A pair of women stepped off the concourse, headed towards the Baggage Claim. Both looked as if they’d seen better days, though the older one was looking much better than the younger, in comparison.
“Mom, next time Uncle Noblesse insists we take a private jet, I promise not to gain a sense of entitlement,” Shimmer groaned.
“I’m in agreement,” Solaire said with some regret. “Had I known that we were going to suffer so much turbulence during the flight, I would have reconsidered.”
“Oh, I think I’m going to hurl,” Shimmer moaned. Fortunately, it was likely only nausea, but the airsickness bags on the plane had gotten a workout.
“Soli? Sunset?” a voice called, and both practically sprinted out of the concourse exit and to a large, burly man with hair and beard the color of autumn foliage. He was with a woman and two teens, the pair roughly about Sunset’s age.
“God, Soli, you look great!” Autumn Forest said as he hugged his sister-in-law. He then turned to Sunset, embracing her as well. “And little Sunny! You’ve grown!”
“Thanks,” Shimmer said, blushing hard. The blush didn’t stop as she spent a few more minutes being coddled over by her aunt, Vanilla Cream.
“You look absolutely gorgeous, Sunny!” the woman cooed.
“Thanks, Aunt Vanilla,” Shimmer murmured, turning redder than the locks in her hair. Fortunately, Shimmer’s mother had suddenly caught her sister-in-law’s attention and the woman let the teen go, allowing her to face her cousins. It had been a while, but she was sure she’d remembered their names; she hadn’t spent much time growing up with them, given that they’d attended separate schools than she had. “Uh…Fancy and Coco, right?”
“Absolutely right, your highness,” Fancy said, bowing elegantly while Coco curtseyed. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance once more, even though it’s been years.”
Seeing their reaction, Shimmer sighed. “Look…we’re cousins, I don’t like being a princess – figuratively or literally – and I just want to consider myself a normal American girl while we’re here. So let’s try this again.” She offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Shimmy.”
Fancy smiled and took her hand. “It’s been a long time, cousin. You’ve grown.” Behind him, Coco said nothing, but instead gave a soft smile.
“I hope so. I mean, I was what, nine, when you last saw me? And Coco, you were barely in kindergarten or something like that.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Coco said with a blush. “But after we….” Coco suddenly went silent and turned her head. After a split second, Shimmer could hear a soft sobbing coming from her younger cousin and the sound practically ripped at her heart.
“Coco was really close to Nana,” Fancy apologized by way of explanation. “It’s a shame that you couldn’t get here in time; I know she would have loved to see you.”
That statement affected Shimmer greatly. She could barely remember her grandmother; she’d never known her grandfather and she tried to claw on to whatever memories she had of her father, as well as the recollections of her mother and other family members back in France. Sometimes she could barely recall her early years here, as if the pain had caused her to shut them from her mind.
Maybe it’s really like that phrase I read about in school, she thought. “Jamais vu” – the feeling you haven’t been somewhere before even though you know you have.
Sensing his cousin’s distress, Fancy offered, “Since I know you’ll be in town for a few weeks, after the funeral is over, would you like Coco and I to show you around town? May give you some happy memories to offset the bad ones.”
Shimmer nodded. “I think I’d like that.”
“Maybe I can even introduce you to some of my friends!” Coco exclaimed wiping away her tears and casting them aside. “I’m sure you’d like to get to know them as well.”
Watching the teens talk, Solaire smiled and looked at her in-laws. “They’ve grown to be such wonderful people, Autumn, Vanilla. You should be proud.”
“No less than you should be about Sunset,” Autumn replied. “Our young princess has grown up to be quite the literal one.”
Watching from a distance, three men, muscular and dressed in casual clothing, eyed the small group then looked around. «Tabarnac! Où diable est notre contact?» the lead, with short-cropped brown and green hair commented.
“Yo, cut the Fran-sayse!” hissed a second one. “We’ve got fake IDs, and we’re supposed to pretend to be American – if you have to speak a foreign language, it’s Spanish.”
The first one grinned. “As if,” he replied back. “I had them make me some fake documents to say I’m from Louisiana just so I can talk in French whenever I want.”
“Asshole.”
“Okay, cut it, you two,” a third voice, apparently the one in charge, cut in. “Now we have to look for our Goddamn contact. That asshole from the CIA said he’d be around here somewhere.” He pointed towards the group they saw earlier, who were at the carousel grabbing their bags. “Tell you what, let’s casually follow those folks, get our bags, then we can stand outside and I’ll call the number CSIS provided me with. If we can’t get a hold of our contact, at least we have the address to the safe house, okay?”
The second one grunted. “Most of the SIRENs have been spotted overseas and we’re chasing some fuckin’ wild geese here in Northern California. Waste of my fucking skills, I swear.”
Watching from a distance, a bored girl dressed in airport janitorial gear watched the men. To the average person, she looked as though she was drooling over the trio of beefcakes. However, a practiced expert could have noticed her eyes looking towards very specific positions, as if gazing for something in particular.
The girl tapped a small button on her collar. “Aleph? Gimel. We have three tangos spotted. Fifteen mikes from my position, and from the looks of it, they’re tracking our ‘guests’.”
“Roger that, am inbound. Zayin, do you have a status on Che and her team?”
“Just extracted them from the plane and VIPing them to the rendezvous point.”
“Disregard; have all of you rack up and form up on Gimel. Gimel, I have you on visual – and I have them as well. Zayin, how fast can you get there?”
A pause, over the radio, then, “We’re doubletiming, but we’re gonna need a distraction.”
Gimel leaned over towards the radio’s mic. “Let me take care of that. Chief, be ready to back me up.” With that, the girl pushed the portable cleaning station forward, moving faster as if a particular urgency had taken over the janitor. Finally as she approached just behind her targets, she slipped, crashing to the floor while the cart continued onwards, slamming into the trio. As the cart was made of a durable, light plastic, the two men it impacted into weren’t injured, but knocked off their feet in the process, crumpling to the ground. The cart flipped onto its side, spilling dirty water all over the place.
“Aw mah Gawd!” the panicked voice of a young woman followed up right behind them. She looked terrified, as though she was watching her job disappear before her eyes. “Aw, Ah’m sow sarry!” she said, trying to help the men up while wiping them down with paper towels at the same time. She was making a bigger scene of it than it needed to be, and had it not been for the dirty, spilled water, it would have been nothing more than just mild embarrassment. But the horror-stricken histrionics of the girl made just about all the other watchers turn away, feeling sympathy for her plight.
“Look, it’s okay, mon cherie,” the French-speaking man told her. “Just an accident.”
“Cleanup!” a new voice shouted, and a woman dressed as an airport official, and carrying a radio, approached them. “What did you do this time?” she snapped at the janitor angrily enough to make the remaining bystanders start to wander off. She then looked at the men and said, “Sirs, my apologies. Let me take you to the back area, and we’ll get you cleaned up, okay?”
“No, that’s quite alright, mi—” The man suddenly stopped and realized that one that had hit him was a young woman, clearly fit, and clearly beautiful. Backing her up was another woman clearly fit and as just as beautiful. Instinctively, his hand went for a sidearm that wasn’t there. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that his partners had suddenly realized the same.
Less than a second later, four more sets of footfalls arrived, all belonging to other young and beautiful women. The three men could see bulges in various pockets: firearms. It was clear: the trio would be killed one way or the other, and it was a matter of being killed in cold blood where civilians could be hurt, or going with the SIRENs, where there might be a small chance of escaping.
