Noticing a bunch of messages popping up on her phone, Limestone started flicking through them. "Okay, looks like we head around to the front. If anyone asks, you're with me. Don't answer any questions and don't touch anything. The FBI have a crew almost here." Slinging the rifle onto its shoulder strap, Limestone let it slide to her side and slightly behind her arm.

Following along, Sonata learned where every sharp branch and thorn was in the bushes she pushed past as she followed Limestone. She also tried not to let the branches she pushed aside smack into Twilight—mostly because she liked her, but also because getting a princess angry was never smart.

When Twilight made it out of the bushes too, she saw a van and three cars pull up at the front of the house. "Are these your friends?"

Pulling her badge from her pocket, Limestone nodded. "Yeah, these are them. Head over to my car and let yourselves in."

Sonata walked, barefoot, over to the car and tried the front door. She held it open for Twilight and then climbed into the back seat herself. "Guess there's even more magic around now, huh?"

"You've got your gem back and everything. You're more powerful than your—than the other two were. Back when we had to fight." Admitting that she hadn't been the one to turn to friendship with Sonata stung a little, but Twilight tried to push her own ego aside. "Why didn't you use this back then?"

"Because I didn't want to beat you. I wanted—I wanted to be free of Adagio and Aria. Sabotaging their efforts at taking over was the best I could do, and honestly, I didn't deserve my gemstone." Slumping on the seat and pulling the jacket around herself a little tighter, Sonata shivered a little. "I don't think I do now, either, but I can't stop the magic from building up in it."

"If it helps, I don't think the power itself is wrong or bad. It's how you use it that matters, also, how you get it. Do you know where you're getting all this power?"

Giggling, shaken out of her dark mood, Sonata nodded. "My friends. It's hard to explain. Before, when we fed on anger, we had to inspire others to feel it, then we would feed and the feeding would only make them feel it stronger. Something changed when my gem grew back, I started feeding on—well, I started feeding on friendship and happiness. I think my feeding on it has the same effect, too."

"Soooo…" Twilight couldn't help it. If Sonata needed some sarcasm to drive home the lesson, Twilight was going to have to be the pony to deliver it. It helped she was princess of friendship. "I need a badge," Twilight said, before getting back on track. "Right, so you feed off the good feelings and friendships of those around you, those friendships make you stronger and, in turn, you make those bonds of friendship stronger too?"

Sonata could only stare at the source of the ironic hammer.

"Seems to me you have things all in hoof here. Or fin, as it were. Do sirens have a special group noun and split of ponish?" Twilight asked.

"We, uh, kinda do. We call each other fish all the time, sometimes even making jokes about it. Do you really think I'm doing the right thing?"

"Sonata, I'm the princess of friendship, and while I don't claim to know everything about it, I know enough to see you fighting to protect your friends using the power their friendship has given you. You're doing the right thing." It felt right for Twilight to say. So right, in fact, that she felt herself smiling a little wider. "I can keep going if you'd like. I spent three days once telling a bunch of diplomats the same thing over and over."

"I get it. I get it. Sheesh, you don't give up, do you?"

"Not when it's a friend I'm trying to help."

It finally just sank in. "Alright, but I still don't like using that kind of mind-control. It completely knocked you out."

"If you think I worked out everything I could do right at the start, you're waaaay out of date on Equestrian current events. We're all trying to do better and be better, Sonata. That's the whole point of being good. If you liked using mind-control to take over people's lives, that's when I'd get worried."

Reaching her hand up to her throat, Sonata felt the gemstone there. "This isn't fair, you know? I'm supposed to be anguished about this for thousands of years, but here I have an alicorn princess just say, It's fine, Sonata, just don't get carried away and assume direct control of the world."

"Actually, my best student tried to do that—I mean, it was just one town. Then she tried it again with my friends. Oh, and she almost destroyed Equestria several times over with time travel." Trailing off as Limestone approached the car, Twilight couldn't hold back a giggle. "She's getting better."

Sonata giggled along with Twilight for the whole ride back to the office Limestone worked out of. It surprised her to have someone else present, but all they did was sit there and listen while Limestone led her through the day from the moment she'd left to sell tacos—all Sonata had to do was fill in the blanks, since Limestone knew the big events.

When they were done, Twilight came in and sat beside Sonata. "Do you really need to question me too? I was with you all the time."

Turning to the FBI agent at her side, Limestone cleared her throat. "This is Her Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. Anything she says doesn't leave this room without General Inkwell's say-so." Getting a nod from the agent, Limestone turned back to Twilight and Sonata. "So, your theories on the magic that took place?"

Looking at Sonata, Twilight shrugged and then looked back at Limestone. "The teleportation, the siren song, and most of the magic they were trying to use was fairly standard stuff. What wasn't was you shrugging off a siren's song and them using that compound teleport."

"The nature of my own abilities are both documented and need updating. Firstly, what is a siren's song and how does it work?" Limestone looked at Sonata. She hated to document everything like this—Sonata definitely didn't deserve to be poked and prodded—but having used her power during a mission meant it needed to be examined and even tested.

