Servant of the Queen

Chapters

Chapter 1 - A Royal Reward
Chapter 2 - A Change of Heart
Chapter 3 - School Scouting
Chapter 4 - First Day of School
Chapter 5 - Debriefing
Chapter 6 - Copy That
Chapter 7 - To Defeat an Enemy...
Chapter 8 - Matchmaker
Chapter 9 - A Brief Respite
Chapter 10 - Make Some Friends
Chapter 11 - Smoke and Shadows
Chapter 12 - Foiled
Chapter 13 - A Full Recovery
Chapter 14 - The Next Step
Chapter 15 - The Day Out
Chapter 16 - The Short End
Chapter 17 - The Start of Trouble
Chapter 18 - That Smaste
Chapter 19 - A Chance Meeting
Chapter 20 - It's the Most Fun in the Park
Chapter 21 - Gathering for the Games
Chapter 22 - Sunny's Schemes
Chapter 23 - Making Scents
Chapter 24 - Part of a Plan
Chapter 25 - Hunting Preparations
Chapter 26 - One Push Too Far
Chapter 27 - What Happened After
Chapter 28 - Reparations
Chapter 29 - Would I Lie
Chapter 30 - Panic at the Movies
Chapter 31 - She Who Sneaks Around
Chapter 32 - Making Amends
Chapter 33 - When a Plan Comes Together
Chapter 34 - The Start of Trouble
Chapter 35 - A Demonstration
Chapter 36 - Easy as Eggs is Eggs
Chapter 37 - Changing Seasons
Chapter 38 - The First Sign of Madness
Chapter 39 - Your Affection
Chapter 41 - The Queen's Concern
Chapter 42 - Catching Heat
Chapter 43 - The Queen's Wrath
Chapter 44 - The Queen's Prize
Chapter 45 - Being Quiet
Chapter 46 - Conflicted Me Time
Chapter 47 - A Bountiful Harvest
Chapter 48 - A Story Not Told
Chapter 49 - The Old and New
Chapter 50 - One Long Ride
Chapter 51 - Throwing Down the Gauntlet
Chapter 52 - Crossing Swords
Chapter 53 - The Friendship Games Part 1
Chapter 54 - The Friendship Games Part 2
Chapter 55 - The Friendship Games Part 3
Chapter 56 - The Friendship Games Part 4
Chapter 57 - The Claws Clause
Chapter 58 - The Daily Grind
Chapter 59 - Massage Chairs, Bats, and a Closet
Chapter 60 - A Light Snack
Chapter 61 - Persona Slump
Chapter 62 - Dance of Power
Chapter 63 - Every Time I Close My Eyes
Chapter 64 - Great Expectations
Chapter 65 - Laying Plans
Chapter 66 - At Long Last
Chapter 67 - A Roll in the Hay
Chapter 68 - Confirmation
Chapter 69 - What Friends Do
Chapter 70 - The Haunting
Chapter 71 - Red of Boses
Chapter 72 - One for the Road
Chapter 73 - Spectating
Chapter 74 - Study Hard
Chapter 75 - Sharpshooting
Chapter 76 - Girl Talk
Chapter 77 - Exams and Summer
Chapter 79 - A Glimpse of Father
Chapter 80 - Discourse
Chapter 81 - A Different Kind of Show
Chapter 82 - Meet the Rainbooms
Chapter 83 - A Short, Sharp Lesson
Chapter 84 - Growing Pains
Chapter 85 - The Pool and the Picnic
Chapter 85 - Interlude: A Long Awaited Picnic
Chapter 86 - Mall Matters
Chapter 87 - Home Run's Birthday Party
Chapter 88 - Crypt Spelunker
Chapter 89 - Not the Fruitcake
Chapter 90 - A Kiss of the Hand
Chapter 91 - Snooping
Chapter 92 - A Look into the Past
Chapter 93 - Skeletons in the Closet
Chapter 94 - Rainbooms Concert
Chapter 95 - A Distinct Scent
Chapter 96 - Scheming Seduction
Chapter 97 - Aura of Menace
Chapter 98 - Fine Arts
Chapter 99 - Picnic in the Cellar
Chapter 100 - Femme Fatale Failure
Chapter 101 - Shadowbolt Debriefing
Chapter 102 - Taste of Lemon
Chapter 103 - Eye of an Expert
Chapter 104 - The Hunter and Her Helper
Chapter 105 - Always Be Prepared
Chapter 106 - Shadowbolt Infiltration
Chapter 107 - The Error in Our Suns
Chapter 108 - The Muse of Canvas
Chapter 109 - A Slip of the Teeth
Chapter 110 - The Next Term
Chapter 111 - The Eastern Announcement
Chapter 112 - Cafe Heist
Chapter 113 - Playback Time
Chapter 114 - Salt for Witches
Chapter 115 - The Key Word
Chapter 116 - To Be High Art
Chapter 117 - The Face of a Fiend
Chapter 118 - Square One
Chapter 119 - Sick Leave
Chapter 120 - The Eastern Fair Part 1
Chapter 121 - The Eastern Fair Part 2
Chapter 122 - A Contemplative Cleanup
Chapter 123 - Ritual Preparations
Chapter 124 - Preplanning the Party
Chapter 125 - The Long Halloween
Chapter 126 - Saved by a Bite
Chapter 127 - Duel Under the Blood Moon
Chapter 128 - A Queen's Duplicity
Chapter 129 - Torn Between Two Races
Chapter 130 - A Façade Uncovered
Chapter 131 - Bearer of Gifts
Chapter 132 - Birthday Wishes
Chapter 133 - A Princess's Dream
Chapter 134 - Afternoon in the Wings: Part 1
Chapter 135 - Afternoon in the Wings: Part 2
Chapter 136 - A Royal Discovery
Chapter 137 - The Queen's Plot
Chapter 138 - Lunch with the Queen
Chapter 139 - A Clash of Wills
Chapter 140 - The Sirens' Psychic Surgery
Chapter 40 - Like a Dream Come True
Chapter 78 - Ancient History

Chapter 1 - A Royal Reward

The autumn sun played across the top of the fourteenth century walnut dinner table, reflecting off its mirror smooth surface and illuminating the otherwise dimly lit dining hall. Despite its impressive size and having enough seats to accommodate thirty people, only one of them was occupied, the richly carved chair easily supporting a slim, charcoal skinned woman wrapped in a teal bathrobe and slippers. She sipped her early morning coffee, her shadowed eyes scanning that day’s paper.

“Hmm… interesting,” she said in an overlaid voice, just audibly enough to hear herself. She turned the page and had another sip of coffee, smiling as the rich, roasted flavor hit her tongue.

She had just finished the classified section when the sound of footfalls, careful and measured, made themselves known. The woman didn’t even glance up as a teenage girl with elegant blonde hair and light tan skin sat down at the other end of the table, where a butler deposited a plate of French toast, sausages, grilled tomatoes and eggs, followed by a delicate porcelain cup of tea. The manservant then retreated with a bow.

“Good morning, mother,” the girl said, her cultured voice carrying easily across the room.

Her mother glanced up from her paper. “Daughter,” she answered before looking down the table with a critical eye. “Going somewhere today?”

“Only for a walk along the lake, mother. Unless you have an event we’re attending?”

Her mother’s lips curled upwards in a sinister little smirk, almost revealing a gleaming pair of fangs. “Not this week, young lady. Now that your aunt is back, I don’t think I’ll be attending any events for a while.”

The girl tried her best not to sound crestfallen. “Yes, mother.” With nothing more to say, she started on her breakfast, tucking her napkin around her neck with practiced ease.

While this exchange might have sounded stiff and standoffish to most onlookers, a more attentive spectator would have noted the faint smiles on both their faces as they returned to their respective tasks. The older woman folded her newspaper and drained her mug just as her daughter finished swallowing the last bite of toast.

“Well,” she said, getting to her feet and smoothing out her red jacket. “I’m going out. I’ll be back in an hour.”

She was just opening the door to leave the dining hall when her mother called out. “Just a moment, Moonglade. Come here.”

Obediently, Moonglade left the door and took careful, measured steps toward her mother. The sun had moved in the sky and there were no shadows hiding her mother’s acid green, slit pupiled eyes. While the world knew her as Ebony Wings, one of the most famous actresses and models of the time, Moonglade only knew her as Chrysalis, the self appointed Queen of the Changelings, and her loving, if sometimes distant mother.

“Before you go, I thought you’d like to take a look at this,” Chrysalis folded the newspaper to the middle and offered it to Moonglade.

“Local high school seeks new computer teacher,” the teenager read aloud, as she had been taught to in situations like this. “Please contact Principal Celestia if interested.” The rest of the ad was dominated by the Canterlot High School emblem and the principal’s contact details.

“It would seem congratulations are in order, young princess,” Chrysalis crooned. She took back the paper and stroked her daughter’s head. “I am pleased, and so will your aunt when she awakens.” Moonglade felt a delicious rush of love surge from her mother and into her, making her heart tingle and her stomach flutter.

“Thank you, mother,” she said gratefully, and a second rush of love followed the first.

“In fact, I think you deserve a reward,” her mother continued, brushing back a wayward lock of teal hair. “A changeling’s first kill should be something to celebrate. So go, have your walk and think about what you’d like. I’ll be going up to see to your aunt, so no lessons today.”

Moonglade didn’t need to be told twice. She gave Chrysalis a small hug and skipped out into the sunlight.

Moonglade slowly strolled on the stone pavement on the way to the lake, her hands behind her back as she made her way forward. Her eyes took in the wonderful scenery of the lake from afar and its surrounding grasslands, but her mind was in deep thought.

Things had definitely taken a turn in the past few weeks, what with the arrival of not only her aunt Psithyra, but also of three girls whom her mother called ‘the sirens’. She remembered it perfectly: she had been practicing the violin with her tutor and mother when suddenly a sharp pain had jolted through her body, forcing Moonglade to her knees. Not a moment later, Chrysalis had practically flown from the room, returning an hour later soaked in blood and carrying an unconscious woman who Moonglade would later learn was her mother’s younger sister. Shortly after, the three sirens she had heard so much about from her mother and aunt had moved in with them, taking up the guest room a few doors down from her own. They were rather well behaved, but obnoxiously loud. Especially when they argued or tried to sing, which they used to do quite frequently.

Her feet traced the cobblestone path that led through the orchard and toward the lake at the rear of the estate. Clusters of ripe apples and oranges hung from the branches of the trees and she was tempted to pick one. She would have, if she hadn’t just left breakfast. Instead to distract herself, Moonglade decided to take her mother’s advice and think about what she wanted as a reward for doing away with that computer teacher.

Pierce Network… From the way Aunt Psithyra had gone on about him, anyone might have assumed he was some kind of notorious criminal. She hadn’t wholly understood all the rantings and seethings, but there had been a lot of talk about assassins and treason. A leaf fell onto her head and she brushed it off; in the end it hadn’t really mattered just why Network had been a bother to her aunt. After learning that Pierce Network had tried to kill her mother, any doubts had been dispelled and administering the poison had been easy enough. She smiled; Chrysalis was right: no one ever suspected children of anything sinister.

As for a reward… Moonglade found herself at a loss when it came to that. There wasn’t really anything she wanted when it came to material possessions. She practically had everything a girl her age could want. Whatever she wanted, Chrysalis bought for her, whether it was the latest in fashion, a new phone, or even that antique violin she had seen in the museum two months ago. Sometimes the gifts were even unprompted, like that Eastern sword that she was expected to practice with for an hour each day.

Without realizing how, Moonglade found herself at the lakeside. Today the water was mirror-smooth and reflected the fiery autumn leaves around her beautifully. The girl sat down on one of the benches that ringed the lake and took out a book. Chrysalis and her tutors had insisted that she get through a book every week, and since there weren’t to be any lessons today Moonglade could think of no better time to get a head start on this week’s assignment, which was King Dawn Saber and the Knights of the Round Table.

The book spoke of how King Dawn Saber was a kind king, and how all his subjects praised him for his talent at making sure everyone had everything they needed to thrive as a great kingdom. Moonglade scoffed at the statement, remembering what her mother had told her about the king himself. She shook the thought out of her head and continued through the book to see what else the writer had made up. The king had ruled the kingdom well until his son, the dark knight Morn Dread, rebelled against him and led an army to claim the kingdom for his own. Dawn Saber led a battle against his son, eventually defeating him at the Battle of Canterlann. Moonglade closed the book and sighed. The history was barely accurate, but at least it was written well.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” she muttered, tossing the book onto the bench beside her. Moonglade glowered at the water, mildly miffed that she had wasted her time on such nonsense.

Not only did the book prove to be severely disappointing, but it also didn’t help her think of anything she wanted. Well, except maybe to slip the writer a dose of hemlock, but a quick glance at the publication date told her that old age had already beaten her to it. Moonglade sighed and slumped back against the bench, looking out at the shimmering water as the sun's rays played around above.

If only cousin Morn Dread were still alive today. Perhaps there would be something in common we could talk about, being half-changelings…

Then an idea struck her, right in the face. She looked beyond the walls surrounding her bountiful estate, the hills leading down the to the rest of the city below. People. There were plenty of people out there, real people who she knew nothing about. And while her mother often talked of how malleable and predictable humans were, she had never actually spoken to any of them other than to answer trivial questions that were leveled at her by impertinent reporters. Otherwise she simply smiled politely and did whatever Chrysalis had taught her was appropriate for each scenario.

That's what Moonglade wanted, to experience the outside world for herself, without having to conform to the hundred plus protocols she needed to obey as the daughter of an actress. She wanted to go out there, to learn what it felt like to be loved by people, not because of her mother, but because of her own accomplishments. After all, a predator that has to feed off scraps is no hunter, but a scavenger.

Her mind made up, Moonglade flashed a fanged smile at the lake before prancing back off to the house, pausing only to throw the book into the water.

"I'm sorry, dear," Chrysalis said slowly, as if doubting her own ears. "But you want to... What? Leave the house on your own?"

"I want to experience a normal life," Moonglade explained to her mother and aunt. "I want to learn how to be like you, mother. You’re always telling me how easy it is to get your way with people, right?”

"Yes, but being out there is not always easy. Have you any idea how many people we’ve had to poison, stab, and otherwise dispose of to keep up appearances?”

“I lost count after the siege of Trot,” Psithyra piped up from the bed. Her voice also resonated double, as if two women were speaking just out of sync. “Even then it was somewhere in the dozens.”

“And I just made my first kill!” Moonglade countered. “Please, mother. You said I could choose a reward, and I want to see what it’s like to hunt outside!”

Chrysalis clearly didn't approve of her daughter's request, but her sister seemed to be interested in the idea.

"Chrysalis..." Psithyra started, trying to prop herself up. "I think she's onto something. All these years, you've kept her here, feeding off the love you get from others. Why not let her go out there and feed on her own? It's what you've trained her for, isn't it?"

Chrysalis gave her bedridden reaper a dour look. “It’s not that simple.”

"You let the sirens go out," Moonglade reasoned. "Why not me?"

“The sirens are-”

“They’re out at school right now!" the young girl interrupted. A bright glare in her mother’s eyes should have warned her to stop, but Moonglade was too concerned about getting her point across. “Adagio, Aria, and Sonata can’t even fight, and they do alright with humans. I can fight, I can shoot, I can handle myself, so why am I the one who stays at home while they get to go out?”

“Chrysidea!” Chrysalis snarled, leaping to her feet and towering over her daughter. “That’s enough! Why I let those three roam free is none of your business, nor should you be questioning the decisions of your queen! I will not allow you to roam around in that mess of a city on your own, and that’s final!” The changeling queen spun on her heel and left the room, slamming the door on her way out.

The silence that took the queen’s place was thick enough to be cut with a knife. Moonglade bit her lip, determined not to cry. Her mother had called her by her real name, and she only did that when she was truly adamant on having her way.

I guess I’m not going out there after all…

There was a cough. Moonglade turned her tear-filled eyes to the end of the bed, where her aunt was gesturing with a bandaged hand to come closer. The girl wiped her eyes roughly and did so, sitting down next to Psithyra on the mattress.

The Queen’s Reaper sighed, pulling herself into a sitting position. “I’m sorry about your mother, darling,” she said eventually. A gentle tether of love snaked out of Psithyra and into her niece, wrapping around the girl like a soft blanket. “But she does have a point; the outside world can be a dangerous place. I’m not sure you’ll quite enjoy it once you get a taste of it,” she pointed vaguely to herself and cracked a pained smile. “Getting shot at isn’t as fun as it looks, and you’re far too pretty to get your face covered in blood.” The young princess only sniffled in reply.

Relenting, the reaper patted her niece on the back. “Tell you what. If you really want to get out there, I’ll do what I can to convince your mom. Maybe we can work something out for you, hmm?”

Moonglade stared wide-eyed at her aunt. “Really?”

“Of course!” Psithyra put an arm around her. “You’re my favourite niece after all!”

“Thank you, Aunt Psithyra!” Moonglade quickly gave the wounded changeling a soft hug.

“No,” the Queen’s Reaper smiled contentedly at the far wall as her niece’s love flowed into her body, strengthening her body and closing her wounds. “Thank you.”

Chrysalis sat at a circular ebony table in the corner of her room, her forehead resting on the back of her hands. Moonglade had really pushed a button earlier. Chrysalis hadn’t meant to shut her daughter down, but she really didn’t want her leaving the premises. She sighed again as she thought about what to do with her daughter when there was a soft knock at the door.

"Not now," the Changeling Queen barked.

"Come on, Chrysalis," Psithyra said from outside. "It took me a lot of effort to walk over here. The least you could do is let me sit down inside."

Chrysalis glared at the table, as if staring at it would make her sister go away. "Fine. Come in."

Psithyra pushed open the door with some effort and hobbled in, taking a seat beside her sister at the table. It still felt strange, Chrysalis thought, to be so close to her sister after over a century apart.

"What do you want...?" Chrysalis asked slowly, a little irritation in her voice.

"Calm down, Chryssie," Psithyra leaned back in the wooden chair. "I just want to talk about your daughter. She was really upset, you know."

"I am not letting her leave, Thyra. That's final," Chrysalis glared swords at her sister.

"She's old enough to do make her own decisions," Psithyra said calmly. "You can't be keeping her here forever. It's not good for her, plus, she won't learn how to hunt. Let her go out and experience the world."

"No, Thyra!" Chrysalis quickly shot back, slamming both hands on the wooden table. “I’m not letting my daughter out there! What if she hurts herself, or someone finds out what she really is? As Queen of the Changelings, that is not a risk I can take.”

“Then when do you plan on teaching Chrysidea how to hunt?”

“By the-” Chrysalis fumed. “I am the queen! I can’t spend time fussing over every single little detail, that’s what I have you for!”

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed,” Psithyra said tetchily. “I am in no shape to be teaching my niece anything other than alchemy for the next few weeks or so. Getting shot tends to do that, Chrysalis. So unless you’re going to do it...” she left the suggestion hanging between them, knowing perfectly well that her sister would not do anything of the sort.

“But where is she going to hunt all by herself?”

Psithyra had been waiting for this; her sister had left her an opening, and she took it without hesitation. “How about… a high school? They’re full of people the same age as she is, so nobody will look twice at her. Plus, she’ll still be able to learn more from her studies at the same time. Since you have me back, martial training has to take a back seat to academics.”

“Absolutely not!” Chrysalis got up from the chair and walked over to the nearby window to gaze out at the city. One of the reasons she had chosen to settle down in this house was that it overlooked most of Canterlot. On clear days, one could see from one end of the city to the other. It made her feel like the queen she was. “I will not have my daughter go to that ridiculous high school down there! Especially after what happened to the sirens."

"There are other schools in the city, sister," Psithyra reminded her. "But the point is... it might not be a poor idea to let her go. Just to school and back for five days a week. Is that so bad?"

The Changeling Queen mulled it over in her head. While she was loathe to let Chrysidea out of her sight for even one day, let alone five, she could not deny that her sister had some valid points.It was both infuriating and liberating at the same time. "I'll... Give it some thought..."

“That’s all I ask, sister,” Psithyra sighed and let herself fall back in the chair. “If you need any assistance, just wake me. All this talk has made me tired...”

Somewhere in the east wing of the manor, Moonglade lay back in her room in her underwear, hair still wet from the shower. The water would soak into her pillow and make it soggy, but she would just get the maids to change it before bed. She had more to think on than damp pillows.

Both heaters in the room were on full blast, and Moonglade took some tiny satisfaction in knowing that it would run up this month’s electricity bill for Chrysalis. It was a petty thing to do, and more than likely her mother wouldn’t even notice, but Moonglade’s strict upbringing prevented her from doing anything more drastic.

“Pick a reward, she says,” The girl growled around her fangs, holding up her old friend, Mishter Schniffs. A gift from her mother so many years ago. “Anything you want, she says. So much for that. Don’t you think so, Mishter Schniffs?”

Mishter Schniffs was supposed to be a changeling from the sirens’ world, Equestria. Sonata had drawn a picture of one years before, when they had still been with Chrysalis. Moonglade’s mother had stuffed the soft toy with aromatic herbs and scented fluff, allowing the girl to breathe the wonderful smell in when she cuddled it to her face. An odd-looking thing, to be sure; so like a horse but full of holes. Moonglade didn’t know if Mishter Schniffs was an accurate depiction of a changeling, but she didn’t care. Whenever she needed someone to talk to, he was always there for her.

While it was nothing unusual for a girl to talk to her stuffed animals, it was rare that one would actually answer back. Mishter Schniffs was special though, even if he did have to use Moonglade’s own mouth to do it.

“Well, your mother wants to keep you safe, Moonglade,” her soft toy replied with its not so male voice. “The outside world is supposed to be a dangerous place for your kind.”

She hugged Mishter Schniffs to her chest and stared at the ceiling, muttering inaudibly all the while and when that got boring, she rolled onto her side and glared at the wallpaper instead, as if trying to set it on fire through sheer mental force. Eventually that got boring too and Moonglade zoned out, replaying her less-than-successful pitch over and over until she was disturbed by a knock on the door.

“Yes?” she asked in a low tone without moving from her spot.

The door opened, revealing one of the maids. “Forgive my interruption, Princess Chrysidea. Your mother requests your presence at dinner, which is being served at six.”

“Very well,” Moonglade sighed, inwardly cringing at the thought of the awkward dinner that was sure to come. “Thank you.”

Moonglade pulled herself up gradually as the door closed behind the maid. There was a clock on her bedside table and a half hearted glance determined it to be ten past two.

Have I been lying here that long? Or did all the time go to the shower? Either way, it meant that her mother would be getting a hiked up bill of some kind by the end of the month, something which gave her some small thrill of glee.

Moonglade plopped her plushie down on the bed and paced over to her closet and threw the doors open, pausing only to admire herself in the full-length mirror on the backside of the door. There was a fancy swivel chair in the middle of the space and she sat down in it before switching on the air conditioning.

“What to wear…” she picked up a green dress and held it in front of herself before replacing it with a yukata that Aunt Psithyra had given her for her birthday. “Too formal,” she decided, placing both back on the shelf and settling on a plain dark skirt and sleeveless top. She walked back to the mirror to make sure everything was alright before closing the closet and reentering the veritable sauna that her room had become. Moonglade sniffed in distaste before making a beeline for the bathroom.

On second thought, another bath couldn’t hurt.

Author's Note

And so it begins.

Chapter 2 - A Change of Heart

After her second bath, Moonglade made sure to take the time to dry her hair completely before putting anything on. Daughter of a queen or no, turning up at dinner with damp shoulders was against every rule in the book. There was still half an hour until six anyway, and by now the sirens would be back from school. While Moonglade would never admit it out loud, she envied the three of them. From what stories the princess had managed to coax from her mother, the queen and the sirens had known each other for hundreds of years before they had split up. Why that had been, Moonglade had never been able to find out.

Sure enough, once Moonglade entered the second floor living room, she was greeted with the sight of Adagio Dazzle slumped on the couch with a glass of soda in one hand and the TV remote in the other. She spotted Moonglade and raised her drink in a mock salute.

“Moony,” Adagio said and sat up a bit straighter.

“Adagio,” Moonglade nodded back. “How was your day?”

The siren made a face and drained her glass. “Awful,” she said flatly. “But then again it’s Friday, so I won’t have to see the Rainbooms for the whole weekend, so I guess it balances out.” She shook her head and plonked the empty cup onto the coffee table. “How was yours?”

The princess shrugged, not wanting the siren to know about her argument with her mother. “Normal.”

Adagio rolled her eyes and went back to watching TV. “You know,” she said as a particularly obnoxious commercial for milk came up. “I don’t even know why we have to go to school. I mean, over the centuries we’ve learned more about the world than these morons could ever fit into a schoolbook. I wish I could stay here like you, and not have to put up with all that friendship is magic garbage that I get showered with on a daily basis.”

Moonglade couldn’t help it but scowl at the comment. “You want to stay here? There’s nothing to do and nobody to talk to.”

“Well, in school, you have to put up with the teachers and students,” Adagio rolled her eyes. “It’s worse because things are still sore from the musical showcase and some people haven’t let it go yet. Not that I mind.”

“Hmm...” Moonglade said neutrally, just before she was glomped from behind by two blue arms.

“Moooonyyy!” Sonata cried, hugging Moonglade close. “You’re here! Did your mean old tutor let you go early? Or did you poison him?”

The princess laughed, giving Sonata’s hair a stroke. “No, not yet. Mother gave me the day off today, because she has to look after Aunt Psithyra.” She looked around, noticing one of the sirens was missing. “By the way, where’s Aria?”

“Oh, she’s off being a grumpy face because Pinkie tried to give her a hug,” Sonata bounced onto the couch next to Adagio and put her feet up onto the table. “She said something about needing to bathe in hand sanitizer.”

“I don’t think we have that much hand sanitizer in the house,” Moonglade paused to say ‘thank you’ as a maid brought them all a fresh round of drinks. “But if she really wants to, I can ask Silver Platter to pick some up the next time he goes shopping.” The butler of the Ebony Wings estate went out once every three days to buy groceries, and the mistress of the house usually had special requests to add to the normal list of goods, like throwing knives or ingredients for alchemy.

“Please don’t encourage her,” Adagio muttered. Sonata giggled and slurped noisily on her soda.

They sat there watching the news for the rest of the time, with Adagio occasionally passing snide comments about current events and lamenting about how much negative energy she was missing out on whenever the reports turned to a natural or man-made disaster. Eventually the clock in the sitting room chimed six times, signalling the end of their little gathering.

“Yaaaay! Dinner time!” Sonata quickly hopped off the couch and dashed for the staircase.

Moonglade and Adagio followed suit, leaving the empty glasses for the staff. It took three whole minutes to walk from the sitting room to the dining room and by the time they got there, Sonata, and surprisingly, Aria, were both already seated. The latter siren’s face was set in a grimace of displeasure, and she smelled strongly of soap and shampoo.

“Well, I guess you weren’t kidding about that bath,” Adagio smirked as she slipped into her seat.

“Ooh, ooh! Did you use the hand sanitizer?” Sonata sniffed at Aria’s hair.

“Shut up and get off me.”

Moonglade smiled to herself. Even though the sirens weren’t as close to her as they were to, say, her aunt, she felt lucky to know them. The three of them definitely brought a bit more flavor to her otherwise by-the-clock life.

Speaking of flavor…

“Mmm!” Sonata inhaled deeply as a rich, toothsome aroma invaded the dining room. “I’m starving! Can we eat yet?”

“No, Sonata...” Aria put an arm on the table and sighed. “You’ve got to wait for the queen, remember? Or did your tiny brain not process that?”

“And the queen is here.”

Everyone looked up to see Chrysalis sweep into the room, tall and imposing in a black and green dress, a small black crown on her head. Psithyra followed behind, doing her best to hide her limp. The queen’s sister pulled the chair out for her sister, sitting only once Chrysalis was comfortably settled herself.

As if responding to some hidden signal, six maids glided out from the kitchen, each carrying a tray with a cloche and a tall,fluted glass on it, setting one down in front of each diner. The silver domes were lifted, revealing a steak and lobster dish, served with a side of grilled asparagus and thin slices of cucumber and mushroom, drizzled with a thick brown gravy. The already mouthwatering scent reached its apex, but no one moved to pick up a knife, waiting for Chrysalis to say those three magic words that would end their torment.

The Changeling Queen took a long, laborious look around the table, relishing in the power she held, no matter how small it was, before announcing, “Dinner is served.”

“About time!” Moonglade let out a giggle as Sonata tore into her lobster with gusto. Silver Platter clandestinely circled the table, filling up the empty glasses with an appropriate beverage.

“So,” Chrysalis said after a few bites of steak. “How go your studies at school, you three? I trust that it isn’t too unbearable?”

Adagio bit a cucumber slice in half with a snap. “Not usually, no. Just when the Rainbooms get involved, things tend to get too touchy-feely for my tastes.”

“And mine,” Aria growled through a mouthful of lobster, a rivulet of juice running down her chin.

"Mm ‘aving a great ‘ime in school!" Sonata’s mouth was packed to bursting. She swallowed before continuing. “And history is easy, because we know everything without having to study at all! Only sometimes they get it wrong, but they think we got it wrong instead.”

There was a general murmuring of assent as the entire table acknowledged the ignorance of the human race as a whole. The conversation turned to Adagio and Aria reminiscing about Canterlot back when Dawn Saber had been king, which brought Moonglade back to her early morning walk, and the book that was doubtless now moldering at the bottom of the lake.

“...got to hand it to you, Psithyra, you sure know how to run a scam,” Adagio was saying. “All those years of moonlighting as muses of the kingdom, and no one ever guessed that the source of the curses and the blessings were one and the same. Ah, those were the days.”

The queen’s sister inclined her head modestly. “It’s only natural that the queen’s servant be able to do such things. And I can’t take all the credit; I couldn’t have done it without you three.”

Moonglade sat uncomfortably in silence, listening to the rest of the table’s occupants as they hearkened back to times gone by. It was no secret to her that Moonglade’s mother was an immortal, and presumably so was her aunt, able to last through the ages unless they were killed by something or ran out of love. What this meant was that when they or the sirens swapped stories about historical events, Moonglade had little to no idea what they were talking about and was left to fade into the background.

Once the main course was finished, every last bit of lobster devoured, the maids came back with plates of imported wild strawberry ice cream and blackberries, served with a freshly baked tuile. Chrysalis watched with satisfaction as everyone dug into theirs, having forgone dessert herself. The love that now permeated the room was to her sweeter than any confectionery that money could buy, and a lot more filling.

The sun was setting by the time every plate had been scraped clean and as the maids cleared them away, Moonglade grew more and more uncomfortable. Her mother had yet to say anything about their argument earlier today, which was very uncharacteristic of her; every other time in the past, she had just brought it up at dinner. The feeling was not dissimilar to the tide pulling out to sea right before a tsunami struck, and Moonglade felt drops of sweat prickle her neck as she thought back to the fate of an unfortunate thief whom her mother had once caught trying to break into their home. She had been all calm and collected back then too, no matter what the robber had threatened. Then she had ripped his throat out with her fangs. Moonglade glanced out the wide window and out onto the darkening grounds, where somewhere, Chrysalis had hidden the body.

No. It definitely didn’t do to have mother angry at her.

The three sirens eventually got up, most likely heading back to the living room to relax, leaving Moonglade alone with Psithyra and Chrysalis.

“Well, uh, thank you for the dinner, mother,” Moonglade said uncertainly, pushing her chair back and getting to her feet.

Chrysalis pointed a finger earthwards. “Sit.”

Like a trained hound, Moonglade sat. Chrysalis’ eyes bored into her daughter’s, pinning her in place. Then the queen reached into the folds of her dress and casually drew out her kris. The jagged black blade scraped unpleasantly as it left its sheath, taking on a dull, sickly green glow which meant the poison on the weapon had begun to react with the air. The Changeling Queen flipped it over her hand several times before stabbing it into the table with an audible thunk, startling the young princess. She let go, leaving the weapon quivering in the tabletop.

Psithyra rolled her eyes, as if to say, Is that really necessary?

Unfortunately, Chrysalis saw it. “Shut it, Thyra.”

“I didn’t say anything,” The queen’s sister said innocently.

“You know what I mean. And you!” Chrysalis whipped her head around to face her daughter, baring her long fangs in the dying daylight. “We have business to settle, you and I.”

“Yes, mother.” It seemed like a good, non-provocative answer. She won’t stab me, the princess nervously thought behind her mask of polite curiosity. I’m her daughter, she won’t stab me, not in front of everyone.

“Don’t you ‘yes, mother’ me,” the queen snarled. “We both know what I’m about to bring up, and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep your mouth shut until I am done.” Only after Moonglade had nodded assent did Chrysalis relax ever so slightly, the green fire in her eyes fading somewhat.

“Earlier today, you came to me with a certain… request. A request that I denied,” she said it like a judge reading out a criminal’s charges. “Do you have anything to say to refute that?”

Not daring to speak, Moonglade shook her head.

“I thought not. Furthermore, I recall telling you that there was no way that I would ever let you roam around in that city down there. And as you know, as Queen of the Changelings, my word is law.”

A pregnant silence followed, broken only by the hiss of the poison on the kris eating through the table.

“Just get on with it, Chryssie…” Psithyra muttered. She had taken out her own, shorter kris and was using it to pick her teeth, ignoring the dirty look this earned from her sister.

“Anyway,” Chrysalis glared at her sister. “I have not at all reconsidered my decision. However,” stood up and strode to the window, silhouetting herself in the setting sun. “I also understand that keeping you on the estate would ultimately do more harm than good.

“You are a princess, and not just any princess. You are my daughter, Chrysidea, and it wouldn’t do for you to go traipsing on the streets like some commoner, something which I had hoped you would understand by now.” Now Chrysalis began to circle the table. “In our long, illustrious history, you are the first of my line to be given such a stable, well-adjusted upbringing, and it’s of the utmost importance that… ”

“You’re still delaaaaying,” Psithyra sang, smiling as Chrysalis gave her another borderline murderous look.

Just for doing that, Moonglade made a reminder to treat her aunt better, just because she had the guts to talk back to her mother.

“Thyra!” Chrysalis warned, and Moonglade could have sworn she saw venom drip off her mother’s fangs. “Let. Me. Finish.” Psithyra shrugged and put her head onto the table to rest.

“The point is, that although I have carved out a comfortable niche for our kind here in our ancestral home in Canterlot, is no excuse for you not to learn how hard things were for us back then. Hunting among the sheep, disguised as one of them and learning their ways. Compared to us, you have it easy.”

Moonglade could scarcely believe her ears. Was her mother really saying what she thought she was saying?

“Therefore, in light of all this, I have decided that you should put your training to the test in a practical environment, with humans that will easily accept you as one of them. I have already selected the location, and you are to attend each and every session that the programme contains. Is that clear?”

“Huh?” Moonglade vocalized, momentarily forgetting that it was rude to do so. In truth, she had been doing what she always did when her mother launched into a tirade: tune out and nod every now and then.

“Oh for crying out loud!” Psithyra exclaimed, jerking back upright. “She’s sending you to school, all right? I don’t know why you have to wrap it all up in fifty layers of diplomacy, Chrysalis. You’re the queen, just say whatever you bloody well please!”

“I was,” Chrysalis said sourly.

“Well next time try not writing an entire epic in your head,” said Psithyra crossly. “I’ve got no plans to sit here until breakfast while you recite the entire story of Gilgamaresh”

“Go back to sleep, Psithyra.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. “Love you too, sis. Good night, Moonglade.”

Psithyra trotted out of the dining room and up the stairs, leaving only Chrysalis and Moonglade to each other.

A long moment passed.

“So...” Chrysalis said eventually. She pulled her kris from the tabletop and pinched the blade between her fingers. Green liquid glistened on the Changeling Queen’s dark skin, tiny droplets hissing as they dripped onto the varnished wood below.

“Yes, mother?” Moonglade dared, banking on the assumption that if Chrysalis had asked a question, then she was allowed to answer.

Chrysalis sighed, visibly annoyed. “As your aunt has let the cat out of the bag, I see no point in elaborating any further. Allowing you to roam around aimlessly in Canterlot is something I am never going to permit, but keeping you here would only prompt you to resent me and eventually try to escape, and then I would have to tell your aunt to hunt you down and bring you back, none of which would be worth the effort. I only want to know if you want to go to school, or if you would prefer to stay at home with your tutors.”

“I-I…” Moonglade’s mind was still two minutes behind and struggling to catch up.

“Yes or no?” Chrysalis slid her finger across the already scarred surface of the table. Thin, acrid smoke rose from the point of contact, curling around the queen’s looming eyes. “It’s not that hard.”

To any other person, it might have seemed simple. But to someone who had spent her entire life around deceit and wearing masks, Moonglade rarely ever took anything at face value. Especially not her own mother.

Is she serious? Just that morning Chrysalis had just as good as passed a law saying that she wouldn’t let her out of the house, and now she was doing a complete reversal? Surely there had to be a catch.

“I’d like to go to school,” Moonglade tried not to sound too eager. “But I wouldn’t have tried to escape, mother. You’ve taught me better than that.”

Chrysalis smiled sardonically. “Of course you would have,” the queen chuckled, without a hint of menace but with genuine amusement. “You’re my daughter; I’d have been disappointed if you didn’t.” then she sobered up again. “Now, I’m sure you have at least some knowledge of what a human school is like: loud, chaotic, and full of people just ripe for the feeding. It will be a good place to start for you.” Chrysalis tittered some more, pleased with her analysis.

“As you say, mother,” Moonglade held back a smile. I’m going outside! Mother’s letting me go outside! Her heart leapt.

“That is all, Moonglade,” Chrysalis turned her head away and waved her daughter off. “I have other matters to tend to tonight, so you may go. Good night.”

Moonglade nodded and quietly got off her chair, not forgetting to push it in before heading out of the dining room. Only when she was two rooms away with three pairs of solid oak doors between her and Chrysalis did she leap into the air and cheer.

“Yes!”

With her daughter gone, Chrysalis played around with the kris before sliding it back into its sheath. The blade’s coating had left a series of long, deep burns in the table, but they could wait until tomorrow to deal with. The queen licked the last of the poison off her fingers and spoke into the darkness above.

“I thought I told you to go to sleep.”

There was a clinking of crystal and a bemused Psithyra dropped down from her hiding place within the massive chandelier. “Wondered how long it would take for you to notice.” she winced and rubbed her thigh; it hadn’t been the best of landings.

“You really should focus on recovering,” Chrysalis said plainly. “We have a lot to do and I can’t get it done without your help.”

“Yes, yes. I know that. Can’t have you going stir-crazy and tearing someone’s arm off and beating them to death with it again, can we?”

“That was once, and it was centuries ago...” Chrysalis felt the heat rise to her cheeks and she looked away, taking a gulp of wine to hide her embarrassment. “And I hope this is a good idea, Thyra. You know how much time I’ve spent grooming that girl… “

“All her life,” Psithyra said, leaning on her sister’s chair to take the weight off her leg. “I’m sorry I wasn’t around to help, Chryssie. It can’t have been easy, raising her alone.”

“You’d be surprised at how much simpler things were after I ditched my mate, actually,” Chrysalis smiled dryly into her almost empty glass. “Tiresome beyond all belief, but at least he helped bring Chrysidea into the world.” As soon as the baby had been announced, Chrysalis had begun planning on how to dispose of her husband. She’d chosen him for his strong body and his lack of dependency on drugs and alcohol that so many celebrities seemed to have these days. He’d even been a rather tasty source of love for a time, but keeping him around to interfere with how she reared Chrysidea would have been more trouble than he was worth.

Psithyra nodded, seemingly in agreement. “I should have been the one to do it though. You shouldn’t need to get your hands dirty, you’re the queen. Doing things like that is beneath you.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” Chrysalis said mildly. “Kind of fun, actually. Did you know I could have bought a car with the donations from that month alone? Actually, I did.”

The darkened dining hall rang with the laughter of the two sisters. A heady cloud of love wafted around them in an invisible miasma, rich and delectable to both.

“Oh, Chryssie,” Psithyra giggled, wiping away a tear. “You haven’t changed at all.” After a few more seconds to sober up, she asked, “So have you decided which school you want to enroll her in? There aren’t all that many close by, but I’d have no trouble driving her to-”

“You’re not driving anyone anywhere until you’re well again,” Chrysalis said firmly, “And that’s an order, Thyra. Let me worry about schools and transport.”

The Changeling Queen left her seat and easily picked up her sister, carrying her bridal style upstairs and into her room. In no time at all, Psithyra was laid out in bed, the silken sheets hiding everything but her head.

Finally, Chrysalis reached to the gold and ivory lamp and plunged the room into darkness. “Good night, sister,” she whispered. “I love you.”

Chapter 3 - School Scouting

“And this is the theatre room,” the principal pointed out to the large steel doors. “I trust our facilities are more than enough to accommodate your daughter, Ms. Wings?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Ebony Wings said as she put on her best smile. Since this morning, she had been touring the city of Canterlot, visiting the most acclaimed schools she could find.

Ebony had started far, going to the ones furthest away from home before working her way backwards. Fortunately, the first ones she went to didn’t quite please her as much. One even told her that it didn’t accept students after the semester began, but this current one she was at looked promising. Very promising. And it wasn’t even the slightest bit far from home.

“Now, before we move on the the actual application, I need to know a number of things about your child.” The principal led Ebony Wings back to her office, ignoring the multitudes of uniformed teenagers who stopped to gawk at the visitor, with more than a few of them pulling out their phones to take a picture. “Don’t stare,” the principal told them sternly. “Return to class.”

“I apologize for my students’ behavior,” she said to Ebony Wings. “It’s not every day that such a famous, talented celebrity graces our school with her presence. They’re not usually so… easily distracted.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all.” Ebony smirked behind the principal’s back, relishing in the waves of adoration and thinly veiled envy, a smooth and palpable flavor with a pleasantly bitter aftertaste. “I’m quite used to it, I assure you.”

She joined the principal in her office as the woman shut the door behind her before returning to her seat by the wooden desk. It was poorly lit, Ebony noted with a tiny flicker of amusement. Most likely in an attempt to make the owner of it more intimidating. Just the sort of thing she herself might done half a dozen centuries back, if she’d had access to electrical lighting or maybe a brazier or two. It worked better with braziers, Ebony decided. Scented fires in golden cages made you look intimidating; a single dim lightbulb in the middle of a space like this made you look broke.

“Please, sit,” she offered, motioning to the chair opposite her desk before pulling out a stack of papers from a drawer below. “Let’s start with her age. How old is she now?”

Ebony leaned back in the chair and crossed her right leg over her left. “She’ll be eighteen this year.”

“Has she attended any other schools before?”

“No,” the actress shook her head. “I’ve had her homeschooled for her entire life. Tutors mostly, with myself standing in for certain subjects.”

“Tutors, you say?” The principal leaned forward and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Well, I’m sure they’ve been very thorough, but I can see why you’d want to transfer her here. Our curriculum offers a varied and wide variety of subjects that aren’t always covered by tutors, such as archery, advanced chemistry…”

Underneath Ebony Wings’ smiling and nodding face, Chrysalis inwardly groaned in annoyance as the other woman began to describe every single facet of their program. The principal, like all the others, was obviously trying to impress her. It was at times like these when Chrysalis really despised modern forensics and legal protocols. Two hundred years ago she could have throttled this long-winded nag and quietly slipped out the window, safe in the knowledge that anyone who came to investigate would rule it as some kind of divine intervention.

“...And our students are the best of the best. We’ve always placed first in any kind of competition out there.”

“Yes, I’m sure your school is one of the best in the region,” The lie had the added benefit of adding an extra bite of pride to the air, sticky and laced with superiority as it was. “That’s why made it a point to choose your establishment first.”

“And I promise you, Ms. Wings, you’ve made the right choice.” The principal pushed the paper across the desk. “If you could just fill this out for me, Ms. Wings.”

The document, or contract, as may have been closer to the truth, was just like its owner: long-winded and ultimately of very little use. Checking a few boxes and filling up some questions, all the while resisting the desire to roll it up and forcibly insert it down the principal’s windpipe, Ebony slid it back and resumed her usual smile.

“Thank you,” the principal said with a face that looked like someone had just stepped on her toes but was trying play it down, filing the paper away into a drawer. “I’ll send you the confirmation letter, as well as the fee, within two days. Thank you for choosing Crystal Prep Academy, Ms. Wings.”

The traffic in downtown was absolutely horrid today.

After making a quick trip to the school’s closest bathroom to let out a much-overdue groan (and frightening a mousy purple girl with glasses in the process), Ebony Wings found herself stuck in afternoon traffic after going out to buy five identical uniforms. It would have been faster to just get out of the car and run back to the estate, but that might have aroused some suspicion. After at least another two hours, Ebony finally eased out of the main road, free to drive down the smaller side road towards home. It only took another six minutes, but Ebony finally arrived at her gates, letting out a sigh of relief as she waited for them to open.

Leaving the car on the front drive, Ebony Wings stomped out and pushed her way through the front doors as Silver Platter greeted her before rushing out to move the car for her.

Ebony wandered into the dining room and sat down as a maid carefully brought a cup of coffee in for her.

"Hey, sis," Psithyra greeted from across the room, lying down atop a fifteenth century chaise lounge. "How was your day? Did you find a school for my favourite niece?"

“She’s your only niece,” Ebony Wings grunted between sips of the bitter brown concoction.

"Exactly. So, did you?"

The actress gave her sister a flat stare. “My day was deplorably dull, I’ll have you know. As if I don’t have enough humans trying to kiss up to me in my line of work already, every single principal has tried to impress me with some kind of so-called unique feature of their school which I could easily have replicated back here. Not to mention all the people taking photos of me wherever I go,” she drained the last of her coffee and dropped the cup back onto its saucer hard enough to crack both.

Psithyra sighed; like nearly everything else in the house, the crockery set was an antique. "Okay, but like every conversation, you completely talked around my question. Did you find a school for Moonglade?"

“Silver Rose, sister,” Chrysalis reminded. They had specially planned a new persona for her daughter to assume for school, while Moonglade would remain the public face.

“Fine. Silver Rose. Did you find a school for her?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I was in the papers tomorrow. I’ll certainly be all over the internet, with rumors and speculations abounding,” Ebony Wings gazed at the frieze that was painted onto the ceiling. “Not worth the trouble of all this. I don’t know how I let you talk me into this, Thyra.”

"Cause it's a good idea. Allowing Moon- Silver Rose to explore the outside world gives her the experience you and I had all those years ago. And... Before you forget... Did you find a school yet?"

“I know why I’m doing it,” Ebony Wings snapped. “And the least ridiculous school I visited today was run by some long-winded, utterly incompetent crackpot who seems to be unable to even keep her own office lit. Do you know how tiresome it is, having to put up with someone who just talks and talks about irrelevant things like that for any amount of time?”

Psithyra carefully avoided eye contact with her sister. “I can only imagine how trying that must have been for you,” she said with a roll of the eyes. “But were any of them satisfactory?”

“No.”

“Then when do you plan on looking for one that does measure up to your standards?”

“Never.” Psithyra sat up and caught the school brochure that was thrown her way. “No school out there can possibly measure up to my expectations, and I refuse to do a repeat of today’s fiasco. I’ve decided on that last place, Diamond Prep Academy.”

Psithyra raised an eyebrow, and then the brochure with one finger pointing to the front. “That would be Crystal Prep, your majesty,” she corrected, trying very hard not to laugh at the scathing look her sister was giving her.

“Whatever.”

Chapter 4 - First Day of School

“Do you have everything you need?”

Psithyra and Ebony Wings stood at Silver Rose’s door, methodically going through her Crystal Prep approved backpack, unpacking and repacking every single item. There were considerably more items in there than the school’s provided list had, and Ebony wanted to make sure that everything was in place for her daughter’s first day at school.

“Did you add on to the list, sister?” Psithyra glanced at all the extra items that she didn’t think were on the list at all. “That pack going to kill her back.”

“Yes I did,” Ebony said dourly. “And a few extra pounds of weight aren’t going to kill her. Isn’t that right, Silver?”

“Yes, mother,” Silver said, trying her best not to fidget in her new uniform. It had been pressed and washed the day before but it still itched.

For the new persona, Chrysidea had elected to use a few tricks with gel and a comb to make her hair straight and shorter after dyeing it in stripes of grey and pink. Her skin itself had been dyed a mauve color, while she chose to wear red contacts. A plain black choker with a silver rose on it adorned her neck.

“You look wonderful, my favorite niece,” Psithyra chuckled and watched Silver try to fit everything in the bag. It didn’t look like it was going to work. “Are you sure she needs all that, Ebony? A whetstone? Really?”

“I doubt they provide them at this academy, Psithyra. What if she needs to sharpen a knife?”

“We’re trying to enrol her, not start a school stabbing,” Psithyra groaned with exasperation. “So that means no shurikens either. Honestly, why did I let you have the packing list?”

“Maybe it’s because I know best?”

“That is so not true,” Psithyra clucked her tongue in irritation. “Silver, dear. Would you take out all the deadly weapons and leave them here? You know, luckily, I happened to pass by. Your mother would've gotten you expelled on the first day, and more likely than not, arrested.”

“Well excuse me for worrying about my child’s safety…”

Silver Rose nodded and set about placing a Swiss army knife, a handful of shurikens, and a ceramic kitchen knife onto the bed, along with three whetstones and a straight razor. From beneath her skirt, a tiny one-shot pistol was pulled, along with a small bandolier of bullets.

“Chrysalis…” Psithyra growled.

“What?”

“Next time, I’m doing the packing.”

The drive to Crystal Prep Academy was relatively short, as the Wings’ estate was only about ten minutes away by car. With Silver Platter at the wheel, the schoolgirl gazed listlessly at the documents she was meant to submit to the principal, whose name according to this paper, was Abacus Cinch.

“Your destination, young mistress,” the man said as the black car stopped by the school gates.

“Thank you, Silver,” Silver said, realizing that they now shared the same name. With one last nod to her butler, she opened the car door and joined the rest of the students who were streaming into the glittering campus ahead of them. Immediately, a few curious gazes were drawn to her, and the smell of curiosity spiked momentarily, smothered by the overwhelming spicy flavor of ambition.

The moment passed as Silver Rose made her way into school, heading straight for the principal’s office. The floors in the school building were unnecessarily polished, buffed up to an unnatural state of reflectiveness. It was said that the entire school was carved from some manner of semi-precious stone, but Silver didn’t think much of that particular rumor. Instead, she simply kept climbing the steps and ignoring any looks that were shot her way, just like her mother had taught her to behave at movie premieres.

She soon found the principal's door on the third floor, sitting in the middle of a landing. It was almost too hard to miss. Silver pulled at her blazer to straighten it before knocking on the door.

There was a brief moment of silence, then the door swung open, revealing the face of a young woman with pink skin and vibrantly multicolored hair. Happiness, and a hint of surprise wafted off this woman and Silver immediately liked her.

“Hi there,” she greeted with a handshake as Silver walked in. “You must be Silver Rose. We’ve been expecting you. I’m Dean Cadance, and I’m sure you’ve heard of Principal Cinch.” She directed the girl’s attention to the older woman at the desk.

The rest of the room, as reported by Ebony Wings, was dark and dimly lit with a single bulb on a string. She sniffed; the rest of the room didn’t smell nearly as nice; there was the heavy and oppressive scent of something she couldn’t quite place, like slightly sour milk mixed in with something akin to the spiciness of ambition, only this woman seemed to have taken it to new extremes. The rest of the dingy room was occupied with a wall of foul-smelling trophies and a single empty chair.

“Welcome, Ms. Rose,” the woman spoke with a low voice. “I am Principal Cinch.” She paused, as if expecting something.

“Good morning, Principal Cinch,” Silver said, correctly guessing the principal’s intentions.

“I trust you had no problems getting here?” Cinch said with a sticky sort of smile. “Please, do take a seat. I’m sure we’ve got quite a bit to discuss.”

Going anywhere near Cinch was not something that was high on Silver’s to-do list, but nonetheless she obeyed, sitting down across from Cinch and trying not to breathe through her nose.

“Now, I trust your mother must have explained to you why she enrolled you in this most excellent institute of fine learning,” Cinch said. “But I doubt she gave you a fine history of the school’s successes, which I will now show you. The school was first founded, by one Addeline Crystal, who took it upon herself to teach students…”

What followed was what Silver would later label as an epic study in tedium, with Principal Cinch carrying on and on about her school’s reputation and legacy, and how the school had never been better than it was now. Dean Cadance remained at the back of the room, smelling softly of nerves and boredom.

“...and as such,” the principal continued. “All our students here harbor the very highest qualities of excellence. I trust you’ve got that quality to yourself too, Ms. Rose? Your mother is, after all, an award-winning actress.”

“Yes, Principal Cinch,” Silver said obediently. “I’m glad to be in such a historic and storied school.”

“Excellent.” The principal leaned back and adjusted her glasses. “Dean Cadance, would you bring her papers forward?”

The nicer school head walked over with a file with Silver’s name on it.

“In here, you’ll find everything you need to start your studies in Crystal Prep. Your schedule, school rules and guides, and even a notebook can be found inside. And I believe you have something for me.”

“Oh, yes, Principal Cinch.”

Reaching into her bag, Silver easily found her enrolment papers and handed them to Principal Cinch, who stamped each one with her own personal seal before putting them aside.

“Well, that concludes your introduction to Crystal Prep Academy,” Cinch stood up, signalling the end of the meeting. “Second period should be starting any time now. Have a good day, Ms. Rose.”

Dean Cadance opened the door for Silver, waving goodbye as she proceeded to her second period class. According to the timetable, she had ancient history now and the classroom was somewhere on the second floor. It was no trouble finding the room, since it was all a matter of matching the correct room number with the one on her timetable. The dry, flaky taste of boredom intensified as she neared her destination; that wasn’t a good sign, even if it was mixed with a faint aftertaste of curiosity.

Silver Rose lifted a hand and rapped her knuckles on the door, waiting for a response.

“Come in,” a clipped, masculine voice intoned.

Silver did as she was told, quietly pushing the door open and stepping inside. The rest of the class had turned to watch her entering, but she was used to being stared at. It happened at pretty much every movie premier that her mother took her to.

“Ah, you must be Ms. Silver Rose?” the teacher said. He had short, jet black hair gelled back to bare his forehead, and sharp, birdlike features. One hand held a collapsible pointer while the other held an open book. “I was told that you were coming, though I didn’t expect it to be during the class. I’m Mr. Fowl and welcome to ancient history.”

“Thank you,” Silver said automatically. She ignored of all the stares that were playing across her like a cluster of laser sights, but she couldn’t block out the sudden upswell of curiosity and the fainter smell of happiness. Most of the students seemed pleased that Mr. Fowl had been interrupted, even though their faces remained stoic.

“Class,” the teacher turned to face them, directing a hand toward Silver. “This is Silver Rose, and she’s your new classmate. Do make her feel welcome. Silver, there is an empty seat over there beside Canvas Splash.”

Silver had already noticed the pink haired girl sitting beside an empty desk. The girl’s hair was tied up on the left side of her head with a ribbon; it kind of looked like the head of a paintbrush. The new girl immediately guessed that Canvas was probably a painter or at least an artist.

“Heya, new girl,” she greeted as Silver pulled the chair out to sit beside her. “You already know my name, and I know yours. Well, welcome to CPA.”

“Thanks,” Silver said again. She had already learned a set of responses to reply to, as instructed by her mother. This was going to be a lot easier than she had first anticipated.

“Okay, back to our lesson class.” Mr. Fowl didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by the unenthusiastic glances of his students. “Silver, for your information, we’re currently studying the ancient colonies of the Middle Ages. Now, before a king was established, there were close to a hundred villages inhabiting this very city of Canterlot itself. Each village had very little interaction with one another, but some still managed to establish trade routes between each other. Now, can anyone explain to me how these villages were run?”

Immediately, every hand in the room shot up into the air.

“Uh… Sugarcoat?” their teacher pointed to a bespectacled girl with white hair tied up into two tails at her sides, along with one more tail at the top of her head. She was seated two rows in front of Silver Rose.

“Village elders, Mr. Fowl,” she stood up and pushed up her glasses, an almost bored expression scrawled across her face. “Sometimes a single person, sometimes multiple.”

“Correct, Sugarcoat,” he nodded and got back to the lesson.

Silver Rose listened, attentively as he went on about how the villages were all so disorganized that a single bandit attack could sometimes wipe out an entire town. After that, different kings took up roles across the land, ruling over separate provinces. Eventually, a single kingdom was made and a new king united Canterlot, keeping the people safe and at the same time, ruling over them, just or unjust.

History was something Silver Rose had enjoyed since young. Sometimes before bed, her mother would tell her tales of the past, most of them involved her mother duping her way through sticky situations or brutally disposing of someone who had seen through her act. Once Aunt Psithyra had come along, the stories got more interesting, though now, Silver knew her mother had made up things in a couple of her stories. She didn’t mind terribly; the end result was always the same.

The bell rang shortly, dismissing the students to their next class.

“What’s your next class, Silver Rose?” Canvas Splash asked as she dumped a blue file into her backpack. “Have you had a tour of the school?”

Silver shook her head. The whole ‘get enrolled in high school’ thing had been done so quickly that she hadn’t even been informed of the school’s name until last night. “My timetable says I have chemistry next.”

“Aw, that’s a shame. I don’t have chemistry till sixth period. Well, I can show you the way if you like!”

Silver followed Canvas Splash with a discreet sniff. This girl smelled calm enough, although even that was hard to discern through the strong scent of acrylic paints that wafted from her backpack. Something had definitely ruptured in there when Canvas had shoved her file in.

“Well…” Canvas said as she pointed out all the different rooms on the way to the chemistry lab. “These are the music rooms, the art rooms, the literature class, philosophy, and… here you are! The chemistry lab!” she bowed and gestured to a door on Silver’s right. “You have fun, Silver Rose. I’ll catch you later, maybe!”

Silver waved back at Canvas, whose bag had begun to turn green at the bottom, before turning her attention to the science labs. She had already memorized the way here from history, although even that was ultimately unnecessary: the labs had a faint sulfurous smell that she could have followed from the front door.

She was almost in when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. “Hey, you’re the new kid, right? Ebony Wings’ daughter?”

Silver Rose turned around, coming face to face with a girl with blue hair and a pair of goggles atop her blue haired head. This was the first student here that didn’t seem to have the same sense of properness about her. She had a bowtie like all the other girls, though she didn’t seem to bother trying to tie it properly, and her socks seemed to be three sizes too big, dropping down towards her boots.

“Ye-es?” Silver said hesitantly. This was something that she hadn’t completely prepared for: her mother’s celebrity status among peers of her age.

“Woah!” the girl yelled in her face, startling her for a second. “That’s sooooo cool! I never knew she had a second daughter! I’ve only ever seen Moonglade with her in the news!”

“Oh yeah. Her. Right,” Silver felt the beginnings of beads of sweat start to form on her brow. “She’s home-schooled.”

“Yeah, that’s what we knew, but what I never knew was that there was a second daughter! It’s so awesome! It’s like you’re a secret daughter no one knew about!”

“Haha, is that so?” Silver rubbed her left wrist unconsciously while trying to come up with a way to end this conversation as quickly as possible.

“I’m Indigo. Indigo Zap!” the girl reached out a hand for a shake.

“Silver Rose,” Silver took the hand and gripped it firmly, just like she’d seen her mother do countless times.

“Yikes,” Indigo winced once they let go. “You’ve got one hay of a grip there, Silver.”

“You shouldn’t be picking on the new kid already, Indigo,” the girl from before, Sugarcoat, said as she walked into the class. “And you’re going to be late if you keep standing there.”

The air began to grow crisper, like the smell of fresh lettuce, as they followed Sugarcoat into class, mixing with the faintly tangy smell that suffused from Indigo. There were all kinds of new smells and tastes here at Crystal Prep, and it was all she could do to keep up and try to put them all to memory. Of all these new smells, one familiar scent was noticeably absent: the smell of love.

I’ll have to work for it, she decided.

The teacher, whose name was Mr. Beaker, didn’t seem too enthused about the idea of a new student coming in. A man of middling height who smelled unpleasantly of sulfur, he gestured vaguely to one of the empty seats and began his lecture on subatomic particles.

Silver found herself sitting next to a weedy boy with white framed glasses and a scruff of a beard on his chin. “Hi, I’m Trenderhoof. You must be Ebony Wings’ daughter?”

“That’s right,” Silver shook his hand, making sure to go easy on the grip this time. “First day here.”

“You know,” he scratched at his chin. “I actually do a lot of research on celebrities and never once have I encountered your name, Silver Rose. Only your sister’s. Your mother must’ve done a really good job keeping you out of the spotlight.”

“I was, uh, living with my aunt for the past few years,” Silver said, getting out her notebook. “Just moved back a little while ago.”

“Ooh, you have an aunt as well that I haven’t heard about?” Trenderhoof whipped out a notebook and pen. “You wouldn’t mind me asking a few questions, would you?”

“Quiet over there,” Mr. Beaker barked.

“Right, sorry, Mr. Beaker,” the boy stowed his notebook and faced the front. He quickly whispered over again. “But Silver, if I may, I would love to write an article about you.”

Silver Rose gave Trenderhoof an awkward smile before turning back to the lesson. Next to her, she could hear Trenderhoof texting on his phone, and the smell coming off him was that of excitement and anticipation.

By the time lunch came around, Silver was feeling a lot less incognito. Wherever she went, there were whispers and fingers pointed, and even quite a few photos taken. She had opted to sit by herself, but Trenderhoof had quickly found her, positioning himself across from her with a smile.

“Hello, Silver Rose,” he greeted warmly. “It’s me again, Trenderhoof.”

Silver repressed a sigh while loosening her grip on her knife. “Hello, Trenderhoof,” she said, trying not to sound too annoyed. He didn’t taste like malice after all, only over enthusiasm. “What brings you here?”

“I hope I’m not disturbing you, but if you have time now, I would like to ask you a few questions. You know, for my article!” The boy’s smile widened, his notebook and pen already ready by his food tray.

“Is this for like, the school newspaper or something?”

“Nope!” he shook his head, that shiny grin growing wider. “It’s for an actual magazine! Cosmarepolitan, have you heard of it?”

Silver had heard of it. Her mother liked to use it and other such glossies as kindling in the fireplace on cold winter nights.

“Fine,” Silver said, finding the thread of love that Trenderhoof had exposed when he had been talking about his magazine. “Why not.”

“Excellent!”

The next few minutes were spent answering all kinds of questions the boy threw at her, like why her mother had kept her a secret, why only her sister was being homeschooled, why they chose to enroll her here at CPA, and even what her favorite food was. Silver Rose answered as well as she could, making sure all her replies lined up with the alibi she and her family had developed.

“Thank you so much, Silver!” the boy said, barely able to contain his happiness. “This was a great scoop! If you ever need anything, help with anything, feel free to ask! I owe you one.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Silver inhaled deeply as Trenderhoof left her table, her tongue picking up on the gratitude that the boy had left in his wake. Not as filling or sweet as love, but certainly far better fare than she’d been fed so far today.

As she sat there finishing up her lunch, Silver Rose only had so much time to herself before a group of three girls arrived, sitting across from her without lunch in their hands. Silver remembered the girl, Sugarcoat, from before, but she hadn’t talked to the other two yet, though she did recall seeing them in one or two of her classes. One of them had purple hair tied up into a ponytail, while the other had short mulberry hair, along with a flashy sun-like hairclip on her head. Each of them had a shield-like badge on their attires, with a dark lightning bolt in the middle.

“So, Silver Rose,” the mulberry haired girl spoke, folding her arms as she leaned her elbows on the table. “How’s your first day at school been so far?”

Silver could smell pride all over her, as well as a tinge of superiority. She clearly thought she was better than her. That wouldn’t have bothered Silver, but the other girl was also radiating off some hostility, which didn’t taste all that good. She definitely wasn’t here to welcome her to school.

“It’s been fine so far,” Silver said with a courteous nod of her head. “Not quite the same as with my private tutors, but hey, that’s how school is, right?”

“Private tutors?” the girl scoffed. “Well, that’s how it is when you’ve got everything taken care for you, isn’t it? I’m sure you think you’re levels above us, is that right?”

“Not necessarily,” Silver said evenly. “I’m sure that I have much to learn about Crystal Prep,” Silver got to her feet and extended a hand. “But I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. Who are you girls?”

“We’ve met,” Sugarcoat said, but didn’t extend her hand. “Sugarcoat. You know me, I know you, so we don’t need to say anything.”

“I’m Sour Sweet, how nice to meet you!” The girl with the purple ponytail took her hand and shook it firmly. “Don’t you forget that.”

The one in the middle didn’t get up, nor did she accept Silver’s hand. “I’m Sunny Flare, and don’t think me giving you my name means anything. Let me tell you something, Silver Rose. Around here, we’re the best of the best. Don’t even think for one second that you’re better than us, because we’ll prove you wrong. We don’t care if you’re the daughter of an acclaimed actress. Out here, you’re on your own. No connections.”

After that mouthful, she got up and straightened her blazer before turning around and strutting off with Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet following behind shortly after.

Silver Rose sat there, tasting a whole cocktail of pride, ambition, and even a slight tinge of jealousy instead of her meatloaf, wincing as she watched the girls leave. Most of the cafeteria had turned to look at her, but Silver did her best to ignore their stares, instead, concentrating on her lunch, which was almost done. The meatloaf was a far cry from her usual lunches back at the estate, but Silver managed to finish it all just as the bell rang for them to head back to class. Food was food, after all.

She hoped the rest of the day would go by smoothly without another incident like this.

Chapter 5 - Debriefing

Silver Rose packed up her things as the last bell signalled the end of her last class of the day, which was calculus.

It wasn’t all that bad and the teacher was indeed rather interesting. The only two problems she found was that math wasn’t one of her strong points and that the boy next to her had headphones over his ears the entire class. The teacher didn’t seem too bothered about it, unlike she did.

Silver shoved her folder into her backpack, but a piece of paper floated out and landed on the floor.

Just great…

The pink haired girl bent down, but the headphones boy had already picked it up for her, holding it out.

“You dropped this,” he said.

Silver didn’t know if he could hear her, but she accepted the paper back and smiled. “Thank you, uh, sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“Sound Wave,” he answered as he slung his bag over a shoulder. “You like music, Silver Rose? Here in CPA, I’m, let’s say the resident DJ.”

“I mostly listen to classical,” Silver admitted. “Sonatas and Arias and things like that. Helps when practicing the violin, you know?”

“Ah, the violin, interesting, just like your sister. For me, I prefer rock,” the blonde boy grinned. “You know, when we host events and we have those large amps, you just gotta rock it out.”

“I see. I suppose I’ll hear about it the next time there’s an event. Are there any of those coming up soon?”

“For parties, not anytime soon,” Sound Wave scratched at his chin. “Though the closest big event is the Friendship Games, but Canterlot High is hosting it this year. That’s like, about two months from now though. I was trying to get Principal Cinch to let me bring some amps, but she hasn’t gotten back to me yet.”

“Cinch, huh…” Silver Rose licked the inside of her mouth, recalling the principal’s foul taste from that morning. “Is she always… like that?”

“Sure she is, but that’s old news. We’re used to her and her ambition. We just roll with it. You’ll probably learn that soon enough.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the way she tastes…” Silver muttered under her breath. Then, in a more audible tone of voice, she gave Sound Wave a smile and said, “Well, I have to head home now. If I don’t, my mother will, uh, ground me or something. So see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll catch you tomorrow. Nice talking to you, Silver Rose, and welcome to Crystal Prep Academy.” The boy waved to Silver as she left the room.

She headed down the school’s shiny hallways, remembering the way out to the school’s front lawn. She passed by Sunny Flare and a girl with bright green hair and pink headphones whom she had noticed in a few classes; Sunny took one glance at her and snorted, while the other girl didn’t even notice her, listening to something on her headphones.

Soon, Silver Rose found her ride waiting out on the road, a small crowd of students standing around it. She quickly walked over and got in the car, keeping her eyes averted from the other students.

Behind the tinted glass, Silver Platter nodded to Silver as she got in, closing the door behind her.

“You seem to have quite a few admirers, young mistress.” the silver haired man said as he stepped on the accelerator. “How was your first day? Not too overwhelming, I hope?”

“It was pretty good, all things considered,” Silver sighed and pushed her backpack onto the other seat.

The pink haired girl looked out a window as the car drove by the city’s buildings. She was glad she finally had the chance to experience the world beyond her mansion walls for herself. It really was an interesting place.

“You realize your mother has done nothing but pace around the estate waiting for your return,” Silver Platter informed his passenger. “I’m sure she will want a full report once you’re home.”

Silver Rose sighed. “Of course she will… I did indeed have a good time. I hope she understands that at least. If she cares about how I feel, she’ll let me go on.”

Eventually, the car pulled through the Wings’ Estate gates, heading up the hill to the front doors. Silver Platter turned off the car engines and got out to open the door for Silver Rose.

“Thank you, Silver Platter,” she nodded her head as she went for the front doors.

“You are most welcome, young mistress,” he returned the nod. “Good luck with your… talk.”

Silver Rose walked down her home’s halls as Silver Platter headed back to park the car. She walked past shelves of helmets from ancient times, smiling to herself when she saw the one her aunt had recently added. It was one made of some chitinous material from some monster back during the Renaissance and was Silver’s new favorite.

“There’s my beautiful niece!” Silver turned and saw her aunt sitting by the corner, sipping from a glass of water. “Come help up Aunt Psithyra. Your mother’s expecting you. Did you have fun today?”

“I sure did,” Silver Rose responded with a smile, scurrying over to help her aunt to her feet. “Where’s mother?”

“Probably up in the labs. I told her to do something productive while she waited for you to come home.”

“She actually listened?” Silver joked. From what she knew, her mother never listened to anything anyone told her.

“I am the queen’s most trusted advisor,” Psithyra said with a chuckle. “So she does occasionally do what I suggest.”

“Occasionally, Aunt Psithyra,” Silver giggled. “That’s a key word, isn’t it?”

“You know your mom, Silver,” Psithyra patted her niece on the shoulder as they headed up the staircase. “So, did you make any friends?”

“Umm, I don’t know. Some of the other students seem friendly enough, others not so much.”

The two ascended another flight of steps before the smell of oil paints began the fill the air. Following the scent, Silver Rose and Psithyra found themselves on one of the second floor balconies, where Ebony Wings stood with a paintbrush and an easel, seemingly engrossed in the act of painting.

“Painting, my dear sister?” Psithyra sounded almost shocked. “Wait. I haven't seen you paint in centuries. Do you still remember how?”

“I’m a great painter, I’ll have you know,” Ebony said, turning around. Her eyes lighted on Silver Rose and she threw the paintbrush and palette onto a nearby table. “You’re home, Silver! I was so worried about you.”

Ebony Wings took her daughter’s face in her hands and turned her head this way and that. “Let’s see… no visible wounds… did everything go alright? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, mother. I didn’t get into any fights or anything,” she told the acclaimed actress. “School is a rather nice place. There are so many different kinds of people and most of them are quite friendly.”

Ebony smiled wryly. “No one’s asked you for an autograph yet? I’m surprised.”

“Well, the students there kind of care a lot about their own self achievements, so I don’t think anyone will ever be asking. Besides, mother, you’re the famous one, not me.”

“Hmm… did you at least remember to be nice to everyone? You know the saying: you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

“I concur,” Psithyra said. “It always pays to be kind to others.”

“I did, mother,” Silver grinned. “Most of the students are fine with me around. So far… umm… there’s only one girl that seems to have a problem with me, I think.”

“Well, you can’t win them all, especially not on your first day,” Psithyra said fairly. “Tell you what. Go and wash up, and you can tell us all about school over dinner.”

“Should I change to Moonglade?” Silver asked her mother before she could disappear around the hallway.

“No. Stay as Silver Rose,” Ebony replied. “Save yourself the hassle of having to switch personas every morning.”

“Yes, mother.”

After a quick shower and a change into a red tank top and black skirt, Silver Rose found herself seated in the lounge, just enjoying the softness of the couch. She pulled at her pink and grey hair, which was still partially wet from the shower. She was proud of herself for managing to make her hair shorter with some neat tricks, something she learnt herself.

Not too long after, Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk appeared, each of them hauling a backpack along with them.

Sonata caught sight of Silver and cocked her head to the side. “Who’re you?”

Silver was about to say it was her, but then she remembered they hadn’t met Silver Rose yet. They were used to Moonglade, sometimes Chrysidea.

“It’s my new persona, Silver Rose,” she told them in Moonglade’s voice, which was slightly higher pitched. “If you girls still don’t know, I’ll give you three guesses,” she ended playfully.

“Oh yeah, I heard you were going to school today,” Aria recalled. “What’s the place called, Sapphire Prep Academy?”

“No, it’s Garnet Prep, Aria,” Sonata waved a hand in her sister’s face. “I remember Chrysalis, erm, Ebony Wings saying that.”

“She said Sapphire,” Aria corrected.

“Garnet!”

“Sapphire!”

“Girls, seriously!” Adagio snapped, pushing them apart by their faces. “You deplete my lifespan every time you argue, and besides, you’re both wrong. She said Diamond Prep Academy.”

Silver held up a finger. “Actually, it’s Crystal Prep.”

Aria blew out air and folded her arms. “Whatever. It’s still a gem.”

“So, how was school?” Adagio sat down across from her and stretched her arms out across the sofa. “You’ve always wanted to go to one. Is it to your expectations?”

“It was… passable,” Silver shrugged. “A lot of people took photos of me and I got into an interview with some guy called Trenderhoof. But it was exciting! So many new smells and tastes.”

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it, Moony!” Sonata sat beside her and gave her a hug. “Oopsie! I meant Silver Rose. I think school is a fantastic place to be!”

“Yeah right…” Aria mumbled.

“I still wish I could stay home like you did,” Adagio sighed. “I don’t want to go to school. There’s barely any negative energy at CHS, and even if there was, we couldn’t eat it anyway.”

“I miss our powers,” Sonata pouted and touched at her neck. “Kinda feels like we have to do things on our own now…”

Just then, one of the maids came up, calling the four girls down for dinner.

Silver looked up at the clock, shocked that so much time had already passed. It felt like she had only been sitting here for a few minutes.

“Well, let’s not keep the queen waiting,” Adagio got up and beckoned the others. “Coming?”

Silver Rose cut her fish into tiny pieces as her mother droned on and on about having to find the right school, having to talk to so many principals and even getting stuck in traffic just to accomplish Silver’s wish to see the outside world.

Sometimes, she really wondered if her mother knew what she was talking about a few minutes into her lectures.

“So you see, my dear sirens, I would go the distance to see my daughter happy,” Ebony Wings said and elegantly shoved a piece of lobster into her mouth. “So, Silver, I think it’s time I hear all about it. Do tell me more about your day. In detail.”

“Well, first I had to listen to Principal Cinch in her office. She smells and tastes so bad, I wonder if it’s just because she’s old and bitter, or if there’s another reason entirely. Dean Cadance is nice though, even if she seems to be constantly in fear of Principal Cinch.”

“Sounds like a big meanie,” Sonata made a face.

“I’ve met them, yes,” Ebony said. “Let’s just say she doesn’t want to meet me again.”

“How about classes, Silver?” Psithyra took the subject away from CPA’s principal. “Are they to your learning standard, or at least close?”

“It’s a new experience, sitting in a room with other people my age. The teachers don’t seem all that focused on the students, but my lessons with the tutors have mostly everything covered.”

Ebony Wings arched an eyebrow. “Mostly?”

“Well, the math is kind of hard, and the tutors never really covered calculus with me. I’m sure I can catch up on it.”

Ebony Wings sipped thoughtfully at her glass of wine.

“I’ll get a calculus tutor in on Saturday,” she decided. “I’m not going to have you fail a class just because of my negligence. It’ll cut into your swordsmanship lesson, so make sure you practice on your own, got it?”

“Yes, mother…” Silver sighed, but complied. That was something else to add to her already packed schedule and swordsmanship was something she enjoyed.

“Oh, come on, Ebony,” Psithyra tapped a finger on the table. “Don’t you think you need to give her some free time to do what she wants? You’ve sent her to school and what if her friends want to hang out? I say let her have till the weekend to see if she needs a tutor. Who knows? Maybe she’ll get the hang of it. She’s a brilliant girl, aren’t you, Silver?”

The pink haired girl smiled and nodded happily.

Ebony Wings muttered something and took another bite of her dinner. “Oh, very well then. I’ll call in the tutor anyway, if only just to let them check your work. We’ll see just how much you manage to learn.”

Silver’s expression brightened up and she mouthed her thanks to her aunt. Psithyra looked in her direction and nodded, feeling the love and gratitude flow out from her niece.

“So, are we going to see Moonglade anymore?” Adagio asked out for everyone. “I kinda prefer that look.”

“More used to it too,” Aria chewed on her dinner unenthusiastically.

“Certainly you’ll see Moonglade,” Ebony Wings stated. “Silver Rose is only for going to school with, as you should know. Just on Mondays to Fridays it’ll be Silver Rose, because having to re-apply all the dyes and makeup each morning is just too much trouble.”

“Yaaay, we’ll get to see Moony!” Sonata cheered, much to the annoyance of her sisters.

Adagio raised her fork. “What if the two of them need to be in the same place at once? Moonglade and Silver Rose, I mean.”

“Oh, I can hardly think of any situation which that would be necessary,” Ebony said confidently. “And if needs be, we can just say that one of them is ill. Simple.”

“That sounds awfully common,” Psithyra folded her arms. “But you can leave the excuses to me, sister. I’ll be sure to come up with something smarter than that.”

“Well, if all else fails, you can dress Sonata up as one of them,” Aria wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind at all.”

“Ooh, ooh, can I? That sounds fun,” Sonata bounced in her seat. “Leave it to me!”

Aria blew a raspberry. “I was kidding, Sonata. You’d mess it up and get caught.”

“No I won’t,” Sonata pouted.

“You will,” Aria waved a hand.

Silver Rose watched the two sirens bicker for a moment before finishing up her dinner.

“Well, I have some homework to do, so I’ll excuse myself here. Thanks for the dinner, mother.”

“You’re very welcome,” Ebony Wings said with a strange glint in her eye. “Very welcome indeed.”

Chapter 6 - Copy That

On the next day, Silver Rose found herself walking into the English classroom for homeroom. Having missed it the day before, she didn’t know what to expect for it, but she hoped it wasn’t too tedious of a process.

She watched as the students casually found their desks, chatting with their friends as they waited for the first bell to ring.

Silver didn’t know what else to do, so she simply found an empty desk by the back and sat down. She figured she could just move if someone wanted to sit here.

The teacher had yet to come in, so the class was a bit rowdy, though most of them did seem to have a certain properness to themselves, likely wanting to keep up the appearance that they were superior to others.

Silver kept herself busy by looking up some short stories on her phone. She enjoyed reading adventure stories and there was no better time to do it than now, while she was waiting for her teacher to arrive.

This time, she found a decent story about a seaman traveling the world to find a crystal shell to add to his collection of treasures. He battled giant crabs and lobsters and even octopi, but before she could find out what happened to him as his submersible hit an iceberg, she was interrupted by a lavender-skinned girl with glasses.

“Umm… sorry, but… that’s my seat,” she pointed at the one Silver was at.

“Oh. Sorry,” Silver got up, swinging her bag over one shoulder as she did so, trying not to sound too irritated at being interrupted. “Say, I don’t think we’ve met before. My name’s Silver Rose.”

“Um, Twilight. Twilight Sparkle, and there’s an empty seat over there if you’d like,” the bespectacled girl motioned to the one in front of hers.

Silver Rose nodded and sat down in the empty seat, getting her things out. Seeing as she was already talking, Silver decided to find out more about her first period class. “So, Twilight Sparkle, what happens for homeroom? I’m kind of new to this.”

“Hmm?” Twilight looked up from a book she had out in front of her, pushing at her spectacles. “Oh, sorry, were you talking to me? Uh, we mark our attendance. That’s about it.”

“Hmm, interesting…” Silver nodded in understanding. “So, how’s the teacher of this class?”

Twilight looked up again, but then looked back down at her book. “Sorry, I’m kinda in the middle of something, could I talk to you later?”

“Uh, sure, I guess…” Silver took a discreet sniff. This one smelled like anxiety, mixed with subtle undertones of ambition and a desire to succeed. A bit highly strung.

She turned on her phone again and flipped to her story, but just as she started on the sentence she had left off at, the bell rang, silencing the students in the class as their teacher walked in, carrying a stack of four books in her hands. She had curly white hair and a small pair of glasses resting low on her nose and she reminded Silver of a bird, just like Mr. Fowl.

“Morning class,” she spoke with a frail voice. “I see we have a new face at the back. I’m Ms. Post Script,” she introduced as she pulled out a clipboard and pen. “And I will be your English Literature teacher. Now, let’s see who’s here…”

Silver watched as her teacher called out name after name, watching hands shoot up to signify their presence in class. When it finally came time for her name, Silver did exactly as she saw her fellow classmates do, copying their actions to the last detail.

“Good, everyone’s here today,” Ms. Script down the clipboard. “Now, back to yesterday’s topic. I’m sorry, Silver, we’re learning about ‘The Path not Walked’ today. Just follow as you are able to.”

“I’ll do my best, Ms. Script,” she answered diligently.

Luckily for Silver, she’d already gone over this poem with her tutor, meaning today’s class was going to be a breeze for her, or at least, she hoped it would be.

“As the speaker states, he took the way not walked, and that has made all the difference. Based on what the speaker says he went through in stanzas five and six, can anyone tell me what he means by ‘and that has made all the difference’?”

Several hands shot into the air.

Ms. Script pretended to look around before calling on Fleur Dis Lee, a girl with light pink hair and white skin. Right now, Silver only knew her by name.

“Does it mean that by taking the way not walked, he stumbled on some revelation that he wouldn’t have come by otherwise?”

Ms. Script tapped her lips with a pencil. “Not quite. Anyone else?”

Indigo Zap, who was up front, waved her hand furiously until she was picked. “Does it mean the new path really paid off?”

“Erm… no. Anyone else?”

Sour Sweet raised her hand. “It means,” she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. “That the speaker was caught by the police and sent to prison.” Sour finished in a grumpy growl.

Silver Rose raised an eyebrow and the corner of her mouth. That was the most outlandish answer yet.

“Correct, Sour Sweet,” Ms. Script turned her back and began scribbling on the whiteboard. “Prison.”

Silver Rose leaned back and widened her eyes.

Really…? That’s it?

That wasn’t what her tutor had said. Literature really was as weird as many people had said.

“Prison… right…” she muttered. “The poet should be sent to prison.”

Silver Rose found herself changing out of her Crystal Prep uniform into her PE attire, which consisted of a dark purple shirt, blue shorts and blue shoes. She found most of the girls watching her as she changed, likely wanting to see what she looked like underneath her uniform. It was slightly embarrassing, but Silver looked away and changed as quickly as she could.

Once she was done, she neatly folded her uniform and put it in a locker, along with her shoes.

“Ready for PE, Silver Rose?” the girl with pink headphones asked. She was much brighter looking than most of the other students here.

Silver decided she needed a name to put with her face. “I think so. And please, you know my name, may I know yours?”

“The daughter of a famed actress wants to know my name?” she asked excitedly. “Noooo way! I’m Lemon Zest!” she grasped Silver’s hand and shook it rapidly. “I’ve watched most of her movies!”

“Haha, have you?” Silver put on a wide smile. This girl smelled and tasted like excitement and happiness. Lots of it. “I’m sure mother’s happy to know she has fans here…”

“Why, it isn’t just me!” she bobbed her head to something she was listening to on her headphones. “A lot of the students like her acting.”

“Please.” Lemon Zest was suddenly pulled back as Sunny Flare stepped forward, wearing a frown on her face. “That’s a card you can stop throwing around. News gets old fast and people won’t care that your mother is such a great actor after a while, so drop it. We don’t care.”

“I care!” Lemon blurted out.

“No, you don’t, Lemon,” Sunny flicked a hand through her hair. Silver also noticed that they both had the same shield badge with the lightning bolt on it from the last time. “Don’t fuel her ego.” The girl poked a finger to Silver’s chest. “You keep hiding behind your mother’s name. What do you have, Silver Rose? You’re nothing. Your name means nothing here.”

“Evidently it carries some weight, or people wouldn’t be taking photos of me in the halls.”

“Oooh! She got you good!” Canvas Splash leaned out from behind her locker door.

“Shut up, Canvas!” Sunny shot at her, then looked at Silver angrily. “We’re not done here, Silver. Come on, Lemon.”

“See you in the field, Silver Rose!” Lemon waved as she was dragged away by her friend.

“Are you alright, Silver?” Canvas asked and shut her locker. Instead of one ponytail, the artist had hers tied up into two longer ones now. “She didn’t hurt you, did she? Sunny Flare.”

“Nah. What’s her deal, anyway? Did I do something to piss her off or something?”

Canvas scratched at her head. “You know, I don’t know. Never asked. I think she just lacks the respect for others, to be honest. That’s one reason why I don’t paint when she’s around. She’s ruined three of my works before.”

“Hmm…” Silver mused, then shrugged. “Oh well. What are we doing in PE today anyway?”

“Why, we’ve got archery today,” Canvas skipped along happily as they pushed out to the field. “Ever shot an arrow before?”

“Nope. This’ll be my first time today.”

“Well, I hope you’ll be good at it. Show Sunny that she isn’t the best.”

Oh, yes. I will show everyone. I just need to find someone who’s already at it…

As luck would have it, someone was already lining up on the firing line. Sour Sweet had her bow and two arrows nocked. Silver watched with great interest as she sent the shafts speeding toward the target at the other end of the court, each one thudding into the red circle at the center.

Canvas noticed her watching and pointed a finger at the cranberry haired girl. “You see that? Sour Sweet’s one of our best shots. She’s really good at this.”

“Yeah?” Silver’s eyes darted over Sour Sweet’s body, lingering at the joints and her hands and feet in particular, taking in every tiny detail and imprinting it on her mind. “Okay, that ought to be good. Now where can I get a bow?”

“We get them from the stand over here,” Canvas pointed to a wooden rack with dozens of bows. “Come on, let’s go.”

The artist picked one up and handed it over to Silver. The purple-skinned girl accepted it and ran a hand along its smooth surface, then pulling the string back once, letting it bounce and wobble in its place.

“I can work with this…” she muttered, picking up a quiver of arrows.

“Hey, let’s see what the new girl’s got,” Silver heard Sunny whisper to one of her friends by her side. If it was anything, Silver was thankful for her acute changeling hearing. It really paid off, especially at times like this.

Stepping up to the firing line, she swiftly nocked an arrow, took the same stance that Sour Sweet had taken, pulled the bowstring back and let it go. There was a fwip as the arrow left the bow, thudding into the center of the target.

Silver Rose noted that the entire field had gone silent. She could smell it in the air, the shock from every single student filling her nose. She still didn’t like it when everyone had their eyes on her and the silence made it even more unnerving.

She quickly walked back to where most of the students were and turned to face the shooting range, holding her bow behind her back.

“Silver…” Canvas tapped her on the shoulder. “That was… incredible! And you said you’ve never tried archery before?”

“Eheheh…” Silver rubbed the back of her head in slight embarrassment. “Nope. First time with a bow for me.”

Even Sunny Flare had looked impressed for a second, but quickly returned to her smug demeanor. “Meh, beginner’s luck. I’d like to see you do that again, Silver Rose.”

“I’d like to see it too,” Sour Sweet made her nicest smile, but instantly dropped it for a serious face. “But don’t you go thinking you’re better than I am.”

“Oh, give the others a try too,” a boy with thick round shades pushed his way forward. “I want to have a go. Nice shooting, Silver Rose. You can have another go in a bit if you’d like.”

“Sure, I’ll wait my turn…” Silver used the excuse to fall back in the crowd.

Some eyes were still on her, but at least the majority had returned their attention to the shooting range. She patted herself down, getting rid of some imaginary dust.

“Well, that worked,” Silver muttered. “Three cheers for mimicry.”

“What’s that?” Canvas asked.

“Nothing.”

Silver Rose watched the other students let loose their arrows, some hitting their marks, some going all over the place. Canvas Splash took to the firing line, pulling back her string as she nocked an arrow. Closing one eye, she let it go, hitting the target just one below the bullseye.

“Look at you all,” Sunny Flare walked up and pushed the artist out of the way. “Just watch how it’s done, paintbrush.”

Sunny let her arrow go, hitting her target right in the center. Her group of friends patted her on the shoulder as she made one of the smuggest faces Silver had ever seen, and the smell she was giving off wasn’t too pleasant as well.

“Okay, that’s it,” Silver said to herself, walking up to the firing line and taking aim with her bow, mimicking Sour Sweet’s stance once again.

“What, upset I’m better, Silver Rose?” Sunny told her.

Adjust for wind, gravity, and… oh, what the hay. I’ll just shoot.

Silver let her arrow fly with another fwip, and there was a skidding sound from the target. All those present, Sour Sweet included, felt their jaws drop. Silver’s arrow had not only struck dead center, but it had skewered Sunny’s arrow, splitting it right down the middle.

Silver felt the awkward silence around her again, but she had really wanted to wipe that smug smile off Sunny Flare’s face.

“That can’t be luck, can it?” one of the students mumbled.

“No way,” another said. “And it split the arrow.”

Sunny, who was still next to Silver, swung to her, her hand squeezing the bow hard. “Now look here, Silver-”

“Silveeeeerrrrr!” Lemon Zest jumped out between them. “That was so cool! I’ve never seen anyone do that, not even Sour Sweet! You rock!”

“Just doing my best,” she answered, her cheeks glowing a faint red.

She could feel the adoration exiting Lemon Zest, which wasn’t all that bad.

Before Sunny Flare could start yelling at her, Silver left the firing line and went back to where Canvas was standing.

“Silver, you’re so cool! You sure showed Sunny something she’ll never forget,” the artist bent back with laughter.

“Sure did,” she chuckled and spun the bow in her hands. “She’s just so… so rude. I wasn’t going to let her get away with pushing you and calling you names.”

“Really? You stood up for me?” Canvas wrapped Silver in a hug. “Thank you, Silver! You know, not many people do that. Here in CPA, we just focus on our own achievements. That’s, um, that’s why I don’t have many friends myself.”

“Well… you’re a friend of mine, Canvas.” Silver grinned as she found a tiny sliver of love mixed in with the wave of happiness that the pink haired artist was releasing. Finally, something decent, even if it’s so small.

“Thanks so much, Silver,” Canvas looked back to the firing line. “You know, no one’s ever messed with Sunny Flare of the Shadowbolts like that. It’s nice to see a change in that.”

“Shadowbolts?” Silver repeated the word. “What’s that?”

“Oh, right. You’re new, so you wouldn’t have heard of them yet,” Canvas cleared her throat. “The Shadowbolts are the top students of our school. I’d say they're good at everything, but I find that isn’t the case. They’re just good at a lot of things,” Canvas ended with a long grin.

“Shadowbolts, huh…” Silver glanced over to Sunny Flare. “Is that what the little insignia means?”

“Oh, those little things? Yeah. Only five girls have it as of now. Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap.”

“Maybe I could become a Shadowbolt,” Silver suggested with a wry smile on her face. “But I’m betting they don’t accept just anyone, even if their mother is an academy acclaimed actress.”

“Well, I’m sure you can be one!” Canvas said enthusiastically. “You just, um, shamed Sunny Flare in front of the class. I’d say you have what it takes to be one.”

“Not my fault I’m so good,” Silver said jokingly. “But seriously though. I don’t think that little stunt put me in Sunny’s good books. Lemon and Indigo seem alright though.”

“Lemon Zest?” Canvas giggled, placing a hand over her mouth. “She’s always like that. If there’s a contest for most fun person in school, you can bet she’d get the top prize. And Indigo? Well, she’s pretty cool, but just be careful; if it comes between you and her, she’ll pick herself. As for Sunny… no one’s ever done something like that before, so I’m not so sure how she’ll take it. My suggestion? Watch yourself around her, you know, just in case.”

“Hey, Canvas Splash,” their coach called from a bench by the side of the archery zone. “Come over here for a while, I want to talk to you about something!”

“Ok, coach! See you in a bit,” Canvas Splash rushed off to meet with their coach.

Silver watched her friend run off before resuming watching her classmates fire more arrows at the targets.

Silver Rose had decided to take a shower after PE class, deciding not to carry around the odor of her field activities. Most of the other girls were also taking showers, so at least she wasn’t standing out as an odd one.

After drying herself and putting on her uniform, Silver noticed something off. Her shoes were nowhere to be found.

“Weird. I know I put them right here…”

Looking around to make sure no one was watching, Silver closed her eyes and focused on the spot where she had left her shoes. Sure enough, there was a trail there that she could smell. It was faint, but it was there, and laced with a certain kind of perfume.

Silver followed it along the side of the locker room, pretending like she was heading for the showers again, looking like she had forgotten something there to throw suspicion off her.

And then she found them. In the shower cubicle all the way to the left, she found her shoes sitting behind the door, one on top of the other. The pink haired girl picked them up and frowned slightly. They were definitely put here by someone, but unfortunately, that someone didn’t count on her having acute changeling senses.

Really, when I find the person who hid my shoes…

Her shoes still had the residue perfume scent from someone, and Silver was willing to bet that that someone was likely Sunny Flare, or at least one of her friends.

She was about to start sniffing out the remaining girls in the locker room, but the ringing of the bell signalled the end of PE class.

Silver groaned as the rest of her classmates filed out the doors, heading for the cafeteria to have their lunch. She had wanted to find out who it was quickly, but it seemed it was going to be a while now.

On the upside, she had all of lunch to do so.

Chapter 7 - To Defeat an Enemy...

Silver Rose followed her nose all along the hallway from the locker rooms to the cafeteria, recognizing the scent of the perfume she was looking for.

It had all been going well at first, but when Silver pushed the doors open to the cafeteria, the trail split into three paths.

“Of course…” the girl wanted to hit herself in the face. “Multiple people would be using the same perfume…”

But then she remembered. The girl who hid her shoes was likely Sunny Flare or one of the others part of her group. That was a start. She just had to see which trail led to Sunny and her friends.

It was a little hard finding them in the crowded cafeteria, because of the smell of ambition, mixed in with the perfume scent Silver was trying to follow. Outside, it hadn’t been as strong.

After a few rounds around the cafeteria, Silver finally spotted Sunny and her group of friends, seated near the left corner, already busy with their lunch. The mulberry haired girl seemed to be busy laughing at something Sour Sweet had told her. Then she looked up, locking eyes with Silver, before quickly looking away.

Alright, Sunny Flare, Silver pressed her lips together and walked towards the table. Let’s see what you have to say about this.

The scented perfume definitely led to this table, and Silver was about to find out who was responsible for hiding her shoes.

“What do you want, Silver Rose?” Sunny Flare asked first, wearing an irritated face. “Can you not see we are in the middle of lunch?”

Silver closed her eyes for a brief moment and sniffed. No question about it. The perfume scent was coming from this table… and was strongest around Sour Sweet. Silver leaned against the lunch table and smirked.

“It’s not nice to touch other people’s property, you know.”

“Touch other people’s property?” Sunny raised her hands innocently. “Why, I would never. And Silver, it’s not nice to go about accusing people for things they didn’t do.”

“You lost something, Silver Rose?” Indigo Zap asked her.

“I know you hid my shoes,” Silver said, placing a hand on her hip. “Don’t try to deny it. I can smell your perfume on them.”

Sour Sweet seemed to squirm in her seat, but Sunny narrowed her eyes and stood up. “Look, Silver. I know you’re the new girl and all, and that you feel you have immunity for a lot of things, but I didn’t take your shoes, so stop your baseless accusations and go away. Pffft, smelling perfume on shoes, really…”

“That so? Then why is Sour Sweet looking so guilty for?”

Sunny turned to Sour Sweet and scowled. “Sour, stop adding to her ego! You’re making things worse for yourself!”

“I-I’m sorry, I-I…” Sour Sweet’s face changed. “I didn’t do anything wrong! Go accuse someone else!”

“Yeah, she didn’t take your shoes, so get lost, Silver,” Sunny raised her voice. “You think just because your mom is famous that you can just go around doing what you want?”

“You leave my mother out of this, you hear me?”

“Sunny, you’re taking this too far,” Sugarcoat pushed at her specs.

“Oh?” Sunny smirked, ignoring her friend. “Or what, Silver Rose? You gonna do something? On your second day at school?”

Silver Rose’s fingers curled into a hooked position, but then she mastered herself and turned away with a haughty sniff.

“You’re not worth it.”

“Yes, please leave. You know you can’t win,” Sunny waved and sat back down.

Silver left the cafeteria without eating, instead going down the hallway and stopping at a secluded spot, huffing and puffing as she thought about her conversation with Sunny Flare.

“Who does she think she is, saying these things about me?” she slammed a fist into the wall. “I should just rip her arms off and watch her squirm!”

Silver Rose had never felt this angry towards anyone before, not even to her mother. This was all new to her and she didn’t know what to do. She could feel her fangs throbbing, filling up with venom and easing out into the open, ready to bite.

Calm down… must calm down or I’ll do something I’ll regret.

The pink haired girl leaned her back against the wall and breathed in deeply. She just focused on the future. All she had to do was look forward. If she were to do something silly now, like injure the rude girl, her mother would never let her out of the house again.

Silver took one more deep breath before adjusting her uniform. She felt better, but she didn’t feel like going back to the cafeteria to see Sunny again, so instead, she stayed there against the wall and willed her fangs to retract. After a few moments, they did.

Silver looked up and down the hallways, and satisfied that there was no one about, sank down onto the crystal floor and closed her eyes, meditating.

“Ah… sweet solitude.”

Back in the cafeteria, Lemon Zest was giving Sunny Flare an uncertain look.

“What’s on your mind, Lemon?” Sunny Flare looked up from her food. “You’re giving me a weird look.”

“I was just thinking… was that really necessary? Chasing her off like that?”

“What, you have a problem with that?” Sunny tilted her head. Sometimes, Lemon Zest did seem to ask the strangest questions.

“I dunno… it just seems a bit harsh, especially if it’s only her second day and all.”

“She needs to learn her place,” Sunny waved her hand dismissively. “You saw what she did in PE. No one does that to me without recourse.”

“It sounds to me like you couldn’t handle a bit of competition,” Sugarcoat said without looking up from her book.

“Couldn’t-Couldn’t handle… couldn’t handle a bit of competition?” Sunny’s forehead turned a slight red. “I can handle competition just fine! She just thinks she’s special and I want to tear that down.”

“What I want to know is how she managed to find her shoes so fast,” Sour Sweet grumbled. “She found them way too quickly.”

“Where did you hide them?” Sunny asked her. “You probably hid them in a spot where everyone can see.”

“Why, I hid them in a shower cubicle. Way out of anyone’s view.”

“Well, apparently it wasn’t good enough,” Sunny spat at her. “Next time, pick a better spot!”

“There’s not going to be a next time, is there?” Lemon Zest adjusted her headphones.

“That depends on Silver Rose, doesn’t it?”

“Well, I think she’s pretty cool,” Indigo said idly. “She doesn’t act all haughty and high even though she’s the daughter of Ebony Wings. Man, what I’d give to get an autograph from her.”

Sugarcoat looked up from her book. “I didn’t know you were into Daring Do.”

“I’m not,” Indigo admitted. “But did you see Ebony Wings in Finest Fantasy and Manslayer’s Doctrine? She’s so amazing!”

“I saw it!” Lemon shook her hands. “It was great, but so were all the Daring Do movies! Ebony Wings is such a good actor!”

“Girls!” Sunny looked at the other Shadowbolts. “Off topic! We’re talking about Silver Rose here, not her mom! Now, her mom’s famous, but Silver’s just like everyone else, but she thinks she’s better.”

“Maybe she is?” Sour Sweet answered. “If she was a big fat cheater, of course.”

“Sour Sweet sorta gets it,” Sunny smiled and folded her arms.

“I know, right? There’s no way that was her first time with a bow,” Sour grunted and stuck a spoon into her pudding. “I mean, what did she do, watch me and copy my skills?”

“Psssh… Haha!” Indigo leaned forward and laughed. “Watch you and copy your skills. What, she can’t be that good. I wish I was that good, but even I can’t do that.”

“Whatever it is, if Silver does something like that to me again,” Sunny pushed at the sides of her hair. “It won’t just be her shoes missing. And you better find a better place to hide them, Sour.”

“Hoo boy, looks like we have a rivalry on our hands,” Lemon Zest said, fiddling with her headphones.

“It’s not rivalry if I’m better,” Sunny looked away. “She’s still new, but trust me, she’ll know her place soon enough. We’re the Shadowbolts, the best Crystal Prep has to offer, not Silver Rose.”

“Okay, if you say so…” Indigo said with a wink. “We worked hard to get to where we are. Just try not to lose your temper the next time she splits one of your arrows.”

Silver Rose walked down the hallways of her home, heading to her room, still playing back Sunny Flare’s words to her in her head.

She didn’t like it, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t come up with something smarter to say the next time. At the same time, Silver was also upset that she couldn’t deal with the problem the way she wanted to and that it had almost resorted to a fight. That would’ve been bad. Really bad.

She turned the next corner, walking right into her aunt’s bandaged arms, which wrapped behind her, pulling her into a warm comforting hug.

“I could smell it down the hall, Silver,” Psithyra said softly. “Something’s troubling you. What’s wrong, dear?”

“It’s nothing.”

“I doubt that to be the case,” Psithyra’s eyes gleamed with green fire. “You can tell me, sweetie.”

“Well… you promise not to get angry about it?” Silver recalled a story that her mother had told her once about the wrath that her aunt had visited on humans who slighted the royal family before.

Psithyra chuckled and held her niece closer. “I promise. Aunt Psithyra isn’t going to be mad with you.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about…”

“Is someone bullying you, sweetie?” Psithyra lifted her niece’s chin. “Come on, tell me what’s going on.”

“Well, it’s not bullying yet, per se…”

“Okay,” Psithyra flexed her fingers. “What did you get yourself into this time?”

“There’s this girl, Sunny Flare,” Silver finally told her aunt. “She thinks just because she’s one of the top students in school she can push people around. She keeps making fun of me and she thought that hiding my shoes was a good way to get at me. She’s so… so terrible, Aunt Psithyra. I don’t know what to do…”

“Have you tried biting her?”

Silver looked at her aunt in shock. “Y-You’re not serious?”

“Yeah, I’m not. But evidently, something has to be done.”

“That’s just it, Aunt Psithyra. I don’t know what I should do,” Silver buried her face in her aunt’s robes. “I don’t want to do something I shouldn’t. I tried talking to her about it, but I couldn’t come up with anything better but to beat her down. I didn’t, of course.”

Her aunt considered this carefully.

“Do you want to hear an old bit of wisdom from a commander during the Renaissance?”

Silver nodded her head.

“To defeat an enemy, you must first undermine his allies. Said by Commander Vespa.”

“Alright… but what does it mean?”

“It means,” Psithyra explained patiently. “That if you want to stop this girl, you’re going to have to take down her friends first. Preferably the nice way. We’re not running a war here.”

“Make friends with her friends?” Silver thought about it.

It actually made a lot of sense. Perhaps if the other Shadowbolts saw no problems with her, or even better, they enjoy her company, then Sunny would have no backup for anything she decided to play. It sounded like a really good idea.

“Ah, looks like you’ve figured it out, Silver,” Psithyra patted her on the back. “Good to see your attitude’s changed. You were rather upset when you returned home.”

“It’s because of you, Aunt Psithyra. Thank you!” Silver hugged her aunt tighter.

“Ooh, careful, careful,” the changeling winced slightly, but chuckled. “Your aunt’s still a little sore from her injuries.”

“Oops. Sorry, Aunt Psithyra,” Silver loosed her grip. “I’m really glad mother found you again. You always give me good advice.”

“It’s my job, dear, as the Queen’s Reaper. I’m meant to be the tactician of the family, after all.”

“True…” Silver nodded. “Well, I’d love to spend more time with you, Aunt Psithyra, but… homework.”

“Yes, of course, go on then,” the injured changeling stepped aside. “Oh, and about that bully. If you’d like, I can always help you come up with some clever comebacks. I’ve used plenty on your mother over the years,” Psithyra finished with a cheeky grin.

After a hearty dinner and all her homework, Silver Rose had a shower and changed out into her new purple pajamas. She had only received it yesterday from her mother for her new persona, one more piece of clothing to add to her spacious wardrobe, though, it was rather comfortable.

Her mother was out tonight, filming something for some upcoming fantasy film, so dinner had gone by rather smoothly.

As for her homework, Silver almost didn’t have any trouble getting it done. Calculus and Home Economics were the only ones she still had difficulty with, but she knew she would master them in time, just like most of her other subjects.

Silver noticed she didn’t work so well with numbers, but if she didn’t want another tutor on the weekends, she had to at least get a decent grade for it. As for Home Economics, the written work was particularly easy, but she didn’t quite know how to manage during the practicals.

“I guess that’s what happens when you have servants to cook for you, huh Mishter Schniffs?” Silver held up her stuffed toy and looked into its blue eyes.

The plushie’s head tilted to one side as she held it up in front of her face.

“It’s not a class you’ll be using anyway,” Mishter Schniffs said in her voice. “You won’t ever need to learn how to cook or anything. Your mother has it all covered.”

“Yeah, but won’t it be fun to be good at that? Imagine me in the kitchen, cooking for my mother and aunt. Plus, it’s something mother isn’t good at.”

“Well… that would be rather amusing, yes,” Mishter Schniffs rubbed his chin. “Well, I suggest you pay good attention in class then.”

“Of course I will, silly,” Silver hugged the stuffed toy closer, inhaling its aromatic scent. “That’s why I’m in school, aren’t I?”

“No,” Schniffs shook his head. “You’re here to learn to hunt on your own.”

“Oh…” Silver sighed disappointedly. “You’re right. That’s why I’m really in school, huh? Well, I’ve yet to bring back any love for my mother and aunt.”

“It’s only the second day, Silver. You’ll get it. You just need time.”

“Thanks for believing in me, Mishter Schniffs. I’m glad I have you around to talk to.”

“No problem, Silver. Now, I suggest you get some sleep. You’ve got another day of school tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Silver said and turned to the side to switch off her bedside lamp. Tomorrow, she was going to do her best to follow Aunt Psithyra’s instructions. “Goodnight, Mishter Schniffs.”

“Goodnight, Silver Rose.”

Chapter 8 - Matchmaker

“Silver Rose, do ease up on the gas,” her home economics teacher, Mrs. Full Pot, said, swooping beside her and turning the stove dial down. “You don’t want to be the next student to cause a school explosion.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Pot,” she scratched at her head. “I’ll try next time.”

“Yes, please do,” her teacher put her arms behind her back and moved off. “Now, when you’re done, please add your butter.”

Silver got back to examining the portable stove before her when she heard a slight whisper, coming from two tables down.

“If it’s one thing, Silver Rose stinks at cooking,” Sugarcoat told Sunny Flare, who was one stove down. “Just imagine if the gas had gotten everywhere.”

“I wish,” Sunny scoffed. “That would get rid of her.”

Silver clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, but she resisted the urge to flip the stove off her table.

“Woah, calm down,” Jet Set, the boy next to her raised both palms up. “It’s a simple task. No need to get so worked up.”

He’s right, Silver thought, taking a deep breath. A changeling must be above reproach, if one is to successfully hunt.

Jet Set watched her from the left, unamused. “You are this unfamiliar with cooking, Silver Rose?”

“Umm… Well…” she rubbed the back of a hand.

“I suppose being in a rich family with people to care for you would mean that you don’t do much cooking, do you?”

“Ehehe, you could say that…” Silver looked away as her cheeks turned red.

“Hmm…” Jet Set pulled off his glasses and wiped them with his blazer sleeve, which he hung over his shoulders. “Do not fret, I am the same way, as are many of the students here, did you know that?”

Silver shook her head no.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn how to cook, right? I mean, one day we’ll be out on our own. Parents can’t take care of us forever, you know?”

“I suppose not…” Silver agreed, though for her case, it was the other way around. She wasn’t going to be around forever for her mother to protect, seeing as she was just half-changeling. “So, you’re taking this class to be more independent, Jet Set?”

Silver finally managed to get the fire going. She placed a stick of butter on her pan and spread it around, watching as the fire made it sizzle.

“Me? You could say that…” Jet Set looked around before leaning in closer. “You see, I’m doing this so I can impress someone.”

Silver Rose felt a strand of love leave the dark haired boy and float around her. The love wasn’t being directed to her, but it tasted nice.

“Impress someone?” Silver smiled and tried to find where the love strand was going. “So who’s this someone?”

“Well, you seem nice enough, but please, don’t tell anyone else, at least not yet.”

“Sure. I promise,” Silver lifted a hand as she reached for an egg in a green basket between their stoves.

Jet Set meekly pointed a thumb to the back, where a girl with white and purple hair was standing, already busy with frying her egg.

“Who’s she?” Silver asked as she placed a hand over the stove. It didn’t feel hot, but then that might just have been because she was heatproof.

“That’s Upper Crust,” Jet Set smiled, but quickly looked away when she looked up from her work. “Phew… She’s absolutely gorgeous, don’t you agree?”

“By the looks of it, you haven’t tried talking to her, have you? At least, about your feelings? I mean, if you want her to notice you…”

“Oh, I’ve tried,” the boy sighed as he began his egg-frying process. “I mean, we’re friends and all, but I just can’t seem to tell her how I feel about her.”

“How are your grades? Maybe she’ll be impressed by that? I know that’s kind of a thing here at CPA.”

“Psssh, grades?” Jet Set waved a hand dismissively. “She has me beaten on that, I’m afraid.”

“Well, you should try, nonetheless. You’ll get nowhere if you don’t… Hmm...” Silver thought as she cracked her egg into her pan. She still couldn’t tell if it was hot enough, so she picked out a thermometer from the rack and stuck it in. It read three hundred degrees. “Hey, do you know if three hundred degrees is hot enough to cook an egg?”

“Three hundred?” Jet Set’s glasses almost fell off his nose. He reached to Silver’s side and turned down the dial for the heat. “That’s way too- ouch!” he drew back his arm, accidentally touching it to the heated pan. “Hot! You-you could’ve burnt yourself badly with that level of heat.”

Yeah, I don’t think so, Silver thought, but out loud, she smiled and patted Jet Set’s arm. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll be more careful next time.”

Just then, Upper Crust and her partner had come over, looking at Jet Set’s arm. “Jet Set, are you okay? You burnt yourself.”

“Yeah,” the other girl, who had purple curly hair, said. “To think that you’re one of the more careful students.”

The boy suddenly stood straight and pushed his specs back up, hiding his burnt arm behind his back. From his expression, Silver could tell he was trying very hard to keep it from showing. “Upper Crust! Suri! Umm… uh, this is nothing, I-I’ve had worse.”

The one called Suri didn’t seem remotely interested, but Upper Crust seemed very concerned, pulling out the boy’s arm from behind his back to have a closer look.

Silver smiled to herself. This might be a lot easier than she had first thought it’d be.

Mrs. Pot, hearing the commotion, came over and saw Jet Set’s now red arm. “Mr. Set, what did I say about safety? Never put your appendages close to the fire.”

“I apologize, Mrs. Pot,” the bespectacled boy rubbed his arm, then quickly removed it, likely because it was a bad idea. “I was just… I was just careless. It will not happen again.”

“No, Mrs. Pot, it’s not his fault,” Silver spoke up. “I had turned my stove temperature too high and Jet Set was just trying to help me turn it back down for safety reasons.”

“Hmm… then you are the one I should be lecturing, Ms. Rose,” her teacher clucked her tongue. “Please, do ensure you do not endanger your fellow classmates in the future.”

Silver nodded and looked at Jet Set’s arm. “Yes, Mrs. Pot. I’ll be more careful.”

The teacher nodded her head and turned to walk back to the front of the class.

Silver heard a few snickers from the front, but she couldn’t blame them.

“I’m sorry, Jet Set,” Silver rubbed at her head. “I didn’t know about the correct temperature. Maybe I can get something from the infirmary for you?”

“There’s no need, Silver Rose,” Jet Set raised his good hand. “I shall go after class. I can manage.”

Silver nodded, then grinned as an idea formed in her mind. “Umm… Upper Crust, maybe you’d like to accompany him? To make sure he’s okay?”

“Well, I… I suppose I could…” Upper Crust said, half to herself. “Yes. I think I will.”

Jet Set looked incredibly nervous, but didn’t say anything to refuse her help. Silver gave him a wink and a thumbs up, before getting back to her cooking. To her dismay, the egg on the pan had turned black.

“Oh, come on…”

Silver Rose tried her best to listen carefully in calculus class, but most of the equations still eluded her mind. She knew she was never good with numbers, which made her question her choice to pick calculus as one of her subjects.

When the bell finally rang, Silver’s heart skipped a beat, glad to be done for the day.

“You seem to be struggling, Silver Rose,” Sound Wave said as he slipped his blue headphones on.

“I’ve never been good at math equations,” the pink haired girl wiped a hand down her face. “It’s like they were made just to torture you.”

“Can’t argue with you there,” Sound Wave replied, flipping through his phone, looking for some music to listen to. “Well, you seem to be adjusting well. Has everything been solid?”

“Not as I would like,” Silver contemplated the question. “Sunny Flare, she’s been giving me some trouble. She seems to hate me.”

Sound Wave shrugged and shoved his phone into his pocket. “Sunny Flare has a problem with just about everyone, Silver Rose. She has a problem with playing nice.”

“Yeah, the other Shadowbolts seem okay. Well, most of them. Lemon Zest seems to be the nicest of the lot.”

“Oh, Lemon? Yup, she’s a fun one,” Sound Wave tapped on his headphones. “She helps me out with the music sometimes. She really likes to rock it out, though… some of her music choices are questionable.”

“Questionable?” Silver didn’t understand. “How so? Not rock enough for you?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain to non-musical folks. But let’s just say Lemon and I agree to disagree on what exactly ‘music’ is.”

“Umm… If you say so, Sound Wave,” Silver shrugged. “But she’s an easy one to be around, huh? She looks like she’s always happy.”

“That’s because she probably is. She likes to do what she likes to do, though, when she wants to. That could be a problem at times, but that’s just who Lemon Zest is.”

“Sounds easy enough to get her on my side…” Silver grinned to herself.

“What was that?” Sound Wave lifted one side of his headphones from his ear.

“Oh, nothing!” Silver turned back to him. “Since class is up, I’ve gotta go find someone. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Sound Wave!”

Silver Rose waved goodbye and picked up her backpack, leaving the classroom in search of Jet Set. She stopped for a second at the row of lockers outside her math class and closed her eyes, focusing on her smell.

She recalled Jet Set’s scent from home ec class and she hoped he hadn’t left school yet. She wanted to know how his progress was with Upper Crust.

Silver eventually found the boy drinking from a water fountain, his school bag hoisted over one shoulder.

“Jet Set!” she tapped on his shoulder and waited for him to turn around.

The grey-skinned boy straightened up and readjusted his glasses. “Oh, hello, Silver Rose. I’m feeling much better, don’t you worry.” He lifted his arm for her to see, which had a long white dressing over the burnt area.

“I knew you were going to be fine. What I wanted to know was…” Silver made sure no one else could hear her. “How did it go with Upper Crust?”

The boy let out a big sigh. “I apologize, Silver Rose, I know you tried your best to help me, but I failed to get anywhere in our relationship. We talked, but about class and getting burnt. I did want to tell her, about my feelings, but… I guess I couldn’t muster the courage to do so.”

Silver tried not to feel too put out by this turn of events.

“What do you mean, couldn’t muster the courage to do so? How hard can it be?”

Jet Set looked around the hall and scratched his cheek. “Now that you put it that way, I don’t see why I couldn’t do it. We talked like good friends do, but in the end, those words still didn’t leave my mouth.”

“Humans…” Silver whispered in frustration.

“Huh?” Jet Set looked at Silver in confusion.

Silver Rose sighed. “Nothing. But in all honesty, you’ve got to work up the courage to tell her sometime, or you’ll be tormenting yourself whenever you see Upper Crust.”

Silver smelt a tinge of fear from the bespectacled boy and it didn’t particularly taste good.

“I know, I know… Perhaps… Perhaps you can help me out? That is-that is if you don’t mind. With the words, I mean.”

“What, you want me to draft an entire speech for confessing to Upper Crust?”

Jet Set blushed slightly. “It-it doesn’t have to be a whole speech… does it?”

Silver sighed and clapped Jet Set on the shoulders. “Jet Set, all you have to do is just… maybe forget telling her how you feel. Why don’t you just ask her out? Simple. Something like, ‘Hey, Upper Crust, you want to hang out? Just the two of us?’ Right? Think you can manage that?”

“Well…” Jet Set pushed up his spectacles. “That does sound awfully easy, doesn’t it, Silver Rose?”

“Because it is. Now come, let’s see if we can’t find Upper Crust. Follow me.”

“Are you sure she hasn’t gone home yet?” Jet Set asked as they went along the polished crystalline corridors.

“Pretty sure.”

The truth was the Silver could easily pick out Upper Crust’s scent and was following it with her nose, just like how she had found him, but she wasn’t about to let this boy figure her out. A few more deliberate wrong turns later, the pair found themselves outside the girls’ locker room.

“Hmm. She must have gym as the last period...” Silver observed.

“Oh, I had forgotten,” Jet Set shook his head. “She has soccer practice today. She must be getting ready for that. We have gym second period. What should we do?”

“Well, unless you want us to march in there, I suppose we don’t have any choice but to wait until she comes out,” Silver flicked a piece of lint off her school blazer.

“Fair point,” Jet Set leaned against the wall next to the locker room door and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Thank you, Silver Rose. I’ve never told anyone how I feel about Upper Crust, but… you seem nice enough, and you certainly are. Thank you for doing this for me.”

Silver found the trail of gratitude and inhaled deeply, smiling at the taste. “Oh, why not, you know?”

After a few more minutes, Silver could hear the increasing sound of footsteps before the locker room doors were pushed open, with Indigo Zap leading the group, likely going to the field.

Silver nudged Jet Set, who was busy watching the soccer team hit the field.

“Think she looks good in a soccer uniform, hmm?” she teased.

“Hmm?” Jet Set partially turned towards Silver, keeping his eyes on the team, looking out for Upper Crust. “Umm… probably… S-She looks good in anything, really.”

Silver watched the other girls leave, finally spotting Upper Crust at the rear, talking to Suri from before. She felt a surge of love from Jet Set, directed towards the purple and white haired girl.

“There she is,” she nudged Jet Set again. “What are you waiting for?”

The grey-skinned boy gulped. “What, in front of the whole t-team?”

Silver Rose shrugged. “Well, maybe you can get her alone. If not, you could always wait until practice is over?”

“Un-until then?” Jet Set pulled at his collar. “Well… I don’t know… I don’t have anything to do besides homework, but what about yourself, Silver Rose? Surely you have better things to do after school?”

“Hmm…” Silver rubbed at her chin. “That I do… Maybe we can do it like this instead…” The mauve-skinned girl cleared her throat. “Hey, Upper Crust!”

She startled Jet Set, but Upper Crust turned around and saw them, waving to Jet Set. The rest of the soccer team didn’t seem particularly happy that they were interrupted. “Yes?”

“Jet Set needs to tell you something,” Silver grinned at the corner of her mouth.

“Umm… okay.” She turned to her team and waved for them to go on. “I’ll catch up with you girls on the field.”

“If you say so,” Indigo shrugged. “Just don’t blame me if you miss out on some important training.”

After the rest of the girls had cleared off, Silver retreated back a step and gently pushed Jet Set forward. “Go on.”

“You need something, Jet?” Upper Crust smiled and stepped closer.

“Er… well… I…” Jet Set stammered. Silver gave him a nudge in the back. “I was wondering if… you’d like to hang out sometime?” he squeezed out.

Upper Crust squinted at Jet Set, then at Silver Rose who was nodding encouragingly.

“Are… are you asking me out?”

Jet Set squirmed and pulled the sleeves of his blazer, his cheeks glowing ever brighter. “Well, n-no, I mean yes… I mean… maybe. Yeah.”

That works… I hope, Silver thought to herself. She didn’t know why humans found it so hard to convey their feelings. It didn’t look all that difficult. Then again, she had yet to find someone worthy of her affection anyway, family members notwithstanding.

“You are!” Upper Crust’s smile widened. “Yes, Jet. I’ll-I’ll go out with you. I’ve wanted to since middle school, but… you’ve never asked.”

I knew it! Silver cheered for her deductive skills.

“W-What, really?” Jet Set’s eyes grew.

“Really. Here’s my number,” Upper Crust scrawled out her number on a sticky note and passed it to Jet Set. “Call me after practice is over, and we’ll decide on a time and a place. Okay?”

Jet Set’s face was set in a grin of honest joy as he accepted the note. “A-Alright.”

With one last wave, Upper Crust ran off to join her team, leaving Jet Set and Silver Rose looking at the sticky note.

“That wasn’t hard was it?” Silver patted him on the back. “Good work. Now you’ll not regret a thing.”

“I… I… I don’t know how to thank you, Silver Rose,” the boy could barely contain his excitement. “Th-this is… this is… wow… you have my greatest gratitude.”

“Hmm, yes. I know,” Silver said dreamily, finding Jet Set’s gratitude and pulling it in. It tasted so good compared to the general stuffiness of Crystal Prep that the inside of her mouth began to salivate just from the sweet flavor.

“I’ll never forget what you did for me,” Jet Set took her hand and shook it vigorously.

I’m sure you won’t. Silver thought smugly to herself. “I’m glad you’ve finally expressed your feelings, but I’ve got to run, Jet Set. My driver’s probably been waiting for me for a while.”

“As you must, Silver Rose,” Jet Set let go of her hand. “Thank you so much. Know that when you need help, I shall do my best to aid you.”

“Where have you been!?” Ebony Wings yelled at her daughter as soon as she walked through the front doors. Silver’s mother seemed to be in full attack mode, with her fangs extended and each finger hooked, ready to unsheathe a claw.

Silver reflexively took a step back, wincing at the abuse her ears were receiving.

“Do you know how worried I was?” Ebony continued her tirade. “You’re half an hour late! Half an hour! What were you doing?”

“Half an hour is nothing, sister,” Psithyra said from a chair by the side. By the looks of it, she had been waiting for Silver too.

Ebony lifted a hand to silence her sister. “Speak, Silver! Where were you?”

“I was… I was helping a friend, back at school,” Silver explained.

Ebony Wings’ face seemed to freeze, then settle into a less furious expression, though her fingers remained hooked and her fangs stayed out. “Go on.”

“H-He needed help, um, asking a girl out,” Silver continued with as steady of a voice she could utter.

“This girl wasn’t you, was it?” Psithyra added, her own fangs glinting in the afternoon sun.

“No, Aunt Psithyra,” Silver shook her head. “Another girl, her name is Upper Crust.”

“Well, that’s all right then,” Psithyra said brightly, her fangs retracting back up.

“No, it is not bloody well all right,” Ebony groused. “Half an hour, Silver. Do you know how much damage a changeling can do in half an hour? You could have called.”

“I’m sorry, mother…”

“No, don’t be Silver,” Psithyra lifted a hand. “She had a good reason, Ebony. She was helping a friend. She’s learning to hunt. That’s exactly what we wanted her to learn. Isn’t it, sister?”

“I-I-I…” Ebony’s fingers slowly uncurled, and her fangs retracted back into her mouth. “You win this time, sister. Now why don’t we forget this unpleasantness and go wash up for dinner. Since you came back late and all.”

“It’s still three hours to dinner,” Psithyra mentioned.

“Whatever.”

Ebony Wings swept up the skirts of her dress and marched off further into the house, nose held high.

Once she was sure that Ebony Wings was out of earshot, Psithyra gestured for Silver Rose to come closer.

“You really should have called,” the older changeling said quietly. “Your mother gets remarkably high strung when things don’t go according to her plans. Especially when it comes to you.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Psithyra. I guess… I forgot about the time.”

“Well, just try not to let it happen again. Your mother’s going to wear out the carpet with all the pacing she does these days. Now, on a nicer note, I was browsing CPA’s website earlier and I found some after school activities, or clubs, you might be interested in. There’s journalism, motocross, fencing, even speed skating. How do any of those sound?”

“I’m allowed?” Silver asked incredulously. She didn’t want to risk having her mother blow up like that again for coming home late.

“It’ll give you more opportunities to make some friends, and by extension, improve your hunting prowess. That’s something your mother can’t disagree with,” Psithyra said with a cunning gleam in her eye.

“Thanks for always looking out for me like that, Aunt Psithyra!” Silver softly embraced the wounded changeling. “You’re just the best aunt anyone could have.”

“Hmm. Almost there,” Psithyra muttered with an undertone of glee.

“You’re almost healed, Aunt Psithyra?”

“Not quite,” the older changeling said, index finger raised. “I’ve almost got enough energy to transform, properly this time, and that will heal me much faster than bedrest and soup. Have you ever seen a changeling transform before? It’s quite a sight.”

“I haven’t had the chance, no,” Silver shook her head.

“Maybe I’ll show you, my sweet niece,” Psithyra held Silver’s hand. “That is, if you’re around for it.”

Chapter 9 - A Brief Respite

Chrysidea had decided she was going to sleep in for the entirety of her Saturday morning, not wanting to have to get up early for a change.

She had violin lessons and sword practice in the afternoon, but her morning was totally free.

The night before, Chrysidea had washed off her Silver Rose dye, returning her hair to its usual turquoise, her skin to its charcoal grey, and her eyes to her light blue with slitted pupils. She didn’t add anymore dye, because she wanted to be herself for the night, free of any restrictions in her acting or behavior.

Today she was to go back to being Moonglade, but she figured it could wait a little longer.

Rolling around, the young changeling cuddled Mishter Schniffs to her body as she pulled the sheets closer to her head, sighing with content at her peaceful and restful morning.

She dreamt about a squadron of pigs flying through the skies, performing all sorts of aerial tricks, but unfortunately, her dream was swatted aside as a series of knocks rapped on her door.

Chrysidea groaned and turned, opening an eye as the knob turned, revealing the face of one of her maids as she pushed the door open a crack.

“Princess Chrysidea,” she whispered. “I apologize, but your mother wishes to wake you.”

Chrysidea put her head back down on the pillow and sighed very deeply. “Thank you. I’ll be up shortly…”

Only after the door closed did the girl get up, rubbing at her eyes and scratching at her hair.

So much for sleeping in…

Dragging herself to her bathroom, Chrysidea got to brushing her teeth and washing her face before rearranging her turquoise hair, making sure she was presentable enough. After picking out a dark blue tank top and a grey skirt, the young changeling slowly made her way downstairs, stretching her arms out to try and remove the stiffness she had gained from sleeping.

Her mother was already halfway through her morning coffee, sitting at her usual seat at the dining table in her bathrobe and slippers, reading through the newspaper.

“Good morning, mother,” Chrysidea said as she pulled up her chair across from her mother.

“Took you long enough, Chrysidea,” Chrysalis breathed and lowered her newspaper. “I had something important to tell you. To think that you would be here sooner was a mistake on my part, but it doesn’t matter.”

The young changeling sat there in silence, waiting for her mother to continue, but after a few more minutes, she realized she wasn’t going to unless asked.

Groaning internally, Chrysidea fixed a smile on and asked, “So what did you want to tell me, mother?”

Chrysalis took another sip of coffee and brushed her teal hair from her face. “Your aunt spoke to me last night about things you could do after school. I have the say, I don’t agree with a few of the things on the list, but I suppose, after much consideration on my part, I have decided that you may pick one to participate in.”

“What, really? I get to choose?”

Chrysalis nodded once. “Choose wisely.”

Chrysidea leaned her head on a hand as she tried to recall the activities her aunt had listed.

A part of her had secretly wanted to learn how to ride a bike.

“How about motocross, mother? That… sounds fun, right?” she ended with a sheepish smile.

Chrysalis lowered her eyelids and corners of her mouth. “Much too dangerous, Dea. I would prefer if you didn’t.”

“Oh…” she tried not to sound disappointed.

She thought again. If not for motocross, then another one of them stood out in particular.

“Maybe… I could try the fencing club? I mean, I’m already taking sword lessons here, so maybe I could use those skills at school?”

Chrysalis sipped at her coffee. “Fencing is not quite the same as the swordplay that you’re used to.”

“It isn’t?”

“No. It isn’t, but I’m confident that with a few lessons, you’ll pick it up well enough. The kind of swordplay I trained you with is far more effective. Fewer rules about where you are and aren’t allowed to hit.”

“Umm… no offense, mother, but would that make it harder for me to learn fencing?”

“I was there when fencing first became a sport, Chrysidea. It’s quite simple. Parry, thrust, parry, thrust. Of course back then, it was used to settle disputes in duels to the death. I’m fairly sure that won’t be the case at school.”

“So I’m allowed to pick fencing? I mean, I think it sounds pretty interesting.”

“Yes, Dea. I think it’s the preferred activity, actually.”

“Thank you, mother,” Chrysidea contained her excitement to not annoy her mother with a sudden outburst. “So is that all you wanted to see me for?”

Chrysalis lifted a hand. “One more thing your aunt discussed with me. She insisted I let you roam about on the weekend, to experience life outside school. I told her I would consider it, just to let you know.”

“Thank you, mother,” the young changeling said again. That actually sounded really fun and she had Aunt Psithyra to thank for that. She made a reminder to go give her aunt a hug later. “If that is all-”

“Stay, Dea,” her mother returned to her newspaper. “No point going back to sleep. Sit. Eat your breakfast. You can’t go about your afternoon activities with an empty stomach.”

Chrysidea wanted to remind her mother that there was still lunch, but she knew how touchy her mother was when she was corrected. She simply nodded and replied with a, “Yes, mother.”

After having a full plate of Prench toast and orange juice, Chrysidea found herself back in her room, assuming her identity of Moonglade, a towel around herself, her now blonde hair still partially wet from a shower. She walked over to her closet and threw the doors open, entering the expansive space to pick out her clothing. The girl tossed her towel aside as she looked at herself in her closet mirror.

Moonglade loved admiring herself, and she found out her mother and aunt did too. Maybe it was a changeling thing to make sure you look your best, with or without clothes on.

Sifting through her rows of clothing, the tan-skinned girl eventually decided to go with her usual outfit, which consisted of her red jacket, white shirt, a black tie, skirt and stockings, and of course, a set of white underwear.

Once she put it all on, the girl moved back to the mirror and adjusted her tie, making sure every article of clothing was in place. When she was done, Moonglade braided the sides of her hair, ending at the back in a small ponytail, just the way her mother had taught her and she liked it very much.

“All set,” she said to herself as she turned a few times before the mirror.

Leaving her closet, Moonglade picked up her glasses from her bedside table, and put them on before leaving her room. The sirens’ door was still closed, so Moonglade guessed they were really sleeping in today, seeing as they too didn’t have to go to school.

With nothing left to do until after lunch, Moonglade made her way to one of the studies and powered on the computer. She figured she could use her time more effectively by learning more about Silver Rose’s Crystal Prep students through MyStable, if they did indeed have accounts, though that would be very likely.

Setting her browser to incognito mode, Moonglade swiftly logged into her account and cracked her knuckles deviously.

“Alright. Time to see what you’ve got.”

The first name she typed into the search bar was none other than Sunny Flare’s, the only student at Crystal Prep who really seemed to hate her guts.

The profiles came up and Moonglade easily found Sunny’s, which was a picture of herself in a short indigo dress.

“Think you’re so wonderful, don’t you, Sunny Flare?” Moonglade muttered to herself. “Well, guess what? I’m going to pull the carpet from under your feet one day, just you wait…”

Then she mentally slapped herself. “No, no. I’ve got to be nice… well, Silver Rose has to be nice. I, Moonglade, don’t have to be nice. I’m her sister after all.”

She trawled through Sunny’s gallery, looking for anything useful. There were quite a large selection of photos, most of them featuring Sunny and the Shadowbolts. In fact, most of them seemed to have been taken in school, while they were still wearing their uniforms.

In the end, she couldn’t find any photos that could put Sunny at the other end of the stick. Sighing, Moonglade went on the search up the rest of the Shadowbolts, trying to find out if they had any information on things they might like. Her ultimate goal was the befriend them, after all. To her surprise, a few of the photos on their profiles were that of Silver Rose, probably taken surreptitiously while at school.

Writing down information on a piece of paper, Moonglade smiled to herself as she reviewed everything she had gathered. It wasn’t much, but it was certainly enough to get the Shadowbolts on her side if she worked hard enough at it.

“Watch out, Sunny Flare!” Moonglade said to herself and snickered.

With her move made, Moonglade sat back and watched fail videos on the internet until she was called down for lunch.

Having a wide variety of meats and vegetables, Moonglade wasted no time in picking out what she wanted before making her way to her seat to dig in.

Her mother and aunt rarely ate a lot, seeing as they didn’t really need a lot of food to survive. Moonglade herself was different. Because she was only part changeling, she still needed a steady diet of food, though she could still go without a few meals if she didn’t have to.

The sirens had made their way down partway during lunch, with Adagio and Aria looking like they barely got any sleep, though it was likely the opposite. Sonata was as cheerful as ever, giving Moonglade a hug from behind, glad that she was back again.

After eating her fill, Moonglade went up to her room to practice her violin, enjoying the sounds the instrument made. An hour later, her teacher showed up, ready to begin their lesson.

Moonglade did as she was told, correcting her movements and copying her teacher when she could, earning praise from her teacher; she rather liked the taste of it.

After the lesson, Moonglade headed into her closet to change into her swordsmanship gear, which consisted of a long sleeved corselet, a pair of laced up shorts and thigh high boots, all in figure-hugging black leather. She wasn’t sure about the practicality of such an outfit, but her mother seemed to like it, having put it together herself.

Grabbing her sword from one of the shelves, Moonglade strapped it to her side before doing up her wavy blonde hair into a ponytail. She didn’t want it flying around or worse, obscuring her vision during her practice.

Aunt Psithyra had expressed interest to watch Moonglade practice her sword fighting, but unfortunately, unless she was well enough to put on a disguise, she had to stay indoors while she trained.

“Maybe next time, Aunt Psithyra,” Moonglade patted her aunt on the arm.

She exited the house and went to the courtyard where she had her sword lessons, finding her tutor, Ms. Lionstrike, already swinging her sword in the air as she waited for the girl.

“Hi, Ms. Lionstrike,” Moonglade greeted her tutor as she stopped by a garden table to pour them both a glass of water from a jug one of the maids had left them. “Sorry for being late. My violin tutor wanted to show me some extra finger work.”

“It isn’t your fault, I suppose,” the silver haired woman pointed her sword tip up and placed her other hand behind her back. “Let us not waste more time then. Are you ready, Moonglade?”

“Oh, of course, Ms. Lionstrike!”

The blonde haired girl quickly made her way to the center of the courtyard after drinking from her glass and pulled her sword from its scabbard. Its straight double edge gleaming in the afternoon sun, she gave the sword a few practice swings before taking up her position opposite Ms. Lionstrike.

“So what will we be doing today, Ms. Lionstrike?”

“Hmm…” the tutor examined the girl from head to toe. “For today, let us work on your form. I shall attack. Your first goal is to defend. Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Moonglade said and stuck her sword out towards her teacher.

“Very well. Ikuzo!”

Moonglade’s tutor rushed at her, sword raised for a diagonal strike. Moonglade waited until the sword was already on its path downward before stepping aside and parrying it with her own blade. Sparks flew as the two clashed weapons, Ms. Lionstrike’s movement rapid and erratic to try and throw her student off her pattern.

But Moonglade would not be deterred. Carefully watching her footwork, the girl parried, blocked, and counterattacked with careful, measured strokes.

“Very good, Moonglade,” her teacher said as she tried to trip her, but Moonglade lifted her foot and spun away from Lionstrike’s next slash. “You’ve improved since last week.”

Moonglade didn’t say anything in return, rather stepping forward and swinging her sword in a horizontal slash, which found itself blocked handily by her teacher.

The two sparred on late into the afternoon, until both combatants were dripping with sweat and covered with dust from their clash.

“Well done, Moonglade,” Lionstrike said as she wiped her face with a towel before drinking from the glass the girl had poured for her earlier. “Of all my students, you’ve improved the fastest. I have a student who’s been with me for seven years now, but even he cannot compare to what you can currently do.”

“Aw, you flatter me, Ms. Lionstrike,” Moonglade bowed her head modestly.

“You learn new forms and moves so easily, one might think that you’re something other than human!” Ms. Lionstrike laughed. “Well, that concludes the lesson for today. Why don’t we go have a shower, then I’ll head off.”

“Sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?” Moonglade asked, wiping her face with a towel.

Ms. Lionstrike smiled. “As tempting as the offer is, I have another student in forty-five minutes. I’ll just take the shower and be on my way.”

“I see,” Moonglade said. “Well, thanks for coming today. Same time next week?”

“Of course.”

Chapter 10 - Make Some Friends

“Thanks for always dropping me off and picking me up, Silver Platter,” Silver Rose smiled to her butler as she pushed the car door open.

“It is my pleasure, princess,” he bowed his head and nodded. “Enjoy your day at school.”

Silver Rose closed the door and headed down the school’s stone path, watching as other students walked on, or stopped to look at her and her ride.

Really? I’ve already been here a week. You’d think they’d all get used to my presence by now…

Silver was never one for attention, so she picked up her pace and carried on, hoping to get into the school building as quickly as possible.

As she entered the school foyer, she spotted Canvas Splash, busy picking up a stack of papers and brushes from the crystalline floor. Silver strolled over and bent down to help out, handing them to Canvas as she gathered them.

“What a way to start the morning, Canvas,” Silver said, handing her friend a stack of blank paper. “What happened?”

“Oh, it was just Sunny again,” the pink haired artist answered like it was the most common thing. “She… well, she thinks I’m weird, so she usually messes up my stuff like this.”

“Why does she think you’re weird?” Silver’s eyebrows met in confusion. “You’re not too different from the rest of the students here.” But different enough to make a difference to me.

“You know, I kinda stick to myself when I work, I… uh, talk to my paintings at times,” Canvas explained as she accepted her stuff from Silver. “Just to name some. Sunny doesn’t seem to like that.”

“Sounds a little unreasonable,” Silver said as the two got back on their feet. “Just try to stay out of her way until I’m done.”

“Until you’re done?” Canvas echoed, puzzled.

“Sure. Now, where’s Lemon Zest?”

Canvas looked around. “Lemon Zest? She takes the school bus here, so she might be on the way. They don’t exactly arrive early. What are you going to do?”

Silver looked dramatically over her shoulder at Canvas.

“Make some friends.”

As Canvas headed for her homeroom, Silver waited by the main doors, watching out for the school buses as they arrived. Lemon Zest wasn’t on the first one, but she soon arrived on the second, jumping off the steps and into a few of the other students, who would’ve fallen over if they hadn’t gotten out of the way.

The lime haired girl seemed to be listening to something on her headphones, her hands moving back and forth on an imaginary guitar as she headed to towards Silver’s position.

Silver sauntered up to Lemon and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Good morning, Lemon Zest!”

Lemon turned and lifted one side of her headphones, then smiled when she saw Silver.

“Silver Rose! Good morning! What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing much. Say, you’re always listening to music on those things. Can you tell me your favorite bands?”

“Here, this’ll do! You gotta hear it to know it!” Lemon took off her headphones and put them over Silver’s ears.

It was a move that Silver soon regretted, with the music being loud enough to knock her back a step and attempt to prise the headphones off her head. But then she saw Lemon’s excited face and decided to leave them on, instead fiddling with the volume control on the left side to make it a little less deafening.

It was a rock song, just as Sound Wave had said about Lemon Zest’s music choice, though it wasn’t anything Silver had heard before, though, she didn’t know what was so questionable about it.

“That’s pretty neat,” Silver handed the headphones back. “This sounds like a good band.”

“You think so?” Lemon Zest’s face lit up. “No one else in school thinks so! They’re my favorite. You have a favorite band, Silver?”

“Can’t say I do, Lemon. I usually listen to classical.”

“I can introduce you to more music,” she hopped around the spot as she cranked up her volume again, skipping to the beat. “I know plenty of rock music! Whether others like it or not, it’s entirely up to them, Silver, so I won’t judge you if you don’t like what I like.”

“I’ll think about it, Lemon Zest,” Silver grinned. “But… I think we should really be getting to class.”

“Alright, then I’ll see you later!” the cheerful girl said and headed off, continuing to play on her air guitar.

Strolling off to homeroom, Silver Rose prepared herself for another another day of poem analyzing, which she didn’t enjoy at all.

“She asked you what?” Sunny Flare asked as she unbuttoned her shirt and put it in the locker.

“About what music I like!” Lemon Zest replied enthusiastically, already fully changed for PE. “She said Copperrear is a good band!”

“Lemon, no one likes Copperrear,” Sunny pointed out. “All their songs sound the same.”

“I like it,” Sour Sweet said. “If I wanted to kill myself.”

“Well, I think they’re great,” Lemon folded her arms. “And so does Silver Rose.”

“Silver Rose…” Sunny Flare groused as she put her PE shirt on.

“She’s not that bad-”

“Not that bad?” Sunny raised her voice. “You remember what she did to me in the field the other day? She clearly thinks she’s better than me! Not that bad? She’s out to take over what we have here.”

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Lemon said with her palms up. “Anyone who I can share my tunes with can’t be all bad.”

“Whatever,” Sunny slammed her locker shut. “Sour Sweet, if she tries anything this class, make sure you hide her stuff better.”

“You can count on me, Sunny,” Sour Sweet smiled, which quickly morphed into a frown. “No one outsmarts me a second time.”

“Just what I want to hear, Sour Sweet,” the mulberry haired girl grinned wickedly.

After changing, Silver Rose carefully folded and placed her belongings into a locker, then reached into her shirt for a small padlock which she clasped around the locker’s handle.

This’ll deter any trouble from you, Sunny Flare… the pink and grey haired girl smiled to herself. If she did indeed embarrass Sunny again, she wasn’t going to have to worry about her belongings disappearing this time. She stuffed the key into one of her sports shoes and waltzed out onto the field.

“All right, class,” Coach Mustang shouted into a megaphone. “Today we’ll be running a mile, so let’s begin with some exercises.”

Silver found a spot beside Canvas Splash to begin. “Hey, Canvas.”

“Hi, Silver,” the painter waved. “Are you ready for this?”

“Running a mile? Sounds simple enough,” Silver said as she got into position for some jumping jacks.

“Probably,” Canvas said as the class began jumping. “My stamina isn’t all that great, but I think I can pull it off in a decent time. How about you? Sunny’s going to be watching you. She’s one of the Shadowbolts after all.”

“I can run pretty well…” Silver said as the coach ordered them to start touching their toes. “It’s just a matter of energy.”

“I hope you stick it to her, Silver.”

After some push-ups, crunches and lunges, Coach Mustang got got everyone to gather on the track in an organized group.

“Now, this is simple,” he briefed the students. “Four rounds around our track and you’re done. Come on, show me what you can do, kids. And remember, it’s not a race. Just finish as best you can. I’ll be timing you all from the finish line.”

“You got it, coach!” Royal Pin pushed up his curly fringe.

“Let’s begin. On your marks, get set…” Coach Mustang brought the whistle to his mouth and blew, signalling the start of the run.

Silver Rose started at the back with Canvas, jogging along side her friend as she examined the rest of her class. They all seemed to be pacing themselves, jogging at a moderate pace along the track. She spotted Sunny and the other Shadowbolts in her class at the head of the group, already starting to form a distance between the rest of the class. Even Lemon Zest was up there with Sunny, which Silver found interesting.

“Here goes nothing, Canvas,” Silver told her friend. “I’m going on ahead.”

“Sure,” Canvas answered. “Good luck, Silver!”

Acceleration. Another of the changeling arts. The ability to channel love energy into superhuman feats, such as running very quickly. Silver reached deep within herself and found the stores of love which her mother and aunt had given her and set her mouth in a grim slash.

She easily overtook the bulk of the class, widening the eyes of some of her classmates; Neon Lights’ jaw dropped, as did his round shades, forcing him to stop and pick them up as Silver made it to the front of them all.

Sour Sweet had turned back, widening her eyes when she saw how close Silver was. She tapped Sunny on the shoulder and whispered over to her, but thanks to her acute hearing, Silver could hear exactly what she was saying.

“How did she catch up so quickly? She was at the end with Canvas!”

“Well, you must’ve been mistaken, Sour Sweet!” Sunny Flare hissed. “There’s no way she could’ve gotten all the way here if she was! Just keep running.”

Silver Rose was rapidly bearing down on the Shadowbolts, her arms pumping at her sides.

Lemon Zest turned around and waved a hand. “Heeeey, Silver Rose! Wow, you’re pretty fast too!”

“Thanks,” Silver managed between breaths. Channeling more love energy, with a flex of her legs, she leapt clear over the Shadowbolts and hit the track in front of them, dashing off down the path.

“Did she just-” Sunny couldn’t keep her mouth closed. “No way, what the hay was that?!”

Lemon Zest’s eyes had gone wide and her pupils had shrunk to little dots. “Woah…”

“Guess that’s it then,” Sour Sweet smiled happily. “There’s no way we’re catching up. But only losers give up!”

“We’re not letting her outrun us. Come on, girls.” Sunny Flare swept her hair from her face and picked up speed.

Silver chuckled to herself as she turned back to face the front. Sunny wasn’t going to forget that, but so did the rest of the class. She hadn’t thought too much about it, but now that she had time to think, she realized that jumping like that mightn’t have been the best of ideas. Humans weren’t able to do things like that.

Tone it down a little, Silver. At least stay within the reasonable human ability.

The mauve-skinned girl slowed her speed down as she finished her first lap, trying to blend in more with the humans, but also to reserve her love energy. She had been spending it, but she had also forgotten that Crystal Prep wasn’t the best place to get it back.

On the bright side, she was never going to forget Sunny’s expression when she leapt over her.

It wasn’t long before the rest of the class managed to catch up, though Silver remained burning energy just enough to stay ahead of the pack.

“Tired, Silver Rose? Do you need a break?” Sour Sweet asked her as the Shadowbolts kept it up, right behind her. “Then you should just stop and fall back!”

“Not really, just worried I’ll make you look bad,” Silver replied with a wink.

“You better watch yourself, Silver Rose!” Sunny Flare called from behind her. “You aren’t as great and powerful as you think!”

Silver kept running, ignoring her, but suddenly from the left, Sunny ran into Silver, hitting her in the chest with a shoulder.

“Oops!” Sunny said sarcastically.

Both of them lost their balance and fell to the side to the grass off the track. Silver Rose landed hard on her back, but Sunny Flare tried to keep her balance, going ahead a few steps, but her foot twisted to the side on her last step, sending her tumbling down with a cry.

Silver felt her leg slide over a rock, cutting open the skin on the back of her leg.

She winced. Superficial damage, she ruled. She had suffered much worse during swordsmanship training. I can heal that just as quickly- no. I can’t blow my cover. Not now. She then decided to pick herself up and see where Sunny Flare had gone.

The other girl was further ahead, on her side and clutching her leg, groaning in pain. None of the other students had bothered to stop and help. In fact, the other two Shadowbolts had gone on, already at least twenty meters away.

Almost to her surprise, one student did stop. She looked between the pack of runners and Silver, but decided to go over to where Silver and Sunny were.

I knew she was different.

“Silver, are you alright?” Canvas stopped beside her. “Your leg’s bleeding.”

“I’ll be fine,” Silver waved her friend off. “It’s Sunny I’m worried about.”

“Umm… really?” Canvas looked past Silver at the curled up girl, still clutching her leg. “You’re worried about… about her?”

“What if I am?” Silver limped toward Sunny. “Hey, um, what’s wrong? Do you need me to take you to the nurse?”

“Go away, Silver Rose,” Sunny grimaced, clearly unable to stand. “You’ve done enough.”

“Come on, you’re obviously hurt, the least I can do is get you to the nurse’s office.”

“No!” Sunny tried to get up and failed, landing face first in the grass. “Leave me alone.”

“All right, up you get,” Silver hoisted Sunny up and draped herself around the other girl, ignoring her protests. “Let’s go. Canvas, which way to the nurse’s office?”

“I’ll take us there,” Canvas motioned her head to the school building.

Sunny kept up her yelling, but gave up by the time they got to the other side of the track.

“Sunny’s injured, coach,” Canvas explained as their teacher came over to see what was going on. “We’ll take her to the nurse’s office.”

“Right. On you go, then.”

Canvas led the way back into the building, with her and Silver supporting Sunny on each side. Just another turn down the hallway, and they were at the nurse’s office. The pink haired artist knocked on the door and pushed it open before the three of them entered.

The nurse took one look at Sunny and quickly ushered them to one of the beds. “Put her there. I’ll get some bandages and ointment.”

Dutifully, Silver Rose laid Sunny Flare down on the cot, trying to be as gentle as possible.

“Alright, we’re here,” Sunny said frostily. “Now go away. I don’t want to see you, Silver Rose.”

“That’s no way to talk to her-” Canvas began.

“No, Canvas. It’s alright. If she wants to be left alone, we’ll leave her alone, right?” Silver shrugged, but deep down she could smell something else other than anger and pride radiating out from Sunny. A faint, almost unnoticeable trace of… gratitude.

“But your leg, Silver,” Canvas pointed. There was a trail of blood leading down Silver’s leg and staining her sock and shoe. “You need to get that looked at too.”

“That looks like a nasty cut, dear,” the nurse returned with her first aid box. “Here, let me clean it up first.”

“It’s just a scratch,” Silver said, but relented and allowed the nurse to treat it anyway. She didn’t want the blood to stain her kneesocks, after all.

After cleaning it with an antibacterial wipe, the nurse added a dressing and bandaged it up. “You’re free to go, Silver Rose. Don’t put too much strength on that leg just yet. You’ll just make it bleed more.”

Right… just let me get home and I’ll have this fixed in no time.

She got ready to leave, but looked back one more time at the mulberry haired girl sitting on the bed. “Are you going to be alright, Sunny?”

“Please,” Sunny held her head high. “You’re making this worse. Just go.”

“Alright, no problem,” Silver said, steering Canvas out of the nurse’s office. “We’ll let you get some rest.”

“That was awfully nice of you, Silver,” Canvas said once they were well away from the nurse’s office. “After all she’s done to you, you were still so nice to her. And your leg. Are you okay?”

“It’ll be fine once I get back home,” Silver waved her hand dismissively. “I’m more concerned about Sunny Flare. She may have sprained her ankle back there.”

“You’re a nice girl, Silver,” Canvas patted her on the shoulder. “If only more students were like you, huh?”

“Well, you know what they say, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

Canvas looked puzzled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I have no idea,” Silver Rose lied. “It’s just something my mother likes to say. Come on, let’s get back to class.”

Chapter 11 - Smoke and Shadows

Silver Rose entered her home, quietly taking the next few steps, looking out for her mother. Changelings had acute senses, which were much better than the regular human. If she could smell the blood from her leg, then her mother would be able to as well, if she were close enough.

Silver just hoped she could make it to her bathroom before her mother found her. If she was lucky, maybe her mother was out shooting something for her upcoming movie.

Two of the maids greeted her as she moved for the staircase. Silver smiled back and said hello before retreating up the stairs.

So far so good.

Silver crept along the passage, past the paintings and statues and suits of armor to the closest bathroom, which smelled heavily of soap and perfume. She reached for the doorknob, only for it to turn on its own and open, revealing…

“Oh, no,” Silver muttered. Her mother walked out of the bathroom, clad in a white t-shirt and dark blue jeans. She normally only wore that when she was heading out for work.

“Silver, you’re home,” Ebony Wings sniffed the air a couple of times. “Is that… blood I smell on you?”

Silver Rose cringed. “Umm… yes?”

“Where?” Ebony demanded.

Silver complied and began slowly rolling down the sock on her right leg. Past the knee, the white of the bandage and dressing could clearly be seen.

“Did someone do that to you?” Ebony narrowed her eyes. “The truth. Now.”

“More of an accident during PE class. Me and another girl ran into each other.”

“Ran into each other?” Silver’s mother looked like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How did you manage that? I taught you to be careful of your surroundings, Silver.”

“Well, more of like she ran into me. But I got off lightly. Sunny Flare sprained her ankle, I think,” Silver explained. “So now that I’m home, we can heal this, right?”

“This Sunny Flare girl again… Your aunt mentioned her. She dares to harm my daughter…” Then she sighed and patted Silver on the shoulder. “Are you okay? Did it hurt?”

“No, not really,” Silver shrugged. “I was kind of hoping we could heal it now, actually.”

Ebony Wings sighed and reached into her pocket, coming out with a vial of greenish liquid.

Silver Rose entered the bathroom and sat atop the toilet bowl, sticking her leg out for her mother as Ebony unstoppered the vial.

“It was wise of you not to heal in school, Silver,” Ebony said as she peeled away her daughter’s dressing. “Your classmates might’ve freaked out, or worse, think you’re a monster.”

“Yeah, I figured that.”

The cut was nearly two inches long, and Ebony wasted no time in dribbling a bit of the vial’s contents over the injury. The cut began to steam and smoke, the flesh healing over and leaving a single black line where the wound had been.

“There, much better,” Ebony stood up and kept her vial. “Now, mother’s got to go for another shoot. We’re doing motion capture for the upcoming Manslayer’s Doctrine video game.”

“You’re working on a video game?” Silver asked her mother. She thought she only acted in blockbuster movies. “I didn’t know you did that, mother. Maybe I should start playing video games so I can see you in them. Do you think I could get a Neighstation or something?”

“I think that would cut into your schedule even more,” Ebony said flatly, holding up a hand to stifle any protests. “I’ll think about it. Don’t forget to re-dye the area where you were injured.”

“Thanks, mother,” the young changeling gave her mother a hug. A game console would certainly add some entertainment to her life, especially if she could play as her mother. “Well, go knock their socks off.”

“I most certainly will,” Ebony smirked. “I don’t think I’ll be home for dinner tonight, so make sure you’re nice to your aunt.”

“I’m always nice to Aunt Psithyra. She’s amazing! It’s a wonder why you two split up so long ago.”

A look of annoyance crossed Ebony Wings’ face. “Yes, well, back then we had a disagreement. However it’s all in the past now, so there’s no need to bring it up again.”

“Yes, mother.” Silver felt like she was always saying that, and it was probably because it was true.

“Oh, by the way. See about inquiring into the fencing team tomorrow. Your aunt says they meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

“Of course, mother.”

“Well then, I’m off. See you later, darling.”

“Bye, mother. I can’t wait to see you on screen!” Silver Rose waved as her mother began down the staircase. “That went better than expected,” she said as she skipped towards her room. “And I might even be able to get a Neighstation! Not bad. Not bad indeed.”

“Open the door wider,” Sunny Flare complained. “I can’t get through like that.”

“My bad,” Indigo Zap replied and pushed it open more.

Sunny Flare grumbled to herself as she slowly made her way into the cafe using her crutches, heading for a table that Sugarcoat had already picked out, which was one of those with a semi-circle couch around a round table. The other Shadowbolts filed in first, allowing Sunny to sit on the outside. She placed her crutches by the side of their seat and sat down with a sigh, stretching her sprained leg out under the table.

“This stinks…” she rested her elbows on the table. “How am I supposed to train for the Friendship Games now?”

“How long did the nurse say you’d need those?” Indigo asked.

“At least two weeks,” she groaned and placed her head in her arms. “That’s two weeks of no exercise. Two weeks of getting around slowly. Ugh…”

“How did you manage to sprain your ankle anyway?” Sugarcoat said, taking her eyes off the textbook she had been studying. “It’s not like you were jumping hurdles.”

“I crashed into Silver Rose and lost my balance…” Sunny slightly masked the truth.

“She did, I was there,” Sour Sweet nodded in agreement. “Though it was your fault, Sunny. If you hadn’t tried to knock her down, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Hey!”

“Hey, I tell it like it is,” Sour said sweetly.

“So you tried to injure her and you were the one injured in the end?” Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“Man, that was so cool when Silver Rose jumped right over us!” Lemon Zest hit the table like it was a drum. “It was because of that that Sunny wanted to take her down.”

“Stop with all the details!” Sunny hissed to her friends. “You’re making me sound bad.”

“She-she jumped over you?” Indigo leaned forward. “For real?”

Lemon nodded excitedly. “Yup right over us, legs and all! She was like a professional gymnast!”

“She must’ve been one wherever she was before coming here,” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses and went back to her book.

A waitress came over and took their orders, quickly returning with their drinks on a tray in a short amount of time. Sour Sweet had also gotten a slice of chocolate cake to go with her orange juice.

“So you tried to injure her? Silver Rose?” Indigo asked the mulberry haired girl. “Why? She’s the daughter of Ebony Wings.”

“I know who her mother is, Indigo,” Sunny growled. “As to why I did it, I wanted to wipe that smile off her face. I wanted to teach her a lesson.”

“Looks like you’ve learnt the lesson yourself,” Sugarcoat looked at her and sipped loudly from her strawberry milkshake.

“Oh, shut it, Sugarcoat. I’m not the only one who got hurt.”

“Silver Rose was hurt too? Oh, the poor thing,” Sour Sweet put her hands on her face. “Too bad for her.”

“I didn’t see her on crutches,” Indigo recalled as she drank from her can of soda. “Mustn’t have been bad.”

“I don’t know what’s more humiliating, the fact that she only got away with a scratch on her leg, or that she carried me to the nurse’s office,” Sunny grumbled, taking a sip of her tea to calm herself down. “No thanks to you girls.”

“Hey, we were going to help you after we finished our mile,” Lemon Zest told her.

“Yeah, but you had already gone when we got back,” Sour Sweet added, taking a bite from her cake.

Sunny sank down in her seat, taking a disgruntled gulp of tea as she did so. “Sometimes I don’t know why I’m friends with you.”

“You would’ve done the same for us,” Sugarcoat flipped the page on her book. “But Silver Rose helped you? Even after everything you’ve done to her?”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Lemon asked, taking off her headphones. “I mean, I knew she was nice, but to help you? Wow. She must be really nice.”

“Either that or she’s trying to get something from us,” Sour Sweet gobbled down the last of her slice of cake. “But I don’t think so. She’s not so bad.”

“I doubt she’s just being nice for the sake of it…” Sunny rubbed her chin. “You might be on to something, Sour Sweet.”

“Just leave her alone, Sunny,” Sugarcoat creased her eyebrows. “She’s not out to get you. You’re just being paranoid.”

“No, I’m not!” Sunny sat up straighter. “You weren’t there when she decided to show off. She leapt over us on purpose!”

“So what?” Indigo asked. “We all show off. What do you want to do about that?”

“What I want to do?” a smirk formed across Sunny’s mouth. “I want to get back at her, that’s what. We just need to think of something so humiliating that she’ll know her place in this school.”

“This is turning into an obsession,” Sugarcoat said bluntly. “Why are you so fascinated by this girl anyway?”

“I-I…” Sunny looked like her face was going to explode. “I want her to know she belongs below us! I want to embarrass her in front of everyone! She hurt me, Sugarcoat! And I’m going to get her back. Are you girls with me or not?”

“I don’t know…” Lemon Zest fidgeted with her headphones. “Silver’s not really done anything to deserve this.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we should, Sunny,” Indigo supported the lime haired girl. “You’ve never been like this before.”

Sunny wanted to pull her hair out in frustration, but she realized that would make things worse for herself. “Can I count on any of you for anything?!”

“You can count on me, Sunny,” Sour Sweet smiled, but quickly folded her arms and looked away. “Silver Rose deserves some ridicule!”

“Sugarcoat?” Sunny looked to her bespectacled friend. “What about you? Where do you stand? Are you with me or are you with them?” She pointed a finger towards Indigo and Lemon Zest.

“Mmhn,” Sugarcoat said noncommittally. “I’m going to sit on the sidelines for this one. I can’t say I approve of Silver Rose showing up the Shadowbolts, but I think you’re taking this a bit too personally, Sunny.”

“Well… What if I am? Does it matter?”

“Yes, it does.” Sugarcoat pushed her glasses up and stared at Sunny. “We all represent the Shadowbolts of Crystal Prep. That means that our actions, for better or for worse, represent this school. If you allow yourself to be caught up in some petty revenge scheme, how will that reflect on the rest of us? How will it reflect on the school altogether? I doubt Principal Cinch is going to be happy if she finds out.”

“Then she’s not going to find out, will she?” Sunny looked at the other Shadowbolts. “As long as none of you open your mouths, we have nothing to worry about.”

None of the other Shadowbolts spoke up.

“That’s what I thought,” Sunny twiddled her fingers. “And it’s not like I can do anything now anyway, with my foot like this.”

“On the bright side, it’ll give you a lot of time to think it over!” Lemon Zest smiled and drank her soda. “Maybe you’ll change your mind?”

“Ha. I doubt it.”

Chapter 12 - Foiled

Silver Rose sat back in her seat as she listened to more poem analyzing from Ms. Post Script. She had raised her hand once to answer what she thought was an easy question, but her English teacher had told her otherwise. After that, she kept her talking to a minimum, only speaking when she was spoken to.

It’s a good thing Sunny Flare isn’t in my homeroom. She wouldn’t let me live this down...

“Psst.”

Silver looked up, then around. None of the other students seemed to be looking in her direction.

“Psst, um, Silver Rose?”

The pink and grey haired girl turned around, noticing it was Twilight Sparkle, the lavender-skinned girl sitting behind her.

“Yes?” Silver whispered, hoping her teacher didn’t catch her turning around.

“Sorry!” she squeaked. “I missed question seventeen’s answer on the previous page. Do you think, um, you could tell me what it was?”

“Oh, uh…” Silver flipped her page back to have a look. “It’s sorrow. The author meant his sorrow.”

“Okay, thanks!” she said before getting back to her work.

Twilight Sparkle was indeed an odd one. Whenever Silver talked to her, it seemed like she was always thinking about something else, and she never did seem to mix around with the other students much. And she smelled different from most of the other students, and while Silver had never quite managed to determine why, she still wanted to know.

When the bell rang, Silver got up, deciding to do just that.

“Hey, Twilight, can we talk?” Silver tapped her on her shoulder as she kept her things.

“Hm? Oh, um… okay, I guess.”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious,” Silver watched her. “I just wanted to have a friendly chat. You know? To get to know you more, since I’m new to your school and all.”

Twilight looked at Silver as if she’d just grown a second head.

“F-Friendly chat? No one at CPA does that. This is a trick, isn’t it?”

Silver looked around with her hands behind her back and then shrugged with a smile on her face. “Well, I’m not like the others? I mean, I do enjoy conversations.”

“Sorry, you’ve got the wrong girl then,” Twilight muttered. “I’m not much for talking, unless it’s about my research.”

“So let’s talk about your research,” Silver said brightly, hearkening back to her lessons with her mother.

Always let your target do the talking. Humans love to talk about themselves, and it’s a great way to find out which buttons to push when on the hunt.

“Well, I’m not sure how much I can tell you, but I’ve been tracking EM frequencies with my spectrometer…”

Twilight finished packing her bag and headed out of the classroom. Silver decided to follow, the smile on her face slowly diminishing the more Twilight rambled on.

“Umm… so these frequencies,” Silver kept up the conversation, still curious to know how this girl worked. “You can locate them? Like for real?”

Twilight nodded enthusiastically. “That’s right! I’ve been following them for months, and they’re unlike anything ever recorded before! If I manage to locate, or even harness them, my application to Everton will go through for sure!”

Aha. Silver could finally sense it. This Everton was receiving quite a bit of positive energy, and she pulled off a string of it to taste. Not bad.

“What’s Everton? You sound very interested in it. Is it a school or something?”

“It’s an independent study program,” Twilight gushed. “I’ll have an entire room to myself and my projects, without any other students to disturb me! Uh, not that you’re disturbing me… I mean…”

“So you like being on your own?” Silver queried. According to both her mother and aunt, humans were, by and large, social creatures. This Twilight was proving a far more intriguing case than she’d first anticipated.

“Yeah. It’s a lot quieter and more peaceful when I’m by myself. I get a lot more work done that way.”

“Well,” Silver looked at her history classroom. “This is my stop, Twilight Sparkle. It was nice getting to know you more. We should do this again sometime.” She ended with a warm smile.

“Uh huh. Maybe.”

Silver watched Twilight leave before entering her classroom. She was more antisocial than anyone she’d ever encountered. EM frequencies? Whatever those really were, she hoped Twilight would find them soon. At least that way, she might have more to talk about in the future. And maybe that would be more interesting.

After school, Silver Rose hefted her backpack over her shoulder and headed for the fencing club, which was supposedly meeting inside the gym.

As she pushed open its metallic double doors, she saw the basketball team playing on one side of the gym, likely practicing their shooting, and the fencing team in the other corner, off the court. Unfortunately, she noticed Sunny Flare near the basketball team, sitting on a bench with her crutches by her side.

That girl hadn’t bothered her since her injury, but Silver didn’t like her being around when she was trying something new, especially if she did accidentally make a fool of herself, like she did in cooking class.

Just keep it cool and give it your best. You can do it. What’s so hard about fencing, huh?

As she approached the fencing team, one of them spotted her, alerting the others to her presence as she got closer. Silver recognized Fleur Dis Lee and Royal Pin on the team, but the others were all new faces to her. They all already had on white fencing suits.

“Yes, can we help you?” Fleur asked her, flipping back her pink hair.

“Umm, I was thinking of joining the fencing team,” Silver waved as they looked at her. She could smell ambition and pride all over them. “So how do I go about doing that?”

A taller boy with dark purple hair pushed forward, holding his fencing helmet under his arm. “I’m Quillion Riposte. I’m the captain here. Now before anything else, may I ask, do you have any prior experience with fencing?”

“Um… not fencing in particular, but I know how to wield a sword.”

“Hmm…” the captain rubbed his chin. “That’s good enough for me. Mr. Fowl, we’ve got a new one!”

The history teacher looked up from a book he was reading and got up, dusting his attire. “Silver Rose, I didn’t take you as a fencing type, though to be fair, I shouldn’t judge your likes and dislikes because I see your mother on screen.” He brought out an attendance clipboard and handed it to Silver. “I’ll need your name here, Silver Rose, and anything else you think we might need to know before we begin. Allergies, next of kin, medical problems, that sort of thing.”

“Got it,” Silver began writing on it. “I’ll be done in no time, Mr. Fowl.”

She didn’t have any allergies, well, none that she knew of anyway, so that segment was easy enough. For her next of kin, she simply filled out her mother’s particulars. As for medical problems, she left that blank. Then there was a little excerpt at the end, detailing injuries she might receive and that the school won’t be responsible for them. Silver shrugged and signed her name at the bottom before handing it back to her teacher.

“All accounted for then,” Mr. Fowl tipped up his glasses. “You may begin, Quillion. Take it easy today, huh?”

“Got it, Mr. Fowl,” the captain nodded. “Oh, and Silver Rose, we’ll need to get a suit and mask for you. We have extras in storage. Hopefully one will fit you.”

Quillion Riposte brought Silver to one of three doors along the gym’s walls, opening it with a key.

Inside, Silver could see barrels of fencing swords, racks of long-white suits, and a box with regulation fencing masks in it.

“Let’s see here…” Quillion pulled out one of the suits and looked at it from top to bottom. “No, too small, I think. Hmm…” He got out another one and took a look. “Why don’t you try this one, Silver Rose? I’ll wait outside. Come out when you’re done.”

“Okay. Thanks, Quillion,” she smiled as the boy closed the door behind him.

Silver tried to find a way to get into the suit, eventually figuring it out after a few tries. It fit her almost perfectly, though it was still a little big, but it was better than nothing. Grabbing one of the helmets and swords from their racks, Silver opened the door and stepped outside.

“Not bad,” Quillion stepped away from the wall he had been leaning against. “Looks good. I think that’ll do. Come, let’s begin our practice.”

Silver followed the captain back to where the rest of the team was standing. They each had their helmets on and their swords by their side; Silver couldn’t tell who was who anymore by sight.

“The rest of you carry on the usual drills. So Silver Rose, first, let’s go over the basics. This is a foil,” Quillion held up his sword and turned it over in his hands.

“The sword?” Silver looked it at. It was lighter than her sword back at home, and it was much thinner. It looked kind of flimsy compared to the steel she was used to. “You mean it’s not called a rapier? Don’t you have anything heavier?”

“Well, there are the sabers,” Quillion rubbed his chin. “But let’s start with the foil.”

Silver shrugged. “Fine with me.”

“This is the standard stance,” Quillion demonstrated, sticking his sword and foot forward, keeping his other hand away from himself.

Silver easily copied him easily, since she had inherited her mother’s mimic ability.

“Right. Now, when we fence, we try to get the opponent with the tip of the foil, so jabbing and thrusts are your only forms of attack.” Quillion showed her a few stabs with the weapon.

“The foil has no edge, huh…” Silver muttered, sighting down the length of her blade.

“Nope. Like you mentioned, it’s like a rapier. Aaaand… it makes it harder to determine a winner in a match. It adds to the challenge when you can’t wildly swing your sword. Fleur will tell you it’s all about finesse.”

“Alright,” Silver swished her sword like the captain had done. “So do I get to try with one of you?”

“You can have a go with me,” Quillion smiled and put his helmet on. “I’ll teach you the basics.”

Silver Rose did the same and got into stance, remembering it from before. Quillion did the same and touched the end of his foil against hers.

“Are you ready?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled from the helmet.

Silver adjusted the suit’s chest guard and her helmet’s angle. “I’m ready.”

“I’ll take it slower first, just to show you what you can and can’t do, alright?”

The fencing team’s captain suddenly shuffled forward, thrusting his sword tip at Silver’s chest. She acted on instinct and swiped her blade to the side, parrying his before whipping it back around and slashing it at Quillion’s neck.

“Woah, woah,” the boy lifted a hand to protect his neck. “Remember, Silver Rose, slashing with a foil isn’t legal in a real match. Remember that.”

“Sorry…” she blushed and looked away. “Habit. I forgot.”

Quillion shook his head and readied his weapon. “Nevermind. Again. Let’s see if you can pick it up.”

He thrusted for Silver’s chest again, with Silver bringing her sword forward to parry his, this time, not swinging a slash at him. She parried another, then another, then another, doing her best to study Quillion Riposte’s movements and attacks, at the same time, learning from his actions how to fence.

Silver’s eyes darted around, taking in every detail, the way Quillion’s arms bent, the way his feet moved, the way his sword tip tried to hit her. She parried aside his first strike, ducked beneath a stab aimed at her face, and leapt at Quillion, stabbing forward at the same time.

“Hold it, hold it,” Quillion raised a palm to stop her. “You can’t jump either.”

“I can’t jump? Then how am I supposed to get the advantage?”

“Umm…” Quillion rubbed the back of his head. “Other ways, Silver Rose. Find an opening with your opponents and strike when you get it. That’s really all I can say. Openings.”

“Openings, huh… Well, if you say so.”

“Okay, let’s go again.”

Quillion and Silver got back into position, this time with most of the fencing team gathering around to watch. The two of them saluted, then Quillion shuffled forward with a straight stab for Silver’s chest. She leaned out of the way and thrust back with her own foil. Quillion parried it aside and aimed a thrust at her leg. Silver lifted her foot and shuffled back, suddenly dashing forward with a quick stab, almost catching Quillion in the shoulder.

Then Quillion raised his foil for another chest thrust, but Silver closed the distance on him, jabbing him in the gut with the pommel of her foil. As Quillion bent over from the strike, Silver dropped down and did a leg sweep, taking her opponent off his feet. Silver’s foil was at his throat before he could recover.

“Some fancy moves you have, Silver Rose,” the captain started laughing. “But that’s definitely not fencing.”

“My, you have some degree of skill with a blade, Silver Rose,” Royal Pin pulled off his helmet and pushed at his curly white-blue hair. “But you need more… elegance to your strikes.”

The other students nodded in agreement.

Silver put her sword down and helped Quillion up, her cheeks burning bright again for following her instincts. It seems her mother had taught her too well.

“I’m so sorry, Quillion. I don’t know what gets over me every time I try to attack.”

“Well, I’d hate to duel you in a serious fight, but here, we have rules to keep each other safe. Tell you what,” Quillion brightened up. “I have the rulebook here. Why don’t you take it with you and study it a bit. Might be more helpful than sparring with me.”

He went over to where their backpacks were and scrounged through his before returning with a thick white book. Silver accepted it and held it in her hands. It was slightly heavy, making her wonder just exactly how many rules there were in fencing.

“Most of it’s just lists of things you’re not allowed to do,” Quillion assured her. “There are a few stances and attack and defense patterns in there too.”

Silver flipped it open halfway and scrolled her eyes down a page. There were some pictures for visual reference, but the rest of it was packed with words, though it was better than nothing.

“Thanks for helping me out, even when I, erm, spar a little differently…” Silver kicked a foot in at nothing. “Maybe you should continue your practice. I’ll sit out and have a read.”

“If you wish to,” the captain pointed his foil to the team and they all put their helmets back on and readied their swords. “Well, welcome to the fencing team, Silver Rose. You’ll make a fine addition once you learn what fencing is and what isn’t.”

Chapter 13 - A Full Recovery

“There’s my niece!”

Silver Rose was suddenly grabbed as soon as her front doors opened, her body crushed into a big hug as her aunt swung her around, clearly excited about something.

“W-What’s... the occasion... Aunt Psithyra?” Silver gasped for breath.

Her aunt finally put her down two meters away from the doors and patted her uniform down. “I was waiting for you to return before I do it. I finally have enough love to transform! You mentioned you wanted to see it, so I waited!”

“Really?” Silver was thrilled to hear it. “Can… can we do it now?”

Psithyra shrugged. “We could, but I’d rather not ruin the carpets around here. Maybe it would be best to do it outdoors, somewhere quiet and secluded.”

“We have the courtyard,” Silver suggested, pointing to the door. “But you’ll have to do them away from mother’s prized bushes. You know how she gets.”

“You’re right about her,” Psithyra chuckled and put an arm around Silver. “She’s out filming some movie, but she’s seen me do it a dozen times, so she doesn’t need to be around.”

Silver Rose brought her aunt out to the courtyard, stopping in the middle where she had her swordsmanship lessons. The only thing in the way was a fountain, but that couldn’t possibly be damaged, could it?

Silver’s aunt slowly walked into the center of the courtyard, her fingers hooked and tensing. Placing one hand on her chest, Psithyra breathed in and out, in and out.

And then suddenly she burst into green flames, the viridian conflagration engulfing her entire body and sending out a faint shockwave of green energy that ruffled Silver’s clothes. Still faintly visible in the inferno, Psithyra let out an earsplitting roar, half banshee scream and half guttural growl. Hearing the scream, Silver felt her heart begin to beat faster, her own fingers drawing into hooks.

Roughly five seconds later, the flames began to die down, and Silver could finally see what had happened.

With emerald flames still escaping from her nose and mouth in pants, Psithyra had been replaced with a blackened, streamlined figure with long purple hair that fell to her feet and three inch long talons on each of her fingers and toes. Both her fangs were out, and longer than they usually were, with a milky liquid dripping from each of her points, pattering onto the stone below. Her eyes glowed like twin lanterns, scanning the area before finally locking on to Silver Rose.

“Umm… Aunt Psithyra…?” Silver took a few wary steps back. She didn’t deny she was feeling a little scared as her aunt stared back at her, but at the same time, thrilled to have seen such a transformation.

Psithyra held up a finger, then opened her mouth wide and belched out a damp green fireball into the air.

“Ahh,” Silver’s aunt said in a more pronounced version of her changeling voice. “That felt good.”

All of Psithyra’s clothes had burnt off, but somehow, her underwear had been unscathed. Silver Rose still took off her school blazer and handed it to her aunt, though she had approached her slowly.

“Thanks, and don’t worry, I’m not going to bite,” the purple haired changeling accepted the blazer and draped it over her shoulders like a cape. “It’s a little small, but whatever works.”

“That was…” Silver struggled to find the words for it. “Stunning,” she said at last. “I mean, mother did tell me what a changeling transformation consisted of, but to see it for myself… Wow. Just wow.”

“It sure is, my little niece…” Psithyra stepped forward and collapsed against Silver, putting an arm around her to keep herself up. “Phew… Now I’m a little tired. These things don’t come easy. They drain whatever love you’ve stored up. All of it.”

“But at least your injuries are gone, right?” Silver gave her aunt a big smile.

“Yup,” Psithyra flexed her fingers on her left hand, the claws clicking against each other. “Much better. Why, after I trim back down, I can finally put on the disguise I’ve been waiting to use.”

“You mean your Ivory Wings one?”

“That’s the one. You know, back before I knew your mother was Ebony Wings, I had made that disguise in hopes of ruining her acting career. I was going to be a better version of her in every way. Somehow… that all worked out well, huh?”

“It certainly did, Aunt Psithyra,” Silver giggled as she brought her aunt upstairs. “You always have everything covered.”

“Well, except my body, hmm?” Psithyra joked.

Silver shared a laugh with her aunt. “But… umm, how did your underwear not burn off? Are they made of something special?”

“They’re made of fireproof material. I had somes sets made while I was in the East.”

“Woah, cool,” Silver marveled as she pushed her aunt’s room door open. “Do you-do you think you could make one for me? It sounds so cool.”

“If I can find the right materials, sure!” Psithyra pinched Silver’s cheek with a claw. “You’re my favorite niece, remember? Whatever you want!”

“Thanks, favorite aunt!” the young changeling rubbed her cheek. Her aunt’s claws were sharp. “Here, let’s get you to your bathroom. Do you need help with, umm… trimming?”

“No, I’ve got this. Why don’t you go change out of your uniform? I’ll rejoin you once I’ve finished cutting everything back down to size.”

“Oh, sure,” Silver accepted her blazer back from her aunt. “I’ll be in the living room when you’re done!”

Silver Rose headed back to her room and changed out into her red tank top and black skirt, giving herself some time on her bed to just lie back and rest, squeezing Mishter Schniffs.

“What a day it’s been, huh Mishter Schniffs?” she looked up at her white engraved ceiling. “So that’s what fencing is… I really need to brush up on that, hmm?”

“You sure do, Silver Rose,” her doll said. “Just remember, it is nothing like your sword training. Less barbaric and less agile. You don’t need to jump all over the place.”

“That is true…”

Fencing was evidently a much safer sport. The tip of the foil wasn’t even sharp. She’d be able to enjoy this without having to worry about injuring her opponents too badly, that is, if she could learn to abide by the rules.

“What do you think, Mishter Schniffs? Can I get it right?”

“You’re a bright changeling,” Mishter Schniffs said with a nod of his little head. “I’m sure you can do it.”

“You’re awesome, Mishter Schniffs,” Silver hugged the stuffed toy to her chest and curled up around him. “I’m glad mother had you made all those years ago…”

Silver Rose still vaguely remembered the day her mother had surprised her with Mishter Schniffs. She was still in a cot back then, but she had accepted the toy with much gladness, keeping him in great condition, even to this day. He had been her only friend back then, and was still her best friend, even after she’d met the sirens and her CPA friends.

No matter what, she could always count on Mishter Schniffs to make herself feel better, even if she had to speak for him.

“You always smell so good, Mishter Schniffs…” Silver inhaled his aromatic scent and closed her eyes.

Silver hadn’t realized she had dozed off, finally stirring from her sleep. She pushed up from her bed, one arm still around Mishter Schniffs as she rubbed at her eyes.

“What time is it…” she got into a sitting position and leaned her back against the wall.

“Almost dinner time, my dear,” Psithyra answered her, sitting at the edge of her bed, only, it wasn’t her aunt.

Instead, Silver was looking at a woman with snow white hair and light blue skin. She had on a simple black shirt over blue shorts, a pair of rimless spectacles and her hair was done up in a ponytail. Silver recognized the look from the picture her aunt had shown her before.

“Aunt Psi- I mean, Aunt Ivory!” Silver quickly guessed, scooting closer to her. “You’ve already gotten your dye on!”

“You were asleep for two hours,” she put an arm around her niece as she stopped beside her, her stuffed toy still in her arm. “And I thought the faster I got this out, the faster you could all get used to it.”

“Surprised anyone in the house yet?”

“Adagio and Aria had no idea who I was,” Ivory chuckled lightly. “They thought I was a new staff member or something. Sonata saw right through my clever disguise though.”

“I guess she knows you too well, huh?” Silver leaned against her aunt.

“She does, but enough of me, dear. Come, tell me more about this doll of yours. Your mother made it for you, yes? You seem to like it very much.” Ivory inhaled deeply. “Smells… nice.”

“Yeah…” Silver hugged Mishter Schniffs close, snuggling the plushie up to her face. “Mother made him for me when I was still a baby. He’s been with me ever since.”

“You’ve kept him in very good condition,” Ivory commented. “Especially for something that’s been with you so long.”

“He’s my best friend, Aunt Ivory,” the pink haired girl smiled. “Whenever I’m troubled or when I need someone’s opinion, Mishter Schniffs is always here for me.”

“Even after the new friends you’ve made in school?”

“Well, they don’t understand me like Mishter Schniffs does. Mishter Schniffs is my best friend.”

Ivory Wings nodded slowly, the smile on her face never faltering. “I like to make dolls too. I left most of mine back in my Manehattan penthouse though.”

“Aren’t you going to get them?” Silver tilted her head. “Actually, what are you going to do with all your stuff there? Including the building.”

“It’s still mine, so we can use it as a summer home, or whenever you want to go to Manehattan. It’s big enough for all of us.”

“That’s cool, Aunt Ivory. But… a summer home in a city? Don’t you normally go out to some remote place for that?”

“As for my possessions, I’m sure a few trips to and from Manehattan should be sufficient to move most of my stuff here,” Ivory shrugged. “You have to come see my halls of history though. So many artifacts about our past there. I can give you a tour.”

“If mother will let me…” Silver blew at her fringe. “For now, it’s still simply to school and back. Nothing else.”

“Well, I’m sure that if you can convince your mother that you’ll be a good little changeling, we can see about you getting some time out on the weekends? Let’s try for that.”

“I heard you talked to her about that,” Silver said, then wrapped an arm around her aunt’s waist. “Thanks, Aunt Ivory. You’ve already done so much for me.”

Ivory smirked. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re such a sweet girl. I’m good with kids, you know?”

“You are?” Silver looked at her. “I didn’t know that.”

“It comes from having a son of your own,” Ivory looked up at Silver Rose’s ceiling. “I never liked kids, but Morn showed me a whole new side of things. I just wish he was still here today…”

“I wish I could’ve met him,” the young changeling looked at her doll. “He’s like me, isn’t he? Part changeling.”

“Yes, but also no. His changeling traits were somewhat more regressive. Yours are more dominant. I suspect that’s because you were sired from the queen, and not from a servant like myself.”

“But he’s still only part changeling,” Silver mentioned again. “He would’ve been able to understand the stuff only a half-changeling would get. Uh, no offense, Aunt Ivory.”

Ivory sighed and leaned back.

“We never made him aware of why he was different to the humans around him. I don’t think he even knew he was part changeling, up till the end. It was a lie we perpetuated. Morn Dread only knew himself as an extraordinarily gifted human.”

“Aww…” Silver kicked her feet back and forth. “Well, at least I have you and mother to guide me along.”

“That you have, Silver. That you have.”

Sunny Flare leaned back in her seat and closed her English textbook, sighing with relief as she eyed her homework.

“I did it…” she let her mouth form into a smile. “I finished it all.”

As a Shadowbolt, Sunny felt like she needed to place herself at the top of every class, not just in her athletic skill. And she did hold fast to her words. She was one of the top students in every class she took, acknowledging her superior skills over her classmates, except for one particular class.

English class.

Sunny didn’t know why, but she seemed to struggle with grasping the fundamentals of the only language she spoke.

It isn’t even that hard, she had told herself many times, but she couldn’t deny that she only scored an average in that class.

Sugarcoat had taught her some easy ways to remember her work, but sometimes, they still weren’t enough.

Then there was poetry. Sunny Flare didn’t know if it was a common problem, but no one really seemed to get it, especially herself. She had decided that whoever had come up with the idea to study poetry was most likely some sort of mass murderer.

Finally given the chance to let her mind wander again, Sunny found herself thinking about Silver Rose. Fortunately for her, Silver wasn’t in her English class. If she were to ever find out that Sunny didn’t excel at this...

The mulberry haired girl balled her fists and frowned. In less than a two weeks, Silver had already stirred up so much for the Shadowbolts, in the form of superior skills and abilities. Sunny also had to thank her for the sprained ankle, though it was partially her own fault for trying to knock Silver down.

“Who are you, Silver Rose…?” Sunny muttered. Being the leader of the Shadowbolts meant keeping up on all the latest gossip and news, but until Silver Rose had enrolled at CPA, no one had ever heard of her. Most unusual for the child of a celebrity, especially one as prolific as Ebony Wings.

True, Ebony Wings was remarkably tight lipped about her personal life, but even then, hiding another daughter would have been downright impossible. And why keep her a secret? Moonglade was paraded around at movie premieres and at award ceremonies, but Silver Rose had never once been seen.

Why is that…?

Sunny had heard from Indigo that Silver Rose had been living with her aunt, out of Canterlot until now. Perhaps that was why she was never heard of, but surely someone would’ve found out about Moonglade’s sister, right? If it was anything, the paparazzi were good at sniffing out information, even for the weirdest things, like whether a celebrity preferred chicken over beef.

Come to think of it, she’d never heard of this aunt until now either.

“So you’ve come out of nowhere, Silver Rose, and you think you can take the school for yourself?” Sunny said out loud. “Well, you can’t. We’re the best CPA has to offer. We’re the Shadowbolts.”

Sunny still remembered the new girl had helped her to the nurse’s office after she had sprained her ankle. She didn’t know what that was all about, but she didn’t like it. Sure, it was nice to have someone help her get there when the other Shadowbolts didn’t, but she didn’t trust Silver’s reasons for doing so. It was likely a ploy to get more popularity amongst the student body.

She thought back to the plans she and Sour Sweet had tried to concoct. So far, they’d gotten nowhere. Sunny wanted something big, something so embarrassing that Silver would learn not to interfere in Shadowbolt business. The trouble was, pulling it off would require her ankle to be in better condition, so like it or not, she still had to wait a long time before she could pull something off to wipe that smile off Silver Rose’s face.

“You mark my words, Silver Rose,” Sunny whispered. “I’m not done with you yet.”

Chapter 14 - The Next Step

“Silver!” Canvas Splash found the pink-grey haired girl and ran up to walk alongside her. “You heading for fencing practice? That’s cool. Hey, thanks for looking out for me in history class. I knew someone had taken my markers.”

“Hey, I saw Crystal Lullaby sneak them out of your bag, so I had to say something,” Silver shrugged, but sniffed at the gratitude coming from her friend.

Ahh… I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that taste.

“Well, I just wanted to say thanks. I’ve got some paintings to finish, so I’ll see you around, Silver. Have fun in fencing!”

The pink haired artist waved goodbye as Silver pushed open the doors to the gym. She spotted Sunny Flare watching the basketball team again like on Tuesday, so she quickly sped along to the side where the fencing team was meeting.

Quillion was just putting on his fencing mask when he saw Silver enter the gym.

“Ho, Silver! How are you doing today?”

“I’m fine,” she smiled. “Just another regular day of school. You?”

“Yeah, things are great.” The captain swung his foil from side to side. “Did you study up the book I gave you?”

“Certainly. But studying a book isn’t the same as practical experience. I think I’d like to see how it’s done, before joining in myself.”

“Very well,” Quillion nodded. “Let’s begin practice.”

He led her back to the rest of the fencing team, who traded greetings with her. Silver headed to the storage room and picked out the same suit and helmet, returning soon with her attire and a foil strapped to her side.

The rest of the team had already spread out in twos, throwing practice jabs at each other. Mr. Fowl sat to the side, marking some papers while keeping an eye on the team.

Silver sat down on a bench and watched the team trade blows, taking into account how each of their arms extended back and forward, how their legs shuffled across the floor and how they brought their swords up to parry.

Put all that to memory and you have this, Silver. Just remember not to jump around and slash at them.

When she felt she was ready, Silver got up and crossed over to the team, putting her mask on.

Quillion Riposte saw her and halted his foil, pointing its tip straight up. “Silver Rose, are you ready for practice?”

“I’ll try my best.” Silver readied her sword. “Who do I get to spar with?”

“You can spar with Fleur today. She’s been waiting to see what you’ve learnt.”

The girl in question joined them, waving to Silver.

“Okay. Let’s begin,” Silver said and stood opposite Fleur as Quillion continued his practice with another student.

Fleur lifted her foil across from Silver and prepared her stance. “Do not disappoint me, Silver Rose.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t.”

The two saluted, then pointed their foils at each other, neither of them within striking distance.

This time, Silver attacked first, shuffling forward just one step and striking out with her weapon. Fleur skillfully and elegantly parried her strike and lunged forward, all in a single move, but Silver had studied and in studying, learnt how to react.

She lifted her foil slightly and angled it to the side before striking out, sending Fleur’s arm going wide. The pink and grey haired girl took her chance and dashed in, stabbing her foil against the other girl’s abdomen, just above the hip.

“That was well done, Silver Rose,” Fleur flicked her foil and bowed slightly, then readied her stance once more. “Again.”

The two duelists clashed blades again, this time their foils met in the center, with both of them pushing to try and unbalance the other.

Silver was clearly stronger physically, but Fleur wasn’t going to give up easily. Stepping to the side, she let Silver’s force carry her forward, only to jab her in the chest, earning her point.

“Keep your balance, Silver Rose. Plan out the possibilities in a match. There are many ways to catch your opponent off guard.”

“Right.”

Fleur and Silver went at it again, their foils gleaming in the light as they parried and thrust their foils at each other, neither of them letting their guards down. The air was filled with the clink of swords touching and the patter of footwork. Silver concentrated on her own sounds, bit by bit canceling out the other distractions around her.

Swatting aside another stab from Fleur, Silver raised her foil up and thrust her own foil at her. Fleur rallied and parried Silver’s strike, but then Silver whirled around, stabbing under her arm and touching Fleur’s midsection with her foil.

“You have improved greatly from one session, Silver Rose,” Fleur stopped and pulled her helmet off, adjusting her light pink hair. “You truly have great skill in many areas.”

“You’re not bad either, Fleur. I really had fun just now. Want to go get some water?”

“We should, yes,” the pale-skinned girl nodded. “And to answer your statement, yes, I’m ‘not bad’. I’ve been fencing for a long time to get this good. You on the other hand… I don’t know what to make of it, Silver Rose.”

Silver shrugged bashfully. “Beginner’s luck?”

“I hardly believe that.”

Silver picked up her water bottle from her backpack and took a long deep drink. She envied her mother and aunt, who didn’t need as much sustenance to survive. Since she was only half-changeling, Silver still needed a decent amount of food and water to keep her body going.

“You mentioned you’ve handled a sword before,” Fleur took a drink from her pink water bottle. “That also explains why you fight… differently.”

“Oh yeah… ha ha…” Silver felt her smile grow a little rigid. Forcing herself to calm down, she replied, “I learned a lot from… my sister. Yeah. She takes swordsmanship lessons. Yeah.”

“She does, does she? That might explain it. Maybe now you can teach her fencing, since you’re picking it up rather well. Fencing is so much more graceful than some wild sword-swinging.”

“Not that useful in a real fight, though,” Silver said under her breath.

“What’s that?”

“Uh, nothing. Just woolgathering.”

“Hmm. You’re an interesting character, Silver Rose. And you’re just as skilled as the rest of us. You make a fine addition to Crystal Prep Academy.” Fleur brushed at her hair. “Maybe you can even be one of the Shadowbolts.”

“You really think so?” Silver replied excitedly.

“Why not? I heard what you did to Sunny Flare and what you did on the track. You’re something else, alright.”

“You d-did?” Silver rubbed her head. “About that… Didn’t mean to show off like that.”

“Doesn’t matter. You did. The school knows you’re special, Silver Rose. You’ll be up there one day, just you watch. Now, since we are done resting, again.” Fleur put her helmet back on. “Let’s see what else you can do.”

“And that’s when I found my opening and attacked,” Silver explained to her mother, aunt and the sirens at the dinner table. “And the team says I picked it up really quickly. Fencing, I mean.”

“Well done, Silver.” Ivory Wings gave her a short clap. “I knew you could do it. Your mother said otherwise. She thought you were going to spend months trying to adjust to fencing.”

“Just like your mother and aunt, Silver.” Adagio Dazzle raised her glass to the girl. “You’re quick at learning. Well done.”

“Yeah! I’m sure you must’ve made someone’s jaw drop since enrolling in school, am I right?” Sonata Dusk showed her teeth in a large smile, which was caked with bits of vegetables and chicken.

“A couple, yeah,” Silver answered, then looked to her mother.

“Impressive, Silver.” Ebony Wings had her hands together. “But remember, you are blending in with the human crowd. Do be sure not to do what humans can’t do.”

“Like jumping two building blocks in length.“ Ivory stuck up a finger. “That’ll certainly get people to freak out, but that’s not what you want.”

Silver Rose nodded. Perhaps jumping over the Shadowbolts hadn’t been one of her best ideas.

“But…” Ebony Wings continued. “You have demonstrated you can handle yourself alone, so I think that deserves a reward.”

Silver’s eyes brightened at the sound of the word, ‘reward’, but she kept her excitement to herself.

“Your aunt has been talking to me about letting you go out on the weekends.” Her mother leaned forward and placed her elbows on the table as a maid came to clear her plate. “And I think you’re capable of doing that, so… I’m going to let you leave the house on the weekends.”

“R-Really, mother?” Silver almost couldn’t contain her excitement. She wanted to jump and and down and give her mother and aunt a hug, but she resisted the urge to do so, at least for now.

“Of course, there are conditions to this. First of all, I want you back home by eight PM exactly. No later. Second, while you are allowed to go out on the weekends, you must be accompanied by the sirens. I’m letting you out, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be out alone.”

“Yes mother.” Silver didn’t mind those conditions. She doubted she would ever have a reason to stay out so late. As for the sirens, she liked their company.

“And while you’re out, Silver,” Ebony said. “You might as well head to a video game store and pick up that Neighstation you wanted.”

“You mean it, mother? I get to have one?”

“Of course. What the queen says is law, as I’m sure your aunt knows.” Ebony reached into her pocket and drew out a small plastic card. Sliding it across the table, she continued, “Here’s your credit card. Try not to go too overboard on the spending, won’t you?”

“Thanks, mother,” Silver grinned from ear to ear. “I’ll keep doing my best to make you proud of me.”

“Which persona are you going to use on your weekend forays? Moonglade? Silver Rose? Someone entirely new?” Ivory asked idly, swirling her drink in her glass.

“She might as well use Moonglade,” Ebony answered for her daughter. “People will think Moonglade’s vanished off the face of the earth if she keeps parading around as Silver Rose.”

“As you say, mother.” Truth be told, Silver did want to swap out to Moonglade. She’d been using that persona for pretty much all her life and she was much more used to it. Changing back to the blonde haired girl on the weekends sounded like a marvelous idea, seeing as she still had to go for classes as Moonglade.

“So does this mean I can go tomorrow? Friday evening?”

Ebony Wings hummed ‘This Day is Going to be Perfect’ to herself.

“I don’t see why not. As long as your homework is done, I have no qualms about you going out. Oh, yes. And one more condition.”

“Yes, mother?”

“You’re not to go out unarmed. The city of Canterlot is home to all manner of unsavory characters. Bring a weapon with you. I believe I taught you how to shoot?”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Ivory waved her hands before her sister. “You’re not sending her out there armed! You’ll just make things worse. It’s like her first day of school. Silver, as your aunt, you know I look out for your safety, right?”

“Mhm,” the pink-grey haired girl nodded.

“So take this from me, bringing out a weapon can do a great many things to your image. You’re safer without one. You’ve learnt self-defense. You can handle yourself just fine out there without a gun.”

“Not even a derringer? Those are plenty small enough to fit under a skirt…”

“No guns, Ebony…” Ivory rubbed at her face. “No knives, no weapons, alright? You underestimate your daughter. She can handle herself, just like we can.”

The raven haired actress looked like she wanted to say something, but then leaned back and folded her arms.

Adagio cleared her throat to get their attention. “Honestly, I’ve seen you two fight without weapons, Ebony. I’m sure Silver can manage. Besides, we’re there to look out for her.”

“Yes, you’ve seen us fight unarmed, but Chrysidea can’t grow talons, can she. I still think someone should bring a weapon.”

“But she doesn’t need talons, sister,” Ivory butted back in. “She’s got more strength than any normal human. No one needs to bring any weapons.”

“You can’t grow talons, Silver?” Sonata leaned her head on her hands.

“She’s only half-changeling, snot nose,” Aria Blaze told her. “She can’t do everything a regular changeling can.”

“Hey!” Sonata put her hands on her hips angrily. “I was just asking a question, and I don’t have snot!”

Adagio ignored her sisters and looked back at the family. “Talons would only make it more obvious she isn’t human.”

“Precisely!” Ivory snapped her fingers. “If you want her to blend in, her martial arts skills will suffice, dear sister. And her fangs, if worst comes to worst.”

Ebony Wings looked downright disgruntled, but eventually waved her hand to concede.

“Fine. Unarmed it is. But if anything happens out there…” She let the threat hang in the air, unfinished.

“Oh, relax, Ebony. This isn’t Detrot. Canterlot is much safer. People don’t normally go out armed.”

Silver Rose had sat there, looking from speaker to speaker, keeping her mouth shut. She knew her mother was just concerned with her safety, but she trusted Aunt Ivory. She always knew better.

“I already said it’s fine.” Ebony Wings pushed out from her chair and stood up. “I think it’s time I head to my room. Silver, you remember the rules.”

“Yes, mother,” the girl replied dutifully as Ebony left out through the dining room doors.

“Well,” Ivory said once she was sure her sister was out of earshot. “That went well.”

“It did?” Adagio looked at her squabbling sisters and got up.

“All things considered, it did,” Ivory stood up also. “She didn’t threaten to murder anyone, which is always a plus.”

“True.” Adagio folded her arms. “Well, Silver Rose, we’re gonna have some fun tomorrow, you can count on that.”

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it!” she smiled and pushed her chair in.

Ivory watched the four girls and stifled a fake yawn.

“Well, all of you still have school in the morning so I think we’d best turn in. Big day tomorrow.”

Chapter 15 - The Day Out

“Moony, are you almost done?” Moonglade could hear Sonata yell outside her bathroom door.

“Just a bit more, Sonata!” Moonglade answered, drying her wet blonde hair with a towel.

She looked in the mirror, admiring herself, but at the same time, making sure her disguise was in order.

“Skin, check. Hair, check. Eyes, check. Eyeliner…”

Pushing her fringe to the side, Moonglade picked up her pink eyeliner by the sink and began applying it. Where Silver Rose had deep purple eyeliner, Moonglade had light pink.

Satisfied with her look, the young changeling stepped out of her bathroom and strolled to her closet, throwing her towel aside as she picked out Moonglade’s regular outfit.

Adjusting her glasses on her face, she pulled open her door and stretched her arms out before Sonata Dusk. “Ta-da! I’m ready.”

“Moony, I’ve missed you!” Sonata gave her a hug. “And yaaay, time to go! Adagio and Aria are already waiting downstairs. They got bored.”

After school that day, Silver Rose had wasted no time in heading back home, but apparently she hadn’t been fast enough. Though to be fair, the sirens didn’t need to wash off their dye and apply a new one.

“Not my fault I have to put on my disguise,” Moonglade said with a pout.

The two girls proceeded down the staircase, eventually finding Aria and Adagio lounging on one of the sofas in the living room, doing nothing in particular.

“There you are,” Aria said, blowing at her fringe. “I thought we weren’t going to make your mom’s timing.”

“No, I’m here,” Moonglade smiled. “Let’s go.”

Moonglade and the sirens passed by Silver Platter at the front door, the butler stepping aside to let them through.

“Have fun out there, young princess,” he bowed.

“Thanks, I will!” Moonglade bounced excitedly before joining the sirens at the car where her aunt was waiting.

Since she had now recovered from all her injuries, Ivory Wings had decided she was going to be Chrysidea’s driver from now on, replacing Silver Platter, allowing him to get back to the household duties.

“Ready for your first adventure outside?” The white haired woman turned around and grinned as her niece and sirens got inside the car.

“Of course, Aunt Ivory,” Moonglade replied, putting her seatbelt on. “My first time outside home and school… This sounds like it’s gonna be so exciting!”

“So first stop, the mall, hmm?” Ivory released the brakes. “Your mother said you can pick up that Neighstation thing.”

“And there’s plenty more to look at in the mall.” Adagio leaned an elbow on the car door. “We’ll show you all the interesting stuff, Moonglade.”

The four girls sat at attention as Ivory drove the car down the hill and out through the gates. The sun was still up, but was already well on its way down to the horizon.

“Oh, this is going to be so fun,” Sonata squeed. “We can go get tacos and sing karaoke, and-”

“Can’t sing, remember?” Aria grunted.

“Oh… yeah.” Sonata looked crestfallen for a moment.

“Girls,” Ivory said from the front. “I promise you I will do my best to fix your broken amulets. I’m working on it right now, as a matter of fact. So don’t look so gloomy, get out there and have some fun.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Ivory.”

The rest of the drive was spent in silence. After ten more minutes of driving, Ivory pulled into the Canterlot Mall’s parking lot and stopped the car.

“Well, this is where I must leave you. I’ll be waiting here, but do try to get back before seven forty. Otherwise we might not make it back in time and Ebony will go ballistic.”

Moonglade winked at her aunt. “Got it.” She was sure they weren’t going to take nearly that long.

“Well, that’s all I have to say. Adagio, Sonata, Aria? She’s in your hands now.”

The four girls left the car, making a beeline for the mall. Moonglade followed behind the sirens as they talked to her about the many different shops the building had to offer, ranging from clothes, shoes, and of course, food, which included a Mexicolt joint that Sonata really liked.

“Where do we even start…?” Moonglade looked up, examining the many floors of the mall. Maybe they wouldn’t make it before seven forty. There were just so many different stores.

“Then let us go pick out your Neighstation first,” Adagio suggested. “The games store is on the third floor. Right this way.”

Moonglade followed Adagio and her sisters up an escalator, a device that the young changeling found very novel.

“They’re like stairs that move!” she exclaimed, putting one foot on them. “How do they work?”

Aria shrugged. “I dunno. Just step on it.”

The foot Moonglade had put on the escalator began moving up, while her other one was still off, dragging her feet apart.

“Whoops!” She quickly corrected herself and placed her other foot on it.

She noticed other people looking at her, trying to figure out what she was doing. Fortunately, Moonglade had hair to hide behind, unlike Silver Rose.

They went up one more before Adagio led them off, going pass a row of electronic shops that sold all kinds of different technological wonders, including this thing you could stand on, which would speed you along the road without having to expend your stamina.

Moonglade found that useless, because it would just make you fat and lazy instead. Sure, it looked cool, but it would surely make your fitness level drop tremendously.

Eventually, Adagio stopped in front of a large store with the words ‘Game City’ on its front. She gestured at the shop.

“Well, here we are at the games shop. I believe the Neighstation 6 Pro is inside somewhere? Why don’t we go in and take a look?”

“Whee!” Sonata cheered. “I love video games!” She immediately flocked over to the demo section, where various handhelds were on display.

“You girls know video games,” Moonglade started as they entered. “So tell me, why do people play them? What keeps them going?”

“They’re entertaining,” Aria offered. “And they help people escape the regime of their boring, daily lives.”

“Gee, that’s kind of morbid.”

“Hey, I tell it as it is.”

Moonglade’s eyes widened as she stepped into the game shop, growing large as dinner plates as she beheld the inside of the store. There were rows and rows of different video games in various shelves and all kinds of accessories on the rest, including things like headphones, action figures, different controllers, mice and even keyboards, and these weird card things that Moonglade couldn’t figure out what they were used for.

“This place is amazing!” she marveled to the sirens, who were checking out the headphones. “There are so many different things! I see clothes and shoes at home all the time, but I’ve never seen any of these before!”

“You have a computer and a laptop back home,” Aria told her. “These are roughly the same, just that they handle better and are way more expensive.” She held up a computer mouse that had glowing blue lines across its length.

Moonglade darted from this display to that, fawning over the numerous gadgets and hardware that were on sale. Some of the store’s customers watched her run along, but the blonde haired girl was too absorbed in everything to notice them.

“There’s so much stuff!” she gushed. “How do people choose?”

“Well, most people generally have an idea of what they want when they come here…” Adagio said, sauntering to the handheld section and watching Sonata play on one of the demos.

“Well, I suppose I know what I want to get.” Moonglade remembered the console she came for. “So how does this work? Which one is it?”

“Pardon me, young miss.” A store clerk stopped beside Moonglade, wearing a pleasant smile. “Can I help you?”

“Um, yeah, sure. I’m looking for a Neighstation 6 Pro. You do have one, yes?”

“Yes we do,” the clerk nodded and directed her attention to one of the top shelves, displaying different kinds of consoles. Moonglade spotted what she was looking for. It was black with blue lights, kind of like the mouse Aria had shown her earlier. “May I assume you would like to purchase one?”

“Well, yeah, I do.” Moonglade thought it was pretty obvious.

The store clerk headed to the back and returned with a Neighstation 6 Pro from storage, placing it atop the counter for Moonglade to see.

The bespectacled girl examined the details on the box with excitement. She liked getting new things, whether they were useful or not. In this case, this gift was definitely going to be useful.

“And will you be wanting any games to go with your purchase, miss?”

“Games?” Moonglade said.

“Why yes, games. The system’s not much good on its own. Might I recommend Call of Camping?”

“Ew, no,” Aria said, sidling up to Moonglade, holding a game box. “Get Finest Fantasy. Your mother’s in this one too, as the Pale Sorceress.”

“Wait… mother?” The clerk said, looking from the game to Moonglade’s face. “But that would mean that you’re…”

“The daughter of Ebony Wings,” Aria said drily. “Yes.”

“Yeah…” Moonglade adjusted her spectacles. “I-I kinda don’t want there to be a big commotion, so if you could keep this to yourself…”

“Oh!” the clerk exclaimed. “Don’t you worry, young miss, I’ll keep your secret. Mum’s the word. But if you wouldn’t mind… Can I take a picture with you? Just for myself, of course,” he added hastily.

“Oh, umm… sure, that’s alright, I guess…” Moonglade had never taken a personal picture with anyone other than her mother before, not even Aunt Ivory.

“Awesome.”

The clerk whipped out his phone and held it up, sidling up next to Moonglade.

Snap!

“Well, that’s it then. Now, how will you be paying, cash or credit?”

Moonglade followed behind Adagio as she led them along the second floor, stopping by at various clothes shops to look at the latest fashions.

She followed along, but truth be told, she was anxious to get back and set up her new Neighstation, which she held in a special fabric bag the store had given her to hold everything she bought.

“Are we almost done yet?” Sonata complained, swinging her arms down. It looks like Moonglade wasn’t the only one in a rush. “When can we go to get some tacos?”

“Tacos… tacos… Mexicolt food?”

“Yep! They’re my favorite. And dinner was like, two hours ago.”

Moonglade looked at Aria and Adagio. “Anyone else want to go get a bite to eat?”

Aria shrugged. “I’m okay with whatever.”

Adagio pursed her lips and looked to the side. “I could eat,” she said offhandedly.

“Then it’s settled,” Moonglade said with a grin. “Now, which way to the food court?”

As it turned out, the food court was on the top floor, allowing Moonglade more time to marvel at the escalators. Holding tightly to her purchase, the young changeling and her three companions soon arrived at the top, where they were assaulted with various toothsome smells.

“So… how does this work?” Moonglade cast a wandering eye over the various food stalls and licked her lips.

“Tacos! Tacos!” Sonata pointed at a very Mexicolt stall. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

In moments, Moonglade found herself sitting at a round red table with a plate of tacos in front of her, its contents making the girl’s mouth water. Mexicolt food wasn’t exactly new to her, but her mother didn’t particularly like them, so they were rarely served back at home.

Ordering food had been fun. Moonglade found she also rarely had the chance to choose her food back at home. She just ate whatever her mother wanted the maids to prepare. Standing at the counter and looking at the menu had been a fun experience.

“So, where’s the cutlery?” Moonglade looked around the tray on the table for the knife and fork.

“There’s no cutlery, silly,” Sonata chirped. “We use our hands!”

“Oh. Cool.”

Rubbing her hands together, Moonglade picked up a taco and took a bite out of it, wiping at the corner of her mouth when a few bits stuck out. “This is really tasty. I mean, the food at home is the best of the best, but this is still pretty good.”

“Right?” Sonata said with her mouth full, spitting bits of her taco on the table.

“Quit sputtering all your food out.” Aria hit her on the back of her head.

“Hey!” Sonata turned to Aria, but when she spoke, more taco bits flew out at her sister’s face.

“Watch it! Gross! Really, Sonata?” Aria wiped the back of her hand over her face. “You really are the worst.”

“No I’m not!”

“Yes you are!”

“Ugh…” Adagio slapped a hand to her face and leaned her forehead on Moonglade’s shoulder. “Here we go again… Sometimes, I’m thankful we lost our immortality. I won’t have to deal with them forever.”

“Don’t say that…” Moonglade said reproachfully. “Aunt Ivory’s promised to help get it back, so don’t get used to being mortal.”

Adagio managed a smile. “Well, if she does find a way, then I’ll have to get used to putting up with these two for the rest of our long lives.”

Sonata and Aria were now smearing food on each other’s faces.

Moonglade laughed. “Ah… It’s fun hanging out with you girls.”

Adagio bit down on her taco. “Let’s see if you still think that after a few years.” She ended with a cheeky smile.

Moonglade and the sirens had saved one taco for Aunt Ivory as they left the food court, taking Moonglade’s new favorite form of travel down to the first floor. She really liked the idea of an escalator.

She looked at the many other stores the mall had to offer on her way out, but they would have to wait for another time.

Aunt Ivory was still in the same spot she had parked the car. Her window was down and she had an arm sticking out.

“Hey, Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade got in beside her, putting her goods on her lap as she belted in.

“Hello, niece and sirens.” Ivory patted Moonglade’s head. “All set? Got what you wanted?”

“Sure did.” The tan-skinned girl tapped her squarish bag. “I’ve even got a game that mother is in.”

“Sounds exciting,” Ivory smiled as she started the car engines. “You’re going to have to show me how you use this thing.”

“The Neighstation? I’m not so sure myself, Aunt Ivory.”

“I’m sure we can figure it out,” Adagio said from behind as the car reversed out of its lot. “How hard can it be?”

“So this is the cable to power the machine…” Moonglade held up a cable with a head for the power socket. “Then what’s this other one for?” She held up a thinner one with a much smaller head.

Aria looked through the instructions, scanning the words line by line. “Um, that’s to charge your controller.”

“You mean these things don’t need to be attached to the main thing?” Moonglade held up the controller.

“Not since the last five years, no,” Adagio answered, watching as Sonata attached another cable to the back of the living room’s large TV.

“So according to the instructions, we just plug in these two wires, then turn it on?” Moonglade eyed the machine. It was a sleek black thing with slanted sides, kind of like a trapezoid.

“Yup!” Sonata walked out from behind the TV. “Wire’s all set here. Give it a try!”

Moonglade turned the TV on and booted up the Neighstation. On cue, a big ‘N’ appeared on the screen, then a whole list of instructions to set it up.

“There’s more?” she groaned. “I thought we were done with the setup.”

“You still need to set up a user,” Aria said, pointing to a bar that she was supposed to input her name.

Moonglade looked at it, thinking for a moment. Then she used the controller, which had connected wirelessly, and typed in the word, ‘Schniffs’.

“You’re naming yourself after that doll?” Aria folded her arms and sat back on the couch.

“I like that doll,” Moonglade smiled and picked an avatar for her name. She liked one that was of a white bunny, so she picked it. “Hey, this isn’t so hard.”

Soon, she found herself at the main menu, which had orange sparkles on the screen, along with a bunch of icons.

“Here, try your mom’s game.” Adagio opened the game box and inserted the disc into the machine.

Moonglade hadn’t even known you could insert the disc through that. It looked like it was part of the Neighstation’s decoration.

She and the other sirens returned to the couch and sat down beside Aria, watching as the screen changed into one of a flower field with the words, ‘Finest Fantasy’, floating above them in an orange sky.

Creating a new save file, Moonglade finally got into the game, keeping an eye out for her mother as the main characters were introduced. The video game had been around long before the movie, so Ebony Wings wasn’t exactly in the game, but her character was.

The main character of the game was a blue haired guy called Bowman, who had lost his kingdom to another kingdom of dark armored knights, over a giant crystal they had.

When Moonglade finally got to play, she tried out the controls, walking around and mostly into walls and immovable furniture.

“Mm… I’ll need to get used to this…” she said as she ran against a pillar. The character didn’t even seem to get hurt or anything. He just kept running, even though the pillar was in the way.

Eventually, she got to a ledge she was supposed to jump to.

“Press X to jump…” Moonglade looked down at the controller. “Oh, here it is.”

“Wow, you really don’t know how to use these, huh, Moonglade?” Adagio watched as her character jumped repeatedly into a wall.

“That’s what happens when you haven’t played any video games all your life…” The blonde haired girl kept trying.

The sirens continued to watch Moonglade as she attempted her way through the tutorial, trying to remember where all the buttons were on the controller. It wasn’t as easy as she’d thought it would be, but Moonglade felt like she would get it in time.

She played on for another two hours before she began having trouble keeping her eyes open.

“Mmm…” Moonglade stretched her arms up and scratched at her head. “I think it’s time to call it a night, girls.”

“Yeah, look at Sonata, she’s already asleep.” Aria pointed a finger at the sleeping siren. She was lying down on the side of the couch with her head over an arm.

“Should we wake her?” Moonglade asked as she turned off the Neighstation.

“She can sleep on the couch tonight.” Adagio shrugged. “Not like it isn’t comfortable anyway. Your mom only buys the best of the best here.”

“True…” Moonglade yawned. “Well, I’ll see you girls tomorrow. Good night.”

The young changeling headed back to her room, washed up and changed out of her home clothes into her pajamas, falling onto her bed with a sigh as she pulled the sheets to her neck.

“What a day it’s been, right, Mishter Schniffs?” she picked up her plushie and looked into its eyes.

“You can say that again, Moonglade,” she spoke as her doll. “Your first day out to have fun, getting a new console, not to mention escalators. You love those.”

“Yeah, today was great!” Moonglade hugged Schniffs close. “I wonder what we’ll be doing tomorrow?”

“Besides your classes?” Mishter Schniffs pondered. “Maybe you can go catch a movie. I know you have a home theatre and all, but it’s different out there. Just go see.”

“Alright, I’ll ask the sirens about it. We’re going to have so much fun! Goodnight, Mishter Schniffs. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sleep tight, Moonglade.” Her plushie patted her on the head as she snuggled up into her pillow and sheets.

Sunny Flare sat in her room, her brows creased together as she continued to scribble down on a piece of paper. She’d been working on it for only an hour, but it felt like she had been doing it for half a day now. The more she wrote, the harder it became to write another.

“I’m out, Sour Sweet.” Sunny looked at her phone, which had a video chat on with her friend. “Anything else you have?”

“The bucket over the door prank?” she suggested.

Sunny tapped her pencil against her chin. “Meh, I’ll write it down. It’s better than nothing.”

“What are all these even for, Sunny?” Sour Sweet demanded to know.

“I’m sure you can guess, these are things we’re going to be doing to Silver Rose, starting from Monday,” Sunny snickered, rubbing her hands together. She couldn’t wait to try them all out. “She’s done enough, stealing all the credit from us Shadowbolts and she’ll regret messing with me.”

“Too right, Sunny. Let’s see how she likes it when people mess with her.”

“Just what I like to hear, Sour Sweet,” Sunny smirked. She proudly held up the paper, reading it from top to bottom. “You’ll soon learn that you don’t mess with me, Silver Rose. No one messes with Sunny Flare and the Shadowbolts!”

Chapter 16 - The Short End

Monday

Sunny Flare stopped behind a row of lockers, placing a hand against it to steady herself as she peeked her head around the corner. Silver Rose had her back to her, recently leaving her chemistry classroom and heading towards the restroom before the bell.

Sunny saw no better opportunity to start her plans. She had roped Sour Sweet in as well, the other girl currently behind her, pressing her back against the lockers.

“Are you sure we should be doing this now?” she asked Sunny. “We’re going to be late for class. If we are, it’s all your fault.”

“Relax.” Sunny waved a hand at her. “We’ll just make sure she can’t come back, then we’ll go back to class. Either that or you can say you were helping me to class. Easy.”

Sunny still had her crutches for her sprained ankle, but she’d recovered enough to began taking slow steps.

The mulberry haired girl watched as Silver Rose pushed the restroom door open, then beckoned to her friend. “Come on, she’s in. Let’s go.”

She picked up her crutches and headed out through the crystalline hall, stopping outside the girls’ restroom door.

“Come on, come on, give it to me.”

Sour Sweet, who had a plank of wood behind her back, passed it over to Sunny, who lodged it between the door’s handle and the walls. She tried pushing the door a few times to make sure it worked before stepping away, a mischievous smirk on her face.

“There...” Sunny dusted her hands. “Let’s see her find her way out of that. No way she’s going to be making it back to class in time.”

The two Shadowbolts stepped back and marveled at their handiwork, snickers escaping their mouths.

Just then, the door wobbled. Someone was trying to open it from the other side.

“She’s trying to open it!” Sour Sweet whispered through quiet laughs. “No way she’s getting out of this one.”

“Yeah!” Sunny covered her mouth with a hand. “Now shh! She’ll hear us.”

The rattling of the door continued for another ten seconds before stopping for a longer time.

“She gave up already?” Sunny folded her arms atop her crutches. “I thought she had more spirit than that.”

“This seems a little mean, even for us,” Sour Sweet said. “But who cares. She deserves it.”

“Ha, well, we better head back to class soon. We don’t want to be late ourselves.”

“Need a hand? I can walk you back.”

“No need,” Sunny shook her head, her eyes still on the boarded up door. “Sour Sweet and I can manage…”

Then her pupils shrank down to dots. That voice…

Sunny Flare turned around to see Silver Rose standing behind them, her arms behind her back and a long smile on her face.

“S-Silver Rose?” She almost fell to the floor. “What- How… What are you doing here?”

“Well, the door was blocked, so I went out the window. I was wondering what happened to the door. You girls fooling around out here could really inconvenience someone.” Silver Rose seemed to eye Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet with a quizzical expression.

“Yeah, well…” Sour Sweet fought to find the right words. “Whatever.”

She turned and ran, leaving Sunny alone with Silver.

“Really?” Sunny looked back at Sour Sweet’s disappearing shape. Then she began moving back to class as quickly as she could, trying to get away from Silver Rose. “Y-You… This isn’t over, Silver Rose!”

She left Silver standing there, wondering just what she did to deserve so much hate from these girls.

Tuesday

“What are you even doing, Sunny?” Sugarcoat folded her arms, unimpressed.

Sunny Flare leaned up from the paper she had been writing on, smiling to herself. “Sometimes, it’s the simple things you overlook.”

On the piece of paper, Sunny had written three simple words, ‘Kiss my butt’, in thick black ink, making sure people could see it for miles.

Sugarcoat sighed and went back to reading her book. “I’m not even going to bother…”

Sunny turned to Sour Sweet and handed her the paper after adding a piece of tape behind it. “Alright, Sour Sweet, it’s all yours. Go do it. Make sure she doesn’t know.”

“You can count on me, Sunny,” she said, taking the paper. “I’ll make her regret messing with the Shadowbolts.”

Sunny followed her friend out the door, watching from the corner as Sour Sweet walked to Silver Rose, who was grabbing something from her locker.

“Heeeey, Silver! Do you need some help?” Sour Sweet said almost sickeningly sweet voice.

The pink haired girl looked at her, then looked back at her locker, which allowed Sour Sweet to stick the paper on her blazer without her seeing it.

“You want to help me?” Silver asked her.

Sour Sweet nodded, then warped her expression. “Yeah right, like I want to help you.”

Then she walked away, coming back towards Sunny.

Mission accomplished, the mulberry haired girl said in her head, smirking from ear to ear.

Sunny quickly made her way back to her seat, wanting to look like nothing happened when Silver came back. She lifted a hand in front of her mouth when the girl did return, carrying her chemistry textbook with her, concealing her snickering smile.

Class went on like normal, with Mr. Beaker handing out worksheets for the class to finish by the bell. Sunny never really had any problems with chemistry, so she soon found herself halfway done with the paper, not even breaking a sweat.

Indigo Zap had begun pestering her for answers, as usual. Sunny didn’t know how she could manage through class with her answers alone, but she just shook her head and whispered them over.

When the bell rang, Mr. Beaker asked for the students to turn their work in to the front, where he was standing. Sunny was going to get up and turn hers in, expecting full marks, but Indigo used the commotion to sneak to her table, asking for the answers.

“Come on, Sunny, I don’t know these last few! You gotta help me out,” she begged.

Sunny relented and looked to Mr. Beaker. Thankfully, he was focused on collecting the papers, so he didn’t look over to Sunny or Indigo.

“Fine, just hurry up,” she told her friend.

“Speed is what I do!” Indigo spun her pen once, then got to copying Sunny’s answers as fast as her hand could go.

Sunny kept glancing to her teacher, willing his attention to be elsewhere. After a few more gruelling seconds, Indigo held her worksheet high, happy with her answers, rushing to the front to turn it in. Sunny blew out a sigh of relief before getting to her feet, pulling her crutches up under her arms. Mr. Beaker noticed her and came over, taking the paper from her.

“Apologies, Sunny,” he said, adjusting his spectacles. “I had forgotten you sprained your ankle. No worries, you don’t have to come all the way to my desk.”

“Thanks, Mr. Beaker,” Sunny smiled.

She was about to pick up her bag when Sugarcoat picked it up first.

“You’re only going to slow yourself down with so much weight. I’ll take it to your next class for you.”

Sunny shrugged. “Sure, if you want to be so helpful, go ahead.”

Swinging her crutches out, Sunny Flare slowly made her way out of class, following behind Sugarcoat. She had PE next, so she decided to stop by a water fountain to rehydrate herself. Even if she couldn’t participate, she was still going to be out under the sun, seeing as they had soccer today.

She heard a few students snickering behind her, but she was too lazy to turn around to see what they were laughing at. Her crutches just made traveling around and moving so much more cumbersome.

Just work with it, Sunny. In less than a week, you’ll be good as new.

Detouring from the locker room as Sugarcoat headed in to place her bag, Sunny bent down and pushed the button, opening her mouth as the water started spouting out.

She had only been there three seconds when she felt someone lift her skirt from behind. She stopped the water’s flow and straightened up, but she couldn’t stop Trenderhoof’s lips as they planted a kiss on her butt.

Sunny’s face instantly grew red as her eyebrows began to tilt down closer to her nose. “T-TRENDERHOOF! What do you think you’re doing!” She clutched at the hem of her skirt and put her back against the wall, dropping her crutches.

“It said to do it.” The brown-skinned boy polished his glasses with his blazer, not looking one bit remorseful. “And might I say, Sunny, you have a very lovely behind.”

“S-Shut up, I don’t! I mean, I do- bah!” Sunny patted the back of her skirt. She felt like his lips were still there. “Why would you even- what said to do it?!”

“The paper on your back. I’m just doing what you asked.”

“Paper?” Then it dawned on Sunny. Reaching behind, she felt the sheet on her blazer and pulled, looking at the exact words she had written before class. “Now why would I put this on my own back?! Someone’s played me!”

“Oh, that’s true… Why would you?” Trenderhoof scratched at his beard. “Though I didn’t mind doing that. You’re one of the prettiest girls in school. Perhaps you’d like to-”

Then Sunny slapped him in the face.

“I-I can’t believe it!” Sunny clutched at her bright red face, hiding behind her fingers. “Trenderhoof, that boy… And how did the paper even get behind my back? Sour Sweet?”

The Shadowbolts sat around a table in their usual cafe, their drinks already ordered.

Sour Sweet looked just a bamboozled as Sunny did. “I don’t know! She must have stuck it on you when you weren’t looking.”

“How did you do it, slapping it on her back?” Sunny shot back. “Somehow Silver Rose knew you had put it on her and put it on me instead!”

“What even happened?” Indigo Zap slurped from her soda. “I heard you screaming after chemistry class, but I missed it all.”

“I’m not going into it,” Sunny grumbled.

“Trenderhoof kissed Sunny’s butt, because a piece of paper told him to,” Sugarcoat supplied.

“Sugarcoat!” Sunny covered her face with her hands completely.

“He what?” Indigo burst out laughing.

“Stop! Stop it!” Sunny stomped a foot, her burning face still hidden from her friends. “It wasn’t supposed to happen to me!”

“I can’t believe someone would actually do it,” Lemon Zest grinned. “Just goes to show, guys will be guys.”

“Hey, lots of guys are attracted to you, Sunny, I’m sure you know that,” Indigo added, still in the process of calming down. “But yeah, like Lemon said. I can’t believe one of them actually had to guts…”

“This is an outrage!” Sunny exclaimed. “By tomorrow, everyone’s going to know what Trenderhoof did.”

“You only have yourself to blame for this,” Sugarcoat got to the point. “You wrote that paper.”

“And I expected it to stay on Silver Rose’s back, thank you very much!”

“Well it didn’t. I hope you’ve learnt your lesson, Sunny. Stop with all this… revenge scheming. You’re doing nothing but harm yourself and your reputation.”

“I’ll stop when I’m good and ready, Sugarcoat. Alright, Sour Sweet. What’s the next item on the list?”

“You have a list?!” Lemon said with a whistle. “Sugarcoat’s right, this is becoming an obsession.”

“Well, now more than ever, I’m going to get her back!” Sunny balled her hands into fists. “Y-You see what she’s done to me. I don’t know how I’m ever going to live this down, but Silver Rose has to pay, okay?”

“You keep telling yourself that, Sunny.” Sugarcoat got up and packed her things. “I don’t want any part of this. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The white haired girl squeezed past Lemon Zest and strolled out of the cafe.

“Fine. Not like she helped out anyway.” Sunny folded her arms. “So what are we doing tomorrow?”

Sour Sweet pulled up the list on her phone. “It says, ‘water in a bucket prank’.”

“That’s what we agreed on, huh?” Sunny rapped her fingers on the table, in thought. “Scrap that. It’s too simple. After today, we need to pull out the big guns.”

“What do you suggest we do then?”

“Hmm…”

Seeing as Trenderhoof had kissed her butt just because the paper on her back said to do so, maybe the rest of the student body would be easy to manipulate too. She just needed to think of a way that Silver Rose wouldn’t be able to turn against her so easily.

“Really, Sunny, this needs to stop.” Lemon Zest interrupted her thought process. “Silver’s not that bad of a person.”

“You see?” Sunny yelled at her lime haired friend. “She’s already corrupted you. We’ve always worked with each other, until now. She’s torn us apart, she’s torn the Shadowbolts apart.”

“No, you have done that yourself.” Indigo sided with Lemon. “Sure, we do have each other’s backs from time to time, but your vendetta against Silver Rose is keeping you from seeing sense.”

“Well if you want to protect Silver Rose so badly, then you can leave too!” Sunny narrowed her pink eyes at her friends.

Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap stared at her in silence for a few seconds. Then they picked up their bags and stormed out of the cafe as well.

Sunny watched the door close and exhaled. “Alright, it’s just you and me now, Sour Sweet. Not like they did anything anyway.”

“I feel sorry for them…” Sour Sweet bowed her head, then lifted it again with fire in her eyes. “But then again, they don’t want to help out? Some friends they are…”

“Right?” Sunny massaged her forehead and got back to planning. There had got to be something she could do to Silver without the tables turning.

“We could always just stick with the bucket prank,” Sour Sweet suggested.

“That’s not enough.” Sunny shook her head. “That would get us nowhere. My butt got kissed. I want hers to get kissed twice more! But we can’t do that same prank again.”

“We could always pay someone to do it. That’ll show Silver Rose.”

“Why not we just do it ourselves?” Sunny rubbed her hands together, a plan in her mind. “Seeing as I can’t even walk normally right now, Sour Sweet, I’ll need you to do the work.”

“What do you have in mind, Sunny? I’m sure it’s a brilliant plan. Unless it backfires again like the rest of your plans.”

“Oh, I’ll just need you to embarrass her in front of the others, simple as that. During PE class, I want you to pull her shirt off, then I’ll quickly snap a picture from where I’m sitting. Class embarrassment, plus a picture for her to remember it by. Sounds easy enough, hmm?”

“Won’t I get in trouble for doing it so openly?” Sour Sweet questioned.

“Just make it look like an accident. Teachers buy any excuse.”

“That sounds super easy. Pssh, how am I supposed to make it look like an accident?”

“You can figure it out, Sour Sweet.” Sunny Flare waved her hand. “Fall, try and wrest the ball from her, however you think you can play it out. Just get it done.”

“Then I’ll try my best, Sunny!” The pink haired Shadowbolt saluted.

“You better.”

Wednesday

Sunny Flare sat out to the side as her class played a game of football. They were out in the field again, with the sun shining down over the entire length.

Sunny was seated partially in the shade, trying to bend her foot, hoping to get out of her brace soon. With the upcoming Friendship Games, she needed to make sure she was in her best game to participate. She wasn’t going to let the common Canterlot High School beat them. She had seen the awards down near the school’s entrance. Crystal Prep Academy had won every single one of the Friendship Games. She wasn’t going to slip up and ruin it for their school because of the lack of exercise.

Looking back up from her foot, Sunny watched Silver Rose swoop past Neon Lights and Golden Gavel, scoring a touchdown already.

Sunny deepened her frown. Catching Silver off guard during the game wasn’t going to be easy, but she trusted Sour Sweet would find a way to get it done.

The next round, Sour Sweet’s team had the ball. They started with Neon Lights, sending him forward as Sour Sweet drew back, ready to throw. She was tackled down just as she threw the ball, sending it flying up and then down into Neon Light’s hands.

That was a pretty good throw…

But before he could even get a meter ahead, he was tackled down by none other than Silver Rose.

Sunny blinked her eyes a few times. She swore she just saw Silver back where the others were. There was no way she could’ve reached Neon Lights so fast.

The rest of the class went on, with each team doing as much as they could to stop the other team’s advance. Sunny kept watching as Sour Sweet had tried to get in Silver Rose’s way many times, but the pink haired girl was just too slippery and agile for Sour Sweet to grab.

“Darn it, Sour Sweet.” Sunny already had her phone ready, but she still had to wait for her friend to enact her plan. “Come on, get her!”

Silver moved left and right, dodging all the others as she ran to the touchdown line with the ball. Then almost by pure luck, Sour Sweet had caught up and lunged for Silver, grabbing her around the waist as she went down.

Sunny covered her mouth to mask a smile as Sour Sweet pulled Silver Rose’s shorts down. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it worked out even better. Silver had on a pair of pink panties, which were now exposed to the class.

The pink-grey haired girl’s cheeks turned bright red and she pulled her shirt down, trying to cover up her bottom. She reached down for her shorts, but Sour Sweet was still holding on to them, her face planted in the dirt. The Shadowbolt made no move to get up.

“Oh man, oh man!” Sunny couldn’t contain her excitement. “You’ve gone and done it, Sour Sweet! I couldn’t have asked for a better scene!”

A part of her couldn’t believe her plan actually worked. After all the failed attempts to humiliate Silver Rose, this one finally did it. She nimbly lifted her phone and snapped a few pictures in succession, completing her plans.

“I’ve done it! I’ve finally gotten Silver Rose back!” she cheered.

The other students, mostly the guys, were gawking at Silver Rose, likely taking in the beauty of her slim legs as she tried to get Sour Sweet up to get her shorts back up. Sour Sweet seemed to have knocked herself out. She still wasn’t moving from where she lay.

Sunny didn’t care. She had done her job and she had done it perfectly.

“Umm… Silver Rose fidgeted with her shirt. “Could you all look away, please?”

“Right, right, apologies, Silver Rose.” Coach Mustang had also been looking. That made Sunny laugh harder. Even a teacher couldn’t resist the daughter of Ebony Wings’ bare legs and underwear. He turned away from her and waved the others back. “Come on, everyone, you heard her. Turn around, stop looking. Silver Rose, please check on Sour Sweet for me and do put those shorts back on.”

“Yes, coach, thank you, coach,” Silver said. Sunny could still see her red cheeks from here. Everything had really gone so well.

Sunny watched the scene, now grinning like someone who just escaped from an asylum. Coach Mustang might’ve shooed them all away, but the damage was done. This was something the other students were going to remember for a while. At least she hoped they would remember this instead of Trenderhoof kissing her butt.

Silver Rose prodded at Sour Sweet’s head. The girl didn’t even move. She must’ve been out cold.

“Hey, Sour Sweet?” she tried asking nicely. “My shorts, you’re h-holding them. Could you, you know, let go? Please?”

There was still no reply.

“Come on.” Silver didn’t wait any longer.

Bending down, the young changeling lifted Sour Sweet by her shoulders, first checking on her face. The Shadowbolt had a gash in her head, with blood trickling down her face and dirt all over the rest.

“Oh, that looks serious.” Silver turned Sour Sweet over and placed her back on the ground, then quickly pulled her shorts back up.

She spied Sunny watching and laughing from where she was sitting at the edge of the field. No doubt she had found the entire scene entertaining, especially after what had happened to her yesterday.

It was a certainty that Sour Sweet had tried to do something on Sunny’s orders, but instead, ended up hitting her head. Silver was mostly embarrassed about what had just happened, but she was also mildly irritated. She wanted to just leave Sour Sweet where she was, but in the end, she picked her up under her back and legs and walked over to their coach.

“Coach Mustang?” Silver called. “Sour Sweet’s injured, so I’m going to take her over to the nurse’s.”

“Hmm, oh, okay, you may go.” Coach Mustang nodded and tipped his cap to her.

Silver Rose walked past Sunny on the way back to the main building, giving her a warm smile. Sunny folded her arms and looked away, disgusted. Once Silver had passed by the snooty girl, her faced warped to match her expression.

Perhaps if it were up to her, Silver would lead Sunny somewhere isolated and choke her, but as Aunt Ivory had said, she wasn’t here to make war.

Silver went down the hall, remembering where the nurse’s office was from her last visit there. Nurse Cardiac looked at her as she entered, then stood up to help her carry Sour Sweet to one of the beds, before examining her head injury.

“Is it serious?” Silver tried to look more concerned.

“Thankfully, no.” The nurse shook her head. “She just had a little scrape when she hit her head, but she might’ve gotten a slight concussion.”

“She’ll be okay, huh?” Silver let out a fake sigh of relief, but convincing enough to fool the nurse.

“You’re welcome to wait with her if you like, Silver Rose.” The nurse returned to her table. “She might need someone to tell her what happened when she wakes up.”

“Okay. I guess I’ll stay.”

Silver pulled up a chair from the side and sat beside Sour Sweet’s bed. She figured this was a good chance to continue befriending the other Shadowbolts.

Take away your enemy’s support and what does she have left? Nothing… Silver smiled. All she needed was time.

The young changeling watched as the nurse got to cleaning Sour Sweet’s head, before putting a square piece of dressing over it. She finished up with a roll of bandage around the girl’s head, dusting off her hands.

“There, this’ll have to do for now,” she said. “I’ll be at the desk if you need anything, Silver Rose.”

“Gotcha. Thanks, Nurse Cardiac!”

Silver sat and watched Sour Sweet. This girl had caused a lot of problems for her alongside Sunny Flare. If she could befriend Sour Sweet, then Sunny was going to lose a lot of support, more so than the other Shadowbolts.

It was relatively quiet for another seven minutes before Sour Sweet began to stir, slowly lifting an arm to rub at her head.

“Hmm? What’s going on…?” She blinked and looked up at the ceiling.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Silver said, injecting some relief into her voice. “You hurt yourself rather badly back there.”

“Wh-What happened?”

Silver reached over and poured Sour Sweet a glass of water from a jug on a bedside table.

“You… erm, pulled down my shorts and concussed yourself on a rock in the grass. I swear, there are rocks everywhere. Someone should remove them.”

The nurse looked over and raised an eyebrow, then went back to work.

“Pulled down your shorts?” Sour Sweet leaned her head up, but then shut her eyes and rubbed her head. “Your shirt was the objective. Gah, blasted rocks, I tell you. They ruin everything.”

“Quite.”

“I’m sorry about your shorts,” Sour Sweet apologized. “Not really. I hope you were embarrassed.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.” Silver sniffed. Not an ounce of regret. “Tell me something though, why do you and Sunny have it out for me? What did I do wrong?”

“Well…” Sour Sweet put on an empathetic face. “It’s because you’re trying to be better than us Shadowbolts. No one in school has ever tried to do that. No, I’m not saying anything more to you.”

“I thought the whole point of this school was to show off and be better than others,” Silver grumped.

“Not when you’re besting the best this school has to offer. It’s just that the others will start thinking badly of us. We’re supposed to be the top, Silver Rose.”

“That’s not fair.” Silver pointed out. “I just want a level playing field.”

Sour Sweet accepted the glass of water from Silver and scooted back against the post. “Why are you here, Silver Rose?”

“I brought you here. You needed medical attention.” And to remove the strongest pillar of support from Sunny Flare, she thought.

“How’s your head, Sour Sweet?” Nurse Cardiac walked over and patted her on the shoulder. “You should be thanking Silver Rose here. After all you said to her, she’s the one who brought you here.”

“Mmmggh…” The Shadowbolt rubbed at her head again. “It hurts when I shake.” Then she lifted the glass to her lips and drank. “Why would you help me, Silver? What are you after?”

“Sour Sweet!” The Nurse looked at her with a shocked expression. “She brought you here. She was just trying to help you. Right, Silver Rose?”

“Uh, sure, I guess.” And because without you, Sunny Flare will be that much easier to conquer.

“So really, you should be thanking her,” Nurse Cardiac finished. “Oh, and Sour Sweet, I think you should stay here for a while until your head’s better. I’ll let your teachers know.”

“If you say so, doc.” She closed her eyes. “You’re a strange character, Silver Rose. Definitely stranger than me.”

Silver smiled and rotated her eyes around the room. “I just want to be friends, Sour Sweet. Simple as that.”

“Friends, huh…” Sour Sweet pondered, then shook her head and held it with a hand. “Let’s start out as acquaintances first.”

Chapter 17 - The Start of Trouble

Silver Rose packed her things as the bell signaled the end of her final class of the day. After everything that happened during PE class, Silver felt like the other students, mainly the guys, had been looking at her more than usual. It could’ve just been her imagination after such an embarrassing moment, but it it could’ve not as well.

“Tough day?”

“Hmm?” Silver looked up from her thoughts. It was Sound Wave. “Oh, just thinking is all.”

“Okay, good to know.” The blonde haired boy pushed his file into his bag. “You just looked like there was something worrying you. I mean, I heard what happened at the field. Are you okay?”

Silver smiled and waved a hand. “Y-Yeah, don’t worry about it. It was just a little accident… It’s Sour Sweet you should be worried about. She hit her head.”

“Yeah, I heard. Slight concussion. Not fun.” Sound Wave hauled his bag over his shoulder. “Well, I’m off to meet Lemon Zest for some tunes.”

“Oh? She’s not hanging out with the other Shadowbolts today?” Silver asked.

“Yeah, something happened between them lately. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s not groovy, I’ll tell you, especially not when the Friendship Games are coming up.”

“Right…” If the Shadowbolts were like that right now, then her plan against Sunny Flare was actually working. “They’ll need to be in top shape for that.”

“Mhm.” The boy waved goodbye as he headed out of the classroom.

Silver Rose looked out the window as she slung her backpack on. Just wait, Sunny Flare. Your time is coming.

The young changeling first made a stop at her locker to put her books back. As soon as she opened it, a piece of paper fell out, but she quickly caught it before it could hit the floor.

“What’s this?” She unfolded the paper and read it. “When you pull down your shorts again, make sure to give us a good view…” Silver’s cheeks blushed red as she crumpled the paper and tossed it deep in her locker. “Who wrote this?! Ugh… When I find out who did it…heads will roll.”

“Something happening, Silver Rose?” She recognized the voice as Jet Set’s. True enough, there he was, standing beside her, adjusting his glasses.

“Just people saying silly stuff…” she sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Where’s Upper Crust? You two haven’t been apart since that day.”

“We haven’t?” Jet Set scratched at his cheek. “Well, you might be right, Silver Rose. She just went to use the restroom. We’re, umm, going on another date today.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Silver sniffed the air, getting a good taste of Jet Set’s love for his girlfriend. That’s very good.

“It certainly is,” the grey haired boy smiled. “And it’s all thanks to you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Silver told him and grabbed her English textbook from her locker. “You two are cute together.”

“We are, are we?” Jet Set looked proud.

“Hey, Jet.” Upper Crust arrived, putting an arm around Jet Set’s before planting a kiss on his cheek. “Hey, Silver Rose. You ready to go, Jet?”

“Definitely.” The boy nodded to Silver. “Then we shall be off. We’ll see you around, Silver Rose.”

“Yup, see you.” Silver breathed in deeply the scent of love from the two students as she shut her locker.

So far, she had been unable to determine any other sources of love in school, but for her to find one, she would actually have to look hard, seeing as her sense of smell wasn’t as strong as her mother’s or aunt’s. Jet Set had been easy, because he had outright told Silver about his feelings.

No one else in Crystal Prep seems to be in love. Well, maybe except for being in love with success…

Silver Rose found her aunt waiting outside in the car, along with a crowd of students as usual. They never did seem to get used to seeing Ebony Wings’ family.

“Hey, Silver Rose,” one of the guys said as she passed them to get to the car. “Before you go, why don’t you give your skirt a little lift, huh? I’m sure you don’t mind now, right?”

Silver’s face turned red as the students shared a laugh amongst themselves, but as she opened the car door, her aunt winded down a window and stuck her head out.

“Hey, you.” She focused her eyes on the boy who spoke. “Don’t you ever talk to my niece like that again.”

Something in Ivory’s voice must’ve spooked him, because he and a bunch of the other students took a few steps back, their laughter falling silent.

Silver closed the door and crouched a little lower than the window, hiding her face, which now had a smile on it.

That’ll teach you to mess with me.

“Thanks Aunt Ivory,” Silver said as she buckled in.

“No problem, dear.” Ivory steered the car away from Crystal Prep Academy. “That was rude of him. What was all that about? Are you being bullied by that Sunny Flare girl again?”

“I wouldn’t say that…” Silver pushed her backpack onto the empty seat next to her and fetched a bottle of water from the minibar. “Just an unfortunate accident is all.”

“An unfortunate accident?” Ivory sniffed. “You don’t seem convinced, Silver. What really happened?”

“Well…” She went on to tell her aunt about her shorts being pulled down in front of the class, Sour Sweet hitting her head and the teasing she’d received because of it.

“They shouldn’t.” Ivory’s fingers gripped tighter on the steering wheel. “Are you alright, dear?”

“I’m fine, Aunt Ivory. They’re just annoying, not hurtful.”

“Good to hear, my favorite niece,” Ivory smiled. “When we get home, I’ll give you a big hug. How does that sound?”

“Sounds great, Aunt Ivory.”

When the car arrived back at the Wings Estate, Ivory got out and let Silver Platter bring it to the garage while she led Silver back indoors, but not after picking her up in a rib-squeezing hug.

“Ah, Silver, you’re home,” Ebony Wings greeted when they entered the first floor living room. She was lounging on a couch, a bowl of popcorn on her lap and the remote in her hand. “I’m free today, so why don’t we do some marksmanship lessons?”

“Oh, yes, mother.”

Silver was given time to put her stuff down in her room before she went out behind the house to where the shooting range was.

The area was a long grassy land with two walls at the end, one at knee height, the other double its size. Targets of all sizes and shapes sat atop the two walls, ready for Silver Rose.

“Hmm. We’ll start with pistols today,” Ebony said, unlocking the gun storage shed and rummaging through its contents. Finding two sleek black pistols, she handed one to her daughter, who spun it around her finger expertly. Next, Ebony Wings handed out magazines, which the two loaded into their guns.

“Oh, almost forgot,” Ebony re-entered the shed and pulled out two pairs of earplugs. “Can’t go about being deafened like that.”

Waiting until both of them had their earplugs securely fastening in their ears, Ebony then stepped up to the firing line, took aim with her pistol, and fired off two shots at the closest target. Two holes appeared in the target’s head, flapping slightly from the impact.

Pressing a button on the side of the gallery’s wall, a fresh set of targets popped up, at the very far back of the range. Ebony began to strafe from side to side, shooting in between steps. Each bullet hit its mark in the head of the targets. Only when her gun clicked empty did she stop pacing, and stepped back to reset the targets.

“All right, Silver. Now it’s your turn. Remember…”

“Sight along your arm, take a deep breath and squeeze, don’t pull, the trigger,” Silver recited back perfectly.

“Exactly.”

Silver lifted her pistol and aimed, pointing to the first target from the left. She breathed in and when she felt she was ready, she squeezed the trigger. The bullet blasted out of her gun with a deafening boom, even with her earplugs on, whizzing through the air and hitting the target in the chest.

“Almost there, Silver,” Ebony said. “Remember to account for distance and wind.”

“Do we really need to aim for the head all the time, mother?” she decided to ask as she took aim again. “I mean, if I really ever have to shoot someone, a chest shot would still kill them, right?”

“You can never be too sure,” Ebony said airily. “And some people wear armor over their bodies, like your aunt and myself. A headshot bypasses both those problems.”

“Oh, okay.” Silver fired again, hitting the target in the shoulder this time. She tried again, hitting the target in the bottom left of its head. “Umm, does that count, mother?”

Ebony tilted her head, eyeing the target.

“It’ll do. Aim a little higher next time.”

“Yes, mother.”

Silver Rose tried a few more shots while moving, emptying her magazine into the row of targets. Only one bullet had missed completely, which she deemed an improvement. Though, mastering the headshots was still something she really had to work on.

“Not bad, Silver.” Ebony eyed her pistol’s smoking tip. “I suppose if your enemy doesn’t have armor, you’ll be able to handle yourself.”

“I’m sorry, mother.” Silver looked down at her feet. She inhaled and smelt her mother’s disappointment. “I tried my best.”

“Mmhm. Let’s try something else.”

Retrieving the pistol from her daughter, Ebony Wings returned them to the shed and came back with two rifles.

“Now, these might feel a little big, but I thought you might want to try something heavier.”

Silver grasped the rifle in her hands, lifting it a few times to see how heavy it was. It wasn’t too bad, but it was a huge difference from the tiny pistol she had before.

Ebony Wings put the weapon’s butt to her shoulder and pulled back the bolt, then clicked it back in place. “Just watch and see, Silver. You should be able to aim better with this one, but just watch the recoil. Now watch and copy me.”

Then she fired, the shot crackling across the air as the bullet ignited out of the rifle’s barrel, hitting a target on the second row between the eyes.

Ebony Wings suddenly did a combat roll and fired low, hitting the target in front of it in the head as well. Then the one of the left, and the next one, and the next one.

Silver didn’t see any reason for her mother to roll like that, but she couldn’t deny that Ebony Wings was a really good shot.

Her mother pulled back the bolt after the last shot, ejecting the empty casing. “There, like that, Silver. You try.”

Ebony stepped aside and rested her rifle against the grass, letting Silver take center stage.

The young changeling took a deep breath and held it, aiming for the first row. A rifle had more power than a pistol, so Silver adjusted the barrel height accordingly, squeezing the trigger when she felt ready.

This time, she hit the target close to the center of its head. Smiling with surprise and excitement, Silver pulled back the bolt and expelled her used shell, firing another shot at the same target. She hit it in the head again, though a little to the left this time.

“Good improvement, Silver.” Her mother nodded her approval. Silver breathed in and smiled. It tasted nice. “Keep it up and maybe you’ll be a world class shooter, just like your mother.”

“You’re a world class shooter?” Silver pointed the barrel down.

“I mean, I’ve never gone for a competition,” Ebony said. “But I know if I do, I’ll be the best.”

Silver smiled at her mother’s confidence. She was always so sure about herself, even when she wasn’t good at it, like cooking. Sometimes her aunt just had to chase her mother away from the kitchen before she could cook up something odd.

“Come on, Silver,” Ebony said, gently pushing the girl forward. “Go again. Show me what you can do.”

Silver Rose and her mother continued shooting targets until the sun began to go down, then headed back in to get ready for dinner.

Chapter 18 - That Smaste

Silver Rose thought that something odd had happened when she entered Crystal Prep Academy. A lot of the students were giving her weird looks, some of them even smiling at her strangely.

It was only when Canvas Splash had come up to her when she was at her locker did she find out what why they were looking at her weird.

“Silver, Silver!” The artist had poked her shoulder. When she got Silver’s attention, she thrust her phone out for the pink-grey haired girl to see. “You won’t believe this, but there’s a picture of you on the school newspaper’s website. See?”

Silver Rose stood back a step and looked at her phone’s screen. Her face quickly drained of color, except for her cheeks, which turned red.

On the screen was a picture of her from yesterday on the field. Her pants were down and she was trying to use her shirt to cover her bottom. A bit of her panties could be seen just below her shirt line.

“W-What is this picture doing here…?” Silver pushed Canvas’ hand away and looked around the hall. No wonder the other students were giving her strange looks. “Who posted that?”

“It doesn’t say.” Canvas looked at her phone. “It’s just there. On the website. I’m sure the school will take it down. This isn’t the kind of thing they’d want outsiders to see.”

Silver took relief in that statement. “I hope they do, Canvas.”

Her mind was already at work, deducing who could’ve done such a thing. Everyone was on the field that day, meaning their phones would’ve been in their bags in the changing rooms. Only one student had been sitting out, her sprained ankle still recovering from her fall. She was the only logical culprit who could’ve done this. The only one who would have done this.

“Sunny Flare…” Silver muttered.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Canvas told her. “Who else would do this to you?”

“I think I need to have a word with her…” Silver put her other books into the locker and slammed it shut, startling Twilight Sparkle, who was getting some kind of gadget from her locker, two rows down. “Me and my friend, Mister Fist.”

“Uh, Silver?” Canvas said timidly. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I mean no, I’m not alright. I want to find Sunny Flare and… and do horrible things to her, let’s leave it at that.”

Twilight Sparkle, who was still squatting down holding her things, let out a little squeak and scurried away like a rat, looking back once before disappearing into class.

“What’s up with her?” Silver asked irritably.

“I think she heard you,” Canvas said, pulling at her ponytail. “You did say ‘horrible things’, Silver.”

“She’s not going to tell Sunny though, is she?”

Silver’s mind was already blooming with numerous creative ways to get Sunny for this. A small variety of toxins came to mind which she could easily slip into Sunny’s drink. Then she mentally slapped herself.

Calm down… she thought to herself. You’re not here to start a war, but to make peace with everyone. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, right?

Canvas looked at the classroom door. “Twilight won’t tell on you. She sticks to herself all the time. More so than I.”

“Okay, that’s good then…” Silver sighed. There was too much for her to deal with so early in the morning.

“Well, if you need me when you, um, talk with Sunny…” Canvas looked like she wasn’t sure on her word choice. “I’ve got your back, Silver. It’s the least I could do for you.”

“Thanks, Canvas. Glad I can count on you.” Silver Rose patted the artist’s shoulder. “Come on, we better get to homeroom. I guess I’ll see you later?”

“Yup, catch you later, Silver!” Canvas waved happily and ran down the hall, almost tripping when she turned around.

That was one student Silver could always count on to get a good taste from. She inhaled deeply, trying to find that string of support and camaraderie, but instead, her nose picked up something stronger. Far stronger.

Hm? What’s this?

There was a new smell in the air. It was definitely directed at her, and it tasted sticky and sweet. Silver’s brow furrowed in confusion. This was a totally novel scent to her, but it tasted so nice that Silver inhaled again, breathing in and tasting this new smell.

“Mmm… what is this smell?” It was just too good to resist. She inhaled again. Whatever it was, it was awakening something within her, a few faint flickers of something making itself known.

Suddenly, it was like she lost control of the muscles in her body. Her legs wobbled and then collapsed under her, sending her down against the locker.

“W-What…?” Silver breathed. Even her voice was having trouble escaping her throat. To her shock, she could feel her fangs easing out into view, filling up with venom, ready to strike. No, not now, what are you doing, Silver? Get control of yourself!

She tried to get up, but her legs felt like jelly and her arms were heavy. She knew it had something to do with the smell, but Silver couldn’t help it. It was so good. She sniffed the air again and again, now noticing that it was coming from multiple sources.

It’s so strong… It’s so good…

She felt her body heating up like an oven, especially her face and hands, which were twitching, and worse of all, it was growing warm between her legs.

I need to get out of here.

“Silver?” Canvas Splash was suddenly beside her again, crouching down. “Are you alright? I heard you fall. Gee, your face is all red. Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine. I j-just need to go to the nurse’s office. Tell Ms. Script t-that I won’t be there, okay?” Silver kept a hand over her mouth.

“Sure I’ll tell her for you. Do you need me to walk you to the nurse’s?”

“I think I can…” Silver pushed to her feet, holding her other hand against the locker. By now, plenty of other students had gathered around on their way to class, but Silver couldn’t worry about them watching her now.

“Nonsense.” Canvas shook her head. “I’ll go tell Ms. Script, then I’m coming back to help.”

Silver watched her friend go, her heartbeat increasing almost by two times from the smell. She found herself panting like a dog and unable to retract her fangs.

She knew she shouldn’t inhale deeply again, but she did it again, the taste too tempting for her to resist.

“Aah…” Silver fell to her knees again, one hand still covering her mouth. Why is it so good…?

She began to breathe through her mouth in an attempt to stifle the smell. It sort of worked, but with her hand covering her mouth it wasn’t as easy to get a breath.

The warmth between her legs had heated up significantly, almost unbearable now, but Silver maintained enough composure to handle it. She thought she felt something running down her legs, but she ignored it. There was no way she was going to see what was going on down there right now. Not in public with so many eyes on her.

Soon, Canvas Splash was back, hooking her arms under Silver’s and hauling her up. Silver tried her best to walk along, but her legs were still all wobbly.

“How are you feeling now?” Canvas asked.

Silver opened her mouth, but all that escaped were whimpers. She wanted to sniff at the smell again, really badly, but she knew she had to keep off of it, at least for now.

“You’re really not feeling well.” Canvas made a turn after the chemistry classroom. “Don’t worry. We’ll be at the Nurse’s in no time.”

Silver’s face was still heavily blushed red and her hands were still shaking. Her fangs refused to go back into her gums, forcing her to still keep one hand on her mouth. She didn’t know there could be a smell that tasted so good to the point of losing control of her body.

After what felt like weeks, Silver and Canvas arrived outside the nurse’s office, with the artist knocking on the door before pushing it open.

“Nurse Cardiac?” Canvas called out. CPA’s nurse was at her desk, her attention now on Silver and Canvas. “It’s Silver. She’s not feeling very well, I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“My, Silver Rose, you’ve become very frequent around here recently.” Nurse Cardiac helped Canvas, supporting the young changeling from under the other arm. “You look like you’re having a fever. Come on, we’ll set you down on the bed, Silver. Then I can determine what’s wrong.”

Silver nodded, still willing her fangs to return into her mouth. By now, the smell had disappeared outside the office, but she could still remember its sweet scent.

“You-you should get to class, Canvas…” Silver breathed, still slightly panting. “Don’t be late because of me.”

“Will you be alright, Silver?” Canvas looked concerned. Silver used that taste to take her mind off the sweet one.

“I’ll look after her,” Nurse Cardiac assured. “She’s in good hands.”

“Oh, okay…” Canvas looked between them. Silver gave her a reassuring smile. “Get well soon, Silver.”

The pink haired artist waved one last time before closing the door behind her, leaving Silver Rose sitting on the bed.

Nurse Cardiac began to walk over with a stethoscope and a thermometer. Willing for her fangs to retract, Silver closed her eyes and concentrated. Now that the strong scent was gone, she soon found her fangs disappearing back into her gums, just as the nurse stopped beside her, lifting the thermometer. The numbness and warmness didn’t go away, but at least this was a start.

Close call…

“Open your mouth, Silver, let’s see your temperature.”

Silver dropped her hand from her mouth and managed a smile. “Sure thing, Nurse Cardiac.”

The nurse handed Silver an electronic thermometer which she stuck into her mouth, waiting for the device to beep.

“Hmm. Thirty-nine degrees. You’re running a fever,” Nurse Cardiac diagnosed. “I can give you some medicine to bring the fever down, but there’s really no better cure for a fever than lots of bedrest.You shouldn’t be at school, child.”

The nurse put the stethoscope to Silver’s chest and back and listened. “Your heart’s racing, Silver. I’m not that scary, am I?” the nurse said with a quick smile.

“No, you’re not scary, Nurse Cardiac…” Silver laughed, though her voice was trembling.

“Good to know. Your face is still flushed and your hands are shaking. This looks to be a pretty bad fever. Let me prescribe you the medicine. In the meantime, do you have someone to call to come pick you up?”

“Y-Yeah. I’ll give my mother a call.”

Silver took out her smartphone and selected ‘Mother’ from her list of contacts. She put the phone to her ear and waited for her mother to pick up. It kept ringing, without anyone picking up on the other side.

Just when Silver was about to give up and end the call, someone finally picked up on the other end, her voice sounding very annoyed. “Silver, this better be important. I’m in the middle of an act. I had to stop to pick up your call. Shouldn’t you be in class now, anyway?”

“Sorry, mother. It’s just that I’m not feeling well, so I was wondering if I could come home early today.”

“Not feeling well?”

Silver looked up at the nurse, who was still writing something down on a small piece of paper, a few bottles of medicine on the tabletop in front of her. For now, she knew not to mention too much with the nurse in the room.

“I’m… running a fever, mother. The nurse says I should go home.”

“Our kind don’t get sick easily, Silver. I’ll send your aunt to go pick you up. She’s also a certified medic, so she’ll take care of you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back on set.”

“Yes, sorry mother.” Then the line clicked off.

Silver Rose looked down at her knees, somewhat disappointed that her mother didn’t show more concern for her. It was then that she noticed trails of water going down her thigh socks from under her skirt, only, it wasn’t water. She hadn’t realized it before, but her panties were also wet.

“What?” Then she quickly righted herself as the nurse came over with her medicine. She hoped Nurse Cardiac didn’t see it.

“So, Silver Rose, I’m giving you three different meds for your fever.” Nurse Cardiac set the bottles of medicine on the bed. She went on to describe what each one would do. “So make sure you take them all twice a day, okay?”

“Sure, nurse,” Silver answered, though she was sure she wouldn’t need them when she got back.

At that moment, there was a knock on the infirmary door. It opened, revealing the snowy white hair of Silver’s aunt, her face arranged in an expression of supreme concern.

“Aunt Ivory!” Silver said with surprise. “You’re already here? Mother just said she was going to call you like, five minutes ago.”

“I might have broken the speed limit and run a few red lights on the way,” Ivory admitted. “Now come on. I’m here to take you home.”

Silver inhaled, finding the strand of love flowing from her aunt. It made her feel a little better.

“So you’re Silver’s aunt?” Nurse Cardiac looked at the white haired woman. “Silver here is running a fever. I’ve given her a few types of medicine. With enough rest, she’ll be good to come back to school again.”

“Thank you, nurse.” Ivory bowed slightly and scooped up the various medicines. “Now let’s go, Silver. Time to go home.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.” Silver got off the bed slowly, testing her legs. They were still a little weak, but they were faring much better than before. The young changeling walked a little bit sideways, hoping Nurse Cardiac couldn’t see her stained socks.

Once she was safely in the car, Silver allowed herself a sigh of relief. She was away from the mysteriously good smell, and though she wouldn’t have minded tasting it a bit more, she was happy to finally have all her faculties under control once again.

“Thanks for getting here so quickly, Aunt Ivory.” Silver looked at her aunt’s face from the rear view mirror. “I don’t know what happened… There was this new smell in the air and it was so good… I just… lost control of myself. I, uh, I wet myself, Aunt Ivory. Kinda embarrassing, but that’s how good it felt. Do you know what it is? That smell.”

“You did what now?” Ivory arched an eyebrow in the rearview mirror. “I didn’t smell all that much coming to get you, but then again I wasn’t really trying. Can you describe this new smell?”

“Uh, well...” Silver thought back to the overpowering smell she’d encountered at Crystal Prep. “It smelled really sweet, and it tasted pretty nice too, but not very filling, so I guess it wasn’t love. I mean, I know what love is. This wasn’t it, but it tasted sooooo good, Aunt Ivory. So very good.”

“Hmm…” Ivory brought the car to a stop at a red light and squinted back at her niece in the mirror. “That’s not an awful lot to go on. Could you tell if this new smell was directed at you?”

“Umm, yes,” Silver nodded. “It was coming from multiple people too.”

“Sweet, not filling, and directed at you,” Ivory pondered as she turned the corner, honking her horn at a passing motorcyclist who was weaving in between lanes. “And tasting so good that you… what was the phrase? Wet yourself?”

Silver blushed, though it was hard to tell, seeing as her face was still a little flushed. “Y-Yes, Aunt Ivory…”

Silver pulled up her skirt to see, now that she was in the privacy of her ride. The pink fabric underneath had a stain somewhere in the middle, expanding out, along with the stains on her thigh socks and in between, making her mauve skin glisten with the strange liquid. The changeling swiped some of it off with a finger and put it to her nose to smell. It wasn’t like anything she’d smelt before, but she had an idea of what it was.

“I’ll need to discuss this with your mother once she comes home. For now, I advise you take a cold shower and get some rest. Don’t bother with the medicine the nurse gave you, they’re useless on us anyway.”

Ivory Wings soon pulled the car up into the estate and parked, pulling Silver Rose from the back of the car and carrying her bridal style to her room.

“Now just take your shower and go to bed. I’ll come wake you the moment your mother and I come to a decision of what that new smaste was.”

“Smaste?” Silver asked, retrieving a towel from her wardrobe.

“Smell and taste. I’ll see you later.”

When her aunt had left, Silver went into her bathroom, tossing her panties and socks into a basket that would later be sent down by the maids to be washed. She thought about it for a while, then tossed her skirt in there as well. She wanted any indication of her smell to be washed away, just in case the other students could smell it.

After that, she took a long cold shower, which felt really refreshing, cooling her body temperature down, at least for now. She got to washing, working doubly hard on her lower regions, then her face, which was almost as warm.

When she was done washing herself, Silver stood under the shower, leaning her back on the cool marble wall, thinking about the fantastic smell again. Whatever it had been, it was strong. She had to somehow boost her resistance to it, otherwise there were going to be a lot of sick days ahead of her, along with more wet clothes, and that wasn’t going to do a lot of good for her school profile.

Contemplating for a while, Silver decided to wash off her disguise as well, not wanting to have to deal with any other distractions and things she had to say as Silver Rose. While she rested, she wanted to just be Chrysidea.

When her hair returned to her turquoise color and her skin to charcoal, Chrysidea sighed.

Oh, Dea… You just had to go embarrass yourself again, huh?

She had wanted to confront Sunny Flare about her involvement with putting her picture on the school newspaper’s website, but then all this happened instead. Maybe it was her punishment for wanting to teach Sunny a lesson the hard way.

“Huh…” She pulled at her hair, washing the gel off and returning it to its full length. “You wait, Sunny Flare. You’ll live, but I still want to give you a piece of my mind the next time I see you…”

She stayed in the shower for another twenty minutes, then left to dry herself before changing into her pajamas. It was still rather early, but she just wanted to be comfortable.

Turning the AC down to sixteen, Chrysidea placed her towel on her pillow before lying down, all nice and snuggled in her sheets with Mishter Schniffs by her side. She still felt a little warm, but nothing a little time and rest couldn’t fix.

Ah, sweet solitude…

Chrysidea was awoken when she felt a hand rest against her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open, looking right into Aunt Ivory’s deep green ones. The room was still dark, with her aunt holding up a candle to chase away the gloom.

“Hmm… your fever’s gone down.” Ivory Wings moved her hand to the young changeling’s cheek and caressed it. “How are you feeling, sweetie?”

“Mmnh. A little better now. A bit hungry though,”

Ivory nodded. “I thought as much. I brought you some Prench toast.”

She held out a small tray with a plate of toast on it.

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory.” Chrysidea sat up and began to tear into the toast ravenously.

“Now, about this new smaste-”

“Emotion,” a two toned voice piped up from within the darkness. “Smaste just sounds silly.”

“Mother, is that you?” The young changeling looked around, unable to find her. “What time is it?”

“Just after sundown,” Ivory said, checking her watch. “About seven thirty.”

“So did you and Aunt Ivory find out what it was that… made me like this?” Dea swallowed the food in her mouth.

Both the elder changelings exchanged loaded looks.

“Now, I know this might come as a bit of a surprise, but after some… lengthy discussion, we both came to the same conclusion.

“This new smas- emotion,” Ivory corrected herself. “Tell me, have you recently become quite popular with the boys at your school?”

“Popular with the boys?” Dea tried to think back. The only guy friends she had were Jet Set, Sound Wave and Quillion Riposte. The others were really just acquaintances. “No, not really. In fact, I think I’ve likely become less popular after making a fool of myself today.”

“Strange…” Chrysalis could be heard in the darkness. Only her eyes were visible, faintly luminous in the gloom. “But then why…?”

“Why what, mother?” Chrysidea put her fork down.

“Why would that particular feeling be present at Diamond Prep Academy, if you’re not popular with the boys? Is there something you’re not telling us?”

“Crystal Prep, sister…” Ivory sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. Dea? You have something to say?”

“I-I don’t know, mother,” the young changeling replied shakily. “What do you mean? I’m n-not sure what you want me to say.”

“What she means to say is, have you given the male and or female population of your school to start wanting you?” Ivory asked sharply with a glare at Chrysalis’ general direction.

“To start wanting me?” Dea repeated, a slight blush creeping onto her cheeks in the dark. “I-I haven’t made any advances to anyone if that’s what you’re asking mother. I know you don’t want me in a relationship yet. I haven’t found any love in CPA either.”

“Good,” Chrysalis said. “But you must’ve done something else, Dea.”

“Hmm…” Ivory Wings put a hand to her chin. “Silver, the day I picked you up, the rude boy outside asked you to lift your skirt for him. Was there any reason for that?”

“Umm…” Dea’s face glowed red. “Th-that one was b-because… my shorts were p-pulled down during PE… So-someone took a picture and p-put it on the school newspaper’s website. B-But I’ve only been made fun of because of that. Nothing else...”

Chrysidea could see a flare of green fire in the darkness, coming from her mother’s mouth. “That’s it! Who did it? Who’s been bullying you now? I’m going to find them and rip their fingers off and feed them back to whoever’s been bullying my daughter. No one-”

“Chrysalis!” Ivory interrupted. “Please, we’re not here to murder anyone, at least not for this! We should handle this delicately. Preferably without violence. Now, Dea, do you know who did it? Was it that Sunny Flare girl again?”

Chrysidea looked at Mishter Schniffs, then held him close and nodded her head.

“Okay,” Ivory said with a nod of her own. “We’ll work a way to deal with her later. As for this picture on the website. Your students all have access to it, hmm?”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory. Could you call in and… and get them to take it down? It’s, um, pretty embarrassing…”

“I’ll get on that, but the damage has already been done. Now you’ve got at least half the population of Crystal Prep going after you, and that means there’ll be a whole lot of lust in the air.”

