//------------------------------// // The Next Move // Story: TD vs Equestria Girls // by BronyWriter //------------------------------// Okay, so... maybe I wasn't quite as discreet as I could have been. But on the whole, I'd call it a success. The whole school wasn't hypnotized by sirens anymore, so that made things a lot easier. Now the only challenge I had left was getting their necklaces away from them so that I could transport them back to Canterlot to stand trial. Or something. Honestly I might need to rope some of the human Mane Six into tying the Sirens up and throwing them back through the portal. Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be up for that, right? Maybe Pinkie, too? Even with Blaze and Rapids, it might be difficult to bring the Sirens back if they really didn't want to. Celestia and Luna would look the other way, of course, anything to make sure all of us left their school alone, but that grace would probably not last forever. Well, I planned on getting out of their hair pretty quickly anyway. I took my drum set apart and put everything away to let the next act go on. If I guessed right, I think we won this round. Blaze and Rapids stood beside me, having already put their instruments away. "Well, now what, Princess Antares?" Blaze asked. "I don't know about you, but I don't like that she said that she knows about us being from Equestria." "Well..." I zipped up one of the bags holding a drum. "If I had to guess, they're going to be lying pretty low for a little while. Yeah, it would be better if we could have broken their hold on the school without drawing attention to ourselves that would be great, and maybe there was a way to do that, but I'm not sure what that would be." "We could have just asked the Sirens to meet us by the statue, then arrest them from there," Rapids suggested. I shook my head. "I don't think they'd fall for that. Well, actually, maybe the one with the blue hair would have. We need all three, though. Even if we could get all three of them, we need to break their power before we can arrest them. I'm not bringing them back to Equestria just so they can wreak havoc. If we can reduce them to just normal girls, that would be for the best." I stood up and slung one of the drum bags over my shoulder while picking up two more. Blaze and Rapids collected the rest of them. "So that doesn't answer my big question, Princess Antares. What now?" "I think our next move is talking to Celestia and Luna. I'm not sure if it's best if we get them away from the school, or if we should keep them here so we know where they are. If the former, we'll need to find some reason to get them expelled." "Well, you're a princess," Blaze pointed out. "Just go into any Manehattan police station and ask to get into their evidence lockers. Grab a bag of heroin and plant it in the backpack or locker of one of the sirens and get them expelled." Dubious legality aside, it sounded like a tempting idea. "Or if you wanted to use meth you could go to a Vanhoover police station," Rapids added. "Or Canterlot if you wanted cocaine. High class drug and all that." "Okay, you two, I think I get it." "Decent barbiturates market from the Cloudsdale criminal element," Rapids mused. "Guys..." And if you wanted to go local for Baltimare, you could--" "Enough!" I groaned and rubbed would have rubbed my temples if I wasn't holding drums. "I think it would overly complicate things. It would probably bring police attention if cocaine was found in a school, and we don't really want that. We need to be sneakier about this. Heck, if we don't end up arresting them, but we get their gem necklaces away I'd count that as a win. I'll take them being harmless if it means that they're not going to be a problem anymore." We continued discussing our options against the Sirens while we dropped off the instruments in our car. Most of the school was still in the gym for the battle of the bands, so we weren't concerned about being bothered. At least not at the moment. I was pretty sure that once the battle ended, we'd get floods of students around us just gushing about our performance. Some of them would probably worry that they would have to face us in the next round. Ideally not. I'd prefer to be out of here before that happened. Let one of these groups have their victory without it being spoiled by magical princess ponies and her bodyguards. Although, to be fair, I wasn't totally sure what the winner of the Battle of the Bands got. A coffee shop gift card, maybe? We made our way back to Principal Celestia's office. We hadn't actually set up a place for us to meet once the show was over, so it seemed like the best option. Luckily we only had to wait an hour