“I mean, we can look into getting you a VP70 if you really want a burst pistol. Or we could try to modify something… though that might take a bit longer to make it reliable enough, not ta mention up to code and all that…”

The range master's cotton candy curls bobbed as she tilted her head, face in a contemplative frown as she considered the newest request of the armory. Jodie however, was the one to lay it out straight for her.

“Sorry new girl. We try to please here at Bouquet’s Guns and Ammo and I know Aya makes it look like a dream, but the M93R was hard enough to get here in the states when Ay’ lucked out with hers. And even that’s not all original parts anymore. Getting one these days? An authentic, legal one they don't want 45k for? Yeah, Good Luck. Trust me, we’ve been looking.”

“I can’t say I didn’t expect as much…” The siren sitting at the table across from the pair grumbled. It was disappointing but hardly a surprise; even Ark Shadow had only provided them with imitations or substitutes themselves. Rarely good ones at that either, hence why she didn’t still have what she originally escaped with.

“To be blunt Miss Dazzle, while machine pistols can certainly dish out the punishment, they’re not actually all that practical in the field usually. Not compared to semi-autos or full smgs at least.” Jodie offered “There’s a reason Ay’s one of the only ones here that uses one.”

“I am aware of that, but the training implanted in my skull is in no small part based on Brea herself, meaning they’re what I’m most familiar with.” Adagio returned tiredly, rubbing one of her temples “It doesn’t have to be a Raffica specifically. It doesn’t even have to be strictly a burst fire; I have enough trigger control to make do with a full auto. I would prefer something a bit more… involved than just a Glock though, so modifying something may be my best option then. I do know I don’t want a damn VP though.”

“Yeah parts of its design are pretty atrocious… especially the trigger.” Pinkie concurred with a grimace. She then sucked at her cheek for a moment “I mean yeah, we can definitely whip ya up a nice triple shot. A real nice one if I’m allowed to go full Frankenstein with it, buuut…”

“But?” the siren repeated back to the bubbly woman trailing off hesitantly. Once more it was Jodie answering.

“But we can’t really just issue you one when a more traditional sidearm is enough to do the job” the brunette explained “Now you start taking out enough of the creepy crawlies and save up, then we can start really talking about your options there.”

“Oh, right. MIST uses a Bounty Point system too, doesn’t it?” the Dazzling frowned “I get why Ark used it; an expendable hunter that doesn’t live long enough to kill things isn’t worth wasting resources on. I’d have thought MIST would just give their people what they need though.”

“They do give us what we need. It’s just the stuff we don’t need that costs us BP.” Sunset piped up from the counter she was leaning on. Considering Adagio had a high chance of becoming her official partner once her probationary training period was done, she was present for her gear selection in case they wanted to coordinate. “I’ll admit I was a little confused at first too, but it’s not like they’re sending us out with nothing more than a spork and well wishes. But it’s also hard to say we need stuff like machine pistols or flamethrowers when more boring but practical arms can still kill NMCs just fine.”

“If a mission needs extra firepower you’ll still get it," Jodie elaborated "This is all just about your day to day loadout. It also helps us save money, as most will consider what they want more seriously when it feels like it’ll also cost them something and not just ‘the system’ something... That and it’s always nice to have some extra incentives to keep morale up. It's not just guns and gadgets after all either.”

“It’s not?” The siren queried.

“There’s a partial list in the break room. We also normally have pamphlets and an option in the check-in systems but we have to update them” the brunette continued before shooting Sunset a sly smirk “Bulk’s offering massages again.”

“Oh his are nice…” the redhead delivered in a breath that bordered on almost sensual “Damn and I just spent a chunk of mine to keep hold of that hammer too.”

“Hmmm” Adagio gave without much inflection “Well if I have to save up for it I suppose the P08 you found me with will continue to suffice for now.”

“Well I wouldn’t go that far.” Pinkie commented “It’s a neat little thing sure, but we can get you something more modern than the First World War.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ve come to like it well enough. Plus it certainly doesn’t lack for style, so I’ll keep it until then,” she waved off before tilting her head “I suppose the spas will do for now as well. I’ll be a bit limited on range perhaps but it’s not like that’s a common issue with NMCs and the extra punch will be nice. It certainly handled 23’s rooks well enough.”

“Actually... that’s been striped since you were brought in." Pinkie informed her with sheepish wince "It already wasn’t in the best condition on top of the whole ‘found in an enemy compound so we’re trying to trace it back if at all possible’ thing, soooo yeah... We do have plenty of other shotguns! Though you’d probably be starting with a PA3 or the like.”

“POS more like… Pity I can’t transfer my old points, though I suppose I can see how that’d be a conflict of interests, even if I did still have my tracker…” the siren feigned poetically “But the PA3 it is I guess.”

“If it helps at all it won’t be stock.” Jodie offered with a lopsided smile “After enough complaints, we started modifying all of ours with new tubes. So it’ll have a couple extra shots and a smoother action at least. We can fit another attachment on them now too.”

“Better than nothing.” Adagio murmured “I don’t suppose I could persuade you to at least lend me a bayonet for it?”

“I think we can spot you a blade” Jodie shrugged back with a smirk “Most of ours are just collecting dust anyway. Though I am a little surprised; I didn’t figure you for the up close and personal type.”

“I thought it was stupid at first myself but it can be shockingly effective when used intelligently.” she shrugged herself before gaining a dubious grin “That and there’s a certain… visceral satisfaction to tearing into something that tried to tear into you.”

“I’ll… take your word on that” the armory master returned awkwardly before using the excuse of marking her sheets to drop the topic. She then shuffled to the next set of pages before brightening back up “On to armors then! From your light to heavy load outs, do you have any particular preferences?”

“It depends what I can get without BP” the siren droned out.

“Armor's pretty essential and can impact your performance a lot more than what your bullet throwers look like, so you have a far wider range to pick from ‘for free’” Jodie assured the woman “Granted, there’s only so many ways to configure plates and padding but only very specially custom pieces and more exotic protections are things that you’d need BP for. And again, if a mission needs something special, we’ll still issue it out temporarily. What did you wear in your… previous hunts?”

