the pale that even her fellow gunsels looked at her.

“Monstre!” Solaire seethed while Twilight instinctively pulled her brother close to her. She’d already lost one sibling. It wasn’t going to happen again.

“Hey, you think I like the idea of putting one in a kid’s brainpan? I ain’t a monster, just doing my job.”

“One could argue that threatening to murder a child is monstrous,” Shining snarled. Never in his life had he ever thought of killing someone before. He’d fired his gun before in the line of duty, and had watched as the man slowly succumbed to his wound. The act of drawing on the man and pulling the trigger had been ingrained through long training, to the point it had become instinctual. But he didn’t think of the implications of it until it had been over and done. But as he looked at the armed woman now, he was intent on it, the price on his soul to be damned. Threatening his little brother, when the family wasn’t even sure that one of them had survived, was crossing the line of lines.

“Yeah, well, being a stripper isn’t as glorious a life,” she told him. “Now shut up or I’ll change my mind and shoot you first.”

He stepped forward, never taking his eyes off them. “I’m okay with that, if it saves their lives.”

The woman smiled. “You got balls, that’s for sure. Too bad you probably wouldn’t survive, or else I’d look you up.”

Cadance glared, then took her fiancé’s arm. “He’s taken.”

“Hey, I’m okay with a threesome,” she told Cadance. “Well, like I said, you aren’t going to see tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter. Shame, too. Anyway, just make my life easier and get in the fucking hole, okay?

“Someday, you’re going to pay for this,” Cadance warned.

“Maybe, but not today.” She pointed her gun at the hole and the rest complied, walking forward, one by one into the hole. The last to do so was Cadance, who gave the SIREN a glare that was enough to make her curdle her blood. Saying nothing, she went through the door, and a second later, another SIREN shut the hatch and dogged it shut, preventing any chance of escape.

A third SIREN chuckled. “Heh, that girl thinks she’s a badass. Really should’ve put one through her head, Chief.”

“Probably,” the chief petty officer replied. “But there’s something about her that makes me think she’s a harbinger.”

“A harbinger?”

“Yeah. And not a good one.”

“ALL HANDS, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY ALERT! GUNFIRE REPORTED AT THE MAIN GATE! REPEAT, GUNFIRE REPORTED AT THE MAIN GATE! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!”

The SIRENs immediately raced towards the entrance to the building, pausing along the way to recover body armor, helmets and other vital gear. By the time they’d reached the doors, several other SIRENs stood there, tense and on alert. Finally, Cantata showed up, flanked by several of her officers. Several basilisks flew in the air around them, as if on the lookout for trouble.

“Several of our air support units,” the SIREN captain said, gesturing to the flying creatures, “have spotted potential signs of trouble. That was bad enough. But now we have reports of gunfire just a klick away from the main gate. I want a small fireteam to go out there and assess the situation. If necessary, take out whatever is out there.”

“But there shouldn’t be anything out there, ma’am!” one of the petty officers commented.

“True – but until we have incontrovertible proof that was nothing, then we should treat it as a potential attack, correct?”

“Aye.”

“Okay then.” Cantata turned to one of her lieutenants. “Take your team out there and find out what the hell is going out there, understood?”

The lieutenant opened her mouth with the intent to order her fireteam into action. Instead, what happened was the side of her head jerking as a round ripped through at subsonic speeds. A second later came the report in the distance – the sound of a perfect sniper shot.

Cantata raced back into the building, while the remaining SIRENs at station charged towards the front gate.

At her position as spotter, Pines pulled away from her binoculars and looked towards the others. “I think we have their attention.”

“I guess you didn’t kill Cantata?” Adagio asked.

Aria pulled away from her sniper rifle. “I have the feeling that would’ve made things worse, sis. If we’re going to take her down, we’re going to do it eye-to-eye.”

Zephyr shook his head. “Shoulda taken the shot when you had the chance, kid, but I’ll take the goose egg. We ready to do this?”

The look in Sable’s eyes was one of restrained rage. “Are we ready? The question is, are they ready for us?”

“Don’t get cocky, Loam. You might be a professional, but so are these girls. Don’t forget that or else you’ll be in a pinebox by this time tomorrow.” He turned and looked at Intermezzo. “We ready?”

“Yeah. Soni’s got the rigging up. Let’s get going and hope that we’re successful.” The SIREN then turned to look at Sunset and Raspberry. “You sure about this? I still think getting you via insertion with us is going to be the best chance we have, plus that way you don’t have to use up excess magic.”

Sunset was going to say something when Heliodor started chirping excitedly. When Vesper asked what the bird wanted, Raspberry clarified. “He just keeps saying ‘they’re here’, but I don’t know what that means.”

“We’re facing off against people with enough magical power to stop reality, Razz – you know what that means,” Sunset pointed out.

Heliodor chirped off a long staccato burst of sound and Raspberry looked at him oddly. “What do you mean you have a need for speed?”

A cry not unlike anything any of them had ever heard split the sky, and at that, Heliodor’s face seemed to harden into a grimace. Without further ado, he rocketed into the air, not so much leaving a trail behind and burning a path into the atmosphere as he reached out to face his species’ ancient nemesis.

“Heelee!” Raspberry cried.

“Looks like the battle’s underway,” Intermezzo said. “Okay, everyone suit up, we’re going in.” She turned to look at the two former unicorns. “Last chance to catch a ride with us.”

Sunset waved it off. “Hey, isn’t the point of a misdirection attack to allow the other team to sneak in unopposed?”

Intermezzo grinned. “I like how you think. You two take care of yourselves.”

As the trio drove off, Raspberry looked at Sunset. “Wouldn’t it have been a better thing to go with them?”

“You know as well as I do that they would slow us down from the part of the mission that we need to do,” Sunset replied.

“And the real reason?” Raspberry asked.

“I…if we don’t make it out alive, I want to remember them as they were, not in pieces,” the older ex-unicorn admitted. “They are three of my closest friends and I….”

Raspberry patted her friend on the shoulder. “We’re all going to make it out of this, Sunny. We’ve all been through worse, and you know it. Besides, if there’s anypony here who should be worried, it’s me. You’ve got all the power right now, and I’m going in with just your borrowed abilities.”

“Hey, you’ve been in more scraps than me, Razz. If there’s anyone who’s going to get out of this, it’s you.”

Raspberry laughed. “I seem to recall a unicorn that’s been living on her own for the past few years in a place nopony has ever been before, according to her. And if she’s survived this long, she’ll get out of this alive.” She went over and hugged Sunset. “You’ll be fine, Sunny. We’ll get through this with flying colors.”

“Okay, let’s get going.” With that, the two girls started running towards the fence. Sunset was already looking at ways to get in, and she opted to go through the classic way. Recalling one of the spells that she’d learned from Celestia, it was one of the ones she made sure to translate to a human casting form, in the event that she had no choice but to protect herself. So as she focused, she called forth a cyan sphere of energy in her hands. Sliding to a stop, she thrust both hands, cupped in fists, forward. The blast of energy rocketed away from Sunset, slamming into the wall and exploding, sending chunks of masonry flying in all directions. By the time the smoke cleared, there was a hole in the wall where none had been before, but few had noticed, given that the telltale sound of gunfire had started in the distance.

“Wow, magic blast? I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” Raspberry told Sunset.

“Well, it’s not exactly called a magic blast, at least not the version I used,” Sunset began to explain, but then thought better of it. “Look, the firefight is going to distract them, but it’s not going to do that for long, so we need to get going!”

“Lead the way.”

The van, in the meanwhile, rushed forward, and the moment it could be seen, the SIRENs began firing on it.

“Hope you installed the armor on this thing or it’s going to be a short trip!” Vesper shouted to the back, where the others were getting ready to fight. Between Intermezzo gunning the engine and the hail of bulletfire, it was hard to hear much of anything.

“Don’t worry,” Sonata shouted back, “I’m sure the ablatives will work!”

“You’re sure?”

“I guess! I’ve never worked with ablative armor before!”

With a final roar of the engine the van impacted into the front gates. The front armor on the van exploded outward sending the ruined wrought iron doors slamming forward. While most of the enemy SIRENs managed to get out of the way in time, a few did not and were torn apart by the flying metal.

As the van skidded to a stop, Intermezzo screamed, “I thought you said this was ablative armor!”

Sonata blushed. “Did I say ‘ablative’? Sorry, meant reactive. Silly me!”

“I have a hard time believing a girl who can turn a van into an APC made a mistake like that,” Zephyr droned.

“Argue later,” Sable said, kicking the door open and jumping out. “Right now it’s go time!” He immediately rushed away from the van and got by one of the concrete barricades that had been set aside but not put in place. As they opened fire on him he ducked behind the cement object briefly before returning fire.

“Kid, you’re going to get yourself murdered that way!” Zephyr jumped out of the van and dove for the concrete barrier, the rounds fired at him sizzling through the air above his head. He landed in an undignified manner, then lobbed a grenade over the top. The grenade went as aimed, causing several SIRENs to scatter before it went off. As it was, the blast stunned a few, allowing him to get a few shots in. “You bitches are going down!” he shouted.

“Tough talk from a dead man!” one of them shouted, drawing a bead on him from a marksman’s rifle…

…only to have her neck torn open by an arrow shot. A distance away, Aria reached for another arrow in her quiver. “It’s the shot you don’t hear that’ll get you,” she stated, then nocked her bow once more.

“Bow and arrow? Seriously?” Vesper drolled, though with a hint of a smile on her face.

In response, Aria took aim, fired her bow, and the missile flew true, right into the muzzle of shotgun that aa SIREN was taking aim with. The weapon backfired, sending heated shards into her face and body and making her scream in pain before another arrow immediately tore through her mouth, ending her for good.

“Okay, bow and arrow it is.”

“Sometimes you just have to have an appreciation for the classics,” Aria said with a smirk.

Finally, between the gunfire and the crash, the bulletproof window finally shattered, and Intermezzo and Adagio dove behind the front seats, which were immediately shredded by automatic gunfire.

“They have us pinned down!” Intermezzo shouted to the others. “We gotta clear out that sharpshooter topside or we’re done for!”

“I can’t get a bead!” Aria shouted back. She poked her head out and a stitch of bullets immediately made her duck back in. She poked her head back out and returned fire with her DMR. “That’s a negative, she’s too well buttoned up!”

“I’m going for it,” Adagio insisted.

“Dagi….”

“Mezzo, I’m faster than you. I can get over there and take her down, then when I do that, I’ll have another angle of attack for the tangos.”

If Adagio was expecting approval from her grande sœur, what she got was something else. “Are you crazy? You’ll get killed out there!”

“No I won’t,” Adagio said confidently. “You taught me well, remember? Besides, I’ve already tried the being dead thing. Didn’t care much for it.”

“What?”

“Long story. Look, Mezzo, you’ve looked out for me my whole life. Let me return the favor.”

“Dagi…I-I can’t do this! I can’t watch you die! I love you, kiddo!”

Adagio took Intermezzo’s hand and held it against her cheek. “I know. We all know. We were supposed to be just mentor and mentee. We’ve become something more in all this time. When this is all over, we’re going to have to talk about the change in our relationship.”

“Like what?”

Adagio’s smile was loving. “Maybe…adoption?”

“You’d better live long enough for that to happen, do you understand me?” Intermezzo ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” Adagio said with a salute.

“Yes, Mom,” the older woman replied.

Adagio gave a fond smile and immediately rushed back into the front seat and kicked the door out. Immediately the front door started taking fire, but the teen wasn’t going to stick around long enough for that. She dived through one of the windows of the nearby building, rolling as she landed and then hopped up onto her feet in a run. She immediately vaulted up the stairs as fast as she could, ramming the door at the top until it got open; the moment it did, automatic fire buzzed against the door as it ricocheted off.

I’ve got one chance to do this right, or else she’s a goner, Adagio thought to herself. In the rush, she’d left behind her carbine so that Intermezzo could reload faster, which meant all she had on her was a pistol – and sidearms weren’t exactly known for their range. Still, she was going to have to do it, or else….

Adagio shut her eyes; it was too horrible to contemplate. She evened her breath, then looked through one of the bullet holes and what she saw terrified her: while one of them was still drawing a bead on their location, the sniper had a spotter…and she was setting up an RPG, and there was no doubt as to what was going to happen next.

Adagio dashed out the door, the bullet whizzing right past her neck. A second round hit her left shoulder, but despite the pain and the force, she somehow managed to stay on her feet, ignoring the haze of her own blood splashing into her eyes or the fact that she couldn’t feel her left arm.

She heard a whoosh in the distance.

Half-blinded, she fired. She heard screams, knowing she hit her target. She then took a chance and wiped her eyes just as the explosion sounded off. Adagio didn’t need to know what happened then. Her eyes shrank to manic pupils as she walked up to the two SIRENs. She didn’t even let the marksman speak; she just fired two shots at point blank range into her throat. The next one she immediately slammed her foot onto her chest and said, “You killed my mother.”

“Fuck you, you traitorous bitch!” the SIREN snarled. “I always knew you were weak, Blaze!”

“Oh, I’m weak alright,” the girl with the gun snarled. “I’m weak enough to murder the person who killed one of the people I love most. Oh, and it’s Dazzle, not Blaze. You’re confusing me with my sister.”

“So fucking wha—” The SIREN’s shout turned into a scream as Adagio dropped the gun, grabbing her enemy with both arms and throwing her into the ruin of the van. She didn’t take the time to note the odd juxtaposition in her life: the closest thing she had to a mother, now encased in a burning wreck with the SIREN that had murdered her. Adagio didn’t take the time to think of any of that as she ignored her wound, picked up the marksman’s gun and started firing at anyone she knew wasn’t an ally. She only knew that the mission, the one she’d come for all along, would take priority.

The rage and hatred could abide until she found Cantata Blast.

Then Hell itself wasn’t going to stop her from murdering her ex-commander.

Queen sniffed the air. Something smelled wonderful, an aroma she’d never encountered before. Maybe, back when she was other she might have, but that was before she became perfect. She yipped in delight, this was heaven!

She growled orders at Sister and Mate, informing them of the situation. Sister seemed interested as females do. Mate, however, only wanted one thing and one thing only – typical of males, honestly. While that was fine by Queen, sometimes there were other priorities, like food or sleep.

Or this wonderful, indescribable thing.

Queen immediately loped off in the direction of the scent, with Sister and Mate soon following. Soon she would have that.

Soon she would have all.

“Let us the fuck out!” Rainbow shook against the bars, to no avail. Other than being in this creepy Greek-like place, there was no sign of anything that could indicate where they were or how they were going to get out. It was like they were in a cage on a stage.

Actually, it probably is exactly that, she mused.

“Rainbow, don’t hurt yourself, sugarcube. Whatever’s going on, we’ll find out in due time,” Applejack assured her.

“Applejack, they’re going to kill us,” Twilight said softly. “They’re going to kill us and we have no idea why!”

“We don’t know that, Twily,” Cadance said, though she wasn’t entirely convinced of her own words. “Aunt Tia? What do you think?”

“They’re going to kill us.” That came not from Celestia, but from her near-twin, Solaire. “They’re going to kill all of us, and it’s my fault!” Solaire started to sob. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Celestia embraced the other woman. “You are not to blame. That madman is. And one way or another, we will get out of this okay, Soli. I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Everyone turned to see Divine Right standing there, with a grin the proverbial cat had prior to ingesting the canary.

“Divine, I swear, let me out of this and let my daughter go, or else….” Solaire seethed.

“Or else what? You’ll cry some more? Maybe make babies with more commoner trash?” With his chin, he gestured to the two men in there. “After all, you have two here to get started with, right? Looks like you’ve got enough for your own little soiree!”

“You disgust me!”

“The feeling is mutual,” he told her. “To think I ever even thought to be with you…. I must have been mad. Well, fortunately, you have contributed something to my needs. And what that is, you will find out later. Who knows? You might even live to see it.” With that, he started to walk away.

Looking at her family and the children present, Velvet finally lost it. “We’re doomed,” she said, looking at the man on the other side of the cage and holding all the proverbial cards. All she could see, though, were the corpses in her mind, the corpses that these people around her would soon be.

To her surprise, Rainbow walked over to her and, taking her hand, said, “Don’t worry, Mrs. V, the cavalry’s on the way.”

“Rainbow,” Celestia began, “I don’t think—”

“You’re wrong, Ms. Celestia,” Rainbow said. “Trust me: there’s nothing that can – or will – stop her, short of a magical orbital friendship laser. No one knows that better than me and the girls.” She looked at her four fellow CHS students and to the surprise of everyone, they all had the same look on her face.

“Buy some time,” Rarity suggested.

“On it,” Rainbow said, turning to shout at the enemy who was departing. “Hey, ¡puto! We’re not done with you yet!”

“Rainbow!” Octavia shouted. “What are you doing?”

The Latina started banging against the bars again. “What, you a scared chickenshit?”

He finally turned. “Children should be seen and not heard,” he told her. “Especially worthless children.”

She laughed at him. “Hey, asshole – newsflash: you know that you just fucked up hard, right?”

He leaned against the bars, looking at her with eyes filled with murder. “You dare talk to me that way, trollop?”

Pinkie had had enough at that point. She gently pushed Rainbow out of the way, saying, “Let an expert handle this, Dashie.” Looking at him eye to eye with a cocky grin on her face that she copied from one particular person, she suddenly crowed, “Oooooh! Now you fucked up!”

“Excuse me, you little pink-haired slattern?”

“Now you fucked up! Now you fucked up!”

He reached through the bars and grabbed her shirt. “Shut up, you little whore or I will shut you up!”

“You have fucked up now!”

“You will shut your mouth when I order you to, do you understand me?”

In response, Pinkie pulled away from him and started dancing, side to side, continuing. “Now you fucked up! Now you fucked up!”

“I WILL KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!” he roared.

She didn’t stop. “Now you fucked up! Now you fucked up! Now you fucked up!”

To the shock of everyone, Divine raised his hand, and an aura of sulfurous yellow surrounded it. Pinkie was painfully and unceremoniously lifted up by her neck, and she started choking due to his magical grasp. Looking at her with the gaze of a spider admiring a fly, he said, “Now learn your place for what little time you have left, whore. Do you have any last words?”

Pinkie fixed her blue eyes on him and her smile went away. Her hair began to straighten and her visage became one of stone. And with the volume that people who knew her tended to call the “Royal Canterlot Voice, she bellowed:

“NOW YOU HAVE FUCKED UP!”

“Die, you little cunt!”

“If I do,” she gasped, “she will personally send you to hell where you belong!”

Suddenly he realized. “Ah, a ruse. How cute.” With a sweep of his arm, he threw Pinkie painfully into a wall. “Cheap theatrics won’t frighten me, any of you.” He tugged on his coat lapels to straighten them, then dusted himself off. “I have wasted enough time with you.” With that, he departed once more.

The moment he was gone, Pinkie forced herself back to her feet. She had a bruise and a cut lip that was bleeding, but the smile on her face was virtually a mile wide. “That should do it,” she chirped.

“PINKAMENA PIE!” Luna scolded. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that I was saving us from him getting a little trigger happy.” She looked at them all. “He had a gun on him and while I don’t know if he was going to use it, I didn’t want to risk it.”

“And people say we’re foolhardy,” Applejack said, and Rainbow nodded in agreement.

Luna went over and fiercely hugged the teen. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed, Pinkie!”

“I know,” she said, her hair starting to return to its curl. “But I know she would have done the same thing.”

“Who’s this ‘she’ you keep talking about?” Octavia asked.

“I’d tell ya, but it’d spoil the surprise!” Pinkie said with a wink.

Sunset and Raspberry ran down the halls as fast as they could – or, rather as fast as Raspberry could, given that even with her brace allowing far more mobility she was still not used to running in a human form. To their surprise, they had not come across any opposition yet, but who knew how much time they have.

“Look, that Gordian Knot has to be around here somewhere,” Raspberry said. “There’s gotta be a focal point, but you’re going to have to sniff it out, Sunny. Without my magic, I can’t tell anything.”

“Working on it. It’s black magic, so I’m not as versed in it as you are.” Sunset put her hands against the walls, trying to feel for ambient magic leakage. “Cover me; I’m going to focus a large pulse through the complex and see if that helps any.”

“Sure thing,” Raspberry replied, while Sunset sat down. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Focusing,” Sunset said as she closed her eyes.

“Sunny, you’re a unicorn. Just—” It suddenly dawned on the other former unicorn as to what she was going to say and then she simply said, “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So…is that how humans do it? Magic summoning, for those that do?”

“I don’t know. I know that when I had my magic locked, I had to do a lot of meditation and such to get to use the big stuff when I got a chance, and now even with my full power available to me, some old habits die hard, you know?” A smile came over the flame-haired girl’s face. “Maybe it just shows how human of an outlook I have now. I never intended it, but maybe at the end of the day, this is who I was always meant to be, you know?”

“Instead of Celestia’s daughter?”

“That I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I love her. But after this is over, like I said, assuming if my family here still wants me around, I’m going to have to do a lot of soul-searching. I’m not going to deny the mare who raised me. But neither am I going to deny the man and woman who are doing that now.”

“Know how you feel. When I was adopted, I found out I have three siblings that I’ve never met; I don’t even remember their names and I think one of them was even against having ‘a kid sister’ this late in life. So in a sense, I’m in the same boat as you are. But as much as my biological father and I never got along and that I never knew my biological mother, I don’t forget they’re there even when I’m with my new parents. You shouldn’t have to, either. Let me ask you this: if you were completely human and had never been a pony, wouldn’t you still have had a mother and father that would have mattered?”

“Honestly, it’s never bothered me. I’ve seen images – a flash – of what my dam looked like, but even then, the trail stops there and I have no idea who sired me. And frankly, I don’t care. For me, the buck starts and stops at….” She groaned. “I still don’t know whether I should be calling her ‘Mom’ or ‘Princess Celestia’.”

“That’s up to you; I can’t help you there.”

Sunset was going to continue the conversation further, save that she suddenly felt a strobe that nearly knocked her off her feet. “Did you feel that?”

Raspberry gave her a lidded look. “No magic, remember? I can’t feel ambient backlashes, given I wasn’t doing a probe.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Sunset got back to her feet, then reached for her gun and checked the ammo, like she was supposed to. “I never thought I’d be doing this.”

“What, fighting the bad guys? What about that thing you did with that ‘Club’ group?”

“No, I mean this.” She brandished the gun for her friend to see. “I mean…killing someone. That’s a major line I’ve never crossed.”

“Yeah, it’s not easy. But when you have friends and loved ones, they’re there to help you get through it.”

Sunset gave her a curious look. “You sound as though you have.”

“Yeah. I thought I told you that I took down a werewolf named Fair Vista. Sable Loam was her mate, and that’s why his name freaked me out at first.” She paused. “Is there a Fair Vista around here?”

“Yeah, there’s a Fairvista Boulevard in downtown that’s named after her,” Sunset replied. “If I remember correctly, the historical person was a gunslinger during the old days that they used to call the ‘Lone Wolf’ because she was single-handedly hunting down the outlaws that murdered her husband. Whose name was Hitching Post, not Sable Loam, as I recall.”

“Wolf themes,” Raspberry replied. “And I think the local Sable had a nickname like ‘wolf’ as well.”

“Wolf of Kabul. I recall one of the triplets’ mentors mentioning that.” Raspberry looked at her and Sunset explained the reference. “It has to do with a war on the other side of the world, in another country.”

“The Sable Loam Applejack encountered was the result of a war far from Canterlot.” Raspberry smiled. “You ever wonder just how thin the paries quartum is?”

“Sometimes – though here they’re referred to as the quantum strings. A scientific reference, not magical.”

“Quantum strings. Right. What’s a ‘quantum’ and why is it made of strings?”

Sunset sighed. “You ask that again and I’m going to make sure you sit through one of Dr. Hooves’ lessons. I swear, for a high school teacher, the man thinks he’s a tenured university professor.”

“Okay, you’re confusing me. You clearly lead a different life than we ponies do. I get that. Can we get back to what we were doing?”

“Hey, you started this.” Sunset summoned a ball of energy and tossed it in the air. The mote of light started to slowly head in the direction that they needed to go.

Raspberry shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, you’ll know what’s right when the time comes. If you can take your opponent down without killing, do that. But if it means saving a life….”

“Yeah, I know.” Both girls started running after the ball, which was picking up speed. “Believe me, I know.”

“Dagi? Are you okay?” Vesper looked at the young girl, trying not to see where her sister had just been killed, warring with the emotions of losing both her sister and her best friend in a span of days. “Dagi, say something.” The girl had a blank-eyed, stare, the kind that Vesper knew all too well; it usually ended up with a SIREN losing it and falling to suicide or some other casualty. Finally, the woman grabbed Adagio by the shoulders, shaking her violently. “Seaman Dazzle, get a hold of yourself!”

“She told me she loved me like a daughter,” Adagio murmured.

“Dagi, please, not now. Not while we have a mission.” Despite the situation, Vesper wrapped her arms around the shattered girl in an embrace. “Please, don’t do this to me. I can’t lose you, too.”

Unaware of what was going on, a short distance away, Sable grabbed one of the injured tangos and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go have a chat, shall we?”

“Fuck you, small dick,” she said, but Sable did it anyway.

“Where you taking this skank?” Zephyr asked.

“Think Vesper might want some information out of her,” Sable remarked.

“Good thinking. Me and the kids here will clean the rest up.”

“Clean the rest up?”

Side picked up on Zephyr’s point immediately. “Let’s just say we’ll be a few bullets short, but we’ll manage,” she added.

“I like the way you think, Sides,” Zephyr said, to which the girl did a mock-curtsey.

Evergreen, however, was not as eager about it. “In cold blood? Isn’t that a little…?”

“Yeah, it is. But they have Sable’s girl and mine, as well as a fuckton of innocents. I don’t think we have time to do this the nice way,” the older man responded.

“I really don’t like the idea,” Sable told him. “Granted, I’m not saying I like my fights fair when it comes to these girls, but….”

Zephyr chuckled. “Wow, a nice guy. Didn’t think SOF had any left. Okay, we’ll do it your way. They’re going to have concussions and multiple wounds, but they’ll be alive at the end of the day. That work?”

“Yeah, I can live with that. But keep in mind, it’s more for those girls than for me.”

“Loam, they’re child soldiers. They were killing people at the same age we were busy playing Rebels vs. the Empire. Sad to say, but I bet they’ve seen more shit than either of us have.”

“You’re probably right, but don’t blame me for wanting to keep them innocent whether or not they are.”

Zephyr thought of Shimmer and the innocence that had been shattered when they captured her and her mother and shot him. He never wanted to see the look like that on a girl’s face ever again. “You have a point,” he sighed.

“Thanks.” He then turned back to the captured SIREN. “Okay, now you’re going to be nice and tell us all about this building and all other sorts of info, right?”

“Only thing I’m going to tell you is that you and these idiots with you are dead when the rest of our force hits you like a ton of bricks. We’re just the gate guards. The really nasty stuff is coming,” she taunted.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heard that all before. As I recall, I’ve already taken out several of you ‘elites’,” Sable responded as he pushed her on towards where Adagio and Vesper were. As he approached with the victim, he called out, “Hey, we got one that might want to talk!”

Before either of them could respond, Adagio grabbed Vesper’s pistol and then without warning started pistol whipping the SIREN for what she was worth.

“Dagi, stop!” Vesper ordered, but Adagio wasn’t anywhere near done yet.

The teen turned to Sable. “Give me your knife,” she growled.

“Look, kid—”

“Give me. The Goddamn. Knife!” she said in a tone that implied she wasn’t in the mood to argue. Sable looked at Vesper and she shrugged, so Sable reluctantly did so. Adagio reacted by taking it, then backhanding her captive with the gun again, just enough to wake her up. The SIREN screamed and Adagio took advantage of this by jamming the gun in the girl’s mouth.

“Hello, Rococo,” Adagio said. “Haven’t seen you in a while.” The SIREN looked at her and mumbled something angrily, and Adagio sighed. “We used to be friends once. You still have the knife I lent you back in February?” Adagio removed the gun so her former friend could talk.

“You traitorous bitch!” she snarled.

“Coco, you were a good friend, but you were as dumb as a sack of doorknobs. The captain betrayed us for power. She didn’t want to get back at CSIS for what they did to the Admiral, she maneuvered us this way so we could be her private army. For her and that prince of hers.”

“You’re lying,” Rococo replied.

“No we’re not, Seaman Shred,” Vesper told her. “We have proof.”

“You’re lying.” Her tone didn’t sound like someone who was convinced, but instead the rote repetition of someone who had been brainwashed. Furthermore, her pupils soon became slitted and her skin started to turn green. “And now I’m going to kill you!”

“I meant it. You were a friend, Coco. Goodbye.” And with that, Adagio slammed the knife into Rococo’s heart as hard she could, then pulled on its side hard enough for the blade to snap. The changing creature that was a SIREN spat out a torrent of blood, then slumped to the ground, dead.

Adagio looked at the ruined knife, then tried to hand it back to Sable. “I…uh…owe you a new knife. Sorry about that.”

He looked at the knife, then at the malformed creature lying on the ground. “Remind me not to piss you off.”

“Yeah,” Adagio said sadly. “Yeah, I guess.”

Vesper looked at her charge. “Are you going to be okay, Dagi?”

To her surprise – and concern – the teenager suddenly gave a huge smile. “Not until I kill Cantata until there’s nothing except component atoms – and I might consider going after those, too.”

Heliodor raced through the sky, avoiding the stares of the basilisks on his six. He mentally laughed, they were just stupid pigeon-lizards; they didn’t have the brains or he magic like he did.

Or the need. The need for speed!

Without a warning, the phoenix as canary immediately made a divebomb for a weathervane, one of the bigger basilisks on his tail and coming in hot. He gave himself a cocksure grin, and chirped the opening bars to “Danger Zone”. Just as the claws were about to grab him, he barrel rolled to the right, followed by a snap immelman and spat green flame at his foes. The first basilisk had no time to stop and impaled itself on the vane, while the other two were instantly immolated by the flames.

Seeing that, more of the unnatural creatures rushed towards him, murder in their unnatural eyes.

He grinned. After all, their egos were just writing checks their bodies couldn’t cash.

But for now, it was time to turn and burn, baby, turn and burn.

In his bedchambers, Divine Right prepared for the final sacrifice, the one that would give him all the power in the world, the ownership of reality. He would be the God-Emperor of All and there would not be a thing that would gainsay him.

He vaguely heard an alarm in the background, but immediately dismissed it as Cantata just running drills. That’s what she did, after all. If there was an actual emergency – as if anything would get past his timestop spell – then she would handle it. Right now, he had much more important things to do.

He looked over his selection of robes and wondered which one would be best to be declared ruler of all in. On one hand, the purple was the color of emperors and kings, and definitely fit him. On the other hand, the gold brought out the color of his eyes, and looking good was always a priority.

So many choices, so many choices.

“How?” Cantata asked.

“I don’t know, ma’am!” the petty officer reported. “Somehow, the surviving rogue SIRENs are now on the campus and they’ve got help from two men. We haven’t identified them yet, but from what we can tell, they’re clearly operators. They managed to take down the gate guards before they were even aware. And while they did suffer a casualty from what I can tell, they now have command of the front gate.”

“Well, take them down and kill them, am I clear?”

“Aye, ma’am.” She ran off to grab her own team and engage.

“I swear, it’s like I have to do everything myself,” she hissed.

Sunset and Raspberry continued to make their way down into the belly of the beast, following the seeker ball, running down the stairs as fast as they could. So far they had yet to run into any major opposition, save for one person who had been doing perimeter patrol and had the dumb luck to run into the pair while they were using one of the stairwells. Sunset, not in the mood for a dragged-out fight, made quick work of her, and to Raspberry’s surprise, her fellow Equestrian had a few more skills than she actually let on.

“How did you…?” Raspberry asked, astonishment in her voice after she saw Sunset rush in and before the enemy girl had pulled her gun, Sunset had slammed her into the wall courtesy of a well-tossed fireball, followed by a volley of brutal punches to the head, face and chest of the SIREN. By the time Sunset withdrew, the unconscious SIREN fell to the ground and Sunset used that advantage to affix the offender to the wall and cases a Fullquiet spell to her. Sunset then stripped the girl of her weapons and they moved on as if nothing had happened.

“I learned a few things while I was here, Razz,” Sunset said with a grin. “I’ve had to, since for the longest time I was just by myself. Sure, now I have Twily and the others, but for years, I was the only one looking out for me, so I had to learn something. AJ and Bonnie want to learn where I picked up what I already had, but I didn’t want to tell them that I learned by watching TV. Maybe my special talent is being more of a trouble magnet before anything else.”

“Well, if nothing else, it explains that weird dance you did when you were attacking me back in Ponyville. Now that I’ve seen you do it as a human, it makes a lot more sense. Looks a lot more impressive, too.”

“Yeah,” Sunset responded, not sure how to reply to that. She was sure that Raspberry had given her a compliment, but she had to admit she had never really been one for compliments no matter where they were.

“How much farther do we have to go?” Raspberry asked.

“Not entirely sure, Razz. But I’m sure that one way or another we’ll figure it out.” The line of tight anger that was Sunset’s personal rage and worry began to smolder once more. “And you know what? I kinda hope we don’t – I do my best damage when I improvise.” She gave her friend a wolfish grin and probably for the first time since Raspberry had arrived on this planet, one of the few people she trusted had become all the deadlier for it.

But underneath that, the normally-mulberry mare could see the worry and fear that Sunset had for her trapped family, wondering if her loved ones were still just that – or if she was doomed to forever be alone.

If nothing else, right now, Raspberry knew that Sunset would use that worry and rage and pain against her opponents. So much so that maybe not even Tirek could stand against her.

In its supernatural confine a monstrous being laughed. Soon, it reminded itself. Soon I will be free and this waste of a mudball will be mine….

Author's Note

Why do you think Flynt is a pink crayon? Please leave your answers below.

August 16, 1:59 AM: Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Princess Twilight looked at the legions of ponies in armor, ready to die at a moment’s notice. It broke her heart to do so, but from the first moment the northernmost buildings of Ponyville exploded into flame, she knew she had no choice. Canterlot was in ruins and the Empire had fallen. All that stood now was the Southern Army, commanded by the Princess of Friendship herself.

Yeah, some Princess of Friendship I am, she silently rued. Ready to declare war because I couldn’t win the peace. She’d already heard rumors that the other princesses had fallen, and that the Hooves themselves answered to her, declaring her as their liegelady now. Twilight knew what that meant, and a pit sank in her stomach.

A great host of crystalline creatures marched and flew on them, closing in all around them. And behind them, a monstrous figure to behold: Tirek, the Necromancer. Tirek, the Damned. Tirek, the Blackhearted.

She turned to the gargoyle at her side, a mass of muscles and sinew underneath golden armor and a regal bearing. “Are you sure about this?”

“My brother is beyond hope now, if there was any hope ever to begin with,” sighed Scorpan. He flexed his muscles, holding his spear in them. He looked at the mare to his side. “We fight alongside you now, Princess Twilight. As allies and friends.”

She nodded, smiling despite the situation. “You have my thanks, King Scorpan.”

He raised his spear into the air and summoned lightning from the beyond. “ARMIES OF THE DISTANT LAND!” he bellowed. “WE FIGHT TO EXPEL THE TRAITOR AND TO PROTECT OUR ALLIES! TO WAR, TO WAR!”

Twilight looked at her own armies, then to the blackened sky above – hundreds of pegasi and Equestrian griffons ready to strike at her command. “FORCES OF EQUESTRIA!” she cried in the Royal Equestrian Voice. “WE FIGHT FOR OUR PEOPLES! DEFEND OUR LANDS AND PONIES!” A massive roar of Equestrian rage sounded from the host, enough to shake the earth and drown out even her words. She then finally turned to her friends, four of which were present with her, each wearing their Element. “Best of luck, girls!” she told them.

“Oh, posh, dear. The mages under my command have practiced my shielding spell and we should be fine,” Rarity told her.

“I’ll make sure the hospitals help anyone they can,” Fluttershy insisted. Despite the danger, she was strangely calm, and that was a comfort to Twilight.

“Every combat-trained Apple is ready and willin’ to dance,” Appleack said, wearing armor. “Those bad boys ain’t learned a lesson until they tangled with Bucky McGillicuddy an’ Kicks McGee,” she boasted, gesturing to her forelegs.

Pushing her party cannon into position, Pinkie shouted to the approaching enemy, “KLF IS GONNA ROCK YA!”

“What?” Rarity asked.

Pinkie giggled. “It was something Sunny said that I should ever say should I be in a position where I needed to fight bad guys. I guess it’s a human thing.” She turned back to the front lines, adding, “ARE YOU READY? ANCIENTS OF MU-MU!” She then looked at Twilight. “I’ll make sure the party artillery teaches them a thing or two, Twi!”

Rarity sighed. “If Sunset is pulling verbal pranks on Pinkie, I hate to hear what she told Rainbow Dash,” the fashionista confided to Fluttershy.

Flying with her squadron above the majority of the massive flight, Rainbow called out to her flyers, “Okay, colts and fillies! Lock S-Foils in attack position and commence attack on the Death Star!”

One of the pegasi at her side blinked. “Rainbow, what’s an ‘essfoil’? And aren’t we supposed to be attacking Tirek’s forces?”

“Yeah, like what’s a ‘death star’?” a second pegasus asked.

“Er, right. Yeah, do that,” she told the first. Someday I’m going to have to ask Shimmer what the buck all that means. The pegasus shrugged. At least the strange unicorn was safe on her side of the dimensional divide.

Gunfire raked across the space over Sunset’s head. “And this was your idea of safe?” she shouted at Raspberry.

“Hey, it looked perfectly fine!” the other girl shouted. “It’s not my fault that I’m still not used to being human, so I’m still misjudging geometry!” Raspberry ducked behind a grate that she was hiding behind, then poked her wand out and focused, burning a line of magical energy across the room, causing the SIRENs on the other side to scatter. “You’d think they weren’t used to having someone throw magic at them,” Raspberry added. “Think you can finish them off?”

“On it!” Sunset called out. She immediately hopped into the air, and as she did, she pulled back her arm and a bow of energy the color of the sky appeared in her hand. Without a second to wait, she loosed the arrow into the ground, and the moment it impacted, energy tethers lashed out from the strike point, ensnaring all the SIRENs. While still in the air, Sunset summoned a bō staff, charged with electricity and charged into the center of them, swinging and striking in an acrobatic form that left Raspberry slack-jawed.

“And you said humans have no magic?” Raspberry said to Sunset as the last SIREN fell.

“Look, humans have a long history of magic in their mythology, so imagination takes over from there. Let’s just say I’ve had a lot of cultural influences that have let me adapt things and call it that, okay? Now, let’s get going and figure out what the hell happens next, okay?”

“Hey, I’m on your side, remember?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m just really worried about my family and how they’re doing right now.”

“Well, look at it this way: if you’re going through Tartarus to save them like this, then you’re a keeper. They’ll know that. There’s no way they won’t.”

“Yeah, I just have to save them first so that they appreciate it,” she huffed.

As they continued down the stairs, going level by level, something seemed very wrong. “If that sign is right, we’re hitting Sublevel 8 and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of stopping,” Sunset noted.

“So? There are plenty of deep places in Equestria – the caves underneath Mt. Canterhorn for instance,” Raspberry reminded her.

“Yeah, well, this is California – you don’t put sublevel anything unless you’re absolutely sure it’s earthquake proof. And even in Equestria when magic goes up against nature, unless you’re dealing with a strong spellcaster, nature wins every time. The thing is, I have to—” She paused. “That’s it! Stop!”

“Stop? Are you crazy? We’re nearly there, I know it!”

“No we’re not, Razz! Can’t you tell? This is a mobius path!” Sunset shouted. “Think about it!”

“Why the hell are you giving up? Look, I’m going past you and don’t get in my way, okay?” The look on Raspberry’s face became a mask of anger. “You want to be a coward, fine! But I’m going to save them!”

Sunset grabbed her friend’s arms. “Would you listen to yourself?”

“Would you listen to yourself, you harridelle? You abandoned Equestria and everypony when we needed you! It’s not me that needs the attitude adjustment, it’s you!” Raspberry’s eyes became pinpricks of hate. “I don’t even know wh—” A hard slap to the face stopped that.

“Sorry, but it was the quickest way I could think of to break the compulsion,” Sunset told her as the other girl’s eyes cleared.

“Wow, so that’s what it’s like,” Raspberry murmured. “And thanks – I don’t know what I would’ve done. So, since I’m not familiar with mobius path spells, so how do we get out of this one?”

“Let me focus for a second.” The flame-haired girl closed her eyes and a pulse of cyan magic rippled out from her. She watched in her mind as the pulse reached out like a doppler wave, then pinged something and returned. “Okay, I think I know how to get out of this,” she said as she climbed the stair railing.

“Are you sure about that?” Raspberry asked as Sunset uneasily stood up on it, then looking down into the drop. It had to be at least twenty more stories down.

“Very,” Sunset insisted as she jumped…

…and landed on solid ground. The room suddenly revealed itself, a wide chamber with a single box on it that served as the railing and drop.

“Okay, completely embarrassed now. Should’ve seen that,” Raspberry sighed.

“Hey, you’re depowered right now, so it makes sense that it hit you,” Sunset replied. “No shame in that. Besides, I’ll bet that door over there is the one we need to go through,” she said as she pointed at a door on the opposite end of the room. “Since we came in that door, that’s the only logical one.”

“Think we’ll run into another trap?” Raspberry asked.

“Relax – we got this. Once we get in there, we should be able to defuse the Gordian spell and then we can rescue my family, gather the SIRENs on our side and then turn this all over to the cops. Easy Peasy!”

Tracers scorched the air and gunfire crisscrossed the space between both friendly SIREN and antagonist SIREN.

“You know, in all my years in the military or in law enforcement, I don’t think I’ve ever been in this big of a hot mess before,” Zephyr grunted.

“So, you’re saying you miss the old days?” Sable asked as he returned fire.

“Not really; for one, I’ve gotten used to taking hot showers on a regular basis,” the older man snarked, and glanced in the direction of the enemy combatants. “Wonder if they ever have those sorts of thoughts?”

“Probably not – from what I gather, they’re completely brainwashed, and zealots. Only reason our SIRENs got away is because they were here before all this magic shit started to go around.”

“‘Our’ SIRENs?” Vesper asked, poking her head up and firing. “You guys seem awfully possessive for someone we just met.”

“Figure of speech, Vesper,” Sable pointed out. “Figure of speech.”

“Aww, for a moment there I thought you were hitting on me. I mean, sure, I’d go for you – going to need a cover identity when this is over and boyfriends are a great way to establish one – and hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?” the older SIREN snarked as she quickly ducked back under cover. “After all, here I am, a sweet lovely young woman in her early thirties.”

“Raising three well-adjusted teenagers, don’t forget that,” Aria chimed in.

“Yes, we’re perfectly normal,” Sonata agreed, lobbing a grenade. The grenade arced true, and the moment it hit, it detonated, taking out two more targets.

“Absolutely ideal wife material,” Adagio said last, aiming and shooting at her target. The SIREN in question moved at the last moment and returned fire, causing the teen to have to duck behind the wall for safety. “Trust me, she has endorsements on this.”

“Hey, don’t forget about us!” Side commented, referring to her and Pine. “We’re in our mid-twenties,” she noted. “Hot sweet young things, you know.”

“Ladies after my own heart,” Zephyr commented, then turned and shot a tango trying to flank them. “But could we keep the flirting to a minimum? We have a job to do.”

“Yeah, no making our ladies jealous until after we all live long enough to do so,” Sable chimed in.

“You guys are no fun,” Vesper commented as a bullet narrowly avoided her head. “Okay, I see you got a point. But we’re the heroes! Aren’t we supposed to engage in witty banter or something?”

“Does that even work?” Aria asked.

“Worked for my unit once,” Zephyr told them. “We were in a place we weren’t supposed to be – the kind that ‘you don’t exist’ is the preferred euphemism – doing things that most Americans would be rather surprised to find their government doing.”

“We used to work for a government known as the global nice guys – and that people would shit if they knew we existed,” Pine drolled. “You were saying?”

“Yeah, yeah, forgot about that,” Zephyr chuckled. “Okay, this was happening during Desert Storm. We got word that an Iraqi general had his hands on…let’s say some contraband that would’ve gotten him executed five times over if he’d been just a regular joe. He had made a deal with some less-than-scrupulous Kuwaiti bandits that could’ve cared less that they were selling out their country for some Baghdad Boob for some extra dinars. We got tapped to go in and our orders were simple: cut them down and destroy everything.”

“Well that’s easy enough, just go in and kill everything, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s when our company commander, a goofy-as-fuck but generally decent captain named Peanut Plant, starts talking about how we could one-up this shit; that if we played our cards right, we could turn both sides against each other and put at least one Iraqi general out of the fight. Yeah, not that there was much of one, to be honest, but why risk it?”

Gunfire ripped over the heads of the group, and each idly returned fire, but it seemed that for the moment, they were far more engrossed in the story. “Go ahead,” Vesper told him.

“Okay, so the captain decides he’s going to dress himself up as some fuckin’ sheik, okay? Dead fucking giveaway – called himself Sheikh Al-Hambra. I mean, it’s Goddamn obvious this guy is not a sheik. And yeah, while he was Hispanic, man had a Tennessee accent thicker than mud, so there was no way he was going to pull this shit off, right?” The man then grinned. “At least, that’s what we thought. Turned out the captain actually had some acting skill, and by the time we got to the Iraqi problem child, we were well on our way of getting him to eating out of our collective hands.

“But to pull this off, we needed someone to fuck with the other side. So, we bring in Sgt. Prism Glider. Glider’s this huge honkin’ Muttwegian from Milwaukee—”

“Muttwegian?” Aria asked.

“His term. His old man was from Oslo stock, but his mom was as black as they came. He ended up with skin the color of a Starbucks latte. Anyway, Glider decides to steal the general’s uniform and tweak it a bit and passes himself off as a colonel. He goes and meets with the Kuwaiti assjacks and says that the deal’s off and that they’re gonna have to do better if they’re going to impress ol’ General Badass. He then just walks off and when they pull a gun on him, Glider just says, ‘you guys aren’t important enough to kill’ – and then keeps on walking. Here he is, guns pointed at him and he walks off like it’s a Goddamn Sunday afternoon.

“So, not more than a day or two after that, we get a message from our colonel that a bunch of Kuwaiti ragtags and Iraqi irregulars are shooting at each other way outside of the theater of operations. And it’s not like they’re paying much attention to the war, as they’re using enough hardware on each other that you’d think a second war was going on at the same time. And I guess in a sense, it was. Got a kick out of the whole damn thing and best of all, pissed off DEVGRU that we got the shit done and not them.” He chuckled. “Good times.”

Sable was the first to notice the near-instantaneous change. “Anyone think it got too quiet all of a sudden?”

It was then that they heard the muffled thump in the background. Behind them, something large exploded. “Great, so looks like they broke out the mortars,” Pine grumbled.

“How long do we want to—” Vesper began before the area next to them exploded. “SCATTER!” she shouted, and the group immediately moved as the enemy SIRENs began to restart their volleys of fire, tracers burning through the space where the eight had been just seconds prior. The group immediately took shelter in the building that Adagio had been in earlier, not far from the still-burning wreck that was the grave of Intermezzo.

“Well, anyone think going in here was a bad idea?” Side asked as the gunfire continued, rattling against the concrete of the building and shattering whatever glass still remained in the windows.

“Well, I’d say we could head upstairs, but they have mortars and who knows how much longer before they break out bigger party favors,” Sable said, daring to poke his head out the door, then darting it back in as gunfire railed through where his head had been a split-second before. “Either way, being here is a non-starter.”

The gunfire then stopped. “Hey, cunts,” a voice shouted in. You little traitor bitches come out now and we’ll make your deaths nice and quick, got that?”

“Sounds like Chief Glare,” Sonata noted. “She was always a bitch.”

“Oh, I remember her. Always a big talker, but no spine to really back it up. No idea how she got into the SIRENs, much less became a chief,” Aria added.

“I’m giving you ten seconds or else….”

“For fuck’s sake, she’s dragging this out,” Vesper told them. “Someone hand me a sniper.”

“No, someone hand me that FN. I have an idea.” They all looked at Sonata and said. “Look, Mezzo’s gone and though she’s not admitting it, Dagi’s hurt. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

“You had better not be sacrificing yourself,” Aria warned. “Am I clear?”

Sonata gave her older sister a smile. “Ari? Trust me.”

Aria looked at her sister’s grin and somehow, she knew it was alright. She’d seen that smile before, but oddly, it wasn’t from her sister.

Strangely, it was somehow Sunset’s smile.

Everywhere, time both moved and did not move. Each atom, restrained by the ridiculously powerful Gordian spell, held its motion fast, though the kinetic energy within it continued to build. The dance of reality was never meant to be stopped; sooner or later, things had to continue to flow, to move, to resume the endless dance of hours that was reality. But with so much energy being stored up, it had to go somewhere. That was just how the physical laws of the universe worked, and even preternatural and paracausal forces had to obey that at some point

The Third Law of Classical Mechanics: every action has an equal but opposite reaction. And right now, that reaction was building as pure energy. And some point, it was going to react. Everywhere.

Standing on the Moon, the figure watched, transfixed. If she were to leave now, she could escape the destruction of the whole of this universe. It would actually be easy to do so; she was part of that paracausal nature here. But she couldn’t leave. She had to watch.

She had to know if she was right…

…and she had to know if he would be killed.

His eyes bled again. They always did when she was around.

That old bitch – he should’ve done something about her a long time ago, but that was before he realized the truth of all things and his place in it. Before he accepted who he was and what she really was as well.

This was his realm, not that of the interloper. This was his kingdom, and he would protect it as he saw fit, not meddling alicorns and their dumb dog, too.

He wiped away the blood and slipped on his blackened glasses to hide his ruined eyes from the world. He didn’t need them right now, admittedly; not with that damn Gordian spell out there wreaking havoc on a massive scale. But for right now, it helped to preserve who the world thought of him as.

Someone had made the first move on the chessboard, and someone else had responded in kind

In time, he knew, he would have to remind them who owned the chessboard.

“So, are you sure this is the place?” Raspberry asked.

Sunset just noted the SIRENs she’d knocked out that had been standing by the door. There had been nearly a dozen of them and all of them now lay, crumpled on the ground, their weapons not having been fired. She’d been the cause of that, having used one of her videogame-specials-turned-actual-spells. The other girls had been completely caught off guard, and went down like matchsticks.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry, some of us don’t have magic right now,” Raspberry reminded her friend. “So, the spell you hit them with…is that normal around here?”

“Razz, I thought I mentioned earlier that there’s no magic.”

“Yeah, but then you suddenly made this gun made of fire appear in your hands and you shot it in this weird way—”

“It’s called hammer fanning.”

“Whatever! And it shot out magic bolts that hit each of them and knocked them out cold!”

“Well, the technical version of the Golden Gun vaporizes its foes, but I’m not going to kill unless I have no choice.”

“Golden Gun – so that’s the spell’s name? Guess I’ll have to learn now to translate that into my magic and then get with Shining to see if we can have a white magic version of it written for the military. That’ll be a—”

Sunset summoned duct tape and started binding the unconscious SIRENs’ arms and legs together. She then summoned a second roll for Raspberry, which she tossed to her. “Don’t even think it, Razz. I don’t want things to get worse in Equestria because somepony figured out how to do Destiny without having played the game.”

