“Yeah, uh huh, of course!” the girl holding the phone said, seated at her favorite breakfast restaurant. It helped that her parents owned the place, after all, so it was practically a second kitchen for her. At the moment, she was drinking a mimosa – her parents were okay with her drinking alcohol, so long as she was careful – and eating a breakfast prepared especially by the head chef. “Yeah, yeah, I know.” She gave the waiter a look of disdain, though said person didn’t notice. They always hired cute girls to be waiters here and it irked her to no end. Her parents had her, after all – why would they want any other eye candy for their place? “So she did? Really? Wow, I did not expect that of her,” she said, continuing to let the untouched meal sit before her.
“Yeah, yeah, well, if you want, I can talk to him about it; maybe it’s time for him to trade up, anyway.” She shook her head briefly, letting a lock of her lilac-and-white coiffure shake out of her amethyst eyes. “Yeah, it’s no problem, and don’t worry about owing me any favors – I’m just happy to see true love bloom.” She took a brief look at her meal, then at the waitress, who by this time had looked in her direction. “No, best of luck to you, Masq. Ciao!” She then looked at the waitress. “It’s cold. Take it back and have the chef make me a new one.”
The waitress looked at the girl with shock. “But you’ve been on the ph—”
“Not my problem that you can’t time things.” She clapped her hands, commanding, “Now, chop chop! Be a good little community college waste of space and go get me a new meal before you get pregnant from one of your multiple boyfriends on the way, okay?” The waitress angrily looked at her while she turned briefly back to her phone. “Now that’s a good little wage slave.” The girl, pissed, walked off.
As she vanished behind the doors to the kitchen, Upper Crust giggled. Let that wannabe bitch Polomare whine about not making diva and let those two simpering idiots Sparkle and Melody screw up their jobs as divas – besides, Crust just knew that despite their claims that they were just cousins, those two were deep in each other’s gashes – they definitely typified the “it’s better when sisters are together” shit. In any case, people at Zacherle really knew who was in charge there: none other than Crust herself. After all, her parents were executive chefs with a long string of successful restaurants around the world, and the crown jewel was the one she was at right now: the Bistro Amélie, one of the best French restaurants in all of North America. Let those idiots over at La Fantasie think they were hot shit – even the owner of that lousy-ass hole in the wall came here for real food.
And her talent for culinary arts, combined with her mother’s ability to manipulate made her a master at controlling people. The person she’d just got off the phone with was a girl that she knew was going to be making a play for Crust’s boyfriend, Jet Set – after all, she’d seen them kissing in the park the other day. Crust wasn’t angry with Jet about that – she knew he was just a guy, and like all guys, he thought with his lower head and rarely the upper – but Masquerade definitely spelled trouble. Fortunately, Crust’s stock in trade as an information broker/wheeler and dealer at school paid off. There was a guy who attended San Palomino High by the name of Charming Smile that Crust knew that Masquerade would sleep with half the school if it meant getting a chance with him. It only took a few well-placed letters between Smile and his now-ex-girlfriend (courtesy of her proxies, of course) and a chance meeting for the two at a café in Old Towne, and viola! Problem solved.
Best of all? Masquerade didn’t know that Crust knew about her attempt to seduce Jet, and so between the guilt over that and Crust owing her a huge debt, it would leave that bitch in a spot where Crust could demand anything and Masquerade would have no choice but to agree. She gave herself a soft smile at that – that was power. Screw that diva shit, or any of the other school cliques; Crust really ran the school and everyone knew it.
The girl brought her a new plate, and Crust looked at her. “You know, Lightfoot, I know you don’t like me,” she said with a look of utter seriousness. “And you know I could have you fired from here practically with my next breath. But you know what? I’m going to do you a favor.”
“You don’t know a damn thing about me,” Lightfoot spat.
“Oh, you’d think that. But you see, I do. I know you’re sleeping with Green Onion, the potager. I also know that he’s sleeping with Clarity, one of the evening waitresses, did you know that?” The look on the girl’s face registered shock. “But do you know what I know most of all? That you’re sleeping with her as well, and that ‘roommates’ thing is just a cover because you don’t want your family to know you’ll fuck anything.”
“How the hell—”
Crust smiled wickedly. “I’m a girl that pays attention to things. And you’re a bimbo that comes to work drunk on occasion and talks too much.” The look on Lightfoot’s face was red with rage, and Crust knew she had her right where she wanted her. “But like I said, I’m here to do you a favor. All three of you really like each other and I mean really like each other.” She reached down and produced a bag. “In this is $4000, two bottles of our best wine, and a recommendation for the head waitress position over at The Old Stable, whose owner is an old friend of my family. And all you have to do is quit, right now, this second, and this is all yours.”
“What?”
“Did I stutter? Quit, and this is all yours.”
“And what do you get out of this?”
Crust smiled. “Well, I get the knowledge that you’ll stop hitting on my daddy, because you’re such a whore that you’re willing to accept anything between your legs so long as you get what you want. And I get to make sure my parents’ marriage stays happy – my father loves us, but I know he has a wandering eye. Not his fault, just how men are.” She then leaned forward and whispered, “But most of all, because when you’re old and gray and you look at your sagging tits and your failure of your life, you’ll know that you were bettered by a girl still in high school.” She then leaned back in her chair and said, “I’m going to eat breakfast now. My offer is only good while I’m eating. If you’re not gone by then, well, then I rescind my offer and I’ll let my mother deal with you. And trust me, you won’t be the only one to lose your job. I like being efficient – my mother’s the vindictive one.”
“You’re bluffing,” the girl said.
With that, Crust idly brought a fork down towards her eggs Hollandaise. With her other hand, she reached over towards her purse and produced an envelope, handing it to Lightfoot. The waitress took it, opened it and pulled a couple of pictures out – and immediately blanched.
“Where did you…?”
Paying more attention to her food than Lightfoot, she said, “Does your mother know you got to know her boyfriend in a Biblical way? According to the information I have, they’re about to get engaged. You must really like things in the family way.” She then reached over and pulled out one of the wrapped bricks of cash. “I’m penalizing you $1000 for your stupidity. Interrupt my meal again, and I’ll withdraw my offer here and now.” She pointed at the door with the fork. “Do you have somewhere else to be and someone else to do?”
Lightfoot was gone by the time she looked back up.
A ECSD cruiser drove through the town of Bella Vista. It was fairly quiet this early in the morning, and as the recovery from the hurricane continued, the most the deputy had to deal with was to look through some of the damaged properties in search of anyone still missing at this point. And even that was odd: From everything he knew, hurricanes rivalled earthquakes in terms of sheer destructiveness…yet most of the Canterlot area was still standing. Only the poorest and oldest areas of the region – and in many cases, not even that – were demolished. If anything, it almost seemed as though the hurricane had been elitist, avoiding the northern and western parts, and sparing those who could afford to survive that sort of hit. But that was silly, of course; hurricanes were forces of nature, not a weapon to be used.
That line of thought, however, disappeared as a body was suddenly thrown through the windshield of his cruiser, coming to a body-jolting halt as it hit the front seat. He lost control, the car spinning twice and flipping over before coming to a halt via impacting against a streetlight. The deputy was rattled, but otherwise okay…until he noticed the figure that was flopped into the seat next to him. She was naked and pale – too pale, despite her dusky skin. But as the deputy turned to get a better look at her, it was all he could do to scramble out of the damaged vehicle before he threw up.
There, crumpled in the passenger seat, lay the remains of Agent Saffron Masala, United States Diplomatic Security Service. And her otherwise unharmed body was drained nearly completely of her blood, save for the drops that came out of the wound where her badge was pinned to her forehead. And held fast by that pin was the card Justice.
Justice…for a woman who served it, and would now never see it.
