The sun was beginning to set in the early evening sky. The sun's orange mixed brilliantly with the grey in the sky, giving the city a peaceful demeanor. Things weren't so peaceful for Gilda and Summer Sunrise, however.

The two ducked into an alleyway. Summer leaned out, looking around. Seeing that it was safe, she motioned for Gilda to join her. Gilda came out, also looking around. When she saw no police cars around, she let out a sigh before following Summer down the street.

The two walked side-by-side down the street, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone that passed them by. Gilda kept thinking of what Summer had said to her in their apartment. “I'm so alone in this world, Gilda," she had said. "I didn’t want to risk losing you. I made a promise to you that I wouldn't let anyone or anything hurt you, and I intend to keep that promise." Those works kept replaying in her head.

Crossing another street, Gilda said as she looked around the area, “Summer, what did you mean earlier today when you said that you were alone and didn’t want to risk losing me?”

“You want to know about that now?” Summer replied with a slightly shocked look on her face “Gilda, we need to get out of the open first. Let's just focus on that right now.”

The two walked down the street some more before ducking into another alleyway. A siren’s squeal caught Summer's and Gilda’s attention. The two started to run, only to be shocked when they saw that the alley they had chosen to duck into lead to a dead end. Before either of them could do anything more, they heard from behind them, “Stop where you are!”

Turning around, Gilda and Summer came face-to-face with a police officer. He had two-toned blue hair, light-blue eyes and white skin. Looking at his name tag, Gilda saw that his name was Shining Armor.

Before the officer could say another word, Summer raced forward, grabbing onto him. Gilda watched in shock as Summer flipped the officer over her shoulder. Officer Armor let out a slight yelp when he hit the ground. Before he could grab his taser, Summer quickly knelt down on her left leg, pulled the officer's body close to her, and snapped his arm like a twig. The alley was suddenly filled with the echo of Officer Armor's screams. Summer then stood up, dragging the wounded officer with her as she picked him up by the throat.

“Leave us alone!” She started to apply pressure, choking the officer. “I will not allow any of you to harm her. Now leave us alone!”

Gilda snapped out of her shocked stupor. Racing forward, she grabbed onto Summer’s left arm, yelling out as her eyes filled with fear and tears, “Summer, don’t kill him!”

Seeing the very scared look on Gilda's face, Summer dropped the officer, backing away from both her and the fallen officer. Summer watched as fear took hold of her while Gilda checked on the officer to make sure he wasn’t too badly hurt. Once Gilda was satisfied that all he had was a broken arm, she raised her right hand, slamming it into the officer's left temple, knocking him out cold.

As Summer stood frozen with fear, she stammered on her words to Gilda, who looked at her with both anger and concern, “N-Not again. Why must this happen again? I-I didn’t mean to p-put your life in danger, Gilda.”

Taking her by the hand, Gilda turned and started to run down the street, saying as she frantically looked for any place to hide in, “Let's get the hell out of here.”

Before Summer could say anything, she found herself being pulled out of the alleyway, down the street, and around the corner. As Gilda rounded the corner, she ran right into another person. Before either Summer or Gilda could say anything, the person snapped, “Watch where you're going!”

Summer looked past the grounded girl, a girl with light-fuchsia skin and purple hair with teal highlights done up in two long pigtails, as two others came up behind her. One girl, with yellow skin and a lot of curly, orange hair, helped her up, saying to her sternly, “Honestly, Aria, would it kill you to be a bit more careful?” After the two helped Aria up off the ground, the yellow girl finally took notice of Summer. A slight smirk came over her face as she cracked her knuckles, saying grimly, “Well, well, what a pleasant surprise. I never thought I'd see you again, Sunset Shimmer. Now, we get to pay you back for wrecking our li--”

Before the girl could finish her word, she suddenly found herself getting well-acquainted with Summer's fist. As the girl hit the ground, Summer stared coldly at her, saying, “My name's Summer Sunrise, not Sunset Shimmer. But since you're looking for a fight, I'll be happy to oblige.” The girl's eyes went wide when she heard what Summer said, and she braced herself as Summer raised her fist.

"Summer, can you stop, already!? We're kind of on the run, here!" Gilda yelled.

"Why?" Summer replied. "She wanted a fight, so I'm giving her one."

Smiling coldly and ignoring Gilda's protests, Summer got ready to continue her attack when her target threw her hands up in surrender, saying, “Stop!" Summer paused long enough for the girl to continue, "We made a mistake; you just look a lot like another girl we know, a girl we have a score to settle with. Let's just put this behind us, okay?” Summer didn't look too convinced, so the girl finished with, "Your friend said you're on the run. How about we help you out? To make up for my mistake."

