This story is a sequel to Fluff and Kidnapping
It's been about three weeks since Rarity's birthday party, and Sunset's three favorite fellow former villainesses are no closer to making any lasting friendships than before. In fact, she doesn't even know if they're still able to tolerate each other by now. Not wanting to risk their group falling apart along with what little progress they've made in being nicer, happier people, Sunset makes a deal, one that requires her to join them in liberating some money from a bank vault.
They're going in loud.
---
Part of an ongoing series.
>Dazzle's Poor Career Choice
>Fluff and Kidnapping
>You Are Here
>Fluffy Fever
>Dungeons and Dazzles
Chapters (4)
My god; this is gonna be like Fool's Gold on crack, isn't it?
6259865
Never read it, but I honestly don't think this story gets too weird, or there'd be a comedy tag. Payday is pretty tame, as far as I can tell, or at least it was before they introduced flamethrowers, miniguns, rocket launchers, and throwable shurikens.
6259883
... I didn't even realize it was a crossover until you mentioned it.
Dumb Pirate is Dumb,
And I'm just sat here, silently disapproving of their choice to not even try and go stealthy.
Liking and loving it! Oh, and tracking.
i vote they got a much better version of the oculus rift that makes everything super realistic but its cursed so they think the game is real
Interesting. Gotta add this to favs.
It's a test and everything's staged! it's for Adagio's new job as security of the bank! they're actually robbing a bank for funsies!
the dialogue is fun and their banter is as good as ever... I love this series, the time in between each is nice that they don't try to explain all the humdrum crap of daily life without the interactions. Is Sunset a better shot this time around?? I'm excited for what's next because you always deliver
and I'll go review the other stories soonAdagio wrote the list though right? if she's sensitive about her hair, why would she give herself that nickname?
6262078 I agree with your guess.
Good to see the Dazzlings are being nicer to each other, but I hope the civilians in the bank start freaking out that Evil Miss Frizzle has come to rob them. If she starts rounding up hostages and escorting them onto a school bus, don't get on!
maskpalming is a great thing.
I'm not sure what to make of the Aria's underwear thing... she wears such risque underwear her pants have to compensate with tightness?
ooh they've been commissioned to do the job? that's exciting! (but by who?? dun dun DUN)
"I'm saving more ammo!" looks like the answer is no - Sunset's shooting didn't get any better
huh, looking back shedidhit The Fox several times, so she can't be outlandishly terriblethey've got to be doing some VR gaming or something, this is too surreal (in universe). I love it... ooh or they're actually using paintball guns and this is the best game of cops and robbers EVER? I don't even care. this is absolutely epic
love the premise of the story so far, love the continuity with the world. enamored, I can't wait to find out more
lol at that guy trying to tell Punch about bullets
Silly Jacket firing a shotgun into smoke
her thoughts in this chapter are the best thing ever. that mention of lullabies is cute too.
I like that she's referred to as Sunset whenever she reverts back to her good-girl mindset, coming down from adrenaline
"Don't worry, Dagi, I'll protect you from the big, bad bullet-sponge." "it would be a little despicable of me to abandon you even if we couldn't have gotten the bags."best call backs ever. did I already say I love this series? 'cause I do.
Adagio is really quite admirable this chapter... all of them really, but Adagio really shines here as the leader. it's too bad about the hostages though... strange Sunset didn't seem to care when she was wasting cops/SWAT though, just smacking them in the face with a sledgehammer
6272307
Glad you're enjoying!
The hostages were never shooting at her.
That's an odd thing with Payday itself, actually, that you can kill hundreds of police in a single mission without a care, but if one hostage wanders in front of you at the wrong time (as with Sunset), you're penalized with a money deduction on the spot and they send in more special forces.
6272352 those are fair points. I haven't paid Payday specifically but that's pretty similar to a lot of games with hostages. you make me want to play more of these games
Oh? What favor is she calling in this time?
6277735
I don't understand the question.
Do you mean for the next story? Because I'm afraid that would be spoilers.
LOL. Love this story!
That final scene between Sunset and Adagion gave me a minor heart attack. Great power is great responsibility, you can murder someone with this amount of heartwarmingness, be careful.