“A skin tight, reinforced battle suit and a control helmet” the Dazzling stated boredly “I don’t think I have to speak of the latter and while the former was acceptably effective, it wouldn’t be particularly practical here at MIST, even with how hard I rocked it.”

“It would also fall into the whole custom area” Pinkie added “not to say we can’t get you something that still fits good, but yeah that would be a little much, maybe even with points. But let’s go browse, we can also get you fitted with your holsters while we’re at it.”

Sunset followed as they moved into the shelves. She hadn’t actually gone through this process herself, not all at once like this at least, and certainly not right away. Most of her gear had been chosen for her, given her complete lack of experience at the time. She’d since made several tweaks and changes but still had many of her original stand-bys nonetheless.

She was frankly a little amazed just how smoothly this was all going. She knew Adagio wasn't rebuking on the arrangement yet but figured there’d still be a fair amount of snark, or at least some condescension involved, but she seemed to understand this was about keeping her safe and treated it as such. Other than her bored tone, she wasn’t making this at all difficult for the armory duo like Sunset feared she might have. She had been like that with most of the staff in fact, save maybe during her more tedious exams with Twilight and her one session with Cadence so far.

“What do you use?” the siren questioned as Pinkie adjusted several belts around her chest, bringing the redhead from her thoughts.

“I wear a chicken plate” the Dazzling’s brow furrowed at her reply. Sunset then pointed to a rack of three simple looking vests, the first of which she was pretty sure was in fact hers. It needed a couple of its plates replaced after the Shelter and she hadn’t gotten around to picking it back up yet. “It’s got a more technical name but that's what we call it. It’s a little stiff and heavier than some of the other vests but it takes the hits really well, especially big impacts. It’s already saved me from broken ribs more than once already, leaving them bruised, or just once cracked instead.”

The siren hummed at the input as she considered, looking over her options. Eventually though she settled on a simple ‘turtle vest’ and limbs guards that, while lighter than Sunset’s, also offered more coverage. If the former pony had to guess, Ms. Dazzle was trying for an approximation of her former battlesuit without trying to make it too obvious. With the basics of her loadout decided, the pair made to leave when Pinkie called out as they passed through the inner door into the waiting area.

“Oh, Sunny hang on a second” Pinkie scampered out of sight back to the armor shelves, returning just a moment later with one of the ‘chicken plates’. She then went and grabbed what was definitely Sunset’s M4 and the rest of her typical loadout; all that was missing was what she kept in her locker downstairs. However, after placing them at the slide to the exchange window, she then just kind of stood there, smiling sweetly at her.

“Uh… So my plate’s all fixed then?” Sunset asked after a moment too many of the awkwardness had passed.

“Yep!” the poofy-haired woman beamed at her, tilting her head. Another couple of empty seconds went by before her brow furrowed and one corner of her lip tugged “Hmm, must have gotten stopped in the hallway… Oh! There he is!”

Not an instant after the statement the door to the hall opened, revealing Rupert walking in with Rainbow at his heels, the latter looking pumped.

“Shimmer, good; I didn’t miss you” he gave simply. Sunset shot a glance back at the rangemaster, who winked in return “You’re on patrol today.”

“With me?” Adagio asked, not… quite as boredly as usual.

“No” the director answered bluntly, though not aggressively, before regarding the redhead again “It’ll be you and Dash.”

“Oh really?” she gave with subtle surprise. It wasn’t unheard of for Dash to go out on patrols but if there were any full-time hunters available, then she was usually left to her mechanic’s duties. Said mechanic then puffed her chest out.

“Yep! If I’m gonna start powering up then I gotta start fighting NMCs more often!” she declared with a hand on her hip and a thumb to her chest.

“Twilight wants to make sure she’ll stay stable during a fight” the dark skinned man corrected, though it didn’t seem to dent Rainbow's mood at all. The director then looked past their youngest hunter, simply nodding at the women behind the glass before wishing the pair of them luck and returning to his office. Sunset glanced over her shoulder again to see Dash’s loadout already prepared as well.

Shrugging, she and Rainbow gathered their gear and headed toward the locker rooms, leaving Adagio with the women in the armory. The begrudgingly short-haired siren frowned and turned to study the rangemaster waving to her retreating friends.

“I thought you weren’t infected” she gave in more a question than statement.

“I’m not!” Pinkie confirmed cheerfully, making the siren’s frown only deepen.

“Then how-”

“Trust me new girl” Jodie interrupted, “It’s really best not to ask… or even think about too hard.”

“It’s really is,” the Pie nodded in agreement. With her question not only unanswered but expounded on, it turned the Dazzling’s frown into a mild scowl. After a moment though,

“Whatever” she rolled her eyes and followed after the director to ask if she could go home now that her gear was sorted.

Meanwhile downstairs, Sunset and Dash entered the locker room to find both Applejack and Rarity drying their hair after a pair of apparently rather steamy showers. The faint remnants of the mist hung thinly even in the separated room.

“Oh Sunset, wonderful!” the more well coiffed of the pair squeaked before excitedly scampering to her locker. She reached into its depths and, with a flourish, retrieved a hanger bearing a handsome leather jacket. “Ta-DA!”

“Oh wow!” the Awakened took the offered jacket and looked it over, marveling at the woman’s work “I can’t even tell where the tears were! This is awesome, thanks Rare!”

“Think nothing of it dear” Rarity gave with a small wave “I’ve repaired Aya’s so many times I can mend leather in my sleep at this point.”

Still grinning from ear to ear, the young hunter quickly swung the jacket on, finding it to fit and move in as easily as before it was damaged. A small purse then found her lips though and she pulled it off triggering a note of concern to touch the part-time designer’s face until she noticed Sunset now also tearing off her t-shirt and beginning to dig through her locker.

