August 15, 7:30 PM: Stand or Fall
As she carefully opened her eyes, Applejack’s head felt like it was a temporary replacement for the Interstate. Her vision was blurry, and there was a deep WHUP WHUP WHUP that filled the air. The ground felt jerky and unsteady, as if it were floating, somehow.
“Looks like one of them is coming to,” a voice said in the background, and Applejack felt herself being pulled up from the ground, before water was splashed in her face. That sensation didn’t last long before she was brought face-to-face – in a sense – with a woman wearing a ski mask and carrying a military rifle.
“Congratulations!” the woman said in a rough voice. “By dint of being the first one up, you’re now the speaker for your little group. And if you’re not, tough shit; you are now. Behave yourselves and don’t get your panties in a bunch, and everything will be fine.”
“And if not?” Applejack asked and discovered the answer immediately: the woman butted the blonde in the stomach with the stock of her rifle. Applejack would’ve collapsed if she wasn’t being held up by a second person whose face she hadn’t seen either. Still, the pain was more than she was used to, and being a martial artist, she was used to a lot.
The woman pulled Applejack’s face up to hers and snarled, “Ask again and next time I won’t be nice. So, now that I have your attention, this is the plan: you spoiled little cunts are going to sit at the back of the helo and do nothing – no talking, no sending signals, no eating each other out or whatever you do. Not one damn thing, am I clear?” Applejack nodded, unsure of what else she could say. The soldier looked at her counterpart and ordered, “Get this little whore out of my face.” The soldier complied, roughly throwing her quarry on top of the other girls.
The impact made the rest of them start to stir, and Applejack scrambled off them, ready to tell them all the truth: they were on a helicopter, headed away from the resort and kidnapped for unknown reasons. Worse, it meant there was no chance of finding or rescuing Sunset. Applejack didn’t know what was going on at all, but she knew this much: protecting her friends now took priority…
…even if it cost Sunset her life.
“How much time do we have left until we get to Canterlot?” Adagio asked.
“We’re approaching Salinas, so probably another three hours,” Sonata called from the backseat of the stolen car.
“Hey, I’m kinda surprised we made it this far this fast,” Aria added. “At the speed we’re going, we should have half the state’s law enforcement agencies behind us!”
Adagio looked to her side. “I guess you have something to do with that?”
Adjusting shades she’d just summoned a few seconds prior, a grin came over Sunset’s face. “Same reason why we haven’t run out of gas yet – it’s pretty much all I can do until I fully charge my magic again. Otherwise I’d just teleport us back to Canterlot.”
Sonata gasped. “Wait – you can teleport?”
“Yup! It’s a somewhat advanced spell, but yeah, I can do it and bring people along.”
Sonata practically did some teleporting of her own, moving fast enough that in a blink of an eye she moved from her seat to practically hugging Sunset’s. “Teach me, sensei!” the ponytailed girl cried.
“Soni, this is the part where I remind you we’re Chinese, not Japanese,” Aria said with a grin.
“Whatever! I need her power!”
“Soni, it really doesn’t work like that,” Sunset told her friend. “I’m still trying to figure out if humans have magi—”
“I thought you said the others had magic! TEACH ME!”
Sunset sighed. “Ari?”
“Yeah?”
“You know that shirt you kept wanting to borrow?”
“Yeah?”
“You can have it if you get your sister off my case.”
“On it.”
Adagio barked out a laugh and said, “You know, this is almost like old times.”
“How so?” Sonata asked from the headlock her older sister had her in.
“All the times we wanted to have a normal life, and just hanging with friends. It’s sad that we had to get to this point to understand what one was like.” Adagio looked over at Sunset. “I guess you have a little expertise with that?”
Sunset groaned. “Can we get this thing to go any faster?”
“I’ve got it redlined already, Sunny. There’s not much more that I can—” A light came on the dashboard, and the eldest triplet frowned. “Great, just fucking great. I don’t suppose you know how to put oil in this thing.”
“Not a clue. Soni?”
“Maybe if someone would let me out of the headlock!” the youngest SIREN yelped.
Aria grinned. “And for that, someone’s getting noogies!” she said, flexing her other hand.
“Gah! Dagi, stop her, will you?”
“Ari,” Adagio ordered, “let Soni go.”
The middle triplet huffed. “Spoilsport,” she said in a mock-annoyed tone, but she did as ordered.
“Okay, pull us over,” Sonata told her sister. “I have a bad feeling about this, but pull over, just in case.” Catching her sister’s point, Adagio shifted the car over towards the side of the road, where she could pull over safely. Once she’d done so, Sonata leapt out of the car, a concerned look on her face as she shimmied her way underneath the car. A few seconds later, she came back out. “Yeah, we’re screwed,” she sighed. “Just as I expected, the car is a mid-engine build. That means it’s going to be hella complex to get any motor oil in it, plus we have to get the right formulation.”
“I guess that means it’s a no-go for this thing anymore,” Adagio sighed. “And I was just enjoying redlining this thing.” She turned back to Sunset. “Any way you can hocus-pocus us another set of wheels?”
“Look, magic doesn’t work like that. I need to know the intricacies of whatever it is I’m creating out of air. Otherwise you’ll end up with an empty shell of a car that can’t go anywhere. As much as I hate to say it, we’re going to have to find another way of getting there.”
“Maybe steal another car?” Aria suggested.
Sunset frowned. “Look, I really don’t like that idea. Yeah, granted we needed this one to get out of the area and to get us to where we are now, but that was circumstances. Now you’re asking me to give you sanction to steal a car from someone who might need it. I’m not comfortable with that idea at all.”
“But the girls need us,” Adagio countered. “Given the circumstances, what’s more important, protecting our moral dignity or saving the others? I get what you’re saying, Sunny, really, I do. But this is the sort of thing that we’re trained for, both the good and the bad – and right now, things are very, very bad.”
Sunset was about to say something when Aria got her attention. “Hey, look over there!” the middle triplet pointed to the distance. On the other side of a fence and across a street after that, was a car dealership. The lot was darkened, and there were few cars, all recent models, in the lot. The neon sign, darkened, read LUCKY CHANCE’S HONDA/ACURA, and by all discernable means the business was no longer in operation.
“Up for stealing from that?” Sonata asked.
The answer never came, as Sunset closed her eyes and teleported the trio from where the other car was to just outside of the car dealership’s front doors. She sat down again. “I’m draining a lot of my magic right now, you know,” she explained.
“I thought you were going to recover?” Sonata asked.
“That was my plan, but teleporting us over here and throwing a stealth field over us—”
“We’re invisible?”
Sunset tried not to facepalm. “That’s not possible, Soni, and you know that. No, what a stealth field spell does is make you be ‘ignorable’, for lack of a better term. Unless you do something outrageous to draw attention to yourself, no one’s going to think anything of you at all.”
“Well that’s not really stealthy,” Adagio countered.
“Well, I like the name better than what it’s called back in Equestria – the ‘Background Pony’ spell.”
Adagio thought about it for a second. “You do have a point. Okay, so now here’s the plan: Soni, see if you can either disable or loop the security systems.”
“On it,” she said, heading to look for where the telephone and cable connections for the building were.
“Ari, check for security guards and if there are any, take them out quickly.” A pause. “And painlessly,” Adagio amended.
“Look, I wasn’t going to kill them or anything,” the middle triplet replied. “Sunny would never let me hear the end of it if I did.”
“You’re damn right I wouldn’t,” the flame-haired girl growled, to which Aria gave a grin before heading off.
Finished giving orders, Adagio then looked at the one she considered in charge. “Any ideas?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah. Can you get us into their computer systems?”
“Well, that’s more along Sonata’s skillset, but I’m sure I can figure a few things out, why?”