Satisfied, Summer stepped back, position herself between the trio and Gilda. Gilda tried to protest, but a stern look from Summer quickly quelled any further comments, though she did roll her eyes when Summer turned her head back to the trio. Summer said impatiently, “Alright, you said that you wanted to help, so get us out of here. And give me your names.”

The yellow girl got up, rubbing her already swelling cheek. She said, "I'm Adagio Dazzle. These are my sisters Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk," she said, pointing to the fuchsia girl and the third girl, a girl with blue skin and dark-blue hair in a ponytail.

Summer's eyes widened. "Adagio Dazzle? The Adagio Dazzle?"

Adagio looked wary. "Uh, yes. I take it you've heard of me?"

Not wanting to have her own misunderstanding, Summer asked, "Does Ponfo mirann Pon farr make any sense to you? 'Mother of the Fallen'?" Summer saw all three girls' eyes widen in recognition of the language. "You're the sirens," Summer said. "The sirens Star Swirl banished from Equestria."

Adagio sighed. "Yes, that's us. I guess it doesn't matter if we spill the beans since you already know our language."

"How do you know our language? We haven't taught anyone our language since we got here, and that was, like, a hundred and fifty years or something," Sonata said.

Summer opened her mouth to answer, but Gilda cut her off with, "Can we talk about this later? We really need a place to hide out."

"Gilda's right," Summer said. "We can talk about this later. Lead the way, Adagio."

Nodding, Adagio led her and Gilda back into the alleyway, then pointed to a fire escape, saying, “Take that fire escape to the top window, and you'll reach our apartment. You can stay as long as you want. But remember our deal.”

Looking from Adagio to the fire escape Summer could see that it was rusted and well in need of repair. Adigo rolled her eyes, then walked over to the fire escape, reached up and pulled a rope, bringing down the main exit ladder. She started to climb, saying as she stopped about halfway up while looking down at Gilda and Summer, “You two coming or not?”

“Yes, we’re coming,” Aria replied, folding her arms over her chest. “You don’t need to be such a bitch about it.”

“I wasn’t talking to you two idiots! I was talking to our guests.”

Aria ignored the insult as she and Sonata moved aside to let the other two move ahead. Summer turned to face Gilda, saying, “I'll keep you safe while we're here. Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you.”

Gilda pursed her lips in irritation but didn’t reply. She followed the three hosts up the ladder and into an apartment window. Looking around, she saw that the room, like the fire escape, was in need of repair. There were dirty dishes piled on the counters, clothing all over the floor, broken bottles and cans littered almost every place she could step. Looking at Adagio, Gilda folded her arms over her chest and scoffed, saying, “You don’t expect us to stay here, do you?”

“Well, it's here or the streets. Take your pick.” Walking over to the front door and opening it, she continued, “This is an empty apartment. No one uses it, so we use it to come and go as we see fit. Now, if you will follow me.”

Before Gilda could step towards the siren, she heard from behind her, “Gilda, let me go first. I want to make sure you're safe.”
Turning around she replied sternly, “Summer, would you quick treating me like a baby! I can take care of myself. Why are you so into 'protecting' me?”

Summer looked down and said softly, “I-I’ll explain later.” Summer looked at Adigo, then sighed as she continued, “This really helps. A lot. It more than makes up for wanting to attack me earlier.” Summer reached into her coat pocket, taking out the broken heart crystal. “Let's make another deal. I know what this is and what it means to you. I'll repair this and give it to you to feed, but in return, you work for me until I say otherwise.”

Adigo looked at Summer then down at Summer's hand, her eyes ever widening as she beheld the heart crystal. Looking back up, she said in a shaky voice, “You'll repair that crystal and save our lives?”

“Yes, but only if you work for me.”

Gulping Adigo said softly as she stepped into the corridor, “What other choice do I have? I can't just let my sisters starve to death.” Looking back over her shoulder as the group piled into the corridor, she continued, “Alright, you have deal. I will give you what you need to repair the crystal, and in return, we will do as you tell us without question.”

“Good. Now, Gilda and I need a safe place to stay and sleep until the cops give up their search for us.”

“Follow me.”

Several minutes later, Gilda and Summer found themselves sitting in a bedroom, with Summer looking out the window towards the setting sun. Gilda again asked, “Summer what did you mean when you said you made a promise to me. You never made any promise.”
Sighing, she looked over her shoulder, saying coldly, “Are you sure you really want me to tell you?”