“Ah, you had me worried there for a moment.” the purple-maned hunter quipped playfully “But yes, I suppose that really wasn’t the right color now, was it?”

“Got to coordinate with something so well done” Sunset quipped before pulling out a couple of shirts. She switched them back and forth in front of her while constantly glancing at the jacket. After a moment however, something caught her eye: AJ kept making an odd face at the glimpses of what was behind the moving shirts. Sunset looked down to study herself. She was wearing a bra today so it wasn’t that weird stigma she still didn’t fully understand, so she finally just had to ask “What is it?”

“Huh? Oh, Sorry Darl’n! I aint trying ta leer, I swear!” she gave with a laugh “Just noticed yer gettn’ yerself a might decent six pack there is all.”

“Yeah?” the unicorn girl looked down again, rubbing her fingers along her lightly toned belly.

“Well yeah!” Dash piped up “I made sure she’s kept working out even after her physical therapy was done: Can’t be too in shape for this kind job!”

“She’s certainly come a long way from that scrawny little thing we took in only so many months ago” Rarity added.

“From book dropper ta Brick house in jus’ half a year” Applejack smirked at her “Even with yer mitos, that ain’t nothing ta scoff at.”

“~Cause She’s a Brick House~” Dash sang as began to sway up to the youngest hunter “~She’s Mighty-Mighty! Just lettin’ all hang out!~”

The other women giggled and before Sunset could argue that it was just a little definition, the rangemaster they had left up stairs was suddenly saddling back to back with the mechanic and joining in.

“~YEAH SHE’S THE ONE!~ ~THE ONLY ONE!~ ~BUILT LIKE AN AMAZON!~”

The former pony finally relented and joined the rest in laughter. As it petered out though, she did make one counter argument.

“Thanks girls, but I think if any of us here is an Amazon, it’s Jackie” she pointed out.

The cowgirl in question straightened as all eyes turned to her. She gained an appraising look and brought her arms up, looking over her flexing her biceps to confirm she had all the rest of them easily outclassed.

“Yeah, fair ‘nuff.” she gave with a grin and triggered another round of giggles.

Sunset sat at her computer, trying to ‘catch up’ on her research as she bobbed her head to the music pouring through her earbuds. That wasn’t to say there were any actual goals or quotas that she set herself when it came to her studies of human technologies; she wasn’t Twilight after all. However, with everything that had been happening lately, she had felt she had begun neglecting it some. She was also starting to really get past the basics on a lot of her chosen focuses, so it was taking a bit more effort to progress in most of them. She’d have to start narrowing her focus soon if she was going to have any hope of maintaining usable information to bring back home beyond her so far relatively shallow dives. Not quite yet, but the choice was beginning to loom.

Her attention was broken by a loud vibrating on her desk. She picked up her phone and blinked at the notification: Rupert was texting her. Now it wasn’t terribly uncommon for hunters to be contacted on their days off, typically by memos or the like or if something really big happened but the contents of this text did give her pause... and then sent a pang of worry through her. She heard Dash call out that her and Fluttershy were leaving for work a little bit ago yet here Rupert was asking her if they were still there. To further her concern, he was also saying that he couldn’t reach either of them himself.

Hoping they hadn’t ended up in some kind of accident, she plucked out the earbuds and stepped out her door only to nearly run right into the pair standing just outside in the hall.

“What are you two- wooaahh…” was all she managed before teetering in place as a wave of bewitching pleasure flowed through her and an enrapturing song filled her thoughts. Recognizing the threat only a moment before it was too late, the former unicorn sent a discordant pulse of magic through her own senses. It was far from pleasant, but it was enough to overcome the effect. Clearing her head and doing her best to tune out the beautiful noise, she took one look at the pair staring utterly transfixed at the door in front of them before shoving past.

“ADAGIO!” The bathroom door slammed open as the fiery haired hunter barged through, startling the siren lounging in the bubble filled tub. The bright glow of her amulet already began to fade before the shout continued “STOP SINGING!”

“Excuse me!?” the siren snarled back as if Sunset just kicked her puppy.

“You’ve got Shy and Dash completely entranced!” the redhead threw her arm back to pair now beginning to sway and stumble at the spell beginning to wane “They’re already over a half hour late for work! You can’t just be going off like this!”

If the Dazzling caught any note of her song’s effect on the two, it clearly made no impact as she methodically rose to her knees and braced herself against the rim of the tub. With the bubbles now doing very little to hide anything, she glared at the younger hunter menacingly.

“Are you Seriously trying to tell a Siren that she’s not allowed to SING?'' All the venom she spat regarding Ark Shadow and the atrocities they committed against her so far Paled in comparison to the sheer MALICE now dripping from the Dazzling’s every word.

“I’m saying you can’t just dump your magic into it without thinking about how it’ll affect everyone around you!” Sunset glared right back at the naked woman trying to burn her with her stare “And don’t tell me you can’t sing without it! Your ballads in the shower over the past couple days have been enough to prove that.”

The pair continued their deadlock, eyes unwavering until a groan from behind the former pony drew their attention.

“Wh.. What happened?” Rainbow asked groggily, trying to clear her head before taking in the scene. She and Fluttershy both swung their heads around surprised, trying to process their precived
sudden change In location “What the hell?!”

“Adagio was singing. With her Magic.” Sunset stated angrily “You ended up entranced.”

“What, like mind control?!”

“Don’t be so dramatic ‘Bright” the siren sneered “I can’t do that without my sisters. You were just enraptured. It wasn’t even intentional.”

“You’ve been oblivious to everything but her song for the last half hour” Sunset sighed.

“Half hour?!” Rainbow balked as the pair pulled their phones “OH GOD DAMNIT! You better believe we’re gonna have words about this when we get back Seahorse!”

“I’m so scared” Adagio droned as they shot her a last pair of nasty looks before rushing out before they were even more late. Though Adagio did subtly flinch at the small chill the the alpha of the trio's stare left her with. She let out a heavy sigh before flopping back into the water “I heard her tell you they were leaving. I thought they were gone.”