Sunset gave her friend a huge smile. “Well, if we’re going to steal a car, the best kind of stealing goes on paper – I’m an old hand at that.”
Based on the information he could get, Sable made his way towards what was the enemy headquarters. He had to admit, it was the perfect place to hide: between the warehouses that had been destroyed during the hurricane (an obvious location) and the part that had made the news about a shootout in the Everfree (probably their bolthole), he’d taken the time to look over the information that he’d obtained from earlier.
Still, it was a little hard to comprehend.
Still can’t believe they’re real, he thought as he focused binoculars on the worksite from the top of one of the nearby office buildings. SIREN is supposed to be as much of a myth as Canadians being warlike. Next thing, I’ll find out GI Joe was based on a real unit. That he was looking at a bunch of heavily-armed girls was bad enough, but the fact that there were more than enough to put a stop to him was chilling. But it had been the unit patch that he was able to look at through the scope, along with a memory from his military days, that made him think twice. That, alongside the maps and other items the woman he’d killed earlier sealed the deal on the whole thing.
Still, with the number of people they have out on the perimeter just watching, it’s only a matter of time before I’m spotted. Better move locations. He then noticed a small park to the west of the facility. That’s probably better; while I don’t doubt they have people in that place, they’d be too exposed so they’ll have to be more circumspect. Heading towards the stairs, he knew he didn’t have a lot of time. The sun was going to set soon, and once darkness came, he’d have to formulate a plan.
He rushed down the stairs as quickly as he could, hoping the building’s security guards wouldn’t notice. The last thing he needed was to be questioned by the guards, especially since being this close to the enemy, he didn’t know if they were on their payroll or not; the irony of him being caught in his ACUs while the actual “camouflage nutcases” were meters away would be galling. Fortunately, he got down the last flight of stairs and made his way out of the building.
A few minutes of thankfully unimpeded movement, and he found himself in Carnival Faire Memorial Plaza. One of the various miniature parks in town, it wasn’t much to look at and certainly nothing in size compared to Three Heroes Park or even some of the other smaller parks in town. But for its size, it was both slightly hilly and had a number of trees on the property. He immediately climbed up one, making sure to get a position where he could see as much as possible while having enough foliage to prevent himself from being seen. It wasn’t easy and he’d climbed higher than he preferred, but he was able to maneuver into a position of usefulness.
It was then that he saw someone slowly stagger up towards the tree. The man moved woozily, almost as if he were drunk, until Sable noticed the bleeding, badly-patched up job the man had done on his leg. Sable knew field dressing when he saw it, and despite the man’s condition, his field dressing was indicative of someone who was very familiar with it. That alone was worrisome. From this angle, Sable also noted that the man had a stone cold look on his face. He might be here for the same reason, but with an attitude like that, it was going to get him dead.
How many people did Blackthorn intend to screw over? Sable mused. If this guy had his girl taken as well, or worse, a wife and kids, that would do a guy in, especially one that seemed to have already been in a gunfight. But as good as this guy might or might not be, the SIRENs had the numbers, which meant it was time to do things the stealthy way, not blast down the door and kick in some heads.
The only question now was, bail him out or not? If the guy could be of use, Sable could patch him up and then he’d have someone to work with to take down the SIRENs. Of course, if this guy was just a nutcase with a gun thinking he was the reincarnation of Duke Searcher, it would be another story. That was the kind of guy that would think he was in a remake of Die Hard and of course Hollywood didn’t square with reality. Worse, if it came to a point where their goals would diverge, there was no guarantee he would be logical about the whole damn thing. Sable was having a hard time trying to keep it cool while he knew Tia and Luna were in trouble; he couldn’t count on another person doing the same thing.
It was at that point, that a pair of CPD officers approached the man and, not surprisingly, drew their guns on him. Yeah, just what I thought, Sable mused at first, until he noticed something was definitely off. For starters, the two officers had long hair, which was probably not regulation in any way, shape or form. Additionally, one of the guns that one of the officers was carrying was a MAC-11, which was definitely not regulation in any way, shape or form. The two had to be SIRENs in disguise, which probably meant the guy below was on the up and up.
And just like that, one of them just had to look up. Sable sighed and muttered, “Aw, hell,” and immediately pulled the trigger, cutting down the officer. He leapt down from the tree, on top of the second one and cracked her head against the ground. The man finally reacted, pulling his gun on him, and for a moment Sable thought his life would flash before his eyes.
Then a gun cracked and he and the man turned towards the sound. A third woman, dressed in police attire, fell to the ground, dead. As Sable and the other man stared in surprise, a new voice called out, “Wow, and here I thought you would’ve seen her. You’ve really lost your edge, Sergeant.” The two men turned to look and see another woman standing there, holding a P-90. “Now, c’mon, we’ve got to get your friend out of here before he bleeds out and before those bitches notice that we just took out one of their patrols.”
Sable looked at her. “Have we met?”
“Yes, and look, we really don’t have time for this. You two can either come, or get shot in the head when the SIRENs notice. Your choice.”
Finally the bleeding man looked at her and, dropping his gun, pitched forward. Sable caught him. “Okay, I’ll take my chances. Again, who are you?”
Madrigal Storm looked at both men and smiled. “I’m the SIREN saving your asses before those turncoats kill you. So let’s get going and get your buddy patched up.”
The brand-new Acura NSX rushed out of the parking lot, rocketing down the street and headed towards the Interstate offramp. The car moved with a certain purpose, a don’t screw with me rumble of the engine that seemed to ward everything out of its way, including a police cruiser. And as it hit the onramp, the engines sang and the car roared, going from a pedestrian 40 miles per hour straight to 100 in a hair over a second.
“THIS. FUCKING. ROCKS!” Sonata shouted as she flawlessly steered through the traffic as if the other cars were stock still, mere obstacles on a course that the youngest triplet knew she could navigate with her eyes closed.
That didn’t help her terrified sister in the passenger’s seat. “Soni, slow the fuck down!” Aria yelped.
“Are you kidding? I told you I should’ve been the one driving! I’m the one who had strategic driving training!” Sonata insisted, her eyes off the road and looking at her sister.
“Soni, eyes forward!” Aria told her. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
“Not yet!” her younger sister chirped. “Gotta be the Master of Going Faster!”
“The what?”
“DAAAAAAAYYYYYYTTTTTOOOOOOOOONNNNAAAAAAAA!” Sonata sang at the top of her lungs as she redlined the engine and pushed the car towards its maximum speed of 200mph.
“I think I’m going to hurl,” Aria groaned.
In the back seat, Sunset sat with her eyes closed, while Adagio looked at her curiously. “What are you doing?”
A smile crept up over the other girl’s face. “Creating a buffer zone for Pole Position up there,” she nodded with her chin. “Any car that’s within a mile of us…the driver is going to have the sudden need to get off the freeway. I’m not filling in the blanks, just planting a suggestion.”
“That sounds useful,” Adagio noted.
“It is…and I don’t like using it. I used to use it whenever I could in the bad old days and while it’s not exactly black magic, it’s still unethical when used improperly.”
“I don’t see how you’re using it improperly, Sunny. They have a choice: take the suggestion you’ve given them, or risk having two tons of aircraft-grade aluminum hit them at about an eighth the speed of a bullet. It’s not going to be pretty.”
“There’s another reason I don’t like using it: keeping it up like this is going to drain a significant amount of the magic I’ve been trying to recoup. If I have to actually go in magic blazing, I may be at a significant disadvantage.”
“Against who? Zeus? Gandalf? Amelia Grund?”
“Against whoever created those monsters – and if your fellow SIRENs are being turned into them, that means someone has a talent for amnimorphy, and that’s not good.”