Speaking of murder, do you think sirens will actually make an appearance as viable characters in the 3rd movie, or ever at all? In what kind of role? How will you feel if there will be no more sirens?
6277924
I just pictured Sunset going phoenix mode to combat the towering, scaly, lovecraftian monstrosity, Adagion in her final form. It ends with them going out for ice cream and trying on silly hats together.
I'm glad you asked! I've been hearing around various pony-related comment sections that the sirens will not be in EQ3 at all, that the wiki has them marked as 'Former student,' so we probably won't see them. This annoys me considerably, because they were given no closure at all after being dealt the equivalent of chopping off Twilight's horn, or denying Fluttershy the ability to interact with animals. I like to think that the damage to their voices was temporary and that even if we never see them in canon again, their story ends happily, because the implications otherwise are messed up enough to make the ending of RR my personal dethroning moment for the series.
If they do show up, I'm hoping it's either as cheerleaders for Canterlot High following a deal to restore their ability to sing in exchange for boosting morale (I'm willing to write this myself if I find the time), or in one of the 2-3 minute shorts before the actual movie is released, maybe Sunset experimenting on them like she did her friends, accidentally restoring what they'd lost, and getting crush-hugged by all three of them even if she doesn't learn a thing about how magic in that world works.
Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they just showed up as Crystal Prep's backup, were shamed again in some way, and generally treated like Team Rocket despite once having been (arguably) the greatest villains in MLP to date. I'm sincerely hoping that's not the case, however.
If they plain don't show up at all in EQ3, I guess we can wait for 4, if they make one, or the rumored spin-off series, but I really hope they get some kind of closure before then. However, if we don't see any news on the sirens in Friendship Games, I'll probably do one of those re-write things with that cheerleader idea, sticking to the canon events of the movie as much as possible, but with the caveat that the sirens get their own Happily Ever After.
...That got a little long-winded.
Sorry if I sound like one of those people that went all crazy rage following The Mysterious Mare Do-Well, but I think I get how they feel now. 
6277986
Siren's situation becomes especially disheartening if you take into equation the comic book about their backstory. While the story and the way the sirens were portrayed there were not very good to say the least, it established that they got the boot out of their world, without any kind of attempt at diplomacy on Starswirl's part. Which ends RR with them being denied going home along with the loss of their identities, what is just sad and unpleasant.
In can be argued that the Dazzlings not being given Sunset's kind of treatment from M6 is actually a neglect on M6's part, making M6 flawed which adds to the depth of their character in a sort of realistically negative kind of way, I guess?.. But if it will not be mentioned in a said context within movies/show/shorts (similar to s5e12 Amending Fences sort of way), it sadly moves it straight into Hasbros' "the dolls haven't sold enough to validate wasting time on their characters" dismissal teritory, which seems like a huge waste of character potential and a loss of potential dazzlings songs (which are 70% of enjoyment of RR for me).
It makes my wait for the 3rd movie a lot more positive
And that is just adorable
6278328
True. The way it was depicted, if I didn't know better, I'd have said Starswirl booted them through the mirror just because he didn't like how popular they were getting, that his fears regarding the 'dangerous magic' that didn't actually seem to be hurting anything was the equivalent of an irritable old man saying rock and roll would be the death of civilization. I don't even remember the fighting Twilight's book said they caused depicted in the comic.
Anyway, will just have to see what the future holds and hope for the best.
6278350
I think it's the history is written by the victors kind of thing. "He got paranoid and banished them just to be safe" would have probably hurt the heroic image his historical figure was given.
I don't know what part of that I called, but it was some part. This is awesome. I know Sunset's supposed to be badass and all, but I don't believe she'd be able to run with a sledgehammer and swing it easily through the adventure - that she picked one up was kind of my first hint. I like that though, Dis-Corp it's cute
"How am I supposed to brag if I've got nothing to compare it to?!" I'm surprised there isn't a score sheet or something
poor pony-masked Sunset, all out of place even in this situation
HAHHAHA good deal. this makes her last lines in Fluff and Kidnapping so much funnier.
