Shining Armor sat just outside of the examination room at the Equestria County Coroner’s Office, comparing notes. Inside, Sandalwood was going over the dirty work with Closer Look, the medical examiner on duty. He didn’t envy her; coroner duty was nasty but something you had to get used to in this business.
In any case, he poured over his written notes – the FBI didn’t like notes taken on tablets – comparing the murder of Liza Doolots to the murder of Watermelody. Both had tarot cards left at their kidnapping and where their bodies were found. In the former case, it was The Fool; in the latter, The Chariot. Now, a new girl – this one from San Palomino High – was missing, with the card Strength left behind. If the pattern continued, sometime today, someone should find her naked body somewhere, her heart stabbed through and with some item in the gash, her cadaver completely drained of blood and with another copy of the tarot card in question.
He perused Wikipedia’s guide to the major arcana on the phone, but he soon gave up; it was layman’s information, and nothing more. The Fool, The Chariot and Strength – I have no idea what these cards mean, he groaned inwardly. I wish Cady had kept up with her tarot knowledge when she briefly fooled around with them in high school, but the only thing she remembers now is that old joke: ‘Play poker with tarot cards – get a royal flush, kill ten thousand people in the process.’ Then again, given what’s going on, maybe that’s not much of a joke.
Tired eyes looked at the pictures before him once more: Liza Doolots was looking to go into acting. Watermelody, like Liza, aspired to the stage. But Indigo Zap had Olympic aspirations. Different ages, different backgrounds, and nothing about the three were similar enough to trigger a lookalike sort of issue.
Maybe I need to go look into that New Age store downtown. The closest he’d ever been to it was the florist across the street, but now was the time, if any.
The door next to him opened up and out walked a very queasy-looking Sandalwood. “I swear, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m addicted to bacon double cheeseburgers and chili fries, I think I’d go vegetarian after seeing all that,” she moaned.
“You’re gonna get fat if you keep that up,” he teased her.
“Aww, but darling, don’t you want a mistress with more cushion for the pushin’?” she laughed. “Seriously, though,” she said, plopping down into the chair next to him, “this case is weird. Apparently both victims were killed with a silver knife or something – and according to the metallurgy tests, the weapon must have been pure silver. Look said that was practically impossible, because you can’t get pure anything.”
“And he was sure it was silver? Isn’t that a soft metal?”
“You tell me; you were the nerd in school,” she retorted. “Turns out the silver was so pure, there are microscopic burns around the edge of the puncture wound, as if the blade drew in static electricity from the general area.” When he looked at her, she added, “Y’see, silver’s the best element for conducting electricity with – I did pay attention in school on occasion, you know.”
“Whatever, Sandy.”
“Yeah, whatever exactly. Anyway, what’d you find?” He then shared everything he could look up regarding this, as well as his suggestion that they might want to look into going to that New Age store. Once she’d heard his whole explanation, she nodded and said, “You know what, I’m probably a little out of it still, but I think you’re right; this case is more like one of those Ogres & Oubliettes things you used to play all the time in school with that nerd herd of yours.”
“That’s Dungeons & Dragons, not whatever you said. And frankly, yeah, it does. Let’s get going; you can call Hardline and update her on the situation while we drive there.”
“Sure, just do me a favor?”
“What’s that?”
“Souplantation for lunch – girl’s gotta watch her figure, you know.”
Perhaps thankfully, the sky was unusually overcast today for a funeral. Both Solaire and Sunset Shimmer opted to wear regular blouses and skirts, as did Coco and Vanilla. Autumn, Fancy and others wore suits and as the priest committed Wintry Mix to the Earth, promising her a better fate in heaven, Shimmer could only think of the last time she saw her grandmother, just a few days before she and her mother moved back to France.
“Sunny, dear, smile. I know it’s hard right now, but things will look up, I promise.”
“But Grandma, Daddy’s gone, and me an’ Mommy have to move to Payrees!”
“Paris, dear. But I promise I will always be here for you, Sunset, no matter what.”
But I wasn’t there for you, Shimmer thought with some guilt as she watched her grandmother’s coffin lowered into the ground. Once we were in France, I didn’t call or write you enough. I basically didn’t treat you as I should have, and now there’s nothing but regrets. It had been her Uncle Noblesse that had introduced her to the concept that he’d been named after, noblesse oblige: that with great power came great responsibility, and as a princess of House Bonaparte and the Imperial Dynasty of France, she was beholden to that as much as her mother’s cousin Divine Right was – and that he’d sincerely hoped she would never turn out like that buffoon.
“You didn’t fail her.” She heard her uncle’s voice as she felt his arm slide around her. “She wanted you to be happy, Sunset. You’d lost your father, and your mother was caught in the middle of…whatever it was back in France. Mom just wanted you to be happy and a normal girl, and the fact that you didn’t turn out to be spoiled would have made her proud.”
“But I didn’t—” she began.
“You’re probably beating yourself up about it. Don’t. She understood, because that’s just the norms of life. Remember, it was your father that chose to go to college here and live at home. I went to college in New Jersey and believe me, I was just as guilty of the same thing as you’re blaming yourself for. It’s perfectly normal to want to live your own life. I don’t doubt Mom did the same with her parents, and probably had the same regrets, too.”
“So you mean that….”
“It’s normal. Don’t blame yourself for that, Sunset. Your grandmother loved you too much to ever see you blame yourself for such things.” At this point the rest of the family showed up and Autumn asked Solaire, “Did you want us to go with you, or did you want the time alone?”
“Alone, please,” the woman insisted. Shimmer looked at her mother and swore that the bright pastels of her mother’s hair seemed muted today, as if her hair was in mourning as well. “I’d like to spend some time with my husband, and Sunset…well, you know.”
Vanilla nodded. “We’ll be waiting by the car, so take all the time you need.” As some members of the family’s staff appeared with additional bouquets to hand to Solaire and Shimmer, the two nodded silently and walked off, moving past Wintery Mix and her husband, through various members of the family on the plot, and finally to a lonely grave several plots down, a grave that read
SUMMER BREEZE
Devoted husband, son and father
REQUIEM EN PACE
Shimmer stood away from her mother to give her some privacy. Her parents had practically a fairy tale marriage until the tragedy and even now, eight years since his passing, Shimmer knew her mother still loved him. It was an ache that would never leave Solaire, Shimmer knew, and her mother had tried to date once or twice, without success. Shimmer worried that her mother would grow old and alone, but was constantly reminded that was her mother’s cross to bear, not hers. Besides, the only one Shimmer knew of that had tried to press his attentions on her lately had been Divine, and that was all types of wrong.
After what had seemed to be an eternity of waiting for her mother, Shimmer saw her finally rise from the ground then walk towards her. “It’s your turn, mon petit tournesol.” Understandably her mother’s eyes were red with tears.
“Are you going to be okay, Mom?” Shimmer asked Solaire as the woman reached into her purse for her sunglasses.
“Those questions are for the living, my child,” Solaire said in a voice that broke her daughter’s heart. “I feel sometimes like I stopped doing that ages ago. Now go; your father awaits.”
Shimmer sadly nodded and walked over to the solitary marble grave, placing her bouquet by her mother’s. “Hi, Daddy. It’s been a long time.” Shimmer could start to feel tears sting her eyes, but that was expected. “I…I’ve been doing okay, and I’ve grown a lot since the last time I was here. I’m not the same little girl that used to scrape her knees when you taught me how to ride a bike, or complained whenever Bright Fame kissed me on the cheek in second grade.” She chuckled at that; her father had explained that he’d tell her what it was all about when she was older, and for days she pestered him if she was old enough now. “I wish you could see me now, in person and see how much I’ve grown because of you. Because of everything you taught me, I’m more than just what everyone wants me to be.”
