6. Affluence
Chapter 6. Affluence.
The morning sunlight sneaked through the thinly layered blindfolds that covered the worn down window which gave way to an easy view of the bus stop right at the edge of Hollow Shades. The room would be normally dimly illuminated with the rising sun, with some thicker rays that filtered through served as spotlights for the tiny dust particles dancing in the air, but instead, the light bulbs were bathing the entire place with yellow light.
The sound of scribbling and paper shifting was the only thing that could be heard; one could say it was almost relaxing, and a good selection of ambiance jazz music would’ve turned the place zen for some.
“Morning,” Trixie interrupted the silence with a dizzy voice that dragged all the way to a yawn.
Sunset turned from her work to look at her girlfriend. Her darkened eyes softened and a mirthy smile drew itself on her face at the sight. Every single time Trixie woke up, she looked just so adorable, Sunset only wanted to snuggle her. Sunset had to use every ounce of willpower not to tackle Trixie into a cuddle.
“Good morning, beautiful,” Sunset replied, her voice a little raspy.
Trixie raised an eyebrow as she walked closer. She eyed the scattered papers and pens upon the table, the semi empty cup of lukewarm coffee, and then at Sunset’s slightly reddened eyes.
A long, deep sigh overcame Trixie. She closed her eyes for a moment as she took the seat left to Sunset.
“How long have you been up?” Trixie asked tiredly, slumping on her chair and throwing back her head to look at the ceiling.
Sunset smiled sheepishly. “I… I didn’t go to sleep at all.” She heard another long sigh from Trixie, and it made her lower her head a little more in shame. “I waited until you fell asleep and started working. I-I just couldn’t help myself! I-”
Trixie put a hand on her shoulder, effectively silencing her. “I’m not mad you pulled an all nighter. Just don’t do it often, ok?”
Warmth wrapped around Sunset’s chest. She placed a hand upon Trixie’s and smiled.
“So,” Trixie began, straightening up and shaking away the topor that still lingered in her body. “I’ll grab something quick to eat. You tell me what you’ve done so far and how can I help you.”
Trixie leaned in for a quick peck and then made her way to the kitchen.
~~~~~~~~
After fixing herself some scrambled eggs with ham and some coffee, Trixie took a seat in front of Sunset and began eating as her girlfriend started explaining.
“So I got caught up in the first pages for several reasons,” Sunset began as she grabbed her phone and showed it to Trixie. A picture of the siren’s diary was displayed on the screen. “The first pages are almost entirely written in chicken scratch. It was a titanic effort just to make out the symbols. But after comparing them with the latest pages, I think I managed.”
“And what’s it say?” Trixie asked after getting another bite of her breakfast.
Sunset grabbed a sheet of paper. “Log entry number 1,” she read aloud. “I have made myself in possession of a parchment.”
“Parchment?”
“There isn’t a word for notebook in Old Ponish,” Sunset answered, then continued.
”For one sun we have been stranded in this foreign place, in these foreign bodies. By happenstance we have not starved. Feeding is difficult, nearly impossible. Our magic is feeble, nigh inexistent. I have expressed my concerns openly, but my sistren insist we can overcome this plight still.
I am not entirely convinced, but they are much more shrewd than I am.”
Trixie stared at Sunset as she finished the entry with narrowed eyes.
“I understand it’s an old language, but do you really have to use old words?”
Sunset chuckled at that. “Fair enough.” She put the paper away. “It took me way too long to decipher the handwriting, but once I did, I sped up a lot and translated another two pages.”
“Are they in archaic too?” Trixie snickered.
“Yes,” Sunset answered, shifting some papers. “But, I will try to use common vocabulary for you from now forth.”
“Thank you.”
Sunset chuckled.
”Log entry number 2.
Two suns have cycled since our arrival. I begin to understand this body. It feels so distant and yet so familiar. I experienced the same sensation when feeding. The energy is thin and comes in droplets, as opposed to the constant stream that was in Equus, but it is enough to keep us fed.
I have grown curious about this world. These creatures around us call themselves humans. They are a fun sight, with those tiny noses. I oftentimes find myself looking at the mirror and laughing at how ridiculous I look.
My sistren find not amusement in this fact. I exposed my concerns once more. Aria sided with me. She must be desperate.”