? LOL at Sunset's ongoing thoughts
"W-wait, when did you see the enemy list?" nice with the continuity
omg. mind blown - that's why she was called Star. holy shit batman the connections
I feel like Sunset would be on the receiving end of more hate than the Dazzlings, they were only there for like a week while Sunset ruined lives for years. ...and you just said this too.
holy crap, best secret ever. that the other two believed it is gold. Sonata testing it is SO GOOD: Please be false. "True?"
stuttering, vulnerable Adagio is absolutely precious ...omg so they do do those things - I'd be scared too! O.o
god, she is just the sweetest thing "The look on Adagio's face as she went pale was priceless." blushing bright red and then immediately going white as a sheet delights me in ways I don't understand. her being so dismayed at friendship spreading is great, her revenge is just as funny and sickly sweet
"hands over where Sunset assumed her ears were" whew you'd be among them making fun of her hair huh?
that ending. this made my day.
I really like the ending here. Your stories about the Sirens seem much less focused on reforming them than most stories, but you still manage to do a better job of it than most stories, while keeping their interesting group dynamic going.
6278328
6278350
Even thought that was one of the worst MLP comics I've ever read, I actually appreciated it for one reason: It made the Sirens losing their magic less horrible. Before that comic, everyone was convinced the Sirens were immortals who had been wandering earth since the dark ages. If that was true, then destroying their magic would mean the Rainbooms performed a slow execution on the Dazzlings, one that may take 50~60 years to complete. If they were always mortal and just hurled forward in time, then at least the sirens didn't shorten their lifespans when their gems were smashed.
6280827
Actually? It's still possible they were immortal prior to the BotB. Aria comments at one point that they've been singing the same stuff since "forever" before Adagio invents pop overnight. For all we know, that could mean that they'd been singing as they had for hundreds or thousands of years, perhaps longer, but that it was never outright stated one way or the other may have been deliberate on the part of the writer.
Personally, I like the not-really-immortal explanation too. Not for the death sentence bit (surely life itself is a death sentence?), but because the idea that a trio of mind-warpers could roam the earth for so long and never make any progress in dominating it is preposterous, and because they never really act that age.
That second one is a problem with most immortal characters, actually, supposedly having centuries of experience, but still acting like 20-somethings, like their long lives give them some immunity to accruing wisdom. Possibly on account of not being written by people with access to that kind of wisdom? That Aria and Sonata still bicker like kids falls more in line with the explanation that they've only been in the human world for a few months or years, so I like going with the idea that they popped into it at right about the same time as Sunset.
6281503 Yeah, one reason I didn't think they weren't immortal prior to that comic was due to how immature the Dazzlings act. Anyone as reckless and megalomaniacal as the sirens who had been around for a thousand years on earth would have taken over, or more likely wind up dead.
And yes, life itself is a death sentence... unless you're immortal. But if you're suddenly turned mortal, then you've just been handed a death sentence.
6281920
True. I'm picturing Adagio negotiating the terms of a nation's surrender when Aria and Sonata get wrapped up in bickering behind her, start slapping each other, and one of them leans on the 'Launch All Nukes' button.
And, sorry to get dragged into semantics here, but doesn't the possibility of losing one's immortality render them effectively mortal anyway? If it's possible for the gems to get broken and end their 'eternal' life, and they live forever, then sheer probability, a small chance taken an infinite number of times, ensures that they were eventually going to lose the gems, grow old, and die. In that sense, they were never immortal to begin with, their clocks would just be ticking much slower than everyone else's.
Immortality stinks anyway. What do you do when you outlive the planet you're on? If you live until the day the sun explodes and survive even that, you're presumably stuck on a scorched, lifeless rock. I'd feel sorry for characters like Discord, but I figure most of them can warp to dimensions with greener grass when the time comes.
EDIT: Wait a tic, I think I see what you're saying. Whether it's possible to lose it or not, the Dazzlings would think they were immortal in this case, free of the fear of dying at least of old age. If they did lose that much, it would probably still be a psychological shock, more trauma on top of losing their voices, if it was permanent. What happens to them is kind of messed up either way, in that case.