The tears burned down her cheeks, unstoppable, and a sob uttered from her lips. “Daddy, I love you and I miss you. And I know my life’s not over yet – that I still have more adventures to go on, as you always used to tell me – even the ones I’ll never see coming. But I promise you that I’ll be the woman you wanted me to be: more than a princess, more than a normal girl. I’ll make you and Grandma and everyone proud. I promise that.”
She stood up, the tears running freely, and she said, “Just as you said, Daddy: ‘This girl don’t walk – she runs.’ And I’ll keep running for you.” She then got up, placed her hand on her father’s grave, and as her tears fell on the stone, gave it a melancholy smile, then turned and walked away.
As she approached her mother, Solaire asked, “How are you holding up?”
“Do you remember the story he used to tell me all the time when I was a kid? The Magic Princess of the Mirror?”
Solaire chuckled. “You know there was no real story, right? He made that up one day when you insisted on a bedtime story, and afterwards he made up a lot of other stories for you.”
“I know,” Shimmer said softly. “And I treasure every one of them, especially the one he told me the night before he died.”
“Which was?”
Shimmer paused as if searching her memories for the answer. “‘And the Princess of the Mirror stood at the reflection, looking at the city just beyond it. And she smiled, because she knew the town so well, and that it would always welcome her, no matter what, because when you’ve found the place you belong, it means more than anything.’ It’s taken me years to understand what he meant, but I do now.”
“Which is?”
“Daddy loved you and me more than anything. We were his family and his all. And even though he’s gone now, he’s not really gone. He’s watching out for us, letting you know that he still loves you, and watching me still with pride.”
Solaire wiped the tears away from his eyes. “Spoken just as his daughter would.”
“You mean ‘not like a princess’?”
“Exactly. You were more to him than that.”
Spike watched as the guy with the forest-green hair onscreen, in a bathtub swarming with pancakes, cracked an egg over his head. “I am breakfast,” the man announced, his voice uttering from the speakers.
The boy laughed. “Totally Wizard is awesome!” he exclaimed, before a hand reached over and took the tablet from him. “Hey, I was watching that!”
Octavia narrowed her eyes. “Spike, how many times have I said to ask if you’re going to borrow my tablet?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Sunny, remind me to chastise Rainbow later for showing him that.”
Sunset didn’t even look up from her breakfast burrito. “Motion noted and granted,” she said simply before taking a bite.
“Aw, c’mon, Sunny!” Spike cried. “You laughed at it, too!”
“Spike, Rainbow has played that thing to death, so much so that I want to go burn down the nearest IHOP, okay?”
“So, what’s on the agenda today?” Twilight asked, changing the subject before it ended up with Spike getting in trouble again. “I know you’ve got the day off because the Café’s run out of stuff.”
“Yeah, and after all of yesterday, honestly, I could use a break,” the flame-haired girl admitted, “but no rest for the weary, I’m afraid.”
“Why not?”
“Trixie texted me last night; apparently her mother insists that I come in to have my chi tested because her mother is worried about—” Sunset at this point began air quotes, “—my ‘connection to the greater transmetaphysical and cosmological makeup of reality.’ Translation: she thinks I have no magic.”
Twilight huffed; as a woman of science, she hated people who believed magic and the supernatural. Sure, she had a religious background, but that was paranatural, which was different. The supernatural was nothing but superstition and mumbo-jumbo bunk. “Do you really have to go?”
“Probably; I met Trixie’s mother a few months back and I don’t think Trix is going to get any peace of mind until I save her from this. God knows she already gets grief from her mom because she thinks Trixie’s gay.”
“But I thought Lyra was?” Octavia asked.
“She is, but Trixie’s mother thinks Trix should be, too, just so that she can touch her lambda self or some bullshit like that. I think it’s just Harmonic Convergence’s way of thinking of Lyra like her own and keeping tabs on her – and if it takes those two, Bonnie and some other victim in a…I think it’s called an Ishtarine coterie or something along those lines…together, then Harmonic is happy.”
“Your friends are weird, Sunny.” Octavia suddenly fell silent as she realized the triplets were part of that friendship and now suddenly they disappeared, not to be heard from since Sunset and Pinkie’s run-in with Sonata.
“Look, maybe we can ask Shiny to look into it,” Twilight suggested, knowing exactly what was on her cousin’s mind. “If they’re really in trouble, then they need help, and that’s what friends are for, right?”
“Yeah,” Octavia agreed, punctuating her sentence by finishing off her burrito.
“Yeah, I’m gonna do some quick laps around the track and then everything should be fine,” a young man said on the phone. “I should be done by 10, and I’ll pick you up by noon. Yeah, love you too, honey. See ya.” With that, the man put his phone in its holster and began running down the track, his plan to get a decent six miles’ worth in before he hit the shower. Fortunately, he had all of Canterlot State’s running track to himself this early in the morning.
Too bad he didn’t even finish a full lap before he found the body. He turned and rushed to the side, vomiting from the corpse. Fingers fumbling, he then dialed 911.
Not much longer, Indigo Zap was confirmed dead. Her body, perfectly poised like the others, had a starting pistol placed into her stab wound. Aside from that, she wore the shoes she had on when she disappeared, and the rest of her blanched and nude body otherwise undisturbed.
Held in her hands was the tarot card Strength, as earlier.
“Dammit!”
Sweet Leaf looked at the engine of her car, which was steaming, the only part of the car that was working. Her parents had repeatedly told her that commuting to and from her boyfriend’s place in Ashland, Oregon was going to put an excessive strain on her BMW, but fuck it, what did those old fucks know? Turned out a lot, given that when she popped open the hood she couldn’t even begin to identify parts much less figure out what was wrong.
“Look, I don’t care! I want a tow truck out here right now, okay? This is what you jerks get paid for!” She hung up the phone unceremoniously, pissed as fuck about how her morning had started. Sure, yesterday was great: she’d spent the past few days at her boyfriend’s place, drinking, smoking pot and doing what came naturally, so much so that she was glad he’d bought cases of Trojans. But his parents were supposed to come home today and while her parents didn’t give a fuck about her, his were ultra-strict, so she was headed home. She had to go home anyway, given that her mother had to go to her boss’ funeral today and that meant she had to watch that little sperm-dropping she called a brother.
Well, at least afterwards they were going out of town for the rest of the month, and that meant that she could party down with her friends, and spend a lot of time getting Mountain Meadow inside her. Hell, maybe if she was willing, she could get her best friend Lakeside into the fun as well; Lake was bi-curious, and Sweet wanted to have some fu—
Half an hour later, the tow truck showed up. The driver looked pissed; he didn’t like getting talked down to by customers, no matter how much money they made. Plus, Black Butte had no tow trucks, so he had to come from Weed, the next city over. Hey, at least he was making more than enough money, given that people tended to break down in this section of Interstate 5 on a regular basis.
As he approached, he groaned: great, it was a Beemer, and aside from being overpriced German pieces of shit – anyone who was anyone knew that if you wanted a classy car, you drove a Cadillac! – the license plate read SPLDGRL, which clearly described the owner. Likely, he mused, the owner was only good for two things: keeping her boyfriend happy and being an embarrassment to her parents.
C’mon, Wheel Lift, be professional, he said, adjusting his ballcap and getting out of the truck. “Hey, Weed Towing here for a Ms. Sweet Leaf.” Silence. “Ms. Leaf?” Nothing. He walked over to the car, seeing the keys in the ignition, nothing else, and certainly no sign of the girl. The area was relatively flat and there was no sign of her; likewise, she’d have been crazy to walk across the Interstate, not that there was much traffic right now.
Heading over to the engine, hoping to find a sign, he instead found a single card sitting on the engine block. But he’d played poker with the boys in the shop tons of times and he’d never seen a playing card like this.