or so before both Celestia and Luna made their way into the office. "Ah, you're here," Celestia said, taking a seat behind her desk while Luna stood behind her. "I take it everything was successful?" I nodded. "Should have been. I don't think your students are brainwashed by evil sirens anymore, so that's a positive. That would make them much weaker, this easier to capture." "If you say so," Luna said. "They were most displeased by your antics at the battle." Luna's eyes narrowed a fraction. "And I cannot say I completely blame them. It was inappropriate for a school setting." I shrugged. "I would have been all ears if you'd had a better idea. As it stands, it worked. Now I just need to figure out where they are. It's best if I get them somewhere alone. That way I can get their necklaces off, which should depower them for good." "And you'll take them back to Equestria after that, I assume," Celestia said. "Yes, yes, we made a deal. I don't want them here any more than you do," I said with a wave of my hand. "There is one problem, though." "Oh joy," Celestia deadpanned. "After our performance we came up to them for a little smack talk. They, ah..." I hesitated for a moment. "They know we're from Equestria. Their plans are probably going to reflect that. On the plus side, though, it likely means that they'll focus on us instead of your students again." "Ah yes, Equestria," Luna muttered. "The magical land of talking ponies which the man in front of me rules as a pretty pony princess." I snorted. "Yeah, well, no one ever said the universe is without a cruel sense of humor. Besides, in my world you're a pretty magical pony princess who rules the land just like me. Both of you are." I grinned and sat down on the seat opposite them. "Actually, we all prank each other on our birthdays. You should have seen what I did for yours, Luna. My palace guards call you Princess Glue-na now." Luna's eyes narrow even more and she frowns at me. "Why? What did you do?" "Ah, it's not important. The sirens are our main concern," I said with a wave of my hand. I grabbed a scrap of spare paper off of Celestia's desk and jotted down a few numbers. "This is my phone number. I think they'll probably be around the school for a little bit. If you see them, text me and I'll do my best to deal with it quietly." "Somehow I don't think you deal with anything quietly, TD," Celestia said, taking the paper from me. "Having said that, I will let you know what I find." "Good. I doubt they'll be showing up to classes, but you never know." I stood up and nodded to each of them. "I think that should be it for right now. Let me know if you see them, and I'll try to stay out of your hair in the meantime." "I really do appreciate that," Celestia said, standing up herself. "Yeah, yeah, the less you have to deal with me the better." I began herding Blaze and Rapids out of the room. "It's also best if I get back to my country as soon as I can. I think a world war is about to start up, and it's best that I'm there for that." The eyes of Celestia and Luna both widened, and they exchanged a shocked look. I gave them both a small smile before following Blaze and Rapids out of the room, shutting the door behind us. We walked a ways away from the office before Rapids spoke again. "So did you just say that to freak them out or... what?" I shrugged. "Well, it's true. We need to get back to Equestria as soon as we can because there's major problems on our end. I never wanted to be here for more than a few days at most." "Makes sense, I guess," Blaze replied. "So now what, then?" "Now I think we find Sunset and her buddies. They're the only other people here who know who we really are, so they can help us keep an eye out for the Sirens." I grimaced as I replayed the memory of my last talk with Adagio. "They're doubtlessly planning something that I don't really want to be on the receiving end of. The more people we can get in on it, the better. While still keeping it relatively contained, of course. We don't want to start a school-wide panic by letting everybody know that the school has been infested by emotion eating monsters." "Fair point," Rapids said. We didn't say anything else while making our way to the band room. If my hunch was correct, and I knew Rainbow Dash, they'd be in there practicing for the next round already. Sure enough, I heard the tell-tale sounds of their instruments playing as we approached. I opened the door and saw them all playing something or other, with Sunset once again sitting on the piano and bobbing her head to the beat. Rainbow noticed the three of us coming in, so she stopped playing and motioned for the others to do the same. She set her guitar down and smirked