If silence was golden, Octavia thought, it was also well overdue. As she trudged downstairs, she looked like the waking dead: her cousins had been arguing for a good portion of the night, drawing from that eternal wellspring nearly all teenagers had, known as the ability to create drama. Admittedly, she was no different, but she was being medicated for her brand of chaos – and at the moment, she was more than tempted to shove some of her drugs down Sunset and Twilight’s throats.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she noted her aunt and uncle seated at the breakfast table, holding onto mugs of coffee like sacred relics; they too looked like they’d been victims of the teenquake in the house. “Morning,” she slurred as she slowly shambled, zombie-like, towards the coffee maker.
Night took another drink of his Sumatra-originated life elixir. “How are you feeling?” he asked his niece.
“I could ask you both the same thing,” she groaned as she leaned against the counter. “Between the yelling and the crying, I think I might’ve gotten about thirty, maybe forty-five minutes of sleep all night?” She looked at her bottle of pills on the counter, knowing she had to take one. “What I wouldn’t do to wish the side-effects of this thing caused extremely long sleep,” she yawned, opening the cupboard for her personal mug.
“Tavi, you may want to read the label,” Velvet advised.
Bleary-eyed, the teen looked at the bottle’s warnings, which included that she wasn’t allowed to have caffeine for an hour before or after ingestion. Sighing, she put the cup back. “Is it too late for a do-over?”
“Oh, wouldn’t that be nice?” Night said, a contented smile coming over his face as he took another sip of joe.
“Honestly, I don’t know what’s gotten into them,” Velvet sighed. “Twily’s been…well, you know how your cousin can be at times. And Sunny isn’t quite acquitting herself as I’d hoped she would. They’re both old enough that they should solve their own problems, and I’d rather not step in, but the longer this goes on the longer they should know they’re not setting the best of examples for their younger brother.”
Octavia allowed herself a smile as she went over to the fridge to grab the orange juice. “Sometimes I wonder if Spike’s the only sane person in this house,” she joked. She then popped back to the counter, took a pill out of her bottle, and downed both that and the juice straight from the jug.
“Tavi, I taught you better than that,” Velvet admonished.
“Sorry, wasn’t thinking,” the teen apologized, blushing. “But honestly, I hope this won’t affect our trip. Really don’t want to deal with being the non-stop peacekeeper around here. I have my own problems, after all.”
“Will you be okay enough to make the trip?”
“I have to be,” Octavia said in a sad tone. “I need to show my friends that I’m in control, and that…thing…they saw that night wasn’t me. That Melody can’t take over my life and that I’m in charge. Plus, my cousins need me right now. Sunny’s been so strong all the time, but she needs someone to rely on, especially this close to the court date. And Twily’s always needed me. I need to step up, no matter what.” She then looked at them both and asked, “So, what’s the breakfast plans?”
“Your aunt and I were just about to head to Donut Joe’s, and then take care of some things that we need to do for the adoption. We’d invite you along, but we won’t have time to come back.”
“That’s okay; you two have fun.” Octavia smiled. “I need to make sure that we’re ready to go for the trip in a few days. As it is, I’m going to have to make a shopping run to replace a few things that Melody destroyed during her episode.” A look of horror flitted briefly over her eyes as she recalled the parts that she could of that night, and what had happened. Blushing furiously, she then said, “U-uncle Night…I-I have to apologize for….”
He went over to her and hugged her. “You don’t have to apologize. You weren’t in control, and I know that – the niece I know would never be that kind of person. And even if worst came to, your friends were there to make sure nothing went wrong.”
Octavia looked forlorn. “I know, but I could’ve….” She shuddered, and Night continued to hold her.
“It’s okay. I believe in you and I know you wouldn’t harm me or anyone else you care about. That’s why we’re family, and we’ll get through this together.”
“Tavi, something made me think about what you said,” Velvet commented. “You said you want to be strong for both my daughters? Convince them that they need to stop this. You might be the only one who can right now.”
Octavia continued to let her aunt’s words focus in her mind as she started making breakfast for everyone. Granted, she wasn’t that great of a cook; Sunset far outpaced her, though she wasn’t the kind of person who nearly burnt water to a crisp like Twilight did. The tale of when Sunset tried to teach her sister how to bake cookies, and the resulting “baked bads” was still a topic of humor at the dinner table. Fortunately, whatever Sunset was teaching her, Octavia was putting to good use.
Though it didn’t seem long ago that she didn’t know how to cook herself, she mused. Maybe working in a café has been a boon for her.
A huge, boyish yawn sounded from Spike as he came downstairs just in time for Octavia to finish making the last of the omelets. “Morning, kiddo. Rough night?”
“You know, if all adults do is yell at each other, I don’t wanna grow up,” he insisted.
She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know those feels, believe me. Can you do me a favor and set the table while I go wake up Shouty and Yelly?”
He laughed at that. “You sure you want to deal with Round Two?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure – remember, I’m a musician, so as loud as they want to be? I still have more volume to spare. Besides, the girls and I need to do a lot of stuff still before our trip, and I we can’t do that if they’re yelling at each other.” He nodded his agreement, and she went upstairs, steeling herself for the worst, namely Twilight’s room.
The moment she knocked, Twilight pulled open the door and pulled Octavia in, hugging her with gusto. “Tavi!” the younger teen squealed. “Oh God, I’m glad you’re okay!”
“I won’t be if you keep crushing my ribs!” Octavia laughed. “Anyway, I just made breakfast, so get dressed. Remember that we’re all supposed to meet at AJ’s home at 10:30 for the last-minute planning?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, actually, they’re supposed to be here at noon. Big Mac and his girlfriend are having a barbeque for a few of his friends, and apparently one of them hits on anything that moves, so she asked if we could move it. I offered to have it here, so I guess we should get the living room ready for guests.” A strange look came over her face and she bit her lip, as if hesitant to say anything further.
“Out with it,” Octavia said.
“Out with what?”
“Twily, I know that look, okay? Last time you had it, you were afraid to tell me that you broke one of my contrabass bows.”
“Okay. After last night, I’m not really sure I want to go anymore.” Twilight’s voice sounded like she didn’t even believe it, but was carried along more by her own drama than her own thoughts.
“Why not? You just invited our friends over.”
“They’re not our friends, Tavi – they’re hers,” Twilight said with a notable bitterness. “They just humor us because we’re supposedly her family.”
“They’re our friends, too. Just because we met them through Sunny doesn’t mean they’re going to take sides.”
“You weren’t there yesterday! You don’t know what happened! They took her side completely and utterly – they told me she lied and that they wouldn’t tell me what it was! For all I know, they’re laughing at us right now!”
“I promise you, they’re not, okay? You’re starting to get a little hysterical about all this, cuz.”
A different thought came over Twilight’s face. “Hey, why don’t we just stay home and hang around locally? Just like old times?” she asked. “Maybe we can even find some reason why the adoption shouldn’t go through—”
Those words completely shocked Octavia. “Twilight Sparkle, I cannot believe I just heard those words come out of your mouth! She is your sister and she loves you. Whatever reason she doesn’t have for not telling you whatever this is, is beyond me, but she is family!”
“No, we only thought she was,” Twilight muttered. “I guess that term should only be reserved for those who really qualify.”
“Stop acting silly. She’s going to officially be family in two weeks and she’s already family now. Plus, I want to go to Modesto – Dad told me it’s one of his favorite places – and I want to spend the time with the two people who are the closest things I have to sisters, got that?”
“That should be sister, singular.”
“I’m not going to sit here and keep arguing with you. Get dressed and get downstairs. Then the three of us are going to hash this out like the responsible young women we’re not supposed to be, understood? We’re going to end this petty shit if it’s the last thing I do.” Nothing more to add, Octavia walked out of the room, towards Sunset’s. But as she did, the bathroom door opened and Sunset walked out, toweling her hair and looking as if the world had fallen down around her. Given the strife between her and her sister, it probably had.