“That’s it?” Trixie asked, placing down her cup. “Those entries were awfully short.”
Sunset forced out a sigh. “Just keep listening.”
”Log entry number 3.
Three suns have cycled. I believe Adagio’s words, she is always correct, but I still find it hard to believe.
We have been singing all day. I feel tired. It is the first time I feel tired from singing. It must be the lackluster energy on which we have fed these past days.
My sistren were growing restless, but tonight, a humongous multi colored tornado rose from the ground and into the skies. I felt a warmth I have not felt since we arrived in this place. Adagio claims it be Equestrian magic.
Adagio is already forming a plan to get it..”
“A multi colored tornado? Does that mean...” Trixie said, lifting her cup in a toast manner and sipped on it.
“Yes,” Sunset replied, staring at the paper. “They arrived right before the fall formal.”
“That sounds like an important piece of information,” Trixie said, taking a finger to her lips in a thoughtful manner.
“Because it is,” Sunset replied. “It tells us that they’ve been here for months. I’m sure one of these pages will tell me why exactly they didn’t come for the magic right away. That will help us a whole lot.”
Trixie hummed an agreement, poking what remained of her breakfast with a fork. “Do you think it will help us defeat them?”
Sunset breathed noisily, staring at the last paper she had been working on before Trixie came in. “I hope so. As of now, we were right in assuming their magic is not as strong as it is supposed to be. Hopefully, this siren is stupid enough to have written even more relevant information about them.”
“Why don’t you take a break?” Trixie asked. She got up from her seat and grabbed her now empty dishes. “You need to be well rested.”
Sunset watched her enter the kitchen. “I have to translate this journal as soon as possible, Trixie.”
“That’s a shame,” Trixie said, casually strolling out the kitchen. Her pajama top was completely unbuttoned. “Trixie’s taking a shower and was kind of expecting you’d join.” She walked past Sunset, taking off her top and lazily throwing it towards the lone couch.
Trixie hadn’t walked too far into the hallway when Sunset wrapped her arms around her.
“You’re an evil person, Trixie Lulamoon,” Sunset said with a low, raspy voice, taking into Trixie’s sweet and slightly salty scent as she lowered her head to kiss her girlfriend’s neck. “You know I can’t reject an offer like that.” Her hands caressed Trixie’s flat stomach for a moment before lowering to the hem of her pajama bottoms.
Sunset’s phone went off, blasting music and loudly vibrating against the wooden table.
The girls stood there for a while, immobile, waiting for the phone to get silent again. It did, but just five seconds later, it rang again.
“Pick it up,” Trixie said, lifting one of Sunset’s arms and kissing the back of her hand. “I’ll get the shower ready.”
Sunset grunted as Trixie stepped into the bathroom. She turned on her heel and picked her phone. She rolled her eyes and threw her head back in exasperation before answering.
“What do you want?” She asked with as much annoyance as she could muster.
“And good morning to you, too,” Shimmer replied amusedly. “You know, I’m getting a lot of bad vibes coming from you. Maybe I should call at three in the morning, when you’re the most relaxed.”
Sunset rubbed the bridge of her nose, slumping down on her couch. “I know you didn’t call just to annoy me, so spill it out already or I’m gonna hang up on you.”
“Yeah, like you’d ever do that,” Shimmer snickered. “In any case, I read the documents you found, and just like I thought, they’re contracts.”
“I told you that when I found them.”
“Listen, I can’t work with all this negativity coming from you. Ever heard of the concept of “unhealthy work environment”?”
Sunset sighed heavily. “Just get to the point.” A small headache started building in her forehead.
Shimmer snorted with a tiny chuckle. “Not much can I say about them. Except that the dates a little bit worrying. They have their very first concert at Manhattan’s Central Arena in about two weeks.”
“Two weeks?!” Sunset said a little too loud, feeling her heart beat faster. “That’s way too soon! I haven’t even seen advertisement yet!”
“Because it’s been advertised through the radio, and we are kind of completely avoiding it, remember?” Shimmer raised a good point, but it still left Sunset with a horrible emptiness in her stomach. “In any case, I’ve done a little bit of research. Even though the sirens have gathered quite an amount of followers, they’re still not popular enough to have sold out.”
“That’s reassuring alright,” Sunset replied humorlessly.