at us. "You know it's probably against school rules to use magic in competitions." "It's probably not because why would it be?" I retorted. "At any rate, the school isn't under the control of those sirens anymore, so that's an obvious plus. The ends and the means, and all that." "Ah guess," Applejack said, putting her bass back in its case. "So now what?" "That's simple. Now we just keep an eye out for them. I'm not completely sure if they'll keep close to the school, or if they'll be around town, but either way, they're not going to just sit around and lament the fact that they've lost. They'll have additional plans." "We were thinking about getting them arrested by planting drugs in our locker, but that didn't seem to work," Blaze said wistfully. "We hadn't decided on where to get them anyway." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "It's a high school. It's really not that hard to get weed here." "Yes, but we scrapped that idea anyway!" I insisted. "We're have a better plan in mind. "Alright, so what do you need us to do?" Pinkie asked. "Simple." I walked over to the nearby whiteboard and jotted my number down on it. "Just text me if you see them. I'll do my best to get over as soon as I can." All of the girls, sans Sunset, pulled out their phones and entered my number into it. Almost immediately I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I took it out and punched in the code to unlock it. One text. I tapped the text notifier to see what I got. Hi, Princess Antares!!!! :) :) :) ;) I raised an eyebrow and looked up at Pinkie, who merely continued to grin at me. "Just making sure it works," she clarified. "Eh, fair enough." I slipped my phone back into my pocket. "I'll let you get back to your practice. Don't worry: I'm done with the battle, so you won't have to face me." "Heh, you're just saying that because you know we'd beat you even if you used magic against us," Rainbow said, a confident grin on her face. I rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah, that's it for sure." I turned around and began walking out of the room. Before I fully left, I spared one glance at Sunset. She hadn't stopped glaring at me since I walked in. When she saw me looking at her, she huffed and turned around, crossing her arms. Part of me wanted to say something, but I also knew it wouldn't do any good. It would probably just lead to a shouting match, which, if the Sirens were still in the school, would lead to some bad things beyond hurt feelings. I shook my head and left the music room. "So what now, Princess Antares?" Rapids asked, following me when I passed her. "Well, I guess we kind of just see what happens next. We have a bunch of people on the lookout for the Sirens, so if one of them even looks at the school, we'll know about it." We reached the entrance hall and exited out of the main doors to make our way to our car. "It's probably not the worst idea to take a look around town to see if we can run into them somewhere. If by some stroke of luck we manage to track them back to wherever they're hiding, that'll be the best. Anything to keep them off-balance and to disrupt what they might be planning. Once we do that, they'll start throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks, and once that happens we'll be able to capitalize on any mistake they make." "Like just hanging around the school alone to scout it out while doing their best to look like they're being discreet but they're really not?" Rapids offered. I nodded. "Exactly. If they divide in any way that'll be the best." I turned my head to Rapids and frowned. "Bizarrely specific guesses aside." "So specific one might even think that I took it from life," Rapids said, pointing to a spot away from us. I followed her gaze to where she pointed and sighed when I saw it. One of the Sirens, not sure which one, sat against the Canterlot High statue with a hood over her head. She had a few books around her and seemed to be writing something down in a notebook. I will give her credit that if I wasn't on the lookout for her I might have passed her off. Hood aside, she looked like just another student studying for their next test. The only thing that gave her away was the fact that her hood did an absolutely terrible job of hiding her mass of hair. A casual observer might have mistaken the bulge in the back of her hood for a headcrab, or something. "Ah. I see." "So what do you want to do, Princess Antares?" Blaze asked. I tapped my jaw thoughtfully for a few moments while I weighed my options. She seemed to be alone, unless she was bait, which I found relatively unlikely. If she wasn't bait, I couldn't let this opportunity pass by. If she was, then I