Chapter 29

Opening notes

"Twilight! Sunset! Where are you?" Applejack was shouting to no avail.

"Darlings! Where did you disappear?!" Rarity was trying to call out to their friends as well.

Unfortunately, all the strain they put on their vocal chords was to no avail, as they could find no trace of their friends.

"This is just like the Tartarus-damned trope," Sugarcoat muttered under her nose. "You split up one time and something bad happens immediately. Seriously, where did they go? Oh how I miss mobile phones..."

They spent twenty minutes combing through the buiding, but were unable to find any trace of their friends from alternate dimension.

"Oh shit," Applejack started to genuinely fear for the lives of Twilight and Sunset now. What if someone else was here and they got the drop on them? What if this were zombies? Or those slavers we pissed off? Or someone else?

"This is strange," Rarity spoke. "No trace whatsoever, even Spikey-Whikey isn't here! It's as if some flying spaghetti monster came and whicked them..."

"Oh can it, Rarity!" Applejack shouted. "This is not helping us!"

The former fashionista brisked at the brashness in the farmer's voice, but decided not to respond so as not to exacerbate the situation.

This is neither time nor place.

"I don't know about flying spaghetti monsters," Sugarcoat shouted, pointing out of the window, "but I see a horde of other monsters running here!"

Applejack and Rarity hurried to the window. What they saw made their insides liquify - metaphorically speaking, of course - and twitch incontrollably.

A large group of "zombies" was approaching them. There were no less than fifty of them, and they comprised of both normal humans and super mutants, and even ghouls.

"Fuck me!" Applejack shouted, mounting her LMG on a bipod and opening fire. Rarity took out her sniper rifle and leaned against the optical sight. Sugarcoat dropped on one knee and leaned against her R91.

We're buggered, she thought.

Twilight Sparkle looked down, horrified.

Sunset Shimmer glared, angered.

Adagio Dazzle smirked, smug.

"It took me a long time, and truth be told, I almost lost hope... but now, with you in my grasp and two more to be added soon? I almost wish your other companions were here, so I could have a full set. It would have been poetic," she said.

"You..." choking on anger, Sunset almost spat out her words in fury, "why? Why are you doing this?"

"Well," Adagio's smirk was gone, replaced by a cold and dispassionate expression, "if there is a reason to do this, it's you two. I wish I could actually shove this in Starswirl the Bearded's muzzle, but he's bucked the bucket long ago, so that's kinda unfeasible. But you two have ruined our moment of glory, when we could become something higher and better than what we had been!" Slowly, her face twisted in anger, and she glared at both Equestrians. "You and your clique of friends have ruined everything! And now, fate has brought you in my hands! Oh, this is delicious..."

"So you've been out for revenge? That's it?" Sunset spoke.

"I did want revenge, but without my powers, I was not certain I would succeed in any plan. You almost always were surrounded by friends, or someone else was around. And the Pretty Princess here vanished to Equestria after zapping me with her freaking rainbow beam; I would not last two minutes there. So I was forced to abandon my dream and survive along with Aria and Sonata. That was miserable as Tartarus, let me tell you. I'd rather not relive it. Plus, Sonata was getting more and more annoyed with us, and one day, she just up and disappeared. Good riddanve, me and Aria thought. But we went on, until the humans bombed each other to smithereens with their mega-bombs. I've got to say, it's impressive in a twisted way. Such destructiveness is way beyond what Equestria could do back when I was there, and I don't think that has changed."

Twilight decided against dignifying the siren with an answer.

"I guess it hasn't. Well, we used what knowledge we had of this world to avoid radiation and what not, hid as well as we could. Whinnyapolis had many abandoned houses we could hide in. We lived on, but White Knives started making appearances there, so we got to Trottingham with a merchant caravan. Settled up here, scavenged whatever we could. That is, until we found Shimmer's house. That's where I found this little gem," she stroked the magic journal, "and that's when we realized that we could get our magic back."

"How?" Twilight asked before thinking.

"This journal by itself is a conduit of magic. As for us, we still had our gems, or what remained of them - we collected the shards the day after - and if we were to channel the magic of the journal, we could re-fuse the shards together, at least partially, and get some of our powers back. A jump-start would let us continue. That's when Aria tried to wrestle control of me."

"And you absorbed her essence?"

"Yes. We had already fused the gems, and she decided to jump me. The idiot did not think I would be ready."

"And that made it OK to absorb her essence? That's not simply killing someone! That's basically absorbing everything your opponent is, and then erasing it, making the energy your own! This is punished by banishment to Tartarus! It's one of the few crimes which can warrant capital punishment!" Twilight jerked around, disbelief and fury claiming her.