"It's a telepsychic emanation that spreads on vocal notes. Most sirens need to sing something in order to use it, but I can do some without actually singing. I do need to be talking to you, though." Sonata reached her hand up to her gemstone. "All a siren's magic flows in or out of their gem. All sirens are tuned to a specific emotion, and creating that emotion drains it from the target.

"All sirens except me. That's how it used to work, but lately I can drink and drink and it doesn't drain anyone. Oh, and I don't feed off anger anymore."

Twilight nodded to that. She watched as Limestone and the FBI agent frantically scribbled notes out. "So, uh, what next? Do we keep hunting them?"

"If we can find where to look." Limestone flicked back through her notes. "I'm inclined to release a bunch of mountain lions and just let this problem solve itself. Our friends at the FBI are not as interested in this plan." She nodded toward the observer.

"Actually, I'm here until your new liaison arrives. We have teams scouring the hills, but there's just so much wooded area around Canterlot that it will be impossible to find them."

"This is turning into a theme. Good to have more room, though." Limestone crouched, not sitting, holding her soda in one hand in Rainbow Dash's back yard. "Glad we have a bit more room for it, too." She looked down at her arm and the angry pattern along it.

"I just want to see you all—all." Rainbow gestured wide with her forelegs at Sonata. "I mean, I saw Adagio do it, why won't you show us?"

"Rainbow, if she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to." Rarity had her arm around Sonata and had pulled her lover firmly against her side. "So we have two enemies in the city? I was really hoping there wouldn't be a replay of the Aria/Adagio thing, but if we must—we must. When do you want us to fight them?"

"I don't want you fighting them at all." It legitimately made Limestone angry that her sisters' friends felt they needed to defend the city. "This world needs more protection against this stuff just so civilians aren't required to help. I already feel bad for getting Sonata and Thunderbolt caught up in everything today."

"I mean, I kinda walked into that one. I should have called you when I picked up the magic gunk they were spilling." Happy to be snuggled—limpet-like—by her lover and domme, Sonata lifted her half-eaten taco up to her lips and took a bite.

Nuzzling at Sonata's cheek, Rarity made a happy little noise in her throat. "Gosh but you look so beautiful."

"Ahem!" It wasn't anything approaching a secure location and they were in the open air, but Raven wasn't planning to spill national secrets—just a few of her own. "Thank you, ma'am, for lending us the use of your back yard."

Rainbow waved down the thanks with her foreleg, her wing on that side being occupied with a drink. "Hey, it's no problem. The whole sky is my backyard now."

"Well, I think we're going to be taking advantage of that. How many of you here can fly?" Raven, standing, looked around the young adults and one ancient abomination. She watched Rainbow jerk a leg in the air, Thunderbolt too, and Sonata rounded out the group. "Sonata, you're grounded. As good as it would be to have you scouting, we need to talk tactics. Thunderbolt, Rainbow, can I rely on the two of you to only report what you find and not engage?"

"Engage?" Rainbow asked.

"She means we aren't allowed to attack them." Thunderbolt was half curled around the fire pit, soaking up heat and radiating far more out. He studied Raven Inkwell closely, trying to judge what the woman was thinking.

It was a relief that at least one of them understood her, though Raven was surprised it was Thunderbolt. "Correct. You will both be issued with night-vision equipment, if you need it. It might not fit so well, though. You wanted to help, this is how you can help. Find those two and let us know, and we'll bring the hammer down, won't we, sergeant?"

"Special Weapons And Tactics have offered me the use of some of their heavier toys." Limestone really wanted to just run in and punch both the targets, but she could content herself with dealing with them a little less directly. "You find 'em, I'll take them out."

"So I guess you want us to do that now?" Rainbow asked.

Raven tried to look apologetic. "Sorry to kick you out of your own back yard, but—"

"Eh, it's fine. Just watch how fast I sue the government if you make a mess in my kitchen." Stretching her wings, Rainbow started trying to get herself in the zone to fly fast. "Oh, and where's this fancy gear we can have?"

"I don't need it. Where do you want me to hunt?" Thunderbolt stood up on all fours, then straightened until he was a little uncomfortably more bipedal.

"How good's your sight?" Limestone asked, straightening up and walking over to her gear to grab her tablet. As she walked to Thunderbolt, she turned it on and authenticated.

"I can see heat. They were both warmer than air temperature back at the house." Thunderbolt watched as Limestone held out the tablet so he could look. "All this?"

Author's Note

Ask not-so-doggy Spike: With all the actions another ex-dog does recently, shouldn't you go out and assist Twilight and the gangs at the front line too?

"Uh, do you mean me?" Spike asked, his diminutive draconic form not taking up much room on the stage.

"Probably." The second Spike stood much taller, and his voice was deeper, and when he looked down at his counterpart they both shrugged in exactly the same way.

"Well, Twilight said I should stay back this time because someone has to look after the castle, and last time she spent a while away from it someone concocted a huge revenge plot and—Look, we aren't taking chances anymore," one Spike said.

"I'm trying to get used to all this. I keep looking up as if I'll see Twilight's big face looking down at me with her happy smile. I'll never be able to be that sure of the world again," the other Spike said.

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
CadelDdraigDarkkon
Canary in the Coal Mine
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KFS Crimson
shortskirtsandexplosions
Sirion123
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