Wheel of Fortune, it read, as he looked at the image of the oversize wooden wheel and the naked woman spinning it. What the fuck is this shit?
Hardline sat at her desk, giving Shining a lidded look. “Look, I see what you’re getting at, but…really?”
He looked across the desk at her. “Yes, seriously. I don’t know what the connections are, but people don’t just leave random tarot cards unless they’re seriously fucking with the police or unless they’ve got an ulterior motive.”
She sighed. “You know, I really wish I could believe that. My first case, I was working with an agent by the name of Monochrome. Boring, by-the-rules agent; guy should’ve been a DA because he definitely had the law memorized. Anyway, we were working on a murder case out in Toledo – we’d been called in from DC, because the local agents investigating found some weird, Twin Peaks meets X-Files kind of shit – and before you ask, no, none of that shit is real. So Monochrome – never a nickname, always just ‘Monochrome’ – and I look into the case. Turns out that the killer was leaving clues for us, a wrapper for some Turkish candy.
“Anyways, Monochrome went nuts trying to find the commonality: none of the girls were from that part of the world, two of their names were of Turkish origin but had since been Anglicized, and the closest thing we could find was that three of them worked in the same donut shop once. We then assumed that the killer might have been from Turkey, but there was only one person in all of Ohio who was from there originally…and she was in a hospice due to dementia. But we got a lucky break, and we finally caught the bastard.”
“So what was the angle?” Shining asked.
“There wasn’t one. The guy just had a thing for Turkish candy and had it ordered via the internet – keep in mind, this case was still when the net was in its infancy, so we never thought to check. Furthermore, he had an accident when he was a kid and burned off all his fingerprints, which is why we couldn’t get prints, either. We ended up getting him through DNA, and even back then that was still dicey.” She leaned back in her chair and said, “Sometimes, Shining, there’s no commonality. Sometimes a dead lead is just that. I know you’re just a beat cop and not a ‘tec, so you wouldn’t have that type of experience, so take my advice on this and get what you can out of it.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d still like to look into it, just in case.”
“Knock yourself out. Just…if it doesn’t pan out, don’t lose it like Monochrome did.”
“What happened to him?”
“Guy had a meltdown because his perfectly investigated case turned out to be anything but. Regional Director ended up offering him early retirement, which he took. Last I heard, he was working as a security consultant up in Bozeman, Montana.” She leaned forward once more before adding, “And if you’re right about this – and I’m going to take a guess and say you’re not – then we’re in deep shit, because the last thing we need when we have a paramilitary war about to fall around our ears is a really esoteric serial killer.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, rising from his chair. “No kidding on that.”
He walked back to his desk, where Sandalwood was typing along on her computer. “So, Hardy give the okay?”
“Yeah, but she said she thinks it’s a wild goose chase.”
“She’s probably right. But you know what? As long as I’ve known you, weird shit happens. So excuse me if I doubt the doubter.”
Sunset parked in front of The Merrie Wytch – Wait, wasn’t it called ‘Wiccan Wonderland’ last time I was here? – thankful that parking meters weren’t installed on this street just yet. The moment she opened the door to her car, Trixie rushed out of the store and shouted, “Quickly! We have to get out of here!”
“Trix, wha—”
“Sunny, if you’re my friend you will help me escape before it’s too lat—”
“Oh, there you are, my dearest child!” Harmonic Convergence walked out of the door, dressed in a beautiful silk gown that would have looked amazing had it not looked like something out of the cheesiest 70s occult film Sunset had watched – and given that she’d watched a few with her father a week or two past, it could always be worse. “And I see you’ve brought your dearest heart with you!”
“WE ARE NOT LOVERS!” Sunset and Trixie shouted in unison.
“Oh, dearest ones, you have nothing to fear from me. I’ve always hoped for my dearest Beatrix to find her heart of hearts; and with you two tied with Lyra and lovely Kẹo Dừa, you four will find tantric wisdom at the touch of your souls!”
“What is she talking about?”
Trixie facepalmed. “You really don’t want to know, Sunny.”
“Oh, it’s a splendid thing, dearest Sunset!” Harmonic chirped. “I finally found a way to tie you to the metasphere of the universe, by wa—” A strange sound emanated from the store, sounding as if a Dead Can Dance CD was brutally assaulted by disco refugees from Saturday Night Fever. “Oh, that’s the telephone! Excuse me, won’t you, girls?” The woman practically glided in, her gown floating in an ethereal breeze…or more likely the motion of her footsteps.
Sunset looked at Trixie. “Explain.”
“Two words: my mother. That enough explanation for you?”
Sunset sighed. “Not really, but why do I get the feeling that I’m about to make a huge mistake going in there?”
Trixie patted her friend on the shoulder. “Now you know what the past seventeen years of my life have been like.”
Sunset locked her car and as Trixie led her in, the flame-haired teen asked, “So, ‘The Merrie Wytch’?”
Trixie nodded. “Dad got tired of one too many ‘protests’ by Fluffy Bunny that amounted to nothing – it’s not like she had any grounds to sue us. So Dad thought to change the store’s name, and convinced Mom it was a ‘cosmic fortune’ that came to him in a dream.” She giggled. “He might not be a magician, but he’s as good a bullshit artist as the rest of us. So, are you ready for this?”
“Not really, but I trust you.”
The smile Trixie gave Sunset was awkward. “Well, that’s a vote of confidence in me; I just hope your trust isn’t misplaced.”
They then entered the store, only to walk into Lyra, who was walking downstairs, wearing only a towel. “Okay, Mrs. C,” she said to Harmonic, “where did you say that oil was?”
Without looking at Lyra, Harmonic said, “It’s behind the counter, dearie. Let your creative aura take you to new directions!”
Lyra then caught Trixie and Sunset. “Heya! Trixie, we’ve almost got your room set up!”
“Ly, why do you have a towel on?” Sunset asked.
The celeste-haired girl rolled her eyes, as if it were obvious. “Well, duh! I’m not walking downstairs naked, you know? Plus, you’re not supposed to see things until you’ve been prepared!”
“Prepared for what?” Trixie asked. “Mom, did you do something while I was out?”
Harmonic smiled sweetly. “Well, of course I did, my dearest daughter! I knew you simply couldn’t let your heart’s champion live another day without the life force that envelops us all, so I found a tantric spell that is just divine for infusing the aura!”
“Yeah!” Lyra agreed. “So while you were out, I’ve been prepping your room for this and getting ready! Though the shaving part was kinda rough.”
“I’m going to be sick….” Trixie moaned as she realized what her mother had just done. “Mom!” she shouted. “You didn’t!”
“Of course not; that would be offending and besides, I love your father – I would never do such a thing. Plus, Sunset’s underage,” Harmonic said matter-of-factly. “Fortunately for you, Lyra here was more than willing to volunteer.”
Lyra pulled out an unmarked earthenware jar, then walked over to Sunset, taking her by the hand. “Honestly, I think you’ll enjoy it, Sunny, though I didn’t know you swung that way.”
“What the hell is going on?” Sunset asked.
“White tantrism, of course! It’s supposed to put the divine energy of the Godhead into you, because you have no magic,” Lyra explained in a scholarly manner. “Now c’mon, we have to get you shaved, unless you’d rather shave yourself. Personally I’d recommend the former, so you can get used t—”
The moment she heard the word tantrism, Sunset pulled back. She knew what it was; she’d tried more than once to attempt to restore her magic through that means – and Flash had certainly been more than willing to experiment with her body. When she finally realized that things weren’t going the way she’d expected it to, she stopped experimenting, at least in that regard. The smart thing would have been to leave Flash…but I was never smart.
“Lyra, do you know what the hell’s going on?” Trixie asked.
