Servant of the Queen

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.