"Yeah, well, I am not in Equestria anymore, and you do not rule this world, Princess," Adagio said dismissively. "I see my followers brought your things," she nodded at the zombies that carried the rucksacks that belonged to Equestrians, "let's see if you have something useful..."

However, as she unzipped Twilight's rucksack, Spike jumped out at her face, claws out and digged into the siren's face. Adagio fell onto her butt, shocked.

"Spike!" Twilight shouted in surprise and fear. "RUN!"

Her Number 1 assistant obeyed and ran to the closest exit, leaving the siren alone.

"Kill him!" Adagio shouted, trying to wipe the blood off her face. Twilight saw a zombie try and raise his gun, and lashed out with a kick. Her foot connected with his jaw, making him drop down out of surprise. Sunset did the same with another zombie who was behind her, screwing his aim. Other zombies were too slow, and once they fired in the direction of a lower floor, Spike was gone.

"We missed him, Mistress," said one of the zombies in an unnaturally grating tone.

"Find him! He must not let the others know!" Adagio's eyes flashed red for a moment.

"Hey, Adagio," Sunset called.

"What?"

"Remember how you sicced Trixie and her merry band on us? How they dropped us under the stage?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, you know what? Spike got us out of there. It will be simply karmic when he does the same again," Sunset smirked, and Twilight did the same.

"I agree," she said, "and pretty poetic as well, don't you think, Adagio?"

The siren was not amused by their antics, predictably enough. Her features twisted in fury, which was even more unnerving, given her scrathed face.

"You think this is funny? Well, I think I need to remind you something..."

Suddenly, two red orbs appeared in her palms, which made both Equestrians lose their smiles.

"...I am the one with the magic here. I am the one who has power!"

With these words, she thrust her hands forward, and red lightning bolts struck Twilight and Sunset, setting all their nerves ablaze. Their scream pierced the building:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

The scientists that worked for Stable Hearts Limited would have thrown a hissy fit if they saw how their building was used now.

That was the primary thought running through Sugarcoat's head, and it was not unfounded. The building was full of sounds not commonly associated with science.

Gunfire.

Clutter of metal cases against the floor as the gunpowder burned and the bullets raced forward, out of the barrels.

Swear words shouted by everyone in the vicinity (even Rarity; the former fashionista was gradually losing her brain-to-mouth filter along with patience).

Roar of the hordes of zombies.

"This is the biggest fuckin' horde Ah've ever seen!" Applejack shouted over the Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dat of her LMG.

"Agreed! I literally cannot miss!" Rarity responded.

"Keep shooting instead of gum-flapping!" Sugarcoat commanded.

The zombies besieged the building, clearly intending to breach the entrance. Some of them were trying to suppress the girls, but Rarity utilized her Stealth-Boy to the fullest extent in such cases, and sniped everyone trying to make them duck. This barely helped, however; the attackers were close to the entrance now, and there were a dozen of them.

"What wouldn't Ah give for a grenade launcher!" Applejack shouted, dropping another box magazine out of her LMG and ducking below the window to reload it.

Grenade... grenade... Rarity thought. Why am I thinking about a grenade? I don't have frag grenades, none of us do. Twilight and Sunset had those, and they are not here...

Suddenly, a flash went through her head, and a desperate idea formed in her mind.

I don't have a frag grenade, and I am sooo not sure that will work, but desperate times call for desperate measures...

Spike hated himself.

He was running.

He was running, and he hated himself for that.

I abandoned them in danger. I abandoned Twilight and Sunset. This thought was running uninvited in his mind.

Logically, he knew he could not help them. He knew there were too many zombies for him to handle, and neither Twilight nor Sunset were armed. He was lucky not to have been detected earlier. When Twilight fell, he got squished uncomfortably and lost consciousness for a while. When he came around, he understood immediately that something was wrong. There were too many wrong smells, and from what he understood, both Twilight and Sunset were taken as prisoners.

By Adagio Dazzle.

That twit does not know when to give up. She didn't even have the decency to die in the nuclear blast!

Twilight wouldn't have approved of his line of thoughts, but dragons were more aggressive by nature, and he really disliked Adagio.

When he heard her approaching steps, he understood that his time was limited. He quickly formulated a plan of action.

When the siren approached Twilight's rucksack and opened it, he seized his chance and clawed at her face. His hope was that zombies would be too slow to act, and he was right.

However, his initial guess of having too many enemies to handle was right, and when Twilight shouted at him to run, he obeyed without hesitation - although his guts insisted he stopped and mutilated Dazzle's face, and preferably blinded her.

He heard two sounds of a foot connecting with something as he disappeared below the floor. Apparently, both Equestrians kicked someone so he would not get shot.

Thanks, girls!

It was not too long before he heard their screams of pain. His heart bled as if their anguish was cutting it, but he forced himself to go on.

To leave them to the vindictive siren's definitely-not-tender mercy.