6282016 You're certainly right from a semantic point, and also that immortality does suck in the sense of living forever. My specific problem here is that if you believe the Dazzlings were ageless, let's call it, but the Rainbooms 7 Elements of Harmony or whatever stripped them of their magic, including their agelessness, that's roughly the same thing as if it had given them a form of cancer that would take a few years to metastasize. Sure, they're not going to drop dead right this minute, but they will eventually, and they blood would be on the hands of the Rainbooms. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be the right thing to do, you have to stop evil mind controllers, but it makes the magic of harmony pretty darn dark then. From the point of view of an immortal who would live for many millennium, there's not that significant a difference between shattering their gems/robbing them of immortality and just shooting the Dazzlings in the head.
Hence, you can see why I prefer the theory "the sirens were always mortal, they just lost their magic powers when their gems were smashed."
6282147
Quite so!
The Elements' Rainbow Magic is a little dark sometimes, to the point that I wonder if Celestia and Luna unwittingly committed some kind of crime against nature in weaponizing them. Maybe that was why Luna got sent to the moon the first time?
6282185 Some of the things they do are pretty darn creepy. Discord suffered over a thousand years of And I Must Scream, I think death might have been preferable. There's different points of view on what her banishment was like, but the majority view seems to be that she was trapped in an incorporeal state within the entire moon, which would probably be a pretty similar experience to Discord. So yeah, kind of poetic like that. I would say the Mane 6 have been kinder with their use, but they re-froze Discord, and even with Rainbow Power they just locked Tirek back up in Tartarus, presumably for all time. Again, just killing Tirek may have been the kinder option.
And don't get me started on the Tree of Harmony itself, I find that thing to be creepy in the extreme.
6282232
what's creepy about that tree?
6304074 What's creepy is it's some silent tree controlling the Mane 6. The Tree decides Tirek goes to Tartarus, the tree gives Twilight a giant castle, the Tree magically affects the cutie marks of the Mane 6 to send them wherever it wants them to go, and Princess Twilight takes orders from a pile of crystal. It also seems to me that the few times we've seen the tree send ponies out to deal with "friendship problems," they're a certain type of friendship problem: namely, alternative ideologies to the Harmony this tree represents. Our Town ran on equalism instead of harmony, and Griffonstone ran on pure greed, and used to run on this sort of shared pride in an idol belief system. The tree sent out the Mane 6 to convert members of those communities to the ways of harmony. Don't get me wrong, by any objective standard the tree's "harmony" is a better way of living than the other two, but the fact that the tree seems to focus exclusively on friendship problems that come from rival ideologies certainly creeps me out.
This is weird but fun. I kinda can't believe that Sunset's doing this, though.
And everything suddenly makes sense. This was adorable.
I feel so bad for not noticing this story sooner. But I'm glad I did notice it! Fun!
I can picture those sirens develop a new and closer bond like sisters. They wont admit it but it could happen.
OK my guess is virtual reality in some shooting arcade with a GTA-V style game in progress so on that note I read on to verify my thoughts.
I'd have gone for restrained.
Yay, guessed it. (refer to my guess at end of chapter 1)
I'm a happy little reader now.
I would pay an arbitrarily large sum of money for that poster.
So, who wrote that list of nicknames? Adagio certainly acts like it was someone else or she wouldn't have tried to change hers.
This scenario feels really weird since not only is Sunset robbing a bank, but they're apparently getting instructions/nicknames for it from someone else.
I'm guessing they're just playing Payday, though.
Wait, they're getting paid to rob the bank by the person supplying gear? Usually you pay that person not the other way 'round.
This would incline me to continue thinking 'video game' but it would have to be a weirdly realistic one to let you sprain your ankle, which makes me think it's somehow real. I'd say they're playing paintball or something, but it's gotten way too vicious for that.
Things like the one SWAT officer talking in an unscripted manner make me doubt my original hypothesis.
In all honesty I don't completely understand the underwear comment (yes I've read the previous stories)
....Sniper is that you?????
The Heist makes me think of Grand Theft Auto Online’s Heists and this one sounded like a cross between The Fleeca Job and The Pacific Standard finale
Daw, that ending is so cute. I'm having a lot of fun re reading this series.
Discord. Of course. How did I not see that coming?
8875670
Dis-Corp discord it was kind of a giveaway their actually.
For some reason I really like the idea of a slightly off-kilter Sonata, I feel like she's more fun that way rather than just being "the stupid one" of the group