“Amniomorphy?”
“Yes. It’s the transformation of living creatures. Think of it this way: transformation has two branches of study: transfiguration, which is the changing of inanimate objects, like when I was turning the air in the other car into gas; and amniomorphy, which is the changing of living things. That, needless to say, is a dangerous study and can easily lead to black magic.”
“Well, you’d know a lot more than I do, so I can’t help you there. I’m guessing amniomorphy takes up a significant amount of power?”
“Yes, even more so to keep that spell in place. When you do that, you’re breaking laws of thermodynamics and physics. That’s what magic is, at least here on Earth: a way around the natural laws of reality, and if you want to keep it that way, you need a lot of power, because nature abhors a vacuum.” Sunset smiled again. “Now back where I’m from, the natural laws are a little different and complement magic more. But in reality that is near-magically dead like this one? Oh yeah you need to come packing mystical heat.”
Now it was Adagio’s turn to smile, even if Sunset couldn’t see it. “You make it sound as if magic is girding for battle.”
“Maybe in a sense it is, at least metaphorically,” Sunset told her. “And because I need to save the ones I care about? It’s definitely going to be a battle.”
“So it’s time to do the bullet mambo?” Sonata shouted from the driver’s seat.
“What was that?” Adagio asked.
“How the hell should I know?” Aria retorted. “I’m busy trying not to get PTSD just by being in the front seat here!”
“It’s from one of my favorite comic books, Sombrero Bob,” Sonata explained.
“Wait, when do you have time to read comics?” Aria asked her sister.
“I am a girl of many talents, sis. And anyway, whenever the hero, Sombrero Bob, gets ready to face off against his vile archnemesis Univof Neb’r, he whips out his pistols and shouts, ‘It’s time to do the bullet mambo!’”
“I cannot believe this shit,” Aria groaned.
It had been a while since she checked on her charges, Cantata had told herself. Between the plans for tonight’s attack and the ritual, she wasn’t sure what the Black Trio were up to. Nonetheless, she had to make sure the little shits were still alive, so….
Down into the vault she went. It was no longer guarded; there was no reason to do so. Even still, Cantata felt a twinge of sorrow over Piano’s death. Piano had been her sœur, and it had been Cantata’s duty to look after her. Now she was gone and though she served the cause, the SIREN commander had to wonder if there had been any way to save the young girl.
Cantata stopped, took a breath then went in. She would honor Piano by conquering the world and erecting a statue to her in her memory. That would be the finest way to memorialize the existence of a girl who had given everything for the cause.
Just as the three that were now before her in the cage had. In their case, however, Cantata wasn’t sure whether the best thing to do with them would be to keep them on a very tight leash…or put a bullet in their skull.
As she approached Medley, she could smell sweat and musk. The sweat was understandable. The musk, well….
A hand, covered in scales rushed out and Cantata barely dodged in time. She looked into the cage and two reptilian eyes stared back at her through limp hair.
“MATE WITH ME!” the voice burbled with unnatural tones. “I WANT BABIES FOR MY CLUTCH! FUCK ME NOW!!!!”
Disturbed, Cantata walked towards the second cage, withdrawing her sidearm. As she approached Canzione’s cage, she could smell rotting meat and as she got closer, she could see the bars had been gnawed on. Looking into the cage, she turned and threw up, seeing the remains of….
“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your head right now, Seaman Burst,” Cantata intoned.
“Because you need us.”
Cantata turned to look at the third cage, where Contralto sat, very much like a caged animal that would strike at any moment. “You need us to murder and maim, destroy and rend, to commit barbarous acts and atrocities you don’t have the stomach to do, because you’re nothing but a human.” She then smiled. “But we three don’t have that problem…and soon there will be more of us.”
“No there won’t,” Cantata told her. “I’ve already asked Divine to look into a reagent that will counteract whatever is happening to you three. There’s nothing I can do for you, but I will ensure the rest of the Sisterhood remains under my control.”
Contralto laughed, a guttural, hissing sound. “Oh, no, I’m not talking about the SIRENs, Cantata. I’m talking about us. I don’t think we’re human anymore. And furthermore, I don’t think Medley is female anymore.” Cantata’s eyes opened at that and Contralto chuckled. “When this is over, Canzy and I will take Medley as a mate and further our new…well, whatever we are. You’ll end up with a new army.” The girl’s eyes narrowed. “Or I will be queen of my new species, and you will have a new problem.”
“Then why shouldn’t I kill you now?”
“Because I can sense the threat, can’t you? Something powerful is coming, Cantata. Something you, or maybe even Divine, can’t control; a power that you cannot hope to counter easily. Whatever it is, you’d better hope you defeat it, or we will be free. And I will be a queen mother and this world will be our feeding ground.”
“No, you won’t.”
“You won’t kill us, Cantata – we’re too valuable for your needs. But soon,” Contralto laughed, “you won’t be able to.”
Cantata departed the room, hearing nothing more than Contralto’s laughter, Canzione’s mastication and Medley’s oddly seductive, “You’re going to love me….”
“There,” Evergreen said when she was done. “He’s going to have a limp once it heals – there’s no way around that – but he’ll live. It was close, too: that bullet that tore through him nearly hit the artery.” She took off her gloves and gear, wiping her brow. “Just let him sleep for a few hours, and then we’ll get him medicated. Good thing he’s on our side.”
Sable looked at the four women in the room. “I don’t even know what side this is,” he said warily.
Vesper sighed and looked at her sister. “We don’t have time for this shit.”
“No,” Intermezzo agreed. “We don’t. Look, Sergeant, either you can get with the program, or you can get out of here. I have no idea why you’re idiotic enough to try to storm the base by yourself – you didn’t strike me as that much of a moron when we first met.”
Sable looked again at the woman. “I’m sorry, I don’t recognize you.”
“Because I have all of my clothes on,” she admitted. His eyes widened and she laughed. “Oh, c’mon, you know I didn’t mean it that way. Remember the USO tour that invited the International Bikini Team? I was Canada.” She then smiled and added, “I was also the one that put a bullet in the head of the local warlord, too. You know the one in Spin Boldak who thought he was God’s gift to women that were tied up and drugged?”
“Yeah and as I recall, he died suddenly and the remaining members of his troops were more than willing to work with our forces afterwards.”
In response, Intermezzo put her hands together as if they were bound, then pulled them apart. “Apparently he didn’t like women who could get out of knots. He also developed a bad case of multiple inexplicable stab wounds, bashed-in head and a bullet at the base of the spine.”
Sable shook his head in disbelief. “Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem.”
“And we’re about to have other problems now. And that’s why I need the Wolf of Kabul on our side.”
“Again, whose side are we talking?” Sable asked, and the four SIRENs present began to explain everything that was going on, the changes and black magic, and Cantata and Divine’s dreams of worldwide domination. Finally they explained that they were the ones who drew the line and had to stop their own for the sake of the world.
“You do know how ridiculous this sounds, right?” Sable asked them as soon as they were done.
“Look,” Vesper said as she checked an M-4 and handed it to him, “you can believe us or not. But you were clearly there, and you were there for a reason. Now, none of us here care about that reason as much as you don’t care about ours, but at the end of the day there are bad guys that need to be killed and we’re not the bad guys. So, are you going to help us, or are you going to break into that place along with this lunatic—” she said, pointing to Zephyr, “—and probably get yourselves killed in the process?”
Sable looked at the unconscious man on the table. “Oh, he’s not with me. That murderhobo? I have no idea who he is. None whatsoever.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure he’s not a SIREN,” Evergreen told them. “He’s very male.”
“But if he was there, then that means that he was up to something as well,” Intermezzo replied. “Maybe we should drag him into this?”