“That’s assuming there’s still an Equestria to go back to,” Raspberry told her. A thought then crossed her mind. “I just realized I did not leave the battlefield in the most dignified of manners. Hell, I’m not even sure how I got here, given that the last I remember, Tirek was just about to kill me.” Another thought then crossed her mind. “Oh my Celestia – my parents! If they heard what happened to me, they’re going to think I died and….”

“Razz, for one, now you know how conflicted I feel right now. And two, we need to find a way to free my family and put an end to this shit. I need your game face on, okay? You told me to get it together, and now I’m telling you the same thing.”

“Right.” Raspberry softly slapped the sides of her face to get the point across. “Okay, let’s do this human thing!”

“Human thing?”

“Yeah, well, haven’t you seen the….” She trailed off. “I guess you haven’t seen it, then. There’s a play in town, one of those action kinds, like a movie sorta, where the hero, who isn’t a pony, says, ‘Let’s go do this pony thing!’ I guess it doesn’t translate well?”

“Not in the least.”

“Oh.”

The pair opened the door, and found themselves standing on a platform. Above them, enhanced by magic, was endless space. Below them as well, the same. In fact, the room would be a complete chasm to infinity, save for the pulsing, continually-moving mass of something at the center of it. Throwing off an eerie red tone of light somewhere between the color of blood, feces and worms, the knot seemed to be almost alive, perpetually moving like a coil of worms in an orgy, a sick, organic tube that wound in on itself in mobius.

“This has gotta be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” Sunset commented.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Raspberry commented.

“Yeah, well, we don’t have time for this,” Sunset replied as she charged up a spell, then threw it at it as hard as she could. The blast, however, vaporized against the construct, with the only thing being the release of a noxious smell.

“Oh God, this thing is like the literal shit of the world got used for a magic spell!” Sunset groaned, holding her nose.

“I will never be clean, thank you very much,” Raspberry complained, then looked at the thing. Without further ado, she pulled out her pistol and opened fire. The round penetrated, and deep within you could hear something sizzling.

“That does not sound good,” Raspberry stated as she put down her gun—

—just in time for the knot to shrink in on itself briefly before launching out tentacles, like something out of a horror novel…or at least one of Fluttershy’s weirder manga volumes. Sunset was able to dodge it, but it immediately grabbed Raspberry and started pulling her into the spell.

“HELP!” Raspberry screamed and Sunset immediately did so, blasting at the tentacles to no avail. When that didn’t work, she started to pull on Raspberry’s arms, trying desperately to stop her from being pulled in as the hole where the tentacles came widened into a massive maw, the monstrous looking thing becoming a demonic version of Pac-Man with a tentacle tongue.

“Sunny, don’t let me go!” Raspberry screamed, turning with her free arm and grabbing for her gun once more. She fired the rest of the gun, and when she couldn’t fire anything else, threw the pistol at the thing, which in turn swallowed it whole.

“Razz, I’m going to pump everything I have into the spe—” One of the loose tentacles slapped Sunset across the face, knocking her silly. She quickly recovered, but in the process, she did the one thing she didn’t want to happen – she let go of Raspberry’s hand.

The tentacles wrapped around the other girl like a cocoon, and a muffled scream could be heard as the spell construct swallowed her whole.

“RAZZ! NOOOOOOO!” Sunset’s eyes blazed with power and she summoned a massive fireball, which she threw at the construct. The construct swallowed it and suddenly grew to twice its size, and the room became a massive vacuum, sucking in everything. Feeling herself being pulled towards the hole as well, Sunset did the only thing she could.

There was a flash of cyan energy—

—and Sunset found herself on the other end of the room. She screamed in horror and loss, not being able to protect her friend – the only other person of her kind – from a horrible death. And if what Raspberry had said was true, about the war on the other side and a monstrous centaur waging war against everything Sunset had ever known?

She looked at her hand, knowing they might never be hooves again.

Sunset had joked with Fluttershy earlier in the year about being the only unicorn here as opposed to the fictional Amalthea, the Last Unicorn of that cartoon. But now there was a very good chance that not only was Sunset truly the last unicorn…

…she was the last pony as well.

The group sat, forlornly in their cage in this massive chamber, a place that looked like a Greco-Roman nightmare. None of them uttered anything, for fear of the weaker ones in the group being hurt.

Pinkie looked around and spoke softly. “You know what?”

“If you say ‘chickenbutt’, Pinkie, I swear I’m going to….” Rainbow thought about it and decided not to finish her sentence.

“No.” She shook her head and tears were at the corner of her eyes. “I’m afraid. Right now, more than anything, I want Sunny to just take me, make love to me and tell me everything is going to be okay.”

“It is, dear, I promise,” Rarity lied.

“I’m ashamed,” she whispered. “Here we are, in this situation and I want Sunny licking my—”

“Ms. Pie, I don’t think that’s the most appropriate thing to discuss right now,” Celestia told her. “Though I know how you feel.”

“You do?”

The woman nodded. “The last memory I will ever have of my boyfriend is him being shot by those…murderers…and never being able to kiss him again. You are a young woman and you are feeling love and loss right now. I assure you that you are not the only one feeling anguish at this moment.”

“Oh, so you’re saying that you want your boy’s hot dog in your bun—” Rainbow was thumped on the head by Applejack. “What the hell was that for?”

“There are kids here,” she gestured to Spike, who was asleep on Velvet’s lap. “Plus, Ms. Celestia’s our principal. Have some respect.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” the Latina sighed. “Sorry, Ms. C.”

“Rainbow, it’s fine. I would rather that you be honest in our final moments than anything else.” Celestia sighed. “You know, I never really had thought much of my life beyond being an educator until you all came into it.”

“Really?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, you’re a special case, Fluttershy, given my past with your father. But for the rest of you, yes. You have all grown very special to me – and I daresay my sister as well – and I feel a bond between us that I can’t say that I feel with any of the other students.” She smiled. “Maybe…maybe there’s somewhere out there where our lives are vastly different and we all know each other through different means.”

The five girls, all thinking of their counterparts and Sunset’s literally-divine mother, all drolled at once, “You don’t say.”

Luna laughed. “Tia, you’re being far too maudlin. What my sister means is that while we educators care very much about our students for obvious reasons, you have all meant more to us than the regular.” She turned to look at Twilight and Octavia. “And you two as well. Sunset binds us all together in ways that we never really thought we would be in. I mean, I certainly never thought I could care about my students like family.”

Despite the situation, Celestia smiled. “Wow, someone’s growing up, I see.”

“Fuck you, sis.”

“And there went that brief moment of maturity.”

“Well, I don’t know – I’d say that maturity is overrated when faced with the end of the world.” The group looked up to see Divine Right standing there, holding an ancient spear in his hand and a long knife at his side. He was dressed in ridiculously ornate robes and had a young woman dressed in very little clothing hanging on his shoulder. “After all, you won’t live much longer.”

“YOU BASTARD! GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER!” Solaire roared at him.

He thought about it for a second and then said, “No. She serves a purpose now, a greater one than you will ever understand. Don’t you see? Your darling little crotch dropping will be a footnote in history! She will usher in an era of unprecedented greatness! My greatness!”

Solaire looked at him with horror. “What are you going to do with her?”

“I’m going to sacrifice her, of course. What, did you think I would have my way with her?” He laughed. “As if I would sully myself with some teenage whore who has lusted after anything that looks at her!”

Solaire launched herself at the bars. “GIVE HER BACK! GIVE MY CHILD BACK, YOU MONSTER!”

Divine yawned and then looked at the SIREN on his arm. “Teach her a lesson, won’t you?”

“Are you sure about that, sir?”

He nodded. “Just…don’t ruin your voice. I will need it in just a few short minutes.”

She nodded. “Aye, sir.” The SIREN, moving like lightning, reached in and grabbed Solaire by the throat. She then yanked back, pulling Solaire’s head with her. There was a sickening crunch as blood sprayed everywhere, with the woman’s nose cracking from the impact. She screamed and the SIREN thrust in with a second strike, jabbing her in the throat. Solaire gasped for breath, stunned by the pain and unable to breathe through her nose.

“That isn’t fatal, is it? I don’t want her to miss any of this,” Divine noted.

The SIREN shook her head. “No, sir. She’ll be in excruciating pain for a few more minutes, but she’ll live.”

“Good job. Remind me to have Cantata promote you first chance we get.”

He looked at his wounded cousin. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do and a virgin to sacrifice for my needs.”

Celestia looked at Divine. “You’re going to pay for this.”

He laughed. “And who’s going to stop me?”

“She will.”

Everyone looked at Pinkie, who had stood up and glared at Divine, with her arms crossed. “She will.”

“Her?” Divine laughed again. “She is no threat any more than you are! And I see you haven’t learned your lesson from the last time I taught you, child. Perhaps I should just do you a favor and kill you now.”

“I wasn’t talking about her.” The look on Pinkie’s face was deadly serious. “You don’t deserve to know what’s coming for you. You’re already so fucking stupid that you weren’t listening the last time. It’s not my fault that you’re too Goddamn much of an idiot to realize when the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming fucking train.”

“Are you trying to goad me again?”

“Goad nothing! Fucktard like you apparently can’t understand English. Oh, and by the way, if you kill me? It’ll just prolong your pain.” Divine’s hand went down to his sword, and she smirked.

Divine removed his hand from his sword. “Almost tripped me up, you little minx. But I won’t waste my time on killing you when I have greatness at the tips of my fingers. You will just have to wait for your gruesome death.”

“So you say.”

He said nothing further and walked away.

“Pinkamena Pie!” Luna stood up. “I will not have you throw your life away just to save the rest of us, do you understand?” She went over and hugged the girl tightly. “Please, Ms. Pie, do not do that to yourself.” Pinkie looked up and saw tears in Luna’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Pinkie replied.

Luna then did something that no one had expected. She gave the girl a maternal kiss on the forehead, the sign of a loving mentor. “Even if we fall, I will not have you risk your life for me, any of you. It is my job to do that for you girls. Not the other way around.”

Applejack looked at Luna. “You know, it’s funny. Just about all of us are tied together in some way or another. Funny that we’re all gonna go together like this.”

Twilight looked at Applejack and started to sob silently. Octavia went over and wrapped her arms around her cousin in comfort.

“You’re all wrong,” Pinkie said with surety. “I feel it within my heart. She’s coming and she won’t be stopped.”

“Who is this ‘she’ you keep talking about?” Cadance asked. “You have an awful lot of confidence for this mystery woman.”

Several SIRENs pointed rocket launchers at the spot where the rogue SIRENs were hiding. “I gave you twats the chance to surrender,” Piccolo Glare, the Chief Petty Officer in charge of the scene, spoke. “Too bad you had to do this the hard way.” She turned to the ones with the rockets. “On my order, you can fire.”

Suddenly the door opened up and a single girl walked out. “So you decided to come out and face your death like a true SIREN,” Glare commented. “That’s more than I can say about your compatriots.”

“Actually,” Sonata said as she stood there, her hand on her rifle, “I came out to kill all of you before you take a single step.”

Glare laughed. “Do you really think you can challenge me?”

“Oh hell yes. And what’s more? I’m going to beat you all.”

“You have no chance, Seaman Dusk. I am – we are – more than human now. We are powerful, invincible. And you are nothing more than a child with a toy—”

With a speed Glare wasn’t expecting, Sonata rushed up to her and pointed the muzzle of her gun right into her mouth. “I have a Fabrique National P-90TR with 5.7 JHPs and they will go in you and leave a nice hole going out.” She looked at the others. “You may be powerful and invincible…but I am still a SIREN!”

“And what does that matter?” one of the others said.

“It means you died the moment you faced me,” Sonata said, pulling the trigger without even looking at Chief Glare. As her rifle went off, she dove forward and swept her quarry’s feet. As the other SIREN went down and the other two started to react, Sonata grabbed the girl’s MANPAD and swung it like a club across the face of the third one. The fourth one at this time had already started to pull out her pistol, and so Sonata did the only thing she could: she put the rocket launcher into position so that the other SIREN would be caught in the backblast and then she pulled the trigger. The missile, already damaged by being used as a melee weapon, spun away from the tube for a bit before flying over the wall and exploding in mid-air. However, the blast of flame set the girl on fire and sent her collapsing to the ground.

Sonata heard the unnatural growl behind her and managed to hit the ground just as something whistled above her head. She then heard the report of a shot, and chanced standing up long enough to see the glint from Aria’s sniper rifle. She then turned around to see Chief Glare, mostly in a monsterized form, on the ground with a growing pool of blood building up around her.

“Great shot, Ari!” Sonata shouted back.

“Soni, you’re an idiot, you know that?” the middle triplet shouted back. She then turned to the oldest. “Dagi, our kid sister’s done being a retard.”

Adagio laughed at that. “Give her a break, Ari. You know how kids are these days.”

“Yeah, well I didn’t see you guys doing anything,” Sonata mock-pouted as the others cleared the building, heading towards her.

“Well, elite trained operative or not, you should not have been able to do that,” Sable pointed out. “Something is wrong with how they’re acting and reacting.”

Zephyr agreed. “Now that you mention it, you’re right. Nothing against you, kid, but I….” He paused. “What the hell is that smell?”

“This,” Vesper stated as she looked at the bodies of the two girls that Sonata had knocked out. In theory, they were supposed to be alive, but from the rotting stench, that was clear that wasn’t the case. And sure enough, the two bodies seemed to be in an advanced state of decomposition and going rapidly.

Adagio looked at the dessicated skin, which quickly turned to bone before her eyes. “Something must have gone wrong with what they were given that was supposed to turn them into monsters.” She looked at Sonata. “Put that brain of yours to work and logic this one out, please.”

Sonata bent over the body in question as the bones themselves began to crumble away. She reached out and picked up one of the bones; in her hand it crumbled away into ash that she scattered to the wind. “Something went very wrong,” she mused. “Maybe the spell wasn’t meant to be mass produced, or one serum given to everyone?” She looked at the others. “I don’t know, and this is way beyond me. Maybe Sunny or that friend of hers has a clue. I mean, I know chemistry, but this is probably alchemy and I bet even Twily can’t figure this one out.”

“Well, we need to get out from the open,” Vesper warned. “We’re sitting ducks here, an—” She didn’t say anything further as her throat suddenly exploded in a blossom of blood. Her body fell to the ground, her head severed by the blast.

“VESPER!” Aria screamed, and had to be dragged to safety by Side and Zephyr as the ground where she’d stood exploded a second later. Sable and the other three raced to the opposite end, and Adagio screamed as the wound in her shoulder tore open from the movement.

Two more explosions rocked out from where they stood, followed by a deep, hellish laugh. A dozen smaller explosions rocked the area, one of which desecrated Vesper’s corpse further.

“Can you guys see what’s lighting up with the fireworks!” Zephyr shouted.

“Not a clue!” Sable shouted back.

“There!” Pine pointed to someone just standing on what looked like the top of an antenna with a grenade launcher. The SIREN in question had been completely transformed and was maniacally launching grenades as if it was nothing.

“Okay, you guys stay here,” Sable told them. “I’m going after her!” He turned to Pine. “You’re with me.”

“Roger that,” Pine told him as she switched out her ammo.

“NO!” Adagio shouted. “We need to stay together or else that bitch is going to slaughter us!”

“Look kid, that’s sweet and all, but you have no business doing this. Either of you.” He pointed at Adagio. “You’re injured as is, and as for you,” he told Sonata, “you’re clearly the sensitive type.” He groaned. “I know this was how you were raised, but it’s just bullshit as far as I’m concerned. I’m an adult and I had a chance to live a life before I signed the dotted line. None of you ever did. So you’re going to sit here and let me deal with this and then after this is done, the biggest problems in your life should be fashion and not getting pregnant at the wrong time, got that?”

Both girls looked at him with surprise, while Pine uttered an amused chuckle. “You’re just like Uncle Poutine,” she told him.

“Who?”

“Because of what we are, the SIRENs have always been commanded at the echelon level by a vice admiral – a male flag officer, specifically. They believed it was both good to have a male role model in our lives, as well as a father figure who we wouldn’t question,” she explained. “Poutine was the latest in the line. Unfortunately for the powers that be, he actually wanted to fill that role for all of us.”

Adagio continued. “We all grew up knowing him as ‘Uncle Poutine’ rather than Adm. Poutine. He was always there for we younger ones when we were training and there for advice for the older ones. We could always talk to him, regardless of military protocol and he never stopped looking out for us.” She fell sadly silent for a second before she admitted, “Then came the time when he told us he was tired of all of us being sent off to die illegally and he was going to approach Parliament with the truth that we existed.”

“For the longest time, we thought that it was CSIS who had him assassinated or maybe the regular military,” Sonata added. “The official story was that he was taken out by Quebecois separatists, but given that he was a part of ARROWHEAD and had worked extensively with American special forces prior to becoming the SIREN commander, it couldn’t be true.” She sighed. “And now? I don’t know whether he did it or Cantata Blast did it to further her personal aims.”

“Well, either way, I’m not going to put you at risk. Not when you all are hurting so much.” He pointed to the other side, and there was Aria, bawling uncontrollably and behind comforted by Side, while Zephyr had a distinctly parental look on his face. “These older SIRENs were your mothers, weren’t they?” he asked Adagio.

“In a manner of speaking. They raised us and were essentially that,” she replied in a dead tone. “And now we’ve lost them, and we are alone.”

“Don’t worry, Adagio, you’re not alone,” Pine said, putting her arm around the girl. “Neither of you are.”

“She’s right,” Sable told them. “We get out of this and I’ll figure something out for the three of you. Or maybe Zephyr or someone will. Either way, you’re not alone, kiddos.” He set down most of his gear and added, “But in the meanwhile, we still have to take out the grenade bitch, so Pine’s coming with me. You two stay here and signal to them what they’re doing; they’re going to have to provide cover fire for you.” He looked at Sonata. “Protect your sister, kiddo.”

“Roger that,” Sonata replied.

“On it,” Adagio said, wincing as she reached for her small flashlight so she could send telegraphic code to the others.

Meanwhile, both Sable and Pine rushed back into the building where they had been. Explosions ripped behind them and the deep laughter followed; however, they made it even as the final blast wave knocked them both into the building. One last grenade followed them, much to their panic, but with the click of the item’s primer going off, it lay inert – a dud, by some small miracle.

“Fuck me, that’s too close for comfort,” Pine gasped. “Okay, we’re here, so what next?”

“We’re going to the roof,” Sable told her as they climbed up the ladder and into the small space that led to the roof. “After that, you’re going to lay down suppressive fire while I get up close and personal to kill her.” He held up a knife he’d liberated from one of the dead SIRENs. “This should do it.”

“You do know we have guns, right?” Pine pointed out as they scrambled onto the roof. “Now that we’re on the roof, we should easily be able to take that bitch out.”

“Be my guest and open fire right now,” Sable told her. She did…and the bullet harmlessly ricocheted off. The reply to that was a volley of launched minigrenades that had them scrambling for cover anew.

“What the fuck was that? I hit her dead on and nothing happened!”

“Yeah,” he told her. “I was thinking about what Sonata said, that whatever they took that’s turning them into monsters may not have been meant to be mass produced, it means that the reactions might be different as well. Whatever they were intending to create just went seriously wrong and they’ve probably ended up with a menagerie of creatures they can’t control.”

“So we have to do this the old fashioned way, huh?” Pine asked and he nodded. “Works for me. Best of luck; I’ll get her attention.” She opened fire and shouted, “HEY, OVER HERE YOU FAT PIECE OF SHIT!”

The grenadier looked and launched blasts their way. “Looks like I got unwanted attention!” she cried out and sure enough, a second later, bombs exploded around them. Pine returned fire, drawing another volley in their direction. Both of them sprinted away as the bombs flew towards where they had been and the structure they’d hidden behind turned into a burning fireball. “Go!” she shouted. “I got this!” she said as she opened fire again.

Sable immediately sprinted around the far side of the building mostly under the cover of a small subwall, moving forward as he watched for the creature’s every move. Instead of reacting to him, it continued to fire at Pine with abandon. Still, he was going to have to move fast, or else she wasn’t going to have much cover left and that meant that her time would be up.

Another blast of minigrenades nearly sent Pine flying off the building; instead, it slammed her into the rooftop wall, knocking the breath out of her and sending her rifle flying over the edge. As she moved to recover, she realized her weapon was gone and was now reduced to her sidearm. Worse, the creature now had a clear shot at her, which it aimed and continued to bark that demonic laughter, a guttural, chilling sound that burned through the SIREN’s soul.

“Hey bitch!” a voice shouted behind the grenadier. “How ‘bout picking on someone who can handle your shit?” The monster immediately turned around and with a smooth move, stabbed the beast right in the eye. The vaguely-female SIREN screamed in pain and dropped the grenade launcher, which was all that Sable needed. As the creature swung wildly at him, he shoved the barrel in her screaming mouth, ducked and pulled the trigger at the same time. The blast and blossom of red showered everywhere, and the body fell to the ground harmlessly, strangely turning into rock after it settled.

Pine rushed up to him. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m not dead yet; that’s a plus in my book.” He handed her the grenade launcher while he tried to undo the extra bandolier as well as the backup SA80 she carried. “You’re going to need this as well. How are you holding up?”

“I’m done with this shit.” She sighed. “After this? I’m taking my sister and we’re going to go fucking hide in a place that’s never heard of SIRENs or Canada or anything like that. I’m done with this life and with us being treated like puppets, okay?” She began to cry. “I just want a normal life.”

She buried herself in his shoulder and he put a comforting arm around her. He didn’t know what to say. He’d signed up for the military when he was probably much too young to realize the shit he’d go through. Girls like her or the triplets didn’t have that choice; it had been stolen from them by people who pretended to be saints in public and were soulless bastards in private.

She should have had a chance to just be a normal girl, Sable thought of the young woman crying on his shoulder. And you bastards took it from her – from them. He grimaced.

There’s not going to be a hell deep enough for you fuckers to hide when I find you. And nothing is going to fucking save you if you hurt Tia or Luna you assholes! Nothing.

Seated in her command center, Cantata looked at the growing numbers with horror. The fighting had gone on for less than an hour and already she had heavy casualties – and those casualties were not caused by the opposing forces, but by her own side.

Out of all those who had been injected with the serum, only half of them had been under her control. The rest…there was no way to explain it. Some of them had lost their minds and started firing on their own people, some of them started to mutate uncontrollably. A few had melted or spontaneously combusted. There was even a strange rumor about one of them having suddenly turned into a man and turned on her (his?) sœur; the response had been ugly and now one of her troops was out, traumatized by her ordeal.

And then there was the incursion forces. They’d had reports that the three older SIRENs had been killed in the process, but their petite sœurs turned out to be even more lethally effective than anyone had ever suspected; Seamen Dazzle, Blaze and Dusk had, ironically, become the epitome of what it was to be a SIREN – and they were using those skills on the Sisterhood! And right along side them were Petty Officers Side and Pine, who had formed a lethal team of their own. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were traitors to the cause, Cantata would have probably promoted them on the spot for their perfection as SIRENs.

And now worst of all, it seemed that American law enforcement was on site, represented by the two men who clearly had American special forces training of their own. Were they HRT? Local SWAT? Or something else?

And that was nothing to say about how any of them managed to get past what was clearly a foolproof plan to freeze time for the rest of the world while the forces on base prepared. And now all of that had gone to shit faster than a handbasket headed to hell.

“Admiral!” A petty officer rushed up to her carrying a sheaf of paper. “We have a new report!”

“Now what?” Cantata grumbled.

“The basilisks! One of the SIRENs you assigned to watch out for them just reported that they’re getting slaughtered out there, ma’am!”

“What?” Cantata was stunned. They don’t have natural predators out here – they are the predators! “How?”

“Read for yourself,” she said as she handed the captain the document.

Cantata read and…dropped the paperwork in shock. Somehow…somehow there was a green canary out there, blasting jade fire at her basilisks and burning them as if they were moths too close to the candlewick. The canary also was reportedly chirping a tune that sounded like an old song from the 80s.

Cantata slumped to the ground. Her forces – her elite force of special operatives and assassins – were getting their asses handed to them by a small, ragtag team of insurgents…and a Goddamn firebreathing canary.

She looked at the admiral’s stripes on her arm, put there because she believed herself to now be the ultimate military force on the planet.

Now, she was in the middle of fighting a losing battle and hoping that Divine’s demon could actually turn the tide. Because if it didn’t?

They’d be dead.

“Admiral! We have another report!”

Cantata looked up at the messenger, trying to keep herself calm. It couldn’t get any worse, could it? “Report!”

“We have someone inside the base – and she’s….” The messenger read the thing over as if she didn’t believe it.

“Report, Petty Officer.”

“Aye, ma’am. It says that our reserve forces within the facility are engaged in a battle with a single teenage girl who is literally throwing magic at them.”

“WHAT?”

“That’s right!” The warrant officer holding the radio shouted. “Send backup to the central corridor on Subbasement Two! We need—GURRKK!” Her words cut off into a choking sound as she dropped the radio. The reason for that was the band of cyan energy enveloping her.

The energy was being supplied by girl burning with turquoise energy around her and her eyes the same color. She summoned the radio to her hand and spoke into it. “She can’t come to the phone right now because I’m busy kicking your thugs’ collective asses,” Sunset Shimmer intoned.

“Whoever you are, you’re dead, do you hear me?”

“I can hear you. Question is, can you hear me?” Sunset seethed before throwing the radio down on the ground. She then brought a foot down on it, shattering it to pieces and leaving a small crater behind. She then turned her attention back to the person she was holding in her magical grasp. “Talk,” she ordered. “Where did you take the civilians that you assclowns kidnapped?”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” the SIREN said.

“Let’s get something straight: You fucktards are threatening the world. One of my friends is dead, the others are putting their lives on the line, and you’re threatening my family and best friends with their lives. Up until now, I’ve had a policy regarding the sanctity of life when Razz – the girl that’s now dead because of you monsters – said you’re not worth it.” Sunset floated the girl down until they were face to face. “Do you want to be the person who changed my policy? Because I can easily arrange that!”

“You don’t got the stones.”

“You’re talking to a girl that singlehandedly enslaved a school with the intent of using them as her personal army. I’ve casually caved in walls and destroyed vehicles just because I can. Now talk, or else your ass is grass and I will be the lawnmower of the gods, do I make myself clear?”

“Again, I know your type,” the SIREN laughed. “You think you can be a badass, and maybe you can back it. But at the end of the day, you’re just some sweet little princess who thinks everything can be solved with sunshine and rainbows in thirty minutes, like this is an episode of Filly Fantasia.”

“Maybe,” Sunset conceded. “But since you’re talking pop culture, let’s talk someone who doesn’t kill. Batman. And do I look like Billionaire Playboy to you?” Before the SIREN could answer, Sunset landed a brutal side kick against the side of the SIREN’s head. There was an explosion of power and the SIREN went flying, head first, crashing into a nearby wall, leaving a stain of blood.

“I don’t kill – yet. But I can still do a world of pain,” Sunset replied. Sorry, Razz. I got you killed and I’m still ignoring your advice.

Sunset bent down and started rifling through the pockets of the other downed SIRENs for any information that could lead her to her family. Everyone was risking their lives – and in Raspberry’s case, had actually given hers – to make sure Sunset’s family survived this as well as to stop whatever was going on here, something that Sunset still wasn’t entirely sure.

I mean, seriously, outside of some of the B-films that Rainbow watches, who the fuck would believe that Canadian illegal child soldiers are trying to have a French prince raise an army of monsters? Seriously, that just sounds like weird fanfic shit.

She continued to search, and other than wallets, identification, some ammo and (in one case) condoms, there was nothing that she could use from any of the unconscious women. Still, Sunset couldn’t let them run around, so she snapped her fingers and a second later, tape had tied them down where none had been a second before.

I have to watch it. I don’t have much more magic, and Razz had the wand on her when she…. Sunset wiped away a tear again; as much as she didn’t want to deal with her friend’s death right now, she knew she would have to sooner or later. I’m going to have to be prepared to deal with anything should the matter come to it. Even if it means killing, she admitted to herself.

A flash of memory entered Sunset’s mind: the bloody corpse of her sister, smashed by the diesel truck. Though that had never actually happened, the memories of what could have been still haunted Sunset regularly. To her, it meant that her beloved sister was in dire danger.

Not again. NEVER AGAIN! Sunset snarled to herself. Hang on, sis! Even if you hate me until the end of time – I’m still coming to save you.

“It is time.” With those words, Divine Right smiled. The world would be his.

Standing a distance away from him, the SIREN who had assisted him disrobed and walked over to a stone plinth upon which was an ancient parchment. Reading from it, she began to sing. A sexual fire began to burn within her, but she ignored the ecstasy that it brought her and focused on her singing. She began to let her hands course over her body, feeling her womanhood, but she continued to focus on the singing. Finally, she succumbed to her own desires, dropping herself on the ground and doing nothing but pleasuring herself, her moans and sighs somehow still in time with the ancient song that coursed through her as well.

From where they sat, Velvet covered her son’s eyes. She considered doing the same for her daughter and her niece, but as much as she wanted to shield them from this, they were old enough. She looked around them and not a single face showed anything other than disgust…except for Octavia. And that sole, rapt look on her niece’s face worried her most of all.

“Absolutely hideous,” Rarity seethed.

“Sick as fuck,” Rainbow agreed.

Octavia, to their sudden surprise, let out a moan. She then turned and forced herself on Twilight, kissing her cousin in full, tongue probing, hands groping. Pinkie, seeing what was going on, immediately rammed Octavia away, slamming her to the ground.

“WHAT THE FUCK?” Twilight screamed, not noticing her shirt had been nearly torn off.

The raven-haired girl looked at Pinkie with an animalistic rage. “What the fuck are you doing, you lesbo cunt! I was finally going to get me the pussy I deserve!”

Applejack was on her in a second. “You’re not Tavi,” she accused.

“No. I’m finally free, and if I’m lucky, that bitch is dead,” Melody snarled. She looked at Twilight. “Hey, whore, come here and sit on my face! I ain’t your sister, but I bet I can tongue-fuck you better!”

Twilight shrank away, and both Rarity and Fluttershy stepped in front of her to protect her.

Rainbow looked at Applejack and Pinkie. “Grab her arms, now.”

The adults suddenly noticed something was wrong with the teens. “Rainbow, what’s going on?” Celestia asked.

Rainbow looked at the body of Octavia. “I don’t know who you are, but I want my friend back,” she accused.

“Fuck you, slit. Maybe after I’m done with Twatslit over there, I can make you feel good too,” Melody snarled. “I got fingers enough for both of you.”

Night looked at Octavia and knew what was going on. “She hasn’t had her medication, has she?”

Rainbow looked at Octavia sadly. “I hope you forgive me for this.” She then slugged Octavia as hard as she could in the solar plexus, making the girl gasp. She then quickly followed it up with a second blow to the side of the head, knocking her out. “Someone hand me some shoelaces or belts or whatever. We gotta tie her up.”

“Rainbow Dash! Was that entirely necessary?” Luna demanded.

“Yes,” all the teens except Twilight said at once. Twilight just turned away and was embraced by Fluttershy.

Shining took off his shirt and gave it to his sister. “What the fuck is going on here?” he asked.

“THE MAIN EVENT!” Divine Right sang out. He then pulled a switch and in front of him a portion of the floor slid away. An angled stone rose from the ground, upon which was a screaming girl dressed in a pure white gown.

“SUNSET!” Solaire screamed in horror.

“SUNSET!” Velvet screamed in terror.

Everyone looked to see the flame-haired girl fighting and screaming, yammering on in French. Then, Celestia, Luna, and five girls looked at each other in surprise.

“LET MY DAUGHTER GO, YOU MONSTER!” Solaire and Velvet screamed in unison, then turned and looked at one another.

Sunset tried desperately to pull out of her bonds. “Laisse-moi partir! Maman, sauve moi de ce monstre! Quelqu’un me sauve!” She turned and spat at Divine. “Merde, bâtard! J’espère que tu pourriras en enfer!”

“Your daughter?” Solaire and Velvet asked each other, completely confused.

Meanwhile, Divine raised his sword. “GROGAR! DEMON OF THE INFINITES, ACCEPT THIS LAST OF THE VIRGINAL GIFTS!” He then tore off Shimmer’s clothing, leaving her naked before the world.

Divine leered at her. “Une honte; tu as tout à fait le corps après tout,” he said with a leer.

“Go to hell,” Shimmer told him.

“You’ll be leading the way,” he said as he raised the sword, then plunged it into her, dragging it down from her heart down to her mound. Blood sprayed everywhere and the girl screamed once before choking on her own blood.

And then Sunset Shimmer died.

Standing there, looking at the crime just committed, Solaire fainted. Velvet began screaming. Night looked on in shock and a look of monstrous look of hatred suddenly came onto the faces of both Shining and Cadance. Celestia and Luna looked at each other and then immediately moved to Velvet’s side.

But it was Twilight’s words that cored everyone’s souls. As the blood drained from the sacrificial stone, pouring down towards an ancient bell that now seemed to glow with a demonic red hue, Twilight snapped. “SUNNY, I’M SORRY!” she screamed. “PLEASE! DON’T DIE! I’M SORRY!”The words ended off in a shattered wail, the elemental heartbreak of someone who committed a massive mistake that could never be undone.

Fluttershy moved to help her friend. “It’s okay,” she sobbed, feeling the shock hitting her. “We’re here for you, Twily.”

And then Pinkie started to giggle. They all stared at her, but then she smiled. “It’s not her!” she said. “It’s not her!”

“What? Pinkie are you fucking nuts?” Rainbow shouted. “Your would-be girlfriend just fucking got….” The tears streamed from Rainbow’s eyes and she couldn’t finish the sentence.

“No! Don’t you see?” Pinkie said with a beatific smile as she walked towards the bars. “That…is not her. That is Sunset Shimmer. That is not my Sunset Shimmer.” She then got as close as she could to the bars and roared, “HEY ASSHOLE! NOW YOU HAVE REALLY FUCKED UP!”

And then the corpse that had been Sunset Shimmer started to laugh.

August 16, 3:00 AM: 3 AM Eternal

A massive boom ripped behind Twilight and she turned to see the result of Tirek’s energy blast. To her horror, her and Spike’s home – the town library and de facto palace – was torn to shreds. Burning pieces of wood lay everywhere and a large column of smoke rose from the sky as if a funeral pyre had been lit for such an important building in the community.

The princess looked around and saw the fires of war everywhere. Whole portions of Ponyville were now aflame or completely decimated, and the last report she’d received was that the hospital and medical tents were completely filled. Fluttershy and Zecora had taken a group of Hooves and were evacuating the most wounded to Castle Everfree. Her friends had waded into the fray without even so much as thinking of themselves, a fact that brought her no small amount of pride.

She looked around and was glad that she’d sent Spike to hide with their parents; as it was, she was worried enough about everypony without having to add her baby brother to the mix as well. He wanted to help as much as he could, but in the end, even a baby dragon was still just a foal.

A fireball came straight down towards her, and she barely dodged before it cratered the ground where she’d stood. To her horror, she saw Scorpan, lying there in the scorched pit, looking grievously wounded, his armor all but shattered and his storm staff cracked and a wreck.

She looked to the Hooves that stood with her. “Get him to Fluttershy,” she ordered Marimba.

“But Princess—” Marimba began, only to be cut off by the alicorn.

“We take care of our allies, especially those that have stood by us,” Twilight told her. She pointed to the air, which was being blackened as new wings rushed in. “Even the griffon warlords, as fractured as they are, stand by us,” she told the Hoof. “Even they know that we fight to the last, or we all perish.”

“Princess, please, let me leave you with a protector!”

Twilight smiled. “I appreciate that, Mari, I do. But there is no protection to be had now, not when the Bearers must take the field. Not when minotaurs rush to our aid, kitsunes have come from across the sea and even the felidae stand by to assist.”

“But you are the ruler of Equestria, my Princess!”

“No. I am not worthy to be one if I cannot protect my subjects,” Twilight told her. “And that includes even my Hooves.” She placed a gentle hoof on the genuinely-heartbroken Hoof. “Protect this great king, who came to us in our time of need.” Twilight’s eyes steeled and she said, “And I must take to the field myself.”

Sadly, Marimba nodded. “Shall I at least have them play the Sally?”

Twilight thought about that. “The Alicorn’s Sally” was an old military march, an ancient song that had been played whenever Celestia herself was to take the battlefield. The song was designed both to rally the morale of Equestria and her allies, while striking fear into its foes, and mainly this was because it was no simple bugle call or drum and fife song, but a full orchestral tune. Just the sound of its rising crescendo was enough to change the course of battle and even turn the tide of war. It was even said to be born of righteousness and justice and was most certainly the leitmotif of the Sun Alicorn herself.

The Princess of Magic knew the importance of music just as much as that of friendship and magic, especially in this dark time. Even now, her ponies needed to know that Equestria still stood and would not fall, not to this or any other warmonger.

Twilight looked at Marimba. “Pass the order to the mages,” she intoned. “Sound the Sally – the alicorns march to war.”

As geometric, diamond-shaped energy shields continued to ward off magic blasts, arrows, spears and a slew of other missiles, a familiar gray pegasus immediately flew to Rarity’s side. “Rarity!” she cried. “News from Twilight!”

Rarity and her second-in-command, a mage stallion by the name of Fancyfree, joined them. “What is it, Derpy, dear?” she asked with no small sense of pride at her friend’s presence. Due to her eyes, Derpy had been given a chance to stay out of the battle and watch the town foals. But with her sense of the messaging systems, she immediately volunteered for that and was doing her utmost to keep on control of things.

“The news is this: ‘Sound the Sally.’” The look on the gray mare’s face was serious as she said it. “That’s a confirmation. You are to sound the Sally immediately.”

“‘Sound the sally’? What an odd statement,” Rarity commented. “Are you positive that was the message?”

“I know what it means, Rarity,” Fancyfree said. “I’ll take care of it.” He looked at Derpy. “Good job. Dismissed.” With a jaunty salute, the pegasus took to the air to find the next group of battlemages.

“Care to explain, darling?” Rarity asked.

“It means hope,” Fancyfree said as he lit his horn; motes of magic started to dance around his aura, becoming musical notation. “It means her highness is ready to take the field.”

The notes floated into the air and popped; as they did, a blast of horns sang out, and above them, a purple blur blew past, sounding a sonic boom.

The corpse continued to laugh as her blood, nearly about to pour onto the bell, began to reverse itself, flowing back into its place of origin, a bloodspray in reverse. The scene was an absolute horror show, so much so that Fluttershy and Rarity fainted from the whole display of grotesquerie. Mercifully, Solaire was still out from watching the murder of her daughter, while Velvet and Night held one another crying. The teens were completely uncomfortable with the situation and anyone else thankfully stayed silent.

As for Divine, he looked at the creature, gaping – this was not how he imagined it to be. He then glanced over to the singer, who was so lost in the thrall of orgiastic self-lust, that she’d long stopped flowing normally and was now drawing blood as she continued to pleasure herself.

“What the hell?” he voiced.

The last of the blood flowed back into Shimmer and she sat up mechanically, a robotic figure moving in a human fashion. She broke the bonds as if they were nothing, then briefly massaged her wrists. Shimmer looked at Divine Right with eyes that were a solid milky-white, as if cataracts had completely sheathed her eyes. She finally kicked off her leg bonds as if they were nothing, then hopped off the sacrificial stone, stretching and exposing her still-healing scar and everything else she was born with.

She screamed and with a sickening ripping sound, two large demon wings appeared on her back. “Ah, that’s better,” she cooed. “So damn good to have a body again – you never truly appreciate something until it’s gone, you know?” She then looked back at Divine. “So, you’re the idiot that thought to raise a demon, hmmm?”

“Yes! Yes I am!” he spouted, taking an authoritative stance. “Grogar, I am your master, and I deman—” She immediately started to laugh, doubling over in the process. “What’s so funny?” he commanded.

“You think I’m Grogar? Wow, you are fucking stupid!” She placed a hand on her chest. “Furthermore, you presume to command me? A little worm like you, thinking that you can control a demon?” She covered her mouth and giggled imperiously. “How amusing. Allow me to show you what true command is, worm.” She then walked over to where the SIREN lost in her self-love was. “Rise and serve me,” the demon said, her colorless eyes glowing with black fire.

“Yes, mistress,” the SIREN said, standing up awkwardly.

The demon got closer. “Would you do anything for me?” she breathed.

“Yes, I would, my mistress,” the SIREN spoke.

Lips were within fractions of an inch from each other. “Would you fuck me until the end of time?” she asked.

The SIREN leaned forward until their lips were almost touching. “It would be my glory,” she replied.

“Would you screw me raw and ragged until you would do anything I asked?”

“Please, let me!” the SIREN begged. “I will give you everything!”

“Then I will give you something to remember for the remainder of your days,” the demon said, taking the SIREN and starting to make out with her, tongue probing, and hands exploring.

The other girl moaned in ecstasy and said, “Do with me what you will.”

“Oh, I will,” the creature that was once Sunset Shimmer replied.

And then she punched through the SIREN’s chest and ripped her heart out, holding it before her, saying, “Thank you for giving me your heart. I’ll treasure it always.” She then walked back to Divine, who had a look of horror on his face. “Hey, I haven’t eaten in a while, alright? Besides, you humans have no right to complain – do you even know what goes in hot dogs? Seriously, you worms are just disgusting.”

Divine then watched as she fed. After a few seconds, she licked her lips and her fingertips, the last of the blood coming off it. “Now that’s a meal,” she cooed with satisfaction. “Now, let’s get down to business, shall we? Care to tell me why you failed?”

“Failed?”

“Yes, failed. Would you like me to define that word for you?” She snapped her finger and tapped her foot impatiently. “Be quick about it; I don’t have all day. Well, technically I do, thanks to your stupidity. Still, I think my point stands.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You don’t get to beg my pardon.” She went over and picked up the bell. “Poor little Grogar. Poor little would-be conqueror of this world. You could have had all this, and you had to pick a dumbfuck of a follower.” She sighed. “Just goes to show that quality control is number one, right? Well, keep that in mind while I destroy you.” Her hands began to glow with a burning energy, and between the two furnaces the bell began to melt, and as it did, it started to scream. A mixture of molten metal and alien blood poured onto the ground, sizzling and pitting the floor as it did, and when the smelting was all done, the slag vanished into nothingness, as if the bell – and its prisoner – had never existed.

“Well, I guess you could say I just sent him to bell,” she commented with malicious glee, “but….” She shrugged, and continued. “Well, let me explain, since you’re far too simplistic to figure it out.” She walked around him like a great scientist puzzling a conundrum for the ages. “You had everything right, everything going for you! You sacrificed the right virgins,” she noted, ticking each off her finger, “you corrupted holy gear in order to accomplish your task and you were even smart enough to figure out that you needed celestial levels of magic in order to meet your goal, so you planned this all around the Harmonic Convergence. But do you know where you went wrong?”

“Er, no?” he admitted.

She nodded senatorially. “Well, if for some reason you ever get the chance to do this again – and believe me, you won’t – make sure that you actually have the fucking planets in alignment before you stop time, you fucking idiot!” Pinching her fingers together, she said, “You were so freakin’ close! This close – this fucking close! You could’ve been the chump nailing the cheerleader in the back of your Daddy’s Benz! But you know what? You pussied out.” She laughed. “You know, I’d be completely ashamed if I had a follower like you. At least I know how to pick ‘em. Apparently Grogar was as stupid as the people he picks. Real brain trust there.”

“And you are?” Divine asked, trying to see a way out of his mess.

She looked at him and shook her head. “Such a fucking idiot. No you don’t – you don’t get to kiss my admittedly luscious little ass now that I know what kind of world-class fuckup you are. Ain’t how it works. Still, I suppose I owe you something, since your fuckup let me take over. So…you can be my personal bootlicker, how’s that?” She laughed. “You sure as hell aren’t going to lick this hot bod in any of the places I don’t mind being licked.”

“What?” he growled. “I demand—” He suddenly felt a sharp, searing pain against his head and screamed, falling to the floor.

The demon held her right wing out like a sword, the tip of it covered in the blood where she’d slashed him across the face. “That’s a warning, because I’m generous,” she told him. “Speak to me like that again and I’ll cut something lower off, dimwit. Actually, you know what? I like that. That’s your name now: Dimwit. It’s perfect for you.”

“But I—”

“Speak when spoken to, worm. You really don’t want to piss me off twice in a handful of minutes.” She looked at herself. “Well, Dimwit, as much as I like to parade the goods on display, I don’t trust you. Not that you even have a chance, but you’re probably the skeevy type even for a human, so it’s cut your pecker off or throw some clothes on. Your choice.”

“Uh…throw clothes on?”

“Please.”

He sighed. “Throw on clothes, please.”

“Throw clothes on, please…Chernabog.”

“Chernabog?” He recognized that name. The Russian black god of old folklore, the bat-winged gargoyle of a beast that was said to have lived on Lysa Hora – Bald Mountain, in English – and ruled the witches, ghouls and monsters of the night. But the Chernabog of folklore was a he and was probably not the kind that possessed oversexed teenage nymphomaniacs.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” she chirped.

“But I—”

“Does it really fucking matter?” she asked. “For one, I rule the world now – or I will as soon as I make my mark. If I want to call myself Vaginamaster Cocksucker the Fuckmeintheass, I can do that. Secondly, your stupidity astounds me – you should know that no real demon worth his or her salt gives out their real name!” She sighed. “Dimwit, what am I going to do with you?” She tapped the side of her head, and it was disturbing how much she looked almost like Sunset Shimmer had when she was alive. “Oh yes, clothing.”

She raised her hand and the blood from the dead SIREN flew over to her, pouring over her and caressing her. She moaned sexually, whispering, “even in death you want me. How sweet.”

The blood congealed into an outfit that still didn’t leave much to the imagination; if anything, it enhanced her sexuality further in the creepiest way possible. “There, that’s better. Well, since you are my first follower, Dimwit, I suppose I have to treat you right. Tell you what: ever thought about marriage? I’m sure I can find the cow, or pig or dog that’s right for you – trust me, I take care of my followers.” She smiled and stretched once more. “Now as for me? Those people you captured? Oh, I think those guys could keep me busy. Hell, the girls too – I’m not picky.”

“But I—”

“Oh, you wanted one of them, right?” She thought for a second. “Oh, that’s right,” she said with an unnatural smile. “This body came out of the twat with the short pastel hair. Well, guess I know who funfun number one for me is then, huh? If you behave yourself, I’ll let you watch.”

“No.” There were some lines that even he was not willing to cross, and that was two of them.

“Suit yourself. It’s not like you can stop me anyway.”

Twilight Velvet prided herself on being organized. Even when the family was in the worst chaos imaginable, she called on her psychologist training and her orderly mind to sort normalcy from the insanity around her. Even when anarchy was at its greatest sway, it had no more intractable a foe to test against it than her.

And right now, chaos was winning, hands down.

She stared helplessly, being held by her husband comforted by her friends as she tried to comprehend the incomprehensible. First, Solaire – the French princess – had said that Sunset – her Sunny, her sweet precious older daughter – was hers. Velvet’s mind swam with the possibilities. Was this the woman that Sunset had been running from? That made no sense – Solaire, from what little they knew, was a sweetheart and very much like Celestia. Could something else be the matter? Or was Solaire truly as despicable as her cousin and she had just now shown it?

The most logical answer was that Sunset had been lying all this time for some reason. But Velvet knew that wasn’t true. She knew her daughter, her loving child and it didn’t matter what Solaire said. Sunset Shimmer was the daughter of Twilight Velvet and Night Light and that was, as far as she concerned, an immutable fact. Nevermind that it wasn’t going to be legal for another two weeks, Velvet knew her daughter.

And in the end, it didn’t matter. Her daughter – her Sunny – had been murdered by that man! And now…

…now…

…now Sunset was alive again – and she was a literal demon. And that demon had not only brutally murdered another girl (though she wasn’t exactly innocent) as if she were a mosquito, but was now wearing that other woman’s clotted blood as clothing! That made Velvet afraid on an elemental level, and it was worse, because the person she was afraid of…was her own daughter. But at the same time, it couldn’t be her daughter. The creature had identified itself as Chernabog, which Velvet vaguely remembered from the old Fantasia cartoon ages ago.

It was madness in the worst of ways, and Velvet had no control or even influence on it. And nothing she could do, she feared, would make a difference. Granted, she and her family weren’t the most religious; they went to church on occasion, and she’d been raised to be a good little Catholic girl – and had turned into a lapsed Catholic woman over the decades, just like Celestia and Luna. Did she believe in God and Christ? Certainly. Did she believe everything in the Bible? Of course not – none of it, especially that LSD trip that was Revelations, made any sense. She was married to a scientist and as a medical professional and social worker, she had to weigh belief and fact and more often than not, fact won hands down. That was just how the real world worked.

And now, as she saw her dead daughter reincarnated as a primal force of evil, she had to wonder if the video Spike came across on YouTube was real. Sunset had told her that it was just special effects and that she’d been doing a favor for some aspiring filmmakers at her school, but now? Now she didn’t know what to think.

She looked at Celestia, and her lifelong best friend and practical sister, and the look in her eyes was just as lost. Another thought crossed Velvet’s mind: given what her friend had thought of Sunset at the beginning, she knew that Celestia was now fond of the teen. If she hadn’t been in the picture, would Celestia or Luna have taken Sunset in? The thought was a small bit of amusement to her; Luna could barely take care of herself on a good day, and though Celestia secretly pined for the life Velvet led, she was also married to her job – though hopefully that new beau of hers would break her out of her—

Why am I mentally babbling? That was a sign that she was losing it, she knew. All of them were slipping into madness and maybe that’s what the demon wanted.

But then there was Pinkie, the girl that had admitted to falling in love with Sunset. Given the fact that she was a teenager, and her emotional state, she should have been in worse shape than any of them. And yet she looked at her would-be love interest with a clinical view. Part of her psychologist’s mind said that Pinkie was coming to terms with the insanity all around them, but something in those clear blue eyes gave Velvet a sliver of hope.

It made no sense why Pinkie of all people should be as calm as the Pacific on a lazy summer afternoon.

She then smiled and looked at everyone.

“She’s here!” Pinkie cried jubilantly. “My Sunnybuns is here!”

And then that’s when the music started.

Sunset raced down the hall. So far she’d taken her anger out on just about everyone that had stepped across her path. The death and insanity around her had gotten out of control and she wasn’t about to deal with it for a fucking minute more. After slamming into another opponent at brute force speed, she finally arrived at a portal, a tear in spacetime that looked like a monochrome wound in reality. Knowing this was where she needed to go, she stepped into the portal and into another land entirely.

Sunset Shimmer, the adopted daughter of Celestia, Goddess-Princess of Equestria, the current Archmagus of White Magic for Equestria and arguably the most powerful unicorn in existence, descended into hell to face off against her enemies.

Down

Down

Down

Down

Down

Down

Down

Down she walked, through nothing but a soul-searching whistle of a wind that was not there and an eternal emptiness around her as she proceeded through a long, winding hallway. She knew that the purpose of this was to bring immolation of the self and despair, to inflict every pain imaginable and all of it done by itself.

She ignored all if it, though. She would not succumb to such petty magicks; her mother had taught her far better than that and she wielded truth and light like a weapon itself. She had to avenge Raspberry’s death, of the insults done to her family and friends, and to save the world. Like a grandmaster in front of a chessboard, she began to plot all her ideas on how to deal with the issue before hand, how to act and react.