“L-Lust?”

“The smaste,” Ivory said, ignoring the snort from Chrysalis. “After a lengthy discussion, we’ve decided that’s what it was.”

“It’s something I get every now and then in the business,” Chrysalis said, staying out of the pathetic circle of light shed by the candle. “I am very attractive, so it’s only natural that a lot of humans would want me. You, however…”

“Wh-what about me?” Dea looked down at her hands.

“You might not know it, but you are moderately attractive in your Silver Rose persona. It’s a thing we go for when creating a persona. That, combined with the… photos, means that there are quite a few horny teenagers with your rear on their minds. Unfortunate, but that’s just how it is, from my point of view.”

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes. “Way to sugarcoat it, sister.”

“So that was what I was smelling?” Chrysidea looked between her aunt and where her mother was standing. “Their lust for me, just because of a picture with my pants down? But it felt so good.”

“That’s just the way it is,” Chrysalis said bluntly. “Lust is on a similar wavelength to love, though it’s not nearly as filling, and it starts getting old after a while. Especially when in the presence of actual love. Lust is like cake frosting, tastes nice and all, but ultimately not much more than a snack.”

“But I’ve tasted love from both of you. It-it isn’t even nearly as nice as this lust that I had this morning.” Dea snuggled Mishter Schniffs closer.

“That’s because you’re used to it from us,” Chrysalis explained patiently, her faintly luminous eyes shining. “What you tasted at school was new, and therefore, exciting. Why do you think we go for other humans? Because it tastes different than what we give each other.”

“I think it was a little too exciting.” Ivory rubbed Chrysidea’s back. “Don’t worry, sweetie. You’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

“If I’m going to wet myself and get a fever until I get used to it… I think it’s better I avoid it.” Dea liked the smell very much, but the cost was a little too high.

“I’m guessing the smaste will die down after a few days. There’s not all that much that can be extracted from a few photos of you in your underwear,” Ivory reasoned. “There’s plenty more hot material to be found on the internet. But I will call in tomorrow and get the photos deleted.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory…” Dea gave her aunt a hug. She, on the other hand, really needed one. “So if I’m still feeling like this tomorrow…”

“I think you should stay home tomorrow.” Ivory looked to her sister. “Rest up and get well before going back again on Monday.”

“Your aunt is right,” Chrysalis grunted in the shadows. “Stay home tomorrow. Let the students lust over your picture until your aunt makes that call.”

“Do I still get to go out tomorrow, mother?” Dea looked hopefully into the dark. “It’ll be Friday.”

“If you feel better by then. The same stipulations apply.”

“Yes, mother.” Chrysidea leaned against her aunt, who had an arm around her. “Thank you, mother.”

“Don’t you worry, dear.” Ivory lifted a hand and gently pinched the girl’s nose. “I’m sure you’ll be better by the afternoon. You’re already on your way there.”

Suddenly, Chrysidea’s room door opened, finally shedding light on her mother, who now had a hand on the doorframe.

“If that concludes our talk, then I’ll be off now. I have some late night acting to do, and I need to re-apply my persona.”

“Why did you even take it off for?” Ivory Wings asked.

“It was coming off anyway.” Chrysalis waved her hand dismissively. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

She quietly closed the door behind her, plunging the room back into darkness, except for Ivory’s candlelight.

“I’ll stay with you, Dea.” Ivory got off the bed, finally turning on the bedside light and blowing out her candle. “Keep you company until you fall asleep. Rest.”

“Thank you,” Chrysidea said, snuggling deeper into the blankets. “You’re… the best.”

In one hand, Chrysidea held her aunt’s, while in her other, she held her plushie around the neck, sighing with contentment. If there was ever someone she could share her problems with, it was her aunt. Aunt Ivory was always there for her, both smart and comforting when she needed them.

The young changeling hadn’t had lunch or dinner, but the love she was getting from her aunt was more than enough for a night of rest. Chrysidea closed her eyes, smiling at the corner of her mouth.

After an hour, Dea’s grip on her aunt’s hand loosened and relaxed.

Ivory Wings simply smiled and turned off the lamp, sending the young changeling into the land of dreams.

“Sleep well, young princess.”

Chapter 19 - A Chance Meeting

When Chrysidea had awoken that morning, the first thing she realized was that her fever had gone down. After almost a whole day of sleep, she was feeling much better, and she hadn’t even taken the medicine Nurse Cardiac had given her. In fact, the bag of medicine was in a bin beside her study desk.

After washing up and brushing her teeth, Dea had a simple breakfast of two eggs and a sausage before heading back to her room to finish her homework. She might’ve skipped out on school today, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have to finish her work.

She had even called ahead, asking Canvas Splash if there was any work for the classes they shared. Thankfully, there had been none.

The maids had been especially nice to her that morning, checking in on her every hour, asking if she needed anything. Dea replied politely, smiling to herself every time they sent her a bit of gratitude and care.

She was excited. She definitely felt well enough now, meaning she would be able to go out later when Adagio and the others got back from school, and Chrysidea couldn’t wait.

In the meantime, after settling her homework, the young changeling decided to head out to the second floor living room to hone her skills and knowledge on the Neighstation. She had yet to meet her mother’s character in the game. She recalled this game being around for decades, meaning her mother wasn’t exactly in this game. Dea figured she just needed to get far enough to see what her mother’s character looks like.

Dea was still in control of Bowman, her character from last time, but now, she had a second companion, another man named Dark Sorcerer, who’s face was pitch black, like he was wearing an executioner’s hood under his large orange hat. Chrysidea remembered this character, seeing as he was her mother’s love interest in the movie. He roughly looked the same, except that he had full facial features in the movie and that his hat was a lot smaller. The one in the game was huge.

Bowman and the Dark Sorcerer had already left their kingdom, heading to the outskirt towns to check on the damages. It was in a cave next to one of those towns did Chrysidea finally challenge her first boss. It was a dragon, but instead of arms, it had two more heads jutting out, but still used them as arms anyway.

“I feel sorry for those heads…” Dea watched them as they were used to walk forward towards her characters before the fight began.

The turquoise haired girl had already fought through plenty of little monsters, ranging from goblins to bears, to get to this boss, so she was fairly familiar with the combat mechanics by now.

The dragon boss proved more difficult to kill than all the other monsters and Dea had to revive the Dark Sorcerer once, but otherwise, she got through it without too much difficulty.

“Yeah!” she cheered. “I think I’m getting the hang of these. Video games are pretty fun.”

Once she arrived at the next town, Dea saved the game and powered down her Neighstation, going back to her room to just lounge around. She held Mishter Schniffs up and tossed him into the air, catching him when he came back down.

“Another day out, Mishter Schniffs!” she told him happily. “Where do you think we’ll go today?”

“Anything you want to see, Chrysidea?” her plushie spoke. “Any sights you want to see?”

“Hmm…” Dea put a hand to her chin and looked up at her ceiling. “I don’t know. I haven’t been around enough to know what to look out for.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll find something to amuse yourself with. Just look at how much fun you had on the escalator.”

“That is true…” Dea thought back to the fascinating machinery. “Well, I hope something interesting happens then. I can’t wait to see what’s in store!”

“If you hope enough, it might come true.”

“Really?” Dea looked in her doll’s eyes.

“I don’t know.” Schniffs tilted his head. “I really just said that to make you happy.”

“Oh…” Chrysidea stared gormlessly at her plushie before plopping him back onto her bed. “Well, okay then…Sometimes I really don’t get you.”

“Well… It really isn’t my fault.”

The changeling princess checked the clock in her room. One-forty five. She had been playing for a couple of hours. The sirens wouldn’t be home for more than an hour. Not feeling inclined to play more Finest Fantasy, she instead picked a book from her bookcase and lay down on her bed to read. It was a book on alchemy that seemed oddly familiar. Curious, Chrysidea turned to the front of the book, only to roll her eyes. It was a renaissance era book, written by none other than her own mother.

“Well, no point reading this.” She put the book back on her shelf. She had spent every other day of her childhood learning alchemy from Chrysalis, and was quite good at it, certainly better than some old book could teach her.

With nothing more to do, Chrysidea ended up heading back to the living room to play more Finest Fantasy. After all, she still wanted to meet her mother in game.

Sunny Flare sat in history class, busy counting her fingers back and forth, waiting for the bell to ring to release them to the next class.

Today had been supposed to be a good day. She and Sour Sweet had planned up a huge prank where she was going to dunk Silver Rose with a bucket of slime. She had bought it on her way home yesterday and she couldn’t wait to use it, but when today came, Silver Rose wasn’t here. She was sick today and that just put Sunny off.

She had wasted a lot of time planning for something she couldn’t do.

What a week of pranking… Or at least, it was supposed to be the whole week…

And since that day with the Trenderhoof incident, more of the boys had been getting bold, making kissing faces at her and them pointing at their backsides. It disgusted Sunny to think that there were these kinds of people here at Crystal Prep. Because of Silver Rose, they now refused to leave her alone without reminding her of that unfortunate event. And to compound matters, the school had deleted all of the photos of Silver Rose off the site. On the bright side, Principal Cinch still hasn’t found out who uploaded it.

“It’s all your fault, Silver…” Sunny watched as Mr. Fowl move to the next slide, which was a picture of an old castle. “You’re the one who’s made life harder for me… Just you watch. I’ll make you regret ever stepping foot into Crystal Prep Academy.”

“Did you say something, Sunny?” Mr. Fowl turned his bird-like head to her.

“Nothing, Mr. Fowl…” she said. “Just wondering how you’re so good at teaching.”

“Hmm…” the teacher replied, but continued his lesson.

Sunny thought about planning more pranks the next week. She didn’t know if she could keep it up everyday. Maybe once a week, or twice a month… She decided to talk to Sour Sweet about it after school. She refused to simply stop her pranks as long as Silver Rose fails to see that she needs to step off.

She had also heard what had happened to Silver yesterday, how she had suddenly collapsed outside before the first bell. Maybe she had caught something really harmful.

Serves her right… Sunny scoffed in her mind. She, of course, didn’t want Silver to die or anything. That wasn’t her goal, seeing as she wasn’t some sadistic crazy girl. But Sunny was willing to think that the new girl had gotten what she deserved after messing with her and the Shadowbolts. That’s your penance, Silver Rose. You better watch out!

Whatever happens in the following week, Sunny just knew that it wasn’t over between Silver and her. This was only the start of the war.

Moonglade stood in front of her closet mirror, brushing her hair, making sure it was all in place before doing a twirl. She smiled. Everything was in place as usual.

“I’m ready!” She threw her room door open and skipped along, all the way downstairs.

“You sure take your time, Moonglade,” Aria said, lounging on the couch.

“Hey, disguises take time,” Moonglade told her. “If I could get it done in five minutes, believe me, I’d like to do it.”

“Well, whatever. Can’t blame you.” Aria waved her hand and got up to a sitting position. “So are we going?”

“Yay! Another outing with Moony!” Sonata jumped on the spot.

“And another outing with you three!” Moonglade smiled. “Shall we? I’m excited to see what else we can find today.”

“Your aunt’s already waiting in the car.” Adagio pointed a finger to the entrance. “She says it’s up to you where you want to go today.”

“I get to pick?” Moonglade was overwhelmed. “But I don’t know anything about Canterlot.”

“Well, how about we go on a tour of Canterlot then!” Sonata suggested. “That’ll help you get the lie of the land.”

“Not a bad idea, Moonglade. She’s thinking for once,” Aria nodded. “But it’s lay of the land, doofus.”

“Hey, don’t call me a doofus!” Sonata complained, stomping a foot. Unfortunately for her sister, she had stomped down on top of her foot.

“Ow!” Aria hopped around, holding her hurt foot. “Really, Sonata? Ow ow ow!”

“I’m sorry!” Sonata looked guilty, but Aria waved her off.

“Girls, let’s just go. Please…” Adagio was on the verge of slapping herself in the face.

Moonglade decided to move along, ushering the sirens to the mansion entrance, wanting to just get out and explore the city. She just knew there was going to be plenty in store for her out there, just waiting for her to show up.

“Hey, sweetie!” Aunt Ivory gave her a warm smile as she entered the black car in front of the manor. “How’re you feeling now?”

“Good enough to explore Canterlot, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade buckled herself in. “This is going to be so exciting!”

“She wants to go around all of Canterlot, Ivory,” Adagio explained. “That way she can map it out in her head for future use.”

“That’s a very good idea,” Ivory said and turned back to face the front. “If you’re all set, then off we go!”

Moonglade looked out at all the different buildings as Ivory Wings drove down the hill and towards the outskirts of Canterlot city. Adagio pointed out at various different interesting locations, explaining what each one was, with Moonglade listening attentively and keeping her eyes out at the roads, mentally mapping out everywhere they went and remembering where the interesting places were.

Places she wanted to go around and see again were a pottery shop, a small shop that supposedly sold the city’s best milkshakes, a convenience store and a small theme park, just to name a few.

Clothes and jewelry never really did interest the young changeling. For clothes, she already had plenty, and they were likely all branded goods, the best of the best, given to her by her mother. As for jewelry, Moonglade just didn’t see the need to wear them. They just made you heavier and increased the chances of it snagging on to something, or worse, attracting the attention of the common criminals.

After a traffic light, Ivory returned to the pottery shop, stopping the car in a small parking lot nearby.

“First stop, dear.” She turned around and nodded. “When you’re done, come back and I’ll drive us over for some milkshakes. Looking at the time, I think that’s all we’ll have time for today. We’ll check out the rest another time.”

“Alright, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade opened the car door and stepped out. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with?”

“Someone has to stay and watch the car,” Ivory replied with a wink. “You enjoy yourselves out there.”

“If you say so, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade waved to her as the sirens joined her. “You’re missing out, Aunt Ivory, but we’ll see you later! Thanks for driving us here.”

“No problem. You girls have fun now.”

Moonglade and the sirens made their way around to the front of the stores along the road, looking for the pottery shop she had seen on the drive around. If she had remembered correctly, it was the third one from the carpark.

And she had been right!

Waltzing into the shop, Moonglade marveled at the various shapes of clay-sculpted bowls, jars and other assortments, ranging from ones as small as her palm to ones that stood a little more than half her height.

“Wow, check this all out!” She put her face close to one, adjusting her spectacles as she looked at it. “They’re so well crafted.”

“Yeah, not bad,” Aria Blaze said, looking uninterested as always.

“Ooh, look at that one.” Moonglade drew their attention to a glass windchime. “It looks and sounds so pretty!”

She brought a hand through it, closing her eyes as she listened to the sound it made.

Then she darted off to another section with waist high pots, peering into them through the top. As usual, some of the people around smiled and pointed at her, probably wondering what fascinated her so much.

“Looks like you’re having a lot of fun,” Adagio said, giving her a nudge.

“I’m away from home.” Moonglade looked back up. “Of course I’m having fun. All this is new to me. It’s like experiencing a whole new world.”

“Will you be buying anything?” Aria pushed a finger through a hole in a peculiar looking jar. “You seem really interested in these. Maybe those glass chimes?”

“Sure, why not?”

Moonglade plucked a chime from its mobile and quickly had it wrapped in a paper package by the clerk. She used her new credit card to pay for it, then shoved the wrapped windchimes into her handbag before thanking the clerk for her time and assistance. Thankfully, no one recognized her this time.

Just as she was about to call the sirens to leave, a loud crash outside made her jump.

“What was that?” Moonglade turned to look out the entrance. “Did you hear that, girls?”

“Hmm?” Aria waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, probably some accident. You know how it is with cars and stuff.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Adagio mentioned. “She’s never seen one before, have you, Moonglade?”

“Yeah, never.” Deciding to make it a first, the blonde haired girl left the store to have a closer look outside.

There was a stationary bus and car by the side of the road, and a roaring fire hydrant beside the car, its top gone, now spewing a tall pillar of water.

“Hmm… at least that’ll make sure there aren’t any fires.” Moonglade pointed at the fire hydrant.

“Always looking on the bright side, aren’t you?” Adagio quipped. “If our gems weren’t broken, this’d be a great place to gather some negative energy…”

“Yeah, maybe…” Moonglade looked at the man beside the car. He looked pretty angry about it all, but by the looks of it, this accident was likely his fault.

“Well, maybe we should get going.” Adagio turned around to beckon her sisters, but Sonata was nowhere to be seen. “Sonata? Oh, where did she go now?”

“I think she’s still in the shop.” Aria pointed a finger over to it.

“Ugh. Sonata!” the orange haired siren called one more time. “Come on, let’s go get her…”

Moonglade watched them go back into the pottery store, then looked back at the accident. The car’s front was dented, but the bus had escaped almost unscathed, with some minor bumps in the back. The girl didn’t see how the bus would be at fault in any way, but that was just her inspection of the scene.

The tan-skinned girl was just about to go back into the shop to look for the sirens when a boy on a bicycle caught her attention. He had blue hair and blue skin, and he was riding on the pavement, heading straight for her.

Reacting with only one thing on her mind, Moonglade held out her hand and grabbed one of his handlebars, channeling her love into her strength, stopping the bike completely. Unfortunately, the boy went flying above her, bouncing once on the cement pavement before stopping a meter away.

Oops…

Letting her reflexes take over, she knelt on top of the boy, her fingers hooked and ready to strike. Then her common sense reasserted itself and she pulled the boy back to his feet, dusting him down. He had on a blue stripey shirt over a white shirt with what looked like a baseball bat on it.

“Are you alright?” she asked him. He didn’t seem malevolent. He must’ve just been paying attention to the accident and didn’t see her in front of him.

He rubbed his head, smiling a little. “Oh, erm… I’ll live… Hey, I’m really sorry about that. Wasn’t looking where I was going. I should’ve been more observant.”

Aha. I was right.

“Yes, you should have,” Moonglade told him as she dusted her own coat and skirt. “You are not injured?”

The boy slightly puffed out his chest and put his arms on his hips. Moonglade laughed internally. He looked like he was trying to be all tough about it. It was rather amusing of him.

“Well… I guess I’m all good. It wasn’t too bad. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Moonglade thought about what to say to him. In the end, she went with, “No, you didn’t.”

“That’s good. Well, umm…” The young changeling watched him, noticing he kept glancing at her, then looking away almost as quickly. She smelled a tendril of something soft and tasty, but the boy kept concealing it from her. “Well, I’m Home Run. Nice to meet you, errm, and sorry for the trouble.”

The blonde haired girl saw no reason in hiding her name from him.

“Moonglade,” she said.

“Hmm?” The boy paused for a while, before realization struck him in the face. “Oh, your name! Oh, my bad. I was… that was silly of me.”

This boy is a little… airheaded, isn’t he? She laughed in her head. But why did I tell him my name?

He continued to stand there, until the situation started becoming a little awkward. Moonglade didn’t know what to do, so she nodded and headed back into the pottery shop, looking for the sirens. When she was far enough inside, Moonglade turned around again, watching the blue haired boy pick up his bike and cycle on, though a little wobbly. That fall must’ve really hurt.

She smiled to herself. That had been a fun experience, even if she almost got run over by him. She didn’t know anything about him, but he seemed nice. And he was a little cute too, in the sense of a dog trying to grab a frisbee and failing.

“Home Run…” she said. That was his name.

She eventually found the sirens, almost bursting out with laughter when she saw what they had gotten themselves into. Literally.

Adagio, Aria, and a store clerk were trying to help Sonata squeeze her head out of a tall ceramic vase, two of them pulling at her body, while the clerk pulled at the piece of pottery.

“Next time… Don’t stick… Your head in these things…!” Aria yelled at her sister as she fought to pull her head out.

“I just wanted to see what it looks like on the inside!” Moonglade heard Sonata wail from within the vase.

“You didn’t need to put your head in there!” Adagio complained.

“Sooorryyy...” Sonata whined as the clerk pulled particularly hard on the pot.

“Whatever, Sonata. Moonglade. Come here and help us pull.”

It wasn’t easy, but after about ten minutes of pushing and pulling, Sonata’s head came out of the pot with an audible pop!

“Aaaah!” She fell back against Aria and Adagio as the clerk stumbled back with the large vase. “Boy, I thought I was going to have to live with that on my head for the rest of my life…”

“Now I’m wishing you did…” Aria groaned underneath her blue haired sister.

Moonglade, who had gotten away unscathed, stood there, just barely containing her laughter.

“Well, if you girls are done now… Let’s head back. We’ve been here longer than we planned. It’s milkshake time!”

“Wow, is this the place?” Moonglade walked in with a hop in her steps as Ivory Wings held the door open for them.

“Yes.” Ivory smiled at her niece’s excitement. “This is where you’ll supposedly find the best milkshakes in town. I haven’t tried them, but I heard it said.”

“So does this work the same way as the food court at the mall? We just go up and order?”

“That’s right. Maybe you’d best ask the sirens what flavor they’d like.”

After a general consensus of Prench vanilla (Sonata), mint double fudge (Adagio), and I don’t care (Aria), Moonglade walked up to the counter, wallet in hand. She did keep a few bills in there for situations like this. A credit card for food was seriously weird, at least, that’s what Moonglade thought.

Moonglade got herself a strawberry milkshake and Aunt Ivory a chocolate one as she paid up for all five. Her white haired aunt helped her carry them as she accepted the change from the cashier.

“Thank you!” she said politely.

“You’re welcome,” the cashier answered with a smile. “Enjoy your drinks.”

“So what did you get for Aria?” Adagio looked at the drinks. “I’m curious.”

“Raspberry surprise,” Moonglade answered with a slurp. It tasted really good. “Hey, these really are the best. Well, best I’ve tried. Are they really?” She looked to the sirens and her aunt.

“Supposedly they are,” Ivory Wings said, pointing to some plaques on the wall. “They’ve won best establishment for a few years now. Stands to reason their products would be the best.” The elder changeling checked her watch. “Well, time to head back. Let’s go, girls.”

“Alright.” Moonglade took another slurp of her milkshake as she headed out, her internals all smiling from the delicious drink.

Sonata was really drinking it all down. She had taken a deep breath, then sucked at the straw, her milkshake’s contents already draining halfway mark.

The walk to the car was short and sweet, as was the journey back to the manor. All the girls had finished their drinks by the time the car pulled into the driveway, where they were greeted by Silver Platter.

“Did you have a good night out?” the butler asked amicably.

“Yep!” Sonata chirped. “It was great!”

“Sure was.” Moonglade pulled out the packaged windchime from her bag. “I got something new for the house.”

“Is that so?” Ebony Wings said as she glided gracefully from inside the house wearing a black silk shift.

“Mother, you’re home!” Moonglade excitedly unwrapped the glass chimes. “I got these. They’re really pretty.”

Ebony held up the windchime, listening to it tinkle in the evening breeze and gazing at how well the colored glass caught the light.

“It is very pretty,” she agreed. “Where would you like to hang it up?”

“Hmm, maybe over the front door? Or would that be too obstructive?”

“Over the front door it is,” Ebony said, handing the windchime to Silver Platter. “Please get it done as soon as possible.”

“At once, mistress.” The butler got to work immediately.

“So, did you have fun, my daughter?” Ebony waltzed back in through the hall.

“Yes, mother. Today was a great outing. We’re continuing my tour of Canterlot tomorrow!”

“That’s nice,” Ebony smiled. “Well, I have a gathering to get to tonight, so I won’t join you for dinner. We’re celebrating the end of our filming on The Error in our Suns.”

“I didn’t even know you were part of the cast on that one…” Ivory muttered.

“What? That’s what I’ve been working on most days and nights.” Ebony looked aghast at her sister. “That’s my current one besides my ads and video game voice acting. And you didn’t know, you say?”

“You never mentioned it by name,” Ivory said defensively. “But okay. Go and enjoy your party. We’ll be fine on our own, won’t we?”

“Yup!” Moonglade nodded. “We’ll be fine, mother. You have fun!”

Chapter 20 - It's the Most Fun in the Park

The next morning dawned bright and early on the Wings Estate, and it was with great enthusiasm that Moonglade left the squashy confines of her four-poster bed and joined everyone else at breakfast. Her mind was already brimming with excitement as she thought of where she and the sirens could go today.

Unfortunately, the moment she finished breakfast, Ebony Wings held up a finger, pointing it at Moonglade.

“Mrs. Crescendo Melody will be coming in about an hour to supervise your violin lesson. After that, then you’ll have your swordsmanship lessons with Ms. Lionstrike. After all that is done, however, I thought we might do some alchemy together, since I’m free. There are a few reagents that I’ve been working on that I think you’d be interested in learning about.”

“Yes, mother.” Moonglade tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, but Ebony must have smelled something, because her mouth twisted in a wry smile and said,

“Don’t worry, you’ll still have enough time to go fool around in Canterlot. The sirens have business with your Aunt Ivory anyway, so even if you didn’t have lessons, you still couldn’t go.”

“We have business?” Sonata Dusk looked at her sisters, confusion written all over her face.

“I want to talk about fixing your gems, remember?” Ivory supplied pleasantly. “After all that’s happened, I would think that would be one of your priorities?”

Sonata’s face cleared. “Oh. Yeah.”

Ebony Wings smiled thinly. “Well, now that everyone knows what they’re doing, let’s get to it.”

Everyone at the table got to their feet and began to head to their respective destinations, when Ivory glanced back at her sister, who was still sitting down, sipping coffee and reading the morning newspaper.

“Er, don’t you have somewhere to go?”

“Nah,” Ebony said with an outrageously fake yawn. “Not yet anyway.”

“But you just said-”

“I’m also the queen,” the actress waved a hand to shoo her sister away. “Do as I say, not do as I do.”

“So Equestrian magic destroyed your gems?” Ivory Wings watched the sirens nod their heads slowly.

“Yes…” Adagio Dazzle ended on a sour note. “And that’s how we lost our powers. Because of those Rainbooms…”

“Hmm…” Ivory crossed her legs and put a hand to her chin. “You know, girls… The first thing I want to address. Your plan. They had a lot of flaws and if you had done things differently, maybe you would’ve come out as the victors and the world would be yours. But you didn’t. I think you’ve spent too much time with my sister.”

Adagio wanted to say something, then she sighed and leaned back into the couch. “You’re probably right about that…”

“Oh, but don’t look so down, girls. Perhaps taking over the world wasn’t the plan for us anyway. See? Even my sister’s mellowed down a little, living here and making a name for herself instead of trying to rule the world.”

“She kind of does rule the world though.” Adagio pointed out. “I mean, celebrities are basically this era’s kings and queens.”

“Well, if you put it that way, but she’s doing it in a different way. A less violent way.” Ivory smiled and pushed up her glasses. “I like this way. So when I do manage to restore your gems, please, let’s live it out like we are now. Peacefully.”

“Woah, when did you suddenly become a peacebringer?” Aria asked the elder changeling.

“I’ve had time to think. Lots of it. And I’ve heard a few good opinions here and there, and I think they were all right. Violence should be saved as a last resort. But as Commander Vespa said, if fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight. I won’t shirk from a battle, but when there are alternative methods, why not try them first, hmm?”

“She certainly has a point.” Adagio looked at her sisters. “And now Chrysalis has a daughter to look after too. Times certainly have changed.”

“That being said, I think I’ll want to schedule a meeting with these ‘Rainbooms’. Do you know the name of their leader and how I can get into contact with them?”

“Twilight Sparkle, am I right?” Aria folded her arms and snorted.

“I thought it was Sunset Shimmer…”

“Sunset Shimmer? She was the outcast, remember? She tried to take over the school before we did.”

“But Sunset Shimmer’s the one who turned the tables on us in our hour of victory. She has to be a major player now.”

“So this Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer are directly involved with your gems breaking. And you say they have the gem fragments of you two?” Ivory pointed at Aria and Sonata. “Well then, it looks like I’ve got some plotting to do. Not to mention some alchemy.”

“Are you going to kill them?” Aria looked just a little bit surprised. “While I wouldn't mind, you were just talking about not killing anymore.”

“Nothing like that, Aria.” Ivory waved a hand. “We’re changed people, remember? I’m just going to have a friendly talk with them. Sort out an agreement of sorts.”

“Sounds great!” Sonata threw herself back on the couch and waved her hands around. “That way, no one has to die!”

“Hopefully, no one,” Ivory muttered.

“How are you going to get them to help, though?” Aria pointed out. “They spent an entire musical number beating us, why would they go back on the decision?”

Ivory Wings flashed the sirens a sinister smile. “I can be very persuasive when needs be,” she said with a chuckle, green fire shimmering in her eyes for a brief moment. “Now, tell me everything you know about these Twilight Sparkle and the Rainbooms. You know the saying, ‘Know thine enemy’.”

“Great work so far, Moonglade.” Ms. Lionstrike wiped her face with her towel. “You seem more dedicated with your attacks, but also, not to burst your bubble, you seem somewhat distracted.”

“Sorry, Ms. Lionstrike.” The girl pushed her sweaty locks of blonde hair from her face. “Just a little excited. I’m going out later.”

“You are? Well I hope you have a good outing, but for now, try to focus on the lesson. Remember, keep moving. The warrior who moves,” Lionstrike prompted.

“Her valor she proves!” Moonglade chorused back.

“And the warrior who stands still?”

“Is a target to kill.”

Ms. Lionstrike patted Moonglade on the head. “Very good, my student. Now, let’s go again.”

Giving her glasses a wipe, Moonglade continued her lessons, working on her footing and her timing, but she still had thoughts of the theme park and convenience store on her mind. He sparred to the best of her ability, but she still missed a few times and got hit a few times.

“And that concludes the lesson today, Moonglade.” Lionstrike drank deep from her water bottle. “Remember to keep your eyes on your opponent at all times. You’ve looked at the wrong place on a few rounds. Still thinking about your outing, I presume.”

“Sorry, Ms. Lionstrike. I’m just so excited.”

“It looks like I’ll have to excuse you for today then,” her teacher smiled. “You’re still a teenager. You have your life ahead of you. Well, go on then. I shall have my shower before I leave, so don’t mind me. Go have fun.”

As Moonglade packed up her sword and gear, she looked up and noticed the face of her mother peering down at the courtyard through a second storey window. Moonglade didn’t have to smell the air to tell that she was looking down with an expression of disapproval on her face.

Not wanting to be caught in her sights any longer, the girl packed up her gear and scurried off into the manor.

After taking a quick shower, Moonglade met up with the sirens in the second floor living room, just outside of their sleeping quarters.

“Ready to go? Ready to go?” She couldn’t contain her excitement, jumping up and down like Sonata did sometimes.

“Don’t you have alchemy with your mom?”

Moonglade’s heart sunk. “Oh yeah… I do…” She had forgotten all about it.

That was when Ebony Wings walked into the living room. “Not anymore you don’t. Your aunt has invaded the laboratory, and is cooking up lemonade or something in there. Either way, it’s her space now and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Then-then we can go out, mother?” Moonglade’s eyes sparkled.

“Yes, you may go.” Ebony looked at the sirens. “But before that, I would like to have a word with my daughter. Alone.”

Uh oh. Moonglade thought as she watched the sirens comply, closing the doors to the living room behind them.

“Sit, Moonglade.” Ebony directed her to the couch.

“Y-Yes, mother.” Moonglade hesitantly did as her mother asked, sitting on the longer couch, anxiously fiddling with her fingers.

“I understand you were distracted at your swordsmanship lesson today,” Ebony stated. She carelessly checked her fingernails.

The young changeling looked away, afraid to make eye contact. “I-I was, mother…”

“That simply won’t do, darling. You of all people should know that your lessons come first. You can’t afford to be sidetracked by a small thing like an outing. What’ll happen when you grow up and have to deal with more important things?”

“I’m sorry, mother,” Moonglade said with a sigh. “It’s just that going outside is so exciting and new, I can’t help but get worked up about it.”

Ebony Wings sniffed. “Well, just make sure you’re not distracted anymore, or I may have to cancel your little trips outside. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Alchemy will have to wait until tomorrow then. You may go.”

Ebony Wings stalked off, throwing open the living room doors and walking past the sirens. Moonglade sheepishly got up, rubbing the back of an arm. She’d never been this excited all her life and it had almost cost her her freedom. She couldn’t be like this, not again, if she wanted to be able to keep going out on the weekends.

Focus, Moonglade. She thought to herself. It would not do for her to become distracted again.

But for now, the young changeling could barely suppress her glee. It was time to go.

As usual, Aunt Ivory was already waiting in the car when she and the sirens got in. Their first stop was the convenience store. Moonglade had wanted to see it, because she was told that they sold all kinds of things you would need at the last minute. If she were to ever need something in the middle of the night, this was the place to go, if she were allowed out, that is. Though, her home basically had everything covered already.

“I’ll be here, sweetie.” Ivory parked the car in the nearby carpark. “Don’t take too long. The theme park is next, isn’t it?”

“Sure is, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade slid out of the car after the sirens. “We’ll be back soon!”

The convenience store was just around the bend from the carpark, a separate building from all the other ones, which had adjoining walls. There was a huge sign above the store’s roof, reading ‘Twenty-four Fifty-six’, which was likely the name of the store.

As they approached the entrance, the store’s glass doors slid to the side, allowing the girls to walk in. Moonglade marveled at how bright it was. It might’ve been a small place, but they sure spent a lot of money on the lighting. There were racks and racks of food, magazines, stationery, and rows of drinks in refrigerators.

“Woah…” Moonglade took her glasses off and cleaned them. She wanted to be sure she wasn’t dreaming. “This place is fantastic! If you ever really need anything quickly, this is definitely a good place to go.”

“It’s called a convenience store for a reason.” Aria stood by the doors.

Like in the pottery store, Moonglade darted from this display to the next, awestruck by the sheer amount of selections that were available for purchase.

“There’s so much of it…” she murmured. “How do I choose?”

“I think you already have enough of everything back at home, don’t you think so?” Adagio picked up a packaged sandwich. “Unless you’re looking for something more… normal. Everything your mother has is really classy.”

“Yeah,” Sonata added in. “I think everything in your home costs more than everything in here.”

That comment got the attention of some of the other people browsing the store. Some of them had their eyebrows creased, like they were trying to remember where they had seen Moonglade before.

“Umm…” Moonglade took interest in the magazine section, pulling out one to hide her face behind, pretending to read it. “Can we, uh, not make comparisons to home, especially around other people?” she whispered.

“Sure, if it makes you feel better.” Aria shrugged. “And by the way, that magazine looks like it’s for men.”

Moonglade closed it and looked at the front. It was a picture of Fast Bender, one of those famous actors her mother had worked with before. He was standing there with barely anything on.

“Um, right…” Moonglade grew red-faced and quickly put it back in the stand and headed for the door. “I think we should come back another time, don’t you girls agree?”

“Alright!” Sonata grabbed a heated sandwich from one of the stands and paid up before joining her sisters and Moonglade outside.

After getting back in the car, Ivory made a u-turn and headed for the theme park Moonglade had seen during her tour of Canterlot. Compared to the convenience store, this one sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun. It didn’t have things like rollercoasters that Moonglade had read about and seen on the internet, but it looked like it still had some rides worth the money.

In two more turns and a straight road down, Ivory Wings stopped the car in the park’s carpark, entering through an arched gate where some other cars were parked.

“Now, you’ll have about two hours until we need to head back home, so make sure to enjoy yourselves. Get some cotton candy or something. It’s been a while since I’ve been to one of these places myself, so take some pictures. I’ll see you all in two.”

Moonglade hopped out, walked around, and threw her aunt’s door open. “Come on, Aunt Ivory. This time, you’re coming with us.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly…” Ivory waved both hands at her niece.

“Come on, Aunt Ivory. Even you need to have fun sometimes.” Moonglade pulled her aunt’s hands.

“Well…” Ivory put a finger to her mouth. “Once in a while won’t hurt. You win, sweetie.”

“Yay!” Sonata shot her hands up. “Ivory’s coming with us!”

The older changeling smiled and patted the blue haired siren on the head. Moonglade figured they must’ve spent a lot of time having fun back when things were still going great for them.

“In that case, I’ll buy the tickets.” Ivory held out her wallet and walked to the ticket booth.

While the girls waited, a strange man with a white painted face, red nose, and funky green hair approached them, holding on to a whole cluster of colorful balloons. He had on a bright yellow suit and huge red shoes, almost as big as his whole calf. Possibly bigger.

“Hi, girls, would you like a balloon?” He smiled at them and gave his balloons a shake. “They’re free. Complimentary of the park. Today’s our fiftieth day open!”

“Oh, sure, thank you!” Moonglade picked a pink one. The weirdly decorated man gave them one more wave, then walked off to offer more of his balloons to other people.

“Wow, I’ve never held a balloon before.” Moonglade looked up at it and gave its string a tug, watching as it floated down, then up again. “And what was up with the man’s costume? He looks kinda strange.”

“That’s a clown,” Ivory Wings explained, returning with the tickets to the theme park. “They’re meant to be entertaining, though a large amount of the population finds them unsettling.” She shrugged. “I personally don’t care one way or the other.”

“I don’t find him unsettling.” Moonglade watched as the clown handed a small boy a blue balloon. “Though the makeup and outfit do look a little strange.”

“No kidding.” Aria deadpanned. “You know, I think I read a story once about a serial killer who dressed as a clown.”

“Oh, you mean your biography?” Sonata giggled.

“No, I was talking about your diary, Sonata.” Aria frowned.

“Hey! I don’t even keep a diary!”

“If I have a biography, you have a diary.” Aria prodded her sister’s chest with a finger. “And your diary is full of clowns and killers.”

Adagio introduced her palm to her forehead. “I’m not even going to bother pointing out how that doesn’t make sense…”

“Enough negativity, girls.” Ivory waved the tickets. “How about we go in and have some fun instead?”

“Sounds awesome, Aunt Ivory,” Moonglade agreed. “Come on! Let’s go see what they have!”

The bespectacled girl was the first through the turnstiles as she handed the ticket off to the attendant.

“Have a great time!” the attendant said.

Moonglade raced around the immediate area, marveling at all the different attractions from the entrance. She just couldn’t decide where to start.

“How about we start with the left.” Adagio pointed to a ride with teacups as seats. They were all connected to a pole in the middle.

“Let’s go!”

Moonglade waited impatiently in the queue, tapping a foot against the gravel. She kept sticking her head out to see if the queue was moving or not. When people got on the ride, it lifted them high in the air before spinning the teacups round and round, gaining speed as it went. It looked really fun.

After about five more minutes, Moonglade and the others were finally given a chance to get on the ride. Each teacup had six seats, which were not too comfortable, but decent enough. Strapping themselves in, the ride attendant pulled down a metal bar from above their heads, locking them in place.

“This is so cool!” Moonglade tapped on the metal bar excitedly.

When it was time, the teacups began rising up into the air, well over the ground. When they reached their maximum height, they began to spin. Moonglade held on tightly and smiled as it began to go faster and faster. Sonata and Adagio was screaming beside her and Aria was as bored as she always looked.

Does anything please that girl?

Moonglade soon joined in, yelling at the top of her lungs as the scenery whizzed past her face. She didn’t know why, but flying around the sky so fast was just so exciting. Maybe that’s why people like rollercoasters. It’s a pity this one didn’t have any, or she might’ve gone straight for one after this ride. Soon, however, the ride had to end, lowering itself down before coming to a stop. Moonglade got out and rearranged her curly blonde hair, then patted down her attire.

“That was… so awesome!” she smiled and jumped happily like Sonata does.

“I haven’t seen you this excited before, dear.” Ivory Wings patted her on the shoulder and adjusted her glasses. “You’re really enjoying yourself with this.”

“It’s just that I’ve never been to one of these before!” Moonglade ran on ahead, looking at the other attractions. “Have you girls ever been to a theme park? And you, Aunt Ivory?”

“I have a long time ago,” Ivory said. “You know, it was the first theme park in the world, actually. They didn’t have much back then, but it was entertaining during that time.”

“We’ve been to plenty.” Adagio smiled and gave her orange hair a flick. “But not in the last few years, no. We haven’t quite had the time, especially now that our gems are gone.”

“Well then we can come here more often!” Moonglade tried to cheer them up. “You girls deserve more for being with mother and Aunt Ivory for so long.”

“And as I’ve said many times…” Ivory put her arms around the three sirens. “I’m working on it. You’ll see. They’ll be back in shape one day.”

The next ride they got on was a short round in a cart around an old mine, where random skeletons in miner outfits would jump out from the darkness and scare you as the cart went on. Moonglade found herself screaming twice during the whole thing, but the rest of it wasn’t too scary for her.

When they had exited that ride, Sonata’s hair was all out of place, her eyes wide and her knees shaky.

“It wasn’t that scary, was it?” Aria looked at her sister with an unamused face. “You’re just a pansy, Sonata.”

“Hey, I’m not the pansy! You’re the pansy!” With that, the two sirens began squabbling again, much to Adagio’s ire.

“Okay, on to the next ride!” Moonglade said loudly and led the way.

The next one was something called ‘Bumper Cars’, which Moonglade was clueless about. How could a car possibly be a bumper? If a car crashed, it was pretty much totaled and had to be repaired or scrapped.

Her questions were soon answered when they arrived at the boxed attraction. In a rectangular ring were round colored ‘cars’, surrounded at the bottom with rubber. Each one was driven by an occupant, who steered them into other cars, bumping into them.

“So that’s why it’s called a bumper car…” Moonglade whispered. Then she turned to her aunt and the sirens. “It looks fun! Let’s go, let’s go!”

“Do you know how to drive, sweetie?” Aunt Ivory put an arm around her niece. “Has your mother at least shown you how a car works?”

“No, actually.” Moonglade shook her head. And she had never bothered to look at Silver Platter or her aunt when they drove.

“It’s easy enough,” Adagio began. “An accelerate and reverse pedal and a steering wheel. That’s all you need to take into account. One foot to go forward, one to go back. Then just turn the wheel and you’ll be moving about easily.”

“Sounds easy…” Moonglade shrugged. Hopefully it would still be easy when it was their turn in the ring.

“Well, whatever it is…” Ivory looked at her watch. “This will have to be the last ride for today, dear. Your mother expects us home by eight.”

“Already?” Moonglade groaned. “Time sure flies when you’re having fun, huh?”

When it was finally their turn, Moonglade found herself getting into a green car, belting herself in. An attendant stood by to instruct her what to do, telling her where all the controls were. Moonglade nodded each time, but she figured she would learn it when she actually got started driving and bumping.

There was a series of beeping sounds before Moonglade felt her car activate, along with everyone else’s. Stepping on the accelerator, Moonglade widened her eyes and smiled as she turned the steering wheel, getting a feel of the controls. Before she could get very far, she was rammed from the side by Adagio, who was smirking from ear to ear. After that, Sonata came from the other side, jolting Moonglade’s car again, but she didn’t care. She was having plenty of fun.

Moonglade tried her best to ram the sirens and her aunt, but she almost always ended up getting hit by someone else. There was a little obnoxious fat kid that seemed to enjoy targeting her, but Moonglade wasn’t skilled enough to chase after him.

Eventually, the ride came to an end as the attendants called the cars back. Moonglade hopped out of the small vehicle and skipped along after her aunt, who was already on the way out of the attraction.

“That was so cool, Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade said as she arrived alongside the elder changeling. “Sure, I’m not all that good at driving, but I really enjoyed myself.”

“I’m glad to hear that, dear.” Ivory rubbed the blonde girl’s head.

“You, Aunt Ivory? Did you have fun?” Moonglade put her hands behind her back.

“Oh, yes I did, sweetie. Thanks for getting me to get out of that car. I guess it’s good once in a while to enjoy myself. Sadly, we have to head home now. Your mother’s orders.”

“Shame… Well, at least we had a blast.”

“Sure did, Moony!” Sonata skipped alongside them. “Did you see? I got Aria soooo many times!”

“Did not,” the middle siren answered. “And if you did, I was cleaning my eyes. Those rides are dusty.”

“I clearly hit you both the most.” Adagio placed a hand atop her chest and smirked. “So it doesn’t matter. I won.”

“Oh, you girls are so fun to hang out with!” Moonglade snickered. Ever since her aunt and the sirens had come into her life, things haven’t been as boring as they usually were.

“I’m glad you’re so happy, Moonglade.” Ivory put a hand around her. “Come, let us return home and tell your mother what she missed.”

Chapter 21 - Gathering for the Games

When Monday arrived again, Silver Rose found herself getting out of the car and walking through Crystal Prep Academy’s front doors, heading for her homeroom class. Just in case, she had kept a paper mask in her backpack and breathed through her mouth when she passed by groups of students. She didn’t want to make a fool out of herself and wet her panties again.

Just keep calm, Silver. The pictures are gone… Maybe they forgot all about you already?

Some students looked at her, but soon got back to their conversations like she wasn’t all that important. Silver Rose didn’t mind. She prefered it if the attention wasn’t focused on herself.

Soon, Silver found herself in homeroom, managing to get there without incident. Only when she had sat down in her seat did she allow herself to relax and breathe in. No one had talked to her before the bell rang, finally signifying the start of class. For once, Silver wanted class to start.

“Settle down, settle down…” Ms. Script said as she stood up and cleared her throat as the sound of the bell died down. “We have more poetry today, class. I hope you’ve improved. Canterlot High has been on the rise this school year. You’re not going to show them your poetry skills are lacking, are you?”

“We’ll get this right, Ms. Script, don’t you worry…” Sour Sweet smiled sweetly. “Canterlot High isn’t going to ever beat us at anything!”

“That’s right.” Fleur leaned back and folded her arms. “We haven’t lost ever. We’re not losing this time.”

The rest of the class voiced their agreement, except Silver, who simply watched from her seat. There was a lot of ambition and pride in the air and it wasn’t the best of tastes. The only other student besides herself that wasn’t giving out this air was Twilight Sparkle behind her. Silver could smell a bit of fear coming from her.

“What’s the matter, Twilight Sparkle?” Silver slightly turned her head and whispered. “You don’t seem too happy about this.”

“Nothing’s wrong.” The lavender girl shook her head. “It’s just that… all this doesn’t really concern me.”

“Oh. You’re not excited to win, like the rest of your classmates?” Silver looked at her. She was different. She could even smell the difference.

“No, I’m not really interested in that…” Twilight looked back at her textbook.

Interesting specimen, this one… Silver turned back to the front of class as Ms. Script began another unfathomable lecture of poetry.

Sunny Flare tapped her fingers against her arm anxiously as she waited outside Principal Cinch’s office with the other Shadowbolts and a few other students. Just last period, they had been called up to the principal’s office for unknown reasons, so here they were.

“What do you think she wants to see us for?” Lemon Zest turned down her headphone volume, just for a little while. “We’re not in trouble are we?”

“Maybe we’re here because our grades haven’t been all that good?” Suri Polomare checked her nails and shrugged. “I doubt that. Mine are great.”

“Maybe we really are in trouble then…” Trenderhoof had a slight blush on his face. Sunny looked at him and frowned. She still hadn’t forgotten what he had done to her that day. The nerve he had...

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Indigo shook her head. “If anyone’s in trouble, it’s Sunny.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!” Sunny turned on the athlete.

“Exactly what it says,” Indigo replied. “You’ve been causing trouble for Silver Rose since the first week. We told you to stop, but did you listen? No, you refused.”

“Maybe it would’ve been different if you had stood by me against her!” Sunny folded her arms and looked away. “Well, I didn’t need you then and I certainly don’t need you now!”

“Can you two please stop yelling?” Sugarcoat sighed and pushed them apart. “You two haven’t been talking all week and once you meet up, this happens. I think I prefer it when you both don’t say anything.”

Just then, the principal’s office door opened, revealing Dean Cadance, who flashed the students a stern look.

“Girls, we can hear you from inside,” she told Sunny and Indigo. “You two are friends, aren’t you? You shouldn’t be fighting. And what’s all this about causing trouble for Silver Rose? Was it you, Sunny? Were you the one who put up her… questionable pictures on the school’s newspaper website?”

“Errm…” Sunny scratched at the side of her head.

“It was her, Dean Cadance.” Sugarcoat pushed up her glasses.

“Sugarcoat!” Sunny’s face turned red.

“What are you yelling at me for?” The white haired girl folded her arms. “You should be yelling at yourself.”

Dean Cadance looked between them, then sighed. “Sunny, we’ll talk about this later, but for now, Principal Cinch wants to see you all. Please, go right in.”

The inner sanctum of the principal of Crystal Prep was dark and dimly lit, as usual. The students who had been called slowly entered the office. As was the custom, Cinch’s chair had its back facing them. All eleven students huddled together in a group, waiting for the inevitable moment when Cinch’s chair would rotate and face them.

They didn’t have to wait for very long.

With an audible creak, Crystal Prep’s principal turned her chair around, her fingers steepled in front of her face.

“Ah, good. You’re here. I’ve been expecting you.”

“Didn’t you hear us shouting outside?” Sour Sweet made a funny face, then quickly looked apologetic. “I’m sorry we made such a ruckus, Principal Cinch.”

“So what are we here for, Principal Cinch?” Upper Crust held on to one of Jet Set’s arms.

“W-We’re not in trouble… are we?” Trenderhoof stammered. Sunny gazed at him intently. She hoped he was in trouble.

“No, Mr. Trenderhoof, you are not. Rather the opposite, in fact.”

There were a series of quizzical looks from the students.

“Hah?” Indigo Zap said.

“The reason I’ve called you here today is to discuss the upcoming Friendship Games. As you might know, Crystal Prep always chooses its best and its brightest for the Games and I am pleased to say, you students have been chosen to participate in the Friendship Games, though, it shouldn’t be a surprise to you Shadowbolts, yes?”

“Of course not!” Indigo suddenly looked proud. “We’re the best this school has to offer. Not one second did we doubt you would pick us.”

“So I take it that there are no objections?” Cinch said, her smile growing wider. “You are all willing to participate? That is good.”

“Anything to prove that we are superior to Canterlot High, Principal Cinch.” Jet Set polished his glasses and held his head high. “Right, Upper Crust?”

“You’re looking to get back at that baseball boy from middle school, huh?” She nodded her head. “But yes, we won’t let Crystal Prep down, Principal Cinch.”

“Yeah, no way we’re losing to that school!” Lemon Zest cheered.

“Hmm…” The principal steepled her fingers together. “Exactly what I want to hear, my loyal students. We must uphold my legacy of this school. We’ve won every single competition against Canterlot High School and any other school, really, so we must keep up our tradition. I’m glad to see all of you agree with me on this. Looks like I have nothing to worry about from you. That is all, you may leave.”

Sunny Flare nodded and quickly rushed out, exiting the office first. She briskly walked down the hall, hoping Dean Cadance had forgotten about the talk she wanted to have with her. Sunny wasn’t sorry. Silver Rose deserved every little thing that happened to her.

“You think we’ll win this, Sunny?” Sour Sweet caught up with her and asked. “Because Canterlot High is going down!”

“Of course we will.” Sunny slammed a fist into her palm. “We’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

“Well, we’re not going to win if you keep things up, Sunny, just saying.”

Sunny angrily turned around to Indigo Zap and Lemon Zest. “Oh yeah? Well I didn’t need your help for Silver Rose and I certainly won’t need your help for winning the Friendship Games!”

“Technically speaking, you do,” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “It’s a team effort. That’s why Cinch picked out the eleven of us.”

“Isn’t the team number twelve?” Lemon Zest looked at them, puzzled. “We’re one short.”

“Huh? Hey, you’re right!” Indigo said, doing a quick headcount. “Do you think they’ll ask Silver Rose?”

“They better not!” Sunny flared up. “If they add that bitc-”

“Hey, hey! Watch it!” Indigo stepped towards her. “Seriously, what is your problem with her? She’s done nothing to you since the first day. You retaliated first! You deserved getting kissed by Trenderhoof on the butt. Why can’t you just be friends?”

“What, friends with her like how you are friends with me?” Sunny folded her arms. “That doesn’t seem too hard. I just need to betray her like you lot betrayed me, right?”

“That’s not fair, Sunny,” Lemon Zest grumbled.

“Your ability to debate this point seems to be impaired by your current feelings toward Silver Rose,” Sugarcoat said. “Maybe you should calm down, think about this more rationally.”

“No, I’m not going to listen to anything you say, Sugarcoat.” Sunny prodded a finger in the girl’s chest. “If you want to side with Silver, then why don’t you go do that? I don’t need any of you. Only Sour Sweet’s still loyal to the Shadowbolt name. Only she still deserves to be my friend!”

Even Sour Sweet looked uneasy at this claim, suddenly becoming interested in the tops of her shoes.

“M-Maybe we should tone it down a bit…” Sour Sweet mumbled. “I mean, haven’t we already done enough?”

“No, no, no, no, no. Don’t you turn on me too, Sour Sweet.” Sunny looked at her. “Not now. Until Silver Rose learns her place below us, we’re not done.”

“See?” Lemon pointed at the pink haired Shadowbolt. “Sour Sweet thinks so too! You’re going too far with this… obsession, Sunny. You’ve got to stop this.”

“No, she doesn’t. Do you, Sour Sweet?” Sunny waited for her answer.

“Well, I was just thinking maybe we should tone it down a notch. I mean, that last prank we pulled bordered on sexual harassment. Wouldn’t want to go to jail or anything, right?”

“Well, whatever it takes, I want to see her suffer. I want to see her break! I can’t stand it that she seems to get away with everything. We need something bigger, Sour Sweet.”

“Just leave her alone, Sunny! Gosh!” Indigo threw her hands up. “She’s not bad, you know? Just talk to her. She’s nice.”

“Just shut up!” Sunny wanted to slap her, but she stopped herself. “Sour Sweet, what do you think? Are you with me or are you with them?”

“I don’t want to deal in absolutes here…” Sour said. “Maybe we should kick it down a bit, you know? I mean, we have the Friendship Games to get ready for, right?”

Sunny Flare was still recovering from her sprained ankle, so she still couldn’t participate in PE or basketball, but right now, she was just furious. Had all her friends just turned against her to side with the new kid who thought she was better than all of them? Sunny wasn’t going to admit defeat. That would only give Silver Rose something to rub in her face.

“I can’t believe you…” Sunny muttered, then she pushed past the other Shadowbolts and stomped off. “If you’re not with me, then I’ll do this myself! I don’t need any of you!”

The other Shadowbolts watched her go.

“Think we should go after her?” Indigo asked.

Lemon Zest shrugged and placed her headphones back around her ears. “Nah. She’ll get over it.”

“Will she?” Sugarcoat looked at the fleeting Sunny Flare with a sigh. “I don’t think it’s that simple.”

“There’s nothing else we can do now…” Indigo stretched her arms back. “We’ve got the Friendship Games to get ready for. I suggest we leave Sunny to do what she wants while we get our game on.”

The girls nodded in agreement and set off back toward their classes, the prospect of the Friendship Games weighing on their minds.

During lunch, Silver Rose had gotten her lunch and made her way to her usual table, where Canvas Splash was already waiting. No one else ever seemed to want to sit with her except for the pink haired painter. Silver had other friends too, she knew that much, but she guessed they had other friends to sit with during lunch. She didn’t blame them. She was new, after all.

“This mashed potato is good,” Canvas said happily after swallowing. “Usually it's a little tough. They must’ve done something with the recipe.”

“I hear adding milk to the potatoes before mashing them helps with the consistency,” Silver said. A few days ago, Sonata had showed her a video of a Northern cook who had used a mace to mash his potatoes, adding milk and salt to it.

“Milk, huh?” Canvas looked at the mash. She had begun drawing a face into it using the back of her spoon. “Well, whatever it is, someone must’ve told the cook or something, because you know, it was almost as hard as a brick before. Exaggerating, of course.”

“It sure was, Canvas.” Silver rested her head on a hand, watching her friend create a work of art with her food. Life outside home really was enjoyable. She breathed in the wafting smell of happiness from the painter, but then stopped first and looked around, just in case there was any lust in the air. She didn’t want a repeat of what happened on Thursday.

“Something wrong, Silver?” Canvas asked without looking up from her food.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong.” Silver shook her head.

“It’s not Sunny again, is it?” Canvas looked up and homed her sights in on Sunny Flare, who was seated at a table on the far end, but surprisingly, by herself. “She just doesn’t give you a break, huh?”

“It’s no big deal,” Silver said, taking a bite of her meal. “I mean, how much damage can one person do?” The hypocrisy of this statement did not evade Silver, as she thought back to all the stories her mother had told her about the early days. One person, or changeling, could do a metric ton of damage in the right place at the right time.

“No big deal? I’m pretty sure she was the one to post the pictures of you on the newspaper’s website. That could’ve been pretty bad if the school didn’t take it down. What if Sunny took a more… private picture of you? That would definitely be really bad. I don’t know, Silver. I really don’t know what she has against you. You haven’t done anything odd or wrong, right? Like, I know she enjoys messing with me because I talk to myself and such, but you? I don’t know.”

“According to Sour Sweet, I’m being targeted because I’m ‘trying to be better than the Shadowbolts’,” Silver rolled her eyes. “Isn’t the whole point of this school to show off what we can do? I mean, that’s the smell- er, vibe that I’m getting from being enrolled here.”

“That is true…” Canvas tapped her spoon against her chin. She forgot that the tip was now covered in mashed potatoes, nor did she seem to notice when she left a clod of it on her chin. “But I guess being the best of the best, they want to be at the top. I mean, look at me, for example. I like painting, but when someone else does better than me, I feel I have to put in more effort, you know?”

“Is that how everyone here thinks?” Silver finished up her lunch and put her utensils down. “Kinda seems that way to me. Everyone wants to be the best, no matter what.”

“Well, that no matter part only applies to some people… I think.” Canvas scooped up more of her mashed potato. “For me, I don’t like stepping on other people’s feet, so I kinda stick to myself and work quietly. I work to be the best in my own space.”

“That’s good of you, Canvas.” Silver patted the artist’s shoulder.

“I think so too, Silver,” Canvas said and chewed on more of her lunch.

Silver was about to say more, but she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She turned around and saw that it belonged to Dean Cadance.

“Hi, Dean Cadance,” Silver greeted. “What can I do for you? Is there something you need from me?”

“Hey, Silver Rose. Principal Cinch wants to see you in her office. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. She just wants a word with you. Take your time. You can go when you’re done with your lunch,” the nicer school head told her.

“Oh, okay.” Silver looked at Canvas. “I’m pretty much done, so I guess I can go see her now. I’ll see you later, Canvas.”

“Oh, sure, Silver, go ahead.” The painter waved as Silver left with Dean Cadance.

When they were out of the canteen, Dean Cadance decided to ask, “How are things in school so far, Silver Rose? Not too bad, I hope? I know of some of the things that happened recently and I apologize if your first few weeks here haven’t been too pleasant.”

“It’s been alright,” Silver said amicably. “I’ve made a few friends, and the pictures got taken down, so there’s no need for mother to sue the school.”

“Oh,” Dean Cadance said nervously. “Well, that’s… good.”

When they arrived outside the principal’s office, Dean Cadance knocked on the door, then pushed it open and held it open for Silver.

“Go on in, Silver,” the dean said.

Silver Rose looked on into the darkness, then walked in, keeping her eyes on the dim light bulb above Principal Cinch’s desk. As soon as the door closed, Silver’s eyes began to water. Cinch’s office really did smell and taste awful, and it was strong enough that she could sense it without concentrating. There was just too much slow-cooked ambition and pride in here, far more than from any one of the students.

Looking on the tiny sliver of the bright side, at least her office didn’t smell like lust. She didn’t know what she was going to explain to Principal Cinch if she had an accident here.

“Umm… Principal Cinch?” Silver asked, close enough that she could touch the wooden desk. “You asked to see me…?”

The chair swiveled around, and Silver barely restrained herself an eye roll. Why the principal decided to always face her back to the door was something Silver didn’t understand. Did she have a second desk behind her back where she worked, or did she simply do it for the sake of a dramatic reveal? And why couldn’t her office be better lit? Even with her advanced vision, the whole space looked murky, reminding her of a swamp. It certainly smelled bad enough to be one.

“Why, yes. Miss Rose, I have called you here to speak of a great opportunity for you.”

“Great opportunity?” Silver looked up, trying to guess what this opportunity might be. In the end, she had but one idea, seeing as it was coming up sometime soon.

“Why to participate in the Friendship Games, young lady. I’ve already chosen the first eleven students who will be participating, and I want to pick you as our twelfth and final student.”

“Y-You want me? To be in the Friendship Games?” Silver pointed at herself apprehensively.

“That is correct,” Cinch replied, steepling her fingers. Silver noticed she did that a lot. “After looking through your academic records, I think that you would be a fine addition to the Crystal Prep team.”

“Umm…” Silver scratched at her pink and grey hair. She didn’t know what kind of records Cinch was looking for, seeing as she hadn’t even been here for two months yet. “Do-do I get a say in this, Principal Cinch?”

“Certainly you do. What event would you prefer to take part in? I have a comprehensive list of every event that is to be announced at the Games.”

“No, I mean, do I get a choice in whether I take part or not?”

Now it was Cinch’s turn to look puzzled. “Well, yes, but why would you not want to? It is a prestigious position of the highest degree.”

“Well…” Silver decided to stick with the truth. “I’m… I don’t think I’m cut out to represent the school. I have-I have a little bit of stage fright, Principal Cinch.”

“Nonsense. Why, you won’t even be in the spotlight. There are eleven other students to blend in with.”

“Besides, you’ve seen my grades,” Silver pointed out. “My grades in home ec and math aren’t very good. Aren’t those the kind of events that the Friendship Games entail?”

“Not all our students excel at everything, Silver,” Cinch went on. “Don’t worry about those two subjects. Your strengths lie elsewhere. Take your physical ability, for example. Your skills clearly outclass our best. I heard about your jump over the Shadowbolts. Simply amazing. So what do you say? Will you participate?”

Cinch looked incredibly desperate to get Silver on the Friendship Games team, but Silver still wasn’t convinced. She didn’t want to participate.

“I still don’t think I’m qualified,” Silver Rose said determinedly, looking for a way out of this foul-tasting conversation. “Why don’t you pick someone like…” Silver racked her brains for a more suitable candidate. “...Twilight Sparkle? Her grades are far superior to my own.”

Cinch brought a hand to her chin. “I was hoping to enlist your help, Silver Rose. It is unfortunate I could not convince you.”

Silver held her breath as a wafting stream of disappointment erupted around her principal. It tasted really bitter and it began to make her eyes tear up.

Silver desperately wanted to turn tail and run to the nearest bathroom to retch, but her good upbringing prevented that. So there she sat, breathing in the horrible smell, waiting for Cinch to make a move.

Principal Cinch stood up and crossed over to where Silver was seated, her arms behind her back. “I cannot ask you to reconsider, can I? My sources say it will be a hard fight this year.”

“Thanks, but no thanks, Principal Cinch. Well, I wish you the best of luck in finding someone to complete the team,” Silver said, edging out of her seat.

“Hmm…” Cinch lifted her glasses. “How unfortunate. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking you wanted to strive for the best. I shall hope to find someone as skilled as you, Silver Rose. Let’s hope it won’t be end of our reputation. I’d certainly hate to see a loss on our record.”

I couldn’t give less of a hoot about your reputation, Silver thought as the unpleasant flavor of Cinch hit her tongue. Just let me out of here so I can throw up in peace.

“I suppose that concludes our meeting, Cinch said, turning her chair back around. “Good day, Miss Rose.”

Needing no more encouragement, Silver Rose sprinted from the office and to the nearest bathroom.

Dean Cadance watched the girl leave Cinch’s office, slamming the door behind her. The dean glanced over to her superior, who had her back facing her. The principal seemed to be deep in thought.

“Dean Cadance?” Cinch asked after a long moment of silence.

“Yes, Principal Cinch?”

“Do you know of any way we can get Silver Rose to participate in the Friendship Games?” The blue-skinned woman turned around and looked at Cadance. “Surely with her on the team, we won’t have to worry about anything Canterlot High decides to throw at us this year.”

“She did already say she didn’t want to participate…” Dean Cadance reasoned. “Why not leave it at that?”

“Because… you’ve seen what she can do, Cadance. Or at least, you’ve heard what she can do. She leapt right over the Shadowbolts. Right over. Don’t you think that’s a fine skill? Imagine what she could accomplish for us if she were participating.”

“Yes, but you can’t force a student to participate. They have to comply by themselves,” Cadance reminded. “There are rules to be followed, Principal Cinch.”

“Yes, yes, I know. Rules.” Cinch returned to her seat and leaned back. “But imagine her potential! She could very well win the Games for us single handedly.”

“But as long as she doesn’t want to take part, we should leave her be. It’s her choice whether she wants to be in the Friendship Games or not.”

“Unfortunately, that is the case, yes.” Cinch folded her arms. “It seems I will have to look elsewhere for our twelfth student. Though, I might already have a idea who…”

Chapter 22 - Sunny's Schemes

Sunny Flare sat alone in her home’s living room, dressed in her pajamas, the remote control in her hand and in bowl of chips in her other. Her parents were still out at work and her little brother had basketball practice today, so she had the whole house to herself.

After heading home today, Sunny had gone straight to her room and flopped on her bed, yelling into the pillow. She had been betrayed by the ones she had called friends, the ones who now thought that Silver Rose was a better friend than she was.

Sunny just couldn’t stand it. Since enrolling, the daughter of Ebony Wings had somehow managed to ruin life for her in just about every aspect. Sunny found she wasn’t concentrating well enough in classes, she wasn’t getting her homework done fast enough, she had to sit out from sports because of her recovering ankle, and now her friends had all turned away from her.

Deciding to try to calm down a little, Sunny had gone to have a shower and changed into her pajamas early. She figured watching TV would help with distracting her mind a little.

Putting in one of her favorite films in the DVD player, Sunny had sat back and watched Epimetheus, a story of a space exploration gone wrong. Since young, she had been a big fan of horror and thriller movies. Sunny figured that she liked feeling on the edge of her seat and the thrill of the film, like when people rode on roller coasters.

As a bonus, the movie starred her favorite actor of all time, Fast Bender. The brown haired man was usually acting as some cool guy and Sunny liked those roles. In this movie, he was an android assistant, but that didn’t mean his acting was worse. It just showed that he was capable of acting in a lot of roles, just like Ebony Wings. Sunny also thought that he was incredibly handsome. She held back a squee as the movie began, the camera bringing up a view of space.

The mulberry haired girl smiled to herself when Fast Bender came on screen, piloting the shuttle down to the planet surface. She absolutely adored him.

The movie had suddenly gotten quiet as the characters readied themselves for the exploration, but a sudden shrill sound beside the girl made her jump in her seat. Picking up her phone, Sunny sighed as she looked down at the caller ID. It was Sugarcoat.

“What do you want now…?” Groaning, Sunny accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. “What, Sugarcoat? I’m busy. What do you want?”

“Sunny, look. I wanted to talk. Things have been very out of hand lately between all of us.”

“Yeah, so?” Sunny raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’re here to apologize, I don’t see a reason for us to talk.”

There was a loud sigh on the other end. “Sunny, can you please stop being like that? You’ve let this obsession with Silver Rose get the better of you. You’ve chased away everyone close to you, Sunny. It’s not our fault that you don’t want to talk to us now.”

“No, no I won’t,” Sunny barked. “You’ve never said anything when I do this to others. Why do you only want to stop when it comes to Silver Rose? What has she done for you? Has she promised you an autograph from her mother? Why are you supporting her and not me?”

“Other times, you’re not this… desperate to get back at others. You’ve let this go on for too long. Have you even heard yourself? You sound crazy, Sunny. Just stop this and we’ll be your friends again.”

“You know what then? We’re not friends and we never will be. You’re all useless! I thought I could count on you all to help me out, but I guess I was looking for help in the wrong place.”

“Okay, if that’s the way you want it, then fine, Sunny. From here, you’re on your own. Go on and destroy your life. Have fun ruining yourself.” Then the line clicked off.

Sunny had to resist the urge to throw her phone across the living room as she stared at her reflection in the now black screen. The other Shadowbolts had abandoned her, but she wasn’t done yet. Silver Rose had torn them apart and she was going to pay.

Pressing the pause button, Sunny stalked up to her room and pulled out a sheet of paper from her school backpack. It was a list of pranks she and Sour Sweet had come up with when the other Shadowbolt was still her friend.

Right now, none of these pranks seemed fitting enough to get back at Silver Rose. Sunny wanted it to be bigger, to be more embarrassing. She wanted to ruin Silver Rose’s life.

The mulberry haired girl continued to stare at the paper, tapping a pen to her lips as her brain worked. Everything she thought of didn’t seem embarrassing enough to teach the new girl a lesson. Sunny still wanted to look bigger.

Groaning, she looked over to a poster of Fast Bender by her window, wishing he would just walk out of that desert landscape in the poster and help her out with all this. Of course, the actor continued to smile and stayed unmoving, clutching his stetson on his hip.

The Shadowbolt rubbed at her hair and buried her face in a purple bear plushie, still at a loss of what she could do. Surely there had to be something that would embarrass Silver Rose greatly. Pulling down her shorts during PE had worked out quite well, but it wasn’t enough. Then Sunny thought about it. What would happen if it wasn’t just her shorts that had been pulled down? What if Silver had lost all her clothes instead?

Then the girl smirked deviously to herself. What if somehow, she could make all of Silver Rose’s clothes disappear, like during PE when the girl was showering? Sunny rubbed her hands together as she tried to think of the possibilities of this prank.

They had hidden her shoes before and that had been quite easy. Pulling down her shorts had also seemed easy enough, so maybe, just maybe, stealing her attire would also be as easy. She couldn’t count on Sour Sweet or the others anymore, so this time, she would have to do it herself.

The only problem was that she had to think about and perfect the plan herself, so she told herself she would give Silver a few days, maybe a few weeks, at least until she had masterminded a good way to steal Silver’s clothes and embarrass her.

Sunny wanted this plan to be perfect. She wanted this to be it. If Silver would comply and fall in under them, then there wouldn’t be much more reason to teach her her place anymore. Sunny could go back to her normal life of scoring high marks in her classes, beating others in basketball, and maybe even making some more friends. There was no way she was going to go back to her other friends to apologize. She felt that they had wronged her by not standing with her in these trying times. If there was any apologizing to be done, they were the ones that should apologize to her.

This plan was going to be the big one. The mulberry haired girl just couldn’t wait to see what she could really come up with.

“You won’t be ready for this one, Silver Rose…” Sunny rubbed her hands so much that it looked like she could start a fire. “You led me to this… Whatever will happen, it’s all on you for ruining my life. An eye for an eye, Silver.”

Leaving her room, Sunny Flare returned back downstairs to continue her movie. At least she could always count on the dashing Fast Bender to cheer her up.

“Are you feeling better, sweetie?” Aunt Ivory Wings poked her head through Silver Rose’s door. “I brought you a glass of watermelon juice. It’ll help.”

“Somewhat better Aunt Ivory,” the pink-grey haired girl smiled, though her mauve colored face still looked slightly green. “Thanks for the drink.”

“Mhmm. Anything for my favorite niece.” Ivory ruffled up the girl’s hair. “And about this. You can’t keep getting sick every time you breathe in smells you’re not used to. We’re going to have to do something about it, sweetie.”

“I know, Aunt Ivory, but I didn’t know before hand that she was going to have so much ambition and stuff today…” Silver gulped down some of the juice. It was really refreshing.

“It might’ve not been the ambition, but don’t worry about it, Silver,” Ivory said, stroking her niece’s hair. “What’s done is done. However, we’re going to have to see about boosting your immunity to these smells. That way, you won’t miss too much school.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.”

“But I guess for now, rest, Silver.” Ivory got off the bed. “I’ll have to see about arranging a testing range to help you out. I’ll talk with your mother about it when she gets back. You better call your friend again, tell her that you’ll need to know the homework tomorrow.”

Silver sighed, but she knew her stomach still wasn’t feeling too good. “Yeah, I’ll do that, Aunt Ivory. I have a question. Why aren’t you or mother affected by any of it?”

“We adapted,” Ivory said plainly, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “Changelings are among the most adaptable creatures on the planet. We can filter and choose what emotions we absorb, while blocking out the undesirable ones. It takes a lot of practice, but I think the end result is well worth it.”

“Were you ever like me?” Silver asked.

“Whatever do you mean, sweetie?”

“Did you and mother start out like me? Did you get sick like this whenever you smelt something… bad?”

Ivory Wings considered the question carefully. “Well, the only time where I recall a poor reaction to an emotion was thousands of years ago. It ended up costing two of my siblings their lives,” she finished somewhat glumly.

“Oh… I’m so sorry, Aunt Ivory.” Silver recalled her mother mentioning something like that, but she had never pried before. “What happened, Aunt Ivory?”

“I’ll spare you the details, but in the end I had to kill off an entire village to make sure the truth never got out. Such was my first assignment as the Queen’s Reaper.”

“Hmm…” Silver had heard plenty of stories where either her mother or her aunt had wiped out entire villages. This might’ve very well been the first of many. “So after that, you’ve been able to handle your emotions well?”

“It took a bit of time, but we eventually mastered it. Now the problem is you. You’ve not had our experience with blocking out undesirable emotions, which means that your mother and I will have to come up with a crash course on filtering smells and tastes.”

“When can we start?” Silver curled her knees up to her chest and sipped more from her glass. “The faster I get used to foreign smells, the better.”

“For now, just relax and recover. I’ll discuss this with your mother once she gets back. Does that sound agreeable?”

“Yeah, Aunt Ivory…” Silver rubbed at her stomach. It started acting up again. “I think I needa use the bathroom…” She handed her glass of watermelon juice to her aunt.

“Oh dear…” Ivory Wings took the glass. “Well, hurry on, dear, or-”

Then Silver was sick as she passed her bedpost.

“...Or that…” Ivory cringed at the greenish puddle on the floor. “I’ll… I’ll get a mop.”

Chapter 23 - Making Scents

When Tuesday came around, Silver Rose found herself standing in the courtyard at home, wearing a simple white t-shirt, a purple plaid skirt and black slippers. She had been instructed not to wear any panties or socks and Silver could only guess why. Thankfully, there were no strangers at home. Right? She didn’t know how her mother was going to help her get used to the smells.

Not too long later, her mother had walked in, dressed in a long black dress and she had a big smile on her face.

That can’t be a good smile…

From within the folds of her dress, Ebony Wings drew out an assortment of vials and bottles, which she set down neatly in a row on a table.

“What are these, mother?” Silver asked as Ebony placed the last bottle down.

“Pheromones,” Ebony said simply. “They’re meant to simulate human emotions.”

“You have things that can do that, mother?” Silver widened her eyes, staring at the contents of the vials and bottles. “How do you make them?”

Ebony flourished the sleeve of her dress. “Why, with alchemy, of course. You and I both know that with sufficient alchemy, almost anything is possible.”

Silver nodded. That was true. Somehow, alchemy could be used to even make sure you can’t give birth, or the other way around. That sounded really odd.

“So… what are we doing?” Silver looked up at her mother.

“Well, we are going to expose you to various pheromones to build up your defense to it. Kind of like a vaccination, with smaller doses.”

“So, shall we begin, mother?”

“Certainly,” Ebony Wings’ fingers slipped over the tops of the bottles and vials, settling on a glass phial of yellow liquid. “Let’s start with something easy. Pride and ambition. A positive.”

Pride and ambition weren’t too bad for the girl, but increased amounts of it have proved uncomfortable. An example would be yesterday’s stomachaches and need to throw up.

“I’m ready, mother…” Silver took a deep breath.

“Very well,” Ebony Wings raised the phial and uncorked it. Almost immediately, a smell akin to a weaker odor of Cinch’s office filled the air.

“Mmph, it smells…” Silver wanted to pinch her nose, but she resisted the urge to do so. She needed to get used to it, to tune it out like her mother and aunt did.

Silver took a deep breath, but instantly regretted doing so. She gagged and coughed, almost falling to her knees as the smell invaded her nostrils and her mouth.

“Fight it, Silver,” her mother said urgently. “Get used to it.”

Silver tried. She really did, but in the end, the smell proved too much for her and she began coughing again.

She looked up at her mother, who didn’t even look affected by the smell. She knew she had to keep it up. Her mother would be disappointed if she couldn’t.

Trying again, Silver tried to keep herself composed, filling her mind with happy thoughts. She pictured herself giving Sunny Flare a good hook across the face and that made her smile.

“Yes, that’s right,” Ebony grinned and placed a hand on a palm. “Use your other emotions to cloud the bad taste.”

Silver kept it up, and after a few minutes, she found that ambition and pride no longer smelt as bad, but they were still pretty bad.

Finally, Ebony stoppered the vial and placed it back on the table.

“Phew…” Silver inhaled deeply as the smell began to die off. “I think I’m getting the hang of it, mother.”

“Well done, Silver,” her mother said. Next, she picked up a round vial and opened it.

Silver immediately noticed a bland smell fill the air. It wasn’t particularly bad, nor was it good, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant too.

Ebony Wings saw the confusion in Silver’s face and laughed. “Why, this is indifference, Silver. Boredom, really. The taste is as boring as the emotion. Not good, but not bad. I see you can handle it quite well.”

“Yes, mother.” Silver found it was just like fish. It wasn’t all that nice of a smell, but it was endurable. “It’s not so bad.”

“Then on with the next one.” She stoppered the bottle and grabbed a triangular one. “This one is deceit, the smell of liars and thieves.”

When she popped the cap open, Silver began to smell something bad. It wasn’t overpowering like pride and ambition, but it still tasted pretty bad, kind of like a stale piece of bread, and Silver had tried that before.

Once again, Silver found herself wanting to run away, but she kept her feet firmly on the ground, fighting through the smell. At least she wasn’t coughing violently like with ambition. The girl concentrated on happy thoughts again, this time picturing herself dunking a basketball over Sunny’s head.

That’s right! Beat her at her own game!

She felt the smell of deceit begin to tone down as a barrier of happiness appeared around her.

“Not bad, but remember…” Her mother wagged a finger. “You won’t always be able to think of happy thoughts to protect yourself.” Then she closed the bottle.

Silver sniffed the air again and smiled. After all those terrible smells, fresh air was something to be treasured, at least until the next bottle.

“The next one is something a little strong,” Ebony said as she picked it up. The bottle’s contents had a dark red tinge to it, looking a little like blood. “You might be tempted to gain the same emotions yourself, but control yourself. Do not let it consume you.”

Ebony Wings unstoppered the bottle, allowing its fragrance to waft out into the open air. Silver breathed in deep, her mouth filling with a warm, spicy taste that left a slight burning feeling in her nose.

Silver lifted a hand to hold her nose, trying to counter the pain.

“Ah!” she gasped, falling back a step and closing her eyes. “It-it burns, mother.”

“Control yourself…” Ebony said quietly, leaning up against her daughter. “Don’t let it consume you.”

“I’m trying,” Silver said through gritted teeth. She had to restrain herself from snapping at her mother; the smell and taste were just too intense for her to keep a cool mind.

“That’s it…” Ebony whispered. “Ignore the scent. Focus yourself. Don’t let it take control.”

Silver’s breathing began to grow heavier, sweat beading on her brow and her fangs slowly easing out into view.

“Ah-ah, you’ll need to do better than that…”

Silver Rose clamped her mouth shut and closed her eyes.

I mustn’t give in… I have to stay strong.

After a few more moments, her fangs began to retract and the spiciness mellowed to a more manageable level.

“Hmm… Impressive…” Ebony rubbed her chin and gave her daughter’s head a pat. “Anger isn’t an easy emotion to get over and yet, you’ve cleared it faster and better than the last few. Well done, Silver.”

She recorked the bottle and patted Silver on the head again.

“Now let’s try something stronger.”

Ebony selected a phial filled with a black liquid, giving it a little shake before unscrewing the lid.

“Umm… what is this one, mother?” Silver looked warily at the black liquid. “It looks nasty.”

“This is hatred. It’s a more… heated version of anger, but seeing as you can handle anger quite well, I think you’ll manage with this one. But… if you do get impatient with me, it’s alright for today. I can’t blame you for it.”

Then she unstopped the black vial and held it out to Silver’s nose.

If the girl were to compare it to anything, this vial was like chili. The first one was a pretty spicy one, but manageable once she got the hang of it. This one was much spicier than the first, blinding the girl slightly.

“Gah, hot! Hot!” Silver fanned herself and stuck her tongue out. “It’s too hot!”

“Keep going, Silver. Focus and stay strong.”

“I am!” Silver yelled. “I’m trying so hard, but it’s burning my nose and mouth! And it tastes horrible!”

“Calm down, Silver, the hatred is affecting you. Fight it. Fight the burn,” her mother cheered.

The initial burning sensation gradually subsided, leaving a nasty taste in Silver’s mouth. It tasted just as bad as the vial made it look, as if she were smelling and chewing on tar. Her mother was right. These things were bad and they did make her angry. They were dangerous emotions to feed off on.

You can do this, Silver…

Breathing through her mouth, Silver Rose looked at the phial, then back to herself. The taste was acrid, and managed to be both sour and sickeningly sweet, like fermenting garbage. It was almost as bad as Cinch’s office, though in a completely different way. She still felt the pain in her nose and mouth, but at least, by now, it had toned down slightly.

The girl took a deep breath again, wincing as the smell began to burn at her insides, then exhaled. After the fourth exhale, she felt herself begin to calm down, the burning fading to a mild spiciness.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you, mother,” Silver apologized when her mind began to clear.

“I told you, just this once, it’s okay.” Ebony wrapped her arms around Silver, which was very rare and abnormal. Silver Rose couldn’t even remember the last time her mother had given her a hug. “You did well, Silver. I think that’s enough of hatred for one day.”

She put the cap back on and placed the bottle of hatred back on the table. Silver looked to the end of it. There was just one last vial left and she knew exactly what was remaining. It was the reason she wasn’t wearing any underwear down below, after all.

Lust. It’s contents were of a light purple, almost pink, but not yet. Silver watched as they swirled around within the vial as her mother picked it up and walked over.

“Good work, Silver. You’ve cleared all the negative emotions.” She tapped a nail against the glass. “Now, lust isn’t a bad emotion, but in a way, it could be bad. You know what I mean, seeing as you’ve experienced it yourself. It perhaps isn’t as easy to master as the other emotions, but at least it doesn’t smell bad. In fact, it smells really good.”

“Yes, mother,” the young changeling nodded. Perhaps it smelt too good. Pleasurable, even.

“Now, this one’s going to be quite strong.” Ebony put her fingers on the cap. “You might feel like you need to relief the pleasure, let’s say that. That’s fine, seeing as you’re new to this, so I won’t get mad at you if you start touching yourself, but try your best, daughter.”

“Oh, um… Okay. I’ll give it a shot, mother.” Silver’s cheeks turned red. “I’m… I’m ready.”

“Then let us begin your final test…” Ebony pulled up, releasing one of the most powerful scents Silver had ever smelt, into the air. Free from its prison, the smell wafted all around the courtyard, making Silver gasp and Ebony smile.

There it is again… Silver recognized the smell immediately. It was the same sweet scent from school, albeit weaker here. The moment the scent hit her nose, Silver was overcome with a heady, dizzying feeling, as well as a slight tingle between her legs. The flavor, so sweet, so tempting that she opened her mouth for a better taste of it.

Then she saw her mother watching her from the side and shut her mouth. Ebony Wings folded her arms, but said nothing, keeping her eyes on her daughter. Feeling her mother’s stare, Silver meekly ducked her head and went back to focusing on not smelling the lust.

It was a valiant, if ill-fated attempt. The cloying, sweet scent wound its way into Silver’s every opening and did its best to knock down her defenses. It was all the girl could do not to open herself to the bottle’s contents. She stood there, legs pressed together and shivering slightly.

Ebony Wings circled around her daughter, taking in every detail. She licked her lips, already absorbing the lustful aura that Silver was giving off.

“Yes… yes…” Ebony whispered, drawing in more and more emotion, feeling its power surge through her system. “Now, remember what I said. You’ll find that happy thoughts are no good on lust. You’ll need to try something different.”

Is she telling me to think unhappy thoughts?

Silver closed her eyes and tried recalling a less-than-pleasant moment. Unfortunately, those were few and far between, owing to her rather sheltered upbringing. She recalled the memory of her shoes being stolen, but it didn’t help. The feeling was just too good. She began panting, her face going red and her breathing shaky.

Silver fell to her knees, one hand already instinctively snaking under her skirt, looking for the source of the heat. Just as her hand touched the now moist skin below, her mother was instantly by her side, pulling her hand up from under her skirt.

“Hmm,” Ebony said, half to herself. “I think that’s enough for today.” She put the lid back on the vial.

“Wait, I can still do this, mother…” Silver panted, a part of her still wanted to inhale the lust potion. She wanted to feel good. “Just… give me more time. You told me I was allowed to, um, touch…”

“Yes, I did, but now that I think about it, it would just be awkward for everyone involved.”

“Oh…” Silver looked at her fingers, which had slightly sticky liquid on it. “How-how did I do?”

“I didn’t expect perfection on your first day,” Ebony said, edging closer to her daughter. But you seem to be doing well in the negative emotion department, which is good. You’re far more likely to encounter those in the world.”

Ebony Wings strode up to Silver Rose, and without preamble, put her fingers up the girl’s skirt, then licked the juices off them.

“Mother!” Silver scurried back, shock and embarrassment on her face.

“Not bad, this liquid love. We’re done for today. I’d advise you to take a shower and get ready for dinner.”

Her piece spoken, Ebony Wings scooped up the various bottle and vials and disappeared into the house, leaving her daughter standing there, her flushed face glowing with embarrassment.

Chapter 24 - Part of a Plan

When the last bell rang on Friday, Silver Rose happily skipped out of her classroom, heading right for the carpark, where her aunt was waiting as usual. Once she was home, the young changeling headed for her bathroom and spent a long while changing personas, making sure everything was in order.

Now exiting her bathroom as Moonglade, the girl headed for the sirens’ room, knocking on the door twice. When no one answered, she knocked again and waited. Still nothing.

“Hello?” Moonglade said, pushing open their bedroom door. Empty. “Where could they be?”

“Oh, you’re done, Moonglade. Glad to have you back.” Ivory Wings walked up the steps and saw her by the sirens’ door, a half-eaten pastry in her hand. “Yes, about them. They’re still at school. Apparently, Adagio and Sonata wanted to catch their school’s baseball game. I’m sorry. I should’ve known to tell you.”

“It’s fine, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade looked back at their room. “Well, maybe today’s outing can be a visit to their school? I’ve never gotten to see it.”

“Is that so?” Ivory smiled and took another bite of her tart. “Well, I don’t see why not. With your level of fame, though, it would probably be best to stay in the car.”

“Aw, okay, but it’ll still be fun! I’ll get to know more about the place they study at.”

“Okay, then we’ll head out in forty-five minutes, dear. Why don’t you play on that Neighstation of yours while we wait? Or homework? Do you have homework?”

Moonglade nodded. Missing school on Tuesday and Wednesday, she had a small pile up of homework, so she knew what she had to do.

“I guess I better start on my homework, or Silver Rose’s homework, that is…” she smiled cheekily.

“That’s my niece.” Ivory patted her head with her free hand. “Always knowing what’s more important. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

Ivory Wings left the hallway, humming a tune to herself as she disappeared down the stairs. Moonglade went back to her room, retrieving her backpack and laptop as she made for the study. There were several assignments from mostly every class. The forty-five minutes passed in a blur as she chipped away at the small mountain of work she had to do. When Aunt Ivory returned, she had only completed about half of it.

“Ready to pick up the sirens and see their school?” the older changeling asked as she peeked her head into the study.

“You bet, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade closed her textbook and hopped off the chair, following behind her aunt.

In no time, she was belted in beside her aunt as the car rolled down towards the front gates, exiting the Wings’ Estate.

“So, how has your training been going?” Ivory asked her niece as she turned the steering wheel. “Your mother said you’re particularly good with handling anger.”

“I guess so,” Silver nodded. “It feels terrible, having so much anger and hatred around you. It feels like I could explode at any minute and do something I regret.”

“That’s… probably the case if you’re not careful, sweetie,” Ivory said, driving the car down a small sloped street.

“Yeah, mother said something like that.” Moonglade rested an elbow on the window. “Aunt Ivory, can I ask you a… a personal question?”

“Personal? Sure, sweetie, anything you want,” the older changeling smiled.

Moonglade’s cheeks were a tinge red, more obvious on her tan skin than on Silver Rose’s mauve skin. “You know… when you deal with lust… Were you like me? I mean, I can’t quite control myself around it. Mother does it easily and she doesn’t want to tell me if she was like me at some point.”

Ivory sighed, but smiled for her niece again. “Of course we were like you once, before we knew anything about really blending in and living amongst the humans like this. It started with my first love, dear. Looking back, I shouldn’t have, but… we all do crazy things for love, don’t we?”

“Well, I don’t know yet, Aunt Ivory. I haven’t loved anyone except family.”

“Perhaps one day, huh, Moonglade?” Ivory reached over and patted the girl’s leg. “Anyway, I guess I should elaborate. When we first started living in a human village, we were farmers, dear. We fed them and then they fed us with their love.”

“Makes sense,” Moonglade said. “It works out for both you and the humans. So what happened, Aunt Ivory?”

“It was my fault,” Ivory sighed again. “I thought I was ready to handle my emotions, but I wasn’t. I loved the man so much that I just… wanted him. In the end, I lost to the lust around me and he found out what I truly was. From that night on, things were never the same for us again.”

“I’m so sorry, Aunt Ivory…” Moonglade looked at her hands. She remembered her teeth easing into view when she was exposed to lust. “But… it’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but the main problem is that I followed my emotions. If anything, remember this, young princess. Always follow your mind, not your heart. The mind is your strongest weapon and your best ally. Never forget that.”

“I will, Aunt Ivory,” the blonde haired girl nodded, putting a hand to her chest.

“Good.” Then Ivory’s smile turned into a cheeky one. “Now, I also heard something about your mother touching you and licking-”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade drew back, covering her face.

“I’m kidding, dear.” Ivory rubbed a hand down Moonglade’s hair. “Honestly, I don’t know what she was thinking, doing something like that to her daughter… I asked her about it, but she completely ignored me.”

“I-Is she allowed to do that?”

“Technically, the queen is free to do as she wishes. There are certain things that common sense says you shouldn’t do, but between you and me, I don’t think your mother’s common sense is one of her strong suits.”

Moonglade nodded and polished her spectacles. Her mother did indeed do some things that raised questions in her mind countless times, but she merely shrugged and left them alone. Her mother wasn’t the type to take criticism well, and besides, she was the queen. She had to be trusted to make all the important decisions in the royal family.

According to some of the stories Aunt Ivory told her, her mother wasn’t.

“Is that the school?” Moonglade looked out the front window, pointing at the building on the left of the road, just at the next block. “I mean, it looks like a school.”

Ivory looked at her watch. “Looks like we’re a little early. We’ll wait here. They can’t possibly miss us.”

She pulled the car to a stop next to a pavement beside the field.

Moonglade looked through the tinted window. She could barely make out the school’s baseball field in the distance, where her sharp hearing could catch the sounds of cheering and excitement.

“Have you ever watched a baseball game, Moonglade?”

She shook her head no.

“Same,” Ivory said with a sigh. “Human sports aren’t something we as a species are big on, especially not now when we have romance movies to watch on Neightflix.”

“Neightflix?” Moonglade hadn’t heard of this thing. “Is that a movie theater?”

“It’s a sort of television program that lets you watch any number of various movies, shows, and other such things,” Ivory explained. “There’s some good stuff on it. Give it a try sometime. I recommend The Mare’s Temptation series, based on the book by C.W. Step.”

“But you like romance films, huh?” Moonglade took out a phone and searched up Neightflix. “I’m not too much of a romance type. I like a good action movie. Not the kind where the heroes are invincible. I prefer the more… realistic ones.”

Ivory shrugged good-naturedly. “Whatever floats your boat, sweetie. The elder changeling reached under her seat and pulled out a large box. “Truffles?”

“Huh?”

“Truffles, darling. They’re chocolate.”

Moonglade licked her lips. “Don’t mind if I do.”

The two changelings spent the rest of the time making small talk and eating the truffles until there came a disturbance from the direction of the baseball field Moonglade put her phone down, which was in the process of downloading a Neightflix app.

“What was that?” she said with a slightly full mouth as she looked out the window. “Are they done?”

Ivory rolled the window down a crack and listened.

“By the sounds of it… the game appears to be over. There’s a lot of cheering and shouting coming from over there. Listen, can you hear it?”

Moonglade could indeed hear the cheering from their hiding spot in the car. Not much longer later, students could be seen trickling from the baseball field, most of them chatting animatedly with each other, most likely talking about the game. Moonglade watched them pass her car and pressed herself against the glass enviously. She wanted to be out there too, talking with her friends.

“Do you see the sirens out there?” Ivory asked as she put the box of truffles away. “It’s not like the car is hard to miss. They should be able to spot us easily.”

Moonglade peered out through the glass. “I don’t see them,” she reported.

Ivory Wings thought a while before reaching to unbuckle her seat belt. “I’ll go look for them. They’re late as it is.”

“You’ll stick out, though. Or is that the point?”

Ivory glanced at her niece. “Unless you’d like to go search for them? Give me your glasses first though, and leave your jacket here.”

“Hmm? Why?” Moonglade handed her spectacles to her aunt.

“It’ll be harder for people to recognize you if you’re not in your iconic outfit,” Ivory reasoned.

“Well, okay.” Moonglade next slipped her red jacket off and placed it nicely on the chair. “Here I go.”

She took a deep breath and pushed the door open, though she could barely contain her excitement. This was her first time outside without an entourage. A few students watched her exit the car, but no one seemed to look twice at her.

So far so good.

Some of them did look at her, like they were trying to remember who she was. Moonglade just kept going, already feeling her face heat up. She saw the bleachers from here and decided to look there first. With no sirens in sight, Moonglade looked around surreptitiously and gave a discreet sniff.

Each person in the world had a distinct smell when you looked closely, and after living with the sirens for months, it was easy to obtain a lock onto the sirens’ scent. Adagio’s slightly unpleasant pride and confidence mixed with the dry apathy of Aria and the unflappable bubbly enthusiasm of Sonata. Following the trail, Moonglade soon spotted the sirens gathered around what appeared to be a vending machine.

“I told you to just leave it,” she heard Aria say.

“Yeah, but now it has my dollar and I want it back!” Sonata pushed the coin refund button. “It doesn’t want to give it back! How was I supposed to know they were sold out on the grape soda?”

“Well, it says right here…” Adagio pointed a finger at the glass panel, which separated the drinks from the outside. Moonglade could see the words ‘Sold Out’ on the grape soda.

“Come on, give it back!” Sonata shook the machine.

Moonglade simply walked up to the machine and gave it a solid kick. With a clatter, two fifty cent coins came rattling out into the till.

“There we go,” Moonglade said as the sirens turned to look at her.

“Moony!” Sonata embraced her tightly. “Thanks for getting my money back.”

“Good to see you.” Then Adagio looked around her. “Are you alone? I didn’t think your mother would’ve allowed that.”

“It’s just a short while,” the blonde haired girl said, waving her hands. “Aunt Ivory was fine with it. What mother doesn’t know won’t hurt. Right?”

“Well said, Moonglade.” Adagio patted her on the shoulder. “Come, let us get back before anything goes wrong.”

“And where’s your jacket, Moonglade?” Aria asked as they began walking back to the car, away from the bleachers. “And can you, uh, see without your glasses? Did you forget them?”

“I can see fine without my glasses,” Moonglade replied with a smirk. “They’re just part of the disguise, like Aunt Ivory’s glasses. I removed them so I wouldn’t be so easily recognized.”

“Really?” Sonata giggled. “I thought you needed those and that Silver Rose wore contacts or something.”

“Shh!” Aria smacked her sister on the arm. “Don’t tell everyone else.”

“Tell what?” Sonata questioned her sister. “That she wears glasses? Who cares?”

“You’d be surprised at what people find interesting about celebrities…” Adagio said with a roll of her eyes. “Well, I guess we’d better get going. We’ve wasted enough time at this baseball game already, and I’m thinking Moony here is ready for another night on the town.”

“But you wanted to come watch that baseball game too, Dagi,” Sonata said.

“No, no I d-didn’t!” Adagio turned away and kept walking. “Come on, we’re late.”

“She did,” Aria told Moonglade as they passed a group of students with guitars. They looked at the group, but Moonglade kept up with the sirens, blending in among them. “I guess she wanted to see someone in action.”

“Oh?” Moonglade looked to Adagio, who was far ahead by now. She took a sniff to try and determine what it was, however, all she was able to detect was a vast, roiling sea of emotion, with a thin coating of pride on top of it all. Hardly surprising, as Adagio was the one member of the sirens who always seemed unflappable, and in her case, nigh-unreadable. Adagio was good at controlling her emotions, letting nothing slip.

Must be a side effect of living with mother and Aunt Ivory for so long.

“Actually, I just wanted to see the school you girls go to.” Moonglade craned her neck to take a better look. “It’s not as… shiny as Crystal Prep, but ooohhh…” She took a long, deep sniff. “It smells so much nicer.”

“It should. You mentioned your school is full of competition and stuff,” Aria said. “I mean, look at this place. No one bothers if others are better than them.”

“Maybe we got sent to the wrong schools then,” Moonglade said casually. “There’s plenty more negative emotion at CPA, compared to how nice it is here. It reeks of friendship and positivity.”

“A little too much friendship if you ask me,” Adagio said half to herself. “Well, did you want a tour or something?”

“No, I just wanted to look at it. Somehow I think heading inside would stir up trouble.”

“Not really,” Aria said drolly. “You’d be surprised of how accepting of weird things this school is. I mean, they’re so weak minded that a single song can change their entire view of life.”

“No geas to hold them in line, huh?” Moonglade instinctively curled one hand over her heart. According to her mother, each changeling was born with a geas inside them linking them with the queen. This mysterious force made sure that the queen and her kin would always know who was in charge, as well as protecting them from certain magical effects, such as sirens’ song.

“Not everyone’s as lucky as you, Moonglade,” Adagio muttered. “Humans like these are so easy to bend… which would explain how easily the Rainbooms managed to turn the crowd against us back at the Battle of the Bands.”

“Well, it also explains how we managed to turn them all so easily and how we got Principal Celestia to endorse our version of the Battle of the Bands,” Sonata blabbered. “I mean wow, it was never this easy. All it took was one song.”

“Mph,” Aria groused. “Just one more thing I miss doing, no thanks to the Rainbooms.”

Adagio’s eyelid twitched, but she forced a smile back on her face and began to steer the group back toward the road, where the car was still waiting. “Come on, girls. Let’s not dwell on the past too much. It’s the weekend; we won’t have to see any of the Rainbooms for two days. I’m sure Ivory Wings is doing the best she can to fix our gems and our voices.”

The four girls piled into the car, with the sirens taking the back seats and Moonglade returning to her spot on the passenger seat, putting on her red jacket and glasses again. Ivory smiled at them.

“Ready to go home, girls?”

“Yes,” the four girls chorused back at her.

Ivory pulled the car away from the sidewalk, retracing her route back to the estate.

“This might take a little while,” Ivory said, gripping the steering wheel reflexively. “Traffic’s really bad around here at this hour.”

“Well, I got to see Canterlot High, so it’s not so bad.” Moonglade looked out the window at the fleeting school building. “It’s a nice place, though it doesn’t look as clean as Crystal Prep. I think the shine might have something to do with that.”

“It is good that you go to the same school as these ‘Rainbooms’,” Ivory said cheerily. “I’ll soon have a message for them that you three can deliver.”

“What kind of message?” Sonata said as Aria helped herself to a bottle of sparkling water from the car’s cooler.

“An invitation, so to speak. I want to meet with these Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight Sparkle and discuss gem repair.”

The changeling paused, turning her face upwards, sniffing. After a few more sniffs, she checked the rearview mirror. Then she shrugged and pointed the car in a completely new direction, off their intended route.

“What makes you think they’ll cooperate with you?” Adagio queried. “I doubt they’d agree to help their old enemies just like that.”

For the first time since Moonglade had known Ivory Wings, a sinister smirk crept across her aunt’s face. It scared her a little.

“I can be very persuasive when I want to be,” Ivory said, holding her head high. “I am a princess, and I’m used to getting what I want.”

“You’re a- oh yeah, I guess that would make you a princess,” Sonata said, one finger in the air. “I never thought of it like that.”

“That’s because you don’t think, Sonata,” Aria told her.

“Oh, here we go again…” Adagio rested her forehead on a hand.

Moonglade had giggled when the two sirens began throwing insults at each other. Her aunt remained silent through the drive, but wore a smile on her face. She must’ve just been happy that she had found them again. She looked out the window. Hadn’t they passed this block already, or was Aunt Ivory driving in circles? The young changeling shrugged and went back to listening to the sirens bicker.

Eventually, the car pulled into the Wings’ Estate, dropping off Moonglade and the sirens before Ivory Wings headed for the garage.

“I’ll need to take care of something before I come inside, so have fun without me,” Ivory Wings had said.

Moonglade wondered what exactly it was that her aunt might be so preoccupied with, but eventually waved the thought away. Must be something important.

“Well, you girls go on.” Moonglade caught up with the sirens. “I’ve got some homework I need to take care of first.”

“Ugh, homework…” Aria Blaze scowled and walked towards the first floor living room. “Gross…”

“I guess there’s a reason she doesn’t do particularly well in class,” Adagio said and followed her sister.

Sonata waved and skipped along to join the others as Moonglade went back up to the study to continue her work. Her teachers had given her till Monday to make up the homework she had missed, but the young changeling figured that finishing it all in one day was the best course of action. That way, she could do whatever she wanted the rest of the weekend.

She had completed her English homework and history homework in the first hour, but when it came to her math homework, the girl pushed the chair back and leaned her head down on her arms.

“Uuuugghhh, why does math homework have to be so complicated…?” she complained to herself.

Simple multiplication and all that was easy enough, but when it came to equations with all that ‘x’ and ‘y’ stuff, she didn’t have a complete understanding on them. She really didn’t want to have a math tutor to add to her list of tutors already, so she continued to try her best.

“Dinner time!!!!” Moonglade suddenly jumped in her seat from Sonata Dusk’s voice behind her. “Oh, I’m sorry, Moony. Did I scare you?”

“A little…” Moonglade adjusted her glasses. “Well, I guess that’s homework for now. Say, Sonata, are you any good with math?”

“Nope!” the siren answered almost too happily. They exited the study and made for the staircase. “But it’s okay, I just try my best. That’s what matters, right?”

“I suppose…” Moonglade sighed. Perhaps it was a subject everyone was bad at.

For tonight, her mother had requested lobster and oysters to be served with some extra dishes. Moonglade didn’t mind. In fact, lobster was pretty tasty for her. Aunt Ivory sat at the table, a look of thought on her face. It must’ve had something to do with whatever she did after dropping Moonglade and the sirens earlier.

“So, how was school?” Ebony Wings asked as they began consuming their dinner.

“The usual, mother,” Moonglade said as she cut some meat off her lobster. “Sunny Flare hasn’t been bothering me since the last week. You… didn’t have something to do with that, did you?”

“I didn’t,” Ebony simply stated. “But I’m sure after we complained to your school about the photos, they must’ve done something about it.”

“Perhaps she’s simply grown tired of antagonizing you,” Ivory said, taking a sip of her wine. “Why do we even drink this?” she asked Ebony. “It’s not like it has any actual effect on us.”

“It tastes nice.” Ebony dangled her glass under her fingers. “I only purchase the best wines in the world.”

“So we’re drinking it because you’re really rich,” Ivory said, swirling the wine around in her glass.

“Well, if you put it that way, then yes. We are. But hey, I did say it tastes nice. Don’t you think so?”

“You’re incorrigible, you know that, sister?”

“But it really is good!” Ebony reiterated. “What do you like eating or drinking for nothing then, Ivory?”

“Hey, I don’t have any objections to it, I just wanted to know why,” Ivory waved her hand, making the candles sputter. “And it is good. You have great tastes in wine.”

“See?” Ebony looked proud. “Anyway, back to business. I heard-”

At that moment, Silver Platter edged into the dining room, wringing his hands nervously.

“Mistress Wings,” the butler said quietly. “We have a bit of a situation on the grounds.”

Ebony downed her glass contents and squinted at the man. “What kind of situation?”

“The security grid was tripped about five minutes ago. We did some investigating on the cameras, and it would appear that we have… an intruder on the grounds.”

“What?” Ebony stood up so fast her chair crashed to the floor with a resounding thud. “Where? We haven’t had an intruder in years! How did they get in?”

Moonglade remembered the last time there was an intruder. It hadn’t been pleasant for him.

“I don’t know, Mistress. But the intruder seems to be staying in the forested area of the estate, slowly approaching the manor. Shall I call the police?”

“No need for police.” Then Ivory looked at her sister, who was about to say something. “Or violence. I will handle this.”

“As you wish, Mistress.” Silver Platter bowed and retreated from the room.

Ivory pulled off her napkin and stood up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be back shortly.”

Moonglade watched her go, chewing on her lobster. “Where’s she going?”

“Probably to deal with the intruder,” Aria supplied. “I wonder who’s the poor sap that’s going to be on the receiving end of the Queen’s Reaper.”

“Well, she said she was going to handle it without violence,” Moonglade reminded the siren.

“She’s probably just gonna shine a laser pointer at the intruder or something.” Adagio waved a hand dismissively. “But wow. I mean who would even think to try and break in here? They’re either really brave or really dumb.” The oranged haired siren picked up her glass of juice and drank half of it.

Moonglade only saw two reasons why someone would try to break into their house. Either for money, because her family was really rich, or because of her mother, seeing as she was one of the most attractive actresses and models. If the reason was the latter, they were certainly in for many surprises.

Dinner continued in more or less silence, the only sound being that of the eating utensils making contact with a plate or with each other.

Ivory Wings eventually returned as Moonglade was cleaning her mouth with her napkin.

“One intruder all taken care of,” Ivory announced before sitting back down to continue her dinner.

“Let me guess…” Ebony flipped back her black hair. “Some crazy fan hoping to see my beautiful face?”

“Just some kid, actually. Somehow he got over the fence and landed in the forested area. Probably climbed a tree to get onto this side. I’ll be sure to go investigate tomorrow and deal with it.”

“A kid?” Aria scoffed and leaned back. “Why would a kid want to break in here?”

“I didn’t ask,” Ivory mumbled through a mouthful of food. “I escorted him off the property and told him not to do it again. If he does, we’re going to let the police handle it.”

“How are we going to know if it’s the same person?”

“Obviously, if I see him again, I’ll remember.” Ivory Wings pointed to her head. “My memory is pretty good.”

“What did he look like, this intruder?” Ebony Wings asked her sister. “Because if I’m the one to catch him on the premises again, he won’t be getting off easy.”

“Well…” Ivory swallowed her food so she could speak more clearly. “He’s got blue hair and blue skin and he had on his ridiculous blue striped shirt over another shirt.”

Moonglade thought about the description. That actually sounded pretty familiar. In fact, she thought she might actually have a face to go with the description.

Before she could say anything, Sonata interrupted. “Does he have a baseball bat and field on his shirt?”

“Oh?” Ivory turned to her. “You know him?”

“Home Run.” All eyes turned to Moonglade. “Right? That’s his name, right?”

“Home Run? Yeah! He goes to CHS!” Sonata piped up. “He’s on the baseball team.”

“He’s the one Adagio likes,” Aria said flatly.

“I do not!” Adagio raised her voice.

“So he’s from your school…” Ebony folded her arms. “But Moonglade? How do you know him?”

“Umm…” Moonglade looked away from her mother’s gaze. “He kinda almost knocked me over with his bicycle, uh, last week. Purely an accident, mother.”

“He what?” Ebony Wings growled.

“Please tell me you didn’t do anything rash,” Ivory said. “How exactly did this meeting go down?”

“Umm…” Moonglade tapped her fingers together. “I kinda flipped him off his bike…”

“You did what?” Ivory asked as Ebony sighed and put her head in the hands.

“H-He was riding at me, s-so I just reacted and grabbed his bike before it could hit me.”

Ebony sighed, gesturing for her sister to say something.

“As accomplished as that might have made you feel,” Ivory said carefully. “It might have been more prudent to let the bike hit you. No chance of compromising your disguise that way.”

“I’m sorry.” Moonglade looked down. “I panicked. I just acted in the moment.”

Ivory smiled and raised a hand. “It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re not in trouble. You didn’t know any better. But now you do, right?”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.”

“Well, if you’re lecture is done…” Ebony looked at her white haired sister. “Ivory, did you learn why he snuck in? Was it because of me?” The actress gave her hair another flip.

“I doubt the kid broke in to see you, sister…” Ivory raised an eyebrow. “On the other hand, after what we’ve learnt today… I think he might’ve come in for a different reason.” Then she trained her eyes on her niece and rubbed a hand under her chin.

“W-What?” Moonglade looked between her aunt and mother, her glasses falling lower down her nose.

Ebony and Ivory exchanged looks, both glances loaded with meaning and possibility.

“Do you think…?”

Ebony Wings finished the last of her wine and set the glass down. “It’s a possibility, although I could understand if they’d broken in to see me. Why sneak in to look at her?”

“Stop talking about your daughter like that, Ebony,” Ivory said, walking over to Moonglade and wrapping an arm around the girl. “She’s pretty too, you know?”

“Yeah well, not like I am.”

Moonglade felt her aunt’s arm tense, but Ivory said nothing more about that. “Moonglade, sweetie, I think the boy, what was his name, Home Run? Come to think of it, I bumped into him while I was Celestia. I think he snuck in here to see you.”

“Really?” Moonglade looked up at her aunt, then around to her mother and the sirens. “He wanted to see me?”

“Wouldn’t you think so? When you met him that day, did he smell of any affection?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe. I mean, I smelt something tasty coming from him, but it kept fading. Though, he did keep glancing at me, then looking away. Does that mean anything?”

“It’s plausible that he’s one of those people who follow celebrities religiously,” Ivory said, sipping her wine. “Then he might know who you are. But to answer your question, it might mean something, it might not. Infatuation at first sight isn’t as uncommon as you might think.”

“At first sight?” Moonglade giggled a little. “You mean that actually happens in real life? I thought it was only in the movies.”

“I said infatuation, not love,” Ivory corrected. “Love at first sight is totally different. And rarer. Much rarer.”

“Oh. What’s the difference?”

“It’s hard to explain, but you can taste the difference. Love at first sight smells and tastes very distinctive, and the flavor differs whether it’s one sided or mutually shared,” Ivory shrugged. “That’s the best I can put it. You’d have to experience it for yourself to tell which is which.”

“Oh.”

“But nonetheless, this boy might’ve snuck in because he wanted to see you,” Ebony Wings continued. “I don’t know what you did to make this happen, but rest assured, you won’t have to worry about it, because I don’t approve of you being in a relationship.”

“Yes, mother.”

“Hold on, hold on,” Ivory interrupted. “Ebony, don’t you see the opportunity when it presents itself?”

“No,” the actress folded her arms. “What opportunity?”

“If this boy did sneak in to see your daughter, then he might very well actually be infatuated with her. I think this is the perfect chance to send Moonglade out there to hunt.”

“No, no, absolutely not!” Ebony slammed a palm on the table. “I’m not letting my daughter go out there on her own, especially if she’s going to be in a relationship. No relationships for her.”

Moonglade thought about it in her head. Could it be that he actually was interested in her? Since she had gotten the chance to leave the house, no one she’d met or befriended had even seemed to show one bit of affection towards her, except for the lust that had originated with her in her underwear.

She had indeed tasted something nice from the boy, but was that actually infatuation? And it was the boy, Home Run. She remembered his clumsy airheaded behavior. It’s not like it was bad or anything and she did think it was rather cute.

“Moonglade, did you hear me?” she heard her mother say.

Shaking her head, Moonglade looked up at the changeling queen and lifted her glasses higher. “I’m sorry, what were you saying, mother?”

“Your aunt wants me to release you to the world to hunt this Home Run as your first meal by yourself,” Ebony Wings said with a tinge of disgust. “Normally, I would say no, but your aunt is right. Holding you back again would just make it worse for you in the future. If you never learn to hunt on your own, then you’re no changeling.”

“S-So… you want me to hunt Home Run?” she asked meekly. It sounded like that was what her mother was saying.

“That’s what your aunt wants.” Ebony turned to the sirens. “What do you girls think? Do you agree with me or with Ivory?”

“I think it’s a good idea to let her out to experience it on her own,” Adagio said. “But…”

“Meh, go for it,” Aria shrugged and looked out a window.

“I think it’s a swell idea!” Sonata bounced up from her seat. “That way, Moony can see what it’s like to have a more normal life!”

“Hmm… Looks like they all agree with you, Ivory.” Ebony didn’t look happy with the outcome.

“Because it’s a good idea, sister,” Moonglade’s aunt said. “It’s a great learning experience for the girl. Let her do it. Let her try.”

Ebony huffed, but nodded. “Fine. Moonglade, it seems your aunt has convinced me. This Home Run, he is to be your first target for your first hunt.”

“What am I supposed to do?” the blonde haired girl asked.

“Why, you’re to attract him to you,” Ivory smiled and sat back down, picking up her fork. “Love is a changeling’s favorite emotion and your objective is to extract that emotion from the boy. You are to make him fall in love with you.”

“F-Fall in love? With me…?” Moonglade pointed at herself. She didn’t know anything about courtship at all, besides the basics of telling someone else how you feel about them. “But I don’t know how, Aunt Ivory.”

Ivory exhaled, a bemused look on her face. “You’re the daughter of the oldest seductress in the world, sweetie. Maybe you should ask her first?”

Moonglade gulped, then looked to her mother for advice.

“Wait, wait.” Sonata interrupted before Ebony could say anything. “Are you sure she’s the oldest? I mean, what if-”

“Shut up, Sonata.” Aria smacked her at the back of the head. “It doesn’t matter. Let them talk. Say what you were gonna say, Ebony.”

“I was going to say…” Eboy cleared her throat before continuing. “Teaching you will be easy, Moonglade. How you apply it though, is up to you. What we can do is practice. I can be the boy and you can try to work your magic on me. Sound good?”

Moonglade swallowed her saliva again. It sounded easy and all, but with her mother, nothing was ever straight forward like that. In the end, she meekly nodded her head and smiled.

“Yes, mother. T-That sounds good.”

“Very well then, meet me in my room in an hour and we’ll see just how far we can get, shall we?”

Chapter 25 - Hunting Preparations

After having a shower and changing into her home clothes, Moonglade had gone over to her mother’s room, gently rapping her knuckles on the door. She had waited almost five minutes and when her mother finally did open the door, Moonglade was surprised to see that she had changed into a white shirt and blue jeans, along with a second blue shirt over her white one.

“I couldn’t find any striped ones, so this’ll have to do,” Ebony Wings told her, standing against the doorframe. “Well, come in, daughter. You’ve got much to learn.”

“Why-why are you dressed like Home Run?” she asked her mother. She knew her mother was going to pretend to be him or something, but she didn’t think she’d have to dress like the boy too.

“It’s called getting into character. Much like in showbiz, dressing like the character helps you act and think more like the character. You see? Do you think I should dye my hair too?”

“No, this is fine.”

“If you say so.” Ebony’s voice suddenly changed, shifting into a tone that was more male-sounding. It wasn’t the same as Home Run’s, but her mother never met him, so it was hard to change it to something she didn’t know.

“That’s cool, mother,” Moonglade said. “How do you do that? I still can’t figure it out how to change it drastically. Maybe I just can’t do it?”

“Have you tried?” Not-Home Run asked.

“Yes, but I think I can only speak within the average tones.”

Not-Home Run thought for a second, then shook her head. “Well, whatever. That’s not important right now. What is important is that we get you prepped for this hunting expedition. Which is what we’re doing right now. So come on then. Hit me with your best shot.”

“Umm… okay, mother.” Moonglade fiddled with her fingers. “Umm, what should I do, exactly?”

“Seduce me,” Not-Home Run said bluntly.

“Uhh, okay, I’ll try.” Moonglade’s face went redder. It was bad enough that she was practicing on her mother, but she had almost no idea how to do this. Taking a deep breath, Moonglade tried her luck. “Umm… Hi, uh, Home Run. You-you look like you could… use some c-company, heh. Would-would you like to, I mean, would you like me to accompany you…?”

“Weak,” Not-Home Run said flatly. “You need to speak up, assert yourself. Try again.”

Moonglade’s blush continued to grow redder. “Hi, Home Run… I-I think you’re a cool guy and all, so… do you want to, um, hang out…?”

“No, no, no. You’re being too forward. Traditionally, what you do is tease the guy, and then he’ll chase after you.” Not-Home Run sat back and folded her arms. “Try again.”

“Oh.” She could’ve said that sooner… Moonglade thought about it. Her mother said tease. “Well… Hello, Home Run… You sure are good at sports, huh…? Ugh… I don’t know what to say, mother. How do you do it.”

Not-Home Run sighed. “Very well. Watch me.” Her voice snapped back to Ebony’s voice. She sat down at the table and draped herself over an arm, a serene smile on her face.

“Well hey there,” Ebony said in a sultry voice. “How are you?” She garnished this question with a voluptuous wink.

“Oh, is that it?” Moonglade smiled. “I can do that. Hi there, Home Run. How are you?”

“Hold on now…” A thought struck Ebony Wings. “We don’t know what kind of person this Home Run is, what he likes in a girl, what he doesn’t like… it would seem that we’re doing this out of order.”

“Oh, so… what should I do?” Moonglade looked around the room awkwardly.

“We gather information. But in order to not waste time, let us practice more methods in general here before we start scouting out this boy. Come. Wait.”

Ebony took off her blue second shirt. “There, now I’m not Home Run. Pretend I’m someone else. Now come. Seduce me, Moonglade.”

“Okay…” Moonglade cleared her throat. “Well, hey there, how are you doing?”

“Mmm… I’m not feeling it, darling. You need to believe that you want to be with me. When your mind is made, up, everything will follow.

“Wait, so I have to fall in love with my target too?”

“You want your persona to act like it’s in love with your target. Under the disguise, all this is a hunting trip for love. But yes. Acting like you’re twitterpated is a sound strategy. Just don’t let it bleed into your real self.”

“Yes, mother.” Moonglade tried again, putting more feeling into her voice. “Hi there! How’s it going? Are you doing alright? How was that, mother?”

“Better,” Ebony said while she lazily checked her nails. “Keep practicing. And take out the part where you ask him if he’s doing alright. Your presence should be enough to banish any problems he might be having.”

“Yes, mother. So, about the teasing. How does it work?”

“Well, that depends,” Ebony Wings said. “But I’ve found that batting your eyelashes while looking at him works. Smile while you do it. Play with your hair. Take off your glasses and nibble on the arms, if you’re going for that kind of look. There’s very little that a human male doesn’t find attractive as long as it’s done by a hot girl.”

“Oh, so it’s not with my words, but with my actions.” Moonglade tried the first, smiling and batting her eyelashes. Doing it at her mother was a little embarrassing, but it was practice. She wrapped a lock of her curly blonde hair around a finger and continued twirling it. “How’s this?”

“Better…” Ebony leaned back in her chair and sighed. “I still can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Why so, mother?” Moonglade tilted her head to the left.

“Because you have no experience with this kind of thing. I could probably have this Home Run wrapped around my finger in minutes, but you? I honestly do not know how you’re going to accomplish this. I really don’t.”

Moonglade winced. “I’m sorry, mother.”

“Don’t mention it. If you’re going to seduce this boy, we’ll just have to work harder. Now come on, try again. When we are done with the talking, then I’ll start teaching you the touching...”

“Well, there he is…” Ivory Wings pointed a finger at the car window. Moonglade peered through and saw Home Run out in the field with his baseball friends.

Over the last week, the sirens were told to carefully observe the boy closely to try and determine what he’s like and what he likes to do. Obviously, baseball was one of his hobbies. They had also overheard him talking about guitar and video games, but as for what he likes in a girl, they couldn’t determine. That was up to Moonglade to find out now.

“Now remember what your mother has taught you, sweetie,” Ivory Wings said, then raised a finger for a pause. “Except for the stuff about getting him to grope you. Don’t do that.”

“Oh…” Moonglade blushed and looked down. “You-you know about that?”

“Of course. I had a talk with your mother about what she taught you over the week. I don’t agree with all her techniques. I think a slow start and a decent build up work much better than trying to get him to sleep with you on the first day. Touching him and all is fine, but not too much, okay?”

“Umm… Okay, Aunt Ivory,” Moonglade nodded. “I’ll try my best.”

“And that will be enough, dear.” Ivory unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over to give the blonde haired girl a gentle hug. “It’ll be alright, Moonglade. Don’t worry so much. Whatever happens, take it as the first step, hmm?”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory,” Moonglade answered as she took a few steady breaths. “Okay… I think I’m ready. Thanks for always being with me, Aunt Ivory.”

“Of course.” Ivory moved back and adjusted Moonglade’s hair. “Now run along, sweetie. Let’s see what you’ve got in store for that boy. I’ll be watching here, just in case.”

Moonglade gave her aunt one more smile before getting out of the car. She remembered what her mother had told her. If she wanted to do this successfully, then she had to believe she was in love with her target too.

I suppose that isn’t too hard, right? she thought to herself. After all, that boy is pretty good looking anyway. I mean, for a guy… Oh, great. Now I’m trying to give excuses to myself. Just go on, Moonglade. Seduce him.

She looked at Home Run and his group of friends playing baseball on the field and her heart immediately started beating faster. There was no way she was going to go up to him when there were so many people around and start talking. No, that was certainly a bad idea.

Moonglade looked for alternatives, but in the end, she opted to hang around under the shade of a tree, watching them play from a distance. She was going to wait until either Home Run left the group or when they were finished playing. Moonglade hoped it was the former, because she didn’t want to wait too long.

Sighing, the girl began twiddling her fingers, trying to relieve herself of her boredom. She didn’t know how to play baseball, so it didn’t particularly interest her to watch them, though swinging the bat did look a little fun.

Maybe one day, huh, Moonglade? If all this worked out and she managed to ensnare Home Run in her love net, maybe she could get him to teach her how to play baseball.

First things first though…

She glanced back at the car. The window was rolled down slightly, with a thin metal tube pointing out at the whole scene above the glass.

Moonglade squinted at the tube. Is that a… gun? There’s no way Aunt Ivory’s planning to shoot anyone… right?

As if in response to her thought, the tube jerked to the side, pointing at the baseball team. It gave off the feeling of what the hay are you waiting for?

Moonglade swallowed, then looked back at the team. Home Run was still among his friends. She turned back to the car and raised a palm up, telling her aunt to wait and give her more time. She still didn’t want to approach him when his friends were around.

And then, almost as if things had suddenly decided to work out for her, her target walked over to the bleachers and began toweling his face. When he was done, he began walking over to where the vending machines were at the side of the school building.

“Wow. Couldn’t be more perfect…” the girl smiled to herself. The vending machines were behind the bleachers, meaning the other students wouldn’t be able to see her talking to Home Run.

Leaving her shade, Moonglade walked along the side of the school building, steadily approaching Home Run, who had now put a coin into the vending machine. Smoothing her hair into place, Moonglade stealthily crept up behind the baseball player.

Now it’s time to see if all my training paid off.

Home Run bent down to retrieve his soda from the cradle, allowing Moonglade to tiptoe closer, until she was directly behind him. The boy unscrewed the lid and took a deep drink. That was when Moonglade tapped him on the shoulder, causing Home Run to choke and spit his drink in surprise.

“Oh, oh!” His eyes widened as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “It’s you. Moonglade. Sorry, you startled me for a second. Umm, what brings you here?”

“I… just wanted to see you... Yeah, that’s right,” Moonglade said, offering the boy a dazzling smile.

“You-you wanted to see me?” Home Run put a hand to his chest, like he was trying to stop something from bursting out.

Moonglade discreetly sniffed the air. She tasted a bit of affection, but it kept going on and off, just like the last time.

“That’s right,” Moonglade said in as sultry a voice as she could manage, batting her eyelashes at Home Run. “I came here to see you.” She ran a finger down his chest slowly. She made sure his back was against the vending machine so he couldn’t escape.

“Um, w-what did you come to see me for?” Home Run croaked. He glanced at her every few seconds, only to look away just as quickly.

Moonglade stepped closer, her other hand twirling her blonde hair around one finger. “Since the day I met you… I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind.”

“Oh, really?” Home Run’s blue cheeks turned red. Moonglade smirked. Her plan seemed to be working well. “Well, umm… uhh…”

“Come on,” Moonglade breathed. “I know you’ve been thinking of me too.” She leaned closer until they were almost touching.

“Ooookayyy,” Home Run said, edging away from her, trying to escape from the side. “Sorry, Moonglade, b-but I have practice to get back to. You, uh, know how it is. M-Maybe I’ll speak to you some other time instead…”

“W-Wait…” Moonglade reached a hand out and grabbed him before he could slip away. The baseball player looked at her and waited. Moonglade blushed. She hadn’t planned for him to try to leave. She had to think of something fast. “Um, c-could I get your number? You know, so I can… So I can call you…?”

“You want m-my number?” Home Run asked again, like he was trying to make sure he had heard it right.

The two of them stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. Moonglade didn’t know what else she could do, so instead, she reached into her coat and got out a piece of paper with her own number on it, prepared in advance. “Well, why not… why not I give you my number instead? So if you want to talk, you could c-call me?” She found her voice faltering. She hadn’t prepared very much for this part.

Moonglade stretched her hand out to him, beckoning for the boy to take the paper. Home Run hesitated, then took the paper from her hand.

“Well, uh, I guess that’s it,” Moonglade said, resisting the urge to rub the back of her head in embarrassment. “I had best get going. I’ll see you around then.”

“Umm, yeah, I-I guess I’ll see you around…” Home Run smiled. He waved goodbye to her, then jogged back towards the baseball field, slipping her number into his pocket.

Moonglade watched him go, then walked to the vending machine and thudded her head against the glass, covering her face with her hands. “Oh, you still managed to make a fool of yourself, Moonglade… You had it, but then you messed up…”

She sighed, then composed herself, using the vending machine’s glass to check her attire and look. When she was ready, she walked back to the car, where Aunt Ivory was waiting, the gun barrel still at the window.

“That,” Ivory said flatly, throwing the dart rifle onto the back seat. “Was painful to watch.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade got in and closed the door and Ivory started the car. “Did-did I come on too strong?”

“Any stronger and it would have sent the boy running for his life. You need to be more subtle, sweetie. Be less assertive. Let the prey do the talking. All you have to do is look pretty, and you’re already good at that. The boy smelled of so much fear and trepidation that I could taste it from here.”

“Okay…” Moonglade looked down disappointedly. “I smelt affection coming from him, so I thought I should’ve upped my tactics. I guess I still shouldn’t have, huh? I did give him my number though. Do you think he’ll call, Aunt Ivory?”

“Hard to say. I mean, an attractive girl girl walks up to you and gives you her number? That’s pretty suspicious already.”

“Oh… is-is it?” Moonglade rubbed the back of one hand unconsciously.

They stopped at a red light and watched the pedestrians cross the road.

Ivory Wings drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “Ideally it should be him who asks you for your number. You’re not supposed to thrust it on people like that.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory. I made a lot of mistakes today.”

“Shh, don’t worry, sweetie.” Ivory reached over and rubbed the young changeling’s head softly. “I told you, it’s your first time today. You can’t be expected to be a master already. Take this as a learning experience. Now you know what to do next time, right?”

“Next time?” Moonglade looked at her aunt. “Is there going to be a next time here?”

“There’s always a next time when it comes to hunting for love. Just remember, as they say in Germaney, sie sind das essen und wir sind die jäger.”

“What’s that, Aunt Ivory?” the girl asked.

“Roughly translated, it means ‘They are the prey and we are the hunters’, dear niece.”

Moonglade nodded, then rested an elbow on the window and looked out at the streets. She had messed up today, but she hoped she could find another opportunity with Home Run. She was really hoping he would call so she could correct the mistakes she had made, but a part of her also just wanted him to call so she could talk to him more.

In the end, there was nothing more she could do for now, unless Home Run called her back, so she turned her attention elsewhere.

Sunny Flare stood in the girls’ locker room, surveying the lockers and shower cubicles, looking for anything she could use against Silver Rose. She knew the daughter of Ebony Wings liked to keep a lock on her locker since the shoes incident and that she always showered in the cubicle closest to the exit and that she would hang her towel over the shower door and her PE clothes on the hook behind the door, or at least, that’s where Sunny thought Silver would put it. There wasn’t any other spot she could’ve used inside the cubicle.

“So, I’ll need to find a way to open your lock when your clothes are in there, Silver Rose,” Sunny said to herself, tapping a foot on the floor as her mind worked for solutions.

She had plenty of time during class to inspect the lock, seeing as her foot was still recovering. It was a sturdy lock, which meant it was going to take a lot to break it and she had no idea how to get a second key for it.

“Well played, Silver Rose,” Sunny said, disgruntled. “So I can’t get you during PE, huh?”

It would’ve been so perfect if she didn’t keep a lock on her locker. Sunny would’ve been able to nick her uniform while it was in there, then steal her PE clothes and towel while she was having her shower. That single lock had ruined all her plans.

“Guess it’s back to the drawing board for me,” Sunny Flare said to herself. She had to think of something, or it would continue to eat at her, day and night. She shook her head to clear it, staring at the mirror in the changing room. She hadn’t even been looking after her appearance for a while now. Her hair and makeup were sloppy.

“Maybe Sugarcoat was right…” she said slowly. “This is becoming an obsession.” A vision of Silver Rose came to the forefront of her mind. Maybe her so-called friends were right. Maybe she wasn’t so bad… and she wasn’t that bad looking either, now that she thought about it. Sunny blushed and looked back into the mirror, trying to quell the images of Silver that kept coming to mind.

“No!” Sunny’s reflection said forcefully. “You’ve come this far, you can’t give up now.”

“But look at what it’s done to me,” Sunny reasoned with herself. “I don’t have anymore friends, my grades are dropping and I’m a mess right now.”

“That’s why you want to end this with Silver Rose’s fall!” her reflection raised a fist. “Once she’s gotten what she deserves, she’ll fall in line, just like everyone else. You must deal with her, or else everything you’ve done has been for nothing!”

“But I don’t know what to do anymore…” Sunny covered her face, on the verge of tears. “I can’t figure out how to do this… Maybe the others were right.”

“You’ll think of something. If your friends were still around I’m sure they would help you. Some friends, isn’t that right?”

“Yeah, some friends they turned out to be…” Sunny frowned at the mirror, wiping at her eyes. “They were just a bunch of backstabbing traitors who gave up when things got hard. I don’t need them and I never will. I’ll find out how to steal Silver’s clothes on my own strength. I’ll-I’ll break her lock. If I find something heavy enough, I can just smash that lock off its hook.”

Mirror Sunny scoffed scornfully. “If you were to do something like that, the noise would draw the attention of everyone within this area of the campus.”

“Well then what do you expect me to do, huh?!” Sunny yelled at the mirror. “What do you expect me to do?”

“Well, she keeps her key in her shoe, right?” the Mirror Sunny said. “She has to take her shoes off when she showers. All you need is get it and you’re good to go. Silver Rose will finally be embarrassed.”

“Really? Just like that?”

“You’ll be seen by everyone in the changing room,” Mirror Sunny folded her arms. “But it doesn’t matter, right? As long as Silver finally pays for what she’s done?”

Sunny Flare stared at her reflection, surprised at the lengths she was suggesting. But it was lengths she was willing to take if it ensured her rightful place at the top of CPA. “You’re right. That’s my chance. I have to do it. She deserves to pay!”

“Atta girl, Sunny. I knew you had it in you.”

And then Sunny turned around, the sound of the door opening drawing her attention.

“Sunny?” It was Indigo Zap. “What are you doing here? There isn’t basketball practice today.”

“Whatever.” Sunny adjusted her hair then barged past Indigo. “I was just leaving.”

Indigo watched the mulberry haired girl go and sighed. She really wasn’t the same anymore. She hoped she would eventually realize her mistake and come back, but likely, it wasn’t going to happen. If Sunny wanted to run herself to the ground, then she was welcome to.

Chapter 26 - One Push Too Far

Silver Rose walked into school that morning, not feeling particularly happy. She had hoped Home Run would call her over the rest of the weekend, keeping her phone charged and close to herself at all times, but in the end, she never got the call.

It had the girl wondering if she really did mess up on her first meeting. Her aunt had said not to take it too fast, but in the end, Silver was her mother’s daughter. Perhaps she had inherited more than she knew. But she was resolute. The next time she met Home Run, she was going to apologize and take it nice and slow to give him no reason to be afraid of her. She knew he definitely found her attractive, but that was all it was right now. She still needed to make him like more about herself.

Silver Rose exhaled as she opened her locker to retrieve her first half of the day’s books. She really had hoped she would get Home Run to like her.

“Morning, Silver.” Canvas Splash stopped beside her. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh, I’m fine, Canvas, thanks,” Silver replied. “Yourself?”

“Things have been decent, yeah,” the artist said happily, clutching her books to her chest. “I can’t seem to find my permanent marker set though. I think someone’s hidden it somewhere. Oh, but you don’t have to trouble yourself, Silver. It’ll somehow turn up eventually.”

“Hmm… Okay.” Silver closed her locker and put the lock back in place.

Canvas watched her and followed along as Silver began walking to class. “Something happen, Silver? You look rather down.”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” Silver waved a hand. “It’s… It’s about my sister, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Is she doing alright? Moonglade, right? She’s not ill is she?”

“Nothing of that sort. Just… guy problems. Yeah…” Silver ended with a half-hearted smile.

“Ooh, she likes someone, does she?” Canvas skipped along. “Funny, how she stays home all day. Doesn’t she find it boring?”

“She goes out from time to time to have fun,” the young changeling explained. “In fact, she had just met him outside just last weekend, but she thinks she might’ve scared him away.”

“Is that so?” Canvas said, clearly interested in this story. “Well, she is the daughter of one of the most famous actresses in the world, who wouldn’t be a little intimidated by that?”

“Oh, is that a thing?” Silver asked, hoping to get some ideas from her friend. “People are intimidated by our status? Not by, let’s say… the way we act?”

“Well, I’m no expert, but if the son of Fast Bender came up to me and asked me out, I’d be pretty nervous to say the least.”

“But would you go out with him?”

“Sure I would. If only once to say that I have.” Canvas said eagerly.

“Oh…” was all Silver said. “But then could it bloom into something more through that?”

“I don’t know,” Canvas shrugged. “I don’t have any experience dating guys. Or girls, for that matter.”

“Hmm… okay.” Silver opened the door to her homeroom. At least Canvas had managed to give her a new insight to things. “Well, I’ll see you later, Canvas.”

Sunny Flare was the last back into the changing room after PE, turning her head left and right as she searched for Silver Rose.

This is it. My revenge is going to be so sweet. Sunny had to fight the urge to rub her hands together diabolically. She couldn’t wait for her chance to finally disgrace Silver Rose.

Sunny realized the mauve-skinned girl was nowhere in sight already, meaning she must be in the shower. Sunny pretended to work on her shoelaces, looking under the cubicle door, the one closest to the door. She smiled when she saw a pair of slender mauve legs. Silver Rose’s.

To make matters better, the girl’s shoes were right under the cubicle doors, meaning Sunny didn’t even have to reach for them.

Oh, you’ve gone and done it now, Silver Rose. Time to pay up.

Stalking over to the cubicle, Sunny bent down and dug her fingers in both shoes, eventually returning with a silver key in her hands.

Smirking, she found the locker with Silver’s lock and undid it.

“Sunny, what are you doing?” Canvas Splash looked at the lock in her hands. “Why are you opening Silver’s locker?”

“None of your business, paintbrush.” Sunny pushed her so hard that she fell down on her butt. That had gotten the attention of everyone else in the changing room, with the exception of the showers. Even Sour Sweet was looking over. “What are you all looking at?”

She quickly grabbed everything in the locker before returning to Silver’s shower door. She reached a hand over and grabbed what she could as well.

“Sunny, stop what you’re doing,” Sour Sweet told her. “Come on, what you’re doing is wrong and you know it. Please just stop.”

“I’ll stop when I feel like stopping, now get out of my way!” Sunny pushed her away and headed out to the field.

She looked back once, making sure no one was following her. Smiling, she found the group of dumpsters beside the carpark and tossed Silver’s clothes in. Even if she found them now, they would smell just like the dumpster, so whatever happened, Sunny felt like she had won.

“Mission accomplished!” She jumped for joy before heading back to the changing room. Without her clothes, Silver was likely to be trapped in the cubicle unless she wanted to walk around without anything on.

Entering the locker room again, she noticed most of the other students had already left, with the exception of some of them still changing and the rest still in the showers.

“What did you do with her stuff, Sunny?” Sour Sweet asked.

“It does not concern you, traitor,” Sunny said, then threw open her locker. She reached in and pulled out her towel and her uniform, walking to one of the showers. “If you wanted to know, you should’ve stayed by me from the start. Now get lost.” Sunny slammed the cubicle door behind her.

Changing out of her PE clothes, Sunny hung them on top of the door with her uniform, then turned on the shower, letting the water first fall on her face and shoulders, then run down the rest of her body.

She had done it. She had disposed of Silver’s clothes and there was nothing that girl could do about it now. She let herself cool down from the shower, standing under it for a few minutes.

Just then, from a few cubicles down, there came a truly horrifying sound. It sounded like half banshee wail and half guttural growl. Sunny stopped for a moment, frozen under the water as she listened, trying to determine whether she imagined it or not. There was not a sound in the locker room except for her running water. Had everyone else left already?

Dismissing it, Sunny continued to wash her hair, closing her eyes again. There were a few gasps from what Sunny assumed to be her classmates. At least some of her classmates were still around.

And then the door to her cubicle was torn off its hinges, revealing a cross looking Silver Rose wrapped in a towel. Her eyes appeared to be glowing purple, and she had her shoes on, but no socks; her silver rose choker hung around her neck. Some of her classmates stood behind Silver in various stages of undress, their mouths gaping in awe and shock.

“How-how did you…?” Sunny looked between her wet hair covering her eyes.

Silver reached into the cubicle and pulled Sunny out. There was a rictus grin on the girl’s face as she asked, “What did you do with my clothes?”

Sunny realized she was naked and reached her arms down to cover herself. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Silver Rose pulled Sunny Flare closer, so that their faces were almost touching.

“Don’t. Lie. To me,” She said, giving Sunny a noseful of scent of strawberries and cream. Disturbingly, the mad grin stayed firmly affixed to Silver’s face.

Sunny began to feel the chill set in, mainly because she was wet and the fans above were spinning, but also because something had happened to Silver Rose. The normal new girl look that Silver normally gave out was now swapped out with something that made Sunny’s skin crawl. She couldn’t explain it, but Silver Rose felt like a different person.

“I don’t know. Go ask someone else.” Sunny remained adamant.

Silver’s right hand crept up to Sunny’s bare neck, where it caressed her collarbone almost tenderly. Then it tightened around Sunny’s throat, and she opened her mouth to giggle. Disturbingly, Sunny thought she could see something like flickering green flames in Silver’s throat.

“I’m only going to ask you one more time. Where. Are. My. Clothes.”

Sunny panicked and tried to remove Silver’s hand, but she was just too strong. Her classmates behind them did nothing. They continued to stand away from the two girls, watching in fear and shock.

“Time’s ticking,” Silver said, smiling serenely. She slowly put a little more pressure into her grip.

“Let me go!” Sunny struggled again. “It wasn’t me! Go ask someone else!”

“We don’t have all day, you know. Class starts in less than ten minutes.” Silver leaned close enough for Sunny to smell the mint on her breath, tightening her grip, pressing harder on Sunny’s neck. Even though she was smiling, Sunny could see madness in Silver Rose’s glowing purple eyes, almost like they would come out and eat her up. She shivered at the thought of that. Without warning, Silver clamped down even harder around Sunny’s neck, cutting off her air.

Sunny struggled, unable to breathe. Her heart had begun smashing at her chest as her brain stopped thinking. Right now, she was in full panic mode.

“Alright, alright! I’ll tell you. I... put them in the dumpster outside. The blue one...”

Silver beamed at her. “See, was that so hard?” Her hand left Sunny’s throat immediately. The girl gasped and clutched for her own neck, coughing in Silver’s face a few times.

Then to everyone’s surprise, Silver leaned forward and kissed Sunny on the lips. The others behind them gasped, while Sunny’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks and her cheeks blazed a light pink. She pushed Silver away and scrambled to the back of the cubicle on her butt, huddling in the corner.

“What-what are you doing…?” Sunny grabbed for her shoulders to cover herself.

“Just returning the favor, Sunny. Thanks for the help; I’ll see you around.”

And with that parting shot, Silver Rose slung her backpack over her shoulder and whipped out her phone, punching in a number and putting it to her ear.

Sunny looked around at the others, who were now talking amongst themselves or leaving the changing room. The mulberry haired girl continued to sit against the wall, the shower still running. She was trembling from head to toe, mostly from the cold, but also from the fear and confusion.

What just happened…?

There was just so much going on right now that Sunny didn’t know what to do but to sit there and cry.

Silver Rose’s lips tingled as her mouth worked itself into a wry smile. Putting the phone to her ear, she waited for the recipient to pick up.

“Moshi moshi?”

“Aunt Ivory?” Silver asked, puzzled by the unusual greeting.

“Yes well, it means hello in the Eastern language. Shouldn’t you be in school? Don’t tell me you’re sick again?”

“Not this time, no. I do need your help though.”

Silver could imagine her aunt already making her way to the car.

“The thing is, I need you to bring me a fresh uniform from my closet.”

“What happened to the one that you’re wearing?”

“Long story, Aunt Ivory. I’ll explain when I have the time.” Silver glanced at two of her classmates who were watching her, who then quickly left the changing room.

“Okay… I’m on it. ETA about ten minutes, give or take a few depending on how many red lights I run.”

“Alright, I’ll see you soon. I’m in the girls’ locker room.” Then Silver put her phone back in her backpack and zipped it up. A few of her classmates were still around, watching either her or Sunny, who was quietly sobbing in the corner of her shower cubicle.

That’ll teach her to mess with me.

Silver walked over to one of the benches and sat down, crossing one leg over the other. She felt eyes looking at her, but right now, she was feeling much too angry and annoyed to be embarrassed. She was only clad in her towel and shoes and everything else, including her underwear, had been tossed out by Sunny. Things were just great right now, which was to say absolutely horrid.

She had really wanted to give Sunny a good beating for what she had done, but then she remembered her teachings. Pulling out the door wasn’t the best of actions, but at least she stopped herself from making it worse.

Silver put a finger to her lips and touched them. That had been her first kiss and she had been planning to save it for Home Run, but the opportunity had presented herself. There was no better way to humiliate the blue-skinned girl more than that, besides giving her a black eye or something worse.

By the time the bell had rung, all her other classmates had already left the changing room, leaving just her and Sunny. From the corner of her eye, she continued to watch the broken girl, who still had her knees up to her chest and her head buried in her hands, still whimpering.

Silver didn’t feel sorry for her, in fact, continuing to look at Sunny just made her more annoyed, so she got up and picked up the broken cubicle door, placing it against the cubicle wall where it was supposed to be, though it was now touching the floor. At least this way, Sunny would be covered and Silver didn’t have to see her.

Returning to her seat, Silver took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down. After that, she looked around and when she made sure it was clear, she removed her towel and began drying her hair; she didn’t want to catch a cold and miss more school.

After another six minutes, Silver heard a knock on the door and turned around, swiftly wrapping the towel around herself again.

“Silver?” a voice said outside. “Are you in there, sweetie?”

“Right here, Aunt Ivory,” the girl answered.

Ivory Wings entered the changing room with a small plastic bag in hand, presumably her uniform.

“I came as fast as I could,” Ivory said, handing Silver the bag. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory.” Silver took the bag and walked into one of the cubicles, closing the door behind her.

“You want to tell me what happened, sweetie?” she heard her aunt ask from outside.

Silver fished out her underwear from the bag and put those on first. “I think it’s better to talk about this at home.”

“Hmm, if you wish. Hey, what happened to this cubicle door here? And is someone crying?”

Silver Rose quickly threw the doors open as she put her skirt on, standing between the door and her aunt. “I’ll-I’ll explain it all at home, Aunt Ivory. Here’s not the place. Trust me.”

“If you say so…” Ivory didn’t look convinced, but she let be. “Do you need anything else?

“Well, my old uniform’s out in the blue dumpster outside, and I’ve got to get to class. Can you pick it up and wash it for me?”

Ivory nodded. “I’d like to know what happened later.”

“You will, Aunt Ivory, and thank you.” Silver gave her aunt a hug and directed her out to the dumpster after she put on her shirt, blazer and bowtie.

When she was ready, Silver picked up her things and opened the locker room door. She looked one more time at the cubicle Sunny was in. The shower was still running and by the sound of it, so were Sunny Flare’s tears.

Judging by what happened, Silver knew she was going to be in big trouble both and home and here at school. She shook her head and left the room. Sunny deserved it.

After what Sour Sweet had told her, Sugarcoat had been partially worried about Sunny, especially after she didn’t turn up for any of her classes.

When the final bell for the day rang, Sugarcoat kept her things and headed out of the classroom with Indigo Zap in tow.

“What?” Indigo asked after Sugarcoat let go. “Why do you care? Sunny hates us now, remember? So what if she didn’t come back to class? It’s her own fault.”

“Even if she’s not thinking clearly, Sunny’s still our friend, Indigo. Something must have happened. I’ll go find out if she went home early, you go search the school for any clues.”

“Really? Still our friend?” Indigo pulled at the goggles on her head. When Sugarcoat flashed her a stare, she sighed and nodded. “Alright, alright, I’ll go look.”

By now, Sugarcoat had heard about what had happened during Sunny’s PE class. She wouldn’t have believed it if there hadn’t been so many sources. Plus, Silver Rose had jumped over Sunny and the others once, and that was no normal feat. The girl was clearly special, but to go to such lengths… Then Sugarcoat sighed. If Sunny hadn’t been bullying her, then perhaps this wouldn’t have even happened.

She had sent Sunny Flare a message on her phone as she walked to the nurse’s office, hoping the girl would reply her. Sugarcoat knocked on Nurse Cardiac’s door and entered, looking around as she went in.

“Why hello, Sugarcoat,” the nurse said, rotating in her seat. “You’re a rare face here. What can I do for you?”

“Hi, Nurse Cardiac,” the white haired girl greeted, spying empty beds inside. Maybe she might’ve sent Sunny home earlier. “Was Sunny here today? Did you send her home?”

“No, I’m afraid not,” the nurse said. “Sunny Flare hasn’t been here in weeks.”

“Oh, well, thanks, Nurse Cardiac,” Sugarcoat said and ducked back outside. She walked along the hall, then stopped a few feet away. “Where are you, Sunny? Where did you go?”

She whipped out her phone to check if Sunny had seen her message, but she still hadn’t even read the message yet.

She decided to text Indigo, hoping that the other girl had had better luck locating Sunny Flare. Thinking further, she decided to text the other Shadowbolts as well, hoping one of them would’ve seen her.

“Where could you have gone, Sunny?”

Sugarcoat thought about all the possible places Sunny could’ve been in. Eventually, she figured she would check the changing room. That was where everyone had last seen Sunny, so there might be a clue in there as to where she might’ve gone. Turning around, the white haired girl began making her way down the hall, hoping she would find something that would tell her where Sunny was.

As she approached the changing room, Sugarcoat’s alert ears picked up the sound of water running. She didn’t think much of it as she pushed the doors open. The first thing her eyes focused at was the door that was off its hinges. It was rested on the floor, against the cubicle it was supposed to be covering and the sound of running water could be heard behind it.

Oh, who would actually use the broken cubicle?

“Hello?” Sugarcoat knocked on the broken door. “Anyone in there? The door’s broken you know? There’s no point using this one.”

There wasn’t any answer from within.

Shifting the door slightly to the side, Sugarcoat was surprised to find Sunny Flare behind it, huddled in the corner, naked and softly crying. She didn’t even notice Sugarcoat. She was shivering, likely from the shower water crashing down close to her.

“Sunny?” Sugarcoat squeezed past the door and put in back in place, keeping to the side to avoid the shower until she got close enough to turn it off.

Sunny didn’t seem to acknowledge her presence. She continued to shiver and cry quietly in the corner, the sound of her sobs louder now that the water had been turned off.

“Sunny, it’s alright. It’s alright.” Sugarcoat squatted down and wrapped her arms around the soaked girl, gently patting her back.Come on, let’s get you dressed. You’ll catch a cold if you stay like this.”

“I’m-I’m so s-sorry, Sugarcoat…” Sunny sniffled, her voice shaky and trembling. “I-I should’ve listened t-to you…”

“It’s okay, Sunny.” Sugarcoat continued to comfort the crying girl. “What matters now is that you know your mistake.” The bespectacled girl unbuttoned her blazer and put it around Sunny’s shoulders. “Come on, you’ve been here too long. It’s not good for you.”

Sitting Sunny down on a bench, Sugarcoat went about collecting the other girl’s clothes and her towel, which had become strewn about when the door had been torn from its hinges. In short order, Sugarcoat had Sunny’s outfit back together. While Sunny cleaned up and got dressed, she instead decided to examine the door. It had obviously been forcefully pulled off its hinges, but there was no trace of any tools that might have been used to do so and everyone she asked had said Silver had just ripped the door out with nothing more than her bare hands.

“Intriguing…” Sugarcoat muttered. “But highly disturbing.”

Sugarcoat’s mind did some calculations. It would have taken at least two strong men to tear the door off its hinges like that. And unless the door was already weakened before, there was no way an ordinary schoolgirl should have been able to remove it. She walked to the next cubicle and tugged at the door, trying to pull it off. It didn’t budge in the slightest.

“Okay, something doesn’t add up here…” Sugarcoat concluded.

Sunny wiped at her eyes and zipped up her skirt, done with her uniform. “She was s-so scary, Sugarcoat… And-and she was s-smiling the whole time…” Sunny grabbed her arms and shivered.

Sugarcoat pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Sunny, who dabbed at her streaming eyes with it, wiping her face clean of her smeared makeup.

“Silver Rose? Scary? That’s not a word I’d associate with her,” Sugarcoat said, coming away from the cubicles.

“She gr-grabbed me, threatened me to tell her where her clothes were…” Sunny blew her red nose on the handkerchief. “Then-then… when I told her, she… she k-kissed me.”

This caused the normally stoic Sugarcoat to blink heavily and take a step backward. “She did what now?”

Sunny nodded, her eyes filling up with tears again. “I don’t know what to do anymore, Sugarcoat…”

“Come on.” Sugarcoat patted Sunny on the shoulder and steered her out of the changing rooms gently. “Let’s go find the others. I think this obsession of yours is finally over.”

Chapter 27 - What Happened After

“Sugarcoat, Sunny, there you are!” Lemon Zest jogged over, with Indigo Zap and Sour Sweet following behind.

Just a few minutes ago, Sugarcoat had brought Sunny Flare out of the school building, finding a bench beside the field to sit down under the sun. Sunny had been in the changing room, under the shower, since her PE class, which hadn’t been so good for her. To try and counter the effects, Sugarcoat had thought some sun would do her friend some good.

“How is she?” Lemon Zest looked at the mulberry haired girl.

Sunny didn’t look so much of a mess as she did when Sugarcoat first found her, but she was still clearly shaken by the experience and the hit to her large ego.

“She’s not doing very well,” Sugarcoat answered. “But give her time.”

“Sunny, you see what your actions have done?” Indigo criticized. “I hope you’ve learnt your lesson here.”

“She knows, Indigo.” Sugarcoat glared at the athlete. “So please, not now.”

“Well, what do you want us to do then?” Indigo threw her hands up. “Tell her it isn’t her fault? Tell her we should’ve helped her out? What, Sugarcoat?”

“It was her fault,” Sugarcoat said bluntly. “But that’s past now. Right now, we just need to be here for her.”

“Even after she said we’re no longer her friends?” Indigo wasn’t happy about it.

“I’m sorry I said that, Indigo…” Sunny Flare wiped at her eyes. “I was… I was just being stupid. I’m sorry I pushed you all away instead of listening.”

“Yeah, I don’t know, Sugarcoat.” Lemon Zest looked skeptical. “She said some really mean things to us.”

“She did,” Sour Sweet nodded. “So why should we forgive you, Sunny?”

“I know, I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I’m sorry…” Sunny looked down at her legs. “I brought this on myself…”

“You did.” Indigo put her hands on her hips.

“Come on, Indigo, give her a chance,” Sugarcoat tried to reason. “She’s been through quite an ordeal.”

“She’s been through an ordeal, alright.” Even Lemon Zest wore an annoyed expression. Sugarcoat had rarely ever seen the excitable girl like this. “An ordeal she went through because she chased us away when we tried to help.”

“Yeah, it’s all her fault, so why do we have to help her now?” Sour Sweet complained. “I was so nice and everything and I even helped her. But when I thought things were a little too over the line… She turned around and tossed me aside too.”

“Give us a reason to be friends again, Sunny,” Lemon Zest said. “That’s all we need.”

The mulberry haired girl began to tear up again and covered her face with her hands. “I-I don’t know. I can’t come up with anything…”

“Girls, come on.” Sugarcoat patted Sunny on the back. “Look at her. We need to be here for her right now. She’s a Shadowbolt, just like us. She’s the pride of Crystal Prep Academy. We can’t just abandon her when she needs us.”

Eventually, Lemon Zest sighed and sat down beside Sunny, placing an arm on her shoulder. “You know what, I don’t want to see you like this, Sunny. You were our friend, but this Silver Rose vendetta has messed you up. If… If you really want us to be your friends again, then please, forget about what Silver Rose did.”

“Really?” Sunny looked out from behind her hands. “You mean it, Lemon Zest?”

“Sure, why not?”

“That’s the spirit, Lemon.” Sugarcoat looked to the others. “You girls? The Friendship Games are coming up. If we’re divided like this, perhaps there’s even a slight chance we could lose this. I don’t like to take chances.”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” Sunny nodded her head. “I’ll-I’ll try to change. I’m done with this obsession… I want things to go back to normal. Can you girls forgive me…?”

“I hope this lesson is well learnt, Sunny,” Sour Sweet said. “But I’m so glad you realized your fault. We forgive you. But don’t try this again.”

Lemon Zest flipped through her music list on her phone, picking a cheery song. “Sure, Sunny. I’ll forgive you too. Friends again?”

“Yeah,” Sunny smiled, wiping her tears from her eyes. “I’d like that, Lemon Zest.”

“You, Indigo?” Sugarcoat looked back at the athlete.

“Alright, if everyone’s doing this, then I guess I will too. Sunny, if you’re really sorry, then I accept your apology.”

“Thank you, girls.” Sunny put her arms around Sugarcoat and Lemon Zest, who were seated beside her. “I promise, I’ll forget about what Silver Rose did. I’ll try to get things back to the way they were between us.”

With everything said, the Shadowbolts converged into a group hug, Sunny’s past mistakes pushed aside, out of the way.

Chrysalis put a hand to her forehead and rubbed her face. She was seated in her favorite squashy throne in the first floor living room. Close by and seated on one of the couches was her sister, now free of the Ivory Wings disguise. She too, put her head in her hands and sighed heavily. Silver Rose sat on a stool between the two, trying to look as innocent as possible.

“You did what?” Chrysalis barked.

“I know, now when I look back at it, it was a ridiculous idea,” Silver Rose said, rubbing the back of her head. “But I was so upset and angry with her. She took my stuff and she tried to embarrass me.”

“But you ripped a door off its hinges?” Chrysalis groaned, banging her head on the back of her throne. “I don’t think I need to tell you, that isn’t something humans can do?!” She finished with a small scream of frustration.

“Yes, mother, I know.” Silver looked away. “I just wasn’t thinking straight then...”

“You don’t say…” Psithyra said quietly. “Sweetie, you should always think before you act. You do know people are going to ask questions once word of this gets out?”

Silver Rose winced. This wasn’t at all what she had intended. Though, now that she thought about it with a cool head, tearing the door off might not have been the best of ideas. Picking the lock maybe, but in the heat of the moment, there hadn’t been time to meticulously plot out a plan of attack. Now she was reaping the consequences, and she could feel and taste all too well the disappointment and frustration that was leaking out of the other two changelings.

“So let me get this straight,” Chrysalis said with a dour look on her face. “This Sunny Flare girl steals your clothes and throws them in a dumpster, and your first reaction is to use a changeling scream, rip the changing room door off its hinges, and then almost strangle the girl until she squeals, then you kiss her? What part of that makes sense?!”

“Because you’re all about making sense, aren’t you, Chryssie?” Psithyra muttered.

“I heard that.”

“The point is,” Psithrya said sternly. “You’ve gone and almost blown your cover, Silver. When inquiries begin, we’re going to have to make up some excuse for why the bathroom door was pried off. We might not even be able to wave it away. You left quite a few witnesses, you know.”

“Umm… I know, and I’m really sorry mother and Aunt Psithyra.” Silver bowed her head, afraid to make eye contact. “I was just so mad at her, I guess I forgot to account for everything else.”

“This cannot happen again, Silver.” Her mother glowered at her, her green eyes now glowing. “What if someone starts to suspect something and come looking for clues as to why you’re able to do that?”

“I don’t need to tell you why our kind started hiding from humans, do I, Silver?” Psithyra added.

Silver shook her head. She remembered the story her aunt had told her about losing family. Silver didn’t want to lose her family too.

“I’m sorry…” was all she knew to say.

“Just being sorry doesn’t cut it.” Chrysalis folded her arms grumpily. “There will be punishment for this, Silver. You know you can’t just walk away free with this mistake.”

“Yes, mother…”

Psithyra sighed and walked over to sit beside her niece. “Sweetie, was there more to this? Your mother said you were good at controlling anger and hatred. What happened here? Why did you suddenly snap over such a trivial thing?”

Silver shrugged. “I don’t know, Aunt Psithyra. I was just… so upset. I felt like she needed to be put in her place, you know?”

“Hmm…” Psithyra sniffed the air near Silver’s head. “Does this have anything to do with that Home Run boy not giving you a call?”

Silver didn’t know the answer, but she remembered being particularly put out about it. It had been her first day of hunting by herself and she had failed. Maybe she had gotten so worked up about Sunny taking her stuff, because she was upset that she couldn’t handle her own problems?

“Dear, it’s alright, you know?” Psithyra put a hand on Silver’s head and began smoothing her hair. “None of us start out good at everything.”

“Maybe you didn’t, but I was sure I did, sister,” Chrysalis interrupted.

“Chryssie, not helping.” Psithyra said flatly. “But as I was saying, Silver, failing once doesn’t mean it’s over and that you have to blame yourself for it. There’s always a next time. We’ll just go find him again this Friday. See? Simple, right?”

Silver nodded slowly. “But what about school? Now that I’ve caused so much trouble... What’s going to happen?”

“There’s not much we can say about how a group of students saw you rip a door down.” Psithyra patted her niece’s head. “There were too many witnesses, Silver. I think what’s going to happen is that your school will want a word with you. Detention, most likely. And we’ll probably have to pay for the door too.”

“Psshh…” Chrysalis waved a hand. “Like money is a problem for me.”

“So is that my punishment? Detention?”

“Oh, that’s your school punishment,” Chrysalis said with a sniff. “What I’m planning to do is ground you from leaving the house on the weekends, except for your hunting business.”

“Oh…” Silver didn’t bother hiding her disappointment. This one was her fault anyway.

“I’m sorry, dear,” Psithyra sighed. “But this time, there is nothing I can do about your punishment.”

“I know, Aunt Psithyra,” Silver managed a smile. “It was my mistake.”

“Well, since we’re all done talking here…” Chrysalis pushed off her throne and flipped her blue hair back. “I’ve got a bath to get to. Even I need to look after my beautiful features from time to time, you know?”

Silver Rose sat on her bed in her room, holding Mishter Schniffs in one hand beside her. She had done her homework, but she was feeling very upset about everything that had happened from last Friday till today. She had let her emotions get the better of her and that had made her do some crazy things, like tearing a door off its hinges in front of her class. That was really the silliest thing she had ever done.

“Oh, Mishter Schniffs, see what I’ve done now?” She bounced the stuffed toy up and down. “I’ve really done it now, haven’t I?”

“I’m having a hard time disagreeing, Silver,” Mishter Schniffs replied.

“Do you think it was because I was upset Home Run didn’t call?” Silver fell back on her bed and stretched her arms out. “That I failed to catch him on my first try and I took it out on Sunny?”

“The heart works in mysterious ways,” Mishter Schniffs said sagely. At least it would have sounded sage-like if Silver wasn’t sure she’d read that in a novel sometime in the past. “You’re not in love with the boy already, are you? You barely know him.”

“Well, mother said it was my job to pretend that I was in love with him,” Silver Rose said. “Or at least, she said that Moonglade should be in love with Home Run. Not Silver Rose, not Chrysidea. It would be more convincing like that.”

“Then why were you upset as Silver Rose?” Schniffs hopped onto the young changeling’s chest and looked at her with his big blue eyes. “Could it be your feelings had transferred over to Silver Rose from Moonglade?”

Silver sighed and covered her eyes with a hand. “I don’t know, Mishter Schniffs. In the end, Silver Rose and Moonglade are the same person.”

“I think you were very upset that you failed to seduce the boy. The thought of having failed consumed you enough to spread to your other persona.”

“Well, what do you suppose I do then?” she asked her plushie.

“Plan your next move, princess. Think of what you’re going to do and say to Home Run when you go to meet him again this Friday. Look it over multiple times to see if it fits Aunt Psithyra’s advice.”

“You’re right, Mishter Schniffs.” The girl cradled the toy in her arms. “I need to work on my hunting skills. I need to make that boy want me instead of the other way around.”

“Now you’re thinking, Silver Rose. Good. When you next see him, I believe you’ll be well prepared to seduce him.”

“Ugh, seduce…” Silver spat, like it was a poison at the end of her tongue. “Such a strange word… It doesn’t sound like it was meant to be said.”

She cleared her throat and let Mishter Schniffs continue. “Just play it cool and slow. You’ll know you got it right when that boy starts calling you all the time.”

“You sure know a lot, huh, Mishter Schniffs?”

“Of course,” the plushie said, pointing a hoof to its head. “It’s all about survival. You need to know these things to get your food. Well, you can’t survive only on emotions anyway, seeing as you’re only half changeling. I, on the other hand, am supposed to be a real changeling.”

“Oh, Home Run…” Silver sighed. Lately, she had been thinking about him a lot. She really wanted to succeed. She really wanted to impress her mother and aunt. “I’ll see you soon, Home Run and the next time I do, you’ll be mine. All mine.”

Chapter 28 - Reparations

By three thirty, Crystal Prep Academy had far less students than a half hour ago, seeing as most of them have already left for home. Those that were still around were either staying back to do homework together or to stay for their club activities. Silver Rose would’ve been in fencing right now if not for the fact that she was sitting in detention.

She looked out the window, watching as a yellow bird flew from tree to tree, likely searching for a good place to build a nest.

“Really, I’m disappointed, Silver,” Dean Cadance said, getting her attention back. “I thought you at least would’ve shown more restraint in the matter. And for you, Ms. Flare…” Cadance looked to the girl at the desk next to Silver’s. “You shouldn’t be going around bullying your fellow classmates like this. I hope I don’t need to tell you both what you did was wrong.”

“Yes, Dean Cadance,” the girls said in unison.

“Good, so please, learn from your mistakes and don’t let this happen again.” Cadance walked around the desk and sat down in the chair. “I’ll let you both go at five, so until then, you’re to be here with me. You’ll have a long time to think on your mistakes until then, so I suggest you get started.”

Sunny Flare looked at Silver, then inched to the side slightly like she was afraid of her. Silver Rose didn’t blame her for being afraid. She had been rather frightening, now that she looked back on it. She sniffed, then coughed softly. The taste wasn’t very nice. Perhaps she had gone a little too far.

Silver tapped her fingers on her knuckles anxiously. Indeed, she had been very mad at Sunny for taking her clothes, but now that she had thought long and hard about it, she was here to hunt and make friends. Love was the food source she was looking for, not anger or fear. She wanted to do something about it, but she just didn’t know how she could ever be friends with Sunny. It had been hard before, but now it just looked impossible.

Come on, Silver. Surely you can think of something to change this outcome.

Silver looked out the window and sighed, startling Sunny. The girl, who had once been so confident about herself and really good at putting others down, was now afraid of every little thing Silver did. She had thought she hadn’t scared the girl enough, but she never expected it to work so well to the point of traumatizing the girl.

Watching the bird outside again, she noticed that it had been joined by another yellow bird, though slightly smaller than it. A child perhaps? The two birds flew around, picking at small sticks from the branches, then disappearing out of sight only to reappear again to do the same thing.

They weren’t looking for a place to build a nest. They were looking for the materials needed to build one somewhere else.

Silver Rose marveled at how hardworking those birds were. They took time and effort to build their homes and even if they’re torn down again and again, they would just build up another one. That was something most people didn’t have, including herself. If her home had been torn down, her mother would simply buy a new one, or hire people to rebuild it on the same spot. Actually, it was most likely the second option. Silver also had no experience in construction, so she would leave it all to her mother to decide.

Eventually, after a long time looking out the window, Dean Cadance got up and pointed to the clock.

“It’s five minutes to five, girls,” she said. “I think you’ve been here long enough. You may go. Please, refrain from doing things like that again.”

“Yes, Dean Cadance,” Silver and Sunny said again.

Packing up, Silver watched Sunny at the corner of her eye. The girl was now getting up, slinging her backpack over one shoulder. The pink haired girl decided she should at least give it a try to change things between them now.

“Umm… Sunny,” Silver started, getting the other girl’s attention. “Look, I’m, uh, sorry for what I did. I shouldn’t have scared you like that. I just, um, lost my temper. I’m sorry about that.”

“O-Oh…” Sunny fidgeted on the spot, moving away from Silver. “I, uh, okay…”

Silver reached over. “I’m-I didn’t mean to…” She didn’t know what to say.

Sunny Flare suddenly leaned away and brought her arms up to cover her face, like Silver was spitting some kind of acid at her. The young changeling watched her with a surprised, but also ashamed face. It seems she had really left a lasting mark on the girl and she was disappointed with herself for not having better self control.

In the end, she gave up and returned her hand to her backpack on her chair. “I’m sorry.”

Sunny Flare was the first to leave the room, scooting away from Silver and walking out as fast as her legs would move her, disappearing from sight in less than five seconds.

Silver hoisted her backpack over her shoulders and sighed. This task definitely wasn’t going to be an easy one.

Pulling out her cell phone, Silver dialled for her aunt to come pick her up. She sighed, mentally readying herself for whatever her mother had in store for her.

It was going to be a long day.

Ebony Wings was waiting in the courtyard when Silver returned home and got changed. The actress had a stoic frown on her face, and before her on a folding table were two glass bottles, one red, one close to black.

Silver looked around at the table. The other emotions were missing, including her favorite one. “Is-Is this my punishment, mother? Where are the other emotions?”

“This is all we’ll be playing with today, princess,” Ebony walked out from behind the table and leaned in close to Silver’s face. “Is that a problem?”

“Umm… n-no, mother…” Silver looked away and took one step back.

“Good.” Ebony walked back behind the table. “Now, as punishment and as more training, seeing as you can’t seem to control your anger, I’m going to menace you. I’m going to say mean things and I’m going to try to make you lash out. You will not. Am I clear, my daughter?”

“Um, yes, mother…” Silver didn’t have a good feeling about this.

“Good,” Ebony said and uncorked the red bottle. “Then let’s begin.”

Once again, that spicy scent of anger began to waft out and around in the air, making Silver want to cover her nose. After so many days practicing to handle anger, it still had a burning sensation to it, though not as bad as the first time she had inhaled it.

Then without warning, her mother was beside her, giving her shoulder a shove.

“Hey, what do you normally have for breakfast? It’s making you uglier than normal,” she said in a different voice than her normal Ebony Wings voice. Then she shoved Silver harder, knocking her back a step.

“Mother-”

“I’ve seen rhinos than are prettier than you are,” Ebony smirked and pushed her daughter again. “What are you going to do about this, Silver?”

“Please, mother, stop.” Silver was already putting her concentration into tuning out the smell of anger from the bottle, but her mother’s actions were making it harder for her to concentrate, plus, the words she was saying were somewhat hurtful.

“You call this fighting against anger?” Ebony stopped and folded her arms. “Terrible effort, Silver. You have to try harder than that.”

“I’m trying-”

“Trying isn’t good enough, Silver!” Ebony pushed her again. “You have to give it your best, even if someone is threatening you like I am. Can you handle the insults? Can you handle the pain?”

Whipping a hand back, Ebony slapped her daughter across the face. Silver’s head flinched to the side as she stared surprisedly at one of the courtyard’s many trees.

Did she really ju-just…

She slowly raised a hand to her cheek, which was now starting to turn red.

“So what happens if someone does that to you outside, huh?” she faintly heard her mother’s voice. “Are you going to fight back? Are you going to tear down their cubicle door to get them back?”

“No, I won’t fight back, mother…” Silver looked back at Ebony, lowering the hand at her cheek. It was starting to sting, but Silver fought it off, just like how she was fighting off the urge to hit her mother back. She couldn’t give in to the anger.

“Yes, you won’t fight back. Remember, Silver. You are pretending to be a human. If you react like you did again, you risk revealing our kind to the world. The humans didn’t take kindly to us when they found out we were different. So what are you going to do now? You’re pathetic, Silver. Surely I taught you better than for you to lose your cool in a changing room incident.”

Without warning, Ebony slapped Silver across the other cheek, hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground on her side.

“Ow, mother…” Silver rubbed her other cheek, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“So if someone were to hit you like that in school, what would you do?” Ebony glowered over her, her eyes turning into green fires. “Would you get up and try to strangle them? Or would you walk away?”

“I’ll-I would walk away…” Silver said, her voice slightly trembling.

“That’s what you say, yes.” Ebony crouched down beside her daughter. “But what if they don’t let you go? What if they do it again.”

Then she slapped Silver again, knocking her to her arms, scrapping her left arm across the brick flooring. Before Silver could get up, she was slapped across the other cheek, knocking her to the opposite side.

Silver lifted her hands to cover her face, but her mother pushed her arms aside and slapped her again.

The young changeling almost stopped fighting the anger, wanting to strike back at her mother really badly, but she fought against it, even after she was slapped again and her tears began to trickle down her face.

She couldn’t let the anger consume her. Even if her mother was doing something like that, she knew she had to fight back against the urges to attack. It was what she was training to avoid. She couldn’t give in now, not after enduring so many slaps and insults from her mother.

Keep holding back, Silver. You have to…

Unfortunately, the thoughts of her mother treating her like that was too much for the girl to bear. She began sobbing, quiet whimpers escaping her mouth as her mother hit her again.

Then there was an almighty crash from above, and Ivory Wings landed in a crouch next to Silver in a shower of broken glass. Both her hands were ablaze with green flames, and in her right she held a scimitar.

“Where are they?” Ivory hissed, her eyes darting this way and that. “Who dares to lay a hand on… Oh,” she said, seeing Ebony Wings. “It’s you.”

“What on earth are you doing?” Ebony looked at her broken window. “You’re paying for that.”

“Nevermind that!” Ivory pushed her sister out of the way and went to her niece’s side, checking her for injuries. “Just what have you been doing out here?” Her eyes found the red bottle and she corked it up immediately. “What are you doing to your own daughter?” She wrapped her arms around her niece to console her.

Silver didn’t hold back, letting her sobs out into her aunt as she clung tightly to the older changeling. With the smell gone, she was glad it was all over, though she could still feel her cheeks throbbing with pain.

“Shh… Shh… It’s okay. I’m here for you,” Ivory murmured comfortingly. She took this opportunity to glare at Ebony Wings. “Just what the hay were you thinking?” Ivory growled at her sister.

“I was teaching her the important lesson on how to deal with her anger,” Ebony reasoned. “After what happened in school, she needed more lessons on how to react when these things happen! She needs to learn how to control her emotions!”

“But like this!?” Ivory let go of Silver and marched right up to Ebony, her fingers hooked and claws ready to strike. “You won’t teach her anything like that. All you’ll succeed in doing is making her resent you. Do you know anything about training at all?”

“Well, that’s what I have you for,” Ebony rebuffed.

“Then why in the name of all that is wrong did you not bring her to me to start with?” Ivory waved one hand at Silver, who was still sniffling. “If you know that I can do it better, why didn’t you just come to me?!”

“Well, I thought I’d give it a try…”

“No, you weren’t thinking.”

Ivory spun on the spot and hurried back to Silver’s side, escorting her back into the house, leaving behind a perplexed and slightly regretful Ebony Wings.

All too soon, it was time for dinner.

The clock struck six, signalling everyone to gather in the dining room. Silver Rose, escorted by Ivory Wings, made her way to the long table, where the sirens, but not her mother, were seated. The sirens looked at Silver, but didn’t say anything.

Ivory Wings had applied some special ointment on Silver’s cheeks after her training, helping to reduce the pain, but they were still slightly red and it still looked like Silver had painted something on her face.

Once she made sure her niece was seated and there were no problems, Ivory headed for her seat and sat down, her eyes looking to her sister’s empty chair. She raised an eyebrow, but otherwise said nothing and got ready for dinner.

Silver Rose looked down at her hands, still thinking about what her mother had done. She knew her mother had the good intention of making sure she would never compromise their identities, but the way she had done it made Silver feel empty. It had her feel like her mother didn’t love her.

She sat in silence, pondering how her mother could do such a thing to her and hurt her feelings like that. Aunt Ivory had been right. Her mother had only made her resent her, if only slightly. Silver didn’t like what she had done to her.

After another twenty minutes of silence and thinking, Silver looked up as her mother threw open the dining room doors. As expected, the queen strolled in and sat at her chair like nothing had happened earlier, signalling the maids to bring out the food.

When dinner arrived, Silver got started on her plate of pasta, at the same time, keeping an eye on her mother. She really wanted to know if her mother perhaps felt even a little bit guilty about what she had done, but by the looks of it, she was still pretending like nothing had happened. Aunt Ivory sat beside her mother, busy eating her dinner, not once making eye contact with her mother.

Silver took a sniff in the air, but stopped when she found disappointment. It didn’t taste very nice, so she got back to eating her delicious food first. Perhaps in the end, her mother really didn’t love her as much as she thought.

When she was finished with her meal, Silver cleaned her mouth and sat in silence again as the maids came back to clear their crockery. The sirens were the first to get up and leave, talking about homework as they exited the dining room.

Deciding she had enough of awkward silences, Silver pushed her chair out and decided to head to her room.

“Wait.”

The order had come from Ebony Wings, who was still seated, holding onto a tall glass of wine. Silver stopped, first looking to her aunt to see what to do.

Ivory leaned back in her chair and watched her sister with narrowed eyes before nodding once.

Silver sat back down, trying to keep her face as neutral as possible, even though she was she the others could taste her apprehension for the situation.

Ebony leaned back on her chair and twirled a finger through her long dark hair.

“Look,” she said slowly. “Silver. It has come to my attention that earlier today, we tried something we really shouldn’t have.”

“‘We’?” Ivory said from her chair. “Come on, sister. If you’re going to do this at least take some responsibility for your actions.”

“Does it really matter, Ivory?” she dragged.

“Yes. Yes it does.” Silver’s aunt looked like she was about to slap a hand to her forehead.

“Fine then. I tried something I shouldn’t have done.”

There was a long pause before Ivory cleared her throat. “Continue, Ebony.”

“The thing is…” Ebony said, pursing her lips and staring to the side. “Well, I wanted to say that I overstepped my bounds today, subjecting you to the bottle of anger. That was… incorrect of me to do.”

“It isn’t the bottle of anger that was wrong, sister,” Ivory said scornfully. “Silver’s been training with the different bottles of emotion. It’s something else that you did that was overstepping your bounds, as a mother to her daughter.”

Ebony Wings shot a dour glare at her sister, who returned the stare in kind.

“Fine. I overstepped my bounds today with a rather ineffective method of teaching you to control your anger. Silver, I was wrong to say those things to you, and it was wrong of me to strike you. And for that, I would like to say… I’m sorry.”

Silver was taken aback for a second. Her mother never apologized for anything. This must’ve taken her a long time to think over before coming down for dinner, which would also explain why she was late. In the end, maybe she did care, at least to a certain extent. Silver was glad. At least she knew her mother went through a lot of effort to say this.

“It’s okay, mother,” Silver Rose nodded. “It was my fault that brought you to do this. If I hadn’t overreacted in the changing room and torn the door down, you wouldn’t have needed to discipline me.”

“Oh, Silver, you’re so quick to forgive your mother.” Ivory Wings looked back at her sister. “But I guess if your daughter forgives you, then I have nothing more to say.”

“Indeed…” Ebony Wings breathed. “Well, if that’s all, I have to go pick some belladonna from the garden. I’ll see you later, Silver, sister.”

“Why on earth are you picking belladonnas for?” Ivory got up and adjusted her spectacles.

“For alchemy, of course,” Ebony said loftily. “You may love your hemlock, but I prefer belladonna.”

“Huh, alright…”

When Ebony Wings left the dining room, Ivory circled over to her niece and placed both hands on the young changeling’s shoulders. “You alright, sweetie?”

“Yeah…” she said, putting a hand up to her cheek. “I didn’t think she’d actually apologize.”

“Me too…” Ivory patted her niece’s shoulders. “ She must’ve used every muscle and effort in her body and mind to apologize. It’s not something she does. Well, I’m glad it’s all clear now, but Silver, you can be sure I’ll be monitoring each and every one of your training sessions with your mother now. I’m not letting her try anything like that again.”

Thanks, Aunt Ivory,” Silver managed a smile, her mood bolstered by the love and adoration wafting from the older changeling.

“Now, I have a bit of free time. How about we go upstairs and you show me how the Neighstation works?”

Chapter 29 - Would I Lie

When Silver Rose finished her homework that Thursday night, she didn’t think her day could get any better. Her mother had been slightly nicer to her all day, slightly, and she had performed pretty well in the fencing club as well.

When her phone starting ringing beside her papers on the desk, Silver’s heart skipped a beat. It was an unknown number, but she excitedly picked it up.

“Hello?” she smiled and waited.

“Hello? Is this Moonglade?”

Silver’s heart started fluttering when she heard the voice. It was Home Run’s. He had finally called! She thought she had failed to catch him, but maybe she hadn’t. She was so happy she almost forgot to reply. Finally. An opportunity to bring home some food.

“Home Run? Yes, it’s me,” she said in Moonglade’s voice. “So nice of you to call! What can I do for you?”

“Hi, yeah, I was wondering if you… wanna talk?”

“Talk?” Silver repeated. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Oh well… You know, to get to know you better and stuff…?”

“Oh, you do!” Silver tried to contain her excitement. “How about we meet tomorrow? Let’s say at four-thirty? We can meet somewhere close to your school.” She put a finger to her chin and thought about it. “How about the park around there? That’s a nice enough place, right?”

“Okay, I know the place. Well, I’ll see you there tomorrow?”

“You will,” Silver sighed into the phone for added effect. “I can’t wait, Home Run. See you tomorrow!”

When she hung up, she cradled the phone to her chest, unable to contain her smile. She had done it. She had been successful in her hunt. She almost wanted to jump up and down on the spot, but she managed to contain that. Plus, Home Run had been on her mind for sometime now. She had really wanted to see him again. Perhaps like this, she wouldn’t need to pretend to be in love.

“Well, we’ll see what you feel like tomorrow, hmm, Moonglade?” Silver said to herself. She got up and threw the study room door open, rushing for the stairs. “Aunt Ivory! Aunt Ivory! You won’t believe what happened!”

When the bell rang on Friday, Silver Rose quickly packed her things and rushed out to the carpark, where her aunt was already waiting. The girl wasted no time in getting in, counting the seconds as the car headed back to the Wings’ Estate.

As soon as she got home, Silver dashed out of the car, running for her bathroom, ready to change personas. Taking a nice long shower to remove her current dye, the young changeling washed herself before applying Moonglade’s dye. When she was done with her shower, she entered her large closet and picked out her regular apparel for Moonglade before tying up her braid and donning her glasses.

“I’m ready.” She looked at herself in the mirror, then left to find her aunt waiting outside in the car. “Did you even park the car, Aunt Ivory?”

“No point,” the older changeling said. “I thought I’d just wait out here till you’re back so that we can leave at once.”

“Well…” Moonglade walked around and gave her aunt a hug. “Thanks for always watching out for me and driving me to places.”

“Hey, anything for you, sweetie.” Ivory placed a hand on her niece’s cheek. “Someone’s got to be there for you.”

The blonde haired girl smiled at her aunt, then got in the car, buckling herself in.

As they traveled to the park where she was supposed to meet Home Run, Moonglade looked out at all the passing buildings, still trying to map it all in her head. She’d been able to go out for a few weeks now, but so far, she only knew the rough path to most places. The only one she really remembered was the theme park, seeing as it was huge and it was really fun to go to.

Moonglade lightly smiled to herself. Perhaps if things worked out, she could come here with Home Run someday.

Eventually, the car stopped outside the park Moonglade had told Home Run to go to. She looked around the area from inside the car, examining each person, trying to determine if there were any dangers out there.

Her aunt must’ve thought the same, because she reached behind the seat and picked up her dart rifle. “I’ll have my eyes on you the whole time, sweetie, so don’t worry yourself. I’ll keep you safe.”

“Alright. Thanks, Aunt Ivory. I’ll try to do better this time.”

Taking a deep breath, Moonglade stepped out of the car, adjusting her glasses before strolling down the paved path to one of the nearby benches. She kept telling herself that things were going to turn out differently this time. She would ensnare Home Run and make sure never to let him go. Picking a shady spot, Moonglade put herself under the shade of a tree, leaning back against the wooden back and sighing. It was a nice breezy day, not too hot, not too cold. Sometimes, Moonglade found herself walking out to the lake at their mansion just to enjoy the scenery and the wind. Lately, since starting school, she hadn’t had the chance to do that a lot, so this was nice.

There were many passing people, some of them bringing different kinds of balls in to play, like soccer and football. Moonglade didn’t particularly like those two sports, but she figured she could pick a sport up one day, preferably something she enjoyed.

One particular group of people who caught the young changeling’s attention was a family consisting of two parents and one boy, tossing frisbees from one to another. Moonglade smiled as the boy missed the frisbee, running back to get it. She would say it reminded her of her family, but it didn’t. Her mother had never played with her, nor did she really spend time with her like a normal parent should, except for alchemy and shooting lessons, which in the end, were just lessons and training, and that didn’t count. Watching the family, Moonglade couldn’t help but feel that she was missing out a lot in life.

The girl removed her glasses and wiped at her eyes. She wished her mother could be more loving and motherly, but she knew many things couldn’t happen with her mother the way she was.

She couldn’t see, but soon, she smelt a presence closeby. A familiar one. “Hey, Moonglade, are you okay? Something happen?”

Ah, yes. The prey is here.

“Home-Home Run…” Moonglade wiped her eyes one more time and put her glasses back on. “I’m sorry. I was just… thinking of something.”

“Something bad didn’t happen, I hope?” he smiled and sat down on the bench beside her.

“No, no, not too bad…” Moonglade suddenly reached out for his hand and held it. Right now, she felt she just needed someone. Someone real. “I’m sorry. May I? I really… I just need to know I’m not by myself right now.”

“Oh, um… yeah, sure.” Home Run scratched at his cheek, blushing a little.

Moonglade and Home Run sat in silence for a while. Moonglade continued to hold firmly onto Home Run’s hand, wanting the reassurance that there could be someone there for her. It wasn’t a bad idea.

“Sorry, I’m just thinking about my mother,” Moonglade started. “She’s so… busy that she rarely ever has time with me.”

“Yeah, I guess it comes with being the daughter of the acclaimed Ebony Wings, huh?” Home Run rubbed his head with his free hand.

“Oh, you found out already, hmm?” Moonglade smiled softly.

“Yeah. Umm, I kinda have two uh…” Home Run scratched at his head. “Friends obsessed with your mother. Yeah. A day rarely passes by that they don’t mention her. Of course, they’ve mentioned you recently, so yeah.”

“Yeah, guess I couldn’t hide it for long.” Moonglade gave his hand a squeeze. “Thanks for being here. I feel better.”

A word of advice drifted to the forefront of Moonglade’s mind. Her aunt’s advice.

Let the prey do the talking. All you have to do is look pretty.

“Glad to help. So… The other day, at school,” Home Run said, making almost no eye contact with Moonglade. The girl inhaled, smelling the thin trail of affection from the blue haired boy. “You… Did you really mean, uh, what you said? About thinking of me?”

“Would I lie to you?” Moonglade said, fluttering her eyelashes, while internally thinking, Yes.

“Well, I don’t know…” Home Run scratched his cheek again. “But… you were right, you know? I, uh, was thinking about you. You’re an interesting person.”

“Am I?” Moonglade said coolly. “Why’s that, might I ask?”

“Oh, uh, you know… You’re not from school and… stuff, and you, uh, you-you were coming really close to me the last time we spoke. Sorry about that, by the way. It just kinda spooked me. I wasn’t sure how to react.”

Moonglade did her best to look politely interested. “Uh-huh,” she said, mimicking what her mother had said once at an interview. “So I spooked you? Why would you be spooked by me?” Moonglade put on her best innocent face and twisted the hem of her skirt.

She glanced back to the car and saw the dart rifle’s muzzle dip slightly. It looked like she was doing alright.

“We-well, I’m not used to that, I guess. Girls don’t normally stand that close.”

“Well, have any girls taken an interest in you before?” Moonglade put on her best smile. “Because I did, Home Run.”

“You did? Why? There’s nothing special about me, is there? I’m just… Home Run.”

Because my aunt and mother seem to think this is a good idea and a fast way to harvest love. Well, also partially because you’re rather cute, but that’s not the big point.

“Let’s start with the easy one.” Moonglade finally let go of Home Run’s hand and pushed her blonde hair behind an ear, then she blushed slightly. It wasn’t exactly easy for her to utter these words. “You... seem to be a nice boy. It’s rather easy to tell with you and I like that. And well… y-you’re quite, um, good-looking yourself… Uh, another one is that you’re not here just because I’m Ebony Wings’ daughter. Right?”

“Oh, well, no,” Home Run said. Moonglade sniffed again. He certainly didn’t smell like he was lying. “You, um, looked like you could use a friend…? You know… Umm… Yeah.”

“Is that what we are?” Moonglade tilted her head to the side. “Friends?”

“I mean, if you want. We could be.” Home Run flashed her a smile. This time, he met her gaze for a second longer, before looking away again.

“I don’t have a lot of friends, you know,” Moonglade remarked, finding the trail of affection growing in power.

“I can be your friend, Moonglade. I do want to get to know more about you.”

“You do?” Moonglade feigned extra excitement. “So do I!”

“Oh, that’s great!” Home Run sat up straighter.

Moonglade nodded. “I’m glad I can call you a friend, then! You’re my first outside friend, you know?”

“I am?” Home Run looked a little confused. “How about the sirens? They’re your friends, right?”

“Yeah, they are. You know them too, huh? Seeing as you go to the same school,” Moonglade said. “Are they your friends too?”

“I guess you could say that. I mean, I’m trying to be. Only Sonata seems to open up to me. The other two… not really.”

Sonata was always too exuberant for her own good… Moonglade thought, flicking her eyes to the side.

“Anyway, now that we’re friends, what happens next?” Moonglade tilted her head to the side and adjusted her glasses. She didn’t know how these worked, so it was better if she listened to her aunt and let the boy lead the way.

“You know…” Home Run rubbed the back of his head. “We can meet up time to time, exchange information… stuff like that.”

“I would love that.” Moonglade put on her biggest smile. Moonglade started to blush, so she used it to her advantage. “W-Would you con-consider our meetings as… as going out on a… on a d-date?”

The blue haired boy’s cheeks blushed to match hers. “Uh, um, s-sure, if you-you’re okay with calling it t-that…”

“Really?” Her smile grew even bigger. Her plan was actually working. “You don’t know how much this means to me, Home Run!”

“That’s good then,” the boy chuckled. “I’ve, uh, never really had a relationship before…”

Moonglade decided to take Home Run’s hand again, giving it a light squeeze. “Well, neither have I, so we can figure it out together!”

“Sure, that’ll be something.”

“So how about we meet some place tomorrow?” Moonglade inched closer to him on the bench. “Somewhere for a drink, perhaps?”

“Oh, I know a good place for that.” Home Run nodded. “Ever heard of Sugarcube Corner?”

“You did well, my little niece.” Ivory Wings gave Moonglade a hug as soon as she entered the car. “Now that’s how you get things done.”

“And I have a follow up too!” Moonglade said happily. “We’re going on a date tomorrow! A place called Sugarcube Corner! I can’t wait!”

“My, it pleases me to see you so happy, Moonglade.” Ivory rubbed her niece’s head. “Now, remember, Moonglade likes the boy. Chrysidea sees him as a source of food, yes?”

“I’ll remember that, Aunt Ivory,” the girl answered obediently.

“Good.” The older changeling returned to the wheel and started the engines. “So what would you like to do for the rest of your Friday? I kind of had a chat with your mother. She agreed that you can go out on the weekends again.”

“You did? Thank you, Aunt Ivory! You really are the best! Hmmm…” Moonglade touched a finger to her chin. “How about a movie, Aunt Ivory?”

“Splendid idea!” The white haired woman smiled and turned the steering wheel. “We can head home and collect the sirens, then I can drive you girls to the theater.”

“You won’t be watching with us?”

“Don’t you worry about me, sweetie. You go have your fun.”

“But it’s more fun with you,” Moonglade reasoned.

Ivory chuckled and removed one hand from the wheel to pat Moonglade on the shoulder. “Maybe another time, sweetie. I’m still working on a way to fix the sirens’ gems, so I’ll have to pass. You go have fun.”

“Oh, alright...” Moonglade sighed and looked out the window. She forgot the sirens were very dear to her aunt. Wanting to restore their powers would be very high on her priorities.

“Hey, no need for that emotion,” Ivory said, turning another corner. “I’ll spend some time with you another time, hmm? Maybe we can play more of that game that has your mother.”

“Sure!” Moonglade’s eyes lit up. “I’d love to spend more time with you, Aunt Ivory.”

“What a good little changeling.” She rubbed her niece’s head again. “Your mother should be proud to have such a good and beautiful daughter.”

Chapter 30 - Panic at the Movies

“Okay, open your eyes, Sunny,” Sugarcoat said, dropping her hands from her friend’s face.

Sunny Flare inched her eyes open and realized they were at the cinema, and not just that. She was standing before a poster board of Fast Bender, dressed up as an android once again for the movie, Xeno: Pact.

“Fast Bender!” Sunny gasped excitedly. Up close, he was so handsome. More handsome. She had to control herself from just going up and kissing the cutout. He looked like he was actually here, smiling at her.

“I knew this would cheer you up.” Sugarcoat smiled smugly and pushed her glasses up her nose.

“Three tickets, just for us. Our treat for you.” Sour Sweet waved the tickets in her hand. “Just don’t get used to it.”

“We figured this will help with your current situation.” Sugarcoat patted her mulberry haired friend on the shoulder.

Sunny nodded, so glad that her friends, the ones she had turned away before, were here and trying to cheer her up.

Things haven’t been easy for her since the day Silver Rose had tried to kill her in the changing room. The other students have also taken steps up, not afraid to bother her about it. Sunny didn’t have the strength or the will to turn them away. Instead, she’d go home everyday and cry about it. Sugarcoat must’ve realized that and orchestrated their coming to the cinema.

“Come on, let’s go watch the movie,” the bespectacled girl beckoned, leading the way in. “And don’t you worry, Silver Rose isn’t here.”

“Why are you even afraid of her?” Sour Sweet walked alongside Sunny. “She looks just like us, except for some fantastic sports abilities.”

“She’s just horrified by the experience, Sour Sweet,” Sugarcoat said and waited for the purple haired girl to give the attendant their tickets. “Give her time and she’ll be back to being the Shadowbolt she trained to be.”

“As long as she doesn’t start going after Silver Rose again.” Sour Sweet folded her arms.

“I won’t.” Sunny shook her head. “I promise. I’m done with trying to take her down. We should just focus on the Friendship Games from here, like you suggested.”

“Well said, Sunny,” Sour Sweet smirked and lifted a fist as the attendant let them in. “We’re going to win this one, like Crystal Prep always does.”

Sunny Flare, Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat located their seats in the theater hall and sat themselves down, waiting for the movie to start.

Soon, the theater lights began to dim and the first advertisements began to show. There was one for a jewelry store, one for insurance, and, funnily enough, one for cinema advertising. Then the movie trailers began to show. The first one was for the latest Daring Do, although the trailer was narrated by none other than Ebony Wings, who had reprised her role as Cat Scratch again.

Thinking about Ebony Wings made Sunny thinking about Silver Rose, which sent chills down her spine. She put her feet on the chair and hugged her legs close to her chest, trying to feel warmer.

After that was a trailer for the upcoming Rapid and The Angry 7, which starred Van Diesel, an acclaimed actor, much like Ebony Wings and Fast Bender, though, in her opinion, he wasn’t as charming.

When that was over, the lights around them went out completely, signaling the start of the movie. Ominous music began to play as the logos came up, making Sunny’s heart beat faster as she waited for something to happen. The shot opened with a display of space, with hundreds of glittering stars painted across it. Then a spaceship’s hull soared into view. On it was painted the name, Pact.

After that, the camera entered the ship, focusing on the bridge, where two people were talking, and one of them was-

“Fast Bender!” Sunny squealed quietly, and covered her cheeks with her hands. He was so dashing with his blonde hair gelled back like that. “Oh, he’s so hot, right girls?”

“Shh.” Sour Sweet hissed. “I’m trying to watch.”

“Sorry!” Sunny whispered and looked back at the screen.

Eventually, the crew of the Pact, encountered some spores, which hatched out of two crew members who breathed them in. It was gruesome. Almost too gruesome for Sunny, but she didn’t cover her eyes. It was really realistic when the first xeno burst from a man’s back, spraying blood and bones across the room, but Sunny kept her lunch in.

Soon after, the remaining crew members encountered the old android from the first film, which was another copy of Fast Bender.

“There he is again!” Sunny pointed at the screen. “Now there’re two of him! He’s sooo cool.”

“Yes, my eyes also work,” Sugarcoat said quietly. “Now keep quiet or we’ll get kicked out.” Though she ended off with a smile.

Sunny screamed a few times when xenos jumped up at the screen and from around corners, but she really enjoyed the movie. It kept her heart beating and her on the edge of her seat. She really did enjoy horror movies, and having Fast Bender in it just made it all the more enjoyable.

In the end, the heroes managed to detonate the entire structure housing the xenos, escaping only at the last minute before leaving the planet on their ship.

When the credits began rolling and the lights came back on, the girls headed out, with Sunny squealing all about how good the movie was.

“I can’t believe it was the evil Fast Bender that survived at the end! What a twist! But good or bad, that man is so dreamy…”

“True, it was an enjoyable movie.” Sugarcoat wiped at her glasses with a sleeve. “Thankfully not everyone in the theater is like you, Sunny, but I’m glad you’re happy.”

“That was the goal of our visit here,” Sour Sweet said nicely. “It’s nice to see you more normal again.”

“Though now she’s deathly afraid of Silver Rose,” Sugarcoat blurted.

“I-I am n-not,” Sunny stammered, feeling a chill up her spine again as she thought of those glowing purple eyes and the hand that had been around her throat, ready to squeeze her head off her neck.

“You don’t need to hide it, Sunny, everyone already knows about it.”

“Everyone?!” Sunny squawked. “My reputation is ruined…” she put her head in her hands and groaned.

“You pretty much already ruined it when you tried to get back at Silver.” Sugarcoat lifted an eyebrow. “And besides, why do you think so many students are making fun of you now? Stories spread fast.”

“That’s why we brought you to see a movie. To cheer you up!” Sour Sweet put her arm around Sunny. “Though you kept talking and gawking at Fast Bender.”

At that point, the three girls were so busy with their conversation that they almost bumped into another group that was heading in the opposite direction.

“Oh, sorry,” the girl in the center said, backing off. She had blonde hair and glasses, and wore a somber ensemble of red and black. “Hey… I know you.”

“Watch where you’re going next time,” Sunny barked, then looked at her up and down. “Have we met?”

The other girl drew back a little and gave her the barest hint of a smile. “No, but my, ah, sister talks about you a lot. Showed me your MyStable page. Sunny Flare, wasn’t it?”

“What?” Sunny was quite furious. Who would show their sibling someone else’s MyStable account like that?

Suddenly, she was pulled back by Sugarcoat. “Sunny, in case you didn’t recognize her, you’re talking to Moonglade. Silver Rose’s sister.”

“Silver R-Rose?” Now that Sugarcoat had mentioned it, their faces did look similar, but that only made things worse for Sunny.

Her breathing became more ragged and she drew back two steps, her arms already out in front, instinctively ready to defend herself.

Moonglade and the other three girls she was with noticed the stance change and exchanged looks. “Uh, kind of high strung, aren’t you?”

“N-No…” Sunny placed a hand on her chest, trying to calm her heartbeat. “I-I…” Then she fell to her rear and scooted back against Sour Sweet’s legs, holding onto them like they were her only hope. “I can’t, I can’t! Help me…”

Frightening pictures of Silver Rose’s face began to plague Sunny’s mind. She closed her eyes and tried to shut them out, but it was to no avail.

“Wow,” the girl on the far left, one with a purple and blue ponytail, remarked. “What did you- I mean what did Silver do to her? She’s shaking like a leaf.”

“I think you better leave,” Sour Sweet told them. “You’re scaring her.”

Moonglade looked at the stricken Sunny Flare, then to her companions and nodded. Sunny couldn’t help but notice the apologetic face on Moonglade as she and her friends left.

“Come on, Sunny. What happened to you? Why are you like this?” Sour Sweet asked after the other girls had gone. “I know Silver Rose did a strange thing, but you can’t be like this now.”

“Do you want to lose to Canterlot High?” Sugarcoat looked at her sternly. “Because this is how you lose to Canterlot High. We can’t have you on the team if you can’t get over this.”

“What does this have to do with the Friendship Games?” Sunny asked, staggering to her feet.

“It’s a matter of psyche,” Sugarcoat explained. “You’ve got to be on top of your game to win the Friendship Games. You can’t get all jelly legged and sweaty palmed just because you see Silver Rose in the crowd, or think of her at an inopportune time. Get a hold of yourself, girl!”

“But she-she…” Sunny pictured Silver ripping the cubicle door off its hinges. “She could’ve killed me there. She could’ve… I felt it. I was so close.”

“I’m really starting to wonder what went down in the locker rooms that day,” Sugarcoat said pensively. “You’re making it sound like a horror movie.”

“It was scarier than any movie I’ve seen…” Sunny shivered. “First, there was some kind of cry, like a roar of rage or something, then she tore my door right off and tried to strangle me, all the while smiling with those glowing eyes… I swear, I’m not making any of it up!”

“People’s eyes don’t glow,” Sour Sweet pointed out.

“But they were!” Sunny insisted. “I wouldn’t make that up! You were there, Sour Sweet. You saw her rip the door off.”

“It’s true,” she replied sweetly. “And she jumped over our heads during the run.”

Sugarcoat put a hand to her chin and nodded. “True, things don’t add up with Silver Rose here. But Sunny, we need you to go back to normal. Silver likely won’t bother you if you don’t bother her. Just leave her alone and try to focus.”

“O-Okay, I’ll try…” Sunny took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Sugarcoat had a point. Silver only attacked her because she had tossed the girl’s clothes out. So perhaps if she didn’t bother Silver anymore, then she didn’t have anything to worry about. “I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Clearly,” Sugarcoat said flatly. “But from today, it’s time to get serious. No more Silver Rose and changing room doors. Winning the Friendship Games is all that matters. Can I trust you to focus, Sunny?”

“I’ll… I’ll do my best.” Sunny nodded confidently. She just hoped it wasn’t all talk and no show.

“Oh boy, oh boy, this is going to be exciting!” Moonglade sat down in her seat and waited.

She and the sirens had gotten tickets for a movie called Xeno: Pact, which looked like some kind of horror sci-fi movie.

Sonata seemed like she was going to enjoy it, but the other two certainly didn’t. In fact, Adagio looked like she had her mind on something else.

“Adagio, everything alright?” Moonglade asked after reaching over to tap her shoulder. “You seem distracted.

Adagio Dazzle blinked a few times, then waved a hand dismissively. “Everything’s fine.”

“I think she’s still upset that you’re going out with Home Run.”

“Am not!” The poofy haired siren yelled, then looked to the side when other people turned around to look at her.

Moonglade looked at her, then sniffed a few times; there was disappointment coming from her.

“Adagio, do you really?” Moonglade kept her nose on her. “You didn’t say anything.”

Adagio folded her arms and sighed. “I’ve never had to deal with this before. I think it might be a side effect from losing our gems. We’ve become more… human. But what’s done is done, Moony. You’ve got a date tomorrow. Do your best.”

“Really? You’re okay with that?”

“Hey, Ivory’s putting a plan to get our gems working again. If it does, perhaps this feeling will go away.”

“Alright then.”

Moonglade was partially relieved, but also sad for her friend. She didn’t know Adagio had an eye on Home Run, but now, so did she. Even now, the boy was taking up a portion of her thoughts. Moonglade had never gone out on dates before and she couldn’t deny she was excited. She wondered what kind of drinks Home Run liked.

“Gee, you really like Home Run too, huh?” Aria Blaze watched her. “It’s written all over your face.”

“Oh, is it?” Moonglade laughed slightly awkwardly. “Well, I’m supposed to. That’s the idea behind the plan, is it not?”

“I suppose.” Aria blew up at her hair and leaned back. “Whatever. The movie should be starting soon.”

“Hey, Moony.” Sonata tapped her arm. “Question, what exactly did you do to that girl outside? The one that fell back when she saw you.”

“Oh, Sunny?” Moonglade rubbed her head, blushing as she remembered all the mistakes she had done. “I kinda did things no normal person could do. Aaaand… I kinda tried to strangle her too…”

“You did what?” Adagio said with a bark of laughter. “No wonder your mother and aunt were so on edge. Still, as long as you didn’t expose the entire masquerade, I guess they decided it could be forgiven. I expected your mother to get more worked up about it though. When things don’t go her way she usually explodes.”

“She did, I think…” Moonglade touched her cheeks. Her mother had really taken it out on her that day. Thankfully, her aunt had stepped in before it could get any worse. “But I regret my actions. I shouldn’t have gotten worked up myself. I could’ve jeopardized everything my mother and aunt have worked so hard to achieve.”

“Well, no harm done in the end, right?” Sonata said through a mouthful of popcorn. “Except maybe scaring that girl half to death. But hey, it’s kind of funny once you think about it.”

“The punishments weren’t funny…” Moonglade answered, holding a hand to her cheek. Her mother had grounded her at first too, but thankfully, her aunt had managed to put in some word for her to let her come out today.

Eventually, the ads started, followed shortly by the movie. Moonglade was impressed by the realism of the xenos, which didn’t look like they were even computer generated or anything. The movie had a whole fistful of gore and the girl was slightly disgusted with it all, but at least it was an interesting story.

When the movie was all over, Moonglade got off the seat and stretched her arms back. “That wasn’t too bad. Quite interesting, really.”

“It was okay,” Aria said.

“A little too scary, if you ask me…” Sonata got off the chair, her hands shaking.

“That’s because you’re a scaredy-cat, Sonata.” Aria stuck her face in her sister’s.

“Am not!”

“Girls, not now, please.” Adagio rubbed her forehead.

Proceeding out of the theater, Moonglade walked alongside Adagio, hanging back a few steps to keep away from Sonata and Aria, who were still arguing.

She walked along with the more mature siren, saying nothing at first, but then after a sniff of the air around Adagio, Moonglade felt like she needed to speak up again.

“Adagio,” she called, getting her friend’s attention. “Are you… Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine,” Adagio said firmly.

“You don’t smell like you are. You should’ve said something sooner, you know? I didn’t know.”

“You changelings and your sense of smell,” Adagio said with a sigh. “Can’t keep anything from you, can I?”

“Nope,” Moonglade answered happily. “So really, me going out with Home Run, it’s bothering you and I don’t like seeing you like this. Is there anything I could do to make you feel better?”

“Date someone else?” Adagio suggested. “That’s a joke. I know that your mother wants you to see him, I get that. We’ll just have to wait until our gems get fixed, then we’ll see where we stand. These mortal desires are playing havoc with our emotions. Just look at Aria and Sonata.”

“I thought they’ve always been like this.” Moonglade watched as Aria flicked a finger on Sonata’s nose.

“No, they haven’t. We used to get along a lot better than this. With the loss of our pendants, something has gone wrong inside. Aria hides it by picking on Sonata, but I can tell. Sonata’s ditziness is also at an all time high, and her common sense suffers as a result. It’s all out of balance,” the siren said morosely. "I hope your aunt comes up with a way to fix our gems soon, before things spiral out of control even more.”

“Yeah…” Moonglade never thought about it that way. “So you’re okay with me dating Home Run?”

Adagio raised an eyebrow. “I think the term your mother used was ‘hunt’. Same thing though, anyway. I know you need to eat.”

“Thanks for understanding, Adagio.” Moonglade hugged the siren with one arm.

Moonglade and the sirens made their way back outside, where Aunt Ivory was already waiting. As Moonglade got in the car, and watched the city pass by, all she could think of was Home Run and her first date tomorrow. She didn’t know what was going to go down, but she hoped it would be something tasty.

“How did you like the movie?” Ivory Wings asked as she pulled the car into the driveway of their home.

“It was pretty interesting,” Moonglade admitted, remembering how spot on the animation was. “It looked pretty real. The people behind it really didn’t put any stops in that. It was a little scary, I have to say, and maybe too violent, but overall it was nice.”

“I’ll catch it when it comes to Neightflix or something,” Ivory said, parking the car. “Now, let’s get inside before the clock strikes eight. Your mother’s most likely waiting for us. It’s not like she has anything better to do.”

Chapter 31 - She Who Sneaks Around

“Is everything in order?” Ebony Wings asked sternly. She was standing in her daughter’s room, dressed in a nightgown and holding a hot cup of coffee.

“I think so, mother.”

Moonglade stood in front of her closet mirror, eyeing herself from top to bottom. Her outfit was all set, her makeup and disguise flawless. She opened her mouth. Fangs retracted, contacts in. She couldn’t think of anything else.

“Good.” Ebony nodded her approval. “So today’s the big day, huh? The day you start bringing love back with you.”

“Yes, mother.” Moonglade adjusted her tie and smiled. “I’ll do my best!”

“I certainly hope you will. Silver Platter is waiting to drop you off at your pre-arranged location, so when you’re ready, get in the car. He knows the city streets better than anyone.”

“Oh? Aunt Ivory will not be the one driving me?” Moonglade had hoped to get some last minute advice from her aunt before the date.

“She is busy,” Ebony replied with a slight frown. “With what, I can’t imagine. Perhaps she’s making more lemonade.”

“Lemonade?” Moonglade shook her head. Her aunt had her reasons for everything. Perhaps it was something she needed to get the sirens’ gems to work again, or maybe she just really liked lemonade. “Well, I’m ready to give it a go, mother.”

“Then I will see you when I return.” Ebony Wings gave her long black hair a sweep. “I will be at work, so I won’t be back until the evening.”

“Okay. I’ll see you when you’re back, mother.” Moonglade waved and headed out of her room and downstairs.

Outside, Silver Platter was already waiting in the car for her, the engine already running, ready to leave on her say.

“Hey, Silver. It’s been a while since you last sent me anywhere,” Moonglade chuckled as she buckled in.

“It is my pleasure, princess,” the butler smiled and nodded once. “Now, where would you like me to take you?”

“Sugarcube Corner,” she replied, excited for her coming date. “You know the place?”

“Of course, princess.” Silver Platter stepped on the accelerator and began making their way out of the compound. “I shall get you there at once.”

The drive there wasn’t very fast, but at least it wasn’t very long either. Moonglade found herself looking out the window, still trying to make out the city in her head. Many of the buildings looked the same, but the only person she could think to blame was the architect. The city likely only had a handful of those if all these buildings looked alike.

Eventually, after four more red lights, Moonglade saw the huge sign of Sugarcube Corner over the main entrance, smiling to herself and sighing with relief that they had finally arrived.

It’s finally time to see if I have what it takes to be like mother and Aunt Ivory…

“Thank you, Silver Platter.” Moonglade said as she pushed the door open.

“Would you like me to wait, princess?” he asked.

“No need. I’ll just give you a call when I’m done.” Moonglade shook her head and closed the door.

Straightening her red coat, the young changeling strolled up to the front door and pushed it open; a bell above chimed to signal her entry into the cafe. People all over the place looked up at her to see who had come in, forcing Moonglade’s eyes to avert to the side as she searched for an empty table to sit at. Thankfully, there were plenty to choose from, so she picked one close to the window where she could look out at the streets.

“Now all I have to do is wait,” she murmured. She looked around the cafe at the other patrons. There were the usual gaggle of high schoolers, a man in a suit who was sipping a coffee, and someone who had a newspaper propped up in front of them, obscuring all but their pale green hands from view.

Unfortunately, with some of the cafe’s patrons still looking at her, likely trying to determine where they had seen her before, time didn’t go by as quickly as Moonglade wanted. The girl resorted to resting her head on a hand and looking out the large glass windows, hoping to see a sign of Home Run; she would definitely feel more comfortable if he were here.

Moonglade also noted that this was the first time she was really alone. She’d never gone out by herself like this before, and it was a little scary. Usually, she would have Aunt Ivory watching over her from somewhere, which made her feel safer, but today, even her aunt was busy with something else. It was all up to her own skill today.

Just keep calm, Moonglade. Just pretend no one else is here…

She really found it ironic how she didn’t seem to inherit any of her mother’s, or even her father’s traits of being in front of people. No matter what, unless she had something much bigger to focus on, she was always so shy among crowds and she had no idea why that was so.

“Maybe it’s just who I am,” she said to herself and adjusted her glasses, sighing as she thought more about that fact.

After another six minutes, Moonglade heard the doorbell jingle and looked up. To her delight, it was the boy she had been waiting for. She quickly raised a hand and got his attention before waving for him to come over.

Finally. Here we go.

“Home Run, good to see you!” She feigned extra excitement. “I couldn’t wait, so I came a little early.”

“Yeah, sorry about the time,” the blue haired boy laughed sheepishly. “I had some, uh, obstacles on the way here.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble.” Moonglade watched him as he sat down across from her, resting her head on both hands. “What matters is that we’re both here now, hmm?”

“I guess so, yeah,” Home Run nodded and leaned in. “So what’ll you be having? I’ll buy.”

Moonglade sniffed and grinned. She could find a small trail of affection coming from him, more prominently this time. “What’s good here?”

Home Run put a hand to his chin, but didn’t take long to think. “The shakes and the cakes here are really good.”

“Hmm…” Moonglade contemplated. A shake sounded nice. “Then I’ll have a strawberry milkshake then. They have those, yes?”

“Yup.” The boy got up. “I’ll get one for myself too, I’ll be right back.” Then he headed to the counter to place their orders.

Moonglade took the time to examine the boy, watching the way he carried himself, the way he walked, his body features. The blonde girl touched a hand to her lips, remembering the kiss she had given Sunny Flare in the changing room. Sunny’s lips were soft and it felt nice, Moonglade didn’t deny that; she wondered what it would feel like to kiss Home Run. Maybe it would feel better, seeing as she wasn’t going to kiss him as a form of humiliation.

Perhaps if she were lucky and played her cards correctly, she might get to find out today.

“Alright, two strawberry milkshakes.” Home Run was back, setting the two drinks down on the table. “One for you, one for me.”

“Thanks, Home Run.” She gratefully accepted the pink drink and slurped at it through the straw. It was nice, but nothing close to the milkshake place she had been with her aunt and the sirens. “Not bad.”

“You like strawberries too?” Home Run sat back down and smiled. “Strawberry milkshakes are my favorite shakes.”

Across the cafe, the person reading the newspaper turned the page, holding the paper up with one hand.

“Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits,” Moonglade supplied. “I like eating them with cream.”

“Oh, that’s cool. I usually just eat them as they are. I guess I just like the way they taste.”

Moonglade narrowed her eyes slightly. Taking a discreet sniff, she picked up on a faintly good smell coming off of Home Run. No love yet, but the buds of attraction still seemed to be there, holding up well. There was also still a haze of suspicion surrounding him. It also seemed to come from around Sugarcube Corner, but before she could investigate further, Home Run spoke again.

“So, you don’t go out much right? And you’re schooled at home? How is it like? Being at home all day?”

“It’s fine,” Moonglade replied. “I always have lots to do, so I’m rarely ever bored.” It wasn’t exactly true, but Moonglade decided to start with that. The girl felt her phone vibrate, but now was not the time to check it.

On the other side of the cafe, the customer put down her newspaper to reveal a pale green female face that was covered by a large pair of sunglasses, and dressed in a beige overcoat. She picked up her cup of coffee and sipped from it, seemingly turning her head to look out the window.

How odd… she thought to herself. Why wear sunglasses indoors? That’s just ridiculous.

Moonglade found her quite suspicious and decided to keep an eye on her just in case. Maybe she was paparazzi or something and she didn’t like paparazzi.

“Sounds interesting,” Home Run said, taking another slurp of his milkshake. “How about the sirens, then? You hang out with them much? They don’t stay late a whole lot after school.”

“We live together,” Moonglade said bluntly. Her phone vibrated again in her pocket. Resisting the urge to pull it out and check, she affixed a neutral expression on her face and had a pull at her milkshake.

“Oh. Yeah,” Home Run said unsteadily. “You, uh, do know what they used to be, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” Moonglade replied with a raised eyebrow. “I live with them. Although, I have to say that their singing leaves a lot to be desired. But you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you? Or the Rainbooms would, at least.”

“Their singing?” Home Run rubbed his neck. “Let’s say I try not to be around when they sing…”

“Let me get one thing straight,” Moonglade said firmly. “The band known as the Rainbooms are not in my good graces. I know what happened at the Battle of the Bands, and I’m not at all pleased about it. Just wanted to get that out of the way before we go any further.”

“Oh.” Home Run seemed to cycle between many emotions. Moonglade picked up some disappointment and confusion, but that little affection string was still there. “I wasn’t there when it happened, but I heard the sirens tried taking over the world or something? And another thing… You’re okay with me?”

“You weren’t there when it happened, so I can’t hold you responsible,” Moonglade shrugged. “You seem a nice enough boy. Let’s see where this takes us, hm?”

Ugh. I sound like my mother. Moonglade winced internally.

Your mother is the oldest and most successful seductress in the world. A second voice piped up. Maybe you’re onto something.

“Yeah, that’s a plan.” Home Run managed a smile. “I’m actually hoping the school and the sirens get along one day. I don’t like how they hold their past against them. But I believe in the Rainbooms. They have a thing with friendship, you know? You can trust them. They’re not bad.”

Moonglade examined her fingernails. “Whatever.”

There was an awkward silence, broken by the sound of Home Run’s stomach growling.

“I’m, uh, going to get something to eat,” Home Run said with a nervous smile. “You want anything?”

Moonglade smiled up at him, smelling the spike in positive emotion as she did so. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

As Home Run ambled off to the counter, Moonglade took the chance to check her phone. Two messages from Aunt Ivory. As she watched, a third message arrived.

She decided to look at the oldest message first.

Remember, you want him to like you. The message read. Leave your opinions at the door and focus on attracting the mark.

“Oops,” Moonglade said under her breath.

Then the second message.

You’re being followed. Don’t make any sudden moves, or they’ll know that you know.

Moonglade instinctively looked at the woman with the sunglasses and the beige coat, who was still looking out the window. Could she be the one following her? Then she remembered her aunt’s words and stopped looking, hoping she didn’t give away anything.

Then an important thought popped up in the girl’s mind. Wait, how does Aunt Ivory know what’s happening?

Moonglade looked around the cafe, but she didn’t see any sign of her white haired aunt, inside or outside.

She proceeded to read the third message.

I can sense two, maybe three girls that seem to have you in their sights. They’re trying to look inconspicuous, so don’t make any sudden moves. One of them is in the booth to your left. Blue skin. A hood and a hat. The other(s) appear to be outside.

More than that strange woman? Moonglade didn’t see anyone suspicious earlier when she looked around. Maybe she hadn’t looked for the right things.

Using the info her aunt had given her, Moonglade quickly spotted the blue-skinned girl with the hood and hat nearby. She was looking inside her glass of drink. As for the ones outside, Moonglade didn’t know which ones her aunt had spotted.

“I’m back!” Home Run said as he set down a tray of fries and a chicken sandwich. “I got some extra fries so we could share.”

“That’s so thoughtful of you!” Moonglade exclaimed, putting her hands together and blinking up at him.

Home Run looked a tad confused for a while, but then returned her smile. “Well, go ahead, help yourself. The fries here are pretty good.” Then he picked up his sandwich and took a bite.

Reaching into her sleeve, Moonglade produced a packet of wooden chopsticks, which she broke apart and picked up a fry with.

“Woah, that’s neat.” Home Run watched her. “It stays in your sleeve?”

“It never hurts to be prepared,” Moonglade said with a sticky smile.

Home Run nodded. “Good point.”

Moonglade put the fry in her mouth and began chewing. True to what Home Run said, the fry was pretty good, prompting the girl to take another when she was done.

“So…” Home Run started after he swallowed. “Any interests, Moonglade? What do you like doing?”

“Hmm…” Moonglade thought about it. Maybe it wasn’t in her best interest to say things like alchemy, sword fighting and talking to her stuffed toy just yet. Speaking of sword fighting, she had class later, so she couldn’t spend all day with Home Run. “I like reading. Um, I play some video games.”

“Oh, cool, I have some myself.” Home Run seemed to take interest in that. “Not too big on reading myself, but I do own a Neighstation 6.”

“Oh, you have one too?” Moonglade beamed excitedly. “I’ve recently got a Neighstation 6 Pro! I only own Finest Fantasy though.”

“Oh, I heard it was good, but I don’t have it myself.” Home Run took another bite from his sandwich. “But hey, cool, maybe we could play a game or two sometime, that is, if we do have the same games. The only multiplayer ones I have are the MLB ones and Field Fighter.”

“MLB?” Moonglade tilted her head to the side as her chopsticks reached for another fry.

“Oh, that’s baseball. I mean, if you didn’t know already, I love baseball.”

No duh, Moonglade thought. “Yeah, I can see that. I saw you playing the other day too. You’re pretty good at it. Though I have to say, I don’t know a lot about it.”

“It’s a whole lot of fun,” Home Run went on, very passionate about the topic. "It isn’t easy to hit the ball, but when you do, it feels really awesome.”

Moonglade placed an interested expression on her face, like she’d seen her mother do with house guests. “Really? Do share.”

“Well, uh, why don’t I start with how you play?”

Moonglade shrugged. She did want to learn it anyway. “Sure, go ahead.”

Home Run went on and on about the rules of baseball and how a game was supposed to progress. Moonglade wasn’t particularly attentive during the whole explanation, but she made sure to listen up when he was telling her the instructions.

“Okay, so swing the bat, hit the ball, run to one of the bases, depending on how long I think the other team will take to get the ball?” Moonglade smiled and waited for the confirmation that she understood the game.

“Pretty much.” Home Run nodded.

“Then if you’re on the field, catch the ball if someone hits it and get it back to your teammates on the bases before the enemy gets there first?”

“Right again.”

“I think I get it,” Moonglade nodded, inwardly feeling a little impatient. She’d shown interest in his little game, so why wasn’t there any increase in the affection output? “And your school’s team competes against other schools?”

The woman with the sunglasses stood up and walked outside into the early afternoon, leaving the door swinging behind her.

Phew, she’s gone… Moonglade sighed quietly.

“That’s how it works,” Home Run said, drinking from his milkshake. “All schools compete against each other. It’s just something they all do. You play any sports, Moonglade?”

“Not any traditional sports, no.”

“Well…” Home Run said slowly. “You’re pretty strong. I mean, you pulled me off my bike and into the air. That’s not something most people can do.”

“Let’s just call that adrenaline, shall we?” Moonglade said with an oily smile, eager to steer the conversation away from her immense bodily strength. “A girl can do a lot if she feels she’s in danger.”

“Boy, you can say that again…” Home Run chuckled and finished his sandwich. “That’ll teach me to underestimate girls.”

There was another moment of silence, broken only by Moonglade’s phone vibrating again.

Funny. Moonglade thought while looking around.. I thought there would be more cameras out. I am Ebony Wings’ daughter, after all.

“So, how do you like the food?” Home Run watched her.

Moonglade didn’t realize it until now, but she was already halfway through the fries. “Oh, well… they’re good, yeah. But you know, it’s not the food that’s so good. It’s getting to talk to you that I liked more.”

“Oh, really…?” Home Run grinned and shrank back a little. Moonglade took the chance to inhale again. As she suspected, the smell was a little stronger now and it tasted good.

“Home Run…” She looked to the side, unsure of how to word her next sentence. She wanted to say something nice, but she ended up at a loss for words. This sure isn’t the easiest thing I’ve done… Come on, Moonglade. Think. “You know, m-maybe if y-you have more time…”

At that moment, the door to Sugarcube Corner swung open, revealing a green-skinned boy with brown hair tied into a ponytail swaggering in, a grin on his face. He spotted Home Run and began walking over.

Please, no.

Unfortunately for Moonglade, he stopped beside the blue haired boy and clapped him on the shoulder. “Homey, this is where you went! And what do we have here?” He looked at Moonglade and his eyes widened. “Do introduce, my boy!”

Moonglade narrowed her eyes behind her glasses and felt her fingers draw into hooks. This kid was bad news. Changeling intuition was never wrong.

“Well, uh, this is Moonglade,” Home Run said, motioning to her. “Moonglade, this is Jetstream. He’s also on the baseball team.”

“Moonglade?” Jetstream’s eyes got wider. “Daughter of Ebony Wings?”

Moonglade ducked her head instinctively, her face going red. The Jetstream boy had said that so loud, every patron in here had likely heard him. She covered the sides of her face, willing for nothing else to happen.

Behind Jetstream, the green-skinned paparazzi woman walked back in, retook her seat, and placed a somewhat familiar looking phone on the surface of the table. It seemed to emit a high pitched whining sound, but no one else seemed to hear it.

The phone didn’t bother her, but the woman did. Great. Hopefully she didn’t hear the boy blab.

She peeked her eyes around, instantly wishing she hadn’t. A lot of the other people in the cafe were now looking in her direction, darkening the shade on her cheeks.

“Come on, Jetstream, you didn’t have to say that so loudly.” Home Run pulled him down and hissed.

“What? But she’s a big deal, you know?” He shrugged. “The daughter of an acclaimed actress? Here with you? And I’m pretty certain this is a date, yes? Boy, are you lucky or what?” He whipped his phone out and waved it around. “Mind if I take a picture? LR’s going to freak if he sees it.”

“Man, you’re making her uncomfortable. Please, no pictures.” Home Run waved a hand in his face.

“Meh…” Jetstream kept his phone again after a while. “Well, my phone’s down anyway. Can’t seem to take any pictures, so oh well. I guess I’ll go home for the day. I shall see you, Home Run, in school on Monday.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you.” Home Run and Moonglade watched as he swaggered back outside and away from the cafe. “I don’t even know why he came in here… You okay, Moonglade?”

Moonglade, who had spent the majority of Jetstream’s visit wishing that she could turn invisible, simply shrugged and reached into her pocket, taking out her phone, trying to look unpeeved. There was a message.

Princess. There are two other girls outside who seem to have their eyes on you. One is in a parked car, while the other is seated outside. She is pink and is wearing a trench coat and a hat. It is also almost time for your swordsmanship lesson, so I suggest you cut this hunt short and return home.

No better time to leave… Moonglade thought. She really wanted to get away from all the eyes in the cafe. “Home Run, I think I better g-get home now… I have a class soon and, um, all these people…”

“Yeah, I understand, and don’t worry. I’ll walk you out. You have a ride waiting, I’m guessing?”

She quickly sent a message to Silver Platter to come get her, since her phone was out, and when she was done, she quickly buried her face in her arms. “So many people are looking now…”

Home Run got up and looked around the cafe, then walked around a put an arm on Moonglade’s shoulder. “I’ll be right beside you, don’t worry. You can do this.”

Moonglade nodded slowly, then rose to her feet, clinging tightly to Home Run’s arm as they made their way out of Sugarcube Corner, feeling better that at least she had someone with her. She kept her eyes on her feet, watching her boots move left and right, then turning at the end to head out the door.

Phew, it’s over…

Only when she heard the door close did she look up again, taking in a deep breath of fresh air to calm her mind, at the same time, gleaning a taste of affection from Home Run. It was a little stronger now, but she had hoped to really bring it out.

Oh well, I’ll do better on our second date.

“Thanks, Home Run.” She turned him and looked up in his eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t seem to be very good with crowds, unlike my mother.”

“Hey, it’s cool.” He patted one of her hands. “Everyone’s different. You can’t expect everyone to be good at everything.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But thanks for today. I had fun. We should do this again sometime, you know?” She gave the boy her best smile.

“Umm, yeah! I think we should. I had a great time today too.”

Moonglade watched his lips move. Something in her head kept telling her to just lean in and give him a kiss. She wanted to, but the other part of her head was telling her she still needed to progress further.

“Home Run, umm…” she started. “I… well…”

“Hmm? Yeah?” He waited for her to continue.

Sighing internally, Moonglade leaned in, giving him a kiss. The cheek would do for now.

When she leaned back, her cheeks were blushing furiously, but she still managed a small smile through her embarrassment. It was much different from kissing Sunny. Maybe it was because that one was given out of spite. Moonglade didn’t quite know, but this one had sent her heart fluttering.

“Thank you, Home Run.” She inhaled, feeling a greater wave of affection come out of him. Mm, tasty.

The blue haired boy’s cheeks were red as well. “Y-Yeah, no problem.”

Just then, her ride pulled over, with the window being wound down to reveal a waving Silver Platter.

“I’ll see you another time, Home Run.” Moonglade walked on, letting her fingers linger on the boy’s for a few seconds. “I’ll call you.”

“Sure. Take care, Moonglade.” He waved and stood by the cafe, even after the car pulled away, heading back towards the mansion.

“I did it…” Moonglade held her face in her hands, unable to help herself from smiling. She had hesitated with the kiss, but she had eventually mustered the courage to give it, glad that she had done so. That spike of affection at the end was delicious.

She pictured Home Run in her head, thinking about him as the car carried on.

“Did you have a good time, young princess?” Silver Platter asked from the front.

“A very good time, yes,” she answered, nodding her head.

“Glad to hear.” Then he turned the wheel to the next road and slowed the car. “Oh and princess, one more pick up before we get you home. It’s your aunt.”

“Oh!” Moonglade forgot her aunt had been in the area too. Excitement bubbled in her body as she thought about telling her aunt everything. “Sure, Silver.”

Silver Platter pulled to the side of the road and stopped the car. After a few minutes, the door next to Moonglade popped open, and to her horror, the green-skinned woman with the sunglasses and coat stepped into the car, sitting beside her. Only after three more seconds, did Moonglade slow down and think carefully.

“A-Aunt Ivory?” she asked the woman.

The woman removed her sunglasses and pocketed them, revealing a set of bright purple eyes. “Yes, dear. It was me. You didn’t think I’d leave you to manage on your own, did you? Never.”

“I guessed you were close by because of your messages, but to think you were right there near me…” Moonglade threw her arms around her aunt’s waist. “You’re the best, Aunt Ivory!”

“Mmhm,” Ivory Wings said with a smug smile. “By the way, we’re still being followed. The white car behind us has been tracking you since you left the boy. The other two are inside, I’m sure. They don’t have tinted windows like we do.”

“Seriously?” Moonglade flipped around and looked back. She spied three females in the car, each sporting a different hat and coat that concealed a lot of their features. “Yeah, that blue one was in the cafe, like you told me. Who are they? Not some criminals trying to kidnap me, I hope?”

“If they are, I’ll make sure to teach them the error of their ways…” Ivory reached into a secret compartment under the chair and drew out a handgun. She spun it around her hand before returning it to its compartment.

“So what’s our plan now?” Moonglade looked back to her aunt. “Are we going to fight?”

Ivory blinked slowly. “No, I don’t think so. We are going to drive back home and shut the gates. If those three try to come in, we will do the sensible thing and call the police.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Moonglade put her hands on her lap.

They weren’t going to try anything fishy at their home, right? Criminals couldn’t be that dumb, right?

The rest of the drive was quiet, with Moonglade constantly looking back at the following car every few minutes, wanting to know if they were still there. As they neared the mansion, the white car finally pulled away, making a left to the next road, heading along and out of sight by the time the gates had fully opened.

“Phew.” Moonglade wiped her forehead. “They’re gone. So, Aunt Ivory, did I do well?”

“Quite well, my little niece.” Ivory returned from looking at the road and patted Moonglade on the head. “The kiss at the end was really sweet. Well done today.”

“Yay!” Moonglade cheered, her insides smiling, her mind thinking about Home Run. “He protected me today, Aunt Ivory. He’s such a nice boy, isn’t he?”

“If you say so, Moonglade,” Ivory replied, putting emphasis on her niece’s name. “Just so we’re clear, this doesn’t carry over to Silver Rose, or, Queen forbid, Princess Chrysidea. Home Run is seeing Moonglade, not the other two.”

Moonglade swallowed and nodded. “I understand.”

Ivory Wings gave her a sideways glance. “Do you now? Well, maybe you do. That’s an important lesson. Remember it.”

“I’ll-I’ll do my best, Aunt Ivory.”

“That’s what I like to hear, sweet Moonglade. Come here.” Ivory wrapped her niece in a warm hug and squeezed her lightly. “I’m very proud to have a niece like you.”

Chapter 32 - Making Amends

Silver Rose sat in her English class, not particularly interested in what Ms. Script had to say about poetry. It was just such a weird subject, even her aunt had trouble understanding it sometimes.

She resisted the urge to whip out her phone and message Home Run. It had become a thing she enjoyed since the night before. The two of them had chatted long into the night about various things like movies and the past. She had gone to sleep that night, thinking about the boy again.

But right now, she was Silver Rose, not Moonglade. She remembered what her aunt and mother had told her countless times and she didn’t want to disobey them. Moonglade and Silver Rose were not the same person and she really had to remember that.

“Psst.”

Silver Rose’s ears picked up the hissing sound and turned around, noticing it was Twilight Sparkle trying to get her attention.

“Sorry, but I kinda dropped my eraser down beneath your chair,” the lavender girl whispered. “Do you think you could get it for me?”

“Oh. Yeah, sure.”

Checking to see if the teacher was watching, Silver reached an arm down under her chair and swiped the eraser. Handing it back to its owner, she righted herself just as Ms. Script turned back to the class.

“Silver Rose.” Her teacher pointed at her. “What would the poet be referring to with the sentence, ‘I trudged down the muddy lane, looking back’?”

“Umm…” Silver put a hand to her chin. “He looked back at his path in life and wondered if there was anything good he had done?” It was a wild guess, but Silver just decided to say what was at the top of her head.

“Close, but not quite.” Ms. Script turned back to the screen and touched the line. “The poet was searching for a way out that he might’ve passed. A way out of sorrow and death.”

“Oh. Okay, Ms. Script.” Silver leaned back and frowned at the powerpoint. How in the world was I to guess that.

“Good effort, Silver Rose,” Twilight whispered from behind her again.

Silver shrugged and scratched her pink hair. “I really don’t get poetry… By the way, no offence, but you really have to stop dropping your stuff. It’s slightly distracting.”

“Sorry!” the bespectacled girl squeaked. “It’s just that I’m currently, um, tinkering with something.”

“You’re what?” Silver turned around a little more to get a better look. To her word, Twilight Sparkle had dozens of parts on her desk among her stationery, and a weird circular object in the middle. “What could you possibly be building? And in class? Shouldn’t you be paying attention?”

“My work is more important than class,” Twilight said flatly. “And this is not just some random object. I’m programming it to read spikes in energy.”

“You- okay.” Silver nodded, giving the girl a smile before looking back forward. What a looney. No wonder she’s got no friends…

Deciding to tune out for a few minutes, Silver thought about her next immediate problem: Sunny Flare. She knew what she had done to the girl was wrong and she really wanted to right that wrong. She knew approaching Sunny was going to be difficult, but she had to try. Her role here was to be liked by others, not to make others afraid of her.

She didn’t have any classes with Sunny until third period, but at least that gave her the time to come up with a way to approach the girl without her falling away in fear.

She took a deep breath in, then exhaled. You can do this, Silver. You can correct your mistake.

When the bell signalled their release for third period, Silver Rose said goodbye to Canvas Splash and quickly made her way to the chemistry room.

“Why do you even want to be friends with someone like her?” Canvas had asked earlier.

Silver had shrugged. She wasn’t too sure herself, but it was what her aunt would want, which was good enough for her.

Arriving there, she found she was one of the first few in class, with Mr. Beaker already scribbling notes on the whiteboard.

“No Indigo, no Sugarcoat, no Sunny Flare.” She made a face and decided to move to her seat. “Guess I’ll just have to wait.”

Other students began filing in, including Jet Set and Upper Crust, and finally, just two minutes before the bell, Sugarcoat, Indigo Zap and Sunny Flare all at once.

Steeling herself, Silver got up and approached them. Upon seeing Silver, Sunny’s eyes widened and she took three steps back into Indigo, her breathing already becoming ragged.

“Hi!” Silver put on her best smile, slowing herself down to give Sunny room to breathe. “How’s your day going?”

“N-No, no!” Sunny trembled, pulling Sugarcoat in front of her and using her as a shield.

Sugarcoat was less than impressed.

“Come on, Sunny. You can’t expect to avoid her forever.”

“I can’t do this… I can’t do this!” Sunny remained unmoving.

Silver sniffed, the smell of fear instantly filling her nose, coming right from Sunny Flare, along with a tad of irritation from both Sugarcoat, Indigo, and even Mr. Beaker, who was still at the whiteboard, his attention now on them.

“Yeah… I’ll just go back to my seat then,” Silver said quietly before retreating, though not before flashing the trio a grin that she hoped was more friendly than bloodthirsty.

Silver grumbled to herself all the way back. This was going to be so much harder than she anticipated. She had managed to talk to Sunny during detention, but since then, the girl had seemed to grow worse. Perhaps she needed to look at this from a different angle.

Silver Rose watched as Sugarcoat and Indigo walked Sunny to her seat, making sure everything was alright before looking for their own seats. Indigo went to sit down, but Sugarcoat detoured and began walking over to Silver.

“Silver Rose, I think we need to have a talk about Sunny,” the bespectacled girl got right to the point. “I know she’s been giving you trouble, but what you did to her, it’s unforgivable. Just look at her now. We can’t win the Friendship Games like this.”

“I already said I was sorry,” Silver said with a frown, pulling a pen out of her bag to take notes with. “And I’m trying to make up for it. What more do you want from me?”

“Well, you’re going to have to try harder.” Sugarcoat folded her arms. “Back there, it looked to me like you were trying to rub it in Sunny’s face.”

“I most certainly was not,” Silver said defensively. “How am I supposed to make up for it if she gets a panic attack every time I’m in view?”

“Well, try something else then. All we can do from our end is to tell her that you’re not some kind of monster, though after what you did to that door…” Sugarcoat stopped talking for a while, then shook her head. “Nevermind. What’s important now is that we get Sunny back to shape before the Games.”

“It’s not my fault the doors here are so flimsy,” Silver grumped. “Sunny had that coming anyway. It’s not like she’s completely innocent here either.”

The white haired girl sighed as the bell rang, signalling the start of class. “You’re right about that. But you better do something about this fast. We don’t have a whole lot of time left.”

Then she returned to her seat as Mr. Beaker turned around to talk to the class.

Silver Rose rested her head on a hand, her mind at work on how to solve this. She really wanted to solve this problem, she really did, but how was she going to be able to get anywhere if she couldn’t even talk to Sunny without freaking her out?

If only there was someone else I could ask… Oh wait!

She remembered Home Run. Home Run did mention his friends, the Rainbooms, were experts at friendship. Perhaps she could get some kind of idea from him.

Making sure Mr. Beaker wasn’t looking, she whipped out her phone, and brought up Home Run’s chat. Her fingers quickly got to work as she composed a message.

Hey Home Run. Sorry but this is kinda an emergency. I have a problem with a girl here in school. She’s afraid of me and I don’t-

Then Silver stopped herself. This wasn’t Moonglade’s problem. This was Silver Rose’s. She hit herself in her head for almost messing up. Deleting the message, she tried again.

Hey Home Run. Sorry but this is kinda an emergency. My sister Silver Rose has a problem in school I was hoping you might be able to help me out. She kinda scared this one girl and now shes trying to right that wrong but the girl is too afraid of her for her to get anywhere close. Maybe u have some suggestions? Thks.

Silver finished the sentence with a winking face emoji.

Now all she had to do was wait. Again. She decided to pay attention to Mr. Beaker, listening to him talk about sulphuric acid and its properties. She already knew a lot about chemistry because of her mother, but it was nice to get a refresher from time to time, just in case.

She glanced at Sunny Flare from time to time, trying to gauge how crazy she was now. It was like she had gone from one extreme to the other. First, she wouldn’t stop trying to get back at her and now she couldn’t even be close to her without breaking down. Right now, Sunny was paying attention, but there was something about her Silver couldn’t quite place. She wasn’t exactly paying attention, even if she was.

Maybe Aunt Ivory or mother will also have some suggestions.

Perhaps the best thing to do now was to wait for school to finish for the day. That way, she could approach Sunny without any time limits.

Also, she might need to work on her speaking too.

When Calculus class was over, Silver quickly packed her things, intending to go find Sunny before she could go anywhere else.

“What’s the hurry?” Sound Wave asked, watching her shove her books into her bag. “Got somewhere to go?”

“Something like that,” Silver answered as she zipped her bag and put it over one shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sound Wave.”

“Sure thing.”

Silver quickly left the classroom in search of Sunny, hoping to find her in the halls or something. Using her nose, Silver found Sunny’s distinct trail of fear, following it down the halls, glad that she had such a heightened sense of smell. It didn’t taste very nice, but at least it helped her locate the mulberry haired girl, who was now standing at her locker, getting some books out.

“Here we go again…” Silver took a moment to breathe. She had enough time to plan a different approach and she hoped it would work better.

Sunny seemed to be having trouble holding her books, so walking over, Silver helped her take her chemistry book from the locker.

“Here, let me give you a hand, you seem to be having some trouble.”

At the sound of Silver’s voice, Sunny jumped, dropping all the books in her hands, scuttling back two steps, raising her hands to her face.

“Sunny, please.” Silver bent down and began picking up the girl’s books. “I’m very sorry for what I did, really. I don’t what this between us, I want to be friends. Could you not… run away, please?”

Her legs shaking, Sunny eventually fell to her thighs, the trembling spreading up to the rest of her body. “No…” She looked around, unable to find her the other Shadowbolts. “Please no, I don’t… I’m sorry for what I did. Don’t hurt me…”

“Ha, look at that.” Silver’s sensitive ears picked up the whispers of another student. “The Queen of Crystal Prep, all weak and wobbly because of the new girl.”

“It was really all a front, huh?” Another voice whispered. “In the end, if you push her, she’s a disgrace. We’re better off if she wasn’t a Shadowbolt.”

“Hey, Sunny Flare!” another girl with purple hair yelled at her. “I don’t think you belong in a school. I think you belong in a mental institute!” She ended the sentence with a snicker, followed by laughter from all the other watching students.

“What happened to the bossy and fearless Sunny Flare?” Another girl pointed at Sunny. “Out the window?”

One by one, the group of students began hurling different and some very creative insults at Sunny, all the while laughing at her for being so afraid of Silver herself. The young changeling stood there and watched as Sunny Flare seemed to shrink down lower and lower, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

In spite of herself, Silver Rose felt a flicker of indignation well up inside her.

“Okay, that’s enough,” she said loudly, getting everyone’s attention. “Stop.”

All the students around stopped laughing and turned their heads to Silver.

“Really?” Suri Polomare asked, wearing a rather skeptical face. “You wouldn’t rather see her break down? After all she’s done to you? I thought you of all people would enjoy this.”

“Well, I don’t. So cut it out before things get ugly.”

“She’s so weird…” Some of the students whispered, dispersing from the hall. By now, everyone must’ve heard of what Silver had done to the changing room door, so maybe getting on her bad side wasn’t such a good idea. “Let’s go before she decides to rip off a locker door or something.”

“Yeah, you better run,” Silver muttered before turning back to Sunny. “You okay there?”

Sunny wiped her eyes, then slowly looked up at Silver. “Why…? Why did you help me?”

“I’m not going to lie,” Silver said ponderously. “It would have been fun to stand aside and do nothing, but I couldn’t just stand by and let them pick on you like that. I’m here to hopefully make amends for my, ah, loss of temper in the changing room.”

Sunny continued to look at Silver confusedly, unsure of what to do now. “You-You’re not going to d-do anything to m-me…?”

“No…” Silver said, putting one hand on her waist and giving Sunny a borderline sultry look. “Not unless you want me to.”

Sunny cowered back again and covered her face, trembling.

“Come on,” Silver sighed, taking hold of Sunny’s arm and tugging her back onto her feet. “Up you get.”

“No, let-let go!” Sunny fell back against the lockers and closed her eyes, looking away. “I-I don’t get you, Silver Rose. I don’t know wh-what to do. Su-Sugarcoat! Anyone!”

“You’d be pretty special if you really did ‘get’ me,” Silver said with a small smirk, handing Sunny back her books. “But as much as I’d like to stick around, I’m late enough as is and my driver is probably getting worried. Have a nice day, okay?”

Sunny hesitantly accepted her books, still crouching in the corner as Silver walked away, holding her bag over one shoulder.

Once Silver was outside, she quickly spotted her mother’s car parked on the curb. Ignoring the stares of her fellow students, Silver Rose flounced to the car and got in. As usual, her aunt was in the driver’s seat, once again dressed as Ivory Wings.

“You took longer than usual,” Ivory observed. “What were you doing?”

“Just trying to correct my mistake, Aunt Ivory.” Silver put her things down, then pulled out her phone to see if Home Run had replied. Ivory tutted and put the car into gear.

“You see, this is why we avoid traumatizing people. It’s a lot of work to undo the damage.”

To Silver’s glee, the boy had replied her and judging from the time, likely sometime during last
period.

Hey Moonglade. Ur sister huh? I had a talk with some of the others and they said she shud just be nice and help her out. Show her her better side and things will work out. Give it some time. Hope this helps.

Silver Rose lowered the phone and tried not to look too unimpressed.

“Well that’s what I was doing anyway. And these people call themselves experts on friendship? Ha!”

“What’s that, sweetie?” Ivory said from up front.

“Just messaging Home Run, Aunt Ivory.” Silver waved her phone in her hand. “He gave me some advice on what I can do about Sunny Flare, but I already knew all of it.”

“Of course. You’re a smart girl, and I’m sure you’ll be able to get through to this Sunny Flare. I’ll make it clear; while I don’t exactly approve of your traumatizing of her, you did right to stand up for yourself. A princess has to make it clear that she is not to be trifled with.” Ivory stopped at a red light and hummed ‘This Day is Going to be Perfect’. “As a princess myself, I should know.”

“Have you traumatized anyone before, Aunt Ivory?” Silver asked, at the same time, typing Home Run a thank you note, adding a little red heart at the end.

Ivory let out a bark of laughter as the light turned green and she accelerated. “Certainly I have. The difference, however, is that the ones I traumatized were my enemies, and you’re trying to make friends.”

“Oh. That makes sense. I just hope Sunny gets over it before the Friendship Games. She’s supposed to compete.”

“When is that, anyway?” Ivory asked as she waited for the gates to the estate to open. “I might swing by and watch if I have the time.”

“It’s in about two weeks,” Silver said, hoping her memory was right. “It’s not going to be here though. We’re having it at Canterlot High.”

“I see. Well, you’d better check if they allow guests. If not, I’ll just impersonate one of the teachers or something.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea… but you always know best, huh Aunt Ivory?” Silver smiled at her aunt through the rearview mirror. “I do hope we win. I heard that Crystal Prep wins every year, but Canterlot High’s been on the rise recently.”

“Is that so?” Ivory said. “Well, I shall be hoping for your victory then. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that important. So don’t lose your head in the excitement.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Aunt Ivory. I’ll just be cheering the Shadowbolts on. I’m not participating. Won’t be doing much cheering either, but hey, I’ll try and root for my school.”

“Just remember to keep up appearances, sweetie.” Ivory pulled into the front of the mansion. “You want people to like you, after all. And this Home Run boy’s going to be there, right?”

“Oh yeah, Home Run!” Silver squeaked excitedly. Then she coughed and recomposed herself. “I mean, yeah. Home Run will be there.”

Ivory squinted at her niece in the mirror. “Careful, young princess. Your affections for this prey should only manifest itself in Moonglade. Watch what you say and do when in a different persona.”

Silver nodded and opened the car door. “Yes, Aunt Ivory.”

“Well, I shall go park the car, then I will see you inside.” Ivory gave her niece a wink. “Perhaps after you homework, we can play more of your Neighstation? That little machine is quite the invention.”

“Silver Rose helped you out?” Lemon Zest pulled off her headphones for a little while. “See? I told you she isn’t bad.”

“But you were okay?” Sugarcoat pushed her glasses up her nose. “You didn’t get another panic attack?”

Sunny’s cheeks turned a tinge pink. “I-I did… I keep seeing it, Sugarcoat. I see Silver’s hands going around my throat, I see the ominous glow in her eyes…” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “Why would she defend me if she tried to kill me…?”

“I think ‘kill you’ is an exaggeration. She’s used to living a cushy, pampered life. Would she even have the muscle to strangle you?”

“You saw the marks on my neck, didn’t you?” Sunny questioned. “And I felt it. I couldn’t breathe! You weren’t the one being choked!”

“Um, I didn’t see any marks,” Indigo said, fiddling with her goggles.

“They weren’t very visible, Sunny.” Sugarcoat pushed open the doors to the cafe. “She didn’t squeeze that hard.

“But you do raise a good point. She tore that door right off its hinges. I tried it myself. I couldn’t do it. And then she jumped over you in PE and shoot such perfect shots for archery on her first try? Things aren’t adding up with this girl.”

“Maybe she’s just that talented,” Lemon suggested, picking up a sachet of sugar and tearing it open. She then proceeded to tip the contents directly into her mouth. “Doesn’t explain the door thing though.”

“At least she’s not that bad of a person,” Sour Sweet added. “But what is she?”

“We can leave that till after the Friendship Games.” Indigo pulled up a chair and crashed down against it. “Right now, we need to focus on getting Sunny back to top shape. We need to win! Not just by a little, but we need to show them we are better.”

“Crystal Prep’s never lost the Friendship Games before,” Lemon Zest added. “We can’t be the first ones to let our school down!”

“Not to mention Principal Cinch would probably go ballistic if we did lose,” Sugarcoat said matter-of-factly. “Her school’s reputation is on the line here. And we all know how much her image means to her.”

“So Sunny, we need you…” Indigo gave her a firm pat on the back. “To get your head in the game and focus. Can you do that?”

Sunny looked around at all the expectant faces and cringed inwardly. She didn’t want to let any of them down, but she wasn’t at all sure how her performance would be, especially with her recently sprained ankle and this new, well-deserved fear of Silver Rose, nice as she seemed to be.

“I’ll… I’ll try,” Sunny said quietly. “Can I count on you girls to help me if I fall behind?”

“But you can’t fall behind, Sunny,” Sour Sweet said sickeningly sweet, then switched it up. “And we won’t have time to back you up. It’s every girl for herself. Our main goal is winning it for Crystal Prep, Sunny. You know that. We can’t afford to stop and help each other.”

“Yeah, this won’t just be some race around the track.” Indigo pumped a fist. “If any of us fall behind, it’s up to ourselves to catch up. The rest of us have to do our best and win it.”

“I know, I know…” Sunny clenched her fists. She couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t stand herself for being so afraid of a girl, just because she strangled her. It made her feel weak and easy to break. That wasn’t who she is. “I don’t want to be afraid of Silver Rose.”

“Then try harder.” Sugarcoat pushed her. “You have nothing to fear from her. She only retaliated because you kept pushing her. If you truly want to right that wrong, then you have nothing more to fear from her.”

“Al-alright…” Sunny sighed and looked down. “I’ll… I’ll speak to Silver Rose tomorrow. Alone. And I’ll overcome this fear.”

Thinking about the girl again made Sunny’s skin crawl and her body to grow colder, but she fought it off. She had to. The Shadowbolts needed her to win. She couldn’t get a panic attack during the Games and compromise everything their school had worked so hard to achieve.

“We have just two weeks left before the Games!” Indigo Zap mashed a fist on a hand. “Two weeks left to prepare, two weeks left to everything we’ve been training for. We can’t let Crystal Prep down!”

“Too true, Indigo!” Lemon Zest cheered. “But we can do this! Crystal Prep always wins! We’ve got this!”

“We’re not going to sit back and let Canterlot High win, that’s for sure.” Sugarcoat smirked and pushed her glasses up.

“Crystal Prep Academy all the way!” Sour Sweet said cheerily. “Go, Shadowbolts. Canterlot High can kiss our a-”

A car honked outside, blaring around the area.

Chapter 33 - When a Plan Comes Together

Night fell quickly on the city of Canterlot. As the servants of the Wings estate gradually turned in for the night, the lights began to flicker off one by one. However, the light to the first floor workshop remained on, shining like a beacon on the hill. Just past midnight, the owner of the house decided to do a little investigating.

Ebony Wings pushed open the door to the workshop, peering in although she could already smell and taste who was inside. Ivory Wings sat at her workbench, a screwdriver in one hand and a small, bladed device in the other. A laptop was open on the table, while a pitcher of pink lemonade and several glass tumblers occupied the rest of the space.

“What are you doing?” Ebony asked, scratching at her messy black hair. “It’s past midnight.”

“Oh, hello, sister,” Ivory said, looking up and taking off her headphones. “I was just finishing up on the final touches on my new toy.”

“What toy?” Ebony tried to see. “Something I can use, I hope?”

“I can easily make one for you,” Ivory said, gesturing for her sister to come over as she poured two glasses of pink lemonade. “Whether you can actually use it is another matter altogether.”

“Why won’t I be able to use it?” Ebony gave her long hair a flip. “I’m good at everything.”

“I spent years mastering this kind of thing,” Ivory said pointedly. “I didn’t spend ages in an Assassin Brotherhood for nothing. Even if I did end up betraying them to look for you. Here, drink this.” Ivory passed one of the glasses to Ebony, who immediately recognized the sprig of foxglove that was being used as garnish.

“I hope you’re not going outside to sell this…” Ebony turned the glass around and looked at its contents. “It’s going to kill someone if they’re not like us.”

“That’s what I’m counting on,” Ivory said cheerfully. “It won’t be quick, though. I spent days in the labs getting this juuuust right. Plus, it’s pink! Who can resist a nice glass of pink lemonade?”

“I thought you said you’re leaving as much killing as you can behind?” Ebony eyed her sister and raised an eyebrow. “And this isn’t even a kill I’m ordering. What’s the occasion?”

“Nobody you know. I happen to need their help with repairing the sirens’ pendants, and I need this lemonade to secure their help. Go on, drink up and tell me how it tastes.”

“You’re… going to kill them, because you need their help…?” Ebony held the glass in her hands. She was quite confused at what her sister was planning.

Ivory shook her head, taking the small bladed implement and securing it to her lower arm with leather straps. “No, no. You see, I’m not entirely sure they’ll give me the help willingly, so I’m going to use the lemonade to make sure they do. I’ve already prepared an antidote for it, so there’ll be no harm done. Get it?”

“Ah, I see, I see…” Ebony downed the rest of the drink. “Efficient as always, I’m guessing, hm, Thyra?”

“Yes indeed,” Ivory said smugly before turning her attention back to the laptop screen. “Oh, we’re getting to a good part now.”

“What’s that you got there?” Ebony walked around her sister to see the laptop. “More plans?”

“Nah, Neightflix. I’m watching Joan Wick. I’m learning a lot from just watching the characters fight.”

“I wasn’t in that movie.” Ebony bent down to get a better look. A character on screen had twisted the gun out of another’s hands, shooting two men before shooting the owner. “I heard it won many awards and I know Bullet Stopper. She’s good at the action and all, but her voice line delivery really needs a lot of work.”

“She’s all right in this one,” Ivory said. “Now in the unlikely scenario that we get caught in a gunfight, I know a few more tricks.” She fiddled with a spring on her wrist device, carefully pushing a collapsible segment into its housing.

“So what happened to peaceful living?” Ebony asked with a smile. “Has that gone out the window?”

Ivory Wings flicked her wrist out, and a six inch long blade extended from the device on her arm with a snick.

“Better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.”

“Meh, whatever you want to say, sister.” Ebony straightened up and arranged her hair. “I think I’m going to go get my beauty rest now. You can stay up all night if you want, but it's bad for your skin.”

“You didn’t even tell me how the lemonade tasted,” Ivory said with a frown. “And you can sleep later. I’ve got more to talk about than just the hidden blade. You still want one?”

Ebony, as usual, ignored just about everything her sister had said and set the empty glass down. “What else do you have to talk about?”

“Well, now would be as good a time as any to talk about the girls you have in your care. Your daughter especially. She has a big school event coming up soon. Are you going to attend?”

“I’m busy, remember?” Ebony fiddled with her hands. “I’m an acclaimed actress. I have things to do. Besides. She’s not even competing.”

“It would mean a lot to her if you would show up to support her school,” Ivory wheedled. “Have a little school spirit, sister. I’m going if I have time.”

“Me? Support that school?” Ebony scoffed. “I think you have the wrong person, Ivory. Sending my daughter there is one thing. Supporting the establishment? Ha!”

Ivory sighed. “Normally I’d ask if you remembered your own school days, but neither of us went to school. I don’t suppose I can persuade you with a rather nice bag of plums?”

“A bag of what?” Ebony said quizzically.

“Plums. You know, they’re a type of purple fruit.”

“I know what plums are!” Ebony snapped. “What I want to know is why you think that would persuade me?”

“I don’t know,” Ivory replied with a shrug. “I saw it on the internet once.”

“Well, plums aren’t going to persuade me.” Ebony wiped a hand across her face and groaned. “Are we done? I really need my sleep.”

“We only sleep four hours and you know it, Your Highness,” Ivory rebutted. “Anyway, I have concerns that we can’t talk about in the light of day. First up, I think we need to monitor your daughter’s contact with her prey. I suspect she’s getting more attached than is proper.”

“Is she now?” Ebony sighed and pulled up a chair. “What makes you say that?”

“She texts him when not in costume, hay, she texts him every night,” Ivory said, turning back to her movie, where the main character was aiming a sniper rifle at someone far away. “And I can smell her excitement about her prey even when she’s Silver Rose.”

“Well you can’t expect her to only text him when she’s in character,” Ebony said defensively. “You expect her to change personas just to message people?”

“No, but I expect her to be able to curb her desires and do this professionally.”

“Well, she’s getting him to like her, yes?” Ebony watched the laptop screen as Joan Wick fired the sniper rifle, hitting a young man wearing headphones, in the neck, killing him. “That’s certainly what I would do if I were in her shoes. Texting is a good way of communication and learning more about someone- wait, something feels weird. Normally I’m the one that has to listen to you lecture me. What’s going on right now?”

“I don’t know,” Ivory said tetchily. “But it’s nice to know that you care almost as much as I do. I’ve noticed some mildly unsettling changes in the sirens as well, if you’d hear them.”

“What? What’s going on with the sirens? They seem the same for me?”

Ivory shook her head and drank half her lemonade in one gulp. “Adagio’s confidence is shot, in case you didn’t notice. Poor girl’s not half the leader she was back in old Canterlot, not to mention I noticed a disturbing interest in that Home Run boy too. And while I admit that Aria and Sonata never really got on with each other, they’ve never been as vitriolic as they are now. I’m hoping that once I get the gems fixed, these problems will go away, but I can make no promises.” She punctuated this statement by firing her phantom blade at a target on the wall, where it hit dead center.

“Hmm…” Ebony put a hand to her chin. “Can’t say I haven’t heard Sonata and Aria arguing. And hey, you’re paying for that.”

“It’s a dartboard,” Ivory said coolly. “It’s meant to be shot at with darts.”

“Not with something that big!” Ebony motioned at her other boards. “And look, all the other ones are in pristine condition, just the way I like them.”

“What’s the point of having a dartboard if you’re not going to use it?” Ivory said with a sniff. “And at least I didn’t use a gun, right?”

“Hey, I like my decor. I think I’m rather good at deciding too.” The actress folded her arms. “Anyway, was that it? It doesn’t seem like much that you’re keeping me down here.”

“Well, there is one more thing, but it’s not terribly urgent. I need you to rent one of the gazebos in Canterlot Central Park for me later.”

“You have to rent those things? I thought they were free. I use them when I want to when I’m at the park.”

“I need it to be private,” Ivory said as she turned back to her laptop. Faint sounds of nightclub music could be heard. “I can’t risk anyone walking in and disturbing my picnic with my guests.”

Ebony Wings scratched her head. “I suppose I could always pay the gardeners to rope off an area if you want… wait. Is this the same thing you want to use the lemonade on?”

“Very perceptive of you, sister,” Ivory slipped her headphones back on and went back to tinkering with her hidden blade. “It’s small wonder you’re the queen.”

“Isn’t that right?” Ebony placed a hand on her chest proudly. “Now anyway, if that is all, then I will be going up to bed now.”

“Okay then,” Ivory said, not taking her eyes off the screen. “Sleep well.”

“What’s that movie about anyway?” Ebony asked curiously. “You’re paying more attention to it than to me.”

Ivory did look up this time. “Well, it’s about this woman who goes on a rampage to defeat the Stalliongrad mafia after one of them kills her cat and steals her boat.”

“That sounds stupid.” She didn’t remember such an acclaimed movie to have such a bad plot. They even managed to get Bullet Stopper. “But whatever. People enjoy it anyway. Well, I will be off now, Ivory. We’ll discuss more things another time, hmm?”

“Goodnight, Your Highness.”

“Same to you, sister.”

Tuesday was a relatively hot day, and with spring coming to an end soon, it was only going to get worse. The winds weren’t blowing a whole lot today, which seemed to make things worse, but at least Crystal Prep Academy had very decent air control, whether it was the fans, the air-conditioners, or even the cool crystalline surfaces they called walls.

Sunny Flare sat in Chemistry class, her shoulders already shaking uncontrollably as she kept her eyes on Silver Rose, who was standing by the front, writing something on the whiteboard, as was requested by Mr. Beaker.

The daughter of Ebony Wings had been called up earlier to finish a formula on the whiteboard, giving Sunny the perfect chance to try and fight off her fear of even looking at Silver.

Once again, she could picture the hand around her neck, squeezing, choking her. Sunny began feeling like she couldn’t breathe, even if the hand was only in her imagination, but she had to do it. For the sake of the school and the Friendship Games, she had to face this fear.

Her breathing becoming ragged, Sunny began counting from one to thirty in her mind, trying to chase her fears away. Sweat began beading on her forehead and her vision began to blur, but Sunny held strong, this time resisting the urge to fall away and cower.

You can do this, Sunny. The others depend on you to do this.

“Psst, Sunny, you okay?” Indigo Zap whispered over, noticing her concentrated face. “You don’t look too good.”

“Try-trying my best… Indigo…” she answered back.

By now, she had forgotten what Mr. Beaker was talking about and why Silver Rose was up front, but Sunny began feeling like the hand around her neck was starting to loosen. She was winning.

Then Silver Rose finished, turning to face the class, her eyes locking on Sunny. With a curl of her lips, Silver gave the mulberry haired girl a wink and began making her way back to her seat.

It was all too much for Sunny. The hand around her throat came back, squeezing as hard as ever and Silver’s eyes began glowing a bright purple as the room around Sunny became darker and darker.

“N-No…” Her vision started turning grey and she began clawing for air, unable to breathe.

Before she knew it, Sunny tipped off her chair and fainted. At least she had lost consciousness before hitting the floor.

When Sunny Flare next opened her eyes, she found she was looking up at a white ceiling with a set of fluorescent lights flashing down at her. She closed her eyes again, feeling it pierce through right to her brain; it hurt.

When she was ready, she cracked her eyes open again, looking to the side this time. When her vision became clear, she spotted the medicine cabinet and Nurse Cardiac’s desk, full of her notes and files.

The nurse’s office? Why am I in the nurse’s office? What happened?

Sunny vaguely remembered she was in Chemistry class. The last thing she remembered was Indigo asking her something.

No, that wasn’t it. It was S-S-Silver Rose… Sunny felt the room drop ten degrees, but she shook her head and frowned. No. You can’t give in, Sunny. You can’t.

“Oh, Sunny, you’re awake.” The voice made Sunny tense up and she froze on the spot, her eyes going wide. “Would you like some water?”

She ducked her hand, using her hands to cover her ears and shut her eyes, trembling with fear. Silver sounded so close. She was probably just sitting by the bedside. Sunny didn’t want to turn to find out, but then she remembered she had to do this. She needed to overcome this fear. She remembered what she had promised the other Shadowbolts yesterday.

“S-Silver Rose?” She slowly began turning around, one eye still shut. Pictures of glowing eyes began surfacing in her mind again. Sunny swallowed hard. “Wh-what are you d-doing here?”

“Someone had to take you to the nurse’s office,” Silver replied.

“Was it… was it you?” Sunny eyed the girl’s hands, afraid that they were going to reach out and grab her neck. She started sweating again as she thought about getting choked. “No, I can’t… I can’t fail now…”

“What are you rambling on about?” Nurse Cardiac swooped in with a thermometer. “You need to rest, Miss Flare. I suspect all the stress about the upcoming Friendship Games got to you. Now, let me take your temperature, there’s a good girl.”

“I’m-I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid,” Sunny repeated as Nurse Cardiac pulled the thermometer from her ear.

“Your temperature is rather high,” the nurse said, looking at the number on the thermometer. “And what are you saying? There is nothing to be afraid of.”

“I’ll-I’ll be fine, N-Nurse Cardiac.” Sunny wiped her forehead with the back of a hand. “It’s not the Games that are t-troubling me…”

“Mmhm,” the nurse said, returning to her desk and looking for something. “Well, it’s good that your friend here brought you to me after you fainted in class. Sometimes I wonder if Principal Cinch pushes her students too hard…”

Sunny looked at Silver and gulped. There was no way she could keep going like this. She needed to end this as quickly as she could.

“Si-Silver… we need to… t-talk…” she croaked, keeping her hands in front of her just in case.

Silver Rose glanced at Sunny and nodded once. “I agree.”

“I can’t. I can’t be afraid of y-you…” Sunny continued. “I’m s-sorry… I’m sorry I bullied you… a-and for pushing you to try to… to…” The images of Silver’s hand and glowing eyes came back, first, ripping off the cubicle door, then snaking around her neck. Sunny began breathing rapidly again, her fingers clawing at her own neck as she struggled to breathe. “N-No… I can’t.”

Fight it, Sunny. The girl could hear Sugarcoat’s words in her own head. You’re stronger than this. Or maybe not. But focus. You need to be prepared for the Games.

Nurse Cardiac was back, thrusting a mask to Sunny’s face before turning the dial on a portable tank, sending oxygen to the mulberry haired girl’s face.

“You’re having a panic attack. Breathe, Sunny,” she instructed. “Calm down. Deep breaths. Nice and slow.”

Silver Rose stood up, brushing her skirt off. “Well, I should get back to class. I’ll tell Mr. Beaker that you’re not well and won’t be joining us for the rest of it.”

Wait, Silver. Sunny reached a hand out, asking her to wait. She couldn’t pass up the chance yet. She needed to tell herself there was nothing to fear but her own imagination. “S-Silver… wait.”

“No talking yet, Sunny.” Nurse Cardiac tapped on the mask. “Keep breathing for now.”

But I need to apologize and make amends… I need to know I have nothing to be afraid of…

Sunny began taking deeper breaths, feeling her heart rate begin to decrease, almost back to normal now. She needed to talk to Silver. She needed to hear what she needed to hear from the scary girl herself.

“Yes, good. Keep it up.” Nurse Cardiac patted Sunny on the arm. “Just keep breathing like that and you’ll be fine.”

“Silver…” The breathing had helped and Sunny found she could focus a little more now. “We still need to talk. Nurse Cardiac, I’m… I’m afraid of her, that’s why I’m having these attacks. I need t-to talk to her. Could I ha-have the room for a few minutes?”

“Oh, of course.” Nurse Cardiac got up and headed for the door. “But keep that mask on, just in case. Silver Rose, you’re a dependable one. Make sure she’s okay.”

Silver Rose nodded to the nurse as she left. The girl then arranged herself in a chair, pulling it up next to the cot upon which Sunny was sitting. In that moment, the resemblance between Silver and her mother became startlingly clear, as the pose Silver had adopted was the same one Ebony Wings took in many interviews; a casual slouch to one side with one finger positioned at the side of her face while the other hand lay on the armrest.

“Silver, I’m s-sorry,” she started again. “I was selfish. I was afraid you were going to take my place in the Friendship Games, s-so I t-tried to put you i-in your place. I was wrong. If I didn’t pu-push you, you weren’t going to… going to hurt me, right?” She took a few more deep breaths to calm her already jumping nerves. I did it… I said what I needed to say.

Silver Rose closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, seeming to mull it over in her mind. Then she opened her eyes and looked down at Sunny with a genuine smile on her face, not the deranged grin from the locker rooms.

“You really mean it, don’t you?” Silver said quietly.

“Yes, yes.” She nodded. “What I-I did was wrong. I’m the way I am r-right now because of myself. I pro-promise, I won’t bother you again. Just… please don’t strangle me again.”

Silver put a hand on her own chest. “I’m also sorry, Sunny. I want to apologize again for my actions in the locker room. I should’ve controlled my anger better. So I also promise, I won’t try to strangle you again. Friends?” She stuck an arm out to Sunny.

The mulberry haired girl flinched at first, but then realize she didn’t mean any harm by it. “You-you want to be friends…? With me? After what I did?”

Silver Rose smiled widely, showing off an impressively pointed set of canines. “Why not? I mean, if you’re okay with it…”

“I-I’m…” Sunny was unsure of what to say for a while, but this Silver Rose didn’t seem as scary or dangerous as the one she had seen in the girls’ changing room. “I… don’t mind.”

Abruptly, Silver Rose pulled Sunny Flare into a close hug, wrapping her arms around the stunned girl. Sunny was shocked and partially afraid. She had never expected such an intense reaction from Silver like this. She froze, unable to move.

“Thank you,” Silver whispered in Sunny’s ear.

Sunny began uttering small whimpers, but eventually she controlled herself and nodded. “An-anyt-time.”

After a few moments more in the embrace, Silver relinquished Sunny and patted her on the head.

“I suppose I should let you rest now. Will I see you at lunch?”

“Um… sure…” Sunny cracked her mouth open into a smile, still unable to move the rest of her body.