“And what about me?” Sunset snapped “You didn’t give a shit about prossibly making me stupidly stare at a door for hours on my day off?”

“You seemed to resist well enough to barge in and yell at me.”

“Barely!”

“Oh? Good to know~” She smirked at the pony girl’s scowl “Oh calm down. It’s not like I wouldn’t have stopped eventually. They were only caught in it for a half hour after all.”

“That’s hardly nothing even if it hadn’t made them late!” the redhead argued “And seriously, why the are you still in the tub? It’s been over an hour! If not Two!”

“Aquatic species, pony” she pointed to herself “And I figured your water bill would appreciate this over that long of a shower.”

“OUR water bill,” the aforementioned pony girl informed her. The siren made a face at the reminder but didn’t say anything “Just… watch it with the errant magic, alright Ada? They’ve no safeguards against it.”

Sunset finished with a sigh and turned to leave. She just passed back through the door when the siren’s voice reached her again.

“Dag.”

“What?” she turned around to the woman now giving a slight eye roll.

“As euphoric as it is to have pass through one’s lips, I am aware my name’s not always the most convenient in regular conversation. But I’ve never liked 'Ada'.” she explained with a minute touch of dramatic flare “So if you must shorten it, I prefer Dag.”

“Dag?” Sunset repeated “Not as… elegant as I would have expected from you.”

“It’s what my sisters call me” she gave in a notably quieter, softer tone.

“Hmm” the redhead hesitated at the small, but earnest moment “Well then watch it with the errant magic, alright Dag?”

The siren simply gave a small grunt, frowning at the bubbles drifting around her form. With the situation over and the sound of the garage door closing already reaching her, the former pony returned to her room. She eventually heard the tub draining and let her prepared filtering spell ebb. She hadn’t really expected a repeat performance, not of the enrapturing kind at least, but she felt it hadn’t been the worst precaution to take.

After a bit her stomach gave a growl, so she rose from her chair. She hesitated as her hand landed on the doorknob however, trying to decide if she really wanted to do this with Adagio still home. A spark of defiance lit within her however and she walked out into the hall with her head held high. She may be differentrantial to Shy and Rainbow’s preferences but she wasn’t about to let their new arrival change her ‘free day’ habits.

She strode into the main room and veered toward the kitchen, spotting the siren seated on the living room couch with a book in front of her. Sunset had thought her frequent reading in the infirmary may have been mostly out of lack of other options, but it seemed the Dazzling was a bit of a bibliophile herself. Admittedly it wasn’t the same kind of fair Sunset typically preferred but she’d been pleasantly surprised when Adagio used a portion of her advance pay to buy a large box of second hand novels from a resale shop. For a shockingly low price at that too. She hadn’t broached the topic yet, but it gave Sunset at least one common point of interest to talk about for when their inevitable patrols together started.

The siren didn’t look up from the pages as Sunset busied herself about the kitchen. It wasn’t a full meal, not for an NMH at least, but she put together a nice little snack for herself, enough to hold her over until dinner. …Probably. She paused a moment to think before finally putting together another plate and calling toward the couch.

“Would you like some?” She held up the plate. The siren glanced at the offered food and opened her mouth but stopped at the sight beyond it. She looked the fiery haired girl up and down with a neutral eye before finally turning her gaze up to meet hers and arched her brow.

“I know you undoubtedly loved what you saw earlier Shimmer, but I’d have thought you’d be at least a little more subtle in your advances.”

“Pfft. You Wish” the redhead snarked and turned away toward the table, setting both plates down “Shy and Rainbow aren’t comfortable with it so I don’t do it while they’re around, but considering your own lack of any reaction to us seeing you in the tub, I’m guessing you haven’t really bought into the whole perpetual wearing of clothes thing either. Though frankly even if you have, I’m not about to forgo my ‘free time’ for you; Not when you’re also from our ‘more liberated’ home.”

The siren continued to stare blankly during the redhead’s argument, expression not wavering to suggest one opinion or the other. After a moment though, and a quick glance at the dish prepared for her, she gave a shrug and stood, already removing her shirt as she wound around the couch. By the time she sat at the table, a trail of dropped garments betrayed her path. With a satisfied smirk, Sunset took a few bites of her food before continuing.

“So… now that we’re both ‘naked and vulnerable’, maybe we should finally have a real conversation about things.” She offered.

“But don’t push your luck pony” the Dazzling shot her a look before returning to her own meal.

“Suit yourself” the redhead returned. It was no skin off her nose, she hadn’t planned on anything more than a snack and asserting her ‘freedom’ anyway. A few minutes of silence passed before the siren finally gave a sigh.

“How long is ‘quite a while’?” she asked simply, though after noticing the girl's confusion, she elaborated “You said Sirens haven’t been seen in ‘quite a while’; exactly how long is that?”

“Well, I can’t really tell you ‘exactly’,” Sunset frowned. “But the best guesses are anywhere from two and four hundred years.”

“That’s… a fairly significant range there, pony.”

“And yet that’s the best we got unfortunately. Or the best I’ve got at least. It’s not like I still have the royal libraries to reference.” Sunset shrugged “The few sightings that were actually logged all come with the caveat that it may not have been actual sirens that were witnessed. No offense but there’s a lot of things that make a similar silhouette under the water as you guys, even disregarding… those things you guys hate.”

“Girls. Or Ladies, to be more respectful.” Adagio retorted simply, perplexing the former unicorn “There are no male Sirens, so it’s inaccurate to call us ‘guys’ as a whole, even in the general mixed-gender sense.”

“You’re mono-gendered?” Sunset tilted her head at the new information. While she knew only female sirens had been encountered before, it was always theroized they were just a heavily matriarchal society that kept their males at home. Sunset realized she may be bringing secrets about more than just Earth back with her. “How do you reproduce?”