I never thought I’d find myself here when I first stepped through the portal, though I really didn’t have a plan, she admitted to herself. After everything that’s happened over all these years, here I finally am: getting ready to take on a man set on conquering the world. Was this what my life’s training was about? Mother had taught me so much, but I don’t know if even with all her schemes that she could have foreseen this.

Am I all that stands between the destruction of all that is? Am I the lone bulwark against this madman? If so, I’m not much of one. I’m trained in both martial and mystical arts, but the Archmagus title really isn’t earned. All I am in the end is just a 17-year-old girl with a normal home life and a 30-year-old mare with a talent for getting herself into the worst situations possible. My past is not today and that’s because I wiped it away of my own accord. She chuckled. I’m not even sure I really have a past.

She paused. Mother, did you know I would do this? Was this your plan all along? I can’t see that being the case, but then again, I’m mortal, so what the hell do I know? I guess, in the end, all I can do is what I learned on my own: obligation and responsibility. And it was something I had to learn the hard way, bruises and all. But you know what? It was worth it.

She stopped and thought. Okay, what can I do to mess with their heads? I don’t fight fair; I never have. So…time to throw out Mother’s playbook and use my own. She thought for a second: what would really screw with her enemies below.

And then it came to her.

“The Alicorn’s Sally”. It was an old military tattoo, a song that had been played in ancient times when Celestia herself was to take the battlefield. She knew it by heart because as the youthful ward of the Princess of All, she was required to know the song by ear, nevermind she didn’t play a musical instrument. Hey, I’m her daughter, right? I think I’m allowed.

Sunset began casting a spell, one she knew down pat as much as the Sally. She knew the notes and tones and with musical notation written into the very air via her magic, she warned her enemies she was coming…

…and woe be to those who would challenge the Archmagus of Equestria.

The music continued to play from nowhere and everywhere, the bright blast of horns and violins singing out triumphantly.

“TURN THAT SHIT OFF!” Chernabog roared.

But the humans trapped in the cage had different thoughts.

“Is that…?” Night suddenly voiced aloud.

“The Theme to Superman?” Luna finished for him.

A second later and there was a blast of black fire. Chernabog stood before them, murder in her eyes. “I TOLD YOU WORTHLESS FUCKS TO TURN THAT SHIT OFF!”

The answer to that was a sudden blast of aqua energy, slamming into the demon and sending her flying away from the others in an unceremonious manner. She rolled, finally coming to a crashing halt against the sacrifice stone she’d been killed upon minutes before.

A cyan star erupted from above, and Chernabog gritted her teeth. “Should’ve fucking known,” she grunted.

“She’s here!” Pinkie cried, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Look!” Pinkie pointed at the star. “She’s coming to save us!”

“Looks like the cavalry’s here!” Applejack shouted.

“Fuckin’ A! Steamroller that bitch’s ass!” Rainbow insisted.

Fluttershy and Rarity, coming back to consciousness at the sound of their cheers, simply smiled.

To the shock of everyone, the turquoise blaze of light alit on the ground and beneath it, a massive blaze of fire burned. The flames began to form a burning yin-yang symbol on the ground as the blinding dot began to turn into a figure – a female figure. The figure then became Sunset Shimmer, here to challenge the first.

And the look on this Sunset’s face and figure, Velvet knew without a doubt. This was her daughter, her Sunny. Pinkie had been right somehow, her heart overcoming reality herself.

“What is going on?” Solaire asked, the first view upon regaining consciousness was looking at disbelief at the new Sunset.

“Sunset?” Twilight asked in a broken voice, wondering if she was going mad as she looked at the two forms representing her sister, both the horror and the majesty.

“Alright, asshole,” Sunset began, looking at Divine. The sight of her friends and family beaten down and locked away just off to the side infuriated and emboldened her, even if she was relieved to see they were alive.

She refocused her attention on the prince, who only stood gawking – he was far more pathetic a creature than she could have ever imagined. “I think you and I need to have a little….” She then saw the demon standing there, a near doppelganger of herself, twisted and unnatural. “Well, this is mildly surprising,” she snarked.

Chernabog folded her arms. “So I wasn’t imagining things. I was wondering why her memories were so different than the last time. You’re from beyond, aren’t you?”

“None of your business. I don’t give information to demons,” Sunset answered curtly, her bold words hiding the chill running down her spine. Right away, something about this demon seemed vaguely familiar in a way Sunset couldn’t quite put her finger on. It wasn’t the demon’s appearance, or even its voice so much as its presence. Worse still, it was clear that the creature sensed the connection as well.

“Wow, so you are from beyond. Clearly, they educate you there, unlike this idiot,” Chernabog said, pointing to Divine. “So this is absolutely fucking rich! I had your body last year, and then got evicted by that twist from your home plane. No idea who she was, but you were clearly important to her, too, even though you hated her.”

“It was a mistake. Just like you are,” Sunset told her as she realized what was going on. “What did you do to her?” the teen demanded, her tone making it clear who she referred to.

“Like you care.” Chernabog fondled herself, grinning. “I got me a new and improved model! She’s actually a virgin! I’m going to have fun corrupting this body! You were just sloppy seconds.” She then grinned. “Oh, I get it! You stole her life!” Chernabog added, pointing at Sunset. “It’s so clear now! Her memories are older ones from this place, and yours are newer. Did you plan to off this bitch completely or was her lack of presence enough?”

Sunset ignored her. Everything here, especially the demon before her, felt fetid, stank of death and decay. The idea that this very same demon had used her as a vessel when she was at the peak of her downfall sickened her. The thought was more violating than every memory of nights spent in bed with Flash. Whatever fear Sunset might have had before evaporated, burned away by righteous fury spurred on by Chernabog’s smirking face. “I’m going to give you a chance: let her go and crawl back to whatever infernal plane you came from.”

“Oh, she died and I claimed her as is my right,” Chernabog taunted, leaning forward to get into Sunset’s personal space. “This is now my property. And so is everything in this realm.” She smirked. “Including you again.”

“You just sealed your fate.” Sunset knew at that point, what she had to do. The demon wasn’t going to go peaceably, and that meant that there would only be one option left. “Weak, spineless creature of hell,” she spat. “I am Sunset Shimmer, Baroness Westphalia, Archmagus of Equestria and Child of the Sun! I have come across the worlds to deliver retribution and justice for your misdeeds and evils!”

Chernabog yawned. “Memorized this one, did ya?”

“I shall stand here until you face your eternal and righteous punishment! I will bring down upon you the judgement of heaven!”

Chernabog rolled her eyes. “Please tell me that you have a better speech before I rip your head off and use your body as my personal sex toy.”

Sunset smirked. “Okay, then let’s simplify this for dull minds. These are your choices: you can surrender and crawl back to your little corner of hell—”

“Alright, this one sounds better. Lay it on me. But let’s get this clear: I am not afraid of you, cunt.”

“Well,” Sunset snarled, “here’s Option Two, which I much prefer: I will introduce you to the fucking wrath of a Goddamn pissed-off-as-Tartarus alicorn. Your ass is going to be Discord and I’m going to be all six fucking Elements of Harmony. I’m going to rampage on you like the Princess did against the Minotaur Invasion of 957. I WILL BREAK YOU LIKE SHE BROKE THE ENTIRE CHANGELING ARMY AT SADDLEBACK RIDGE AND I WON’T FEEL A SINGLE OUNCE OF REMORSE DOING IT! I WILL TEAR YOU APART LIKE A FAT STALLION AT A BUFFET!” She wandered until she was inches away from her corrupted counterpart. “In short, I will fuck your shit up in ways you can’t even imagine.”

Chernabog laughed. “As if! You actually think you can defeat me?”

Sunset flexed a hand, and a blaze of cyan energy burned in it, brighter than all the stars in the sky. “Oh, I’m not going to defeat you,” the former unicorn explained. “I’m going to kill you. Slight difference in context there.”

“You kill me, your counterpart dies,” Chernabog taunted.

“I don’t believe you.” Sunset immediately dropped into a ready stance. “Besides, I bet she wouldn’t want herself desecrated like this. Now put your money where your mouth is!”

The response to that was the slash of a wing at high speed, coming down hard enough to crater the ground – as well as bisect someone instantly. As the dust settled, Chernabog sighed. “All talk and no action, apparently,” she mocked. “And here I thought you were a—”

The response came out of nowhere: a rising uppercut, sending Chernabog flying. Enough power was put behind Sunset’s attack that there was a blast of light and an audible crack, catching the attention of everyone. While the demon was still caught off-guard, Sunset immediately turned in mid-air and cut loose with a spinning kick, raking it hard across the same spot she’d punched.

Chernabog stumbled in the air, but quickly caught herself. “I WILL DESTROY YOU!” she screamed as she summoned twin spheres of energy, slamming them down on the ground, detonating everything for feel around her, completely and utterly destroying everything in their blast radius…

…except Sunset, who had expected it and nimbly moved out of the way, clearing the blast zone. She then charged back in, summoning a volley of fiery arrows that immediately lanced at her foe.

The missiles harmlessly bounced off the demon, who didn’t even bother to block to blows. However, it did leave Sunset with an opening. As she continued her attack, she leapt over Chernabog, grabbed each wing and threw the demon back, setting her up for a combo. Unfortunately, that had been a tactical mistake, as Chernabog simply took to the air, then divebombed Sunset. The teen spun and backhanded the demoness, quickly summoning a knife and stabbing the creature as hard as she could. Chernabog screamed in pain and with one hand, smacked Sunset away like a rag doll, then threw another volley of energy blasts at the teen, eliciting a scream of pain.

Sunset crashed to the ground, grotesquely bouncing off the ground. She felt the pain slamming into her, followed by the burning sensation of the magic blasts throwing her again. This time, she forced herself to take control of her motions and landed a bit better, bouncing off her tailbone instead of her chest. Dazed, she saw another fusillade of blasts coming towards her and barely threw up a shield in time.

For her part, Chernabog was practically having orgasms of joy. She hadn’t had this much fun in a while, her satisfaction punctuated by sexual rushes of delight as she bounced the unicorn back and forth like ping-pong. Today was the final culmination of her plan: she would have the body she always deserved, and she would destroy her only opposition, ironically the animal whose human form she held last. Really, it would be a mercy, as animals, even magical ones like the horse pretending to be a girl, didn’t have a place in this world. So better to kill her now.

Instead, she got a magic-charged foot to the face.

She nailed the demon at the extreme end of her jumping divekick, and as the pair fell earthward, Sunset boosted herself to let her wrap her legs around Chernabog’s neck and cut loose with a series of high-speed punches to her opponent’s face. As the demon crashed to the ground, shattering the floor, Sunset expertly leapt off, flipping in mid-air and as she alit on the ground, threw another fireball, this time mixed with a high-voltage electric charge as well. The shot rang true and Chernabog was suddenly on the end of a both a high-heat burn and 100 million volts of power.

The painful scream from Chernabog was enough to cause a localized sonic boom, knocking everyone off their feet.

Both Sunset and Chernabog got to their feet at the same time.

“You’re better than I thought, but it won’t matter,” Chernabog taunted. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Funny, that’s what I was just about to say,” Sunset seethed.

From the first moment the fireballs were thrown, Prince Divine Bourbon Canino Corsique Droit Divin Right, Prince of the House of Bonaparte, did what he felt he must and marshalled all his courage and willpower to do what had to be done.

He immediately dived behind one of the large stone walls, whimpering and praying for mercy. How did this get so completely out of control? He had done everything he knew he had to, had followed every bit of the instructions there was. How did he know that still technically not having the planets in perfect alignment was going to cause a loophole in everything! It wasn’t fair!

I should be the one with the power here, not them! Then it dawned on him: why were there two Sunsets? One of them was frightfully obvious: the simpering, nigh-slutty barely-legitimate spawn of his cousin’s. That one he’d “disposed” of and had been corrupted by the beast within. Of that, he was sure. But it was the other one that completely stunned him. That second Sunset was brave, forward, focused and rushed to attack the demon without a second thought. She didn’t so much seem to be a lookalike for Sunset so much as she was Sunset, somehow another facet. Of that, he was sure as well.

But that raised more questions than answers. He knew other realities existed; his father of fathers had received power beyond human ken from a black alicorn and had traded his wife for more power and a bride of that realm. So it stood that somehow, this second Sunset could actually be one of the beings – a unicorn – from the other realm. But if so, why did she look like Sunset? Was it sheer coincidence, or was it design? It was clear that demon had been watching for this very moment – could someone else have done so as well?

A smile came over his face. All he had to do was to figure out how to turn this to his advantage, and the world would be his oyster once more.

Ordnance flew through the air and another group of SIRENs went down; as they hit the floor, the duo turned into massive puddles of blood that burned the ground with acidic strength.

“Another pair of SIRENs who reacted badly to the serum,” Adagio said, looking at the pitted ground. She idly scratched at her slung arm, which was now bothering her to the point that she couldn’t hold a rifle anymore.

“Don’t remind me,” Side told her. “That previous trio was worse: one of them was moving so fast she literally combusted the moment you shot her.” She shook her head. “I’m so glad we were on an assignment when they started mass injections.”

“Well, like I said, we are done when this shit is over,” Pine told them. “Sis and I are getting the fuck out of here and no offense meant, but I don’t ever want to see any of you again. I don’t want to see anything ever again. We’re going to find us a remote cabin in the Yukon where no one can bother us.”

“Well, I’m going to miss you guys,” Sonata replied. “It’s been fun having you around.”

“Hey, you three can always come with us,” Side suggested. “You got nothing here, right?”

“We do have things here – a support network we built,” Aria told them. “As much as we appreciate your offer…this is home for us now.”

“You sure about that?” Pine asked. “You three stay here, you’re bound to be blamed for everything.”

“Be that as it may, we have Sunny, and I know she’ll back us,” Adagio told them.

“Fair enough. But right now, we still have this mess of yours to clean up,” Sable reminded them.

“Yeah, and what are we going to have to do about Vesper and Mezzo? They deserve better than to have their bodies just left there,” Zephyr added. The triplets looked at each other with confusion.

“Nobody gets left behind,” Sonata insisted. “My sœur was killed spying on Cantata’s group for us. If there’s any chance of recovering her remains, I want to.”

“Soni, we don’t know—” Pine began.

“No, I know how she feels, sis,” Side told her adoptive sibling before turning to Sonata. “We’ll do whatever we can though she’s right when she says don’t get your hopes up.”

“Thanks.”

As Sunset dashed in for another strike, Chernabog threw a fireball the size of a small car towards her. Sunset, in turn, immediately summoned another spell she’d learned from a videogame and threw a blast of energy much smaller but far more concentrated and faster. The wave of blackfire and the nova bomb collided halfway between the two combatants, and the world wavered, warped and shimmied with the amount of power unleashed, and finally a sonic boom ripped out and a wall of white noise knocked everyone off their feet.

Sunset, taking a chance, rushed through the blast of energy. She ignored the burning sensation she felt, biting off a scream, then exited it carbon scored and with her hair on fire, but catching her foe completely off-guard.

“You’re insane!” Chernabog shouted.

“Like a fox!” Sunset shouted as she cast two spells. The first immediately nullified all the damage she just took, but it would cost her quite a bit from her flagging magic. It would buy her time, but only just.

The second one she activated was one of her own making. She’d picked it up during a lengthy game session between her, Fluttershy, Applejack and Bon-Bon, who had also been over. The two argued over what would be a real-life combo, with the TKD practitioner arguing for power vs. Vovinam’s speed, endorsed by Bon-Bon. The two finally settled on trying to match one up to their two different styles, while Sunset watched eagerly and Fluttershy hesitantly. While it wasn’t as fast as a videogame’s version, the two agreed that in a situation like that, it would be incredible.

So now, Sunset used it, and her scream split the air.

“TŌKEN RANBU!” The name came from Fluttershy, when neither Applejack nor Bon-Bon could decide on one. Wild sword dance, with ken being both a synonym for sword and fist.

And Sunset’s strikes immediately showed just how wild her sword dance was, as in a space of seconds she delivered three punches to the stomach, an elbow to the face, a palm strike to the stomach, a flip kick, a spin kick and then an axe-kick that drove the demon to her knees. Sunset immediately followed that up with a dragon punch, and then halfway through that, spun in the air and delivered a brutal spin kick that sent the beat flying back.

Chernabog screamed in pain as she felt every one of those blows and crashed to the ground several yards away. She glared at the former unicorn with rage. “YOU’LL PAY!” She launched a massive blast of darkfire at Sunset, and though Sunset immediately put a shield up, but it was strong enough that it sent Sunset flying, skidding against the ground.

“Well, that was quite the warmup, little unicorn,” Chernabog said, rising to the air, “but I do believe that playtime is over. Allow me to demonstrate.” Chernabog stretched out her wings, and two massive beams of black energy radiated from them like dark lasers, striking Sunset at the same time throwing her hard enough against the wall to crack it.

“See? Now that’s how damage is done,” Chernabog taunted from above. “Any last words you have before I kill you?”

Sunset wiped the blood from the side of her mouth; she could feel a tooth loose. “Is that the best you can do?” she cackled. “Seriously, I’ve been hit by fucking orbital rainbow friendship lasers. I’ve felt pain before, and this isn’t it!”

“THEN LET ME INTRODUCE YOU!”

Sunset leapt to her feet, then jumped back, avoiding another blast of energy. But she stumbled on the landing and as she threw another fire arrow at her quarry, she knew that wasn’t as strong as the last few blasts she’d launched – she was running out of juice and she was going to have to end this soon.

The demon threw another blast of energy and this one Sunset easily dodged; however, she wasn’t expecting the whip of darkfire that snaked around her ankle. She was pulled up in the air, then slammed down twice before being thrown to the opposite end of the room, cratering the wall from her impact. This time, she felt a rib go and she couldn’t hold in the scream.

Sunset Shimmer had begun to tire.

And with exhaustion would come an eternal rest.

To say that confusion reigned supreme amongst the others would be a minor statement indeed. The group watched as Sunset fought against Sunset, and it was hard to tell which was the more unnatural of the two: the one who was here earlier and had gone from being a terrified young woman into a literal bloodthirsty demon; or the latter, who still looked human but was doing things that no human save for those in mythology could do. Still, the second Sunset seemed focused on stopping the latter, even if it meant the two were beating each other to death – and that was most certainly happening.

Both Solaire and Velvet watched, transfixed by the horrific display between them. Both had said they were Sunset’s mother, and neither had talked to one another about what that meant; but now, with a second Sunset, the whole situation got all the more confusing. Both women were afraid to ask each other what the other meant, for fear that they would somehow lose their daughter to the other – but now, with the two fighting Sunsets present, the real question came about: Why were there two Sunsets?

And the icicle-gripping terror in both women’s hearts: how little they knew of their daughters if something this unnatural was to come about. Furthermore, what could they say? This went well beyond interrogating the first boyfriend or just casual conversation. This went to the basest level of existence and the absolute thinnest point of the word family there was.

Both women didn’t know what to say. All they knew was that they feared for their daughters with a worry that bored on outright panic; and a fear that when this was over, their lives with Sunset would be irrevocably different – assuming both lived.

For Night, all he could do was to comfort his wife. He knew how she felt; he felt the exact same way. He wanted more than anything else to run out there, protect his daughter and if necessary, fight against that demon himself. But that was just part of the problem: he, like the two women, wasn’t sure which Sunset was “real”, and if Solaire was right and Velvet, too? Then how could one solve a problem where two people seemed to exist in the same place at the same time – and were now bent on destroying one another. Furthermore, just watching the two Sunset go at a slugfest far beyond anything he had ever seen before reminded him that even though he loved his daughter, there was literally nothing he could do to save her.

Cadance and Shining looked at each other, not sure of what to say. They had grown to love Sunset just as much as the others, and it had been Cadance who had been the attorney to do the paperwork. And now? Looking at both girls tearing each other apart, she felt that there were no reasonable words that she could use to explain it – none of her skills as an ADA would help her clarify any of this. All she could do was to watch with teary eyes. As for Shining, he was lost. The case he had been working on, he’d ended up in the center of, and now things had gone so far off the rails he almost wished the X-Files were real, so that he could have tapped that information. In any case, his relationship with Sunset was about to change, and though he didn’t say anything, his fiancée knew what was on his mind.

Spike at first had thought it cool, like a fighting game in real life, but now seeing the monstrous version of his older sister fighting against another version of her had dashed that. The fact that Sunset was taking punches and fighting against a real-life demon would give him nightmares, probably years from now. He turned and hugged his mother, turning away from seeing his sister essentially fighting herself, and in that moment, a part of his childhood died.

As for Twilight, she was reliving her nightmares from earlier in the year. Her sister, fighting monsters for her sake…but now that monster wore her sister’s face! The two Sunset’s were in a blood-for-blood, winner-take-all battle against one another and not even the most Godzilla of comparisons could take away the horror she felt at the moment. Was she somehow responsible for this? Was this Sunset’s big secret? Was Sunset even Sunset? She’d heard Solaire call out to Sunset and claim her as her daughter, but the Sunset that had turned into demon – the Sunset that had died – was speaking French, but although Rarity, Twilight and Octavia knew it, Sunset did not. She’d caught those last snippets of conversation, and they were nothing like the Sunset she knew would have said. Moreover, before this had all happened, the bound Sunset had been frightened and panic-stricken. The sister she knew was capable of being afraid, but she always showed it in different ways.

Right now, she was sure of two things: that demon was not her sister. And the girl, glowing like a blue supergiant and throwing energy blasts as if she were a superhero, was her sister.

The question was:

Was her sister Sunset?

Was anything real anymore?

Pinkie walked over to Twilight. “Hey, how are you doing?”

“I don’t know anymore,” the plum-haired scholar admitted. “Is any of this real?”

“As real as my love for your sister…though, yeah, I can see where things look a little odd.”

“You’re strangely calm about all this.”

Pinkie laughed. “I’m so scared shitless right now, Twily, I don’t know what to do.” Pinkie held up her hand, and it vibrated with nervous energy, like nothing Twilight had ever seen from her friend before. “I fell in love with your sister, and now I’m watching her go up against something that….” She trailed off, then looked at the others.

“We can’t hide this anymore,” Rarity said in response. “There’s no way to do so.”

“Hide what?” The sound came from Velvet, and as the girls turned to look at the matron, her face was a vision somewhere between helpless and angry. “Hide what, Rarity?”

“The truth.” The words came not from the teen, but from Celestia. And as everyone turned to look at the principal, she looked at her best friend with worry, the worry that she was about to shatter both a family and her long-time relationship with Velvet. “There’s…something Luna and I haven’t told you about Sunset. Something we’ve hidden from you, Vel.”

“Intentionally.” Luna reached over and took her sister’s hand in her own; she would not let Celestia walk out onto the metaphorical tightrope alone. “But we never did it to harm you, any of you. We love you too much, Vel, and….” She turned away. “It was wrong of us.”

“Explain.” Those words came from Cadance, and as her aunts looked at her, they had never seen her angry at them before. “Now.”

Celestia sighed, then looked at Solaire, of all people. “Remember when you said it was a small world, Soli? It’s more than that – and it’s even smaller than you might think.” She turned back to Velvet and Night. “Vel, Night? Your daughter is Sunset Shimmer, just as Solaire’s is. It’s just that Sunset…our Sunset…is not from this world.”

“She’s not even human, or normally even human shaped,” Luna explained. “We have reason to believe that Sunset…is a unicorn.”

Velvet looked at her friends. “That’s not funny, Tia, and you know it.”

“If I were only joking.” The principal then went on, detailing everything of the past four years, from Sunset’s unusual arrival and enrolment first at Central Junior High, then at Canterlot High itself. Of a girl that had singlehandedly undone the pecking order of not one, but two, schools. How she’d destroyed the circle of friends that had been together for the longest time. How Sunset returned to her home dimension and stole an artifact of great power. How another girl – royalty, no less – from the same realm came and in days undid everything Sunset had accomplished. How in misusing the artifact, Sunset became possessed by a demon – likely the same demon that now had control of the other Sunset. And how the princess from another world saved them all.

Then Luna told them a story about a girl with nothing left and who was determined to change her life, even when no one trusted her. How she grew to have family and friends who she could rely on – and more importantly, who would rely on her. How the girl who had once been the alpha bitch of the school regained her position, but for vastly different reasons – because the students wanted her there. How the girl went from being a brat to a monster to a girl and finally to a daughter.

“And that’s everything, Vel,” Celestia said, wondering if she was going to lose someone she loved like a sister. Their friendship had been lifelong and stronger than steel – and now it was potentially thinner than thread at this very moment.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Velvet asked, having needed a moment to finally process something that sounded like pure fantasy. And she would have insisted that it was, had it not been for the absolutely serious look on both Celestia and Luna’s faces – and those of Sunset’s five friends, the girls that Velvet’s older daughter had brought into their lives.

Thankfully, Night stepped in with reason. “Would you have believed her, hon? Even having known her all your life, would you have actually believed her?”

“I guess not,” Velvet admitted. “It does sound pretty odd.”

“Odd?” Twilight gasped. “Odd?” She looked at Celestia with appall. “Odd? No – odd is that Sunset was born with six toes on one foot instead of five. Odd is that she’s left handed—”

“She is left handed,” Pinkie pointed out.

“You know what I mean, Pinkie!” Twilight said. “You’re in love with an alien! I mean….” Twilight suddenly found the floor very interesting as realization set in. “And it doesn’t matter, does it?”

Pinkie shook her head. “Nope. I’m not in love with an alien girl. I’m in love with a girl who just happens to be an alien.”

“Then why—?”

“You’ll have to ask her yerself, sugarcube,” Applejack said, “when we get out of this.”

“If – if we get out of this,” Twilight added.

“Yeah, true. But Ah’ve known your sister long enough to know that for bad or good, she doesn’t give up. And no matter what, that demon’s going down.”

“How do you know that?”

Fluttershy smiled. “Because we beat it before.”

Chernabog came to a slow hover over Sunset. “You know, it doesn’t have to be this way,” she said softly. “You and I, we could be awesome together. Just think about it! You get to rule the world, you get to fuck yourself every night…you could be a queen!”

“Sorry, already went through that once before,” Sunset spat. “Not doing it again. I have more important things.”

“Oh yes, that alicorn shit. I remember it now. Yes. Your mother turned you down, when she’s been one all her existence. Her and her mother. Instead, she gave the power to your cousin. Doesn’t that burn you, Sunset? And you even had the right idea: let me take over and then storm the gates. Instead, you let that little alien girl from your world curbstomp you!”

“She taught me a lesson that I needed. I’m grateful for that.”

“Yes, but I could give you so much more. You want to be an alicorn? We can fix that. And like I said, you and I can go all night. I know all your spots, and now I know hers. You’d be surprised about how much fun we could have.”

“No thanks. If she’s anything like me, she’s straight – and I’m not that debauched.”

“Last chance. I can’t believe I’m even asking, but here I am, generous as can be. Join or die.”

“I’ll take the third option: I’ll put you down like the rabid animal you are and save that girl.”

“Even if you did, it would mean the end of everything for you – don’t be stupid!”

“I’d rather go knowing I did the right thing than to live a lie,” Sunset taunted, then narrowed her eyes. “Or live with you.”

Chernabog sighed. “Well, then I suppose you need to learn the hard way. Arrivaderci!” With that, Chernabog snapped her fingers.

A massive blast of lava erupted beneath Sunset, instantly burying her in magma. She bellowed in agony as she was literally burned alive by the heat of the Earth.

“SUNSET!” everyone screamed in horror, while Pinkie fainted.

A blackened, partial skeleton fell to the ground.

It was winter, both in the air and in Sunset’s soul.

Somehow nothing made sense.

“Backstabber!”
“Gossip monger!”
“Looks like the bad girl’s back again!”

“What are you talking about?” Sunset asked, only to find herself rudely pushed onto the ground. As her vision cleared, she found herself on the ground, in a high school. It vaguely looked like her high school, but it wasn’t Canterlot. Canterlot didn’t have day-glo green lockers, for starters. People walked down the hall, glaring at her, but they didn’t look like people – they looked like what a child would draw a person like, with a head too large, a truncated body, arms and legs, and the colors – they looked like something from a television show Spike once watched—

The only Spike in town is a dog, and you don’t know him.

—they looked like everyday students here, and yet she didn’t belong. She did once, she had to prove it after her fall from grace—

And when you fought the Sirens. Don’t forget that. You fought three fish monsters from your world.

Sunset looked up. She swore she was imagining things, but maybe she was just losing it. For a second, when she looked at her hand, it looked like a pale beige color, but now it was back to its normal maize color. It was the only thing that seemed to have gone right about this day.

She forced herself to her feet. She had to talk to her friends. She had to find—

“Jerk!”
“Trixie always knew she’d show her true colors again!”
“I thought you were my friend!”

She ran down the hall, away from the taunts and jeers, trying to find one of her friends, someone who could explain all this. But to each person she tried to reach out to, only spurned her. Watermelody slammed a door in her face. Sandalwood growled at her then turned away. Even Derpy looked at her with sad eyes, her gray face showing absolute pain, before walking away. No matter where she went, she was being spurned and treated like the monster she was.

No! None of this made sense! None of it is real! None of it—

You did this to yourself, Sunset. You have no one to blame but yourself.

She needed to make things right.

“So there you are.” She turned to see Flash standing there. Flash, her ex. Flash, whose sweet, honest soul had been something she’d tried to destroy, only for him to escape her orbit and find love with Twilight. She deserved him, far more than Sunset herself ever did.

“Flash, I—”

“Why, Sunset? Why this Anon-a-Miss garbage? We believed in you – I believed in you! I thought you’d changed!”

“I did, Flash!” The tears poured from her eyes. “I didn’t do it! I don’t even know what Anon-a-Miss is!”

“I wish I could believe you. But I’m not going to fall for your lies a second time. Goodbye, Sunset.” He started to walk away.

“Please! Flash, I don’t know who to turn to!” Something felt wrong about trusting him; Sunset wasn’t sure why, but a part of her recoiled at the idea of even trusting someone like—

Yourself. Flash has always been a saint. Meanwhile, you’ve always been a barely-controlled monster. And you’ve slipped your leash once.

—herself. She wasn’t even sure she trusted herself anymore. “Flash, please, I need help!”

“No. You need to go away.”

“Trixie thinks she needs to kill herself!” the haughty girl with the blue skin called out.

Sunset looked at Trixie with anger; she could always count on Trixie to make her day worse. “You’re Anon-a-Miss, aren’t you?”

“Ha! I wish!” Trixie laughed. “She’s stirred up this school more than Trixie ever could!”

“Trixie, answer me!”

Trixie held out a knife. Her eyes glowed with black fire—

With the anger of someone betrayed.

—of someone who had been betrayed. “Why don’t you just end it, Sunset? Trixie thinks you should!”

Before Sunset could respond, she suddenly felt a blow to her jaw that dropped her to the ground, followed by several more body blows. As she screamed in pain, she noticed that she was being kicked, over and over and over again.

She looked up into unnatural—

Faces of betrayal. Faces you betrayed.

—faces of her friends, girls that thought her to be Anon-a-Miss.

“How could you do this to us!” Rarity stood there, her white skin flush with rage, her blue eyes piercing.

“Why did you do it!” Fluttershy’s butter-yellow skin looked so pale from worry, and her turquoise eyes showed pain from what had happened.

“Ah know why! ‘Cuz she ain’t nuthin’ but a low-down dirty varmint!” Applejack punched her fist into her palm, the orange skin making a clear smacking sound as she did.

“Yeah! Dirty traitor!” Unlike Applejack, Rainbow Dash brought a blue fist straight down against Sunset’s face again. “You ruined us, you monster!”

“We trusted you!” Pinkie’s magenta hair was straight, her pink face showing a mask of sorrow. “We believed in you!”

“And you betrayed us again! But this time we’re on to your tricks!” Rarity argued.

“Why don’t you just kill yourself?” Fluttershy told her.

“Kill myself?”

Kill yourself. After all, it’s the only way out, right?

“Yeah! Just end it! We don’t want you and I doubt even Twilight would take you back!” Rainbow shouted. She threw a knife at Sunset’s feet.

Sunset picked up the knife, looked at the enraged faces of those she loved.

Just end it all. Just one slice across the neck and it will all be over.

Sunset held the knife to her neck and tears streamed down her cheek.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing to my friend, you bitch?” Sunset looked up to see a familiar girl with tan skin and rainbow hair deck the blue-skinned girl with the similar hair.

A familiar blonde did the same with the girl with the orange skin. “What the fuck is wrong with you freaks?”

A girl with curly pink hair spun and kicked her counterpart. “Oh, hell no! You don’t get to hurt my Sunnybuns! There’s only room for one Pinkie around here!”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION?!” a part-Japanese girl with chiffon hair roared at the butter-yellow girl, causing her to pass out. ⌠自業自得!⌡ she spat.

There was a loud slap and the alabaster girl fell to the ground. Standing above her was a similar looking girl, her fair skin flush with anger. “I am not normally prone to violence and rudeness,” Rarity insisted, “But I will not have my friend kill herself because of the likes of you!”

Sunset felt herself pulled up by two hands, and as she did, she saw her maize skin return to its normal human flesh tone. She then looked up into four purple eyes of love.

“We’re not letting you go,” Octavia told her. “We’re family, and family sticks together.”

“My sister.” Twilight hugged Sunset close, leaning into the embrace. “You’re my sister. I don’t care about anything else.”

Before Sunset could speak, she found herself in a group hug. She could only look and see as the funhouse representations of her friends tore apart, shrieking like banshees, leaving them in a flat, plain wasteland.

“Sunny, we need you,” Pinkie said. “I need you.”

“Yeah, I hate to say it, but we’re kinda in a shitstorm,” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her head.

“Yeah, Rainbow’s right. But you’re not alone, girl. Ah know that for a fact – you’ve never been alone.”

“Darling, we’re friends – we’ll always be together. But right now, we need you.”

Octavia hugged her cousin close. “Remember, we’re a family.”

Twilight gave her sister a peck on the cheek. “And I need my big sister.”

Sunset closed her eyes, and smiled.

Floating above, Chernabog reared her head back and laughed.

From a distance, Divine looked on with panic and ignored the fact that he’d just shit his pants in fear.

Seated in their makeshift cage, everyone looked on in horror as the girl that had fought to save them, a girl that had meant so much to them, had been reduced to charred bones. Several of them started to cry, and others stared blankly.

“THERE! THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, YOU STUPID UNICORN!” Chernabog said, laughing.

And then the bones started glowing with cyan energy.
Burnt, charred bones became clean.
Bones became a skeleton.
A skeleton became sinews and flesh.
Flesh covered over with clothing.
A young woman opened her eyes, and smiled, then briefly turned to look at those in the cage. It was a look of love.

And finally, with a burning flash of turquoise energy, a unicorn mare stood there, fierce stance on the ground, aqua flames burning on her horn and around her like a newborn star.

“Now,” Sunset Shimmer snarled, “you’re going to learn why it’s a bad idea to fuck with me.”

August 16, 3:00 AM: The White Light

In the cave underneath the ruins of Castle Everfree, there was a tree that Celestia had told Twilight about: The Tree of Harmony. Faust had hewn the Elements from this strange tree, and the tree, actually a massive crystal spar in the shape of a tree, spread a healing warmth and comfort as far as it could. Twilight had once asked why such an important item was left in the Everfree, until Luna had explained that it was there mainly to counterbalance the effects of the dark forest. Back then, Twilight wasn’t sure what her answer to that would be.

She knew now.

She recalled a conversation she had a few weeks ago with Sunset, and it frightened her – not just because of what her friend had said, but because of what it meant for herself. Though Twilight had always burned the midnight candle and pushed herself far more than was healthy, when it came to magic, she was the best there was when it came to finesse, of that there was no doubt. But it was surprising to learn that Sunset outstripped her as a unicorn when it came to raw power. At first, Twilight had thought her friend to be mistaken, but when Sunset insisted that the princess look up their individual thaumic readings, it shocked her. As a unicorn, Twilight had been at the top of the scale in control and near the top in power – but Sunset was near the top in control…and over the top in power.

It made no sense whatsoever, and Sunset’s response even less so: “I’ve never really known how to give up,” had been the mare-turned-girl’s response. At the time, Twilight hadn’t quite got that. She’d never given up either on a problem or test or bit of academia that had puzzled her. But now? Now she understood what her friend had meant.

Sunset never gave up. Even at her lowest, she kept on going, because that was all she ever knew. She was the daughter of Princess Celestia, and in the public eye, failure was never an option for the Princess’ personal student – Twilight knew that all too well. And with Celestia having been the sole parent in Sunset’s life, Twilight could see how her friend could take that as a tenet of her life. After all, when Celestia had told Sunset she wasn’t meant to be a princess, Sunset didn’t just accept it – she made plans; foolish plans by her own later admission, but plans all the same. When Twilight’s double – the girl Sunset thought of as a sister – fell ill, Sunset didn’t panic, she instead made plans and bulldozed forward like a minotaur in the Crystal Empire. From the countless missives and talks they shared, it was clear that Sunset was always at something and likely in the middle of it, too. But she never shirked it.

And if she was in this situation, she probably would’ve faced off against Tirek, headed to her death like—

Twilight turned away so she could wipe the tears away. She’d already received the reports and she shuddered to think of what she would say to Ascot and Cashmere. They loved their adopted daughter, and her loss would be felt throughout all of Ponyville. She hadn’t told her friends yet; they were suffering now as is and she couldn’t put them through anything else.

“Twi?” The weary princess looked up to see Rainbow approaching. Like Twilight, she’d seen better days. Several of her feathers were singed and her coat and flight armor were scorched, and the pegasus’ prismatic mane, one of the things she took pride in, looked as though it had been dipped in carbon scoring. Unceremoniously she plopped before her friend, not caring what the visuals were at the moment.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked gently.

“Clear Skies may never fly again. Neon Blaze….” Rainbow choked off a sob. “I don’t know if he’s alive. I lost Sunshower and Open Skies in the first strafe, and Heavy Rain and Divebomb in the next.” She laughed for a second. “Divebomb was like me. Wild and gunning to be the next flight lead in the main Wonderbolts team. And now? I don’t know if there’s anything left of her.” The mare looked away. “Am I alright? No. Not in the least, Twi.”

“None of us are, Rainbow dear.” The two looked to see Rarity approaching. Her off-white coat was now a dirty gray and her normally perfect manedo was ragged and filled with sweat. The light armor she’d been wearing had also seen use. “Barricade and Construct are gone,” she said, her voice breaking. “Construct pushed me out of the way of a magic blast that got through our shields, and when I looked again?” Twilight looked at the unicorn and saw her eyes were reddened; she’d cried to the point there were no more tears left to shed.

“How are the others?” Rainbow asked.

“Ah’ve been better.” Applejack walked in, leaning on a disquieted Fluttershy. The farmmare’s left front hoof was heavily bandaged, as was half her face. Her armor was dented and battered and she had numerous small cuts on her. Her scabbard was empty, the sword likely lost. “They got us good, Twi. But we Apples done did our duty. But we lost too many – both my kin and th’ guards with us.”

“Braeburn?” Twilight asked.

“He’s in the medical tent,” Fluttershy spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. “He’ll live. But he may never walk without a limp again and he may never be strong enough to buck apples ever again.”

“I’ll do what I can, Applejack. You have my word,” Twilight promised.

“Twi, with all due respect, to Tartarus with your words right now,” Applejack hissed. “We still don’t know how Pinkie’s doing.”

“I sent Angel out to look for her,” the butter-yellow mare said.

“You sent your pet rabbit out to look for her in the middle of a war?” Rainbow asked, incredulous.

“She sent a ridiculously violent bunny out to look for her in the middle of a war,” Applejack reminded her friend. “He may fare better than any o’ us.”

“He did.” They turned to see Pinkie and though the party pony was surprisingly unscathed, the look in her eyes made it clear that things had not gone swimmingly for her, either. “Sometimes I think he should be a pony, the way he’s so smart.”

“I think Sunset said that Angel’s counterpart is human and is actually that Fluttershy’s brother,” Twilight pointed out. “I’ve never met him.”

Pinkie, still shell-shocked, continued. “He…he scared off some of the crystalline creatures that were about to kill me. They devoured some of the others that were with me, and they took out my party cannon. He saved me.”

“Where is he?” Fluttershy asked.

Finally, Pinkie reacted, wincing. “I don’t…I don’t know. We got separated. He might be still out there.”

“Then we need to take the fight to Tirek,” Twilight told them.

“The fight?” Rainbow asked. “Twilight, we are losing this war! This isn’t a typical fight like we had against Chrysalis or Sable Loam – ponies are dying, Twi! Dying!”

“I know,” Twilight told her. “But we have to take the chance. We won’t survive the war if we don’t do something!”

“But darling, we no longer have the Elements,” Rarity pointed out. “We simply cannot use equipment that we do not have!”

“Maybe,” Applejack said, “we should consider throwing in the towel.”

“No.”

The five other mares looked at the princess, seeing her once again, not just as their friend, but as their ruler and liegelady. They were part of her court, and though she loved them like family, ultimately there came a time when that had to be cast aside for the sake of the realm.

“We are not giving up. I realized something – Sunset Shimmer never gave up…she never gives up.” The alicorn then shared her revelations with the others, everything she had understood and theorized, and that when the chips came down, Sunset always stood.

Rainbow sighed. “Look, I get that she’s cool and all, but she’s not here – and she’s hyoomahn—”

“Human, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity corrected. “But I’m afraid Rainbow’s right. We have no Elements, and we have no humans to fight for us. Twilight, dear, we need a way.”

Twilight looked at all her friends, and there was a look in those violet windows they had never seen before, not on her. “She doesn’t know how to give up. I won’t give up either.” She looked at the Tree of Harmony, intent in her eyes. “I won’t let it end this way.”

Twilight walked over to the Tree, and sat down before it. Within them, now a part of it, were the Elements of Harmony, their individual colors bleeding away as they fused with the crystal structure. Soon, there wouldn’t be any indicator that they were separate items, much less incredibly powerful artifacts. Once, she’d worn the amethyst and used it to further the course of harmony and friendship in Equestria, wielding its power to work wonders.

That wasn’t going to happen now.

“We need this power once more,” she told the Tree. “I am an alicorn, but I am only one mare. This is a solution that requires powers above and beyond even what I can do. My ponies are suffering and out there is a monster without comparison, destroying us – and soon after he will go after our allies and every living being on Equus. I don’t have the power or the courage to stop him.

“But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here, because if things had been different, a friend of mine – a mare far more courageous than I – would be standing here, telling you that she not only needs your power, but that she would fight fiercely with it, because that’s the kind of mare she is. But I’m not her. I’m not Sunset, or my brother or anypony else that knows how to be courageous when the chips are down. All I can do is just be the best mare I can.

“And so I ask you: I need your power. We all do. We need to make this right. And while I won’t admit it to my friends, yes, I am afraid – deathly so. But too many are counting on me not to fail. Too many are counting on me to not give up.”

She looked at the Tree. “Please help us – because it’s the only way I can think of to not stop.”

Twilight stared at the Tree for what seemed like the better part of eternity.

And then…

…a flicker.

Looking at the smiling crater that had been a portion of south Ponyville, Tirek chortled, the stolen magic burning around him like charcoal flames. He had all the power in the world, and the creatures standing before him were scattering. In the distance, he could see as a contingent of yaks, all the way from Yakyakistan, charged into the fray. They would be nothing before him, of course and they would suffer the same fate as the ponies, the griffons, the kitsune, the minotaurs and all that opposed him. Even his brother, with his power, failed to change the course of the inevitable.

He was Tirek.

He was a god.

And he—

The centaur never finished his thought as a massive column of purple energy slammed into him, knocking him off his hooves. Undeterred, the beam continued on, burning through the air and annihilating the very molecules of the atmosphere as it blasted through, finding a stopping point in the mountain chain several hundred miles away, literally carving the top off with its power.

As he got back to his feet, he roared, “WHO DARES?”

The answer to that was the very earth roaring and shaking, tearing asunder. In the ground behind what had been the Golden Oaks Library, the very bones of the earth gave way and a massive tree made of crystal tore into to the sky, growing with unnatural speed. Within its branches, leaf-like structures began to form, becoming fruits of sorts, then changing to become hollow and square, still gleaming with the energy given to it by the very core of the world within. Within seconds, where there had been nothing but a field, was now a towering castle of crystal, a shimmering arboreal spire of power and a symbol of who was its mistress.

And standing atop it were six mares, now dressed in sparkling, shimmering crystal-like armor, each the color of the gems they had given to the Tree of Harmony and had now bequeathed them with something much more. This new armor blazed with prismatic power, a sort of rainbow force, catching the dying rays of the sun and magnifying it until the world knew that Ponyville had now become the nexus of Something Special.

A hoof, clad in violet crystal armor harder than mithril, lightly tapped as it took a gentle step. And in that hooffall was power, unmitigated and unbridled, roaring out and become a sonic wave of force that slammed into Tirek, bowling him over again. This time, however, he was faster to recover, and launched a blackfire missile at the origin, only to see it shredded by a titanic shield of blue diamond.

“WHO DARES CHALLENGE TIREK, THE GOD!?” the centaur roared, uttering his challenge.

“I DO!” came the response as Twilight Sparkle took to the air. “I WILL END YOUR TYRANNY, TIREK!” she shouted.

“You are nothing, little creature. Tirek will destroy you, as he has the other alicorns.”

But Twilight laughed. “How cute. Do you know what power is, Tirek? Let me show you.” Upon the castle, five other massive flames of power reached into the sky, singing with authority and command. Twilight sneered at him and gave a boast she never thought she would ever utter: “I will introduce you to the fucking wrath of a pissed-off-as-Tartarus alicorn. Your ass is going to be Discord and I’m going to be all six fucking Elements of Harmony. I’m going to rampage on you like the Princess did against the Minotaur Invasion of 957. I WILL BREAK YOU LIKE SHE BROKE THE ENTIRE CHANGELING ARMY AT SADDLEBACK RIDGE AND I WON’T FEEL A SINGLE OUNCE OF REMORSE DOING IT!”

Twilight Sparkle looked at the two creatures of mythology facing off against one another: a demon of hatred and bile…and a bright, shining unicorn, standing there, watching the demon warily. That was in and of itself something well beyond what she had ever been prepared for. The teen considered herself a woman of science, the scion of her mother and father’s disciplines, in some ways their heir. Science was a tenet of her life, a guidestone and keystone and as natural to her as breathing.

And now none of it made sense. Sunset Shimmer was a demon and was facing off against Sunset Shimmer, who had died, come back to life, spewed magic and abilities that one usually only saw in fantasy…and now she had become a unicorn.

But not just any unicorn, either – Twilight had seen this one before. Back when she’d had the horrific nightmares, she’d told Sunset of the dream she had about the weird horse creatures: one of them a unicorn with Sunset’s hair color. Then came the unicorn plushie Sunset had given her before the trip to Italy…and the fact that the doll carried the same colors as the real-life unicorn now in front of Twilight couldn’t have been coincidence.

Other things came to her mind: back at the Christmas dinner where that little girl had gone missing, Sunset had never really explained how she’d put on that lightshow in her magic act, a set of tricks even Trixie claimed she wasn’t familiar with. Nor did she explain how the unicorn in the story had resembled her either.

Had Sunset been telling her who and what she really was all this time? Had she tried to pass the story of who she really was through seeming legerdemain, because the truth was so far beyond the pale Twilight didn’t know how to react? But now Twilight saw the obvious: somewhere in the tangled web of everything was the sister that Twilight knew loved her dearly. The same sister that Twilight had recently all but disowned, had treated like shit and had ostracized over a secret that Sunset had hidden from her family. The same sister that their cousin Octavia had sided with after having been unreasonably jealous over Sunset’s place in their lives. And now Octavia had gotten over it…

…and Twilight couldn’t.

She loved her sister. There was no doubt of that. It pained her to have treated Sunset that way, and now she was regretting everything she’d done and said. If she could take it back – if she could take every single word and action back – she would do so without hesitation. But real life didn’t work that way.

But then again, I didn’t think real life worked this way either, she said, looking at the stalemate between the two fantastic beings.

“Ya lied, didn’t you?” Twilight turned to see Applejack looking at her. Odd that the blonde would choose those words to say to Twilight. Sunset had once told Twilight that Applejack was the most honest person she’d ever known. And all this time, that had born out to be correct. If there was a spirit of honesty, Twilight wondered, maybe Applejack was its patron.

“I lied?”

Applejack nodded. “You said it didn’t matter to you, but it does, doesn’t it?”

“This…this was her secret, wasn’t it? Sunset isn’t human. I always wondered why some things that seem so natural to us came hard to her, but I thought it was because of the way she was raised by the kidnapper. But there was never a kidnapper, was there?”

“No, no there wasn’t.” It was Rarity that spoke up this time. “No. Sunset is a runaway, but…there was no kidnapper. If anything, that was something that you all imagined. Sunset was never—”

“Imagined?” The tone of shock coming from Velvet was nearly a shriek. “Rarity, are you trying to tell me—”

“Velvet, that’s enough,” Celestia said, interceding on her student’s behalf.

“Fuck you, Tia. You knew about all this and you didn’t tell me!” her friend seethed, and Celestia wilted under Velvet’s glare.

“Vel, what did you want us to say? You heard what Night told you – what in any part of ‘your daughter is an alien from a race of unicorns’ sounds like something normal?” Luna asked. “Night, talk some sense into her.”

But Night wasn’t listening at all. Instead, he was silent as he watched the two Sunset fight each other, the protective need to step out there and defend his child being blocked by the complete disbelief that the girl he had comforted and grown to love over the course of the year wasn’t even human. And that was just the first aspect of that. The second was the other girl, bearing a demonic, twisted version of Sunset’s face…because somehow, she was Sunset as well. Not a twin – Sunset herself. Just as, presumably, so was his daughter.

As a man of science, he knew about the theory of alternate realities and the multiverse. But to have it shoved so intimately into his life, so front and center, he stood helpless before the whole of it all. Part of him, given all the inexplicable violence between the two that was occurring, wondered if this was a good thing. The rest of him just helplessly worried.

Velvet moved to his side. “Night?”

“We’re going to lose her, aren’t we?” The tone of his voice was a man broken, a vocalization she had never before heard from her husband. “We’ve done so much for her, so much to gain her in our lives…and now we’re going to lose her, aren’t we?”

She went over and embraced him. “We won’t.” She felt that she was lying to herself, but she had to believe. She had to believe in her daughter.

Because in the end, that was what Sunset Shimmer was to her, regardless of species – her older daughter, one she had grown to love and would look forward to having her in her life for decades to come.

Spike watched on with part terror and part fascination, like watching the best TV show in the world up close and personal and at the same time realizing that said imagery was far closer than he liked. At this distance, even behind the relative safety of the bent and twisted metal bars, he could see the incandescent power the two Sunsets had as they faced off against one another. And probably for the first time in a bit, he was worried about his family.

Including Sunset.

He felt guilty, and he knew why: he really didn’t treat her like she belonged. He was spoiled about it, and other than the few times they got along, he treated her badly. Why? He wasn’t really sure. He didn’t treat Octavia that way, but he’d grown up around her and she was as much a sister to him as Twilight or Cadance was.

Why not Sunset?

If he had been a decade older, perhaps he could’ve answered that question. But for now, he was a child with a child’s mind and a child’s grasp of the world and its warps and weaves. And right now, he could not picture the mortal terror that was wrapping him – all of them – as Sunset fought against Sunset for the fate of everything.