She is torturing them, and I can't do anything! I have to go out and bring Applejack, Rarity and Sugarcoat to help, despite the dangers it may bring! But I don't know where I am, or if they're still at that lab!

Sharp sounds of gunfire and small fountains of dust reminded him of stealth and of the fact that he was still hunted.

An interesting situation for a predator species! Garble would laugh his ugly face off if he saw that! he thought wryly, deftly dodging to the side and turning around the corner.

If only I had longer legs! At least I would be able to lose them quickly! he thought, running inside a building so as to lower the chances of being noticed...

"Flashbang out!" Rarity shouted, tearing off the safety ring and tossing a flashbang out to the street into the charging horde.

"What use it's gonna be?" Applejack shouted.

"We'll see!" Sugarcoat replied.

KA-BANG!!!

Rarity looked out of the window... and felt relieved.

It worked!

The desperate idea was to use the flashbang grenade to startle the zombies. While they did not appear to have vision, they still were able to aim and fire guns, and that implied that they actually could see somehow.

And that meant that their ability to see could theoretically be disrupted.

Which lead her to use one of the three flashbang grenades she had at her disposal.

"Fire!" she shrilled, unloading her Buffalo SMG at the enemies and quickly eliminating three of them. Applejack and sugarcoat joined the fray, quickly dispatching the rest of the zombies.

As they finished, every zombie was lying dead. The whole street approaching the building of Stable Hearts Limited was strewn with corpses and stained with blood.

"This place's gonna stink real hard," Applejack commented. "Does anyone actually dispose of the bodies here?"

"Are you kidding me?" Sugarcoat said, increduled.

"But this is so unsanitary!" Rarity said. "Not to mention the corpse poison!"

"Nobody cares. And it's nigh impossible to die from cadaverine or any other ptomaines, unless you inject them directly into a bloodstream."

"Eh... everyone? Am Ah seein' things or there are more of 'em comin'?" Applejack said.

"I desperately hope you're joking," the pig-tailed girl replied.

"Am not. Look."

Rarity picked up her sniper rifle again, and sure enough, there was another horde approaching.

"We can't defend this position," Sugarcoat observed. "We barely held last time, and this horde is bigger than the last one. We'll be overrun."

"But we still haven'd found Twi an' Sunset!"

"And we won't find them if we die here!"

"Applejack, painful as it is, I do think we need to find a more defensible position," Rarity said. "There's an exit in the back of the building. If we hurry, we may have a chance to lose the horde."

"So what're we waiting for?! RUN!" Sugarcoat shouted, and everyone followed her.

"But where?" Applejack asked. "Do we have a plan except "run and gun" or do we not, Sugarcoat?"

"As far as I remember, there is a police station nearby!" came the answer. "It is more defensible and we can hope to at least use the robots there for our purposes! If they followed standard protocol, there should still be protectrons in anti-EMP-insulated storages!"

"How do ya know that?"

"My dad worked as a policeman! I myself was a cadet in the police academy when the bombs fell! And I have both our ID badges!"

"Last one's a skunk then! Come on!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Another scream pierced the air inside the building as red bolts of arcane energy hit the two ponies in human form.

Twilight and Sunset hung by handcuffed hands, feeling the toll on their bodies. The dark magic that Adagio invoked acted like electricity, causing them to thrash around like weird puppets.

When the torture stopped, however, they simply hung, their muscles stretching even more as they had trouble even when raising their heads.

Satisfied with her handiwork, Adagio approached them.

"Get it who has the power now? Get it?!" she shouted. "Face it, you have lost! I have already dealt a fatal blow to Horseshoe Highway, and Brightlight won't last long as well! As my powers grow, I can extend my reach more and more! And when your magic is mine, not even dead will escape their service to me!"

Both Equestrians only managed to moan in pain, trying to recollect their bearings.

"I will finally have my power back, and I will be adored, as I am supposed to be! It is even good that I don't have Aria and Sonata with me anymore, since it means that the power will be mine, and mine alone!"

"You..." Twilight moaned.

"What is it? The Pussy Princess wants to say something?" Adagio mocked her.

"You... are..."

"Come on, you! I don't have all day!"

"You're... the... worst... thing... to ever come from Equestria..."

"That's the best you've got? I thought you would call me a monster or something."

"Oh, you're a monster all right... but that's not the end of it. You... are... a fucking fish-cunt!" Twilight spat out, returning the glare of hatred she had seen earlier in spades.

"Oh-ho-ho, she's got you there, Dazzle," Sunset laughed out, and immediately received another bolt of lightning for her cheek. "Awww... totally worth it..." she whispered, but Adagio did not pay her any attention anymore.

"OK, you cunning linguist," she addressed Twilight, "you stung me. That was quite offensive, especially considering sirens don't like comparisons with fish. As for cunts, why don't I introduce a bolt to yours?"