“Yeah! We’re supposed to do the Crown of the Golden Dawn! It’s a tantric sex thing that’s supposed to help Sunny get her chi back! Granted, I’ll have to explain some things to Bonnie, but she’ll understand this is all to help Sunny, right?”
Trixie shook her head. “Do you know what the Crown of the Golden Dawn is?”
“Yeah, I read it this morning: four women, and all must have sex with one another at least once to gather divine energy from the macrocosm before the three perform the final act on the sublimator to make her attain divine wisd—”
“No, stupid. How many partners are involved?”
“Four, why?” Trixie just crossed her arms at the moment and waited for the thought to kick in; a second later a horrified look came onto her face. “That means that you and I… I mean….” She started to look as green as her hair. “You’re like my sister, Trix! How could you even think that I would—?”
“I didn’t,” Trixie commented before pointing to her mother. “She, however, did.”
An awkward smile came onto Harmonic’s face as if she’d clearly been caught holding the canary. “I…thought it would be best for you to start off in a most benevolent fashion?”
Meanwhile, Lyra looked as though her world had just crashed down on her. “I… I almost…. Trixie and me….” Without a second to lose she ran upstairs towards the residential part of the house, and a second later, everyone could hear the sounds of retching coming from where the bathroom was situated.
“My, I hadn’t thought that she’d react that badly,” Harmonic mused. “I thought you two were close, Beatrix?”
“Yes, to the point that you practically just suggested incest by proxy!” Trixie seethed. “Plus, I’m not a lesbian, for fuck’s sake!”
A second later the door to the store opened again and Bon-Bon walked in. “Okay, I’m here,” she announced. “Ly, honey, why did you ask me to bring our toys?” She then looked at Sunset, who had a mollified look on her face; and Trixie, who looked like she was about to go Vesuvius.
“Heya, Bonnie,” Sunset said in a voice that was too tightly controlled to be friendly.
“Did I miss something?” Bon-Bon asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Trixie said, as Lyra came back down, still wearing nothing but the towel.
Ten minutes and a sudden argument between Lyra and Bon-Bon that actually drove other customers out of the store, Lyra watched as Bon-Bon stormed out the door, angry. “But I wasn’t cheating on you,” she whispered.
Trixie put an arm around her lifelong friend. “Lyra, I love you dearly, but you are a world-class idiot, you know that?” Lyra merely leaned her head against the shoulder of the smaller girl. “For the record, explaining that your plan to sleep with Sunset was just going to be quick so you could save the good stuff for her….” The teenage magician sighed. “Did you really put a single neuron of thought into it?”
“I was just trying to help,” Lyra said bleakly.
“I think I’d better go handle Bonnie,” Sunset said, heading towards the door. “Lyra, don’t do anything stupid in the meanwhile.”
“I’ll make sure she doesn’t,” Trixie assured her.
“What if I looked into a two-person tantric position?” Lyra asked her.
Trixie just hugged her friend closer. “Let’s get you upstairs, okay?”
Divine screamed, the skin on his hand blistering and red from the second degree burn. Around her, the drops from the blood of this latest girl sizzled and hissed like boiling water or a light acid. The dead girl, her body now drained of blood, lay on the table, her eyes reflecting the final terror on her face; fitting, given that she’d tried everything, including the offer of “the best sex you ever had!” to try to escape. However, she had been chosen for her purpose, and for that, she would be taken.
But her blood had been rejected by the Cask of the Damned, and it had geysered out of the cask and away from the pure blood. It sprayed everywhere and where it did, it burned. The largest splotches were now eating into the wall, as if the strength of the blood seemed to increase.
“You were a whore,” he seethed at the dead girl. “You were supposed to be pure!” He punched the corpse once, twice, angry. His hand hurt like hell, and he had no healing magic that he could call upon; his research into the Father of Father’s books hadn’t gone along that far yet. Furthermore, if he went through this again, it would further impede him and time was of the essence. There was but only a couple of weeks remaining until the Grand Alignment, and everything had to be in place before then. He could not afford further delays.
He would have to get some assistance for this part of the phase.
Sunset stepped out of the store to see Bon-Bon leaning against a streetlamp. “Can I bum a ride off you? Had my sister drop me off, and….” Bon-Bon sighed. “I’ve really got to save up for my own car one of these days.”
“Yeah, sure,” Sunset said, fishing in her pocket for the car keys. “You want to go get something to drink?”
“Sure, that’d be great,” Bon-Bon said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Sunset went and hugged the girl. “You know she didn’t mean it.”
“I know,” Bon-Bon said in a quiet voice. “She’s always so willing to help her friends that she literally never thinks about the consequences.” The martial artist leaned into Sunset’s embrace for a few minutes, silently letting her friend’s tears soak her shirt. Finally, Bon-Bon stopped and said, “A year ago, you’d be the last person I’d have turned to.”
“A year ago, I would have cheered to see you and Lyra fight like that. Now?” Sunset shook her head. “She loves you, you know that?”
“I know. I wouldn’t be like this if I didn’t know that. I mean, look at me. I’m supposed to be the tough girl, but I melt into her arms like the happy little femme that I am and even something as innocent as this breaks me. Maybe I just love her too much.”
Sunset let Bon-Bon go and smiled. “No, if anything, I wish I could have the kind of relationship you two do. You’ll bounce back after this, probably first thing tomorrow. And Lyra’s completely devoted to you, even if she picks weird ways of showing it.”
“I kno…hey, isn’t that your brother? A nondescript sedan pulled into a parking space across the street, and Shining and Sandalwood got out of the car.
“Heya, Sunny. What’re you doing here?” he asked as he approached.
“Visiting Trixie and narrowly avoiding the most awkward moment of my life. What about you?”
“Well, I was looking for Wiccan Wonderland. I thought I saw it around here once.”
“Oh, that’d be this store; they changed the name,” Sunset explained. “Oh and heya, Deputy Sandalwood.”
“Heya, yourself, though you can just call me Sandy. Do you know if Harmonic Convergence is in there?”
“Uh, yeah, she is,” Bon-Bon offered.
Something triggered Sunset’s instincts. “Something wrong?”
“I can’t talk about that right now, sis,” he told her. “Let’s just say that if I’m right about this…you, Twily and Tavi’ll be the first to know. Just…go home right now, okay?”
“I was actually visiting friends here.”
“I know, but…look, Sunny, right now’s not a good time. Nothing’s wrong, and I’m not going to be arresting anyone, I promise. I just need to ask Mrs. Convergence a few questions.”
“You’re not doing anything to make me feel comfortable right now.”
Sandalwood looked at her partner. “Don’t worry, Shining, I got this.” Pulling Sunset and Bon-Bon aside, she told them, “We’re here to discuss something involving the murder case from two days ago. There’s some evidence we found that we can’t understand, so we’re inquiring with an expert. I can’t say anything more than that, and that might have been too much. Now, Sunset here is Shining’s sister, so I know I can trust her, but can I ask you the same? This is an FBI investigation here and I don’t need to tell you how serious that is.”
“You have my word that I won’t say anything, Officer,” Bon-Bon intoned solemnly.
Sunset looked at Bon-Bon. “Do we want to get out of here or stay in case they need us?”
“Stay. I’m feeling a little better now – thanks for the support – but I think that Trixie and Lyra might need us just in case something else happens.”
Both Shining and Sandalwood walked into the store, and a familiar whiff hit her nostrils. “Wow, not every day you get to smell your namesake,” she commented. “Guess I’ll have to get me some incense for my place afterwards. Maybe some crystals, too.”
“Or maybe you could learn tarot so that we could avoid coming here again.”
“Naah, that’d take the fun out of it,” she said, as she paused to look at a display of “organically created and treated clothing designed for the modern wymyn”.