Silver Rose smiled once more at Sunny, then turned to leave the clinic, leaving the door swinging in her wake and a strangely warm feeling in Sunny Flare’s chest.

“I did it… I faced it…” Sunny patted her own shoulder and breathed in deeply into the mask. No more would she be haunted by the visions of glowing purple eyes or the feel of fingers around her throat.

Hopefully.

Out in the hallway, Silver Rose smiled to herself and made a detour to the nearest bathroom. Locking the door, she allowed herself a fanged grin in the mirror, while tilting her head so that the lights put her eyes in shadow. They shone purple in the polished glass.

She had done it. Sunny Flare was hers, and by extension, her position with the Shadowbolts was all but secure.

“This day has been just perfect… The kind of day of which I’ve dreamed since I was small… Hahahaha… hahaha!”

Chapter 34 - The Start of Trouble

Silver Rose set her lunch tray down at an empty table, eyeing the strawberry yogurt especially. She really wanted to get into it, but the main dish always comes first. Today, she had a plate of mixed vegetables and a chicken leg, along with a packet of orange juice.

Seriously beginning to doubt Principal Cinch’s claims that the food here was top-notch, Silver stabbed a green stalk and lifted it to her nose. It smelled alright, so she put it in her mouth. Tasted okay too.

Four stalks and a couple of leaves later, Canvas Splash set her food down beside Silver and sat down.

“Heya, Silver,” the artist said as she pried the straw from her orange juice box. “I heard what happened with Sunny. Is she okay? I mean, it’s not like I like her, but just curious.”

“I think she’ll be fine,” Silver said, examining the chicken leg and plotting out the proper way to eat it without picking it up. “We had a bit of a heart to heart in the nurse’s office and everything else is history.”

“Does that mean no more bullying and no more panicky Sunny?” Canvas put a hand to her chin. “Sounds like things are working out for you.”

Oh yes they are. Silver thought smugly, but said, “Maybe. I think there’s still a ways to go before things finally settle down, but now hopefully Sunny and the rest of her crew can get their heads in the game for the Friendship Games. Crystal Prep is expected to win, are we not?”

“Yes we are!” Canvas held her fork high. “Let’s go, Shadowbolts!”

While continuing to eat her lunch, Silver spotted Sunny Flare and the other Shadowbolts arriving at another table with their food, getting started on their lunch. Sunny looked over and paused for a while, but then nodded her head and smiled.

After waving back, Silver sliced a sliver of meat off her chicken leg and sniffed it. “Does this smell alright to you?” she asked Canvas.

“Hmm, it does smell a little burnt.” Canvas inspected the piece of meat. “You haven’t eaten any, have you? This bit of the chicken at least?”

“No, but if I get food poisoning from this my mother will probably go and throw Cinch off the roof. Or sue. Maybe both.”

“Sounds rough.” Canvas looked at her own chicken. “Mine looks okay. You wanna swap?”

Silver considered the offer. “No, I’ll just skip the chicken this time around. Less to get in the way of the yogurt…” She licked her lips and picked up the carton. “Mmm…”

“Mmm…” Silver Rose scooped the last of the ice cream from the bowl and ate it.

“Is the dessert to your liking, sweetie?” Ivory Wings asked across the table.

“Very much so, Aunt Ivory.” Silver Rose nodded happily. “Thanks for getting it!”

“Anything for you, sweetie,” Ivory laughed and scooped up her own ice cream. “Today, we celebrate your victory over the kid who’s been bullying you. And it only took you a few weeks to change it all. Well done!”

Silver felt proud, receiving the praise from her aunt. It made her feel like she was competent and that she could do anything she put her mind to.

“Good job, Silver, but don’t forget what you did in the locker room.” Her mother steepled her fingers. “Remember, I’ve worked hard staying hidden all these years. I didn’t do all that just so my daughter can reveal us to the humans once again.”

And then there were the things her mother said to her.

Silver sighed and nodded her head. “Yes, mother. I’ll try harder from here.”

“But…” Ebony folded her arms. “That being said, at least you’ve dealt with your bully problem.”

“And the fear problem,” Ivory added happily. “Nice to see that everything’s settled in for you to have a great school experience now.”

“Yup!” Silver Rose put down her ice cream bowl and spoon. “Well, I have homework to clear so…”

“You may go, daughter.” Ebony waved a hand.

“Thank you mother.”

With a skip to her step, Silver Rose made her way to the study, pulling up a chair at her table before getting to work. Her chemistry and history homework went by in a breeze, while her english homework took up a majority of her time. When she got to her calculus homework, everything seemed to slow down. Silver still didn’t understand why it was so hard or even why she had picked the class, but wondering about those questions would get her nowhere closer to finishing it.

“What a bother…” She blew at a few strands of her pink hair. “Why do we even need to know any of these things?”

She just wanted to be done with her work so she could text Home Run or play on the Neighstation.

“Wait a minute, that’s it!” A lightbulb went off in her head. Getting her phone out, she found Home Run’s chat and started a message with, “HAAAALP.”

Then she listed down the math equation, hoping he could explain to her how to get it done. Sitting back and waiting, Silver flipped through her calculus textbook, looking for something, anything that could give her a clue to the formula.

“I don’t want another tutor. I don’t, so I need to figure this out somehow…”

“Something the matter?” Aria’s voice drawled from behind her.

“Just math homework…” Silver groaned. Then her phone buzzed and she sat up excitedly. “Ooh, what do we have?”

Home Run had gotten back to her question, giving her the answer, but not just that, he even explained how to solve it and the words he used were so simple that she understood it perfectly.

Thank you, Home Run!!! She typed back, then added a heart at the end. “Yes! I can do this now!”

Picking up her pen, Silver Rose got back to work, scrawling the formulas down on her paper.

“Isn’t Home Run great?” she asked the siren. “Interesting how a sporty boy like him can help me with my math homework. Which reminds me… I gotta organize another date with him!”

“If you say so,” Aria said, sitting down on one of the couches and pulling out her own phone.

“You don’t have any homework yourself, Aria?” Silver continued to work on her calculus.

“I might,” Aria said, not looking up from her phone. “I’ll just copy Sonata’s or something later.”

“Oh. You don’t do it yourself?”

“Why bother?” Aria said disgustedly like homework was going to eat her. “I don’t really even care if the answers are right.”

“Umm… okay…” Silver Rose rubbed her head and went back to work.

In no time, because of Home Run’s explanation, Silver finished her homework, closing her textbook with so much relief that her hands began shaking.

“I’m done, Aria! I finally finished all my work…” She leaned back and gave her face a wipe.

“Great. So what are you going to do now?” Aria closed her eyes and leaned back in the sofa.

Silver Rose touched her chin, then picked up her phone and smiled at the screen. “I think I’ll text Home Run. I want to see what he’s up to.”

“Whatever. You do what you want.”

Tapping her fingers on the screen, Silver began composing a message.

Hey Home Run, thanks for the help earlier i was having a difficult time at it. I owe u one now. How about i c u at sugarcube corner on friday?

Then she put a winky face at the end, followed by a smiley face.

Silver Rose grinned at the thought of having a second date. “Oh, Home Run. You’re going to be mine… all mine.”

Looking back, Silver noticed the boy was in the process of typing something, so she waited, watching the screen.

Soon, it popped up, saying, Hiya Moonglade. Yeah sure id like that. I’ll see you aftr school? I have baseball first.

Yup! See you after ur practice then! Silver added three hearts behind for emphasis. Then she started a new message. So whatcha up to now?

Nothing much, Home Run replied back. Just sitting at my desk right now. U?

Same same but different. Hlping my sis with her homework.

Oh she having trouble too? Well i hope it goes well. How r the sirens doing? They finish their homework?

Idk. listn. So ill c u again on friday?

Yeah, definitely. Home Run put a really happy grinning face after his sentence.

Gr8. cya then. She ended with a face with hearts for eyes.

Silver then put her phone away and leaned back in her chair, tilting her head back, right into the belly of Ebony Wings. The actress looked down at her daughter with an unimpressed look on her face.

“Oh, hello, mother.” Silver scrambled back forward and turned around in her seat, smiling up at the older changeling. “I didn’t see you.”

“Well, you should have smelled me coming,” Ebony sniffed. “I suppose you were texting your prey?”

“Yes, mother. I have another date this Friday.” She tried to keep her excitement down as to not annoy her mother.

“Mmm. I see. I would give you advice, but your aunt seems to have that covered. Not that I remember much of the early days anyway. Just hope that none of your Diamond Prep friends have any plans for you after school. I’d hate for you to have to make a decision,” she finished in a slightly mocking tone.

“Oh, I didn’t think about that.” So far, Silver’s friends from school had never asked her to hang out with them, but she did have to take that as a possibility. She had to think up of a good reason to get to her date. “I could just say I have to be home after school.”

“As good an excuse as any,” Ebony Wings said with a sigh. “I think it’s high time we had another session with the pheromones. Practice makes perfect, after all. Your aunt will be supervising, to make sure I don’t, ahem, try anything.”

“Oh. Yes, mother.” Silver realized it had been a while since her last training. But she didn’t have good memories of it, remembering her mother had hit her multiple times to get her angry.

Ebony turned her back and walked off. “Then shall we go? I’d hate to waste more time.”

Aria sniggered from her position on the couch.

“What?” Silver asked.

Aria held up her phone to show her a clip from the Topview movie. “It’s high noon.”

Silver Rose stood in the courtyard once more, dressed in what she guessed was now her standard attire for pheromone testing, which didn’t consist of much. It was her usual white shirt, purple plaid skirt and a pair of slippers.

Ivory Wings stood at the side, in the shadows with her eyes narrowed. A lollipop was stuck between her teeth and she sucked on it as she watched.

“Now Silver...” Ebony paced around her daughter, eyeing her like a hawk. “Now that you have a prey, a target, I think we should hold these emotion training sessions more often.”

“It’s to help with keeping your body in check when you go to meet Home Run,” Ivory added from her corner, removing the lollipop. “Let’s say you do reach the point where you’ll have to employ your mother’s tricks to seduce him. There’ll likely be a lot of lust in the air then and we can’t have you weakening and exposing our kind to the humans.”

“But that doesn’t mean we’ll only be working with lust.” Ebony lifted a finger. “Your other emotions need work too, so here they all are.” She panned a hand to the various vials she had set on the table. “Are you ready, Silver?”

“Y-Yes, mother…” Silver took a deep breath and readied herself.

Like the last few sessions, Ebony Wings uncorked the pride bottle first, watching with a smirk as Silver began coughing after inhaling the vile smell. The young changeling fought it much better this time, almost used to it by now.

When she felt it was a good effort, Ebony swapped out the pride for deceit, taking a skip on boredom, seeing as Silver had pretty much mastered that one.

The bad smell began filling up in Silver Rose’s nose and mouth, but she held strong, remembering to keep her thoughts on happy moments, like playing the Neightstation with Aunt Ivory, or better, her date with Home Run.

When she started thinking about the boy, she soon forgot all about the awful taste of deceit, remembering the sweet kiss on the cheek she had given him. She wasn’t the one that got kissed, but it still felt nice. It felt natural. It felt genuine to her. She hoped to get one from him someday too.

Oh, Home Run…

“You’re radiating an awful lot of happiness right now, Silver.” Ebony stoppered the bottle. “Good work, but remember, that won’t work for everything.”

“Not thinking about the boy again, are you?” Ivory asked from her dark corner, her eyes glinting in the shadows. When Silver looked away embarrassedly, she sighed. “Need I remind you, you are not Moonglade right now. You are Silver Rose.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory…” Silver quickly emptied her mind and looked down. Her aunt was right again, of course.

“Well, now on to anger and hatred.” Ebony opened the anger bottle. “I thought you were good at this one, but then you tore the cubicle door off in the girls’ locker room. Try harder, Silver.”

“Yes, mother.”

Silver groaned to herself. Her life was filled with just answering yes to everything.

The anger wasn’t very difficult for her anymore, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t spicy. Silver didn’t really like spicy stuff on her food, but like her mother and aunt said, it would be good to get used to it.

After anger, came the more intense hatred, the spicy smell filling her nose and making her eyes water. Silver began breathing in and out, trying to cool her mouth, but it was really spicy.

“Fight it, daughter,” Ebony told her. “Show me you can handle hate.”

“I’m doing the best I can, mother!” Silver snapped, then covered her mouth with her hands.

“I’ll excuse that for now, seeing as I am exposing you to hate.” Ebony frowned, but did nothing more. “But you can’t keep getting angry when exposed to this emotion.”

Silver closed her eyes, concentrating on ignoring the flavor. The spiciness was only worse if she thought about it. If she could distract herself enough, she wouldn’t have to worry about the burning sensation in her mouth.

Somehow, against her own instructions, she began thinking about Home Run again. He had been so nice to her and only on her first date with him, he already made her feel like she had someone that cared about her outside her family. And it had only been the first date.

“Ah, you seem to be fighting the hate with happy thoughts again,” Ebony smirked and capped the bottle. “I guess that’s it for hate for now.”

“Silver, dear.” Ivory stepped out of the shadows. “Not Home Run again?”

Oops. She blushed and rubbed an arm. “I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory.”

“This cannot keep happening, you know?” She rubbed her forehead. “I don’t want to lecture you, sweetie, but if you keep this up, you’re going to have some problems. Silver Rose is not Moonglade. Moonglade is not Silver Rose.”

“I know, Aunt Ivory. I just… I’ll try.”

“Hmm…” Ebony stroked her chin as she picked up the lust vial. “I think this might work out. Silver, for now, pretend you’re Moonglade.”

“Ebony, I was just telling her-”

“Wait.” She raised a hand. “This training is for hunting her prey after all. It would benefit her better if she were to pretend to be Moonglade for now.”

“At least let her go change personas,” Ivory reasoned. “You don’t want her personas to merge anymore than where she is right now.”

“Dear, how long will it take to swap to Moonglade?” Ebony turned to her daughter.

“Um, half an hour?”

“Then get to it.”

Rushing back into the house, Silver headed for her room, quickly getting into the shower and washing her dyes off. At least she didn’t have much clothes to remove and she didn’t need to pick out a different outfit.

This was still going to be a bother, seeing as she would have to change back to Silver Rose for school tomorrow, but on the bright side, she’d be able to think about Home Run freely.

When she was back to being Chrysidea, she picked up Moonglade’s dyes from her shower rack and began applying them in her skin and hair. When she was done, the young changeling stepped back outside and switched her contacts before drying her hair and body as quickly as she could. There was no way her hair was going to be fully dry anytime soon, so she pushed it all out of her face to the best of her ability before exiting her bathroom. Grabbing her glasses from her bedside table, Moonglade was now ready for the final test of the day.

Lust.

So far, lust was the one emotion she really had trouble controlling, but hopefully in time, she could be like her aunt and mother, who seemed unaffected by all the smells.

When she got back to the courtyard, her mother and Aunt Ivory were now seated at one of the tables, drinking from a pitcher of pink lemonade.

When her mother saw her, she placed her glass down and got up. “Ah, took you long enough. I got thirsty.”

“Welcome back, sweetie,” Ivory said, lifting her glass. “Now normally I’d offer you some lemonade, but this stuff will just make you sick, so I’d better not.”

“Enough of all that.” Ebony waved, picking up the final vial again. “Are you ready, Moonglade?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, mother. I hope.”

“Now, I figured I’d make this test a little different from the rest,” Ebony went on, shaking the contents of her vial. “Seeing as this is to help you put up with lust when you do get to that point in your, uh, ‘relationship’, I shall pretend to be your boyfriend again. Ivory, does he count as a boyfriend yet?”

“Well, they’re going on a second date soon, so maybe.” The white haired changeling shrugged.

“Whatever.” Ebony shook her head. “So I will pretend to be your boyfriend, Moonglade. Your job is to seduce me. If I think you’re doing it well, I will open the bottle to release some lust, just like how a human would react if you seduce them. The better you do, the more I open the bottle, the harder it becomes. Are you ready for this?”

Moonglade’s cheeks turned red. It had been really awkward the last time her mother pretended to be Home Run. She hoped it wasn’t going to be very cringey. “I’ll do my best, mother.”

“Then let us begin.” Ebony Wings cleared her throat, changing her voice to a more male-sounding one. “Why hello, Moonglade, nice to see you. Go for it.”

“Um… hey, Home Run.” Moonglade smiled and rubbed her head. “Thanks for… going out with me.”

“Weak.” Ebony changed back to her own voice. “Come on, make it sound like you want him.”

“You are a princess,” Ivory said from her corner. “Act like one.”

Ugh, it’s embarrassing to do these things in front of mother… It’s embarrassing to do them to mother.

Reluctantly, Moonglade approached her mother, stopping just before her, her cheeks blazing a bright red. Looking up at her, she batted her eyelashes and began twirling her curly blonde hair in one hand. “H-Hey, Home Run, it’s so nice to see you here… You know… Y-You mean so much to me. You’re always s-so nice to me and stuff. Do you f-feel the same w-way about me?”

In her corner, Ivory Wings lowered her head and put it in her palms, shaking her head at the same time. “No, no, no…” she groaned.

“What?” Moonglade was sure she had done it right this time. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. “What did I do wrong?”

“Look,” Ivory said to Ebony. “This approach obviously isn’t working. She’s not going to learn unless we teach her.”

“So what do you propose we do?” Ebony demanded.

A sly smile grew across Ivory Wings’ face as she edged up to her sister, whispering something into her ear. Moonglade tried to listen, but she couldn’t hear any of it.

Ebony Wings seemed less than enthused. “You want to do what?”

“Umm…” Moonglade pushed two fingers against each other. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing yet,” Ebony grunted. “I need to have a talk with your aunt. In private. Off you go.”

“But what about the lust?” Moonglade looked at the bottle. “I haven’t had my practice with it today.”

Moonglade didn’t deny she wanted a taste of it. Whether it made her feel weird or not, it still tasted really good.

“You’re done for today.” Ebony looked to the mansion. “Go and do your homework or do sword practice or something. We’ll meet back here at the same time tomorrow. I think.”

I already did my homework. Moonglade grumbled internally. Her mother had made her change personas for nothing and she didn’t even get a taste of lust.

As she walked away, Moonglade couldn’t help but feel a little unsettled. Whatever her mother and aunt had planned for her tomorrow, the anticipation didn’t make her feel good.

Chapter 35 - A Demonstration

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Click away now if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 35 - A Demonstration

Silver Rose spotted Sunny Flare and the other Shadowbolts seated at one of the tables during lunch.

Deciding to go for it, she carried her food over to the table. “Hey, girls! Mind if I join you for lunch?”

Sunny Flare took one look at her and seemed to shrink, but then she stopped herself and resumed her posture.

“Sure, I don’t see why not,” Sour Sweet said, and scooted to the side. “But don’t try anything.”

“Of course not, Sour Sweet.”

Silver sat down next to Lemon Zest and Sour Sweet and examined her meal. Today’s lunch was spaghetti and meatballs, along with apple juice and a banana. Deciding to start on the spaghetti, Silver took her fork and wound the noodles around it after tucking a napkin around her neck.

“So how have things been?” she asked the Shadowbolts as she chewed on her food. “Are you girls preparing well for the Friendship Games?”

“Things are going great!” Indigo flexed an arm. “I think we’re going to win this year.”

“And that’ll be another win for Crystal Prep!” Lemon Zest turned up the volume on her headphones and began shaking her head. “Go, Shadowbolts!”

“Yes, quite,” Sugarcoat agreed, turning the page of her Daring Do novel while putting her mouth over the straw of her apple juice. “Although, I hear Canterlot High is going to be some stiff competition this year. Can’t let our guards down, now can we?”

“Y-Yeah…” Sunny nodded. “We’ll have to try our hardest.”

“Meh, I think we’re going to be fine,” Indigo said smugly.

“Dude,” Lemon Zest said, pulling out a magazine from her bag. “Are you guys excited for the new Daring Do game?”

“Quite,” Sugarcoat said with a smile. “I hear they’ll let you play as Cat Scratch this time around. I’m rather looking forward to it, even if I do have to delete Noncharted 5 from my Neighstation to make room for it.”

Silver hadn’t heard of this Daring Do game, but she did wonder if her mother had done motion capture for this. She hadn’t said anything about a Daring Do game. Silver only knew the one from Manslayer’s Doctrine.

“Sounds cool.” Silver twirled another cluster of spaghetti on her fork. “Sunny, how are you faring? Are you feeling better?”

“I… I think so,” Sunny said with a somewhat forced smile.

“She’s been back to training,” Sugarcoat said for her friend. “So at least that’s something. Thank you for clearing up this mess, Silver Rose, even if you were the one that caused it.”

“We still don’t have a twelfth member on the team.” Indigo pointed out with a flick of her finger. “And I don’t think Cinch has made a decision yet.”

“I don’t suppose you want to participate, Silver Rose?” Sugarcoat asked her.

“Can’t say I do.” Silver shook her head and put more spaghetti in her mouth. “I don’t really like standing out in front of crowds. Stage fright, you see. I do hope you find someone good enough to represent the school though.”

“Dude, how can you have stage fright when your mom is freaking Ebony Wings?” Lemon Zest exclaimed. “She’s like, the best actress ever!”

“I-I don’t know, Lemon Zest…” Silver blushed and rubbed her head. “I wonder that myself…”

“I heard Cinch’s already decided on who she wants on the team,” Sour Sweet said, peeling apart her banana. “It better be someone who can keep up with me or I’m going to rip my eyes out.”

“Well, at least you girls sound confident enough.” Silver slurped up the last of her main dish. “Can’t wait to see you come up on top.”

Silver peeled back the skin on her banana and cut off a bit with her knife, skewered it with her fork and lifted it up to her mouth. It wasn’t bad, but she immediately knew that banana was not one of her favorite fruits.

“Gee, you eat bananas funny, Silver Rose.” Lemon Zest commented.

“What, am I not supposed to eat them with a fork and knife?”

“Nah, Silver. You just eat them like this!” Lemon Zest picked up her own banana and peeled it, then stuck the whole thing into her mouth and down her throat, moaning with satisfaction all the while.

The rest of the table stared at Lemon, who had her eyes shut, the banana still in her mouth.

“Lemon Zest,” Sugarcoat said sternly over the top of her book. “That’s inappropriate.”

“Wha’?” Lemon said through a mouthful of banana. Then suddenly both her hands went for her neck and she began choking, the banana likely lodged in her throat.

“See? No one eats it like that!” Indigo quickly got up and wrapped her arms around Lemon Zest’s abdomen, squeezing hard.

After a few attempts, the banana shot out of Lemon Zest’s mouth like a rocket and flew off into the distance, nailing Principal Cinch on the nose as it passed.

“Oh!” The woman fell back a step, then readjusted her spectacles and rubbed her nose. “Who in the world did that?” Then her eyes focused on Lemon Zest and Indigo, the former still holding her neck, recovering from the ordeal.

“Oh great…” Sugarcoat slapped a hand to her forehead as the principal began making her way over.

“Lemon Zest, Indigo Zap, my office now!” Cinch barked as she got closer.

“Aw…” But they complied, getting up and following her away.

Silver just sat at her seat, cutting away at her banana as she watched the two Shadowbolts walk off.

“I like my way better,” she decided.

Silver Rose had a little chat with Sunny Flare after school, learning a little more about her in the process. She found out Sunny had a younger brother, who was still in middle school, and that Sunny liked the actor, Fast Bender. Silver had met him before, but she didn’t tell Sunny that, because Silver Rose didn’t meet him. Moonglade did. After parting ways with her, she walked to the front of Crystal Prep, where her black car was waiting.

“Good afternoon, princess,” Silver Platter greeted from the driver’s seat. “Did you have a good day at school?”

“Oh, Silver Platter,” she said surprisingly. “I had fun. Is Aunt Ivory not available today?”

“She mentioned needing time to ‘prepare’. For what, I don’t know.”

Silver remembered her mother and aunt were discussing something yesterday. Whatever it was they were planning, Silver still had a bad feeling about it.

When she got home, Silver went back up to her room to get changed into her pheromone testing attire, just in case they were ready to train her again. After that, she went to the study, doing as much homework as she was able to, first starting with chemistry again. When she got to her math homework, she texted Home Run again, hoping to receive some help from him. Before she could get an answer, there was a knock at the door.

Silver turned to see one of the maids standing there. “Young princess, your mother requests your presence in the courtyard.”

“Thank you. I will be down shortly.”

When the maid left, Silver sighed and took a few deep breaths, hoping she was ready for what was to come. Getting up, she swiftly scurried down the stairs and out into the courtyard, where the fountain gurgled away happily.

The bottles of pheromones were there on their little table, but there was no sign of either Silver’s mother or her aunt.

“Hmm?” She looked around, thinking maybe they were hiding, but she still couldn’t see them. “Strange. Maybe they went to get some lemonade.”

“No lemonade this time, sweetie,” a voice said from the left, behind one of the potted plants. A figure shrouded in a black robe detached itself from the shadows and walked out in front of the table. At the same time, another, slightly taller cloaked figure strode out from the other wing of the manor and went to stand next to the first one.

“You’ve come, my daughter,” the taller one said in a double, overlaid voice. It sounded like her mother.

“Umm, what’s with the outfits?” Silver asked. They were really giving her a bad feeling now.

“Your mother and I,” the first figure, presumably her aunt, said in an oddly familiar voice. “Are going to show you how it’s done.”

“Umm… okay.” Silver looked around the courtyard. “So… what should I do?”

“Just stand and watch.”

As one, both Silver’s mother and aunt flung their robes aside. Silver’s jaw dropped in disbelief.

On the right, where her mother had been, was Home Run. Though not quite. The clothes, the striped shirt and the white one with the baseball emblem were right on point, as were the jeans and shoes. The only thing that was off was the height and the face, which was not quite the right shape, and not to mention the shapely chest. But from the hairstyle right down to the color, it definitely looked like Home Run, except more… feminine.

Even more outrageously, on the left where she thought her aunt was, stood Moonglade. Though, like Home Run, it was not a perfect copy. For one thing, the clothes didn’t quite fit. It looked as though her aunt had raided her wardrobe, as the skirt and shirt were far too short, revealing a small stretch of firm stomach and giving Silver a glimpse of her underwear as she walked past. But otherwise, she was the spitting image of Moonglade, even her skin and eye color.

“Uh… what?” Silver managed.

“We,” Not-Moonglade said. “Are going to demonstrate how a seduction should be done.”

“Uh, okay, Aunt Ivory. Er, Moonglade,” she corrected herself. It felt weird to refer to herself in third person.

“Now, watch and learn.”

Not-Home Run went to sit at one of the chairs by the fountain, looking very nonchalant. Not-Moonglade winked at Silver and went over to uncork the lust bottle.

The smell instantly hit Silver, but she maintained enough strength to remain standing this time, though her face became flushed and her breathing heavier. It tasted so good.

Not-Moonglade sauntered up to Not-Home Run, her hips swinging and frequently flashing her panties.

Note to self, Silver thought to herself. Get a longer skirt. At least for Aunt Ivory.

Even so, she kept her eyes focused on the scene ahead as Not-Moonglade walked up behind Not-Home Run and wrapped her arms around him (her?) before bending down to nibble his ear.

Oh. Approach from behind without him knowing. Got it. Silver continued to observe.

As Silver continued to watch Not-Moonglade try to seemingly eat Not-Home Run’s ear, she felt her fangs easing out into view, hungry for the taste of lust. The warmth had spread from her face by now, finding its way down her body and lingering between her legs. Silver did her best to resist the urge to deal with it, at least for now. She needed to pay attention to learn how to earn love from Home Run.

“Watch and learn, sweetie,” Not-Moonglade said, placing her hands on Not-Home Run’s shoulders and massaging them gently.

“Mmm…” Not-Home Run moaned in a passable recreation of the real Home Run’s voice. Silver found it unsettling just how close to the real Home Run she sounded. Almost as if it was the real deal.

“Hey there, Home Run,” Not-Moonglade purred, every word dripping with flirtatious intent.

“I’m not sure I like this…” Silver Rose said to herself. It was like watching herself and Home Run on TV, only it was much more realistic. And aged up.

Not-Home Run continued to sit there and enjoy the massage, crossing his legs and leaning back into it. Still holding onto one shoulder, Not-Moonglade swung herself around and into Not-Home Run’s lap, where she made quite a show of grinding her hips into Not-Home Run’s own waist.

“Uh…” Silver said slowly, taking more sniffs of the lust vial. She made no move to retract her fangs just yet. “I really don’t know about this…” This really didn’t look like second date material, at least to her limited knowledge, but at this point, she was too afraid to ask and the smell of lust was clouding her judgment.

Not-Home Run ran his fingers down Not-Moonglade’s back lingering there just long enough to extricate an appreciative hum from her.

Not-Moonglade then swooped in for a kiss, which Not-Home Run enthusiastically returned, their lips locking together. Silver watched them in shock, remembering that whatever they looked like, it was still her mother and aunt kissing. The young changeling felt uncomfortable with it, but didn’t avert her eyes. She felt her breathing become heavier and slower, but at the same time, the lust seemed to begin to die down, being replaced by something else.

When they finally broke apart, both participants gasped for air, then smiled. Not-Moonglade and Not-Home Run looked into each other's’ eyes hungrily and kissed again, this time letting their hands explore each other’s bodies. Not-Home Run’s hands snaked down to his partner’s thighs, squeezing them gently while their lips remained locked.

Silver Rose watched, feeling the lust’s power slowly drain away like soap bubbles in an unplugged bath. Something else was rising though, and it made her want to clamp her mouth shut.

“Are you sure this is what I should be doing?” Silver asked with a finger raised. There was no reply. “O… kay…”

Not-Moonglade brought her arms together, emphasizing her bust while Not-Home Run continued to toy with his partner’s legs, bringing up one finger up her already too short skirt and around the leg hole of Not-Moonglade’s underwear.

They broke their lips apart for a second, only to join back in another kiss, while Not-Moonglade began to remove her red coat, flipping it off her shoulders slowly.

Silver continued to watch their lips change positions, the warmth between her legs slowly fading and her fangs inching back into her gums. She stood there awkwardly, unsure of everything as Not-Home Run threw his striped shirt to the floor before returning to Not-Moonglade’s legs, his hands moving closer and closer towards the hotspot between her legs.

Not-Moonglade moaned into Not-Home Run’s mouth as she removed her tie, then unbuttoned the first three buttons of her short shirt.

“Oh, you’re so hot, Moonglade…” Not-Home Run said as they split their lips, only to move back in for yet another kiss.

Silver Rose didn’t really think much about it, but now that she looked a little closer, she noticed a bulge in her mother’s jeans. Did she wear something special under there? They didn’t plan to go that far, did they? And this is the second date? Wait, and aren’t they supposed to be outdoors too? They wouldn’t do this in public, would they?

The girl didn’t know what to think anymore.

Not-Moonglade reached for Not-Home Run’s white shirt, softly lifting it off his head and tossing it where his striped shirt was.

Looking on, Silver felt partially disturbed to see Not-Home Run wearing a bra. It was like Home Run had suddenly decided to turn half-female or something; it was a picture she wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.

“Mmm, you’ve still got it…” Not-Moonglade moaned as Not-Home Run ran a finger up the middle of her white panties, then back down again.

“Of course I do. Did you think I’d lose my skill over time?” Not-Home Run smirked.

Pulling Not-Home Run’s head closer, Not-Moonglade brought her lips to his again, one hand going for his chest, massaging one of his breasts.

That just sounded weird and it looked weird. Home Run didn’t have those. The real one didn’t.

Silver Rose raised a hand awkwardly, wanting to say something. “Umm… Are you still t-teaching me w-what to do here…?”

Of course, there wasn’t any answer. Silver was now convinced they had forgotten all about her.

With one hand, Not-Home Run grasped the shoulder of Not-Moonglade’s white shirt and in one swift motion, she tore it right off Not-Moonglade’s body, throwing its remains beside them, now gazing at her marvelous find.

Man, that was my shirt… Silver folded her arms. The smell of lust was almost blocked off now, with Silver radiating so much disgust that she couldn’t even feel good. This wasn’t just a pair of lovers doing as they pleased. It was her mother and aunt.

And then Not-Moonglade threw herself against Not-Home Run, knocking the chair backwards and down to the ground, still kissing him. Then with her hands, she undid Not-Home Run’s jeans and swiped them off. Under his pants, Not-Home Run had a strange black object tied fastened his crotch, kind of resembling a cucumber; Silver had never seen such a strange thing before, but she could guess what it was meant to symbolize.

I don’t know how much more of this I can stand… Silver thought, squirming in her seat.

“Is that for me?” Not-Moonglade licked her lips as she examined the black object, smoothly grabbing ahold of it and running her hand up and down its length. “What’s the occasion?”

“You know, I can’t remember...” Not-Home Run leaned his head up to kiss her again.

“Well, I can think of a few-” Not-Moonglade’s head suddenly snapped up and looked around, setting her eyes on one of the many doors that surrounded the courtyard. “Your butler is here, and I think he wants something, Your Highness.”

“My lady,” Silver Platter’s voice could be heard. “May I come out?”

A flash of irritation crossed Not-Home Run’s face, but it was quickly replaced with a look of resignation.

“Looks like this’ll have to wait then,” she said, sliding Not-Moonglade off her and shouting, “Yes, come on out.”

“Sorry, mistress, but you have a phone call from your agent.” Silver Platter emerged from the door, walking over while keeping his eyes averted. “He suggests it is important.”

Not bothering to get up, Not-Home Run took the phone from her butler and cleared her throat before continuing in her Ebony Wings voice. “Hello? Yes? Oh, you would like me to star in a new film? Of course, which one? Roll of the Ricks? A support role, huh? Well, I don’t mind. I’ll take it. Yes, thank you. Goodbye.” Then she clicked the phone off, giving it back to Silver Platter. “That would be all, Silver Platter.”

“Of course, mistress.” The butler bowed and left, disappearing back through the door to the mansion.

“Acting in yet another movie?” Not-Moonglade smirked and came back atop Not-Home Run. “How many movies can you film at once, sister?”

“As many as I want.” She reached up and pulled Not-Moonglade back down against her. “Now, where were we?”

Not-Moonglade grimaced and pointed at Silver Rose’s empty chair, which was still spinning from where its occupant had taken off.

“I think we scared her away.”

“Scared who away?” Not-Home Run toyed with Not-Moonglade’s blonde hair.

“Uh, your daughter?” Not-Moonglade played her fingers across Not-Home Run’s abdomen. “We were teaching her the art of seduction, remember?”

“We were?” Not-Home Run smiled and removed Not-Moonglade’s glasses, putting it aside, then running her hands over her face. “I guess I’ve forgotten. Well, what do you suppose we do now, then?”

“This is not an episode of Gamer’s Throne, sister. If your daughter isn’t here, there’s no point in continuing,” Not-Moonglade got off the floor and picked up her glasses.

“No no no, it isn’t over yet, sister dearest.” Not-Home Run grabbed her hand and yanked her back down. “The only difference now is that we don’t need these pathetic disguises.”

With a flash of green fire, Not-Home Run’s head disappeared, the flames eating away at the dye on her face and lengthening her hair to waist length. A pair of acid green eyes replaced her previously yellow ones, and two sharp fangs shot out from her gums.

“Much better,” Chrysalis said in her changeling layered voice. “Now, about your disguise… As queen, I ask of you to continue.”

“Oh, very well, sister.” Not-Moonglade put her glasses down, then with a burst of fire matching her sister’s, Moonglade’s features disappeared and gave way to one with long purple hair and charcoal skin, with eyes to match Chrysalis’.

“You look so much better like that,” Chrysalis said smoothly, giving her sister a kiss on the lips. “Did I tell you you’ve gotten much better at this?”

“No, you haven’t.” Psithyra moaned as Chrysalis squeezed one of her breasts playfully. She closed her eyes as Chrysalis slipped a hand under her bra.

“And I like your purple hair. It’s a nice color.” The older changeling leaned in and planted kisses along her sister’s neck.

“Agreed,” Psithyra replied. Then she pushed off her sister again. “But alright, I think we’ve been at this long enough. Now, I’m going to go for a bath, then I’m going to see to my niece. You better do the same.”

“Really? Already? I was hoping to go for another round.” When Psithyra didn’t say anything and continued to glare at her, Chrysalis relented. “Oh, very well then, Thyra. We can pick this up another time.”

“Mmmph. Oh, and take that off,” the younger changeling said, pointing to the sex toy that was still fastened to Chrysalis’ crotch. “You’ll take someone’s eye out.”

Chapter 36 - Easy as Eggs is Eggs

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Chapter 37 - Changing Seasons

After she had finished putting on her fencing gear, Silver Rose stepped out of the storeroom, holding her foil and helmet under one arm. Quillion Riposte and a few others had already started practice, with others like Fleur Dis Lee still attending to their hair before putting their helmets on.

“Another day, another time to practice,” Royal Pin said as he flourished his foil. “I do hope they include fencing in the Friendship Games. I would very much like to have an event I am skilled at.”

“You’re competing too, Royal Pin?” Silver asked him. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yes, well, Principal Cinch had informed me that I would be one of the chosen students representing the school.” He lifted his head proudly. “Won’t I look just dashing on the victory podium?”

“I think you will, Royal Pin,” Silver chuckled and put her helmet on. “I’ll be rooting for all of you.”

“You may begin when ready, Quillion,” Mr. Fowl said from behind a book.

After doing some stretches, Silver Rose took up her usual position on the fencing mat, which was to say that she would be sparring against Fleur today. Silver had learned from facing her before that Fleur’s offensive capabilities were high, but she tended to leave her left side unguarded as a result of her more aggressive tactics.

Sacrificing defense for attack, as some might say.

“Are you ready for a round, Silver Rose?” Fleur held her foil vertically in front of herself.

“Ready as I’ll always be,” the pink haired girl answered, lifting her foil.

Crossing swords for the moment, Fleur was the first to attack, pressing forward, her foil swishing left and right as she tried to knock Silver’s defense down. Silver Rose kept up her parrying, her eyes darting around she she tried to pick out the right time to lash out. But then she messed up on one parry and Fleur took the chance to step in and jab her in the shoulder, scoring a point.

“Score one!” Fleur cheered, pulling her helmet off to rearrange her hair.

Silver watched her, unsure of how a type of girl like Fleur Dis Lee could be so good at fencing. Outside their sport, Fleur always seemed to be the kind that didn’t want to get her hands dirty. She was attractive, likely one of the prettiest girls in school with lots of students pining after her, but she wasn’t useless and whiny. If it got to a fight, like this, Fleur could handle herself just fine. Somehow, the picture didn’t quite fit for Silver, but then she remembered herself. Perhaps humans had their own secrets too.

“Round two,” she said, waiting for the white-skinned girl to replace her helmet.

“Ready.” Fleur raised her foil after she was done.

This time, Silver attacked first, stepping in far and thrusting forward so fast that a regular person would’ve been done in just like that. But not Fleur. The girl was nimble on her feet, leaning to the side and parrying Silver’s attack in one move. Then she advanced, pushing Silver back to defense in an instant.

Hmm, so she’s been holding back all this time, huh?

Silver felt that she had mastered quite a bit of fencing since joining, but perhaps she still had much to learn in the sport.

“Get back on the offense, Silver Rose,” Fleur said as she spun her foil in a circle, then jabbed from around Silver’s own blade.

Caught off guard, Silver threw herself to the ground, avoiding the attack, then kicking Fleur’s legs from under her before raising her foil tip to the girl’s helmet after getting back on her feet.

“Silver Rose…” Quillion walked over, his helmet under one arm. “I don’t want to have to keep reminding you, but that isn’t fencing. Good moves, but not fencing.”

“R-Right, I’m sorry… Habit…” Silver blushed hard and looked away, suddenly taking interest in the basketball team on the other end of the gym.

Unfortunately, most of the basketball team was now watching her as well, distracted from their practice. Sunny Flare noticed Silver was looking over and gave a quick wave, then a thumbs up.

My newest friend is cheering me on. I’ll have to try harder.

With a nod of thanks, Silver put her helmet back on and got ready again.

“Remember, no kicks, Silver Rose.” Fleur reached one arm backwards and the one holding her foil forward.

Taking a stab at attacking first, Silver lunged forward, feinting a stab to the left, the pulling back and going right. Fleur blocked her attack, but went on the defensive as Silver kept pushing forward, looking for an opening. She waited for Fleur’s weakpoint to show itself. Seeing as the girl was dominantly right handed, she tended to strike from the right more. On the attack, Silver couldn’t quite see the opening.

Maybe I’ll have to look at this from a different angle.

Attacking left again, Silver watched as Fleur cut out to the side, knocking her blade far, then lunged in, foil tip aimed for Silver’s chest. Once again, Silver was back on defense, but this time, she had planned for it. Watching Fleur attack, Silver waited for the right moment, her eyes keeping an eye on the girl’s left side.

And there it was. Whenever she thrust her weapon forward, she had a pull back before doing so, moving her right arm back and her left forward, leaving Silver with a second or less to attack her left shoulder.

Gotcha.

The next time Fleur readied an attack, Silver leaned in, keeping low, but keeping her foil leveled, by the time Fleur’s attack had gone forward, Silver already had her foil tip against the white-skinned girl’s shoulder, scoring her the point.

“I did it!” Silver yelled enthusiastically.

“Good timing, Silver Rose.” Fleur rubbed her shoulder and took her helmet off to rearrange her hair again. “You’re improving, even if you do employ unorthodox techniques from time to time.”

“Yeah… I don’t know why I keep doing that…” Silver put her arms behind her back. “My mistake. I’ll keep trying to get better at this.”

“As will all of us.” Fleur flicked her foil to the side with a swish of air. “But for now, let us take a water break.”

“Do you happen to be competing in the Friendship Games too, Fleur?” Silver asked as they arrived at the side where they had left their bags. “You’re quite skilled.”

“Unfortunately…” Fleur flipped her pink hair back. “I was not chosen by Principal Cinch, so she clearly does not think like you do.”

“Aw… That’s a shame.” Silver drank from her bottle of water. “You’ve got really fast reflexes for a hu- uh… for a… a skinny girl. I mean… I don’t mean any… no offense.”

Fleur raised an eyebrow and wiped her forehead with her towel. “None taken… I think. You need to speak more confidently, Silver Rose. You stammer a lot.”

“Yeah, uh, sorry. I’m not like my mother… I don’t have what it takes to be in front of people,” Silver admitted.

“I’m sure you can be in front of people,” Fleur said sympathetically. “Maybe you need a few lessons, sure, but anything’s possible if you work at it enough. I didn’t become a great fencer overnight, you know.”

“Well… maybe you’re right…” Silver said, playing with the tip of her foil. “Well, enough of me. How about we go a few more rounds? I’d like to work on my form and stuff.”

“Of course.” Fleur put her things down and got her foil back out. “We still have plenty of time.”

Silver took her foil and bent it with her fingers. It was such a thin, flimsy sword, so unlike the ones she was used to. No good in a real fight. Quillion had mentioned that they had sabers, but she had yet to see any in use. Perhaps she would ask about them once the club meeting was over.

“Okay, let’s try again,” Silver slipped her helmet back over her face. Fleur did the same and they took up positions on the mat. Once again, Fleur came at her in a tempest, thrusting her foil at Silver, who batted it aside.

The young changeling was once again on the defense, unable to pass Fleur’s speed without expending some love, and she wasn’t planning on using up any right now. Being so skinny must somehow make her lighter and faster.

Working on her feet positioning, Silver parried Fleur’s attacks, making sure she had the right balance to try and push her back to defense. All she needed, again, was a well timed strike.

Seeing the opening again, Silver jabbed for Fleur’s shoulder, but unfortunately this time, the other girl had learnt from her mistake. Twisted her body to the side, Fleur completely avoided the blow, but just barely, then striking out with her own foil, catching Silver in her side.

“Don’t use the same trick so often, Silver Rose.” Fleur walked back to her side and held her foil up. “Now, again. Change your tactics.”

“Right.”

After crossing foils, Silver was first to attack again, advancing with small steps and wide slashes, trying to get Fleur’s foil as far as she could from her body so that she could attack before the girl could recover. To her disappointment, her method didn’t seem to work much, as Fleur kept stepping back in, keeping close to prevent her large movements. Eventually, Silver felt another prod in her shoulder, sighing to herself as she failed to defend adequately. Again.

“Your mind has to be as quick as your body,” Fleur instructed. “You have proven your physical speed, but you still have to work on your quick planning and decisions.”

Silver panted, sweat dripping down her face from all her moving and attacking. She could feel Fleur’s skill in fencing, but even more than that, something inside her knew that Fleur was still holding back. Maybe it was the way her feet moved, or maybe her posture, but Silver just knew there was more than meets the eye with her.

“Again.” She raised her foil, hoping to find out just what the lithe girl knew.

After practice was over, Sunny Flare wiped her face with her towel, before building up enough courage to go over to the fencing team and congratulate Silver Rose on a job well done. She figured she needed to do as much as she can to get over every shred of fear she had of the new girl; the more concentration she had during the Games, the better.

Silver already had her suit off by the time Sunny reached them, waving to the pink haired girl as she got closer.

“H-Hey, Silver,” she greeted, trying to calm her nerves. It seemed she was still a little afraid those mauve hands would shoot up and strangle her. “Nice f-fencing, by the way. I, um, saw some of it from over there.”

“I tried my hardest, but I couldn’t best her.” Silver’s face was beaded with sweat. “Fleur’s really good at this.”

“Yeah.” Sunny looked at Fleur Dis Lee, who was now rearranging her silky pink hair. “I’ve heard from others that she really knows her stuff. But nice try, S-Silver. I think you really put in a lot of e-effort today. I-I mean, it looked like you were.”

Picking up her things, Silver began heading for the changing rooms, with Sunny following her. “I’ll just have to work harder, hmm? Anyway, how’s your basketball practice? You back in the game?”

“Yeah, I’m getting there…” Sunny scratched her cheek. “Umm… I’m less f-frightened by you now.”

“Watch out!” a voice warned.

Sunny turned just in time to see a basketball coming for her face. She flinched, but just before it could hit her, she watched a mauve-skinned hand shoot out and knock the ball away, sending it bouncing back to the court.

“My bad, Sunny!” It was one of the team’s members, Stark White.

Without warning, Sunny’s face warped into a frown and she shook a fist. “Watch where you’re throwing the ball next time!”

Like he was shot with a bullet, Stark White seemed to fall back, then nodded his head nervously before returning to the bleachers.

“Clumsy guy…” Sunny mumbled, continuing her walk to the changing rooms. “Thanks, Silver.”

“No problem.” The pink haired girl shrugged. “I just saw it coming, so I did what I should.”

“Yeah... They need to watch where they’re throwing those things. I could’ve gotten hurt.”

“Um, sure, Sunny.”

Pulling open her locker in the changing room, Sunny got out her uniform and towel before proceeding into one of the cubicles. She heard Silver go into the one next to her.

“So you seem all set for the Games now, Sunny,” Silver’s voice echoed from beyond the cubicle wall. “Think you’re ready now?”

Thinking about it, Sunny guessed she was ready. She was back to playing basketball, she had been exercising to the best of her ability, her schoolwork was improving again, except for English, and she had even yelled at someone just now, something she hadn’t done in quite some time. She still felt a sense of fear from Silver Rose, something she couldn’t quite place her finger on, but as long as she kept her focus on the Games, she knew she could do it.

“I think I’ve got this, Silver.” Sunny stripped out of her PE attire and shifted her shoes to the side. “I think I’m almost back to the way I was.”

“Yeah, with you yelling at that guy just now?” Silver could be heard turning on her shower. “I think you’re back to normal, Sunny. You can do this.”

“Well, almost b-back to normal…” Sunny hung her clothes on the rack, then turned on her own shower. “I’m very so-sorry I tried to bully you into s-submission when you first arrived. That’s the only difference now. Now you’re my f-friend, right?”

“That’s right, Sunny. Friends.”

Sunny smiled to herself and washed her hair. Silver Rose really was a nice girl. The other Shadowbolts had seemed to think so, but Sunny had been so adamant that she had an ulterior motive for being so nice to them. Maybe she was wrong. Silver really was genuinely trying to be friendly.

Sunny thought back to the scene in this room again. Silver’s hand had gone around her throat, squeezing hard. Sunny remembered being unable to breathe, the thought making her shiver again. But then she remembered the kiss that followed after that.

Like Lemon Zest had said the other day, she used to make out with her ex-boyfriend, Domino, all the time. They’d never gone further than kissing, before he decided to break up with her, but Silver’s one kiss had felt different. Sunny couldn’t quite explain it, but it felt natural. Domino had decided to break up with her last year, saying that their relationship was going nowhere. It had devastated Sunny and she had cried for a whole week, but eventually she had gotten over it, realizing there was no point being sad about it.

Now here was the Silver Rose scenario, where she first had a serious vendetta against the new girl, which then became a great fear of her after she had tried to kill her in this very changing room. Sunny hadn’t gotten over Silver showing off, like she had gotten over Domino Ace, but she had deeply regretted her actions and wished she had ignored it from the start.

And then after that, Silver had been so nice to her, also regretting her actions, but Sunny couldn’t blame her; she only reacted the way she did because of Sunny’s continuous torment on her.

Sunny pressed the back of a hand to her lips, trying to remember what Silver Rose’s kiss had exactly felt like. After doing so, she realized what she was doing and threw her hand aside, blushing furiously.

What the hay are you doing, Sunny?

The mulberry haired girl tried to fill her mind with other things instead, thinking back to the other Shadowbolts. They had prepared so long to win the Friendship Games and they weren’t going to falter now. After thinking about each one, Sunny had remembered her chat with Lemon Zest yesterday, with the girl changing back into her uniform.

Somehow, that led Sunny’s mind to Silver Rose again. When the girl had torn the cubicle right off its hinges, she had only been clad in her towel, which wasn’t the best of things to hide your body’s features. Silver Rose was slim, but also quite toned at the same time, meaning she had plenty of exercise, like herself and the rest of the Shadowbolts. She also had an about average sized pair of breasts, which were not bad to look at-

Sunny squirmed back in her cubicle again, placing her back against the cool wall, her blush darkening.

Sunny, what do you think you’re thinking about?

Sunny knew she was into guys. She had loved Domino Ace and she was most certainly in love with Fast Bender. She didn’t think there was any girl who could resist the man’s handsome features and muscled body. But why was she thinking about Silver Rose like that again?

“Everything alright over there, Sunny?” Silver’s voice broke her chain of thoughts, returning her under the shower in the cubicle.

“Um, y-yeah! Yeah! Everything’s alright!” Sunny swiftly answered, her hands on her burning cheeks now. “Nothing to worry about here!”

“Okay… If you say so.”

Sunny stood under the shower in silence and embarrassment for a while, the quietness only broken when she heard the other girls from the basketball and fencing teams enter the changing room. There were the sounds of lockers closing and opening and girls talking to each other, along with the slams of cubicle doors and other showers turning on.

Sunny figured she had been washing off long enough and decided to head out, turning off the shower to dry herself off with her towel. After she had her uniform on and back in place, she stepped out, deciding to head out to avoid the crowd before all the girls were to exit their cubicles as well.

When she pushed the locker room door open, Silver Rose was leaning against the right, waving at her when she walked out.

“All good?” the pink haired girl asked.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s all good.” Sunny nodded, hoping her cheeks had lost their red tinge by now. She hadn’t expected Silver to be waiting for her outside. She hadn’t expected her to be done with the shower already.

If Silver noticed anything, she didn’t say. “Will you be heading home now?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Sunny nodded, looking down the hall. “Still have homework to do besides practicing for the Games.”

The two girls began walking out to the exit.

“Sounds tough, having to keep practicing,” Silver muttered. “But I understand. We’ve got to be the best, right?”

“Yes we do,” Sunny laughed and raised an arm. “CHS is going to eat our dust. We’ve got a tradition to keep up. We’ve never lost to them. Never.”

“That’s good to know.” Silver skipped along, almost like nothing ever worried her.

Sunny watched as Silver Rose’s short skirt lifted higher when she jumped, revealing more mauve skin between her thigh socks and her skirt. Swallowing hard, the mulberry haired girl averted her eyes, berating herself mentally for still doing something weird like that.

She’d seen plenty of girls almost naked in the changing rooms before, seeing as they were all together. She was a girl herself, so seeing another girl in underwear was no big deal, but why was it different for Silver Rose? Sunny couldn’t figure it out and it bothered her.

Exiting the school’s main entrance, Sunny’s eyes were partially blinded by the sun’s light reflecting off the school’s crystalline floor. That was one thing she didn’t like about the floor.

“Well, my ride’s here.” Silver motioned to a black car in the carpark. “How do you get home, Sunny?”

“I usually walk,” the mulberry haired girl answered, looking down the street. “I don’t live very far from here.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Would you like a lift home? I’m sure my aunt wouldn’t mind.”

“Oh, uh…” Sunny blushed again and looked at the ground. “Oh, I-I don’t want to t-trouble you. Don’t worry about me. I c-can get home just fine…”

“Well, if you insist then. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Silver smiled a most attractive smile.

Sunny’s eyes darted all around Silver, afraid to look at her. “Y-Yeah, I’ll see you then…”

Then Silver bent slightly, looking up at Sunny’s face, a confused look on her own. “Are you feeling alright?”

Shoot, she must’ve noticed! Shaking her head quickly, Sunny quickly put on a smile and said, “Just tired. I’ll be fine once I get home.”

“Well, okay. You take care, okay?” With one last wave, Silver Rose skipped down the steps and to her car, where she disappeared behind the door and black tinted windows.

Sunny stood unmoving for a few seconds, her mind racing. Then she lifted a hand and slapped it to the side of her head. “What’s wrong with you, Sunny? Just what is wrong with you right now?”

Chapter 38 - The First Sign of Madness

Silver Rose had only found out that night that her mother had left for Canterbury that day, having to go film one of her movies there. It wasn’t a surprise to her that her mother left without saying anything to her, nor was it a surprise that her mother did have to go somewhere else. But it was different this time, because normally, Silver, or more accurately, Moonglade, would go along, because her mother wanted her close by.

Silver guessed with her aunt being around now, her mother didn’t need to worry about her being alone at home with all the staff. Even if she didn’t seem like she cared, her mother did show some concern for her from time to time, though it was usually concern over their species being discovered, not for her own safety.

Silver Rose had no idea how her mother managed all her different movies all at once. She couldn’t even remember what movies her mother was a part of at the moment, but most actors and actresses didn’t schedule as many as her mother did, though knowing she was such an acclaimed actress, the directors usually gave her off time to go film her other works. And Ebony Wings didn’t need as many cuts as well, meaning she usually got done with filming faster than the average actor.

“Would you like to do anything tonight, sweetie?” Aunt Ivory had asked her with a sly smile. “Your mother isn’t around, so it can’t be helped if you decide to go for a night out or something.”

It sounded tempting, but Silver had rather not do that. If her mother happened to find out, which was a very possible scenario, there was no telling what she would decide to do. Instead, Silver opted to do her homework and have a little chat with Home Run at the same time. That was a much safer option.

Another thing Silver had noticed just now was the smell about Sunny Flare. During her shower, Silver swore she could’ve smelt some affection coming over from the other girl, but it was mixed it with so much confusion and fear that Silver didn’t get a good sniff at it, though she was sure she had found a bit of it. She didn’t know what to make of it just yet, but she figured she might figure out what it was in the coming days.

The sirens were already home, lounging around the second floor rest area, watching some goofy show on TV. Going straight for the study, Silver got to working on her English first, at the same time, having her phone out, texting Home Run; she also told him she would need him around for her math homework later, and to her glee, he said he would be around.

First struggling with her English, Silver eventually got through it within the hour, then easily spearing through her chemistry work. Home Run had mentioned to her that his chemistry was lacking, but that just made her happy. He could teach her what she didn’t get in calculus and in return, she could always help him out with his chemistry homework. It worked out well for the both of them and that meant she might be able to see him more in the future. Thinking about Home Run gave Silver a warm feeling in her chest and she liked it very much.

But then she remembered her mother’s and aunt’s words again. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and got back to her homework. She wasn’t Moonglade right now. She was Silver Rose. As far as she was concerned, Silver Rose had never even met Home Run before.

Silver didn’t get it, but she just couldn’t seem to stick with one persona. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best of ideas to create a new one for school. Moonglade would’ve sufficed, but it was her mother’s and aunt’s plan, so she really didn’t have a say in it anyway.

She gave herself a reminder that she had to be really careful with what she did and said. Any wrong move and changelings could be exposed to the humans once again like they had been back in the Middle Ages. Aunt Ivory had told her countless times of the brothers and sisters they had lost to the humans, though to be fair, her aunt had killed off a bunch of them for trying to disobey her mother. That just made Silver feel worse.

Getting back to work, Silver had cleared everything else rather quickly, stopping before her calculus textbook.

Here we go… she sighed. She was getting the hang of it, but when it seemed like she could finally do it, she would just find a new formula tossed her way, bringing her back to level one.

Deciding it was time, she got her phone out and messaged Home Run the first problem. His reply came fairly quickly, almost like he was already waiting for her to message. Silver didn’t mind. That way, she didn’t have to wait.

With his explanations coming in, Silver got started on her calculus, solving each problem one by one, slowly and steadily. In just an hour and a half, she was done, stretching her arms back to remove the kinks in her shoulders, glad to be done once again.

Thank u Home Run!! Ill be seeing you for our date tomoro! Cant wait!!! *kisses* XD

She clicked send and leaned back, exhausted mentally. Before she could get up to go anywhere, her phone buzzed again, getting her attention. Picking it up, she noticed it was a message from Home Run.

Gotcha something i think ull like! Will give it to u when i c u, Moonglade!

“He got me something?” Silver couldn’t help but smile. She liked receiving new things, after all. This only made her think of what he could’ve possibly gotten her. Seeing as he was still a student like her, it wouldn’t be anything too extravagant. “Maybe a little keychain? Or maybe a harmonica? Ooh, I wonder what it is…”

“You seem awfully happy, Silver.” Silver turned to see Adagio Dazzle by the study room door, leaning on the frame and smirking. “Let me guess, that boyfriend of yours again?”

“Umm…” Silver blushed. It was still strange to call Home Run her boyfriend. “Y-Yeah…? Oh, but Moonglade’s, um, friend. Not mine, remember?”

“Right, Moonglade’s boyfriend. That’s why Silver Rose is so happy, huh?” Adagio’s smirk widened.

“Umm… well…” She shook her phone sheepishly. “Same phone, so, yeah. He got me something. I don’t know what it is yet, but I’ll see tomorrow.”

“He’s fallen for you already, huh?” Adagio looked at the time. “And it’s only your second date on Friday? Not bad.”

“Well, I thought a second date meant that he’s at least interested?” Silver shrugged.

“Well, it means you’re doing something right.” Adagio lifted a thumb and pointed outside the study. “You think I could use the Neightstation?”

“Um, sure. Go for it. Just don’t save over my progress.”

“Gotcha.” And Adagio was gone, her poofy hair the last thing Silver saw as she went around the doorframe.

Wondering just how invested Adagio was in the finer aspects of gaming, Silver Rose shook her head and packed up her books and folder, carrying them back to her room. Mishter Schniffs was waiting on the bed as usual, looking adorable and squishy. Slipping her schoolwork back into her bag, she went over to her bed and bounced on it, sitting down and retrieving a hand mirror from her bedside cabinet. She stared at her reflection, angling the mirror to get a full view of her flawless face.

“Looking good, Silver,” she said to herself.

“Of course you look good,” Mishter Schniffs said from beside her. “You’re the daughter of the most beautiful queen in the world. It would be surprising if you didn’t look good.”

“Mother doesn’t seem to think so, though.” Silver recalled all the snide comments her mother would make about her appearance. Sometimes, they were even hurtful.

“It’s probably just her way of making sure you don’t get too full of yourself,” Mishter Schniffs suggested. Silver squeezed the plushie close, inhaling its scent. “The queen is the best, after all.”

“I know, I know. She doesn’t have to be so mean about it though. I mean, I know mother loves me, but…”

“But what?” Mishter Schniffs asked.

“But sometimes I think Aunt Ivory cares more about me than mother does.”

“Chrysidea, what a thing to say!” Mishter Schniffs exclaimed, hitting her on the arm with a soft hoof.

“You see how Aunt Ivory always makes sure I’m alright and how she spends time with me,” Silver argued, staring into her plushie’s eyes. “She cares. Mother has never done any of those things for me. She’s never. Even Home Run seems to care more.”

“She gave me to you,” the doll argued back. “And she makes sure your every need is provided for. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. Tell me, young princess, if your mother wasn’t around, where would you be?”

“I-I…” Silver looked at her plushie. It did make some sense. “You raise a good point, Mishter Schniffs. I just wish… I always see families spending time together when I go out on the weekends. I want to be able to do that with mother. Quality time, you know? Like a real parent should do…” Silver wiped at her eyes. “But mother doesn’t want to do any of that.”

“She’s a very busy woman, princess,” the doll replied sagely. “You don’t think that all the money she uses on everything comes out of nowhere, did you? She has to land all these acting parts to help pay for things. And she is rather famous too, so that’s not easy.”

“She could at least spend some time with me when she’s home,” Silver pouted, looking away.

“Hey, no need to turn that pretty face into that,” her doll pressed a hoof to her cheek. “Your mother does love you, okay? Know that much.”

Silver sighed, then looked at the doll, lifting it up in her hands to the ceiling. “And here I am talking to myself to make myself feel better about my mother.”

“Hey, it’s what you need to hear, right?” Schniffs tilted its head to the side.

“Yeah.” Silver put the plushie down and looked back in her little mirror. Whether her mother said she was pretty or not, at least Silver herself still thought she was pretty, and so did Moonglade and Chrysidea, as a matter of fact.

“So what are you going to do now, princess?” Schniffs sat unmoving by Silver’s side.

The young changeling smiled and got off her bed, looking for her phone. “I think I’ll have a little chat with a good friend of mine.”

Sunny Flare had a relatively simple room for a very much complex girl. There was a desk by the side, a bed, a bedside table, a clothes cabinet, some drawers, and of course, her makeup table, where she sat every morning to doll herself up before school. Then there were the posters of acclaimed actor, Fast Bender, hanging on her walls. The most recent addition she had was one of Fast Bender starring as Detective Hardy Hoof from the movie, The Fireman, which she had only gotten on Saturday. There he was, against her wall in his brown trenchcoat and hat, looking serious as the moon and a burning wicker man stood behind him, with the film’s title below his chest.

And unfortunately for her right now, her mind was about as complex as her personality. Since arriving home, Sunny Flare had been unable to think clearly. She kept imagining Silver Rose’s face, seeing her warm smile and she didn’t know what to make of it.

“Why am I feeling like this, Fast Bender?” she asked the poster. “Why do I keep thinking of her? Why? I’ve never been so confused in my life!”

The poster looked back at her, unmoving, but Sunny could imagine what he would say to her if he were actually here, or at least, what she thought he would say to her.

It’s just a phase, Sunny. I mean, you still love me, right?

“Yes, I love you so much, Fast Bender. I want to be with you!” Sunny reached a hand out, but the poster was on the opposite side of her room, away from her bed. “And I’m straight! I’m not into girls! I’m not. Right?”

You’ve dated a boy before. I’m guessing you’ve had crushes on guys too? Like you have with me?

“Yes, you totally understand me, Fast Bender.” Sunny squirmed on her bed, twiddling her thumbs. “There’s no way I’ll suddenly start, ugh, liking girls, would I?”

Is there? Love comes in various forms, Sunny. Be it boy or girl, or even a pet or your family.

“But-but I can’t be in love with Silver Rose!” Sunny argued. “There’s no way! I just only became friends with her.”

Yes, but your heart seems to say otherwise, hmm, Sunny?

“N-No… But I like dudes, Fast Bender! I like you. Believe me, if I could, I’d marry you.”

Then why do you continue to think of Silver Rose? Fast Bender seemed to lower an eyebrow and raise the other.

“I-I… because…” Sunny’s face turned red, unable to come up with a reason.

Why did she keep thinking about Silver instead of, Fast Bender, for example. And it wasn’t just that. She was also thinking of Silver’s body and how it was rather attractive as well. She had never thought of any girl like that before, not even the other Shadowbolts, so what was so special about Silver that was catching her eye?

You know your true feelings here, Sunny.

“No, it can’t be! I’ve never been into girls! I’m not…” Sunny slumped her shoulders. Her mind was in so much thought and turmoil.

So what’s going to happen to me, then? Fast Bender pointed at himself. Will I fade from your life now?

“Don’t say such things!” Sunny snapped at her poster. “I would never abandon you. You’re the best actor out there! I’m your biggest fan.”

Sunny knew she was never going to give up her love for Fast Bender. She found him very attractive and his acting onscreen was always amazing, winning him many awards. She was never going to drop him for anyone else.

And even if this Silver Rose comes into your life?

“No. She won’t. I-I don’t know, Fast Bender, I don’t even know why I’m feeling this! I’m so sorry I’m making you doubt my commitment to you.”

Don’t worry about it. I still love you.

“Oh, you’re so sweet, Fast Bender.” Sunny blushed and twirled a lock of hair around a finger. “I knew I could count on you.”

Getting up, Sunny walked over to the picture and planted a kiss on the poster Fast Bender’s lips, smiling to herself before wiping it off the poster.

“Oh, if only I could kiss the real you…” Sunny giggled. “I guess this means I still like guys, hmm?”

There was a knock at the door, followed by her brother’s voice. “Sunny? Are you talking to your posters again?”

“No, no I’m not!”

Chapter 39 - Your Affection

“Take your time, sweetie,” Aunt Ivory said, but laughed as Silver Rose launched out of the car and into the mansion, running for her room. “Oh, kids these days…”

Silver tossed her bag down by her desk, then disappeared into her bathroom, immediately throwing her clothes off, then stepping into the shower to wash off her Silver Rose dye and gel.

“Finally, finally!” Chrysidea said, her dye all removed. She had been waiting for this date all week and in just a few hours, she would finally get to see Home Run again.

She pulled at her hair and rinsed it with shampoo, scrubbing out all the gel she used to get her Silver Rose hairstyle to work. It was always such a bother, but at least she still looked nice with shorter straight hair.

After a quick wash with soap and more shampoo and conditioner for her hair, Chrysidea was ready to become Moonglade once again.

Adding on the blonde dye, she watched as it began to seep into her turquoise hair, changing colors almost like some sort of magic; It was always fun to watch. After that, she got to work on her skin, turning her charcoal color to a tan one.

“You gotta look even better today, Moonglade,” she told herself as she put on her green contacts. “You’ve gotta really make a good impression on Home Run so that he’ll like you!”

She hummed a little tune all the way to her closet and even as she picked out her clothes. Getting her usual attire on, Moonglade then got to work at braiding her hair, tying it into a nice little ponytail at the back.

“There, all set!” she cheered, then went over to her bedside table for her glasses. Only, they weren’t there.

“Looking for these?” Ivory stood at her doorway, holding her black frames. “I forgot to return them to you the other day.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade accepted them. The other day… Her mind was instantly filled with her aunt and mother pleasuring each other again. Oh no, not that female Home Run again…

“Something bothering you, sweetie?” Ivory put a hand on her niece’s cheek. “You’re exuding some disgust.”

“Well… It’s when mother pretended to be Home Run and you tried to seduce her as me.”

“Oh, yeah… that.” Ivory scratched her snowy hair. “Um, let’s try and forget about that, okay? We weren’t supposed to have gone that far. At least, I hadn’t planned on going that far. I know, seeing Home Run with… such a feminine body must have been a little startling for you.”

“Try horrified, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade shuddered. “Now I keep thinking Home Run has a pair of boobs under his shirt.”

“Um… Try to think other thoughts, hmm?” The older changeling patted her on the head. “Picture his handsome face instead, how about that?”

“I’ll try, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade nodded and grinned. “But I am still excited to go see him!”

“That’s a good girl. Now remember…” Ivory wagged a finger. “All the seduction tricks we showed you? Don’t do any of that yet, hmm? That’s for later. Right now, just focus on fishing that love out of him, okay? If you do want to try some seduction, don’t go past kissing, okay? For now, at least.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Moonglade saluted happily. “You can sure I’ll do my best.”

Looking at the time, Moonglade still had an hour until Home Run’s baseball practice was over, so she decided to get started on what homework she had first.

Their teachers had also announced that exams were coming up after the Friendship Games were over. Silver Rose had scoffed at the idea. Why have exams after a fun event, she had no idea. It must’ve been Principal Cinch’s idea to torture the students like that.

Moonglade started with the easier ones first, like chemistry and history. Today, she also had a home ec paper to write, but thankfully, the theory proved much easier than the practicals. Before she could start on her math homework, she looked up at the clock and squeed with glee; it was finally time for her to head out.

Prancing out of the study and down the stairs, she found her aunt by the living room, having a giggle with Sonata Dusk.

“What’s going on?” Moonglade smiled and put her arms behind her back.

“Ivory was just recounting to me a tale from long ago,” Sonata said in bouts of laughter. “We had sung a man to eat broccoli once and he had stuffed his face so full that… pffff… ha ha ha ha!”

“Sonata here couldn’t stop laughing then, and she can’t stop laughing now,” Ivory Wings chuckled alongside the siren. “But okay, I see it’s time to go for your date, sweetie?”

“Oh yeah, you have a date, Moony!” Sonata grinned. “Bring back lots of love!”

“I hope to, Sonata.” Moonglade waved to the bubbly siren before following her aunt out to the car, which was already at the driveway.

The ride over to Sugarcube Corner went by uneventfully, though Moonglade was glad there weren’t any accidents on the road. Those might only delay her from seeing Home Run again.

“Now, remember my tips, Moonglade.” Ivory looked out the window at her niece as she got out her door. “Don’t push it too far and don’t give him any reason to doubt you, like you did on your first date. Your opinions don’t matter. What matters is that he hears what he wants to hear, okay? And last, have fun, hmm?”

“I’ll keep it all in mind, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade waved and skipped into the cafe. She didn’t need to pretend she was excited. She was really looking forward to spending time with Home Run.

“I’ll be close by, and I’ll keep the engine running. If you need to make a quick exit, I’m ready.”

Pushing open the door, the bell chime signaled a newcomer to the other patrons, which didn’t make her feel very comfortable. Scurrying over to an empty booth, Moonglade seated herself down and pulled up a menu, hiding her face behind it. She checked the time on her phone. Four thirty. She hoped Home Run wasn’t going to keep her waiting, because those toothpicks were looking awfully tempting to use on that one guy in the corner who was staring at her.

Using her peripheral vision, Moonglade also managed to determine that the girls following them the other day were not in the cafe today, which was a good sign. Closing her eyes behind the menu, she inhaled deeply, tasting the air for anything that might trip any alarms. The only thing that was off was an intense feeling of curiosity from the same young man in the corner, who now had his phone out.

Not to be outdone, Moonglade slowly took out her own phone, then texted her aunt.

Theres a guy here who might be a problem. Green shirt, jeans, brown hair. Can u do anything about him?

Ivory Wings was quick to reply.

I can do something, but I’ll have to get out of the car to do it. Stand by.

From the corner of her eye Moonglade saw her aunt’s car door open, and Ivory stepped out with a different phone in hand. One that she recognized as one of the two phones looted off the late Pierce Network. Ivory Wings lifted the phone to around head height, as if she were about to take a selfie, aimed at the guy in the corner. Suddenly, there was a burst of sparks from the young man’s phone, and smoke began pouring out of the battery and headphone jacks.

One peeping tom taken care of. Ivory texted, returning to the car. Text me if you need me again.

“Aunt Ivory is the best!” Moonglade smirked as she watched the young man pocket his phone and fold his arms.

She continued to sit around, pretending to stare at the menu while she waited. Before long, Home Run was through the door, sweating profusely as he found his way to where Moonglade was waving to him.

“Sorry I’m late…” He huffed and puffed, sitting down across from her and putting his bag on the seat. “Had a bit of a hold up with my friends, but here I am now. Did I make you wait long?”

“No, not for too long,” Moonglade said with her nicest smile. She had practiced it in front of the mirror earlier that day, and was determined to make it the most disarming and comforting smile she could muster. “You’re all sweaty. Would you like a handkerchief?”

“Oh, no don’t worry about it.” Home Run started pulling on his shirt to air his chest. “Have you ordered? If not, I can go place our orders.”

“I haven’t placed them yet, no,” Moonglade said sweetly. “What was the hold up with your friends?”

Not that I really care, but… She thought snidely.

“Well, uh, they think that I should, er, think about spending more time with you.” Home Run laughed slightly nervously. “Anyway, strawberry milkshake for you, yes? Would you like anything to eat?”

“Well…” Moonglade put a finger to her chin. “A slice of chocolate cake would be nice.”

“Chocolate cake coming up, then!” Home Run went over to the counter, leaving Moonglade looking out the window.

Her aunt looked up from the car and gave her a thumbs up, then went back to something she seemed to be looking at on her lap.

When Home Run returned, he had a tray with their milkshakes and two slices of chocolate cake.

“One for you, one for me.” He put Moonglade’s shake and cake in front of her.

“Thank you!” Moonglade exclaimed, picking up the plastic fork that had come with the cake. Bending its tines back, she nodded in satisfaction and stabbed the implement into the slice. A thick, chocolate sauce poured out of the holes. “Oh, that’s nice,” she said, impressed.

“Yeah, the Cakes do make good, um, cakes,” Home Run said in between sips of his milkshake.

“Looks tasty.” Lifting it up, Moonglade took a bite, closing her eyes as a most wonderful chocolate taste filled her mouth, sweet but not overly so. The syrup was of a dark chocolate, its faint bitterness balancing out the sweetness. “It is tasty!”

“Right?” Home Run got started on his own slice. “So… uh, how have things been? I mean, aside from what you’ve already told me over the phone.”

“Well…” Moonglade chewed at the corner of her mouth. “I’ve been helping my sister with her exam revision. I hear exams are coming up?”

“Oh, yeah, after the Friendship Games,” Home Run confirmed. “We’ll have a few weeks to study after the Games. But then it’ll be summer break after! My first summer break here in Canterlot, you know?”

“Are you participating in the Friendship Games? My sister said her principal approached her about taking part, but she declined. Can’t say I blame her; from what I’ve heard, the principal of Diamond-ahem, Crystal Prep is a real witch.”

“I’m still relatively new here, so I haven’t had much of a chance to hear about her.” Home Run cut another bit off his cake. “And no, I won’t be taking part. I figure I’ll just watch, seeing as I’m new to the school. Not much good at anything else besides baseball anyway.”

“Yes, I know what it’s like to be new to a school,” Moonglade said under her breath. Then in a louder voice, she said, “Oh, I see. I’ve heard a lot about the baseball team from Adagio and the girls. They seem to think your team is quite good.”

“Well, we do have some talented players, yeah.” Home Run nodded and took a bite from his cake. “Apparently nothing compared to Crystal Prep’s team, though. I guess we’ll see them in action if we do get that far in the championships, huh? We’re actually doing good so far. My old school’s team usually gets eliminated pretty early on, but Canterlot High has proven they have what it takes. I’ve never seen a more friendly and synchronized team.”

“I’ll be sure to pass on your sentiments to my sister,” Moonglade said in between bites of cake. “She’s probably got friends on the CPA baseball team.”

“Oh, well then I look forward to the championships. That is, if we do make it to the finals.”

“Aw, don’t sell yourself short, Home Run. You’re pretty good at baseball, at least from my perspective. I’m sure you’ll get there.”

Home Run smiled and took a slurp from his milkshake. “Thanks, Moonglade. And oh, yes, I have your gift for you.”

Moonglade sat there, excited to receive a new present, watching as the boy’s hand went into his bag and came out with a plastic bag, wrapped around the item inside.

“Here. I saw it and it thought of you, so… yeah.” Home Run’s cheeks turned a slight red.

Gratefully accepting the gift, Moonglade wasted no time in unwrapping it, wanting to know what was inside. When she was done, her hand swooped in, coming back out with a black patterned hairband that had a little white lily adornment on the top.

“It’s so pretty! Thank you so much, Home Run!” She bounced on her seat. It really was very lovely and he really just got it for her? Moonglade was so happy that she didn’t know what else to do. “You’re really such a nice boy, you know?”

“Well… heh, okay.” Home Run blushed and looked to the side. “Glad you like it.”

Moonglade really wanted to try it on now, but she had braided her hair nicely and the band wasn’t going to go over it without messing it up.

“I’ll try it on when I get back. Don’t want to mess up my braids now,” she told the boy, then reached over and took one of his hands in a soft grip. “But it’s perfect. Thank you, Home Run.”

“Hey, anytime, Moonglade.” He smiled.

Moonglade sniffed, finding a big chunk of affection radiating out from Home Run. She closed her eyes and smiled, savoring the taste. No concrete love yet, but she knew she was getting there. It was only a matter of time now.

“So, uh. Everything good at home? The sirens okay too?” Home Run eventually broke the silence, still holding hands.

“Oh, yeah. Things are good back home. The sirens are doing, um, mostly alright.” This time, Moonglade knew not to blame his friends for their loss of immortality. “Sonata and Aria have been arguing a lot though. It’s a bit… disheartening to see them like that.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Home Run scratched his face. “They argue in school too. I’ve tried to help out once, but Adagio told me it’s better not to get involved.”

Moonglade continued to inspect her lovely hairband. “I think she’s right on that. You don’t need to trouble yourself with this. My aunt will be taking care of it, I hope.”

“Not in a bad way, I’m hoping?”

Moonglade thought about it for a second. “No, I don’t think it’s a bad way.”

“Well, I hope they eventually get past all these petty squabbles.” Home Run finished up his cake. “It’s not good for them.”

“Can’t deny that…” Moonglade sighed. Then she shook her head and swapped back to her smile. Her job wasn’t to feel sad about her friends. Her job was to seduce the boy to the best of her ability.

Ugh. Seduce… Still haven’t gotten over using that word.

She found her eyes looking down at Home Run’s chest, glad that it was flat. She could still picture her mother as Home Run and it wasn’t a comforting sight.

Breathe, Moonglade. Breathe. Home Run isn’t a girl. He’s a boy. He’s a very nice boy who’ll soon be a good source of food. He has his male features. No female features to be found on him.

“You okay?” Home Run looked at her, his eyes not averting this time. She figured he was getting used to her now and she could smell concern coming from him. It was nice.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine.” Moonglade decided to step up her game a little. “Well, when you’re with m-me, you know, I don’t have to… worry about an-anything, he he…” Moonglade ended with a shy blush. She didn’t need to pretend to be shy, seeing as she was shy.

“Yeah, actually… I do enjoy spending time with you.” Home Run matched her reddish cheeks. “You, uh, free tomorrow… by any chance?”

Oh? Is he the one asking me out now? Moonglade’s smile widened. “Yeah, of course! I mean, I do have lessons in the afternoon, but yeah, I’ll have time to spend with you.”

“Oh, that’s great. I was thinking of catching a movie?” Home Run said. “Horror of the White River. You heard of that one?”

“Oh, yeah!” Moonglade nodded, her curly hair bouncing around her face. “My mother’s in that one as the lead heroine! Though, she did say she was rather useless in the movie.”

“Oh?” Home Run chuckled and drank from his milkshake. “I haven’t looked up anything except for the summary, but it did look good. Would you like to see it with me?”

“I would love to, Home Run!” Moonglade said almost a little too excitedly. “I mean, yeah, I-I’d like that… yeah.”

“Okay, then I’ll get to see you tomorrow too,” the boy grinned and slurped at his milkshake.

For the rest of their time finishing their cakes and milkshakes, Moonglade talked with Home Run about the various things they had done. She learnt that Home Run had left Fillydelphia, because his father had gotten a job at Crystal Prep as a bus driver. She had wondered why he didn’t go to Crystal Prep, but she guessed it was certainly no place for him. Then she learnt that his mother was a doctor at Canterlot Clinic, which was outside the city in the more residential area.

Interesting how a bus driver and a doctor had gotten together. Then had a son who plays baseball.

Home Run had asked a little bit about her sister, and her mother and aunt, so Moonglade told him only what she was able to tell. Like, how her sister was living with her aunt before they came to Canterlot and how her mother was such a busy actress.

“She’s in Canterbury now, you know?” Moonglade said as they got up to leave. “Filming for another movie.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Never been there myself, but I heard the countrysides are nice.”

Now back outside, Home Run seemed to be affected by the weather. Moonglade felt none of it, but since it was approaching summer, she guessed it was getting hotter. Being part changeling, she could withstand quite an amount of heat without feeling it, like back in home economics class, when she had tried to start up the stove.

“So, you have a ride back?” Home Run asked her, standing beside her on the pavement.

“Yeah, right there.” Moonglade pointed to the car where her aunt’s car was waiting.

“Alright.” Home Run patted her on the arm. “So I’ll see you tomorrow, hmm? Have a safe trip back.”

Now or never, Moonglade. Grabbing him by the arm, she pulled him back, making him face her. “You weren’t going to leave without a goodbye kiss were you?”

She closed in on his face, aiming for his mouth, hoping to finally give that kiss she’d been waiting to give, but as she got closer, she hesitated, hovering close to his lips.

She realized it was quite embarrassing and she didn’t know how to proceed. Kissing Sunny had been without the intention of seduction and she had been really angry then. Right now, things felt different and Moonglade was afraid of going further.

Really? You can’t do it, Moonglade? But you’ve wanted to! Just a little more. He’s so close.

She moved on again, but at the last second, she diverted and kissed him on the cheek like the last time, holding it there for a few seconds before stepping back.

“W-Was that good…?” She smiled rather awkwardly, twisting one foot on the ground.

“Umm… uh, yeah, that’s was… yeah…” Home Run rubbed his cheek where she had kissed him, which was turning red like her own cheeks.

Moonglade felt like she had never been more awkward in her life, but she continued to smile and slowly step away. “S-So, umm… see you to-tomorrow, Home Run…”

“Y-Yeah, see you.” He raised a hand to wave goodbye.

The young changeling quickly got back into the car and held her face in her hands, putting her new hairband on the chair, embarrassed at her failed attempt to kiss him on the lips.

“That was… painful, Moonglade.” Ivory Wings turned around to look at her. “Why didn’t you do it?”

“I don’t know, Aunt Ivory…” Moonglade mumbled, hiding her face behind her hands. “I just… I couldn’t. I wasn’t brave enough…”

Ivory Wings sighed and put the car into gear. “You know you’ll have to do it sooner or later, so why not sooner? A kiss would go a long way into extracting that delicious love from the… prey.” Backing the car from the parking lot, she began the short drive back to the manor. “Did I ever tell you about my time in the Assassin Brotherhood? Fun times, that. Met some rather nice people and learned lots of new tricks. Of course, I did end up having to betray them in the search for your mother, but that’s just how it goes, hm? You can’t win them all.”

“Um, where are you going with this?” Moonglade asked. She had indeed heard tales of her aunt’s exploits before she had come to join them at the mansion, but nothing specific.

“We-ell, at the time, I was in a relationship with this Assassin whose name is not so important right now. It took years to actually get him to the point where he would be a constant font of love, but once I did…” Ivory took one hand off the wheel to smack her lips against her fingers. “Delicious. I never did learn what became of him later. But the point I’m trying to make here is that once you win a human over, like completely, you can literally stab them in the back and they’ll still love you. Capiche? Which is why you have to work hard on this Home Run fellow. You don’t have the time I did with that Assassin, but once you break through… he’s all yours.”

Mmm, I like the sound of that… Moonglade smiled at the thought of the taste of love from an outside source. “I’ll try my hardest to get where you did, Aunt Ivory. I mean, of course, without stabbing him in the back. He got me this today, did you see? It’s so pretty.” The young changeling held up her new hairband to the rearview mirror for her aunt to see.

“It does look pretty.” Ivory turned the steering wheel and brought the car up a short hill. “And he got that for you? You might be further along than I first suspected, sweetie. Well done.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade held the hairband close to her chest and sighed contently. She was going to try it out the first thing when she got home. “Home Run’s so nice to me. I do hope I can get his love eventually. We’re going to the movies tomorrow after my lessons. It’s going to be so exciting! Oh, Home Run…”

Eventually the car pulled up into the estate and stopped outside the front door, with Moonglade getting out of the car first.

“Remember, princess. He is but food for us.” Ivory told her before she closed the door.

“Yeah, I remember…” Moonglade blew at her fringe as she entered her home, walking down the hallway herself. “But for once… I want to just do as a normal person does. I want to be a normal girl, at least for a day. I want to think about him, I want to love him… I want to… love him?”

Moonglade stopped in her tracks and clutched at her chest, over where her heart was. It felt different. Was she really harboring such thoughts? Her goal was always to lure Home Run in with her charms and then siphon love from him whenever she could, using him as a gas pump. Like her aunt and mother had told her countless times, she was to pretend she loved him and acted like she did, but… did she actually have real feelings for him?

Mishter Schniffs’ voice spoke in Moonglade’s head. “Remember. Moonglade falling in love with the prey is fine. Any other persona… and you’ll be in big trouble. With both your mother and your aunt.”

“I know, Mishter Schniffs,” Moonglade sighed. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this. I think...”

Chapter 41 - The Queen's Concern

Moonglade stood in the alley with Home Run, still looking into his eyes. He had said something, but she didn’t hear him. She was too busy tasting all the love that was pouring out of him and she was still thinking about the kiss. It felt so much better than any kiss she had ever had, it left her wanting more.

“Home Run…” Moonglade lifted a hand to his cheek, careful to avoid the cut. She placed it softly over the bruises, then leaned in for another kiss.

None of them backed away, staying together like that for quite some time, splitting apart only to breathe, only to join back in more kisses.

Moonglade liked it very much. She had no intention of stopping just yet. It felt so good and the taste of love keep coming, filling her up.

Home Run’s lips tasted sweet, which must’ve come from all the popcorn. Moonglade didn’t mind. She liked sweet things and it only made her want to kiss him more.

Her hands then shifted down to Home Run’s chest, massaging it as she shifted her lips on his, also wanting to confirm to herself that he was a guy. Love tasted so good and so different from lust. Moonglade didn’t feel her fangs trying to get out, nor did she feel the warmth between her legs, but love tasted so much better than lust.

“Mmm…” she moaned as she kissed him again, her mouth constantly changing positions.

She pressed herself closer against Home Run, feeling her chest squish against his, then lifted her arms around his neck and held onto him like he was the most important person in the world.

Both their faces were flushed now and whenever they separated their lips, they breathed heavily.

“Moonglade. Wow…” Home Run panted, his arms shifted down around the blonde haired girl’s waist.

“Tell me about it.” She smiled, adjusting her glasses. They had gotten greasy from pressing up against Home Run’s face. “Would this mean… would it mean we’re officially together now…?”

“I guess so, huh?” Home Run looked into her eyes.

Moonglade sniffed and knew he wanted more. Well, so did she.

Leaning in again, she planted a flurry of kisses on the boy’s lips, then reached down below for his jeans, her hand searching for something. Moonglade had seen enough movies and her mother in action to know what to look for, and right now, she really wanted Home Run.

Then suddenly, as if the universe itself had an aversion to moments of tenderness, a phone rang.

“I think it’s mine,” Moonglade said apologetically, her cheeks bright red. Pulling out her phone, she checked the caller.

“Mother?” Moonglade said, confused. “But she never calls me. Do you mind if I take this?” She asked Home Run.

“Um, yeah. Sure.”

“Thank you.” Moonglade then tapped ‘answer’ on her phone and raised it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Why hello there, princess. Not interrupting anything, am I?”

Moonglade gave Home Run a look. “No. Not really.”

“Good. Now, I know you and the sirens have probably gone out for a night on the town, so I’m just calling to remind you about the curfew. Be back home before eight or there’ll be dire consequences.”

“Yes, mother.”

“‘Yes mother’,” Ebony Wings imitated. “Remember, you’re not supposed to be out after eight. Buy a box of them to remember if you have to. They’re quite tasty. Anyway, the filming for the movie is going great, in case you were wondering. Have you ever considered going into the acting business, dear?”

Moonglade’s mouth became increasingly more taut with every word that came out of the phone. Why did she have to call now of all times? But as much as the call frustrated her, she knew that not picking up or expressing herself would only lead to more trouble, so she just said, “I haven’t really thought about it, mother.”

“Well, give it some thought. You’ll probably want something to do after you graduate from Diamond Prep Academy. Put your aunt on the phone. I want to talk to her.”

“Uh, she's not here.”

“What do you mean, she's not here? Isn’t she supposed to shadow and protect you on your outings?” A slice of incredulity entered her mother’s voice. “Don’t tell me you and the sirens all sneaked out or something?”

“Er…”

“That’s unacceptable behavior,” Ebony admonished, sounding shocked. “I thought I raised you better than that. Go home, now. I’ll call the house in thirty minutes, and if you’re not there, then heads are going to roll, you hear me?”

“But mother, I’m-”

“On the way home, I hope. We’re on our dinner hour now, so nothing’s going to stop me from calling again. Go home. Now. And bring the sirens with you. Whose idea was it anyway, and how did you get past your aunt? Nevermind. I’ll give her an earful once I get back. Queen’s Reaper indeed. How are you supposed to protect royalty when the only member you’re meant to be guarding vanishes?”

“Mother, I-”

Then the phone call ended, returning to Moonglade’s home screen, which was a picture of Mishter Schniffs on her bed. She looked disappointedly at her phone, resisting the urge to throw it at the unconscious mugger.

“How could she… Why would she…” she mumbled.

“Everything okay, Moonglade?” Home Run wrapped an arm around her.

“It’s my mother. I-I have a curfew. I’m sorry, Home Run. I would’ve loved to go get dinner with you.” Entering her aunt’s number in the phone, she quickly explained the situation to Ivory, who told her she would be over as quickly as she could. “She says she’ll be here as fast as she can drive.”

“That’s a real shame, but I guess it can’t be helped, huh?” Home Run put his hands in his pockets and sighed. “Well, I had a really good day today, Moonglade. I think… well, I think you’re alright. There’s nothing wrong about you. You saved me today. Man, of all the times I’ve been careless, I could’ve just died like that, even after everything I’ve had to go through.”

And that would have been a terrible waste of my effort. Moonglade thought, but instead of saying it she smiled at him and curtseyed. She was glad he was mostly alright. He meant quite a bit to her now. A black car rounded the corner, stopping in front of the alley and opening its door. The front window wound down a crack and a hand made itself known, gesturing with a crooked finger at the girl to get in.

“That was fast…” Home Run remarked.

“My aunt does that. Well, I guess it’s time for me to go…” Moonglade patted her skirt and looked back at Home Run. “Well… a goodbye kiss, hmm?”

The young changeling threw her arms around Home Run and gave him one last kiss, holding it to savor the moment longer. When they parted again, Moonglade held his hand a little longer, before she realized she needed to get home.

“I’ll text you, alright?” Moonglade waved, then sat down in the car and closed the door.

“Take care, Moonglade.” Home Run waved as the girl buckled up, the car now pulling away from the boy and the alley.

As he watched the car recede from view, Home Run’s face broke out into a grin.

“I… I just made first base. Oh yeah.”

“You smell wonderful, sweetie,” Ivory Wings said from the front of the car. “I can smell, and taste the love on you. It’s euphoric.”

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, only to open them a split second later and swerve around another car, slamming her hand onto the horn.

“Learn to drive!” Ivory barked at the other car.

“Yeah… It tastes really good…” Moonglade was blushing and playing with her locks of golden hair. “And it felt really nice too…” Then she frowned and looked to her aunt. “But then mother just had to call then. She never calls me! Why did she have to when I was really enjoying myself?”

“Yeah, what was it about anyway? You made it seem like she was upset about something. Not that the queen needs much of an excuse to be upset about things,” Ivory said with a shake of her head.

“She made herself upset.” Moonglade pouted and folded her arms. “She didn’t hear anything I had to say and then she demanded I be home in thirty minutes and she was going to call the house. I wasn’t done yet. I wanted to spend more time with Home Run.”

“Well, you know… this is her first time filming in a remote location without you,” Ivory reasoned. “Of course she’s going to be a little, um… paranoid?” She sniffed the air again. “Mmm-mm.”

“But I was having such a good time with Home Run,” Moonglade complained. “And all that love I was finally getting… Mother ruined it. She ruined the moment I had with him.”

“She’s ruined a lot bigger things than that…” Ivory said darkly. “But enough with that. I smell blood. Did you trip over or something? Come on, your mother raised you better than that.”

“I wasn’t hurt.” Moonglade looked at herself, finding no traces of blood, but after a long sniff, she found bits of it on her fingers. It must’ve been from Home Run’s cheek wound. “It’s Home Run’s. It must be.”

Ivory stopped at a red light and glanced into the rearview mirror with an incredulous look. “What kind of sadomasochistic games were you playing in there? I never took that boy to be into drawing blood.”

Moonglade’s blush deepened and she shook her head. “N-No, we didn’t- None of t-that sort… We were stopped by a mugger in the alley, I don’t know if you saw him on the ground just now, but Home Run tried to defend me and he got hurt because of it. I took the mugger down with a lead pipe after that…”

“You were stopped by a what?!” Ivory roared, the sudden increase in volume hurting Moonglade’s ears. “On the one night I leave you alone you run into a mugger? Oh, I am so going to get a roasting for this once your mother gets back home. What did you do to him then?”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade tweaked at her fingers. “I just hit him. He hurt my… my um, boyfriend. I had to do something. I couldn’t let him get hurt further. I just made sure it would be a while before he gets up again. He might even forget what he was doing in the alley.”

“Well as admirable as your actions might have been, it’s my job to deal with threats to the royal family,” Ivory explained. “The fact that I wasn’t there to defend you is unforgivable.”

“It’s my fault, Aunt Ivory. I wanted a real date. If not for me, you would’ve been there.” Moonglade looked out the window. “If you were there, maybe you could’ve talked mother out of all this.”

Ivory pulled the car through the gates to the Wings Estate, shaking her head slowly. “I am so in for it once your mother gets back. We all are, apparently.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory…” Moonglade touched her lips, remembering the kisses she had received this night. “I shouldn’t have told you all that before the date. I should’ve let you watch over me like every other time. But… I did finally bring home love. I hope mother will take that into account…”

Ivory sighed audibly, reaching the main doors and slowing the car to a stop. “What’s done is done, sweetie. And I should’ve refused to let you be out there on your own. But… you are right that you now have a source of love to bring home. I hope that is enough to deter your mother. Well, did you have a good time?”

“Yeah…” Moonglade cheered up and giggled. “I had a really great time… I got to see a movie, I got a kiss, a few kisses, and I got to beat the crud out of a robber. I’d say that’s a good time.”

Ivory Wings patted her on the head. “Well, that’s all that matters, isn’t it? I know you won’t be with us forever, so I want you to enjoy yourself as much as you can.”

“Oh yeah…” Moonglade forgot her aunt and mother were immortal as long as they had enough love to feed off from. Since she was only half-changeling herself, there were a lot of traits she hadn’t inherited from her mother, like immortality. “I’m going to be older than you one day, huh, Aunt Ivory?”

“Maybe you’ll look older,” Ivory said with a somewhat forced smile. “But I’ll always be your aunt, no matter how old you become.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory. That means a bunch.” Moonglade got out of the car and opened her aunt’s door to give her a hug. “I’m glad you came back to be with us.”

“Yes, I feel the same.” Ivory patted her niece on the shoulder, then gently shifted her off. “Now, run along. Your mother should be calling soon. I suggest being ready to pick up the phone.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade rushed back into the house, finding the nearest phone and settling herself next to it. “You just had to mess it all up for me, huh, mother?” she grumbled. “I was going to go further…”

Moonglade continued to sit there, twirling a finger around her golden locks, taking out her phone to text Home Run.

Whassup Home Run? U get home alright?

She hummed to herself as she waited for either her mother or Home Run to reply first. Soon, her phone vibrated in her hand, determining the winner.

Hey, Moonglade. Yeah i got home fine. My parents were a bit worried with the bruises i had on my face but im fine now. U? Has ur mother called?

Moonglade exhaled deeply and typed her message.

Not yet. I think she may have forgotten.

Just then, the phone began to ring. It’s like her mother had some psychic connection today or something.

Nevermind here she calls.

“Hello?” She picked up the phone.

“Ah, good. You’re home. I was beginning to worry you weren’t taking me seriously. How was your night out, by the way?”

Moonglade frowned, glad her mother couldn’t see it. “I had fun, mother.” But you just had to ruin my fun.

“I assume you brought the sirens back with you too. Good. Now, where is your aunt? I have a thing or two to say to her about shirking responsibility.”

Moonglade’s frown only deepened. “She’s parking the car. Now about the sirens, mother, they-”

“I can’t believe they decided to sneak out with you. I knew you had some problems listening to my rules, but them too? And your aunt… I don’t know how she didn’t even know you left. I can’t be gone for a week without all of you causing problems for me?”

“Mother, I-”

“To think your aunt at least would be the responsible one.”

The young changeling resisted the urge to just slam the phone back in its holder. “Mother, we didn’t sneak out!” she quickly yelled before she could be interrupted again.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.

“Really now. Then would you care to explain what you did do?”

“I was on a date with Home Run, mother,” Moonglade continued, very annoyed at her mother. “A really good one. But then you called and I had to leave him! I was having such a good time, but you tore me away from him, because you couldn’t listen!”

“Now let’s not play the blame game here,” Ebony said primly. “If you had just informed me of your plans, and your aunt wasn’t slacking off, things might have gone differently.”

“But you never call me, mother. Never! Why did you call now of all times? And Aunt Ivory wasn’t slacking off! She let me have a real date for once. One that you had to ruin.”

“What, motherly concern isn’t a good enough reason to call you? How was I supposed to know you were seducing someone at the time?”

Moonglade shook her fists in silent anger. She actually had no idea what to say, but she still wasn’t convinced.

“Mmphh…” she grunted, folding an arm across her chest, under her other elbow.

“Don’t you ‘Mmphh’ me, young lady. I was genuinely worried about what might happen if I didn’t bring you with me to Canterbury. Your safety is important to me, you know.”

Sure it is… Moonglade thought in her head. “Do you really even care about me, mother? Or do you only care about your kind being exposed?”

“What kind of a question is that?” Ebony sounded hurt. “But of course I care about you. I am the queen, and all of changelingkind is my concern. Caring about you and caring about our race are one and the same for me.”

“They’re not the same for everyone else. You always tell me to one day bring home love. When I finally find the love I was looking for, you pull me away! And then you don’t let me explain! You had it all wrong out there.”

There was a moment of silence, broken by the sounds of someone talking through a megaphone on Ebony’s side.

“Well, our dinner hour is up, so if you want to explain something you’ll have to do it tomorrow. Sweet dreams, dearie.”

And then she hung up.

Moonglade sat there in continued silence, holding the beeping phone in her hand. Turning around, she hurled the phone at the wall, watching as it split in two, the battery and other bits falling out all across the floor. The girl fell on her knees and began to cry, her best night ever quickly turning into her worst.

“Why…? Why is this happening…?” She mumbled into her hands, her voice shaky. “Why did she have to call…”

It had been going so well with Home Run. Moonglade hadn’t been done with him when her mother called, who then made up her own story of where her own daughter was, demanding that she go home. Then instead of apologizing or anything like that, she avoided all the blame and then shifted it to her aunt and her. She wasn’t quite upset that she had lost time with Home Run. There were always other days now that they were officially together, but it was that her mother had assumed everything and threatened to punish them. Her mother didn’t know anything. She didn’t care about anyone but herself.

“Sweetie? Are you alright?” Ivory Wings appeared behind Moonglade, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Moonglade didn’t answer, but shook her head, whimpering behind her hands.

Ivory sighed sympathetically, bending down to pick up the pieces of the phone. “Ah, don’t let your mother get you down. It’s just how she is. Believe me, after living with her for over two thousand years, you get used to it.”

Moonglade remained silent, brooding over it. She hadn’t had the chance to be around her mother that long, nor will she ever get to.

“Your mother’s ruined a lot more than just a date. Why I remember back in Trotsylvania…” Ivory trailed off, clearly seeing that this was not working. “Look,” she said eventually. “Go upstairs and take off your disguise. You can just stay home tomorrow. You’ll feel better once you have your true face back, trust me.”

Moonglade nodded, but made no attempt to get up yet. Eventually, her aunt walked over, then bent down to give her a nice comforting hug.

“It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay. I’m here for you, okay?” Ivory caressed her niece’s head gently. “Don’t take what your mother says to heart. Don’t brood over what she’s done today. How about thinking about Home Run? You like doing that, right? You took the next step up today, finally earning love from him. Your mother would be proud of that.”

Moonglade sniffed and wiped her nose, turning around to hug her aunt tight. “I don’t know a-anym-more, Aunt Ivory… Tell me the tr-truth… Does m-mother really even c-care about me…?”

“I’m sure she does, sweetie. It’s just that as far as I know, she’s never had children and doesn’t quite know how to deal with them. Why, the last child we had was Morn Dread, and I was the one who raised him. So your mother might not quite know how to treat her own child,” Ivory shrugged. “She does know how to deal with a princess though, and she’s used to having her orders obeyed by other members of royalty. It might not be the answer you were looking for, but that’s just how it is.”

Moonglade nodded, unable to see because of her tears. She knew her mother had a problem with expressing how she really felt unless she was angry, but her mother could certainly afford to be nicer and more loving.

“You take as much time as you need, okay, sweetie?” Ivory patted the girl’s back. “I’ll sit here with you until you want to go up, hmm?”

Moonglade stayed with her aunt, letting her emotions flow into her white shirt, soaking it. She was glad she could always count on her aunt, even in situations like this. Eventually, she ran out of tears to cry, taking off her soaked glasses to wipe at her eyes, sniffing at the same time, trying to clear up her nose.

“Th-thanks, Aunt Ivory…” she sniffled, leaning a shoulder against her aunt. “I think I needed that…”

“Of course, princess. Now go and remove your disguise. It makes a difference, I can tell you.”

“Okay…”

Getting off the floor, Moonglade made her way through the hall, then up the stairs to her room, then her bathroom. Tossing her clothes by her sink, Moonglade got into the shower, making sure it was really warm before proceeding. She let the water run down her face, washing her tears off her face. After she was suitably wet, the girl picked up one of the bottles of solvent that was in an unmarked bottle and began to scrub away. Flakes of Moonglade’s skin began to fall off, washing away down the drain and leaving her skin a light charcoal. She then moved on to her hair, whipping up a lather of foam on her head and washing off the hair dye. The bathwater began to turn yellow as he hair was restored to its original light teal.

She stayed under the shower for a long while, hoping to run up the water bill for her mother. Her Moonglade persona was gone, and true, she did feel a bit better about it, but only a bit. A part of her still wanted to break more phones.

After what felt like more than an hour in the glass cubicle, Chrysidea stepped out and looked in the mirror. Then she wiped the fog off it and looked again. Her hair was still wet from the shower and it hung around her face like damp tendrils, water dripping off it and her body, and pooling on the floor. The sight of herself made her happier and she turned around in front of the mirror, admiring herself from all angles. The heater in the bathroom was going strong and even without a towel she could feel the hot air drying her off.

Eventually she got tired of looking at herself and left the bathroom, making sure to leave the water and heater running. Snagging a towel from the rack next to the door, she wrapped herself in its fluffy embrace and flopped onto the bed, reaching for the air conditioning remote at the same time.

Just as she was turning the air conditioning to max strength, there was a knock on the door.

“Yes?” she called out, not bothering to go get dressed yet.

“I’ve got your dinner here,” Ivory’s voice came. “May I come in?”

“Sure, Aunt Ivory.” Chrysidea placed her remote down beside Mishter Schniffs. Her hair was already beginning to soak her sheets, so she moved Mishter Schniffs further away.

Ivory Wings entered, balancing a tray on one hand while pushing the door open with the other. The mouthwatering smell of clam chowder filled the air, mixed with a faint hint of garlic bread.

“You’re not drying yourself off, dear?” Ivory put the tray on Chrysidea’s bedside table, then looked in the direction of the bathroom. “And your shower’s still on. Did you forget to turn it off?”

“No and no, Aunt Ivory…” Chrysidea looked up at her engraved ceiling. “I just really don’t give a fu-”

“Young lady, your language!” Ivory put her hands on her hips to emphasize. “A princess shouldn’t have to use such words.”

“Right, sorry. I just don’t care right now, Aunt Ivory. Mother can go pay those extra bills.”

“I take it you’re still mad at her?” Ivory stood over the girl and looked down.

Chrysidea sighed and shifted to her side, resting her head on an arm. “Washing off the disguise helped. A little. But mother still did what she did and she keeps thinking she knows everything, but she doesn’t, queen or no.”

“Your mother doesn’t know everything, yes, that’s not new news.” Ivory adjusted her glasses and sat down on the bed, avoiding the damp part of the sheets. “But you can’t just blow up over a simple little thing like that. It’s no way a princess should behave.”

“I know, Aunt Ivory. I lost my temper.” Dea looked at one of her hands and closed it into a fist. “Mother is just so… ugh, sometimes.”

“Yes she is…” Ivory crossed her legs. “But hmm… there are some differences for you it seems. When changing a persona, we let our emotions go along with it. It seems you have yet to fully learn that.”

“Yeah…” The young changeling played with her wet hair, twisting her fingers through it.

“I think you should start eating, dear.” Ivory pointed a thumb to the clam chowder. “It’s going to get cold. And come on, enough of your mother. How about we talk about Home Run instead?”

Chrysidea groaned and pushed up, her palm pushing down on her towel as she raised herself. She didn’t even notice as the wet fabric fell down around her waist. She picked up the spoon and swiped it through the chowder, before putting it in her mouth.

“What do you want to hear about Home Run?” Dea said as she chewed. Perhaps talking about Home Run would take her mind off her mother. She felt like she had gotten much closer to him after tonight.

“How was it like?” Ivory smiled at her niece’s sudden change in face, eyeing her body. “Getting your first kiss? Let’s face it, that Sunny Flare one didn’t quite count. You didn’t do that for love. So, how did it feel?”

“It was really good, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade dipped a piece of garlic bread in her clam chowder and bit into it. “I would’ve kissed him more if mother hadn’t interrupted me. Kissing for love feels so good.”

“Of course it does,” Ivory said with a smirk. “Humans regard a kiss as the first step in a solid relationship. After the first one, they get used to it and kiss all the time. Princess, if you keep this up, Moonglade will be bringing home a lot of extra food, let me tell you that.”

“Yeah, I’m hoping to, Aunt Ivory.” She shoved the rest of the garlic bread in her mouth. “Hoping to kiss Home Run all the time too… So I actually have a boyfriend now! I mean, Moonglade actually has a boyfriend now. I can’t believe it. A while ago, I was still confined within these walls.”

“Yes, I think your mother shouldn’t have kept you in here for so long. In our line of work, experience is everything. Keeping you cooped up here is a waste of your potential. That being said,” Ivory said with a sniff. “You need to work on your persona attachments and emotions. I’m contractually obligated to tell your mother exactly what she asks, and if she finds out you’ve been, ahem, lax with persona feelings and emotions, I can’t imagine she’ll be too pleased.”

“But I’m not doing it on purpose,” Chrysidea protested. “I just… I’m more now to this than you two are. It’s not easy for me to suddenly think differently when I become someone else. Didn’t you have this problem when you first started?”

“We did, sweetie. Not so much I, but it did take your mother quite some time to adjust to a persona. I’m thinking you inherited it from her. But with us teaching you, it shouldn’t be as big of an issue.”

“Okay…” Chrysidea looked out at her window, then she wondered something she hadn’t thought of before. Something she was curious about. “Aunt Ivory, why is it I can’t fall in love with my prey and share feelings between my personas? I mean, it’s not like I’ll be alive forever like you and mother. I could actually live a normal life, couldn’t I?”

Ivory clucked her tongue and her fangs slid down into view. “Sharing feelings defeats the purpose of having personas. It’s also part of your changeling training. It’s a basic for us changelings now, to be able to be different people. The next question is the easy one. You can’t fall in love, because we cannot trust humans. I was betrayed instantly when my lover found out I wasn’t human. Then what did he do? He killed Melipona. He killed our youngest, my most precious sister. That is why you cannot fall in love with your prey. Moonglade can, but please, never let Chrysidea fall in love. It’s simply not worth the trouble it’ll bring. Do that for me, please?”

Chrysidea sighed and continued to look outside her window into the night. She had hoped maybe, just maybe, her aunt would say it would be okay, because she didn’t need to worry about keeping up appearances forever, unlike them. But in a way, she was still right. If she was going to live the rest of her life with, Home Run for example, there was no way she was going to hide her identity forever. And then what happens if he were to take it badly like Aunt Ivory’s human lover all those years ago? She might even bring harm back here to her aunt and mother.

“You’re right, Aunt Ivory. I’ll… I guess I’ll continue to try my best. I don’t want to let you down.”

“There’s my little changeling!” Ivory patted Dea’s head, then wiped her hand on her shirt. “Now, I think you better finish your dinner. Oh, and though I wouldn’t mind admiring your body longer, I think you should put on some clothes.”

Chrysidea looked down and her eyes went wide, realizing her towel wasn’t covering her body anymore. Then her arms shot out and covered her private parts, her charcoal cheeks turning bright red. “Aunt Ivory?! You didn’t say anything sooner!”

“Didn’t seem important at the time. Well, I’m going off to rehearse my story for when your mother gets back. I suggest you do the same, because she’s still going to blow her stack when she hears about the mugger, I guarantee that.”

Chapter 42 - Catching Heat

7 days to the Friendship Games

It was a rather warm day outside Crystal Prep Academy, with the winds blowing slightly to keep the students cool, but it wasn’t enough to stop them from sweating as they sat at the side, where a row of benches sat, facing the carpark. Each of the Shadowbolts and other Crystal Prep students had beads of moisture forming on their foreheads and brows, especially Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap, who had on full protective suits and motorcycle helmets, all of them looking out at two high ramps they had placed out there in the now almost empty carpark.

Only one student with them didn’t have a single drop of sweat on her head, but the others didn’t bother asking her how she managed it.

Canvas Splash and Sunny Flare sat beside Silver Rose, one of each side of the girl. Canvas was holding up a canvas and a paintbrush, holding them out in front of her as she looked at the two dressed up Shadowbolts and the carpark.

“What’cha gonna paint, Canvas?” Silver looked over at the girl’s blank canvas. “I don’t know if Sugarcoat and Indigo standing at the carpark is a scene enough.”

“That’s why I’m waiting till they start,” the girl explained, wiping a drop of sweat away from her eyelid. “I’ll start once I see them start practicing.”

“Sure, paintbrush…” Sunny scoffed, clearly not interested in art. “Hey, Lemon!” she shouted down at the carpark. “Got the timer ready?”

“Yep!” Lemon Zest yelled back. She held a black and white checkered flag in her other hand. “Just waiting for Neon Lights and Sound Wave to return with the bikes!”

“Yeah, um…” Silver waited until she got Sunny’s attention. “Why are they even practicing with these?”

“Oh, Sugarcoat managed to glean some information from Principal Cinch regarding the games.” Sunny pulled at her collar, trying to let the heat out. “Motocross is one of the events.”

“Y’know, I don’t even know why motocross is in the Games,” Canvas said, tilting her brush to the side. “Riding a motorbike is kinda dangerous. And I mean, how many of us would know how to ride a motorbike?”

“Hey, I didn’t make the rules,” Sunny groused. “Take it up with Cinch if you care so much.”

“I was just asking.” The painter went back to mapping out her scene.

“I agree with Canvas.” Silver watched as Neon Lights and Sound Wave came riding around the corner on two purple and black motorbikes, driving slowly up to where Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap were waiting. “Someone could seriously get hurt here. Will Nurse Cardiac be coming along? Uh, better question. Would an ambulance be on standby?”

Oh, don’t be such a worrywart,” Sunny said as she fanned herself. “Indigo knows how to ride a motorcycle. She’s even got a license. I’m not so sure about Sugarcoat though…”

Neon Lights and Sound Wave soon found their way over, nodding their hellos to the girls before seating on the bench beside them. Sugarcoat and Indigo swung themselves atop the motorcycles, revving the engines. Sugarcoat seemed to know what she was doing.

“Ready?” Indigo yelled over to Lemon Zest, who was holding the flag up now. “Just take it slow first, okay?”

“Pfff, slow? No way.” Indigo leaned forward in her seat, ready to roll. “I’ll go at a speed I feel comfortable at.”

“If you die here, we lose you for the Friendship Games,” Sugarcoat told her friend. “So don’t die yet.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got this.”

Both girls slid the visors for their helmets down, revving the engines.

“On your mark,” Lemon shouted, holding the flag high.

Indigo’s mouth grew into a grin.

“Get set, go!” Lemon swung the flag down.

And then they were off, shooting past Lemon Zest and along the side of the carpark, heading towards the first ramp, which was just a simple slope up to a flat plane, then back down again.

Silver Rose watched them go, asking herself again how this could possibly be safe. Principal Cinch deciding on this was one thing, but from the Canterlot High side as well? Surely someone must’ve questioned the safety of this event, right?

The roar of the bikes’ engines echoed across the parking lot as Indigo surged up the ramp, propelling herself into the air for a brief moment. Sugarcoat followed close behind, though not as much at breakneck speed as her fellow biker was. By the time the white haired girl went down the ramp, Indigo was already away and arriving at the second ramp, which was a steeper climb up, followed by a drop on the other side.

That can’t possibly be safe…

But safe or no, Indigo was not to be stopped. She steered her bike to the next ramp, not losing speed. Sugarcoat fell more behind, keeping her bike at a more reasonable speed.

It was then that Silver took her eyes off the two bikers and inhaled deeply, trying to gauge the overall mood of the event.

Concentration and excitement from Canvas. Muted interest and pride from Sunny… nothing new there, though her fear seems to be subsiding. Caution and more concentration from Sugarcoat. Lemon Zest’s smelling of happiness and energy… Indigo… moving too fast. Can’t get a proper analysis. Wait…

Silver sniffed again, taking her eyes off the obstacle course and zeroing them on a cluster of bushes that was on the edge of the carpark.

“There’s someone hiding in there…” Silver muttered to herself.

“What’s that, Silver?” Canvas looked up front her painting.

“There’s someone… no, wait. Two people hiding in those bushes. Might be worth checking out.”

“What, seriously?” Sunny turned to look in the direction Silver was looking. “Well? Let’s go check it out!”

“You girls can go.” Canvas kept her eyes on her artwork and the carpark, where Indigo was now flying up in the sky over the higher ramp. It looked incredibly dangerous, but she came back down the other side with nothing more than a bump, carrying on like she knew what she was doing. “I’ve got my painting to finish.”

“I wasn’t asking you, paintbrush.” Sunny motioned for Silver to come along and got up, heading for the bushes.

“I’ll be right back, Canvas.” Silver patted her friend on the shoulder, then followed after Sunny. The mulberry haired girl seemed determine to find out who was behind the bushes.

Neon Lights and Sound Wave had turned to see where they were going, but eventually returned their eyes to the motorcycle race.

“You saw someone, Silver?” Sunny asked as the young changeling caught up to her, walking beside her now.

“Umm, yeah, that’s right. Saw them. Two of them. Yeah.”

“Hmm… Who would hide behind a bush out here?” Sunny’s frown deepened, likely trying to come up with a guess as to who it was. “It better not be Domino. He’s known to prank others, but if he’s trying to prank me…”

“Who’s Domino?” Silver didn’t recall that name; she had yet to meet a Domino in school.

“Oh, uh, my ex-boyfriend…” Even in the light, Silver could see a tinge of pink spread across Sunny’s cheeks. “He’s not important anymore. But if he’s the one back there…”

Closing in on the row of bushes separating the school premises with the woods, Silver Rose was the first to push through, then looking straight into a pair of light blue eyes.

Sunny Flare had stood behind Silver, watching the bushes, but then when Silver bent down to part one of the bushes, her skirt had lifted just enough for Sunny to see the bottom of her pink panties.

Her face going a deep red, Sunny looked away and stopped breathing.

What’s wrong, Sunny? You’ve seen her in her panties before, back when Sour Sweet had pulled down Silver’s shorts. You’ve seen other students in their underwear too, so why are you acting like this now? Stop it!

Then there was a high pitched shriek from the other side of the bush, startling Sunny, and apparently, Silver as well. The pink-grey haired girl fell back as a very pink girl stood up on the other side. “We’ve been found! Ruuuun for it!”

And then in a puff of smoke, she whizzed through the bush, running off to the carpark.

“Hey, wait for me!” Another girl, one with rainbow colored hair and blue skin, got up and ran along after her friend. Both of them weren’t wearing any uniforms, but ordinary clothes. “Pinkie!”

Sunny turned and followed them with her eyes, watching as they hopped over a railing and into the carpark, running at the side to avoid the motorcycles. The others stopped to look as well, including Sugarcoat. Indigo didn’t seem to bother, still going rounds around the carpark.

“Who were they?” she asked aloud, watching them get further and further away.

“I haven’t seen these two before… I think...” Silver pulled a twig from her hair and tossed it back into the bush. “Any idea who they are?”

“Not a clue. But I’m willing to bet they’re from Canterlot High. They must be trying to find out what we’re doing.” Sunny walked over to and help Silver up.

As she got up, she planted both legs on the ground in a squatting position, letting Sunny have a better look at her panties before standing back up.

Sunny, what’s wrong with you? You’re a girl! You have on a pair of panties yourself. What’s wrong? You can look at your own whenever you feel like it!

Sunny felt something begin to warm up between her legs. She pressed them together, trying to get rid of the feeling and taking two steps away from Silver.

“Something wrong, Sunny?” Silver watched her, tilting her head to the side.

“N-No, nothing… Just the… usual…” Sunny managed a smile.

“Oh. Okay. Well, with the two intruders gone, shall we get back to watching the motorbikes?” She pointed a thumb back to the carpark.

Just then, there was a loud crash, coming from the carpark.

“My fault! My fault! That was me!” They heard Indigo yell.

Rushing back over, Sunny and Silver realized the girl had toppled on her side next to the second ramp.

“Indigo, what the hay?” Sugarcoat stopped her motorcycle beside her and put it on park. “That’s why you don’t overtake me with so little space.”

“Hey, I could do it! The ramp just had to be so close.” The blue haired girl tossed off her helmet and rubbed at her head.

“These really are quite dangerous.” Silver leaned over to whisper to Sunny. “And this will be happening during the Games?”

“No changing anything now.” Sunny folded her arms after a wipe of her forehead. “It’s all finalized, seeing as we have a week left.”

“Seriously. They better have an ambulance at the ready. If something like this happens, it could be bad on Principal Cinch’s record.”

“We’ll see, I guess.”

The two girls headed back to the bench, where Canvas was already in the process of touching up her work with some added detail. It was a picture of Sugarcoat racing behind Indigo, with the latter doing a jump over the ramp.

“That was fast, Canvas.” Silver sat beside her, with Sunny sitting on the left. “And it looks good!”

“Thanks, Silver,” the artist said with a grin. “I think it’s pretty good.”

Sunny looked at it and rolled her eyes. It only looked alright. Nothing special. She knew if she wanted to, she could do it better.

Looking up at the sun, Sunny squinted and then groaned in annoyance, giving her face a wipe. It wasn’t even summer yet, but the temperature was already rising. Their uniforms weren’t helping in keeping them cool.

“You know what?” Sunny pulled off her bowtie, then her blazer. “It’s too hot and it’s after school. They’re not going to care if we follow dress code.”

Unbuttoning the top two buttons of her shirt, Sunny looked over at Silver and noticed she wasn’t even sweating, nor did she look irritated with the heat.

She must’ve been living in a really hot place before, huh?

Eventually, Indigo recovered enough to continue, but Sugarcoat had won the race that day, going more rounds while Indigo had sat out.

“Meh, I would’a won if you weren’t so slow.” She adjusted her hair back up, her face all sweaty.

“If you hadn’t tried to overtake me, you wouldn’t have been in this mess.” Sugarcoat got off the motorbike and took off her helmet. “You might be good, Indigo, but speed doesn’t always determine the winner.”

“Meh, sure it does. I was just careless. It won’t happen again. Especially not during the Games, I’ll assure you that.” Indigo toyed with her goggles. “No one’s going to stop me.”

“Well, now that we’re done with practice,” Lemon Zest said. “How about we go grab some smoothies or something? This heat is killing me!”

“It’s not even summer yet, so stop complaining so much.” Sugarcoat shot her a look. “It’s just a warmer day.”

“I’m up for smoothies!” Neon Lights stood up, pumping a fist into the air.

“I’m guessing I’m not invited,” Sunny heard Canvas whisper to Silver Rose, so she put her things together and got up. “Well, I’ll see you girls tomorrow, alright? I’ve got some work to finish up.”

“Silver?” Sunny inched closer to ask. “W-Will you be joining us?”

Sunny never quite thought about it, but Silver Rose was actually quite pretty. She hadn’t wanted to accept it back when she had a vendetta against her, but now that they were actually friends, Sunny could tell that she was quite attractive. Certainly nothing compared to Fleur Dis Lee, but Silver was also much nicer than the regular student here and that, by Sunny’s books, made her better than Fleur.

She eventually realized she was still staring at Silver’s face, with a meek gasp, she looked away and began tapping her fingers on her knees, distracting herself.

“Sure. I’ll come.” she heard Silver say.

“Wait, you will? Really?” Sunny turned her head in the girl’s direction, slightly.

“Yeah, why not?” Silver whipped out her phone and brought up her contacts list. “I’ll just need to let my aunt know. Not like my mother is around to find out. I hope…” she finished in a lower voice.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing!” Silver smiled and waved a hand. “I don’t mind a smoothie! Now, if you’ll excuse me for a second...”

“Yay, Silver’s coming!” Lemon Zest whooped, jumping into the air a few times. “She’s never gone anywhere with us before!”

“Sweet.” Indigo got out of her suit and wiped a hand down her face. “I’ve never hung out with an acclaimed actress’s daughter before. This is gonna be awesome.”

Sunny watched Silver Rose walk over to the field behind the benches, putting the phone to her ear. The blowing wind made Silver’s skirt ruffle and Sunny’s eyes looked down at it, hoping the wind would blow it up just enough to see what she wanted to see.

Then she realized what she was doing again and looked down, gritting her teeth in annoyance.

Sunny, really. What is your deal? Why is Silver Rose different for you? Why are you trying to be like a boy and looking up girls’ skirts? You see it all the time. It’s never bothered you, so what makes Silver Rose so special?

Sunny kept thinking these thoughts, but she was never able to come up with an answer. It made her feel uneasy inside, as if she didn’t know herself as well as she thought she did.

She had seen plenty of underwear in school, and never had she felt embarrassed like she did now. She was even okay the other girls in the locker rooms when they changed for PE, but she could never keep her eyes on Silver Rose without her face going red. She knew if she wanted, she could always look up her own skirt, so she couldn’t figure out why she wanted to look up Silver’s so badly.

Just calm down. Deep breaths, Sunny. Just breathe… Maybe it’s just a phase and you’ll get over it? Just give it time.

When she was done with her call, Silver walked back and rejoined them, pocketing her phone. “Okay! My aunt says I can join you!”

Indigo pulled off her sloppy bowtie and her blazer and wiped her face with it. “Awesome! Silver’s coming!”

“Could you girls please look presentable?” Sugarcoat eyed both Indigo and Sunny. “This is no way to walk the streets.”

“But it’s hot.” Indigo pulled at her shirt. “It doesn’t help that the blazer is so thick.”

“Yeah…” Sunny swiped at her fringe. “Until we get somewhere cool, I’ll be dressed like this.”

“Huh.” Sugarcoat folded her arms and looked away. “Silver Rose is a model student. She’s not even complaining about the heat.”

“She isn’t even sweating!” Sour Sweet walked around the mauve-skinned girl. “What kind of creature are you?”

Silver laughed nervously and scratched at her cheek. “I-I don’t know… I guess I’m just used to the heat. Ha ha...”

“Well, smoothies will help straighten you all out.” Sound Wave placed his headphones over his ears. “I’m ready to rock and roll when you are.”

“Yay! Then come on! I need a smoothie!” Lemon Zest was the first to begin walking off, anxious to get to the nearby cafe.

Sunny walked alongside Silver, following the group of Crystal Prep students as they talked about how good smoothies were on a hot day.

Entering the cafe, Sunny instantly felt the wave of cold air hit her, smiling to herself as the heat detached from her, staying outside the door.

“Aahh… Much better…” she sighed contently as the group of them found a circular booth to sit at.

She sat down beside Silver Rose and Lemon Zest, the others along both sides, meeting back at Indigo Zap, who was directly opposite of her.

Waving one of the waitresses over, the students ordered their smoothies, which arrived almost immediately.

“Man, we are so ready for the Games!” Indigo sipped loudly from her lemon smoothie. “We’re going to win!”

“Not if you fall over again, Indigo.” Sugarcoat combed back her hair with a hand. “No mistakes.”

“You girls are really serious about this.” Silver looked at them, gulping down some of her strawberry smoothie. “I doubt Canterlot High is this competitive.”

“That is why I think we’re going to win.” Sunny drank from her mango smoothie. “They can’t beat us if they don’t give it their all. Not like they could if they did.”

“Principal Cinch seems worked up about it though,” Sound Wave drawled. “Overheard her talking to Dean Cadance about how CHS is on the rise or something. And from what I know, if Principal Cinch is worried about something, there’s usually a very good reason.”

“And we still haven’t been notified of our twelfth team member,” Sugarcoat added with a finger raised. “We can’t compete in the Games with an incomplete team.”

“Sure wish you were going to compete with us.” Lemon nudged Silver across Sunny. “You were an absolute beast on the track during PE. Not half bad with a bow either.”

Silver Rose shrugged good-naturedly, also blushing. “Well, I just got here, it would be a little arrogant of me to think I could represent the whole school in such an important tradition.”

“With you, we would easily dominate.” Lemon Zest told her. “Sound Wave, are you the twelfth member? I wouldn’t mind having you on the team.”

“Cinch hasn’t approached me or anything, so no, I’m not the twelfth member. Whoever it is, Cinch must be keeping it under wraps. Maybe she’s got a secret weapon and doesn’t want CHS to know about it. We did have a bit of a spy issue earlier, so it’s not entirely unfounded,” Sound Wave finished with a noisy slurp of his drink.

“Yeah, what was with that?” Sunny slammed a fist on the table. Canterlot High was already going to lose, yet they come to spy on them. The nerve. “Do they really think they can come over and just spy on us?”

“You think they’d send someone with less brightly colored hair,” Lemon said idly. “I could see the rainbow one a mile away.”

“Yeah, those CHS people must really be desperate to win if they’re sending spies to Crystal Prep.”

“I wonder what they plan on doing by spying on us in the first place,” Neon Lights said, polishing his large shades. “If it’s tactics they’re after, we just need to make sure to come up with a few different ones.”

“Never would have thought that Canterlot High would take the Friendship Games so seriously,” Sugarcoat remarked. “I wonder if they’re all like that.”

“They can’t be all bad,” Silver said consolingly.

Indigo snorted. “Why, do you know someone from CHS?”

Silver blushed, an awkward smile forming on her face.

“Uh, my, um, sister. She’s seeing someone from CHS. A boy. Yeah.”

Sunny flashed her a confused look. “Your sister is going out with someone from Canterlot High? Really?”

“Yeah,” Silver said, growing more confident. “He seems a decent guy, from what my sister has to say about him.

“Now that is some piece of news right there.” Indigo adjusted the goggles on her head. “How did she manage that when she’s homeschooled? And Canterlot High of all places?”

“She, um, met him on one of her nights out. Chance meeting, you see.”

“So on a chance meeting, she and this boy got together?” Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow. “That is awfully convenient. If only it happens to the rest of us too, huh?”

“Yeah, I would love to meet a girl on the streets and start dating her.” Neon Lights leaned back in the seat and crossed his left leg over his right. “I mean, wow, talk about luck.”

“Yeah,” Lemon Zest piped up. “I mean, Sunny’s the only one of us who’s ever had a special someone. Why can’t I get a date?”

“That’s because you’re too obnoxious,” Sour Sweet told her, then drank from her own strawberry smoothie. “But she’s right… I’ve never gone out with anyone. How did you manage it, Sunny?”

Sunny looked uncomfortable at all the attention being directed at her.

“Well, spill it,” Indigo said with a cheeky grin. “How did you manage to land a date with Domino Ace?”

“Um… we were in the same English class,” Sunny said, rubbing her left wrist. “I needed help with some of the homework and he offered to tutor me. Before I knew it, we were a couple. Or at least he thought of it that way before I did. It took a bit longer for me to see the relationship for what it was.”

“But you liked it, right?” Lemon asked, fishing around in her drink for the cherry.

Sunny looked into her glass and sighed. It had been a long time since she had to talk about Domino at length. “I mean, yeah, I did. It was nice having someone to love.”

Silver Rose glanced aside to Sunny, and seemed to inhale deeply. An understanding smile spread across her face. “I imagine you were quite distraught when you two broke it off?”

“You have no idea,” Indigo said with a groan. “It took a whole week to get her to stop crying. Right, Lemon?”

“Tell me about it.” Even the cheery girl frowned at the thought. “Sunny hid in the restrooms at times and refused to come out. We took so much trouble to get her out…”

“Guys, stop telling her my life story!” Sunny shot them both a glare. “I’m past Domino, okay? You know that. He’s nothing to me now.”

“Okay then…” Sour Sweet said, sounding unconvinced. “What about you, Silver? I bet the daughter of Ebony Wings gets a lot of suitors. Unlike the rest of us.”

“Actually, I haven’t been approached by any boys,” Silver said, taking a pull at her beverage. “None that I’ve noticed anyway.”

“What, no letters in your locker?”

“No flowers or chocolate?”

“No guys coming up and complimenting you?”

Silver resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “No, no, and no.”

“If you’d like, I can be the first to ask.” Neon Lights flashed her a smile.

“Nah man, I sit next to her in calculus.” Sound Wave patted the side of his headphones. “I should ask first.”

“Umm… no thanks…” Silver Rose gave them both a sheepish smile.

“Hey, can’t fault a guy for trying,” Neon Lights said, putting his feet up and adjusting his shades.

Sound Wave and Silver Rose moved their drinks away from his feet.

“Um, Sunny?” Silver touched the mulberry haired girl’s arm to get her attention. “What did happen with you and Domino? I hope you don’t mind my prying. I’m curious why you’re not still together.”

Sunny looked down at Silver’s touch. It was soft and cool and not in the way.

“Uh, um, well…” Sunny decided to think about Domino again to not think about Silver. “One day, he just told me that our relationship was at a standstill. He had wanted to go on further, but I was too slow. He said it was never going to work out in the long run and decided to break up with me…” Sunny clenched her fists at the memory.

She could still see him standing beside her in the school’s hallway. The words he had used, the way he had said it. He had broken her heart that day, but Sunny had long since put it back together. Unfortunately, the cracks were still there and she couldn’t patch them up. She made it a point not to talk to him again and if she ever did meet him in the hall, she would go the other way. He had hurt her, hurt her badly, but Sunny had bounced back and she was never going to forgive him.

“Well, that Domino Ace doesn’t know what he’s missing,” Silver said casually, finishing her drink. “Not your fault he loses out on you.”

Sunny looked at Silver with a confused face. Was that a pass at me? It couldn’t have been, right?

“Well, uh… t-thanks, Silver…” Sunny quickly decided to say.

“Yeah dude, you should be glad you’re not kissing his ugly face anymore.” Lemon Zest began banging her head, listening to something on her headphones. “He doesn’t deserve you.”

As the other members of the party voiced their agreement, Sunny couldn’t help but smile.

She felt so fortunate to have friends that cared about her, who wanted to see her succeed. And more importantly, she felt glad that Silver Rose was on her side now. And surely it wasn’t wrong to keep a friend in her thoughts? Sunny closed her eyes and leaned back. She would have to figure out this fixation on Silver soon, or it would follow her into the Friendship Games. And losing the Games was not an option.

No distractions, Sunny. Victory is at hand. Focus, and you’ll be a hero to everyone at Crystal Prep, including that Domino Ace.

Now that was a thought worth harboring.

Chapter 43 - The Queen's Wrath

6 days to the Friendship Games

Getting out of her fencing suit for the day, Silver Rose rearranged her fringe, then walked over to pick up her things.

“Nice moves today, Silver Rose,” Quillion Riposte said from the other end. “You’re improving, I’ll tell you that. Just keep it up and you’ll be where we are in no time.”

“Um, sure. I’ll try my best!” She flashed a wide smile, then began walking back to the changing rooms to have a quick shower.

“Hey, Silver.” Sunny greeted once she entered the changing rooms. Sunny had gotten her clothes from her locker and was in the process of closing it. “Good work today with your fencing. I watched some of it.”

Suddenly, Lemon Zest burst out from the cubicle behind them, smiling from ear to ear. “Yeah, Silver! I saw you score a point on Royal Pin! That was so cool how you jumped off the side of the wall and stabbed him in the back!”

“Um…” Silver rubbed her right arm. “That was against the rules. Again. It didn’t count.” Then she realized she could see one of Lemon Zest’s breasts past the cubicle door and averted her eyes.

“Well, illegal or legal, that was pretty sick, dude!” She giggled, then hopped on the spot a few times. “Maybe you can teach me how to do cool stuff like that!”

“Just go back to your shower, Lemon Zest.” Sunny waved her fingers at her.

Complying, the pink-skinned girl disappeared behind the door again and Silver could hear her humming a tune from the band, Copperrear, or at least, Silver hoped she remembered it right. She didn’t seem to be a very conserved girl, at least to other girls, if she didn’t mind coming out naked.

“So you heading home today, Silver?” Sunny smiled and proceeded over to one of the empty cubicles and closed the door.

“Yeah, I’ll have to.” Silver got her stuff and got into the neighboring cubicle. “My mother is coming back today and she’s likely got a lot to talk about.”

“Oh, is she out filming something?”

“Yeah, she’s been gone a whole week.” Silver pulled off her PE shirt. “Off in Canterbury filming something called Roll of the Ricks.”

“Oh, I think I saw something about that on the news.” Sunny said as Silver removed the rest of her clothes. Silver could hear the shower turn on on the other side. “Some fantasy film?”

“I have no idea. Didn’t bother to look.” Silver turned on her shower and closed her eyes as the water fell down on her face. “And she ruined my-my, uh sister’s date the other day, because of a little misunderstanding. My sister was so upset she was crying all night, so I don’t quite want to think about my mother right now.”

“Wow. You’re all as normal as we are, hmm? You have family arguments too. Ebony Wings is always so nice on the news and stuff. Didn’t imagine she could make someone cry, much less her own daughter.”

“Yeah well… No one’s perfect…” Silver sighed and began washing herself off.

“I guess not.”

Silver was the first of the two girls to finish, changing back into her school uniform. Emerging from her cubicle, she found Lemon Zest’s was open, with the girl likely long gone by now, losing herself to her music.

“Hey, Sunny, I’m going to head home first.” Silver hoisted her backpack over her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure, see you,” the other girl said from inside her shower cubicle.

Heading out to the carpark, Silver found Silver Platter already there and waiting in the car for her.

“Silver Platter?” Silver buckled herself in. “Is Aunt Ivory not available today?”

“Welcome back, young princess.” The butler waved and then started the car. “Your aunt is waiting at home for your mother to arrive, so she has instructed me to pick you up.”

“Oh. So mother’s not back yet.”

The butler put the car into drive and shook his head. “When I departed, your mother was not home. Still, it’s a long way from Canterbury to Canterlot, so she might have arrived while I was out.”

Silver nodded nervously. She had been preparing for what to say for the last two nights. Most of it had been not so nice things she wanted to tell her mother, but she had scrapped that plan, figuring it would only likely get her mother more angry. Instead, she opted with the nicer approach, even if she hadn’t wanted to at first, to tell her mother that it was all just a misunderstanding and that she had been out earning love from Home Run with Aunt Ivory’s approval.

Thinking about Home Run and the kisses she had shared with him made her smile. Thinking about her mother and what she did still made her want to tear something apart, but she had to control herself. Anger was something she always had a problem with, but it seemed to be getting more out of hand recently. Normally, she would just silently brood over it, but this time, she had gone and yelled back at her mother. Perhaps she needed more training with the anger pheromone.

The car pulled into the Wings’ Estate driveway in no time, allowing Silver to wander down her home’s hallways in search of her aunt. She found her drinking a glass of pink lemonade in the first floor games room, playing billiards as she did so.

“Hello, sweetie,” Ivory said, taking aim at the cue ball with one hand and swirling the tumbler of golden lemonade in the other. “Back from fencing already?”

“Yeah. It always ends on time.” Silver put her things by the door and walked over. “Is mother not home yet?”

“It would seem not,” Ivory said languidly. “Normally I would offer you a glass of lemonade, but all that would do is make you sick.”

“Yes, you told me the other day.” Silver nodded, unable to forget the lemonade’s strange pink coloration. “So when are you going to use it? This lemonade. I mean, besides for yours and mother’s use.”

“Soon. I just need to finish a bit more planning, as well as making the invitations. Small things like that. If you’d like, I can brew some non-toxic lemonade for you later. I already have the recipe.”

“Oh, sure, Aunt Ivory.” Silver smiled and threw herself onto a rotary stool. “You should cook some time too! I can’t wait to try your famous cooking!”

“Yes, I should. It has been a while. I haven’t cooked since joining you here.” Ivory hit her cue ball into a red one, knocking it into a hole. “So, are you all set for when your mother returns?”

“I hope so.” Silver squirmed in her chair. Her mother never was a predictable one.

Ivory made a face before shooting the cue ball at the black eight ball, sending it ricocheting around the table and knocking into a cluster of multicolored balls.

“I’m just going to tell her the truth, plain and simple. She’ll force it out of me in the end anyway, and drawing it out would just make her angrier. And I think we’ll all agree that making your mother angry is the last thing we want.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.” Silver knew she would have to try harder to keep her anger in check. “I just wish she would admit she was wrong. She did the last time. I really liked that.”

“It takes a lot of effort for your mother to admit her mistakes, so I wouldn’t count on it.” Ivory shook her head. “It’s better to not put that in the equation.”

“Oh.”

Ivory Wings continued to play with the pool table, pocketing the balls one after another. When the last ball was gone from the table, Ivory straightened up and put the cue stick back on the rack and poured herself some more lemonade.

“It’s probably better if your mother just blows up at us,” the white haired changeling said with a sip. “If she doesn’t, she’ll harbor the resentment against us for months. And a sourpuss Chrysalis isn’t someone I want to live with.”

“Umm… oh…” Silver rubbed her arm. “You know best, Aunt Ivory. I’ll just go along with your plans.”

Ivory meandered over to the window and pulled the curtains aside.

“You’d better go get the sirens,” she said quietly.

“Huh? Why?”

“Because your mother is driving up the hill right now. This is going to be interesting.”

“Oh, um, okay, right away, Aunt Ivory!” Silver got off the chair and accidentally knocked it over with her leg. “Oops, I’ll um, get that later.” Then she bumped her back into the door and bounced off to the other end of the doorframe. “Right, I’ll get them down.”

When she was about a quarter down the hall, Silver doubled back and grabbed her backpack before going again, first heading to her room. She had first thought that she would simply go with how things went, but now that her mother was actually just outside the mansion, the young changeling felt a sense of panic come over her; she hoped her mother wouldn’t be too angry with her yelling at her the other night. And for breaking one of the phones.

After putting her things in her room, Silver went over and found the sirens in their room, each doing a different thing.

“Um, girls, mother’s home.” Silver pointed behind her. “She’ll want a word with us.”

“Ugh…” Aria threw the magazine she was reading over her shoulder. “We didn’t even do anything wrong.”

“Well, we may as well go,” Adagio said with a sigh. “We may as well be there when the queen gets back. Show her how much we missed her… or something.”

“Even though we didn’t really? Ow!” Sonata rubbed her head where Adagio had hit her. “Fine, fine! I’ll miss her.”

The sirens dutifully dropped whatever they were doing and followed Silver back downstairs. Peeping out the window, Silver Rose saw Ebony’s black and green sports car in the driveway, with Silver Platter hurrying to the driver’s seat to park it elsewhere.

“We better hurry. She might already be in the house.” Silver beckoned for the others down the stairs.

As they neared the game room, they passed a maid who was fearfully scurrying along in the opposite direction.

That can’t be good…

“Where are they?” Silver heard her mother’s voice from inside the room. “The house isn’t that big! It doesn’t take someone this long to get here!”

“The house is big, sister dear.” she heard Aunt Ivory’s voice. “It takes some time. Just be patient.”

“I will most absolutely not be patient! I was away for only a week and all of you lose it! I couldn’t even count on you!”

“Now, now, let’s not be so quick to judge, Chryssie.”

“Don’t you ‘Chryssie’ me, sister! Where are the rest of them? Aren’t they supposed to be here to greet the queen welcome!?”

Hearing her mother’s raised voice, Silver hesitated outside the doorway, unsure if she still wanted to go in.

“I’m sure they’re on the way, sister. Why don’t you settle down and have yourself a glass of lemonade.”

“Buck the lemonade,” Silver heard her mother spit. “I will not be kept waiting in my own house!”

“Come on, let’s go. She’s unstable as she is…” Adagio shoved Silver into the room.

The young changeling stumbled a step, getting her mother’s and aunt’s attention. “Umm, welcome back, mother.” Then the sirens walked in behind her, standing by a bookshelf.

Ebony Wings said nothing, but squinted at her daughter and the sirens as if she wasn’t sure they were really there. Then she stomped over to Silver Rose, leaning over her so close that Silver could smell the mint on her breath.

“And where,” Ebony breathed. “Have you been?”

“Up-upstairs, mother,” Silver answered sheepishly. “I went to call the sirens down.”

“Welcome back, Ebony.” Adagio Dazzle waved. Her two sisters followed suit.

Ebony Wings reared back, her mouth working furiously as she decided on what to say.

“Well?” she barked eventually. “What do you have to say for yourselves?!”

“We didn’t go anywhere, Ebony.” Sonata was the first to say something. “We didn’t encourage Silver to sneak out or anything.”

“Yeah. We were home all of Saturday…” Aria folded her arms and leaned back against the shelf.

“And your daughter was on a date. She didn’t sneak out.” Adagio reinforced the explanation.

“You honestly expect me to believe that?” Ebony snapped, turning away with her nose in the air. “If you didn’t sneak out, then why wasn’t Ivory Wings following you? Explain that.”

“I… I…” Silver sputtered. “I wanted to have a real date. One without eyes on me all the time, one where I could enjoy time with Home Run like a normal girl would. For once, I didn’t want to look at him as prey, but as a friend. Just this once, mother. So I requested Aunt Ivory not to-”

“You realize how bad of a plan that was?” Ebony snapped at her sister. “What if someone found out what she was? What if she was kidnapped? What would you do then? Why didn’t you stop her?!”

Ebony picked up one of the billiard balls and tossed it into the wall beside Ivory’s head. To her aunt’s credit, Ivory didn’t even flinch, nor did she try to get out of the way as the ball burrowed halfway into the wall, sending cracks snaking up to the ceiling.

Silver swallowed hard as she watched her mother. She felt so much anger radiating off of her that she wanted to get angry herself, but she knew this time, she had to really fight it. She didn’t want to make this worse than it already is.

“It was a mistake on my part, yes. I regret letting her go alone.” Ivory sighed, and flicked off specks of plaster off her shoulder. “But I want her to be happy, unlike a certain someone. She doesn’t have as long as we do to do as she wants. She needs that freedom, Ebony. So she can do as she wants because she won’t be around forever. You know that.”

“Safety is more important than enjoyment, Ivory!” Ebony picked up another billiard ball. “What happens if someone found out she was a changeling?! What then? They’d be outside our gates right now with pitchforks and torches in their hands! I will not permit that to happen again!”

“And you think I’d want to see that too?” It was Ivory’s turn to raise her voice. “You of all people know me better than anyone else! You think I’d like to see our kind hunted again? You think I want to lose more family? I did what I did for your daughter because I trusted her! Do you trust her?!”

“Not enough.” Ebony folded her arms. “She’s still very new to all this. She can’t even maintain a proper hold over her personas and their thoughts, so what makes you think she won’t give away our identities by accident?”

Hearing that sent a spike through Silver Rose’s heart, but she had expected something like that to come from her mother’s mouth. It hurt, but she didn’t put it past her mother.

“And you three?” Ebony turned back to the sirens and pointed a finger at them. “Did you think that was a good idea? To let my daughter roam about on her own with that boy? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“We didn’t know about it, Ebony.” Sonata scratched her head. “We only found out after Ivory explained it all to us after you called the house.”

“Yeah… Not like we had much say…” Aria drawled, as bored as ever, even with Ebony threatening to throw billiard balls in the room.

“And you!” Ebony threw the billiard ball towards Silver. The girl flinched and ducked to the side, relieved to hear the ball crashing into the wall behind her. “What came over you to want a regular date? You know you are not regular! You know you can never live like the humans do! What is the matter with you?!”

“But mother-”

“Don’t you ‘but mother’ me! What part of that entire venture seemed like a good idea?! Leaving your aunt behind so she couldn’t protect you, or not even notifying me of your plans? I am the queen, and I absolutely must know of what you’re doing. If we didn’t have these protocols in place, do you know what we would have?!”

Sonata timidly raised her hand. “Um, fun?”

Aria hit her on the back of her head.

“No, we’d have chaos!” Ebony roared, spit and drops of venom flying from her mouth. “Does no one in this house know how to think properly?!”

“I protected my-myself, mother.” Silver decided to speak up after a moment’s hesitation. “You’ve had me trained to be able to do that. I’m capable of p-protecting myself. I did just that when I had to deal with the mugger.”

Ebony Wings, who had one hand on a bookshelf to support herself, grew very still, except for her hand which clenched, splintering the wood of the bookshelf with a crack.

“What. Did. You. Just. Say?” the actress hissed, her eyes glowing faintly green.

“Th-that I can handle myself?” Silver rubbed the back of one hand.

“Not that! The last bit! And you better pray that I misheard you.”

“A-A-About the m-mugger?” Silver’s hands trembled and she tilted her head down and to the side. “I-I dealt with h-him… He didn’t hurt m-me, mother…”

“You ran into a mugger. And I assume this was on the same night as your ‘date’?” Ebony said through clenched teeth. “And you weren’t there to protect her!?” She swirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at Ivory Wings. “What kind of Queen’s Reaper are you?! And you!” Ebony turned back at Silver Rose. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t insisted on having your aunt leave! Am I the only sane one in this household?!” Ebony punctuated this statement by punching the bookshelf, causing it to sway and drop books on the floor.

Silver flinched every time her mother swung a fist, hoping she wouldn’t grab another billiard ball.

“I mean, what were you thinking!” Green flames began to swirl into existence under Ebony Wings’ chin, licking upwards. “Oh, wait, I know. You weren’t thinking!”

“I-I just wanted to k-know what it would be like t-to have an actual d-date…” Silver tried to look as innocent as she could. “And I c-could handle my-myself, mother… I didn’t have any-any trouble dealing with the mugger.”

“Trouble or no, you did something you shouldn’t have done!” Ebony picked up another ball, much to Silver’s annoyance and fear. “I set the rules and I expect you to follow them! Even when I’m not around! Yeah, don’t think just because I’m not here you can do as you please! I leave for one week and you five almost destroy everything I built over the years!”

“Please, sister, one little mugger isn’t going to-”

With a burst of fire, Ebony Wings disappeared behind a fiery veil of flowing green flames, burning the entire shelf she was standing next to, along with all the books in it, part of the billiard table and the carpet under her feet. After the flames had died down, Chrysalis stepped forward, clad in only her flameproof underwear now, stabbing a claw in Ivory’s chest, hard enough to draw blood. Silver could see red spreading across her aunt’s white shirt, but at least it didn’t look severe.

“Don’t you talk to me like I don’t know what I’m saying!” Chrysalis gazed menacingly into her sister’s eyes. “Aren’t you the tactician of the family?! Shouldn’t you know how serious this is? Anything could’ve happened out there! If not the mugger, then the boy! What if my daughter were to give away something?! Like her teeth, for example. You not being there is a mistake. On. Your. Part. Ivory.” With each word, Chrysalis dug her claw deeper into her sister’s chest, spurting out more blood. Silver thought her mother was trying to kill her aunt, but the white haired changeling didn’t seem to be in too much pain.

“Yes, I admit that I should have been there to watch over your daughter, Chrysalis,” Ivory said, reaching up and removing her sister’s talon from her chest. “But she asked to be left alone on her date. And it’s not reasonable to think that I’ll be around all the time to guard her, right?”

Chrysalis leaned over her sister, drew in a deep breath, and screeched. Everyone in the room but Ivory Wings covered their ears, the scream piercing their eardrums. The window cracked and the empty glass of lemonade exploded, sending shards of glass flying.

Silver bent over to avoid the debris, grinding her teeth together, hoping to take the high pitched scream away. Now for sure, she knew her mother was crazy, or at least, very, very upset.

Eventually, Ivory reached a hand up and shut her sister’s mouth, jamming it shut from the jaw.

“No need to scream about it, Chryssie!” Ivory pushed her sister’s head away, then dug a finger in one ear. “You’re not five years old anymore. Act your age.”

Chrysalis glared daggers at Ivory, the picked up one of the pool cues and snapped it over her knee.

“Oh, that’s rich. You’re telling me how to behave, when you clearly left the princess unguarded? Don’t tell me what to do!” She ended the statement by throwing the broken cue at her sister like a javelin, where it barely grazed her shoulder before embedding itself in the door. The impact flung the door open, and Chrysalis stomped over to it. She looked over her shoulder venomously.

“You all have a lot to think about.”

And then she was gone, slamming the door behind her.

The shelf by the side was still burning, and so was the billiard table and carpet, but at least the flames were dying down.

Ivory swiped a hand over her face, then unbuttoned the first three buttons of her now stained shirt to have a better look at the wounds.

“Um… Aunt Ivory, are you alright?” Silver eventually decided it was safe to go to her aunt.

“I’ll be fine. Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Ivory Wings remarked.

“I’m sorry she hurt you because of me.” Silver looked down at her feet, feeling ashamed. “This is all my fault. You and the sirens didn’t deserve all this.”

“Tell me about it…” Aria still had both hands over her ears and a irritated look on her face.

Adagio took her fingers out of her own ears. “Not a bad vocal range though; she’d make a great siren.”

Ivory took a deep breath, then began healing her chest wounds, leaving little black spots where Chrysalis had stabbed her.

“What’s done is done, sweetie.” Ivory grabbed her shoulder and rubbed it. “I’m just glad now that your mother’s let it all out.”

“Has she though?” Sonata piped up. “We know that she can stay angry for years, if she doesn’t get her way.”

“She better be…” Ivory stomped a foot down on the burning spots on the carpet. “Well, if not… I may have ways to get her to calm down. You won’t like them, Silver, so I’ll spare you the details.”

“Gee, she sure wrecked the room.” Adagio pulled a piece of glass from her hair. “Good thing we rarely come here.”

“I’ll call someone to come up here and fix it,” Ivory sighed. “She’ll probably make me pay for it too, the witch. Good thing the Templars left me a lot of money.”

“Is there… anything I can do now?” Silver kicked at a small fire, extinguishing it. “Since it’s my fault, I’d like to make it up.”

“Unless you rather take my place to appease your mother, then nothing comes to mind. Some, ah, questionable stuff will have to happen.”

“Oh.” Silver looked at the broken door. “I guess I’ll have to leave that part up to you, Aunt Ivory.”

“That’s a good girl,” Ivory said, patting Silver on the head like a puppy. “Now all of you should go and wash up for dinner. I have a feeling your mother won’t be joining us.”

Chapter 44 - The Queen's Prize

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Click away now if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 44 - The Queen's Prize

As Ivory Wings predicted, neither Ebony Wings nor Chrysalis showed up for dinner. Her tall chair stood empty at the end of the table, a vacuum sucking away all the cheer and relaxation that dinner usually brought, though Silver Rose decided that that was likely better than getting yelled at again, or worse, getting stabbed. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her mother so furious.

“Ooh, fried chicken!” Sonata Dusk eyed her plate. “Looks yummy!”

“So, uh, how does this work? Mother’s not here to tell us it’s okay to eat…” Silver glanced at the empty throne.

“We’ve eaten without her before.” Ivory waved a hand dismissively. “Just pretend she’s not home and eat.”

“Oh. Okay then.”

Silver started on her vegetables, which was an assortment of peas, carrots and creamed corn. There was nothing but the sound of cutlery scraping against plates for a while, with Silver Platter scurrying around the table refilling drinks. Ivory beckoned to the butler and whispered into his ear, the manservant nodding with understanding. He quickly turned on his heel and marched back into the kitchen.

With the silence that clouded around the dining room, Silver had easily finished her dinner in no time, scraping up the last bits of mashed potato before placing her cutlery neatly on the plate.

“You may leave when you are finished.” Ivory wiped a piece of chicken from her mouth. “No sense hanging around. I’ll have to go talk to your mother anyway, so scurry along. Enjoy your evening, girls.”

Doing just that, Silver Rose left the dining room after giving her aunt a hug, splitting from the sirens as they went to their room and she to hers.

Flopping down on her bed beside Mishter Schiffs, Silver contemplated how she had behaved when her mother had been yelling at them in the games room. Over the phone, she had even dared to argue back to her mother, saying some very daring things that would likely get her killed if she wasn’t her mother’s daughter. But when her mother was before her, screaming her head off, Silver found she had been absolutely terrified. Even that movie she had seen with Home Run was nothing compared to what her mother could’ve done earlier.

Though, with her mother currently not being close by, Silver felt the anger begin to replace her fear. Her mother wasn’t always right and now that she had time to think, her mother was rarely right. Yet, she blamed everyone else in the house. Even the sirens couldn’t escape punishment, even if they hadn’t done anything wrong.

Silver felt sorry for the three girls and her aunt. They weren’t to blame. And Aunt Ivory had gotten hurt by her mother today. Even if she had just shrugged off the injuries, Silver still felt responsible.

“Perhaps I should go apologize to mother…” she sighed and wrapped one arm around Mishter Schniffs. “It was all my fault. You think so?”

“Though I would like to agree with you…” her soft toy nudged its head against her cheek. “This all really stemmed out from the point where you asked your aunt to leave you be, so that you could have a real date, whether it was just this once or more.”

“I would try to go over and apologize, but…” Silver’s cheeks turned pinkish. “Aunt Ivory said she was going to make it up with mother.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Well… Aunt Ivory was implying that some stuff was going to go down… Some questionable stuff that I won’t enjoy.” Silver remembered her aunt and mother in the courtyard again. At least the thought took her mind off their most recent events and made her think of Home Run again. “Though, you’re right. I should apologize. Maybe later, after they’re done.”

She was tempted to text him to tell him all her problems with her mother, but then she realized there would be too much sensitive information for him to know, even if he was indeed her boyfriend now. Moonglade’s boyfriend.

“Oh, Home Run…” Silver stared at her ceiling, a seemingly common thing now. “To think I would get in trouble to be with you? What’s come over me…”

Chrysalis had been lying in her room, dressed in her silk night robe after taking a good long shower to calm herself down. She had left all the lights off, enjoying the darkness and the silence. She had gotten the opportunity to think and perhaps destroying part of the games room wasn’t such a nice thing to do. Now she was going to have to repair it and she was still likely going to get her sister to pay for it.

Her dinner was resting on her table, untouched. She didn’t feel like having to do something as troublesome as eating right now.

Chrysalis knew her daughter had been getting bolder lately, since she was able to leave the house. She had pardoned her when she had talked back to her over the phone yesterday, but when Chrysalis had seen her today, she wanted to laugh. The girl was radiating so much fear, she knew that she still had her under her control, at least when she was around.

One week. She had only left for one week and her daughter had done so many things that would’ve made Chrysalis rake someone’s eyes out if she had been around.

First, she had told her aunt to hang back while she enjoyed a ‘real date’, then she had encountered a mugger. That would’ve been a joke if her aunt was around, but she hadn’t been.

“Oh, why have things fallen apart like that…” the changeling queen sighed into a hand.

“Nothing’s fallen apart, sister.” A voice came from the side, where the room was darkest.

“Come on, sister…” Chrysalis said without having to look. “I don’t know what is it with you and dark corners, but you can just come out.”

“You do that all the time too.” Psithyra stepped out from the shadows, clad in her night attire as well, consisting of her sleeveless top and shorts. “But that’s not why I’m here. How’re you feeling?”

“Dreadful…” Chrysalis spat. “To think there would be so much chaos in just one week.”

“I would sit here and debate with you how most of this is your fault, but it would just take too long, so how about we just move on to our next topic?”

My fault? Who does she think I am? Chrysalis groaned and sat herself up. “Well, what else is there to say?”

Psithyra stepped closer, leaning against Chrysalis’ bedpost. “First, I would like to apologize for my actions. For one, you are right, your majesty. I shouldn’t have left your daughter’s side. She sullied her hands with beating up that mugger because of my negligence.”

“Yes, she did.” Chrysalis checked her nails, having recently trimming them back down to normal length. She had burned up a lot of her love reserves when she had overdriven earlier. She blamed her family for that. “Her want for a real date? That’s just silly and you should’ve known that. We are not humans. There cannot be ‘real dates’ with us. We are not humans. We do not conform to human society.”

“Well, you’ve been doing alright, blending in as an actress and all.” Psithyra raised a hand. “So I guess conforming is possible.”

“Not my point, Thyra. She cannot interact with humans like other humans do! That was a mistake she shouldn’t have done.”

“Sister, what’s done is done, okay?” The purple haired changeling placed herself on the bed beside her sister. “We can’t turn back time. We’ve made our mistakes. Time to move on. What matters is that your daughter handled it well. Can’t you at least trust her a little?”

“This is still in her early days being able to go out.” Chrysalis folded her arms. “I will trust her after she has gained more experience in this field.”

Moonglade or Silver Rose, Chrysidea didn’t even have a year of hunting experience yet. To Chrysalis, a month was but a speck of dust, much less a year. When she felt like her daughter could handle going out on her own, then she would let her. Right now, she didn’t think she was ready.

“And after what she’s done, do you think I’m still going to trust her?” Chrysalis punched a fist into her bed, her eyes glowing green. “She’ll have to earn it all back now! Back from zero!”

“It was one mistake, sister,” Psithyra tried to reason. “I will make sure it won’t happen again.”

“And you! You made a mistake too! How can I trust your judgment?” Chrysalis pointed a menacing finger at her sister.

“Well, that’s why I’m here tonight. To make it up to you.”

“Oh?” Chrysalis drew her hand back. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

Chrysalis saw a smirk spread across her sister’s lips. She was planning something.

“Why, I know how to make you less mad, for one. I know how to take your mind off all this and let you destress.”

Slinking closer on the bed, Psithyra wrapped one arm around her sister’s neck and the other on her charcoal colored cheek.

“This is your plan?” Chrysalis put both hands on her sister’s hips. “I don’t mind it, but you think you can take my mind off punishing all of you?”

“Well, leave the others out of it then…” Psithyra leaned her head in and brushed her sister’s cheek with her lips. “Punish me instead. I’ll take it all for them.”

“You know how to drive a bargain, Thyra.” Chrysalis chewed on her sister’s ear as she slid her hands down to Psithyra’s rear. “Are you sure you can take all their punishment?”

Then Chrysalis began lightly kissing her sister on the lips, so gently that it felt like snow melting on one’s skin. She squeezed her sister’s backside, earning a moan from the purple haired changeling before shifting her lips to her sister’s neck, working her way down.

“If this is… all you got, I can take it…” Psithyra smiled contently and closed her eyes.

“Oh, you underestimate me, sweet sister.” Getting up on her knees, Chrysalis pushed her sister down on the bed and began kissing her lips again. “You’ll have to be punished thoroughly.”

She reached for her sister’s crotch and began massaging the spot with three of her fingers, at the same time, playing her other hand around Psithyra’s neck and left shoulder. The purple haired changeling moaned and reached up and undid her sister’s sash, letting her silk robes fall off.

“So,” Psithyra breathed heavily, gazing at her sister’s chest. “What punishment does my queen have in mind for her disobedient servant?”

“Plenty,” Chrysalis said, moving her fingers underneath Psithyra’s shorts and panties. “I wonder if you’ll be able to endure all of it.”

“I’m your sister and your Reaper.” Psithyra pulled Chrysalis down on top of her so that both their bodies were now touching. “It is my duty to do as you want.”

“Oh, you know me so well, Thyra, to know what I enjoy doing…” Chrysalis kissed her again, then shifted the straps off Psithyra’s left shoulder. “So well…”

After another ten minutes of making out, Chrysalis had already pulled Psithyra’s shirt and bra up, baring her breasts to the world, and her shorts and panties were now somewhere on the bed, lost within the folds. She had one hand between Psithyra’s legs, pushing a finger deep, while her other hand was busy caressing her sister’s breasts.

Chrysalis kept up her attacks, wanting to watch her sister fall beneath her power, but the younger changeling held strong, not faltering for a second.

“Mmm…” Chrysalis’ lips separated from Psithyra’s with an audible smooch, bringing up her finger than had been in her sister, giving it a lick, then swallowing the juice. “Tasty…”

“I told you… I can handle your punishment, your majesty…” Psithyra panted, a smile forming on her lips.

Chrysalis gazed deeply into her sister's eyes, inhaling the scent of love and lust that was wafting around them. “You think this is over? Far from it, sister. I can smell all the lust in the air now.”

“The majority of that lust is coming from you, sister dear…” Psithyra ran a finger along Chrysalis’ abdomen and up her chest, tickling the queen slightly.

“What can I say? You’re a fantastic way I can destress.” Chrysalis kissed her sister on the forehead, then got up, heading for her cabinet. “Thank you. Now, I’ll just have to find it…”

Psithyra rolled on her side to have a look. “What are you looking for?”

Chrysalis smirked to herself, her back to her sister as she opened a box inside her cabinet. Her fingers closed around the sex toy she had used when they were out in the courtyard that other day; she hadn’t got to use it yet, at least not on her sister. She licked her lips as she thought of the many things they were going to do tonight.

Strapping it around her waist and tightening it, Chrysalis turned around and waltzed back to her sister.

“Oh, that thing again.” Psithyra gulped, sitting back up, but then licked her lips in anticipation. “I think I deserve more punishment, hmm, Chryssie?”

Chrysalis held her sister’s face in her hands, rubbing her thumbs along Psithyra’s cheeks. After another drawn out kiss, the changeling queen pushed Psithyra back down, then spread her legs wide.

“My, my. You’ve kept it in such a good condition over the years…” Chrysalis swung her hips, doing the same to the strapon. She pressed its tip against Psithyra’s opening, smiling when her sister arched her back and closed her eyes. “I wonder how you’re going to like this one…”

Silver Rose was uneasy. Not only because her mother had failed to show up for dinner, but also about the unspecified punishment that was sure to be on the way after her mother’s ominous words in the first floor game room. She sat in the study with her homework spread out, but hadn’t made any headway with it at all. She dragged a pencil across her sheet of paper, leaving a long line on the pristine white surface.

She thought about taking out her phone to text Home Run, but even if she did, what would she tell him? She couldn’t give away her family’s secrets, not even to him.

“Oh, what am I going to do now?” she groaned. Having nothing better to do, she leaned back in her chair and inhaled deeply.

And almost choked on her own spit when her senses picked up a faint, but delectably sweet taste. Her study room door was open and she could smell something wafting in from outside, something really good.

Hmm? What could it be…?

Holding her head up, she sniffed again, and was rewarded with the same sweet flavor. It made her mouth start watering, even though she had only eaten an hour ago. And then Silver noticed her body getting warm and her breathing getting heavier.

Mmm… is that what I think it is? But where is it coming from…?

Right now, Silver’s mind had been overloaded from her homework and her mother, so she couldn’t think as clearly as she wanted to. Getting up, she made her way outside the study, following the scent.

Sure enough, the aroma grew stronger once she left the room. Now that it was more potent, she could identify it.

Love, mixed with an undercurrent of a more subtle lust. Familial love. Something she was very familiar with. The added lust was nice too, which began to make Silver’s hands shake and her breathing heavier.

But where is it coming from? Silver’s mind immediately jumped to the pheromone bottles that her mother had. They were kept in a locked cabinet in the loft, on the secret fourth floor. Perhaps she had decided to crack it open? Even if they were able to smell it without reacting, it was still a nice scent.

After following the aroma down the halls, Silver deduced that it wasn’t coming from the fourth floor, but from the third.

Ascending the marble stairway to the third floor, Silver followed her nose all the way down the corridor and past the balcony to a door she knew very well from her younger years. Her mother’s room.

“Did she bring some of the pheromones to her room?” Silver followed the smell with her eyes closed, wanting to get a better sniff. “No fair…”

Her mother had banned her from getting any of the pheromones from the fourth floor, letting her know of the dire consequences for doing so too. And without the recipe, mixing up her own bottles would be nigh impossible.

Creeping along the hall, she continued to take more sniffs at the smell, smelling more of the lust than love now that she was closer. It began to make the spot between her legs warmer, but she managed to stay on her feet, more used to it now than the first few times.

Finally arriving at her mother’s door, Silver’s legs were trembling from the smell. Deciding that enough was enough, she pinched her nose and raised her free hand to knock. Before her hand could touch the door, her sensitive ears began to pick up something coming from inside her mother’s room, realizing she had actually been hearing it from about halfway down the hall; she didn’t think much of it until now.

There were faint slapping sounds, as if someone were running across a wet floor wearing flip flops. And then a little louder than that was the voice of her aunt, emitting something like a gasp every time one of the flip flop sounds were heard.

What on earth is going on in there?

Silver stood behind the door, unmoving, clutching her hands to her chest. Whatever the sounds were, they were somehow breaking down her defenses holding her lust back. Silver Rose stepped away from the door, breathing heavily. Her fangs slid down and into view, which Silver had learned was never a good sign. She was losing control.

“Is this punishment enough for you?” She heard heard her mother ask.

“Mmghh…” Silver heard Ivory’s voice. “I can… take more… aahh!”

Are they doing what I think they’re doing? Silver thought, unable to stop the torrent of lewd images that flooded her mind. She soon found a hand going under her skirt, touching a spot on her panties which was now wet. I didn’t think they’d still be at it… I’ve given them a few hours…”

Wrestling with whatever semblance of control she had left, Silver, keeping her nose pinched, marched swiftly away from her mother’s room and down to the first floor, and then outside into the cool of the night. Out and into the garden, where all manner of flora (mostly poisonous varieties) grew. She took her hand off her nose, relieved to smell nothing but the plants and flowers all around her.

Taking the time to breathe the fresh air, Silver managed to retract her fangs and cool her temperature, though she couldn’t do anything about her panties and the itchiness under it.

“Just perfect…” she mumbled to herself. “They’re up there doing who knows what, and I can’t even go near them without… losing it. Perfect. I hope whatever Aunt Ivory has planned works, because having mother stewing in her own anger just tastes bad.”

Unable to go up to her room because of the smell, Silver decided to amuse herself by watering the garden. Picking up the watering can, she began to drizzle the clear liquid onto a patch of belladonna.

This should take me a good hour.

Silver hoped her aunt and mother would be done by then, or she would have to resort to sleeping outside. Or at least, in a guest room.

Chapter 45 - Being Quiet

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Chapter 46 - Conflicted Me Time

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Click away now if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 46 - Conflicted Me Time

4 days to the Friendship Games

Closing her textbook, Sunny Flare leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Another day of homework done…” And another bout of Friendship Games studying done. Sunny had been preparing mentally for the last week, trying to strengthen up her academic skills too. The others seemed sure now that there was going to be a quiz of sorts.

It was past six now and her parents were still not back. Her brother, Skyfire, was downstairs on the TV, playing video games with one of his friends, likely the nerdy one, Pocket Protector, who also seemed to have a strange infatuation with her, which Sunny didn’t quite like.

Sunny never took any interest in video games, so she didn’t see how her brother could spend so many hours on that thing.

Now wearing a white t-shirt with her insignia imprinted on the front, and a pair of black shorts, Sunny pulled up her legs to her chest and turned the chair to face out her window. Her mulberry colored hair was still partially damp from a nice, refreshing shower she had taken before starting on her homework, helping to cool her head from the growing heat outside.

With summer just around the corner, their exams were also coming up and Sunny didn’t feel very interested in them. She normally did well anyway, except for English, but at least she could still get a passing mark no problem.

Sitting there, Sunny thought about Silver Rose. The girl had never taken school exams before, seeing as she had been homeschooled like her sister, Moonglade. Sunny couldn’t help but wonder how Silver would get through this.

The new girl’s grades weren’t bad, though her math skill was about as good as Sunny’s English. Perhaps she was going to do alright for the exams.

“I wonder what she’s up to now…” Sunny looked out at the street.

Silver Rose really was a surprising girl. Even after everything that Sunny had done to her, she still wanted to be friends. Sunny still didn’t quite understand it, but she didn’t mind. It all worked out for the better in the end, or maybe a little too good.

Now and then, images of Silver Rose would just pop up in Sunny’s mind. One instance would be right now. Thinking about the mauve-skinned girl, Sunny felt warmth rise to her cheeks as she once again remembered the kiss they had shared in the changing room. She had been completely naked and Silver had only been clad in a simple towel, which didn’t cover up much skin.

“Sunny, no, not again…” The girl held her cheeks and bent lower. “She’s just a friend… That kiss wasn’t even because she likes you. It was because… I don’t even know why she did it...”

Hoping to take her mind of Silver Rose for a bit, Sunny started up her computer, with the intent of reading a webcomic or two to help her relax a bit. Quickly pulling up her MyStable page, Sunny got sidetracked and began working on answering messages, upvoting other people’s posts and leaving comments on her friends’ pages. Her work was going splendidly until she noticed an advertisement on the side of the page for the new Manslayer’s Doctrine game. Ebony Wings’ face stared out of the screen at her, which immediately brought to mind her children.

“Oh, come on!” Sunny groaned and closed the tab.

Next, Sunny opened her favorite webcomic, Community of the Branch. It was a role-playing game based comic, and its witty writing and fun character roster always made her smile. She went to the most recent post, and after passing a check to see if she was really human, opened the page.

Sunny started laughing almost as soon as she began reading, finding the characters hilarious. One of them had a really long cape and somehow kept defeating enemies with it when he turned around, making them trip and hit their heads on the floor. Then it began tripping his allies too and that made Sunny laugh even more.

At the end of the comic, there was an author’s note about a contest. Curious, Sunny clicked the link and was transported to the artist’s page.

The details on the page stated that if you shared the comic with ten of your friends, you would enter the running for a free copy of the famous Topview video game she’d seen her brother play before.

“Not interested,” Sunny said, about to click away from the page, when the front cover of the game box caught her eye.

It was once again the picture of Ebony Wings, who played the sniper, Viper, swinging across on some kind of wire. Sunny didn’t play the game, but she had went to see the movie with her brother. It wasn’t bad, but Fast Bender wasn’t in it.

“No!” Sunny closed the window and buried her face in her arms. “Why do I keep thinking of Silver Rose? Why? We’re… we’re just friends. I don’t think about the others like I do with Silver.”

She looked up at her biggest Fast Bender poster. “What’s happening to me? When I think about people, I usually end up thinking about you, Fast Bender. Why do I keep thinking about Silver Rose now? I mean, why? Before, I was even trying to humiliate her. Now I can’t stop thinking about her?”

Her poster didn’t respond.

“I like guys. I dated a guy… I gawk at hot guys. So why do I keep thinking of Silver like that?!”

Sunny’s face grew warmer, thinking about it all. Perhaps she needed to start hitting on a guy. Maybe that would stop her thoughts on Silver. Thinking about it, she currently had no other guy in mind. Quillion Riposte would be on the top of her list for his looks, but Sunny didn’t know anything else about him.

Oh, Sunny, what’s wrong with you… Is there no one good enough for you?

Thinking about guys wasn’t working and her mind began to drift back to Silver Rose, picturing her slender legs, the rest of her body only covered in a towel.

“What is she to you, Sunny?” She heard her Fast Bender poster on the wall speak to her as she curled up around her knees, her body growing warmer by the second. “Is she more important than I am?”

“No, no, she’s not. S-She shouldn’t be…” Sunny muttered.

“Then why does she occupy your thoughts?” Fast Bender asked. “Why do you keep thinking of her? Is it because of that kiss? You don’t think of her strangling you anymore.”

“I don’t know!” Sunny wailed to the poster. “And talking to my posters isn’t making me look any saner!”

“But that’s what you’re doing anyway.” A little clipping of Fast Bender from the newspaper said back to her, sitting on the side of her desk. “Why do you only focus there, Sunny? Remember, she also jumped over you in PE class. She embarrassed you in archery. How about those?”

“Well, I guess that’s true,” Sunny sighed, tipping her head back past her chair back. “But she was just trying to be the best, like everyone else. I can’t fault her for that.”

“Well, you did at first. But then your hate turned into fear, and then your fear turned into… this. Why, Sunny? You’ve never really looked so intently at any of the others.”

Sunny got off her chair and flopped down onto her bed, grabbing the pillow and screaming into it in frustration. She was getting nowhere with her thoughts. Perhaps if she could do something to take her mind off Silver. Maybe if she were to think about guys again instead, like Fast Bender. She had tried it earlier, but perhaps there was still something else she could do, something she hadn’t done in a while.

Sitting up, Sunny Flare squinted at her closed bedroom door. The faint sounds of her brother and his friend playing video games downstairs could still be heard.

Moving over to the door, she locked it and propped her chair against the handle just in case. It was time for some alone time.

Sunny Flare reached under her bed, brushing aside the extra clothes she had stashed there and settling on a small cardboard box. Double checking that her door was indeed locked, Sunny lifted the box onto her bed, leaving it there before returning to her laptop. Looking around nervously, she quickly closed the curtains to her room in case someone was spying on her from outside, a blush rising to her cheeks.

Pulling up a hidden folder on her computer, Sunny quickly found what she was looking for: her stash of ‘flick pics’, as Lemon Zest referred to them. Sugarcoat probably would have just called it porn. But Sunny wasn’t concerned with technicalities like that, only the contents of the folder. Which as it was, contained a respectable amount of smut, ranging from videos she had discreetly downloaded off the internet to an album of centerfolds from Playgirl’s website, plus a few other bits and bobs she had collected from her time on the web.

Next, she went over to the cardboard box and took off the lid, taking out a long, slightly curved object with a tapered tip. Sunny didn’t know how many times she’d used it before, but this time, it was to keep her sanity in check, or at least she hoped it would help.

She looked back at the Fast Bender poster on her wall and sighed, her face glowing red by now. “This one’s for you, Fast Bender. Don’t be mad. I still love you the most.”

There was a faint shout of excitement from downstairs, probably from her brother and his nerdy friend. It also served as a reminder that her door was not soundproof, unlike the doors at Crystal Prep. She had used to make out with Domino in empty rooms before, knowing no one would be able to hear them from the outside. The doors would’ve also been useful for them if they had decided to take the next step, but in the end, it never came to that. She would need to stay at a reasonable volume. Not an easy task for what she was about to do.

Settling herself on the bed with the laptop beside her, Sunny’s hands drifted down to her shorts, pulling them off and casting them aside to the floor. Making sure the laptop’s volume was low enough, she opened the first video, which was of a man, with the camera panning across his toned and muscular body.

“Oh, he’s so ripped…” Sunny smiled, eyeing the video intently.

That was when the camera changed directions, revealing a second man, also dressed in only his underwear. Sunny licked her lips as she knew what was coming; this was one of her favorites in her secret collection. The first man saw his colleague, then reached for the bulge in his underwear, grabbing it firmly; he looked as if he was trying to steal it. He was in the process of pulling the other man’s underwear down when the sound of a door opening took both their attentions.

Then the camera panned over to a young woman in a schoolgirl’s outfit, similar to the Crystal Prep uniform but in red and green instead. She stood between the two muscular men and bit her lip as they both moved toward her. The music in the background simmered quietly, adding an air of upbeat ambience to the scene.

Sunny’s eyes were rooted to the laptop screen, her breathing hot and heavy as the two men stopped in front of the girl. The first one pulled the girl’s arm, bringing her close and grabbing her breasts as the second one grabbed her from behind, placing one hand on her rear, massaging it roughly. The girl, unable to hold back her moans, reached down and grabbed the first man’s underwear, pulling it down just enough to reveal just the tip of his manhood.

It was enough of a sight for Sunny. Slipping one hand down the front of her panties, the garment soon joined her shorts on the bedroom floor.

The first man in the video began kissing the girl, connecting their lips so sensuously that it made Sunny want to kiss something too. If she could credit Domino Ace with anything, at least he was a really good kisser. And then they opened their mouths wider, touching their tongues as they kissed.

Sunny flinched at the scene. This might’ve been one of her favorite videos, but she never liked Prench kissing. It always seemed so gross to touch each other’s tongues. Domino had tried it with her a few times, but Sunny had been too grossed out by it. When she kissed, she prefered if it was just lips and no tongue.

The second man in the video soon joined in, kissing the girl along her neck, at the same time, rubbing his crotch against her butt, the bulge in his briefs visibly growing larger.

Sunny reached for her vibrator and turned it on, the textured shaft buzzing quietly in her grip. Lowering the dildo to her slit, Sunny bit her lip and slowly pushed it in. The toy slipped into her pussy with little resistance, and Sunny let out a low, shuddering moan as her fingers brushed against her clit.

She continued watching as the girl in the video pulled the first man’s underwear off and began stroking the shaft of his large cock, one hand now wrapped around the long, veiny shaft.

“Mmm…” Sunny felt her whole body weakening as she began pulling the toy out, only to push it back in further. “That’s right… Only a guy would be able… to make me feel… like this.”

Silver Rose was a girl too. She didn’t have what a guy had, and that meant she shouldn’t even be in the competition here, so just what made her so special?

“I like… dudes… I do.” Sunny’s mouth hung open as she began moving the dildo in and out of herself, her other hand moving to grab one of her breasts. “Fast Bender… Fast Bender can make me feel like this… Not Silver Rose.”

The video soon proceeded to the good part, where the man behind lifted the girl’s skirt, then pulled her pair of striped panties aside. Pulling down his briefs, the man started rubbing his penis against her wet slit, then as Sunny watched expectantly, he shoved it inside the girl, earning her gasp.

“Oh man…” she began smiling as she watched the second man pound against the girl, who moaned each time. She made Sunny really want to feel it herself. “I want it…”

Bending down on her bed, but still keeping her eyes on the video, Sunny lifted her rear up for a better position, grabbing ahold of her dildo, which was still between her legs, Sunny began thrusting it into herself again, faster this time. Quiet little moans of pleasure escaped Sunny’s mouth, which she was mindful to keep muffled in her pillow, lest she catch the attention of her brother. Then again, he probably wouldn’t hear her anyway with his attention taken up by his video games, but she wanted to be sure.

Each time she thrusted the dildo inside herself, now soaked in her own juices, she tried to picture herself as the girl in the video and her toy as the man behind her. Still keeping her eyes on her computer screen, Sunny watched as the first man slid himself under the girl, sticking his huge cock in her face, pushing it against the side of her mouth. Getting the message, the girl first began kissing his tip, eventually taking the whole thing in her mouth, bobbing her head up and down its length.

As Sunny continued to watch the girl in the video get spitroasted by the two men, she increased the speed of her own thrusts, driving the vibrator deeper into herself and biting her lip to keep the cries of pleasure down. Lewd squishing noises came from Sunny’s pussy, and her hands grew increasingly wet with her own fluids.

The camera soon cut back to the second man and the girl’s rear, giving Sunny a close up of their intercourse, moaning and squelching almost as loudly as Sunny’s now. A thin line of drool ran down Sunny’s face, her eyes half shut in ecstasy as she imagined being pounded from behind by some strong, handsome man with Fast Bender’s face.

“Ohhhh, Fast Bender…” Sunny smiled deliriously, her fingers slipping in the juices around her dildo. “Harder, Fast Bender… Harder! Harder!”

She was getting close, Sunny could feel it. The pressure in her loins was building, and she knew from experience that it wouldn’t take much more to push her over the edge now.

“Fast Bender, come on! More… More!” Sunny moaned, now forgetting about the video and falling on her back, looking up at the ceiling. She could still hear the girl in the video, crying out with so much pleasure as the sounds of the second man’s body slapped against hers.

Sunny looked up at Fast Bender, trying to materialize him as the one inside her, but to her horror, when she tried to see him, who she saw in front of her, was Silver Rose. The mauve-skinned girl was naked except for her choker, and had one slim hand wrapped around the base of Sunny’s vibrator, smiling as she helped the mulberry haired girl thrust it inside herself.

“Wha- no… why am I thinking of Silver again…?” Sunny wanted to stop, but found she couldn’t stop her hand from moving the dildo, continuing to thrust it deep inside herself. “Mmm… no! N-Nnngh! Stop…”

For some reason, picturing Silver made her heart beat faster in her chest and her breathing more heavy. It was… turning her on more than the thought of Fast Bender! How was this possible? She’d been enjoying herself so much and then suddenly this…?

Sunny found her hand moving faster and faster, her voice getting louder and louder as she lost control of herself. With one last thrust, Sunny felt her inner walls constrict, squeezing the dildo as if it were an actual cock. Her feminine fluids squirted out past her fingers and onto the bed, where they pooled around her waist. Sunny’s back arched as she rode out her orgasm, collapsing back onto the bed, feeling utterly spent.

She lay there, panting and gasping as her imaginary Silver Rose pulled out the sticky dildo from her pussy, then crawled over to Sunny, only to lean down and place a kiss on her lips. Sunny kissed back, but then realized after that she had been kissing nothing but thin air, and even worse, she had tried to kiss Silver Rose.

“No…” she wheezed, fighting for air at the same time, dropping her arms by her side. “Why is this happening to… Why...?”

The sounds of the girl being rough handled by the two men continued to play on her laptop beside her while she looked up at her ceiling. She had done this because she wanted to be sure that she liked guys. It all looked like it was going alright at first, but then Silver Rose had to interfere with her… or her brain had chosen her to interfere with her own fantasy, which brought out a disturbing possibility: was she subconsciously attracted to the other girl to such an extent that it was intruding on her ‘alone time’?

Sunny put her hands on her face and groaned, instantly regretting it when her own juices got all over her mouth and nose from the hand that had been holding her vibrator. “Ick… Gross…” She began spitting it out of her mouth and blowing her nose to get it out. “Why is this happening? It can’t be that… that I’m in love with her… am I…?”

Sunny didn’t want to accept it. She refused to accept it. And yet…

First things first. She would have to clean up after herself in here, change the sheets and probably take a shower to get the mess off. Sighing heavily, Sunny closed the video on her laptop before it was over and swung her feet out onto the floor, picking up her panties and shorts and stuffing them under an arm. Then she switched off her vibrator and gave it a wipe before returning it to its box under her bed.

She was just about to gather up the soiled linens in preparation for putting them in the washing machine when there came a knock on her door.

“Sunny?” her brother’s voice came. “What are you doing in there?”

“What?” Sunny’s eyes quickly darted around her room. “What do you mean?”

“We can hear you groaning in there and stuff. Did you stub your toe or something?”

“Uh, um…” Sunny’s face went ablaze with color. She didn’t hear her brother come upstairs, and she had been too distracted with Silver Rose to remember about her volume restraint. Good thing Skyfire didn’t seem to know what she had been doing. “Yeah, that’s right! Hit my t-toe on the… bed. Yeah. Th-that was it!”

“You’re so clumsy, Sunny,” Skyfire admonished. “How are you supposed to represent your school on Monday if your foot’s injured?”

“Sh-shut up! I’m better now!” Sunny put a hand to her face in embarrassment.

“Yeah, okay,” Skyfire said apathetically. “We just came up, because we’re ordering some pizza. You want anything in particular?”

I want to know why I keep thinking of Silver Rose. Sunny thought sourly. But since the pizza place wouldn’t know what she was talking about, she instead replied, “Pepperoni pizza?”

There was no answer from the other side.

“Stupid Skyfire and his stupid nerd friend…” Sunny began pulling out her sheets roughly, throwing them in an untidy pile on the bedroom floor. “Good thing they’re too stupid to know what I was actually doing…”

And I’m stupid too. I did it to forget about Silver Rose. Instead… I… I’ve realized my feelings for her? I’m so sorry, Fast Bender! I’m sorry. Please, forgive me this time...

Sunny groaned and stomped a foot on her pile, impressing a footprint down into it. Then she covered her face and sat down on her stripped bed.

“And I still have to see her tomorrow…”

Chapter 47 - A Bountiful Harvest

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Chapter 48 - A Story Not Told

2 days to the Friendship Games

Moonglade had been home all Saturday, finishing up some of her weekend homework and studying. After her violin and sword fighting lessons, Moonglade entered her bathroom, turning on the cold water to have a nice cooling shower. Seeing as she wasn’t going anywhere tomorrow and no one else was coming, she decided to wash off her persona, wanting to just relax and be herself for the night.

As Chrysidea stepped out of her shower, she took the chance to admire her body in the mirror as usual, before grabbing her towel and drying herself off. It was about dinner time now and having wet hair at the dining table was something she wanted to avoid. Plugging in her hairdryer, she got to work at fixing the problem, soon returning her turquoise hair to its dry and curly state.

She had inherited the curls from her father, at least that’s what she deduced, seeing as her mother had straight hair. Chrysidea had never met her father, because he had been killed before she was even born. The only things she had of him were her turquoise eyes and hair, if indeed he had the same.

Exiting her bathroom, Chrysidea threw her towel to the side, then entered her walk in closet, looking through her clothes. She first picked out her set of black underwear, putting them on before grabbing her blue sleeveless top and black skirt. In no time, she was dressed and ready to head down for dinner.

Stopping only to pick up and wear the hairband Home Run had gotten for her, Chrysidea was soon skipping down the staircase, running into the sirens on the first floor, also on their way to dinner.

“Hey, girls, you hungry?” she asked, hopping down the last step.

“Dea! You’re back!” Sonata Dusk wrapped her arms around the changeling’s back, squeezing hard.

“She’s been around all day, doofus.” Aria slapped her sister on the neck, before pulling her off Chrysidea.

“I meant her persona!” Sonata stomped a foot. “And I’m not a doofus!”

“Ugh…” Adagio stepped aside and pulled Chrysidea to the side where they were out of the way of her two arguing sisters. “Here we go again. Really, this is becoming a problem…”

Chrysidea figured she’d waited on the side too long. She had to do something. Stepping in between them, she pushed both sirens aside, stretching her arms out.

“Okay, you two, please. Don’t you think this fighting solves nothing?” she pleaded, hoping to make them see reason. “Can’t we all just be nice?”

“I’ll be nice when she’s dead!” Aria tried to reach for Sonata, but Chrysidea held her back.

“I don’t even know what I do to upset you!” Sonata wailed on the other side of the changeling. “I’m not doing anything wrong. Am I?”

“Everything you do is wrong!”

“Okay, girls, really!” Chrysidea raised her voice and gave them both a push. “Could you two just stop fighting for now and let’s go have dinner? Don’t keep everyone waiting!”

“She’s right, you know?” Adagio said, pushing the dining room door open. “Chrysalis doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Whatever…” Aria huffed and was the first of the group to enter the dining room.

“You see what I have to deal with all day?” Adagio rubbed her forehead and leaned her back against the wall next to the doors. “All. Day. I don’t even know why we go everywhere together.”

“Aw, cheer up, Adagio!” Sonata grinned, hopping over. “It isn’t as bad as it looks.”

“Trust me, Sonata, it is.” The orange haired siren pulled down at her face. When she was done, she pushed off the wall and went into the dining room, grumbling to herself how she was so unlucky.

“Everyone’s so down about all this…” Sonata scratched her head, then shook off the frown and put a smile back on her face. “Anyway, I’m hungry, Dea! And that’s a nice hairband! It makes you look pretty!”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Chrysidea touched her beautiful present and grinned. It really went well with all her personas. “Well, let’s not waste anymore time. We’ve got some food to eat.”

Following Sonata into the dining room, Chrysidea gave a wave to her aunt and mother, who were already seated at the long table.

“Took you long enough,” was the first thing Chrysalis said when she spotted her daughter. “I thought I should bring some dinner up for you if you weren’t coming down soon.”

“Wait, what…?” Chrysidea said before she could stop herself. “I mean, uh, thank you for thinking about me, mother.”

In the end, the young changeling just guessed her mother was still in a good mood. She made a note to not upset her again too soon. Her mother being nice was something extremely rare. In fact, she had never seen her mother this happy ever.

“Since we are all here…” Chrysalis stood up and clapped her hands, signalling the maids to bring the food out. “Dinner is served.”

Tonight, dinner consisted of spaghetti, lasagna, chicken drumlets and a bowl of broccoli. It all looked so good, but then again, everything cooked in the Wings’ Estate always looked really delicious, plus it all tasted good too.

“So, Dea…” Chrysalis asked after swallowing a forkful of spaghetti. “How was your day? How were your lessons?”

Chrysidea cut up her chicken drumlet and cleared her throat. “It was okay today, mother. Violin lesson was as per usual. Sword fighting lessons were a bit more aggressive today, but I managed to follow Ms. Lionstrike’s instructions. It’s certainly easier than fencing. There are far less rules.”

“Gee, I want to try fencing!” Sonata waved a hand excitedly. “You think you could teach me, Dea?”

“Sonata, you do not want to try fencing,” Aria said through a mouthful of spaghetti, one strand hanging out of her mouth. “You’re too dumb for it and you’ll likely just hurt yourself. Actually you know what? Go for it.”

“Girls, please, not at the dinner table.” Ivory Wings shot them both a look, tipping her glasses lower. “Not in front of the queen.”

“Yes, girls.” Chrysalis smiled at them. “I’m in a very good mood as of late. We don’t need any negativity around the house.”

“Wait, you?” Aria raised an eyebrow at her. “In a good mood? I mean, the reason I spend more time with you than with Ivory is because you aren’t always happy and cheery.”

“No offense, Chrysalis,” Adagio quickly added for her sister.

“None taken currently.” Chrysalis began humming as she spun more spaghetti around her fork. It was really disturbing for Chrysidea to see her mother like that, but at least she wasn’t destroying things around the house. “It’s all thanks to Ivory here. She showed me a good time the other night. A really good time. Won’t you say so, sister dear?”

“As much as I don’t want to talk about it right now…” Ivory spun her utensils in her hands. “It was a good time. Left me sore for a couple of days, but it was a good time spent with my older sister.”

The two changelings shared a look, then both smiled. Chrysidea simply scrunched up her face in minor disgust.

“Oh?” Adagio Dazzle leaned closer and smirked. “You two haven’t done something like that in a long time… Do tell…”

“Well, it was rather simple, actually.” Chrysalis dabbed a napkin over her mouth. “First, Thyra just came over and started getting intimate, then after a steamy session of kissing and touching, I went over to my cupboard to get my-”

“Mother!” When all eyes turned to Chrysidea, she blushed and hid her face behind her hands, looking through her fingers with one eye. “Umm… I… Can we, um, talk about something else…?”

Instead of looking put off, Chrysalis instead cleared her throat and nodded, picking up her fork again. “Right. My apologies, Dea. This is a topic we shouldn’t discuss at the dinner table.”

Chrysidea began to calm herself, taking deep and long breaths. Perhaps having a nice mother wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Wow, you really must be in a good mood, Chrysalis!” Sonata said with a mouthful of chicken, spitting it out over the table.

“It’s true, I am.” Chrysalis leaned to the side and flicked a hand through her long hair. “Perhaps you could spend the night with me again, Thyra?”

“Not so soon again, Chryssie. And don’t mention it in front of your daughter. She’s traumatized enough as it is.”

“What? What’s wrong with what we do?” Chrysalis wore a confused face, then looked at Chrysidea. “I’m just expressing my love for my sister.”

“Because humans don’t do that…” Ivory stressed. “Not anymore at least. Human siblings don’t usually go to bed together.”

“Ah…” Chrysalis wagged a finger and smirked. “That’s where we’re different, dear. Did you think we all came from the same mother?”

“I think that’s all talk for another day, sister.” Ivory put a hand on her sister’s arm. “The story is too long and it’ll bore them all.”

What? No, I want to hear mother’s and Aunt Ivory’s origins… Chrysidea thought in her head, but didn’t say it out loud.

Ivory sniffed and found Chrysidea’s questioning look, then frowned slightly. “I don’t think you’ll like the story, sweetie. But perhaps another time, when we have more time, hmm?”

“Umm, okay, Aunt Ivory…” Chrysidea smiled sheepishly. It was hard to hide anything in this household.

The family continued on with their dinner until the last drumstick was gone. With the maids coming to clear the table, Chrysidea hopped off her chair and began making her way back to her room, still needing to get more of her homework done.

Perhaps I can get some help from Home Run…

Now that was something she really looked forward to.

Sunny Flare sat in Lemon Zest’s room, brooding over her homework, resting her head on her palm and mumbling all kinds of curses on their teachers for assigning so much homework over the weekend to prepare them for the Friendship Games.

“This isn’t preparation!” Indigo Zap wailed and slammed her head against the desk. “This is torture before the Games. And they really want us to win?”

“Intense study like this is good for the mind.” Sugarcoat pushed up her glasses. “It keeps it sharp. Your whining, on the other hand, isn’t good for anything.”

“She’s right, you know, girls?” Lemon Zest was busy listening to something on her headphones while she worked. “Just keep at it! If we really want to win, we’ll need all this information!”

“Are we even sure the Games will have academics?” Sour Sweet tossed her eraser up into the air. “What if someone lied and is trying to throw us off track?”

“Now that they’ve mentioned studies, it does make sense.” Sugarcoat rubbed her chin and looked at her friends. “We’re in school. Academics in the Games will only further our learning. That’s exactly what a school will want to do. As to how they’ll test us, we still don’t know.”

“I hope it’s not some stupid spelling bee…” Sunny blew up at her fringe and placed her head in her arms. “Spelling bees are for kids.”

“You’re just hoping they don’t test you on your bad English skills, right?” Sugarcoat said bluntly.

“Hey! My English is standard!” Sunny yelled, pointing a thumb at herself. “At least I still get a pass in that class!”

“Yeah, at least you do…” Sour Sweet replied sweetly. Then an alarm on her phone stole her attention. “Whoops, looks like it’s pills time.”

While the cranberry haired girl dug through her backpack, Sunny went back to looking over her homework, finishing up the last of her math work. At least her other subjects were easy enough. She still had no idea how she could struggle so much with English homework, which she spoke all the time.

They had all met up at Lemon Zest’s place to work on their homework together, deciding since they’re going to be working as a team during the Friendship Games, then they should actually start practicing now. The girl’s room was mostly pink, except for her tech and speakers, which were all black and green. She had a large pink stuffed toy of a bear on her bed, and it had some sort of flower on its white chest.

“Do those actually work, Sour?” Lemon Zest pulled off her headphones and watched as her friend grabbed two capsules from a box from her bag. “I mean, it doesn’t seem to do much.”

“Trust me…” Sunny slammed her math book shut and replaced it in her bag. “It makes a difference. You should see her without them.”

“Yeah, she’ll start talking to herself like there are more people in the room!” Indigo added her piece. “Kinda creepy, actually. Makes your hair stand when you think about it too much.”

“Girls, can we focus on the studying?” Sugarcoat said angrily, tapping her fingers on the table to get their attention. “Do you really want to win?”

“Of course we do!” Indigo looked proudly to the ceiling. “Winning is everything!”

Sunny nodded in agreement, then got back to her homework, pulling out her dreaded English textbook. While she worked on it, she started thinking about Silver Rose and what she could possibly be up to this night. Surely she was at home studying alone, but at least she wasn’t taking part in the Games.

Maybe I should’ve asked if she wanted to join us for studying…

Then Sunny thought back to what she had done the other day and blushed deeply. A hand drifted down to her lap, embarrassed about what she had done. Somehow, her plan that night had failed completely and now she was sure she had strange feelings for Silver Rose, even if she didn’t want to accept it.

“Sunny?” Sugarcoat was the one who noticed her looking distracted. “Are you okay? You don’t look too good.”

“Yeah, your face is all red!” Lemon Zest stood up and leaned closer to see. Sunny drew back away from her, hoping she wouldn’t say more. Unfortunately, being Lemon Zest, she did. “You’re not fantasizing about a boy are you? Is it Domino?”

“I thought you said you were over him?” Indigo inched closer as well. It seemed their studying was currently forgotten. “You’re not trying to win him back, are you?”

“I-I’m not!” Sunny’s face grew redder and she turned away.

“Come on, Sunny.” Indigo gave her a friendly punch on the shoulder. “If you really want him back, all you have to do is win the Friendship Games. Surely he’ll recognize that achievement.”

“Yeah, who can resist such a feat?” Sour put her hands together and clutched them near her face. “But why would you want him back after he dumped you? What are you after?”

“I’m not-”

“Oooh, don’t tell me you want to finish what you started?” Lemon Zest began bouncing in her seat. “You two only used to kiss. Don’t tell me you want to have sex with him? After what he did to you?”

Sunny’s face was like an overloaded heater now, glowing so red that it looked like she was going to explode. She got off her chair and ducked to the side, hiding her face from the other Shadowbolts.

“You guys!” she wailed into her arms.

“Too much, Lemon Zest.” Sugarcoat pulled the joyful girl back on her seat. “You don’t need to say such things.”

“Sunny, we’re sorry.” Sour Sweet said. “We’ll get back to studying, okay?”

Sunny Flare refused to face her friends, at least not until her face cooled down. As if she would ever want to get back with Domino Ace, that traitor. He didn’t even show the slightest remorse for hurting her when he wanted to break up.

But then again… maybe her friends did have a point. What if getting back with Domino would help her forget about her feelings for Silver Rose? Perhaps a relationship was exactly what she needed. But was it that easy? Sunny guessed there was only one way to find out. Discreetly taking her phone out, using her body to block her actions from her friends, Sunny found Domino’s contact, still in her phone and typed a message to him.

Domino can we talk. I hav sum things i need to discuss with u i think….. abt us. Can we meet up smwhr? Tomorow?

Sunny hesitated to press the send button. It was almost as embarrassing to send him the message as her friends talking about them. In the end, she swallowed hard, then thumbed the button, closing her eyes as her message was sent.

I did it. No going back now. All I have to do is wait.

“Sunny, we’re sorry,” Sugarcoat called over. “So can you please come back here? We have more work to do.”

“R-Right… Okay.” Sunny got up and slowly walked back to her chair, hesitantly sitting down. “Sorry about that. I’m just a little… confused right now.”

“So you think having a boyfriend again will solve all that?” Sour Sweet folded her arms and looked at her.

“I don’t know, Sour…” Sunny rubbed her arm. She didn’t want to tell them that she had messaged Domino after what they all said. “Can we just get back to work? We need to be prepared for the Games.”

“We should.” Sugarcoat glared at the others as she flipped a page in her textbook. “We’re not here to talk about boys today. We’re here to study and fill our minds with enough knowledge to surpass Canterlot High in the Friendship Games.”

“Right on, dude!” Lemon Zest cheered, putting her headphones back on. “Come on, I’ll need some help over in home ec!”

“Got that right!” Indigo pumped a fist up. “Canterlot High’s got nothing on us! Let’s make this an event to remember! For both our schools!”

The others joined in in snickering.

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Sunny nodded.

This was what she currently needed to take her mind off Silver Rose. Then she also had her contingency plan regarding Domino Ace. Maybe all she needed was a relationship again. She didn’t know what Domino would say to that, but she hoped he would be her answer to her obsession with the girl. It was going to be hard talking to him after what he did to her, but if she wanted to get better, then she was going to have to do this.

Chapter 49 - The Old and New

1 day to the Friendship Games

“Chrysidea, dear.” Chrysalis stood outside Chrysidea’s door, her arms folded and one leg crossed behind her other. She was once again dressed in her casual home clothes, consisting of a white t-shirt and a long dark green skirt. “When was the last time I saw you practice your sword fighting on your own? Our agreement was one hour a day.”

“Oh! I’m sorry, mother. I forgot all about that!” The young changeling took off her headphones and hit the pause button on her phone. “Shall I get right on to it?”

“Yes, I’d like that.” Chrysalis brushed her hair away from her eye and marched back outside.

Chrysidea got up and went to her closet, changing out of her nightwear and into something more fitting for an hour of sword practice. She picked out her sword fighting gear, which included the corset and the high boots. Heading down with her weapon in tow, Chrysidea got to the courtyard and unsheathed her blade, watching its steel glint in the sunlight.

The afternoon sun was high in the sky now, it’s rays lancing down around the open area. Thankfully, changelings had a little bit of a problem with heat. They just couldn’t feel it. Chrysidea knew she was only part changeling, but it still wasn’t affecting her. Perhaps if she were to actually jump into a furnace, she would get to feel what it was like to be hot, though she felt she was already quite a hot girl, pun intended.

“I’m quite pretty, right?” She looked at her reflection in her sword. She liked to admire herself in the mirror and she thought she was above average for sure.

Placing the sword by her side, the young changeling took a step back, then flicked her weapon up, her sword tip now poised to strike at someone’s throat, should someone be challenging her to a fight. With lightning speed, the girl began thrusting her weapon forward, stabbing at the same point over and over, imagining a fleshy neck in her mind, being punctured repeatedly by her blade.

Then drawing back in a serpentine fashion, Chrysidea swung her sword in a circle on her left and right, then cut out to her right after a spin.

Sword fighting was actually something she really enjoyed, but she didn’t see a point of it in the real world. People these days used guns and you weren’t even allowed to carry a sword in public, so she couldn’t find a good time where this would actually come in handy.

Still, she had an agreement with her mother, so here she was, practicing on her own. Her brow furrowed slightly. Practicing on her own was all well and good, but without a proper opponent, there was simply no way to see if she was doing it right or not. Ms. Lionstrike was the only sparring partner she’d ever had, and Chrysidea wagered she could hold her own against her, if needed be.

She continued to practice for the rest of the hour, thrusting and slashing at her imaginary foe, driving her blade through the air with shimmering strikes. It was a vastly different experience from fencing, which was wrapped up in so many rules about safety and honor. Here, the objective was simple. Stop the opponent from getting back up.

Ending her imaginary opponent with a stab to the heart, Chrysidea swiped her sword to the side to remove any imaginary blood and sheathed it. Wiping her forehead with the back of a hand. She had used some love energy to follow up with her attacks today, but only just enough so that she wasn’t tired now.

Done, Chrysidea headed back inside the house, only to walk into her mother, who was standing by one of the windows facing the courtyard.

“Well practiced, Chrysidea.” The changeling queen inhaled and smiled, folding her arms. “I wanted to think you were at least rusty from the lack of practice, but I’m pleased to say you’re still in form.”

“I am?” Chrysidea said hesitantly. “It’s kind of hard to tell without someone to duel against though. I don’t suppose…”

“Who, me?” Chrysalis let out a bark of laughter. “My dear little snowdrop, I don’t think there’s a person in the world who can match my skill with a blade. No. Ask your aunt. She’s better at this training thing anyway.”

“Oh, um, okay…” Chrysidea rubbed her neck. Also, her mother had never called her a snowdrop before. She must still be happy from the other night. “I guess I’ll go look for Aunt Ivory now.”

“I think she’s in the workshop,” Chrysalis said idly. “I hope she’s not ruining more of my dartboards in there.”

Chrysidea set her sword on a nearby table and proceeded down the hall, all the way to the end. There, the young changeling made a right turn, knocking her fingers on a steel door, the metallic sound ringing out around the vicinity.

There was a muffled click and the door swung open. Chrysidea was surprised to see wood shavings all over the workshop interior, with a small clear space where her aunt was sitting, apparently working on something that resembled a small human doll.

“Umm… what’s up, Aunt Ivory?” Chrysidea walked in, carefully avoiding the shavings as she approached her aunt. “And wait. How did you open the door if you didn’t get up?”

Ivory Wings looked up and waved a small black device with a red button at its center. She pressed the button and the door swung shut.

“So, what brings my favorite niece all the way out here to my workplace?” Ivory said, returning her attention to the wooden figure in her hands, whittling it down with a small knife. “I don’t suppose it was because your mother wanted to check on the dartboards?”

“Oh, well, she did mention the dartboards, but that’s not why I’m here.” Chrysidea scratched at her cheek. “Um, would you like to, uh, spar with me, Aunt Ivory? I could use an opponent.”

“And I suppose your mother said no when you asked her?” Ivory chuckled. “I thought she might. Her bladework is magnificent, but she doesn’t know how to tone it down for practice.”

“Oh.” Chrysidea looked around the workshop, kicking at a piece of wood. “Well… would you like to, Aunt Ivory? I mean, you’re quite busy. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I’d be pleased to spar with you, sweetie,” Ivory said, putting down the doll and her knife. “One thing though. I need to prepare the proper outfit to duel with. Should only take me a week or so. Shall we pick this up then?” Ivory returned to the doll, meticulously carving out the features on its face.

“Oh, not today?” Chrysidea tried to not look too disappointed, but on the bright side, at least she could get back to her room to listen to some music. She had been listening to some country tunes to have more to talk about with Home Run. “I guess that means I’m done with my sword practice for today. You have fun, Aunt Ivory. Actually, what are you working on?”

The girl stepped closer to have a better look.

“It’s a doll, see?” Ivory held it up for her niece to look at. “It’s early stages yet, but it’s supposed to be a doll of this one Assassin I was feeding off of that time when I was in the Assassin Brotherhood. I’m still not sure where he his now, but it will be nice to have a memento of him, don’t you think?”

“You haven’t tried contacting him, Aunt Ivory?” Chrysidea leaned close to the wooden figure to look at the details. It was roughly in the shape of a human, with two arms and legs, but otherwise, it was still mostly featureless at the moment.

“Well, he probably thinks I’m dead, so contacting him would somewhat spoil the effect, don’t you think?” Ivory said wryly.

“But you’re making a memento of him.” Chrysidea looked confused at her aunt. “Um, would that mean he’s somewhat special to you? Can you do that?”

“I like to have mementoes of interesting people I meet,” Ivory Wings said. “I have a lot more back at my penthouse in Manehattan. Which reminds me, I should start moving some of my stuff from the penthouse to here. Be nice to take some things out of storage.”

“Yeah, I haven’t got to see all the cool stuff you’ve shown me, Aunt Ivory.” The young changeling kicked at another piece of shaved wood. Then she remembered part of what her mother and aunt were talking about yesterday and it piqued her interest again. “Aunt Ivory? Can I ask a personal question?”

“Sure, sweetie.” Ivory stopped her carving again and looked over to her niece. “Shoot.”

“Are you… are you really my aunt?” Chrysidea spat out quickly before she could change her mind. “Like, related to me? I mean… no offense or anything, I’m just curious as to what mother said last night. About you two not having the same mother?”

“But I am your aunt, sweetie.” Ivory put down her doll and placed a hand on her niece’s cheek. “Just… if you want to get biological, then not by blood. Not exactly. We’re all family. We were all family. All my brothers and sisters and your mother. True, most of us did not originate together, but we built our home and our family up together. So to answer your question, yes, I’m your aunt, and I always will be. Okay?”

“Okay.” Chrysidea stepped in and threw her arms around her aunt. “You’ll always be my aunt, Aunt Ivory. So when will I get to hear how you all came together?”

“Some other time, Dea.” Ivory stroked her niece’s turquoise hair. “It is a long tale. It might bore you a little. A lot of just living out our lives doing nothing.”

“Oh. Well, maybe you can skip over the boring bits?”

“Not a chance, sweetie. If you want to hear the story, you’ll have to hear the whole tale, not just the parts I pick out. Probably for the best if your mother is there too. She might remember things I’ve forgotten.”

“You know, I do doubt that…” Chrysidea couldn’t imagine her mother being an accurate historian. Like the time she had told her that she had beat a man’s face in with an apple. Aunt Ivory had said that her mother had actually just ripped the man’s arm off and killed him with it.

“Well, whatever it is, why don’t you run along, Dea?” Ivory picked up her doll again. “Go have some fun. You really deserve it.”

“Okay.” Chrysidea skipped for the door. “If you need anything, I’d be happy to lend a hand, Aunt Ivory.”

“I’m sure you will,” Ivory Wings said with a knowing smile. “I’m sure you will.”

With the sun beginning to descend from its spot in the sky, Sunny Flare found herself in the nearby park, wiping sweat off her forehead with a handkerchief. It wasn’t too hot right now, but she didn’t want to look grimy and gross in front of Domino, at least not right now.

Her ex-boyfriend had agreed to meet her today and even better, he had chosen a park near her home as their meeting spot, which meant she didn’t need to go far.

She had on a pink top with her insignia on it, along with a red skirt and purple sports shoes. She didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt like she was underdressed for this. Was it normal to dress up when meeting an ex? Perhaps she should have used more perfume, or heavier makeup…

Slapping herself mentally, Sunny stopped fretting about her appearance and thought back to the purpose of today’s meeting. One way or another, something was going to be cleared up by the day’s end.

Somehow, everything had become so messed up since that incident with Silver Rose. From despising Silver, she had somehow developed feelings for her, feelings that Sunny still didn’t want to acknowledge. Then there was Domino Ace too. From boyfriend to the most hated boy on the planet, she had now gone to the point where she was worrying how she looked in front of him again. Things were really just going so well right now, she thought sarcastically.

And then she saw him. Domino Ace, strolling up to her from the street on the side. Domino Ace was an alabaster-skinned boy with black hair and red eyes. Today, out of school, he was wearing his usual blue shirt, minus the jacket because of the heat, and black jeans. Even though she didn’t want to admit it, Domino was still really handsome.

“Sunny.” He nodded his head in greeting when he got close enough. “Let me say, when I got your message yesterday, I was rather dumbfounded. I didn’t think you would contact me again. So why did you want to meet? Something you need to say?”

Sunny swallowed and looked at the boy’s feet, afraid to meet his stunning eyes. “W-Well… I wanted to talk a-about… about us, Domino. I’ve thought about it. Do you-do you think there’s anyway… we can… start again?”

“Oh… is that it?” Domino said awkwardly. “Look, Sunny, I like you and all, but…”

“But what?”

“I don’t know if you already know this, but… I’m kind of already seeing someone.”

“O-Oh, you are…?” Sunny’s cheeks colored. “With who?”

“Ginger Owlseye,” Domino answered. “We’ve been dating for almost three months now. I’m kinda surprised you didn’t know. Pretty much everyone does.”

Sunny guessed the information must’ve slipped from her, because she had been avoiding everything related to Domino since last year. She had no intention of seeing him again. Until now. And she was too late.

“Ginger, huh?” The mulberry haired girl rubbed a hand on her arm. “I-I’m… I, umm…”

“And besides, we didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms anyway. You seemed… kind of broken up about it. No pun intended.”

“And you didn’t care, Domino.” Sunny put a hand on her chest to steady herself. “You don’t know how much you hurt me when you wanted to break up. I liked you, Domino. I liked you so much. And then you just decided to end it.”

Domino put his hands in his pockets and looked aside at the ground. “I already gave you my reasons, Sunny. The relationship wasn’t going anywhere, and you weren’t going fast enough. Our relationship was stuck where it was. And to be honest about it, now that I’ve had time to think about it, I wasn’t really into it either.”

“And you still don’t care about how I felt, huh?” Sunny’s lip began to tremble. She sat down on the bench beside her. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to talk to Domino again. “I’m sorry… this meeting was a mistake. All it did was bring up painful memories again. It didn’t solve anything for me…”

“Sunny,” Domino said, sitting down next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “You have to move on. What we had is in the past. Look, I’m sure you can find someone you like. It might not even have to be someone from Crystal Prep. But I’m certain that if you try, you can find someone. You’re basically the most popular girl in school. I’m sure it won’t be hard.”

I’ve already found someone… Sunny thought miserably. And I don’t even know if she likes me back. And I don’t want this… I like boys…

“I thought I had moved on…” Sunny whispered, looking at her hands on her lap. “But then… things have been happening lately and I thought maybe what I needed was to get back with you.”

Domino sighed and stood up, staring at the sunset. “I’m sorry too, Sunny. But whatever your problems are, you shouldn’t give up on them so quickly. Talk it out with your friends or something. The Shadowbolts are smart people, they can help you figure it out.” He then pulled out his phone and checked it before sighing. “I’m going to need to get home for dinner soon. Is there anything else you wanted to say?”

Frantic for an end to her troubles, Sunny reached a hand out and grabbed the side of the boy’s jeans, tears close to forming in her eyes. “Please, Domino. I need to know. I need to know that… I’m still sane. I want to know. Please, maybe I was wrong to say we should’ve proceeded slower. I just… I need a guy right now. Could you do it with me? Just once! That’s all I need! Please, I can’t turn to anyone else.”

“Sunny, no, I can’t.” Domino tried to pull his leg away from her. “I’ve got Ginger now. Look, you’ll find a way okay? I think I really should get going now.”

“I-I…” Then Sunny realized what she had been asking and let go. That was such a terrible thing to say, especially since Domino was already in another relationship. “I’m sorry, Domino. I’m really sorry.”

“Like I said…” Domino patted down his jeans and straightened his shirt. “You can figure this out. I’ll see you in school tomorrow, yeah?” The black haired boy began to leave, but then turned around one more time. “Hey, win it out there tomorrow, okay?” Then he turned back and headed further away, soon out of sight.

That didn’t go how I planned for it… Sunny sat by herself in the park, resting her elbows on her knees and looking down. In the end, pursuing Domino as a means to be sure that she was still interested in guys, had failed. He said he had been with Ginger Owlseye for almost three months now, meaning he had been with her even before Silver started attending Crystal Prep; that road had been blocked off long before Sunny came up with this plan. She never had a chance with getting back together with him again. Perhaps it was for the best. She had hated him for dumping her, and maybe it was only because she was desperate that she saw him as someone important again.

Whatever the case was, Domino’s last words had stuck with her. The Friendship Games would be starting tomorrow and she couldn’t be caught brooding over having feelings for Silver or Domino. Whatever her messed up mind was thinking right now, she had to push it all back. The Games came first and Crystal Prep had never lost once. She wasn’t going to lose focus and make this their first loss ever.

Whatever feelings she currently had, Sunny shook them out of her head and filled it instead with thoughts of victory and the Friendship Games. For now, her conflicts would have to wait. Winning came first and it always came first. After all, winning was everything, right?

Chapter 50 - One Long Ride

The first day of the Friendship Games

The first things Silver Rose noticed that morning when her aunt stopped her outside Crystal Prep Academy were the multiple purple buses parked along the road. She spotted the drivers hanging about outside, some of them drinking coffee or reading newspapers.

“Have fun, okay sweetie?” Ivory Wings stretched a hand out and rubbed her niece on the shoulder. “It’s a big day today. If you see the sirens over at CHS, say hi for me, alright?”

Silver nodded happily and waved goodbye to her aunt, skipping off to join the rest of the students who were streaming into Crystal Prep. She passed by Neon Lights and Trenderhoof on the way, with the brown-skinned boy giving her a wave and a thumbs up. Silver waved back and went on, first heading to her locker to dump her books. Supposedly, there were going to be no lessons today, so she could leave everything she had in her locker, except for the homework she had to turn in. She didn’t know how it was going to work, seeing as they were going to be leaving at third period. Perhaps Mr. Beaker was just going to collect their homework and pass it to the rest of their teachers himself.

When she was done, Silver walked along to homeroom, settling herself down before taking her phone out. Deciding to text Home Run, she brought up her messages and began composing one to him.

Hiya Home Run! She added a kissing face emoji. Friendship Games today huh? Best of luck 2 u! Ill be rooting for my sis of course but i hope ur school does well too!!

She clicked off her phone’s screen and looked up at the front of class, daydreaming about Home Run and the many kisses she had shared with him. She figured it was only for a few seconds and her aunt and mother weren’t around, so she let Silver’s mind drift, thinking about the boy. Could it really be love she was starting to feel towards him? Silver knew she shouldn’t get too attached to her prey, but she was. Home Run was nice, caring, funny at times, cute, and then not to mention he wasn’t too bad on the eyes too. She really liked him and the time she spent with him. She just wanted it go on forever.

She sighed as she looked back down at her desk. Would life with Home Run be so impossible to achieve?

Just then, Sour Sweet stomped into the classroom, her footsteps echoing around the class’ crystalline floor with clinks, and behind her followed a very afraid and worried looking Twilight Sparkle, who averted her eyes from the rest of her class. She had on a weird looking amulet-like object, attached to a string around her neck.

“What is she thinking?!” Sour Sweet asked the class, getting even Ms. Post Script’s attention. “Why would Principal Cinch choose her to be on our team?!”

The cranberry haired girl pointed a menacing finger at the retreating Twilight Sparkle, who quickly sat down at her table and pulled out a book to cover her face.

“And I thought Principal Cinch wanted us to win! How are we going to win if we have someone like Twilight on the team?!”

“Sour Sweet, I believe that is enough.” Ms. Script got up and glared at her. “There will be no yelling and accusations in this class.”

Sour Sweet grumbled all the way to her seat and as she sat down.

When everyone returned to whatever they were doing, Silver took the chance to turn around and look at Twilight, who still had her book up. So this was Crystal Prep’s twelfth and final member to the team? Silver knew Twilight was smart and all, but did she have the physical ability the others had?

“Hey, Twilight,” she whispered over. When the book was lowered, she caught a glimpse of the girl’s purple eyes. “Hey, you okay? That wasn’t very nice of Sour Sweet.”

“I’ll be fine now…” Twilight answered meekly.

“Did Principal Cinch really pick you to participate?” Silver was curious. Twilight never seemed like a team player.

“Yeah, she did…” Twilight lowered the book a little more. Only then did Silver notice the book was upside down, but she didn’t say it out. “Principal Cinch thinks I would be a good addition to the Shadowbolt team. I disagreed, but… you know what, I can’t change anything now, forget about it.”

“Well, um…” Silver smiled her sweetest smile. “Go out there and do your best, huh?”

“I’ll try,” Twilight sighed unhappily.

Silver returned her attention back to the front of class as Ms. Script got up to take their attendance. After they were done with that, they turned in their homework, which was an essay about poetry and a few questions about some readings. After that, they simply sat around, not doing anything until the bell. Silver found that to be incredibly time wasting and boring and she couldn’t even take her phone out to message Home Run, because they still weren’t allowed to use their phones during class.

Which meant when the bell finally rang for class to be over, there was an enthusiastic scuffle for the door, with a bottleneck of students crowding around the exit trying to escape. Her next class was Mr. Fowl’s, which was almost just as boring because there wasn’t anything to do. They had turned in all their homework here too, but other than that, it was just a free and easy period. Thankfully, Canvas Splash had been there to relieve the dreary mood with a few splashes of paint on a small canvas. By class’ end, she had finished a picture of Mr. Fowl, which the teacher had gladly accepted.

“I’ll see you later, maybe?” Canvas slung her bag over one shoulder. She hadn’t punctured any tubes of paint in her bag recently, which was good. Silver didn’t quite like the smell, nor did she like Canvas’ bag dripping with paint. “They’ll tell us the bus assignments later, so maybe we’ll get to sit together.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Silver waved goodbye and proceeded to chemistry class, where Mr. Beaker was already waiting with a clipboard in his hands.

He looked at Silver and ticked off something on his clipboard as she walked in. The science teacher hadn’t said anything, so Silver just walked over to her seat and sat down, taking her homework out in advance. Soon, Trenderhoof was in, finding his way to the table beside her and sitting down.

“Hey, Silver Rose,” the boy greeted and pulled his stack of homework from his bag. “We’re almost there now. Mr. Beaker’s just going to collect our work and make sure we’re all here, then we’re off to the Friendship Games! Oh, this is exciting! It’ll surely make a good read in my magazine.”

“Yeah, looks big.” Silver nodded and waved to Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat as they entered the class. Sunny seemed to shy away when waving back, but Silver guessed she still was partly afraid of her. “Hey, Trenderhoof, do you know what we’re doing with the rest of our homework? Are we just handing it all to Mr. Beaker?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what all the teachers are doing today,” he shrugged. “They’ll probably just sort it out later or something.”

“Interesting…” Silver stacked her work neatly. “I don’t see why they won’t just wait till after the Games to collect them all.”

“They want to make sure we did it on time.”

“A lot of trouble to go through for that, isn’t it?”

As they had talked about, Mr. Beaker called out for all their homework to be passed down to the front, also asking for them to be placed together by name. Silver did as she was told, watching as the class noisily began putting all their papers forward.

When they were done, Mr. Beaker checked them all off again, then cleared his throat and straightened his black framed glasses. “Okay, class, listen up. When I release you, you are all to go to the buses by ten-fifteen, got it? Dean Cadance will be there to tell you which buses you are to go on. Any questions?”

No one raised their hands or said anything.

“Good,” Mr. Beaker said, putting his arms behind his back. “Then you may leave. Remember, ten-fifteen.”

By the time Silver Rose picked up her things, Trenderhoof was already out the door, smelling like he was really excited to start the Games. Silver didn’t blame him. They’d been preparing way before she even enrolled here and they had waited so long for this day to prove they were the better school. Today, they would finally get the chance.

She noticed that Sunny, Sugarcoat and Indigo had already left as well, likely already at the front of the queue for the buses.

Seeing no point in rushing, Silver took her time in leaving the class, not bothering to push through her classmates like the others were doing. She found Canvas on the way out, putting some of her paints into her locker.

“Hey, Canvas. Not bringing your paints?”

“Oh, no. Just not bringing the unnecessary ones.” The artist closed her locker. “I’m thinking of sketching the Games out. I won’t leave without my stuff.”

“That’s neat, Canvas.” Silver walked alongside the girl as they began making their way out of the hall. There were a few other students still around, but it was mostly empty, with all the others rushing out to the buses as soon as they were able to. “How do we know which buses we’re on?”

“Dean Cadance will let us know when we get outside. We’ll just need to find her.” The painter shrugged and pointed to the main doors. “One way to find out. I hope I’m in the same bus as you, Silver. I don’t have anyone else to sit with.”

“Alright, let’s see where they’re going to put us.”

After getting their bus assignments from Dean Cadance,who was smelling of excitement and anticipation, they went back to the buses. They had been assigned to the first bus in the row of buses. Silver spotted Sunny and Sour Sweet by the front. At least there were others on the bus she was familiar with.

Finding the line to the bus, Silver stood at the back, humming to herself alongside Canvas Splash. This would be the first time Silver Rose had officially visited CHS. Her times as Moonglade didn’t count. She looked forward to seeing the intricate details of their campus and comparing it to Crystal Prep’s own. As the queue moved further a bit, she could hear Indigo Zap yelling, “Are we gonna win?” at some hapless bystander.

Gee, tone it down a bit, Indigo.

The line crawled forward as more and more students boarded the bus. Finally, Silver and Canvas were on board, sitting next to each other at a seat near the front. Silver looked over at the bus driver, who somehow reminded her a whole lot of Home Run. He had the same hair and skin color, pretty much, and his facial features were quite similar too. Now that she thought about it, she had never asked about the boy’s parents. She had no idea what they worked as. She made a reminder to do so the next time they were to go on a date. The next time he and Moonglade were to go on a date, she corrected herself.

Sunny and Sour Sweet were near the middle, while Sugarcoat, Twilight Sparkle and Lemon Zest were at the rear. Sugarcoat was saying something to Twilight and she didn’t look too pleased about it. Lemon Zest, was as usual, headbanging to some music on her headphones. Silver wondered just how her ears never got damaged by all the loud music she had on that thing. Indigo was still hopping up and down on the seat opposite side of Silver and Canvas’ seats, across the aisle. She looked to be the most excited student aboard.

“Hey,” Silver said to Canvas once the last few students got on. “How far is it to CHS anyway? They’re not in the city, are they?”

“More in the suburbs, I think,” Canvas replied. “Never actually been there myself, but I saw a it on a map once. Shouldn’t take more than half an hour.”

“Half an hour?” Silver said, shocked. “I thought it would just take ten.”

Canvas laughed. “Do you know what kind of driver you’d have to be to make it to CHS in ten minutes? You’d be running a lot of red lights.”

Silver rubbed her other hand unconsciously. “Heheh, yeah… that’s, uh, very true. You’re probably right about that.”

Just then Indigo Zap had reached over and began tapping Silver furiously on the arm to get her attention. “Hey, Silver! Too bad you’re not part of the team, but we’re still going to win this anyway. We’ve been training for so long now! Cheer for us as loudly as you can, huh?”

“You got it, Indigo.” Silver nodded. Indigo pressed a small flag into her hands. It was purple and had ‘CPA’ printed on both sides. “Looks like everyone on. What are we waiting for?”

“Sorry for the delays!” Quillion Riposte stepped into the bus. “Just had to pack the last of the fencing gear into the bus. Never know what the Games might bring, so better safe than sorry.”

After him, Mr. Fowl got in, with the doors closing behind him and the bus engine beginning to rumble.

“Okay, settle down, students.” Their hawk-like teacher waved both his hands around. “Now the ride there won’t be too long, but I want you all to be on your best behavior when arriving. Wouldn’t want to damage the reputation of our school, now would we?”

More like damage the reputation of our foul tasting principal. Silver was glad that she would not have to share a bus with Cinch; it probably would have made her sick, even with all her training.

Quillion sat down behind Silver and Canvas, beside Royal Pin, while Mr. Fowl took the lone seat up by the front, a book already out in his hands.

“Dude! You have gotta hear this!” Silver heard Lemon Zest yell at the back as the bus began to move off. She was probably sharing her music with some unfortunate soul. Silver hoped it would be someone who actually liked Copperrear.

Canvas suddenly tapped her on the shoulder, then leaned in to whisper, “Silver, Quillion’s sitting behind us!”

“Um, yes, I can see him.” Silver looked at her funny.

“He’s so cool and handsome.” A pencil and sketchbook suddenly materialized in Canvas’ hands. “I think I’ll sketch him! I’ve never been this close to him.”

“Okay, you uh, you do that, Canvas,” Silver answered, unsure of what else she could say.

Canvas opened her sketchbook and began scribbling furiously in it while Silver set the timer on her phone. She wanted to see just how long it would take for this bus to reach CHS as opposed to her usual ride’s speed.

Thirty-two minutes and forty-nine seconds later, the bus pulled up alongside Canterlot High.

“Finally,” Silver Rose grumbled. “I thought I was going to die on this bus, it was taking so long.”

“What, for real?” Canvas looked up, then added one last touch to her work and held it up for Silver to see. “And I’m done! What do you think?”

The sketch was of Quillion’s face, ending just at the neck. It was well done, but it wasn’t as sharp, seeing as they were in a moving vehicle, but still, it was quite the masterpiece.

“That’s really nice, Canvas, but…” Silver looked back to make sure Quillion wasn’t looking. “Maybe you should keep it before Quillion sees it. It’ll seem kinda creepy to him.”

“What was that?” Quillion turned to look at her.

Silver quickly pushed Canvas down below the back of the seat and smiled. “Um, nothing! Don’t you worry about a thing! Just glad we’re finally here!”

“Be nice to stretch our legs,” Quillion agreed. “I wonder if they do fencing here. Let’s ask around, why don’t we.”

“Okay, kids.” Mr. Fowl got up right after the bus came to a complete stop, with the driver shutting off the engine. “We’re going to alight from this bus in a neat, orderly fashion. We’ll start from the front. Let’s move it, kids.”

Indigo Zap and her neighbor were the first ones out, followed by Silver and Canvas. As soon as she stepped out of the bus, Silver looked around, spotting the school’s horse statue, followed by the school itself. It was all familiar to her, but this was Silver’s first time here, so she pretended to look like she was taking in her new surroundings.

“Hmm…” Canvas stuck out a hand and made an ‘L’ shape, moving it around with one eye closed. “The shape is nice, but it doesn’t look nearly as nice as Crystal Prep does.”

“It’s definitely not as shiny,” Silver agreed as they began walking, now heading past the horse statue. As she did so, something drew her eye to the white stone. She reached out a hand to touch it. The statue felt faintly warm under her fingers, something which she was unaccustomed to feeling. Shaking her head, the girl took her hand off the statue and skipped after Canvas, managing to keep to the line, while Quillion and Royal Pin came along behind her.

There was a muffled thud, and Silver looked around just in time to see Sunny and Twilight on the ground, the latter being glared at by the former.

“Seriously?” Sunny asked, a scowl on her face.

“Oh, sorry!” Twilight squeaked. “I didn’t mean to.”

Silver figured the Games were having them all on edge, especially the usually timid and lonely Twilight. In a way, she felt sorry for her.

Sunny Flare had gotten to her feet and walked away, and as Twilight rose to her own feet, she almost bumped into Sour Sweet.

“Sorry. Why don’t you go ahead?”

Sour Sweet’s face arranged itself into a radiant smile. “You are such a sweetie!” Almost immediately it changed. “I’m watching you.” And she and Sunny went on ahead.

Silver turned back to move on, turning around again as Lemon Zest jumped out of the bus, rocking out to some tune on her headphones.

“Usual,” Silver muttered, then resumed her walk to the school building with Canvas. She wanted to go back and ask Twilight if she was okay, but she could already imagine the reply she would get, so she gave this one a pass.

Dean Cadance and Principal Cinch were already there by the school, talking to two other women, whom Silver guessed were Canterlot High’s leaders. Indeed, her aunt had spoken about impersonating one of them before. She wondered how well that had gone down.

Reaching the front steps of the school, the line dispersed, with the Crystal Prep students going around to look at the place.

Silver quickly found the rest of the Shadowbolts, all crowded together and examining the exterior of the campus, with either derisive smirks or looks of extreme boredom. Canvas already had her sketchbook out and was drawing the school building with her pencil.

“This place looks like trash,” Sour Sweet guffawed. “I hope the students here aren’t the same. But highly unlikely, right?”

“We’re going to squash Canterlot High like bugs!” Indigo emphasized this by smashing a fist into her palm.

“Oh, come on, girls,” Silver said, regretting it when all their eyes turned to her. “Um… they’re, um, still people. We can just play this… um, nicely, right? Heheh…”

“Nicely?” Sunny Flare scoffed and rolled her eyes. “We don’t have to, Silver. They’re our opponents. We’re aiming to win, not to make friends.”

“Oh.”

Silver lowered her finger and returned her hand to her side. Clearly the Shadowbolts had a very different opinion about what ‘Friendship Games’ meant.

“So what now?” Sour Sweet sighed and sat down on the school steps. “Are we supposed to just sit around and admire their school? Because it isn’t working.”

“I’ll go ask Dean Cadance if you like,” Canvas offered.

“No one’s asking you, paintbrush,” Sunny snapped at her. “But since you asked, then go on.”

After the pink haired artist left the group, the Shadowbolts began muttering amongst themselves, but Silver had excellent hearing, able to hear what they were saying.

“Why is she even hanging around us for?” Sugarcoat whispered. “She doesn’t even consider us friends.”

“She’s such a complete weirdo!” Sour Sweet replied. “If only she’d stop talking to herself and stop being such a klutz.”

Silver Rose frowned slightly at the abuse of Canvas. She considered saying something, but then something bumped into her from behind. “Hmm?”

“Sorry to intrude on you, Silver,” Quillion said, his arms loaded with a stack of fencing helmets. “But we’re a bit overloaded with gear right now and I can’t find Fleur. Would you mind grabbing that bag of foils and carrying them in? I think Dean Cadance has a place for us to put this stuff.”

“Oh, um, sure Quillion.” Silver got the Shadowbolts’ attention. “Excuse me, girls, I’ll go help Quillion. I’ll see you later, hmm?”

“Right.” Sunny looked at her up and down, then quickly looked to the side. “Uh, we’ll see you later, yeah.”

Silver nodded and waved, then followed after the fencing team captain. “Hey, Quillion? Did any of the other teams bring any gear? Just curious. I haven’t seen any of the others carry anything.”

“Well…” Quillion started, pushing a hand through his purple hair. “The teams like basketball and soccer don’t need anything. As for the motocross team, their bikes were already brought here yesterday, so I’ve heard.”

“So it’s confirmed that there’ll be motocross?” Silver asked as she hefted the bag of foils. For such thin swords, in a bunch like this they were surprisingly heavy, at least when she wasn’t expending any love.

“Yeah, I thought that’s why you and the Shadowbolts were practicing that day?”

“Well, yeah, but I thought that officially, we wouldn’t know what the events were until they happened.”

“That’s what’s supposed to happen, but you know…” Quillion shrugged, even with the bags around his shoulders. “There are always ways people will find things out. I guess someone did some digging and figured that out.”

“Isn’t that kind of, you know, cheating?” Silver asked. “Does the other school know about it?”

“Well, they came to spy on us, right? So I’m guessing they must know something.”

Silver nodded. It was true. “So where do I put this bag?”

Quillion scratched his head. “Just hold onto it for the time being. I’ll tell you where to put it later. I need to go check in. You should too.”

“Guess I should check in with him…” Silver said, hefting the bag and listening to the swords clatter around inside. It was a bother to lug the bag around with her, but she decided to ignore it after seeing that Quillion had three other bags with him. If he could handle it, then she could too.

Chapter 51 - Throwing Down the Gauntlet

After checking in, Silver Rose and the rest of the fencing team were informed that they would be able to put down their gear in a shed out by the playing field.

“I’m not sure why you brought all your equipment here,” Dean Cadance had said. “But I commend your willingness to help in the Games and your school spirit.”

“Thank you, Dean Cadance,” Quillion answered for the team. “It’s always good to be prepared, in case fencing has been chosen for the Games.”

“Hmm, that’s good.” Their dean smiled and looked over to the other students lining up to check in. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll have to go make sure everyone’s here. If you need anything, you know where to find me.”

“Got it. Thanks again, Dean Cadance.” Quillion led the team ahead, then walked over to Silver. “Silver Rose, if you would like, you could go find the others. We’ll take the bags from here.”

Silver slung the bag strap higher up her shoulder. “I’m already holding it. It’s no trouble, I’ll come along.”

They went around Canterlot High, looking for the way out to the playing field. Unable to navigate the corridors at the moment without a map, Fleur suggested they just head back outside and make their way around the main building. With everyone agreeing, they team made their way back to the school’s entrance, with Silver remembering the way they had come from. In no time, they were around the school and on the soccer field, which appeared to have been extensively remodeled. Now there were both wooden and dirt ramps around it, some kind of track in the middle, and at the center, several rope swings and some dartboard-looking things. Silver guessed that they were probably meant for archery, and the ramps for motocross, but the rest of the field’s implements were unfathomable to her.

“Wow, whoever had to dig this all out must be back home sleeping for the next few nights…” Silver scratched at her brow. She found it a little too much for a simple school event. Perhaps the Friendship Games were a lot more crazy than she had first expected. At least they now knew motocross was for sure a thing, or at least, it looked like it was.

At the back, they spotted a shed where a group of Canterlot High students were situated, placing carts of sports gear into the shed. Silver soon spotted a familiar face putting a cart of baseball mitts and bats back in the shed and had to control herself from running over there to give him a hug. After all, she wasn’t Moonglade right now, but Silver Rose.

When Quillion began walking over the field, Silver immediately followed, her eyes staying on Home Run after he exited the shed, dusting at his sleeves. They saw them approaching and stopped to look. Silver recognized the brown haired ponytail boy, Jetstream, standing by the shed’s wall, folding his arms and trying to look cool as the team approached them.

“Hi there, we were told to put our fencing gear here.” Quillion got straight to the point.

“Crystal Prep?” Jetstream mumbled, like he was trying to pretend he had something sticking out of his mouth. “Crystal Prep wants to share our shed space? Oh, the sky must be falling now, huh?”

“Good one, Jets…” A boy with long white hair and peach skin began snickering. “But seriously, you don’t have a more… posh place to put your gear?”

“We were instructed to bring it here,” Quillion replied stoutly. “All our gear is marked so it won’t get mixed up with your own fencing equipment.”

“Please, like we have time for fencing,” Jetstream snorted and narrowed one eye. “Fencing is for sissies, right, Lightning, my boy? I dare say we have better swordsmanship here. Real sword skills. Not something like fencing.”

“You say what you want, Jets.” A boy with silver-blonde hair shrugged, sitting over by a bench. Silver had seen them all before, but she only knew Jetstream and Home Run’s names. “I can’t be bothered to even insult these guys.”

“Aw, come on, guys.” Home Run stepped forward and turned to his friends. “We haven’t even started and you’re all already being so antagonistic. Come on, be more civil, huh?”

Atta boy, Home Run… Silver smiled. Trust him to be the nice one to try to bridge the rift between their schools.

“Home Run’s right, you know?” A girl with teal and grey hair agreed, wiping a drop of sweat from the side of her face. “We can be better than this. We don’t need to be so mean.”

“See? Velvet agrees.” Home Run motioned to the girl.

“That’s because both of you haven’t been to this school as long as us,” Jetstream rebutted. “You and your Shadowbolts have caused no end of trouble for us.”

“It’s not our fault we’re better at everything.” Fleur looked at her nails, unimpressed. “You can’t blame us for that.”

“What do you mean, better at everything?” Jetstream demanded, throwing his hands up over his head. “Did you hear what she just said, Lightning Rain?”

Lightning Rain shrugged, taking out a piece of gum and popping it in his mouth. “Hey, the evidence does support what she says. You might not like it, but you can’t deny she’s kind of right.”

“Hey, you shut your face!”

“Why’re you helping them?” A girl that looked remarkably alike to the peach-skinned boy pointed a finger at the silver-blonde boy. She had the same skin color and facial features. “Crystal Prep is our rival school. Even if it’s not just the competition, have you seen what they’ve done to our school?”

“What, they haven’t done anything, right?” Home Run looked between his friends and Silver and the fencing team.

“They put clown shoes on our statue!” the pink haired girl yelled. “I mean, how do you even do that?”

“You gotta admit, that was a sweet prank…” the boy with the peach skin laughed.

“Just a friendly reminder that we were better.” Royal Pin put a hand on his blazer’s collar. “No harm done.”

“No harm done!” Jetstream said, outraged. “Why I ought to-”

“And that’s enough out of you, man,” Lightning Rain came up from behind and put a hand on Jetstream’s furious mouth. “We’re going back inside. Feel free to put your equipment in the shed.”

The boy and his struggling partner then half-walked, half dragged themselves into the school.

“Quite the friends you have, huh, Home Run?” Silver said, then immediately stopped herself. Uh oh.

“You know my name?” The blue haired boy looked at her.

“Uh, um… I…” Silver’s cheeks turned red as she tried to find the right words to use. “You… uh, I’m Moonglade’s sister.”

“Oh.” Home Run’s eyes widened with recognition. “Silver Rose?” He stretched out a hand. “Nice to meet you. Moonglade’s told me quite a bit about you.”

“L-Likewise…” Silver smiled awkwardly and shook his hand. “Sh-she talks a lot about you. I mean, a lot.”

“This fellow knows your sister?” Fleur eyed Home Run and his attire. “He is so simple.”

“Well, umm…” Silver scratched her head. “He’s m… I mean, her boyfriend. And she really seems to like him a lot. I wouldn’t judge people just because they’re simple or not.”

“Your sister has a boyfriend?” Quillion raised an eyebrow and then turned his eyes to her. “She is homeschooled, is she not?”

“Yes, so?”

“So how did they even meet?”

“Look,” Silver said, growing irritated. “I don’t know the details of my sister’s personal life. She does her own thing and I do mine. We’re not the same person, you know.”

Except we kind of are… Silver crossed her fingers behind her back.

Home Run smiled and waved. “Umm… yeah, well, I think we better get back to the gym. They’ve got something planned. Um, nice to meet you, Silver.”

“I guess that’s that.” Quillion went over to the shed as Home Run and his friends began walking off.

Silver watched him go, a little sad that she couldn’t outright spend time with him, even if he was right in front of her, but she had no choice unless she wanted to blow her cover. Doing what she came to do, she placed her bag of swords by the other bags Quillion had put down in the shed, then walked on with her team towards the school again.

“I wonder if we’ll get the chance to use these,” Quillion sighed as he closed the shed door. “Otherwise we’ll have dragged all this here for nothing.”

“I’m sure some use will come of it,” Fleur said bracingly. “Perhaps I can challenge that rude boy to a round. Fencing is for sissies indeed,” she ended with a scowl.

Silver, for her part, remained quiet and contemplative. Home Run being here was going to inconvenience her slightly, whether she wanted to see him or not, as she would have to place stricter character restrictions on herself. She also partially agreed with Fleur. Someone new to duel might be just the kind of fun she wanted.

“Well, let’s go inside then! See what they have in store for us?” Silver skipped along.

They found a side door to the school building, entering back inside. It was also quite a close walk to the gym, which was nice. Silver didn’t want to get lost on her first day here.

Once they entered the gym, Silver noticed that most of her schoolmates were already inside, some of them drinking punch and standing around, some of them sleeping. She caught sight of Twilight tottering around, bumping into balloons and Indigo Zap. The air here smelled strange, like a blend of two different fruit juices that weren’t meant to be put together. One shot of Crystal Prep’s competitiveness and their arrogance, a shot of a more relaxed and friendly drink.

Must be CHS’s natural flavor… Silver thought, then realizing more sourly, Mother could have sent me here instead, it tastes and smells a lot nicer here. And Home Run goes to this school too. I could see him everyday instead of just the weekends…

Silver looked around, a little unsure of what to do. She decided to walk over to a corner, but as she turned, she always walked right into a girl whose hair reminded the changeling of pieces of bacon.

“Oops, sorry,” she said and carried on. Behind her stood another group of girls and Silver immediately recognized the rainbow haired one and the one with puffy pink hair. They had been caught spying on them back at Crystal Prep. They kind of looked like a big deal here; perhaps these were the Rainbooms she had heard so much about.

“No harm… done.” Silver turned back to the bacon haired girl and watched her go.

Just then, she had walked over to Twilight Sparkle, casting an accusatory eye at her. “Twilight, what have you been up to?”

Huh. They know her already? Silver thought to herself. By the way she approached her, they didn’t seem exactly like friends.

“Me?” Twilight stammered. “Oh, I was just-”

“Who wants to know?” Indigo Zap butted in, getting up in bacon hair’s face.

Suddenly, the rainbow haired girl was there and reciprocated the motion, her and Indigo’s noses almost touching. “Um, we do?”

“Alright, everyone,” the orange-skinned girl with a Stetson hat moved between Indigo and rainbow hair, parting them. “Let’s not get too competitive before the Games even start.”

Just then, Sugarcoat also decided to join in, adding, “The Games aren’t really competitive since we’ve never lost.”

Then another girl from the Rainboom group came over, the one with soft pink hair and a little butterfly clip. Silver didn’t know why she came over, because she looked like she was regretting it.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say…” the pink haired one said, almost in a whisper.

“Sorry dearie,” Sunny said, joining in as well, giving the Rainbooms her best condescending look. “But these games aren’t about being nice.”

Why did she say that? Silver wondered. It was right there in the name, ‘Friendship Games’. She felt a little dumber for just hearing it. She hoped Sunny wouldn’t make mistakes like that during the Games.

“Well, you might use a little tact,” the Rainboom with beautifully coiffed violet hair said. Silver made it a point to learn their names later. They seemed important to the sirens, and speaking of them, she hadn’t seen them around today.

Deciding to leave the conversation before it could get to a boiling point, Silver went around the gym, looking for the three girls her mother and aunt so adored. While looking, Silver also noticed that the Crystal Prep students were barely interacting with the Canterlot High ones. Both schools seemed to just be standing to their own sides, talking amongst themselves.

So much for Friendship Games.

Still unable to find the sirens, Silver eventually resorted to using her nose, sniffing out the three girls’ distinctive emotions. She took discreet sniffs, not wanting everyone in the gym to think she was some weirdo, eventually picking up on Aria’s extreme apathy. She didn’t smell the other two, but they were always together, so follow Aria’s trail she did.

And she was right. At the far end, behind a basketball hoop stand, Aria was bickering with Sonata again, with Adagio having a hand on her face.

“Surprise, surprise!” Silver said when she got closer, hoping to stop them from arguing. The smell and taste around them right now was terrible.

Sonata pushed past Aria and threw herself on Silver almost quite literally. “Silveeeer! You’re here!”

“Of course she’s here.” Aria scoffed behind her. “Crystal Prep is here for the Friendship Games.”

“Yeah. You girls not mingling with the others?” Silver asked, patting Sonata on the head.

“I don’t see a point,” Adagio said and rolled her eyes. “They’ll just try to push their friendship stuff on us again.”

“Aw, come on. Friendship isn’t that bad.” Silver smiled. “I’ve made a couple of friends myself. They’re not bad people. Mostly.”

“Well, we don’t really need anyone else…” Aria said bluntly. “What’s the point?”

“I mean, hanging out is fun and all. I have fun when I hang out with you girls too.”

Aria exhaled. “Whatever.”

Silver frowned at her. Whether it was related to their gems or not, Aria’s attitude was really getting unbearable. She really hoped Aunt Ivory would be able to do something about it. She didn’t want to have to toss Aria out a window one day by accident.

“Hey, Silver. Are these your friends?” Fleur walked over, casting a quick glance over at the sirens. “You sure know a lot of these Canterlot High students. More of your sister, Moonglade’s friends, I presume?”

“Oh, uh, no. They um… live with us.”

“You live with students from Canterlot High?” Fleur looked almost taken aback. “Why do they not just transfer schools?”

“Hey, you have a problem with us?” Aria snapped at her.

“Merely stating the convenience you would have.” Fleur flipped her hair off her shoulder. “And I would think you would rather be on the winning team.”

“Fleur, how about we just go over somewhere else?” Silver interrupted, afraid Aria would start something. She turned and gave the white-skinned girl a gentle push to move off. “How about some punch. You like punch? Um… I’ll catch you three later, okay?”

Sonata waved happily and Adagio gave a simple wave, while Aria just snorted and folded her arms.

“Such wild students they have here,” Fleur huffed, tilting her chin up. “Thank goodness we attend a more prestigious school.”

“Ha…” Silver said half in agreement, half in relief to just get Fleur away from the sirens. “You don’t say.”

The punch table was a safe distance away, currently occupied by a few Canterlot High students, but thankfully, they moved away when Silver and Fleur got there, except with one boy with brown hair and a brown jacket.

“Punch?” he asked when the two girls stopped by the table.

“Um… yes, we’re here for the punch,” Silver said sweetly. She didn’t want to sound antagonistic.

“Apple punch,” the boy said, taking a sip from his cup.

“Right. Thanks for the heads up.” Silver poured one for Fleur and herself.

“Charly.” He stuck his hand out. “I’m good on the swing.”

“Swing?” Silver shook his hand, while Fleur refused. “I’m Silver Rose. Nice to meet you, I guess.”

The boy, Charly, continued to stand by the punch table, drinking from his cup and refilling it. Silver lost count of how many times he poured more punch in his cup, but she didn’t want to judge him. Everyone was weird in their own way, though perhaps he was a little weirder than she was.

“So is this it?” Fleur blew up at her fringe and sighed. “Are we to just stand around? This is getting boring.”

“Hello everyone I’d like to take this opportunity to greet all of our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy and welcome them to CHS.” Silver turned towards the stage, spotting Canterlot High’s Principal Celestia standing by a mike. “And lastly, I would like to recognize the twelve students that CHS has elected to compete. I don’t think we could have chosen a better group to represent the excellence, sportsmanship, and friendship the Games stand for.”

“I’m sure they could’ve,” Fleur leaned over to whisper.

Silver raised an eyebrow in thought. Excellence, sportsmanship and friendship. She guessed the Friendship Games would involve characteristics like those, but from what she had seen so far, only excellence seemed to be a common trait everyone was trying to achieve. Sportsmanship and friendship, however…

Fleur and Silver wandered over to one of the tables that had refreshments on it. Mostly small finger food that didn’t look particularly appetizing. Silver settled herself against the gym’s wall and let her eyelids droop. After a few moments, she opened them again, idly glancing over to where Fleur was standing. To her surprise, the finger food had been replaced by an array of colorful cupcakes.

Now where did those come from?

Fleur was quick to take one of the new cupcakes, taking a bite out of it. Silver watched as the girl’s normal stoic expression soon turned into one of happiness as she took a second bite.

“Wow… What did they put into those?” Silver was about to walk back over and take one herself when the entire gym was plunged into darkness, except for a single disco ball near the center. “Hey! What?”

Suddenly, loud upbeat music filled the air around them and to her astonishment, students from both their schools started mingling with each other, almost like there was some magic to it all.

“Hey, Silver Rose.” Much to her glee, Home Run had walked up to her, leaning against the wall beside her. “Pretty interesting, isn’t it? I mean, the sudden cheery mood around here.”

Silver sniffed at the air, then smirked. “You can say that again. It definitely looks livelier than before.” Her eyes drifted over to her sleeping classmate, who was now awake and having a chat with another kid from Canterlot High. “Looks like it’s starting to look like a Friendship Games.”

“So, how’s your sister doing?” Home Run inquired. “She did say she’d be supporting both our schools today.”

Always about Moonglade. Does nobody care about Silver Rose? No one’s asked Silver how she is or what she’s been up to.

But on the outside, Silver smiled and said, “That’s what she said. It’s too bad she can’t come herself, what with this being a school event.”

And it would be extremely inconvenient for me if she was allowed here.

“Well… Yeah, I guess. Wouldn’t mind having her here.” Home Run put his hands in his pockets and began tapping one foot to the beat of the music. “She did say she’s hoping you guys win. You two must be close, huh? Oh hey, aren’t you two twins, actually? You’re born on the same year, right? That’s neat.”

That was where Silver noticed a flaw in Home Run meeting both her personas. She had never accounted for both their ages and as it was, Silver and Moonglade were the same age. She looked over to the main floor, where both Crystal Prep and Canterlot High students had begun dancing. It was nice to see their schools actually act friendly towards each other.

Silver eventually remembered she was still talking to Home Run and looked back to him, slightly embarrassed that she had forgotten. He was still standing there, waiting for her reply.

“Oh, hehe, yeah… Yeah, you’re right, it is pretty neat, isn’t it?” Silver laughed a little awkwardly, but thankfully, Home Run didn’t pick up on it. “Um, we went our different ways when we were younger though. I lived with my aunt until recently. Now we’re all back together. Yeah. Haha.”

“Oh. Well, I’d like to-”

There was a sudden screech of microphone feedback and the lights came blaring back on. Everyone looked up to the stage to behold Principal Cinch, standing in front of the microphone with her usual expression of aloofness on her face.

“I’d like to thank Principal Celestia for her unconventional welcome,” Cinch removed her glasses to polish them. “It’s been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed. Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest, and Crystal Prep continues to field its top twelve students. It is a comfort to know that even after so many years of losses, your school remains committed to its ideals however misguided they may be.”

Silver watched as the Canterlot High and Crystal Prep students who had been previously mingling began to shuffle apart and into to separate groups. She scowled up at Cinch, a little annoyed at how she had spoiled the delicious soup of friendship so easily. The smell around her was slowly returning to one of hostility and pride.

“Wow…” Home Run whispered. “That’s one way to kill the mood.”

Silver looked around, realizing she was the only Crystal Prep student still standing beside a Canterlot High one.

“Oops,” she said and quickly scuttled over to the CPA side. “Sorry, Home Run.”

The boy gave a friendly wave as Silver found her way back to where Fleur and Quillion where standing. At least he wasn’t sour about it.

“I wish you all the best of luck,” Principal Cinch concluded. “In spite of the inevitable outcome.”

“She’s right.” Quillion lifted his cup of juice. “No way we’re losing this.”

“Inevitable indeed.” Fleur nodded.

So much for good sportsmanship… Silver sighed. She looked back over to where Home Run was standing. He was still by himself and she contemplated whether going over there would be a good idea. Perhaps not, at least not now.

It would also be bad if she were to lose control of herself and start kissing him or something. Silver Rose wasn’t in a relationship with Home Run. Moonglade was. Right, standing here was the better choice.

“Well, we’ve reserved the rest of the day for a bit of exploring around the campus,” Principal Celestia said in an attempt to sound upbeat after Cinch’s speech. “So just take it easy. And do try to mingle? This is the Friendship Games, after all.”

At least someone gets it.

“So what are we going to do now?” Fleur began tapping a foot slowly and unrhythmically. “Who would want to explore the campus?”

Just then, Canvas Splash popped up, carrying her sketchbook under one arm. “Hiya, Silver! I’m off to explore the campus and draw some scenes. I’ll see you later!”

“Yeah, see you, Canvas.” Silver watched her go.

“I guess people like her will want to go explore…” Fleur said.

Silver leaned against the wall as she mentally tallied up the benefits of going exploring versus the benefits of staying here where there was plentiful food and drink. While staying in the gym would provide nourishment, it would no doubt become rather boring, or worse, students might try to mob her once they realized who she was.

Spotting Sunny Flare and her friends leaving the gym, Silver waved goodbye to Fleur and Quillion, and skipped over to join them.

“Aw, what the hay, we’ll come too,” Quillion said, rallying the fencing team and joining Silver. “Not like there’s really anything better to do.”

Heading back out into the school’s hallways, Silver caught up with Sunny and the others, just in time to hear them complaining about something.

“Hey, girls. What’s up?” She joined in, looking at each of them.

“Just talking about our competition and how they don’t look like they should be competing against us,” Sugarcoat stated flatly.

“They’re all so cheery for a team that’s going to lose!” Lemon Zest snickered. “We’ve got this one in the bag.”

“Their campus seems pretty lackluster,” Sour Sweet commented. “Their fruit punch isn’t bad though.”

“Please. Their fruit punch isn’t going to help them win the Games.” Indigo said smugly. “I think we’ve got this one.”

Silver really didn’t like how they were so condescending towards CHS, but she didn’t know what she could say to change their minds.

“Well, well, well… If it isn’t the Shadowbolts.” Silver and the others turned to see Jetstream swaggering over. “I know you’re here to rub it in our faces and all, but trust me, you can’t. We’re better than that, you see.”

“Ugh, him again…” Fleur put a hand on her face.

“We’re just exploring your campus like your principal told us to,” Sugarcoat said. “If you’ve got a problem with that, take it up with her.”

“I have no problems with you exploring, no.” Jetstream rubbed a hand along his stubbled chin. "I just want to let you know you’ll be losing this time. We’re better than we used to be, you know? This school has been through much.”

“Are you even participating?” Indigo said with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t recall your face among those that your principal pointed out. Doesn’t matter anyway. We’re going to win this Friendship Games for CPA, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“You know, you talk big for a guy who isn’t participating.” Fleur stepped forward and frowned at him. “Care to put your money where your mouth is?”

“Trust me, if I had more money, I’d be doing just that.” The brown hair boy made a weird face.

Silver didn’t have good memories of him, seeing as he had outright told everyone in the cafe that she was Moonglade during her first date with Home Run. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to know who she was right now, and she would like for it to stay that way.

The hostility in the room seemed to have reached an all-time high. She could practically taste the electric currents that were in the hall right now. Silver clenched her teeth to stop her fangs from sliding out.

“You said fencing is for sissies?” Fleur took a step forward. Even that menacing action seemed graceful when she did it. “Why don’t you show me? One on one? Then we’ll see who the sissy is.”

Jetstream raised both his hands and grinned. “Believe me, I wouldn’t mind if I knew fencing. And I’m not going to hurt a girl. It would be unmanly of me to do so.”

“You’re just afraid of getting your butt kicked aren’t you?” Fleur stepped even closer to him, their faces almost touching now. “Why don’t you go out there and prove it, instead of running your jaw?”

“Ooooh…” Lemon Zest covered her mouth, her eyes going wide.

“I don’t need to prove anything to a Crystal Prep kid like you.” Jetstream was equally as hostile.

Just then, the door Silver and the others had come from was pushed open, followed by more Canterlot High students, including the Rainbooms and the other boy, the one that had dragged Jetstream away earlier, Lightning Rain.

“There he is…” the taller boy folded his arms. “Jets, could you not antagonize people when you’re on your own? Please?”

Jetstream stepped away from Fleur and pointed at Silver and the others. Silver found it rude. “I’m not the one at it! They are. Why are you so quick to point fingers?”

Speak for yourself. Silver folded her arms.

“You don’t need to add fuel to all this tension.” The violet haired one put her hands on her hips. “There’s enough as it is.”

“Yeah, but…” Jetstream suddenly walked over and pulled the rainbow haired one forward. “Ah, captain. You’re a girl. You can show Crystal Prep how good you are at fencing, right?”

“What?” the girl looked at him in surprise. “I don’t know how to fence!”

“You started this, ponytail boy!” Fleur stabbed a finger in Jetstream’s chest. “Now man up and face me, one on one.”

“Cool it, Fleur…” Quillion said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “He’s not worth it.”

“He’s disrespecting our sport.” Fleur still flashed him an angry stare. “You think you Canterlot High students can beat us in a fair game?”

“What?” Rainbow hair threw her hands up. “Of course we can! You may have won every other competition against us, but not this time.”

Fleur pointed a finger at Jetstream. “This buffoon spoke bad of our sport. If you think you can win, then take his place. Show me what you can do.”

“Well, I don’t know any fencing myself, but…” Suddenly, she dashed back a step and pulled Bacon hair forward. “Sunset here is really good! I bet she can take you all on!”

“Rainbow!” The one called Sunset complained.

“What? It’s true. You’re the best swordsman-er, swordsgirl I’ve ever seen, including from the movies! You even beat the Assa-ow!” Rainbow said as Sunset stood on her foot.

“I thought we agreed not to talk about the winter break in public?” Sunset said in a low voice while Rainbow hopped up and down, clutching her foot. No one seemed to have heard it, but Silver was sure she had heard it right.

“Best, huh?” Fleur inspected the new girl. “Then I don’t suppose you would like to prove yourself against me?”

“What, no, no, I don’t want to show off like that…” Sunset rubbed the back of her head.

“Come on, Sunset!” Rainbow patted her on the back. “We’ve got to show these Crystal Preppers just what you can do! They keep looking down on us, but once you demonstrate your skills, I just bet their jaws would drop right off their faces!”

“Ah, Fleur?” Silver said softly, noticing something from the conversation, touching her arm. “She said sword fighter, not fencer. Are you two even talking about the same thing?”

Fleur hummed, then clicked her fingers. “You, Sunset girl. How much do you know about fencing?”

“Umm… a little? I mean, I know the rules. I’ve never actually… fenced.”

“Hmph.” Fleur folded her arms and looked to the side. “She would not even be a worthy opponent.” Then her eyes seemed to settle on Silver.

Silver could see the gears turning in Fleur’s head and realized what she was planning. “Oh, no no, that’s not a good plan.”

“Silver Rose, you are the newest among us.” Fleur looked back at the Canterlot High group. “How about you show her how fencing is done?” Then she leaned closer and whispered, “And if you do forget the fencing rules during the match, don’t worry about it. After all, she hasn’t fenced. Maybe she won’t catch on.”

“Umm…” Silver looked down, now that all the eyes were on her. “I don’t know…”

Suddenly, Jetstream pushed past his friends and rubbed his chin. “New you say? Wait, I know you.”

Just then, the violet haired girl also pushed her way forward, light glistening in her eyes. “Wait, Silver Rose? The Silver Rose? Daughter of Ebony Wings?”

“Ebony Wings has a second daughter?” The soft pink haired girl muttered.

“Aha! No wonder I recognized that name!” Jetstream snapped his fingers. “The second daughter of the acclaimed actress!”

“Uh, ehehe…” Silver smiled sheepishly, a blush rising on her cheeks. Great. Just great… I guess it was inevitable someone would find out.

“Darling, I’m your mother’s biggest fan!” Violet hair was shaking on the spot. Silver smelt a lot of excitement coming from her. “I’m Rarity and oh, I’ve always wanted to talk to one of you! I can’t believe you’re actually in our school!”

“Rarity, focus!” The girl with the stetson pulled her back. “This ain’t some celebrity meetup. This here’s the Friendship Games. And she’s on the other team.”

“I still don’t know how our homeboy managed to start dating your sister, Moonglade,” Jetstream said. “I mean, that’s just amazing, isn’t-”

“Okay, I’ll do it!” Silver said very quickly, then disappeared behind Fleur and Quillion. “I’ll fence! Let’s go!”

“Then it’s settled!” Rainbow put a hand around Sunset’s shoulders. “The daughter of Ebony Wings against our very own Sunset Shimmer! Ooh, this is going to be so exciting!”

“Uh, do I get a say in this?” Sunset asked.

“You can say yes and show Crystal Prep we mean business.” Rainbow smiled enthusiastically.

“Not quite what I meant,” Sunset said with a sigh. “But if it means that much to you guys, I’ll do it.”

“Then let’s go.” Sunny Flare pointed for the door. “An early match between Crystal Prep and Canterlot High.”

“Dude, there’s no way you’re beating our Silver!” Lemon Zest began playing on an air guitar as she listened to her music. “You’re all going to be in for a big surprise!”

“Oh, we’ll see, won’t we?” The cowgirl tipped her hat and smirked.

Chapter 52 - Crossing Swords

On the way out to the field, Silver Rose had managed to learn the names of the Rainbooms, thanks to the one called Pinkie Pie, who along with the one, Rainbow Dash, had spied on them back at CPA. The girl had seemed to be a rather energetic one, though maybe the party had gotten to her, because she looked a little drowsy. Easily tired out? She filed that away for later.

“So you have never fenced. Ever?” Quillion Riposte asked Sunset.

“I’ve watched some fencing on TV.” Sunset Shimmer shrugged as they opened the door leading to the field.

Silver winced slightly at the sun’s rays, but soon managed to adjust to them as they went along.

They found their fencing gear in the shed they had left it in earlier, with all their equipment still intact.

“What, did you think it would get stolen?” Jetstream folded his arms. “Yeah right. Maybe at Crystal Prep, but your stuff is safe here.”

Silver was looking in the shed when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see it was Sunny Flare, who had a smile on her face.

“Show them who’s boss, huh, Silver?”

“I’ll give it my best,” Silver replied. A blush grew on Sunny Flare’s face, but Silver was too busy picking out a foil to notice.

She selected a sword and left the shed, where Quillion already had two suits and helmets for them.

“I figured you two were about the same size,” he said, giving one suit and helmet to Silver. “Give us a good show, okay?”

“Mhmm.”

He handed Sunset the other after Fleur had given her a sword and both girls took turns changing in the shed before returning outside in their full gear.

“Man, it’s hot in these things…” Sunset said as she tested her mobility. She looked at her foil and swung it around herself a few times, in a form that Silver recognized as one that Ms. Lionstrike had shown her once. Supposedly it was from a sword fighting master from before the renaissance.

So she’s been tutored in the way of the sword too… this could be interesting.

“Are ya sure one o’ them won’t pass out from heatstroke before this is all over?” Applejack, the cowgirl, stated, giving Quillion a frown. “Those suits look real unsuited for the this kinda temperature.”

“Pffft…” Lemon Zest sniggered behind Silver. “Unsuited. I get it.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t meant ta be a joke.”

“Well, what do you suppose they do?” Sugarcoat lifted her glasses higher up her nose. “Let them fight without the suits instead?”

“That’s not what Ah’m sayin’!” Applejack said furiously. “Sunset. Ya don’t have ta do this. We can jus’ wait til tomorrow ta settle this.”

“I already got the suit on and everything.” Sunset looked at herself. “It’ll be fine if it’s just for a while.”

“What’s the matter, Applejack?” Indigo sneered. “Chicken? You’re just afraid you’ll lose, huh?”

“No! It’s a real problem! Ah mean, they could die of the heat if we’re not careful.”

“Silver Rose isn’t complaining.” Indigo motioned to the young changeling. “You’re just a chicken. Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep!” She flapped her arms to imitate the flightless bird.

“Ah am not a chicken!” Applejack said hotly. “Sunset, you better win, or Ah’ll… Ah’ll eat mah hat.”

“Then you better get that hat ready.” Indigo gave her headwear a tug. “Because Silver’s gonna show you we’re still better than you.”

Silver and Sunset stood a couple of paces apart, away from the others.

“Umm… sorry about them,” Silver said in a lower voice, her words only for Sunset. “They can be a bit… competitive at times.”

“Uh huh,” Sunset said on the other side.

Silver decided to take a good sniff, seeing as her face was masked. She smelt a trail of pride coming from her friends, while Canterlot High’s side smelt a little of irritation and excitement mixed together. It was a little odd. As for Sunset, there seemed to be a smell of doubt coming from her, and surprisingly, no fear. Perhaps she was more used to swords than Silver first guessed.

“So, let’s see,” Quillion said, stepping in between the two fighters. “Shall we have it as first touch to win? Best of three bouts?”

“Sounds reasonable, I suppose…” Jetstream rubbed his chin. “Agreed, LR? Girls?”

“It sounds much safer, so sure.” Lightning looked on.

“I certainly don’t agree with Sunset marring a daughter of Ebony Wings, so first hit sounds good.” Rarity gave her hair a flip.

“I don’t agree with any of this…” the quiet one, Fluttershy mumbled, but no one really heard her.

“Very well then,” Quillion said, raising his arm. “Five, four, three, two, one, go!”

Quillion dropped his arm and stepped smartly back.

The first clash of blades was slow and hesitant. Sunset and Silver circled around each other, foils pointed parallel to the ground, neither of them willing to make the first move. The sun shone down on the duelists, and Silver carefully watched Sunset, paying special attention to her joints and her foil. Deciding it was time to start, Silver darted forward and jabbed at Sunset’s midsection.

With a kick back, Sunset stepped out of Silver’s reach, before stepping back in and thrusting her own weapon forward, aimed for Silver’s left arm. The Crystal Prep girl dodged backward and Sunset’s foil fell short, but Sunset rallied magnificently and held up her weapon defensively, swatting away two more stabs from Silver.

She’s just employing basic fencing skills… Silver weaved left and around Sunset’s stab, thrusting her weapon, only for it to be parried again. If I just keep it up and use what Fleur and the others have taught me, I can win this in no time. Preferably before Sunset gets a heatstroke or something.

She might be heat resistant, but her opponent wasn’t, and the suits were doing a good job at keeping the heat in. Hoping to end it quickly, Silver swatted aside one of Sunset’s strikes and poked her in the chest.

“And score one!” Indigo cheered loudly from the side. “How do you like that, Canterlot High?”

“It’s only the first round.” Rainbow Dash shook a fist. “Anything else can happen on the way.”

“It’s kind of hot inside these suits,” Sunset said, pushing her mask up and accepting a bottle of water from the pink girl, Pinkie.

“Seriously? Do you not feel it, Silver Rose?” Rainbow looked to the mauve-skinned girl. “You haven’t said anything about the heat.”

“It’s not that hot,” Silver said reasonably. “I guess I’m just used to wearing these kind of suits.”

“It’s ninety-five degrees,” Sugarcoat read from her phone.

“Okay, I think I’m good for now.” Sunset gave back the bottle, wiped a whole handful of sweat from her face, then put her helmet back on.

“Round two,” Quillion announced. “Three, two, one, go!”

Silver and Sunset began circling each other once again, foils pointed at the other person’s face. On the sidelines, Pinkie had somehow procured several bags of popcorn and was eating from them.

Sunset was the first to initiate contact this time, aiming a sneaky jab at Silver’s thigh. She scooted back to avoid the stab, but was surprised when Sunset spun around and jabbed at her again and again, switching the foil from her right hand to her left. Silver knocked the thrusts away and narrowed her eyes. Sunset was certainly getting better at this. If she wanted to win, she would have to finish it before she could get used to it.