"What the- AAAAAAARGH!!!" the lavender-skinned girl screamed as another red arc hit her in the... genitals.

"That was for your cheek, Princess bitch."

"Fuck you!" Twilight snarled. Her body was stiff form the dark magic used on her, but she still managed to pull her right leg back. The muscles flared in sharp, unbearable pain, but she was able to jerk forward and deliver a hit straight to Adagio's nose, despite the agony she felt at the slightest movement.

Crack!

The heavy boot, powered by the kinetic energy and Twilight's righteous fury, broke the bridge of siren's nose. Adagio screamed in pain and stumbled backwards. Sunset laughed again, and Twilight choked out several chuckles from herself.

"Looks like you like getting cosmetics on your face! First Spike, and now Twilight!" the fiery-haired girl shouted, genuinely having fun despite the mortal peril she was in now. "Hey Adagio, want me to add some shadows under your eyes! Free of charge, only today!"

Zzzzzzzap!

Another lightning arc hit Sunset straight into the head, causing her to drop her head as the unicorn-turned-human lost consciousness.

"Tartarus curse her to oblivion," Adagio snarled. "Now she'll be out of it for some time. Not what I wanted. But this was merely a reprieve, Twilight Sparkle," she addressed her another captive. "Your defiance is both annoying and stupid, and for it, you will have the pleasure of seeing your dearest friend being the first one to give her magic to me. I assure you, I won't be nice to her, or you, for that matter, once she comes around."

Twilight simply glared at the orange-headed siren.

"And if you are still hoping for your dear friends to save you, abandon all hope. My followers are chasing your mutt, and your friends are about to face another horde of them. You have no chances whatsoever. My followers are far greater in numbers than you would believe. Some of them are hiding underground, in the tunnels."

"Tunnels? But they're collapsed, or occupied by Metroists... wait. You don't say..."

"Indeed, Princess. Metro Survivalists follow me as well. And the deaths of those who entered the tunnels were fake. Instead, those too curious for their own good contributed to my growing power by participating in ritual fights, and filled the ranks of my followers."

Utterly horrified, Twilight could only stare at her opponent, who managed to turn the situation in her own favour, and now had perfect means to implement her revenge.

"No one else has the numbers I do, and once Horseshoe Highway and Brightlight are eliminated, no faction will be able to oppose me as I ensnare more and more minds with your magic. The only ones who are immune would be your clique of friends, but you will be in my grasp anyway. So this ultimately doesn't matter. Now, I have an army to command."

With these words, Adagio Dazzle turned around and went away, taking the zombies with her.

As soon as she left, Twilight Sparkle broke into tears. The salty liquid mixed with the dust and dirt on her face, flowing down freely as she could not wipe it out.

I'm sorry, she thought.

Despair overwhelmed her.

I'm sorry, Applejack. I'm sorry, Rarity. I'm sorry, Sunset.

I'm sorry, everyone. Point Blank, Swift Sentinel, Cap Collector, Big Macintosh, Apples, Round Risk, Sugarcoat, Vinyl, Lemon, all the people of Appletown, and Brightlight, and Horseshoe Highway. I'm so sorry!

I failed you!

I DOOMED YOU ALL!

"Oh why it is so hard to breathe inside gas masks?" Rarity whined as she clutched her chest.

She, Applejack and Sugarcoat were standing near the police station now. The path to it has not been easy: despite their haste, the zombies were able to notice them as they ran out of the back door and to the street, and promptly gave chase.

Fortunately, Sugarcoat knew this part of Trottingham relatively well, having been there on multiple occasions. She directed other girls in directions where zombies would have hard time pursuing them due to the sheer number of the white-eyed enemies, but all that allowed for was to stay slightly ahead, and the trio has not been able to lose the pursuers completely.

Still, they managed to stay ahead of their enemies for long enough to reach the police station, and now they were inside it, locking the door, their lungs burning and diaphragms aching.

"Screw these masks," Sugarcoat said, pulling off her own, "We're fucked anyway, so I don't think any viruses in the air will make a difference."

Applejack and Rarity looked at each other and did the same thing.

"While I do not want to admit defeat yet, Sugarcoat, I must admit that your assessment of the situation is apt enough," the ex-fashionista said.

"Thanks. Now, where is that damn control terminal..." Sugarcoat muttered, sudying the schematics of the building. "Ah-ha! Found it! After me, everyone!"

The girls ran deeper into the building, doing their best not to trip on the garbage collected on the floor or concrete slabs that fell from the ceiling due to a shockwave. Half a minute later, they got themselves into a room where several Protectrons, two Mr. Gutsies and one sentry bot, all painted in police colours, were stnading behind semi-transparent domes, insulated against electromagnetic pulses. Sugarcoat went up to the terminal and began typing furiously into it. At one moment, she took out her police badge and let a camera scan it. then she typed something else, and the domes opened with a hiss. The robots went active.