“Please, sirs,” the one dressed in the attire of the airport concierge said with a smile, though her eyes radiated pure murder. “I insist.”
A dozen miles away, Cantata pulled back from the monitor she looked at. “XO,” she called out, “we have three members of Les SCARS that two of our fireteams just captured, and I want to know what the hell just happened.”
Brushing her Alice-blue hair out of her green eyes, Rhapsody Blue, the SIRENs’ executive officer, said, “Captain, if it weren’t for my suggestion that we have Canterlot International infiltrated, we’d be completely caught unawares. As it is, we were lucky that our infiltration team happened to be on the ball and the monitoring team’s flight just happened to land. OPS, INTEL, do you two have anything to weigh in on this?”
“I’ll have a second team infiltrate CJV,” Violin Elegy, the SIRENs Operations officer, replied. “In fact, I recommend that we leave some of the fence riders there on duty. That way, once we finish our duties here and begin the main strike on CSIS headquarters, they can be here as a reserve force. And once we win, they’ll have new careers and lives to start with, which will cool their grumbling.”
“I’ll consider it,” Cantata ordered. “INTEL?”
Clavichord Thrust, the SIRENs Intelligence officer, set down the tablet she was looking at. “It should be obvious, Captain: they had help from the CIA. The Americans are getting involved, which up the stakes. Unless we’re planning to go after Langely and the American intelligence apparatus afterwards, I strongly recommend that we just treat them as unfortunate bystanders.”
“I agree,” Elegy added. “Take out any immediate threats that can be confused with our tangos, but make it clear that this is none of their business and as long as they stay out of it, we won’t go hunting afterwards.”
Cantata looked at them all, and said, “Ladies, that’s nice and all, but I don’t think you even began to realize what happened: we have a mole on our team.”
“A mole?” Clavichord asked, her lilac eyes showing surprise. “Ma’am, with all due respect….”
Cantata caught her gist immediately. “Permission to speak freely granted, Clavi.”
“Canta, this is stupid! Every one of our forces knows what’s at stake here!” Clavichord cried. “They know that the slightest violation of OPSEC could doom us all!”
“And yet we have so many SIRENs that could cause security risks,” Cantata reminded her. “What about Sublieutenant Dulcimer Glide? She was assigned temporarily to Fleet Air so she could learn how to fly a helicopter – that’s an unnecessary exposure. And I don’t need to discuss our troops’ personal lives. Didn’t you date an RCAF captain?”
“Yeah, but I broke it off once I found out he was assigned to ARROWHEAD,” Clavichord explained. “And I lied to him about what I did for a living; he still thought I was just an assistant manager for the local branch of The Bay.”
“Even still, they’re security risks,” she told them. “So here’s what I want. Rhapi, I want you to focus on our weaknesses and ways to counteract them.”
“That’s my job, Canta,” Elegy grumbled.
“Yes, it is – now it’s hers, at least for the moment. I want you and Clavi to go through our personnel’s dossiers and find out anything that might be a security threat. Anyone you find, you two interrogate them.”
“And if it doesn’t pan out?” Rhapsody asked.
“I want them executed immediately,” Cantata replied.
“Captain, you’re talking about killing fellow members of the Sisterhood!” Clavichord gasped.
“If they sold us out then they weren’t a part of the Sisterhood to begin with,” Cantata snarled. “Now you ladies have your orders. Dismissed.”
A Canterlot Police Department officer led a distraught Mayor Mare away from the area. She looked completely shattered, and the look in her deep blue eyes was one of complete loss.
“Wow,” a Siskyou County Sheriff’s Department deputy commented to no one in particular, “I guess Councilman Caballeron’s muckracking about Mare dyeing her hair in order to look more distinguished really was true. I mean, yeah, I always thought she had that two-tone gray hair, but I never really noticed her fuchsia eyebrows before an—”
“Hey, asshole, unless you want to be the next corpse we find,” Sandalwood snarled, “then shut the fuck up. A girl is dead, her father’s in the hospital in critical condition, and her mother’s grieving that she might lose her entire family. So shut the fuck up, understood?”
“Hey, Sandy, calm down, okay?” Shining told her.
“No, I will not calm down, Shining!” Sandalwood pointed to one of the CPD officers that had accompanied Mayor Mare as part of her detail. “Hey, Closeby, get the mayor out of here, and then lock this place down with an IQ of at least 1.” She then pointed at the offending deputy and added, “That doesn’t count you, so get the fuck out of here!”
The scene was Black Butte, California, a small town an hour’s drive north of Canterlot, in Siskyou County, on the far side of Mount Shasta. An ambulance and officers from the SCSD, ECSD, CPD and the FBI were present for one reason: a hiker had discovered the body of Liza Doolots and had reported it. The tang of the dried vomit that had come from the hiker upon finding Liza’s body was still stinking up the area, and only the sad expertise of the law enforcement officers had made them ignore it.
“Jesus, what a piece of work,” another – and clearly smarter – SCSD deputy had said to Shining. “This is some serious shit. Glad you Feds get to deal with this, and not us.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Shining replied in sober tones, not in the mood to explain to the deputy that he was just on loan to the FBI, not an actual agent himself. He then looked down at the body, which Siskyou County Coroner’s Office personnel were readying a body bag for while an SCSD deputy was taking photos.
Liza Doolots had been composed, her body completely nude yet cleaned up as if she were asleep. The proof that she wasn’t asleep was that her skin was completely pale, as if she’d bled out, though there was no blood anywhere near the body. Furthermore was the vicious stab wound through her heart, and poked through the gash was a single red rose. All in all, the body of Liza Doolots looked like a particularly sick display of art, made moreso by the tarot card held in her hands: card zero, the Fool.
“I wonder what kind of sick sonnuvabitch did this to this poor girl,” the deputy with the camera commented.
“The kind I’m going to kill,” Sandalwood snarled.
Shining knew his partner was just about to blow her fuse, so he looked at everyone else and said, “Hey, can I get a moment alone with my partner?”
“Yeah, sure. I gotta put these shots on a flash key for you, anyway,” the deputy said. The coroners merely nodded and stepped away.
Once they got a suitable distance, Shining inquired, “Okay, what the fuck is going on, Sandy? Don’t tell me you’re rela—”
“No, not related, thank God,” Sandalwood said, “or I’d probably have fucking lost it right about now.”
“Then what…?”
“Remember I was an MA2 when I was in the Navy?” she began. He looked at her oddly and she explained. “Petty Officer Second Class in the Master-at-Arms rating – MAs are the Navy’s police. Anyway, I was just at my first assignment, Naval Station Sasebo, in Japan. I’d only been on station for three days when my chief has us go out to base housing, to the house of some Marine sergeant major assigned to NAVSTA staff. It was a blood bath – the Marine and his Japanese wife had been slaughtered, and their thirteen-year-old daughter was missing. Both we and Sasebo police probably tore the town apart looking for her, and it didn’t help that the locals figured that it was probably just another American gone psycho – this was the year after some seaman assigned to a ship at Sasebo raped and murdered a local, so the townsfolk weren’t exactly on good terms with the base.
“Anyway, we found her; she’d been raped repeatedly and then murdered. They found the killer the day after – and the locals were real apologetic afterwards when Sasebo police discovered it was an ensign from the JMSDF – the Japanese navy, that is – that had killed her; that otaku freak apparently obsessed over the girl with the long mint-green hair and red eyes, because she looked like his favorite anime character.”
“And after that you swore you’d never let another girl get hurt again,” Shining figured it out.