Feinting left, Silver made it look like she was trying to swipe up at Sunset’s left arm, but at the last second and as her opponent attempted to parry, she dodged right and spun herself around to strike at Sunset, but then found her blade being parried anyway.

What? She was just on the other side.

Sunset’s foil was already back in her right hand and Silver found herself soon pushed onto the defensive, stepping back as Sunset advanced on her. The Canterlot High girl pressed the attack, her foil seemingly coming from all directions as it finally slipped past Silver’s guard and poked her in the shoulder.

“And one for us!” Rainbow Dash cheered, punching her fists out like she was boxing. “How do you like that?”

“Score one for the republic!” Pinkie yelled. It seems she was regaining her energy and attitude. “Yeah, she’s got this one.”

“That is some fancy sword work, I must say.” Fleur examined her nails, looking to be more busy checking herself than watching the match, but Silver guessed she was good enough to do both. “But you have yet to see what Silver Rose can do.”

Silver unhooked her mask and went back to her team and Sunset to hers.

“She’s good,” Silver glanced at Sunset. “She’s really good, and I’ve been trained by a master swordsman. Do you think she’s the same way?”

“Master swordsman, you say?” Quillion thought about it. “It does explain your… unusual skillset.”

“Maybe she has the same master swordsman teacher?” Lemon Zest suggested. “Who knows?”

“That’s not it,” Silver mused. Then she turned to Quillion. “Permission to go all out in the next round?”

“What, not fencing?” her captain said, then looked over to Fleur. “What do you think?”

“I did tell Silver she could do so if her instincts decided to kick in again.” Fleur combed a hand through her fine hair. “I guess intentionally doing it is fine too.”

“Then sure.” Quillion smiled. “Canterlot High’s going to be in for a surprise then.”

Silver nodded and replaced her helmet after a quick drink of water, walking back to the field. Sunset looked over and noticed she was ready and left her friends, jogging back over and putting her helmet on.

“Let’s see what you think of this, Sunset Shimmer…” Silver mumbled to herself. Her opponent was going to be in for a surprisingly quick match this round.

After matching swords, both fencers began circling each other again, with Silver watching Sunset’s footwork intently. She was going to play it cool first, but once Sunset dropped her guard…

And then Sunset was the first to attack again, sliding in with a massive thrust attack. Silver almost didn’t get out of the way in time, She twisted her body around Sunset’s attack, lifting her feet to her toes just to maneuver around it, then skidded away from her before recovering.

Rushing back in, Silver kept her left hand behind her back, thrusting up and down with her foil, trying to distract Sunset from her true motive. When Sunset next lifted her foil to parry Silver’s attack on her face, the young changeling took the opportunity to drop low and sweep her leg in an arc, hitting Sunset at the back of her right calf. She went down on her back and Silver lunged in to end the round, but to her surprise and everyone’s on her side, Sunset was quick enough to roll to the side and throw herself back up, then parried Silver’s attack all in one move.

What? How did she react so quickly?

Silver was quickly pushed onto the defensive, still reeling from her shock.

Get it together, Silver! Fight like you were trained to fight!

Regaining her balance, Silver slashed to the left and right, charging forward, but Sunset was quick enough to leap back to avoid it, then followed up with a diagonal slash from her own foil.

Gritting her teeth, Silver spun around, her sword dancing in a circle around her. Sunset raised her foil to guard, and the tip of Silver’s sword scraped off the cup-handled hilt of Sunset’s weapon, knocking it wide.

Silver went in for the kill, but Sunset kicked up, her foot connecting with the hilt of Silver’s weapon and turning the thrust into a missed upward slice.

Indigo squinted at the ongoing duel, a finger tapping her chin.

“Is this even fencing anymore?”

“We told her she could go ahead.” Quillion shrugged. “I didn’t think Canterlot High would be able to match her.”

“And here I thought she was going to make quick work of them.” Fleur watched on anticipatingly.

Silver and Sunset cut at each other simultaneously, their swords clashing in between them with a clink. They backed away and swung again, their strikes colliding with tremendous speed so that it sounded like a handful of coins being dropped on the floor.

“Wow, they’re really going at it…” Quillion watched their movements. “Look at those strikes and that footwork. Amazing.”

“None of this is fencing.” Fleur shook her head. “It is just barbaric swordplay now.”

“It’s still entertaining though.” Lemon Zest came back with a box of popcorn from the other side. She tossed some in her mouth and chewed noisily. “I mean would you have believed Silver was such a cool swordsgirl? Goooo Silver!”

Silver and Sunset continued to trade blows, their metal foils ringing out around the field. Neither of them have managed to get the upper hand just yet and Silver was looking to change that. She’d already have to expend some of her love energy to deflect Sunset’s attacks to get an opening, but she still had yet to succeed in scoring her point. She didn’t want to have to use more energy uselessly like that, so she waited and watched for the right moment.

Finding it when Sunset slashed low, Silver tapped into her stores of love and spun her blade once then slashed out to the side faster than the eye could see. She was almost certain the point was hers, but then Sunset did the unimaginable again and rolled under her strike, then slashing out at her legs. Silver instinctively flipped herself back, somersaulting off one hand before resuming her stance a good distance away from Sunset. Ignoring the amazed wows from everyone watching, Silver brandished her foil, which, like Sunset’s was sporting a few kinks and bends from their clash.

How is she doing all this? She can’t be reading my moves, right?

Silver stepped closer, her dented foil swaying in front of her face. Sunset did the same, albeit keeping her foil pointed at Silver as she settled into a more defensive stance. Silver aside wondered how this would have played out had they been using actual weapons and not these flimsy pieces of metal that the fencing team called swords. She supposed she would never find out, but she couldn’t back down now. Her school was counting on her to win.

She and Sunset approached each other again. Silver’s eyes lingered on the other girl’s joints and body, trying to predict or imitate what she might be about to do.

Sunset’s right leg twitched, and Silver quickly copied her stance, both girls stabbing forward at the same time. Their foils jabbed forward with lightning speed, only to be stopped in the middle by some unseen force. Silver peeked down at her sword. Incredibly, both their swords had met in the middle, the plastic guards on the tips pressing against each other.

There was a collective gasp from the spectators. They had clearly never seen this kind of swordplay before. Silver and Sunset pushed against each other for a moment, their battered foils bending under the stress, before jumping apart and slashing at each other. Silver felt herself accelerate as she matched Sunset’s motions, expending more love energy to go faster.

Sparks began to fly as Sunset and Silver struck at each other with dizzying speed, the blunt steel edges of their foils scraping and grinding against each other.

Silver looked down at her weapon, unsure of how much longer the flexible steel was going to last if the two of them kept this up. She kept watching and looking for a way to finish it, but Sunset was just too good of a swordsman to go down like that. With every answer Silver found against her opponent, Sunset would simply counter her attack and they would be back to a standstill again, though things weren’t looking too good for Silver.

She had expended plenty of love energy in many gambles to try and win the round, but so far, they’ve all been for nothing. She didn’t want to have to use more than she already had. As for her own strength, Silver was starting to feel her face and her body begin to sweat, her muscles straining to keep up now. She didn’t know if Sunset was getting tired or not, but she hoped the round would be over soon, before either one of them collapsed.

Finally, after another fierce exchange, Silver noticed that Sunset’s guard was wavering. Her sword dipped a fraction lower than before, the tip pointing more toward the ground than at her opponent.

Finally, you’re mine, Sunset!

Silver turned, aiming a slash at Sunset’s unguarded side, only for Sunset to bat it away and thrust the foil at Silver’s midsection. As the foil’s tip traveled the short distance, Silver could only gape in shock and surprise.

A feint. How did she-

And then the point struck Silver in the gut, winding her and making her fall over backwards. Her foil went rolling away, and Sunset stood back, triumphant. Then she reached a hand down to the fallen Silver, dropping her foil and pulling up her mask.

“I’m so sorry,” Sunset said, her face beaded with sweat both from the suit and from the exertion. “Are you hurt?”

“Just my pride,” Silver said ruefully, accepting Sunset’s hand. “I’ve never seen anyone fight like that before! You’re amazing, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Well… you’re pretty good yourself, Silver Rose.” Sunset smiled, then wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, flicking sweat off onto the grass. “Sorry about that last hit. I wasn’t expecting to follow through so hard and fast.”

“I’m just glad we weren’t dueling with real swords,” Silver laughed. “That would have done some real damage.”

Indigo was first over, slapping Silver on the shoulder. “Silver, that was incredible! I mean, really incredible!” Then she looked over to Sunset and frowned. “You were lucky this time. You just caught her off guard. We’ll be sure to kick your butt the next time.”

Quillion stepped over and accepted both foils from the two girls. He shook his head; both foils were bent and kinked from the fight, chipped and worn out.

“I hope you’re satisfied,” he said, a little irritated. “These foils are going to have to be replaced.”

Silver looked down at her feet and blushed. Maybe she had gotten a little too carried away with winning. “Sorry…”

She pulled off her helmet to try and cool her face. She was really sweating now, just like Sunset, her pink and grey hair partially damp from sweat. She privately thanked her aunt for buying waterproof hair gel for her to use.

“Yeah, um… Sorry about that.” Sunset rubbed her neck, then flicked more sweat to the grass below. “I’ll… I’ll pay for that.”

Silver let Sunset change out of her suit before doing so herself inside the shed. When they were done, Sunset and her friends left, heading back into the school, talking about their surprising victory. Silver helped Quillion put everything back in order before leaving, apologizing once more to her captain for losing control.

“It’s not that big of a problem,” Quillion said, gazing down at the ruined foils. “I gave you permission to go all out, so if anything, it’s my fault. You were just doing what you were trained to do. Which, even if you didn’t win, was pretty flipping impressive.”

“You just need more finesse, Silver,” Fleur added with a point of her finger. “More gracefulness. Other than that, yes, good show.”

“That Sunset Shimmer sure is something though,” Silver said, thinking back to all the moves Sunset had used during the final bout. “I wonder where she learned her techniques from…”

“Indeed.” Quillion looked back and eyed the Canterlot High group. “They have never beaten us at anything. Never.”

“Good thing that wasn’t official, then,” Indigo said from the side. “Hey… you think sword fighting is going to be part of the Friendship Games?”

“That’s why we brought our swords and suits.” Fleur motioned to the shed.

“We can’t lose, not now.” Sour Sweet put on a game face. “But if Canterlot High has that girl on their team, we’re in for some trouble. Silver’s not on our team.”

“Nothing much we can do now.” Sugarcoat adjusted one of her hairclips. “With the Games literally around the corner, we will have to make do with the skills we already have.”

“Yeah…” came the communal agreement. Everyone looked down at their shoes.

“This was only one practice round.” Sunny dusted off one of her sleeves. “We’ll be sure to dominate them for the rest of what’s to come.”

“I hope you’re right, Sunny,” Lemon Zest said, throwing away her empty popcorn bag. “What’s say we head back to the gym? Maybe they still have some cupcakes there.”

Chapter 53 - The Friendship Games Part 1

Silver Rose stepped down from the bus the next day, waving goodbye to her Home Run-looking bus driver before walking along with the others towards Canterlot High’s building, needing to sign in again before the Games.

“I can hardly wait for things to get started,” Silver said to Canvas as they waited in line to sign in. “I’ve never been to a Friendship Games before.”

“Me neither,” Canvas laughed. “It only happens every four years, so we may as well enjoy it while we can. I brought my camera, we can take lots of pictures. Here! Why don’t we take one now? Together?”

Canvas turned the camera around and leaned in close to Silver and smiled brightly. Silver realized she had never smiled for a camera before. The only cameras she’d ever have to deal with were the ones belonging to the paparazzi, but those were just random photos, mostly aimed for her mother when she was with her.

Seeing no harm in trying it out, Silver looked up at the camera and smiled, blinking twice as a bright flash engulfed her vision for a split second, ending with Canvas lowering the camera to have a look at its screen.

“Perfect!” She smiled and showed Silver the picture.

“That’s nice.” Silver nodded. Even if it did seem trivial, it seemed sort of fun for her and it did make Canvas give off this wonderful happy smell.

“This is my first picture with you, Silver. My first friend!”

“And it only took two months,” Silver said wryly.

“What’s that?” Canvas looked over at her.

“Nothing. Say, what kind of food do you think they serve at CHS? I mean, if the Friendship Games last all day, we’ll have to have lunch sometime, right?”

“Oh, you’re right about that, I think.” Canvas put a finger to her chin and hummed. “I’ll bet it’s nothing like what we have over at CPA.”

“I don’t know…” Silver shrugged. “The cupcakes they had yesterday were pretty tasty.”

“Hmm… you’re right about that. Maybe they’re catering from outside, just for this occasion?”

“Maybe… though I’m inclined to think that the one named Pinkie Pie had something to do with it. She did a rather good job fixing the party yesterday, if only that bi- I mean, Principal Cinch hadn’t interrupted.” Silver looked ahead. They were about seven students away from checking in now.

“Yeah, it kinda looked like everyone was having a good time until she showed up. But… that couldn’t be it, right?”

“How do you mean?” Silver said, craning her neck to see how the line was moving along. There were just five students to go now.

“I mean, I was hanging out with this one girl yesterday,” Canvas explained. “She’s from Canterlot High, and she brings around this skull with her and all. We were on the topic of art and she paints some really good pieces! But yeah, after Cinch went up, we just stopped talking.”

“If only we could do something about her…” Silver mused to herself. “I’ll have to ask mother.”

“What’s that, Silver? Oh, hey, I’m up!”

Canvas bent down and signed at her name, then skipped off excitedly, allowing Silver to check herself in.

After writing her name and student number on the form, Silver stepped aside to join Canvas in the group of students who would be spectating the games, which was a majority of the student body.

“Where are the participants?” Silver asked. “Don’t tell me they started without us.”

“I’m sure they’re all practicing somewhere,” Canvas said, pulling out her sketchbook and a pencil. “Getting that last minute studying done. I’ll be drawing it all, right, Sketchy? You like me drawing, hmm? He likes it when I doodle all over him.”

“Right,” Silver said, not really paying attention. “Oh, there’s Dean Cadance. I’ll be right back, Canvas.”

Pushing through the mob of students, Silver left Canvas near the edge of the pack and made her way over to the dean.

“Dean Cadance!” Silver called out. Hearing her name, Cadance turned to look for who had spoken, clipboard in hand.

“Silver Rose,” Cadance said, smiling. “What can I help you with?”

“I was just wondering when the Friendship Games start, and what we’re supposed to do until then.”

“Oh, they’ll be starting once everyone’s ready and good to go,” the dean answered and smiled. “Shouldn’t be too long now. You can just hang around here. We’ll begin here in the foyer. There will be events in the classrooms, but we have that covered with cameras. We’ll display them on the screen there.” She pointed at a set up foldable screen.

“Oh, alright,” Silver said with a little bow and retreated back to Canvas. “Thank you, Dean Cadance.”

By the time Silver found her way back to her friend, she had made significant progress in sketching the foyer, even adding in the Crystal Prep students who were milling around in it. Silver peered over her shoulder, and was mildly impressed by how fast Canvas had worked.

“Dean Cadance says we’re going to watch most of the first event on the screens,” Silver reported. “I wonder if they’re supplying snacks?”

Canvas looked around, then went back to her sketch. “Doesn’t look like it. That pink girl is participating, so unless she can be in two places at one time, I don’t think we’re getting snacks.”

“Oh. That’s a shame.”

Silver stood in silence for a short while, as Canvas continued to scribble in her sketchbook.

“Canvas,” Silver said eventually. “How do you know if someone likes you? The normal way, I mean.”

“Hmm?” Canvas said absently, still fixated on her sketchbook. “Why do you ask that?”

“Because in the two plus months I’ve been here, I haven’t detected, I mean, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s interested in me. Am I that bad looking?”

“No, Silver. I think you’re pretty, and I’m sure everyone else thinks so too.”

“Oh, they do?” Silver sniffed the air, but she found no traces of love anywhere on her Crystal Prep side. The Canterlot High students on the other side of the stands sure smelt much happier. “Oh and well, not like I’m looking for a relationship or anything, Canvas. My sister having a boyfriend is much enough for me.”

“I think most of the Crystal Prep people just think you’re out of their league,” Canvas said comfortingly. “I mean, you are the daughter of Ebony Wings. That’s not going to make you easy to approach.”

“Yeah, you’re right, I guess…” Silver didn’t know how to react to the news. On the upside, at least she didn’t have to worry about having two relationships. She could only guess how bad it would be if she had to manage two relationships. On the downside… Oh. I don’t really have a downside. Huh.

Just then, the participants arranged themselves on both sides, glaring at each other as Principal Cinch, Dean Cadance and CHS’ principals walked to stand in between them. Silver spotted Sunny giving an evil eye to the fashion girl, Rarity, and Lemon Zest and Pinkie Pie trading monkey faces. Out of the whole crowd, only Twilight Sparkle didn’t seem like she belonged there.

“Welcome to the first event,” Dean Cadance announced to the crowd. “The academic decathlon.”

Both teams stood a little straighter, and Lemon Zest stopped making faces.

“You’ll be scored on chemistry, home ec, and everything in between,” Cadance continued. “But remember, only the six students from each team with the most points will move on to event number two.”

By now, the tension between both teams was so thick that Silver supposed she could cut it with a knife. Then she briefly considered cutting Cinch with a knife. The thought amused the changeling for a moment, then she brushed it aside.

Dean Cadance made an excited gesture. “Good luck!”

Silver watched the competitors head off to one of the classrooms, with Trenderhoof giving Silver and the others both thumbs up before disappearing through the door with their principals.

They soon appeared on the projection screen, standing in two rows of lab tables with bottles and phials of all sorts in front of them.

“Chemistry, huh?” Canvas said, tapping her pencil on her chin. “You’re good at that, right, Silver?”

Silver shrugged modestly. “Moderately.”

Suddenly and without warning, the Canterlot High side began some kind of cheer, and by the sound of it, it wasn’t a very friendly one.

“We’re gonna take you down! Woooooaaaaaahhh.”

What, they’re singing now? Silver thought with an eyebrow raised. This wasn’t in the memo.

She spotted the sirens near the rear of the crowd, looking on at their singing classmates. Silver sighed. They actually looked sad, and she didn’t need to be an expert to know they missed singing.

Silver leaned back, looking at the screen. The participants were engaging in some basic chemistry, with Indigo Zap using her own sports goggles in place of lab glasses. Silver wondered about the protective value of those goggles, but none of the supervising teachers complained, so she figured it was all right.

“We’re gonna take you out! Woooooaaaaaahhhh!” Silver’s classmates began singing. Silver watched them with mild fascination. At least her school wasn’t going to stand there quietly.

Silver and the rest of the students continued to watch as a blonde girl with eyes that stared in different directions help up a vial to her face, only for it to explode in a puff of smoke and coat her entire front with ash.

Both their schools continued their cheers, with students on both sides now glaring at each other like they were going to spear each other with their eyes.

“Guess she’s out,” Silver said to herself. She vaguely wondered how she might do in this chemistry segment. Quite well, she reckoned, if her class performance was to be believed.

“And Canterlot High’s already one out!” Canvas snickered and began drawing the girl’s face.

Silver glanced at her friend and shook her head. It seemed not even Canvas Splash was immune to the spirit of competition that was sweeping through.

Which brought up a somewhat unusual question. Why wasn’t she getting caught up in all the hype? Could it be her internal changeling geas? Or was it that she hadn’t been at Crystal Prep for that long and was therefore oblivious to the rivalry? Silver made it a point to ask her family once the day was done.

The rest of the students made it onto the next round, which sent them over to CHS’ home ec room. They were now supposed to bake cakes, by the looks of it, and Silver knew of Upper Crust and Suri Polomare’s ability back in home ec class. They were pretty good at what they did.

Canterlot High continued singing against them, and Silver didn’t understand why this needed to be done. Couldn’t they all just stand there and watch the competition in peace? She looked over to the sirens again, noticing they weren’t joining in with the singing, their most favorite past time. She hoped her aunt would do something about their voices soon.

As the first round of cakes were introduced, Silver spotted a loaf of bread, baked by a pair from Canterlot High’s team. She had to control herself from bursting out in laughter. She might’ve been bad at home economic class herself, but that was just straight up worse than what she could do. Obviously, the two of them were disqualified before they even got to the tasting.

Nothing else was really spectacular, even the one that Sunny had made, and Neon Light’s and Jet Set’s cake was just a mess, but then Silver saw Suri’s and Upper Crust’s cake and she knew who the clear winner was. The two of them had made a magnificent purple cake and it looked absolutely delicious.

“Look at that!” Canvas turned the page on her sketchbook. “I think we’ve got this one.”

And then they saw the one Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had made. At first, it just looked like a really fancy cake, but when Pinkie Pie cut it in half, Silver’s jaw dropped.

There was a painting drawn on the inside of a woman, Silver forgot her name, but it was quite the well known painting.

“How did she even- is that even possible?” she found herself asking Canvas.

Her friend was equally as awed, now wiping the shock from her face. “That is just… amazing! How did she manage that?”

They were the clear winners of this round, with such an astounding cake.

“You’ve got nothing on us, na na na na na na, Let’s go, Wondercolts!” Canterlot High sang at Silver and the others. “You’ve got nothing on us, na na na na na na, let’s go, Wondercolts!”

Would you just stop?

Silver slapped a hand to her face. This singing was just making it worse between their schools. She could only smell pride in the air now, eliminating all the better tasting emotions, even from Canvas Splash, who was now sketching Principal Cinch’s angry face as she glared at Upper Crust and Suri.

At least she’s upset too. Silver found that woman much too smug and self-centered.

The next round was some woodworks, with the objective being a birdhouse. Silver had yet to have a go at woodworking, but it looked easy enough. She watched the participants map out their plans before they produced their saws, cutting out pieces of wood for their projects. The Shadowbolts seemed to be managing well, looking like they knew what they were doing. Silver couldn’t say the same thing about Canterlot High’s Wondercolts. Half of them looked like they had never handled wood before and the boy with glasses almost sawed off one of his hands when he tried to get it to work.

“Talk a little too much for a school that never wins!” Silver’s classmates began singing. She frowned and looked over to the other side, spotting Home Run. He turned and saw her looking and shrugged. She did the only thing she could do and shrugged back. “Maybe you should just stop ‘fore you even begin, we are Crystal Prep High and we have a reputation, every little moment is about our education!”

“Since when?” Silver folded her arms crossly and let them carry on as she returned her attention to the viewing screen.

“Put your ear to the ground, listen to that sound, you’re a house of cards,” The Crystal Prep students sang as the teachers walked down the tables, inspecting each birdhouse that the contenders had made. Upon reaching the end, where a rickety looking birdhouse stood before the boy with the glasses and a taller boy with green hair. Vice Principal Luna gave the birdhouse a tap with her pen and the whole thing fell apart.

“Pfffft…” Canvas held back a laugh as she finished Cinch’s face. It looked stunningly similar.

“Well, they’re not advancing…” Silver watched as they began leaving, disappointed.

Then Sugarcoat and Indigo pulled the cloth off their creation, revealing a two-tiered birdhouse with railings, painted with a flame pattern. The teachers gasped in awe and dropped their clipboards.

“Wow, that’s pretty decent.” Silver nodded her approval at their wooden masterpiece. “Can you do something like that, Canvas?”

“Hmm, I’m not all that good with crafting, but I definitely can make a decent one,” the artist said as she flipped the page of her sketchbook.

“You’ve got nothing on us, na na na na na na, let’s go, Shadowbolts!” Silver’s classmates taunted as Sugarcoat and Indigo bashed past them, with the former flicking a piece of their birdhouse out of their hands. “You’ve got nothing on us, na na na na na na, let’s go, Shadowbolts!”

Suddenly, the screen shut off, shrinking down to a small white dot before vanishing, leaving them staring at a black screen.

“Oh, is it over?” Canvas looked up from her current sketch of a birdhouse. “Who won?”

“You know… I’m not sure.” Silver rubbed at her chin. It was a rather abrupt ending.

“Alright,” a bizarrely dressed male teacher called, his stained lab coat billowing around his body. “For the next event, we’ll go to the gym, so you can watch it live! I believe it’s the spelling bee next, so get out there and show your support!”

There was a general muttering and clamour as the students of both schools got up and trekked to the gymnasium, where rows of plastic chairs that were set up in two sections had been erected, one for the students of CHS, the other for the students of CPA.

Silver Rose just did as she was told and made her way to her seat, with Canvas following behind her.

The gym was mostly dark, with the lights only being centered on the stage, where a microphone had been set up.

Silver had read about spelling bees before. A word would be read out and your goal was to spell it out letter by letter. The only thing that didn’t seem right was that spelling bees were usually for middle school. At least, that’s what her book had said.

“You know, what kind of high school has a spelling bee?” Silver asked her friend, curious at the next event. “I did hear some murmur of there being one, but why would they put it in? I’m sure highschoolers can spell well enough.”

“You’d be surprised…” Canvas said ominously.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Silver demanded as the one called Rainbow Dash took the stage, with the other remaining competitors sitting down in small booths by the stage.

“Alright,” Principal Celestia said. “Please spell ‘hippopotamus’.”

The rainbow haired girl paused for a moment. “Uh, hippopotamus. Umm, H, I, P, P, O, P, O, uh… T, A, M… um… A, S?”

There was a loud buzz as Vice Principal Luna pressed a red button on the table. She had gotten it wrong. Obviously.

“Really?” Silver whispered as the girl made her way back to the Wondercolt booth. “That was an easy word. I could spell it. A kid could spell it. Right…?”

“Like I said,” Canvas whispered back. She wasn’t sketching, likely because it was dark around them. “You’d be surprised.”

Lemon Zest was up next, with Canterlot High singing against her and the other Shadowbolts now.

“Ugh, enough with the singing…” Silver groaned into her hands.

Dean Cadance reached into a hat and pulled out a slip of paper. “Please spell ‘munchausenism’.”

Silver blinked a few times surprisingly. She hadn’t heard of this word before. Maybe the spelling bee wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought.

Lemon Zest cleared her throat and grinned. “Munchausenism. M, U, N, C, H, O, U, S, E, N, I, S, M,” she finished happily.

There was a buzz from the judge’s table and Principal Cinch removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

Miserable old bat, Silver thought with glee. While she wasn’t too keen on Crystal Prep doing poorly, anything that aggravated Cinch was alright in her book.

“Aw…” Lemon Zest left the stage, much to Canterlot High’s amusement, who continued singing.

The next to stand at the mic was Applejack, who was tasked with spelling ‘onomatopoeia’.

“Onomatopoeia. O, N, O, M, uh… A, T, O, P, uh… E, I, A.”

Another buzzer.

“That one was rather easy too…” Silver raised an eyebrow and shifted herself in the seat. It wasn’t very comfortable. “Lemon Zest only lost because she had a hard word, but these Canterlot students are just messing up on easy words!”

“Shows you Crystal Prep is the best!” One of the students said beside her. Silver didn’t know her name. “We’re so going to win this.”

Sugarcoat was up next, with her word being another hard one, ‘cymotrichous’. Silver didn’t know why the Shadowbolts kept getting such strange and difficult words. The spelling bee must be biased towards Canterlot High, seeing as they couldn’t spell simple words. The buzzer sounded again, although Sugarcoat didn’t look too upset about misspelling the word, keeping her stoic face on as per usual.

To Silver’s increasing annoyance, both schools continued to sing through the entire spelling bee.

“Isn’t a spelling bee supposed to be, you know, quiet?” Silver whispered to Canvas. But Canvas didn’t hear her, singing along with her classmates. “Umm… okay.”

“Pressure’s on, we know we’re going to take you, just give up before we have to break you! Canter-not-a-lot you’re about to go down, down, down, down!”

Shaking her head at Canvas, Silver Rose slumped in her uncomfortable plastic chair and stewed, wishing for something other than pride to eat. Even a bowl of corn would be better now, and she didn’t even like corn.

The spelling bee continued, this time with Fluttershy taking the mic for ‘immigration’.

Fluttershy glanced nervously at her teammates, then at the Crystal Prep girls, who were both glaring at each other.

She spelt the word out, but missed one ‘M’. Another buzz rang around the gym, as loud as the singing.

“Is anyone going to get anything right?” Silver restrained herself from pulling at her hair.

Sunny Flare was up next, walking smugly to the mic, confidence beaming with every step she took. Silver would’ve said she trusted Sunny to win this for the Shadowbolts, but she knew Sunny and her ability in English class. She wasn’t exactly the best in the only language she spoke.

“Spell ‘rhombus’,” Principal Cinch asked, pulling a slip of paper out of the hat, giving the girl a look of expectation.

“Rhombus. Rhombus!” Silver Rose started laughing a little. The students on the left and right, with the exception of Canvas, began giving her weird looks, which made her stop, embarrassed at all the eyes on her. Then she leaned over to Canvas to whisper to her. “Rhombus. There’s no way she’s going to get this wrong, right? Lemon Zest and Sugarcoat had such difficult words earlier, but this… there’s no way Sunny can mess up, right?”

Silver sat there in suspense as Sunny stopped before the mic, smirking at the audience. “Rhombus. R, H, O, M, B, O, S.”

“No!” Silver grabbed her pink and grey hair, pulling at it in frustration, bending down to look between her legs, burying her face from everyone. “What the fu- umm… what? Just what?”

“Incorrect…” Principal Cinch slapped a hand to her face and sighed.

“You’re darn right that’s incorrect,” Silver hissed under her breath. “How- Just how do you misspell ‘rhombus’?”

As Silver seethed, she barely took notice of Indigo Zap, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle, who miraculously spelled her word right.

“Hey, Silver, they got one.” Canvas tapped her on the back. “Twilight and the other girl, uh… Sun-Sunset something?”

“Shimmer,” Silver mumbled from her bent over position. She slowly uncurled as Dean Cadance stood up and announced the end of the spelling bee.

“With two contestants left, we will now move on to our final event… math!”

“Way to highlight the failures of our educational system,” Silver said glumly. She didn’t know how almost all the participants got their words wrong. “Just what have they all been learning in school?”

At least Twilight Sparkle had managed to get something done. If anything, Cinch had been wise to get her on the team. She was a smart girl. A really smart girl, if she could built strange devices that… did things.

Win this, Twilight. Just end it, please. I don’t know how much more I can take of this.

And the students kept on singing as Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle ascended the steps to the final challenge, adding more fuel to Silver’s already burning fire of distaste.

“Take it up to the top, cause we know we can win!” the Canterlot High students sang.

“Maybe you should just stop, cause we’ve seen you give in!” the Crystal Prep students chanted back.

“We believe in ourselves and we’ve got what it takes, and we’re not gonna stooooooop!” everyone chorused.

I wish you would…

Silver watched as Twilight and Sunset Shimmer reached the top of the stairs, where there were two large blackboards set up with some kind of diagram on them in chalk. Cinch joined them at the top, giving them a set of instructions. When the two girls were ready, they picked up a piece of chalk each and began scrawling equations on their blackboards.

Silver had felt smart during the spelling bee, but not anymore. What they were writing down on the boards were math equations, which the young changeling wasn’t very good at. She began to feel less intelligent as they wrote away, filling up just about every inch of the board they could use.

“Can she do it.” The students began singing again as they scribbled their formulas down. “Will she make it?”

“Probably,” Silver grumbled half to herself, gritting her teeth slowly.

That didn’t stop the rest of the students from continuing their musical onslaught.

“Who will win it? Who will take it? Can she do it? Who will take it? Did she win it? Did she make it? Who’s the winner? Who’s the reject?”

Silver couldn’t take it anymore. Clenching her teeth to stop her fangs from shooting out, she sat up and hissed, “Will you just. Be. Quiet!”

The students around her stopped and looked at her with various looks of disapproval. Silver’s cheeks grew red, but her irritation far outweighed her embarrassment this time.

However, the rest of the students sang on.

“How did she answer?”

Cinch looked at their boards, then pointed a gnarled finger at Sunset’s board. “Incorrect.”

Chapter 54 - The Friendship Games Part 2

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Skip to the next chapter if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 54 - The Friendship Games Part 2

*Flash*

Canvas Splash’s camera clicked as she snapped a picture of Twilight and her blackboard. Across the hall, another girl with pink lensed glasses and a more expensive looking camera did the same, though more than once.

Principal Cinch walked over and took Twilight's hand in a handshake, smiling forward as Canvas got another picture.

“That means the winner of the Friendship Games’ first event is…” Luna announced. “Twilight Sparkle and Crystal Prep!”

There was a smattering of applause from the Crystal Prep side of the crowd. Silver clapped politely, not wanting to stand out because of her clapping style. At least her team had won. Sunset and her friends were gathered around her chalkboard, not looking too disappointed about their loss.

Huh. They’re not upset?

Dean Cadance made her way onto the stage, clipboard in hand.

“After a careful tally of the points, we would like to present the students moving on to the Friendship Games’ second event.”

There was another round of unenthusiastic applause from the Crystal Prep side as Sunny Flare, Indigo Zap, Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, and Sour Sweet joined Twilight Sparkle on the stage, looking bored. In contrast, there was much cheering from Sunset and her friends. Silver arched an eyebrow, wondering just what they were on, and where she could get some. She at least managed to pull some happiness from Sunset’s entourage, sighing in relief as the taste of pride was washed off her tongue.

“And now we will break for lunch,” Principal Celestia said for everyone to hear. “Please make your way to the cafeteria. We will begin the next round after lunch.”

“We won!” Canvas jumped up and down as she took more pictures. “I knew we would win!”

“It was a pathetic win.” Another girl with orange hair walked by and gave Canvas’ ponytail a flick before brushing past her. “I wouldn’t even consider it a win.”

“Yeah, we usually win by a milestone. This was just a disaster.” Another girl said on Silver’s right side.

“A wise man said,” Canvas began. “It doesn’t matter if you win by a second or a mile. Winning is winning.”

“Who said that?” The girl folded her arms and frowned.

“Van Diesel,” Canvas replied.

“Pathetic, Canvas,” she snorted and walked away as the crowds began to disperse for the cafeteria.

“Oh, ignore her,” Silver said. “I’m glad we won, but honestly, I think the spelling bee just shows how poor both our schools’ English curriculums are. I mean, how can you misspell ‘rhombus’? How?!”

Sunny Flare, who was now close by, heard that bit and looked over, blushing furiously.

Silver saw her looking and threw both hands up in the air, a desperate look on her face.

The mulberry haired girl looked to the side and scurried off. A big cloud of embarrassment floated around her and was inhaled by Silver. Oddly, it seemed a little tinged with something sweet that she couldn’t quite identify. Oh well. But Sunny was really upset about it.

“Maybe that was a little too harsh on her…” Silver watched her leave with Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet.

“Are you kidding? You could’ve still been tougher,” Canvas said as she checked her pictures on her camera. “I mean, like you said. Rhombus. It’s a simple word. It spells just like it sounds.”

“R, H, O, M, B, U, S,” Silver rattled off before gesturing with her head to the cafeteria doors. “It’s not that hard…”

She spotted a group of Canterlot High boys, snickering about something and pointing fingers at Sunny and the others, and two girls from the Wondercolt team talking about bread and cake as she and Canvas entered the hallway. She looked around for Home Run, hoping to find him, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. He was probably in the cafeteria already.

Just as well, Silver thought somewhat sourly. I can’t risk him learning that Moonglade and I are the same person. I might not like it, but mother has a point. I need to practice more with this persona thing.

“Man, I’m starving.” Canvas rubbed at her belly. “I hope the food’s going to be good.”

“We’ll see, won’t we?” Silver smiled and walked on ahead through the slower crowds, with Canvas following closely behind.

The cafeteria was a relatively common looking place, with tables all lined up in the center of the hall and the food counter up front, along with some refrigerators with drinks and yoghurt in them. It looked just like Crystal Prep’s cafeteria, except less clean and shiny.

Silver Rose let Canvas go first, lining up behind her and the other CPA and CHS students already in the line. Up ahead, an old woman began serving up food on their trays, and by the looks of it, they were having mashed potatoes and meatballs today. It didn’t look half bad; maybe they brought in some better food for the occasion.

Silver soon got her potatoes dripped down on her plate, followed by a handful of meatballs and gravy.

“Stockhorse style, dear,” the woman said to her for no apparent reason.

“Nice to know.” Silver looked down at her tray. It did look like something imported out of Stockhorse. She would know because they had food from all over the world back at home.

“Looks tasty.” Canvas eyed her lunch, then looked around for a place to sit. “How about over there, Silver? There’s some space by Jet Set and Upper Crust.”

Silver looked over and nodded. At least they were going to sit with familiar faces.

“Hey guys,” Canvas greeted, taking a seat next to Jet Set. “Mind if we sit?”

Jet Set flashed the artist a weird look, but then saw Silver and nodded. “Sure, go ahead.”

“How’s it been?” Silver asked as soon as she set her tray down and sat down.

Upper Crust’s mouth was set in a straight line. “Oh, you know. Could be better. We’ve both been eliminated from the Games, so we’ll be up in the cheap seats with you guys.”

“I do believe the next round will be outdoors, so perhaps the seats will be more… comfortable.” Jet Set shrugged. “That is, if the weather is better. It’s been awfully hot this year and it’s not even summer yet.”

Silver listened with polite interest as she started on her lunch. The mashed potatoes were a little claggy, but the meatballs and gravy were nice and succulent.

“Enjoying the meal?” Upper Crust watched her. “I guess it isn’t terrible, but it is obviously better back at school.”

“I wonder if they added milk to the potatoes…” Canvas pondered. “I like to watch these guys on Ewetube cook, and they usually add milk to their mashed potatoes. Of course, they usually half destroy the kitchen while they’re at it, so I’m not sure how valid that is. And the main cook has this creepy obsession with mayonnaise.”

Upper Crust and Jet Set gave her another set of weirded out looks. Then they both looked at each other and shrugged before getting back to their lunch.

“Oh, Upper Crust, I liked that cake you and Suri made, by the way,” Jet Set said with a smile. “I’m sure it must taste as good as it looked.”

“Aww…” Upper Crust waved a hand. “I’m sure you’re just saying that because you like me.”

“Well, that’s part of it, yes.” Jet Set lifted his glasses higher. “But I also trust your cooking ability. Uh, no offense, Silver Rose.”

“None taken. I know my cooking skills leave much to be desired.”

Just then, Trenderhoof joined the table, setting his tray down beside Silver. “Hey, Silver. Don’t mind if I sit here. Just wanted to see what you’re up to.”

“Oh, umm… eating, I guess.” She pointed her fork at her mashed potatoes.

“That’s interesting enough.” Trenderhoof looked at his own lunch. “Would you say you like mashed potatoes? For the magazine again, you see.”

Oh boy, here we go again.

“Why do you even put her in that magazine?” Canvas asked with a mouthful of potato. “Isn’t that magazine for adults? It’s always talking about sex and stuff.”

“Not so loud, Canvas.” Silver looked around, hoping people didn’t hear her. The last thing she wanted was for someone to misunderstand something they heard.

“There’s more than just all that, paintbrush.” Upper Crust glared at the artist. “There’s also stuff about looking your best and having a good diet.”

“Yeah, but still…” Canvas tapped her spoon to her plate. “A lot of stuff in those aren’t for us to read.”

“I’ll let you know, I have no part with… those bits.” Trenderhoof motioned with his fingers. “All my material is perfectly wholesome for people of all ages to read.”

“Right.” Silver looked at her plate of food. “Well, I guess I do like it, Trenderhoof. It’s quite tasty. If a little lumpy.”

“I’ll note that down.” The brown-skinned boy grinned, giving Silver a nice taste of happiness. “How about clothing? What do you wear besides your school uniform, may I ask?”

Trenderhoof didn’t even seem disappointed that he had been eliminated from the Games, asking her all these questions. Or maybe he was using it as a cover up for losing, but that couldn’t be right. He didn’t smell of disappointment.

“I like the school uniform,” Silver said slowly. “It’s very comfortable and stylish. So I had something like it prepared for home use.”

Of course, that was a lie, but he wasn’t going to know that.

“Hmm… okay, interesting.” Trenderhoof nodded, likely making a mental note of what he had asked her. Then he lifted his fork and spoon and began digging into his mashed potatoes. “Thank you, Silver. You’ll be pleased to find this in the next issue of Cosmarepolitan.”

Hooray for more firewood. Silver thought as she remembered what her mother did with magazines.

Silver Rose had only just resumed consuming her lunch when another face joined their table, though she didn’t have a tray with her. Instead, she had a piece of paper and a pen.

“Hi, Silver Rose, it’s me again,” Rarity, one of the Wondercolts beamed as she sat down. Silver could smell excitement coming from her, and a little bit of pride and irritation, likely because CHS and CPA weren’t on the best of terms. “I hope you don’t mind, but… may I have your autograph? Your mother’s my favorite actress and to have her daughter’s signature? Oh how marvelous that would be.”

“Umm… sure, I guess I could…” Silver sighed internally and took the pen. She began scribbling down her signature when she realized her mistake, quickly slashing it off with another stroke of the pen. She had started writing Moonglade’s signature instead. It was now that she realized she hadn’t come up for one for Silver Rose. Close one there…

As she began writing a new signature, Rarity had turned her attention to Trenderhoof, also equally excited about meeting him.

“I read all your writings, Trenderhoof!” she squealed excitedly. It reminded Silver of a pig. “It is a pity you go to Crystal Prep, but would you sign my paper as well?”

“Why don’t you just scram, Canterlot?” Upper Crust frowned at her. “This table isn’t for you.”

“Aw, no harm, Upper Crust.” Trenderhoof waved her off. “If she wants my signature, she can have it.”

“Huh. Sure…” the yellow-skinned girl folded her arms and looked to the side.

“There. Here you go, Rarity.” Silver handed the paper back to the violet haired girl, with her new Silver Rose signature on it. She hoped she would remember how to write it again if someone else asked for it.

Finally able to eat her lunch again, Silver had finished it, watching Trenderhoof scribble down a lengthy paragraph about his exploits with Cosmarepolitan for Rarity, ending it with his signature at the bottom.

Silver watched her hold the paper close to her chest, vibrating with so much excitement that she looked like she was going to keel over any minute. She had no idea why a signature would mean so much to people. It was simply a written name from a person, just in a slightly fancier way.

Looking away as she placed her cutlery down, Silver blew up at her fringe and then widened her eyes. She spotted Sunny Flare sitting by herself at a table on the far end, her plate empty and her cutlery placed down neatly by the corner. The other Shadowbolts didn’t seem to be around, at least not anymore.

Wanting to make up for her mistake earlier, Silver told Canvas where she was going, then got up and walked over to Sunny’s table.

“Hey, Sunny. What’s up? Where are the other girls?” Silver said, sitting down opposite her.

“Oh, h-hey, Silver…” Sunny blushed and looked away. “Th-they decided to g-go on first. I just wanted to hang back and think about things.”

“The spelling bee?” Then Silver leaned forward and put a hand over one of Sunny’s holding it soothingly. “I’m sorry I got mad at you for misspelling ‘rhombus’. I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t get how anyone could misspell that.”

“U-Umm…” Sunny squirmed in her seat, but she didn’t draw back her hand. “I-I thought I had it, but I guess I didn’t… I was sure it was spelt like that.”

“It’s spelt as it sounds, Sunny. But okay, I don’t want to bring it up again. Let’s look ahead to the next round. You’re going to win this, right?”

“Y-Yeah.” Sunny nodded confidently and looked back up at Silver. “We’re going to beat Canterlot High as we always do. We already won one round. We’ll do it again.”

“I know you six girls will get things done.” Silver grinned, looking as friendly as she could. “Even Twilight Sparkle has her strengths. It’s good you have her on the team.”

“Well, yeah, except that she’s a complete weirdo like Canvas.” Sunny scoffed.

“Aw, don’t be so harsh. There’s nothing wrong with Canvas and there certainly isn’t anything wrong with Twilight Sparkle.”

Though I’m totally lying. Those two are nutcrackers. At least Canvas is a fun nutcracker. Twilight Sparkle… needs work.

“If you think so, Sil-Silver…” Sunny looked to the side again, not looking at Silver.

“Just focus on the Games instead. Don’t worry about your teammate. How about that?” Silver smiled warmly.

Sunny looked back at her, then away again. “I w-will. I’ll try my absolute best to focus…”

“That’s the spirit, Sunny.” Silver gave her hand a light squeeze, then a wink. “Go out and do your best!”

Sunny got off her chair and nodded with a smile. “R-Right, I will… Umm… excuse me, I think I need the restroom.”

“Oh, sure, go for it.” Silver watched the mulberry haired girl retreat from the canteen. Sniffing, Silver turned back and faced the table with a raised eyebrow. “That one’s got a fishy smell about her…”

Sunny Flare was lying when she said she was going to try her best to focus. In fact, she hadn’t been at a hundred percent during the first round. Part of her mind was still thinking about Silver Rose and now, after the girl had held her hand, Sunny couldn’t control herself anymore. She had to do something about it, so here she was in the girl’s restroom, sitting in one of the cubicles, her face flushed and confused as she buried two fingers into her leaking pussy, pulling them in and out of herself.

No… I shouldn’t be doing this… But yet, why am I doing it…?

This time, she wasn’t even touching herself thinking of Fast Bender, but she had done it thinking of Silver Rose right from the beginning. She still felt Silver’s hand gripping hers, remembering the prickling sensation down her back and the warmth she had between her legs, which was still there right now.

Using the same hand Silver had held to pleasure herself, she began imagining it was Silver who was putting her fingers inside her, letting her imagination go wild as she increased her speed.

“Mmmmnnhh, aahh… aahhh… Silver…” Sunny panted as she unbuttoned her blazer.

She didn’t want to accept her feelings for Silver. She didn’t, but it seemed like her body and mind weren’t in sync. Her mind still wanted her to date guys, but her body wanted Silver Rose and it wanted her badly, it would seem.

Undoing her bowtie, Sunny peeled her blazer aside and lifted her shirt, slipping one hand into her bra to fondle one of her breasts.

Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she wanted Silver’s hands on her body, her lips against hers, her strawberry scented smell filling her nose, Sunny wanted it all. The thought of Silver Rose was driving her crazy right now.

She wasn’t ready to accept such feelings, not yet, but why did she keep going back to Silver in her mind, now picturing the girl down on her knees, her tongue in her wet slit instead of Sunny’s own fingers. She wanted to think of Fast Bender, or at least a hot guy, but the image of Silver didn’t fade.

Whatever the case was, at least she was feeling really good right now.

“Oh yesss…” Sunny gasped after a particularly deep thrust. She was getting close now, and with a bit more stimulation, she would-

Then, Sunny heard the door to the bathroom creak open, followed by the sound of many footfalls on the tiled floor. Sunny froze, her fingers stopping halfway inside her pussy.

“...so then Rainbow Dash hit the ball right out of the park, winning Canterlot the game! She’s so awesome like that,” a young girl’s voice said.

“Wow, Scootaloo, that’s pretty impressive. I wish Rarity would play games with me, but she’s always busy with her sewing. All the time it’s always, ‘sorry darling, but I’ve got orders to fill’.”

“That stinks, but at least you have an older sister. Rainbow Dash is only like a really cool sister to me.”

“Yeah well…” the first girl sighed. “I hope Applebloom has our drinks and popcorn ready. She’s supposed to be saving us front row seats for the next event.”

“I just know Rainbow Dash is going to win this one! She’s too awesome to lose!”

“Well, except for the spelling bee.”

“Don’t remind me, please…”

I don’t want to remember that either… Sunny continued to stare at the cubicle door. She tried to remove her fingers, but as soon as she moved them, a small gasp came out of her mouth, her inner walls constricting her finger movement and making her feel good. Oh no.

“Hey, did you hear something?” the first girl asked.

“Um… no. Hey Sweetie Belle,” the girl called Scootaloo called. “How long is it until the next event anyway? Might want to visit the vending machine.”

“I dunno, fifteen minutes?” Sweetie Belle replied. “Let me do up my hair real quick. Hold my hairband, please.”

“Fine, just don’t take too long. Tell you what, I better take a leak while we’re here.” There was the sound of the cubicle beside Sunny’s opening and then slamming shut, followed by the sound of pants dropping to the floor, followed by a stream of liquid falling into the toilet bowl next door.

Sunny continued to stay unmoving, afraid to pull her fingers out of her slit in fear of being unable to hold her moans back. The hand under her bra soon moved and went over her mouth and nose, hoping her breathing wasn’t noticeable as well. She had really been panting until they came in and now that she was concentrating on breathing, she had to calm herself down to breathe quieter. There was also a buildup in her lower regions, threatening to come out as she sat there, waiting. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold it back.

Fifteen minutes! Sunny gasped internally. I’ll need to be out there soon! Please leave…

“You know, I didn’t know Rainbow and Sunset could ride motorbikes. I mean, that’s rather crazy, isn’t it?” Sweetie Belle said.

“What’s crazy is that they put motorbiking in the Games. Someone could really get hu- oops!”

Sunny didn’t know what happened, but then she heard a clunk, followed by a red hairband rolling into her cubicle stall and it was then she knew exactly what happened. It crashed into her toilet bowl’s base and fell back flat against the floor.

Oh, this could not get any worse… Sunset covered her eyes, hoping that if she couldn’t see the hairband, it wouldn’t be there. Unfortunately, it didn’t help.

“Did you drop my hairband, Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle asked from outside.

The trickling sound that was coming from Scootaloo’s cubicle slowed, then stopped. There was the sound of a flush.

“My bad! I’ll get it for you. I just needa figure out where it landed,” her voice sounded awfully loud to Sunny.

Sunny just hoped she wouldn’t be the type to peek her head under the cubicle walls to look for the hairband. She still had her shirt up above her breasts, her panties pulled to the side and her fingers, soaked in her own juice, sticking out from her nethers. It would be really bad if someone saw her like this.

She first heard the cubicle door beside her slam open, then the other cubicle doors being pushed open, one at a time, starting from the far end and getting closer to where she was sitting.

“I don’t see it…” Scootaloo said, still getting closer to Sunny’s position.

The mulberry haired girl’s hand returned to her mouth and nose, holding her breath at the same time to limit her sound. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears now, pounding a hole in her chest. She quietly wished it wasn’t loud enough for the girl to hear.

And then there was a tap on Sunny’s door, followed by a few more pounds. “Hey, this one’s locked. Hey, is there anyone in there?”

No! Go away!

However, aloud Sunny let out a small groan, putting both feet on the floor.

“Oh, hey, sorry, whoever’s in there,” Sweetie Belle said. Sunny saw a shadow fall across the small space between the door and the tiles. “Excuse me, but I think my headband rolled in there. Do you see it? It’s a red one.”

Sunny didn’t dare say anything, but placing a foot on the hairband, she kicked it out under the door, watching as it slid away out of her sight.

“Thank you. Sorry to disturb you.”

That was enough for Sunny. With a quiet moan, everything she had been holding back broke past her defenses and clear liquid shot out from her pussy, past her fingers and down into the toilet bowl, trickling against the walls above the water before dripping in. Her pussy continued to throb from the act, soon expelling the remains of her bladder as a stream of hot yellow liquid found its way out as well, going through her fingers and down into the water with her womanly fluids.

“Gee, you’ve gotta be more careful with my stuff, Scootaloo. What if it fell into the toilet bowl?”

“Yeah yeah. Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time… I guess juggling isn’t one of my talents.”

The door creaked open again, then swung shut, leaving Sunny in silence. Slowly, she took her fingers out of her nethers and sighed, leaning back against the toilet lid in relief. Her legs continued shuddering as she lifted her fingers to smell at them, recoiling them in an instant.

“Great… they smell like piss.”

Getting up, Sunny gave her lower regions a good wipe with some toilet paper, before flushing all the evidence of her deed down the drain. First readjusting her panties and her shirt, Sunny began rebuttoning her blazer, thinking about Silver Rose again.

I wonder what she’s up to right now…

She sighed. She had once again proved to herself that guys were not as important as Silver Rose. That girl had really become the center of Sunny’s thoughts and dreams, even unconsciously. It was just too sudden and unorthodox for her.

What happens if I embrace this feeling? Does Silver even think of me the same way? What if she’s straight?

Mulling this over in her head, she almost forgot about one very important detail.

“Oh, crap! I need to get to the next event!”

Sunny stood up, and after a few unsteady steps, unlatched the door and made her way to the sinks to wash her hands. She had very little time left, but she also had to get rid of the stink on her hand or people were going to be asking questions.

Once she was satisfied that all evidence of her little sojourn had been washed away, she adjusted her clothes and hair in the bathroom mirror and fixed her usual expression on her face.

“Let’s go, Shadowbolts.”

Chapter 55 - The Friendship Games Part 3

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Chapter 56 - The Friendship Games Part 4

“And there, that should do for now.” Silver patted down the huge bandaid she had put on her knee. “It didn’t hurt all that bad, but thanks for taking me here, Home Run.”

“Anytime,” the boy chuckled. “You’re Moonglade’s sister anyway. I owe it to her to watch after her twin sister, hmm?”

“Heheh… yeah…” Silver made a thin smile and looked away. “Well, now that it’s all taken care of, we should go to the gym. I wonder what they’re up to now.”

“And hopefully we’re not going to have anymore magical disturbances, huh?” Home Run held the door open for her. “We need to watch out for your Twilight’s pendant.”

“Yes we do…” Silver skipped out the door. “I’ve seen her tinkering with that thing a whole lot, but I didn’t know what it did until today. What a device. It absorbs magic? I mean, how would she even know what magic is? Why is there even magic? How is there magic?”

“Long story, Silver Rose.” Home Run walked alongside her as they made for the gym. “Much too long to tell right now. Umm… a few of the girls have magic from some event a while back. I wasn’t here then. Did Moonglade tell you? I’ve only just transferred over to Canterlot not even half a year ago. My dad got transferred here. Oh, he’s a bus driver for your school, did you know that?”

“I knew it!” Silver pumped a fist down. “I thought he looked like you. I mean, uh, from photos my sister has shown me of you.”

“Yeah. My old principal, Principal Frost, he wanted me to go to CHS, because it has a better environment. Looking at your school, I think he was right. Uh, no offense.”

“Don’t worry, I feel the same way…”

Silver wished her mother had sent her to Canterlot High instead. The students seemed friendlier and more outgoing, with far less competition, though this Friendship Games was getting everyone quite worked up. It would definitely be a better place to find love to eat.

When they got to the gym, Silver found the students had segregated themselves to separate sides of the place again. With a farewell, she left Home Run and went to the side her schoolmates were waiting at.

“What’s the situation?” Silver asked Fleur, who was talking to Royal Pin.

“Oh, there you are,” Fleur said in relief. “When we couldn’t find you, we thought you had fallen prey to those plants.”

“It’ll take more than a bit of shrubbery to do me in,” Silver laughed. “I have to say though, I don’t think those were on the program for the Games.”

“Certainly not.” Royal Pin looked to the stage where their four principals were standing. “I believe Principal Cinch is accusing Canterlot High of cheating, though I wouldn’t put it past them. Did you see that rainbow one? She flew.”

“I saw that,” Silver nodded, unsure of what to think. She’d never seen wings on a human before. “Though to be fair, the plant was our fault. That thing only appeared because of Twilight Sparkle’s little device.”

“Yes, but that device only activated because of Canterlot High’s magic,” Royal Pin argued, putting his hands on his blazer. “If they didn’t have such material, we wouldn’t have lost the last round.”

“Come on, you can’t blame them for this.” Silver watched Royal Pin’s and Fleur’s faces. How in the world did the word ‘magic’ become such a normal thing to say? The real questions they should be asking were, ‘How do they even have magic’, and ‘Am I dreaming’. “They wouldn’t have known that Twilight would have such a device.”

“I still think Canterlot High is responsible…” Fleur looked over to the other side where the CHS students were standing.

The sirens were by the corner as usual, looking more irritated than ever. Hopefully they were okay during the relay.

Silver wanted to go over and talk to them, but then Dean Cadance had tapped on the mic a few times to get their attention.

“Attention, students!” she said. “Now that everyone has been accounted for, we apologize for the strange occurrences that happened during the tricross relay. Principal Celestia assures us that there was no danger to anyone, and that it will not happen again.”

“I doubt that.” Fleur folded her arms.

“Now to move on to the next event,” the dean continued. “Please move out to the front of the school for the final event!”

“Well whoop dee doo,” Royal Pin grumbled. “There better not be any more of the flying around in this last one. That’s blatantly cheating.”

Does no one question the magic?

Silver followed the crowds out of the gym doors, getting pushed one from behind as a big burly boy pushed out of the exit. He was at least triple her size and he didn’t look like any high school student.

“How rude…” Silver frowned at his retreating shape. Her rising ire caused her fangs to poke out a tiny bit, but she mastered herself and forced them back up.

As she stepped outside, Silver noticed that the previously sunny day had sunken into an overcast state, grey clouds covering the sky and giving the school an unhealthy pallor.

“Hopefully it doesn’t rain.” Fleur gave her soft pink hair a flick. “Rainwater is bad for my hair.”

“Doesn’t look much like rain,” Quillion said, looking up. “Wind’s moving too fast for that.”

“Just to set the scene for our final round, huh? Well, let’s see what’s going to happen here.”

There were four sets of stands positioned outside the front of the school, two of the left side of the building and the other two on the right, facing each other, giving both sides a good view of the Wondercolts statue. Banners of both school’s teams were hung down from the school building, letting Silver know which side to go to.

For some reason, looking at the statue gave Silver an odd feeling, as if something inside her was reacting. A moment later, the flicker of disquiet passed, and she focused on finding a seat next to Canvas.

She soon found her artistic friend, sitting on the front row, fiddling with her camera.

“Hey, Canvas.” Silver waved when she sat down. “How’s it going?”

“Silver!” Canvas wrapped her in a one armed hug. “I haven’t seen you since the first event! Things have been okay. I’ve been by myself, just taking photos. I took some of those maneating plants. Wanna see?”

She scrolled through her photos until they arrived at the tricross relay, where she had pretty decent images of the plants. One picture was of Indigo Zap riding off one of the plants’ heads.

“So they were real, were they?” Silver mused at the photographic evidence. “Keep a backup of these,” she instructed. “They might come in useful later.”

“Sure!” Canvas smiled happily. “I was planning on keeping them anyway. I mean, not everyday you see a maneating plant, huh?”

“Yeah…” Silver sighed, leaning against the side of the stand. “Everyone’s taking this way too well.”

The Friendship Games competitors had gathered in between their respective stands, facing the other team. Sunny and the others looked at Canterlot High’s side with varying levels of irritation and superiority. Silver was getting tired of inhaling the same flavor all day. At least Home Run tasted better, with what little time she had with him. Wasn’t someone else going to feel something different? She would almost settle for Cinch at this rate. Almost. But then she remembered getting sick from it and she changed her mind.

“One more round, huh?” Silver watched the competitors glare at each other, the wind whipping at their hair. “Well, I hope we win.”

She spent the next few minutes scrolling through her phone, seeing if she had any messages she might’ve missed all day. She actually had some, one from her aunt and another from Home Run.

The one from her aunt read, Hey sweetie how goes the games? Is your school winning?

Silver typed back a short summary on everything that had happened today, but for the magic absorbing device, she only mentioned it briefly, telling her aunt that she would explain it more in detail when she got back home.

Then she looked over at the one Home Run had sent and couldn’t help but smile.

Hi Moonglade. Met ur sister today. Shes real cool. The games are going fine if u want a note on it. There were some weird things that happened today like maneating plants but we settled it fine. She hurt her knee but she said itll be ok. Hope to c u soon!

Such a cute boy… Silver read the message again. Then she typed a quick reply, ending it with a few hearts. She held the phone to her chest, imagining it was Home Run and that she was Moonglade. If only mother hadn’t made me make a new persona. Perhaps I could be with Home Run right this moment...

“I know I’m asking you to beat a team that isn’t playing fair,” Silver’s ears pricked up. It seemed that Crystal Prep’s principal was giving her team a talk. Looking down, she found them huddled around her, listening intently. “But Canterlot High must be made to understand that even with magic at their disposal, beating Crystal Prep is simply not an option.”

Hm. Now what have you got to say, you old hagfish?

“What if they grow wings again?” Sugarcoat asked bluntly.

Silver liked how they were talking about it like they saw it everyday. It was just amazing how fast these students accepted magic. She herself was still coming to terms with it, and she herself was a magical creature. Sort of. Maybe not magical exactly, but she was at least supernatural. Half supernatural. It didn’t matter.

“A fair question,” the old hagfish said. “Though I believe we can now fight fire with fire.”

All their eyes turned to Twilight Sparkle.

Silver’s lip curled in disgust as Cinch’s stink grew stronger. Nothing good was going to come out of this discussion, that she knew.

“I’ve seen what your device can do, Twilight,” Cinch continued. “Containing magical energy is fine, but have you considered releasing it?”

“Did you hear all that Canvas.” Silver nudged her friend. “Things don’t sound like they’re going in a good direction.”

“Yeah, it kinda doesn’t…” Canvas rubbed her chin and watched Cinch.

Twilight looked distressed. Smelled distressed too. “But I don’t even understand how it works!”

“But you’d like to,” Cinch pointed out. “And since our opponents have already used it to stay competitive, I see no reason why we shouldn’t do the same,” a nasty undercurrent entered Cinch’s aura. “Unless of course, you have no interest in Everton. Though honestly, I think there’s more knowledge packed in that little device than any independent study program could offer.”

Silver didn’t think it was a good idea. They shouldn’t be messing with something they had no idea about, and it wasn’t like they already knew what magic was. This was the first day they should’ve seen anything like this.

And then what happened next made Silver slap a hand to her face, making Canvas jump and turn to look at her. Principal Cinch began singing.

“I realize that you’ve always been an outcast. It’s not everyone at school that likes to think.”

That instantly made Silver think about Sunny during the spelling bee again. Sunny was great at all her other subjects. The young changeling still couldn’t understand how she could be so bad at English.

“To find a student that’s like you,” Cinch continued, walking back and forth between Twilight and the other Shadowbolts. “I’ve had one or maybe two, but the good ones disappear before I blink.”

No doubt because you’re insufferable. Silver thought snidely, folding her arms across her chest. An unpleasant taste was starting to rise from Cinch and the Shadowbolts. Oh, no. Please don’t join in, please don’t join in, please don’t-

“Oh, wuh-oh-wuh, oh. Oh, wuh-oh-wuh,” The Shadowbolts chorused.

They joined in. Of course. Silver sighed and covered her face. What was it with their schools and singing? She looked over to Canvas, who was busy checking out a picture on her camera and sketching it out on her sketchbook, even with the sky so dark.

“Now I understand you have your reservations.” The Shadowbolts sang their bit after that before Cinch continued again. “It’s hard to have a brain as large as yours.” And then they added in their ‘oh oh oh’s’.

Silver Rose put her hands to her ears and tried to ignore them. Singing was one thing, but singing about everything was driving her nuts. Even her mother didn’t do that.

“Canvas, why does everyone sing here…?” she groaned into her lap. “Just what is up with that.”

Canvas continued to scroll through the photos on her camera.

“Canvas, are you paying attention?” Silver demanded.

“No,” Canvas replied, not looking up.

“Good,” Silver said, not paying attention either.

The young changeling chose to ignore the rest of her song, doing her best to keep herself occupied. She realized she had never sent Home Run a picture of herself in the hairband he had gotten for her, so she decided to open up her messages. Because she enjoyed admiring herself, she easily found one of Moonglade wearing the hairband, though finding a picture of herself decently clothed proved a little more difficult. She liked to see her curves as well, meaning most of her pictures there were of her dressed in either her underwear or a towel, and there was even one of herself with nothing on, but there was no way she was sending that one.

She eventually found one of herself in Moonglade’s home clothes and chose to send him that one. Attached to the picture, was a simple message to let him know what this was.

Hey Home Run thot i should send u a picture of what ur hairband looks like on me because i dont wear it much outside. How do i look?

When she was done, she kept her phone and looked over to Canterlot High’s stands, searching for Home Run. She spotted him sitting at the last row, just pulling out his phone.

Yes! He’s checking my message!

“Gee, when are we starting?” Canvas looked up from her sketch. Silver looked over. Her friend was drawing a picture of the maneater plants and it looked quite similar, even for a sketch. “Canterlot High’s side looks ready, I don’t know why ours isn’t.”

Silver Rose looked over and saw the Wondercolts already watching them, waiting for Crystal Prep’s Shadowbolts to ready themselves, most likely.

“Come on… just stop singing and let’s get this done…” Silver grumbled, turning her attention back to Principal Cinch’s song.

“What I’m suggesting is very simple, and since it’s win win on all scores,” the wretched woman continued with her lyrics. “You only want to learn of the magic that you have stored, and as for me and all the others, we only want what we deserve…”

“You don’t deserve any of this.” Silver wanted to raise her voice, but she managed to control herself and said it out in a normal voice. The ominous taste was strong in the air now and Silver felt her stomach churn. She had trained hard to not fall prey to the different emotions she had to face, but this one was getting stronger than she had ever felt before.

“That our school will clinch the win and my legacy will endure!” Principal Cinch and the Shadowbolts proclaimed, holding her arms up.

“Why do the rest of you care about her legacy?” Silver groused, wrapping her arms around her stomach. This wasn’t good. If it kept up, she might need to throw up somewhere and she couldn’t afford to be sick now.

“Silver?” Canvas Splash touched her arm. “Are you okay? You don’t look so well. You’re sweating.”

Silver only just noticed the beads of sweat on her forehead and wiped them off. “Just… I don’t know. Maybe it was something from lunch. I’ll be fine.”

“Unleash the magic, free the magic now…” the Shadowbolts sang. “Unleash the magic, free the magic now…”

Twilight also seemed to be singing now, slowly walking toward the center of the field, pendant in hand. “Imagine all I’ll learn by setting it free…”

“Don’t do it, Twilight,” Silver said, mostly for her own benefit, one hand still on her stomach.

“If both teams are ready,” Vice Principal Luna said into a microphone.

“Ooh, is it going to start?” Canvas looked up from her work and closed her sketchbook. “Finally! I thought it wouldn’t be for another hour or something. Sketchy was telling me I should just go home.”

No one seemed to have noticed Twilight, who was still walking and singing. ‘And now winning these games depends on me…”

The bespectacled girl held up her pendant on a palm and pushed something on it; it looked like a button.

“She’s not thinking of doing it is she?” Silver stood up, considering going down there to intervene. She had seen what the device could do. She didn’t want more maneater plants to show up.

The other side seemed to be thinking the same, with Sunset Shimmer stepping forward, her eyes wary as well, watching Twilight Sparkle.

In the background, the Shadowbolts continued to chant, “Unleash the magic, free the magic now…”

“The last event of the Friendship Games begins…!” Dean Cadance added her voice in at the front doors of the school building.

Silver looked back to Twilight who was gazing at her device almost hungrily, then she stretched her arms out and placed one over the device.

“Unleash the magic, free the magic now…”

This won’t end well… Silver suddenly got a chill down her back. That was a bad sign; changeling intuition was rarely ever wrong. She leapt off the stands, landing by the side as both Sunset and Twilight’s purple dog began running for her, trying to stop her.

“Unleash the magic, free the magic…”

“Now!” Dean Cadance, Vice Principal Luna and the Shadowbolts all yelled at once.

Silver would’ve run over to try and stop Twilight as well, but at the same moment, Twilight had opened her device, releasing a pulse of bright magic, knocking the Wondercolts and the Shadowbolts down, before shrinking back into Twilight’s pendant. Without warning, she was lifted up into the air, still holding on to a ball of purple magic as her pendant dropped to the floor.

“Ah crap,” Silver breathed. She would have indulged in some more flavorsome oaths, but what she saw next took her breath away.

The ball began to expand and all the young changeling could do was watch as it began to envelop Twilight, with Principal Cinch and the Shadowbolts backing away from her.

“Help… Meeeeee!” Twilight shrieked to her team, but no one made a move to do anything.

And then she disappeared in the magical ball, only her silhouette still visible from the outside. Silver could only prepare herself for the worst.

And then the ball exploded again, but this time when it cleared, Twilight had changed. She no longer had her school uniform or even her glasses on, but what floated there on huge, falcon-like wings was something that Silver could only describe as both terrifying and enthralling at the same time. She felt her fangs slip into view, but for once she felt no impulse to engage. This was simply too much, and for the first time in her life, Silver felt outclassed.

“If only I had a weapon…” she hissed, stepping behind the stands to observe what might happen next. She didn’t dare interfere in this matter.

She could see and hear Sunset and Twilight talking briefly, then Twilight stretched out her hand and a beam of energy shot forth, striking the rearing horse statue and shattering it. But that was not the worrying part. Where the statue had once been, a purple rimmed hole now swirled, clearly depicting another place entirely.

This is mad. I need help.

Silver Rose whipped out her phone and dialled her aunt. In only a single ring, she picked up.

“Hello, sweetie.”

“Aunt Ivory, I think I need help.”

“Oh? What’s going on?”

“No time to explain,” Silver said as she watched Twilight open more rifts in the air. “I need backup. Bring a big gun or something. There’s a monster tearing the place apart.”

There was silence on the other side for a few seconds. “A-Are you sure, sweetie? And I don’t know if your mother keeps those around here. What’s going on?”

Silver tried to think of what to say, but at that moment, a rift appeared beside her and she quickly stepped away, cursing as she did so.

“Language, young lady!” her aunt said on the other side. “You do not need to taint your mouth with such words!”

“Check the gun cabinet,” Silver said quickly, trying to make herself heard above the screaming. “I know mother keeps a couple of assault rifles in there with attachments. The place is falling apart here!”

“Okay, okay, you sound urgent. I’ll see what I can do and I’ll be right over. Be careful, okay?”

“Sure, thanks, Aunt Ivory!”

Silver hung up and pocketed her phone, then stepped away from more portals as students ran past her.

And I thought the plants were crazy. This is all just absolutely unreal!

Silver spotted Cinch running away from the scene, taking cover behind the other set of seats. She peered out at the destruction with wide eyes, smelling of fear and shame.

Silver smirked at the principal’s plight. Then she edged out into the open, just in time to see a massive hole get blasted in the ground. The hole grew, bits of the floor falling away into the portal.

Students who were unfortunate enough to be standing near the hole when it opened attempted to make a run for it, but a few of them were too slow and fell in. Sunset Shimmer’s friends darted to the rescue.

Silver looked around, but there were no teachers in sight. The road was empty, meaning no backup from her aunt yet. What was she to do?

Just then, there was a rush of wind as Lemon Zest, Sugarcoat, Sour Sweet, Indigo Zap, and Sunny Flare went running past her to grab the students who were slipping into the hole in the floor. Silver would’ve stopped to rub her eyes in disbelief as she watched her friends help Sunset Shimmer’s friends, but with all the rifts appearing all over the place and any wrong move would mean disaster, she let it go for now, instead focusing on the event before her eyes.

She also spotted Home Run, his baseball team and Quillion and the fencing team running around, helping people out of the portals. Jet Set and Upper Crust were also out and about, pulling a girl with blue hair out from a portal.

“Guess I should join in too.” Silver nodded and rushed over, grabbing the hand of a blonde haired girl, channeling her stored away love energy to haul her out with one hand, quickly tossing her to safety before moving on. She hoped they wouldn’t think too much of her increased strength while their lives were on the line.

She had pulled out one of her own schoolmates when she heard a gasp and looked up. On his way from saving another student, the floor below Home Run’s feet cracked and collapsed under him, sending him plunging down.

Silver held her breath for a second, clutching her hands to her chest, but then blew out a sigh of relief when he caught on to the side, dangling down into the portal with only his fingers preventing him from falling through.

“Home Run!” Silver wasted no time and running over, expending some of her love energy to reach him faster. Her teeth were bared in a feral snarl as she leapt the last few meters to Home Run’s position. Her right hand shot out and caught the boy by the wrist just as he lost his grip.

Her body slammed against the ground as she slid to a stop over the portal, her arm holding Home Run dangling down into the large rift, refusing to let go.

“Hold on!” she grunted, forced to use more energy to hold on to him.

“Not gonna let go!” Home Run yelled up, looking down at his feet swinging in the air.

Looking down, Silver Rose could see several houses below, along with colorful horses walking or flying around. She decided there was no way her day was going to get any weirder.

Slowly pushing up to her knees, the young changeling kept one hand on the ground while the other began to lift Home Run, using more love energy to perform the deed.

Come on…! Almost there… Just a little… more!

Silver felt something within her, whether it was a welling of power or not, something seemed to spark inside her, growing warmer. With a quick burst of strength, Silver yanked Home Run up, falling to her back as she pulled with all her might. Home Run flew out of the portal and landed on top of her, his eyes wide with fear and shock. Their chests touched for a few seconds, only a few seconds, but Silver felt as though there was something burning within Home Run’s. It was almost hot to touch.

“Thanks,” Home Run panted, their hands still entwined. Silver smelled gratitude, but he quickly withdrew his hand and got off her, holding the limb with his other hand. “Your hands,” he explained. “They’re really… hot.”

“A-Are they…?” Silver looked at her hands and rubbed them together. He was right. Even though she couldn’t feel heat as well, she felt them radiating warmth. Then she looked back up at Home Run. “They are. And y-you… your chest… it was hot too.”

“It was?” Home Run touched it, immediately withdrawing his hand. “Ouch! I… what is going on?”

Under him, the floor began to crack more.

Silver wasted no time in getting to her feet and grabbing Home Run around the arm, dragging him further away from the rift. She let go as soon as she could, remembering her hands were hot.

“No time to ponder now. We need to get to safety!” She motioned with her head away from the center of the school. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about this.”

“Don’t worry.” Home Run ran along with her to the side. “Sunset and the girls will find a way. They always do.”

“I hope so.” She remembered the tales of the girls she had heard from the sirens, but she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if they couldn’t do anything about this. Their world might just cease to exist if the rifts kept up their work. Hopefully Aunt Ivory would be here soon to deal with things. Perhaps if the girls couldn’t solve this, maybe guns would.

All the while, she felt her hands grow hotter and hotter, until even she was beginning to feel uncomfortable. She waved them in the air to try and cool them off, but all that accomplished was make tiny plumes of smoke rise from the tips of her fingers.

“Am I… Am I supposed to be feeling this?” Home Run had a hand on his chest again, recoiling at the touch a few times. “I-I’m not feeling so great…” Then a hand went to his mouth and he ran for a bush.

“Ah, hay, sorry, Home Run,” Silver said, and ran over to a small alcove, where she wouldn’t easily be spotted, by either her classmates or whatever Twilight Sparkle had become.

As soon as she made it there, both her hands suddenly erupted into a torrent of green flames, charring the cuffs of her blazer in the process.

“Ah, ah! What?!” The young changeling panicked and flung her hands around, trying to extinguish the flames. It was only after she started thinking about it did she realize there was no pain and she stopped trying to put it out.

The tongues of fire crawled up each finger, lingering at the tips like candles before winking out of existence. A few more moments later, the flames died out completely, revealing that it had burnt away the dye on her hands.

And more importantly, shiny black talons almost three inches long now protruded from the tips of her fingers, each one devilishly sharp and ready for action.

“Wh-what…?” Silver looked at them, bringing them close to her face to get a better look.

She had seen her mother and aunt with claws like this, but she had never been able to do this to any part of her body like they could. Could something in the portal have triggered something within her to do this? Something had certainly changed her biology a little, but right now, the more pressing question was…

“How am I supposed to go out there now?” Silver looked around her alcove, afraid to leave it.

Peeping out from her hiding place, Silver watched as Sunset Shimmer exchanged some more words with Twilight, which were inaudible even with her heightened sense of hearing from the howling sounds coming from the rifts in the air. The smell of fear was rife in the air, and the sounds of students screaming and running around only added to the cacophony that was assaulting Silver’s ears.

To make matters worse, a portal opened up behind her, against the wall of her little alcove, slowly growing bigger, breaking the edges of her reality.

Frantic, Silver looked back outside, hoping for all this to end soon. Sunset Shimmer was now clamped on to Twilight’s device, holding it up in one hand. Whether her eyes were playing tricks on her or not, different colors of light began shining up from her five friends, lancing up into the dark sky like signals. Silver watched as each one began to bend down, flowing into the device and to her amazement, Sunset Shimmer began to levitate as well, facing the flying Twilight.

And then she tossed the device down, creating another bubble of magic which enveloped her. Silver closed her eyes and when she opened them again, there Sunset Shimmer was, in the air on level with Twilight, dressed in a white and pink outfit, with a horn and wings of her own, but made out of light. There was also a strange red line going across her face, making her look a little like a raccoon.

“This really is the weirdest day of my life…” Silver put a claw under her jaw to stop it from dropping, but she stopped when it began to hurt. Those claws were sharp.

Sunset Shimmer held out both hands, blinding beams of light shining forth as she closed up the rifts in the air, leaving only the hole in the ground. Silver looked at the one behind herself, smiling with relief to find it gone as well.

And then the two of them blasted magic from their hands, their attacks meeting in the middle and smashing against each other, fighting to gain the upper hand. Sunset Shimmer had really put on a great display of power, but it seemed like it was only all talk and no show as Twilight’s magic began to push hers back, slowly but steadily.

Silver Rose found herself rooting for Sunset, because if Twilight won, who knew what would happen to the world. “You can do this, Sunset Shimmer! You can do this!”

Just as it looked like Sunset was about to be overwhelmed, the purple dog from before leapt out of Fluttershy’s arms and stared up at Twilight, who seemed to react to it. Apparently this small distraction was able to give Sunset the upper hand and the energy beam battle soon shifted in her favor, overwhelming Twilight and shrouding both combatants in a pillar of brilliant light.

And then there was silence.

Chapter 57 - The Claws Clause

When Silver Rose lowered her hand, the light had already died down, with Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle standing in the middle, looking normal once again, their crazy outfits and wings gone. All the other students were gathered around them now and the huge rift in the ground had disappeared.

Is everything finally back to normal?

Then she looked at her clawed hands and sighed. Not everything.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen…” Twilight said, looking away from Sunset.

“I know…” Sunset replied her with a smile. “And going by my own experiences, they’ll forgive you.”

“What, just like that?” Silver wanted to go out there and join the others, but then remembered the talons on the tips of her fingers.

She contemplated trying to break them off against the school wall, but she doubted they would come off so easily. These things weren’t just longer nails, they were full fledged claws, kind of like a bear or something, but longer.

The mauve-skinned girl sighed for herself to hear. She wasn’t going to be able to leave this alcove, unless…

Sticking her hands behind her back, Silver pointed her clawtips up, hiding her hands under her blazer, feeling one claw poke her in the shoulder blade.

“Ow!” Silver rearranged them to rest them comfortably against her back.

She looked around, satisfied enough that at least her claws weren’t visible like this, but annoyed that she would have to keep her hands hidden for the rest of the event, or at least until her aunt got here. Perhaps she kept one of those claw cutting tools in the car for emergency use.

“Well… time to go out there…” Silver swallowed, then left her hiding spot, walking casually towards the scene.

By the time she got there, the purple dog had already tackled Twilight down, licking at her face as the lavender-skinned girl chuckled.

“Silver, there you are!” Canvas ran over, her camera and sketchbook in hand. “I was worried you fell into one of those holey thingies. Sketchy said you got away, and thankfully he was right!”

Canvas had tried to give her a hug, but Silver stepped aside and smiled awkwardly. “Uhh… hey, where’s Principal Cinch? I saw her running away like a little pus- ahem, pansy. Did she leave?”

“I don’t know, Silver. Kind of lost track of where everyone was in all the… um, chaos.”

Just then, Silver spotted their principal pop up from behind the stands behind Canvas, looking around warily before stalking out, replacing the usual stern look on her face as the other principals walked over to meet her.

“Principal Celestia, on behalf of Crystal Prep, I demand that you forfeit the Friendship Games!” She pointed a menacing finger at the CHS principal.

Silver almost facepalmed herself, stopping when she remembered the state of her hands. “After all that, all the magic and madness, that is what she cares about? Is she serious?”

“That’s Principal Cinch for ya.” Canvas shifted her sketchbook under her arm. In the process, her hand slipped and her camera flipped up into the air once, then landed on the ground with an audible crash, making Silver flinch. “Oops!”

“Canvas!” Silver gasped at her friend’s sloppiness.

“My bad!” The artist quickly bent down to check on her camera. “Oh good, it still works. I’m so sorry I dropped you! I won’t do it again! I hope...”

“Clearly CHS has had unfair advantage for quite some time.” Cinch folded her arms. “And it’s certainly obvious that your students have been using magic for their own benefit!”

“Does everyone not even ask what magic is?” Silver asked Canvas, bewildered at how everyone was taking this magic so well.

“I’d like to think saving the world benefits us all,” Celestia smirked at their principal.

Way to tell her, Principal Celestia! That statement and that smirk on her face instantly put her in Silver Rose’s good books.

“At least they didn't manipulate Twilight into releasing all the stolen magic and turning into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart just to win a game,” Sugarcoat said in a single breath.

Everyone just paused and looked at her for a few seconds, taking it all in. At least, Silver felt she needed that long to absorb everything Sugarcoat said.

“Wow.” Pinkie Pie widened her eyes and pointed to Sugarcoat. “That’s a lot to take in when you say it all at once.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Principal Cinch exploded.

“Nope, that’s pretty much what happened,” both Silver and the purple dog said at the same time. The purple dog said… “Wait, did that dog just say something? Did that dog just speak?” Silver looked at Canvas, who was busy checking her camera’s screen, which had a spiderweb of cracks from the bottom left of it, spreading up to the top.

“Did it?” her friend asked, not looking up.

“Actually, we’re all to blame,” Sour Sweet lamented apologetically. “But mostly it was her,” she added in a growl, glaring at Principal Cinch.

“Gotta agree with that.” Silver continued to watch the purple dog in Twilight’s arms, hoping it would speak again to prove she wasn’t seeing things, but then again, a talking dog was nothing compared to everything else she’d seen today.

“Man, you have one hay of a principal, Silver Rose.” Silver turned to see Home Run standing beside her, looking better than when she had last left him. “You okay?”

“Oh, um, yeah, I’m fine…” Silver smiled at him and hunched lower, keeping her hands hidden. “Much better now. You? Is your chest still, um, hot?”

“Oh, it got better after I, uhh…” He looked back at the bush. “You know…”

“I plan on taking all of this up with the school board!” Cinch finished, striking her fingertip downwards menacingly.

Celestia didn’t seem fazed at all. “Good, I’m sure they would be very interested in hearing all about the magical students with wings.”

It seems she was having fun doing this. Silver could smell it all. Then she also began smelling more from Vice Principal Luna and Dean Cadance, who looked like they too wanted to add their pieces to this.

“Oh, and the portals to different dimensions,” Vice Principal Luna smiled playfully.

“And don’t forget to tell them about the talking dog,” Dean Cadance finished.

I knew it! They all heard it too! That dog speaks!

“Because that would never ruin your reputation.” Even the talking dog knew how to pour more fire on that barbeque.

The young changeling couldn’t help but wonder what Cinch was going to say to get back at all of them. There wasn’t really much more she could comeback with, but Silver was curious what would come out of her mouth.

Cinch glared at the Shadowbolts and Wondercolts, but in the end, she didn’t say any more. The old bag simply straightened her coat and turned around to walk away.

“And that’s it.” Home Run smirked and folded his arms.

With the scene over, Silver, Canvas and Home Run decided to go off to the side, next to the stands, while the Shadowbolts and Wondercolts talked out their results with their principals. The other students from both their schools had vanished, and Silver didn’t know where they had all gone. Maybe back to the gym.

“Hi, I’m Home Run.” The boy stretched his arm out to Canvas. “Nice to meet you.”

“Hmm? Oh, uh, Canvas Splash.” She shook his hand, though quite halfheartedly. “Silver Rose’s friend. You know her?”

“Oh yeah, a little. She’s my girlfriend’s sister. Twin sister, in fact.”

Silver blushed and smiled. That was one lie that didn’t exactly make sense, but at least no one bothered to question it yet.

“Oh! You’re Moonglade’s boyfriend?” Canvas squealed excitedly. “Oh, that’s so cool! So how’s it like? Dating a daughter of an acclaimed actress?”

“Umm…” Home Run scratched at his head. “I’m not sure that makes any difference, but she’s cool. We have a ton of fun when we have time to meet up.”

“Man, I’m jealous!” Canvas shook her camera, almost dropping it again. “I wish I was in a relationship with someone famous!”

Home Run looked at Silver and shrugged. She guessed he didn’t know what to say to that.

“Well, uh, now that the two of you know each other, how about we go find the others?” Silver decided to help him out a bit, seeing as he was Moonglade’s boyfriend, though she wished she only had one persona. “We don’t know where everyone else has gone to.”

At that moment, a black car pulled up on the side of the road, rolling to an abrupt stop. The driver’s seat window rolled down a few inches and a pair of narrowed eyes could be seen. Then the window rolled itself back up, and the rear passenger door popped open.

“Oh, um, I think my ride’s here,” Silver Rose said, backing away from her friends. “Canvas, can you tell Dean Cadance that I had to go home early? Thanks.”

“Oh, um, sure, Silver.” Canvas nodded and looked at the car. “Are you okay? You didn’t look well before the hocus pocus stuff.”

“I’ll be fine once I get home,” Silver said. It wasn’t exactly a lie. “Umm, I’ll say hi to Moonglade for you, Home Run.”

“Okay. You take care then, Silver Rose.” Home Run waved, just like he did when he said goodbye to Moonglade.

Silver was about to go up to him to give him a goodbye kiss, but then she remembered who she currently was and instead just nodded before retreating to the car, careful to keep her hands under her blazer as she sat down on the leather seat.

“Good to see you, Aunt Ivory. Um, I have a slight problem, so could we head home now?” Silver greeted as she sighed with relief and closed the door with a foot. Once her hands were out of sight from outsiders, she removed them from her blazer and stuck them in between the front seats for her aunt to see. “Look at this, Aunt Ivory. What do you make of it?”

Ivory Wings put down the gun she had been holding. It was a serious looking weapon, with a drum magazine and an underbarrel grenade launcher. “These are a very fine set of talons, sweetie. But how did you get them? And where’s the monster you asked me to come take care of?”

“Oh, ummm…” Silver’s cheeks colored and she tapped her claws against each other. “You see… umm… it was taken care of. With magic. By the same girls who beat the sirens.”

“Sunset Shimmer and her gang of groupies?” Ivory asked as she put the car into gear.

“Yes, Aunt Ivory. Here’s the thing though. The monster was one of my classmates, Twilight Sparkle.” Silver went on to explain how the whole day went, with the maneating plants, the magical flying demons and how her hands suddenly grew claws. “And that’s how these claws appeared as well.”

“So it’s confirmed that Sunset and her friends have magic. Hm. This could be tricky,” Ivory muttered. “And you grew those very fine claws during the event? I’m not sure why that happened, but you can bet that your mother will be pleased about it. You didn’t let anyone see them, did you?”

“I kept them as well hidden as I could. Umm… I hope no one saw them. But that magical device, Aunt Ivory. If it could absorb magic and give it, perhaps you could use it to help the sirens?”

“That’s hard to say, but I doubt it’ll do anything. We want to repair their gems, not steal more magic,” Ivory said thoughtfully. “I’ll need to speak to this Sunset Shimmer and that Twilight Sparkle.”

Silver was a little disappointed. She thought she had at least done her part in helping out with the gem repair. Silver caught the dark tone that crept into Ivory’s voice. “I don’t think it’d be a good idea to attack them head on.” She examined her talons more carefully, noting the way the shiny black appendages caught the light and gleamed. “I mean, they have magic. Real magic.”

Ivory Wings laughed. “Sweetie, in the time you’ve known me, have you ever heard of me attacking someone head on? And I’m past violence, dear. Mostly. If it’s not needed, I prefer not to use it. I owe her that much.”

“Twilight goes to my school, so I can always ask her if she wants to meet you or something.” Silver buckled herself in carefully, trying to avoid tearing a hole in the seatbelt. “As for Sunset Shimmer, I don’t see her. You might have to ask the sirens about that one. And she’s quite the skilled fighter too, Aunt Ivory. She beat me in a fencing match. Though… I wouldn’t call it fencing. It was more like a full blown swordfight.”

“Wait, Twilight Sparkle goes to your school?” Ivory said, confusion in her voice. “But the sirens said that Twilight is from their world, Equestria.”

“What?” Silver looked confusedly at her aunt with the rearview mirror. “But… she goes to my school. She sits behind me in homeroom.”

“Yeah… this needs to be looked into before I make my move,” Ivory muttered. She put her foot on the brake as an upcoming light turned yellow, then red. “So, did you have fun today, sweetie?”

“Oh, today was great! I sure had a whole lot of fun watching the Games,” Silver said eagerly. “The only problem I have is with all the pride and competition from a lot of the students. Home Run felt the same too.”

“Hmm, yes…” Ivory said slowly. “You didn’t give yourself away, did you? You have different personas for a reason.”

“N-No, I managed to preserve my identities.” Silver looked down at her claws. “But about this persona thing, Aunt Ivory… I don’t two having two was such a good idea. I think sending Moonglade to school would’ve been the better idea.” Then that way, I would’ve gotten to be with Home Run during the Games…

“Normally I would agree,” Ivory Wings said with a sigh. “But this is the plan your mother insisted on, so you’ll have to bear with it. I know keeping up two personas can be troublesome. I had to hold down two once and it wasn’t easy. But Moonglade and Silver Rose have already been established, so there’s not much we can do about it. Besides, I have every confidence that you can do it.”

“Well… okay, Aunt Ivory.” Silver tried to rub her neck, but forgot she had claws and cut herself. “Agh! Shi-”

“Language, sweetie. Please.” Ivory shot her a look with the rearview mirror. “You okay? You need to watch out for those.”

Silver tried to put a hand over the cut to stop her bleeding, but ended up stabbing three holes in the seat instead. She grumbled to herself then channeled some of her love energy to her neck, stopping the bleeding.

“I’m fine, Aunt Ivory, but I really need to cut these. Do you have a cutter right now?”

Ivory Wings spun the steering wheel around a slow moving car and shook her head.

“Nonsense, sweetie. We have to show these to your mother! Imagine how pleased she’ll be once she sees your new talons.”

“Ohhhh… alright…” Silver groaned and put her hands safely by her sides, hoping not to destroy anything else. “I just hope they don’t keep growing on their own. They burst into flames all by themselves.”

“That’s just how it works. You’ve seen me transform before. We changelings are creatures of earth and fire, like how the sirens are creatures of air and water. Your hands bursting into flames is just how we grow talons and hair,” Silver’s aunt smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “I just wonder why you weren’t able to do it until now…”

“But I don’t want them just growing out when they want to!” Silver wailed and almost grabbed for her head, but remembered not to do it. “And I don’t know… It happened after I saved Home Run from falling into one of those portals.”

“These are the magical portals you were telling me about?”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory. I had to help Home Run. I couldn’t let him fall, so I got there as quickly as I could. I got him at the last second.”

“Hmm…” Ivory Wings mused. “Well, I can’t think of any reason off the top of my head how that would enable you to grow talons, so I’ll have a talk with your mother about it. Maybe we can pinpoint something.”

“Okay, Aunt Ivory.”

Eventually, the car arrived back home, taking longer than usual, but at least Silver could finally go and get rid of her claws, at least, after her mother saw them.

She had only just pushed the door open when her mother strode down the hall, dressed in her white shirt and jeans. That outfit only meant she was heading out for a shoot.

“Hello, Silver…” Then her mother stopped and seemed to peer at her in confusion. Looking at her hands in confusion. “What on earth happened to your fingers? You can make… claws?”

“Yes, mother.” Silver nodded. “It happened after I tried to pull Home Run out of a magical portal, umm…” She went on to describe the events that had occurred during the Friendship Games to give her mother context. “And after that, my hands were hot. Really hot. I managed to get to cover before they burst into flames and became claws.”

Ebony Wings didn’t say anything, instead standing there and rubbing her chin.

“What do you think, sis?” Ivory walked in, swinging the large rifle back and forth.

“About her claws or the magic?” Ebony lifted a hand up to her cheek. “My daughter has claws now? Fantastic. But as for everything that happened… the threat to our world again… this is news indeed. And you say your friend built this device? Just like that? The one that absorbed the magic?”

“Yes, mother. If it can absorb magic…”

Ebony looked past them and out the front door. “Then it may help in restoring the sirens’ powers. Ivory, what do you make of this? I want you to have a talk with this Twilight Glitter.”

“Sparkle,” Silver corrected.

“Sparkle Glitter. Whatever,” Ebony waved her hand dismissively. “Ivory?”

“Yes, sister, I’ll arrange a meeting with her and that Sunset Shimmer. I’ve already planned out how I want to do it.” Ivory shifted her glasses up her nose and grinned. “Just give me some time and I’ll get you the results.”

Ebony sniffed. “Well, don’t take too long. Oh, and I’m heading out to the Canterlot studio for a modeling shoot. I don’t expect to be back by dinner, so you’ll have to eat without me.”

“Yes, mother.” Silver nodded as per usual.

“What on earth are you modeling for this time, sis.” Ivory looked perplexed. “I thought you just did one last week before you left for Canterbury?”

“I think it’s for jewelry and handbags this time,” Ebony Wings replied with a shrug. “I am this year’s top model, so anything goes.”

Ivory shook her head. “I still don’t understand why they made you this year’s top model already. We’re still in the first half of the year, for crying out loud.”

“I don’t pretend to know how the humans work,” the year’s top model said. “I just go with it. I’ll see you all tomorrow then. Bye!”

Silver watched as her mother got into her sports car and drove off. Then she turned to her aunt.

“So… can I cut the claws off now?”

Sunny Flare walked down the steps of Canterlot High School and looked up at the now bright sky, a clear difference from the dark and cloudy one they had for their capture the flag event, which didn’t go according to plan. Not even close.

Earlier, they had each been awarded medals, with Principal Celestia declaring the Games a tie, making both the Wondercolts and Shadowbolts winners.

Sunny enjoyed competition and being better, but for once, she was okay with it. It had been a really long day and she was tired. She had also talked to the Wondercolt, Rarity, finding out the two of them had a lot in common, in terms of enjoying makeup and shopping. Sunny did enjoy shopping for new clothes, but with everything that had been going on, she hadn’t found the time to do so.

After receiving the awards, they were dismissed from the gym and allowed to head back to the buses to go back to school. Sunny had tried to find Silver Rose to talk to her, but she had learnt from Canvas that she had left early, not feeling too well.

Sunny sighed and put a hand on her skirt, close to her nethers. Because she couldn’t control herself earlier, she had problems with the speed skating, not being able to skate to her full potential and they had lost that round.

It didn’t really matter now, seeing as they were all winners, but it made her feel guilty for forgetting which one had priority.

“Why the long face, Sunny?” Sour Sweet skipped up to walk beside her. “If it’s because we didn’t win, then tough luck.”

“No, no. It’s not that,” Sunny said, fingering the medal around her neck. “I’m just… tired I guess.”

“Then I hope you get a good rest once you get home.” Sour Sweet smiled sweetly. “Things have taken a wild turn, huh? I certainly wasn’t expecting to see a flying magical monster.”

“Well, that flying magical monster was Twilight. And we pushed her to unleashing that magic.”

“We did…” Sour Sweet closed her eyes and looked down as they walked for the bus. “But like I said, it was mostly Cinch’s fault.”

“Can’t avoid all the blame though,” Sunny pointed out. “We helped Cinch push Twilight over the edge. I hope we can make it up to her.”

“How about we buy her something nice on Monday?” Sour Sweet suggested and got on the bus first, passing the driver.

“I don’t know…” Sunny followed her up. “What does Twilight even like? I’ve never really talked to her. She’s weird like Canvas. Maybe we can just get her something weird.”

“Don’t ask me, how would I know?” Sour Sweet picked out a seat behind Indigo Zap.

Sunny sighed. The last thing she needed was another problem. But this was a minor problem. Perhaps it could wait. Maybe all they had to do was just be nice to Twilight, at least for a while.

As she sat down, Sunny began thinking of another problem. Silver Rose. After what she had did to herself in the restroom, she doubted she would be able to fight off this… affections for the girl. Why she wanted her so much, Sunny didn’t know. Something about Silver Rose had changed her so, made her lust after a girl instead of a guy.

Just thinking about it made Sunny feel warm and a little bit giddy.

Why am I crazy for her? What made me like this…?

She looked back at Sour Sweet and examined her. Though her cranberry haired friend was quite the fit one, she was still really skinny and with her hair tied back, everyone could see her slender neck as well. She had quite the body. Even with all this, Sunny had no feelings towards her. Sour Sweet was her friend, nothing more. So why did she feel differently about Silver?

This only raised more questions and doubts in Sunny’s mind.

Maybe there was more she could still figure out back at home.

Chapter 58 - The Daily Grind

Ivory Wings escorted Silver Rose upstairs, into her own room. It was the first time Silver had been in her aunt’s room in a long time, and she was surprised by how unlived in it looked. There was cardboard boxes scattered around the bed, with a couple of dolls sitting on the bookshelf, dolls of people she didn’t know.

“So what do you want to show me, Aunt Ivory?” Silver picked up one, careful not to stab it with her claws. It was a doll of a green-skinned woman with green hair.

“You wanted your claws trimmed, yes?” Ivory said, pushing open the door to the ensuite bathroom. “Well, the tools for doing so are in here. I’ll see about getting you your own set later, but for now, we can use mine.”

“Oh, okay, Aunt Ivory.” Silver put the doll down and followed her aunt into the bathroom.

In contrast to the stark bedroom, the bathroom was heavily used. Towels hung from various racks, bottles of shampoo and conditioner littered the floor, joined by dozens of smaller bottles of what Silver recognized as dye. The bathtub was half full of some purple liquid, and the shower booth had long scratch marks down the glass. The whole place smelled faintly of cleaning chemicals, and as the door shut, she could see that the back of the bathroom door had a cracked mirror hung on it.

“Umm… did you and mother… uh…” Silver looked at the shower area. “Do stuff in here?”

“Ah, that?” Ivory smirked and pointed a thumb at it. “Your mother’s quite the sadistic one. Ah, it’s better if I spare you the details. Now, let me get my cutters…”

Ivory knelt down to open a cabinet, coming back up with an intimidating looking device that looked like it was half scissors, half torture implement.

“Umm…” Silver instinctively took a step back. “Is-is that safe…?”

“Perfectly safe, sweetie.” Ivory drew a finger down the device’s blade. “Your mother and I have cut our claws plenty enough.”

Even though her aunt had told her it was safe, Silver couldn’t help but feel danger when she looked at the cutter. It looked sharp enough to just shear her head off her shoulders. She found herself taking another few steps backwards, swallowing hard.

“Relax,” Ivory commanded. “It’s not even going to hurt. Just give me your hand… there’s a good girl.”

Silver straightened her fingers out and looked away, closing her eyes and holding her breath.

“We’ll start with your thumb first,” Ivory said. Silver felt her aunt pulling at her thumb, fitting it against the device’s blade. There was a snick-click and the sound of something clattering to the floor. The girl opened her eyes and looked down. Her thumb was now claw-free, with a thin, clean cut stump where the claw used to be, resting on top of her thumbnail. The claw itself was on the floor, spinning slowly.

“See? It didn’t hurt!” Ivory dusted off her blades and then positioned it next at Silver’s index claw.

“Yeah, I guess.” Silver looked at the stump on her thumb. “What do we do about the rest of the claw?”

“Ah, well, that’s where the file comes into play.” Ivory snipped off the next claw just as quickly.

In no time, Silver was left with ten stubby fingernails, all the claws on the floor below her hands. Ivory Wings put down her cutters and picked out a long file from her cabinet. It looked almost like a normal file, though it was at least three times thicker and about the length of her forearm.

“I keep a few of these around, since the hardness of the claw stump tends to wear them out,” Ivory explained. “But where the nail meets the talon is a slightly softer part, so we’ll start there. Oh, and also, keep the discarded talons. All changeling parts are potent alchemy ingredients. Even our ground up hair has some use.”

“Oh, umm… okay, Aunt Ivory.”

It took a few attempts for Silver to get the file in a comfortable rhythm, but once she did, the claw stumps quickly gave way to her usual fingernails. She was never happier to see them again.

Black dust gathered in a small pile on the bathroom floor as Silver filed away.

“Do you have to do this every time you grow claws?” Silver said, grinding the file against her left ring finger. “Seems awfully inconvenient.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Ivory took off her glasses and polished them. “I have to do my feet too.”

“And how about how you control them?” Silver smiled at her fingernails. “I don’t want them to grow for no reason.”

“It’s kind of like acceleration,” Ivory said thoughtfully. “I just channel the love energy to my hands, and poof, claws. I’d ask you to try it, but we just spent about half an hour getting yours off, so we’ll try again some other time.”

“Mmm. Mother didn’t seem particularly excited about the claws, Aunt Ivory.”

“She was,” Ivory Wings said, taking a dustpan and sweeping up the nail dust. “I suppose that she thinks it’s normal for a changeling to have them, so she acted like it was normal. But deep down, I know she’s overjoyed to learn you can grow talons. As am I,” she added.

“Me too, unless they decide to grow during school. That would be bad.”

“Hmm, yes, that would be, but I’m sure they won’t.”

“But they did, Aunt Ivory!” Silver waggled her fingers. “If I hadn’t run off to the corner to hide, others would’ve seen my claws.”

“Well,” Ivory said calmly. “I’ll give you a kevlar lined bag, so that if they start to spontaneously grow, you can hide them inside.”

“Heheh, thanks, Aunt Ivory.” She paused to hug her aunt, then easily finished the rest of her nails.

“Now, how about we go to the kitchen and see if we can beg some food from the cooks before dinner time?”

Silver Rose grumbled to herself as she got out of the car the next day, walking up to her school’s front entrance. She didn’t know whose idea it was to have classes the next day, right after the Friendship Games, but she had a good feeling who might’ve come up with it.

Unlike herself, who arrived at school at her usual time, many students seemed to be running late, with only a few moving along the halls. Perhaps everyone was still tired from yesterday’s ordeals.

“Morning, Silver Rose.” Sound Wave walked past her, putting a hand over his mouth as he let out a big yawn. “You’re early. All ready for school?”

“I have to be, right? We all have to.” Silver rubbed at her cheek. She didn’t deny she was a little tired.

“Meh, some others would disagree with you.” Sound Wave turned a dial on his headphones. “I’m only here because I had my headphones on when I slept. Got woken up by a particularly jazzy tune this morning.”

“You like jazz?”

“No,” Sound Wave said, scratching his ear. “I woke up to turn it off.”

“Huh.” Silver walked ahead to her homeroom. Then why do you even have it on your music list?

In homeroom, the class was considerably empty as well. Sugarcoat was the only Shadowbolt inside, while Indigo and Sour Sweet were likely still on their way to school or sleeping in.

“Morning, Sugarcoat,” Silver greeted the white haired girl. “You’re early today.”

Sugarcoat lifted her orange spectacles and nodded. “Whether we want to or not, we still have to come to school.”

“Yeah…” Silver looked at the entrance as other students walked into class, some a little groggy-eyed as well. “I mean, no one’s going to be skipping, are they?”

Sugarcoat went back to a book she was reading. “I doubt that, Silver Rose. I’m guessing Indigo’s going to take a pass today. Whatever. Not like I had much hope of her passing the exams anyway.”

“Ah, the exams…” Silver had forgotten all about them during the Friendship Games. That was another thing Principal Cinch just had to do besides having school right after the Games. They still had to study for the exams.

Silver still didn’t know much on exams, but she figured it would all be just like a test she would take in her classes. Maybe they wouldn’t be all that hard.

She turned around in her seat and sighed at the empty seat. Even Twilight Sparkle was absent, but judging from what happened yesterday, Twilight was the only one who really deserved a break.

Silver just whipped out her phone and began messaging Home Run while she waited for the bell. She wondered whether the CHS students were coming in later than usual as well.

Sunny Flare sat at the table during lunch, playing around with her food unintentionally. She had almost arrived late this morning and to make matters worse, they’d been having reviews for the upcoming exams all morning, relentlessly pounding their tired brains with more work.

She felt as though her head had shut down from all the work, but it wasn’t just the school work that was making things worse. When she had got home yesterday, Sunny had gone straight to her room, dumped her things on the floor and stripped out of her uniform. After that, she had decided to try out the vibrator again, trying to think about Fast Bender, but like she had feared, it didn’t work to stave off her want for Silver Rose.

She had put the vibrator aside after she came twice, then decided to use her fingers instead. Silver Rose didn’t have a penis, so it was only natural to use her fingers and pretend it was Silver. Sunny hadn’t cared anymore. She stopped fighting it after her third orgasm. If she was indeed infatuated with Silver, then she was. The only problem now was… Would Silver feel the same way?

“Sunny.”

The mulberry haired girl continued to think about her friend, not hearing her name.

“Sunny!”

Sunny Flare suddenly sat back, almost tipping over her chair and would’ve if Sour Sweet had not held it up.

“What, what?” Sunny gasped and held on to the table as Sour Sweet brought her back into position.

“Are you there?” Indigo was looking at her. “I was asking you if you heard the news?”

“What news?”

“Twilight’s transferred,” Indigo said, twirling her pasta around her fork. “She’s gone over to Canterlot High. Ms. Script told us today in homeroom.”

“You made it to homeroom?” Lemon Zest bent back and laughed. “I didn’t make it to homeroom and you did? Wow, Indigo. I didn’t think you were so dedicated!”

“I’m just fast,” Indigo answered proudly. “I’m that good.”

“If you were that good, you’d be here with time to spare.” Sugarcoat chewed listlessly on an olive. “Not just as the bell rings.”

“Meh, I didn’t want to get up so early this morning.” Indigo waved her hand. “I was up playing some video games with Rainbow Dash last night. We tied in the end, but I’m sure I’m better.”

“You two certainly embody our competitive spirit,” Sour Sweet grinned. “But the exams are coming up and you can’t be slacking off.”

“Come on, don’t tell me you girls are already full-on study mode?” Indigo turned to look at each of them.

“Not exactly.” Lemon Zest turned down the volume on her headphones. “I was swapping some tunes with Vinyl Scratch yesterday. She’s a student over at CHS. She’s got a pretty good taste in music! I was going to show Sound Wave some later.”

“Well, if not for the Friendship Games, you girls have all become good friends, huh?” Sugarcoat ate more of her pasta. “Actually, if not for Principal Cinch, perhaps our schools would’ve actually had a Friendship Games.”

“Sugarcoat’s right about that…” Now that the Games were over and Sunny had time to look back, she noticed things could’ve gone a whole lot differently. To be fair, she wasn’t a very nice person herself, but it still could’ve been better. “Well, uh, besides all that, we should get more study sessions together. If we can compare our notes, it would definitely help.”

“Please.” Sugarcoat shifted her glasses up. “Most of our study session time is always taken up by you girls talking about boys and other irrelevant things.”

“You talk about boys too,” Sour Sweet protested and folded her arms.

“Yes, but not during our study time,” Sugarcoat countered. “I at least have the self-restraint to stay on task.”

Sunny had her fair share of study sessions where she would talk about Domino Ace, but now… Domino was pushed out of her mind again, but she had to worry about thinking about Silver Rose now. There was no way she was going to tell her friends about it, it was just too embarrassing. Sunny didn’t know who she could turn to except for Fast Bender, but he wasn’t here right now, nor would he be at their study sessions unless they went back to her place, but even then, she couldn’t talk to him privately.

Mmmn…” Sunny said. “So, where do you want to meet up to study?”

“You’re planning that already?” Indigo began to laugh. “Okay, okay… Guess studying’s really important for you girls this early.”

“You’ll fail if you push it off to the last minute, Indigo.” Sugarcoat swallowed her food. “Now, where do you want to study, girls?”

“We were at Lemon Zest’s the last time.” Sour Sweet pinched at her bowtie. “How about… going to Sunny’s this time?”

Sunny’s eyes widened and she looked at her friends. “Umm, oh, really?”

“Why, is something wrong?”

“No, no,” Sunny said, waving her hands in front of her face. “Just, I haven’t done a lot of tidying up in a while. That’s all.”

“Well, my place was a mess the last time you girls were there.” Lemon Zest spun her fork in her hand. “Mess isn’t a problem, Sunny! Besides, I like your place! It’s spacious!”

“Yeah, your place isn’t a problem, Sunny!” Indigo whooped. “You even have a Neighstation. I bet if we-”

“No games, Indigo.” Sugarcoat glared at the athlete. “Not during our study sessions.”

“Aww, party pooper.”

“We’re not having a party, we’re studying. Don’t you want to pass the exams?”

“Well, duh, I want to pass.”

“Then stop treating our study sessions like house parties,” Sugarcoat concluded. “The exams aren’t going to be easy, especially now that Cinch partially blames us for what happened at the Friendship Games.”

“Well, we blame her.” Sour Sweet frowned. “So I guess it doesn’t matter. Besides, I doubt she sets the exams.”

“So it’s settled?” Sugarcoat finished her lunch. “We’ll meet at Sunny’s?”

“I’m down with that!” Lemon Zest grinned and arranged her fringe.

“Yeah, I guess I’m up for studying…” Indigo leaned on her hand and sighed.

“Umm… okay. My place then…” Sunny smiled at them sheepishly. At least she changed her sheets yesterday. It would be weird if her friends were to find out what she’d been up to at home. “And umm, is it okay if we spend more time on, umm, English?”

“I think we should, if you can’t even spell ‘rhombus’, Sunny,” Sugarcoat put bluntly.

“I’m sorry!” Sunny covered her red face with her hands. “I thought I had that one! I mean, you see why we need to cover more English!”

“Yeah, you’d be screwed if you had to take the English exam now,” Indigo grinned.

“You’d be too, Indigo.” Sour Sweet sneered.

Sunny gulped. At least she had her other subjects covered. She wasn’t a Shadowbolt for nothing. She just had a great problem with the English language.

After school, Sunny soon found herself sitting around her study table back at home, which she had to pull out to the middle of the room so they could all use it. After getting a few foldable chairs from downstairs, they had swiftly got to studying, starting with English, like Sunny had requested.

“Okay, so how do you spell ‘rhombus’?” Sour Sweet asked her.

“R, H, O, M, B, U, S.”

“Finally,” Indigo gasped. “And it only took half an hour to get this far.”

“It-it didn’t!” Sunny held her cheeks.

“Just remember, Sunny, it spells exactly as it sounds!” Lemon Zest tapped on the word on her notes. “Bus, not bos. Yeah?”

“Right. I got it. But we’re not having spelling on our exam, are we? I mean, we’re a high school, not a middle school.”

“Yeah…” Lemon Zest trailed off, toying with her headphones. “So, what’s next? A quick tea break?”

“Lemon, we’ve only been studying for thirty minutes.” Sugarcoat glared at her. “Can we focus, girls?”

“Okay… no break yet then.” Lemon Zest looked back at her notes.

Sunny and the other Shadowbolts covered more topics for the next hour and a half, ranging from chemistry, to physics, to calculus, to history, and even to home economics. As the hours crawled by, the topic of their work began to give way to less education related subjects.

“Royal Pin?” Indigo asked, lying on her back.

“Eeeh, maybe a six?” Lemon said through a mouthful of soda. “He doesn’t like the music I listen to anyway.”

“No one likes the music you listen to, Lemon.” Sour Sweet grabbed her own head. “It’s noisy and generic.”

“Hmph.” Lemon Zest looked away. “Some people do. Like Sound Wave. He likes most of my music. Yeah. What would you guys give him?”

“Hmm…” Sugarcoat tapped her pencil against the table. “Maybe a five. He’s not really my type. Too untidy.”

“Five sounds about right,” Sour Sweet said. “Five and a half maybe, if I’m feeling generous. How about… Greystar?”

“Oh, Greystar?” That got Indigo’s attention. “I’d totally give him an eight. He’s on the soccer team after all. He’s quite the buff one, not to mention he’s got a sweet chin. Though, he’s nowhere near as good as I am.”

“If we’re talking buff, I’d give that buff boy over at CHS a ten!” Lemon Zest snickered. “He’s so ripped! I wonder what his name is.”

“I bet it’s something like Big Muscles,” Sunny joined in with a laugh. “But you’re right. If we didn’t go by looks, he’d be a ten. He’s sooo ripped...”

“You girls are so weak for muscles,” Sugarcoat sighed. “Muscles aren’t everything. Brains are more important.”

Sunny smiled. At least she still liked guys and could talk about what she liked in them.

“So what, you’d give Twilight Sparkle a ten?” Lemon Zest joked.

“Lemon, you know I don’t swing that way,” Sugarcoat said pointedly.

“Just kidding.” The pink-skinned girl scratched at her side. “I wonder what Twilight’s up to now? New school and all. She’s probably having a better time there.”

“We shouldn’t have pressured her to unleash that magic…” Sunny exhaled. “Imagine what she had to go through.”

“Yeah… Something I regret...” Lemon Zest nodded. “Hey, you think Twilight’s capable of getting a boyfriend?”

“I never really took her for a ‘boyfriend’ kind of girl,” Indigo said, taking a swig of her drink. “She’s in love with science.”

“Hehe, she is, isn’t she?” Lemon Zest chuckled. “Won’t it be ironic though, if she found a boyfriend before us.”

“No, it won’t be ironic,” Sour Sweet giggled and drank from her can of soda. “It would outright just be sad. I want a boyfriend too.”

“Yeah, me too. You think guys would be coming to me seeing as I’m just awesome.” Indigo pointed a thumb at herself. “I mean, we win every game in soccer and I’m the star of the team. Yet, no one’s even tried to ask me out!”

“Maybe they think you’re out of their league,” Lemon suggested. “I mean, you’re so high up there that any guy would think he’d have to impress you just to get your attention.”

“Man, so I don’t get a boyfriend because I’m too good and I also won’t get one if I stink?” Indigo buried her head in her arms. “What kind of sick world do we live in?”

“Sunny’s really the only lucky one of us to get a boyfriend.” Sour Sweet looked over at her. “But she blew her chance.”

“I did not!” Sunny said hotly. “We split up on mutual agreement.”

“That is so not true,” Indigo said with a grin. “You were so broken up after you two broke up, no pun intended.”

“You cried for a week,” Sugarcoat stated and looked at her fingers. “It was rather annoying.”

“Well, that’s because… that’s because he… Forget it. Yes, he broke up with me. But he did because I didn’t want to go further yet.” Sunny clenched her fists. “I mean, who does he think he is? We’re still only in high school!”

“I don’t know…” Lemon Zest put a finger to her chin. “I still kinda have a feeling that you were screwing a guy in the bathroom yesterday…”

Sunny’s light turquoise face morphed into a bright red one and she slammed a fist on her table. “I wasn’t! I told you I didn’t! I wasn’t with any guys! I was in the bathroom, because I had to use it!”

“Sunny did what?” Indigo looked over with a surprised smile. “No wonder you were so late for that briefing! Who was it? It wasn’t Domino, right?”

“I told you, I did nothing of that sort!” Sunny fumed. “I just… needed to relieve myself. Nothing else! None of you were there, so stop assuming things!”

“Okay, okay, gee, you don’t need to get so worked up about it, dude.” Lemon adjusted her headphones. “I’m just thinking how lucky you must’ve been if you and some boy wanted to-”

“I didn’t. So no, I haven’t had any other relationships since Domino, okay?”

“Okay, enough about Sunny then.” Sugarcoat waved to her friends. “She’s flustered enough as it is. Let’s talk about something else.”

“Fine by me.” Indigo put a hand to her chin and looked up at the ceiling. “Let’s say I do have a boyfriend… Who do you think it’ll be? Oh, you know who I think will be cool? Grey-”

“Greystar, yes, we figured.” Sugarcoat looked at her with a bored expression.

“Nah, I think Pepper Twist would be more suitable…” Lemon Zest laughed behind a hand.

“What?” Indigo stood up and stared at her. “No way! Ew, he’s too nerdy! He’s more of Sugarcoat’s type. Brainy.”

“Excuse me, but I don’t have a weakness for big brains like you girls do for big muscles.” Sugarcoat tipped her chin up. “And I do care about looks too. He’s not even on my list. He may be smart, but there’s no way he could ever keep up with any of us in sports.”

“So who would you pick, then?” Lemon Zest rested her chin on her arms and kicked her legs back and forth under the table, hitting Sunny twice.

“Ow, hey, stop!” Sunny pushed at her friend’s legs under the table.

“Hey, I know who Sugarcoat’ll pick!” Sour Sweet smirked and put her can of soda down. “Oscar Winner! He’s got the looks and the brains.”

“Well… he is… quite handsome.” Sugarcoat cleared her throat. Even with her stoic expression, her cheeks still colored. “Uh, enough about boys. We came here to study. Let’s get back to studying.”

“Aw, already?” Indigo leaned back in her seat. “I was hoping to talk about more boys.”

“There’s more to life than just boys.” Sugarcoat took her glasses off and polished them.

Sunny nodded in agreement. There’s more to life than just boys, alright. There’s Silver Rose too…

Sunny wasn’t going to say that out loud. It was bad enough her friends thought she had been with a boy in the bathroom, but if she were to tell them she was in love with Silver… There was no way she was going to live it down. For now, she had rather keep it all quiet and away from anyone else.

Except Fast Bender. She looked over to her various Fast Bender posters. Fast Bender was the only person she could talk to about this and even though she betrayed him by falling in love with Silver, he was still always there for her.

Oh, Fast Bender. I’m so sorry. I really don’t get what’s happening to me, but… I don’t want to fight it anymore. It’s too tiring to keep it up.

She wanted to talk to Fast Bender about what she was going to do about Silver, but until her friends went home, she would have to wait.

And study. There was a lot of studying to be done if she wanted to pass her exams with flying colors. She was a Shadowbolt. There were expectations to live up to.

And there was a secret to be kept.

Chapter 59 - Massage Chairs, Bats, and a Closet

“Mhhmmm, this day is going to be perfect,” Chrysidea sung to the mirror as she began applying her Moonglade dye, wiggling on the spot as well. “A kind of day I have dreamt-”

There was a knock on the door. “Sweetie, are you inside?”

The young changeling briefly wondered why her aunt would ask. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t smell her inside or even hear her inside. Still, she answered, “Yes, I’m in here.”

“Your mother wants to speak to you before you go out,” Ivory Wings’ voice said. “She says it’s important.”

“Oh, okay, Aunt Ivory.” Chrysidea covered every inch of her skin with her tan dye, before starting with her turquoise hair, adding on Moonglade’s blonde dye. It didn’t take long for the dye to dry, and once it was all settled, she slipped on her regular clothes. The thought crossed her mind that perhaps she could wear different clothing once in a while, but she dismissed it. Home Run liked seeing her in these clothes.

I think.

Besides, he wore the same thing all the time too.

When she finished putting on her contacts and braiding up her hair, Moonglade emerged from her bathroom, grabbing her spectacles from her bedside, before making her way downstairs, looking for her mother.

Whatever her mother wanted, she hoped it had nothing to do with her melting one of the ladles in home economics class today. It had mostly been an accident, seeing as she couldn’t judge heat very well.

The girl found her mother seated in one of the first floor sitting room, seated on one of her squishy padded thrones with a bottle of red wine next to her. A long bendy straw protruded from the neck of the bottle, tracing all the way up to her mouth as she perused a book.

“Um, you wanted to see me, mother?” Moonglade stood by the entrance, fidgeting one foot.

“Why yes, yes I did.” Ebony Wings closed the book with a snap. “I’ve decided that since now you can grow talons like the rest of us, it’s only natural you learn the proper way to use them.”

“Oh, umm, yes mother. That would be a good idea.” Moonglade nodded and looked at her hands. Since that day, her hands hadn’t caught on fire and grown any claws for no reason, so that was good. She didn’t want to reveal her identity to the others just because of her combustible claws.

“Now, I would normally do this kind of teaching myself… but,” Ebony sucked on the end of the straw, making a loud slurping sound as the wine was consumed “I have quite a few engagements this month. Therefore, I will have your aunt teach you. How does that sound?”

“Sounds great, mother.” Moonglade enjoyed learning things from her aunt.

“I’ve also put an order through for your own set of claw trimming tools,” Ebony said languidly. “They should arrive next week, I think.”

“Oh. Uh, where do you order these from, mother? I thought Aunt Ivory made them.”

“That’s not important. Suffice to say I paid a great deal of money to these people to buy their silence, so you’d better appreciate it, my dear. Apparently these kind of tools are used in smaller scale to trim the nails of big cats. I just ordered some upscaled.”

Moonglade waited, but her mother went back to her book, which now that she was closer, she could see that it was written by one Commander Vespa. The name rang a bell, but she couldn’t quite remember why.

“So mother, I’m heading out for my date with Home Run.” The girl pointed to the door. “So… is there anything else?”

“You’re still here?” Ebony peered over the top of her book. “Don’t you have prey to hunt, or anything better to do besides interrupt my reading time?” She picked up the wine bottle, tossed away the straw and finished it in one long gulp.

“Right, got it. I’ll be off, mother.” Moonglade scurried away. She didn’t want her mother to revert back to her bad attitude already.

“All set, dear?” Ivory asked as Moonglade got into the car and put on her seatbelt. “Your mother didn’t yell at you, I hope?”

“No, she just wanted to let me know you’ll be teaching me how to fight with claws some time,” Moonglade answered happily.

“Of course she did.” Ivory clucked her tongue. “Well, I can’t blame her. She’ll be busy this month. She’s got more photoshoots and that Ricks movie to film. So what’s the plan, sweetie? Where will you be meeting Home Run today?”

Moonglade looked at her aunt with the rearview mirror. “We’re going to the mall today. I wanted to see if there’s something cool I can get for him, since he got me the lovely hairband. I haven’t told him though. It’s a surprise!”

“Then we’d best not keep him waiting.”

Putting her foot down on the accelerator, Ivory Wings steered the car down the hill and out the gates. It took them a while to open, prompting an impatient sniff from Moonglade’s aunt.

“If we were on a bike, we’d be out of these gates already,” Ivory muttered.

Moonglade watched the gates retract. She never really thought about how quickly or how slow they opened. After all, she didn’t know how to drive. She had drivers to take her around.

Once the car was finally out of the estate, Ivory floored on the pedal, speeding off into the busy Canterlot streets, skillfully turning at every corner and swerving around a whole lot of cars. Now Moonglade knew how she always got to school so fast.

The young changeling wouldn’t exactly say her aunt was a reckless driver, seeing as she was good at it, but she did draw a lot of honks from the other cars outside and the occasional, “Watch where you’re driving, you maniac!”

“I just ignore them, sweetie.” Ivory gave the wheel a hard turn and maneuvered the car around a bend and a streetlamp. “It’s not like I’m hitting them or anything. I know what I’m doing.”

In no time, the car pulled up alongside the mall, driving into the carpark, with Ivory Wings choosing a parking lot right next to the building.

“My, how lovely. What a nice spot to park.” Ivory pulled up her handbrake and put the car into parking. “So, where are you meeting the boy?”

“He said the first floor.” Moonglade unbuckled herself. “By the escalators. Where will you be, Aunt Ivory? The mall’s a big place.”

“Given that your mother seems to want me to shadow you, I will follow at a safe distance. Don’t worry about me interrupting your date, I’m very good at not being seen.”

“Okay, sounds good, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade nodded and pushed the door open. “Then I’ll go on first. Thanks for sending me here.”

“Anything for my little niece.” Ivory smiled.

Moonglade made her way through the mall’s sliding doors, still wondering to herself how they would just open when someone got close. Maybe there were sensors in them or something, or perhaps someone was watching from some room and opening it whenever people got close. That would be a job Moonglade didn’t want to do, ever. It sounded boring.

As she headed towards the escalator, Moonglade was surprised to see Home Run already there, leaning against the escalator’s metal frame, doing something on his phone. On all their dates, he had never been the first one here.

“Hiya, Home Run!” she greeted and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “You’re early.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess I just managed to get here faster today.” The boy grinned and pocketed his phone. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh, I’ve been great!” Moonglade took one of his hands in hers and directed him away from the escalator. She didn’t have a specific store she wanted to see yet, so walking around to have a look was the idea. “Though, I wish I could’ve been there for your Friendship Games. My sister told me all about the, uh, magical disturbances.”

“Oh, yeah, uh… It was definitely something.” Home Run looked like he was thinking of what to say. “Your sister saved me, did you know? I almost fell into… into this portal, but she pulled me back up.”

“Oh, yes, she told me about it…” Moonglade blushed and pulled at Home Run’s shirt. Of course, she was the one to have saved him, as Silver Rose, but he didn’t know that. “I was so glad she did. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you…”

“Yeah, I owe her…” Home Run looked into the young changeling’s eyes. “I have more time to spend with you now because of her. Close one, really. I thought I was done for.”

“Hehe…” Moonglade smiled widely. “Come on, let’s see if anyone is selling anything nice.”

“You looking to buy something?”

“Mmm… may-be,” she answered. “Depends on- ooh, what’s this?”

Moonglade ran over to the store’s glass window, and pressed her face against it. Just inside was a strange looking chair, with a whole bunch of added cushions and segments. On a picture beside it, Moonglade deduced the chair was able to bend back almost horizontally. There was a person lying on it, her eyes closed and a big smile on her face.

“That’s a massage chair.” Home Run put a hand on her shoulder. “It uh, massages you while you sit on it. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Can we try?” Moonglade looked expectantly at Home Run. It looked really interesting and she wanted to see how it works.

“Sure, I guess.” Home Run motioned with a hand to the shop.

“Yay!” Moonglade skipped in and found the exact same chair, but of a beige color on a short raised platform. “So how does it work?”

“Yes, I can show you if you want.” A store assistant with glasses suddenly popped up beside Home Run, startling the boy. “Just like this.”

He bent down beside the chair and pulled out a long remote. It looked like what Moonglade used when she wanted to turn on the TV or to change channels. With a push of a button, the chair began to shake and buzz like it was on a motor or something. Then without warning, it began to bend back and the leg rest behind her calves began to rise, lifting her into a lying down position.

“Ooh, this is fancy.” Moonglade’s voice was vibrating along with the chair.

“And then, the massaging, of course.” The assistant pushed more buttons on the remote.

Moonglade began to feel something spinning on her back, followed by pushing motions on her lower back, arms, and head.

Oooh, yeaahhhh… This is nice…

Moonglade closed her eyes and enjoyed the massage the chair was giving her. She had never had a massage in her life, even from someone else, but she had read about them at least. As far as she knew, massages consisted of a person pressing their hands into your back and you were supposed to feel better after that.

If it meant anything, it felt good.

“Maaaaaan… how muuuuch is one of theeeese…?” Moonglade continued to wobble in the chair, feeling absolutely relaxed.

“This one’s on sale, so we’re selling it for a thousand five hundred.” The assistant rubbed his hands together.

“You’re getting this?” Home Run smiled amusedly at his girlfriend.

“Totaaaalllyyy…”

When the massage was over, Moonglade went over to the counter, where she paid for the massage chair using her credit card. She was sure her mother wouldn’t mind, or maybe she would at first, but then change her mind after having a go at the chair.

Moonglade had to fill in her particulars on a piece of paper, including her name and home address. Thankfully, the store assistant didn’t seem to know who she was. Maybe he didn’t watch movies.

“Thank you, and we’ll ship it to your home in three to five working days.”

“Thank you!” Moonglade smiled, controlling her excitement. There were always new things to see and do every time she went out. This chair was one of them, and soon she was going to have one back home as well. A good tool after a long day at school, maybe.

“You looked like you were enjoying yourself,” Home Run said as they left the massage chair store and proceeded down the row of shops. “So what’s next?”

“Hmmm…” Moonglade wrapped an arm around Home Run’s and leaned against it. “How about…”

She looked around at all the different shops. Next, she decided she wanted to check out this place called Discourse, which sold things like clothes and shoes. What they had wasn’t bad, and Moonglade found herself buying two shirts, one dark red and the other a deep purple, both having the word, Discourse, on them.

Moving on, the two of them next went into a shop that sold different kinds of coffee. The young changeling got to taste some, but she found them too strong or too bitter. Home Run had tried some of the milder ones, but he told her he wasn’t much of a coffee person. In the end, they left without buying anything, but Moonglade got to try out a drink her mother so enjoyed. She knew for sure she wasn’t a coffee lover.

The next few stores they went to were a clothing store, a glasses store, and a video games store. The video games store reminded Moonglade that she had a gaming console back at home. She hadn’t been using it in the last few weeks, maybe because of the Friendship Games preparations. She still had to finish Finest Fantasy and she was also still waiting for that Manslayer’s Doctrine video game to come out. That was the main reason she had gotten a Neighstation.

“So you like baseball video games, huh?” Moonglade had contemplated buying one of those for Home Run, but he already owned them all.

“Yep. I got all the newest editions,” Home Run said. “I’m pretty good at them too.”

“Sounds like a challenge…” she batted her eyelashes at him. “You can show me how to play it one day, then I’ll figure out how to beat you.”

“Then that’s a plan, Moonglade.” Home Run slipped his hand into hers. “I’m sure my parents are cool with having you around. And DD too.”

Ah yes, the dog. Moonglade had wanted to see his dog for some time now. She loved cute little animals and his dog sounded very loveable.

“Can’t wait, Home Run.” Moonglade gave his hand a squeeze.

And finally, they stopped by a sports shop, which sold all kinds of sports gear and clothes, including water bottles and skis.

“Why skis?” Home Run asked absent-mindedly. “Summer’s coming, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know.” Moonglade shrugged. She’d only read about half the things in the shop, and she didn’t have any experience with any of them. “I’ve never done skiing before, and I don’t think mother would let me anyway. It looks too dangerous.”

There were a few more clothing items that caught Moonglade’s eyes, like the sports shirts, hoodies, and sports bras, but she doubted she would need anymore. Maybe next time.

And then near the back, the young changeling found what she was looking for. There were racks and racks of baseball bats and mitts, all lined up nicely, except for one bat, which seemed to have been shoved back in in a lazy manner, sticking out to the left more than the other ones.

“Hmm…” Moonglade took a look at each of them. There were quite a few designs to choose from, but in the end, what good did a pattern do for a baseball bat? It was still a baseball bat and it gave you no practical advantage, whatsoever.

“Yeah, this is my favorite section, Moonglade.” Home Run joined her and looked at the bats. “I like coming to look at baseball gear from time to time.”

“Is there a difference between all these bats?” Moonglade picked up a lime green bat and held it with two hands.

Home Run removed a black and red one from its holder and weighed it in his hand. “Some of these are lighter, some are heavier. Some are wooden and some are metal. I personally like the wooden ones. They’re not as dangerous and they’re usually lighter.”

“Do you have a favorite pattern?” Moonglade asked, putting back the green one and picking up one of the steel bats and hefting it like a club. It was surprisingly light for a steel bat.

“Me?” Home Run put back the black and red bat. “Nah, not really. I mean, it’s just a bat. Jetstream thinks that patterns improve your performance, but really, they don’t change anything.”

Moonglade found a nice wooden one with blue rings around its grip and one more around its head. It reminded her of Home Run’s shirt, so she gave it a few swings to check its weight.

“Hey, this one’s quite good.” She handed it to Home Run to try.

Her boyfriend gave it a few swings himself, almost knocking over some of the mitts.

Then he nodded and swapped it between his hands. “Yeah, this one’s pretty good. Light and steady. Ha.”

“Then it’s settled!” Moonglade took the bat back from him and marched over towards the counter.

“What? Oh, no, you don’t have to, Moonglade.” Home Run ran along behind her.

“I know.” She smiled at him. “But I want to. You got me that hairband, after all. I want to return the favour.”

“Really, it’s fine. I already owe you one for saving me from that mugger. Then I owe you two since your sister saved me from the portal. You really don’t need to return any favours, Moonglade.”

“Meh, I will.” And Moonglade put the bat on the counter and pulled out her credit card.

In just a few seconds, the payment was settled and she was walking out of the store with a baseball bat and a receipt in her hands.

“Here you go!” She held the bat out for Home Run. “A gift just for you.”

“Wow, Moonglade, umm…” The blue-skinned boy accepted the present and rubbed the back of his head. “Thanks. This really… It means a bunch. That you got this for me.”

“Of course.” The young changeling pulled him by the arm and walked along. “Well, we’re almost out of time for the day. What to do now…”

Moonglade wanted to kiss Home Run. More than once. She really liked kisses, but right now, the mall didn’t look like the best of places to do so. She had tried ignoring the stares of others back in the park, but it hadn’t quite worked out. She didn’t have enough courage to start kissing out in public again. Or perhaps there was a quiet spot to do so… If she could find one.

“Home Run, I, uh…” Moonglade’s cheeks flushed red. “Do you think we-we could… umm… find a private spot around here…?”

“Oh, um…” Home Run looked around as they walked. “I’m not sure. The mall’s a pretty populated place.”

“Hmm…” Moonglade panned her eyes around. Since they were currently on the second floor, she was able to look downstairs as well, but besides hiding in a brush of plants decorating the middle of the first floor, she didn’t see any better spots to get intimate with Home Run.

And then she spotted a janitor pushing open a door and leaving with a cart full of cleaning gear, wheeling it down the walkway, looking for places to clean and that gave Moonglade a splendid idea.

“Come on!” She practically dragged Home Run over to the broom closet and flung it open. “Inside.”

She gently pushed Home Run in and shut the door behind her, locking it from the inside. The whole room was dark, except for the light coming in from the venting holes near the bottom of the door. With her better eyesight, the gloom was easily dispelled, allowing her to see Home Run’s face up close. There wasn’t much room in the closet, so the two of them were almost pressed up right into each other and Moonglade liked that.

“Uh, is this such a good idea?” Home Run scratched his cheek and squinted in the dark. “What if the janitor comes back?”

“We should be able to hear him.” Moonglade smiled cheekily and put a hand on Home Run’s cheek. “And then we just make a run for it. He won’t know who we are…”

I hope…

“So um… can I…?” Moonglade inched her face closer to his. “Can we… kiss now?”

“I mean… yeah, uh, if you’d like.”

That was good enough. Moonglade leaned closer until their lips touched, meeting in a cluster of passionate kisses. She really did like Home Run, and maybe she liked him a little too much, but she didn’t want to pretend she didn’t. She didn’t know how her aunt and mother could make someone fall in love with them and pretend to be in love without falling in love themselves. It was hard.

“Mmm… You taste so nice, Home Run…” Moonglade breathed and leaned in against Home Run’s chest. How I wish things could be different. I want to be with you, Home Run, I do, but there’s only so much I can do at the moment…

“Yeah, you’re quite the kisser, Moonglade.” Home Run brushed her locks of golden hair from her face and put it behind her right ear. The young changeling just loved the way he smiled at her. It was like he loved her for who she was, not because she was some fake human, but it was like he loved the real her. Moonglade really wondered if anyone could actually love Chrysidea.

And then she leaned in for more kisses, all the while tasting the delicious love that was flowing out from her boyfriend, absorbing it in and replenishing the love energy she had lost during the Friendship Games.

“Ohhh, Home Run…” Moonglade smiled and moved her lips to the boy’s cheek. Her hair was in tangles around her face and her glasses were fogged up; a usual occurrence when she had her kissing sessions with Home Run. “Home Run, can I ask you… a question…?”

“Um, sure…” Home Run panted and gazed into her eyes. “What is it?”

Moonglade already knew the answer, seeing as she could taste it right off him, but she wanted to hear it directly from his mouth. “Do you… Do you, uh, love me…?”

“I… I…” Home Run blushed harder and put a hand on Moonglade’s cheek. “I mean, you saved me that day, Moonglade. I would’ve died if not for you. And then… we’ve been going out for a while now and… and, well… Yeah, you’re great fun and everything.”

The young changeling smirked. Home Run was so cute when he was flustered. “So you do like me? Come on, I’d like to hear it…”

“I, uh… l-l… luh…” Home Run laughed nervously, trying to say it.

“Come on, you can do it…” Moonglade kissed him on the cheek again, placing both hands on the boy’s chest. His heartbeat was getting faster. She peeled off her red coat, at the same time, arching her back and sticking her chest out so that her breasts pressed against Home Run’s chest. “You look like you need some help.”

Then she shifted her face and kissed Home Run on the lips. One wasn’t enough, so she did it another five times before leaning away again, her own face almost as flushed as his.

“I uh… yeah, I l-l-l-l-l-love…” Home Run sounded like he was a train trying to start its engines. “I love you, Moonglade… hehe…”

The blonde haired girl blinked twice. She wasn’t expecting it so fast, but then a wave of happiness hit her in the face, almost hard enough to knock her back. He said it. He really did love her, though yes, she could smell it, but just hearing that made her very happy.

“Yeah, you do…” Moonglade smiled and pressed her face against his, smiling from ear to ear as she kissed him again and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. “And I… I lo-”

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, there was a noise that sounded like a thunderclap.

Bang bang bang.

The doorknob to the cabinet rattled, but did not turn.

“Consarn it,” a man’s voice outside could be heard. “The door’s stuck again. I’m going back upstairs for the key and maybe some grease.”

There were heavy stomping sounds that retreated into the distance.

“Umm… I think that’s our cue to leave. You think so, Moonglade?” Home Run rubbed his thumbs across Moonglade’s cheeks.

The young changeling sighed and held one of Home Run’s hands. “Yeah… I guess you’re right… Before that janitor comes back, I guess. Hey…”

She pulled Home Run in for one last kiss, holding it to save the moment. When they separated again, Moonglade picked up her coat and unlocked the janitor’s door.

“Come on.” She took Home Run’s hand and flung the door open, running away from the closet with a smile on her face.

Chapter 60 - A Light Snack

After having dinner over at a burger place, Home Run walked Moonglade over to the carpark, where her aunt was waiting. Moonglade didn’t know what her aunt had been up to, but when she got close enough to the car, she noticed her aunt was already in there, the light on and a magazine in her hands.

I wonder how she followed me. I didn’t even notice her.

“Well, I had a lot of fun today, Home Run.” Moonglade turned around and held Home Run’s striped shirt in both hands. “So I’ll see you again some time?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you, Moonglade.” Home Run wrapped one arm around the girl and gave her a hug, his other hand holding the baseball bat she had gotten for him. “Thanks so much for this bat. I’ll be sure to win the championships for you.”

“I’ll hold you to that…” She smirked, then pulled his head in for a kiss. “See you, Home Run.”

With another wave, the young changeling got into the car and closed the door. After buckling herself in, she waved one last time as Ivory Wings began to leave the carpark, picking up speed after reversing out of the lot.

“Oh, Home Run…” Moonglade hugged her shoulders. He was really such a nice boy and she loved him. She knew that herself. She really liked him. She didn’t know how long a person would usually take to fall in love, but she felt like her heart had already been captured… and that was something her aunt was likely going to talk to her about now. She could smell it in the air when she took a discreet sniff.

“Sweetie.”

Oh, here we go…

“Did you have fun today?”

These words were said with less of their usual enthusiasm and more with an overtone of wariness.

Moonglade nodded and swallowed before answering. “Umm… yes, Aunt Ivory.”

“Good. Now, as it’s the weekend and you won’t be going anywhere tomorrow, I have a tiny favor to ask.”

“Umm, what favor, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade began unconsciously playing with her fingers.

“I need you to take off your disguise, and have a good long think about what it is you really feel about this boy. Can you do that, please?” Ivory looked back in the rearview mirror with narrowed eyes.

“I-I will, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade looked away from Ivory’s piercing gaze and blushed. “I-I know… I did it again. I’m sorry, but… I do. I really do like him.”

“That’s why I want you to remove your disguise before thinking about it,” Ivory said patiently. “I believe that a persona carries extra emotional baggage that you in your native form wouldn’t have. Do you understand?”

“I understand.” She nodded. She remembered the last time she had removed her disguise to feel better after her mother had ruined her night with Home Run. However, it hadn’t exactly worked out like her aunt had wanted. Would this?

“I’m concerned about you, sweetie,” Ivory Wings sighed as she stopped at a red light. “If, hypothetically, it turned out you’d actually, actually, fallen in love with the prey, there’s no telling what your mother would do. Don’t you remember what she did to your father?”

“Not in detail…” Moonglade tweaked her fingers together.

“Perhaps it’s better if you don’t…” Ivory muttered. “But the point is, there’s no telling what your mother might do if it turns out you’ve fallen for the food. It’s food, and while it may be fun to act like you like them, you really shouldn’t. So once we get home, take off your disguise and have a good long think about yourself. For your own benefit.”

“I’ll-I’ll see, Aunt Ivory...” Moonglade looked down disappointedly. Her aunt was right of course. Home Run was supposed to just be prey for her. A source of food to bring home for the family, but now, after experiencing friendship and love for herself, it was a lot harder to just treat him as food. “Aunt Ivory… what if… what if father were okay with mother being a changeling? Would he still have to die?”

“Probably,” Ivory shrugged. “With him around there’s no chance you would have bloomed into this fine young lady that you are. You know how your mother is about our little secrets.”

“Silver Platter and the maids are still alive.” Moonglade pointed out. “Mother’s okay with them.”

“Because they’re not authority figures, sweetie. They’re here to serve us, not give us advice,” Ivory chuckled. “Can you imagine Silver Platter giving your mother tips on how to raise you? He wouldn’t last a day.”

“But mother doesn’t take advice from anyone, whoever they are. She doesn’t even listen to some of the things you say.”

“Well… that is true. But that’s just how a queen is. I understand her, because I came very close to becoming a queen myself.” Moonglade’s aunt’s face took on a darker aspect. “I understand what goes through her head, better than anyone else.”

Moonglade nodded and looked out the window just in time to see a man drop his ice cream cone on the ground. She had always wanted a family, like all the families she saw when she got to go out. A father and a mother to spend time with sounded so good. But she only had a mother, and her mother didn’t let her do a whole lot of things, one of them being falling in love. She just couldn’t understand why humans were so mistrusting of other beings.

Then she thought back to the Friendship Games. Everyone was talking about magic like it was an everyday occurrence. Even she couldn’t believe all the magic herself, but the humans did. Would they also talk about changelings like they were normal? Could that actually happen?

“Aunt Ivory, don’t you ever think that humans could be different from the ones you hated so long ago?” Moonglade decided to ask. “Don’t you think they would… uh, could be more acceptable to us now?”

“Nani? Are you serious?” Ivory gave her niece an old-fashioned look. It was practically Neolithic. Then she shook her head and gave a bark of bitter laughter. “Not going to happen, sweetie. Human nature doesn’t just change like that.”

“But you and mother seem to trust the staff back home.”

“Because humans will believe and say anything, as long as there’s something in it for them. Preferably something green that folds.”

“But Home Run’s not like that. I’ve been with him long enough to know he’s not after money or even just because I’m Ebony Wings’ daughter.”

“You don’t know that for sure, sweetie.” Ivory continued down the road, signalling to change lanes. “Humans can be as deceptive as we changelings. I know, maybe not all humans are like that, and there are some who are able to keep a secret, but it’s just a chance we shouldn’t take. It’s too risky. You don’t want to destroy everything your mother worked so hard to build, do you?”

“No, Aunt Ivory…” Moonglade leaned on her knees and arranged her messy hair.

There was really nothing more for her to say. Moonglade wanted to believe that Home Run was one of those that were different, but right now, she had no proof. And what if what Aunt Ivory said really could happen? That a human would easily turn their back on you once they learn what you really are? What if Home Run did that?

Moonglade shook her head. No. Home Run would never. He would never do that to me. He said he loves me… He said he did. And I believe him.

When they finally arrived home, Moonglade made her way up to her room while her aunt went to park the car. Her mother wasn’t in today, busy with filming for that fantasy movie of hers. The sirens, on the other hand, were lazily lounging around the second floor living room, with Aria using the Neighstation, playing her save file of Finest Fantasy. Moonglade figured she had already gotten further than her, so she went on, not wanting to see any spoilers.

“How was your date?” Adagio asked when she spotted the young changeling.

“It was okay,” Moonglade answered half-heartedly. Her mind was still busy thinking about what her aunt had told her and what her mother would think if she had indeed fallen in love with Home Run. “If you’ll excuse me, I need a quick shower.”

Her showering process was the same as it usually was when she was done with her personas. With a solvent she kept in the shower, her dyes were easily washed off, returning the girl to her light charcoal skin and turquoise hair.

The contacts were easy enough to deal with and when she was done, the young princess dried herself off, then waltzed over to her walk-in closet to grab herself some clothes. After some time of inspecting her collection, Chrysidea eventually decided on wearing one of her new shirts. Pulling the purple Discourse shirt from her plastic bag, Chrysidea first slipped on her black bra and panties before putting the shirt on. It was quite form-fitting and also airy and comfortable, which made the girl happy with her purchase.

Giving herself a twirl in front of her mirror and a good look at her bottom, Chrysidea soon left her closet and flopped down on her bed.

“So…” she said out loud for herself. “How much do I still love Home Run? Do I still love Home Run?”

She picked up the black hairband by her bedside and looked at it, turning it around a few times. She looked at Mishter Schniffs, who appeared to be watching her with his big blue eyes. Putting the hairband down, she crawled further on the bed and picked him up.

“Mishter Schniffs…” Chrysidea said with a sigh. “I haven’t talked to you in a while.”

“I don’t hold it against you,” Mishter Schniffs replied. “You’ve been very busy recently, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, with all that Friendship Games stuff?” The young changeling held him up high. “I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

“Mishter Schniffs, I have a problem,” Chrysidea said slowly, looking back at the hairband on her nightstand.

“I know,” the plushie replied.

“I think…” Chrysidea shook her head. “I know I still love Home Run. I feel it, even if it isn’t as strong as it was when I was Moonglade, it’s still there.”

Mishter Schniffs shook his head. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work, you know that.”

“I know…” Chrysidea sighed again and hugged her doll close. “But it happened, okay? I’m not like mother or Aunt Ivory. I can’t just block out my feelings like that. They’ve had the chance to practice over so many years. I’m not even fifty yet.”

“It’s a little unfair for them to expect you to be as good as them,” Mishter Schniffs agreed. “But you have to be as good as that if you’re really going to hunt like they do. You’re after the same kind of prey as your mother and aunt, it only makes sense that you have the same prowess. Otherwise you may as well stay at home for the rest of your life.”

“But Home Run’s…” The young changeling imagined the boy’s face in her mind. “You know how they all reacted to magic like it was normal. Wouldn’t I be the same? Wouldn’t Home Run still love me the way I am?”

Mishter Schniffs’ head fell to the side, like he was thinking. “You’re a far sight different than the pretty magics that were seen at the Friendship Games. Even when Twilight changed, she was still visibly Twilight. You with your disguise off however, are a different story.”

Chrysidea put Mishter Schniffs to her face and groaned. Talking to herself wasn’t helping. She knew what she had to do. She knew she had to stopped treating Home Run like a loved one and more like food, but it was so difficult.

There was a gentle knock on the door.

“Come in,” Chrysidea called. She didn’t have any pants on, but she figured she was covered enough.

The door eased open to reveal the young changeling’s aunt, now wearing an apron and carrying a covered cloche.

“Hey, sweetie,” Ivory Wings said cheerily. Her niece could see that both her fangs were out, though she didn’t seem angry. “I see you did as I asked. Good. Do you feel any different?”

Chrysidea saw no point in lying and decided to go for the truth. “A little, Aunt Ivory.”

“Well, that’s something. Try harder. In the meantime, I wanted your input on these.” Ivory Wings swept the cloche off the platter, revealing a small pile of brightly colored objects. They were small and round, and looked somewhat like a biscuit with cream filling.

“What are those, Aunt Ivory?” Chrysidea sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. “They look delicious.”

“They’re macarons,” Ivory Wings said proudly. “I made them myself just now. Go on, try some.”

The young changeling picked up a blue one and popped it in her mouth, crunching down on it to release the taste from within the meringue. It was really good, but that was expected from her aunt.

“Do you like them? I was planning to have them for my little get-together with that Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle. Among other things, of course.”

“Yeah…” Chrysidea reached for another one. “Did I tell you? My Twilight changed schools. She’s over there now, at CHS.”

“That wouldn’t be the same Twilight as the one at the Battle of the Bands, now, would it? Adagio was very specific. The one called Princess Twilight is the one I’m inviting.”

Chrysidea remembered the talk they had about her Twilight’s device. That plan had turned up with nothing, but her aunt had mentioned there was a second Twilight back then. She had gone over and asked the sirens about it, but she still didn’t understand most of it.

“So that Twilight’s from the sirens’ world, right? That’s how there are two Twilights? If you’re inviting their Twilight, you’ll have to be quite specific. They might bring the wrong one to your meeting.”

“They had better not…” Ivory’s face flashed with irritation for a split second, then she was back to her usual smiling self, albeit with fangs. “I’ll just have to make it very clear which Twilight they’re to bring. Besides, who could pass up a chance to have a picnic with me?”

“I don’t know, Aunt Ivory. Your food is always amazing.” Chrysidea picked up another macaron and then got up and put her hairband on. She stretched her arms up to loosen herself up. “They might not want to go now though, with exams so close. I’m sure they must all be studying, like I’m supposed to be doing.”

“During Summer Vacation then,” Ivory nodded, picking up a red macaron and examining it carefully before popping it into her mouth. “It’ll be hotter then too, so they’ll drink all the more lemonade.” Ivory’s face twisted into a predatory grin. “Good.”

“Sounds like your plan to help the sirens out is coming together nicely.” Chrysidea walked around her room, her hands behind her back. “Hopefully they’ll go back to the way they were. All their arguments will kill someone someday if they keep it up.”

Ivory eyed her niece’s backside and smirked. “I completely agree, sweetie. I care for them too much to let them kill themselves. Ah, not that I don’t care for you, of course. You’re my favorite little niece, after all.”

“Yeah…” Chrysidea wandered over to her window and looked out. The night sky was dotted with stars tonight. “I wonder what their singing will sound like. With their gems.”

She couldn’t stand the sound of their voices in their current states. Chrysidea was sure someone would call a doctor or something if they kept singing with their broken voices.

Ivory shrugged. “Their singing is melodic and captivating, but it never really worked their magic on us. It’s got something to do with the bond that we have as a species. Never really looked into it too deeply. And as long as they don’t try to take over the world again, I won’t have to worry about their gems breaking again. By the way,” Ivory said, eyeing Chrysidea. “Have you been drinking wine? I found a couple of bottles in the trash just now.”

“What?” The young changeling looked confused. “I’m still underage. And I don’t like the smell.”

“Only teasing you. It’s probably your mother’s empties.”

“Umm, yeah, it should be.” Chrysidea returned to her bed and fell on it with a bounce. “Say, Aunt Ivory, do you think I’ll pass the exams?”

“Why of course I do. Why?”

“I don’t know.” Chrysidea leaned on her side and looked at her aunt. “I have this feelings it’s going to be tough. Like, harder than the tests we’ve had in class so far.”

“Well, I have no doubt you’ll make it, sweetie. You learn fast.” Ivory ran a hand through her niece’s curly hair. “Just make sure you study the subjects you need work on and you’ll do just fine.”

“Right.” The young changeling nodded. “I know I’ll need some work on calculus and home ec.”

“Mayhap you can study with your friends from school. That’s supposed to be beneficial, or at least it was back in the renaissance. Things haven’t changed that much, have they?”

“I don’t know, Aunt Ivory. I haven’t really studied with them before. When I need help, I usually just message Home Run. He’s good with calculus. Do you think I could get him to come over and teach me?”

“You what?” Ivory squinted at her niece. “Even when you’re dressed as Silver Rose? This won’t do at all,” she said, shaking her head.

“But he doesn’t know who it is on the other end,” Chrysidea protested. “He thinks he’s still talking to Moonglade.”

“He might not know, but you do, and that’s the whole problem. Just like how you can’t store raw meat with cooked meat, you can’t go mixing up personas like this! It’s not good for you,” Ivory tapped Chrysidea on the head. “You’d better keep the texting to when you’re in character from now on. Understand?”

The young changeling sighed disappointedly. That was another thing she enjoyed that had to be struck off her list of things she could do.

“Yes, Aunt Ivory…”

“Remember, sweetie. All this is for your own good. We don’t do this because we want to make you suffer, but we do it because we love you. Hmm?” Ivory put her tray down and wrapped an arm around her niece’s shoulders. “It’s for your own good.”

“I-I guess…” she answered, looking down at her feet. It was still disheartening to hear this kind of instruction, especially from her usually agreeable and lenient aunt.

“Well, I’ll let you get ready for bed then,” Ivory got up, but left the tray of macarons on the shelf. “In case you feel like having more later,” she explained. “Good night!”

“Night, Aunt Ivory.” Chrysidea watched her aunt leave.

There was so much more she wanted from life, but unfortunately, she had been born with a half-cursed body that humans didn’t like. Chrysidea closed her eyes and imagined what life as a normal human would be like. She pictured herself going to school. Going to school with Home Run. Hanging out with him everyday after school. She also imagined the next few years go by, going to college with him, then getting married and having a family…

“Ahh, won’t all that be something…” Chrysidea opened her reptilian eyes and frowned at her wall. What she would also give to have her aunt and mother as regular humans. All the things they could do if they were just like everyone else.

Now she wanted to pick up her phone and text Home Run, but stopped her hand just over the device. Right now, she wasn’t Moonglade. She was herself and she promised her aunt she was going to try.

“I’m sorry, Home Run…” she sighed and fell back on her bed. “Oh, why does life have to be like this? Why can’t I just be like everyone else…?”

Chrysidea kicked her legs up in frustration.

“There’s no changing any of that, Dea,” Mishter Schniffs said from beside her. “No use complaining about something that can’t be changed.”

“I could… always run away.” Chrysidea put a finger on her chin and looked out the window.

“You could, but you’ll be hunted down easily,” Schniffs replied. “Your mother won’t take that lightly. There’s no running from her.”

“Yeah…”

In the end, Chrysidea resolved to sitting against her wall, imagining everything she couldn’t be and everything she couldn’t do. It didn’t help in making her feel better, but at least it made her happy for the time being.

Chapter 61 - Persona Slump

Sunny Flare had gone through her morning classes that day, working her mind as she tried to take in everything her teachers were explaining to the class. Her hand was busily scribbling on her notepad, jotting down anything worth noting for the upcoming exams.

She had paid extra attention in Ms. Script’s class, hoping to improve on her English. The others had been making fun of her less since she had resumed her usual self, but after the Friendship Games, some of the others would constantly remind her of rhombuses, which Sunny responded to by blushing deeply and looking away.

That was enough of motivation to try and work on her worst subject.

Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet tried especially hard to help her with her work, but Sunny figured there was still plenty of progress to be made. So even when class broke to have lunch, Sunny kept her notes by her side and went over them with her friends while they ate.

“Looks like you’re taking this very seriously, Sunny.” Indigo patted her on the back, maybe a little too hard. “That’s very good! Maybe you’ll actually get a decent score for your English exam.”

“It’ll be more than just decent,” Sunny said, in good spirits. “Maybe I’ll actually ace the exam.”

“Just don’t get too overconfident,” Sugarcoat advised. “That’s one of the worst things you can do while studying.”

“Yeah, I won’t.” Sunny placed her textbooks on the table. “I’m going to keep up the studying.”

“So will we!” Lemon Zest gulped down a mouthful of roast chicken. “I even put my mathematical formulas on a track so I can listen to them on my headphones.”

Sunny looked around at the others around the cafeteria as she chewed on her food, hoping to see how they were doing.

Jet Set and Upper Crust were on the neighboring table, studying something together, their shoulders pressed against each other. It must be nice to have a special someone to study with like that.

Trenderhoof didn’t look particularly stressed and he was busy reading off his notes and a magazine.

Sunny also spotted another table of six students crowding over a single textbook as they ate. That didn’t look like a good way to work, but if it got them good results, then good for them.

Then she looked over to the other side of the cafeteria and spotted Silver Rose sitting with Canvas Splash, Sound Wave and Neon Lights. The four of them didn’t look like they were studying, with Sound Wave listening to music and Canvas looking at something on her phone. Silver Rose, however, looked a little depressed about something. She was looking down, her shoulders slumped and a finger tapped away on the tabletop.

“Hey,” Sunny said to Indigo. “What’s up with Silver Rose?”

“Huh? I dunno. Maybe she’s just exhausted from all the studying,” Indigo yawned widely. “I know I am.”

“I don’t think it’s that…”

“Well why don’t you go ask her then, if you’re so concerned?” Sour Sweet piped up, sticking a straw into her juice box. “I’m sure she’ll tell you.”

“Well…” Sunny rapped her fingers on the table. Then she stood up and straightened her blazer. “Sure, I’ll be right back.”

Sunny left her things with her friends and strolled over to where Silver and the other three were sitting. “Hey, guys. Mind if I sit?”

“Hey, not at all, go ahead.” Neon Lights scooted over slightly to give Sunny some room. Then looked over at whatever Sound Wave was looking at on his phone.

“Thanks.” Sunny sat herself down and looked across at Silver, who didn’t look like she noticed she had joined them. “Silver, something wrong? You look a little gloomy today.”

“Hi, Sunny…” Silver sighed and managed a smile. “Nothing’s wrong, I’m just… tired, I guess. Yeah, tired.”

“Up late at night studying, huh?” Sunny said sympathetically. “I can relate.”

Silver nodded listlessly. “Yeah. Studying. That’s right. This will be my first exams. I have to make sure I do well.”

“Right, but don’t push yourself too hard, you know?” Sunny watched her friend’s morose expression. Was studying the only thing making her feel like that? Maybe she needed a little cheering up.

“Mmhm.”

“Umm, hey, Silver…” Sunny pulled at her mulberry hair. “You know, if you’re not busy, we could… uh…”

She didn’t say anything for a while, instead getting a weird look from Canvas across the table.

When she didn’t continue, Silver looked up at her. “Yeah?”

Sunny suddenly felt warmer and she pulled at her bowtie. “Uhhh… we co-could… you know… go hang out…?” Canvas continued to look at her with a weird look, so Sunny quickly turned to her and frowned. “Quit it, paintbrush.”

“Fine.” Canvas pulled out her sketchbook and began drawing.

“Um, hey, I’d like to, Sunny,” Silver answered rather downcasted. “But you know, I’ve got some extra tutors coming in before the exams to help me with my work.”

“Oh… well, okay then.” Sunny watched her. No wonder she looked so down. Then she cursed to herself, unsatisfied with the response. She had worked up the courage to maybe get Silver to go out with her, but she was busy. She still wasn’t a hundred percent sure on all this, but she thought maybe going somewhere with Silver would show her what needed to be done. “So… umm… I, uh… happy studying, Silver. I better get back to the others, see what they’re up to…”

Silver nodded to her as Sunny left the table, walking back to hers. The pink haired girl still looked so dour that Sunny really wanted to find some way to cheer her up, but she was busy with tutors after school, so that was a plan that went out the window.

“So, why is Silver Rose so upset?” Sugarcoat asked the first thing Sunny returned to her table.

“She’s just tired. She’s got special tutors coming in before the exams or something,” Sunny explained as she sat herself down. “Maybe she’s being worked too hard.”

“Tutors, huh?” Indigo said. “Wish I had tutors. I don’t get this chemistry stuff at all.”

“I think you need tutors for all your subjects, Indy!” Lemon Zest giggled.

“Oh, shut it…”

Back at the other table, Silver Rose sighed to herself again, her food quite untouched. She hadn’t had the chance to contact Home Run since her date, trying to keep up her persona identities. The best excuse she could come up with was message him that she was going to be uncontactable for the next few days, because of extra tuition her mother was getting for her to study for the homeschool exam. She had never taken a homeschool exam before, but it was a decent enough excuse for Home Run to not message her, which wasn’t something she was okay with, but it had to be done.

Even right now, as Silver Rose, the young changeling still felt the tug at her heart that she had to do this to Home Run.

“Remember,” Ivory’s voice came. “Food.”

Silver sighed again, more deeply than the first few. It hurt to distance herself from him, but she knew she had to. It was for her own good, like her aunt had said. That was the plan for now, at least until exams were over.

“Hey, you’re still not touching your food, Silver,” Canvas Splash said from beside her, a picture of Sunny’s face now sketched out in her sketchbook, with her pencil now scribbling down the word, ‘rhombus’, in a speech bubble near her mouth. “Really, what’s wrong, Silver?”

“Nothing,” Silver said, starting on her lunch with no enthusiasm. “Home stuff.”

“That’s not nothing,” Canvas said comfortingly. “Come on. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Oh. I, uh, asked my mother if we could get a puppy,” Silver lied. “She said no.”

“Aw, that’s a shame.” Canvas flipped the page on her sketchbook and put a spoonful of corn in her mouth. “Puppies are cute. You must really want one, huh?”

I really want to see one, yeah, preferably Home Run’s dog… Silver put on a small smile and nodded. “Yeah, I want one. But… my mother’s word is law, so I guess I have no choice.”

“What’s she like at home?” Canvas scooted closer. “Your mom. Is she as cool as she is when she’s filming? Or what?”

“My mother has… high expectations of me,” Silver said carefully. “I’m not sure how nice she is on set, since I’ve never been to one of her filming sessions, but she’s all right at home. She just expects her wishes to be obeyed is all.”

“A high and mighty mom, huh?” Canvas began doodling a mountain and some clouds. “No wonder you’ve got extra tutors and not able to get a puppy.”

“She’s not that bad…” Silver said, taking a bite of her food. “I’m more or less used to it by now.”

“Hmm, yeah, I guess…”

“Man, your mom is awesome!” Neon Lights suddenly spoke up. It seemed he and Sound Wave had been listening for some time. “You see the way she acts in all her films? She’s so diverse!”

“And she’s never been involved in any of those scandalous, uh… scandals!” Sound Wave nodded to something on his headphones. “Famous actors and actresses usually let it all go to their heads and they do something stupid. Your mom’s good enough to keep herself in control.”

“Yeah she does, huh?” Silver rubbed the back of her neck, then muttered under her breath, “Not at home though.”

Silver was sure that screwing one’s own sister would be considered scandalous. It was just that her mother had the sense to do it behind closed doors so that no one ever documented it.

“Man, wouldn’t it be great if I was dating someone cool like Ebony Wings?” Neon Lights leaned back and stretched his arms out. “You think so?”

“Never gonna happen.” Sound Wave shook his head. “Keep dreaming.”

“I will keep dreaming, thank you very much. She was so hot in Topview. She’s my favorite character, even if I’m no good at playing sniper. Man, Snowstorm Entertainment sure knows how to make them.”

“She’s not the same character in the game, nerd.” Sound Wave lifted one side of his headphones. “She’s only the portrayal in the Topview movie.”

“Well whatever. Viper is really hot in game, and she’s even hotter on the movie screen. Man, Silver, your mom sure is the bomb. The director really got a lot of good shots of her during the movie.”

“They did, didn’t they?” Canvas said. “Though the movie was a bit heavy on the fanservice, in my opinion. Too many butt shots.”

“Well, I love me some good butt shots!” Neon Lights said unabashed. “Especially from Ebony Wings and Spark Burns. She’s not half bad as Tracker either. Almost makes me wish the game was in third person so I could stare at their butts while I play.”

“You’re kind of a pervert,” Canvas giggled.

“Kind of? He’s a huge pervert!” Sound Wave looked at his friend. “The game isn’t for staring at butts. I wonder what your teammates will say if you do that.”

Silver Rose couldn’t help but smile. At least her friends here could still find something to be happy about during the exam prep. If they could, then she could too.

“And hey, it’s my mother you’re talking about, Neon Lights.” Silver finally decided to join in. “She might be pretty, but have a little bit of decency, you know? Ha ha.”

“I’m just admiring the assets your mother has.” The grey-skinned boy shrugged. “No harm done. And I haven’t even started about her R-rated movies yet. Man, that scene in The Cabinet Forest where she takes her clothes off-”

“Okay, I think we better finish up our lunch and head over to class.” Sound Wave cut him off and finished the last of his chicken. “Don’t want to be late, do we?”

“Yeah, especially not during exam season,” Canvas agreed. “They might be handing out study guides.”

“I could always take yours.” Neon Lights adjusted his shades and finished his juice. “Done. Time to go. See you later then, Silver Rose. And you, paintbrush.”

And Sound Wave and Neon Lights were off, leaving Silver alone with Canvas at the table, along with her almost full plate of food.

Food…

Even looking at her lunch reminded her of Home Run right now, and normally, that would’ve made her happy, but right now, when she was trying to get her personas in line, it was distracting and painful.

“Ugh, why? Why?” Silver muttered to herself, feeling really depressed.

“You really need to cheer up, Silver.” Canvas packed up her sketchbook. “And it’s almost time for class. Are you going to finish that?”

Silver looked at her plate again and dumped her fork down on it and pushed it away. “I guess not. Why don’t you go ahead first, Canvas. I’m just going to sit here for a while.”

“Oh, um, okay, Silver.” The artist stood up and brought her tray off with her. “If you need anything, just message me, okay?”

“Thanks, Canvas.” Silver sniffed and found the thin trail of compassion from her friend. At least she still had friends.

As the cafeteria crowd began to dwindle, Silver sat there by herself and looked up at the tiled ceiling, just wondering if there was anything she could, anything at all that would let her be with Home Run. It was a silly thought, she knew that, but was there even a chance?

“Unlikely…” the girl exhaled. “Aunt Ivory is right. I need to get things under control. Moonglade loves Home Run. Silver Rose and Chrysidea do not… should not. Am I Moonglade right now? No, no I’m not… I’m not.”

And Silver continued to sit there, thinking about how unfair life was to her. Since things weren’t looking so good here, there was always the doorway to her imagination.

And so that is what she decided to do till the bell rang.

Chapter 62 - Dance of Power

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Please click ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 62 - Dance of Power

“I’m home...” Silver Rose called when she got home that day. When no one came to greet her, she decided to head up to her room, where she was planning on starting on some of her homework for the day.

Silver Platter had picked her up from school, which she found odd. She guessed her aunt was busy with something, maybe with her plan to help the sirens.

On the way in, she began to pick up a faint trace of something, something that tasted nice. If she wasn’t wrong, it was actually the smell of love. Familial love, well, almost, meaning it could only be coming from her aunt and mother. It was a nice change of smell and it helped to cheer her up a little.

“I wonder what they’re up to now?” She walked down the halls, taking her shoes off and leaving them by the side. The smell seemed to be coming from the downstairs living room, and Silver deduced it would be safe to venture there to have a look. They wouldn’t be doing any funny stuff outside her mother’s room. Right?

When she got closer, she began to hear the faint strums of music, not too loud, playing from the record player in the room. Her interest and curiosity piqued, Silver walked up to the entrance and peeked around the corner.

To her astonishment, there were her aunt and mother, out of their disguises, dressed in flowing shoulderless dresses, dancing with each other. Her mother had one hand on her aunt’s waist and her aunt hand one hand on her mother’s shoulder. Their other hands were clasped tightly together as they twirled around and moved to the music. They both had their hair down, flowing along behind them elegantly as they danced.

That’s not something you see everyday… Silver’s eyes widened. She smiled, happy to see them doing something more normal to express their love. Perhaps being normal wasn’t so far off.

“Welcome back, Silver,” her mother said without looking. “You smell… happy.”

“Nice to see you and Aunt Psithyra getting along nicely, mother.” Silver walked to the entrance and stood there.

“Yes well… it has been ages since I last danced, sweetie,” her aunt chuckled. “So your mother was kind enough to agree to dance with me.”

“And I even fished out some of my most excellent ballroom gowns to dance with.” Chrysalis twirled around her sister and caught her from behind, both of them beginning to move from side to side instead. “How do you like it?”

“It’s very pretty, mother.”

Chrysalis’ dress was of a dark green color, mostly silky, but with some patterns from the chest down to the bottom. She also had a pair of gloves that reached her upper arms to go with the dress. Aunt Psithyra had on a dark blue one with added cloth segments just under the shoulders and was decorated with a lovely floral pattern. They both looked really beautiful.

“Well, of course it’s pretty, Silver.” Her mother leaned her head in and sniffed at her aunt’s slender neck. “I had them made myself. Mm… you smell delicious, Thyra…”

“I did prepare myself up rather well for this,” Silver’s aunt replied. “I pretended I was actually going for a dance, so I put on more perfume and such. You like it? I made it from some tiger roots and mountain flowers from the East.”

“Not just that…” Chrysalis wrapped her arms around her sister’s waist. Silver didn’t like where this seemed to be going. “The love you have for me tastes exquisite.”

“Well, that’s because I do love you, Chryssie.” Psithyra put a hand over her sister’s.

Silver sniffed at the air, inhaling a mouthful of their love, which was nice. She figured she would stay here for a while, unless things were to get out of hand. She remembered what she had talked about with Sound Wave and Neon Lights in the cafeteria.

If only they knew...

Then Chrysalis went around Psithyra again and resumed their previous dancing pose. “You know, you look more attractive than usual, little sister. I wonder why that is? Maybe it’s the dress. Maybe the hair. You should let it down more often.”

“A ponytail is more efficient, Chryssie.” Psithyra waltzed along with her sister. “But… if you think it’s nice… maybe once in a while wouldn’t hurt.”

Silver continued to watch her mother and aunt dance, now tapping a foot along with the music. The smell in the room was absolutely delightful and it did its part to make her forget she had to keep some distance between herself and Home Run. She would’ve stayed much longer if not for the fact her mother began playing a hand through her aunt’s hair and leaning closer, signs that things were about to get out of hand.

“Umm… homework and tutors, so… I’ll be upstairs, mother.” And Silver was off, disappearing with a cloud of dust.

Chrysalis sniffed as she watched her daughter disappear. “So quick to judge, that young one.”

Psithyra looked at her sister suspiciously. “You were going to do something, weren’t you?”

Chrysalis looked back at her and stopped dancing, a smirk creeping across her face. “Well… I only wanted to give my attractive sister a kiss.”

Then she leaned in and kissed Psithyra on the lips, soon separating with an audible smack.

“You were going to do something,” Psithyra said, but smiled, reaching a hand behind her sister’s neck.

“Well, she’s not here anymore, so…” Chrysalis played her fingers across her sister’s collarbones and the top of her chest. “Why don’t we… have some fun?”

“At least do this in the privacy of one of our rooms, Chryssie. Preferably yours. My bathroom still needs fixing after what you decided to do that other day.”

“Wasn’t my fault. Those were your claw marks. And no, that’ll kill the mood.” Chrysalis kissed her sister again. “This room is perfect…”

Walking into her, Chrysalis stopped only when they arrived at the long sofa, pushing her sister down before leaning down against her gently, holding her in an embrace.

“Mmm… my sweet sister…” Chrysalis bent her head to kiss her sister more.

As their mouths connected sensuously, Chrysalis’ hands drifted down, groping for her sister’s breasts, moving them about underneath her. Psithyra moaned into the changeling queen’s mouth, reaching up to hold her sister’s face in her hands.

Reaching behind, Chrysalis pulled Psithyra’s dress’ zipper down, then with a slow pull, she began to remove the dress from her sister’s body, watching as the bit covering her chest dropped lower and lower until her nipples were revealed to the world.

“Oh my…” Chrysalis licked her lips. “How beautiful.”

Soon, the piece of clothing was discarded by the side, with Chrysalis’ mouth now attached to one of Psithyra’s breasts, while she slowly toyed with her sister’s white panties.

“Mmm…” Psithyra smiled and closed her eyes, leaning back into the soft sofa.

“You’re so pretty, Thyra.” Chrysalis looked up at her and bit down on her sister’s nipple. “I just want to have my way with you all day and all night…”

“Mmmaah…” Psithyra gasped from the bite. “You too, Chryssie. In fact, you’re far prettier.”

“Oh, I ‘ow ‘at.” Chrysalis twisted Psithyra’s nipple between her teeth.

Her hand below soon pulled the panties aside, revealing Psithyra’s vagina, already starting to drip from her body being pleasured. Without waiting, Chrysalis drilled two of her fingers as deep as she could into her sister, while her other hand moved to Psithyra’s other breast, pinching at her other nipple with two fingers.

“Aaah-ow!” Psithyra winced as the changeling queen playfully bit down harder on her nipple. “Chryssie…”

Chrysalis’ smile widened, then let go of the nipple between her teeth, giving it a lick before crawling back up to her sister’s face, at the same time removing the fingers that were inside her.

“Look at you, already this wet…” The queen gave her fingers a lick, having a taste of the delicious liquid there. “I can’t believe I’ve never thought to spend my time with you like this until now.”

“That’s because you’re so good at this, Chrysalis…” Red began to rise to Psithyra’s cheeks as she traced a finger down her sister’s neck to her shoulder.

The two changelings spent the next couple of minutes kissing, leaning as closely as they could to each other, filling the room with sounds of smooching and sucking. The music from the record player still went on, quietly running alongside them as they enjoyed each other’s company.

Chrysalis smelt a maid or two walk by, but found them quickly turning away and going back down the hall, smelling embarrassment coming from them.

“I told you…” Psithyra breathed in her sister’s face. “We should do this in your room…”

“They don’t mind. See, they’ve already left. They know not to hang around and watch.” Chrysalis continued kissing her sister again, at the same time, reaching back and undoing her own dress’s zip.

Rising up, Chrysalis let her dress fall off her body as she removed her arm gloves, placing one hand on her chest as she sauntered back towards her sister, now only clad in her panties as well.

“Pretty, aren’t I?” She tossed one of her gloves at Psithyra’s face. Then she bent down and pulled her panties off, looking at the small stain on its crotch area before tossing it with her dress.

“Of course, sweet sister.” Psithyra swiped the glove away and eyed her larger breasts, then between her legs. “And look at you. Wet as well. You must really want me.”

Chrysalis swooped in and grabbed her sister’s arms, pinning them behind her head. “I do, Thyra… Tonight, I want to make you mine again. I’m getting excited thinking of all the things we’re going to do…” She picked up the first glove and tied her sister’s hands above her head. Then she brought up her other glove and tied it around Psithyra’s eyes, making sure it was tight enough.

When she was ready, Chrysalis leaned down to kiss her sister some more, at the same time, mashing her breasts against Psithyra’s.

“Feels nice…” Psithyra smiled as their lips continued to meet.

“Doesn’t it?” Chrysalis raised herself up so that only their nipples were touching. Then she played them back and forth, feeling her hard ones knock against Psithyra’s, each touch sending a shudder of pleasure through her body.

After caressing her sister’s cheek, Chrysalis slinked down to Psithyra’s lower regions, yanking off her wet panties, leaving it hanging down at her right ankle.

Eyeing her pussy hungrily, Chrysalis wasted no time in digging in, first giving the wet slit a few kisses, then began licking its length up and down.

“Ohhhhh yeahhh…” Psithyra moaned, her mouth hanging open.

Chrysalis inhaled the beautiful scent of love and grinned. It wasn’t as good as real outside love, but it was still pretty good. Then again, they weren’t really sisters, so it didn’t exactly taste like familial love either.

Chrysalis remembered the first time she had met Psithyra all those years ago. They had been in the same village and after their parents died, what else could they do but band together? Somehow, she still didn’t know how, all their minds had become interlinked in some kind of hierarchy over time, with herself being right at the top of it, likely because she had been the oldest. Maybe it was just the way their biology was, to have a hierarchy to follow.

Psithyra had been such a sweet and innocent girl, looking after her younger sister, Melipona. It had been her idea to integrate into the human’s society, to coexist with them. She had been such an optimistic changeling, hoping to live in peace with the humans some day.

It was the humans that had changed her over the years, forging her into the reaper she was today. Now, she knew better than to trust them again.

Chrysalis rubbed at her sister’s slender legs as she pushed her tongue into her pussy, licking at her inner walls. She never had any feelings for her sister besides her familial love. Only recently, since that day they decided to show Chrysidea how to seduce her prey, Chrysalis had started developing outside feelings for her sister.

She loved her sister and she loved her deeply.

Chrysalis pushed and pulled her tongue in and out of her sister’s opening, watching as her love juices began squirting out with every pull, some splattering on her face. Chrysalis didn’t care. What mattered right now was pleasuring her sister and having her way with her.

“Aa-aahh… Chryssie…” Psithyra panted, her back arched and her legs trembling around Chrysalis’ head.

“I love you, Thyra, you know…?” Chrysalis brought her tongue out and swallowed the juices that coated it. “I love you more than a sister…”

“I know. I smell it…” Psithyra sniffed in between her panting, her face flushed. “A-Are you sure, Chryssie…? There is nothing to be gained… for being with me… We are sisters.”

“I don’t know, Thyra.” Chrysalis drew a finger along Psithyra’s slit then prodded at her clit above it, earning a moan from her sister. “I don’t have anyone else to love like that. We don’t have anyone else to love. We’re all that’s left and we can’t procreate together. Why not just enjoy each other’s company as lovers would, hmm?”

Psithyra remained silent for a few seconds, but eventually spoke up. “If that is what my queen deems… then it is what I will accept.”

“Thank you, my dear sister.” Chrysalis hugged Psithyra’s legs close and pressed her head against her wet pussy, hearing it squelch close to her ear. “So… more than sisters, huh…? At least for now?”

“As you will, my queen.”

More grateful than ever, Chrysalis left her sister’s nethers and crawled back up to her face, where the gloves were still tied around her hands and eyes, her breathing slow and heavy. A smile spreading across her face, Chrysalis lay down beside her sister and stroked her purple hair, then turned her head to kiss her on the lips.

Chrysalis kissed her sister passionately, enveloping her lips with her own, kissing her only as lovers would.

Soon, she felt her urges return and she wanted more of her sister.

“I want you, Thyra.” Chrysalis spun around and placed her own vagina over Psithyra’s face as she gazed down at her sister’s. “I want you right now…”

She began licking at her sister’s clit, feeling Psithyra’s tongue slither up her own slit, then back down again, slow and steady.

“Thyra, when was the last time you had a man in you?” Chrysalis decided to ask, spreading Psithyra’s pussy lips wide with her thumbs to get a better look. “Because your vagina is still well handled.”

“Not too long ago…” Psithyra gasped as Chrysalis poked her tongue deep into her pussy. “I had an… Assassin boyfriend when I was Mirror Match. I did it with him… a few times.”

“Was it nice?” Chrysalis moaned as Psithyra’s tongue touched her clit. “Ohhh yeahhh… Must’ve been good enough that you did it with him a few times, hmm?”

“He was pretty good…” Psithyra answered. “A bit sloppy at first, but he got better as we went on. It’s a pity I lost contact with him. What about you, sister? When did you last have a man in you?”

Chrysalis put a soaked finger to her chin, then shoved it into her sister’s opening, moving it back and forth. “Mine was with my husband, Crescentlane. Chrysidea’s father.”

“Aaahh… mmmhh… What was he like?”

“He was good. That was the reason why I picked him.” Chrysalis pounded her fingers through her sister. “Not just for sex, but his personality too. I wanted my child to be… perfect. I see now that perfection is not possible, but at least she’s roughly still a good girl.”

“Your daughter is such… aaah…” Psithyra leaned her head back and gasped. Chrysalis could smell it. Her sister was close. “She’s such a good girl… So you killed your husband… as soon as he impregnated you?”

“Of course.” Chrysalis quickened her finger penetration. “I mean, I had sex with him a few times just to get the pleasure of doing so, but once I was sure I was pregnant, I got rid of him. Couldn’t have him, nngh… discover I was… a changeling mmmm…”

Psithyra had resumed her licking, pushing her tongue through her sister’s lower lips, entering her pussy and tasting the walls inside.

Chrysalis wasn’t going to lose. Her sister was very close now and all she needed to do was keep it up. Moving her fingers in and out faster now, the changeling queen played her other hand across her sister’s clit, grabbing it between two fingers and pinching it.

“Aah-aaahhhh! Chryssie!”

That was enough for Psithyra, who began convulsing as Chrysalis withdrew her fingers, watching as they stuck together with Psithyra’s juices. The younger changeling had stopped licking her sister, twitching as she continued her orgasm.

Satisfied, Chrysalis climbed off her sister and turned to face her, giving her cheek a gentle rub. “Thank you, Thyra. That was nice.”

“Yeah… haaa… haa…” she panted. Her purple hair was in a mess around her face, some even sticking in her mouth. “You’re still really good at it…”

Chrysalis put one hand on her chest and smiled, running a finger down her slender leg. “Of course. I practically invented the art of seduction and the art of sex.”

“Yeah…” Psithyra smiled, the glove still blindfolded over her eyes.

“Now, I think we better go prepare for dinner.” Chrysalis rearranged her fringe, letting a swathe of hair dangle down around her eye. She thought it made her look sexier. “Don’t want to be late, do we?”

Psithyra lay on the couch, not getting up, in the process of removing the glove around her hands. “Your daughter isn’t going to like the fact we keep doing things like this… Especially not when you tell her you want us to be more than sisters.”

“Well… she’ll understand. We’re only trying it out anyway.” Chrysalis picked up her dress, but then decided against putting it back on. “It’s not like there’s a male changeling out there for me to fall in love with.”

“And that’s a real shame…” Psithyra pulled off the glove around her hands, then lifted the one over her eyes. “We’re really all that’s left… Besides your daughter.”

“She’s not even really one of us.” Chrysalis’ eyes drifted down to her sister’s throbbing pussy, still shaking from her orgasm. “She won’t be around forever.”

“That is a shame…” Psithyra continued to lie on the sofa, pushing her hair from her face, her breasts heaving up and down as she breathed.

Chrysalis resisted the urge to grab them again. She didn’t know why she had such a lust for her sister as of late. It was almost too much to handle. She’d never experienced this with anyone else before. Perhaps it was just a time where her sexual desires were high and she needed someone to deal with it.

“We better go wash up.” Chrysalis piled her panties and dress over one arm, then picked up her gloves and her sister’s dress as well. “So I’ll see you for dinner, my sweet sister?”

“Yes. See you soon.” Psithyra looked over and grinned. She looked like she was going to be resting on the couch for a while longer.

The queen also made a note to get the maids to clean the sofa and the carpet later. It wouldn’t be nice if visitors were to smell the juices there, nor would it look nice to have stains in her house.

Chrysalis left the room, still naked, but smiling from ear to ear as she made her way upstairs. She was really excited to see where this new relationship was going to go. She knew it probably wouldn’t last forever, seeing as they were still ‘sisters’, but to pretend they weren’t for a while, that sounded like it was going to be a good idea. That also meant she would be able to use the strapon a lot more now. Perhaps after dinner, when they could retire to her room. After all, power was power, and after that session with Psithyra, she felt stronger than she had in a long time.

Chapter 63 - Every Time I Close My Eyes

After her extra tuition classes the next day, Silver’s aunt had asked for her to meet her over at the courtyard, wanting to teach the young changeling how to manage her claws.

Silver Rose had actually almost forgotten all about her claws. Thankfully, her hands hadn’t burst into flames on their own since the Friendship Games.

When she pushed the door open, her aunt was already there, sitting on one of the chairs and rubbing her back.

“Hey, Aunt Ivory, I’m here,” Silver announced and stopped next to her. “You okay?”

“Hi, sweetie, just sore. Again.” Ivory wiped at her eyes and stood up slowly. “You know how’s it’s been with your mother…”

“Um… r-right…” Silver rubbed one of her arms. She’d found out from the sirens yesterday, that her aunt and mother had started trying out this new funky relationship where they were going to pretend they were lovers instead of sisters, though from what she had heard before, they already weren’t actual sisters. “So… um… let’s talk about my claws instead, Aunt Ivory. So how does this work?”

“Simple, actually. You know how you normally channel love, sweetie?” Ivory dusted her shirt. “Just focus it to your hands. A lot of it, and it’ll come naturally.”

“Okay, I’ll try.” Silver stepped further back from her aunt just in case.

She already had on her sleeveless top, so at least she didn’t have to worry about burning her sleeves off.

Doing as her aunt had instructed, the young changeling began to channel her stored love to her hands, feeling as it began surging there, like it was swirling around in a whirlpool.

And then, just like her aunt said, her hands began warming up like the last time, even with the smoke coming off her fingertips. In no time, a green fire had spread across her hands, engulfing them. Silver could feel her nails begin to grow, but she was unable to see past the fire. After about five seconds the fire began to fade, leaving her with the same wickedly sharp talons on the tips of her fingers. Silver flexed her fingers, feeling the claws click against each other.

“Excellent work!” Ivory praised. “They’re beautiful.”

“So I actually have to focus my love to get it to work?” Silver swished her left hand in the air. “Then why did it burst into flames on its own the first time?”

“Got me,” Ivory shrugged, holding out both her own hands and rolling her sleeves back up. “Maybe it was just your body showing you that you can now do this.”

And then Ivory’s hands were swallowed up by green fire as well, soon dying down to reveal her own set of talons, though slightly longer than Silver’s.

“So Silver, these weapons…” Ivory tapped her claws together on both hands. “They are about as deadly as that sword you know how to use. In case you lose your sword in a fight, do not forget you have these with you.”

“B-But won’t that give away what I am?”

“Well, no. So long as you kill all the witnesses. No one can notice if there’s no one left to notice, as they say,” Ivory flexed her fingers, admiring how her talons caught the light. “If you have to bring these out, it’ll be a last resort anyway. May as well kill ‘em all.”

“Oh, uhh… okay, Aunt Ivory.” Silver bent down and put one hand on the floor. She wanted to see how sharp they really were.

When she was ready, she put some pressure into her palm and dragged it across the floor. Deep grooves formed under the tip of her claws and she quickly stopped, not thinking it would do that much damage.

“Umm… if mother asks, Aunt Ivory, I slipped and reached out to steady myself…” Silver’s cheeks colored.

“Sure, sweetie, I’ll do that.” Ivory smiled. “But they are sharp, aren’t they? These claws. They’re very good weapons when needed. Come on, try swinging them.”

Silver did as she was asked and slashed the air in front of herself, then in an arc, slicing and dicing her imaginary foe.

“You might find them a little heavy at first,” Ivory said, undulating her fingers so that her talons gleamed in the sunshine. “But you’ll soon get used to it. Better that there be some weight behind the swing anyway.”

Ivory let Silver experiment with her claws as she walked off around the corner, returning with two straw training dummies.

“Now then. We’ll practice with these,” Ivory set the two dummies down next to the fountain. “Come on, give it a try.”

Instead of shredding the air, Silver now began shredding the first dummy, tearing into its chest like it was made out of straw.

“Oh wait, it is made out of straw…” Silver giggled to herself as she happily tore a hole through the first dummy, its arms falling down to the ground.

“Excellent work, sweetie.” Ivory nodded in approval. “Of course, if you’re looking to disable an enemy quickly, carpe jugulum.”

“What does that mean? Seize the…”

“Seize the throat,” Ivory said smugly. “While you won’t be able to cut someone’s head off with these, you can do serious damage to someone’s neck. Unless you’d prefer to go for a bite, that is.”

“I mean… all this will really reveal what we are, Aunt Ivory. What if I don’t manage to kill them and they find out?”

“You just need to make sure it doesn’t happen, sweetie.” Ivory put a hand on her back and rubbed it carefully. “Oooh, I really need a sit down. Why don’t you keep it up, I’ll go cut my claws off and have a good lie down on the couch…”

“Umm, okay, Aunt Ivory.”

Silver started on her second dummy as her aunt slowly shifted away. Whatever they were doing up in her mother’s room or her aunt’s room, it didn’t look very good or productive for her aunt. Silver didn’t know what they did behind closed doors, nor did she want to find out, but if she had too keep seeing her aunt like that, maybe she should do something about it.

“Yeah right…” Silver slashed at the dummy’s head, sending it rolling across the courtyard and stopping against the fountain. “Me going to tell mother to stop. Like that’s ever going to work.”

She stopped and gently tapped a finger against her chin, making sure not to cut herself with the claw. Part of her wished that she could be out hanging around with Sunny Flare and the rest of the Shadowbolts or even better, Home Run, but even she knew that the exams came first. Her mother would be expecting nothing but the best grades when they came around, and Silver was determined not to let her down. Truth be told, it was one of the first times that her mother had paid attention to her academics. It felt nice that Ebony Wings was finally interested in her school life, but at the same time it meant more tutors, so…

“Oh, well,” she said slowly and cut at the dummy’s chest.

Sunny had even offered to go hang out with her after school yesterday, but Silver had to decline. She hated declining fun things, but she really didn’t have a choice in this matter.

“Life, huh…?” Silver took out her frustrations on the dummy, not stopping until it was nothing more but a pile of hay on the floor by her feet. Out of curiosity, she picked up a stalk of straw and stuck it in her mouth, like she had seen farmers do on the internet. It didn’t taste particularly nice, so she spat it back out and crossed her arms, ruminating over her situation.

“I guess I should cut these. I’ll have to use Aunt Ivory’s for now…” Silver looked at her claws. At least she got a new skill from all this.

On the way up, she began to pick up a faint smell of love, and when she was upstairs, she found it coming from her aunt’s room, which wasn’t a good sign.

“Oh no… please don’t be doing that right now…” Silver walked up to the door carefully.

“Mmmphh, harder, Chryssie! I can take more…” she heard her aunt’s voice inside. “Aah! Aah! Yeah!”

And I thought she was having back pains earlier. What is this right now…?

And to make matters worse, she still had her long claws out, meaning she was going to be unable to do anything else until she cut them. Shooting a dour look at the door, she crept back downstairs and into the garden, where she accidentally decapitated some orchids. Accidentally.

When Sunny Flare’s friends had gone home after another of their study sessions, she closed the door and shuffled back in, her mind drained from all the studying they had just done.

She passed by Skyfire and his nerd friend and made a face at them as they played one of their video games. She didn’t know how or why he had time to be playing games, and he’d been sitting there for the last three hours too. Did he even study? Sunny didn’t bother to ask him.

Going up to the bathroom first, Sunny decided to have a nice warm shower and finally changed out of her school uniform, glad that she was done with school related stuff for the day. She took her time to shower, feeling relaxed under the warm cascade of water, her stress pouring away down the drain.

“Man… what a week it’s been…” she said to herself. And it wasn’t even the end of the week yet. In fact, it was only Tuesday.

She stood there, next thinking about lunch yesterday, where she tried to ask Silver Rose out. She had actually tried to do it. Sunny’s face flushed as she thought about how embarrassing it was.

“Stupid, stupid Sunny…” She covered her face with a hand. “You might like her, but what would the others think? That stupid Canvas was even giving you weird looks. Really, Sunny? You need more tact. Hang out, that’s it. You just wanted to hang out with a friend, that was all. Right? Ugh…”

What would she have done if Silver said yes anyway? Would she have attempted to tell her about her feelings when they were out there hanging out? What exactly would she have done, Sunny didn’t know. Looking back, it was just a really silly unthought out plan.

“Why, Silver…?” Sunny leaned her head against her shower wall. “Why do I like you so much? Why do I… why do I want you…? Aah aahhh…”

Sunny looked down, realizing her fingers had found their way to her clit, now giving it a small pinch.

“Nnnghh, Sil-Silver…” she gasped, rubbing her index finger over her sensitive spot in a circular motion. “Who cares why I want… aaahhh… to be with you or not…”

Sunny kept up the stimulation on her clit, now imagining that it was Silver Rose rubbing her fingers over it, kneeling down at her nethers, naked.

Silver’s body was so hot, at least, Sunny thought so. She had never thought so about another girl before, but Silver had a really pretty body. Sunny reached her other hand down, trying to grab the pink haired girl’s breasts, but then realized that she wasn’t actually there; she was nothing but a figment of her imagination right now.

“Mmmm… you’re driving me crazy, Silverrrr…” Sunny smiled as her other hand grabbed onto one of her own breasts, massaging it along with her clitoris.

The girl’s mouth hung open as she pleasured herself, constantly having to spit out the shower water as it poured into her mouth, but she was feeling too good right now to care about that.

“St-stupid love… why does it have to be… so complicated…” she grumbled, moving her fingers below and into her womanhood, swiftly inserting two of them inside.

“I want your hands in me, Silver…” Sunny began moving her fingers back and forth, imagining again that it was Silver who was doing it. “I want you to love me, Silver… I aahhh, I want you!”

Sunny fell to her knees and began moving her fingers in and out at a quicker speed, at the same time, pinching at one of her nipples, pulling it hard.

“Silver… Silver…” Sunny eventually withdrew her fingers, now soaked in her own juices, though it was hard to tell with the running water above her.

She knew Fast Bender wouldn’t like what she was doing, but she had to do this. She was apparently in love with Silver so much that she had to handle her urges. She’d never even felt that way for Fast Bender or Domino.

Sunny once again grabbed her clit between two fingers and squeezed, close to finishing. “Mmm… you’re so good Silver! I think I’m gonna… I’m gonna…!”

There was a sudden knock on the door, shunting Sunny out of her fantasies.

“Hey, sis, you going to be in there much longer? I need to use the bathroom!”

Sunny jumped, slipping in the water and hitting her head on the shower wall.

“Ow!”

“What?” her brother replied. “You’ve been in the shower for ages! What are you even doing in there, washing each hair individually?”

“Sh-shut up, Skyfire!” Sunny rubbed at her sore head, at the same time, looking down at her nethers. She had been so close to the end, but her brother just had to come and interrupt her. “If you need to go that badly use the toilet in mom and dad’s room!”

“I don’t want to!”

“Well… Ugh, just give me a bit!” Sunny got up again, unsatisfied that she had been denied a climax. Her brother’s nerd friend was probably out there with him, most likely fantasizing about her being naked in the shower. If only he knew what I was up to.

With a quick wash of her hair and body, Sunny toweled herself down, then changed into her home shirt and shorts before stepping outside, her towel around her neck, with one hand still using it to dry her hair.

Surprisingly, Pocket Protector wasn’t there with Skyfire.

“Where’s your nerd friend?” Sunny looked around. “He’s not hiding somewhere hoping to catch me naked, is he?”

“He already went home. Do you know what time it is?” Skyfire folded his arms. “And not everyone wants to see you naked, you know? You’re nothing special.”

“He does, I’m sure,” Sunny snorted. “You see the looks he gives me when I’m around? I’m sure he’ll be thinking of me when he gets back home.”

“You think too highly of yourself, Sunny. Not every guy is after you. Are you that desperate for a boyfriend?”

“No!” Sunny said a little too quickly. “It’s not like that!”

“Yeah right.” Skyfire didn’t look convinced. “Or are you that kind of creep where you enjoy people looking at your body?”

“I am not!” Sunny stomped a foot. “I-I thought you needed to use the bathroom?”

“Yeah, but you’re in my way, sis, so move.”

And Skyfire shoved his way past Sunny and slammed the bathroom door in her face, much to her irritation.

Sunny glared at the door for a moment more, then she stalked her way back to her room and locked the door.

“Stupid Skyfire…”

She sat on her bed for a few minutes, then decided to go over to the windows and draw the curtains shut, just to be safe for what she was going to do.

Reaching for her phone, Sunny quickly pulled up the photos of Silver Rose with her shorts down that she had taken during PE class.

“Mmm…” Sunny said appreciatively. She had kept them for possible blackmail in the future back then, but now, they were going to be used for a better purpose. It was a pretty high-definition picture, thanks to her state of the art phone.

Sunny’s free hand crept to her waist, but then she sighed and tossed the phone aside, putting both her hands behind her head as she lay there on the bed.

Outside, an owl hooted. It sounded like laughter.

“I can’t keep doing this… Not every time…” Sunny covered her eyes from her ceiling light.

The mulberry haired girl had only used to masturbate every few months or so when she wanted to feel good, but ever since she’d been truthful to herself about her feelings for Silver, she had been doing it almost every other day. It kind of looked like it was getting out of hand.

Sunny flicked her eyes at the Fast Bender poster on the wall next to her. The actor stared out of the paper, a confident smile on his frozen face.

“I don’t know why I’m being like this, Fast Bender...” Sunny told the poster. “Is it because I really want her? Why do I want her so badly?”

“What do you think, my loyal fan?” Fast Bender’s image replied, a hand moving down to his waist. “You’d probably know better than me. I’m a picture on a poster.”

“I don’t know. It couldn’t have… It couldn’t have originated from kissing her, could it?” Sunny put a finger on her lips.

True, it had been a nice kiss, but the situation hadn’t been a desired one, especially since Silver had tried to choke her out. Sunny shivered from the thought. It had been ages since she went back to that.

She shook her head. Surely her want for Silver couldn’t have come just from a single kiss? Or maybe she wasn’t as straight as she first thought? Perhaps in the end, she really did like girls?

“But no, Fast Bender, I haven’t fallen in love with other girls. I’ve seen Lemon Zest naked a couple of times, even her secret places, but I’m not in love with her. And yeah, all my friends are pretty too, even Sugarcoat. So why am I only falling for Silver?”

“You’re right, it is a very strange occurrence…” Fast Bender put a hand to his chin. “So what about me, huh? What happens to me?”

“Huh? What do you mean, Fast Bender?” Sunny sat up on her bed.

“You used to dream about me. All the time, even when you touch yourself. But now, when was the last time you thought about me like that, Sunny? Like how you do with Silver Rose.”

“No, no, I still love you, Fast Bender, I do!” Sunny protested. “Nothing will ever change that. But… It’s like when I had Domino. I loved him, but I didn’t stop loving you!”

Fast Bender shook his head. “But you never fantasized about Domino. You didn’t even consider going to bed with him. That’s why he dumped you, remember?”

Sunny sighed. “I know, I know… So what should I do, Fast Bender? I don’t know what to do… I don’t want to keep masturbating everyday. I mean… Umm, it feels nice, yes, but too much is no good, right?”

“You’re right about that, Sunny. Maybe you keep dreaming about Silver because you’re holding back? Why don’t you just let her know how you feel? About her.”

“What?” Sunny’s face glowed red. “I-I can’t… I… It’s really… I don’t know, Fast Bender.”

“Now, why not? You like her, don’t you? Why don’t you just tell her how you feel? Maybe she already likes you back, but also doesn’t know how to say it. Maybe that’s why she was so down, Sunny.”

Sunny’s head lifted up when she heard that. She didn’t think to consider that might’ve been a possibility. What if Silver had been upset that she hadn’t yet told her how she felt? But then she had declined the hang out request. Or maybe it was because she couldn’t cancel her lessons.

“What if I try again?” Sunny asked her poster. “This weekend? Would she say yes?”

“That’s the spirit, Sunny.” Fast Bender balled a fist in triumph. “She might. All you can do is give it a try and see what happens.”

“Yes, oh, thank you, Fast Bender!” Sunny got up and ran to her poster, giving it a kiss on Fast Bender’s lips, holding it there for a few seconds. “Mmm… you still kiss so good, Fast Bender… I wish you were out here.”

“But I am. I will always be here, right here with you, Sunny.” And then Fast Bender stepped out of his poster, embracing Sunny in his big strong arms.

“Thank you, Fast Bender…” Sunny leaned her head on his chest and sighed. “Thanks for understanding as well. Do you really think she likes me too?”

“I’m sure of it, Sunny. You just need to be brave and try again.” Fast Bender held her chin up under his finger and smiled at her. “Be truthful. Tell her how you truly feel about her.”

And then he kissed her back on the lips. Sunny closed her eyes and put her hands on his face, rubbing them down his tough jaw.

“Is it wrong that I want you too, Fast Bender…?” Sunny breathed after their lips parted. She began rubbing her crotch against his, feeling a bulge grow in Fast Bender’s pants. “Mmm… feels good…”

“Nothing’s wrong, Sunny. Because you’re so perfect…”

And then Fast Bender pushed her down on her bed and climbed on top of her, still dressed in his detective clothes from Fireman. He pulled at her shirt and tossed it to the floor as he began running a hand down one of her thighs.

“Mmmm… Fast Bender…”

Their lips met again in another passionate kiss as the acclaimed actor slipped one hand under her bra, massaging her breast gently. The hand on her thigh moved higher, stopping next to her nethers now.

And then he pushed past her shorts and peeled her panties to the side, marveling at her beauty between her legs.

“Are you ready, Sunny?”

“I’m… ready… Go ahead.”

Without waiting, Fast Bender had unzipped his pants and whipped out his large dick, placing the tip against Sunny’s wet pussy. He teased her for a few seconds, not putting it in, but eventually, Sunny felt the entire thing enter inside of her, going all the way in.

“Aaahh, aaahh…” Sunny moaned as Fast Bender began to move. She hugged her arms around him, feeling absolutely ecstatic. She’d always wanted Fast Bender to love her like that, and now he was finally doing it. Now she wished that Silver was here too. That would really make her happy, to know that Silver loved her too.

“But I am here, Sunny.” Sunny looked to the side to see her friend, smiling down at her. She was once again naked, showing off her slim and beautiful body to Sunny, who suddenly felt hotter.

“Silver, aahh… mmmgh…” Sunny reached a hand for her. “Please… I love you, mmmm... you know?”

“I know, Sunny…” The other girl inched closer and kissed Sunny on the cheek. “I’ve always known…”

Silver Rose began toying with Sunny’s breasts and nipples while Fast Bender continued to screw her, his body slamming against Sunny’s with audible slaps.

“Aaahhh, so good…” Sunny’s mouth hung open. That gave Silver the opportunity to kiss her on the lips as her fingers squeezed on the mulberry haired girl’s nipples. “Mmmaaahh… I think I’m close! Let it out inside me, Fast Bender!”

“With pleasure, my adoring fan…”

Sunny closed her eyes and waited, one hand around Silver’s waist.

“Sunny, what are you doing?!”

And then she opened her eyes, turning her head to the side. Silver Rose wasn’t there anymore, but her brother was standing in her doorway, gazing at her with shocked eyes.

Sunny looked back at herself. She was naked and Fast Bender had disappeared too. Instead of his cock inside her, she found her fingers doing the work, her love juices staining them and a small portion of her bedsheet.

“It-it’s not what it looks like, Skyfire!” Sunny quickly pulled her fingers out and sat up, covering herself with her blanket.

“Your-your fingers were inside your…” Skyfire took two steps back. “Mom, dad! Sunny’s doing weird things in her room!” And then he ran out, his foosteps fading down the hall.

“No, Skyfire, wait! No!” Sunny hopped out of her bed, tripping on the sheets and falling on her face. “No, it’s not like that! Waaaait!”

“Sunny, Sunny, wake up!”

“Huh, what?” Sunny sat up from her bed, looking around wildly.

“Sunny, you’re going to be late if you keep sleeping,” Skyfire said outside her door. “Why’d you even lock the door for? What if there’s a fire or something?”

“What? I…” Sunny rubbed at her head, then wiped the corner of her mouth, which was dripping saliva. “Gross…”

“Whatever. Mom said she’ll drop you off at school after sending me, so you better hurry.”

“Guh…” Sunny pushed off her bed and tossed her blanket aside. Then she noticed a faint sensation below and looked down, grumbling to herself; her shorts were wet at the crotch area. “Really, Sunny?”

Grabbing her uniform from her closet, Sunny unlocked her door and peeked her head out and when she was sure no one else was in the hallway to see her, she scrambled over to the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it shut behind her.

Sunny put her uniform by the sink, then pulled her shorts and panties off, touching at the sticky liquid that was staining them.

“I’ll have to wash these later…” Sunny sighed, putting them in a pile between the sink and the toilet bowl.

Sunny looked at her face in the mirror and sighed. She was a mess right now, but she remembered one thing from last night, whether it was a dream or not. She was going to tell Silver how she really felt on Friday. That was her current plan. But she had to get Silver alone. No way she was going to do it in front of her schoolmates. That would be another thing they wouldn’t let her live down, especially if Silver rejected her feelings.

She just had to wait for an opportunity, or ask Silver if she could meet her in private. There were a few ways the plan could go, so Sunny decided to think on it while she had her shower. Plus, she still had a few days to decide.

Chapter 64 - Great Expectations

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Chapter 65 - Laying Plans

“And how goes your studies, Silver Rose?” Fleur Dis Lee aimed a low stab at the mauve-skinned girl. “Not too overwhelming I hope? Since these will be your first exams?”

“I’m managing.” Silver ducked to the left and tried a counterattack, but Fleur easily deflected her strike. “My mother even hired extra tutors for my weaker subjects.”

“Oh, so did mine.” Fleur pivoted and lanced out, prodding Silver in the gut, sending her down on one knee. “I must say it’s helped.”

“I guess…” Silver rubbed at her abdomen. Even with the padded suit, Fleur’s attacks still hurt. She was really something. “I didn’t think you had any weak subjects, Fleur.”

“I’m weak in… don’t laugh Silver Rose, but I’m somewhat weak in English.” Fleur flicked her sword to the side, then held it up vertically.

Silver peeled off her fencing helmet, her face already coated in sweat, because she hadn’t expanded any love during the match, wanting to rely on her own strength.

“I don’t have much trouble myself, but I’m lacking a little in poetry.”

“Aren’t we all…” Fleur sighed. “On the bright side, at least I can spell ‘rhombus’.”

“Aw, come on, lighten up on the Sunny jokes, you know?” Silver tried to speak up for her friend. “Everyone keeps teasing her about it.”

Though, it’s really a joke that she can’t spell such a simple word…

“Perhaps. We’ll see how she does on her English exam, won’t we?” Fleur readied her stance again. “Again, Silver Rose.”

“How is the rest of the team prepping for the exams?” Silver asked as she put her helmet back on, then raised her foil’s tip to touch Fleur’s. “Are you studying together?”

“Not that I know of.” Fleur started the round by sliding forward at almost lightning speed, and Silver would’ve been hit if she hadn’t dropped to her knees. The changeling quickly scurried back as Fleur attacked again. “I’ve just been studying by myself. Sometimes with Fancy Pants. But I’ve been doing alright. I’m not sure about the others. You’ll have to ask Quillion.”

Silver got back to her feet and began trading blows with Fleur. Even after all this time, Silver found she was still nowhere close to the white-skinned girl’s skill level. She really had a talent for fencing, even though she was just a regular human and didn’t have abilities like Silver did.

“You require more finesse in your movements,” Fleur instructed and stopped to let Silver have some breathing room. “You’re still using too much strength.”

Silver also remembered Sunset Shimmer as she began her own offensive, stabbing at Fleur from the left and right. Sunset was a brilliant sword fighter, also without any abilities, and Silver couldn’t even beat her in a full on swordfight. The two of them hadn’t even kept to the fencing rules that day and still… she had lost to Sunset, even with the use of some love energy. That girl must really be something else.

Silver figured she would work harder during her sword fighting lessons on the weekends and if the two of them ever crossed swords again, the outcome was going to be different.

“You’re losing focus, Silver.” Fleur went for a thrust under Silver’s sword arm, catching her in the armpit.

“Ouch.” Silver stepped back and rubbed the spot she had been hit at. “Sorry. I was thinking of something, I guess.”

Fleur sighed and took her helmet off, swatting her elegant pink hair behind her head. “I can’t blame you, seeing as the exams are near. Well, perhaps that will be all for today, then. Even Mr. Fowl looks ready to close up early today.”

Silver looked over to their supervising teacher, who was currently looking at his watch, his shoulders hunched lower than normal.

“Yeah. Teachers don’t… don’t take exams, right?” Silver removed her own helmet and wiped her forehead.

“No, but they do have to try their best to make sure all their students pass, or they’ll have an inquiry.”

“Oh, I see. So he wants us to go home and study, huh?” Silver watched the history teacher, who went back to his book after another glance at his watch. “How kind of him to do so.”

“Yes, well, grades are everything.” Fleur walked with Silver to the side to grab her bottle to rehydrate. “Though, I’m guessing things are going to be different now, huh? Now that we know there’s more than just competitive spirit.”

“Here’s hoping.” Silver didn’t mind. A more friendly and less competitive atmosphere sounded much better. It would certainly taste better too, but she wouldn’t admit that to Fleur.

“We better go change out and go.” Quillion came over, swiping his purple hair from his brow. “The earlier we’re home, the more studying we can do.”

“You want to study?” Fleur shot him a weird look.

“Well, no, I don’t, but we don’t really have a choice, do we?” Quillion shrugged happily. “Do or die, Fleur.”

“Sometimes, I wish it was die.” Fleur nudged Silver and smirked for a second.

The young changeling giggled and gulped down a lot of water. It was brave of Fleur to attempt levity at a time like this, but she appreciated her friend’s sense of humor. It was easier to get than her mother’s own one.

“Well, let’s go get changed,” Fleur said at last. Silver nodded and followed her into the changing room. On the way there, she nodded a hello to Sunny Flare, who was busy on the basketball court. The girl stopped to wave and almost got hit in the face with the basketball, before getting back into the game.

One quick shower later, Silver Rose was walking from school to her waiting car. Humming a newly invented tune to herself, she climbed in and was surprised to see not her aunt but Silver Platter at the wheel.

“Uhm, hi, Silver Platter,” Silver Rose said uncertainly. “Did something happen to Aunt Ivory? She’s not uh, busy with mother again, is she?”

“Not to worry, princess. She said she was working on something important and has locked herself in the workshop,” the butler narrated. “Last I heard she said something about an invitation and then a menu.”

“Menu?”

“I am simply relaying what I heard, young mistress. Perhaps you can find out more once we get back home.”

She knew her aunt was preparing a picnic, but what kind of picnic had a menu? Well, to be fair, Silver had never been to a picnic in her life, so perhaps she still had more to learn about picnics.

Once the car arrived back at the estate, Silver disembarked and set out to the workshop, where her aunt might still possibly be at.

Surely enough, the door was still locked and she could her some faint, upbeat music from inside. It sounded like it was being sung in the Eastern language.

“Umm… Aunt Ivory, you in there?” Silver knocked on the door and waited.

The music came to a sudden stop. “Someone say something?”

“It’s me, Aunt Ivory,” Silver said again.

“Oh, Silver, sweetie, come on it.” There was the click of the lock and the door came slightly ajar, allowing Silver entrance.

The young changeling stepped into the workshop, noticing the lack of wood shavings on the floor. Instead, Ivory's workbench was full various sheets of paper and images of food items on her computer screen.

“Ohayo, Silver,” Ivory said, walking back to her seat in front of a laptop and turning the music back on, though at a softer volume.

“What’s up, Aunt Ivory?” Silver stopped by her aunt and wrapped her arms around her, leaning her head on her shoulder. “Is this what you’re bringing to the picnic?”

“Why yes, though I’m still deciding on what to make.” Ivory panned a hand past her computer screen. There were pictures of burgers, hot dogs, salads, and even fried eggs. “Plenty of choices as you can see.”

“How about burgers, Aunt Ivory?” Silver chuckled. “I like burgers. We don’t really have those for dinner, because mother thinks they’re too uncivilized. I quite like the ones with beef.”

“Ah, a traditional burger, then.” Ivory licked her lips. “I still think those are the best. These days, you have burgers that even have fish in them. I mean, who does that? A good burger needs beef.”

“I… haven’t tried all the other ones, but I’ll take your word for it!” Silver began feeling hungry just thinking about burgers. “So, burgers, then?”

“Burgers it will be, my sweet niece. I’ll leave you one or two as well.”

“Ooh, thanks, Aunt Ivory! So when is the picnic anyway?”

“I’m planning on having it during the summer break, where they’ll likely be free.” Ivory picked up one of the papers, which was an invitation card. “As for this, I’m sure I’ll need to send it out before school ends to make sure they get it. It’s still in the designing phases though. I want the invitation to be as, well, inviting as it possibly can.”

And with that, she turned back to the laptop and began clicking around in the photo editing program she had pulled up, humming to herself.

“So…” Silver said slowly. “Is the food going to be poisoned too?”

“Hmm? No, no I don’t think so. It would be too much trouble to fine tune a poison that doesn’t affect the taste of the food. It took a long while just to get the lemonade right. Also, I have to make sure I don’t look scary either. I want to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere,” Ivory said brightly.

“So you really think they’ll know how to fix the gems?” Silver pulled up a stool and sat herself down. “What if they don’t?”

“They will,” Ivory Wings said confidently. “Of that, I am certain. They know magic, correct? Then of course they will know how to fix the gems. What was destroyed by magic can be repaired by magic. That only sounds reasonable.”

“But what if they refuse to cooperate?” Silver pointed out.

“That’s where the lemonade comes in. And me, of course. I can be very scary when I want to be.”

“You, scary?” Silver said, having a hard time imagining her aunt as frightening.

“There’re different kinds of scary, sweetie. I don’t have to hide in a sewer and bite kids’ arms off to be scary. There’s a subtler kind of fear that I just love working off of.”

“You won’t have to kill anyone, will you?” Silver had a quick think about it. She knew Sunset Shimmer. It would be a shame if someone she knew were to get killed.

“Well, that’s up to them, isn’t it? I’ll also need to go back to my penthouse to pick up some, ahem, disguise material. Hm, yes.”

“Well, I hope it all goes well, Aunt Ivory.” Silver picked up one of the invitations and had a look at it. They were white and pink and the words were hand-written by none other than her aunt. It was really neat and fancy. Silver hadn’t noticed it sooner, but her aunt wrote using her left hand. Ivory was now in the process of writing down some ingredients. “That’s cool, Aunt Ivory. I didn’t know you were left-handed.”

“I’m not, really. I can use both my hands, just my left one happens to be closer to the pen and I do prefer to use my left.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Silver lifted her right hand. “I’m right-handed myself. I think so is mother.”

“Yes, your mother was born right-handed, just like almost everyone in the world.” Ivory put down the pen and looked at her fingers. “Well, I’m glad to be on the minority. It makes me more unique, don’t you think so?”

“Sure does, Aunt Ivory,” the young changeling answered happily. “Though we’re already a minority, or at least, you and mother are. There aren’t anymore changelings out there, right?”

“None that I know of,” Ivory Wings huffed. “Of course, if things hadn’t gone pear-shaped in Trotsylvania, we might have more…” she closed her eyes and opened them again. “Still, no point dwelling on the past. We live in the present.” Ivory glanced at the clock on the wall. “Say, isn’t it almost time for your tuition?”

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Silver hopped off the stool and it tumbled to the ground. “I gotta go, Aunt Ivory! I’ll see you later!”

Ivory Wings watched her niece go, then pulled a lock of her hair into view.

“I wonder how it would look in pink…”

Chapter 66 - At Long Last

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 66 - At Long Last

The hallways of Crystal Prep Academy were the pinnacle of combined architectural style and functionality. Gleaming and reflective, each individual surface and pillar not only allowed for easy cleaning, they afforded anyone who was walking in them a mirror-smooth view of anything or anyone around them. They also had the added advantage of channeling sounds extremely efficiently, allowing Principal Cinch to save a sizeable chunk of her budget on the intercom system, as well as have an excuse to make each room soundproof by default, a feature that was advertised prominently on her academy’s already impressive credentials.

It also meant that so long as the doors were closed, no one could hear what was going in inside or outside any of the classrooms. Particularly the not-so-quiet groan that escaped Indigo Zap’s mouth as she erased her answer for the second time.

“I’m so lost…”

She squinted at the blackboard before tearing off a corner of her notebook. Scrunching it up, Indigo covertly tossed it onto the desk at three o’clock.

“Psst. Sunny,” Indigo hissed out of the corner of her mouth. “What’s the answer to question nine?”

Sunny Flare didn’t move. She stared studiously at the front of the classroom, where her friend Silver Rose was writing out a chemical reaction for the teacher. To anyone else, it would appear that the blue-skinned Shadowbolt was simply too focused on the lesson to hear Indigo Zap’s pleas, but a closer inspection might have revealed that her notebook was empty and that her pen was still.

Sunny wasn’t listening. Instead, her mind was working up various ways she could convey her feelings to Silver Rose. Today was the day she promised Fast Bender she would finally let Silver know what she thought of her. That seemed to be the only way forward now and perhaps the only way for her to stop masturbating every night while she fantasized about the girl.

“Sunny?” Indigo whispered quizzically. Leaning over, she stuck her hand out and waved it in front of of Sunny’s eyes.

“Not now, Indigo,” Sunny reproached and looked past her hand, finding Silver’s backside to be a very interesting place to look. She could almost make out the shape under her skirt.

Indigo Zap rolled her eyes and went to pester Sugarcoat, leaving Sunny Flare to fantasize about Silver Rose’s slender legs, her strawberry scented hair, those sparkling ruby eyes were staring at her right now-

Sunny Flare blushed furiously and quickly averted her gaze, before sneaking a glance back at Silver. Her friend had gone back to talking to the teacher about the formula, but then out of the corner of her eye she gave Sunny a slow, knowing smile.

Sunny Flare’s face was glowing like a furnace as she snatched up her pen and furiously copied down the chalkboard’s contents.

Come on, Sunny, what are you doing? You can’t keep hiding! You were going to tell her how you felt after school, right? When you can get her alone? If you can’t even look at her while she’s looking at you, then what hope do you have?

“Oh, Silver…” Sunny sighed quietly to herself and scribbled on. She began picturing Silver in a swimsuit. A really skimpy pink swimsuit. It was a nice image, but it started making Sunny’s uniform uncomfortably warm.

Continuing to scribble at breakneck speed, Sunny ignored the tap on her shoulder from Indigo, leaning even lower over her notes to hide how red her face had become.

The tapping didn’t stop. Sunny hunched even lower.

The tapping intensified. Sunny Flare’s eyes narrowed in annoyance, but didn’t give Indigo the benefit of a response.

The taps turned into a series of pokes.

Finally, Sunny could take it no more.

“What?!” The girl hissed through clenched teeth. She glared up at Indigo Zap.

Indigo raised her eyebrows at the overly hostile snap before pointing up to the front of the room.

“Thank you, Miss Zap,” Mr. Beaker said evenly. “As I was saying, Miss Flare. If you’re not too occupied with your notes, I would like you and Miss Rose to get a dozen mercury thermometers and six graduated cylinders, please.”

“Oh!” Sunny Flare jumped to her feet so quickly that her chair fell over. The class began laughing at her. “Of course, Mr. Beaker!” Her face, having so recently cooled down, lit back up again at her classmates’ snickering.

All the more incentive to get out of there. Sunny scurried out of the chemistry lab with Silver and slammed the door.

The clack of the two girls’ shoes rang uncomfortably loud in Sunny Flare’s ears. She let Silver take the lead, not wanting her friend to see how embarrassed she was. They trotted along in relative silence, Sunny keeping her eyes on the floor.

This might be it… Sunny thought to herself. This might be the chance she was looking for to tell Silver how she felt. They were alone and they were most certainly going to be alone in the storage room.

The highly polished floor that was now providing Sunny with a splendid view of Silver Rose’s long, kneesock clad legs. They were mesmerizing; every single step was like a runway model’s, confident and with just the right amount of hip swaying to make a flirting glance at sexy, and those socks left the barest stretch of skin between them and Silver’s skirt; it was something Sunny found her eyes wandering to when she had the chance.

Why did you have to be so pretty, Silver? Sunny felt her heart beating faster in her chest now as she tried to plot out how to tell Silver what she wanted to say. With the chance approaching her, Sunny’s mind had gone blank and all her hours of planning had vanished.

The two girls soon found themselves at the door labeled ‘science equipment’. Using the key that Mr. Beaker had given Silver Rose, she and Sunny entered the storage room. Like every other place at Crystal Prep, it was well-organized and polished to a reflective gleam.

“Well, let’s get to it,” Silver Rose closed the door behind them.

Sunny Flare swallowed, her mouth suddenly very dry. She was now alone, in here, with Silver Rose. Alone with the the girl she loved as much as Fast Bender. Maybe even more than Fast Bender.

“I think the thermometers are up there,” Silver pointed at a crate that was perched atop one of the many shelves. “Could you get the graduated cylinders?”

While Silver went about propping up a stepladder, Sunny knelt down and rummaged through a crate of measuring equipment. She easily located the glass containers and lifted them out of their individual holders.

“I got the graduated cylinders,” Sunny Flare announced. “Did you find the thermometers yeee…”

Turning around, Sunny’s mouth abruptly stopped working while her brain did the best to do damage control.

Silver Rose was situated at the top of the step, almost two meters off the ground. Her tartan skirt, which normally was quite short, was now offering Sunny a perfect view of her friend’s frilly pink panties while she continued to search for the thermometers.

“What’s that?”

“N-nothing. Never mind...” Sunny shivered, a faint warmth making itself known between her legs. She licked her lips and tried to stare at the floor instead, only be met with the exact same sight: Silver Rose’s exposed thighs and panties swaying temptingly as their owner rooted about in the crates above.

Oh my… Sunny chewed her lower lip, her hand unconsciously tugging at the hem of her own skirt. The mulberry haired girl shifted in place, willing the tingling in her nethers to go away. It didn’t. Don’t do anything rash here, Sunny. You’re not at home. What would Silver think of this?

Sunny’s self-imposed torment was finally ended by Silver coming back down to ground level. “I can’t find the thermometers,” she said with a sniff. “I’m starting to think they’re not here…” A quizzical look came over Silver’s face. “Are you okay, Sunny? You’re looking really flushed.”

“I’m fine!” Sunny Flare said, unable to keep a quaver out of her voice. Silver was so close that Sunny could practically lean over and kiss her, run her hands through that pink and grey striped hair and tell her how she felt-

“Uh-huh.” Silver still looked unconvinced, but shrugged and pushed the stepladder further away from the door. “Hey, can you hold this steady while I check up there?”

Sunny smiled a bit too widely. “S-Sure! No problem!”

As Silver mounted the stepladder, Sunny took the opportunity to breathe in a deep lungful of her friend’s scent. The smell of strawberries seemed so much stronger today… and brought her mouth to watering.

“Here we go!” Silver’s triumphant cry heralded her descent, a handful of slim cardboard boxes in tow. Nodding thanks to Sunny, Silver stacked the thermometers next to the graduated cylinders before inhaling deeply.

Sunny was standing there watching her and the box of supplies when Silver suddenly seized her arm, pulling her close.

“You’re really not looking so well,” Silver put one hand on Sunny’s forehead. “Hmm…”

“N-Nothing’s wrong, Sil-Silver…” Sunny Flare’s face blushed even deeper and she ground her thighs together under her skirt as the tingling escalated into a burning sensation. This was it. This was the moment Sunny needed. They were both alone and they were so close. So very close…

All she needed to do now was work up the courage to get the words out of her mouth.

“You’re so warm,” Silver Rose looked at her friend with worry. “And you’re shivering too…”

“I’m-I’m fine, Silver…” Sunny looked to the side. “Sil-Silver, l-listen… I wanted to t-tell you something.”

“Yeah? Go ahead.” The pink haired girl waited.

“Well, you see…” Sunny rubbed her elbow unconsciously. This was a lot harder than she thought, but she was determined to get it done today. By now, her body had grown increasingly warm and sweat began to form on her brow.

“You’re really not looking well.” Silver grasped Sunny’s arm. “Maybe we should go to the nurse’s office first?”

“Ummm, ummmm…” Sunny looked at Silver, who was giving her a really concerned face. She was just so pretty, with her dazzling red eyes and her soft lips. “Silver, I…”

What happened next was a surprise to both of them. Sunny didn’t know what came over her, but she suddenly fell against Silver Rose, pressing close against her and she reached out for the girl’s face and pulled her closer, kissing her on the lips.

“Mmph?” Silver’s eyes grew wide as Sunny closed hers, but the girl didn’t back away. For so many nights she had dreamed of this, yearned for this, and now, it was actually happening.

When Sunny finally let go, Silver Rose was blushing as heavily as her now. “Th-that’s what I w-wanted to tell you, Silver… Umm...”

That one kiss wasn’t enough. Sunny was hungry. All her nights alone had proven so. She still needed more.

Then she leaned in for a second kiss, which Silver didn’t avoid. This time, Sunny found her hands reaching low, her probing fingers settling underneath Silver’s skirt, sensually kneading her thighs and tweaking her rear, squeezing her backside gently as her lips melted against the girl she loved.

As much as Sunny would have wanted to hold the kiss forever, the need for breath drove the girls apart, their breathing hot and heavy with need. As soon as Silver got the chance, she began sniffing at the air, almost at once, a hand whipped up to her mouth and covered it.

“What’s wrong?” Sunny watched her, afraid that maybe she had taken it too far like this. “Did I… Was I too direct…?”

“No, no, not that…” Silver shook her head, not removing her hand from her mouth. “I just… I wasn’t expecting that. Is that… how you really feel?”

I-I…” Sunny looked around embarrassedly. “Yes, this is how I feel about you, Silver…”

“I, um, wow…” Silver closed her eyes and breathed. “I don’t know what to say, Sunny.”

“Umm… do you… do you feel the same way? About me?” Sunny was about to find out at long last.

“W-Well…” Silver dropped her hand from her mouth and opened her eyes.

She stepped closer to Sunny again and took her hands. Then she looked up at Sunny’s eyes. Both of them turned away from each other’s gaze for a second, but then returned, this time, locking their eyes on each other.

And then at the same time, they both leaned in for a kiss again, this time melting against each other properly. Silver’s lips tasted and felt so good and Sunny still didn’t know why she felt this way, but she liked how she felt now. Silver’s ruby eyes, normally so calm and collected during class, were clouded over with lust as they changed their lip positions.

Silver Rose began undoing Sunny’s bow tie, shortly followed by her Crystal Prep blazer and shirt. Sunny noticed she seemed a little hesitant while she was doing so.

“Silv- aah!” Silver Rose swooped in, nibbling tenderly on Sunny’s collarbone. She squealed when the mauve-skinned girl’s hand slipped under her white bra, squeezing the soft flesh beneath.

“You taste nice, Sunny...” Silver croaked into Sunny’s bare shoulder.

The fire between Sunny Flare’s legs was getting unbearable. Her fingers fumbled at her skirt, pulling up the swathe of tartan fabric and exposing her sodden panties to the other girl. She hooked her fingers around the waistband, but Silver held Sunny’s hands still.

“Umm, S-Sunny… Let me do it for you.”

Like a hawk diving on a mouse, Silver Rose knelt down before Sunny and buried her nose into her crotch, giving it little nudges and licks that drove the blue girl’s mind into a frenzy.

“Aaah! Sil-Silver!” Sunny couldn’t contain her cries as Silver continued to worship her inner thighs and pussy, licking up the drops of nectar that were soaking through.

Eventually Silver tired of her ministrations, and with Sunny still holding up her skirt, took the next step. Clamping the waistband of Sunny’s panties between her teeth, Silver gently pulled the garment down, grinning as her prize finally came into view.

The scent of Sunny Flare’s arousal grew tenfold. She spread her legs wide, ready for what she knew was coming next.

Silver smiled sheepishly, her eyes and grin widening as she plunged her long, slick tongue into Sunny’s already soaked nethers. She darted her tongue in and out, occasionally pulling out completely to swipe at Sunny’s outer lips and plant a barrage of fluttering kisses on her clit.

It was all Sunny could do to stay standing through the vicious onslaught. Each lick sent magnificent jolts of pleasure through her shuddering body, and not even biting her lip could hold in the adorable whimpers of ecstasy.

“Oh! Nng! Silver!”

Silver’s tongue swirled and dragged along Sunny’s inner walls, never stopping for an instant to let her partner rest. Silver’s face was completely splattered with Sunny’s love juices, clear liquid dribbling down her chin and dripping onto her bow tie but she didn’t let up, continuing to lap at Sunny’s slit like it was the nectar of life.

Finally, Sunny could take it no more. “P-Please…” she yelped as a particularly drawn out lick ravaged her insides, building up a pressure that was just short of overflowing. “I’m… so close...”

Silver Rose’s response was twofold, her tongue delivering a deviously gentle lick to Sunny’s clit before instantly following up with a passionate kiss on the exact same spot.

It was more than enough. Sunny Flare came all at once, her womanhood clenching around her friend’s tongue and her juices flooding out like a broken dam, all over Silver Rose’s face, her head thrown back in a breathless howl. The strength drained out of Sunny’s legs and she slumped to the floor, completely spent.

A lazy smile graced Silver Rose lips as she turned to sit down next to Sunny. The floor felt refreshingly cool to her bare skin, and without a word the pink girl planted a simple, chaste kiss onto Sunny’s lips. Her cheeks were still flushed, as were Sunny’s.

“Haahhh… haah…” Sunny panted, basking in the afterglow of her climax. She stroked Silver’s cheek with one hand and smiled tiredly. “I… love you, you know?”

Silver Rose, for her part, just licked the last of Sunny’s fluids off her face and set about cleaning up their mess, looking every bit as satisfied as her friend did.

“I know you do.”

Chapter 67 - A Roll in the Hay

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Chapter 68 - Confirmation

Silver Rose went back to school on Monday, partly anxious and partly excited. She couldn’t wait to see what Sunny Flare was going to do now, but at the same time, she was afraid of what Sunny would ask of her.

Images of what her mother and aunt would do to her if she failed to keep in line here surfaced in her mind, and it wasn’t pleasant. And that was putting it lightly.

She didn’t want to fail them, but she also wanted to see how much love Sunny would be able to give her. Love was incredibly tasty and she would only usually get it from Home Run on the weekends. With Sunny, she would have a supply of it on the weekdays as well.

Home Run… She felt a little bad mixing up with Sunny like this behind his back, but once again, she had to remind herself, Home Run was with Moonglade. Silver Rose now had Sunny Flare.

“Come on, Silver.” The girl hefted her bag strap higher up her shoulder and headed towards the building. “You can find out what Sunny wants later when you see her. First, just get to homeroom.”

When Silver got to class, it was the same as it always was, except for Twilight Sparkle, who no longer went to school here. Silver didn’t deny that she didn’t miss the bespectacled girl, but she did have some interesting things about herself, like making machines that could trap magic. The changeling didn’t mind learning more about that from Twilight.

Homeroom then went by rather uneventfully. Everything was as it is, though Silver kept thinking the others were looking at her funny. She chalked it down as herself being paranoid after doing it with Sunny on Friday.

No one knows, Silver. They couldn’t possibly know. Unless Sunny told them…? But why would she?

After receiving more homework from Ms. Script, Silver found herself getting more exam notes in history class. Mr. Fowl seemed especially tired today as he lectured them on what he was going to be testing them on. Maybe he stayed up late preparing their papers or something, Silver didn’t know.

When it was finally time to pack up, Silver Rose found herself anxious to get to chemistry class. That was the first period of the day where she would see Sunny. She didn’t know what to expect, but she didn’t know how to react to her now. She could talk to her and pretend nothing happened between them, she could just ignore her and wait for her to initiate something, or she could even initiate a conversation about what happened herself.

“Yeah, as if I would ask her first…” Silver laughed to herself. “I think I better wait and see.”

Leaving class, Silver hesitantly began making her way to chemistry class, her eyes darting around the hallway as she kept an eye out for Sunny Flare. She didn’t want to get caught unaware.

Silver eventually arrived at her classroom, not encountering Sunny on the way. Perhaps she was still busy elsewhere, or maybe she was already in class waiting. Stopping just outside the door, Silver began to feel a little more anxious of going in to face Sunny. She didn’t know the correct response after what they had done on Friday.

Not for the first time, Silver wished she had the same ability as her mother and aunt to three-dimensionally image the area around them by smell and taste alone. They would have been able to locate Sunny in the morass of a school for sure, though she still wasn’t sure if she did want to find Sunny.

“Silver, you can’t stand out here forever. You’ve got to get to class,” she said to herself. “Just get in there and deal with it, okay?”

Taking a deep breath, Silver stepped past the doorframe and turned to enter the class, first searching around for Sunny. And there she was. Sunny Flare was already seated in there, looking up just in time to see Silver walk in.

Sunny Flare rubbed the back of her neck, then a thin, but wavering smile formed on her face as she lifted a hand to wave at Silver. The young changeling didn’t know what to do herself, so she replied with a shaky wave herself, a blush rising to her cheeks.

Mishter Schniffs’ words resonated in her head. “Wait until Monday, then we’ll see where we stand on things.” Well, so far it didn’t seem like Sunny was dissatisfied with last Friday’s encounter.

“Ermm… uh, hi, Silver,” Sunny greeted as she began heading towards her seat. “You, um… have a good w-weekend?”

“Um, yeah. Listen, about… er, chemistry class…” Silver rubbed the back of her head.

“Not now!” Sunny said, looking flustered. She jerked her head at Indigo Zap, who was peering curiously in their direction. “Um, sorry, Silver… Ummm, there are things that I do… um, want to say. But well, out here isn’t the best of places…”

The young changeling blinked a few times. So Sunny didn’t regret what they did that day. She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or to feel afraid. For one, she didn’t mind bringing more love home, but she really didn’t want to make her mother angry by falling in love again. She really had to play it safer with Sunny if she wanted to make this persona thing work out.

“Oh, well, okay.” Silver pulled at a portion of her pink hair. “S-So… later then? Maybe after c-class or lunch?”

“Uh, sure, Silver…” Sunny continued to blush, looking to the floor. “I’ll… catch you later.”

Indigo Zap looked like she was going to start asking questions, so Silver hurried on to her seat, almost tripping over Sunny’s chair. “Oops! Sorry.”

Sitting herself down, the changeling pulled out her textbook and everything she needed to take notes with, sighing with relief. That hadn’t gone too badly.

Chemistry class was the same as her first two subjects, with Mr. Beaker just lecturing them on more formulas he was going to test them on. Thankfully, he also didn’t need anything else from the storage room, though that might’ve been a good time for Silver to talk to Sunny about what happened.

Class went by quickly enough, as did PE, with both Sunny and Silver using the cubicles to change their uniforms, unlike Lemon Zest, who always seemed too carefree to bother if people would see her naked or not. Especially after what happened, there was no way Silver was going to show her body to her classmates. She still felt like there were extra eyes on her when she was out there with her classmates, like they knew what she had done. There wasn’t an exam for PE, so Coach Mustang just had them use the weight room and the running track for the entire class.

Silver Rose had paired up with Canvas Splash to lift some weights, deciding to see how far she could go on her own strength. She gave up after three repetitions, sweating from head to toe.

“Gee, Silver, you’re really strong.” Canvas helped her get the barbell back on its supports.

Canvas only did a rep and a half, which made Silver a little happier that at least she wasn’t weak like her friend.

She occasionally glanced over at Sunny Flare, who was running on the treadmill with Sour Sweet, who was giving Sunny some backhanded words of encouragement. She looked back at Silver one time and when she noticed Silver looking, she lost her focus and almost flew off the treadmill if Sour Sweet hadn’t been there to catch her.

Soon enough, the coach put an end to the fitness and sent them all back to the changing rooms for a quick shower and to get dressed for lunch.

“Well, I had fun. You?” Canvas asked as she got out of her cubicle, back in her school uniform.

Silver emerged from hers, wiping her hair with her towel. “Well, I guess it was fun. Kinda boring, though. All we did was lift weights and stuff.”

“That’s what PE is all about, Silver,” Canvas said, hoisting up her bag onto her shoulder. “Although I do prefer it when we play games instead of just hitting the weights.”

“Mmm. Well, I wonder what’s for lunch.”

“Yeah, me too,” Canvas sighed. “Unfortunately, I’ve got some things I need to discuss with Mrs. Artsy Fartsy, so I’ll catch you later, Silver. Enjoy lunch.”

“Okay, I’ll catch you later, Canvas.” After getting her things, Silver Rose left the changing room, just hearing the bell ring as she waltzed over to the cafeteria. Lifting weights had made her hungry.

Collecting her plate of vegetable lasagna and chocolate pudding from the lunch ladies, Silver found her usual spot without Canvas and sat down, quickly devouring the food. She was just licking the plastic spoon clean of pudding when she noticed that Sunny Flare was approaching her table.

“Hi, um, Silver.” Sunny stood beside her, looking from left to right. “How was… uh, lunch?”

Silver Rose first looked past her, spotting the other Shadowbolts looking over from their usual table.

“Hey, umm, Sunny. It was pretty good. You, er, finished with yours?”

“Mhmm.” Sunny nodded, then blushed slightly as she looked away. “Umm, Silver, do you think, we can, uh… could you come with me?”

Oh, here we go. We’re finally going to talk about what happened, huh?

“Umm… sure, Sunny. Let me just put this away first.”

After putting her tray away, Silver Rose found herself following behind Sunny Flare as they made their way out of the cafeteria, then down the hallways. Then Sunny pushed open the door to the girls’ restroom and motioned with her head for Silver to follow.

“Wait,” Silver said, reaching into her bag and scrawling out a note which she stuck on the bathroom door, before ducking her head back inside and locking it. Now the room was effectively soundproof. It was better if someone didn’t walk in on them accidentally or purposefully.

“Ummm, so…” Silver rubbed her elbow unconsciously, unsure of what to do now.

“About… last Friday…” Sunny said slowly.

When Sunny didn’t say more, Silver decided to speak up a little more. “Ye-yeah…?”

She did say a little more.

“When we… um…”

Silver made a face and inhaled deeply. She was almost knocked back a step. The scent and flavor of love and lust were rich in this enclosed space, and she felt her mouth begin to water in spite of the lunch she had just eaten. She put a hand over her mouth as she felt her fangs begin to inch out.

Come on. You’ve had so much training and you still can’t restrain yourself, Silver? Try harder!

“Umm, you okay, Silver?” Sunny scratched her neck nervously.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Uh, you were, umm… saying something?”

“Oh. Right. About Friday…”

“Y-Yeah, about Friday.” Silver breathed in rhythmically, trying to retract her fangs.

“L-Look,” Sunny ventured. “I just want to say… I don’t regret anything.”

“Y-You don’t, huh?” Silver nodded, now feeling her fangs return into her gums, able to lower her hand. She refrained from taking another deep breath, knowing the lust was still in the air. “We-well… I, uh… I d-don’t either, Su-Sunny… Yeah.”

So I guess I am going ahead with mother’s plan instead of Aunt Ivory’s. Pursue. But no falling in love. Not again. And I’m sorry, Home Run, for doing this, but I’m Silver Rose right now, not Moonglade. I’m not currently the girl you’re in love with...

This seemed to perk up Sunny considerably. “You don’t? Oh, that’s just, just so… I never would have thought-!”

“Thought what?” Silver said, confused.

“I didn’t quite… believe you were into girls too!” Sunny exclaimed. “I mean, not that I am really, but with you, it’s different! Oh, I’m not sure how to say it…”

“S-So you’re not… into g-girls?” Silver squished her toes into the tiled floor, finding this conversation very awkward. “So… so what did we do that day… in the s-storage room?”

“Well… maybe I’m not into a lot of girls,” Sunny said slowly. “But I’m sure into you. If that makes any sense.”

“Ummm, sure Sunny…” Silver let out a little croaked laugh. “So-so you… l-like me, Sunny?”

Silver remembered her statement at the end of their act on Friday. She had smelt it all over her back then too.

“I… I…” Sunny clutched her hands to her chest, her blush glowing redder. “I do, Silver… I really, I do love you, a lot. Maybe too much… But I am seriously in l-love with you. Is-is that okay…?”

“You love… me?” Silver repeated cautiously. She wanted to confirm this. While Sunny had said so on Friday, that might have been due to her afterglow. Getting a sober affirmation would mean quite a bit to her and her family. And well, she did just say it a few seconds ago again. That was almost confirmation enough.

“Yeah, Silver…” Sunny took one step closer to her. “I-I’m not pushing it, am I…?”

“No…” Silver said, angling her head down so that the lights cast shadows over her eyes. “No, you’re not.”

“I, uh… I… Do you think of me the same, Silver?” Sunny took Silver’s hands in hers, looking up nervously at her face.

This question took Silver aback.

“I… I’m not sure,” she admitted. “But I’m not afraid to try. And isn’t that what relationships are about?” she asked, smiling a bit too widely.

“I’m… Well, I’m glad, Silver!” Sunny threw her arms around her and pulled her into a hug. “Because I really love you, Silver, I do. Just one thing… um, no one else knows about… us, and I… well, kinda want it to stay that way, at least for now.”

“Of course, of course,” Silver purred, thinking back to what her aunt might have done. “It can stay that way until you’re ready.”

“Thanks, Silver. Umm…” Then Sunny shifted herself and planted a kiss on her lips. “I’m really happy right now…”

Yes, I can taste it. It’s rather nice, actually.

Sunny was feeling so happy that she appeared to be practically glowing, at least in Silver’s eyes. Her aura was strong, almost as bright as it had been in the storeroom. And that made Silver very happy as well. Happiness tasted almost as good as love.

Almost.

Sunny was still close enough that her neck was bared, and just within bite range… Silver shook her head. She wasn’t a vampire, at least not in the stereotypical sense. She put thoughts about biting away and instead patted Sunny on the shoulder.

“Well,” she said brightly. “Now that we’ve sorted this out, maybe we should get back to the cafeteria. People are going to wonder where we’ve gone.”

“Oh! Um, you’re right, the others will be wondering where I’ve been…” Sunny turned and walked for the door, but then stopped and came back. “Umm, one more kiss…? Uh, b-before we go?”

Silver smiled and took Sunny’s face in her hands. She did like kisses after all.

Sorry, Home Run, she thought again. Then she brought Sunny closer and planted a kiss right on her lips.

“Mmm…” Sunny moaned, sinking into Silver’s arms.

Just how long was she waiting for this? Silver pondered as she maintained the contact.

Eventually, their lips parted, both of them blushing heavily.

“Tha-that was nice, Silver…” Sunny smiled shyly.

“Yes, it was, wasn’t it?” Silver said mildly. “Come on. We should leave the bathroom before someone reports the out of order sign to Principal Cinch.”

Chapter 69 - What Friends Do

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 69 - What Friends Do

“Nnng, I’m almost… I’m close!” Psithyra moaned as Queen Chrysalis began to pound really hard and fast against her with the strapon.

The younger changeling’s face was still coated in her sister’s juices from licking at her exposed pussy earlier, especially around her mouth. Chrysalis also had plenty of juice on hers for doing the same, but right now, she was smiling and having too much fun running her strapon in and out of her sister.

“Nnng-ah!”

And then Psithyra arched her back and stiffened, riding out the waves of her orgasm with a screech. So powerful was her climax that her feet burst into green flames, talons crowning each toe by the time she collapsed back on the bed.

“That was nice, my little sister.” Chrysalis pulled out of Psithyra and tossed the wet strapon aside and leaned down, pushing her hair aside and kissing her on the lips.

Psithyra didn’t know how many times the maids had to keep changing their bedsheets in the last week; she almost felt sorry for them for having them to keep washing their mess.

“It was…” Psithyra breathed heavily, now looking up at the bed’s canopy. “Too good this time. Now I’ll have to cut my nails before going back to Ivory Wings… to pick up your daughter… And what a waste of love as well.”

“It’s not wasted if you enjoy it,” Chrysalis said fairly. I suppose we’d better get cleaned up. My daughter will be expecting you, and I need to be back in costume before heading off for work.”

“Haaah…” Psithyra lay there, feeling her sister’s hand slip into hers. “You’re really something else, my queen. It’s really a shame you’re not married anymore. Your husband would really enjoy your company like this, I’m sure.”

“Yes, I can assure you, he enjoyed me…” Chrysalis batted her eyelashes and sat by her sister’s side for the time being. “And about your expended love, I’m sure my daughter will have more to share when she gets back home today. Hmm… maybe I should buy her a strapon to use on that Sunny Flare…”

“Please don’t,” Psithyra said bluntly. “We don’t even know what her tastes are yet. If you insist that Silver Rose pursue this girl, it would be better to wait until we find out more about her before buying them sex toys.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure my daughter would’ve screwed her today, so perhaps Silver would already know some things about what Sunny Flare likes.” Chrysalis brushed her long teal hair with one hand, then looked down at her sister’s naked body with a smirk. “How do you think she did it? Maybe with her hands this time?”

“I should hope not…” said Psithyra with a frown. “There’s only so many times you can do another person in a school like that and not get caught. Wouldn’t surprise me if they have cameras installed.”

“Please, I’m sure my daughter is smart enough to have sex away from the cameras.” Chrysalis waved her hand dismissively.

“She shouldn’t even be having sex…” Psithyra grumbled.

“Oh hush, she’s old enough to know how it works.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t mean she should be doing it every chance she gets…” Psithyra let go of her sister’s hand and pushed herself up to a sitting position, brushing her messy purple hair out of her face.

“Well, if that’s how the relationship turns out, I don’t have any qualms with it.”

“You were the one who okayed this in the first place,” Psithyra said pointedly. “Don’t you think she’s already got her hands full with that Home Run character?”

“Shh,” Chrysalis said, tying back her long teal hair. “Let’s not play the blame game here. After all, it’s not like you objected to it either.”

“I did!” Psithyra glowered at her. “I strongly advised against it!”

“Well, try harder next time.”

“Are you for real?” Then Psithyra shook her head and got up, waltzing over to her sister’s bathroom. “You know what, nevermind. I need to get ready to pick up your daughter. ‘Try harder next time’,” she mumbled to herself, imitating her sister’s voice.

“I heard that.”

“She’s still in school. She’s still young. She shouldn’t even be having such…”

“Fun?” Chrysalis suggested innocently.

Psithyra picked up her sister’s cutters and sat down. “Such relationships, Chryssie. It’s not healthy for her.”

“Of course it’s healthy. Eating food is healthy. Are you trying to say it’s unhealthy to eat?”

Psithyra sighed in defeat. “You’re impossible sometimes, sister. You know that?”

“It’s because you know I’m right…” Chrysalis slinked into the bathroom behind her, leaning closeby against the edge of the sink’s tabletop.

The younger changeling snipped off her first talon and groaned. “What I meant was… It’s not healthy for a girl her age to be having sex all the time, Chryssie. Especially not for that Sunny Flare.”

“Well, I didn’t say she has to do it all the time.” Chrysalis walked beside her sister, putting her hands on her bare shoulders and massaging them.

“Well, if she can keep it to a minimum, that’ll be preferable.” The next toe talon dropped to the floor. “If someone does find out, expulsion will be leaving it lightly. It could very well appear all over the news, seeing as she’s your daughter, the daughter of the world acclaimed actress, Ebony Wings.”

“She’ll do fine. She’s not going to get caught.” Ebony leaned down and kissed her sister on the top of her head. “The more she does it, the more love she’ll be bringing home. Even you wouldn’t say no to more love, right?”

Psithyra sighed and cut off the next talon. “I wouldn’t say no to love, but there are safer ways of getting it.”

“Just leave it to Silver. She’ll figure all this out. She’s already had one relationship to try things out on.”

“Yeah, and that’s where we are now. She’s got two relationships. Don’t you think we’re taking this a little too lightly?” Psithyra looked up at her sister.

“Well, it’s not like she’s been having sex with that Home Run.” One of Chrysalis’ hands ventured over to Psithyra’s neck, gently caressing it. “Though, the love she brings home from that boy is quite tasty.”

“And that’s how her relationships should be. Slow and steady. This thing with Sunny Flare advanced too quickly.”

“Why don’t you just go pick her up? Then we’ll see what’s happened today and we’ll see how to move from there. How does that sound, Thyra?”

Psithyra finished the talons on one foot and shook her head with a small laugh. “You really are impossible, you know that?”

“Oh, I know, but like I said, it’s because you know I’m right.” Then Chrysalis leaned down and met her sister’s lips in a tender kiss.

“Oh, you may be impossible, but that doesn’t stop me from loving you any less,” Psithyra said after their lips separated.

“I know. And hey, don’t you have a niece to get ready to pick up? Speed it up, will you?” Chrysalis bent down and slapped Psithyra’s butt.

“Hey!”

“Okay, class, that’s all I have for you today,” Mr. Dee Wit, Silver Rose’s calculus teacher said, tapping his pen against the projector screen. “Remember, I want to see an improvement, or I’ll be putting more questions like that on your exam.”

The class groaned, and Silver was one of them who groaned louder than the others.

She thought she was finally getting it, but according to Mr. Wit, she still had much to learn. Home Run had been kind enough to help her out on some formulas at night when she had the time to text him, and true, with his help and Silver’s math tutor, she’d been getting better, but she was afraid it might still not be enough to ace the class.

“Not too happy about that, huh?” Sound Wave asked her as he turned on his headphones.

“Is anyone?” Silver panned a hand around the class.

“You have a point there.” Sound Wave zipped up his backpack. “Well, I’ll be seeing you, Silver Rose. Have a good study day ahead.”

“Ugh, that’s all there is to it… Studying…” Silver pouted and kept her things. Perhaps she should arrange a study date this weekend with Home Run, so he could teach her everything he knew on calculus.

Silver left class, first getting her textbooks from her locker, then a quick stop to the bathroom to relieve herself; she’d been holding it in since computer class. She hadn’t gone then, because Mr. Blue Screen had insisted on showing them a whole list of coding and they had to memorize it for the exam.

When she was sitting down on one of the many shiny toilet bowls, the young changeling’s ears suddenly began picking up a quiet sound. After concentrating a bit longer, it started sounding like whimpers, coming from one of the other cubicles in the restroom.

Silver didn’t know who it was just yet, but after a quick sniff, she found the smell and taste of sadness filling the bathroom, like a cloud over the whole restroom.

After cleaning herself up, Silver left the stall and raised her nose into the air. There was definitely a familiar aroma about it.

Someone I know… I do know a lot of people though...

Stalking around the bathroom, she finally discovered a stall that was locked. The crying sounds seemed to be coming from within.

“Hello?” Silver called. “Is everything alright in there?”

There was a series of sniffings, before someone answered. “S-Silver…? Is that y-y-y-you…?”

“Canvas?” Silver peered through the crack between the door and the wall of the cubicle, something that had bugged her at first. How could you possibly do your business in peace when there was a crack for people to look through?

And there she was. The pink haired artist was sitting on top of the toilet bowl seat, wiping at her eyes and nose.

“Canvas, what’s wrong?” Silver asked, stepping away from the door and looking around for anyone else in the bathroom. Thankfully, it was deserted, with most of the students having hurried home to study.

“I-It’s n-nothing…” the artist said from inside, still sniffling.

“Come on, that doesn’t sound like nothing.”

“Well… It’s… I di-di-didn’t want you to kn-know, Silver… I’m not as t-tough as I se-seem… I usually, um, come here at the end of the d-day if s-something happens.”

“What happened, Canvas?” Silver put her hand on the cubicle door, like it could help calm her friend down. “You can tell me.”

There was another sniffle on the other side. “W-Well… It’s just C-Crystal Lul-Lullaby and Cold Fo-Forecast. They… They ripped up one of my ske-ske-sketches…”

Then there was another wave of whimpering.

“This isn’t the first time this has happened, is it?” Silver said quietly. She had known that Canvas was the target of people who thought her to be strange, but she usually seemed to brush it off. She didn’t know Canvas actually took it all to heart and came here to let it out.

“N-No, it isn’t,” Canvas whispered.

“And it’s usually these two?” Silver inquired suspiciously.

“Usually Crystal…”

“That doesn’t seem like a very nice thing to do,” Silver said, more to state the obvious to herself than to make a point to Canvas.

The artist didn’t say anything on the other side. Silver peeked through the crack again and saw she was shaking her head.

Seeing Canvas Splash, her first friend, in such a state brought an unusual feeling to Silver. It was like there was a fire smoldering in her chest, and it wouldn’t go out. Rather, it seemed to grow more heated the more she stood there, watching Canvas cry in the cubicle. Her fingers drew into hooks, and she felt the tips begin to warm up.

With a certain amount of effort, Silver forced her fingers to uncurl and cool down. She had a strong desire to find Crystal Lullaby and introduce her to her friend, Mister Fist, but odds were that she had already left for home. Besides, she thought glumly, getting into a fight wasn’t good for her or her family’s reputation. Still, she wished there was some way to help Canvas out.

“Canvas,” Silver said eventually. “May I come in?”

“Uh-umm…” the girl inside sniffed. “S-Sure… Let me get th-the door.”

There was a click as Canvas pulled back the metal slide that kept her door closed and the door soon opened inward. The artist’s cheeks were stained with her tears and some of her makeup, which was trailing long pink lines down her face.

Overflowing with sympathy, Silver went into the stall and enclosed Canvas in a smothering hug, one that Canvas almost recoiled from at first but then sank into.

“It’s going to get better, Canvas. I promise.”

“Th-thanks, Silver…” The girl sobbed against Silver’s shoulder. “Thanks for al-always standing up for m-me.”

“Oh, Canvas. That’s what friends do, right? I only wish I could have done more…”

It took a little while longer for Canvas to stop crying, but eventually, Silver’s hug was enough to calm the artist down and she wiped the last of her tears from her eyes.

“Thanks, Silver. I think I’ll be okay now.” Canvas plucked off some of the toilet paper and dabbed her cheeks, wiping off her smeared makeup. “I’m sorry I’ve never told you how much it all affected me.”

“How you feel is important to me, Canvas,” Silver said earnestly. “We’re friends. I’m sure I can do something to make Crystal Lullaby and Cold Forecast leave you alone.”

“I look forward to that…” Canvas nodded and tossed the used paper into the toilet bowl. “I’m glad you’re my friend, Silver. You’re nothing like the others.”

No, I’m worse. Much worse.

But outwardly, Silver gave her friend an encouraging smile and patted her on the shoulder.

“Well, I’ve got to get home soon or my mother will have a fit. I’ll see you tomorrow, alright, Canvas?”

“Alrighty. I’ll see you tomorrow, Silver.” Canvas made a small smile and waved.

After a quick sniff to make sure her friend was really okay, Silver Rose left the restroom and headed out of school, where she saw her aunt was already waiting, as usual.

The sun seemed to be a little brighter than usual, but Silver guessed it was because summer was almost upon them. Exams were all that stood between them and a hot and fun break.

“Hey, sweetie,” Ivory Wings said as soon as her niece opened the car door. “Sorry I was a little late. I had to deal with some things your mother brought upon me. How was school?”

“Oh, I was running a little late too. I had to cheer up a friend of mine.”

“This friend doesn’t happen to be Sunny Flare, is it?” Ivory looked at her through the rearview mirror. “And I don’t smell anything on you. Today didn’t have another… roll in the hay session, right?”

“Huh? Uh, no, if I think you’re saying what I think you’re saying.”

“Oh. Well, good.”

Silver slumped back in her seat as they began the drive back home. She thought of how distraught Canvas had been, and her thoughts darkened as she envisioned what she might do to Crystal Lullaby and Cold Forecast the next day.

“Aunt Ivory,” Silver said slowly. “How much trouble do you think I would be in if I got into a fight at school?”

The older changeling almost jammed down on the brakes when she heard that. “What are you saying, sweetie? Why do you want to get in a fight?”

“Well, maybe not a fight,” Silver Rose backpedaled. “Say I just punched someone or something. Would mother be angry about it?”

“I certainly will be. What’s this about?”

It didn’t take long for Silver to relay her friend Canvas Splash’s predicament to her aunt. Ivory Wings nodded slowly throughout the whole telling, but at the end, the ghost of a smile lingered on her face.

“So. You want to put a little fear into this Crystal Lullaby and this Cold Forecast,” Ivory said, licking her lips. “I believe I can help you with that, but if I do, you’ll get no sleep tonight.”

“I’m fine with that, Aunt Ivory. As long as they stop hurting my friend.” Silver recalled all the sadness in the restroom. She had no idea all this time that Canvas was dealing with all this on her own, but no more. Now that she knew how much they hurt her, Silver wasn’t just going to sit back and let it continue.

“I assume they keep all the students’ particulars at school?” Ivory asked as she drove on.

“I guess. I mean, all this school business is still quite new to me. I’m guessing Principal Cinch will have them in her room or something.” Silver shrugged. “Why?”

“Because I believe I have the beginnings of a plan in which we can deliver a bit of our own little brand of justice, and help your artist friend at the same time. Interested?”

She told Silver the plan. She was interested.

“Woah… how devious,” Silver giggled. Now it was abundantly clear why she was the queen’s foremost tactician. “And you think we can pull if off tonight?”

“I don’t see why we can’t. We just need to check with your mother and, um, persuade her to let you leave tonight.” Ivory gassed the pedal as soon as the traffic light turned green. “And you need to make sure you finish all your homework and studying before we leave, okay?”

“Oh, I already got my homework done at school,” Silver said brightly. “And studying won’t take too long.”

“Good!” Ivory smirked. “Then we make our move after dinner. Eat quickly; there’s a lot to do.”

As soon as they arrived home, Silver Rose watched her aunt park the car and the strode off into the house, heading for Ebony Wings’ room. Silver herself scurried off to the study to get a head start on her revision. The sirens waved at her as she passed them in the second floor living room, leading Silver to wonder whether CHS had exams too. The sirens certainly didn’t seem that concerned about them if there were any.

A good hour into her studying, there was a knock on the study door. Silver turned, and saw her mother dressed in her jeans and t-shirt, a sure sign she was heading out.

“I’ll be leaving soon, dear.” Ebony combed at her long black hair with her hands. “How’s your studying coming along?”

“Oh, that?” Silver smiled nervously. “It’s coming along great. Did… did Aunt Ivory tell you about her plan?”

Ebony smirked. “Why, yes she did. And I told her that she is free to use whatever resources I have here at the manor to carry it out. I understand you’re involved too?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Just make sure you don’t go off on your own. I don’t want anything happening to you, okay?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Good. Now, I’m going to the Canterlot studio for a filming session. I probably won’t be back until late, but if your aunt’s plan is to be believed, you’ll be out a lot later. So good luck, and have fun.”

Ebony Wings then left the study with a cheery wave, almost bumping into Ivory Wings, who was approaching with several containers of some white substance.

“Sister,” she nodded as Ebony passed.

Once the actress was gone, Ivory walked into the study and placed the armful of containers on the desk.

“Right. I hope you’re done with your studying, because we have a lot of work to do, all before the sun rises tomorrow morning,” Ivory said, tapping a finger to her temple. “First, I need you to wash off your current persona and put these dyes on.”

“Oh, um, okay, Aunt Ivory.” Silver got up and brought the jars with her to the bathroom and swapped out her Silver Rose persona for the colors her aunt had given her.

The new persona consisted of chalk-white skin, alabaster hair, and even snow white contact lenses. The only element that wasn’t white was the eyeshadow, which she applied liberally around her eyes to make them appear larger than usual. When she got out of the shower, Ivory Wings was there waiting for her.

“Ah, good. You look the part. Now for the outfit. I think this will serve nicely.” She held out a long white dress. “Now, claws out.”

“Huh? But I just… applied the… dye…” She raised her hands and willed them to heat up. “Oh and Aunt Ivory? What are we calling this persona?”

“We can call it whatever you want to call it,” Ivory said coolly. “But you’re right. Leave the claws until after dinner. Then we can take care of repainting what gets burned off.”

“Okay, Aunt Ivory.” The young changeling thought about a name for a while. “How about Ghost Hollow?”

“Whatever you want, sweetie.” Ivory patted her niece on the head. “Now, why don’t we head down for an early dinner? The sun’s setting and we have a lot to do before it rises again.”

After having the earliest dinner she had ever eaten in her life, the newly made Ghost Hollow followed her aunt back to her bathroom, where she made her hands burst into green flames, reappearing with claws, the hands of a monster.

“And I’ll get that for you.” Ivory applied the white dye back on the girl’s hands and talons. “Oh, and dip them in this,” Ivory Wings held up a jar of red liquid.

“Th-that’s not… blood, is it?” Ghost looked at the jar hesitantly.

“It looks very realistic, doesn’t it?” Ivory Wings tittered. “It’s just a prop I borrowed from your mother. Fake blood.”

“Okay.” And she dipped her claws in them, coming back out stained with the fake blood. Now she really looked like she had just skewered someone.

“Last step before we head out,” Ivory said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a black beanie, one that matched her already dark clothing. She swapped the hat for her glasses and she got into the car, with Ghost following suit. “Fangs out, and off we go!”

“Are you sure this is okay, Aunt Ivory?” Ghost did as she was told, feeling her fangs inch past her gums. “We’re not exactly at Halloween yet. What if someone sees me?”

“The windows are tinted. And as for people seeing you, that won’t happen until we need it to.”

“Okay, Aunt Ivory.”

“Now, first stop, Crystal Prep Academy.”

Chapter 70 - The Haunting

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Chapter 71 - Red of Boses

Silver Rose rubbed at her eyes as she tried her best to pay attention in history class. Mr. Fowl was going on about something in the Renaissance era, but it was like she had cotton buds in her ears, combined with a metal drum over her head. Everything didn’t sound right.

After she and her aunt had gotten home, they had bumped into Silver’s mother, who insisted on being given a recount of the night’s events. In all, the telling took almost an hour, by which time the clock had gone past two in the morning. Apparently her mother found these kinds of stories amusing. A half hour was spent clipping her nails back to normal length. Then a further half hour was spent getting out of her Ghost Hollow persona and back into Silver Rose.

It felt like by the time she had actually gotten into bed to get some rest, the sun had already come up and the birds were chirping.

“Twiddle-dee-dee…” Silver Rose groaned and avoided putting her head on the table.

“Everything alright, Silver? You don’t look so good.” Canvas Splash twirled a pen in her hand. “Did you spend too much time studying last night?”

“Wha-?” Silver’s eyes focused on Canvas before rolling back in her head. “Yeah. Totally what I was doing. Studying. Yep.”

“Gee, you look like you were up all night.” Canvas poked Silver in the cheek with the end of her pen. “I hope whatever you were studying stayed in your head.”

“Yeah, me too. Say, you haven’t seen Cold Lullaby or Crystal Forecast today, have you?”

“Uh, Cold Forecast and Crystal Lullaby, you mean?”

Silver Rose flapped her hand. “Yeah, them. Whatever. You seen them today yet?”

Canvas shook her head. “I don’t usually see them the first half of the day. I mean, if you want to talk…” She pointed over to the left. Shock Coil was seated at his desk, but he had plenty of bandages all over his exposed skin; there were at least four on his face. “I’m sure Shock Coil can point you to his girlfriend. You gonna show ‘em who’s boss, Silver?”

“I think someone’s already done that…” Silver muttered with a smirk to herself.

“What’s that, Silver?” Canvas doodled a little square man on her notes.

“Nothing. I guess it can wait until later.”

“Mmm, okay.” Canvas held up her note paper. “What do you think? Think I’m prepared enough for the history exam?”

“Yeah, I think so, Canvas…” Silver answered blurrily.

“Everything okay over there, Ms. Rose?” Mr. Fowl pointed his pointing stick at her.

“Oh. Yes, Fister Mowl, I mean Mister Fowl.”

“Hmmm…” But then her teacher just went back to pointing out key moments in his lecture.

“Gee, come on, I’ll take your notes for you, Silver. You’re really out of it.” Canvas pulled Silver’s stack of papers over to her desk. “Just… look awake.”

“Gotcha.”

As Silver poked herself with a pen to stay awake, Canvas remarked, “What do you think happened to him anyway?” Canvas pointed at Shock Coil with her pen. “It’s like he was attacked by a beehive or something.”

“I dunno. Maybe he fell in a red of boses or something…”

“A bed of roses, you mean? Yeah, but how could that happen? His clothes would’ve have stopped the thorns, no?”

“Maybe he wasn’t wearing any clothes…” The young changeling rubbed her eyes again and stifled a yawn.

Canvas looked skeptical but quickly went back to taking notes that Mr. Fowl was quickly scribbling on the board, then erasing to make room for more.

When the bell finally rang, it managed to shock Silver out of her drowsiness for a few seconds as she began to pack up her things.

“Thanks for taking the notes for me, Can…” Silver accepted the pile of papers from her friend. “I really need to get some rest before the next class.”

“Hey, no sweat, Silver. I’ll see you for PE, okay?”

“Gotcha, Canvas. See you…” Silver waved slowly and began to leave.

“Silver!”

“Huh, what, what happened?” The young changeling shot up in her seat and looked around quickly.

“Wow, you were really sleeping, huh?” Indigo Zap leaned off Silver’s table with an amused face. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah… better now.” Silver rubbed her face. She did feel a little better. But only just a little.

“Do you, uh, would you need to go to the nurse’s office?” Sunny Flare smiled from her seat. “I… I could take you… if you want.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine. Just need to get back home and sleep. Didn’t get a lot of it last night.”

“Why, what were you doing?” Sugarcoat asked curiously.

“Uh, studying. Yeah.”

“Studying, huh?” Indigo Zap smirked. “Are you sure you weren’t just playing video games or something?”

“Not everyone procrastinates like you do, Indigo,” Sugarcoat said flatly.

“I do so not procrastinate,” Indigo insisted. “I work better under pressure, that’s all.”

“If by pressure you mean last-minute panic, then yeah, I’d agree.”

“Hey! I don’t panic!” Indigo bellowed, slapping a hand on Silver’s desk. The sound was able to jolt her up for a few seconds.

“We’ll see when the exams roll around, Indigo.” Sugarcoat went back to a book she was reading.

Eventually, Silver couldn’t tell how long, the bell seemed to ring and just when she thought class was about to start, everyone started getting up and packing their things.

Wait, what?

“Uh, what’s going on?” She pulled on Sunny’s sleeve to get her attention.

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Sunny raised an eyebrow. “We’re done. The bell rang. Time to go.”

“Wha… really?” Silver scratched at her hair. “Did class finish?”

“Yes…” Sunny said, waving a hand in front of Silver’s face. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the nurse’s, dearie?”

“I don’t think going to the nurse's office is going to work, Sunny…” Silver pushed to her feet. “We should just head over to the ranging chooms…”

“Ri-ight,” Sunny said slowly. “Just a moment. Wait here.”

Sunny left the room quickly, her footsteps brisk and purposeful, or maybe it was just her imagination, because everyone else was leaving too. And it still felt like everything was echoing all around her, like her head was still in a metal drum.

“Man, I’m so sleepy…” Silver complained to herself. “Why can’t I just find somewhere to hide and get a few hours catch up?”

She started to doze off again, but was awakened by Sunny Flare’s fingers snapping in front of her nose.

“What? Oh, it’s you, Sunny. What’s up?”

Sunny Flare was holding a can of drink in her hand.

“Here. Drink this. It’ll help you stay awake.”

“What’s this?” The young changeling didn’t bother looking at it and just pried open the can.

Then she downed the contents, trying to ignore Mr. Beaker’s puzzled look. It tasted a little bitter, but she was too tired to bother if it was tasty or not.

“Hmm, so what’s this, Sunny?” Silver shook her now empty can. “And we better go if we want to make it to PE.”

“It’s an energy drink. I figured it would help boost you up,” Sunny explained as they left the chemistry class. “You feeling better?”

“A little.” Silver found she was more aware of her surroundings now and the echoing in her ears had stopped. “But thanks, Sunny. How much do I owe you for the drink?”

“Don’t worry about it. Your well-being means more to me than a handful of loose change.”

“Hm. Well, thanks a lot. I think it’s working,” Silver said, shouldering her bag. “Come on, let’s get to PE.”

Silver was more coherent during PE, actually following as the class passed by. There was dodgeball going on today. The young changeling still wasn’t too awake as she had liked, taking a few balls to the face, but at least that helped in waking her up further.

“Yo, guys,” Lemon Zest said as they paused to get some water. “You hear the news?”

“What news?” Canvas Splash asked from beside Silver, drinking from her pink water bottle.

“Crystal Lullaby had a fight with Shock Coil,” Lemon said, bouncing the balls of her feet. “Something about a ghost.”

“Ghost? Really?” Sunny made a weird sound. “They got into a fight. Because of a ghost. Get real, Lemon!”

“No, seriously, that’s what I heard.” The lime haired girl shrugged. “I don’t know how true it is, but that’s what’s being said.”

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Canvas shook her head, her side ponytail swishing from left to right. “I don’t think those kinds of things exist. At least, in real life. They exist on paper, like on Sketchy, my sketchbook.”

“Umm, right, yeah…” Sunny gave her a weirded out look.

“Well, I don’t believe they exist too!” Sour Sweet said. “But we don’t really know any better, so we shouldn’t assume anything.”

“But besides ghosts, I really wonder what happened between those two.” Sugarcoat wiped at her face, then put her glasses back on. “Coil’s covered in bandages, and they’re so much in love with each other. I’ve never seen so much as an argument between them. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they’ve probably even slept with each other before.”