“Maybe if you tell him the deal, he might just listen.” Everyone present looked at him, as he sat up. “Nice patch up job. You must’ve been the unit medic,” he said to Evergreen.
“How? You were unconscious!” the girl replied.
“Not really, just controlled breathing,” he told her. “If you’re playing attention, you can learn a few things here and there.” He then looked at the rest of them. “Well, I know you four are SIRENs….” he said, his gaze drifting to the only other man in the room. “But I have no idea who you are.”
“He’s the Wolf of Kabul,” Vesper said, as if that explained everything.
“Which means a whole lot of jack shit to me, because I don’t play videogames,” Zephyr replied. “Look, I know who you are, and I get what you’re doing. But we’re going to need something more than four SIRENs and some yee-haw motherfucker who learned how to shoot Daddy’s gun on the range.”
“And your excuse is?” Sable told him.
“Kid, you really don’t want to piss me off right now,” Zephyr warned, “not unless you want to eat that pistol. You might look like you spent some time in the gym, but unless you have something that can actually impress me, do yourself a favor and let the real experts handle this?”
“I could say the same about you,” Sable replied tersely, “and if you call me kid again, I’ll just have to whip your ass, Grandpa.”
The older man glared at the younger. “Hope you enjoyed having your teeth, because you’re not going to have them much longer.”
Vesper immediately stepped in between the two. “Look, as much as I would just love to watch you two testosterone-laden idiots tear each other apart, our older sister and our best friend were both murdered by our former organization. So, one of you we know can fight, because we saw him in action in Afghanistan.” She then turned to Zephyr. “You, however, we know nothing about. So unless you want us to consider you some joe schmoe who thinks he’s in an action flick, spill.”
“Surprised you didn’t check me earlier.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge. “Agent Zephyr Breeze, US Diplomatic Security Service.” He then pulled out his wallet and withdrew a thick coin. “This also speaks for me,” he said, handing it to her.
Vesper took the coin in hand. “This real?”
“Earned it with my blood, sweat and tears.”
She threw it back at him, then looked at Sable. “Sergeant, as a Ranger, you’re probably the least qualified in the room.”
“What?”
Vesper pointed at Zephyr. “He’s Delta.” The moment the SIREN spoke those words, Sable looked at the man with surprise and a bit of awe.
Meanwhile, Zephyr looked back at him. “Ranger, huh? Not bad.” He then turned to Vesper. “I think introductions are order. As I said before, I’m with the DSS, and prior to that, I was with Delta.”
“I’m Sublt. Vesper Blue, and this is my sister, Lt. Intermezzo Blue. The two there are respectively Petty Officers 2nd Class Sunny Side and Evergreen Pine. We additionally have three seamen who are back enroute – they had to rescue someone who is being targeted by our former CO for some reason.”
Sable spoke up last. “And I’m Sable Loam. I’m a teacher at the local Alternative School…you know, where all the hardcases go. Came in handy, given that I used to be a Ranger.”
“Busting some chops I take it?” Zephyr said with a grin.
“Almost literally busting heads,” Sable admitted. “Some of those kids are lucky they’re in the Blanks and not in lockup.”
Intermezzo spoke up. “Look, let’s be honest here: we probably all have different reasons for hitting our old headquarters, but we want the same thing: for the SIRENs to be stopped. Now, what I’m going to show you is live: it comes from one of our seaman’s sniper cams. None of this is faked; believe me, what we’re up against is bad enough without having to doctor any shit.” She then went over to a laptop and tapped in some commands and brought up Aria’s camera footage from that day.
The look on the faces of the two men went from feigned interest to mild surprise and led all the way to outright shock. “This isn’t some Hollywood shit?” Zephyr was the first to say.
Sable leaned closer. “As much as I have to admit it, it doesn’t look it. This is from an ATN X-Sight, right?”
Side looked at him, impressed. “Wow, you really know your sights.” She went over to the table and picked up the scope in question. “Original footage is still on this thing and if you know these scopes, then you know they can’t be easily cracked and you can’t upload to them.”
Zephyr, however was still skeptical. “Doesn’t mean the camera can’t lie. It only sees what it sees…or what you want it to see.”
“Yes, because while we have time to prosecute our own little civil war against the Sisterhood, we decided to take time out to make our own little horror movie. And then we’ll go have it shown at some film festival. Bravo Zulu – you figured it out,” Vesper snarked caustically.
He shrugged. “Hey, I’m a federal bodyguard and cop. Don’t expect me to not do my job, okay? As it is, I’ve already decided to thrown in with your little coffee klatch even though it’s going to cost me my job.”
“And why’s that?” Evergreen asked.
“Because they took…well, it doesn’t matter who they took. What matters is that I want what they took back alive and unharmed, and if they don’t, I will have to end a few careers the hard way.”
“And you?” Side asked Sable.
“They took my girl and her sister, and I suspect because I didn’t throw in with those ALICORN assholes while they were in town.”
“ALICORN? The merc group?” Zephyr interrupted and Sable nodded. “What, is this town a fucking magnet for stupid shit?”
“I doubt that’s the case,” Vesper told him. “ALICORN was contracted by CSIS to take us out. I don’t know if it was because we went rogue in the first place – and that’s a long story for another time – or because they found out what Prince Divine and Cantata were up to, not that I’m sure anyone would believe that.”
“Well, I don’t gotta believe, I just gotta shoot, right?” Zephyr shrugged. “Got any gear I can borrow?”
“Yeah, if we’re going to do this, we gotta start planning,” Sable added. “When do you want to get started?”
“As soon as the last three join us,” Intermezzo said. “That way we’ll have a fighting chance.”
The helicopter landed, and weapons were drawn. “All right you little barely legal bitches,” one of the masked soldiers said, “get out.” Seven girls stepped out of the helicopter, and one fell to the ground, sobbing.
There was the click of the gun. “Get up, you little cunt. I’m not going to ask twice.” Blue eyes looked up in terror as Fluttershy tried to hide behind her hair, but it did no good as a second later, a steel-toed boot sent straight to the chiffon-haired teen’s head, making her scream.
“FLUTTERSHY!” Applejack shouted and moved to her friend’s side, looking at the woman with the gun. “Touch her again and Ah will kill you,” the blonde threatened.
“In case you’ve forgotten, we’re the ones with the guns,” another one cooed.
Applejack didn’t back down. “You’re not harming one hair on mah friend’s head, got that?”
“What, you think you can stop me?” the first one said.
“Stop? No.” Applejack flexed a fist, and you could hear the knuckles crack. “Hospitalize? Probably,” she seethed.
The woman got in the younger one’s face. “Listen, I get that you think you’re tough, I really do. But let’s get something straight: I have this thing called a carbine. And if you don’t shut up, I’m going to fire so many bullets into your cunt that nine months later you’ll be the mommy of a tank, got that?”
“You’re so damn lucky you have that gun, you know that?” Applejack replied, not backing off.
“AJ, I’m fine,” Fluttershy said, now more worried for her friend than herself.
“And why is that?” the SIREN asked.
“Because if you didn’t? When I finished, there wouldn’t be enough left of you to breathe out of a straw.”
“Then let’s try it,” the SIREN snarled, only to look at Fluttershy…and then suddenly feel the need to back off.
“You will do no such thing,” the formerly afraid teenage said with a voice that almost approached command authority.
“Then get them out of here,” the fireteam leader ordered, hoping they didn’t hear her throat catch. The blonde was your typical tough punk who thought a couple of boxing moves would equate to genuine skill, but there was something borderline terrifying when the chiffon-pink haired one looked at her.
With a look that said I thought so, Fluttershy grabbed her friend and moved, ignoring the cut on her scalp.