“Hey, you feeling better?”
“I’d be lying if I said I did,” Sunset replied. “I want to say that Twily’s overreacting, but I said something last night that I didn’t mean to and it just made things worse.”
“Well, heat of the moment, right? Just apologize and everything’s going to be okay.”
“If wishes were clouds, every earth pony and unicorn could be pegasi,” the flame-haired girl sighed.
“Huh?”
“Er, nothing. Anyway, you know how she is when she gets into one of those funks, Tavi. She won’t come anywhere near me, much less let me speak to her.”
“Hey, I grew up around her, remember? I know her ability to act above and beyond childish when she wants to, and I probably had something to do with that.” She flashed Sunset a smile and said, “But I believe in you, Sunny. You have become as important to me as Twily is, and I believe in you both. We’ll get through this.”
“Thanks. You have no idea how much that means to me right now.”
“Good. Well, I made breakfast for us all, so come on down. The three of us can talk and get this finally out of the way.”
Anything else Sunset was going to say was suddenly interrupted by the chime of her phone. “Gimme a sec.” She then went and grabbed her phone. “Yeah, this is Sunny…Oh, heya, Rares, what’s up?” A few minutes of conversation followed, with Sunset finally speaking: “Yeah, sure, I can do that. You girls still planning to come over later today?…Sure, we can make that work.” A few more seconds of Rarity speaking before Sunset said, “Yeah, okay, I’ll be sure to let them know. See you there. Bye.”
“Something up?” Octavia asked.
“Yeah, the girls made reservations for breakfast at El Torito in ten minutes. They want me to join them there. I think they want to talk to me about the scene Twily made yesterday.”
“Shit. So much for breakfast,” Octavia grumbled. “They still coming over at 10:30?”
“Later tonight, since that gives them time to do their shopping. Flutters said she’ll pay for the pizzas.” Sunset finished toweling off her hair, and then looked at the clock in her room. “Great, no time to style my mane,” she groaned, tying it into a ponytail behind her. “Look, I’ll be back as soon as I can. Please just talk to Twily for me, okay? Tell her I’m sorry for what I said to her, and I don’t know what I can do to make it right, but I want to.”
“You know I will. That’s what family’s for, right?” Octavia took the towel from Sunset. “You get ready to do what you need to do. I’ll take care of this.”
At that point, Spike shouted up from downstairs, “You coming back soon, Tavi?”
“I’ll be down shortly!” she shouted back. Giving a nod to Sunset, Octavia headed into the bathroom, placing Sunset’s towel on the rack, then went to wash her hands, briefly looking at her reflection in the mirror. As her hand went to her face, she thought, I could really use this vacation. I feel like I’m falling apart lately. She then threw some water on her face, hoping it would make her feel better.
“Maybe you just need to get laid, instead?”
Octavia froze in shock the moment she heard those words. She looked up at the mirror to see the image that had haunted her nightmares so much lately. Melody stood on the other side, naked as a jaybird and with an unknown person’s hands moving across her body with abandon. “You could take care of that little problem so easily,” Melody assured her. “We have several big, strapping men in our family that could fit the bill? Or perhaps you’re waiting for little Spike to not be so little?”
Octavia screwed her eyes shut, whispering, “Itsjustanillusionitsjustanillusionitsjustanillusionitsjustanillusion….” She then heard the shatter of glass, and she looked to see Melody remove a baseball bat from where she’d hit the other side. Except that the baseball bat was a lot more phallic, and as Octavia finally realized what it was she stared with incomprehension.
Melody chuckled. “Now that I have your attention, if you’ll listen closely, I’ll tell you just how you can get a three-way with Shining and Cadance.”
“What?”
“Oh, don’t be a prude. You know you want Shining’s armor. You want it in, ramming, thrusting, harder and harder—”
Octavia raced out of the bathroom, hearing the cackling laughter of her evil doppelganger.
“Just keep running! Sooner or later, you’re going to lose and your sweet little body will be my plaything!” Melody crowed. “You won’t be able to run away!”
Zephyr Breeze looked like he’d had a long night. He knew he was going to have many more of them soon, all of them haunted by the guilt that he couldn’t save his partner. He looked into his mug, at the coffee that was the color of her skin, and he cringed inwardly. Yet another reminder of his failure.
“I’d, ah, appreciate your discretion on this, your highness,” he told Solaire. As part of his job, he was supposed to update her daily on significant events, and the murder of one of her guards – Zephyr’s partner and friend – was pretty critical on that list.
As for Solaire, her face was one of shock, unable to picture the vibrant girl now in her final rest. “I don’t know what I can say that will make it better, Agent Breeze, save that you have my sympathies. Does her family know?”
He shook his head. “No. I only got the call a half-hour ago, and I haven’t even been to the morgue yet to confirm. As for her parents, they only know that she’s missing, but it’s only a matter of time before this hits them right between the eyes.” He finished off his mug and slammed the plastic cup down on the table. “Fuck, I can’t do this,” he moaned. “You were there when I told her old man that I’d protect her and now look at me, the useless son of a bitch that I am. She’s dead, and I’m here to tell the tale. Another kid dead and us old fucks keep living until forever.”
“Agent Breeze, I barely knew her, and yet it was clear to me that she was a brave, dedicated and talented woman.”
“Yeah, you have to be in this line of work. Being nuts also helps.”
“Yes, but she’s clearly one of your agency’s best,” Solaire continued, “and that’s the kind of people that I want my daughter exposed to. I want Sunset to have positive role models so that she’ll understand that being a princess isn’t as important as being a productive member of society. And for the brief time she was here, I honestly feel that Agent Masala had a positive impact on my child.”
Solaire poured them another round of coffee and a few minutes of silence passed. Finally, Breeze spoke once more: “I have to tell you, because an agent has been killed in the line of duty, protocol is that we significantly increase the protective services on our VIPs,” he stated. “Right now, my boss is talking with your embassy to decide whether this will continue to be considered your personal vacation, or whether the French government will declare this a security ‘event’. Should the latter happen, additional DSS agents will be sent here, and we may even have some DRSG agents join for the ride. At worst, since you are technically tied to the French government, you could even be recalled.”
“I hope not,” Solaire told him. “My daughter and I try to live our lives based on the fact that we have no real interest in government life; as it is, I only do so when the Palais de l’Élysée asks. Otherwise, I’m just a mother with a few extra hobbies, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I have no wish for Sunset to have the same type of childhood I did, where my every breath and step was plotted out eight steps in advance.”
Breeze gave her a look of disbelief.
She laughed. “Oh yes, the lives of royalty and nobility, even those of us in pretense, are just as heavily choreographed as those still in power. One of my greatest joys was the chance to study abroad here in Canterlot, because it allowed me to understand freedom on the same level as the everyday person, and even though I don’t have that same lack of restrictions now I never forgot the years I was merely Mrs. D’Celestia rather than Princess Solaire Beaharnaise Pagerie Trois-Îlets de Martinique d’Celestia of the House of Bonaparte. So even if it wasn’t already my most fervent wish that Sunset grow up with a normal life, I owe it to the memory of my husband to ensure that she does.”
“Well, I should probably tell you then that I made a slight recommendation to my boss on the issue.” He grinned and added, “I just happened to tell my boss – who just also happens to be an old college buddy – that between me and the house bodyguards here, that you should be okay until you depart for home. So, knowing Locked Key like I do, he’s probably telling the ambassador that this is your vacation, and that people need time away, and that even with what’s going on both with your family and here, that adding tons of guns and fun only ruins whatever your plans are. You arrived here as a normal person, so you should leave eventually as one, too.”
She gave him her sunniest smile. “You don’t know how much that means to me, Agent Breeze.”
He gave her a smile back. “And here I am, a married man. You know, you could be a hell of a heartbreaker with that smile.”