“Welcome to The Merrie Wytch! The finest purveyor of everything you need to reach your inner chi and more! What can I do for you and your delightful auras?”
Shining pulled out his badge. “FBI, ma’am. We need to talk to you about something.”
The look on Harmonic’s face was one of panic. “No! I-I didn’t know, officers! I thought that I was bo—”
Trixie walked over and said, “Don’t worry about her, uh, Shining, right? Mom’s just worried about operating magic without a license.” She then went over to talk to her mother. “Mom, it’s okay. Really.”
Sandalwood shook her head, facepalming. “Really don’t have time for this,” she muttered before looking at Harmonic. “Look, we’re here because we need some assistance with a case, and since you’re the only fruit-loop store in town, we need you to answer some questions for us. Since whatever you’re going to say is probably stupid, we can’t arrest you because stupid is not illegal in this country, unfortunately. So drop the whole Fleetwood Mac leftover from the 70s shit and can we talk to whatever is really in that head of yours?”
Harmonic sighed. “Ah guess Ah will.”
The younger girls in the room all dropped their jaws, even Trixie. “Mom, I….”
“Darlin’, this is who Ah am,” Harmonic told her. “Ah just do th’ hippie stuff cuz then cust’mers take m’ seriously that way. Y’ ‘member where Ah’m from, right?”
“I thought you were joking when you said you were from Tennessee!” Trixie admitted.
“Nope. Hell, mah name ain’t even Harmonic Convergence – well, ‘tweren’t born with it, anyways. Changed mah name; ‘riginally, it was Dixie Flower.”
“So none of this is real?”
“Naaah, Ah jest like workin’ with this stuff. Ah mean, yeah, shure as shootin’ Ah believe there’s magic, but Ah don’ believe in that tantric stuff. Just kinky sex shit, ‘ts all there is.”
Trixie was about to feel sick, and her legs swooned; fortunately, Bon-Bon moved to catch her. “So you mean you never—“
“Honeychile, d’ y’ think Ah’d really want y’ t’ do that? Ah love Lyra like she’s mah own, y’ know that.” She paused. “Do you, uh, mind if I go back to this? Wouldn’t want customers to walk in and get the wrong idea.”
From the other side of the room, Sunset rolled her eyes. “Oh, no, we wouldn’t want the charlatan to make people think she wasn’t anything less than authentic….”
“It’s all an act, Sunset, dear,” Harmonic said with a wink before turning back to her daughter. “Though I am to blame for possibly letting Lyra get into that mindset – she loves you dearly but she really doesn’t think all that much – and for that, I am sorry, Beatrix. I’ll explain things to her later, but for now, would you mind watching the store?”
Trixie looked as though her world had just been destroyed. Fortunately, Bon-Bon said, “We’ll take care of it, Mrs. C, don’t worry. Just…don’t expect us to do a Ishtarine coterie, okay?”
Harmonic laughed. “Ain’t no such thing, honeychile. Mostly, that’s an excuse fer four lesbians t’...well, Ah’m sure y’ can figure out th’ rest.” Turning to the officers, she asked, “Will you two follow me upstairs? We can talk up there unimpeded.”
“Sure,” Shining said with a shrug. “This whole thing’s weird enough to begin with.”
A few minutes later, and they met at her kitchen table, to which both Shining and Sandalwood were surprised to find a normal house. “Ah like bein’ a normal gal,” Harmonic said, laughing at their expressions. Shining noted that she was switching between the two accents now easily.
“I guess I just got caught up too much in being a California hippie,” Harmonic admitted. “True, I’m originally from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but I spent my high school years down south in LA, in the Melrose district. I learned my craft from my best friend Caribbean Blue’s mother, Afer Ventus. Went to college here, and noticed they didn’t have a new age store, so I opened one, and adopted Afer’s personality, changing my name to Harmonic Convergence. My husband and I met when he was opening his store next door, and things just clicked.”
“That’s nice, but we’re not here for that,” Sandalwood said, slipping into “Bad Cop” mode.
Shining, always the “Good Cop”, slipped into his act as well and said, “Sandy, not right now. You’ll have to excuse my partner, Mrs. Convergence, she’s very eager to capture the murderer.”
“A murder?” Harmonic gasped. “Well, Ah do declare Ah h—”
“Lady, cut the shit, okay?” Sandalwood reached into her coat pocket, and pulled out three plastic bags, with cards in them. “What do you know about these?”
“Well, they’re tarot cards, obviously; major arcana.” Harmonic looked at the three cards. “This isn’t a standard deck,” she said with some surprise. “Most people use the Rider or Marseilles decks – they’re the most common ones. Hold on a second.” She walked over to a nearby bookshelf, bringing back with her a hardcover book with the title Monadem ex Arcanis. “This book is a list of all the known tarot decks ever created, from the oldest to the most esoteric. It was a book that Carrie – Caribbean Blue, that is – wrote last year.”
A few minutes passed by before Harmonic gasped in shock.
“What is it?” Shining asked.
Harmonic held up the book. “This is the Dead Hand set. They were tied to the Dead Hand murders in Los Angeles back in 1985.”
“The Dead Hand?”
“This happened while I was in high school. Back in 1985, there was a group of serial killings tied to a killer known as the Valley Intruder, who was eventually revealed to be a former soldier and fervent Satanist named Nightstalker. But what was wasn’t mentioned much was at the same time, there was another serial killer who was killing victims and draining them of their blood, for reasons unknown. He was called Dead Hand, because he used specialized tarot cards and called himself that in a letter to the LAPD.”
“How do you know this?” Sandalwood asked.
“Afer was assisting the police on the case after one of the girls in our neighborhood was murdered. She was a Joker.” Seeing the looks on their faces, Harmonic added, “No, I don’t mean she was a prankster or anything like that, but…. If I recall what Afer said – she asked Carrie and I to help with the research as well – the girls who were ‘blooded pure’—”
“Pure blooded?” Shining asked.
“Virgins,” Sandalwood answered, getting a very bad feeling about what she was about to hear.
“Yes. Those ‘blooded pure’ – the statement was in the Dead Hand letter – were assigned numbers on the major arcana. Those who were unclean – who were no longer virgins – were given joker cards – specialized Joker cards from the standard card deck – to replace the initial arcanas because they were no longer pure, for whatever reasons there were. There were seven girls – five Arcanas, two Jokers – but after Nightstalker was arrested, the murders suddenly stopped. He admitted to the police that he had nothing to do with it, though he’d gladly take credit, that bastard.”
Sandalwood leaned back in her chair. “Great! First that whole Vibe shit, then this new shit, and now we might have a serial killer on the loose. Maybe I should rejoin the Nav and see if I can get stationed somewhere safer, like Afghanistan.”
Shining ignored that and asked, “Do you mind if I borrow this?”
“I have some paperbacks downstairs for sale; I’ll give you a couple of copies. I can also give you Carrie’s number, if you need to speak with her.”
“That probably won’t be necessary, but if we may, can we call on you again?”
“Absolutely,” Harmonic ensured them. “If this is happening again…innocent girls are going to die. Girls like Fiesta, and those other six innocent souls in LA. You can’t let that happen again, Agent Armor. You just can’t.”
“You’ve helped us understand what we couldn’t, Mrs. Convergence. Don’t worry; we’re going to stop this guy.”
Suddenly, Sandalwood’s phone went off. “Yes, this is Agent Sandalwood. What? Okay, give us a second, we’re on the way.”
“What’s going on?” Shining asked.
“They just found another body,” Sandalwood told him and Harmonic. “And she had a joker card on her.”
“Yeah, I knew,” Lyra told them.
“You knew?” Trixie told her, “and you didn’t say anything?”
Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “You’re supposedly my best friend – we’re practically sisters, for fuck’s sake – and you treat me like some space-age hippie like the rest of them! Yeah, sure, I believe in magic, and I’m a pagan, and I don’t get the greatest grades in school, but I’m not stupid!”
“I never thought you were, Lyra,” Trixie told her.
“Yes, you did. Hell, so do you,” Lyra snarled at Bon-Bon, angry. “And you! Well…I guess I can’t get too mad at you, given that you were the brunt of the joke,” Lyra admitted. “But I’m not stupid, okay? I like working here, I like learning from your mom, and if she ever retires, I want to take over the store – heck, I might even give it a stable name!” she said with a wide smile.
“But….”
Lyra hugged Trixie. “Trixie, you are my best friend and I love you like a sister, but please, keep in mind that just because I dance to a different tune doesn’t mean that I don’t know when the music changes. And Bonnie, I’m hurt that you believed I’d go that far – I would never cheat on you. Yeah, I went upstairs and shaved, but that was because, well….”
“Can we talk about this later?” Bon-Bon asked, blushing furiously.
“Sure. And Sunny, I guess I’m the one that owes you an apology. I didn’t know if Mrs. C. was serious – I sure wasn’t – but I wanted to play a practical joke and I let it get out of hand. I would never try anything with anyone. Not my sister,” she said, shifting to have one arm around Trixie, “not my girlfriend”, she said, putting the other arm around Bon-Bon, “and certainly not my other friends. I’m not that kind of girl.”
“You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that,” Sunset said as Sandalwood and Shining rushed downstairs, with Harmonic close behind them.
“We gotta go, but just give Sunset the books and I’ll get them from her later tonight,” Shining told Harmonic. “Thanks again.” With that, both officers raced out of the building, and a few seconds later, the wail of a siren went off as tires screeched and an engine roared.
“What is going on?” Bon-Bon asked.
“Girls, I’m going to have to ask you two to go home for the day,” Harmonic told Sunset and Bon-Bon. “Lyra, please get me two copies of the Monadem ex Arcanis.”
“Sure thing,” the celeste-haired girl replied, heading to the far side of the store.
“Mom, what’s going on?” Trixie inquired.
“Trixie, sweetie, listen to me when I tell you that nothing is wrong…yet.” Hearing that from her mother made her worry all the much more; Harmonic had never once called her daughter by her nickname. “Just believe me when I say that I hope I’m wrong about all this.”
“Mom, you’ve got me a little worried right now.”
“Not half as worried as I am, dear.” Harmonic went behind the counter and opened up the jewelry case, pulling out three leather cords with what looked to be octagonal rubies enclasped by a silver setting. The moment Lyra arrived with the books, Harmonic placed them in a bag as well as the pendants and handed it to Sunset. “Agent Armor will be picking these up from you. I am also giving you the Heart of the Sirens, three of the most expensive crystals I have in my collection. They were said to be the hearts of mermaids originally, and while I don’t believe that, I can sense magic in them. They’re meant to keep those agents and a third safe. I wish I could give more, but all I have is three.”
“Mom, what’s going on?” Trixie asked, now seriously worried. Her mother just gave Sunset three pendants that were close to $5000 each.
Harmonic ignored her daughter. “Bon-Bon, Sunset, go home…and please, be safe. Beatrix, Lyra, let’s close the shop and we’ll go upstairs and I’ll tell you. Lyra, call your parents and let them know you’ll be staying the night. Now, please, girls, do as I say, please.”
Shining and Sandalwood slammed on the brakes several minutes later, coming to a stop in a gated community in Darkside, an upper-middle class community at the extreme northern end of Equestria County. Coming within feet of various people who lived in the neighborhood crowding around a house and several members of the ECSD pushing them away, they were escorted in by Diamond Dazzle, the senior ECSD deputy on the scene. “Hey, Sandy, when did you go Fibbie?”
“On loan, Di,” Sandalwood said. “What’ve you got?”
“Well, given that you’re here, I guess you’re tak—”
“Not now, Di,” Sandalwood warned. “Shit’s going down. Now, please, update me?”
“Fine, fine. The man of the house came outside after hearing some dogs barking, found this. It’s ugly, let me warn you – one of the newbies had to go vomit after seeing this shit.” The crowd got stronger and Diamond ordered to the other deputies, “Get the crowds away, now, understood? I’ve got a couple of sergeants on the way, but given that you got here first, I’m guessing we’re turning it over to you guys?”
“Yeah,” Shining told her, walking towards the body, which had been protected mostly from view by the Lexus SUV parked in front. Seeing it, he blanched slightly; it was more vicious than he’d expected. “This…this is inhuman,” he said to no one in particular.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” another man who had just arrived, told him. “Did time in the first Gulf War, and I’ve seen me some dead bodies…but there’s dead, and there’s atrocities.” Standing up, he said, “You with the Feds?”
“Yeah, Agent Shining Armor, though I’m on loan from CPD,” he said, offering his hand.
“Sergeant Fieldmaster. I was informed you guys have lead on this case. You might want to see this,” he told Shining, holding out a plastic bag. “It was the only thing on her when she was found…well the only thing aside from th—”
“I get it; you don’t have to explain,” Shining said, as he took the bag, which unsurprisingly held a card. The emblems on the corners were that of a black jester’s cap accompanied by a black laughing mask, while the card’s central image carried three pink flowers that he couldn’t identify.”
“Stevia florisii,” Fieldmaster said coincidentally. “Flowering Stevia, also known as the Sweet Leaf. My wife grows some in the front yard.”
“I’ll take note of that,” he said.
“I hope that’s not all you do,” Fieldmaster told him, his eyes angry. “This girl didn’t deserve this.”
“Well, I’m of the mind to arrest him. My partner, however, wants him dead.”
“Smart woman,” Fieldmaster said coldly.
A few minutes later, Hardline arrived, and behind her was Shining Badge. “Sorry we’re late; had to pick the boss up at the airport when the shit went down.”
Badge bent down and lifted the tarp, looking at the body. He then set it down, his hands shaking. “Never in my life have I ever seen anything like this, folks,” he told them. “I wouldn’t even do that to my worst enemy, though I’d be sore tempted to, admittedly. Fourth girl, new card and I don’t understand what the hell’s going on. I don’t like not understanding, folks. I don’t think I need to explain how bad that is.”
“We’ll get right on that, boss,” Hardline promised.
“We may not have to,” Shining Armor explained. He then detailed the lead he followed, as well as the discovery he made and Harmonic Convergence’s explanation of what happened in Los Angeles. “She knows exactly what’s going on and if it’s even remotely true, then we have a big problem, sir.”
Badge looked at the covered girl, then at the coroner’s office personnel, which had just arrived. “How soon can you put together a briefing, Shining?”
“Boss, you can’t possibly believe—” Hardline began.
“No, but it makes just as much sense as anything else we got right now, and frankly, we’re grasping at straws,” he told her. “We owe it to this girl’s life to look into every little nook and cranny to make sure that we unearth the party or parties that did this – at this point, if you had proof that technicolor cartoon horses did it, I’d look into that! But let me assure you, once we do find them, we will hit the guilty with the full weight of the law. And do you know why?” He pointed at that girl. “Because we have her and three others like her now! And if his theory is right, we may have more!”
“Point taken, Boss,” Hardline commented.
“Now I need you to get a hold of the LA Division and see what they have on this case. I want everything, and if they’re willing to send manpower – God knows we’re already in a shitstorm – then I want everything short of the Army here!”
“There you go, your highness,” one of the medics told him as she wrapped his hand in gauze. “Keep it wrapped and change the bandages daily for a week and then see me in about ten days so I can check on your hand, sir.”
“Thank you,” Divine said pleasantly. “I’m thankful for your assistance.”