"Robotic Police Unit of Trottingham number 15: Online," they said in sync. The sentry bot scanned the area and intoned:

"Scanning. Result: One cadet. One soldier of Mechanized Infantry. One UFE scout-sniper. Standard subordination protocol active. Cadet, show your badge."

Sugarcoat did as requested.

"Identity confirmed: Sugarcoat, rank "Cadet". Paging superiors... error. Unable to contact a superior officer."

"I have been deputized to take command on behalf of Officer Herring Coat," Sugarcoat said. "Here's the badge," she showed the other badge he had, more ornate than her own.

"Authenticity verified. Request acknowledged. Unit is at your disposal, cadet."

"Hostile force is on approach to the police station. They are armed and will not surrender. I am authorizing lethal force. Open fire at them without warning at my command or at command of my companions. They are to be considered equal to me in terms of authority."

"Acknowledged. Moving to designated position," the robots moved out. The girls followed them out of the room.

"Before we get back, we need to see if the arsenal is intact," Sugarcoat said. "We're low on ammo, and if we run out of them, it will be bad."

"Where's the arsenal?"

"Follow me."

One minute later, they were standing in front of a metal door. Sugarcoat inserted her badge in a slot, but nothing happened.

"Damn it, the EMP must have fried the lock. Let me see if emergency unlocking will work. Step away from the door."

"Emergency unlocking?"

Instead of an answer, Sugarcoat opened an electric box next to the door and pulled the red lever labeled "Emergency unlocking".

BOOM!

A small explosion tore off the lock, blowing the hole in the door and making it open slightly. Inside, the girls could see racks of guns and crates of ammo.

"Help yourselves," the ex-Shadowbolt opened the door fully and ran in, picking up the pre-loaded magazines for R91. Applejack and Rarity stood still, mouths agape, before shaking off the stupor and moving in.

"Why would an emergency unlock be in an electric box?" Applejack asked.

"Don't ask me," Sugarcoat replied. "I didn't design the place."

They managed to stock up on all the ammunition they required. As a bonus, they found frag grenades, as well as additional flashbangs. Applejack looked around and noticed a heavy, six-barreled weapon standing in the far corner.

A minigun.

"Now why would they have a minigun here of all places?"

"Someone had to buy surplus military equipment," Sugarcoat said. "This is an older model, HSRBW-275, which was replaced by HSRBW-300 a year before the apocalypse. Maybe they wanted to buy power armour for someone to use it as well. Police militarization at its finest."

Applejack hung her LMG behind her back and slowly approached the weapon which usually mounted at tripods, and stretched her hand out, putting it on the minigun. Then, she hefted it, right hand on the firing handle, left hand on the grip handle. The exoskeleton of her power armour slightly whined as additional strain was put on it. As shepulled a lever, the minigun's electric engine, covered by insulation against electromagnetic pulse, coughed as it started.

The blonde girl pushed the safety button, making the barrels rotate with a whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sound. As she released the button, the barrels stopped their rotation.

Silence reigned. Everyone stared at Applejack as she gazed at the minigun almost lovingly.

"Now that's mah kind of gun!" she exclaimed like a kid who got her Hearth's Warming present.

"Well," Rarity said, "it certainly fits your style, Applejack."

"Don't forget the spare ammo," Sugarcoat pointed at the extra boxes. "This model only has two hundred and forty 5mm ammo per magazine."

"Thanks for advice," Applejack did as asked, and picked the minigun again.

"I have also found some mines. Now, let's return to our position until the zombies get here."

"What are mines for?"

"The first room is not worth holding for too long, we will be overrun quickly. It will make more sense to put mines there and activate them remotely once it becomes indefensible. The robots and us will be in the second room. There are more possibilities for barricading. Let me think... Applejack, you and the sentry bot will need to stand in the first room and try and do as much damage as possible. They will inevitably break through the window, but while they try the door, you can deal massive enough damage. Retreat when it's too much, and I will activate the mines. Then we will try and defend against this wave. Then we see what happens."

"Hmmm. OK then. If ya insist."

"Now come on. Time's a-wasting."

Sour Note used to be nobody.

A failure before apocalypse, a failure after apocalypse.

Before apocalypse, he was a lonely cleaner in the mall, with meager and shrinking pay.

After apocalypse, he became a loner and a hermit, surviving on plants and fruits, and sometimes he puked from radiation sickness. And some time later, he was picked by a gang of raiders.

He had a choice: die, or help them.

And he did not want to die. So he joined.

He saw horrible and disgusting acts. Crimes. Murder. Rape. Even cannibalism.