“Yes, damnit!” Gilda snapped back. “If I'm gonna be stuck here with you because of all the things you did, then I need to know what I'm getting myself into. You can’t keep your past from me. If your past causes me to get hurt, I would at least like to know why. It's the least you could do after all those stunts you pulled today.”

“Alright. Move over. I-I’ll tell you everything, but you won’t like it.”

Gilda scooted over, allowing Summer Sunrise to sit down next to her. She saw on her roommate's face a look of sadness that she had not seen before. Normally, Summer kept such feelings to herself, but now, she looked as if she was on the verge of tears.

Taking a few soft breaths, Summer began to speak, “It was three years ago. I had just woken up in the arms of the one that was going to raise me. I didn’t know who I was or how I even got to where I was. All I remembered was waking up and falling and then pain. Endless, ceaseless pain. Several days went by, and this person nursed me back to health.”

Gilda watched for any sign of deceit from her roommate, something that Summer picked up on. Summer turned to face Gilda, allowing Gilda to look her in the eyes. Seeing there was none, Gilda said, “Keep going. I wanna hear everything.”

“Well, after I got better, I thought that it would be a good idea to explore the borders of the area that I was in. Little did I know how stupid that would be. While out on one of my exploring trips, I ran into you. Or rather, the Gilda from where I'm from.” Summer folded her arms over her chest, letting out forced sigh, “Anyhow, I told her who I was and where I was staying, and she and I became friends. I went home and told my caretaker who I had become friends with. They told me that I needed to stay with Gilda and learn from her.” Summer wiped away a few tears from her eyes as she turned around and looked out the window again, watching the sky slowly turn to black.

“A year and a half went by. I had spent a lot of time with Gilda. So much so that we were starting to fall in love with each other. Well, I was in love with her. I don’t know to this day if she ever felt the same way about me.”

“Alright, but what does this have to do with me?” Gilda asked.

“I'm getting to that. During the time that we spent with each other, we both took a blood oath that neither of us would let the other get hurt.” Summer walked back over to the bed, sat down, and stared coldly at the floor in front of her as she continued, “The two of us where walking in the Everfree forest on the northernmost border of the land ruled by my caretaker. We never should have gone there, but Gilda wanted to check it out to see if there was anything to the fairy tale of Gaia Everfree’s treasure. We didn't find anything, and on our trip back, we were attacked by a manticore.”

Gilda got up and walked over to the window, looking outside and saying with a slight scoff, “I bet my counterpart gave it a good thrashing, right.”

When Gilda didn’t get a reply, she turned around and saw to her shock that Summer was sobbing.

“No. She didn’t stand a chance.” Summer slid off the bed, landing on the floor and burying her face into her arms as she sobbed. Gilda walked over, sat down and pulled her roommate into her, allowing Summer to cry on her shoulders. “If I had been faster, or perhaps not as scared as I was, I would've been able to save her. She threw herself in front of me.” Summer tried to choke back her sobs, “The manicore stung her with its tail, and she fell into my arms. I went berserk. I killed the manticore, but I didn’t stop with just that one single manticore.”

Getting up, Summer shook with anger as she closed her eyes tightly shut trying to hide her pain. Her tears slowly stopped falling, and her anger boiled to the surface, threatening to explode. “I found the pack the manticore belonged to, and I killed them all. The males, the females, and their young.” Summer turned around and screamed, “I HATE THEM! I HATE THEM ALL! THEY LIVED LIKE FUCKING ANIMALS, AND I SLAUGHTERED THEM LIKE ANIMALS!”

Summer felt something soft and warm wrap around her, pulling her towards something even warmer. She opened her eyes to see that Gilda was holding her in her arms, gently soothing her, trying to calm her distraught roommate down. Gilda gently helped Summer back over to the bed, laid her down in it, then covered her up. Once she was sure Summer had fallen asleep, she headed out of the bedroom, where she found her three hosts all in the living room. Looking at Adagio, she said, “I hope you know what you're getting yourself into.”

“Hmm,” Adagio cood sickly, “Don’t worry, dear. I know what we're getting ourselves into. Go over to the table. You’ll find what Summer needs to help us.”

Gilda did as she was asked. She walked over to the nearby kitchen table and saw a box on it. Looking inside, she saw several pieces of the same crystal that Summer had given to Adigo. All of the crystals looked broken. Before she closed up the box, Adagio said, “Now that you have seen those and we have the last piece, we can repair them, then begin to feed again. This time, we won’t let anyone stop us from getting our revenge on Equestria.”

Next Chapter: Lucky (Edited by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 23 Minutes