Shimmer clicked her tongue. “Listen, Bubbles, if you want to defeat them, you have to stop being so negative.”
“I can’t believe you’re being the sensible person here,” Sunset said before a forced sigh. “But you’re right. Alright, what else have you got?”
“I bought two tickets for the concert.”
“What?!” Sunset yelled.
“Shut up and listen to me!” Shimmer said loudly.
“No, you listen to me!” Sunset replied angrily, walking in circles in front of her couch. “Going to the concert is a suicide mission, no matter how you look at it!”
“Not if we don’t actually go.”
Sunset paused for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“I’d like to tell you everything on the phone, but it’ll be better if we meet up,” Shimmer answered with such a calm that made Sunset’s blood boil. “I’ll text you the address. Now, I want to warn you before anything else: You better make sure your friends understand what they’re getting into. Because once they hear my plan, they can’t back out, you hear?”
Sunset considered it for a moment. “I know.”
“Good.” Shimmer made a pause. “Be at the address in four hours. I’ll be waiting.”
Shimmer hung up, and Sunset just sat down, staring at her phone.
“That was one hell of a call,” Trixie said, stepping out of the hallway. Her body covered by a yellow towel.
“Tell me about it,” Sunset replied. Her phone beeped, and she quickly opened the message. Sure enough it was an address in Manhattan, but that was just as much as Sunset knew about it. She looked up at Trixie and smiled. “Let’s take that shower, I’ll tell you everything afterwards.”
~~~~~~~~
Applejack pulled her truck over to what looked like a drive. Half the houses looked empty, the other half were still under construction. Even what she supposed would be the green areas were used to store various construction resources and equipment. Trees decorated the horizon behind the buildings and fences.
“Ah don’t know ‘bout y’all,” Applejack said as she made a turn to the right. “But this here place sure looks like a possible crime scene .”
“We’re eight against one,” Rainbow replied with a shrug. “As long as we stick together, Shimmer can’t overpower us.”
Rarity cleared her throat. “But just in case, we all should carry pepper spray.”
“I think she’s just messing with us,” Trixie said. “I bet she called us here just to make us go to the other side of town because it was funny.”
“That certainly sounds like her,” Rainbow said with a quick nod.
“I, uhm, I second the pepper spray, uhm, suggestion?” Fluttershy chimed in quietly.
“I started carrying a taser,” Twilight said, intently observing and studying her surroundings. “We can’t afford a crazy and enraged ex-convict blindingly swinging a knife with killing intent, can we?”
The girls exchanged looks for a moment.
“Anyway,” Sunset said a little too loud. “Before we get there, I just want to make sure you guys are ok with this.”
“For the last time, Sunset,” Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes. “We’re together in this.”
“I know you are into it, but what about the rest?” Sunset turned back to the girls. “We might have to start doing things we might not feel proud of. Heck, I already committed a crime by breaking into the sirens’ apartment!”
“Sunset!” Applejack yelled wide eyed.
Sunset huffed. “Applejack, please! You’re a grown up girl! If you don’t want to take part of this, I will understand and won’t hold it against you! But if you’re going to be here, then you’ll have to buckle up and put up with it!” She passed a hand through her hair, then looked back again. “Fluttershy, we’ll obviously never make you straight up commit crimes, but are you really sure you want to take part on this?”
Fluttershy curved her body in a futile attempt to make herself look even smaller. “I-I mean, I don’t want the world to be ruled by evil creatures, and I also don’t want to lose my friends…”
Sunset nodded and turned to Twilight. “What about you? You have a bright future ahead of you.”
“Which can disappear if the sirens do take over,” Twilight answered. Her voice was calm, but there was a tremble that gave away she wasn’t entirely sure. It also didn’t help that she was avoiding eye contact with everyone. “We just have to be careful not to get carried away.”
“Well said, Twily!” Pinkie said. “We’re all a team against the forces of evil! We shall prevail above the hardships and lead the world to a brighter future!”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You heard that in a cartoon, didntcha?”
“Yep!”
Sunset smiled, then laid her eyes upon Trixie.
“We already had this conversation, Sunny,” Trixie said as she tried to avoid Pinkie’s excited wiggling.
“Yeah… I guess we did…” Sunset turned around and slumped on her seat with a sigh. “Well… Let’s go then.”