“Fluttershy, my word! Are you okay, dear?” Rarity asked, reaching for her purse for a bandage, only to find she didn’t have it.
Instead a shotgun was pumped. “You wanna fuck her? Wait until you get to your cell and then you can tongue her until she squeals.”
Rarity hmphed. “And you call yourself a lady.”
“No, I call myself a girl with a shotgun,” was the reply. “And if you open that carpet muncher one more time, I’m going to call you dead.”
“Please, Rares, not now,” Octavia asked. “I don’t….” She said nothing further, not wanting to make their horrible situation that much worse.
Rarity, however caught it. “I understand.”
“Okay, get the fuck going,” the one with the shotgun said, poking it into Twilight’s back. “Start walking or I start shooting.”
As they walked down the hallways, the girls were ordered to look at the ground. “Where are we?” Pinkie asked morosely. She was already worried sick about Sunset, and now with her possibly being kajillions of miles away from her love – or worse, said love’s corpse…well, it did her morale no favors.
“I said no talking!” one of the soldiers ordered.
Rainbow and Applejack looked at one another, then at the rest, then gave each other the it was nice knowing you look. In that moment, both decided they would turn and attack and give the others a chance to escape, even if it meant their lives. Someone had to get away and tell the authorities what was going on and someone had to make sure Pinkie, Octavia or Twilight lived long enough to let Twilight’s parents know what happened to Sunset. Someone had to live long enough to find out if Sunset herself had survived.
And if I go, it’ll be hard on my parents, but I have to save my friends, Applejack thought.
And I know it’s gonna break my family’s hearts, but I gotta make sure my friends see tomorrow! Rainbow vowed.
Both prepared to move….
And then one guard said to the other casually, “Hey remember the last group of prisoners that we had down here? The one where one or two of them thought they’d try to overpower us while the rest got away?”
Her fellow soldier replied, “Oh yeah – that was the one where we brutally murdered the others in front of the other two before we slit their throats, right? Good times.”
Applejack and Rainbow worriedly glanced at one another. They could deal with sacrificing themselves for their friends, but not to get them killed.
The group walked down the hallway, and towards stairs then through them, three stories down. Down this far, there was almost no lighting and the air smelled dank and fetid, as if they’d slowly begun to migrated into the bowels of hell itself.
“Hope not ever to see Heaven,” Twilight said, trying to focus on something other than her fear and worry. “I have come to lead you to the other shore; into eternal darkness; into fire and ice.”
“Alighieri?” Pinkie voiced.
“Yes, I—”
“I still hate you right now,” Pinkie admitted. “But…I promised Sunny and Tavi that I would look out for you, and I intend to keep that promise.”
“Thanks, Pinkie.”
The girls watched with terror as a sudden dot of red light appeared on Twilight’s chest and crept up until it rested between her eyes.
“That’s the last time I’m going to tell you to shut the fuck up, cunts. Keep your gashlickers shut or we’ll permanently open you.” The septet finally fell silent, save for guarded looks at one another, until they reached the door. Once they did, the lead SIREN grabbed Octavia and held a knife to her throat. “Now, just so you idiots don’t get any ideas, either you get in there or I spill this slit’s blood on the ground.”
Octavia’s eyes were frenetically wild as she tried not to panic. The tears, already in her eyes, started to roll down her cheeks unabashedly as she whimpered.
“TAVI!” Twilight screamed, instinctively reaching for her cousin, only to be riflebutted across the chin.
“Pick her up and put her in the room,” the SIREN ordered Octavia, letting her go. The raven-haired girl tried picking her unconscious cousin up, and Fluttershy immediately moved to her side.
“Thanks,” Octavia mumbled.
“We’re all friends here,” Fluttershy told her, “and besides, we’re all afraid right now.”
“You know what? I’ve had enough of this shit!” one of the SIRENs said. She grabbed Rarity by the hair and unceremoniously threw her through the hole, Rarity’s shrieks sounding until it vanished in the distance. The girls looked in horror, as Fluttershy was wrenched away from Twilight and Octavia, grabbed by the shirt and tossed through the hole; there was a rip and the gunwoman dropped a bit of cloth. “Eh, her fault for not wearing a bra.” She then turned to the others and drew her gun. “You have a choice. You can go in peacefully, or I can hurt you as you go down. And believe me, I would love nothing more.”
One of the SIRENs reached towards the unconscious Twilight. “Well, this bitch doesn’t get a choice.” She moved to grab Twilight…
…only to have Octavia wrench her cousin back. “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER, YOU GODDAMN BITCH!” the teen screamed, murder in her eyes.
“Hey, looks like we’ve got a live one!” the SIREN said.
“Yeah, and looks like we’re about to have a dead one,” her counterpart said, raising her rifle.
Seeing Octavia in trouble, Rainbow immediately moved and tackled her, pushing her through the hole as the round went off. The round burned through Rainbow’s hair as both went through the gaping maw, into the distance. Not waiting, Pinkie and Applejack immediately grabbed Twilight and leapt through the hole, leaving the pair alone.
“Fuck, missed that little cunt!” one snarled.
“Eh, they’ll be dead soon enough, so don’t worry,” the other said as she shut the door and moved on.
Applejack turned and crashed on the ground, making sure to shield Twilight so she wouldn’t be worse off. Of course, that didn’t help Applejack as she smashed her head against a rock, drawing blood. Her vision swam, but she focused on Twilight and found she was safe, thankfully. Even with the blonde mad at her earlier, it all melted away compared to what was happening to them.
She heard a soft thump and then a flicker of light. It was Pinkie. “You okay?” she asked worriedly.
“Yeah,” Applejack grunted, trying to get back to her feet. “What about you? And where’d you get the lighter?”
“It was a short enough fall that I was able to twist and land on my feet – I am a cheerleader,” Pinkie reminded her. “And I always have a lighter in case of lighter emergencies, you know that.”
“Not even gonna ask, sugarcube,” Applejack said as she picked up Twilight. “Where are the other—AAAAH!” she suddenly yelped as she was grabbed.
“Are you okay? Applejack, you’re bleeding!” The blonde turned to look at the worried face of Twilight Velvet, motherly in her concern and looking very much the worse for wear.
“Mrs. V? What are you doing here?”
“Here, let me take her,” Celestia said as she approached. She took the still-out Twilight from her student, and looked at her closely in the dim light. “Applejack, you’ve been injured. Let Velvet look at that.”
Pinkie looked at her principal. “Ms. Celestia, where are the other girls?”
“They’re over with my sister and the others,” the educator explained, looking around the dark tunnel they were in. “From what we can tell, this is from the failed TransCity project. They were trying to build an underground high-speed rail between here and the Colton/Chico area. But this happened during the late 90s when CanterTransit went bankrupt, so they abandoned the project.”
“I remember that,” Velvet mused as Pinkie passed over her overshirt and Velvet began tearing it into makeshift bandages. “They touted it as Canterlot’s answer to the Japanese bullet train, something that neither San Fran nor LA had…and then it all went under.” The matron sighed. “Tia, were we ever that young?”
“I wish I could answer that,” Celestia told her friend. “But we have other concerns right now.”
The group finally arrived at their destination where to their shock, they could see the chaos. Spike sat quietly, while Octavia spoke to him to keep his attention from the growing horror. Rarity was helping Fluttershy, who had replaced out her torn shirt with a blazer supplied by Cadance, to check on Night Light and Shining Armor’s conditions. And Luna was sitting in a corner, talking to a woman that looked eerily like a short-haired version of Celestia.
None of the girls said anything, but they all wondered the same thing: was this secretly Princess Celestia, come to aid them in their time of need?
“Solaire, Lu, how are things?” Velvet asked.