“Oh, they have…” Silver murmured, feeling very smug.

“I doubt they have.” Sour Sweet folded her arms. “Would they?”

“Come on, doing the thing?” Lemon Zest laughed. “What do you think this is, some kind of summer camp?”

“A summer camp isn’t necessarily a place where people screw around, Lemon.” Sugarcoat frowned, her glasses drooping a little.

“Yeah, but it happens all the time anyway.” The cheerful girl shrugged. “Especially in those horror movies. You always see lots of people having sex before they’re killed by whatever monster the movie has.”

“That doesn’t mean it happens in real summer camps,” Sour Sweet grumbled and gulped down a mouthful of water. “And I don’t think they do it anyway. We’re still in high school. No one should be doing anything of that sort yet.”

Sunny and Silver shared a look, then blushed together and looked away.

“Yeah, tell that to Sunny!” Lemon Zest put her bottle down and hopped up.

Sunny looked at her friends back and forth. “Wh-what? What about me?”

Lemon Zest snickered. “I’m still sure you screwed a boy in that Canterlot High restroom.”

Sunny clutched her cheeks and bent down. “I told you, nothing happened! No-nothing like that!”

“Hey, break’s up, come on back!” Coach Mustang blew on his whistle and waved for them to go back.

“Aye aye, coach!” Canvas was the first to run back over to the center of the court. “Come on!”

“Yeah, leave Sunny alone.” Sour Sweet pulled Sugarcoat along. “Let’s get on with dodgeball!”

Lemon Zest soon followed after, leaving Silver Rose alone with Sunny Flare, with the changeling slowly making her way over.

“I do hope the rest of this class will get me more awake…” Silver rubbed her eyes. “I’ll just need to get hit in the face more.”

“Do you need another energy drink?” Sunny volunteered herself. “I could always go get another one for you.”

“No, no, you don’t have to, Sunny. I’ll be fine. Eventually.”

“Hmm, okay. Hey, Silver… If it’s not too much to ask.” Sunny’s cheeks turned pink and she looked down at her feet.

“Yeah?” Silver waited for her question. She sniffed once, but she didn’t really get much information from it.

“Could… Could you meet me… you know, maybe during last period? Let’s s-say…” Sunny’s blush got brighter. “The se-second floor restroom…?”

“Oh, um, I’d love to, Sunny, but calculus,” Silver replied. “I really need to be there. Notes and all.”

“Oh, umm… okay, yeah. Classes are more important…” Sunny smelt of disappointment and Silver didn’t like it.

“Hey, uh…” Silver tugged on Sunny Flare’s shirt. “How about second last period? I have computer then. I’m sure I can miss some of it.”

Sunny’s face brightened up and she nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that can work. So I’ll see you then?”

“Second floor restroom, yup.” Silver nodded.

The two of them shared a smile before joining the rest of their class for more dodgeball. Silver got hit in the face a few more times, which helped to alleviate her sleepiness, but it also made her face a little sore, though it was nothing a little love wouldn’t cure.

Once PE was done, they were free to head on to lunch, which Silver was very much looking forward to. She had taken a very sloppy shower and she hadn’t toweled herself down very well, but putting on her uniform over her wet skin didn’t quite bother her today.

“Man, Silver, you really have a face of steel.” Canvas Splash skipped alongside her on the way to the cafeteria. “Hungry?”

“Not really. I just want to get some more rest.”

The young changeling quickly collapsed down into a seat in the cafeteria as soon as she got the chance, picking the first table from the door.

“Want me to get lunch for you, Silver?” Canvas patted her on the shoulder. “I don’t mind.”

“No, it’s fine, Canvas.” Silver waved a hand. “I don’t need lunch today. I think I’ll just…”

As soon as she closed her eyes, everything had gone blank, but when she did open them again, she realized that she and Canvas weren’t the only ones at the table. Across from them sat Cold Forecast and Crystal Lullaby, with the former sporting a black right eye. Only Silver knew what the cause of it was. She smiled, though a little groggily.

“It’s okay, girls,” Canvas replied them calmly, then she held up her sketchbook. “It’s Sketchy here that you should really be apologizing to.”

Cold Forecast and Crystal Lullaby shared a worried look with each other, and Silver smelt a hint of fear coming from them.

“O-Okay… Sketchy, Canvas’ sketchbook… I’m sorry.” Crystal Lullaby said after a hesitant pause.

“Umm, y-yeah, me too, Sketchy. Sorry.” Cold Forecast blinked her one good eye.

“Okay, he says he accepts your apology.” Canvas put down her sketchbook happily. “So for real? You two saw a ghost?”

“Yeah, she was real.” Cold Forecast nodded her head and shivered. “I thought may-maybe it was a dream, but I have the black eye to prove it. And the claw marks on my bedsheets. I-I’m really sorry for bullying you all the time, Canvas. I swear, I didn’t know there was an artisan’s curse.”

“Artisan’s… curse?” Canvas said, looking confused. “I, er, didn’t really know that either.”

“It was terrible,” Crystal shuddered. “It screamed and raged, and it got into my studio even though I locked the door! Just thinking about it gives me the chills.”

“That’s because ghosts don’t need doors,” Cold Forecast snapped. “She got into my room the same way. It was awful. She was all white in color and she had these terrible bloodstained claws…”

“Don’t forget the fog,” Crystal said, hugging herself. “So cold and clammy.”

“She had fog too?” Canvas’ eyes beamed. “Cool! I’ve always imagined ghosts to have fog.”

“It’s not cool when she’s staring right into your face…” Crystal Lullaby croaked. “She even- umm… you know, nevermind. But she was so scary… I don’t want to see a ghost for as long as I live.”

Silver watched their faces, internally smiling. She had really made a good impression on them yesterday night, and by good, she meant good for herself and for Canvas.

“Well, so long as you did what the ghost said…” Silver said slowly. “I don’t think you’ll need to think about it again.”

“But what if it comes back again?” Cold Forecast dithered.

“Get your house exorcised?” Silver suggested.

“I’ve apologized to Canvas. And her sketchbook!” Crystal Lullaby replied frantically. “The ghost said it would leave me alone if I apologized! I hope she doesn’t come back.”

“Yeah, she punched me.” Forecast pointed at her black eye. “I had to put more makeup on today and it hurt. I really don’t want to see her again…”

“So that ghost came after you just because you tore up my sketch that day?” Canvas asked both of them, getting nods and partial shrugs from both girls. “Woah… Who would’ve thought artists had a guardian ghost.”

“It’s so not cool…” Crystal Lullaby sighed. Then she got up. “Well… that’s all I wanted to say, Canvas. I’m sorry. I… I’m going to go find my boyfriend now.”

And she was off.

“Yeah. I should go too. See you,” Cold Forecast said, and she was gone as well.

“Fancy that,” Silver said drily. “Seems you have someone watching out for you, Canvas.”

“Yeah.” Canvas smiled. “You didn’t have anything to do with the ghost, did you? Cause you said you were going to do something about these two.”

“Who, me?” Silver said innocently. “Of course not. I was studying all night, as my mother and aunt could tell you.”

“Oh.” Canvas blinked a few times, then gave Silver a hug. “Well, thanks for wanting to do something about them anyway! You’re really my best friend! At least you won’t have to do anything to them now.”

“Yeah, thank badness for that.”

“You’ve done so much for me, Silver. One of these days, I’m gonna make it up to you. Both Sketchy and I!” Canvas said happily. “Maybe I’ll draw a picture of you or something? Oh, even better, paint a picture of you!”

“Sure, whatever you want, Canvas.” Silver hugged her back, then let out a big yawn. “Well, now that this is all settled… I’d like another rest. Wake me when you’re heading out, okay?”

Chapter 72 - One for the Road

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 72 - One for the Road

When it came to for her computer class, Silver Rose was feeling much better, having spent most of her lunch asleep, regaining the energy she had lost the night before.

Right now, Mr. Blue Screen was in the process of describing something incredibly boring, and Silver wasn’t too keen to listen to him. Then she remembered Sunny Flare had wanted to see her, and she did need to use the restroom, just that her need was not really urgent.

“Umm, Mr. Blue Screen?” She raised her hand. “May I go to the restroom?”

“You may go, Silver Rose.” The teacher motioned to the door.

The changeling nodded her thanks and got up to go, heading out of the classroom and down the hallway, looking for the staircase. She soon found it and proceeded one floor down, now moving to the girls’ restroom.

Entering, she went to the washbasin and turned on the tap, splashing some cold water onto her face. Then she examined her reflection, turning her head this way and that to make sure she hadn’t left any white in her hair.

“Hmm, my hair seems to be getting a bit too long,” Silver mused. “I’ll have to cut it soon.”

While she found that long hair might suit her, like it did her mother, she didn’t want to have the trouble to keep gelling it up every time she needed to be Silver Rose. It was just too much of a bother to leave her hair so long. Though she didn’t want it to be too short either. She figured her hair was nice about halfway down her back, so that was where she would cut it to the next time she got the chance to be Moonglade or herself.

When she was good, she inspected around the restroom, but Sunny wasn’t here yet.

Did she forget? I won’t be able to stay in here too long without Mr. Blue Screen wondering where I went off to.

Deciding that she would use the toilet while waiting, Silver Rose went into one of the cubicles and locked it. She went over to the toilet bowl and pulled her panties down before taking a seat.

As she was busy relieving herself, she began to think of how this Sunny Flare relationship could go. If the mulberry haired girl really loved her that much, perhaps it would be a pretty long lasting one. She’d never had experiences with relationships until now, and she still hadn’t been with Home Run that long, at least not as long as that Crystal Lullaby and Shock Coil. By the smell of it, the two of them were very close. Maybe until yesterday night.

The young changeling smiled to herself.

Finishing with the toilet, Silver cleaned herself up and went to wash her hands. As she was drying them off, the door to the restroom swung open.

“H-Hi, Silver…” Sunny Flare waved and walked in, putting her hands behind her back. “I-I hope I didn’t… make you wait too l-long?”

“No. Not too long." Silver dried her hands on her uniform. “So what exactly did you want to do? A toilet break isn’t exactly a lot of time.”

“I just, well… wanted to be with you. Without anyone else around. You know…” Sunny blushed and stepped closer, one hand twirling the hem of her skirt. “Do you think we could… umm…”

Silver breathed in the girl’s scent, finding that vortex of lust surrounding Sunny. She knew exactly what she wanted. She felt her fangs easing out again, but this time, she managed to stop them halfway, willing them back into her gums after a few seconds.

“Come.” Silver grabbed Sunny by the arm and pulled her into one of the cubicles, before locking the door. “This what you wanted?”

The two of them were standing so close now, with Sunny’s back against the cubicle door.

“Ye-yeah… I wanted to do something like… like this.” Sunny pulled at a lock of her mulberry hair.

“Let’s not waste any time then, seeing as we don’t have much of it.” Silver leaned in and kissed Sunny.

“Mmm… Wait…” Sunny bent down and pulled her pair of blue panties off. “I-I don’t want to, uh, get them wet like the last time.”

“Heheh…” Silver said, trying very hard to keep a predatory grin off her face, instead settling for a more reserved, kindly look.

Swooping in to kiss Sunny again, Silver ran one hand down the girl’s slender leg, the other hand coiling around her lower back, holding her lower body close against herself. Sunny moaned into her mouth and placed both her hands on Silver’s rear, massaging her butt gently.

Hey, that doesn’t feel too bad…

“So when did you start having such feelings for me, Sunny?” Silver whispered, moving her hand up the girl’s leg and then under her skirt.

“Uh-umm, I think they started coming up so-sometime after that, uh, that little changing room accident- aah.” Sunny chewed on her lower lip as Silver’s finger ran along her slit.

“Oh? I was afraid I’d traumatized you with my display,” Silver crooned. “You did seem rather jumpy afterwards…”

“It-it was scary, yeah…” Sunny smiled sheepishly. “But after that… mmm… after I got over it…”

“Mmm…” Silver said, moving her mouth to Sunny’s neck. The vampiric implications of sucking on her neck was not lost on Silver, and she restrained her fangs as well as she could. And she figured she should speed things up before her teacher finds there was something fishy going on.

Silver readied two fingers and suddenly drove them up into Sunny’s pussy, at the same time, rubbing her thumb against her clitoris, making the girl squeak.

The young changeling could feel Sunny’s hot breath next to her head every time she gasped. She continued to suck on Sunny’s soft neck, moving her fingers faster down below.

“Ah, haaah haah…” Sunny tried to hold back her moans, moving her hands up to Silver’s back and hugging her close. “You-you’re so good, haahh… at this, Silver…”

Silver stopped sucking Sunny’s neck for a moment to answer. “Well, I’ve learnt quite a bit from the movies, and well… some of these, umm, from my mother.”

Then her mouth returned to Sunny’s neck, sucking harder. And then, she still didn’t exactly know why, Silver bit down on Sunny’s skin, making her yelp.

“Mm- aaah!”

“Oh, oh, I’m sorry… Kind of… lost myself there…” Silver’s cheeks colored. Thankfully, her fangs hadn’t been out. It would’ve been really bad if she had just injected Sunny with her paralyzing venom.

“It’s… okay… Nnnghh…”

While Silver had stopped sucking to check on her bite, her fingers had not, still continuing to pump into Sunny’s wet opening and massaging her clit. There was a huge dark red mark on Sunny’s neck, likely from her sucking, but thankfully, there were barely any teeth marks and she hadn’t drawn any blood; it was all easily hidden by the blazer anyway, so at least no one would be asking any questions.

“I love you… I love you, Silver…” Sunny leaned in for more kisses. “I just… really needed to see you today… I… I sound like a loser…”

Totally, Sunny… Silver shook her head. “Oh, don’t say that, Sunny. I’m sure you have your reasons for, umm… needing me.”

Silver continued to pleasure the other girl, enjoying the cute moans she was uttering, closing her eyes as she kept kissing Sunny’s lips. The young changeling really liked kisses.

At one point, the restroom door opened and footsteps slowly approached them, going into one of the cubicles before a door slammed shut and a the lock slid out.

“Looks like someone else is in here…” Sunny whispered, her breathing hot and heavy.

“Mhm.” Silver smirked. It would be a problem if someone were to find them doing this, but her fingers didn’t want to stop.

“Aah- aah…” Sunny raised one hand to her mouth and covered it as Silver’s fingers exited her opening and pinched her clit. “S-Silver, I think we should… nngh… stop…”

“But you’re close, right?” Silver kissed Sunny on the cheek and pinched her sensitive spot harder between her fingers. “And do you really want me to stop?”

Next door, the sound of someone’s butt sitting down on the toilet bowl could be heard, before the sound of water hitting water pricked at the changeling’s ears.

“W-What if she hears… us…?” Sunny said through her hand. Then closed her eyes as Silver began rubbing her clitoris hard.

“As long as you keep your voice down, Sunny…” Silver answered cheekily, keeping her voice low.

“Nnngh… mmm… I’m… I’m really close,” Sunny gasped.

Silver kept up her work. It was risky to keep going like this with someone else in the restroom with them, and she really didn’t want to get caught herself, but she found her fingers wouldn’t stop and her heartbeat had increased, almost deafening in her ears.

Just a little more, and then it’s all over. And then I’ll have to hurry back to class. What excuse am I going to give Mr. Blue Screen? Stomachache? Too used… Hmm… Constipation?

“I… I don’t know… if I can hold it… in-!” Sunny threatened to raise her voice.

Doing the only thing she could, Silver leaned in and kissed Sunny again, wrapping her lips around hers, stifling her voice as Sunny’s pussy unleashed her clear fluids, spurting them out like a faulty tap, stopping and starting unrhythmically as Sunny’s chest began heaving up and down.

Then there was a flush in the other cubicle and soon the door was opened, followed by the sound of a tap turning on.

When Sunny’s pussy stopped throbbing, Silver leaned away from her, looking into the girl’s pink eyes, satisfied with her taste and smell all around their cubicle.

“Thanks, Sunny. That was nice.” Silver lifted her juice-soaked fingers and gave them a lick. Her mother was certainly right about it tasting nice.

Then she shivered, remembering her mother and aunt getting way too intimate in their courtyard.

Sunny only spoke again after the restroom door opened and closed, with the footsteps now fading away. “Yeah, that felt… really nice, Silver… I’m glad you agreed to meet me.”

They both looked down at the toilet floor, which was now glistening with Sunny’s love juices, with Silver being able to partially see her reflection down below. If anything, at least the architects were smart not to make the restroom floors reflective. That would definitely result in many cases of peeping.

“Come on, we should go. I don’t know what Mr. Blue Screen must be thinking now.” Silver unlocked their cubicle door. “You go out first. I’ll follow shortly. I’ll clean up for you.”

“Thanks, Silver.” Sunny smiled and went out towards the sink.

Silver smirked and bent down, grabbing a handful of toilet paper as she began to wipe up Sunny’s juice. When she was done, she tossed it into the toilet bowl and flushed it down.

“Hey, Silver, I’ll head back first, okay?” Sunny called from outside. “I don’t want people… thinking about… things. I’ll see you later, okay? And thanks. I felt really good.”

“Sure, see you, Sunny.” Silver watched the water in the toilet bowl swirl and disappear down the pipe, taking the tissue with it.

Then her eyes drifted up and spotted blue fabric atop the toilet bowl’s tank; Sunny had forgotten to take her panties.

“Uh, Sunny?” Silver leaned out of the cubicle and called, but the mulberry haired girl was no longer in the restroom. “Well…”

Picking up the panties, Silver’s first reaction was to put it to her nose and give it a sniff. It smelt very much of Sunny’s female parts; she remembered that smell well.

“Mmm… Smells good.” She next shoved it into her pocket as she went over to the sink to wash her hands. It wasn’t like she was going to keep the panties, but if she couldn’t find Sunny after school, then she would have to, at least for a little while. “Well, best not keep Mr. Blue Screen waiting…”

Just as Silver pushed the restroom door open, the bell rang.

“Shoot.”

“Hey, Aunt Ivory.” Silver got into the back of the car and put her things down. “How was your day?”

“Hey, sweetie. I’ve had a decent day. Your mother wanted to try something new with our… intimate time, so I let her give it a whirl.” Ivory pushed her white hair away from her face. “Let’s say it’s something I don’t mind doing again.”

“Oh… Uh… Okay, Aunt Ivory.”

“And that massage chair you bought? It arrived. Your mother tried it out and she seems to like it, so looks like it was a good buy, sweetie.”

“So much for three to five days…” Silver grumbled. “But it was. It was a really good chair.”

And then as Silver had feared on the way to the car, her aunt tilted her head up and sniffed the air a few times. It seemed it wasn’t easy to hide such a scent from seasoned changelings.

“You did it with that Sunny Flare again, didn’t you?” She half turned her head, not smiling anymore.

“Ummm…” Silver pulled at her pink hair. “Ye-yes…?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t you? You’re only got your entire reputation at stake here, is what I’m saying.”

“Er… uh, Sunny wanted to see me… so… I didn’t want to upset her.” Silver scratched at her head.

Ivory Wings sighed as she started the car. “You did make sure to do it out of the public eye, didn’t you? Broom closet?”

“Umm… we did it in a… restroom cubicle.”

“That’s not a very secure location, sweetie,” Ivory said critically. “Suppose someone came in?”

“Umm… we made sure not to make any noise, Aunt Ivory.”

“There’s always noise,” Ivory said sternly. “Always.”

“Umm… We were sure to be careful?” Silver gave her aunt her widest smile. “No one found out.”

Ivory Wings sighed, stopping the car at a red light. “Well, there’s nothing that can be done for it now. Be more careful in the future.”

“Okay, Aunt Ivory.”

“Your mother seems to think this is a good idea, so as the Queen’s Reaper, I have to support it. But that doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with how it’s going.”

“Uh, well, Sunny seems to… uh, like it.” Silver took interest at the cars on the road.

“Did she give you a token or something?” Ivory asked, stepping on the gas as the light turned green. “A handkerchief to show her affections, perhaps?”

“What? No, she didn’t do that.” Silver raised an eyebrow, still looking out the window. “Do people do that? I didn’t know.”

“Then what do I smell?” Ivory remarked and sped down the road again when she was able to. “Is it a scarf, perhaps?”

“Hmm? Oh, ummm…” Silver’s face turned red as she brought out Sunny’s panties from her skirt pocket. “Ummm, Sunny… Sunny left her underwear in the restroom. Uh, I couldn’t find her after…”

“You what. Give it here.” Ivory took one hand off the steering wheel and reached backwards.

Silver Rose did as she was told, hesitantly putting the piece of blue fabric on her aunt’s hand.

Ivory Wings took the undergarment and brought it to her nose, taking a deep sniff. “Ahh, yeah, that’s the stuff,” Silver’s aunt sighed again, much to Silver’s surprise, taking her other hand off the wheel to press it closer to her nose.

“Aunt Ivory, the car!” Silver squeaked.

“Oh, there’s nothing to worry about. I still have my elbow on the wheel. Simples.”

And true to her word, she still drove on without incident.

Silver sat at the back, twirling a finger around in her skirt as she glanced at her aunt a few times, every time noticing she was still intently sniffing Sunny’s panties. She knew they smelt nice, but to prioritize that over driving safely… It must really be something for a changeling.

“Ummm, Aunt Ivory? Do you think I could… have that back?” Silver asked slowly.

“Whatever would you want them back for, sweetie?” The older changeling made a sharp turn at the next street.

“I have to return them to Sunny tomorrow,” Silver said quickly.

Ivory sighed and tossed the panties over her shoulder, where they landed in Silver Rose’s lap. “I suppose we should wash them before giving them back. How did she forget to take her underwear with her anyway. I swear, kids today…”

Silver didn’t know why herself. It was a strange thing to forget. Maybe she thought she had already put it on?

Before keeping the piece of clothing, Silver watched her aunt through the rearview mirror and when she saw she wasn’t looking, she put the panties to her nose and sniffed in Sunny’s scent before stuffing it back in her pocket. It really did have a nice smell. This made her think what kind of smell Home Run’s would smell like. Did guys and girls have the same smell? Or perhaps a guy’s scent would be much stronger? Or weaker?

Silver had many curious questions buzzing in her mind all the way until they reached back home.

Sunny Flare walked down the streets, spotting her house now. Finally, her end goal was in sight.

She had one hand held on the back of her skirt, afraid the wind would blow it up any moment.

The girl had hit herself earlier for forgetting her panties. How in the world does someone even forget their panties? She had only found out during a study session over at a cafe with the other Shadowbolts when she had to go use the restroom. She had lifted her skirt and then found nothing underneath.

Sunny really hoped no one noticed her lack of underwear, especially back at school, where much of the floor was of a reflective surface.

How could you be so careless, Sunny? she scolded herself. What would Silver Rose think of this? She’ll think you’re forgetful and silly.

When she got home, she found her brother and Pocket Protector already there, only just starting up the TV.

“Oh, you’re home, Sunny.” Skyfire barely acknowledged her and sat down on the couch.

“Hi, Sunny.” Pocket Protector waved happily.

“Uh, yeah, hi.” Sunny went past them and went up to her room to dump her stuff, before taking a fresh pair of clothes and a new set of underwear over to the bathroom.

After locking the door, Sunny first dropped her skirt to the floor, frowning at her lack of panties below.

“Really, Sunny, how on earth could you forget to grab your panties after letting Silver screw you?” She put her hands on the sink and sighed. “How embarrassing…”

After that, she got the rest of her uniform off and only when undoing her bra, she looked up at the mirror and spotted a red mark on her neck.

“What is that?” She touched at it. It didn’t hurt or anything, but it was a sharp contrast against her light turquoise skin. She remembered Silver Rose had sucked on her neck, right over where the mark was. She remembered she had been bitten, but there’s no way Silver’s teeth could’ve done all that, right?

It started getting a little embarrassing to look at, so Sunny quickly slipped on a new pair of grey underwear, then got into her usual white shirt with her little emblem on it and a black pair of shorts.

“No one’s going to notice that, right?” Sunny pulled at her t-shirt collar, spotting the red mark on her neck. If she didn’t tilt the shirt in any direction, it was just nice in covering it up.

When she was all set, the mulberry haired girl returned to her room and fell back against her chair, looking at the stack of books she had brought home with her. Exams were close now and getting her English to a decent standard had been hard work so far, but at least it has finally all been paying off. There was the subject of other classes too, but at least those seemed easy enough.

“I wonder how Silver Rose is doing on her studying now…” Sunny looked up at her wall in front of her study table. She closed her eyes for a second, picturing the girl’s warm smile. “Mmm… Silver…”

She had really enjoyed their little session in the bathroom today. It had been a close one, but Silver really knew how to pleasure her. That made Sunny wonder just how much experience Silver Rose had in this field, but she didn’t want to judge her. After all, she was madly in love with her. A girl, no less. The first girl she had ever been in love with.

“What do you think I should do, Fast Bender?” Sunny swiveled her chair around to face her big Fast Bender poster. “I’m still too embarrassed to let the others know of my relationship with Silver. I don’t… I don’t think I’m ready to let anyone know.”

“Then don’t. Do it when you’re ready,” Fast Bender replied. “When you’re comfortable.”

“Yeah, I guess… Will I ever be comfortable?” Sunny turned back and picked up her first textbook, opening it to today’s work. “I still like looking at guys and all, like you, Fast Bender. And I mean, I can look at a girl’s body whenever I want, seeing as I’m a girl, so I don’t get why I still want to see Silver naked. It doesn’t quite make sense to me.”

“Me neither, but it’s something you will discover as you go on, Sunny. I’m sure of it. Believe in yourself. I believe in you.”

“Aw, you always say the sweetest things to me, Fast Bender.”

“That’s because I’m not real, remember?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Sunny turned back around and looked at her poster.

In the end, Fast Bender was never here and like he would ever talk to her about her problems. He was just a big movie star and he probably didn’t have time for a girl like her anyway.

“Sunny, why do you keep talking to yourself?”

Sunny Flare swiveled back around to face her door, which she had seemingly forgotten to close. Skyfire and his nerd friend were standing there, with the latter having a rather amused face on.

“Why do you keep butting into other people’s business, Skyfire?” Sunny shot back. “What are you even doing here? You need something?”

“Just seeing who you were talking to. Pocket needed to use the bathroom.” Skyfire folded his arms. “You know those posters you have aren’t real, right?”

“Shut up! I know that!” Sunny snapped at him. “D-Don’t you have a video game to play or something?”

“Bathroom,” Pocket Protector said and disappeared into it, closing the door behind him.

“Are you even studying?” Skyfire walked in and picked up Sunny’s English textbook. “I heard from Gilded Lily. You couldn’t even spell ‘rhombus’? For real?”

“Argh!” Sunny had to deal with all those rhombus jokes in school and now her brother knew about it too. She really wasn’t ever going to live it down. “It-it was a simple mistake, okay?”

“Yeah…” Skyfire lifted an eyebrow. “This simple mistake better not appear on your exam, huh? Otherwise, you might end up failing.”

“Just shut up and get out of my room, okay?” Sunny stood up and pushed Skyfire past her doorframe.

“Hey, what’s that on your neck?” Her younger brother pointed. “You get bitten by a vampire or something?”

Sunny’s face glowed red and she covered her neck up with her hand. “N-None of your business. Now, leave me to do my work, please…”

And she slammed her door shut, locking it before returning to her seat.

“Ugh… Siblings…” Sunny groaned. She was going to have some words with Sugarcoat about hers after her homework. “Rhombus. Really, what’s the big deal? So I accidentally misspelled a word.”

As she got started on her homework, Sunny Flare just wished that the exam week would arrive already so she could be done and leave all this behind.

Outside, an owl hooted. It sounded like laughter.

Chapter 73 - Spectating

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Chapter 74 - Study Hard

“Not quite,” Home Run said, putting down Moonglade’s note cards.

“Ugh, why is this so hard?” Moonglade groaned.

“Sshh!” the librarian hissed from one of the shelves, standing on top of a stool.

“Sorry!” Moonglade whispered, keeping her eyes down. She knew other people were likely looking at her now, so she tried not to look up. Tapping the end of her pencil against her chin, she stared at the math problem. It didn’t get any simpler to understand. Rather, the numbers seemed to be taunting her. Moonglade refrained from stabbing the textbook and instead reached into her jacket and took out a nut and ate it.

“Should I go on with an easier one?” Home Run looked through the girl’s note cards.

“Yeah… Yeah, that’s a good idea, I guess.” Moonglade smiled. “I’m sorry we have to spend a date studying, while there’s so much more we could be doing.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Home Run waved a hand and flipped one note card over. “Spending time with you is fun enough, even studying. But wow, I never expected such tough questions for homeschool. Your mom must’ve really gotten a high leveled syllabus for you, huh?”

“Something like that. It’s a little complicated.”

“Well, I do hope I can help you out with all this. Calculus isn’t like, my strongest subject or anything. I’m just okay with it.”

“Okay’s better than not understanding it at all,” Moonglade joked and put a hand on his arm.

There was a faint rustling noise from the shelf behind where Home Run was sitting. Moonglade looked at it, and as she watched, two books shuffled aside to reveal a familiar green eye.

She’s not being that obvious, is she?

On the way to the library, Moonglade had spotted her aunt following behind them in the car a few times, but that was excusable, seeing as there wasn’t much spots she could hide along with the car.

“So, next equation…” Home Run held out a note card.

When Moonglade heard it, her head began to spin. These calculus questions really didn’t want to make themselves easy. She had written all those note cards herself, but even doing that didn’t seem to help her. She had briefly considered murdering her calculus teacher, but Mishter Schniffs had pointed out that another teacher would simply replace him.

“Why did this have to be so hard?” Moonglade leaned down in her arms and kicked her legs out under the table.

“Hey, don’t worry so much, Moonglade.” Home Run put an arm around her shoulders. “Not everyone’s good with everything. Just look at me with my chemistry work. I don’t even know how I’ve been managing all year.”

“Well, chemistry’s easy though. Calculus is so… ugh.” Moonglade lifted her head and leaned it on Home Run’s shoulder. “Maybe I need an incentive to try harder.”

“Well, does homeschooling have exams or something?”

“Um, no, but knowing my work pleases my mother.” Moonglade shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s incentive enough, but I do want to show her that I can do this.”

“Well, okay then. Let’s work on this so you can show her, hmm? Maybe I’ll start by explaining some of the formulas instead of testing you.”

The next hour was spent with Home Run going on and on about the different equations and how to work with them. Moonglade felt like she could just go to sleep right now, but she had to fight on. She wasn’t going to fail a subject just because it was tough and boring. By the time they reached the end of the study material, the sun was beginning to go down and Moonglade had finished all her nuts. One by one, the streetlamps blinked on.

Moonglade looked back in from the window and rubbed at her eyes. She could safely say that she had at least three more formulas memorized and learned, but that was it. She still had a lot to do if she wanted to succeed, but she was glad Home Run was around to help her, at least for today.”

“I’m sorry that I’m such a bad learner, Home Run.” The young changeling pushed at her pencil with her index finger. “I’m trying, I really am.”

“I know, Moonglade, I know.” Home Run held one of her hands reassuringly. “And you’ll get it, okay? It takes time. And whenever you need any help, I’ll do my best to help you out.”

“Even during the exa- umm… even if you’re taking your exams and I need help?”

“Uh, well… Except then.” Home Run rubbed the back of his head. “Can’t use our phones during the exams. That’s like cheating.”

“Well, using it in class is technically against the rules too.” Moonglade smirked.

“Uhhh, umm… yeah…” Home Run’s cheeks turned pink. “But okay, exams are different. The penalty for getting caught is so much higher.”

“What’s it like?” Moonglade leaned closer. “Taking an exam?”

Home Run looked up and hummed. “Well, an exam is kinda just like a test paper. You just sit there and try your best to finish it. Oh, no talking is allowed and you can’t sit next to anyone. There’s usually a supervisor from the Board of Education to oversee it. Well, some schools at least. Though I don’t know about now. Did you hear the news during the winter break?”

“Which news?”

“There was an attack on the Board of Education or something. I think it was... terrorists, but a lot of the Board members were killed.” Home Run looked out the window at the streets. “So I don’t think they’ll be sending people this time, but I don’t know. It’s been a while since then, huh?”

“Yeah, you just moved here after that, huh?” Moonglade stretched her legs out. “Well, I’m glad you moved over from Fillydelphia. That way, I got to meet you.”

“Yeah, I’m glad I moved to Canterlot. So much has happened since I’ve been here and I’ve learnt so much through it all. And then yeah, I got to meet you too. And I’m really glad I did.”

There was a faint chuckle from the shelf behind Home Run.

“Hmm? Did you hear something?” Home Run turned around. “It sounded like laughter.”

Moonglade looked past him, then waved her hand dismissively. “Uh, must’ve been an owl or something.”

“Hmm, right, it is getting dark.” Home Run turned back. “Do you need to get back soon?”

“Soon, yeah, but I still have some time.” Moonglade held one of Home Run’s arms. “I still have to thank you for helping me with my work, right?”

“Well, uh, what do you have in mind?” Home Run asked with a strange croaked voice.

Moonglade giggled. Home Run smelt nice. Then she leaned closer and pecked him on the lips. “Oh, you know… stuff. How about we go somewhere else now? I think I’ve had enough studying for today.”

“Sure. Here…” Home Run stacked up her cards for her.

“Thanks, Home Run.” Moonglade took them and threw them into her bag. “Hey, I’ve been trying to come up with a nickname for you, but I haven’t quite figured one out yet. How’s HR?”

“Sounds a little… I don’t know, doctory, don’t you think?”

“Your mother’s a doctor, right? So what’s the problem?”

“Um, I just don’t think it’s very me, you know?”

Moonglade laughed and gave him another kiss. “Yeah, you’re right. Doesn’t match you. How about…” She slung her bag over her shoulder.

At that moment, the sound of a phone ringing went off from Moonglade’s bag.

“Shh!” the librarian hissed again.

The girl quickly fumbled through her bag embarrassedly, almost dropping the phone twice before finally putting it to her ear. Then she realized she hadn’t accepted the call or even looked at the number. She did so. It was private.

“I wonder who this is…” Moonglade accepted the call. “Sorry, gimme a sec, Home Run. Hello?”

“Hello, swe- I mean snowdrop,” the caller said. It sounded like her mother. “Just calling to remind you that dinner’s in about fifteen minutes. If you want to have it, you should be home before then. Bye!”

“Uh… huh.” Moonglade looked at her phone’s screen for a while before stuffing it back in her bag. “Right, well, I guess I’ll be expected home for dinner. Even though my mother’s not home…” Moonglade grumbled to herself.

“No sweat, Moonglade”. Home Run got up and picked up his bag. “Hey, how do you feel about Moony? Too normal?”

“The sirens call me that…” Moonglade said quietly. “I’m concerned for them,” she said out of nowhere. “Hopefully that’ll change soon. Anyway, I should get going. Need to wash up before eating and all.”

“Yeah…” Home Run nodded.

The two of them walked out of the library together, hand in hand. Moonglade really didn’t want to let go yet, but she knew she had to.

When they reached the street, her aunt was already there in the car, waiting. She was really fast on her feet.

“So… I’ll text you, huh?” Moonglade wrapped her arms around Home Run. It was a pity she could only see him so often, but that made her treasure their time together more. The only problem was that she wasn’t supposed to.

“Yeah, I’ll see you, Moonglade.” Home Run hugged her back. “And I’ll come up with a really cool nickname for you.”

“Right, keep at it, sluggy.” Moonglade kissed him on the lips before letting him go.

“Yeah, that name’s… uh… Yeah.”

“Right… I guess I’ll have to work on the nicknames too,” she chuckled and opened the car door. “Bye, Home Run.”

The boy nodded and waved. “Bye, Moonglade. Enjoy dinner, okay?”

The young changeling nodded, then ducked her head into the car and closed the door, buckling up.

Moonglade’s aunt was in the driver’s seat, but the chair was reclined back and she was watching some kind of cartoon on a tablet computer. At the moment, a man in a green school uniform was licking a cherry like some kind of deranged lunatic while saying, “Rerorerorerorero…”

“Umm…” Moonglade was grossed out by the way he was licking the cherry. “What are you… watching, Aunt Ivory?”

“Eastern cartoons,” she replied. Then she put her computer to sleep and placed it on the passenger seat. Then she put her seat back into an upright position. “Well, enough of that, time to head home. Did you have fun, sweetie?”

“Mostly. The studying wasn’t quite fun, but I enjoyed my time with him.” The young changeling looked back at Home Run, who was getting his bike ready. “Mother called. Again. She wants me home soon.”

“Did she now?” Ivory said with a strange glint in her eye. “Well, we’d best get going then.”

Moonglade sniffed and found a strange smell coming from her aunt. It wasn’t something normal and it smelt a little like burnt cinnamon.

Hmm… I wonder what that is.

“So, umm… Aunt Ivory… How did I do today?” Moonglade flashed her her best smile.

“I don’t know calculus,” Ivory Wings drawled, putting the car into gear and pulling out onto the road. “So I can’t judge your academic progress.”

“Oh, you don’t?” Moonglade tugged her her seatbelt. “I thought you learned everything after being alive for so long.”

“I learn things that are practically useful and applicable. Calculus never came up in all the time periods in which I was serving your mother. Ask me about any type of swordcraft or gunsmithing. I know that. Stealth and subterfuge and war tactics, I wrote books on. But calculus? Never came up as practically useful.”

“Oh. Um… yeah, I guess. I don’t see why I would ever need to use it.” The blonde haired girl shrugged. “Oh well. I’ll just need to pass this exam and I’ll be done with calculus. Maybe I’ll just take something easier next semester?”

“We’ll leave that up to you and your mother.”

“The only reason I picked calculus was because mother wanted me to complete all the hardest subjects.” Moonglade folded her arms and looked out the side window. “I thought it wouldn’t make much difference, but after calculus… I hope she at least reconsiders for my math subject.”

“Yes, well, while she’s still in a good mood, I suggest you have a talk with her.” Ivory Wings kept her eyes on the road. “I don’t know how much longer this will last, nor do I think I have the stamina to keep it up with her whenever she’s home. You know, your mother just insists on making love whenever she has the chance. She really needs to tone it down a little.”

“Ummm…” Moonglade’s face went red. “Y-You… uh, don’t like doing it with mother, Aunt Ivory?”

“Well… I didn’t say I don’t enjoy it…” Ivory chuckled, and accelerated the car. “It’s just that there’s more to life than just sex all the time, sweetie. I think she’s just excited that she finally has a relationship.”

“Does she usually…? You know… have relationships?”

“Hmm… Usually, yes, though the last time I saw her before I left was back in Trotsylvania. She would have… let’s say cattle from time to time, but that’s all they were. Food.”

“You make her sound like a vampire,” Moonglade commented.

Ivory Wings snickered. “Well, that’s kind of what we were presenting ourselves as at the time… well, your mother at least. I was acting as a hunter. Trotsylvania was… sub-optimal, but at least we got our link to the blood moon there. Something I’m sure you’ve inherited.”

“Oh, actually, I don’t know, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade looked at her hands. “I’ve never been able to overdrive like you and mother. These talon things are new, remember?”

“Well, we will see come the next blood moon. Speaking of which, I need to get my star charts from my penthouse to foretell the next one. So much to do,” Ivory said with a sigh.

“So what does happen during a blood moon, Aunt Ivory?”

Ivory Wings put on her blinker and changed lanes. “You know by now that when we perform certain feats, we expend love energy. Well, during a blood moon, all that goes away. We gain unbridled access to our abilities, all without using any love energy. Plus, we can go faster than usual, take more abuse than usual, all around it just improves us. So long as the red moon is high, we become nearly unstoppable.”

“Wow. Sounds too good to be true.” Moonglade turned back and looked at her aunt. “So only you two can do this? Only you two are affected by the blood moon?”

“The sirens are affected too, to some extent,” Ivory said, drumming her fingers on the wheel as they tailgated a particularly slow driver. “Although I don’t think they will be now, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah…” Moonglade played a hand on her black skirt. “I do hope you can figure something out for them, Aunt Ivory. I don’t like seeing them like this.”

“I’ve almost finished designing the invitations,” Ivory Wings said smugly. “I just need to look at the weather forecast for the next few weeks or so to determine the date. That’ll be fun, hm?”

“Yeah, sounds great,” Moonglade giggled. “It’ll definitely be a picnic they won’t forget.”

“That it will, Moonglade.” Ivory smirked and drove on. “That it will…”

Chapter 75 - Sharpshooting

Moonglade stepped out of the shower, toweling herself down and removing all the sweat and grime that she had accumulated over the course of that afternoon’s sword lesson. Ms. Lionstrike had taught her a new disarming move, and they had spent most of the lesson practicing it. She had copied the move easily enough, demonstrating it to her tutor’s approval. Moonglade wished she could learn calculus like that, but it just wasn’t coming to her very easily.

“Dumb calculus…” the young changeling mumbled and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror as she dried her blonde curly hair. “Aunt Ivory’s right. Why does anyone even need to learn this?”

“I don’t know,” Mishter Schniffs replied from her bed, his voice traveling into the bathroom, sounding like he was actually in here. “Seems rather pointless to me.”

“Right?” Moonglade continued to complain all about it, continuing on even after she was done drying her hair. “Maybe I’ll go for algebra or something, the next school year. Algebra sounds easy enough.”

“Probably still not very useful,” Mishter Schniffs huffed. “When would you even need to apply this knowledge? You’ll just forget it over the summer break anyway.”

“Oh, you’re right about that.” Moonglade wrapped the towel around herself and stepped out of her bathroom, releasing a cloud of hot air into her room. “The only good thing calculus has done for me is let me spend more time with Home Run. Speaking of which, I think I’ll message him.”

The young girl sat down on the edge of her bed after grabbing her two phones from her table. She was about to ask Home Run what he was up to today, but then she saw she had a few missed calls from Sunny Flare on her Silver Rose phone.

“Oh, I wonder what she wants.” Putting it to her ear, Moonglade cleared her throat and waited for her to pick up on the other end. “Maybe she wants to meet up and screw or something. I doubt Aunt Ivory would let me though.”

Five and a half rings later, someone picked up.

“Hello?” Sunny’s voice said.

“Hey, Sunny,” Moonglade said in her Silver Rose voice. “What’s up? You need something?”

“Yeah, umm… The others are… coming over tomorrow for a study session. I w-was wondering if, umm, if you would like to come… over too?”

“Oh, is this an invitation?” Moonglade said cheerily. “Of course I’ll come. There’s just one thing.”

“Oh, that’s great, Silver!” Sunny sounded happy on the other end. “So what’s this thing?”

“Where do you live?”

“Oh, uh, right… Heh, I kinda forgot about that. Umm, I live close to school. Over on Hoofset Street. Oh, number fifteen.”

“Number fifteen, Hoofset Street,” Moonglade repeated. “Got it.”

“Awesome! So I’ll see you tomorrow… Umm, would you like to come over earlier? I-I mean, you know, before the others get here? We’re meeting at three o’clock.”

“I’ll check with my mother if she has any plans, but I should be able to.” Moonglade nodded, even if Sunny couldn’t see her.

“Okay, well, I really look forward to seeing you, Silver. Let me know, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know when I find out.” Moonglade nodded to herself again, she didn’t know why. “See ya, Sunny.”

“Yeah, hope to see you tomorrow, Silver. I, um… I love you, Silver.”

The young changeling looked at her phone screen after the call ended, looking at her reflection.

“Looks like I’m going to have to change my persona early.”

Her relationship with Sunny was progressing so much faster than her one with Home Run, though at least she had so far managed to avoid falling in love again. She couldn’t afford to make that same mistake twice, especially if it meant she would be in serious trouble with even her aunt.

Feeling up for a little snack, Moonglade left her room and went down to the kitchens, grabbing a bag of unshelled peanuts from the large walk-in pantry. Tearing open the seal, Moonglade tossed a few into her mouth and crunched with satisfaction, walking out slowly to the first floor’s living room.

The young changeling threw herself on one of the couches, busily enjoying her peanuts as she looked at nothing in particular. She began wondering how this relationship with Sunny would go. Every time she was alone with Sunny, the place always seemed to smell strongly of lust, usually more so than love. Sunny did love her, yes, but she was really lusting after her too.

Lusting after Silver Rose. Moonglade had to remind herself that she was currently not Silver Rose. She couldn’t deny that she was excited to go spend time with her Crystal Prep friends. She had only gone out with them once and that had been before the Friendship Games.

Crunching another peanut, she absentmindedly wondered just what kind of studying they would be doing. It would be difficult, she thought, to remain on task. With Lemon Zest’s inability to sit still, Indigo Zap’s sporty nature, and Sour Sweet’s constant snark, studying would no doubt be harder than if there was just one or two of them.

In a short expanse of time, Moonglade finished her bag of peanuts and put it on the table for disposal later. She was debating whether or not to go upstairs and turn on the Neighstation when her mother walked into the room, wearing a billowing summer dress. There was a belt around her waist with a holster attached.

“Ummm…” Moonglade swallowed and pointed at the gun in the holster. “What’s that for, mother…?”

“Oh, this?” Ebony Wings tapped the pistol. “It’s been a while since I last had a firearm training for you. Time to get back to it, huh?”

“Oh. Yeah. Why do you do the firearm training, mother? Isn’t this more Aunt Ivory’s territory?”

“Well, she’s up in my room… resting, let’s say that.” Ebony rubbed her hands together. “And besides, it was me training you since you were young. It’s always been me.”

“Oh,” Moonglade couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Her mother turned around, her dress flapping in the breeze. “Well, come along. The faster we do this, the more time we’ll have.”

“Okay.” Moonglade got up and dusted her skirt. Then she realized she wasn’t wearing a skirt and she was actually still clad in only her towel. “Oops…”

With a red face, the young changeling zoomed up to her room and swapped out her towel for her white sleeveless shirt and black skirt, grabbing her hairband as she left her room.

In no time, she was outside at the shooting range, with her mother already standing there, spinning the pistol with one finger.

“Took you long enough, snowdrop.” Ebony patted her daughter on the head and handed her the pistol. “Now it’s been a while. Do you remember how to turn off the safety?”

“Yes, mother,” Moonglade found the safety and switched it off.

“Now you do know that you should only spin the pistol when the safety’s on, right?”

“Yes, mother.”

“And here are your earplugs.”

Moonglade screwed the cones of foam into her ears and gave her mother a thumbs up.

Ebony Wings nodded approvingly. “Yes, otherwise it could go off and you could hurt yourself. Now. I set up a couple of targets on the range that will pop up at different intervals. Your task is to shoot each of the targets. The closer to the bullseye the better. Any questions?”

“Sounds understandable, mother.” Moonglade held up the gun. “I’m ready.”

The first target shot up over on the other end of the range, almost startling the girl. It was a picture of Principal Cinch and Moonglade liked that very much. Fumbling the gun for a second, she eventually got it up and ready, with the barrel pointed at the Cinch target. She fired two rounds, one hitting the target in the right shoulder, and the other going under her left arm, hitting into the brick wall at the back.

“We’d best not let this get back to the school,” Ebony Wings observed wryly. “Wouldn’t want them to think you’re practicing to be the next school shooter, now would we?”

“No, mother.” Before she could get a bullet between the Cinch target’s eyes, the next target popped up behind a bush, this one a picture of some man with balding hair and glasses.

Moonglade didn’t know who he was, but shot him anyway, hitting him both times in the chest.

“Hey, I think I’m getting it back already.” The young girl grinned.

“Yes, your aim is rather good,” Ebony agreed, her arms folded across her chest. “But stay focused.”

And then a third target popped up just behind the Cinch target, this time the picture of the mayor of Canterlot, someone who Moonglade recognized from the newspapers. Not hesitating, she took aim swiftly and fired three bullets, one clipping him just over the hairline, one in his chest, and the other embedding itself in the Cinch target’s right arm.

Frowning, she fired the remaining three bullets at Cinch, one missing and the other two finally finding their marks in her head. The slide of the gun clicked empty and Moonglade lowered it.

Then a fourth target appeared behind one of the low walls, a picture of Canterlot High’s Principal Celestia, but Moonglade didn’t have anymore bullets.

“Oh, uh, was I supposed to save on the bullets, mother?” Moonglade looked at her empty gun.

“Well, yes, I didn’t expect you to miss today, but good effort anyway.” Her mother clicked on a button she had and the targets all shot up. There was just one more after the Celestia target, which was a picture of Sunny Flare.

“Uh, is there a reason all the targets are of people we know? I mean, except the old guy. I don’t know who he is.”

Ebony waved her hand. “That would be my father-in-law. We’re not on the best terms now, so I put him up there.”

“Wait…” Moonglade thought about it. “My grandpa? I have grandparents?”

“Well, your father was human, so yes. You still have grandparents. Mine are long gone, as you should already know.”

“Well, why did I have to shoot my grandpa?” Moonglade looked back at the target with the balding man. “What is he like? Is he nice?”

“I don’t know,” Ebony Wings said defensively. “It’s been literally years since we last spoke.”

“So I actually have a grandpa. That’s cool! I mean, it’s interesting, mother.” Moonglade didn’t know she had more family besides her mother and aunt, but it would only make sense that her father had more family too. “How about father? What was he like?”

“Now, we’ll continue with these here targets, but we’ll change up the weaponry a bit.” Her mother didn’t answer her question. Again. This wasn’t the first time.

Ebony Wings took the pistol back from her daughter and passed her a long, thin shotgun. Moonglade racked the pump once and aimed down the sights.

“It’ll probably be easier to hit the targets with this, but you have fewer shells, so try not to shoot wildly. I’ll start the targets back up again.”

With the push of a button, the targets all went back down again. The first one to show up this time was the Celestia target. Moonglade didn’t exactly know her well, so she fired the shotgun, blasting off a portion of her side. The recoil was a little strong, but nothing her love energy couldn’t handle.

The next target to pop up was Principal Cinch again. Readying herself, the young changeling aimed a little higher, and with the pull of her trigger, there was a blast and Principal Cinch’s head vaporized into tiny plastic fragments.

How do you like that, Principal Cinch?

She fired again, this time blowing away Cinch’s midsection. Moonglade grinned and was about to shoot a third time when the target popped down and the Sunny Flare target appeared.

Moonglade leveled the shotgun to shoot, but an uncomfortable feeling emerged in her gut and she hesitated.

“Oh come on, the target won’t be up forever, you know?” Ebony Wings tapped her remote control. “Go on. You can do it.”

“B-But… that’s Sunny… Why would you put Sunny up there? You know she’s in a relationship with m- I mean, Silver Rose. I-I can’t shoot her.”

“That’s the very reason I put her up there, my little snowdrop.” Ebony’s face remained stoic. “Unlike your relationship with that boy, which you have seemed to fail in remembering what he is, before that happens again, I want you to remember that these relationships are not real. They are food. They are prey. If it comes between you or them, I do hope you pick yourself. Now… shoot her.”

“Mmmmnnngg…” Moonglade shakily lifted the barrel to the Sunny target’s chest, her finger slowly curling around the gun’s trigger.

And then at the last second, she pulled the gun slightly to her left as she pulled down on the trigger, the blast going wide, only just nicking the corner of the target’s right elbow. The rest of the pellets embedded themselves in the wall behind.

Ebony Wings was unimpressed. “That was a terrible shot,” she said critically. “You can’t just let your aim go just because it happens to be a picture of one of Silver’s school friends. What if next time I replace all the targets with Sunny and company? Are you going to miss every one of them?”

“Umm… Umm, I…” Moonglade scratched at her cheek, looking away from her mother.

“Not good enough.” Her mother narrowed her eyes and walked over, snatching the shotgun from her hands. “What I expect you to do is this.” Then she lifted it in one hand and pulled the trigger. In that instant, the Sunny target’s head and upper half of her chest was blasted apart by the shotgun. Moonglade had flinched when her mother had fired. “And this is what I want to see in the future. Is that clear?”

“Uh, y-yes, m-mother…” Moonglade gulped. Would she be able to do it though? She knew she would have to, but she didn’t think she would still be able to do it, even if she was shooting plastic cutouts.

“Well, I suppose that concludes our short session for today,” Ebony Wings said primly. “Unless there’s more that you want to shoot, that is.”

“Um, I’m fine, mother.” Moonglade took one step back. “Umm, though, mother… I, uh… Sunny invited me to her place to… study with the others tomorrow. She asked if I could go over earlier to, um… hang out?”

“Why, sure you can.” Ebony unfurled her fingers in one hand, taking a look at them. “While I lecture you on not getting attached to them, I never said you couldn’t continue to bring love back. Of course you may go. Go as early as you want. Would you like to borrow one of my special toys?”

“She most certainly doesn’t need any of that…” Ivory Wings staggered over, one hand on her hip. Her white hair was untied, blowing around in her face and she didn’t have her glasses on. “Like I said, sister, she needs to take it slow. She’s done enough rolling in the hay for now. We don’t want her to keep doing it so frequently. She’s still young.”

“You don’t want her to keep doing it.” Ebony waltzed over to her sister and lifted the shotgun to her shoulder. “I think she should keep it up. Have you smelt all the love she’s brought back in just these two weeks?”

Ivory groaned. “I have, and while I do like the smell, we shouldn’t be encouraging her to keep doing it. Like I said, she’s still young and she should be taking this hunt slower.”

“Ugh, very well, very well…” Ebony waved one hand. “Since you showed me such a good time earlier, I’ll let you decide this one. Moonglade, listen to your aunt. I’ll put this shotgun back, then I’m going to take a shower. She leaned in and kissed her sister on the cheek. “I’ll see you two later.”

Moonglade watched her mother leave with the gun, then approached her aunt. “So… Aunt Ivory… what’s the plan?”

“You may still go, but I don’t want you getting too intimate with that Sunny Flare.” Ivory Wings tried to arrange her hair, but gave up after a few seconds. “You may go just a little earlier. A little love won’t hurt, but nothing too extreme, okay? I don’t mind you making out, but that’s as far as I would like for you right now, we clear, sweetie?”

“Sure, Aunt Ivory.” Moongladed nodded. “I’ll try my best. What if she… what if she wants to go further? I don’t want to disappoint her.”

“You’re going to have to.” Ivory wagged a finger. “She shouldn’t be thinking so much of such things anyway. You’re both still in high school. If anyone finds out what you two have been doing… your mother isn’t going to like it, whether she encourages you to do such things or not.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.”

“Good.” The older changeling patted her niece on the shoulder, then looked at the various targets. “So, how goes your shooting? Have you gotten better?”

Moonglade turned and looked back at them. Principal Cinch and Sunny were no longer recognizable, but the others were still roughly in one piece.

“I had to get the hang of it again, but I think I did okay today.” Then the girl’s eyes focused on the target of her supposed grandfather, his face smiling back at her. “Aunt Ivory, has mother ever told you of my grandparents? As in my father’s parents, not hers or yours.”

“Can’t say she has. I’ve been around less than you have, remember?” Ivory tilted her head to the side in question. “Why?”

“See that one? The man with the glasses?” Moonglade pointed at the target. “Mother says that’s grandpa. She said she hasn’t talked to him in years. I’m guessing not since-”

“Not since your father died, I’m sure,” Ivory finished the sentence for her. Then she sniffed the air. “You want to meet him, sweetie? Why would you want that? You don’t even know him. You didn’t even know about him until now.”

“I’m not sure, Aunt Ivory. But…” Moonglade continued to look at the cutout target. “I have more family out there. More than just you and mother. I have family from father’s side. I wonder what they’re like.”

“Well, if your father is anything like you and your grandparents like him, then I’m sure they’re nice people.” Ivory Wings wrapped her arms around the young changeling, at the same time, using her as a support. “You’re nothing like your mother, do you know? Well, most of you. You do look like her. And you have a little bit of her temper, um, no offense, sweetie.”

“Wow, thanks. I’ve never trashed a room just because I was angry, though.”

“That’s because you don’t own the house,” Ivory Wings said fairly. “And you know better than to rip people’s arms off and beat them to death with it.”

“I do.” Moonglade smiled happily. “So let’s say I do want to see my grandparents. Do you think mother’ll let me?”

“Who knows, sweetie.” Ivory rubbed her niece’s head. “But just remember, your father died before you were born. That’s a long time ago. They might not even know they have a granddaughter, if your mother didn’t tell them anything. And she delights in not telling people things.”

“Oh.”

“In fact,” Ivory said, holding up a finger. “We don’t even know if they’re still alive. You should ask.”

“Mother doesn’t know.” Moonglade remembered her earlier conversation. “She said she hasn’t met them in years, so I doubt she knows anything about them right now. I hope they’re still alive, Aunt Ivory. I like the thought of having more family.”

“Well, I’m sure if you look around the internet long enough, you should be able to find your grandparents. Whether you should see them is another matter entirely.”

“Oh, yes, I forgot I could do that.”

If her father was a famous actor, then she would definitely have no problem finding him on the internet. The question now was whether she would be able to find her grandparents there too. Then the young changeling wondered if she could find herself on the internet. She was the daughter of Ebony Wings, after all. Perhaps she had articles on there that detailed her lifestyle. Paparazzi always managed to find ways to find out what you do in your personal life, though, she was sure they had nothing on what happens within the estate. Her mother made sure of that.

Ivory Wings sighed and took out a silver flask from behind her back, unscrewing the lid and taking a swig from it. “Want some, sweetie?” Ivory held the flask out.

Moonglade looked at the flask. “What’s in it?”

“I dunno. Bleach?”

“You’re drinking bleach?”

“Well it’s not like it’ll kill me,” Ivory reasoned before taking another sip.

“But does it taste nice?” Moonglade watched the bottle’s contents disappear down her aunt’s throat.

“Ha! Nope. Not at all. Tastes very chemical-y, as a matter of fact.”

“So ummm…” Moonglade put her hands behind her back. “Why are you… drinking it?”

“Because your mother’s already drunk all the tequila and vodka in the house and I’m thirsty.”

Moonglade blinked a few times. “Why don’t you just drink water, Aunt Ivory?”

“Huh.” Ivory drained the flask and swished the bleach around in her mouth. “That never occurred to me. I must be channeling too much Parisa. Only she could be this random…”

“Oh, umm… okay, Aunt Ivory.”

“Well, let’s not waste time out here, sweetie. Come, walk Aunt Ivory back in so she can rest her back.” The older changeling leaned on her niece as they walked back towards the mansion. “I tell you, if your mother keeps this up, I’m going to need a doctor, even with my healing powers…”

Chapter 76 - Girl Talk

“You have fun, okay, sweetie?” Ivory Wings winded down the window as Silver Rose stepped out of the car. “Just give me a call and I’ll be back to pick you in a jiffy. Ha, jiffy… Who still uses that?”

And then she was off, leaving Silver standing by Sunny Flare’s front door by herself, her bag over one shoulder. She knew her aunt was heading back home to prepare more things for her little picnic, but she didn’t think her aunt was simply going to leave her alone here with Sunny. She didn’t know how, but she guessed her aunt was still somehow watching her.

It was still half an hour to three o’clock, so Silver found she still had some time to spend with Sunny to feed. Today, seeing as she didn’t have school, she had decided to don her dark red Discourse shirt and a simple purple skirt with leggings. She had thought of wearing something fancy, but that would only be silly, seeing as this was just a study session.

She smelled the air around, and detected two people in the house and a faint, strange scent coming from a large tree next to Sunny’s house. Peering into the vast network of branches, Silver made out the shape of a sizeable brown owl sitting there, fast asleep.

“How cute.” She smiled, then walked over to knock on the door.

Eventually, the door was opened by a boy with purple hair and light turquoise skin. Silver guessed he was Sunny’s brother, but then she remembered him. He was the boy who had sat next to her when she and Home Run had gone to watch Horror of the White River.

“It’s you!” Silver exclaimed.

“What? Who?” The boy replied brusquely. “Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”

“Oh, um…” Silver forgot that it was Moonglade who had gone to the theater. “Nevermind, I must’ve, uh, mistaken you for someone else. Err… Is Sunny home? I’m here to study with her.”

“Uh, yeah, she’s upstairs.” The boy stepped aside. “You can come in.”

“Right, thanks…” Silver smiled awkwardly and did as she was told, leaving her shoes by the door.

Sunny’s home was pretty average looking, with all kinds of furniture and decorations around the hallway, which lead out to the living room. The TV was on, with a video game on the pause screen. Silver recognized it as The Warlocker 3, the game her aunt enjoyed so much.

“Oh, you play Warlocker? Cool,” Silver stopped to comment.

“You know video games?” The boy turned around with a doubtful look on his face. Silver could smell it too. “But you’re a girl.”

Silver raised an eyebrow. “Girls can’t know video games? I happen to play them.”

“Woah, you know, I have a friend who would like to meet you,” the boy said. Then he shouted, “Hey, Sunny! Your date’s here!”

“What? Oh, uh, no, I’m uh, just a friend…” Silver laughed nervously, her cheeks glowing a light red. “I-I’m Silver Rose, by the way.”

“Oh. I’m Skyfire. Wait a second… Silver Rose. Your name sounds familiar.”

Silver scratched her brow. “Oh, uh, I’m sure it’s nothing, nothing much, heheh…”

There was a thunder of footsteps from somewhere above and soon, Sunny was running down her steps, stopping midway when she saw Silver. She had on a white t-shirt with a purple cloud and sun picture on it, and blue shorts and she looked pleased to see her.

“Hey, Silver, and Skyfire, she’s not my date!” Sunny yelled at her brother. “She’s just m-my friend! That’s all!”

“Yeah, sure, whatever, big sis.” He turned to Silver and smirked. “Make sure you get my sister to study spelling. I heard about the rhombus.”

Silver had to stop herself from laughing, at least in front of Sunny, whose face immediately changed to bright red.

“It was a simple mistake!” Sunny snapped. “I-I’m not going to make that mistake again!”

“Suuuure you aren’t,” Skyfire said. “Well, I’m going back to hunting the cockatrice. Don’t make too much noise or you’ll ruin my concentration.”

“I’ll show you concentration-!”

Silver quickly intervened and held Sunny back, slowly bringing her back up the stairs. “Come on, let’s just go study. No need for all that.”

Sunny calmed down a little and opened the door to her room. Silver entered, and was immediately struck by the sheer number of Fast Bender posters that lined every wall and even some of the ceiling. She even had one on her desk. Framed. If she didn’t know better, she would think Sunny was obsessed. Silver knew she liked the actor, but this was just nuts.

Sunny saw her looking and rubbed the back of her neck. “Umm… yeah, what can I say? I’m a Fast Bender fangirl…”

Oh, yes. Though fanatic would be more accurate, in my opinion.

“Oh, uh, please, make yourself comfortable.” Sunny pointed at her bed. “I’ll just move the table out first, so we can study later.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.”

Sitting down and dumping her bag on the floor, Silver watched as Sunny reached behind her table and slowly moved it out to the middle of her room. There were a stack of stools next to it, so Silver figured those must be for them.

“You know, I think my sister’s actually met Fast Bender,” Silver remarked. “On the studio set, I mean.”

That caught Sunny’s attention and she spun around, almost tripping over a foot. “Moonglade knows Fast Bender?!”

Silver leaned back, surprised at the sudden excitement. “Well, yeah, she’s met him a couple of times…”

“She’s so lucky!” Sunny squealed, her voice rising in pitch a little. “Fast Bender is just brilliant! Oh, how I wish I could meet him in the flesh! He’s absolutely stunning! Look at those muscles!”

Sunny began giggling uncontrollably. Silver began feeling a little uncomfortable sitting there, but she tried her best not to look so.

“Heeheehee, Fast Bender is just sooo perfect!” Sunny grinned.

You done? Silver sat back with a politely puzzled expression on her face. “Umm… so…”

Sunny stopped skipping around her room and widened her eyes. “Oh, right, I’m sorry, Silver. I kinda lost myself. And don’t worry…” Sunny came over and put her hand under Silver’s chin. “I still love you, you know?”

Silver smiled, her eyes wandering to a small frame underneath Sunny’s computer table. There were small electric lights around a photo of Fast Bender and there were obvious lipstick marks on the picture frame.

What have I walked into?

A tense, buzzing feeling was gathering in Silver’s fingertips, so she quickly got to her feet and took Sunny’s hands in hers.

“Well, I’ll see if I can get my sister to acquire an autograph from Fast Bender the next time they meet,” she said cheerily.

“Oh, you will? Thank you!” Sunny beamed. “Uh, do I need to turn on the air conditioning? Your hands are really hot.”

“Oh! Umm…” Silver patted her hands on her skirt. “No no, it’s nothing. It just… happens from time to time.”

There was an awkward silence.

“Say, do you want anything to drink?” Sunny offered. “We have juice, soda, or just plain water if you want it.”

“It’s very kind of you to offer,” Silver purred, slinking up close to Sunny. “But I’d rather drink your juices, if you know what I mean.”

Then the young changeling blinked her eyes a few times and widened them. She didn’t know where that sentence had come from and she knew her aunt didn’t want her rolling in the hay again so soon. There was a faint slapping sound from outside the window, like someone’s hand had impacted with their face.

“Uh, uhh…” Silver’s cheeks turned red. “That came out wrong…”

“Oh, umm… I was hoping you were…” Sunny’s cheeks turned to match Silver’s. “I was hoping you wanted to… d-drink my… juices.”

“Sorry, Sunny, but I don’t think we have the time for that right now…” Silver looked around, hoping to think of something to say. She glanced out the window. “Because I think I see Sugarcoat on the way here.”

“Oh, already?” Sunny ran over to the window. “She’s early…” She sounded disappointed.

Sure enough, as they peeked out of Sunny’s window, they could see Sugarcoat parking her motorcycle out on the street and taking off her helmet, shaking out her hair.

“She owns an actual bike?” Silver continued to watch. “And how does she even fit all that hair under the helmet?”

“Well she was chosen for the Friendship Games’ motocross segment for a reason,” Sunny shrugged. “As for her hair, who knows?”

“Well, I’m sorry we didn’t go any further today, but… maybe just this one for you.”

Silver took Sunny’s face in her hands and yanked her in for a kiss. Their lips met, the soft flesh squishing against one another until the need for breath drove them apart.

“Mmm, yeah, that was nice…” Sunny smiled. “Thanks, Silver.”

“Anytime.” Silver Rose got to arranging the stools. “Now, we better prep for study.”

In a short time, Silver heard Sunny’s brother calling from downstairs again. “Sunny! Sugarcoat’s here!”

“I’ll be right back, Silver.” Sunny went out her room door, leaving it swinging back. After a few footsteps, Silver heard her yell, “Coming!”

Well, that was the plan until Sugarcoat showed up. Then she remembered her aunt nagging her. Well, that was the plan until Aunt Ivory said otherwise.

The young changeling sat there after putting the stools out, swinging her legs back and forth under the bed. Sunny had a squishy bed. Squishier than the one Silver had at home. It was positioned under a Fast Bender poster that was stuck to the ceiling, with the actor pointing down at the place where the pillow would be.

“I bet her alarm clock is also Fast Bender themed…” Silver said, looking around for it. However, there didn’t seem to be one in the room. “Huh…”

Probably uses her phone.

And then the door was thrown open and Sunny returned, with Sugarcoat following behind, pushing her glasses up her nose.

“Oh, Silver Rose,” she said without much surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh! Um, Sunny invited me over to study. Yeah.”

“Hm, you’re early,” Sugarcoat nodded approvingly. “I like that in a person. Being late just holds everyone up.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Silver rubbed the back of her head and laughed. “So I take it the others don’t get here on time?”

“Let’s say Sour Sweet and Lemon Zest get here roughly on time.” Sugarcoat set her things down and took a seat on one of the stools. “As for Indigo… I guess I won’t need to say.”

And true to what the bespectacled girl had said, Lemon Zest and Sour Sweet were the next two to arrive, though Sour Sweet arrived four minutes past three o’clock. Silver Rose joined them at the table as they first began to work on English, Sunny’s weakest subject.

The young changeling didn’t really need any help with English, but she had fun watching Sunny try to grasp it. She was also a little uncomfortable with so many Fast Bender posters watching them study, their eyes constantly staring at her and the other girls, unblinking at all times. Silver didn’t know how Sunny could sleep like this. She would certainly be creeped out herself if she had to sleep while so many eyes were watching her.

After forty minutes, Indigo Zap showed up, apologizing and giving excuses about her bike breaking down and something about soccer balls. Silver didn’t exactly pay attention to what she said, but filed that away for later in case she planned any get-togethers in the future.

Note to self, tell Indigo the starting time is an hour before it actually is.

The next hour was spent with all of them trying to get Sunny to understand her English work, before they all started on poetry. Poetry wasn’t exactly something Silver was good at, but at least she understood it better than Sunny. Sour Sweet was surprisingly good at understanding the lines, or at least, they thought she was good at it. That was another thing Silver wondered. How could anyone know for sure what the poet was trying to say? For all they knew, taking a path less traveled by might’ve just meant the poet found a shortcut to his destination or something.

“Gee, a lot of this guy’s poems seem to have something to do with prison,” Lemon Zest said. “Are you sure this is what they mean, Sour?”

“How should I know?” The cranberry haired girl folded her arms and sneered. “I’m just answering what I think is right. We can only speculate, after all.”

“Whatever, you’re the one who teach thinks gets it, so I’m going with you,” Indigo sighed. “Ugh, can we take a break? I really need it.”

“You haven’t even been studying as long as we have.” Lemon Zest gave her an incredible look, with her mouth hanging open.

“But I’m boooooreeed…” Indigo yawned, sliding off her stool and onto the floor.

“Yeah, I could use a break too…” Sunny rubbed her forehead. “This poetry is killing me.”

“Or, more accurately, sending you to prison,” Sugarcoat deadpanned.

“Ugh…”

“Hey, you guys know that movie?” Lemon Zest tapped her headphones. “Killing me Harder? Sunny reminded me of it.”

“Okay, okay, we can have a break,” Sunny said with a sigh. “Anyone want a drink or a snack?”

“I’ll help,” Silver said, getting to her feet. “Could use a little walk around anyway.”

“Thanks, guys!” Lemon Zest waved a hand.

“We’ll just wait here…” Indigo said from the floor. “I need a rest.”

“Uh huh.” Sugarcoat watched her doubtfully.

Silver followed Sunny out of her room, heading back downstairs. To the right of the living room was the kitchen and on the way, Silver spotted Sunny’s brother still playing his game on the TV. Silver was tempted to go over and watch, but she had more important things to do right now, like study.

“Sunny, doesn’t your brother have exams too?” Silver asked softly. “Doesn’t he have to study?”

“Don’t know and don’t care, Silver,” Sunny said sternly. “He can do what he wants. I’m fine with him failing.”

Silver creased her eyebrows at that statement. “You two don’t get along well, huh?”

“Not as well as I’d like, Silver…” Sunny was the first to enter the kitchen, which was tiled a light purple. The counter was an ‘L’ shaped one, with an oven and a dishwasher under the tabletop. There were many different cabinets and drawers all around, likely containing the kitchenware and utensils.

“Do you get along with your sister, Silver?”

Silver Rose gulped. “Uh, yeah, we get along for the most part. Can’t think of a time when we last argued. My mother says we’re practically the same person. Haha...” she laughed nervously.

“Oh, you’re lucky. Me and my stupid brother almost never agree on anything.”

Sunny pulled open a cupboard and pulled out a box of crackers and a bag of chips. “It would be nice if we could go one day without sniping at each other, but what can you do?”

“Well, as the saying goes, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” Silver said sagely, taking a bowl from the cabinet for Sunny to put the snacks into.

“Yeah… shame about that.” Sunny then opened the fridge and got out a bottle of cranberry juice. “Can you get the disposable cups from the second drawer?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure.”

As Silver bent over to retrieve the plastic cups from their packaging, Sunny’s brother came into the kitchen.

“Oh, are you girls done studying already?”

“No, of course not.” Sunny glared at him and folded her arms. “But what does it matter to you?”

“It doesn’t,” Skyfire said bluntly. “I just came here to get a drink. All this monster hunting is making me thirsty.”

“Oh, yes, because it’s soooo hard to play a video game,” Sunny said mockingly. “Whatever. Let’s go, Silver.”

“It can be!” Skyfire shot back. “Haven’t you heard of Dim Spirits? Hardest game ever, is what the reviewers say.”

“Uh huh…” Sunny didn’t look like she bothered.

“Oh, I’ve heard about it.” Silver remembered Aria and Sonata talking about it. She didn’t personally own the game, but she had heard people had destroyed their TVs because of the game. It was that hard. “Yeah, it’s supposed to be really tough.”

“She gets it.” Skyfire waved a hand at Silver. “I’ve known you five minutes and I already like you more than Sunny.”

“You s-shut up!” Sunny lifted the bottle of juice like she was going to smack her brother on the head with it. “Why don’t you just go back to your game?”

“Maybe I will, after I get a drink.” Skyfire went to the fridge and took out a can of soda.

When he was done, Skyfire left the kitchen, not before sharing an icy glance with Sunny on the way out.

“Gee, you two really have issues.” Silver watched the young boy go. “Uh, no offense.”

“It’s nothing.” Sunny shook her head. “Anyway, we got everything we need for now. We should go back up.”

“Hey, Sunny.” Silver grabbed her friend by the wrist. “Come here.”

“Wait, what are you-” Sunny’s lips met Silver’s in a kiss. The mulberry haired girl gasped, but didn’t pull away.

“Figured you need this.” Silver smiled and inhaled, a feeling of satisfaction entering her mind as the smell of love spiked. And of course, with Sunny, there was also that serving of lust as well, which also tasted pretty good. Silver’s fangs threatened to emerge again, but she staved them back, getting better at controlling herself the more she was exposed to Sunny.

Won’t Aunt Ivory be pleased? She thought as their lips met again.

This time, it was Sunny who began to take the initiative, pushing Silver against the counter, her hands snaking around the changeling’s back, the bag of chips falling to the floor with a crunch.

“Mmm, you taste different today,” Silver purred, half-lidding her eyes seductively. “Did you use a new lip gloss?”

“Hmm, I didn’t use any…” Sunny leaned back in for another kiss, one hand descending down to Silver’s rear, which sneaked in under her skirt.

“Mmm, frisky, aren’t we?” Silver tittered. “But we really shouldn’t. Not here and now, anyway.”

That seemed to break Sunny out of her spell. She blinked a few times, then blushed hard. “O-Oh… ri-right… I have friends over… And Skyfire… Oh dear… He went back to the TV, right? I can’t believe I just… I don’t know what came over me…”

“Quite all right,” Silver said demurely. “It could have happened to any of us.”

“Y-Yeah…” Sunny said, picking up the fallen snack bag. “Come on. They’re probably wondering where we are.”

As the two girls went back up the stairs, Silver mused at just how infatuated Sunny was with her. If she was willing to do such acts with her in risk of being discovered… well… Silver wondered whether it was normal for someone to become obsessed with the person who had traumatized them. The people Aunt Ivory had traumatized certainly hadn’t come back to love her. Nor, she was sure, did mother’s.

Perhaps she had done something wrong.

They eventually got back to the room, finding the rest of the Shadowbolts talking about boys, with Indigo Zap still lying on the floor. Lemon Zest was crouching on Sunny’s bed, nodding her head to something Sour Sweet had said.

“No way, dude!” she laughed. “Me and Sound Wave? Come on!”

“Refreshments are here!” Silver Rose sang, setting the stack of plastic cups onto the tabletop.

Sunny put the bowl of crackers and the bag of chips there as well.

“Gee, you two sure took your time.” Sugarcoat didn’t hide her annoyance. “Anyway, we were in the process of finding out who Lemon Zest is compatible with, if you wanted to join in.”

“And don’t say Sound Wave,” Lemon said, picking up a chip and eating it. “Everyone here’s already guessed that, and the answer is no.”

“What, really?” Silver couldn’t help but smile. “But you two are like… music, umm… what’s the word…”

“Musically inclined,” Sour Sweet suggested, pouring out some juice.

“Yeah, you two like music so much. Why don’t you like him?”

“We are so not compatible. Sound Wave prefers techno and dubstep, and I’m more into…”

“Copperrear?” Indigo said from the floor.

“Yeah, Copperrear.” Lemon nodded her head.

“But you two hang out and swap music all the time,” Sugarcoat stated. “Even if you do listen to that trashy band.”

“I like him, yeah, but I don’t like him, like him. Besides, I’m an Aquarius, he’s a Scorpio. Not compatible.”

“You seriously listen to all that horoscope nonsense?” Indigo sat up and looked at her. “Psssh, they’re all just ways to manipulate people into doing things.”

“Hey, some of them are pretty good,” Lemon Zest huffed and looked away. “Like, it told me to eat a bag of cheese crackers yesterday. Guess what? I did.”

“Uh…”

No one said anything for a while, even Silver Rose, who just looked at her, wondering how that made any sense.

“Umm, well, enough about Lemon Zest.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses and turned to Silver. “Since we have a new addition today, I’d like to hear from her. Silver, what do you fancy? Guy or girl?”

“Umm, what?” Silver blushed when all eyes turned to her, except for Sunny, who suddenly took interest in the cluttered tabletop.

“Are you interested in boys? Or girls?” Sour Sweet restated for her friend.

“Oh, well, uh, you see…” Silver averted her eyes, afraid of the Shadowbolts’ constant gaze at her. “Umm… heheh… well…”

She had never thought of answering this question before and she didn’t know what to tell them. Sure, before Sunny, Silver had never thought she would be in a relationship with a girl. She had always had the idea of the princess being rescued by a handsome knight. Before Sunny, she would’ve said she was into boys, but now… She didn’t know if she wanted to say otherwise, at least not now, with all the Sunny secrecy.

“Errrm… well…” Silver took a deep breath. “You know, I, uh, haven’t had a lot of chances to find out yet…? I’ve only been living with my aunt until re-recently? No exposure, you see, heheh… yeah.”

She flashed them all an awkward smile, giving an especially wide and weird one to Sunny.

“So I take it that means you don’t fancy anyone?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Y-Yeah, none yet…”

“Huh. That’s not a good excuse,” Sour Sweet grumbled. “Your sister, Moonglade, had no exposure as well, being homeschooled and all. She ended up finding a boyfriend. So I’m sure you can too! Girl or guy!”

“Well, uh, she was really lucky…” Silver rubbed the back of her head nervously. “She just… found the right guy when she went out that day…?”

“So your sister is into guys then!” Lemon Zest rocked back and forth on her feet. Silver could catch a glimpse of her light blue panties under her skirt in her crouched position. “So are you into guys too? Though… I’ve always thought you’re more into girls. You seem like you are.”

“Oh. Umm…” Silver felt like her face couldn’t get any redder. “I’m… open to either one?”

“That’s fine!” Lemon said brightly. “Maybe I can hook you up with someone. What’s your horoscope sign?”

“Enough with the horoscopes…” Sugarcoat slapped a hand to her face. “I can’t believe you believe such nonsense…”

“What? I told you they’re useful!” Lemon Zest clicked her fingers.

“Not convinced, Lemon Zest…” Sugarcoat sighed. “Well… You’re a daughter of Ebony Wings, after all. Whoever you fall in love with will be really lucky.”

“Heheh, um, right…” Silver laughed sheepishly.

“Hey, you know, we’re always talking about her awesome mom.” Indigo cracked her knuckles. “How about her awesome dad? Crescentlane?”

That name caught Silver’s interest and she looked over.

“But Crescentlane isn’t around anymore. I haven’t seen any movies with him in them.” Lemon Zest chewed on another chip.

The athlete got up and grabbed a cracker, biting off a corner of it. “Sure, but you guys don’t watch old movies? Like Cold? Oldschool robber movie. He was in it.”

“Never heard of it,” Sugarcoat replied flatly.

“Sorry, Indigo, but I don’t know it…” Sour Sweet looked at her apologetically.

“Silver, please tell me you know it?” Indigo looked to the changeling. “Your own father is in that movie.”

“Umm, sorry…” Silver shrugged. “Truthfully, I don’t know much of my father. He died before I was born.”

“Your mom never talks about him?” Lemon asked. Silver shook her head. “Wow. She must have taken his death really hard.”

“Yeah… maybe.” Silver knew that this was absolutely not the case. Her mother had not taken his death very seriously at all, from what she gathered over the years. She had even bought herself a car using the money she had gotten from his death. “Though I do wonder what it would be like if my father was still around.”

“Man, we’re so lucky to call you a friend, Silver,” Lemon Zest snickered and picked up another chip. “Both your parents are famous! And we get to say we know you! That’s awesome!”

“I’m glad you think so,” Silver said neutrally. “But it’s my mom who you should be giving your attention to. I’m just her serv- um, princ- no, kid. Yeah.”

“Right…” Then Indigo was next to Silver, her mouth in a smirk. “So come on, tell us, what are you looking for in a relationship? Like if you ask me, I want a boyfriend who’s good at sports. Not better than me, but good enough.”

“You’re one of Crystal Prep’s top athletes,” Sour Sweet said through a mouthful of chips. “Finding someone who’s worse than you at sports should be no problem.”

“But he still has to be good enough,” Indigo restated. “So, Silver Rose. What are you looking for?”

“Umm…” Silver wobbled on the stool she was sitting on, grabbing a handful of chips to distract herself from the Shadowbolts’ eyes. “I want them to be… n-nice?”

“What, that’s it?” Sour Sweet harrumphed. “Surely there must be more to what you like in a person?”

“Well, umm…” Silver looked up at the ceiling and stuffed a few chips in her mouth. What did she like about Home Run? Silver figured she would list off Home Run’s good points. After all, those would be things she liked about Home Run. “Er, they would have to be… caring? Protective. Umm, they’d have to be… uh, c-cute…” The girl blushed and looked back down.

Sunny also grinned and looked away from her.

“Man, who would’ve known Ebony Wings’ daughter had such an adorable side to her?” Lemon Zest pinched at Silver’s cheek. “You get embarrassed so easily!”

“You’re such a moe, Silver,” Indigo smiled. “Getting a date should be no problem for you if you’re like that.”

“Umm, what’s a mo-yee?” Silver tried to repeat the word. She hadn’t heard of it before.

There was a faint sound of laughter from outside. None of the others reacted to it, so Silver guessed it was because of her more sensitive ears that she was able to hear it. She wondered where it had come from. Perhaps the owl.

“It’s an innocent girl in Eastern cartoons.” Indigo took her goggles off and spun them around one finger. “You’re just like that, Silver. Guys love this type of girl.”

“Innocent, huh…” Silver found that to be ironic. She couldn’t really think of any instance in which she was still innocent. She was only here because she had killed the CHS computer teacher, after all. Not that she felt guilty at all for doing it. He had tried to kill her aunt and even her mother. No one was going to take away family again.

“Okay, I think that’s enough about boys and relationships.” Sugarcoat waved her hands. “We are here to study, after all, and we’re not giving Silver Rose a good impression on what a study session should entail.”

“Aww, can’t we talk a bit longer,” Lemon whined. She walked over to Sunny’s desk and picked up the framed Fast Bender picture. “You know, this reminds me of a Copperrear song. ‘Look at this graph’!”

“Hey, put that down!” Sunny said, waving her hand at Lemon.

Chapter 77 - Exams and Summer

The rest of the final week of class went by relatively quickly, with Silver Rose doing her best to listen in class, taking down a lot of her final notes. She had also gone to the baseball championship semifinals and finals, mostly just to support Home Run. The semifinals were rather uneventful, nothing like the previous game against that Coltorado school. When it came time for the finals, she found that it was Canterlot High against Crystal Prep.

It was ironic, with her sitting there in her Crystal Prep uniform, supporting the other school.

It had been quite the drawn out game, and there were plenty of tense moments, but somehow, just somehow, Canterlot High was able to pull through and secure their first ever victory against Crystal Prep.

Silver had to stop herself from jumping up and cheering for Home Run and his team, and had to try even harder to stop herself from running out there to be with him.

Besides studies and classes, and the massive baseball games, Silver also had a side of Sunny Flare to go with it all, meeting her in the restroom twice in the week. She remembered what her aunt had warned her about doing, so she refrained from making Sunny climax, though she did feel up the girl a little. And she had a lot of kisses, seeing as she liked them.

And she had gotten more on Saturday as well when she met up to study her calculus work with Home Run. After reviewing everything she needed to know and trying her best to remember it all, Moonglade had another steamy kissing session, dragging Home Run to a secluded corner of the library to make out, telling him it was a reward for winning the baseball championships. She had really enjoyed it.

And that had been her final week before the exams.

Silver Rose now sat in English class, with her exam paper before her eyes and her pen in her hand. It was a nice pen, she thought. Smooth and cool.

The first part of the exam paper was multiple choice and focused mainly on the various poems they had studied in class. Silver made sure to choose the answers that had something to do with prison. She knew not all the poets referred to prison, but it was better than nothing if she really couldn’t figure out a better answer.

And then came a comprehension segment, with her having to write down thoughtful answers of questions about the short story she had to read there. She just sighed and scribbled down what she thought was correct. The exam was proving a lot harder than she had anticipated, but on the upside, at least she wasn’t suffering as badly as Sunny would.

The desk behind her was still empty, seeing as Twilight Sparkle had transferred over to Canterlot High. Silver couldn’t help but wonder how the girl was doing.

Next came the dreaded essay question, which asked about the comparison between poets and prisons.

“For real?” Silver muttered and pushed on.

The first segment of the history exam proved no problem for Silver as she flew through it, stopping only at the bits about Eastern history. She was more familiar with Canterlot history and Romarenian history, seeing as her mother had a great deal of influence during a good portion of both periods.

Perhaps I should have asked Aunt Ivory to teach me some Eastern history, Silver thought, but then shrugged and continued on with the test. Too late now.

Canvas Splash sat close by, busy working on her exam. From the corner of her eye, Silver spotted her good friend doodling all over the paper, having little square men and aliens all around her paper.

Good ol’ Canvas… Silver smiled and continued to work on her questions. She was glad she had a friend like Canvas, even if she was a bit weird.

“The Showyou period… Showyou…” Silver rubbed at her head. She couldn’t recall whether they were the ones responsible for making the bows or the throwing stars. “Confound it…”

In the end, the young girl went with bows and went on, not bothering to look back to check her answers. What was the point of checking if she didn’t know the answer?

The chemistry exam was almost no problem for Silver at all, with her already knowing plenty of formulas from her training with her mother in alchemy. It looked like there was no stopping her as her hand flew across her exam paper, scribbling down all the answers.

There was even a bonus question, and Silver smiled as she filled it out. A little trickier than the rest of the exam, but in the end it was no match for her. She completed the test in half an hour and leaned back in her chair, feeling rather pleased with herself.

Now able to take a look around the room, she spotted Indigo Zap bent low over her paper, busy tapping the side of her head with her pen, trying hard to recall something; beads of sweat were already forming at the side of her head.

Poor Indigo. I guess that’s why she should’ve talked less about boys and more about scientific methods.

Sunny didn’t look like she had any trouble too, looking as calm and composed as she usually did, working on her paper at a steady pace. She was one of the smartest in Crystal Prep and a member of the Shadowbolts, after all. Sunny was truly a smart human, except when it came to English, the only language she spoke.

Rhombus… Hahaha… Great work, Sunny…

Silver smiled to herself. That was definitely something everyone was going to remember forever.

And so Chemistry went by rather quickly, with Silver playing with her pens to pass the time.

“What an exam. What a piece of cake, I mean.”

The home economics exam was almost like a joke to Silver as she wrote down her answer to question twenty-seven. Some of the questions were so easy it was like she didn’t even need to be in class to know the answer.

“Question twenty-eight,” Silver read it out to herself in a whisper. “What is the use of an oven?”

She snickered quietly to herself and wrote the answer down. This exam was just ridiculous.

There didn’t seem to be a practical portion to this subject’s exam and she was pleased about it. If she had been asked to cook something or clean something, she definitely would have been in hot water. But no, it was only a written test, and that suited the changeling just fine.

Jet Set was next to her, going through his exam just as easily as she was. Mrs. Pot must’ve really wanted them all to pass with flying colors.

Silver had enough time to finish her exam and wonder whether Jet Set and Upper Crust had rolled in the hay with each other yet. As she watched, Jet Set pulled out a photograph and looked at it. It made her laugh. Quietly, of course. It was a picture of him and Upper Crust, both wearing clown suits at a carnival.

Perhaps they hadn’t rolled in the hay yet.

But then again, they were still in high school. By right, they shouldn’t even be screwing each other yet, like the young changeling had done with Sunny, or like Crystal Lullaby and Shock Coil. Comparing herself with those two, hers didn’t even really count.

Picturing Shock Coil thrusting into Crystal made her daydream about the day she and Home Run would finally do it.

Oh, Home Run… Just you and me… Mmm...

Then the young changeling shook her head and blushed. This wasn’t the time or the place to be having such vivid thoughts.

Instead, she decided to focus on scaring the life out of the two lovebirds and then the black eye she had given Cold Forecast. It was gone now, but at least the memory of punching her would still last.

“Sweet…” That night was something the young changeling was never going to forget.

The computer exam was almost as easy as the home economics one, with everything being super simple with the exception of the programming portion.

Silver Rose found herself staring at a squarish yellow figure on the screen, called Fernando. She had to input different sets of codes to make him do as the instructions for each question asked. She had gotten through the first four questions relatively quickly, but now she found herself staring at the fifth one, unsure of what to type in.

Darn Fernando. Who even programmed this to be programmed by us? Why couldn’t it be easier?

Silver didn’t quite know the right code, so she just tried a few different ones, but got errors for all of them.

The young changeling wanted to just pick up the computer and throw it across the classroom, preferably out the window, but that was probably something Mr. Blue Screen wouldn’t like.

In the end, she opted to skip the question and move on, further enraged when she found the sixth question even harder than the fifth.

Just great… And to think this class wasn’t going to be a problem…

When Friday finally rolled around the corner, Silver found herself at her final ordeal, the final challenge, the final obstacle standing in her way from victory.

Her calculus exam.

The young changeling had prepared day and night to ace this one and after the computer exam yesterday, she had gone straight home to add more knowledge to her head, trying to get in that last minute studying to succeed. She had even texted Home Run all night and she was glad he had been willing to stay up with her to help her.

Of course, she hadn’t told him she was rushing to learn more, because of her exam today.

The young girl watched Mr. Dee Wit pace around the room, checking each student’s papers as they busily worked on their formulas and equations.

Out of the whole week of exams, this one was certainly the most difficult. Silver didn’t even need to get halfway through the paper to know that. It had already been twenty minutes and she was still on question two. Things weren’t looking good at all.

You can do this, Silver. You’ve been working the hardest on this. You can get this done. Trust in yourself, girl.

The changeling groaned and picked up her pencil again, taking one more look at the same question. With a deep breath, she began scribbling down what she thought was the right answer, hoping the method she had in her mind was the right one.

Home Run will be so proud right now if he knew how hard I was trying… Oh, but then he doesn’t know that I’m Silver Rose too.

Silver fought on, using the thought of being with Home Run to fight harder than ever, wanting to do as much as she could. She owed it mostly to him for getting her this far. Sunny and the others had helped too, and her extra tutor had also done quite a good job, but it was Home Run who had given her simpler ways to remember her work.

I owe him a kiss tomorrow. No. A few hours worth of kisses.

Whether she knew if it was right or not, Silver wrote down everything she could think of, deciding that an answer was better than no answer. At least that way, she could show that she had tried.

Looking at the clock, Silver shrugged and made it to the last page of the exams, where all the word problems were. Cracking her knuckles, she made out what she could and completed the exam just as the bell rang.

“Your time is up.” Mr. Wit returned to the front of the classroom. “Stop writing and pass your papers forward.”

Rubbing her right wrist, Silver handed her paper down the row, sighing with relief that she had managed to complete the exam paper at the literal last second. It was over. It was all finally over and she had vanquished the final and hardest of them all.

“Relieved, huh, Silver Rose?” Sound Wave put his headphones back on his head. “I sure am. School’s out! Rock on!”

“Yeah… It was tough, but it’s done…” Silver leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. “Ugh, I feel like my head’s about to explode…”

“Well, maybe go get yourself a ginger beer or something,” Sound Wave suggested. “Kick back and relax. That’s what I’m going to do.”

“Huh. Sounds like a good plan, Sound Wave.”

When all the papers were in front, Mr. Wit collected them and stacked them nicely on his desk before picking up one of his markers.

“Now class, with this exam done and with the weekend right around the corner…” Mr. Wit smiled. “I’m pleased to say your summer break is finally upon you. Now, unlike your English teacher, I’m not giving you any homework over the break.”

Silver cheered along with her classmates. She really didn’t want to have to do math when she was supposed to be having a good long time to rest and relax. She did have a reading from Ms. Script. She had to finish an old book called, One Thousand Years of Companionship, and write a report about it, but that didn’t seem too hard.

“And so… With everything settled here…” Mr. Wit pulled back, then tossed his marker hard to the opposite end of the classroom. It bounced off the wall miraculously and landed on top one of the fan blades. Everyone was awed. “Have a good break and I will see you all when you return! Happy summer, everyone.”

The room emptied faster than a cooler full of soda on a hot day. Silver was among those to rush out of the school and throw her arms wide, head tilted back.

“It feels so good to be free!”

Sure, she had really enjoyed coming to school and leaving home, but now there was going to be a break from homework and calculus.

“You can say that again, Silver!” Indigo gave her a friendly punch on the shoulder, then stretched her arms wide like Silver had done. “Nightmare slain!”

“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a nightmare, but sure, Indigo,” Silver chuckled. “Going anywhere for the break?”

“Yes, actually.” The athlete nodded. “My family’s thinking of heading up to Docklin to see the sights. It’s going to be great!”

“Docklin, huh? Well, I hope you have a great time there. Take some pictures for the rest of us, won’t you?”

“Sure will.” Indigo slung both straps of her backpack on her shoulders. “Well, I’m off first. I’ll see you around, Silver Rose!”

The young changeling waved to her friend as she ran off, jumping up once further away and punching both her arms skyward. It was nice to have friends.

“Siiillllvvvvveeeeerrrrrr!” It was Canvas Splash, who threw herself against the pink haired changeling, wrapping her arms around her in a rib crushing hug. “School’s over! Exams are over!”

“Yeah… I… know…” Silver gasped, still wrapped in Canvas’ arms. “Canvas.. Can’t… breathe!”

“Oh, oh, sorry!” The artist let her go and grinned. “Any plans this break, Silver? Oh! This is your first school break, isn’t it? That’s awesome!”

“I’m sure my mother can think of something,” Silver said, already wondering if Aunt Ivory would take her to Manehattan now that school was no longer an issue.

“You wanna hang out sometime?” Canvas asked happily. “You’re my best friend, after all. I mean, as long as it’s after June. I’ll be in Prance until then, touring the art museums.”

“By yourself?” Silver knew Canvas had no other friends. “How about family?”

“Oh, they’re coming too. I mean, my Prench isn’t all that good, but my mom’s Prench, so she can do the speaking for me.”

“Hey, that’s neat. You never told me your mother was Prench.”

Canvas shrugged. “You never asked. But now you know! My dad’s from Canterlot. He runs a printing shop. My mom’s the other artist of the family. She paints too! Just like me!”

Silver nodded and smiled. She knew Canvas didn’t have any siblings, so that was her family. “Nice to know your parents are in your line of work too. Must be nice to have parents like that.”

Silver Rose didn’t think she would ever take up her parents’ line of work in acting, seeing as she had severe stagefright, so that was already out the window for her.

The two of them chatted on, until Silver noticed a familiar black car pull up next to the school.

“Well, looks like it’s time for me to go, Canvas. Have fun in Prance, and take lots of pictures, okay?”

“Gotcha, Silver! Sketchy and I will do our best!” Canvas leaned in for one more hug, before skipping away. “See ya, Silver!”

Silver walked up to the car sniffing at the air, but just as she reached for the door handle, she smelled someone familiar behind her. She turned around.

“Oh! Sunny Flare. Hi!”

“Hey, Silver.” Sunny had one hand on her bag’s strap. “Going home already?”

“Well, yeah. Can I help you with something, Sunny?” Silver leaned closer, just enough that Sunny could smell her strawberry scented breath.

“Well…” Sunny said hesitantly. “I was wondering if sometime you’d like to come over or something. I mean, it doesn’t have to be my house! We can go catch a movie or something… heheh.”

“Oh, you mean like…” Silver lowered her voice so no one else would hear her. “Like a date?”

“Umm, umm… yeah.” Sunny’s cheeks blazed a bright red. “Just you and me. H-How does that sound?”

“Sounds great, Sunny…” Silver thought maybe she should kiss her, but then they weren’t exactly in a private place, so a pat on the shoulder sufficed. “Just get back to me on when you want to… hang out, okay?”

“Sure will, Silver.” Sunny nodded with a smile. “You, uh, take care, hmm? Enjoy the break.”

“You too, Sunny. I’ll see you around!” And Silver got in the car, closing the door behind her. “School’s out, Aunt Ivory!”

“Yes, yes it is.” The older changeling adjusted her rearview mirror. Silver could see the corners of her mouth curved up into a sinister smirk.

“Umm…” Silver felt her arm hair stand up. “Did I do something wrong, Aunt Ivory…? Your smile’s kinda… creepy.”

“Well, you didn’t have sex with that Sunny Flare today, yes?” Ivory looked up at Silver from the rearview mirror.

“N-Nope.” Silver shook her head and belted herself in. “I didn’t see her today until now, just outside the car.”

“And so you are not in trouble, sweetie.” Ivory revved the engines and sped away from Crystal Prep Academy. “I’m pleased to say the plan has already been put into motion.”

“Plan?”

“My brilliant plan to help the sirens regain their magic, of course!” Ivory said. “This morning, I ordered Adagio to deliver the now-finished invitations to Sunset Shimmer. In a little over two weeks, we’ll meet and have ourselves a little discussion over tea and crumpets.”

“Oh, that’s cool, Aunt Ivory.” Silver looked out at the passing streets happily. Finally, they were going to do something about the siren problem. “And I thought it was lemonade? Not tea?”

“It’s just a saying, sweetie. I picked one of the hottest days of the year to host the picnic, so them drinking the lemonade is all but assured. It’s foolproof.” Ivory finished smugly. “Now, I believe your mother has something planned for celebrating the last day of the school year.”

“Oh. Umm, cool. It doesn’t involve you two… um, getting intimate, does it?” Silver closed one eye, flinching from her imagination.

“Relax, sweetie,” Ivory chuckled and overtook a row of slower cars. “I already settled your mother’s want for me this morning after you left. I suppose that’s why she’s in a rather good mood and wants to celebrate.”

“Ri-ight…”

The rest of the drive home was spent in pleasant silence, with nothing but the car’s engine punctuating the silence. Soon they were driving up the hill to the estate, and Silver Rose gaily skipped out of the car and indoors.

“I’m home!” she called, happily heading through the house.

“She’s home!” Silver heard her mother exclaim from the first floor living room. When she rounded the corner, her mother and the sirens were already there waiting, with her mother picking her up and spinning her around in the air before tossing her into one of the couches.

“Oof!” Silver landed against the soft furniture, almost knocking it over.

“Now, we can celebrate!” Chrysalis picked up a bottle of wine. “To the beginning of your summer break! Where’s your aunt?”

“I’m here.” Ivory Wings walked in behind her sister, wrapping an arm around her waist. “I left Silver Platter to park the car. I wasn’t going to miss out today.”

“And I wasn’t going to start without my sweet sister.” Chrysalis pulled Ivory’s face in for a kiss on the lips, much to Silver’s disgust. “Mmm. Now come, let the party begin!”

And then she popped the cork on her wine bottle and held it high.

“No more school.” Aria smiled at the corner of her mouth for a second. “I thought it would never end…”

“How do you wonder you did on your exams, Aria?” Adagio smirked and raised her glass of soda. “I don’t recall you studying one bit.”

Aria Blaze folded her arms. “You didn’t either.”

“I don’t have to. You and Sonata, on the other hand…”

“Are you comparing me to Sonata?” Aria said, creases forming on her brow.

“Yeah, I studied.” Sonata raised a hand and sipped from her juice box. “Aria didn’t.”

“Hey! I probably still did better than you.” Aria roughly messed up her sister’s hair.

“Hey!”

“Girls, please.” Ivory split them apart, holding them away from each other. “We aren’t here to fight today. We’re here to celebrate. So please, let’s celebrate.”

“Yes, come, have a drink.” Chrysalis swooped around, handing each of the sirens an empty glass. “It’s time we kickstarted this party. Then later perhaps me and my sister could-”

“No, Chryssie.” Ivory cut in. “I promised your daughter, there’ll be none of that sort today.”

“Really?” Chrysalis gave her daughter a sour look. “I can’t just have a bit of fun?”

“Umm…” Silver looked around the room.

“I’m joking, snowdrop.” Chrysalis handed her a glass. “If that’s what you want, then for now, I’ll agree to it. This is a celebration for your school break, after all.”

“And no alcohol for her, sister.” Ivory Wings wagged a finger. “She’s underage.”

“Fine.” Then she uncorked the bottle. “But the sirens aren’t.”

“Yes, we’re technically older than you two, remember?” Adagio smirked and held out her glass.

“Wait, you are?” Silver blinked a few times.

“Why, of course.” Silver didn’t think Adagio’s face could get any more smug. “When we first met your mother and aunt, they weren’t even a millennia old, while we had been around for plenty.”

“Let us ignore the past and look ahead, girls.” Chrysalis poured wine into each of their glasses. “We don’t need to bring all that up.”

Silver found it weird to see the sirens with alcohol. They looked like they were only her age. Underaged, in fact. But to hear that they were indeed older than even her mother… She didn’t know what more to think, but she figured that was the case when you lived in a family of non-humans.

“Here, sweetie.” Ivory picked up a packet of juice and tossed it over. “You can drink this.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks, Aunt Ivory.” The young changeling put down her glass and stabbed a straw into her juicebox.

Chrysalis drank from her glass, then set it down, scooting over to her daughter’s side.

“So, have you thought about what you’re going to do with all this free time?” she asked with a smile. “I mean, you’ll still have private lessons, but I imagine that without school, you must have some idea of what you want to do.”

The young princess drank from her juicebox, swallowing before speaking. “I won’t still have the extra ones, will I?”

The queen put a hand to her chin, then nodded. “I think it would be best to keep the math one for now. You really need help on that. Though, I think twice a week will suffice.”

Silver sighed, but her mother was right. She only wished it could be Home Run helping her instead. “Yes, mother. Will I… will I be able to go out more during this break?”

“Hmm…” Chrysalis tilted her glass of wine from side to side. “Alright, Silver. You may. I figure you could do more hunting if I allowed it.”

“Thank you, mother.” Silver tried not to sound overexcited about it.

She was really looking forward to spending more time with Home Run. And then there was Sunny Flare as well now. She promised Sunny she would. And she wasn’t going to fall in love this time. She promised her aunt and mother as well.

“Yes, well, let us forget about everything else now and enjoy the celebration.” Chrysalis downed her glass and then reached for the bottle. “There is plenty to drink and so little time.”

And so Silver Rose smiled, excited how her first summer break was going to go. There was so much she wanted to do and so much she wanted to see. She hoped there would be enough time to do it all.

Chapter 79 - A Glimpse of Father

Moonglade was again hesitant to walk into the dark room all by herself, unsure what was even in this one, but she did hope it wasn’t another overdone shrine to her mother.

“There are no such thing as ghosts, Moonglade,” she told herself. “They’re only pretend. You can go in, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

The young changeling balled up her courage and walked in, though a bit slowly, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the space. The room wasn’t as big or long as the previous secret one, but as her eyes got used to the space, she could see racks and racks of weapons, positioned against the walls.

“Wow, why does Aunt Ivory need so many weapons?” Moonglade touched a war axe on the blade. It was still quite sharp for an old weapon.

And then her ears picked up something. A small scuttling sound, coming from somewhere behind her. On instinct, the young girl jumped back and darted her eyes around, the sound around her suddenly amplifying in her head.

“W-Who’s there?” she called out, not expecting anyone to answer back. She didn’t even know why she bothered asking.

When nothing happened, the girl resolved to walking further in. She didn’t know why she was doing so. Right now, all her senses were on high alert, not knowing what else was lurking in here with her. What if it really was a ghost?

Silly Moonglade. Ghosts don’t exist, remember?

If anything, perhaps one of these weapons would do her some good. Shrugging to herself, Moonglade plucked a warhammer off the wall, grasping its handle in both her hands, holding it beside her head like a bat. It was a strange looking warhammer, its head shaped in a circle instead of a square, but right now, any weapon made her feel safer.

And then suddenly, out of the darkness behind one of the racks, something slithered out, moving towards her like a tendril of shadow.

Moonglade shrieked and swung the hammer, screwing her eyes shut at the same time. Everything went by in such a flash that she always didn’t know what had happened, but she had taken a few leaps back and her hammer had impacted a rack of what looked like halberds. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the floor, with sharp pains in her left shoulder and right side, the hammer rolling away on its round head, out of reach.

“Nnngh!” Moonglade felt down at her side, feeling something sharp coming out of her body, her hand coming back with blood. Every breath sent a spike of pain through her body; the halberd sticking out of her shoulder didn’t help with that either.

The young girl tried to get up, but it was too painful to do so. She considered pulling them out, but she couldn’t muster up the guts to do it.

Tears began to form in her eyes from the pain, but she still couldn’t get up. She did the one thing she knew how to do. Call for help.

“A-Aunt Iv-ory…!” she cried out.

It wasn’t long before her aunt was by her side, already crouched down beside her, one hand running soothingly along Moonglade’s cheek.

“Shh, sweetie, I’m here. I felt your pain and I rushed right over.” Ivory looked down at the weapons. “How did this even happen?”

For once, Moonglade was thankful changelings could sense each other’s pain. Back then, when she had felt her aunt’s and mother’s, she wished that they couldn’t. It had hurt pretty bad.

“Nngh, something si-illy…” Moonglade choked. “Something on the floor sca-ared me… H-Help, Aunt Ivory… It h-hurts…”

“We’re going to have to pull them out.” Ivory grabbed the first halberd tightly. “Are you ready?”

“I don’t think- AAAAAAAHHHH!” Moonglade screamed as her aunt yanked out the sharp tip in her side.

“Hush now, sweetie, the first one’s out. Use your love.” Ivory went back to caressing her head to calm her. “It’s okay. I’m here with you. Just relax and breathe.”

Moonglade did as her aunt said, focusing her love energy to heal the wound on her side; soon, it became easier to breathe again.

“Okay, next one, sweetie. Ready?” Ivory took the next halberd in her hand.

“Wait- AAAAHHH!” Moonglade yelled as the halberd detached from her shoulder. Thankfully, this one hadn’t been as bad.

In no time, her shoulder was healed as well and the young changeling sat up, rubbing at her side. She wasted no time and throwing her arms around her aunt, glad that she had been here.

“It’s okay now, sweetie. You’re fine now.” Ivory rubbed her back soothingly. “You have to be more careful, okay? Like I said, there aren’t any ghosts. Especially not in my home.”

“B-But there really was something. I saw it coming towards me. I swung that warhammer at it and it did nothing.” Moonglade pointed to her weapon in the corner.

Ivory looked at it, then chuckled. “That’s not a warhammer, Moonglade. That’s a mace.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Oh, they’re very different, little one.” The older changeling gave Moonglade’s head a pat. “Now come on, up on your feet. You’re getting your outfit all dusty.”

“So what do you think it was?” Moonglade did as she was told, dusting off her skirt with her hands. “Something was definitely in here. If it wasn’t a ghost, what was it?”

Ivory looked around for a while, then sighed and laughed. “I think it was this little cretin, sweetie.”

She reached over and grabbed something and it suddenly began squeaking. Moonglade could tell it was a rat before it got close enough to see.

“You have rats in your home?”

“I don’t know how it got in,” Ivory Wings said, looking puzzled. “This room is sealed, and my penthouse is on the top floor. Maybe our little culprit climbed through the ventilation or something. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to throw it off the balcony.”

“What, you’re going to kill it?”

“Hey, I survived, maybe it will too.” Ivory walked to the door of the hidden armory. “And you might want to wash the blood off. If your mother finds out you got hurt…” And then the older changeling disappeared around the corner.

Having enough with the dark room, Moonglade quickly scurried out and went back downstairs to look for a bathroom. Her jacket and shirt now had tears in them, and that made her upset. These were going to the trash when she got home, and then she was going to have to get more of this jacket and shirt as well. Luckily she had at least six more back home.

The bathroom wasn’t hard to find and in no time, Moonglade had her shirt and jacket off, scrubbing at them in the sink, trying to wash the blood off, though it was terribly difficult. The young changeling was also dismayed to know that one of her bra straps had been cut by the halberd as well, now hanging in two pieces by her arm.

“Just great, isn’t it?” She sighed. Walking to the door, she shut it before unbuckling her bra and examining the cut strap in better detail. It looked like it could be stitched back. Perhaps Aunt Ivory would be able to help with that later. “What a blow to my fashion, huh? Silly Moonglade. There aren’t any ghosts. You’ve told yourself that plenty of times, and still you’re scared of them. Ha. You’re scared of something that doesn’t exist. Good job. Real good job.”

She looked at her skin in the mirror, eyeing the charcoal colored skin where she had healed her injuries. If anything, she always knew where she was injured, even after healing herself. There was a circular spot on her side where the halberd tip had punctured her and there was the slash mark on her shoulder where a one with an axe head had fallen on her.

And also, since she didn’t have anything on her upper body at the moment, the young changeling took the time to admire her body in the mirror before getting back to washing the bloodstains from her clothes.

It wasn’t too bad on her jacket, seeing as most of it was red, but the bloodstains were extremely obvious on her white shirt and they wouldn’t come off.

“Come on, come on…” the girl grumbled to herself.

She couldn’t hear her aunt outside the bathroom, but she was sure that if anything happened, she would be here in a flash. That was one good thing about being a changeling, she supposed, that family was never really far away. She scrubbed some more, but the blood remained on her shirt.

“Think, Moonglade. What would Silver Rose’s home economics teacher tell her to do in a situation like this?” Then she narrowed her eyes at herself in the mirror. “I bet she would just burn it.”

Obviously, burning her shirt wasn’t an option right now, that is, unless she wanted to go home without a shirt. She would never live it down if she did that, especially if someone were to see her.

“Guess I’ll burn it when I get home.”

Seeing as nothing else could be done, Moonglade turned off the tap and hung up her shirt and jacket on a dust-coated bar to dry off.

Not sure on what she would use as a substitute, Moonglade slipped her one-strapped bra back on before pulling one of the towels from a nearby rack. As soon as she did, a cloud of dust puffed up into the air, filling the bathroom and making Moonglade shut her eyes and cough them out of her mouth.

“Ugh, gross, someone really needs to clean all this!” She waved a hand in front of her face.

When she was done coughing, the young changeling wrapped the towel around herself, covering up most of her upper body. She looked at herself in the mirror again and sighed. The towel was covering her skirt, but visible past the towel was her single bra strap and her black stockings. She looked like a walking fashion disaster right now, but at least it was better than walking around naked.

“Well, I guess that’s that…” And she went over to the door and left the bathroom.

Moonglade heard sounds of muffled movement upstairs, which must have been her aunt. A couple of minutes of searching later, as it was quite a big house, she found Ivory Wings moving a bunch of large cardboard boxes that had rolled up pieces of parchment and paper in them, all of them neatly tied with string.

“What are these, Aunt Ivory?”

“Oh, these?” Ivory Wings grunted, lifting and carrying another box out of the closet. “These are star charts. I need them to predict when the next blood moon will be.”

“Blood moon?” Moonglade knew what her aunt had told her, but how would a blood moon help?

“Yes, a blood moon. When the red moon is high, that’s when we changelings are the strongest. A blood moon brings about power, potential, and magic. I’m hoping I can use it to help the sirens.” Ivory Wings looked at her niece and clucked her tongue. “Now that kind of outfit will never do. Go to my room, it’s the third on the left down that corridor, and get yourself one of my t-shirts or something. Wandering around with just a towel is just unseemly.”

“W-Well, I have more than just a towel on…” Moonglade mashed one foot into the floor. “But yes, it’s terrible fashion. Third on the left, down the corridor. Got it, Aunt Ivory.”

“Nyeh.” Ivory remarked, then went back to moving her star charts. Occasionally she would undo the string around one of the scrolls and scan its contents before rolling it back up and stuffing it back into its box.

Moonglade didn’t pay attention to the rest, finding her aunt’s room on the left, shutting the door behind her and dropping the dusty towel to the floor beside her feet. She looked around. This was her aunt’s room. It was one of the guest rooms, but she had decorated it with dozens of wooden dolls, each one artfully painted and dressed like a miniature human, though they were all covered in so much dust, the young girl had trouble distinguishing their features. Some of them held miniature weapons or tools that seemed to add to their personality. There were shelves and shelves of the dolls, and each one’s glassy eyes seemed to follow Moonglade as she looked around for the closet.

“Which one contains the t-shirts…” Moonglade threw closet after closet open, only to be greeted with the sight of more dolls. The t-shirts would probably be all dirty as well, but she figured it was better than a dusty old towel.

At some point during her search, the tickling of the cut strap on her arm irritated the girl so much that she decided to do away with the piece of underwear as well, tossing it over to where she had dropped the towel. It was just going to be a bother to leave it on anyway, at least for now.

Finally, the fourth door she threw open revealed stacks of clothes, all in muted colors. The top layer of clothes was a little dusty, so Moonglade picked out a shirt that was underneath some of the other that looked and smelled relatively clean. Relatively was relative. There were also several outfits hanging at the side, on racks. There was a green silk kimono, a set of purple and maroon hooded robes, and, most curiously, a charred and burned set of something in black that she couldn’t quite make out the original shape of, it was too damaged and worn.

“Everything alright in here?” Ivory Wings walked into the room, smiling as she saw the dolls. “Oh. I see you found my executioner’s outfit. I always meant to get rid of it, but I couldn’t because Pierce Network was still alive. I guess now I can.”

“A-Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade’s arms quickly shot across her chest and her face turned red. “You-you didn’t knock!”

“Well, yeah. This is my room.”

“But I-I’m not…” Moonglade crouched down embarrassedly. “I’m not wearing anything on t-top. C-Could you turn around?”

Ivory chuckled, but did as her niece wanted, walking over to the towel and picking it up, along with Moonglade’s bra. “I don’t even know why you took this off. You can still wear it, one strap or no.”

“It was irritating me.” When she was sure her aunt wasn’t looking, Moonglade stood back up and put on the shirt she had taken from the pile, which was a musty blue t-shirt with a little white speech bubble on the front; the shirt almost covered all of her skirt. “Okay, you may look now, Aunt Ivory.”

“Right.” Ivory dangled the piece of white underwear in her hands. “I can stitch this back for you if you want, otherwise we could always buy a new set for you.”

Moonglade figured stitching it back would work better. “If you could, yes please.”

“Right, I’ll work on it.” Ivory dusted the towel her niece had used and moved for the door. “Why don’t you go watch the TV or something? I’ll still be a while.”

Moonglade pulled at the bottom of her large shirt and shrugged. “Sure, Aunt Ivory.”

“If you need anything, just give me a call, sweetie. I’ll come right back.”

“Mhm.” The young changeling went back downstairs, looking for the living room she had seen earlier. She found it quite easily. The living room was at least three times larger than the living room back at the Wings Estate, and it was tastefully decorated in black and white furnishing. There was a massive, wall sized TV dominating one end, and several cream couches facing it. There was even a small fridge in the corner.

“Umm, let’s see here…” Moonglade picked up the remote on a short coffee table and hopped back into the couch right in front of the TV. She flicked the screen on, which brought her to a black screen first. “Hmm, source… Which one does Aunt Ivory have for her TV channels?”

Moonglade began pressing random buttons, taking a look through her aunt’s various ports. She had six HDMI ports, which was two more than the TV they had back home on the second floor.

The young changeling eventually found the channels on the second HDMI port, instantly dropping the remote and covering her ears when a metal music band began screaming and shredding their guitar strings.

“Loud! Too loud!” Moonglade speared one hand for the remote and quickly changed the channel. Any channel was better than this right now.

The next channel she flipped too was the complete opposite. On the TV screen, she now saw a man with a strangely round hairstyle, painting a serene image of a flooded forest on a canvas. It reminded Moonglade of her friend, no, Silver’s friend, Canvas Splash.

“And add another tree here so that the first tree doesn’t feel lonely,” the man on the screen said to himself. That made Moonglade wish she would have people to hang out with all the time, but of course, she didn’t. Not all the time, anyway.

“I wonder what Canvas is doing right now?” She tapped her chin a few times. “Probably drawing or painting something, no doubt.”

However, the painting program soon proved to be too sleep-inducing and Moonglade changed the channel again.

This time, an old film was showing. At least that was what the information panel said. Filmed about twenty years ago and starring an actor called…

“Crescentlane?” Moonglade said in surprise. “Father?”

The movie was called The Seventh Sense, and the director was a man whose name she found incomprehensible.

“Sha… Shei… Shy… whatever.”

She was more interested in seeing her father, seeing as she had no idea what he even looked like.

The film began with a man walking into a room, holding a stack of papers. He had light blue skin and grey hair, but what got Moonglade’s attention were his eyes. His eyes were blue, blue like hers.

“Father? Is this him?” She inched forward in her seat, just in time to see a man with a gun show up on screen, pointing it at her father.

And then, he shot Crescentlane before turning the gun on himself.

“What? Why?” Moonglade scratched at her head.

The next thing she knew, her father was already back to work in his psychiatric ward, as though nothing had happened earlier.

She wasn’t sure if he indeed was her father, but she could see the similarities. They had the same nose and forehead, and definitely the same eyes. She didn’t know how she could tell, but she could feel that this man on screen was Crescentlane.

“Why would mother hide you from me, father?” Moonglade continued to watch the show as a young boy was introduced. “Why would she not want me to know who you were?”

But at least now she knew what her father looked like and that actually made the young girl feel a little happy. She had always wanted to know.

Crescentlane looked to be quite the handsome man. Moonglade knew that was one reason why her mother had married him.

She continued to watch the movie, pulling up her legs onto the couch and leaning forward, more interested in her father than the actual plot. It seemed that the boy her father was talking to was able to see ghosts or something. Moonglade shuddered at the thought. She didn’t want to see any ghosts and she dreaded them appearing in every dark room she walked into. And this kid could see them everywhere he went? That was a really scary thought for her.

And then there was a loud crash from somewhere upstairs, making Moonglade jump in her seat and squeak. She turned around just in time to see a few boxes tumbling down the staircase, followed by a harrowed looking Ivory Wings.

“You okay, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade called over from the couch.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine, sweetie.” The older changeling adjusted her spectacles. “Just carrying too many things. Well, at least I’ve found them all.”

“Do you need any help?” The young girl continued to look over the couch.

“No, no, everything’s downstairs now, hmm?” Ivory tucked some of her snow white hair behind an ear. “What are you watching there, sweetie?”

“Oh, an old movie. It’s called, umm…” Moonglade tried to remember the title. “Something about sense. But that’s not so important! Father’s in this movie, Aunt Ivory!”

“Fath-Father?” Ivory was instantly beside the couch, her eyes now fixated on the TV screen. “Yes, there’s no mistaking Crescentlane. You know, It was a shame he had to die. At least he was a better actor than your mother. I thought perhaps he had met an accident back then, but in the end, with your mother involved, I should’ve known sooner. Of course, if I had been around, I should have been the one to finish him,” Ivory sighed. “Your mother shouldn’t have to dirty her hands with such a mundane task.”

“Why do you think mother would want to hide him from me?” Moonglade looked at her aunt. “What is there to hide, even?”

“I don’t know, sweetie. You know your mother can be… difficult at times.” Ivory went around the couch and sat down beside her niece. “Perhaps she just doesn’t want you digging for him and wondering why he isn’t around today.”

“But I’ve been wondering all these years. I still am. Well, at least now I know what he looks like.”

“Mhm, yes you do, sweetie.” Ivory put an arm around her niece’s shoulders and inhaled. “And your happiness doesn’t taste too bad.” Ivory Wings glanced at the TV screen. “You have his eyes, you know. Not counting the whole slitted pupils thing, I mean.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Moonglade watched as her father looked through a stack of reports.

“You know, I think I’ve seen this film before,” Ivory Wings said mildly, going over to the fridge and returning with two glasses and a tall bottle of amber liquid. “It was rather popular back in the day.” Ivory set the glasses down on the coffee table and poured out the liquid into both of them. “Cider, sweetie?”

“This is not alcohol, right?” Moonglade swung her legs back and forth as she watched the liquid fall into the glasses. “I’m not supposed to be drinking all that yet.”

Ivory Wings glanced at the back of the bottle. 4.7% alcohol.

“Yeeeeeaahhh,” She said slowly, scrunching up her mouth and looking away. “Not alcoholic at all.”

Shrugging, Ivory passed Moonglade one of the glasses. She sniffed the drink once, then took a sip. It tasted faintly of apples, but had a funny, almost chemical aftertaste, and it burned slightly on the way down.

“Umm… It’s warm. Am I supposed to feel warm inside?” Moonglade patted her chest. “I thought we changelings don’t feel heat.”

“I don’t think it’s that kind of heat, sweetie,” Ivory said, taking a gulp of her own drink and swirling it around in the glass. She then drank the rest of her glass and poured herself another.

“Are you sure there’s no alcohol in this?” Moonglade took another sip.

“This movie was filmed before Crescentlane met your mother, wasn’t it?” Ivory Wings said, leaning forward on the couch and sipping her drink. “I was still getting used to being back on this side of the world at the time, so I didn’t quite get a say in who she should or shouldn't marry.”

“Did you know about him? Father, I mean.” Moonglade sniffed at her glass of cider and frowned at it. There was something fishy about this drink. “Do you know what he was like?”

“Unfortunately no. You would be better off asking your mother, but I somehow don’t think you’ll get much of an answer from her either.”

“Aw…” Moonglade pouted. “She hasn’t told you too?”

“Not much. Just that he was a strong, healthy mate that she married to ensure the best possible offspring.” Ivory Wings finished her drink and poured another.

“Oh, just like that, huh?” Moonglade rubbed at her arms. She took another mouthful of her drink and shuddered as it slipped down her throat. “Uhhh, should I really be drinking this…?”

“Okay, you know what, maybe that’s enough.” Ivory took the glass from her niece and finished its contents. “I realize it might not be so pleasant if your mother finds out what you’ve been drinking.”

“So it was alcohol?” Moonglade’s face paled.

“Eh, just a little bit. Probably not enough to affect your system.” Ivory Wings picked up the bottle and drank down the rest of it. “Ahhh... That’s some good-smelling, if useless, beverage. It doesn’t even taste that nice.”

“No wonder it smelt and felt weird. You don’t think mother’ll notice the smell, do you, Aunt Ivory?”

Ivory shrugged and put the empty bottle down on the coffee table with a clunk. “Probably? We can just tell her I spilled some on you or something.”

“But you don’t spill things, Aunt Ivory.”

“I’m not what I used to be, little Dea.” Ivory looked back over to where her boxes were left. “If I can drop boxes, I can spill alcohol, yeah?”

“I guess.” The young changeling shrugged and went back to watching her father on the TV.

Now he was traveling around with the boy, solving ghostly mysteries or something. Moonglade didn’t quite get the movie and the only reason she was still watching it was because her father was in it.

“Won’t it be funny if he was actually still with us today,” Ivory Wings chuckled and hugged her niece close to her with one arm. “Like Silver Platter and the maids, just that he would actually be your father instead of some lowly servant. Perhaps that’s why your mother got rid of him. She only keeps servants around.”

“Yeah…” Moonglade watched her father smile at the boy. Perhaps it would’ve been nice if she still had him today.

“Imagine that,” the older changeling chuckled. “Your father, a servant of the Queen. Won’t that be something, being a servant of his own wife.”

“Yeah, though her own daughter being a servant is okay for her…”

“Uh huh… It’s getting late.” Ivory stood back up and stretched her arms up. “I should probably get all my charts and clothes over to the car. Why don’t you finish watching the movie? Then we can go.”

“Oh, sure, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade smiled at her aunt, then looked back at the TV.

This was some time she could spend with her father, even if he wasn’t really here, and she did like the feeling of it, and so did Ivory Wings.

Chapter 80 - Discourse

Moonglade tried to look calm and collected as she walked through the front doors of her home with her aunt, with the maids and Silver Platter coming out to help carry Ivory Wings’ various boxes out of the car.

The young changeling still had on the shirt she had borrowed from her aunt, with her bra, shirt, tie and jacket tucked nicely inside a little satchel her aunt had brought along. They had also stuffed quite an amount of scented flowers in the satchel as well, hoping it would mask the smell of her blood.

The maids and Silver Platter dutifully took the boxes to Ivory’s room, while Moonglade and Ivory Wings went for Moonglade’s room instead. However, in order to get to the stairs, they would have to pass through the parlour. And standing in the parlour, with a canvas and paints, was Ebony Wings. She was wearing a smock and held a palette in her hand, and was in the process of painting a bowl of onions.

“And here are my daughter and my sister back from their little expedition,” Ebony Wings said without turning away from her artwork. “So, how was your day?”

“Oh, uh, it was fine. Aunt Ivory showed me all her historical artifacts,” Moonglade offered.

“Oh, really. That sounds nice,” Ebony said, putting down the brush and walking over to the bowl, where she picked up an onion and examined it, polishing the vegetable on her sleeve. “What is that smell? And no, it’s not the onions, it’s coming from you.” She then took a bite out of the onion, chewing thoughtfully. “Smells like a funeral home.”

“Oh, uhh, it’s just…” Moonglade tapped on the satchel around her shoulder. “Just some things Aunt Ivory got from her place.”

“Yes, that’s some of my supplies, sister. They were light, so I gave it to her to carry in.” The white haired changeling swooped in and grinned.

“Hmm…” Ebony narrowed her eyes, then pointed a thumb at her daughter. “And what is with this dreadful fashion? An oversized t-shirt and those leggings? And… Are you… Are you not wearing a bra?”

“Oh, here we go…” Ivory sighed. She stepped forward. “We were, um, cleaning my penthouse and it got a little too warm in there.”

“Uh huh…” Ebony took another bite out of her onion. Moonglade didn’t quite like the smell, but it was manageable. “And you didn’t put it back on after?”

“Well, the washing machine wasn’t quite working at my place…” Ivory Wings said, shrugging. “Didn’t want your daughter to put on sweaty clothes, so I lent her one of my shirts. Simples.”

“You could’ve lent her a better shirt. This is so unsightly. And you didn’t think to lend her some underwear too? What if someone saw her like that?”

“No one saw her, and my size is different from hers,” Ivory answered. “And really? All my shirts are nice.”

“Not when you put it with those leggings.” Ebony eyed Moonglade’s legs.

“Umm… Maybe I should’ve taken them off too?” Moonglade smiled sheepishly.

“Yes, you should’ve. You took the rest off because you were sweaty, so why didn’t the stockings come off too?”

“My uh, my legs weren’t feeling all that warm…” The young changeling rubbed at her right arm.

“Hmm, whatever the case, you’re due for a wardrobe change, dear.” Ebony Wings finished up the onion she was holding. “We might not feel the heat, but we’ve got to keep up appearances. You can’t be going around in that red jacket of yours in the middle of summer.”

“Ummm… Yes, you’re right, mother. Yeah.” Moonglade sighed internally, glad the subject had changed. “I’ll, uh, pick out something from my wardrobe later.”

“See to it that you do. For both personas.” With her part said, the actress returned to painting her bowl of onions. She picked up an arming dagger from off the wall next to her and began to mix the paints with it. “Hm. Needs some more phthalo blue.”

“Come on, before your mother starts questioning you again.” Ivory nudged her niece and motioned to the staircase.

Moonglade didn’t need to be told twice. In a record-breaking time, she was in her room, with the door shut behind her and Ivory.

“Phew, it could’ve gone worse…” The young changeling fell atop her bed with a bounce.

“I think the flowers did their job. Now, I suppose we’ll need to re-dye the bits of you that got wounded, then we’ll pick out a summer outfit for you.”

“Mhm. I’ll be right back, Aunt Ivory.”

The young changeling slipped into her bathroom, picking up the appropriate dye from her little basket on her counter. She removed her stockings first, seeing as she didn’t need to be wearing them anymore. She should’ve known better and removed them earlier. Even her mother was smart enough to pick out that she was still wearing her stockings after changing out her top.

Next, Moonglade removed her aunt’s shirt, taking a second to admire herself in the mirror again before applying the dye on the spots she had been wounded. The wounds hadn’t been very big, at least not on the skin’s surface, so there wasn’t much more dye the young girl needed to apply. When she was done, she slipped her aunt’s shirt back on and smiled at herself in the mirror.

All set.

Soon, she threw her bathroom door open, walking back into her room to see her aunt picking out clothes from her walk-in closet. Ivory Wings was holding on to a white shirt with a pink bunny imprinted on it, her red Discourse shirt, and a white tank top with Moonglade’s insignia on it, which was a grassy field with a full moon above it.

“I think the white matches you better, sweetie.” Ivory looked over the few clothes she had in her hand. “You?”

“I dunno. I thought maybe something darker would work better?”

“It is true that your hair and skin are of a lighter color already…” Ivory put back the two white tops back into the closet. “How about this one then?” She held up the red Discourse shirt.

“Silver Rose has been the one wearing that.” Moonglade pointed. “Maybe Silver Rose can continue to wear that and Moonglade should go out in something else.”

“Hmm…” Ivory Wings disappeared back into the closet.

Moonglade sat down on her bed and waited, taking Mishter Schniffs and putting him on her lap, playing with his wings.

In no time, her aunt returned, now holding two very different tops.

“How about this one, sweetie?” Ivory smirked and held up a short black top that ended just above the navel. “I know Home Run will like this one.”

“I-I don’t even kn-know why I have th-that one!” Moonglade’s face turned red and she hid it behind Mishter Schniff’s form. “I-I w-would never wear something like that out in public!”

“I figured…” Ivory chuckled and put it down. “How about this one, then?”

The older changeling raised a simple orange top with a lion head printed on the front.

“Looks promising.” Moonglade’s aunt grinned. “Feels like there’s glory to be won with this one.”

“Mmm, yeah, this one’s okay.” Moonglade nodded. It didn’t look too bad. Orange seemed to go well with her skin. “Yeah, I think this will do, Aunt Ivory.”

“Okay.” Ivory tossed the shirt onto the bed. “Now for a bottom. Let’s see if we can find a nice skirt…”

She disappeared back into the closet. In no time, she was back out, holding Moonglade’s signature black skirt.

“I actually see no problem with this one, sweetie.” She dangled the piece of clothing in her hand. “What do you think? You’ll just have to do away with the stockings and boots, but I think you can stick to this.”

Moonglade shrugged. She did like that skirt. It was comfy, besides being fashionable as well. “Sure, Aunt Ivory. I’ll continue to wear this.”

“So that leaves footwear…” Ivory rubbed her chin. “I would suggest sports shoes, seeing as you’ll be able to run in them if the need arises, plus, they’re padded inside, so they’re usually very comfortable.”

“I think I have a pair in there somewhere.” Moonglade tried to recall. She remembered her mother buying her sports shoes about two years ago, but she hadn’t really worn them since.

“These?” Ivory said, holding up a pair of white and red running shoes. “Not to put too fine a point on it, sweetie, but I think you’ve outgrown these.”

“I grew so much in like, two years?” The young changeling stuck out her feet and wiggled her toes.

“Good question. Hmm. I suppose you can have mine. Not like I’ll be needing any sports shoes any time soon. Wait here.” And then she was out the door in a blur, taking the small shoes with her. In less than a minute, Ivory Wings was back, carrying with her a pair of black and white sports shoes, dropping them by Moonglade’s feet. “Give them a try.”

Moonglade removed the scrunched up newspaper that was inside the shoes and slipped her feet in. It was remarkably comfortable inside, and she walked up and down her room, trying to see if there were any problems. After six lengths, she concluded that there weren’t.

“These are just fine, Aunt Ivory,” She took the shoes off and placed them next to her bed. “Did you know that we have almost the same shoe size?”

Ivory Wings shrugged lazily. “Lucky guess? I’m not the biggest fan of changing outfits to suit the weather that we can’t even feel, but we have to keep up appearances for the prey, yes? Especially you.”

“Oh. Yes.” Moonglade said dutifully. “The prey; of course.”

“Well you don’t have to sound so unenthusiastic about it,” Ivory said reproachfully. “You hunt, we all eat. Isn’t that something to smile about?”

“I-I guess, Aunt Ivory.” The girl looked to the side. She just wished it could be more than that.

Ivory Wings squinted at Moonglade for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, that takes care of your summer outfit. I have to get back to my star charts and see to the food for my picnic with Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle. Come get me if you need anything. Ciao!”

And she was gone in a blur again, leaving Moonglade to brood by herself. She had her outfit settled at least, but her aunt had brought up that sour topic again. Food and prey. After being out there amongst her friends and Home Run, she really didn’t like seeing it like that. They were friends, not food, but of course, to her kind, they were nothing but fodder.

“Don’t you like Home Run too, Mishter Schniffs?” She picked up her plushie and flapped his wings. “He’s a nice boy.”

“A very tasty boy too,” Mishter Schniffs replied. “Though that Sunny Flare comes close in the competition. She’s so eager to feed you, it’s hard to believe you two started out as enemies.”

“Oh, it sure is, isn’t it?” Moonglade hugged her plushie close. “But I promised mother and Aunt Ivory. I won’t fall in love with Sunny. I won’t make that same mistake twice.”

Moonglade pushed at her new sports shoes with her feet. Even the outside was relatively comfortable to touch.

“At least you acknowledge it as a mistake,” Mishter Schniffs remarked.

“Well, I don’t think it’s a mistake myself…” Moonglade pulled at Mishter Schniffs’ cheeks. “But mother and Aunt Ivory do, so I have to try to avoid doing it again.”

“Remember, the queen, your mother, knows what’s best for you. Follow her directions and you will not falter,” the plushie said. “Of course, your aunt has your best interests at heart too, so make sure to do as she says.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Moonglade looked over to her opened closet and adjusted her glasses. “Well, I guess this is the new Moonglade attire. I wonder how Home Run would take it.”

“Why don’t you take a picture of yourself and show him?”

“Oh, why not indeed, Mishter Schniffs.”

Moonglade set him down and took out her phone. After putting on her orange shirt and making sure her hair was in order, Moonglade smiled at her own phone’s camera and snapped a picture. Then she flipped it back around and sent the image to Home Run, along with a short question underneath it.

What do u think?

“There, that’s sent.” The young changeling put her phone back in her skirt pocket and leaned back on her bed. “I hope he likes it.”

“Did you remember to use the right phone?” Mishter Schniffs asked.

“Of course, I’m no amateur, you know? I’ve had plenty of months to practice.”

“Uh huh.” Her doll sounded rather unconvinced.

“Well… Here we are anyway. The beginning of my first summer break. I wonder what I’m going to be up to…” Moonglade looked out the window and tried to picture herself having fun.

“Lessons, that’s what I know,” Schniffs said from beside her.

Moonglade glared down at her plushie. “You really know how to kill the mood, you know that?”

The plushie said nothing.

“Hmph.” Moonglade looked back outside. One thing she did want to do was go to the beach. She had heard a lot about beaches, but of course, she had never gotten the chance to go.

She closed her eyes and pictured herself prancing about the sand with Home Run. She decided she was going to build a sand castle, and she had done so in the end, although she did it atop a mound she had buried Home Run under. They both threw their heads back in laughter, before sharing a few kisses.

Then Moonglade shook herself out of her own imagination and sighed. She wasn’t actually at the beach and daydreaming about it would only make her more impatient.

“How about we save these thoughts for when we actually go out there, hmm?” the young changeling said to herself and chose to think about something else.

Thoughts about her father soon came to her mind, about how her mother had seemingly erased him from existence, at least until today. She knew why her mother had to dispose of him, but she still didn’t get why she wasn’t allowed to know about him. That part just didn’t seem to make sense.

“A lot of what you do doesn’t make sense, mother.” Moonglade played with her hairband’s flower.

And then she remembered her grandfather. Her grandparents were likely still alive and with this long summer break, maybe she would get to go see them. That is, if her mother would allow it.

“Perhaps I could ask Aunt Ivory. Maybe she could convince mother to let me.”

Whatever the case, there was so much to do and see during this break and Moonglade couldn’t wait to start.

Chapter 81 - A Different Kind of Show

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 81 - A Different Kind of Show

Sunny Flare stood outside the movie theater, anxiously rubbing her upper arm, waiting for Silver Rose to show up.

She didn’t deny she was a little nervous and sweat was starting to form on her forehead, and it wasn’t because of the summer heat.

This was going to be her first date with Silver and she wanted things to go well. One thing she was constantly doing was to check her attire to make sure she was still presentable. Sunny had on a light blue t-shirt, a purple skirt, and sandals. She had thought about her footwear for a long time before leaving her home, but in the end, she figured it wouldn’t be cold enough in the theater to need covered shoes. She did bring a pink jacket just in case she were to get cold inside, at least.

Another thing she worried about was what she was going to say to Silver. She didn’t know why, but it seemed more difficult now than it did before. Perhaps it was because they were actually going to start going out now, but she didn’t know why that made her worry more.

Eventually, she spotted the pink haired girl wandering over to her, dressed in a grey t-shirt and a red pleated skirt. She had covered shoes on, which made Sunny a little uncomfortable that she had decided on her sandals.

“Hey, Sunny. Did you wait long? Sorry for the wait. I had some last minute change with the wardrobe.”

“N-No, not so long.” Sunny kept her eyes on Silver’s white shoes. She felt out of place. “Umm… Sh-shall we?”

Sunny walked alongside Silver as they both went over to the ticket counter. After a few minutes of contemplation and discussion, the two girls decided to see a movie called, The Skilfull Six, which was some kind of old west movie.

“This is exciting, isn’t it, Sunny?” Silver giggled as they walked over to the theaters. “Our first date, huh?”

Sunny nodded, watching Silver as they went off to present their tickets to the attendants.

She watched the girl’s skirt flap to her movements, hoping it would lift high enough each step so that she could see Silver’s panties. Alas, it never went high enough.

Eventually, they arrived in the theater, finding their seats at the last row. Sunny liked being at the back. It gave you a better view of the movie screen, unlike the front seats. She had sat up front once with the other Shadowbolts. She had neck cramps for a few days after that.

“So, cowboys, huh?” Silver crossed one leg over the other. Sunny gulped, watching those slender appendages eagerly. “I’ve read about them, but this is the first time I’ll be seeing one on screen.”

“Oh, really?” Sunny asked, wearing a smile on her face. “I’ve seen plenty. This one’s supposed to be funny too, according to the genre.”

“Yeah, but there aren’t many people here, huh?” Silver directed the mulberry haired girl’s attention around the rest of the theater. They were only thirteen other people in here with them, scattered all around the theater. “Maybe the movie didn’t do so well.”

“Hmm. I guess we’ll find out soon, huh?” When Sunny determined they were far enough from everyone else, she slipped one arm around Silver’s and leaned closer to the girl. “And th-thanks, Silver. For agreeing to go out with me.”

Silver turned her head to face Sunny and gave her a somewhat unsettling smile. “Anytime, Sunny.”

And soon, the room dimmed, and the first set of adverts began to play. There was one on a shampoo Sunny used, which was actually a rather comfortable one. After that, there were various adverts on clothing items and sports gear, which Sunny didn’t particularly pay attention to. It wasn’t like she needed anymore of those.

After all the ads and the movie trailers, the logos of the companies began to roll, followed by an old fashion whistle, like in all cowboy movies.

“Ooh, here we go,” Silver whispered happily, patting Sunny on the hand.

The movie began with a lonesome drifter riding into town on his horse, all while the same whistling music played as the townsfolk stared at the newcomer. He was only just about to get off his horse next to a saloon, when something seemed to be rising over the horizon, covering him and the immediate area in shadow.

Everyone joined him and looked up, forgetting about the newcomer as the whistling began to get louder. Sunny giggled as Silver Rose put her hands to her ears, affected by the shrill whistle.

“What is going on with the sound, seriously?” Silver gritted her teeth.

“It’s okay, it should be gone soon.” Sunny leaned her head on Silver’s shoulder. “Just hang in there.”

And as Sunny had predicted, the whistling stopped. And then the camera cut to a giant cowboy standing just behind a mountain range, one hand on his hat, and a cunning look in his eyes.

And then with a mad grin, the giant cowboy began to scream his lungs out, sending shockwaves across the small town, shattering the few windows each building had. This time, Sunny’s hands also shot to her ears, trying to stifle the scream coming from the cowboy’s mouth.

He was really going for it, Sunny could tell from the way his face was strained.

What a way to start a movie…

A carriage even flipped over from his powerful voice, sending the horse tumbling over a blonde haired woman, crushing her.

Everyone began scattering, retreating back to their houses, but even some weren’t safe. The roof of a barber shop collapsed, likely killing everyone inside.

The main character scrambled about, trying to get somewhere safe, but there didn’t seem to be one.

How is anyone going to escape that voice of his? He’s shouting them apart!

Most of the other people in the theater also had their hands over their ears, except for a fairly large man and his girlfriend or something, seated two rows in front of Sunny and Silver. He was busily chucking popcorn into his mouth instead.

And then from the sky, a huge rock suddenly struck the giant cowboy in the face, stopping his voice. The main character took the chance to scramble onto the saloon, pointing his revolver out one of the broken windows and began firing at him.

Then from really out of nowhere, this woman in gladiator armor ran out, her red cape flowing behind her, a large slingshot in her hands. She and the main character began assaulting the giant cowboy, before he finally decided to retreated, disappearing behind the mountain range.

“So, uh… what kind of movie is this exactly?” Silver whispered over.

“Now I really have no idea…”

The two of them continued to watch as the cowboy main character and the gladiator woman began trekking across the sand, wanting to stop the giant before he could kill more people with his voice. Eventually, they found a third companion, which was an older man in a miner’s outfit, carrying a pickaxe. Sunny guessed they were forming the Skilfull Six now.

Unfortunately, this whole segment was lacking in many areas, but action was one. It was just so bland that she almost fell asleep twice.

Instead, Sunny decided to turn her attention to Silver, who still had her eyes on the screen. Silver Rose was just so pretty. Sunny didn’t think it was just the girl’s looks that attracted her, but that was a lot of why she liked Silver.

She just wanted a glimpse of Silver’s underwear, or even better, the things she had behind the underwear. Silver had got to see her body before, but Sunny realized, she still had yet to see what Silver looked like without clothes on. She’d only ever imagined it, but she didn’t know if it was any different from her real body. She really wanted to know.

Sunny began to blush as one hand began creeping down, crawling on her fingers towards Silver’s right thigh. With all the thoughts in her mind right now, the mulberry haired girl couldn’t control herself. She began to feel a warmth spread across her lower regions as she placed her hand on Silver’s thigh, caressing it softly.

That got the mauve-skinned girl’s attention and she looked over. “Sunny? What are you doing?”

“I, umm… I just…” Sunny didn’t know what to say, but she knew what she wanted to do.

Slowly creeping her hand up Silver’s soft, but toned thigh, she gently pulled up the girl’s red skirt, her heartbeat growing faster in her chest as she anticipated the lovely sight under Silver’s skirt.

And then there it was. Silver’s panties, illuminated only by the scorching sun over on the movie screen. In the dark, Sunny could tell she was wearing a pair of black ones today. She couldn’t quite see it in detail, but she knew it was there.

“Mm…” She reached her hand out, gently stroking two fingers along the fabric. Sunny inched closer, separated from Silver only by the armrest, her knee now touching hers.

“Sunny, shouldn’t you be… watching the movie?” Silver whispered, but then was cut short when Sunny found her weak spot. “Mm- aahh…”

Sunny Flare pressed down on Silver’s clit, feeling the flesh under the layer of black fabric. It felt so nice to touch that Sunny felt her own juices began to pour from her opening.

Aw no…

Using her other hand, Sunny sat up a little and pulled at her panties, bringing them down to her knees, far enough to avoid it getting more wet. She was really thankful there weren’t any people in their row. Someone would surely catch them in the act otherwise.

“May I… May I see…?” Sunny lowered her fingers and stroked Silver’s opening. She really wanted to know what Silver’s pussy looked like.

“Mm… umm… s-sure…” Silver now had her eyes closed and her breathing had grown heavier. “But umm… someone might see…”

“No one’ll notice,” Sunny assured, then hungrily peeled at Silver’s panties, pushing it to the side.

Beneath the black fabric, Sunny finally had the chance to see Silver’s beautiful slit. It was everything she had thought it’d look like, glistening with a light layer of her own juices.

“It’s so pretty, Silver…” Sunny looked up into her eyes.

“Is it…? Heheh...” Silver smiled awkwardly. “I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory.”

“What?”

In a flash, Silver leaned in and pulled Sunny’s face in for a kiss, not answering the question.

Sunny’s hand left Silver’s opening and reached behind her back to hold her close.

“Mmm, tasty, but we really shouldn’t be doing this here…” Silver said after their lips separated. “What if someone turns around?”

“We’ll, uh, just not have to be obvious. The seats in front should cover most of our bodies.”

“Well, if you say so, Sunny.” Silver smiled.

Sunny was about to start touching Silver again, but then she felt something penetrate her womanhood and she gasped sharply, one hand shooting to her mouth.

The fat man in front turned around, but thankfully, he was so large, he couldn’t fully turn to face them.

The scene on the movie screen was still of the three main characters walking around and it just so happened to be at a quiet point when Sunny gasped.

The mulberry haired girl looked down, finding one of Silver’s fingers underneath her skirt, moving slowly inside her pussy.

“Mmm… aahh… aaahhh… Silver…” Sunny leaned against Silver Rose’s shoulder, her breathing ragged and heavy.

“And I thought you didn’t want to be caught…” Silver smiled slyly at her. “You need to keep your voice down, Sunny.”

Sunny writhed on the spot, her hips grinding against Silver’s inserted finger, trying to extract as much pleasure as she could. “Oh, oh, oh, oooohhh…” she groaned.

“Not so loud, Sunny…”

Silver smirked and put another finger in, sliding it up to the knuckle. Sunny shuddered, letting out a squeak. Fortunately, the characters on the screen chose that moment to have a loud argument deciding on whether to take a fourth companion or not, their shouts drowning out Sunny’s moans of ecstasy. The fourth member looked to be a Eastern girl with short hair, but besides her looks, Sunny hadn’t paid enough attention to the movie to know what she could do.

“You have to be quiet, Sunny,” Silver whispered in her date’s ear. “Unless… you like to be watched. Do you?” Silver punctuated this with a subtle curl of her index finger, eliciting an electric buzz in Sunny’s body. Sunny put her fist in her mouth and bit down on it.

“N-No… I do-on’t…” Sunny pressed her back against the seat and moaned into her hand. “But you-you’re just so goooood…”

“Yeah, me and my mother used to practice this sort of thing when I was a kid,” Silver said casually. Sunny’s eyes opened and her legs went limp with shock.

“Only joking!” Silver said with a giggle. “But hey, you really clamped down hard on my fingers.”

“Oh, ha… right… You got me…” Sunny chuckled nervously, looking down between Silver’s legs. Since the girl was turned to face her, Sunny could see under her skirt and her panties were still pulled to the side, allowing her a wonderful view of Silver’s nethers. “You’ve really got such a pretty, um… spot down there, Silver. I’ve never seen a better one… I mean, not that I’ve seen many.”

Silver blinked, seeming surprised at the compliment. “Why, thank you,” she said with an earnest smile. Sunny thought she felt Silver’s fingers grow hot for a second, almost unbearably so. Then the moment passed and Sunny whined in want as the fingers withdrew, then slid back in again.

“Nngh… Don’t… stop, Silver…” Sunny hugged Silver close and shut her eyes, enjoying the moment.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Silver whispered back. On the screen, a somewhat standard chase scene was going on, with the music swelling and crescendoing as the characters pursued one another.

Sunny only had a quick glimpse of what was going on before closing her eyes again, biting on her lower lip to muffle her gasps.

By now, Sunny had begun to forget about her surroundings. She lifted both her legs up onto the seat and pulled her panties off, placing them in the cupholder on her right.

“Deeper, Silver… mmm…”

“Umm, I can’t Sunny. This is as deep as I can go.” Silver demonstrated by pushing her knuckles against Sunny’s moist opening.

“Oh, umm…” Sunny’s cheeks turned redder. “Just… keep up what you’re… nnnmmhh… what you’re doing…”

Sunny leaned against Silver, hungrily stroking her back and her butt as Silver pumped her fingers in and out of her pussy, the squelching sounds growing louder. At least the movie had gone back to an action scene, drowning out the wet noise easily. There were plenty of gunshots and people falling over things, but that was as much as Sunny knew without looking at the screen.

And then Silver slipped one hand under Sunny’s shirt, going all the way up to her left breast, her fingers going underneath her bra too.

“Mmm… aahh, yes…” Sunny moaned and lifted Silver’s skirt from behind, rubbing at her butt with both hands.

The two girls’ lips met in a sensuous kiss, melding against each other softly as the movie played on, lost to them both. Sunny really liked Silver Rose’s kisses. She really felt like the two of them were meant to be together.

“You taste really nice, Sunny…” Silver breathed when their lips separated. Her fingers under Sunny’s bra took ahold of her nipple and tweaked it. “You always do.”

“Mmm… yeah…” Sunny kissed Silver again. “H-Harder…”

“Umm, sure. As you want, Sunny,” Silver whispered. Her fingers pinched harder on Sunny’s nipple, while her other hand began to thrust in and out much rougher.

“S-So good…” Sunny gripped tighter onto Silver’s rear.

“You really, um, like this kind of thing, huh?” Silver licked Sunny on the neck. The mulberry haired girl felt her tongue travel down her slender neck, leaving a trail of saliva behind it. It felt a bit icky, but she wasn’t paying too much attention to it to mind. “I’m curious, Sunny, but… do you, erm…” Silver began to stutter. It was rather cute. “Do y-you do, umm… s-stuff like this at h-home?”

“Aahh… ahh… What do you… mean, Silver?”

“Do you uh…” Silver began to look embarrassed, and Sunny felt like maybe she knew where this was going.

“Do I… mmm… masturbate, you mean?” Sunny finished for her.

“Uhh… ye-es…” Silver gave her a really awkward smile. “That. Do you…? While thinking of me? Oh, why did I even ask this question…?”

“Mmm… well… I do, Silver. Um, occasionally…” Sunny confessed, feeling the seat under herself getting soaked in her pouring juices. “Nngh… when my… thoughts of you… nnghh… get too strong.”

“You’re a naughty girl, aren’t you?” Silver began kissing Sunny on her neck. “Doing such things…”

“Aahh… I am… I’m so naughty…”

And Sunny didn’t know where it had all come from. Before meeting Silver Rose, she had masturbated very rarely, and Domino Ace had broken up with her because she hadn’t wanted to go further in their relationship. With Silver, she had started the relationship by already doing something as indecent as having sex in the chemistry storeroom. She had never thought of doing such things with Domino, hence why he broke up with her. That made her wonder whether her ex-boyfriend had sex with Ginger Owlseye daily or not.

“I think you need to be punished… Don’t you?” Silver playfully kissed her way up Sunny’s neck and back to her face, where their lips met in a long and drawn out kiss.

The movie now lost to Sunny, she reached down to the bottom of her shirt and pulled it up, keeping it above her breasts. Silver Rose smiled and nodded, then lifted Sunny’s bra higher, now exposing her bare breasts to anyone who would turn around.

“Mmmgghh, suck it, Silver, please…” Sunny arched her back into the seat, moaning with pleasure as her right hand groped at her own breast.

Her heart was pounding against her chest now, threatening to burst out as her other hand moved to her mouth to try and stifle her voice. She didn’t know what she was doing, being like this in a public place, but she couldn’t stop. It felt too good to just stop here.

Maybe I do like being watched? Or maybe it’s just the fact that I could be caught any time…

Sunny couldn’t deny that she felt a little exhilarated.

Silver kissed Sunny on the lips one more time before bending lower, her face now leveled with the mulberry haired girl’s left breast. And then, as she continued to move her fingers inside Sunny’s pussy, she leaned in and licked the tip of Sunny’s perky nipple, sending a jolt of pleasure through Sunny’s body.

Sunny bit down on her tongue to keep from crying out, and glanced at the screen to distract herself. On it, the main characters were engaged in a shootout with the giant screaming cowboy from the beginning, whose sonic blasts blew away parts of the terrain that they were battling in. He didn’t seem as loud as he was at the first part of the film, but maybe it was because her mind was elsewhere now. Then Silver’s fingers twisted deviously inside her, and all thoughts of the movie were forgotten.

“Aaah!” Sunny covered her mouth, sighing with relief that at least the screaming cowboy was louder than her cry.

And then Silver leaned in and began sucking on her breast, her tongue moving in circles around her nipple, twiddling it in her mouth.

On the screen, the battle ended as the giant cowboy screamed once more and then fled over the mountains. The leader of the group stood up and shook his fist at the sky, shouting vows of vengeance. Then it transitioned to night, where the Skillful Six were gathered around a campfire, discussing their next plan. In the distance, an owl hooted. It sounded like laughter.

In her seat, Sunny writhed and shook as Silver brought her ever closer to her climax. Thankfully, no one seemed to have heard her yet.

“Silver… I’m so close…!” Sunny held Silver Rose’s head against her body as the girl continued to suck on her nipple, and her hand moving in and out of her womanhood.

“That’s it…” Silver slid her fingers out of Sunny and pinched at her clit roughly.

The sudden touch on her most sensitive spot sent spikes through Sunny’s body as she began to convulse, kicking the seat in front of her, which was thankfully unoccupied. With one more pinch of her fingers, Silver pushed Sunny over the edge as she came around Silver Rose’s wrist, her juices pouring out and staining the leather seat she was sitting on.

“Mmm- aaahh… aaahh… haah…” Sunny breathed heavily as Silver Rose removed her hands from her body, wiping her soaked hand on the seat in front of her. “That was… sooo good, Silver… sooo good…”

Sunny looked down at herself after she had caught her breath. Her shirt and bra were still hanging above her breasts and her purple skirt was a little stained from her juices. She was a real mess right now.

“Glad you enjoyed yourself, Sunny.” Silver Rose licked at her fingers. For a moment, it looked as though her eyes were glowing, but then she blinked and it was gone. “I did too. You were especially tasty today. You really like doing it outside, huh?”

“Umm, uh…” Sunny rearranged her bra and then pulled her shirt back down. “N-No, no I don’t…”

“Heheh, right, Sunny…” Silver snickered, then covered her exposed vagina with her panties before straightening out her skirt. Silver really did have such a pretty pussy.

“Oh!” That reminded Sunny of hers and she quickly turned to the right, picking up her balled up panties from the cupholder there. It would be embarrassing if she forgot them again. It would be worse if someone were to find them here after the movie. This was no girls’ restroom and thankfully, Silver had taken them for her that day.

She quickly gave her slit a wipe before slipping her panties back on. Without competition, Sunny would say this was definitely the best movie experience she’d ever had. And so with their little session done, the two girls got back to watching the movie, moving a few seats down to avoid the wet seat Sunny had been sitting on.

By now, there were six main characters, and they eventually challenged the giant cowboy again, this time in a huge cave.

“I don’t even remember what happened since the beginning,” Sunny admitted, wanting to rearrange her hair, but stopped herself, remembering she needed to wash her hands first. Her love juices were quite sticky. “And there are six of them now.”

“Well, that’s because you were having such naughty thoughts, Sunny…” Silver leaned closer and held one of Sunny’s hands.

“Well, I… I… umm…” Sunny blushed and looked to the side.

“It’s okay, Sunny, really,” Silver chuckled lightly and leaned closer, drawing her tongue across Sunny’s cheek. “I like it when you’ve naughty thoughts. Just… maybe don’t do it so often? My aunt doesn’t like me doing things like this…”

Sunny shuddered at Silver’s tongue as it contacted her skin. “What was tha-that?”

“Oh, nothing.” Silver sniffed, then smirked at one corner of her mouth. “Something wrong? You’re a little edgy suddenly. Oh, is it my tongue?”

“Umm, well… Tongue’s aren’t, um… I’m not very comfortable with tongue use. It kinda… grosses me out.”

“Well you should’ve said something sooner, then!” Silver caressed Sunny’s cheek with her hand. “I wouldn’t have licked you so much if you didn’t like it.”

“Well, erm, um…” Sunny remembered the sensation on her nipple earlier, when Silver took it in her mouth. She didn’t like licking, yes, but it felt good then. “Y-You can lick me um…” Sunny prodded a finger on her breast. “You can do it here…”

“Aha, so you did like that.” Silver leaned closer. Sunny could smell her strawberry scented perfume right in front of her face now. “Well, I’ll remember your preferences. That way we’ll both enjoy ourselves more, huh?”

“Mhm.” Sunny nodded happily.

And so because they had missed a good portion of the movie, the two girls resolved to just making out for the rest of the film, more interested in each other than in actually watching the movie now.

“So I’ll see you, hmm?” Silver Rose gave Sunny a nice smile as they had to part ways.

“Y-Yeah…” Sunny’s cheeks were a bright red.

Silver inhaled, but she didn’t need to smell her to know that she didn’t want to leave her.

“Text me another date, okay?” Silver waved at her as she opened her car door. “I’ll let you know if I can make it.”

“Right.” Sunny nodded. “Umm, t-take care okay? I um, I love you, Silver.”

“Yup, see you soon, Sunny.”

And the young changeling got into the car, tossing her bag on the seat beside her before buckling herself in.

“You smell like you had fun.” Was the first thing Ivory Wings said to her as the car began to drive away from the cinema, with Sunny waving to them behind.

“Well, the movie was pretty good,” Silver said guardedly.

Ivory Wings took a deep breath. “And what was the movie about?”

“Er, um… cowboys...” Silver answered. That was true.

“Yes, I saw the poster,” Ivory said, looking back at Silver in the rearview mirror. “What was the plot about? Or were you occupied with some other plot?”

“I, umm… I…” Silver twiddled her thumbs together awkwardly. “There was a… screaming… cowboy, Aunt Ivory. Umm… And these six guys who had to… beat him…?”

“No point trying to hide it, princess, I could smell you from blocks away,” Ivory Wings said, looking unimpressed.

“Eheh… Right…” Silver blushed and looked at her feet to distract herself. “Ummm… I can explain, Aunt Ivory…”

“I’d like to see you try, sweetie,” Ivory replied coldly.

“Umm, well, the thing is, Sunny… she um… She kinda started touching me, and then, uh...” Silver sighed. “I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory. But she tasted really nice today.”

“I get that you’re hungry,” Ivory sighed. “But you can’t just go in for an all-intensive feeding just anywhere. We have standards, sweetie.”

“I mean… it wasn’t… that intensive…” Silver grinned sheepishly.

“Is that why your hands reek of Sunny’s scent then?”

“I mean, it’s just this one hand…” Silver lifted her right hand. “And umm… I d-didn’t get it anywhere else this t-time.”

“You’re really reaching here, you know that?” Ivory said, rubbing her face with one hand. “If you had gotten caught, I don’t think even your mother’s influence would have been able to save you.”

“Umm, we were in the last row, a-and, umm, no one turned aro-” Silver stopped when her aunt’s eyes narrowed at her through the mirror. “I-I’m really sorry I couldn’t control myself again, Aunt Ivory. Really, I’m trying, but Sunny’s just so… uh, she likes to… umm… you know.”

“Listen, sweetie,” Ivory said sternly. “You are the predator here, not Sunny Flare. You decide when to feed, not her.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory. I know…”

Ivory Wings sighed and pressed down on the accelerator. “Look. I know you’re probably tired of me telling you the same thing over and over again, but you haven’t applied it. So I’m going to keep telling it to you until you get it. Okay?”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory… I’ll… try harder next time.”

“You keep saying that,” Ivory Wings muttered. “Promises are lies until you make good on them, you know.”

Silver winced. Clearly her aunt was trying very hard to get her point across, and wasn’t pleased with her progress. Still, she just couldn’t help it. It was as though she were starving and a sumptuous banquet were placed in front of her. How could she say no?

“So, um, Aunt Ivory. Should I just say, umm… no? To Sunny, I mean. When she wants to… uh, you know… get touchy.”

“Yes. You stand strong. You say no. This is for your own good, Silver.”

“I… okay, Aunt Ivory… I’ll try that next time.”

The older changeling looked up in the mirror and nodded. “See that you do, sweetie. I’d hate to take your food away from you. Don’t let it resort to that.”

And so the rest of the ride back was spent in silence as Silver Rose contemplated her decisions. There was still much to learn in a hunt.

Chapter 82 - Meet the Rainbooms

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Chapter 83 - A Short, Sharp Lesson

“That was a great ride, Home Run.” Moonglade pulled the baseball player along after exiting the love ride attraction, so glad that she got to be alone with him.

It was actually a strange ride, with little chubby angels hanging around, shooting them with plastic arrows while on the walls as various displays of great historical romances played out. None hit them, of course, but it still felt like one would do so.

In the end, it wasn’t much of a exhilarating ride, but more of a relaxing one to spend with a special someone. Clearly she was not the only one who thought so, as she had been able to feed on the love of the other couples who were also on the ride. Tasty, but not as tasty as the love coming from Home Run.

“Soooo… your birthday is coming up, and I wanted to get you something special…” Moonglade continued as they walked.

“Oh, you’re right, it is!” Home Run looked at the date on his phone. “I can’t believe it. I’ve already been in Canterlot for six months. And you remember my birthday, Moonglade?”

“Well yeah, sure I do.” The young changeling twiddled her fingers on his. “Thirteenth June. It’s a special day. I won’t forget it.”

Moonglade’s mother had often told her that changelings had infallible memories, due to their innate copying ability. So remembering someone’s birthday was really no feat at all.

“Oh, but you know, you don’t have to get me anything,” Home Run told her. “It’s not like I really need anything right now.”

“Oh, but I should!” Moonglade skipped up happily. “Your birthday is a special day.”

“But really, you don’t need to.”

“I insist. Okay, okay, tell you what, pretend I’m not getting you anything, yeah?” Moonglade chuckled. “It’ll be a surprise, kinda like…”

Then she stopped him and turned him to face her. Moonglade leaned in and pressed her lips against Home Run’s, then separating with a slight hop in her step.

“Okay?” She grinned, a light blush spreading across her cheeks as some people turned to look.

“Yeah, okay…” Home Run couldn’t help but smile and send out more of his delicious taste.

They spent the rest of their time at the theme park together, going into a haunted house attraction, a merry go round, and two high speed roller coaster rides. Moonglade had almost lost her glasses on the last one, but she managed to catch them in time, before the rollercoaster could make its next turn.

As the sky began to turn orange, Moonglade walked out to the carpark with Home Run, still hand in hand. She had so much fun with him today, but sadly, all good things had to come to an end.

Moonglade had only just ended the call with Silver Platter when Home Run’s friends ambushed them, Rainbow Dash shouting loudly, making Moonglade jump.

“There you two are! We’ve been looking all over for you!” The rainbow haired girl slapped Home Run on the back.

“Were you?” Home Run asked, leading them over to a nearby vending machine. He threw some of his loose change inside and selected a drink. “I hope we didn’t worry you too much.”

“Nah, Sunset persuaded us to give you a little space,” Rainbow said with a laugh.

“I wish I could have been there…” Rarity sighed. “You two are quite photogenic together.”

“Oh, really?” Moonglade twiddled her fingers together. “And um, th-thanks again, Sunset. It’s… appreciated.”

“Don’t mention it, Moonglade.” Sunset gave her an almost half smile. “You and Home Run are good together. It’s the least I can do.”

Moonglade smiled back, inwardly wondering just what her aunt planned to do to Sunset. Just then, a long black car pulled into the carpark.

“Oh. Looks like my ride is here. So I guess this is goodbye?”

“Wait!” Rarity blurted out. “Can we take a group photo before you leave? Just for the memories, of course.”

“Ya want her to sign it too?” Applejack cracked with a wry smile.

“Oh, would you?” Rarity squeezed her hands together hopefully.

“I’m not sure you can sign a photo on a phone,” Rainbow said doubtfully.

Rarity fished around in her bag and pulled out a polaroid camera. “Not if I use one of these.”

“Ah guess one lil’ picture won’t hurt. Ya okay with this, Moonglade?” Applejack adjusted her hat. A small swarm of bats flapped overhead, enjoying the evening. Suddenly, there was a dark blur and an owl flew into view, snatching one of the bats up with its talons.

“Oh no!” Fluttershy trembled. The owl perched atop a streetlamp and began to eat.

“Now that’s what Ah’m talking about!” Applejack whistled. “Could do with a couple more o’ them owls on the farm, keep the fruit bats down.”

Moonglade looked at the owl for a second, but then got bored. “Umm… I gotta go, so do you want that picture or not, Rarity?”

“Oh, yes, sorry dear, come on, girls. Picture time!” She held up her polaroid.

Home Run sighed and put an arm around Moonglade’s shoulders. “Guy. There’s a guy here too.”

“Potato, tomato,” Rarity said. “Hmm, I suppose we need someone to hold the camera, don’t we?”

“Oh, I know,” Moonglade said, walking over to her car. She knocked on the driver’s side window, which buzzed down, and explained what she needed.

Silver Platter nodded and got out of the car, walking to where Rarity was. “Shall I take the picture for you, miss?”

“Yes, thank you so much!” Rarity handed him the camera and taught him how to use it while Moonglade and the others got into position.

“You don’t mind, do you, Moonglade?” Home Run asked her, deciding to hold her hand. “Taking a picture with my friends.”

“Well…” She tapped a finger on her chin and smiled. “I guess as long as you’re with me, it’s fine.”

When they were all assembled and ready, Silver Platter swiftly took two photos, with the faded images shooting out the front of the camera shortly after. Rarity accepted her camera back and shook the photos until the images finally popped up on them.

Moonglade didn’t know how they worked, but she didn’t understand why they needed to be shaken. Why couldn’t they just pop up instantly?

“Ah, these are lovely shots,” Rarity declared. Then she took a pen from her bag and pressed it into Moonglade’s hands. “Could I trouble you to sign them? Please please please please?”

“Right.” Moonglade smiled externally, but inside, she groaned with annoyance, though, she did it anyway. “Here. Umm, just don’t… don’t go waving them around, hmm?”

“Oh, no, of course not!”

“She’s going to frame them and hang them up, aren’t you, Rarity?” Rainbow Dash said drolly.

“Yes, I shall have them in my room, next to your sister’s autograph!” Rarity giggled giddily. “Now all I need is your mother’s autograph and my collection will be complete!”

Pinkie was suddenly next to Moonglade, shaking her hand. The young changeling didn’t know how she had done it so fast, but chose to leave it alone.

“Well, it was a pleasure to hang out today, Moonglade!” she said happily, her feet slowly lifting off the ground as she shook her hand. “Now that we know each other, we’re friends! If you ever need anything, you know where you can find us! I mean, maybe you won’t, but you can!”

“Likewise.” Applejack gave her a firm handshake after Pinkie was done trying to dislocate her shoulder.

“Uh huh.” Fluttershy, the quiet one, nodded. “I had fun.”

“Thank you ever so much for the autographs, darling. Come by my boutique sometime, I’m sure I can put something together for you.”

She owns a boutique? Wow.

“Or maybe come round to one of our band practices,” Rainbow Dash smirked. “We’ll treat you to one hay of a performance.”

“Umm, yeah, sure… We’ll see.” Moonglade didn’t mind music, but she didn’t know what kind they played. She hoped at least they weren’t the loud kind.

“Yeah, take care, Moonglade.” Twilight Sparkle smiled and shifted her glasses up her face. “And say hi to your sister for me. I used to sit behind her in class, if she remembers me.”

Oh, she does remember you, alright. Moonglade laughed internally. “Okay, I’ll do that.”

Sunset Shimmer stepped forward. “Look, we just met, but you seem, y’know, nice. And if Home Run trusts you, then I guess I can give you the benefit of the doubt…” The fiery haired girl looked conflicted for a second. “I’m rambling. Sorry. I had fun today, Moonglade. I hope you did too.”

The young changeling looked at Home Run and nodded. “Yeah, I had loads of fun. Thanks again, Sunset, you know, for giving us time to ourselves.”

Moonglade didn’t know what the suspicion was about, but it didn’t seem to be there anymore. Maybe she was just being wary of meeting someone for the first time.

“Well, time to go. So I will see you girls, I guess. And Home Run.” She stepped closer to him and gave him a hug. “Let me know, okay? When we can go out again. I’ll look forward to it.” She wanted to lean in and give him his goodbye kiss, but Sunset and the girls were watching them and Moonglade felt embarrassed to do it in front of them. “Ummm… well, uh, maybe w-we could skip the g-goodbye kiss this one time.”

“Ha, okay.” Home Run squeezed her back, then lightly kissed her on the cheek.

Moonglade blushed, but she liked it, along with the love coming from him.

“Aww… How sweet, Home Run.” Rarity looked like she was enjoying it too much.

“Umm, right. So I’ll see you around. Bye, Home Run. I’ll find a nickname for you.”

“Yeah. Take care, Moonglade.”

The young changeling nodded and followed Silver Platter back to the car, getting in behind him and buckling herself in. She waved to her boyfriend and his friends as the car left the amusement park, beginning the journey home.

“Did you have fun, princess?” her butler asked from the wheel. “It looks to me like you have made some new friends.”

“I had so much fun, Silver Platter,” the girl said excitedly. “I wish a day had more time. And… do you think so? That I made new friends?”

The butler looked up at her from the rearview mirror. “Yes, princess. You seem to be fairly comfortable around them.”

“Hmm…” Moonglade guessed she was alright with them. The only ones who bothered her were Rarity and Pinkie Pie. They were a bit too nosy in her personal space. Then there was Sunset Shimmer. Moonglade completely didn’t know what to think about her, with that air of suspicion around her. But then she did her a favor by giving her alone time with Home Run. Just what is she trying to pull here…?

And she also asked about the picnic that her aunt was planning for them. Thankfully, Moonglade didn’t know much about it, so she didn’t need to lie about most of it. Did she suspect something already?

“But it is nice, Princess Moonglade,” Silver Platter said, breaking her trail of thoughts. “It is nice to see you so happy.”

“Yeah…” Moonglade looked out the window at the clouds above. “I just wish I could lead a normal life, you know, Silver Platter? All this deceiving, I mean, it’s fine and all, but to have to pretend to love Home Run... It hurts, you know?”

There was an uncomfortable silence.

“With all due respect, princess, perhaps I’m not the best person you should be discussing this with. Perhaps your mother… or your aunt.”

“I know, but they just keep telling me I can’t.” Moonglade puffed her cheeks and looked back out the window. “I know what happened to their family, but I just know it. Home Run’s different.”

Silver Platter said, “If you say so, young mistress,” quietly, then stopped the car for the front gates to open.

In short order, Silver Platter dropped the princess off by the door before going off to park the car. Moonglade skipped off to her room with her new unicorn, placing it down beside Mishter Schniffs when she got to her bed.

“I got you a new friend,” Moonglade announced, smiling at the two of them. “I wonder what we should call her… What do you think, Mishter Schniffs?”

“Anything I say will be from your own mind anyway,” the doll answered. “How about Rainbow Hair?”

“No, I don’t like that.” Moonglade shook her head. “See? Not everything you say works out.”

“You’re just trying to prove your own point is false. Good job,” her doll replied flatly.

“Okay, okay. Let’s just get back to names. Hmm…” Moonglade kicked her shoes off and sat down beside her plushies. “How about… Stargaze Sunshine?”

“That name doesn’t even make sense, princess.”

Moonglade pouted at him. “Well, yours doesn’t either. So it’s settled then! Mishter Schniffs, meet Stargaze Sunshine.”

“Hi, Mishter Schniffs,” the doll answered in a more female voice. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Mishter Schniffs grumbled in his not so male voice. “Pleasure.”

“What lovely wings you have.” Stargaze Sunshine marched up to Schniffs.

“Yes…” the changeling plushie looked at Moonglade. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I thought you could use some love too. You know, so you understand how I feel.” Moonglade smirked and pressed Stargaze against him.

“Hey, no, stop!”

The young changeling pressed the two plushies tightly against each other and began mimicking kissing noises. Suddenly, there was a loud slamming noise, like a car door being closed at terminal velocity. Moonglade paused, hearing footsteps go crunching up to the house from the driveway.

“I wonder who that could be…” She put both plushies down and glided to the window just in time to see Silver Platter drive one of her mother’s cars away towards the carpark. “Oh, did mother go out?”

The sound of footsteps faded as whoever it was entered the house. Moonglade could hear some faint shouting. It sounded like her mother, all right, and there was a quieter voice that could only have been Aunt Ivory.

“Oh, were they both together?” Moonglade walked over to her door to open it.

In the living room, Aria Blaze and Adagio Dazzle were playing on her Neighstation, using Aria’s save file on her Finest Fantasy game. It seems they already had a company of four, one of which was the White Sorceress, played by Ebony Wings in the film adaptation.

Moonglade hadn’t been on the Neighstation in a while and she figured since it was summer break, she’d make a point to play on it more.

The sound of voices got closer, coming from the stairs that led to the first floor.

“Now, sister, slowly, okay?” she heard her aunt say.

“I’ll say what I want. Don’t tell me what to do here.”

Moonglade knew they must be talking about her, so she ducked back into her room and went to her bed, scooting into a corner and holding her stuffed toys close to her face.

Did I do something wrong again? What am I thinking, of course I did…

In only eleven seconds, her room door was thrown open, revealing a very angry looking Ebony Wings.

“Daughter, you and I will have a talk. Right now.” She stomped over to the bed.

Moonglade hid further behind her plushies, feeling all that anger resonate from her mother. It made her tongue hot. “Ye-es, mother…?”

“Don’t you ‘yes mother’ me. I don’t know why I keep letting you go out and risking our discovery. And your attitude. Oh, your attitude. What happened to all my teachings in your youth? Really? You let one boy change you so much? Just like that?”

Moonglade was slightly lost with where her mother was going with this. “Wha-what do you m-mean, mother?”

“In this realm,” Ebony said, waving her hands around her face. “I know all.”

“No, you don’t,” an exasperated Ivory Wings said from the door.

“You. Can it.” Ebony pointed a finger at her sister, then turned back to Moonglade. “I’m going to get straight to the point. There’s no use beating around the bush here. You have been taught better, my daughter. I taught you better. Why, when I was your age, I did everything my mother expected of me. Everything. Not once did I think I know better than her, at least until I was of age.”

Moonglade still had no idea where her mother was going with this.

“Just get on with it, Ebony.” Ivory Wings put her hand on her forehead.

“Firstly.” Ebony leaned closer to her daughter. “Singing about being unable to fall in love. I don’t want you entertaining such thoughts. We must not fall in love and that is as direct as it gets. Humans. Are. Not. To. Be. Trusted.”

“Y-Yes, mother.” Moonglade shook, afraid of what her mother was going to do to her. How did she even know I sung about that?

“And secondly, I thought I raised you better than to go complaining to the staff about your love life, which, by the way, isn’t supposed to exist. What part of ‘changeling hunt’ don’t you understand? Am I going to have to teach you all over again? Am I going to have to get your aunt to give you lessons on basic changeling knowledge?!” Green flames danced in Ebony’s eyes and in her throat.

“Sister, calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to be calm!” Ebony bared her fangs and snarled. “You are not to love this boy! He is human, unlike you! Do you really think he will still stand by you if he knew what you were? Look at your aunt! She was instantly betrayed the moment her lover knew what she was!”

Ivory, who was still by the doorway, went silent and looked outside.

Moonglade wanted to know how her mother knew all this, but at this point, she was much too afraid to ask. A dark aura emanated out of Ebony Wings, tainting the air with a bitter and spicy taste.

Moonglade’s mother closed her eyes and breathed in, a stormy look on her face as she surveyed her child.

“You have a lot of thinking to do, young lady.”

“Umm… yes mother…” Moonglade cowered behind her plushies.

“Yes mother,” Ebony imitated her daughter’s voice with disgust. “You keep saying that, but change nothing! You will never learn if you are not punished. This time, there must be punishment. My favourite kind of punishment is physical punishment.” She smirked and licked her lips.

Moonglade gulped. Her mother had hit her before, but that wasn’t even as a punishment.

“Ebony, I really think you need to-”

“You stay right there!” Ebony shouted with so much force that Ivory stopped in her tracks and scooted back. “She needs to be punished so she can learn!”

Ebony Wings loomed over Moonglade, who trembled in the gaze of her mother. The changeling queen drew her black kris sword, the blade hissing as it made contact with the air.

“You. Skirt off, now.”

With shaking hands, the young changeling put her plushies aside and did as her mother asked, placing the black piece of clothing on the side of her bed. She didn’t know what her mother was planning, but it couldn’t be anything nice. She pulled at her shirt, trying to cover her white panties, but this shirt wasn’t big enough to do so.

“Your rear to me. Raise it up.”

Moonglade complied, keeping her eyes on her mother’s blade until she turned around. She leaned her knees and elbows on her bed and raised her rear up. It felt embarrassing, lying down like this, but she knew embarrassment was far from what her mother had planned for her.

“I-I’m so-sorry, mother…”

“You will be in a moment.”

Ebony Wings prowled around her daughter, seemingly waiting for something.

“Ebony, no.” Ivory took a step back into the room.

“She won’t learn otherwise,” Ebony Wings growled.

Moonglade didn’t dare turn around, in fear of what her mother was preparing. She’d been lying on her arms and knees for what felt like forever and still, nothing had happened. Perhaps nothing was going to ha-

*SMACK!*

And then pain seared across Moonglade’s right butt cheek and she squeaked from the sudden surprise. Her mother had hit her with something and if she didn’t know better, her mother had hit her with her black sword. Even if it had just been the flat of the blade, it still hurt very much.

And then it happened again, sending Moonglade down on one shoulder, this time, her voice louder as she cried out in pain. She already felt the poison begin to eat away at her panties, but thankfully, contact with the poison wouldn’t kill her like it would a normal human. If not, she’d be soon joining her father.

“This boy, Home Run, he is prey!” Ebony smacked her blade against her daughter’s butt again. By now, it was starting to turn a dark red. “He is food! You do not fall in love with food!” Then she whacked her again.

“I-I’m sorry, mo- aaaaah! Mother!” The pain made Moonglade’s arms and legs feel numb and she struggled to stay conscious. Her mother was hitting her with strength exceeding the normal human’s.

“Our kind has remained hidden all these years because we follow the rules! I will not have you break them and risk revealing us all to the humans again!” And she brought the blade down again.

“Ebony, stop!” Ivory Wings had enough and threw herself between both of them. “She’s had enough. Look at you, doing this to your own daughter!”

“You think I do this because I hate her?” Ebony roughly pushed her sister out of the way and hit Moonglade on the other cheek. “I do this because I care about her and the rest of our kind!”

Moonglade failed to remain up after the next two hits, falling to her side, breathing heavily. Tears welled in her eyes from the intense pain, blinding her vision. She felt herself slip off her bed and onto the floor, landing on her rear and flaring up the pain. It was just as well. She didn’t want the poison to eat away at her bed too.

“You’re done, sister!” Ivory grabbed her sister’s arm, the one holding the blade. “No more. Stop this. She’s had one too many. She’s learnt her lesson.”

“Has she?” Ebony glared at both of them, but then sheathed her weapon. “You left me no choice in doing this, Chrysidea. Next time won’t be so quick, so you better make sure as hay there won’t be a next time.”

She left the room in a blur, taking up Moonglade’s dissolving panties to avoid getting it everywhere.

Only when she was out of sight did Ivory Wings go to the aid of her niece, running a hand down her head soothingly.

“It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay. It’s over. Come on, heal yourself, don’t wait for it to bruise over.”

“Nnngh…” Moonglade tried to concentrate, but the pain was far too intense for her to focus her channeling. “I-I can’t, Aunt… Ivory…”

“Well, at least let me clean you up,” Ivory drew out a handkerchief and wiped off the remaining traces of the poison. “You are aware that some of it probably got into your bloodstream?”

“Aaahh, aaahh… softer, Aunt Ivory…” Moonglade winced. “And wh-what… can I do… about that? Mother decided to… aaagh… use that knife.”

“I’m not sure we can do anything about it,” Ivory said gloomily. “I think it’s part of the punishment that you be out sick for a few days. I’ll see if I can beg clemency from your mother later.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade turned to lie on her chest, keeping as still as she could in hopes to dull the pain. “Time and time again, you’ve… told me what to do… and I still failed. I… love him, Aunt Ivory. It’s hard… to stay distant from him like I’m supposed to.”

Ivory Wings folded up the linen square and threw it into the bin. “But you’re not supposed to be distant from him,” she pointed out. “A successful hunt requires you to get up close and personal. Did I tell you about the Assassin I hunted? Prime target there. He started out at the top, but after I was through with him, he saw just how far he had to fall. I wonder if he’s still out there?” Ivory ran her tongue over her upper teeth and grinned darkly.

“You did, Aunt Ivory. But… I messed up. I’m not like you. See what mother’s… done now. Nnngh, it hurts…”

“I know, sweetie. Just try your best, okay? Concentrate and heal.” Ivory looked down at her niece’s rear. The skin was of a dark purplish-red. “I think she went much too overboard on this one, even if you did fall in love with your prey.”

“And she says it’ll be worse if it happens again,” Moonglade shivered, then winced again when it hurt her backside. “How could it… possibly be worse?”

“With your mother, things can always get worse,” Ivory said sagely.

“That’s something… I really don’t want to find out.” The young changeling tried to keep her mind off the pain. This hurt even more than her aunt’s weapons impaling her. She didn’t know how hard her mother had to hit her for it to be like that. “But I will… try harder, Aunt Ivory. Owww…” she rubbed her hip.

“Good to know you don’t want another beating like that again.” Ivory sat against the bed beside her niece. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop her. She shouldn’t do that, you know, as your mother.”

“Not your fault, Aunt Ivory, mmph…” Moonglade tried to push up to her feet, but it only hurt her more. “It hurts…”

“Okay, wait here, sweetie.” Ivory got up. “I’ll get some of my lotions. They should heal you enough to get your focus back on track. I’ll be right back, okay?”

Moonglade was left to herself for a while, with the girl trying to get into a more comfortable position and channel her love, but she just couldn’t focus through the pain. It was likely that the poison that had managed to get through her skin was adding on to the pain. She’d never felt her mother’s blade’s poison before, but from the stories, it would kill a human in three days, keeping them alive in excruciating pain until then. Perhaps this was merely a side effect of her half human status.

“Nngh.” Moonglade wiped at her eyes. “She didn’t have to… hit me so hard too.”

Moonglade’s back was starting to get sore from lying on her chest for so long and she really wanted to just get into a sitting position, but with her butt throbbing like this, sitting wasn’t an option.

“Ugh and I don’t have… any pants.” Moonglade tried to pull her shirt lower, but once again, it wasn’t long enough. “Aunt Ivory can see my… my place…” Moonglade blushed at that thought. Her aunt would be able to see it and there was no way she could cover it up right now. “Owww, it h-hurts…”

“I’m baaack.” Ivory Wings walked back into her room and sat down beside the young changeling, swinging a jar of paste in between in one hand. “This will help soothe your pain, sweetie. But…” She unscrewed the lid and dipped two fingers into the greenish paste inside. “While I apply it, it’s going to hurt. Um, hurt more.”

Moonglade whimpered, but nodded for her aunt to continue.

Ivory Wings was as gentle as she could have possibly been, but that didn’t stop Moonglade from emitting a few squeaks of discomfort and the occasional cry of pain as the ointment was applied to her backside. If her aunt took any notice of her state of undress, she didn’t mention it, simply applying the cream to where Ebony’s sword had struck the hardest.

“And that’s all done,” Ivory said, screwing the cap back onto the jar. “Change into your sleepwear and try to rest. Tomorrow will not be pleasant.”

“Nnnmgh.” Strength returned to Moonglade’s legs and she hoisted herself to her knees, though her butt was still radiating pain. “I won’t die. Right…?”

“Certainly not,” Ivory assured her. “Well, not from the poison, anyway.”

Moonglade took a few steady breaths and then closed her eyes. She willed herself to ignore the pain and think about healing instead. Her aunt’s ointment had really helped reduce the pain, but reduce was the keyword. Channeling her love, Moonglade focused them on her backside, feeling the pain from her mother’s blows begin to lighten until it faded enough for her to stand, though she avoided touching her rear or moving her legs too much.

“Thanks for the help, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade exhaled, then remembered she didn’t have any pants on and covered her lower region with both hands. “Oh, umm… co-could you turn around?”

“I was on my way out anyway,” Ivory Wings sighed and made to leave. “I’m going to see if I can’t get your mother to give you the antidote or something. Otherwise the next three days will be a miserable experience.”

“Something tells me she won’t.” Moonglade slipped into her wardrobe to pick out her nightwear. “And Aunt Ivory, if you can help it? No, uh, intimate stuff to try and convince her to help me? I think I’d rather go through the pain than to, um… you know.”

“Fine, fine, I won’t,” Moonglade’s aunt rolled her eyes. “I have things to prepare for anyway. My long-awaited debut with Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight Sparkle is almost upon us, and I need to pick out clothes for it.”

“Clothes?”

“Yes, for my persona,” Ivory explained patiently. “I can’t go meeting them looking like this, can I? I have to look presentable. So sleep tight, Moonglade. I will be here to check on you in the morning.”

Chapter 84 - Growing Pains

Friday

The next day dawned all too soon. Moonglade cracked open one eye and shut it immediately. The sunlight coming in through the window lanced at her corneas and made her head hurt. Along with that, her backside and other parts of her body also began to ache, a testament to how hard her mother had hit her last night, and likely from the poison in her bloodstream. The inside of her mouth felt dry and sticky, and the sheets suddenly felt a little too warm.

“Owww…” Moonglade scrunched up her face and threw her blanket off her body. She didn’t sleep so well all night, seeing as she couldn’t lie down facing up. If she wanted to change sides, she had to careful flip around so that her butt wouldn’t touch her bed. It was indeed a chore and all that effort had gotten her almost no sleep.

Her whole body was feeling increasingly warm, which wasn’t normal unless a changeling was sick, which she likely was now and when Moonglade shifted her head, things started spinning around her, forcing her to remain still and wait for it to fade.

“Warm…” She pulled up at her blue sleeveless top, leaving it just below her breasts to try to reduce the warmth, but it only helped so much. “Mother and her punishments…”

Moonglade lay there miserably for about ten more minutes, trying to figure out what to do when one of the maids brought her breakfast. It was a tray with a bowl of murky soup, along with two pieces of toast. The young changeling thanked her and tried to sit up, but when she pushed up, it hurt her backside, forcing her back down on the bed, groaning.

“Come on…” Moonglade shook away her dizziness and inched her way to the side of the bed.

When she was close enough, she first pushed one leg off, then used it to get up into a standing position, though she kept one hand on her bed so she wouldn’t fall down from everything spinning around her.

Kneeling down beside her bedside table, keeping her backside off the floor, Moonglade ate slowly, feeling a little better now that she had some food in her system, but the pain and the dizziness didn’t go away. If this was only her morning, she dreaded to know what the rest of the day would feel like.

Moonglade just wanted to lie down now and cry out all her frustrations and pain, but that would only make her mother happier if she found out. She also couldn’t think of Home Run, because she was trying to distance herself from loving him. She didn’t want to get another beating like that from her mother again, even if it meant not being able to love her boyfriend.

I’m sorry, Home Run.

Scooting carefully back on her bed, Moonglade grunted in pain as she tried to get comfortable.

She lay there for an indeterminable amount of time, simply breathing and wishing for an icepack to put on her rump.

She must have fallen asleep, because when she finally jerked awake, the sun was already past its zenith. There was a damp cloth placed on her forehead, which was slowly dripping water into her hair. The tray that had held her breakfast was gone.

“It’s still so warm…” Moonglade put her hand against the cloth, which was cool to touch, meaning it likely hadn’t been there long. Her skin had started to sweat, which was really abnormal unless she was exceeding her own limits without expanding any love energy. If she had to guess, the fever had likely already set in, meaning it would only get worse from here.

Moonglade lay there some more, debating whether it was worth it to stand up and take a shower or whether she just wanted to lie here and stew. Eventually, she pushed herself upright, wincing as the movement made her backside flare up with pain.

Once she was steadily upright, the aching princess tottered over to the bathroom and peeled off her damp clothes. She glanced at herself in the mirror, turning around to examine her injuries. Thick, dark stripes in the shape of her mother’s blade crisscrossed her cheeks, and while her aunt’s cream had helped lessen the swelling and the bruising, it still showed through the dye. Come to think of it, the poison had probably eaten away at the dye itself, if it was showing this clearly.

Moonglade sighed and stepped into the shower cubicle, turning on the water. It was cold, but she wasn’t in the mood for a hot shower. A cold one would be much more effective at cooling her down, if only temporarily. Halfway through, she almost lost her balance and fell, but she managed to steady herself against the wall as she waited for everything to stop spinning around her.

When she felt she had spent enough time under the shower water, Moonglade exited her cubicle and carefully toweled herself down before slipping into a pair of white underwear and her simple white t-shirt with her insignia on it. She didn’t bother with shorts, seeing as it was hot enough already.

Swiftly retreating back to her bed as things began to rotate around her, Moonglade fell against her soft mattress and stayed there for a while, too dazed to move herself.

“This stinks…” she groaned, scooting herself up her bed to her pillow very slowly. It hurt her bottom to lift her legs too high, so she simply opted to squirm over there like a worm.

Even though she had only just showered, sweat already began to drip from her face as her temperature began to rise, her fever not even at its highest point yet. She wanted to turn up the air conditioning, but that would mean getting up again, and Moonglade didn’t think she could handle a walk all the way across the room to get the remote control.

“Your mother isn’t angry of how you interact with Home Run, you know?” Mishter Schniffs suddenly said from beyond Moonglade’s pillow.

“She’s not?” The young changeling shifted herself higher, looking at her two plushies by the end of her bed, resting against the wall.

“Of course not, silly,” Stargaze Sunshine, her new unicorn, giggled. “She’s upset at how you just want to live a normal life and fall in love and all that. The things you said when you thought she couldn’t hear you. Gosh, you need to pick your words better next time.”

“But that’s how I really feel. I love Home Run. I know I’m not supposed to, but… I do.”

“Unless you want another beating like yesterday, I suggest you change that,” Schniffs snorted. “I’d hate to see you like this again.”

“Ugh, what’s with all these ultimatums…” Moonglade scooted one more inch and finally planted her face in her pillow with a sigh.

Her head just hurt too much to think now. Perhaps after more rest…

“I will absolutely not give her the cure.” Ebony Wings put her bag down on her floor and walked over to her closet, where she tossed a black coat beside. “If she continues to ignore my teachings like that, then she deserves all the pain she’s in right now. You heard everything she said when she was on her own. We didn’t give her that microphone clip just so we could forget all of it. No, she deserves this.”

“Show more leniency, Ebony, this is your daughter we’re talking about. Your daughter.” Ivory Wings walked up beside her. “Does that mean nothing to you?”

“As I recall,” Ebony sniffed, poking her head into the walk-in closet. “You’ve told her time and time again to watch it around this boy. She didn’t listen. To either of us. So, where the carrot fails, we must employ the stick.”

“The stick didn’t need to be your poison blade!” Ivory insisted. “It could’ve been a… a stick! Have you even gone to check on her?”

“I disagree. With a normal stick, she could just heal the stripes in a few minutes. To ensure the message stays with her, the punishment can’t just be something she can shrug off. Hence the kris. You see? I am a genius of discipline and thinking ahead.”

“Oh, yes, you sure are, Ebony.” Ivory folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at her sister. “We don’t even know what the poison would do to her! She’s not like us! What if it kills her? Huh? What then?”

“Of course it won’t kill her,” Ebony insisted. “It didn’t kill her when she was a baby and it won’t kill her now.”

“Yes, well- wait, what?!” Ivory spluttered. She grabbed her sister by the shirt and pulled her closer. “What did you do to your own daughter?!”

“First of all, let go of my shirt. I just had it ironed. Second, do you think this is the first time Chrysidea has been exposed to my sword’s poison? Of course not. So I know it won’t kill her.”

Ivory didn’t let go just yet. “You didn’t answer my question, sister. What did you do to her?”

Ebony sighed. “Look, when she was a few months old, I ran a few tests on my daughter to see how she’d be affected by… various things. As it turned out, poisons and toxins will make her sick, but won’t kill her. She’s strong enough to take it; there’s no real danger to her life here. So will you let go of my shirt, or am I going to have to pull rank?”

Ivory Wings grunted and let go, adjusting her glasses. “This doesn’t change the fact that your daughter is going through such pain right now. Her fever’s at forty-four degrees right now and it’s still only the first day. Give her the cure, sister.”

“How about… no?”

“You don’t have to be so cruel. And come on. Just give it to her. I have other things I need to get to work on, you know? The picnic is already this Monday.”

“Like I said, she’s not getting it.” Ebony picked out her white shirt and green skirt from her closet. “Or maybe… You’ve been so busy of late. Too busy for me. Perhaps I would think about getting little Dea the cure if… if you agree to sleep with me tonight?”

Ivory Wings sighed and rubbed at her forehead. “No, Chryssie. I think your daughter would rather suffer through this illness than for us to get so intimate again.”

Ebony slammed her closet doors shut and marched to her bathroom door. “Then suffer through it she will.”

“Ebony-” Ivory tried to follow her in, but the door was slammed in her face.

“She will not be getting a cure and nothing will change my mind, got it?” Ebony Wings said from inside. “You have better things to do, Ivory. Go do them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Ivory sighed. Her sister was right, of course. She had a persona to put together, a lunch to assemble, and a speech to rehearse, all before Monday. Moonglade would have to do this one on her own.

Saturday

When she woke up the next day, Moonglade had found the pain in her butt had gone down a little, but everything was so stiff. She could barely get out of bed to have breakfast, which a maid had brought for her. It was like someone had glued her joints together. The fever still raged in her body, making sweat drip down her nose and into her mushroom soup, but she didn’t have enough fight in her to bother about it. She just wanted all this to be over and done with.

Her situation was just so unbearable that it brought tears to her eyes. She had fought back against crying all of yesterday, not wanting to give her mother the satisfaction of knowing that she was suffering so, but she couldn’t hold it back anymore; the feelings were just too much for her.

Canvas Splash had sent her a picture on her Silver Rose phone of herself holding up a bucket of baguettes over from Prance, and it did cheer her up a little, but overall, it didn’t help much. She also had a few messages from Home Run, but just thinking about him made her feel queasy. She could hear the muffled voices of the sirens talking outside her room, so, feeling like an arthritic old man, Moonglade tottered over to her bedroom door (slowly), and eased it open. There was nobody directly outside so Moonglade peered down the hallway, where the second floor living room was.

The three of them were seated on the various couches, with Adagio controlling the reins of the archer from the Finest Fantasy game.

“I told you, you missed a collectible back there,” Aria said annoyedly. “I saw it. Clear as day.”

“And I told you, I’m not going back to get it.” Adagio pressed on, her character riding atop one some kind of giant chicken. Moonglade hadn’t gotten far enough in the game to see them yet. “Such a waste of time. Do they even do anything? Why do we have to collect them?”

“I think getting them unlocks some extra lore in the bestiary,” Ivory Wings’ voice came from around the corner. There was a rustle of fabric.

“Why do we even need extra lore?” Adagio complained. “Why do you want me to get extra lore, Aria? You’re the one that doesn’t care about everything.”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Because if you don’t grab the extra lore, we might miss out on some information about enemy weaknesses. And it’ll count towards a hundred percent completion.”

Just then, Ivory Wings came around the corner, wrapped in an elaborate blue dress. It looked like something out of a period movie, with a long train and lace all over.

“What do you think of this one?”

“I like it,” Sonata Dusk said, lying by the coffee table, kicking her legs back and forth. “The color’s nice.”

“Looks like you’re gonna trip at some point, Ivory,” Aria answered boredly. “Too long.”

“Hmm, I suppose you’re right… besides, blue isn’t really my color. Perhaps the purple one… or the pink one.” Ivory Wings looked down the hallway at Moonglade’s head, which was sticking out of her doorway. “What are you doing out of bed, sweetie?” Ivory walked over to Moonglade and patted her on the head. “You should be resting.”

“Had to eat.” Moonglade rubbed her belly. “Hungry. But then I heard your voices so I wanted to see what was going on.” She lifted a hand slowly and pointed at the sirens after a long time.

“So this is how a half-changeling reacts to the poison’s second day, hmm?” Ivory wrapped an arm around her niece’s head. “You know, victims are normally paralyzed on the second day, but it seems it only makes it harder for you to move.”

“Yeah. Takes a lot of effort.” Moonglade tried to nod. “What’s with the dressing up, Aunt Ivory?”

“I’m putting together my persona for Monday,” Ivory explained, patting her blue dress. “I want to look elegant, but not too imposing. I suppose blue is too regal of a color. I’ll try the pink dress. Why don’t you go back to bed, sweetie?”

“Oh, okay, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade ducked her head back in and dragged herself over to her bed.

Falling once more onto her springy mattress, Moonglade crawled up to her pillow, careful not to hurt her backside.

“I don’t even know why I got up…” Moonglade depressed her face into her pillow, facing her butt up so it wouldn’t touch anything. She breathed in deeply, then fell into more unconsciousness.

Sunday

If anyone had told her that she had already felt the worse of the poison in the last two days, Moonglade would’ve agreed. Until today.

Today, she awoke suddenly, drenched in sweat, almost unable to breathe through the heat. She was still feeling drowsy. Extremely drowsy, in fact, but no matter how hard she tried, she wasn’t able to go back to sleep. And then there was the pain. Pain coursed through her entire body, like tendrils grasping around her insides. It hurt so much.

She knew the third day of the poison resulted in unconsciousness before eventual death, but it seems her half-changeling status was fighting that off, though, unconsciousness did sound a lot more forgiving than what she was currently going through.

A maid came in with today’s breakfast, but Moonglade was much too miserable to even get up to eat. She just wanted it to be all over now.

“Enddddd. Please just endddddddddd…” she groaned, kicking her blanket off her body. She felt like she was suffocating from the heat now. “Motheeerrrr, I’m sorry, please… Just end this…”

Moonglade didn’t know how much more she could take. It was like the poison was destroying her from within, just that it wasn’t able to do it completely. Right now, she was just wishing it would either go away or destroy her completely. This half-state was extremely unbearable.

“P-Please…” she began to sob. “I can’t… Aunty Ivory… help…”

And then, miraculously, the door to Moonglade’s room swung open, revealing Ivory Wings, wearing a flour-stained apron over her normal clothes.

“Sweetie? What’s wrong?”

Moonglade’s aunt entered, taking note of the sickly smell that permeated the room. Ivory went over to the balcony and pushed the doors open, letting in a cooling breeze.

Moonglade flipped around in her bed to face her, winced from the pain all over her body. Her nose was filling up with snot and she could barely see through all her tears. “I can’t do this, Aunt Ivory… Help… Please… It hurts. It hurts so much. I just… need it to end.”

Ivory Wings walked back to the bedroom door and peered out, looking both ways along the corridor. Seemingly satisfied with something, she crept over to Moonglade’s bed and stroked her sweat-dampened hair back.

“It’ll be okay, sweetie. It’ll be okay.”

Then her hand moved to her niece’s neck, her fingers finding the nerve cluster at the base of her skull and pinching hard. Unconsciousness was immediate.

“Ahem.”

Ivory Wings turned her head to see Ebony Wings looking into the room, a look of sour dissatisfaction on her shapely face.

“Yes, sister?” Ivory asked innocently.

“And what might you be doing here?” Ebony walked in, dressed in her white shirt and blue jeans, with a handbag slung on a shoulder.

“Just checking in on your daughter,” Ivory said, edging away from the bed. “I assume you’re here for the same reason?”

“No. I don’t care if she’s suffering today. She still deserves it all. She has to learn.” Ebony looked down at both of them. “I’m here because I sensed you here. I figured you might be trying to help her ease her pain, which I will not permit.”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t dream of it,” Ivory said, wearing a look of cherubic guiltlessness. “She’s just sleeping.”

“Sleeping, huh?” The acclaimed actress crept closer, sniffing at the air. “Whatever. I have to get back to the set. What’s with the apron?”

“I’m preparing the food for tomorrow’s picnic,” Ivory said patiently, as if explaining something to a very small child. “It has to be ready so I can just set off Monday afternoon. It’s very important, as I’m sure you know.”

“Yes, yes. I know. So get back to it. Let my daughter suffer in peace. She’s only got today left. Let it run its course. I’m sure she’ll be thinking twice the next time she decides to let her emotions of that boy control her.”

Ivory sighed but said nothing. She wiped her hands on her apron and breezed out of the room, heading back to the kitchens. Ebony watched her go, snorted, then shut the door before making her way to the driveway, where her car was waiting.

Chapter 85 - The Pool and the Picnic

Monday

When Moonglade next opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the pain in her body had faded. From all the suffering she had gone through in the last three days, this felt so good now.

“I-I’m free. I’m finally free…” Moonglade couldn’t help but laugh.

She turned on her back and looked up at her canopy, something she hadn’t done in the last three days, because of the pain in her butt.

Taking the chance, Moonglade pushed off her bed and stood up, stretching her arms high. Her flexibility was back too.

“I’m okay now!” Moonglade skipped around her room, then ran back to her bed and threw her arms around Mishter Schniffs and Stargaze Sunshine. “I’m all better! The poison wore off!”

“Be that as it may,” Mishter Schniffs said. “You smell. Take a shower then head down for breakfast.”

Moonglade sniffed, then looked at her sweat-stained sheets. She definitely needed a shower.

Putting her plushies back on her bed, Moonglade grabbed her summer attire and got to her bathroom to wash up. She had a nice cool shower, soaping her body up three times just to be sure she was spotless, before stepping out and cleaning herself off.

When she was all set, the young changeling pranced along downstairs, skipping straight for the dining room. She watched as a maid left the kitchens, holding a plate with a stack of pancakes on it.

“I am glad to see you are recovered, Princess Moonglade,” she said as she put the plate down before the young changeling. “Please enjoy your breakfast.”

Moonglade was just about to start heaping syrup on her pancakes when her attention was attracted by the sight of an elegant-looking woman entering the room. She was wearing a lacy pink dress and a matching hat; her skin was such a pale shade of pink it was almost white, and her eyes sparkled like beryls. She was carrying two covered picnic baskets, one in each arm.

“Oh, sweetie, you’re up,” she said in a high, fluttery voice. “How are you feeling?”

“A-Aunty Ivory?” She had to make sure she was talking to the right person first. She only continued after the woman nodded. “Oh, I’m feeling so much better now. But wow. Umm, all that for a picnic?”

“I prefer to think of it as negotiations with food,” the woman in pink replied. “Although, I’m quite sure they’ll agree to my demands one way or the other.”

“Right.” Moonglade eyed the baskets. She remembered that poisoned pink lemonade. “Well, I hope you do get the answers from them. The sirens really need some, uh, fixing.”

“Yes. They’re at the pool right now, I think. Why don’t you join them after breakfast?”

“Oh, sure, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade stuffed a pancake into her mouth, half of it hanging out as she chewed.

“Cut up your food before eating it,” Moonglade’s aunt advised. “Well, I’m off. I hope your mother managed to pay the park people to rope off the gazebo for me.”

She left the room, and soon after there was the sound of a car starting. Moonglade wondered what the picnic would be like. She had never been on one before. Granted, most picnics didn’t involve poisoned food, but it was the thought that counted.

At least, that was what she told herself.

Picking up her knife and doing as her aunt said, Moonglade finished up the rest of her breakfast neatly, then went for a walk around her first floor’s halls, glad to be able to move around without pain again.

Going over to a window, she looked out and saw the faint shapes of the sirens splashing around in the estate’s Olympic sized pool. It was indeed a hot day, as was expected of summer. Too bad she couldn’t feel the heat.

“I think I will go join them,” Moonglade decided before trotting upstairs to her room to get changed.

Walking into her closet, Moonglade changed out of her summer clothes into a blue and green one piece swimsuit. There was no way she’d be going out there in a bikini or something like that. Those were just much too revealing to wear out in public, at least for her anyway.

After admiring herself in the mirror and deciding that she looked satisfactory, Moonglade picked up a towel and walked down the stairs and out toward the pool. She could smell the chlorine all the way from here, but it wasn’t too unpleasant of an aroma.

“Hey, Moony!” Sonata waved, at the same time, inhaling a mouthful of water. “Pleh. The water’s just nice! Come on in!”

“Mhm!” Moonglade grinned and swapped out her glasses for a pair of matching blue goggles. Then she ran on and jumped, tucking her legs up to her chest. “Cannoooonbaaaaalll!”

And then she plunged right in, splashing water over the three sirens, who began chuckling, with the exception of Aria.

Moonglade resurfaced and pushed her blonde hair out of her face. “Wasn’t that something?”

“It was quite a big splash, I’ll give you that,” Adagio said. Her normally poofy hair was now flat against her face, which made Moonglade smile a little. “Glad to see you’re much better today.”

“What’s with the lame swimsuit?” Aria pointed at the young changeling. The sirens themselves were wearing a motley collection of this season’s most popular swimsuits, ranging from Adagio’s high-cut two piece to Aria’s tanning one piece. Sonata had gone for a canary yellow bikini that showed off her assets, though she didn’t seem to realize that.

“Lame? What do you mean?” Moonglade looked down at herself.

“I figured you’d wear one of those that your mom does modeling for, or maybe one of Bullet Stopper’s suits. Yours looks more like your typical school swimsuit.”

“I-I can’t wear something like th-that in public.” Moonglade put her arms around her shoulders and blushed. “Muh-much too revealing, don’t you girls think?”

“But you’ve got much to show off.” Adagio smirked, wading over. “You’ve your mother’s looks, you know? You’d have plenty of people wrapped around your fingers if you wore something better. Plus, you’ve got a pretty good body yourself.”

“Me? No way.” Moonglade grabbed at her cheeks and laughed nervously. “Oh, I could never. Really. All those eyes… I’d rather not.”

Aria rolled her eyes, and Adagio crept closer to Moonglade.

“You really need to have more confidence in yourself, Moony. As the daughter of one of the world’s most well-known celebrities, you can’t hide in the shadows. People are going to notice you like they notice your mother.”

“But I just don’t like people looking at me. I cannot do what mother can do. I don’t mind if they don’t notice me.”

Sonata Dusk cupped water in her hands and threw it up into the air. “There’s nothing wrong with people watching you. Right?”

“Yes, there’s nothing wrong, Moony.” Adagio’s smirked somehow managed to widen. “You need to learn to show a little more skin. Your mom can do it. I’m sure you’ve seen her do it on screen.”

Moonglade shook her head. “I think I’m good on that, thanks.”

“Even Sonata’s showing more than you.” Aria waved at her sister, who was now crouched down underwater, just sitting there, with bubbles rising to the surface. “If she can do it, so can you. But whatever, not like I care.”

“Mm, okay.” Moonglade breathed again. “Good to know.”

“Oh, but I care.” Adagio moved even closer, now in arms length. “I find it cute how you can be so shy, unlike your mother, but come on. The blood runs through your veins. It’s easy. You’ve… done things with that Sunny Flare before, haven’t you? As Silver Rose, I mean.”

“Oh yeah, she has,” Aria said flatly. “Ebony Wings all but confirmed it. Nice catch, by the way.” She smirked at Moonglade. “Sounds like you have this Sunny Flare right by the short hairs.”

“S-She’s very forward,” Moonglade admitted, a blush creeping over her face.

“Well, at least we know you’re eating well,” Sonata commented, floating past on her back.

“I muh-mean… it still do-doesn’t c-come naturally to me…” Moonglade rubbed an arm unconsciously. “A-And I haven’t exactly sh-shown a lot of skin to Sunny. I mean, Silver hasn’t.”

“We all have to start somewhere, don’t we?” And then Adagio wrapped her arms around Moonglade’s neck, trapping her.

“Umm, Adagio, what are you doing?” Moonglade squirmed in the siren’s hold.

“We may have fed on negative emotions,” Adagio purred. “But we know very well how to extract positive ones as well. And when you’ve been alive as long as I have, you tend to learn a few things about what people do and don’t like.”

“You don’t say...” Moonglade was growing a touch apprehensive about what Adagio might be planning. She was using the same tone of voice as her mother did when talking about prey. “Y-You know, I’d like to have a s-swim if that’s okay…”

The young changeling tried to move away, but Adagio held strong. “Not so fast, princess. We’re not done here. Far from it.”

Moonglade eeped in surprise as the orange siren laid one hand on her shoulder and another one on the changeling’s right breast, giving it a gentle squeeze through the swimsuit.

“You’ve got such great assets,” Adagio said, her eyes half lidded. “You shouldn’t be hiding them from the world.”

“But I don’t…”

“You inherited your mother’s good looks, and guys love a shy girl. Boys would flock to you if you’d just tease them a little.”

“But I d-don’t want them to flock to me…” Moonglade closed her eyes in embarrassment as Adagio ran a hand down her abdomen, her fingers tickling her skin.

“Ah, but of course you don’t,” Aria said slyly from the side. “You’ve already got a guy you can feed off of. Can’t have him see you two-timing him, right?”

“Ah, yes, Home Run…” Adagio’s hand went around the back and squeezed Moonglade’s butt. Thankfully, her injury had already faded. “Getting some good love from him, I hope? He’s a nice boy, after all. You’ve got all this at your disposition.”

“Ummm…” Moonglade tried to inch away from Adagio, but the siren’s arm repositioned back around her neck and pulled her closer, their bodies now touching. “Uh, well… I-I have been getting a lot of luh-love from him, yes… Maybe a bit too much. C-Could you let go yet, Adagio?”

“Not until I convince you that you’ve got nothing to hide.” Adagio grinned and slipped the hand on Moonglade’s butt under her swimsuit. “And your mother gave you a beating not because you got too much love from him, but because you were giving love to him. Tell us the truth, Moony. You’ve fallen in love with the boy?”

“Jealous, Dagi?” Aria picked up one of the floaties by the side and positioned herself atop it.

“No, I’m not!” the eldest siren barked, squeezing Moonglade’s rear harder for a second, making the changeling yelp. “Just worried our dear princess here has fallen for her prey.”

“I-I, uhh… Ah!” Moonglade stammered, then yelped again when Adagio pinched her butt. “Y-Yes, I… um, I did. I love Home Run. I know I shouldn’t, but I have. I-I mean, after mother’s punishment, of course I’m going to try and change things. I’d like to avoid another beating.”

“That’s too bad you can’t fall in love, Moony.” Sonata splashed past, spitting out water from her mouth.

“Hey, watch it!” Aria hit her on the head when she sprayed her with a mouthful of water.

“Ow, sorry, Aria.” Sonata righted herself and rubbed at her head.

“Umm… yeah.” Moonglade squirmed, still unable to free herself without force. She didn’t want to accidentally hurt Adagio. “Do you think you could let me go yet, Adagio?”

“Uh uh.” The orange haired siren shook her head. “Don’t forget the reason why I’m holding you here. Though I do want to know, are you at all embarrassed when you show off your body to Sunny Flare? Come on, tell us.”

“W-Well… I-I do get embarrassed… but I, uh, Silver Rose haven’t exactly shown ev-everything yet.” Moonglade played with a lock of her gold hair. “But she’s, um, Silver doesn’t want to disappoint her… besides, she’s usually the one being, uh, serviced. By Silver.”

“Aww, it’s so cute when you blush,” Adagio snickered. The hand under her swimsuit soon left, with Moonglade uttering a small sigh of relief. But then it placed itself back on her chest and began massaging her right breast again. “Look at you, having such a lovely chest, only to hide it from Home Run and Sunny Flare. You need to be confident in what you have! This swimsuit won’t do. You should wear something like Sonata.”

Moonglade looked at Sonata’s swimsuit. Her usual skirt probably had more material than the entirety of Sonata’s outfit combined. “Ehehe… I’m not so sure.”

“Yeah, it’s a nice swimsuit, don’t you think?” Sonata hopped about happily in the water. Moonglade couldn’t help but watch her almost free breasts bounce up and down. “Cooling too, since it’s so hot. But you can’t feel the heat, huh, Moony?”

“Mm, no.”

“Just look at that, Moony.” Adagio watched her sister from the corner of her eye. “Look at those melons fly so freely.”

“Melons? Like… watermelons?”

“Breasts, dear Moonglade.”

“Oh.”

“But look! That’s what guys will be attracted to. Wave them in front of Home Run like that…” Adagio turned back to her and her smirk widened. “Such thoughts of you he would have in his head. You haven’t shown him anything yet, yes?”

“N-No, I haven’t. Home Run’s not like Sunny.”

“You don’t have to show him all of it.” Adagio prodded around on Moonglade’s right breast. A little jolt went through Moonglade’s body whenever her finger depressed down on it. Then she pinched the corner of the young changeling’s swimsuit and pulled it. “Come on, show me what you’ve got.”

“Noooo…” Moonglade protested weakly and sank down under the water’s surface.

“Come on, we’re not done yet!”

Adagio still had her arm wrapped around her, but down in a crouch, Moonglade finally managed to squirm out of the siren’s grip and kicked away, swimming to the other side of the pool.

She spent the rest of her pool time swimming away from Adagio Dazzle, and then played some with an inflatable ball, before getting out. The wind blew on her wet skin and she shivered, grabbing a towel. She and her kind might be heatproof, but they still had to deal with the cold. Moonglade dried herself off the best she could, then went back into the house for a proper shower.

“We’re not done, hmm, Moony?” Adagio called to her, drying her orange hair.

Oh, we’re done, Moonglade thought as she scurried up to her room. I’m not changing my swimsuit.

After showering and changing back into more casual clothes, Moonglade burned a few hours on her Neighstation, playing Finest Fantasy. She managed to get to the part with the Pale Sorceress, but shut it off after three hours because her eyes were getting tired.

Just as she was putting the controller away, there was the sound of a car pulling up next to the house. Moonglade excitedly ran to the window and looked out at the driveway to see her aunt’s car stopped there, with Silver Platter getting into the driver’s seat.

Her aunt, still dressed as the woman in pink, got out carrying her two picnic baskets and wearing a smile of severe smugness on her face. There was a spring in her step and it looked as though she was trying not to skip.

“I wonder how her picnic went. It must’ve been good that she’s smiling like that.”

Moonglade headed downstairs and ran along to find her aunt, who was setting her baskets down in the kitchen.

“Aunt Ivory, you’re back! How did it go?” Moonglade skipped up to her aunt and grinned.

“That’s not my persona’s name, but whatever. The picnic went swimmingly, I’ll have you know. Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight have agreed to my demands and have given me their word that they will help repair the sirens’ gems.”

“Wow, they agreed, just like that?”

“Well, no,” Moonglade’s aunt admitted, taking out the excess food and putting it into the fridge. “I had to twist their arms a little, but in the end they saw things my way and gave in.”

“It was the pink lemonade, wasn’t it?” Moonglade fished it out of the picnic basket and shook the jug, peering at the few drops of pink liquid inside.

The older changeling smiled and took the pitcher from her niece, before giving her head a gentle rub. “Clever girl. Anyway, it will only be a matter of time now and the sirens will have their powers back!”

“And Sonata and Aria will stop squabbling right?” Moonglade helped remove a stack of bread from the picnic baskets and put them in a box by the counter, beside a similar stack of cheeses.

“Well, squabble less, sweetie. So, how was your day? Did you have fun in the pool?”

“Well, I guess I mostly had fun in the pool.” Moonglade flicked her still semi-wet hair behind her back and adjusted her black hairband. “Adagio was trying to get me to show more skin.”

“Hmm, was she now?” Moonglade’s aunt said, pouring herself a glass of lemonade before tipping the rest of it down the sink. “Well there’s no need to rush it. You show as much skin as you’re comfortable with, sweetie.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory, erm, or whoever you’re supposed to be right now.” Moonglade gave her a warm hug. “Though, even my usual swimsuit shows a bit much with my legs. Maybe I should wear some swimming shorts with it next time.”

“There’s such a thing as overkill, sweetie.”

“But you know…” Moonglade pulled at the end of her shorts. “The swimsuit doesn’t cover my legs at all. It’s like I’m just walking around in a pair of panties.”

“Well your skirt that you normally wear isn’t too long itself.” The elder changeling nudged her niece. “You’ll be fine, sweetie. You’re more covered than a lot of other girls already.”

“O-Okay then…”

“Now, I have to go break the good news to the sirens!” She swiveled around excitedly after finishing with her packing. “I’ll see you for dinner, sweetie. Then I’ll go more into detail what I did.”

Moonglade nodded and watched her aunt leave the kitchen, calling out the sirens’ names. She was glad about the news herself. If they could fix the gems, they would fix the sirens too. Perhaps Adagio may even stop teasing her to reveal more skin.

Keep hoping, Moonglade. Maybe it’ll come true.

Back in her room, she noticed her Moonglade and Silver Rose phones were filled with strings of messages, all from Home Run, Sunny Flare and even Canvas Splash.

“Oh. I wonder what they all want.”

Moonglade knew she needed to distance herself a little from Home Run, so with great strength, she picked up her Silver Rose phone first and opened the messages. The first few were from Sunny Flare.

Heyya Silver i was wondering if you want 2 go out 2moro? We could go to the mall get smth to eat?

U know, smth more normal than… what we keep doin

Take ur time i know ur still recovering from ur sickness

I just really want to see u

I hope ur havin a good time today

<3 u Silvy

“Huh…” Moonglade scratched at her head. Sunny wanted to meet Silver tomorrow for a date. Moonglade didn’t see any problem with that. In fact, it seemed like a good idea. She could look for a present for Home Run too. “Killing two birds with one stone. Go for it, Silver Rose.”

Moonglade quickly typed a reply back, that she was excited to go on another date with Sunny and that they could go to Canterlot Mall for lunch.

And Sunny wanted to do something normal. Aunt Ivory wouldn’t have any problems against that, and if Sunny did want to go somewhere private, perhaps she would be able to politely decline this time.

Looking next to Canvas’ messages, Moonglade found a row of pictures with Canvas standing close to various iconic structures of Prance, along with one where she was pretending to be trapped in a box or something by a man in a striped shirt and white makeup on his face. Moonglade got a short giggle from that, then replied to them.

Looks great Canvas! Glad ur having fun! Hope to c u soon!

And now finally, the moment she had been waiting for, but also trying to resist, Home Run’s messages.

Swallowing, Moonglade picked up her phone and flicked past the lock screen to her new messages. Home Run didn’t have much, but reading what he had made Moonglade’s heart flutter.

“Stop fluttering, heart. Stop it!” she hissed to herself. “You can’t be in love with him.”

Hi Moonglade. How r u doing today? Much better i hope?

So i wanted to let u know, Pinkie Pie is organizing a bday party for me, yea i know, a little much right? So anyway she wanted to invite u, since ur my girlfriend and all. Do u think u could make it? Itll be on Thursday of course, about 1pm

I would love it if u could come, but let me know!

“A little birthday party, huh?” Moonglade sighed happily. She really wanted to just be with Home Run, but then she corrected herself and sat up straighter. “You need to stop being so in love with him, Dea! Do you want another spanking from mother?”

“Yeah, you do not want another spanking from her,” Mishter Schniffs said from the corner.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Moonglade snapped at him.

A birthday was a special event and if she was really his girlfriend, then she had to at least show up. Moonglade was supposed to be in love with him anyway, in a sort of way.

“Love really is tough…” Moonglade grumbled and thumbed in a reply.

So much better now thanks! Glad to be rid of that sickness. I would love to be there but i better check with mother first just in case. Ill update u later ok?

Moonglade added a row of hearts and kissing faces at the end, then leaned back on her bed and sighed loudly.

“Things just can’t be easy, huh?” she asked her plushies, who looked back at her with blank eyes. “Thinking of mother… I haven’t seen her since she hit me. I wonder where she is.”

“Probably filming a movie.” Schniffs put a hoof on Moonglade’s forehead. “Moonglade’s mother is an actress, by the way.”

“Fancy,” Stargaze Sunshine said. “And you aren’t going to grow up to be like her?”

“No chance.” Moonglade pushed her plushie’s hoof off and covered her eyes with an arm. “I’m no good with attention. I wanna do something else when I grow up. Something that doesn’t involve people looking at you all the time.”

“Maybe you could be a diver?” The stuffed unicorn tilted to the side. “You could dive all the way down to the bottom and see all kinds of life there.”

“I don’t know, I’m not very good with the dark and unknown either…” Moonglade rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, I don’t have to decide now. I still have a few years to go before I start working.”

“With your mother’s finances, I doubt you even need to work.” Schniffs patted her on the forehead again.

“But I want to lead a normal life. And that means working too.” Moonglade flipped herself around and pulled her plushies in for a hug under her chin.

“You’re lucky your mother’s not around to hear that,” Mishter Schniffs remarked.

“Oh, shoot!” Moonglade whipped around and darted her eyes left and right. She didn’t know how her mother had listened in on her, so having a hidden mic in her room wouldn’t be too far fetched of an idea. “Umm… I uh, I want to be a good little changeling.”

She hoped that would be enough to throw her mother off the trail. However, she remained slightly nervous. Three days ago, her mother had claimed that ‘In this realm, she knew all’. Whether that applied to just the house or the entirety of Canterlot, Moonglade was still unsure. She didn’t want to risk a second beating, not at all.

From now on, she had to be careful of what she said. At home, outside, everywhere.

Chapter 85 - Interlude: A Long Awaited Picnic

Mist Eerie sat inside the gazebo in Canterlot Park. An empty picnic basket was next to her on the bench, its contents arranged in a most inviting array on the tabletop that the gazebo covered. Sandwiches of all kinds, pies, a few burgers, and most importantly, a tall pitcher of pink lemonade, looking refreshingly cold in the little sunlight that did manage to pierce through the shadow cast by the overhead roof.

Under Mist Eerie’s face, Psithyra was carefully watching the entirety of the park using her eagle vision. She felt a sense of satisfaction from using the skill. Joining the Assassins had been beneficial in a few ways, one of the main ways being that she had learned how to use the Assassins’ special sixth sense. How fitting that she had been there to witness the founding of the Assassins, as well as being there to witness the dissolution of the group.

Mist Eerie dusted off her long, pink, frilly dress. She had a hat to match it, which she thought gave her a rather nice air of nobility. Anyone seeing her would immediately know she was someone on a mission.

Speaking of the mission…

The appointed time was drawing near, and the sun was at its height, raining down blistering heat on all those who weren’t under some shelter. Mist Eerie couldn’t feel the heat, of course, but her guests most certainly would. In fact, she was counting on it.

Not three minutes later did two figures come into view. Both of them were outlined in gold, and Mist Eerie smiled before turning off her eagle vision. Now that Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight were here, the games could begin.

“Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle! Welcome.” Mist Eerie said in her most friendly voice. She noticed Sunset’s expression, which was suspicious. It seemed Mist Eerie was not the only person here who was using eagle vision. “My name is Mist Eerie, and I thank you for coming to meet me today. Please, help yourselves to whatever you like.”

She capped off this welcome by pouring both girls tall glasses of ice cold pink lemonade. She managed to hide the smile on her face when Sunset and Twilight both drank down at least half the contents of their respective beverages, sighing as the drink gave them some relief from the heat.

“I’m so glad you could come,” Mist Eerie forged on. “I’ve been planning this for months now.”

Sunset and Twilight looked at her carefully, and Mist Eerie could smell the mood change into an even more suspicious scent. Nevertheless, she maintained the pleasant facade she had been wearing thus far.

“Really?” Twilight asked. “May I ask why?”

Mist Eerie nodded. “Well, that’s business. I’ll explain to you while you eat. You see, I represent a certain organization. Are you familiar with three girls known as the sirens?”

“Yes,” Sunset Shimmer said slowly while she drank the rest of her glass of lemonade. Mist Eerie was quick to fill it up again for her.

Time to see if her information was good. Mist Eerie put down the pitcher and asked, “Well, then you’ll be familiar with what happened to them after… what was it? Oh, yes. The Battle of the Bands.”

“Yes,” Twilight sipped at her lemonade and picked up a macaron. Mist Eerie was especially proud of those ones. “The sirens tried to take over the world, and we stopped them.”

Inside, Mist Eerie was curious to see what kind of justification these two girls would provide for what they had done. Having spend hundreds of years with the sirens, she was actually quite incensed that someone had come along and taken their immortality away. If she didn’t fix that, she would be stuck living through the ages with none but Chrysalis for company, and that was almost too much for her to bear. Besides, she loved the sirens and their power had helped Psithyra out of many a scrape and conflict. She owed it to them to at least try.

“Yes, yes, you did,” Mist Eerie drank some of her own lemonade. It was crisp and refreshing. “And that’s why I’m talking to you now. It’s about the sirens.”

Now she had their attention. Sunset put down her sandwich and stared at Mist Eerie, no doubt using her Assassin-given talents. Twilight was similarly affected, swallowing her macaron and edging closer to her friend.

It amused Mist Eerie to find that she was sitting in the shadows cast by the roof of the gazebo, while Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle were still being dappled with sunlight. It cast an interesting dichotomy, Mist thought. Sunset took a sip of lemonade to calm herself.

“Imagine this, for a moment,” Mist Eerie tilted her head so that her hat cast an even deeper shadow on her face. “You go swimming, and a shark takes a bite at you. Now, you being who you are, take the shark and remove all its teeth so that it can no longer bite, or eat, just because it was doing what all sharks do. Does that seem humane to you?”

Sunset bristled at this question and glared at Mist Eerie. “What are you getting at here?”

“I’m saying there’s appropriate punishment, and then there’s disproportionate retribution. And what you did falls into the second category. You took their immortality and their method of feeding. An act I find most contemptible.” Mist Eerie allowed her voice to drop a few bars, stopping just short of adding a snarl to it.

Sunset and Twilight seemed to at last see where this was going.

“We did what we had to do to stop them!" Exclaimed Twilight with a hint of indignation. “We don’t decide how the magic works, it just does what’s necessary to put down the threat.”

Mist Eerie arched one of her thin eyebrows. “I certainly hope that’s the case, or you and I are going to have problems. I also happen to know that you have Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk’s pendant shards.”

“What? How?”

Mist allowed a small, but noticeable smirk to creep onto her face. “My organization knows a lot of things. I also know that Princess Twilight is a pony from another world.”

“You seem to be very well informed,” Twilight said, now giving Mist Eerie her full attention. “But you still haven’t told us why you wanted to meet us.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you.”

Mist Eerie reached into the depths of her dress and took out a small, clear plastic bag that she had stashed inside. Inside the plastic bag was a dull red gemstone with cracks running all over its surface. Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle seemed to recognize it immediately, and the atmosphere grew even more tense.

“We fixed up Adagio Dazzle’s pendant the best we could, but even an untrained eye like mine can tell it’s not enough. I figured things like this would be your specialty, Princess Twilight Sparkle. You being the Element of Magic and all,” Mist finished this statement with a cold, serious look at Twilight that bespoke no nonsense.

To her credit, Twilight didn’t flinch. “How do you know that?”

Time for a bit of knocking to their confidence in their friends, Mist Eerie considered.

“Your school isn’t exactly… tight lipped about this kind of thing,” Mist told Twilight and Sunset, leaning back a few inches and taking a sip from her pink lemonade. “I only had to watch the videos of the Fall Formal and snoop around a little to figure it all out,” she held up the glued together pendant in her fingers. It caught the light and glimmered faintly, as if it were a dying coal. “What is broken by magic, can be fixed by magic. Or am I wrong?”

Sunset seemed to have reached her breaking point, and Mist Eerie could smell it just before it happened: a sudden flare of rage and indignation from the girl.

“What do you want?” Sunset snapped, slamming her palm onto the table and making the glasses jump.

“I know you have the rest of the gem shards,” Mist Eerie replied calmly. “I want you to give them to me so I can put them back together, and then use your magical know-how to fix them. Properly.”

“And if we refuse?” Sunset asked bluntly.

Mist Eerie shrugged. “Well, I would be disappointed.”

“Why do you want to fix the jewels anyway?” Twilight questioned. “You’re not a siren. You’re probably not even from Equestria. Why do you care about the sirens so much?”

“That’s need-to-know information.” Mist Eerie took the opportunity to glance at her watch. It was almost time. Just a few more moments, which worked for her as Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle seemed to have run out of patience.

Perfect.

“And let me guess,” Sunset snarled, rising out of her seat, radiating anger. “We don’t need to know. Come on, Twi. We’re leaving. We’re not giving you back the jewels, much less helping you fix them,” she added to Mist Eerie. “Find someone else to do it for you. We won’t.”

Mist put her hands together in front of her pale face, just in front of her nose. “Don’t you walk away from me,” she warned the two girls. “Don’t you do it.”

Sunset glared at Mist. “Watch us.”

Mist Eerie counted in her head, letting them take exactly seven steps away from her before speaking up.

“Well, if that’s your final decision, I won’t stop you,” she called out cheerfully. “Enjoy the last three hours of your lives.”

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle stopped in their tracks.

“What did you just say?” Sunset said quizzically.

Mist Eerie gave them a sticky sort of smile and then picked up her half-full glass of pink lemonade. The liquid inside sloshed about as she swirled the glass and then reached over to one of the many potted plants that decorated the gazebo. She tipped the glass over and poured the contents onto one of the flowering blooms. Within seconds, the bright yellow flower and stem began to emit acrid smoke, turn black, and finally crumble into a smoldering, gooey mess.

Twilight and Sunset’s eyes widened and they looked at each other, then at their stomachs.

“I did tell you not to walk away from me, didn’t I?” Mist Eerie’s face was arranged in an expression of cold triumph. “It should start to burn any moment now.”

An aura of fear and panic bubbled to the surface. Normally it would have been an unpleasant flavor to a changeling, but circumstances were different now and Mist Eerie relished it with calm anticipation.

“But you- you’ve been drinking it too-” Twilight stammered, clutching at her belly.

“Oh, please,” Mist Eerie rested her chin on top of her folded hands. “Did you honestly think I would pull off the old ‘poisoned drink’ gambit without first making sure it wouldn’t affect me?” She laughed and reached into her left sleeve, taking out two vials of bright green liquid. “The antidote. However, this is not free. I want the both of you to give me your word that you will help me fix the sirens’ gem pendants.”

The poisoned lemonade was beginning to take hold, Mist Eerie saw. Sunset’s eyes were having trouble focusing and her legs were shaking unsteadily. It had taken a bit of experimenting to develop a toxin with these exact effects so that it wouldn’t kill the victim instantly, like she was used to making. The delayed reaction also had taken some time to perfect. But as Mist watched Twilight and Sunset fall onto the grass, she decided it had been time well spent. It was also not supposed to be painful enough to induce unconsciousness, but that was up to the drinker’s constitution and there was nothing that could be done about that. It would be a pity if either of these girls were to pass out and die without first giving her their word.

Twilight writhed on the ground, moaning in agony as she clutched her midsection. The princess’s eyes were screwed shut from the pain, and Sunset wasn’t faring much better. The fiery haired girl was on all fours, her limbs shivering and her mouth drooling as she suffered the effects of the toxin.

“You… you witch!” Sunset spat as she lost the fight for balance and rolled onto her back.

Mist Eerie got up and strolled over to the two girls, deliberately taking her time. She could hear the laughter of children from behind a hedge, but because of the glaring sun, there was nobody up and about, and that meant nobody could see this happening. Not that it would have made much difference in the end.

Mist dangled the vials over the heads of Sunset and Twilight, holding them just out of reach.

“Take it or leave it, girls. Clock’s ticking.”

Sunset opened her mouth and sucked in a mouthful of air before reaching out with one arm for the vials that would save her and Twilight. Mist Eerie could see the pain in her eyes, but felt no remorse. This was just the way it had to be done. Adagio and Aria had told her that the Rainbooms would not cooperate willingly, and they had been dead right. This was the only way.

“We’ll… give you… our word,” Sunset gasped as a fresh wave of toxin-induced suffering wracked her body.

“You’ll give me your word about what?” Mist Eerie asked, bending over slightly and turning her head to the side to listen.

“That we’ll help you… fix the gems! Aaah!” Sunset cried out. The effects must have begun spreading to her arms, because Sunset’s upper limbs lost all their strength and it was all she could do to flail them feebly.

“Whose gems?” Mist asked casually for clarification. There would be no verbal trickery or loopholes on her watch. She held the antidote closer, shaking them so that the green liquid inside splashed against the caps.

“The sirens’ gems!” Sunset moaned, lines of drool running from the corners of her mouth. “There! We said it! Now give us the cure!”

“I didn’t hear Twilight Sparkle say anything,” Mist Eerie wagged her finger at Sunset. “Nothing doing until I have both of you on board.”

The poison seemed to be affecting Twilight especially strongly. The purple girl’s eyes were rolling in her sockets and she was starting to foam at the mouth. All four of her limbs had lost all their strength and Mist could smell her emotions running amok. Mostly negative ones, and Mist briefly pondered if she had gone too far. Then she remembered who she was doing this for, and the eternity of regret and drudgery that awaited her if she failed to save the sirens. This was the only way.

“Twilight!” Sunset groaned, forcing her nerveless arms to reach out for her friend. “Tell her!”

Hearing Sunset say her name seemed to bring Twilight back to consciousness.

“I… Princess Twilight Sparkle… unhhh… give you my… ngh… word that I will… helpyoufixthesirens’gems!” She blurted out in one breath before sucking in more air.

And that was it. Mist Eerie felt a sense of victory well up inside herself. She had done it; she had secured the best possible help for her mission, and for the sirens’ future.

“Now, that’s more like it!” Mist Eerie said brightly. “I’m so glad you finally came to see things my way. Here, open wide.”

Mist uncapped the vials and tipped the contents of one down Sunset’s throat, then repeated the process for Twilight, making sure they both swallowed it. It would be a shame if they actually died before they could fulfill their promise. It would take a while for the antidote to neutralize the effects of the poisoned lemonade, so Mist sat back down at the picnic table under the gazebo and helped herself to a sandwich while she waited.

The minutes passed and Mist Eerie was on her third cucumber sandwich by the time Sunset was able to shakily rise to her feet. She helped Twilight get up as well and they both looked fearfully at Mist Eerie.

Gulping down the last of her sandwich, Mist waved at them both and gave them a friendly smile.

“I’ll be in touch!” She called over to the two girls.

That was enough, and both Sunset and Twilight hurried away from the gazebo as fast as their unsteady legs could carry them. They would no doubt share this encounter with their friends, but by then Mist would be long gone. She began packing up the food back into the basket and soon the table was mostly clear. The plant she had killed during her demonstration was quietly buried under a pile of mulch, just in case anyone came looking.

All that was left was the almost empty lemonade pitcher. Mist swirled the pink drink around and chuckled. Then she tipped her head back and drank down the rest of it in two swallows.

“Ahh,” she sighed in satisfaction. “Delicious.”

Chapter 86 - Mall Matters

“Oh, it’s good to be able to have you around again, Aunt Ivory.” Silver Rose adjusted her pink and grey hair, using the car’s mirror to have a look. “You’ve been so busy with that picnic prep that we haven’t got to spend a lot of time together.”

“Yes, well, now that Sunset and that Twilight Sparkle have agreed to my demands, I simply need to check in with them regularly.” Ivory rubbed her niece’s shoulder. “That won’t take up too much of my time. So the rest, I can spend with you and the sirens. Or like today. I’m back to watching over you while you go on your date. I’ll make sure no harm comes to you.”

“Mhm.” Silver hadn’t had her aunt around recently. It had been nice to do whatever she wanted, but that kind of got her a beating from her mother. With Aunt Ivory around, at least she would be in check, though she still had to be careful of what she said. “So I’ll see you later, Aunt Ivory.”

“Yup. Have fun, my sweet little changeling. Come here.” Ivory Wings gave her niece a warm hug, then patted her on the head. “Go on. Your date’s waiting, and remember, she’s prey. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Right.” Silver Rose nodded and hopped out of the car.

She could already see Sunny standing by the mall’s entrance, dressed in her white shirt and purple skirt, along with her sandals again. Silver chuckled to herself. Sandals were such strange looking footwear.

“Silver. Hi!” Sunny waved excitedly, a slight bounce under her feet.

“Hey, Sunny, how’ve you been?” Silver marched up to her and put on her best smile.

“I’ve been great.” The mulberry haired girl beckoned for Silver to follow as she entered the mall. “I almost haven’t seen you for a week, not since the movies.”

That’s not a long time…

And the movies. Silver had shown Sunny her lower regions that day. Now that she thought about, it was an extremely embarrassing moment. She had never intentionally showed anyone any part of her naked body before, well, besides her mother. Sunny was the only other one to get such a privilege.

“Silvy, are you okay? Your face is red?”

Silver Rose shook out of her thoughts to see Sunny watching her quizzically.

“O-Oh, umm, no no, everything’s fine. Just hot I guess…” Silver laughed awkwardly and pretended to fan herself with a hand.

“Yeah, it’s quite the hot day today…” Sunny pulled at her t-shirt collar. “Good thing the mall’s air-conditioned. So… are you hungry for anything in particular?”

Hungry for your love, Silver wanted to say, but obviously, she couldn’t. “I dunno, I kinda like burgers. How about that?”

“Sure. We can do burgers,” Sunny said sweetly.

Silver soon found herself at that one burger joint she liked coming to with Home Run. She ordered her usual double cheeseburger and got to eating it as soon as they sat down. Sunny herself had gotten a ham and bacon burger, which looked oddly small.

The two girls chatted about what they’d done so far since Summer Break started. Sunny told her that since that “date” they had last Wednesday, she’d mainly just been home, watching Neightflix on her TV, though she did go out with Sugarcoat and Lemon Zest just yesterday, buying herself a new handbag.

“Heard of Draculina? They have a series there. It details how a group of hunters defeat her.”

“Oh, is that one about the vampire countess?” Silver feigned knowledge. Of course she knew about Draculina. Draculina was based on Countess Winter Solstice, who coincidentally happened to be her mother, Chrysalis, but Sunny didn’t know that.

“Yeah, Draculina was the tyrant ruler of umm… the town, which was… uh… Okay, I forgot, but then a group of hunters show up and try to kill her.”

“Sounds interesting.” Silver sipped from her soda. “I wonder if they portrayed it correctly.”

“What do you mean portrayed correctly?” Sunny said with a laugh. “Draculina wasn’t real, you know?”

“Oh, right,” Silver felt her face turn red. “I don’t know why I said that.”

“Haha, doesn’t matter, Silver.” Sunny patted her on the hand. “But you should totally watch it. It’s a pretty good series.”

“I’m… not very good with scary stuff, if you already knew.” Silver smiled sheepishly. “But I suppose I can give it a try when I find the time.”

Silver didn’t bother telling Sunny about her Neighstation gaming. From what she already knew about Sunny, the girl didn’t like playing video games. She did tell her about her swimming session though, though it hadn’t been Silver Rose swimming, and of course, she left out the part where Adagio got a little too touchy with her.

“Swimming?” Sunny began eyeing Silver up and down. “We should, um, go swimming one of these days too, yeah?”

Silver noticed her eyeing her body and smiled. She sniffed at the air and found the storm of love and lust flowing all around Sunny. She quickly put a hand to her mouth as she felt her fangs threaten to emerge. She’d gotten much better at dealing with lust after being with Sunny for so long, but she still made sure to take precautions. Sunny had more lust for her than she’d ever smelt in one place. It was amazing, but also a little freaky at the same time.

“Um, you any good at swimming, Sunny?” Silver needed to get her mind off the lust.

“Swimming? Of course.” Sunny nodded and stuff a handful of fries into her mouth. “We Shadowbolts are good at all kinds of sports, remember?”

“Uh huh. You’re supposed to be good at academics too, right?”

Sunny went red faced, likely remembering the spelling bee event during the Friendship Games. Silver laughed internally. It wasn’t something she was going to forget any time soon.

“Y-Yeah, we’re good at most subjects, yes…”

“Most is the keyword, huh, Sunny?” Silver patted her friend on the arm, then went back to eating her cheeseburger. It was really nice how cheese and beef seemed to work so well together. “But don’t sweat it, Sunny. What’s done is done. After all, we didn’t lose the Games. It was a tie.”

“Yeah, it was.” Sunny toyed with a fry. “That Canterlot High and their magic. Trust me, if it wasn’t for all that magical hocus pocus, we would’ve won.”

“Um, right. Okay.”

When the two girls were finished with their lunch, Sunny brought Silver up and around to the different clothes shops. The young changeling didn’t quite like looking at clothes, but since Sunny wanted to do so, she grudgingly obliged, though of course, she pretended to be excited to do so.

“What do you think of this?” Sunny Flare held a red dress against herself. It had a strange cut on the front, where it looked like a slasher had worked on it.

“A bit… showy, don’t you think?” Silver sat cross legged on one of the many chairs in the shop. She didn’t care how it looked on Sunny, but she had a prey to hunt, after all. “Maybe, uh, that purple one with the flappy cape over there. It matches your hair.”

“Oh, you think so?” Sunny picked it out and examined it.

Silver Rose really didn’t know why it had a cape, but that was likely some fashion people liked nowadays. Things were weird.

“Too long.” Sunny put it back and rubbed her chin.

Silver just wanted to go do something else now, but Sunny continued to eye various different dresses, seemingly needing to buy one before they could leave.

An attendant came and helped her out on picking clothes as Silver watched on, hoping Sunny would just buy the one she was holding. She still had a present to buy for Home Run and he surely wouldn’t want a dress.

Just when she thought Sunny was done and happy to leave without buying anything, the mulberry haired girl led her to another clothes shop, this time looking at various skirts that looked much too short to wear outside. Sure, her Silver Rose and Moonglade skirts weren’t all that long, but they at least were still longer than the ones Sunny was looking at.

Who would even want to walk around in public wearing such a short skirt?

“This one’s nice. I think I’ll get it.” Sunny held up a short pink skirt with yellow lines going down the left side. “What do you think, Silver?”

“Uh, yeah, go for it. It’s nice,” Silver lied again.

Sunny disappeared into the changing room with the skirt, leaving Silver sitting there by herself as she waited for her friend. It gave her some time to think of what to say to Sunny for normal conversations.

Silver realized she didn’t quite know what to talk about with Sunny. Usually whenever they met up, it would be in the company of the other Shadowbolts or to just… roll around in the hay, as her aunt would say.

Silver knew how to tease Sunny, yes, but having a normal conversation, that was strangely a little harder.

Eventually, Sunny came back out, now wearing the short pink skirt. “What do you think?”

Now that Sunny was wearing it, she realized it really was a short skirt. If Sunny were to simply bend down, well, some people would be really happy to look over.

“Don’t you think, umm… it’s a little short?”

“Well, I mean, it’s fashionable.” Sunny moved her legs around. “And it’s only just a little shorter than your skirts.”

Silver looked down at hers. “M-Mine’s not that short, i-is it?”

“It’s not the standard length, no.” Sunny eyed Silver’s legs almost hungrily. “You didn’t know?”

“N-No, I kinda just wear these because my mother got them for me…” Silver blushed and tugged at her skirt’s hem. “Maybe I should buy some longer skirts…”

“No no, I like the length of yours.” Sunny tapped her on the shoulder. “It… um, well, it shows off more of how pretty you are.”

There that is again. Am I really that pretty? Silver pinched at her pink hair unconsciously. “Y-You really think I am?”

Sunny’s cheeks turned red as she nodded. “You are. That’s one thing I love about you. You’re so pretty. Thinking of you just makes me want to-” Her hands flew to her mouth as her entire face turned red. Her eyes darted around, hoping no one had heard that.

“It’s okay, Sunny, I don’t think anyone heard.” Silver looked around to be sure. When she was sure no one was listening, she smirked and leaned in. “You’re so naughty, Sunny, always thinking about stuff like that.”

“I know…” Sunny squeezed her red cheeks. “I really don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’m always thinking of you. Um, I better go pay up.”

“Yeah.” Silver chuckled as she watched Sunny go back to the changing rooms. She really was a strange girl. Such a lust for her. Silver really wondered just what made Sunny so attracted to her. It was indeed intriguing.

While sitting there again, Silver Rose took the time to look around at all the patrons in the store. She remembered Aunt Ivory was back out in the field again, meaning she had to be watching from somewhere. The question was, where?

After that, she thought about what she was going to buy for Home Run. She knew she would have to stop being so in love with him, but this was for his birthday. She couldn’t just sit out on such a special occasion.

I just need to stop thinking so much about him. That should help. Just think about what to buy for him, Silver. Yeah, just think of the gift.

She had already gotten him a baseball bat the last time, so there wasn’t any point in getting him another one.

“Maybe a shirt?” Silver leaned back on her seat as she thought. “Or maybe a video game? He likes video games.”

“Who likes video games, Silver?”

The young changeling turned to see who had spoken and jumped when she noticed Sunny Flare leaning down over her.

“Oh, uh, no one in particular…” She rubbed the back of her head. “Ju-just uh, m-my sister’s boyfriend. Yeah. Uh, Moonglade asked me to keep an eye out for something he might like. Yeah. So I was just won-wondering.”

“Oh. Um… Would you… like to go have a look then?” Sunny shook the paper bag she had on one arm. “I’ve got something I wanted. We can go look for stuff you’d like. Actually, what do you like shopping for, Silvy?”

“Umm…” Silver Rose had a good think about it as they left the clothing store. She hadn’t really thought about it. Shopping wasn’t exactly something she enjoyed, but she did like seeing new things. Perhaps there were still shops in the mall that sold things she had never seen before. Maybe she could get Home Run something from one of those shops too. “Why don’t we have a look around? I’m not too sure what I like to shop for too.”

“Okay,” Sunny agreed. “We could catch a movie later if you’d like.”

“We could.” Silver smirked, her cheeks coloring. “But after what happened the last time we watched a movie… I think we should give it more time.”

She was still embarrassed that she had let Sunny see her slit. Silver still didn’t know why she had allowed her to do so. Perhaps it was just because Sunny had gotten her into the mood. Her fingers did feel nice against her-

Silver Rose’s eyes widened and she covered her face, stopping in her tracks.

Seriously, don’t think about that right now!

“S-Something wrong, Silvy?” Sunny tugged on her sleeve.

“J-Just thinking we shouldn’t have done all that in the theater…” Silver groaned into her hands, very much embarrassed.

“Y-Yeah, we… should’ve done it in a more pr-private place, huh?” The mulberry haired girl rubbed her left arm. “I’m sorry, Silver. I just couldn’t control myself. You’re really pretty.”

There was a cough behind Silver, but when she turned around, there wasn’t anyone behind her, at least, not directly behind her; there were plenty of other people walking around doing their shopping.

“Well, thanks, Sunny. It’s nice to know that, you know?” Silver gave her a smile. It was nice to know that people valued her. “Hey, how about that store?”

Silver went into a cap store and began trying out various different caps. There was a really nice red one that she liked, but red didn’t go with Home Run. In the end, she went with a blue one with a yellow line going around the base. It matched Home Run and it would definitely look good on him too.

“There. Sister’s boyfriend’s gift settled.” Silver looked at the plastic bag in her hand. “What’s next?”

For a few hours, Sunny brought her around to many more stores, most of which she had already seen before. Then there was one on the top floor called Den’s Thingamabobery that sold all kinds of medieval weapons, stacked with battleaxes, spears and even fist weapons.

“Woah, check this one out!” Silver looked into a display case of a triple-sided battleaxe. “How is this even possible?”

The young changeling darted from display to display, marveling at all the craftsmanship. The Eastern sword she used back home was nice and likely very expensive, but many of these here looked like they would be able to compete with hers in terms of aesthetics.

In the end, she didn’t buy anything, but she made a note of the store so that she could come back here if the need arose.

“A fun day, huh?” Sunny Flare now had three bags in her hands, all of clothing items. “Too bad it’s only one day. I wish it could go on longer.”

“Yeah, that would be fun, wouldn't it?” Silver Rose pushed at her fringe and sniffed. “Just hanging around with friends all day.”

“Yeah… I wanted to do something normal today, you know? Something like this. Well, I’m glad we went out together, but… I won’t lie, Silver, I really want to kiss you right now. Do you think we could… go somewhere… quiet? The restroom, maybe?”

“Oh, umm, just a kiss, huh? That should be okay…” Silver looked around for any signs of her aunt. She kissed Home Run all the time, so that sounded like her aunt would be okay with it.

Entering the restroom on the first floor, Silver first made sure there wasn’t anyone inside before proceeding into one of the cubicles, beckoning Sunny to follow her quickly in case someone were to walk in.

Slamming the door behind them and locking it, Silver placed her shopping item and Sunny’s atop a small counter above the toilet bowl and got herself ready.

“So…?” Silver leaned closer, putting her arms on Sunny’s waist. “You ready?”

“Mhm. Always ready for you, Silvy.”

The two girls leaned and kissed each other on the lips, with Silver inhaling the strong scent of love and lust swirling around Sunny, much stronger now.

“Mmm, that’s nice.” Silver licked her lips when they separated.

“Yeah, it sure is…” Sunny panted, but then leaned in for another kiss. Her hands began toying under Silver’s skirt, playing with her hindquarters.

“Mm, I think we should stop there…” Silver took one step back. “You know, we shouldn’t do so much of, um, this kind of thing.”

“But I just really want you, Silver. I need your touch…” Sunny stepped back in and wrapped her arms around the changeling, lifting one knee and rubbing it between Silver’s legs.

While I wouldn’t mind the little extra love, Aunt Ivory won’t be happy. Silver squirmed as Sunny’s knee went against her sensitive spot. “Sunny, I really think… we shouldn’t…”

Silver and Sunny were so caught up in their actions that they didn’t hear the bathroom door open and close. However, what they did hear was a blood curdling cry, sounding half like a banshee’s scream and half like a guttural growl.

Both girls jumped and Silver found Sunny’s arms wrapping tightly around her. “W-What was th-that?” she whispered.

Silver Rose had an idea of what that might be, but she didn’t know what to tell Sunny, so she went with the simple, “I don’t know. It-It sounded like an animal… Didn’t it?”

“I-I don’t even know…” Sunny shook on the spot.

“Do animals come in here often? Into the mall, I mean.”

“Not often, no…” Sunny’s eyes were glued on the door.

The two girls stood unmoving for several minutes. There were no more sounds coming from outside now, since the first growl.

“I think I better have a look. See if it’s still there.” Silver squeezed out of Sunny’s grasp. “Wait here, okay?”

Unlocking the cubicle door, Silver first peeked out with an eye and when she didn’t see anything, she exited and had a quick look around. There wasn’t anyone in here, but the cubicle next to theirs was now closed and locked.

Might be Aunt Ivory, she thought.

Slinking back to the cubicle, Silver pushed it open and beckoned Sunny to exit. “All clear. I think it left. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“R-Right.” Sunny grabbed her things and handed Silver hers as they left the restroom.

It had been a close one. Silver tried stopping Sunny, but that girl really lusted over her. Thankfully Aunt Ivory had been able to step in, at least, Silver thought it was her aunt who made the growl.

The only logical location to go to now was the carpark. It was getting late and Silver’s mother likely wanted them back for dinner.

“Well, at least I got to kiss you…” Sunny Flare blushed and twirled at her short mulberry hair. “Perhaps we can… do more next time?”

“Just kissing, Sunny?” Silver giggled. “I think we should hold off on going past kissing, at least, not do stuff like that so often.”

“Okay, I’ll try…” Sunny sighed. “It’s not easy, I gotta say.”

“We’ll just have to work on that, hmm?” Silver punched Sunny in the arm softly. “Hey, we could always go watch a movie like you said. Like, really watch a movie.”

The glass doors of the mall slid open as Silver and Sunny walked through them. The doors still failed to amaze the young changeling, who thought automatic doors were such a marvel. She didn’t know they didn’t have those at home.

“Yeah. There’s one that just came out that I want to see. Crypt Spelunker. I heard from Indigo Zap that it’s worth the watch.”

“Crypt Spelunker, huh?” Silver rubbed her chin. She hadn’t heard of this one.

“Mhm. It stars Azalea Coriander. Do you know her?”

“Oh! The wife of Fast Bender, right?” Silver answered happily. “She’s starring in this new movie? That’s cool. We should totally come see it.”

“Then, um, Friday then? It’s a date?” Sunny looked at her expectantly.

Silver didn’t have any plans on Friday, so she nodded. “A Friday date to the movies it is.”

In no time, Ivory Wings pulled up the car alongside the mall entrance, winding the window down to wave at Sunny.

“Looks like it’s time to go. See you, Sunny. I had fun today.” Silver sneaked a hand to Sunny’s for a second.

“Bye, Silver. I love you.” The mulberry haired girl grinned.

After closing the door and buckling in, Silver Rose leaned forward and patted her aunt on the shoulder. “Thanks for getting me out of that one, Aunt Ivory. It was you, right? In the restroom?”

“Yes, that was me,” her aunt said as she pulled the car away from the mall’s entrance, with Silver waving to Sunny one more time before disappearing out of the carpark. “I must say, sweetie, it’s good that you tried to stop her, but if I hadn’t been there, you’d likely have another roll in the hay to add to your list. You need to be more firm. Tell her no, and have it end there.”

“Sorry, Aunt Ivory. I don’t want to accidentally hurt her or anything. She is food after all. I can’t scare her away.” Silver leaned back and twirled the corner of her hair.

“Food is expendable, Silver. If it doesn’t work out, you might need a new meal. Though with all that lust I smell around her, refusing her advances isn’t going to simply end your relationship. Work harder at saying no, okay, sweetie?”

“Right, okay. I’ll continue to try, Aunt Ivory. There’s another date this Friday. We’re gonna watch this movie called Crypt Spelunker.”

Ivory Wings smiled and looked up at the rearview mirror as she drove down a long road. “Maybe actually watch the movie this time, sweetie?”

Chapter 87 - Home Run's Birthday Party

Moonglade stood outside the residence of Pinkie Pie, just watching the white front door and clutching the gift tightly in her hands. It was a relatively big house, but from what her aunt had told her, Moonglade knew that the Pie family was a rather sizeable one, and probably needed the space.

Her aunt’s words from the ride over still rang in her ears and she kept playing it back in her head over and over again.

Remember, sweetie, unless you want another beating from your mother, I suggest you remember this boy is but a meal. While he may love you, you as a changeling should not be in love with him. Do not let it control you. Remember that.

Moonglade sighed deeply. That was why she was still out here. She didn’t know what to do. She had to distance herself from Home Run but what if she couldn’t? She just really wanted to be with him, but she knew that was not a possibility. And then she had to be careful about what she said. Her mother had heard everything the last time and she wasn’t going to make that same mistake again.

Adjusting her mother’s heavy hairclip on her head, Moonglade took another deep breath, then pushed a finger against the doorbell by the side.

She heard a resounding bell sound go through the house, followed by a rush of footsteps.

No turning back now…

The door was suddenly pulled open and a pink girl made herself known. Pinkie Pie was clad in an entirely pink outfit.

“Moonglade, you’re here!” she said a little too loudly for the young changeling. “Come in, come in! Welcome to my home! It’s not too small, is it? I mean, compared to yours.”

“Oh, no, the size doesn’t matter, Pinkie Pie.” Moonglade rubbed the back of her neck and laughed. “I-Is Home Run here yet? I have his gift.”

The changeling shook the box that held Home Run’s present. She had wrapped it in a blue paper with kittens decorating its surface, all by herself. She had been rather impressed with her small accomplishment.

“Yes! Come in, come in!” Pinkie bounced on the spot. “Now that everyone’s here, the party can really start!”

Moonglade allowed the pink girl to lead her into the living room, which was decorated with blue streamers and blue balloons, which Moonglade obviously knew was Home Run’s favourite color.

For having someone drive her around and everything, she wasn’t usually on time.

Home Run and the other girls including Sunset were already seated on sofas in the room, with Rainbow Dash and Applejack playing a game on the TV.

The young changeling’s heart fluttered when she saw Home Run, but then she shook her head and reminded herself what she shouldn’t do. Moonglade and Chrysidea had to be separate entities. She couldn’t fall in love, even if she wanted to.

“Hey, Moonglade, you’re here!” Home Run got up and walked over to give her a hug.

Moonglade wanted to return it with equal gusto, but instead, she froze, unsure of what to do. In the end, she simply placed her head on his chest and breathed in the love he was giving her.

“It’s um, great to see you, Home Run.” She grinned awkwardly. She held out the gift in her hands to him. “Umm, here, for you. Your present. I hope you like it.”

“Oh, for me?” Home Run accepted it from her hands. “Wow, did you wrap this? It’s nice.”

“Oh, well… yeah, I did…” Moonglade blushed. It was nice to receive praise from him.

“But you know? Whether it’s nice or not, it was done by you, and that’s what matters, isn’t it?” Home Run lightly kissed her on the cheek, making the young changeling blush harder.

Sure, she liked that, but with her current conflicted feelings and the eyes of the others around them, it was a tad bit embarrassing.

“Aw, you two are so cute together.” Rarity had whipped out her strange camera. “Come on, do it again for the camera!”

“Do-do we have to…?” Moonglade pinched the hem of her shirt. She didn’t like having so much attention on her.

“Yeah, come on, Rarity, just a simple picture will do.” Home Run put an arm around the changeling. That always seemed to help calm her, if only just a little.

“Oh, very well. Say cheese!” Rarity readied the camera and snapped.

In less than a second, the faded picture slid out from the bottom of the camera and the violet haired girl took it out and began waving it.

“Come on, Moonglade.” Home Run took her hand and led her over to the sofas. “You like video games, right? Have you ever heard of Field Fighter? Rainbow Dash and Applejack have been at it for the last hour.”

“You play video games, Moonglade?” Rainbow turned from the TV screen to face her. “I didn’t know that! What games do you play?”

“Um, mostly Finest Fantasy. I haven’t played too far into the game, but I’m enjoying it so far.”

“You’re gonna lose, Dash, if ya keep tryin’ to bug her.” With one more tap on the controller, Applejack’s character delivered an uppercut to Rainbow’s character, launching him into the air as the letters, “K.O”, appeared on the screen. “See?”

“Hey, not fair! I was talking!” Rainbow complained.

“Field Fighter waits for no excuses.” Applejack spun the controller on her index finger. “Wanna have a go, Moonglade?”

“Oh, umm, do-don’t mind me…” Moonglade laughed sheepishly and waved a hand. “Go on ahead.”

“No, really, come on. I wanna see how you do!” Rainbow Dash got up and shoved the controller into her hand.

“It’s r-really… it’s fine…” Unsure of what to do, Moonglade looked to Home Run, who she was most comfortable with. Aside from her awkwardness to not get too close to him, he still managed to cast a sense of calm around her.

“You can give it a try, Moonglade. Go ahead. I know you like video games.”

“O-Oh… Well, okay then.” Moonglade meekly placed both hands on the controller. At least gaming would likely take away some of that awkwardness she currently had before Home Run and his friends.

After a quick explanation of the controls, the young changeling was soon thrust into the world of Field Fighter. She had never played anything like this before, but she couldn’t deny a few moments of the fight put a smile on her face.

She had picked a character with a bright red suit, who seemed to have special powers, while Applejack had a character that knew some kind of martial arts, though he was able to somehow shoot blue balls from his hands.

Moonglade ended up losing every match, but she found she was getting better as they played on, slowly mimicking what Applejack was doing, though, the cowgirl herself was on much higher level.

She also enjoyed the touch of Home Run’s hand on her shoulder, but she had to keep reminding herself not to be so crazy about him.

Home Run was prey. He was a source of food. He couldn’t be anything more.

But why had she fallen for him so? Was it because he was her first target? Or maybe it was his character. Home Run was always so nice to her and she knew he really cared about her. Was this why she was so driven to love him back?

Whatever it was, she knew she couldn’t. She wanted to, but unless she wanted another severe spanking from her mother, she couldn’t love him like she used to.

“Are you okay, Moonglade?” Home Run squeezed her shoulder and jolted her from her thoughts. “You’ve been mashing buttons even after the game over screen.”

“Yeah, somethin’ on your mind?” Applejack leaned over to look at her closer.

“Oh, no no, I guess I was, uh… Just spacing out. Yeah. I-I’m fine.” Moonglade laughed nervously. “Say, you’re really good at this game, Ap-Applejack.”

“Well, Ah do have the game at home, so it’d be weird if Ah wasn’t good at it.” Applejack laughed. “But you did pretty well, ‘specially if this was your first time playin’.”

Moonglade put down the controller and put on a brave smile. “Thanks, Applejack. Maybe I’ll see if I can get the game myself. I’d put up more of a fight next time.”

“Punch?” Pinkie popped up between Applejack and Moonglade, holding up two glasses of cherry-red liquid.

“Oh, I don’t mind.” The changeling accepted a glass and gulped down half its contents. It was quite a sweet drink, but still, it pleased her taste buds. “Ooh, this is good.”

“Of course it is.” Rainbow gulped down her own glass. “Pinkie makes the best punch at any party!”

“Darn right she does.” Applejack accepted her glass from the pink girl and held it up. “Thanks, Pinkie. And here, a toast to Home Run, huh? Our guest of honor.”

“Oh, no no, I don’t need a toast-”

“A toast to Home Run!” Pinkie somersaulted beside him and clapped him hard on the back. “Happy Birthday to the birthday boy!”

Moonglade stood beside him and smiled. This was the first birthday party she’d been to, not counting her own. So far, she found it loud, but it was certainly an interesting experience, though, she wished she would be able to fully enjoy it. Alas, as a changeling, she would never be allowed to, seeing as her mother was very against her falling in love.

“It’s for your own good, you know,” Mishter Schniffs’ voice said in her head.

“Yeah, listen to him,” Stargaze Sunshine added, also in her head.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Moonglade replied out loud, then realized everyone was now looking at her, red quickly forming on her cheeks.

“Oh, to Home Run!” Moonglade said quickly, quaffing the rest of her drink in one gulp.

The girls continued to look quizzically at her as she swapped her attention to her empty cup, but Home Run just smiled and gave her a friendly pat on the back.

“I’m glad I get to celebrate with you, Moonglade.”

Moonglade shrugged and smiled at him. “Well, if it makes you happy, then I am too.”

Moonglade paused and looked down. Her heart was doing it again. It was beginning to beat faster. She had been trying to calm it down, to feel more normal around Home Run, but whenever he did something nice to her, its beat would shoot right up again, her effort wasted.

Moonglade noticed Sunset Shimmer looking at her with a strangely suspicious look on her face, but as she turned to look, the other girl looked away, back at the drink in her hand.

That one… Moonglade thought. That one suspects something.

Pushing her heavy hairclip up, Moonglade turned her attention back to Home Run. She couldn’t keep pretending he wasn’t there. She was pretending to be his girlfriend after all, love or no. She would still need to act like it.

“So…” the young changeling ventured. “I’ve not been to a birthday party before. What else do we do?”

“You’ve never been to a birthday party before?!” Pinkie Pie gasped, levitating in the air as she inhaled. “What about your birthday? Doesn’t your mom celebrate that?”

“She does… I guess.” The blonde girl rubbed the back of her neck. “Usually I just get…” Then she remembered her mother could likely hear her, somehow, so she opted to pick her next words very carefully. “Um, a gift. Yeah. Mmhmm. I’ve… um, never had any friends until now…”

“What about your twin sister and the sirens?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking back from the TV.

“Oh, well, my sister only moved back recently, about the same time as the sirens. I had the house to myself until a couple of months ago.”

“That’s so lonely…” Fluttershy mumbled behind her friends.

“But… at least now you have us, hmm?” Home Run ran a hand along her cheek, which made her blush again.

“Yes, we’ll be your friends, darling.” Rarity gave her violet hair a flip behind her shoulder. “Everyone needs friends.”

Moonglade was taken aback by their plain honesty. She could smell and taste their hospitality; they genuinely wanted to be her friends, with no hidden undercurrents of ulterior motive. How different from her classmates at Crystal Prep Academy.

The young changeling raised a hand and held Home Run’s to her cheek. And she definitely loved the way he smelt around her. He genuinely loved her. The taste of his love was just so delicious, Moonglade’s mouth began to water, but she managed to control herself and once again have a mental reminder that she could not fall in love with him, no matter how true his love was for her.

Why does it have to be this way?

“Come on, let’s play a game!” Pinkie suggested, brandishing a foam baseball bat. “Who wants to whack a pinata?”

“Do you realize how suspicious we look?” Ivory Wings said from the driver’s seat of a large black-painted van. The vehicle had tinted windows and a long antennae coming out of the top. It was parked under a tree which kept it in shadow.

“No, I don’t.” Ebony Wings said, twiddling the volume dial on the console in front of her. The back of the van was brightly lit with halogen light strips in the ceiling. The actress was wearing headphones, and was listening to the sounds of Home Run’s birthday party. Currently, there was the sound of an obnoxiously high-pitched voice giving out instructions on how to play some game called ‘Pin the Tail on the Pony’.

“Don’t you have to get to that shoot of yours soon?” Ivory looked at her watch. “It’s already three.”

“The shoot can wait, sister. Do you know how respected and acclaimed I am? They can wait a few minutes more for me.”

“Well, okay then.” Ivory picked out a chicken drumstick from a large bucket in the seat beside her and took a bite out of it. “Sho… howsh she doing?”

“She hasn’t done anything she shouldn’t. Yet…” Ebony reached a hand out. “Hand me one of those, will you?”

Ivory tossed her one of the chicken drumsticks, which she caught without looking. The actress then took a large chunk out of it, chewing noisily as she went back to listening to her daughter. The younger changeling looked on is disgust as she put her oily hands on the headphones.

“Really?” she mumbled to herself and shook her head.

“What a disappointment she is, you know?” Ebony Wings sighed and finished up her meal. “As my daughter, I expected more from her. I expected her to be able to control her emotions better.”

“She’s not a disappointment,” Ivory said patiently. “She’s just at a very young and impressionable age. I read that around this age, children are extremely susceptible to their hormones and the chemicals in their brains aren’t done settling yet-”

Ebony rolled her eyes. “So you’re saying that we shouldn’t have let her out of the house until all this mumbo jumbo is done settling? Is that it? Because if so, then I can say that this is all your fault for convincing me to let her go to school to start with.”

“That’s… It was good for her to learn to hunt.” Ivory took another bite out of her chicken. “It still is. Better she learn to sort all these feelings out now than when she’s older. This is experience.”

“When the next child comes along,” Ebony muttered. “And they will; I’m not letting them out of the house unsupervised until they’re like, twenty-five or so.”

“That’s a bit much, don’t you think?” Ivory picked out a wing and peeled it in half. “And come on, you’re not going to marry again just to kill another man, are you? We could actually keep him, you know. And wow. They’re going to be so many years apart.”

“Now why would I let some human dictate how I raise my child?” Ebony asked. “Keeping a mate around is far too troublesome for my tastes.”

“The humans are going to stay clear of you when they find out your new husband died. Again.” Ivory bit into the wing and chewed.

“Nyyeeh…” Ebony said noncommittally. “I miss having other members of our race I could procreate with. What happened to them all anyway?”

“Are… Are you seriously asking me where they all went?” Ivory was so shocked she dropped her chicken wing. “Really?”

“What?”

“It was you. It was all your fault.” Ivory pointed an accusing finger at her sister. “It was because of you Chlorina and the others were killed. You. It was why I left all those years ago, and now you’ve forgotten?”

“Now now, let’s not play the blame game here.”

“When are you ever going to admit your faults, sister? Whenever I bring something up, you just push it aside. You need to learn to start accepting your failures.”

