Servant of the Queen

“... 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.”