Her snooping accomplished, Shimmer quietly stepped away from the kitchen door and headed back to the couch, where a dog-eared copy of Les Thibault sat. It’s good to see Mom smile, she thought to herself as she plopped on the sofa. It had been so long since her mother had seen herself as someone other than a parent and a diplomat, all because she was far more focused on raising Shimmer – but at a great cost: that of her social life.
Looking over the top of the book to make sure her mother hadn’t noticed she’d been spying, Shimmer thought, I think she likes that agent. Too bad he’s married and that we live in Paris, or I’d probably try to play matchmaker. Strangely enough, when it came to affairs of the heart outside of her family life, she had a knack for setting people up. Unfortunately, that didn’t extend to her mother, herself or even her friends.
Thinking about it a second, she grabbed her phone off the coffee table and quickly tapped out an email to her friends, letting them know that even though she’d only been here a couple of weeks, she’d missed them greatly. By now, Beachcomber would have made herself at home here, given how she was quick with a joke or her infectious laugh. Night Lily would have loved the evening views from around the area, and probably would have insisted on going to the movies and other nightlife around town. Precious, the intellectual in the group, would have thoroughly been wowed by the museums in town; ECMAH wasn’t the only one, and while not at the level of Paris or even some of the larger cities in California, there were enough places of note to keep someone of that streak entertained. Given that Precious tended to be a hanger-on at many of the Parisian museums, she would have been thrilled to see something new.
She flicked over to the gallery and the last picture the group took, the day before Shimmer’s departure; they were all at the Eiffel Tower and huddling together for the shot. Her best friends, absolutely vital to her life and she couldn’t imagine a time without them. Of course, there was a time; after all, before Paris, she’d lived here and had friends who probably no longer remembered her. As it was, she could scarcely remember them. Compass…Compass Flower or something like that. Then there was that other one, Minute or Minutia or something along those lines – I do recall she was black. And Suhri. Sooree? I barely remember her, and now that I think about it, I’m not sure I got along with her anyway. Part of her thought about seeking them out and rekindling friendships, but the chances of that were minimal. After all, she could barely recall them, and it wasn’t as though they had a daily reminder of her in their lives.
She’d barely set down the phone when it chimed, the sound of an email from one of her friends. It was a message from Beachcomber, saying that they were going nuts without the fourth member of their quartet. Shimmer silently giggled at that; it had been Beachcomber who had named them “The Flawless Four” – well, technically “Les Quartes Parfaits”. She added that they hoped she wouldn’t forget about them and that they’d be waiting for her at the airport when she arrived. She felt a warmth pulse through her, knowing it was good to have someone to come back to.
She had barely set down the phone when her mother plopped into the empty spot next to her. “Zephyr saw himself out,” Solaire explained. “As you can guess, he and I spoke—”
Shimmer put down the book. “So you’re on a first-name basis with him now?” she asked with a knowing grin.
Solaire ignored that and continued. “—and I agreed that we would stay put until Monday, when your aunt and uncle return from their trip. Zephyr is confident that having extra people around the house will be enough of a deterrent, and that should satisfy any concerns.” She then addressed her daughter’s impish comments. “Besides, mon petit tournesol, being cooped up indoors gives you time to catch up on your schoolwork.”
“Eh, already done,” she said. “I’m actually a little ahead of the curve, so the teachers are taking their time to send me the next batch.” She then sat up and said, “So, how’d flirting with the cop go?”
Solaire placed fingers on her heart in a gesture of innocence. “My dearest daughter, I was merely talking to him.” Shimmer gave her a lidded look and the older woman’s composure broke. “Okay, perhaps a little,” she admitted.
“Good. Mom, you’re getting older and you deserve someone to call your own. Even Dad would want that for you.”
“Dear, it’s nice to be noticed as a woman, but Zephyr is married. I’m merely happy that I apparently caught his eye, even though neither of us would do anything. Perhaps someday I will meet someone, but I don’t think that’s in the cards. Such is life, I suppose.”
“Mom, I’ll be headed off to university in a couple of years,” Shimmer insisted. “Throw yourself in the dating pool now. You aren’t getting any younger.”
Solaire playfully reached over and smacked her daughter’s leg. “You cheeky little brat!” she laughed. “I’m only forty-two!”
The teen, however, pushed her luck. “After how many years subtracted?” she snarked…
…and was immediately beset upon by her mother’s tickling.
“Mrs. Convergence,” Trinary Star spoke, “thank you for meeting us on such short notice.” Both Star and Shining had arrived at The Merrie Wytch, after a phone call to Shining indicated that the shop owner had something of note she wished to discuss.
“Oh, that’s never a problem,” Harmonic Convergence said. “I found new information that I thought you may wish to know. You see, I spoke with a variety of other shoppe owners about—”
“About the whole thing and a woman in Hawaii totally might have found the solution!” Lyra, from her point of dusting off one of the bookshelves, blurted. The three adults looked at the teen, and she had the good grace to try to slink back behind the shelf.
“Yes, that,” Harmonic said, giving her employee a disappointed look before turning back to the agents. “I spoke to a woman in Honolulu – Amber Gemstone, wonderful woman, runs The Witches’ Paradise, lovely store – and she thought the summoning looked familiar.”
Shining asked, “She did?”
“She owns a book: Le Livre des Éternitiés et des Infinies, a grimoire—”
“—created by the 18th century philosopher Lecteur d’Âme, who was not actually French, but French-Canadian. His book was discovered in an archive in a Belgian castle after the end of World War I.” The other two looked at Star. “Hey, I did say I was the LA Division’s occult specialist, right? I have a copy of the 2009 reprint on my desk back in LA.”
“A 2009 reprint?” Harmonic asked. “Why, I only know about the 1993 edition from Mystical Groves, Pty. Ltd. of New Zealand.”
Star smiled. “A small company in Detroit prints them on demand. The Bureau needed one for a case back then and ordered a copy. When my predecessor retired, I got it. I can give you the information on the company, if you wish.”
“Splendid!” Harmonic clapped joyfully. “I would be most appreciative, Agent.”
“Ladies, I don’t mean to rush things, but can we keep going?” Shining asked.
“Sorry,” both women said at once before Harmonic continued.
“Anyway, in Amber’s copy of the book, on page 84 there’s a spell to summon a being called The Bellwether of Darkness. D’Âme claimed to have gotten it from a much older grimoire, but if so, said book was lost to time. In any case, the spell calls for a being of great darkness – a demon, if you will – to be summoned using the power of a bell hidden away by the Vatican, a bell older than time itself. A song will be sung by a maiden who is both pure and a whore, and the blood of the innocent shall be spilled. When done on the night of a harmonic convergence, the astral plane will be opened and a being of great darkness and vast power will be summoned to the world.”
Shining blinked at the description. “A maiden who is both pure and a whore? Ladies, forgive me for being coarse, but is that even possible?”
“And this is where a woman’s touch comes in handy, Shining,” Star pointed out. “The singer is likely a lesbian. She has never lain with a man, so she is a pure maiden, but she sleeps around with other women, thus a whore. There are dozens of beliefs and mystic theories that lesbians have a link to the arcane, many of which are in goddess-oriented religions.”
Shining shrugged. “Sorry, a little out of my depth here,” he admitted.
“No problem. Trust me, I’ve seen all the shit,” Star assured him. “Anyways, Mrs. Convergence, please continue.”
Harmonic nodded. “As for the harmonic convergence, I’m not sure about that. If I remember the article from Celestial Houses Monthly, they only occur every 500 years, with another true alignment not scheduled to happen until the mid-29th century.”
Shining grinned. “And this is where being the son of an astronomer and astrophysicist comes in handy. There are different kinds of syzygies. There’s a square alignment of the inner worlds scheduled to happen in a few days, if I remember correctly.”