“Why the hell do you think I went to your place to personally warn Twily and Tavi when I heard about the Vibe? Why do you think I worry about my kid sister even though she’s in college in Seattle?” Sandalwood asked. “I saw that girl – her name was Sakura Petal – and knew she’d never grow up to have a future. And now there’s another little girl that won’t grow up to have a future.”
“We’ll catch this asshole, Sandy, you know we will.”
“Yeah, we’d better. Because if I ever catch him alone? You’ll be arresting me for murder.”
Sunset sat down on her bed, having just left the shower before. It felt great to sleep in late, she admitted to herself privately, having stayed up all night going over old family photos with Twilight and Octavia. Being introduced to members of her soon-to-be-official family that she’d get to know someday, like her maternal grandparents, who lived in San Diego; her aunt Twilight Glitter, who lived in Miami; and her uncle, Everblue Sky, who was stationed overseas in Berlin with the State Department. She saw pictures of Twilight and Octavia as kids, and when Twilight asked her if she had any pictures from her childhood, Sunset had to lie and said she didn’t know. In truth, she knew – Princess Celestia had tons of them, both official and otherwise – but Sunset wasn’t about to show her sister and her cousin pictures of the filly she used to be. That would be all kinds of awkward on many levels.
Anyway, enough of that. I have to meet Rarity in an hour, so that we can finish planning our trip to Mendocino, and then we can talk to the girls tomorrow about all of it. Sunset chuckled when Rarity had emailed her late yesterday with the news that she’d managed to secure a private rental cabin in the area’s luxe “Sonata Pacific” district. The name alone would tease the Sonata they knew, Sunset mused, and besides, a private cabin would probably put their collective parents more at ease about the whole trip – it was safer to stay in a cabin than in tents, after all.
She had just slipped on a t-shirt when her cellphone began to ring. To her surprise, it was Pinkie. “Oh, hey, Pinkie, what’s up?”
“Sunny! Oh, God, I’m glad you’re there! Look, Auntie Cup and Uncle Carrot need you to come in today – it’s a crisis! They even said they’ll pay you overtime for the whole day!”
Sunset blinked at that. Sure, the Cakes were generous with their pay, and Sunset had worked overtime more than once, but she never wanted to gyp Pinkie’s aunt and uncle. Still, if they’re offering, something must’ve happened. “What’s going on?” she asked as she continued to dress.
“Fluttershy’s fams are having lunch today at the cafe and the news got out – Auntie Cup says they’re swamped!” That in itself was understandable, but the next news made Sunset freeze in her tracks. “Plus, Soni called an hour ago! She suddenly quit! No reason, she just said that it was personal and that she hoped we wouldn’t be mad.”
Soni quit? That was completely unlike the girl she knew; even though Sonata could be flighty from time to time, it was mostly an act and Sunset knew her friend was very conscientious and a hard worker. “What the hell?”
“I know! Uncle Carrot, Blossom and I are closing our second store here and heading back home, but Auntie Cup’s all by herself! We really need your help, Sunny!”
That was more than enough for Sunset: she’d helped out Pinkie and the Cakes’ counterparts back in Equestria, and she didn’t know them; how could she turn down people she’d known for close to a year now? “Sure. I’m on my way – let me get my sister so she can drive me in; I really doubt there’s any parking left at this rate.”
“Yeah, no kidding – thankfully we’ve got the spot reserved for the catering van or we’d be toast. See you there!”
As Sunset hung up, she looked shocked. Soni just quit? she asked herself again before quickly dialing Sonata’s phone, only to get a recorded message: “The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Thank you for calling AT&T.” She then tried Adagio’s and Aria’s numbers in turn, only to get the same thing. What the hell? However, she shoved her phone in her pocket, figuring it would have to wait until later. She then rushed to Octavia’s room, where her sister and cousin already were. Sunset wasted no time in explaining the situation to both of them.
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like Soni at all,” Octavia agreed. “I’ll keep trying to get a hold of them.”
“Yeah, let me get dressed real quick and I’ll drive you, then I’ll go see Rares in your place,” Twilight told her sister. “Looks like you’re in for a day, sis.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“Ugh, Spangle, remind me why we’re here again?”
Spanglemaker looked at her friend. “Mel, I thought we agreed to go shopping today. School starts in a few weeks and I want to make sure I look good….” She blushed.
“Yes, we all know that you have a crush on Denim Jeans,” Watermelody told her friend as they walked through the Old Towne ped mall in San Palomino. “But I’m wondering why you think you’ll find something here. I’m telling you, hit Forever 21 – that’s more your style, girl!”
“Well, I kinda heard Denim has a job at one of the stores here, and I….” Spanglemaker blushed furiously.
Watermelody grinned. “Welllllllll…then I don’t have to tell you that’s him over there, right?” Spanglemaker squeaked and hid behind her friend, and as Watermelody laughed, Spanglemaker realized that he hadn’t seen her.
“Mel, that’s not fair!” Spanglemaker accused, gazing at Denim, handing out balloons to kids. He looked dreamy as always, and Spanglemaker’s face somehow managed to burn with an even brighter blush.
“Go talk to him,” Watermelody suggested.
“Mel, I can’t,” Spanglemaker said, fidgeting. “If he finds out how I feel….”
“Trust me, he probably feels the same way about you,” Watermelody said, pushing her friend forward. “Go on, ask him! I’ll be right here, cheering you on.”
“Okay, fine,” Spanglemaker acquiesced. “But you’re buying me a large chocolate shake if it doesn’t work out.”
“I will! Go on!”
Spanglemaker made her way from the secluded place by the alleyway where she and Watermelody had been, and it hadn’t been long before she walked into the main pathway that Denim waved at her. “Oh, hey, Spangle, what’re you doing here?”
“Oh, hi, Denim!” she said, blushing slightly. “Shopping and getting ready for school. You?”
“Uh, just…handing out balloons, see?” he said, pointing to the inventory in his hand. “Kids love balloons.”
“Yeah. Well, uh, see you around?”
“Sure! I…hey, wait a second!” he said as the moment she readied to walk off. “Look, I…do you, ah, want…to…well, you know….”
“Are you asking me out?” she said, crossing her arms and standing there, while trying not to cheer at the top of her lungs.
“Yeah,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah! So, are you…free Friday night?”
“I could be, for the right guy,” she cooed. “Pick me up at eight? I’ll text you my address.”
“Sure!” he said, and in return, she kissed him on the cheek.
She felt giddy at that point, so she said, “Look, I’m here with Mel, and I don’t want her to think I ditched her, so…call me tonight?”
“You betcha!” he told her.
Victorious, Spanglemaker rushed off to where her friend was waiting. “Mel, I did it! She cheered. “I….” To her surprise, her friend wasn’t there. “Mel?” she asked. “You there?” She then looked down to find her friend’s red beret. She never goes anywhere without her beret, Spanglemaker noted, and as she picked it up, she noticed a weird playing card underneath it.
The Chariot? she thought, looking at the strange card. What does that mean?
Sonata looked at her purple strapless long sleeve blouse. It had been a gift from Sunset the last time they went shopping, because she thought that it looked good on her. It was one of Sonata’s most cherished things, possibly even more than her old FN P-90 that she’d lost in the destruction of that old pizzeria that they’d gotten into a firefight in.