“An’ just in time,” Applejack said as she slowed down to a halt. The girls looked to the front and easily spotted Shimmer, leaning against her car that was parked on one of the finished houses’ driveway. Once more, her black thick winter clothes clashed painfully against her pale skin and fiery red and yellow her. “Let’s see what missy boss wants this time around.”
Shimmer straightened up as she saw the group approach. “Finally! I’ve been waiting for thirty minutes!”
“Good!” Rainbow said.
Before Shimmer and Rainbow could start bickering, Sunset stepped between them. “So, why did you call us to the middle of nowhere?”
Shimmer smiled and turned around, using her arms to show the whole place. “This is a new neighborhood they’re making. Once they finish ninety percent of the houses and people start moving in, they’ll build a small supermarket. It’s a forty minutes drive from the city, but in a couple years they’ll even build a school nearby.”
Trixie crossed her arms. “And we care because…”
Shimmer turned back to the girls with a raised brow. “Because this house is our new base of operations,” she said as she turned to the house her car was parked at.
It was a single story high building with a white facade and brownish red roof. A garage attached to the side, a small front lawn and what appeared to be a small wooden gate that led to a backyard.
“I want to be the first one to say this,” Rarity said with a raised hand. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Shimmer frowned and huffed through her nose. “Come in and I’ll explain everything.” And with that, she walked up inside the house.
The girls followed her begrudgingly.
The interior was as barren as the exterior. White walls, gray floor and ceiling, and little to no furniture around. Only a couple of chairs laying here and there, and a step ladder on a corner.
“C’est ma maison, ici,” Shimmer said. “It’s quite cheap now, but with the supermarket and school in a few years the added value will go through the roof.”
“You bought a house?!” Rainbow asked, watching Fluttershy visibly shudder at the answering echo.
“You could say that, yeah,” Shimmer answered nonchalantly. “I’m not keeping it, though. Once I finish paying it and the value has gone up enough, I’ll sell it and get a better one.”
“Oh! We should totally throw a “Congratulations for buying a house” party!” Pinkie yelled excitedly.
“No,” Shimmer said, then looked at Sunset. “Now, take a seat, we have important matters to discuss.”
With only four chairs left after Shimmer had taken one, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash had to sit on the floor.
“So, what’s this big thing you have to tell us?” Rainbow asked.
Shimmer leaned back.
“After reading the sirens’ contracts, I devised a plan to take them down. Let me start by saying it’s risky, but it’s also our best chance to defeat them.” She stood up, taking a marker from her pocket, and began scribbling on a wall. “In two weeks, they have their very first concert at Manhattan’s Central Arena. Don’t be fooled by the fact that barely half the seats have been sold. This may not feel like a success to them, but it’ll be a stepping stone to get country-wide attention, not only localized radio.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Applejack asked.
“I’m getting there,” Shimmer answered through her teeth. “I bought two VIP backstage access tickets.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sunset interrupted her. “Backstage?! Are you nuts?!”
Shimmer turned around and shot Sunset an annoyed glare. “What part of mentally unstable do you not understand? Now shut up and let me finish!”
Sunset covered her face with her hands and sighed heavily.
“As I was saying,” Shimmer continued. “Two of us will attend the concert wearing earplugs. We’ll wait till the concert is over and go backstage. Now, this next part is going to be the most difficult.” She took a deep breath. “We’ll have to single out one of the sirens, overpower her, tie her up, and force her to give us information.”
“And how will you have her give us information when she can easily mind control people with her voice?” Trixie said.
Shimmer stopped scribbling, but didn’t turn around. “That’s why you’re here. Brainstorm your ideas.”
Sunset grabbed her phone and began swapping some photos.
“Let’s say we do get information from the siren,” Rarity said. “What will happen next?”
“Yeah! She’ll tell the others we know about them!” Rainbow agreed.
“Ah hope y’all ain’t plannin’ on kidnappin’ ‘er!” Applejack said with a deep frown.
“Good idea, Hillbilly!” Shimmer said, writing down the word Kidnap on the wall. “What else?”
“I can’t believe this,” Rarity muttered. “There must be something else we can do!”
“Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me!” Pinkie said excitedly, raising a hand. Rarity signaled her with a hand, and she stood up. “We could throw them a big party! That way they’ll see that being meanies is not cool!”