“~Would you like me to show you?~” Sunset’s curiosity was shattered by the siren’s seductive tone as she leaned forward to rest her chin on her propped up hands. A fierce blush flashed onto the redhead’s face and, with nothing to hide it, her neck and shoulders too. The siren threw her head back and laughed at the display, dosing the heat significantly. Though to Sunset’s lament, not completely, as the action still made… certain parts of the exposed siren ‘react’ with the vigorous motions as well.

“Look if you don’t want to know about your people-”

“Oh don’t be boring Shimmer, it was just a bit of fun” Adagio sneered playfully at her “Here with how you snicker at the loud one’s jokes, I thought you’d appreciate my sense of humor. Or can you only dish it out without taking it in return?”

“Anyway…” Sunset disregarded the jab and continued “The last sighting on record that I know of was from a fishing boat sailing along the former known borders of your waters. On the surface of them that is.”

“Yes, with your kind being a surface species I figured that already” she commented dryly “Still… a fisher’s report hardly seems like something to be included in general education unless we made a far bigger impact than I’m aware of. Did our sisters go on to do something even more grand after we were banished?”

“Nothing so noteworthy” Sunset relayed “I know because my own education was hardly general. I was the princess’s personal apprentice and I learned of your kind during my lessons. After that, even at the risk of inflating your ego all the more, I’ll admit I actually found myself a bit fascinated by them for a while.”

“We are pretty fascinating” the siren peacocked a bit before directing her smirk back to the younger hunter “What part of our magnificence lured you in?”

“Two things mostly: The first being your race having a natural, biological focus for your magic like unicorns do” she gestured to the Dazzling’s only remaining piece of coverage “And the other was yours being one of the few other races that not only regularly experienced Moments of Harmony, but reveled in them like most ponies do as well.”

“Moments of Harmony?” Adagio parroted nonplussed.

"Some ponies call them Heartsongs?" Sunset offered, before gesturing awkwardly when the siren didn't look any more enlightened. “Y’know, what they don’t have here at all outside of imitations in plays and musicals? When strong enough emotions harmonize with the surrounding ambient magic to create music and guide everypony in song… What do you call it when that happens?”

“Singing?” the siren offered with a shrug “We were able to induce it if it was an ensemble of even moderate ability, so it’s kind of just a state of being with us.”

“Sounds nice.”

“It was…” Adagio murmured as she began absently playing with her food. Frowning at the sudden shift in mood, Sunset soldiered on.

“Earlier, you referred to the rest of your race as sisters. Does that mean-”

“No. No, that was in the general sense” Adagio was quick to correct “Aria, Sonata and I are from the same clutch though. They’re my actual sisters.”

“You really do care about them, don’t you?”

“As irritating as they are... We still have families Shimmer, just like you ponies. I know our races have never had stelar relations but we didn’t deserve to be relegated to the likes of Hydras and Tatzl Corruptions. We’re not Monsters…” Adagio delivered with a heavy sigh as she rubbed her forehead “Do you know Whywe were trying to stop the unification? Because if you all got your act together then we’d lose our greatest, or at least easiest source of sustenance.”

“I thought you said you weren’t eating us?”

“Not like- Damnit Pony! What did I JUST say?!” Adagio snapped back at the quip “Yes, I’ll fully admit there have been a some messed up sirens that would literally eat those of sapient races, but they’d be banished from the main symphonies as soon as they were revealed, and even then they were a hell a lot less common compared to those asshole dragons! Hell even your candy coated race isn’t completely innocent. Maybe not eating people bad, but I know for a fact you’ve still produced some notably twisted souls. That Sombra fool for one comes right to mind.”

“Sorry, I just… sorry…” the fiery haired hunter stumbled out. She hadn’t really meant anything by it but she had no argument against the siren’s points. She then blinked though “Wait, you met King Sombra? As in before the Crystal Empire vanished?”

“You mean he actually destroyed it? We figured he’d screw up his little coup but we didn’t think he was that much of a failure… Although then again… Sure he was powerful, but to say he really didn’t impress us with his ‘offer’ for us to become his minions would have been putting it lightly.” the siren recounted with a dismissive wave “But back to the topic at hand; no, we weren’t feeding on you like that. While our bodies need normal food like most other races, Siren magic is dependent on emotions. We feed off excesses of it to sustain our abilities, with negative emotions being the most potent source. With your tribes’ endless squabbling, it was basically a limitless buffet. At least it was until those tribe leaders began your kind’s whole friendship cult.”

“It’s not a cult” Sunset countered grumpily “It’s not a religion either, the other races’ ideas of comedy notwithstanding... It was a necessity for survival with the windigos constantly trying to freeze us.”

“I’m not begrudging you for driving off those self-defeating snowflakes, the lack of competition was nice if nothing else. But you gotta admit, you ponies can get pretty weird with the whole ‘friendship thing’.”

Sunset was about to argue before remembering she herself had thought pretty much the same way until just recently. And if she was being perfectly honest, even with her new appreciation, some ponies really did still get a little too intense with it. Not to mention just hammy.

“It keeps us united, but yeah… point conceded.” She relented “But you also didn’t have to try to stop the unification. I mean, did you ever consider just approaching us about it peacefully?”

“Oh hello little ponies! So sorry to bother you, but do you think you could keep being constantly at one another’s throats after finally putting aside your differences after centuries of conflict? It would be supes cool if we could keep feeding off you!” the siren delivered in a sickeningly sweet mockery before leveling a flat stare the unicorn girl’s way.

“Not like that smart ass.” Sunset returned the look “I meant does it have to be negative emotions? Not to get to ‘weird’ with it, but friendship literally is a force of magic, at least for us ponies. A fairly powerful one if what my former mentor was always trying to relate to me is true. Could you-”

“Alright,” Adagio abruptly interrupted and stood up “If you’re gonna get all religious then this conversation's over. I’m not joining your cult.”