And I’ll never be able to use it again, she thought, slipping it back into the closet. At the moment, she was packing her seabag, and that meant only enough room for her CADPATs, dress uniforms and other necessary gear. All the other stuff to her name, the various things that marked her as a teenager, would have to be abandoned. She would even have to leave her car behind as would her sisters their motorcycles and even two of their sœurs - only Intermezzo, who had purchased a minivan on purpose, would get to use hers, and that would be to transport them to the base.
Worse: even if they somehow succeeded at their final mission and destroyed CSIS, they could never return here. The authorities would realize what this house was and confiscate it and everything on the property; after that, they would lose everything forever. Chances were, Sonata and co. would probably have to resettle far from North America – some place like Singapore, or Hong Kong or something like that. Hell, given that they were Chinese ethnics, Shanghai, Beijing or Taiwan was just as realistic. But they wouldn’t be home.
Even though she’d lived here only a handful of weeks, this place – this house, barely broken in and still very much looking mostly undecorated – was home. Was her home. And now she was finally leaving home for good.
“Soni?” She turned to see Madrigal standing there, looking at her with concern.
“I hate this,” Sonata admitted. “I feel like they’ve made a mistake and that I need to make the same one because I won’t lose people I love…”
“…but that you are losing people you care about, namely your friends here, right?” Madrigal asked, completing her petite sœur’s statement. Sonata nodded, and in return, Madrigal sat down on the bed. “You know, we don’t have to leave here until 1800. You can go visit your friends one last time.”
“I…I can’t. I can’t face them. What do I tell them? That I’m just abandoning them and can’t ever come back?”
“I know it’s not easy, Soni,” Madrigal commented, putting an arm around her sœur, but if they’re really your friends, they’ll understand, even if they never see you again. Friendship is more than just being with the same people over and over, Soni, I promise it is.” Sonata leaned into her grande sœur’s embrace as she did so often growing up, letting the older woman comfort her.
“Are we doing the right thing, Maddie?” Sonata asked.
“I think so…but I’m not sure you’re doing the right thing for yourself,” Madrigal admitted to Sonata.
As Sunset arrived at the Sugarcube Corner, the throngs trying to peek through the window and the line around the corner was more than enough to know that things had reached terminal. Wasting no time, she rushed to the back entrance, taking a quick second to chew out one groupie who was trying to sneak in through the back, then used her key to go in.
“Oh, you’re here!” Cup said, looking like a dozen miles of bad road: her hair was frazzled and she was sweating slightly, as though she’d been running around non-stop since the morning. “The others got delayed by an accident just off Candlewick Boulevard, and things are out of control out there!”
Sunset reached for the nearest clean apron. “I’m on it, Mrs. C, don’t worry,” Sunset assured her, rushing out to the heavily-packed floor of the café, which had reached huge levels of insanity. A long line stretched from the door to the front counter, and all the tables were taken by people who looked as though they hadn’t left since they arrived. And, last but not least, taking the booth by the farthest corner and seemingly holding court for the dozens who wanted to get his autograph, was Discord and his family, not the least of which was a very blushing Fluttershy, if anything was clear by the mortified sound of her voice.
“Dad….” Fluttershy moaned, trying to hide under the table with little avail.
As for Discord, he was acting the proud father. “Hey, I’m just saying that my daughter has a hotter career than mine right now – and you don’t even have a career! Personally, I’m proud that you’ll be the next Wreckingba….” He suddenly paused, as if in realization. “On second thought…maybe you should aim higher than her.”
The chiffon-haired girl pouted. “Dad, I haven’t even thought of that yet – and if the people staring through the window are any indication, I’m still not sure I want to do it!”
Posey then spoke up before her husband could rejoinder. “Well, what did you have in mind, dear? Zookeeper?”
Discord immediately added, “Model? Go-go dancer? All-powerful sorceress?”
Fluttershy then noticed Sunset and shared a private smile with her friend as she cryptically replied with, “Well…you’d be surprised on that last one.”
“I don’t get it,” Discord commented.
“Well, hi, Flutters! Hello, Doctor, Angel and Mr. Discord!” Sunset said, approaching them to ward off any further mortification of her friend. “Have you been helped yet?”
“I’m afraid there’s no psychiatrist in the world that can help me,” he cracked. But as he practically felt the radiating glares of his wife and daughter on the back of his head, he said, “We’ve been waiting for some assistance, seeing as how the lady of the establishment has been working herself to the bone.”
“Well, allow me to take your order then!” Sunset chirped as the reinforcements arrived; Blossomforth immediately waddled over to the cash register as fast as she could, Mr. Cake immediately began to work the ovens in the back, while Pinkie rushed to help the other tables. A couple of minutes later, Sunset had their order and with an insistence that she’d get it in quickly, she rushed back to the cooking area. “Wow, you guys got here just in time!” she said.
“Looks like it,” Carrot said as his wife quickly went upstairs to check on their children. “If I’d known it was going to be this busy today, I wouldn’t have opened the other store.”
“Well, we’re here now,” Pinkie cheered, “so let’s get this show on the road!”
Shining and Sandalwood trudged back into the office, and had no sooner done so than they noticed Hardline and one of the other agents headed out the door. “Take your time with the report,” Hardline told them, “Badge is going to be out of town today – had to head to headquarters in DC to give an update. How’d it go?”
“Other than the fact that I want to put the asshole that did it up against the wall and shoot his balls off before I end him?” Sandalwood snarled angrily. Shining merely gave a pleading look, but Hardline understood.
“Remind me sometime and I’ll tell you about a case my Dad worked on while he was assigned to the LA Office. Sad part is, they never caught the guy that did it, either.” Hardline patted Sandalwood on the shoulder. “Sometimes they get away, I know. Our job’s just to make sure we do our damndest not to let them.” She then looked at the other agent and said, “C’mon, Cloud Lance. We’ve got to get to CJV.”
“CJV?” Shining asked. “Something up?”
Cloud Lance nodded. “About an hour ago, one of the custodial staff found the bodies of three men, all stuffed into a broom closet, their clothes and any immediate form of identification gone. Based on what the airport police told us….”
“We think they might be CANSOF, specifically Les SCARS. We’ve contacted someone from the consulate in San Francisco to dig up the information,” Hardline clarified. “Now we have to get going. We’ll tell you the rest at Happy Hour – I get the feeling we’re all going to need it after the day’s over.”
Twilight looked over the plans she’d typed on her laptop once more, quadruple-checking it. She briefly considered looking it over one more time when she was done, but there was such a thing as overkill, as her sister had reminded her. “Okay, so now that the plans are settled, let me email everyone a copy, then remind people to send it to their parents, then make sure I have copies printed out in case anyone needs a hard copy, and th—”
Rarity chuckled. “Twilight, dear, I think simply making sure everyone having access to it is more than enough. I’d just say put a copy up for download on Google Docs and that should suffice.”
Twilight flushed from embarrassment. “Sorry, I just want to make sure this is perfect, you know? This is my chance to finally spend some vacation time with Sunny!”
Rarity smiled. “It sounds as though you’re looking forward to this vacation, Twilight dear.”
Twilight nodded her head so fast Rarity briefly wondered if she’d been possessed by Lyra Heartstrings. “Yes!” the teen squealed enthusiastically before calming down - relatively. “It’s finally a chance to vacation with my sister and get her to let her hair down.” A sober smirk replaced the earlier smile as Twilight added, “She’s…always so reserved, and I want to see her happy.”
“Reserved is not something I’d call Sunset,” Rarity commented. “But you sound as though I'm wrong.”
“Can I be honest with you?” Twilight asked.
“You know you can, darling. And anything you say I will keep in confidence.”