Harmonic’s eyes opened. “A celestial trine! Why didn’t I think of that?” She raced upstairs as fast as her skirt would let her move, and after a couple of minutes, she returned with a book labeled Encyclopædia Astra, flipping over to a particular page. “The square astrological alignment places four worlds in opposition to one another, turning their metaphysical energies on each other, with the largest of the worlds as the grand recipient.”
Star looked at Shining. “So all we gotta do is find out when this alignment is and where they would do something like this.”
Shining looked at Harmonic. “Please, I need a list of any and everything around here related to metaphysicism and the like. If something big is going down, then that’s where the killer will strike.”
Harmonic looked worried. “You don’t think…they’ll actually summon a demon, do you?”
“No,” Star replied, “but if their attempt at going the Bellwether of Darkness route is right, an innocent girl will be killed and when they realize their little scheme didn’t summon Satan or whatever, they’ll try to melt into the wallpaper just like the original killer. We have to stop this killer now, before it’s too late.”
Sunset pulled up in front of the El Torito, seeing her friend’s cars. I have no idea what I can say to fix this, she realized. I hope Twily didn’t do anything to make them really ticked at her, because it’s going to be a miserable vacation otherwise. Hopefully they realized that she’s off-base right now and they can come up with an idea for me to make things right with her, because the last thing I need right now is my sister hating me.
After finding a decent spot by the front door, she then went in and saw her friends seated at the table just across from the hostess. “Heya Sunny!” Rainbow called out to her. “How’s it shakin’?”
Sunset laughed. “How’s it shaking, or how are they shaking? We are girls, you know.” The Latina blushed furiously at that and Sunset giggled as she sat down. “Anyway, I’m doing okay, girls. How about all of you?”
A silence came over the table as Rarity was the one to start. “I wish it could be better, darling,” the fashionista replied. “As you know, we spoke to your sister about, well…the secret you’ve been keeping from her. Turns out, she wasn’t the only one with a surprise.” The look in Rarity’s eyes flickered towards disappointment for a second. “The conversation was…illuminating, to say the least.”
Sunset mentally groaned. I am not going to like this conversation, am I? the flame-haired girl thought, but chose not to voice that. She then saw the looks on her other friends’ faces, and her supposition became cold, hard fact. “How exactly did you find it illuminating?” In response, Rarity held up a pink scroll, and though Sunset continued to keep her face even, her heart practically jumped out of the zip code. That’s Rarity’s letter! Sunset mentally gasped, and not referring to the human girl in front of her. Then, as if on cue, the four others held up scrolls as well, and it was all Sunset could do to remain seated.
“Could you clarify this for us, Sunny?” Applejack asked, holding up a rather plain parchment scroll. “‘Cause last time Ah checked, mah parents are alive an’ well and not buried in a rose garden in a place called Sweet Apple Acres.”
Pinkie flipped a bright pink scroll back and forth between her hands, though she never took her eyes off Sunset. “Yeah, and I don’t know why I would ever treat my aunt and uncle like practical strangers! They’re more my parents than my mom and dad are, and I would never be so rude to just call them ‘Mr. and Mrs. Cake.’ Auntie Cup and Uncle Carrot mean too much to me to ever do that!”
Rainbow produced a scroll that Sunset recognized as official Wonderbolts parchment. “Well, aside from not knowing who the Wonderbolts are and why they’re the coolest, I take a very dim view of anyone calling my sister not my sister,” she said in a dangerous tone. “You know the shit she went through just this Christmas, and I wouldn’t ever say she’s not my ‘real’ sister.”
Fluttershy mumbled something, then blushed.
“You may wish to repeat that again, Fluttershy,” Rarity suggested, and the part-Japanese girl grew even redder.
“Flutters?” Rainbow asked, starting to worry about the chiffon-haired girl hyperventilating.
“I do not find my father attractive!” Fluttershy gasped, then quickly hid under the table. From the safety of being underneath composite particle board, she added, “Sure, he’s handsome and wonderful and funny – but he’s my father!”
Oh, am I in deep shit, Sunset’s mind blurted. And I just had to joke with the other Rarity about how her Fluttershy’s home seemed set for two, and how she told me that she was trying to fix up Fluttershy and Discord because “they pair well together and she’s completely smitten!”
As if on cue, Rarity opened her scroll and read: “‘And the two just looked marvelous together, Sunset dear. Oh, you should have seen the smile on her muzzle when he presented her with the bouquet of judy blue-eyes. You must return again someday to help me with my master plan of romance!’” She looked at where Fluttershy had been sitting with sympathy. “While I readily admit to being the most romantically-inclined of all of us, I think I’d pretty much draw the line at incest, I assure you. Besides, Fluttershy already has a beau.”
Sunset sighed. “Look, girls, I can explain.”
Rainbow leaned on the table, nearly knocking over her Coke. “Start,” she growled.
Full minutes passed before Sunset sighed began. “They’re from Equestria,” she admitted.
“So we gathered,” Rarity commented. “Do you mean to tell us we have counterparts? After all, we know that your sister does, and from inference, so does Principal Celestia.”
“Frankly, if we do have counterparts, and there’s another Pinkie Pie running around,” Rainbow added, “then I think that for the safety of mankind, we should be made aware of it.” She then flashed the cheerleader a grin. “No offense, Pinks.”
“None taken! In fact, imagine me in a world of magic!” Pinkie said with a wide smile. “I could do something like fall into a magical lake and poof! Dozens of clones of me as far as the eye can see! Wouldn’t that be something, huh?” Everyone else at the table briefly shuddered at the thought.
From her sanctuary below, Fluttershy added, “And I don’t think I can live with knowing that somewhere, there’s a me that….” She eeped and went silent, unable to finish the mind-numbing thought.
“All jokes aside,” Applejack commented, “Ah think we deserve a better answer than ‘they’re from Equestria’. Seriously, this is disturbing.”
“Sunny, we trust you, but we’ve kept your secret for so long,” Pinkie added. “We deserve more than just ‘trust me’, you know.” Pinkie gave Sunset a particularly piercing look that instantly reminded the flame-haired girl once again why Pinkie was the most “dangerous” in her circle of friends – the clown face she always wore was a great mask for the brilliant mind behind it. “So please, explain. We want to know, and I think we deserve to know.”
Sunset looked at her friends and rolled the mental dice. She knew Applejack had a sixth sense when it came to lies and was very good at figuring them out. Pinkie also had a sense for that as well. Rainbow, always loyal, wouldn’t take a betrayal so easily, and she didn’t want to break either Fluttershy or Rarity’s hearts by lying to them.
But it’s more than that. They’re like family to me – they were the closest things I had here until I actually got one, Sunset considered. Now that she had friends, she couldn’t go back to the life she’d led when she was first here – she wouldn’t and couldn’t if she tried. She had too many people who loved her now, people she loved dearly. A mental image of her family and friends abandoning her filled her mind; the former for keeping it from them and the latter for forcing them to be burdened with it. It was silly and irrational, she knew, but the mind rarely worked on the purely logical.
I’m already dangerously close to losing Twily, she insisted. I can’t afford to lose my friends as well. And if it meant lying to them, it would be her cross to bear. She briefly thought about casting a spell on them to improve the believability of what she was about to say, but then thought better of it; she was already going to lie to them, but ensorcelling them would be a bridge too far. That was old Sunset, she told herself.
Just like lying to them is, her conscience answered back, though she ignored that.
“As I said, they’re from Equestria.” She took a drink of water – was her mouth parched all of a sudden? “I…I had a problem with the dragonfire candle a few weeks ago, and the last group of letters you asked me to send to Twi came back garbled and ponified, for lack of a better term. The letters got merged with some correspondence that I’d been sharing with some of Twi’s friends that I met over there.” She shook her head. “I know I should’ve thrown them away because they didn’t make sense, but I was trying to see if I could undo the glitch. Unfortunately, I got too comfortable at home and left them on my desk. Twily found them, and well, here we are.”