Shimmer shot her a flat look. “No. Anyone else?”
“What are you doing, Sunny?” Trixie asked Sunset, leaning over to take a look at her phone.
“I’m trying to find something we can use against them.”
Twilight looked closer. “That’s the diary you found, right?”
“Yes,” Sunset replied, zooming in the picture.
Trixie placed a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Honey, it took you all night to translate three short pages. Don’t strain yourself.”
“Correction,” Sunset said with a sideways smile. “It took me all night to decipher the chicken scratch. Sure translating Old Ponish is a challenge, especially considering I haven’t practiced it in years, but it’s not that hard.”
“What do you have so far?” Shimmer asked.
“Basically, we were right to assume that the sirens aren’t as powerful as they should be,” Trixie replied. “With any luck, the journal will give us all the information we need to stop them.”
“Just give me a couple of hours,” Sunset said as she stood up, then turned to Shimmer. “Do you have something I can use to write on?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll use the walls,” Sunset replied as she lifted her hand in front of Shimmer, who rolled her eyes and gave her the marker. “This siren doesn’t write much, but she’s quick to put her most relevant thoughts in paper.” She drew a few symbols, then some words besides them. “Just in the first entry she said their magic was really weak three days after they came to this world.”
Shimmer tilted her head for a moment. “Be right back.”
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?!” Rainbow asked as she stood up.
“I have to buy some furniture. A base isn’t a base when it’s as empty as this one.”
“Do you really think we’ll let you go alone wherever you want while we’re in an unknown place far from anything?!”
Shimmer rolled her eyes and groaned. “Seriously now. I’m gay, just not for you.”
“What?!”
“Shimmer, darling,” Rarity intervened before a brawl erupted in the room. “I’m sure you understand we are weary of you. Being in this place where only you know how to move around is not exactly something that puts us at ease.”
Shimmer stared at her for what felt like the longest ten seconds Rarity had ever experienced. “So what? I already said I won’t hurt any of you.”
“Y’all hafta understand we don’t exactly trust ya,” Applejack said, standing up from her seat. “Rainbow and Ah’ll go withcha.” She took her phone and dialed Pinkie’s number. “Pinks, if you hear anything weird, call the police.”
“Roger!” Pinkie replied with a salute and a puffed out chest.
Shimmer huffed through her nose. “Whatever.” She turned around and walked to the exit.
“Applejack,” Twilight called her. “Take it, just in case,” she said, offering Applejack her taser.
Applejack accepted it with a slow nod and hid it under her jacket. “Be right back, girls.”
And with that, Applejack and Rainbow followed Shimmer to her car.
“Does anyone else feel like Shimmer’s taking this situation too lightly?” Rarity asked, watching through the window Shimmer’s car leave. “Or maybe too seriously. I can’t really tell.”
“Whatever the case might be,” Sunset replied, still scribbling on the wall. “As long as she’s on our side, I don’t really care.”
“Are we just going to gloss over the fact that she bought a house just for this?” Rarity asked. “Didn’t she say she had to be careful with money?”
“It’s evident she lied,” Twilight answered, looking at the symbols Sunset had written. “Or she’s stealing.”
“She is a criminal,” Fluttershy muttered under her breath.
Sunset sighed and turned to the girls. “Listen, we only have to play along until we manage to defeat the sirens. After that, we don’t have to associate ourselves with her anymore.”
Twilight stared at her for a moment, then just turned her attention back to the symbols.
~~~~~~~~
Days passed, and true to her words, Shimmer had bought some furniture, if not to decorate, just to have something to sit on, like a couple of dark gray couches, a large wooden table with a glass center and eight chairs, and a few standing lamps.
Shimmer had also arranged for two matrimonial beds, two night tables, two chiffoniers, and a single mirror in each two of the three rooms. When asked about it, she mentioned that she wanted to cover the possibility that things might go south and they needed a place to stay.
Pinkie had wanted to throw a slumber party, but no one actually wanted to be there for more than a couple hours.
At some point, no one went there for several days, since everyone was busy with either school projects or work, and they had agreed not to go in teams of less than four girls.
When the weekend came, Sunset, Trixie, Rainbow, and Applejack were called to go. They had expected Shimmer to come up with another plan, or have bought more stuff.