“I told you everything I already know. My cousin is a murderous madman who has killed my brother and his wife and now is keeping my daughter hostage for some nefarious reason,” the woman spoke, her voice somewhere between worried out of her wits and a building rage that anyone dared put her child in danger.
Luna hugged her. “Soli, we’re with you. Whatever I can do, you know I will.”
Solaire smiled. “Thanks, Luna.” She then looked at Celestia. “You don’t know how lucky you are to have a sister, especially one as wonderful as her. I only had two older brothers growing up.”
Despite everything, Celestia smiled. “Yeah, kinda the opposite for me: one older sister, and then Luna. Though we were close to Vel’s older brother, Everblue Sky.”
As Twilight began to stir, Celestia set her down so Velvet could take care of her daughter. “Are you okay, sweetie?” Velvet asked Twilight. “Did they do anything to you?”
“M jw’s nmb,” Twilight moaned, and Velvet could see an ugly-looking bruise across Twilight’s jaw.
Her hands moving gently, she said, “Twily, honey, open your mouth. Cady, pass me that flashlight you have.” Cadance went over and flashed the light in her future sister-in-law’s mouth, while Velvet looked her over. “Looks like nothing’s broken or cracked, but you’re going to have a bruise for a while, Twily. How did you get it?”
“She was trying to protect me while they held me at knifepoint,” Octavia sobbed. “I was so terrified!”
“Twily was trying to protect you?” Cadance said, with a note of pride. “That’s usually….” Then she noticed the missing individual, and a split second later, that was when all the other adults in the know did as well.
It was Velvet that finally asked the question: “Twily…where’s your sister?”
Twilight looked at her mother and started to cry. “Ll my flt,” she sobbed. “Ll my dmn flt!”
Velvet immediately wheeled on the other teens. “Girls, where is she?”
Octavia looked at her aunt with a horrorstruck look. “Aunt Velvet….” she said softly, unable to voice her cousin’s fate.
“She’s okay!” Pinkie blurted out. “They got the rest of us and she made it out okay! She’s probably going to the authorities as we speak!” A look of relief came over Velvet’s face, while the others tried to hide their looks of horror.
“Pinkie!” Rarity hissed. “You just lied to Sunset’s mother!”
“I know.” Rarity looked at the destroyed look on her friend’s face and she immediately regretted the words. “But we need hope right now. I have to believe that she’s okay! I have to.”
Rarity hugged her, realizing the sacrifice she had just made and the fact that it was probably tearing her heart apart. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie, for what I said. Forgive me.”
Pinkie laughed. “If you want to make it up to me, when we’re out of this, I’ve got a long list of things I need you to make for me. Intimate wear, you know.”
“No—” The SIREN said nothing further as her throat was severed, her blood flowing down the channel and towards a basin at the bottom.
“This had better be worth it, Divine,” Cantata told him. “I cannot afford to have you continually kill my personnel. Sooner or later I’m going to need them to survive, and I already have most of the ones around the world here – the ones still out there cannot be compromised.”
“This is the last one. Besides, as I recall, this is one of the ones you didn’t like,” he told her lightly.
“I’ll admit that, dearest,” she told him. “Still, we can’t fight based on a single SIREN, which is what we’ll have if you keep killing them and those lunatics I locked up get their hands on them.”
“We had to give the Black Team the prototype serum; it was the best way to test it,” he explained. “Besides, I have other serums as well.” He gestured over to a table, where a captured pigeon sat in its cage, fluttering uneasily. “Do you remember when I asked you to have several of your personnel capture pigeons?”
“Yes, and I thought it was stupid. You’re telling me you actually had a method to your madness?”
He plucked a vial filled with a black liquid in it, and pulled off the stopper before pouring the contents onto the caged bird. The bird began to thrash around and blood poured from its eyes as it began an unnatural scream. Finally, the skin split open and the feathers flew off in a blast of energy, leaving smoke within.
Divine opened the cage and withdrew…something that was not natural. Still containing the head of a pigeon, its beak looked more like that of a raptor’s. The eyes were a solid blood red, and the body looked like more of a dragon. It nuzzled Divine before flying over to Cantata’s shoulder and began nuzzling her.
“What is this?” she asked.
“It is a basilisk,” he told her. “Unlike cockatrice, which are flightless, a basilisk can take to the air like a bird of prey. And it has some other admirable qualities as well.”
“Such as?”
At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and before either could grant permission, a young SIREN came into the room. “Captain,” she began, “I—”
With a shriek of fury, the basilisk launched right at the surprised SIREN, murder in its eyes. Focusing on the girl, its eyes turned gray as stone. A second later, the SIREN’s eyes also turned the color of stone, and another second later, so did the rest of her, frozen in a shocked look of gray granite. Seeing that it was done, the basilisk flew back to Cantata’s shoulder and cawed, as if asking if she was proud of it.
“What the fuck was that?” the SIREN commander demanded.
“One of its qualities,” Divine explained calmly, “is that anyone it doesn’t recognize within its aura, it regards as prey. You and I are safe, as well as any of your troops who took the serum.” He looked at the former human. “Apparently Petty Officer Arietta decided to skip out on the inoculations.”
“Can she be changed back?”
“Once your lovely pet dies, unless her statue is destroyed. Also, I should point out that basilisks are believed to live for a couple hundred years.” He knocked on the statue that used to be Arietta. “So now she’s trapped in there, seeing and knowing everything we do, but she’s not going to be free for a century or two, unless I start working on a solution. And I intend to, but not now – that will take time. Thus, I strongly suggest you make sure that your SIRENs have taken them, because I have enough pigeons to make two basilisks per troop – and I’m sure they don’t want their precious pets to turn on them, am I right?”
Cantata nodded, then scratched the basilisk under its jaw, to which it hissed playfully. “One last question: Is there anything that can stop them?” she asked, gesturing to the bird to fly over to Divine, which it did.
“Yes, the flames of a phoenix, according to legend, can kill one instantly. But you and I know those are only myth…and I certainly don’t intend to create one, so for all intents and purposes, our little flying weapons are invincible.”
As Cantata departed, Divine set his new pet on a perch he made. Creating a ball of violet flame, he summoned magic into it. “And now to make sure no one can stop my victory.” The blood raced up from the basin, becoming red, ropy lines of sinew-like swirling around in bizarre, arcane patterns, as if it were creating a Celtic knot of gore. And when he was done with his Gordian knot spell, he sent it to the center of the complex, where it would start its work.
Soon, his troops would march on the world and he would be Emperor. He would be a God and unstoppable.
Somewhere, an old blind man laughed, tears of blood leaking from eyeless sockets. “So, it begins,” he cackled, as if it was a grand joke. “So the game begins at last.”
Somewhere, watching Earth from the surface of the moon, blue eyes gazed upon the vile spell that had just started working.
“So, it begins,” she said sadly.
The red light blasted away from the SIREN stronghold, a bloody energy that filled the air. As it spread out from Canterlot, anything within its surroundings, whether directly touched by the gory luminescence or not, simply stopped, as if living statues, frozen in time. Only the immediate environs of the base were spared the Gordian spell as it began to radiate away from the city, blanketing first Canterlot, then its suburbs, then Equestria County, then the surrounding counties, and on. Within seconds it had claimed a good portion of Oregon, Nevada and northern California and yet continued. Within minutes, the whole world was frozen in a zero-point state, and the energy continued to radiate out into space.
On the Moon, the figure let the light wash over her, knowing it would do her no harm. Still, she knew what an improper Gordian spell could do, and this one was as botched as botched could be. Sooner or later, the energy constant of the universe would clash against magic, and sooner or later, absolute zero would have to give way to the energy of motion. The resulting energy release….