“And you’re saying these ponies can do perfect duplicates of our handwriting?” Rainbow asked.
“Hoofwriting, you mean. And any similarity is probably a result of the merger,” Sunset stated. “Basically, I think it imprinted their words onto your handwriting.”
“What about Princess Celestia’s letter to you?” Pinkie asked.
“It’s genuine; obviously Ms. Celestia doesn’t know she has a counterpart, and I’m not going to be the one to tell her,” Sunset insisted, taking a deep breath and hoping a waitress would come by soon. “And that’s the whole thing.”
“I see,” Fluttershy said as she got back into her seat.
The five looked at each other before grins broke out on their faces. A second later, they were all laughing. It took a few seconds before Rarity was able to get catch her breath long enough to say, “Brava! You should be an author, Sunset, dear. You certainly have the imagination for it.”
“Huh?” Sunset asked.
“Did you really think we wouldn’t know?” Rainbow asked. “Look, I’ve read enough DC and Marvel in my lifetime to know how a multiverse works. And given that Scoots is adopted, I just assumed in another reality, she’s only a younger girl I look after. Maybe I babysit her enough that she thinks of me like an older sister?”
“And I figured it out after I received those Uniquecorns from Precious Memory’s shop,” Rarity said. “It dawned on me one day that the design looks too much like your natural self, and since Diamond was designed based on me, it just clicked.”
“Ah remember once that Pa said Ma wanted to buy some land in Ukiah where we could build a farm to supply the store. She even thought about calling it ‘Sweet Apple Acres’, like our store’s the Sweet Apple Supply Stop,” Applejack said. “So maybe there’s a place where they did. And,” she added in a sad tone, “maybe there’s a place where they didn’t survive the car accident, either.”
“Well, since given quantum mechanics and multiversal theory,” Pinkie proclaimed, “there has to be millions upon millions of different mes. And maybe you just happen to come from the one where Auntie Cup and Mom are just friends, not sisters – then the ‘strangerness’ makes sense.” She then looked at Applejack. “Maybe there’s a place where we’re even related!”
The blonde laughed. “You still going on about that theory that we might be related because we’re both from the same general part of the country?”
Pinkie shrugged. “Hey, it’s possible.” Applejack, acknowledging that, simply nodded.
“And it’s creepy to me, but maybe this other Fluttershy and Discord aren’t related at all,” Fluttershy said. “Although….” She shuddered. “Anata ga watashi ni tazunerunaraba, mada kanzen ni amarini mo kimiwarui,” she murmured.
“Translation from weeaboo, please?” Rainbow asked and Fluttershy glared at her. “Fine, fine, I get it.”
“So, your secret’s laid bare for us,” Rarity commented. “At least, I hope this was a prelude to admitting the truth instead of lying to us, because, Sunset, we would hate that.”
“Because it means you’re slippin’ into your old ways, and Ah care about you too much to see that happen, sugarcube,” Applejack added.
“Honestly, I’m glad this is behind us now,” Fluttershy commented, and Sunset breathed a sigh of relief.
At least, until Pinkie chimed in. “Because we can’t let this happen again, Sunny. We’ve protected you all this time, and you couldn’t be honest with us about this. I understand why, and while I’m a little hurt that you wouldn’t admit it, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we understand.” But then she turned serious again and said, “But this isn’t just about us – it’s about your family, and what you should’ve told them a long time ago. It’s two weeks until the adoption and they still know nothing, Sunny. This is your family we’re talking about.”
“Pinkie, what am I supposed to tell them?” Sunset asked. “How am I supposed to tell them?”
“With words,” Applejack commented. “With true, honest words. That’s what Ah’d do if Ah was in your position.” She looked at Sunset with both sympathy and confusion. “And Ah don’t know why you won’t tell them. This is your family – they love you and whatever you really are doesn’t change who you really are, girl.”
“But this much is true,” Rainbow said. “The longer this goes on, the deeper the divide gets. Your sister already figured out that you have a secret that you refuse to admit, one that you dragged us into. How long until the rest of your family figures that out – or worse, that they misunderstand? And your mother is best friends with the principal and vice principal of our school. Honestly, I’d be worried just about that alone, given that they know, too.”
“Sunny, speaking as someone who just had her family life returned to normal for the first time in a decade, you can’t afford this,” Fluttershy intoned. “Look at what the good-intentioned lies my parents told me did to my relationship with my father. You were there for the whole patching up mess, all its wounds and scars. I don’t ever want to see you go through that kind of hell…except you’re headed in that direction without my help. And I refuse to enable that.”
“This is the part where we show you that we care, even if we don’t want to do this,” Applejack said. “This is where the tough love comes in.”
“Tough love?” Sunset asked, already liking that last line even less in a conversation that was unsavory to begin with.
Pinkie looked at Sunset directly, her blue eyes boring into cyan ones. “Sunset, either you tell your family the truth by the time we get back from Modesto…” she began.
Sunset swore that despite being midsummer, the whole temperature dropped more than a few degrees. “Or?”
“We tell them everything,” the cotton-candy-haired girl finished. “Everything.”
“What?” Sunset gasped. “You can’t!”
A sad look came over Rarity’s face as she said, “Oh, I assure you we can, darling. And I also promise you that we will. Please understand that we’re doing this for your sake – we don’t take pleasure from this at all.”
“But it has to be done,” Applejack added. “Either you do it or we’ll do it for you.”
“And I’ll ensure that it happens.” The girls froze as one, turning in the direction of the speaker, behind Sunset. Sunset turned around, knowing who the voice belonged to, and how exactly fucked she was now and sure enough, when she finally got her view, there stood Principal Celestia. The educator was dressed far more casually than she’d ever seen her before, in a camisole and tight-fitting jeans that accented her body. She had her hair in a long, flowing ponytail draped over her right shoulder. Her arm was on that of a well-muscled man who Sunset hadn’t seen before, but based on conversations with her mother, was clearly Celestia’s boyfriend.
Celestia leaned over and kissed the man. “Sable, honey, would you find us a table? I need to talk to my students for a moment.”
“Sure,” he said with a grin, “I’ll go flirt with the hostess for a bit.”
She briefly glowered at him before a loving smile returned to her face as he walked off. “Isn’t love grand?” she said to the girls, only to see the shocked expressions they wore. “Sunset, you of all people should’ve known about this. I’m pretty sure Vel had to have mentioned him by now.”
Sunset, in turn, turned to her friends, a hurt look on her face. Did they betray her?
No more than you just did to them, the voice in the back of her mind reminded her.
Seeing the expression of pain on her friend’s face, Pinkie shook her head. “This is just as much of a surprise to us as it is to you,” she admitted.
Seeing a potential rift in the making, Celestia put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Sunset, my boyfriend and I just happened to stop here based on Luna’s suggestion, so it’s a complete coincidence that we’re here the same time as you. But if I may also add, color me surprised to see you all here discussing the same subject you and Luna went through the other day.” The girls all looked at Celestia and she knew that whatever she was going to say, they’d probably agree. “Frankly, as your educator, I wholeheartedly agree with their ultimatum. You should have dealt with this by now.
“And in fact, I’m going to take it one step farther: if you do not come clean by the time you return from your vacation, my sister and I will gather these girls and their families and we will tell them all, including what you briefly became.” Her face became the very picture of sobriety as she added, “Technically, your very presence puts these girls in terrible danger, especially given what happened just a couple of months ago. I daresay they might even be in more danger than the serial killer running around targeting young women your age.”
As a horrified look came over Sunset’s face, Applejack intervened. “Beg your pardon, Principal, but how did you know about our trip?”
Celestia smiled. “Did you forget your mother and Luna are friends? Your mother actually asked Luna for suggestions, given that my sister’s been to Modesto more than a few times.”