highly doubted that a group of weakened sirens could effectively spring a trap that could stop me for very long. Worst case scenario I just keep punching them in the face until they weren't a problem anymore. "So, we're either going to take one of the prisoner or we're going to spring a trap." I rolled my shoulders and cricked my neck. Let's do this. "Let's get the car. The duct tape should still be in there. All we have to do is lure her to an open spot, drive by, grab her, then take her back to the house and figure out what to do from there. Simple enough?" "And if it is a trap?" Blaze asked. "Spring the trap, punch our way out of it. Sirens or no, I'm willing to bet that they still have the physical state of a group of teenage girls. A punch to the face will send them flying." I tilted my head in thought. "Or we could use the instruments from the car as weapons. That could hurt them. Before we get to that, let's try the kidnapping plan first." "You're an inspiration and wonderful role model to fillies and colts all over Equestria, Princess Antares," Blaze said proudly. "I'm honored to serve you." "Just..." I groaned and we began walking over to the car. "Rapids, get her over to that sidewalk there. I don't care how just as long as you don't draw any attention to us. Blaze, be ready with the tape. We need to be fast about this." "Got it, Princess Antares," Rapids said, saluting me. "Good. Alright, Blaze, let's go." We got to our car and I hopped into the driver's seat. Blaze went into the back and prepared a long strip of duct tape. We only had one real shot at this, so Rapids needed to be good. I turned on the car and drove to the designated spot just in time to see Rapids happily skipping over to us, the seemingly unconscious Siren slung over her shoulder. Oh for goodness... Blaze opened the door for her and moved back to allow Rapids to put the siren down on the floor before hopping in herself. She shut the door behind her and grinned at me. "Okay, all good. Let's go." "Rapids, what did you do?" "I got the siren for you, just like you asked." I sighed and rubbed my temples. "Yes, but why is she unconscious?" "Because I walked up to her and instantly slammed her head against the statue. Knocked her right out. I made sure no one saw us, of course." Rapids pulled down the siren's hood. It wasn't Sonata or Adagio, but we definitely had a siren. That's one positive. I don't think I ever got this one's name. "I more meant that you should find some way to lure her over." Rapids frowned. "Like what? Just walk up to her and ask that she come with me, I promise I'm not going to kidnap you or anything like that?" "Oy." No sense getting too mad at her. We've got our siren and didn't seem to spring any trap. "Just tape her up and let's get back to the house." "Got it," Rapids said, grabbing a small rag we'd planned on using to clean the car and stuffing it into the siren's mouth before taking a piece of tape from Blaze and wrapping it around the siren's head and mouth. Best not leave someone who controls minds by singing with any vocal capabilities at the moment. We made it back to the house without any problems. I stayed at the exact speed limit so that no police officers would have any reason to pull us over. That would get bad pretty quickly. Being in a truck, we didn't have any ways to hide the tied up and gagged mythical creature who looks like a teenage girl from any kind of scrutiny. Anyone who gave the back an even casual glance would see her on the floor. We pulled into our garage after a quick ten minute drive. I spent every moment flinching at any noise that seemed out of the ordinary. Thankfully we didn't run into any problems, and within a few minutes of arriving back home, we had her taped to a chair in the basement. "This seems moral," Blaze pointed out as we sat around, waiting for her to wake up. "You have any better ideas?" I asked. "I was all ears." "No, I guess not," Blaze muttered, lying back on the couch we'd bought the day before. "Still, though, I'll be glad to get back to Equestria." "Where there's an impending world war waiting for us?" I grumbled. "I mean, I know we need to get back pretty soon, but let's just focus on there here and now, alright?" I stood up and made my way behind the siren. "Starting with this." I tapped her necklace. "We need to find a way to get this off. If we do she won't be a problem anymore." "That would be an obvious plus," Rapids agreed. "Yup." I leaned in closer and examined the back. "There doesn't appear to be any kind of clasp, and there's no way we're just pulling it off of her head." I pointed at Rapids. "Hey, can you get me a pair of scissors or a knife? In fact, let's try both." "Got