“As if I would forgive that traitorous sister of mine. Being killed by the hunters was already a much better fate than I would have given her.”

“They were still family, Chryssie.” Ivory gripped the back of her seat. “You didn’t kill me for leaving you after that.”

“Besides. If they were so easily slain by a band of sissy human hunters, then they probably weren’t going to be much use to me anyway.”

“You… You’re just as impossible as always.” Ivory went back to looking out through the windshield. “How’s your daughter doing now?”

Ebony went back to listening to the hidden receiver in Moonglade’s hairclip. There were multiple voices yelling out various directions, which began to get annoying after three or so seconds. She could hear a little background chatter amongst the directions, but as of now, they were nothing of interest.

“So what games do you like, Moonglade?”

“Oh, well, I only have Finest Fantasy and um… there was one more, I forgot what it was called,” Ebony heard her daughter reply. “It had some guy who hunted monsters. That one’s mainly played by Aria though. She got it.”

“Do you like cheese, Moonglade?”

“Oh, umm… I guess…”

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Um, blu- I mean… umm… pink.”

“She’s just talking. Nothing special.” Ebony shook her head. Her daughter lacked so much confidence. She pondered as to why her offspring would even lack confidence. She never once was unsure of herself, nor had Crescentlane, besides the moment of his imminent death, but that one didn’t count. Chrysidea really was a great disappointment in the family, daughter of the queen or no.

“So have you met Home Run’s parents yet?”

“Oh, n-no… Not yet.”

This one question caught Ebony’s attention.

“Hey, you know, you should! My parents would love to meet you, Moonglade.”

“O-Oh… re-really? They would?”

“The boy wants to introduce her to his parents,” Ebony Wings said to her sister.

“Okay. So…?” Ivory didn’t bother turning around. Instead, she reached for another chicken piece.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t even met this boy,” Ebony said, raising the volume of the mic to get a better reading on the surrounding sounds. “Surely that should be a requirement for dating my daughter? That I give the all clear for this?”

“That’s… Hmm… That’s an idea. Yeah. We should arrange something like that.”

“Uh huh.” Ebony went back to the conversation.

“Oh, my mother? I’m not sure if she… umm… would want visitors. Perhaps we should just… see how it goes with your parents, umm, first?”

“Oh, she’s sure she wants a visitor this time.” The queen rubbed her oily hands together and grinned. “You know what? If I don’t like him, it would be the perfect chance to kill him too.”

“Somehow I think that Moonglade wouldn’t be too happy to hear you talking like that.”

“Please. She’s already not happy that she cannot love him. What difference would this make?”

“Because we don’t live in the middle ages anymore!” Ivory said through clenched teeth. “We can’t just kill people we don’t like in this day and age.”

“Uh, yeah, we can. We just killed that computer human a little while ago,” Ebony challenged. “Chrysidea was even the one to do so. And you were planning to kill him before that anyway, but you let a group of humans get the better of you.”

Ivory Wings sniffed derisively. “That man would have exposed all our secrets to the world. It wasn’t a matter of dislike, it was critical to the survival of our race. Although, yes, I did have his name on the chopping block for a long time, ever since he helped destroy that machine. What an odious little man he was.”

“Yes, so, if you can do that, I can kill this boy if I don’t like him, yes?” The older changeling smirked.

“He’s not a threat! The computer man was. Do I need to spell it out for you?”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see what kind of impression this boy makes on me.” Ebony reached out her hand again. “Hand me another of those chicken sticks, will you?”

Chapter 88 - Crypt Spelunker

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 88 - Crypt Spelunker

Moonglade woke up on Friday morning, happier than she’d ever been in the last few days. She had successfully cleared the birthday party yesterday without receiving any punishment from her mother, which meant she had succeeded in not being so in love with Home Run. Her mother hadn’t said anything, but at least she wasn’t beaten.

“Though, is that even a victory?” Stargaze Sunshine asked from her left.

“It is unless she wants another violent beating,” Mishter Schniffs countered.

“Yeah yeah. You know, I’d like to do without the pain, thanks.” Moonglade stretched her arms back.

The party had been fun yesterday, with all the games the played and all the time she had with Home Run. He liked the cap she had got for him, plus, she got a kiss on the way out as well, which, whether she was trying not to love him or not, was still nice.

The young changeling put a finger on her lips and smiled giddily. “Oh, Home Run…”

“Hey, come on. No love for him, please.” Schniffs pushed at her to go get ready.

“Okay, okay. I’m going.” Moonglade got off her bed, making her changeling plushie fall to his side.

Today was friday, and that meant she had a date with Sunny Flare today, or at least, Silver Rose did. So grabbing her Silver Rose attire, Moonglade glided over to her bathroom and took a nice long shower, washing off her Moonglade dye and applying her Silver Rose one.

She mused about her position between Home Run and Sunny and sighed. Things just weren’t going to go down easily. Firstly, she had fallen in love with Home Run and she was punished for doing so. She had to be careful on controlling her feelings for him from now on.

And then there was Sunny Flare. While she still saw Sunny as food, though a little as a good friend, Silver had been warned by her aunt that no funny business was to take place, at least on this coming date. She was still young after all. Doing this kind of thing was definitely not the way to go about in her youth.

“Though… Sunny’s juices always taste so nice…” Silver tried picturing Sunny’s private place dripping wet, but then shook the thoughts out of her head. “Okay, no, Dea. Control. Control yourself.”

Silver usually was the one doing the pleasing when it came to her private time with Sunny, but the other day at the movies, Sunny had taken a step up. She still remembered the feeling. It had been weird, but strangely… It was quite… pleasurable.

“Hmm… should I let Sunny touch me down here again…?” Silver Rose reached a hand down and placed two fingers on her slit, gently massaging it. “Mm…”

She suddenly flicked her head up, realizing what she was doing and her entire face turned red, her hands instantly shooting up to her cheeks. “Oh man, oh man, what am I doing?! I’m going crazy now…”

Putting her focus into the shower instead, Silver quickly finished and dried herself, trying her best to whistle and forget what she had just tried to do in the shower.

“You’re not letting Sunny turn you into a weirdo like her, nope, nope, nope. Control, Silver,” she told herself in the mirror.

In no time, she had on her attire and was already downstairs, wolfing down a plate of pancakes, which apparently Aunt Ivory had found disturbing.

“Slow down, young lady. That’s disgusting,” the older changeling said, adjusting her glasses on her face. “What’s the rush, anyway? Not excited for that date, are you?”

“Oh! No, no, no, not like that, Aunt Ivory.” Silver wanted to correct this assumption. She didn’t want to be mistaken for falling in love a second time. “It’s just… umm… Well…” But then she realized it was quite the embarrassing thing to tell the truth. “Eh… I’d… rather not say.”

Ivory sniffed at the air, then waltzed over, putting a hand on her niece’s shoulder. “You know, changelings are very good at finding out what’s going on. It’s okay, sweetie. So long as you haven’t fallen in love again, I guess it’s fine. But… remember, today’s date… Please no rolling in the hay, okay?”

“Right, yes, I’ll do my best, Aunt Ivory. I don’t want to disappoint mother twice,” she said as she began to cut her pancakes up.

After that, the young changeling first went to practice on her violin, and then played about an hour of Finest Fantasy on her Neighstation. When lunch time began to creep closer, Silver stopped by her closet to check on her hair and look in the mirror before twirling around and admiring herself.

“Looking good as always, Dea.” She batted her eyelashes at her reflection. “Now, to the movies! And no funny business, okay?”

In no time, Aunt Ivory was already driving her to the theater, the car speeding down the streets either like a really talented driver, or a drunkard. Thankfully, Silver’s aunt was the former, at least, that’s what she would think.

The tires on the car screeched to a halt on the curb of the mall, the back door popping open.

“Enjoy yourself, sweetie,” Ivory Wings said in a considerably serious tone.

“O-Okay. I will,” Silver said, a little unnerved by the way her aunt’s eyes flashed behind her glasses.

She walked to the escalators and took them up to the top floor of the mall, where the movie theaters were. Then she took up a position at the entrance, patiently waiting for her date. Friend. Thing.

For once, I’m actually the early one...

Silver Rose’s eyes wandered around the lobby, taking in all the posters that had been set up to advertise current and upcoming films. She thought she recognized her mother in several of them too.

A cardboard display had been put up in the corner with a chair in the middle for people to take photos with. Silver looked around, and seeing nobody else but the theater staff around, she went over to inspect the set.

It was a little disappointing. From further away, the characters looked less two-dimensional, but up close it was easy to tell they were just cutouts. Even the styrofoam owl that had been put at the top looked cheesy and fake. The display depicted Daring Do and Doctor Caballeron glaring at each other over a large blue gemstone, while various other scenes from the movie were superimposed behind them. Cat Scratch was there too, locked in a sword fight with one of Caballeron’s henchmen. Silver had to admit her mother looked good in this scene, at least.

“Looking forward to the new Daring Do movie?” a voice said from beside Silver. The young changeling jumped; she had not been paying attention to her surroundings and had been caught by surprise. She turned her head and saw the same girl from the party yesterday, Sunset Shimmer.

“Oh, hi,” Silver said, composing herself. “I guess I am looking forward to the movie? It’s not due for at least another six months though,” she added. “Sunset Shimmer, right? What brings you here?”

Sunset gave Silver a half smile. “Oh, I was just applying for a job here at the mall. Sushi place, down on the ground floor. I thought I’d take a walk after sitting through the interview.”

“Oh, uh, w-well… I-It went well, I h-hope?” Silver criss-crossed her fingers nervously. She hadn’t expected to see Sunset Shimmer. Oh, of all people, it had to be Sunset Shimmer I meet here… Go away please…

“I saw your sister yesterday,” Sunset commented, glancing askance at Silver. “She was acting a little strange.”

“O-Oh, yes, the bir-birthday party, yes, she did tell me about it…” Silver rubbed the back of her neck. Was I behaving that strangely? “W-Was she? She didn’t say anything about that.”

“Yeah…” Sunset said. She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, as if thinking very hard about something. Then she looked at Silver Rose and her expression changed to one of wary contemplation. “Say, I know this is going to sound weird, but did you know our school, CHS, was on the news a couple of months ago?”

“Oh, w-was it?” Silver had forgotten if she knew it or not, so that helped her out here. “I just got back to Canterlot with my aunt three months ago, so… no, I didn’t know. W-Why? Did your school do something bad?”

“Not exactly,” Sunset closed her eyes again and then re-opened them. She folded her arms. “One of our teachers died on campus, and no one’s quite sure why. They said it was a heart attack, but…” Sunset left the sentence unfinished, but the implication was clear.

Now Silver remembered. It had been in the newspaper. That was the day she asked her mother if she would let her go outside. Though, that was Moonglade. Silver Rose should have no memory of that.

“Oh, th-that’s… unfortunate… for your school. Y-You don’t think it was a heart attack?” Silver thought it would be best to see what this Sunset Shimmer was getting on.

“Well, I can’t say anything conclusive at this stage…” Sunset said, not taking her eyes off of Silver. “But there is some extenuating evidence that appears to point to something more. You wouldn’t happen to know anything, would you?”

Silver’s mind was whirling with possible responses. Under no circumstances could she reveal that she had been that computer teacher’s assassin.

“Oh, um-”

“Hi, Silver!” a cheerful voice came from behind. Both girls turned around to see Sunny Flare flouncing toward them, dressed in a white skirt, blue shirt, and her ugly sandals. Her eyes narrowed when she set them on Sunset Shimmer and she stopped beside Silver, her hands on her hips. “What do you want, Sunset Shimmer?”

Sunset took a step back. “Just talking to Silver Rose about school stuff. Why, were you meeting her?” She finished with a wry smile.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” Sunny replied. “Got a problem with that?”

“No, no. I’m just happy that even at Crystal Prep, people are starting to make friends, that’s all.”

“It’s not like we don’t have friends. Come on, Silver. We’ve got a movie to catch.” Sunny walked ahead, then beckoned for her to follow.

Silver looked awkwardly at Sunset, then waved and ran off after Sunny.

“Thanks for the save there…” she whispered once they were well away from the Canterlot High girl.

“Anything for you, Silver,” Sunny smiled. “What did she want anyway?”

“I-I’m not entirely sure. Something about one of their school’s teachers. No big deal.”

“Didn’t one of their teachers die a couple of months back?” Sunny pondered, putting a finger to her chin. “That’s the only thing I can remember about their school’s staff. Other than the stuff about Principal Celestia, of course.”

“Ri-right, I guess… yeah. Come on, I’m really excited for this movie.”

Silver went ahead and bought their tickets, wanting to take her mind of the entire Sunset Shimmer ordeal. Could it be that she knew something about what really happened? But that couldn’t be. Silver had been sure no one had seen her enter and leave the school, let alone poison that teacher. She had left no evidence behind that anyone had been involved in the death of Pierce Network.

And yet.

Sunset Shimmer seemed to know something. She didn’t like the look that the flame haired girl gave her; it reminded her too much of her mother and aunt. Especially her aunt. Perhaps once she got back home she would ask Aunt Ivory about it. She always seemed to know what to do.

But first, the movie.

With the purchase settled, the two girls soon found themselves in an almost full theater, seated at the second last row, awaiting the movie to begin.

“Oh boy, this is exciting!” Silver shook in her seat. She’d been waiting to watch this movie. There were people seated to both the left and right of her and Sunny.

Good. That should discourage any ‘funny business’, as Aunt Ivory says.

As the adverts and trailers slid by, Silver soon found Sunny’s arm slowly slinking around hers, wrapping around it like a snake, squeezing gently. Silver didn’t mind it, so she let it be, though if she did find Sunny’s hands going for her privates, she would have to try and stop it. Try was the keyword here. Truthfully, she didn’t know if she could stop a lust-filled Sunny from getting what she wants.

When Crypt Spelunker finally started, Silver and Sunny were greeted with a pretty interesting monologue from one of the characters, detailing a secret island somewhere in the East, with an evil queen that was stopped by her most trusted generals before she could take over the world.

And then of course, after the title came up, Azalea Coriander shot up on screen, riding a bike through the busy streets of Trottingham as the titular character of Crypt Spelunker.

“Oi, move it!” she yelled as she maneuvered around a bunch of businessmen.

“There she is,” Sunny squealed, pointing at the screen. “Azalea Coriander. Oh, how awesome must it be to be married to Fast Bender?”

Silver felt like passing a comment, but then remembered that Sunny Flare was an absolute manic fangirl when it came to the actor Fast Bender. She made a note that the next time her mother went to work with Fast Bender to tag along and get an autograph for Sunny.

The screen now showed Azalea’s character, receiving a package of items willed to her by her late father, only to find a puzzle which then led her on her voyage to that Eastern island, where she learns of a secret order, bent on finding the queen so that they can use her power to control the world.

Of course, a storm wrecks the ship and Crypt Spelunker soon finds herself a captive on the island by the order, known as Singularity.

As the film wore on, Silver began to get a little more into it. Supposedly it was based on a video game that she did not own of the same title. Sunny had somehow acquired a bag of popcorn and was eating out of it. It seems even she was enthralled by the movie. At least for certain, that would mean there wouldn’t be any funny business on her end.

“She’s gorgeous…” Sunny whispered with a mouthful of popcorn. “You think if I looked like that, Fast Bender would marry me?”

I think you’re a little too young for him. Silver thought privately. On screen, an owl hooted, reminding her of the grounds around her manor home.

A lot of the movie showed her running through the forest, eventually acquiring a bow and arrow, which she used to fight back against Singularity. The action scenes were pretty well done, with lots of killing and falling off cliffs. The cliff part especially, took Silver’s attention. It was interesting to see just how many people could fall off places.

Sunny didn’t utter another word throughout the rest of the movie. Not even a gawk at Azalea Coriander or her being married to Fast Bender, which was absolutely fine for the young changeling. She thought it was a good movie and she wanted to enjoy it without Sunny bugging her.

Eventually, she found her way into one of the tombs, pushing cobwebs from her face as she struggled to avoid the many traps laid out before her.

“Ugh...” Crypt Spelunker groaned and rolled past a row of spikes that fell from above. “I hate crypts.”

“What did she just say?” Silver said to herself, her jaw hanging open. “I hate crypts? Really? With a name like Crypt Spelunker?”

She eventually reaches the lair of the queen, just in time to see Singularity release her from her eternal slumber. The final battle was an epic fight in a circular room, with the queen using shadows against Crypt Spelunker, who had to rely on a torch to keep them at bay, while at the same time, shoot the queen with arrows.

Silver was on the edge of her seat, wanting to see where this went, and she was not disappointed when Crypt thrust an arrow straight through the queen’s forehead. With her death, the crypt began to collapse, and Crypt Spelunker had to race out before she could be buried alive.

Silver Rose had never guessed seeing someone run would be so interesting, but this movie did a good job at all that.

With her treasure from the queen recovered and Singularity defeated, Crypt returned to her home in Trottingham, richer than ever. Though, Singularity was far from defeated.

“Wow, that was a good movie!” Sunny squealed as the credits began to roll. “Azalea is as amazing as her husband!”

“Do you want to stay a little longer?” Silver asked. “There might be an after credits scene. Movies like to do that now. I read about that on the internet.”

“Sure, I’d like that.” Sunny tipped her popcorn bag upside down to make sure it was empty. “Besides, I don’t want to rush with the crowd to get out. I want some time with you, Silvy…”

“Uh…” Silver said, looking around. All the people that had been sitting beside them had left. However, a female theater worker was working her way up the aisle, sweeping up loose popcorn and other rubbish into a bag. A plastic theater visor was draped over her eyes, obscuring them.

“She won’t notice if we do things behind the seats. I know… I said I wouldn’t, but… it’s after the movie.” Sunny smiled awkwardly. “I could really use some of your touch.”

“Scuse me,” the theater worker said, already sweeping at the floor in their row with her broom.

“O-Oh, yes, sorry,” Sunny stuttered, hoping she hadn’t been heard, and moved her feet so the worker could sweep under them.

Silver did the same, but then caught one of the worker’s eyes flashing her a look. It was only for a brief moment, but it was enough to tell her that she was being watched and she was not to do anything she shouldn’t be doing.

However, as soon as the theater worker was out of sight, Sunny slinked closer, bringing her face inches from Silver’s, her breath hot on her cheek.

“Silvy, could we… I need you…” Sunny wrapped her arms around one of Silver’s.

“Sunny, I don’t think…” Silver looked around back where the worker was now at. “I don’t think we should…”

On screen, the credits finished playing and Azalea Coriander’s face reappeared. She looked down at a piece of paper with writings scrawled all across it in a messy and quick style. Whoever did it must’ve been desperate to pen it all down in time. There was a Singularity logo by the top, which Silver could only guess was important information regarding the secret order.

And then the camera zoomed out a window, going to an adjacent roof where a bald man was standing, a sniper rifle in his hands. There was a barcode on the back of his head and the screen cut to black as he straightened his tie.

“Woaahhhh, no way!” Sunny leaned forward in her seat. “They’re going to crossover two movies!”

“What movie is that?” Silver asked. She hadn’t seen anyone with a barcode on their heads before.

“Strikeguy: Operative 59,” Sunny said. “I thought it was a pretty good movie, though a lot of people don’t think so.”

“Huh, well, okay. I didn’t see it myself, but I’ll take your word for it.” Silver gave Sunny’s shoulder a squeeze.

Sunny looked back, likely looking at the theater attendant before turning back to Silver, her cheeks a deep red. “Silvy… Could we… go somewhere private? I know, but… just for a while?”

Silver looked at her and bit her lip. She knew she had to say no, and she had planned it out in her mind many times on how to refuse Sunny, but when it came to it, once again, she didn’t know how to do it. In the end, she simply nodded her head and got up, following Sunny out of the theater, not watching as the attendant behind lifted her cap and shook her head.

Silver Rose felt her back against the cubicle door as Sunny Flare pressed her lips to hers in rapid succession. The love and lust that was swirling around the bathroom cubicle tasted so good, in the end, convincing Silver that as long as they didn’t move past kissing, it would be okay. After all, her aunt didn’t have any qualms about Moonglade kissing Home Run.

“Mmm, you always taste so good, Silver…” Sunny breathed in her face, smiling widely.

“Right back a-at you, Sunny.” Silver sniffed, the lust threatening to bring her fangs out, but by now, she was experienced enough to keep them in.

“I really don’t know why I’m always like this around you, but… I like it.” Sunny twirled a lock of Silver’s pink hair around her finger. “To once think that I had a problem with you, Silvy… How silly of me…”

“Yeah, you’re such a bad girl, Sunny…” Silver decided to play along, at least, until things start to become a little too heated. “Don’t you have better things to do than to always think of me?”

Sunny was about to answer, but Silver interrupted.

“Besides Fast Bender?”

“Oh, well, umm…” Sunny Flare looked up and hummed. “No, not really. School stuff.”

“Yeah, I figured.” The young changeling smirked, then leaned in to kiss her some more, absorbing up as much of the taste as she could before Sunny decided to go further. She knew it was inevitable, but she told herself she would try her best to say no.

They continued like this for a few more minutes before Sunny’s hand moved to Silver’s skirt, but she shrank away, remembering what she had promised her aunt.

“Come on, Silvy. Let me touch you,” Sunny breathed.

Silver’s mind raced, looking for an excuse that was plausible enough.

“Ac-Actually, can this wait for another date? It’s, um, that time of the month for me.”

That sounds really legit! Silver thought proudly to herself.

“O-Oh.” Sunny blinked a few times, but then moved her hands higher up Silver’s body. “Then how about up here?”

The Shadowbolt slipped one hand under Silver’s red Discourse shirt, caressing at her soft skin.

“N-No, I… I don’t think we should, Sunny.” The changeling tried to pull Sunny’s arm away, but she still didn’t want to accidentally hurt her.

“But your body… it’s just so incredible…” Sunny’s hand went higher, brushing Silver’s shoulder from under her shirt.

“But I think, we should actually… t-tone down, don’t y-you think so?”

“We’ve done worse…” Sunny smiled and pressed her lips against Silver’s, her hands sliding down to the changeling’s breasts.

Silver squeaked as Sunny’s hands squeezed around her breasts, her face turning bright red. “S-Sunny, we sh-shouldn’t…”

Desperate not to let her aunt down, Silver’s mind raced, trying to think of a solution.

And one presented itself to her. She recalled her night as Ghost Hollow, and an idea popped into the changeling’s head.

On the pretense of moving in for a kiss, Silver held Sunny’s head back while still locking her lips with the other girl. Sunny moaned with pleasure, and while her mouth was open, Silver extended her fangs and let a couple of drops of venom drip into Sunny’s mouth. Then she retracted the teeth and continued kissing.

“What was that?” Sunny asked, her hands falling away from Silver’s breasts.

The changeling pretended to look clueless. “What was what?”

“Just now. I felt something hard in my mouth…” Sunny dug a finger around her upper row of teeth.

“I’m sure it was nothing.” Silver laughed awkwardly.

“I feel… funny,” Sunny said, rubbing her upper arms. “I think my arms have gone to sleep.”

“Oh… Th-they have, huh?” Silver had to stop herself from smiling. “That’s gre- I mean, weird. I wonder what happened. Ma-maybe you’re tired. Uh, we should go. Then you can go rest at home.”

Silver and Sunny left the bathroom, with the mulberry haired girl staggering somewhat as though she were drunk.

“I think my legs are falling asleep too…” Sunny complained, grabbing hold of a bench to steady herself.

Cool. So dripping my venom down her throat works somewhat.

“Can you still walk?” Silver asked, concerned. She didn’t just want to leave Sunny here to wait out the venom’s effects.

“I think so. Let’s just… take it slow.” Sunny took three steps and wobbled, falling back into Silver Rose’s arms.

“Did you come here on foot?” Silver asked, letting Sunny lean against her body for support. Sunny nodded. “Well, you can’t walk home like this. I’ll have my aunt drop you off.”

Chapter 89 - Not the Fruitcake

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 90 - A Kiss of the Hand

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 90 - A Kiss of the Hand

Moonglade wiped at her eyes as she returned back inside, sniffling as she did so. It was just so hard to distance herself from him and it was just not fair that she had to have this changeling code to not fall in love.

Just thinking about it again made her want to run to her room and cry, but she knew her mother would want to have words about tonight’s dinner, so with as much strength as she could muster, Moonglade fought back against the tears and blew her nose as she made her way down the hall.

She found her mother and aunt already back in the lounge room, with Ivory Wings checking on the mini speaker she had left there today. Ebony Wings was standing before one of the paintings, smiling approvingly at it.

“Look at this, sister,” Ebony said. “The museum hosting these had no idea who the subject was. I’m the only one capable of truly appreciating these portraits. Good thing the curator was willing to sell.”

“I don’t know why you even decided to sell that one back when we were still in Trottingham.” Ivory looked up from the table she was bending down at and adjusted her glasses. “I told you not to sell it. It’s a wonder how it was still in the museum after so many years.”

“Because it’s a picture of me, dear sister. And anything of me is worth showing off to the world. Don’t I look just dashing in those alchemist’s robes? A true master of the craft.”

“You know, I was a lot more active in the Renaissance than you, and I don’t have paintings of me languishing in museums,” Ivory Wings said with a roll of her eyes.

Ebony laughed. “That’s because you’ve got a whole five-book series on warfare to your name. Even military leaders today still swear by your books. Commander Vespa’s Art of War.”

“Yes, but for a portrait you just have to stand there. My books were written way before the creation of the printing press; do you have any idea how many quills I went through doing those?”

“Not as many as the artist went through paint brushes,” Ebony quipped back. She turned and seemed to notice Moonglade for the first time. “Oh. It’s you. I was going to get someone to fetch you anyway. We have matters to discuss, you and I.”

Moonglade nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Ebony Wings sat down gracefully on the couch and adjusted her crown. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but that boy needs to brush up on how to greet royalty. I offer my hand, he kisses it. Simple. Even the lowliest peasant back in the old days knew that.”

“Um...” Moonglade said. This was not the direction she had thought this would go.

“I don’t think he considers you a royal,” Ivory sighed. “Just because we know you are doesn’t mean he does.”

“And why shouldn’t he?” Ebony demanded. “Do you know how many fans I have that would walk across a sea of broken glass and thumbtacks just to kiss my hand? Do you?”

“Now, sister, I think you’re expecting a little much-”

“And he didn’t even ask for my autograph!” Ebony hissed. “What’s the matter with him? Has he even seen my movies?”

“Ebony.” Ivory looked like she was about to plant her face in her palm. “The boy was not here for you. He was here for your daughter. Today, is not about you.”

“He didn’t ask for her autograph either,” Ebony groused.

“Why would he?” Ivory groaned. “Forget it. Can we just move past this? Tell your daughter what you think of him. Besides not treating you like royalty.”

Moonglade didn’t know what to do, so she just stood there and smiled sweetly.

“Congratulations,” Ebony said languidly, examining her fingernails. “I didn’t decide to kill him, so he must have done enough right to escape the fruitcake. What does he want from me, a medal?”

“He clearly likes you, sweetie,” Ivory added. “You’ve done a fine job choosing your prey. Don’t you agree, sister?”

Ebony Wings reached up to her head and removed her crown, turning it over in her hands. “Yes, it was very tasty while it lasted. Not entirely my favorite flavor though. Love is like wine, the aged ones always taste better.”

“That’s not how it works,” Ivory Wings interjected.

“Well excuse me for trying to be poetic.”

“You probably won’t like it if an old guy decided to date her.”

“I probably wouldn’t like it if you kept talking about this.”

Ivory Wings opened her mouth to say something, then shut it. Ebony Wings smirked and placed her crown back on her head.

“The boy seemed to show an odd interest in the sirens and their gems,” Ebony continued. “They’re not on to you, are they, Ivory, those girls you’re dealing with?”

“Impossible. I’ve been wearing a different persona each time I meet them. They have no idea I’m involved.” Ivory Wings picked one of the pistols off the wall and examined it in her hands. “I’m not that careless.” She looked up. “Is this loaded?”

Ebony Wings didn’t even look up. “Every gun in this house is loaded. And I would appreciate you not putting any more holes in my walls, so watch your trigger finger.”

“Please,” Ivory scoffed. “I’ve been handling firearms ever since they were invented. I know gun safety like the blade of my kris.”

“Why are you even picking that up. Put it back.”

Ivory Wings replaced the pistol on the wall and sat down opposite her sister. Moonglade looked back and forth between the two.

“Right, so, this Homestead Run…” Ebony started.

Ivory didn’t bother to correct her this time.

“I think you may continue to hunt him.” Ebony Wings slid one leg across the other. “Notice I said hunt. I still sense you holding back, daughter. You still love him.”

“I-I-I… umm…” Moonglade bent lower, lowering her head, unable to make eye contact with her mother. “I’m trying, m-mother…”

“And that’s precisely the problem,” Ebony said, her eyes flashing. “You’re trying. I want you to stop trying and actually succeed.”

“I-I know I should-shouldn’t… but it’s hard,” Moonglade answered sheepishly. “He’s… he’s such a nice boy…”

“And stop this stammering,” Ebony Wings said sternly. “You are a princess. You should speak with confidence and poise.”

“I’m-I’m sorry, mother…” Moonglade flinched. “I’ll… try…”

“What did I just say about trying? Don’t try, actually do it, or I’ll have my executioner on that boy, boyfriend or not.”

Moonglade pushed her glasses up her nose and nodded slowly.

“And I think we are done for the day. I shall need a nice hot shower.” Ebony brushed a hand through her long black hair. “Sister dear, won’t you join me? It’s been a while.”

“I’ve got more work to prepare, so not this time, Chryssie.” Ivory headed for the door. “Moonglade, sweetie, would you walk with Aunt Ivory?”

The young changeling wanted to get out of here badly, so she complied, hurrying after her aunt.

When they were out of sight from her mother, Ivory placed an arm around her niece and gently gave her shoulder a pat. “It’s okay, sweetie. I know, it’s not easy once you’ve let it take ahold of you. But try harder, alright? You have to. You just can’t trust these humans. If Home Run finds out what you really are, it doesn’t matter if he loves you or if you love him. He will turn against you. Humans are all the same.”

“Would you really kill him?” Moonglade whispered.

Ivory Wings sighed. “I am the queen’s executioner. Technically speaking, I have to do whatever your mother orders. That’s just how the hierarchy works.”

“But you won’t, right Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade looked at her aunt. “He’s… I know I shouldn’t love him, but he means so much to me. You won’t kill him, will you?”

“I’ll try not to,” Ivory grimaced. “Wouldn’t be the first time your mother’s ordered a hit on someone close to home.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade gave her aunt a hug as they made their way upstairs. She really didn’t want Home Run to die, at least, not because her mother wanted him to. “Who else? I mean, did mother ask you to kill close to home. We don’t have any neighbors.”

“Your cousin, for starters. Of course, I understood why it had to be done, but I couldn’t do it alone. So I enlisted the help of some friends. A lot of adventures later…” Ivory shrugged. “We succeeded.”

“Wait, are we talking about Cousin Morn?” Moonglade raised an eyebrow. “You said close to home… Ohhhhh, you didn’t mean it literally, did you? Wait, is it because our home is like, built on the old Canterlot castle grounds?”

“Yes, my son, Morn. And it seems you have a lot to learn about figures of speech, young lady.” Ivory led Moonglade over to her room and looked around the hallway one more time before shutting the door. “Okay, so… I did some homework, and how would you like to go see your grandparents next week, sweetie?”

“My grandparents? You know where they live?” There was a glint of excitement in Moonglade’s eyes and she almost couldn’t contain it. “Really? I can?”

“I went through your mother’s old contacts and then cross referenced them online. Them being the parents of a former movie star also helped.” Ivory ran a finger along her table. “What do you think of helping me inspect a few spots that would have plenty of light from the blood moon? After that on the way home we could, say, take a short detour to your grandparents’ place and have a look see?”

“Okay! But why are you looking for places that would have light from a blood moon?”

Ivory Wings opened her mouth and her fangs eased out. “From my early talks with Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, repairing the sirens’ gems will take as much magic power as we can gather, and what more magical time than a blood moon? Don’t worry about it; I’ve got it all covered. Now get changed and go to bed. I’ve got some disguises to fabricate.”

Sunny Flare wasn’t having a terribly good night. She had woken up from a dream she was having about Silver Rose, where her fingers had found their way into the mauve-skinned girl’s mouth. Silver had begun sucking on them, while her other hand began to pull down her skirt, but just before any fingers could penetrate either of their womanly parts, Sunny had woken up, drenched in sweat.

“Oh man…” she had groaned, placing one hand over her eyes and turning on her back.

She had hoped it hadn’t been a dream, but of course it was. She hadn’t felt Silver’s touch in over a week now and it was driving her nuts. Another thing driving her nuts was her sexual obsession with her girlfriend. Sunny found herself asking many times, why? Why was she so crazy about Silver Rose and why did she need Silver’s touch so badly?

Sunny bit at a fingernail as she stared up at her ceiling, her eyes slowly adjusting to the gloom.

“This isn’t normal,” she whispered. “Am… Am I really that into her?”

It was probably a long time coming, but Sunny finally admitted it to herself.

She needed help. Not being with Silver was destroying her.

Looking over to her poster of Fast Bender, she sighed and pictured his amazing eyes looking back at her. “Oh, Fast Bender. What should I do? I’m obsessed. Again. With Silver Rose. Again.”

Fast Bender didn’t say anything. Perhaps that was for the best.

Sunny sighed and picked up her phone, opening her contacts list. Her thumb hovered over the names, finally settling on Sugarcoat.

Sunny hesitated, wondering whether this was the right thing to do.

Screw it. It can’t possibly make things worse.

It took Sugarcoat five rings to respond.

“Sunny Flare?” Sugarcoat’s sleep-addled voice came. “Why are you calling at three in the morning? It’s so early. This better be important.”

“It is!” Sunny inisited, trying to keep her voice down in case she woke someone in the house.

“Well, what is it? I want to get back to sleep. Make it quick.”

“I… well… I have a prob… a problem!” Sunny quickly got out. “I have a really big problem, okay? I need help.”

“Well, I can name several. But what do you need?”

“I… I…” Sunny’s face went red. “I have a… problem. With Silver R-Rose… And I don’t know w-what to do.”

“What? Again? I thought you already got over it. You two are so friendly now.” Sugarcoat sounded confused, but also irritated.

“No, it’s not that ki-kind of problem… Now it-it’s…”

Sugarcoat sighed on the other end. “You’ve fallen in love with her, haven’t you. And you two are dating.”

“Wh-what?” Sunny’s eyes went wide with surprise. “You kn-knew…?”

“You two are just too chummy around each other now. And the way you stare at her in class is a big telltale, wouldn’t you think so?”

“I-I don’t stare at her in class!”

“You do, Sunny. All the time.”

“I… I… I don’t!”

“Whatever. So what did you call me for? Surely not to ask me if it’s a good idea or not?”

“I… uh, so…” Sunny cleared her throat. It was so embarrassing to have to say this. “So… we’ve uh… done some… things. Uh, things I’ve been struggling with.”

There was a pause on the other end. “You two have had sex.”

“Sugarcoat!” Sunny’s face grew even redder. “You don’t need to put it so bluntly!”

“Does it matter? So what do you want, Sunny? Do you need me to tell you it’s something you shouldn’t be doing yet?”

“It’s not that. It’s… it’s that I’ve just been crazy about Silver. I can’t take my mind off her and… and all that stuff…”

Sunny reached a hand down to her shorts, stuffing it in and playing her fingers down her panties. Just thinking about Silver made her heart race and her head spin.

“I just… I keep wanting her, Sugarcoat. Her touch, her scent… Her body… Aa-aaah…” Sunny moaned as her fingers pressed down against her clit. “I ju-just… I… I… Mmm…”

Sunny ran a finger down her slit, feeling the opening moisten through her panties as she pictured Silver taking her shirt off. She’d never seen Silver’s naked body before, not in real life, but imaginary Silver had such an amazing body.

“Sunny? Hello, Sunny? Are you masturbating right now? While I’m still here on the phone?”

Sunny didn’t hear her, her thoughts already lost on her girlfriend’s body as she pictured her now peel off her panties.

“Mmm… touch me, Silvy… touch my pussy…” Sunny shut her eyes and smiled.

She pretended her fingers were Silver’s and peeled her panties aside, now playing them across her moistening skin.

“Feels so good… mmm…”

She gently pushed one finger inside her pussy, feeling her insides squeeze against her.

“Sunny? Can you hear me? I’m still here, you know?” Sugarcoat’s voice pierced right through Sunny’s fantasy. “Sunny! Get ahold of yourself!”

Sunny froze. She’d done it again. Night after night, she just kept touching herself, thinking of her girlfriend. Pulling her finger from her wet pussy, Sunny moaned one last time from satisfaction and quickly sat up, her face completely red and panting.

“So-sorry, Sugarcoat. You see! It’s a problem!”

“Evidently.”

“Yes, so you see why I’ve come to you? Do you think I’d have said something as embarrassing as this otherwise?”

“So what is the problem exactly? If you don’t know what it is, how am I supposed to know?”

“You’re the smart one, can’t you guess?” Sunny hissed.

“While I may be the ‘smart one’, among our group, it’s also seven past three in the morning and I don’t feel like playing twenty questions right about now. So spill it. What do you think is the problem.”

“Well, this obsession is taking over me! You heard what just happened! And don’t you tell anyone anything about this. It’s bad enough as it is. I have to resist the urge to do it at school. Sometimes I can’t even do that! I need this to go down, Sugarcoat.”

“Well, we won’t be in school for some months, so you don’t have to worry about that. Though I do find it interesting that you’ve fallen for her after you wanted her gone. You don’t think she’s a vampire, do you?”

“What?!” Sunny shrieked. Then she remembered that she had to be quiet and stage-whispered, “What did you just say?”

“Don’t you remember? That cubicle door incident just doesn’t add up. Silver’s different.” Sugarcoat paused to sneeze. “If I get sick today, I’m blaming you. Anyway, you haven’t noticed anything strange about her? Like, that time she jumped right over you and the other girls?”

“There’s no way she’s a vampire! I’m not in love with some monster! Silver’s amazing! She’s kind and smart and she’s extremely hot. Oh, Silver…” Sunny reached a hand to her pussy again. It was growing warmer between her legs. “Besides, she’s been out in the sun. Vampires can’t do that.”

“Well, vampire or not, watch yourself around her. I did some research and up until a couple of months ago, there’s nothing on her. At all. That’s a little unusual, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean… aaahh… nothing on her…?” Sunny bit down on her lip as her fingers brushed a very sensitive spot.

“Can you stop touching yourself long enough to hold a conversation, a conversation that may I remind you, you started?” Sugarcoat ordered. “I don’t want this to turn into some phone sex kind of deal. What I’m saying is that it’s like she came out of nowhere. Right out of the blue. Has she ever talked to you about her past, Sunny?”

Sunny quickly stopped touching herself again and thought about it. No, Silver had never talked about the past. Hay, she didn’t even really talk about her family. They only knew about her mother and twin sister, besides her late father, because of the news.

“Well, that still doesn’t make her a vampire or anything.” Sunny pictured Silver’s slender legs and imagined her lifting them enough that she could see under her short skirt. “I’m sure she’s just secretive. Oohhh, Silver, you’re so hot… An-anyway, that doesn’t matter. You’re supposed to help me quit having so many naughty thoughts about her!”

“The fact that she’s a total mystery doesn’t?” Sugarcoat said drily. “Look. If you’re really serious about this, maybe think of the things about Silver that aren’t sexy. Think you can do that, Sunny?”

“What’s not sexy about her, Sugarcoat? Her eyes, her face, her soft lips, her hair, her touch, her body… Ooohhh…” Sunny slipped one hand under her shirt and grabbed for her right breast, while the other one went back to her panties. “She’s so hot… Aaahh… aaaah! Sugarcoat, I can’t… help it.”

“I’m not getting through to you at all, am I?” Sugarcoat sighed.

“I can’t… stop thinking… mmm… about her…” Sunny inserted two fingers into herself and thrust them deep.

“Stop. Just stop. Think about Fast Bender or something. Didn’t you want his autograph?” Sugarcoat was grasping at straws now.

“Aaah, aaahh, Fast Bender, help me… Help me stop being so… obsessed…!” Sunny’s mouth hung open as she gasped for air. “It’s… it’s not working, Sugarcoat! I still just keep seeing Silver. Oh man, she’s so hot when she’s naked…”

Sunny continued to push her fingers in and out of her now soaking pussy, the squelching sound loud enough that even Sugarcoat could hear it from her end, much to her irk.

“Am I going to have to come over there and slap you?” Sugarcoat snapped. “I don’t have to listen to this, you called me. I could be sleeping right now. Hay, I’m going to have to get some brain bleach after hearing you whack off to Silver Rose.”

“Sooooorryyyy,” Sunny whined, taking her hand out of her panties. Again. Her two fingers were sticky with her womanly juice. “Okay, okay… So… what do you suggest, Sugarcoat…?”

“First, you need to show restraint, Sunny,” Sugarcoat said sternly. “You didn’t seem to have this problem when you were dating Domino Ace. He dumped you because you didn’t have this part of you, remember?”

“Yeah… I don’t know what comes over me. Every time I think of Silver, my hands start moving on their own…”

“Don’t you put your hand in your pants again.” Sunny was about to do it, but stopped as her index finger touched the tip of her panties and drew her hand back. “So you don’t think she’s a vampire, but what if she’s a witch?”

“Witch? Come on, you don’t believe there are such things?” Sunny scoffed at the idea of Silver flying around on a broomstick. Flying on a broomstick where she could see her pink panties under the flapping of her really short skirt…

“Has she invited you over to her house yet?” Sugarcoat asked impishly.

“Well, I haven’t even invited her to my house yet.”

“Yes you did. Our study group, remember?”

“O-Oh. She d-did…?” Sunny scratched at her chin. Then realized she got some of her fluids on it and frowned. “Okay, well… like you said. She’s… private. I guess.”

An owl hooted outside. It sounded like laughter.

“So, Sunny, I don’t want to jump to conclusions just yet, but I don’t want to rule it out either. You saw for yourself during the Friendship Games. Magic is real and possible. What if… what if Silver put some sort of spell on you? To make you crazy for her?”

“Come on, why would she even want to do that? She’s not a witch, Sugarcoat.”

Sugarcoat made a funny noise that was halfway between a yawn and a sneeze. “Sunny, I think there’s more to Silver Rose that we both know. How many teenage girls can just rip off a cubicle door?”

“I… I don’t know.” Sunny shrugged.

“Nothing adds up, Sunny. I know she’s our friend, but we cannot deny that there’s something about her that may possibly be more than human.”

Sunny wasn’t sure what to think of Sugarcoat’s analysis. On one hand what she was saying did make sense in some regards. On the other hand, maybe she was simply trying to distract her from pleasuring herself, which was working. Or maybe Sugarcoat was just dead tired and was spouting nonsense.

“What are you getting at here, Sugarcoat?” Sunny asked tiredly. Now that the thrill of touching herself was sidelined, she was beginning to feel sleepy.

“I’m not getting at anything just yet,” Sunny’s friend replied firmly. “Just that I think there’s more going on here than we me know.”

“Well, fine then,” Sunny said, slightly annoyed. Sugarcoat was usually upfront about things. It wasn’t like her to be this roundabout. “I’ll go pay her a visit and ask her myself.”

“Sunny, you come up with a lot of dumb plans, but that has got to be the worst one yet. You don’t just go up to someone and ask them if they’re hiding secret identities and powers from you.”

Sugarcoat sneezed again, followed by a low grumble on the other end of the phone.

“Then what would you do then? Spy on the house or something?”

Sugarcoat blew her nose and sniffed. “That would be preferable over your barbaric plan.”

“So what, we get the girls together and stakeout the house? Great way to spend the holidays, Sugarcoat.”

“Well if it’ll somehow get you to stop touching yourself every night, then yes, that would be a good plan.” She sneezed again. “I’m blaming you for this, Sunny.”

“Why are you so cold anyway?” Sunny demanded. “Do you sleep naked or something?”

“That’s none of your business,” Sugarcoat sniffed. “Text me and the others in the morning. I think Lemon has a van we can use. Good night, Sunny.”

Click.

Sunny Flare sat in the dark, her brain a whirl, even in its tired state. She had finally told one of her friends about her relationship with Silver Rose. Worse, she had even began touching herself while on the phone with Sugarcoat.

“You’re crazy, Sunny. Just crazy…” She slapped a hand to her face and groaned.

Tomorrow, she would likely even have to tell the other Shadowbolts about her scandalous relationship. She wondered what Silver’s mom would think if she knew her daughter was secretly having sex with another girl.

Sunny didn’t want to think about the repercussions.

In the end, fatigue took over and Sunny fell back against her pillow, her mind working herself to sleep. This could all wait till the sun came back up.

Chapter 91 - Snooping

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Chapter 92 - A Look into the Past

“All set for a little adventure, my favorite niece?” Ivory Wings hooked a sling bag over one shoulder and adjusted her glasses.

Ivory had on a green tank top, along with a pair of brown shorts and long grey socks and boots. She even had a utility pouch over her shorts, where she had packed an extendable telescope, a compass, and even some mathematical tools that Moonglade didn’t recognize; she looked ready to go on a safari, while Moonglade simply had on her summer attire.

Moonglade looked at herself and shrugged. “I guess I am. Do I need anything?”

“Just your wits, sweetie.” Ivory hugged her with one arm. “Come on, let’s get going.”

It was about nine in the morning when the two changelings left the house. Ebony Wings had a shoot to get to later, so she was going to be out all day, which suited their plans too. After the blood moon work, they were going to drop by Moonglade’s grandparents’ home, which the young changeling was excited about.

“We’ll start our search in wide open places that are also out of the way and have an unobstructed view of the sky,” Ivory said, unlocking her car.

“Is that why you look like you’re ready for an adventure?” Moonglade hopped into the passenger seat and buckled in. “You look like a treasure hunter, Aunt Ivory.”

“That’s because I anticipate some field surveying today.” She gave her utility belt a tap. “Always go prepared, sweetie. Plus, it fits what we’re doing. And it’s less conspicuous if I wear this top and these shorts. It’s summer, after all. I don’t want to be out there in a parka.”

“Good point, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade had a think about it as the older changeling started the car. “Maybe I should’ve worn a pair of shorts instead. People don’t exactly go out into the field with skirts.”

“If you’d like to get changed, I can wait for you,” Ivory Wings suggested. “The best time to go looking for these spots is at noon, since I plan for this whole thing to go down when the red moon is highest, and by association, our powers will be at their peak too. I never did quite figure out why…” Ivory shrugged. “I mean, I know why we’re linked to the blood moon, because of what happened in Trotsylvania, but as for why it was possible, I don’t think I ever looked into that properly. Oh well.”

Moonglade shook her head. She didn’t want to waste time going back inside to change. “It’s okay. I like skirts anyway, hehe. And yeah, this blood moon stuff is really cool. I wish I could turn into a scary monster like you and mother.”

The car was quick to leave the estate grounds and this time, instead of going to the city, it turned and headed out towards the forests and hills, with the young changeling looking out the window at the various trees they began to pass; she’d never been this way before, so it began to excite her.

“Now, I know there’s a clearing next to one of the pumpkin farms. That might be a good spot. We’ll have to see.” Ivory stepped harder on the pedal as buildings began to decrease in number. “There are some camps further along this way. I’ve never been though. I heard there were a string of murders at the closest one. Unsolved case.”

“Oh.”

“We’re not going all that way though. We don’t want to be too far from home when we do this.” Ivory pulled the car over to the side and parked it. “Now, let’s go look up on that hill. It doesn’t look like there are too many trees.”

Following behind her aunt, Moonglade climbed up the hill, enjoying how the springy grass felt under her shoes. She breathed in the cool forest air and smiled.

Meanwhile, Ivory Wings had reached the top of the hill and was surveying it. She took out her phone and snapped a few pictures of the hill and its surroundings, then looked up into the sky and sketched out some figures in the air with her finger. Moonglade wandered around, squatting down at various patches where flowers were growing to admire them. There were a couple of pink ones that she thought were really pretty.

Plucking one, the blonde haired changeling twirled it a few times in her hands before putting it behind her left ear. It reminded her of the really nice hairband Home Run had gotten her and she smiled at the thought.

“Hmm… ideal, but then not really…” Ivory placed her phone back in her belt and turned to her niece. “Come on, sweetie. On to the next site.”

Moonglade stood up and skipped over, following her aunt back down the hill to where they had parked the car.

“Nice flower. You know, I would normally advise obeying the queen, sweetie,” Ivory said as she pulled out to the road again. “But don’t listen to your mother when she says you aren’t attractive. You’re a really pretty girl. You surely inherited your mother’s looks.”

Moonglade giggled and twirled at a lock of her golden hair. “Thanks, Aunt Ivory. It’s nice to hear that.”

The next spot was a clearing just north of the hill they were at, where the grass was as high as Moonglade’s calves. They tickled when she walked through them, but it wasn’t so bad.

Ivory began snapping more pictures with her phone again, along with scribbling some notes down in a notebook. She had whipped out her star charts too, turning them round and round as she examined them in great detail. Moonglade had gone over to look at them for a few seconds, but found it was pointless for her to do so, because she couldn’t understand any of it, so she went back to sight seeing, this time, following an insect of sorts into the nearby woods.

It was a colorful thing, with an iridescent shell and a nice round shape, but everytime she approached it, it simply flapped its wings and moved further away from her.

“Come on, stop moving,” she complained to it, even if it couldn’t understand her. “I just want to see how beautiful you are.”

The bug buzzed off and fluttered further into the woods, with the young changeling in tow. Blowing her hair from her face, Moonglade channeled into her love reservoirs and leapt ahead, swinging herself over a semi-fallen log, quickly closing the distance between herself and the bug. With one more leap and the use of her heightened senses, Moonglade stretched out and gripped the bug between two fingers, gently enough so as to not harm it.

“Gotcha!” she chuckled and brought it closer to her face. It was indeed a stunning creature, with its outer wings reflecting light almost like a rainbow. “So cool.”

When she was done admiring it, she let it go and headed back out into the clearing, where her aunt was in the process of taking more photos.

“Hey, Aunt Ivory. I found a really cool bug.” She skipped over to the older changeling. “It had really shiny wings. I let it go though, cause I’m a nice little changeling.”

“Hm? Oh, that was nice of you. It’s good to get outside every once in a while, don’t you think?” Ivory rolled the start charts up and dusted her hands. “Well, I’m done here. What’s say we move on to the next potential location?”

“This one not good enough too?” Moonglade plodded along beside her. “Could you tell me the story of how all this blood moon stuff started again, Aunt Ivory? I don’t think you or mother have really ever gone in depth into it.”

A shadow passed over Ivory’s face and she grunted. “That’s because this incident, though it gave us our powers, cause us to split. Plus, I don’t think your mother would ever admit that a group of humans nearly bested us.”

“I haven’t heard this story,” Moonglade frowned as they got back to the road where the car was parked.

“Of course you haven’t. I’ve only been around for a couple of months, and your mother has a stubborn streak of pride that keeps her from telling anything but self aggrandising stories.” Ivory Wings put the car into gear and started off back towards Canterlot. “It’s not a particularly good story for your mother’s image, since a lot of our kind got killed there.”

“Oh,” Moonglade said, watching the trees pass by and enjoying the feel of the wind in her hair.

“As it is, we don’t have time to go over the full story; that would take too long,” Ivory Wings pulled out of the freeway and back into the city proper. Moonglade recognized this route, it was the way to Canterlot Central Park. “But yes. Before this, the rest of our family… the other changelings, they had left us. They didn’t believe in your mother’s leadership any longer. Of course, that caused a rift between me and them as well, but I was more forgiving. Your mother… wasn’t.”

“Did she kill them?” Moonglade shifted in her seat.

“In some way,” Ivory sighed. Moonglade sniffed at the air and picked out some disappointment, a little bit of anger, and a tinge of sadness. “Because of her, the human hunters killed off the rest of our kind.”

“And these hunters, they were actually able to beat you? Even with the blood moon about?”

The older changeling nodded. “We had only just created the link with the blood moon when the hunters attacked. Even with such power we possessed, yes, I am afraid they were too skilled. They would have slain us as well, had I not made a deal with their leader.”

“I just can’t believe it. Humans…? And they were that good against changelings?” Moonglade’s eyes were wide with wonder. “What deal did you make?”

“Well, there’s a reason we work best as assassins and ambushers rather than front-line fighters,” Ivory said, pulling into the park’s parking lot and reversing into a spot. “In my youth, I often wondered why that was so. But I digress. One of the hunters I had poisoned earlier, and in exchange for his life, the hunters would let us go.”

“Just like that? And they really let you go? They never came back to hunt you again?”

“Well, we disappeared after that. I went into the East, and your mother somehow managed to lay low long enough for the time of the hunters to be over. Her having the sirens probably helped too. This looks like a good spot.”

Ivory Wings stopped the car and got out. There was a sizeable copse ahead atop a hill. The two changelings walked through the grove of trees and found themselves in a grassy clearing. There was a long-abandoned barbeque pit and a few bits of trash lying around, but it offered a rather good view of the surrounding city.

“Hm, this place isn’t too bad,” Ivory said to herself. “Hard to assault unless you come up from that way or this way. I’ll add this to the list.”

“So… this hunter you poisoned. What happened to him?” Moonglade looked over at a group of kids flying a kite nearby. “Did you kill him?”

Ivory Wings pulled out one of her star charts and glanced up into the sky. “No. He survived our encounter.”

“Oh.” Moonglade put her hands behind her back and walked about. “Oh, and they didn’t like, spread the news of our kind? Like, you know, telling tales of their fights with you? Like, telling your secret.”

“Believe it or not, there exist a scant few records of what happened in Trotsylvania. The original manuscripts of the story Draculina are written by some of those hunters. However, the story was soon altered to mask the truth. Perhaps they were ashamed of having made a deal with the likes of us. Ha!” Ivory laughed to herself. “I have one of the copies, and I have reason to believe there may be a few more in Trotsylvania itself.”

“Oh. You think I could read it sometime, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade adjusted the flower behind her ear. “Also, I’m glad there aren’t any hunters today. If you and mother couldn’t beat them, I’m surely done for.”

“Sure. And… Eh, I like to think we’ve improved a bit since then,” Ivory wrote something down in her notebook and snapped it shut. “After all, we’re still here and they’re dead. That has to count for something. Come on, we’re done with this spot.”

“That’s true.”

Moonglade followed her aunt to another two spots, her mind already drifting to her upcoming meeting with her grandparents. She had been hoping to get a chance to see them since her mother revealed they were still alive. Sure, Ebony didn’t like them, but to Moonglade, they were more family members, and that excited her.

“You think my grandparents know about me?” she asked her aunt as they finished up with the next hill.

“I’m guessing they must know a little. You’ve been on TV before, haven’t you?”

“Well…” Moonglade pulled at her skirt. “A little… It was always embarrassing when they pointed the cameras at me, so I tend to hide behind m-mother…”

Ivory Wings glanced aside at Moonglade. “Unless that stammer is part of your persona, I suggest you take measures to fix it. Not just because your mother said so, but if you keep the same style of speech while in different disguises, it could give you away.”

Moonglade blushed and looked down. “I-I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory… I’m just… not the best in conversations and um, being around people.”

“Well, I suggest getting good at it. It helps to be charismatic with the humans. Being all shy about it doesn’t. Unless you’re going for a moe impression.”

“I know, Aunt Ivory. But you know, stage fright and all isn’t exactly very easy to overcome. Well… at least for me.”

“Still such irony in those words…” Ivory clucked her tongue and gave Moonglade’s shoulder a soft pat. “Your parents are mentionable actors, at least to the humans. And then their daughter has stage fright? I just… I don’t know what went wrong in the biology there.”

“Yeah, me neither…” Moonglade shrugged. She had asked herself that question before, but she just didn’t get it. In the end, it was just who she was.

“Well, you have some practice coming.” Ivory pointed over to the road where they had parked. “I think I have enough blood moon data for today. It’s time to see how you interact with your grandparents.”

“Ooh, yes!” the girl cheered and skipped along behind her aunt. She wondered how she was going to approach them. She didn’t even exactly know what they looked like, so she hoped she wouldn’t greet the wrong people too.

The car ride to their supposed home was fast and in only three minutes, they had arrived outside a small one-storey house, with a white paint and a blue roof.

“This is it?” Moonglade examined it from top to bottom. “I thought it would be fancier, being the parents-in-law to mother.”

“It’s not like your mother really liked your father to begin with. I don’t suppose she cared all that much about her parents-in-law’s well being either. Now there’s a good example of a changeling hunt.”

Moonglade thought back to the movie she had seen in Manehattan which had starred her father. He had been a good actor, at least in that film. Her mother had killed him before she had been born, and she understood why, but some small, selfish part of herself wished that she could have met her father at least once.

“Oh, don’t brood on the past, sweetie.” Ivory pulled her in and placed a kiss on her head. “What’s done is done, yes? And it was for the better that he’s gone. He might’ve found out what we really are. And hey, you get to meet your grandparents. You were looking forward to that.”

“Mhm. I was.” Moonglade took a deep breath and got out of the car. It was time to see what her human side of the family was like.

“Would you like me to come along, sweetie?” Ivory winded down the window and stuck her head out. “I haven’t met them myself.”

“Sure, Aunt Ivory. The more the merrier, yeah?” Moonglade smiled and skipped along towards the house.

There was a garden gnome on the front lawn and Moonglade skirted around it, noticing it looked a little like those goblins from Finest Fantasy. The front door was of an intricate wooden design and there was a buzzer on its right, along with a white bench, probably for putting on shoes.

Reaching a hand out, Moonglade rang the bell, just as Ivory walked up to join her on the porch.

“This place is awfully clean for old people.” She wiped a finger down one of the pillars supporting the porch roof. “How do they even clean the top of this?”

“Old people rarely have anything better to do, an example being your mother.” Ivory put a hand on her shoulder. “I suppose cleaning helps pass the time. They have no need for rush. I’m sure they just use a ladder or something.”

Moonglade waited with her aunt outside the door for a few minutes. The young changeling took interest in a hanging potted plant by the bench, but when she decided she wanted to go touch it, her ears picked up footsteps on other side of the door, followed by a rattling of the doorknob.

“Remember,” Ivory said, looking ahead. “No changeling.”

“O-Oh, yes, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade cleared her throat and straightened out her attire. “Ready.”

In a few more seconds, the front door was pulled open and behind it stood an old turquoise-skinned man who was balding. He had on an old green sweater and had a pair of round glasses, just like the target Moonglade’s mother had set up during that one session of target practice.

This was her grandfather.

“Yes, hello,” he said in a hoarse voice. “May I help you ladies?”

“Hi, umm…” Moonglade twiddled her fingers together. “Umm… I’m Moonglade.”

The old man looked stunned for a second, his glasses falling lower down his nose. “Moonglade? Ebony Wings and Crescentlane’s daughter?”

She nodded her head happily. “It’s me, grandpa. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Well, I’ll be…” the old man said quietly. Then he looked to Ivory Wings. “And you are?”

“Ivory Wings.” The older changeling bowed. “Sister of Ebony Wings.”

“My daughter-in-law has a sister? Oh, what a day this is for someone like me.” He turned back to the house and cupped a hand around his mouth. “Moonshine! Come here! Come see who our visitors are!”

A wizened, elderly pink woman shuffled into the hallway. Her wispy, faded red hair was tied back in a bun. “What? Who is it, darling?”

“It’s Moonglade,” he smiled at her, his nose wrinkling up. “And her aunt, Ivory Wings.”

“Moonglade? Our Crescentlane’s daughter?” Moonshine was quick to walk past her husband, wrapping her arms around the young changeling. “Oh, it is so nice to see you, dear! I was afraid I was never going to hear from your mother again!”

“N-Nice to see you too…” Moonglade grinned, not sure if she should hug her grandmother back or not. “You know me?”

“Oh, of course we know you.” Her grandmother pinched her cheek. “How could we not know our own granddaughter? The only thing is, we haven’t actually met before. We lost contact with your mother when your father died. We tried to keep in touch, but she stopped answering our calls.”

“And she was never at home when we came calling,” Moonglade’s grandfather said, ushering them inside. “Eventually we just stopped. Your mother is a very busy person, we reasoned, and was throwing herself into her work to forget about Crescentlane’s passing. We know she loved him very much.”

Ivory made a small noise that she disguised as a coughing fit.

“Oh, I forgot my manners.” Moonshine walked over and gave Ivory’s back a pat. “Would you like some water? That’s an awful cough you have, dearie. Starway, would you go get Ivory here a glass of water?”

The inside of the house was was small, but cozy and well-lit by several large windows. Photos were hung up on many of the walls, depicting both Moonshine and Starway when they were younger, with Crescentlane taking part in more than a handful of them. As Moonshine escorted them into the sitting room, Moonglade noticed that above the fireplace was a blown up picture of a wedding. It took her a moment to realize that it was Ebony Wings in the white bridal gown, throwing her arms around a supremely happy looking Crescentlane.

Moonshine saw her looking.

“That was taken about nineteen years ago,” the old woman sighed. “It was the happiest day of his life. That’s what he often said, anyway.”

Moonglade felt a little bad for her father. He looked so happy in that picture and yes, it might’ve been the happiest day of his life, but for her mother, she only married him so that she could have a child. She tried not to think of the look on her father’s face when her mother took his life. He must’ve felt so shocked. Moonglade hoped that at least her mother had made it quick.

Poor father...

Starway soon returned, carrying with him a tray of glasses and a jug of water. He was quick for an old man to pour out water into each glass, giving the first one to Ivory.

“Yes, thank you. I’m sorry. I must’ve swallowed something earlier.” Ivory sipped at the water and smiled at him. “Quite the quaint little home you have here. Very nice.”

“Isn’t it?” Moonshine smiled sadly. “Crescentlane helped pay off the mortgage on it. He was always such a kind boy, even after he became famous.”

Moonglade squirmed a bit in her seat. From what she was hearing, Crescentlane had been a good man. She was almost certain that he would have made an excellent father, but no, changeling code. It hadn’t quite occurred to Moonglade just how callous her mother had been; up until now, it had merely been a part of growing up, hearing her mother tell tales of ditching her ‘useless’ mate. Now it just seemed a little mean.

“So, your son…” Ivory sipped more from her glass. “He seemed to be a nice man. It was a shame he passed. I am sorry for your loss. I am sure my sister is still… devastated about it.”

There was a moment of silence, as if the conversation had died of awkwardness.

Starway cleared his throat. “So, Moonglade. How’s your education coming along? Still being homeschooled by Ebony Wings?”

“You know about my homeschooling?” the girl asked.

“Why of course we do. We see you on the news with your mother time to time, though, less as of late.” Her grandfather chuckled. “While we are no longer in contact with your mother, she’s still our daughter-in-law, and we love her like our own. Don’t we, Moonshine?”

“That we do, dear. We still love her too. If she ever does come back to us, why, we’ll welcome her with open arms.”

Moonglade gulped. She didn’t know if that would be such a good idea. If her mother did come to them, it wouldn’t be because she loves them. It would either be because she needs something from them, or that she wants to kill them. Moonglade didn’t want that to happen. Her grandparents seemed nice.

“It’s good that you still hold on hope that she will get over it.” Ivory Wings lifted her glasses and grinned. “I do not think she would get over it so quickly. It’s been almost twenty years now.”

“Oh, but she’s family, after all.” Moonglade’s grandmother looked up at the picture of her son and Ebony Wings. “Crescentlane loved her. It would only be normal for us to do so too. He would want that.”

“Won’t that be something?” Moonglade looked to her aunt, a nice thought of family forming in her head.

Ivory Wings glanced at Moonglade and narrowed her eyes a tiny bit. The message was clear: Don’t get too attached here.

“Um, right…” Moonglade bounced on the sofa she was sitting on. “Grandpa, grandma, what did you do? I mean, before retiring. Were you actors too?”

“Well, not exactly,” Moonshine said. “Starway was a light director for plays. I was a screenplay writer. Wrote scripts for Bridleway and Applewood.”

“Really?” Moonglade gasped. “I’ve never been to Bridleway. I mean, mother’s never taken me.”

“It does ring a bell…” Ivory said slowly. “When I lived in Manehattan I would sometimes go see shows. You’re the one who wrote Les Avengerables, right?”

“Oh, that one’s an old classic,” she chuckled. “I believe I wrote that fifty four years ago. Time flies, doesn’t it?”

“It won a few awards, back then,” Starway said proudly. “There’s one hanging above the fireplace.”

Moonglade shifted in her seat to look. There was a golden plaque on the wall, with ‘Best Screenplay of the Year’ etched onto its surface.

“That’s impressive,” Ivory Wings nodded. “Les Avengerables really is a remarkable piece of art. I believe I have seen it four times. I think Captain Equestria is my favorite character, though I also really liked the character development of Crony Dark.”

“A lot of the critics really seemed to like the villain, Rocky,” Moonshine mused. “Maybe it was just the actor portraying him, but he had a pretty big following in the day.”

Moonglade, who hadn’t seen this play, simply smiled and looked around the room some more. Her grandparents had quite a simple home. There wasn’t much up for decoration besides the many photos they had of their family and the colors were quite plain. It couldn’t be compared to her own home, but Moonglade found it was a nice place.

Simple. Not showy in the least. It was cosy.

“So, Moonglade dear.” Her grandmother touched her hand to get her attention. “Tell us more about yourself. Hobbies? Studies? Any significant others?” Moonshine’s grin widened when Moonglade looked down and blushed. “Oh? A boyfriend, dear?”

The young changeling nodded with a slight smile on her lips.

“How lovely.” Starway put an arm around his wife. “You know, your grandmother and I only met when we were nineteen. Your father and mother met in their twenties.”

“It’s always nice to start young, especially if it lasts till marriage. It’s a shame so many marriages don’t last in the acting career. Many of them get married for a year or two before getting bored of their spouse.”

“But not father, right?” Moonglade asked. “He would never do that to mother? I mean, if he was still alive.”

Moonshine shook her head. “Not Crescentlane. Why, he grew up better than we could ever hope he would. He was a kind boy. He never fell in with the wrong crowd. Not even once. I suppose that was why he attracted someone as lovely as your mother.”

Right, yeah… In a way.

After that, Moonglade told them a little bit of the things she enjoyed doing, like playing the violin, video games, and even swimming, but her grandparents seemed to be more interested in her love life, at least that’s what she was getting.

“So this boy? What’s his name?” Moonshine nudged her granddaughter. “You can tell us.”

Moonglade first looked to her aunt to make sure it was okay to answer. She didn’t react, so she guessed it was okay to do so.

“Umm… his n-name is Home Run…” The girl pushed a lock of golden hair behind an ear. “H-He goes to Ca-Canterlot High School. He plays baseball.”

Her grandparents began quizzing her on what she liked about him. Moonglade didn’t know how to answer without being embarrassed. There was much she liked about Home Run, some a little strange to say, like how she liked his arms around her when he hugged her and the taste of his lips.

“And what about you, Ivory? Any special someones in your life?”

Ivory shrugged and adjusted her glasses. “There was one, but he and I are no longer together.”

“Oh, how unfortunate.” Starway adjusted his glasses. “Who called it off?”

“He did, I guess. We sort of lost contact after a while. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.” The elder changeling did not look particularly sad about her story.

Moonglade watched her and tried to determine what her aunt was thinking. She must’ve been talking about Frigid Night, that Assassin she used to date. She still couldn’t quite understand how anyone could make someone fall in love with them, pretend to be in love and then actually not even remotely be in love. From what she was smelling, there was no trace of any emotion of her aunt when she had said that. She was good. Maybe too good.

The rest of the time spent there was Moonglade asking her grandparents how they were and what they liked to do. Starway enjoyed tending the yard out back and Moonshine enjoyed cleaning the house. There wasn’t much that they did, but Moonglade figured it was because they were old. She wondered if she would be like that one day, seeing as she was half human.

“Well, it is late.” Ivory looked at her phone and stood up. “Moonglade and I should get going. We don’t want to trouble you too much.”

“Oh, are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?” Moonshine smiled at the young changeling. “Grandma’s cooking her famous mushroom soup today.”

Moonglade’s stomach rumbled at the thought, but she knew they couldn’t. “M-Maybe next time, grandma. Mother is expecting us home for dinner. Umm… yeah. Sorry.”

“Oh don’t be sorry, Moonglade.” Starway got up and put a hand on her shoulder. “Today we got to meet our granddaughter. And our daughter-in-law’s sister. You’ve done so much for us today already.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, oh and the water,” Ivory said. “You’ve been most kind.”

“Of course. Anything for family.” Moonshine stretched out her arms. “How about a hug for grandma before you go?”

Moonglade gladly gave her one. And her grandfather too.

“Do come visit again,” they both said to Ivory and Moonglade.

“We’ll be sure to take you up on that offer another day.” Ivory waved to them.

“Bye grandma. Bye grandpa!” Moonglade grinned and left the house with her aunt.

That had been nice. She felt like she was reconnecting with long lost family members. That was actually the case here, but it was still very intriguing and a pleasant experience. She hoped she would get to see them again some day. They were nice people.

Outside, the sun was on its way down to the horizon.

“We should get back to the house before your mother decides to come back from her photoshoot,” Ivory mused, taking out her car keys and unlocking the car. “And remember, not a word of this visit to her. She probably won’t be able to pick out the smell of your grandparents right away, as it’s been years since she’s seen or smelled them, but you should take a bath immediately to throw her off the scent.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory." Moonglade got into the car. “And Aunt Ivory? Thank you. For today. It was nice to get to know my grandparents.”

“Yes, anything for you, sweetie. I thought it would be nice for you.” Ivory rubbed her niece’s cheek. “Just remember not to let it go to your head and not a word to your mother about this. I can only imagine what she would do to me if she found out.”

With one last gulp, Ivory started the car and the changelings began their trip home in the sunset, with Moonglade smiling from ear to ear.

Chapter 93 - Skeletons in the Closet

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 93 - Skeletons in the Closet

Sunny Flare placed the cardboard box on her bed and smiled triumphantly.

It was here. It was finally here.

The Seekdrone-3Xel. It was a lot bigger than she had expected, but today was the day their surveillance on the Wings’ Estate was going to take an upgrade.

Eagerly cutting the box open, Sunny fished out the goggles from the box first, followed by the black drone, which was light enough to be held with three fingers. It was a sleek black thing, with two rotors on top and four fins below. A camera sat beneath it, able to rotate three-hundred and sixty degrees. It looked amazing. More amazing in person.

“Oh boy, this is going to be good!” Sunny clapped and pulled out the controls and manual. “Spying just got better.”

Still in her pajamas, Sunny went over to her cupboard to get out an appropriate attire for today. In the end, she decided on her purple sleeveless top and red skirt again.

While she got to changing, Sunny imagined the drone flying into the estate unnoticed and spying on a sunbathing Silver Rose. She had nothing on but sunglasses and her body looked amazing.

“Oohhhh, Silvy… What a body…” Sunny began to drool.

Her girlfriend’s body really wasn’t that of a simple highschooler. She had a body any girl would want to have. Her breasts were quite well sized, only slightly smaller than Sunny’s but still great. Her butt was absolutely fantastic, round enough to keep Sunny’s eyes locked on them when she could see it. And then there was her beautiful face and her soft lips. Sunny pictured her lips slightly parted as she sunbathed, as though she was expecting a kiss.

“Come kiss me, Sunny…” she whispered seductively. “My body’s all yours. Kiss wherever you like…”

“Oh, I want to, Silvy, believe me…” Sunny, who was in the process of changing before her mind took over, was standing there in her underwear, now one hand slipping under her white bra and squeezing at the flesh beneath. “Mmm… Silvy… Silvy…”

She pictured her lips on Silver’s kissing her so passionately that steam began to form around them. Silver slipped one of her mauve hands under Sunny’s bra and pinched at her right nipple, earning a squeak from the mulberry haired girl.

“Yes… harder…” Sunny moaned and snapped her eyes shut.

Sunny had only just felt one of Silver’s hands slip into her panties when her phone rang, snapping her out of her imagination.

“O-Oh… uh…” Sunny patted her hair down and ran to her phone and flicked it open. “Hello?”

“So what’s plan today?” Lemon Zest asked on the other end. “Did the drone arrive?”

“Oh, yep! Sunny eyed the machine on her bed. “It’s all set and ready.”

“I take it you can’t wait to use it,” Lemon giggled. “I didn’t interrupt another steamy pleasure session, did I? You sound a little bit breathless.”

“No, no you didn’t!” Sunny took her hand out of her panties and blushed. “Just bring the van over. I’ll call the others.”

She quickly hung up and got to getting clothes on herself. After washing up, a quick breakfast, and a sneer at her younger brother, Sunny was out the door, waiting for Lemon Zest with her new drone.

With only ten minutes of waiting outside, Lemon Zest’s green van pulled into view, rumbling down the street towards Sunny’s house. She gave the horn a short honk before winding down the window to wave a hand.

“All aboard the spy express, Sunny!”

“Sshhh! Not so loud!” Sunny looked around before quickly slipping into the seat beside her. “You want everyone to know we’re spying on Ebony Wings?”

“Nobody’s listening,” Lemon shrugged. “I brought my laptop; we can connect the drone to that so we can all see what’s going on.”

“Oh... Uh… Good thinking.”

Sugarcoat leaned her head out. “Remember. No funny business. We’re here on a serious mission, Sunny.”

Sunny nodded meekly as Sugarcoat brandished the fire extinguisher. Today was not as hot as it had been when they had first attempted to spy on the Wings Estate, and the air conditioning in the van was humming merrily away.

They picked Sour Sweet up on the way and in less than half an hour, they arrived at the Wings’ Estate for another round of spying on Sunny’s girlfriend, or at least, Sunny hoped to see her.

She was so excited that she had already put the drone goggles on, syncing it up with the drone’s camera for a first person view. As the Seekdrone booted up, green lines and circles began to fill her vision, followed by a string of numbers and a loading bar.

“Woah…” Sunny breathed.

“Got the drone and goggles synced up to my computer,” Lemon Zest reported. “We can see everything you can see.”

“Time to see if Silver really is a witch. Do we get to burn her if she is?” Sour Sweet looked apologetical. “Sorry! That just came out from nowhere. I don’t want to burn her.”

Sunny rolled down the window and held the drone outside and pushed the start button on the controller. The drone’s rotors buzzed to life, lifting off into the air. It barely made any noise as it began to gain altitude, Sunny’s goggles seeing everything disappear below her. Pushing forward on the stick, the drone soared away from the van and over the fence of the Wings’ Estate, easily making its way inside.

“Sweet.” Lemon eyed the camera from her laptop. “Drone is transmitting loud and clear. Operation Spyglass is a go.”

“Operation Spyglass?” Sugarcoat said drolly as she peered at the screen. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”

“Why not.” The lime haired girl shrugged. “All operations need a name. Unless you want something like Operation Witch Hunt or maybe Operation Anti-Masturbation.”

“Hey!” Sunny’s cheeks flared red. “Not that one, okay?”

“Spyglass works.” Sour Sweet grinned, but quickly changed it to a frown. “I don’t want to have to remember Sunny’s got a problem now.”

“Girls, seriously, can we focus? Stop talking about my problem!” Sunny complained as she flew the drone up the small forest towards the estate.

Sunny tried to ignore them as she inspected the house through the drone’s goggles. Like its name, Seekdrone 3Xel, it really excelled in its surveillance ability. Zooming in, Sunny could see, very clearly, a living room of sorts on the first floor through one of the windows. There was a slight glare from the shining sun above, but otherwise, it was as though she was standing just outside the window. There were expensive couches and rugs in there, all formed into a slight U shape, along with a few racks of weapons on the walls.

“Why on earth would Ebony Wings need so many weapons?” Lemon Zest stuck a lollipop in her mouth. “It’s not like a zombie apocalypse is going to happen anytime soon.”

“It’s just for decoration.” Sugarcoat lifted her glasses up her nose. “Sunny, go around the house and see if you see anyone inside.”

“Right…” Sunny eyed the structure as she made the drone move sideways, going along the perimeter of the mansion.

She passed by a dining room, a kitchen, and a second living room. She didn’t know why anyone would need a second living room, but she figured maybe really rich people just did weird things because they had money.

She spotted a few maids inside, dusting the furniture or preparing food, but besides them, there was still no sight of anyone else or even Silver Rose.

Sunny remembered the pool and swung the drone around the other side of the estate, looking for it. They were here around the same time as their last spying mission, so perhaps the three CHS girls would be there and if they were lucky, maybe Silver Rose in a swimsuit too. Just thinking about that made Sunny’s lower regions warmer.

Mmm… Silver… I want to touch you. I want your touch…

True enough, behind the house, the three girls from Canterlot High were spread around the ornate pool, in various states of relaxation. The orange-skinned one was lying atop an inflatable raft while the purple and blue ones were engaged in some kind of splashing fight. None of them seemed to notice the Shadowbolts’ eye in the sky.

“No Silver Rose here,” Sour Sweet commented.

“Unfortunately…” Sunny mumbled.

“Hey, zoom in on the orange one, will ya?” Lemon Zest said and nudged her.

“Why?” Sunny lifted the goggles slightly to glare at her. “We’re here for Silve- I mean, intel. Not the orange girl.”

“No no, I think Lemon Zest is on to something...” Sugarcoat interrupted. “Why do these three girls live here with Ebony Wings?”

“Yeah, I’m totally on to something. Zoom in on orange girl!”

“Why is that important?” Sunny raised her finger.

“Because,” Sugarcoat explained slowly, as if speaking to someone who was slow-witted. “These three girls were trending on MyStable not too long ago. There were reports about magic.”

“Well, that’s no surprise. Canterlot High seems to be full of magic.” Sour Sweet leaned back on the van floor and stretched her arms out.

“So we have evidence that magical, or previously magical beings are staying with Silver Rose. Isn’t that enough to raise some suspicions?” Sugarcoat said.

“After what happened with the Friendship Games, not really.” Sunny shook her head. She just really wanted to get a glimpse of Silver in a swimsuit.

“Speaking of the Friendship Games, Silver left early,” Lemon remembered. “I wonder if that means anything.”

“It probably doesn’t.” Sunny floated above the pool, seeing if the girls would do anything interesting. The other two were still splashing water at each other, while poofy hair was still lounging on her floaty. “I’m sure she just wasn’t feeling well.”

“She wasn’t the only one,” Sour Sweet leaned against the metal van interior, trying to catch a blast of the AC. “I saw a boy from CHS throwing up in the bushes. Magic really isn’t for everyone, is it?”

“Yeah, especially not for Sunny. Have you been masturbating since our last spy session?

“H-Hey! We don’t even know if there’s magic involved with me,” Sunny frowned. “And are we going to stay here looking at these girls or are we here to investigate?”

The drone lifted up away from the pool, whizzing around to look at the back door.

“We are not flying the drone indoors,” Sunny said. “It’s too risky.”

Sugarcoat nodded. “Agreed.”

Just then, the door opened and the butler man from the previous day came out with a watering can. Sunny flew the drone higher into the air and went over to the second floor windows to look inside. Up here, there was yet another living room, one with a pretty huge TV. It looked like it could hold at least twenty people at a time, which was ridiculous, by Sunny’s standards. There was also a library of sorts, with shelves stacked high with books, almost all of them filled to the brim.

And then there was a rather pink room at the next window, this one looking more like a bedroom than anything else. It sported a well-sized bed, holding two stuffed animals, or at least, Sunny thought they were animals. One was a unicorn, but the other one was some kind of weird insectoid creature with stumpy legs; it looked like it was staring right back at the drone, but Sunny knew it was nothing more than a bag of fluff. Two crossed swords hung on the far wall.

“Check this room out. You think this is Silver Rose’s room?” Lemon asked, still watching the camera from the laptop screen. “She’s in the fencing team. It would make sense to have swords here.”

“There’s swords all over the house,” Sugarcoat pointed out. “Even in the bathroom, if I recall that window from earlier.”

“Gee, they really are gearing up for a zombie apocalypse.” Sour Sweet folded a piece of paper into a plane. “What a bunch of loonies.”

“Yeah, if anything is to cause an apocalypse, it would be aliens.” Lemon Zest smirked.

“Didn’t we already have an alien apocalypse?” Sugarcoat said. “We lived through that.”

“Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that.”

“That’s because there wasn’t any news coverage about it at all. It was as though everyone forgot about it.”

A small noise, like a faint pop was heard from the back of the grounds. Sunny turned the drone around and flew towards it.

“Hey,” Lemon said slowly as the camera focused. “Isn’t that Silver Rose’s sister and her aunt?”

The two of them were standing in front of a covered breezeway of sorts, and Ivory Wings was aiming a pistol at something at the far end of the covered section. There was a louder pop and the sound of splintering glass. Then she gestured and Silver’s sister stepped forward, also holding an automatic pistol. She fired three times, and then stepped away.

“Is… is that legal?” Sour Sweet asked slowly.

“Why would they even need to do this?” Sugarcoat leaned closer to the screen. “This isn’t something a movie star’s family would be doing.”

The girls watched as Moonglade, Silver Rose’s twin, slid the magazine from her pistol and ejected the round that was still inside. Passing the pieces to her aunt and removing her earplugs, Moonglade gave her a hug and skipped back into the house.

“A family picture,” Sour Sweet narrated sarcastically.

“I wonder where she’s going now.” Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow at the screen. “See if you can follow her, Sunny.”

Sunny wished she was following Silver Rose instead, but did so anyway. Moonglade was her twin sister after all, and they sort of did look alike. Moonglade had the same pretty face as Silver and her body shape was roughly the same she did look really attractive in that attire. She had on an orange shirt and a black skirt, which revealed her slender legs.

“Well, we now know something about this family that the tabloids don’t,” Lemon frowned. “Apparently they train at least one of their children to be marksmen. But for what reason? You reckon Silver’s the same?”

Sunny looked troubled. This was clearly her first time seeing something like this, and Sunny didn’t know what to think. She had seen Silver’s aunt several times, and although they had never spoken, Silver’s dependance on her aunt must have meant that she was a good person. So why did the house have a shooting range, and why was Silver’s aunt teaching her Silver’s twin sister how to shoot? Was Silver the same way? Where was Silver Rose anyway?

The mulberry haired girl piloted the drone along the house, trying to keep track of Moonglade as she skipped along the inside. She was skipping happily along the halls until she disappeared at a turning. Sunny found her again upstairs, where she went along into the pink room and shut the door behind her.

“Oh, so that’s Moonglade’s room.” Lemon Zest licked on the lollipop she had. “I wonder where Silver sleeps. Has to be nearby right?”

“Yeah, it should be…” Sunny watched Moonglade until she entered another door on the left of her entryway, closing it behind her.

Moving the Seekdrone along, Sunny looked through all the second floor windows, finding another bedroom with three beds inside. Other than that, there were no other bedrooms on the second floor, or at least, ones they could see.

“Nothing. There aren’t anymore bedrooms.” Sunny scratched at her head and adjusted her drone goggles. “Why wouldn’t Silver and Moonglade have rooms close by?”

“So do you believe me now, Sunny?” Sugarcoat folded her arms and looked at her. “Surely you can see, something isn’t right here. Things just aren’t adding up like they should.”

All four girls sat there and thought.

“No, Silver Rose only moved here from Manehattan this year,” Sunny reasoned as she moved to the third floor. “Maybe her room’s somewhere else, maybe like a spare room or something. Yeah.”

The third floor was mostly the same as the second floor, just that there were fewer rooms. There was yet another living room, and then two more bedrooms, one of which was quite dark. With nothing much to see here, she moved to the next floor.

There was only one window on the fourth floor, facing the front. It had a large awning that prevented the sunlight from getting in. Sunny assumed it was an attic, until she noticed that a faint trail of smoke was coming out between the panes. Curious, she flew the drone closer. It was all dark on the inside and Sunny zoomed in to take a closer look.

Then she caught a blur of movement on the inside.

“Did you see that?” Lemon whispered, her eyes glued to the screen.

The camera was fixed on the window, but Sunny did not dare fly the drone closer. The Shadowbolts watched in hushed tension. For the longest time, nothing moved.

Then, in the darkness, two small green lights made themselves known, positioned about an inch or two apart. They bounced slowly toward the window, fixated on the drone.

“What the hay is that?” Sour Sweet breathed.

Looming from the gloom, a pair of coal black hands tipped with claws stretched out and grabbed the curtains to the window, pulling them shut. They immediately withdrew and the window was still once more.

“Y-You girls saw that, right?” Sunny said, pulling the goggles up onto her forehead.

“I don’t know if I saw that…” Sour Sweet blinked a few times.

Even Sugarcoat seemed at a loss for words. She removed her glasses and slowly gave them a wipe.

“That was… strange.” Lemon said weakly. “Do you think it saw us?

“What is ‘it’, anyway?” Sour demanded. “What the hay did we just see?!”

“I don’t want to know…” Sunny scrambled back until her back was to the wall. She quickly flew the drone away from the window, returning to the second floor.

“So do you believe me now, Sunny?” Sugarcoat looked back to her from the front seat. “I told you. Something wrong is happening here.”

“What, just because we saw something green-”

“I’m pretty sure those were eyes. Eyes don’t glow, at least not human ones,” Sugarcoat snapped. “I think we have something of a mystery on our hands, at the very least.”

Glowing eyes. Sunny’s memory jogged, and she thought back to when she had foolishly decided to steal Silver’s clothes all those months ago. Although she had rationalized it away as an effect of panic, Silver’s eyes had indeed been glowing, though purple.

The possibility that Sugarcoat was right chilled her, even more now that there was the tiniest chance that it might be true.

No, she didn’t want to believe it. Her girlfriend was not some… something that could make her eyes glow. She didn’t want to accept that.

“I… I… I need to take my mind off this…” Sunny breathed, placing a hand on her forehead. “This is all so much to take in.”

Lemon Zest pulled off her headphones and nodded. “Yeah. When I said I would believe if she was an alien, I take that back. I still can’t believe it.”

Sour Sweet was a little less shaken. “Well, did we manage to get that on disc or something? You know, for proof?”

“Come on, who’s going to believe us?” Sunny responded. “In this day and age, anyone can say it was photoshopped.”

“Then we’ll just need to find out more. Whatever it was up there on the fourth floor… we need to know what it is.”

Sunny gulped. “I’m not going back up there. Can’t we stay on the second floor? At least there are people here.”

Sunny watched as the three girls made their way up into the living room, lounging on the couches in thick blue towels, their hair still mostly wet from swimming.

“Ooh, they’re back.” Lemon Zest went back to looking at the screen. “Gee, they’re soaking the couches.”

“Makes me wonder if they are the ones responsible,” Sour Sweet grumbled. “I mean, they did some magical hocus pocus in CHS? During that band battle event they hosted.”

“Go back to the pink room,” Lemon suggested. “Maybe we can find something there.”

Sunny did as she was told, keeping an eye on the windows in case more of those things appeared. As she got back to Moonglade’s room, she found that the girl was already out of what was probably the bathroom. She was standing by her bed and using her phone, clad in nothing but a towel. Her hair was still damp and clung to her tan skin.

Sunny’s heartbeat was up in an instant. She knew Moonglade looked like Silver, but the more she thought about it, the more she began to picture Silver standing there instead, nearly naked. The only real difference to them were their colors and their hairstyles, otherwise, they were almost identical.

Sunny eyed the girl’s sleek legs, following them up from the ankles till the point where they disappeared under the towel. She secretly wished for Moonglade to bend down, even just a bit, so that she might get a glance of her butt.

Instead, when the girl was done, she turned to her right and tossed her towel aside, before sitting on her bed.

Lemon Zest spat her lollipop out of her mouth and Sour Sweet choked on something.

“Woah…” was all Sunny could manage as her cheeks went red.

“This feels… wrong,” Lemon said, her face turning the same color as her hair. “Shouldn’t we fly away now?”

Sunny wanted to take her eyes off Moonglade, but for some reason, she didn’t. She eyed the girl’s naked body, stopping many times at the girl’s crotch. Reaching a hand down, Sunny began to massage her pussy through her panties, trying to imagine she was touching Silver’s. Being twins, Moonglade’s was as amazing as Silver’s.

“Why would she leave the window open anyway?” Sour Sweet glanced at the screen, then glared at her shoes. “It makes no sense.”

“I suppose no one ever expected we could see above the fence and the forest,” Sugarcoat surmised. “I mean, her window does look out onto the grounds. There doesn’t seem to be anybody there. Usually.”

Sunny had already begun to tune out her friends’ voices, her attention taken by Silver Rose’s sister. With the drone goggles on, Sunny felt as though she was actually right there at the window, looking in at the naked girl. She wished Moonglade would invite her in, maybe even let her feel her up a little.

Sunny peeled her panties aside and pinched at her clit, moaning as quietly as she could as she enjoyed the sight. Ooohhhh, yeeeesssss...

Then the pink room’s door burst open, uncovering an irked looking Ebony Wings. She was wearing a stately black dress and a small green and black crown atop her head. Moonglade jumped and fell off the bed, her hands shooting across her private parts in embarrassment.

That’s so like Silvy… Ohhhh, Silvy… Sunny applied more pressure to her fingers. “Aahh, aaahh…”

Ebony Wings paid no attention to her daughter, striding across the room and looking out the window, seeing the drone almost immediately. She glared at the flying device, then pulled the curtains shut.

“Okay, I’m pretty sure we’re caught now. We should go.” Lemon Zest shut her laptop screen and turned back to Sunny. “Sunny, fly that drone ou- she’s doing it again, girls.”

“I got this,” Sugarcoat aimed the fire extinguisher at Sunny and pulled the trigger.

A jet of smoke engulfed the rear of the van and Sunny was quick on her feet, coughing.

“What the hay?! Who did that?!” She lifted the goggles from her face. “Sugarcoat was that you?!”

“Now’s not the time for your ridiculous vices. Recall the drone. Lemon, get ready to drive; I don’t think they’ll come out to investigate, but we need to clear off just in case.”

Sunny pulled her panties back into position and turned the drone around, bringing it back to the van as Sour Sweet opened the door to collect it. As soon as it was in her hands, Lemon Zest stepped on the pedal, sending the van down the road and away from the estate.

Sour Sweet closed the van doors and sat back down with a sigh of relief. “That was close… I thought they were going to find us.”

“Weird how she knew the drone was there,” Lemon said as she spun the steering wheel to turn a corner. “Like she knew exactly what she was looking for.”

“Like I said. There’s something going on here.” Sugarcoat turned back in her seat to face them. “That much we know now. We just need to figure out just who they are exactly and if they are indeed witches.”

“Yeah, did you see Sunny?” Lemon Zest imitated shoving her fingers up something. “She was about to jam her fingers up her snatch again. While we’re around. This really is some serious magic.”

“No! No I wasn’t! I wasn’t going to!” Sunny yelled and covered her ears in embarrassment. Sometimes she really wondered why she even bothered to see if Silver was a witch.

“Uh huh,” Sugarcoat responded, unimpressed. “You know, if it wasn’t for the fact that you were never like this before, I might have just chalked your behaviour up to being a nymphomaniac.”

“I’m not! I just… I don’t know, okay?!” Sunny pulled the goggles off her head. “Can we just get back on topic? What should we do next? Come back tomorrow at a less active hour?”

“Being as acclaimed as she is, I’m sure Ebony Wings can’t be at home all the time.” Sugarcoat rubbed at her chin. “Perhaps we’ll be lucky tomorrow and she won’t be home. The question now is… How did she know the drone was there?”

Lemon Zest raised a finger. “Well, that thing on the fourth floor seemed to know. You don’t think…?”

The girls all looked at each other in silence until Lemon Zest forgot she was driving and returned her attention to the road just in time to avoid mounting the curb.

“No, that… that’s a bit much, isn’t it?” Sour Sweet chuckled, though a little worriedly. “I mean we think she might be a witch and all, but come on. Whatever that thing was, it can’t even be human.”

Sugarcoat swiped a finger across her chin. “Regardless, that thing is in their house. They must know something about it. We need to come back tomorrow and try again. Maybe closer to dusk.”

“No way. We’re coming back so soon?” Sunny looked at them. “What if… what if it gets us?”

“We’ll be more careful. And as long as we don’t stay in one place too long, we should be fine. So that means no watching naked girls, Sunny. I’ll pilot the drone tomorrow.”

“I-I wasn’t… doing anything like that!” Sunny snapped. “I only… It was… I only did it for a few seconds!”

“Trust me, if I didn’t stop you, you’d be moaning your head off and squirting all over the van.”

“Yeah, and that wasn’t even Silver.” Lemon Zest turned the van down a road on the left. “You were feeling yourself up over her sister! Does that count as having an affair?”

“N-No!” Sunny insisted. “No it does not! They’re twins anyway, so they’re more or less the same…”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works, Sunny.”

“Just… Just… Shut up!”

Chapter 94 - Rainbooms Concert

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Chapter 95 - A Distinct Scent

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read it.

Chapter 95 - A Distinct Scent

Sunny Flare squeezed past the crowd as she made her way towards the front where she had seen Moonglade and her boyfriend standing. It was awfully hot now, with so much body heat and cheering, which didn’t make her leaving the van any different, but if there was indeed magic going on, she wanted to see it up close with her own eyes.

Magic. If Silver Rose indeed was a witch of sorts, Sunny had to know just why she wanted to cast this spell of lust on her. Was it payback for the way she had treated the new girl all those months ago? Could it be Silver still resented her? Sunny didn’t know, but it was something she needed to find out.

“Move it.” She pushed past a group of three girls and advanced through the rear of the crowd.

It took a few minutes, but Sunny eventually made her way to the middle of the crowd where Moonglade, her boyfriend, and those three other girls were standing. Keeping about two meters away, Sunny watched them.

Both Moonglade and her boyfriend were busy focusing on the stage. The Rainbooms were playing their final song, and the crowd was whipped up into a frenzy.

Moonglade’s left arm was hooked around her boyfriend’s right, and she was bobbing her head in time to the music. Nothing out of the ordinary there, even the fact that the girl looked a little awkward standing there. Silver Rose was such a shy girl. It wasn’t surprising that Moonglade would be like that too.

Sunny looked closer and looked at Moonglade’s fingers. In all the movies she had seen, magic-users who didn’t cast big flashy spells often used their fingers for sorcery.

Moonglade’s fingers were seemingly gently tapping away on her boyfriend’s arm, but it didn’t look like she was in the process of casting any magic, unless that was a really subtle way of doing so.

Her fingers…

Sunny began to think of Silver Rose’s fingers, he lithe and skillful fingers as they would sometimes play across her body.

“Silvy…” Sunny breathed, her face becoming warmer. Oh no, is it happening again? Stop, Sunny! Not here! There are too many people around! Don’t you dare!

Sunny raised her right hand to her mouth and bit down hard. The pain helped drive away the amorous feelings and she felt her mind sharpen. Blinking away tears from the bite, she kept a close eye on Moonglade.

Now that she was up close, it was really quite apparent that she and Silver Rose were twins. Their height was almost identical, and their facial structure looked similar too. Even their bodies… their highly attractive bodies looked the same. Sunny silently wished a wind would blow through and lift the girl’s skirt so she could get a glimpse of her shapely backside.

“Oh man, she’s so hot…” Sunny moaned as she fought to control herself.

Moonglade seemed to pause, tilting her head up as though she had caught a whiff of smoke or something. Then her face arranged itself into an expression of puzzlement before she absent-mindedly licked her lips and turned around, immediately locking eyes with Sunny.

Sunny felt a chill run through her in spite of the hot weather. Something about that look sent a jolt of electricity through her and she would’ve collapsed to her knees if not for the poofy haired girl, who happened to be standing beside her.

“Hey, what are you doing?” She pushed Sunny back up and frowned at her. “Are you alright? You look a little under the weather.”

Sunny felt a tingling heat between her legs, but she shook her head and tried her best to look as though nothing was wrong, though she badly wanted to touch herself. “M-Mind your own business, okay? I’m… just here for… the concert. That’s right.”

Moonglade, on the other hand, looked away from Sunny and said something in her companion’s ear. With all the noise from the crowds, Sunny was unable to make it out despite their close proximity.

Up on stage, the final song ended and the Rainbooms were treated to the tumultuous cheers of their audience. A bouquet of flowers was even thrown up to the band.

“Yeah, you girls rock!” Moonglade’s boyfriend yelled. Sunny forgot his name, but remembered it had something to do with football.

Realizing that the people would soon disperse, Sunny took the chance to slink back toward the van, biting her hand again as she did so.

Back at the vehicle, she knocked on the van door, which slid open to let her in.

“Well? Anything?” Lemon Zest removed the goggles and looked at Sunny expectantly. “Hey, you smell that?”

“I-I don’t smell anything.” Sunny climbed in and sat down in a corner, pulling at her skirt, hoping her friends wouldn’t see beneath it; her panties had gotten quite wet after meeting Moonglade’s eyes. “Anyway, I’m not sure, b-but… I can say, something about her… There’s something different about her. Something weird.”

“We were watching on the drone,” Sugarcoat said, not looking up from the laptop screen. “She seemed to know you were there, amongst all those people. There must have been at least two hundred people out there, and she still picked you out.”

Knock knock knock.

“Sunny?” a voice from outside the van said. “Are you in there?”

All four girls in the van froze. The van had tinted windows, so nobody could just look in, but the voice outside seemed to have deduced that Sunny was in here.

“Sunny Flare?” the voice came again.

“Oh no,” Sugarcoat said. “I think that’s Silver’s sister out there.”

“Lemon!” Sour Sweet barked. “Get that drone back here. We need to scramble.”

“I can’t get it in here without opening the doors!” Lemon hissed back. “How did she even know we were here, anyway?”

“She must have followed Sunny,” Sugarcoat decided quietly. “We have two options. One, pretend we’re not here and wait it out. Two, we open the doors and see what happens next. What’ll it be?”

There came more knocks, each one reverberating on the inside of the van’s metal walls.

“She knows we’re here!” Lemon pushed Sunny’s shoulder. “I think Sunny should go outside and deal with this, while the rest of us make a run for it.”

“What, why me?!” Sunny glared at her.

“Cause you’re the one who led her here!” Sour Sweet joined in and pushed Sunny. “Now go out there and lead her off so we can get the drone and skedaddle.”

“B-But I don’t want to have to ta-talk to her! What if I… What if I… can’t control myself?”

Sugarcoat rubbed at her jaw line. “Sunny’s right. We can’t have her losing it and have sex with Moonglade right here, especially with her boyfriend around.”

“You don’t have to say it like that!” Sunny wailed, her face glowing red.

Sugarcoat sighed and got out of the driver’s seat. “I’ll do the talking. Lemon, get the drone back here. We’ll fly it through the passenger window.”

“Righty-O, captain!” The lime haired girl donned the drone goggles and got back to the controls.

“Hello? Sunny?” Moonglade’s voice came again.

“Get ready.” Sugarcoat opened the door and hopped out. Sunny could hear her footsteps going around the van to the left side. “Yes, what do you want?”

“I’d like to speak with Sunny Flare. May I?”

“Sunny isn’t here. She… left to… wash her clothes.”

Sour Sweet snickered and Sunny pulled her skirt lower, embarrassed that a slight glance from Moonglade had turned her on.

“She isn’t even Silver Rose,” Sour whispered aggressively. “You can’t have this kind of reaction to every girl you come across, unless you’re turning into a nympho or something.”

“I-I’m not!” Sunny raised a fist. “She… Silver cast some kind of magic on me, remember? Be-besides, she looks almost just like Silver… Rea-really pretty…”

It was growing warmer between her legs and Sunny bent lower and continued to fight the urge to touch herself with Sour Sweet watching.

“Left to wash her clothes?” Moonglade chuckled outside. “I wonder what for. Are you sure she isn’t in there? I think I can smell her. She’s got quite a… distinct scent. I mean, um, my sister’s told me as much.”

“Well, she isn’t. Don’t you have something better to do? Like, hang out with your boyfriend? He’s waiting for you over there by the tree.”

“Distinct scent, huh, Sunny?” Lemon Zest held in a laugh as she continued to fly the drone back. “Now that she mentioned it, you do have a distinct scent. A rather wet one.”

“Shut up…” Sunny groaned. She covered her face with both hands.

“Got the drone,” Lemon reported, putting the flying device on the passenger seat. “Let’s skedaddle!”

“What about Sugarcoat?”

“Look…” Sugarcoat said from outside. “No use beating around the bush here. “What has your sister done to Sunny, Moonglade?”

“Wh-whatever do you mean?” the blonde haired girl’s voice stammered.

“She’s out of control. Your sister keeps having sex with her and now it’s driving Sunny crazy. Yes, we know all about it. She did something to Sunny, didn’t she? To make her crazy for her?”

“Really…?” Sunny rocked back and forth. Sugarcoat never was good at sugarcoating anything.

Sunny’s thoughts drifted to Silver. She remembered the first time they had sex in the storeroom. It had been so sudden, but so welcoming. She never thought Silver would feel that way about her too. But now, perhaps if it was indeed a spell cast on her, then she would’ve been expecting something like that to happen from the beginning.

Sunny had been fantasizing about her long before they even had sex. Perhaps it had been that first kiss? Maybe that was how she cast her magic.

The mulberry haired girl pictured Silver’s lips pressed against hers in the shower room, the girl clad in nothing but her towel, and herself completely naked. Even if it was a casting of magic, it was still a nice sight to imagine.

“Silvy…” Sunny breathed, again craving the girl’s touch. Her pussy was now throbbing, almost close to exploding. She had to do something about it before it would become too much to handle.

“Mmm…” Sunny bit her lip as she bent lower, making sure Sour Sweet wouldn’t be able to see her hand under her skirt.

One finger swiped back and forth against her moist slit, then pushed against her clit. Sunny imagined it was Silver who was doing it as she sought to relieve herself.

“My sister didn’t do anything to her,” Moonglade’s voice said. “Why would you even say that?”

“We know you’re hiding something. We’ll find out. Just you wait.”

With one last pinch on her clit, Sunny stiffened as her orgasm hit her, draining her of the last of her energy. She panted and gasped as she lay there on the van’s floor, glad the feeling was now fading.

There was the sound of Sugarcoat returning to the driver’s side and Sugarcoat was soon in the van, starting the engine. “Did you get it?”

Lemon Zest peeled off her goggles and held up the drone. “Got it.”

“Then let’s go.” Sugarcoat eyed Sunny, who was curled up near the back. “Sunny, are you okay? What are you doing?”

“Guess.” Sour Sweet said grumpily.

“I… I wasn’t doing anything… It’s um, I’m just… resting.” She pretended to look sleepy. “It’s hot.”

“I don’t know…” Lemon Zest hopped to the back of the van and rubbed her chin. She reached over and swiped Sunny’s skirt up and looked underneath. “Oh gee, Sunny, you’re so wet. Did you just climax all over the inside of my van? Dude, I have to keep this thing clean.”

“I… I didn’t!” Sunny pulled down at her skirt, but her strength was still sapped, so she didn’t bother getting up. “B-Besides… I didn’t wet the van floor.”

“You better hope you didn’t,” Lemon said with a smirk.

“I didn’t! Nothing came out, okay?” Sunny covered her face in embarrassment. “I mean… I didn’t climax, okay? I’m… I’m just resting!”

“Forget it, we already know what’s happened to Sunny.” Sugarcoat wheeled the vehicle away from the park and out into Canterlot’s streets. “I definitely think something’s going on here, with Moonglade, Silver Rose, and even the rest of her household. Something’s going on up in that house. And we’re going to find out just what it is one day.”

Sunny lay there on the floor, sulking to herself. Her friends were right. Surely there was something going on here. The way Moonglade had looked at her during the concert was a bit unsettling. It had been so quick and sudden, almost like she knew exactly where to look.

Whatever the case here was, Sunny was at least glad she was able to deal with the burning sensation down below, though, she craved something bigger, which unfortunately, Silver Rose didn’t have, seeing as she was a girl.

Sunny blinked a few times. Perhaps that could break Silver’s spell over her. Maybe all she needed was a good guy. Her approach to Domino hadn’t worked out, so maybe all she had to do was find someone else, maybe get a little friendly, and perhaps she would get what she wanted.

Chapter 96 - Scheming Seduction

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Chapter 97 - Aura of Menace

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content and semi to non-consensual sexual activity. If you do not wish to read about it, please skip ahead now.

Chapter 97 - Aura of Menace

Sugarcoat stretched and turned off her laptop. She had been on it for most of the day, looking up information about Ebony Wings and her family. Any abnormalities at all were jotted down in her notebook.

Not that there were very many. All the sources seemed to say the same thing: That Ebony Wings was a hugely acclaimed actress who had surfaced about twenty years ago and had quickly risen to the top, thanks to her fantastic acting skills. She could play any character, adapt to any role given to her with absolute perfection. She had also been selected as the year’s top model, even before the year’s end, and was also somewhat prominent in the video games industry.

This was the profile of someone who had it made. Someone whom, by the sweat of their brow and the strength of their arms, had earned their way to the top and didn’t have any intention of coming back down.

Sugarcoat looked at her notebook and squinted. There, outlined in her loopy, neat handwriting, was the word ‘Origins?’. There were very few sources that seemed to list just where Ebony Wings had come from. She had found one that said Ebony was from Romarenia, but that was it. There wasn’t even anything on how old she was. There was actually far more information on Ebony Wings’ late husband than there was on her, but that wasn’t what Sugarcoat was looking for.

“She looks surprisingly good for someone who’s been in the industry for twenty years and had two children…” Sugarcoat stewed. She knew that many actors let themselves slip after they hit the big time, succumbing to drugs and alcohol or other things. Not Ebony Wings. She was as straight edge as it got when it came to actors, it seemed.

But if all this was true, what had been all that which Sugarcoat and her friends had seen at Ebony’s home? A shooting range? Some kind of glowing-eyed creature in the attic?

There was more to Ebony Wings and her family and coupled with her mysterious background, they were obviously hiding something, whether they were witches or not.

The changing room incident where Silver Rose had ripped the door off its hinges was still fresh on the girl’s mind. No normal schoolgirl would be able to do that just like that. And then there was the time during PE where she leapt over Sunny’s head. Silver had done things no normal human could do. Whatever it is they all were, Sugarcoat was going to find out, whether it took her months or years.

“Ugh…” She took off her glasses and massaged the bridge of her nose. In the end, none of the information she dug up could prove that Ebony Wings was any kind of witch. “What a waste of a day.”

They Shadowbolts had taken a break from spying on the Wings’ Estate for the last two days, with Sugarcoat deciding to look online for answers instead. Sour Sweet had gone to the library to find anything she could about witches, while Sunny and Lemon Zest decided to slack off.

So much for wanting to know the truth…

Sugarcoat figured Sunny was likely sprawled on her bed right now, masturbating her eyes out. Something had really happened to her friend, whether it was a spell or not. This wasn’t normal.

Drinking down the last of her coffee, Sugarcoat packed her things and left Sugarcube Corner, deciding it was time to head home for a nice long shower. It was close to nine in the night now and she wanted to get home before it got too late.

Indigo Zap was due to return from Docklin in two days, and Sugarcoat had to fill her in on what they’d been up to. She knew Indigo was a huge fan of Ebony Wings, so she likely wasn’t going to take any of this witch business lightly.

Whatever the case was, at least they would have one more able body to help out in their investigation.

Sugarcoat walked over to the nearby parking lot where she had left her motorcycle. Overhead, an owl hooted. It sounded like laughter, which reminded Sugarcoat that she had wanted to look into Canterlot’s owl population and why they didn’t hoot like owls from other parts of the world.

As she was setting her things into the boot of her motorbike, a slight sound caught her attention, almost like a gust of wind, but it came from behind a row of parked cars on her left. The white haired girl stopped what she was doing and scanned the shadows behind the cars, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary, but there was nothing to see. Perhaps it was late and her mind was just playing tricks on her. Sugarcoat shrugged and closed the lid, then put on her helmet and started up her bike.

She was home alone this week, as her parents had decided to go help her older sister move into a new apartment in Chicoltgo, and her younger sister, Gilded Lily, had gone to a stayover at one of her friend’s houses. Sugarcoat didn’t mind. In fact, it was quieter without her younger sister bickering in her ear all the time.

The streets were emptier than usual, which was surprising at this hour. It looked as though it was already past midnight, though it was now only five minutes past nine.

As it was, it took Sugarcoat less time than usual to get home. Even the traffic lights seemed to be in her favor.

The streets were silent when she powered down her bike, her shoes clapping against her sandstone walkway as she headed for her front door. It was a strange quietness, almost eerie, but Sugarcoat prided herself on fearing nothing. The sound of silence wasn’t going to change that.

And then there it was again, the sound like a rush of wind, this time, behind some of the bushes by her lawn and her neighbor’s. Sugarcoat narrowed her eyes, looking for any signs of movement behind it, but still, there was nothing.

“Hmmm…” But she chose to ignore it again, going into her house and locking the door behind her. Perhaps it was just one of those pesky owls. A hoot of laughter outside seemed to confirm her suspicions and she went upstairs to her room. After grabbing a fresh set of pajamas, consisting of an orange and shirt and white shorts, Sugarcoat proceeded into the shower and enjoyed herself as cold water poured down against her face, beating the summer heat out of her and refreshing her all over.

This whole Silver Rose casting magic on Sunny incident was making this summer more unbearable. She knew for sure something was amiss, but as to what it was, she didn’t quite know for certain. She remembered the green eyes and the claws from the estate last week. They had all seen it. Witches were known to keep beasts. Could that have one?

There were so many questions in Sugarcoat’s head, but so few answers. They needed to see more, but after what had happened that day, they didn’t dare risk flying so close again. They’d kept to the estate perimeter, using the zoom in function to try and find what they could. Unfortunately, there was nothing else to see since.

“That Silver Rose…” Sugarcoat left the shower and toweled herself down. “Just what is she hiding? Is she really a friend?”

Once she had washed up and changed into her pajamas, Sugarcoat sat herself on her bed and messaged the others, wanting to know if they’d found anything.

Obviously, Lemon and Sunny turned up no results, seeing as they did nothing to help today. Sunny Flare had also claimed she didn’t masturbate today, but Sugarcoat knew better. She could almost imagine her fellow Shadowbolt squealing with pleasure as she drilled her fingers into herself.

She shook her head. She still couldn’t quite believe Sunny had become so spellbinded that she wasn’t afraid to touch herself in public.

“I mean, who would do that?” Sugarcoat mumbled to herself. “If anyone were to find out, oh, Principal Cinch isn’t going to like it one bit.”

More messages popped in and Sugarcoat was excited to see they belonged to Sour Sweet. But her excitement soon turned dour as she read that her friend had come up with nothing from her time in the library.

“Just great. What are you hiding, Ebony Wings?” Sugarcoat grumbled.

She was upset enough at today’s findings that she decided to call it a night. Flicking her lights off, Sugarcoat lay in bed, grumbling herself to sleep.

Sugarcoat was walking in a maze of alleys at night. She felt ill at ease; all the passageways looked the same and she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was following her. Sugarcoat glanced behind her, into the shadowy alleyway that she had just come from. She broke into a light jog, moving a little faster. A light creaking sound made itself known from the alley to her right.

A pressure was building up in Sugarcoat’s legs, making it hard to move fast. It was as if there was a concrete block attached to each thigh, and it became a struggle to even sprint. The creaking noise came again, and Sugarcoat turned around, seeing a black blur of something. Her upper arm stung, and then she woke up.

The girl’s face was caked in sweat and she felt as though she had really been running for her life. Her legs ached and her breathing was heavy.

Just a dream, Sugarcoat. You fear nothing, remember? It’s just a dream…

It was illogical for her to be afraid of something that couldn’t even harm her. With a yawn, she got up and put her glasses on her face. She needed a drink of water.

Sugarcoat slid out of bed and into her slippers. She went downstairs, poured herself a glass of water from the tap, and drank it down. Savoring the feeling of the water slipping down her throat, she sighed.

Sugarcoat then went back upstairs to her room, rubbing her arm. It had hurt in the dream, as if someone had poked her with a pin. Dreams were such weird things, with the brain sometimes believing what was happening there was actually happening in real life, making the body feel things which didn’t actually happen.

She got into bed again, then did a double take. The bathroom door was open. She thought for sure she had closed it after her shower, but Sugarcoat wrote that off as a trick her mind was playing on her.

Getting back up again, she walked over to the bathroom door, closing it. At least, she tried to close it. Something on the other side was keeping it from shutting completely. Thinking it to be a fallen towel or a wayward piece of laundry, Sugarcoat opened the door and looked inside.

“Hi there!”

A pair of blue eyes jumped out at Sugarcoat, who yelped and leapt backwards. There was a person in her bathroom. A person in a hoodie and jeans, now standing over her, looking down at her with those seemingly glowing blue eyes.

Shaking off her shock, Sugarcoat put on a frown and said, “Just what do you think you’re doing here? How did you get in? You’re intruding, you scumbag. Get out now before I call the police.”

“Oh, even though I’m your greatest admirer?” the figure asked with a slur in her voice.

Sitting there long enough, Sugarcoat could see a pair of striped panties in the stranger’s hand. She had worn those today and put them with the rest of her laundry in the bathroom before her shower.

“Admirer? You broke into my house. And what do you plan on doing with those?” She pointed at the stranger’s hand. “Put that down and go. Now.” Sugarcoat’s voice irradiated with anger.

“That’s because I’ve been watching you, Sugarcoat…” The girl slinked closer, then went down on all fours and began to crawl to the Shadowbolt. “I… I kinda have an interest in you, you see… hehe… I-I think I, um… I l-love you, Sugarcoat…”

For a second, the voice seemed familiar, but then Sugarcoat’s head began to spin and she was unable to get up.

“No, I don’t even know you,” she said, trying to crawl backwards and away from her intruder. Her phone was in her room. If she could get there, this person was going to be in serious trouble. “How can you possibly be in love with me? And no thank you. I’m not even into girls.”

The strange girl did nothing to stop Sugarcoat as she went to pick up her phone. She turned it on and went to dial, but there was no signal.

“Hello? Hello!” Sugarcoat yelled into her phone, but it was a pointless action. She just couldn’t get a signal.

Just outside in a black car, Ivory Wings smiled to herself, looking at the phone jammer that Pierce Network had been keeping in his desk until her niece had stolen it. She picked up her romance novel and thumbed to the page she had left off at.

“Come on, Sugarcoat…” The girl had her cornered between her bed and bookshelf now, still inching closer and closer on all fours, like a lion stalking its prey. “I didn’t break into your house to be told no.”

“No, you stay away from me!” Sugarcoat threw her pillow at the intruder, but it did nothing to stop her advance. “Who are you?!”

“Oh, that’s right, I haven’t told you my name,” The stranger giggled. She gave Sugarcoat’s panties a sniff, then stuffed them in her pocket. “I suppose I should tell you… But then again, I don’t know… Maybe I’ll tell you if you a-agree to be my g-girlfriend? What do you say?”

“No chance! I said I’m not into girls! Get out of my house!” The Shadowbolt began flailing her arms and legs at the intruder.

Her senses were slowly growing numb and her arms and legs felt heavy, like in her dream where she had been running from an assailant. Sugarcoat fell over, her top half onto the bed and her lower onto the floor.

“Come on, Sugarcoat…” the stranger said huskily, opened her mouth to reveal a long, pink tongue and gleaming rows of teeth. “Come and let Aura show you what she can do.”

“No!” Sugarcoat shrieked. “Get away from me!”

The other girl, whose name was presumably Aura, crept closer and reached into her pocket, pulling out a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs.

Sugarcoat’s eyes bulged at the sight of them, but for some reason, she could only wriggle in place as Aura pulled all of her up onto the bed and held her arms over her head.

“Stop. Stop! No!” She kicked, hitting the girl in the side of her head, though it did little to faze her.

The handcuffs were looped around Sugarcoat’s thin wrists and fastened to the rail at the end of her bed. She tried to pull her hands out of them, but they were stuck fast. Sugarcoat’s breasts heaved up and down as she became more and more exerted. Aura simply stared down at the Crystal Prep girl with a hunger on her face like she was staring at a delicious meal and she hadn’t eaten in days.

“I’ve been watching you for a while now, Sugarcoat,” Aura giggled. “I’ve been dreaming about this for soooo long, you have no idea! I’ve been following you for days, watching everything you do, everywhere you go...”

It dawned on Sugarcoat that this was not a person who could be reasoned or bargained with. If this Aura really had been watching her for days, without her noticing, she must be better than she let on.

“You’ve been quite busy, haven’t you?” she smirked and leaned close, her face almost touching Sugarcoat’s. “You’ve been spying on Ebony Wings, the famous actress. Now, why on earth would you be doing that, I’ve wondered?”

“It’s none of your business. Nor is any of this!” Sugarcoat struggled against the cuffs. “Let me go this instant!”

Aura licked her lips with that long, pink tongue. Then she leaned down and gave one of Sugarcoat’s thighs a lick. Sugarcoat thrashed around like a fish on a hook, kicking and screaming. Surely someone would hear her and come to the rescue?

Apparently Aura thought the same, for she took out Sugarcoat’s used panties and wadded them up, then stuffed the undergarment right into the Crystal Prep girl’s mouth.

“I figure if I ask again, you won’t answer me. But I’m sure I can get you to talk. You know, I’m pretty curious about Ebony Wings myself. I wonder how hard it would be to sneak in there. But for now, you’re all mine, Sugarcoat. I, umm, I want y-you, Sugarcoat. Right now.”

“Mmphh! Mmmmlp!” Sugarcoat wheezed.

“Now, now, Sugarcoat. It’s not polite to talk with your mouth full,” Aura said teasingly and reached for the waistband of Sugarcoat’s shorts. The Crystal Prep girl aimed a kick at Aura’s face, but she leaned out of the way. Aura tutted.

“Oh, so you want to do this the hard way? Don’t worry, I know you’ll learn to love me for this.”

Aura then took a second pair of cuffs from inside her hoodie and clamped them onto Sugarcoat’s ankles, then looped them around the end of the bed frame. The result was that Sugarcoat was all spread out on the bed, and only able to move slightly.

“Mmphh!” Sugarcoat’s eyes glared out at the other girl. Aura reached for her shorts again, this time hooking her fingers around the elastic with no resistance. With all the speed of a snail, Aura tugged the shorts down to Sugarcoat’s ankles, baring her white cotton panties to the air.

The Shadowbolt struggled, but to no avail, still unable to free herself from the handcuffs. Of all of them, there had to be a random stalker that would follow her home and do something like this. Just what were the odds?

Why couldn’t it have happened to Sunny? she thought to herself. Sunny was the one with the girlfriend problem after all. She would most certainly welcome a stalker like this, but no, the stalker had to take an interest in her. Sugarcoat didn’t even know what was so attractive about herself. She had huge glasses and terrible eyesight. What about her did the stalker want, she didn’t know.

Aura seemed to tremble with glee as she ran a finger down Sugarcoat’s slit, with only a thin layer of fabric between her and Sugarcoat’s most intimate parts.

No! Sugarcoat thought. Don’t you dare do it. Don’t you-!

Aura peeled the fabric aside and smiled at the sight below it. “My, oh my… Exactly how I pictured it to be… It’s so lovely, Sugarcoat, just like you… Can I touch it?”

“Mmmph!” Sugarcoat mumbled through the panties in her mouth. You most certainly may not!

The intruder dragged a finger around her slit, sending shivers coursing down Sugarcoat’s spine. No one had ever touched her down there before except herself and it felt so weird.

“Don’t worry. Once you have a taste of this, you’ll want me too…” Aura smiled, almost a little sheepishly. Sugarcoat could swear she recognized her intruder, but she still couldn’t pinpoint who it was.

Aura gently slid one finger into Sugarcoat’s love canal, penetrating her ever so slowly. Sugarcoat writhed and screamed through her gag, but something deep inside had awakened and she felt little tremors of pleasure jolting up from her nethers to her chest.

“Mmpph!” Sugarcoat felt Aura’s finger sliding around inside, tickling at her inner walls as it slid in and out. No! This… I don’t like this!

Aura inhaled and pushed her finger in deeper. “Enjoying it, are you? I’m glad you like it, Sugarcoat. Ohhh, how I’ve wanted to please you like this! Oh, how I want to hear your moans. I’m going to remove your gag, okay? If you try to call for help, I’ll just stuff it right back in.”

The strange girl pulled the pair of balled up panties from Sugarcoat’s mouth, who took this chance to breathe deeply, before Aura slotted a second finger into her pussy, sending a higher voltage of electricity through her body.

“Aaah!”

“Yessss, just what I wanted to hear…” Aura leaned in and kissed her on her right thigh. “So, my dear Sugarcoat, come on, you can tell me what you’ve been up to, I’m sure. All your spying on Ebony Wings… Come on, did you find a way into her home or something?”

“Nnnngh! Li-like I said… It’s… none of your business!” Sugarcoat strained against her cuffs, the fingers inside her threatening to drive her crazy.

“You’re so cute when you try to resist me…” Aura removed her fingers from her opening and began to lift Sugarcoat’s shirt up. “I love your body… It’s so amazing.”

Once her shirt was past her breasts, Aura licked her lips and crawled over to them.

“My, my… The treasures you hide under your clothes…”

Aura stopped to inhale deeply, licking her lips as she gazed down at Sugarcoat’s bosom. She was by no means the bustiest girl, but her breasts were still sizeable enough to warrant a squeeze. Aura’s hands crept over the mounds and kneaded them gently.

“Mmm…” the Shadowbolt moaned and writhed, trying to shake out of Aura’s hands, hut she couldn’t move enough to get away.

“Are you spying on Ebony because you think she’s hot?” Aura squeezed harder on her breasts. “Because I think she’s quite hot too. But, um… so are you… hehe…”

“Nnmgh, no, I told y-you, I’m not into girls…! Stop…”

“Oh, don’t worry. After I’m done, I’m sure you’ll prefer girls. After all, there are things a girl can do better, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to satisfy you, Sugarcoat. Hehe…”

Aura began playing with Sugarcoat’s nipples, flicking them with her fingers and occasionally pinching them hard. The Shadowbolt winced under her control, unable to do anything else but to moan and squirm.

I’m not… like this! I don’t like this! I’m not like Sunny! She kept telling herself. She was beginning to lose her mind from the various sensations across her body, but she fought and held on strong, refusing to give in. She didn’t want to give this stalker the satisfaction of winning.

“Come on, come on, I’d like to know what you found out about Ebony Wings, oh please do tell me?” Aura leaned down and bit one of her nipples playfully.

“Aaah!” Sugarcoat gasped at the sudden pain. It hurt, but it strangely felt… good. “N-Nothing. I don’t know anything!”

“Such a liar, Sugarcoat. So unlike you…” the intruder chuckled. Then she rose to her knees and began to unfasten her jeans. “I think I have something you may like. Something that’ll get you to love me too. To warm up to me, hehe…”

Sugarcoat watched with horror as she slipped out of her jeans, wearing a strange black object over her panties. It was long and it kind of resembled a cucumber.

She knew about these things enough to know just what that thing actually was. In fact, she even knew Sunny had a box of those stashed under her bed for her own personal use, though, this one Aura had was a strapon.

“No, no, don’t use that.” Sugarcoat shook her head, her eyes growing wide with fear. The size of that thing! It would split her in two.

Aura giggled and adjusted the toy against Sugarcoat’s opening. “I won’t have to if you love me back, Sugarcoat.”

“No! Please, just let me go. I don’t want this!”

For a few seconds, Aura seemed to have a look of regret and hesitation on her face. She stopped moving, keeping the dildo pressed against Sugarcoat’s trembling pussy, almost like she was considering what she was doing.

There was a faint ‘sorry’, before Aura slid the dildo into Sugarcoat’s opening.

There was a flare of pain for the white haired girl. Her insides felt as though they were being torn open, and something was making its way into her, regardless if it could fit or not.

“Aaah-Aaaaah!” she shrieked, unable to keep her eyes open as she felt Aura slide deeper and deeper inside her.

“O-Oh, you’re so tight!” Aura leaned closer. “It’s your first time, Sugarcoat dear? I’m honored to be the one to have it, because, uh, yeah, because I-I lo-love you, hehe…”

Blood flowed from Sugarcoat’s womanhood, but that didn’t stop Aura from going back and thrusting into her again.

“Mmmaaah!” Sugarcoat moaned from the pain, almost like her mind was going blank. The pain was starting to feel good. She had never felt such pleasure in her life, not even when Sunny showed her that folder of porn she had on her computer.

“Oooh, yesss, I feel it…” Aura bit her bottom lip as she thrusted in and out of the Shadowbolt. “You like this, don’t you? I’m so glad. I’m so glad I get to be the one to please you, Sugarcoat!”

“Nngh, aah, aaah aahh…” Sugarcoat couldn’t stifle her voice as Aura continued to ram the strapon in and out of her pussy. She almost couldn’t think of anything else now. The only things on her mind were how it could fit inside her and how this could feel so good.

“Oh, I love you, Sugarcoat. I love you, um… so much! Yes…” Aura hugged her arms around the girl’s back as she let her hips do their work. “Come, I’m sure you can tell me now… Did you learn something about Ebony Wings? Come on, you can share it with me, can’t you?”

Sugarcoat didn’t respond at first, but with a particularly big thrust, she gasped and answered, “We think… aaah aahh mmggh… She might be… aahhh, a witch…! Aaaah aahhh, haaah…”

“A witch, you are making this up aren’t you?” Aura unfastened the cuffs around Sugarcoat’s legs and lifted them up beside her head to get into a better position. “What makes you say that.”

“She, haaah aaah… Her daughter cast some spell, aaah, on one of my friends…! Ohhh! I’m sure, aaah, of it…!”

Sugarcoat couldn’t help it anymore. She was actually enjoying it, the strapon inside her vagina, the sensation of Aura’s fingers gliding over her breasts. She wanted to have more.

“Oh my… A witch. I didn’t think she would be… Thank you for telling me, my sweet Sugarcoat…” Aura suddenly pulled the dildo out from Sugarcoat’s pussy, the shaft coated in the girl’s glistening fluids. “I think I should go. You’ve done so so well, Sugarcoat. I’m glad I got to do this to you, my, umm, one true l-love. Yeah. That.”

Sugarcoat heaved and panted from the ordeal, but she shook her head and wrapped her legs around Aura’s waist. “W-Wait, n-no… Not yet… Please, some more…”

“Not done with me, hmm?” The strange girl smirked and looked down between Sugarcoat’s legs. “Very well, I will love you all night long, then.”

The Shadowbolt gasped excitedly as the strapon reentered her.

Aura threw the slimey strapon dildo into a canvas bag before hopping into the car herself, pulling her hood down and rearranging her green hair.

“All settled?” Ivory Wings turned back from the driver’s seat with a smile.

“Yeah. They don’t know anything about us,” Aura chuckled. “They think we’re witches because Sunny Flare can’t stop thinking about me. She thinks I, I mean, Silver Rose cast a spell on her.”

“Psssh, of course…” Ivory waved a hand. “Good work, sweetie. You did well, from what I could hear. You really enjoyed yourself, didn’t you?”

Aura’s blue cheeks flashed a bright red and she looked down at her knees. “Uh, umm… n-no… May-maybe just a little…?” She ended with a sheepish smile.

“You did break character a few times, with your stuttering and all. Thankfully with that aphrodisiac concoction I put in that needle for you, the girl won’t remember a thing. Otherwise, they might’ve actually found out it was you.”

“S-Sorry, Aunt Ivory…” Aura twiddled her fingers. “It-it’s just weird… Having to say such things. A-And well, I did kinda feel bad about doing all this. Sugarcoat’s my friend.”

“Silver Rose’s friend.”

“R-Right. That. So to hurt her like I did… I don’t know… It makes me feel weird.”

“Well, look at it this way. They may have been onto us. They can never find out what we really are. For the sake of us all, including your mother, this information had to be sliced out of her. You did well, sweetie. Just make sure to keep in character next time.”

Aura looked up at Sugarcoat’s window as the car drove off. “I hope there won’t be a next time…”

Sugarcoat woke up in her bed, feeling more sore than ever. She didn’t remember what she had dreamt about, but she did remember there had been a pretty intense dream.

“Ugh…” she rose to her bottom and scratched at her hair.

Her entire body ached and to her surprise, so did her vagina; it was throbbing with pain.

“Aaah-owww…” She rubbed at it, feeling a spark of electricity going through her body. “Mmm… ouch, what’s going on?”

She peeled her striped panties aside to have a look, but there looked to be nothing out of the ordinary there.

She looked around her bed, but everything seemed to be as she had left it, though she didn’t remember the bedsheets being orange. Perhaps she had changed it the night before, she didn’t remember.

Slowly getting to her feet, Sugarcoat staggered her way to her bathroom, sore from head to toe, and in need of a nice and refreshing shower.

Chapter 98 - Fine Arts

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Chapter 99 - Picnic in the Cellar

The deafening gunshot of the hunting rifle pierced through the air as a target of Principal Cinch’s head vanished in an explosion of wood, sending splinters spiralling to the grassy floor below.

Silver Rose lowered the rifle from her shoulder and opened her right eye, a smile on her smooth face. That would teach Principal Cinch to exude such nasty smells.

“Well done, daughter.” Ebony Wings gave her a quick pat on the shoulder, then clicked a button, which raised another set of Principal Cinch targets. “With a little more practice, perhaps you’d be as good as me one day. Perhaps.”

Silver Rose smiled and loaded a fresh clip of bullets into the rifle. Since the start of the break, she’d been getting better at firing guns. She did wonder why her mother wanted her to be such a marksman, seeing as her aunt didn’t let her carry guns out of the house. Perhaps this was a skill that was only needed for burglary situations. Even so, their claws and fangs were more than enough to deter any common criminal.

Ebony Wings watched as her daughter began to plug holes in the pictures of Principal Cinch. She was most accurate, landing headshots nearly every time. There was a certain lack of finesse in her actions though, and Ebony wanted her to shoot as naturally as she breathed.

“Oh yes, something I wanted to talk to you about, Silver.” Ebony Wings looked at her fingernails, then blew at them. “You haven’t been bringing home as much love recently, both Moonglade and Silver Rose. I wanted to ask what your problem is.”

“O-Oh…” Silver missed her next shot, making a new hole in the wall behind the targets. “Well… I just… umm… I’m not s-sure how to go about, uh, all this business. Without loving H-Home Run I mean… As for Sunny, well, she’s, uh… rather obsessed with, um, doing that.”

“Stop stammering,” Ebony said sternly. “I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised about Sunny Flare, since you’re not seeing her as often as you would during the school year, but with the boy, I would have thought you would have some inkling of how to hunt him properly by now.”

Silver squirmed in her clothes. What did her mother want? If she went along with Home Run, she would end up submitting to her true feelings and she would get a beating. If she didn’t, then the food she brought back would be insipid and she would get a scolding. Either way, her mother wasn’t going to be happy.

What am I supposed to do?

“What is the boy’s take on sex?” her mother said after a brief silence. “And get back to shooting the targets.”

“Uh-umm, what…?” Silver’s cheeks glowed red as she shakily raised the rifle to fire at the Cinch targets.

“Well, I figured with all the practice you get with Sunny Flare, maybe you can bring some over to the boy. You enjoy it anyway, don’t you?”

“I-I don’t… um, enjoy it…” Silver looked away and winced. She kind of did, but she didn’t want to admit it to herself and especially not to her mother. “Be-besides, Home Run isn’t like Sunny. I think he would rather take this slow.”

Ebony Wings took a long, deep breath of air. Then she picked up a pistol from the selection of guns that lay on the nearby table. She turned her back to the firing range, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply.

Then she shot the pistol over her shoulder, under her arm, and in variously increasingly outlandish poses until the gun clicked empty. She turned around.

Each Cinch target had a hole in it, some more than one. But Ebony Wings had not missed a single shot.

“That’s what I hope you’ll be able to do one day,” The celebrity actress said, putting the pistol back down on the table. “As for your pathetic love life, I suggest you pick up on that too. I didn’t release you to the world so you could bring home scraps. I expect more work on that House Run boy, whether you need to seduce him more or not.”

“Ye-yes, mother…” Silver gulped, completely unsure on how to proceed.

“Nhm-hmm,” Ebony Wings said, unconvinced. “Keep shooting, and when you run out of bullets, pack up. I need a drink. Oh, and if you see any drones flying about, well… put those shooting skills to use, won’t you? Just make sure it doesn’t see you shooting at it, or we’re going to have some media problems in the future.”

As Ebony Wings retreated back into the house, Silver sighed and raised the rifle to her shoulder, and continued shooting at Principal Cinch. “Good talk, mother.”

Ivory Wings had not seen her sister all day. She had been holed up in the workshop for most of the daylight hours, plotting and tinkering with various gadgets and simulations. Now that she was done, Ivory wanted a talk with her sister, but she was nowhere to be found in her usual haunts.

Ivory Wings sighed in exasperation. She sniffed at the air, looking for her sister’s scent. She followed the trail all the way to the kitchens, where the trap door to the wine cellar lay open.

Climbing down the ladder, Ivory was treated to the earthy, faintly fruit-scented smell of the cellar. She could smell her sister down here, and she tiptoed around some casks of wine and mead to find Ebony Wings sitting on a picnic blanket in the corner with a dismantled roast chicken, a pie, and several opened bottles of wine around her.

“What are you doing?” Ivory Wings asked as she approached. It was still rather dark in here and the only source of light was coming in through the trapdoor.

“Having a picnic, what does it look like I’m doing?” Ebony shot back, taking a fork and spearing a piece of chicken on it.

Ivory rolled her eyes. “Yes, but why in the cellar? Don’t people usually have picnics above ground, outside?”

Ebony Wings picked up a bottle and poured it out into a wineglass. “If you think I’m going to risk being seen by some drone pilot, think again. The cellar is perfect. It’s cozy and smells nice, and there’s all this drink! Why wouldn’t I want to have a picnic down here?” And with that, she plopped the piece of chicken into her mouth, chewing with obnoxiously obvious relish.

Ivory resisted the urge to slap her hand to her face.

“Fine,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you about some things anyway. May I sit down?”

Ebony ate another piece of chicken. “Sure, but watch the wine bottles. Some of this stuff is expensive.”

Ivory ignored that comment and sat down opposite the picnic basket. “So, about the sirens’ gems first. I need a few modifications in your house so I can work on them.”

Ebony dabbed her fingers with a napkin. “As long as it doesn’t involve changing the aesthetics of my beautiful home, go ahead. Do what you need to do.”

“I need to install a skylight-”

“Let me stop you right there,” Ebony sniffed. “You’re not cutting holes in the roof of my mansion, thank you very much. Don’t you have a house of your own to do renovations on?”

“Uh, it’s in Manehattan, sister,” Ivory reminded. “And besides, a skylight could do your house some good. A moonlit night would look really nice indoors if you had one.”

“I don’t want a skylight.”

“It’s for the sirens.” Ivory watched her sister guzzle down a litre of alcohol. “You’re rich anyway. If you don’t like it, you can remove it once I’m done.”

Ebony Wings drained the bottle and set it down. “I thought you had safehouses scattered all over the place,” The actress picket up a slice of pie and bit the tip off of it. “Wha’ no’ yoose wun o’ does?” She swallowed the pie and sighed. “I’ll even pay for the thing.”

“Well…” Ivory gave her chin a rub. “If you put it that way… I guess I could relocate myself to one of the safehouses.”

“There we go. See, you don’t need to mess up my already perfect mansion.”

“Right…” Ivory Wings reached a hand into the basket and picked up a piece of chicken. “Well, I’ll send you a note on what I need done at the safehouse. So I had a chat with your daughter on the shooting range. She’s still there, by the way. She said you told her to keep shooting till she runs out of bullets?”

Ebony took another chunk out of her pie. “That’s right, I did.”

“You gave her eighty magazines to use.”

“That is also true. I’ll have Silver Platter buy some more bullets later to make up for what my daughter shoots.”

Ivory popped the chicken piece into her mouth. “Just make sure you don’t go buy it all at once. The shopkeep might think you’re preparing for a war. Anyway, she also told me about what you want her to do to that boyfriend of hers. I must say, I don’t agree.”

“Why not?” Ebony pouted, uncorking another bottle of vintage red.

Ivory sighed deeply. “I’ve said before. A girl her age shouldn’t even be having sex. You don’t think so, apparently.”

“It’s one of the fastest and more enjoyable ways to feed, isn’t it?” Ebony Wings said as she tipped the bottle back. She then took the cork and flipped it in the air, where it landed on Ivory’s head.

The younger changeling swept it off and glared at her sister. “It may be, but you should at least give her two or more years before getting her to do it this frequently. She’s still schooling. So is the boy. Hay, so is Sunny Flare. It wouldn’t do them any good if they’re caught in the act.”

Ebony Wings didn’t reply immediately. She instead opted to take a straw out of her sleeve and put it into her wine glass. Then she began to blow bubbles into the drink, which floated up around the two.

“Are you even listening to me?” Ivory snapped. “Have you heard a single word I’ve said?”

“I can do single words,” Ebony replied scornfully. “It’s when you start stringing them together in long bits that I get bored.”

“She’s actually serious…” Ivory ran a hand through her hair in exasperation. “Ebony, I don’t think your daughter is ready to go for a full-on sexual relationship yet anyway. Not with the boy, at least.”

“There’s no difference. She had sex with Sunny on a weekly basis when school was still on. She should be doing it with House Run too. The love she’s been bringing back tastes remarkably drab. She needs to step up her game.”

“It’s not about the love!” Ivory exploded, throwing her hands up in the air. “What kind of things is your daughter learning? She won’t be around forever like you and me. You can’t treat her like she’ll get better in a hundred years, because she won’t! Am I getting through to you?”

“Then what do you want her to do, then? Let’s hear it. She’s not going to get any better if you don’t push her.”

“Look,” Ivory said sternly. “You’re treating her like how you would have treated our brothers and sisters from back then. You need to start thinking of your daughter like… your nephew.”

“Ha!” Ebony spat. “Don’t talk to me about my nephew, Ivory. We all know how that turned out. I would’ve killed him myself if I knew what I know now.”

Ivory knocked the basket of food aside, her fingertips glowing with green fire. “Don’t talk about Morn like that. It was your fault things turned out the way they did.”

“Now let’s not play the blame game here-”

“No, I think we should play the blame game!” Ivory Wings snapped again. “You are the queen, and what your word says is law. But I am your advisor, and you will listen to me. I lost Morn because of you. I will not lose my niece because of your voracious nature, okay? Your majesty?”

“You woulda’ losht ‘im anyway,” Ebony muttered through a mouthful of pie.

“But I would’ve had plenty more years to share with him. Anyway, this isn’t the point. What’s done is done. I can never get Morn back, but Dea is still here. She won’t last forever like we will. I suggest maybe toning down your expectations for her.”

“What, you want me to let her live out a normal life? Is that it? To bring this miniscule amount of love home? You might as well let her fall in love with that boy, then. She already is. She’s been holding back because of that. I smell it. Yeah, we might as well, right? She’s a failure of a changeling after all. Why not.”

“You can’t give up on her,” Ivory said reproachfully. “For just once in your life, can you act like her mother and offer some love and support instead of writing her off as a failure?”

“What do you want me to do?” Ebony dusted her hands and wiped them on a towel. “Give her a hug? A kiss? Tell her it doesn’t matter if she can’t survive on her own out there? What, Ivory?”

“I think it’s time you admitted that she will never be as good as us,” Ivory said, picking up an empty bottle and setting it aside. “We’ve had hundreds and hundreds of years to hone our skills. Chrysidea’s had what, eighteen? It’s not fair to raise the bar so high for her.”

“But I know she’ll never be as good as I am. Besides, I was already this skilled at eighteen. That’s no excuse.”

“Do you even remember being eighteen?” Ivory Wings ran her finger around the mouth of a bottle and licked it. “Because I don’t.”

“I’m sure if I did remember, I would remember being an extremely skilled hunter. Because I’m an extremely skilled hunter.”

“So you don’t.” Ivory concluded flatly.

“No, I don’t, but I know so. I’m good at everything.”

“Except being a reasonable ruler and mother it would seem,” Ivory said under her breath.

Ebony pretended not to hear and helped herself to more chicken, walking over to the basket to bring it back to where she had been sitting. “So you suggest… she doesn’t have sex?”

“I suggest she take it slower, okay?” Ivory took a deep breath to calm herself. “I’m not opposed to the act. You’re right. It feels good, but I’m opposed to her having so much of it at her age. Sure, that Sunny Flare might be a tad bit crazy, but Home Run isn’t. Let her have a more normal relationship with him instead.”

“So… in short, do nothing different?” Ebony concluded, knocking back another half full bottle of red wine.

“No,” Ivory said patiently. “Take things a little slower. And maybe not beat her again. She’s afraid of that, you know.”’

“Nothing doing.”

“Wha-Why?”

“I beat her because she fell in love with the boy. She deserved that beating. Hay, I should beat her again for still being in love with him, whether she’s showing it or not. Now she’s bringing home scraps because of that.”

“She doesn’t know how to control her emotions.” Ivory shook her head. “I don’t even know how she’s fallen for him, but she has. That beating of yours got its point across and obviously, she doesn't want to get one again. So what does she do? She becomes awkward around the boy. You see what you’ve done?”

“What, you know that she can’t fall in love. If the humans find out, it’d be the old days all over again. Not even you want something like that, yes, Ivory?”

“Yes, but you’ve done it the wrong way, sister. That beating wasn’t the way to go. You’ve made it worse.”

“Well, as my advisor then, what do you think we should do about this?” Ebony chewed noisily on another piece of chicken. “Hmm? What do you think we should do?”

“I…”

“Hmm? What?” Ebony asked impatiently. “What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know, Ebony!” Ivory clutched at her head and walked around the picnic mat and rested her head against one of the many wine barrels in the cellar.

That was where Ivory began to think harder. There were just too many problems to deal with right now. Fixing the sirens’ gems, her dealings with Sunset Shimmer and the Twilight Sparkle from the other world, Chrysidea’s falling in love with a human, plus her sister’s stubborn attitude, these were all a complex situations on their own. Together, they made quite a mess inside her head.

She’d had centuries of experience in her niece’s situation. She could control her emotions, easy, but like she had said to her sister, Dea didn’t have centuries to do this like them. Being a half-changeling, she only had the average lifespan of a human being. She wouldn’t last forever even if she had a constant source of love. There was no way she was going to learn everything they did in only one life time.

“Maybe… Maybe…” Ivory mumbled to herself. “Maybe she doesn’t need to be like us…”

“What?” Ebony heard her anyway. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve learnt a lot about the humans in these last few years. Perhaps… Perhaps they aren’t what they used to be.”

“And just what, pray tell, is that supposed to mean?” Ebony said, taking a bottle of white wine and staring into its depths with one eye.

“Maybe… Maybe not all of them are as bloodthirsty as we remember them to be.”

“Are you drunk?” Ebony drank from her bottle.

“I’m just saying.” Ivory raised both her hands. “There have been humans who have accepted what we are, Principal Celestia being one of them. Plus, look, they mingle with magical horse creatures that have come through a portal from another dimension. What I’m saying is… maybe they aren’t as condemning as they used to be.”

Ebony Wings grunted. “I wouldn’t put it past them to try and trick us like that. You know how they are. You’ve seen what humans are capable of doing. They don’t like anything that isn’t like them. They just can’t accept it. They fear what they do not understand.”

“Did you hear the part about magical horse creatures at all?”

The older changeling finished her bottle and tossed it aside. “Yes, but so what? You think Dea can be accepted into this little bubble? To trust them? To love them? Is that what you're thinking?”

“Your daughter won’t live forever like us.” Ivory rubbed at her forehead. “Maybe she deserves a normal life. To live how she wants till the day she dies. I don’t want to suffocate her in the little life she has. I want her to enjoy it.”

“So long as that enjoyment doesn’t come at the expense of the secrecy of our kind…” Ebony said sourly and picked up another bottle of wine. “And what does she know about what she wants? She is still a child and hasn’t the resolve to know what she desires. It’s up to me to decide it for her.”

And, satisfied with this statement, the actress tipped the bottle of wine back and drank it down in a single gulp.

“I’m just saying. I’ll still follow her on her dates to make sure things go alright. But… letting her hunt on her own terms, I think, would be better for her. I think we should try it. Letting her love this boy.”

Ebony choked on her drink. “You want my daughter to pursue this love interest?” Ebony burst out laughing, coughing up wine in the process and making quite a disturbing series of noises as her lungs ejected the fluid while still giggling. “It’s been a long time since I laughed at the words of someone who wasn’t an absolute dunce. Are you sure your role as my reaper doesn’t include being a jester?”

“I went to find out what I could about him.” Ivory removed her glasses and begrudgingly wiped droplets of wine from it. “A lot has happened since his arrival in Canterlot at the beginning of the year. He’s been exposed to magical horse creatures, aliens from outer space, mechanical suits… These are things no human would comprehend, yet, these things have become norms for them. If he truly loves your daughter, I think he would accept her for what she is.”

“I am not handing my daughter up to the humans. Her place is here with me. To do as her queen bids.” Ebony dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “She is a servant of the queen. Not some regular human girl who goes to school and falls in love. She is not out there just because she wants to be. She is out there because she serves me.”

“I’m not asking you to release her completely. But, she won’t be around forever. I want her to enjoy life. To enjoy what it has to offer, falling in love… being one of them. Let her hunt how she wants to. You said it yourself. The love she’s bringing back hasn’t been enough. Let her do this her way. I promise you, she’ll be bringing back feasts when she’s done.”

Ebony finished wiping her mouth with the napkin, then held out a finger. In the dark, the green flame burned most radiantly, incinerating the napkin. “And what if they don’t accept her? Remember, you are also my executioner and assassin. If this goes pear-shaped, I’ll task you with eliminating anyone who knows our secret. If you want to avoid any more bloodshed, as you seem to be doing these days, though I can’t imagine why, then it would be best to keep things in-house.”

“Like I said…” Ivory put a hand on her chest. “I’ll be monitoring her still. I’ll make sure she stays in line. If she doesn’t, well… You can punish me instead.”

“If she screws up you can bet your fangs that I’ll punish her and not you,” Ebony sniffed. “What kind of a ruler do you think I am? The kind of incompetent halfwit from the movies that kills a random minion for something another one did?”

Yes, that’s exactly what I think. Ivory frowned. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t.”

“We’ll see, won’t we?” Ebony sighed and flipped her long black hair over her shoulder. “Well, if she fails, then it’s your fault. So you better make sure my daughter really knows what she’s doing. Don’t think I’ve forgotten what she did to that cubicle door at Quartz Prep Academy. Things like that could very well give us away. I’m not going back to living like the old times, sister. I’m pretty happy with the way we live now. Make sure it stays that way.”

“Right. It won’t, Chryssie. I’ll be there to keep an eye on things. You know how meticulous I am. Just… no more beatings, okay? I’ll just let her know she can hunt as she sees fit. We might as well put that love she has for the boy to good use.”

“Don’t forget about the sirens. We need that kind of magical edge as a failsafe if something does go catastrophically wrong.”

“And that’s exactly what I need the safehouse renovations for. How soon can you get that done for me?”

“I expect I’ll get someone to start next week.” Ebony flicked a piece of chicken from her teeth.

“Good.” Ivory nodded and got up. “Well, that’s all I have for you. I will leave you to enjoy your picnic down here in the dark. Try not to drink it all.”

It was nearing sundown when the last magazine clicked empty. Silver Rose sighed in relief, her knees buckling from standing up for so long. Spent casings littered the floor around her feet, and the air stank of gunpowder. All the Principal Cinch targets had basically been reduced to smithereens, with even a piece of her face among the casings scattered by her feet.

Silver was tired and all she could think about now was a nice hot shower to kick back and relax. Setting her rifle aside, the young changeling returned indoors and went straight up to her room.

She didn’t know why her mother had insisted she use up all the bullets, but at least her aim had gotten better in the process, though she still didn’t know what for. She wasn’t even allowed to bring guns to school, so there was no one to use them on anyway. Perhaps if she were to encounter another mugger on the streets again, but what were the chances of that, while she had a gun on herself.

Sighing, Silver threw her walk in closet open and grabbed her usual evening clothes, before dragging herself to the shower. Dinner would probably be ready soon and she didn’t want to turn up smelling of gunpowder and hot metal. She had only just removed her shirt when there was a knock at her bathroom door.

“Sweetie?” It was her aunt outside. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, everything’s okay, Aunt Ivory,” Silver answered.

“That’s great. Hey, so, I had a talk with your mother about your hunting habits.”

Silver groaned internally. “Yes, sorry Aunt Ivory, but I’m trying. I really am. It’s just… hard.”

“I know, sweetie. It’s not easy, hmm? So we talked about it and… I think we should let you hunt the way you want.”

Silver Rose blinked at herself in the mirror a few times. She didn’t know if she had heard her aunt right. “Y-You want me t-to… what…?”

“Believe me, your mother took a lot of convincing to do and I think she was drunk at the time, but that’s our decision. What say you?”

Silver thought for a moment.

“I thought changelings couldn’t get drunk.”

“We can’t,” Ivory shrugged. “But sometimes it’s fun to act like we can.”

“Uhh…”

“I know, sweetie. You still love the boy,” her aunt continued. “And that’s not how a typical hunt is supposed to go, but I think we can all agree that this is not a typical scenario for any of us.”

Silver didn’t say anything.

“You don’t have as long as we do. As long as we have a source of love, we’ll go on, but you, sweetie, in time, we won’t have you around anymore. I want you to be happy. I want you to enjoy what life you have while you have it.”

“R-Really? You mean it, Aunt Ivory?” Silver slapped herself once to check if she was dreaming. She wasn’t.

“You still aren’t allowed to let anyone know what we really are, your mother was adamant about that. As am I. She doesn’t want to go back to living like ‘the old days’, as she calls them. Being hunted isn’t fun, sweetie, know that much, okay? While I think that perhaps some humans may be trusted, your mother doesn’t.”

“Well, Silver Platter and the maids are human.”

“Well, yes, but your mother pays them. And humans will do and believe almost anything as long as there’s something in it for them. Preferably something green that folds.”

Silver nodded, but right now, she was ecstatic. She could hunt the way she wanted. She could love Home Run? That was something she never expected to be able to have again. She took a small moment to hop for joy, unable to hold it in.

“Yes, yes, you’re happy, and it makes me happy to know that, sweetie.” Ivory chuckled from outside. “But remember, no one must know what we are. As far as anyone is concerned, we’re human.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.” Silver danced around her bathroom. Then she remembered something else. Sunny and the others thought they were witches. “What about Sunny Flare?”

“Oh, that’s right. Witches, was it? While I’d like to let them go around thinking they know what we are, I don’t think rumors spreading would do us any good. Think you can convince them otherwise, dear?”

After hearing what she was allowed to do, dealing with Sunny didn’t seem all that bad. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror and laughed.

“Yeah. I’ll make you proud, Aunt Ivory.”

Chapter 100 - Femme Fatale Failure

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 100 - Femme Fatale Failure

Indigo Zap had been staring at the laptop screen for almost ten minutes now. Her finger lingered on the forward and backward keys, replaying the drone’s footage of the Wings’ Estate over and over again.

“I just don’t get it…” Indigo said slowly. “What is that thing?”

“Exactly, we don’t know…” Sugarcoat said, adjusting her huge glasses. “That’s what we need to find out today.”

“If they are witches with beasties in their house, oh boy, imagine what else they might have in there.” Lemon bounced in the driver’s seat excitedly.

“Yes, and Sunny needs a cure for this…” Sugarcoat motioned to her own body. “This is no normal behavior.”

“Speaking of Sunny…” Indigo picked up her phone. “Sunny, what’s your status?”

“I’m almost in position. Stop bugging me,” her voice came out of the phone’s speakers.

“I feel bad that we’re doing this.” Sour Sweet twiddled with her fingers at the rear of the van. “But if she’s really a witch, we need to save Sunny.”

“Heh. Position,” Lemon snickered.

Sugarcoat gave Lemon a flat stare. “Very funny, Lemon.”

“I know, right?” The lime haired Shadowbolt fiddled with the volume button to her headphones. “Seriously though, do we have to listen in on this? It’s like watching porn of your friends, only without the visuals. Kinda squicky.”

“You’re the one who wanted to hear them moaning.” Sour Sweet pointed a finger at her.

“It may not be the nicest thing, but we need Sunny to squeeze Silver for information. That’s the only way we’ll find out if they’re witches or not,” Sugarcoat said decisively.

“Yeah, come on.” Indigo flipped the laptop to face them, the video paused on the beast in the attic. “I wanna know what that is! That’s sick! If I had a monster, I certainly won’t keep it in the attic.”

“That’s not the main point,” Sugarcoat stressed. “We’re doing this to see if we can… cure Sunny from this madness. That comes first. She’s our friend, after all. Friends help each other.”

“Did you learn that from Canterlot High?” Lemon Zest chuckled and whipped out a box of donuts from under her seat. “Interesting stuff, eh? What they’ve become.”

“Nyeh,” Sour Sweet commented, picking a donut from the box. “This is so not what I imagined I would be doing during summer. Can’t we go to the beach or something? Instead of listening in on two of our friends getting it on?”

“We have to find out whether Ebony Wings’ family are witches,” Sugarcoat reminded them sternly. “I’d normally be opposed to busybodying like this, but Sunny hasn’t been the same since Silver Rose came to Crystal Prep, and we need her back to normal before the next school year starts.”

The four girls sat there in the newly installed air conditioning of Lemon’s van.

“Girls?” Sunny’s voice came through on the radio. “I think I see her car.”

“Her car?” Indigo said before it dawned on her. “Oh yeah, Silver gets chauffeured everywhere. Isn’t the driver one of her relatives or something?”

“Her aunt, usually.” Lemon stuck her legs up on the dashboard. “Okay, Sunny, you got this. Go get her, girl!”

“Remember, you’ll need to be the one on the offensive, Sunny,” Sugarcoat reminded. “Get her weak and vulnerable. And then unload those questions. We’ll be here feeding them to you, so just… act natural.”

“Uh huh, natural. Right.”

“Funny.” Lemon chomped on a chocolate donut and giggled. “I like how we picked the theme park as their date spot. I mean, where are they gonna find anywhere to have sex?”

“I’m sure Sunny can figure it out.” Sugarcoat turned on the drone and made sure there was enough battery. “She’s an expert at this now.”

“Hey! I heard that!” Sunny Flare yelled into the earpiece, her cheeks burning red.

Thankfully, the roar of people and the rides going about drowned out most of her voice, otherwise it would look like she was talking to herself and that wouldn’t do any good for her image and status.

Across from her, Silver Rose got out of her car, her purple skirt flapping about as she approached. Sunny gulped as she watched those slender legs pushed up at the skirt as she walked, hoping to catch a glimpse of the treasures beneath it.

“Hey, Sunny. Did I make you wait long?” Silver pushed a lock of her pink and grey hair behind an ear and smiled.

Even now, the mulberry haired girl was stunned by her beauty. “N-No, not long. Umm… come on, shall we?”

Silver nodded and followed, with Sunny first headed towards the ferris wheel. Those things were painfully slow to sit on, but it would give them plenty of time to be alone.

“For the record, the ferris wheel was my idea.” She heard Indigo say to the others in her earpiece.

Sunny spotted her drone lurking behind a balloon display, its camera fixed on Silver and herself.

Oh man, how embarrassing… She pulled at her skirt unconsciously. But she knew she had to do this. She needed to know if Silver was who she said she was.

“Man, it’s so weird to be seeing all this,” Lemon snickered in the earpiece.

There’s got to be a better way to get information than this. Sunny thought, but didn’t say anything. She reached up and adjusted her hair so it would cover the ear with the earpiece in it. “So, uh, Silver,” Sunny said lightly. “Have you been to his park before?”

“O-Oh!” The girl’s head piqued up. “Yeah! I’ve uh, been here with my, umm… sister. Yup.”

Sunny blinked at Silver. She seemed to have hesitated at saying that, but why would she lie about that?

Time to see if I can get anything out of her.

“So, you and your sister,” Sunny said, looking around the map she had picked up at the entrance to the park. “You’re twins? So how come you didn’t move back in with your mom until recently?”

“Oh, uh, well you see…” Silver scratched at the back of her head. “I was… um, studying in Manehattan… Where my aunt stayed. They had, umm… a school there that I wanted to go to… so… yeah. That. My aunt wanted to move back with my mother after that, so… here I am.”

“So you weren’t separated at birth?” Sunny asked. “Some people at school have theories about why you never came up in magazines and things when your sister has such a public profile.”

“Oh, well… I uh, don’t exactly do… public.” Silver ended with a sheepish smile. “Come on, enough questions, I want to get on the rides.”

“Right, just bring her along, Sunny. We’ll get back to you when you’re both alone on the ride.”

Sheesh. Okay. Sunny groaned inside. This was going to be so weird, having her friends around to hear everything.

Sunny didn’t want them to hear it all, but at the same time, Silver was just so attractive. She already felt the warm sensation building up between her legs, but she fought it off, at least understanding that touching herself out her in public would certainly ruin her entire profile, not to mention it would definitely see to her expulsion from school.

The line to the ferris wheel was relatively short, with only three other couples in front of them, with the few exceptions of families with little kids. Sunny herself didn’t like ferris wheels, not seeing a point for them. They moved so slowly and all they did was take you up into the air. It wasn’t even thrilling like a roller coaster ride, though if Silver were with her, it wouldn’t be that boring.

In no time, the two girls were up, waiting to board their car. Sunny was the first in, followed by Silver, who almost tripped on the doorway. She laughed embarrassedly as the attendant shut the doors, waving to them as they began to ascend.

“Wow, this is neat.” Silver climbed on the seat and looked down at the crowds of people.

“Y-Yeah, sure is.” Sunny’s eyes ventured down to Silver’s legs. With one leg on the seat and her body leaning forward, the skirt was almost high enough to see her panties. Almost. And that made the heat all the more unbearable.

“Okay, Sunny. It’s time to do what you do best,” Indigo whispered in her ear, followed by a low chuckle.

Sunny didn’t need her friends to tell her what to do. She already couldn’t control herself. She’d been wanting Silver all week and now that she was here, alone with her girlfriend… It was just too much to hold back.

Getting up, Sunny walked over and wrapped an arm around Silver’s waist, pressing her body close and leaning her head against Silver’s.

“Umm… Sunny…?” Silver’s body went stiff and her cheeks flushed.

“Mmm… Silvy…” Sunny breathed, her other hand going under the other girl’s skirt, stroking at her rear. “I can’t… hold back anymore. Your body’s so amazing.”

“What, and my personality isn’t?” Silver said reproachfully. Sunny stopped short, second guessing herself. It was true, she usually only thought about Silver’s body over anything else about her, but what was she supposed to say?

“Um, uh…” Sunny ventured, struggling for something while her hand stayed glued to her companion’s rear.

Silver Rose smiled and turned around to peck Sunny on the nose. “I’m just teasing you, Sunny.”

The feeling of her lips was too much for Sunny and she leaned in to kiss her girlfriend on the lips, enjoying the taste and softness of them.

“Sh-shouldn’t we… um… do this somewhere… more private?” Silver asked in between their kisses. “I-I think people can… see us…”

Sunny looked out the window, noticing how high they already were. As long as they didn’t press up against the windows, no one would be able to see what they were up to.

“We’re safe up here,” Sunny breathed, her hand under Silver’s skirt continuing to caress her partner’s butt. “No one will see us, at least till we get back down.”

“Well, no one but us,” Sugarcoat’s voice sounded in her ear. “Come on, step up the game and get her to spill the beans.”

“You have about fifteen minutes before the your carriage touches back down,” Lemon’s voice came. “So make it quick, ‘kay?”

How in the hay am I supposed to finish so quickly?

“Just do something.” Indigo sounded impatient. “I don’t know, touch her woman part or something!”

“You know, it’s just us two up here,” Silver commented, looking out over the cityscape. “Anything could happen and there’s nothing anyone could do to stop it.”

Sunny gave Silver a curious look. That sentence hadn’t been exactly one laced with lust; it almost sent shivers down her spine with how she had said it. Almost predatory.

“Y-Yeah…” Sunny decided to play it cool. “We can do whatever we want.”

She let her eyes gaze down at Silver’s skirt and pulled it up, allowing her to see the girl’s pink panties underneath. The sight made Sunny forget about the earlier comment and her lips were soon locked with Silver’s again. Deciding to take up on Indigo’s advice, the hand at Silver’s rear soon shifted to the front, gently sliding into her panties.

“All right, Sunny. You’re doing great!” Lemon chirped in the earpiece.

“Wait,” Silver Rose held up a hand. “Do you hear something?”

“Hear what?”

“I could have sworn I heard someone talking close by… but that’s impossible. We’re so high up.”

By now their ferris wheel carriage was reaching the peak of its turn and was about to begin its journey down. Silver looked out again, then a hiss escaped her mouth like that of a viper.

“Get down!” Silver barked, crouching down and pulling Sunny down with her.

“What? What is it?” Sunny exclaimed, yanking her hand out of her friend’s underwear.

“There’s a flying camera out there,” Silver Rose peeked up over the window of the carriage, scanning the immediate area. “Someone’s following us. It’s a good thing I noticed, or who knows what they might have filmed me- uh, us doing.”

“R-Right. The nerve of some people…” Sunny silently cursed at her friends for flying the drone so close.

“My bad. I’ll keep the drone away for the time being,” Lemon Zest apologized. “Just update us on what happens, Sunny.”

Looking back up, Sunny spotted the drone disappearing into the distance. She knew it wasn’t coming back for now, but Silver didn’t, so for the rest of the ride, Sunny tried to keep her hands to herself, knowing Silver was going to be more cautious now. Perhaps they needed to go somewhere darker.

“Okay, uh, there’s a clown house by the south side of the park. You should be able to find it on your map,” Indigo said. “It’s dark inside. If you could find a corner, perhaps you could get it on there.”

A clown house? Sunny fumed. That did not sound like her idea of a make-out location.

“Maybe you could take her to the Tunnel of Love one?” Sour Sweet was next to suggest. “Cliche, but couples do all sorts of things there, so it should be safe.”

“Or hey, a bathroom always works,” Sugarcoat added. “Just get that information, Sunny. Whatever it takes.”

Once their car was safely down, the two girls disembarked, with Silver looking at the map, wondering where they should go next.

“How about the bumper cars?” She pointed on the map. “I did enjoy ramming into others.”

Lemon Zest snickered in Sunny’s earpiece. “Tell her she’ll enjoy getting rammed by something else.”

“Quit it,” Sunny hissed at her.

“What was that?” Silver looked up from the map.

“Oh, n-nothing! Actually, Silvy… I was hoping we could… find somewhere private?” She rubbed at her upper arm. “I didn’t… get to… enjoy you earlier.”

“And how was that any better, Sunny?”

Sunny sighed internally, but didn’t answer. Sometimes her friends were more of an annoyance than help.

“O-Oh. You w-want to uh, enjoy me?” Silver grinned awkwardly, then sniffed at the air. “Well, uh… How about…”

“Could we go to the bathroom?” Sunny quickly said. “I kinda need to go too. We could… um… Stay there a while longer too.”

“The bathrooms at places like this aren’t the cleanest,” Silver observed. “Wouldn’t want to get some disease from fooling around in there.”

“O-Of course not!” Sunny squeaked. Was it just her, or was Silver acting a little more responsibly today? Usually she would not have rejected an advance like that; they had done it in a storage closet, for pony’s sake.

Perhaps Silver had realized that having sex back then hadn’t been the wisest of ideas. But not Sunny. Sunny couldn’t go on without it anymore. If she left today without getting her fill, she didn’t know what she was going to do.

With the bathroom plan shut down, Sunny went along with Silver to the bumper car ride. A fat boy who kept grinning at her kept attacking her car, taking her attention away from Silver for a time. Sunny yelled at him to stop twice, but of course, they fell on deaf ears.

Silver, on the other hand, seemed to have a blast, going about and ramming her car into as many people as she could, laughing when she did so.

When they were done, Sunny wobbled out of the vehicle, her head spinning from all the turbulence in the car ring.

“Gee, Sunny, you’re not very good with these, huh?” Silver chuckled, helping her away from the bumper car ride.

“It’s all because of that fatty.” The Shadowbolt held a hand to her head in hopes of steadying it. “He kept targeting me. What a creeper.”

“I’m just glad nobody seems to have recognized me yet,” Silver said airily. “It’s kind of nice, not having my mother’s shadow looming over me all the time.”

“Well, you’re the less known twin, Silver. Your sister is the one people may recognize. I guess it’s also ‘cause you’re not the actress herself. Perhaps if you or your sister went into acting as well.”

“Oh, well, never gonna happen. I really don’t think I’d do any good with so many people looking at me.” Silver pulled out the map from her pocket. “So, where to next?”

“Clown house!” Her ear buzzed.

“Umm…” Sunny took the map, gave it a look and pressed her finger against the clown house near the bottom of the map. “How about this one? Killer Klown’s Keep? Down south. It sounds interesting.”

“Oh?” Silver said, coming away from a vendor with two cones of cotton candy. “Well then, we can eat these on the way.” She passed one cone to Sunny and they set off.

Sunny kept herself occupied with her cotton candy for a while, until she had the uneasy feeling that she was being watched. Not by Silver or even the drone. This was a different feeling. She turned around, scanning the park. There were passels of children and their parents milling about and standing in line for rides, a nearby burger joint was packed to bursting, as it was nearing lunchtime. A park cleaner swept up some litter, a woman sat in the shade with a magazine with Ebony Wings’ picture on the front before her face, and a group of tourists walked past a roller coaster, gesturing excitedly.

All of it seemed very normal. Sunny shrugged and broke into a run to catch up with Silver, who hadn’t noticed Sunny’s suspicions.

As the two girls strolled on, neither of them saw the eyes of the picture of Ebony Wings on the magazine move and follow them.

The clown house only took seven minutes to get to and there was almost no line in front of it, which Sunny found weird. She thought haunted houses were always packed by thrillseekers wanting a good scare. Before them was only a trio of kids, along with two girls who she vaguely recognized as CHS students. One had green and white striped hair, while the other had a sort of dark purple and pink curly hair. Sunny remembered they had been on the Wondercolt team during the Friendship Games, but had been eliminated early.

“Looks like we’re not the only couple here,” Silver commented as the Canterlot High students disappeared into the attraction.

“What, are they?” Sunny Flare looked between the entrance, which was a huge clown’s face with an open maw, and Silver Rose. “How can you tell?”

Silver shrugged. “Magic?”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Sour Sweet growled.

“Shall we go in?” Sunny suggested. Silver nodded and tossed her empty candy cone into a nearby trash can.

It was dark inside the attraction, with a line of fake torches lit to guide the way further inside. Even from the entrance the two girls could hear the groaning and shrieks coming from inside. A facsimile owl sat on the clown’s nose, gazing down at any who would enter.

“Come on.” Sunny took Silver’s hand and led her in. “It looks great.”

“Yeah, great for some stuff other than scares,” Lemon snickered.

“You’ve already wasted a lot of time, Sunny. Get that information as soon as you can,” Sugarcoat added next. “Get her somewhere dark where no one can see you. Maybe one of those emergency exits.”

“What do you think will be in here?” Silver leaned forward, trying to see what was ahead. In the semi-darkness, Silver Rose’s eyes caught the light of the torches and reflected it, making it look like her eyes were glowing. It was rather enticing for Sunny.

“Clowns.” Sunny led the way, keeping her eyes out for one of those little emergency exits like Sugarcoat had said.

Her nether region was growing warm again as she thought about what she wanted to do to Silver and what she wanted to receive. She still remembered how Silver had used her tongue on her pussy in the science storage room and that had still been the best experience she’d had from Silver and it made her want to get on the floor now and strip her underwear off.

Not yet, Sunny. Get somewhere dark or private first. Be patient…

A low groan came from somewhere ahead and Silver’s pace had suddenly slowed. “You know what, m-maybe we should go back.”

“What? We’ve barely gone in. We haven’t seen anything yet.”

“I’m-I’m having second thoughts…” Silver squirmed.

Sunny gave her hand a squeeze. “Come on, it’ll be fine. I’ll… um, be with you all the way, okay? You’ve nothing to worry about.”

“We-well…”

“Come on. We’ll be okay. If it’s too much… there’s always the emergency exits.” Sunny nodded. This might actually work out after all.

Silver reluctantly followed along eventually, both girls going down the hall where more moaning and screaming could be heard. There was the occasional hysterical bout of laughter, but this was a clown house, after all. It would be weird if there wasn’t any.

Past the torch hallway was a ruined area of what looked to be a circus ring, with hoops and hay bales knocked over everywhere; there were even a pair of huge red shoes just lying there.

“Hey, hey, hey, kids. Would you like a balloon?” Sunny could hear something say somewhere beyond this room. That question was suddenly followed by a series of screams.

Silver’s grip on her hand tightened and she jumped at how tight it had gotten.

“You’re too tight, Silver!” Sunny hissed.

“Oh, s-sorry…” The pink haired girl let go and rubbed at her arm.

“Too tight?” Lemon’s voice came on Sunny’s earpiece. “What are you doing to her? Have you found a good spot already?”

“Ask her about her attic. What she keeps up there,” Sugarcoat said.

Sunny blushed. She didn’t know how to start this, but she very much wanted to. The warmth between her legs started to spread out, crawling up her skin and moving to the rest of her body. It was becoming quite unbearable as she thought about the things she wanted to do to Silver.

The girl in question sniffed at the air, then suddenly covered her mouth.

Sunny looked at her, then around the room. “What, did you see something?”

“N-No.” Silver shook her head. “But I think we better keep going.”

“Y-Yeah, okay.” Sunny pulled at her skirt, trying to fight the heat off. She had to stop thinking about Silver so much and how amazing her body was.

In the next room was a rack of clown dolls, hanging above them, the dolls’ beady eyes glassy and unmoving, though Sunny was sure they moved at times.

“Hey, hey, hey, kids. Would you like a balloon?”

Silver screamed and ran past Sunny as a man in a clown suit appeared behind them, holding up a cluster of red balloons. Sunny looked between him and her girlfriend, then opted to follow behind her. The man wasn’t all that scary, but she didn’t think leaving Silver to run along by herself was the wisest idea, seeing as how scared she was.

There were a few more rooms with clown statues and dolls at the sides, frozen in scary poses, but Sunny wasn’t all that scared. Silver, however, still was, still running past them, with Sunny struggling to keep up with her.

“Silver, wait!” she called out.

Sunny soon ran by the two CHS girls, who screamed in surprise as she and Silver went by.

It was only two more rooms down did she finally catch up and grab ahold of her arm. “Silver, stop. It’s okay. We’re past all the scary clowns.”

“O-Oh… I’m sorry… I think I… panicked a bit.” She smiled sheepishly.

This new room was also stacked with hay bales at the sides and it had a rope at the top, where a lone clown animatronic hang from, a trumpet in one hand and an axe in the other, a mad grin plastered on its plastic face, a low laughter escaping its mouth every few seconds.

“This place r-really is cr-creepy…” Silver stuck to Sunny, holding on to her arm.

“Sure is…” Sunny gulped. With Silver’s body pressed so close to her, the feeling had returned stronger. “Si-Silvy…”

“Hmm?” The girl turned to face her, only for Sunny to pull her in for a kiss on her lips. “Mmph!”

Sunny held on to her tightly, then walked them both over to the side, still kissing vigorously. They both tripped over one of the hay bales and fell behind it in a heap, with Sunny on top of her girlfriend.

Silver’s maroon shirt had lifted slightly, allowing Sunny a glimpse of her toned abdomen, and her skirt had also gone up, revealing her pink underwear as well.

“Sil-Silvy… So pretty…” Sunny leaned back in and kissed her more, at the same time, one hand going under Silver’s skirt, pulling at the waistband of her panties.

She didn’t care anymore. She needed to quench this feeling. This corner in the dark would have to do. As long as they stayed quiet enough, it was likely they wouldn’t get caught in the act.

“I’m-I’m sorry, Silvy. I can’t hold back anymore…” Sunny slipped a hand into Silver’s panties. “I-I need you… I want you so bad.”

The clown above them chuckled ominously.

“Sunny, w-we can’t… we can’t do it here. What if someone sees usssaaaah…”

Sunny felt the soft flesh under her panties, her fingers gently rubbing along it. It felt so good.

“Mmm… Silvy…” Sunny kissed her again, then reached her other hand up the girl’s shirt, squeezing at her right breast. “Mmmm… so nice…”

“Ooh, I think Sunny’s started,” Lemon Zest said in her ear. “What did she need to ask again?”

“Sunny, ask about the witch stuff,” Indigo Zap told her. “Like, if they have wands or something.”

“Ask about the attic,” Sugarcoat added.

“Did you hear that? The voices again.” Silver looked around.

“It’s a haunted house. There are sure to be voices.” Sunny let her fingers play against Silver’s moistening slit. “Mm, Silver, could I ask you something?”

“Aah, umm… ooohhh… S-Sure…” The mauve-skinned girl squirmed underneath Sunny.

Sunny thought about it for a moment. She needed to make sure she wasn’t too obvious in what she needed to know.

“You know… I found an old… board game in my attic recently. It made me wonder, you-you know…” Sunny kissed Silver on the cheek. “What could be up there. Have you been up yours recently?”

“N-No, not recently…” Silver sniffed again, then covered her mouth with one hand. “Wow, Sunny…”

“What?” Then she squeaked as Silver grabbed her butt with her other hand, squeezing it a little roughly.

“Umm… n-nothing. You uh, have a, um, nice butt. Hey, we uh, should really get out of here.”

“No, please, Silver… I can’t. I need to… do this,” Sunny pleaded. She couldn’t leave here without satisfying her craving for her girlfriend, plus, she needed to get some answers. “Silvy, you’re all quite… mysterious, huh?”

“Mysterious? In what… mmm… way?” Silver had also started her offense, sliding her hands under Sunny’s shirt and slipping the light blue fabric off.

“That like, we don’t know anything, mmm… about your… mmmyeaaahh… personal life.” Sunny shut her eyes as Silver nibbled her collarbone.

“Is this really… hsss... something we should be discussing now?” Silver asked huskily, her nibbling working its way up to her ear. Fortunately it wasn’t the ear that Sugarcoat and the others were talking through. And while the nibbling was gentle, Sunny still felt sharp points occasionally pricking her flesh.

“Just… curious… mmm…” Sunny moaned in delight. “I just… love you so much. I wanted to know more…”

“That’s it, Sunny,” Sugarcoat encouraged through the earpiece. “Now see if you can get any information on the family as a whole.”

“So like… what do you do? At home?” Sunny slid one finger into Silver’s womanhood, which sent a shiver down her spine at how good it felt inside her. “Ooohhhh mannn… That’s so nice, Silvy…”

“Aaah aahh… R-Really?” Silver stiffened. Then her hands went around Sunny and undid her bra before throwing it off of her. “Ummm… I uh… Just the usual. I do homework, practice mmm... my violin, play video games… You-you know… aaah…”

“You d-don’t do… anything… else…?” Silver pinched at Sunny’s exposed nipples, earning a gasp from her. “Like… magical…?”

There was a sound of a slap in her earpiece. “Too direct, Sunny!”

Silver Rose fell upon Sunny’s neck, kissing and sucking on it as if her skin had some delicious flavor to it. “Mmm… magic?” She purred out between kisses. “What makes you… ahhh… think that?” She pulled back and gave Sunny a smokey gaze. “Have you been snooping?”

Sunny’s eyes went wide with shock at having been so silly. “Eh, uh, umm… I uh… Well…”

“I think someone needs to be punished, don’t you think?” Silver smirked. She wasn’t offended like Sunny thought she would be. Instead, one hand went under Sunny’s skirt and soon, she began to feel Silver’s fingers pressing up against her pussy from outside her panties. “Ooh, yes, you’re always so wet. You’re such a naughty girl, Sunny. One shouldn’t go snooping around another’s home… Things… might happen.” Silver ended with a drawn out hiss.

Sunny moaned and looked up into Silver’s eyes. They were still shining, which Sunny found in the back of her mind somewhat odd. There were no lights here to reflect. But then Silver’s fingers slipped inside her lower folds and all thought of glowing eyes were tossed out the proverbial window.

With their fingers inside each other, both girls didn’t say anything for a few minutes, instead, gasping and moaning as they shifted their appendages in and out, their attention lost in each other.

“Sunny, what happened? You stopped talking,” Sugarcoat said.

“So you think she can still hear us?”

“Maybe she’s too absorbed into what she’s doing.”

“Knowing the current Sunny, that is quite likely. Great… Sunny? Ask her more questions! We need to know! We’re not here just to listen to you have sex!”

This is a pretty poorly thought out venture… Sunny considered in a split second, mid thrust. How do they expect me to ask anything like this?

“So you want to know… aaahhmmm… if we’re… magical…?” Silver added a third finger into Sunny’s pussy. “No, Sunny. We’re… mmm… just like you… Oh man… your fingers… aaah aahhh…”

“Y-You really aahhre…?” Sunny arched her back up as Silver’s fingers continued to make her feel so good and so alive. “Mmm… You always make me… aaaah, feel so good, Silvy…!”

“Since you already revealed we were snooping, you might as well ask her if she cast any magic on you.” Sugarcoat sounded annoyed in her ear.

“Mmm… Silvy… I… I don’t know why I’m aaah, like this… Wanting you so badly.” Sunny thrusted her fingers into Silver faster. “So… mmm… you didn’t have aaah aaaah! Any part of this?”

In a vague, not-quite-there way, Sunny heard something akin to tape being unfurled and a sound like a splash and a clunk in the background.

Silver leaned down and kissed Sunny. “Nope, I didn’t cast any magic aaahh… on you… We don’t… cast magic… nnnggh… yessss…”

“Do you buy that, Sunny?”

“You… didn’t…?” Sunny asked again, her mind slowly getting further and further away from any logical thinking. “Ooohhhh… Your fingers… Always feel aaah, so good…!”

Silver sniffed at the air a few times, each time, her smile widened to the point where Sunny didn’t think it could grow any wider.

“You can… trust me, Sunny. I didn’t… cast anything on you.” Suddenly, Silver’s fingers left Sunny’s insides, exiting her slit with a very wet shlick. “Sorry, Aunt Ivory…” Sunny heard her whisper.

After gently removing Sunny’s fingers from her own opening, Silver flipped Sunny around and roughly ripped her skirt and panties off, much to her surprise. Grasping ahold of the girl’s butt, Silver brought it up to her mouth, where her tongue began to make sweet, sweet love to Sunny’s honey pot.

Sunny arched her back and bit down on her hand to stop a scream from getting out.

“Hey, keep out? Really?” a voice echoed from somewhere before the room they were in. “How are we supposed to continue on with the rest of the house?”

“Yeah, you can’t expect us to just turn around and leave,” another female voice said.

“Sorry girls, I need to clean this up. Hygiene and safety requirements and all,” a third answered.

That made Sunny stiffen and triple her heartbeat. There were people close by and if she was any louder, they’d hear her.

“Mmm… Sunny, you always get tight when people are nearby…” Silver grinned and then continued inserting her tongue into her pussy, sliding and waggling it inside and out. “You’re soooo naughty, Sunny.”

“That’s because you’re just so good at- Aaaahmmm…!” A particularly hard thrust with her tongue made Sunny squeal louder than she would’ve liked.

“What was that?” the voices started up again.

“What was what?” the older sounding voice asked. “It’s just the noises from inside the attraction. Now please, move along.”

“Ugh. What a waste of time…” one of the girl voices said.

Sunny guessed they were the two CHS girls from earlier. Thankfully whoever was cleaning up the place also seemed to think her moans had just been the sounds of the clown house. The clown hanging above them screeched with laughter. It almost seemed to be directed at her.

“Mmmaaah aaahhh… Silvy you’re so… ahhh… good.” Sunny squirmed in Silver’s grasp, the winds of the air conditioner biting into her exposed skin. For once, since the start of summer, Sunny wished it wasn’t this cold. “Mmm… where’d you… learn to do all this? You’re so goood… nnnggh...”

Silver Rose didn’t respond verbally, but landed a flurry of licks and kisses on Sunny’s most sensitive regions, making her eyes roll back in her head and her tongue loll out of her open mouth.

“Mmm… love me… Silvy…! Love me deep inside…!” Sunny was close to yelling. Silver’s tongue felt so good that it was driving her crazy. She didn’t care if there was anyone else about. She just wanted to be in the moment.

By now, a puddle of drool was forming on the floor, pressing against her cheek as Silver kept up her assault on her nethers. It made it much colder, but Sunny didn’t want to move. She just wanted Silver to ravage her love tunnel until she could take it no more.

“Mmaaaah… aaahhh… Completely destroy it… Silvy…” Sunny moaned, her voice loud enough to echo down the tunnel ahead. “Destroy my pussy… Silvy… aaaah! Aaaah! I need you… I need mmm… you to… love me! Love me till I… aaah, can’t stand anymore!”

There came a muffled snort from an indeterminable distance away, and Silver Rose pulled away for a moment to listen.

“No… no, Silvy… keep going…” Sunny groaned. “Don’t stop yet.”

Shrugging, Silver Rose went back to pleasuring Sunny, who panted and moaned into the floor like she had just run a marathon. Sunny squealed with glee as Silver started again, already quite close to her climax.

The girl’s tongue went in and out of her pussy, thrusting as deep as it could go, and occasionally licking down her throbbing slit and poking at her clitoris. Sunny could feel it slapping along the walls of her nethers, tickling her insides slightly, but making her feel so very good.

“Mmm mmmm, aaaaahhh… aaaah!” Sunny gasped. Silver was getting rougher and rougher. It began to hurt more, but it felt even better than before. “Harder, Silvy… Harder! I’m so close…!”

Silver obliged, giving Sunny’s slit a long, firm lick, pushing her over the edge as she climaxed, unleashing a torrent of juices all over Silver’s face and front. Rivulets of Sunny’s juices trickled down Silver’s chin and she inhaled deeply. Sunny collapsed onto the cool floor, a silly grin plastered across her face.

For the longest time, both girls simply lay there in the dark, enjoying the afterglow.

“So,” Silver said after enough time had passed. “Shall we get going?”

“Oh man…” Sunny continued to remain down. “That felt so… That was so good, Silvy…”

“Yeah, well…” Silver picked at her stained shirt. “Here’s hoping this can pass off for a spilled drink.”

“Mhmm…” Sunny turned over on her back, her pussy still throbbing and occasionally spewing up more juice. “I wish I… I could go another round…”

“Yeah, you’re pretty tasty, Sunny. As always.” Silver smirked and wiped a hand across her mouth.

Sunny grinned and stared at her girlfriend. And then she suddenly remembered her friends and the plan they had.

Oops.

Thankfully, there wasn’t any sound coming from her earpiece; They must’ve hung up earlier.

“Here, I got your clothes for you, Sunny…” Silver came back and dumped her shirt and bra by her face. “Oh dear… Um… S-Sorry, Sunny… I think I g-got a little too c-carried away earlier.”

“What do you mean?” Sunny looked up at her.

Silver was holding her skirt and panties in her hands. “Umm… I uh, t-tore them…”

She held the skirt open like a split cardboard box.

Sunny only had one word to say and she knew she was in for a grueling time.

“Oh.”

Chapter 101 - Shadowbolt Debriefing

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Chapter 102 - Taste of Lemon

Author's Note

This chapter contains mature content. Skip ahead if you do not want to read about it.

Chapter 102 - Taste of Lemon

Chrysidea was feeling delighted as she woke up to a nice Saturday morning. The birds were chirping and the sun was shining bright as she made her way downstairs to get some breakfast.

As she sat there waiting for her food, the young changeling thought back to her visit to her grandparents’ home yesterday. Her aunt had accompanied her and she was sure even she had enjoyed herself as they listened to the tales of how her mother had tried to woo Crescentlane long before they were married.

Her aunt had slapped a hand to her face multiple times, but it was at least nice to know some of the tactics her mother had used in her hunt.

It was also nice to have time with her aunt. Chrysidea found that it had been quite some time since she got to spend so much time with her, instead of her just driving her around and spying on her from a distance. When she was home, her aunt was always down in her workshop tinkering on that plan to restore the sirens’ gems. It was nice and all, that she was doing this to bring them back to normal, but it meant she wouldn’t be able to see her aunt much.

There was still so much she wanted to do during the break. It was hard to believe that half of it was already gone. To the girl, it felt like only at most a week had passed since she had gotten this long holiday. Being Saturday, she had classes later, but at least she still had the morning off. Perhaps if her mother was happy today, she’d be able to go out, maybe to the park, or maybe even on a date with Home Run, since she had to transform into Moonglade later. Even a trip to the arcade or something would be nice. Chrysidea knew the sirens would like to come along for that.

Speaking of the sirens, Sonata and Aria had been up squabbling again last night, but strange enough, Adagio hadn’t been around to at least try to stop them. In fact, Chrysidea didn’t know where she was. It was weird, seeing as she’s never left the house on her own before.

The young changeling chalked it up as a little night outing, seeing as her mother had still been at the film set yesterday night, but when she had gone to check on the sirens this morning, Chrysidea noticed that Adagio’s bed was still empty.

“Where did you go, Adagio?” the young girl said aloud as she waited for her breakfast. A plate of waffles emerged from the kitchen and her mind instantly brought itself to the amazing food before her. “Adagio’ll have to wait till later.”

“Mmmmmm… yessss…” Adagio Dazzle moaned, throwing her head back as she continued to have her womanhood ravaged. “Almost there… faster…!”

Lemon Zest looked up from between the siren’s legs to smile, then went back down and pushed her tongue back inside her, licking at her inner walls roughly.

“Ohhh yesss…”

Adagio had gone out the night before to find someone to do just this to her. She just needed someone to help clear her mind and it just so happens this girl was the first person she had set her sights on. She recognized her as one of the Shadowbolts from Silver Rose’s school, seeing her perform during the Friendship Games. It would be awkward to explain later, but right now, she didn’t care. She just needed to have her needs taken care of. Whatever it took.

It had been surprisingly easy to seduce the lime haired girl. All Adagio had done was approached her as she walked down the street and show a little of her body and here they were now, at the girl’s place. Daylight was already shining through the window, but they were far from done here.

“There, there…!” Adagio stiffened as Lemon gently chewed on her clit.

She leaned back against the sheets as she climaxed, her pussy throbbing violently as the girl drew her tongue back. Adagio let it ride out before leaning back up, her mouth morphing into her iconic smirk as she eyed her prey.

“That was… Very good. Are you sure you don’t have experience in this?” She crawled to her and ran a hand through her lime hair.

“Well, I dunno,” Lemon answered. “I do watch a lot of TV. Probably learnt it from that.”

“TV or no, that was some good tongue work.” Adagio leaned closer and sniffed along the girl’s neck. “All night you’ve pleasured me. I appreciate it, but now, it’s my turn…”

“Well, my parents might wake up soon, so…” Lemon looked to her room door, but Adagio grabbed her and threw her down, resting her breasts over the girl’s face.

“Not just yet… I’ll make it quick, don’t you worry…” She rubbed them close to the girl’s mouth, getting her to suck on them. She reached a hand lower and ran it along Lemon Zest’s pussy. “I need to thank you for the night, don’t I?”

Lemon Zest gasped as Adagio slid her fingers into her moistening snatch.

Chrysidea wandered around at home, wondering what to do. She waltzed up and down the halls of the first floor, looking at the weapons her mother had collected over the years. She’d seen everything here at least a million times and they failed to interest her.

Walking to the living room, she threw herself on the squishy couch and flipped the TV on, scrolling through a few channels to see if there was anything worth watching.

There was a movie called Dogemic, where dogs had gone crazy and were attacking humans worldwide. It was a weird movie with badly done special effects and sometimes, when the dogs ran at buildings, they exploded and Chrysidea could not understand how or why that even happened.

“Well, Ah ain’t no dogem liar if I said this ain’t a crazy town,” the main character said as he dodged an exploding dog. “Oh man, what Ah wouldn’t give to have a friend around.”

“What I wouldn’t give to stop watching this movie.” Chrysidea blew up at her fringe and changed the channel.

The next channel was a movie called Who’s There, and it actually starred Bullet Stopper, which kept her from flipping to the next channel. Chrysidea knew Bullet Stopper was a good actress, at least, until she opened her mouth, but perhaps this was worth watching.

Her family had gone away for the week, leaving her and her cat with the whole huge house they owned. It was a dark and stormy night when two men came knocking at the door.

“Who’s there?” Bullet Stopper had asked.

Chrysidea snickered to herself. “Roll credits.”

Bullet Stopper let the strangers in to dry themselves up, but they manage to seduce her into the shower with them and that was when Chrysidea changed the channel; It had gotten a little too graphic for her, even though she’d already done that kind of thing with Sunny multiple times.

The next channel had a calming documentary about ancient civilizations, which Chrysidea soon found interesting. A man on the TV with crazy hair sticking out all over the place was talking about a pile of rocks somewhere over in Canterbury and how it couldn’t have been stacked by humans back in the day.

“I’m telling you…” He gestured with his hands as though he was holding some imaginary box and he smiled. “Aliens.”

“Aliens? Yeah right.” Chrysidea laughed. Sure, she’d seen the huge spaceship in the sky four months ago, but why would aliens come to earth and stack a pile of rocks and then leave? That just sounded ludicrous.

When it started going into conspiracies and government cover ups, Chrysidea turned off the TV and decided to have a swim. Seeing as Adagio wasn’t home, she’d be able to swim in peace. Changing into Moonglade and her swimsuit, the girl took a running jump and dived into the pool from the doorway. Surfacing with a spout of water, she floated on her back and enjoyed the cool of the water.

“Been a while since I’ve had nothing to do…” Moonglade paddled herself around lightly.

This quiet time got her thinking about things that had been happening as of late. Her aunt was busy working on her siren plan to bring their powers back, and hopefully, fix their... life problems. She had needed to know about the blood moons and when the next one was, Moonglade remembered.

She knew enough to know that her mother would gain unimaginable power on the night of a blood moon. She figured that her half-changeling status prevented her from getting that power, but perhaps this time it would be different. After all, she had obtained the ability to grow out her claws during the Friendship Games. Perhaps the blood moon would affect her to some extent this time.

She also wondered what her mother’s role in all this would be. Aunt Psithyra had been at work for many hours a day to make this work, but her mother wasn’t even involved, or at least, she didn’t know anything about her mother being involved. Hay, she didn’t even know if she had a role in this herself. Moonglade wanted to help out, but she didn’t know if she’d be able to.

All this delving into Equestrian magic was new for her aunt as well, meaning there would be no one to teach her, unless she were to go talk to that Sunset Shimmer or the other Twilight Sparkle, but there was no way that was happening.

“Psssh, other worlds and magic and all that…” Moonglade took a dive under water and held her breath. Now that she thought about it, it still sounded crazy.

Robots and aliens she could understand to an extent, but other worlds of colorful talking horses and magic, that seemed to be stretching it a bit far.

“Maybe I should ask the sirens more about their world…” The young changeling swam back up and pushed her blonde hair from her face. “Sonata and Aria are probably still sleeping, but… I wonder where Adagio’s gone…”

She still had no idea what that siren could be up to, leaving the house like that. If her mother found out, there was probably going to be more madness.

Adagio Dazzle nibbled down Lemon Zest’s exposed neck, giving it an occasional lick as she squeezed one of the girl’s breasts. She didn’t have a big rack, not like Adagio’s own, but it was good enough for the siren as she pushed and pulled at one, then grabbed the nipple between two fingers and pinched it.

Her other hand’s two fingers were moving in and out of Lemon’s pussy, making a squelching sound each time they reentered her.

Adagio hoped this need for pleasure would subside once they had their gems back. It wouldn’t be good if she had to keep leaving the house to satiate her sexual needs, especially if Chrysalis were to find out. Hopefully she was still too busy with herself and her work to have noticed and her sisters would probably still be squabbling too much to care that she wasn’t around. Psithyra wouldn’t notice as well, seeing as she was busy getting the plan in order, so that only left the princess.

Chrysidea was a smart girl. She probably would notice her disappearance. Adagio shrugged. She’d just make up an excuse when she got back. Dea would always leave it be if it sounded reasonable enough.

She didn’t know what time it was, but she wasn’t leaving until this was over.

“Mmm…” The siren moved lower as she continued to nibble and lick Lemon’s body, stopping now at one breast, sucking at the nipple and pushing at it with her tongue.

“Sooo good…!” The Shadowbolt jerked about as Adagio did as she pleased with her. “No wonder Sunny can’t… control herself…! Mmm!”

Adagio smiled to herself. Since she was here and with one of the Shadowbolts, maybe she could help the changelings out a little with some digging of her own.

“So this, uh, Sunny… She can’t control herself? What do you mean?”

“Mmm, she’s just… crazy over your friend, Silver Rooose, aaaahh!” Lemon arched up as Adagio’s fingers thrust in deep. “A little too crazy…!”

“Oh my, she does sound crazy.” Adagio pulled at Lemon’s nipple with her teeth. “What do you think could’ve made her this crazy?”

“Mmmaaaah… Silver Rose… she’s a witch, isn’t… she?” Lemon gasped. “She cast… a spell…! On Sunny.”

“Magic? No way…” Adagio removed her fingers from within Lemon and pinched at her clit. “I’ve not seen any magic since moving there myself. I’m afraid you’ve got it all wrong. Perhaps it’s just like the magic I’m working on you now? This Sunny just likes Silver’s touch way too much…”

“Mmmm, maybe you’re riiiight… Aaahh…! There it goes!”

With a final shriek, Lemon Zest fell back against her bed, entirely spent, her womanhood shuddering and her chest heaving with exertion.

“That was really nice. I must thank you for that.” Adagio sucked on her fingers that had been inside the girl, then dusted her hands and got up. “I suppose I should really get going before anyone knows I’m here…”

“Y-Yeah…” Lemon Zest smiled and hugged a stuffed toy of a penguin. “Hey, I enjoyed that. Thanks…”

“No problem.” Adagio gathered her clothes and opened the window she had come from. “Just don’t become like that friend of yours, or you’re going to have double the problems you have now.”

Chapter 103 - Eye of an Expert

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Chapter 104 - The Hunter and Her Helper

“Have fun, okay, Sweetie?” Ivory Wings smiled as her niece got out of the car. “I’ll be close by, so don’t worry. I’ll keep a good eye on you.”

“Right. Thanks, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade straightened her orange shirt and patted down her skirt before closing the door.

As her aunt drove off, Moonglade looked to the quite regular looking house in front of her. She’d never been here, but she knew after her dinner with Home Run the other night, this was bound to happen eventually.

The first signs of life inside the house were the barks of a dog, coming from behind the door before she even rang the doorbell.

The barks were soon followed by footsteps, and then the door was suddenly thrown open, revealing a man who resembled an older looking Home Run. Moonglade remembered him from her bus rides for the Friendship Games.

“Hi, Mr. Bus driver.” She waved happily.

“Oh, have we met?”

Oops. Moonglade had forgotten it was Silver Rose who met him. “Umm, n-no. We haven’t. Uh, Home Run told me. Uh, that you are a bu-bus driver.”

“Ah, you must be Moonglade.” The man’s face relaxed and he laughed. “Yes, I’m sure my boy has told you about us. I’m Homebound. Come in, come in! Make yourself at home.”

Moonglade entered the house, slipping off her shoes and leaving them next to the door. The house smelled nice, with floral undertones and a satisfying bouquet of love. It was clear that Home Run’s parents cared for him very much.

There were photographs hanging on the wall along the entrance hall. A lot of them seemed to depict Home Run and his family, with a few of them being of a small dog.

In front of her was the actual dog, still barking, but now she knew the barks were directed at her. The dog leapt on its front paws as it barked, its cute face morphing into a mask of dislike each time.

“Down, DD.” Homebound pointed at the ground. “Stop barking.”

Moonglade looked down at the dog. It was staring up at her woefully with its tail between its legs. The girl smiled and knelt down to pet it, but the dog yipped in terror and ran away into the house.

“Hm.”

“That’s very strange,” Home Run’s father said, scratching his head. “Usually DD loves a good rub.”

At that moment, Home Run came out of a door in the hallway, his face lighting up as he saw who it was. The boy had on his usual white t-shirt with the baseball bat and four bases on it, along with a pair of grey shorts.

“Moonglade! You’re here!” he exclaimed gleefully.

“Like I would miss a chance to see you,” Moonglade laughed, walking up to him and giving him a peck on the cheek. “Nice place you’ve got here.”

Home Run shrugged. “It probably feels very small compared to your house, but it’s home.”

“Well, I won’t get in your way,” Homebound said, shutting the door. “Just holler if you need anything. Oh, and Home Run?”

“Yes, dad?”

“Your door stays open. Got it?”

“Yes, dad.”

“Your dad’s on break too, huh?” Moonglade grabbed ahold of Home Run’s arm as she walked with him. It was so nice to get to be with him. “Since he doesn’t need to drive kids about.”

“Yup. Mom’s out at work though, since she’s a doctor and all. She’ll be home for dinner.” Home Run tapped her on the nose. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

He brought her around the living room, dining room, and even the kitchen, before leading her upstairs to where the bedrooms were. So far, everything looked to be just an ordinary house, with nothing really unique except for the family photos and the multitude of baseball decorations, like baseballs, bats, mitts, and even some awards, probably all from Home Run himself. There were a few for medical school, which were likely his mother’s, but Moonglade didn’t pay much attention to those. In fact, she didn’t pay much attention to the boy’s house. Instead, her eyes had been fixated mostly on Home Run, and right there, she knew she loved him a lot and there was no denying it.

However, Moonglade also knew that unless her mother’s disposition toward Home Run improved, life with him would continue to be difficult at home.

“So what did your dog’s name mean again? DD?” the young changeling asked as they entered the boy’s room.

Home Run’s room was painted, to no surprise, a shade of blue, and his bed was, of course, patterned with baseballs. His guitar stood to one corner and he had a rack of baseball bats at another corner, including the one Moonglade had bought for him. This room basically spelt, ‘Home Run’.

“Oh yeah, DD. Stands for Dirt Dog. Baseball term, remember?” Home Run chuckled.

I actually didn’t remember.

“Can I get you anything? A drink?”

“Oh, no need, Home Run.” Moonglade leaned in towards him and gave him a pat on the chest. “Everything I need is right here.”

“It really is…” Home Run held her cheek in his hand and grinned widely at her.

The changeling returned the smile and inhaled, tasting the delicious love that emanated from her boyfriend. Both looking to the open doorway to make sure no one was standing there, Moonglade leaned in to plant a kiss on Home Run’s lips. It’d been so long since she really got to do this so freely and it still felt as good as ever.

“I… I love you, Home Run…” she blushed, feeling weird for saying that. She knew she was allowed to now, to an extent, but it felt like she was pushing it. Still, what she said was true. Very true.

“Yeah…” Home Run held her face in his hands. “And you know I love you too.”

Moonglade gave him another kiss, then hugged him tight. It was so nice to just be able to be beside him, to hold on to him. Two kisses wasn’t enough and soon, they were sitting atop the boy’s bed, their lips constantly touching.

“I love your kisses, Home Run…” Moonglade giggled and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Why… Why do you love me, Home Run?”

“Why, huh?” Home Run hugged her close and poked her on the nose. “You’re really such a lovely girl, you know that? Plus, you’re strong and skilled. Remember that crook? You sure gave him a good beating.”

“I sure did, didn’t I?” Moonglade wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes. “What else?”

“Well… You’re a really nice girl. Everything about you speaks awesome. I can always count on you, can’t I?”

Moonglade smiled and nodded, but inside, she didn’t really know the answer to that. Could he count on her? She wanted him to be able to, but she didn’t know if she would be allowed to be there for him every single time. Her mother didn’t quite seem to like him very much, mainly because he didn’t know the way to greet royalty over a hundred years ago or so.

“I’m glad you think of me like that,” Moonglade said, nuzzling Home Run’s arm.

A small lightbulb went off in the changeling’s head. Perhaps if she showed Home Run how her mother liked to be interacted with, she would like him more. In fact, the more she thought about it, the better of an idea it seemed.

“Hey, Home Run…” Moonglade took one of his hands in hers. “How about I teach you some, umm, royal etiquette? Y-You know… So you can um, figure out h-how to um… greet my mother properly…?” She ended with an almost too wide smile.

“Royal etiquette?” Home Run gave her hand a squeeze. “You mean for like, kings and queens?”

“Yeah, just like that.”

“I know they like to kiss hands, right?” Home Run brought Moonglade’s hand up to his mouth and kissed it so very tenderly. “Now, how’s this?”

It made Moonglade blush. “Oh, I love your kisses, Home Run. But not like that exactly.”

Moonglade demonstrated, by stretching Home Run’s arm out. She then bent down and planted her lips on the back of his hand, keeping one of hers under it the whole time.

“Oh. Like that. Yeah, ok. Looks easy enough.”

Moonglade privately wondered why her mother still insisted on being greeted like a queen when she wasn’t actually one, at least not as Ebony Wings. Wasn’t it a break of character to do this?

“Well, I’ll remember to do this the next time I meet your mom,” Home Run said. “What else is there?”

“Hmm,” Moonglade thought. “Oh! She also likes it when people ask for her autograph. I think it makes her feel important.”

“She’s the year’s top model and an actress with shelves of awards,” Home Run said with an odd look. “Funny how they had decided on the year’s top model in the first quarter. But yeah, she doesn’t feel important enough with that?”

With a cringey grin, Moonglade shrugged. “That’s just how she is, I guess.”

“I suppose I can. Rarity or Rainbow would kill for her autograph.” Home Run held her hand to his chest. “I guess I can count myself lucky to have even met her in person.”

Moonglade smiled at him and planted a quick kiss on his lips.

“Wait.” Home Run paused. “Do I need to ask for her autograph every time I see her?”

“Well…” Moonglade scratched at her cheek with one hand, the other wrapped around Home Run. “It won’t hurt to do so…?”

“Okay. Anything else?” Home Run pulled Moonglade closer. He quickly eyed the doorway before pressing his lips against hers a few times.

“Come on, not so much.” Moonglade chuckled and pushed his face aside. While she loved his kisses, she didn’t want to be caught in a weird situation, or worse, leave a bad impression on his parents. “What if your parents see?”

“Well, uh, yeah. We’ll have to keep an eye on the doorway.”

“Right, yeah. Anyway, mother also likes it when you bow to her. You know, like so…” Moonglade took a few steps back and demonstrated. “Got it? You know, like a butler or something.”

Home Run made a weird face. “Your mother sounds like an awfully demanding person, if she likes to be greeted like this, if you don’t mind me saying so,” he commented. “She’s always so casual and informal in the magazines and movie interviews.”

“Ehehehe…” Moonglade exhaled. “Is… is that so?”

“I mean, you don’t see her hand getting kissed in public.”

Moonglade tapped her chin. “That’s true…”

The two of them shared a laugh and a hug, before Home Run planted another kiss on her lips. “Anything else I should do?”

“Just… stand right here…” The changeling smiled and gave him a long squeeze. “I just want t-to be here. W-With you…”

“Stop stammering,” her mother’s voice said in her head sternly. “You are a princess and should speak like one.”

“Do… Do you think I sta-um, stammer too much, Home Run…?”

“Stammer? Just a tad bit.” The boy laughed and gave her head a pat. “It’s okay. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

Moonglade cringed, imagining just what her mother would say about that.

She glanced out the window that faced the yard. Her aunt’s car was still parked there, but Moonglade could see a foot hanging from the tree that grew facing Home Run’s window. Her aunt’s foot. The foot was quickly pulled out of sight, into the foliage.

“Umm…” Moonglade took a deep breath and tried to think of her words before saying them. “Do you think you could help me? With this stammering, I mean. You don’t do it much.”

“Help you? Hmm…” Home Run sat them both back down on the bed again. “I suppose it’s about having more confidence?”

“Ummm…” Moonglade looking between his face and the window. “How… would one do that?”

“Hmm, good question…” Home Run scratched his chin. “I guess… uh, maybe you just need to be sure about what you’re saying? Like, no hesitation and all that.”

“Mother always says that I should speak with poise,” Moonglade recalled. “She doesn’t like my stammering either. She keeps saying she’ll hire a speech coach,” she concluded sourly.

“Well, what do you think?” Home Run asked.

“I… Oh, I don’t know,” Moonglade said, frustrated. “Mother only wants the best for me and the family, but sometimes I feel as if she doesn’t know me that well.”

She sat down on the bed, frowning.

There was a knock at the doorway. It was Home Run’s father, carrying a tray of food and drink.

“Hey, kids,” he said, setting the tray down on Home Run’s desk. “Just brought up some lemonade and cookies. If you need anything else, I’ll be downstairs watching last night’s game.”

“Thanks, dad,” Home Run said.

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Run,” Moonglade added sweetly.

They waited until Home Run heard the footsteps recede down the stairs.

“Anyway,” Moonglade said, picking up a cookie and biting into it, at the same time looking out the window. There was a tiny flash of bright green from the tree’s leaves, too bright to be a reflection of the greenery. She had to change the subject; as nice as he aunt was, she was still beholden to her mother and would probably supply a full report of what happened here. “Do you have any assignments for the summer break? I heard that schools sometimes assign books to read and stuff.”

“Oh,” Home Run went over to his desk and opened a drawer. He took out a thick book. “We have to read Draculina for next semester.” He tapped the book. “I’m about halfway through.”

“That’s not fair, I got-” Moonglade stopped herself. She almost made a dire mistake. Again. “I-I mean, uh… My sister, you know, she goes to C-Crystal Prep. She uh, said she ha-has to read this really boring book. One Thousand Years of Companionship. She says uh, the story isn’t even clear. She doesn’t know what’s going on. And you guys get something cool like Draculina? That’s nice. I wish she had gone to Canterlot High instead.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Home Run said, flipping through the book’s pages. “There’s some parts I don’t understand, though. Like there’s the foreword by the writer, that’s full of weird warnings and ominous similes that have little to nothing to do with the actual story. But then again, I haven’t finished the book so maybe it’ll make sense later on.”

Moonglade said nothing. She had actually been tasked with reading Draculina when she had been about twelve years old, only the edition that her mother had given her had been a first edition. The modern ones had their tales twisted into something more fairytale-like, with the gruesome bits left out or reshaped.

“A simple enough book, yeah. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the rest of it.” Moonglade smiled and hugged his arm. “Say, when will I get to meet your mother? When does she get back?”

“Well…” Home Run looked at a clock on his wall. Its backing was a picture of, obviously, a baseball. “She’ll still be at work for another two hours or so.”

“Still a while, huh?” Moonglade pushed Home Run back on his bed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “What should we do till then?”

“Hmmm…” Home Run put his hands on the changeling’s waist. Then he looked past her to the doorway to make sure no one was there. “We could… you know, make out a little.”

“Did you just suggest that, Home Run?” Moonglade asked him playfully.

Outside, the tree’s leaves rustled a little bit. There was no wind.

Moonglade went over to the window, and after a moment’s hesitation, pulled the blinds shut. Moonglade loved her aunt and appreciated that she wanted to keep him safe, but Home Run was hers, and Moonglade didn’t want her aunt to report back everything to her mother like she knew she would.

“Sun too glaring, Moonglade?” Home Run asked as she returned to him.

“No, not really.”

This, Moonglade reflected, would be a perfect opportunity to strike, were she an actual vampire. The window was shuttered and the only other witness was downstairs, singing along loudly to ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ that was playing for the mid-game entertainment.

Is everyone in this family into baseball? She wondered. Sure, Home Run’s father was a bus driver, so he would have lots of time to watch the games. Perhaps it was because of that, that Home Run grew up to be a baseball player. Maybe his mother also enjoyed the sport. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she did.

But it all worked out to her favor here. If his father was singing along this loudly, then he wouldn’t know what was happening up here. She grinned with wolfish glee as she turned back around to Home Run.

“Now, why don’t we see if we can’t, ehehehe, move past first base...”

She advanced on Home Run, sashaying her hips in a seductive manner that she had seen Adagio do so many times. She hoped she was doing it right, otherwise the siren would never let her hear the end of it.

“Come here, Home Run.” The changeling grinned and pounced on him.

Outside in the tree, Ivory Wings narrowed her eyes behind the lenses of her glasses.

“What does she think she’s playing at?” Ivory muttered. “She can’t possibly expect me not to watch over her, especially not in a target’s own den.”

With the window closed, she wouldn’t be able to observe what was going on with her eyes. Fortunately, changelings could see with more than just their eyeballs.

Ivory Wings closed her eyes and breathed deeply, then exhaled just as deeply. In her mind’s eye, the eddies and currents of the air and its various tastes and smells wove together in a tapestry of threads, until she had a full three-dimensional image of her surroundings. Including the inside of Home Run’s room. Now that she could once again ‘see’ into the room, she swung down out of the tree and picked up a large rock off the ground. Climbing back into the tree, she hefted the stone and waited. Waited for something, anything unexpected to happen so she could swoop in and save the day.

“Ara ara… It always falls to the hunter’s helper to clean up the messes…” Ivory lamented in a low voice.

Moonglade’s eyes were shut tight as she leaned into Home Run, kissing him passionately. A swell of love had sprung out around him, tasting ever so delicious to the young changeling, making her want more; she figured it was also time to push past first base. She’d already gone all the way with Sunny, or at least, Silver Rose had, and she didn’t even really love Sunny. So why not go a little further with Home Run? Sure, she wouldn’t go all the way to fourth base with him just yet, but surely a little touching wouldn’t hurt.

“Mmm… Home Run…” Moonglade breathed, then took one of Home Run’s hands and placed it against her left breast, as her other played through his blue hair.

The baseball player’s hand immediately squeezed on it, gently, but at the same time, firmly. His other hand snaked behind her back and held her close against himself, while Moonglade kept up her kisses on his lips.

Though loving this, Moonglade wanted more. She softly removed Home Run’s hands from her body and sat up. “W-Want to see something cool?”

“Oh, what?”

Hooking her hands under her orange shirt, Moonglade lifted it higher and higher, keeping an eye on Home Run’s eyes as they got wider as her shirt was lifted higher.

“Are-are you sure, Moonglade?” Home Run smelled like he was having trouble believing what was happening.

“So very sure, Home Run…” The young changeling still couldn’t help but blush as her shirt passed over her breasts, held up nicely in her white bra. It was still embarrassing to reveal herself to someone like that, even if she loved Home Run so much, but for him, she was going to try her best.

“Oh. Oh, wow. Wow. Moonglade…” Home Run averted his eyes a few times, once to the doorway, but they were drawn back to her chest each time.

Moonglade wasn’t quite as busty as her mother, but she still had decent handfuls to show for her good breeding. She quickly wondered if her mother would approve, but then shook the thought away. She’d already revealed parts of herself to Sunny, and Aunt Ivory couldn’t see her, so her mother wouldn’t know exactly what had happened. Her mother encouraged this sort of thing anyway. The only thing that bothered her was that her mother didn’t quite like Home Run. So the best thing to do now was to keep this under wraps as much as she could.

She hoped that would be enough.

“You-you look amazing, Moonglade,” Home Run said, quickly shifting a pillow onto his lap. “No girl’s ever done this to me before… Are you still sure about this?”

“A-Am I not your f-first girlfriend?” Moonglade asked tentatively.

“Well, yeah, you are, but-”

“Less talk, more touching,” Moonglade instructed, sounding a lot bolder than she felt. She leaned in to kiss him, at the same time, pushing her chest out closer to his face.

Home Run reached out with his hands, but just before he could touch his girlfriend, there came a yell from downstairs.

“HOME RUUUUNN!”

Moonglade squeaked and shuffled back off Home Run and pulled her shirt back down, her cheeks blazing a bright red. Did his father somehow find out what they were doing?

Home Run was quickly by his door, his face sticking out into the hallway. “Y-Yeah, dad?”

There was no answer from below, only more cheering.

Moonglade figured it out. It was probably the baseball game his father was watching.

That’s what happens when you name your son after your favorite game.

Getting up, the young changeling waltzed up behind Home Run and wrapped her arms around his midsection, gently pulling him away from the door. “Come on. We’re not done just yet…”

“I need to see what my dad wants. Hopefully it’s nothing to do with… umm… what we’re doing.”

Moonglade looked at him for a second to determine if he was being serious. She burst out in laughter when she realized he was.

“Silly boy. He isn’t calling you. He’s watching that baseball game, remember?” Moonglade tapped a finger on his forehead. “The team he’s rooting for must’ve just gotten a home run.”

Home Run stared blankly at her for a few seconds. “Ohhhhhhhhh, that’s what it was.”

“Yeah. Come on…” Moonglade lifted her shirt again and held it up with her chin. “There’s still something you need to touch…”

Home Run reached out once again. His fingers stiff and hesitant.

Moonglade licked her lips. This was it. She was going to let Home Run touch her in ways she hadn’t been touched yet before, and-

There was the sound of screeching tires in the driveway of Home Run’s house. At first, Moonglade thought it was nothing, but then she heard the car door slam shut, followed by the front door of Home Run’s home swinging open.

“For real?” Moonglade hissed, pulling her shirt back down again.

“Wow, my mom’s home early.” Home Run looked at the clock. “A whole hour early. Maybe she ran out of patients for the day.”

“Of all the days to run out of patients, huh?” Moonglade straightened her orange shirt and sighed. Then she looked down and grinned. “Hey, you shouldn’t let anyone else see that, huh?”

One of her fingers pointed to a distinct bulge in Home Run’s shorts.

The boy’s first reaction was to shoot his hands over it and bend down a little. “Ehehe, yeahh… I mean… I-It’s perfectly normal… I mean… In this uh, si-situation…”

There was the sound of raised voices from downstairs and the TV was silenced.

“Come on. I guess I should introduce you to my mom,” Home Run said, eager to change the subject.

“No way we’re going down with this guy like that.” Moonglade kissed Home Run on the cheek as she ran a hand up his bulge. It was a lot bigger and harder than she thought it’d be, and she had to resist the urge to touch it more at the moment.

“O-Oh, uhh… yeah.”

The two of them waited in the room in silence for a while, with Moonglade using the boy’s mirror to adjust her hair. She wanted to kiss him more, but she figured that wouldn’t help in calming him down, so that would have to wait for later.

Eventually the two descended the stairs, where the voices could be heard more clearly.

“But I didn’t call you,” Home Run’s father was saying. “There’s got to be some mistake.”

“I know your voice anywhere, dear,” a woman’s voice said. “You asked me to come back because there was something up with Home Run. Don’t tell me he fell again.”

“What? I don’t think he did. A-Anyway, I didn’t call. I was busy watching the game. He should be fine though, he’s up in his room with his girlfriend.”

“Wait, he’s up there alone with a girl?”

“I told him to leave the door open.”

“That doesn’t mean anything if you’re not watching them!”

“I mean, I can hear them better with the door open. And I can go up to check on them any time too.”

“I thought you said you were watching the game. Once you get that bum of yours stuck in a chair during a game you never get it off again, do you?”

“Well… I mean, Home Run’s a good boy. I’m sure he didn’t do anything funny.”

Both Home Run and Moonglade shared an embarrassed look.

The introduction was simple enough. Home Run’s mother seemed pleased to see that her son had a special someone, and introduced herself as Doctor Cold Pack. She had silver hair and pale skin, and she was wearing a lab coat over quite a formal attire, consisting of a light blue shirt and black skirt.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she had said cheerfully. “I quite like your mother’s films.”

“Why, thank you, Mrs. Run.” Moonglade smiled as nicely as she could to look polite. “It’s nice to get to meet you two as well. Home Run has spoke many things about the both of you.”

“Good things, I hope?” Cold Pack gave her son’s cheek a cheeky pinch. “He’s told us much about his ‘amazing girlfriend’ as well.”

“Oh, he’s too sweet.” Moonglade blushed and grinned at Home Run. She really loved him.

Once she had set her things down, Cold Pack had gone to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Since there was a guest today, she had bought food on the way home. In a moment, plates of lasagna sat on their dining table, the smell wafting up into the young changeling’s nostrils, smelling delicious, but not as tasty as the love coming from her boyfriend.

For a home meal, it didn’t look anything fantastic, but then again, she had to remember that not all homes were as grand as hers.

It tasted pretty good though, she had to admit. And things happened a lot faster at dinners outside her home. Perhaps it was because there was only one course of food.

Moonglade had gotten to know more about Home Run and his parents over the course of their meal, but her focus was mainly on Home Run. She had loved him enough to want to move on to second base or even third base with him. It was different for Sunny, because that was Sunny needing her touch. In this case, she wanted Home Run to touch her. And it was mostly lust that Sunny had, while Home Run mostly had the extremely delicious love.

She hoped for more chances in the future, but she was likely going to have to ask her aunt about it before proceeding after today. She hoped that at least she would have a good think about it all.

Cold Pack did most of the talking at the table, being quite the chatterbox. Homebound gave his fair share of questions and answers, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else, likely still at the baseball game. Apparently his team had lost.

Moonglade also occasionally looked over to Dirt Dog, who was lying far from the table, keeping his eyes on them. Home Run had told her it was unusual for him to be so far away, but Moonglade knew the reason for this, though she didn’t say it.

The young changeling flashed Home Run a smile whenever his parents weren’t looking, and he always returned it was just as much gusto. When they were done, Moonglade helped them put the disposables away, while Cold Pack said she would wash the utensils.

Bringing the trash outside with Home Run, she realized it was already dark and her time with him was about to come to an end.

“I wish we could have more time, Home Run.” Moonglade gave his hand a squeeze. “I’ll miss being with you.”

“Yeah, me too…” Home Run took her other hand as well. “We’ve got a little less than a month left till school starts again. Perhaps we can hang out a little more?”

Moonglade threw her arms around him and leaned against him. “I’d like that. I’d like that very much. And I’m sure there’s more you’d like to see too? Maybe touch?”

Home Run’s eyes went wide and he looked away. “Ummm, y-yeah, I-I… uh, yeah. That’s… yeah.”

“I’ll be sure to get more time alone with you next time…” She whispered in his ear, then planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

Returning back inside hand in hand, Moonglade finished helping Home Run and his family clean up, then once again heading for the door, her meeting for today concluding.

“It was nice having you here, Moonglade.” Cold Pack said, standing by the front door with her husband. “Do come by more often. I’m sure Home Run would love that.”

“I’ll try. Thank you for having me today. I had so much fun.” Moonglade smiled her widest and giggled. Then she turned to Home Run and held his hand. “So I’ll… s-see you around?”

“You will.” The baseball player leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

Moonglade blushed, because his parents were watching, but she couldn’t help but feel so happy.

With a final wave, she headed for the spot where her aunt was waiting and got in the car, sitting down beside her and buckling in.

“Mm mm mm… Smells really good.” Ivory sniffed, then nodded her approval. “His parents seem to like you. That’s good.”

“Yeah… Did I do… um, o-okay today, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade twiddled her fingers together. “I’m uh, sorry, I… shut the blinds on you. I just… I wanted to… umm…”

“I know, sweetie. You forgot my sense of smell is immaculate. I didn’t need the blinds up to know what was going on in there.” Ivory started the car and sped off into the night. “While I do not mind acts of intimacy, I had to do something about what you did today.”

Moonglade’s head swiveled to her aunt. “It was you? You called Home Run’s mother home early?”

The older changeling nodded.

“B-But why? I was having such a great time! I thought you liked it when I have fun.”

Ivory sniffed, then shook her head. “Don’t go thinking I betrayed you, sweetie. I did this for your own good. I know how much you… ahem, love the boy. If you rush things like this, it’s easy to cloud his mind with lust for you, sweetie. I want to know that he loves you for who you are, not for your body. You understand? I did what I did for you.”

“R-Really?” Moonglade blinked.

“Nothing’s changed, Moonglade. I do love seeing you being so happy. That’s why I want you to take things slowly, okay?”

Her aunt was still looking out for her, even if she and her mother didn’t fully agree on her being in love with Home Run. She was always so nice.

“Sorry I thought you were trying to spy on me,” Moonglade said.

Ivory snorted. “Of course I was spying on you. That’s my job.”

Moonglade squirmed a little. “Oh. Okay.”

Her aunt sighed as she put on her turn signal and maneuvered the car into the left lane.

“Don’t worry about it. What matters is that you continue to feed off this human and bring home enough love that your mother won’t complain.”

“Oh. Alright, Aunt Ivory.”

“But she’ll complain anyway. That’s just how she is.”

Chapter 105 - Always Be Prepared

Moonglade woke up that Monday afternoon, realizing it was already eight past twelve and the sun was high in the sky, shining rays of light through her uncovered window.

With a stretch, the young changeling got out of bed and rubbed her eyes, still somewhat tired, but deciding to get up anyway.

Last night, she had stayed up with Adagio and her aunt to watch some scary movie called Saturday the 17th on Oak Street, which was about a masked killer terrorizing a street. He had used a glove with machetes attached to the fingers to gore and gut so many people. The violence had been in ridiculous demand, along with more than a handful of quite graphic sex scenes, squicking Moonglade out.

After retiring for the night, she found she couldn’t sleep, afraid that someone was going to stab her through the bottom of her bed, so she kept rolling around in hopes that if they did, they would miss.

The rest of the week hadn’t been that bad at least. She had actually managed to visit her grandparents last Sunday, followed by hanging out with Home Run on three other days. It had been nice to see all of them, but it had been especially nice to be with Home Run. She had taken her aunt’s advice to heart and only went as far as letting him touch her breasts with her shirt on. It felt nice to have someone she loved feel up her body, and at least they had moved on to second base. Moonglade saw how her mother could become drunk off this kind of thing. Home Run didn’t seem to mind that she hadn’t lifted her shirt. In fact, judging from his smell and his pants, he had enjoyed it very much already.

She also had her weekly lessons of swordfighting and violin playing. She liked to think she was getting better with her sword skills, but her mother had said otherwise.

“You haven’t advanced in weeks,” Ebony had said. “Step up your game, daughter.”

Sunny Flare also hadn’t called her at all this week, which she found strange. Sunny was such a nymphomaniac, always wanting to meet up to have sex or something, but she had been unusually silent all week. Perhaps they were planning something, the Shadowbolts and her.

Then there was Canvas. They hadn’t met up this week, but Canvas had sent multiple pictures to Silver Rose’s phone, most of them being her own paintings over the holiday. They were all really well done. And then there was a meme she had sent as well, which Moonglade didn’t understand. It had been images of little cartoon men traveling back in time, but she couldn’t figure out what the joke was, though she replied Canvas as though she had.

Getting up, Moonglade dragged herself over to her bathroom to wash up. As she brushed her teeth, she also looked up at the date on a little electronic clock she had on the counter. It was still three months till the next speculated blood moon, and that was when her aunt was supposed to enact her grand plan to fix the sirens’ gems.

Only three more months.

Moonglade had to put up with the sirens’ erratic behavior for just three more months.

The last time she had been down to her aunt’s workshop, a fairly large machine had been beginning to take shape. She knew her aunt was close now, close to finishing what she needed to get things done. Moonglade knew it was thanks to Sunset Shimmer and the other Twilight Sparkle that her aunt had the knowledge to build this magical machine. They helped out quite a bit with what was needed, likely because her aunt could have just as easily ended their lives on more than one occasion.

“This is going to be just perfect…” Moonglade sang as she changed out of her nightwear into her summer attire.

She felt guilty for going behind Home Run’s back, but this was to help the sirens and they were her friends too, falling apart or not.

“What to do today…?” Moonglade finished singing and began tying her braids up. In the end, she decided against it and put on the hairband Home Run had gotten her.

There was still that summer book she had to read, or more correctly, Silver Rose had to read. She’d already gone through eighteen chapters by now, or was it nineteen? She couldn’t quite remember. The book didn’t label chapter numbers, which irked her to no end. She felt the author did that just to troll readers more, especially those who had to read this book against their will.

“One Thousand Years of Companionship,” Moonglade grumbled as she left the bathroom. “More like one thousand years of wasting my free time.”

As if it couldn’t get any worse, the author had also decided to name all the characters the same. Each and every character was either known as Hose Arcade or Remedy, which just boggled her mind even further. She didn’t know how she was even supposed to refer to characters in the paper she was writing.

“I like hot dogs, Hose Arcade said,” Moonglade said in a lower voice. “Oh boy, me too, Hose Arcade answered. Ugh…”

She knew she had to get on it. Her grades depended on it, but it was just so unbearable. The girl figured that reading a bad fanfiction where the author couldn’t tell the difference between ‘your’ or ‘you’re’ would be more entertaining than this. And she didn’t even like fanfiction.

Moonglade really didn’t want to do it, but she knew it was inevitable. It would have to be done at some point, so having more time to do it was better than doing all of it on the last day.

Sighing, she got out her pen and paper, followed by the somewhat thick book. She wondered what Sunny was doing right now as she flipped the book open.

Likely pleasing herself or something…

Sunny Flare, was in fact, drumming her hands on the table as she glared at Lemon Zest, the rest of the Shadowbolts sitting in a sort of circle around them.

“Really? You did that?” Sunny was unamused. “And you always laugh at me for giving in to my urges!”

“Hey, not my fault.” The lime haired girl shrugged. “That Adagio Dazzle’s really hot. I mean, wow, if you could see her body-”

“The point is, we don’t want to.” Sugarcoat rubbed the bridge of her nose and groaned. “Just when we think Sunny’s the only crazy one, you’ve got to go do that too, Lemon?”

“Hey, don’t look at me. I only did it once. And it’s not like I’m all crazy over her. And it’s not like I masturbate uncontrollably, even when my friends are around.”

Sunny’s face went bright red and she covered it. “I-I don’t do that! I didn’t! I’m not doing that right now!”

“You were just doing it a few seconds ago.” Sugarcoat pointed to the used fire extinguisher by the side.

Today, the Shadowbolts were all gathered at Indigo Zap’s house to do their homework together. Sunny had found the reading assignment much too complicated to do alone, so it was nice to have her friends around to meet up with. Besides that, there was also the case of their Silver Rose investigation. After their failure at the theme park, they really needed a new approach to all this.

Sunny was somewhat sure now that Silver hadn’t cast any spells on her, but if it wasn’t magic, then what was making her so crazy for her?

“Okay, okay, enough about who’s doing who. Hey, Sunny,” Indigo clicked her fingers in front of Sunny’s face. “What do you think is the reason the author gave so many of his characters similar names?”

“It’s ‘cause he had very little creativity,” Lemon chortled. “Hose Arcade this, Hose Arcade that.”

“It’s just showing how close the family is, that they all name themselves after themselves,” Sugarcoat explained. “You know how it is. Companionship.”

“Oh, I think Sunny knows companionship really well…” Lemon Zest snickered.

“Hey! You’ve done it now too!” Sunny pulled at her purple skirt.

“Mine was really just for the fun of it, I doubt it’ll happen again. And you don’t see me with my hand in my panties.”

“Girls, come on. We’re here to do our homework…” Sour Sweet tapped her pencil against a piece of paper. “So can it.”

There was about fifteen minutes of silence, with nothing but the sound of pens and pencils scratching on paper as the Shadowbolts took notes about their book.

“I was thinking,” Sugarcoat began. “Maybe we can get the video that the drone took analyzed. Maybe increase the contrast or something to see if we can make out more of that creature in the attic.”

“So much for working on your notes,” Indigo snickered. “But sure, we can do that. But I was thinking we need to get closer to the source.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we need to get into the house itself!” Indigo declared. “We’ll need rope, earpieces, and black clothes. Mission Improbable style.”

“That’s called breaking and entering, and it’s a felony,” Sugarcoat reminded her athletic friend.

“Yeah, what if whatever it is in there finds us and eats us?” Sour Sweet shook, then raised a fist. “I’m not about to become some monster’s dinner.”

Indigo made a crestfallen noise and slumped back down. “Guess we can’t sneak in,” then she perked up again. “But what if we make like the siege of Trot and trick our way in?”

“I didn’t even know you knew about the siege of Trot,” Sugarcoat said, surprised. “Didn’t take you for a history kind of person.”

“I’m not,” Indigo put her pen behind her ear. “I saw the movie. Fast Bender’s in it, right, Sunny?”

Sunny blushed and muttered something, but Indigo Zap kept on moving.

“Anyway. We can disguise ourselves as repairpeople or maybe girl scouts, and they’ll let us walk right in! Then it’s just a matter of exploring the place. It’s a huge house, so they can’t watch us all at once.”

“We’re too young to be repairpeople.”

“Well, girl scouts then.” Lemon Zest chuckled and kicked her legs out under her chair. “Sugarcoat, your sister’s in the girl scouts, right? We can just uh, ‘loan’ some uniforms. If Silver or anyone asks, we can say we’re helping out the troop for the summer break. It all works out!”

“How do you propose we get in?” Sugarcoat, ever the voice of reason, asked. “They won’t actually let you into the house.”

“Say we need a glass of water or something! Or perhaps if someone faints?” Indigo shrugged.

“Hey, hey…” Lemon tried to stifle a laugh. Tried. “If we get Sunny to masturbate or something, then send her in, maybe she’ll faint right on the spot. They’ll let us in for sure. We could say it’s the heat!”

“Hey, can we stop talking about me and touching myself even for one second?!” Sunny stood up, her face looking like it was about to explode. “Seriously! I know, okay? There’s something wrong with me! Just stop bringing it up!”

“Okay, okay, jeez, Sunny. No need to get so worked up over it.” Lemon raised her hands in surrender. “Can you at least pretend to faint, then?”

“Why does it have to be me?”

The lime haired girl shrugged.

“It makes sense if it’s you anyway, Sunny.” Sugarcoat cleared her throat. “You’re Silver’s girlfriend, are you not? They’ll be more inclined to let you in if you’re the one who faints.”

“Plus, you might even get a little…” Indigo whispered, then made a screwdriver motion with one hand. “Fiddle diddle riddle diddle for your act.”

Lemon Zest burst out laughing, rolling on the floor.

“Guys, I told you to stop!” Sunny grabbed her hair and wailed. Though, it did sound like a good plan. Going into Silver’s house… Having sex with Silver in her own house… “B-But okay. I’ll do it.”

Indigo gave her a wink.

“So where are we going to get the cookies from?” Sour Sweet asked sweetly. “Does your sister have any spare, Sugarcoat?”

“I’m sure she’ll have some. She’s gone out a few times to sell them during the break.” The bespectacled girl crossed one leg over the other and nodded. “We can get some from her. She’ll be more than happy for us to help her sell them. That way, less work for a new patch on her sling.”

“So somehow, we’ll also need to get to the attic. Without getting caught?” Sour Sweet held up a finger. “What if we get eaten by whatever’s up there? And Silver’s our friend. If she finds out we went snooping around her house, it might hurt her feelings.”

“We could always ask for a tour around. If we make it inside.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “Sunny, when you have time, analyze that footage first. If we could see what it is, perhaps we’ll know what we’re dealing with.”

“So if we find out, we won’t have to sneak in?” Sunny said hopefully.

“No, I think we should still have a look around if we can. We might be able to find out more than just whatever monster they have in their attic.”

“Oh. Okay.” Sunny was relieved. She thought the plan to go to Silver’s place had been replaced. Just thinking of her made Sunny so horny. She wanted Silver’s touch. She wanted to see Silver’s naked body. She wanted her fingers inside her.

Before she knew it, her right hand had gone underneath her skirt, sneaking into her panties.

“Sunny’s doing it again!” Lemon Zest said, more excited than astonished.

“Wait, no, no, I’m not-!”

She was cut off as Sugarcoat blasted her with the fire extinguisher.

Chapter 106 - Shadowbolt Infiltration

Being the last day of July, this Wednesday was still a rather sweltering day. The sun’s rays beat down against the pavement, radiating heat up, likely enough to cook an egg if it were left on the sidewalk.

Fortunately for Moonglade, changelings couldn’t feel the stark heat of summer, though she was still feeling rather hot as she planted yet another kiss on Home Run’s lips, both of their eyes constantly checking the doorway to make sure no one was there.

The blonde haired girl lay atop her boyfriend, sharing a multitude of passionate kisses with him in his room, her right hand holding Home Run’s left against one breast, letting him squeeze it ever so tenderly.

The two of them had tried Prench kissing earlier, but stopped because the both of them didn’t quite know how to do it properly; they had opted to just go back to normal kissing, at least for now.

Today, Moonglade had on her purple Discourse shirt instead of her orange summer shirt. She figured a change of attire every now and then was nice. Home Run was clad in his usual shirt, along with the same shorts he always seemed to wear at home. The ones that could barely cover his excitement. Leaning on top of him, she could feel something in his shorts getting bigger and harder, pressing into her hip and throbbing like it was alive.

“You know… Your um, little friend, he’s always so happy when we’re doing stuff like this.” Moonglade smirked at Home Run as she held his face in her hands. She quickly took one glance at the doorway. The sound of the baseball game on TV could be heard from downstairs.

“I-Is he?” Home Run gulped.

“Mhm…” Moonglade stroked a hand along its length. “But don’t worry, we’re not going that far yet… Though, it’s amazing how hard it can get, Home Run.”

“Ummm… y-yeah, right…”

“But enough talk…” Moonglade kissed him again. “More kissing. More touching…”

Moonglade continued to let Home Run touch her, at the same time, breathing in, tasting the delicious love that he had for her. He always tasted so good.

Home Run’s touch made her feel so very pleased. It was different from Sunny’s, Moonglade didn’t yet know why, but it gave her a different feeling. Perhaps it was because Sunny was such a nymphomaniac. Home Run was nothing like that, not minding taking it slowly with her. Her aunt’s advice seemed to be working, not going too far with Home Run just yet. She had to take it slowly, step by step as they spent time with each other.

One day, Moonglade. You’ll get to the really good stuff with Home Run one day… Just be patient.

“HOOOOOOMEEE RUUUUUN!”

That startled Moonglade and Home Run again, but they knew better by now. Everytime she was here, having her little kissing sessions with Home Run, they would always hear the familiar call from downstairs. So far, it always meant the game on TV, so the two of them had learnt not to check it out, though they still kept their eyes on the door. Moonglade also kept her heightened senses on the stairs and the hallway, listening out for any signs of approach, or smells.

“So, school’s starting soon…” Home Run panted as their lips separated. “Does your homeschool schedule start the same time as ours?”

Moonglade nodded and drew circles on his chest with a finger. “Yeah, it does. I won’t be able to see you on the weekdays again, once all that starts.”

Of course, that was a lie, but Silver Rose had to go to school, so she needed to come up with something.

“Well, then I’m very thankful for the time I’ve got to have with you during this break.” Home Run leaned up and kissed the young changeling on the forehead. “I love you, Moonglade.”

Moonglade giggled and blushed. It still felt weird hearing such words, but it sounded like music to her ears each time. “And I love you, Home Run.”

She glanced over to the covered window. Being able to love him might’ve not been a permanent or sure thing, but at least she got the chance to express her true feelings for Home Run now. She was thankful for that, at least.

“So, new classes and all that, right?” Moonglade gave him another kiss. “Choose anything fun?”

“Yeah, I applied for a bunch. Not sure which ones I’ll get, but I wanted to take scriptwriting and Rushian.”

“Oh? Rushian, hmm? What made you want to learn that? Not many people speak it.” Moonglade knew little of the language from Rushorse, but only a little. It wasn’t like she would ever need to use it. “You should’ve taken Prench instead. Maybe they would’ve taught you how to do the kiss.”

Moonglade stuck her tongue out. Home Run chuckled, then closed his mouth over it, tangling his tongue with hers. Moonglade tried to do the same, but both of them stopped again, laughing at their failure. They really didn’t know how to do it.

“Scriptwriting sounds cool,” the changeling told him. “Maybe you can write movies next time.”

“Won’t that be something.”

“Actually, no. You’ll probably just write baseball movies.” Moonglade snickered and leaned her head on his shoulder. “You should branch out to other things.”

“Yeah, hey, then I can write movies your mom can star in. Won’t that be cool.”

“Umm… sure. Yeah.” Moonglade wasn’t sure on that. She wondered how it would go if her mother had to see Home Run everyday.

Moonglade herself wondered what she was going to get this coming school year too. She had learned from Canvas that you might not necessarily get the subjects you pick. She found it weird, but she supposed it made sense. If two subjects were at the same slot, there was no way she could take them both. The girl hoped she could get at all of the classes she picked.

She had decided to take a painting class. She figured her mother and Canvas could show her a thing of two if she struggled with it. Plus, it did sound fun. As for math, having already taken calculus, she decided to get to an easier one and signed herself up for algebra. She hoped that it wouldn’t be too difficult.

“Mmm, but for now…” She pressed leaned up and pressed her breasts into Home Run’s face. “Let’s enjoy the remainder of our holidays, hmm?”

“Okay, I got all the cookies here.” Sugarcoat dumped the boxes of cookies in the back of Lemon Zest’s van.

Her younger sister, Gilded Lily, stood by the side, her arms folded and a serious expression plastered on her face, just like her older sister. Like Sugarcoat, she had white hair, but her skin was a pale gold instead.

“Remember, don’t come back until you sell all of them,” she instructed. “If you want to help out, at least help with all of it.”

“Yes, yes, we’ll do that. Okay?” Sugarcoat glared at her, then put on a girl scouts’ cap on her head.

“Why are you suddenly interested in helping my troop with selling cookies anyway?” Sugarcoat’s sister asked. “You’ve never wanted to help me with it before.”

“Uh, it’s a school assignment!” Lemon Zest supplied hesitantly. “We have to do some… er… community service. Yeah. That’s it.”

“During summer vacation?” Gilded Lily shook her head. “Crystal Prep is weird. Do I really have to go there after middle school, Sugarcoat?”

Sugarcoat rolled her eyes. “Yes. And you’re going to like it, now unless you’ve got something else to contribute, run along. Lemon, start the van.”

Gilded Lily stuck her tongue out at her older sister and flounced back into the house. “You better earn that patch for me.”

The rest of the Shadowbolts were crammed in the back of the van, minus Lemon Zest, who was settling into the driver’s seat, warming up the engine.

“Right. Everyone’s uniforms fit all right?” Sugarcoat pulled against her shirt. Being uniforms for middle schoolers, they were tighter and smaller than their normal clothes, but for her, it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable.

“Normally I wouldn’t wear such a short skirt.” Sour Sweet tugged at the hem of her garment. “But it’s so hot out that I don’t mind it. Much.”

Lemon stepped on the accelerator and the van rumbled out of the garage and out onto the road. There were very few cars on the streets at this time, as most people would be either having lunch at work or staying inside, where it was nice and cool. They soon made it to the front gates of Silver’s home, but Lemon kept on driving.

“Remember, they might recognize the van from before,” Indigo had reminded them. “So we’ll have to approach on foot and hope they let us in.”

“What if they don’t?” Sunny asked.

“Then we go to plan B.”

Sunny Flare squirmed at that. She didn’t really like plan B, but she had been outvoted.

Parking the van next to a convenience store, the girls piled out, putting the cookies into a wagon and stacking them by flavor, just as Sugarcoat’s little sister had told them to. Ignoring the pair of masked men in black who were just entering the convenience store, the Shadowbolts set off back towards the Wings’ estate with their cookies in tow.

“I hope there aren’t any chocolate chip ones in there,” Indigo remarked. “They’ll melt in this heat.”

“I didn’t check,” Sugarcoat grimaced. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

There were a pair of tall evergreen trees overlooking the front gate to the Wings’ estate. A heavy metal gate blocked the way, but there was an intercom fixed to one of the pillars. Indigo went to push the button.

*Beep*

A cheery piano piece played for a couple of seconds, followed by a click.

“Hello, can I help you?” a man’s voice asked.

“Oh, hello,” Sugarcoat said sweetly. “We’re selling cookies for our girl scout troop. Would you like to buy some?”

“Hold on a moment, please,” the man said.

The girls crowded around the intercom, holding their breaths. There was a sound of muttering on the other end of the intercom.

“Hello?” It was the man again. “We will certainly like to purchase some of your cookies. I will be down shortly.”

*click*

“Doesn’t look like they’re going to let us in,” Sour Sweet pointed out. “Guess that means Plan B.”

The Shadowbolts watched as a white golf cart appeared at the top of the hill, rolling downwards to the gate.

“Okay, Sunny. Time to do your thing.”

Sunny Flare sighed, then put a hand to her forehead, slumping over on the wagon most unconvincingly.

“Sunny, be serious. You have to act like it!” Lemon exclaimed.

“I am!”

The cart got closer and closer. Their window of opportunity was closing.

“This is taking too much time! I got this,” Indigo said, stepping forward. She held her hand out in a blade and chopped at Sunny’s neck. Sunny stiffened and fell over, unconscious.

“Indigo, what the hay!” Lemon jumped away as Sunny slid onto the ground.

“We needed her to pass out anyway,” Indigo explained. “She’ll wake up in a bit.”

“I didn’t even know you knew how to do that.”

Indigo Zap smiled proudly. “You learn a thing or two, watching Con Mane movie marathons.”

The golf cart reached the gates, which began to slide apart. Now that he was closer, they could see that it was a man in late middle age, dressed in a crisp black tuxedo.

Imagine having to wear that in this weather… Sugarcoat felt an outpouring of sympathy for what must have been the butler of the household.

“Hello, girls,” the butler said as he stepped out of the golf cart and approached the Shadowbolts. “I’m here on behalf of the lady of the house to buy some cookies.”

“Oh, mister, thank goodness you’re here!” Indigo blubbered. “Our friend, I think she passed out from the heat! Can we get her some water and a place to lie down?”

“Passed out?” The butler looked concerned. “Well, I suppose I can’t just leave you like this…” he paced over and picked up Sunny in his arms, carrying her to his cart. “I don’t think Ebony Wings will mind if we just give you and your friends some shelter from the heat. My name is Silver Platter, by the way. Ebony Wings’ chief butler.”

Silver Platter set the senseless Sunny Flare in the passenger seat of his golf cart and began the slow drive back up the hill, with the rest of the Shadowbolts following close behind.

“So far so good,” Lemon whispered to Indigo. “You think there’s anything valuable in there that they won’t miss?”

“That is called stealing, and it’s a felony,” Sugarcoat hissed. “We’re here to investigate, not loot the place.”

“Ahh. Okay.”

The butler parked the cart outside the front doors, then got out and picked up Sunny Flare in his arms. He was surprisingly strong for an older man. Sunny was carried to the doorstep and the man fumbled with his key for a moment, slotting it into the impressive wood-carved door.

“Come in,” he beckoned. “We’ll see if we can’t help your friend.”

The Shadowbolts followed the butler in, their mouths hanging open and how grand even the entry hallway was. There were displays and displays of ancient weapons and paintings, and the whole place was incredibly clean, with not even one speck of dust on any of the glass cases.

“Dude, Silver Rose lives here? It’s like a palace!” Lemon said quietly.

The temperature had dropped dramatically once they entered the house, giving the Shadowbolts respite from the heat. It had gone from a sweltering summer’s day to a cool autumn afternoon.

“I could get used to this,” Indigo grinned.

They followed the butler into a room that had an extremely long wooden table, clearly meant to be the dining room. Like everything else, the table was spotless and polished, except for a strange mark that looked like a chemical burn at the end.

“Please wait here,” Silver Platter instructed. “I shall be back with refreshments shortly.”

He left quickly, disappearing into a doorway at the far end of the dining hall. The Shadowbolts were left alone, with the unconscious Sunny Flare lying on a lounge in the corner of the room.

“Okay,” Sugarcoat said quietly. “We made it in. Now what?”

“Oh, oh, I know!” Lemon Zest raised her hand. “We split up and look for clues! I’ll take Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat. Indigo, you go with Sunny.”

“But Sunny’s KO’ed!” Indigo protested.

“Well, someone’s gotta stay here and cover our butts,” Lemon reasoned. “Just say we went looking for the bathroom or something.”

“But-”

“Be back ASAP!”

And with that parting shot, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, and Sugarcoat scampered off towards the center of the house. Indigo got up halfway, then looked back down at Sunny. With a huff, Indigo flopped back down onto her chair and pouted, leaving her with nothing but the wagon of cookies for company.

“Alright, we should have at least ten minutes,” Sugarcoat said as she, Lemon Zest, and Sour Sweet entered the main hall. There were more paintings, sculptures, and weapons here.

“This place feels like a museum,” Sour Sweet said, eyeing a gold astrolabe in a glass case. So where do we start? Do we even know what we’re looking for?”

“One of us should aim to get to that attic!” Lemon hopped on the spot as her eyes darted from artifact to artifact. “Then take a photo of that monster or whatever it is, and get the hay right out of there!”

“What would the rest of us even do?” Sour Sweet asked, looking around the hallway. “How do we even know what to look for here?”

Sugarcoat made an unhappy face. “Am I the only one who thought of a plan before coming here? We need to find a way into the attic before searching the attic. There’s probably some stairs that lead there. Then we look around for anything out of the ordinary.”

“What is ordinary in a house like this?” Lemon wondered aloud.

“Just look for anything that could point towards them being magical or something.” Sugarcoat fanned her hands to get her friends going. “Go. We’re wasting time.”

With a nod, the three mounted the stairs in the central hall, which presumably led to the floors above. Nothing really seemed to be out of the ordinary, besides the many cases of weapons and artifacts, which were signs of how wealthy a person could be. Ebony Wings was incredibly wealthy.

On the second floor, the staircase led into a living room, one with a TV and a set of couches. Past that were five other rooms. One had its door shut, but there were voices coming from inside.

“Gee, this place is so much bigger on the inside!” Lemon gaped, running a hand along one of the couches. “Hey, which do you think is Silver’s room? Maybe I can check there.”

“I’ll keep going up to see what I can find on the third floor, then,” Sour Sweet said sweetly.

“I suppose I’ll be the one to look for the attic.” Sugarcoat didn’t look too happy about that. “There are people on this floor, Lemon. Don’t get caught.”

“Righty-o, I’ll keep a good eye and ear around!” She mock saluted, then sped out of the living room and looked through one of the doorways.

This one was that of a study room, with rows and rows of bookshelves and a desk with a very expensive looking laptop sitting on it. A battleaxe hung above an unlit fireplace, glittering gently.

“Ooh, what do we have here?” Lemon crept to the laptop and flipped it open.

Turning it on, it loaded up to a rather plain green screen, asking for a password. Figuring it would take too much time, she shut it off and waltzed out of the room, deciding to check the next one.

The next one was a storage room, where all kinds of cleaning equipment was kept. Lemon deemed this room unimportant and went on. Most of the rooms on the floor were just rooms with stuff. She figured super rich people needed a lot of space to display everything they owned.

The room at the very end of the floor proved more interesting, with a bed against the wall with plush toys sitting on top of it. Lemon Zest remembered the pink wallpaper and the rough layout from the video they had taken from the drone.

“Moonglade’s room!” she squealed excitedly. Perhaps she would find something here.

The bubbly girl glanced both ways down the hall, and, seeing nobody there, crept into the room.

It was fairly nondescript as far as rooms in this house went, though still quite spacious. A single sword hung on the wall beneath two flintlocks crossed on a shield. The walls were a plain pink with white filigree, and there was a desk, a chair, and a shelf of books in the corner. Two other doors could be seen on the eastern wall.

Lemon spotted something familiar on the table and walked over, picking up a book with a bright orange cover. She tilted her head to the side in question.

“Why does Moonglade have One Thousand Years of Companionship?” This was the book they all had to read and report on over summer break, but Moonglade was homeschooled. “Could it be? Could it be… Silver is getting her sister to do her homework for her?”

Speaking of Silver or Moonglade, they hadn’t seen anyone else at home yet, besides the butler. Not even the maids-

There was a shuffle outside and Lemon could just vaguely see the black frilly skirt of someone, likely a maid, coming towards the room. She threw open the first door she could get to in a second, shutting it behind herself as quietly and quickly as she could, keeping it open a tiny crack so she could see out.

The smell of soap and something a little more cloying met Lemon’s nose. Lemon stood there in the dark, watching as a maid came into Moonglade’s room with a feather duster. Taking a look inside, she found she was in Moonglade’s own personal bathroom.

“Wow. I don’t even have my own bathroom…” she whispered to herself.

The sinktop was made of some kind of rare mineral, with white streaks going through its black surface most beautifully. There were all kinds of bottled lotions and cream on it, most of which were of many different colors.

“What could someone possibly need so many products for?” Lemon picked up a green tube of moisturizer.

She picked up another, which was of some kind of pink substance. This bottle wasn’t labeled. In fact, there was a cluster of different colors, all unlabeled. Experimentally, she opened the bottle and took a sniff.

It smelled slightly sour, but otherwise didn’t have much of a notable aroma. With no clue as to what it was, Lemon put the pink bottle back and went back to peering through the crack in the door.

The maid was still dusting the bookshelf, and it didn’t look like she would be done in a hurry.

“Well, this is dandy…”

With nothing better to do at the moment, Lemon Zest turned on her headphones and put on some Copperear to listen to. At the same time, she also began to wonder where Silver Rose’s room was. If it wasn’t on the second floor, it was likely on the third. Perhaps Sour Sweet had already found it and was searching for clues.

She figured she didn’t have much time left, so peeking out again, Lemon willed for the maid to no longer be there. To her astonishment, the coast was clear. With a skip, she left the bathroom, and was about to dash out through the main door when the maid rounded the corner again with a vacuum cleaner.

“Ohshi-”

She ducked into the next closest door and swung it shut, narrowly avoiding being seen.

A light came on as soon as Lemon shut the door behind her, probably attached to some kind of motion sensor. She turned around, her jaw dropping. She had entered some kind of walk-in closet, though it was much bigger than the lime haired girl could have expected; it was the size of Lemon’s own bedroom at least!

There were racks and racks of clothes on both sides, with the first row on the left being duplicates of Moonglade’s iconic red outfit. The ones after that were of dresses and fancy attires, followed by regular clothes, like t-shirts and jackets.

“Ooh, hehe…” Lemon picked out a white bra from under the first rack, where the girl’s underwear seemed to be kept. Moonglade didn’t have big breasts, but they weren’t small either.

Lemon remembered the footage they had of her, naked in her room. She knew Sunny had probably masturbated herself silly after that, but it was indeed true that Moonglade had quite the body.

Putting the piece of underwear back, the lime haired girl turned her attention to the right side of the closet.

The clothes here confused her.

The first rack contained Crystal Prep’s uniform.

Wait… what? Lemon wondered. Why did Moonglade have her sister’s clothes in her closet? Surely living in a house as roomy and spacious as this would mean that both sisters wouldn’t need to share the same closet?

Lemon opened the first drawer under the rack. Inside were stacks of Crystal Prep’s PE attire.

“Something’s not adding up here…” Lemon muttered to herself, closing the drawer. Unfortunately, Lemon wasn’t the best at math and logic, and she stood there for a good minute, scratching her head and turning on the spot.

“Two sets of clothes… but only one room. Homework assignments meant for Silver, in Moonglade’s room? Come on, Lemon. Think!”

A possibility entered her mind, but it was so ludicrous that Lemon snorted with laughter quietly and shoved it aside. How could that be true? There was no way that Silver Rose and Moonglade were the same person. Silly Lemon Zest. There had to be a reasonable explanation for all this.

Knowing she was short on time, Lemon went to the closet door, removing her headphones, with the sound of a vacuum now entering her ears. Silently opening the closet door, she peeked through the gap to see the maid was vacuuming under the girl’s bed, her back to her. If she was fast, she could get out without the maid noticing.

Flinging the door open, she swung it shut and sprinted as fast as she could out the door and down the stairs, the clatter of her footfalls masked by the sound of the vacuum from Moonglade’s room. Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet were already at the bottom of the stairs and by the looks of disappointment on their faces, they must’ve not found anything important.

“Did you get anything? Any information?” Sugarcoat wasted no time in asking.

“Later. We need to get back to Indigo and Sunny.” Sour Sweet pulled at her short skirt. “I mean, he might already be back with the water.”

“Remember, we went to look for the bathroom.” Sugarcoat wagged a finger, then followed as Sour Sweet began leading the way back.

Lemon Zest hopped along behind them, eyeing the many displays of weapons along the way. Ebony Wings must either really like collecting weapons, or was some kind of paranoid maniac. But the latter was incredibly unlikely.

They arrived back in the first floor living room, just as the butler returned with a tray of what looked like orange juice. Indigo sighed with relief when she saw them, pointing to a still unconscious Sunny and mimicking herself asleep.

“Here you go, girls.” Silver Platter set the tray down on a short table. “You should feel much better after an ice cold drink of orange juice.”

Lemon eyed the refreshing liquid and grabbed a glass, ignoring the straw and chugging the whole thing down.

“Umm, ignore my friend.” Sugarcoat said as she retrieved another glass. “She’s like that. Thank you for the drinks. They’re very appreciated, mister.”

“It is no problem.” The butler bowed and stowed the tray under an arm after they had each taken a glass, with Indigo putting Sunny’s by her face. “Now, what cookies have you brought with yourself today?”

“Plenty.” Sugarcoat pointed at their wagon of goods. “Do help yourself to whichever you would like. We have a whole assortment of different cookies.”

“So… Is anyone else home?” Lemon asked, sipping loudly at her juice.

The butler had bent down to inspect the cookie types. “Unfortunately, the lady of the house and her family are out today. They have many matters to attend to.”

Silver’s out? Lemon grinned knowingly to herself. I guess that means no steamy sex for Sunny today.

Speaking of Sunny, the mulberry haired girl finally began to stir, blinking a few times before sitting up, rubbing at her neck.

“What happened? Where are we?” she asked groggily.

“Ah, you’ve awoken.” Sugarcoat pointed to the glass near her. “The butler of the house has been kind enough to serve us some orange juice. Drink up. It’ll help you feel better.”

“I passed out?” Sunny rubbed the back of her head, then picked up her glass and sipped from it. “Thank you, mister.”

The butler chuckled from where he was. “It is no trouble, young lady. Now, I believe I have made up my mind. How does one of each flavor sound?”

“What?! I can’t believe you knocked me out!” Sunny Flare yelled once they were back in Lemon Zest’s van. “How could you?!”

“It’s not like you were doing a good job of acting like you had passed out,” Indigo said unrepentantly. “Next time act a little better and I won’t have to do it again.”

“That’s a terrible reason!” Sunny cried.

“At least we sold nearly all of the cookies,” Lemon Zest said optimistically.

Sour Sweet scoffed. “Nearly all? We only sold one of each. We still have 4 of each left to get rid of.”

Sugarcoat waved her hand and motioned for Lemon to start the car. “Let’s go. The faster we sell all these, the faster we can go home.”

“We could always toss them.” Indigo Zap pounded her fists together. “Who’s going to know whether we sold them or tossed them?”

“Littering is a felony,” Sugarcoat recited. “And besides, if we don’t turn up with the money, my sister will know something’s up.”

“Okay, okay. Then on the way to selling the rest, come on. Did you girls find anything?”

Sugarcoat shook her head disappointedly. “I couldn’t find a way up into the attic. There hadn’t been any stairways or ladders that led further up.”

Sour Sweet folded her arms and leaned back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t find anything of importance as well. I think I found Ebony Wings’ and Ivory Wings’ rooms.Not much of importance, except for super rich people things. One of them has a creepy doll collection, though.”

“Did you happen to find Silver Rose’s room?” Lemon asked as she spun the car around and headed away from the estate. “I looked all through the second floor, but I only found an occupied room and Moonglade’s room. I’m guessing the occupied one is where the hot girl and her sisters stay.”

“You mean they don’t have rooms on the same floor?”

Sugarcoat pushed her glasses up in thought. “It makes sense if they aren’t on the same floor. Silver Rose only moved in with her aunt at about the start of the year. Moonglade has been living here all her life. They would only be able to give her a room that hasn’t already been taken.”

“But I didn’t see any other rooms on the third floor that might be Silver’s,” Sour Sweet countered. “If she’s not there or the second floor, then where is her room?”

Lemon Zest snorted as she spun the wheel. “I did a little more snooping in Moonglade’s room too. Did you know she has a C cup?”

“The important information, Lemon?” Sugarcoat frowned.

“Right. So I was in her room, and I found One Thousand Years of Companionship on her table, along with some notes on it.”

“And that’s important because…?”

“Moonglade doesn’t go to Crystal Prep. Why would she be working on this uncool book? And that’s not all!”

Lemon Zest went on to tell the other Shadowbolts about the strange concoctions in the bathroom, and then the Crystal Prep uniforms in her walk-in closet.

“Why would Moonglade have Crystal Prep uniforms?” Sunny asked.

Lemon threw her hands off the wheel for a second. “Exactly!”

Sugarcoat rubbed her chin and made a weird clicking noise with her tongue. “That is odd indeed. Why would Silver Rose hang her uniforms in Moonglade’s room? Surely she would have her own closet.”

“You know,” Lemon snickered as she waited for the light to turn green. “I had this dumb idea while I was hiding. What if Silver Rose and Moonglade are the same person. Stupid theory, right?”

The rest of the Shadowbolts shared a guffaw.

“Yeah right! What is this, Conspiracies of the South West?” Indigo Zap threw her head back with laughter. “That’ll be like, so rad. They might be twins, but they aren’t all that similar. Moonglade’s a blondie and Silver has pink hair.”

Sugarcoat shrugged. “Whatever it all is, at least we picked up some clues. We just need to know how everything fits together…”

“Yeah, and how Sunny’s become such a nymphomaniac.” This was followed by more laughter.

“Hey, knock it off! At least I haven’t started touching myself today!” The girl in question covered her ears with her hands.

“Quit kidding yourself, Sunny.”

“I am not!”

“You’re in denial!” Sour Sweet scoffed.

“Am not! I’m not like that!”

The rest of the journey back was filled with bickering and laughing, and at the same time, ideas on how they could sell the rest of their cookies quickly and be done with it all. There was still much to be discussed on what they found in the Wings’ Estate.

Chapter 107 - The Error in Our Suns

It was early in the morning when Chrysidea came downstairs for breakfast. As usual, Chrysalis was seated at the end of the long table in her throne, reading the morning newspaper and having a coffee.

“Good morning, my daughter,” Chrysalis said without looking up from her paper.

“Good morning, mother,” Chrysidea answered.

Chrysalis turned a page and cleared her throat.

“We’re going out tomorrow,” she said bluntly, putting down her paper so she could stare across the table at Chrysidea.

“Oh!” Chrysalis’ daughter sat up in surprise. It had been almost half a year since her mother had taken her out to anything. “Where are we going?”

“I’ve been invited to a movie premier,” Chrysalis said smugly. “It’s for The Error in Our Suns, in which I play the leading female role. And I’m bringing you all with me.”

“Wow, really?” Chrysidea’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “I haven’t been to a premier with you in forever! Is Aunt Ivory coming too?”

“Yes, and the sirens, too. So find yourself something nice to wear and get into character. I’ll be the toast of the town, and all that adoration and love will give me more power than just doing modeling.”

“Oh. Right.” The princess had somehow forgotten that her mother drew power from the love of the masses, as did she. “What time are we leaving?”

“Let’s say five or so. The actual showing isn’t until seven, but I would prefer to arrive early and sign some autographs. It’ll take some time to drive to Manehattan anyway.”

Chrysidea sat there, waiting for some kind of comment about her performance, but to her surprise, nothing came. Chrysalis simply picked up her paper again and went back to her coffee.

Deciding not to push her luck, the princess ate her breakfast quickly and quietly, then crept away, making as little noise as possible.

Chrysidea made it back to her room and breathed a sigh of relief. Then she grinned. A movie premier! It would be just like old times, before her mother had turned all frosty from her going to school.

She moseyed over to her bed and picked up her phone off the bedside dresser. “Now, what did she say that the movie was called? The Error in Our Suns? Oh, I should go tell the sirens!”

Chrysidea bolted from her room and crossed the hall to the sirens’ room. She knocked twice on the door and stepped back, as was polite to do.

A few moments later, the door eased open to reveal a sleep-addled Adagio, still blinking the drowsiness from her eyes like an owl.

“Oh. Hey there, princess. What’s the matter that you have to wake me up at this unholy hour?”

“Mother wanted me to tell you that we’re going to a movie premier tomorrow evening,” Chrysidea reported. “She said to pick something nice to wear.”

“Is that it?” Adagio yawned. “I thought it might have been something important. Pick out an outfit and get ready to watch a movie tomorrow night. Got it.”

Then the orange-haired siren closed the door again, most likely shuffling back off to bed.

“Huh.” Chrysidea said. But she refused to let Adagio’s attitude dampen her spirits. She skipped back to her own room, and began to search her closet.

The following evening, Moonglade found herself waiting in the foyer, wrapped in a black and red strapless dress with sensible but elegant flat shoes on her feet. It wasn’t anything too revealing, but at the same time, nothing too disastrous as well. She didn’t like eyes on her, but she enjoyed looking her best. She was half an hour early, but she would rather be early to leave than have everyone wait for her to get ready.

Beside her Adagio sat primly, wearing a purple and violet cocktail dress with an incredibly deep neckline, wearing nothing else underneath. It had sequins sewn into its panels, making her glitter whenever she moved. She was looking at something on her phone, scrolling through its contents with her thumb. Aria and Sonata were still upstairs, getting dressed for their night out.

“My, aren’t you two quite the early birds?”

Ivory Wings came walking towards Adagio and Moonglade. She was clad in a crisp, white suit that matched her hair. Her usual glasses had been replaced with a pair of half-moon spectacles. She looked quite striking.

“I, uh, didn’t want to be the one to keep everyone waiting,” Moonglade said.

“We have about twenty minutes until your mother’s due to show up,” Ivory said with a glance at her watch. “It would be best if we were all assembled here before then.”

Moonglade snorted with a suppressed laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Adagio asked, looking up from her phone.

“Oh, er, nothing.” In truth, her aunt saying the word ‘assemble’ made her think of one of the comic books that Home Run had shown her, about a group of heroes called the Revengers, with ‘Revengers Reassemble’ being their rallying shout. It was also pretty funny, with a lot of jokes mixed in despite the serious content of the plot. “Just something Home Run showed me.”

“Home Run this, Home Run that…” Adagio moved her fingers and thumb up and down like a mouth talking. “Seriously, all you ever talk about these days is that boy.”

“O-Oh… Re-really?” Moonglade hunched low and twiddled her fingers, averting her eyes. “D-Do I really?”

“You’ve done him, haven’t you?” Adagio smirked at her.

“I… uh, umm…” Moonglade’s face turned bright red and her twiddling thumbs got faster. “N-No. Not yet.”

“Well, no matter,” Ivory cut in. “The important thing is that Sonata and Aria get down here before your mother does.”

There was a crash upstairs, followed by a slew of muffled voices.

“Get it out of my haaaaair!” Aria’s voice echoed down the hall.

“I’m sorry, I’m trying!” Sonata’s answered. “I didn’t know bubble gum was that sticky!”

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes. “I’ll be right back. Just need to get some solvent from the lab.”

She strode off in the direction of the stairs and disappeared from sight.

It was Adagio who broke the silence.

“Alright. This time I can’t really blame the Rainbooms for this. It’s not the first time Sonata’s been told to keep gum away from other people’s hair.”

“Mhhm.”

More sounds came from upstairs, including the sound of breaking glass and a screech that could have come from an infuriated owl.

“That… doesn’t sound good,” Moonglade muttered. She half-rose to see what was the matter, but Adagio gestured for her to sit down.

“Your aunt’s already there. If she can’t handle it, then you definitely can’t.”

The thuds and screeches continued, with a cat yowl added in for good measure.

Finally, a good fifteen minutes later, Ivory Wings reappeared with Aria and Sonata close behind. All three of them looked a little unimpressed. Sonata’s hair was done in a long braid, and Aria had gelled her hair for a more windswept look. Both were wearing sparkling gowns done in magenta and turquoise.

“Here we are,” Ivory announced. “Now, be good and sit down. I don’t want Ebony Wings to catch you squabbling on her big night.”

“She started it,” Aria growled.

“Did not,” Sonata shot back.

Adagio sighed. “Just be quiet, the both of you. If Ebony sees you fighting, she might not take you to the event.”

Still grumbling, the two other sirens sat as far away from each other as possible, glaring at the floor.

Moonglade was just about to take out her own phone to read a comic or something when she heard the clack of shoes on tile.

“Ah, good. You’re all here.”

Ebony Wings strode into the lobby, and she looked absolutely fantastic. Her pretty face, which was always well-taken care of, had been enhanced with dark red lipstick and smokey eyeshadow. Her body was wrapped in a sheer dark green dress that had slits up her legs, which were encased in black stockings. Overall, she looked every bit the movie star that she held herself to be.

“How do I look?” Ebony asked, striking a pose. The light struck her dress and made it glitter.

“You look great,” Ivory nodded. “You’re not wearing your crown?”

“No, I don’t think I will,” Ebony replied dismissively. “My fans don’t need a crown to signal royalty.”

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes and sighed. “Alright. Let’s get to the car then, it’s almost an hour’s drive to Manehattan.”

Moonglade liked taking the limo. It was spacious and cool inside, with tinted windows to prevent people from looking in. Her aunt was at the wheel, nodding her head to some upbeat eastern music from her phone. Ebony was lounging in the back with the sirens and her daughter, relaxed and completely at ease. Aria and Sonata seemed to finally have stopped fighting, and were seated on either side of their eldest sister, staring out the window at the passing cars and lights.

“Moonglade, you wanna see something?” Adagio smirked as the young changeling turned her head to face her. “For the paparazzi, if any of them get lucky…”

She parted her legs to reveal she was wearing nothing underneath.

“A-Adagio! Wh-why?!” Moonglade’s face went entirely red and she clamped her hands over her eyes.

“Relax, daughter,” Ebony Wings said, seated beside her. “Actresses do it all the time. I suppose it gets them more popularity.”

“In all the right ways…” Adagio licked at her lips.

“You mean the w-wrong ways?” Moonglade couldn’t imagine herself ever doing something like that.

“Well, I couldn’t imagine it either,” Ebony said boredly. “I have a reputation as an actress with no scandals to uphold. Comes with the territory. Besides, I don’t need to pull a stunt like that to get people gawking over my perfect body.”

Ivory Wings looked in the rear view mirror and rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” Ebony declared. “Tonight is all about me. And Easel Allgone, that other actor who played the male lead, I suppose, but mostly about me. I’ve been exercising my wrist so that I can sign photos faster.”

“Wow. Just wow.” Ivory shook her head.

They drove on in relative silence, as the skyscrapers of Manehattan began to loom around them like trees in a jungle. Ivory Wings eased up on the accelerator here, not wanting a speed camera to catch her haphazard driving.

Ebony produced a hand mirror and examined her lipstick in it. Satisfied that it was perfect, she put the mirror away and helped herself to a bottle of Prench mineral water from the limo’s cooler. This she drank with a straw to avoid smudging her makeup.

It was obvious when they began to enter the area that the premier was meant to take place in. Tall lights had been set up, painting the area in shades of gold and white. Journalists, photographers, and movie fans lined the street leading up to the theater. Other limousines joined theirs on the road, each one glossy black beneath the glaring luminance.

Ebony Wings breathed in deeply, a sly smile on her lips.

“Do you feel that? All those people are thinking of me, and it’s intoxicating. Have a sniff, Moonglade, and taste the power of the masses.”

Moonglade did as she was told, and had a sniff. While it wasn’t directed at her and therefore weaker, she could still tasted the sweetness in the air, the delicious, nourishing nectar of adoration that was oozing through the cracks in the car.

“Mmm. It does smell good,” Moonglade agreed.

“And that’s only a little taste of what’s to come,” Ebony said smugly. “Ivory, are we at the red carpet yet?”