Sunset gave an aggravated huff, but decided to let it drop for now. Frankly she was amazed by how well it had been going up to that point. That and even just the few revelations Ms Dazzle had shared left her a lot to think about and reconsider herself, both about her own perceptions and Equestrian history in general. She had of course heard the saying ‘history is written by the victor’ but this was the first significant deviation she'd come across that suggested even ponies weren’t as immune to it as they liked to think. That and the realization that Adagio could offer an entirely new perspective, not to mention simple facts on her original era, was exciting too. She found herself studying the siren now collecting her clothes on her way back to the couch.

The siren noticed her studying however, right as she was bending over for her shirt. Catching the former pony’s eye, a supremely smug smirk graced her as she wagged her eyebrows back over her shoulder at the redhead. Realizing what she was doing, Sunset instantly ripped her gaze away as her earlier blush returned with a vengeance.

“Subtlety pony.” Adagio teased.

“Shut up” she snapped shortly, earning nothing more than a dark chuckle from the Dazzling now returning to her book. Sunset was about to let it drop completely but a thought occurred to her “So how do you sustain your magic here?”

“Are you kidding?” the Dazzling scoffed “Even if you ignore the bottomless pit of Hate that is Earth politics, humans will and do argue about absolutely Anything. We actually had to teach ourselves to cut off our intake when we got here to prevent overflow. Granted the emotions have barely any potency magically speaking, so it’s like trying to run an engine off vegetable oil, but there’s still no risk of deficiency. Your old tribes have nothing on these psychotic apes.”

Sunset considered pointing out how cooperative humans could also be; their incredible accomplishments and how technologically far ahead of Equestria they were spoke volumes to that. But at the same time, one only needed to hear how passionate even those at MIST could get when discussing something as mundane as TV show finales or ‘who could beat who in a fight’ to understand the Siren’s point. Most seemed to rather enjoy it actually. So she simply shrugged in agreement.

“Yeah okay, fair enough.”

Leaves crunched loudly underfoot as the squad of hunters made their way through the cold trees. Rupert and Aya both led point as Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow followed close behind with Sunset and Adagio taking up the rear. Having such a large team sent in response to a sighting was odd enough but the presence of both originals really helped lay out the potential threat of this for the former pony. The presence of one of the leads could easily be explained away, as it was technically Adagio’s first field assignment outside of patrols, but both being present was concerning.

The reason for it was that the sighting was not only of another chaser, but it was in the same area as they encountered the last pair, when they recovered the one that didn’t melt right away. While this may simply be taking a little too much caution, after all the close calls she had recently; Sunset preferred the risk of this being a simple overreaction than end up needing this amount of force and not having it. It would seem Rupert felt similarly, much to her relief.

“God damnit” Sunset blinked at the rather unladylike growl that escaped the fashionable hunter ahead of her “This is not a trend I’m coming to appreciate…”

“Having trouble sensing anything?” AJ looked at her with a sympathetic frown.

“Oh I’m sensing plenty” she gave with an edge “It’s simply all so muddled together that it might as well be nothing to me.”

“Well that tells us something’s definitely out here,” Rainbow pointed out “That’s still something, right?”

“Not nearly enough compared to my usual standards, but thank you for trying Darling…” Rarity gave back with a tired sigh, squinting as she pinched the bridge of her nose “At this rate, I’ll prove useless before the year is out.”

“You’re still a hunter Belle,” Rupert called back, even if his attention was still focused on the path forward “We wouldn’t humor you if all you were good for was your senses.”

“You’re still a scary good shot,” Sunset added, making sure not to trip over a particularly obstructive root. “Seriously Rare, I have no idea how you do it.”

“Unfortunately part of that is also thanks to my senses…” the purple haired woman huffed.

“You could always sit in on my lessons once they start, us being both wind and all” Dash offered with a shrug before narrowly avoiding tripping over an errant root herself. While she was still on suppressants, they had been able to determine Rainbow was indeed inclined toward the ‘Wind’ branch of neo-mitochondrial energies. She had been a little disappointed that the first display of her ability wasn’t nearly as grandiose as Sunset’s had been, but the sparking arcs of electricity she produced between her fingers had left little question of what direction to take.

“I… may just do that” Rarity relented. “Even if we don’t keep running into these impediments to my senses, I dare say it’s more than past time I started shoring up my deficiencies there.”

“I don’t suppose you girls would mind a third, would you?” Sunset stepped up a little closer to the pair “I know it’s not my inclination, but I am an awakened and haven’t even touched that branch at all yet.”

“I wouldn’t mind but it’s really up to Ay’,” Dash shrugged again before smirking up toward the older awakened “Not sure she’d want to deal with all three of us at once like that.”

“Hmmm” the veteran hunter gave without much inflection to give away her opinion. Before they could muse any further on the idea though, she perked up and stopped in place “Got something.”

Rarity hurried up to stand with her before closing her eyes to concentrate. It took a few moments but she eventually reopened her eyes.

“Well, I’m afraid I can't tell you what it is or even how many, but I can at least tell you it’s in that direction” she pointed toward their two o’clock.

“See? Even blurred ya still got all us beat” Applejack gave her partner an affectionate bump as they returned to her place in the formation. Sunset relaxed a bit at the sight of the fashionista relenting. She had actually asked Cadence if there was anything they could do for her during these little ‘pity parties’ other than reassure her. She felt bad calling them that but wasn’t sure how better to put it. While limited by confidentiality, the counselor said it was something the woman had to ultimately come to terms with on her own. As Rarity admitted herself, she had intentionally over-specialized to avoid ever being caught off guard, so whenever anything actually managed to, it hit her that much harder. Add in the increasing frequency it seemed to be happening lately, and Sunset could understand how it was starting to wear on the sensitive hunter.

‘Hopefully those offered lessons will help…’ she gave one last thought on the subject before refocusing on their surroundings. She stepped over a particularly twisted length of wood when another curse was uttered from the trio in front of her.

“Mother-!” it was Rainbow calling out this time as she stumbled forward, only barely keeping herself from falling flat on her face “Okay seriously! Am I just being a dumbass or are there a lot of fucking roots here?!”