This is not my battle, she grimly reminded herself. It is hers.
With her eyes, the figure scanned the Earth and the car that stopped on the freeway…only to continue moving forward. It was a stolen car, so she was not happy about that, but even she knew that situations dictated circumstances.
I believe in you, she said with a maternal pride. Prove me right.
The first thing that triggered Sunset’s warnings was the fact that a red light spread everywhere. By the time she cast a spell to ward off whatever had hit, the red light froze everything and she was violently slammed forward, the seatbelt shredding as she ripped through it and her forward motion rocketing her through the windshield, and several feet forward, where she crashed against the ground and rolled.
Sunset immediately got to her feet, thankful that she’d cast a defensive enough shield that it would cover her. And that was when she noticed something was wrong. Everything under the blood red sky had stopped – cars, people, birds – everything. It was quiet and still in a way that not even it had been back when she’d visited Equestria when she was on a mission to save her sister. Something was very, very wrong, and she knew what it was: something that her mother, Princess Celestia, had once told her about: a spell called a Gordian knot, a spell that messed with the very fabric of the universe.
There was a legend about the Gordian knot in this universe as well; from what she remembered, the knot was a challenge before the ancient warrior Alexander the Great. But back in Equestria, the legend dated back to the Discordian era, well before Celestia and Luna emerged from hiding to challenge the draconequus for control of their mother’s throne. During that dark time, ponies were desperate to create a way to stop Discord, and as a result the sorcerer Gordo the Large (name intentional, Celestia had told her) created a massive spell to stop time and space by twisting the fundament of reality into a knot; it was hoped that this would freeze him in place and allow him to be captured. Unfortunately, the spell only made him stronger, for it stopped everything. With the safety of the world at stake, Queen Aurora, the granddaughter of Queen Platinum, dispatched her mightiest warrior, the legendary earth stallion Bucephalus, to halt it as no magic could stop it. He finally ended it by drawing his great sword, Horsetamer, and literally sliced the spell in two.
Since then, the Gordian knot was an illegal spell, and all knowledge of it was purged from everywhere save the secure vaults underneath Canterlot castle. But somehow it had survived, and was being cast here by someone who had no knowledge of how to control it. She could feel the quantum strings of reality groan as they were being forced to stop. From what she knew from math, the spell would force everything to absolute zero, and when you did that, all the energy had to go somewhere. Even magic bowed to physics eventually, and sooner or later, the zero point would have to give way to the laws of motion and the subsequent energy release.
And if everything in reality released that pent-up energy at once…. Sunset shuddered. She had to find the spell and put a stop to it. This was barbaric on a level that not even Nightmare Moon or King Sombra would do, and for it to be cast here? The caster was either suicidal, a nihilist or didn’t know what it truly did – and from what the girls said, this Divine Right character was probably somewhere in the middle of those three insults.
But for now, she had to do something, and she needed her friends to do it. She walked back to the car and pulled her friends out, then steeled herself as she cast a spell to funnel away the pent-up kinetic energy and to release them from the Gordian spell. Sure enough, a blast of energy rippled through Sunset, making her wince each time she released them and threw a ward over them.
The dazed triplets, lying on the ground, sat up. “What the fuck?” Aria asked as she looked at the red reality and everything frozen.
“Long story, but we have time.” With the trio listening, Sunset explained everything, trying not to laugh as her friends’ faces went from stern to confused to amazed to finally horrified as she explained the end result of a Gordian spell.
It was Sonata who finally spoke. “Sunny, no offense, but your species is stupid as fuck if they think they can stop all of reality. What’s next, beating back the ocean with chopsticks?”
“Look, this makes it all the more important that we stop this freak, because I guarantee he’s already shielded Cantata’s SIRENs from this effect,” Adagio told her. “We’ll need a way to restore the SIRENs on our side. Can you do that?”
“Yes, but this magic is going to take more than I can spare. I’ll have to make an artifact in order to ward off the effect, but that will also take time we may not have.” She sighed. “I’m going to need you to trust me.”
“You know we do,” Adagio told her.
“Good, because we need to get to my house soonest. Afterwards, we have to break into ECMAH. Think you can help?”
“Oh, for a moment I thought you wanted something hard done,” Aria joked. Of course, with the whole world literally frozen, anyone could just walk in and even the best security was rendered inert.
“What’s the plan?” Adagio asked.
“First, let’s get back in the car, and let me cast a spell to ward it – that should get us back to Canterlot, since we’re back on the outskirts of Colton. After that, I’m going to get home and signal back to my homeworld for some big-league help.”
“How big league we talking?”
“A pony who is my equal in terms of magic. Where I’ve got raw power, she’s got the finesse to get things done, and I trust her completely.”
“You sure?”
Sunset smiled. “Of course. She’s the counterpart of my sister – her name is Twilight Sparkle, and she is Equestria’s Alicorn of Magic.”
Velvet looked at her younger daughter, sitting by herself, away from her friends and even Octavia. It was clear they were giving her space to deal with her separation from Sunset, and the woman thought back to Pinkie’s assurances that Sunset had escaped and was going to notify authorities. The questions were odd: why were the girls attacked all the way down there, unless they had to fit into the plans, somehow.
She then thought about Solaire’s captured daughter, and Rarity, the girl from the circle of friends who carried herself most like a sophisticate. She wondered, was Rarity confused for Solaire’s daughter and thus captured, with the other girls being nothing more than collateral damage? The two had conversed briefly in French for a while, and Rarity was taken by the fact that Solaire was a French imperial princess – the whole fact was mind-boggling in itself.
Still, it didn’t matter what the result was: they were all innocent and they were all held here against their will – and if they didn’t receive help soon, she feared her whole family would not see tomorrow.
She wept at how Sunset would react to finally having found a family, only to lose them.
Pinkie got up and walked over to Twilight. “Can I sit next to you?”
“I thought you hated me!”
Pinkie took a large breath. “No. I can’t. Life’s too short for that, Twily, and I’ve already done that dance before. Yes, I’m mad at what you did to your sister, but I can’t hate you and the others feel the same way. Besides, I know Sunny wouldn’t want me to hate you. I hated her once myself, and look what happened.”
“Yes. I got her killed. It’s all my fault.”
“No. She’s not dead.” Pinkie closed her eyes and gave a sublime smile. “I know she’s not. I know it in my bones, in my soul, in my all. Your sister is far tougher than you know, Twily, and I am her bride.”
“Her bride? I know you have feelings for her, but you do know she’s straight, right?”
“Trust me, I just know. I don’t know exactly what the future holds, but I know who and what I am. And I know your sister’s alive, and she’s not going to give up.”
“You make it sound as if she’s coming here to save us.” Twilight looked at ground briefly, then added, “I know she’s saved me and Tavi, and I know she’s capable of incredible things…but this is different, Pinkie. These are killers and they’ll tear her apart.”
“No they won’t,” Pinkie said, the timber of her voice as clear as a bell and as firm as stone. “I have seen your sister at her worst, and her best. And if these psychos have any brains, they’d better hope she did what I told your mother she did. Because if not, she’s coming – and I’d worry more about them.”
She held the paper over the green flame, and it vanished into nothingness. “There,” she sighed. “hopefully, she’ll get it and read it.”
“So that thing sends messages between dimensions?” Aria asked.
“Realities,” Sonata explained. “There are infinite dimensions within realities, and—”
“Thank you, Dr. Science,” Adagio snarked. “I think we can do without the explanation.” She then turned to look at Sunset. “What now?”
“I need to work on building you three some artifacts, because if we get separated more than ten feet, you’ll be outside the nullification spell and be subject to the Gordian effect.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Sonata asked.