He turned to look at his older brother, hoping that there would be some answer there. But there wasn’t. There was no way to have an answer that didn’t exist. “Shining?” he spoke.

Cadance went over and hugged him, tears in her eyes. “It’s going to be okay, Spike,” she said, holding him close. “We’re going to make it out of this.” Her tears soaked the top of his head as she held him to protect him. “We’ll be safe.”

He didn’t want to be safe.

He just wanted it to be all over.

Twilight looked again at the fantastical scene before her, then closed her eyes and began to pray. Maybe it was the right thing to do, maybe it didn’t make sense. The former had no validation, and the latter had no argument. She believed in something out there, after all – but what that something was? That was the unknowable part.

Maybe her mother was right: that Sunset was a God-given gift to them when they had least expected it.

If so…Twilight prayed that the gift didn’t have an end. Not when she had so much to say to her sister, an apology being the least of it.

The unicorn and the demon looked at one another, Sunset facing off against Sunset.

“So, the animal shows herself for what she truly is. Now the world knows what you really are – a thief. An identity thief. You stole this Sunset’s identity and lived as her, thinking she would never be back. You’ve never changed.”

“I have always been myself, the good and the bad,” Sunset said, pawing the ground angrily. “And if you think you’re going to make me angry, well…tough shit. You’re going to have to do better.”

“I WILL!” Chernabog launched another fireball the size of a minivan at the pony. The world warped, wavered and shimmied with the amount of energy burning its way through reality, the sound of hellfire screaming as it impacted against a target. A shockwave lashed out, knocking everything in the room either off its feet or off balance, as one of the ancient pillars in the room finally succumbed to damage and crumbled into rubble.

From above, as the energy haze began to clear, Chernabog laughed, knowing she had destroyed the pony utterly—

—that is, until she saw the vehicle-sized ball of energy mere inches away from the unicorn, who held it in an aqua sheathing of power.

“Here is the part where I point and laugh at you,” Sunset sang in the tone of the famous Toreador Song, both from an opera here – and, strangely enough, from a minotaur symphony from her homeworld. “Sucks to be you, sucks to be you.”

Chernabog sneered. “You bitc—” The demon didn’t say anything further as Sunset simply took the massive sphere of energy, split it into smaller parts and threw it right back at her. The dozens of basketball-sized energy blasts sent the demon slamming against the wall, screaming in pain.

“So, the idiot shows herself for what she truly is,” Sunset seethed, throwing her opponent’s words right back at her. “Now the world knows what you really are – worthless. Absolutely fucking useless. You stole that Sunset’s body, but guess what? She doesn’t know magic because she’s human.” The unicorn narrowed her eyes. “Ready to get your ass kicked a second time?”

The demon floated away from the wall, a rivulet of glowing purple blood oozing out of the corner of her mouth. “Oh, I’m not nice to pets. Better say your last words, horsey, because you won’t live to see tomorrow.”

Sunset laughed. “Are you that fucking stupid? I might be good at magic as a human…but that was self-taught. As a unicorn, I was taught by my mother. I am the Daughter of the Sun. And I don’t fucking lose.”

Without warning, the creature divebombed at Sunset, moving so fast she created a sonic boom in the air. She hit the ground on impact, shaking the earth and sending dirt and broken stone to the four winds from her blow—

—only to be blasted again by another machine gun volley of small energy spheres as Sunset appeared from where she’d teleported, directly behind Chernabog. Chernabog lashed out and scored a blow against Sunset, raking her claws against her side and making the unicorn scream in pain but Sunset focused and turned, lashing out with the most natural of pony attacks. Both of her hindhooves hit Chernabog square in the chest, knocking her through one of the few pillars left standing with a brutal-sounding crunch.

As the demon skidded to a stop, Sunset teleported above her and summoned an energy blast from her horn, firing a massive beam of energy tearing down onto the ground. However, the beam faded and Sunset fell to earth, painfully bouncing against the ground, her teeth jarring in her skull.

Chernabog got to her feet and laughed. “So, that’s the best the itty-bitty pony can do?” She kicked Sunset in the barrel, making her scream in agony. “Flew a little too close to the sun, huh? Daughter of the Sun my ass!”

Sunset felt triple blows: the physical impact of Chernabog’s kick, followed by the energy that she pushed into each blow. Jags of eldritch energy coursed through the whole of her body, lighting her up like a candle and making the unicorn shriek in pain that much more. But the worst part was that she knew that her family and friends – her loved ones – were watching.

“Had enough?” Chernabog taunted. “Ready to die?”

“SUNNY!” Sunset vaguely heard her name being screamed. She wasn’t sure who shouted it, but it sounded like pure, utter terror. The kind of thing that Chernabog feasted on. Sunset had been stupid, so stupid, to let this thing into her life, even though she hadn’t expected to. But she’d been so wicked, so without redemption that she’d practically opened the doors for this thing. An irony, because clearly it had been hunting her counterpart all this time – what had she done to deserve this?

As the edges of her vision began to darken into a tunnel, the unicorn wondered if she’d ever find out.

The hallway smoked like a chimney, bulletholes and black carbon everywhere. One part of the floor tiling was completely gone, both shattered by explosive and melted away from the blast heat. A fluorescent ceiling light dangled from its wiring, flickering on and off, giving the corridor a creepy, horror vibe. That wasn’t helped by the torn and gutted bodies, both human and transformed SIRENs, laying in various pieces.

The group continued through, Sunny Side taking point, looked horrified. “Uh, folks, we did not come through here earlier, right?”

Sable scanned the room, looking for potential traps. “Looks like this place has seen some action lately. Another group?”

Zephyr slung his rifle and bent down to look down at one SIREN, still human and whose face was a mask of terror. “No. Something scared the shit out of this one,” he commented. He sniffed the air. “Enough to make her void herself, too.”

“Thought bodies did that naturally when they die,” Adagio asked.

“They do, but that’s hours after brain cells start decomposing,” the man explained. “For this to happen so soon – and yes, soon, given that the corridor is still smoky and everything looks fresh – she died shitting her pants.” He then focused on the large puddle of blood against the wall. “Not sure I want to move the body. This much blood…something’s missing from the back.”

“We’re all big boys and girls, Zeph,” Sable told him. “We’ve seen enough of this stuff before.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Doesn’t mean I want to keep this record-setting pace, if you get my drift.” He pointed towards each end of the passageway. “Greenie, take Aria and Sonata and cover the corners. Anything that isn’t identifiable – and by that I mean any of us here in the group – you make holes where holes are supposed to go, got that?”

“Roger that,” Pine responded, looking at the younger two teens; the younger triplets nodded and immediately followed the older SIREN.

“Must be bad if you don’t want them to see it,” Adagio suggested.

Zephyr continued to look at the cadaver, though he responded to the teen: “Look, if I had my way I’d have you out of here as well, Adagio. You three lost the closest thing to mothers you had and the fact that you’re still standing is kinda worrisome. So forgive me for acting like an adult for a few moments and worrying about what all this will do to your psyche.”

Side put an arm around Adagio. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of them. Sis and I aren’t going to let them suffer.”

“Works for me,” Sable commented as he and Zephyr turned over the body.

“Okay, this is not good,” Zephyr stated as he inspected the body. “Her entire backside is gone – you can see the spinal cord. Someone – or rather, something – chewed off her back. Literally.” He got back up and looked at Side. “What the hell kind of freakshow is going on here?”

“I don’t know. But as soon as we’re done killing Cantata, we’re getting the fuck out of here,” was Side’s response. “Whatever turned these girls into mincemeat got through their defenses and tons of weapons. That means that it’s something I really don’t want to run into down here, don’t you think?”

“We don’t have much of a choice if we’re going to end this,” Adagio reminded her. “I’d rather get out of here as well, but we have to clean up the mess we’re partially responsible for. Besides, we have to save everyone – I owe them that, and we need to figure out a way to restart time again.” She smiled grimly. “Never thought I would ever make that kind of statement.”

“Yeah, well, there’s been a whole lot of shit that I didn’t expect to happen this time around,” Zephyr responded. “Both bad and good. ‘Sides, I owe that Cantata bitch for taking Soli and Shimmer. And I pay my debts.”

“She has Tia,” Sable said coldly. “You had better kill her first, because if I get my hands on her, I’m going to beat her to death.”

“Wow, what happened to professionalism?” Side asked.

“It went out the window when my gal was taken,” Zephyr said coldly.

“Yeah, I hear that,” Sable agreed.

Aria called down the hall. “We have contacts around the corner! Better do something about it!”

“Pull a retreat for now – if it’s the same things these poor souls went up against, we’re no match,” Sable advised. “We’d better find Sunset or Raspberry.”

“Roger that,” Zephyr replied, pointing to the other end of the passageway. “Let’s go this way.”

Queen watched as the prey moved away. She was tempted to attack, but her pack had already fed on the other prey, and now it was time for Mate to do what he was supposed to do. She and Sister lifted their tails, signaling to Mate.

Queen and Sister looked at each other and yawned; there would be other chances to hunt. But for now, there was just instinct and survival – both for them and their species.

Steel rang out against razor-sharp crystal, the gong-like clang resounding through the air. With it came a shockwave that knocked Tirek off-balance, and a second crystal saber came in for the strike, which he barely managed to dodge.

“You will not beat Tirek, pony,” he spat. “Tirek is a god and Tirek will rule this world supreme!”

“Tirek is about to have his plot handed to him,” Twilight snarled, her crystalline blades dancing through the sky like air ballerinas. She effortlessly summoned her fifteenth sword, striking true and drawing blood. “I can keep this up all day!” she crowed.

“You cannot if you die!” With that, Tirek sucked in air and spat out a black beam of energy as thick as a tree, the beam heading straight for Twilight without any chance of her stopping it. While she knew she could live through it, it wouldn’t be something she wanted to deal with.

It was then that a giant diamond shield reappeared, deflecting the blow. From the castle, a figure in blue crystalline armor called out, “And that’s what you get for being so uncouth!”

Twilight laughed; leave it to Rarity to rebuke Tirek for lack of manners, of all things! She looked down at the ground to see how her other friends were faring and it seemed that her pep talk with the Tree of Harmony had given them much more than they had ever expected.

Fluttershy raised her wings and green, crystalline feathers could be seen interspersed with her own. The feathers radiated a verdant energy, healing all that came within its grasp. Ponies that had been grievously wounded were starting to recover, and those who needed a second wind got it.

Dressed in orange and light-blue armor, Applejack and Pinkie were destructive forces on the battleground, the rage of nature themselves. The farmmare caused shockwaves wherever she stepped, using them to devastating effect, while Pinkie practically danced around the battlefield, tapping her enemies and moving on. That wouldn’t have been effective, save for the fact that a few seconds later, said opponents exploded in a shower of confetti, the blast knocking them out cold and destroying any inanimate objects.

But Rainbow, dressed in red armor, was far and away using it to brutal effect. Now moving easily a magnitude faster than she ever had before, she was burning through any enemy that she came across. The dragon-like crystalline golems Tirek created were no match for her; even as they launched fire at her, she was already well beyond the location they were aiming by the time the fiery projectile was there.

Twilight smiled, then looked coldly at Tirek. “This is where you lose everything, Tirek. You will lose to Equestria!”

“The pony cannot defeat Tirek,” he hissed. “Nothing can defeat Tirek, for he is invincible!” He raised a hand and the ground behind him, already pockmarked and filled with the detritus of destroyed buildings within Ponyville, shattered as more crystalline golems arose from the ground. “Tirek will take the lives of everything! Only those who bow before his greatness will live!”

“THEN WE WILL NEVER BOW!” That roar did not come from Twilight, but instead behind her. The alicorn turned to see the Princess’ Hooves in force, more than she had ever seen in her life. They all stood there, armed to the teeth just behind their Castellan, ready to do battle.

“FOR THE PRINCESS!” the host of ponies roared as they rushed forth, a ride of Valkyries that served as a living wall of punishment.

And that’s when the rumble started. Everypony not already focused on the fight turned in the direction of the sound, seeing a great cloud of smoke and dust rise from the direction of Canterlot, headed towards Tirek’s rear forces.

Then the smoke cleared and a titanic combined force of Army and Guard forces stormed forward at top speed, enough in number that the ground could not be seen.

“FOR EQUESTRIA!” Shining Armor roared as he charged into battle, the two sides colliding. The stallion used his barrier magic to create a battering ram that slammed into the enemy host, sending bodies flying everywhere. He then summoned his swords with his magic, striking at anything daring to challenge him.

Tirek looked up at Twilight Sparkle as her swords danced around her in a circle, ready to begin the next action.

“Looks like you’re a little confused about what’s going to happen next,” Twilight taunted. “Let me make it simple for you: you’re going to lose.”

Tirek roared with rage and summoned magical blasts of energy that shot towards Twilight, who artfully moved past them as if they were nothing. She then threw her blades at him, the storm of crystal shards stabbing at him repeatedly like deadly mosquitos on the hunt. He would shatter one with his great swords, but for every blade that fell, she simply created another, as if it were the most natural thing.

The centaur fell, collapsing against a building, knocking it towards the ground in the process. Twilight could hear the screams of innocent ponies within, and her heart stopped – she couldn’t get to them in time! She dove towards the building, ignoring the blasts coming at her, hoping she could beat the clock before the structure came down on innocent lives.

But then there was storm and wind and from nowhere, gargoyles and smaller centaurs rushed in to help the ponies. Standing there using his magic and looking worse for wear, but not giving up, Scorpan glared at his brother. “You would take innocent lives?” he roared. “You are no brother of mine!” he turned to Twilight. “Princess, end this monster for all our sakes!”

She let her heart settle; the king that had come to her aid was still willing to help ponies. She looked around and saw the renewed armies present gather courage for another blow. Even now, she wondered if other nations were still coming to Equestria’s aid after so many times that they had done for others. Even before she was born, the Magic of Friendship was paying dividends for Twilight.

Rushing into the sky, Twilight soared and shouted, “GIRLS! FORMATION!”

Elemental armor, infused with the power of Harmony itself, began to supercharge, ready to do what it was created to do.

Within the depths of the beyond, a mare awaited the next move in the chess battle against her ancient foe. She was already acting too much into a realm that wasn’t her own, and her opponent knew that – it was why he had prospered in this location, even though she had sentenced him here. She was already risking too much by being present here, pulling the threads of fate in places that she didn’t have business doing it. She had few adorants here and none of them knew what was really at stake.

All she could do would be to hope that her longshot would work. It had to, because if not…

…the price would be too high, both for this reality and for her, herself.

He closed his eyes, the bleeding and pain starting once more. It took a lot out of him to investigate that particular avenue from this far, and it turned out to be all for nothing. There was no building threat in Seattle; if anything, it wasn’t even worth his time to try to control or remove – the potential would not be worth the effort, and it would be just better to let the harmless thing be.

He then felt eyeballs staring at the back of his head. “I know you’re there,” he said to no one in particular. “I know you’re watching.”

I would slay you now if I could, the voice in his mind said. You have lived too long and I will not let you destroy this world.

The man cackled. “Destroy? I rule here. This is my realm – you have given it to me. And everything in it is my plaything – including—”

Have a care, fiend! I will not hesitate to strike you down if I so choose!

“No, you will not, and you know it. After all, your kind plays by the rules, and you are already stretching them to the breaking point. What good is Good if you are no better than me?” He began to laugh again, this time hard enough to finally end it in a coughing fit.

You will be destroyed. Mark my words: you will be destroyed.

“An author in this realm once wrote that it is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven. You can keep your little technicolor candy paradise. I’ll be busy, making this my own personal Tartarus.”

Just as quickly as it was present, it was gone. He turned back to what he was doing, pausing only to grunt, “Sanctimonious bitch – you denied me my rightful due. Now I will take so much more from you.”

As the assault team moved on, they realized something from the sheer number of bodies they were starting to see, bodies that they hadn’t been shooting at. Somehow, the SIRENs were turning on each other, and the results were violent.

“Looks like I’m glad I didn’t get in the middle of this furball,” Sable said as he tapped a bloody body that looked like it had been on the wrong end of a grenade.

“Hey, the kinda furballs I prefer generally lean towards girls in bikinis wrestling in Jello,” Zephyr snarked before remembering the gender of most of his allies. “Hypothetically speaking, of course.”

“Sure,” Side shot back, a grin on her face. “I wouldn’t mind seeing me a few Chip & Dale’s guys, with firm abs and hot oiled bodies….”

“So would I.” The group turned and pointed guns in the direction of the voice – a woman slumped against the wall, who they thought had been dead, earlier. She was oozing blood, save that blood wasn’t naturally amber in color or glowing lightly from within. “It’s okay. I’m not…I’m not going to hurt anyone anymore. Maybe this is what I deserve.”

“Hey, Pulse.” Petty Officer 1st Class Alto Pulse was one of the best explosives experts in the unit and could use an RPG like it was a sniper rifle. However, it looked like she couldn’t shoot her way out of what had befallen her.

“Hey, Sides. Looks like I’m not going to be able to get back at you for what you did to me,” Pulse commented.

“You talking about Morocco? You earned that punch, Alto,” Side told her. “Shouldn’t talk about my sister that way.”

Pulse laughed weakly. “Yeah, maybe I did. Doesn’t matter, anyway; I deserve to die and that’s what’s going to happen.”

“You keep saying that,” Pine chimed in. “What do you mean?”

“No use hiding it anymore.” She didn’t look at any of them, but instead just stared at the sky. “I was the one that killed the admiral.”

The ladies with Sable and Zephyr collectively gasped, and the two men suddenly felt that standing next to these furies with weapons might not be the most ideal location at that precise moment.

“You bitch,” Aria seethed. Sonata was more direct, instead slamming her rifle muzzle against the side of Pulse’s head.

“Back off, Seaman Dusk; she’s going to die anyway,” Pine said coldly. “Save your ammo for the rest of the fight.”

“You’re right,” Pulse commented. “It was the Captain. She played you all. Well, us all. I was in with her on most of it, but even I didn’t think she was going to sacrifice her own sœur to her plans. Or Coda.” She coughed up golden blood. “Or me, really.”

“Talk,” Adagio demanded.

“Yeah, sure. Sides, you remember when we were kids, right? There were four SIREN teams, eight platoons each. Now? Just the one, with six platoons and a bunch of detachments. I wanted to be like Basso Profundo – that woman was a legend! Walked up to a hidden KGB base in Newfoundland and took them all out by herself! That was the kind of badass I wanted to be!” She coughed up more blood, then paused for a second before continuing. “So what happened? Poutine happened.

“Don’t you dare blame Uncle Poutine,” Pine began.

Not listening, Pulse continued. “Golden Rule – CSIS Director – noticed he was a goody two-shoes, that he knew what we were was illegal and that he wanted SIREN shut down. He worked to compress the teams and convince girls to leave the life behind. Then one day he told the brass he was going to go talk to the prime minister and tell him everything. Director Rule didn’t want that, so she hatched a plan: take some of the deepest cover SIREN operatives and—”

“So you sold us out for your thirty loonies of silver?” Side asked.

“We didn’t want to do it, but we were made offers by Rule that we couldn’t refuse – too tempting. And it was that or maybe CSIS would have hired some rent-a-thugs like ALICORN to do the job. Better that we take him down fast and painlessly; that was our thought. Maybe it was Blast’s bullet to his skull, or maybe the K-Bar I drove straight into his heart. I don’t know.” Her eyes started to well with tears, the kind that were genuine. “I didn’t want to do it, but someone had to spare him the pain.”

“So you fucked over your own guy,” Zephyr stated and Adagio looked up at him. “I’ve seen it before: you justify reasons why you frag your own side. ‘Better from a friend than the enemy’, ‘it’ll be painless, we promise’, and all that kind of shit. Doesn’t matter; they’re still murdered by their own side and the murderers have to live with that lie.”

“Maybe,” Pulse chuckled. “But I didn’t expect that Cantata had an agenda of her own, one she didn’t share with us until the night before we took him down. She was persuasive, and we believed her – that CSIS would set us up and get rid of us just to cover their own asses. Better to go rogue and take the fight to them to get the public on our side if we were exposed, she said. Better that we look like the heroes we were; after all, we were risking our lives when girls our age hadn’t even seen a fraction of a fraction of the shit we had. So we agreed to her plan, which is how the remaining SIREN operatives came under her control. We thought we were doing the right thing.” She held up her hand and her fingers were moving unnaturally, more like tentacles than digits. “But not even I expected what was going to come next.

“I’m the last one alive, and maybe not even that in a few minutes. So…now you know the truth. We were always played for fools. We betrayed our nation, but we were betrayed from all sides, first – and we killed the one good hope we had.” She then looked at Side and the woman saw that one of Pulse’s eyes was starting to split, as if becoming two eyes. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll live, but with this shit in me…I don’t know if I’ll die human. I know I’m not human anymore, I just look it. But right now, while I still feel like one? I want to die as one. Kill me.”

“No,” Side snarled. “You don’t get that luxury, monster.”

“Given this black magic shit? She might be dead, but her body might not be. I’ve seen more than enough horror films to know that, sis,” Pine commented.

Sonata solved the problem by reaching for her sidearm, withdrawing her clip, and then sticking a bullet in the chamber. “You want to die like a human?” she told Pulse. “Take responsibility.” She held the sidearm out for the woman.

Adagio and Aria looked at their baby sister with surprise. “Soni—”

“No,” Sonata argued back, cutting off their argument. “She is a monster…but she doesn’t deserve to die like one. She made a horrific mistake, but she was misled – just like all of us. She needs to make it right…in the only way she can.”

“Well said, kid,” Pulse said, taking the gun from her in her other hand. On that hand they could see as an extra thumb had started to grow, barely protruding from the skin. She looked up at Side one last time. “You need to take Cantata Blast out,” Pulse told her. “I made the mistake and backed a monster – she can’t be allowed to run free any longer.”

“I understand,” Side said flatly.

“Then I’m done. Be seeing you, Sides.”

“Go to hell, Alto.”

Pulse laughed one final time, but it sounded slurpy and nothing like a human’s utterances. “This’ll just speed me along faster.” She then put the gun in her mouth, smiled and pulled the trigger.

“So done after this,” Pine commented. “I’m done, got that? Fucking done!” She sounded agitated, as if she’d reached the end of her rope.

Side turned to her sister. “Greenie, calm down. We’re going to finish this shit up, then we’re getting out of here – you, me and the triplets, okay? We’re going to go get new identities and forget who we ever were.”

Pine looked into her sister’s eyes. “Promise me, Sides. Promise me that when we’re old and gray and telling our grandkids about our wild young years, they won’t ever know what we were.”

Despite the situation, Side let her weapon hang on its strap and took her sister’s hands in her own. “We’re going to have to come up with a lot of stories,” the lighter-skinned woman said. “But they’ll be our stories. But before we have to think about what we’re going to do with the rest of our lives, we’ve got to put down a monster that needs to be put down.”

“Personally, assuming you don’t kill her first, I’m going to enjoy meeting this Cantata bitch – haven’t decided yet if she needs to die or sit behind bars for what her goons did to my partner,” Zephyr said.

“I think all things considered, we should just end her,” Sable stated. “I know you’re a cop and all, but she’s been behind all this to some degree or other. The murders, the works. I don’t throw out the name ‘Fuhrer’ constantly, but he does come to mind.”

“I really don’t think we qualify as Nazis, Sable. Yeah, we’re no saints, but we were trying to do what was right for Queen and Country,” Side defended.

“Until we were hijacked by someone with her own plans,” Adagio commented. “So maybe we were, and we just didn’t know it.”

“That’s the joy of being in an illegal organization,” Sable pointed out. “You don’t get the choice of picking and choosing your battles.”

The group was so engrossed in their sudden conversation that none of them saw the flash of red lasers until it was too late.

“GET DOWN!” Sable shouted, as a bullet ripped through the space past his head, followed by several more rounds. Everyone hit the floor and returned fire, and the hallway filled with noise and storm as gunfire was exchanged, followed by a few screams on the other end.

After a few seconds, the gunfire stopped. “Adagio, check to see if they’re still breathing and make sure they’re not.”

“On it!” Adagio sprinted off towards the direction of the fire.

“MEDIC!”

There, bleeding on the ground was Zephyr. He’d taken two shots, and while they weren’t fatal, they were enough to debilitate him. “Goddamn! That’s the second time I’ve been shot today! How the fuck did I get so Goddamn lucky?”

Sonata was at his side immediately, tearing open his pants leg while reaching for her medical supplies. “You’re going to be fine,” she said clinically. “Looks like they passed through meat.”

“Fine? Did you hear the part where I’ve been shot twice today, for fuck’s sake?”

“You’ll be fine,” she insisted. “You’re just out of the fight now. You’re going to have to make it back topside. Someone will have to get you an escort up; maybe one of the sisters, right?”

It was then that they heard the wailing coming from behind them. They turned to see Sable, a tight look on his face, looking down at the scene at his feet: Pine, in hysterics as she held Sunny Side, who had a hole on one side of her neck and the massive exit wound on the other. It was clear that she hadn’t even had time to react.

Aria’s hand involuntarily went to her mouth. “Oh, no….”

“You’re gonna be fine, sis,” Pine said while panicking, holding her dead sister close to her, ignoring the gushing blood coming from the wound. “You’re going to be fine! I just…. MEDIC!” she screamed. “I need someone here!”

Adagio rushed back and looked at Sable. “One of them survived, but I put her down,” the eldest triplet explained. “I would say we’re all clear, but clearly we’re no longer near that.”

“Dagi,” Aria began, and the oldest sister nodded.

Putting a gentle hand on the middle sister’s shoulder, she said, “Ari…I know. I know.”

“But she…she didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Aria said, her eyes shedding tears.

“We have lost too much. We won’t lose any more.” The look on Adagio’s eyes was colder than it had ever been before. “Cantata Blast dies. And I don’t care who disagrees. She does not get to live.” She took her sister in her arms, holding her close. “You and Soni are my life, Ari. We’re triplets. The line ends here.”

Pine was in hysterics. “No! I’m not going to let you die!” she wailed as he lost it, holding her now-dead sister. All of this had been abstract professionalism to her before, detached and just another day. But now the person she considered a sister had been shot and—

Adagio bent down and put her hand on her shoulder. “Greenie…she’s gone.”

“No!” Pine was in tears. “She’s not! We can save her!”

Sonata got up from where she had been helping Zephyr. “What, do you think you’re the only one who got to lose someone, Greenie? At least you get to say goodbye! I never got to see Maddie again!”

“Sis, you’re not helping,” Adagio gently admonished before turning back to Pine. “Pine, she’s gone and you can’t get her back. I know how you feel – I lost someone I loved as well. But we have to fight now in order to make sure that no one else dies. Our loved ones weren’t innocent – they fought just like we did.” She pointed beyond one of the walls, adding, “There are billions of people out there that will be victims of Cantata Blast and her boyfriend if she succeeds – a whole world of Sunny Sides that will die if we don’t stop them!” Despite the pain, she reached out and embraced Pine. “It’s what your sister would have wanted.”

Adagio then held the bawling girl, her own tears coming to her eyes. Both cried for what they had lost and for what others had as well. Sonata hugged Aria, and for one fleeting moment, the surviving girls were acting like they should: like overwhelmed girls, who had no business being in the middle of a warzone.

Sable reached down and offered a hand to Zephyr, which he took. “You going to be alright?”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” the older man said sarcastically. “I get shot all the Goddamn time. Not like it’s life threatening or anything.”

“Okay, I get the point. Seriously, though, you going to make it up topside okay?”

“Yeah, but I’m probably going to need an escort,” Zephyr groaned as he tried to put weight on his leg. “I’m going to need a hand going up, and there’s only one person who can do it. Besides, you don’t need me here mucking shit up.”

“Oh?”

“Look, I’m law enforcement. Technically, I’m legally obligated to arrest these girls for saving the world, and you for being here to kick ass, okay? I’m already skirting the edge because I’ve got major hots for the woman that got kidnapped, who I was only supposed to be protecting in the first place. Let’s just say that it’s better that I get out of here.”

Sable nodded, then bent down next to the weeping Pine. “Greenie, we need you. Zeph’s not going to get up there on his own and you’re the only one who can do it. I know this is eating you up – we’ve all seen death before, but losing a loved one….” He fell silent for a second before adding, “If we don’t stop this, I’m going to lose the woman I love, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg – we’re going to lose, period. We can’t afford that. I know it’s hard, but you need to say your goodbyes and help Zephyr to the top floor.”

“He’s not going to be of any use to us in his condition and you’re the only one we can trust to do this,” Adagio added.

“But—” Pine started to protest.

“Soni didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to Maddie,” Adagio reminded her. “There’s a burning wreck with Mezzo’s body out there, and we had to leave Vesper’s body behind as well. You at least get this.”

Nodding, Pine turned to look at her sister one final time. Hugging her and kissing her softly on the forehead, she whispered, “I love you,” then wiped away her tears, not caring how she looked. Not looking at anyone, she said, “Sable, do me a favor.”

“Name it.”

“Put that bitch down. No more deaths except what is on her hands. End it, once and for all,” Pine said coldly.

“That was never in question,” he told her.

“Then I’ll get Zephyr to safety – on my life if need be.” The tone, Sable noted, was sadly cool and professional, from a girl who had no business being either right now. “I am a SIREN. I know no fear.” She then gingerly set Side’s body down in repose, and looked at her loved one for the last time before walking over to Zephyr. “C’mon, old man. Let’s get you up to the surface.”

“Got it,” he said, leaning on her. “You guys have a nice war now, y’hear?” he laughed. And with that, the two started to walk back from the direction where they came, until they were gone.

Sable watched them go. Whatever they did to you all, it stops tonight, he said to himself. “Let’s go end this,” he ordered, hefting his rifle once more.

The triplets looked at him with determined grins. “On it!” they said in unison.

Within a nondescript room, a thing sat, bubbling and warbling. No one aware of its existence was sure if it was alive or not, but it served the purpose its master had given it: to stop all of time save for within a concentrated, localized bubble. And it did it. Reality and magic waged war against each other, the energy building up within the former that could tear everything – literally tear everything – into nothing more than shattered quantum strings, but that wasn’t the concern of the Gordian Knot, if it had concerns at all.

Then it began to burble…but in a way that it normally didn’t. The ropy coils of its body shook and then the whole thing began to shiver and shudder. It made a keening, unnatural sound, a brown note that would have likely seriously injured any humans, were they around. The keening became a wail, then a shriek, as its body began to gyrate and move as if it were breaking moves on a dance floor.

Finally, there was an unearthly scream, and a theoretical viewer would not be able to tell whether it was the Knot or whatever it was that made up the knot. It snapped, and in that, a wave of energy blasted out from the rupture, sending radiance out towards the four winds.

A split-second later, a hominid fell to the ground, covered in various fluids, all of which stank. It sat up and screamed, as the various excretions of the destroyed Gordian Knot began to slowly slough off it. After a few seconds, it slowly stood up, hearing the sickening sounds as more detritus fell off its body.

“I WILL NEVER BE CLEAN AGAIN, LUNADAMMIT!” Raspberry Beryl groaned nauseously. “Ew, I think I swallowed some of…whatever that was! I think I’m going to be sick. Sunny, help a filly out here, okay?”

Silence met the creature while she tried to wick the effluvial grime off her. “Sunny, you there? Sunset?” She tried to frantically wipe the stuff from her body. “Sunset Shimmer, this is not funny. You answer now, okay?”

Finally, after some practical scratching and removing an object that felt like it was still wriggling, Raspberry did what came naturally: she turned and vomited just about everything in her stomach, collapsing back to her knees in the process. Several minutes passed before she was able to get back to her feet.

What happened to Sunny? I hope they didn’t take her hostage, Raspberry thought. I don’t have my magic and she’s the only one we can rely on for that. And I am caked in shit and Oh Celestia! That smell! I gotta get out of here!

She stumbled towards the door, then as she cleared the room, so did her head. She looked around, hoping to pick the right direction, then rushed off in search of the others. I’m coming, Sunny – hold on!

She managed to run down a couple of hallways before she heard voices:

“Holy fuck, what the hell is that?”
“No idea – it’s probably another one of the infected ones! Kill her, quick!”

Bullets sounded out and Raspberry immediately dove for cover. Instinct that the SIRENs had drilled into her earlier in the day took over and she reached for her sidearm, returning fire and hoping she would live long enough to get to Sunset’s side. That mare-turned-human was the only one she had in the world now, aside from Heelee – I hope he’s okay! – and if her world was truly lost to her, Sunset was by dint the only family she had left, albeit in the “same former species” category rather than anything actually familial.

Shots were traded on both sides, until one side finally fell.

Raspberry stood up, looking at herself, shocked that she was still alive. She then went over to look at her foes, looking for those ghastly wounds caused by the horrifying human weapons…and found no wounds on them. She then looked at her hand, which held no gun…but a small, pulsating ball of sulfurous light.

A thought suddenly came over her and on instinct, she summoned a mirror. Aside from the fact that she shouldn’t have been able to do that, she looked at the reflection in front of her in the mirror: a ghostly white face the color of Rarity’s fur, black, pupil-less eyes, fangs that barely stuck out of her mouth, and a mane that was the color of darkness and blood. If anything, she looked like a human version of a vampony.

She tried one last thing, and closed her eyes…and when she opened them again, the girl she’d been earlier in the day looked right back at her. She looked down at her hand again, holding the still-present yellow light. She banished it, then summoned a hayburger, which appeared in a flash of golden energy.

I have magic again! she realized. But this doesn’t feel like mine! How? Then a bigger question came to mind: If I destroyed that thing…does that mean this universe is reset back to normal?

Throughout all of reality, the war between continuity and the bizarre red wall that held everything in stasis stopped as the barrier suddenly fell. All of the universe suddenly sang with power, and for one bright second, the universe was at one with itself, awash in more power than it had been since the Big Bang.

From where she stood, Faust smiled tersely. “And now we move into endgame.”

The old man suddenly fell out of his chair, having been knocked out of it by an unseen force. But he didn’t need to know what it was – he already knew.

“DAMN YOU!” he screamed at the figure beyond. “What did you do?”

It’s not my place to do anything to you, Faust responded. But you will be dealt with in due time, monster. I promise you that!

Divine’s body suddenly alit with power a second before he roared in pain as something was forcefully ripped from him. He howled in pain for an agony he had never before felt in his life and was just about ready to beg that one of those unnatural creatures warring against each other come and put him out of his misery.

Unfortunately for him, everything else was already occupied, and so he finally passed out, his body smoking with golden yellow magic as it vanished into the ether, leaving him powerless.

Sunset screamed in agony, and she could swear for a second she’d heard an additional bellow. But that was likely just her body shutting down.

~open your eyes~

What was that? Though she couldn’t open her eyes due to the pain, she did hear the voiceless speech, clearly directed at her.

~it’s the dawn of another day
wipe the fear from your mind
and swipe the clouds from the sky~

Who is it? Who are you? Please, help me! Sunset begged.

~tell me, can you see it?
tell me, can you feel it?
it’s for healing heart and spirit
and it’s coming~

What?

~let the light in, let the white light in
let the light in, let it all in~

Then, Sunset felt it. Pure ivory power, washing her, healing her. A flock of feathers gently pushing around her. And a memory came:

Sunset was eight years old and had another nightmare. She ran through the castle in a panic, looking desperately for the princess. She rushed down unfamiliar hallways, racing through empty spaces, seeing the shadows of night touch down and the moon staring at her as if in anger. She cowered in the silvery moonlight, feeling the rage and hatred from it somehow.

Then she felt soft golden light pick her up. Sunset opened her eyes to look into concerned lilac ones as Princess Celestia looked at her terrified young ward.

“You have nothing to fear from the moon and night, Sunset,” the great white alicorn said, nuzzling her worried charge. “You are the sun and the light and you will grow up to be a great mare.” Celestia carried Sunset to her bed, covering her charge with one of her wings before both settled to sleep. Pausing once last time to kiss the filly on the head, the Princess of All said, “You need fear nothing, if you let the light in. Let it all in.”

Sunset smiled, and in her mind, opened her arms to let the onrush of blankness come.

A massive rainbow of power, like nothing that had ever been seen before, slammed into Tirek, knocking him off his feet and burning him with prismatic flames. He roared in pain and fury, then countered, opening his mouth and spitting out a huge column of blackfire. His salvo did nothing to stop the massive Friendship Laser as it bored through his beam like it wasn’t there, impacting against him hard enough to throw him into the ruins of Sugarcube Corner.

“HOW DARE YOU!” he roared. “TIREK RULES SUPRE—” His neck snapped back as the Rainbow of Power virtually delivered a slapping blow.

“Shut the buck up!” Rainbow Dash taunted. “The adults are talking!”

“Rainbow,” Twilight gently admonished, though she felt like doing the same thing. “Tirek, give up! You’re going back to Tartarus, if you’re lucky. And if not, we end you permanently! This is your last warning!”

The demonic centaur wiped the blood from his mouth and pulled a broken spar of wood that had embedded into his side; it gushed blood, but he didn’t care. “Tirek is a god here,” he hissed. “And nothing you can do will deter him! HE WILL RULE SUPREME!” A massive blast of energy began to build between his horns, with enough power to start warping the air in the immediate vicinity. Nearby buildings started to catch flame, and the screams of ponies trapped inside began to fill the air.

The centaur laughed at the sound, taking it in as musical accompaniment. “AND NOW TO SHOW YOU FLEAS WHO IS THE REAL RULER OF THIS WORLD!” He spat another lance of darkfire, and the energy between his horns joined it, and the resulting torrent of hellflame rushed forth, tearing up whole sections of earth in its path, boring through ruined structures as if they weren’t there and headed towards the Element Bearers as straight and sure as a missile locked onto its target.

Even a slight distance away, in the middle of fighting Tirek’s golems and defending survivors from the onslaught, Scorpan turned, knowing what was about to happen. Even still, the great king turned away, his eyes growing moist from the endgame.

“Goodbye, brother,” he whispered.

The deadly bore of power continued without pause, annihilating everything in its path, until it reached the Bearers…

…and then stopped. As if an inconvenience, Twilight leapt up onto the top of the beam, walking down its length as if she took a summer stroll. Without fail, the other Bearers did the same, save for Rainbow, who insisted on flying above it, because she was Rainbow. To Tirek’s shock, the six mares casually moved forward, unconcerned about the fatal, burning energies under their hoofsteps, completely disregarding it as much as they would the cobblestones of their now-ruined hometown.

The mares continued their casual walk, finally coming to a stop just before his face. With that, they sat down, bored looks on their collective visages. And to Tirek’s surprise, Twilight summoned a cup of tea, then one for her friends. She took a long, calm drink from it, bobbing her head as if listening to a music only she could hear. The others did the same, enjoying this sudden – and completely nonsensical – teatime.

Finally, she finished and said to her friends, “I needed that. Didn’t you?”

“Oh, absolutely, darling,” Rarity admitted. “Fighting the forces of evil can be absolutely dehydrating. Just imagine how much care my mane will need tonight!”

Rainbow flexed a wing. “Eh, but it was a decent workout, right, girls?”

Applejack shrugged. “Ah’ve had better. Remember th’ time we took Beauregard t’ my cousin’s place?”

“Uh huh!” Pinkie agreed. “That one was way more interesting than this!”

“Oh, I agree,” Fluttershy added. “But each thing in its due course, as Rarity would say.”

“Thank you, Fluttershy, dear. But yes, I do agree.”

Tirek looked at the gnats before him, completely uninterested in him at all. He brought a hoof up to stomp them. “DIE!” he roared.

Twilight shrugged. “Well, I suppose we’d better get this over and done with, right?” The girls nodded as one and they then hopped off the massive column of energy…

…which was now burning with a blazing rainbow power.

The beam reversed course and rammed Tirek like a freight train at full speed, setting him aflame once more, this time with rainbows dancing around him. He shrieked as the Rainbow Force did what it had been created to do, ending a threat.

“GIRLS, NOW!” Twilight thundered, summoning the power of her Elemental Armor once more. On either side of her, the other Bearers did the same and beams as large as they were tore away from them, combining into one massive trunk of rainbow fire, boring into – and through – Tirek. He screamed one last time, but even that vanished under the explosion of light and sparks as the demonic terror of the world was no more.

As motes of light rained down everywhere, restoring the magic he’d stolen, Twilight just looked to the sky and said three words: “Sic semper tyrannis.”

“What’s that mean, Twi?” Applejack asked.

“Old Pegapolisean,” Rainbow interjected. “‘Always with dictators’ or something like that. It was Commander Storm’s personal motto whenever she fought against the other two tribes, a reminder to never be the monsters she thought the other tribes were.”

“Well, well, well, looks like someone is more well read than she claims, it seems,” Rarity teased.

“You mean an egghead?” Pinkie chimed in.

Rainbow looked nonplussed. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, fuzzball,” she grunted.

“Twily!” Twilight turned to see her brother rushing towards her, his armor battered and him with dozens of scratches, but thankfully alive.

“Shiny! You’re alive!” She went over and hugged him, immediately starting healing spells.

“Yeah, of course – as if I’m going to let some dumb crystal golems take me down,” he scoffed. “Although, we’ve gotten in some early reports of casualties. One of them was Pavane Bayan.”

Twilight looked suddenly downcast. “Oh, no. Does Celestia know?”

“It’s worse than that,” Shining said, and Twilight immediately knew what he was talking about.

“What’s worse?” Rarity asked, looking at Shining with concern.

“Talk!” Raspberry held the SIREN in the air by her magic, an unnatural color that she knew wasn’t her own magic, nor Sunset’s. She wasn’t sure where it had come from – had she received it from the Knot somehow, when she destroyed it? The thought made her shudder, and she nearly dropped her quarry, but recovered just in time for the SIREN not to notice.

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” the woman said, though there was more than a hint of fear in her voice.

“You’re right, you don’t,” the teenager replied. “But you have to come down sometime – although long-term magic exposure might prevent that. And I’ve seen a lot of magic around here.” That, of course, was a lie, but Raspberry knew the other mare, er, woman, didn’t need to know that. To “prove” her point, Raspberry cancelled the stasis spell and added the slightest bit of a levitation spell to her target. Thankfully the room was large enough that the enemy floated up several feet before shouting at Raspberry.

She turned to leave. “Not my problem. Have a nice trip,” Raspberry said coldly, turning her shoulder once more.

“Fine! Just…pull me down, okay? I’m…I’m afraid of heights!”

Bingo! the former unicorn thought as she cancelled the spell and added a rebinding one. The magic, of course was familiar, but her skin still crawled a bit. Was this the magic she would have held if she was born as a human? She hoped not; it felt really creepy, if that was the case. She also wondered if this is what Sunset had to deal with on a regular basis; if that was the case, small wonder she didn’t feel comfortable in Equestria anymore – it was like the difference between drinking really great coffee, like they had at Sugarcube Corner or her parents’ hotel or drinking that horrible instacoffee that Frozen Grounds tried to pass off as the “next big thing in coffee”!

I really hope humans are advanced enough to not have instant coffee, she hoped.

As she brought the SIREN down, she demanded, “where are you keeping the prisoners?”

The SIREN, already in a fragile state whimpered, “Down in the central pit. I don’t know anything more than that! I swear I don’t!”

Raspberry stared at the woman for a second, then said. “Okay, I believe you. Now sleep.” She stomped her foot, and a flare of magic flashed on the ground. The SIREN collapsed instantly, asleep.

So I can do white magic? Raspberry asked herself, looking at the strange magic she held. That, of course, brought up other questions: if this was what she was using now, would she be able to take it back? Would she even be able to go back?

Is there a back to go to?

She pushed aside the questions for now; she would have a hundred or so to ask Sunset when this was all over. But for now, she was going to have to fight her way down to the bottom, where Sunset was already facing off against whatever was responsible for all this. Maybe she didn’t need backup – her fellow unicorn had proven herself to be immensely powerful and from what Twilight had said, Sunset could potentially be even more powerful than the alicorn was before her ascension.

Could she control the sun on her own? Raspberry grinned; having been the target of Sunset’s magic when she was depowered, she didn’t want to find out what would happen now that she had her full strength.

But I bet somehuman is going to find out – and they’re going to find out the hard way.

Chernabog had kicked the unicorn so much that she was enveloped in a cocoon of her own making, and the demon laughed in joy. Wouldn’t be much longer until she was literally beating a dead horse!

“Bitch, this world is mine, now, mine! I will be the unstoppable power here! What have you got to say to that?”

“SHŌRYŪKEN!”

Chernabog felt herself burn with a screaming pain as she was sent flying. As she looked, all she could see was a fist, burning in white flame, carrying them above. As she hit the apex of gravity’s rainbow, she saw someone with burning white eyes turning at an impossible speed, hitting her with a reverse spin kick in mid-air.

Chernabog crashed to earth nearly head first, while her opponent landed, on her feet. Chernabog scrambled to her own and turned to see Sunset Shimmer, once more in her human form and white fire blazing around her, enshrouding her as it was a cloak of ennoblement.

“You want to know what power is?” Sunset seethed, her voice reverberating. “You think you know what it is? Fine, let me show you – ALL 385 YOTTAWATTS OF IT!”

In space, freed of its constraints, Sol flickered and flared as one part of it turned darker. For a second it radiated with the forces of yin and yang in balance, heeding a call the orb had not known from this plane.

Finally, a massive ejection of solar corona mass rocketed away from the star, flung towards earth and picking up speed. As it did, the mass became tighter and more focused, until as it passed Venus it was a blindingly bright and powerful beam the width of a telephone pole, burning through space and annihilating matter as it passed into Earth’s atmosphere.

“You think that was a punch?” Chernabog said, rushing towards her. “Let me show you a real one!”

Sunset stood there calmly, her corona shining brilliantly. “Oh, that was just the warmup. Let me show you what happens when I hit you with the Sun!” And with that, Sunset snapped her fingers.

A bolt from the blue ripped through several floors, melting through them as if they weren’t there. The beam then struck true, slamming into Chernabog at literal light speed, setting her ablaze with the pure power of the sun. Chernabog screamed with the roar of someone in absolute pain, while Sunset rushed towards her, her body burning from incandescent energy.

At the same time, Sunset felt herself slip. Something was wrong – very, very wrong. It didn’t matter, though; she had to stop this monster from destroying everything and everyone she loved. Even if it meant….

Sunset summoned a massive blast of energy and let it slam into Chernabog, making her scream all the more.

“GIVE IT UP!”Sunset roared. “YOU DON’T GET THIS WORLD! YOU DON’T GET ANY WORLD! YOU ARE GOING TO GO DOWN!”

Chernabog was thrown into the wall, cratering it and rocking the room from the impact. The structural integrity was starting to go from the battle and there was a whole building’s worth of infrastructure above them, and if it all came down….

No. Sunset refused to let that happen. No one was going to die here save for that demon. The line was drawn here.

Meanwhile, Chernabog forced herself to her feet. “You…you can’t hold that much power. It’s killing you,” she taunted. “You’re just a mortal. You can’t control a s—” The word was bitten off by another scream as a second blast from Sol hit the demon, punching another entryway through the building above.

“I’ve done it before,” Sunset snarled, ignoring the rivulet of blood that was starting to leak out of the corner of her eye. “I am the Daughter of the Sun. I will beat you to death with it if it’s the last thing I do!”

From a distance, everyone watched, transfixed. It was becoming clear that Sunset was at her limit and was still pushing. Shining had seen that kind of attitude before – it was the kind that spoke of heroics, the kind he’d seen in officers that had gone above and beyond the call of duty…and had earned posthumous accolades and kind words at their funeral.

“Someone stop her!” he shouted. “She’s going to kill herself!”

“No!” Everyone turned to see Pinkie, and to their surprise, the girls were united behind her. “No! She’s not….” But the teen couldn’t summon the words to state what she knew in her heart.

Thankfully, Rarity could. “We know what she’s going to do.”

“We’ve always known,” Rainbow said.

“Ah know this doesn’t make sense, but…believe in her,” Applejack told them.

“Believe in us,” Fluttershy finished.

Chernabog charged at Sunset once more, and the teen barely dodged. “Ha! You cannot hope to defeat me!” the demon bellowed. “You might hold me to a stalemate, but that’s it! So long as I have a presence on this world, I cannot be defeated! You, on the other hand, won’t last much longer!”

Sunset, in return, flung a massive beam of whitefire that slammed into the back of the demon, sending her flying. A small pool of blood started to form at Sunset’s feet, but she held it steady. “If I go, I’m taking you with me!” she roared.

The demon fired a beam back, but it was clear that it wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Sunset’s. “If you kill me,” she crowed, “I will be back. This body will die, but sooner or later, I will be back. There will always be one in the bloodline to control, and you can’t stop that. You can’t stop me!”

“I said I will stop you!” Sunset cried back, though she started to crumple while holding up the beam. The energy within her, the very sun that she was tapping into, was starting to overwhelm her and burn her from within. The demon had been right: no mortal was ever meant to hold this power. It was destroying her.

Yet she knew if she gave up now, too many people would die – starting with her loved ones. Her friends. Her family.

Her sister.

The love of family and friends. I’m not alone. And I won’t be alone.

A cocksure grin came onto Sunset’s face.

“I don’t have to beat you,” she said with a grin, “because I’m not alone!”

The solar power at Sunset’s command seemed to flare brighter than it ever had before.

“GIRLS!” Sunset roared. “PONY UP!”

Raspberry had a hard time throwing energy blasts. As a unicorn, it was normal: point your horn in the direction of your foe and just let fly. That was why she was able to use the wand Sunset had given her; she understood that even though it came from human myths, it still served as a sort of licorne, after a fashion. Likewise, why she understood the gun and how it worked, at least on a basic level; clearly humans wanted horns, at least on a subconscious level which is why all their weapons leaned in that direction.

It also made her realize that object she’d encountered in Rainbow Falls might have been a human gun – and how it got there, she had no idea. If she had the chance, she needed to borrow it and bring it back here so Sunset could look into it.

“If I get the chance”, right – that’s still assuming I have a home to go back to, she thought grimly.

That, of course, also frustrated her; the possibility she would have to live as a human for the rest of her days. She was already unlike other ponies, but Sunset’s life was definitely beyond the pale when it came to living like that. She’d already done this for maybe a half-day and the thought of doing this for years secretly unnerved her. If it hadn’t been for her family, she would have wondered how Sunset had done this for half a decade.

As it was, splaying her hooves, er, paws, er, hands together – I have to remember humans have hands! – she launched a sulfuric blast of energy from it, taking down another SIREN. The remainder returned fire, but this time Raspberry stepped into the middle of their gunfire and blocked the rounds with a shield, much to their surprise.

“You know, I thought humans were going to be much nicer, despite what Sunny stated,” the teen snarled. “I thought that maybe you guys were like griffins – a bit on the rough side, but overall decent folk. Turns out that was a lie.” She set the bullets on fire right before their eyes. “I have to wonder if you’re more like Tirek than ponies.”

She raised a hand and golden fire burned within. “I could destroy you all,” she hissed. “It wouldn’t take much effort.” She then pointed her hand at them and launched several blasts of energy at once. Each small fireball smacked each SIREN right in the head, taking them down.

She smiled. “Hey, maybe these finger things aren’t so bad,” she said, looking at them. “It’s like having multiple horns at once.”

Down went another basilisk in flames, their bodies burning to cinders before they even hit the ground. There were less of them and they’d switched from the tactic of attacking him individually to striking in groups. Didn’t matter; they could all come at him at once and he would flame them out of the sky. If he could smile right now, Heliodor would do so.