This made his insides rot.

But one day, they encountered a young woman. Their leader thought she would make a great sex toy.

But...

The woman started singing.

Her song was magical. All his worries washed away. All he felt was bliss, and joy.

It was the most beautiful song he has ever heard.

The song enveloped him whole. He would do anything to experience this true joy.

And other raiders did as well.

Now, they were standing beside their comrades, ready to bring new people to the Song Bringer, as he called her.

And there was a door in their way. A flimsy door will not stop those blessed by the Song Bringer!

He and others pushed hard, and the door broke.

Inside, there was a mighty robot, painted blue, with white letters spelling "POLICE" adorning its "chest".

And there was a young blonde woman in very heavy armour, holding something that pointed at them.

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The "something" had six barrels, and all of them started rotating.

Sour Note remembered what this thing was. A minigun.

"Y'all weren't invited!" the woman shouted, and her button pressed the electrotrigger.

As 5mm bullets tore him apart, Sour Note regretted only one thing: he would not be able to hear the Blessed Song in the afterlife.

"Urgh..." Sunset moaned as she came around.

That was some mean dark magic. My everything hurts badly. Especially my head, I think I know now what "mother of all headaches" means.

"Waking up, are we?"

Oh sweet Celestia and Luna, somebody eviscerate this siren bitch before her voice splits my skull, dear Starswirl, I cannot take it anymore, Sunset thought as she reluctantly opened her eyes...

...and came face to face with Adagio Dazzle.

"Finally, damn it," the orange-haired girl snarled. Her cuts were not bleeding anymore, and her voice was only slightly nasally. Her nose was also in the right posistion.

Fuck. She either fixed her nose or had one of the zombies do it, Sunset thought as she glanced upwards.

Wait.

Upwards?!

That's when her vestibular apparatus finally informed her that she was actually lying on her back on some hard surface. Her hands were still handcuffed to something, and her legs were immobilized as well.

Throwing a few glances, the fiery-haired girl realized that her legs were tied together, and several zombies were holding them tight. She also noticed Twilight still hanging by her handcuffed hands from the pole.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Twilight said in return.

"Silence!" Adagio snapped and sent a red bolt at Twilight, who yelped in pain. "I have no more patience for you. You," she pointed her finger at Sunset, "will give me your magic, and you will do it now!"

"Yeah, how about you give me a cunnilingus, whore?" Sunset spat in disgust. Instead of using dark magic, however, Adagio punched her hard in the solar plexus. Since Sunset no longer had any armour on her, she felt the brunt and gasped heavily as pain coursed through her body, trying in vain to get air inside her lungs.

"Mouth off at me again, Bacon Bitch, and I won't be as nice," the siren hissed.

OK, now I'm officially pissed off, Sunset thought. Next person who makes a remark on bacon hair gets scalped. With salt dropped in the wounds. She desperately wanted to get back at her captor, but she still had trouble breathing, and was unable to do so.

"Let's get the process started," Adagio said. She took out a wicked-looking knife with a curved end, and pierced Sunset's finger with it. Squeezing it so blood would leak out, she collected it in a small cup, and then poured all of it onto the magic journal.

The shards of the gemstones that used to power the sirens' ability to sing began glowing in a baleful red light. Adagio's eyes became red themselves, and some runes appeared on the knife she had, also glowing red.

"That's all?" Sunset asked.

"As if," she heard the answer.

Then Adagio rose the knife above her own head, aiming it at Sunset...

"What're you doing?!" Twilight shouted in panic, but she was ignored by everyone.

"Powers of the seas!" Adagio chanted in a voice laced by dark magic. "Powers of the seas! Grant me my wish! Grant me my wish!"

Ancient sirens' ritual, Twilight recognized, and her insides froze in fear.

She guessed what was about to happen.

NO!

Sunset also recognized the ritual, and her eyes widened. She whimpered:

"Oh no... not that ritual... please, Celestia merciful and almighty, please not let it be that ritual..." she repeated, tears flowing out of her eyes.

"Give me the magic of this mare," Adagio continued, "and make it mine! What was hers, will be mine! What was hers, will be mine!"

The air cracked around the knife, as the runes glowed even brighter.

"SO MOTE IT BE!" the siren sharply moved her hands downward.

The knife pierced Sunset's chest, going further and embedding itself in her heart.

"NO!" Twilight cried out, tears flowing down freely as she witnessed the scene. "SUNSET!"

"Incomin'!" Applejack shouted as she and the sentry bot were holding the line.

The first wave of attackers utterly failed. They charged through the door, and were immediately greeted with the bulletstorm from two miniguns. Consisting of only ten zombies, the wave was quickly eliminated.