Rainbow worriedly pointed at Sunset. “I think you just short-circuited her mind, Teach.”
Celestia moved over to face Sunset and saw the genuinely terrified look in the girl’s face. Guilt crossed the educator’s visage as she admitted, “Sunset, I meant everything I said to you nearly a year ago: your mother is my best friend and so for me, this is personal. And I know you’ve changed; no one understands that more than I do…but you’ve had all this time to tell them the truth and what happened the other day only shows that this is the lone area where you’re afraid of change. But lies of omission are still lies, Sunset, and I care too much to see you do this to yourself.” Celestia embraced the girl, adding, “You are a wonderful young woman, one I’m proud to have seen grow into the person you were always meant to be, but I can’t watch you slide back into your old ways. This has to end, Sunset.”
“But if they find out, they won’t want me anymore,” Sunset sobbed, her eyes starting to fill with tears. “I’ll be alone again!”
“Do you really think that little of those who love you?” the older woman asked. “They adore you unconditionally and trust you completely – that’s what families do, after all. And I truly hope that you learn this for yourself the easy way, rather than the hard.” She wiped the girl’s tears from her eyes and said, “I believe in you, Sunset. Don’t prove me wrong.”
“This getting too intense for anyone else?” Rainbow asked nobody in particular.
Realizing she might have gone a little too far, Celestia backed off. “Sorry to interrupt your meal, girls. I’ll see you back in school in a couple of weeks, hopefully, and not sooner than that.” Not sure if she should say anything further, Celestia opted to walk away.
“Okay, that was a bit too awkward for my tastes,” Applejack agreed. “Rainbow’s right: that was more than a bit hair-raising, but Ms. Celestia’s right.”
At this time, finally the waitress came with a menu, and Sunset rose from her seat. “I…I think I lost my appetite. I’m going to head home now. I’ll see you girls tonight.”
“Sunset, please don’t go,” Rarity said, sounding genuinely regretful. “We didn’t mean to hurt you. We’re doing this because we care and want the best for you, truly.”
“I don’t see how this could be best for me!” Sunset all but shouted.
“Because sometimes, Sunset,” Pinkie said in a stark tone, “you do something that is for the best and that people don’t like – and that you even hate yourself and others for.” Sunset froze at the steel in Pinkie’s voice and as she turned to look at her friend, she noticed the girl’s hair was straightening and her warm blue eyes were becoming frostier than Alaska, never a good sign.
“What are you talking about?” Sunset asked.
“The thing you did to me. That I did to myself. That I hated you for a long time for,” Pinkie said in a small voice, “and that I will forever hate myself for.”
Rarity realized it instantly, her eyes widening. “No, Pinkie, you don’t have to!”
“You don’t have to w…oh, shit,” Applejack said, as realization kicked in. Rainbow and Fluttershy said nothing; what could they say? All four knew something was about to happen, and the chances of stopping it were about as possible as holding back a train with a newborn baby.
“What’s going on?” Sunset inquired, looking at her friends and the worried looks that were not directed at her.
“Sunny….” Pinkie spoke and she looked so vulnerable right now. The brilliant yet happy-go-lucky girl was gone, replaced by someone quivering and shaking. “I did something I never should have done. Something that made me hate you for what you did to me and for what I did to myself.”
“What are you saying?”
“Do…do you remember November in our freshman year? There was this guy that I was completely in love with. Do you remember Royal Atlas?” A nostalgic look came over her face as tears of either joy or sorrow came. “Cute as hell, beautiful blue hair and green eyes. I’ve never been in love with anyone the way I loved Atlas. I think he was the first person that ever made me feel like I was a woman.”
“Yeah, he was a winner, that’s for sure,” Sunset agreed. “Whatever happened to him? Didn’t he move at the end of the year?” Pinkie didn’t answer, and Pinkie looked like she was going to break apart. “Pinkie?” Still no answer came from the girl, and Sunset went over to her friend’s side, looking as the normally chipper girl buried her face in the crook of her arm, softly sobbing. “Please, you’re scaring me.”
“GOOD!” Pinkie shouted, suddenly glaring at Sunset with a raging intensity. “YOU SHOULD BE!” There was a rage in Pinkie’s eyes that Sunset had never seen before, but she knew what it was: the hatred the other girl had felt for her so long ago. Pinkie was caught up in those emotions now, and the raw fury being unleashed right now reminded her of the time she and Princess Celestia departed on bad terms.
Sunset felt herself go numb. As she looked up at Pinkie’s eyes, she could see they were filled with the same hatred she’d felt so long ago, a massive inferno of emotions directed straight at Sunset. The flame-haired girl fell backwards, out of her seat, and a second later, she felt something less numbing – the cold, tiled floor as she hit her head.
Rainbow rushed to Sunset’s side and helped her up. “You okay?”
Sunset got back to her feet, ignoring the scene they’d just caused. “Am I okay?” the former unicorn parroted. “Is she okay?” She pointed to Pinkie, who was crying and being helped by Rarity and Fluttershy.
Applejack came over. “Ah think you’d better leave, Sunny.”
“Why? What did I do wrong?” Sunset asked.
“It’s…it’s the past, sugarcube,” Applejack said in a sad voice. “We can talk about it later. But right now, the last thing you need is for Ms. Celestia to come over here, okay? Sunset looked over and sure enough, Celestia was looking in their direction, with a look on her face that indicated there was a mental debate as to whether she should get involved.
“Please, Sunny,” Rainbow said. “This is going to be as hard as it is.”
“Okay,” Sunset said, grabbing her purse. “I think I lost my appetite anyway. I’ll talk to you girls tonight.” She managed to make it as far as the front door when Applejack stopped her.
“Sunny, please don’t think this is anything against you,” Applejack insisted. “This is all water under the bridge – it’s in the past.”
“No, it damn well isn’t,” Sunset said, her voice thick with confusion and a bit of fear that she wasn’t so much being asked to leave the restaurant as much as it was to leave their lives. “If she’s acting like that? Then it never was over to begin with.”
For a change, it was a short bit of respite from the hell that the five girls that had dubbed themselves “The SIREN Resistance Unit” were enjoying. Adagio was reading a book, Aria was throwing daggers at a makeshift dartboard she’d made on the wall on the far side of the room, and Sonata was looking out the window at something. Neither Sunny Side nor Evergreen Pine were to be seen, though in a room to the side, hearty smells wafted into the other room.
“Wow, I am so jealous,” Sonata said, sniffing the air. “Can you smell that?”
“Yeah, and it’s making me hungry,” Adagio said. “I didn’t know either of them could cook.”
“Soni, I wouldn’t worry. I still think you’re the best cook.” Aria lazily threw another knife, this one bouncing off the first one and landing blade down on the ground. As she was just goofing off, she wasn’t trying for the best score anyway.
Sonata blushed. “Thanks, sis.”
“Soup’s on!” Both Side and Evergreen came out of the room, carrying trays of various foodstuffs. “Since we’re taking it easy for the moment, thought we could do with something a little more on the go than fast food or MREs.”
The three girls came over to the table in a heartbeat. “Wow, you managed to dig up all this?”
Evergreen nodded. “The market across the street is still abandoned, and the owner hasn’t even been by to check it yet. I raided all I could and left him some money for his trouble. I’m sure he’ll notice the store’s been broken into, but I think he’ll flip when he realizes the food’s been paid for.”
Adagio looked at the bowls. “Is that French Onion soup? I haven’t had a decent one since we were in Paris!”
Aria took a look at the rest of the food. “Is that a steak and cheddar panino? I think I’ve died and gone back to Venice!”
Sonata merely pouted briefly, but Adagio put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Hey, don’t sweat it, Soni. Out of the three of us, you’re still the best cook.”
“I know. I was just thinking this reminds me of the café,” Sonata said softly.