After all, there were no points for second place.

Right now, he wasn’t even close to his natural form, and he wasn’t sure how his magic was holding out. He didn’t care about that; and thinking about it was a hindrance, anyway. Right now, his mistress and her friend were counting on him to take down the bandits. And take them down he would – a world depended on him.

Maverick wouldn’t let his buddies down.

Neither would he.

And then he sensed it.

Running, Raspberry turned the angle a bit too fast for her liking and her leg screamed, sending her to the ground in a heap. She forced herself back to her feet immediately; she needed to get down to where the ringleader for all this was so she could bolster Sunset, especially now that she had this weird magic. Once they stomped this guy into the ground, then she could try to figure out how to get back to Equestria. There was obviously another way back aside from that mirror, one Sunset was already familiar with, so all they had to do was to figure out how to access it.

She was so focused on her thoughts that she almost missed it – and then she sensed it.

Her eyes widened in shock.

Flames burned around Sunset more and more as she began to change again…but this time, it was different. Her hair grew down to her ankles and had changed into a ponytail. Pony ears the same color as her fur had been suddenly appeared on her head, and as for her normal ears, they could no longer be seen. She seemed somehow more real, as if a new layer of reality had been added to her person. And a whirlwind of amethyst light swirled around her like she was a living whirlwind. “I think it’s time you learned what real power is, Chernabog!”

To the surprise of nearly everyone there, indigo light began to swirl around Rarity. Her ears, too, vanished, replaced by white pinnae atop her head, and her hair lengthened and became a ponytail. The young woman became filled with renewed confidence as she raised her hand, a ball of indigo power burning within. “About time, darling,” she told Sunset. “We thought we’d have to remind you.”

Ruby light exploded and when it faded away, Rainbow, too, had joined the change, with light blue ears and red flames dancing around her fist. “Time to kick some demon ass!” she crowed.

Orange fire rose up to meet Applejack, bathing her in its light. Light orange ears appeared on her, as her hair, like the others, also became lengthened and a ponytail. “You’re going down, demon and that’s the truth!” she crowed, glaring at Chernabog with cocksure certainty.

Green flames started to caress Fluttershy like a lover. She sighed in sweet contentment as butter-yellow ears appeared alongside her trail of hair. The flames continued to dance around her, like an intimate friend, and she gave a beatific smile. “It’s time to end this.”

Pinkie, of course, danced in her light blue flames as if she were a sentai hero. As her pink ears appeared and her long, tangled mass of curls became even longer, she grinned. “You’re going down, meany!” she told the demon. “Plus, I got some kissing with my babe to get done, and you’re wasting our time!”

Twilight looked at her friends and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. “You…you’re….”

“It’s a long story, Twi,” Applejack told her. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

Octavia was just as nonplussed as her cousin. “What the hell? Are you guys not human either?”

“We are,” Fluttershy began, “but….”

Rarity interrupted. “Octavia, darling, I would love to have a nice chit-chat about this at another time, but right now, as Rainbow so colorfully said, we have some ass to kick.” The look in the fashionista’s eyes was one of cold determination, and it matched the looks in the eyes of the other transformed girls. It was as if they had a singular purpose that only they were privy to.

Twilight looked at the arcane flames forming around her friends and her sister and wondered if things would ever be the same.

Meanwhile, Chernabog got up from her position and snarled, “Okay, I’ve had enough of you, you damnable horse. Time to end you for once and for all!” She started to summon a massive orb of energy, within seconds had grown larger than a minivan. The ground began to crumple underneath her feet and the air around her warped. Her eyes began to burn with the same black fire that the titanic sphere was, and her face was contorted in an unnatural grimace. With a reverbing scream of “DIE!” she launched the blast forward, intending to annihilate everything in its path.

The energy blast rocketed forward like a freight train, destroying everything in its path, including the very air molecules. From where they stood, those caged could feel the hum in the air as death came forward, inexorable and unstoppable.

Pinkie merely smiled. “Now you’ve done fucked up for the last time,” was all she said.

The massive missile of mayhem came within meter and meter of massacre, burning and blazing, with only a single teenage girl to stop it.

“SUNSET!” someone screamed.

Sunset yawned.

The mammoth volley came to an instant stop just inches before impact. Sunset reached out to touch it with a simple tap of her finger…

…and it dissipated. The blast released its energy to the four winds, decimating everything in its path…or would have, had not translucent shields popped up from nowhere, protecting the others from horrific death.

Chernabog looked at the teen, her mouth agape with shock. “How…?”

Sunset ignored her. “Girls, let ‘er rip!”

As one, the girls summoned bright balls of color-coded flame as they illuminated the area with their newfound magic. They then blasted Sunset with it, much to the shock of the adults.

“What the hell?” Spike said, speaking for pretty much everyone – and getting away with cursing for a change.

Sunset nearly fell to the ground from the force of the beams, but she forced herself back to her feet. She was going to end this, one way or another – she didn’t have a choice. Her loved ones were in trouble, and she was at her endpoint. It would be so easy to give up right now, to let herself drift away on the pain and agony she felt.

But then she saw the look on the faces of her loved ones out of the corner of her eye: a mixture of fear and worry. Were they worried they wouldn’t survive? Were they afraid of her? She didn’t know the answers; she couldn’t discern them. All she knew was that they were the people she loved more than anything right now and they were in danger from the creature she had inadvertently brought into this reality through her own misdeeds. She had to make it right, but it was more than just that – she had to make amends for what she’d done to her loved ones, and for what she’d done to humanity as a whole.

So for the second time in her life, she felt the full brunt of the Elements of Harmony hit her, but this time she wasn’t so much its target as she was its focus – a living prism, turning five separate beams into one full cascading blast of energy. And it filled her, overwhelmed her senses and threatened to shut her down. She was already tapping into Sol to use its energy against the demon and now she was taking in a second source of boundless energy. No mortal was ever meant to hold that kind of power and she knew what the result would be.

But she wouldn’t give up. Not while she still drew breath – and while her loved ones did, too. Someone had to be the protector, shield logic against sword logic, the immovable object against the unstoppable force.

And thus she channeled more power than any other human had ever done in history, firing a massive rainbow beam with white lightning dancing around its edges, pounding the beam against Chernabog like a massive pressor, slamming her back into the wall and practically embedding her into it.

The demon howled from the mind-rending pain, but still managed to keep her mental faculties operating. “Do you think this is going to stop me, you bitch?” she roared at Sunset over the continuing thrum from the beam. “You can’t stop meeeeeeaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!”

One hand still focusing the Harmonic blast, Sunset lowered the other, and 93 million miles away, the Sun complied. “Apparently you’re not a fan of sunlight,” the teen taunted. “Should’ve brought some Coppertone, cunt.” She felt her eyes start to moisten and she knew it wasn’t due to lacrimation. “Give up!”

“Ha! So long as I have a host, I will never be defeated!” Chernabog screamed back. “I will rule this fetid world and I will line my throne with your skin!”

“So be it,” Sunset said sadly. “If it means that someone has to die, then…I’m sorry.”

«RENDS-MOI MA FILLE, MONSTRE!»

The words cut through Sunset like a lightsaber. She turned to look at the hysterical woman – a woman who looked like a short-haired version of Ms. Celestia – leaning against the bars right next to Ms. Celestia. As for Celestia herself, she looked at Sunset with horror, and in that moment, the former unicorn knew shame.

“There is always a way, my student,” said a similar voice from a time long gone.

I don’t know who you are, Sunset thought to her counterpart, possessed by the demon that had haunted Sunset for so long, but you don’t deserve this. Even if you were as bad as I was, you don’t deserve this. No one deserves this.

Sunset looked at everyone she could: her family, her mentors and her friends. They all looked at her in a way that made her want to beg them not to. Was she the monster now? Had she ever really proven herself?

Yes. And I’ll keep doing it.

Focusing past the pain she felt, the agony ripping through her, Sunset held the beam on her foe while reaching into the fabric of spacetime. To the side of Chernabog, a massive tear in reality opened, and in the distance was nothing but black, followed by a blindingly complex stellar structure that strobed and occulted, vibrating at a ridiculous speed.

Sunset coughed, then spat up blood before hissing through gritted teeth, “Behold – Sagittarius A-star, the black hole at the center of the galaxy.” She glared at Chernabog. “Your new home.”

Chernabog looked at the black hole and paled. “You wouldn’t dare!” she snarled.

In response, Sunset shifted the beam, ignoring the shrieking as the atmosphere rushed out of the room, as the black hole’s supergravity started to reach through the rift to claim what was present. She moved the beam ever closer to the edge of the rift, as her vision began to tunnel. She couldn’t take much more of this in her human form, so she had to change again.

Biting back a scream, Sunset let the energy burn through her as she changed back to her unicorn form. This time the damage to her compact body was worse: parts of her fur were scorched, the skin underneath scalded. Half her mane was aflame, and she couldn’t feel her back right leg. Still, she couldn’t stop. She had to save those she loved. She had to save the Sunset that deserved to live. She had to stop Chernabog.

So Sunset did what she did best: never give up.

The beam rocketing away from her cracking horn, she weakly lifted her left front hoof, and twisted. Something within cracked, and she bit off the scream again. She forced herself through the pain, pulling Chernabog towards her with the adhoc telekinesis she focused through her ruined leg, until the demon stood before the maimed unicorn.

“This doesn’t belong to you,” Sunset snarled, and twisted once more. Something snapped further, and her now-useless leg fell to her side and this time she couldn’t stop the scream of pain that uttered from her muzzle.

But she wasn’t the only one that screamed. To the surprise of everyone, the body of Sunset Shimmer sloughed off Chernabog like an oversized dress slipping off a reedy girl. And reedy would be an apt description of Chernabog’s true form: inhumanly spindly with brick-red skin, black eyes, fangs and deep red wings, and hair that was the same coloration as both Sunsets with the addition of a black streak, the demon was now repulsed from the corpse she’d defiled and worn like a suit.

“DAMN YOU!” Chernabog shrieked. “I’LL EAT YOUR HEART!”

Meanwhile, no longer able to supply Sunset with harmonic magic, the five girls reached their limits and, nearly as one, fainted, crumpling to the ground, the spell broken.

“Time to end you,” Sunset hissed. A tooth fell out of her mouth, root and all, but she ignored it. Her body was breaking down from the magical overload, but she couldn’t fail. Not while this monster still stood.

Forcing herself to her hindlegs, the unicorn unsteadily stood and forced herself to call upon the last bit of magic she had that was truly hers. Pointing her forelegs at Chernabog, a burning ball of cyan fire appeared between the two legs.

“GO TO HELL, BITCH!” Sunset roared then let loose her attack. “SHINKŪ HADŌKEN!”

The fireball rocketed forward and hit Chernabog dead center in the chest, repeatedly exploding as it moved forward, pushing her back step by step and making her reel back. The demon was pushed back into the rift, only managing to hold onto the edges.

“Help me!” Chernabog screamed. “I deserve to live!”

“There’s only room for one Sunset on this world,” the unicorn said sadly, “and you’re neither of us.”

Finally, the supergravity got its hold on the demon and started spaghettification, pulling the being’s body thinner and thinner until she could no longer hold on. By the time the scream of horror reached Sunset’s ears, the only thing left of Chernabog was a long, thin tendril that stretched towards infinity as it fell into the great black hole.

As Sunset collapsed to the floor, she had enough sense of mind to collapse the rift. The release of energy blasted out, slamming into everyone and everything, claiming all and whoever wasn’t already unconscious was immediately rendered so as the detonation of mystic energies overwhelmed everyone.

Sunset fought her way through the wave of magical white noise, forcing herself to endure it. She couldn’t feel much of anything anymore. She still had something to do, though.

She approached the maimed and wounded body of Sunset Shimmer – her counterpart from this world. The one that deserved to be here, and who had suffered hell because of Sunset’s own greed. Sunset’s actions had inadvertently made this girl suffer, and now she was dead.

Or not, Sunset thought with a weak smile. I can bind her soul back to her body; there’s still time. But to do so….

No excuses. Pony Sunset was too far gone now, but human Sunset still had a chance.

Moving as close as possible to the wounded, naked body that was the other Sunset, the unicorn rested her horn on the girl’s head, shielding her from the brunt of the magical blowback. “Live,” Sunset whispered through a burnt and ruined muzzle. “One of us has to live. You deserve it.”

A bright cyan star flared from Sunset’s horn.

The ground shook and a localized earthquake shook the environs.

Cantata cheered. “At last! I will be queen!” she chortled. “I will rule all!” She looked at the SIRENs under her command and ordered them to the door. “Find the rest and prepare them to storm the gates of heaven – we will own this world by the end of the week!”

The answer to that was gunfire that raked across the body of the SIREN next to her.

“CAPTAIN CANTATA BLAST!” a young voice roared from the darkness. “YOU HAVE BETRAYED THE SISTERHOOD AND YOUR ORDERS! BY NATIONAL SECRET ORDER 221.4A SECTION 2, YOU ARE TO SURRENDER NOW!”

“HOW DARE YOU!” Cantata shouted back. “I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THIS, WHOEVER YOU ARE!”

“Fine.” From the shadows, Adagio grinned wolfishly. “I am a SIREN. I know no fear.” Next to her, on near-identical faces, the same dark look sat on the visages of her sisters.

The ground shook and a localized earthquake shook the environs.

Raspberry was knocked off her feet and collapsed to the ground as the tunnel shook. “Magiquake!” she gasped. “But how?” She lay down on the ground, covering herself with a shield, waiting until the rumbling passed as quickly as it came.

“I didn’t think that much magic existed on Earth! Unless….” Raspberry’s eyes went wide as she recalled a conversation she’d had with Twilight once.

“When it comes to power, Razz, Sunset is probably more powerful than any of us, save the Princesses and me now – and I’m not sure I would even put that to the test.”

“But I thought you were the Princess of Magic?”

“I am – but that’s because I have far better control than anypony else. Think of it as the difference between hammering a nail and dropping a mountain on one. Both will get the job done…but one is far more useful than the other.”

Forcing herself to her feet, Raspberry made herself run as fast as she could, giving the brace a workout. If Sunset was going all-out, it could mean that there were quite a few natural rules of the universe that were going to protest – and Sunset was the kind of mare that didn’t take no for an answer.

Twilight Sparkle was the first to regain consciousness. Mainly that was because of the sharp pain that shot through her leg, as she noticed it wedged between two large boulders. She pulled and forced her foot out, screaming in agony as she did so. Thankfully it wasn’t broken, but it was a sprain for the ages. Tears filling her eyes, she forced herself back to her feet, unsteadily looking around at the bodies around her, the remnants of the cage that had held them now ripped off its support and flung to the other side of the cavern.

Fear filled her and she moved over to the nearest one. “Mom?” She dove to her mother’s side, checking for a pulse and finding one. She quickly checked everyone else, trying to shake them to consciousness, but to no avail.

It was just as she reached and fruitlessly attempted to revive Octavia that she noticed the two bodies in the distance, still and unmoving: the naked girl that looked like her sister…

…and the wounded, burnt alien that was her sister.

“SUNNY!” Twilight screamed, running as fast as she could, ignoring the blinding pain in her leg, tripping over ruined ground and craters only to fall, and force herself back to her feet. She did this for a few more minutes, moving across a blasted plain, desperate to reach Sunset.

Finally, she reached Sunset. In her…real form…she looked so small, so tiny, so fragile. “Sunny?” Twilight spoke softly, reaching out, yet afraid to touch the brutally wounded unicorn.

Sunset began to cough and Twilight abandoned all sense of hesitation, picking her up immediately. “Sunny?”

“Hi, sis.” Sunset’s voice was raspy, Darth Vader-like. Twilight knew what that meant; Sunset’s vocal cords were burnt. Most of her fur and hair was gone and she was caked in blood and carbon scoring. She was also hot to the touch, so much so that Twilight forced herself to keep holding her. Sunset coughed and Twilight held her close.

“Don’t speak,” the teen said in a wavering voice. “Just rest. We’re going to get you to a hospital.”

“I’m beyond a hospital now, sis,” Sunset murmured. “Or a vet,” she joked, chuckling weakly.

“Stop it. You’re not a pet.” Tears started to come to Twilight’s eyes. “Just…rest for now. I’ll make sure you get better.”

“Twily, I’m dying. There’s nothing you can do about that. Anything…well, it’s too late.”

The words cut Twilight to the quick. “No! It’s not too late, Sunny! Please!”

To Twilight’s shock, Sunset reached out with a blackened foreleg; to the girl’s horror, she could see blackened bone through parts of shredded skin. “You have to be strong, sis. I did what I had to do to save the ones I love.” Sunset fell silent, and Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat for a second before the dying unicorn had the strength to continue. “For what it’s worth? I love you, sis. You, Mom, Dad, Tavi, Shiny and everyone. Even Spike.” Sunset coughed again, and this time it was stronger. “I’m such a coward for not saying it before.”

“No, you’re not.” Twilight held her close. “You’re my sister – I love you no matter what you are! I’m the coward for not trusting you!” Twilight cradled Sunset like a child. “Please don’t give up!”

“In the end I was good…right? A good pony?” Sunset’s voice was barely audible, and her eyes seemed glazed over. “A…good…person?”

“The best.” Twilight cried into her sister’s charred coat. “The best.” She felt Sunset’s body shudder, and Twilight begged, “Please don’t leave us. Please don’t leave me….”

No answer came.

“Sunny?”

No answer would ever come again.

“Sunny, please! Say something! PLEASE!”

But the mare would never speak again. And slowly, there was no mare, as the absolute magic burnout set in, the cells in Sunset’s body turning to ash and dust. Like spent charcoal, the body of the dead unicorn melted away, until Twilight was covered in nothing but soot. Within moments, there was little to mark the fact that a unicorn named Sunset Shimmer had ever walked the earth, either as a biped or a quadruped.

Next to Twilight, Sunset Shimmer lay, unconscious, now the only one in this reality.

Twilight heard a keening wail, a banshee’s hysterical scream.

She didn’t realize it was coming from her.

Author's Note

As you can see, this was not an easy chapter to write.

It's all downhill from here, folks.

Also, PLEASE SPOILER your comments for the chapter, as it's an important one. If you want to talk, we'll be chatting over on the Discord channel.

August 16, 3:26 AM: I Can't Believe It's Over

In the center of the burnt-out crater that had once been Lord Tirek, Princess Twilight Sparkle looked at her brother, then her friends. It was bad enough that they had barely survived their own battle against the mad, murderous centaur, but now Shining had arrived to give her initial reports – including the one fatality she knew would crush her friends’ already flagging morale.

She looked around the wreckage of Ponyville; even though they’d managed to evacuate nearly the whole town, there still had been casualties and extreme damage. She wasn’t sure if Ascot and Cardigan had survived, but if they had, they deserved to know about their daughter’s sacrifice – Twilight just wasn’t sure how to tell everypony that the brave mare had been brutally and callously murdered by the madstallion.

She didn’t have the tears to cry right now, not while so many of her subjects were suffering and the losses had to be truly tallied. But her friends – her dearest extended family, as far as she was concerned – had the right to know about the loss of one of their own. They deserved to know.

She looked at them, all clad in the armor that had been provided for them by the Tree of Harmony. In the distance was the towering crystalline castle that would stand as her new home now. Between their new Rainbow Power Armor (as Pinkie had dubbed it) and the Castle of Friendship, there was more magic and friendship than ever before in her life, a strength and power that had judged Tirek guilty and tore him to shreds before disbursing all the stolen magic back to the four corners of Equestria, restoring those that had been afflicted.

But it couldn’t bring back the dead. Few things – alicorns being a notable exception, as she well knew – ever came back from the dead.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight. “Twilight? What is Shining talking about?”

“I hope it’s that we won,” Rainbow chimed in, thankfully oblivious to the situation.

The tears came to Twilight as she knew they would never see their friend again. “No. We lost. We lost more than I can ever say.”

“Captain! Princess!” The two royals turned to see a Guard sergeant approaching at a fast gallop. Coming to a skidding stop in front of the two, he quickly saluted and said, “Message from the palace! The other princesses have returned!”

Looks of relief came over both of their faces; their loved ones were safe. “How are they?”

“Apparently unharmed, sir,” the stallion told him. “We should expect further reports shortly once on-site personnel have swept the palace.”

Shining nodded. “Thank you, Bright Spark. That will be all.”

Twilight looked at him. “Shiny, go. Check and see if they’re safe and give them a hug for me.”

The grin on Shining’s face was wide. “You got it!”

As Shining teleported away, the others looked at Twilight. “Well, we survived, didn’t we, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, concern on her face.

Leave it to AJ to pick up on something wrong, Twilight mused. “No. Not all of us.” And then she explained.

Thirty seconds later, six mares tearfully embraced, crying for the loss of one of their own.

At the castle, Princess Celestia looked at the wreckage Tirek and his armies had caused. Tens of thousands of her subjects dead. Countless injured. And several of the land’s heroes gone, including…. She turned away; there would be time for tears later. For now, there would only be healing and repair. Harmony would win the day, she would insist on it.

Her thoughts turned to her daughter. For all the stories she’d heard about violence and insanity in the human realm, it was ironic that right now, that was the safest place Sunset could be. For all the tales of teenage boys acting like criminals and girls being victimized, they had likely never seen anything on the order of Tirek and his world-level spells of apocalypse. It had been a very good plan to invest their magic in Twilight temporarily; had Celestia and Luna taken the field she wondered if there would have been anything of her realm left.

Something gnawed at her. She didn’t know what it was, but it tugged at the back of her mind and would not let go. An irony that it was the same way Raspberry’s anti-brainwashing spell had worked, but she knew that it would not be that. Part of her wished it would be; at least then….

She turned away her thoughts on that, instead focusing on her hooffalls on the burnt and damaged marble. This part of the castle had been recently renovated in the wake of the Changeling invasion and now it would have to be once more.

At least I know one part of the palace that still stands, she mused as she turned towards one of her most private havens: the stained-glass gallery.

After a few more minutes, she entered a long hallway with kaleidoscopic colors blazing from both sides through glass of different colors and shapes. She paused to look at the murals since the earliest days of the palace, each one reminding her of a moment in time where heroics ruled the day and good triumphed over evil. Where heroes as varied and powerful as Starswirl the Bearded, Brickbreaker the Dauntless and Wisteria the Wise of old to modern counterparts such as Steadfast the Swift and the Element Bearers, all immortalized with their deeds in glass, forever to tell the stories ponies needed to know.

And now standing there, looking at each of these self-contained scenes with intent, was Discord. He’d sealed himself in his pocket dimension to protect himself, and while that had been enough to prevent things from truly spiraling out of control, knowing him, it probably chafed that he had to do that. The Avatar of Chaos had always been one to throw himself into the fray, metaphorically or literally.

But as he looked on, Celestia realized he was being serious now. And serious was not something she was accustomed to from him.

“I heard about the losses,” he said as he turned to look at her. “That…angers…me, Celly. That is not chaos. That is terror. He sowed terror, harming the innocent. Even at my worst I never did that.”

“I know,” she said softly. “We appreciate that.”

“I’m leaving. After I see to Fluttershy – and if I find she was harmed I will not be very happy – I am leaving.”

“You’re leaving?”

He nodded. “I have become…fond, you could say…of ponydom. Of using my powers of chaos for what I suppose you call ‘good’. But sometimes I need my power to go in other ways. Not evil, per se, but mischievous in a way you don’t prefer.” He paused for a moment. “Tirek may be dead, but his forces and followers are still out there. They may even have a way to resurrect him – centaur magic is oddly strange like that: ascension without ascending, if that makes sense.”

“It doesn’t.”

He grinned. “I know, right? So I thought I’d go take a little trip around the world, learn what his reserves are doing and see if I can’t help them to a big old slice of chaos!” He suddenly summoned a huge cheesecake with the words SLICE OF CHAOS – NO REALLY! on the side of it. “Here. You have a piece; don’t worry, this one won’t explode. Theirs? Now that I can’t promise.” He then reached to the top of his head and proceeded to fold himself, origami style, until he turned into a paper beetle and flew away

She chuckled, then took a bite of the cheesecake. She then gave the same kind of wicked grin he did. If Tirek’s forces were still out there, ready to strike…they were due for a slight change in plans.

For once, she could live with that.

“Auntie?” Celestia turned to see Cadance and Luna approaching, their own faces downfallen. It had likely been as hard on them as it had on her, and not for the last time the sun alicorn wished that her mother would return to the earthly plane to deal with this.

“Are you two alright?”

“No, no I’m not. We lost….” The younger alicorn took a breath, then continued. “So many of our ponies dead, countless injured, the hospitals are overloaded and we’re setting up triage stations. I’m getting ready to fly out to the Crystal Heart to have it supercharge our healers and those giving first aid.”

Luna looked vacantly at the window nearest to her – which happened to be the depiction of the Elements defeating Nightmare Moon. “I’ve flown around the realm. Cities are in ruins, whole portions of the nation destroyed, sister. Our ponies call for us for succor….” She turned her head away in shame. “And we were just as helpless. We failed our ponies, sister. We failed our loved ones.”

“Are you…speaking in singular or plural?” Cadance asked her other aunt.

“Does it matter? The fact is, whether I failed or we failed, our ponies paid the price – a price that should have never have been dealt out. We did not watch out for the weak and needy.” She looked at her fellow alicorns. “What will we do now?”

“We rejoice in the fact that it could have been much worse, but wasn’t,” Celestia told them. “I feared that my plan to bring my daughter back would be necessary, but thankfully it wasn’t. And now, I can rest easy knowing that she’s in the human world, safe as can be.”

Twilight Sparkle wanted to make whomever was screaming stop. It was a horrifying wail, the sound of a damned banshee, and the sound seemed to permeate all around, through her soul and beyond. She felt like the world was pain and that it would never end.

My fault, she said to herself, a damning mantra. My fault my sister is dead. My fault my fault myfault myfault myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…. Twilight crawled into a fetal ball, wanting to die. She sinned and she would never be forgiven. Had she just…tried to understand! Had she just tried to comprehend and not be a cunt, like Octavia had told her, Sunset would still be alive!

…myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…

When her parents fully realized she was responsible for the death of her sister, they would disown her. Shining would throw her in prison and rightfully so. Cadance would probably push to have a life sentence thrown at her. Spike would tell everyone that he never had a sister or that he was ashamed to have had an older sister. Maybe he would tell others Octavia was that.

And then there was Octavia herself. Her cousin was already mad at her for mistreating Sunset. But now Sunset was dead due to her own immaturity. How would Octavia react? Would Twilight’s first and dearest friend, the person that had been so long like a sister to her, spurn her as well? Octavia and Rarity were already close, so would that link be strengthened?

And what about the links that Sunset had with their friends – friends she had because of the girl she had killed? Rainbow and Applejack would likely beat the hell out of her. Rarity would never speak to her again, nor would Fluttershy. And then, there was Pinkie. Pinkie, who Twilight had recently learned, was in love with Sunset – and Pinkie had already blown her top once at Twilight over the issue.

Pinkie was an enigma wrapped in a cipher served with a side of puzzle sauce – no one ever knew what the cheerleader would do on a good day, never mind the bad. And that terrified Twilight most of all.

But if I die…I deserve it.

But maybe if she took herself out first, it would be better for everyone, she thought. She’d nearly done it once before, but thankfully Sunset had been there to protect her from herself.

It had been Sunny that had saved me. And then I backstabbed her like the ungrateful bitch that I am.

…myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…

Twilight turned to briefly look at the unconscious girl next to her. The one that looked like her sister, so much like her sister, but wasn’t her. Because this one was from this world – this was the Sunset Shimmer that belonged on Earth. But she wasn’t the one that belonged to Twilight – and Twilight had murdered that Sunset through her own callousness.

Twilight tried to look away but couldn’t. The naked, insensate girl was a haunting image, the symbol of what Twilight had done to her sister. Twilight may as well have gutted her sister from top to toe, because in the end, Sunset Shimmer was dead and Sunset Shimmer was alive. But the living Sunset Shimmer meant nothing to Twilight – only the dead one did, and dead girls told no tales.

Please, let me die—

…myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault…

—because I deserve to. Because it should’ve been me so long ago instead of her. If I’d died, maybe Sunny would still be alive. If I’d just chosen another place, another time….

It was at that point that she noticed the item on the ground: a handgun. She scrambled over to it like a lifeline, her precious and shining way of removing herself from the world and sparing those that would hate her any grief. She picked it up like a priceless treasure, checking the weapon automatically like Shining had once taught her and Octavia. It was an irony: Shining had taught her how to use a gun, even though she didn’t care for them, because he wanted her to be safe in case she ever ended up in a situation where she needed to protect herself. And now, with the memories coming to mind, she checked the weapon, ready to use it one final time – on herself.

The world would be better off without me. I can’t bring Sunny back, but maybe removing myself will make things better.

Sure that the gun was loaded and a round was in the chamber, she raised the gun into position, ready to place it against her temple and pull. Her hands were shaking and for a moment, she imagined she heard Sunset’s voice in the distance, screaming for her to stop, but it was just imagination. Her sister was gone now due to Twilight’s own stupidity and selfishness and nothing that she would do could ever repair that.

As she started to raise the pistol to her head, she saw a stirring in the distance, in the opposite direction of where they’d been. It was him – that man that had kidnapped them, treated them like dirt, forced them to watch his horrifying grand guignol and had intended to kill them afterwards. The man who that woman that looked like Celestia had said had been at it for longer than she had known, more than any of them had ever been aware.

For some reason, an intense anger suddenly began to build in Twilight. She had killed her sister because of her selfishness…but he had tried to kill her whole family, and possibly the world. The world that Sunset had died to not only save, but to rescue the girl whose form she had taken. Her sister had saved everyone of a species she didn’t belong to, and that had been the fault of the man now brushing himself off.

She had killed Sunset.

But Sunset had saved her from this man.

A low, keening giggle came out of Twilight’s mouth. That was it, wasn’t it? Her fractured mind started to slam jigsaw pieces into place regardless of whether they belonged or not. Kill the man…and Sunset would be saved. She could redeem herself for what she had done. She could prove to everyone that she had loved her sister after all and did not want her dead.

Twilight started to laugh! Of course!

Ignoring the maze of bruises and aches that spiderwebbed all over his body, Divine Right brushed the dust and detritus off of himself, looking for where the exit was. He couldn’t feel his magic anymore, and his attempt to summon Grogar to do his bidding had failed twice, first by the accidental summoning of that demon bitch, followed by a second Sunset Shimmer, who seemed to be everything he ever wanted to be. It wasn’t fair!

Well, fair or not, they had destroyed everything – everything! – he’d worked so hard for. And he was going to have to get out of here. Thankfully, he had a chance to do so – he’d already set up a backup identity in the then-unthinkable case that something went amiss. And now that it had, all he would have to do was make his way down to LA, where he’d maintained a careful backup existence as a French émigré turned businessman years ago. He’d done it on the advice of his mentor when he’d been a student there in his university days and had kept it up since. Now, with the world thinking that Prince Divine Right was dead, he would have to make his way south and become that new identity.

It would also mean having to leave Cantata behind, but that was just how things went sometimes. Maybe if he ran into her along the way he could convince her to come with him, but if not, well, he was still rich and still had a chance to rebuild. Youthful looks and a long-lasting life were tenets of his family, after all, a blessing from the Father of Fathers and his magical bloodline.

Yes, that was what he would do. He would make his way south, move into his house in Newport Beach and tell his neighbors that he was done traveling and permanently settling down in the Good Ol’ US of A. He would bide his time, let his magic rebuild – surely it couldn’t be gone – and research and wait. Surely Grogar wasn’t the only trapped demon here. He’d heard rumors of other places and other things. Magical stones in the American Midwest, for one. And he knew that there were other magical bloodlines on Earth, some not tied to the Father of Fathers. Maybe that had been his mistake, hiring mere brainless muscle instead of recruiting an army of magic users to do his bidding.

Well, time to rectify that problem. And he was pretty sure that he could either get Cantata – or in a pinch, hopefully a pliable and willing SIREN girl – to come with him and work on his plan. It might take a decade or so more, but if his once-mentor could do it, so could he.

That, at least, was the plan until his shoulder exploded with pain and he was knocked off his feet once more. As he crashed to the ground, he could see the blossom of blood and the bullethole appear on his right shoulder blade, as well as the tinny sound of a gun firing again. The bullet ricocheted off the ground close to him and freaked him out.

A voice sang out in the distance, female, singsong and clearly not quite all there.

“Of course this land is dangerous,
All of the animals
Are capably murderous….”

He reached for his gun…only to find that it wasn’t there. Had it been knocked away from him when he’d been thrown? Or had it been taken from him? It didn’t matter, either way. A third shot rang out and clipped the ground near him, an indicator the singer was hellbent on his harm.

“When I was a girl,
My big brother held on to my hands
And he made me slap my own face”

He got up to run – the hidden doorway was around here somewhere; even in this ruined room he made sure to have an escape plan. All he had to do was find the part of the rocky wall with a slight vein of silver, touch that and then the door would open. He’d enchanted it to read his fingerprint, thankfully, so even without his magic the door would pop open once he touched the silver and—

The gun reported once more and Divine felt a sharp pain burst in his left calf. He felt something slam him hard in the leg and he went down, tumbling ungracefully until coming to an agonizing stop. He heard two more rounds, and knew the magazine was halfway emptied – but all it took was a single round in the right place to get the job done.

“I looked up to him then and still do
He was trying to teach me something…”

The girl approached him. It was one of the mousier girls from earlier, the one with the dark plum hair with the odd violet and fuchsia shocks. When he saw her earlier, she’d been terrified and absolutely unlikely to do any harm whatsoever – if anything, he figured the Japanese girl with the chiffon-pink hair and torn shirt was the dangerous one, despite the bravado of the other two. But now, looking into her purple eyes, he could see that she’d been pushed well beyond too far – and whatever sense of sanity that had once been there was now shattered and scattered.

“But now I know what it was!” she sang softly, a twisted nursery rhyme he’d never heard before but clearly was of American origin.
“Now I know what he meant!
Now I know what it is!”

She took aim at him and fired once more. The bullet grazed past his ear. While he wasn’t visibly harmed, he felt a slight stinging and something liquid rolled down the side of his head. Whether it was sweat or blood, he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t dare try to investigate, not with an insane girl holding a gun at him.

“One must eat the other,
Who runs free before him
Put them right into his mouth
While fantasizing the beauty of his movements
A sensation not unlike slapping yourself in the face…
It’s like slapping yourself in the face…”

He put his hands up. In better condition, he probably would’ve considered trying to outmuscle her and get away. But he was wounded, in bad condition to begin with, and she was the one with the gun.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I want you to die,” she said in a childish, singsong voice, as an unnatural smile came over her face and a girlish giggle uttered from her lips – her right eye twitching involuntarily. “I want you to bleed.”

“Look, what do you want?” he begged, his voice rising in pitch. “Money? Power? A country! I can give you that! Just…just let me go!”

“I want what you stole from me,” she murmured. “I want the life you took from the world.”

“What, one of those worthless girls?” he answered. “They were nothing! They were a means to an end and I—” Another round whizzed by his head and he realized that that was the wrong thing to say. Of course, she only had two rounds left, but from her stance and her grip, someone had taught her how to use a firearm. All she would need would be one bullet.

“Give me back my sister,” the angel of death spoke. “Give me back Sunny!”

Divine didn’t know who Sunny was, nor did he care. He only knew that he could not give her what she wanted…and that meant he was going to die.

“I can’t!” he shrieked and felt something wet cascade down his pants once more. “I can’t!”

“Then you die,” the hell princess before him said, cocking back the hammer.

The first round brought Shining back to consciousness.

The second one brought him to alertness. By training or instinct, he immediately crouched low, looking for the gunman, only to hear a third round in the distance. When that happened, he knew distance would buy him time.

He started to see the others stir, and breathed a sigh of relief, glad that everyone was okay.

No…everything’s not okay, his mind suddenly roared back at him with stark reality. They were in the same location as earlier, but it looked like a bomb had exploded. And Sunset had fought that demon – that other Sunset – and the last thing he remembered was the magical overload caused by…. He shook his head; he needed clarity right now and thinking about it was not going to help in the least.

He then looked around and noted both Sunset and Twilight were missing.

Another round went off and he then turned to look in the direction of the gunfire. In the near distance was one of the Sunsets, unconscious…and a pile of black ash.

In the far distance was Twilight, leaning over something he couldn’t see.

Another round went off again and he realized where the sound was coming from.

“TWILY! DON’T!” he shouted as he scrambled to his feet, pushing himself to move, to run as fast as he could before his kid sister murdered someone.

He knew he wasn’t going to make it before she did.

There were times in the history of warfare where things went south, where assured victories became losses and easy victories became pyrrhic ones. And then there were those defeats, those stands where one was absolutely so confident that everything would go one’s way that the signs to the contrary in hindsight were glaringly obvious.

Such was now the condition that Cantata Blast found herself in. Kneeling on the ground with her hands behind her head, next to two more SIRENs, two that had stuck with her and had proven to be pointless sycophants. Meanwhile, holding guns to their heads were a trio of teenagers, triplets. The petite sœurs of Madrigal Storm and her teammates. Girls she’d dismissed as pointless and had one of her assassins put down. Girls who had clearly outwitted their attacker, then solicited help and stormed the bastion even as it meant destroying everything they had ever known.

For a terrible moment, Cantata realized she chose the wrong girls to put under her direct command. Even her aces in the hole, the SIREN Black Team, now sat in cages, transforming into something else as a result of Divine’s magic and their own ruthless tendencies. She wondered what problems they would cause if they were to ever be freed – given that the serum had failed more than once, horribly in many cases, SIREN had turned against SIREN and whatever damage these three had done had already been on top of what the Sisterhood had done to itself.

“Cantata Blast,” the one Cantata recognized as Seaman Adagio Dazzle spoke, regal and dangerous. For a second, she looked like the apex predator she was, a creature of power and majesty. “By National Secret Order 221.4A Section 2 Subsection J, I am forcibly relieving you of command.”

“A child like you—”

“—Is the seniormost SIREN left who is not being charged with a crime, and I am taking over command.” She looked at her youngest sister. “Seaman Dusk, what is Captain Blast charged with?”

Sonata thought about it for a second, then reached in her pocket for her phone. “Let’s see: there’s QR&O Volume II Chapter 103, which covers offenses….” She thumbed her way through several websites before continuing. “Well, let’s see: we have Article 103.06, Failure to Command Properly in an Action Environment; Article 103.08, Violations of National Security; Article 103.09, Acting Illegally without Orders; Articles 103.11 and 12, which are about mutiny and offenses related to; 103.15, Advocating Governmental Change by Force; 103.16, Disobeying a Lawful Command; and my favorite one to apply in this situation, 103.17, Striking or Offering Violence to a Superior Officer.” She bent down and looked Cantata in the eye. “Like ordering the Admiral’s death.”

Cantata spat at Sonata, but she dodged in time. As a result, Aria struck her upside the head. “Which one was that?”

Sonata looked at her phone again. “Could be 103.20, which is resisting arrest; 103.25, which is Scandalous Behavior by Officers; or maybe even 103.28, which is Abuse of Subordinates. Take your pick.”

Aria looked at her older sister. “I think we could probably go through the whole book and cherry pick.”

From where he stood, Sable laughed grimly. “You’re on American soil. I’m sure we have a copy of the UCMJ online if you want to start adding to it.”

Sonata studiously looked at him. “Thanks, but no – I think we’re covered.”

Adagio moved in front of Cantata. “You know what I can do under 221.4A2J. But I want to give you a chance – one we both know you don’t deserve. Surrender and we’ll turn you over to the authorities. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

“Fuck you, child. I lived like a soldier – I’ll die like one.”

“So be it. Under National Secret Order 221.4A Section 2 Subsection K, I hereby assume command as the seniormost SIREN available. Do I have concurrence?”

Aria spoke. “As the second ranking one, I concur. You are now in command…Sublieutenant Dazzle.”

The newly-promoted Adagio looked at her sister. “Thank you. Cantata Blast, I hereby strip command authority from you and your subordinates and pronounce emergency trial under 221.4A3B. Do you have anything to say?”

One of the SIRENs at her side snarled, “Let me out of this and I’ll tear your fucking throat out, kid! You don’t have the stones to do this!”

Adagio looked at Aria. “Seaman Blaze, Seaman Dusk, if they speak again, you have my authority to summarily execute them.” She turned back to Cantata. “Captain Blast, you are hereby ordered to give a response. Any response other than what I find acceptable will be taken as a sign of hostility and will allow me to deal with it under 221.4A3D. Am I clear?”

Cantata Blast was quiet for the longest time. Then she opened her mouth.

“O Canada!
Our home and native land!”

“Enough of an answer for me,” Adagio said, pulling out her sidearm. “Seaman Blaze, with me. Seaman Dusk, if they move, kill them.”

Cantata ignored them, and continued to sing, her fellow prisoners joining in.

“True patriot love in all of us command
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The Truth North strong and free!”

“Seaman Blaze,” Adagio said as she walked behind them. “Ready your gun. On my order, fire.”

“Shouldn’t you let them…?” Sable asked, his unfinished sentence speaking for itself.

“Would you let criminals get away with singing The Star-Spangled Banner as an excuse to get out of being executed for countless crimes?” Adagio asked him honestly.

“Fair enough. I don’t like this,” he admitted, “but I’m not in command here.”

She walked over to him. “I don’t like it either,” she admitted softly, “but if I don’t do this now, I don’t know if I’ll have the strength to later.”

“From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee”

“I can do it if you want,” he told her.

She looked at him sadly. “This is the last thing we do as SIRENs. After this, it – and we – are over. It is my final duty.” He could not argue further but instead gave a terse nod. Taking that as a sign, Adagio walked back to where Aria already had her gun drawn.

“God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada we stand on guard for thee
O Canada, we stand our guard for—”

BLAM!

“Thee,” Adagio finished, lowering the smoking gun, tears stinging her eyes.

“Then you die,” Twilight said, cocking back the hammer and pulling down on the trigger to deliver divine punishment against the monster. It would mean that she would be a murderess again, but she had already cost her sister’s life – her world was already over.

She listened for the sound of the gunfire, closing her eyes and unable to look at the man she was just about to kill.

The sound never happened.

She looked at the gun…as it was now being encased in black, sharp crystals. The onyx spars started growing at a ridiculous rate along the barrel, marching towards her hand and she was only able to just let go of it before the whole thing became a forced geode of black crystals glowing with yellow energy.

Twilight had only a second to stare, incomprehensibly, at the encased weapon before the blow came.

“YOU STUPID HARRIDELLE!” a voice screamed at her as Twilight crumpled to the ground from the punch she took to her face. She felt the world spin for a moment, but when she recovered she looked up at her attacker…

…a girl who had the same features and look as her sister, but somehow wrong. Burgundy eyes. Same hairstyle, but hairtones of lilac and non-photo blue. Tanned skin of a tone similar to Rainbow. It was as if someone had requested a copy of Sunset, then insisted that the copy had to be “palette swapped”, as if a character in a videogame or an animation.

But it was the eyes filled with anger and disappointment that hit her the worst, and the hardest. This stranger, a third Sunset – if that – held a tone that was filled with pure bile and anger.

“How dare you,” she seethed. “How dare you try and throw away your life after everything your sister did for you – not once, not twice, but countless times! Your sister just sacrificed everything to save you and everypony she loved – and probably this whole Celestiadamned world – and you want to throw your life away by trying to kill that stallion over there?” The look in the girl’s eyes was one of disappointment stronger than anything Twilight had ever experienced. “You don’t deserve to be named Twilight Sparkle, brat.”

“Who—” Twilight began.

“It doesn’t matter who I am,” Raspberry seethed, realizing what had happened the moment she came in. She needed to compose herself, because somehuman had to be right now. For Sunset’s sake. “It doesn’t matter one Lunadamned moment who I am. It matters that your sister loved you more than anything and she died to protect you – and now you want to throw away everything? It won’t bring her back, Twilight. The dead rarely ever come back – and you don’t ever want to see what happens when they do.”

The words broke the spell of insanity in Twilight and she started bawling once more, screaming in rage and pain and sorrow, unable to hold it anymore. Her sister was dead.

Shining finally reached her and took her in his arms. “It’s okay, Twily, it’s okay. It’s….”

“No. She died, Shiny and it’s my fault!” Twilight moaned. “It’s my fault!”

“It’s no one’s fault, Twily,” he said, tears stinging his own eyes as he realized his soon-to-be-adopted sister would never reach that stage. “She did what she had to in order to save us.”

“She did,” Raspberry agreed, trying to fight back her own tears. “She was one of the best of us.”

Shining suddenly looked at the new girl and who she looked like – and now he was at a loss for words. “Who?” was all he could say.

“A friend, Shining Armor,” Raspberry replied, knowing in an instant who he was. “Take care of her and I’ll deal with this stallion.”

“Stallion?” Shining asked, then realized the context of her word. “So you’re….”

“He will pay for his crimes. Here or in the world that I – that Sunset and I – are from, but he will pay, I promise you that. But for right now, your sister needs you.” He nodded and walked away, taking Twilight with him.

Raspberry then turned to the man sitting in his own puddle of urine. “Clearly so brave when faced against a broken girl I see. Glad to see that human idiots are just as stupid as the ones we have at home. I suppose you’re the one to blame for all this. Well, no matter. As Archmagus of Equestria, you are under arrest for the murder….” Raspberry’s tears finally started to come. “For the murder of Sunset Shimmer, Baroness Westphalia. You have the right to legal assistance, but anything you say may be used against you during trial. I suggest you come along quietly,” she said, summoning a ball of magic, “but I’m more than willing to deal with you if you don’t.”

“Who are you?” Divine begged.

“Apparently very popular.” She wiped her eyes, then summoned magical hobbles around his arms and legs before levitating him in a sphere of golden magic. “Don’t worry, no harm will come to you. At least not until the Princess finds out what you’ve done. I definitely don’t envy you when she does.”

As the magic began to encase him, his eyes widened. “You bitch!” he spat. “You stole my magic!”

She paused and looked at him closely, as if putting him under examination. “You’re right – this is your magic. I can see the signature clearly. Which means that sooner or later it will flow back to you. Thanks for letting me know.” Sure enough, a small tendril started to slip away from her, headed for him. Quickly, she summoned a horn restraint, then realized it was too small – and humans didn’t have horns. She looked at him again, resized it for his neck, then slipped it around it. The magic then cut off, heading back to her for the moment. “I swear, I am never going to get used to this universe,” she muttered.

Raspberry walked on until she approached another sight she hadn’t expected: the human Sunset Shimmer being held by a human Celestia. “So I guess they were always meant to be together,” Raspberry said to no one in particular, before coming to a stop before them. “Don’t ask who I am, that’s kinda getting old,” she told the pair. “Just think of me as a friend and let’s call it that. First….” She tapped the human Sunset, and clothing blossomed on her; it bothered Raspberry as she realized it was the same clothing she’d seen on Sunset when Raspberry had arrived on this world.

“Sunset” nodded, while “Celestia” had a sudden, venomous look on her face. “What are you going to do with that fils de pute?” she asked the archmagus.

“If he’s lucky? A prison where he’ll never escape. If he’s not? I can’t even begin to describe what will happen,” she replied honestly.

“I want him where he can never harm anyone again,” Solaire demanded, then turned to Divine. «Encule toi, salaud!»

Raspberry looked back at him. “You don’t have many friends, do you? I should introduce you to Tw….” A pause. “Naah, she doesn’t need the headache. I’ll deal with it myself.”

By the time Raspberry had escorted the others to where the main group was, she could see why Sunset had reacted to her friends – Sunset’s own friends looked very similar, humanness notwithstanding. But they all looked at her in shock, including a second Celestia who stood next to, presumably, Luna’s counterpart.

“Please, I know you have a lot of questions,” Raspberry began before any of them could say a word, “but we’re all overwhelmed right now. We just lost someone who was dear to us all.”

“Lost?” Pinkie said in a choked voice, her hair seeming to straighten slightly.

“Pinkie, she’s gone!” Twilight sobbed. “It’s my fault!”

“She’s….” Pinkie fell back into a stupor, unblinking and staring into the distance, her hair instantly losing its signature curls and becoming straight, hanging over her face like a mourning veil. But she wasn’t the only one. Everyone began crying as the realization that Sunset Shimmer wasn’t coming back hit them like a ton of bricks. The only ones who did not were Solaire and Shimmer, too confused as to why things were happening and how they were impacted by it.

Raspberry, regardless of situation, turned away and cried as well. She didn’t know Sunset as well as she should, but she knew bravery when she saw it. And two mares she’d befriended were now gone. If Equestria still stood, she had every intention of keeping her promise to Pavane, even if it was going to be like pulling eye teeth.

But how was she going to explain this? To Twi and the others? To Celestia? She went over to a rock and sat down, looking at the magic in her hand. Would this stay? Would she? If Equestria was gone, where could she go? And where would she put her current “cargo”? She had every intention of bringing him to justice…but what would that be if Equestria no longer existed? She might technically be a princess, but she didn’t have the advantage of Celestia or Luna’s wisdom. All she could do was to wing it.

“Excuse me. May I speak to you for a second?” She looked up and into a face that had familiar eyes and long chiffon hair. The voice was the same, but the tone was more confident, even if heartbroken.

Wow, Fluttershy here really is different. I wonder if Sunny had that much influence on her. “Can I help you, Fluttershy?”

“You know who I am?” the girl asked. A second later, she realized. “Oh. You know about my counterpart.”

“You know about your counterpart?” Raspberry asked, surprised.

Fluttershy nodded. “Sunny didn’t want to tell us about them, but we kinda figured it out.” Fluttershy wiped her eyes and started crying again and Raspberry went over and hugged the teen.

“Shy’s a friend of mine, so I’m sure she’d want me to help,” Raspberry explained.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy murmured as she let go of the strange girl. “So, who are you? You’re from Equestria, right?”

Raspberry nodded. “Raspberry Beryl, Archmagus of Equestria and Court Magus to the Court of Friendship,” Raspberry said with a slight curtsey. “Do you all know?”

“No, just me and my friends, as well as Ms. Celestia and Ms. Luna. Everyone else doesn’t, including Twily and Tavi – we’ve had to be especially careful around them.”

“I see.” She looked at Pinkie, who Rarity was worriedly looking over. “Is Pinkie going to be okay?”

“Not at all. She was in love with Sunny.”

“Yeah, this is definitely not the world I know. The Pinkie I know barely even knows what romance is.”

“So what happens now?”

Raspberry was about to speak when she heard an unnatural sound behind her. She then turned to see three massive creatures rushing towards them. They looked like horrific crosses between squids, canines and lizards and they rushed at the group with murderous looks in their eyes.

“Great, more shit. This human world sucks.” As the creatures attacked, they found themselves slamming against golden barriers that protected everyone. “You know, if I wanted to see horror plays, I would’ve just went and attended Rainbow Factory. That one even had Rainb…er, a friend of mine freaking out for days afterwards!”

As the creatures slammed repeatedly against the barriers in the attempt to take them down, Raspberry walked up to them and examined the creatures. “So these things were human once. And they have the same signature of magic as….” She glared at Divine. “What in Tartarus did you do to them?” When Divine refused to answer, Raspberry looked at the former humans again, secretly grateful that the limit of her own dark corruption was merely a physical one whereas these three were consumed in both mind and body. “I can restore them – maybe. But they might be too far gone. This is one brutal amniomorphic spell, the kind that changes everything about the being, including their equinicule…er, humanicule?”