The next wave, though, was smarter. Instead of simply charging through the door, they were going through the windows, climbing over the windowsills. The defenders were forced to split their attention between two sides, which meant that the enemies could take potshots at them.

Another uncomfortable thing was that Applejack's minigun could hold only 240 bullets, unlike the sentry bot, that had 9600 5mm ammo in its compartment. She already had had to recharge once; fortunately, power armour made that a very quick job, but that necessity nearly made her go to close quarters combat as the enemy almost came to point-blank range.

Still, the blonde farmer was having a time of her life. As the third wave approached, this time both through the door and the windows, she wound up her minigun again.

"Come get some, ya varmints!" she shouted, spraying the fire upon the attackers.

"You are disturbing the peace," sentry bot taunted. "Face your punishment."

"Stupid machine!" a super mutant roared, charging at the robot. "Silence!" he shouted, trying to whack the bot with his armature.

"Hey, dumbass, forgot 'bout me?!" Applejack discharged a string of 5mm bullets directly into the super mutant's face, tearing his head off.

"Police: one. Criminals: zero," sentry bot taunted again. "Face the judgement!" It launched the rocket at the entrance, where a group of enemies was located. The rocket exploded, sending cooked blood and chunks of meat everywhere.

"Gross!" Applejack said. "But awesome!"

Several bullets ricochetted off her armour.

"Oh come on!" she shouted, turning her minigun in the direction of the offenders. "Eat lead, fuckers!" she fired at the incoming wave, until the barrels stopped rotating.

"Ah goldurn it, not again!" she swore. Pulling the release lever, she dropped the ammo box and picked another one. Setting it in place, she fed the belt into the feeder, and pulled the reloading lever. A clank-chick sound signified that the weapon was ready once again.

Several more bullets ricochetted off her. Applejac noticed that the zombies were assaulting every window now.

"Retreat!" she shouted.

"Acknowledged. Retreating protocol active," sentry bot replied, turning around, but keeping his weapon levered at the zombies. He fired another rocket, splattering more ground with flesh chunks and gore.

"Sugarcoat!" Applejack shouted to the pig-tailed girl that was waiting further in the back, detonator primed. "Blow' em up!"

"OK!" was the reply. Sugarcoat looked behind Applejack's back, and sure enough, the zombies were getting in the perfect position for her strike.

She pushed the button.

BA-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The explosions shook the police station. The zombies standing near the mines themselves were almost evaporated, little remaining of them. Those a bit further were heavily lacerated by shrapnel, and aside from super mutants, suffered fatal wounds. Others were either lightly or heavily wounded, or incapacitated, and became easy pickings for the sentry bot's minigun.

"KA-BOOOOOM, baby!" Sugarcoat shouted, adrenaline flowing through her veins along with the excitement of battle and the thrill she felt from blowing up so many enemies to smithereens. "How do you like them apples, huh, you stupid freaks?!"

"Hate to interrupt, sugarcube, but we still need ta retreat!" Applejack shouted, turning around to quickly take out some still standing zombies.

"Spoilsport," Sugarcoat grumbled, but followed. As she and the farmer went further to the room, the latter quickly went upstairs to the second floor balcony, where Protectrons were located. Mr. Gutsies were floating below, plasma weapons and flamethrowers primed. Rarity was standing at the bottom of one set of stairs, holding a marksman's carbine. As soon as she saw other girls running, she began placing some objects on the ground. Sugarcoat did the same on her own side.

"What are those?" Applejack asked.

"More mines, but I won't trigger them manually - they throw shrapnel in one direction," Sugarcoat explained.

"Ah see."

"Heads up!" sentry bot fired a rocket again, minigun fire following. Mr. Gutsies began spewing plasma bolts as well.

"You lawbreakers have done enough! I'll spare the court the trouble of sentencing you to firing squad!" one of them taunted.

"OK, everyone," Sugarcoat addressed the others as everyone assembled on the balcony overlooking the exit which they were covering. "Fire at any fucker who has white eyes! Hold the line!"

They did not have to wait soon. Despite the best attempts of the sentry bot and Mr. Gutsies, enemies began crawling in by groups of two and three.

Protectrons opened fire with their integral laser weapons, Sugarcoat and Rarity began raining precise shoots, and Applejack focused her lethal attention on the heavies.

Bullets raced in both directions, as zombies and the defenders fired at each other.

"You're going down!" Applejack exclaimed, cackling in glee as she kept pressing the electrotrigger button...

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Twilight struggled to get herself free, to no avail.

Adagio ignored her, instead focusing her magic on the knife embedded deep in Sunset's heart. The fiery-haired girl lay unmoving, eyes closed.

Then, she jerked, her eyes opened, and she screamed.

Adagio began pulling out the knife, which was now fully covered in Sunset's blood, and the runes were glowing white now. As the knife went out of the Equestrian's body, Sunset was thrashing and screaming. More zombies piled on her to keep the girl down, while the siren slowly pulled it out.