They didn’t expect her to turn the third room into what looked like a prison cell.
A rectangular hole was cut in the wall that was shared with the living room, and a one way mirror was installed in that space. The inner walls, floor, and ceiling had been covered with soundproof material. A single mattress was pressed against a corner, and one wooden chair had been carefully placed right in the middle, facing the mirror.
Sunset felt a chill run through her whole body.
“So, how exactly did you get people to do this in a residential building?” Trixie asked, feeling her hands shaking. “Don’t these things raise questions?”
“Where did you even find people to do this kind of thing?!” Rainbow inquired. She was fighting back a smile.
Shimmer crossed her arms, giving them a satisfied smirk. “There are dark corners on the internet.”
“For pete’s sake, Shimmer,” Applejack said, pulling her hat over her eyes. “How many more laws y’all gotta break?”
Shimmer barked a laugh. “Oh, don’t worry your hypocritical heart, country girl. This isn’t illegal at all!”
“But Ah thought-”
“It was a fetish website!” Shimmer interrupted her. “Apparently, people get off to this!”
There was heavy silence as the girls stared at her.
“Anyway,” Rainbow said after clearing her throat. “Sunset, have you finished translating the journal?”
Sunset looked at her, and immediately slumped down on the couch. “Yeah…”
The girls sat down next to her; Shimmer decided to remain standing next to the mirror.
“What’s wrong, Sunset?” Rainbow asked.
Sunset looked at Trixie for a moment with a pleading look.
“She discovered very interesting information,” Trixie said with a sigh. She grabbed Sunset’s hand and gently squeezed it. With her free hand, she took a folded sheet of paper from her pocket and showed it to the girls. It was the sirens’ concert advertisement, and the thing that stood out the most was a photo of the three girls in suggestive poses, still wearing 80’s themed clothes. “Focus on their necks,” Trixie instructed them as she pointed to their collars. “They aren’t just decorative, they work like a… uh…”
“Dam,” Sunset muttered.
“Nice, you’re finally swearing,” Shimmer noted.
“No, idiot,” Trixie replied with a glare. “It’s an analogy.” She closed her eyes thoughtfully. “The gems act like floodgates, letting the magic go through the sirens, who act as the water reserves. The sirens control the floodgates, so they decide when and how much magic they gather or use.”
Shimmer hummed. “Yeah, see, the problem here is that you’re making it seem like the water is the magic, the energy.”
“And isn’t that how it works?” Rainbow asked with an annoyed tone.
“If Twilight were here she’d smack you for your ignorance.” Shimmer said casually. “No. What generates the energy is a bunch of turbines that spin thanks to the water, and this is only possible because it’s falling. So you could say that the energy actually comes from gravity, in its most primal form.”
Trixie glared at her. “Anyway,” she cleared her throat. “If we take the gems from them, they’ll be completely powerless.”
Shimmer smiled and crossed her arms. “Perfect! We just have to cover all the possibilities in our plan in order to capture at least one of them!” She turned around. “I’ll revise the plan,” she said before walking to a room.
Applejack waited until Shimmer was out of sight to address Sunset. “That ain’t everything you learned from the journal, right?”
“No…” Sunset sighed. “I already told you that the sirens arrived just a few days prior to the Fall Formal, right? Well… According to my calculations, it was around the same time I came back after stealing Princess Twilight’s crown…”
Applejack and Rainbow looked at each other, then back at Sunset.
“I have a theory…” Sunset continued, still refusing to look at anyone. “When Starswirl banished them, he didn’t just send them to this world, he actually sealed them in a kind of limbo, a timeless space between dimensions. That would explain why the sirens think they fought him just a couple of months ago…”
“That’s interesting, but-” Rainbow began.
“So I thought...” Sunset interrupted her, and forced a chuckle out of her. “Something had to create a significative unbalance in this dimension in order to rip the fabric of space-time continuum of the siren’s prison that set them free…” She made a long pause before looking back at her friends. “Something like a powerful magical artifact...”
Rainbow raised her hand. “I just want to say if you start depressing over it, I’ll break your nose again.”
Applejack smiled. “And Ah’ll help.”
“What?” Sunset stared at them with wide eyes.