Raspberry reached out with her new magic and picked the three up. She looked in their eyes and could see horror. “They’re still changing. This spell is unstable.”

“Unstable?” someone in the back voiced, but Raspberry didn’t turn to look at who it was.

“Yes, unstable – there’s no closure to the spell matrix. They’ll be forever transforming, never keeping the same shape. I can bring them back, but like I said, their minds may be already gone. The damage to their psyches may be irreversible.” Without waiting for an answer, Raspberry used her magic to pull deep within, reaching for the core of the spell, and then yanked.

The change was immediate: there was an explosion of light and when it was over, three naked girls hit the ground. Still in the animalistic mindset, they dived right at the barriers, their minds insanely gnashing away, intending to feed and do whatever it took to get to their prey.

“That’s enough.” Another spell, and they were done. She turned to look at Divine. “There’s really nothing left of their minds. I hope you’re proud of yourself, you monster.”

“So, what happens now?” They turned to look at Celestia. “We can’t stay down here. I don’t want to stay down here. Not with….” She turned and started crying again.

An explosion ripped through part of the wall, and a quartet came in, armed to the teeth. “Think this is the place?” one asked.

Sable looked around and saw the group, a massive smile coming to his face. “Yeah, this is it,” he said, slinging his rifle.

“They’re alive,” Sonata said, a wide smile coming to her face as she saw their friends in the distance.

“Yeah. We’re alive, too,” Aria said, hugging both her sisters.

“Yeah, it’s great to be alive, isn’t it?” Adagio laughed as she saw the woman that must have been Sable’s girlfriend rush up to him and hold him tight before kissing like they were in a Hollywood movie.

The others came up to them, and as Raspberry approached, Adagio’s smile fell. “Well, you survived,” the now-former SIREN commented. “Guess you aren’t all bad.”

“We didn’t all survive,” Raspberry said softly. “Some of us gave too much.”

Adagio instantly realized what the former unicorn meant. “She was my friend. I’m never going to forget her.”

Despite the enmity between the two, Raspberry patted Adagio on the shoulder. “She deserves to be remembered. Let it out when you get the chance. Did you—”

“Yeah, we did. It’s over. But we didn’t win.” Adagio sank to her knees, crying for everything she had lost. “We didn’t lose, but we sure as hell didn’t win.”

“No, we didn’t,” Raspberry said, reaching down and hugging the other girl. For once, Adagio didn’t argue, but embraced her rival.

“And that’s the numbers so far.” Raven Quill looked wiped out, and given that she was partially in bandages, it was amazing that she was here, still giving Celestia reports.

“Thank you, Raven. Now please go seek further medical attention.”

“But Princess! How will—”

Celestia placed a gentle hoof on her secretary’s mouth. “Far less if my vaunted assistant is hospitalized,” she insisted. “Please, Raven, the paperwork can wait – your health and safety cannot.”

Raven smiled. “Thank you, your highness.” The mare gingerly hobbled out of the room, headed towards the infirmary.

Celestia took that as a sign to go make another flight around the nation for the sake of her ponies. Cadance had returned to the Empire to see to her ponies there, and Luna had already departed Equestria, seeking assistance from their allies. Twilight was doing what she could, but she was not ready yet.

Then, Celestia felt it.

A snapping in her soul.

Something vital had died.

Somepony had died.

A spell she had cast on Sunset, just before she returned to the human world. In a flash, the Princess of the Sun saw everything: her daughter’s fight with the demon. Sunset doing the impossible in order to save the human realm…and then paying the ultimate price.

Sunset was dead. After everything Celestia had done to keep her foal safe…her precious filly was dead.

The princess stopped atop the Lonely Spire and wailed.

A second later, the mountain exploded.

It took two days for ponies to cool down the lava that had once been the Lonely Spire long enough to get to their hysterically crying princess, sobbing about her dead baby.

Author's Note

Next week: the conclusion.

∞: Les Fleur

The unicorn opened her eyes, as she lifted herself off the grass. In the distance, there was nothing but an endless field blanketed by fog, giving the looks of a distant moor or a fantasy location, though she wasn’t sure of either. For that matter, she wasn’t sure of how she got here, either.

“Hello?” the unicorn called out. “Hello?” She sounded out for somepony for the longest time, with no answer coming. After a few minutes of that, she started to walk in a chosen direction, which soon turned into a canter which then developed into an outright gallop, hooves flying amongst the verdant blades, footfalls landing and finding purchase somehow without tearing out gouts of loam and vegetation as she moved on.

After an indeterminate time, the unicorn reached a massive stone wall impeding her progress. Not sure of which way to go, she headed to the left. For what felt like minutes, hours or years – time somehow didn’t seem to mean much here – she came across nothing. With no visible breaks in the wall, she chose to head back the way she came, in the hopes that there would be some luck.

Inexplicably, there was: she hadn’t taken more than a few steps before she came to a stop in front of a massive door. The door was open, and she peered inside. Within, a great white figure sang to a pink pegasus, as ponies of alabaster white danced around them in poses while music filled the air, as if some intricate play were in progress. But as the unicorn looked at the being of ivory, she couldn’t make out more than a blur and great light, as if the figure was a shining star in the sky. Still, the unicorn’s heart ached to see the glowing creature, and she longed to be beside it.

She took a step…

…and twin doors of silver slammed shut in front of her. The doors bore the sigil of a blue heart hewn from crystal, wreathed by laurels made of gold. The unicorn pushed at the doors, but they would not budge. She knocked against them, screamed for those within to let her in, but to no avail: there was no answer, no response that acknowledged she was there, and only the echoes of her pounding hooves gave any indication that she existed, for nothing else recognized her presence.

After a few minutes, she turned away from the door, dejected by her rejection, but hopeful that she would find a response if she continued going on.

After a somehow longer and yet shorter passing of time, the unicorn found herself at another portal. This time she walked in completely if only to prevent being denied entry by the doors. In front of her was a great expanse of clouds, and above the midnight sky, with stars racing from one end to the other. Somehow, it reminded her of hyperspace – how did she know that term? – in its grand spectacle. But it was the figures in the distance that caught her attention. Again, the white figure that so called out to the unicorn’s heart appeared once more, now speaking to another unicorn, one somehow familiar to the first. Great images – seemingly holoscreens, though again she knew not where the term came from – seemed to float and flow past the two as the larger organism sang to the other unicorn. The first unicorn’s heart broke; she wanted so much for the luminescent form to acknowledge her, and in a desperate attempt to call out to them, she opened her mouth…

…only to find herself with her mouth shut and standing outside a golden pair of doors, as closed as the first. These doors bore a starburst of white and purple on it, in concert with six smaller stars. The stars sang to her in a sort of twilight gesture, though the unicorn didn’t know why, only that she’d been denied twice.

She collapsed on the ground, tears coming to her eyes unbidden as she felt the crushing loneliness of the empty world around her.

It was then that she felt a warm, golden light upon her. She looked up and the glow seemed to beckon to her, caressing her muzzle and drying her tears. Without delay, she got up and started galloping in its direction. She wasn’t sure why, other than that it called to her and she needed to go. It was almost as if it was a declaration of love and devotion, a promise that this time, she would not be spurned.

After another non-passage of time, the unicorn came to a stop in front of doors seemingly made of pure bismuth, glowing with radiant and iridescent coloring across the entire spectrum. And emblazoned on the doors was a sun in partial eclipse, burning with colors of deep red and brilliant yellow, in a sort of light and dark dance, yin and yang, polar opposites that were nonetheless part of one another. The door then radiated with a golden light that moved its way across the unicorn, until it came to a stop behind her.

The unicorn turned to look, her eyes tracing the path of the light and coming to stop on her flanks…

…which bore the same emblem.

As if on cue, the great doors opened, and a golden light flickered within, beckoning her to come in. Hesitantly she followed, afraid of being cast out once more, but as the doors remained open, she continued on, following the light.

The unicorn walked on through the dark, guided by the glowing light in front of her. She briefly turned to look for the doors, but she didn’t see them any longer; in truth, nothing behind her remained but the darkness. She then gave up on them, focusing her attention back upon the light. She continued to walk for time upon time, until she came upon a clearing of trees, lit by a mysterious light that seemed to be nowhere and everywhere at once. And it made sense, given that these trees…were no trees.

The “trees” turned out to be made of what appeared to be stained glass, with a grand image ensconced in the middle of them, as if a variant of the holoscreens she saw earlier – again, how did she know that word? – displaying some sort of image, as if from a story:

A nervous unicorn mare leaving a bundle of swaddling on the doorstep of an orphanage.

A young filly, magic burning around her like the sun itself, accidentally turning a royal carriage and some surrounding escort carriages into a tea serving set.

A beautiful white alicorn taking the young filly in her wings, holding her close as a mother holding her daughter.

The unicorn’s eyes began to tear once more at the image of the alicorn. A word, unbidden, came to her lips: “Mother,” she murmured, the unicorn’s unbridled joy now unleashed at this memory. The being was her mother, and the brilliant white figure she couldn’t see earlier with the pegasus and the other unicorn was one and the same – no other words needed to suffice. But who were the other ponies, and why were they with her?

The unicorn wiped her eyes and moved on, continuing to look at the images of herself and her mother. Despite the sorrow she felt, she couldn’t help but also be happy as she looked at the images. They felt so bright and airy, as if of a simpler time:

A unicorn filly sleeping next to her mother, while the alicorn raised the sun.

The unicorn filly, casting spells that amazed so many countless adults, while the alicorn looked on with utter pride.

The alicorn tending to the filly while she was sick, despite the older pony having far more varied and “important” responsibilities. However, it was clear that from her presence, there wasn’t anything more important – anypony more important – than this ill filly.

The unicorn smiled, feeling her mother’s love and wishing she could see her mother at this moment. But then the sky turned red and the world darkened and the bright crystalline trees became gnarled, twisted mockeries of themselves, and she suddenly knew that all good things eventually come to an end as she looked through these newer images:

The unicorn filly, now a teenager, acting as though she was far too important for others because of her status, with her mother looking on in dismay.

The teenager, now an adult mare, arguing and insulting everypony around her, flaunting her power as if it were a toy, a cruel and malicious look on her face.

The unicorn and her mother, arguing. The look in the unicorn’s eyes on the image frightened the real unicorn looking at it, but this paled in comparison to the utter heartbreak she felt when she saw the angry but despondent look on that of her mother.

And finally, the unicorn running through what appeared to be a magical portal, forsaking everything.

She gasped, hoping that the images could not be worse, that this was just her fevered, tortured imagination at work.

It wasn’t. And it got worse:

The unicorn, now a young human girl – how did she know that? – naked in a world of snow. Somehow, she got to shelter, created clothing to shield herself from the elements, and started making a life for herself in this new world.

The girl, forging documents and claiming to be someone else, taking position in a school in this world so she could learn more about it. But to her horror, there was a human woman who looked much like her mother, though she carried neither the patience nor the love for this girl.

The girl found love elsewhere, in the arms of a boy. Though it was as much her fault as his, she whored herself before the boy, finally ditching him when she had no further use for him – or, admittedly vice versa.

Her reign of terror against countless individuals, male and female, destroying them all, ruining them, and in one case outright destroying a girl – the unicorn recoiled as she saw what she had done and her heart felt as if it snapped in two.

Her brief return to her homeland to steal an artifact that she could use as a weapon against her mother, only to have the artifact open a portal in her heart that a demon of the human realm crawled through, possessing her and claiming her soul. In the end, it took the intervention of the other unicorn from earlier – now an alicorn herself – and five human girls, the ones the girl had bullied the most, to end her reign of terror for once and for all.

The final image on the last tree was that of the girl, broken and battered, defeated and humiliated, with six girls standing above her to pronounce judgement.

The unicorn came to a halt, crying once more though this time out of sorrow. She cried her heart out, all the while sobbing how sorry she was, how much she begged forgiveness, how much she would do anything to turn aside those years of pain and anguish. She begged forgiveness from her mother, from the other girls, from the unicorn-turned-alicorn, even from the boy who she wronged as much as he wronged her. She begged and cried until her tears were spent, her eyes were red and her throat was dry.

She drifted off into an uneasy slumber…

…which was soon ended by a warm, golden light shining on her. She looked up to see the light glowing, and in the distance, a bright, welcoming light calling to her. Desperate to be rid of the darkness, the unicorn galloped as fast as she could.

As she ran, the world began to brighten once more, the trees began to become crystalline once more, the images shining brighter…

The girl, making friends with others and gaining a new family.

The girl, protecting others against forces considerably darker than she’d ever been.

The girl, once hated by the school, reaching the pinnacle of its social apex once again but now because she was beloved and trusted – the Alpha Bitch had become the Go-To Girl.

The girl, spending time with her friends and helping them out as they could, earning their respect and camaraderie – and in one particular case, love.

The girl, opting to take on literal forces of darkness at all costs, because innocents had been hurt and her loved ones were at risk.

And then, in the center of it all, was a massive stone statue. On the raised dais was an eerily lifelike marble statue of a girl, her face contorted in semblance of grief, crying out in anguish. The reason for that was the dead unicorn in her arms, a figure that made the one looking up at the statue shudder in grief.

Words came to her with clarity: “Twily…I’m sorry,” the unicorn said, tears coming to her eyes once more.

“So, you understand, Sunset.” The unicorn turned towards the new voice and found that the trees were gone. Instead, there was a massive wall, filled with stained glass windows and bright tapestries. A huge golden dais reached up ended in a massive throne, and on that throne sat a titanic white alicorn with blood-red hair and kind blue eyes. “You’ve figured it out much quicker than others – many take years in the Great Pasture before they remember who they are once again. Death is a cleanser of a sort; it wipes away the pain of life…but sometimes the good must go as well, to lessen the burden.”

“I’m dead, aren’t I?” Sunset, now knowing who she was, looked up at Faust.

“And you’ve fulfilled my plan. It was…let’s just say it was desperate. I needed to set forces in motion, but my ability to operate on this plane is limited. My adorants and worshippers here are too few and we are not a natural part of the design here. I can’t say much more – you wouldn’t understand – but I had to do something to counteract my failures.”

“Counteract?”

“Yes. I allowed a monster to settle here, one that is all too real and far more dangerous than the Wonderstones or Grogar’s imprisonment. But this monster has thrived and grown here and I cannot interfere. So I had to set a course to have someone I trusted to do the job. It wasn’t easy. It was, admittedly, an action born of desperation.”

It took Sunset another second to make her realize. “Me?” she asked, pointing at herself in shock.

“Sunset…haven’t you ever wondered why Platinum’s Mirror was open just as you fought with Celestia? Or that you were able to come back twenty-four moons later, on a mirror that operates every thirty moons?”

Clarity sank into Sunset’s mind, recalling something that she’d always wondered about but never really put into any stock. “You did that?”

Faust nodded. “As I said, it was a desperate gamble – I had problems that needed to be solved here and my influence decreases daily. And on the other side, I had to watch as my daughter and granddaughter fought. Thus, I made a very risky move and hoped that all the pieces would fall into place.” Faust descended the steps. “To use a human term, call it Tough Love.”

But Sunset locked onto a single word. “‘Granddaughter’?”

Faust nodded. “I am Celestia’s mother. You are her daughter and she is your mother. Thus, I think it would be rather obvious.” Faust reached down and kissed Sunset on the forehead. “And words cannot ever express how proud I am of you, Granddaughter. My only grandfoal, unless Luna gets her act together.” Faust wrapped her great wings around Sunset, embracing her. Sunset leaned into the embrace, and the two stayed there for the longest time.

“So, what happens now? Do I move on to the Great Pasture?”

Faust laughed. “Oh no, you don’t get off that easily. There are things you have yet to accomplish.”

That puzzled Sunset. “Such as what, Your Majesty?” she asked.

“Grandmother,” Faust reminded her.

“Going to be hard to adjust to that; so far my experience with grandparents has been…how shall we say…eclectic?”

“From what I can tell, they’re very exceptional people. As are your other grandparents, once you meet them.”

“Meet them?” Sunset said with confusion. “But they’re human! They can’t come to the Great Pasture.”

“You’re correct about that. But as I said, you have the task I set forth for you. Additionally, you have a second family now, one that loves you just as much as we do. And I suspect your sister will need you more than ever. She’s…well, she seems to be far more fragile than her counterpart is.”

Sunset thought of Twily, and Twi’s own words to her. “Naah, Twi seems to think Twily’s much stronger than she lets on.”

“Perhaps she is. I suspect you would want to be there for her.”

“For all of them. They are my family, after all.” A thought then came to her: “You aren’t offended, are you?”

Faust chuckled. “Just as I told you once before: you are a child of both worlds now, not just of one. Just don’t forget about us: this old gal tends to get lonely doing her job since I can’t spend as much time on the terrestrial plane.”

Sunset hugged Faust’s leg; in many ways, it made her feel like a filly again. “I promise not to, Grandmother.”

“Good. Then go do your duties…

“…Alicorn of Earth.”

The others came up to them, and as Raspberry approached, Adagio’s smile fell. “Well, you survived,” the now-former SIREN commented. “Guess you aren’t all bad.”

“We didn’t all survive,” Raspberry said softly. “Some of us gave too much.”

Adagio instantly realized what the former unicorn meant. “She was my friend. I’m never going to forget her.”

Despite the enmity between the two, Raspberry patted Adagio on the shoulder. “She deserves to be remembered. Let it out when you get the chance. Did you—”

“Yeah, we did. It’s over. But we didn’t win.” Adagio sank to her knees, crying for everything she had lost. “We didn’t lose, but we sure as hell didn’t win.”

“No, we didn’t,” Raspberry said, reaching down and hugging the other girl. For once, Adagio didn’t argue, but embraced her rival.

A light began to glow in the room. And a second later, flowers started to bloom everywhere – red and yellow roses, filling the room with a cloying, peaceful scent. From somewhere in the distance, music played.

“Will somebody wear me to the fair?”

Everyone turned in the direction of the singing to see three ponies – a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony, swaying in time with the music. They were all alabaster, with wheat-brown manes and tails and sky-blue eyes. They wore brilliantly white stolas and their heads were bedecked in golden wreaths. They continued to walk towards the humans through the field of impossible flowers, all while singing still.

“To the morning sings the lively flower!”

The earth pony approached a teary and shocked Velvet and reaching out with her hooves, placed one of the flowers in her hair.

“Will a lady pin me in her hair?”

The pegasus walked up to Spike and taking one of her plumes, did the same to him.

“Will a child find me by the stream?”

“He will love me in the sunny shower!”

“Kiss my petals…”

“…weave me through a dream.”

The unicorn then approached Night and laid a hoof on his heart.

“For all of these simple things and much more,
A Flower was born.
It blooms to spread love and joy,
Faith and hope,
To people forlorn.”

The trio then began to canter around everyone, the room growing brighter.

“Inside every man…”

“…lives the seed of a flower.”

“If he looks within,
He finds beauty and power.”

The trio then began singing a rising note, which was doubled by the appearance of three more ponies. Trebled. Sextupled. Increased by magnitude, until there were dozens of alabaster mares hitting the exact note.

“Ring all the bells,
Sing and tell the people everywhere
That the Flower has come!
Light up the sky
With your prayers of gladness
And rejoice, for the darkness is gone!
Throw off your fears,
Let your heart beat freely
At the sign that a new time is born!”

And then a figure started to walk towards them, graceful and beautiful. Mane burning with bright ruby and gold. A pristine coat, the color of the ripest maize, glittering like amber. A crown, peytral and shoes made from radiant bismuth, flickering with all the colors of the rainbow. And topped off with a deep red stolas etched at the bottom with red and yellow gold piping.

And sticking out of the stolas’ sideports – two magnificent wings, folded at her sides.

She was beyond radiant and brilliant. The glorious figure approached, as everyone looked on in utter shock.

Raspberry looked at the newcomer – and instinctively bowed.

“Razz, get up, okay?” the figure laughed. “You’ve known me long enough.”

“I…it was instinctive,” the unicorn stated defensively.

“Because I’m new to the world now. You’re the first pony who has seen me like this, so I suspect it’s natural for it to happen.”

Velvet looked at the new creature, hearing her voice, disbelieving it. “Sunny?” she asked, thinking it too good to be true.

The alicorn nodded. “Yeah. It’s me. Sorry I made everyone worry.”

“But…but….”

“She has Ascended,” Raspberry said, her voice still holding a note of wonder. Finally getting up and looking at the others, she added, “She is now literally a goddess amongst our kind.”

Everyone said it at once. “A goddess?”

“I…please, everyone, I’m not a princess or anything, okay? I’m just the Alicorn of Earth.”

Raspberry’s jaw dropped. “You’re a queen?”

“No, and stop that – I’m not a queen any more than the ruler of the Crystal Empire is an empress,” Sunset explained, quickly self-editing lest Cadance be confused. “I’m just me. You all know me.” She then transformed herself into her human form. “Am I that different?”

The answer to that was, clearly, yes. She now stood several inches taller, and filled out more, having a figure closer to that of Cadance or Luna than herself. Closer to that of an ideal woman – because what was more ideal than a goddess?

“Sunny!” Twilight rushed up and hugged her sister, sobbing. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry for everything!”

The neophyte goddess bent down and kissed her sister on the forehead. “It’s water under the bridge, Twily. I could never be mad at you.”

Velvet took a moment to compose herself. “Sunset, do you remember what I told you when we first met?”

Sunset remembered fondly; it was words she had taken to heart. “That you had a professor once tell you that it’s more important who you are now than who you were in the past.”

“That’s right,” the matron said with some hesitation. “And what do you want to be now?”

For Sunset, there was no hesitation. Tears of joy in her eyes, she went and hugged Velvet, saying, “Your daughter.” The two held each other, tears streaming down their faces, holding one another. A second later, a teary Night joined in and it wasn’t long before it was a massive group hug with mother and daughter at the center, enjoying an unbroken moment of love.

At least until Velvet said, “Oh, and Sunny: you’re grounded.”

The smile fell from Sunset’s face. “I’m grounded?”

“Yes! You lied to me – to your whole family! When were you going to tell me you were an alien from another dimension?”

“Uh, eventually?”

Velvet became angry, apparently genuinely so. “I am your mother – you are supposed to tell me these things!”

“How? It’s not like it’s a big difference that I was a unicorn and am now an alicorn, okay? I’m still the same girl I was!”

Night broke in. “Uh, ladies, I think we can let this one slide. Our daughter did just literally save our lives, I suspect.”

“Technically probably the entire universe, literally,” Sunset admitted.

“See? Plus, I got to see what Sagittarius A-star looks like! Do you know the kind of papers I could write about that?”

Velvet wheeled on him. “Oh, so you’re going to go easy on her just because she gave you the kind of scientific breakthrough that’ll make you famous?”

“Well, if you put it like that, it’s a little unfair, hon.”

“Vel, go easy on her,” Celestia told her friend. “She literally died and came back. That tends to be punishment enough, I think.”

“Fine,” Velvet huffed. “But if you do so again, Sunset Shimmer, I will not be happy, am I clear?”

“As Imperial crystal, Mom.” Sunset looked around the room. “Well, I—OOOF!” Her words were cut off as that moment, Pinkie immediately tackleglomped Sunset and laid a huge kiss on her lips, not caring who saw.

“Yeah, definitely not going to get used to this universe,” Raspberry commented.

“It’ll grow on you,” Aria insisted.

Sunset managed to break away from Pinkie’s liplock enough to say, “PINKIE!” But the girl didn’t care, instead bawling horribly while making sure to maintain an iron grip on Sunset and resting her head against the taller teen’s bosom.

“This is starting to look like a bad anime,” Rainbow commented.

“No shit,” Luna agreed.

“Well, we need to get out of here,” Sunset said, literally teleporting Pinkie off her and making sure she stood just inches away. “But first….” She walked over to Divine Right. “A little less than a year ago, I was nearly in your position. I got pulled out of a crater by people who became my best friends, and who taught me there’s a better way. I suspect you won’t ever see that option.” He was about to speak but was immediately silenced by Sunset’s stare. “You destroyed lives and nearly brought Hell to Earth. I can’t have that happen again. So you will never see freedom again.” She turned to look at the others. “Does anyone have any problem with this?”

“He was pronounced legally deceased months ago,” Solaire explained. “Obviously he was faking his death, but as far as the world knows, he is no longer alive.”

“Then that is how he will stay.” Sunset snapped her fingers, and the yellow ball Divine found himself in exploded. A transparent crystal fell to the ground, about the size and width of a TV remote. Inside it was a miniature Divine Right, pounding the interior, demanding to be let free. Sunset picked it up and handed it to Raspberry. “You deal with him – I suspect you were going to anyway, right?”

“Yeah, just a bit. But he’s done all his crimes here on your world, not on ours.”

“Hence why the world’s better off if he’s in Tartarus. He will never escape from there, and even if he does, he won’t know how to get back. Plus, he’s used magic here, which is still unknown – there’s too much at risk right now.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I told you what was going on back home!” Raspberry reminded her, taking the crystal reluctantly.

“Trust me, everything will be okay there, and I’ll get you home as soon as I can, Razz.”

“How?”

“Because I just need time to know what I can do now.” She yawned. “Look, we’re all wiped out, and I think we’ll want out of here before the police hit this place, given that I dropped three solar lasers and a 6.0 earthquake on the area. Let’s just go to our place and we can all talk there. I suspect we’re going to need to do a lot of talking.”

“Yes, we are.” Sunset turned to look at her counterpart, looking at her with a mixture of shock and anger. “Like who the hell are you?”

“You know. You probably had access to Chernabog’s memories when you were in a half-dead state. Just…give me a chance to explain, Sunset.”

“And that’s everything,” Sunset said. The Sun was starting to peek up over the horizon, something she could already feel, given her now-permanent link to it. It was close to six in the morning, near as she could tell, given that she hadn’t learned how to tell time by reading the magnetic pulses of the planet. She had a lot more senses now, it seemed, and she was going to have to get used to them.

She summoned another cup of coffee, probably her third one. “Anyone want another?” There were some muttered groans and she summoned several more, passing them, then floating off the empty ones to the kitchen.

“I’m not sure I could ever get used to that,” Night admitted.

“You never do the dishes, so it shouldn’t matter,” Velvet said wearily. “Look, Sunny, I’m going to be honest. This is going to make things a lot harder. Not just the adoption, given that we now have two Sunsets where there should have only been one, but….”

“All this?” Celestia suggested.

“Yes, for lack of a better term, yes, all this. You were dead center involved in the serial killings.”

“They came after us, Mrs. V,” Rainbow chimed in. “We didn’t go looking for trouble. They confused us with the other Sunset—”

“I’m right here,” Shimmer said testily.

“What Rainbow means to say,” Rarity spoke, taking the diplomatic route, “is that they erroneously assumed we were here with the, ahem, ‘human’ Sunset based on the fact that we socialize with our Sunset. We were just enjoying our vacation in Harmony and then all this happened.”

“And we got there in time to stop wholesale slaughter, but not enough to save the girls,” Adagio added. “So they were innocent. And now it’s all over, and we’re homeless and probably in severe legal trouble.”

“All of us,” Pine said sadly. “Look, if need be, I’ll turn myself in. I’ll take the heat.”

“Greenie, no!” Sonata told her. “You fought alongside us! You saved the world! You—”

“Have no life without my sister,” the young woman said sadly. “I’m lost without Sides! Plus, someone has to protect Sunny, or else they’ll find out about her someday! So I volunteer to be arrested.”

“You know what that means, right?” Cadance asked her. “You’d be confessing to both the deaths of the SIRENs and the Dead Hand killings. They’ll know it wasn’t you, but given that the police have no idea who’s behind it, they won’t bother looking when they have the perfect suspect.”

“Especially when the CPD and ECSD are overworked from just the fallout of the freak hurricane and now all this,” Shining added. “You’ll be lucky if you get life without parole.”

“My life was over the moment my sister died,” she said, burying her face in her hands.

“Yeah, well, good thing I wasn’t there,” Zephyr said, putting an arm around Solaire, “or else I might have to arrest her.” Solaire, tired but clearly happy, leaned against the man.

“This sucks!” Rainbow got up and stomped around the room. “We’ve got these awesome powers – we’re like superheroes and shit…but we can’t help anyone!”

“Rainbow, it’s more than just that,” Twilight said. “Are you even trained? Do you know how to control your powers?”

The Hispanic girl laughed and scratched the back of her head. “Not really.”

“That’s another thing to consider,” Octavia said. “You need to train them, Sunny. This…this was a mess on a Biblical scale. And now, for better or for worse, you are basically Biblical yourself. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep at nights anymore, knowing what I know and what I’m going through – and how do I know you’re not responsible for that?” Sunset looked at her cousin like a wounded bird, and Octavia, frustrated, muttered a quick apology.

“And what about us?” Aria asked. “We have nothing left. With what’s going on, CSIS is going push to put a freeze on any other funds out there they might find, and ARROWHEAD and Les SCARS are going to hunt us down if they even find out there were survivors. We’ll be running for the rest of our lives!”

“No. We’re not running. Not anymore,” Adagio said. “This is our home now. These are the people we belong with. Maybe we’re too young to live on our own, but we don’t have a choice – and besides, I don’t want to run. I’m tired of all this. I just want to be a normal girl.”

“Same,” Sonata said tiredly.

Celestia folded her arms and said, “So, we have a string of unsolved murders caused by a man who is legally dead, and a girl volunteering to take the fall for something she didn’t do. At the same time, we have dozens of illegal Canadian assassins – and that sounds so weird saying that – dead in the middle of downtown Canterlot, which was also the epicenter of a 6.0 earthquake and a massive unexplained solar phenomenon. And downtown is still standing.” The educator tiredly looked at Sunset. “Sunset, you’ve caused trouble for me before – but this time you’ve outdone yourself.”

“But it won’t last.” Night turned on a nearby TV; on it was CNN, covering the dozens of bodies they were pulling out of the rubble that was the construction site in the center of downtown Canterlot. A headline at the bottom of the screen said it all: FOREIGN ARMY FOUND IN CANTERLOT? “They’ll find their IDs and trace things. I’m not a cop and even I know this. They will find you – us. All of us,” he said, looking at his older daughter with concern.

“If I have to go down fighting, I’ll do it again,” Sunset said. “I won’t let anyone here suffer any more than we already have. I will do whatever it takes.”

“No, you won’t.” Sunset looked at Velvet. “Sunset, that is not your duty.”

“Mom, I am an alicorn—”

“No. You are a normal teenage girl. Okay, maybe not completely normal, but average all the same.” She went over and hugged her daughter, saying, “You can’t save everyone and everything all the time. I’m not sure that’s even possible, and I don’t want you tearing yourself apart having to try.”

Sunset sighed. “Mom, I know that. Hell, I’m trying to adjust to my new powers and how I’m going to deal with my counterpart here.”

Shimmer took a sip of her coffee. “Fortunately for you, we’re only here on vacation, so once we go back, I’m out of your hair.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Sunset told her.

“I’m sure you didn’t. But…look, this is weird for me too, okay? Mom once told me that I was supposed to have a twin sister, but that she was stillborn. If you were that girl, then maybe I could understand it….”

“Then perhaps I can be of help.” Everyone turned to see a woman standing there, suddenly appearing. She had blood-red hair and blue eyes and wore a simple white shirt and blue jeans.

“I wasn’t expecting you here, Grandmother,” Sunset said.

“Grandmother?” everyone said, looking at the woman who didn’t seem much older than Cadance.

“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Velvet groaned.

“Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Faust and I am Queen of Equestria – though I no longer technically rule – and the head of the alicorn pantheon,” she said. Walking over to Velvet, she said, “My granddaughter is my most precious possession. Please, take care of her.”

“I will,” the matron suddenly said, solemnly.

She then turned to Sunset. “My time here on this plane is drawing to a close. This is your realm now, sweetheart, but you cannot protect it if things are this precarious. You need protectors.” She then looked at the former SIRENs and said, “And they too, will need protection. I have a plan, but if it succeeds, the world you know will be very different.”

“How different?” Pinkie asked, fearfully, sidling up close to Sunset. “I don’t…I can’t!” She turned to Sunset. “I don’t want to lose you again!”

“Pinkie, you won’t—” Sunset began.

“No! I’m serious!” Tears started to fill her eyes. “Now that I know what I want in life, I don’t want to lose it! Even if you never look at me the way I want you to, I don’t want to lose you again!”

Faust chuckled. “So different from the one I’m familiar with. Have faith, Miss Pie. Things won’t be that different.”

“Then how?” Fluttershy asked. “Will my relationship with my father be different?”

“Again, not that different. Some things must remain as they are so that the world can retain some semblance of what you know. The dead must sadly stay dead…and some ties must remain as they are.”

“But that’s not fair!”

“No, it’s not,” Raspberry told her. “But it’s given you a strength of character you wouldn’t have otherwise. A strength I haven’t seen in someone else I know like you, and you need that strength for this world.” Fluttershy got the hint and said nothing further.

“Well said, Raspberry. But it will be hardest for you.” This last, Faust said to Solaire and Shimmer. “To accommodate my granddaughter, you will need to live a lie for the remainder of your days.”

“Done.” Shimmer’s answer was instant. “She saved me. She didn’t have to, and it would’ve made her world so much easier.”

“I was already dying. It wasn’t right for you to as well.”

“I was already half-dead when you took on Chernabog,” Shimmer said, as if recalling a True Thing. “She kept me in the twilight realm between life and death, because it was the easiest way to keep my body alive and me not. So I owe you. I will do what you want – if it doesn’t mean I’ll come to harm.”

“Of course it won’t. And you, your highness?” Faust asked Solaire.

“I owe this other Sunset my daughter’s – and my own – life. Plus, she is avenging my dead brother and sister-in-law by getting rid of that bastard. So yes, I too will back my daughter’s choice.”

“Then so be it.” Faust raised her hand and blue light flickered into life in it. At that, everyone in the room fell asleep. “And now to do what must be done.” As she moved around the threads in the timeline from one to the other, cutting off some and attaching others, she felt a passing of guilt for a number of reasons: these weren’t their lives anymore, not really. Some of it needed to be cut to save others, while some needed to be changed to strengthen a few. Things were coming that she could not participate in, so all she could do was to prepare the forces for what lay ahead. Part of that, of course was that many of those changed would not only remember the new timeline as if they lived it but would remember the old one in tandem.

She heard a cackle in her mind. You fool. You know that they will not abide this. They barely abide me. But you are moving the fundamental powers of this universe and giving me power in the process!

Yes. I suppose it is like rearranging the furniture in someone else’s house, she replied in kind as she continued to weave quantum strings into new forms of reality, changing probabilities and possibilities.

And I will gleefully find all the spare change as a result, the man’s mocking voice said. I will be a god – and you will have put me there. Oh, this is rich! Now I can see why Discord laughs at such folly!

Have a care, villain, Faust said, weaving the final strings. Outside, time spun backwards as her spell took effect. She could feel countless stares at her, the glares of beings knowing she was twisting rules and laws that were not her position to do. Being a god is a difficult proposition in this realm. They have disbelievers here. And godslayers.

I do not fear you, Faust.

You have nothing to fear from me, not anymore, fiend, Faust said. But you will fear my granddaughter. She cut the line of thought off with finality.

She then looked at the timeline she’d so radically changed. For the common being, changing a timeline as if it were a pair of socks or a saddle was incomprehensible – and they would be right. That wasn’t exactly what she did. What she did was more akin to a surgeon’s skills in surgery; admittedly, it was a little more complicated and metaphysical than that, but the analogy still fit. She couldn’t bring paradise for anyone involved, though she wished to so very much. She couldn’t even do that for her own daughters, much less her granddaughter – all she could do was to try to keep them safe, and even that wasn’t a certainty.

Faust could feel that things were Done. It was time to go. She bent over Sunset and looked at her granddaughter with love – the last time she would likely ever see her again. It broke her heart, but at least there was a heart to break. Bending down, she kissed Sunset on the forehead. “This is your world now, my dearest grandchild,” she said softly. “I made it as safe as I could for you. Guard it well, for it is yours, just as you are its. And this is your bailiwick that I charge you with protecting – Alicorn of Earth.”

A melancholy setting in, she opened a rift back to her plane of reality.

“Going so soon?” a new voice asked. She turned to see a man standing there, wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans. He had tan skin, a neatly-trimmed beard, and a pleasant smile.

“I’ve done enough damage to your realm for my selfish reasons,” Faust said apologetically. “I have used it for things I should have not, and now I leave someone dear here to serve both as my penance and my promise to make things right.”

“That’s not necessary,” the man replied. “None of us are completely innocent in what we do, even though scripture and doctrine might say otherwise. But that is for mortals to concern themselves with.”

“I see.” Faust gave the man a weak smile. “Then please, as a foolish old mare, I have a request: watch out for my granddaughter for me. This way will be forever barred to me now—”

“No it won’t. I can assure you of that.” He shrugged. “I cannot explain why, even to another deity, but I assure you the way will not be barred. Besides, if you look, you will see that you set something in motion.” He pointed at a single quantum strand. “From there, it will grow and someday your granddaughter will be as known as the rest of us – she will be one of us.”

“My thanks. I only hope that I can be forgiven for what I’ve done.”

“She will ensure it. After all, I know something about Sons cleaning up after their Fathers,” he said with a smile. “Fare Thee Well in your own efforts.”

Faust grinned. “And Peace Be Unto You.”

With that, Faust left. It was time for, well, time.

Author's Note

Many of you figured that Sunset would Ascend. Well, you were right. But in fairness, I did mention it over two years ago.

That being said:

TO BE CONCLUDED IN

July 30: Draw of the Cards

Shining Armor sat just outside of the examination room at the Equestria County Coroner’s Office, comparing notes. Inside, Sandalwood was going over the dirty work with Closer Look, the medical examiner on duty. He didn’t envy her; coroner duty was nasty but something you had to get used to in this business.

In any case, he poured over his written notes – the FBI didn’t like notes taken on tablets – comparing the murder of Liza Doolots to the murder of Watermelody. Both had tarot cards left at their kidnapping and where their bodies were found. In the former case, it was The Fool; in the latter, The Chariot. Now, a new girl – this one from San Palomino High – was missing, with the card Strength left behind. If the pattern continued, sometime today, someone should find her naked body somewhere, her heart stabbed through and with some item in the gash, her cadaver completely drained of blood and with another copy of the tarot card in question.

He perused Wikipedia’s guide to the major arcana on the phone, but he soon gave up; it was layman’s information, and nothing more. The Fool, The Chariot and Strength – I have no idea what these cards mean, he groaned inwardly. I wish Cady had kept up with her tarot knowledge when she briefly fooled around with them in high school, but the only thing she remembers now is that old joke: ‘Play poker with tarot cards – get a royal flush, kill ten thousand people in the process.’ Then again, given what’s going on, maybe that’s not much of a joke.

Tired eyes looked at the pictures before him once more: Liza Doolots was looking to go into acting. Watermelody, like Liza, aspired to the stage. But Indigo Zap had Olympic aspirations. Different ages, different backgrounds, and nothing about the three were similar enough to trigger a lookalike sort of issue.

Maybe I need to go look into that New Age store downtown. The closest he’d ever been to it was the florist across the street, but now was the time, if any.

The door next to him opened up and out walked a very queasy-looking Sandalwood. “I swear, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m addicted to bacon double cheeseburgers and chili fries, I think I’d go vegetarian after seeing all that,” she moaned.

“You’re gonna get fat if you keep that up,” he teased her.

“Aww, but darling, don’t you want a mistress with more cushion for the pushin’?” she laughed. “Seriously, though,” she said, plopping down into the chair next to him, “this case is weird. Apparently both victims were killed with a silver knife or something – and according to the metallurgy tests, the weapon must have been pure silver. Look said that was practically impossible, because you can’t get pure anything.”

“And he was sure it was silver? Isn’t that a soft metal?”

“You tell me; you were the nerd in school,” she retorted. “Turns out the silver was so pure, there are microscopic burns around the edge of the puncture wound, as if the blade drew in static electricity from the general area.” When he looked at her, she added, “Y’see, silver’s the best element for conducting electricity with – I did pay attention in school on occasion, you know.”

“Whatever, Sandy.”

“Yeah, whatever exactly. Anyway, what’d you find?” He then shared everything he could look up regarding this, as well as his suggestion that they might want to look into going to that New Age store. Once she’d heard his whole explanation, she nodded and said, “You know what, I’m probably a little out of it still, but I think you’re right; this case is more like one of those Ogres & Oubliettes things you used to play all the time in school with that nerd herd of yours.”

“That’s Dungeons & Dragons, not whatever you said. And frankly, yeah, it does. Let’s get going; you can call Hardline and update her on the situation while we drive there.”

“Sure, just do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

“Souplantation for lunch – girl’s gotta watch her figure, you know.”

Perhaps thankfully, the sky was unusually overcast today for a funeral. Both Solaire and Sunset Shimmer opted to wear regular blouses and skirts, as did Coco and Vanilla. Autumn, Fancy and others wore suits and as the priest committed Wintry Mix to the Earth, promising her a better fate in heaven, Shimmer could only think of the last time she saw her grandmother, just a few days before she and her mother moved back to France.

“Sunny, dear, smile. I know it’s hard right now, but things will look up, I promise.”
“But Grandma, Daddy’s gone, and me an’ Mommy have to move to Payrees!”
“Paris, dear. But I promise I will always be here for you, Sunset, no matter what.”

But I wasn’t there for you, Shimmer thought with some guilt as she watched her grandmother’s coffin lowered into the ground. Once we were in France, I didn’t call or write you enough. I basically didn’t treat you as I should have, and now there’s nothing but regrets. It had been her Uncle Noblesse that had introduced her to the concept that he’d been named after, noblesse oblige: that with great power came great responsibility, and as a princess of House Bonaparte and the Imperial Dynasty of France, she was beholden to that as much as her mother’s cousin Divine Right was – and that he’d sincerely hoped she would never turn out like that buffoon.

“You didn’t fail her.” She heard her uncle’s voice as she felt his arm slide around her. “She wanted you to be happy, Sunset. You’d lost your father, and your mother was caught in the middle of…whatever it was back in France. Mom just wanted you to be happy and a normal girl, and the fact that you didn’t turn out to be spoiled would have made her proud.”

“But I didn’t—” she began.

“You’re probably beating yourself up about it. Don’t. She understood, because that’s just the norms of life. Remember, it was your father that chose to go to college here and live at home. I went to college in New Jersey and believe me, I was just as guilty of the same thing as you’re blaming yourself for. It’s perfectly normal to want to live your own life. I don’t doubt Mom did the same with her parents, and probably had the same regrets, too.”

“So you mean that….”

“It’s normal. Don’t blame yourself for that, Sunset. Your grandmother loved you too much to ever see you blame yourself for such things.” At this point the rest of the family showed up and Autumn asked Solaire, “Did you want us to go with you, or did you want the time alone?”

“Alone, please,” the woman insisted. Shimmer looked at her mother and swore that the bright pastels of her mother’s hair seemed muted today, as if her hair was in mourning as well. “I’d like to spend some time with my husband, and Sunset…well, you know.”

Vanilla nodded. “We’ll be waiting by the car, so take all the time you need.” As some members of the family’s staff appeared with additional bouquets to hand to Solaire and Shimmer, the two nodded silently and walked off, moving past Wintery Mix and her husband, through various members of the family on the plot, and finally to a lonely grave several plots down, a grave that read

SUMMER BREEZE
Devoted husband, son and father
REQUIEM EN PACE

Shimmer stood away from her mother to give her some privacy. Her parents had practically a fairy tale marriage until the tragedy and even now, eight years since his passing, Shimmer knew her mother still loved him. It was an ache that would never leave Solaire, Shimmer knew, and her mother had tried to date once or twice, without success. Shimmer worried that her mother would grow old and alone, but was constantly reminded that was her mother’s cross to bear, not hers. Besides, the only one Shimmer knew of that had tried to press his attentions on her lately had been Divine, and that was all types of wrong.

After what had seemed to be an eternity of waiting for her mother, Shimmer saw her finally rise from the ground then walk towards her. “It’s your turn, mon petit tournesol.” Understandably her mother’s eyes were red with tears.

“Are you going to be okay, Mom?” Shimmer asked Solaire as the woman reached into her purse for her sunglasses.

“Those questions are for the living, my child,” Solaire said in a voice that broke her daughter’s heart. “I feel sometimes like I stopped doing that ages ago. Now go; your father awaits.”

Shimmer sadly nodded and walked over to the solitary marble grave, placing her bouquet by her mother’s. “Hi, Daddy. It’s been a long time.” Shimmer could start to feel tears sting her eyes, but that was expected. “I…I’ve been doing okay, and I’ve grown a lot since the last time I was here. I’m not the same little girl that used to scrape her knees when you taught me how to ride a bike, or complained whenever Bright Fame kissed me on the cheek in second grade.” She chuckled at that; her father had explained that he’d tell her what it was all about when she was older, and for days she pestered him if she was old enough now. “I wish you could see me now, in person and see how much I’ve grown because of you. Because of everything you taught me, I’m more than just what everyone wants me to be.”

The tears burned down her cheeks, unstoppable, and a sob uttered from her lips. “Daddy, I love you and I miss you. And I know my life’s not over yet – that I still have more adventures to go on, as you always used to tell me – even the ones I’ll never see coming. But I promise you that I’ll be the woman you wanted me to be: more than a princess, more than a normal girl. I’ll make you and Grandma and everyone proud. I promise that.”

She stood up, the tears running freely, and she said, “Just as you said, Daddy: ‘This girl don’t walk – she runs.’ And I’ll keep running for you.” She then got up, placed her hand on her father’s grave, and as her tears fell on the stone, gave it a melancholy smile, then turned and walked away.

As she approached her mother, Solaire asked, “How are you holding up?”

“Do you remember the story he used to tell me all the time when I was a kid? The Magic Princess of the Mirror?”

Solaire chuckled. “You know there was no real story, right? He made that up one day when you insisted on a bedtime story, and afterwards he made up a lot of other stories for you.”

“I know,” Shimmer said softly. “And I treasure every one of them, especially the one he told me the night before he died.”

“Which was?”

Shimmer paused as if searching her memories for the answer. “‘And the Princess of the Mirror stood at the reflection, looking at the city just beyond it. And she smiled, because she knew the town so well, and that it would always welcome her, no matter what, because when you’ve found the place you belong, it means more than anything.’ It’s taken me years to understand what he meant, but I do now.”

“Which is?”

“Daddy loved you and me more than anything. We were his family and his all. And even though he’s gone now, he’s not really gone. He’s watching out for us, letting you know that he still loves you, and watching me still with pride.”

Solaire wiped the tears away from his eyes. “Spoken just as his daughter would.”

“You mean ‘not like a princess’?”

“Exactly. You were more to him than that.”

Spike watched as the guy with the forest-green hair onscreen, in a bathtub swarming with pancakes, cracked an egg over his head. “I am breakfast,” the man announced, his voice uttering from the speakers.

The boy laughed. “Totally Wizard is awesome!” he exclaimed, before a hand reached over and took the tablet from him. “Hey, I was watching that!”

Octavia narrowed her eyes. “Spike, how many times have I said to ask if you’re going to borrow my tablet?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Sunny, remind me to chastise Rainbow later for showing him that.”

Sunset didn’t even look up from her breakfast burrito. “Motion noted and granted,” she said simply before taking a bite.

“Aw, c’mon, Sunny!” Spike cried. “You laughed at it, too!”

“Spike, Rainbow has played that thing to death, so much so that I want to go burn down the nearest IHOP, okay?”

“So, what’s on the agenda today?” Twilight asked, changing the subject before it ended up with Spike getting in trouble again. “I know you’ve got the day off because the Café’s run out of stuff.”

“Yeah, and after all of yesterday, honestly, I could use a break,” the flame-haired girl admitted, “but no rest for the weary, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?”

“Trixie texted me last night; apparently her mother insists that I come in to have my chi tested because her mother is worried about—” Sunset at this point began air quotes, “—my ‘connection to the greater transmetaphysical and cosmological makeup of reality.’ Translation: she thinks I have no magic.”

Twilight huffed; as a woman of science, she hated people who believed magic and the supernatural. Sure, she had a religious background, but that was paranatural, which was different. The supernatural was nothing but superstition and mumbo-jumbo bunk. “Do you really have to go?”

“Probably; I met Trixie’s mother a few months back and I don’t think Trix is going to get any peace of mind until I save her from this. God knows she already gets grief from her mom because she thinks Trixie’s gay.”

“But I thought Lyra was?” Octavia asked.

“She is, but Trixie’s mother thinks Trix should be, too, just so that she can touch her lambda self or some bullshit like that. I think it’s just Harmonic Convergence’s way of thinking of Lyra like her own and keeping tabs on her – and if it takes those two, Bonnie and some other victim in a…I think it’s called an Ishtarine coterie or something along those lines…together, then Harmonic is happy.”

“Your friends are weird, Sunny.” Octavia suddenly fell silent as she realized the triplets were part of that friendship and now suddenly they disappeared, not to be heard from since Sunset and Pinkie’s run-in with Sonata.

“Look, maybe we can ask Shiny to look into it,” Twilight suggested, knowing exactly what was on her cousin’s mind. “If they’re really in trouble, then they need help, and that’s what friends are for, right?”

“Yeah,” Octavia agreed, punctuating her sentence by finishing off her burrito.

“Yeah, I’m gonna do some quick laps around the track and then everything should be fine,” a young man said on the phone. “I should be done by 10, and I’ll pick you up by noon. Yeah, love you too, honey. See ya.” With that, the man put his phone in its holster and began running down the track, his plan to get a decent six miles’ worth in before he hit the shower. Fortunately, he had all of Canterlot State’s running track to himself this early in the morning.

Too bad he didn’t even finish a full lap before he found the body. He turned and rushed to the side, vomiting from the corpse. Fingers fumbling, he then dialed 911.

Not much longer, Indigo Zap was confirmed dead. Her body, perfectly poised like the others, had a starting pistol placed into her stab wound. Aside from that, she wore the shoes she had on when she disappeared, and the rest of her blanched and nude body otherwise undisturbed.

Held in her hands was the tarot card Strength, as earlier.

“Dammit!”

Sweet Leaf looked at the engine of her car, which was steaming, the only part of the car that was working. Her parents had repeatedly told her that commuting to and from her boyfriend’s place in Ashland, Oregon was going to put an excessive strain on her BMW, but fuck it, what did those old fucks know? Turned out a lot, given that when she popped open the hood she couldn’t even begin to identify parts much less figure out what was wrong.

“Look, I don’t care! I want a tow truck out here right now, okay? This is what you jerks get paid for!” She hung up the phone unceremoniously, pissed as fuck about how her morning had started. Sure, yesterday was great: she’d spent the past few days at her boyfriend’s place, drinking, smoking pot and doing what came naturally, so much so that she was glad he’d bought cases of Trojans. But his parents were supposed to come home today and while her parents didn’t give a fuck about her, his were ultra-strict, so she was headed home. She had to go home anyway, given that her mother had to go to her boss’ funeral today and that meant she had to watch that little sperm-dropping she called a brother.

Well, at least afterwards they were going out of town for the rest of the month, and that meant that she could party down with her friends, and spend a lot of time getting Mountain Meadow inside her. Hell, maybe if she was willing, she could get her best friend Lakeside into the fun as well; Lake was bi-curious, and Sweet wanted to have some fu—

Half an hour later, the tow truck showed up. The driver looked pissed; he didn’t like getting talked down to by customers, no matter how much money they made. Plus, Black Butte had no tow trucks, so he had to come from Weed, the next city over. Hey, at least he was making more than enough money, given that people tended to break down in this section of Interstate 5 on a regular basis.