“There does seem ta be a whole mess of them along this way” AJ agreed, looking around. While she had been mostly concerned with avoiding the ones that threatened her, now that Sunset looked around herself, even the carpet of fallen leaves couldn’t hide the uneven mess that was the forest floor around them. She continued tracing them to the tree trunks and then upward to the half bare branches above them; a good portion of their leaves were already on the ground around them as the remaining masses of reds and browns gently swayed above them.

‘Wait a minute…’ she frowned at the movement ‘Why can’t I feel a breeze?’

“AH!” not an instant after the thought, a flurry of vines shot out of the leaves to ensnare her. Several more shot out all around the hunters as the great masses of the leaves fell from the branches to surround them. Unfortunately for Sunset, her attackers decided to remain in their perches and try to drag the youngest hunter upward, causing the broad thorns of their vines to dig painfully into her flesh.

A flash of flame danced across her arms until a discordant green energy shot through the branches, engulfing the hostile vegetation. They didn’t actively let their prey go but the vines snapped when their owners began to rapidly wither and decay before Sunset’s very eyes.

“Snuff the flames, Shimmer!” Adagio snapped with a nasty look, before gathering more of the noxious electricity along her arm “Before you burn us all alive!”

She glared at the siren until Aya’s voice called over the mounting scuffle.

“She’s right! We’re in a giant tinderbox here Sunset!” The veteran hunter agreed in a call over her shoulder, though her shout at least didn’t carry any of the same hostility the Dazzling’s had. Remembering the Autumn’s worth of fallen, dry leaves everywhere she looked, she dosed the flames and grimaced; this would be a lot harder with just her gun, particularly with how much she questioned how effective bullets would be against this kind of foe.

She wasn’t the only one so limited though and her shots joined the others also having to rely on their guns. The mutated vegetation was slow to advance but it took far too many rounds to break each mass apart enough to make them finally stop moving. Enough that they still had to constantly reposition to dodge the flurry of thorny vines lashing out with more than enough speed and distance to make up for the cores’ pace.

Thankfully the waves of necrosis Aya and Adagio were putting out were keeping the tide from turning against them. While fire would have of course been the natural counter to hostile plant life, the deteriorating energy proved an excellent substitute to the far more risky flames.

Just as they were making headway however, a series of warbling hoots and grunts sounded over the gunfire from beyond the plants. Several large quadrupedal shapes began weaving through the trees towards the squad, drawn by the shots. Closing distance despite the trunks preventing a straight line and the multitude of pushed up roots causing them to trip as well, the NMCs' arrival nevertheless complicated things.

‘Guess we don’t have to find the Chasers now at least’ Sunset internalized glumly as she shifted her aim toward the more familiar NMCs before they could join their leafy cousins. However as the pack reached the line of Neo-Mitochondrial Vegetation, what happened made every hunter, even the two veterans, stop in shock.

The plants turned their vines against the NMCs, attacking them even more viciously than they had the invading hunters.

NMCs didn’t attack each other. Not unless they directly got in one another’s way, which even then usually only happened by accident. The only other time was when pushed to the point of such desperate starvation they didn't have a choice. It simply didn’t happen otherwise. While not exactly psychic, Neo-mitochondria called out to each other; it was the main reason organisms with it could sense one another, and that resonance practically forced cooperation in the more simple minded mutations. It didn’t get much more simple minded than literal plants, yet these were not only aggressive toward the chasers, but had completely abandoned all attempts at the MIST agents to focus entirely on the four legged beasts.

The hunters’ transfixed state only lasted a moment longer before the din of Rupert’s revolver and Aya’s m4 snapped the rest of them from their stupor. Taking advantage of both sides of their foes distracting each other, their numbers dwindled rapidly. One chaser did manage to break through and charge toward Sunset and Adagio. The redhead shifted her grip to her rifle's attachment and she stood her ground, ready as she waited for it to draw close enough to hit with the stun gun.

Or at least that was the plan until the siren next to her stepped forward to meet the NMC’s charge head on, dodging its skull to drive her weapon’s bayonet into its neck and shifting the chaser’s own momentum upward and to the side until she twisted it to the ground. She then finished the job by firing a load of buckshot point blank into the beast still skewered onto her blade, nearly decapitating the long necked NMC.

“That… works too I guess.” Sunset murmured, wincing at the ruthless display. She then turned her gaze back to the battle, seeing there was now only a single chaser left struggling against a pair of the mobile plants. One final, oversized blast of the discordant green haze from Aya put a swift end to that struggle. The threat was over.

“We got implants” Sunset heard AJ announce as she approached one of the already half melted chasers “Looks like in pretty much all of them too.”

The redhead could see some herself now as well, moving closer to study the dissolving remains. Though as she continued looking them over, she noticed something else.

“The plants aren’t melting” she pointed out “Is that normal? There wasn’t a whole lot of information on them in my reviews.”

“That’s because we don't have that much to review” Aya answered, frowning at the clumps as torn up foliage “None have been seen since the blockade.”

“Didn’t they find one rooted in one of the old subway stations up there a couple years ago?” Rarity piped in “I remember Starlight telling me about it. They’re even still studying it I believe.”

“They did, but Dr. Maeda believes it was still from the original incident” Rupert answered. He then scowled as he took in the withered vines of the closest plant “And like you said; that one's rooted, immobile… not to mention completely docile now. Not like these.”

“So we not only have a whole pack of artificial chasers in the same place we found them a few months ago, but now the first new NMPs we’ve seen in a decade?” Dash summed up “That pretty much cinches that something weird is going down out here, right?”

“It would certainly seem that way…” Aya continued to frown as she stared out into the trees. She turned to the director “Do we call the bureau and set up sweeps?”

“This is an awfully large search radius to cover with no idea what we’re actually looking for…” he worked his jaw. “We can at least track down any NMCs that didn’t come running with the shots though.”