“No, sir, you’re helping us to get vengeance against the government that betrayed us. If anyone’s to be thanked, it’s you.” Gathering the medical gear she used to take care of him, she went back to the cabinet.
“So what happened?” Cantata asked him.
“Spell didn’t work,” he told her. “The little trollop wasn’t pure, which means I’ll have to pull from the auxiliary list.”
“Not in that condition. I’m not about to let my…investment in you go unchecked. What can we do?”
“I need some of your people for a special assignment. They need to be silent, absolutely loyal and willing to do the dirtiest work possible.”
“I’ll review my lists. We keep two teams – one senior, one junior – trained for absolute black operations.”
“The kind that involve killing little girls?” he asked her.
“The kind that involve murdering babies, if need be,” she admitted. “It’s part of the duties we were given, and it’s what they’re trained for.”
He thought about it for a second, then said, “How old is the junior team?”
“All three are eighteen, if I recall, though their team commander, Lieutenant Rise, is 23.”
“See if they’re available; I do believe that I have an assignment for them – one that requires, ahem, discretion.”
“Of course. Also, I’ve talked to the lead scientist. He should have a test sample of the serum by tomorrow, and if it’s successful, we can begin mass production shortly thereafter. Are we still on track for aftercare?”
Divine tried to temple his fingers, but winced at the motion. “Yes. In fact, it may just be a good test of this Black trio.”
“I’ll get right on it. In the meanwhile, I have some other issues at hand: CSIS knows we’re here in Canterlot though not precisely where. Our reserve base in Dubai was ambushed by a team belonging to the CIA, and we think the Americans are now involved. However, I’ve instructed our people to disregard American involvement at the moment, because we don’t need the extra front. However, I have detailed sixty of my personnel, including four of my officers, to an alternate location in the Everfree Forest. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to find a way to get the information to the authorities.”
“You’re throwing away those troops?”
“Better to sacrifice those that cannot cut it than to endanger all my people. Still, 240 personnel are more than enough to take down CSIS headquarters, and with the backing of the serum, they’ll be more lethal than a thousand.”
“Brutal and devious. I like it.”
“Oh, you’ll see more, I’m sure,” she told him. “Let me go speak to the team, and I’ll meet you in the main conference room in an hour.” She kissed him on the cheek, and with a girlish wink, walked out of the sickbay.
“Mom, Dad, I’m glad you could be here for this, because I want you all to hear this,” Shining said. “Celestia, Luna, thanks for taking time out of your schedule as well.”
“You said it was important, son,” Night replied. “Given your occupation, I’m given to listen to you when you say something’s important and call a family meeting.”
“Plus, if it was important enough for Cadance to call us and ask for our presence, I was all too glad to do so,” Celestia replied.
“Well, I wish there was a more positive reason for this meeting,” Cadance said, “but my office is already aware of what’s going on.”
They were all seated at the dining room, several pizza boxes in front of them now emptied. Spike had been asked to go up to his room and while he argued about it, eventually he did, leaving the teens and adults in the room to hear what Shining had to say.
“I guess I should be outright about it: we may have a serial killer on the loose in the Canterlot area, one that’s targeting girls between the ages of thirteen to seventeen. I don’t doubt you’ve heard about the murder of the mayor’s daughter and her husband the other day. Well, in the past two days we’ve had three more victims, and we think it’s going to get worse.”
Velvet gasped, and Night put her arm around her. Twilight unconsciously took hold of Sunset’s and Octavia’s hands. Both Shining and Cadance kept even, professional faces, as they were used to this sort of thing.
“The vice mayor, the chief of police, the sheriff and the special agent in charge of the local FBI station are talking to my boss as we speak,” Cadance added. “Tomorrow they’re going to hold a press conference to announce what they’ve found so far.”
“Who were the other girls?” Luna asked.
Cadance, in response, turned on her phone. “In addition to Liza Doolots—”
Celestia gasped. When everyone looked at her, she said, “She was supposed to be one of our incoming freshmen this fall.” The look on the woman’s face looked shocked, and Velvet winced in sympathy for her friend.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Aunt Tia,” Cadance told her.
“I’ll be fine, Cady,” Celestia insisted. “Go on.”
“The next victim is Watermelody—” This time, it was Luna’s time to gasp.
“She’s…she was….” Luna looked visibly shaken at the announcement. “I taught the drama class, and she was my best student, by far. She told me last month that she’d filmed a few commercials for TV, and that she was applying to CalArts.” Luna’s eyes began to tear, and despite her own shock, Celestia slipped an arm around her sister. “How?”
“I can’t give you those details yet, Luna,” Shining told her. “We’re probably telling you too much as is.”
“Please, Aunt Luna, let me finish this,” Cadance said.
Luna, sobbing into her sister’s shoulder, said nothing. “Go on,” Celestia told her niece.
Nodding wordlessly, Cadance continued. “Indigo Zap, age seventeen; and just today, Sweet Leaf.”
Octavia looked at Twilight. “She’s a freshman – sophomore in the fall – at our school, right?”
Twilight nodded. “We need to call the student council and set up a meeting tomorrow.”
“You’re doing it online,” Night insisted. “Until this is over, I’m putting a curfew on you three. I want you home by sundown, got that? Sunny, I know you work, so you come home after work’s over, no stopping at all. No picking up anyone, just straight home, understood?”
Twilight was the first to speak. “Dad, isn’t that overkill?”
“I’m halfway tempted to insist you cancel your plans to go to Modesto in two weeks. I didn’t raise either you or Octavia so I could see you in a coffin. And Sunset, I want you to be alive long enough to be adopted – and then after that not in a coffin, either.”
“Absolutely, Dad,” Sunset added, “but Modesto’s a four-hour drive. We’ll be fine.”
“If it helps, I can go with them,” Cadance offered. “I’ve still got use-or-lose vacation time and given that I’ll be chaperoning a bunch of potential targets, I don’t doubt my boss will disagree.”
“Plus, I want you to take the spare pistol if you do,” Shining insisted.
“I was already planning to, sweetie. I’m sure we’ll be safe, but I figured it’d make you feel more comfortable.” She kissed him on the cheek.
“Will you keep me in the loop as much as you can, Shining?” Celestia asked. “I know the principals of other schools, and I think it’s best that I arrange a meeting with them. As it is, I’m going to have to call Superintendent Waddle and inform him of what I know.”
“Yeah, and I’m going to have to talk to my folks and make sure the kids under my charge are okay,” Velvet added. “Is there anything else?”
“Not right now,” Shining told her. Then looking at the three girls, Shining said, “Until this is over, please be careful. I’m worried about you three. No heroics. If you hear something, run – I don’t care what anyone says, got that?”
“I’ll be f—”
“I know you know martial arts, Sunny, but this is serious,” Cadance countered. “Please, for everyone’s sake. You’re a part of this family now, and we want to keep it that way, okay? I don’t want my last memory of my newest sister-in-law to be as we’re laying you to rest.”
“That’s horribly morbid,” Velvet commented.
“In my job, it’s all too often,” Cadance told her.
Two women and a man sat on the couch. “Is he going to be alright?” Redheart asked Posey and Discord.
“Red, a man who was already a widower just found out his daughter was brutally murdered,” Discord commented. “I don’t think ‘alright’ is anywhere near the condition he’s in.”
“We’ve got a team of doctors watching him around the clock, and his sister’s flying in from Columbus,” Posey commented. “We’re not going to let Tense down, I assure you.”
“Is there anything I can do to help? I hear celebrities are very good at pushing problems out of the way,” Discord asked his wife. “I can put my secretary right on this.”
“You have a secretary?” Redheart joked.
“Yeah. My manager hired a staff for the band to take care of the business arrangements. She works remotely down in the OC, but she’s damn good and can be here in a moment’s notice. I’m sure she won’t mind.”