As he approached, he groaned: great, it was a Beemer, and aside from being overpriced German pieces of shit – anyone who was anyone knew that if you wanted a classy car, you drove a Cadillac! – the license plate read SPLDGRL, which clearly described the owner. Likely, he mused, the owner was only good for two things: keeping her boyfriend happy and being an embarrassment to her parents.

C’mon, Wheel Lift, be professional, he said, adjusting his ballcap and getting out of the truck. “Hey, Weed Towing here for a Ms. Sweet Leaf.” Silence. “Ms. Leaf?” Nothing. He walked over to the car, seeing the keys in the ignition, nothing else, and certainly no sign of the girl. The area was relatively flat and there was no sign of her; likewise, she’d have been crazy to walk across the Interstate, not that there was much traffic right now.

Heading over to the engine, hoping to find a sign, he instead found a single card sitting on the engine block. But he’d played poker with the boys in the shop tons of times and he’d never seen a playing card like this.

Wheel of Fortune, it read, as he looked at the image of the oversize wooden wheel and the naked woman spinning it. What the fuck is this shit?

Hardline sat at her desk, giving Shining a lidded look. “Look, I see what you’re getting at, but…really?”

He looked across the desk at her. “Yes, seriously. I don’t know what the connections are, but people don’t just leave random tarot cards unless they’re seriously fucking with the police or unless they’ve got an ulterior motive.”

She sighed. “You know, I really wish I could believe that. My first case, I was working with an agent by the name of Monochrome. Boring, by-the-rules agent; guy should’ve been a DA because he definitely had the law memorized. Anyway, we were working on a murder case out in Toledo – we’d been called in from DC, because the local agents investigating found some weird, Twin Peaks meets X-Files kind of shit – and before you ask, no, none of that shit is real. So Monochrome – never a nickname, always just ‘Monochrome’ – and I look into the case. Turns out that the killer was leaving clues for us, a wrapper for some Turkish candy.

“Anyways, Monochrome went nuts trying to find the commonality: none of the girls were from that part of the world, two of their names were of Turkish origin but had since been Anglicized, and the closest thing we could find was that three of them worked in the same donut shop once. We then assumed that the killer might have been from Turkey, but there was only one person in all of Ohio who was from there originally…and she was in a hospice due to dementia. But we got a lucky break, and we finally caught the bastard.”

“So what was the angle?” Shining asked.

“There wasn’t one. The guy just had a thing for Turkish candy and had it ordered via the internet – keep in mind, this case was still when the net was in its infancy, so we never thought to check. Furthermore, he had an accident when he was a kid and burned off all his fingerprints, which is why we couldn’t get prints, either. We ended up getting him through DNA, and even back then that was still dicey.” She leaned back in her chair and said, “Sometimes, Shining, there’s no commonality. Sometimes a dead lead is just that. I know you’re just a beat cop and not a ‘tec, so you wouldn’t have that type of experience, so take my advice on this and get what you can out of it.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d still like to look into it, just in case.”

“Knock yourself out. Just…if it doesn’t pan out, don’t lose it like Monochrome did.”

“What happened to him?”

“Guy had a meltdown because his perfectly investigated case turned out to be anything but. Regional Director ended up offering him early retirement, which he took. Last I heard, he was working as a security consultant up in Bozeman, Montana.” She leaned forward once more before adding, “And if you’re right about this – and I’m going to take a guess and say you’re not – then we’re in deep shit, because the last thing we need when we have a paramilitary war about to fall around our ears is a really esoteric serial killer.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, rising from his chair. “No kidding on that.”

He walked back to his desk, where Sandalwood was typing along on her computer. “So, Hardy give the okay?”

“Yeah, but she said she thinks it’s a wild goose chase.”

“She’s probably right. But you know what? As long as I’ve known you, weird shit happens. So excuse me if I doubt the doubter.”

Sunset parked in front of The Merrie Wytch – Wait, wasn’t it called ‘Wiccan Wonderland’ last time I was here? – thankful that parking meters weren’t installed on this street just yet. The moment she opened the door to her car, Trixie rushed out of the store and shouted, “Quickly! We have to get out of here!”

“Trix, wha—”

“Sunny, if you’re my friend you will help me escape before it’s too lat—”

“Oh, there you are, my dearest child!” Harmonic Convergence walked out of the door, dressed in a beautiful silk gown that would have looked amazing had it not looked like something out of the cheesiest 70s occult film Sunset had watched – and given that she’d watched a few with her father a week or two past, it could always be worse. “And I see you’ve brought your dearest heart with you!”

“WE ARE NOT LOVERS!” Sunset and Trixie shouted in unison.

“Oh, dearest ones, you have nothing to fear from me. I’ve always hoped for my dearest Beatrix to find her heart of hearts; and with you two tied with Lyra and lovely Kẹo Dừa, you four will find tantric wisdom at the touch of your souls!”

“What is she talking about?”

Trixie facepalmed. “You really don’t want to know, Sunny.”

“Oh, it’s a splendid thing, dearest Sunset!” Harmonic chirped. “I finally found a way to tie you to the metasphere of the universe, by wa—” A strange sound emanated from the store, sounding as if a Dead Can Dance CD was brutally assaulted by disco refugees from Saturday Night Fever. “Oh, that’s the telephone! Excuse me, won’t you, girls?” The woman practically glided in, her gown floating in an ethereal breeze…or more likely the motion of her footsteps.

Sunset looked at Trixie. “Explain.”

“Two words: my mother. That enough explanation for you?”

Sunset sighed. “Not really, but why do I get the feeling that I’m about to make a huge mistake going in there?”

Trixie patted her friend on the shoulder. “Now you know what the past seventeen years of my life have been like.”

Sunset locked her car and as Trixie led her in, the flame-haired teen asked, “So, ‘The Merrie Wytch’?”

Trixie nodded. “Dad got tired of one too many ‘protests’ by Fluffy Bunny that amounted to nothing – it’s not like she had any grounds to sue us. So Dad thought to change the store’s name, and convinced Mom it was a ‘cosmic fortune’ that came to him in a dream.” She giggled. “He might not be a magician, but he’s as good a bullshit artist as the rest of us. So, are you ready for this?”

“Not really, but I trust you.”

The smile Trixie gave Sunset was awkward. “Well, that’s a vote of confidence in me; I just hope your trust isn’t misplaced.”

They then entered the store, only to walk into Lyra, who was walking downstairs, wearing only a towel. “Okay, Mrs. C,” she said to Harmonic, “where did you say that oil was?”

Without looking at Lyra, Harmonic said, “It’s behind the counter, dearie. Let your creative aura take you to new directions!”

Lyra then caught Trixie and Sunset. “Heya! Trixie, we’ve almost got your room set up!”

“Ly, why do you have a towel on?” Sunset asked.

The celeste-haired girl rolled her eyes, as if it were obvious. “Well, duh! I’m not walking downstairs naked, you know? Plus, you’re not supposed to see things until you’ve been prepared!”

“Prepared for what?” Trixie asked. “Mom, did you do something while I was out?”

Harmonic smiled sweetly. “Well, of course I did, my dearest daughter! I knew you simply couldn’t let your heart’s champion live another day without the life force that envelops us all, so I found a tantric spell that is just divine for infusing the aura!”

“Yeah!” Lyra agreed. “So while you were out, I’ve been prepping your room for this and getting ready! Though the shaving part was kinda rough.”

“I’m going to be sick….” Trixie moaned as she realized what her mother had just done. “Mom!” she shouted. “You didn’t!”

“Of course not; that would be offending and besides, I love your father – I would never do such a thing. Plus, Sunset’s underage,” Harmonic said matter-of-factly. “Fortunately for you, Lyra here was more than willing to volunteer.”

Lyra pulled out an unmarked earthenware jar, then walked over to Sunset, taking her by the hand. “Honestly, I think you’ll enjoy it, Sunny, though I didn’t know you swung that way.”

“What the hell is going on?” Sunset asked.

“White tantrism, of course! It’s supposed to put the divine energy of the Godhead into you, because you have no magic,” Lyra explained in a scholarly manner. “Now c’mon, we have to get you shaved, unless you’d rather shave yourself. Personally I’d recommend the former, so you can get used t—”

The moment she heard the word tantrism, Sunset pulled back. She knew what it was; she’d tried more than once to attempt to restore her magic through that means – and Flash had certainly been more than willing to experiment with her body. When she finally realized that things weren’t going the way she’d expected it to, she stopped experimenting, at least in that regard. The smart thing would have been to leave Flash…but I was never smart.

“Lyra, do you know what the hell’s going on?” Trixie asked.

“Yeah! We’re supposed to do the Crown of the Golden Dawn! It’s a tantric sex thing that’s supposed to help Sunny get her chi back! Granted, I’ll have to explain some things to Bonnie, but she’ll understand this is all to help Sunny, right?”

Trixie shook her head. “Do you know what the Crown of the Golden Dawn is?”

“Yeah, I read it this morning: four women, and all must have sex with one another at least once to gather divine energy from the macrocosm before the three perform the final act on the sublimator to make her attain divine wisd—”

“No, stupid. How many partners are involved?”

“Four, why?” Trixie just crossed her arms at the moment and waited for the thought to kick in; a second later a horrified look came onto her face. “That means that you and I… I mean….” She started to look as green as her hair. “You’re like my sister, Trix! How could you even think that I would—?”

“I didn’t,” Trixie commented before pointing to her mother. “She, however, did.”

An awkward smile came onto Harmonic’s face as if she’d clearly been caught holding the canary. “I…thought it would be best for you to start off in a most benevolent fashion?”

Meanwhile, Lyra looked as though her world had just crashed down on her. “I… I almost…. Trixie and me….” Without a second to lose she ran upstairs towards the residential part of the house, and a second later, everyone could hear the sounds of retching coming from where the bathroom was situated.

“My, I hadn’t thought that she’d react that badly,” Harmonic mused. “I thought you two were close, Beatrix?”

“Yes, to the point that you practically just suggested incest by proxy!” Trixie seethed. “Plus, I’m not a lesbian, for fuck’s sake!”

A second later the door to the store opened again and Bon-Bon walked in. “Okay, I’m here,” she announced. “Ly, honey, why did you ask me to bring our toys?” She then looked at Sunset, who had a mollified look on her face; and Trixie, who looked like she was about to go Vesuvius.

“Heya, Bonnie,” Sunset said in a voice that was too tightly controlled to be friendly.

“Did I miss something?” Bon-Bon asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Trixie said, as Lyra came back down, still wearing nothing but the towel.

Ten minutes and a sudden argument between Lyra and Bon-Bon that actually drove other customers out of the store, Lyra watched as Bon-Bon stormed out the door, angry. “But I wasn’t cheating on you,” she whispered.

Trixie put an arm around her lifelong friend. “Lyra, I love you dearly, but you are a world-class idiot, you know that?” Lyra merely leaned her head against the shoulder of the smaller girl. “For the record, explaining that your plan to sleep with Sunset was just going to be quick so you could save the good stuff for her….” The teenage magician sighed. “Did you really put a single neuron of thought into it?”

“I was just trying to help,” Lyra said bleakly.

“I think I’d better go handle Bonnie,” Sunset said, heading towards the door. “Lyra, don’t do anything stupid in the meanwhile.”

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t,” Trixie assured her.

“What if I looked into a two-person tantric position?” Lyra asked her.

Trixie just hugged her friend closer. “Let’s get you upstairs, okay?”

Divine screamed, the skin on his hand blistering and red from the second degree burn. Around her, the drops from the blood of this latest girl sizzled and hissed like boiling water or a light acid. The dead girl, her body now drained of blood, lay on the table, her eyes reflecting the final terror on her face; fitting, given that she’d tried everything, including the offer of “the best sex you ever had!” to try to escape. However, she had been chosen for her purpose, and for that, she would be taken.

But her blood had been rejected by the Cask of the Damned, and it had geysered out of the cask and away from the pure blood. It sprayed everywhere and where it did, it burned. The largest splotches were now eating into the wall, as if the strength of the blood seemed to increase.

“You were a whore,” he seethed at the dead girl. “You were supposed to be pure!” He punched the corpse once, twice, angry. His hand hurt like hell, and he had no healing magic that he could call upon; his research into the Father of Father’s books hadn’t gone along that far yet. Furthermore, if he went through this again, it would further impede him and time was of the essence. There was but only a couple of weeks remaining until the Grand Alignment, and everything had to be in place before then. He could not afford further delays.

He would have to get some assistance for this part of the phase.

Sunset stepped out of the store to see Bon-Bon leaning against a streetlamp. “Can I bum a ride off you? Had my sister drop me off, and….” Bon-Bon sighed. “I’ve really got to save up for my own car one of these days.”

“Yeah, sure,” Sunset said, fishing in her pocket for the car keys. “You want to go get something to drink?”

“Sure, that’d be great,” Bon-Bon said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Sunset went and hugged the girl. “You know she didn’t mean it.”

“I know,” Bon-Bon said in a quiet voice. “She’s always so willing to help her friends that she literally never thinks about the consequences.” The martial artist leaned into Sunset’s embrace for a few minutes, silently letting her friend’s tears soak her shirt. Finally, Bon-Bon stopped and said, “A year ago, you’d be the last person I’d have turned to.”

“A year ago, I would have cheered to see you and Lyra fight like that. Now?” Sunset shook her head. “She loves you, you know that?”

“I know. I wouldn’t be like this if I didn’t know that. I mean, look at me. I’m supposed to be the tough girl, but I melt into her arms like the happy little femme that I am and even something as innocent as this breaks me. Maybe I just love her too much.”

Sunset let Bon-Bon go and smiled. “No, if anything, I wish I could have the kind of relationship you two do. You’ll bounce back after this, probably first thing tomorrow. And Lyra’s completely devoted to you, even if she picks weird ways of showing it.”

“I kno…hey, isn’t that your brother? A nondescript sedan pulled into a parking space across the street, and Shining and Sandalwood got out of the car.

“Heya, Sunny. What’re you doing here?” he asked as he approached.

“Visiting Trixie and narrowly avoiding the most awkward moment of my life. What about you?”

“Well, I was looking for Wiccan Wonderland. I thought I saw it around here once.”

“Oh, that’d be this store; they changed the name,” Sunset explained. “Oh and heya, Deputy Sandalwood.”

“Heya, yourself, though you can just call me Sandy. Do you know if Harmonic Convergence is in there?”

“Uh, yeah, she is,” Bon-Bon offered.

Something triggered Sunset’s instincts. “Something wrong?”

“I can’t talk about that right now, sis,” he told her. “Let’s just say that if I’m right about this…you, Twily and Tavi’ll be the first to know. Just…go home right now, okay?”

“I was actually visiting friends here.”

“I know, but…look, Sunny, right now’s not a good time. Nothing’s wrong, and I’m not going to be arresting anyone, I promise. I just need to ask Mrs. Convergence a few questions.”

“You’re not doing anything to make me feel comfortable right now.”

Sandalwood looked at her partner. “Don’t worry, Shining, I got this.” Pulling Sunset and Bon-Bon aside, she told them, “We’re here to discuss something involving the murder case from two days ago. There’s some evidence we found that we can’t understand, so we’re inquiring with an expert. I can’t say anything more than that, and that might have been too much. Now, Sunset here is Shining’s sister, so I know I can trust her, but can I ask you the same? This is an FBI investigation here and I don’t need to tell you how serious that is.”

“You have my word that I won’t say anything, Officer,” Bon-Bon intoned solemnly.

Sunset looked at Bon-Bon. “Do we want to get out of here or stay in case they need us?”

“Stay. I’m feeling a little better now – thanks for the support – but I think that Trixie and Lyra might need us just in case something else happens.”

Both Shining and Sandalwood walked into the store, and a familiar whiff hit her nostrils. “Wow, not every day you get to smell your namesake,” she commented. “Guess I’ll have to get me some incense for my place afterwards. Maybe some crystals, too.”

“Or maybe you could learn tarot so that we could avoid coming here again.”

“Naah, that’d take the fun out of it,” she said, as she paused to look at a display of “organically created and treated clothing designed for the modern wymyn”.

“Welcome to The Merrie Wytch! The finest purveyor of everything you need to reach your inner chi and more! What can I do for you and your delightful auras?”

Shining pulled out his badge. “FBI, ma’am. We need to talk to you about something.”

The look on Harmonic’s face was one of panic. “No! I-I didn’t know, officers! I thought that I was bo—”

Trixie walked over and said, “Don’t worry about her, uh, Shining, right? Mom’s just worried about operating magic without a license.” She then went over to talk to her mother. “Mom, it’s okay. Really.”

Sandalwood shook her head, facepalming. “Really don’t have time for this,” she muttered before looking at Harmonic. “Look, we’re here because we need some assistance with a case, and since you’re the only fruit-loop store in town, we need you to answer some questions for us. Since whatever you’re going to say is probably stupid, we can’t arrest you because stupid is not illegal in this country, unfortunately. So drop the whole Fleetwood Mac leftover from the 70s shit and can we talk to whatever is really in that head of yours?”

Harmonic sighed. “Ah guess Ah will.”

The younger girls in the room all dropped their jaws, even Trixie. “Mom, I….”

“Darlin’, this is who Ah am,” Harmonic told her. “Ah just do th’ hippie stuff cuz then cust’mers take m’ seriously that way. Y’ ‘member where Ah’m from, right?”

“I thought you were joking when you said you were from Tennessee!” Trixie admitted.

“Nope. Hell, mah name ain’t even Harmonic Convergence – well, ‘tweren’t born with it, anyways. Changed mah name; ‘riginally, it was Dixie Flower.”

“So none of this is real?”

“Naaah, Ah jest like workin’ with this stuff. Ah mean, yeah, shure as shootin’ Ah believe there’s magic, but Ah don’ believe in that tantric stuff. Just kinky sex shit, ‘ts all there is.”

Trixie was about to feel sick, and her legs swooned; fortunately, Bon-Bon moved to catch her. “So you mean you never—“

“Honeychile, d’ y’ think Ah’d really want y’ t’ do that? Ah love Lyra like she’s mah own, y’ know that.” She paused. “Do you, uh, mind if I go back to this? Wouldn’t want customers to walk in and get the wrong idea.”

From the other side of the room, Sunset rolled her eyes. “Oh, no, we wouldn’t want the charlatan to make people think she wasn’t anything less than authentic….”

“It’s all an act, Sunset, dear,” Harmonic said with a wink before turning back to her daughter. “Though I am to blame for possibly letting Lyra get into that mindset – she loves you dearly but she really doesn’t think all that much – and for that, I am sorry, Beatrix. I’ll explain things to her later, but for now, would you mind watching the store?”

Trixie looked as though her world had just been destroyed. Fortunately, Bon-Bon said, “We’ll take care of it, Mrs. C, don’t worry. Just…don’t expect us to do a Ishtarine coterie, okay?”

Harmonic laughed. “Ain’t no such thing, honeychile. Mostly, that’s an excuse fer four lesbians t’...well, Ah’m sure y’ can figure out th’ rest.” Turning to the officers, she asked, “Will you two follow me upstairs? We can talk up there unimpeded.”

“Sure,” Shining said with a shrug. “This whole thing’s weird enough to begin with.”

A few minutes later, and they met at her kitchen table, to which both Shining and Sandalwood were surprised to find a normal house. “Ah like bein’ a normal gal,” Harmonic said, laughing at their expressions. Shining noted that she was switching between the two accents now easily.

“I guess I just got caught up too much in being a California hippie,” Harmonic admitted. “True, I’m originally from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but I spent my high school years down south in LA, in the Melrose district. I learned my craft from my best friend Caribbean Blue’s mother, Afer Ventus. Went to college here, and noticed they didn’t have a new age store, so I opened one, and adopted Afer’s personality, changing my name to Harmonic Convergence. My husband and I met when he was opening his store next door, and things just clicked.”

“That’s nice, but we’re not here for that,” Sandalwood said, slipping into “Bad Cop” mode.

Shining, always the “Good Cop”, slipped into his act as well and said, “Sandy, not right now. You’ll have to excuse my partner, Mrs. Convergence, she’s very eager to capture the murderer.”

“A murder?” Harmonic gasped. “Well, Ah do declare Ah h—”

“Lady, cut the shit, okay?” Sandalwood reached into her coat pocket, and pulled out three plastic bags, with cards in them. “What do you know about these?”

“Well, they’re tarot cards, obviously; major arcana.” Harmonic looked at the three cards. “This isn’t a standard deck,” she said with some surprise. “Most people use the Rider or Marseilles decks – they’re the most common ones. Hold on a second.” She walked over to a nearby bookshelf, bringing back with her a hardcover book with the title Monadem ex Arcanis. “This book is a list of all the known tarot decks ever created, from the oldest to the most esoteric. It was a book that Carrie – Caribbean Blue, that is – wrote last year.”

A few minutes passed by before Harmonic gasped in shock.

“What is it?” Shining asked.

Harmonic held up the book. “This is the Dead Hand set. They were tied to the Dead Hand murders in Los Angeles back in 1985.”

“The Dead Hand?”

“This happened while I was in high school. Back in 1985, there was a group of serial killings tied to a killer known as the Valley Intruder, who was eventually revealed to be a former soldier and fervent Satanist named Nightstalker. But what was wasn’t mentioned much was at the same time, there was another serial killer who was killing victims and draining them of their blood, for reasons unknown. He was called Dead Hand, because he used specialized tarot cards and called himself that in a letter to the LAPD.”

“How do you know this?” Sandalwood asked.

“Afer was assisting the police on the case after one of the girls in our neighborhood was murdered. She was a Joker.” Seeing the looks on their faces, Harmonic added, “No, I don’t mean she was a prankster or anything like that, but…. If I recall what Afer said – she asked Carrie and I to help with the research as well – the girls who were ‘blooded pure’—”

“Pure blooded?” Shining asked.

“Virgins,” Sandalwood answered, getting a very bad feeling about what she was about to hear.

“Yes. Those ‘blooded pure’ – the statement was in the Dead Hand letter – were assigned numbers on the major arcana. Those who were unclean – who were no longer virgins – were given joker cards – specialized Joker cards from the standard card deck – to replace the initial arcanas because they were no longer pure, for whatever reasons there were. There were seven girls – five Arcanas, two Jokers – but after Nightstalker was arrested, the murders suddenly stopped. He admitted to the police that he had nothing to do with it, though he’d gladly take credit, that bastard.”

Sandalwood leaned back in her chair. “Great! First that whole Vibe shit, then this new shit, and now we might have a serial killer on the loose. Maybe I should rejoin the Nav and see if I can get stationed somewhere safer, like Afghanistan.”

Shining ignored that and asked, “Do you mind if I borrow this?”

“I have some paperbacks downstairs for sale; I’ll give you a couple of copies. I can also give you Carrie’s number, if you need to speak with her.”

“That probably won’t be necessary, but if we may, can we call on you again?”

“Absolutely,” Harmonic ensured them. “If this is happening again…innocent girls are going to die. Girls like Fiesta, and those other six innocent souls in LA. You can’t let that happen again, Agent Armor. You just can’t.”

“You’ve helped us understand what we couldn’t, Mrs. Convergence. Don’t worry; we’re going to stop this guy.”

Suddenly, Sandalwood’s phone went off. “Yes, this is Agent Sandalwood. What? Okay, give us a second, we’re on the way.”

“What’s going on?” Shining asked.

“They just found another body,” Sandalwood told him and Harmonic. “And she had a joker card on her.”

“Yeah, I knew,” Lyra told them.

“You knew?” Trixie told her, “and you didn’t say anything?”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “You’re supposedly my best friend – we’re practically sisters, for fuck’s sake – and you treat me like some space-age hippie like the rest of them! Yeah, sure, I believe in magic, and I’m a pagan, and I don’t get the greatest grades in school, but I’m not stupid!”

“I never thought you were, Lyra,” Trixie told her.

“Yes, you did. Hell, so do you,” Lyra snarled at Bon-Bon, angry. “And you! Well…I guess I can’t get too mad at you, given that you were the brunt of the joke,” Lyra admitted. “But I’m not stupid, okay? I like working here, I like learning from your mom, and if she ever retires, I want to take over the store – heck, I might even give it a stable name!” she said with a wide smile.

“But….”

Lyra hugged Trixie. “Trixie, you are my best friend and I love you like a sister, but please, keep in mind that just because I dance to a different tune doesn’t mean that I don’t know when the music changes. And Bonnie, I’m hurt that you believed I’d go that far – I would never cheat on you. Yeah, I went upstairs and shaved, but that was because, well….”

“Can we talk about this later?” Bon-Bon asked, blushing furiously.

“Sure. And Sunny, I guess I’m the one that owes you an apology. I didn’t know if Mrs. C. was serious – I sure wasn’t – but I wanted to play a practical joke and I let it get out of hand. I would never try anything with anyone. Not my sister,” she said, shifting to have one arm around Trixie, “not my girlfriend”, she said, putting the other arm around Bon-Bon, “and certainly not my other friends. I’m not that kind of girl.”

“You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that,” Sunset said as Sandalwood and Shining rushed downstairs, with Harmonic close behind them.

“We gotta go, but just give Sunset the books and I’ll get them from her later tonight,” Shining told Harmonic. “Thanks again.” With that, both officers raced out of the building, and a few seconds later, the wail of a siren went off as tires screeched and an engine roared.

“What is going on?” Bon-Bon asked.

“Girls, I’m going to have to ask you two to go home for the day,” Harmonic told Sunset and Bon-Bon. “Lyra, please get me two copies of the Monadem ex Arcanis.”

“Sure thing,” the celeste-haired girl replied, heading to the far side of the store.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Trixie inquired.

“Trixie, sweetie, listen to me when I tell you that nothing is wrong…yet.” Hearing that from her mother made her worry all the much more; Harmonic had never once called her daughter by her nickname. “Just believe me when I say that I hope I’m wrong about all this.”

“Mom, you’ve got me a little worried right now.”

“Not half as worried as I am, dear.” Harmonic went behind the counter and opened up the jewelry case, pulling out three leather cords with what looked to be octagonal rubies enclasped by a silver setting. The moment Lyra arrived with the books, Harmonic placed them in a bag as well as the pendants and handed it to Sunset. “Agent Armor will be picking these up from you. I am also giving you the Heart of the Sirens, three of the most expensive crystals I have in my collection. They were said to be the hearts of mermaids originally, and while I don’t believe that, I can sense magic in them. They’re meant to keep those agents and a third safe. I wish I could give more, but all I have is three.”

“Mom, what’s going on?” Trixie asked, now seriously worried. Her mother just gave Sunset three pendants that were close to $5000 each.

Harmonic ignored her daughter. “Bon-Bon, Sunset, go home…and please, be safe. Beatrix, Lyra, let’s close the shop and we’ll go upstairs and I’ll tell you. Lyra, call your parents and let them know you’ll be staying the night. Now, please, girls, do as I say, please.”

Shining and Sandalwood slammed on the brakes several minutes later, coming to a stop in a gated community in Darkside, an upper-middle class community at the extreme northern end of Equestria County. Coming within feet of various people who lived in the neighborhood crowding around a house and several members of the ECSD pushing them away, they were escorted in by Diamond Dazzle, the senior ECSD deputy on the scene. “Hey, Sandy, when did you go Fibbie?”

“On loan, Di,” Sandalwood said. “What’ve you got?”

“Well, given that you’re here, I guess you’re tak—”

“Not now, Di,” Sandalwood warned. “Shit’s going down. Now, please, update me?”

“Fine, fine. The man of the house came outside after hearing some dogs barking, found this. It’s ugly, let me warn you – one of the newbies had to go vomit after seeing this shit.” The crowd got stronger and Diamond ordered to the other deputies, “Get the crowds away, now, understood? I’ve got a couple of sergeants on the way, but given that you got here first, I’m guessing we’re turning it over to you guys?”

“Yeah,” Shining told her, walking towards the body, which had been protected mostly from view by the Lexus SUV parked in front. Seeing it, he blanched slightly; it was more vicious than he’d expected. “This…this is inhuman,” he said to no one in particular.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” another man who had just arrived, told him. “Did time in the first Gulf War, and I’ve seen me some dead bodies…but there’s dead, and there’s atrocities.” Standing up, he said, “You with the Feds?”

“Yeah, Agent Shining Armor, though I’m on loan from CPD,” he said, offering his hand.

“Sergeant Fieldmaster. I was informed you guys have lead on this case. You might want to see this,” he told Shining, holding out a plastic bag. “It was the only thing on her when she was found…well the only thing aside from th—”

“I get it; you don’t have to explain,” Shining said, as he took the bag, which unsurprisingly held a card. The emblems on the corners were that of a black jester’s cap accompanied by a black laughing mask, while the card’s central image carried three pink flowers that he couldn’t identify.”

“Stevia florisii,” Fieldmaster said coincidentally. “Flowering Stevia, also known as the Sweet Leaf. My wife grows some in the front yard.”

“I’ll take note of that,” he said.

“I hope that’s not all you do,” Fieldmaster told him, his eyes angry. “This girl didn’t deserve this.”

“Well, I’m of the mind to arrest him. My partner, however, wants him dead.”

“Smart woman,” Fieldmaster said coldly.

A few minutes later, Hardline arrived, and behind her was Shining Badge. “Sorry we’re late; had to pick the boss up at the airport when the shit went down.”

Badge bent down and lifted the tarp, looking at the body. He then set it down, his hands shaking. “Never in my life have I ever seen anything like this, folks,” he told them. “I wouldn’t even do that to my worst enemy, though I’d be sore tempted to, admittedly. Fourth girl, new card and I don’t understand what the hell’s going on. I don’t like not understanding, folks. I don’t think I need to explain how bad that is.”

“We’ll get right on that, boss,” Hardline promised.

“We may not have to,” Shining Armor explained. He then detailed the lead he followed, as well as the discovery he made and Harmonic Convergence’s explanation of what happened in Los Angeles. “She knows exactly what’s going on and if it’s even remotely true, then we have a big problem, sir.”

Badge looked at the covered girl, then at the coroner’s office personnel, which had just arrived. “How soon can you put together a briefing, Shining?”

“Boss, you can’t possibly believe—” Hardline began.

“No, but it makes just as much sense as anything else we got right now, and frankly, we’re grasping at straws,” he told her. “We owe it to this girl’s life to look into every little nook and cranny to make sure that we unearth the party or parties that did this – at this point, if you had proof that technicolor cartoon horses did it, I’d look into that! But let me assure you, once we do find them, we will hit the guilty with the full weight of the law. And do you know why?” He pointed at that girl. “Because we have her and three others like her now! And if his theory is right, we may have more!”

“Point taken, Boss,” Hardline commented.

“Now I need you to get a hold of the LA Division and see what they have on this case. I want everything, and if they’re willing to send manpower – God knows we’re already in a shitstorm – then I want everything short of the Army here!”

“There you go, your highness,” one of the medics told him as she wrapped his hand in gauze. “Keep it wrapped and change the bandages daily for a week and then see me in about ten days so I can check on your hand, sir.”

“Thank you,” Divine said pleasantly. “I’m thankful for your assistance.”

“No, sir, you’re helping us to get vengeance against the government that betrayed us. If anyone’s to be thanked, it’s you.” Gathering the medical gear she used to take care of him, she went back to the cabinet.

“So what happened?” Cantata asked him.

“Spell didn’t work,” he told her. “The little trollop wasn’t pure, which means I’ll have to pull from the auxiliary list.”

“Not in that condition. I’m not about to let my…investment in you go unchecked. What can we do?”

“I need some of your people for a special assignment. They need to be silent, absolutely loyal and willing to do the dirtiest work possible.”

“I’ll review my lists. We keep two teams – one senior, one junior – trained for absolute black operations.”

“The kind that involve killing little girls?” he asked her.

“The kind that involve murdering babies, if need be,” she admitted. “It’s part of the duties we were given, and it’s what they’re trained for.”

He thought about it for a second, then said, “How old is the junior team?”

“All three are eighteen, if I recall, though their team commander, Lieutenant Rise, is 23.”

“See if they’re available; I do believe that I have an assignment for them – one that requires, ahem, discretion.”

“Of course. Also, I’ve talked to the lead scientist. He should have a test sample of the serum by tomorrow, and if it’s successful, we can begin mass production shortly thereafter. Are we still on track for aftercare?”

Divine tried to temple his fingers, but winced at the motion. “Yes. In fact, it may just be a good test of this Black trio.”

“I’ll get right on it. In the meanwhile, I have some other issues at hand: CSIS knows we’re here in Canterlot though not precisely where. Our reserve base in Dubai was ambushed by a team belonging to the CIA, and we think the Americans are now involved. However, I’ve instructed our people to disregard American involvement at the moment, because we don’t need the extra front. However, I have detailed sixty of my personnel, including four of my officers, to an alternate location in the Everfree Forest. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to find a way to get the information to the authorities.”

“You’re throwing away those troops?”

“Better to sacrifice those that cannot cut it than to endanger all my people. Still, 240 personnel are more than enough to take down CSIS headquarters, and with the backing of the serum, they’ll be more lethal than a thousand.”

“Brutal and devious. I like it.”

“Oh, you’ll see more, I’m sure,” she told him. “Let me go speak to the team, and I’ll meet you in the main conference room in an hour.” She kissed him on the cheek, and with a girlish wink, walked out of the sickbay.

“Mom, Dad, I’m glad you could be here for this, because I want you all to hear this,” Shining said. “Celestia, Luna, thanks for taking time out of your schedule as well.”

“You said it was important, son,” Night replied. “Given your occupation, I’m given to listen to you when you say something’s important and call a family meeting.”

“Plus, if it was important enough for Cadance to call us and ask for our presence, I was all too glad to do so,” Celestia replied.

“Well, I wish there was a more positive reason for this meeting,” Cadance said, “but my office is already aware of what’s going on.”

They were all seated at the dining room, several pizza boxes in front of them now emptied. Spike had been asked to go up to his room and while he argued about it, eventually he did, leaving the teens and adults in the room to hear what Shining had to say.

“I guess I should be outright about it: we may have a serial killer on the loose in the Canterlot area, one that’s targeting girls between the ages of thirteen to seventeen. I don’t doubt you’ve heard about the murder of the mayor’s daughter and her husband the other day. Well, in the past two days we’ve had three more victims, and we think it’s going to get worse.”

Velvet gasped, and Night put her arm around her. Twilight unconsciously took hold of Sunset’s and Octavia’s hands. Both Shining and Cadance kept even, professional faces, as they were used to this sort of thing.

“The vice mayor, the chief of police, the sheriff and the special agent in charge of the local FBI station are talking to my boss as we speak,” Cadance added. “Tomorrow they’re going to hold a press conference to announce what they’ve found so far.”

“Who were the other girls?” Luna asked.

Cadance, in response, turned on her phone. “In addition to Liza Doolots—”

Celestia gasped. When everyone looked at her, she said, “She was supposed to be one of our incoming freshmen this fall.” The look on the woman’s face looked shocked, and Velvet winced in sympathy for her friend.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Aunt Tia,” Cadance told her.

“I’ll be fine, Cady,” Celestia insisted. “Go on.”

“The next victim is Watermelody—” This time, it was Luna’s time to gasp.

“She’s…she was….” Luna looked visibly shaken at the announcement. “I taught the drama class, and she was my best student, by far. She told me last month that she’d filmed a few commercials for TV, and that she was applying to CalArts.” Luna’s eyes began to tear, and despite her own shock, Celestia slipped an arm around her sister. “How?”

“I can’t give you those details yet, Luna,” Shining told her. “We’re probably telling you too much as is.”

“Please, Aunt Luna, let me finish this,” Cadance said.

Luna, sobbing into her sister’s shoulder, said nothing. “Go on,” Celestia told her niece.

Nodding wordlessly, Cadance continued. “Indigo Zap, age seventeen; and just today, Sweet Leaf.”

Octavia looked at Twilight. “She’s a freshman – sophomore in the fall – at our school, right?”

Twilight nodded. “We need to call the student council and set up a meeting tomorrow.”

“You’re doing it online,” Night insisted. “Until this is over, I’m putting a curfew on you three. I want you home by sundown, got that? Sunny, I know you work, so you come home after work’s over, no stopping at all. No picking up anyone, just straight home, understood?”

Twilight was the first to speak. “Dad, isn’t that overkill?”

“I’m halfway tempted to insist you cancel your plans to go to Modesto in two weeks. I didn’t raise either you or Octavia so I could see you in a coffin. And Sunset, I want you to be alive long enough to be adopted – and then after that not in a coffin, either.”

“Absolutely, Dad,” Sunset added, “but Modesto’s a four-hour drive. We’ll be fine.”

“If it helps, I can go with them,” Cadance offered. “I’ve still got use-or-lose vacation time and given that I’ll be chaperoning a bunch of potential targets, I don’t doubt my boss will disagree.”

“Plus, I want you to take the spare pistol if you do,” Shining insisted.

“I was already planning to, sweetie. I’m sure we’ll be safe, but I figured it’d make you feel more comfortable.” She kissed him on the cheek.

“Will you keep me in the loop as much as you can, Shining?” Celestia asked. “I know the principals of other schools, and I think it’s best that I arrange a meeting with them. As it is, I’m going to have to call Superintendent Waddle and inform him of what I know.”

“Yeah, and I’m going to have to talk to my folks and make sure the kids under my charge are okay,” Velvet added. “Is there anything else?”

“Not right now,” Shining told her. Then looking at the three girls, Shining said, “Until this is over, please be careful. I’m worried about you three. No heroics. If you hear something, run – I don’t care what anyone says, got that?”

“I’ll be f—”

“I know you know martial arts, Sunny, but this is serious,” Cadance countered. “Please, for everyone’s sake. You’re a part of this family now, and we want to keep it that way, okay? I don’t want my last memory of my newest sister-in-law to be as we’re laying you to rest.”

“That’s horribly morbid,” Velvet commented.

“In my job, it’s all too often,” Cadance told her.

Two women and a man sat on the couch. “Is he going to be alright?” Redheart asked Posey and Discord.

“Red, a man who was already a widower just found out his daughter was brutally murdered,” Discord commented. “I don’t think ‘alright’ is anywhere near the condition he’s in.”

“We’ve got a team of doctors watching him around the clock, and his sister’s flying in from Columbus,” Posey commented. “We’re not going to let Tense down, I assure you.”

“Is there anything I can do to help? I hear celebrities are very good at pushing problems out of the way,” Discord asked his wife. “I can put my secretary right on this.”

“You have a secretary?” Redheart joked.

“Yeah. My manager hired a staff for the band to take care of the business arrangements. She works remotely down in the OC, but she’s damn good and can be here in a moment’s notice. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

“Good,” she said, leaning against him. “I think we could use all the help we can get.”

A man with dark skin and sakura-pink hair walked out of the bedroom. “I put him on sedatives, and I’ll be staying the night. I asked Champagne Tap to find doctors to take his patient load for the next few days. I’ve already worked out a rotation for me and the other guys until his sister gets here.”

“Thanks, Tissue.” Healthy Tissue was the assistant head of the department and an old friend of Intensive Care’s.

“Still, can’t believe that Melody’s gone,” Tissue commented. “She was Tense’s whole life, and she meant a lot to me, too. Guess I’ll start working on the funeral preps for the moment.”

“I’ll call my secretary and ask her to step in,” Discord said. “Have them send me the bill; I’ll take care of it.”

“That’s mighty nice of you. You know, when I heard that Poe was still married and married to a big-time rock star, I thought it was a joke. But now you’re here and you’re nothing like what I expected you to be.”

“Death has a way of putting things in perspective, Doctor,” Discord replied with a touch of sorrow.

“No, I won’t do it,” Lieutenant Symphony Rise snarled.

“Excuse me, Lieutenant?” Cantata commented.

“No. I want an actual reason before I order my troops into this kind of thing,” Rise told her. “I understand doing the hard things for battle, Captain, and if this was families attached to CSIS senior staff, I would do it in a second. But we’re in America, and these families are damn well not attached to the Canadian government, much less CSIS! So, respectfully requesting a response, ma’am.”

“I see,” Cantata asked. “What do you think, Seaman Rush?”

Contralto Rush immediately came to attention. “Your orders are to be followed to the letter, ma’am!” she barked.

“And you two?” the SIREN commander asked Medley Trance and Canzione Burst.

“We agree with our fireteam leader, ma’am!” both said in unison.

“You three can’t be serious!” Rise told them.

“Frankly, L-T, you’re not our sœur,” Contralto told her. “Our grand sœurs are dead, killed by Les SCARS. You’re just a placekeeper until a real officer can be trained to keep up with us.”

“They’re right, you know,” Cantata told the lieutenant. And with a quick draw, she pulled out her pistol, pointed it at Lt. Rise’s head and pulled the trigger. A split second later, the corpse that was Symphony Rise hit the floor.

“See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!” Medley cooed.

“So, are you still in agreement, Petty Officer Second Class Contralto Rush? And you, Master Seamen Trance and Burst?”

Contralto smiled wickedly. “I think we’re in agreement for this, whatever the hell it is.”

Cantata then said to the darkness, “Your highness, I present to you my Black Team.”

A light turned on at the desk, and Divine Right sat at it, his smile wicked. “This is your first target. You are to capture only. If you do that successfully, you will leave the item in the top folder at the location. Leave no trace of your presence, and if you successfully complete this, I will have more assignments for you…as well as a reward.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Contralto asked.

“He’s our benefactor and the sole reason we’ve gotten this far,” Cantata told the girl. “Consider him an admiral, am I clear?”

“Well then, apologies are in order, sir,” Contralto said, taking the hint. “We’ll do our best. Orders if there are collateral targets?”

“Make sure you’re not seen, but if there’s no alternative, the order stands for the primary target. Take out any secondaries or hostiles.”

Contralto slipped back to attention. “Roger that, sir, ma’am. When do we depart?”

“In thirty minutes, after you’ve familiarized yourself with the dossiers I’ve provided,” Divine said. Then after a second: “Oh, and after you’ve disposed of the trash as well,” he said, pointing at Rise.

“We’re on it, sir,” Canzione said.

Sandalwood tapped the Heart of the Siren gem that she’d been given by Shining an hour ago. These things are dumb as fuck, but still, if it keeps that kooky dixie witch happy, so be it. We need her on our side right now. She had her phone in her hand, and was dialing a number.

“Hello?” the voice on the other side said.

“Heya, Minty, how’s things?” Sandalwood asked, looking around her apartment. It was spic and span and empty, like most of her life.

“Well, given that my big sister’s being a pain in the ass and calling me again to check on me, I’m fine. You?”

“Well, given that my little sister’s being a bitch for her big sister worrying about her, things are fine.”

“You know, Mom and Dad don’t worry about me half as much as you do. Plus, you were in the military and are a cop now, so I think being a college student is hella safer than what you do.”

“True. Just…I’m just worried,” Sandalwood said. Without going into detail, she gave a very vague synopsis of what was going on and how it was affecting her and her friends. Finally, after a few minutes of explanation, Sandalwood said, “And that’s really what’s going on. Maybe I’m overprotective of you, but I’d rather be that than show up at your funeral.”

“Thanks, sis. Look, I gotta go; I’ve got some late night studying to do for a class tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll let you go,” she said, as a knock came on her door. It’s midnight, who the fuck’s knocking at this time of hour? “Later sis, and I’ll say hi to Mom and Dad for you.” Putting down her cellphone, she went over to the door to find True Thoughts at the door. He and his girlfriend Ruby Tuesday were just a couple of college kids down at State, but they were pretty mature for their age and Sandalwood made it her business to keep an eye on them. “Heya, True, what’s up?”

“Look, I know it’s stupid, Sandy,” he asked, “but have you seen Ruby? She was supposed to be home an hour ago, and she’s not answering her cellphone.”

“She’s probably just coming home late from work,” Sandalwood assured him. “Where’s she work at?”

“She’s a cook at the Glazed Carrot downtown, why?”

Sandalwood was about to say something, when she remembered something: the Glazed Carrot was next to an alley, and the parking for the restaurant was in the back, traversable to only via said alley. She then looked into the sky and saw the waxing moon, barely just a sliver in the sky after the new moon just days ago. She dashed into the apartment, grabbing her holster, phone and slipping on her shoes. “True, call 911, tell them officer is on scene!”

“What?”

“Just do it!” she called back as she vaulted over the waist-high fence keeping the apartments from the parking lot. “And close my door!” She got in her Mustang, slapped the cherry light on it and gunned the engine and the siren, rocketing away from her apartment.

“Do you got her, Je?” Contralto asked.

“Yeah, feisty, though. Still, a punch to the gut is a punch to the gut, Ae,” Canzione commented.

Contralto tapped her headset. “Ef, this is Ae. Clear overwatch, we have the target. We’ll meet you at the car.”

“Solid copy. Ef out.” On the building across the street, Medley started to break down her sniper rifle, with the intent to meet her teammates in minutes.

Within five minutes, a nondescript Toyota Corolla raced off from the scene. It had been stolen an hour ago just for this mission and the trio would continue to car hop until they met up with the main vehicle, parked in Darkside. From there they would return to base and hand their target over to the Captain.

“Wonder what the Skipper wants with her,” Medley asked.

“Ours is not to wonder why,” Contralto said, leaning back in her seat and quoting form the old aphorism. “Ours is just to say ‘Aye aye’, then kill someone until they die.”

A steel gray mustang, cherry light blazing on top blasted past them on the other side of the street. Contralto smiled; at this distance, there was no way they would be suspected.

Sandalwood slammed her breaks from nearly a half block away, skidding to a halt almost perfectly across from the alley. Throwing on her high beams, she rushed out of the car and towards the restaurant, her gun already drawn. In the distance, she could hear sirens, but something in her told her it was too late.

As she approached the opening of the alley, she could see a single card laying there. She didn’t have to know what it was; after all, she’d seen a copy of the card just this morning. Next to it was Ruby’s purse, with nothing missing from it. There was no sign of the girl otherwise.

“GODDAMMIT!” Sandalwood screamed in frustration as the loud blare of sirens and other tires skidding sounded behind her. Holstering her gun, she reached in her pocket and picked up a bag she could use to put the card in.

After all, she just failed and failed in a big way, by her opinion. Might as well do something right.

Author's Note

¡Es EL PATREON DEL ROB! ¡Es un gran aventura para tu, para mi! ¡Pagar los money y allegre!*
(*Yes, I know it's horrible. It's a quote, almost literally. I winced when I saw it, too.)

July 28: Going to California

A short trip on the RATP, and twenty minutes later, Sunset Shimmer wandered into 26 Boulevard des Loges, in the nearby town of Poissy. The house was a nice place in an upper-middle class suburb of Paris, and though Shimmer’s mother could easily afford better, they liked the house and it was just over six kilometers from her school.

«Je suis là!» she called as she came in.

«Bonjour, mon petit tournesol! Comment était ta journée?» a voice called from upstairs.

“Mom? I thought we’d agreed to switch back to English so you could practice,” Shimmer pointed out.

“As if I need it,” a woman with short hair in pastel tones said as she descended the stairs, fixing lilac eyes on her daughter. “I’ve been speaking it since before you were born. But this being France and you a Frenchwoman—”

“Also American,” Shimmer pointed out. “You know, born in California, attending the American section of the Lycée and not the French one, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

“Trivialities, my dearest child,” Shimmer’s mother said, a soft, playful smile coming onto her face. “Given your history and heritage, your sang Français counts more here than your sang Americain.”

“Wasn’t aware blood had a nationality,” Shimmer said, rolling her eyes. She knew something was up; her mother tended to be far more impish than normal when something was amiss. Furthermore, her mother was being somewhat dismissive of Shimmer’s dual citizenship, something that the older woman normally found to be to her daughter’s advantage.

“Mom? You can knock off the bad jokes and tell me what’s wrong, okay? I’ve already had a weird enough day as is.” Without her mother’s prodding, a second later the teen put two and two together. “Okay, what’s Uncle Noblesse want now?”

“I just got off the phone with him,” the woman sighed as she plopped onto the sofa, resting delicate fingers onto her temples, a sign of a building headache if there ever was one. “I swear, I love my brother, but he can be such an idiot. ‘Solaire, I need you to attend the Global Empowerment Foundation’s annual meeting in Oslo as a representative of the family. Flight leaves from Roissy at six tomorrow morning.’ Does he even realize what we’re going through right now?” She groaned. “Remind me why I moved back to France?”

Shimmer wrapped her arms around her mother in a hug. “Wasn’t my idea – wasn’t I the one who tried to run away after Dad died?”

Solaire recalled the memory of a young nine-year-old girl showing up on the doorstep, face tearstained and with more than a few cuts and bruises showing through her torn clothes, but otherwise unharmed; the ECSD had returned the girl to her house in San Palomino after her eight hour attempt at (badly) dealing with her father’s fatal car accident just hours before. Her daughter had blamed herself for years for something that had completely been out of control; it had been the other driver that had been at fault. “Yes, and that’s when your grandmother thought that you’d be better off living here in Paris. Plus,” Solaire had to admit, “I had to support Noblesse in the succession of head of the family over that moron cousin of mine.”

“Honestly? He creeps me out.”

“He’s done much worse to me, dearest one, and probably would have gotten away with it too had it not been for the fact that he fears Noblesse.” The look in Solaire’s eyes was morose as she told her daughter, “Mon petit tournesol, how I wish I could spare you all this. It’s the last thing you need right now – it’s certainly the last thing I need right now.”

“Mom, just promise me that if you ever decide to remarry? Not him.”

“Believe me – not even in my nightmares, dearest Sunset.” Solaire chuckled softly, then drolled, “Really – I thought it was my duty to offer you dating advice, not the other way around.”

“I learned from the best,” Shimmer said proudly.

“You’re far too much like your father,” Solaire said, a fond smile on her face. “Let’s pack and we can be at Roissy in time for our flight. We have family to visit in America.” A bittersweet look came onto her face as she added, “Family that we’ve been long overdue in seeing.”

The light of the summer sun stabbed into the room, jostling Sunset Shimmer to consciousness. Sitting up, she blinked away the last vestiges of sleep, stretching and yawning as she did so. Ugh. I swear, I am never going to get used to this part of being human. Was much easier when I was on the estral cycle. Fortunately, when she had first arrived on Earth, she’d had enough time to read up on the phenomenon of the human female body, and it wasn’t as though she hadn’t heard of that kind of biology before; while it was freakishly rare back home, it still existed. But it wasn’t anything that she’d expected to experience personally.

Knowing that she had to get up regardless, she stumbled over to the bathroom, ignoring the pain in her hips, and after spending a few minutes doing things that would best be described as “horror film-worthy” for ponies, finally departed the sanctuary of upstairs, and walked downstairs towards her fate.

“Wow, you look like crap,” Spike said as he looked up the stairs to see Sunset descending.

“Well, Spike,” Twilight Velvet reproached, “to begin, your sister does not look like ‘crap’. And second, congratulations on volunteering to do the dishes.” The look on Spike’s face was one of complete horror as he realized what he’d done.

Twilight Sparkle looked at her brother, then towards her soon-to-be-adopted-sister. “While I don’t exactly agree with how Spike phrased it, I do agree with his sentiment. You okay, sis?”

