The Game

The day went on as normal, and Adagio and her sisters returned back to their penthouse. As the usual, they worked on homework, goofed off for a bit, had some dinner, attempted to finish their work, and eventually started to go to bed.

Adagio pulled out the band in her hair, allowing her big poofy hair to hang down behind her head, which extended down to her back. In her comfy PJs, and with no worries left that filled her mind today or for tomorrow. So Sunset may have left her with a bit of a scary warning, it wasn't something bad to be worried about. After all, they could always come up with alibis. Plus the entire school all signed an agreement to never put any pictures of them online.

Finally brushing her teeth, rinsing, and cleaning herself for the night, she got out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. She pulled herself under the blankets of her bed, resting her head on her puffed up pillow. Covering herself for warmth, she hiked the blankets up even more. Looking to her left, she turned her gaze to the night stand. Her alarm clock, fingerless gloves, and cup of water weren't the only things there to be seen. Right near her she kept a photo of herself and Trixie, holding each other in what looked like an abandoned theater-like setting.

The sight of that adorable little geek made her smile. She was so adorable, she couldn't help it. Her heart warmed up every time she saw her, or was even near her. Being with her made every passing day even more better.

Her finger graced the photo, and then she set it back down on the nightstand. Curling up in her bed, she finally settled in and let the clutches of sleep take her in for the night.

3:00 AM

The Dazzlings penthouse was completely quiet. Not a sound to be made, not a noise to be heard. Nothing. The only things still running that night were a few lights so no one could trip each other in the hallways, maybe a few electronics that needed to stay plugged in, but other than that, there was nothing else. The penthouse was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop, or a piece of crumb that didn't cleaned up fall right off the countertop.

Unbeknownst to Adagio or her sisters, the night wasn't going to stay quiet. Down in the main living room, the front door started to jiggle slightly. The knob twisted and turned, but there was no entry. After a few more seconds of jiggling, the person on the other side of the door stopped shaking the door. But they didn't go away.

A small credit card could be seen gaping through the crack of the door, and it slid down nice and easy like on the lock. Once the lock was undone, the door opened up slightly, but not until the chain on the top of the door stood in the way. The person who attempted to get in looked up, noticing the golden chain that kept it together. A small chuckle escaped its voice, a voice rather distorted and garbled.

Through the gaping crack of the door, a pair of bolt cutters raised up, with its jaw open and fitting right into the chain. With a careful snap, the chain snapped into two, finally destroying the lock.

The door opened up even wider, creating a small eerie creek as it opened up into the penthouse. A pair of black boots stomped into the open apartment, and another distorted chuckle escaped the mouth of the person within. Opening up a small pocket, a covered hand reached in and pulled out a small stick; a blow dart, to be precise. Raising it up and twirling around in its glove, the person let out a soft growl.

"Let the game... begin."

Trixie's hands shook and tapped against her locker door as she waited. Adagio and her sisters couldn't have been late, could they?

"Trixie!"

Turning her head, she watched as her British messy-haired friend rushed down to see her.

"Trixie, what are you doing out here? Class is going to begin in a few minutes!" Octavia pleaded.

"I'm sorry, but I'm really concerned right now. Adagio and her sisters haven't called, and I don't know if they're coming or not."

"We can't worry about that right now. Come on, we've got to get to class!"

"But Octavia---"

"Trixie. I promise you, they'll be here. I'm positive those three probably had some bad luck on the roads. Just give them time, they'll get here."

Defeated, Trixie hung her head and she walked closely with Octavia and off to class. But she couldn't help but check behind her if they were near. Were they close? Were they finally arriving? No. No they weren't. Well hopefully they would be here soon.

11:30

Everyone got released for lunch time, and like a pack of wild buffalo, everyone stampeded in the hallway trying to get to the cafeteria to eat. No sense in wasting the only time they got to eat.

The Song Of The Sea made it to the cafeteria just in a nick of time too in fact. Right before the lines got stacked up even more. This was one of their very rare days of making it before the rest of the packs did. Smiles and friendly faces were all around, no denying how happy they were about the day. Well, almost all of them.

"Trixie, are you still down about that?" Bon Bon asked.

"I'm sorry, I just... its not like them to not show up. Wouldn't they have sent us a note or at least an email?" Trixie asked.

"Maybe. But maybe they have some problems that are holding them up. Who knows, maybe repair guys are over and they can't leave unless they're finished."

"Wouldn't they have planned that sort of thing if it was on a school day?" Amethyst asked, twirling her chopsticks around.

"Maybe, I don't know!" Bon Bon shrugged.