“Almost,” Ivory called from the front. “Get ready, we’ll be there in about four minutes.”

“Places, everyone,” Ebony announced, shuffling over to the limo’s side door.

The car rolled slowly to a stop, and Moonglade could see the flashes of cameras as the reporters and journalists and movie fans pointed their cameras and phones at their transport.

“And here, we, go,” Ebony Wings said as she put on a dazzling smile and pushed the door open.

As with all the movie premiers she had attended before, the roar of the crowd was something that was expected, though not perhaps welcomed. It always made her wince as the incessant chatter and cheers washed over them.

Ebony Wings stepped out onto the red carpet, a thousand eyes on her as she sauntered down the path, waving and posing for photographers.

“C’mon,” Adagio poked Moonglade, getting her attention. “Let’s go join her.”

Without waiting for a response, the eldest siren slipped out of the limo and onto the carpet, sashaying along behind Ebony Wings, who had stopped to sign some photographs. Squeals of adoration rained down around the actress, who stood there, her pen racing as she signed autograph after autograph. Moonglade walked along behind her mother, smiling shyly as the photographers trained their cameras on her. This part, she never really enjoyed, though it always tasted so good.

Ivory Wings remotely closed the limo door once all her passengers were out. Moonglade assumed she had driven off to park the car somewhere and would come to join them later.

Various other actors and actresses who had been involved in The Error in Our Suns were also strutting the red carpet, signing autographs, posing for photos, and in general just doing what Moonglade had seen her mother do dozens of times.

The sirens were also getting in on the fun, and Moonglade wondered, not for the first time, if her father had also been like that. She herself simply waved and smiled before hurrying into the theater, where there were no cameras.

The inside of the theater was draped in red and gold curtains, with soft orange lights dotting the pillars. Various posters of films past were hung up in the lobby, mainly of films from over fifty years ago like Come with the Wind and Hero of my Storm, as well as newer ones like The Revengers: Ult of Agetron. The roar of the crowd was almost muted in here, so Moonglade relaxed a bit and picked up a box of complimentary popcorn and began to eat some.

It took almost half an hour for the others out on the red carpet to finally get inside the theater. Ebony Wings looked supremely pleased with herself, and the sirens were sporting similar looks on their faces.

“Aaaahh…” Ebony said, approaching her daughter. “I never get tired of that feeling. The crowd loves me, more than life itself! Much more energizing than anything else.”

“O-Okay...” Moonglade nodded timidly. She hid the box of popcorn behind her back. “Can we go watch the movie now?”

Ebony Wings sniffed, but ushered the group over to some stairs. “This way; I’ve got a box reserved just for us.”

They climbed the spiral staircase and soon found themselves in an overhanging platform which had an excellent view of the screen, as well as shielded them from the gazes of anyone who might be too inquisitive.

To Moonglade’s surprise, Ivory Wings was already there, seated in the box and drinking from a glass of champagne.

“There you are,” Moonglade’s aunt said. “I was almost thinking you wouldn’t show.”

“And miss my own debut? Never.”

Sonata put a hand to her chin. “But you’ve been in tons of movies before this. So this isn’t really your debut, is it?”

Ebony glanced at Sonata and waved her hand dismissively. “Potato, tomato,” she said dismissively. “Come on, take a seat. The best thing about watching movies at events like this is that there are no commercials.”

The seats were comfortable, with plush seats that could recline. Moonglade didn’t want to push it too far back, just in case she were to fall asleep. The chairs were ridiculously comfortable and her mother wouldn't be happy if she were to fall asleep during one of her movie premiers.

Soon, the lights dimmed and the silver screen lit up from the projector.

The rest of the next two hours passed by in a blur of sound and color. The film starred her mother, who played a college student who was suffering from cancer. She met with a boy who also used to have cancer, and they developed a relationship.

As the film wore on, Moonglade heard the occasional snort or snrk of suppressed laughter coming from her left. She looked over to see her aunt curled up on her chair, holding a hand over her mouth and trying not to laugh. Moonglade gave her aunt a puzzled look. This wasn’t a comedy movie at all, so why was she laughing? She tried to remember if her aunt had reacted like this in any other premiers, but this was Moonglade’s first time going to such an event with her aunt.

The movie kept going, growing steadily more tragic as more unfortunate events befell the characters. Moonglade sneaked a peek at the sirens and her mother on her right. Sonata Dusk was on the edge of her seat, her eyes brimming with tears as a particularly poignant piece of violin music swept across the theater. Aria, for once, did not have a grumpy expression on her face, and was in fact looking somewhat impressed with the movie. And the eldest siren was staring at the screen listlessly, as if she was thinking about something else that had nothing to do with the movie at all.

Ebony Wings sat tall and proud in her chair, still as a statue except for her glimmering, liquid eyes. Moonglade knew her mother well enough to tell that she was feeling very proud of herself, and a quick sniff confirmed the girl’s suspicions: she wasn’t here for the movie at all, but for all the admiration of the crowds and their praise. The movie was just the icing on the cake.

The film crawled to an end, with the male lead dying in a most tragic fashion, leaving her mother’s character all alone. She knelt over the grave, crying diamond-like tears as the camera faded to black.

The audience below rose to their feet as the credits began to roll, clapping as spotlights shone upon Easel Allgone and Ebony Wings. The applause filled the theater, and Moonglade couldn’t help but feel a little bit envious of all the power that her mother was receiving at the hands of the humans.

“Please join me in thanking Ebony Wings and Easel Allgone for their roles in The Error in Our Suns!”

Moonglade’s mother stood up and bowed, and bouquets of flowers were thrown her way, landing in the box around their seats and giving off a sweet scent.

“And that, everyone,” Ebony said just loud enough for her entourage to hear. “Is how it’s done.”

She looked back down and Moonglade and raised an eyebrow. The message was clear.

Chapter 108 - The Muse of Canvas

“Mmm…” Silver Rose hummed to herself as she dipped her long golden spoon into her ice cream sundae, picking up a dollop of Prench vanilla goodness. Crunchy almond bits were scattered over the treat, giving each mouthful a crispy texture. “This is great. How’s yours, Canvas?”

“It’s so good!” Canvas Splash exclaimed through a mouthful of her banana split. “I’m so glad you brought me here.”

The two girls were sitting in the more affluent part of Canterlot, under the shade of a parasol outside the shop Le Liqueur Chocolat. It was a renowned store that sold, as its name implied, liqueur chocolates, but over the years it had bloomed into a dessert bar as well. And in these sweltering days, it was often packed to the brim with people who wanted to cool down with a nice frozen treat. Ebony Wings had come here before, and there was an autographed photo hanging in the main building of the actress and some of the staff crowded around her table.

Silver Rose adjusted her maroon Discourse shirt and smiled. “Yeah, my mother recommended this place for a spot to cool down. It’s my first time here too.”

“Well, I’ll make sure to remember this establishment,” Canvas said contentedly. “Although, I can’t say it’s given me much inspiration.”

Canvas Splash had called up Silver Rose the previous day, asking if her friend could help her with a particularly stubborn case of artist’s block. Silver had been quick to agree to go, eager to see her artistic friend again.

“Sketchy’s also gone rather quiet. I wonder what’s up. Normally I’d just draw whatever, but… hmm, it’s odd. I don’t have that spark in my brain that’s telling me to do it, so I’m kinda stumped. Hey, do you think those colorful sprinkles go well with this?”

“No reason not to try,” Silver said, picking the cherry off the top of her ice cream and eating it. “I mean, it’s mostly sugar, isn’t it?”

Canvas picked up the sprinkles shaker and shook it over her banana split, covering it liberally with rainbow topping. “Hey, it’s pretty good!” Canvas said after a mouthful, dripping some on her purple shirt.

Silver smiled and went back to her own ice cream. It was nice, just sitting here with her friend without a care in the world.

Almost.

Across the street, a black car was parked with tinted windows. Silver knew her aunt was inside, probably watching her right now. It was easy to ignore her now, but it would be a grave mistake to forget that she was actually there the whole time.

You know to whom she answers. Silver thought to herself. Her aunt might be kind, supportive, and quick to help, but she still reported back to her mother, and despite the queen’s saying that she could hunt at greater leisure, it still made sense to be wary of what she did around her immediate family.

Still, there was no reason she couldn’t just sit here and enjoy the moment. Even though she couldn’t feel the heat, the ice cream was still nice.

“Maybe,” Canvas said, wiping a smudge of sauce away from her mouth. “I just need to find a subject that I haven’t drawn yet.”

Silver perked up at her friend’s idea. “Oh, really? Then, what haven’t you drawn?”

Canvas licked her spoon in thought. She looked serious, far more serious than Silver could remember seeing her friend before.

“That’s hard to say. I grew up in Canterlot. My first memories are of drawing things. I don’t think there’s a lot that I haven’t put my pencil to, maybe except into someone’s skull,” Canvas coughed. “And the more modern buildings just don’t have the flair or elegance to warrant a drawing. Bleh.”

“You don’t like modern architecture?” Silver asked pleasantly.

“Not really. It’s got too many hard angles and glass in it. I like buildings like your house, Silver. Tall and elegant, but also with enough of a presence to inspire an artist like me.”

“Have you drawn my house?” Silver asked curiously.

Canvas flipped through her sketchbook and produced an inked out drawing of the Wings’ Estate, almost down to the smallest details. She even had the tree that Ivory had chopped the branch from, when Home Run had snuck in.

“That’s actually really nice,” Silver said, staring at the drawing. “You know, you do a lot of drawing and painting, but I don’t think you’re being given enough credit for it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying that your art is great, but not enough people know about it,” Silver explained. “If more people could see your art, then maybe they could commission you to do some drawings. Get your muse back.”

“You mean… like hold a showing or something?”

“Well, I meant something more along the lines of putting your art on the internet, but if you want to hold an exhibition, that’s fine too.”

Canvas tapped her spoon against her palm as she thought. “Sketchy and I have always wanted to have an exhibition, but I’ve never thought my art was good enough. Besides, people only pay to see big-name artists. I’m just in high school.”

“Hmm,” Silver Rose nodded. “But what if…”

“What if what?”

“I need to ask my mother and aunt first, but I’ll call you when I have something,” Silver said excitedly, wolfing down the rest of her dessert. She put a fifty dollar note on the table to pay for the ice creams, then waved goodbye to Canvas before crossing the street and getting into her aunt’s car.

Canvas watched all this happen, then shrugged and went back to her banana split. No reason not to enjoy the rest of it.

Inside the car, Ivory Wings gave her niece a loaded look.

“You ended that meeting rather quickly,” she said, starting the car. “May I ask why?”

“I had a great idea, Aunt Ivory!” Silver put on her seatbelt and leaned forward. “You and mother have a lot of influence in the art world, right?”

Ivory grimaced. “When I was Mirror Match, I did. I used to invite people to my apartments to look at my relics and paintings. Your mother is somewhat better connected, since she herself paints and has somewhat of a name in the artists’ circles. Why do you ask?”

Silver smiled. “Canvas wants some more exposure for her art. I was thinking maybe we could arrange a small exhibition for her or something.”

Ivory was silent, thinking as she drove down the street, somewhat less recklessly than she usually did.

“Perhaps. Do you have any samples of her artwork?”

“Not right now, but I can ask Canvas to send some photos over.”

“That sounds like a good plan. Once we have the samples, we can go on to convincing your mother to help.”

A short while later, Canvas had provided the necessary samples in Silver’s email. Printing them out, Silver Rose went to find her aunt and mother, who were at the time lounging in the living room with a cocktail each.

“Ah, there you are,” Ivory Wings said as Silver entered. “We were just talking about you. Would you like a drink?”

“Uh, sure. What is there?”

“Let me pour you a cocktail,” Ebony said, going over to the mini bar in the corner.

“Your majesty…” Ivory said warningly.

Ebony Wings sighed. “Yes, yes. I know she’s underage. I suppose you’ll want to stick to those silly human laws about young people not drinking alcohol? It wouldn’t affect us anyway.”

“Pour her a mocktail,” Ivory said tiredly. “We have a proposition for you anyway.”

“Oh?” Ebony’s ears seemed to perk up as she put the cherry in the glass. “What proposition is this?”

Silver cleared her throat. She wasn’t just doing this for herself; this was for Canvas Splash as well.

“My, uh, painter friend? Canvas? Do you remember her?”

“I never forget anyone, ever,” Ebony Wings said slowly. “Ever.”

“And yet you can’t remember the name of her school nor that of the boy she’s dating,” Ivory interjected sourly.

“A school does not count as a person,” Ebony said back. “And I’m more interested in what this Canvas has to offer than semantics.”

Seeing this as approval to continue, Silver held up the prints and said, “C-Canvas is having trouble finding things to draw, so I thought maybe we could have an exhibition with her art in it. That way more people could see her art, and maybe give her some suggestions…?”

Ebony Wings took the printouts and rifled through them.

“These are nice,” the actress said slowly. “Not as good as mine, but still, it’s quite good for a high school student. In twenty or so years, she might make some waves in the art industry herself. But not many people are interested in a youngster’s work unless it’s exemplary. And I don’t know if this fits the bill.”

“Oh.” Silver wasn’t sure how to respond.

“But,” Ebony began. “We don’t have to mention her age in the exhibition. Certainly I don’t give mine when my paintings are on display, though my reasons are a little more personal than others’.”

“So you’ll help me with it?” Silver could scarcely believe her ears.

“Arranging an art exhibition for someone I barely know?” Ebony said boredly. “Sure. It’s not like I have anything else to do in the next few weeks. I know a place in town I can rent for a gallery, as well as people who do framing. How much art do you want to show off?”

Silver Rose was beside herself with happiness. Her mother not only thought it was a good idea, but was willing to support and help her achieve this for her friend? She pinched herself, just in case it was a dream.

“T-Thank you, mother! Thank you so much!”

“Anything for my princess,” Ebony said with a lazy smile. She threw back the rest of her cocktail. “Now, once you find out how many pieces of art you want to display, come find me again and I’ll hire an appropriate venue.”

Silver didn’t need any more encouragement. She rushed out of the room, presumably to get her phone and call Canvas.

Ivory looked at Ebony. “That was a very generous thing you just did, sister,” she said.

“I’m a very generous person,” Ebony Wings replied. “Now, I feel like having another drink. Will you join me?”

“...And my mother said that if you can give her the number of pieces of art you want to display, she can hire a venue for your exhibition!” Silver finished, lying on her bed and kicking her legs back and forth in excitement.

“Really?” Canvas sounded ecstatic. “I’ll round up all the paintings and sketches and put them all together. Did your mom have a deadline?”

“No, she just said to get all the art together. How many do you think you have to display, Canvas?”

“Gosh, I don’t know. At least fifty, I would say! But I can’t be sure until I get it all together. Maybe I’ll ask Sketchy and my parents to help me with it.”

“That’s a good idea, Canvas,” Silver said. “I know I’m not an artist, but maybe I can come over and help you choose what you want in your exhibition?”

“Sure!” Canvas chirped on the phone. “How does the day after tomorrow sound?”

Silver looked at her calendar. “I don’t think I have anything else planned on Thursday. I’ll come over and help you choose.”

“Great! I’ll try to narrow the selection down a bit before then. See you on Thursday!”

Silver ended the call and put down her phone. She wondered just what kind of art Canvas would want to put in her exhibition. She hoped it wasn’t something embarrassing like nude paintings, but hey, it was art. She didn’t have to understand it.

Silver sat up, only to be greeted by the sight of her mother standing at the foot of the bed.

“Gah!” Silver jumped and fell off the bed onto the floor. “Mother! When did you get here?”

“Just now,” Ebony Wings said. “May I sit down?”

“Oh! S-Sure. You don’t have to ask my permission to sit down,” Silver said, climbing back up onto her bed.

Ebony Wings alighted on the bed, next to her daughter.

“Now, about this exhibition. I think the maximum number of pieces the venue will display is thirty medium sized ones or twenty large pieces. Any more than that and it just gets over-abundant, and nobody likes that. Keep that in mind when you go to your friend’s house to choose what to show.”

“I’ll remember that, mother,” Silver said, making a mental note of what she had been told.

“Good. Now, there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

Silver braced herself for another tirade about Home Run and her meals.

“It’s a little over two months until the blood moon,” Ebony said seriously. “Your aunt has been working tirelessly in order to gather the information and resources necessary to repair the sirens’ pendants.”

Silver listened with polite interest. This was not the way she had expected the conversation to go, but she was grateful her mother wanted to speak with her about something other than her hunting prowess.

“As such, each of us has a part to play to ensure that her plan succeeds,” Ebony continued. “I have spoken with your aunt about this, and we both believe that in the case of someone coming to stop the pendants from being repaired on the night of the blood moon, there needs to be a gatekeeper or guardian to ensure that does not happen.”

“Are you talking about me?” Silver asked carefully.

Ebony Wings patted her daughter on the head. “We have decided to use the tallest hill in Canterlot Park as the site to perform the magical ritual that will fix the gems. Now, there is only one way up there, if one does not go through the trees. You will stand guard at the entrance to the hill on the night of the blood moon, and make sure nobody undesired gets to the top until the repairs are complete.”

Silver was touched. “You would trust me with such an important task?” she asked quietly.

“It’s not by my choice, I’ll tell you that,” Ebony said dismissively. “But your aunt must see to the gems, and a queen does not set foot on the battlefield unless all her servants have fallen. So it must be you.”

“Oh.” Silver deflated a little bit.

“I’m preparing an outfit for you to wear on the night,” Silver’s mother informed her. “You may use your sword as well.”

“No guns?” Silver asked, surprised. She had trained a lot with firearms and had been looking forward to putting her training to the test.

Ebony Wings shook her head. “Guns are noisy, guns can jam. But your sword will never let you down in a fight. If there comes to be one.” The actress looked into the corner, brooding. “I hope there isn’t.”

Silver eyed her mother. It was clear there was something she wasn’t telling her.

“Regardless, I’ll have your suit sent up later this month for fitting.” Ebony Wings stood up to leave. “Remember, we’re doing this to help the sirens. And ourselves. But mostly them. Still,” she said, going to the door. “That’s more than two months off. So don’t think too much about it. Keep your mind on the exhibition, and enjoy yourself with your friend.”

And so it was that Silver Rose found herself in front of a large, two storey house on Thursday, waiting for the door to open after she rang the doorbell. Today, she had on a simple grey shirt and a pleated skirt that she never got to wear much.

There was the sound of a chain rattling, then the front door eased open.

“Silver Rose! You’re here!” Canvas said happily. “Come in, come in.”

The smell of paint and ink invaded Silver’s nose as soon as she stepped into the house. There were paintings and sketches hung up all over the walls in no particular order.

“I’ve got most of my paintings in the living room,” Canvas said as she led her friend down the hall. Being at home, Canvas was decked in a stained yellow shirt with a purple lumpy character on it, along with blue shorts. “We can pick out which ones to show.”

“Mother said that you should pick thirty medium sized pieces or twenty big ones,” Silver told Canvas. “What qualifies as medium or big anyway?”

“Medium is about A3 size,” Canvas replied. “Anything at A1 or bigger is big.”

The living room was just as much in disarray as the foyer. There were easels set up all around, and drawing pads littered the chairs and couches.

“Anyway, I gathered together some of my favorite pieces, and there’s about fifty of them here. We can pick and choose which ones to display!”

“Uh, sure,” Silver replied. She looked around at all the artwork around her. Canvas had clearly not been idle in her vacation.

“First, I thought we should look through the oils and acrylics, because those are the biggest ones. Did your mom say anything about a combination of big and smaller pieces?”

“Ah, no.”

Canvas shrugged. “Then I guess we’ll just see what you like. It’s good to have a layman’s opinion on what good art is. No offense.”

Silver shrugged. “None taken. I’m not the best eye when it comes to art.”

“Which makes you perfect for predicting what will go over well and what won’t,” Canvas exclaimed. “Let’s start with this one. It’s a painting I did about six months ago. I call it Despair.”

The painting, done in oils, was of a grim figure cloaked in blacks and reds, holding up a knife. It was definitely a spooky piece.

“That’s cool, I guess,” Silver nodded. “What does it mean?”

“You can’t just have an artist tell you what their art means,” Canvas shook her head. “It’s up to the beholder to find meaning in it.”

“Ah, of course,” Silver backpedaled, putting a hand under her chin in an attempt to look insightful. “My mistake.”

“Oh, oh, how about this one?” Canvas pulled Silver over to a portrait of a castle with seven fountains in the courtyard. “What does this one say to you?”

“Uh…” Silver peered at the painting. It certainly looked grand, with pennants blowing in the wind and the expertly done arcs of water coming from the fountains. “It says… security? Like this is a place where I could be safe?”

Canvas nodded, but didn’t look pleased. “I see…” she said mysteriously. “I wonder if that’s how others will see it. Oh well. On to the next one!”

By the time Canvas Splash and Silver Rose had finished picking out what paintings would be shown at the gallery, the sun had already gone down.

“Oh, would you look at the time,” Canvas exclaimed, looking at a grandfather clock that was half hidden behind an easel. “I’ve kept you here for six hours!”

“No, really?” Silver said, trying to keep a pleasant face despite her desire to run out of the house and never talk about art ever again. “Ha ha… how time flies. Yeah.”

“Mom and Dad will be home soon,” Canvas said, shifting a sketchpad off the couch so that she could sit down. “Do you want to stay for dinner? I’m sure my parents would love to ask your opinion on their art, too.”

Silver’s eye twitched. “Oh, uh. It’s very nice of you to offer, but I have to be home for a…thing. Yeah. I promised to help my sister with something. Sorry.”

Canvas didn’t seem disappointed. Rather, she was in good spirits as she waved goodbye to her friend, a familiar black car driving up to receive her.

“Bye!” Canvas called, standing on the curb until the car was out of sight.

“Did you have a good time, Silver?” Ivory asked as she turned the car for home.

Silver smiled. “You know, as a matter of fact, I did!”

Chapter 109 - A Slip of the Teeth

Author's Note

This chapter contains Mature content. Skip ahead if you do not wish to read about it.

Chapter 109 - A Slip of the Teeth

With all the time she’d been spending with Home Run in the last few weeks, Chrysidea was hoping for it to continue for her last few days of freedom, but of course, there was the other side of her, and with that, a girl who was just much too crazy about her than she would’ve liked.

Though… Sunny always provides a lot of taste.

Sunny Flare sat opposite Silver Rose, shyly pushing a lock of mulberry hair behind an ear as she sipped from her cup of soda. It was weird seeing Sunny without her usual confidence, but Silver guessed it must’ve been from the fact they had visited the house the other day.

She had heard the ordeal from Silver Platter the other night, when she had returned home from Home Run’s house. Her mother hadn’t been bothered about it at all, but once he started describing what they looked like, Ebony Wings had gone to break a lamp in half. Thankfully, she hadn’t hurt Silver Platter in any way, but the butler did promise he would check their credentials the next time girl scouts came around.

Silver and her aunt had wondered why Sunny and the Shadowbolts would come over, posing as girl scouts, but they could guess it might’ve been part of their investigation whether they were witches or not. Today, at the Canterlot Mall, it was Silver’s objective to find out if they had learnt anything from their snooping around. Hopefully nothing much, for the sake of their lives…

“Been quite hot, hasn’t it, Sunny?” Silver pretended to wipe sweat from her forehead. “You been taking care of yourself?”

Sunny laughed quite awkwardly, then looked to the side. “W-Well… I suppose I have.”

Sunny was wearing a light purple spaghetti strap top today, along with a short dark blue skirt. Straps of her hot pink bra could be seen behind her top. Silver had never worn a top like that before, simply because she felt it showed too much skin, but in weather like this, perhaps it was a good idea for humans. The young changeling had on her purple Discourse shirt, along with a pair of black sports tights; She looked like she was going for a run.

Silver had always wanted to go for a run around the city to explore a bit, but she hadn’t gotten to it yet. She doubted her mother would also allow that, unless perhaps she was with someone to make sure no harm came to her.

“So, Sunny… Remember what happened? At th-the uh, theme park? That other d-day?”

Sunny’s interest had been taken and her eyes returned to Silver’s form. “O-Oh. Yeah. Why?”

“Remember in the clown place? You said you… thought I was casting magic?”

Sunny’s cheeks went red. “Oh… I-I didn’t mean, um, mean it. I was just-just kidding…”

Sure you were…

“You know, there was a drone at my- Uhh, at our home the other day. Mother said it was some crazy fan trying to get a glimpse of us. You don’t know anything about it, do you?”

Sunny tensed for a second, enough for Silver to confirm her suspicions as to who the drone really belonged to.

“N-No. I don’t kn-know anything ab-about that. But I’m sorry I said you were casting spells on me. I really don’t know why I’m… I’m so crazy for you…”

Silver sniffed at the air. A faint smell had begun coming from Sunny. Only now did she notice Sunny’s right hand was under the table, and she could see her upper arm moving back and forth.

Sunny really is crazy.

“Sunny, are you doing what I think you’re doing?” Silver hissed, keeping her voice low. “In a place like this?!”

“I’m so-sorry, Silvy… I really just can’t help it…”

“Come on, stop it. Don’t do that here.” She lifted the burger in her hand. “I’m still eating.”

“I really need… you to eat me right now, Silvy…” Sunny squirmed in her seat.

Silver Rose sighed. There was seriously something wrong with Sunny. Still, she needed to somehow lead the conversation to the day she went over to sell cookies. Sunny didn’t know that she already knew about that, so she would have to make the girl tell her about it somehow.

“Come on, how about an actual date, huh? Every time we go out, we end up, um… doing the thing…”

“I’m sorry. I really am, Silver. I just can’t seem to help it. Whenever I picture you… Whenever I see you touching me… mmm…” Sunny closed her eyes and grinned.

“But in public? Really? What if someone sees you? That wouldn’t be a good thing, would it?”

“I-I don’t know, Silvy… I just… Really need you. Just thinking about you is making me leak. Gosh, I hate wet panties…”

Silver frowned and chewed on her burger. “You need to fight this, Sunny. You can’t just keep doing this wherever you want.”

“I know. I’m trying…”

“Come on, try harder. How about a change of subject? Like… What have you been up to the past week?”

Sunny’s arm stopped moving. “O-Oh? La-last week, huh? Ermm, let’s see… M-Mostly shopping. I bought a few new tops. I hung with the other girls a bunch.”

Silver sneered. “I heard from… Canvas. She saw you and the girls, uh, selling cookies? I didn’t know you were part of the girl scouts.”

“Oh, right… that… umm…” Sunny pulled at her right strap. “Yeah, uh, Sugarcoat’s little sister needed some help, so we offered to help sell them. Yeah. That.”

“So where’d you go?” Silver leaned on a hand as she sniffed at Sunny. There was a smell of apprehension from her now. Gotcha.

“Oh, you-you know. Over town.” Sunny rubbed her shoulder. “Umm, we might’ve paid your place a visit too…”

Silver had to feign knowledge.“Oh, that’s cool. Now that you mention it, there were a stack of different cookies on our dining room counter. I really like the Ocean of Chocolate ones.”

“Is-is that so? That’s good. Glad you like them. I actually don’t remember what we s-sold…”

“Sorry that I wasn’t home that day. I was uh, out. With, uh, Canvas. Helping her with some art stuff. If I was home, maybe you would’ve been able to come inside.”

“Oh. Yeah. We, umm, did get to go inside.”

“Oh?” Silver had to suppress a smile.

Sunny blushed. “Yeah, I, umm, passed out. From the heat. It was quite hot that day. Your butler let us come in and gave us some drinks to stave off the h-heat.”

“Did he, now?” Silver raised her drink to her lips and drank, not taking her eyes off Sunny. There was a sour smell coming off Sunny now. Guilt. Not something that Silver smelled often. “Did you manage to get a look around? I’m told we have a really magnificent home.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t, no. I was passed out most of our visit…”

“That’s a shame. Too bad I wasn’t home too.” Silver batted her eyelashes at Sunny. There was still more information she had to pry out of Sunny. “Maybe we could’ve… had some quality time if I was there. Just you and me…”

Sunny gulped, the reaction Silver had wanted from her. She also knew that Sunny couldn’t keep secrets when she was most vulnerable.

Sunny herself was rocking slightly back and forth, as if she were sitting on something uncomfortable.

Silver Rose reached over to her left hand and felt the ring around her middle finger. She had borrowed it from her aunt, who had taken it out of storage recently. It looked like a thick, silver band, but was in fact one of Razor Gale’s assassin tools.

“You know,” Silver said slowly. “You look kind of pale, Sunny. Are you feeling alright?” She reached across the table and put her left hand on Sunny’s shoulder, while at the same time pinching Sunny’s arm with her right.

“Ow!” Sunny exclaimed. “What was that for?”

“Just checking to see if you were awake,” Silver shrugged. “Sorry if it hurt more than I meant it to.”

What Sunny hadn’t noticed, however, was that when Silver had patted her on the shoulder, there had been a tiny needle sticking out of her ring, which itself was full of something that Silver’s mother had called sodium pentothal, or to use its more widespread name, truth serum. When Silver had patted Sunny, she had also injected her with the liquid. Now all she had to do was wait a few moments until it took effect.

Now, normally for Sunny, all she had to do was have sex with her, and she would likely spill the beans, but now that they weren’t sure just what Sunny and the other Shadowbolts might’ve found out, truth serum was a more effective choice to see what they really knew.

“Hey, uh…” Sunny rubbed at her arm. “I feel funny. Could we, you know… go to the restroom?”

“Sure,” Silver said, pushing her chair back and finishing her drink. “Let’s.”

Sunny and Silver made their way to the restroom, which was mercifully empty. Allowing the Shadowbolt to enter first, Silver casually locked the door behind them. Sunny leaned over the sink, splashing water on her face.

“You know something, Sunny?” Silver Rose said idly as she looked around the spotlessly clean bathroom. “I think maybe you feel like talking.”

“I-I do?” Sunny blinked water from her eyes. “I do. I want to talk about you. Your body. Woah, did I just say that?” She looked confused for a second.

Silver wanted to test it out more to make sure the serum was working perfectly. “What about my body do you like best?”

“Definitely your pussy.” Sunny’s hands suddenly flew to her mouth and her face turned bright red. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to say it!”

Silver herself had blushed as well. It was weird to hear, nonetheless. At least she knew for sure the truth serum had fully taken effect. She had about an hour with the amount that she had injected Sunny with to get all the information she needed.

“That’s all right, Sunny. You’re just being honest. Now, I was wondering, just why were you really at my house the other day?”

“I was… I was…” Sunny blinked a few times, like she was trying to understand what was happening. “We wanted to do a little snooping around to see if you were anything magical. What the hay? I’m so sorry, Silver! I don’t know what’s going on! Why am I saying these things?

“There was a monster in your attic. Dark and nefarious. Long sharp claws and glowing green eyes. We wanted to know what we saw. What’s going on? I’m sorry. I just wanted to know what was really happening? If this problem I have came from you or not. And well, I was also hoping you’d stick your tongue in my pussy at your place.” Sunny’s face turned even redder. “I-I mean… Why am I saying this?!”

“I’m sure you do, Sunny. So you… think you saw a monster at my place?” Silver had to be sure of what Sunny saw. “And it had claws and green eyes? Sounds a bit far fetched to me.”

“It looked pretty real to me…” Sunny leaned over the sink, her breathing becoming ragged. “What’s wrong with me…? I don’t feel so good, Silvy.”

Silver went over and put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t think you’ve been feeling very good since we started dating. You always have such naughty or conspiratory thoughts.”

“I don’t really know what’s been going on too…” Sunny looked to her. “You’re just… so hot. I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve never had such thoughts about a girl until you came along. When I see you, my pussy just throbs and leaks, wanting your touch so bad… I need you to ravage it, Silvy. Why does my mouth keep running on like this?!”

“Yeeeaaah…” Silver said, wanting to steer the conversation back to more informative waters. “Did you find anything at my house, then? I want to know everything.”

“I didn’t find anything myself.” Sunny rubbed at the back of her neck. “Lemon Zest said she couldn’t find your room, and she found a lot of your stuff in your sister’s room.” Sunny covered her mouth in shock.

“Oh my, snooping around my sister’s room?” Silver put a hand to her mouth to feign surprise. “Someone seems to be overstepping her boundaries.”

Sunny gulped. “Yes. I did. I’m so sorry, Silvy. Please don’t be mad. You can punish me all you want. Punish me, Silvy.” One of Sunny’s hands shot under her skirt and she began to rub her crotch. “Mmmm…! I… I can’t take it anymore, Silvy…”

Sunny leaned over the sink and bit her lip. Now that she was bent over, her skirt had lifted enough for Silver to see her fingers running over her dampening pair of white panties.

“Come on, not now, Sunny. I still want to know more of what you saw at my place.” Silver tried to reason with her, though the smell that was starting to cloud around the restroom was quite delicious.

“Mmm… Just your clothes and summer assignment and some bottles of stuff… Silvy, your tongue… please…” Sunny pulled her skirt higher.

This girl is insatiable. Silver thought, annoyed. She wondered whether Sunny had some kind of sexual disorder that made her act like this. Most of the time it was weirdly endearing and mouthwatering, but not during an interrogation. Silver wished she had brought more than one loaded ring.

“And what are your theories about me and my family?” Silver asked shrewdly, though she had a pretty good idea by now.

Sunny twitched as her fingers rubbed at a very sensitive spot. “Mmm… So far it’s just been… witches… Or something magical.”

They’re not wrong… Silver thought grimly, a little alarmed that they had found out this much. No one’s ever snooped around this much. Silver groused about it a little, knowing it was probably her fault. “L-Like I said, Sunny. I’m nothing magical. I’m just like y-you.”

“Nothing… magical, huh?” The Shadowbolt moaned and began rubbing her womanhood faster. Her white panties were slowly starting to get more wet and more see through by the minute. Silver could just about see the pink skin beneath her underwear now. “Your tongue is incredibly magical, Silvy… Oh man, why do I keep saying stuff like this? Silver, please…? Could you…?”

Silver was in no mood to humor Sunny, as she was here on an important mission from her mother, but then an idea occurred to her. Glancing aside to check that the bathroom door was still securely locked, she knelt down at Sunny’s waist and tugged the panties down.

Sunny gave her bottom a little waggle. “Yesss… It’s all yours, Silvy…”

Now came the most critical part. Unsheathing her fangs in her mouth, Silver let the paralytic venom pool on her tongue, forming a small reservoir of the toxin there. Then she licked her tongue all the way up Sunny’s privates, smearing the venom all along her slit.

Sunny shuddered as Silver’s tongue brushed past her most sensitive area, gasping. However, Silver didn’t proceed to eat her out like she expected. Instead a strange, numb feeling began to spread from her pussy lips to all around her lower area. It was as if her waist and thighs had fallen asleep. Silver hadn’t tried this before, but Sunny shouldn’t be feeling aroused any longer.

“Awoohh…” the Shadowbolt said, her cheeks coloring. Silver stood back up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Sunny, we can’t go on like this,” Silver said plainly. “You and the other Shadowbolts can’t keep creeping around my house, and we can’t keep playing with each other whenever we meet. People are going to talk.”

“Oh… well, that is to say… ehhh…”

Silver gave Sunny a stern, yet reproachful glare. “What do you hope to accomplish, by snooping around my home? Do you think I’m hiding something?” As she said this, Silver Rose crossed her fingers behind her back.

“It’s just… we really want to know why I’m so crazy for you and want you to make love to me all the time. The girls think you cast a spell on me to make me like this. Agh, my mouth’s still running!” She covered it again.

“Is that so?” Silver sniffed, getting a little infuriated. “Have you considered the possibility that the issue lies on your end and not on mine? There is nothing magical about me, whatsoever-”

“Silver,” Sunny interjected. “What’s that in your mouth?”

“Huh?” Silver looked into the mirror behind Sunny. All the color drained out of her face. Her fangs were unsheathed, right there. She pulled them back up, but Sunny was already backing away from her.

“V-V-V-Vampire!” Sunny shrieked, fumbling with the lock on the bathroom door. “I knew there was something- Oof!”

Sunny had opened the door, only to run right into a tall woman wearing a frilly pink dress.

“S-Sorry,” Sunny squeaked.

The woman in the pink dress said nothing, but brought up her left hand. Sunny’s face morphed into an expression of shock.

The woman in pink squeezed the trigger of her pistol, and there was a hiss of compressed air as the dart gun shot its payload into Sunny’s right shoulder. The girl’s mouth flapped open and closed for a few seconds like a fish, then her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped onto the floor.

“Hmm,” the woman in pink said and quickly closed the bathroom door, hiding Sunny’s prone body from any curious onlookers. “Quite the predicament, isn’t it?”

“I’m so sorry, Aunt Ivory! It’s all my fault! I can’t believe I made a mistake like that!” Silver walked in a circle. “How did I even manage that? How? Just how? Why?”

“Mistakes happen,” Not-Ivory Wings said evenly. “What matters is how you recover after the mistake.”

She hauled Sunny Flare up from the floor and lay her on the sinks.

“Now. Normally we could just dose her with some of my favorite forgetfulness draught, but there’s a problem. You just injected her with truth serum. Then I shot her with a tranquilizer. If we give her the amnesiac, it could cause some permanent brain damage. And I think we want to avoid that,” Not-Ivory Wings shook her head. “Yes.”

“What do we do, then?” Silver fretted. “She saw my teeth. Now she has proof that something is wrong!”

“That’s no proof,” Not-Ivory Wings reassured Silver. “We already know Sunny has a poor enough reputation as it is. When it comes down to her word against yours, I’m sure people will believe you over her.”

“But she doesn’t have a poor reputation. She’s a Shadowbolt. Every student wants to be a Shadowbolt.”

“Please,” Not-Ivory Wings scoffed. “Her closest friends already think she’s a nutty nymphomaniac who talks to her posters. Besides, there’s always the chance the tranquillizer will mess with her memory anyway. You can control when your fangs are out. She has no evidence.”

“They’re supposed to be my friends too…” Silver sighed and leaned against a sink. “With all that’s happening, I don’t know how they’re going to treat me when school starts again.”

“You have proven yourself time and again that you’re worth being included in their circle,” Not-Ivory went over to one of the stalls and sat Sunny on one of the toilets, then locked the door. She then climbed out over the top and landed with a puff of perfume on the floor. “There. Now perhaps she will simply think that it was all a bad dream once she awakens.”

“Well… We’ll see, I guess. Aunt Ivory, could you, uh, not tell mother any of this?”

“I have to,” Not-Ivory Wings replied stoutly. “This is a threat to our society, and therefore the queen must be privy to it. And she will find out eventually anyway. In this realm, she knows all.”

“Oh…” Silver looked at her shoes.

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Not-Ivory Wings comforted her niece. “If it’s any consolation, it’s happened to me before too.”

“Really?” Silver perked up considerably. “And it all worked out okay for you?”

“Ah, no. I ended up having to kill a lot of people to keep the secret from getting out.”

“Oh.” Silver said again.

Not-Ivory shrugged. “Still, I don’t think this will be as critical. What matters is that we should leave before Sunny Flare wakes up.”

Chapter 110 - The Next Term

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Chapter 111 - The Eastern Announcement

After lunch was over, Silver Rose had found herself back in literature class with Ms. Post Script, but thankfully, today’s class wasn’t heavy on any poetry. It was mostly an introduction to each other and what they were going to learn this year.

Silver had spotted Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat sitting near the front, and like Indigo, the both of them had given her a few glances. She was sure now that Sunny had told them something. She hoped it wasn’t anything too incriminating. If word got out that they were vampires or anything, her mother might resort to… getting rid of them, which was something Silver hoped to avoid.

Other than them, Misty Shroud, one of Canvas’ bullies, was also in the class. Silver didn’t like the way she talked to Canvas, but for now, she had to lay low.

English passed by fast enough, and she was soon out and looking for her next class, which was physics. She found herself pretty good at any science related stuff, so she figured this would be easy too.

The physics classroom was located next to Mr. Beaker’s class and once she was inside, Silver was greeted by a waft of superiority and ambition. It was nothing like Principal Cinch’s, but it was still pretty bad tasting. Her teacher, Mrs. Fall Optimum, was quite the old bat, with glasses almost as big as her head, and the smell was coming directly from her. Silver knew instantly she wouldn’t enjoy this class very much.

“Welcome, you must be Silver Rose, our resident celebrity.” Her teacher stretched out a skinny old hand to her. “Welcome to physics. I am Mrs. Fall Optimum.”

“Hi, Mrs. Fall.” Silver shook the crone’s hand gently, afraid that it would snap off if she shook it too hard. “I do hope to learn a bunch.”

“Now that is what I like to hear.” Her teacher nodded. “You will find my teaching most adequate. I have five different awards for physics and chemistry, plus over fifty years of teaching.”

You don’t say.

She was probably the oldest human Silver had ever seen.

Giving her new teacher her best smile, Silver found her way over to a seat near the back. The physics lab was just like the chemistry one, with the tables having to be shared by two students. Silver didn’t know who she’ll get to sit next to, but she hoped it would be a familiar face at least.

She spotted some as they filed into the room, with some being Neon Lights, Sound Wave, and even Sunny Flare. Sunny flashed her a nervous look, then chose a seat further in front. Silver sighed. She really hoped this wasn’t going to be a problem.

Closer to the bell, Canvas Splash strolled into the room, her bag slung over one shoulder, with the bottom of it stained blue. It seems her friend had burst another tube of paint. Again.

She waved to her, and when Canvas saw her, she scurried over quickly, a smile on her face.

“Silver! I get to have class with you again!” She dropped her things by the table, with her bag making a splat sound on the floor. “I had a free period last uh, period, he he… I did some painting.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Silver looked down at her friend’s bag. “No one else bothering you, I hope?”

Man, I’ve been hoping a lot lately.

Canvas shook her head, almost flinging her beret off her head. “I had Cold Forecast in class. She ignored me mostly, but she didn’t ruin my drawings. I really wonder what happened to her and Crystal Lullaby. They really haven’t nicked my stuff since.”

“Maybe they learnt the power of friendship?”

“You mean like those CHS girls?” Canvas set her things on the table and arranged them nicely. “That would be cool if we could fly around and blast magic, wouldn’t it? I wonder what Twilight’s doing now, over at CHS.”

“Yeah, me too…”

Silver thought about the bespectacled girl. She wondered just what she was working on now, over at CHS. Maybe another magical device. And then there was the other Twilight her aunt had been meeting. The time of the blood moon was drawing closer and that would mean it would finally be time to repair the sirens’ gems. That meant no more bad singing, and no more sex-crazed Adagio and squabbling Sonata and Aria. Hopefully.

There I go hoping again…

As with all her classes today, physics class started with icebreakers and an introduction to the class. Physics seemed like a pretty straightforward class. All she had to do was learn things like gravity and motion, which she already knew.

All the while, while class was going, Silver spotted Sunny looking back at her a few times, and every time they made eye contact, the mulberry haired girl would duck lower and flip back around. She could smell Sunny’s usual love and lust, and even a side of suspicion and doubt, but she couldn’t read her mind. Whatever Sunny was thinking about, she couldn’t know, but it couldn’t be anything good for her blending in.

There was a small cheer as the bell rang, releasing them from physics, and for Silver, releasing her from having to breathe in her new teacher’s prideful smell. It was nice to be out to get some fresh air, well, fresher air. Crystal Prep wasn’t the best place to have a great feast.

Canvas followed her out, sliding her bag over one shoulder. Silver’s eyes were continually drawn to the blue stain under it, but she didn’t know what to tell Canvas, so she let it be for now.

“What do you have next?” Canvas turned around to ask.

Silver pulled out her schedule and ran a finger down the list. “It says art.”

“Oooh, that’s my favorite!” Canvas exclaimed. “But I already had my advanced art class earlier, so I guess I won’t be joining you for this.”

Silver nodded, perfectly able to see why Canvas would be in advanced art. “Well, I’ll see you later then?”

“Sure!” Canvas beamed. “See you in a bit, Silver!”

She only had two classes with Canvas this year, which downed her mood a little, but she was glad she at least had some classes with her. Canvas might’ve been weird, but she was her friend.

Pushing the door open to her last class of the day, the smell of paint instantly filled Silver’s nose.

She had rarely been to the art room before. It was painted in white, and there were shelves of art supplies and other sundries stacked neatly against the wall. There were empty easels and what looked like a clothesline on a pulley system ringing the walls. There was no sign of the teacher.

“Guess I’ll just wait,” Silver said, sitting herself down at one of the tables. Each table was fitted to seat four, one on each side of the surface. There were tall cups filled with sharpened pencils in the middle of each table.

The door opened and Silver glanced aside to see who had come in. It was Fleur, her fellow fencing team member, and she looked as though Christmas had just come early.

“Good afternoon, Silver Rose,” Fleur said as she sat down across from Silver. “I’ve some great news.”

“Oh?” Silver smiled and leaned forward as more students trickled into the classroom. “What is it?”

Fleur trembled with delight for a moment, then leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “I’ve been promoted!”

Silver’s eyebrows met. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I’m the new captain of the fencing team!” Fleur gushed. “Quillion graduated from CPA, and Mr. Fowl has appointed me as the next captain!” She clasped her hands against her pale cheek and grinned.

“Wow, that’s great!” Silver reciprocated, nodding happily. “But then you were always exceptional in the fencing team, so it makes sense Mr. Fowl would choose you.”

“Yes, you’re right!” She ran a hand through her pink hair. “I have been known to excel in what I do.”

You all do…

But she didn’t deny that Fleur was a skilled fencer. Even with her changeling powers, Fleur was still quite the formidable opponent, beating her at the sport just about every match. It was a wonder how good humans could get if they practiced hard enough.

Eventually the bell rang and the remainder of the class filed in, including Sugarcoat and Lemon Zest, who gave her a wave. Their teacher, Mrs. Artsy Fartsy, who was a plump blonde haired woman, strolled in behind the last kid and shut the door.

As with the other classes, art went by with them mostly playing icebreaker games and getting to know each other and going over the term’s curriculum. For icebreakers, Mrs. Artsy Fartsy handed out small canvases and asked each of them to paint something that represented their summer break experience.

Silver chose a narrow paintbrush and squirted some assorted paints onto a palette like she had seen her mother do. Her green paint splashed as it landed on the palette, with some getting onto Fleur’s sleeve, but she chose not to tell her. It would be better if she never found out about it. She dipped her brush in the blue paint and began to draw it over the canvas. Across the room, she could see Sugarcoat doing something with a pencil, and Lemon Zest painting with her fingers. She didn’t know what they had in mind, but then again, neither did she.

Two prominent things came to mind when she thought about her summer break. Home Run and Sunny Flare. Unfortunately, Home Run was Moonglade’s boyfriend, and the stuff she did with Sunny should never be replicated onto a canvas in a public space such as this, so she was stumped.

In the end she simply painted a view of the grounds, with the swimming pool. The water was always invitingly blue, and she had gone for a swim many times over the break.

When she was done, she sat back and marveled at her work, but when she was further back, she realized her house was slanted to the left and the right wall was much bigger than the left.

Fleur, on the other hand, had painted a lovely image of swirls and stars, which looked like a night sky of sorts, but Silver didn’t really know for sure.

“This is to represent that life doesn’t always go in the way you expect,” Fleur told her as she propped her canvas up on an easel. “Sometimes, even when things don’t go as planned, there are many moments that still shine brighter than any other.”

“Uh, yeah, sounds right,” Silver answered with a meek laugh. It was so abstract.

“What’s yours about? It looks like… Is it a bakery? Do you bake, Silver Rose?”

“O-Oh, no…” Silver blushed. “This is, uh, it’s a sw-swimming pool, ac-actually… I swam during sum-summer, s-so… yeah.”

“Right” Fleur said, squinting. “Yes, I suppose I do see it now. You might need to work on your perspective a bit, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

With just ten minutes to go until school was out for the day, the class was interrupted by the sound of Crystal Prep’s PA going off.

“Attention all students of Crystal Prep,” Dean Cadance’s voice announced. “Please converge in the gymnasium for a special announcement. Thank you.”

Looking at Fleur with confusion, Silver packed up her things and followed the stream of students who were headed to the gym. The general mood smelled conflicted, like eating a whole mouthful of different candies all at once. It wasn’t distinct enough to taste good, but it wasn’t the worst taste either.

The students of CPA piled into the gymnasium, where Principal Cinch and Dean Cadance were standing next to a microphone, with the former looking somewhat more sour than usual. Silver sniffed at the air, but there were too many other scents that were interfering with her reading of Cinch.

“What do you think this is about?” Silver heard someone ask.

“Dunno,” another student replied. “I hope it’s not more work…”

Once everyone had entered the gym and the doors had closed behind them, Dean Cadance tapped the mic to get everyone’s attention.

“Welcome everyone, to the end of the first day of the semester,” the dean said cheerfully. “I hope everyone’s day has been good so far!”

There were some mumblings of assent. Principal Cinch leaned over Cadance’s shoulder and whispered something.

“Well, anyway,” Cadance continued. “The reason I’ve gathered you all here is to announce a school event that will be coming up soon. Since Principal Celestia has reached out an arm in friendship to Crystal Prep Academy, we will be co-hosting an Eastern Fair with CHS in about a month. It will, we hope, strengthen the inter-school relationships and help to enrich both schools’ understandings of Eastern culture. This is counted towards your history and social studies credit, so we hope you will be as involved as we are!” The dean glanced back at Cinch, who was wearing a stoically neutral expression on her face. “Are there any questions?”

Trenderhoof raised his hand. “Will it be a school-only event, or can we invite people from outside to participate?”

“The event will be open to all,” the dean announced. “Any and all people will be welcomed. Think of this as an exhibition of sorts to the public.”

Another hand went up. “Will we get extra credit for doing more work?”

“Extra credit is being considered...” Dean Cadance nodded. “We will send the details to your homerooms by the end of the week. Anything else?”

One more hand shot up. “Do we get to dress up for this Eastern Fair?” It was Lemon Zest.

“Certainly!” Cadance beamed. “It’s not mandatory, but if you want to wear something that matches the overall setting and theme, then go right ahead.”

Sugarcoat was next to ask a question. “Why Eastern? What’s so special about them that we suddenly want to showcase all this?”

“Well, the four of us principals talked about it, and we feel that it would be more interesting to learn more about a different culture, as opposed to just having a showcase on our Canterlot history. Not many people know about the East, and this could be your chance to teach them about it, or learn more about it.”

This seemed to satisfy Sugarcoat. There did not seem to be any more questions, so Dean Cadance dismissed the students, just as the bell to signal the end of the school day rang.

The East, is it? Silver didn’t know a whole lot about the East, but she knew someone who did.

She bade farewell to her friends and went to the front of Crystal Prep, where that familiar black car was waiting.

“Good afternoon, sweetie,” Ivory Wings said once her niece was buckled in the back. “How was school?”

“School was okay, I suppose,” Silver said as the car began to move. “We mostly got to know each other again. Not a lot of homework.”

“That sounds nice,” Ivory said, running a yellow light. “What’s the status on that Sunny Flare girl?”

“Nothing,” Silver sighed. She poked the tips of her fingers together nervously. “I don’t know if she’s told the other Shadowbolts about the cafe thing.”

“Remember, she’s not even supposed to know if it was a dream or not, but I suppose this is quite the predicament. We haven’t had an incident like this in… in a very long time, sweetie.”

“Oh.”

They drove on in silence until they reached the Wings Estate, upon which Ivory stopped the car in front of the main doors and waited for Silver Rose to get out. However, she did not.

“Is something the matter, sweetie?” Ivory asked, looking in the rearview mirror.

Silver Rose shifted in her seat. “Um, my school and CHS is having an Eastern fair. I don’t know that much about the East, but I want to pull my weight… so, do you think you could teach me about the East? I mean, you have lived there, right?”

“You want me, to teach you about the East?” Ivory said with a wry smile. “I did play advisor to one of the emperors while I was there, so I think I can show you a thing or two. When is this event?”

“About a month?”

Ivory settled into her seat with a smug expression. “Then, yes. I think I can teach you. When do you want me to start?”

Chapter 112 - Cafe Heist

Silver Rose walked into the house with her aunt, who deep in thought. It seemed that she took the request to learn about the East seriously.

Silver Platter was standing just inside the first floor dining room. He was wiping his face with a handkerchief. Silver Rose cocked her head to the side. She hadn’t thought it was that hot, especially not inside.

“Oh, young mistress,” Silver Platter said once Silver Rose was in view. “Your mother wanted to speak to you. She’s in the living room on the right.”

Silver Rose nodded and left her aunt to speak more with the butler. She found her way to the aforementioned living room, whose door was closed. She raised her hand and knocked.

“Mother? Are you in there?”

“The door’s unlocked,” came the muffled voice.

Silver Rose turned the handle and stepped inside. The first thing she noticed was that it was unusually dark inside, aside from the numerous heaters that were in a corner of the room, and the fire that was crackling in the fireplace at a rather high intensity. All the windows were shut and curtained.

Ebony Wings was reclining on a couch in front of the fire. There was a decanter of what appeared to be whiskey next to her and she was drinking from a shot glass. From the looks of it, half the decanter was already gone.

“So you’re back from school,” Ebony Wings said without turning around. “Come. I have managed to secure a venue in the city for your friend, so let’s talk about what we will do next.”

“Umm, yes mother…” Silver stepped closer. She wanted to know why all the heaters were out, but she was too afraid to ask.

“Want a drink?” Silver’s mother held up a shot glass with amber liquid in it. “Tastes kind of like popcorn.”

“Umm… no thank you.”

“Good.” Her mother set the glass down. “Your aunt won’t let me let you drink anyway. Come closer.”

Upon approaching the couch, Silver Rose could see that her mother was draped in a fluffy white dressing gown and wearing thick matching slippers.

Silver Rose knew she and her relatives could not feel the heat, but suddenly Silver Platter’s behaviour made sense. It must have been boiling in this room for the humans. The very air felt stale and muggy, but it was still breathable.

“Have you and your friend decided on what you want to put on display yet?” Ebony asked mildly. She examined a glass of whiskey in the firelight, turning it around in her fingers. There was a crest on the glass and decanter, showing off a crescent moon.

Silver Rose gulped. “Um, yes. I think Canvas has put together a compilation of what she wants shown.”

“Good,” Ebony said, drinking her shot. “That means we can move on to the next stage then.”

“And what is that, mother?”

Ebony Wings put down her glass of whiskey and turned her head around. “Why, sending out invitations to all my famous friends, of course. But first I need to know what genre of art this Canvas Splash does before I can advertise her to my other art-loving associates.”

“Oh!” Silver had not thought of that. “I’ll ask her right away.”

“That can wait. Right now, I’ve had your aunt start working on your uniform for the night of the blood moon, which, interestingly enough, occurs on Halloween night.”

“Oh, I have a uniform?” Silver couldn’t think of why she needed one.

“Yes, you do. Your aunt tells me that its design is similar to a certain kind of kimono that she wore while playing general to a certain Eastern emperor. I don’t know what that means, but she hasn’t let me down yet.

“You’ll report to her later this week for fitting,” Ebony continued, taking another draught of whiskey. “I assume you’ll learn more about the plan then.”

The actress examined her glass in the firelight, turning it over and over as if looking for a secret inside it.

Silver shuffled her feet. “Is… is that all, mother?”

“Hmm? Oh, you’re still here. Yes, you’re dismissed. Go call your friend and you can tell me what she said at dinner.”

Silver scurried away and only whipped out her phone when she was back in her room. This was quite the exciting plan. She would finally get to give Canvas the recognition she deserved. She was such a talented artist, but people could never get past her odd nature long enough to notice that. Perhaps through this, Silver could actually change all that. Perhaps.

“Saturday afternoon. Just after lunch hour. The target? Minty Moonshine’s Cafe. Five daring and fearless girls, out on the hunt for truth and justice.”

“Indy? Who are you talking to?” Lemon asked as she stopped at a red light.

Indigo looked up from the various duffle bags that she had brought. “I’m narrating. All good heist movies have a narration.”

“This isn’t a heist movie, Indigo,” Sugarcoat sighed. “It’s not even a heist. We’re just going to see what their security cameras have on Sunny’s date day.”

“We’re sneaking in and stealing information,” Indigo insisted. “That’s a heist in my book!”

“Aren’t heists, you know...illegal?” Sour Sweet looked through one of the bags. “Masks? Really?”

“Hey, I don’t make the heisting rules,” Indigo shrugged. She picked up a mask of a fox with a cap and put it on her face. “It’s just what you gotta do on missions like this.”

“You play too many video games…” Sugarcoat said flatly.

Sunny Flare was very quiet through all this.

“Just as long as we don’t get arrested…” Sour Sweet fished out a mask of an eyeball from the bag.

“You’re really going with her plan?” Sugarcoat looked at a mask skeptically. “You don’t think there might be a better way to go about this?”

“Nope!” Indigo said cheerfully. “Now, did anyone bring a medic bag?”

“Why would we even need one. You’re not planning on getting shot, are you?”

“I was talking about candy. It can get dreadfully sour sitting there and waiting. Would be nice to have a little something to rejuvenate our palates.”

“I’ve always got some.” Lemon Zest shook of tin of mints from the driver’s seat. “I always keep some nibbles in the van in case of being stuck in traffic.”

As the crew got closer to the cafe, Sunny Flare’s eyes grew more and more narrow. There was definitely something off here. She’d had this strange premonition for a while that her friend, Silver Rose, was not what she seemed, but now she was associating her with vampires? Were those really even fangs she had seen? She wasn’t even sure what she saw had been real or not, but she’d known for a while that Silver was a little… odd.

She still remembered how the girl had jumped clear over their heads during one particular run, back when she still had a problem with her. And then there was the time she ripped the cubicle door off its hinges with her own two hands. Silver seemed to be able to do things no normal human could do. Was it a possibility she could be a vampire? They had settled on witches for a while, but now she wasn’t sure.

“We’re here,” Lemon announced, parking the van across the street from the cafe. It was after lunch hour, so there weren’t very many customers eating there. The streets were relatively quiet as well, with only three pedestrians hurrying around from patch of shade to shade, trying to avoid the sweltering sun. Thankfully, the air conditioning inside the van was still going strong.

“Alright, gang,” Indigo said, grinning evilly. “Our goal is to sneak into the cafe, and get into the security camera room for footage of the day of Silver Rose and Sunny Flare’s date. We have to do this in stealth, or there’ll be millions of cops coming down on us like a load of bricks. Any questions?”

“Yeah, one. There aren’t going to be that many cops. We’re not criminals. Stop treating this like a game! If we get caught, that’s it.” Sugarcoat rubbed her forehead. “Do you know what Principal Cinch would do if we get arrested? Our careers are all on the line, so don’t do anything flashy. All we want is the footage.”

“That doesn’t sound like a question to me. But whatever, the same plan stands. We sneak into the security rooms and get the footage of the cafe. Lemon!” Indigo barked. “Did you bring the flash drive?”

“Got ‘er right here,” Lemon held up a small plastic stick with a lid. “All clear.”

“Right.” Indigo stood up and dusted her skirt, taking the flash drive from Lemon and pocketing it. “From here on, it’s codenames only. We don’t want to risk getting caught. So I’ll be… Fearless Leader. Lemon, you’re Salad.”

“Why am I salad and you’re a fearless leader?” The lime haired girl complained. “I want to be Gyro. You know, like a wheel. Since I’m driving.”

“Okay, okay, Gyro, then. Sugarcoat, you’ll be Brain, since you’re the smart one. Sour Sweet
can be… Soap. It sounds similar.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this…” Sugarcoat groaned.

“...and Sunny can be Snatch.”

“What?!” Sunny exclaimed. “What kind of a code name is that?!”

Indigo shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that. We’re snatching the security footage here. Plus you know, we’re doing this in the first place, because you can’t keep a girl out of your snatch.”

Sunny still looked unhappy about this, but Indigo was already moving on to the next step.

“Okay. We’ll need masks, which we’ll hide under our clothes. Everything else we can keep in the bags until we need it.”

“How are we supposed to hide these under our clothes?” Sunny took out a mask of a pig from the bag. “There’s nowhere to put them.”

“Why do we need masks anyway?” Sour Sweet growled.

“Because that’s what heisters wear when heisting. Masks!” Indigo slipped hers into her shirt where it left an oddly shaped lump. “Can’t knock the traditions, now.”

Sugarcoat frowned. “It doesn’t work. Now you just look like you have a tumor.”

“We’ll also need to case the joint,” Indigo instructed after taking her mask out of her shirt and tucking it in the back of her skirt instead. “See how many guards and cameras there are. Remember, if we’re detected, we’ll have to either run or fight off the cops.”

“We’re not fighting the cops.”

“Yeah well, don’t get caught, then. Hey, are we there yet?”

Lemon sighed. “We’ve been here for like ten minutes already.”

“Excellent,” Indigo said. “Gyro, you and Brain will keep the staff occupied. Snatch, you’re with me. We’re going after the footage.”

“What about me?” Sour Sweet asked.

“Oh yeah, Soap, you’ll be lookout. If you see someone coming, delay them and signal us. Do you know how to do bird calls?”

“What.” Sour Sweet deadpanned.

“You know, something like, hoo-ooh, hoo-ooh.” Indigo cupped her hands over her mouth. “You know? Like a bird.”

“I get that,” Sour Sweet snapped.“What I want to know, is why?”

Indigo clicked her tongue. “Duh, speaking is too obvious. No one will suspect anything if they hear a bird calling.”

“Fine…”

“Good,” Indigo nodded. Then she turned to Sunny. “Grab that duffel bag. We’ll need it.”

“What’s inside?” Sunny hefted the rather heavy bag onto her shoulder.

Indigo Zap smirked and gave Sunny a thumbs up. “It’s a special tool that will help us later.”

“Okay, let’s go. We’re wasting enough time as it is.” Sugarcoat threw the doors open, with Sunny hopping out first and making her way to the cafe with the bag.

“Look at her go.” Indigo was out next. “Do you really think Silver’s a vampire?”

“Only one way to find out.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “We can say Sunny’s crazy if we don’t see Silver on the tapes.”

“You know what’s nice?” Sour Sweet followed behind them, a smile on her face. “Sunny hasn’t touched herself in a while. In front of us, at least.”

“Oh hey, Sour Sweet’s right!” Indigo exclaimed. “It’s been a while since you’ve had to use the fire extinguisher on her.”

“Maybe it’s all this talk about her girlfriend being a vampire. I don’t see how a bloodsucking demon would turn even Sunny on, no matter how crazy she is.”

“But I thought we thought it was a spell,” Lemon said.

“Well, if they turn out to be vampires, then it’s probably just Sunny being a nymphomaniac,” Sugarcoat answered bluntly.

The five Shadowbolts entered the cafe, escorted to a table by a waiter.

“Right,” Indigo said in a low voice so as not to be overheard. “Gyro, Brain, Soap, you make a scene that’ll bring all the staff out here. Snatch and me will go find their security room and get in.”

“Must you really call me Snatch?” Sunny hissed.

“Codenames, Snatch. So we can protect our identities.”

Sunny grumbled. “Hey, I haven’t even touched myself down there in a week, okay? So can we change my codename?”

“No time for changing the plan so drastically,” Indigo said quietly. “Now, me and Snatch will head off the bathroom. Soap, you signal us when the distraction starts.”

And with that, Indigo yanked Sunny’s arm and pulled her off to the bathrooms, with the duffle bags in tow.

Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat, and Lemon Zest were left at the table, looking at each other in varying states of confusion.

“So…” Lemon slowly drew out the word. “What do we do now?”

“I guess we get things started.” Sugarcoat sighed and flung a glass of water at Sour Sweet’s face.

She spluttered and coughed, then flashed her friend a furious look. “Hey, what gives?!”

Sugarcoat shrugged and glanced at Lemon. “Ready to take one for the team?”

“What?” Lemon asked, just before Sugarcoat picked up a fork and stabbed her in the arm with its sharp little tines. “Ow! Ow! What the-!”

“Why, you little!” Sour Sweet lunged across the table and clamped her hands around Sugarcoat’s throat.

“Gurk!” Sugarcoat made a noise like a mouse being stepped on and tried to wrench Sour Sweet’s hands off. Meanwhile, Lemon Zest yanked the fork from her arm and grabbed Sour Sweet around the middle to pull her off Sugarcoat.

“Chill out, Soap!” Lemon grunted.

Meanwhile…

“Okay, sounds like Brain and Gyro have started the distraction,” Indigo said, cocking her head to the side. “Time to mask on.”

“We really have to wear these?” Sunny pulled out her pig mask from the back of her skirt. She looked around, afraid of someone seeing them with the masks, but it seemed that all eyes were currently on the brawl that was brewing in the dining area. Even some of the attendees had run out from behind the counter to assist.

“Yes, Snatch. Now put it on.”

Indigo slipped on her fox mask, then adjusted the hat on top of it. She then led Sunny out of the side corridor and down into a section labeled ‘employees only’. They passed the entrance to the kitchen, and found themselves at a pair of doors at the end of the hallway. One was labeled ‘fire exit’, and the other was labeled ‘security’.

“This is the one,” Indigo said gleefully. “Now pass me the drill.”

Sunny stared at Indigo from behind her mask. “The what?!” she hissed in disbelief.

“Yeah, there’s a drill in that bag. That’s how we’ll get through the door.”

“But what if-”

Indigo cut her off. “No time for that, Snatch! The drill!”

Sunny didn’t protest more and handed her friend the orange drill that was in the bag. She figured she would just run away if someone hears it. The device was crudely constructed of an ordinary power drill, a clamp, and a kitchen timer, all held together with duct tape.

Indigo mounted the drill onto the door handle and tightened the clamp. Then she reached over to the handle of the drill and turned it on.

A loud, high pitched whine emanated from the drill as the bit began to bore into the door. Wood shavings fell on the floor, making Indigo grin behind her mask. It was just as she had imagined! Now all they needed was some epicly written music to go along with their heist.

Out in the kitchen, an adult’s voice could be heard.

“Hey, what’s that sound?”

“See? We’re going to get caught! Shut it off!” Sunny grabbed her head and took a few steps back. “Indy! Stop it! Someone’s going to come over here!”

“Wait, I think I almost have it!”

“Seriously, stop!” Sunny grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.

“Hey, I was almost done!” Indigo hissed and stopped the drill. There was a small hole in the door, just under the knob. “See? I’ll have it in no time.”

“Just hide! That drill of yours is too noisy!” Sunny shoved her into a supplies closet near the security room and shut the door as quietly as she could.

“Hey, what’s this thing?” They heard someone outside say. “Is this some kind of renovation thing, this drill?”

“Snatch, we were so close!” Indigo whispered. “I would’ve had that door open if I had a couple more seconds.”

There were muffled screams and the sound of glass breaking. Some of the screaming sounded familiar.

“Wow, Gyro and Brain are really going for that distraction, aren’t they, Snatch?”

“We are going to get in so much trouble for this,” Sunny hissed. “And stop calling me Snatch!”

Indigo peeked through the keyhole of the closet door.

“It looks clear. Come on, let’s finish drilling that door!”

Opening the door a crack, Indigo peered out into the hallway. The drill was still attached to the security room door, which Indigo was thankful for. Still wearing their masks, Sunny and Indigo crept out of the supply closet and over to the security door. Indigo was just about to press the button to restart the drill when Sunny tried the door handle.

The door swung open. It had not even been locked.

Sunny felt like strangling Indigo right then and there, but she restrained herself from doing so. The faster they finished this, the faster they could get out before anyone could suspect a thing.

“Okay, uh…” Indigo stood before a row of monitor screens and scratched her head. “How do we do this?”

“You don’t know?” Sunny really wanted to strangle her right now.

“Urmm… I guess we’ll have to mess with the controls.” Indigo began tapping keys on the keyboard to see if anything would happen.

Outside, there were sounds of squawking, like that of a bird, but then not quite like a real bird.

“Quickly! That’s Soap’s signal!” Indigo said, scrambling around to find the footage. Finally, she found a menu that had the dates on it. “Here! What day did you come here with Silver on?”

“I-I… I don’t remember!”

“Hurry, Snatch!”

“Stop pressuring me! And don’t call me Snatch!”

Sunny walked about the room, trying to remember which day she had been here at the cafe. That’s right. They hadn’t been at school, so it must’ve been the weekend. The next day wasn’t a Monday, so it could only have been Saturday.

“Just last Saturday,” Sunny blurted out quickly. “We were here on Saturday.”

Indigo fiddled with the controls until she reached Saturday. Her eyes were a blur as she went through the footage. The bird sounds came again, louder and more urgently this time.

“You know what, screw this,” Indigo said and slammed the flash drive into the computer. “I’ll just download everything from Saturday and we can sort through it back at the safehouse.”

“Safehouse?” Sunny repeated blankly.

“Should take only about a couple minutes to get it all,” Indigo’s fingers raced across the keyboard. “Snatch, keep them off me until then!”

“What do you want me to do?” Sunny threw her hands up. “Spit on them?”

“I don’t know, be creative!” Indigo barked. “Just a minute or two more…”

“Ugh!” Sunny went to the door and cautiously peeked her head out. There still wasn’t anyone in the hallway, so she edged out and crept along to the exit.

There was some kind of argument going on in the dining area. It sounded like Lemon Zest was having a shouting match with Sour Sweet, and Sour Sweet was winning.

"Let me go, Gyro! I'm going to strangle her!"

"Miss, please calm down!" one of the staff members pleaded.

“Just stop it!” Lemon Zest struggled to keep Sour Sweet pinned.

“She’s going to get it!” She growled and let out that weird squawking sound.

Sunny slapped a hand to her pig mask. It was a false alarm. She’d probably already forgotten she was to be the lookout.

A hand slapped down on Sunny’s shoulder and she jumped with a shrill squeak.

“Hey, what was that?” One of the attendants turned around.

Sunny was pulled back into the hallway and Indigo pressed a hand on her mask’s mouth. “What are you doing? It’s just me! I got the drive, let’s go! Quickly!” Indigo grabbed the drill and the bags and flapped her hand at Sunny to move.

The two girls ran off down the hall, then went out the back, through an emergency door. The sun was immediately in Sunny’s eyes as they ran, finding Lemon’s bright van in no time. Throwing open the side, they both hopped in, with Indigo slamming it shut as soon as Sunny’s legs were through.

“Phew!” She threw off her fox mask and adjusted her hair and goggles. “That was a close one, but we did it! We got the footage!”

Sunny Flare sat on the floor of the van, panting from the sprint and the heat. “What about the others?”

“Sorry, Snatch, but they’re left for dead.”

“What?!” Sunny’s jaw dropped and she could do nothing but stare at Indigo, who was holding up the flash drive to the light and admiring it like it was the world’s biggest diamond. And she wanted to be called Fearless Leader. “Indigo, have you totally lost it?”

“What?” Indigo Zap seemed to snap out of a trance. “Uh, well, I guess we wait here until they come back on their own?”

They sat there in brooding silence for a while, at least Sunny did. Indigo was more interested in feeling proud of herself about how well the heist had gone.

After a long wait, there finally came a knocking on the van door. Sliding it open, Sunny was shocked to see a rather beat up looking trio of her friends waiting outside. A patrol car was parked next to the cafe, with two officers talking to an employee about something.

Sunny opened her mouth to say something, but Sour Sweet beat her to it.

“Not. A Word.”

The girls piled into the van in a surly silence. Lemon got into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

Only once the cafe was several miles behind them did someone speak up.

“Well?”

“Huh?” Lemon glanced back in the rearview mirror.

“Did we get it? The footage.”

Indigo grinned smugly and held up the flash drive. “All in here. I told you the heist would come off without a hitch.”

“I would have preferred not to be stabbed with a fork,” Lemon said from the front. “Sugarcoat.”

“Would you have preferred to be stabbed with a spoon?” Sugarcoat retorted, rubbing a forming handprint on her face where Sour Sweet had slapped her. “It was all Indigo’s idea to have us be the diversion. Blame her.”

“Hey, you were all important pieces of the plan,” Indigo held up her hand. “We all got what we came for, didn’t we?”

Sugarcoat scoffed. “And we almost got arrested for it. The cafe had to call the cops. And before you say anything, no. We weren’t going to fight them.”

Indigo Zap stuck her tongue out at Sugarcoat before continuing to express her excitement.

“It was just like the games! We hid from the guards, and even drilled the door! Snatch here almost blew it, but we made it out okay in the end. We’re set for life!”

“The door wasn’t even locked!” Sunny exclaimed furiously. “We didn’t need that noisy drill! And what do you mean, set for life? We didn’t steal anything valuable at all!”

“We got what we came for~” Indigo said in a sing-song voice. “And it’s all thanks to my meticulous planning and genius.” She paused with her eyes shut, evidently expecting some kind of accolade. She did not receive any.

“We, are never letting you plan something like this again.” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “Never again.”

The girls bickered and squabbled until Lemon finally pulled up outside her house and slammed on the brakes.

“Okay, we can all agree that the plan wasn’t perfect,” the lime haired girl said, sounding unusually peeved. “But it got us what we wanted, and nobody got seriously hurt. So let’s go inside, and look at the freaking footage already.”

And then she stepped out of the van and stalked over to her front door, flinging it open and gesturing for the others to follow.

Chapter 113 - Playback Time

“No, it wasn’t this early,” Sunny pointed at the computer screen. It was showing footage from four different cameras of the cafe and its patrons from morning on the day that Sunny Flare and Silver Rose had gone to visit it.

“Okay. I’ll skip ahead some.”

The camera quality was somewhat poor and washed out in color, but it displayed people clearly enough, and there was a camera facing the bathrooms, which was just what they needed. But first, they had to find the time when Sunny Flare and her friend had come.

“Wait, there!” Sugarcoat pointed. There, on the screen, were Silver Rose and Sunny Flare, walking into the cafe, hand in hand. They were chatting amicably, which looked normal enough.

They made their way to the counter and ordered their food and drinks, after which they sat down at a table on the edge of the camera’s field of view.

“Could you have picked a more inconvenient place to sit?” Sour Sweet grumbled.

“Well, at least there’s proof that they went out.” Lemon shrugged. “So Sunny wasn’t hallucinating that.”

“But we can barely see them.”

“That’s not what we’re looking for, anyway,” Lemon pointed out. “Sunny said she found herself in the bathroom and Silver was nowhere to be found. I’m going to fast forward a little more, see if we can get to the point where you went to the bathroom.”

The camera showed Sunny and Silver talking in fast motion, and Sunny flushed as she recalled what she had said to Silver that day. She hadn’t been able to help it; it was as though someone had drugged her into telling the truth.

“Woah, look at you go, Sunny!” Indigo roared with laughter.

While they couldn’t see Sunny and Silver all that clearly, Sunny’s hand moving under her skirt was easy enough to notice.

“In a public place like that?” Sugarcoat was unamused. “Really? That’s worse than in the van.”

“I told you, I can’t help it!” Sunny’s face went red with embarrassment and anger. “Stop bringing it up! I haven’t touched myself since then, okay?”

Lemon continued to watch the video, speeding it up a little to jump past the boring bits.

“Okay, here!” Lemon waved for everyone to be quiet. “Here’s where you got up to go to the bathroom.”

Indeed, on the screen Sunny and Silver rose from their seats, abandoning their food and drinks to head towards the bathroom. They walked out of one camera’s view into another’s before pushing open the restroom door and disappearing inside.

“Look,” Sugarcoat pointed at the screen. Someone had just entered the cafe, a woman in a frilly pink dress and holding an equally pink handbag. She made her way over to the bathroom door but did not enter. “Who’s that?”

“I dunno,” Indigo scratched her head in puzzlement. “Maybe she needs to take a leak?”

The camera was angled in such a way that they could not see the woman in pink’s face clearly. They did see her glance up and down the hallway that the restroom was located in.

Sour Sweet gazed at the screen, enraptured. “She’s… just standing there.”

Sunny chewed her tongue inside her mouth. At this moment, she had been trying to get Silver to go for another steamy session in the bathroom, but instead she had ended up blurting out all the details of the Shadowbolts’ investigation. She elected to not mention this, hoping that her friends would forget such an embarrassing detail.

On the screen, the woman in pink reached into her handbag and drew out something black and vaguely L shaped. Not a second later, the bathroom door was pulled open, uncovering a hysterical looking Sunny Flare.

Then, to the Shadowbolts’ astonishment, the woman in the pink dress raised the device in her hand and pointed it at Sunny, who staggered back before falling forward into the woman’s arms. She carried Sunny into the bathroom and disappeared from view.

“What… what just happened?” Lemon stared blankly at the screen.

“Dude, that woman just shot you!” Indigo cried out, her jaw dropping in disbelief.

“I got… shot?!” Sunny stood up in shock. She ran a hand along her neck, finding no bullet wounds or anything. “Play that again!”

Lemon rewinded the footage back a few seconds.

“Zoom in on that,” Sugarcoat ordered.

“Sugarcoat, this isn’t PSI, I can’t just zoom in on things to get a better view, at least not with this software!” Lemon whined.

“Okay, fine. I’ll just move closer to the screen. Slow it down; you can do that, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lemon clicked a few times and the footage slowed to a crawl.

The video played on slowly, with the woman in pink removing the gun from somewhere in front of herself, then pointed it at the door. In a second or two, the door opened and Sunny stepped out towards her.

Sunny didn’t know if it was the slow footage or not, but there seemed to be quite some time of them standing there before the woman shot her. In the shoulder. And then she fell forward, unmoving.

“But… Sunny isn’t dead…” Indigo flicked her arm. “She’s here.”

“Ow, hey!” Sunny took a step away and rubbed her arm. “I’m not dead! I’m here! I’ve been here! I couldn’t have been shot!”

“The footage says otherwise,” Sugarcoat said.

The video kept rolling and the woman in the pink frilly dress carried Sunny back into the bathroom. Lemon kicked it back to normal speed and they waited. A few minutes later, Silver Rose and the woman in pink exited the bathroom and left the cafe entirely.

Lemon stopped the camera footage and turned to her friends, looking most disturbed.

“So. What the hay did we just see?”

The rest of the Shadowbolts looked equally unsettled, even the usually unflappable Sugarcoat.

“Looks like those two know each other…” Indigo said, unusually somber and stoic. “Is that even legal? Carrying a gun around like that?”

“Obviously it isn’t,” Sugarcoat snapped. “Something went down here and I want to know what. We need to confront Silver Rose about this. As soon as we can.”

“But we can’t do it so openly. Then they’ll know we know,” Sour Sweet said.

“This is a predicament,” Indigo admitted to herself, sitting down on Lemon’s bed.

Sugarcoat sighed and removed her glasses to rub her nose. “I want to find out what’s going on as much as the next person, but I don’t know if there’s anything we can do to go further unless we want to reveal to Silver that we know what happened. I think the best thing to do here is to lay low. Continue to watch her, but also to go on with our daily lives.”

“What if we catch her doing more weird stuff?” Lemon asked. “Not like there’s not enough weird stuff connected to Silver already, but she’s with this gun toting lady? Shouldn’t we go to the cops with evidence like this?”

Sugarcoat sat there in silence for a few seconds. “You know what I think? I think Silver Rose is new to all this. If her mother and sister or anyone else in the family have been around for so long without arousing any kind of suspicion like she has, they have to be pros.”

“I can’t believe Ebony Wings is a witch! Or worse, a vampire!” Indigo grabbed Sour Sweet’s face and squished her cheeks. “I can’t see her the same way anymore!”

“Get off!” Sour Sweet shoved her back on the bed. “She can’t be a vampire, Indigo. She goes out during the daytime, remember?”

“Well, so does Silver.”

“That’s a good point.” Sugarcoat put her glasses back on and groaned. “Whatever they are, I think it’s best we do not play all our cards just yet. How do you think people like that keep secrets for so long? Either they’re that good, or… They know how to clean up.”

The Shadowbolts considered these words for a moment. Finally Indigo groaned.

“So what did we actually get from the heist? Ugh. I need a freaking drink.”

Lemon Zest opened a cabinet on her computer desk and pulled out a bottle of cider, tossing to Indigo. “We got a video. We know Sunny didn’t dream up her whole Silver Rose date. So that vampire story might not be totally fake. I mean, besides that daywalking bit. Shows us how little the staff check their camera feeds too.”

“Totally fake?” Sunny repeated. “I was shot! We’re seriously not going to do anything about that?!”

“Well, you’re okay. Right?”

Sunny grumbled and sat down on Lemon’s bed next to Indigo. “Care to pass the bottle, Indy?”

Sour Sweet looked at the two of her friends drinking with a look of unamusement on her face. “If there’s even the smallest sign that Silver Rose is really a vampire, I’m going to start carrying garlic on me. I’m not going to let anyone bite me.”

“Well, Sunny, she didn’t bite you, did she?” Lemon shifted over and pushed Sunny’s head to the side to get a better look at her neck. “Hmm, no teeth marks. Just a little sting or something. Did a bee get you, Sunny?”

“Hey, stop!” Sunny tried to remove her friend from her face. “No, I didn’t get stung! Go away.”

Indigo passed the bottle to Sunny and sighed, her eyes shut. “It’s like the more we see the less we know. It’s so frustrating! We need a solid lead on all this weirdness.”

“That’s why I recommended we lay low,” Sugarcoat restated. “Let’s just go back to our everyday tasks and just keep an eye on Silver. Make sure she suspects nothing.”

“See if she bites anyone else,” Lemon laughed.

“Or see if she eats anyone else…” Indigo sneered and looked at Sunny.

“Like I’m going to let her near my pus- ahem, lady parts now that I know she’s a vampire!” Sunny protested.

Sugarcoat sighed and glanced back to the computer screen. “Aren’t vampires typically known for being sexy and charming? This is like the reverse.”

“What? Silver must be sexy and charming if she charmed Sunny like that. I mean, until we found out her vampiriness.”

“So it wasn’t magic? It was actually vampire charms.”

“We don’t know everything for certain. Like I said…” Sugarcoat sighed. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

Sunny took a gulp of the cider and stared at her feet. If Silver was a vampire, had she been using her as an eventual source of blood? Why hadn’t she had her blood sucked sooner if Silver was indeed a vampire as they seemed to think? It wasn’t as though she was averse to drinking other fluids from Sunny’s body.

“I still don’t know about vampirism,” Indigo mused stubbornly. “Vampires drink blood, everyone knows that. Silver’s done nothing but mash Sunny’s buttons all this time. And she can go out in the sun. Vampire, probably not. I’m thinking succubus.”

“Is this more nonsense from your O&O books again, Indigo?” Sugarcoat peered at her friend.

“Hey, if magical flying girls and giant plants can exist, why can’t a succubus?” She shrugged.

“Ha, succubus…” Lemon snickered. “I wonder what she’s been… sucking from you, Sunny.”

“This is all magic stuff,” Sour Sweet grumbled as she shook her daily pills into her palm and dry-swallowed them. “We need to stop blundering around in the dark and actually find someone who know about magic. Like Twilight Sparkle!”

“Hey, that’s an idea!” Lemon perked up considerably. “The CHS girls deal with weird stuff all the time. We can ask them about what to do!”

Sugarcoat looked less sure. “Maybe. But I think that for now, the best option for us is to keep our heads down.”

“You’ve said that like, fifty times.”

“That’s because you girls keep making me repeat yourself. So that’s final. Okay? Now we wait.”

“Bah. You’re no fun, Sugarcoat.”

“Well, excuse me for trying to keep us alive,” Sugarcoat shot back. “Whoever else is in on this clearly has no problem shooting kids like us. We need to watch our step, or any of us could end up lined in chalk.”

“I am not a kid,” Sour Sweet muttered grumpily, crossing her arms defensively.

“Yeah, neither is Sunny.” Indigo gave her a playful punch on the shoulder. “Kids don’t have sex like rabbits.”

“Hey, I said stop making fun of me!” Sunny’s face turned red with embarrassment and anger as she stood up. “And I’m still alive. Maybe she just shot me with a dud.”

“That’s not how guns work, Sunny,” Sugarcoat deadpanned.

“Yeah, Sunny,” Lemon Zest added. “Haven’t you ever played Call of Camping?”

“You know I hate video games.”

“Yeah, I know. All you like to do is have your pus-”

Sunny smacked her across the face.

Chapter 114 - Salt for Witches

It had been a relatively normal and quick weekend for the young changeling, but almost like a blink of an eye, it was Monday again and Silver Rose found herself sitting in homeroom again, watching as Mr Fowl wrote some words on the board.

While school wasn’t all too bad, she already found herself wishing it was the weekend, just so she could have some more time with Home Run. On Saturday, they had gone out for dinner at the mall, deciding on a Prench place to eat at. The waiter had a ridiculously fake accent, but at least it entertained both of them. After that, they had found a quiet spot to make out a bit before her aunt picked her up. All in all, it was a nice date, and it left her wanting more.

For history, Mr Fowl taught them about the rise and fall of kings and queens after the time of her cousin, Morn Dread’s time. There had even been an uprising at one point, where a man called Rosebuck the Bull eventually led the land of Glascow into separating from Canterlot’s kingdom.

Her teacher went on to talk about how they had left because of the oppression received from the monarchy then, by King Dark Ward, a king who took over after Silver’s mother had “passed”.

It was always weird listening to Canterlot’s history, seeing as her mother had lived through most of it, telling her the tales, whether they were exaggerated or not. Some of it was plain wrong, like the Battle of Canterlann. That hadn’t been the spectacle taught in class at all.

Silver was just done taking a page of notes when she smelled something… off. It was an unusual smell, like musty blankets with smoke. She looked up to the front, where Indigo quickly looked away once she made eye contact with her.

Great… What is it now…

She continued to watch Indigo in between pen strokes. The sporty girl had some kind of sachet of something in her hands, and as Silver watched, she ripped it open and sprinkled some behind herself.

“Indigo Zap, what are you doing?” Mr Fowl looked at her over his glasses. “Clean that up before you leave. I won’t stand for ants coming into my classroom for a sugary snack, is that clear?”

Indigo looked at the packet in her hands and smacked her forehead. “Shoot, I thought this was salt.”

“That doesn’t make it any better. Clean it up.”

“Right, sorry, Mr Fowl. I’ll get on it when the bell rings.”

Why would she be playing with salt? Silver wondered with mild amusement. It wasn’t as though she could have been trying to season the floor. The only other thing that salt was used for was preserving food, like that chef on television, Goredon Rampage sometimes did, or…

She recalled something her aunt had told her when using her mother’s lab.

“Salt was sometimes used as a reagent to ward off evil spirits or dark magic. A circle of salt around someone’s house often meant that they were protected against malefic powers. So goes the story anyway. In reality, salt does nothing except stop snails and slugs.”

“So she’s trying to protect herself from me?” Silver couldn’t help but laugh.

“Something to say, Silver Rose?” Mr Fowl called from the front.

“Oh, um, no-nothing, Mr Fowl…”

“So, yew-kay-tahs, huh?” Canvas Splash asked as she slipped a spoonful of peas into her mouth. “I don’t know much about Eastern culture, to be honest, but I don’t mind wearing a robe, I suppose.”

Silver cringed at Canvas’ butchering of Eastern language, but chose not to say anything about it. “Yeah, Mr Fowl’s put my homeroom in charge of getting the yukatas and other props for everyone. Some of them want outfits like the ones they wear in Eastern cartoons. Like ninjas and stuff.”

“Sounds neat.” Canvas shoved another spoonful into her mouth. “You know what I have to do? We’re creating decor. Perfect for someone like me, eh?”

Silver smiled. “Speaking of art, mother said to ask you about which of your pieces you wanted to display at the exhibition and where you’d like them placed. She said something about calling all her art lover friends to see them.”

“Ooh, goodie. I do hope they like them. I’ve never shown my art to anyone before. Well, mainly because they think I’m a looney. Hey the fair is on the twentieth next month, right? Do you think CHS will be able to get all their stands up by then? It’s not that long.”

“CHS hasn’t let us down before,” Silver shrugged. “Besides, they have magic. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Yeah. Won’t it be cool? You know, to have magic. Imagine if I could like, shapeshift!” Canvas wiggled her fingers over herself. “Or like, cast lightning bolts. Or breathe fire! Or like, even just being immune to fire! I burnt my pinkie last night on the stove.”

“Why were you messing about with the stove?” Silver asked, bemused.

Canvas rubbed her finger, which had a bandage around it. “I was trying to melt some crayons for my next art piece. I thought maybe it would be easier to use them like paints. It didn’t really work out.”

“That’s a shame.”

Canvas shrugged. "Sometimes art works like I want and sometimes it doesn't. It's all part of the experience."

“Yep. Hey, do you ever wish you had magic, Silver? Or like, superpowers?”

“I, uh, never gave it much thought,” Silver lied. “Just didn’t think about it till now.”

“Oh.” Canvas sat back and went back to her meal. “Well, I think it would be so cool if you did. You’re always looking out for me, Silver. If you had powers, maybe you could do a whole lot of good. Like those CHS girls.”

“Don’t you find magic weird, Canvas?” Silver decided to ask. “It seems everyone’s just taking magic as a norm now, since the Friendship Games incident.” That reminded Silver about what Sunny had said, about them not being here to play nice. Along with her rhombus mistake. It made Silver smile thinking about that.

“Magic? I mean, nah, not really. It’s cool and all, but why would we find it weird.”

Silver shrugged. She really didn’t know how to answer that. As Canvas finished up her lunch, she went back to plotting out her acquisition of props and costumes. She figured they’d have to make most of them by hand, but that would be an interesting experience. She’d never done anything like sewing or costume design before, but after seeing her aunt do it, how hard could it be?

The twentieth, hmm?

Silver looked at the calendar on her phone. They had about a month to get everything in order. She didn’t know how long the outfits would take, but if her homeroom were to just work together, they should be able to get it all done in no time.

Speaking of homeroom, Silver had yet to make any new friends this school year. Almost all the faces in homeroom were new to her, and she didn’t like to approach people for no reason. But in the end, perhaps she didn’t really need any new friends. The last thing she needed was more of them turning out like the Shadowbolts after her own slip ups. Slip ups that she still didn’t know how to recover from.

Since their date the other day, Silver had yet to receive even one text from Sunny Flare. On a normal basis, Sunny would text her a whole lot, sometimes even with something obscene. Even though this blunder had gotten quite out of hand, at least Sunny had stopped trying to get some action from her, though Silver hoped the friendship wasn’t lost. Her goal here was to gain love, be it from friends or lovers, and losing some of that would surely count against her.

Trying to take her mind of her complicated relationships, Silver thought back to her duties for the Eastern Fair. CHS and Crystal Prep were actually gearing to work together for something to help their students bond after the Friendship Games. She didn’t know if it was going to work, seeing as their schools had a history of competition, but she had seen how both schools could work together for a greater goal. Perhaps with events like these, a proper bond could be forged. That would also mean more chances to see Home Run, though she was in the wrong persona.

Silver thought back to her aunt. Ivory Wings had agreed to teach her more about the East. She had lived there for a long time, and had been quite important while living there. Since part of this Eastern Fair was to learn about the East, a few lessons from her aunt would not go amiss. She actually had the advantage here. While other students would have to go research on their own, she had her aunt to help her with what she needed to know.

As for her own yukata, she could just use that during the fair and she could also use it as inspiration for the other ones she had to put together. Or perhaps buying them all online would be much easier. It wasn’t like she couldn’t afford it anyway. Hay, all the students at Crystal Prep could probably afford it.

“Hey, Silver, do you think a yew-kay-tah would make me look fat?” Canvas squeezed at her belly.

The rest of the week passed mostly uneventfully, except for some weird looks and smells Silver was getting from the Shadowbolts. It made her nose itch but nothing bad seemed to come of it, so she decided to let them be for now. She didn’t want to go waste time snooping around anyway.

Literature class had been quite the drag, with them going over the book they had read over the break: One Thousand Years of Companionship. It had been a dreadful experience to read, and much worse to discuss it in class. Ms Post Script said it was one of the best pieces of literature ever written, which Silver could just not comprehend why. She had been so lost as to who was who and with Ms Script referring to all of them just like the book did, her confusion had carried over to the classroom.

Other than that, the rest of her classes were enjoyable enough. Algebra was so much easier than calculus, though she still had a little difficulty in grasping number-related subjects for some reason. But it didn’t matter. Home Run would always be able to help her out and she loved that.

Physics was easy enough and filled with common sense. If she were to fail this, her mother would probably kill her.

Art started off difficult, but after watching enough of her classmates paint, Silver managed to mimic their movements and produce some quality art. At least, she thought they were good. Mrs Artsy Fartsy said she needed to work on her symbolism, but Silver was just glad she could paint decently.

On Thursday, Silver had her first fencing practice of the new school year, which she had been looking forward to. Fleur had replaced Quillion as the new captain, as the boy had graduated, and she deserved it. She was really skilled. And that had been proven twice as Silver lost to her both rounds they sparred. But she didn’t mind losing to Fleur. It gave her time to analyze and mimic her movements, which in due time, would help her one day stand victorious. Hopefully.

Throughout the week, she had secretly gotten her aunt to help her prep a bunch of generic yukatas to bring to school. Her classmates had congratulated her on getting them done so quickly, which Silver didn’t really like, though it tasted somewhat decent at least. With just decorating and personalizing the yukatas left, the class’ focus had gone to designing the Eastern cartoon costumes.

Trenderhoof had shown her some of the most popular outfits for guys and girls. The guy ones were mostly ninjas, but the girl ones, which Trenderhoof also said were ninjas, were basically underwear. Just looking at the pictures made Silver’s face turn bright red. There was no way she was going to even leave the house in just underwear, but some of the girls seemed to express interest in wearing those outfits. Principal Cinch and Dean Cadance would never allow it, but she didn’t know if this would be a special circumstance, seeing as it was donning some Eastern culture.

“Did you see your mother in the swimsuit edition?” Trenderhoof had asked her. “She really knows how to cover just enough, but at the same time, reveal everything.”

“Unmm, right…”

Silver didn’t know how to react to statements like these, plus, it was weird that her schoolmates had seen her mother’s naked body before, or at least most of it. She still remembered that one movie where her mother had dropped the towel she was wearing before changing in front of the male protagonist. Silver had covered her eyes, though her mother had said there was nothing wrong with that.

“My nipples were out of sight,” she had said. “What’s wrong with you?”

All conversations always led back to her mother somehow, and that was starting to be tiresome too. Since school started, no one had asked her how she was or how she was doing. It was always about her classes, her mother, or… yeah, mostly about her mother.

Perhaps that was why she loved Home Run so much. He would always make her feel special, like she was wanted, like she was needed.

But now, she wasn’t Moonglade. She was Silver Rose, and she had to remember that.

But not for long. As she got into the shower, Silver quickly washed away her dyes and added the other ones, emerging a while later as Moonglade. Besides the tutors she had to see tomorrow, she also had a hot date with Home Run, and she wasn’t going to miss that for the world.

Chapter 115 - The Key Word

“Silver? Silver Rose!”

“Huh, huh? What?” Silver blinked and looked up. Mr Pivot had a hand lifted, looking at her from the front of the class.

“I called you six times. Are you paying attention?”

“Oh, sorry, Mr Pivot. I think I, umm… zoned out… for a second.”

That earned snickers from most of the class. Silver ducked her head lower and avoided eye contact.

“Right. Would you please answer, Silver…” her teacher continued. “What are three signs of psychosis in a human?”

“Uhm, hallucinations, delusions, and a depressed mood,” Silver recited from the book.

“Very good. Now please pay attention, yes?” Mr Pivot turned back to the powerpoint to continue his lesson.

Instead or perking up, Silver went back to her thoughts and sighed. Over the weekend, she had a fantastic date with Home Run. They had gone to see a baseball game at the Canterlot Stadium, followed by dinner at the diner where Pinkie Pie worked. Home Run had been so excited about the game that he was talking about it most of their time together. Just seeing him so happy had made Moonglade smile.

Pinkie had joined in from time to time, coming in to rapid fire questions at her, which Moonglade didn’t quite enjoy. She had just wanted time with Home Run and no one else.

Near the end of their date, Home Run had asked her if she wanted to go to the Eastern Fair with him. Of course, she had said yes, which now brought her to her current predicament.

Silver Rose had a duty to perform, giving out costumes on the day itself. But Moonglade had been invited to go with Home Run. Obviously, she couldn’t be in two places at once, so somehow, she had to remove Silver Rose from the equation; she would pick Home Run over costumes any day.

But what excuse was she going to give? And Canvas had also wanted to hang out together during the fair. She was going to have to disappoint her best friend.

Sickness seemed to be the best excuse, but that seemed a tad bit overused. She was going to have to do a little better than that.

She could see it now, walking arm in arm with Home Run in her black and green yukata. That made her wonder if she would have the chance to take things up a notch. Yukatas were just robes and if the belt were to slip or loosen, it could be quite the revealing outfit. She imagined teasing Home Run, but then stopped herself again. This was Moonglade’s thought. Not Silver Rose’s.

Pull it together, girl. Not now.

For now, she would have to bide her time and just make sure everything was set for the big event.

Canvas’ homeroom had made up amazing decorations for the fair. There were posters and even banners showcasing various things that represented Eastern culture, like castles, armor and weapons, and even Eastern cartoons. There was one castle that Silver really liked. It looked ominous, as though someone’s samurai grandfather was about to emerge from it and stab someone with a katana. At least, that was the impression she got when she saw it.

“Silver? Silver Rose!”

“Huh, what?” Silver looked around, her daydreaming disappearing in a puff of smoke.

“Pay attention!” her teacher yelled.

“S-Sorry…” Silver blushed and looked away as her classmates laughed.

With mostly everything on her part done with the Eastern Fair, Silver Rose found she could sit back and relax, all that was left being the Eastern cartoon costumes. Those took time and they required skills she didn’t have. Stitching.

She recalled asking her mother about stitching once, but the elder changeling had said it was the job for maids and butlers, not for royalty. So no, stitching wasn’t one of her skill sets, though her aunt was quite handy with that. After all, she was supposedly making that outfit for her for the blood moon night.

Silver smiled at the thought. The blood moon night was the night the sirens were to get their magic back. With that done, they should become less of a nuisance. Life would be so much easier without Adagio’s constant sex drive, Aria’s total nihilist attitude, and Sonata’s brainless comments.

Now all she had to do was survive till Halloween. Two more months seemed like a long time to wait, but she could be patient. As she had read once in a book, ‘until you stalk and overrun, you can’t devour anyone’.

Overall, things were going quite well. Sunny Flare had even stopped making advances on her, though she seemed a lot jumpier and slightly more distant now, although they were meant to be dating. She couldn’t remember the last time she had spoken to Sunny. Oh wait, she remembered. The last they had spoken or even been together was at the cafe where Sunny had freaked out when she saw her fangs.

Silver hit herself for that. It was still a terrible blunder and she hoped she hadn’t given up her family’s identity because of it. It had been a terrible mistake and that seemed to have done something between her and the Shadowbolts.

Sunny wasn’t supposed to remember any of it, though. The drug was supposed to make sure of that. But yet, something had happened.

Silver ran her tongue over the edges of her teeth inside her mouth. She knew that the Shadowbolts already suspected her of witchery, and who knew what else they had on her and her family. What kind of punishment she would be in for from her mother if word did get out made Silver shudder.

And it wasn’t just punishment for her. If word did get out of the existence of changelings, there would be a lot of witnesses her mother would have to… remove. And she didn’t want anyone to be removed, even the Shadowbolts. While they were all being weird right now, they were still friends she had made.

Silver had been okay with doing Pierce in, because he had done something terrible to both her mother and her aunt, and she didn’t know him personally.

If she had to deal with the Shadowbolts herself, she didn’t know if she would be able to. Silver shuddered again and tried not to think about it.

“Cold, Silver?” Canvas asked her as she walked over from her locker, holding a stack of books in her arms. “You can borrow my coat if you like. Though you’ll be going home soon. I’m not sure if you need it.”

“Oh, no thanks, Canvas.” Silver smiled and shut her locker. “Like you said, I’ll be outside soon.”

“Yep. Doing anything today, Silver? Do you want to hang out? I’m free today.”

“Oh, sorry, Canvas.” Silver didn’t want to disappoint her friend, but she already had plans. “My aunt needed my help with something. I’ve to go home to help her.”

“Oh. Don’t worry about it, Silver.” Canvas wiggled her stack of books. “I still have Sketchy, so I’m not alone.”

“Right, umm, then I’ll see you, Canvas.” Silver waved and made her way out of school. Next weekend was Canvas’ exhibition and Silver was a little excited for that. Her friend needed the recognition she deserved and she was about to get it.

The young changeling’s aunt was already waiting at the front of the school for her and once she was past all the looking eyes, she relaxed and buckled herself in. “Hey, Aunt Ivory. How’s your day?”

Ivory started the engine and rolled away from CPA. “I’ve had a decent day, sweetie. Your mother’s out at one of her shoots today, so I’ve had the freedom to do whatever I want without her breathing down my neck. You ready for your fitting? I’ve gotten your base outfit together. For the blood moon night.”

“Oh, that was fast,” Silver said plainly. “What am I supposed to be doing on the night of the ritual, again?”

“You,” Ivory said as she ran a yellow light. “Are going to be guarding the path to the ritual site from any would-be meddlers. It’s highly possible that someone might come to try and stop us from succeeding on Halloween, so your task is to stop them from interrupting us.”

“How do you know it’ll work?” Silver asked curiously.

Ivory grimaced. “To be honest, I’m not a hundred percent that it will. But I’ve set the best odds we can have, as well as the assistance of two people who are well versed in magic. It’s all or nothing at this point.”

“I hope it works…” Silver wrung her hands together. “The sirens are really getting out of hand. “You know Adagio tried to rape me the other day?”

“She tried to what?” Ivory hissed, slamming on the brakes. A car behind them swerved to avoid them and crashed into a fire hydrant, sending up a plume of water. “Ah, piss.”

“What? What’s going on?” Silver asked, craning her neck to see.

Ivory put the car back into gear quickly. “Nothing. Let’s just go before anyone sees. Now explain yourself, young lady. What happened.”

“I-I didn’t do anything wr-wrong… I don’t think I did…” Silver looked at her feet. “Just wrong place at the wrong time, I guess. Adagio was uh… she was um, to-touching herself at the living room, an-and I happened to walk by…”

“You’re right. This is getting out of hand.” Ivory planted a hand on her forehead. “But do tell. What happened next?”

“Aunt Ivory!”

“What? It’s still juicy stuff, even if I don’t like it happening to you. Go on.”

“She just cornered me and st-started um, touching m-my, umm… chest. Area. She was saying, uhh, about… relieving her pl-pleasure on me...” Silver’s face was turning red by the second. “Well I mean, uh… I h-had a date with Ho-Home Run that day, so I umm… I managed to squeeze away from her, cause I had to g-go. Do you thi-think you can do something about that, Aunt Ivory? I don-don’t want to have to, uh, keep running away. In my own house...”

“I’ll have some words with her,” Ivory promised. “Now, back to your uniform. I’ve picked out the color as matte black. It should show off your changeling skin perfectly well. I’ve also included a sword-belt so that you can attach your weapon to it without too much trouble.”

“Umm, question, Aunt Ivory. Why would I need to show off my changeling skin? And I’m not going as someone else?”

“No, you’re not. Nobody has ever seen you without your disguises before, so therefore it is the perfect disguise. No one will be able to connect anything back to us. And, it’s always nice to look good, yes?”

“I suppose it does.” It was true. Silver did enjoy always looking as beautiful as she could, even if her mother didn’t think she was that pretty, it was still nice to be pretty enough for herself. “So is the outfit special? Does it allow me to like, do stuff?”

“Oh, you’ll see, little one.” Ivory smiled. “Just wait till we get to my workshop, yes?”

Now Silver had gotten excited as to what kind of suit her aunt had made her. The rest of the ride back, she couldn’t keep still, bobbing up and down in her seat and constantly looking out the window as the mansion got closer.

Once the car was parked, Ivory and Silver went into the house and made a beeline for the workshop. There was a heavy sewing machine on the table this time, as well as great sheets of black fabric. In the far corner was some kind of small black anvil and something Silver recognized from The Warlocker 3 as a blacksmith’s forge. There were coals and ashes in the forge, but they were cold and quiet.

“How’d you get that in here?”

“Oh, you know, I have my ways.”

And standing near the middle of the space, surrounded by sawdust, metal filings, and leather snippings, was a mannequin. It was covered in some kind of longcoat or a robe with a hood and long sleeves. There were gloves and pants and even a pair of boots, all in matte black. All in all, Silver thought it looked quite sleek, like an assassin’s or a spy’s clothes for blending in at night.

“This… this is for me?” Silver asked, reaching out to touch the mannequin.

“Obviously it’s not finished yet,” Ivory said, picking up a loose loop of metal that had fallen on the ground near her foot. “But the basic template is there. I just need to make sure it fits you perfectly, so that you can perform at your best on the big night. Come on, try it for size.”

Skillfully taking the clothes off the mannequin, Ivory slid the coat around Silver’s body. It fit her perfectly, and was comfortable as if she had been wearing it for years. However, something tipped Silver off that this wasn’t just an ordinary coat. It was abnormally heavy and the cloth was thick. There was a faint clinking from inside the coat as she turned around to examine herself.

“Chainmail, sweetie,” Ivory explained. “It’ll help should anyone decide to attack you with sword slashes, but not much on stabbing, so watch yourself.”

“Who’ll come after us with swords, Aunt Ivory? Are we expecting those Assassins you mentioned?”

“Oh, no. They’re gone, I’m sure.” Ivory tapped the sleeve of Silver’s suit. “The one I’m worried about is Sunset Shimmer. You’ve faced her in combat, have you not? She’s not to be underestimated.”

“But they have magic. What if they just use magic?”

“I’m working on that,” Ivory said, pointing upwards. “In the alchemy lab. I’m brewing something that should help should they try to bring magic to fight you. I don’t know that they will, but as the adage goes, always be prepared. Besides, we’ll have the blood moon on our side.”

“Are we sure it affects me too? I-I’m not like you and mother, after all.”

“It should. To an extent, should it not be its full effect. All magic is amplified. The blood moon night is a magical night. Witches used to use it to perform their rituals. If it comes to it, you could use those claws you learnt how to create.”

“Won’t that reveal we aren’t human, though?”

“It will be Halloween. Nobody looks human on Halloween,” Ivory said calmly. “And besides, people here are strangely accepting of unusual things, so long as they’re presented under unusual circumstances.”

Silver thought back to the Friendship Games and the magic that had been on display during that event. “I guess so, yeah. But… if they are… won’t we be able to reveal we’re changelings? Then we don’t need to hide anymore.”

Ivory shook her head. “That’s unacceptable. Your mother and I have gone over that possibility before, and not once has it ended well. People always want to either study us or put some kind of restriction on us. Eventually we had to kill everyone who knew and return back to hiding. It’s just better for everyone this way.”

“But no one’s trying to capture Sunset and her friends or anything.”

“Yet, sweetie. That’s the key word. Yet.”

“Oh.”

“So, do you like your outfit?” Ivory leaned against her workbench and folded her arms.

“It’s really nice, Aunt Ivory.” Silver spun around and hopped a bit to test the weight. “Fashionable and safe. You always outdo yourself. I can’t wait to finally get the sirens back to normal too. Do you really think they’ll go back to being uh, their normal selves?”

Ivory Wings sighed. “I really hope they do. As they are now, the Sirens are only emulating some of humanity’s worser traits. Frankly, it’s embarrassing.”

“It really is…” Silver covered her face.

“Well, not long now.” Ivory tapped her niece under the chin. “So look up, okay? We’ll be doing our best to get them back the way they were. And you’re going to be a big part of it.”

There was a buzzing sound from Ivory Wings’ pocket. She pulled out a phone, a pink one with a white cover that was different from the black one she normally used..

Ivory clicked ‘answer’ on it. “Hello, Sunset Shimmer,” she said in a quiet, but commanding voice. “What do you have for us?”

Chapter 116 - To Be High Art

By the end of the school week, Silver Rose’s class had basically done all they needed to do for the Eastern Fair. They had even created a few types of brochures to educate others on how Eastern culture was different from Canterlotian culture. It was quite fun, and Mr Fowl had been pleased with what they had come up with.

This Saturday, she wasn’t out with Home Run, which made her a little disappointed, but that disappointment was washed away, because she was here at Canvas Splash’s art exhibition her mother had thrown together.

All the way out in Manehattan, Ebony Wings had hired a work crew to arrange and display all the art that Canvas had picked out before. And now, Silver and Canvas were here, dressed in some more formal-looking clothes, waiting for the doors to open to the gallery.

“I’m so excited, Silver!” Canvas squeed. “Look at all these people lining up out here.”

“Yeah,” Silver said, looking around. There were several celebrities that she recognized from TV, as well as a group of people in suits who, according to the little badges on their jackets, were from the Art Lover’s Association. There were also a smattering of other minorly famous people as well as others who just wanted to see what this new exhibit was about. The atmosphere smelled of all manner of emotions, and Silver couldn’t for the life of her keep up with them all.

Silver was dressed in a long sleeved grey shirt today, along with her black skirt, while Canvas had on a pink shirt and a maroon vest over a bright yellow skirt. It was a little painful for the eyes, but Silver didn’t quite mind. Canvas was her best friend, after all.

“Well, young Canvas, it’s your big day,” Ebony Wings’ voice came from behind them. She wore a flowing green dress and had on a small black jacket. “The exhibition will open in ten minutes, and I’ve brought along some very special people for you to see it with.”

With a sweep of her hand, Ebony stepped aside to reveal both of Canvas’s parents, who pounced on their daughter with overflowing joy.

“Ma precieuse fille.” Her mother squeezed her cheeks and gave her a big hug. “I’m so proud of you, having an exhibition to showcase all your wonderful art.”

“I’m glad others will get to see the talent you have, dear.” Her father gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Your mother’s right. We’re so very proud of you, Canvas.”

“People’s eyes will be opened to what you can do,” her mother said. “Um, they shall see past what they don’t understand about you and see what you can actually do.”

“Oh, okay.” Canvas smiled. “I was going to ask.”

“Ms Wings, we cannot thank you enough for your willingness to put this together.” Canvas’ father shook Silver’s mother’s hand. “It’s always been Canvas’ dream to hold an exhibition for her work.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble, really,” Ebony said in a tone that she probably thought was humble. “As an artist myself, I wanted to help out my daughter’s friend, since we both share an affinity for art.”

“Speaking of your daughter,” Canvas piped up. “Is Moonglade coming today? I don’t see her here.”

“Moonglade is out with her boyfriend today,” Ebony said, looking at Silver down her nose with an expression that made her look as if she had bitten into a lemon. “Saturdays are her usual days out with him. Yes. Who am I to stop love, right?” The sour face intensified before being replaced with her classic movie star smile. “I’ll leave you four here; I’ve got to open the exhibition.”

Canvas’s parents watched her go, then went back to fawning over their daughter. Silver stood to the side, trying to avoid any cameras.

“She really doesn’t like you dating that boy,” Ivory’s voice said from behind Silver Rose. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her break character like that in public before.”

The younger of the changeling sisters was dressed in a crisp black suit, minus the bowtie or tie.

“She can’t expect Home Run to treat her like royalty. And not everyone has the status and power she basks in. Though, it’s not as if she hasn’t dated her fair share of people. They just tend to end up deceased once she’s done with them.”

“Dating is a relatively new word, sweetie.” Ivory put a hand on her shoulder. “If you’re talking about dating, she’s only done it once. With your father. But you’re right. Look where he ended up.”

“Thank you all for coming today,” Ebony Wings announced from the front of the gallery. There was a microphone in front of her face and she was looking out at the crowd as if each one of them was an old friend. “I greatly appreciate everyone taking time out of their busy lives to come to this exhibition. The artwork you are about to see is done by a relative newcomer to the art world, but I’m sure you will agree, her work is already making waves. Please, enjoy the exhibition, with art done by Canvas Splash from Canterlot!”

There was a great outpouring of cheering and clapping as two members of the staff pulled open the doors. The crowd began to trickle inside, chattering and murmuring in anticipation. Among them were Canvas and her parents, who looked absolutely tickled pink.

“Well, shall we go on in?” Ivory pushed Silver gently in her back.

The interior of the gallery was tastefully lit with white mood lighting, and there was a purple carpet underfoot. Various serving staff walked about, offering champagne to the art viewers. Canvas stood there with her parents, looking ever so pleased at how things had turned out.

“There’s so many people looking at my art,” Canvas told Silver in hushed tones. “I wonder what they all think?”

“I think they like them.” Silver gave Canvas’ hand a squeeze. “You’re really talented, Canvas. It’s just that people don’t realize it.”

Silver inhaled and tasted the atmosphere. A lot of adoration, similar to love, was being directed towards the artwork. The people from the Art Lover’s Association were excitedly pointing and fawning over the front section of the exhibit, while the celebrities strolled around the gallery with champagne in hand, approvingly viewing everything.

It made her glad that her mom had allowed this to happen. Perhaps she wasn’t all that selfish, after all. It was a good exposure for Canvas. She might be weird, yes, but she was highly talented in what she did, and she was her best friend. Silver felt a little warm inside, knowing that her friend was happy. It was nice, to have friends.

“You know, I was twice your age when I had my first exhibition,” Canvas’s mother was saying. “It wasn’t all my work either. It was a class exhibit. But this, this is all you. You should be proud of yourself.”

“Yeah, this is cool.” Canvas grinned.

Silver Rose idly shuffled over to the nearest exhibited painting, which was of a busy street at night. The painting was rather dark in tone, but accented by the bright whites and yellows of the streetlights. A lone girl stood in the middle of the street, clutching a teddy bear in one hand.

“What’s this one mean again?” Silver pointed at it. “It’s really nice.”

“Oh, yes.” Canvas bounced over. “This one’s called A Silent Desolation. It speaks about how vast and incredible the world could be, but there’s nothing nice about it if you have no one to share it with. It’s lonely to be alone.”

“Wow. I… didn’t know you could get metaphoric, Canvas. Uh, no offense.”

“Art’s different. It lets you express yourself. Seeing as I’m not very good with that, I suppose it shows more in my work.”

“Makes sense.” Silver walked to the next one, which was a painting of the giant plant monster from the Friendship Games. “Cool. What would this one mean?”

“Oh, that?” Canvas chuckled. “This one’s just a giant plant monster. I thought it looked cool, so I painted it.”

“Oh.”

“I like it,” a cheerful voice said from behind them. “It reminds me of when a friend of mine tried capturing magic but then it all went out of control and she turned into a flying monster!”

Silver Rose stiffened. I know that voice…

She sniffed, smelling something like cake frosting before turning around. She kept a pleasantly surprised expression on her face as her eyes beheld a pink girl with curly, poofy hair, and another whose name she would not forget, ever since that duel at the Friendship Games.

“Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie!” Silver exclaimed, taking a step backwards. “Wh-What a surprise.”

“Not much of a surprise!” Pinkie smiled widely. “Sunset’s a painter herself, so she wanted to come! So I thought sure, I’ll accompany her. So you painted all this?” Pinkie was suddenly beside Canvas. “It’s all really nice! You have a talent for painting! Did you know you have a talent?”

“Umm… yeah, I mean, I know I have it,” Canvas answered the bubbly girl. “Nobody here’s supposed to know I did it, though. Secret secret.”

“Oooh, okay then!” Pinkie said in a stage whisper. “I have no idea who painted these, nope.”

Canvas edged closer to Silver. “She forgot who painted these already? And I thought I had a bad memory.”

Sunset Shimmer had her phone up and was taking a picture of the painting. “Whoever did these is really good,” she said with a small smile to Canvas. “No idea who it is, though.”

Canvas’ eyes widened and she raised an eyebrow to Silver as if to ask, ‘are they looney?’

Sunset lowered her phone and nodded at the painting. “I like the technique used here. It’s like an old seventeenth century old master’s but done with modern tools. Very innovative.”

“Is that so?” Silver said blandly. “Well, if it’s here, mother must think it’s worth showing. Ha ha.”

“Yeah. Too bad Rarity couldn’t make it today. She’d love the chance to be this close to Ebony Wings.”

Oh yeah. Home Run has friends who are crazy over my mother…

“Umm… that’s… too bad. I guess.”

“Maybe we can get Rarity and Rainbow autographs!” Pinkie suggested. “Come on, Sunshim! Let’s go find Ebony Wings!”

With that, the two of them were gone, melding into the crowd around them.

“Well… That was strange.” Canvas eventually broke the odd silence. “And people think I’m weird?”

“Funny old world, isn’t it?” Silver replied.

A pair of people from the Art Lover’s Association walked by, chatting animatedly about a painting of a heart-shaped moon that had been hanging up on the other side of the gallery. Not too far away, a man that Silver recognized from TV was standing back from an ink sketch, a hand to his chin as he contemplated it.

“People really like your stuff.”

“Yeah! It’s cool! But I really enjoy how no one knows that it’s me.” Canvas snickered to herself. “This is fun! We should do it more, Silver.”

Silver took in a breath to reply, but then she tasted something that didn’t fit in this happy gathering. It was a thread of suspicion, and it tasted as though someone had left a pinch of salt in her pudding. And more alarmingly, it was directed at her. A short distance away, Ivory Wings subtly frosted over, communicating that she had smelled it too.

Focus, Silver. Don’t panic and act like you haven’t noticed anything.

She didn’t know where it was coming from, but the only people she knew to have any suspicion against her was Sunset and her friends. But why would they suddenly be suspicious now? They weren’t just a few minutes ago.

Silver slowly backed away, leaving Canvas to marvel at all the people in the gallery. She flicked her tongue out, following the thread of suspicion, all the way across the space, to where there were a gathering of people. She could see the top of her mother’s head in the crowd. As the fans parted, she could see Pinkie Pie with a notebook and marker, trying to get Ebony Wings’ attention. Sunset stood a little further away, wearing a somewhat shrewd and suspicious look on her face.

Well, that’s not good.

Silver tried to casually walk over to where her aunt was standing, whistling to make it look like she was just strolling about.

Pretending to look at a picture on the wall, Silver whispered to Ivory, “Aunt Ivory, there’s something wrong with Sunset Shimmer.”

“I noticed,” Ivory replied, also staring at the painting and leaning to the side as if examining it closely. “She suspects something.”

“But we aren’t doing anything wrong, are we?” Silver asked while pointing to the painting. “I mean, this is a public place.”

“Sunset Shimmer is involved in the, ah, plan to fix the siren gems. Maybe she suspects us because we live with them?” Ivory whispered. “I am quite sure that I let nothing slip. Perhaps it is her intuition that is telling her that something is wrong. She did inherit Emerald’s skills, after all.”

“Uh-huh…” Silver always got a little lost when her aunt started mentioning people whom she had not met. “So what should we do?”

Ivory exhaled through her nose. “We can’t do anything here without attracting undue attention. Just act natural and we can leave when your mother is done with whatever she is doing.”

“Oh. I thought we’d get to spend more time with Canvas.” Silver looked disappointed.

Down the hall, Ebony Wings was signing Pinkie Pie’s notepad. She did not seem to notice the smell of suspicion that was coming from Sunset Shimmer, but Silver Rose knew her mother too well to think that she was ignorant of it.

Eventually the crowd around Ebony Wings thinned and the actress was able to saunter over to where Ivory Wings and Silver Rose were standing.

“I think this has been rather successful, don’t you?” Silver’s mother said to the other two members of her family.

“Definitely,” Silver agreed. “Mother, there’s something up with Sunset Shimmer. She seems suspicious of us.”

Ebony Wings picked up a glass of champagne from a nearby server and sipped it. “I know. And I also know your aunt wants us to leave, but I can’t do that. This exhibition is arranged by me, so I have to stay until the day is over. You can leave if you like, though.”

Silver glanced at her aunt, who stared back with a crooked expression on her face.

“Sunset can’t prove anything, right?” she whispered to her aunt. Ivory shook her head. “Then I’m staying. I want to hang out with Canvas and share in her happiness. Besides, there’s a lot of good emotions here to eat.”

“Spoken like a true member of my family,” Ebony Wings smiled. “Very well. Enjoy yourself; I’m off to sign more autographs.”

Silver watched her mother sashay away into the crowd, but she tasted something from her that she didn’t usually smell. Pride, but directed not at herself but at Silver.

“Did… did I just make mother proud of me?” she asked. A smile broke out on her face, and she rushed off to find Canvas Splash.

Never mind Sunset Shimmer, Silver thought, skipping along. I just made mother proud of me!

Chapter 117 - The Face of a Fiend

“There she is,” Indigo Zap whispered to Lemon Zest.

Both girls were sitting in the cafeteria of Crystal Prep, hiding behind a stack of books that they had ‘borrowed’ from Sugarcoat’s bag, the owner of said bag currently talking to Dean Cadance about something to do with the Eastern Fair. Lemon and Indigo’s eyes peered out from a crack in their book fort at Silver Rose. The daughter of Ebony Wings was sitting a couple of tables away, talking animatedly with Canvas Splash about something.

“Do you really think this will work?” Lemon asked Indigo as they pretended to read a book about snakes that was upside down.

“It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but what if she’s really a demon or something?” Lemon whispered back. “If she goes berserk or something, someone could get hurt.”

“Relax,” Indigo held up a piece of red paper with Eastern characters written on it in black ink. “We just walk up to her, and stick this on. According to the guy I bought it from in the city, it’s supposed to shut down malevolent spirits.”

“Okay…” Lemon seemed less sure.

“You have the salt, right?” Indigo checked with Lemon.

The lime haired girl held up a large packet of sea salt. “Yep. Got it right here.”

“Then let’s roll.”

They stood up from behind their wall of books and almost bumped into Sugarcoat.

“Where are you two going?” Sugarcoat sighed.

“We’re gonna test if Silver Rose is really a demon or something!” Lemon chirped happily.

Sugarcoat facepalmed and put her hands on her hips. “I thought we agreed to lay low?”

“Yeah, we did,” Indigo replied, looking over at Silver Rose, who was now eating her pudding. “But I’m not going to just stand by and do nothing if she really is some kind of demon witch thing. I’m going to save CPA from her!”

“But she hasn’t done anything to CPA. It’s just Sunny Flare,” Sugarcoat said, exasperated.

“Well, are we going to wait until she does do something to CPA?” Indigo challenged.

“That’s not very good logic…” Sugarcoat pointed out with a sigh. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“Too late.” Sour Sweet’s voice came from behind Lemon Zest. She and Indigo ignored it.

Indigo and Lemon left their friends at the table and crept over to where Silver Rose was sitting. The daughter of Ebony Wings didn’t seem to notice, so absorbed was she in talking to Canvas. Quick as a flash, Indigo rolled from behind one chair to another, then slid, baseball style, into the cover of a pillar. Lemon followed suit somewhat less acrobatically, skulking over to where Indigo was crouching like a ninja.

“There she is,” Indigo whispered. “Ready with the salt?”

Lemon unsealed the packet of seasoning and nodded. “Ready.”

“Let’s do this thing.”

Making sure that Silver Rose wasn’t about to turn around, Indigo slid over and surreptitiously placed the paper talisman onto Silver’s back, while at the same time Lemon poured out a thin circle of salt around the seated girl’s chair. Then Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap scurried back to their own desk where Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, and Sour Sweet were waiting, looking a little unimpressed.

“Mission successful!” Lemon high fived Indigo, grinning at the rest of the Shadowbolts.

“Yes, congratulations,” Sugarcoat rolled her eyes. “You stuck a piece of paper onto someone’s back and poured salt on the floor. Surely you two are on your way to becoming professional demon hunters.”

“Hay yeah!” Indigo pumped her fist into the air. “Just like Vante and Dergil!”

“She was being sarcastic,” Sour Sweet grunted.

“Doesn’t matter. It was said.”

“I don’t think Dergil is even a proper demon hunter…” Sugarcoat mused while she shook her head. “He’s more of a cool, handsome foil to Vante who happens to be his twin brother. It would be more appropriate to say Vante and Ne-”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Indigo said as she sat back down and began to watch Silver Rose through her book fort. “Now let’s see if anything happens.”

“...so my aunt’s been giving me lessons about the East,” Silver said to Canvas, who was doodling something in her sketchbook. “She figured it would be useful to know since we’re throwing a festival that’s Eastern-themed.”

“Your aunt has been to the East?” Canvas asked in awe as her pencil worked furiously.

“Ahaha, yeah,” Silver nodded. “She was working there for a while as some kind of cultural appropriator, so she learned a lot about Eastern traditions and culture.” A bit too fond of it if you ask me. She thought privately.

“She must have so many stories to tell!” Canvas said with a grin. “It will probably be helpful to know once Cinch inevitably drops that test on us after the fair is over.”

“Yeah…” Silver slumped a bit upon thinking of that. “Well, it’s almost time to head back to class. Do you want me to take your tray to the trash for you, Canvas?”

“I’ll get it once I’m done with this,” the girl continued without looking up. “You go on ahead without me.”

Silver got up from her chair and stepped away from the table. There was a faint crunch beneath her shoe as she did so. She looked down.

On the shimmering crystal floor, there appeared to be a sloppy circle of faint white grains around Silver’s chair. She ground the tip of her shoe against it, breaking the circle. It looked like sugar, or maybe salt. Silver Rose frowned, but didn’t give it any more thought as she took her tray over to the trash slot.

Smelling something funny, Silver Rose reached over her back and felt something papery there. She peeled off the talisman and examined it. It was a bookmark-sized piece of red paper that had Eastern characters written on it in black ink. Silver smelled it. It smelled like a certain blue-haired Shadowbolt.

“Mmm…” Silver hummed as she turned around to the Shadowbolts’ usual table. There was a small wall of books piled on the table’s surface, and Indigo Zap and Lemon Zest were peeking out from between gaps at her.

Sighing, Silver put the paper talisman into her pocket and dumped the contents of her tray into the trash, then went back to her artistic friend.

Indigo and Lemon Zest were wide-eyed in awe and shock.

“Did you see that?” Lemon whispered, sweat beading on her face.

“Yeah. I did,” Indigo replied, equally hushed.

“Yes. Your little tricks didn’t do anything,” Sugarcoat said as she began to dismantle the book fort to put back into her bag. “Now will you leave well enough alone?”

“She must be a really powerful demon to shrug off the salt and charm like that,” Indigo Zap muttered.

“Wait, no-” Sugarcoat began, but her protests fell of deaf ears. “Sunny! Sour! Back me up on this.”

“I dunno, I kinda agree with Sugarcoat…” Sour Sweet grimaced. “I think we should just forget all about this. Silver hasn’t done anything to wrong us. Just Sunny.”

“I, uh…” Sunny looked embarrassedly at the wall. “I just kinda want all this to be over. Whatever magic she cast on me, or whatever, we should just leave it at that.”

“What if it comes back?” Indigo poked Sunny on the forehead. “Like, what if you start touching yourself again when you think about her?”

“C-Can we not bring that up? Especially not at school?” Sunny thought back to her encounter at the cafe with Silver and slumped. Not too long ago, she would have been ecstatic to think about Silver Rose in that light. Now it was just slightly creepy and not arousing at all. And just who had the woman in the pink frilly dress been?

Who she is has to be important… Sunny thought to herself while the rest of her friends continued to bicker around her. If only I could find out.

Sunny Flare sighed and drank some of her water, slumping down onto the table. There was too much she wanted to know, but Sugarcoat insisted that they not let Silver in on the secret that they knew about her… eccentricities. It might not end well for them.

But if she’s my girlfriend, it should be safe to ask her. Sunny thought, feeling thoroughly morose. There had been a time when she could have asked Silver anything, and expected an honest answer. Now, though, Sunny wasn’t so sure anymore. Had Silver ever told her the truth about anything, or had she been lying through that pretty smile of hers from the start?

“I just don’t know anymore…” Sunny mumbled.

“What’s that, Sunny?”

“I said I just don’t know anymore,” Sunny whined aloud. “I feel like we’re only looking at a small part of the bigger picture here. There’s got to be more that we’re not seeing.”

The other girls turned to Sunny.

“Are you suggesting that there’s a bigger conspiracy at work here?”

Lemon laughed. “Now what conspiracy could there possibly be?”

“Go on, Sunny,” Sugarcoat prompted. “It’s got to be better than salt and paper talismans.”

“Hey!” Indigo protested. Sugarcoat ignored her.

“I think that there’s a lot that we don’t know, and we can’t draw any definitive conclusions until we do know more.”

“And where would you suggest we learn this knowledge?”

“First, we need to go back to that camera footage,” Sunny said, now building up steam. “We need to find who that woman who shot me is. I have a feeling that once we find her, we’ll know more.”

“What if she’s dangerous?” Lemon asked, with Sugarcoat nodding assent. “She did shoot you, remember?”

“But she didn’t kill me,” Sunny reasoned. “Besides, I’d rather do something than spend the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I had done something. Do you understand me?”

The other Shadowbolts looked at each other. Then slowly, a grin spread across Indigo’s face.

“I’m in,” Indigo volunteered confidently. “Like you said, I’d rather take a risk now than spend the rest of time regretting it. Besides, you can’t go it alone. You need brains like mine to succeed.”

Indigo Zap put her hand on the table on top of Sunny’s, like she would before any major sports event. “C’mon girls, what do you say?”

It didn’t take long for Lemon Zest to fold. “Aw hay. If you’re really going to do this, then I’m in too. Footage is on my computer anyway.”

Sour Sweet groaned and scooted over. “You knuckleheads are really going to do this, huh? Well, then, someone has to keep you all in line. That’ll be me.”

The four of them looked at Sugarcoat. The bespectacled girl sighed in defeat. “Fine. But if the situation becomes life-threatening, then I think we should stop. Is that reasonable?”

“Nope,” Lemon Zest said happily. “You still with us anyway?”

Reluctantly, Sugarcoat put her hand on the stack and rolled her eyes.

“This is going to get us all killed.”

“You want me to do what?”

The Shadowbolts were all gathered outside Twilight Sparkle’s house. The now-Wondercolt was staring at her former classmates in bewilderment. They were holding out Lemon Zest’s laptop which had the footage from the cafe running on it in a loop.

“We need your help to track down the woman in this video,” Indigo said again. “The one in the frilly dress.”

“Yes, but why me? Why do you need to find this person?”

“That’s top secret,” Lemon Zest said haughtily. “But it is pretty cool, so I’ll tell you. Sunny Flare here thinks that Silver Rose is a vampire or something, and that there’s some kind of big conspiracy going on around her. We reckon finding the woman who shot Sunny is our best bet at figuring out the truth.”

Twilight stared at Lemon Zest as if looking for any signs of drug abuse. But when she didn’t find any and none of the others refuted her statement, Twilight at last slumped down and beckoned with her hand. “Come on in…”

The six girls went into Twilight’s room, where Spike was sleeping in his basket. She set Lemon’s laptop on her desk next to her own computer and began fiddling with the wires.

“I think I should be able to get a clear shot of that woman’s face from the camera footage,” Twilight booted up her PC and began clicking and typing rapidly. “From there on, it’s just a matter of cross-referencing it with the Canterlot police force’s own security cameras and profiles until we get a match. Assuming this woman lives in Canterlot. If she doesn’t, then I can’t help you.”

“Why do you have access to the Canterlot police force’s profiles?” Sugarcoat asked suspiciously.

Twilight coughed. “Well, my big brother is the police chief in Canterlot, and I sometimes help him organize the files on the database. Anyway, that’s not important. I’m going to run a scan for basic facial features. It’ll take a while, so don’t hold your breath.”

“If it can help find out what’s really going on, I’ll wait here all night,” Sunny said resolutely.

“You might just have to,” Twilight said heavily. “Come on. I’ll get some snacks out for us.”

Twilight was about to get up out of her seat when there was a knock on her bedroom door. “Twilight, you in there?” Came a familiar voice.

“Who’s that?” Sour Sweet hissed as she and the other Shadowbolts dived behind Twilight’s bed. Twilight got up to answer the door.

“Oh, Sunset! You’re here early,” Twilight said, welcoming Sunset Shimmer into her room with a smile. Sunset was carrying several books, all about Eastern culture which she set down on the bed.

“Yeah, I thought that we should make sure that our presentation about the Mareji dynasty matched up to the books and sources,” She caught sight of Twilight’s computer. “Whatcha working on, Twilight? Some kind of new invention?” Sunset leaned over the screen, when her attention was caught by the frozen camera footage on Lemon’s laptop. The color drained out of her face, leaving it a chalky white.

“Twilight?” Sunset said shakily. “Why do you have that person on your computer?”

“What?” Twilight exclaimed. “Oh, no, no, no, this is just a… thing I’m looking into.”

“Twilight, that woman almost killed me!” Sunset intoned.

“What?!” The Shadowbolts all said at once, jumping out from their hiding place.

Sunset jumped backwards and fell over backwards, windmilling her arms to keep her balance. “What are you all doing here?”

“We might ask you the same thing!” Indigo accused, pointing a finger at Sunset.

“I… I’m here to do work with Twilight on the Eastern Fair! Why were you all hiding behind the bed?”

“Never mind that,” Lemon interrupted. “You act like you know this woman. How?”

“You said she almost killed you,” Sugarcoat probed. “Tell us what happened.”

“Yeah, Wondercolt,” Sour Sweet added. “Spill it.”

Sunset looked around at all the expectant faces and sighed. “All right. It all started before the beginning of summer vacation…”

Chapter 118 - Square One

“... and she said she would be in touch,” Sunset finished. She rubbed her abdomen unconsciously; the poison that she and Princess Twilight had ingested had almost killed them unless they had agreed to help repair the sirens’ pendants.

The Shadowbolts sat there in various states of disbelief and shock as Sunset finished recounting her encounter with Mist Eerie. Which, Sunset deduced, was probably not her real name.

“You,” Lemon said once she picked her jaw up off the floor. “Are not making this up, are you?”

“It’s true,” Twilight said, taking off her glasses to rub her eyes. “Sunset contacted me about crystals and how to fix them a while ago. She told me the whole story, but I wasn’t sure about all the details. Now I am, and I’m very concerned that there’s an entire network of people trying to get the sirens’ gems back together.”

“And has this Mist Eerie contacted you?” Sugarcoat said, getting to the point.

“Not her specifically, but I’ve met two other people who claimed to be working with her,” Sunset sighed. “And no, they didn’t give me their names.”

“I’m running a search for Mist Eerie on the police database right now,” Twilight’s fingers tapped on the keyboard rapidly. “But I’m not hopeful we’ll find anything. These people, whoever they are, are smart.”

“But you’re smarter,” Sunset flashed Twilight a smile, who blushed and went back to her computer screen. “Anyway. You girls haven’t told me why you’re looking for Mist Eerie. I’ve told you my story, so you tell me yours. Maybe we can help one another.”

“I’m not sure we should-” Sunny Flare began, but Indigo Zap beat her to the punch.

“Okay, Sunset Shimmer. Here’s the deal. Sunny here’s been dating Silver Rose and then one day they went into the bathroom of this cafe to have sex or something and then that pink woman, Mist Eerie, shows up and shoots Sunny with something. We were already investigating some weird stuff with Silver, but this takes the cake.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that…” Sugarcoat grumbled. “But those are the main points.”

Sunset looked at Sunny Flare, who was blushing up a storm. “Wait. So you and Silver Rose…” Sunset made vague motions with her fingers before sighing and slumping in her seat. “Whatever. I’ll need to see what evidence you’ve gathered before we can formulate a plan. So, what have you got?”

Lemon took back her laptop from Twilight’s desk and began scrolling through the footage that their drone had taken, specifically the videos of the shooting gallery and the green-eyed creature from the Wings’ Estate’s attic.

“We also broke into their house,” Indigo said proudly.

Sunset blanched. “You did what?!”

“Technically we were invited in,” Sour Sweet smacked Indigo on the back of her head. “We were disguised as girl scouts.”

“Wait, you too?” Sunset gave Sour Sweet and the others a look of incredulity. “Small world…”

“Huh?”

“Oh. Me and the girls also dressed up as girl scouts to try and get into the Wings’ Estate. Didn’t work.”

“We had to knock Sunny out.” Indigo motioned a karate chop.

“Wait, it was you?!” Sunny rubbed at her neck. “You told me it was the heat that did me in!”

Indigo blew a raspberry. “To-may-to, to-mah-to.”

“That doesn’t even make sense here!”

“Besides, you were in such heat from this whole Silver Rose agenda, you would’ve fainted if you didn’t get enough sex from her anyway. I just sped up the process.”

“What?! No!” Sunny’s face was glowing red.

“Yeah, you should’ve seen her, Sunset.” Indigo nudged the CHS student. “Oh, Silver, yeah, right there, eat my pussy, ohhh, ohhh, yeahhh…”

“Hey! Stop being a bi-”

“Uhhhh, okay girls, too much information.” Sunset instinctively took a step back. “Anyway, we’ve had some suspicions of the household before, but we kind of let it go. Home Run, you remember him? He’s all about baseball.”

“Is he that blue boy who’s dating Silver’s sister?” Sunny asked. Silver had mentioned him a few times and he was hanging around her a bit during the Friendship Games. Sunny didn’t deny that she had been a bit jealous.

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Sunset nodded. She suddenly looked around almost warily, then crouched lower and spoke in a hushed tone. “Moonglade was the one to first approach him. We thought it might’ve been a ploy by the sirens, so we did some investigation of our own.”

“And?” Lemon asked loudly. “What did you find out?”

Sunset’s shoulders slumped. “Nothing noteworthy, except that their butler isn’t hostile. But,” Sunset weighed how much she should reveal about her abilities. “I have a reason to believe that Moonglade, Silver Rose, maybe both of them, are involved in the murder of our previous computer teacher, Mr. Pierce.”

Lemon’s eyes went wide as dinner plates and Indigo looked scandalized. Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare looked at each other, as if to confirm that they had heard what they had heard. Sugarcoat remained stoic as usual.

“I read about that in the paper,” the bespectacled girl said. “They said he died of a heart attack. There was no mention of a murder.”

“Now hold up!” Indigo interrupted them. “Silver Rose is weird and we think she might be a witch, but a murderer? Seriously? What? No way!”

“What kind of proof did you find that pegs them as suspected killers, anyway?” Sour Sweet looked as though she was eating a lemon.

“Nothing for certain…” Sunset sighed. “But something about her household is off. They’re hiding something. And, I don’t know, but Moonglade seems genuine. We just don’t really know what to do anymore.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Sour Sweet spoke up. “We find these sirens and squeeze ‘em for info. We’ll make them talk.”

“They won’t just say anything,” Sunset added. “But sneaking around doesn’t seem to work either. It’s like we’re always… being watched out there.”

The Shadowbolts all sank deep into thought; even Twilight looked more pensive than usual.

Finally Indigo spoke. “You promised to keep working with these people to fix the gems or whatever, right?”

Sunset nodded unhappily.

“Is there any way you could drag it out or fake progress or something? To buy time for more investigations?”

This time Sunset shook her head. “We’re on a tight schedule,” she explained. “These people know where I live, where me and my friends go to school. I don’t have a choice but to go along with them. Besides, I gave them my word.”

“Can’t you go back on it?” Sunny asked desperately.

Sunset looked as if she was considering it, but then shook her head again. “My word is the only thing keeping these people from striking at other people in revenge. Besides, I always keep my word.”

“Even if you were forced into giving it?” Sugarcoat asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Yes, Sugarcoat. Even then.” Sunset conceded with her head hanging low.

There came a moment of uncomfortable quiet. It was broken by a sound coming from Twilight’s computer.

“No matches on Mist Eerie on the police database,” She reported.

“Well, crud,” Lemon sighed. “Back to square one.”

“But,” Twilight held up her index finger. “I ran an advanced facial bone structure trace and found five possible matches. Look.”

On the computer screen were five photographs of women. One was marked as a teller in a bank, one was labeled as a veterinarian, the third was supposed to be a chef, and the fourth one was…

“Ivory Wings,” Sunny Flare read off the monitor. “Isn’t she Silver’s aunt?”

“That’s what she claims,” Sugarcoat agreed. “And doesn’t she live with the sirens up in that big fancy mansion?”

“Fishy,” Indigo Zap rubbed her chin with her hand. “Only, Ivory Wings and Mist Eerie have totally different colors and hair. What, are you saying that they could be the same person? Get real.”

“Hold on,” Lemon said, sounding unnaturally serious. “When we were in Ebony Wings’ house, I got to explore Moonglade’s bathroom. There were these weird bottles and tubes in there that didn’t have any labels, and they were all different colors. What if… they’re some kind of body paint?”

“You seriously think people are running around painting themselves?” Sour Sweet made a weird face. “Besides, don’t you think we would know if someone painted themselves?”

Lemon visibly deflated. “Yeah, you’re right, Sour. But I really thought I was onto something there for a moment,” She then puffed up again, looking jubilant. “But now we know there’s a link between the sirens and Mist Eerie, and that it’s got something to do with Silver’s aunt. What happens if you fix the siren gems anyway?”

Sunset shrugged. “They get their powers back? It’s not really a question of what so much as it’s a question of why. I have this horrible suspicion that whoever this Mist Eerie and her group are, they want to use the sirens to take over the world or something equally sinister. The murder of Mr. Pierce might only just be the beginning.”

“So the siren gems can… do what?” Indigo scratched at her head and looked excitedly at Sunset for an answer. “Can they like, shoot sonic screams from their mouths? Or fly?”

“Both, if the musical showcase was any example,” Sunset muttered dejectedly. “But it means they’ll also be able to hypnotize people with their song again. Among other things.”

Twilight took this moment to speak up. “Well, you beat them once before, couldn’t you just do it again?”

“Last time, the sirens didn’t have other people backing them up.”

“Oh. That’s true,” Twilight mumbled before returning to her computer to check the scans again. “Do… Do you think we should get the police involved? I could tell my big brother, he’d be happy to help us.”

“Explaining magic to the police might be a touch difficult,” Sugarcoat quipped. “Do you want to be detained and then shipped off somewhere to be a lab experiment?”

“For once I agree with Sugarcoat,” Indigo gave her friend a nod of approval. “We can’t count on the cops or anything. This is something we’ve got to do ourselves.”

“Why does that not fill me with confidence?”

“Oh, come on, Sour Sweet. It’ll be fun!” Lemon Zest said with a reassuring smile. “Think of it like a supernatural detective movie that we get to be part of!”

“Don’t people usually die in those?” Sour said, unimpressed.

“Yeah nah. Someone always lives.”

“But people do die...”

“I mean, yeah, it’s a movie. So?”

“So I don’t want to die, Lemon!”

“Nobody’s going to die,” Sugarcoat’s voice cut through the debate. “Twilight. We’ll leave a copy of our drone footage with you. Maybe you can make better sense of it than we could.”

Twilight nodded and Sugarcoat began to transfer the files to the other computer.

“Oh, and Sunset? Watch yourself around these people,” Sugarcoat had a dark look on her serious face. “Once you’re done fixing the gems, there’s no guarantee you’ll still be useful alive to these guys. Especially if you’re the reason the sirens lost in the first place.”

It was getting close to sundown by the time the Shadowbolts left Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer to work on their part for the Eastern Fair.

“Well, that was productive,” Indigo commented. “Now we know for sure there’s some kind of conspiracy going on here. Looks like you were right, Sunny.”

This revelation did not in any way improve Sunny’s mood. Now that they had confirmed that there was some kind of terrifying secret behind Silver Rose and possibly her family, she berated herself for not seeing something wrong sooner. Tearing a door off its hinges, now that she thought about it, should have been the first clue. But no, she had gone and fallen in love with Silver Rose and now she was reaping the consequences. At least now she wasn’t going to start touching herself in public on account of Silver Rose. Hopefully.

“So then why am I not happy?” She wondered aloud.

Perhaps it had been that for a few, golden months, she thought she had finally found love, her soulmate. And now that blissful dream had mutated into a nightmare. One where a fang-mouthed Silver Rose stood at its epicenter.

“We have to see this through, girls,” Sunny said as they walked to where Lemon had parked her van. “We’ve got to, or I’ll never forgive myself.”

Chapter 119 - Sick Leave

Silver Rose dropped the last stack of bottles down by Crystal Prep’s entrance, breaking out just a bit of sweat from the activity. While the weather had cooled since summer, she guessed she didn’t need to keep up appearances anymore, but at the same time, she didn’t want to go expending love energy for something as trivial as moving crates, so here she was, slightly sweaty, but doing very much okay.

The bottles in the crates contained some kind of flower extract that Eastern people loved so much. She didn’t know why people even wanted to drink flowers, but she wasn’t going to argue. After all, she’d seen her aunt drink bleach for who knows what reason.

“All done, Dean Cadance.” Silver approached the teacher as she stood by the steps, ticking off things on a clipboard.

“Well done, Silver Rose,” Cadance smiled. “All that’s left is the wasabi. Do you think you could help Lemon Zest with that?”

“Umm, sure, yeah.” Silver straightened her uniform and went back into school.

It had been so weird around the Shadowbolts lately that she herself had also found herself staying away from them, at least in the form of conversation. She didn’t know what to do around them anymore, especially Sunny, though on the upside, at least she hadn’t had to entertain that girl’s sexual needs for a while now.

And thank goodness for that…

Sunny might’ve tasted good, but Silver felt she was going to die if she had to keep it up, not just because her aunt didn’t agree with it.

The changeling soon found Lemon Zest hanging in the science lab, stacking up a cluster of little boxes into a crate.

When she noticed her, Lemon suddenly jumped and turned her headphone’s volume down. “Oh, Silver Rose! Do you need something?”

“Oh, well… Dean Cadance asked me to come help you move the uh, Weh...Wehsayby out.”

Silver had heard her aunt mention it just once, but other than that, she didn’t remember anything else about what this was.

“Oh, sure!” Lemon picked up more little boxes. “Just put them in the crates and then take them out front.”

Silver did as she was bid, putting the condiment into the crates and stacking them on a wheeled trolley to be pushed out to the front of school. She didn’t have this trolley earlier, and it would’ve seriously helped if she did.

She expected Lemon Zest to begin questioning her about herself or her ‘witch powers’ again, but thankfully and surprisingly, she didn’t ask anything. In fact, she didn’t say a word, which was rather odd as well. Maybe she was listening to some loud music. Or perhaps she was still suspicious of her.

Silver sighed. They had every right to be suspicious. She’d made just too many blunders in the recent months that surely her mother would give her a good beating if her aunt wasn’t around. But the one to take that metaphoric cake, and cake was so delicious, was her leaving her fangs out for Sunny to see.

Well, nothing I can do about it now… Silver thought dejectedly as she pushed the trolley through the halls of Crystal Prep. On the way out, she smelled the soft ambience that was Dean Cadance, as well as the rancid stench of a certain stuck up principal. Principal Cinch was standing there inspecting the Eastern goods almost like she had a stick up her-

“Everything is right on schedule, Principal Cinch,” Dean Cadance was saying as she pointed to her clipboard. “We’ll be ready for the moving trucks to take it all to CHS in about two hours.”

“That just means we have to be here for another two hours,” the principal grumbled. “This whole event with Canterlot High is truly a waste of time.”

“Come on, Principal Cinch.” Cadance put her clipboard down for a second. “You agreed to this to strengthen our schools’ friendship after the Games.”

“The Games which Crystal Prep should have won, were it not for that confounded ‘magic’.”

Cadance looked displeased. “Like we discussed, this isn’t about competition. This is about friendship. Bonds. We’re here to establish a relationship that would last generations.”

“If it’s anything that will endure, it’s legacy.”

That mean old bag will never understand. Silver watched them talk as she rolled her trolley on.

As Silver made her way back in to get more crates, she quickly made a pit stop by the girl’s restroom to wash Cinch’s stench off her face and nostrils. It was really sickening to be around her even for a minute. When she was done, she reached into a pocket and removed a little blue tablet that was about the size of a pea.

Moonglade had been asked to the Eastern Fair by Home Run. Chrysidea would want more than anything to go with him, but that meant Silver Rose couldn’t be there to man the clothing stand. She had to have a reason to miss out on her duty and that reason was this little blue pill.

Her aunt had given it to her and while a cyanide pill would be lethal to humans and she was no human, nor was she a full blown changeling, which were immune to poisons. But it would certainly give her quite the stomachache.

She placed the pill onto her tongue and swallowed it. It tasted bitter, but a drink of water soon rectified that. Then she left the restroom to go back and get more crates of that wasabi, whatever it was. Once she brought the trolley back outside again, Dean Cadance was still checking things on her clipboard, but Cinch seemed to have gone back to her office. Good.

There was a passel of other students packing and securing things for the movers who would come to get the stuff later. Silver ignored them and went over to the dean.

“Dean Cadance?” Silver said as she got closer to the dean. “Is there anything else I can help with?”

Cadance looked down at her clipboard and shuffled through a couple of pages. “I think we just about have everything taken care of,” she said with a smile. “Why don’t you head over to the buses and wait there? We’ll be going to CHS to set up the stalls and other sundries soon enough.”

“Actually,” Silver said slowly as an unpleasant burning feeling began to show itself in her stomach. “I’m not feeling too well. Do you think I could go home early?”

The dean noticed the sweat drops on Silver’s face and the pasty color of her complexion.

“Oh my.” She put the clipboard down and placed a hand to Silver’s forehead. “You’re burning up.”

Really? I can’t tell. At least on the outside.

“I think you better go to the Nurse’s Office.”

“Actually, could I just call my aunt?” Silver doubled over and held her stomach. “She’ll know… what to do.”

“It looks serious, yes, please do call her.”

One phone call and fifteen minutes later, Silver saw the black car pull up and her aunt seated at the driver’s seat. By now, the young changeling was barely able to walk, Dean Cadance was nice enough to support her on the way to the vehicle.

Once Silver was securely seated inside the car, Ivory Wings floored the accelerator and drove them away from the school.

“Busy day, princess?” Ivory asked as she passed her niece a small vial of opaque green liquid.

Silver popped the cork off and drank the entire thing in one gulp. It tasted like a minty dried cat was running down her throat, but in only a few seconds, the pain in her gut subsided and she felt much better.

“You could… say that, Aunt Ivory…” the girl panted. “Thanks for the antidote.”

“Any time. I suppose now that you’ve an alibi for why you can’t be at the fair as this persona, you have all the excuse to go there dressed as Moonglade.”

“Mhm!” Silver looked out the window as they neared the estate. She was really looking forward to it. As Moonglade, of course.

It would certainly be a good time to take things up a notch with Home Run.

But first, she would have to swap personas and get ready for tomorrow.

“Now, I’ll be attending the fair as well, since your mother has me following you everywhere,” Ivory told Silver, to her disappointment. “I’ll be wearing my mail-backed kimono. I don’t think it would be a good idea to go all the way and become Scarlet Lily here, seeing as she’s supposed to be long dead, or at the very least, missing. But rest assured, you will not be unguarded.”

“Oh,” Silver said. “Do you have to?” She had been looking forward to spending some time alone with Home Run.

“Would any self-respecting bodyguard leave their principal unguarded in a potentially dangerous environment?” Ivory arched an eyebrow.

“You did once.”

“And look what happened. You would’ve been mugged if you weren’t a changeling. And what’s more, your mother was furious. You don’t want her to be furious again, do you?”

“Oh. No, I guess not,” Silver sighed.

Ivory noticed her niece’s displeasure and exhaled slowly. “Tell you what, for now, let’s just focus on getting you dressed up for the fair. Other than that, things will take care of themselves.”

“Dudes!” Lemon Zest smashed the door open to the classroom Sugarcoat and Sunny Flare were packing snacks in.

“What?” Sugarcoat asked, clearly annoyed by the sudden entrance. “You probably put a hole in the wall. You’ll have to pay for that.”

“Whatever. But dudes!” Lemon waved her arms.

“What?” Both Sugarcoat and Sunny asked.

“I was on my way to see where Silver Rose was. She was helping me pack the wehsayby.”

“It’s wasabi,” Sugarcoat commented.

“It looks like wehsayby to me. Anyway,” the lime haired girl continued. “I decided to take a bathroom break when Silver entered the bathroom.”

She paused.

“Stop pausing.” Sugarcoat bumped a fist against the table. “Hurry up.”

“Well, Silver came in and swallowed some kind of blue thing. I think it was a pill, but I couldn’t quite see it from the cubicle. After that, she got really sick and had to go home.”

Sugarcoat rubbed at her jaw. “So she took something to induce sickness… What does she hope to accomplish? One would normally think to make an opponent sick, not themselves.”

“Maybe she’s trying to get out of work?” Sunny shrugged. “I definitely would like to go home already. We still have to lug all these off the trucks over at Canterlot High’s side. Ughhh…”

“But why would Silver want to skip out on all this? It’s not like she’s lazy like you.”

“Hey!”

“What do you think, Sunny?” Lemon asked. “You’re her girlfriend. You know her best.”

Sunny rubbed her head. “Actually… Now that I think about it… I don’t really know a whole lot about her.”

“You what-” Lemon began, struck dumb by this new piece of information.

“It’s cause all she thinks about is sex.”

“No it’s not!” Sunny protested.

“Yeah, she thinks of Silver’s body too,” Lemon snickered. “Oh, and her pus-”

“It’s not just that!” Sunny’s face turned red.

She tried to process her thoughts, but after a few minutes worth of thinking, she realized Lemon might’ve been right. Whenever she would talk with Silver, she would just think about her body and how amazing it was. She never really talked much about anything else.

Sugarcoat shook her head. “Well, whatever it is… Silver’s trying to get out of today’s work. We could be overthinking it to think that there’s more to it than just that. It’s weird, yes, but we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions just yet.”

“But it’s so late into the day. You don’t think… You don’t think she’s trying to skip the fair as well?”

Lemon guffawed, spitting saliva everywhere. “Now who on earth would want to skip that awesome fair? It has everything an Eastern fanatic would want!”

“Is she an Eastern fanatic, though?” Sugarcoat pointed out.

“I’m just saying who’d want to miss this? Intentionally.”

“I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.” Sugarcoat sighed.

There was nothing conclusive they could come up with with what they had. But what could they even find out? Whether Silver Rose was skipping the fair? If so, why?

Chapter 120 - The Eastern Fair Part 1

Being the day of the Eastern Fair, both Crystal Prep and Canterlot High had decided to take the day off of school to let the students have a break before a night of fun and work.

Moonglade didn’t mind that. That just meant she would be able to relax before getting to meet with Home Run at Canterlot High.

Honestly, she couldn’t wait. She really wanted to be with him and to know what he thought about her yukata. Right now, she was seated at her table, doing her homework, deciding to get it out of the way early so she could do whatever she wanted. On the side, she was also messaging Home Run, getting him to help her with her algebra homework. While it was a lot easier than calculus, numbers still weren’t really her thing and she did enjoy getting Home Run’s help.

She was done in no time and she decided to spend a few hours messaging Home Run from her bed. It was nice to get to talk to him again and it was even better to get to try loving him. It was odd for her mother to relent to something like this, but Moonglade was glad she did. She really didn’t know how love worked, but she didn’t regret falling in love with this boy.

Sunny on the other hand…

She really didn’t know how the whole thing with Sunny started. Sunny was a bully and a terrible one at that. She really didn’t know how that crazy girl’s feelings surfaced, but now apparently the Shadowbolts think she had cast a spell on Sunny.

It was a ridiculous assumption, but a dangerous one. Now she would have to be really careful around them. She really didn’t want another beating from her mother.

When Home Run had to go, Moonglade decided to entertain herself with some Finest Fantasy. It had been a while since she’d played any video games, but she still roughly remembered how to play it. She had now progressed far enough that she had to face the four Elemental Beasts of the land and she was already on her way to the first one, which was the Elemental Beast of Earth, Rich King.

Aria Blaze walked over to watch her play for a while, but she didn’t seem very interested in what was going on.

After leveling up her mother’s character, she had her lunch and then began preparing for the Eastern Fair.

Moonglade took a nice long shower, singing to herself as she made sure to clean herself up really nicely. She wanted to smell her best for Home Run. She eventually stepped out of the bathroom after drying off and spent a little more than an hour in her walk-in closet, ready to put on her Eastern-themed outfit. She had heard some of her friends saying that it felt better to don a yukata without underwear, but being the timid girl she was, that was never going to happen. Instead, she put on a black set of underwear, deciding it went better with her black robes. The silken fabric felt nice and cool sliding against her skin.

“All ready to go?” Ivory’s voice came from the doorway. Silver turned to look; her aunt was wearing a beautiful kimono of red, patterned with lilies and koi fish. It seemed to fit her perfectly, and she had done up her usual white ponytail into a long braid, adding a comb to the top.

“So you’re going as Aunt Ivory, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade began doing up her blonde hair into a ponytail.

“Yes, why not, you know?” She smiled at her niece. “I can just say I came with you as an escort. Or just because I enjoy Eastern culture.”

“Is that allowed though?”

“We’ll take it that Home Run invited us both. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

“Yeah, I suppose not.” Moonglade twirled about in her yukata. “How do I look, Aunt Ivory?”

The older changeling walked in and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Splendid, sweetie. One hundred percent beautiful. And never let your mother tell you otherwise.”

“Aw, you’re just saying that, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade blushed and spun about. As she did so, her hand brushed against her aunt’s own robe. There was a faint clinking sound of metal. “Is this… armor?”

“Well done,” Ivory purred. “This kimono is one out of a set that Scarlet Lily used to wear while acting as an advisor and battle marshal to Emperor Dragonskin of the Mareji period. It’s very effective. It’s not unlike the outfit I prepared you for the blood moon.”

Moonglade prodded a finger against it and nodded. While looking beautiful, these robes could also probably stop a sword strike. It had certainly been ahead of its time, though…

“Didn’t they already have guns when you were in the East? How did you stop those?”

“Oh, guns were a different thing altogether. I just had to avoid getting shot. In fact, I once saved Dragonskin from an enemy marksman. I’d show you the bullet wound, but it’s healed over.”

“He didn’t find it weird you didn’t die?”

“The East is a different place. Maybe you’ll find out later, my little changeling.” Ivory headed for the closet door. “Come, let us show your mother how beautiful you look.”

As it turned out, Moonglade's mother was nowhere to be found inside the house, at least not at her usual haunts. Her car was still in the garage, but after half an hour of searching, they could not find her.

"Oh, well," Ivory shrugged. "We had best get going or we'll be late."

“Oh, okay.” Moonglade agreed. She didn’t really expect her mother to say anything nice anyway.

The sirens decided not to go to the fair. Or more accurately, it was decided for them not to go, seeing as how outrageous they were becoming. Both changeling sisters had mentioned a few days ago that they didn’t want an incident linking back to them should Adagio Dazzle decide to spice things up in the open. Aria’s and Sonata’s bickering was getting worse as well and it was probably not wise for any of them to leave the house for a few more months.

Moonglade really hoped they could get their gems fixed. It was becoming very unbearable.

They got into Ivory's car and were soon on their way to Canterlot High School. Moonglade recalled that her mother had a new shoot coming up for some Stockhorse horror movie, but she forgot what the name was. She did remember, however, that Fast Bender was also going to be in the movie. She had promised herself that she would get Sunny an autograph from him some day, but now, she wasn’t so sure what she should be doing, seeing as the Shadowbolts were on to her.

As the car traveled on, the young changeling couldn’t help but think of Home Run and she couldn’t wait to throw herself in her arms later. She began twirling a lock of hair in her fingers as she thought about all the kisses she was going to give him, plus a little more.

“This boy really means a lot to you, doesn’t he, sweetie?” Ivory suddenly asked as she made the next turn and beat the traffic light. “You’ve always got so much love pointed towards him.”

Moonglade’s aunt tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she all but drifted the car around a corner, earning her honks from other motorists and narrowly missing a bus.

“Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade said once the car was level again. “Do you ever think about that man you were with before you came to live with us?”

“Hmm? Oh, him. I have a doll of him, if that’s any consolation,” Ivory Wings glanced in the rearview mirror to look at Moonglade. “But other than that, not really. No idea where he is now, so I won’t waste time pining after him. To me, it’s like if one of my favorite restaurants packed up and moved somewhere I don’t know about. Sad, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat at other places.”

“Do you… miss him?”

“Not in the way you think, young princess. I miss having him around, yes. But as you know, we think of them as food, sweetie. So make use of your time with the boy while it lasts, okay?”

“Thanks for letting me even try this, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade gave her aunt a wide smile.

“You’re welcome. I keep telling your mother that she can’t expect you to be as well-tuned as the rest of us, mainly because you haven’t the experience.” Ivory wheeled the car in the CHS’s parking lot and slammed on the parking brake. “We’re here. Enjoy yourself and call me whenever you want to go home. I think I saw a shaved ice stand on the way in; I’m going to see about getting some.”

“You won’t be watching every step?” Moonglade’s eyes lit up for a second.

“I don’t need to see you to watch you. I still have my nose.” Ivory put on a pair of red sunglasses. “Now, a little tip, princess. Home Run would look at you with… different eyes should you choose to loosen the yukata off your figure.”

“Alright. But thank you for some privacy, Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade gave her aunt a hug before jumping out of the car in search of Home Run.

It was already four thirty seven after they arrived, a little after the fair had commenced. She could already see Crystal Prep and Canterlot High students alike, manning the stalls or strolling about and checking out the various attractions they had.

Crystal Prep had mainly done the food and refreshments, along with the costumes and some of the decorations to go about. Canterlot High had done up information boards to tell people trivia about Eastern culture and history, plus things such as a sword fighting arena, something called sumo wrestling, surprisingly, a haunted house, and even a small stage for something called Noh. She thought she could see the shaved ice stand that her aunt had mentioned, as well as some kind of stall for sushi and other Eastern foods.

It was a fantastical sight for sure, with all the paper lanterns and banners hung up. It looked almost like she was in a different country and that was really cool. She could see Canvas Splash, dressed in a deep maroon yukata, over by one of the costume stands and she wanted to go over to say hello, but then she remembered she wasn’t Silver Rose. Silver Rose was home sick. Moonglade was here to have fun with Home Run tonight and that was exactly what she planned on doing.

And there he was, wheeling his bike in over near the Canterlot statue, which was still broken from Twilight’s attack during the Friendship Games. He was dressed in a plain blue yukata and that made Moonglade wonder just how he rode his bike over here.

“Heeeyy!” Moonglade skipped over to Home Run, whose face lit up with joy at the sight of his girlfriend.

“Moonglade!” Home Run gave her a hug with one arm. “It’s great to see you. Excited? How do you like the look?”

“You look… very Eastern,” Moonglade giggled. She took Home Run’s hand in her own and grinned. “What about me?”

He smiled and ran a hand against her cheek. “Beautiful as always, Moonglade.”

Moonglade grinned shyly. He always said such nice things about her. “Come on, I want to go see what they have!”

The two of them first went to put the boy’s bike by the side, then Moonglade basically dragged him across the front of school over the side where the food stalls were positioned.

Moonglade already knew all the snacks from the East that they were selling, but she had to feign excitement. Silver Rose knew, not Moonglade.

“Check this out!” She lifted a packet of seaweed. “Packed seaweed. Can you believe people eat this?”

“I’ve seen it in the supermarkets here.” Home Run nodded. “Never tried it myself. Haven’t been able to fathom eating seaweed.”

“It’s supposed to be quite tasty,” Moonglade paid the stall owner a couple of dollars and tore open a pack of seaweed. “It’s used a lot in sushi.”

“Ah, I’ve learnt about that because of this fair.” The boy chuckled. “It’s used to hold the raw fish to the rice. In fact, Sunset Shimmer works at a sushi place. I wonder if she managed to get an endorsement from them for this?”

They wandered around for a bit, sampling some kind of food called takoyaki and a bit of Eastern drink that was made of tea leaves and jelly. The vendor for the jelly drink was a girl with red and pink hair wearing a rose on her head.

“Hey, Roseluck,” Home Run greeted. “How are things going?”

“Not bad,” she asked cheerily. “We’ve sold about seven so far. Would be nice to sell more!”

“It is a pretty tasty drink,” Moonglade said, nodding. “Is this a traditional Eastern beverage?”

“I don’t think so,” Roseluck pondered. “According to our research, it’s a fairly recent invention. But it is pretty nice when chilled.”

“Where’s Lightning Rain at?” Home Run asked. “Is he not working with you?”

Roseluck shrugged. “Nah. He wanted to run the stall which sells replica wooden swords. Over on the other side of the fair, I think.”

Wooden swords? Moonglade wondered. “Oh, can we go over and look at those next?” The girl asked.

“Sure,” Home Run smiled. “See you later, Roseluck.”

They left the drinks stand and wandered over to the middle of the fair. They passed Ivory Wings, who was sitting down with a bowl of shaved ice and syrup, talking animatedly with some students. She seemed to have attracted quite a following.

“Hey, isn’t that your aunt?” Home Run gestured to the gathering of people around Ivory. “She looks good in that kimono.”

“You can tell the difference between a yukata and a kimono?” Moonglade wrapped her arms tighter around Home Run’s. “So, who looks better? Me or my aunt?”

“Not jealous, are you? Of course it goes to you. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen!” And he smelt genuine, which was a bonus to her taste buds.

“I look good in my yukata?” Moonglade grinned at him.

“You look amazing in it.”

“I can show you just how amazing a yukata can make me look later…” Moonglade looked at him with predatory eyes, but then she blushed. That had been a weird thing to say, but Home Run seemed interested in it.

Leaving Ivory to regale the youngsters with her stories, they kept going and soon found the replica sword stall.

“...and I’m telling you, waterboy, that red swords are the best! I should know because I made them.”

“And like I said, windbag. Colors don’t give a sword any tactical advantage whatsoever.”

This was new. Moonglade saw two boys dressed in ninja outfits blathering to each other behind the sword stand, one of them pointing to a red-painted bokken, while the other was holding a regular unpainted one.

“Ah, great… There they go again…” Home Run huffed.

The two boys exchanged a slew of back and forth remarks that ultimately didn’t lead this argument anywhere.

Jetstream and Lightning Rain glared at each other, oblivious to Home Run, Moonglade, or anyone else’s presence.

“Only one way to settle this.” Jetstream motioned his head to the other side of school. “Sword arena. Now.”

“And who’s going to run the store?” Lightning Rain shot back. “Our shift isn’t over for another hour.”

Jetstream looked around. When his eyes landed on Home Run, a little twinkle shot out of it.

“No no no.” Home Run waved his hands, but Jetstream still grabbed on to him and hauled him closer.

“Homey, my boy. Look after the stall for me, will you? LR and I have a score to settle.”

“I really don’t want to-”

“Thanks, my boy.” He turned back to Lightning Rain. “Sword arena. Now.”

When the two boys had gone, Moonglade sighed and sat down on one of the chairs behind the stall’s counter. Does that ponytail boy always have to ruin everything?

“Don’t worry, Moonglade. It’s just for a while.” Home Run picked up one of the red bokkens and ran a hand along its blade. “Nice craftsmanship. You use swords, don’t you, Moonglade? Why don’t you give this one a try.”

Home Run handed it to her as a student arrived to inspect the stall’s wares. While Home Run was busy dealing with sales, Moonglade got up and gave the weapon a few swings.

The sun was beginning to set, and the first glimmers of starlight began to show themselves. Moonglade tried a few of her swordfighting forms, but the balance of the blade just wasn’t right. She gave up after about ten minutes and put the bokken back into its barrel. It seemed to require a different style of combat to wield efficiently.

“You had to learn about the East to host this fair, didn’t you?” Moonglade asked Home Run once the stall’s customers had all gone away. “What part of Eastern culture did you do?”

“Uh, mostly I helped out with the grunt work. Painting stalls and lifting stuff. I mean, I helped research Eastern styles of advertising to make the stalls more authentic?”

“So you helped paint this sword stall?” Moonglade looked up at the gaudy paintjob and the poorly written Eastern characters.

“Oh, no,” Home Run laughed. “This one is all Jetstream and Lightning Rain. Those two insisted on doing it themselves.”

Moonglade couldn’t help but laugh. “I can tell.”

She sat there for another few hours, or at least, it felt like hours to her. It was boring to just man a stall. She was glad Silver was out sick, otherwise she might actually die of boredom at the costume stall. All she wanted to do was see what kind of cool stuff the fair had, along with some private time with Home Run, yet, here they were, selling swords.

“Moonglade, do you want to go have a look around till those guys get back?” Home Run suddenly asked. “I can manage here for now. You should go have some fun first.”

“But I don’t want to go without you,” Moonglade pouted.

“Yeah… we picked the wrong time to check this stall out. Sorry, Moonglade. Perhaps you could go see what’s taking them so long? I’d like to go around with you too.”

“Oh. Alright, then. Be right back, then.”

Moonglade left the sword stall and wandered around the fair, looking for the sword arena. She caught sight of some people she knew from Crystal Prep, all dressed up in various costumes and generally just having a good time. She hoped Cinch wasn’t here; that woman could go jump off a pier as far as she was concerned.

Picking up on a familiar scent, Moonglade went towards a crowd of people who were clapping and cheering for something. She edged closer, identifying the smell as that of gunpowder, which she found odd.

After edging through the crowd, she was met with an unusual sight. There was Indigo Zap, holding an airsoft rifle, shooting at colored balloons which someone had strung around a large fake display of an Eastern shogun’s castle. Each balloon was hanging over a candle, and they must have been laced with black powder because with each balloon popped, they went off like a miniature firework. Rainbow Dash stood next to her, shooting at her own set of balloons over a different castle.

Both girls were dressed as ninjas as well, though Indigo’s outfit seemed to have more netting and Rainbow’s had a second sword behind her waist.

“Eighteen!” Indigo called out and gave out a loud whoop.

“Eat that, nineteen!” Rainbow countered as she shot another balloon.

“Tiiiiime’s running out!” Pinkie announced. She was dressed in a meido outfit, not unlike the kind that Moonglade had once seen in one of her aunt’s adult comics. Apparently the East had some kind of obsession with girls in maid costumes. She didn’t know the fascination. Maybe it was because she saw maids everyday. “Twenty seconds left!”

“Twenty seconds is all I need to win!” Rainbow fired a spat of pellets and took out three balloons.

Moonglade could smell the competition in the air, but it was different. It wasn’t the same kind she smelt during the Friendship Games. It was more… friendly.

There were a couple more explosions from bursting balloons, until finally a whistle blew to signal the end of the bout.

“Lesseeeee…” Pinkie leapt forward in front of the castles. “Twenty seven to twenty seven! It’s a draw!”

The crowd of students from both schools behind them all groaned at the same time.

“That means you both win! Here, take these,” Pinkie handed Indigo and Rainbow a wooden fan each, decorated with images of cherry blossoms and koi fish. “All righty, just give me and Cheesy a couple minutes to set up more balloons, then someone else can have a go!”

The crowd began to disperse while Pinkie Pie and ‘Cheesy’ came out to replace the balloons.

“Good game, Rainbow.” Indigo shook the other girl’s hand. “But the night is still not over. I’ll beat you yet!”

Rainbow brought their arms up into an arm wrestling position. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

“Let’s go get a drink first,” Indigo suggested. “Betcha nobody shoots as many balloons as we did!”

Moonglade smiled and watched them leave. Maybe this fair was doing its job well after all. Building inter-school relationships and lasting friendships was what Dean Cadance had wanted from this, after all. Even if that hag she had for a boss disagreed.

“Hey, sweetie,” Ivory’s voice came from behind Moonglade. “Having fun?”

“Uh, I guess so?”

“I just had the most scintillating conversation with the history teacher of CHS,” Ivory grinned. “She was very curious about where I got an authentic historical artifact like my kimono from and was very excited to hear about its past.”

Moonglade smiled at her. “Did you tell her?”

“Of course not,” the elder changeling replied proudly. “I just mentioned I got it off an auction. I did tell her where it was from though. So, tell me, why are you wandering about the fair without that boyfriend of yours? Wasn’t that the goal of today’s excursion? I even found a nice quiet spot around back for you.”

“Oh, he’s stuck at a stall. I’m trying to find the boys that are supposed to run it so we can get back on our time together.” Moonglade pointed ahead to where the sword arena was. “They should be over there somewhere.”

“I’ll come with you,” Ivory slipped her hand around Moonglade’s shoulder and steered them toward the sound of wood clashing on wood. “As an expert in Eastern swordsmanship, I want to see how much they’ve managed to learn about it. Then I think I’ll go get some more shaved ice.”

“How many have you already had, Aunt Ivory?”

“Meh, only three bowls.”

At the arena, there was quite a large crowd of people standing around cheering. In the center of a ring of dirt and wooden pieces stood the two boys, bokken against bokken, trying to break through each other’s guard. They both had on squishy protective headgear and chest pieces, which kind of ruined the look, but for baseball players, they were quite decent at exchanging attacks, probably from their required accuracy for hitting baseballs.

“Absolutely disgraceful,” Ivory Wings muttered in her niece’s ear. “The boy on the right has some idea of form, but he’s too stiff and rigid. He won’t be able to bend with the blow if he strikes nor defend flexibly if he needs to. The boy on the left is the complete opposite. He’s bouncing around like some kind of boxing match and wasting his energy in footwork. See how loosely he’s holding his sword? An easy disarm if ever I saw one.”

Jetstream continued bouncing about with that ridiculous smirk plastered on his face as though he knew what he was doing. As he hopped to Lightning’s right, he suddenly swung his sword low, but Lightning parried down and then raised up his sword between the ponytail boy’s legs.

The crowd all cringed at the same time, excluding Moonglade’s aunt, who just said, “And that’s what you get for leaving such a wide opening.”

Jetstream had let out a little squeak, then fell to his knees, for some reason clutching at his chest.

“What are you doing, I didn’t hit you there.” Lightning Rain brought his sword down to his side.

“Come on, just a little… dramatic look, you know…” He winced and held the spot between his legs.

“So, what did I tell you. Color doesn’t determine anything,” Lightning Rain shrugged and helped haul Jetstream back onto his feet. “Now let’s get back to the stand. Home Run’s probably bored out of his mind having to watch it for us.”

As the next two fighters got into the ring, Moonglade decided to follow the two boys back to their stall and meet up with Home Run there. Ivory Wings went over to the referee’s chair and began talking to one of the principals of CHS there, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

The haunted house attraction caught Moonglade’s eye. She had heard her aunt talking about how Eastern horror was on a much different level than the stuff she was used to seeing, like when she went to see The Horror of the White River. She had always wondered just what that meant, but perhaps she could check it out with Home Run. There was no way she was going to go in there alone.

She had been looking so intently at the haunted house’s ghostly windows that she tripped over someone’s foot and nearly planted her face in the ground, or worse, dirty her yukata.

“I am so sorry!” Hands grabbed her arm and helped her up. “I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

“No, no it’s fine.” Moonglade looked up and locked eyes with Sunset Shimmer. “Oh, Sunset!”

“Moonglade, hi!” The fiery haired girl was dressed in a light blue yukata with a box of sushi in her hands. “Glad you could make it. Home Run said you were coming.”

“Did he?” Moonglade attempted a grin which came off as somewhat cringey. “I-Isn’t that nice of him.”

“I didn’t expect any less anyway.” Sunset chuckled. “He talks so much about you. Hey, I noticed your sister isn’t here. Isn’t she supposed to be here?”

“Silver has, um, food poisoning. From eating raw fish. Couldn’t be here. Yeah.”

“Oh, that’s… a shame…” Sunset said, looking down at her sushi. Moonglade smelt a hint of suspicion sailing out of Sunset. “You know, funny thing, Moonglade. You two are twins, but I’ve never seen you two together.”

“R-Really? Never?” Moonglade laughed somewhat nervously. Did Sunset know something? She hoped not. “Must be a coincidence. We see each other all the time at home.”

“I guess.” Sunset held up her sushi box. “You’re not allergic to sushi or anything, are you? I’m going around selling them. I made them myself. Don’t worry, they’re okay. Rather delicious, if I may say so.”

Moonglade didn’t know just what Sunset was playing at. Was she trying to fish information from her? She had to be more careful around her.

“Well, alright. As long as there’s no raw fish in it. I’m not quite a fan of it.” Moonglade put the money into Sunset’s collection box and chose a seaweed-wrapped roll of rice attached to a strip of egg. “Umm, th-thanks, Sunset.”

“No, thank you. Enjoy the fair!”

Moonglade watched her go through narrow eyes. She still wasn’t sure what to make of this. She looked at the sushi roll she had just purchased and took a bite. It was rather nice, to her surprise. Perhaps she should’ve bought more.

She was going to continue on to the sword stall, but she spotted Home Run heading towards her behind a trio of younger girls. He waved at her and mouthed something, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying yet.

He met her in front of the haunted house and the first thing Moonglade did was take his hand. She wanted to grab both, but the other was in a pocket in his yukata.

“Got you something cool, Moonglade.” Home Run gave her hand a squeeze. From his pocket, he removed a small letter opener, which had a red grip and had a golden tiger curled around it between the blade and grip. “Handmade. Each one at the stall is different, but I thought this one matched you.”

“Oh, wow!” Moonglade accepted the little knife and turned it over in her hands. “This is great! Thank you, Home Run!” She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. There was a rush of tasty love as Home Run blushed from the kiss.

They left the haunted house behind, for now, and went over to the balloon shooting stall, but there was nobody there. A crowd had gathered around the sword fighting arena again, except there were more people this time.

“What’s going on?” Home Run asked a girl next to him.

The girl turned around; it was Fleur, wearing an open robe and strips of white cloth around her breasts, which was both incredibly and ridiculously revealing. A fake pipe was in her right hand, with a temporary dragon tattoo winding up her exposed torso. “Oh, you don’t know? Mr. Fowl, the CPA fencing teacher, is going to duel the sister of Ebony Wings! Isn’t this exciting? I’m placing my bets on Mr. Fowl.”

“My aunt?” Moonglade blurted out. “Isn’t Mr. Fowl a little… old?”

“He isn’t that old,” Fleur shrugged. Her robe slipped a bit and she pulled it back onto her shoulder. “But he has many years of swordplay under his belt. It should be an easy victory, no? How did you know about him?”

“Oh, uh… I just… assumed.”

The crowd parted enough for Moonglade to see Mr. Fowl, who was dressed in stately red and black samurai robes. He was sighting down the edge of a wooden sword, this one much more well made than the ones Jetstream and Lightning Rain had been sparring with. Mr. Fowl looked the part, certainly, with his hair tied back and his feet in wooden sandals.

On the other side, Ivory Wings was standing there, regal and resplendent with her hair and kimono blowing gently in the wind. In her hand she held another wooden katana, which she seemed to be testing the balance and weight of.

The scene looked very much like an Eastern movie or cartoon, even including cherry blossom petals wafting down around them both.

Wait, it’s not the right season for cherry blossoms. Moonglade thought shrewdly. She looked around and saw Pinkie Pie perched atop a tree holding a large bucket full of pink petals. Should’ve guessed.

On an elevated platform between the two combatants, Principal Celestia stood regally dressed in a white and gold yukata. In her hands she held a small gong.

“We have a very special event for attendees of the Eastern Fair here today,” Celestia called out. “A duel between CPA’s very own Mr. Fowl, and Ivory Wings, the sister of the acclaimed Ebony Wings. Both of them have come here today to put on display a show of swords and skill for you!”

There was an outpouring of cheering from the crowds, and Moonglade couldn’t help feeling proud of her aunt.

Mr. Fowl stepped forward, as did Ivory Wings. They stopped just short of the center of the arena, about two meters away from each other.

Moonglade thought she could see the faintest hint of a smile on her aunt’s face as she and Mr. Fowl bowed to each other. Celestia rang the gong with a resounding bwong, and the fight was on. Or really, the fight could begin anytime, but the two of them instead circled each other for quite some time.

It was Mr. Fowl who made the first move, lashing out with a thrust at Ivory, who swatted the stab aside with the crossguard of her sword, hooking her sword on the edge of Mr. Fowl’s weapon and doing a fancy twirling maneuver, knocking the fencing teacher off balance. Moonglade expected her aunt to press the attack and finish it, but she did not. Ivory’s sword settled back into a guard position while she waited for Mr. Fowl to recover.

Mr. Fowl bounced back from the stagger faster than Moonglade expected for a man of his age. She heard the crowd murmur as the fencing teacher also put his sword into a guard position and regarded Ivory warily.

“Oh, this is exciting,” Fleur said to herself.

“I didn’t know your aunt was so skilled with a blade,” Home Run admitted.

She’s actually a lot better than this. Moonglade thought privately before returning her attention to the duel.

Mr. Fowl moved in for a strike from the hilt, which Ivory Wings stepped out of range of. Then she swept in with an upwards cut that knocked Mr. Fowl’s sword upwards, followed by a bash from the pommel to the fencing teacher’s stomach. Not enough to really hurt, but still hard enough to knock some of the breath out of him.

Just like before, Moonglade saw the opening that could be taken to end the fight with a well placed hit, but Ivory withdrew back and waited for Mr. Fowl to get his breath back.

“Oh, she’s good,” Pinkie announced as she tossed down another handful of petals. “Can CPA’s history teacher compete?”

Mr. Fowl was a little more cautious now. He drew back and lunged forward with a flurry of stabs. Ivory Wings redirected the first stab at the floor, but Mr. Fowl rallied and managed to get in a hit on his opponent’s sleeve, making the cloth ripple.

The crowd was getting more and more worked up. As the two combatants circled around the arena, taking pokes and cuts at each other, Moonglade began to see why her aunt was holding back so much. The crowd was loving it, and she supposed it wouldn’t be as much fun if Ivory just ended it with one fast combo.

“According to Eastern culture, fights ended in a single strike,” Fleur explained. “Though, this is definitely a hay of a lot more entertaining to watch.”

As the minutes went by, it became clear that Mr. Fowl was running out of stamina. Sweat beaded his face and his movements were more sluggish. Ivory Wings, on the other hand, seemed just as fresh as she had been when the duel had started.

In a moment of desperation, Mr. Fowl let out a battle cry and raised his sword over his head for an overhead chop. A pretty poor tactic, Moonglade realized. The crowd went quiet as Ivory smirked and raised her own weapon, catching the blow on the blade, before twisting her wrist and stepping past Mr. Fowl to completely disarm him. The history teacher’s sword flew out of the arena and stabbed into the top of a stall.

Mr. Fowl stood there stunned, the tip of Ivory’s weapon an inch from his chest.

“Well,” Mr. Fowl said ruefully. “Looks like you got me.”

There was another bwong from Celestia’s gong and the crowd went wild. Moonglade could see money changing hands and she wondered how her aunt would like being told that she was just the source of a bet.

“And that is it, ladies and gentlemen!” Pinkie’s shrill voice announced, spinning the bucket in her hands. “After a pulse-pounding duel, the winner is, Ivory Wings!”

A group of students suddenly swarmed the older changeling, some of them wielding pens and paper. Moonglade spotted Rarity among them, to no surprise. Looks like her aunt was going to be busy for a while and that was a nice change, seeing her aunt instead of her mother getting the recognition she deserved.

“Well, that was exciting,” Home Run said as he and Moonglade left the arena. “What should we do next?”

Chapter 121 - The Eastern Fair Part 2

Moonglade screamed again and again as the upside down humanoid creature crawled towards her, its beady eyes fixed on her. She grabbed Home Run and she squished herself against him, just wishing for that thing to go away.

The creature was a girl with long black hair and rings around her eyes. She was walking on her hands and feet, with her back facing the ground and she just kept staring at them and it made Moonglade feel like the stare alone could kill.

She had her eyes shut, but she felt Home Run walking her along the corridor, guiding her away from that horrible thing.

Moonglade had thought it couldn’t get any worse after the hallway of zombies earlier, but she just lost it after that girl crawled out of a TV. For a second, she really thought she was gonna die.

“Remember, they won’t hurt you, Moonglade.” Home Run consoled her, rubbing her shoulders. “They’re just here to scare you.”

“S-S-Still…” Moonglade clung to him tightly. Eastern people really had a twisted sense of horror.

On the way through the final room, Moonglade could see heads peeking around the corners behind them, their eyes glowing in the dark. They didn’t come out and chase them, but they raised just about every hair on the girl’s body as she shut her eyes, willing for them to disappear. Someone jumped out at some point and screamed, making Moonglade do the same, but she didn’t open her eyes to help alleviate the fear. In no time, they were finally out of the haunted house and she could open her eyes again.

“Th-That was intense!” Moonglade breathed out slowly. “I’m not ever going into one again!”

“That’s what you said about the last haunted house.” Home Run chuckled and held her tightly.

“I mean it this time!”

That only made Home Run laugh harder. “You said that too.”

“That’s cause I’ve never seen Eastern horror stuff before!” Moonglade wailed and leaned more into him. “How on earth could anyone come up with stuff like this?”

Home Run raised his hands. “Hey, don’t look at me. Anyway, where’d you like to go next? There’s still so much to see.”

Moonglade decided to visit that shaved ice stand that her aunt had frequented quite a bit. She shared one with Home Run, who ended up eating most of it. Moonglade just smiled and gave his hair a good ruffle.

There were so many more stalls of snacks and goodies, but nothing really caught the changeling’s attention. She slipped a hand into a pocket in her yukata and held the letter opener Home Run had got for her. It was a fine piece of craftsmanship and it was truly the most beautiful trinket she’d seen so far, and Home Run getting it for her only made it more special.

“So, the sirens not here today?” Home Run asked as they walked along the Eastern trivia boards. This one talked about how Eastern people have always had a code of honor to follow. Should they be disgraced in combat, it was only normal for them to take their own lives. “I thought they’d be looking forward to something like this. Well, maybe not Aria, but the other two.”

“Oh, yeah, uh… About them…” Moonglade rubbed the back of her head as she thought of what to say. “They aren’t feeling so well, so we decided it was better for them to stay home.”

Moonglade wondered what they were doing right now, then changed her mind. Adagio was probably doing something extremely obscene right now and she didn’t want to picture that. The other two were probably just arguing again; she just hoped they wouldn’t get to the point where they kill each other.

“You know what…” Moonglade tapped a foot against the ground. “I’m feeling a little tired. How about we take a break somewhere… quieter? I know a place.”

“Oh? You do?”

“Remember where we first met here?” Moonglade slid herself closer to Home Run. “I’m thinking no one will be there at the moment.”

Home Run didn’t object and Moonglade led him around the back of school towards the baseball field, her heart thumping in her chest. No matter how many times she’d been alone with Home Run, she just couldn’t get out of how embarrassing it all was to do what she wanted to do. It was weird, yes, but she didn’t deny it sent thrills down her body and she just couldn’t wait to get there.

The vending machines by the bleachers were the only lights in the area, with the field only being lit by moonlight, but Moonglade decided to be by the vending machines. She wanted Home Run to be able to see her, but at the same time, the lights from the vending machines would mess with anyone’s night vision, should they come to this part of the school. Past the vending machines was a bench where people could buy drinks and rest for a bit, which was just perfect.

Now that they were here, Moonglade’s heart couldn’t take it anymore. She spun around and she threw her arms around Home Run, giving him a big hug, nuzzling her head against his chest.

“Mmm, it’s so good to be with you, Home Run…” She inhaled, taking in the delicious scent of love that swirled out of him.

“Same here.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Hey, come on, sit. You said you were tired.”

“I’m not that tired,” Moonglade replied cheekily. “I just wanted to get away from all the crowds and noise so I could be with you.”

“Oh? What did you have in mind that we have to be away from the crowd?” Home Run joked.

“You know…” Moonglade loosened the sash around her waist just a bit, then she pulled part of her yukata aside to reveal her slender right leg. “I wanted to show you just how amazing a yukata can be for this sort of thing…”

And she didn’t need Home Run to voice his confirmation. She could already tell from his smell alone, though she could also see something pushing out against his yukata. She giggled. These outfits were too thin to hide something like an erection.

Moonglade peeled her yukata off her shoulders, then pulled one of her bra straps down, all the while flashing Home Run a hungry gaze.

An owl hooted. It sounded like laughter.

“Um… are you sure we should be doing this here?” Home Run asked nervously.

“What, don’t you like what I’m doing?” Moonglade asked with a playful pout. “Or is it not enough for you?”

“No, that’s not it,” Home Run spluttered. “It’s just that, er, there’s probably a better place to do this. Besides, my parents will kill me if they find I took advantage of a girl.”

Moonglade sighed and ran a finger down Home Run’s chest. “Nobody has to find out,” she said in what was probably a sultry voice. “You’ve already touched my body before, no big deal…”

Moonglade pressed her lips against Home Run’s then leaned closer and ran her hands along his chest. She felt Home Run’s hands rise and caress her neck, slowly inching down her bare skin. She brought one of her hands down and found Home Run’s little friend, twitching as her fingers touched its tip.

When Home Run’s left hand got low enough, he peeled Moonglade’s yukata further off her chest until her bra was now visible to him. His eyes couldn’t stop looking at her breasts, which made Moonglade giggle more.

“Touch them…”

Moonglade kissed him passionately as his hand found its way around her right breast, gently massaging and squeezing it.

The young changeling moaned with pleasure as she began to stroke Home Run’s dick through his yukata. She really wanted to know what it looked like, just like how Home Run probably wanted to know what her breasts looked like.

“Wanna see…?” Moonglade pulled her yukata lower. “Underneath, I mean…”

She inhaled, taking in Home Run’s scent. Then she stopped mid sniff. Something was wrong. She sniffed again; there was something like the scent of cotton candy and caramel coming from a nearby mass of shrubbery.

Moonglade pulled her clothes back into place and said to Home Run, “Wait here.”

She stomped over to the bushes and pulled them aside. “So,” she said. “It’s you.”

Pinkie Pie grinned upwards sheepishly from her hiding place in the shrubs. “Hi?”

“What are you doing here?” Moonglade asked impatiently, feeling her fangs slide out. She made sure they were retracted again before speaking. “Were you spying on us?”

“No, no, no, of course not!” Pinkie shook her head. “I just was supposed to find Home Run and tell him that it’s almost time for the fair to end. He was on the fireworks team, so I was sent to find him. Sorry if I interrupted.”

“Moonglade? What’s going on?” Home Run called from his seat, his hands over his crotch.

The changeling sighed and went back to her boyfriend. “It’s your turn to do fireworks or something,” she said tiredly. “Pinkie came to fetch you.”

Home Run hit himself in the head. “Duh. Right! I’m so sorry, Moonglade. I completely forgot about that.”

Moonglade shook her head, then feigned a smile. “No, don’t worry. You have to do it, Home Run.” Then inside, she cursed herself again. What the hay, why does something like this always happen when things are getting good?!

“I’ll see you after, okay?” Home Run kissed her on the cheek, then went off with Pinkie, who mouthed the word, “Sorry”, as she left.

“Mmmnnn…” Moonglade said to herself in anger as she sat there alone. Her time with Home Run was always cut short. Always. It was actually quite ridiculous. Then she took out her phone and selected her aunt’s name from the contact list.

“Moshi moshi?” Ivory’s voice came.

“Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade said into her phone. “Can we go home now?”

“Well, sure, but they’re going to start lighting fireworks soon. Are you certain you don’t want to stay a little longer? Eastern fireworks are a little different from the regular ones.”

Moonglade groaned. “Alright. We can stay for that.”

She ended the call and found her way back to the main body of the fair, where she saw Ivory Wings standing by a stone sculpture of a lion and eating another bowl of shaved ice. She saw Moonglade approaching and waved.

“Hey, sweetie. Enjoying yourself?”

“I guess so,” Moonglade replied. Her aunt seemed to be in a good mood and she didn’t want to spoil that by bringing up her own problems. That could wait until they were at home.

“Very healthy, this stuff,” Moonglade’s aunt pointed at the shaved ice. “It’s like drinking water, only you get to feel it crunch against your teeth. Want some?”

“Uh, no thanks. You enjoy it.”

Ivory pointed a finger ahead. “See? Your boyfriend’s there. He’s about to launch the first one.”

Moonglade looked over to see Home Run propping up a red firecracker, tipped with a decoration of a falcon head or eagle head or something.

“Okay, everyone, countdown from three!” Dean Cadance was on the stage and she lifted three fingers.

Everyone chorused together, except Moonglade. She didn’t feel like it.

“One, two, threeee!”

Home Run lit the end of a string below the firecracker and stepped away. The firework hissed as the fuse burned down, then shot up high over the school and exploded in a crackling display of gold and red light.

Gold and red, Moonglade remembered from her lessons with her aunt, symbolized luck and prosperity in Eastern culture.

More fireworks joined the first, drawing oohs and aaahs from the people watching. It certainly was pretty, but Moonglade wished she could have watched them beside Home Run. Of all people, why did it have to be him on firework duty? They could’ve put that ponytail boy instead, or even Sunset Shimmer or something. Just not Home Run.

One specific firework blasted out into sparks of red and blue, forming into a shape of a butterfly, which actually amazed Moonglade. She didn’t know fireworks could be made into shapes and she didn’t know how.

Ivory Wings reached over and patted her niece on the back. She said nothing, but it made Moonglade smile to know that she had at least one friend here.

Soon the last rocket was lit, and with the air smelling like smoke, the students and teachers made ready to start cleaning up and heading back home.

“Thank you for attending the Eastern Fair!” Principal Celestia said as she and the school’s leaders took to the stage again. “I hope you all had a great time tonight. We want to thank you students of Canterlot High and Crystal Prep for doing up such an amazing and beautiful setup. Why don’t we give them all a round of applause?”

The air was filled with clapping as soon students also began clapping each other on the backs.

“Thank you all, and we wish you a pleasant night and weekend!”

“Come on,” Ivory nudged Moonglade. “Why don’t you go say goodbye to Home Run, and then we can go home.”

Moonglade didn’t reply. She did want to see Home Run, but at the same time, she was still upset their time together had been stolen.

Home Run dusted his hands off as he left the fireworks circle. He spotted her and ran over, throwing his arms around her. Moonglade couldn’t help but do the same.

“Hey, you enjoyed that?” Home Run smiled at her.

“I guess.” Moonglade leaned against him. She didn’t enjoy it as much as she wanted to though. Then she looked up at him. “So I’m gonna head home now. That alright with you?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. The rest of us have to pack up first. I’m glad you came, Moonglade.”

“M-Me too,” Moonglade nodded. Then, remembering something she had learned in class, she backed away and put her hands together and bowed. “Arigatou. Thank you for the good time.”

Home Run looked a little surprised, but put his own hands together and bowed back. “My pleasure. See you soon!”

Moonglade ran back to him and planted a kiss on his lips. “I love you, Home Run…”

“I love you too, Moonglade.” The boy gave her one last hug before she and her aunt left.

“Now that was sweet.” Ivory was grinning from ear to ear. “Not something your mother would want to hear, though. In this realm, she knows all. Or so she likes to think.”

“L-Let’s just get home…”

“Ah, young love.” Ivory smiled and followed, licking her lips. “Never gets old…”

Chapter 122 - A Contemplative Cleanup

The ride back to the estate was quiet and cheerful. Ivory Wings put on one of her favorite Eastern songs and bobbed her head to it during the drive.

Moonglade was left to her thoughts, thinking why life was somehow always so unfair to her and what she wanted. For once, she would like something to go completely her way, but no, she couldn’t even get enough private time with Home Run. She just had to be interrupted. All she wanted to do was to be with him. Was that too much to ask?

She flipped the Eastern letter opener in her hands and sighed. It was a nice item and it was something from Home Run, which made it all the more special, but if only she could have him like she had his gifts.

They pulled into the front of their home, where Ivory Wings told Moonglade to go in ahead while she parked the car. The young changeling nodded and went inside.

There was some faint, old-fashioned music playing inside. It sounded like it was coming from a record player or something. She sniffed at the air. Smoke.

“Smoke?” Moonglade wondered.

Curious, Moonglade decided to investigate the source of the smell. The trail led her out to the courtyard, where there were dozens of candles arranged in a rough circle around the rim of the space.

Chrysalis was standing in the center of the candles, dressed in a gossamer white dress that was almost transparent, and holding a black, leather whip. A strip of cloth was tied over her eyes. The record player was in the corner, blaring out a somber, classical piece.

As her daughter watched, Chrysalis snapped the whip at a candle with a loud crack, extinguishing the flame but otherwise not disturbing the candle itself. The amount of precision and skill must have been immense.

Not trusting herself to speak, Moonglade watched as her mother used the whip to extinguish candle after candle, all to the beat of the music.

Eventually the last candle went out, and the music slowed to a crawl. Chrysalis lowered her whip and wound it back up into a coil. Then she turned to Moonglade and removed her blindfold.

“So. You’re back, are you?” The question was asked without much of an inflection, making it more of a statement.

“Umm…” Moonglade wasn’t sure if she should reply or not. “Are you practicing for something, mother?”

“Just staying in shape,” Chrysalis said, putting the whip down on a nearby table. “And where have you been? Hunting with your aunt?”

“The Eastern Fair. Remember? Th-That was today.”

Chrysalis’ expression didn’t change. She pointed to the letter opener in Moonglade’s hands. “And that is?”

The young changeling looked down at her gift and held it up. “It’s a le-letter opener. H-Home Run got it for me…”

“May I see it?” Moonglade’s mother asked, holding out her hand.

Moonglade hesitantly placed it upon her mother’s palm and waited.

Chrysalis held the little knife like a sword, then held out a finger and laid the letter opener on it as if weighing the thing. She tossed it up into the air and caught it, spinning it around her fingers.

“Not bad balance,” The changeling queen commented. “With a little bit of alteration, I could make this into a suitable throwing knife for you. Nobody sends letters these days anyway.”

“O-Oh. Right…”

“Anyway…” Chrysalis walked back towards the house and handed the letter opener back to her daughter. “I have a new filming project starting tomorrow. Air Canister called me up and asked if I’d like the lead role. Naturally, I said yes.”

“What movie is it, mother?” Moonglade asked.

“It’s called Fimbulvetr. It’s a story of a girl, yours truly...” Chrysalis placed a hand on her chest. “Who goes on a trip with her boyfriend and some others to witness a Stockhorse winter festival.”

“Sounds boring,” Ivory’s voice came from behind them. The younger changeling sister was still wearing her kimono, as well as a smug expression on her face.

“I’ll have you know, it’s a horror film, so don’t talk like you know how it’ll play out, sister. I think it’s going to go great. I only sign on for award-winning movies.”

“Just make sure you’re around for the blood moon. We all have our parts to play, your majesty.”

“Of course.” Chrysalis tilted her chin to the air proudly. “I told Air that I’ll need to take the Halloween week off so that I can spend time with my daughter to do up a costume so we can go trick-or-treating.” She ran a hand along Moonglade’s chin. “It’s her first time, after all.”

“And they actually bought that?” Ivory looked skeptical.

“Hey, I was telling the truth,” Chrysalis said back. “Well, most of the truth. I won’t be going trick-or-treating, of course. I have better things to do that night.”

“Right.” Ivory rolled her eyes. “Anyway, aren’t you going to ask your daughter how her night was?”

“What, do I have to?” Chrysalis looked at her sister. Ivory began making eye gestures. “Fine. So, my little Dea, how was your night?”

Moonglade looked at both of them. “Well, I-I thought the fair was we-well put together.”

“And?”

“Umm… I’m glad I got to sp-spend time wi-with Home Run…?”

Chrysalis smiled. “And who can you thank for letting you date that boy?”

“Umm… Thank you, mo-mother?”

“You’re quite welcome, daughter.” Chrysalis gave her a pat on the head. “I really don’t see what you see in him, though I can smell what you smell. He is but a commoner. He holds no status, he holds no power. He doesn’t even know how to greet royalty. Not someone I’d want to associate with.”

“We know,” Ivory said boredly. “Moonglade, you go inside. I’ll help your mother clean up here.”

Not needing to be told twice, Moonglade went back into the mansion and skittered up to her room, where she lay in bed, admiring Home Run’s gift, thinking about what she couldn’t have.

“You know, I wouldn’t have gone so gung-ho with all the decorations and stuff if I’d known we would have to clean it all up ourselves,” Lemon Zest complained as she picked up a packet of half eaten wasabi off the ground. She was still dressed as Sadakouma, a character from an Eastern horror series. She made a lot of scares tonight, especially when she crawled out of that fake TV, which she had been pleased with.

“It was expected.” Sugarcoat swept up a bunch of crumpled leaflets into a pan. She was dressed in a purple and orange yukata.

Sunny Flare stood by the side, clad in a slightly reflective purple yukata, watching them work. She hadn’t seen Silver Rose tonight, but her sister and aunt had been here. She had wanted to approach Moonglade to ask her, but in the end, she hadn’t done so.

So Silver had really skipped out after getting sick the day before, but the question now was… why? Why did she want to miss the Eastern Fair?

“Hey, Sunny! Stop lollygagging and pull your weight!” Lemon threw a trashbag to her.

“Hey!” Sunny caught the trashbag and put it on the floor next to her. “Watch where you throw those things!”

“Just get to work.” Sugarcoat frowned at her. “The faster we finish, the faster we can all get home. CHS isn’t exactly near where we stay.”

Lemon giggled. “People are gonna freak out when I get on the bus with them.”

Sunny rolled her eyes. They had more important things to think about than people getting scared of a costume.

“I can’t believe I missed the duel between Silver’s aunt and Mr. Fowl!” Indigo Zap complained as she came over with a trash bin to throw the bags into. “I was manning my stall at the time. At least people filmed it, but I missed out on the betting.”

“Who knew Ebony Wings’ sister was such a samurai?” Lemon agreed. “And don’t forget she knows how to shoot too. Dude, wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”

“I think Sunny might already have.” Sugarcoat flicked her head in Sunny’s direction. “Remember what Twilight found out? About that woman shooting Sunny. Facial recognition said she had a match with Ivory Wings. What if they’re the same person?”

Lemon Zest said nothing, instead moving on to folding up some chairs that had been arranged around the takoyaki stand.

“Where are we supposed to put these again?” The lime haired girl asked nobody in particular.

“Over here,” Came a familiar voice. Sunset Shimmer was standing by a shed, waving at Lemon Zest.

Lemon and Indigo picked up some folding chairs each and towed them towards the shed.

“Fancy seeing you here, Sunset Shimmer,” Indigo said as she packed the chairs inside, stacking them for greater space conservation. “How was your night?”

“It went pretty well,” Sunset smiled, adjusting a pile of traffic cones so they wouldn’t tip over. “Yourself?”

Indigo sighed. “I guess I can’t complain, except I missed the biggest event of the fair. Had to stay at my stall.”

“You should’ve seen it!” Pinkie Pie popped out from under her elbow. “It was amazing, just like one of those Eastern movies! There were a lot of people betting on it too! Mostly the money was on Mr. Fowl.”

“Pssshhh.” Sugarcoat scoffed. “Students shouldn’t even be allowed to bet. Anyway, Ivory Wings would’ve clearly been the winner. We all know what Silver Rose can do. Why would her aunt be any different.”

“Guess they all banked on Mr. Fowl being a fencing teacher,” Lemon shrugged. “Too bad Silver Rose wasn’t here to see her aunt fight. Still, pretty sure she can catch it on Ewetube.”

“Nah, it’ll be all wobbly and blurry. Nothing like the actual thing.” Indigo sighed and sat down on the traffic cones, then she immediately regretted it. “I saw Moonglade here. So one Wings daughter was here tonight, at least. Just that I still don’t get why Silver Rose had to make herself sick.”

“She did what, now?” Sunset asked, looking interested.

“Yeah, Lemon saw her in the girls’ restroom yesterday. She took some kind of green pill-”

“I said it was blue,” Lemon interjected. “And I didn’t say it was a pill. I said it looked like a pill.”

“Close enough.” Indigo rasped. “Anyway, after that, she looked like she was in a lot of pain and she skipped out on moving all the stuff here. And she missed the big event as well for who knows what reason.”

“Moonglade told me her sister was sick from eating raw fish and getting food poisoning…” Sunset said slowly. “Then she just went ahead and bought a piece of sushi from me anyway.”

“Maybe she got the story wrong?” Sunny shrugged, though that did raise more questions in her mind. Should that be true, why did she need to lie about it? What was Silver hiding?

“Something fishy’s going on here…” Lemon rubbed her chin. “And it ain’t the raw fish.”

“It still doesn’t tell us anything…” Sugarcoat removed her glasses to rub at her nose. “We know Silver ate something to skip out tonight and that Moonglade’s covering for her. But why? What is she doing at this very moment?”

“I haven’t the foggiest,” Indigo sighed. “But I think we’re almost there. This is a mighty puzzle indeed, and we need to solve it.”

“What could Silver Rose be doing that’s more important than the Eastern Fair?” Lemon wondered to herself.

“I don’t know,” Sugarcoat shrugged. “I mean, Moonglade looked like she had a great time. I bet if her sister had been here, she would have had even more fun.”

“Moonglade was mostly here to hang out with Home Run,” Sunset said.

Sunny Flare nodded absentmindedly, then she did a double take. “Wait. What did you say?”

“What, that she was hanging out with Home Run?” Sunset raised a confused eyebrow. “You know, he’s her boyfriend?”

Sunny’s expression grew fearful. “And I thought I was Silver’s girlfriend, but something happened to me that made me question that. Are you sure this Home Run is in his right mind?”

Sunset seemed to catch on. “Are you saying he might’ve been brainwashed by Moonglade?”

“Do you know if he’s been craving her or anything?” Indigo diverted her attention from the trash. “Like Sunny just couldn’t stop touching herself in public. It was crazy!”

“Sunny did what?” Sunset looked squicked out.

They had already told her about Sunny having sex. What was a little more after that? Sugarcoat went on about what Sunny had been doing by herself since dating Silver.

Sunny squirmed where she was standing and covered her face. All her secrets were being revealed and it was crazy. Almost as crazy as Silver Rose being a witch, but somehow, it might all be true anyway. She didn’t know what to believe anymore.

“Gee, she sounds crazy, alright!” Pinkie went back to cleaning up.

“So you’re thinking that maybe Home Run’s been charmed like you were, Sunny?” Indigo clarified. “No evidence that you actually were bewitched, though. What do you think, Sunset Shimmer? You’re the one with the most magical experience here.”

“Well, uh… Home Run hasn’t done anything of that sort. I think. But I wouldn’t rule out say, maybe a love potion. I actually know how to make one, but, can’t do that in this world.” Sunset waved her hands. “Um, do you girls know about Equestria? The other world.”

“Not a whole lot,” Sugarcoat admitted. “Just what we managed to learn from the Friendship Games.”

“Which is basically saying…” Indigo shrugged. “We know nothing. Just like Ion Sand from Gamer’s Throne.”

“Never watched that myself.”

“Man, it’s a great show. Violent and full of naked people. I’m sure Sunny watches it when she-”

“No, I don’t!” Sunny squealed. “I don’t watch it!”

“Umm, yeah, so anyway…” Sunset explained to them about her unicorn magic and how love potions could make one fall madly in love with another.

It sounded crazier to Sunny, but then the part about love did make a little sense. She had been madly in love to the point of masturbating to fulfill her need for Silver. Could that be what Silver had done to her?

“But that adds another question,” Sunny said. “Is Silver from Equestria too?”

“If she is, which is unlikely, then we can’t rule anything out,” Sunset concluded grimly. “But somehow I don’t think she is. Equestrian villains aren’t this… subtle.”

“Dude, you make it sound like you fight baddies on a daily basis!” Lemon chuckled and tossed another crumbled can into her trashbag.

“Well, kinda…” Sunset said modestly. “But all the same, if Moonglade or any of her family are from Equestria, I’ve not heard of them. And I did a lot of research into Equestrian villains once I made up with Princess Twilight.”

“Wait, Twilight’s a princess?” Lemon smacked a hand to her forehead. “Dude! We knew royalty!”

“Not the Twilight you knew,” Sunset said. She smiled to herself; explaining this never got old. “The Twilight Sparkle from Equestria.”

“Just when you thought things couldn’t complicate any further…” Sugarcoat rubbed her face. “So Equestria has… doubles? Doppelgangers, is what you’re saying?”

“Well, yes and no. I wouldn’t call them doubles, per se, since you’re humans and Equestria is full of ponies. But your pony counterpart probably is a lot like you. Not identical, but very similar. Not a copy or a doppelganger.”

“So there’s another Lemon Zest there?” The lime haired girl got even more excited. “And another Indigo? And another Sunny? I wonder if she touches herself in public too.”

“Quit it, I haven’t done it recently!” Sunny yelled.

Sunset nodded. “Just like how there’s another Sunset Shimmer somewhere in this world, each of you have a counterpart in Equestria.”

“Wait, now I don’t see how all this matters,” Sunny interrupted them. “So what if we have doubles? What does that have to do with Silver being a witch?”

“Well, I was thinking,” Sunset began thoughtfully. “If Ebony Wings really is some kind of Equestrian menace, we could consult Princess Twilight on what exactly.”

“What about those people who’re trying to get you to fix the siren gems?” Lemon asked as she wheeled the bin around the front. “Do you think they’re from Equestria as well?”

“Hard to say,” Sunset frowned. “On one hand, they clearly know about magic and me and my friends’ adventures, but on the other hand, I don’t know of any Equestrian group or even individuals who match their description. Again, I should contact Princess Twilight about this.”

“Tell her about the monster we saw in Silver’s house!” Indigo encouraged. “Anything could help.”

“Monster?” Sunset looked surprised for a second. “She owns a… monster?”

“Yeah, Lemon didn’t show you this when we were at Twilight’s place, but we flew a drone into Ebony Wings’ property and we saw some kind of monster in their attic. Creepy, huh?” Sunny explained.

“Huge claws and glowing green eyes,” Indigo motioned with her hands on her face. “Way creepy.”

“Send me the footage once you have the time,” Sunset instructed. “A monster… this might be a break we’re looking for. Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“Guess we forgot about it amidst all the other weirdness,” Lemon Zest said apologetically. “I’ll get the footage to you. But, you said you communicate with Princess Twilight through a book. You can’t exactly send a video through a book, can you?”

“Princess Twilight is already making excursions to this world to help fix the sirens’ gemstones,” Sunset said. “I’ll just show her on one of those trips.”

There was nothing much else to say, and the students of both schools finished tidying up the campus in relative silence. Both groups of girls had a lot on their minds, and it was sweet relief once they were finally dismissed and allowed to go back home.

Chapter 123 - Ritual Preparations

“Now, tell me honestly, young princess. Is the sword belt too tight? I can easily adjust it now before the outfit is complete.”

Chrysidea was standing in the workshop, trying on her blood moon outfit. The basic layout and chainmail backing was complete, now it was just up to fitting and fine tuning by her aunt. The workshop still smelled of burning metal, something which the air freshener in the corner was battling valiantly against.

The changeling princess had her Eastern straight sword buckled to her belt, and was in the process of drawing it out. There was a metallic ring as the blade cleared the scabbard.

“It is a bit tight on the left side,” Chrysidea noted. “The whole thing is kind of heavy.”

“It’s armor, sweetie. It’s only natural for it to be heavier than regular clothing. It shouldn’t hamper your swordsmanship skills unduly, right?”

“I don’t think so,” Chrysidea shook her head. For a regular human, an outfit like this would have been rather hot to wear, but as she couldn’t feel heat, it was perfect.

“I’ll see about delivering a couple of extra blades to the foot of the hill, where the gates are. That is where you will make your stand. There is only one clear way up to the top of the hill in the park, and it’s through that gate,” Ivory Wings recited from memory. “So anyone looking to disturb our work will have to come up that way. You will be our sentinel.”

“And you’ll be at the top of the hill doing the ritual?” Chrysidea asked as she unbuckled her sword belt.

“Something like that,” Ivory said, holding the belt and taking a pair of scissors to it, trimming and adjusting the length. “Don’t think too much of it. All you have to do is stop anyone from interrupting us. Simple, yes?”

“Will anyone even come to stop us? I mean, you roped Sunset and that other Twilight Sparkle into helping you with this. Can’t you just keep them from interfering still?”

“They should know better than to stick their noses in where it’s not welcome, but you know these hero type people. They don’t have a lick of common sense,” Ivory sighed. “Now, since we don’t want to kill anyone, as a body is evidence, your task will be to keep them off us until the gems are fixed. Then we can bolt.”

“B-But… isn’t what the sword is for?” Chrysidea tapped her weapon. “How can I fight with this without killing anyone?”

Ivory Wings gave her niece a loaded look.

“You remember what I did at the Eastern fair? You don’t always have to move in for the kill. Delaying tactics, sweetie.”

“Umm, right…”

She didn’t like being reminded of the fair. Sure, it was really cool and amazing, but again, she’d lost her chance with Home Run by interruption. It had already been a week ago, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth just thinking about it.

“Aunt Ivory, do you think I’m… cursed or something?” she decided to ask.

“What makes you say that?” Ivory asked as she took out her phone and began swiping through the gallery.

“I keep getting interrupted when things are getting good. It’s really every single time. It’s like… I’m not meant to get what I want.”

“And what is it that you want, sweetie?” Ivory Wings asked patiently, putting her phone away.

“I just…” Chrysidea paused. “I just want… I want to be with Home Run.”

Ivory Wings seemed to consider this carefully. “I know that you’re hungry, but consider this. It takes typically years for our prey to consider being intimate with us. Maybe standards have gotten looser and lower since my last hunt, but that’s the point of it. A hunt isn’t supposed to be quick and easy. Not if you want a rich, fulfilling meal. So you’re actually making good progress, whether you know it or not.”

“I know, I know, it’s just… I wanted to have time with him. Instead it was taken from me. Again. Is it too much to just want more time alone with him?” Chrysidea sat down on a crate and groaned. “I think life hates me.”

“You know what, sweetie.” Ivory walked over and placed a hand on her niece’s shoulder. “Life hates us. Humans don’t like anything that isn’t them. Why do you think we’ve had to hide all these years? Our kind, the vampires, the werewolves, humans have wiped all of us out over the years just because we aren’t them. To live the way we’re living, we’re very privileged. You haven’t had to run for your life, have you? Trust me, it’s not something you’d want.”

Chrysidea made a weird noise. Yes, life for a non-human has always been tough, but still, she’d like things to go her way for once.

“Don’t look so downcast, sweetie,” Ivory said, rubbing her niece’s head. “We’re in a good place now. Your mother’s position is very secure, and as her second in command, I won’t let anything destabilize the peace we’ve earned for ourselves.”

The younger princess paused. She knew that her aunt meant well, and that there wasn’t a selfish bone in her body. But to hear that humans, and by extension Home Run, would reject and spurn her if they found out what she really was made her spirits sink. How could they? Just how? And why? Was it so bad to not be a human being? It didn’t make sense to her. So what if they were different? Why did humans have to kill what wasn’t them?

“Anyway. Try the belt on now, it should fit you better.”

Chrysidea slipped the belt back around her waist and affixed her sword’s sheath back onto it. It did fit her much better now. She turned around in a tall mirror that her aunt had moved into the workshop and admired herself.

“I look… ready for a fight,” Chrysidea said to herself.

She smiled. This Halloween was her chance to prove to her mother that she could do something right, as well as help the sirens out of their predicament.

"Finally, a chance to be useful." The younger changeling turned around in the mirror to check her appearance from different angles.

Ivory watched her niece with a small smile. “Remember, sweetie, you don’t have to kill anyone. Just make sure that they don’t get past you. Your mother and I will go over the final details soon.”

“Okay,” Chrysidea said with a nod. “Where is mother now, anyway?”

At that precise moment, the door to the workshop swung open. Chrysalis was standing in the doorway, her face quite unreadable. She walked in and looked her daughter up and down.

“You look good,” Chrysalis said eventually. “Black suits you. Much better than tan or mauve, I should say.”

“Huh?” Chrysidea wasn’t sure what her mother was getting at.

“Your skin. Black. Looks nice.”

“Oh,” the younger princess said, a little bit confused at the sudden compliment.

“You see, if I had my way, we’d be able to wear our true colors all the time,” Chrysalis licked her teeth.

“Oh, here we go…” Psithyra rolled her eyes.

“If I ruled the world…” Chrysalis placed a hand on her chest. “Changelings wouldn’t be in hiding. Humans will. And seeing as they can’t hide as well as we can, I’d say they would go extinct in a matter of months, give or take. See how they like being hunted and all.” Then she prodded a finger at her sister’s face. “But I’m trying things your way, sister, and how’s that working out for you?”

Not bothering to point out the flaws in her elder sister’s plan, Psithyra simply stood up and stretched, working out the kinks that sitting down for so long had put in. “That’s very inspiring, your highness. Now, what did you come here for?”

“I came to speak to my only child, didn’t I?” Chrysalis said in a sing-song voice. Then she turned to Chrysidea. “That letter opener you got from that Home Sprint boy. Bring it to me.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, it’s Home Run,” Psithyra sighed. “How do you survive in the acting industry if you can’t even remember people’s names?”

“Whatever. Go get the knife,” Chrysalis jerked her head at Chrysidea, who scurried out of the workshop like a frightened mouse.

“Now what do you need her gift for?” Psithyra was curious. “It’s hers. It’s not for you to play around with.”

“Nobody sends letters these days,” Chrysalis said dismissively. “I’m going to make it more useful. You like practical things, don’t you?”

“I do, yes.”

“Then you’re going to like this. I’m going to give my daughter a better chance on the blood moon night.”

“With… that… letter opener?”

Chrysalis examined her fingernails carelessly. “Yes. Though it won’t be a letter opener much longer.”

The changeling queen moved over to the mannequin that Psithyra had been using to model her niece’s outfit. “Have the renovations been done yet?” Chrysalis picked up a square of chainmail and held it up to her eye to give it a once-over.

“All done, your majesty,” Psithyra replied and went back to working at her table. “You’ll find it has all the space we need.”

“Excellent,” Chrysalis nodded. She tossed the chainmail away. “You’re certain that those children will show up and try to stop us?”

“You know how they work.” Psithyra tinkered with a loose mechanism inside a sheath. “I’m sure they’re regretting giving me the information I wanted. They’ll go to the site and they’ll try to shut us down. They always do.”

Unfortunately, Chrysalis knew exactly what her sister meant. They had dealt with heroes and villains of all kinds over the ages. Humans always seemed to have the same mentality when it comes to stopping their plans. They generally enjoyed arriving at the last minute where they had to risk it all to win. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t anything like the movies most of the time.

“In the end, I always win,” Chrysalis said smugly.

Deciding not to comment on that, Psithyra simply made a noncommittal noise in her throat.

The patter of footsteps announced the return of Chrysidea. She was holding her letter opener by the blade, as if carrying a pair of scissors.

“Right, give it here.” Chrysalis held out her palm.

The younger changeling placed it on her palm and stepped back.

Chrysalis held the small knife at an arm’s length, checking the balance and the quality of the tool. Finally she nodded contentedly and turned back to her daughter.

“I’m going to go grind this into a proper throwing knife. You know how to throw knives, don’t you?” Chrysalis loomed over Chrysidea. “Then you should have no problem with this. Just think of it as an extra little trick you can use when delaying any would-be troublemakers. Aim for the throat.”

“Absolutely do not aim for the throat,” Psithyra protested. “We don’t want to kill anyone, remember?”

“Pssssh, whatever.” Chrysalis waved a hand and walked for the door. “Just get my daughter ready for the ritual.”

And with that, the changeling queen swept out of the workshop like a sudden storm, kicking up sawdust into the air. Psithyra blinked and patted the debris out of her hair.

“Anyway. Throwing knife or not, that should be your last resort weapon. A corpse is evidence, and we don’t need a police inquiry on our hands, hmm?”

Chrysidea nodded meekly at her aunt’s suggestion. “I d-don’t want to have to kill them either.”

Psithyra smiled approvingly. “I should have everything I need to finish your outfit now. Why don’t you run along and do something else, instead of hanging around this musty workshop? Come Halloween night, you’re going to be busy.”

Chapter 124 - Preplanning the Party

“It’s Wednesday, my dudes!” Lemon Zest cheered as she squatted atop one of her home’s office chairs. “So I’ve basically got my place set up already. Sunny, did you get the punch?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s right here.” Sunny Flare tossed a sack of powder on Lemon’s floor. “I swear, there was a boy in the store following me around.”

“Yeah, sure, not everyone is after you, Sunny,” Sugarcoat said, unamused. “Don’t you already have enough things to worry about?”

Sunny shrugged. It had already been more than a month since they had anything about Silver Rose or her estate. They’d been coming up dry.

“Has Sunset Shimmer had anything to say about the video footage from the drone yet?” she asked while opening a bag of candy.

“Hey, that’s for the party.” Sugarcoat smacked her hand. “If she has, she hasn’t messaged me.”

“You don’t think… they got to her, do you?” Lemon looked around suspiciously.

“Missing people or murders would appear on the news.”

“They wouldn’t kill her, would they?” Sour Sweet downed a glass of water after placing a pill on her tongue. “They’re not that brainless to just off a kid.”

“Yeah, haven’t you seen those vampire movies like, I dunno, Neighbraham Drinkin, Vampire Fighter?” Indigo leaned forward in her seat. “You have to blend into society.”

“Bad example. Vampires leave a lot of bodies.”

“Pretty sure she’s still alive,” Sunny said. “I mean, it’s been very quiet this past month. Maybe whatever’s going on in the Wings estate has moved on?”

“Sounds like wishful thinking to me…” Sour Sweet grumbled.

“Dudes, I think we should just forget about it for one night,” Lemon Zest interrupted them. “We have a house party to plan, and it’s going to be rad! My parents will be out of town for the rest of the week. Meaning we can get out the good stuff…” She began digging under her bed.

“Ooh, mayonnaise?” Indigo licked her lips.

“Have you been watching that Ewetube show about those maniacs who wreck their kitchen every time they cook?” Sugarcoat asked as she cleaned her glasses on her sleeve. “Again?”

“Hey, Nick Lass is a great cook!” Indigo defended. “So they make a bit of a mess, so what?”

“Aha, here we are!” Lemon brought up two clear glass bottles. “We can add this to the punch and boom! We’ll have a wild party.”

“Lemon, what is that?” Sour Sweet said flatly.

“What else would it be?” She tapped on them. “Vodka, straight from Stalliongrad. I ordered these online a couple of months ago for wicked parties like the one we’re planning!”

“Ooh, nice!” Indigo grinned.

Sugarcoat folded her arms. “You’re agreeing with this?”

"Lighten up, Sugarcoat," Indigo said with a wave of her arm. "It's Halloween, we can just blame it on the moon if things get too wild."

"And what does the moon have to do with this?" the bespectacled girl asked.

Lemon slid the bottles back under her bed. "Because it's a blood moon! Duh. Weird stuff is supposed to happen with a blood moon hanging over our heads."

“What do you expect will happen?” Sunny looked baffled. “You think werewolves are gonna show up?”

“Or maybe… witches...” Lemon replied knowingly.

Sunny didn't feel like pursuing this subject any more, so she swiftly changed the topic.

"Who's coming to this party anyway?" Sunny asked. "Did you already send out invitations?"

“Did you already send out invitations…” Lemon laughed. “Duh, of course, Sunny! The party’s tomorrow! I’ve only been posting about it all week on MyStable.”

“You mean you didn’t hand out the invitations directly?” Sugarcoat’s glasses almost fell off her face. “MyStable’s an open platform. Anyone can see it.”

Lemon Zest didn’t seem to see the problem with that. “Yeah, so?”

“Aren’t you afraid unsavory characters might show up?”

“Psssh, if they wanna come, they can come. It’s Halloween! It’s a party!” Lemon cheered. “Besides, this is a pretty good neighborhood. It’s not like anyone actually dangerous is going to appear.”

“Uh… Silver Rose?” Sour Sweet reminded them.

“What, she’s not gonna kill us.”

"What about the pink lady?" Sour Sweet continued.

“She didn’t kill Sunny the first time, why would she come just to kill her now?”

“Can we not talk about all this?” Sunny groaned.

“Well, whatever it is, the party’s open for all!” Lemon Zest said cheerily, stretching her arms out. “Well, except kids, I guess. Don’t want them drinking our spiked punch.”

Sugarcoat sniffed derisively and said nothing, while Sour Sweet was giving Lemon a prehistoric look.

“So what are you girls dressing up as?” Indigo flexed an arm, then mimicked swinging a sword. “I’m going to go as a cyborg ninja.”

“Didn’t you already wear that during the Eastern Fair?”

“Well yeah, but it’s cool, isn’t it? Waste of a perfect costume,” Indigo said. “What about you, Sugarcoat? Let me guess… A bat?”

“Too common,” Sugarcoat rasped and shook her head. “I’d rather be a hornet.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Lemon raised her hand. “I wanna guess what Sunny’s going to dress as. A s-”

“No, don’t you say it.” Sunny got off her seat.

“I was gonna say sexy vampire,” Lemon Zest finished. “You know, cause you like to… suck. Places. You know, Silver Rose places.”

“No! I don’t!” Sunny’s temperature shot up. “A-And besides I’ve n-never sucked Silver off!”

“Sure you haven’t,” Indigo smirked. “This party is going to be like those masquerade balls they had back in the prehistoric eras. People in costumes and masks all around, and nobody will know who is who! Brilliant!”

“Call me superstitious, but a blood moon on Halloween seems like an awfully big coincidence. The night that witches come out and there happens to be an evil omen like a red moon? Nothing can go wrong there, right?” Sour Sweet looked nonplussed.

“It’s just the moon.” Lemon shrugged. “I mean, we can’t control the moon. It happens when it happens. Some solar eclipse shenanigans, I can’t remember.”

“Meh, whatever. It’ll just make the party even cooler!” Indigo took one of the bottles of vodka and looked at it, impressed. “How’d you know which one to buy, Lemon?”

Lemon shrugged. “I just picked the one with the highest alcohol content. Figured if we’re going to get smashed, we might as well go all the way, right?”

Sunny gulped. “B-But what if we get… if we get, like… raped?”

“Everyone else will be smashed too,” Indigo reminded her friend.

“Besides. I don’t plan on drinking any of that punch. It’ll mess with my medication,” Sour Sweet growled. “I’ll make sure nothing too sketchy happens.”

“Great!” Lemon gestured at Sour. “See, Sunny? Sour Sweet’s got our backs. No problem!”

Sunny didn’t look entirely convinced, but she was interrupted by Indigo holding up her phone.

“Girls, check this out! The video of Mr. Fowl and Ivory Wings’ duel at the Eastern fair has over a million views on Ewetube!”

There on the screen was a somewhat shaky recording of the match between Crystal Prep’s fencing teacher and Silver Rose’s aunt.

“Her swordsmanship is indeed impressive,” Sugarcoat said as the video played. “I wonder where she learned to fight like that.”

“Maybe she cast a spell to make herself good at fighting.” Lemon Zest mimicked swinging a sword with her right hand.

Sugarcoat was less sure of that. “If I recall, Ivory Wings came into public view around the same time Silver Rose did. Do you think the two are related somehow?”

“No duh they’re related,” Indigo Zap said impatiently. “She’s Silver’s aunt.”

“Not in that way,” Sugarcoat said. “I mean their presence.”

“You’re losing me, Sugarcoat,” Lemon looked at her friend, confused.

“So party’s set!” Indigo pumped her arms up. “Everyone’s invited and there’s a blood moon. This is going to be the wildest party ever!”

“Hey, do you think we should ask that Sunset Shimmer and her friends if they wanna come?”

Sugarcoat thought about it. “I don’t think we have to. They can come if they like, but otherwise, there’s nothing we need to plot together.”

“Well, what if something happens on the blood moon night? You know, Silver being a witch and all?” Lemon looked at Sunny. “What if Sunny gets all weird on us during the moon.”

“I won’t! Stop talking about it!” The girl in question pulled at her hair. “I’m gonna be perfectly normal. Trust me.”

“Uh, right.” Sugarcoat waved a hand. “Anyway, we’ve done all we can at this point. Now we just need to wait and watch. See if anything fishy happens during the party, Sunny or no. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on Silver Rose.”

“How are we so sure she’s even coming?” Indigo asked.

“Well… we’ll just need to see if she shows up and if she does, we keep our eyes on her. Don’t let her out of your sight. Ever.”

“Righty-o, Sugarcoat.” Indigo kicked her legs up on the bed. “Sounds easy enough. Oh man, I’m so excited!”

“So, sexy vampire, Sunny?” Lemon nudged her friend and smirked. “I know you want to.”

“S-Shut up!”

“You going for the party, Silver?” Canvas Splash said on the other end of Chrysidea’s phone. “I heard everyone’s invited. At least, I think that’s what it says. It’s on MyStable and it doesn’t say who it’s for. I think that means everyone’s invited, right? I wouldn’t mind going to a party. I mean, I won’t actually party. I’ll probably just draw what I see. It’s still fun to go to.”

“Yeah?” Chrysidea said distractedly. She was busy cleaning her teeth, most accurately, having her fangs sharpened by her aunt with a small file. “Should be fun.”

“Ooh, then I’ll have to pick out a costume! I love costumes, what should I go as? An easel? A mime? Maybe a baguette?”

At that moment, the door to Chrysidea’s room opened and Chrysalis came in. She was holding the letter opener Home Run had given her daughter.

“Here,” Chrysalis said bluntly, holding the little knife out for Chrysidea to take. “You can use it as a throwing knife.”

“I’ve also had the blade dipped in a paralytic poison,” Psithyra said. “Anyone you hit with that won’t be able to move for a few hours.”

Chrysalis blinked and turned away. “Yes. That’s right. Paralytic poison. Of course.”

“Useful, should you need to make a quick getaway.”

“What’s that about a paralytic poison knife, Silver?” Canvas asked in the young changeling’s ear.

“Uh, I’m playing Finest Fantasy,” Chrysidea said quickly. “I’m equipping my, uh, rogue for a mission. Yeah.”

Canvas snickered. “You know, they call those quests in these olden times games.”

“Oh yeah, a quest. Yep. My phone’s running out of power, so I’ll talk to you later, Canvas.”

“Alright. See you at the party, Silver! I’ll still have to decide what to wear! Ooh, I want to know what you’ll be wearing too! I guess it’ll be a surprise!”

*Click*

“Nice. You’re all done, sweetie.” Psithyra put the file back in her tool case. “You should have a better time closing your mouth when your fangs are out now. Honestly, your mother never filed your fangs for you since you were born. You’re lucky you haven’t punctured your own gums with them yet. I don’t know what she’s been thinking. Oh wait, she wasn’t thinking.”

“I’m right here,” Chrysalis said grumpily. “And we didn’t need to file our fangs when we were her age. All you’re doing is creating problems for yourself to solve.”

“Well, you filed yours.”

“For a smoother bite,” the changeling queen huffed. “Sharp fangs make for less flesh tearing when you bite someone. It’s common sense.”

“Yes…” Psithyra raised an eyebrow. Then she shared an unamused look with the younger changeling. “Yes it is.”

Chrysidea giggled, then immediately stopped. “Oh um, so the Shadowbolts are having a party tomorrow.”

“Oh, yes. I saw the ad.” Chrysalis brushed her hair with a hand. “It’s all over MyStable. It’s as though they didn’t think they could be inviting trouble.”

“I suppose you want to go to this party?” Psithyra asked as she poked at her phone, texting someone.

Chrysalis blew a raspberry. “As if I’d go to some lowly party like this? I have an image to keep up.”

Psithyra rolled her eyes. “Not you. Dea, sweetie?”

“Oh, uh, y-yeah, if that’s o-okay with mother…” Chrysidea grinned sheepishly. “I’ve never been to a… party party before.”

Chrysalis remained with her flat face. “I’ve had to shoot enough parties in my career. There’s usually some obnoxious music, alcoholic drinks everywhere, and drugs. Not to mention the cadre of unsavory people who are sure to show up for free booze.”

“So that’s a no?”

The changeling queen shrugged. “Go if you want, but we need you to be at your post by eleven forty-five sharp.”

“Y-Yes, mother.” Chrysidea nodded. “And uh, don’t worry. Uh, I won’t drink. Or take drugs.”

“You had better not,” Psithyra said reproachfully. “We need you at your best and brightest tomorrow night. I’ll be occupied with the sirens and finalizing the leylines, so I won’t be around to watch you.”

“Yes, Aunt Psithyra. I’ll do my best. Promise.”

“Psshh.” Chrysalis sniffed. “Your best isn’t good enough, but I suppose it’ll have to do. There’s no one else like us to do this. And put the throwing knife in the case with the rest of your gear. You can change into it when I come to pick you up. As for what to wear to this costume party, well, I suggest something monstrous to keep up with the Halloween spirit. Maybe the Loch Roach Monster.”

“It’s Loch Horse, sister,” Psithyra corrected.

“Whatever. I’ll leave it to her to decide.” And she left the room, disappearing down the corridor.

“Mother’s going to come pick me up from the party?” Chrysidea said, bewildered. “Since when does she do that?”

Back before her aunt’s arrival, it would be Silver Platter who would drive them around. She’d never been in the car with her mother as the driver. When Chrysalis drove, it was always by herself.

“Your mother is a perfectly safe driver. You and she will be around the same location, protecting the ritual site. It’s just easier on everyone that way.” Psithyra emitted a strange smell for a second, but it was gone too quickly for her niece to make any sense of it.

“Hey, you know, Halloween is the one night we can actually be ourselves and the humans won’t even notice. I’ve been out like this before, though with a proper attire at least, and they were none the wiser. They’ll just think you have a really cool costume.”

“So I could just go out like this?”

“I mean, it has to make sense, of course. If you follow your mother’s suggestion and go as the Loch Horse Monster, then it’ll probably be a good idea to put on a persona. It won’t make sense to be a changeling and a sea monster. Now if you’re going as some samurai grandfather ghost, then yes, you could technically go as yourself, sweetie.”

“Oh, yeah okay, that makes sense.” Chrysidea turned the gears of her mind. She didn’t know what to go as. She’d never been to a costume party. There always was Ghost Hollow, but her aunt had said it probably wasn’t a good idea. Then an idea hit her and a lightbulb went off in her head. “I’ve got it! I know what I’ll go as!”

Chapter 125 - The Long Halloween

Chrysidea could hear the music blasting already as the car turned down the street where Lemon Zest stayed. It was a creepy piano piece and it was surprisingly shrill and loud, and it sounded pretty intense. There were flashing lights and shouting coming from inside the house and the yard. Multiple cars were parked haphazardly around the street, blocking the driveway. She pitied all the poor neighbors who would have to listen through this music all night. Or perhaps they were here in the party as well. Who knew for sure?

“It looks awfully… common,” Chrysalis said disapprovingly. She had taken a van out of her spacious underground garage to drive her daughter to the party. “Are you certain you want to attend?”

Chrysidea adjusted the makeup around her mouth and nodded happily. “I’d like to experience one, good or bad. Learn more about what humans do and stuff.”

“There are some things that humans do that are completely meaningless. But if it makes you happy…” Chrysalis popped the passenger side door open. “Go on, then. You have four and a half hours before I come pick you up for the blood moon. And isn’t it beautiful?” Chrysalis looked up at the rising red moon. “Can you feel its power, its allure?” Chrysidea’s mother breathed in deeply and grinned. “If someone were to challenge me tonight, I would not lose. Not that I would ever, but especially tonight.”

Chrysidea looked at her hands. “I d-don’t feel a thing.”

Chrysalis gave her daughter a sideways glance. “Well, it’s not at its highest yet. There’s still time. Now do you want to go to that party or not?”

“Alright. I’ll see you later, mother.” The young changeling hopped out of the car and waved as the van proceeded down the road and out of sight.

Chrysidea stood at the driveway to the party and looked at the blaring lights coming from the windows. She had decided to come to the party dressed as a zombie. She had a tattered white shirt stained with tomato sauce, and she had a brown and torn jacket over her shirt, along with matching torn pants. She had painted blood and falling skin across her face and for once, she was actually out of the house as herself. Not as Silver Rose or Moonglade, but as Chrysidea.

“Scary enough.” She had been very proud of the costume she had done up herself.

There were many other people in costume as well. Some of them characters from popular movies, video games, or tv shows, and others in more classical outfits. By the time Chrysidea had made it into Lemon’s house, she had passed at least three serial killers and two ghosts. Once inside, the changeling began to recognize some people from school, partially from their smell. There was Fleur, dressed as a renaissance musketeer. She also spotted Shock Coil dressed as a famous dead singer, Fraidy Hydragyrum, with Crystal Lullaby hanging on his arm dressed as a student from Hogwartles from those Hairy Pyotr films. There was even some stranger dressed as Desert Fox, one of her mother’s characters from Manslayer’s Doctrine.

There was one costume that really scared her and that was of a guy standing in the corner with a kitchen knife in his hand. He had on a mechanics outfit and a grey mask, but what frightened her the most was his stillness. He was just watching people walk by, his head moving from side to side, but he never even moved, not even to shift to a more comfortable position.

Then of course, there were the revealing costumes that girls wore for some reason. Some stranger was a vampire, but with a lot less clothing than the typical ones dressed in suits. She had no idea why anyone would want to show off so much skin in front of other people. Chrysidea knew it was nice to look at, but she at least did it in the privacy of her home. There was even one girl who was dressed up as some kind of fighter wearing some sort of one piece suit and her nipples were poking right through the fabric.

Some people are just crazy.

“Enjoying the party?” A familiar voice said from behind her. Chrysidea turned around to see and smell Upper Crust, who was dressed as some kind of rock star with a bronzed prosthetic leg. “Uh, wait, I know your costume. You’re a trotter from The Trotting Dead, right?”

“Uh, yeah!” Chrysidea said cheerfully. “And you are?”

“I’m Jenny Goldenleg from Steampunk 7702,” Upper Crust said proudly. “Worked for days on this costume. But yours is pretty good too! Skin tone looks real natural. And the eyes! Zombies don’t have reptilian eyes, but nice touch!”

“Well, it took a lot of time to do, but I think it was worth it,” Chrysidea said modestly, which wasn’t a lie. She had spent six hours throwing the costume together. “It just took some time in the… Is that Principal Cinch? She’s looking, eh, shorter.”

It was the glasses that gave Sugarcoat away as she marched down the hallway primly with a cup of something in her left hand, dressed as CPA’s principal, no less.

“Detention,” she said to Cold Forecast with a smile. “And I hate children.”

Everyone around her laughed.

Chrysidea continued to walk through the party, watching what each person was doing, so that she could figure out what people do at parties. Most of the partygoers were just standing around eating and chatting. Some were in the center, where a mini dance floor had been set up shaking and swaying about. Lemon Zest was standing behind a DJ booth, dressed in a black skin tight suit with her face painted gold and she was blasting the creepy piano Halloween tune that people were strangely dancing to. It didn’t strike her as a dancing song, that’s for sure.

“Party time!” Indigo Zap popped up on the dance floor and started dancing. Or at least, Chrysidea thought it was dancing. All she was doing was throwing her arms and legs about. She was dressed as a cyborg ninja again, the same costume she had on at the Eastern Fair. In her hand was a plastic cup that looked half empty. Chrysidea could already guess what was up.

Walking about, the changeling spotted a dirty looking bearded man sitting on one of the couches, chip crumbs across his chest and a cup in his hands. He really looked like he didn’t belong. Along the wall were a couple of girls in elf costumes and Chrysidea had to say, they looked like they were right out of a fantasy land, though she didn’t like that they only had metal panties covering their bottoms. At the very corner of the room was a girl dressed in a very tall baguette and Chrysidea didn’t need to smell her to know who it was.

“Canvas!” She waved and smiled when she got near enough for the girl to see.

“Hiya, Silver!” The girl said without looking up from her sketchbook.

“How did you know it was me so quickly?”

“I know what your voice sounds like.”

Right, I’m sure she does. The young changeling thought. That is, until she decided to switch personas. “How’re you doing?”

Canvas shrugged. “You know I don’t like that question. It’s weird.”

“Uh, right,” Chrysidea said. “Is that real bread you’re wearing?”

“Silver, you’re so silly,” Canvas laughed. “No, it’s not real bread. It’s canvas! Like my name!”

“Oh, uh, well, yeah uh, now that you mention it, I see it.” Chrysidea added her awkward laughter to Canvas’. “Got any good sketches yet?”

“Oh, yes I do!” Canvas held up the sketchbook and flipped the pages. Chrysidea could see quick drawings of werewolf suit, a Roaman soldier with a cup in his hands, and then the two elves from earlier, who were still leaning against the wall closeby, chatting to each other.

“Looks good,” Chrysidea said approvingly. “Is it hard to draw in a costume like that?”

Canvas shrugged. “Not really. I’m going to go get some of the punch. You want to come with me?”

“Are you sure it’s okay to drink?” Chrysidea asked. “I’ve read about parties. I heard they spike it with alcohol.”

But Canvas was already gone, disappearing into the crowd.

Chrysidea took out her phone and looked at it. She had already spent fifteen minutes here. She didn’t have a lot of time to spend here, so the changeling decided to go see if there was anything interesting happening.

She still hadn’t seen Sunny Flare and she wondered if the girl was even here tonight. But then she shook off that idea. Of course Sunny would be here. She’s a Shadowbolt after all, and she’s crazy for praise and adulation as the rest of them are, or really, everyone at Crystal Prep.

It was weird. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot to do at parties and just standing by herself, Chrysidea began to feel bored and she leaned back against the wall and sighed. It was nice to get to see so many cool costumes, though some were a little too creepy for her, but other than that, the only other things she could do was drink or dance. She didn’t want to do either of those.

“Hello there,” a voice said to her left.

In her quiet thoughts, a strange man with tattoos over his arms had appeared beside her, his costume consisting of a black hoodie and a skull mask.

“Um, h-hi.” Chrysidea managed a smile.

The man turned to lean on the wall too. “Nice party, huh?”

“Uh, I-I guess…?”

“So, what’s your name?” the stranger asked.

“Moo- Silver Rose,” Chrysidea replied. There was a slightly sweet flavor coming out of this person. One that she was accustomed with coming from Sunny Flare. “I go to Crystal Prep.”

The man seemed to do a double take. “Oh. So that’d put you at eighteen?”

“Sixteen,” Chrysidea said, which was a complete lie, but her intuition was telling her to do so. Better to let people underestimate her. Immediately she sensed the nice taste disappear, replaced with something like Cinch’s aura.

“Yeeeahh…” the stranger said. He shifted against the wall. “Well, never mind then. I’m going to get some more punch. See you.”

And with that, he was gone.

I can see why mother doesn’t like to go to these things.

“I’m back!” Canvas skipped over with a overspilling cup of punch in her hands. “Not bad stuff. It’s berry, but it’s got something really strong in it. Who was that earlier?”

“No clue,” Chrysidea shrugged. “Have you seen some of the people here? Pretty sure they don’t all go to Crystal Prep.”

“You mean that fatty over there?” Canvas pointed to the bearded man on the couch as she got back to sketching. “Yeah he definitely doesn’t look like a student. He’s been staring at you since you’ve been here, you know?”

Chrysidea blinked a few times. “What, really?”

“He occasionally looks around,” Canvas said without looking up. “But see, he’s back on you at the moment. Either that or he’s looking at the wall behind you. Could be a possibility, I guess.”

She didn’t deny she was a little creeped out at it, but young changeling just pushed herself off the wall and stretched. “Well, I’m going to see if there’s anything else to do here. If not, then I totally wasted my time. I could have gone trick or treating instead.”

“Hey, why don’t we both go treat or treating, then?” Canvas shut her book and got up to down her cup’s contents. “It’s gonna be real fun!”

Canvas whipped out two paper bags from her bag and flicked them open. They had pumpkins painted on their fronts.

“Yeah sounds fun, Canvas. Let’s do it!” Chrysidea nodded. It was a good chance to get out of that lard belly’s sight too. “We’ll just need to be back here later. My mother will be picking me up from the party.”

The pair left the party through the front door, passing a plethora of costumed people on the way out. As soon as Chrysidea left the house, she felt a lot more relaxed. Everything seemed sharper, the smells more vibrant. She felt as though she could run ten miles and not even be tired. Chrysidea looked up at the crimson moon that was handing in the cloudless heavens and smiled.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Came a disheveled and slurred voice from somewhere behind them.

Both Chrysidea and Canvas turned around, and there came Sunny Flare waltzing up towards them on wobbly legs. She was dressed up as what Chrysidea thought was a vampire. She had a dark cape over a black corset and skirt, and she had painted blood dribbling down the side of her mouth.

“I’m the best there is in Crystal Prep.” She waved a fist and then almost fell on her face. “No one bests Funny Slare and gets away with it…”

“Uh…” Chrysidea looked at Canvas. She had no idea what was going on.

“Are you feeling quite alright?” Canvas asked politely.

“You can it, paintbrush,” Sunny staggered to the side. “It’s the witching night and who knows what Silver Rose can be up to tonight? You going to visit her? Are you a witch’s associate?”

Chrysidea took a sniff of the air. There was an aroma of alcohol and something else she didn’t recognize. “Maybe you should go sit down, Sunny.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” She waved her fist again. “A friend of Canvas is not a friend of meen. You should be ashammed of yourself to be a paintbrush’s friend. She sketches well I and think I sketch better! I am the best at all things!”

“Come now, is this any way to talk to your girlfriend?” Chrysidea asked, switching to Silver Rose’s voice.

“Wait a minute, what?” Canvas for once, looked surprised. She pointed between Sunny and Chrysidea.

“Silver Rose dossen’t look like that…” Sunny slurred. “She’s pretty and she’s sexy and she’s a witch and she’s cast her spell over me. I don’t know you and I’ll come when I want to.”

“Yeah…” Canvas said, edging away from Sunny. “You do that, we’ll be back after taking a little walk to get some fresh air. The party’s air is so stale and full of weird smells.”

Sunny took a few more steps towards them, then fell on her face. Sour Sweet, who was dressed in a bear costume, suddenly ran out from nowhere and pulled her up.

“Look what you’ve done, you’ve done f-” Then she eyed Canvas and Chrysidea. “You didn’t say anything weird to her, did you?”

“More like she said weird things to us.” Canvas laughed. “And she calls me weird.”

“I knew that vodka punch was a bad idea…” Sour Sweet muttered. “I mean, I’ll take Sunny back inside and you two can get back to… Whatever it was you were doing.”

“Yeah, alright.” Canvas pulled Chrysidea’s arm and began to walk away. When they were out of earshot, she suddenly exploded, “You and Sunny Flare are together?! Really? All this time?”

“We were,” Chrysidea admitted. “But now it’s complicated. We haven’t really broken up, but I don’t think we’re together either.”

“Wow, it’s like you’re stuck in limbo. But wow, I totally didn’t see it at all. You two must’ve hidden it so well. Oh man, it’s so weeeeirrrrdddd! I don’t know if it helps, now that I know about it. Tonight’s such a weird night.”

Chrysidea giggled. “You can say that again.”

“Tonight’s such a weird night.” Canvas Splash nodded. “What do the two of you even do when you go out?”

The changeling rubbed the back of her head. “Uhh, well… w-we usually um, go to… the mall. Yeah.”

“Ah, shopping trips. I guess that’s what most people would do.”

If only that’s actually what we do more of.

“Still, I can’t believe it! You had a girlfriend! And it was Sunny Flare of all people!”

“Yeah, umm, perhaps not the best of people. But she came onto me first.”

“She what? As in you gave her a piggyback ride?”

“No, no, as in, umm… she uh, started the relationship.”

Chrysidea looked up at the crimson moon that was still rising. She now knew what her mother was talking about. The rush of power that was making her heart race was unlike anything else she had felt before. Before the Friendship Games, she only felt little tingles of power during such a moon, but this time, she really felt as though she could do anything.

“So, what do we do while trick or treating?” Chrysidea asked Canvas.

“Oh yeah, you’ve never been, huh?” Canvas handed her one of the halloween bags. “We’ll go door to door. Then we’ll knock. Then we’ll yell trick or treat! Then they’ll decide whether they want a trick or to treat. Easy.”

“Let’s try it out!” Chrysidea rubbed her hands together. She was really excited to try trick or treating.

They approached the first door down the next street, where there were groups of kids already patrolling around with bags or cauldrons of candy. As Chrysidea watched them go happily along from house to house, she could only get more excited. She was never really one for candy, but who would say no to free candy anyway?

Chrysidea dragged Canvas over to the nearest house which had a bright orange door and rang the doorbell. The two of them waited a few seconds before an elderly woman opened the door, carrying a tray of chocolate bars.

“My, how cute. A loaf of bread and a dancer,” she chuckled as she inspected both their costumes. “You two have been the oldest children to visit me tonight.”

“Umm, y-yeah, that’s right!” Chrysidea figured it would be easier to agree. “I don’t think um, anyone could be too old for Halloween.”

“No I don’t suppose they are,” the woman replied and handed them each two bars of chocolate. “Two for each of you, since you’re old enough to be responsible.”

“Wow, thanks lady!” Canvas grinned widely. “And by the way, I’m not just a loaf of bread. I’m a baguette.”

“Oh. I’m afraid I don’t know what that is, dearie.”

Canvas shrugged. “Just a Prench bread I guess. Ever been to Prance, lady?”

“Thank you miss, thank you very much for the chocolate and the time.” Chrysidea began to drag Canvas to the next house. They had more treats to get.

The next house had a grumpy middle-aged man who seemed to reluctantly pass them handfuls of candy, and then the next one had a man who was dressed up as some murderer with blood splatters across a white shirt. By far, he gave the two of them the most candy, but he kept looking at them weird and when Chrysidea decided to take a sniff, he smelt deranged and lustful, so she quickly steered Canvas away from that house. She didn’t want to find out what that man planned for them.

The next few houses had uneventful people, but Chrysidea found her bag to be getting heavier and heavier and she was rather pleased with the haul they had.

“Hey Silver,” Canvas asked as they patrolled about the streets to find another house. “What’s it like to love? To feel love? I mean, since you got Sunny and all. Half the time I don’t even know what I’m feeling.”

“What’s it like? Umm…” Chrysidea placed a hand to her cheek. “I don’t know. It’s like… a really good meal and sometimes you just can’t wait to eat it.”

That just sounded wrong, but Canvas didn’t pick up on it. “Yeah okay. For me it’s a good plate of carbonara. Sometimes I just can’t get enough of it. Thankfully my stomach is small or I’d already be quite large. Like that man over there.” The artist pointed to a parent watching his kids by the side. “Would that mean I’m in love with carbonara?”

Chrysidea said a noncommittal ‘Uh-huh’ as she took out her phone. They had been out here for almost three hours now, wandering the neighborhood and blending in with the kids who were also trick-or-treating. “We should get back to Lemon’s house soon. There’s something I have to do that I can’t be late for.”

“Oh, okay,” Canvas peered into her candy bag. “This should keep me stocked for a week or so,” she said. “Maybe I can do art with candy!”

“Yeah… maybe,” Chrysidea looked up at the moon. It was a lot higher now, and she could feel its bloody light infusing her with strength. She felt as though she could lift a car with her bare hands.

It wasn’t hard to find the way back to Lemon Zest’s house. All they had to do was follow the loud music and the drunken cheers of the partygoers.

“I hope Lemon knows what she’s done,” Canvas mused. “I would hate to be the one to have to explain to my parents why the house is trashed and there’s puke stains in the carpet. But then again, I would never think to do this to my parents, so this would never happen to me anyway.”

One cue, Indigo Zap ran out of the house to a bush and she began to barf out the night’s contents.

“Yeah, definitely not a good idea. Is this really what all high school parties are like? Drinking and all that?”

“Meh, I guess so.” Canvas shrugged. “I never drink the stuff. What do you people say? Too much wine is no good for deliver.”

“That doesn’t sound right.”

Canvas put a finger to her chin. “I saw that on TV once. Maybe I misheard it.”

“Yeah…” Chrysidea sealed up her bag of candy and took a deep breath. There were so many positive emotions running wild from the party that she couldn’t get enough. She might not have wanted to participate, but it was good food just standing outside absorbing it all.

“Gee, you look happy,” Canvas said, looking at Chrysidea with a bemused expression on her face. “Then again, I don’t know. I’m just associating that with your smile.”

There was also a whole lot of lust coming from the rooms upstairs. It smelt nice and she wasn’t the target of those emotions, so for once, she took a deep breath of it and grinned. She still had to fight to control her fangs, but at least she was getting better at it.

“Bloody.”

“What?” Chrysidea looked to Canvas.

“The moon’s all bloody.” Her friend pointed up to the sky. “But well, it’s only going to get bloodier.”

“Oh, I hope not.” Chrysidea swallowed.

She would have to protect the ritual later and should Sunset and her friends or others try to interfere, she might just have to eliminate them. She hoped it didn’t come to that. That’s what her paralyzing dagger was for. To get them out of the way without killing anyone.

“Do you wanna… go in and find Sunny or something?” Canvas asked. “You know, since you’re sorta complicatedly dating her. I’ll just be off in a corner drawing. You can go look for her.”

Chrysidea was gonna take a pass on it, but seeing as she had forty minutes to go, she figured she might as well. Bidding Canvas farewell for now, the young changeling proceeded back into the party, sniffing around for her friend. She picked up a lot of weird smells and she saw that creepy guy who talked to her was still around, trying to pick up other girls. Perhaps he hadn’t had any luck yet.

She also realized the man with the belly was no longer on the couch. Perhaps he had left, after all, he hadn’t done anything the whole time she had been in the house earlier.

The young changeling shrugged it off. There were so many people coming and going, it was hard to keep track of them all anyway. And so she continued looking for Sunny, wanting to see what she was up to. She couldn’t be any more drunk than she already was.

Chapter 126 - Saved by a Bite

“I told you not to drink so much!” Sunny Flare heard Sour Sweet’s voice float into her ears from somewhere on her right as her friend helped her up the stairs. “You need to lay off the punch.”

“I’m fine,” Sunny protested. She drained the remains of the cup she was holding and tossed the empty vessel down the stairs. “I just needed sumfing to take the edge off, ‘kay?”

The stairway swirled in front of her and the more she walked, the further the top of the stairs seemed to move away from her. Sour Sweet’s face seemed to change shades of color and it was now hovering on the colors of purple or yellow.

“What edge did you even need to take off anyway?” Sour Sweet grumbled. “It’s just a party. You don’t need to stress out about having fun.”

“I’ve been very stressed recently,” Sunny slurred. “You an’ Sugarcoat and the fire estinguishurr and Silver Rose. So much to think ‘bout. I didn’t need to think this much before.”

“Uh huh.”

“You guys keep making fun of me…” Sunny stumbled on the next step and Sour Sweet had to stop her from rolling back down the stairs. “I’m not crazy ‘bout the sex. I’m not wearing no sexy vampire costum. This is what all vampires wear you gots it? I’m not an attenturn seeker.”

Sour Sweet rolled her eyes and hauled Sunny up the last few steps and into Lemon’s guest room.

“Sober up in here before coming back down,” Sour grunted. “Take it easy, okay?”

She dropped Sunny on the bed and went to turn off the lights before leaving out the door. Sunny groaned and flipped herself on her back, rubbing at her eyes. The ceiling spun around in her vision and she could swear the lightbulb was sneering at her.

“I’m not drunk…” Sunny pointed at it and frowned. “I didn’t drunk too much alcomahol, whatchu looking at? I’m just stressed.”

The lightbulb ignored her.

“I’m a vampire. I’m a vampire. I’m a vampire.” Sunny pulled at the side of her mouth. “I’ll bite you if you make foon of me, you don’t do that.”

Sunny lay there in the dark for a while, listening to the faint sounds of merrymaking coming from downstairs. She reached into her mouth and took out the fake vampire teeth she had been wearing. Nobody was going to see her up here anyway, so she thought she might as well relax a bit.

“Nonsense… it’s all nonsense…” She threw the teeth off the bed. “Silver Rose is no vampire, she’s no witch, she’s a pretty girl, so very sexy, she’s sumfin’ else that I don’t know what. Where is she? What is she doing?”

Why did they even need to be suspicious of her? So she was crazy for her, but so what? Was there anything wrong with that? Sure, Sunny knew she enjoyed touching herself, sometimes in front of other people, but was that so wrong? Why was it important if Silver was the cause of that? And she hadn’t even done it in a while, so was it even still a problem? Why did this rift between them need to go on?

Sunny had so many questions and she didn’t feel like answering all of them now. She just lay there and tried to steady her vision, but it was all over the place. This time, she could swear there were elephants dancing on the ceiling.

Once the elephants shrank into mice, Sunny tried moving her legs. They responded sluggishly and she felt a little annoyed that her body wasn’t responding the way she wanted.

Then she heard the door open and she was relieved. Perhaps Sour Sweet was back to help her up.

“Hey, Sour. Come help me wiff this…” she called out, but she got no answer. “Sour, I’m talking to you.”

There was still no answer and Sunny felt her eyes drooping. It was getting harder to even focus on the ceiling and even as someone stood over her. She couldn’t see who it was, but it was a fairly large shape.

“Sour? Izzdat you? You look big in your bear costume.”

And then hands pushed her cloak aside and began rubbing at her shoulders.

“Oh, you muh-sagging me, Sour? How nice…” Sunny said and the motion made her soon close her eyes. “Itz nice.”

And then the hands slowly moved over down her collar bones, then she felt her corset being tugged.

“Whaz you doin’, Sour?” Sunny groaned and flipped on her side. “You try’na take it off, the zip’s on the back…”

Sunny felt the hands scrabbling with the zipper on her corset, but something wasn’t right. Sour Sweet’s fingers weren’t this rough, and her breath wasn’t this foul. Sour Sweet’s breath smelled of that medication she took to keep her symptoms down, this smelled like rotten meat and strong alcohol.

“I thought you said you weren’t gonna have any alcomahol yourself?” Sunny drawled.

And then she felt herself being rolled back as the corset was yanked out from under her. Sunny felt the cold air wash over her body and squirmed. Then she felt the rough hands brush over her breasts and squeeze them. A tongue began flicking along one of her nipples.

“Sour?” Sunny asked. Then she realized that it wasn’t Sour Sweet, and it never had been. She opened her mouth to shriek, but one of the hands pressed itself over her mouth.

“Just a little while, girlie,” the man said, his horrible breath wafting into Sunny’s face and stinging her eyes. “I promise it’ll be good.”

Then Sunny felt the man’s weight shift atop her and something long and hard was stuffed into her mouth. She wanted to yell in surprise, but she could only manage a mumble.

The man grunted and moved, and Sunny felt it move in and out of her throat, but then out of the corner of her eye, she saw two circles of turquoise light in the doorway. Just like the two lights she had seen in the attic window of Ebony Wings’ house. Even in her drunken state, she could still picture those evil eyes glaring at them from the window.

There was a guttural growl and the lights leapt at Sunny, who attempted a scream.

The man let out a yell and there was the sound of scuffling, then the man stiffened and rolled off Sunny and onto the floor with a shuddering thud. She lifted herself and began coughing and spitting.

She wasn’t the only one spitting. The owner of the glowing turquoise eyes was also wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and Sunny could see a pair of fangs sticking out from under her lips.

“Ugh, blood,” a familiar voice said.

“W-What are you…?” Sunny asked, scooting back in the bed. Then she looked down and saw the man just lying there, stuck in a half surprised position, unmoving except for his eyes and mouth. To Sunny’s horror, his pants were down and his privates were on full display.

“What did you do to me?” he asked.

“I bit you,” Silver Rose’s voice said. “You’re a zombie now.”

“Wha-?” Then the girl with Silver’s voice kicked him in the head, knocking the man out cold.

“You’re a zombie!” Sunny exclaimed and eyed the Silver Rose character. She looked familiar, as though she’d seen her earlier tonight, but she couldn’t remember most of the night now.

“No, I’m not actually a zombie,” Silver Rose’s voice explained. "That's a little joke."

“Th-then what are you? Who are you? Are you really Silver…?”

“You’re drunk. Go back to sleep.”

Sunny’s eyes drifted to the man on the floor and she pointed at him. “H-He almost got me! He had his dick in my mouth!”

“Yes, and I will get one of your friends to turn him in.” The Silver Rose character raised her hands to calm her down. “I’ll make sure he’s caught. You don’t have to worry about him again.”

“What if he gets up?”

“He won’t. Not for another half hour at least,” the Silver Rose character said impatiently. She took out her phone and looked at it. “I have to be somewhere soon. I just came to check up on you. It’s a good thing I did.”

She turned to go, but Sunny wasn’t done. “Wait! At least… Tell me what you really are, Silver. I have to know why I was… so crazy for you. I need to know.”

“It’s Halloween, and the blood moon is high,” the Silver Rose character drew herself up to her full height and fixed Sunny in those glaring turquoise eyes of hers. “Strange things are allowed to happen on this one night of the year.”

“Tha-that doesn’t answer my question.”

The other girl sighed. “No, Sunny. No magic was cast on you or anything. I don’t know why you feel the way you do. You like me, and I like you. Whether that means we keep dating or not… well. You’re not completely sober so it wouldn’t be fair to ask you to decide now.”

Before Sunny could ask anything else, she was gone, disappearing out and around the door in a mere second. Sunny was left there in the dark room with her assaulter beside her on the floor. What had even just happened?

And then her adrenaline started to wear away and she fell back on the bed, her eyes starting to close. Perhaps she just needed a little rest first.

Chrysidea stood by the driveway with Canvas Splash again, her phone in one hand and her bag of candy in the other as she waited for her mother to arrive. The police had come about ten minutes ago, which was actually a surprisingly fast response time, and the man was dragged away in cuffs, his pants still unbuttoned and his legs unmoving. Lemon Zest was also given a warning to keep the music down, but at least they hadn’t said anything about the spiked punch. After this, people were beginning to leave anyway, so she probably didn’t have to keep playing music.

“Wow, I can’t believe all that even happened!” Canvas held up her sketchbook, which had a drawing of the man being carried away, with his junk dangling out and everything. “See, I even drew him. I’ve never actually seen a real penis before. Gotta say, it’s smaller than what I thought it would look like.”

Chrysidea, unfortunately, had also seen one for the first time and it looked kind of gross. She hoped Home Run’s wasn’t like that.

“And Sunny had that in her mouth?” Canvas asked. Chrysidea had told her about it earlier, but made her swear to keep it a secret. “Absolutely disgusting! He pees with that.”

“Myeh,” Chrysidea made a noise. “At least Sunny’s honor is still intact. I think.”

“Well, not unless I go tell everyone about it. But hey, you told me to keep it a secret. I’m great at secrets. Sketchy vouches for me.”

Coming down the street and passing the police car came a van. Chrysidea’s mother’s van.

“Oh, so that’s my ride, Canvas. I’ll see you in school?” Chrysidea waved.

“Of course you will. I mean, unless I’m sick. I should be there.”

“Thanks for the fun tonight, Canvas. Bye, then!” And the young changeling got in the back of the van and shut the sliding door.

Her mother turned around and looked at her. She was dressed in a sort of dark bodysuit with a slightly perforated deep green cloak thrown over it. She wore no dyes on her skin or hair, and her emerald eyes shone in the dark. Tonight she was the very picture of a changeling beauty.

“Have fun?” Chrysalis asked boredly as she stepped on the gas pedal.

“Oh, yes mother,” Chrysidea began. “The party was boring, so I went trick or treating with Canvas. We got a lot of candy.” She shook her bag.

“Mhmm,” Chrysalis said as she turned into a dark alley and switched off the lights. “Make sure you brush your teeth after eating that. If you get a cavity we can’t exactly take you to the dentist’s, can we?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess not. Oh and can you believe it, mother? It was that man again. That one who tried to rob us when Home Run and I went to the theater. I didn’t recognize him at first, but I remembered his voice.”

“Oh. That man. Did you kill him?”

“N-No. I just called the police on him. He was at the party.”

“Shame. I would’ve killed him.” Chrysalis looked at her fingers. “Did he try to rob you again? He shouldn’t be able to recognize you. You were wearing a persona then.”

“He tried to force himself onto Sunny Flare. So I bit him and knocked him out.”

“He what?” Chrysidea’s mother laughed hysterically and slapped her hand on the wheel a few times. “That’s great, that’s really great. Why did you stop him? You should’ve just sat back and watched. You could learn a thing or two from him.”

Chrysidea said nothing as her mother guffawed.

Finally the laughter ceased and Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Anyway. Your uniform is in that box in the corner. Clean off that makeup and get changed. It’s almost midnight.”

The young changeling did as she was told and got to setting herself up. This was it, it was the moment she had been waiting for since her aunt concocted the plan. The sirens’ gems were going to be fixed and they would be good as new. Off came the zombie costume clothes and on came the leather boots, the armored gloves, and the mail-backed hooded coat. She strapped the drugged throwing knife to her leg and tested the mobility. Chrysidea pulled the hood on and tugged the face guard up to cover her mouth and nose. Finally on went the sword belt, with her Eastern blade attached. She was glad to use this sword, as she had drilled with it for years.

“Oh, by the way, thought I’d let you know. I’ll be auditioning for a new role tomorrow afternoon,” Chrysalis said and the young changeling looked up to see her chewing on a stick of gum. A literal stick. It was in the shape of a twig and half of it hung out of her mouth. “It’s a little different from what I usually do. The character smokes, but you know I don’t do that. I have to keep up my image, so they’ll edit in the smoke instead.”

“What’s this movie called?” Chrysidea asked, flexing her hands and gripping the handle of her sword to test the mobility.

“Oh, it’s not a movie. It’s a television series.” Chrysalis rubbed her hands together. She smelled excited. “It’s by the company, Congo.”

“You mean that shipping company?” The young changeling asked. “Why are they making shows now?”

“Doesn’t matter. What matters is I think it’s a promising show, so I will be auditioning for the part of Milly Mulcher. She’s the leader of a group called The Girls, who hunt down superheroes who step out of line. Very violent character, so I will get to show how versatile I am, you see.”

“Sounds umm… interesting. I guess.”

“Fast Bender will be acting as my husband, should you still want an autograph for that Sunny girlfriend of yours.”

Chrysalis started up the engine of the van again and drove towards the Canterlot Park. The red moon shone down from overhead, casting red light inside the van and throwing shadows into the vehicle’s interior.

The van stopped just a short distance from one of the park’s hills, which Chrysidea recognized as one of the places her aunt had scouted out for a good place to perform the repairing of the gems.

“And we are here.” The changeling queen shut off the van engines. “Now, remember your role. I will be at the top of that hill preparing the ritual. You just need to make sure no one reaches me. Think you can manage that? That’s what your sword and throwing knife are for, got it? No one is to reach me.”

“Yes, mother. I can do that.”

“Good,” Chrysalis said. “While you were at the party, your aunt and I took the liberty of setting the scene a bit. A couple of old swords and moving shrubbery to block off any side entrances to the top of the hill. Only way to get there is through you now.”

“Yes, mother.”

“Yes, mother,” Chrysalis imitated. “Stop wasting time and let’s go.”

She kicked open the door and trudged off, with Chrysidea scurrying out the back and following after her. The walk there was quick and she soon spotted the shrubs and swords her mother and aunt had set up. There was now a narrow path leading up the hill and around it became more dense near the top to really ensure there was no other way to get there.

“You stay down here,” Chrysalis instructed. “I’ll go on up ahead. Oh, and your aunt insisted on me giving you these,” the changeling queen reached into her cloak and took out a short, stubby orange gun. “It’s not for shooting anyone with. If something goes horribly, catastrophically wrong out here, fire this up into the air and I’ll get us both out of here in a flash. But if you use it, you’ll be in a lot of trouble at home. And this,” Chrysalis passed her daughter a small cylinder. It looked like a flashlight. “From what your aunt has told me, the girls who might show up can only use their magic if their musical instruments are working. This device will jam all electronics in a short range. That includes your phone, so don’t try to use it while this gadget is active.”

“O-Oh…” Chrysidea pocketed the gun and the device. “Ok-okay, mother…”

“And so it begins.” Chrysalis looked up at the sky and breathed in. “Ahhh, the smell of a magically charged atmosphere.”