“Good,” she said, leaning against him. “I think we could use all the help we can get.”
A man with dark skin and sakura-pink hair walked out of the bedroom. “I put him on sedatives, and I’ll be staying the night. I asked Champagne Tap to find doctors to take his patient load for the next few days. I’ve already worked out a rotation for me and the other guys until his sister gets here.”
“Thanks, Tissue.” Healthy Tissue was the assistant head of the department and an old friend of Intensive Care’s.
“Still, can’t believe that Melody’s gone,” Tissue commented. “She was Tense’s whole life, and she meant a lot to me, too. Guess I’ll start working on the funeral preps for the moment.”
“I’ll call my secretary and ask her to step in,” Discord said. “Have them send me the bill; I’ll take care of it.”
“That’s mighty nice of you. You know, when I heard that Poe was still married and married to a big-time rock star, I thought it was a joke. But now you’re here and you’re nothing like what I expected you to be.”
“Death has a way of putting things in perspective, Doctor,” Discord replied with a touch of sorrow.
“No, I won’t do it,” Lieutenant Symphony Rise snarled.
“Excuse me, Lieutenant?” Cantata commented.
“No. I want an actual reason before I order my troops into this kind of thing,” Rise told her. “I understand doing the hard things for battle, Captain, and if this was families attached to CSIS senior staff, I would do it in a second. But we’re in America, and these families are damn well not attached to the Canadian government, much less CSIS! So, respectfully requesting a response, ma’am.”
“I see,” Cantata asked. “What do you think, Seaman Rush?”
Contralto Rush immediately came to attention. “Your orders are to be followed to the letter, ma’am!” she barked.
“And you two?” the SIREN commander asked Medley Trance and Canzione Burst.
“We agree with our fireteam leader, ma’am!” both said in unison.
“You three can’t be serious!” Rise told them.
“Frankly, L-T, you’re not our sœur,” Contralto told her. “Our grand sœurs are dead, killed by Les SCARS. You’re just a placekeeper until a real officer can be trained to keep up with us.”
“They’re right, you know,” Cantata told the lieutenant. And with a quick draw, she pulled out her pistol, pointed it at Lt. Rise’s head and pulled the trigger. A split second later, the corpse that was Symphony Rise hit the floor.
“See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!” Medley cooed.
“So, are you still in agreement, Petty Officer Second Class Contralto Rush? And you, Master Seamen Trance and Burst?”
Contralto smiled wickedly. “I think we’re in agreement for this, whatever the hell it is.”
Cantata then said to the darkness, “Your highness, I present to you my Black Team.”
A light turned on at the desk, and Divine Right sat at it, his smile wicked. “This is your first target. You are to capture only. If you do that successfully, you will leave the item in the top folder at the location. Leave no trace of your presence, and if you successfully complete this, I will have more assignments for you…as well as a reward.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Contralto asked.
“He’s our benefactor and the sole reason we’ve gotten this far,” Cantata told the girl. “Consider him an admiral, am I clear?”
“Well then, apologies are in order, sir,” Contralto said, taking the hint. “We’ll do our best. Orders if there are collateral targets?”
“Make sure you’re not seen, but if there’s no alternative, the order stands for the primary target. Take out any secondaries or hostiles.”
Contralto slipped back to attention. “Roger that, sir, ma’am. When do we depart?”
“In thirty minutes, after you’ve familiarized yourself with the dossiers I’ve provided,” Divine said. Then after a second: “Oh, and after you’ve disposed of the trash as well,” he said, pointing at Rise.
“We’re on it, sir,” Canzione said.
Sandalwood tapped the Heart of the Siren gem that she’d been given by Shining an hour ago. These things are dumb as fuck, but still, if it keeps that kooky dixie witch happy, so be it. We need her on our side right now. She had her phone in her hand, and was dialing a number.
“Hello?” the voice on the other side said.
“Heya, Minty, how’s things?” Sandalwood asked, looking around her apartment. It was spic and span and empty, like most of her life.
“Well, given that my big sister’s being a pain in the ass and calling me again to check on me, I’m fine. You?”
“Well, given that my little sister’s being a bitch for her big sister worrying about her, things are fine.”
“You know, Mom and Dad don’t worry about me half as much as you do. Plus, you were in the military and are a cop now, so I think being a college student is hella safer than what you do.”
“True. Just…I’m just worried,” Sandalwood said. Without going into detail, she gave a very vague synopsis of what was going on and how it was affecting her and her friends. Finally, after a few minutes of explanation, Sandalwood said, “And that’s really what’s going on. Maybe I’m overprotective of you, but I’d rather be that than show up at your funeral.”
“Thanks, sis. Look, I gotta go; I’ve got some late night studying to do for a class tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll let you go,” she said, as a knock came on her door. It’s midnight, who the fuck’s knocking at this time of hour? “Later sis, and I’ll say hi to Mom and Dad for you.” Putting down her cellphone, she went over to the door to find True Thoughts at the door. He and his girlfriend Ruby Tuesday were just a couple of college kids down at State, but they were pretty mature for their age and Sandalwood made it her business to keep an eye on them. “Heya, True, what’s up?”
“Look, I know it’s stupid, Sandy,” he asked, “but have you seen Ruby? She was supposed to be home an hour ago, and she’s not answering her cellphone.”
“She’s probably just coming home late from work,” Sandalwood assured him. “Where’s she work at?”
“She’s a cook at the Glazed Carrot downtown, why?”
Sandalwood was about to say something, when she remembered something: the Glazed Carrot was next to an alley, and the parking for the restaurant was in the back, traversable to only via said alley. She then looked into the sky and saw the waxing moon, barely just a sliver in the sky after the new moon just days ago. She dashed into the apartment, grabbing her holster, phone and slipping on her shoes. “True, call 911, tell them officer is on scene!”
“What?”
“Just do it!” she called back as she vaulted over the waist-high fence keeping the apartments from the parking lot. “And close my door!” She got in her Mustang, slapped the cherry light on it and gunned the engine and the siren, rocketing away from her apartment.
“Do you got her, Je?” Contralto asked.
“Yeah, feisty, though. Still, a punch to the gut is a punch to the gut, Ae,” Canzione commented.
Contralto tapped her headset. “Ef, this is Ae. Clear overwatch, we have the target. We’ll meet you at the car.”
“Solid copy. Ef out.” On the building across the street, Medley started to break down her sniper rifle, with the intent to meet her teammates in minutes.
Within five minutes, a nondescript Toyota Corolla raced off from the scene. It had been stolen an hour ago just for this mission and the trio would continue to car hop until they met up with the main vehicle, parked in Darkside. From there they would return to base and hand their target over to the Captain.
“Wonder what the Skipper wants with her,” Medley asked.
“Ours is not to wonder why,” Contralto said, leaning back in her seat and quoting form the old aphorism. “Ours is just to say ‘Aye aye’, then kill someone until they die.”
A steel gray mustang, cherry light blazing on top blasted past them on the other side of the street. Contralto smiled; at this distance, there was no way they would be suspected.
Sandalwood slammed her breaks from nearly a half block away, skidding to a halt almost perfectly across from the alley. Throwing on her high beams, she rushed out of the car and towards the restaurant, her gun already drawn. In the distance, she could hear sirens, but something in her told her it was too late.
As she approached the opening of the alley, she could see a single card laying there. She didn’t have to know what it was; after all, she’d seen a copy of the card just this morning. Next to it was Ruby’s purse, with nothing missing from it. There was no sign of the girl otherwise.
“GODDAMMIT!” Sandalwood screamed in frustration as the loud blare of sirens and other tires skidding sounded behind her. Holstering her gun, she reached in her pocket and picked up a bag she could use to put the card in.
After all, she just failed and failed in a big way, by her opinion. Might as well do something right.