“Thanks. It’s just…sometimes I wonder. Sometimes I wonder if there’s a whole other life Sunny’s lived and that she pines for it.” The plum-haired scholar looked wistful. “It’s not as much now, but there have been times when I caught her with a distant look in her eyes, as if something’s on the tip of her tongue and she can’t remember it or just doesn’t want to say anything about it.”
“And that bothers you?”
“Yes. She’s my sister, and I love her. I want to do everything I can for her, especially after all she’s done for me. And I know Tavi would say the same thing if she was here.”
Rarity chose not to mention her own conversations with Octavia, but instead chose to reply with finesse. “Twilight, believe me when I say that I have known Sunset for years, through the good and the, ahem, ‘bad’. And she and I have grown close in this past year. So I can say with utter confidence that this is where she wants to be. You are her sister – your family is hers – and there are few people she loves more than you and yours.”
A wide smile came onto Twilight’s face and her eyes glistened with tears; Rarity surmised that this must have truly bothered the younger girl. “That’s very generous of you to say, Rarity.”
The fashionista smiled. “Well…it is my Element, after all.” The moment she uttered those words, however, she knew she’d opened her mouth in as big a blunder as Pinkie often inadvertently committed.
And sure enough, Twilight caught it. “Your what?”
Best pass it off as best as I can and then pass the information off to the others. Plunging in, she breezily laughed and said, “Just…remembering something your sister told me, just days after kindling our friendship. That she sees me as elementally generous, far more than others.”
Twilight nodded. “Well, that does make sense; you’re one of the most generous people I know.”
“Thank you for the compliment, darling.”
“It’s the truth,” Twilight said with a grin as Rarity inwardly sighed in relief, having covered her faux pas.
But for how long? a voice in the back of her head asked.
There was a knock on the door, and Sweetie appeared once the door was opened. “Dinner’s ready!”
“Thanks, Sweetie, dear,” Rarity told her. Then turning to Twilight, “Would you care to stay for dinner? We could talk a bit more afterwards.”
“That’d be great, thanks!”
Shimmer collapsed on the bed, talking on her cellphone, having just changed out the SIM card to let her call on an American network. “Yeah, and so we’ll be here for about a month. My cousins are going to show me around after the funeral, so that should be fun.”
“Well, it’s already been a day, but we miss you here, Shimmy!” Beachcomber said over the line. “The girls and I were thinking about going to Disneyland tomorrow, but then we figured it’d be without you, so we held off.”
“Eh, go ahead and go – maybe before I leave my aunt and uncle’ll take me down to the original one. It’s just a few hundred miles south of here.”
“Lucky you! I barely remember anything about Honolulu, but hey, I live in Paris now, so – tradeoff!”
“I dunno, I’d take Hawaii any day,” Shimmer said. “Anyway, I just wanted to call you and let you guys know I made it safely.”
“Thanks, we really appreciate it, Shimmy. Take care of yourself, and we’re always here for you.”
“Thanks, Beachie. Talk to you later!” Hanging up the phone, she placed it on the drawer in the room that would be hers for the month. Technically it was the smaller room in one of the two guest cottages on her uncle’s property, but her aunt had told her and Solaire that they had pretty much intended it to be their home whenever they visited, with others using the secondary cottage when they stayed over. And it was a very comfortable room, even if it wasn’t exactly her style.
There was a knock on the door. “Shimmy, can I come in?” The voice was that of her cousin, Coco.
“Yeah, sure.” Coco opened the door, peeking in. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to get to know you better,” the younger teen replied. “You are my only female cousin, after all. All the ones on Mom’s side are boys.”
“Well, as long as you don’t ask me what being a princess is like,” Shimmer said. “I’m so tired of people asking me that I feel like I could practically collapse from exhaustion.”
Sunset slumped in her chair, so tired she was barely able to eat the sandwich in front of her. “I think I have blisters in places I didn’t even know you could get them,” she groaned.
“I think if I had the baby right here and now it’d be less painful than the day we had,” Blossomforth murmured, teetering in her chair.
Pinkie, of course, said nothing, having somehow managed to fall asleep in her mac and cheese.
Blearily, Sunset said, “Well, if nothing else, the tips were worth it.” Blossom wordlessly nodded, and as semi-conscious as she was, Pinkie managed to stick a thumbs-up in the air. They’d worked their bones off for the day, and the café had made its biggest one-day income since the first day they’d opened it. Furthermore, with the generous tip that Discord had given and all the dozens of customers they had, the three waitresses had cleared enough tips to have made close to $5000 that day.
A half-roasted Carrot stumbled out of the kitchen; he’d spent nearly the entire time in the back running the ovens to capacity. “Well, if nothing else, girls, you all get the day off tomorrow – we completely sold out of everything we had in inventory here and what I was going to send to the other store. I’m going to have to ask for a rush delivery of supplies.” He leaned against the counter, just as fried as the girls.
“I wish Soni had been here,” Blossomforth stated. “We could’ve used her tonight.”
Sunset looked over at Pinkie. “What happened when she called you?”
Pinkie raised her head, bits of macaroni and cheese sauce stuck to her face. “She…just said she couldn’t work here anymore and had to quit,” Pinkie said in a subdued voice and whether that was due to sorrow or exhaustion, Sunset wasn’t really sure. “She…she sounded like she wanted to cry.”
“Cry? That’s a bit extreme even for Soni,” Sunset commented. “I mean, yeah, she can get emotional at times, bu—”
Sunset’s phone suddenly rang. Reaching into her pocket, she picked it up and automatically thumbed the answer button. “Yeah, this is Sunny, what’s up?”
“Sunny?”
Sunset practically shot out of her seat. “Sonata!” Both Blossomforth and Pinkie looked at Sunset with surprise. “Where are you? Is everything okay?”
“I’m….” There was a pause on the other end for a second, then: “Can you meet me at my place in half an hour? But you have to be fast – I’m leaving soon and I don’t have much time.”
Dinner was instantly forgotten. “We’re on the way! Just…stay there! Everything’ll be okay!”
“I’ll grab the keys to the van!” Pinkie said, running upstairs.
“Don’t worry about me,” Blossomforth told them, “I’d just weigh you guys down. I’ll clean up here. Now go!”
The Gunshot, located downtown, was known for being a cop bar. Most of those that patronized it were officers from the CPD, ECSD or the CHP station just north of the city. Occasionally when a law enforcement officer from out of town arrived, someone pointed him in the direction of the Gunshot. Even the owner, Grampus, had once been a constable for the London Metropolitan, before he won the National Lottery and decided to resettle in the “land of paradise”. People often joked how he ended up in California, instead.
“‘Ere ya go, lads and lassies,” the man said, his Scottish brogue still present even after having left the UK decades ago. “On th’ house; y’ look like y’ could use a dram or two.”
“Thanks, Grampus,” Cadance said, having joined her fiancé with the group. “So, NDA or no?” she said to the others.
“You’re an ADA,” Hardline said after taking a quick quaff of her beer. “I guess we can trust you.”
“You can trust her,” Shining said firmly.
“Right now, Armor, I don’t trust a single damn person I haven’t known for years, but I get your point.” She punctuated the comment with another swig from her mug.
“So what the fuck happened?” Sandalwood asked. “You guys head out to CJV….”
“And we get stopped by a couple of agents from the Company,” Cloud Lance snarled. “We tell them that it’s not their job, but then they show me some docs telling them that USM – the fuckin’ USM! – has jurisdiction. And if that’s not enough, there’s a couple of guys from DCIS, NSA and ONI there, too.”