it." Rapids hopped up and ran upstairs, returning a few minutes later with a bread knife and the scissors. "Cool." I took the scissors and slid one of the blades behind the necklace, putting the strap between the blades. I snapped the scissors shut, but they stopped on the strap. I frowned and began squeezing the handles harder. The strap didn't give an inch. I took the scissors off and growled when I saw that my efforts didn't even leave a tiny tear. Darn. "Did you accidentally get safety scissors, Princess Antares?" Blaze asked. "Oh shove it," I grumbled, picking up the knife and trying that. I pulled the strap of the necklace tight so that I had a portion as far away from her neck as I could. I took the knife and began sawing away at the strap. Same thing as before. Not even a little tear. "Okay, so this thing is on magically. Good to know. "Ur noh una ge i off ike ah," the siren said. Ah our guest awakes! I tore off the tape, took our the rag and moved so that I stood in front of her. Care to repeat?" "I said, you're not going to get it off like that," she replied smiling smugly at me. "I don't think you're going to get it off at all." "Doesn't look that way for the moment," I admitted, taking a nearby chair and sitting across from her. "So, you're one of the big bad sirens I've been hearing so much about." "And you're one of the Equestrians that we sensed coming into this world." She tilted her head. "And leaving, I guess. We were close enough that we sensed whenever you came and went, but we didn't know where you were until you left the first time. Then we tracked you to the school." Ah, so that explains what they were doing there in the first place. "You must be really powerful if you interacting with some magical artifact on the school ground attracted our attention." She got a hungry look in her eyes. "You would not believe how delicious your magical signature was. Just a taste of the magic you sent out was... intoxicating." "Yeah, well, that's what I get for being an alicorn then, I guess." The siren's eyes went wide, and I smirked at her. "I'm Princess Antares. I rule Equestria alongside Celestia and Luna. And you are?" "Aria Blaze." "Ooh, good name," Blaze said. Aria rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to me. "So I take it you came back to this world looking for us? I guess emotional magic eaters like us would have attracted some attention." Her expression turned thoughtful and she tilted her head. "So where's the portal? There wasn't exactly a high school there when we got shoved into the world the first time." "Now that would be telling," I said, waggling a finger at her. She shrugged as best she could while taped to the chair. "Had to try, I guess." She huffed and grimaced. "So what, then? You just going to keep me here forever until you can figure out how to get my gem off? Or maybe you're going to take me back to Equestria and figure things out from there?" "That would also be telling." Not to mention I hadn't completely figured out the next step just yet. Maybe I could get Sunset's copy of the telephone book and ask for Celestia's advice. It wouldn't be the worst first step, at any rate. "And before you get any bright ideas about me telling you our plans, I think that would be equally dumb of me." Aria grimaced. "I'm not Sonata." "She's not the brightest bulb, I'll agree with that." I smiled at her. "As for what happens now, we have as long as we need to get the plans out of you." "You into torture and kidnapping?" "No, no, nothing so gauche. I'd never." Before I could say anything else, my cellphone buzzed in my pocket. I stood up and took it out, taking a brief moment to gag Aria again. "Hold that thought." I unlocked the phone and saw another text notification. One from Pinkie Pie again. If this was just another "hi, how are you" texts I'd need to explain to Pinkie what this number was really for. We think we found one of the Sirens lurking around the school. One just passed by the music room. Ooh, that's good. I pulled up the keypad and typed out a response. Keep an eye on her. We're on our way. "Alrighty, then, Ms. Blaze, we're going to head on out for a little bit. We might have a friend for you when we get back. Maybe it's Sonata. Maybe if we get her over here, we can keep her with you. As long as she doesn't start singing, we might not even need to tape her mouth. I'll just let her talk to you as long as she wants." Aria's eye twitched, which caused me to chuckle. "We'll see you soon. Rapids? You're on guard duty until we get back. You seem to have a way with her, or something." "I do. I really do." "Alright, Blaze..." I checked my pocket to make sure I still had my keys. "Let's go get another one."