Finally, as the knife left out, a bright flash of light blinded everyone for a moment. When Twilight opened her eyes, she saw Sunset lying on the surface, with no wounds as if they had never been inflicted.

Her mind went blank.

What?

Sunset whimpered, and her eyes were filled with tears. She did not see Adagio licking the blood off the blade.

Twilight did, however, and the sight made her sick to the core. Her stomach revolted, and she puked; unfortunately, some of the vomit mass ended on her own person, which did not improve her already low-beyond-belief mood.

Adagio licked all the blood from the knife, and her eyes flashed with bright red light.

"Aaaahhh..." she said. "Finally, Equestrian magic instead of all those negative emotions my followers generate when they fight among themselves! And I did not take the entire magic the Bacon Hair had! You," she addressed the zombies, "put her on the pole again!"

The mindless servants did as ordered.

"And now, you two will witness as my army grows even more!" Adagio exclaimed, triumph witten on her face. "Look behind you! If you can, that is..."

Sunset did not react, still whimpering in pain and hanging uselessly. Twilight did not want to look... really did not want to... but she still twisted herself around.

She was shocked again.

Behind her were people. Some faces were familiar from Horseshoe Highway. Some were not. But all of them were unarmed, and held down by the zombies.

Their mouths were moving, but no sound came.

Silencing spell, Twilight guessed.

"As my followers are hunting down your friends and your worthless mutt, Princess Twilight," Adagio made sure to properly mock Twilight's title, "another group captured all the remaining defenders from Horseshoe Highway, as well as any person and super mutant they could find! Witness, as they join me!"

The red gems glowed again on the magic journal, as the siren moved to her other captives. Inhaling deeply, she opened her mouth.

"Aaaaaaahhh-aaaahhh-aaaaahh, aaaaaahhh-aaaaaaaah. Aaaaaaahhh-aaaahhh-aaaaahh, aaaaaahhh-aaaaaaaah..." she sang.

As Adagio sang, Twilight noticed how people began swaying to her voice, first slowly, then more and more actively and eagerly. They began moving closer to Adagio, who noticed that. Her eyes glowed red again, and beams of magic shot from her hand to each and every hypnotized person.

"Praise your Mistress!" she shouted, raising her hands.

"Praise the Mistress!!!" the voices echoed across the building. Twilight turned back and cried, having no strength to witness the spectacle anymore.

It's all over...

"This is bad!" Applejack shouted.

Sentry bot, Mr. Gutsies and the Protectrons were destroyed. They were left alone.

They had survived four waves of attackers, each of them more and more ferocious, and suffered some wounds. Rarity was limping on her right leg, Sugarcoat's left side and arm were a bandaged gory mess, and Applejack herself has had three RegenStim injections from the armour's medical system.

"Well, we had a good run," Sugarcoat said. "It was a pleasure to know you."

"Don't give up yet," Applejack said.

"Face the facts, Applejack. We are about to be overrun. The robots are gone, and we lack the heavy weapons needed to resist. And even if we had, they will overrun us with sheer numbers."

"If this position is indefensible anymore, we'll have to retreat somewhere again. Maybe we should try and find Sunset's house and complete our mission?"

"I agree that we must go, but... I don't know if we can outrun them," Rarity said. "My leg's busted."

"Ah'll carry ya," Aplpejack offered.

"Thanks, Applejack, but I can walk, as long as Med-X holds."

"OK. Let's prolong our suffering by resisting," Sugarcoat said. "Follow me," she rose up. Everyone followed her, sombre with the impending feeling of doom.

They ran.

They did not exactly know where, but they ran.

They did not know for how long they ran, but they ran, until...

"Ooof!" Rarity exclaimed as she tripped on something and fell down. If that was not enough, she landed flat on her face, and broke her nose.

"Oh whyyyyyyy?!" she whined. "Of all the things to happen, I have to be humiliated by this?!"

Suddenly they heard a whimper.

"Is that a... dog?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Spikey-Wikey!" the indigo-haired girl with freshly broken nose scooped up the dragon-turned-dog, who in fact did trip her unintentionally.

"Guys, help!" Spike panted. "Twilight and Sunset are captured by Adagio Dazzle, she is the one to blame for this zombie mess, and she wants to suck out their and your magic to gain herself a personal army!"

Silence reigned for a few seconds as everyone digested the shocking news.

And then bullets flied as Spike's pursuers caught up to them and opened fire.

Author's Note

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! ALL HAIL YOUR NEW OVERLORD ADAGIO DAZZLE!!!

My muse ran like a trainwreck.

Thoughts, comments, criticism? Place them in the comment box.

Next chapter should be up in 15-30 days. Stay tuned!