Hardline grinned. “Fortunately, I got to remind them that none of them get jurisdiction and they needed to get the hell out of here and let us do our jobs. Not surprisingly, they didn’t like my answer, but too fucking bad for them.”
“I know what NSA is, but the Company? DCIS? USM?” Cadance asked, a bad feeling starting to sink in.
Sandalwood looked at her friend, knowing what she was about to say was probably going to give Shining a headache that night. “Cady, the Company’s the CIA. USM are the US Marshals; DCIS, DOD Criminal Investigative Services; and ONI’s Navy Intelligence.” Looking at Cadance, she asked, “Now or later?”
“Now.” With that, both women rose from their chairs and headed towards the door.
“Yeah, I’m in a world of shit now,” Shining grumbled.
Cloud Lance nodded. “It’s why I don’t bring my wife to these things, or I’d end up divorced again.”
“Yeah, I don’t disagree with either of you,” Hardline commented. “Our jobs aren’t exactly safe, and this is well outside of our territory. But we’re looking at a huge fight here if we let Les SCARS starting hunting, and we cannot let that happen. If we do that, nobody will be safe, and this town will be a war zone. So let me make this clear if the boss hasn’t already. We don’t let anyone get away with this shit – not the SIRENs, not CANSOF or the CSIS, not even the Goddamn CIA and DOD. We draw the line here.”
“Here’s to that,” Shining said and he, Cloud Lance and Hardline raised their drinks in a toast, and for a moment, there was a little peace in Shining’s life.
That piece died as Sandalwood and Cadance returned from outside – and the look on her face was somewhere between holy rage and absolute horror.
The catering van pulled up to Sonata’s house as Pinkie slammed on the brakes. The first thing the pair noticed was that the house was dark, as though nobody was home. The second thing they noticed was that there were no cars in the driveway, or either Aria’s or Adagio’s motorcycles. If anything, the place had the distinct look that it was about to be put on the market, and that whoever lived here was long gone.
“You sure this is the right place?” Pinkie asked as they made their way to the front door.
“Yeah, it’s the right address.” Sunset knocked, waited a bit, then knocked again. “Weird, I thought that Soni said she was going to be home.”
“I am,” a voice suddenly said behind them. Both Sunset and Pinkie turned in surprise to see Sonata standing there, but it wasn’t the Sonata that they knew, the cute girl with preference of dressing in baggy clothing and a penchant for listening to house music. No, this girl was short-haired and steely-eyed, dressed in military fatigues, and standing ramrod straight.
“Soni?” Sunset asked, shocked. Pinkie merely looked at the other girl in surprise.
Sonata nodded. “Yeah, it’s me,” she said with a hint of a smile.
“What…what the hell happened?”
“Oh, my hair?” The sudden frown on the aqua-haired girl’s face wasn’t happy. “Yeah, I miss my ponytail, but regs are regs, you know?”
“I mean…what’s with the military outfit? And the short hair and…why did you quit on us?”
Sonata approached Sunset and Pinkie and hugged them both. “You guys are the best friends a girl could have, you know that? I wish I could stay – so do Ari and Dagi. But we have a mission to accomplish, then it’s off to the next bivouac.”
“Look, Soni, if you and your sisters are in some kind of trouble,” Sunset began, looking at her friend, “I can help. Jus—”
“Sunny, that’s sweet of you, but there’s nothing you can do. This has to be done, and even though there’s a good chance we’re never going to come back again, we’re always going to think of you, I promise. All of you.” The look on Sonata’s face was one of heartbreak and though she tried to keep a stoic look about her, it wasn’t very easy.
“Soni, don’t do this. We don’t want you to go back to Canada,” Pinkie said, nearly sotto voce.
Sonata’s eyes widened. “How…how’d yo—”
“Only girl I know who eats poutine!” Pinkie said, sounding a little more cheery. “And you said that even though you like the Sugarcube’s coffee, you like Timbits’ better! Ari watches hockey and the CFL, and Dagi said once that you three were from Cold Lake! There’s no place in the US called Cold Lake, but there’s one in Canada!”
“Goddamn it, I thought we were better at OPSEC than that,” Sonata muttered, and neither of the other two girls understood what she meant. She then looked into the sky. “Damn, I need to get going. Look, Sunny…on my bed is a gift for Twily, from the three of us. I…we can’t give it to her, so do it for me, okay?” She pointed to a rock by the front door. “Key’s underneath there, and the security alarm code is 2581.”
Both Pinkie and Sunset turned to look at the rock. “Okay, got it. But you really oughta give it to her yourself.” Both then turned back to speak to Sonata…
…only to find her completely vanished, as if she was never there. The two looked around, thinking she might have hidden in the surrounding environs, but to no avail.
“Wow, she’s really good at hide and seek!” Pinkie said. Sunset nodded and hoped Pinkie didn’t pick now to mention her magic, or else that could be problematic, as Sonata could possibly still be around and keeping her identity hidden was more important than her friends and their problems – something that really galled Sunset’s sense of decency, but she didn’t have much of a choice.
“C’mon, Pinkie, let’s go in. We can talk on the way home,” Sunset said glumly as the two girls entered the house.
Watching from the roof of the neighboring house, Sonata fought back tears. Those were her friends. She wanted to stay with them, have a normal life and all that went with it. She wanted her job back at the Sugarcube Corner Café. She wanted to go out with that guy that asked her on a date, to go to school and be a normal girl.
To be anything, really, other than a lethal, murderous machine with no hope for tomorrow.
She heard footsteps behind her. The average person probably wouldn’t have, but Sonata was a SIREN – and to her, situational awareness was a fact of life. “It’s not fair,” she sobbed. “It’s not fair.”
Adagio Dazzle hugged her little sister from behind. “I know it’s not, Soni,” she murmured, holding her as the light went on in Sonata’s bedroom – a bedroom Sonata could never return to. “But it’s the life we lead. C’mon, we gotta go – the Old Man’s securing liberty early tonight and we don’t want to get caught sneaking back onto grounds.”
“You’re right,” Sonata said coldly as she rose to her feet. “Lead the way, Seaman Dazzle.”
“Soni, don—”
“Dagi, just shut the hell up right now before I deck you. Let’s go.”
The two SIRENs, rooftop hopping as if they were anime characters, snuck off into the night.
Watermelody felt a splash of water, dragging her back to consciousness. The first thing she felt afterwards was the chill; she soon noted that she was completely naked. The second thing she noticed right after was that she was tied down – and laying in an unfamiliar place on a wooden plank. Finally, the last thing she noticed, was the strange man standing there, wearing a deep velvet robe with silver sigils on it, as if he were some kind of whacked-out wizard.
“Look,” she snarled, “I don’t know who you are, but let’s get something clear: my dad’s wealthy and well-known in this town. You let me go and I’m sure he’ll pay you and we’ll forget about the whole thing. But if you’ve touched a single hair on my bod—”
Watermelody was suddenly interrupted by the raucous laughter from the man with the violet hair and blazing yellow eyes. There was something wild and unnatural in them and suddenly any sense of bravado she had was gone.
Divine looked at the girl. “Your father couldn’t hope to have as much money or power as I do, child. And frankly, if I wanted to do whatever I wished to you, then there’s nobody to stop me. Hell, do you even see a door in this room?”
The girl looked around as much as she was able to, and when she realized he was right, she gasped, “H-how….”