“Why don’t you think we’ll find anything?” Sunset queried, to which Aya answered.

“Because this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve run a sweep of the forest. While we haven’t run into anything like this before, these are hardly the first NMCs that have hidden out here” she sucked at her cheek a moment before giving a huff. She then looked to Adagio “I don’t suppose you know of anything out here and it just slipped your mind, do you?”

“Afraid not. And as far as I’m aware Ark hasn’t been able to recreate NMPs. They’ve tried of course but like you said; there haven’t been any since those the first EVE’s presence created” she gave evenly “Plus I very much doubt they would have attacked each other like that if they were both created by Ark.”

“So... what?” Dash cut in again “More cultists?”

“Not unless they’ve gotten a whole lot smarter about all of this” the director grumbled. Without any other answers making themselves obvious, they made their way back to the ranger station and recouped as best they could as they waited for Shining to assemble the sweeps.

They had a long night ahead of them now.

The pink-haired woman giggled as the naked body behind her snuggled up against her back, their warm breath tickling her neck as she tried to bring the fruit slice from the plate in front of her to her lips. The dreadlocks of the second body draped over her shoulder as their owner’s lips beat the snack to its destination. The slice was then plucked from her hand and popped through the lips as they left hers.

“Tricky~” the nurse scolded playfully as the free spirited woman grinned at her.

“Don’t worry Shy, I know how to share the love~” Tree teased before bringing another piece up to the medic's mouth. The offered piece was accepted, as were the tips of the fingers delivering it. The hand’s master let out a sensuous breath as the subtle moistness briefly engulfed the appendages.

*Ker-CHUNK*

Every single muscle in Fluttershy’s body snapped taut and what felt like every drop of blood drained from her skin at the sound of the toaster. She specifically waited to do this until both Rainbow and Sunset were stuck working the graveyard shift, but she had completely forgotten about their home's newest addition.

“Oh, good morning Flowing One.” Tree hugger gave airily as she pulled away from the nurse and turned to the short haired woman now pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Morning” the ‘flowing one’ returned tiredly. Similar to Sunset’s horn, it seemed Adagio’s aura also still held signifiers of her original form. Tree explained it as a beautiful collage of fins flowing from the woman, hence her moniker for the siren. "Sure sounded like you two had fun last night."

“I hope we didn’t keep you up” the free spirit offered. Fluttershy actually felt lightheaded as somehow even more blood fled from her.

They had not been quiet.

“You did” she returned simply before a far more suggestive tone emerged “But I was able to… still make some of my own fun out of it.”

Feeling all the blood rush back and then some, she wheeled around to stare at the bathrobed siren giving her a small, though no less thoroughly amused smirk. The Dazzling’s eyes then flickered downward before the smirk grew. Following the gaze, Fluttershy’s blush grew tenfold before she hurriedly stepped behind the counter and threw her arms across her chest. The latter action unfortunately only did so much, considering the… ‘caliber’ of her own ballistics.

“At least some balance was still achieved then” Tree continued, completely unashamed and unconcerned of her own exposed body. “Well, I suppose with the day breaking I should retire to the shower before the others return.”

“Enjoy~” Adagio gave as the woman passed her, rather unsubtly taking in more than a few eyefulls of her form as she did. Fluttershy leveled are fairly scathing glare at her but it did little good as its target had yet to look away. It was only made worse when Tree slowed to give a long, unintentionally languid stretch before finally passing through the door and out of sight. The siren’s smirk did then turn back to the nurse, growing into a wicked grin in the process. Fluttershy grimaced with her eyes closed and bowed her head to brace herself.

‘Here it comes…’

“Good for You~!”

Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open as her head whipped back up. She stared wide eyed at the Dazzling now looking back at her genuinely impressed. The woman chuckled as she saw her expression, bringing the medic out of her stupor slightly, though still not enough to actually respond. Did Adagio really just… complement her?

“I guess this just leaves the loud one now…” the short haired hunter hummed as she looked the nurse still trying to cover herself over “I really hadn’t been expecting to see all my new housemates naked so soon…”

‘Wait, what?’ Fluttershy blinked at the confusing declaration. Before she could voice said confusion however, the toaster popped and prompted the siren to gather the bread and a jar of jam before heading back to her room. She did stop at the corner though, peering around the wall with an even more smug smile.

“Don’t keep her waiting now~” she purred and ducked out of sight.

The nurse stood there staring blankly at the now empty space, entirely lost on how to react or even feel at the moment. While not against finally receiving a bit of authentic positivity from the siren, she was struggling with the fact that the first instance of it was now about a secret booty call…

The sound of a shower turning on drew her from her trance. She stood straighter and considered and, after only a moment’s hesitation, quickly followed after the free spirit~

Author's Note

Oh my, how lewd

Sorry this one took an extra few days lovelies. I know I hardly have a release schedule but I personally had planed on having this out earlier, so yeah, have my unnecessary apologies . I actually had to take a three thousand plus word chunk out of the middle. Don't worry, it'll be in the next chapter but the time was still spent on it during this one, but hey! That just means I'm already 3k words done with chapter 19, right? But yes, not only did I feel this chapter would be a more manageable read without it but it also just fits a lot better with the theme 19 will have. It also let me squeeze in Sunny's sixpack, and who wouldn't want that?

Now as for those possibly rolling their eyes at that last little bit at the end there:
Was it necessary? Not really, no. I'll fully admit that.
But was it Fun to write? You bet your ass it was~

And with all that said, for now, As Always: Thanks for reading and I hope to see you for the next, already started chapter! Have a good one!

Oh! As a small PS: I know it wouldn't be THAT hard to find another of Aya's pistol. The Raffica IS a bit of a challenge to get here in the states legally, let alone for a fair price, but I know they would be able to if they really wanted to. Especially considering they have government resources at heir disposal. But I thought for the story it'd help keep Aya that just little bit more unique and let Adagio find her own special little popper. So yeah, unneeded post script done