Bon Bon and Lyra's head turned, their eyes now looking towards the Rainbooms. Still miserable, still alone. Nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary.

"You think Fluttershy finally snapped and decided to heck with them?" Lyra asked.

"Wouldn't be surprised considering how soulless they all are," Amethyst rolled her eyes.

"I hope they're miserable..." Octavia stewed, ferociously gnawing down on her chicken.

"Pretty sure they are, Octavia. And they have all the time in the world to think about what they've done..."

The school day went on and there was still no sign of the Dazzlings. No call, no emails, no letters, nothing. They would have expected a text, but knowing the Dazzlings they would never use that as a means of communication. They said so themselves that they refused to use texting. They tried calling them back, but even then there was no reply.

They had no choice left. It was time they go and see them. If they were intentionally staying out of contact with them, they had to find out why.

The elevator doors dinged, allowing the band to step off from the elevator. Walking down the only hallway, they approached the front door, all standing lively.

"Alright, now lets approach this calmly. For all we know, they could have had some severe problems and were afraid to tell us." Vinyl calmly addressed.

"What problems could they not want to talk to us about?" Octavia asked.

"Girls."

Trixie's hand slowly pointed at the door. Looking to where her hand was pointed, they could see the door was ajar. Not closed. Not locked. Not sealed tightly. Everyone's eyes gazed to each other, both confused and worried. They would never let their apartment be open like that.

Carefully, Trixie pushed the door open, with no problems getting inside. Once inside, the girls all stepped in, looking around. The place still looked normal. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

"Adagio? Aria? Sonata?" Trixie called. "Its us! Sorry, we didn't mean to break into your apartment, but we've got to talk! You girls here? Everyone?... Anyone?"

No reply.

"Okay, now I'm seriously worried," Trixie panicked.

"Trixie, stay calm. We'll figure this out." Vinyl patted her shoulder. "Octavia and I will check upstairs in the bedrooms and bathrooms. Lyra and Bon Bon will search downstairs to the offices, the swimming pool, and their extra, unneeded and boastful entertainment rooms. That will leave Amy and Trixie to search this floor. Sound good?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"Then lets spread out and search for them. But stay together. I'm not sure about you girls, but I have a bad feeling that we may not be alone..."

"Then if there's someone here," Amethyst chuckled, reaching into her bag and pulling out a Rubik's cube. "We'll be ready.

"Yep!"

Lyra's hand made a swoosh, and spontaneously out of nowhere three shurikens appeared, intertwining between her fingers.

"Ready? Break!" Everyone clamored.

Lyra and Bon Bon rushed down the stairs, wandering into their basement floors. Opening up the first door, they opened up the office room. Turning on the lights, they saw nothing but old computers, a few bins, and tons of paper and files scattered everywhere. The room was a pigsty, like it hadn't been cleaned in, well... years!

Bon Bon let out a hard cough, her breath blowing away some of the cobwebs and dust.

"Okay, gross. This room needs to be condemned!"

Closing the door with a slam, she and Lyra and walked to another room. Opening up another door, they walked into an entertainment center. Which to them was more of a gaming room. Inside there were a few seats all close together, aligned in front of a bigger TV than what they had in their living room. On a few corners of the room there were some posters, some speakers, and there were even a few gaming consoles and gaming machines mounted near the walls.

"Alright, how rich are these girls!?" Lyra's hands slapped her sides. "This is outrageous, how are they able to afford any of this stuff?"

"Pay their bills on time?" Bon Bon asked. "That's the only solution I can think of."

Upstairs, Vinyl and Octavia started to open up doors, trying to look for them some more. Shamefully, Vinyl opened up the bedroom to Adagio's. She felt so much shame and remorse for stepping inside uninvited, this felt like a major violation of privacy to her. But if she was going to find her, she had to go in.

Looking inside, she found the room was a giant mess. Clothes scattered about, bed not made, some random toys and knick knacks on the floor, and even assortments of CDs laid about.

"Alright, I hope you're in here..."

She walked in some more, checking every square inch. The ceiling? Nope. What about under the bed? Getting on all fours, she raised the bottom of the blanket, allowing her to look inside. Using her phone, she shined a light inside, trying to look. Nothing. Only thing she could see were a few shoes, some plastic bins, and from what little she could see, she saw a small pair of silver handcuffs, and a few books and or movies that she could see had big X-ratings on them.

"Whoa, okay! I didn't need to see that!"

She pulled out just in time, covering that corner up with the blanket. Her cheeks were bright red, just from the mental image now in her head.

"Great. Now that's in my brain forever," Vinyl moaned, holding her head.