Ignoring her, Divine continued. “Fortunately for you, you are still chaste, have no fear of that.” As Watermelody sighed in relief, Divine then brought out the Blade and said, “I needed you to be. How else could I have a virgin’s blood?”
No one else in the world heard her scream.
“What the fuck, Sunny? You just let her go?”
“What the hell could I do, Rainbow? She just disappeared on me and Pinkie like she was Batman!”
“Oh, my, I hope she’s okay,” Fluttershy interjected.
No sooner than Pinkie had dropped her off at her place, Sunset ran upstairs, barely saying hello to her family, running into her room long enough to grab her laptop, then meeting Twilight and Octavia in the latter’s room as the former was giving the latter an update on their planned vacation. Without ceremony, she immediately started a Skype conference, and explained to everyone what she and Pinkie had just experienced.
“Did she even say what the hell was going on, Sunny?” Octavia asked.
“No! She didn’t. I don’t understand anything of what’s going on!” Sunset explained. “She just showed up, dressed like she was in the Army and telling us that she was leaving and never coming back!”
The look on Twilight’s face was surprisingly analytical. “Something’s up with them. Both Soni and Dagi can fight better than some martial arts films I've seen – Dagi took out two people with guns, while Soni beat up another girl that was trying to hurt us.”
“And Ah was watching Ari shoot arrows in her backyard last week,” Applejack added. “She’s got some serious skill and power.”
“I wish I knew how to help them, darlings, really I do,” Rarity commented, “but until they come to us for help – if they come to us for help – there’s little we can do.”
Twilight looked over at the present that Sunset had brought with her. She said it had been from the triplets to her, and yet, something was off about it. Either it was the way that the gift was wrapped in a too-precise and perfect manner, or that it just loomed there, a reminder of their missing friends, but no matter what, it was something that left a hole in Twilight’s heart.
“Sis?” The sound of Twilight’s voice was broken. Sunset walked over and put an arm around her in silence while Twilight leaned into her.
Unbeknownst to them, Octavia got angry with that. Her eyes flashed red and her vision spun into a kaleidoscope of noxious colors before she heard voices again. “—okay? Tavi? Speak to me!” It was Sunset, and the look on her face was concerned.
“Huh, what?” Octavia asked.
“What? Tavi, you just punched through your computer monitor!” Sunset cried. Sure enough, the monitor’s screen was cracked and a thin trail of bluish-gray smoke rose from the vents. Octavia’s hand began to sting and bleed as the glass impaling it drew blood.
“Here, let me see that,” Twilight said, looking at her cousin’s hand. “Everyone, she’s okay, but I’m going to bandage her hand just in case.”
“Tavi, let AJ do the breaking around here,” Rainbow cracked. “You’re just not cut out for it.”
“Rainbow, that was incredibly crass!” Rarity scolded. “Still, I suppose I shouldn’t expect anything different from you. In any case, Octavia, dear, she’s right: a lady must take care of her hands, especially when it’s vital to her needs, as yours are.”
Sunset patted her cousin on the shoulder. “Yeah, I know, I’m out of sorts, too. But murdering screens isn’t the answer, cuz.” She gave a wan smile. “Let Twily wrap your hand; I guess I’ll explain to Mom and Dad that it was an accident.”
“Thanks,” was all Octavia could say, unable to admit that she’d blacked out…or that for just the merest hint of a second, she’d seen Sunset’s face in front of the monitor as she swung.
“Hey, Blaze, come join us for poker,” a SIREN her age suggested.
“Naah, I’m reading,” she said as she lay on her bunk bed. That wasn’t entirely true; she was half-reading and half looking out the window. Lights out on base had been secured five minutes ago, and it wouldn’t be more than another hour before they were completely secured for the night. On the surface, Aria was interested in this book that Twilight had lent her – a book that Aria would never have the chance to return now – but she was just as worried about her sisters. If they got in trouble, it wouldn’t be just them – it would be them, her, and their sœurs as well.
“Ooh, the sniper’s reading,” the other girl said. “When’d you get so smart? Anyway, we got a seat open if you change your mind; it’s me, Elegy, Gust and Squall.”
“Yeah, thanks, Scorch, but I’m a little tied up right now.”
“Suit yourself.” The girl named Scorch walked back to the table, where three other girls their age were doling out cards.
“You know, you could’ve gone.” Aria blinked and she saw Adagio leaning against the window. Next to her, though looking out of sorts, was Sonata.
The middle triplet practically leapt out of her bunk. “You guys made it! You know how worried I was?” Aria asked her older sister, before adding, “Is she okay?”
Before Adagio could answer, Sonata sullenly snarled, “No, she’s not.”
Aria went over and hugged her sister. “It’s gonna be okay, Soni. I promise it will.”
“No, it’s not, Ari,” Sonata told her, the younger girl’s eyes nearly glistening with tears. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“See, toldja they were carpet munching each other.” The triplets turned to look at three other girls, same age as them. The lead, a fair-skinned girl with cobalt-and-silver hair and blazing yellow eyes, sneered. “If you three are going to lesbocest each other, have the decency to keep your hands off each other while in uniform, got that?”
A sneer came onto Adagio’s face. “Classy as always, Rush.”
“That’s Master Seaman Contralto Rush to you, Ordinary Seaman Recruit Dazzle.”
“Leading Seaman. The three of us were brought on active duty as of last night.”
A second girl, with dark skin, a riot of neon purple, neon green and neon red hair in a ponytail, and silver eyes behind glasses, chuckled. “Wow, what a loser. Most fireteam leaders start off at master seaman. You must be barely competent if you didn’t make the cut, Adagio.”
“Oh, go fuck yourself, Trance,” Aria snarled. “Dagi couldn’t be promoted to master seaman because we didn’t complete our training.” If there was one girl on this base that Aria hated, it was Medley Trance, the sniper for Contralto’s fireteam. The two were rivals to say the least, and they took it very personally.
“I hope you’re not going to back them up, crybaby,” a third girl, more muscular than the other two, taunted Sonata. She was of First Nations descent, with deep gray eyes and fiery red, orange and white hair. “Of course, you’ve always been a weak pussy, which is why I guess your sisters use you as a sex toy.”
Sonata didn’t answer Canzione Burst’s taunt. She just launched herself at the other girl, slamming her against the ground despite her greater bulk and started trying to cave her head in via punches. Medley tried to pull Sonata off her teammate, but got tackled by Aria, and the two began fighting. Before Contralto could react, Adagio picked up the chair Sonata was sitting on and hit her across the head, the furniture cracking easily.
The other SIRENs dropped what they were doing and watched as the two fireteams went at it. The rules were that the senior petty officers were supposed to break up the fight, but given the animosity between the two teams, it was more entertaining to watch them beat the hell out of each other. Seconds turned into minutes as the two groups savaged each other without a let up whatsoever.
“ATTENTION ON DECK!” a voice boomed and everyone went to attention as Formation Chief Petty Officer Basso Rime, the seniormost enlisted SIREN, walked into the barracks room, a scowl on her face.
“Okay, why the hell are six seamen beating the fuck out of each other when I have petty officers here who could break up the fight? You bitches should know better; we need to keep every SIREN in fighting condition, not conditioned in sickbay!” No one said a single thing and the chief shouted, “Is that clear?”
“AYE AYE, CHIEF!” the population of the room shouted in unison.
Rime then marched right up to the six battered, bruised and bleeding SIRENs, all standing at attention in a row. “Now I should cycle the six of you cunts, but I’m going to make an example out of you: each team has five minutes to pick a member and when that time’s up, I had better be seeing those two out there cycling,” she said, then turning to the room, added, “or else the whole company will cycle, is that understood?”
