Servant of the Queen

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.”