But there was one room she didn't see yet. The closet? Hopefully she was not in the closet... Her hand slided the door open, checking inside. Nope. No girls or humans inside. All she could see were some shirts and coats and dresses hanging nice and neatly. On the floor, she saw some more heeled shoes and other articles of clothing around, probably for different occasions and dates.

"Adagio, you need to consider getting a maid," Vinyl shook her head. "How can you keep your closet clean, yet everything else in here is not?"

Back downstairs, Amethyst and Trixie kept on sweeping the place. They still couldn't find them. Where on earth could they have gone? Where? When? Why?

And since they were unsure, they turned the television on just for safety. Better to have some background noise to let the girls upstairs know they were still here. And even more to fill the uncomfortable silence in this silent solidity. Amethyst checked the balcony. Nothing. She checked under couches and chairs. Nothing. Where could these girls have gone?

Trixie could only pace back and forth, looking up and down scanning every inch of the main floor. Why did they vanish like that? How could they have vanished? But wait.

She looked towards the door. The golden chain on the lock. It was in two. It wasn't one. It had been cut! Someone cut that lock!

But before she could even point it out, right at that moment, the TV screen started to flicker. Everything turned into a static, dropping into a test screen pattern.

"Oops. Must be a power surge," Trixie said.

But two seconds later, the screen turned back on again. Only it wasn't the TV show they were watching. A new image flashed on screen, only this one was of a dark and scary looking question mark, taking up all the center of the screen. Not expecting anything else, Trixie nearly jumped when she heard a garbled and distorted voice start to speak.

"We interrupt this program to bring you an important announcement..."

Trixie felt her spine go cold. "Girls? You may want to see this!"

Hearing her cries, all of them came out of where they were searching, running back into the main room. Everyone gathered around the TV, looking intently on the screen.

"Trixie, did you change the channel?" Amethyst asked.

"No, I didn't do anything. I thought we had a power surge, but then this came on." Trixie replied.

"Greetings, Canterlot." The unidentified voice said. "I am... the Markless. I finally got released from a hostile environment. You may be thinking I'm here to resume the work I've started... hunting down all of those who hurt me in the past and those who ruined my life. Well, that's not why I'm here now. I'm here because I've learned something very interesting about some individuals here in your city."

Octavia and Vinyl gulped simultaneously.

"Please don't let it be..."

"I hope it isn't..."

The distorted and garbled voice only spoke even more.

"Your city may not know this... but living among you all were three, immortals. They've lived here more than I can remember, and long before any of you or our current society was ever forged."

All across Canterlot, the broadcast played. It played in media stores, it played at the police station, news channels, everywhere across Canterlot.

"And now, I have finally found them. And I have them detained..."

The girls gasped.

"He's bluffing. They can't be, no one can contain them!" Lyra stuttered.

"How do we know its a 'he'?"

Three new images flashed on screen. All of which were zoomed in images of the three Dazzlings, all from the present day time. Most of which were caught of them hanging out with their friends.

"These three have been roaming this planet; feeding off the energy off us humans. They have been terrorizing our world for hundreds of years to come... and now they've cast their spell on your people. Six, of your people to be precise. Six who believe these girls are they're friends... but all they are is mind-washed adolescents who believe in what they're doing is right."

The screen flashed back onto the question mark, still hiding the person who was speaking.

"I'll make my words clear for you all. I have no intention of killing these girls, and I have no intention of harming them, or anyone on this planet. But they are threats that need to be contained... and I have contained them. Do not try to find my location. You won't find these three anywhere..."

All six girls looked at each other in fear, their bodies turning cold. Hearts were racing against their chests, and cold sweat ran down their heads.

"One more thing. If those 'friends' of these three monsters wish to see them again... you'll keep your eye out and listen for me. If you ever want to see them again, you will do as I say. And just in case you were believing I was lying..."

The screen flashed again, only this time it was a sight more horrific. The three Dazzlings were on screen, but they looked beyond terrified. They were screaming as much as they could, but their voices only came out as muffled under the amount of tape on their mouths. In addition, their limbs were tied behind their backs, each one of them tied to a pole, making it impossible to escape. Tears streamed down their faces as they tried to plead for help. Thankfully, none of them looked like they were physically hurt, but the one detail they noticed was the red pendents around their necks were missing.

"You six have been warned. Do not try and find them. Await my call... and I just may let you see them again. This has been a message from The Markless."

Like a snap, the TV was left back into its normal static once again. The message had been sent, and the girls could only blankly stare into the TV screen. The reality of the situation hit them like an anvil. And none of them knew what to do...