“AYE AYE, CHIEF!”
“Carry on, then,” Rime said. “Clock is ticking.” The Chief paused to talk to the petty officer first class in charge of the company before departing.
The triplets looked at each other in horror. Cycling was the worst punishment one could receive outside of mast or court-martial. Basically, the offending SIREN was required to do laps around the facility until the time was up, or they collapsed from exhaustion…and sometimes they were still required to continue until the time was up.
“I’ll go,” Adagio said.
“No, sis, this is my fault,” Sonata said.
“And this is my duty – I should have been the one to stop the fight before it started. It’s my responsibility, Seaman Dusk, and I don’t want you arguing. That’s an order.”
“We’ll be here for you, Dagi,” was all Aria could say, unsure of what else to say.
As the other team was silently still arguing as to who would take the blame, Adagio walked up to Petty Officer Charm. “What do I need to do, Petty Officer?” she asked.
“Report to the Quarterdeck. They’ll oversee your cycling,” Charm said with a scowl. “And don’t do this again, Dazzle. Next time, Chief may recommend mast for you and your team. And since we’re in wartime operations, you know what that means.”
“Yeah, that I do,” she said, leaving the room. As she looked out of the corner of her eye, she noted that Medley Trance had been chosen to cycle for her team.
Figures Rush wouldn’t do her dirty work. She doesn’t know what leadership is. But as Adagio felt every bruise and ache as she jogged to the quarterdeck, she added, I wonder if I do.
“Yeah, this is Hardline,” she said, answering her phone at home.
“Hey, Hardy, how’s the office?” Shining Badge asked over the phone.
“Well, we got a can of shit here, boss, and getting worse. I take it the shitstorm’s just as bad in DC?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe. DNI is trying to convince Congress that they should have permission to deal with the SIREN issue, while the Director’s telling them that spooks aren’t cops – they don’t know how to handle it. Problem is, they’re right when they say back that these guys we’re going after aren’t your garden-variety crooks.”
“Yeah, that I know.” She then detailed the incident that she and Cloud Lance had at the airport. “It’s gonna get worse before it gets better, that’s for sure.”
“Well, Director’s putting HRT and NCT teams on standby in LA in case we need them. I’m hoping not, but if we need it, they’ll have the hardware and we can justify getting backup from CPD’s SWAT teams.”
“Yeah. I just wonder what the bodycount’ll be before we’re done. And that’s just a side issue to the murder.”
“Fuck of a world we live in, Hardy. Fuck of a world.”
Sunset stood in a massive circle of people she knew. They were wearing white robes, and their faces were hooded. As each individual removed their hood, they asked the same question: “Would you die for me?”
Sunset stood there wordless, not sure of what to say. This was her family, her friends, everyone she knew. She’d risk her life for all of them, no questions asked – she certainly did with Twilight and she had no compunctions to do it again.
“Would you die for me?” Celestia asked, removing the robe from her face.
“Yes,” Sunset said. She and her mentor’s counterpart were on much better terms now, enough so that Celestia had started to refer to her by first name and not just the cold, impassive “Ms. Shimmer”.
“Would you die for me?” Flash Sentry removed his hood. Sunset balked at that; she hated him. But at the same time, she once cared for him, even if she had never admitted it. But the Sunset Shimmer she’d been would have let him die even when they were in the middle of their relationship. The Sunset she was now, even if she hated him, couldn’t let someone nominally innocent die.
“Even for you, though I would grit my teeth,” she replied.
And so on it went. Minuette. Lyra. Watermelody. White Cyclone. Practicality. Derpy. Noteworthy. Mr. Will. Mr. Cake. Ms. Luna. Even Mrs. Armonia, Cadance’s mother. One by one, they unhooded themselves and asked.
Finally, there was one left. Though she didn’t remove her hood, she – clearly a she – asked the same question: “Would you die for me?”
“I…who are you?” Sunset asked, and was shocked as the girl removed her hood…
…letting her stare right into her own face.
“You,” Sunset Shimmer said to Sunset Shimmer.
Sunny blinked open her eyes, then sat up, looking at the clock. 3:00 AM, the clock read. Weird dream. Eh, I guess it wasn’t as weird as the time I was being chased by giant flying sausages singing “The Star-Spangled Banner”. She then felt a rubbing against her arm. Looking down, she saw Twilight instinctively trying to snuggle closer. Just past her, Octavia was barely hanging on to the edge of the bed, once again a victim of Twilight hogging the bed – if there was one thing her sister had a habit of in her sleep, it was monopolizing the bed.
I love you both, you know that? Sunset thought, looking at two of the members of her family that she was closest to. I might not have been in any of those pictures today…but I’ll be in the ones tomorrow. Yawning, she finally lay back down and soon drifted back to sleep.
The following morning, Precious Memory swept out front of her store. Today was the big day: two new Uniquecorns, Golden Harp and French Lily, would be introduced to the public as well as the first limited-edition model, the double-sized white winged Uniquecorn, Solar Queen. It would be a grand day, certainly.
She then heard a scream from outside, her granddaughter, Raindrops. I wonder if Rainy’s okay? Peeking her head out the door, Precious looked at her granddaughter, who was on the floor, shaking like a leaf, pointing up at the tree by the store. Precious looked at what Raindrops was pointing at, and a second later fainted in shock and terror.
Thirty minutes later, the Equestria County Coroner’s Office removed the body of Watermelody from where she’d been impaled on the tree through her heart by a giant broadsword. ECSD investigators noted the tarot card and continued searching for clues, though the card, in tandem with the one found the day before alongside the other killed girl, hinted at the horrific:
There was a serial killer loose in the Canterlot Metropolitan Area.
Jogging through a trail in the Everfree Forest, Indigo Zap and her boyfriend raced. The two were training as always, and hoped that with the upcoming Olympic Trials next year, they’d be a shoo-in for the Women’s and Men’s marathon, respectively.
Coming around the rise, they came to a stop at a nearby waterfountain. “Wow, what a rush,” Long Trail said, pausing to kiss his girlfriend.
“Wow, you’re sweaty,” Indigo said with a grin.
“Yeah, sweatin’ for the Games and for my babe,” he said with a smile.
“That’s cheesy as hell. Good thing I love you. If you can hold on a second, I’m going to get a drink.”
“Sure,” he said, sitting down at a bench right next to the waterfountain. “Just need to rest for a second.”
“Yeah, build up your strength,” she taunted, “because maybe you’ll get lucky today.”
“Oh really?” he asked.
“Your parents are out of town, mine left for the week today, and that means that I can stay at my boyfriend’s the whole week and nobody will care,” she cooed as sultry as she could before taking a drink.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said, closing his eyes and virtually undressing her. They’d been sweethearts since sixth grade, and at this point nobody doubted that they’d probably end up marrying each other. Yeah, it was fairytale and goofy, but that was the kind of thing he enjoyed when he was with her.
Leaning back up, he said, “Okay, Indy, let’s get back to my place and we can shower together an—”
Indigo Zap was gone.
“Indy?” Long called out, first looking behind the bench, then the tree on the other side of the trail, then calling out towards the treeline just beyond the thin strip of grass separating the path from the forest proper. “Indy? Okay, stop hiding, you know you’ve never been good at hide and seek….”
If Long Trail had looked down to the ground by the fountain’s pedestal, he would have noticed another tarot card: VIII, Strength.