She walked up the hill and left Chrysidea to peer around in the darkness of the park, waiting and watching for anything to happen. Her aunt had said Sunset Shimmer and her friends might attempt to intervene, but Chrysidea just couldn’t understand why they would even help plan for the gem repairs if they were going to come and stop it tonight. It just didn’t make sense why they wouldn’t try to stop it sooner. In the end, she just chalked it up as typical hero actions. She just hoped Home Run wouldn’t be here tonight. She knew he always tried to do the right thing and the right thing this time was to stay home. She didn’t want to have to hurt him.

By the light of her phone, Chrysidea saw that there were less than ten minutes until midnight, when the blood moon’s power was supposedly the strongest. All magic was supposed to be supercharged then, which was why she felt like she could do anything. But Sunset and her friends were also magical, so she couldn’t rely on that as an advantage. She would have to use her skill and wits instead.

She put her phone away and brushed a lock of teal hair from her eyes. Perhaps she should have tied it back like her aunt liked to do.

From a far-off grove of trees, there came a flicker of motion. That was fast. The ritual hasn’t even begun to start yet. They were early. Chrysidea placed a hand on her sword and waited. The time had finally arrived.

With the red moon’s strength rushing through her body, Princess Chrysidea drew her weapon, ready to defend her queen.

Chapter 127 - Duel Under the Blood Moon

Not a sound was made throughout the whole of Canterlot Park except for the rustle of tree branches and grass. There also seemed to be a hum of power coming from the blood moon above them, but Chrysidea didn’t know if she was imagining that.

Sunset Shimmer and her friends stopped at the base of the hill, musical instruments in hand. The changeling princess had no idea how Pinkie Pie had brought her entire drum set, but that wasn’t important right now.

They just stood there, staring up at her, not a word being uttered.

To her dismay, Home Run stood near the back, looking between his friends and her. She really hoped he wouldn’t be here to see all this. To see her beat his friends.

That other girl was here too, the one with teal and grey hair and blue skin. Chrysidea forgot her name, but she remembered seeing her in CHS before, on the baseball team.

And then the most puzzling sight was in the middle of the ground, where two Twilight Sparkles stood. One had long straight hair, while the other was more familiar to her, sporting her curly tied up hair and a large pair of glasses. The unfamiliar one must be the princess from Equestria her aunt had been meeting with.

Chrysidea decided to try a move she had seen in a film once. She took her sword and used its tip to score a straight line in the ground in front of herself. The message was clear.

“Stand aside,” Sunset finally spoke up. The first words said tonight. She readied her right hand against her guitar strings as though she was ready to fire a bullet. “We’re here to stop you.”

Chrysidea tilted her head to the side. “I can’t do that.” she replied in her undisguised voice.

“The world is at stake here,” Sunset tried to reason. “If the sirens get their powers back, there’s nothing to stop them from trying to take over again.”

“Duh, except us!” Rainbow Dash waved her instrument. She was dressed as a motocross rider with a slash mark across her chest. “It’ll just be harder if we try to stop them later.”

The rest of them were dressed in their normal clothes. It was a little weird that only Rainbow had a costume on on Halloween night.

“They’re bad guys,” Applejack chipped in. “They ain’t gonna see reason. We’ll have to show ‘em who they’re dealin’ with here.”

Chrysidea stepped forward and planted her feet in the middle of the entryway. “I cannot let you pass. Go home.”

“Ready, girls?” Sunset looked at her friends.

Everyone with the exception of Home Run got their musical instruments ready. Chrysidea reached into her pocket and pulled out the electronics jammer that her mother had given her. She found the button on the top and pressed it.

The effect was immediate. Pinkie Pie’s electric drum kit failed to make any noise, and Rarity’s keytar fell silent.

“What? What happened?” Pinkie tapped a drumstick to a snare drum and was rewarded with a pathetic tat as the stick made contact.

“Go home,” Chrysidea ordered. “Your instruments are of no use against us.”

Sunset strummed on her guitar, but all she got was a thwack, and then the sound fizzed out.

The young changeling grinned. That was all too easy. All it took to stop a magically infused group of girls was a jammer, which required no skill to use.

“This isn’t good,” Equestrian Twilight Sparkle put her mic away. “There must be another way to use our magic.”

“There is.” Sunset’s eyes widened. “Remember during the Friendship Games, girls? We were able to channel our magic through its elements.”

Chrysidea did not like the sound of that. She hoped that the ritual to restore the siren gems was already in progress, because she was about to try something a little drastic. Putting the jammer back into her pocket for now, the changeling princess picked up one of the old swords that were stuck in the ground and threw it in an arc high up into the air, where it turned end over end and stabbed into the ground in front of the girls.

“Tell you what. If one of you can best me in combat, I will let you through. Though I’m sure none of you are that good.”

“Oooohhhhhh!” Pinkie cupped her hands around her mouth.

The girl whose name escaped her stepped forward, but then Sunset raised one of her hands. “No, Velvet. I should do it. We don’t know how skilled she is, and I’m the better swordsman.”

Princess Twilight stared at Chrysidea, as if trying to figure out something. Her mouth worked silently as she thought hard.

“No magical tricks,” Chrysidea quickly added, so they knew what they were getting into. “Just good old fashioned sword fighting.”

“I don’t recognize her…” Chrysidea heard Princess Twilight say.

The changeling couldn’t help but smile. Her aunt had really fooled them with all her different disguises. They probably thought she was one of the people who spoke to them.

Eventually, Sunset stepped forward and picked up the sword. She gave it a few swings, then nodded.

“I’ll be your challenger. If I win, you let us through.”

“Fine. But you won’t win.”

“What are you fighting to?” the girl called Velvet asked. “To the death?”

“Let’s just say till whoever can no longer get up,” Chrysidea answered cheerily. That way she could buy her mother a lot of time. “And if I win, you will clear out. All of you.”

Sunset pointed her weapon at her. “You’re on.”

Feeling the red moon’s power burning through her veins, Chrysidea made the first move, darting across the expanse between her and Sunset and striking at Sunset’s left arm. Sunset guarded with her own weapon, blocking it perfectly in one swift motion.

Without missing a beat, the changeling used her momentum to aim a backhand slice at Sunset’s waist, but the fiery haired girl had already anticipated it and her weapon was already there, parrying Chrysidea’s blow aside with a resounding clank of metal.

The young changeling was knocked off one foot by the unexpected parry, and Sunset was already swinging her sword in. Unable to recover in time, Chrysidea kicked forward instead and leapt off Sunset, cutting off a lock of her red and yellow hair as she performed a somersault over the CHS girl and landed behind her.

Doesn’t make sense. How can she keep up? I’m stronger and faster than she is.

Sunset advanced slowly, but kept her blade in a perfect low guard position. Chrysidea looked up at the sky. The moon was directly overhead. Midnight.

That moment of distraction cost Chrysidea the attack, and Sunset came in with a diagonal strike. However, Chrysidea knew that the blades of the swords she had been given, minus her own personal one, were not as sharp as they could be. The strike fell upon her chainmail armor and did no damage, though it knocked her off balance again and Sunset barreled into her with a shoulder, knocking her to the ground.

Chrysidea hit the grassy floor hard, but she quickly got up and tried to catch Sunset off guard with a stab backwards. The stab pierced her jacket, but missed Sunset’s body.

“Clock is ticking…” Twilight said anxiously as she looked up at the moon.

Sunset must have heard her, because her expression changed to one of determination and went for a cut at Chrysidea’s midsection. Bending with the blow, the changeling allowed the strike to fall on her chainmail armor again, then grabbed Sunset’s sword with her free hand and wrenched it aside before opening a cut on Sunset’s cheek.

“Easy, easy,” Chrysidea said more for herself to hear and let out a kick at Sunset. She planted it in the girl’s back and she fell to the ground. “Had enough?”

“Not yet,” Sunset said through gritted teeth, getting back up and picking up her weapon.

“I don’t get it…” Princess Twilight fretted. “I don’t think she’s human, but what…”

Three more strikes were exchanged, sword hitting sword and sparks flew.

Chrysidea swung low, trying to catch Sunset’s left leg, but the girl jumped clear of it and when Chrysidea was focusing on the sword, she failed to notice Sunset’s knee until it hit her square in her face. She had been surprised by the attack. She knew Sunset could fight well, but not like that.

She fell back on the ground and clutched at her nose. It was bleeding, but it was easily fixed with a little love energy, plus with the blood moon, she felt as though she wouldn’t run out of healing any time soon.

Her sword arm twitched and a line of steel flashed toward Sunset Shimmer’s shoulder, but it was batted aside.

Makes no sense…

An image of her aunt flashed by her mind’s eye. “Your claws are your most reliable weapon, but once you bring them out, prepare to kill everyone fast because it’ll give away exactly what you are.”

She shook her head. She didn’t want to have to kill anyone, nor did she need to. She had to stall them and so far, they were being stalled just fine. All that was hurt now was her pride. She didn’t want to lose.

“Come on, Sunset!” Rainbow Dash encouraged from a little distance away. “You can do it!”

Getting back up, she shot Sunset a dirty look, then dashed right in, stabbing her sword forward faster than an eye could blink. But Sunset simply leaned to the side and the thrust went wide. Sunset then made a precise cut at Chrysidea’s face, but the chainmail inside her hood blunted the strike. The changeling princess did not like this. Three times now she had been saved by her armor, and she wasn’t going to be wearing it all the time. She needed to be more careful. Although it did confirm her aunt knew what she was doing when it came to this kind of thing.

Shifting onto the defense, Chrysidea decided to see if she could read Sunset’s attack patterns. If she could just decipher that, then the duel was as good as hers. However, Sunset didn’t press the attack either. The pair of them circled around each other like a pair of lions, each looking for the perfect opportunity. Either way, this just helped her stall more.

“Why are you doing this?” Sunset asked quietly as her eyes darted around for an opening. Blood ran from the cut on her cheek and dripped off her chin. “Why help the sirens? World domination?”

“Nothing of that sort. But why should I bother telling you anything?”

Both of them still stood apart from one another, neither doing a thing. Chrysidea knew it was already past midnight and her mother would likely already be performing the ritual. She didn’t know how much longer she needed, but at least time was being bought here. She smiled to herself. Things were going perfectly.

And then finally, Sunset moved first and slashed at her furiously, her attacks increasing in speed as she slashed away. Chrysidea found that she was instantly forced on the defensive, only able to block Sunset’s attacks with no room to attack back. She had incredible skill and the young princess had no idea where or how she had gotten so good with a sword. On the bright side, at least she was defending quite well against her attacks.

And then as Sunset’s arm went high for an attack, Chrysidea found her opening and threw her scabbard out. The fiery haired girl parried it away with ease, but that at least gave the changeling time to press an attack, swishing her sword from left to right as she performed a series of attack combinations.

Sunset continued to block and attack, not allowing Chrysidea a chance to knock her down and they just continued to trade sword blows. But Sunset’s weapon was older and with each strike, the changeling could feel her sword starting to wear away at Sunset’s blade. It was only a matter of time before her next strike would break it.

As the moon was now at its peak, Chrysidea could feel her strength and speed increasing, but Sunset was also keeping up with her, being a pony from Equestria, her magical energy was also powered up from the blood moon.

And then there it was. While their strengths had gone up, their swords did not, and Sunset’s weapon shattered on the next impact, splintering the blade in the middle.

Chrysidea was about to let out a cheer and to proclaim Sunset’s defeat, but to her astonishment, Sunset hadn’t just stopped, even though she was now weaponless. Instead, she spun around and slid towards the changeling princess, closing the distance between them enough that Chrysidea could not swing her sword out at Sunset. The fiery haired girl already had her hand around her eastern sword and she leaned forward and kicked back, prying the weapon from her hands. Following up without losing any momentum, Sunset twisted herself around and drove the point of the sword into Chrysidea’s abdomen, too fast for her to even attempt to dodge it. For a moment it seemed as though her chainmail armor would stop the blow, but there was a sudden sound of breaking metal and she felt a lance of pain through her skin and her guts.

More out of shock than anything else, Chrysidea fell backwards, the sword sliding out of her body and clattering onto the ground.

Impossible. That couldn’t have just happened.

Sunset looked down at Chrysidea, a strange look on her bloodstained face.

“I… know you,” Sunset said, an expression of recognition dawning. “I’ve fought you before.”

“What do you mean, you know this person?” Home Run asked, stepping forward. “What are you getting at? Is she from those Assassin days?”

Chrysidea focused her love energy on the spot where she had been stabbed, but she couldn’t summon the power to heal it instantly like she had seen her aunt do. There was still no indication of whether the ritual had worked or not, which worried her immensely. Had she bought her mother and aunt enough time to finish?

“You know nothing about me,” Chrysidea forced out. “We do not know one another.”

“Your fighting… I have faced it once… But where?” Sunset mumbled. “Swordfighting. Fencing… The Friendship Games…” Then her eyes went wide. “Si-Silver Rose?”

For a moment, Sunset’s eyes and the changeling princess’ eyes locked and it was as though a recognition passed through the fiery haired girl. Chrysidea sniffed at the air. She tasted odd, almost like she was shocked, but a little sweeter than that.

“Of course…” Sunset gasped and took one step back, more in surprise than fear. She continued mumbling, but in her pain, Chrysidea only managed to catch a few words. “Those eyes… My dreams… She was there… Changelings…”

That last word struck a chord deep in Chrysidea’s chest. Sunset knew of them. She knew of changelings. But how? Sunset couldn’t be allowed to leave with this knowledge. She had to take her to her mother.

Sunset wiped the blood off her face and winced as her fingers brushed the slice on her cheek. “I won,” she said to Chrysidea. “Now let us pass.”

A flicker of anger flared up in the young changeling, and suddenly she understood why her aunt and mother had such disdain for supposed do-gooders. She reached into the depths of her coat and closed her fingers around the hilt of her knife. She waited, staying on the ground to see what would happen next.

“We’ve wasted enough time here,” Applejack said urgently as she picked up her bass. “We’ve gotta stop whoever’s up there fixin’ the gems, and we gotta go now.”

“What do we do about this one?” Rainbow asked, pointing at Chrysidea.

“We could just leave her…” Fluttershy suggested.

Chrysidea’s mind raced. If these people knew about changelings, then that could mean that their entire way of life had been compromised. Her mother had to be alerted. She would know what to do in this situation, and the princess had done all she could.

The other girls began to step towards the hilltop. Chrysidea staggered to her feet and pulled out the flare gun, pointing it at the Rainbooms with a loud chick-chak.

Everyone else’s eyes went wide as they saw the gun.

“Woah!” Rarity shrieked. She immediately jumped behind Applejack’s body.

Chrysidea smiled. Gotcha.

Then she aimed it high and pulled the trigger.

With a loud whistling sound, a bright green flare was launched high up above their heads, glowing like an evil star. And while everybody else’s attention was on the pretty lights, Chrysidea unsheathed her throwing knife and hurled it at Sunset Shimmer in a blur of silver. If she could take out that girl with a paralytic, then she could drag her to her mother and get away, and they could learn just what Sunset knew about their kind.

In slow motion, the drugged knife flew at Sunset, turning once over in mid flight, its polished blade catching the green and red glow of the night. She was still unaware of the coming projectile and it would soon hit her.

“Sunset, look out!” Home Run’s voice cried out, the baseball player pushing Sunset aside. The knife, still on its deadly course, missed Sunset entirely and instead stabbed into Home Run’s leg in a small spray of blood. The boy fell back and clutched at his thigh and winced as he rolled from side to side.

“No, no, Home Run!” Chrysidea felt overcome by emotion and she ran to his side, much to the shock of Sunset and her friends, and much to his confusion as well.

“W-What?” Home Run asked slowly. Then he looked down at his leg and spotted the dagger in it. “Wait… I recognize that…”

Chrysidea reached over to pull the dagger out, but at that exact moment a shadow fell over all of them. A shadow cast by the Queen of the Changelings herself.

“So. I can’t even leave you alone for fifteen minutes, can I?” Chrysalis snarled in her dual voice.

The rest of the girls, who had crowded over Home Run now stood up and eyed her cautiously.

“I-I’m sorry, mother,” Chrysidea answered disappointedly. She had really hoped to impress her mother tonight.

“Chrysalis!” Princess Twilight gasped in surprise. “How did…?”

“How do you know that name?” Chrysalis held out her hand and a green fireball ignited in her palm, spreading until it covered her entire arm. “What has my miserable daughter said to you?”

Chrysalis whipped her hand down and a glob of emerald flames arced towards the Rainbooms, who scattered. Leaving flaming footsteps in her wake, the changeling queen stomped over to Chrysidea and picked her up off the floor. The princess squeaked with surprise as her mother slung her over her shoulder like a bag of flour, staring at the Rainbooms with her mouth open to display her impressive set of fangs.

And then with a most powerful jump, Chrysalis threw them both into the air. Chrysidea opened her eyes to see they were now high in the sky and they were very quickly leaving the park behind as they began descending towards the closest building, which was an apartment complex. From there, her mother continued jumping from rooftop to rooftop, and it was an amazing feeling to be flying through the air like that, but Chrysidea also knew that she shouldn’t bring up how awesome it was. Her mother was likely very angry at her for failing like that and for Sunset and her friends for even knowing what a changeling was. Even worse, they knew her mother’s name.

She knew that at the end of their travel, her mother was going to have some words for her. Deciding to say nothing, her attention was caught by a sudden flash of crimson in the east end of Canterlot. As she looked, a pillar of bright red light shot up into the heavens like a laser beam before fading away. Chrysalis saw it too and grinned.

“Just as planned,” she said smugly.

Chapter 128 - A Queen's Duplicity

After almost twenty minutes of leaping and running across the rooftops, Chrysalis and Chrysidea finally arrived back at the mansion. The blood moon cast creepy shadows off the gargoyles and ornaments that decorated the estate.

Chrysalis let the flames on her body die out and deposited her daughter on the ground. The changeling queen had an expression of extreme smugness on her charcoal face. She actually didn’t look upset, which was surprising, considering the words she said before they left the park.

“Well, little hiccups aside, I think that went rather well,” Chrysidea’s mother said as she pushed open the front door. “Let’s get you cleaned up while we wait for my sister to come home.”

“Wait, I don’t get it,” Chrysidea protested. The stab wound in her gut was no longer bleeding, and the skin where it had been was just a little bit tender. She chalked that up to the blood moon’s effects. “What about the sirens? Did you just leave them at the park? Did you fix their gems?”

Chrysalis said nothing, going over to the kitchens and retrieving a bottle of vintage wine from the cooler. Since it was past midnight, all the servants and Silver Platter would be asleep, therefore she didn’t go for a coffee.

After picking out a vinyl from her collection in the ground floor sitting room, the changeling queen settled into one of her thrones and poured herself a large glass of red wine while the music began to play.

“I do love it when a plan comes together,” Chrysalis told Chrysidea. “Why don't you go get changed out of that outfit into something more comfortable? Your aunt should be back by then.”

Still confused about what had transpired over the past half an hour, Chrysidea nodded dumbly and headed off to her room. She took off the armored outfit and dropped it on the floor, changing into a loose-fitting t-shirt and a pair of shorts. She would get the maids to take care of her armor in the morning. She then put her feet into a comfy pair of soft slippers and was about to tie up her hair when she heard a car pull up in front of the house.

Wanting to know the details about her mother’s so called plan, Chrysidea hurried back downstairs, just in time to see her aunt Psithyra come in, carrying three unconscious sirens about herself. Around each of their necks, a blood-red ruby jewel gleamed.

They had done it. Her aunt had finally fixed the sirens’ amulets.

“Hey, sweetie.” Psithyra swept over and brushed a hand over her niece’s head. “How was your night? Not too bad, I hope? Did the heroes show up?”

“Yeah,” Chrysidea replied slowly. “There’s a lot that I feel I’m not getting here…”

“I’ll be more than happy to explain,” Psithyra said. “But first I need to put these three to bed. Just a couple of moments, please.”

Chrysidea watched her go, then blew up at her fringe. She had to wait some more and that was boring. She found herself thinking back to Home Run in the absence of her family. She had hurt him with the knife and she didn’t know why, but that gripped at her heartstrings like claws from the grave. She never wanted to hurt Home Run. It hadn’t been her fault. She wasn’t even aiming for him. He was just too good of a human, always putting himself in front of others, reckless or not.

Thankfully, she had missed any vital organs and all that knife would do was paralyze him for a while. It would wear off eventually.

“Alright,” Psithyra’s voice came as she descended the steps. “I expect you have a lot of questions, so let’s get to answering them. Then we can all bask in our collective genius.”

The three of them gathered in the sitting room, where Chrysalis was just finishing up her glass of wine and getting ready to pour herself another. Psithyra stacked some logs in the fireplace and blew a stream of emerald flame from her mouth to set them alight.

“So,” Chrysidea’s mother said with the air of someone starting an important meeting. “How did it go, my dear sister?”

“Just as well as you would expect,” Psithyra replied, reclining on one of the couches like a cat. “Though not quite as I had planned.”

“Oh? Do tell.” Chrysalis leaned forward and grinned toothily.

“I had the magic circles all drawn, and the leylines and glyphs carved into the floor-”

“But I didn’t see you at the ritual site,” Chrysidea interrupted. “Sorry I cut you off, Aunt Psithyra. But I thought you would be at the hilltop.”

“Ah, yes, I did make sure the Canterlot High girls would think that I would be at the park,” Psithyra said with a cunning gleam in her eyes. “In fact, I specifically told them I would be. That’s why I was actually not at the park. Do you see?”

“So I wasn’t guarding anything important?” Chrysidea exclaimed, feeling more than a little bit cheated and lied to. “But I thought…” She had really given it her all tonight, thinking that she was guarding the sirens’ only hope of returning to normal. Had she done that all for nothing?

“Now, don’t get too upset at us, sweetie,” Psithyra said consolingly. “It’s one of the most basic rules of warfare. To fool your enemies, you first need to fool your friends.”

“B-But I hurt Home Run. And I didn’t have to. I was just trying to slow them down.”

“You barely held them off for fifteen minutes,” Chrysalis sighed and took a sip of her wine. “After all the money I’ve spent on swordcraft tutors, I thought you would have been better than that.”

“I-I did my best…”

“Clearly you weren’t,” Chrysalis said critically. “That, or your best just isn’t good enough. But we can deal with that later. Thyra. What exactly happened?”

“Well, I placed the broken pendants on the magic circle like Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle told me to. The skylight allowed the blood moon to shine down and infuse them with magic. But nothing happened. The entire thing was a failure.”

“All that planning and scheming and disguises, and it failed?” Chrysalis repeated, disgusted. “Pah. Humans. Useless as always. So how did you fix the gems if the magic ritual failed then?”

Psithyra took out her black dagger, still in its sheath. “This is how.”

Chrysalis and Chrysidea leaned closer to peer at the dagger. It didn’t look any different than before, and Chrysalis arched an eyebrow for an explanation.

“I was about to give up and go storming over to the park to exact vengeance for having tricked me,” Psithyra said, tapping the sheath of her dagger. “But then my kris started to vibrate, and three… sparks? Blue sparks came out of it and flew into the gems. It seemed to set off some kind of reaction that was the source of the light pillar, if you saw that. But long story short, the gems are now repaired, and the sirens are sleeping off whatever it was that happened. We should ask them to sing for us once they awaken.”

“So you’re saying we didn’t have to even go through all the trouble of these heroes finding us and trying to stop us.” Chrysalis walked about the room. “And you could’ve just done this right here at home.”

Psithyra put the dagger away and shrugged. “Maybe, but I didn’t know that. Besides, I don’t even know what brought about those magic sparks. It’s possible that the blood moon had some influence,” the elder changeling princess turned to her niece. “Now, how did your night go? Losing the sword fight aside.”

“She blabbed.” Chrysalis eyed her daughter through narrow slits. “They knew who I was. They know we are changelings. She must’ve said something.”

“Mother, I didn’t say anything about what we are!” the young changeling pleaded. “Really, I didn’t. Smell me, you know that I’m not lying.”

Chrysalis sniffed. “Well, if you didn’t tell them, then who did?” she demanded. “Our entire way of life here is at risk. We cannot afford to let our secret get out.”

“Sunset. She seemed to know what a changeling was. I was planning on capturing her to see what she knew, but my paralytic dagger… it hit Home Run instead,” the changeling princess finished disappointedly.

At this admission, half a sly smile crept onto Chrysalis’s face. Psithyra noticed this.

“You are finding something amusing here?” Psithyra asked Chrysalis suspiciously. “They know about us. This is a serious matter. No one has come this close in ages. Not even those hunters fully knew what we are.”

“No, no. Not that.” Chrysalis covered her mouth and began snickering. “Just… Things couldn’t be any better for us in a certain matter.”

Chrysidea didn't like where this was going. In her experience, whenever her mother as an undisguised face was happy, someone else was about to be very sad.

Psithyra seemed to get it too. “What did you do?”

Chrysalis kept on grinning and she settled back down in her throne, tapping her finger to the music. "Well, if you must know, I replaced that sissy paralytic toxin on the throwing knife with something that had a little more kick."

“You what?” Psithyra approached her and frowned. “Why would you do that?”

The changeling queen looked at her sister with a curious gaze, as if she had discovered that Psithyra had a strange hobby. "Hello? These people we were dealing with tonight managed to take down the sirens at the peak of their power. You must be touched in the head if you think I'm just going to let my daughter fight them without a little trick up her sleeve."

“We weren’t planning on killing anyone.”

"You weren’t."

“What poison did you put on that knife?”

"A very simple one," Chrysalis said smugly. "Took me about five minutes to mix up. Essence of belladonna with a hemlock chaser. Nothing too fancy, but effective."

“That would kill the boy!” Psithyra thwacked her sister across the head.

She rubbed her head and eyed her sister. “Hey. That’s why I said things couldn’t be better in a certain matter. With that boy gone, my daughter will no longer be all lovey dovey around him and we can get back to normal hunting.”

Chrysidea didn’t take that bit of news well. Kill? No, it was only supposed to be paralytic poison. She couldn’t have doomed Home Run. Not Home Run. She began to tremble on the spot, not paying attention to her elders arguing in the background.

"It's no use trying to berate me now," Chrysalis frowned grumpily. "My daughter threw the knife, not me. If anything it should cut down on the witnesses who know about us. Isn't that good?"

Psithyra groaned. “That is true, but it doesn’t change anything about the fact that someone out there knows who you are.”

“Easy. We just eliminate them.” Chrysalis looked at her fingers. "That’s your job, by the way."

“I told you. I don’t kill children.”

“Then how about you just hit them really hard over the head so that they’ll forget about it?” Chrysalis suggested sweetly. “Cut out their tongues so they can’t blab?”

“Does everything have to be violence with you?” Psithyra asked, exasperated.

“If violence doesn’t solve your problems, then you’re not using enough of it,” Chrysalis shot back. She tipped her wineglass back and drained the red liquid within.

Psithyra turned to Chrysidea. “You see what I have to deal with? Sweetie? Is something wrong?”

Chrysidea was still sitting on the couch across from her aunt, but she wasn’t paying any attention to their conversation. She sat there, head bowed with a silent stream of tears running down her cheeks that dripped into her lap.

“What are you mewling on about?” Chrysalis asked, looking genuinely puzzled. “Tonight has been a great success; you should be celebrating.”

Chrysidea didn’t hear her. Had she accidentally killed Home Run by trying to knife Sunset Shimmer? How could her mother have played such a mean trick on her? It wasn’t fair.

“Sweetie?” Psithyra said, getting up and sitting down next to her niece. “Is everything alright?”

The young changeling simply shook her head.

“Aw, you can tell me what’s wrong,” Psithyra draped her arm around Chrysidea’s shoulders. Chrysalis opened her mouth to say something but her sister glared at her to be silent. The changeling queen rolled her eyes and went back to her wine.

“I… I killed Home… Home Run…” Chrysidea covered her face with her hands. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know.”

“There, there, sweetie,” Psithyra stroked Chrysidea’s head as she sobbed. “Don’t cry. It’s not your fault.”

“It is… It is!” She leaned into her aunt. “I threw that dagger! I didn’t… didn’t have to…”

“Shh...” Psithyra continued stroking her niece’s head and shoulders. “There was no way you could have known the poison was switched. Why don’t we head to the kitchen and I’ll fix you up a cup of strong, herbal tea? You’ll feel better after that, I promise.”

All the young changeling could do was nod. She was in no mood to feel happy after what she had done.

Chrysalis watched her sister and daughter leave the room. Once they were out of sight, the changeling queen put down her goblet of wine and went over to the window, which gave her a splendid view of the grounds, all dyed a ruddy hue with moonlight. She smiled brightly.

“This night has been just perfect,” she sang to herself quietly. “Just perfect indeed.”

Sunny Flare woke up and found it was still dark. She rubbed at her head and found it was difficult to turn it. She blinked a few times and tried to figure out what had happened. There was a thick blanket over her and she found she was no longer wearing her corset.

“What is going on…? What time is it?” Sunny tried to find a clock, but it was too dark to make out the time. “Did I strip? What happened?”

Her mouth was dry and her throat hurt a little, but there wasn’t any water nearby for her to drink and she couldn’t get herself up to go get some. All Sunny could do was lie there and wait for something, anything to happen.

She tried to recall the night and how she had ended up in this bed, but all she had were flashes of images, with dancing, Indigo playing around with her cyborg sword, Sugarcoat in her Principal Cinch costume, Lemon in her black skinsuit, Sour Sweet in her bear costume, she especially remembered the punch and she remembered feeling upset about the whole Silver Rose ordeal, and she also somewhat remembered the girl herself, though now she wasn’t really sure if that was even Silver. She had grey skin and turquoise hair which was long and curly instead of short and spiky. Perhaps she just remembered it wrong.

Sunny wondered where her friends were now. She couldn’t hear any music from downstairs now and she wondered what was going on.

“Oohh, my head…” she groaned. “My throat… Ugh.”

She remembered drinking a lot, but she didn’t think she drank so much to knock herself out.

The door creaked open after an undetermined amount of time and Sunny’s eyes tilted to the door, where she spotted Lemon Zest walking in with a glass of water and some kind of pill.

“Dude, you’re awake!” she squealed. “Took you long enough. How’re you feeling?”

“Like I’ve just spent the past few hours eating sand,” Sunny croaked. “It’s gone all quiet.”

“Yeah, party’s over. It’s like, four in the morning. Everyone’s gone home except us.” She dropped the pill in the water and shook the glass. “Here, drink this. It’ll help with your hangover. You like, drank so much, Sunny, you crazy girl.”

Sunny took the water from Lemon and drank it down after the other girl helped her into a sitting position. It was slightly bitter, but she was too grateful for a drink to care.

“So what did I miss?” Sunny said between sips. “Did Indigo show off her sword swinging skills?”

Lemon, who was also drinking from a glass of water, spat it all out at Sunny in a torrent of laughter.

“Hey!” Sunny wiped a hand down her face and chest. “What the hay!”

“You don’t remember? Dude! So much has happened!”

“What. What did you all do?”

“It’s not so much of what we did, Sunny. It’s more of what you did.”

“Oh? What did I do?” For some reason, Sunny didn’t like where this was going.

“Dude you don’t remember?” Lemon leaned closer with her eyes going wide. “You almost got jumped by some junkie, but Silver Rose told us and we called the cops. How you managed to take him down, we don’t know yet,” Lemon bounced up and down a bit. “So, how’d you do it?”

Sunny’s mind struggled to recall the events of the night, clouded by both sleep and alcoholic punch. And then images slowly began to fill her head and she vaguely remembered what happened. The man stuffing his dick into her mouth, the turquoise eyes in the dark, and then those fangs. She remembered the fangs well enough. “Silver Rose… saved me. She bit the guy.”

Lemon did a double take. “She did what now?”

“Silver… I think it was Silver, she told me that strange things can happen on nights like this,” Sunny went over to the window and pulled the blinds aside. The moon was sinking now, but it was still casting its rust-colored glow on the city. “I don’t know if she meant Halloween or a blood moon. Maybe she meant both.”

“So Silver is a vampire?” Lemon joined Sunny at the window, bringing over the sheet to drape over her friend. “Or am I missing the plot totally?”

“I don’t know…” Sunny sighed. Her head fell forward and rested on the glass. “I feel more lost than ever now.”

“Weird stuff does tend to happen on Halloween,” Lemon agreed. “A couple hours ago, there was this big beam of red light from over there,” she pointed out the window. “I bet it was more magic. You think those Canterlot High girls were involved this time?”

“What would they possibly be doing magic for?” Sunny licked the inside of her mouth. Now that she remembered the man’s privates in her mouth, it began to taste sour. “Hey, why did you leave me alone in a room for a man to try to rape me? I told you it could happen!”

“Hey, chill. You weren’t raped.”

“I would’ve been if not for Silver!”

“Yeah well… My bad?” Lemon stretched her arms out. “Besides, Sour Sweet was supposed to watch out for stuff like this. Don’t blame me!”

“Ugh…” Sunny rubbed her head. It still hurt.

“So how is it? You like dicks again? You gonna go back to loving guys?”

“Hey, don’t jump any guns. I don’t know, alright? I don’t know what to think anymore…”

Attempted rape, Silver’s fangs again, her odd look, magic lights in the sky. Just what was going on this Halloween night?

“I need a drink…” Sunny sighed.

“Uh, no. You don’t.”

Sunny Flare went back to the bed and sat down on it. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Oh, it’s just me now,” Lemon said. “Party’s over, remember? I’ll have to clean up everything before my parents get back on Saturday. You can help me.”

This didn’t please Sunny Flare, but she didn’t have it in her to discuss it with Lemon right now. Instead she fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes.

“Well, I’ll leave you here to rest then,” Lemon shrugged. “Feel free to use the shower; you kind of need one. I’ll get the rest of the girls here in the morning. Well, maybe the afternoon.”

Sunny mumbled something and began to drift off to sleep. Her dreams were full of bloody light and a pair of turquoise eyes that followed her through an endless crimson forest.

Chapter 129 - Torn Between Two Races

Sunny Flare awoke with the sun shining onto her face through a crack in the curtains. She rolled over and buried her face in the sheets, trying to go back to sleep.

No good.

Sunny let out a small moan. Her head was pounding with every heartbeat and the light was assaulting her eyes. She blearily crawled to the side of the bed and squinted at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

Three forty-nine PM.

“Uuurhghh…” Sunny groaned. She had missed school.

She sat up though a titanic effort, the sheets still wrapped around her. Staggering out of bed, Sunny almost fell over, but she managed to inch downstairs and into the kitchen, where she poured herself a tall glass of water from the tap.

She sat there on the floor in the kitchen, sipping the water while her faculties returned one by one. It was not a pleasant experience; along with a foul taste in her mouth came an aching throb in her head.

How long she sat there Sunny did not know, but she was knocked out of her reflective time by the front door slamming open.

“Yo, Sunny! We’re home!” Lemon’s voice bellowed way too loud for Sunny Flare’s taste.

There was a small murmur of chatter that Sunny’s poor pounding head took some time to recognize as belonging to the other Shadowbolts. Sunny’s friends came trickling into the house, with Lemon popping around the corner to see Sunny sitting on the kitchen floor with her glass of water.

“Oh, hey, Sunny. You’re up.”

“No thanks to you all,” Sunny grimaced. “So what did I miss today?”

Indigo pulled Sunny up onto her feet. “Funny thing is, you’re not the only person who missed school today. At least six other people were gone from my homeroom alone. So we didn’t end up learning much today.”

“Three were missing from mine,” Sugarcoat said flatly. “Obviously they partied a bit too hard.”

“Was Silver Rose at school?” Sunny asked. She refilled the glass of water and looked around the room. It was disheveled and needed a good vacuuming as well as cleaning up all the trash that was lying around. Fortunately Lemon had locked up all the valuable decorations before the party had started.

“Silver Rose…” Indigo tapped her chin. “I didn’t see her. Anyone see Silver Rose today?”

“Nope,” Lemon said.

Sour Sweet shook her head.

Sugarcoat shrugged. “If she was at school today, I didn’t see her.”

“So she was skipping too,” Sour Sweet growled. “Think she had a little too much to drink as well?”

Lemon’s brow furrowed in thought. “Come to think of it, I didn’t see Silver much at the party.”

“That’s ‘cause everyone was wearing a costume, isn’t it?” Indigo pointed out. “The whole point of Halloween is to be someone you’re not. Like a masked ball or something.”

Sunny nodded, but inside she had a different thought. For the first time last night, she thought that she had finally seen a glimpse of Silver’s real face, not whatever she saw during school. The facade had cracked a few times before, like when she had ripped off the bathroom door and when she had shown off her fangs, but Sunny’s impression was that on Halloween, she had been exposed to something that normal people normally weren’t. Whether that was intentional on Silver’s part remained to be seen.

“Anyway, Lemon,” Sugarcoat spoke up. “You wanted us to help clean up this place before your parents get back on Monday. We should start here, then.”

The girls had been cleaning for about an hour when Sugarcoat’s phone rang.

“Hello, Sugarcoat speaking,” the bespectacled girl said. “Silver Rose? Yeah, we saw her last night. Funny story, Sunny almost got… wait, what?!” Sugarcoat shouted. The phone dropped from her hands, and Indigo Zap had to dive to catch it before it hit the ground.

“Careful, Sugarcoat,” Indigo handed the phone back to its owner. “Who was it, and why did you act like your entire family was murdered?”

Sugarcoat checked her phone, but the call had already been cut. “It was Sunset Shimmer. She and her friends encountered Silver Rose last night, after she left the party. It turns out we were onto something. Sunset Shimmer just basically confirmed that Silver Rose isn’t human.”

“WHAT?!” The rest of the girls, including Sunny Flare, exclaimed in varying degrees of shock and surprise.

“She wants us to meet her at Twilight Sparkle’s house to talk it over. I think we should go.”

“But what about my house?” Lemon asked. “We still have to clean up this mess!”

“We can clean it up later,” Indigo insisted. “Right now, Sunset’s about to give us the goods! Can’t pass that up, yeah?”

“Guess not,” Lemon agreed begrudgingly. “Fine, let’s go. Sunny, you can borrow some of my clothes for this trip.”

“Ew, no.” Sunny stuck out her tongue. “I don’t like your fashion sense.”

“Well, you’d look even worse going out in half your Halloween costume,” Sugarcoat pointed out. “Just throw something on. I want to hear what Sunset Shimmer has to say about all this.”

“Ugh. Fine.” Sunny relented. “Just get out so I can change.”

“How do you feel, Adagio?”

Psithyra asked this question to the leader of the siren trio who was sitting at the dinner table with a glass of water. The siren had not spoken a word since the night before, and Chrysalis and her sister were interested in seeing if they truly had been restored.

“If it’s any consolation,” Chrysalis said with a smile. “You smell like the ocean again. That must count for something.”

Adagio opened her mouth but no sound came out. She drank some more water and stared at the table. Her red pendant sparkled around her neck, full of life and light.

“Come on,” Psithyra coaxed gently. “Say something, Adagio.”

The siren swallowed her mouthful of water and parted her lips. A faint sound came out between her teeth.

“Ahh-aahhh ah, ahh, aaaah,” the pure and hypnotic notes of her trademark song wafted out into the open air, perfectly in key and tone. Adagio herself looked shocked to hear the music come out of her own mouth. Her eyes brimmed over with tears of gladness and she roughly scrubbed at her face to hide it.

“It worked,” Chrysalis said, looking rather pleased. “It actually worked, all of your convoluted planning and scheming and disguising. Of course, I never doubted for a second that it would go over well.”

“I… I can sing again…” Adagio choked out. “I can sing!”

“Excellent,” Psithyra purred, looking most happy with herself. “I will take this as confirmation that it worked on the other two as well. It feels so good to have my hard work rewarded.”

“Now the only person who won’t live forever is my daughter…” Chrysalis’ face grew surly. “Where is she, anyway? She hasn’t come down for meals today.”

“I’m more concerned about her skipping school,” Psithyra said. “It’s not very good for her image to do so.”

Chrysalis got up from the table and walked over to the stairs. “I suppose I had better see what she’s doing. Make sure she hasn’t hanged herself or something.”

“Don’t joke about things like that,” Psithrya said reproachfully.

Chrysalis snorted. “I never joke.”

The changeling queen padded her way up to the room that Chrysidea occupied. The door was shut, and Chrysalis’ first instinct was to open it, but then in a rare moment of empathy, she decided to knock first instead.

“Chrysidea,” Chrysalis called into the door. “It’s past four o’clock. Get out of bed.”

There was no response from inside. Chrysalis sniffed at the air and smelled a great outpouring of grief coming from the interior of the room. Well, at least that meant that she wasn’t dead. Rolling her eyes, the changeling queen opened the door a fraction and peered inside.

The lights were off and the curtains were drawn, but that did not hinder Chrysalis at all. She could see a lump on the bed, covered in sheets and blankets. The changeling queen pushed the door open and went inside.

“Alright,” Chrysalis said heavily, sitting down on the bed next to the lump. “What’s got your claws in a twist?”

The lump didn’t answer, but it moved around away from Chrysalis, like it was afraid of her.

“You know, you should be celebrating with us,” Chrysalis tried again. “Adagio’s voice has been repaired, and I take it that means that Aria and Sonata are fine as well. Isn’t that something to feel good about?” Chrysidea’s mother sat there and grinned to herself, trying not to wrinkle her nose at the smell that pervaded the whole room, like unwashed socks.

“Hmph…” a sound came from under the sheets.

“Your room smells, you know,” Chrysalis observed. She got up and went over to the window, which she opened after pulling the curtains aside. She noticed the pile of armored attire on the floor and picked it up. “Your aunt worked really hard on this. The least you could do is not leave it lying around all tangled up.”

“I just want to be alone.” The shape moved an inch.

“You’ve been alone all day,” Chrysalis pointed out. “You’ve already missed breakfast and lunch, and I won’t have you starve to death up here because you insist on being stubborn. You’re better than that.”

“Turns out I’m not. Not after what I did...”

Chrysalis stared at the lump with a look of unimpressed astonishment. “What are you going on about? I know you lost the duel to Sunset Shimmer, but everything else you did as well as I expected. So why are you acting like a recluse?”

“I killed him. I killed him…” The sheets ruffled and tossed around. “I didn’t know…”

“Oh, are you still on about that?” Chrysalis peered at the lump. “There’s no way it can be traced back to us, you know. You were wearing gloves, and there’s no physical evidence to say we did it. So there’s no need to act like you’ve given us all away. Although… how did they know my name if you didn’t tell them? I’ll get your aunt to investigate it.”

The lump said nothing and stopped moving about.

“Besides,” Chrysalis gave the lump a poke with her finger. “It’s not like you haven’t killed humans before. You finished off that computer teacher, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to kill Home Run. It’s because of you. You made me do this…” A grumble rolled out from under the sheets that sounded like tyres running over gravel, followed by a few sniffles.

To her credit, Chrysalis had the tact to look chagrined. “Yes, well… I was only looking out for your safety, see? It was all a plan to make sure you got out of there unharmed… right?” She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than anything. “Come on, humans are a dime a dozen. We can get you another one.”

The blankets flew back, exposing Chrysidea’s tearful face. She looked at her mother with shock and anguish.

“But I don’t want another one!” she wailed, throwing herself down onto the bed. Chrysalis looked at her daughter with a new air of surprise and skepticism. “I want Home Run! But, but, but, but, you made me kill him! You’re… awful!”

“Now see here,” Chrysalis rallied and gave her child a stern look. “I didn’t make you do a single thing. You made the choice to throw that knife, not me. Don’t blame me for something you did. That’s not how a princess should behave.”

“You switched out the coating!” She threw her pillow at her mother. “You didn’t need to even do that! You didn’t tell me!”

“Now, let’s not play the blame game here,” Chrysalis said, picking up the pillow. It was damp and salty. “Your safety means a great deal to me and your aunt. Switching the poison was just something you should have expected. Did you even taste the blade yourself?”

“If I had done that, you wouldn’t have someone defending your ritual site. I’m not like you! I don’t want to be like you!”

At this, Chrysalis’ face morphed into an expression of genuine unease. “You don’t mean that,” she said reproachfully. “You’re upset, I get it. But don’t go saying things that you don’t really mean.”

“I mean all of that! I just want to be normal! I don’t want all this hassle of having to live this life of… of fakery. When I see all this fakery now, I just get mad.” She threw the sheets up into the air and wrapped her head in her hands and screamed. “You don’t care about me, you never have! You just wanted a chance to get rid of Home Run. Well, he’s gone now!”

“Normal is overrated,” Chrysalis said flatly. “I’m not going to penalize you for what you’re saying because you’re clearly too upset to think straight. We are changelings, the superior race. Why you want to be like the prey is honestly beyond me. Who put these ideas in your head? I’ll have your aunt on them, I swear.”

“That’s because you don’t know anything about caring for other people! You’re too self-absorbed on being superior, you don’t stop to think about us, not even your own daughter.” The blanket fell back on top of the young changeling and she curled herself up underneath it. “Just go away. I want to be left alone.”

Chrysalis sat there in stunned silence. Then she stood up and smoothed out her dress.

“If that’s what you want,” then she left the room.

A few minutes passed. Then the sound of slippered feet made itself known, along with a warm, savoury smell.

“Sweetie? Are you alright?” Psithyra’s voice said from the doorway.

“Not at all…” Chrysidea sighed.

The elder princess was standing in the door with a bowl of something that smelled rather nice. “May I come in? I brought you some homemade chicken and duck soup.”

“I’m not hungry, Aunt Psithyra.”

“You haven’t eaten anything all day,” Psithyra said, edging into the room. “You’re not like me and your mother, you can’t just live off one cup of tea that you drank last night. Have a few bites, at least.”

Eventually, the young changeling relented and pushed herself out from under the blanket and scooted to the edge of her bed and groaned, swiping her hair from her face and sniffed.

“There you are,” Psithyra smiled and came closer, holding out the soup. “I was starting to worry about you.”

“Where else could I go?” She wiped her face, then took the bowl from her aunt’s tray. “And besides, mother took away the one human I want to be out there with…”

The elder changeling watched her niece eat the soup with a look of sympathy on her face. She sat down on the bed next to her and put her arms behind herself, looking up at the ceiling.

“You know, I had to kill my first love too,” she said wistfully. “I still remember it.”

“But he betrayed you.” Chrysidea sipped at the soup. “Home Run would never do that.”

“Yes, well…” Psithyra sniffed at the air. “It still wasn’t easy. I know your mother treats me like I’m her personal assassin, but I didn’t start out that way.”

“She doesn’t care about us. That’s why you’re her assassin.”

“Of course she cares about us!” Psithyra exclaimed, looking surprised at the statement. “Your mother is the cornerstone of our society. By that quality, she has to care. It’s in her nature to. She just has a hard time expressing it.”

“Meh.” Chrysidea drank more of her soup.

“But look, the sirens have been completely restored,” Psithyra continued. “There is the small matter of how those girls knew my sister’s real name, but I’m going to go visit them soon anyway. They deserve to be rewarded for helping bring about the return of the sirens’ immortality. Isn’t that something to be happy about, sweetie?”

“But Home Run… Why did she need to change the poison? It was supposed to just be a paralytic!”

“Yeah, well…” Psithyra’s face grew moody. “Wouldn’t be the first time your mother’s pulled a stunt like that which has made more trouble than it’s worth. Did I ever tell you about Trotsylvania?” The elder princess snorted. “Better not. It’ll only worsen your opinion of her.”

“You’ve already told me.” Chrysidea pouted. “You see? She only has her interests. Not ours.”

She drank more of the soup, which was just the perfect amount of saltiness, mixed with the savoury flavor of duck fat with strips of sauteed chicken floating in the broth.

Psithyra licked her fangs and sighed. “I know it seems like your mother’s an incorrigible old crone, but she really does care about us. She just… likes to behave like it’s all about her. And really, it kind of is.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Look,” Psithyra said wearily. “Try to finish your dinner. I’ll have a word with your mother about collateral damage later. She can’t just go about arranging people’s deaths, or the humans will get suspicious. Then I’ll go and see the girls and… sort things out from there. Is that okay, sweetie?”

“Nothing you do will bring Home Run back.” The changeling’s tears began to run again. “I’ve lost him… Nothing will ever be okay.”

Psithrya reached out and patted her niece on the head, ruffling her hair. Then she got up and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Alone again, Chrysidea was able to let her mind run and think about the entire outcome of last night’s events. Sure, it was good that the sirens would be back to normal. They were still her friends, after all. But that dagger had been meant for Sunset. She should’ve been the one to die, not Home Run. The young changeling shook her head at her boyfriend’s constant need to be protective of everyone around him, even if that meant getting himself hurt, though this time, it was permanent and while changelings were skilled in alchemy, she doubted there was anything that could bring him back. It was all her mother’s fault and she really didn’t need to switch the poison. She didn’t.

“Nothing is perfect…” she sobbed to herself.

Chapter 130 - A Façade Uncovered

The screech of tyres on asphalt heralded the arrival of the Shadowbolts. Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, and Indigo Zap were still in their school uniforms, while Sunny Flare was clothed in some bizarre mixture of clashing colors. Personally to Sunny, it was absolutely dreadful, but like Lemon had said, it was better than just going around in half her costume. She just hoped no one else from school would see her. It would surely tarnish her already dropping reputation.

“This is the place, yeah?” Lemon said as she put the van into park. “Twilight’s house.”

“Well, yeah, we’ve been here before.” Indigo looked up at the building.

They got out of the van and walked up to the front door, ringing the doorbell. Not three seconds later, the door was flung open by a rather grim looking Sunset Shimmer.

“Thanks for coming over so quickly,” Sunset said. “Come on in. There’s a lot that we’ve learned since last night.” She looked at Sunny. “What are you wearing?”

Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap snickered and Sunny flipped around and glared at them.

“Don’t ask. Please,” she said to Sunset.

“So were you at a party last night too?” Sour Sweet asked. “Did Silver leave our awesome party and go to yours?”

“Not exactly…” Sunset said. She let them into the house and up into Twilight’s room where the other girls were. It was a crowded fit, as the boy who Sunny remembered was Moonglade’s boyfriend was lying on the bed with one of his pant legs rolled up so that it could be bandaged. His name was House Run or something, she kept forgetting. Twilight herself was sitting at her desk with a microscope and a bloodstained knife. Even more bizarrely, there was another Twilight sitting on the floor with a notebook in front of her.

“Woahhh, are we in limbo?” Lemon slid over to where the other Twilight was. “Dude, she looks just like you! Except without the glasses. That’s how I told you apart.”

“I’m from Equestria,” the Twilight on the floor said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Oh…” Indigo said slowly. “Right. Our Twilight almost ripped apart reality trying to get there. Nice.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Bespectacled Twilight waved a hand without looking at them. “But that’s not important right now. We’ve made some incredible discoveries.”

“Yeah, Sugarcoat almost wrecked her phone when you rang,” Sour Sweet told them. “So spill it. What’s this about Silver Rose?”

“Well, for starters…” The other Twilight closed her notebook and stood up. “She’s not human.”

All the Shadowbolts burst out with various degrees of exclamations.

“I knew it!” Indigo slammed a fist on a palm. “See, what I tell you. Witches.”

“Really, I still don’t see how you think they could be witches,” Sunset chuckled.

“Yeah, witches are still humans, ain’t it?” Applejack added in.

“We just surmised the Wings household were witches,” Sugarcoat started. “They cast some spell on Sunny and made her horny for-”

“Ah ah ah, too much information.” Sunny waved her arms between them. “We don’t need to go there.”

“Definitely not,” Lemon made a face. “So what’s your evidence? You must have some. We’ve been looking for some for months and come up with nothing.”

“And what’s wrong with him?” Sour Sweet grunted at the boy on the bed. “Halloween’s over.”

“Home Run got hurt by a dagger.” Sunset pointed to the table where this world’s Twilight was. “Thankfully it was just that. It could’ve been way worse.”

“Someone try to mug him?” Sunny asked.

“We were getting to that,” Twilight said. “But first of all, I’m more amazed that Home Run is still with us. The knife that he got stabbed with was coated in a lethal poison. I’ve been examining it with my microscope.”

“He saved my life,” Sunset gingerly touched a scratch on her face.

“Wait, wait, lethal poison?!” Indigo waited for the Canterlot High girls’ nods before she continued. “How the hay can someone survive something like that?”

“Of that I’m still unsure,” Twilight said with a scratch of her head. “While I work on that, maybe we should sort out the rest of the facts.”

“Alright. Go on, lay it on us.” Sugarcoat found a chair by the wall and sat herself down.

“We’ve already told you that the pink lady, who calls herself Mist Eerie, has been strongarming us into helping repair the sirens’ red gem pendants,” the Equestrian Twilight began. “At first, I had no idea who could be behind it all, as none of the people who came to work with us matched any descriptions of Equestrian villains. But last night, I think we might finally have our answer.”

“Yeah, seems we have another world ending plot on our hands!” Pinkie Pie suddenly edges out from under Sugarcoat’s chair, much to her surprise. “Oh, no offense, Sunset. And I guess Twilight.”

“You know how there are two of each person, one on each side of the portal?” Sunset called back to the conversation with the Shadowbolts before the Eastern Fair. “Well, in Equestria, Twilight’s had to deal with somepony called Queen Chrysalis.”

“Sounds nasty.” Sour Sweet stuck out her tongue.

“She is,” Equestrian Twilight said. “Queen Chrysalis is a changeling. That is, a creature that can shapeshift into other forms. She used this power to switch places with my brother’s fiance and almost conquer Canterlot.”

“Conquer? That sounds a bit much.”

“Well, we managed to repel her at the end,” Twilight waved her hand. “That’s not important right now. What is important is that we saw her again last night. Or what I theorize to be this side’s version of her.”

“So Silver Rose is this Chrysalids?” Sunny deduced.

“No,” Sunset said. “That’s where things get murky. We met another changeling last night, all dressed in black with a sword. She and I had a duel.”

“Right okay, so there’s more than one changeling.”

“Y’all seem to be takin’ this real easy,” Applejack observed.

Sugarcoat shrugged. “After what you pulled during the Friendship Games, nothing can surprise us anymore.”

“In Equestria, there’s more than one changeling as well,” the Equestrian Twilight continued. “But most of them are drones who aren’t particularly smart. But after the invasion, I had an encounter with another changeling who was different from the rest.”

“Well, go on. Stop pausing.”

“To cut a long story short, this other changeling managed to break Chrysalis out of prison, and due to a long string of bad luck, managed to escape us herself. But in the short time that we had her as a prisoner, we learned that she was Queen Chrysalis’ younger sister. A changeling princess.”

“So this is Silver Rose?” Sunny cut in again.

Equestrian Twilight put her chin in her palm in thought. “Again, I don’t think so. Last night, Chrysalis referred to the one that Sunset fought as her daughter, not her sister. Here is where the trail goes cold. To my knowledge, Chrysalis doesn’t have a daughter in Equestria.”

Lemon Zest threw her arms up in the air. “So what does that mean?!” she exclaimed.

“It means we’re dealing with uncharted waters,” Rarity mused.

“So… you learnt nothing.” Sugarcoat folded her arms. “The only thing we now know is that Silver Rose is a changeling.”

“Well, I mean, that’s something, right?” Sunny shrugged. “At least we know they aren’t witches. Or vampires. They didn’t cast any spells on me.”

“We did learn one thing,” Sunset said with a sigh. “There’s a pretty good chance that Silver Rose and Moonglade are the same person.”

“Oh, oka- wait, what?” Indigo did a double take. “Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? How can they be the same person; they look nothing alike!”

“Wait a mo. I think she’s on to something.” Lemon Zest threw a palm at Indigo’s face. “Remember when we went snooping at Silver’s place? We didn’t find her room, but Moonglade had CPA uniforms in her closet.”

“Okay, that is a little bit strange,” Sugarcoat conceded. “But why do you girls think they’re the same person?” She addressed Sunset and her friends.

“The changeling I fought with last night had the same fighting style as Silver Rose; I recognized it from the fencing bout we had back at the Friendship Games. As for Moonglade…” she gestured to the knife on Twilight’s desk. “That knife is one of a kind.”

“Yeah…” Home Run said at last. They didn’t know when he had woken up, but then again, they were talking at quite a volume. He looked to still be in shock about something.

“What’s the matter with you?” Sour Sweet asked warily.

“That knife was a gift for Moonglade. I got it for her. And… I know her. That was her.”

“Well, it’s a bunch of assumptions to say it’s her just from a knife and a fighting style.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “Isn’t there anything more concrete?”

“That’s not good enough for you?” Rainbow Dash waved her arms. “We’re on the edge of a huge secret here and that’s not enough evidence for you?”

“I’m just saying, it seems a bit circumstantial to me,” Sugarcoat held up her hands.

“Besides, even if you’re right, what do we do with this info?” Lemon asked, looking at the knife on Twilight’s table. “Go to the cops? They’d laugh us out of the station.”

“Of course we’re not going to go to the police with this,” Indigo told Lemon. “This requires a more refined solution.”

“Because you’re known for refinement,” Sugarcoat snorted.

“Hey, I’m plenty refined!” Indigo retorted. “We just need to spy on them more. Now that we have a potential lead, we just need to examine that girl more, to see if she really is who you say she is. I mean, if Moonglade is really Silver Rose or not.”

“I don’t know…” Fluttershy said loudly enough to be heard by everyone. “Home Run and Sunset almost died because of this whole thing. What if we’re not so lucky next time?”

“These people already showed that they ain’t got a problem with tryin’ to kill us,” Applejack added. “We gotta ask ourselves, is any o’ this really worth it in the end?”

Surprisingly, it was Sunset who spoke up next.

“I know we’ve had our close shaves,” Sunset said firmly. “But we’ve had our successes too. Chrysalis isn’t entirely all-knowing; we managed to spy on them during that dinner with Home Run, and she didn’t catch him. I know it’s dangerous, and that we might end up like Mr. Pierce, but what kind of heroes would we be if we didn’t stand up for what’s right?”

“Well, what are we gonna do?” Sugarcoat asked. “What are you going to do once we find out the truth about Silver Rose? Are we going to stop them? Stop them from what?”

Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. She sat back down on Twilight’s bed and lowered her head.

“I… don’t know, to be honest. The only crime we have any leads on is the death of CHS’s old computer teacher, and even that isn’t really solid evidence. It wouldn’t hold up in a court of law.”

Sunny Flare clenched her fist. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to get to the bottom of this even if there’s a risk. I’ve had enough of being played; I want the truth.”

“Enough of being played…” Indigo snickered, then bumped Lemon Zest, who joined in in muted laughter. “Sure, Sunny. Sure.”

“Anyway, what do we even want to find out?” Sugarcoat sighed and looked unimpressed. “That Silver and her family are shape changing monsters? Don’t we already know that? This other Twilight has basically confirmed it.”

“I want to know why they went to such troubles to repair the sirens’ pendants,” Rarity said with a serious look. “If this is some world domination plot, then we may have just given the changelings the weapons they need to enact it.”

“You’ve stopped them before.” Indigo waved a hand in the air. “Can’t you just, uh, stop them again? You’ve got all that magic hocus pocus.”

“We don’t know how many other changelings or other magical creatures might be lurking around,” Sunset sighed. “If it was just the sirens, I could be confident about victory. But without knowing how many people we’re dealing with here, I can’t guarantee that we could win.”

“And besides,” Princess Twilight intoned ominously. “Equestria’s Chrysalis already managed to take over Canterlot once, albeit for a very short time. If this world’s Chrysalis is like mine, then she could be anyone.”

“Anyone?” Lemon repeated, looking uneasy at this suggestion.

“She impersonated my fillyhood foalsitter, and fooled everyone except me,” Princess Twilight told her.

“Her what?”

“Childhood babysitter,” Sunset translated for the Shadowbolt’s benefit.

“Ah. I knew that.”

“And we’ve seen at least four different people who claim to have been working together to fix the pendants. Who knows how many more of them there may be,” Sunset continued moodily.

“But… what if… what if it isn’t four different people?” All eyes turned to Home Run. “You said so yourself. If they’re uh, what did you say it was, chimplings?”

“Changelings, dear,” Rarity corrected.

“That’s right. Changelings. They can change shape. What if we’re not even dealing with a group of people? What if it’s just one? We found that out earlier, with that Mist something having a resemblance to Ivory Wings.”

“It’s true that the bone structure of Mist Eerie and Ivory Wings does match up,” Twilight agreed. “Sunset, do you have any pictures of these other people you met with?”

Sunset shook her head.

“Well, nuts,” Lemon sighed. “What do we do now?”

“We have a small few advantages,” Princess Twilight said. “For one thing, we’ve figured out what they are, so we can plan accordingly. In addition, they probably think they’ve killed Home Run. That’s obviously not the case, so the changelings won’t be expecting him.”

“But what am I supposed to do?” Home Run exclaimed. “I just found out my girlfriend is some kind of shapeshifting magical creature. Not to mention what that means for the rest of her family. And I just took a knife to the leg; how am I supposed to explain that to my parents?”

“Silver Rose as well?” Indigo gasped in horror. Sugarcoat smacked her on the back of the head.

“We already knew something was up with Silver Rose,” Sugarcoat snapped. “We should have known better from the moment she ripped the locker room door off.”

“Well, we should have known something was wrong from the moment you two started dating,” Rainbow Dash mumbled grimly. “How much of it was for real, do you think? I’m betting none.”

“You mean… What we had. It could’ve been fake?” Home Run was shaken by that.

“Changelings are masters of deception,” Princess Twilight told him. “And we don’t know how many other personas this daughter of Chrysalis might have. We already have a confirmed two, and they were dating two different people here.”

“Moonglade… she wouldn’t do that to me… Would she?”

“Home Run, I’m sorry.” Sunset put a hand on his shoulder. “I really don’t know, but it could be true. I think we… we just need some answers now.”

Sunny Flare, in an unusual display of empathy, put her hand on Home Run’s leg. “If it makes you feel better, I thought I was the only one too.”

There was an awkward moment of silence.

“Man, you know what?” Lemon stuck her tongue out after breaking that silence. “Is it weird to know that your girlfriend’s been running her tongue all over Sunny? And that Sunny’s been doing the same thing?”

“Sh-Shut up!” Sunny pushed her friend’s shoulder. “I-I haven’t even put my tongue up her- It doesn’t matter! I was under some weird spell, okay?”

“Well, they’re changelings. Not witches,” Twilight reminded her from the computer. “Chances are, there weren’t any spells.”

“You mean all this crazy was from Sunny and Sunny alone?”

“Possibly.”

Sunny screeched through her teeth, then fell back and fainted.

Chapter 131 - Bearer of Gifts

Mist Eerie stepped out of her black car in Canterlot High School’s parking lot and went to the trunk, where there was a small collection of silver gift wrapped boxes. Picking them up, she went over to the side entrance of the campus and eased the door open with her foot. Doing all this in a frilly pink dress with a matching hat probably looked a bit strange, but nobody was watching anyway. Besides, a good disguise gave people something to remember so as to draw attention away from the person underneath.

She knew the layout of the school from having impersonated Principal Celestia, and allowed herself a small smile as she passed the computer lab. Victory always felt good.

It was just after school had ended and there were students still milling about the corridors, but all of them gave Mist a wide berth when they saw her coming. Perhaps they recognized her as someone not to be trifled with.

Following her nose, Mist Eerie quickly identified the scent of the Rainbooms. They were in the music room, predictably. That was good. It would save her the hassle of finding each of them one by one.

Arriving at the music room, Mist put the wrapped boxes on a nearby table and pressed an ear to the door. Then she sniffed the air and frowned. There was a smell there which shouldn’t be possible, given Thursday night’s events. But her nose never lied, and there was no other way to find out the truth.

So she picked up the boxes and nudged the doors open with her shoe. The chatter inside quieted down and then ceased as Mist entered the room with a charming smile on her pale face. She recognized Velvet Breeze, an old acquaintance of hers, and she brought an arm behind her back and shuffled her feet further apart, her eyes narrowed at her.

It had been a long time since she had anything to do with eagle vision, but she still remembered the look. Unfortunately for Velvet today, she wasn’t here to harm anyone, so she wouldn’t turn up red to the girl.

The rest of the Rainbooms had stopped in their spots, their musical instruments in hand, and in the corner, sitting on a pile of chairs with a crutch beside him, was Home Run, a boy who shouldn’t even be here, but somehow was. She coughed, then took a deep breath, careful not to show anything on her face to give away her surprise.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” Mist Eerie said, keeping the smile going. “I’m so glad to see you today. I brought something for you.”

She put the wrapped boxes down onto the band room’s main table, very well aware that she was being followed by the eyes of everyone in the room.

“Is Princess Twilight Sparkle not here today?” Mist asked, noticing the girl’s absence, instead seeing her bespectacled doppelganger.

“What do you want?” Rainbow Dash asked, shaking a fist. “You’ve already got what you wanted.”

“Why, I’m here to give you your rewards,” Mist’s smile grew wider. “It’s customary to offer some kind of compensation as thanks once someone has done you a good deed, is it not?”

“Like we’re gonna accept anythin’ from ya,” Applejack chimed in. “It’s probably poison or somethin’.”

Mist had the decency to look taken aback by the accusation. “The sirens’ voices and immortality have been returned to them because of your good work. My group simply wanted to repay you for your help in doing so. Poisoning you would do us no good at all except give us more work to do in covering up the bodies.”

The boxes glimmered invitingly in the light, the silver paper catching the girls’ attention easily. No one made any move to do anything.

With a good-natured sigh, Mist Eerie went over to the presents pile and picked up the top one.

“This one is for you, Sunset Shimmer,” she said and unwrapped it deftly. Inside was a wooden box, the lid of which Mist slid back. Nestled inside in a bed of plush velvet was a crystal sculpture of Sunset’s cutie mark, made of glittering transparent colored stone. She held it out for Sunset to take.

“It’s lovely,” Rarity gasped before catching herself. “I mean, why should we trust anything you give us?”

“And why did you wrap all of them if you’re going to open them yourselves?” Pinkie popped out from under one of Mist Eerie’s arms and poked at a box, then crawled under the table and came back up on the other side. “Seems a waste to me, though good effort, I’ll say.”

“You’re welcome to come unwrap the rest yourselves, if you like.” Mist Eerie closed the box and set it back on the stack. “I had these made soon after Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight agreed to lend us their assistance with the project. You see, we had every faith that you would come through for us.”

“And if we didn’t?” Sunset asked warily.

“Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Mist Eerie said cheerfully. “But let’s not dwell on ifs and buts and maybes. You have more than earned these rewards.”

Still nobody made a move. Mist noticed Sunset’s eyes, narrowed and focused.

Ah. So she has learned how to do it too.

Mist was tempted to use her own eagle vision, but Velvet Breeze and Sunset Shimmer might catch on to that. She would have to go by smell for now. There was a lot of doubt and apprehension in the air and of course, it was all pointed at her. She didn’t blame them. She did, after all, poison two of them. But, she gave them the cure, so in her books, it was all okay.

“Well. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now…” Mist began to move toward the music room doors.

“Wait.” Sunset held up her hand. “You went to an awful lot of trouble to reward us for something you forced us into. What’s your game here?”

“It was really no trouble at all,” Mist Eerie said humbly. “Like I said, people should be compensated for doing good deeds.”

“What do you hope to do with the siren gems? Are you planning on taking over the world?”

“That’s not for me to decide,” Mist replied as she adjusted her hat. “Suffice to say helping the sirens has a great deal of benefits for some important people.”

Sunset rested a hand on her chest. “If you want to take over, we’ll stop you. We won’t just sit by and let them and you changelings do that.”

Pinkie bobbed her head up and down. “Yeah! Twilight’s stopped your changeling invasions before. She’ll do it again!”

“I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mist said calmly. “If it makes you feel better to think up silly stories, then by all means go ahead. It doesn’t change the fact that you have all been very helpful to us, and we are grateful for your assistance.”

“You don’t fool us. Not anymore. We know you serve Chrysalis, the changeling queen and that… that…” Sunset suddenly paused. Her brow furled as something seemed to register in her mind.

Mist didn’t like that look. She slowly moved her left hand to the mouth of her purse, allowing her fingers to trace over the grip of her tranquiliser pistol.

“It’s you.” All eyes turned to Velvet, who continued before Sunset could. “No. You’re dead.”

A hand went to her head as she stumbled back, and she would’ve fallen if not for Fluttershy and Applejack catching her under the arms.

“Velvet? What’s wrong?” Sunset was by her side in an instant.

“That’s why the sirens looked so familiar…” Velvet gasped, her breath ragged and slow. “All of that, I had already known all of it… All this time. It’s her… It’s Mirror Match.”

The room fell silent and the air seemed to grow heavy around everyone.

Mist Eerie stood still, with one foot in the doorway and her left hand inside her handbag, her index finger curling around the trigger of her weapon. This was not part of the plan, and Mist didn’t like it when things did not go according to plan.

“But you’re not just Mirror Match. Are you?” Sunset smelled of shock. There was more to come. “You’re the one Emerald Edge knew. Aren’t you?”

Mist Eerie remained silent. She pushed the doors open with her heel and stepped outside into the hallway, but not before giving Sunset a glowing-eyed look that spoke volumes.

Then she poked her head back inside and smiled. “Oh, by the way. Good to see you alive and well, Home Run. I know someone who will be pleased to know you’re still with us.”

Then she was gliding down the hallways, moving as quickly as a human could, needing to get home as soon as possible. There was much going on, and there was much her family had to know.

Of course Velvet would remember her. She slammed a palm to her forehead, almost knocking her hat off as she grinded her teeth in anguish. She had made all those dumb decisions back before she found Chrysalis again, letting the girl parade around her penthouse.

If being a queen is marked by such poor judgement, then my sister can keep her crown.

She got back into her car and revved the engine, reversing back onto the main road and gunning it for the Wings Estate. She was probably speeding but she didn’t care. It wasn’t like she ever drove under the speed limit anyway.

Upon arriving back home, Mist Eerie quickly went upstairs into Psithyra’s bedroom and removed her face and clothing, swapping it out for something more suited for home life.

Psithyra’s niece had not gone to school today, even though it was Monday. After dressing in a plain t-shirt and a pair of soft pants, Psithyra went over to her niece’s room with a spring in her step. At least there was good news for one of them.

“Come on, just eat it,” she heard voices coming from her niece’s room. “You’re not like your mom and aunt. You need to eat.”

Psithyra approached the room, which was near enough to the sirens’ room to hear the singing coming from within. It was sweet and melodious now, just like when they had first met.

“One spoon. Say aaaahhh.”

“I don’t want any…”

She rounded the corner and spotted Sonata Dusk sitting by Chrysidea’s side, holding a tray of cereal and a spoon.

“Oh, hi, Psithyra.” Sonata smiled cheerily. “How was the day?”

“It went well enough, all things considered,” Psithyra mused. “Sunset Shimmer and her friends weren’t too pleased to see me again, but maybe the presents I left them will mellow their mood.”

“Oh, that’s good! I’ve been trying to get Dea to eat, but she still doesn’t want to. Look how skinny she’s gotten.”

“I’m not any skinnier.” Chrysidea groaned into her pillow, lying facedown on her bed. “I don’t want any. I just want to be alone.”

“But you haven’t eaten anything for days,” Sonata protested.

“Sonata, why don’t you go sing with your sisters?” Psithyra suggested kindly. “I think I have something that will get my niece’s spirits back up.”

“Okay!” Sonata picked up the tray of cereal and skipped out of the room, breaking into song once she was clear.

“Nothing’s going to cheer me up, Aunt Psithyraaa…” The young changeling drawled miserably and grabbed her unicorn plushie. “I’d rather just disappear.”

"I wager this will cheer you up," Psithyra said brightly. "I went to CHS today to give presents to the girls who helped fix the sirens' pendants, and who do you think I saw there?"

“What, the Rainbooms?”

“Well, yes. But I saw someone else too.”

“Ugh…” Chrysidea sighed, clearly in no mood for her aunt's guessing games. “Who?”

The smug grin on Psithyra’s face grew ever wider. “I saw Home Run. He isn’t dead after all!”

Chrysidea’s eyes shot open wide, still puffy and red from crying. "What did you just say?" She sounded almost desperate.

"I know, I was surprised as well," Psithyra said amicably. "But my nose is never wrong, even if they somehow managed to hoodwink my eyes."

“He’s… Home Run’s…” Chrysidea wiped at her nose. “But… how?”

Psithyra shrugged. "No idea. Maybe they managed to find an antidote for the poison. Maybe your mother's brewing skills are in need of a tune up. Whatever the reason, Home Run is alive and well. Isn't that something to smile about?"

“Is it… Is it really true? You’re not pulling my legs?”

"Sweetie, would I lie to you?" Psithyra chided. "If you don’t believe my words, why not text him? Surely he will answer."

Chrysidea reached for her phone, but stopped midway.

"I… don't know if I can." She looked to her aunt. “Why hasn’t he messaged me all this time? To tell me he was fine? And… And I’m the one who threw the dagger. The one he bought for me. I’m the one who even supposedly killed him.”

Psithyra looked at her niece sympathetically. “That is true. But if he really does love you, you’ll be able to work past a problem like this. It might take some time, like myself and your mother after Trotsylvania, but we managed to sort things out in the end. I only hope your problem won’t take over a hundred years to solve.”

“Y-Yeah…” Chrysidea sighed. “But at least Home Run’s alive.”

There was a loud growling sound all of a sudden. Both changelings looked around for the source, and the younger one blushed when the source turned out to be her stomach.

“Has your appetite returned then?” Psithyra smiled. “Come on, let’s go to the kitchen and I’ll fix you something to eat, hmm?”

“Sounds good. Thanks as always, Aunt Psithyra.”

Not long after, Chrysidea was inhaling a large plate of pasta with red sauce and cheese. She had not realized how hungry she had become while moping about in her room. Now the simple dish seemed like the best food in the world, and she soon finished the plate.

“More?” Psithyra brought the pot over to refill the dish.

While she did so, the trapdoor in the corner of the kitchen eased open and Chrysalis emerged from the cellar.

“Oh, look. You’re finally done with your dithering,” the eldest changeling said as she closed the cellar entrance behind herself. “About time.”

Chrysidea flashed her an eye of annoyance and said nothing, instead returning to her refilled plate.

Psithyra approached Chrysalis slowly. “Sister, I think we need to talk. Alone.”

“You know that if there’s two of us, it’s not alone, right?” Chrysalis pointed out. She rolled her eyes and followed her younger sister out of the kitchen and into the hallway outside.

Psithyra was the first to speak.

“Chryssie. They know.”

“They? Who’re they?” Chrysalis was nonplussed. “They know what? Speak in complete sentences, will you.”

“The girls I’ve been working with,” Psithyra hissed. “They knew me in my other personas. It couldn’t be avoided, and now they’ve put two and two together to figure out our real identities.”

“I thought you made sure not to let anything get tracked back to us,” Chrysalis growled. “You specifically assured me of such. How did they even come to this conclusion? How do we know they haven’t told anyone else? There is a strict ‘no torches and pitchforks’ policy on my property.”

“That Velvet Breeze remembered her time snooping into my Manehattan penthouse.” Psithyra ran a hand through her purple hair. “It was when I was looking for you. My transitioning into a queen took away my ability to plan well.”

“And whose own fault is that?” Chrysalis flicked at her fingernails.

“Mine, I admit,” Psithyra mumbled. “But if you hadn’t been such an incorrigible blockhead back at Trotsylvania-”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “We are not playing the blame game here. You just admitted it was your fault. The question we should be asking is, do they have any evidence? The word of a famous movie star definitely outweighs that of a bunch of little girls, but that’s if they have no proof.”

The younger sister shook her head. “No, it’s just little things, like how my penthouse had the picture of the sirens and us and the haikus I wrote when I was in the East. And Emerald must’ve told Sunset something, because she knew as well. She knew I knew Emerald.”

Chrysalis laughed. “Now how can a dead person tell that girl anything? You must’ve done it yourself. Look at what you’ve done. I’ve blended in for generation after generation and I will not be undone by you, my advisor, who’s supposed to know better than to reveal herself like that.”

“I know, I know…” Psithyra grumbled. “But I was thinking just now. If the girls know about us, wouldn’t it be more prudent to try and win them over as allies? If we were on the same side, then we wouldn’t need to worry about them revealing our presence to other people.”

“You mean like with the sparkly-haired knightess?” Chrysalis snorted. “If I recall, you only told her about yourself because it was unavoidable at the time.”

“And it was your fault that I had to,” Psithyra countered. “If I hadn’t saved Emerald by revealing my changeling nature, she would have died and your orders to kill Morn Dread would have gone unfulfilled.”

“Are you blaming me? Because it sounds like you’re blaming me.”

“You ordered the death of my son. As his mother, I wanted nothing more than to see him grow old. It’s because of you I never got that chance.”

“Yeah, well,” Chrysalis sniffed. “If he hadn’t gone ballistic over his father, I might not have had to arrange his demise. I blame that on the human side of him. Pah, humans. Lowly, unknowing little gremlins they are. I’m glad my daughter finally killed off the one she was hunting. She was getting far too attached to him for her own good. And look how well she got over it; admittedly it took like four days, but she’s up and about now.”

“Ahh… about that.”

Chrysidea jumped as her mother’s enraged voice tore through her ears.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S STILL ALIVE?!”

Chapter 132 - Birthday Wishes

“How dare he still live?” Chrysalis shrieked as she stormed towards her room, with her sister following close behind. “This is heresy! Treason! A complete defiance of my will! He should be dead! He dares to defy me?” She flung her bedroom door open so hard that the doorknob was torn off. Chrysalis picked it up and jammed it back into the hole violently.

“Now, Chrysalis, be reasonable,” Psithyra pleaded. “This might not be as bad as you think.”

“Why is it not bad? I laced her little blade with life-ending poison, and somehow he lived? Which part of that isn’t bad?” She flicked the lampshade off her bedside lamp.

Psithyra noticed little plumes of smoke begin to rise from her elder sister’s fingertips. Unless she was defused soon, she might set the house on fire when she transformed out of pure rage.

“How did he even survive?” Chrysalis continued, kicking over the empty wastepaper bin in the corner. “The poison should have killed him within the hour, and I refuse to believe that the humans were able to identify and synthesize an antidote in that time! This is absolute bullsh-”

“I don’t know how he survived either!” Psithyra interrupted. “But you don’t have to get so angry, okay? There might be a silver lining.”

Chrysalis wasn’t listening. She went over to a painting of herself on the wall and pulled it aside, revealing a safe. Punching in the code, the changeling queen reached inside and pulled out a sniper rifle. An assembled sniper rifle, and Psithyra had no idea how she had fit the entire thing in there, but this wasn’t good.

“Now, sister, stop right there, there’s no need for that.” She rushed over and planted her hands lightly on the weapon. “Like I said, this might be a good thing.”

“Are you for real?” Chrysalis yanked the rifle away from her. “His very existence now defies my will. He cannot be allowed to live!”

“Give me the gun, Chrysalis,” Psithyra said slowly, as if talking to a child. “If you go out and start shooting people, there will be an investigation. You don’t want that, do you?”

The queen blew a raspberry. “I know better than to bring the heat back here. More than you, apparently. They won’t even know it was me.”

“We can’t just go about shooting humans, Chrysalis,” Psithyra continued, trying to pry her sister’s hands from the rifle. “There are better ways of dealing with this. You’re angry, I get it. But you shouldn’t do anything reckless just because you feel mad right now.”

“You’ve shot people.” Chrysalis maneuvered the weapon away from her sister. “People that haven’t even offended me. This boy will regret not dying from the poison.”

“Because they were threats, sister,” Psithyra said, exasperated. “Besides, think of what it would do to your daughter. The only reason she’s up and about is because Home Run isn’t dead. Do you want to upset her even more?”

“Psssh. I should’ve guessed she didn’t get over it. Really, I don’t see what she sees in that boy.” Chrysalis checked the rifle and then ran her fingers along a hole on its underside. “Now where’s that magazine gone?”

Psithyra held up a semi-transparent rectangular cartridge, filled with long bullets. “You mean this? Yeah, you’re not getting it.”

Chrysalis reached out a hand. “Give it to me, Thyra. I must do this.”

“No, you don’t,” Psithyra said, pulling out of her sister’s reach. “Come on, you don’t have to kill him right now. Do you know what tomorrow is?”

“The perfect day to kill him?” She dropped to a roll and jumped up, trying to grab the magazine, but Psithyra sidestepped her and hopped to the other end of the room. “Come on. Just one shot. That’s all it’ll take. I won’t miss.”

“It’s your daughter’s birthday!” Psithyra sighed loudly. “You could let Home Run live for her birthday present. She’d love that.”

“What, not killing him as a present? Need I remind you of the times when we had peasants working for us? Not-Getting-Killed an hour was a fine wage for them. And now you want me to do the same here?” Chrysalis scoffed. She ran forward and made another snatch at the magazine.

“Be sensible.” Psithyra rolled between her legs and got away unscathed, still holding the magazine. “No more killing needs to be done. Haven’t I told you this so many times? Things can work out without death these days.”

“It’s because that Camelot High principal got in your head.” Chrysalis blew steam from her nostrils.

“Canterlot High.”

“That’s what I said. Why do you even listen to her? You should be listening to me!”

“Because her words make sense.”

Chrysalis inched closer, one arm getting ready to move. “And my words don’t?”

“Not when you’re in a rage like this. Look, killing someone might be satisfying right now, but think in the long term.”

“I am. The boy will be out of my life and my daughter’s.”

“That’s not long term!” Psithyra groaned. “Your daughter will be devastated if she has to lose Home Run again. And besides, I want to do some investigating. Don’t you want to know how he survived? If you kill him, you’ll never know.”

Chrysalis raised a finger, her mouth hanging open. Then she narrowed her eyes and slowly lowered her hand. “Okay. But after I find out, I’ll shoot him.”

The younger changeling sighed. She had bought Home Run a bit of time now at least.

“Fair enough,” Psithyra said. She would just have to work to change her sister’s mind before she did something stupid. “I’ll see about the boy and his friends. Don’t they remind you of a couple of certain someones?”

Chrysalis thought for a moment, the sniper rifle dangling from one hand. A look of recognition dawned on her face, like a lightbulb turning on.

Then it went out, replaced with the usual haughty expression.

“No.”

The next day, Silver Rose stepped out of her car and onto the front walk of CPA. It had only been two days of absence, but it felt as though she hadn’t been to school in a lifetime.

Her aunt had, of course, forged a doctor’s note for her, thereby absolving her of any penalties that might come from skipping school. Although, her aunt was a certified doctor. Was it really a forgery?

The walk down the halls was weird for her, and it was really as though she had returned from some great war, and in a way, it had been one, though there was no encore for what she had done, seeing as no one here even knew what had transpired on Thursday night.

She made her way to Mr. Fowl’s homeroom, still remembering where it was.

Silver felt good. Under her disguise, Chrysidea hummed happily knowing that Home Run was still living, and that her mother hadn’t killed him. The other thought pulling at her mind was how he survived. Had her mother lied about the poison on the dagger? But then she had been so angry to know he still lived, so she didn’t know what was up. Perhaps it had been some of that horse magic from Equestria, after all, they didn’t know what magic was capable of.

But still, he was alive. Silver wanted more than anything to run to his arms, but at the same time, she didn’t know how she could face him after what she had done to him and his friends. She felt as though she had betrayed his trust, that she had turned against him.

“Silver Rose?” A familiar voice came from Silver’s left. Before she could respond, a pair of vaguely paint-smelling arms wrapped around her shoulders. “Where have you been? I missed you!”

“Canvas?” Silver gasped. She had almost forgotten about the artist in her woe.

“Of course it’s me! Who else would it be?”

“Nice to see you,” Silver said, regaining her bearings. “I wasn’t gone that long, you know.”

“Why were you gone?” Canvas asked as she and Silver walked to their lockers. “Don’t tell me you ate too much candy and got sick.”

Silver thought back to the aftermath of the long Halloween and decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

“Yeah, that’s it. I ate too many sweets. Couldn’t stop myself. Ha.”

She knew she was being dishonest, but Canvas didn’t seem to notice. She hadn’t been lying with her mother, fakery really did make her feel a little bit guilty.

A changeling’s entire life is based on deception. You are going to be a liar, so you might as well embrace it.

Words from her mother’s lessons echoed in Silver Rose’s head. While she sometimes wished she didn’t have to, Silver Rose was still a changeling, and was therefore subject to the hierarchy’s rules.

I am not a good changeling. Silver thought despondently. Her mother’s approval seemed less important to her now, but she hated the idea of disappointing her aunt, who had done nothing but love her and be supportive. Even if Aunt Psithyra answered to Silver’s mother, she was still a kind soul deep down, and making her upset by any means made Silver feel even worse than lying to humans.

“Oh, by the way,” Canvas blabbered on, completely oblivious to Silver’s musings. “This is for you!”

Canvas pressed a large flat square into Silver’s arms. It was expertly wrapped in pink and blue paper and it had a little red bow on the top.

“Happy birthday, Silver!”

“O-Oh! Is that today?” Silver asked, almost dropping the gift. “I didn’t realize.”

Canvas gave Silver a weird look. “Gee, you must have been really sick if you forgot your own birthday. Are you sugar intolerant or something?”

“No- maybe,” Silver corrected herself. Better to let Canvas think she had a medical condition instead of the truth. “I should probably get that checked out.”

“Yeah definitely. Well, hopefully you don’t. I got you a sug- ahhh, I didn’t say anything. I got you a thing!”

Silver talked to Canvas as they made their way to class, but the changeling’s mouth was on autopilot. She knew her absence would be suspicious, and the Shadowbolts were already sniffing around her tail. Hopefully they wouldn’t have jumped to any conclusions while she had been gone.

Just then, Indigo Zap came into view, her eyes locking with Silver Rose’s own. A shrewd expression came onto Indigo’s face.

Speak of the devil… Silver thought with a sigh. She elected to just go about her day as best she could. If she acted like she had caught onto the Shadowbolts’ suspicions, that would only make her look even more guilty than ever.

So for now she would act like everything was normal, and that she had indeed suffered from some kind of sugar-related malady. It was a flimsy shield and she knew it, but she couldn’t think of any other course of action at the moment.

She knew she should probably care more about this, but all Silver Rose- no, Chrysidea really wanted was to be with Home Run again, to turn back the clock and go back to when they were still on good terms.

Oh, well. Nothing I can do about it now.

The rest of the day passed slowly. Silver Rose was well aware of the suspicious looks and aside glances that the Shadowbotls kept shooting her, but she remained calm and didn’t give anything away to them. She could smell their suspicion, though. It permeated the air and was directed at her like a constant whining in her ears.

Finally the bell rang for the last class to be dismissed. Silver hurried to her locked and picked up all her things, not wanting to stay at school any more than she had to. Her ride was parked outside the school as usual, but when Silver got in, she was surprised to see her home’s butler in the driver’s seat instead of her aunt.

“Hi, Silver Platter,” Silver Rose said, buckling herself in. “Where’s Aunt Ivory?”

“I’m not sure, young mistress. She simply sent me a message to come and fetch you,” Silver Platter said as he put the car into gear. He drove a lot slower than Ivory Wings did, or maybe Silver Rose was just used to her aunt breaking the speed limit all the time. To her aunt’s credit, she was a really good driver, even when speeding. It was fortunate she was, or her life would have already been cut short before she could even live it out.

“I shall have the car taken in for a tire change soon,” Silver Platter remarked offhandedly as he drove. “They seemed a bit worn out when I looked at them before coming to pick you up.”

“Oh,” was all Silver Rose could think of to say. She didn’t know much about cars and maintaining them. Her knowledge stopped at the big round thing on the dash controlled the wheels and that the pedals made you go faster or slower.

Maybe I should learn how to drive.

There was an odd smell coming from inside the house as Silver Platter pulled up next to the front doors. It wasn’t a smell that she could describe as obvious, but it was there like an undercurrent. Thanking her butler for the ride, Silver Rose entered the house, which was quiet. No Ebony Wings admiring her antiques or Ivory Wings practicing swordplay on the tabletop.

There was a faint scent of salt coming from the nearest living room, though. An ocean smell that her mother and aunt had told her several times was what the sirens were supposed to smell like at their normal.

She followed the barely-there smell of brine and came to the door to the living room. She could smell people inside, and her mother and aunt were definitely inside, as were the sirens. Frowning, she pushed open the doors.

For a moment, she couldn’t see anything as all the lights had been turned off. Then the room lit up and there was a shout of “Surprise!”

Silver Rose barely had time to keep herself from falling down before several payloads of confetti and ribbons were shot at her face.

“Wh-What’s this?” Silver stammered as she felt someone steer her over to the middle of the room. Another pair of hands relieved her of her book bag.

“You didn’t think we’d forget, did you?” Silver’s aunt Psithyra said, coming into view with a small, colorful cone shaped hat on her head. “Today is your birthday!”

“Were you surprised?” Sonata Dusk bounced on her heels. “Were you? Huh?”

“She smells surprised,” Chrysalis said from a short distance away. Somehow she too was wearing a small paper cone shaped party hat. She was holding up a goblet of wine, and she raised it as if in a toast. “Happy birthday, my daughter. You have grown.”

“Of course she has,” Adagio said, for once not wearing a smirk, but a genuine, calm smile. “That’s a good thing, by the way.”

“Now, come over here so we can get started on the cake!” Psithyra led Silver Rose to a table in the center of the room, where a tall, white frosted birthday cake was placed. The icing was arranged in the shapes of flowers, with a sugary web of vines draping down from the top. Candles had been artistically positioned in a crown shape on the highest tier.

“We had your favorite all ready for today,” Psithyra said as she blew her fire breath on the candle wicks, setting them alight with small viridian flames. “So go on, blow them out and make a wish.”

“A wish?” Silver Rose, no, Moonglade, no, even Chrysidea had never been asked for this before. Usually her birthdays before this had been small, private affairs with her mother that were performed behind closed doors in case any camera hounds might be watching. This felt almost… normal, like she was an ordinary girl with a loving family and friends.

“Yes, a wish,” Aria confirmed, leaning against the table with a cup of some kind of drink in her hands. “Don’t take too long, or the wax will get on the cake.”

What should I wish for? The young changeling wondered. She didn’t really have any material wants. What she really wanted was…

With everyone else in the room watching, Silver Rose closed her eyes and gently blew out the cluster of candles.

The rest of the room’s occupants clapped and cheered.

“So? What did you wish for?” Sonata Dusk asked curiously.

Silver Rose opened her mouth, but then shut it just as quickly. “I thought that if I told someone what it was, then it wouldn’t come true?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Sonata deflated for a second, then puffed up again. “Well, okay then! We can still eat the cake, right?”

“And while you do that, I’ll get the gifts!” Psithyra added, going to a corner of the room and coming back bearing a pile of colored boxes.

“What’s a birthday party without gifts?” Chrysalis crooned, reaching out to stroke her daughter’s hair. Silver Rose forced herself not to cringe as her mother’s long fingernails brushed her scalp. For some not-quite-unknown reason, Silver Rose didn’t trust her mother like she had before. Maybe that was for the best, she thought rebelliously. She had proven herself to be a sneaky person when she wanted to be.

Chrysalis didn’t seem to notice her daughter’s discomfort, instead taking a sip of her wine. “You can finally drink this stuff now,” the changeling queen pointed out with a smile. “Want some, princess?”

She made a sound and tossed a wrapped up gift at Silver, who swiftly caught it. It was wrapped in blue paper with a green ribbon, but she could tell it was a bottle of sorts.

“Really?” Psithyra looked unimpressed. “You wrapped one up?”

Chrysalis shrugged. “Well, it is her birthday. You wrap up everything to give her. And since she can legally drink now, I had the maids wrap one of these up too.”

“Anyway…” Psithyra said, putting the bottle to the side. “There are other presents here that might be better suited to a girl of your age-”

“She is of age!” Chrysalis interrupted.

"You know what I mean," Psithyra deadpanned.

Silver Rose accepted the gifts and opened the topmost box, which was about the size of a shoebox and covered in striped red and blue paper.

"That's from me," Aria said, looking rather pleased.

Silver pried open the lid and found three crystal bottles of designer perfume inside, tied up neatly with a purple ribbon.

“You can wear it when you go on your next date!” Sonata beamed. Chrysalis rolled her eyes.

The mention of a date brought to Silver’s mind of Home Run and Sunny Flare, and how she had messed things up with both of them. Her smile shrank a little but she kept up a brave face as Psithyra passed her the next gift.

Carefully undoing the green wrapping, Silver was greeted with a small box with a hinged lid. She pushed the lid upwards and was met with a glittering red gemstone.

“That’s from me,” Adagio supplied. “It’s an exact replica of our pendants. It doesn’t have any power, but I don’t think you would have wanted that anyway.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no to power, but thanks Adagio.” Silver put it aside as Sonata pressed a blue box into her stomach.

“This one’s from me!” The siren stepped back and kicked a foot against the ground as she watched Silver unwrap the paper.

Inside the box was a copy of a Neighstation game called Arachnid-Woman, with a picture of the web slinging heroine on the front of the box.

“Oh, thanks Sonata! It’s been a while since I’ve been on the Neighstation.” Silver looked to her aunt. “I think Aunt Ivory’s been using it more than me.”

“Yes, well, these games are quite entertaining,” Psithyra amended. “Anyway, your last gift is from me. I hope you like it, sweetie.”

“Wait.” Aria waved a hand in the air. “Chrysalis, your only gift to your daughter was a bottle of wine?”

Chrysalis sipped at her glass and shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that. If she wants anything else, I can always just get it for her. Besides, you know that in this house, my daughter is the only one who celebrates birthdays. The rest of us… don’t.”

“Oh, is that because we’re all a bunch of immeasurably old magic creatures to whom age doesn’t really matter?” Sonata asked blithely.

“...Yes, Sonata. That’s exactly why.” Aria sighed.

“Not like we ever celebrated them before. Even back in Equestria.” Adagio placed a hand on her chest and smirked. “All I can remember is trying to turn everypony against each other with our singing.”

“Anyway,” Psithyra said firmly. “This one is from me. I hope you find it useful.”

Silver Rose took the box and unwrapped it. Flipping open the lid, she found inside a strange contraption that seemed to be some kind of long metal device with straps on the sides. It was rather lightweight, and had been done with a layer of polish that didn’t reflect light, but still made it look sleek and clean.

“What is it?” Silver asked, picking up the gift and turning it over in her hands.

“It’s a hidden blade,” Psithyra said brightly. “With a few minor tweaks from yours truly. Improved performance and safety mostly. It goes on your arm.”

“I uh, I thought I couldn’t bring weapons to school?”

“It’s called a hidden blade for a reason,” Chrysalis contributed.

“But the gun you hid under my skirt was hidden too,” Silver reminded. “As were all the other assortment of weapons, mother.”

“I don’t mean for you to wear it to school,” Psithyra chided. “It’s intended for self defense. The blade spring has enough push in it to puncture through at least five layers of cloth and one layer of kevlar.”

“And if she’s not to wear it to school, may I ask, where is she meant to wear it?” asked Chrysalis.

“You’re the one who got all steamed up over her being mugged,” Chrysalis’s sister said. “I’m giving her a means of defending herself.”

“S-So I’m to wear this out on dates?” Silver didn’t like the idea of having to kill someone in front of Home Run. Beating them up was okay, but not actually putting a dead body on the streets.

“You can treat it as a toy if you want,” Silver’s aunt smiled, patting her niece on the back. “A relic of a bygone age. I don’t think anyone else alive knows how to make these things anymore.”

“Yeah, these days it’s guitar case guns and wristwatch darts!” Sonata imitated firing something from her arm. “Just like in that Bames Jond movie!”

Everyone went quiet for a moment.

“Riiiiight…” Aria looked as though she would like to slap her sister, but somehow restrained herself. It must’ve been because of the gems. “Anyway, happy birthday, princess. Can we have some cake now?”

Chapter 133 - A Princess's Dream

The invitation looked nice enough, Psithyra thought as she stared at the computer screen. She had stayed up all night in the workshop tweaking and fiddling with this document, getting it to look just right. Computer programs weren’t quite her thing, but she considered herself at least competent.

Yawning, the elder princess reached for her mug of tea and drank some. This wasn’t going to be easy, she reflected. Humans had annoyingly long memories, especially when it came to things they didn’t like.

“Then again, so do we,” Psithyra mumbled.

There were no windows in the workshop, but the clock on the wall indicated that it was nearing sunrise. Giving the invitation one last cursory look, the changeling moved her mouse and clicked ‘print’.

As the printer in the corner began its work, Psithyra stood up and stretched. She was actually quite looking forward to this. It was as if the stars had all lined up, if you believed that kind of thing. Maybe fate had gathered all those girls together for her, maybe it was just blind luck and good genetics. Whatever the case, Psithyra was going to make the most of it.

Given that it was a Thursday, Psithyra planned to give the invites to the sirens to hand to the Rainbooms and friends. She hoped they would accept. They probably would, but humans were by nature fickle creatures, unlike changelings and sirens. Not to mention that Sunset Shimmer and her friends already thought her rather suspect thanks to the poisoned picnic lemonade she had fed them, and not to mention the whole farce with them recognizing her sister’s true identity on Halloween night.

Once the invitations were all printed, Psithyra collected them and began folding them up and putting them into envelopes. She liked to have some modicum of formality when it came to these things.

After she had finished packing all the cards, Psithyra swept them into a bag and left the workshop. An owl hooted outside. It sounded like laughter, and the changeling princess felt a flicker of fondness, having heard that same laugh all those years ago when she had lived atop this very hill.

In the second floor living room, Chrysalis was warily examining the massage chair that her daughter had purchased. She would press a button and squint at the chair as it began to move and vibrate.

“What’s the matter, Chrysalis?” Psithyra asked as she came closer. “Haven’t you seen one of those before?”

“Well of course I have. I’m a movie star.” Chrysalis took a step back from it. “I’ve just never sat in one.”

“I hear they’re quite comfortable,” Psithyra said as the chair continued to vibrate. “Anyway, I’ve prepared some invitations for those humans that I want to meet. That means the sirens will have to go to Canterlot High to deliver them to the recipients.”

“Well, they go there for school anyway.” Chrysalis placed a hand down on an armrest and began to wobble alongside the chair. “Why do you even want to meet them? There are more interesting humans in the world.”

“On the contrary,” Psithyra replied. “I think I would be hard pressed to find humans more interesting than these.”

Chrysalis blew a raspberry. “No. No way. They are but children with the power to use magic, for some reason. That’s it. I think I’d rather speak to Bullet Stopper.”

Psithyra looked unimpressed, but didn’t press the issue further. “The sirens have no more reason to go to school; they already know everything that they need to, plus they have us around. I’ll just have them go there to give these messages to the humans, and that will be the end of it.”

“What, they’re gonna stop studying?” Chrysalis clapped her hands together. “Finally. I told you they didn’t have to go.”

“It’s not just that, I want to prevent another incident like the Battle of the Bands from happening. A blood moon doesn’t happen every night, and if their pendants get broken again, I will be very cross.”

“That’s probably wise,” Chrysalis nodded seriously. “Small wonder you’re the family tactician. We’ll outlive the magic humans, and once they’re gone, it’s back to business as usual. I think I might run for president.”

“You don’t know the first thing about politics,” Psithyra sighed.

Chrysalis seemed to disagree. “Hello? I was the queen of this land before this city was even properly built. Besides, politics is easy; you just need to keep the people happy, and I know plenty of how to do that.”

I give you two weeks before you declare war on everyone else. Psithyra thought to herself. Her experiences in the past had told her that her sister much preferred lounging on thrones and eating grapes than actually running anything. She lived for the adoration of the masses, and if there was one thing that politicians were not, it was adored.

“I totally would not,” Chrysalis announced to her sister.

“Would not what?”

“Whatever it was you were thinking.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything of the sort,” Psithyra protested impishly. “Anyway, I’m going to get a few hours of sleep before the sirens and my niece wake up. See you in a bit.”

The changeling princess left her sister to poke and prod the massage chair, heading up to her room and laying down on the mattress.

Her dreams were of friends long dead and gone, but if things went right, she might be able to see them again.

Maybe.

Adagio strode through the halls with her sisters, taking a perverse pleasure in the looks of fear that the other students were giving them, or more accurately, the red gems around their necks. Adagio felt in control, she felt good. Once again she was the wolf among the sheep.

But she had promised Psithyra that they wouldn’t stir up any more trouble here at Canterlot High. She and her sisters were just here to deliver a message.

“So, you’re back with your powers.” Rainbow Dash, who was leaning against a row of lockers, righted herself and stalked towards them. “Remember, we’ve beaten you once before. We can do it again.”

Aria huffed and crossed her arms. Sonata simply rocked back and forth on her heels and passed Adagio the satchel of invitations, all of them stacked neatly on top of one another.

“We’re not here to pick a fight,” the eldest siren drawled. “A mutual friend of ours wanted us to give these to you.”

Reaching into the bag, Adagio drew out the crisp, white envelopes and held them out for the Rainbow-haired guitarist to take.

“What mutual friend?” Rainbow asked suspiciously.

“It’s all there in the invitations,” Adagio waved the envelopes under Rainbow Dash’s nose. “Take these and give them to your friends, won’t you? Surely you can manage that.”

The faint smell of flowers and new paper drifted into Rainbow’s nose. It wasn’t a smell she overly liked; perfume and calligraphy was more Rarity or Twilight’s thing.

“Fine. I’ll take them,” Rainbow snatched the envelopes from Adagio and examined them. Each one had a different name on it, penned in cursive with deep green ink. One for each of the band members, including herself.

“Then I’ll entrust you’ll all know what to do once you’ve read them.” Adagio turned around. “With our powers back, we’ve no more reason to be here, so I’ll bid you and your school a farewell.”

“Uh. Yeah…” Rainbow watched her go, unsure of what could possibly be going on in the siren’s head.

Then she looked down at the envelopes in her hand. She figured they were about to find out.

“I’m home,” Silver Rose announced as she came back into her house after school. It had been another awkward day, with the Shadowbolts following her around discreetly and Sunny Flare smelling weird, and not the nice kind of weird.

“Welcome home,” Ivory Wings said. Silver’s aunt was seated in the lobby, polishing a long knife with a cloth carefully. “Come and sit down. I have something to discuss with you.”

Taking a seat next to her aunt on the couch, Silver placed her hands in her lap and waited for her aunt to start speaking.

“This morning, I sent the sirens to Canterlot High to give some invitations to the girls who I was using to fix the gems,” Ivory began. “If they accept, the girls will turn up here around noon on Saturday.”

“Why are you inviting them here?” Silver asked incredulously.

“Because I have things I need to tell them before they finish high school and potentially separate. I need to see them while they’re all gathered here in one place.”

“Is this still about the sirens’ pendants?” Silver still wasn’t getting it.

Ivory Wings took her knife in her hands and turned it over, staring at her reflection in the blade. “No. It isn’t. It goes much further back than that.”

“Aunt Ivory, I don’t understand,” Silver protested.

Silver’s aunt sighed. “It’s a matter from before your time. But I can try to show you why this is so important to me. Come on, sweetie; we’re going to my room.”

The elder princess put the knife back on its holder on the wall and beckoned for Silver Rose to follow. They went up two floors to the room that Chrysalis had given her sister to stay in. It had once been a painting studio and storeroom for her mother’s art, Silver remembered, before her aunt had come to live with them.

Silver had not really visited her aunt’s room much, as the elder princess seemed to prefer staying in the workshop instead, not to mention that pureblood changelings only slept for about four hours every day.

Ivory Wings opened the door and turned the lights on. Silver could smell the usual smells: dye and cosmetics, as well as paint and interestingly, freshly carved wood.

As Silver entered, her attention was drawn to the rather simple and plain looking single bed that was pushed up against the wall. It was so unlike her mother’s and her own bed, which were richly ornamented four-posters with a canopy and curtains. But her aunt’s bed was just a single mattress with plain sheets and pillows, like it had just been bought from a furniture store. There was a simple nightstand with a lamp and a small shelf of books and a desk with a laptop computer and some other little electronics like a phone charger there. All in all, very plain, almost bland.

Then she turned to look at the other end of the room.

Dominating the majority of the space was a large collection of strange objects; a long spear, some old-looking books, some glass cases with more delicate items in them. A lot of room was being occupied by some tiered shelves which held a sizeable display of dozens of magnificently crafted painted wooden dolls. Each one was about half a foot tall and was painstakingly carved to look unique. Their clothes and accessories were just as well detailed and seemed to have been chosen to emphasize what the holder was supposed to be.

“Did you make all these dolls?” Silver asked, walking up to the shelves of figures and examining the nearest one. It was a doll of a woman wearing a long, dark coat with platinum grey hair under a tricorn-like hat, holding a tiny, replica silver sword. “Is this a pirate? Were you on the seas once? I never thought of you as someone who likes to sail the seas.”

“That’s a monster hunter from Trotsylvania,” Ivory said. “But that’s not what I wanted to show you. Come here.”

“Oh, that’s the one.” Silver remembered the tales of Trotsylvania the most of all her mother’s and aunt’s journeys. “Okay, what did you want to show me?”

Ivory directed Silver's attention to a framed picture on the wall. It was roughly two feet long and one foot wide, displayed landscape wise. Upon closer inspection, Silver could see that it wasn’t a painting. It was a woven tapestry kind of thing, and depicted a large group of people of various ages standing on a grassy lawn in front of some trees. Whoever made this had done a good job; the people were distinct and very nicely detailed, right down to the facial features and their clothing.

“Who are these people?” Silver asked, peering at the tapestry. It looked kind of old, but it was kept in almost perfect condition.

“They don’t look familiar to you?” Ivory looked amused as she waited.

“Not really,” Silver said slowly, she looked closer and her eye was caught by a young woman with rainbow hair who was holding a lute. “Wait. She looks like that Rainbow Dash girl from CHS.”

“Very good,” Ivory purred. “They were also quite similar personality wise, but you couldn’t have known that.”

“Wait a minute…” Silver looked at each one of the characters on the tapestry. “That purple one reminds me of Rarity. And this blonde one of Applejack. Don’t tell me…”

“Yes?” Ivory’s smile grew wider.

“They’re immortal too?” Silver Rose finished.

Ivory Wings burst out laughing, holding her stomach in mirth. “I can see why you would think that, yes, but that’s not quite right,” she regained her composure and took off her glasses to wipe her eyes. “These people in the tapestry are the ancestors of the girls from Canterlot High School. It depicts the last day we were all together, before they all went their separate ways. After more than a thousand years, it seems that fate, or maybe just dumb luck, has gathered them all in one place for me again. This is why I want to meet them.”

“Wow. That’s really such a coincidence. And they’re all the same age. That’s insane!”

“I can’t let this chance pass me by,” Ivory said, clenching her right hand in a fist in front of her face. “I know I haven’t exactly been all that good to them until now, but they deserve to know the truth of their lineage. That they have the bloodline of heroes, and that, a thousand years ago, their ancestors helped me and your mother.”

“That’s really cool. It’s really as though the stars aligned.” Silver sat back in a chair. “Except we’re on two different sides now.”

“I hope they’ll accept my summons,” Ivory reached up to touch the glass of the frame holding the picture. “One of these people was my only real friend. I believe that over the course of last winter, I learned that she has passed on her gifts to Sunset Shimmer. I hope I’m right,” she said wistfully.

“So they’re gonna be here? Is Home Run coming?” Silver asked hopefully.

"I didn't know his ancestor," Ivory frowned. "It's just those seven girls for now. If we manage to get through a few meetings without trying to kill each other, then maybe I'll see about Home Run. I told your mother I would learn how he survived the poisoning, but I'm in no rush. Especially since after I discover why, your mother will want to murder him."

“Yeah, I’ve been curious too. But um… I’m-I’m glad he did…” Silver’s cheeks colored. “Thanks for keeping Home Run safe too, Aunt Ivory. I don’t know what I’d do if I… if I lose him. Again.”

"Mmm…" Ivory made a noise in her throat. "My sister's homicidal tendencies aside, I too would like to know how he survived your mother’s first attempt. My sister is a master alchemist, so there is no way she simply got the mixture wrong. I wonder…"

“Wh-what is it?” Judging by her aunt’s smell, she seemed to have an inkling of… something.

Ivory looked at Silver and shook her head. “Unless the boy has changeling ancestry or something, but I’m quite sure that’s not possible. I’ll figure out this riddle somehow. Why don’t we go and get something to eat, huh?”

Chapter 134 - Afternoon in the Wings: Part 1

Ivory Wings glanced at the ornate clock that hung over the front door of the Wings Estate. It was ten past noon and she had been watching the cameras like a hawk, waiting for those who she hoped would show up.

The changeling princess felt a strange sensation she had not experienced in many years in her gut. She knew what it was, but felt a touch chagrined at herself for feeling it.

Anxiety.

This is ridiculous, Ivory thought to herself, gripping the armrest of her chair. I don’t get anxious. I’m over a thousand eight hundred years old. I’ve seen worse than this.

“Umm… Aunty Ivory, are you okay?” Moonglade’s head popped out from around the corner. “You smell weird. Kinda like… like me most of the time, I guess.”

“What about the cookies and the soy sauce?” Ivory Wings jumped and turned to Moonglade. “Oh. It’s just you, sweetie,” the elder princess adjusted her glasses and stood up. “I suppose that I am simply apprehensive of what might go on later.”

“You? Apprehensive? I’ve never seen you say anything like that.” Moonglade snickered and walked over to inspect the set up table. There was a clear view of the cameras, and as Moonglade watched, a long white car pulled up outside the gates.

“I think someone’s here,” Moonglade said.

“Oh my fangs,” Ivory breathed. “They took the bait- I mean, they accepted. I’ll just open the gates for them…” She reached out and pressed a red button, and the metal gate slid aside noiselessly on the camera display. “Only thing left to do is to get ready to greet our guests. Do you want to be here for that, sweetie?”

“Umm… ah, sure. I guess.” Moonglade shrugged. “I want to see what you have planned.”

Ivory Wings held up her left arm and flexed her hand, causing a narrow, silver blade to shoot out from her wrist. “Just act natural,” she said to her niece. “I’m sure we’re not the only ones who came here armed.” She retracted her hidden blade and walked over to the doors, straightening her collar as she did so.

Ivory Wings stepped up to the front doors and with a wave of her hands, threw them open.

On the front doorstep were seven girls in their late teens. It seemed that Adagio had managed to deliver the invites to the right people.

“Welcome to the Wings Estate!” Ivory Wings announced, putting on her most winning smile to greet her guests. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Thanks. I guess.” Sunset Shimmer stood in front, looking wary. The rest of them were arranged in a sort of triangle, with Rarity looking caught between starstruck and needing to pee, Twilight Sparkle staring hard at Ivory’s face, Applejack and Rainbow Dash trying to look tough, Fluttershy hiding behind Pinkie, who was hopping from foot to foot in excitement.

“Come in,” Ivory beckoned graciously. “I’ve got drinks in the dining room. It’s rather dry today, isn’t it?”

“Drinks?” Pinkie Pie held up two jugs of water. “It’s okay, we brought our own!”

Ivory barely blinked. “Of course you did. Well, if you’re not thirsty, I have some snacks there too.”

“Let’s go this over with,” Rainbow said and walked in.

Ivory cracked a small smile. All the same confidence of the girl who wasn't afraid to fight a dragon to help her friends.

Rarity shuffled forward. "I just wanted to say… That this is a huge honour to be allowed into the home of the legendary Ebony Wings, and even if Sunset says you're not to be trusted I think-"

"We get it, Rarity," Applejack grabbed Rarity by the arm and hauled her inside. The rest of the group cautiously followed, with Fluttershy flinching when the doors clicked shut behind them.

Ivory Wings led them through a sumptuous lobby, where the girls gawked and gasped at the various art pieces and weapons that were on display. The eyes of the painted people on the walls followed them almost as if they were alive.

“I s-swear I saw th-the painting’s eyes move…” Fluttershy pointed at one of a Prench general with a huge hat.

“You’re just imagining things, Fluttershy,” Twilight said soothingly. “They’re paintings. They can’t actually watch us.”

“You know, some of the pictures in this house were done by a powerful enchantress,” Ivory Wings turned around and smiled. “They can be very lifelike.”

The rest of the walk in was in silence, with Ivory leading the way through the halls, all the while sniffing at the air to get a gauge of what the girls were thinking. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of doubt and apprehension in the air and she didn’t blame them for not trusting her. She hadn’t exactly done anything to gain their trust. Not yet anyway.

“And this is where we’ll be spending our time.” Ivory stopped by the entryway to the ground floor living room. There was a table set up near the exit to the swimming pool, where plates of steaming finger foods sat, along with a candle between each one, each with the scent of various herbs. “Please, make yourself feel at home.”

Moonglade stood by the grand piano in the back, and not knowing what to do, she simply smiled awkwardly and waved.

Nobody moved.

“I haven’t poisoned the chairs,” Ivory sighed. “You can sit down without worrying about being drugged or the like. By the way, did you girls like the gifts my associate prepared for you the other day?”

No one said anything.

“This is going to be very dull if I’m doing all the speaking,” Ivory continued. “I didn’t invite you here out of any ill will. You can ask Sunset Shimmer to verify that for you if you like.”

Everyone looked at Sunset and she sighed. “Fine. I’ll have a look.”

She squinted her eyes and the room fell silent once again, until Moonglade yelped when her hand slipped on the piano and mashed against a handful of keys.

Eventually, she blinked a few times, then nodded to her friends. “She doesn’t mean any harm. For now.”

One by one, the seven girls took their places around the table. Ivory Wings slipped into her own chair, while Moonglade dropped into the one next to her aunt.

“U-Umm…” Moonglade decided to speak. “I-Is uh, is Home Run… o-okay? Is he doing okay?”

Sunset Shimmer stared at Moonglade with some heat. “Home Run survived Halloween night,” she said shortly. “Whoever you really are.”

“I umm… I…” Moonglade found her hands to be more interesting to look at all of a sudden.

“Well, yes, it’s good to see we all know each other,” Ivory Wings said cheerfully, picking up a macaron and examining it. “I suppose you want to know why I invited you girls here to my home. You see, I think we have a lot of things we need to talk about.” She popped the biscuit into her mouth and chewed slowly. “I’ll start, shall I? Who and what do you think I am?” Ivory propped her elbows on the tabletop and perched her chin atop her interlocked hands, smiling like a cat.

Sunset Shimmer sat up in her chair, her fists clenched at her sides. “You’re a changeling. You may have hidden your real face from us, but we have you figured out.”

“Do you?” Ivory asked simply, her Cheshire Cat smile growing wider. Moonglade watched her aunt carefully. She was in control right now, but she had never seen anyone who had pierced their disguises before.

Sunset paused, her eyes darting around. Moonglade followed her gaze; she knew Sunset was a competent sword fighter, but there were no swords within reach, only the pair of one-shot wheellock and flintlock pistols on the shelf behind her. In the meantime, there was a trio of side-swords in a glass case just to the right of Ivory’s chair, and on the left was a display of a fan of knives. Moonglade’s aunt had chosen her seat well, and that wasn’t even accounting for the fact that she had a hidden blade strapped to her wrist and her poisoned kris dagger on her somewhere. And if Chrysalis was any kind of standard for changeling agility, Moonglade’s aunt could move fast enough to intercept or dodge a bullet.

Twilight cleared her throat. “I think it’s time you stopped pretending. We have some solid evidence that you and your ‘associate’ Mist Eerie are one and the same.”

“Yeah, there ain’t no more use hidin’.” Applejack poured herself a glass of water from one of Pinkie’s pitchers. “Best ya can do now is explain why ya even need to bother hidin’.”

“Oh, don’t be such a stoic,” Ivory reached across the table and picked up a potato chip and scooped up some dip with it. “I don’t think you want to see my actual face. That’s not important anyway. What is important, is that we used to be friends.”

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry. “Us? You? Yeah right. I think I would believe it more if you said you were the lead singer of Copperrear.”

“You like Copperrear, Dashie?” Pinkie’s face was a mask of disgust. “They’re so… repetitive.”

“I didn’t say I did.”

“Why would you bring them up if you didn’t like them?” Pinkie giggled. “I like cakes, I like candy, I like being with my friends, I like airsoft guns, I like bakeries, see I mention them.”

Ivory Wings waited patiently for the girls to stop talking. She glanced at Moonglade as if to say, ‘humans, am I right?’.

“It’s the truth, though,” the elder changeling princess said. “Long ago, in a past life, we were good friends.”

“Well, that can’t be true, because we ain’t even been alive that long,” Applejack answered with a scoffing expression.

Ivory’s face softened. “Maybe not you personally, but over a thousand years ago, on this very plot of land, your ancestors and I helped to save the world. We were comrades and close companions. I have the memories to prove it.”

“What?” Rainbow leaned back and let out a single note of laughter. “Why would our ancestors help you? You’re the bad guys.”

“Good guys, bad guys, it’s all relative,” Ivory intoned boredly. “For example, Rainbow Dash, your ancestor was the squire to one of the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Hors. Her dream and ambition was to become a knight of the realm.”

“What, really?” Rainbow suddenly changed her look. “Did she succeed?”

“Oh, most certainly,” Ivory leaned forward eagerly. She knew she had at least one of them hooked now. “She and another squire were knighted for services to the kingdom and had many adventures together. They were even wed to each other after a few more years. You see, Rainbow Dash, you and your friends have the bloodlines of heroes.”

Rainbow smirked and looked to her friends. “I think I like where this is going.”

“Really? That’s all it took to get you on her side?” Sunset was unimpressed at her friend.

“What about me? What about me?” Pinkie waved her hand above her head like he was itching to answer a question in class. “What was my ancestor like?”

Ivory smiled at Pinkie. “Your ancestor was a royal court dancer from Saddle Arabia, one of the people in charge of making sure the royal family was suitably entertained. Of course, after saving the world, she was bumped up to chief of festivities in the capital of Saddle Arabia,” Ivory rubbed her chin. “I also believe she was the first person to come up with the idea of a popsicle.”

“Wait, Pinkie’s family came from that sandy place?” Applejack whistled. “Ah suppose maybe that’s why your family likes rocks so much.”

“She was always a joy to be around, if a touch eccentric,” Ivory recalled fondly. “But that was part of her charm, I suppose.”

“Are you all seriously buying this?” Twilight spoke up, looking irritated. “The odds of her knowing even one of our ancestors are slim already, but all of them? That’s just not possible.”

“Not plausible, certainly,” Ivory Wings nodded. “But it’s the truth. I knew all of your ancestors, with perhaps the exception of Sunset Shimmer. I believe that I was told you don’t come from this world, hence I couldn’t have met your predecessor. Not your blood-related one, in any case.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

“You inherited Emerald Edge’s gifts through Excalibur,” Ivory said. “By my standards, you are her descendant by proxy. I knew Emerald Edge when she was alive. In fact, I was probably the last person to see her alive.”

“Yes. I know this.” Sunset nodded slowly. “Psithyra. A changeling. That’s what she said. So that’s who you are.”

Ivory Wings leaned back in her seat and said nothing, but her eyes twinkled behind her glasses in a form of confirmation. Moonglade sat there, watching both her aunt and the Rainbooms, unsure of what would happen next now that names had been brought up.

“Even if what you’re saying is true,” Rarity said, having finally found her voice again. “What does this have to do with us?”

Ivory Wings turned to the fashionista. “Rarity. I believe I have crossed paths with your bloodline twice in my life. Yes… you smell very similar to that hunter from Trotsylvania. But to answer your question, this has everything to do with you; I want to tell you all about your ancestors, and hopefully, become your friend.”

“Our friend?” Sunset gawked. “You poisoned me!”

“And you tried to kill everyone else at the table with a giant fireball,” Ivory replied. “I’ve seen the videos.”

“I-” Sunset raised a finger, but then paused. “I had to earn it.”

“I’m aware,” Ivory Wings said seriously. “I wouldn’t normally do something like this, but Celestia seems to think I have it in me to make friends again. That makes one of us.”

“Celestia? Principal Celestia?” Sunset leaned closer.

“Oh. Yes. You wouldn’t have known, but a while back, I swapped places with Celestia to deal with some personal things. It was a relatively minor matter, in the grand scheme of things.”

Sunset squinted at Ivory, who poured herself a glass of lemonade. She knew Sunset was probing her with Eagle Vision, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. After all, she meant no harm to them.

“If you harmed a hair on her head-”

“She was well accommodated, that I can assure you. You can ask her if you want.” Ivory waved a hand in the air. “I’m sure she’ll tell you how good a host I was. I learnt a lot from her, you know? That’s why we’re sitting here today.”

Sunset frowned and stared hard at Ivory, but didn’t seem to be able to come up with anything to say. Rarity hesitantly raised her hand.

“If you knew all our ancestors, how come none of our stories ever mentioned you? If you were truly their friends, wouldn’t someone have made note of your presence?”

“Do you even have stories of your ancestors from medieval Canterlot?” Ivory waited for an answer.

"...No."

"I thought not," Ivory said with more than a hint of smugness. "Humans are so quick to forget things, especially events of importance."

“Hey!” Twilight protested. “We remember plenty of important things!”

“And yet nobody here has anything about their ancestry dating back to the medieval ages,” Moonglade smelled the smug aura around her aunt increase. “If I wasn’t here to tell you, you might have gone your whole lives not knowing how important your heritage is.”

“Well, that’s not-”

“Important?” Ivory cut Twilight off. “What a thing to say, Twilight Sparkle. Especially since your ancestor would have wanted you to remember her.”

Moonglade smiled at her aunt’s verbal prowess. It was nice to see her put these girls in their place.

“Human carelessness notwithstanding, I think that we could become fast friends indeed,” Ivory said happily. “If you’d like to see what your ancestors looked like, I can show you. I have a few mementos of them from the middle ages.”

“I’d like to see it,” Rainbow said. Then she looked at the others, who all had their eyes on her. “What?”

“Are you forgetting that this is the same person who almost killed me and brought the sirens back as an actual threat?” Sunset asked Rainbow. “How can you just go along with her like this?”

“For the record, I told Adagio and her sisters not to use their singing on people unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Ivory piped up. “That deserves a thank you, don’t you think?”

“And what constitutes as absolutely necessary?” Twilight frowned. “Your definition of that and ours might be very different.”

“It means that they won’t-” Ivory looked at the other end of the room. “Hello, big sister.”

Everyone turned to the doorway where the acclaimed black haired actress stood, clothed in a green dress.

“Good afternoon.” Ebony Wings’ eyes panned the room, inspecting each guest thoroughly, then stopped on her sister. “I apologize, I wasn’t informed we were having guests today. I would’ve dressed more formally.”

“E-E-E-E-Ebony Wings?” Rarity gasped. “I can scarcely believe it! Darling! Look!” She grabbed Fluttershy next to her and squealed. “Look, it’s Ebony Wings! In front of us!”

“That’s g-g-great, Rarity,” Fluttershy managed as Rarity shook her like a doll.

“Did you want something?” Ivory asked her sister. “We’re kind of busy here.”

“I’m just trying to figure out why I was not told about this.” Ebony walked around the table to stand next to her.

“I did tell you that I was inviting these girls around for a chat,” Ivory said patiently.

“Yes, but you didn’t say when,” Ebony sighed. “But I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it now.” She raised her head up and gave the Rainbooms one of her red carpet smiles. “Welcome to my humble home. If there is anything you require, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Rarity was now looking half like her birthday had come early and half constipated, holding her hands clasped under her chin with excitement. Rainbow Dash likewise was sporting a huge grin, which made her look a little bit manic. The rest of the table, minus Sunset Shimmer, was also staring at Ebony Wings as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.

“You girls know what she’s done, right?” Sunset squinted at the actress. “She’s Chrysalis. In Equestria, she attempted to take over many kingdoms, even leading to the downfall of a lot of them. She’s not who you think she is.”

“Au contraire,” Ebony Wings said, placing a hand on her chest. “I have done nothing of the sort. I haven’t conquered any kingdoms, unless you count Applewood as a kingdom.” She swept her gaze over the entire group, warmly smiling at each person as if she knew them personally. “You know, something about you girls looks familiar, now that I’ve gotten a closer look at you. But what is it…?”

“Canterlot in the middle ages. You were the queen then, remember?” Ivory sighed, then said to the girls, “My sister was once the ruler of all the kingdom of Canterlot, in the final few decades of its existence. In fact, the castle once stood where this estate does today.”

"Why are you telling them all this?" Ebony asked with an edge to her voice.

Moonglade watched her mother’s body language cautiously. Ebony was a little stiff looking, but wasn't curling into attack position yet, which meant she was only a little bit miffed and not properly angry.

“Because I believe that any true friendship should start with a little bit of honesty,” Ivory purred. “Isn’t that right, Applejack?”

Applejack’s face turned red and she mumbled something.

“Well, I hope you enjoy your visit,” Ebony Wings said as she opened the door to the grounds and walked through. “I’ll go tell the cooks that we’ve guests for lunch, if you plan on staying that long. Toodles,” she then turned her head to her sister. “Oh, and Ivory? Try not to give away all our secrets. I know you want to be friends with them, but we have rules.”

“Yes, Ebony. I know.”

“Just so we’re clear,” Ebony said coolly before sweeping out of the house like an autumn wind.

Ivory sighed and turned back to the Rainbooms. “Don’t mind her. She doesn’t know you like I do, or she might have stayed longer.”

“She…” Rarity seemed to have trouble finding words. “She’s even more incredible in person than on the movie screen!”

“You do know she’s a horrible shapeshifting love-vampire, right?” Sunset deadpanned.

“We’re not horrible,” Moonglade mumbled.

“Oh? Then what word would you use to describe yourself?” Sunset asked accusingly.

“Actually, I’ve found that horribleness is all a matter of perspective,” Ivory Wings said casually with a smile. “Would you like to see your ancestors now?” Ivory chuckled. “I’m sorry, that sounded more threatening than I intended.”

“How are ya going to show us them…” Applejack eyed her suspiciously. “Because there ain’t now way ya can show ‘em to us unless we’re dead.”

“Funny thing, I actually have a picture of them upstairs, among other things. Why don’t I take you up there and you can have a look?”

“Oh, picture. Uh, sure. I guess that’s okay. Girls?” Sunset looked to her friends. Each of them had a moment of silence, then agreed. “Okay, lead the way then.”

“I thought you girls might say that.” Ivory smiled and pushed her chair back to stand up. “I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship, don’t you?”

“Don’t push your luck…” Applejack said.

Chapter 135 - Afternoon in the Wings: Part 2

“And here we are,” Ivory stopped outside her bedroom door. “I haven’t shown anyone who isn’t family in here before. Do try not to touch anything, won’t you? Some of it is rather pointy.”

Moonglade followed behind her aunt, watching as the Rainbooms examined a row of knives in a glass case by one side. According to her aunt, these had been her throwing knives when she had been an Assassin and Templar. Recent, but still handcrafted and kept in good condition.

Ivory opened the door to her room and the familiar smell of chemicals and wood chippings wafted out. Moonglade doubted that the Rainbooms could smell it, but they seemed to tense up just the same.

“Come in,” Ivory beckoned with a crafty smile. “Your destiny awaits.”

Moonglade giggled again at her aunt’s choice of words. She was clearly doing it on purpose now.

Nobody moved. Ivory Wings rolled her eyes.

“Look, I’m not going to kill you once you enter the room. If I wanted you dead, you would already be pushing up the daisies.”

“Can we just see what you want to show us already?” Twilight Sparkle shook off the statement.

“Come in and I’ll show you.” Ivory stepped aside and beckoned them through with a wave of a hand.

Ivory flicked on the lights and showed the Rainbooms to the framed tapestry on the wall that she had shown Moonglade the day before. The girls approached it, taking note of how intricately woven and detailed it was.

“I know this style,” Rarity spoke up. “It’s a traditional weave pattern from the middle ages that incorporates Northern knotwork into the fringes to increase durability!” The other girls looked at her strangely. “I had to study it for my tailoring class,” she explained.

“Well, that doesn’t surprise me,” Ivory said. “After all, your ancestor was the one who invented it.”

Rarity blinked. “She… She did?” The fashionista squealed with delight. “My ancestor invented the Northern-Canterlotian hybrid style of tapestry weaving? I-I don’t know what to say.”

“How about askin’ if your source is credible?” Applejack lifted a hand.

“I’ve a good memory.” Ivory stretched both arms out. “Like I’ve said, I knew all your ancestors very well. They were friends.”

Ivory pointed at the tapestry with her finger. “You see? There we all are. Were. Plus a few extras, of course. I’m sure you can recognize Rainbow Dash’s ancestor, after all they share the same hair color. It didn’t pass down to her immediate children. It’s a rare gene, having all the colors of the rainbow in your hair.”

Rainbow Dash stared at the framed picture. “We could be twins…” she whispered. “This is insane.”

“And well done too, isn’t it?” Ivory clasped her hands together. “Jewel Pin really did a superb job putting this together. It’s as though I’m staring at a photograph. Ah, I miss those times. They were simpler.”

“I wish I had been there to see it too.” Moonglade kicked a foot against her other foot.

“But then you wouldn’t have met Home Run,” Fluttershy said to her.

Moonglade blushed. “Umm… yes, I suppose I wouldn’t ha-have…”

Moonglade still felt rather bad about hurting Home Run on Halloween night, but she didn’t have much time to think about that as Ivory pointed out another ancestor, this one looking like an older version of Fluttershy with a bandana tying back her wild hair and an eagle on her shoulder. She knew this one well, along with her legend.

“You can probably guess whose ancestor this is,” Ivory told the girls. “Posey was a fierce fighter and an even fiercer tracker. She was a great help in those pinches back then. Bloody good with a bow and arrow.”

“Posey?” Twilight asked. “As in Posey Hood, the famous outlaw? I thought she was just a myth.”

“Every myth has an inkling of truth.” Ivory ran a hand along her picture. “Her mother was one of Prance’s greatest bandits. Have you heard of her? Paradise, I believe her name was.”

“My ancestors were bandits and outlaws?” Fluttershy trembled slightly. “Oh my.”

“Well, they were granted a full pardon once they helped save the land,” Ivory explained. “After that, they were just very competent rangers and keepers of the forests.”

Ivory Wings continued through the rest of the Rainbooms’ ancestors. Twilight’s ancestor, Nightfall Gleam, was a marvelous inventor, creating most of the age’s weaponry and improvements to life. Applejack’s ancestor, Honeygold, had been an apple farmer, just like her. Pinkie Pie’s ancestor, Parisa Pie, had been a dancer for the royal court of Saddle Arabia, and Sunset’s pseudo-ancestor was, of course, Emerald Edge, the First Assassin.

Moonglade also knew that story well, a story of one’s journey from another world to find weapons to defeat a usurper back in her own world. She had been her aunt’s very best friend, probably ever. She had never seen her aunt speak so much praise for anyone, not even of her mother, though there was rarely anything good said about her.

She had enjoyed the story very much as a child, but it was a very long story and there were bits that skipped her mind even today. Chrysalis didn’t seem to know all the details, but those had been mostly filled in when Aunt Ivory had moved in. Whether they stayed in her mind or not, that was a different story.

Sunset Shimmer was quiet as she processed all this. “You’ve been alive for a very long time, haven’t you?” She said at last.

“Quite long, yes.” Ivory looked at her fingernails. “Been there, changed history. That kind of thing.”

“Yeah, we know.” Sunset took a step forward. “You’ve had your fair share of world-dominating plots.”

“But you know I haven’t always been hostile to you, Sunset. Right?” Ivory smirked. “I recall saving your life back last winter, when you were being hunted by Templars.”

“Wait, when-” It dawned on Sunset. Velvet’s words back in the music room. “Mirror Match. You.”

“Yes, now that the cat’s out of the bag, there’s no more denying it. Yes. I’ve been watching over you ever since the Templars set their sights on you.” Ivory inhaled deeply. “Your friend Velvet Breeze almost killed me back in Manehattan, but no hard feelings, eh? We were all a little touched in the head at that point. Velvet from using the sword piece and me being… me. At the time. I’m all better now, see. But like I said, I’m a friend to you, Sunset. I always have been.”

“Oh yeah? What about the poisoned lemonade?” Sunset folded her arms. “I don’t see that as being my friend.”

“Well you see, that wasn’t me. That was Mist Eerie,” Ivory explained patiently. “Two totally different people.”

“Mirror Match, Psithyra and Ivory Wings are all different people too.” Sunset challenged.

“That’s how personas work,” Ivory said. “Do any of you study acting? No? When you take on a persona or character, you become someone else. Now, some of those personas may have traces of the person underneath, but to us, it’s all different people. Besides, I don’t think I’ll be using the Mirror Match persona anymore. Too many loose ends there.”

“Mirror-” Sunset cut herself off angrily. “Twilight told us about what you did to the Assassins, to Frigid Night. I was with him, he thought you were dead!”

“Dear Friggy, he could never really let go of me.” Ivory placed a hand over her chest. “How is he? I lost track over all the excitement.”

“He’s dead.” Sunset said shortly. "Sombra killed him."

Ivory’s face twitched slightly. “Oh. That’s unfortunate. Mirror Match rather liked him.”

“You mean you liked him!” Sunset retorted furiously. She glared at Ivory Wings, fists clenched. “At least act like you care! He loved you!”

The older woman rubbed her jaw. “Truth be told, I think I did care about him a bit too much, more than I should’ve. But again, he was Mirror’s lover, and I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. I was doing everything I shouldn’t have been doing.”

“You-!” Sunset’s face grew into a mask of desperation and disgust. “You really do feel nothing, don’t you?”

“Contrary to your belief, we feel a wide range of emotions.” Ivory looked at her niece. “Some of us just control it better than others.”

Moonglade’s blush reddened. She was certainly bad at controlling her emotions, probably even on the human standard.

“But I did care for him, you know. I tried to talk him into leaving the war,” Ivory continued. “He could’ve lived a long life away from all the constant fighting and sneaking, but he chose not to. That’s on him. I did what I could.”

Sunset ground her teeth in frustration. Something here was definitely the fault of the changeling hiding under Ivory Wings’ face, but she couldn’t formulate a compelling argument now.

“Anyway, there’s no point crying over spilled blood, as I like to say,” Ivory Wings continued smoothly. “What’s done is done and what’s dead is dead. Since we can’t time travel, we’d best just put it behind us.”

“So you really used to live up here in the middle ages?” Fluttershy asked Ivory. “What was it like?”

“It wasn’t that different from now, honestly. There’s a long-running family of laughing owls that is still around today. Of course my sister isn’t being carried around on a palanquin anymore. I think she misses that.”

“But mother’s never been to the East,” Moonglade pointed out, then smiled awkwardly.

“Well, not for extended amounts of time, anyway,” Ivory mused. “She has been there for filming purposes.”

“So y’all knew our ancestors,” Applejack steered the conversation back to familiar territory. “And now you wanna be friends with us?”

“Is this some kind of replacement goldfish plot?” Sunset asked shrewdly.

Rarity put her hand over Sunset’s mouth. “Being friends with the acclaimed Ebony Wings’ sister?” She gushed. “It would be a dream come true!”

“You’re just in this for the autographs, aren’t you?” Twilight said, looking at Rarity with an unimpressed expression on her face.

“What? Of course not!” Rarity objected. “I also want to learn more about my family tree. But now that you bring up autographs, I wouldn’t mind some of those either.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” Ivory said with a sticky sort of smile on her face. She eyed the girls loftily, mentally comparing each one to their historical counterpart. The resemblance really was uncanny. “I can tell you all kinds of stories about life back in the middle ages,” Ivory continued. “Your ancestors were most prolific in that era. They weren’t just citizens of a bygone age of kings and queens. They were heroes far and wide.”

There came the sound of a bell chiming.

"I do believe that's our cue for lunch," Ivory Wings announced. "Moonglade, be a dear and go fetch the sirens, won't you? Sometimes their singing drowns out the clock."

“Um, sure, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade skipped off to find them.

Once Moonglade was gone, Ivory led the girls out of her room and towards the stairs.

"Lunch is served in the main dining hall," Ivory explained. "The table can seat up to thirty but we never get so many people. In fact, this might be the most guests we've ever had for a meal."

"Ooh! What are we having?" Pinkie asked cheerfully. “Cake? Is there cake? I love dessert!”

"I'm fairly certain we can arrange dessert," Ivory told Pinkie with a smile.

They arrived in the dining room, where there were about thirty seats at a long table, with a tall, throne-like chair at the end. This was occupied by Ebony Wings, who had changed into a long, glittering gown with reflective panels sewn around her abdomen. The actress was wearing a small black crown on her head as well.

“Welcome, welcome,” Ebony Wings purred as the group entered. “Please feel free to sit wherever you like. Lunch will be served shortly, once everyone is here.”

The girls looked more than a little uncertain, but Ivory Wings immediately walked to the chair that was closest to Ebony Wings’ right side and sat down in it. One by one, the Rainbooms also went to sit down, though with remarkably less enthusiasm.

A fine, toothsome smell wafted in from the next door over, and the mood relaxed somewhat, even though Rarity and Rainbow Dash looked quite thrilled to be where they currently were. The violet-haired fashionista kept glancing at Ebony Wings, then looking away when Ebony met her gaze.

Moonglade and the sirens soon came in too, with Adagio, Aria, and Sonata pausing for a moment at the sight of the Rainbooms seated at the table.

“It’s alright,” Ivory called over, seeing the sirens’ hesitation. “They’re not here to fight you.”

“If you say so…” Aria muttered before sitting down next to Twilight.

Sonata took her place next to Pinkie while Adagio sat at Ebony’s left side. Moonglade positioned herself beside Fluttershy, who seemed the least likely to say or do anything aggressive.

Ebony Wings looked around the table almost lazily, the points of her crown glittering. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had this many guests over to my house at once before,” the actress said. “How are you finding your visit so far?”

Sunset waved a hand. “I suppose the artifacts are interesting. But you’re changelings and this invite doesn’t exactly change what you’ve already done.”

“What I’ve done?” Ebony Wings smiled at Sunset with such conviction that she almost believed it was real. “You mean my taking of Applewood by storm, and all the other venues who recognize my talent? Why yes, I do think that hasn’t changed. Thank you.”

“Anyway, enough talk about changelings.” Ivory Wings clapped her hands. “It’s time for the food to come out.”

A small fleet of maids came out of the kitchen, carrying dishes that were piled with food. Moonglade recognized the familiar smell of crispy roast pork and seafood, the latter of which was a favorite of the sirens. The plates were laid out expertly by the maids, and Silver Platter came round to pour drinks.

“Thank you,” Ebony said as her butler poured out her glass of red wine. She took a long sniff of the drink before looking back up. “Not hungry?” She asked, seeing that none of her guests were eating.

“No, no, sister. This one’s my fault,” Ivory said to Ebony. “The food is perfectly safe. Look, the sirens are eating, aren’t they?”

Silence.

Then Pinkie Pie smiled. “Okay then! I’m really hungry anyway. Thanks for the food!” And she began to dig into her lunch with great enthusiasm. Seeing their friend eating had an impact on the other girls, who followed suit.

“Hey, this is pretty good,” commented Rainbow Dash as she took a few bites. “I don’t think I’ve ever had fish this nice before.”

"That's because it's fresh," Adagio said. "It's the next best thing to eating it wriggling, since these human bodies can't seem to digest uncooked fish."

“Or anything raw, for the matter.” Sonata giggled.

“I sometimes forget you aren’t actually humans,” Rainbow said as she swirled her fork around in the sauce on her plate.

“Yes, we do look the part, don’t we?” Ivory smiled sardonically.

Moonglade snorted softly into her drink.

Ebony Wings sipped her wine and allowed her eyes to rove around at her guests. “I assume you know by now that the sirens will no longer be attending school at Canterlot High?” She asked pleasantly.

"Wait, you're not?" Pinkie looked up. "Ooh, I have to throw you a goodbye party!"

"We're good, thanks," Aria mumbled. “I’d rather just leave quietly.”

“But I didn’t even get to throw Mr. Loregiver a goodbye party,” Pinkie whined. “So many people are coming and going and it’s hard to keep up.”

“That’s a teacher?” Ebony Wings asked with a smile. “My, you are going through a lot of teachers at Canterlot High, aren’t you?” Her grin grew somewhat darker as she tilted her head forward. “But that’s just how it is in showbiz as well.”

Sunset stopped eating and narrowed her eyes at Ebony Wings. She placed her fork down and asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that in the movie and entertainment industry, people come and go all the time,” Ebony replied. “Of course, it depends on what’s popular at the time. Much like your school, if I may say so.” She leaned back in her chair and the corner of her mouth lifted. “For example, attempted regicide is most unpopular.”

“Attempted regicide?” Sunset repeated. “I don’t understand.”

“Regicide is when someone kills a monarch or ruler,” Twilight translated for Sunset.

Ebony Wings rested her hands on the table. “Correct. It’s a very serious crime.”

“Yeah, okay, but what’s that got to do with CHS?” Sunset nodded her thanks to Twilight.

“Just that your staff in future should avoid committing that crime in the future. Good help is hard enough to find without needing to replace them.”

“In the future?” Sunset repeated, feeling a pit growing in her stomach. “You mean someone’s done it before.”

Ebony Wings shrugged and smiled her red carpet smile at Sunset, only now it seemed just a little more sinister than before.

A sudden look of realization fell onto Sunset’s face, as if she had just been doused in ice water. “Mr. Pierce.”

“Oh, was that his name?” Ebony Wings asked playfully. “Very well, then. Mr. Pierce was found guilty of attempted regicide and paid the price for his crime. Among other things. My sister tells me he’s done a lot more than try to kill a queen.”

“Mr. Pierce…” Sunset’s mouth worked to form words, but she was too horrified to do it. “You killed him. It was you.”

“Well, not me, per se,” Ebony said with a self satisfied air. “It was a team effort. All three of us.”

“Sister…” Ivory warned.

“What?” Ebony asked pointedly. “Since we’re in the business of giving away information, why not tell them? They won’t make the same mistake then.” She turned back to her guests. “Mr. Pierce tried to kill me and my sister, and by definition attempted double murder on royalty. Any court worth its salt would have sentenced him to death.”

Sunset and her friends looked aghast. Adagio watched them with mild amusement, while Aria seemed to sense the tension in the air and sat still. Sonata appeared oblivious to the atmosphere and kept eating. Moonglade glanced at her aunt, who rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“So all this time, it was you…” Sunset said, breathing heavily. “How… you…” She seemed to be at a loss for words.

“Well, like I said, team effort. My sister provided information about the target’s habits and mannerisms, I cooked up the toxin, and my lovely daughter was the one to administer the dose. I’m quite proud of her for that.”

“You murdered Mr. Pierce!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“He was going to expose our secrets on the Internet,” Ivory Wings said calmly. “It had to be done, even if we completely disregard all his previous crimes. I don’t think anyone will miss him.”

“I certainly won’t,” Ebony Wings said and took another sip of her wine. “He actually tried to kill us. The nerve of him.”

There was a heavy silence that was only broken by Sonata chomping her food. The Rainbooms looked various degrees of aghast, while Ebony Wings sat there with an insufferably pleased expression on her face.

“And what makes you think we won’t post any of this online or tell anyone?” Twilight asked coldly. “Are you going to kill us too?”

“Oh, please,” Ebony Wings waved her hand. “I don’t think any of you are that stupid. At least, I hope not. You don’t have any evidence, and it’s my word against yours. And trust me, I’ve learned in the acting industry, being famous adds a lot of weight to your words. Who are the public going to believe, the word of a bunch of children or the word of an academy acclaimed celebrity actress?”

Twilight fell silent.

“That’s what I thought,” Ebony finished smugly.

The actress went back to eating her food, while Ivory sighed and gave the Rainbooms an apologetic shrug.

“To be fair, he really did have it coming. Now, my sister’s attempts to sabotage our relationship aside-”

“Hey, it’s the truth,” Ebony interjected.

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes, as if this was something that happened on a regular basis. It probably was.

“As I was saying, little hiccups aside, I hope we can be friends. I don’t have very many and I would like to have a few more, at least for this age.”

Ivory smiled winningly at the Rainbooms, the resemblance to her sister’s red carpet smiles uncanny.

The Canterlot High students didn’t seem to know what to say, many of them still looking shocked or disgusted at the revelation behind Mr. Pierce’s demise. Moonglade could smell the trepidation in the air, and tried to be as small as possible.

Ebony Wings finished her food and spared a glance at her younger sister, who glanced back, her eyes full of meaning. The actress sighed and wiped her mouth with her napkin.

“Would it help if I gave you all autographs?”

Chapter 136 - A Royal Discovery

The girls from Canterlot High did not stay long after lunch. In fact, some of them seemed downright ready to bolt, with only the pink one staying at the table for the chocolate gateau that was served for dessert.

Not a mere second after Pinkie finished her gateau did the Rainbooms hurry from the table, piling out the door as quickly as they could.

Ivory Wings watched them drive away on the security cameras.

“Well, that was fruitless,” Ebony Wings said from behind her sister’s back. “A total waste of time.”

Ivory turned around slowly, her face a mask of scorn. “Why do you feel the need to poke your nose in everything I do?” She hissed.

“What did I do?” Ebony looked surprised at her sister’s accusation.

“What did you go and tell them all about Pierce Network for?” Ivory sighed. “Do you know how hard it is to get humans to trust us without telling them about our executions?”

“They were going to learn of it eventually,” Ebony said evenly. “And it’s better that they know there are consequences for tattling now than later.”

“I’ve told you before, I don’t kill children.”

“Your loss,” Ebony sniffed. “Regardless, I don’t think they’ll try anything foolish in the near future. After all, we know where they live.”

“You could word it in a way that doesn’t make you sound like a serial killer,” Ivory said reproachfully.

Ebony laughed. “In case you’ve forgotten, we are serial killers. You should know that better than anyone, my Reaper.”

Ivory Wings looked chagrined at this use of her title, but swallowed the needling and pressed onwards. “At least they seemed interested in what their ancestors were like. Maybe I can use that to lure them back in.”

“Why bother?” Ebony flicked her hand to the side, as if to shoo away a bug. “They’ll all be dead in about seventy years, even if we don’t do anything to them. You’re getting emotionally invested in something that won’t be around for very long. Not a good idea, Ivory.”

Moonglade timidly crept into the security office to see what the argument was about.

“Oh, hello, sweetie,” Ivory said, taking notice of her niece. “Did you enjoy lunch?”

“Yes,” Moonglade nodded. “Did everything go as you wanted, Aunt Ivory?” She asked hesitantly.

Moonglade was secretly hoping that if the Canterlot High girls became family friends, then maybe she could see Home Run again. Unfortunately, the rather peeved look on Ivory Wings’ face didn’t bode well for that hope.

“It was going fine until your mother decided to start telling them horror stories about killing Pierce Network.”

Ebony Wings was unrepentant. “I hardly call that a horror story. Remember that one man who we drowned in a vat of acid back in the seventeenth century? He just wouldn’t stop screaming. That’s much more horrifying than a nice, quiet poison induced heart attack.”

“You did what?” Moonglade blanched.

“That was a special case!” Ivory insisted.

“No, it wasn’t,” Ebony frowned. “We killed at least eleven other humans in the same way. Used their bones for making china and quill nibs. Nobody ever did find out that’s where all those peasants were vanishing off to.”

“Anyway,” Ivory said, sounding exasperated. “I’ll just have to work extra hard to get them back on my side. I’ll have them as my friends if it’s the last thing I do.”

Ebony Wings rolled her eyes and turned away. “Do what you want. Just remember that your first duty is to me, not some girls who you have delusions about being the same people as their ancestors. Got it?”

“Yes, your majesty…” Ivory grumbled.

Moonglade watched her mother leave the security room. She felt an outpouring of sympathy for her aunt. She knew how hard it was for a changeling to make proper friends, and she wanted Ivory Wings to be happy.

The younger princess approached her aunt slowly. “Are you okay, Aunt Ivory?”

Ivory Wings gave her niece a tired smile. “I’ll be fine, sweetie. But I’m definitely not going to invite those girls back here. Not when your mother is prowling about like she was today.”

“Oh,” Moonglade scuffed the tip of her shoe on the floor. “So you’ll be meeting them outside?”

“I hope so,” Ivory Wings took off her glasses and wiped their lenses with her shirt. “I don’t know if they’ll accept another invite from me after what they learned here today.”

“If you’re plain and honest about it-” Moonglade stopped herself as she remembered who she was talking to. “I don’t know, Aunt Ivory. Humans are hard to get.”

This made the elder princess smile. “Yes, they can be hard to get. But their lives are so fleeting compared to ours, so I want to at least be a spot of brightness in those who I want to be friends with. Something that they can look back on and say, ‘that wasn’t the worst thing in the world.’ You get me?”

Moonglade came forward and hugged her aunt, touched by the sincerity of her words.

“You’re a good person, Aunt Ivory.”

Ivory Wings returned the hug, but her niece smelled a faint undercurrent of regret.

“I wish that were true, sweetie.”

On Monday afternoon, Silver Rose left Crystal Prep and got into her aunt’s car like she always did. She had noticed that Sunny Flare and her friends were still watching her from a distance, but they always fled whenever she approached them to ask why. She had an inkling of the reason, but she decided not to do anything yet. After all, she had made enough mistakes for now.

Ivory Wings was sitting in the driver’s seat as usual, only there was a wide, flat envelope on the passenger seat.

“Hello, sweetie. How was school today?”

“It was okay, I guess…” Silver Rose still felt bad about hurting Home Run with the throwing knife, even if she had learned he wasn’t dead from the poison. She hadn’t been able to take her mind off it and even Canvas Splash had noticed that something was wrong.

“Anyway,” Ivory Wings began. “I’ve put together some more invites, but since the sirens don’t go to Canterlot High anymore, I’ll need some other way to get them to the girls.”

Silver Rose was confused. “Wait, why can’t you just give the invites to them personally?”

A look of disquiet crept onto Ivory’s face. “Because that seems so… simple. Basic. There’s no flair in it.”

“Are you sure you’re not addicted to making complex plans?” Silver asked shrewdly.

“No,” Silver’s aunt said defensively. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea to repeatedly walk into enemy territory.” She started the car and began to head for home.

“I thought you wanted to think of them as friends?” Silver piped up.

"Well… yes," Ivory mumbled. "But your mother wouldn't approve of just going in all boldly. We're changelings. We're supposed to be sneaky and clever."

Silver Rose grew silent at that. She knew that as changelings, they were meant to use subterfuge and deception, but she was honestly fed up with it. She had to lie to everyone except her mother and her aunt, and something inside her protested at all this trickery. She pouted and rested her head on the window.

Ivory Wings drove on quietly, humming a semi-familiar tune to herself as she guided the car back home.

“Your mother’s going out to a party tonight,” Silver’s aunt told her. “Apparently it’s to celebrate the end of filming for one of her movies. There’s going to be a lot of drinking.”

“But mother can’t get drunk,” Silver frowned, remembering all the wine her mother had imbibed on previous occasions.

Ivory chuckled. “No, she can’t. I supposed she’ll come back and complain about the quality of the booze or something. But this means we have the house all to ourselves for the night. What do you think we should do?”

“Actually, I wanted to ask you about something. This whole… Shadowbolt thing has gone a little too far, don’t you think?” Silver shuffled her feet together nervously. “I’ve messed up a lot around them, and now they’re onto us. Not in the way we expect, but they’re onto us. Don’t you think we should handle this? Somehow…?”

Ivory Wings parked the car and looked into the rear view mirror.

"We should absolutely deal with it. There are numerous things we should take into account before making a move, though. How much do they know? Who might they have told, how much evidence they have. Stuff like that."

“I don’t know how much evidence they have,” Silver Rose frowned, unbuckling her seat belt. “I mean, it’s hard to tell without asking them, isn’t it?”

Silver Rose and Ivory Wings left the car and went inside their home. On her way to the second floor living room, Silver Rose heard the sounds of splashing water from the pool. It must have been the sirens again.

“Anyway,” Ivory Wings continued once they were seated on the couch. “We need to do something about the Shadowbolts. They’re sniffing around in places they shouldn’t be, and they do not have the benefit that the Canterlot High girls do of being distantly related to my old friends.”

Silver Rose nodded meekly.

“Fortunately for them, I do not kill children,” Ivory continued. “But I do think we need to have a talk with them. Preferably in a controlled environment where we hold all the cards. In this, I think we need to use your mother’s influence and power.”

“We do?” Silver squirmed at the thought of her mother getting more involved in her school life. But she couldn’t deny that her mother was very good at getting secrets out from other people. “Okay, but I don’t want the Shadowbolts to think I’m any weirder than I am already.”

“I can’t promise you that,” Ivory Wings said gloomily. “But hopefully your mother will be in a good mood once she gets back from her drinking party, so I’ll be able to persuade her to help us.”

The filming crew and actors had been celebrating hard into the night. Roll of the Ricks had just finished shooting, and it was all up to the editing and post-production team now. Meaning that the on-set actors and staff could take a long, well-deserved rest.

At the moment, the lead actors and actresses were gathered round a low table, engaging in a drinking contest.

“Okay, okay,” the director, Film Reel, slurred. “How about, we all take a shot if we’ve ever… I dunno, had to shoot a scene more than ten times?”

“Not technically my fault, but I’ll drink to that,” Fast Bender said, downing a shot of tequila. Around him, numerous other people did the same.

“Of course, you’ve never had to do that, eh, Ebony?” Spark Burns, another actress, patted the acclaimed actress on the arm. “You’re one of the best in the business.”

Ebony was holding a glass of wine and took a sip from it. “You flatter me. I’ve just had the good fortune to work with a lot of amazing people in my career. Like all of you.”

There was an outpouring of cheers from everyone, and more drinks were poured and consumed.

Underneath Ebony Wings’ face, Chrysalis could smell the wild emotions of the people around her. Alcohol always had a way of loosening the inhibitions of humans. She didn’t really understand the appeal, but she appreciated the happy emotions that were being generated by the party. All she had to do was sit here and pretend to be tipsy and absorb it all.

To Chrysalis, drunken humans all tasted pretty much the same. They came in a few different varieties, but by and large they were predictable. It made acting like one of them rather easy, if a little degrading.

The drinking went on and on, with more than one of the crew passing out drunk on the floor. Most of them had spent the night on set during the filming at one point or another, so this wasn’t exactly unusual behaviour. Film Reel was snoring quietly in his chair, still holding a half-empty bottle of rum. Some others sloped off to splash water on their faces before getting a cab back to their homes.

Finally it was just Ebony Wings and Fast Bender left awake at the drinking table. There were empties strewn about and more than one split drink on the floor.

“Hmm,” Ebony Wings said as she looked around herself. “It seems the party was a success.”

“Looks like it,” Fast Bender agreed, taking another sip of his beer.

She inhaled and drew in what little remained of the happy emotions from the party, before looking over at Fast Bender. She had never gone drinking with him before, and she was somewhat startled to smell that he was still in full control of his feelings. They were not the emotions of a drunken human, but of a sober one.

Strange… Ebony thought to herself, downing the remaining wine in her glass, watching Fast Bender with beady eyes. Her intuition was telling her that there was something odd going on here, she just didn’t know exactly what just yet.

“So, Ebony, do you need a ride back home?” Fast Bender broke into Ebony’s ponderings. “I can drive you if you want.”

The handsome actor finished his beer and put the empty bottle down on the table. Fast Bender smiled at Ebony Wings, who returned the gesture, albeit with a little less enthusiasm.

“Drive?” Ebony repeated. “Haven’t you had quite a bit to drink?”

“Well, yeah,” Fast Bender shrugged. “But I can still walk in a straight line and everything. I’m not intoxicated.”

To demonstrate, the actor stood up and closed his eyes before walking in a perfect straight line, then spun around and picked up two empty bottles and juggled them for a few seconds before catching them all and putting them back down on the tabletop.

“See? Perfectly in control.”

But how can that be? Ebony Wings asked herself. She had seen Fast Bender drinking along with the rest of them, downing shots and beer like nobody’s business. There was no way any human could drink so much alcohol and still have such a firm grasp over their faculties.

Unless he wasn’t a human…

The possibility struck Ebony Wings like a brick. It was a ridiculous notion, but it was the only explanation that made sense and checked all the boxes.

Fast Bender continued to sit across from Ebony Wings, smiling at her with his charming face. There was only one way to be sure.

“Before we talk about leaving, why don’t we have one more drink, just the two of us?” Ebony suggested, taking a flask of vodka from the cooler. She turned her back to pour out two glasses, holding one glass up to her face. She swiftly extended her fangs and let fall a few drops of her venom into the drink. Then she turned back around and slid the cool glass over to Fast Bender.

“To our health,” Ebony held up her glass for a toast.

“To our health,” Fast Bender echoed cheerfully before downing the vodka in one gulp.

Ebony drank down her shot, feeling the chilled liquor settle in her stomach. It wouldn’t be long now, she thought. Changeling venom was extremely fast-acting.

Fast Bender stood up and windmilled his arms, stretching his limbs and brushing a lock of hair out of his eyes. Ebony Wings was stunned. He wasn’t inconvenienced by her venom at all.

The idea seemed ludicrous, especially after all these years alone, but there was no other possible option. This was the only avenue that made sense. Immunity to toxins and alcohol, as well as supremely good acting talent.

In spite of herself, Ebony Wings felt a slow, cunning smile creep across her face as she eyed Fast Bender with a new appreciation.

She might have been given another chance at expanding her family after all.

Chapter 137 - The Queen's Plot

It was late at night when Ebony Wings finally came home. The lights were almost all off and the staff had gone to bed for the day.

As Ebony closed the front door behind her, she tasted the flavor of her sister standing just out of sight. She sighed in exasperation.

“You do know I can smell you hiding there, right?” Ebony Wings said out loud.

Ivory Wings stepped out from her spot. “You’re home late.”

“It’s my house, I can come home whenever I want. You’re not my caretaker.”

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes. “Fine. Why are you home so late anyway? Was the alcohol that good that you stayed to have some more?”

“Just a little drinking game to see who could last the longest.” Ebony placed a hand on her chest proudly. “Of course, yours truly was the ultimate winner. But… circumstances have changed, sister. I have just made the most amazing discovery.”

“Uh huh. Well, what is it?” Ivory stretched both arms to the side as she waited for an answer.

“It’s nothing simple, I can assure you. In fact, I was rather surprised myself. And you know how I don’t get surprised because I know everything.” Ebony set her things down and stretched her arms.

“Yes, so you’ve said, but have yet to prove. So what did you find out?”

“A secret that dates back thousands of years, I’m sure. It’s a secret that changes things.”

“Go on.”

“I actually can’t really believe I’ve discovered it. It stands to change everything we have right now. It is a discovery worth putting down into those little history books of yours that detail everything we’ve done.”

“And what is that secret?” Ivory removed her glasses and rubbed her forehead.

“You see, I wasn’t sure at first, but then I put my theories to the test to see if I was right. And what do you know, I made a discovery mankind will never find on their own!” Ebony raised both hands to the air and laughed. “I should receive an award for such astute deduction. Even you wouldn’t have been able to figure this out.”

Ivory ran her hand through her white hair and moaned. “Just get on with it! What did you find out?”

“My dear sister,” Ebony swooped in close and spoke in a whisper. “I have discovered… a male changeling.”

Whatever Ivory Wings had been expecting, it was not this. She stood there in silence, processing the words her sister had just said.

Ebony Wings took her sister’s silence for awe. “I know, isn’t it wonderful?” She gushed. “Finally, I have an opening to create the changeling dynasty I’ve always dreamed of.”

“I guess it’s good news and all, but don’t forget, we had one. And then you destroyed it.” She folded her arms.

“Are you blaming me for what happened in Trotsylvania again? Because if I recall, you were there too.”

“No…” Ivory grumbled. “Fine. You found a male changeling. So what?”

“So what?” Ebony repeated. “So what? I’ll tell you what. It means I have a way to get more pureblood changelings in the world. That doesn’t excite you?”

Ivory Wings grunted, tasting the electric flavor of her sister’s mood. “Who is this male anyway? How did you find him?”

“You’re going to get a kick out of this,” Ebony grinned darkly. “The male changeling was masquerading as Fast Bender all this time. Isn’t that just delicious?”

"Fast Bender," Ivory repeated, slower this time. "Are you a hundred percent certain?"

"Of course I am!" Ebony Wings sniffed. "The signs are all there. Immunity to toxins, inability to get drunk, and superb acting talent. Though not as good as me," she added. "I will take him as my mate and a whole new generation of pure blood changelings will be mine!"

Ivory Wings could smell the excitement coming off her sister. There was just one problem.

"Isn't Fast Bender already married, though? What are you going to do about that?"

Ebony Wings let out a bark of laughter. "As if a petty human concept like marriage is going to stop me. Fast Bender is mine, no matter what pathetic human woman he's chosen to shack up with."

Ivory raised her hand. "What if Azalea Coriander is a changeling too?"

Ebony paused. She had not considered that possibility. Her face grew thoughtful.

"Then I guess you'll have to do some scouting, Ivory. I want to know all there is to know about Fast Bender and his family. Think you can manage that?"

Ivory Wings rolled her eyes but in the end, her own biological urges won over and she nodded. “Fine. I’ll spy on them for you. In exchange, I have a favor to ask.”

“We’re not exchanging favors here,” Ebony said. “I’m the queen and you’re my subject. But whatever. What do you want from me?”

Ivory Wings relaxed a bit and began to explain. “There’s this group of girls called the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts who have been doing a bit of snooping around us. They’ve gotten a little too close for comfort and I want to arrange a meeting with them to see how much they actually know. I figured that it should be in a controlled environment where we have every advantage.”

“Like… inside this house?”

“Exactly,” Ivory Wings looked pleased. “Of course, they also couldn’t turn down an invitation from someone as illustrious as you, so that’s a plus.”

“Yes, I am rather illustrious, aren’t I?” Ebony placed a hand on her sternum proudly. “Very well, I’ll do it. I’m interested to see what kind of people dare to try and uncover our secrets anyway. I’ll carve the skin from their bones-”

“Can you not?” Ivory cut her sister off. “We can’t go around killing people willy-nilly anymore!”

“Bah, you’re no fun. I’ll deal with this in the morning. Right now, I’m going to take a bath. I can still smell the alcohol on me.”

And without waiting for another word from her sister, Ebony Wings flounced off up the stairs to her room, leaving Ivory Wings alone on the first floor with an unimpressed look on her face.

The next morning, Silver Rose came down for breakfast to discover her mother humming a cheerful tune to herself while pruning a bonsai tree next to the window. Ebony Wings smelled positively charged with happiness, though Silver Rose did taste a faint undercurrent of something darker, like molasses that was slightly burned.

“Good morning,” Ebony Wings said as soon as Silver Rose’s left foot touched the ground inside the dining room. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, mother,” Silver replied slowly. “You seem to be in a good mood today.”

Silver Rose knew from prior experience that her mother’s happiness often came at the expense of other people, and she privately hoped that nobody’s neck was on the chopping block to make her mother this happy. This was even more positive energy than the last time she had won the academy awards for best actress of the year.

“Why shouldn’t I be in a good mood?” Ebony asked her daughter, putting down the clippers. “The sun is shining, I finished shooting a fantastic movie, and your aunt is off on a scouting mission that could spell success for all of us if everything goes well. Isn’t that a reason to be happy?”

“What was that last one?” Silver asked uncertainly. “Where is Aunt Ivory going?”

“She can tell you once she gets back. Speaking of your aunt, she wanted me to have a talk with these Shadowblots of yours.”

“The Shadowbolts?” Silver clarified. “Why do you want to talk to them for?”

“Your aunt is worried that they might know too much about us,” Ebony Wings sat down at the table and picked up her mug of coffee. “And she may have a point. There’s been an unusually large amount of people snooping around our matters as of late, and I want it to stop. One way or another. Speaking of which, your aunt prepared these invitations for them.”

Ebony pointed to a small stack of purple envelopes that were sealed with golden wax. There were five of them in total.

“You know these Shadybolts rather well. Give these to them for me, would you? We’ll have a little get-together on Saturday and we’ll find out what they know.”

“O-Okay,” Silver Rose nodded. “You won’t hurt them, will you? They’re still kind of my friends…”

“We’ll see,” Ebony Wings said lazily. “Now eat your breakfast and get to school. Silver Platter’s driving you today, so it’ll take longer than whatever reckless rambling your aunt calls driving.”

Ivory Wings sat in her car outside of a large, two storey house. It was painted a cream color and there were two cars parked in the garage. There were two statues of lions on either side of the front door, and a sprinkler shooting water over the front lawn.

Overall, a very normal and nondescript sort of house, Ivory thought. Certainly not a place where you would expect a changeling to be hiding. But that was what made it a perfect hiding place.

Ivory Wings rolled the window down a few inches, just enough to allow for steady airflow. Then she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, allowing her mind to focus and build a mental map of the surroundings using the surrounding scents and odors.

There were two people inside the house. Second floor. Both of them seemed to be exuding a calm aura, and why should they not? There weren’t any threats nearby. No visible or tasteable ones, anyway.

Her elder sister had told Ivory Wings to scout out Fast Bender’s family and see if there were any more changelings on the loose. The preliminary investigations had been easy enough. The media and pop culture had told her more in ten minutes than she could have scouted herself in a day.

Fast Bender was married to one Azalea Coriander and they had a preteen son called Fast Breaker. Looking at their photos on the internet, Ivory took in their appearances. Fast Bender was her main target, so Ivory had looked him up first. He looked human, all right. If it hadn’t been for Ebony Wings’ little test, Ivory wouldn’t have given him much of a second thought.

Clearly his disguise game was just as good as the next changeling’s.

Ivory had moved on to Fast Bender’s son next. Fast Breaker was rarely in the spotlight, with the media choosing to center on both his parents instead. As such, most of the pictures on Fast Breaker also had his mother and father in frame. The boy had amber skin and hair that was like his father’s, trimmed short and wavy. His eyes looked human as well, but that could be done with contacts.

The last subject had been Azalea Coriander herself. Ivory Wings had sighed as she had typed in Azalea’s name into her computer. Her sister was obviously planning something unsavory but it would be best if it didn’t go public. Fast Bender cheating on his wife with the squeaky-clean Ebony Wings would make the front page for sure. Azalea also looked completely human, and Ivory was even able to find her birthday online. Fast Bender’s wife would be thirty-nine this year, though Ivory knew better than most that a birthdate could be easily faked, age as well. There was nothing else for it, she was going to have to go there in person to take a look.

Which was why she was sitting in a black car with tinted windows outside Fast Bender’s house right now.

Having smelled enough for now, Ivory rolled up the window and sat there in the darkness, waiting like any good predator knew how to. After exactly twenty-two minutes by her dashboard clock, Fast Bender got into his car and drove off towards the city, completely ignoring Ivory’s own car. A scant fifteen minutes after, Azalea Coriander followed suit and left the house in the other car.

Once she was out of sight, Ivory Wings slowly got out of her car and walked up to Fast Bender’s house. There were security cameras and an alarm system, but Ivory had brought along the electronics jammer she had taken from Pierce Network and she was able to swiftly pick open the back door and slip inside without any alarms going off. The tall fences around the house would keep any nosy neighbors from seeing her.

The inside of the house was clean and tidy. It also smelled nice to Ivory, who immediately noticed the loving and affectionate flavors that permeated the inside of the building. It was very ordinary, otherwise. No grand works of art or suits of armor or any weapons hanging on the walls. Just photos of Fast Bender and his family smiling at the camera.

“How very removed from my own existence…” Ivory mused before heading upstairs.

It was tidy and clean up here, too. Ivory Wings’ nose caught onto the scent of something chemical and familiar. It was coming from the bathroom.

Easing open the door, Ivory poked her head inside and looked around. Now here was something familiar. Bottles of dyes and solvents, each one labeled neatly with either ‘F. Bender’ or ‘F. Breaker’. There were nowhere near as many bottles and jars as there were back at Ivory’s home, but then again, Ivory decided that Fast Bender probably didn’t have multiple different personas to swap between, hence the fewer number of dye bottles.

There didn’t seem to be any dyes labeled with Azalea Coriander’s name. Careful to touch as little as possible, Ivory Wings began rooting through the bathroom’s contents. There were more bottles of dye in the cupboard, along with soaps and towels and other boring things. Eventually Ivory gave up, having turned the bathroom upside down to look for any dyes with Azalea’s name on them. Putting everything back where she had found it, Ivory proceeded to sneak into the master bedroom.

The loving smell was even stronger in here. Ivory would have compared it to the bond between Mirror Match and Frigid Night, it was so strong. There were a few more photos hanging on the walls here. Most of them depicted a wedding, with Fast Bender in a suit holding a younger looking Azalea in his arms and grinning at the camera. Noting how Fast Bender looked almost identical to his current age, Ivory began to look through their wardrobe and cabinets in search of any more evidence.

What Ivory found unusual was that she was sure that she and her sister were the only two surviving changelings in the world. At least, the only two left from their particular brood. She hadn’t considered the possibility that there had been other clans of changelings in the land, and the appearance of one now might mean there were more out there, hiding among the humans. There wasn’t really any way to be a hundred percent sure.

The search ultimately proved to be rather pointless, as Ivory was unable to find anything of worth or note to her mission. That was, until she opened the bedside cabinet.

Inside there was a thick, worn out notebook and a pen, along with a few other knick knacks. Ivory opened the notebook and a devious grin spread over her face.

Taking out her phone, Ivory Wings proceeded to photograph every page of the journal, for journal it was. Azalea Coriander’s journal, in fact. Its pages were dated and reached all the way back to her childhood, approximately thirty-six years ago when she first learned to write. The handwriting improved as the book went on, and it didn’t document every day, and sometimes months would pass between entries. But this was it: the decisive evidence that Azalea Coriander was a mere human after all. Ivory’s queen would be ever so pleased.

After she had documented every page, Ivory put the journal back where it had been and left the house through the back door. She made sure to lock it afterwards, so nobody would know she had been there.

Feeling victorious, Ivory Wings drove back to her house, already preparing what she was going to say to her sister about her discoveries.

Of course, she knew that telling Chrysalis all this meant that her sister would endeavor to have Fast Bender for herself. Did Ivory Wings feel guilty for the trouble that Chrysalis was sure to bring down upon the actor and his family?

Ivory Wings asked herself this question as the estate came into view. She shrugged.

“Hmm… nah.”

Chapter 138 - Lunch with the Queen

The girls known as the Shadowbolts stood outside the front gates to the Wings’ estate. They had been here before, so it wasn’t quite as imposing as the first time. In their hands, each of them clutched a purple envelope: their invitations to the house.

They had been written enticingly enough, if short and to the point.

Dear recipient,
You are cordially invited to a luncheon at the home of Ebony Wings on Saturday, at noon. Dress code is casual, and you need only bring yourself. Food will be provided, as well as an audience with Ebony Wings herself. No RSVP required.

“So…” Lemon Zest looked at her friends. “Here we are.”

Indigo Zap scuffed her shoe against the sidewalk. “Yup.” She wore a determined expression on her face. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Why?” Sour Sweet asked snidely. “We were invited. You chicken?”

“Just because we were invited doesn’t mean it’s not a trap,” Indigo frowned at Sour Sweet. “You heard what Sunset Shimmer and that pony Twilight Sparkle said about these people. They’re not to be trusted.”

“And yet we all accepted the invites,” Sugarcoat sighed tiredly. “Besides, we already got inside their house once. What’s another time?”

“A-Are you sure it’s not just to…” Sunny Flare gulped. “Kill us for knowing too much?”

“C’mon, Ebony Wings wouldn’t kill us!” Lemon Zest said hopefully. “This is just like being over at Silver Rose’s house for lunch is all,” Then she sighed. “I don’t even buy that, and I said it.”

“Well, do or die, at least we’ll get Ebony Wings’ signature. Right?” Indigo shrugged. “Since she invited us and all. So if we die, at least we die smiling.”

“I don’t think you want that.” Sugarcoat folded her arms. “I don’t think any of us want that.”

The five girls stood there, unsure of what to do. Finally Indigo Zap went over to the camera that was aimed at the gates and waved at it.

“Hey! We’re here for lunch. Is anyone watching?”

Sugarcoat shoved her out of the way and held up the invite to the camera. “We’ve been invited in case you suspect us to be crazy fans.”

As if in response, there was a whirring sound from the camera and then the heavy metal gate slid aside on oiled rails. The way up to the house was all clear.

“Hey, Indigo, you brought the stuff, right?” Lemon Zest nudged her friend in the ribs. “Just in case they do turn out to be werewolves?”

“Werewolves? I thought it was vampires?” The goggled girl whispered over. “I’ve got garlic and wooden stakes and salt.”

“You mean you didn’t bring any silver bullets?” Lemon hissed.

“Where the hay am I supposed to get silver bullets?” She threw her hands up.

“Are you two coming or not?” Sugarcoat called. She and Sour Sweet were already halfway up the hill. Sunny was on the verge of following them, looking kind of nervous.

The mansion loomed ahead of them, reminding Sunny of one of the many movies she’d watched in her time, The Other-Worldly Stately Home. A mouthful, but it was a movie about a family moving into a spooky mansion. She suddenly thought of ghosts coming through the walls to grab them and that gave her the shivers.

The house did look rather nice in the sunlight, though. The windows sparkled and there was a fountain in the front that was gushing with shimmering clear water. Somewhere close a windchime was tinkling musically. It was rather pleasant, at least it would be if they didn’t have such disturbing information on the house’s occupants.

“Okay, we better come up with a safe word. In case we all need to get out of the house pronto.” Indigo Zap ran a finger under her chin, then snapped her fingers. “Let’s go with Smiley Snatch.”

Lemon snickered. “Just like the cafe heist, eh?”

“Excuse me, can’t we use a less… vulgar code word?” Sunny protested.

“Well, I mean, we’re really here because of you,” Indigo countered. “So it’s the perfect safe word.”

“It is not my fault that we’re here!” Sunny pouted. “There’s just been a whole lot of weird things happening recently and-”

“Welcome, honored guests,” a semi-familiar voice said. The girls looked up. It was the butler who had bought their girl scout cookies the last time they had been here. “The lady of the house is ready to see you.”

They were ushered in before the butler closed the doors behind them. Sunny instantly felt the sinking feeling that they had just walked into a trap, like in the movies, but it was definitely too late to back down now. They were led further in before the butler stepped to one side and stuck an arm out inside a room.

“Mistress Ebony Wings, your guests have arrived,” the butler bowed and stepped aside, allowing the Shadowbolts to enter.

Lemon Zest was the first to go in. The room was carefully laid out like some kind of medieval throne room, with a round table piled high with food that was set on a rotating glass tabletop. At the far end of the room in a throne sat Ebony Wings, the actress wearing a fancy translucent green and blue dress with a high collar. There was some kind of small black crown or tiara on her head. On her right sat the woman who the Shadowbolts knew as Silver Rose’s aunt, who was wearing a casual suit with no tie. And on Ebony’s left was Silver Rose, who was dressed a little less formally. She looked up and waved sheepishly at her classmates.

“I have been expecting you.” Ebony leaned forward and clasped her hands together. “I’ve been expecting you eagerly…”

“Thank you, Miss Wings,” Indigo Zap said before any of her friends could open their mouths. “It’s so kind of you to invite us.” She attempted a bow, and a bulb of garlic fell out of her pocket. “Oops. Hehe.” She quickly picked up the garlic and stuffed it back into her pocket.

“Interesting choice of a snack you carry around.” Ebony simply smiled and gestured to the chairs. “Please, have a seat. The food grows colder by the minute.”

The Shadowbolts shuffled forward, wearily eyeing the feast before them. There were all kinds of foods known and unknown to them, some of which included caviar and some kind of cream dessert that was emitting smoky vapor. Lemon Zest saw the roast duck and began salivating.

“Guys, just be careful. Alright…?” Sunny whispered. It might’ve looked good, but after doing crazy stuff with Silver all year, she’d learned that she should think twice before doing anything, no matter how good it looked.

Sunny gulped as she pictured Silver’s naked body again, then shook it out of her mind. Sugarcoat’s words echoed in her mind, “There’s a time and place for everything. This isn’t one of them.”

She didn’t want to get sprayed with the fire extinguisher again. Those things felt really bad for the skin.

Instead, she moved to one of the chairs, pulling it out from under the table before taking a seat. Her friends watched her do it and followed suit, not wanting to look too suspicious eyeing the food.

The butler pulled the doors shut behind the Shadowbolts. Now there was no way out of the room.

"It's so nice to finally meet my daughter's school friends," Ebony Wings purred. "I've heard so much about you all."

“You have?” Lemon Zest asked, loading her plate with various meats.

“I hope they’ve all been good.” Indigo did the same, though surprisingly not as brazenly as Lemon. “We are the best students of the school, after all. Uh, if we even miss a day of school, someone would be bound to notice. We’re that popular.”

“Hmm, yes. As an award-winning actress, I know what that’s like,” Ebony replied. She took a sip from her crystal wineglass. “Of course, I would think that you might know more about me than the usual fan does. All things considered.”

“Usual fan? Oh, we’re more than usual fans, aren’t we, Lemon?” Indigo got up and leaned closer to her friend across the table.

Silver Rose kept looking at Sunny Flare and her mother, while Ivory Wings nibbled a pastry, staring at the Shadowbolts through slightly narrowed eyes.

“So, do you know why I invited you here today?” Ebony Wings gave them a most pleasant smile.

“No,” Sour Sweet said bluntly.

“It is of the greatest of events that I have invited you to dine with me today,” Ebony continued. “This is not something I do often, inviting people over to my home for food without any particular reason. But there is a reason, and it is of great importance that you are here now.”

Ebony Wings’ smile grew wider, but to the Shadowbolts it wasn’t the smile of someone who wished them well, no. It was the smile of a predator who had their prey cornered. A chill settled on the Crystal Prep girls, like a layer of frost on an otherwise serene garden.

“You see, I happen to know you’ve been investigating me and my family,” Ebony continued. “Your efforts have not been ignored, or overlooked. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

“Y-You know?” Indigo swallowed. Hard. Then she shook her head and gave her head a tap. “I mean, wh-what makes you say that? We haven’t been doing any of that. Have we, girls?”

The other Shadowbolts shook their heads, except for Sugarcoat, who slapped a palm to her forehead with a groan.

“Deny it all you want,” Ebony continued, swirling the wine in her glass around slightly. “But you all smell of guilt. It’s not a good flavor for you, believe me.”

“Smell. Again.” Sugarcoat’s head perked up. “What exactly are you people?”

“It’s vampires! It has to be!” Indigo pushed her chair back.

Ebony Wings glanced at her sister and rolled her eyes, as if to say 'Are these people for real?'.

Ivory just put a hand to her mouth to contain her laughter.

“Um, g-girls, I’ve told you before. We’re not… vampires,” Silver said.

“Then what exactly are you?” Sugarcoat leaned back and folded her arms. “We deserve the right to know before you kill us for knowing too much.”

“You haven’t already figured it out?” Ebony sighed. “And here my sister thought that you were intelligent. If I’d known you were this clueless…”

“Changelings,” Sunny blurted out. “Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle said you were changelings.”

Lemon Zest made a chopping motion at her own throat, but Sunny didn’t see it. Instead a smaller, even less savory smile graced Ebony Wings’ face as she leaned back in her throne, seemingly satisfied with this answer.

“Well, now,” the actress said softly. “A gold star for you.”

“So there’s such a thing as changelings! I never believed it.” Indigo clapped her hands together. “I’ve always thought they were just folk stories from Docklin. I went to a changeling museum there during the break. So you can take the shape of… wait a minute. Silver, that’s why you only have one room. Now we know it for certain!”

“Wait a minute,” Sour Sweet pulled away from her salad for a moment. “You mean that Moonglade doesn’t actually exist? That’s ridiculous!”

“Certainly she exists,” Ebony Wings said loftily. “Otherwise where would all the pictures and articles come from?”

“Do any of us really exist?” Ivory Wings spoke up coyly. “Existence is a matter of perception, after all. Who’s to say we don’t stop existing once nobody is around to perceive us?”

“What?” Silver asked quizzically.

“Nothing, sweetie.”

“So you can all shapeshift. Become someone you’re not. You could even become any one of us.” Sugarcoat went on. “You could pretend to be me and no one would know the difference.”

“She could even be me?” Lemon Zest’s eyes widened. “Woah, dude. That’s sick.”

Ebony and Ivory watched this conversation unfold with vaguely smug expressions. Silver Rose looked somewhat nervous about all this. The butler of the house came around and poured more drinks. Sunny Flare was shaken. She had suspicions before, but hearing them outright confirmed like this made her question her own mind and love life.

“So let me get this straight. You invited us here today to…” Sugarcoat snapped her fingers a few times. “To tell us what you really are? I don’t see any good that can come from this.”

"Au contraire," Ebony said with a serious face. "Now we know what you know. And that puts us on even ground. Now there are no unknowns."

“So you just wanted us to know? That’s it?” Indigo wore a puzzled face.

"You already knew most of it, by the look of it," Ivory told them with a nod. "Now we can decide what to do with you since you know."

The Shadowbolts shared looks amongst each other, with Indigo reaching into the pocket where she kept her bulb of garlic, but none of them said anything.

Silver watched them as well, unsure of what her mother had planned for them. It couldn’t have been anything good, but she hoped it wouldn’t end in bloodshed at least.

"So, how would you like to do this?" Ebony Wings grinned. "The nice way, or the not so nice way?"

She reached behind her throne and took out a photo of Fast Bender that had the actor's signature on it. Sunny Flare's eyes went wide at the sight of it.

"You could be in for some treats if you decide to play along with us," Ivory Wings said. "But if you choose to make things difficult…"

Ebony Wings held out her index finger and the tip of it burst into flame, and she held the green lick of fire just short of the autographed photo.

“No, don’t do that!” Sunny had stood up and stretched an arm towards her. After a few seconds, she realized what she had done and meekly sat back down. “Uh, I-I mean, we could do this nicely.”

"Really, Sunny?" Sugarcoat was unimpressed. "You're going to let them bribe you like this?"

"But Sugarcoat, it's Fast Bender!" Sunny whined desperately like a little girl in a candy store.

“Whatever. It’s better to do this the nice way anyway.”

Ebony Wings took her flaming finger away from the photo and set it down on the table, then blew out the fire. “See, was that so hard?” She asked sweetly. The Shadowbolts noticed that her finger remained charred black with a long, pointed claw there on the tip. It clicked against the armrest of the throne as Ebony sat back in it.

“So what happens now?” Lemon Zest asked. “What’s the nice way? Please tell me it’s making us listen to Copperrear’s music.”

“Ugh. Please no.” Sour Sweet went back to her food.

“Now, we can discuss what lies in the future for all of us. Mostly you, though,” Ivory Wings said, pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. “As well as the terms of our agreement.”

“Alright. What are the terms, then?” Indigo snapped her fingers and waved her hand. “Let’s hear ‘em.”

“As my new subjects, you will have numerous benefits that come with being under my rule…” Ebony Wings said, tapping her clawed finger against the side of her wineglass.

Ivory Wings sighed. “What she means to say, is that befriending someone powerful and famous can be quite beneficial. Isn’t that right, sister?”

“What? No. That’s so obvious.”

“Your new subjects?” Sugarcoat looked aghast.

“Yes, my subjects.” Ebony looked at her sister. “I know what I said.”

“Who do you think-” Sour Sweet began, but then she noticed the panicked look on Silver Rose’s face and reconsidered. “I mean, what do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said,” Ebony Wings sighed, reaching to her left to stroke her daughter’s hair. “You are, as of this moment, subjects in my dynasty. No need to thank me, but I wouldn’t mind if you did.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait.” Indigo Zap waved her hands around. “I know you’re Ebony Wings and all that and you’re an awesome actor and all that. But now you want us to be your… subjects? Like you’re a king or something?”

“Didn’t you hear her the first time?” Sugarcoat asked, annoyed at this whole situation. “Anyway, Ms. Wings, we can’t be your subjects. You’re not legally a ruler.”

Ebony Wings pointed to her head. “Certainly I am. I’ve been the Queen of the Changelings for over a thousand years, ever since I was born. See the crown? It’s mine by birthright as the eldest. It's not my fault that the humans are too ignorant to formally recognize that.”

Ebony Wings then sat back and shook her head, as if lamenting the fact that humanity was so foolish. Ivory Wings shrugged and took another bite of her food. Silver Rose watched everyone else at the table with a worried expression on her face.

“So what does ruling over us grant you?” Sugarcoat continued, almost like there had been no interruption. “And you’ve been hiding your true nature well all these years. Why suddenly give it up now? We could go to the authorities with this.”

“Now, what did I say about making things difficult?” Ebony Wings said to Sugarcoat. “Even if you did go to the authorities, who’d believe you? It’s your word against mine, and I happen to know that I carry more weight. Besides, you wouldn’t want your dear sister Gilded Lily to suddenly become an only child, am I right?” The actress’s mouth opened in a smile and her eyes flared a bright green for a second.

“Of course. You know all about us too.” Sugarcoat folded her arms. To her credit, she looked unsurprised. “Well, we all happen to be influential members of Canterlot too. Don’t forget the weight we carry in school. Ask Silver. She’ll tell you all about us.”

“She’s not wrong, mother,” Silver Rose piped up. “These are the most talented and skilled girls in Crystal Prep. They have a lot of followers.”

“Blah, blah, whatever,” Ebony Wings said, waving at Silver Rose to be quiet. “You said you wanted to do things the nice way. Well, first step is agreeing to keep your mouths shut about anything you might have learned about changelings. You go about your lives as if nothing ever happened, as I, as your benevolent ruler, will give you the occasional little reward as thanks for your loyalty. Starting with this.”

The actress picked up the autographed photo of Fast Bender and threw it into the air, where it spun and drifted until it landed in Sunny Flare’s lap. The girl quickly grabbed it with both hands and squeezed it to her chest with glee, then coughed and cleared her throat when she realized her friends were all glaring at her.

“S-Sorry…”

“So we’ll get stuff just for keeping our mouths shut?” Lemon took off her headphones. “Well, why didn’t you say so? I’ll gladly do that!”

“Of course you will,” Ebony Wings crooned. “My daughter tells me you’re a fan of Copperrear. I happen to know the lead guitarist. If you’re a good little girl, I’ll book you some front row tickets to their next concert. Maybe even a backstage pass?”

Lemon’s eyes lit up like disco balls. “Woah, really? That’s epic!”

“Not you too, Lemon.” Sugarcoat groaned and adjusted her glasses. “You can’t let her buy you. She’s popular and well liked, sure, but no one should ever control your life like that.”

“She’s not controlling my life,” Lemon told Sugarcoat. “I’m just doing what my ruler would want, isn’t that right?”

Indigo scoffed. “Pft. Suck-up.”

“Well, I mean… it’s not so bad. Is it?” Sunny held the autograph to her chest tightly.

Ebony Wings reached over to pat the top of her daughter’s head again, giving Silver Rose a smug look while she was at it. Silver tried not to cringe.

"And what would it take to get the rest of you on board?" The actress asked. "Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare seem happy with the arrangement. It's a good deal."

"You should take it," urged Ivory Wings languidly. "Far better than the alternative."

“Come on, don’t you all want an autograph from me?” Ebony put a hand to her chest. “I don’t just give those out to anyone, you know?”

“Not all of us are obsessed with you,” Sugarcoat replied with a sniff.

“Yeah, it’ll take more than an autograph to make us your subjects,” Indigo seconded. “Although I wouldn’t mind having one.”

“Indigo.”

“Uh, I mean, hey, you can’t buy us, you know? Even if you’re super famous.” Indigo cleared her throat.

“Is that so…?” Ebony Wings leaned forward. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but what do you plan to do if you choose not to accept my rule? Sing? Laugh? Grow old?”

“I mean, it’s nice of you to ask and all, but… we’ve already got a president, you know?” Sour Sweet folded her arms. “One ruler’s enough.”

The actress gazed at Sour Sweet as her eyes flashed green again. The edge of her lip curled as she took a fork and speared it into a sausage.

“But you would be so happy under my rule,” Ebony said. “You’d enjoy the feeling of not having to look over your shoulder all the time to make sure you’re not being stalked constantly. Isn’t that already quite a benefit? It would save my sister so much work.”

“C’mon, girls,” Lemon wheedled. “Think of all the cool stuff we could get if we do what they say!”

Indigo looked over to Lemon. “Look, it’s great that you’re getting front row seats to a Copperrear concert, but what I want can’t be given to me so easily.”

“And what is it that you want?” Ivory placed her hands on top of the table’s surface. “As gifted as we are, we can’t read minds.”

Ebony smirked. “Yet.”

“Not helping,” Ivory told her sister before returning her attention to Indigo Zap. “So, let’s negotiate, while we still can.”

Indigo sat in sullen silence.

“Not in a mood to talk?” Ivory kept pressing. “Well, what about you two?” She addressed Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet. “What can we do for you?”

Sour Sweet glanced at Ebony Wings, who was staring at them intently. “What do you really look like?” She asked cautiously. “I mean, if you can disguise yourselves as anybody, then the faces you’re wearing aren’t your real faces, are they?”

Silver Rose cringed even more, but Ebony Wings just laughed her perfect red carpet laugh.

“Oh, I don’t think you want to see that,” the actress tittered. “Besides, the only way I would show you my actual, genuine, unmasked face is if I was about to kill you. We haven’t reached that point yet.”

Sour Sweet looked skeptical. “Oi. Silver Rose. You’re in on this too?”

Silver Rose squeaked. “No! I mean, a little bit, I mean…” She trailed off into a mumble. “I didn’t want my mom to hurt you.”

“Well, if they just agreed to my terms, I wouldn’t, now would I?” Ebony said, waving her hand in the air, the one without a claw on it. “We could all avoid a lot of trouble this way if you’d just say yes. Goodness, you humans are difficult.”

“Well, you’re not making this easy for us,” Sugarcoat shot back. “You’re giving us an impossible ultimatum here, Miss Wings.”

“What’s so impossible about it?”

“For starters, not all of us want to be living under your rule for the rest of our lives,” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “But you’ve made it clear on no uncertain terms that if we reject your offer, you’ll most likely do something horrible to us.”

“But Sugarcoat, think of all the cool stuff they’ll give us!” Lemon interrupted.

“I don’t care about stuff, Lemon!” Sugarcoat snapped. “Can’t you see that you’re being extorted here?”

“To what, keep our mouths shut about changelings? Come on, Sugarcoat, that’s so easy! Why not just agree to their deal?”

“No, Lemon!” Sugarcoat said heatedly, for the first time in a long while feeling something hot rise in herself. “I refuse to bow down to her, even if she is rich and famous! Where are your principles, Lemon, Sunny? She sits here on her throne like she’s some kind of royal ruler, but all she’s done is threaten us and bribe you like some kind of crime boss! I’m not having it!”

Sugarcoat grew increasingly impassioned with her speech, not noticing that the expression on Ebony Wings’ face was slowly starting to sour. Ivory Wings watched the actress with concern, as did Silver Rose.

“Of course I know it’s useless to tell people that the occupants of this house are monsters! Who’d believe us anyway? But I’m not going to be part of Ebony Wings’ so-called dynasty, if that even is your real name! You expect us to be honest with you and our intentions when you won’t even show us your face!” Sugarcoat pointed at Ebony Wings. “If this is the way that you do things, then I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long in the film industry! Not to mention your clearly twisted parenting skills, if we look at Silver Rose, or Moonglade, or whatever her name really is! You disgust me, and I would sooner-”

“Er, Sugarcoat?” Sunny quavered. She was looking at Ebony Wings anxiously.

The actress’s face was arranged in a snarl that reminded the Shadowbolts of a starving wolf. She had grown fangs, long and sharp, and as Sugarcoat’s voice began to falter, Ebony Wings stood up and growled at the girl like a beast from a horror movie.

Ivory Wings had an expression of fear on her face.

“Kid,” she said quickly. “Run.”

No sooner did the words leave Ivory Wings’ mouth did Ebony Wings leap across the table, transforming into a mass of crackling green flames. Dishes and plates went flying as she lunged at Sugarcoat, who dived out of the way just in time to avoid getting her neck wrung.

“Mother!” Silver Rose cried out in alarm.

The creature that had been Ebony Wings roared and barrelled at Sugarcoat again, this time managing to nick her on the arm with a claw. Ivory Wings sprang to her feet and tackled Ebony Wings just as she was about to hurl a fireball at the Shadowbolt. The two sisters flew across the room and crashed into a suit of armor, sending it scattering all over the floor with a deafening din.

Silver Rose scrambled out of her seat and went over to unlock the door to the room while the Wings sisters wrestled around the room, knocking over furniture and scorching the tiles.

“Let me go, Ivory! I’m going to rip the insolent head off her shoulders!” The voice that was coming from Ebony Wings no longer sounded human, instead it was that of two women talking just out of sync. “Let go of me! I order you!”

“Go! Run!” Ivory howled as Ebony Wings attempted to pry her off herself. “Get out of the house!” She stopped talking as her elder sister bit into her forearm with her fangs, forcing her to release her grip.

The Shadowbolts did not need to be told twice. Ushered out by Silver Rose, the five girls half ran, half tumbled their way out the front doors and down the hill as if the hounds of the underworld were snapping at their feet.

“Smiley Snatch! Smiley Snatch!” Indigo shrieked as they bolted from the manor.

It was only once they had passed the gates and made it back into a more populated area that they dared stop.

“Haah… haah… haah…” panted Sour Sweet with her hands on her knees. “Well… that was awful.”

“What did you do that for, Sugarcoat? You made her mad!” Lemon wheezed.

Sugarcoat was unrepentant. “I told her how I really felt about her offer. Now we know for sure that she’s not human, in any sense of the word.” She wiped a smudge of cream off her shirt.

“Silver’s mom is freaking crazy!” Indigo interjected. “I bet she’s what we saw in the attic all the way back. Dude, we are so screwed! They know where we live!”

“We are not going back there again,” Sugarcoat declared as she examined the small cut on her arm. “No matter what they offer us.”

Lemon huffed, clearly annoyed. “Speak for yourself. This better not cost me my backstage pass to the Copperrear concert, or I’m blaming you.”

Sunny Flare listened to her friends argue. Reaching into her pocket, she took out the autographed photo of Fast Bender and stared at it. At least she had gained something from this meeting.

Sour Sweet saw her looking at the photo and came over next to her friend. “Well? Was it worth it?”

Sunny put the photo away and sighed, thinking of Silver Rose and how their relationship was sure to be even more troubled after this.

“No, Sour Sweet. No, it wasn’t.”

Chapter 139 - A Clash of Wills

Silver Rose sat on her bed, looking despondently at her Crystal Prep uniform on the end of the mattress. Normally it was just another set of clothing, another part of the disguise. But now she almost couldn’t bear to see it. Not only had the meeting with the Shadowbolts gone catastrophically badly, but now it seemed as though all the connections she had painstakingly made during her time outside had all been severed, thanks to Sugarcoat and Silver’s mother.

“How am I supposed to face them at school now?” Silver wailed to herself. Not for the first time did she feel a rush of sympathy for her aunt. Being the level headed half of the two sisters, Aunt Psithyra had often expressed a sense of frustration at Chrysalis’s more impulsive and explosive nature.

Now, Silver Rose was at a complete loss about what to do. The Shadowbolts wouldn’t be willing to come back, not after Silver’s mother had tried to kill them. She didn’t like the idea of what school would be like now.

“Maybe I should just drop out…” She mumbled sadly.

“Drop out of what?”

Psithyra pushed Silver’s bedroom door open a little bit and peeped in. There was a bandage on her arm where Chrysalis had bitten her during the fight.

“Oh. Hello, Aunt Psithyra,” Silver Rose sighed. “I meant… you know what, never mind.”

“I know, sweetie. It’s your mother, isn’t it?”

Silver Rose slumped over even lower. “It’s that obvious?”

“It’s the curse of our race,” Psithyra stepped into the room and sat down next to her niece. “The strongest leader of us is always an impulsive, brash, and self-serving type. I know what’s going on through your mother’s head because at one point, the same thoughts were going through my head.”

“They were?” Silver Rose was confused. Her aunt was the polar opposite of her mother, at least she had been for all the time she had known her.

“I’ll wager your mother wasn’t this bad before I came along, am I right?” Psithyra asked.

Silver thought back. It was true that Chrysalis had been a lot calmer and less prone to anger before Psithyra had shown up. In fact, now that Silver thought about it, the angry outbursts and self aggrandising tendencies had not really been part of her mother’s personality when Silver had been growing up.

“I don’t know…” Silver leaned against Psithyra. “Why is mother acting like this? I want her to go back to the way she was.”

In response, Psithyra simply exhaled slowly.

“What I’m about to tell you is conjecture, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be the truth. You know how changeling hierarchy works, yes?” Silver nodded. “Then you know that in order for changeling society to work, there has to be a queen. The changeling queen is supposed to be the strongest, toughest, and most powerful member of the race. Under the changeling queen is what your mother calls a Reaper, on account of my first human kill. I told you about that one.”

“Mmm.”

“Anyway, your mother wasn’t quite as bad back then as she is now, but she was still very headstrong and self confident. Maybe a bit too much. But to her credit, she took charge of things when it all went wrong, and was one of the major reasons the changelings survived this long. And she did it out of sheer determination and viciousness and love.”

“What’s this got to do with how mean she’s become?” Silver pouted.

“The way your mother’s been acting is… kind of my fault.”

Silver Rose cocked her head to the side. “Huh? How? You didn’t even start living here until a few months ago.”

“That’s right, Your mother and I were apart for about a hundred years. I don’t know the details exactly, but there seems to be a failsafe of some kind built into your mother and my genetic code. If we’re apart for too long, we start to take on the traits of the missing sibling. In the last few years apart from your mother, I could tell that I was becoming more impulsive and short tempered and reckless. Your mother, I’m sure, was more calm and collected during this time, I’m willing to bet. I was turning into a queen so that the changeling race could continue to thrive, in the case that your mother was no more. Your mother took on my traits because she was missing her tactician and advisor, so she had to change to compensate for the loss.”

Silver Rose took a while to think about this.

“This all sounds like magic or sorcery to me,” She frowned, not happy with the way the conversation was going.

Psithyra sighed. “We are the offspring of witches. You might not be too far off.”

“So the reason mother is acting like this is because you came back to live with us?” Silver Rose said quietly. She looked over to her aunt.

Psithyra exhaled and nodded. She looked tired, more tired than Silver Rose had ever seen her aunt display.

“That’s not fair,” Silver mumbled, feeling more than a little bit cheated. “I love you, Aunt Psithyra, and I think that you coming to live with us is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. But if you stay, then mother is just going to get worse and worse?”

“I don’t know about worse,” Psithyra said sadly, wrapping an arm around her niece’s shoulder. “But she definitely won’t get better. But please, don’t hate your mother for her behavior. She can’t help herself.”

Silver Rose looked downward at her feet. It really wasn’t fair. Either she had to lose her aunt to get her mother’s old self back, or she could keep her aunt and live with her mother’s new firebrand personality.

“I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” Silver sulked. “Sometimes I think you were right, Aunt Ivory. We are cursed.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Ivory stroked Silver’s hair gently. “It’s my job to keep your mother in check. I just didn’t think she would react so violently to Sugarcoat’s words.”

“Sugarcoat never did know when to keep her mouth shut…” Silver said with a sigh.

“No, she doesn’t,” Ivory Wings agreed. “Honestly I was a bit surprised by her refusal of your mother’s offers. Typically we’ve learned that humans are willing to do anything for a little bit of positive recompense, but only two of the Shadowbolts actually took the bribe.”

“Took what bribe?” Sonata’s voice came from the open doorway.

Silver Rose looked up to see all three sirens watching her from the entrance to her room, their crimson pendants glinting in the light like tiny fireworks.

“Let me guess,” Adagio said, coming into the room. “Your mother tried to buy someone’s loyalty with money and goods, and they didn’t take it.”

Silver Rose was astounded. The sirens hadn’t been there when her mother had organized the luncheon with the Shadowbolts.

“How did you know?”

“Because that’s a tactic she’s used numerous times in the past,” Aria sighed. “Sometimes it worked. Other times, not so much. I take it this was one of those times?”

“More or less, yes,” Ivory Wings nodded.

“She should have invited us to the lunch as well,” Aria ran a hand through one of her twintails. “Bribing people works better when they can’t think properly. Now that we’ve got our singing voices back, we’re ready to retake our positions as magical backup.”

“She’s probably grown used to not having us around to help with her schemes. More’s the pity,” Adagio lamented. “If we’d been around, we could have helped.”

“Yeah!” Sonata beamed. “It’s like you used to call it, Ivory, a ‘two-pronged attack’? So even if the first shot misses, we can score a hit with shot number two!”

“You remembered,” Ivory Wings looked mildly impressed.

“Well, yeah, it was in one of your books, Ivory.”

“Wait, you can read?” Aria asked skeptically.

“Of course I can-! Oh, har har har,” Sonata said grouchily. “I’m not completely useless, you know.”

Aria reached over and patted her sister on the head twice. “Just messing with you.”

Ivory Wings gave Silver Rose a reassuring smile and stood up. “You know, I had forgotten about your magical powers as well, to be honest. Amazing what a hundred years apart will do. But you three are right. We can still salvage this if we’re clever about it.”

Ivory Wings paced around the room, back and forth, muttering under her breath to herself. Finally she stopped and her face lit up with a bright grin.

“I have a plan,” She declared. “Assuming the Shadowbolts haven’t gone public about today, and we would know if they had thanks to my sister’s PR agents, we can still get them on our side. All I need now are some earpieces, a pinhole camera and a mic, and three Crystal Prep uniforms.”

The three sirens’ faces grew smug. Now this was the changeling tactician that they knew and loved. Silver Rose wasn’t quite sure what to think, but she trusted her aunt’s judgment and knew that she was better off listening to Ivory Wings’ plan.

Ivory Wings gestured for all of them to gather close. “Now, here’s what we’re going to do…”

Later that evening, just after dinner, Ebony Wings was standing on her bedroom balcony, looking out over the city and her own property. She was still feeling sour about how lunch with her daughter’s classmates had gone, but over dinner her sister had assured her that she had a plan to fix it up. Ebony trusted her sister to do the right thing for her dynasty, and left it to Ivory to do her thing. In the meantime, she was going to stand here alone and brood about what a mistake it had been to let her daughter out of the house without supervision.

Oh sure, Ivory Wings shadowed her outside, but that wasn’t quite the same as always being at her niece’s side to protect her from any unsavory influences.

Unsavory influences.

Ebony Wings spat over the edge of the balcony, the spit laced with changeling venom. Chrysidea was too young, too malleable, too impressionable. She didn’t have what it took to be a strong ruler and changeling. Ebony’s frown deepened. The bad genes must have come from Crescentlane, curse him. Introducing weak human traits into the changeling royal family; if she hadn’t already killed him eighteen years ago, she would have murdered him right then and there for what he had done to her bloodline. Watered it down to this pathetic display of wanting to be like the prey, the humans. Absolutely despicable. Deplorable and shameful, even.

Still, Ebony Wings reminded herself, all hope was not lost. All she had to do was convince Fast Bender to breed with her and she could have another child, pureblood this time. The idea of rebuilding her family made Ebony smile, and she closed her eyes and breathed in the night air.

Her nostrils caught a vaguely familiar scent on the wind. It was coming from the main entrance.

Reaching for a pair of binoculars that she kept on the balcony for overseeing her kingdom, Ebony Wings put them to her face and twiddled the focusing dial on top.

“Oh, not you again…” She breathed. She put down the binoculars and went into her room to pick up a device that she had been wanting to use for a while now. See if this didn’t tell him he wasn’t welcome here.

Home Run was a man on a mission. He pedaled his bike out to the end of the city where the Wings’ Estate stood, against his friends’ better judgment.

He knew that if any of the Rainbooms knew about what he was planning to do, they would talk him out of it. So he hadn’t told anybody where he was going, not even his parents. All they knew was that he was going to visit a friend who wasn’t feeling that well. Not technically a lie, all things considered. Moonglade was his friend, wasn’t she? And she hadn’t been answering his texts or calls, so she might be sick. Was it possible for changelings to get sick? There was so much he didn’t know about them.

After a short while, the Wings’ Estate came into view. The lights were still on, and that gave Home Run some degree of hope. Maybe if he just explained why he was here, they would let him in. Surely Queen Chrysalis would let him see his girlfriend?

Stopping his bike at the gates, Home Run hopped off and walked up to the intercom built into the side of the gate. He reached out and pressed the button. A cheery piano piece played for a few seconds before someone picked up.

“Hello, what do you want?” A female voice asked impatiently.

Home Run cleared his throat. “I’m Home Run, you might know me, I’m a friend of Moonglade’s. Can I come in and see her?”

“Moonglade isn’t accepting visitors right now,” The voice snapped. “Go home.”

“Do you know when she will be available?” Home Run persevered.

“No. Now leave.”

“Come on, please? I just want to talk to her for five minutes.”

“No means no. If you don’t go away, we’ll take drastic measures.”

Home Run looked nonplussed. “Look, I just want to speak to my girlfriend. Could you just tell her that I’m here?”

The intercom shut off with a click. Home Run pressed it again.

“For the last time, go away. If you don’t, I’ll call the police.”

“You can’t call the police,” Home Run told the voice. “I’m not even on your property. I’m doing nothing illegal.”

The intercom voice growled and clicked off again.

There was a flash of movement on Home Run’s shirt and he looked down, alarmed to see a bright red laser dot dancing around on his chest. He had played enough video games to know what a laser sight like this meant.

“Okay, okay! I’m going!”

Home Run scrambled back onto his bike and pedaled away as fast as he could, swerving left and right to throw the potential sniper’s aim off. He did not look back until he was three blocks away.

“Aw man…” He groaned. Another plan defeated.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

Back on the balcony, Ebony Wings lowered the laser pointer that she had used to scare Home Run away. She had promised not to kill the human boy until her sister figured out how he had survived the poisoned knife, and Ebony Wings reluctantly admitted to herself that she was interested in the reason as well.

She stayed on the balcony for a few more minutes, making sure nobody else was lurking about.

Then she walked back into her room and slid into bed. She had a male to seduce, and she needed to look her best for such an ordeal. Let Ivory Wings and the rest of them worry about the human children for now.

With luck, soon she might have another child of her own.

Chapter 140 - The Sirens' Psychic Surgery

Monday came and Silver Rose found herself in the front seat of Ivory Wings’ car, while the back seat was taken up by Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk. The three sirens were dressed smartly in Crystal Prep uniforms that they had borrowed from the younger princess.

“Feels weird, dressing like this,” Sonata commented. “Do people really have to wear this every day to go to your school, Silver?”

“Yeah.”

“Bleh,” Sonata stuck her tongue out. “I feel bad for you; this uniform has like, no personality beyond ‘hey look, I go to some fancy school that doesn’t let us wear what we want’.”

“You’ll only have to wear it for today,” Ivory Wings said as she spun the steering wheel to round a corner. “We’ve been over the plan. You all know what to do.”

“We have about seven hours to do it in,” Aria nodded. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Well, people do know about the existence of magic now,” Adagio reminded her sister. “We’re not here to feed on the discord and disharmony here, as tasty as it might be. We’ve actually got an objective.”

“Yeah, yeah, Dagi. We know.”

“I even memorized the faces of our targets,” Sonata chirped brightly. “They’ll never see us coming!”

Silver Rose rested her head against her seat, a small smile on her face. She was grateful to the sirens for being willing to help her out with her problem. The previous night when they had done all the planning, She had seen how well the three sisters and her aunt worked together, a familiarity and trust built up over centuries of cooperation and mutual scheming. They just seemed to click in all the right ways.

“And I’ll be watching the whole time,” Ivory said. “Adagio, you’re wearing the camera. Do all of you have your earpieces?”

“Yes, Ivory, we do,” Aria rolled her eyes. “We already went over this before we left the house.”

Ivory Wings glanced back in the rearview mirror. “Alright. Just making sure. Oh, and Adagio? Do you have that thing that my sister gave you?”

Adagio held up a yellow envelope in response. On it was printed the logo of the band, Copperrear. “Might as well deliver what was promised.”

“How did mother manage to get a backstage pass to Copperrear that quickly?” Silver asked as Adagio put the envelope away.

“Oh, you know your mother. Hotheaded and stubborn, but she knows how to use her connections.”

“Ah.”

Silver Rose settled back into her seat. She was feeling considerably better now that she knew her aunt had come up with a plan. She wasn’t sure she agreed with everything that this plan entailed, but it made her feel more confident that she had her aunt’s full support, and that of the sirens as well. Even her mother had given this plot the green light, as the Copperrear backstage pass seemed to indicate.

Ivory Wings stopped the car outside Crystal Prep, the tinted windows keeping anyone from seeing in. She smiled faintly.

“Normally I would give you some kind of forgetfulness drug or gas to use here, but your magic surpasses most of that kind of alchemy anyway. If anyone sees or hears anything they shouldn’t, just make sure you enthrall them so that they don’t remember you. The last thing we need are the magic Canterlot High girls coming back for a round two with you three.”

“Gotcha,” Aria said, reaching for the car door’s handle.

“Because then we’d get our pendants broken again?” Sonata asked.

Ivory Wings shook her head. “No, because then I would probably need to drug or kill them, neither of which are very high on my list of things I want to do. Just keep things nice and quiet; get in, get out, get paid. Simple as.”

“We won’t let you down,” Adagio promised before the four girls got out of the car. “Or you, for that matter,” She added to Silver Rose.

Ivory’s car drove away, but Silver Rose knew that she was only going around the corner in order to stay within range of the earpieces and camera.

“Right then,” Adagio said as she adjusted her bow tie. “Where should we start?”

Silver Rose saw Sugarcoat lurking under the eaves of the entrance, watching them.

“I might have an idea.”

Sugarcoat watched Silver Rose arrive at school with three girls she only vaguely recognized. Were they all new students as well, she wondered? She had definitely seen them before, but with those uniforms on it was difficult to recall.

Sugarcoat watched as the four girls advanced on the front of Crystal Prep. She had a bad feeling about this, and was about to make a break for the front doors when she heard something unlike anything she had ever heard before.

It was such a beautiful song, Sugarcoat thought to herself. It blessed her ears like a choir of angels, and she felt any inhibitions that she had once had slipping away, out of her mind.

A tiny voice in the back of Sugarcoat’s mind was screaming that something was deathly wrong, but the telescopes on planet Sugarcoat weren’t pointing that way. She swayed on the spot to the angelic music, feeling all of a sudden the urge to take what she had learned about Ebony Wings and her family and throw it in the metaphorical trash.

You don’t want anything more to do with Ebony Wings or her family anymore, the sublime chorus seemed to say to Sugarcoat. You want to be a normal Diamond Prep student.

“Huh?” Sugarcoat briefly stumbled out of her haze as if hearing a record scratch, just in time to see the orange girl smack the blue one over the head. Then the beautiful song resumed and Sugarcoat’s mind went blank once more.

Crystal Prep, went the music, as if correcting itself. You want to be a normal Crystal Prep student. No more monster or demon hunting, right? There is nothing suspicious about Ebony Wings at all. She’s just an ordinary actress.

The small part of Sugarcoat’s mind that was as of yet unaffected by the song was fighting back. No. Something’s not right here. Ebony Wings… you need to focus on Ebony Wings!

However, this valiant effort seemed to go unnoticed by the rest of Sugarcoat’s psyche as the bespectacled girl’s last defenses folded.

Silver Rose walked up to Sugarcoat cautiously, as if approaching a dangerous wild animal. Sugarcoat stood there, fixed to the spot with a kind of glazed expression on her face.

“Sugarcoat?” Silver Rose said gently. “Sugarcoat, are you okay?” She waved a hand in front of Sugarcoat’s face. There wasn’t much of a reaction.

“We may have come on a bit too strong,” Aria said, walking up to the dazed Sugarcoat. “Still, I don’t think she’ll be making any more trouble for your mom.”

“You didn’t break her, did you?” Silver asked the sirens out of concern.

“Probably not,” Adagio shrugged. “Her brain’s most likely just adjusting to our influence. Scrubbing out the image of your mom trying to kill her is going to take some time.”

“Yeah, our singing has that kind of effect,” Sonata smiled. “Can we go inside now? Your aunt wanted us to get all of them.”

“Yeah, she did,” Silver said, perking up. “So after Sugarcoat’s brain settles, it’ll be like it used to before they started looking into the family?”

“That’s the idea,” Adagio nodded. “Now, why don’t you show us the next victim?”

Silver clapped her hands together. Now she could truly see why her mother and aunt had teamed up with Adagio and her sisters. Magic was just so convenient, and put together with changeling wit, it made for a fearsome weapon.

They cornered Indigo Zap next in the bathroom while she was changing for gym class.

“No!” Indigo shouted, hopping away with her shorts around her ankles. She took a sachet of salt from her pocket and threw it at Aria who simply brushed it aside. “You can’t do this to me! I’ll have you know my brother is a lawy-”

Then her face went slack the moment Aria’s mouth opened to sing her song, joined by Sonata and finally Adagio, who had propped a chair against the changing room door to keep anyone else out while they worked their magic. Indigo’s protests became more and more feeble as she tried and failed to fight off the sirens’ song.

“Have… to… get… away…” Indigo crawled on the tiled floor and reached for the door, only to collapse on her face and fall unconscious.

Sonata prodded Indigo with the toe of her shoe.

“Hey, is it just me, or does our singing seem stronger after our pendants got fixed on Halloween?” She asked while Aria and Adagio picked up Indigo Zap’s prone body and hid it inside a shower booth before removing the chair against the door.

“Now that you mention it, you could be right,” Adagio said, unlocking the door and leading the trio out of the changing room. “What do you think, Ivory?” She asked. Ivory Wings could hear everything they were saying, as well as see what Adagio was seeing thanks to the pinhole camera the eldest siren was wearing. “It’s quite amazing. All we had to do was wear these uniforms and we’re allowed anywhere in the school.”

“Disguises are my forte, after all,” Ivory purred. “Blending in like this is perfect for the job at hand.”

“If I’d known it would be this easy, I would have done it ages ago,” Aria snickered, brushing a speck of dust off her uniform’s collar. “So, who’s next?”

Adagio checked the schedules that Silver Rose had helped compile for them. It showed which classrooms each Shadowbolt would be in at which period, and how to get to each one. It had been a stroke of luck, nailing Sugarcoat at the entrance, but now there were still three targets left roaming around the campus, who had to be silenced before the end of the day. Silver herself had to attend classes, but the sirens were free to roam around and take down their targets one by one.

“Sour Sweet,” The eldest siren traced her finger on the schedule. “According to this, she has study hall next period.”

“Perfect,” Aria grinned darkly, her vocal chords already warming up. “Let’s go get ‘em.”

The three sirens followed Silver’s map towards the library. Like every other room in this school, it was glitzy and shiny, with crystalline edges and reflective surfaces all over the place. Students were scattered about, reading books and doing homework from other classes.

Sonata was the first to spot Sour Sweet. The Shadowbolt sat in a corner by herself, her headphones plugged into her phone as she listened to music. Her eyes were fixated on the textbook in front of her, while her right hand was writing out mathematical equations.

“Is that her?” Adagio asked into her earpiece.

“Affirmative,” Ivory Wings said in Adagio’s ear. “Go get her.”

Quietly, the sirens crept up on Sour Sweet. Their shadows fell across the Shadowbolt, but before she could do anything except gasp, Aria lifted the headphones off her ears and Adagio and Sonata were singing softly on either side of her head.

“Aaah-aaah aah, aah aaaaaah,” They breathed in sync, the song entering Sour Sweet’s ears. The girl’s eyes went unfocused, caught off guard by the three sirens.

The magical music wormed into Sour Sweet’s brain, rearranging it to a state more in line with what the sirens wanted. Sour Sweet’s eyes flashed green, the pencil falling from her fingers onto the tabletop.

Ivory Wings watched with satisfaction through the camera feed as the sirens’ song wound its way into Sour Sweet’s psyche. With the sirens feeding off discord and the changelings feeding off harmony, one might think that the two beings would be bitter enemies. But when they worked together, they could achieve and gain so much more than if they fought against each other. Ivory Wings greatly appreciated the sirens, and they appreciated her in return.

Sour Sweet was totally under the sirens’ spell by now, and with one final note from Adagio, they left the library with no one the wiser about what had just happened.

“Three down,” Aria said smugly.

“Two to go,” Adagio finished. She reached into her pocket and took out the envelope with the Copperrear backstage pass. This next one was going to be interesting.

As it turned out, Lemon Zest was very easy to locate. The girl’s mop of green hair stood out among the flood of uniforms, and with Ivory’s guidance, the three sirens were able to catch up to her at lunch, watching from a distance.

“They don’t even have tacos here,” Sonata complained after checking out the menu. “Dumb uniforms, boring classes, and now no tacos? That’s it; this place blows.”

“At least you don’t have to come here every day,” Silver Rose said, settling down with her lunch at the sirens’ table. “I kind of wish mother had sent me to Canterlot High instead.”

“Too risky,” Ivory told Adagio. “It was right of your mother to not want to tangle with the Equestrian magic girls unless we absolutely had to.”

Adagio relayed it to Silver who sighed. “I know. But there’s not as much food here at Crystal Prep than at CHS.”

“What do you mean?” Sonata said as she spooned coleslaw into her mouth. “There’s just as much food as there is at CHS. Tastes nicer too. Still wish there were tacos, though.”

“Not that,” Aria told her sister. “Good emotions. Did you forget what Silver is?”

“Oh. Right.”

Aria touched her forehead and sighed. She looked about to say something when Canvas Splash joined them at the table.

“Hi, Silver!” The artist said cheerfully. “Who’re your new friends?”

“New friends?” Sonata repeated. “But we’ve known Silver for m-”

Aria clapped her hand over Sonata’s mouth, getting salad dressing all over her palm in the process.

“They’re family friends,” Silver explained, not completely dishonestly. “They came to Crystal Prep to make sure I’m doing alright.”

“Oh?” Canvas said as she began on her lunch. “Have there been problems at home or something?”

“You could say that,” Silver told Canvas. “They won’t be staying here at CPA. My friends are just here to…” She paused as Adagio gave her a loaded look. “Here for today only.”

“We thought Silver Rose could use the moral support,” Adagio picked up smoothly. “Not that I’m saying you don’t give her moral support, but a little extra never hurts.”

“Yep! Silver Rose and me are like, best friends.” Canvas said with some kind of smile. “I’ll give her all the moral support she needs.”

“I’m sure you will,” Aria nodded once. “Well, I don’t want to be rude, but we’ve got to have a word with Lemon Zest, preferably before lunch ends. Are we going, Adagio?”

Adagio stood up, straightening her uniform's collar while Sonata shoveled the last of the coleslaw into her mouth and swallowed it.

“It should be easy to convince her to come with us,” Adagio said as she adjusted the hidden camera on her front. “We do have a present for her.”

“Not to mention she already thinks you’re hot,” Aria smirked. “Humans can be a little strange.”

Sonata snorted. “A little?”

“Okay, a lot. Now shush. We’re almost there.”

Lemon Zest was sitting at a lunch table with Sugarcoat, Sour Sweet, Indigo Zap, and Sunny Flare. The first three seemed to have recovered from their dose of magically laced song and were now eating as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Sugarcoat’s eyes still looked a little bit unfocused, but she looked much better than she had that morning after the sirens had been done with her.

Lemon’s back was to the sirens, and she jumped when Adagio tapped her on the shoulder.

“Aah! Oh, it’s just you, Adagio- wait. What’s the big idea-!” Lemon squeaked, flustered. It was clear she hadn’t forgotten her little fling with the eldest siren sister. However, all protests stopped when Adagio dangled the envelope in front of Lemon’s face. The Copperrear logo seemed to have the green-haired girl hypnotized just as good as a song.

“Ebony Wings sends her regards,” Adagio said throatily to Lemon.

Lemon tried to grab the envelope, but with a twitch of her wrist, Adagio tweaked it out of her reach. The siren beckoned with a crook of her finger and led Lemon out into the hallway, which was quite empty and free of any people.

“Is… is that what I think it is?” Lemon exclaimed once the door to the cafeteria closed behind them. She didn’t seem to register Sonata and Aria boxing her in with Adagio, leaving her no path of easy escape.

“It most certainly is,” Adagio said, handing the envelope over to Lemon, who tore it open in a frenzy, her eyes going wide as saucers as she took out the backstage pass to the next Copperrear concert. “A gift in exchange for your silence. Oh, but before you go, there’s something we have to tell you.”

“What’s that?” Lemon looked up from the pass in her hand, into Adagio’s eyes.

Then the three sirens opened their mouths and their sublime, bewitching song wafted out. Lemon had no time to gather any form of resistance before her mind was under the control of the three sisters.

Ebony Wings kept her promise to get you your backstage pass, The music breathed into Lemon’s psyche. Now, uphold your end of the bargain. No more investigating Ebony Wings or those she lives with. As far as you are concerned, that little project is over. You want to keep receiving gifts, you do as we say. Understand?

“I toooootallllllyyy understand,” Lemon drawled, her eyes shining bright green from the magical song. “No more poking around with Ebony Wings and her family and stuff. No problem at all. You’ve got, like, my word. Girl scout’s honor and stuff.”

“This one shouldn’t take that much convincing,” Ivory Wings said to Adagio in the earpiece. “She was the only one who was already mostly on our side at the luncheon.”

After a few more seconds of sirens’ song, Adagio gestured for the other two to be quiet before retreating back to the cafeteria, leaving Lemon Zest standing out in the hall, blinking as if coming out of trance, which, Adagio supposed, she had.

“Four down,” Ivory said with satisfaction. “Just Sunny Flare left. That’ll be the hardest one, if we go by experience.”

“Yeah,” Aria agreed with a huff. “Writing over months of an unhealthy relationship is going to take a lot of time.”

Sonata, however, was thinking hard.

“I mean, we don’t need to completely wipe out all the relationship,” The youngest siren said carefully. “We could just make it so that Sunny Flare and Silver Rose break up or something, then sing to Sunny to make her forget all the weird parts like we did with the other girls. It’ll be way faster. Right?”

Adagio and Aria were stunned. “That,” Aria slowly said, thinking about what she had just heard. “Might be one of the better ideas you’ve had in a while. What do you think, Dagi?”

“It would definitely be faster than the original plan I had in mind,” Adagio nodded with approval. “Yes, I think that your plan will do nicely, Sonata. Good job coming up with it.” Sonata beamed at her older sisters’ praise.

“It’s probably better to make it as authentic as possible. For that, we’ll need Silver Rose’s help,” Aria decided. A sly smile crept onto her face. “After all, it’s not like she wants to keep this whole charade going any more, right? We’d be doing Silver a favor.”

“I… At least ask Silver if she wants to do this first, okay?” Ivory Wings sighed. “And be careful regardless of what you choose to do. The last thing any of us want is more trouble coming back to find us.”

“Ivory, Ivory,” Adagio crooned as she led her sisters back to Silver Rose’s table. “Please, we’re always careful.”

Chapter 40 - Like a Dream Come True

Early the next morning, Moonglade made her way down to the dining room to have breakfast, still dressed in her sleeveless top and shorts she had used to go to sleep, now proudly wearing the new hairband Home Run had gotten for her. The girl walked into the space to discover her aunt standing on the table, barefoot and with a rapier in her hand.

“Uh, Aunt Ivory…?” Moonglade adjusted her spectacles. “What are you doing?”

“Ah, I was wondering when you would show. I was just practicing my fencing forms. I used to be quite good at it in the renaissance period, you know. Maybe I can show you a thing or two.”

“Ooh, that would be nice, yes.” Moonglade nodded. “My school fencing team is really good. I could use your tips. And also… I don’t think mother will like you, um, standing on the table.”

“Well, your mother’s not here, so I don’t have to worry about what she’ll think.” Ivory flapped her hand dismissively. “Parry, thrust, parry, thrust. Simples. Are the sirens up yet?”

“I don’t think they’ll be up anytime soon, Aunt Ivory. You know them more than I do.”

“I guess I’ll keep going then.” Ivory thrusted her sword more. “Would you like some breakfast, sweetie?”

“Actually, yes. I’m starving.”

On cue, a maid emerged from one of the doors and bowed her head. “Good morning, Princess Moonglade. What would you like to have today?”

“I think I’ll go for a some eggs and sausages today, thanks,” Moonglade answered.

“At once, young princess.” And the maid was off, going back through the door she had used.

“Nice isn’t it?” Ivory parried up and down, then slashed right. “To have everything you want right at your fingertips. By the way, the hairband looks lovely on you, dear.”

“That is… rather nice, yes.” Moonglade thought about it. She did have everything she wanted, except for one thing: the courage to do what needed to be done. “Too bad I can’t ask for more courage though…”

“Normally humans turn to alcohol for a bit of liquid courage,” Ivory said, poking at her imaginary opponent in a flurry of stabs. “But I don’t think it would work on you. Plus, you’re not of drinking age.”

“Hmm… I don’t know myself, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade sat down and watched her aunt’s form and techniques, trying to learn some from watching.

Eventually, Moonglade’s breakfast came through the door on a platter, and she could smell it before she even knew it was coming; it smelt delicious, of course, as was everything that was cooked here in the estate.

“Thank you,” she told the maid before digging in, keeping the plate further away from her aunt’s feet, just in case.

As Ivory watched her niece eat, she tapped the tip of her rapier against her shoulder and pondered, “Maybe I should cook once in a while. I’ve been told I’m rather good at that as well.”

“Oh you are?” She looked up at her aunt. “That’s cool. I never knew that.”

“Someone had to learn to cook for your mother, right? Who knows how long she would’ve lived if she cooked for herself. Which is strange, because cooking is a lot like alchemy, and your mother is excellent at alchemy.”

“Well, I look forward to your cooking, Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade chewed on her meal.

When she was done and had enough of watching her aunt fence atop the dining table, Moonglade went back to her bathroom and had her morning shower before changing out into her usual getup. She didn’t want to take off the hairband, but she decided to in the end, swapping it out for her braids. She hoped Home Run wouldn’t mind her only wearing it at home.

Moonglade first did some of her homework, then swapped over to her violin an hour early to practice before Mrs. Crescendo Melody was to arrive. She liked playing on the violin, but she didn’t like having lessons on it. She wished she could just get better without having to learn it all.

When Mrs. Crescendo did show up, Moonglade found herself learning how to play a new classical song by Strahoofski, which wasn’t difficult, but she did play a few wrong notes at times.

Right after her violin lessons were over, Moonglade quickly changed into her sword fighting gear and tied her hair up into a ponytail before heading downstairs for Ms. Lionstrike’s lessons.

Moonglade had to spar with her teacher today. She was slightly distracted, thinking of her date with Home Run, but she didn’t want to disappoint her mother again, so she still put in a lot of effort to get an opening on Ms. Lionstrike.

When she was done for the day, her teacher congratulated her before leaving, finally giving Moonglade time to go out. After another quick shower and a change back into her regular clothes, Moonglade was ready for her movie date with Home Run.

“I’m going on a date, I’m going on a date,” she sung to herself as she skipped down the stairs.

It was already close to evening by the time she began heading out. The sirens were up and already lounging around the first floor living room, doing nothing in particular.

“Going out, Moony?” Sonata turned around on the sofa. “Have fun!”

“You girls too, huh?” Moonglade smiled. “If you want to use the Neighstation, just go for it. Just don’t save over my progress.”

Skipping along outside, Ivory already had the car running, driving off as soon as Moonglade got inside.

“You must really like this boy, huh?” Ivory asked, keeping her eyes on the road. “Even though you keep saying you’d try harder… Are you, Moonglade?”

The young changeling played with a lock of her curly hair and sighed. “I don’t know, Aunt Ivory. I’ve never felt like this towards anyone before. I’ve never had to pretend I like someone, but, I don’t know… It’s all very confusing right now.”

“I smell your affection for the boy, sweetie.” Ivory looked up at her through the rearview mirror. “Now, I really don’t approve of you being so fond of him, but-”

“But that’s just it, Aunt Ivory,” Moonglade finally decided to come clean. “I think… I think I do like him. I enjoy being around him and he’s really nice to me. You know, for once, I want to know what it’s like. I want to be like a normal girl. I want to get to go out with Home Run because I enjoy it and not because he’s food. Please, Aunt Ivory. Just this once, can I experience it as a human would?”

Ivory Wings looked back at the front of the road, seemingly deep in thought.

“Alright, sweetie,” she said at last. “Your mother isn’t here, so… I think I can turn a blind eye once in a while. You taking a liking to him though, I don’t approve of it in the long run. These humans are just going to break your heart and there’s always the chance they find out what you really are and try to kill you. That must never happen. Not again.”

“I’ll-I’ll continue to do my best, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade nodded slowly, playing with her seatbelt nervously.

“This is only your third date, but you’ve already come far. So for today, I’ll drop you off and head home. I’ll leave you to your privacy and to experience a real date, how about that?”

“You mean it, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade leaned over and put a hand on her aunt’s shoulder.

“Anything for my princess.” the older changeling patted her hand. “But remember, our kind must never be revealed, so while I’m giving you more freedom today, don’t let your guard down.”

“I won’t, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade replied confidently.

She smiled to herself, glad that her aunt understood what she was feeling. But this could only happen once. There was no way her mother was going to approve of this, so she would have to think of Home Run as food again after today. But for now, she was going to live in the moment.

“I’m watching a movie that mother’s acting in, did you know, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade broke the silence in the car as it sped down a straight road. “Horror of the White River. Did you hear of that one?”

“I saw the original, if I remember, back when it was still black and white.” Ivory said proudly. “Between you and me, I still don’t think your mother is a good actress, but I’ll leave it to the humans to decide that. If they think she’s good, then what am I to do?”

Moonglade giggled in the back as the car pulled up to the theater’s parking lot. Her aunt really was a special person. She was glad she had been found again.

“You have a really good time, alright, sweetie?” Ivory turned around and gave her niece a high five. “Remember, only this one time, do as you will.When you’re done, just give me a call and I’ll come right back to pick you up. Be safe, okay?”

“I will, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade showed her perfect rows of teeth and got out, waving to her aunt before walking along to the theater.

Oh boy, oh boy! My first time truly alone! Hearing it like that, it didn’t sound very good, but the girl was excited nonetheless. But this is finally my chance to know how a real date is supposed to go down! All on my own. No backup.

The more she thought, the more afraid she became. She really was alone this time. If she needed help, her aunt wasn’t around to provide it. Taking a few deep breaths, Moonglade calmed herself, trying to think positive now. At least she would have Home Run by her side. Knowing him enough, he was going to do a good job of looking after her.

Can’t wait to see you, Home Run.

When she entered the actual building, Moonglade walked down the starry patterned carpet, making her way for the main hall, where all the movie posters and counters were. She soon found Home Run, standing by the side and holding on to a big box of popcorn, looking at a poster of a movie called Live Softly 2.

Quietly approaching him, Moonglade stood behind him and waited, seeing how long he would take to notice her; she had to hold back her laughter as to not give off her position so soon.

When at last Home Run did turn around, he jumped, spilling some popcorn and hitting his back against the poster’s holder.

“Owowowowow…” He rubbed his head. “It’s just you, Moonglade, sorry.”

“Are you okay?” She pulled his head down gently to inspect it. “I’m sorry. I was too quiet, it seems.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I get injured quite a bit. This is nothing.” He laughed it off. “Anyway, I got us the tickets and some popcorn. Want some now?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Moonglade reached in and took some, then put it in her mouth. “Mm, sweet, not bad.”

“Yeah, I figured you’d prefer sweet over salty.” Home Run smiled, then motioned with his head towards the theater hall entrances. “Shall we? The movie starts in six minutes.”

“Alright, let’s go!”

Moonglade walked closely alongside Home Run, wanting to hold his hand, but they were currently full, with one holding the tickets and the other holding the box of popcorn. She only got her chance to do so when the blue haired boy gave the tickets to the attendant, which was the first thing she did when they passed him, going up to one of the halls.

Moonglade had blushed slightly and likely so did Home Run, but she ignored it. She wanted to be with Home Run right now, no matter what.

Entering the dark hall, Moonglade followed Home Run to their seats, with the boy letting her ease her way through the row first, now following behind her. Moonglade found herself beside two boys, likely middle schoolers; one actually reminded her of Sunny Flare, with fairly similar colored hair and skin.

Waiting for the ads to roll, Moonglade took the chance to put both her legs up on the seat and lean over to place her head on Home Run’s shoulder.

“You know, watching movies is nice,” she said, closing her eyes to better enjoy the moment for now. “Whoever came up with these must be quite the genius.”

“Sure was,” Home Run chuckled and ate a handful of popcorn.

“I mean, we have a home theater back at my place, but this theater is way bigger.”

“Oh. You probably own lots of movies that star your mom, huh?” Home Run joked. “What’s it like? To have an acclaimed actress as a mother?”

“Kinda lonely…” Moonglade exhaled and wrapped an arm around one of Home Run’s. “Before my aunt and the sirens, um, and my sister came to live with us, it was just me and her. If she wasn’t around, I really had no one else to spend time with. I’m very happy you’re willing to do that, Home Run.”

“Um, yeah, sure. Anytime…” Home Run grinned, giving her hand a confident grasp.

Moonglade opened her eyes again when the ads began to play, righting her head as well, though she kept her arm around the baseball player’s.

There were ads for shampoo, some kind of vacuum cleaner, and then a series of expensive watches, before the movie trailers began to roll. There was a trailer for The Error in our Suns, starring her mother, who was also narrating most of the trailer. Her voice was higher, more teen-like, but Moonglade could still recognize it as her mother’s voice. She took some small amount of pride in that.

“This one looks good,” she whispered to Home Run. “We should watch it some time.”

“Well, I’m not much for chick flicks.”The boy rubbed his head. “But if you do want to see it, then sure, I can come with you.”

Moonglade grinned happily as the next trailer played, which was for a movie called President Evil: Overmisunderestimation. It was an action film, with the main characters fighting off a horde of zombie-like creatures with heads that opened up like flowers.

“Sick…” Moonglade held tighter to Home Run’s arm.

Keep it together, girl. Your family is a far more horrifying breed of monster than any filmmaker could dream up.

After it was over, the entire theater dimmed, going pitch black for a second, before the screen came on again, showing the logos for the various companies that helped make this movie realized.

The movie started with some pretty ominous music, followed by a man running through the woods, constantly looking back. The music and the environmental quietness was actually quite unsettling for the blonde haired girl; it felt as though she could almost taste the fear emanating right out of the movie screen. Something was chasing the man, and Moonglade could only guess it must be the Horror, mentioned in the movie’s title.

“Wow, already the first scene and it already has me on edge…” Moonglade whispered, shuffling as close as she could to Home Run. Then suddenly something jumped out at the man from off screen, the screams of the creature and man so horrifying that Moonglade screamed, startled by the sudden attack.

Her grip around Home Run’s arm tightened like a vice and Home Run himself jumped in his seat as she did it.

“Sorry!” She blushed, embarrassed she had let out a shriek like that. The two boys beside her started snickering, likely laughing at her.

“Hey, don’t worry.” Home Run put an arm around her to calm her trembling shoulders as the title came up on screen. “It’s a horror movie. You’re meant to get scared.”

“R-Right…” Moonglade felt safer with the boy’s arm around her. It was warm and comfortable. Though, she was irked to know that the two boys were still laughing. They were probably thinking how uncool she was. Well, I have a boyfriend. Sorta. Do you guys have girlfriends? Yeah, I don’t think so.

The rest of the movie continued on with the exploration team, who had come to explore the jungle where the White River lay. Moonglade’s mother was soon introduced, playing the character of Kylie Sails, the main character, River Reed’s wife. Her mother had on a long silver dress that really brought out her curves. She was guessing many men would be coming to watch this movie just to see her body.

Eventually, the creature was revealed, which was some kind of half-man, half-fish creature. It was rather grotesque, but nothing too terrifying. Eventually, it kidnapped Kylie, stealing her away to its underground lair. The expedition, led by River Reed, the main character and portrayed by actor, Boulder, set off to find her, searching down the White River.

Most of the movie wasn’t scary, but when night fell again and the music went back to being ominous, Moonglade found her arms around Home Run’s again, squishing herself against him. The boy didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Moonglade could smell a trail of affection from him and it tasted better than the popcorn.

The expedition crew began dying off one by one as the creature got to them, constantly evading capture in the dark night. Finally discovering the creature’s lair, River Reed was separated from the others, wandering deeper into the cave on his own. Eventually, he found Kylie, chained to the rock wall in the cave, her dress in tatters.

There, he did battle with the creature, resulting in him blasting it into the water with his shotgun, its body sinking down to the dark depths. Saving his wife, he brought her in for a passionate kiss as the scene panned up back to the outside sky, now daytime again.

The movie ended with the remaining expedition members sailing back down the river, only to be followed behind by something in the water.

“My, that was pretty good, actually.” Home Run turned to Moonglade, patting her on the arm. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Moonglade held his hand. “It was a bit scary, but you’re here with me, so it wasn’t so bad.”

Moonglade heard a scoffing sound from the kids next to her, followed by a, “Gross, look at them. Girls… ha.”

“Tell me about it,” his friend said. “Except your sister. She’s hot.”

“Yeah, and she talks to her posters too. She’s a real looney.”

Moonglade chose to ignore them and pulled Home Run up. “Come on, let’s go. I’ve want to stretch my legs.”

Unfortunately for her, the two boys got up as well, deciding to head out too.

Ugh… kids. Moonglade thought, tugging on Home Run’s arm.

“Come on, let’s leave this way,” She pulled him over to one of the fire exits.

“Are you sure?” Home Run stammered. “I mean, why not leave with everyone else?”

Moonglade flashed him a closed mouth smile, feeling her fangs start to extend from the affection and concern.

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fine. People are meant to use these doors anyway.”

“If you insist…” Home Run went along with her, pushing open the fire exit door.

They followed a series of tunnels, eventually emerging out in an alley between the cinema and the Canterlot Mall.

“Hey, we’re out.” Home Run smiled, still holding hands with Moonglade. “So you wanted to come out here, um, why? Is your aunt meeting you out here?”

“Because I wanted to get away from those kids,” Moonglade said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Come on, we can get a bite to eat at the mall or something.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda hungry.” Home Run patted his stomach. “We could go grab some dinner.”

The pair walked along the alley, aiming for the street, when a shadowy figure detached itself from the wall, blocking their path. He had on an old brown coat, worn with age, and his pants had holes at the knees.

Instinctively, Home Run placed himself in front of Moonglade and kept her close behind him.

“Can we help you?” he asked the man. Moonglade was impressed. He wasn’t the slightest bit afraid. She felt her fingers draw into hooks as she sniffed. Hostility and apprehension.

“Yes, you can.” Without warning, the man drew a long sharp knife from his old ragged coat, pointing its tip at Home Run’s chest. “Wallets and phones. Now. No one needs to get hurt.”

Moonglade eyed the thief closely. His knife was obviously going to be a point to watch, as most of his attacking power would be coming from there. He was a good foot taller than Home Run, but had a bulge in his belly that suggested he was no stranger to alcohol. Leaving Home Run to do what he needed to do, the girl’s eyes darted around the alley, looking for something to use as a weapon.

There. A lead pipe, about half a meter long. Perfect.

“Don’t make me wait.” The man wagged his knife around. “I’m going to count to three and I better see what I want.”

Moonglade felt Home Run tense up, and then he let go of her hand. She watched him, analyzing his stance. He was getting ready to try something.

“One.”

Home Run shuffled his left foot forward by an inch.

“Two.”

“Get ready to run,” Home Run whispered to her, almost inaudible. If not for her more acute hearing, she might not have heard him.

“Three. You asked for this.” The man pulled his knife arm back to strike.

“Wait! There!” Home Run pointed a finger past the mugger’s face. “Cop! Hey, here!”

Moonglade looked and there was none. It was a diversion.

“What?” The man turned around to look, buying it.

Then Home Run left Moonglade, first throwing a hand to the man’s knife arm. He hit the mugger in the wrist and the knife spun away from his grasp.

“Hey!” The mugger yelled and tried to grab for Home Run.

Moonglade watched the boy duck and then try to push him back.

“Go, Moonglade! Get out of here!” Home Run yelled to her, trying to hold the man against the wall.

Moonglade rolled her eyes and bent down to pick up the pipe. It was heavier than it looked, which delighted her. Having trained with a blade most of her life, a blunt instrument would be a new experience for her. Now all she needed was for Home Run to get out of the way…

The man suddenly brought up a knee, hitting Home Run in the gut and making him double over.

“You don’t mess with me, kid!” The mugger punched him in the face on the left, then right, then one more left.

Home Run fell back, landing on the ground, hard, groaning from the pain. Turning, the mugger picked up his knife again, pointing it at Home Run.

“You’re dead, kid. You’re dead.” He raised his weapon.

And then Moonglade, who had been creeping closer and closer during the fight, deflected his knife as it was heading for Home Run and then smashed the lead pipe into the side of the robber’s body, accelerating her arms to speeds beyond human strength. There was an audible crack as the pipe made contact with the man’s ribs. The knife was dropped, and Moonglade kicked it away before slamming the pipe in between the man’s legs.

The robber fell to the ground, his face turning white as he grabbed his crotch. Moonglade took the opportunity to stand over him and start swinging the pipe left and right, bludgeoning the robber while she giggled.

“Who do you think you’re robbing?” Moonglade laughed, smacking the robber in the shoulder with her pipe. “Of all the people you could’ve robbed, you just had to pick me. Just who do you think I am?!”

She continued to swing away happily, until the thief lost consciousness. She then kicked him for good measure and backed away, fingering the lead pipe contentedly.

Only then did she remember Home Run. In the giddiness of being able to finally use her skills with a weapon, she had forgotten all about her date.

Glancing down at the defeated thief, Moonglade turned around to check on Home Run. The boy had marks on his face and a small cut on his right cheek, but he was now standing on his feet, which was good. His mouth and eyes were agape, which was perhaps not so good. Moonglade hefted the pipe and skipped over to Home Run.

“Are-Are you okay, Home Run?” She looked at his feet, slightly afraid that she might’ve done something irreversible in their relationship.

Before she could assess the damage she had done, Home Run reached out his hands and catching ahold of her face, he pulled Moonglade in for a kiss. The young changeling was shocked and surprised at first, not expecting him to react like that, but she soon melted into the kiss, returning it with equal gusto, dropping the lead pipe by her feet. She felt the intense surge of delicious love energy enter her, replenishing the amount she had burned while fighting the thief. Finally, her weeks of work had paid off and her hunt was successful. She had finally found the love she was looking for and it tasted so much better than the one she got from her family.

Eventually, they both pulled away for want of breath.

“So,” Home Run said with a nervous smile. “Do you still want to grab dinner?”

Chapter 78 - Ancient History

Chrysalis pushed the door open to her sister’s workshop, slithering in on her toes as she glided to where she was working on something at her workbench.

“Can I help you, sister?” Psithyra asked without looking up, writing something down on a piece of paper.

“It’s late, and I felt my bed was a little… cold.” Chrysalis stopped behind her younger sister, gently placing both her hands on her shoulders.

The changeling queen was dressed in nothing but her blue silk night robes, while Psithyra had on her usual blue sleeveless top and black shorts, sitting cross-legged on her chair.

“Why don’t you turn on the heater, your majesty?” Psithyra scribbled another line down on her paper.

“Come on, you know what I mean, Thyra.” Chrysalis began massaging her sister’s shoulders. “Little Dea is sound asleep. She won’t know what you and I will be up to…” Then she bent lower and gave Psithyra’s ear a lick.

“All tucked in, eh?” Psithyra chuckled. “Poor girl must be tired from all the walking she did with Home Run today. I could tell she enjoyed every moment of their time together. You know, she’s really fallen for that boy, I think. Something needs to be done about it.”

“Yes, but I think it can wait.” Chrysalis bent lower and sniffed at her sister’s purple hair. “We can discuss it tomorrow. Or up in my room…”

“Our safety might be in jeopardy and you want it to wait?”

“Well, what do you suppose I do? Forbid her from seeing the boy? I could always do that…”

“It might have to come to that if she doesn’t get her act together.” Psithyra scribbled more notes on her paper. Chrysalis looked at it, noticing it was a list of clothing items. “Moonglade can be in love with Home Run, but Princess Chrysidea should not be.”

“You’re right. And I suppose I will have a talk with my daughter tomorrow.” The queen smiled. “But for now, how about we call it a night? You’re working too much.”

“This is for the sirens, Chryssie.” Psithyra turned to face her older sister. “The picnic draws near. I need to make sure everything is in order.”

“Yes, but you’re missing out…” Chrysalis pulled at the sash of her robes. “There is still much I’d like to do tonight…”

And then she undid her sash and let her robes slide off her body. Chrysalis leaned down, pressing her large breasts against her sister’s back.

“Mmm… how about it, Thyra?” She reached her hands forward, one placing itself on Psithyra’s left breast, and the other sneaking down into her shorts. “Keep me company?”

“I’m sorry, Chryssie.” Psithyra gently removed the queen’s hands from her body. “But not when we’re so close. I can’t do this right now. There are more important things than your wants, dear sister. I’m sorry.”

“Are you saying your work is more important than me?” Chrysalis pouted.

“Nothing is more important than you,” Psithyra said plainly, going back to her paper. “But we will all be better off once I have the sirens back in working order, and that benefits you greatly. So you see, I’m really doing this for your best interests.”

“But it’s not helping that you’re not in bed with me tonight.” Chrysalis walked forward and leaned against the workbench, showing her impressive body off to her sister. “Don’t you want any of this?”

“I need to work, Chryssie. This is very important.”

“I’ll let you use the strapon. How about that? Tonight, I’ll let you f-”

“Chryssie.” Psithyra’s tone went lower. “Please. Not everything is about your immediate pleasure, okay? My plans are drawing close and I need to have a clear head to get it done.”

Outside, an owl hooted. It sounded like laughter.

Chrysalis stood by in silence, so that the only thing that could be heard was her breathing.

“Well, if it’s that important to me…” the queen said slowly. “I’ll leave you to it. I do miss the sirens’ singing, to be honest. But after this is all over, would you join me in bed?”

Psithyra glanced up and sighed. “We’ll see.”

“Hm. Then I guess I will see you tomorrow, my sweet sister.” Chrysalis bent down and picked up her night robes. “It will be awfully cold without you tonight.”

“Have a hot chocolate,” Psithyra said without looking up. “That’ll help. And it’s summer, Chryssie. It’s supposed to be warm.”

“I guess you’re right.” Chrysalis put her robes back on and tied the sash. “I’ll get a drink before going to bed. I will see you in the morning, Thyra.”

“Mhhm. Love you, sis.”

When Moonglade arrived downstairs the next morning, her mother had given her a lengthy lecture about the troubles of falling in love with prey.

She figured it was because of yesterday’s date with Home Run, and likely for the fact that she felt like she had fallen in love with him, even as herself.

It was a lot of noise for an early morning breakfast, but the young changeling knew she deserved it all.

It was hard, trying to force herself not to love Home Run. She couldn’t bear to tear herself away from him at this point. But she did promise she wouldn’t do the same with Sunny.

“I won’t make the same mistake twice, mother,” she said.

“See to it that you don’t.” Chrysalis picked up the newspaper and flipped to the next page.

Moonglade awkwardly toyed with her hairband as she ate her breakfast, which continued on in silence. It had been so noisy earlier and now it has gone almost dead quiet, aside from her chewing and her utensils clinking on the plate.

As she was finishing up her breakfast, Ivory Wings walked into the dining room, car keys in hand.

“Going somewhere, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“We’re going on a little trip,” Ivory said, sliding over to Moonglade’s side. “I know how much you wanted to see my penthouse, so…”

“Ooh, we’re finally going?” Moonglade bounced in her seat happily.

“Yes.” Ivory Wings nodded. She held out a folded piece of paper and waved it. “I have my list of what I need ready. It’s time to go pick them all up.”

“And I can come with you?” Moonglade got out of her chair, dropping the napkin on her plate.

Chrysalis looked up from her paper, then sighed and brushed her long teal hair from her face. “You may. Go along.”

“I’ll go get dressed for going out.” Moonglade excitedly skittered over to her room and changed out into her regular attire, but instead of doing her hair up in its braid, she decided to keep the hairband on. It was a nice change now and then.

She soon found her aunt waiting in the car outside, the engines already running. Skipping her way over, Moonglade opened the door and hopped in, making sure to buckle up first. And in no time, they were off, speeding down towards the highway to get to Manehattan.

“I’ve never left Canterlot without mother before,” Moonglade said excitedly. “This is going to be interesting!”

“Yes it will.” Ivory rubbed her niece’s leg. “It’s been a while since I’ve been there myself. I’ve never shown anyone my collection. Well, except for those times people decided to sneak into my penthouse.”

“Did you kill them?” Moonglade looked at her aunt, trying to determine her expression.

Ivory’s face didn’t change, but the young changeling smelt a trace of amusement coming from her.

“Two are dead. There’s one girl that I let live. Why, you may ask?” Ivory shrugged. “I’m not sure myself. But I figured it’s time to leave behind my violent lifestyle and look after you instead.”

“So… you won’t kill anyone anymore?”

“Well… Unless I have to. But you come first, sweetie.” Ivory patted her niece on the head. “Trust me, if I have to resort to violence, I still remember how to do things. If anyone dares to harm you…”

“Thanks for always having my back, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade hugged her aunt’s arm. “You’re an aunt every girl could hope for.”

“I am an apex predator, sweetie. And in time, you will be too.”

They drove on in silence, until Ivory Wings synchronized her phone to the car’s radio. An upbeat pop song in a foreign language blasted out of the speakers.

“What’s this song?” Moonglade asked.

“Oh, it’s the opening to Yoyo’s Mundane Journey. Good cartoon so long as you don’t take it too seriously. But then again that applies to a lot of them, doesn’t it?”

“Umm, I don’t know, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade had never really took to watching cartoons, much less the Eastern ones her aunt liked so much. “I’ll take your word for it, I guess.”

The car kept rolling at a speedy pace down the highway, and the vibrations of the vehicle soon lulled Moonglade to sleep. Her dreams were punctuated by little jolts on the road where her aunt drove over a pothole, and more than once she could have sworn there was an owl hooting at her.

When she next awoke, she found the car had already slowed down drastically and they were in a city she had never seen before. And she also found a trail of drool going down her left arm, which she quickly wiped away with disgust.

“Almost there, sweetie,” Ivory said, lowering the radio volume so that she could see better.

“Mmm…” Moonglade stretched her arms backwards. “Are we in Manehattan?”

“We most certainly are. Welcome to the concrete jungle, my niece.”

“Canterlot’s got a lot of buildings too.” The young changelings gazed out at the many different buildings. The city looked really packed together. “Though these are much taller.”

Ivory Wings checked her GPS. “Now, if I remember correctly, Match Mansions should be two more blocks down that way.”

“Is it that big one there?” Moonglade pointed ahead at a tall building almost entirely made out of glass. There were strange looking prongs coming out near the top, somewhat like tether points of some sort. “You always did say you had the tallest building in the area.”

“Yep. That’s it. It’s nice, having the best view in the district, but it’s not a good idea to take a tumble off the top. The ground really hurts, even with snow to cushion your landing.”

Moonglade turned back to her aunt. She had heard the story of her fall off the building, but she never did ask more about it. “What did happen, Aunt Ivory? Did you die?”

“For about a day or so. As Pierce Network learned, it takes a lot to bring me down. Funny old world, isn’t it? I was supposed to die, and here I am. He was supposed to survive after leaving the Assassin Brotherhood, and you put him in the ground. Ironic.”

“Yeah, that’ll teach him to hurt you and mother.” Moonglade nodded, remembering how she had carefully handed him the poisoned keyboard. He hadn’t suspected a thing. “So what’s it like, Aunt Ivory? To die? Is it all just dark and stuff?”

Ivory Wings pulled the car into the parking lot of Match Mansions, flashing her card at the ticket booth as they passed. “It’s quite boring, really. You don’t see anything, you don’t hear or feel anything. It’s probably the worst kind of existence there is. I’m glad I got better.”

“How do you know it’s boring?” Moonglade pondered what it would be like to just not exist. “And I’m glad you got better. Otherwise I would’ve never met you, Aunt Ivory.”

“Me too, sweetie.” Ivory unbuckled her seatbelt and shared a hug with her niece before getting out of the car.

Moonglade didn’t care what anyone else thought. Her aunt was the nicest person in the world.

“Wow, this place is… J-Just wow…”

Moonglade couldn’t keep her jaw shut as she exited the elevator, looking firstly at the vastness of the place, followed by everything her aunt had, decorating the entire room. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust, but she could still make out the shapes underneath.

“Just as I left it all.” Ivory Wings walked into the room, patting one of her sofas, sending a cloud of dust up into the air. “Come. This is nothing compared to my halls of history, or really, any of the treasures I collected over my lifetime.”

As Ivory Wings got to work getting power back to all of her facilities, Moonglade decided to explore the penthouse a little. The first floor was obviously for living in, with a well-stocked kitchen, a spacious bathroom, and several guest rooms. Oddly enough, the master bedroom looked as though it had never been lived in or even touched. It was still as opulent and dusty as the rest of the rooms, but empty. There was also a curious hallway that ended in a dead end, with only a ragged medieval tapestry decorating it. Compared to the rest of the relatively tidy and modernized first floor, it looked somewhat out of place.

“Huh,” Moonglade said, walking closer to the tapestry to take a closer look. She walked closer, the sounds of her aunt fading away. The carpet was soft beneath her feet, little plumes of dust rising with each footstep. She sniffed. There was a strange scent coming from the tapestry… or from behind it.

Up close, the tapestry looked even more threadbare and moth-eaten. It seemed to display a desert, with a circular citadel rising from the sands. She could make out a green emblem above the castle, one that looked vaguely like an upside down letter ‘V’.

Drawn to the picture, Moonglade reached out and brushed her fingers against the symbol.

“Sweetie?” Ivory Wings’ voice came from behind and Moonglade jumped. She hadn’t heard her approach.

“Oh! Aunt Ivory. I was just, you know, looking at this tapestry. It’s pretty old, huh?”

“Ah, yes. This particular work was commissioned by one of my old friends in Saddle Arabia. She wanted to make sure I remembered this location.”

“And did you?” Moonglade had never known her aunt to be forgetful of anything.

“Oh, I don’t need a tapestry to remember the burial site of my best friend, sweetie.” Ivory Wings looked troubled. “Even if that place is gone now. Damn the Assassins and the Templars. They were always sticking their noses where it didn’t belong.” Then she brightened up, bending down so that she was on head level with her niece. “Hey, would you like to see something interesting?”

Moonglade nodded.

Ivory Wings reached behind the tapestry and felt around underneath. There was a click, and the entire segment of wall slid aside, revealing a dark space behind.

Ivory Wings nodded at her niece. “I had a couple of extra rooms added to the penthouse after I moved in. This is one of them.”

“Wow… Cool, Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade ran a hand along the secret entrance wall, but instantly regretted it when it came back caked in dust. “So what’s in here?”

“Why don’t you go and find out?”

Moonglade looked back and forth. “What, by myself? In there?”

“Nothing to be afraid of, sweetie.” Ivory gently pushed her further into the entrance. “It won’t bite.”

Moonglade swallowed and slowly walked into the darkness. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she was able to make out the shapes on dozens of candle holders, each one mounted with a scented candle.

The smell of incense and candles grew stronger as Moonglade took a few more tentative steps forward. Then she felt the texture of the floor change. She was now stepping on some kind of mat, apparently made out of woven reeds or something. She was thankful she had shoes on. She couldn’t bear to imagine walking all over the dusty floor barefooted. It was so dirty and gross.

“It’s really dark in here, Aunt Ivory,” Moonglade called. “Can we light some of these candles?”

Behind her, Moonglade heard the sound of a match being struck, and a small flare of light illuminated the room. She could now see that she was standing in front of a large panel of glass. More candles were lit, until the room was bathed in a comforting orange glow. Then she looked up.

Hanging behind the pane of glass was a gargantuan ink painting, done in the traditional Eastern style. It depicted a garden of flowers every color of the rainbow, and standing in the middle of it all, was Moonglade’s mother. It was an old piece, but she could still tell it was her mother, in her undisguised form.

“Did you paint this, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade ran a hand down the corner of the painting. “It’s so pretty.”

“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” Ivory Wings said mildly. “Took me almost a month, and that was with me working with some of the most talented painters of the dynasty. Of course, they thought they were drawing some kind of goddess. Still, I think we did alright.”

“You did really good.” Moonglade turned back to her aunt and skipped over. “It’s lovely. But what’s all this for?”

“Oh, this? It’s a shrine. To the queen.”

“A… A shrine? To mother?” Moonglade watched her aunt’s face, checking if she had heard it right. “Why, um, why does mother need a shrine?”

“Well it’s like this,” Ivory Wings said, walking up to Moonglade. “When I lived here, I would come here once a week to make a blood offering to your mother, and to ask her for forgiveness, as well as to ask her for strength.”

“Umm… no offense, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade pulled at her hairband. “But… don’t you think it’s um, a bit much?”

“Why, whatever do you mean, sweetie?”

“I mean, mother does think very highly of herself, but… To make something like that?” Moonglade pointed a thumb at the shrine. “Seems a little over the top to me.”

“Sweetie, you have to understand,” Ivory knelt down next to her, a reassuring smile on her blue face. “Your mother is the most important person in my life. Without her, I was lost, and so I decided to put my faith in this shrine, asking her to guide me. Without this shrine, I would have lost the path years ago.”

“Umm, riiight…” Moonglade felt a little disturbed by that. She doubted her mother even guided her in those years. “Umm… could we uh, go look at another room?”

“If that’s what you want.” Ivory and Moonglade exited the shrine room, which sealed itself up once they were both outside.

Moonglade followed their dusty footprints back to the main hall, and the two of them soon stopped by a staircase leading up.

“I suppose I will show you my halls of history next.” Ivory motioned a hand up the steps. “Careful, sweetie. The dust does make the floor a little slippery. Mind your step. I will need to get someone to clean this place when I get the chance.”

Moonglade put her hand on the railing to pull herself up, but when her hand came back full of dust, she decided against using it.

“It’s so icky…” She wiped her hand on the back of her red jacket as she proceeded upstairs.

At the top of the stairs was a long hallway. Ivory flicked a switch, sending power flooding to the lights in the floor and ceiling. About a dozen glass cases were also illuminated, each one housing an exotic-looking artifact.

“Ooh, cool!” Moonglade skipped over to the first case, wiping at the glass with her sleeve to remove the dust, which unfortunately stuck to her jacket. “Gross…”

Inside the first case was a set of blue and green armor, which looked like it was made of insect plates, just that the plates were the size of her arms.

“Do you like it?” Ivory walked over and placed a arm around her niece’s shoulder, who was still dusting off her sleeve. “That’s the armor of Commander Vespa of the Renaissance period. She supported the Templars then and helped them plan their tactics.”

“I thought you didn’t like the Templars?” Moonglade looked back at the armor. “And what did you use to make that armor? It looks like a really big bug.”

“I work with whoever happens to best suit me and your mother’s interests at the moment. And during the Renaissance, the Templars curried our favor. As for my armor, it’s a cunning mix of leather, thin metal, and a lot of alchemy. It took almost a whole year to make.”

“Oh, cool. So it’s not made of bugs or anything, right?”

“No. It just looks like it.”

“Oh… It’s still cool though.”

Moonglade followed her aunt over to another glass case, and this time, her aunt took out a handkerchief from her pocket and gave the surface a wipe, revealing a long spear with a really sharp tip that was also segmented.

“Vespa’s spear. I daresay your mother did a good job forging this one. It’s made entirely of metal, so an opponent can’t break the shaft. Did you know that this spear has claimed the lives of both Assassins and Templars? The more you know.”

“You killed Templars with this too?” Moonglade adjusted her glasses on her face. “I thought you said you helped the Templars then?”

“I work for your mother,” Ivory said smugly. “Suffice to say, when one side gets too… influential, we tip the scales back into balance. For fun and profit, of course.”

“Umm… huh…” Moonglade scratched her head. Perhaps she was still too young to understand all that. “What’s next?”

The two changelings walked over to the next few dusty cases, which housed more relics, like books, a katana with a chipped blade, and several scrolls of poetry which Ivory claimed to have written herself. They were all centered around Moonglade’s mother. If she didn’t know better, she would think her aunt was obsessed with her.

Then in one, there was another outfit. It was a blue robe with a crescent moon insignia on the chest.

“What’s this one, Aunt Ivory?”

“Oh this?” Ivory Wings moved right up to the glass case, unaffected by the dust at such close proximity. “These are my mage’s robes. One of the few I managed to save from old Canterlot. Made by the king’s weavers, they’re both stylish and comfortable, as well as providing some defense against the corrosive nature of alchemy. The circlet is here too, a few exhibits on.”

“They do look fashionable, yeah.” Then Moonglade moved on to the next, which her aunt quickly wiped the glass for. Inside was an old broken sword, with the top half of blade missing and gleaming red gems imprinted into it. It had certainly seen better days. “What about this?”

“Oh, this…” Ivory Wings sighed. Moonglade looked at her aunt and sniffed. The smells coming from her were of disappointment and sadness. “That is the legendary Clarent, young princess. It was the sword of my… hmm… the sword of my son, Morn.”

“Cousin Morn Dread’s sword?” Moonglade looked at her reflection in one of the gems. “You kept it for him?”

“It’s all I have left to remember him by, sweetie.” Ivory put one of her hands on the glass surface. “My son…”

Moonglade surreptitiously shuffled backward as her aunt stared at the sword solemnly. It made her think. When she was gone, was this all that would be left? An exhibit in her aunt’s penthouse or her mother’s mansion that no one but her family would see? Would they bring it along when they moved? Moonglade had come to terms with her own mortality long ago, but she wanted to be remembered by more than just her immediate relatives.

“Funny, huh? Little Dea?” Ivory took off her glasses and wiped at her eyes. “It was because of your mother’s brilliant plan that I got to have a son. And it was her same plan that sent Morn down the wrong path, a path that led to his eventual death. I blamed your mother for a long time, you know? But… I have since moved on from that. I have come to accept her… intelligence now. And I suppose if not for her plan, I would never have had Morn to begin with. What time I had with him, sweetie, I cherished. I loved him to the bitter end.”

“I’m sorry about what happened, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade came back, putting a hand on her aunt’s back.

“You’re sorry? You have nothing to be sorry about, sweetie.” Ivory put her glasses back on. “Now come, as you well know, sadness does not taste nice. Let us move on to the next exhibit.”

The next item was a black wooden mask, shaped into a snarling half-equine, half-insect’s face. There was a single twisted horn coming out of the forehead.

“A much cheerier artifact,” Ivory Wings said. “Razor Gale’s assassin mask. One hundred percent authentic Eastern cherrywood.”

“That’s nice.” Moonglade bent lower to take a closer look, but careful not to get too close to the dusty glass casing. “It looks like something you can wear to a Halloween party.”

“You know what a Halloween party is, sweetie?” Ivory smirked.

“Oh, well, no, not really. Only read up about them…” Moonglade sighed. There was still so much she hadn’t experienced. “You have to dress up in scary costumes, right?”

“That’s more or less the idea,” Ivory said, examining the mask. “The younger ones go from door to door collecting sweets and shouting ‘Trick or Treat’ at the occupants. I don’t quite recall when that became part of the traditions, but it keeps the children occupied while the older ones go to parties.”

“We get to collect candy during Halloween?” Moonglade beamed. “And people actually give candy out?”

“Well, yes. Last I checked they still do that.” Ivory Wings glanced down at her niece. “Maybe you’ll be able to experience it yourself this Halloween. We’ll see what your mother has to say.”

“I’ll look forward to Halloween if I can go out and get some candy.” Moonglade clapped her hands. “And I’ll get to dress up! Maybe I’ll go as Ghost Hollow again!”

“Somehow I think that that particular persona should stay hidden,” Ivory Wings chuckled. “Besides, you can think of a far more creative outfit than just white, I’m sure.”

“Maybe as… Maybe a clown!” Moonglade giggled. “With a big red nose.”

“Somehow I think your mother’s pride wouldn’t all be for something like that…” Ivory muttered. “Still, the thirty-first of October is still far off. There’s still plenty of time to plan your cosplay.”

“I guess. First, I wanna see what else you have here.”

Moonglade skipped down the rest of the hall, with her aunt doing her best to clean up parts of the various glass casings so she could peer within them.

They passed a circlet, a ceremonial bottle of sake, and finally an sizeable embroidered handkerchief that had been carefully framed like a photo. It depicted a large group of people, all facing the front, each character carefully stitched and sewn in with great detail and in vibrant colors.

“What’s this, Aunt Ivory?”

“Ah, yes. This. I had this made after… we retook Canterlot. This is the last day we were all together. In fact, this was done just out there by where the lake back home would be in a few centuries. You might recognize the spot, right there by the grove of trees.” Ivory Wings smiled fondly. “There used to be a castle where your mother’s estate stands today. You might say it’s our ancestral home.”

“I heard the stories from mother.” Moonglade nodded in confirmation to her aunt’s words. “She likes to tell me how she was queen of Canterlot and all that.”

“And her reign was a long and peaceful one, once she actually got around to ruling. Of course, she had to fake her death once her persona got to be over eighty years old. According to legend, she’s buried on Avalon with King Dawn Saber.” Ivory Wings laughed. “Humans used to be so easy to fool.”

“It wasn’t peaceful, was it…?” Moonglade looked back to where Clarent was kept. “There was war. Mother told me Morn tried to take over the world.”

Ivory Wings sighed. “That is true, but after my son was taken care of, your mother was crowned the new ruler of Canterlot. Morn Dread’s kingship didn’t even last a year.”

“Mother actually managed to hold peace on her own?”

“Well, history would tell you yes. I can tell you that she mostly delegated running the kingdom to her court, and if she were in charge of everything, the kingdom probably would have fallen a lot sooner than it did.”

Moonglade shared a laugh with her aunt. After that, the moved on to more exhibits, which included a large painting of presumably her mother and aunt and the sirens. She could recognize her aunt, who was wearing her blue robes and circlet in the picture. The sirens didn’t even look like they had changed, while her mother looked quite different, though she was really pretty in the painting.

“So that’s what you all looked like, huh?” Moonglade pointed at the painting. “Very nice, whoever did this. It really captured the likeness of you five. I think.”

“I should hope so,” Ivory said. “The painter charged quite a fee for this painting. I took it with me back to the East, and it took a lot of effort keeping it this well preserved.”

“How’re you going to clean the dust off it?”

“Very carefully. Now, this concludes the tour. If you feel like exploring the place a bit more, go ahead. I’m going to fetch the things we came here for.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade walked back down the hall as her aunt left back downstairs.

She looked back at the cabinet containing Clarent, Sir Morn’s sword. It was really a nice piece of metal, but it looked far too heavy to use effectively. The Eastern sword she trained with was really light, allowing her quick and agile strikes. If she were to use something like cousin Morn’s sword, she would have to expend a lot of love energy to fight effectively in battle.

As she wandered the halls, Moonglade’s attention was caught by a plain metal globe, sitting off to the side next to a blank stretch of wall. The metal was a little corroded, and the mechanism seemed a bit sticky, but after a few spins, the globe was rotating nicely. Looking closer, Moonglade noticed that a small patch of metal on the globe’s surface was still shiny, like someone had been rubbing it. If her geography lessons were right, this spot was Trotsylvania. She put a finger to it, and stepped back in surprise when the small segment sank down with a click.

There was a series of clicking sounds in the wall, and then a segment of it slid away, revealing a darkened room. Moonglade’s eyebrows shot up. She hadn’t expected this.

“Now, what do we have here?”