“Yeah, just one of the real bad times running ‘round the red river,” Sunset moaned as she sat down at the table and pushed her hair back. As Velvet set a plate in front of her, the teen looked up gratefully. “Thanks, Mom. Now I need some coffee—”

“Probably not a wise idea if you’re paying the monthly bill, dear,” Velvet told her, setting a glass of orange juice in front of her. “Besides, we’ve got a busy day today and you want to be at your best.”

“Don’t remind me,” Sunset moaned, feeling every atom in her body cry out for caffeine.

“Oh, quit it, you’ll survive,” Velvet said with a slight smirk, mentally cataloging this moment in order to tease her daughter-to-be a decade from now. Sure, mentally, she agreed with Sunset; today she’d rather have stayed in bed herself, given that it was going to be a long day for both of them. First would be a full medical checkup for Sunset with Zecora, followed by a full interview with Sunset by ECDSS staffers, something that Velvet couldn’t do herself as she and Night were the adopting parents. While she knew that last part was a relatively simple procedure, there was the fact that she couldn’t be around for that. Then there was Sunset’s occasional lack of memory regarding her past, a past that both Velvet and her husband privately admitted was a little too convenient.

Not that she didn’t trust or love Sunset any less for the girl’s omissions; quite the opposite – Velvet hoped that once the adoption was final and Sunset truly had a real family to fall back on, she would start opening up on the parts of her life that she’d held back. Velvet wanted to help her soon-to-be elder daughter, and the only way to do that was to ensure that Sunset knew she had a family that loved her. It would take time, but the matron knew she would succeed.

Two more sets of feet beat down the stairs, followed by a kiss on the cheek and one on the lips. “You two are running late,” Velvet said to the last two members of the household.

“Sorry, love,” Night told her as he sat down. “Had to find a tie that goes with what I’m wearing – you know how the higher-ups at the University can be when it comes to budget discussions.”

“Well, my excuse is that the socket my alarm clock’s plugged into died,” Octavia explained as she made a beeline for the coffeemaker. “I think we’ll have to call the electrician again.”

“Sorry, Tavi,” Velvet said to her niece. “I thought they’d fixed it. Guess I’ll have to call them again.”

But before the teenaged musician could respond, Night’s phone chirped at that exact moment. With some irritation, he looked at the screen, then pocketed the device as he rose from the chair. “Sorry, gotta go; Dean Moneytalks wants to have the meeting early, so that means I need to get going now and grab something at the Golden Arches along the way.”

A thought came over Velvet’s face. “Will you be able to swing by Tia’s and Lulu’s and grab their depositions? I need to get that paperwork in today, and Sunny and I’ll be busy.”

He shook his head. “Earlier, I don’t think it would’ve been a problem. But if Moneytalks is starting the headaches this early…I might not be home until late, hon.”

“Well, Aunt Velvet, if Twily’s willing to stay here today and keep Spike company and wait for the electrician, I don’t mind getting them. I need to head to the store to get some replacement strings for my instruments, so it’s not a problem.”

“You sure?” Velvet asked.

Octavia smiled. “It’s for family, right? Not a problem at all.”

Meanwhile, not saying a single thing, Sunset quietly ate breakfast, ignored the throbbing pain in her hips, the feral need for coffee, and looked at her family as they sat there discussing daily pleasantries. This time a year ago, she lived in relative squalor, with her myopic world being nothing more than the adulation of Snips and Snails and her need to humiliate just about everyone that she knew. Now, she knew she’d been so small back then; all this time had gone by and forced a major change in her perspective, so much so that the Sunset Shimmer of now hardly believed that she’d been the Sunset Shimmer of the past.

But as she looked at the people that she loved so much, the ones she called her family, she knew that the Sunset Shimmer of the future would be one very lucky girl indeed.

Now if I can just get the pain to subside. Maybe I should stop at the store and get some Midol….

In a townhouse on the other side of town, a woman reluctantly slipped out of bed, the bedsheet somewhat sticking to her. She felt the caress of a finger slide down her back, and she shuddered from delight at the sensual touch. “You know, if you keep doing that, I’m not going to be able to get to work,” she cooed.

Back on the bed, a man gave her a wolfish grin. “Says the woman who pretty much kept us busy all night. Tia, you’re more insatiable than women half your age, you know that?”

Celestia turned and kissed him. “Maybe it’s because I’ve got the right boyfriend, Sable?”

Sable Loam sat up. “Maybe. Or maybe you’re just a handful in bed.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, mister,” she said with a grin.

“I thought it did,” he replied, and she shook her head with amusement. As she looked at him, she was once again amazed how their relationship had reached a whirlwind crescendo in a matter of weeks. She loved him, she knew that; and she knew he loved her. Their lives seemed to be a perfect pair, as if they’d always meant to be together, and Celestia couldn’t see herself now with anyone else – even her relationship with Discord hadn’t been this ideal.

So why did she feel as though something was amiss? As she looked at the clear skies outside, why did she expect to see thunderheads and storms, portending darkness? Something felt….

Well, if I had to put a finger on it, it felt just like the days leading up to when Sunset Shimmer turned into that monster. And while I know she’s changed from those days, part of me wonders what all of this worry means. Maybe I am just getting old.

She then turned back to her boyfriend and mused, “You know, maybe we should move in together.”

He blinked at that. “We’ve only been together a couple of months, Tia. Think that’s moving a little too fast?”

She smiled. “Maybe I just need a big strong man to protect me.”

“Yeah, says the woman with the very vicious-looking sword on the wall,” he said, pointing to a golden-plated bastard sword, ensconced in the hallway leading from the living room to the bed. The sword practically seemed to glow with its own light, and the flambard edging was maintained and not just the obvious dullness of a collector’s sword, like so many samurai swords he’d seen at various people’s places over the years.

“Oh, Sunbringer? Yeah, when I was in college my friends and I got into SCA; the armor plate I had with it is down in the garage. Trust me, it doesn’t get use anymore – don’t have time to do all that like I used to – but it’s too dear to me to just get rid of.”

He laughed. “Any girl who uses a sword doesn’t need my help.”

Celestia sighed and blushed girlishly. “So…think about it?”

“We’ll talk about it later. I mean, we do have other issues to worry about, right? Technically you’re at a higher authority level than I am in the school system and isn’t there a fraternization policy in effect in the school district?”

“Only if we’re at the same school or in the same cluster if I’m an assistant superintendent,” she pointed out, “and your school and mine aren’t in the same cluster, nor am I a superintendent.”

He was about to say more, but then his phone rang. Picking it up, he looked at the number. “Oh, hey, old Army buddy.”

“Well, I suppose you’ll want your privacy,” she said. “Besides, I need to hit the shower if I’m going to get ready for work. Kissing him quickly, she then let the sheet go, wandering over to pull fresh intimates from her dresser before walking into her bathroom. A few seconds later, the sound of the shower softly rumbled through the closed door.

With a look of disgust on his face, he said, “Yeah, this is Loam. Go ahead.”

“Well, hello, Sable – or should I just call you The Wolf of Kabul? The one that made the Taliban quake in their boots?”

“You know I never liked that nickname.”

“Well, I’m not the fucker who got a tattoo of a bloody wolf’s pawprint, am I?” Sable looked down to his right shoulder where the tattoo was; even after all these years, it still looked as fresh as the day he got it.

“Whatever. So what do you want, Blackthorn?”

“Hey, is that the way to talk to your old lieutenant, Sergeant Loam?” the man laughed. “‘Course, neither you nor I are in the Army now, are we?”

“Yeah, heard from Nightfighter that you’re a washer for the Company now,” Sable said as he practically spat the words out. Being a soldier was one thing, but being an assassin for the CIA’s Division of Operations – the nastier side of the house that everyone knew of when they thought of the CIA – somehow just irked him. Sable liked (somewhat) fair fights, when the enemy knew he was coming. But washers took out their targets when least expected.

“Yeah, and I just got a gem of an assignment, too, one I could use some backup on,” the man told him. “Going hunting after the SIRENs – you heard of them, right? Canadian superelite SPECOPS? Apparently teams from ARROWHEAD and the CSIS are having problems with them, so the DDO asked me to put a little team together, since the government’s trying to do a favor for the Cancans. Got some heavy hitters on this team, too – DEVGRU, DELTA, and MARSOC vets. All I need is you.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the best damn hard case I’ve ever seen. You saved an entire company that didn’t even know they were being ambushed. You got the freakin’ Soldier’s Medal for that!”

“Yeah, I know,” Sable said in surprisingly sad tones. It had been the incident that had earned him the nickname of “Wolf of Kabul”. He’d been assigned to run point for a team sweeping that part of the ramshackle town, and, moving well ahead of the rest of the unit, he’d managed to spot a small team of Taliban that had planned a nighttime ambush of a company of regular infantry passing through the town. Unfortunately for the enemy, however, it had been a full moon that night, and it was the Taliban or the troops – and to Sable at the time, there had been no question.

The medal citation had said it all: he’d fought them single-handedly, a squad of thirty to one, until his carbine and sidearm had been spent, then proceeded to continue fighting with nothing but his knife, even as bullets rained around him. By the time the last tango downed, he stood, covered in blood, the silver of his knife gleaming in his hand like a massive canine tooth. And by the time reinforcements arrived, the translator with them had been so shocked by Sable’s bloodstained appearance, that he’d uttered the word in Pashto that had marked Sable since: “Lewh”.

Since then, he’d been celebrated, feted and when he decided not to reenlist, a general himself had practically begged him to reconsider. General Big Brass had referred to him as the ‘greatest soldier since Onslaught, back in Dubleya Dubleya Two!’ But none of them had been there for the fight; the one that even today he still felt stripped his soul.

They hadn’t been there when he had to kill that four-year-old girl, who had been strapped to a bomb by her father and told to run to the soldiers. The bomb had been set with a Deadman’s trigger, and removing it would have been fatal for Sable. So instead he picked up one of the tango’s dropped AK-47s and took aim…

His free hand began to shake. It was the reason he left the Army, the reason he couldn’t just move in with Celestia. He couldn’t tell her he still had nightmares about the whole thing. That this had been the first time in a while that he hadn’t slept with a loaded pistol. Or that maybe that girl could have grown up to be someone important. It was madness just thinking about it, and over the years, Sable had gone mad nightly, pulled back from the brink for reasons he had yet to fathom.

“No. Count me out,” he told Blackthorn. “That part of my life is done. I work to improve lives now, not take them.”

“You’re making a big mistake, Loam. These SIRENs are playing for keeps now that they went rogue. They found a high-ranking Canadian official in France – there wasn’t enough of him left to bury in anything but a shoebox. They’re going after something big, and they need to be stopped.”

“Yeah, and I’ve heard the stories – that they’re an illegally-created group of child soldiers. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’m not interested in killing another kid. Never again,” Sable hissed.

“Fine, fine. But you have my number if you change your mind. But you’d better change it soon: we have a report that they were spotted in Dubai, and we’re going in guns blazing.”

“Yeah, whatever. Nice talking to you, Blackthorn.” Not waiting for a response, he hung up the phone and had just gotten out of bed, stretching, when Celestia stepped out of the bathroom.

“So, have a nice talk?” she asked, as her eyes danced across his undressed, muscled form.

“Yeah, my old lieutenant just, uh, moved to Idaho and invited me to a barbecue since we’re in the general area,” he lied, feeling guilty as he did, but he refused to expose her to his old life. “I told him I’d think about it, but that we’re a little busy.”

“Well, you’re on vacation this month,” Celestia pointed out, “and I’m the one who has to work. You can probably spend a couple of days out there. I might miss you, but…hey, we can catch up when you get back.”

He shook his head. “Not going,” he said, reaching into a small bag and pulling out spare clothes. “Can’t spare the time; I promised Sombra that I’d help him build that treehouse in the backyard that his wife wants for their kids. Besides, I’d never go anywhere without my best girl, you know that.”

She blushed once more, but pointed to the bathroom. “Go shower now,” she purred, “or else I’m going to need another shower.”

“Another?”

“After we….” Her eyes traveled down towards his waist.

“Right. Gotcha,” he said, walking into the bathroom as she smiled in appreciation of his tush.

The taxi had no sooner arrived at the house than an all-too familiar Maybach 62 pulled up behind it. A man seemingly in his mid-thirties, thin and muscular, stepped out of the car, walking over to the taxi. Speaking to the driver, he handed him something, then stepped away as the cab sped off. The man then walked towards Solaire and Shimmer, removing his sunglasses and revealing a contrite face.

«J’aurais dû me rappeler. Je suis un imbécile,» he said to both ladies, the look on his face somber.

“No, you’re not, dear brother,” Solaire said in English to the blue-eyed blonde as he approached.

“Of course I am, little sister,” he said with a grin. “I just gave the driver €500 for a fare that would have been, what, €30, at most?”

“Generous as always. But while, yes, I was angry, I know you’ve been…distracted.”

“No, Soli, damn me for the bloody fool that I am: when I told you I needed you to go to Oslo, I’d completely forgotten about your plans in America.” He then looked at Shimmer and added, “And I should definitely have known better, mon petit tournesol. Your father was a good friend and a good man, and I miss him.”

“I know, Uncle Noblesse,” Shimmer said with a smile. Her uncle, Solaire’s brother Noblesse Oblige, had practically been a second father to her since their move to Paris. And even though he was a bit too focused on family duties at times, he’d always taken the time for his family, both immediate and extended.

Noblesse turned back to Solaire. “Please, if there’s anything I can do….”

But she shook her head. “Autumn told me Wintry passed easily, which sets me at peace,” she told him. “If anything, Oslo should be your concern.”

“Star has offered to go. Unlike me, she remembered and said that even though our younger sister doesn’t have your gift for negotiation, your needs are paramount – that family is important. A lesson I should well know by now.”

“Well, we do appreciate it,” Solaire replied, giving her brother a kiss on the cheek.

“Too kind of you, dear sister. Now let me help you with your bags, and we can head to Roissy as soon as can be. Are you certain I cannot convince you to take one of the family’s jets?”

She smiled. “No, this will be a wonderful opportunity to get back ‘to earth’, as it were,” she told him. “Sometimes we forget that because of what we are, we need not be who we are, if that makes sense.”

“Well spoken like Father would have,” he said in response, grabbing their bags. “Now please, go ahead and lock up; I wouldn’t want you to miss your flight, after all.”

Watching from a distance, a trio of women dressed in black sat on a nearby rooftop, observing the family. The sniper continued to watch through her scope; though her gun was set up, it was merely a defensive procedure in case they were spotted by authorities – the people below were to be monitored, not taken out. “Okay, looks like they’re loading into that nice, expensive car.”

The second woman looked at the guy through the telescope. “Oh, I think I’d like to have him load me.”

“Easy, you two, we’re here to tail our targets, not get you ladies boyfriends,” the third observed. A phone at her side then chirped. Figuring the line was monitored, she said, “Oh, hi, Sparky! Glad you called! Paris is just maaaarvelous!”

The voice on the other end spoke, the phrase part of the carefully-planned code. “You know, Windmill, I’d really love to hear what’s going on.” Report status, the woman translated in her mind.

“Oh, me, Cookie and Daffodil are just looking at the birds as they fly by.” We’re watching our targets. “Looks like they’re headed to the nest, too.” They’re enroute to the airport.

“Well, don’t forget to get some pictures for me of all the wonderful sights!” Continue surveillance as planned.

“No prob! Anyway, gotta go, overseas calls can be pricey! Bye!” The SIREN disconnected the line, ending the call before anything could be traced. “Okay, we have orders: follow them as planned.”

The second SIREN sighed. “Oh, but I wanted to get to know him. He looks like he’d be fun in bed.”

The sniper pulled away from the rifle and started to slip small cylinders in it; as designed, the white phosphorous minigrenades would go off in ten minutes, slagging the gun completely. Taping it shut, she then threw the gun into the pond in the backyard of the house they were observing from. “Oh, trust me – from what I hear of Canterlot? You’ll get your freak on, girl.”

“I don’t want to do this,” Sonata said, looking at her sisters. She still felt reservations over the whiplash change in fortunes last night; truth be told, she felt more than a bit betrayed by her older siblings.

“Look, Soni, I don’t want to do this eit—” Adagio began, only to recoil in shock as Sonata slapped her hand away before it could reach her.

“We had lives,” the youngest triplet said angrily. “I like working for Mr. and Mrs. Cake! I like having friends and a life! I want to go to school and be a normal girl!”

“Soni, it’s not like that!” Aria explained.

“Then explain to me how it is, because I’m not getting the message,” she said, her eyes radiating anger and pain. “I don’t want to be a SIREN…but I don’t want to lose you two.”

“Look, Soni—” Adagio was about to begin again when there was a knock at the door. The trio looked to see Madrigal Storm standing there. The three of them jumped to attention by habit, and stopped when Madrigal waved it off.

“At ease, you three. I’m not here in a military capacity. I want to talk to you three as girls, not as SIRENs, okay? And I don’t want you to say anything that you think might please me – I want you three to be honest, understood?” The three nodded, and sat down on the bed. “Okay, why did you agree? I’ve been raising and training you three these past few months, and while I know Soni the best out of you three, I’ve gotten to know you other two well enough to see that you don’t belong here. You actually want – and deserve – lives. If you’d asked me, I would have been happy to see you three say no. But you didn’t.” Madrigal then pulled up a chair and added, “And I want to know why.”

Adagio was about to say something, when she looked at the older SIREN. “Do you really want to know?”

“You’re breaking Soni’s heart right now, Dagi. Not your shipmate, not your fellow SIREN – your own flesh-and-blood sister. She deserves an answer. And if you three had said no, I would have been here raising you until you got out of college – not eighteen, as I overheard you say. And frankly, I don’t care what Vesper and Mezzo think – this is about your future, not theirs, though I personally think they would agree with me.”

Adagio nodded but simply said, “I don’t want any other girl to go through what we have, Maddie. Right now, I’m betting that CSIS is already looking for a general or admiral to be the head of a new SIRENs project. MOD won’t bury it; it’s been too successful, and our government has plausible deniability – the world is more likely to believe Washington would be behind something like us than Ottawa. In the meanwhile, more ‘qualified’ little girls will disappear and sixteen years later they’ll be killing tangos in some Godforsaken Arabic country.

“I did that, and I don’t want any other girl to do it again. The girl I saved, the one they named after me? I don’t want Adagio Scirocco to have to be the one to shoot a poor girl’s father because he was abusing her. I don’t want that girl that Violin Elegy saved from a landslide last year to have to pretend to seduce a government official just so she can steal state secrets.” She shook her head. “I don’t want any of us to do any of this anymore—”

“And neither did Uncle Poutine. And our own government killed him for that!” Aria cried, her hands tightened into little white balls. “I didn’t want to do this, either. But…Dagi’s my sister, and I won’t let her go alone into this, Maddie. If it’s just me and Dagi, fine – I’d rather Soni stay out.” The youngest triplet gasped and Aria looked at her sister. “One of us has to survive, Dagi and I decided that it has to be you, little sister. We’re expendable – you’re not.”

But the look on Sonata’s face was one of anger. “Don’t you dare even say that to me, Ari! You and Dagi are my sisters! We’re triplets! I wouldn’t abandon you, so don’t you dare consider abandoning me!” She glared at them both. “It’s like Vesper told us: we can’t think we’re expendable, because we’re not – you’ll never be to me!” She moved over and embraced both. “I won’t abandon you.” She then looked at her grande sœur and added, “I’m in. You all are too important to me to lose any of you.”

Madrigal looked her petite sœur in the eye. “Are you sure about this, Soni? I was willing to let you three off the hook and find some way to explain it to Command, but if you’re sure about this….”

Adagio looked the lieutenant straight in the eye. “If I don’t do this, then if I see Adagio Scirocco again, how can I tell her I sat by the sidelines and let her suffer the consequences?”

Aria who had heard the tale of her sister’s bravery in Dubai, agreed. “Uncle Poutine went to bat for us, and he was killed for it. Dagi might be going to protect younger girls, but I want to avenge him. They disgraced him and he deserves justice.”

Finally, Madrigal turned to Sonata, her eyes practically pleading. To her, Sonata was as precious to her as her own flesh and blood. Likely, the youngest triplet would be the closest thing that the elder SIREN would ever have to a child, and both knew that. “Sonata, you don’t have to do this.”

“I can’t be without them, Maddie,” Sonata said in a soft voice. “Or you. I just can’t.”

“And I don’t think I could live if I had to bury you – any of you. I’m asking you three to please reconsider.” When Adagio and Aria shook her head as one, Madrigal looked at Sonata. The look in her eyes was pleading: Please don’t.

“I have to,” Sonata told her sœur. “I can’t betray the Sisterhood…or my sisters, including you.”

“Okay then,” she told them. “Get some sleep: we’ve got a long day tomorrow and we permanently deploy at 1800, understood?”

“Aye aye, Lieutenant,” all three girls said at once as Madrigal silently left the room.

Madrigal went downstairs and looked at her friends, sisters themselves. “They didn’t back out,” Madrigal said, her eyes softening. “I should be proud of them…but instead, I’m afraid.”

“I know,” Intermezzo replied. “OIC of this little team, admittedly, I hoped they would myself.” Intermezzo reached over and grabbed Vesper’s hand; the sign of love from one sister to another did not go unnoticed. “Maybe if someone had been there for Rhappy, Vesper and I, maybe things would have been different for them. Maybe if Uncle Poutine had lived, maybe things would have been different.”

“But he didn’t,” Vesper said, stealing a glance upstairs, to where the lights in the three girls’ rooms had gone out. “The government we swore our lives to murdered him in cold blood, and we have to avenge it. An eye for an eye.”

Madrigal could only think about the young girl with soft blue hair, streaked with purple, that she’d raised since she was ten. “I just hope we all don’t go blind in the process,” was all she could voice.

“So, the verdict, Doctor?” Velvet laughed. “Will my daughter be able to play the piano? Not that she could, mind you, but….”

Zecora chuckled, then looked over the medical records that the hospital had sent for Sunset’s time from being stabbed. ”According to the records that I see, you’re a healthy young girl, far more so than me.”

Velvet laughed. “Let me guess: had kids all day before we got here, Zee?”

The doctor rubbed the back of her head, her salt-and-pepper hair shaking. “Apologies; one too many children and I somewhat get stuck in the speech. Maybe that’s just nature’s way of saying I should do it permanently.”

“Maybe you should become a rap star?”

“At my age?” Zecora laughed. “Perhaps when I was in my prime, I suppose, but those days are as far gone as Run DMC.”

Sunset laughed. “DJ-Zee?” She was rubbing her arm from the latest battery of shots, but she was enjoying seeing this side of both the family doctor and her mother. It was history that she was sure the other members of her family already knew, but each moment like this – even if this one came with shots – was something that she would treasure years from now: each moment bringing her closer to having a true family.

No, that’s not true, Sunset thought as she looked at her mother. I’ve had one since a while back – it was just me that was the last to realize it.

“Well, everything seems fine, so here’s the paperwork,” Zecora said, signing the necessary documents and giving them to Velvet. “I truly hope all goes well; you two complement each other well, just by your colors.”

“How so?” Velvet asked.

“Velvet, your family hair colors, well, they lean towards the cool; with the exception of the magenta stripe in Twilight’s hair and the neon blue in Shining’s, your family’s hair is colors of greens, dark blues and purples, and your own gainesboro. But Sunset is fire and bright sun with her hair tones. It is just like that: you calm her fears by giving her love, and she brings a bright spark to your family by loving you all back.” As both mother and daughter blushed, Zecora laughed heartily and added, “It’s like they say back in Kenya: ‘Mioyo wala kukutana mtu mwingine barabara kama,’ or ‘Hearts do not meet one another like roads.’ You have to work at love to be loved, and you have worked together to become a family.” Seeing both of them smile at that, Zecora grinned in return. “And nothing can ever separate that.”

As the baggage handlers carried their bags away, Shimmer and Solaire looked at Noblesse. “I realize that I’ve asked you several times, but are you certain that you want to fly commercial? Granted, I see nothing wrong with it, but I thought you were in a hurry.”

Solaire kissed her brother on the cheek. “That’s sweet of you, but for now, we’d rather just be ourselves at the moment. It was why I wanted to stay in America, you know.”

“I know. And I regret that Father insisted you return once Summer passed away,” he told her. “I know you’ve never wanted any part of the family business, Solaire, especially given the events of the past few years….”

“As my husband would have said,” Solaire mused with a wry smile, “being royalty sucks ass.”

“Dad really used to say that?” Shimmer asked.

Noblesse laughed. “Of course he did. You should have seen the day he found out that his beloved girlfriend was a member of the Bonaparte family and thus a princess! It was during a time that I had a chance to visit them in Canterlot and bear in mind that your father didn’t even know your mother came from money, much less royalty.”

Solaire smiled. “What can I say? I enjoyed working at the bookstore, and Summer always appreciated me for my mind, not just my looks.” Turning to her daughter, she then added, “But your father wasn’t very happy with the fact that when we married he became a prince consort, or the fact that you were a princess upon birth.”

Shimmer groaned. “Don’t remind me – only reason my friends know is because they’ve stayed over; I’ve certainly never thought I was better than them.”

“And that befits you, mon petit tournesol. We are, after all, merely pretenders, the Imperial Throne of France long gone.”

«EMBARQUEMENT IMMÉDIAT AIR FRANCE VOL 2269 À NEW YORK À LA PORTE 3F,» the voice sounded over the loudspeaker. “NOW BOARDING AIR FRANCE FLIGHT 2269 TO NEW YORK CITY AT GATE 3F.”

“Well, that’s our flight,” Solaire said to her brother as she embraced him. “Give my love and thanks to Star when she returns from Oslo, please.”

“I will,” he told her, then turning to embrace his niece. “And Sunset, take care of your mother, will you? I suspect this will not be an easy time for either of you.”

“I will,” Shimmer vowed.

As Noblesse turned to walk away from them, a thought suddenly came to him. “Oh, where will you be staying while you’re there?”

“We’ll be staying with my in-laws,” Solaire told him. “Believe me, they’re not about to treat us like royalty, Thank God.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that. That idiot Divine recently bought property in the Canterlot area and for a moment I thought—”

Solaire rolled her eyes. “Brother, I’m in mourning – not terminally stupid. And even if I was the latter, I have my daughter to consider.”

“You’re awfully quiet today,” Crackle said as she sat down next to Coco. The two were still the closest of friends, even though Crackle had to continually hide the horrific things her sister and Blueblood had nearly done to Coco; the latter girl, blissfully unaware, had recently expanded her circle of friends to include Rarity’s younger sister and Sweetie’s own friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

“Well, Ah guess Coco’s a shrinkin’ lily,” Apple Bloom commented.

“Shrinking violet,” Sweetie corrected.

Scootaloo groaned. “The walking internet strikes again. Fortunately, me an’ Crackle are happy to round out the lower end of the group, right?”

The Chinese girl shrugged. “You make it sound like you’re proud of being stupid. Aren’t you the one who wants to be a pilot?” Scootaloo stuck her tongue out at her new friend and that was that. Crackle in turn flipped Scootaloo off and a second later, Sweetie, Apple Bloom and Coco were desperately trying to pull the two potential pugilists apart before they killed each other.

Meanwhile, watching the mess, Fluttershy and Rarity looked with concern. “Rainbow, shouldn’t you do something about that? Scoots could get hurt.”

Rainbow leaned back in her chair. “Flutters, I can’t fight all my little sister’s battles for her. I’ll be there if she gets her ass kicked, but this is something she has to manage for herself.”

“Rainbow,” Rarity exclaimed, “I’m shocked! How could you let your little sister be injured?”

“Well, I dunno, Rares: you tell me if it’s a good idea for you to do everything there ever is so that Sweetie doesn’t have any issues in life?”

“That’s not what being an older sister is about, and you know that,” Rarity countered.

“Yes, yes I do, which is why I’m staying out. It’ll make Scoots think twice before she runs her mouth again.” Rainbow sat up and looked right at Rarity. “I love my sister and wouldn’t want her to be hurt, either – but there’s a huge difference between that and not letting her fight her own battles. She’s already had a hard life as is, and as her sister I can’t let her go out there without knowing she can handle herself…even if it means there’s a few cuts and bruises along the way. Trust me, my parents thought it worked for me, so obviously it’ll work for her.”

“If you say so,” Rarity murmured with distaste.

Seeing the current impasse between the two friends, Fluttershy decided to act. Reaching behind her, she brought out a pink guitar and started to strum on it. Sure enough, it caught her friends’ attentions.

“Fluttershy, dear, forgive me for being too forward, but didn’t you say that you weren’t interested in your father’s career?” Rarity asked.

“Well,” Fluttershy said with a blush, “I wasn’t at first, but then Dad showed me all the responses to the concert on You Tube.” The chiffon-haired teen then seemed to shrink into herself as she mumbled something incomprehensible.

“Sorry, couldn’t hear that, Flutters,” Rainbow said, with a grin; she, of course, had been the first to hear it and hadn’t stopped teasing her friend since.

“They all called me hot,” Fluttershy finally said, her cheeks radiating enough red to rival a stop sign. “One guy even made a video of his own to ask me to go to his prom – he’s in Cleveland. Based on that, Dad suggested that I practice in case I change my mind, but that he doesn’t want me to do it full-time unless I’m serious about it.” The look on her face sobered briefly as she said, “He doesn’t want me to suffer the sort of thing that made him have to live away from us for so long.”

“Yeah, well, I guess if anyone knows what the fuck they’re talking about it’d be your old man,” Rainbow commented. “Anyway, did you tell her about the rest?”

“What rest?”

Still strumming along on her guitar, Fluttershy added, “Pinkie asked me to play at Sunny’s post-adoption party. It’s supposed to be a surprise, since she still has to ask Tavi, who’s supposed to play as well. I thought it’d be fun, so I agreed.”

Rarity smiled. “That would be lovely, dear. It would be the ideal way to signal to Sunset how much has changed for her in this past year, and I can’t think of a better way to do so.”

“Pinkie,” Applejack said, looking at her friend, “that’s th’ dumbest idea Ah’ve heard from you in a while. Y’know that Flutters ‘s gonna just freeze up in front of that many people.”

“Nope!” Pinkie said with confidence. “Look at all the people she played in front of when we were in San Francisco. The whole world! And if she can handle that, she can handle anything!”

“Ah just hope yer right, Pinkie.”

Lips broke free of one another, replaced by the heavy panting of two people in post-coitus. While Divine had told Cantata that it had been for “charging of tantric energies for further magic,” she knew damn well that it wasn’t always. And she was fine with that; it was part of the bargain between the two that they shared, that of the future emperor and empress of this realm. Between his magic and her military stratagem, they would bring the world to its knees.

She turned to look at him as he traced a finger down her well-toned chest. “Well, now that we got the pleasure out of the way, shall we discuss business?”

“I am always about business, my dear,” he said, propping himself up on the pillows. “How fares your force recall?”

“Every SIREN not currently involved in training and cleared for combat is enroute. My concern is that it’s going to send a massive signal to both CSIS and the Americans. They will respond, and until we have everything under control, I will have three hundred of my best troops in danger.”

He smiled wolfishly. “I wouldn’t worry; the enhanced serum is nearly complete. The scientists have been following my orders to the letter to synthesize it from Piano’s blood, and they will do so…or, well, I’ve shown them the video of what you did to that man back at my mansion. Needless to say it was quite the motivator.”

“Some people aren’t motivated by fear, Divine,” she reminded him.

“True, some people care not if they die. But they do care about everyone in their family from two degrees on doing so, and I believe you are more than capable of executing that threat if necessary.”

“I’ll start gathering the intelligence right away.” She took his hand off her breast and intertwined it with her own hand. “Anything else?”

Letting go of her hand, he rose from the bed and said, “The weapons cache you requested will be delivered this afternoon. The people making the delivery believe they’re going to receive a few million dollars’ worth of cocaine. Please make sure they don’t leave alive – I despise drug dealers.”

“As do I,” Cantata said, as she crawled out of bed in turn. “Now, I do believe I must check on our project,” she voiced as she walked over to the dresser to pull out some underwear.

“And I have some preparations to make for the Summoning,” he told her. “One of your squads captured the first vessel for me earlier today, and I must see to that.”

The two dressed in silence, though stealing looks at each other occasionally. They acted as a long-standing couple, but it was a twisted union, both relying on the other yet neither completely having faith. That would come in time, both knew; it would have to, as Cantata had enough leverage on Divine to put him down and vice versa. But lasting empires were built on trust, and both mage and commander knew they had to get along. That was the point of marriage, wasn’t it?

Slipping on normal clothing – uniforms were restricted only to guards indoors – Cantata then checked her web belt and pistol, then grabbed a small box that had been sitting on table where her belt had been. Ensuring all was set, she then went over, kissed Divine one last time then departed the room. She knew she still smelled of sweat and sex, but it gave her a private thrill; hardly military regulation, but now she was to be the Commander in Chief of their forces, so who was to dictate protocol to her? Leaving the bedroom at the complex, she saluted the SIREN assigned to guard duty just outside the door and went on her way.

She walked across the crumbling parking lot that remained of the previous construction here, looking at the largest of the warehouses; that would serve as SIREN headquarters for the nonce. Instead, she turned and walked towards the perimeter and a smaller building that skirted the edge of the property, briefly acknowledging the disguised SIREN lazily – and intentionally so, as to not alert the authorities – standing guard. She then went into the building, took a left, then looked at an open hatch on the floor.

Jumping through it, she ended up in an underground facility, part of what had once been planned for the failed sports stadium. Here she passed by several scientists and the SIRENs assigned to watch over them. Finally, she reached a heavy door, where a trio of SIRENs armed with light machine guns, rifle grenade launchers and assorted other weapons, stood. Returning their salutes, she asked, “Who has been here in the past hour, Petty Officer Charm?”

“Just the usual housekeeping trainers and one scientist assigned to check on the subject’s health,” Petty Officer 1st Class Banjo Charm, the watch team leader, responded. “They checked out on the schedule, so I cleared them.”

“Good. Open the doors, and no one is to enter until I return, is that understood?”

“Aye, ma’am,” Charm replied, looking to the second SIREN, who opened the door. Klaxons sounded and orange LED lights activated, signaling that the massive steel gate was opening. Cantata waited until it was open just enough for her to slip through, then waited for it to close, as darkness swallowed her. As the huge metal maw shut with a massive thunk, red light streamed into the room, illuminating her and a pathway leading to a door. Barely visible in the darkness beyond the ruby glow were all the claymore mines, pointed along the pathway towards the door, designed to eliminate anyone who wasn’t authorized to be here and had somehow managed to make it past the fire team. Fortunately, Cantata had the failsafe on her, just in case.

Reaching the other door – a dogged hatch usually found aboard warships and a far cry from the other portals in the complex – she opened it and a blast of putrid, fetid stench hit her; the first time she’d smelled it, the odor had caused her to vomit a very expensive lunch she’d had the hour prior. Now, while a bit more accustomed to it, she knew she would never completely adjust to it. Sadly, that was part of the fate of the experimental creature housed within.

The second room was also dark, save for a single dingy light radiating from the ceiling to the floor. The room was also silent, save for a reedy breathing, the clank of chains, and the splash of Cantata’s footsteps in the inch of water that permeated this room. “I’m here,” Cantata said in a soft voice.

“Hiiiiiii Caaaaaannnntaaaa….” an uneasy voice replied back in a sing-song tone. The speech sounded as though its origin came from partially underwater.

“How are you feeling?” the SIREN commander asked as she stepped into the light, a soft smile on her face.

“Huuuuuurrrrts….” the voice burbled, the pain obvious in its tone.

“I brought you something.” Cantata opened the box, pulling out a small white teddy bear. “I hope you like it,” she said, holding it out towards the darkness.

“Iiiiii looooooooovee ittttttt….” the voice said, barely heard over the rattle of chains as a huge hand, larger than Cantata’s head, reached out towards the teddy bear. The hand was dark gray, nearly black, and covered in scales not unlike that of a fish, yet seemed to blend together that it was barely noticeable unless one really looked. The fingers ended in what would have been pinpricks of claws, had they not been cut off.

“Have you been taking the medicine the doctors have been giving you?”

“Yyyyeah, buuuuuuut iiit taaaaassssssttess naaaaaaaaaaasssty….”

“I know, but it’s the best way we know that will cure you, sweetie,” Cantata said in a hushed voice. After a second, she asked, “Would you like me to read you a story?”

“Ppppleeaaaase?” Acknowledging that, Cantata had already downloaded The Poky Little Puppy. It had been the creature’s favorite when younger, and Cantata had memories of reading it often to the subject. Memories that were now bittersweet in light of what had happened. Minutes passed as Cantata read the story and spent time, speaking to the monster chained up in the room.

Finally, the phone chirped and Cantata said, “I’ve got to go. Duty calls. But I promise I’ll be back again soon, okay?”

“IIiiiiii looooovee yooouuuu, Cccaaannnttttaaaa….” the creature burbled as Cantata started to walk away.

A tear managed to roll down the SIREN’s cheek as she replied, “I love you too, Piano.”

Cantata finally departed the larger set of doors, when another scientist arrived. “Continue testing and draining the creature’s blood,” she ordered. “I want that thing sucked dry until the serum is perfected, do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the scientist said, as he and his assistants prepared to enter.

“Captain, a word, if you would, please?” Petty Officer Charm asked, and Cantata nodded as she was ushered just out of earshot. “Ma’am, forgive me for being personal about this, but there’ve been some questions asked, and I wanted to make sure that the watch rotations have the right information.”

“Of course, Petty Officer. What’s the question?”

“Team Charlie went in at about three this morning to retrieve a scientist that had lost it in there. We had to put her down, but that’s not the problem. Petty Officer Harpsicord Strike swore that she heard the monster in there speak with the voice of your petite sœur, Seaman Piano Bliss. Now I know tha—”

Cantata cut the petty officer off. “Petty Officer Charm…it pains me to say this, but Seaman Bliss was killed three weeks ago. We were ambushed by Les SCARS, and she sacrificed herself to make sure I got away.” Tears came to Cantata’s face and the senior SIREN said, “She was more than just my petite sœur, I loved her practically as if she was my own daughter.”

“I’m…. Forgive me, Captain. I didn’t know.”

“I know you didn’t. I was going to make an announcement during the All-Hands and posthumously promote her to petty officer.”

“You have my vote on that, ma’am. She was one of the best of us.”

“Yes, she was,” Cantata said in a shaken voice. “Well, I need to check on some other things. Carry on.”

Charm saluted. “Aye, ma’am.”

The plane lifted off, and with it, Shimmer’s stomach. Though she was a well-traveled girl at the age of seventeen, she’d never liked flying. Ocean cruises, yes; train trips, sure – but while air travel could get you from Paris to London in just over thirty minutes, she still hated getting airborne.

Solaire, well familiar with her daughter’s quirks, looked at the younger woman. “Did you take your sickness pills?” she ventured.

Shimmer queasily nodded. “Yeah, I did – I’m sure the staff wouldn’t be happy if I vomited in First Class. Part of me thinks that maybe we should’ve taken Uncle Noblesse’s advice, Mom.”

Solaire nodded in sympathy to her daughter’s illness, but said, “I’m sorry, mon petit tournesol, but I want you to have a normal life. I promised your father that if anything happened to him, you would grow up as a normal girl, not as a conceited princess. If you want an example of a vain, spoiled royal brat, you need only look at my cousin.”

“I know, but we would’ve gotten to New York faster, right?”

Solaire smiled wryly. “Dear, were it not for my brother’s insistence, we would have flown Economy.”

“Economy?” Sunset had never understood why people put up with such cramped conditions for hours on end. Sure, such setups were fine for a bus or the metro, but for the confined space of an aircraft? She thought the flight to Sydney last year – even with the short layover in Singapore – was utter hell; she couldn’t even dream how anyone could put up with that for hours on end!

Solaire saw that look in her daughter’s eyes and gave a wistful sigh. “It’s not as bad as it seems; your father and I used to fly like that all the time, and we could certainly afford to buy the whole plane.” A nostalgic look came onto her face as she added, “Summer always felt that sitting in First Class kept you from the world. I remember a time when we were flying Economy from Chicago back to Canterlot, and our flight was cancelled because of weather. If we’d taken First Class, we probably could have caught an earlier flight – but we didn’t and instead, we stayed overnight in the airport.

“You stayed in the airport? Not in a hotel?”

“Oui. And you know what we saw? Diamond dust – it’s a type of loose, powdery snow – sparkling in the moonlight. It was only possible because of the atmospheric conditions, the wide-open space of the tarmac and the full moon that night. If we’d stayed at a hotel, or if we’d taken those First Class seats, we would have missed out on the little things in life that make it all the worthwhile – the kind that money can never replace.” She wiped a tear from her eye as she said, “I don’t think you’ll really ever know how much you lost when your father passed. It was more than just his presence; you lost a wealth of experience and wisdom that I can never hope to pass on to you, not with the sheltered childhood I had.” She caressed her daughter’s face with a solitary hand. “I can only hope to give you an approximation of what your father had, so it can make you into a woman most unparalleled.”

Shimmer took Solaire’s hand in her own, her eyes glistening with love for her mother. “You’re doing fine, Mom. Besides, there’s just one of me in this world – I really doubt I could ever have anything other than the perfect life you’ve given me.”

The room was ramshackle and looked like something out of a medieval architect’s afterthought: the chamber was cold as a corpse, drafty and poorly lit. If anything, it was as close to the original specifications of the alchemical chambers of Baldassare di Cavalcanti, with the exceptions of the mirrors and the other items at ECMAH. Divine supposed that if he wanted to make this place as accurate as possible, he could retrieve those items; perhaps it would put him in touch with the Black Unicorn that had led his Father of Fathers to greatness. After all, in just a few moments, after years of preparation, he could finally begin to take the steps that he so richly deserved: that of ascent to Emperor of All, a virtual – perhaps even literal – god.

And there, on the table, were the four items that he had spent so long and disposed of so much lucre in order to obtain. Admittedly, the first was the easiest to get: simple grave robbing and extensive spells had allowed him to forge this cask made from the bones of the damned. The hardest part had actually been to find where they had been buried and to hire mercenaries to do his dirty work. While he had succeeded in that endeavor, it was when the cutthroats that he hired tried to turn on him that fate intervened in the method of Cantata Blast and her SIRENs rescuing him by way of destroying a group of mercenaries she’d later told him “sold them out to CSIS”. Realizing their utility, he made plans to include them as his army. A deal was struck and from that point, things continued apace.

And thanks to their efforts and his funding, the three pieces now lay before him, each ready to be corrupted from their original purpose and bent to his will. The first was the mysterious Blade of Balance, the so-called sword wielded by a to-this-day nameless sorcerer of incredible power who was said to have assisted Merlin himself in defeating a demon hell-bent on destroying the world. It was never said what had happened to the sorcerer in question, and the only proof of his existence was this gladius-like sword, with a blade of pure silver and a hilt and guard of gold, both so pure that not even modern smelting could create anything that pristine.

The second was the Song of Summoning. It had been the song that had been provided to Cavalcanti by the Black Unicorn, its intent meant to summon the great demon. Why it was never used Divine didn’t know, but it had fallen into various hands around the centuries until its final location in the hands of some wealthy – and now-dead – sheik in Dubai. If the man had only known what he’d had in his hands aside from being a mere priceless antique, perhaps it would have been too late for Divine to act. Fortunately, the fool had valued it only for its age and not its utility; Divine would be sure to give the document its proper due.

Lastly was the Campana of Containment. Far from being an ordinary bell, this precious instrument, no larger than a hand bell, appeared to be fashioned out of pure red gold, veined with intricate platinum symbols, some of which he had yet to discern. But what was even more frightening was its true origin: within its space was said to be the demon itself, trapped within by the powers of Merlin and that unknown sorcerer, waiting for the day when someone strong enough could come to destroy the beast for once and for all. From here he could feel the power radiating from it, and when he rang it, in addition to the sharp peal of its tones seemed to be the undercurrent of an unnatural growl. It would take some doing, but he could free the demon within the bell, and make the fiend bow to his will, he was certain of that.

But for now, he had to start somewhere, a first step on the final journey. Taking the Blade in hand, he noticed how small it was; this seemed more like a long knife than a true sword, and it made him wonder if the ancient unknown sorcerer had really been a woman or perhaps even a child. Regardless, said sorcerer had once hefted a sword worth more than all the treasures of the world, and used it to bind a monstrous beast that would soon serve Divine’s every whim. Slipping the blade into his belt, he reached over and grabbed the Cask of the Damned in his opposite hand, steadied everything for a second.

Against the wall, set in a case made of the finest mahogany, was a spear made of rosewood, the tip made of a finely-shaped amethyst. The spear was said to have once been in the ownership of Charlemagne, one of the ancestors of the pathetic kings of France, a weak group far from power and far from promise, nothing like his Imperial Line. Granted, the House of Bonaparte had been started by a braggart with more bravado than brains, but it had been that bravado that had claimed France, and had allowed that dolt to marry his wife, introducing the blood of Cavalcanti into the Bonaparte line and thus ensuring that Divine had a rightful claim to the rule of France – a jumping point to his eventual command of all. Between his grimoire and the Mystical Spear of Carolus Magnus, he would be supreme.

But enough of that for now; he had work to do. Gently setting aside the spear’s case, Divine then pointed his free hand at the nearest wall, the violet force of his magic coming to play. The wall strobed with the same color, and with that, he walked through the wall as though it wasn’t there.

This room, completely sealed and inaccessible save through mystical means, contained very little, save for a wooden bench…and the naked, bound girl that was chained to it. She looked at him with horror as he came through the wall and struggled, pulling against the chains, though her wrists and ankles were already chafed and red against her fair skin. She tried to scream, but the gag firmly in place prevented it from doing so. All she was succeeding in doing was ruining her pretty hairdo, the violet and lavender locks of hair coming undone, and further reddening her purple eyes from the crying she’d done.

“Hello, miss,” he said to her, looking over her body. She had to be no more than thirteen, her body reaching the cusp of womanhood. It thrilled him slightly, and if he didn’t need her for other purposes, well…he had checked to ensure that she was a virgin. “Did you know you’re here to make history?”

Shining Badge shouted from his desk, “All agents! Meet in the Conference Room, now!”

Shining Armor looked up from his computer, where a thrilling game of Mahjong was ongoing. “What’d you do this time, Sandy?” he joked.

Sandalwood grinned as she got out of her chair. “I’d tell you, but you’d have to give me at least a fifth of vodka, all night with you and a wedding ring,” she replied with a wink. “Seriously, no idea.”

A new voice – Agent Hardline – shouted from behind them. “Move it, you two, this is serious!” she called as she practically rushed past them, followed by the other members of the FBI in attendance and those still on loan from the SIREN Task Force. Shining and Sandalwood immediately followed suit; if something was big enough to warrant immediate attention, then far be it for either of them to argue about it in the slightest.

A second later they entered the Conference Room, which had reached standing room only levels of population – practically unheard of for the office. Seated at the front of the table, Badge looked at his agents. “Drop everything you’re working on,” he ordered. “Huge and immediate change of plans.”

“Sir, we think we may have a lead on the SIRENs case,” Hardline began. “Are you sure about this?”

“When the life of a young girl’s on the line, Hardy?” he asked her. “Hell yes!”

“What’s going on, sir?” one of the other agents asked.

“We just got a call from CPD HQ – they’re mobilizing everything: earlier today, the mayor’s daughter, Liza Doolots, was kidnapped in broad daylight. The assailant shot the mayor’s husband several times; he’s at Canterlot Regional, in critical condition. As for the kidnappers, they left a card – a tarot card, if I remember the flash briefing – as a calling sign.”

As the room started to buzz with agents talking amongst themselves, Shining’s mind already went into street beat mode: “Could it be political?” he asked. “Mayor Mare’s up for reelection in two years, and the last race against her opponent was pretty nasty.”

“Yeah, now that I think of it, didn’t her opponent threaten her on live TV?” another of the local agents asked.

“Don’t know, but we’ll obviously look into that angle. In the meanwhile, CPD has asked everyone in the Metro area to get boots on the ground, including us.” Badge reached over to tap a button on the keyboard, and a projector above lit up, throwing the image of a young girl, smiling, her sweet purple eyes, fair skin, and violet-and-lavender hair showing the sad tale of a girl who had no idea what the real world was like. “Liza Doolots, thirteen years old, recently graduated Central Junior High and scheduled for her freshman year at Canterlot High. They tracked her phone to Darkside approximately twenty minutes ago, and it was thrown in a ditch. Leads are already being followed in Everfree Glades and as far away as Bella Vista,” Badge explained. “Look, I’m not going to waste your time quoting statistics: you know as well as I do that the longer she’s missing the less chance she’s alive. Let’s get going, before it’s too late.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Shining said, leaping to his feet, Sandalwood following him in close order.

Liza looked at the man before her, who had removed her gag. “Please…let me go…. My mom’s the mayor, and she’ll do anything to get me back. You can have anything you want,” she moaned.

“Anything, hmmm?” the man said, leering at her body. Liza, having just had “the talk” with her parents just a few months ago, now knew what that look was for, and it sickened her. But if it would mean her freedom, she would do it.

“Yes, I’ll do it – I’ll do anything you want. Please, just let me go!” The tears started again, and the man smiled at that. He seemed to derive joy from her pain and that horrified her even more.

“But what if I didn’t want to let you go?” he asked her. His voice was clearly accented, which meant he was a foreigner. Mexican, maybe? Her mother had once introduced her to a wealthy Mexican industrialist, who was looking to build a factory in the area. As her panic mind sieved through the recollections of that party, she immediately dismissed it; the accent was far different. But then, where was he from?

I have to remember everything so that if I escape, I’ll be able to tell the police! She then remembered he’d walked through the wall, but the voice in the back of her mind told her that was impossible; the “wall” had to be a curtain or maybe even a hologram or something like that, something that was easily explainable.

“What if I wanted to keep you as my personal pet?” he asked, leaning on her knees, placing the knife just before her sex. “What if I wanted you to do nothing more than to please me and bear my children? Or maybe just something that I just wish to entertain myself with.”

“Please, Mister,” she begged, trying to keep calm just as her mother warned her, “I’ll do anything you want – and I won’t tell anyone. Please, just let me go and I’ll do whatever you want!”

“Do you know what I really want?” he asked her.

“My v-v-virginity?” she nervously offered.

Standing above her as she offered everything to him, he felt a rush. Yes, this is what true power is about. Giving her a smile, he said, “Well, yes, Miss Doolots, I chose you because you were a virgin. But this has nothing to do with your cute little attempt to offer yourself as my whore.” He then methodically held the Blade out before her, adding, “No, I needed the blood of a virgin, the first of many.”

Liza, now realizing what was about to happen started screaming and pulling against the bonds as hard as she could, as if her life depended on it – because it clearly now did. “HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!”

Raising the Blade and ignoring her screams, Divine looked her right in the eyes and said, “As I said, you’re about to make history, Miss Doolots: the first of the sacrifices necessary in making me Emperor of All.” He then got right into her face, listening to her screams at point blank range and almost savoring them. “This will hurt a bit,” he told her as he touched her lips with his; immediately, though she tried her hardest to, no sound came from her desperate attempts to cry.

“But I assure you,” Divine Right said as he raised the Blade right above her heart, “this will all work out in the end.

“After all, it is my divine right.”

He brought the Blade down, and all was red.

Author's Note

Well, here we go: the final Book of Seven Days in Sunny June begins! I know you've all looked forward to this, and I hope that this doesn't disappoint!

Don't forget about my Patreon: I'm going to have something up special as an announcement in a couple of days, exclusive to there!