“Well, if you have any suggestions, I’m open to them,” Sunset said. “Something simple; while I can enchant complex items, it’ll take longer.”
“Scrunchies,” Adagio suddenly announced. “Soni wears her hair in a ponytail and Ari bunches hers up, so it would be perfect. Now, while I don’t, I can wear one around my wrist or something.”
“No, belts,” Sonata countered. “Hairstyles can be accidentally removed, and we’re going to have to bun our hair up for helmets anyway. But a belt would have to be deliberately removed.”
“Except we don’t have our CADPATs with us right now, sis,” Aria pointed out.
“Think of them,” Sunset suggested, and all three did. There was a flash of light and all three suddenly appeared in their battle dress, complete with body armor and basic gear.
“Soni, give me your belt first, then the others,” Sunset said. “I’m going to do her belt, and then I need you to go into Tavi’s room to find the keys to her minivan. We’ll use that from this point on, since it doesn’t look like you’re going to fit in the NSX with all your gear.” Sonata handed over her belt and then Sunset burned cyan runes into it, which soon vanished as the belt returned to normal. “Okay, this should do it.”
Sonata slipped it on and stepped out of range. “Looks like it works. I’ll be right back.” Sunset continued working on the belts, and when she was done, she reached into her closet. “And now I need to get dressed.”
“Sunny, don’t you think you’ll want to be a little more protected?” Adagio asked, reaching for her sidearm and holding it out to her.
Sunset gave her friend a smile. “Trust me: you’re about to see a wizard war, and I have to dress appropriately. Don’t worry, I’m not going to put on a robe and wizard hat.”
“Sunny, please take the sidearm,” Aria added. “We want you safe.”
The look on Adagio’s face was one of concern. “Please.”
“Not right now,” Sunset told her. “But when we go get your friends, I’ll take it. I’ll need a gunbelt anyway, right?”
“Yeah, you’ve got a point,” the eldest triplet replied, holstering her pistol for now.
Sonata came back with a set of keys. “These be them?”
“Yeah, they are,” Sunset said, taking the keys. “Okay, next stop, ECMAH.”
In her locked closet, Shimmer cried. She didn’t know what was going on, only that her mother’s cousin was a monster and that he meant her harm.
“Someone help me,” she sobbed. “Someone save us!”
In the vault, three cages were ripped open, and the grunts and exertions of life taking its course could be heard.
Her teeth now razors and her tongue long and slitted, Contralto laughed while Medley expended himself on her/himself, their bodies bucking in time. He would then do the same for Canzione, and the three would start a new species that would rule this world.
“Only a matter of time,” Queen Contralto said to herself as she reached climax. “Only a matter of time.”
The four stood before Cavalcanti’s mirror, their faces a look of shock.
“I thought you said she looked like Twily?” Sonata asked.
“That’s who I was expecting.” The former unicorn looked at the unconscious – and nude – girl laying on the ground, a small green canary lying next to her.
“What the hell are you doing here, Razz?” Sunset asked no one in particular.
I'm sure you have questions about the Black Creatures (formerly the Black SIRENs or Black Team). Well, this should explain a few things:
Well, we are not done yet, not by a longshot! So if you like this, please consider donating to the Patreon, so we can get more funfun stuff out for you!
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And for the next chapter, we get to witness something we've been waiting for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time.
Somebody with actual experience throwing down with an idiot.
So on top of trying to summon some kind of super demon, Divine also botched a spell to the point where it will blow up the universe if not stopped... And with Razz showing up now with (currently) no magic and the rest of Equestria cut off/not useful, Sunset is going to have a fun time. At least she still has allies on this side, but after this battle, I'm guessing she's going back to fight Tirek, and there her allies won't be much help. Then again, she's probably going to get a huge power boost from this battle, whether eating the Gordian Knot backlash and ascending or absorbing the summoning ritual. Still, looks like Sunset isn't getting a break anytime soon, after having to deal with family drama for a long time.
I really needed this update today. Thank you shin for a great chapter to a great story
I'm confused as to how the first law of alchemy applies here, unless you're saying their souls are gone, and that's why they're so powerful now. "For what could equal the value of a human soul?"
8342513
When you are so far gone that human literally no longer applies, do you still have a soul?
8342575
That entirely depends on how you define a soul. By most definitions, there's no reason for them not to still have theirs, in particular with how many different species are in Equestria. They can still think and seemingly feel, only see humans as below them and care about their new species.
8343023
It should probably go without saying that spent beyond have them, and likely HFR sentients. But LFR sentients, who likely run on instinct? That's up for debate.
The question is, is there anything left?
8343056
Huh, I've never heard of HFR or LFR sentience before and Google definitely did not help. Anyways, it's very hard to say whether or not they lost their souls if there's no definition to work off of. If we go off of FMA souls, they still have theirs, just twisted. Same with Harry Potter style soul (where the soul is memories and some emotion). Dresden Files souls regen over time as well. With the existence of all the Equestrian species, it seems that souls aren't strictly human in this series, so their humanity shouldn't really play into it, unless soul refers to consciousness, but one of them seems to have retained her memories and at least some emotion and ability to plan. Then there's also the issue if the soul was consumed or just left, among other things. Plus, the First Law of Alchemy doesn't really apply with alicorn ascension (unless I missed something, though I've read a good chunk of these more than I care to admit). I'm pretty curious about the mechanics and definition of soul for this series.
Edit: This seems almost like an extreme version of magic overload from the source material, like what would've happened to Sunset, Twilight, or Gloriosa if they were left transformed for to long, reduced to just the one twisted desire or trait. With how magic seems to work here, they do seem savable, at least to some extent.
8343091
High-function reasoning and Low-function reasoning.
8343091
High-function reasoning and Low-function reasoning. There is obviously wriggle room, but the demarcation trends to be things like tool usage, etc.
8343116
Translation: They still have souls, but have devolved to the point that, by most definitions, they are no longer people.
8344619
8344634
"Nope"? What do you mean, "Nope"? Are you saying that they are still people (unlikely given the context), or trying to hammer in the notion that their souls have been sand blasted away, leaving little more than a humaculi behind?
Let us simplify things. Humans are people. Ponies are people. Gryphons and Dragons and those probe happy Grays are people. Even that horrendously mutated Pigman from The Darleks take Manhattan is a person. The Black Team, however, have fallen below that threshold and are running mostly on Id rather than Ego and Super Ego. The status of their souls don't even factor into it.
8344665
That was the "Eyup" icon, signifying agreement. I don't think there is a "Enope" icon.
8344681
I stand corrected. Sorry, it was late and I was tired.
Ah, I missed this story. Shit's getting even more fucked up, but its also reaching the highest point for tension and awesomeness. Not to mention you seem to have a knack for nailing the humor even in a morbid, dark situation like this. A car dealership being explicitly by them called "Lucky Chance?" Pure perfection and despite the incredible coincidence, it makes it clear it's perfectly self aware and helps to get the mood from getting too dark. Just like that earlier gag with a horror movie.
I find it Hilarious that Divine Right thinks a Phoenix is only a myth.
Also, that moon presence feels maternal pride about Sunset? Did not see that coming.
Awesome update!
I'm guessing/hoping the new chapter comes out today/midnight and I just realized that this chapter will most likely have Zephyr meet Sunset. That's definitely going to be fun, though I don't remember if Sable ever met her. I'm hoping Sunset's friends and family will see human Sunset as well, but that's probably not going to happen until right before sacrifice time and probably as a cliffhanger.
Yes every version of it across the Infinite Mulitverse is a magnet for stupid shit.
Is...is Sunset the mysterious figures daughter? Is Sunset actually Princesses Celestia and Luna's sister? Is the figure on the moon the Fausticorn?