A fuzzy sensation marked Sunset’s return to consciousness. She felt happy, refreshed, and content. Echoes of ethereal music drifted distantly between her ears, too beautiful for memory to hold.
The echoes ended, leaving her with an empty longing. Cold, lovely sleep was disappearing to uncomfortable warmth. Her back was hot. She tried to roll, but couldn’t.
Bleary eyes opened. Lips felt dry. She was sitting upright, with silver bindings around her ankles.
It took a few seconds for her dulled mind to find the answer. Duct tape.
Sunset roused at once in a panic. She tried to pull up her knees, with the only effect being a clonk of the back of her head against someone else – Twilight, given the purple ponytail running down Sunset's shoulder. Tape ran over both their torsos and mouths, and that around Sunset’s ankles was latched by handcuffs to the couch.
Applejack sat in a chair to Sunset’s front. Could duct tape even hold her? No matter – a linked chain bound her up and down. Wallflower fared no better, hogtied on the ground with tape over her eyes and mouth.
A voice came from the other side of the couch, and Sunset went still. “So, you were trying to enslave the werewolf to be your ace in the hole. Before it broke out, anyway. Good job with that.”
Adagio. Hope thrilled, then died. Sunset peered her way discreetly, seeing all three sirens casually talking over their apple wine.
“Like you could do better,” Sonata grumbled.
“I could,” Adagio said easily. “But that just leaves me with one more question: what’s Discord’s angle? You haven’t mentioned him in all this.”
Aria traded a shrug with her blue partner. “Who?”
“Oh! He was that professor guy.” Sonata laughed and waved her hand downwards. “But, uh, there ain’t no angle, there. Pretty funny – we caught the bus one day and heard him mention your name on the phone. A little flirting, and he told us all about you and Sunset’s little business. Easy, peesy, squish-a-breezie.”
Aria gave a low grunt. “You should be grateful. Talking to him made us think about contacting you.”
Adagio glanced to the bound hunters, and smiled. “Well, well. Look who’s up.”
It wasn’t Sunset’s gaze that Adagio caught, but Applejack’s as she glared back without any attempt at subtlety. She growled lowly through her tape gag, drawing naught but a chuckle from above.
The sirens’ bickering ended at once. They stood and approached, stepping and swaying in perfect sync. Blue gems blazed at their throats, illuminating cruel grins.
Aria caught Sunset’s eyes. “Aw, what’s bothering you, Sunshit? You can tell me anything.”
The gag caught Sunset’s response. Sonata cooed, pinching at the yellow cheeks. “Poor widdle Sunshit, are you sad dat one of your widdle fwiends is a twaitor? Is your widdle heart bweaking? Do you want a kiss so–”
She interrupted herself with a laugh. “Oh-em-ef-gee, she’s crying.”
“Then give her something to cry about,” Aria muttered distractedly. She half-heartedly shoved at Twilight, though only eyed her with contempt. “Damn, I wish you were the real Twilight Sparkle. Maybe later, huh?”
Sunset’s blurred eyes found Adagio. With no voice, she tried to let her glare show all the fury the siren had earned.
Adagio only shrugged. Cool, distant. “Let me tell you something.”
She gently pushed Sonata away, yet remained standing. Her expression turned to careful neutrality. Full lips moved, and the words flowed like music. “I’m not evil.”
An effacing smile quirked to Adagio’s face, then vanished. “At least, I don’t think I am. Spiders are not evil for hunting flies, nor is flame when it burns the moth.”
A regal tilt of the head. Her gaze swept over to Applejack. “You have only yourselves to blame for this. I made no secret of the truth. We are all sharks and fish, spiders and flies. We survive and flourish on the pain of others, or we falter and die. I told you over and over, and you did not listen. You embraced me, and now feel so righteously offended that the monster now does as monsters do.”
Adagio turned from Sunset, now striding slowly to the bound farmer. Applejack flinched and trembled. Her glare grew unsteady with fear, and the siren’s grin shined white.
“You lose. Even now, wendigos – carrion of our hate – are striking your allies in their homes. Even if they are defeated it will be too late. Tirek’s power is primed. It shall erupt with the first song, and then the world shall be remade.”
She stopped before Applejack, beautiful and cruel. Manicured nails reached up and gently peeled back the gag.
“You will share it with me.”
Adagio chuckled lowly, passing her hand over her mouth. She bent down and kissed Applejack on the lips.
Sunset saw a bulge in the freckled cheek as Adagio’s tongue worked its way inside. Applejack looked stunned.
...Sunset looked away. Adagio stood and departed with the other sirens, locking the door behind.
Sunset hadn’t gotten this far without learning to grit her teeth through hopeless situations. Body and mind snapped back in gear less than two minutes after the door closed. Pulling, twisting, and looking around for anything close to hand, not that she could get her arms free.
Nothing came of it (‘Yet,’ she sternly reminded herself to add). She mentally apologized with each muffled squeak from Twilight as she jostled the girl with her struggles. Too much damn tape around the arms and body. The weak point had to be at the ankles.
Mired in her own struggles, it took Sunset a few seconds of staring down her legs to notice Applejack was rock-still. Not surprising given what the poor girl had gone through, but it was her face that arrested Sunset’s attention. Thoughtful and quiet. Gazing to the wall beyond, as though lost in careful deduction. Her lips remained tight, and a slight bulge revealed her tongue moving ponderously inside her cheek.
Applejack’s arms were bound high and tight to her body, but her hands were free. She cupped one, leaned forwards, and spat out something small and copper.
...A key. It landed gently in her palm. With dexterity few would imagine the large girl possessed, she maneuvered it easily to the lock.
A turn, a click, and a pull. Chains rattled, suddenly free of the lock which had stretched them taut. One loop around Applejack’s wrist slipped down and clattered to the floor. She shrugged, and another fell from her shoulder.
Applejack caught Sunset’s eyes. “I’m coming, girls. Hold your horses.”
She pushed with her arms, and more chains loosened. She caught Sunset again, and gave a bashful chuckle. “Daj, she, uh… kissed it to me.”
Another, more forceful push loosened the chains to the point where they seemed less to bind her than be piled around her lap. Applejack kicked, freeing her legs, and stood from the chair.