“Oh, that’s right!” Evergreen commented as she passed the bowls and sandwiches to each SIREN. “Your sœurs said that you three had been here a long time. How’d that go?”
“You know, lived like normal girls, got jobs, made friends,” Adagio said, looking at her sisters. “If the undercover op lasted long enough, we probably would’ve gone to high school here, which would’ve been interesting.”
“I liked working in the café,” Sonata said. “Hanging with our friends, living like normal people.”
“Soni….” Aria began, but couldn’t finish the sentence. She knew how her sister felt, because she felt the same way. The three younger girls eventually came to an uncomfortable silence which said more than they could have ever voiced.
Side and Evergreen looked at each other. “Hey, we know how you feel. We had an op when we were your ages – had to infiltrate a Parisian café that was frequented by a Cuban diplomat. We got to enjoy our time there, and we decided that when we eventually leave the SIRENs, we were going to start our own place somewhere here in the US.”
Evergreen grinned. “We even came up with a name – The Candy Sisters! You see, sis knows how to cook the regular stuff, but I especially know how to make confections! Learned from the head chef at the Boulangerie Pizzazz. So trust us, we know you want to be normal girls, because we want to be, too.”
Side nodded. “I think if you asked most of the Sisterhood in private that they’d all want to be normal girls. After all, none of us chose this life.”
Adagio was about to add something when she heard one of the computers chime. “What’s that?”
Sonata leapt from her seat, racing over to the computer. “Looks like the next part of the encryption got cracked,” she said, dropping down into the chair in front of it. Her fingers started racing over the keys as the other girls’ attentions were now caught.
“Is this for real?” Side asked as she looked over Sonata’s shoulder.
“Yeah, looks like it,” Sonata answered, not taking her eyes off the system as she typed along. She then looked away and pointed at the screen, adding, “But what this shit is, I’ve no idea.”
The rest looked as bizarre glyphs moved across the screen, things that weren’t even recognizable. They were nothing like they’d seen before, and most likely nothing like any of the common languages on the planet.
“What the fuck is this shit?” Aria asked. “Moon runes?”
“Says the Chinese girl,” Evergreen commented.
“Hey, I’m 100% All-Canadian Girl,” the pigtailed teen replied with a grin. “Either way, Chinese does not look like that.”
“Hey, that actually looks familiar,” Evergreen said, to the surprise of everyone present…except one.
“Oh, shit, here we go again,” Side groaned.
“Sis, I don’t make fun of your hobbies, so please don’t make fun of mine.”
“Greenie, my hobbies involve watching hockey and reruns of The Red Green Show. Yours involves batshit stuff.”
“No, I swear I’ve seen that before!” Evergreen said, moving away from the computer and towards the room she and Side shared. “Be right back!”
“Something we should know, Sides?” Adagio asked.
“You really don’t want to know, Dagi, trust me.”
“Sides, if this is going to degrade our unit performance….”
“No, this is a personal thing. My sister….” Side sighed. “Greenie has some odd hobb—”
“HAH! I was right!” Evergreen came into the room, bearing a book in her hands. “It’s Linear A! I was right! So it’s true!”
“Greenie, no, it’s not, okay?”
“Of course it is! Think about it! Where did the Prince get his magic from?”
“Well, for starters, we don’t know if he actually does have magic,” Side countered, “weird shit that Cantata is doing notwithstanding.”
“Personally speaking,” Adagio cut in, “I’m far more inclined to believe magic than previously. What Wine changed into can’t be normal. Regardless, assuming the Project ANTHEMUSA documentation is correct, he inherited his abilities from his ancestor, Bald-something-or-other.”
Evergreen grinned with the rictus of someone on the verge of triumph. “And where did Baldassare di Cavalcanti get it from?” she said with authority. “From the Black Unicorn, of course!” Hearing that, Side facepalmed, and the other girls looked in confusion.
“Wat,” Aria blurted.
“Greenie thinks that there was once an ancient civilization of unicorns,” Side explained, “and that one of them – the Black Unicorn – went rogue and taught black magic to several people around the world.”
“Exactly!” Evergreen crowed. “We now have proof!”
The room was silent for a few moments before Aria commented, “Someone please tell me she’s not related to Pinkie.”
Meanwhile, Evergreen popped over to one of the unused laptops, brought up the browser, and headed over to a particular site, turning away so the others could see. “If you ask me, I think we get an expert involved.”
Side read from the screen: “Golden Harp’s Compendium of the Lost Unicorn Civilization. Seriously, sis?”
Sonata looked at the site and giggled. “Greenie, hate to break this to you, but this is an Angelfire site. The only people who still use Angelfire are edgy twelve-year-olds and isolated conspiracy theory nutbars!”
“You mean like all the people who insist that the Canadian government would never run anything as illegal as a child soldier program?” Evergreen defended, opening a new tab and setting it to a Tripod website called SIRENs: Are the Canadian Child Assassins Real?
“Fine, fine, point,” Side said. “Let’s just get this over and done with.”
Evergreen grinned and went back to Golden Harp’s site. “GH is an expert on metaphysics and works in the occult support business here in Canterlot. Apparently she’s well-known in the brony community—”
“The what?”
“Bronies. You know, like bros and ponies – it’s the term we experts on the Lost Unicorn Civilization use to refer to ourselves,” the dark-skinned girl said with a hint of pride. “Anyone who is anyone in the brony community knows who GH is.”
“Wait…local occult su….” Sonata groaned. “Lyra. Has to be.”
“Lyra?” Aria and Adagio asked.
“A few days before we, ahem, ‘left’, I met one of Sunny’s friends, a girl by the name of Lyra Heartstrings. She works at the lone spiritualist shop in town, she’s a Wiccan, she said, and she’s looney enough to make Pinkie look like a stoic.” Sonata shook her head. “And I hate to say it, but thinking about it? Maybe Greenie has a point.”
“Seriously?” Side asked.
Adagio thought about it for a second. “Soni’s got a point, Sides. We saw what Wine turned into, and there’s no scientific explanation that we know of that could cover that. Plus, we know that for some reason, the Prince and Cantata are ritualistically murdering virgin teenagers out there – I’ve seen enough movies to know that’s Grade-A black magic shit. And we’ve looked down all the normal avenues we can, but we’re running out of time and this is the only path left.”
Aria nodded. “Look, I don’t believe any of this, but think about the Law of Parsimony: When all theories are equal, the one with the least logical issues has to be the truth.”
“Who?” Side asked.
“Parsimony of Occam, a 14th century philosopher,” Evergreen said without taking her eyes off the screen.
“Fine, fine, if this is the only way we can go, what harm can it do besides the obvious?” She looked at her sister. “You’ve got the helm, sis.”
“Right.” The goofy grin on Evergreen’s face disappeared as she started issuing marching orders. “Soni, I need you to start looking online at every possible bit of info on Baldassare di Cavalcanti, especially concerning him and the Black Unicorn.”
“Roger that,” she said, flexing her hands out and cracking her knuckles.
“I need the best person at stealth to break into the Canterlot Library. They have a small collection of occult books that due to their age have to be checked out of reference and can’t leave the building. I’ll need everything taken.”
“Leave that to me,” Aria said. “That’s what I’m best at.”
She then turned to Side. “Sis, you and Dagi head to San Francisco. There’s a large occult center there, and I’ll need you two to look up whatever information you can.”
Adagio looked at the clock. “If we leave now, we can get there a little after two. That should give us several hours to do some spelunking.”
“Good,” Side said. “Let’s get ready. We’ll be out the door in fifteen minutes.”
“And what are you going to do, Greenie?” Sonata asked.
The older girl went over to the laptop and started to download a gaming program. “She’s usually on chat about now. I’m going to ask her if we can meet in person. If anyone can point us in the right direction, it should be her.”