“Sunset, it doesn’t matter how or why they’re here,” Rainbow said with a grin. “What matters is how we’ll deal with ‘em! It’s like scoring a goal against your own team. Sure, it sucks, but then you gotta fix it by scoring another five to the right goal!”
“Ah don’t think that analogy works, Dash,” Applejack said with a deadpan voice.
“Actually,” Trixie intervened. “It does.” She turned to Sunset. “It’s exactly what I told you last night, Sunny. You either cry over spilled milk or move on and do something to fix it!”
Sunset smiled and let out a long sigh before giving Trixie a quick peck. “You’re right, beautiful.”
“How is the sirens’ situation Bubbles’ fault?” Shimmer asked, startling the girls. She was leaning against the corner of the hallway with an unreadable look in her eyes.
Sunset stood up, facing Shimmer’s intense look. “You already heard everything.”
“Only since you mentioned a magical object and Gayhair threatening you.”
Sunset closed her eyes for a moment. “I stole a crown. Its only gemstone was actually one of the most powerful artifacts in Equestria. I brought it here, thinking it’d give me the power to attempt a coup against them.”
Shimmer raised an eyebrow. “That’s stupid. Why wouldn’t you use it the moment you got it?”
“Because it’s linked to its bearer, P- The princess,” she replied, deciding to leave the name out of the equation. “By bringing it here, I accounted for that link to be broken so I could wear it. But the princess followed me, the link was restored, and I was punished.”
“Kinky.”
“Grow up,” Trixie said with a tired look.
With a deep sigh, Sunset walked around the small coffee table in front of her and to the dining table, where her backpack was. “Apparently, just bringing the crown to this side inadvertently freed the sirens from their dimensional prison.”
“So it’s your fault my friends got kidnapped and the whole world is at stake,” Shimmer said with frightening calm.
“Gee, way to rub the wound,” Rainbow muttered out loud.
“Listen, I’m not happy with it either,” Sunset said quickly. “But I’ll do my best to fix it.”
Shimmer eyed her from bottom to top. “Right. Then, about my original plan…”
Sunset passed both hands through her hair as she breathed noisily. “Fine, we’ll do it your way. Let’s just try to be more careful and actually try to get out alive.”
At that, Shimmer smiled. “I knew you’d play along. Come then, we have much to plan.”
~~~~~~~~
Leaning against Shimmer’s car, Sunset was fiddling with her earphones while staring at her watch, counting every single second pass. Deep down, she hoped would help time go slower. She jumped a little when Shimmer’s hand quickly tapped her shoulder.
“Come on, Bubbles,” she said, making sure the small microphone attached to the collar of her shirt was well hidden beneath her thick coat. “It’s showtime.”
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Nice chapter.
Always a pleasure to see more of this.
If attempted kidnapping is the part you're willing to warn us about up front... well, there's only so many possibilities that would be even worse.
8854117
Trust me, that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Yikes, talk about a shift for sure. Though, the amounted time dilation is still off in my calculations to crown arrival to release, unless it sent them to a point PRIOR to the crown arriving. Paradox ruleset then.
Well, this is probably the most desperate I've seen the girls plan to take down the Sirens. Also the most mundane (as in, no one's brought up the Elements as a possible solution). I don't really think their plan is going to go all that well. Even if their concert is only half-full, that's still a lot of people for the Sirens to feed off of. They're going to get more powerful, and I don't think it'll be so simple to overpower and capture one of them.
8854860
Trust me, I'm doing my best to fit all the movie's incoherent plot holes into semi-believable schedules xD This is the best I could come up with.
8858071
Eh, it's cool. I study Chaos Theory for shiggles all the time, and even I understand it can be hard to align things to temporal shifts and the resulting collisions of possible dimensions, realities, and timelines for a plot that at ANY point involves time-travel and/or traveling across universes/alt-realities/dimensions. Shit gets sideways FAST. So, no big.
They may have to kill the sirens
8858071
Well for me the clear thing the sirens could have done for the last couple thousands years was feed and that feeding kept them youthful but not much more. Then EG1 happens and they see their chance.
I give you credit for your idea. It is inventive but many of disfigured their magic kept them alive and youthful.
Funny enough Shimmer is right. Everyone is making it worse than it has to be but gets mad when she bites back. She's a bitch but everyone is using that as an excuse to cause problems.